June and July Recap

Bear with me, because this is going to be a long post. At the end of the last month I was still on holiday, so instead of posting my June recap late I decided to combine June and July into one post.

When you add the two months together I was very very busy. I got a lot of reading done but not as much blogging as I’d hoped, and I was travelling much more than I’d planned to be but my writing seemed to fall into a black hole as a result.

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Books I Read

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman – Four stars

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young – Four stars

Gilded Cage by Vic James – Four stars
Check out my review here.

Tarnished City by Vic James – Five stars
Check out my review here.

Bright Ruin by Vic James – Five stars
Check out my review here.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman – Four stars

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman – Five stars

Save the Date by Morgan Matson – Five stars

Always Never Yours by  Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka – Four stars
Check out my review here.

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren – Five stars
Check out my review here.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber – Five stars
Check out my review here.

Legendary by Stephanie Garber – Five stars
Check out my review here.

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde – Four stars
Check out my review here.

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo – Three stars

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson – Five stars

I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo – Two stars

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows – Four stars
Check out my review here.

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows – Three stars

LifeL1K3 by Jay Kristoff – Five stars

Bright We Burn by Kiersten White – Five stars

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh – Four stars

Lucky in Love by Kasie West – Two stars

Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West – Four stars

Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West – Four stars

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I’m finally ahead on my Goodreads Reading Challenge, but when you take into account how many books I read in June (sixteen of the twenty-four listed above) that’s not a surprise. When it comes to reading I am a machine when I’m lazing around on beach holidays.

The best book I picked up in June was Bright Ruin, and in July Bright We Burn. Both of these were endings to favourite series of mine, and both exceeded my expectations. There was a lot to wrap up in both of these books, but Vic James and Kiersten White both wrote brilliant stories that kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page.

The worst book I picked up in June was I Believe in a Thing Called Love, and in July Lucky in Love. I go into more detail in my reviews for each (which I hope to post soon) but my issues with both of these books were with the main character, and because I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Lucky in Love were told in first person POV it was hard to look past that to enjoy the rest of the story.

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My WIP

I mentioned at the beginning of this recap that my writing fell into a black hole these past two months and wow did it ever. In May I set myself a goal to write 25K words a month, thinking after taking part in last years’ NaNo that would be easy, but it turned out to be anything but. I even tried taking part in Camp NaNo in July but at the end of the month I didn’t get any writing done.

One of my problems is I impulsively edit as I go along; I can never just sit down, write a draft, and stick with one idea from beginning to end. While taking part in Camp NaNo I came up with a new idea for where I wanted my WIP to go which meant I had to dump everything I’d written before (about 5K words) to make it work.

So I’ve come with a new plan, one I am 100% determined to stick to. For the next three months I’m going to carefully plan my current WIP so when it comes to NaNoWriMo this November I can start writing it and hopefully not be lured by the siren call of the new ideas that pop into my head.

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Life in General

It was my birthday in June so there was a lot of celebrating and a lot of yummy food. One evening I went out for Japanese with my family, and another day went to the House of MinaLima – which is four floors full of Harry Potter art from the movies – with one of my friends.

Later we went and got Bubblewraps; I had strawberry shortcake ice cream with Oreos and white chocolate sauce, and my friend had matcha ice cream with hazelnuts. Both were very yummy.

The rest of both June and July were taken up by my holidays. For ten days at the end of June/beginning of July I was in Dubai and Mauritius with my sister; we spent five nights in Dubai before flying down to Mauritius. It was the holiday of a lifetime, and both countries were incredible in very different ways.

I also went on a very unexpected holiday to Croatia. My sister had booked this but when her original plans fell through she asked if I wanted to go with her instead. Croatia has always been somewhere I’ve wanted to visit, mainly because it looks like a beyond beautiful country, so I jumped at the chance.

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I did a lot of book shopping in June/July, but I will be cutting back in August and a fair few of the books below were birthday presents so I don’t feel so bad about how much money I spent.

Books

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 20th Anniversary Edition by J.K. Rowling
• My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows
• The Mermaid by Christina Henry
• Gilded Cage by Vic James
• Tarnished City by Vic James
• Bright Ruin by Vic James
• Spark by Alice Broadway
• Bright We Burn by Kiersten White
• LifeL1K3 by Jay Kristoff

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Fairy Loot

• Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart
• Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton

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I have absolutely zero plans for August at the moment, both in terms of what I’ll be reading and what I’ll be doing. I can’t even say there are any new book releases I’m super excited for, although my copy of The Girl in the Tower will be arriving at the beginning of August so I’ll likely try and read that before the month is over.

Other than that maybe I’ll get some more re-reading done, or pick up some books that have been on my TBR list for ages that I still haven’t gotten around to. Who knows? I’ll very much be taking August as it comes.

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I hope everyone else had a good June and July, and I hope you all have an even better August as well.

How have the past two months been for everyone? Did you have any epic trips you went on, or are your summer holidays still to come? Are there any books being released in August that you’re excited for, or will you been going back to old favourites like I likely will? Let me know.

Happy reading!