Monthly Wrap-Up: July ’18

I actually had a pretty good reading month. I’m so surprised and really pleased. These numbers won’t astound anyone, but for someone who has been struggling to read “enough” books during the last few month, July felt really productive. I read seven books this July; got to a couple of that I’ve been putting off for a while and even snuck in a reread (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before). I’m feeling really good about my summer reading right now, so hopefully this carries into August. It is also the start of the final month of the Summer 2018 Comment Challenge which I cohost with Lonna @ FLYLēF. For August, my partner is Barb @ Booker T’s Farm. I’m really looking forward to interacting with her more over the course of the month.

(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.) 

Favorite Book This Month:

I had some really good reads this month, but my favorite was S.K. Ali’s Saints and Misfits. It was such an unexpected favorite and the protagonist Janna is now among my favorite contemporary characters. My review for this one will go up in August. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Least Favorite Book This Month:

No book this month received less than three stars.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Read, Review Coming Soon:

(covers linked to Goodreads)

Notable Blog Posts This Month:

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Seafire by Natalie C. Parker – What do you get when you combine pirates and Mad Max: Fury Road? Apparently, it’s this novel. I am beyond stoked for this book.

Summer 2018 Comment Challenge: August Sign-up & August Partners – The final month of this challenge is starting. We’ve had such a fun time with the challenge this year and I’ve met so many wonderful bloggers.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Pride by Ibi Zoboi – If you’re like me, you love discovering new P&P retellings. Be sure to check out this one, it sounds all kinds of amazing.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books in 2018 So Far – Loved sharing my favorite reads so far this year.

2018 Second Quarter Book Haul: How Did This Happen? – I accidentally accumulated far too many books this quarter.

2018 Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag – I finally got a chance to post this tag where I looked back on the first half of the year.

Reading Challenges:

Aside from the Goodreads challenge, I’m only participating in one reading challenge this year.

1. The 2018 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I didn’t read any debuts this month which make me feel a little guilty. I am now two books behind schedule >_<

• Challenge Goal: 12 books; Current Count: 5 books

August Releases I’m Excited For:

How is your summer reading going? Any title your hoping to get to before the season is over? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit.

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Monthly Wrap-Up: June ’18

There are days when I am fine with reading less and others where it throws me into panic mode. I read only four books in June, plus a collection of poetry. It wasn’t much, but I ended the month kind of okay with it. I’m suffering from lack of free time rather than a slump. Hopefully, I can get more books in in July because my summer TBR is pretty big. We are in the midst of the Summer 2018 Comment Challenge. If you’re not familiar, Lonna @ FLYLēF and I cohost this summer challenge; we pair bloggers each month and have them interact with one another through comments on each other’s blogs. If you’re interested in joining us, our sign-up post for August goes up tomorrow. I am paired with Carolina @ Fictionologyst for July and I really excited to get to know her.

(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.) 

Favorite Book This Month:

Melissa Lozado-Oliva’s Peluda was a gift I bought myself for my birthday in May. I saw this video and immediately became intrigued, ended up watching various YouTube videos of her slam poetry and just fell in love with her words. Even if you aren’t a fan of poetry, I encourage you to check out Melissa Lozado-Oliva. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Least Favorite Book This Month:

No book this month received less than three stars.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Read, Review Coming Soon:

(covers linked to Goodreads)

Notable Blog Posts This Month:

Kernels of Nonsense: In Which I Tell You How I Really Feel – Shared some unfiltered opinions this month that I don’t make a habit of talking about too much. Very cathartic.

Summer 2018 Comment Challenge: July Sign-up & July Partners – The second month of this challenge is starting today. You can sign-up for August starting tomorrow.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – I am so excited about this release. Can I have it now?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Want to Travel in Unconventional Ways – This was one of the funnest posts I’ve put together. Love that fiction introduces us to some odd ways to travel.

Reading Challenges:

Aside from the Goodreads challenge, I’m only participating in one reading challenge this year.

1. The 2018 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I didn’t read any debuts this month which means I’m behind by one book!

• Challenge Goal: 12 books; Current Count: 5 books

July Releases I’m Excited For:

What are some of your summer reading plans? Any summer releases you’re really excited for? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit.

Monthly Wrap-Up: May ’18

I think I’m simply destined to read less books this year compared to last. No matter what I did in May, I just never had enough time to sit down and read. I finished a whopping three books, reread a graphic novel and picked up another. I’m taking this opportunity to officially announce that I am lowering my Goodreads goal from 65 books to 55. I’ve been playing with the idea for a couple of months now and I think it will take tremendous pressure off my shoulders. May was the start of the Summer 2018 Comment Challenge signups. If you missed signing up for June, I have good news for you. Tomorrow we will be posting our July signup post. We had such a good turn out for this first month, I’m really looking forward to this challenge this summer. Shout out to my partner for June: Elnade @ Confessions of a Serial Reader, can’t wait to visit your blog all month long!

(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.) 

Favorite Book This Month:

My favorite read this month was Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda. This is my favorite graphic novel and I just love how this world is dominated by women. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Least Favorite Book This Month:

I’m so disappointed with Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez. Can’t decide if I disliked the insta-love or the one-sided friendship between the lead and her cousin more.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Read, Review Coming Soon:

(covers linked to Goodreads)

Notable Blog Posts This Month:

Kernels of Nonsense: Five Books I Want to Check Out From My Library – I am on an unofficial library ban, but am so very much dying to check out these five books.

Summer 2018 Comment Challenge: June Sign-up & June Partners – This seasonal challenge is back. We pair bloggers together each month and challenge them to comment on each other’s blogs all month long.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Monday’s Not Coming – This is one of the few books I’ve preordered this year and can’t wait to get to it.

Can’t Wait Wednesday: From Twinkle, with Love – Loved Sandhya Menon’s first novel and am so excited for this one.

Top Ten Tuesday: The Lion Doesn’t Stand a Chance…Against My Friendship – There are so many great upcoming releases and these are ones I’m most looking forward to.

Reading Challenges:

Aside from the Goodreads challenge, I’m only participating in one reading challenge this year.

1. The 2018 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This month I read one debut novel, Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez.

• Challenge Goal: 12 books; Current Count: 5 books

June Releases I’m Excited For:

How was your May? Are you participating in any summer challenges? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit.

Monthly Wrap-Up: April ’18

I…don’t know what happened in April. I felt that I started out the month strong reading-wise and then I just got super busy and found it really hard to make time to read. I somehow managed to read four books in April which is the least amount of books I’ve read in a month so far this year, but it still feels like it’s an accomplishment because I wasn’t sure I would get through two. I finally took steps to revamp on old feature (new posts for this will go up in May) and started working on the Summer 2018 Comment Challenge which will be open for signups starting tomorrow (so come back to the blog to find out more!) April just went by so fast for me and I don’t have much to say about it other than now that it’s over, I can’t believe it’s already May.

(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.) 

Favorite Book This Month:

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland was amazing. It might be my favorite read of the year so far. My review for this one goes up in a couple of days, so be sure to look for that. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Least Favorite Book This Month:

No book this month received less than three stars from me.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Read, Review Coming Soon:

(covers linked to Goodreads)

Notable Blog Posts This Month:

Kernels of Nonsense: Giving the Feature Both More and Less Direction – I’ve decided to modify this discussion feature on my blog and hopefully this means you will see it more often.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Undead Girl Gang – I actually got a chance to read this one a little early, so look for my review this upcoming week.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Way You Make Me Feel – I am so excited for Maurene Goo’s latest contemporary novel. I need it now!

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Wish Were More Popular – Shout out to all the authors that I think deserve more love in the community.

Reading Challenges:

Aside from the Goodreads challenge, I’m only participating in one reading challenge this year.

1. The 2018 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This month I read one debut book: To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo.

• Challenge Goal: 12 books; Current Count: 4 books

May Releases I’m Excited For:

How was your April? Which May release are you most looking forward to? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit.

Monthly Wrap-Up: March ’18

I feel like a ton of things were going on with my reading and blogging life in March even though I spent a week out of the month away from the blog. I took a two-week hiatus and am officially back with this wrap-up. At the beginning of the month, I did a buddy read of N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season with Annemieke @ A Dance With Books. I did a guest post for Lili @ Utopia State of Mind‘s blogiversary which you can check out here.  All the guest bloggers were fantastic, so I urge you to check them out. I hosted a bookmark giveaway earlier in March as well. I do have a book haul post that will go up this upcoming week (I completely forgot about this before I went on hiatus), so be on the lookout. I have an ARC review (Jenn Bennet’s Starry Eyes) that should have been posted a week ago, but I was on hiatus, so I let myself off the hook. This will go up tomorrow if my plan to edit it does today does not go up in flames. In March, I read six books which included a reread (These Vicious Masks). April plans include preparing for the Comment Challenge this summer and revamping an original feature on the blog. Stay tuned!

(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.) 

Favorite Book This Month:

My favorite read in March was Tomi Adeyem’s Children of Blood and Bone. I know we all had exceedingly high expectations for this debut and I just thought this entire story and its world was nothing short of epic. I did manage to write a review of this one while on hiatus, so hopefully I will edit and post it in the next week or so. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Least Favorite Book This Month:

No book this month received less than three stars from me.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Read, Review Coming Soon:

(covers linked to Goodreads)

Notable Blog Posts This Month:

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Dread Nation – I officially have this one in my possession. *does happy dance* This might be my next read. I’m feeling kind of slumpy and I don’t want that to affect how I read this one, so I’m just waiting for the ehhness to pass.

Top Ten Tuesday: Give Me These 2018 Spring Releases Now – My enthusiasm for these upcoming titles knows no bounds.

Reading Challenges:

Aside from the Goodreads challenge, I’m only participating in one reading challenge this year.

1. The 2018 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This month I read one debut book: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

• Challenge Goal: 12 books; Current Count: 3 books

April Releases I’m Excited For:

How was your March? How are your reading challenges going so far this year? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit.

Monthly Wrap-Up: February ’18

I’ve been in a bit of a weird head space for the last couple of weeks. I DNFed an ARC for the first time and feel like I wasted almost a week trying to get through it before doing so. I’m trying to feel better about reading less, but it’s a really hard switch to flip. I decided to join Can’t-Wait Wednesdays as a way to fill the blog and not feel so much pressure to produce a certain number of reviews a month. Still, I managed to finish five books in February. I’m planning a two-week hiatus at the end of March, going into April, so expect an announcement around March 24th. Also, I will be posting a giveaway tomorrow for a few bookmarks I made, so look for that.

(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.) 

Favorite Book This Month:

My favorite read this month was Sandhya Menon’s When Dimple Met Rishi. I can’t believe it took me this long to pick up this adorable rom-com. I loved both leads and smiled way too much reading it. My review will be posted in March. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Least Favorite Book This Month:

No read this month received less than three stars from me.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Read, Review Coming Soon:

(covers linked to Goodreads)

Notable Blog Posts This Month:

Valentine’s Day: Book Recommendations to Make You Swoon – Loved sharing some of my favorite swoon-worthy contemporary novels for this year’s Valentine’s Day.

Top Ten Tuesday: Popular Romantic Movies I’ve Never Seen – I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to rom-coms and the like. Here are ten romantic movies (now nine), I have yet to see.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – This is my first time participating in this meme, which will be appearing on the blog at least a couple of times a month.

Reading Challenges:

Aside from the Goodreads challenge, I’m only participating in one reading challenge this year.

1. The 2018 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This month I read one debut book: A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano.

• Challenge Goal: 12 books; Current Count: 2 books

March Releases I’m Excited For:

How was your February? Which March release are you most looking forward to? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit.