June 30, 2018

June Wrap-Up & July TBR

Another good month of reading for me! I read 13 books! I read 7 of the 12 I had on my June TBR. So I feel good that I read at least half of my June TBR. I've also finally got ahead on my Goodreads goal! :D

What I Read In June (Reviews Linked):

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR #1) by Sarah J. Maas (4.5/5 Stars)
• A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR #2) by Sarah J. Maas (5/5 Stars)
• A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOTAR #3) by Sarah J. Maas (5/5 Stars)
• A Court of Frost and Starlight (ACOTAR #3.1) by Sarah J. Maas (5/5 Stars)

So I finally read the ACOTAR series. I had it sitting on my shelf for a while and finally decided to pick it up. And now I'm obsessed! Seriously. One of my new favorite series! I also know ACOFAS was pretty hit or miss with a lot of people. Mostly because it lacks a plot. But I loved it! With all the action that goes on in the first three books, I actually enjoyed the fact ACOFAS had no plot or much action. It was nice to just spend time with the characters and see Feysands storyline get wrapped up. I loved it! I'm not sure how I feel about Nesta being the main character in the next half of the series yet, but I trust Sarah J. Maas has something good plotted out for us. 

• The Young Elites (The Young Elites #1) by Marie Lu (4/5 Stars)
• The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2) by Marie Lu (4.5/5 Stars)
• The Midnight Star (The Young Elites #3) by Marie Lu (3.5/5 Stars)
• Warcross (Warcross #1) by Marie Lu (3.5/5 Stars)

I also did some Marie Lu reading this month. I completed my Read-Along of The Young Elites series. It definitely wasn't bad. The middle book was the best in my opinion. Also read Warcross. I wanted to like this more than I did. I felt like it was slow for the first half of the book and that it was also pretty predictable. The idea behind it though is fantastic and I'll definitely pick up Wildcard when it comes out to see what happens.

• A Torch Against The Night (An Ember In The Ashes #2) by Sabaa Tahir (5/5 Stars)
• A Reaper At The Gates (An Ember In The Ashes #3) by Sabaa Tahir (5/5 Stars)
• Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (5/5 Stars)
• Mayfly by Jeff Sweat (3.5/5 Stars)
• King's Cage (Red Queen #3) by Victoria Aveyard (3.5/5 Stars)

Also read Torch and Reaper. Both AMAZING! But guys. My heart hasn't recovered yet from Reaper. It's still a bit broken over the events. Also finally picked up Illuminae and LOVED it! It was so unique and fun. I'm disappointed I waited so long to pick it up! If you wanna read a fantastic sci-fi novel, go grab Illuminae ASAP! Mayfly was from NetGalley. Dystopian world where you die at 17 so kids are running things pretty much. It was good. It's just certain things were repeated so much in the story it brought it down a bit. And the ending felt rushed. But it wasn't bad. And King's Cage. You know, this was going to be a 4 Star until the ending because Mare. You'd have to go read my review to get the full rant of Mare from King's Cage. 

So guess what! 7 of the 13 books were backlisted books that had been siting on my shelves for a while! Woot!!!!!

Happenings This Month On The Blog (And Real Life):

• I posted about my July Read-Along of the Unknown Trilogy by Wendy Higgins! This is one of my favorite trilogies! If you wanna read it come join me!
• I announced that I scheduled an appointment to get my first tattoo!! It will be book related! Just gotta wait til August 21st now. 
• I posted an Update on all my challenges! 

Posts I Enjoyed Around The Blogosphere This Month:

• Laura @ Boats Against The Current gives 15 Bookstagram Prop Ideas (+ Bonus Background Ideas!) - I loved this post since I've been getting really into Bookstagram over the past 2 months. Lots of great ideas!
• AJ @ Read All The Things! shares Oddities Discovered In Her Email Account - Go give this a read. You'll definitely get a good chuckle out of it! I know I did! 

• War Storm (Red Queen #4) by Victoria Aveyard - Finish
• The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5) by Sarah J. Maas
• Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas
• The House of One Thousand Eyes by Michelle Barker

So I just need to finish War Storm first of all. It's my current read (as I'm writing this) and it's huge and I feel like it's dragging on because I'm not feeling Mare at the moment. You'll notice The Assassin's Blade got moved. The original read-along I was going to do for the ToG series got cancelled, but then another one is starting from World of Sarah J. Maas. So I moved it to align with that one instead.

• Strange The Dreamer (Strange The Dreamer #1) by Laini Taylor
• Renegades (Renegades #1) by Marissa Meyer
• Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
• Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

So I wanna get Strange The Dreamer and Renegades read since their sequels come out later this year! I wanna be read for them. And Of course since I read Illuminae in June and LOVED it, I wanna get Gemina and Obsidio read in July. :D

• Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu
• Pacifica by Kristen Simmons
• Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orisha #1) by Tomi Adeyemi
• Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

So with having read The Young Elites series and Warcross this past month. It now leaves Champion as the only Marie Lu book that I own that I have yet to finish. So I wanna get that read too! I moved Isla simply because I didn't get to it in June but still want to this summer. And I wasn't actually planning on reading Children of Blood and Bone yet until I found a Read-Along for it. So I added it because of that. :D

• Unknown (Unknown #1) by Wendy Higgins
• Unrest (Unknown #2) by Wendy Higgins
• Undone (Unknown #3) by Wendy Higgins

Last but not least, I have the 3 books from my own Read-Along. Since I've already read and reviewed these last year, this is gonna be a low stress reread and chat about them for me this month! Plus they are super easy reads! And I'll knock 2 more states out for the Literary Escapes challenge (Nevada & Utah).