Hey y’all! Welcome back to the blog. It’s been a loonnngggg time since I’ve mentioned what I’m reading so I thought it would be good to just wrap-up all the books I’ve read in the past 4 months.
For the first few months of school, I wasn’t really reading much. But since November or so, I’ve started reading a lot more thanks to many recommendations *cough* some of which were against my will! by some friends. Most of it has been middle grade which is kind of funny to me because I have always been against the idea of reading “kids’ books”. But my opinion has changed and I think middle grade is a pretty fun genre that is kind of innocent and pretty sweet.
I also read quite a few historical fiction novels back in September and one fantasy, so it’s been kind of a diverse mix of genres not really, but let me pretend it was.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what I’ve been reading!
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.
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!
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.
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).
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!!
Hello my dear friends! I hope you are having a fantastic start to your week. Today, I will be doing two mini reviews, since I am behind and I’m trying to catch up. The books that I’ll be reviewing today are Wherever She Goes by Kelley Armstrong and Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich. I was really disappointed by the former, while I liked the latter. Let’s get started!
The mystery was really meh. I enjoyed Bree’s family drama more than the mystery, and that was honestly the only reason why I finished the book. The ending was so underwhelming, and I think the author was trying too hard. It felt flat, and I wanted to roll my eyes a lot. In the end, I gave it two stars because the family drama was interesting.
One sentence summary: An interesting family drama with a meh mystery.
This was a cute and easy read and I liked it. Emerson can be annoying, but he’s still very funny. I thought Riley was cute, especially when she tried to back out of Emerson’s plans every single time, but still managed to find herself in the middle of everything. The ending was good, had a bit of suspense, and some humor. The mystery was really meh, and pretty far-fetched for me, but it didn’t annoy me too much. This was like the book that you read, just for the sake of reading, and not really for the plot or characters. In the end, I gave this 2.5 stars rounded up to three.
One sentence summary: An easy and humorous mystery, with okay characters.
That’s it for today!! Have you guys read Curious Minds or Wherever She Goes? What did you think? Did you find Emerson funny, but also exasperating? Was Bree’s family drama more interesting to you than the mystery? Chat with me in the comments below!
Eternity Books 