July Wrap Up & Haul

So it’s safe to say I had an okay reading month XD I read 13 books and I think the reason I was able to finish so many was because of the #BookTubeAthon I participated in.

Reading with everyone and watching/reading how people were going was awesome and motivated me to read more then I usually do making me read 3-5 books more then I usually do in a month.

This month’s reads:

13638125Vicious by V.E Schwab  Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.05.55 pm.png4/5 stars

V.E Schwab’s writing is impeccable and I love all the themes and characters in this book so much. favourite quote:

“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”15283043.jpg

 

 The Distance between Us by Kasie West Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.08.13 pm3/5 stars A very easy read but not the best contemporary I’ve come across. Favorite Quote:

“’Is that your subtle way of saying you missed me last week?’

‘I’ve missed my hot chocolate. I just think of you as the guy who brings it to me. Sometimes I forget your name and call you hot chocolate guy.’”

15832932What I thought was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.22.11 pm.png2.5/5 stars

I did originally give this a 3 stars but thinking back to it now it’s not only a very average, predictable and slow paced contemporary but it’s forgettable and if it wasn’t for Goodreads I would know that I had read this book.

 

 

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All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.22.21 pm.png4.5/5 stars

This book, this book was full of wonderful. It’s weird and beautiful. The characters are interesting, the themes are fantastic as well as the romance taking a very very back seat (like the back seat in on a bus and I appreciated that. A fantastical adventure with vivid imagery and extremely lovable characters I highly recommend this for fantasy lovers.

Favourite quote(s)

“You never learned the secret,” said Roberta. “How to be a crazy motherfucker and get away with it. Everybody else does it. What, you didn’t think they were all sane, did you? Not a one of them. They’re all crazier than you and me put together. They just know how to fake it. You could too, but you’ve chosen to torture all of us instead. That’s the definition of evil right there: not faking it like everybody else. Because all of us crazy fuckers can’t stand it when someone else lets their crazy show. It’s like bugs under the skin. We have to destroy you. It’s nothing personal.”

“When the world turns chaotic, we must be the better part of chaos.”25883848

The Hating game by Sally Thorne Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.08.07 pm5/5 stars

Wowza so I must say arcs are very hit or miss with me (mainly miss but that’s besides the point) I went into this thinking okay typical chick lit cookie cutter book- Girl works in publishing company, girl hates boy, plays pranks and “hating games”, ends up falling for each other because they actually liked one another all along. BOY was I wrong! Not really about the plot I mean the plot is basically the same plot as every other chick lit hate turns into love story but the writing, the twists and turns. I don’t want to compare this to a CoHo book but I love it nearly as much as one of hers. The writing, the characters everything was impeccable.

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Nina is not okay by Shappi Khorsandi Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.08.21 pm.png2/5 stars.

I wanted to love this as it deals with a lot of heavy themes and it does tackle them all quite well but it was boring and dragged. Also I really ahted Nina, I mean I felt for her but I just wanted to shake her constantly and she had me on edge with the things she’s do.

 

 

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The Fill in Boyfriend by Kasie West Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.05.55 pm 4/5 stars

The Fill in Boyfriend was adorable and a fantastic contemporary if you’re looking for something fast, happy ad full of laughs. I really liked this book and was surprised at the depth it had. I thought it was just going to be your typical contemporary and while it WAS that it was also pretty amazing.

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On the fence by Kasie WestScreen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.08.07 pm 5/5 stars

Casey what’s with all the contemporaries this month? Oh me I’m just reading about warmer places to try and escape the freezing weather that is Melbourne at the moment.

 

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Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.05.55 pm4/5 Stars

This book is and isn’t a favourite of mine by Matson. It is because its so different compared to her others focusing heavily on Family and finding yourself rather the romance, it was a lot heavier and sadder.

 

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The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint ExuperyScreen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.08.07 pm 5/5 stars

Everyone must read this genius book (and most likely already has) I’m a little late to the party.

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November 9 by Colleen Hoover (audiobook re-read) Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.08.07 pm

5/5 stars

One of my favourite books ever, did you doubt I’d love the audiobook less? Well your wrong doubters it was just as amazing and I loved revisiting this world and reading about Fallen and Ben.28696452

 This Savage Song by V.E Schwab Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.05.55 pm 4/5 stars

This was pretty slow to get into but I did enjoy it once it picked up. This is my least favourite V.E Schwab book as I felt we didn’t really have a plot? I mean we did a few different things, made some friends but nothing THAT big happened

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the UniverseScreen Shot 2016-08-02 at 9.08.07 pm 5/5 stars

I wasn’t expecting to feel pretty emotion reading this, I went into this pretty blind except from everyone exclaims that they loved it and was expecting a LGBT romantic love story and what I got was deep, thoughtful and flawlessly written with a real heaviness that you feel when you are 17 and in a weird stage of life. The feeling and tone this book used and evoked was just amazing and I loved every bit of it.


Haul!

 


Life update:

This month was amazing

  • I set up my home office/study, organised all my books(then dis-organised them)
  • Turned 6 months on my blog
  • Hit 1000 followers on my bookstagram

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  • Finished the lounge room renovations

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  • Made yummy cake, ate yummy cake

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  • Met Jay Kristoff & Amie Koufman at the Nevernight Launch
  • Met fellow Melbourne bloggers at sed Launch
  • Have my first ever personally signed book

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  • Ate 8bit for the first time
  • Caught loads of pokemon
  • Seen a lot of friends that I haven’t caught up with in at least a year or more
  • AND read lots of amazing books.

July has been my Favorite months of this year and I can’t wait to see what August brings (hopefully some sunshine I’m sick of Winter)


How many books did you read in July? How was your month in general?

 

 

 

 


19 thoughts on “July Wrap Up & Haul

  1. Wow, you DID have an amazing month!! I’m so jealous that you got to meet Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff! How were they in person? I always wonder what the personalities of some authors are like haha 🙂 Happy August!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. They were so nice! Really down to earth and happy to speak with everyone 🙂 If you get the chance to meet them just go up and start having a chat they won’t mind at all 😀
      I can’t wait to meet them again for the Gemina Launch 😀

      Liked by 1 person

  2. This has been a fruitful month, good for you 😀
    I must say that I added The HAting Game to my GR Tbr before even finishing your post haha you picked my curiosity.
    And also, I LOVE the little prince, it was a required read for me in elementary school and one of the few i really enjoyed. Now that i think of it I should probably reread it !

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I hope you love it! It surprised me so much and I will definitely be buying the finished copy so I can re-read it whenever I hit a slump, Hope you love it!

      I wish I would have read The Little Prince earlier but it was still absolutely amazing 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  3. That cake looks awesome! You’re so lucky. You met Kristoff!!! Fangirling over here. Lol. I finished Nevernight last night. It was awesome. You read a lot of books this month. I binge read Kasie West all in one month. I love her books.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. She’s so good to binge read! I haven’t read the same Authors books all in a row for a while I need to do it more often 🙂

      The Launch was so much fun! Believe me I was fangirling as well I’m re-reading Nevernight at the moment because I had an e-book copy before and wanted the physical thing XD SO Glad you enjoyed it, Mister Kindly my favorite XD I’ll look out for your review!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I read The Fill-In Boyfriend and couldn’t get enough. I think I read two more within days of that book. I was so hooked. I’m an OwlCrate subscriber and everyone is saying that they think her new book will be in this month’s box. I sure hope so. Yeah, Mr. Kindly was cool because you didn’t really know what to expect, and it was like having another character but still felt like it was part of Mia, sort of like her conscience. That was pretty cool. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I haven’t thought of him like that, he definitely helped her through a lot though so it makes a lot of sense I hope we can learn more about him but I guess we will when Mia learns more about what she is, also I can’t wait to learn more about Cassius’s wolf and how their relationship will be.

          Hopefully you get it in OwlCrate the guesses are usually spot on, I can’t wait to read it!

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Yeah, I hope so, too. It was nice that we got that little snippet in the epilogue about Darkin. I’m definitely interested to see where he goes with the series. Yeah, the wolf part was interesting. I was thinking they were tethered to each Darkin, but that was cool that he could follow her. I thought for sure he’d go with Cassius. I noticed that with OwlCrate. Some people are so good at guessing the monthly boxes it’s like they work for them. 🙂

            Liked by 1 person

  4. Um… Holy crap what a month you had!!!
    1) 13 books! That is insane!!!
    2) Not one but TWO Schwab books!
    3) I really want to read a Colleen Hoover book!!! She is actually coming near me on Friday (hour away) to do a book signing for her newest book but of course I have a going away party for dear friends that I can’t miss… I am super bummed 😢
    4) congrats on 6 fabulous blogging months AND 1000 Instagram followers!!! That is HUGE!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I know right!! When I was writing the post I was like did I really read 13 that cant be right?! I lot of them were very short though so that helped 🙂

      It’s so crazy there are 1000 people on insta I feel like I need to lift my photo game haha!

      AH I wish I could go to a CoHo signing, hopefully she’ll come back to your area for her next book 🙂 I actually had a really strange dream a few months back about meeting her in an airport while reading her book and getting it signed and then re-buying all the others from the gift shop so she could sign them but she was gone by the time I got back, not sure what dream language that translates to XD haha!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Wow, you read so much congrats! I’m glad to see that the Kasie West books got better for you each time & that you didn’t give up on her after that 3-star. Ironically, your 3-star is my favorite book of hers and your 5-star is my least! However, I still enjoyed them all :D.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. ahah Thank you! Doing the readathon helped ALOT XD plus a lot of this books were really little 🙂

      That’s pretty awesome I think it just shows how different people can both love her writing but connect to the plot lines in different ways 🙂 She’s definitely an auto buy author for me now I can’t wait to read her new book coming out coz it sounds amazing 😀

      Like

    1. I loved Nevernight! I’m writing my review for it now and have so many quotes from it XD I hope you love it when you get to it! Vicious is fantastic, really anything from Schwab is fantastic haha!

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  6. Whoa, you read a lot of books! That’s incredible! Honestly, All the Birds in the Sky has SUCH a stunning cover- I just want to buy myself a copy and display it up front on my shelves. Shame that you didn’t much like Nina is Not Okay; I saw a copy on Netgalley and it looked promising, but I’m not so sure anymore!

    Congratulations on hitting 1k on Bookstagram! 🙂

    ~ Aimal @ Bookshelves & Paperbacks

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You should deffs get All The Bird in The Sky! The cover is gorgeous and it feels really cool as well + its just as beautiful on the inside XD I’m sure other will like Nina is Not Ok I’ve seen some really positive reviews I just disliked the main character so I couldn’t get into the story, if you do end up reading it I’d love to know what you thought and Thank you!

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