August 2021 Reading Update

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve told you guys what I am up to reading wise, so that’s what we’re going to do today.

Back in June, I did a post sharing 26 books I planned to read in the summer, and I do plan on doing an update on how that went. Some of those books I read at the start of August, and then everything else I read was kind of random.

So yeah. Let’s get started I guess.

If you can’t tell, I don’t know how to write intros anymore 🤦🏾‍♀️

Life + Reading Update

Hi guys.

I apologize for my weird disappearing yet not disappearing act that I’ve been doing these past few weeks.

It’s been a struggle and I finally am in the mood/have the time to tell you all about it.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!!

Monthly Wrap Up: January 2020

Good morning friends and welcome back. Today, I’ll be doing my Monthly Wrap-Up for the first month of the decade.

January feels like it was super long and super short at the same time. Classes only started on the 6th of Jan, but it feels like we’ve been in school for forever. I got a good amount of reading done, I managed to write some posts, but this college + school + blogging thing is not going how I imagined it at all.

Books:

Covers are from Goodreads

So, I read 10 books last month which is great since I feel like I didn’t read anything at all. I’m 1 book behind schedule on my reading challenge, but for now I’m okay with it. I also signed up for YARC, but haven’t read any Asian books, or books by Asian authors yet. That’s mostly what I’m going to read now in February.

January was a pretty good month with only two 3 star books, while the rest were 4, 4.5, or 5 stars. So yay!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Heir of Fire By Sarah J. Maas – 4 | It was good. I really liked it, and the series has been getting better since this book, which I’m super glad about.

• This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nejkamp – 3 | I’m mixed. On one hand, the characters were really blah, and I didn’t care much about them. Autumn and Claire were annoying, and Tomas, Sylv, and Matt were the only one who mattered to me. Tyler was also pretty one dimensional, but the story itself is sad. All these people dying, hoping, crying, wanting to survive, it really got to me. No one should ever have to go through what these characters did, but the sad reality is that people do. And that’s something that needs to change.

• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – 4 | So, it was good, super suspenseful and creepy. Like really creepy. TBH, I did get scared at times and had to put it down and take a deep breath lol. It was kind of slow at the start as well. And then that ending. It started off great, and I was shocked and it was good. And then there was no explanation about what happened after!!! I think the author wants the reader to guess, or maybe it should be obvious? Idk, I just would have loved a more solid conclusion/epilogue.

• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas – 4.5 | This is probably the best book in the series. All the amazing women in this book, the witches, Manon and Aelin’s fight, Dorian’s parts (which broke my heart) and honestly, it was just amazing.

• Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine – 4 | It was good, but I was put off by the characters for some reason. I would have loved to get to know the side characters better, maybe even have some chapters from their POV. But I still liked the plot and friendships a lot.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas – 4.5 | Totally not YA anymore lol. I still love all the amazing characters, especially Manon, I’m glad everyone’s paths have crossed, and I’m eager to see what happens in the next book.

• Also Known As by Robin Benway – 3 | This was so so so cheesy. It’s a fun read to pass the time, and I loved Roux, but everything else was so cheesy and insta-lovey and yeah.

• The Chain by Adrian McKinty – 5 | An absolutely amazing terrifying and thrilling book. I loved it. The idea of The Chain is so interesting, and it’s also so terrifying, because (God forbid anything like that ever happens to anyone) I would do anything to save my child as well. I couldn’t sacrifice my kid in the hopes that the police would help. I just couldn’t. And that’s really terrifying.

• Paper and Fire By Rachel Caine – 4 | It was a great sequel, and I like the characters even more and how everything’s moving now. The plot was good, but I kind of don’t want Morgan and Jess to be together. It’s just moving too fast. And I don’t really like Morgan.

• Someone We Know by Shari Lapena – 5 | I couldn’t put this book down. The secrets, the surprises, the twists, the connection of every character to the murdered woman (I don’t remember her name lol) made this so interesting because just about anybody could have been the murderer. And I totally did not guess that ending at all.

Total Number of Books Read This Month: 10

2019 Wrap-Up + YARC Sign Up

So, in the place of tags, I’ll be sharing all the 2019 wrap-up posts I did, and my YARC sign up post.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Most Anticipated Releases of 2019 | 2019 Blogging Wrap-Up + 2020 Goals

End of Year Book Survey + Reading Wrap-Up| Year of The Asian Reading Challenge

Let’s Talk Bookish:

Audio-books | Bias Towards Books and Authors

Toxicity in the Book Blogging Community | Anxiety and Book Blogging

Required Reading

Great Posts From Around the Blog-O-Sphere:

Meeghan wrote her review of A Darker Shade of Magic, and I loved it so much

Caitlin talks about the books she’ll never read, and it’s super interesting

Kerys discusses the pros and cons of audio-books

Chana talks about her ratings and why they aren’t trustworthy, and I relate

Vera, Sabrina, and Ruzi talk about their plans for 2020, and it was so much fun to read (also welcome Sabrina!!)

Life & Blog Updates

So, my posting is completely off and I hate that. I really want to write more posts. But I’m not finding the time to do so. Even my weekends now are busy. It’s so frustrating. I have a few book tags, and a book recommendation post that I’m working on, but it’s taking me so much time to write them since I can only manage like 20 to 30 minutes each day (which is nothing)! I’ve been writing this wrap-up post for 5 days now.

At least I’m still getting a chance to read. School is stressful. College is stressful. And it’s getting to me, which it shouldn’t. Honestly, I need to chill a little bit, but I feel like I can’t. Lol, I finally understand why everyone who’s in college always complains of the stress and having so much to do in so little time.

I did get a little creative and I changed up my sidebar a bit, and got a new divider. I was starting to really dislike the old one. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new tiny changes!

I also love designing featured images. It’s just amazing putting together different fonts, colors, alignments, and pictures to create a unique header for a post. I feel like I’ve become a mini expert at it lol

I’m also not sure what other reading challenge I should join, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to share them down below!! I was thinking maybe a mystery/thriller reading challenge, but that will probably be easy, so I’m looking at maybe doing a third one as well. I’m very ambitious like that 🤦🏽‍♀️ Last year I couldn’t even finish one, and here I am wanting to do three.

My posting’s probably going to continue being sporadic, but I am still writing posts. I just need to finish/edit and publish them.

That’s A Wrap!

That’s it. I read 10 books, did 3 yearly wrap-up posts, a reading challenge sign up post, 4 LTBs, and I finally managed to post this wrap-up. So yeah, I’m proud of myself.

My goals for January were to

• read 12 books, ❌
• write 2 more wrap-ups, ✔
• write 1 book recommendation post, ❌
• write at least 4 LTBs, ✔
• write 1 creative post, ✔ (YARC counts…)
• and write 1 or 2 book reviews ❌

I met three of those goals, and failed the other three, which isn’t too bad. My goals for February are to:

• read 10 books,
• publish 5 posts besides LTB,
• write 1 book recommendation post,
• write 3 LTBs,
• write 2 book reviews,
• and figure out a schedule for my classes/organize my life

Hopefully, I’ll be able to meet all of these. Wish me luck guys!!

And that’s it for this wrap-up! How was January for you? What were your favorite books this past month? Are you taking part in any reading challenges? If so, which one? Any tips you’d like to share for my stressed self? Let’s chat in the comments below!

Monthly Wrap-Up: December 2019

Good morning friends! I hope you’ve had a great start to the year. Today, I’ll be sharing with you my Monthly Wrap-Up for December 2019.

A lot of great things happened this month. I had my Winter break which I spent with family, I read a good number of books, and something exciting happened…more on that below. My blogging took a dip since I barely wrote anything the last few weeks of the month, but I’m still pretty happy with everything else in my life right now, so I’m not too upset about that.

I am still happy to get back into blogging full time and doing all the wrap-up posts that I should have done before.

Anyways, without further chit chat, let’s get started!

Books:

Covers are from Goodreads

My goal for the year was 100 books, but I read 98 which isn’t bad. I’m still proud of myself, especially because I read 13 books this month. And some of them were great. Others, not so much. I also didn’t do any reviews, and that’s something I plan on working on this month and through-out the rest of the year.

---

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas – 3.5 | This was so so so much better than the first book, and we actually got to see Celaena in action. The disaster that happened in the second half was nerve-wracking and the final reveal was surprising. However, it all made sense and I can’t wait to see where the rest of the series goes. RTC

• The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Choksi – 3.5 | It was good. Not spectacular like I had been hoping but still good. I liked the puzzles and the characters. However, the plot was meh, and I didn’t feel like I connected to the characters that much. Unofficial Review

• The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah – 2.5 | It was meh. There wasn’t much Muslim rep like I’d been hoping. Mina was aggravating, Michael was just meh, and I honestly liked the side characters more than the MCs. The politics was interesting, but overall this book was just meh. RTC

• Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson – 4 | This was really good. I loved the world, the Allomancy, and the explanation of how everything worked. The characters were all pretty interesting and I liked Vin, Kell, and Ham the most. The heist was unbelievable and that ending shocked me. I can see why many people love Sanderson’s books, but there were some things that annoyed me and weren’t done very well. Unofficial Review

• Lock Every Door by Riley Sager – 3 | This had a lot of potential, but in some areas it fell flat. There wasn’t much of a mystery, but there was a lot of suspense and some thriller parts towards the end. I liked the atmosphere and how I could feel Jules’ terror, but I was disappointed that pretty much all my guesses and suspicions were correct. RTC

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco – 2 | This book was a disaster. The ridiculous twists, and the reveal at the end made no sense at all, and I was so frustrated with Audrey Rose. Being in her head is painful, because she thinks the exact same thing a hundred different ways. I’m just so glad that this series is over. There were some good parts (Liza, Daci, and Illeana met and their friendship is amazing!!), but overall, this was still a disappointing finale to this series. Unofficial Review

• The Late Show by Michael Connelly – 4 | Pretty good. I liked Renée and the mystery of who did it, as well as the rogue cop aspect. However, I wished that Renée had a partner who also played a major, present, role in the story. It was good, just not amazing. RTC (maybe..)

• I Hate Weddings by P. J. Petersen – 2 | This was short, a little sweet, but also rather annoying. It was hilarious seeing all the things that went wrong, but I was also annoyed by the juvenile-ness of it as well as the decisions that Dan made.

• Our House by Louise Candlish – 4 | This was great. I liked the alternating storylines, and the ending was super satisfactory. I didn’t like Fi much, but I understood her passion to protect her kids. Bram was the one I sympathized with the most, and I really hoped that he would be saved. It was really sad reading the story from his POV. RTC

• The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly – 4 | It’s been a while since I read a legal thriller and I loved this. Mickey was ok, and I liked his relationship with both of his ex-wives, and the way that he made things right by the end. Again, it was good, but just not a 5 star. RTC (maybe..)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin – 3 | There were some good parts. There were some bad parts. I liked Ayesha and Khalid somewhat, especially at the beginning, and the rep was also pretty good. The drama was hilarious. However, the ending completely went off the rails, and I hate how some things were resolved. RTC

• The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black – 2 | I have no idea what happened to this book. It’s so short. It’s so tame. It’s so ridiculously unlike The Wicked King that I can’t believe they are from the same series. There’s no backstabbing political poison awesomeness. There’s not much epic spying or fighting. Sure the snake part happened and everything, but that’s it??? That’s ALL that happened??? And the ending. Wow. RTC

• Standstill by Jack Probyn – N/A | I got this for review from Reedsy. The idea of the story was great, and it was somewhat thrilling, but there were too many errors, grammatically and with the plot/setting. The MC was really unlikable, and overall, it just wasn’t for me.

• Blingsighted by Karin Slaughter – DNF | I read the first few chapters, and I just wasn’t pulled in to the story. My hold was also up, so I decided to DNF and maybe try and read it some other time.

• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – DNF | I was bored. There is so much telling, and not so much interaction/dialogue, and I love dialogue. So I was bored. And then my hold was up and I let it go. Maybe I’ll try to read it some other time, but right now, I’m just disappointed.

Total Number of Books Read This Month: 13

Total Number of DNFs: 2

Tags:

I’m still behind on tags, like usual, but I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has tagged me!! I’m working on getting them all done.

• 

• 

Fall Bucket List Book Tag  | The Real Neat Blog Award

Let’s Talk Bookish:

Content Warnings

How Do You Deal With Problematic Books

Spoilers

Writers of Diverse Books

Life & Blog Updates

So. For that awesome news that I was telling you about. I got into college. Aka, I am now a college student. Not fully, because it’s a program where I am in High School and in college at the same time, but still, I. am. taking. college. classes!!!!! Or well, I’ll be starting in a few weeks

I’m partly excited, and partly nervous, because hey, this is a lot. I’m a high school and college student now. It’s still weird saying that lol. Classes are going to start in a few weeks, and I’m still not sure how this is going to affect my blogging. It was a little hard to do everything before with just my high school classes, but now that I have extra, I might not have time to blog as regularly as I used to.

So yeah that was the awesome exciting news…

I’ve also been thinking about a new posting schedule:

• Monday: Review
• Wednesday: WWW
• Friday: LTB
• Sunday: Review
• Tuesday: “Creative” post (such as wrap-ups/tbrs/”other” posts)
• Thursday: Tag
• Friday: LTB

And repeat. At the end of the month, I should have 4 reviews, 2 WWW Wednesday posts, 2 tags, 2 “creative posts”, and 4 LTB posts. I feel like those are still pretty good numbers. This is not definite, and it all depends on how much time I have. If I can still manage to post 4 or 5 times a week, I’ll try, but if not, that’s my tentative new posting schedule.

I said in my November Wrap-Up that I was going to do some more creative posts in December, and I did do some! I did my first Book Recommendation post, which you can check out here, and I also talked about my anticipated reads for 2019, and whether they lived up to my expectations or not (this may be more of a wrap-up post than a creative post, but still).

• 

  Check it out here!!

• 

  Check it out here!!

Once I’m done with all the wrap-up posts (2 or 3 more), I’m going to do another Book Recommendation post, and maybe try creating an original tag. I know, I’m very ambitious.

I’m also behind blogging-wise. Last week, I started my Winter break, and I spent it with my family so I didn’t blog as much, and I didn’t blog hop either. I managed to catch up on all my comments yesterday (I hope I got them all, and I’m sorry if I missed one!!), and through this weekend, I’ll be going back to catch up on all your awesome posts! I may or may not comment I’m behind on a lot guys…I don’t have a number, but it’s a lot, but I’ll definitely read them.

And yeah. I think that’s all the updates I have.

That’s A Wrap!

In the end, I read 13 books, did 0 reviews, 2 tags, 4 LTB posts, and 1 recommendation post. My goals for December were to read 14 books (at least 10), do 3 reviews, 4 or 5 tags, and 4 LTB posts. I only met my reading and LTB goals.

For this month, my goals are to read 12 books, do 2 more wrap-up posts, 1 book recommendation post, at least 4 LTB posts, 1 creative post, and maybe 1 or 2 book reviews.

That’s it for this wrap-up! How was December and 2019 in general for you? Did you meet any of of your goals for the year? What are your plans for 2020? Any tips for my new college self? Am I the only one who was disappointed by The Queen of Nothing? Chat with me in the comments below!!

Monthly Wrap-Up: November 2019

Good morning! I hope you had an amazing weekend! Today, I’m going to be doing my monthly wrap-up for November of 2019.

It’s unbelievable how fast the year has gone by. I mean there are literally 29 days left of 2019! A new decade is about to start!! Please tell me I’m not the only one absolutely anxious, scared, and excited about this!!!

November was an interesting month. I got the last week off of school, so that was great, but all my plans for blogging and reading…didn’t happen unfortunately. The beginning of the month was great and I was super excited, but then it kind of dipped from there.

Books:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Covers are from Goodreads

I read 7 books, which is a bit of a disappointment since I read 13 books last month. I’ve got to read 14 books by the end of the year to reach my goal of 100. I’m not sure if I’ll make it, but hopefully I will. I did read some of the books on my Nov TBR, but not all, and I didn’t write a review for any of them lol. However, the links lead to my unofficial thoughts on Goodreads.

Book	Author	Rating
An Unwanted Guest	Shari Lapena	★★★★☆
The Scorpio Races	Maggie Stiefvater	★★★★★
A Darker Shade of Magic	V.E. Schwab	★★★★★
Crooked Kingdom	Leigh Bardugo	★★★★★
The Fixer (Buddy Read)	Jennifer Lynn Barnes	★★★★★
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill	Abbi Waxman	★★★☆☆
The Long Game (Buddy Read)	Jennifer Lynn Barnes	★★★★★

I also did 2 official reviews. I have so many backlogged reviews that I honestly need to write, but don’t feel like it. Maybe I’ll do more in December? or probably I’ll just wait and really start writing them in the upcoming decade 😉

Three Days Missing by Kimberly Belle // Rating: ★★★★☆ One sentence summary: An interesting thriller with great characters and an underwhelming reveal.

Vengeful by V.E. Schawb // Rating: ★★★★★ One sentence summary: A great sci-fi thriller with amazing characters and an intriguing plot.

Total Number of Books Read This Month: 7

Total Number of Reviews: 2

Tags:

Well, technically I did only 1 tag, but since I answered some questions in a tag-ish kind-of format for my 200 Q&A Answer post, I shall count that as a tag as well.

Behind the Blog: 200 Follower Q&A Answers (Thank you so much guys for asking questions and helping me reach 200!)

Blogger Recognition Award (Thank you so much Emer!)

Let’s Talk Bookish

What Makes a Great Book?

Reading Books Outside of Your Age Range

Plot or Characters?

Do You Have To Every Book You Read?

How Reading Has Changed My Life

Great Posts From Around the Blog-O-Sphere:

Sarah @ Written Word Worlds talks about what is considered a problematic book.

Vicki @ Vicky Who Reads talks about what to do if your favorite books are problematic and I love + and – idea!!

Veronika @ Wordy and Whimsical shares the tropes that she doesn’t want to see in books anymore and I agree with every single one.

Caitlin @ Caitlin Althea gives advice on how to keep you audience’s attention and I found it really helpful!

Anything Else?

I had the whole of the previous week off, and I didn’t write/draft any extra posts. I’m really disappointed. I had a horrible migraine one day and then I went out some other days, and I just didn’t get anything done. I’d been planning all month, I was pretty excited, and it didn’t happen. Oh well.

I’ve been thinking about doing some different and hopefully interesting posts including a book recommendation post so if that’s something you’d like to see let me know in the comments!

I also still haven’t posted the LTB topics for this month, but I’m going to try and post them tomorrow. Sorry!

That’s A Wrap!

In the end, I read 7 books, did 2 reviews, 2 tags, and 5 LTB discussion posts. 6 of the books were 4 or 5 stars, so that’s amazing. I only met my goal of writing at least 3 discussion posts that I set for November, so hopefully I’ll do better this month.

My goals for this month are to read 14 books (at least 10), do 4 or 5 tags, 3 reviews, and 4 LTB posts.

And that’s it for this wrap-up! How was November for you? How many books did you read? What do you think about problematic books? Would you like to see a book recommendation post? Any ideas for more creative posts that I can try out? Anything you’d like to share? Let’s chat in the comments below!