Hello, Friends!! In the month of August I participated in the Magical Readathon hosted by G from the YouTube channel Book Roast. This is a two-part read-a-thon that begins with the O.W.L.S. in April and finishes with the N.E.W.T.S. in August each year. The read-a-thon is themed after the wizarding tests taken in the Harry Potter books and they are so much fun! If you love to read, whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not, I enthusiastically recommend joining us in April of 2020 for the next round. It’s an amazing community and adds a bit of a challenge to your reading which just spices things up a bit! Ok, enough about that; let’s get to the books!
I actually found that I read a bit less than my average in August which is totally fine but surprising. Although, I did read a couple lengthier books! My Stats for August:
- Reading Goal: 129/150 (28 books ahead of schedule)
- Books Read: 14
- Pages Read: 5,249
- Longest Book: Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4) By Sarah J Maas 645 pgs
- Shortest Book: Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter 296 pgs
- Genres Read: 8 YA/Adult Fantasy, 5 YA/Adult Contemporary, 1 Horror (of these 14 books 12 are physical books, 1 is Audiobook, and 1 is a Graphic Novel. 8 are Young Adult, 6 are Adult.)
And finally… here are the books from lowest rated to highest! 🖤
The Bookshop of Yesterdays completed the challenge: Herbology- Read a book between 350 and 390 pages.
This is the book that doomed my reading this month. I was so bored with it that it took up an entire week of my life and prevented me from reading anything else. I know I should have DNFed it but the mystery involved had me intrigued enough that I wanted answers. Once I got them I was pretty underwhelmed and regretted my decision to continue reading long past the ‘I’d rather go to the dentist than continue this book’ stage. No one is to blame but myself for this one! The writing isn’t bad but the main character is extremely annoying, the relationship between the MC and her boyfriend is completely unnecessary to the story and not even a good representation of what a relationship should be like. The MC is also spoiled rotten and terrible to her mother which was never addressed. Instead it was meant to be accepted because of the sad things that happened to her. BOO-HOO. No. You’re a crap person, Miranda. Please don’t show up in any more books.
Ironside completed the Challenge: History of Magic-Read a fantasy.
I read this book as part of the Faerie-A-Thon as well as the N.E.W.T.S. Faerie-A-Thon is hosted by the sweet and truly lovely Melanie from the YouTube channel Meltotheany. She can also be found at her blog of the same name. If you do anything at all today, visit Melanie. You will instantly love her! This read-a-thon is also hosted by the wonderful Alexa from the YouTube channel Alexa Loves Books, Kristin from the channel Super Space Chick, who is so sweet and gives me serious bookshelf envy, and Jane from the fantastic YouTube channel It’sJaneLindsey. If you’re ever looking for some BookTubers to follow these gals are a great place to start. As for the book; it was mediocre. Not bad but about what you’d expect from a YA Fantasy book published in 2007. It was entertaining, a super easy read, and a great introduction into Holly’s world of faerie which is the same world the The Cruel Prince (The Folk of Air, #1) is set along with the rest of the series and her other previous books!
Say You Still Love Me completed the challenge: Muggle Studies- Cover that includes an actual photo element.
I received this as an ARC for review from Netgalley and Atria books. To see my full review of this book visit this post. I was really hoping to love this book since I had heard such rave reviews for Tucker’s previous novel, The Simple Wild, which I have on my shelf and haven’t read yet. I found this book to be pretty average. It definitely wasn’t a bad book but it didn’t do anything special or manage to stand out in my mind in any meaningful way. If you like second chance romances with a female MC in a position of power I’d recommend this. I think there are a lot of people who will love this book; it just wasn’t for me.
Britt-Marie Was Here completed the challenge: Herbology- Read a book with green on the cover.
Fredrik Backman has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I’ll read anything he writes. He’s just so gifted with words and really specializes in human emotion. He just GETS people. All of Backman ‘s books tell poignant stories about self-discovery, self-reflection, and relationships. That being said this was my least favorite book I’ve read by Backman so far. Even so, this book is still really well done and funny. Britt-Marie is a character we first meet in My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry. In that book I pitied Britt-Marie but I didn’t like her. I found her to be meddling and annoying. This companion novel promised to tell her story and change the way you see her once you know who she really is at heart. It succeeded. I ended up caring about Britt-Marie and hoping for everything good in the world to happen for her. I’d recommend this book and anything else written by this author… even his grocery list.
Vassa in the Night completed the challenge: Astronomy- Read a book with the word night in the title or series name.
Vassa in the Night is an extremely strange retelling of the Russian folktale Vassilissa the Beautiful. This book made no sense at all and all the sense in the world. It’s twisty, weird, maniacal, and entertaining as hell. Even though this is possibly the strangest book I’ve ever read I still marveled at the authors imagination and ability to draw you in and keep you reading. The writing was spectacular. If you were to pull elements of this book apart and look at them separately you’d probably find that you weren’t interested in this book. Amputated hands that do their master’s evil bidding, a convenience store that dances on chicken legs, a talking wooden doll. All of these things seem so childish on their own but brought together they work seamlessly to create an extremely dark and creepy tale. This isn’t a book that can be explained, you just need to read it for yourself.
The Wicked Deep completed the challenge: Astronomy- Read a book with a moon on the cover or anywhere in the title.
This was the August pick for my reading group on Goodreads, The Reading Frenzy. There are 4 of us MODs and we create new read-a-thons and challenges each month to keep reading fun. Anyone can join, it’s a group for lover’s of all books and all genres. September’s Pick is A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab and we have something special and exciting planned for October 👻☠️🎃👀. As for the Wicked Deep, I went into this with very low expectations based on some of the reviews I had seen. Due to that I was pleasantly surprised. I quite enjoyed this witch-y book set on a spooky island, completely separated from the town. Ernshaw knows how to build up the atmosphere, that’s for sure. I love being surprised by a book and even though some of the plot twists were predictable there were some that I never saw coming. If you haven’t read this yet and want to I’d recommend holding off until we really get into Fall. It’s the absolute perfect book for the Halloween season.
The Right Swipe completed the challenge: Muggle Studies- Read a book set in our world.
I read this book with the Goodreads Dragon’s and Tea Book Club hosted by Melanie (meltotheany) and Amy (acourtofcrownsandquills). This reading group focuses on marginalized and own-voices authors. I’ve been reading with them for several months and have had a successful reading experience so far. This month they are reading Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson. Y’all should definitely check it out! For the first time since joining this book club I was wavering on whether to join in on The Right Swipe; mainly because I had such a lengthy TBR already and it just wasn’t a book that was on my radar. After seeing so many people getting excited closer to its release I decided to go for it. I’m really glad I did. This book was great. It features an intersectional MC, which is always refreshing to see represented. The book doesn’t explicitly say that the MC has any mental health issue but it’s clear that she does have something going on. It read to me like anxiety and I personally thought it was well represented and realistic. This book also features a woman of color in a position of power and she’s tough as nails. I felt she was too tough at times but was able to understand her better by the conclusion of the story. If you like diversity, second chance romance, feminism, or football players 😉 than I wholeheartedly recommend this book!
Origin is the only title I read outside of the Magical Readathon this month. I listened to this on audio.
What is there to say about this book? It’s an oldie but goodie that I just recently discovered! I’ve been slowly listening to this series from book one. It’s become my guilty pleasure when driving to and from work or running errands. Although, guilty pleasure is just a figure of speech; I’m not feeling guilty at all. 😉
Wilder Girls completed the challenge: Herbology- Read a book with a flower on the cover.
Ever since the day this cover was revealed I wanted to read this book. I didn’t even need to know anything about it. I’m exciting to do a post at the end of 2019 featuring my favorite covers of the year. This one will be at the top of the list, guaranteed. I read this book with my Goodreads book club, The Reading Frenzy, for the Bookish Treasure Hunt Read-a-thon that I created. This was another creepy island story but instead of witches and ghosts like you find in The Wicked Deep, this story features an all girls school quarantined to their island while a sickness called The Tox spreads from the plants to the wildlife to the girls and women who live there. Grotesque things are happening to their bodies and rarely are any two girls sharing the same symptoms. When one of the girls in a particular friend group disappears after a flare up it becomes clear more is going on than meets the eye and the story really takes off from there. This book was fantastically gory and creepy and twisted. I loved it. The only real criticism I have is a pretty big one and one that prevented me from giving this five stars and that is the ending. The ending was bad. Period. This is a stand-alone story and yet the book just abruptly ends with a lot of things still unanswered. This isn’t a spoiler as many things are cleared up and the way in which it ends is still a mystery if you haven’t read it but if you go to Goodreads and read any random review you will see the majority of people complaining about the same thing. The terrible ending. Maybe some people could see past it and maybe it’s supposed to have some metaphorical meaning, but I didn’t see it. I was just annoyed. I’d still recommend this though if you like body horror. it’s a damn good book.
The Grand Dark completed the challenge: Arithmancy- Read a book that ends on an even page number.
I reviewed an ARC of this book that was provided by Netgalley and Harper Voyager. To see my full review visit this post. This was the month of strange and unconventional books. This is another title that was so unlike anything else I’ve ever read. It felt like a mixture of steampunk, gothic architecture, 1920’s Noir, and a bit of a lovecraftian feel to polish it off. The world was brutal and dark. The characters range from savages, disabled, desperate, poor, rich, sick, healthy, powerful, and weak. The is a twisted story set in a twisted world and I definitely recommend it!
Legendary completed the challenge: Defense Against the Dark Arts- Read a book that’s black under the dust jacket.
Reading Legendary was so exciting since I had been waiting for what seemed like forever to get to it. I wasn’t disappointed. While this book was much darker than the more whimsical setting of Caraval, the main character’s had much better chemistry and the angst was palpable between them. I am so glad I have Finale already on my shelves after that kicker of an ending!
Heartstopper Vol. 2 completed the challenge: Transfiguration- Read a book with LGBTQ+ representation.
This graphic novel is everything. These characters were first featured in the full length novel, Solitaire, as side characters; this is the second volume of their back story. The MC’s are literally precious and I just want to hug them. Alice Oseman has a very distinct art style that I’m living for. The color scheme is beautiful as is the story she tells. If you’re looking for a queer graphic novel than look no further. This is a gem of a book!
An Easy Death completed the challenge: Defense Against the Dark Arts- Read the first book you remember from your TBR.
Charlaine Harris is an auto-buy author for me. She writes two of my favorite series, the Sookie Stackhouse series which is the inspiration for the HBO show True Blood, and the Midnight, Texas series, which was adapted into a T.V. show on NBC. I would never have picked up a book classified as a western under normal circumstances but all I needed to know before purchasing this book was that Charlaine wrote it. I was not disappointed. This book is so unique; I’ve never read anything even remotely like it. At first I was weirded out by the writing style because it was unusual and nothing like the author’s other books. But I quickly realized that she wrote the whole book in the way the MC thinks. It’s genius, honestly. The next book in this series, A Longer Fall, releases January 2020. I’ve requested an ARC so hopefully I’ll have a review up soon. Fingers crossed!
Queen of shadows completed the challenge: History of magic- Read a book that includes a map.
I’ve been slowly making my way through my reread of this series along with the girls hosting the #TOGreadalong, Kassie from MissSassyKassie & Brittni from Brittni’s Book Finds. Queen of Shadows was just as amazing the second time around. Shit. Goes. Down. in these books and I’m living for it! I’d lay down and die for my boy Rowan. I don’t think there’s much to say about this series. People either love it or hate it. How you could hate it is beyond me but hey to each their own! Next up is Empire of Storms and then there is only one book between me and Kingdom of Ash! I cannot wait to finally read the last book in this series… I’m sure it’s gonna kill me but sacrifices must be made.
That’s it for last month’s reading wrap-up. Also, I am now a Book of the Month YA affiliate! Click on the links on my page to sign up. I receive a small commission when you do, thank you kindly! I’ll see you soon for more bookish content!
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