June Wrap-Up, Mid-Year Check-In, & Preparing for Camp NaNoWriMo

The year is already half way over? MY SUMMER is already half way over? What the frick is this? I feel like June flew by, like, wasn’t it just May like last week?

Despite going by so quickly, June was a good month. I read 9 books! My summer job surprisingly involves a lot of breaks aka time to read! Though annoyingly my grounds maintenance job also involves hedge trimmers and I recently learned that hedge trimmers and I do not get along, given by the lovely gash I now have on my leg. 😅 (As much as I love including pics from my life on these wrap-ups, I won’t disgust you guys with a pic of my wound because I don’t want y’all to unsubscribe from my blog, lol)

In addition to discussing the books I read this month and my TBR for July, I’m also going to use this post to check in with my goals for the year and to discuss my plans for Camp NaNoWriMo!

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BOOKS I READ:

1. The School for Good and Evil

Rating: 4 stars

I both adore and admire this book. Despite locating itself among middle grade books, this story wove itself between hilarious and dark elements. I love how this book not only ridiculed fairytale stereotypes but also challenged the concepts of good & evil.

2. The Tethered Mage

Rating: 3.25 stars

Mildly interesting and slow. This book was definitely a mediocre fantasy for me. I’m just really annoyed that despite the title, we’re not actually given the mage’s perspective? Hers was the one I really wanted in this story! You can read my full review here.

3. Wild Seed

Rating: 2.5 stars(??)

This book was fricking weird. I know Octavia Butler is this amazing, badass writer, and I’ve loved her books Kindred and Parable of the Sower, but I don’t know what to make of this book? Maybe I just need time to mull it over, but I don’t really get this book? For the most part, I liked Ayanwu’s character (she’s such a badass at times) but I hated Doro with a burning passion. There was nothing redeemable about his character and I despised the existence of his character. This book just made me uncomfortable.

4. Grace and Fury

Rating: 4 stars

Aaahhh, this book. I adored it and I’m so invested in these sisters. Why do I have to wait over a year for the sequel? Please read this book when it releases in July so we can talk about it together. (Or if you read an ARC, also hmu!).

You can read my full review here! ❤

5. My Lady Jane

Rating: 4.25 stars

For the first couple chapters I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book and I considered DNF-ing it. Luckily, I didn’t because I became completely enamored with this book! It was cute, hilarious, adorable, and highly entertaining. Review to come! (hopefully)

6. Outrun the Wind

Rating: 2 stars

Dang, I really wanted this book to be so much better than it actually was. A Greek Mythology retelling with a f/f romance, how great does that sound? Sadly, it was not so awesome. You can read my full thoughts on the book here.

7. Leah on the Offbeat

Rating: 3.5 stars

Ahhh, it was so great to be submerged in the Simonverse again! This was a quick and fun read, but as many others have said, it definitely wasn’t perfect. I’m writing a review now, so hopefully I’ll have it up in a week!

8. Ace of Shades

Rating: 3.75 stars

Well, I devoured this book. The world was really interesting, but I wish the characters had been fleshed out more, especially Enne’s. Her character development felt too rushed/unnatural. The insta-attraction/loyalty also lowered the quality a lot. Review to come sometime in July!

9. Sky in the Deep

Rating: 4.5 stars

Guys, it’s a return of YA protagonists who are actually badasses and don’t just tell you they are! I was a little hesistant about this book, but I ended up falling in love with it. If only this book was 50-100 pages longer to develop the plot and romance more, I think this would have been a perfect 5 stars.

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CURRENTLY READING:

 

• Siege and Storm- I’m finally continuing my reread of The Grishaverse Trilogy! Dang, I forgot how exciting the beginning of this book is.
  
• Celtic Tales- Still working my way through this book. Lol, I’m not even sure if I picked this book up more than once this month, whoops…

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JULY TBR:

 

Yeah… my July TBR is rather ambitious, especially considering that I’ll be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. But I really want to reread the first 2 books of The Remnant Chronicles so I can read the third one and complete the series, especially since I just found out I got approved for an ARC of Dance of Thieves on Netgalley and I don’t want accidental spoilers! My aunt loaned me her copy of Wonder Woman: Warbringer, so I want to get around to that soon too. I’m eager to continue the Monstress series. Jane Eyre has been on my TBR for a long time now and I want to have it read before I read My Plain Jane (my main motivation to read it, lol). And Neil Gaiman is my roommate’s fav author and I’ve never read a book by him and I think it’s time I changed that.

Ahh, there’s just too much to read and so little time!

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MID-YEAR GOAL CHECK-IN

According to my 2017 Reading Reflection/New Year’s Goals Post, these are the bookish goals I set for myself:

 

• Read 50 books again (so roughly a book a week)
  • I’m currently at 44/50 books, so I think I’m on track! 😂 Even though I know I’ll easily reach it this summer, I’m not going to increase my goal because I know my reading is going to decrease a lot once I return to college in the fall and I don’t want any additional stress. I refuse to read 11 books in 15 days like I did at the end of the year in 2017.
• Post on this blog weekly
  • I’m also doing really well with this! I think there might have been one time in April (at the end of the semester) when I took like a 1.5 week hiatus, but other than that I’ve been doing really well with posting every 3-5 days!
• Write everyday! (At least one sentence each day)
  • This I’ve really crashed and burned at this. I was doing really well, making it everyday, until I hit April. Currently I’ve written 149/181, so 82.3% of the days this year, which is still pretty solid, right? I haven’t been completely failing…yay? 😛

 

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Goal: 25,000 words of revision

Well, I was going to make a separate post about this, but I can never get myself to do things on Friday nights so I decided to talk about it in my wrap-up!

So as you can see, I’m planning to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo! This past semester, I took a Novel Writing class where I completed a 50,000 word rough draft of a novel (done NaNoWriMo style of course! You can read more about that here). Now, I’m working on revising that! I won’t get too much into it, but my WIP is a YA fantasy with elemental magic, an island, and an angry goddess. Writing fantasy, my goal is to get my second draft to ~100K, so my revising process is essentially rewriting all my scenes and adding new ones to flesh out my story. I currently have about 10K revised. I’m in a cabin with a couple of my friends from school and my amazing writing buddy from home. I’m so excited to start (I really need this comradery and deadline to motivate me).

Honestly, I was hoping to be a lot farther along when I got to July, but ever since my semester ended, I’ve felt like my characters have gone on vacation without telling me where they went or when they’ll back (which is terrifying because July starts TOMORROW). It’s like occasionally they’ll send me a postcard, but the picture never gives me a clear idea of where they went. Well, my characters are gonna have to cut their vacations short because I’m finally ready to track them down and drag them back by their toes if I have to. Let some hardcore writing begin!

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Wow sorry, that was a really long wrap-up. If you made it through and read that whole thing, you are my new favorite person. ❤

So, how was your June? Discover any new favorite books? Are you planning on participating in Camp NaNoWriMo? Let me know down in the comments, I would love to chat!

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer TBR

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is “Books to Read By the Pool/At the Beach” with a side note that said: “This can also serve as your summer TBR” and since I don’t read a lot of beach-y, fluffy contemporaries, I’m going with the summer TBR route for this post! Not to mention that writing TBR lists is SO MUCH FUN (even tho my track record with them is pretty iffy, whoops).

Of course there are way more than 10 books I want to read this summer, but neither of us want to be stuck here on a post with an endless scroll 😛 , so I’m just going to share the books I want am determined to read before I return to college at the end of August!

Also, in case you were wondering: Yes, I did list these books in the order I plan to read them! (No one was wondering that, Keri)

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For those of you who don’t know:

“Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.”

(This quote comes directly from the blog, That Artsy Reader Girl)

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MY SUMMER TBR:

1. Leah on the Offbeat

A Goodreads group that I’m in is reading this book for June, so of course I’m going to join in! After reading Simon vs. in March and The Upside of Unrequited last month, I can’t wait to return to the Simonverse!

2. Wonder Woman: Warbringer

My aunt (who is a hardcore Wonder Woman fan) loaned me this book and I still need to read it. Random spiel here, but I love that I’ve gotten my aunt into reading YA books. Back in 2012 she gave me Throne of Glass for Christmas and this year I bought her her own copy (and promptly got her hooked on the series 😀 ) while she was recovering from surgery. I can’t wait to give her the Wonder Woman book sleeve I got her for her birthday…

3. Ace of Shades

I just got this in from the library! There’s nothing more satisfying than being the first person to check out a book recently acquired at the library. I can’t wait to start this book!

4. Reign the Earth

I WANT TO READ THIS BOOK AND MY LIBRARY DOESN’T HAVE IT. What a bummer, guess I’ll have to go out and buy it…

5-7. The Remnant Chronicles

Lol, I’ve actually read the first two books in this series TWICE. This summer though, I am determined to reread them for the final time and then get through the final book (I got half way through a couple years ago before falling into a reading slump). I really want to get this series read before Mary E. Pearson’s newest book, Dance of Thieves, releases in August (because it’s set in the same world and I don’t want spoilers).

8. The Darkest Minds

I’ve actually already read this book, but it was years ago. I remember little about it, so in light of the movie adaptation releasing in August, I wanted to make sure I’ve reread this book beforehand. (And maybe then I’ll get the motivation to continue on with the series this time?)

9. Catwoman: Soul Stealer

Release Date: August 7th, 2018

I haven’t pre-ordered this yet, but I will be soon (despite the ugly cover, smh). Sarah J. Maas is an auto-buy author for me and since this book releases before my fall semester starts, you better bet I’m going to read this right away.

10. The Kiss Quotient

It seems like everyone on Goodreads is obsessing over this book and I want to join! Like, a romance starring a mathematical genius? Count me the frick in! I’m 26th in line to get it in at the library though….so hopefully I’ll get it by the end of summer?

 

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What books are you hoping to read this summer? Have you read any of these books?

If you participated in TTT this week, feel free to link up your post in the comments below, I would love to read them!

May Wrap-Up: Reading & Mowing

Wow May, what a beautiful month that was. I finished my sophomore year of college, I had my birthday, green plants and sunshine emerged for spring, and I fricking finally found a summer job (I’m quite pleased with myself about this last thing)!

And not only was May a fabulous month life-wise, but it was also great book-wise! I read 8 books, wrote reviews for most of them, and posted 11 times! I did fail at writing but we’re not going to talk about that, so let’s get into my reflection of May!

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BOOKS I READ:

1. Roomies by Christina Lauren

Rating: 3.25 stars

Oh man, this book was such a blur and a whirlwind of emotions. I read this entire book in one sitting (aka starting at 11pm and not getting up again until like 5am, whoops). I loved the romance and the setting, but I felt that the biggest things that got me were that there was too much suspense of disbelief and that I felt the protagonist (Holland) wasn’t a strong enough character. But overall, I really enjoyed the set-up, story, and the characters. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys rom-coms!

2. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 3.5 stars

Meh, this book was rather disappointing. It was a decent read because it included the Inner Circle (and got me extremely hype for ACOTAR #4), but this was definitely my least favorite of Sarah J. Maas’s books. You can see my full review here.

3. Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser

Rating: 3 stars

This is book has been sitting on my shelf for a past year and I finally read it! It was fun and easy read, but pretty mediocre overall. It was a really interesting world but the characters felt unrealistic and I couldn’t bring myself to care much for them. You can see my full review here.

4. Monstress by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda

Rating: 4.25 stars

Holy crap, going into this graphic novel I had no idea it would be such a crazy storm of darkness, bloodshed, mayhem, and terror! I was semi-confused on the worldbuilding but I’m so enthralled by the storyline and I can’t what to see where it will go. I have so many questions I want to see get answered! Can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel (hurry up library)!

5. Whisper of the Tide by Sarah Tolcser

Rating: 3 stars

Even though I found the first book to be mediocre, I had to continue onto this sequel because I had an e-ARC I had to review. This one was even more fun and pirate-y, but I still found myself facing the same problems I had with the first book. If ya wanna see my full review, you can check it out here.

6. The Bird and the Blade by Megan Bannen

Rating: 4.25 stars

AHHHH, THIS BOOK. What an emotional roller coaster. This was a retelling of the opera Turandot and one of my most anticipated reads of the year. It wasn’t flawless but I adored it. I’m actually participating in a blog tour for this book and my stop is on June 3rd, so make sure to come back that day to see my review!

7. A Mark Unwilling by Candace Wondrak

Rating: 1.5 stars

Yikes, this book was rough. I feel bad giving it such a low rating because the author reached out to me to review it and I loved the idea of story, but the writing was so amateur and obnoxious that I can’t bring myself to rate it higher. I wrote a fairly extensive Pro&Con style review on this book if anyone wants to check it out.

8. The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Rating: 3.5 stars

This was such a fun, cute, and fluffy read! I wish this book had been published a few years ago when I was in high school because I think 16 year old me might have enjoyed this book more. There were so many things that Molly did that I was like: wow, that was literally high school me. I also adored the entire cast of characters and their relationships! I love that all of Becky Albertalli’s characters are connected (I can’t wait till my library gets Leah on the Offbeat). I will say though that I found Molly to be a little over dramatic at times (or it just might have been the way her narration was written). Though I doubt Becky Albertalli was going for this, I was rather annoyed that there were a couple of scenes/lines that came across as “being in love makes me feel complete and like myself!!!” Overall though, I found this book to be an enjoyable read.

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Meh, I had a lot of iffy and mediocre 3 star reads this month, which is kind of a bummer. But hey, at least I was reading! 8 books is pretty good for a month! Fingers crossed June will bring more 4 & 5 star reads for me.

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CURRENTLY READING:

• The Tethered Mage- Eh, I have been struggling with this book a little bit. It’s semi-interesting, but I just can’t get myself to care about characters/world. Also lowkey annoyed that we’re not even given the mage’s perspective…
• Celtic Tales- Trying to make an effort to read more mythology and fairy tales! This collection is bad necessarily, but it’s definitely not I what I expected it to be.

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JUNE TBR:

• Grace and Fury- I was lucky enough to snag an e-ARC of this off of Netgalley when they made it available for the first 500 to request it. I’m so excited to read this!
• Leah on the Offbeat- My GR book group is reading this for the month of June and I can’t wait to return to the Simonverse!
  
• Legendary- Another book my GR group is reading for June! Also excited to get Tella’s perspective!
  
• The School for Good and Evil- A middle grade book I think looks fun! Also it’s due back at the library on June 10th so I need to get on it. 😀
  
• Siege and Storm- I know I’ve been saying I’ll reread this book since the beginning of the year, but I’m still going to hope I’ll actually get to it this month…
  

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RANDOM LIFE UPDATES:

• I mentioned this above, but I finished my second year of college! Kind of sad to see that semester go, because I had some really fun classes (aka a Novel Writing class), but I’m also soooo glad it’s summer!! 😀
• I FINALLY FOUND A SUMMER JOB!! (yay money to lessen my future student debt!) I’m on the grounds crew for the neighborhood next to mine aka I now spend 8 hours a day mowing lawns or weed-whacking grass, lol. It’s surprisingly great though because we get lots of breaks (because otherwise we would all keel over in the heat) aka time I get to use for reading!
• I turned 20 in May! Gosh, I’m no longer a teen, I feel so old now…(Still gonna keep obsessing over YA until I’m in my grave though)

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How was your May? Are you out of school for the summer yet? Do you like to mow? Read any good books lately? Let me know down in the comments!

March Wrap-Up: Please send chocolate!

So I’ve been realizing that after writing wrap-ups for the last two months that they’re my least visited posts. Now I realize that these posts are very “stereotypical book blogger” and obnoxiously long, but…I quite enjoy writing these posts soooooooo, yeah, we’re gonna go for it again (sorry, not sorry).

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BOOKS I READ THIS MONTH:

1. No Plot? No Problem!

Rating: 4.5 stars

I read this for my Novel writing class when we did NaNoWriMo in February (which you can read more about here), though I didn’t read the last chapter about revising until the beginning of March. This book is written by the Founder of NaNoWriMo, and not only is the writing hilarious, but I found some of his advice to be extremely helpful while noveling! I would recommend this book to anyone doing NaNoWriMo!

2. The Radical Element

Rating: 4 stars

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book from Netgalley. I’m not one who generally looks to short story collections but I actually enjoyed the majority of these stories! This was an anthology of feminist historical fiction but a lot of the stories were imbued with some sort of magical twist, which I adored. You can read my full review here.

3. Summer of the Mariposas

Rating: 3 stars

I read this book for my Ethnic American YA Lit class. This book was extremely unique in that it was a retelling of the Odyssey set in modern day where the main protagonists are five Hispanic sisters. Together, they journey to Mexico to return the dead body of a man to his family and then to visit their estranged grandmother. The premise of this story was really interesting but the characters really annoyed me. They were extremely immature, brutal to one another (frequently hitting and kicking one another), and more than half the obstacles in this book wouldn’t have been an issue if the eldest sister didn’t succumb to the peer pressure of her sisters.

4. To Kill a Kingdom

Rating: 4.25 stars

OMG THIS BOOK. This book was dark retelling of the little mermaid except with sirens. There are two protagonists; Lira, a siren princess and a prince killer, and Elian, a prince who is also a siren killer, and really, do you need to know anything else to read this book (though did you really need more than the first sentence)? It was a fun and adventurous read and I can’t wait to see what else Alexandra Christo will write in the future. You can read my full thoughts here.

5. The Cruel Prince

Rating: 4.75 stars

Omg, I fell head over heels in love with this book (not that I ever wear heels, so I guess I would literally fall if I wore some, lol)! It was dark, fantastical, and addicting read. The epic-ness of ending is still haunting my thoughts and I’m dying to get my hands on the sequel (why do I have to wait until 2019?!?!?). You can read my full (gushing) review here.

6. Long Way Down

Rating: 4.5 stars

This was such a quick read, but SO important! Every poem packed a punch and OMG THAT ENDING! That finally page resonated with me for days and I still think about it.

I was also lucky enough to see Jason Reynolds speak when he visited a library near me. He so real, honest, and funny. He lights up a room and I really wish I could be his friend or something. He’s such an amazing speaker; I wanna go read all his other books now.

7. When the Emperor Was Divine

Rating: 5 stars

OMG THE PROSE IN THIS BOOK. I read this book for my YA Lit class (even tho it isn’t YA…) and holy crap. This book tells the story of a Japanese family during WWII who are forced into an internment camp. The book is broken up into 5 short stories, each told from one member of the family’s perspective. This book hit me in the gut and the writing was astounding. Everything is shown, not told, and every single detail is important. I can only dream of crafting prose as well as this book. This was a re-read for me and I picked up so many more things the 2nd time around (and I know I was still probably only scratching the surface, if that).

8. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Rating: 4.5 stars

I FINALLY HOPPED ON THIS BANDWAGON AND I’M SO GLAD I DID! This book was so real, gripping, adorable, and hilarious. Everyone, especially YA lovers, should read this book! I’m so psyched to go out and see Love, Simon now! Hopefully, I’ll have a dual review for both the book & movie up in April!

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Holy crap, I read 8 books this month?! How did I do that? (I mean I know how: bless spring break). This means I’m at 22 books for the year and almost half way to my goal of 50 already?? Holy crap, I might have to consider upping it. (Crap, I probably just jinxed myself for a reading slump now)

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CURRENTLY READING:

• Designing Your Life- I was reading this for a college class but my prof stopped assigning readings from it so who knows if I’ll ever get around to finishing it??
• St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves- I picked up this short story collection because the author visited my school, though I only read like 40 pages before she came. This book is most definitely literary fiction (and I don’t get it at all) so I’m not quite sure when/if I’ll finish it…

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APRIL TBR:

• Ready Player One- My book club is reading this book for April which means I should probably get started on it soon, especially since I have to help lead the discussion 😀
• Catching Stars- The more I see this cover, the more eager I am to start this book. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and the book releases May 8th so I definitely want to have my review up way before then.
• Hunting Prince Dracula- One of my Goodreads groups is reading this and I’ve had this book checked out from the library for forever (since I read the first book back in October, whoops) so I decided its time to finally read it!
• Song of the Current- So, I got approved for an ARC of this book’s sequel, so yeah, kinda need to go read the first book now… 😀

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RANDOM LIFE UPDATES:

• I WANT NEED CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
  • lol, let me elaborate on that some more. So for Lent this year I gave up all sweets, which means I have not had chocolate since February 13th so I’m extremely ecstatic for Easter tomorrow  (I’m already salivating thinking of those Reese’s peanut butter eggs). I have a major sweet tooth so every year for Lent I challenge myself to give up sweets (and always do because that’s scary to break a promise to the Big Man)
  • So yeah, if anyone has extra chocolate (tho is there really a thing as too much chocolate?), please send it my way
• I won a book from a giveaway! It’s a graphic novel and I’m pumped to read it because I rarely read graphic novels plus like… free book, how is that not exciting by itself?
  • I don’t really know much about it other than the plot involves a museum and a ghost

• I helped start a book club at my college!
  • Who would have thought it would have taken till 2018 for my college to have an official book club? Like isn’t that an essential & generic club?!?!?
  • Our first read is going to be Ready Player One so we can discuss both the book and the movie adaptation, so hopefully I’ll have a double review on that coming sometime in April!
  • I so happy that we got this club started but I’m also terrified because now I actually have to talk to a group of people in person for an extended period of time?!?!? And my face always heats up instantly whenever I do that so I’m scared I’ll just be an incoherent, blubbering tomato… 😀

(wow, look at me trying to make pretty book pics 😛 )

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That’s it for my March wrap-up!

How was your March? What was your favorite read this month? Have you read any of the books I mentioned? Anything exciting happen this month for you? Let me know in the comments!