I have legitimately gone through two massive boxes of tissues in the past two and a half weeks that my nose honestly hates me. Hello, I've survived my junior year of college and I am in denial that summer is here.
As one can tell, this blog has been struggling and I managed to finally figure out my life in March when April came and drowned me...twice. It's been a tough past two months and my current summer schedule isn't looking too hot either, but I am so bookishly deprived that I need to get my life back together so let's recap some things from the last two months.
the shadowglass by rin chupeco - (★★★★★) - review will come eventually - Another one of my favorites has sadly concluded and I can't believe it's only been two months since I finished. Although this wasn't as satisfying as I was secretly hoping for, I think the ending did the story enough justice. I will sorely miss this world and the characters and am definitely figuring out when I can re-binge the series. Someone please get me an avi because it sounds way cooler than Daenerys' dragons (no offense).
stain by a.g. howard - (★★★☆) - review might come - I picked this up from my library's OverDrive on a whim and flipped through it in-between classes. The writing style is very fairytale-esque, this being the first AG Howard book I've read, but at times dragged as a result. However, there's something whimsical about the story and its strange (and loose) retelling of Sleeping Beauty. After a month I still haven't quite wrapped my mind around how I feel about this.
romanov by nadine brandes - (★★★☆) - review to come - I love anything to do with Russian folklore and history so it's no surprise that this would catch my eye. I wanted a new spin to a story/mystery I loved and this one did a pretty decent job. Eventually, I will get a review up, but for now let's just say that the story offered a version that took (a little) more historical accuracy than the movie we love and added a brand new (a little undeveloped) magic system.
storm's herald by jw golan - (★★★) - review to come - The author was kind enough to send me a physical copy for review and I was definitely intrigued by the storyline. I really enjoyed the general story and it was a good set up to the rest of the series. There's adventure, magical creatures, and an oncoming battle with lots of political tension - all in all, it's got the makings of a good series.
the boneless mercies by april genevieve tucholke - (★★★) - review to come - This was a random one, I was scrolling through my library's OverDrive and came across The Boneless Mercies. I haven't read anything by AGT since Wink Poppy Midnight and her books have always intrigued me but left me feeling unsatisfied. This was different, I think. I really enjoyed the premise and the delivery was definitely the most clear out of all her books. Will definitely be sharing more thoughts soon.
shadow frost by coco ma - (★★★) - review to come - Shadow Frost actually comes out in October but I was able to get my hands on an e-ARC off NetGalley. This is the only book I read this month that could have applied to the #asianreadathon which I was really hoping to participate in. I have some mixed feelings but I will get to that in a review (I promise to write one) but it was relatively interesting with good world building and relatable characters.
☀️ another summer course ☀️
I'm taking Christian Theology this summer, as required by my college, and it's the first summer course that is actually feeling like a legit class. My eyeballs are about to fall out of my head from the amount of readings I have to do and my brain hurts so much because theology is just not my strong suit. Wish me luck I'm halfway done!
☀️ over-committing with jobs ☀️
Is this surprising...I have a tendency to always overcommit and I've done it again. While I am only home for one month this summer before I have to head back to campus for work, I'm currently working three different jobs on top of my summer class. Is anyone surprised that I'm kind of exhausted?
☀️ what to do with reading ☀️
This is also no surprise but I have had a really hard time with reading this past semester. Since I haven't been reading as much, I haven't had as much to really make content with and so both my blog and (now) dying channel have suffered. I feel like this always gets brought up, but I don't know what I want to do with my social media presence. I love the reading community but I can feel myself slowly detaching from it. Even though I still keep one foot in, I have greatly decreased my involvement and that's left me feeling very strange. I am severely behind my Goodreads goal and definitely want to catch up so here's to hoping that summer will be kinder to me than the past five months.
