August 2018: Monthly Wrap-Up

September is almost upon us! 🍂🍃 I’m so excited to bring out my cardigans, comfy sweaters, and beanies – this girl does not thrive in the heat.

Waiting for both fall weather and my Peter Kavinsky like…

This past month was particularly difficult for me: the loss of a long-term relationship, having to move out of my wonderfully air-conditioned apartment and leaving my startup job without having found another career to replace it meant that I was plagued by a lot of self-doubt and stress. Thankfully I had books, baked goods, repeated viewings of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and good friends to help me through it. Here’s hoping September is a bit more gentle to me!

Reviews

As a result of all of the stress that I was under this month, I only managed to read 2 books. In doing so I hit my Goodreads goal of reading 52 books this year – which is already 10+ more than I read in 2017! Some of my favourites include:

• When the Moon Was Ours | 5 stars | If I were to describe this book in one word, it would be “beautiful”. The prose was gorgeous, the characters stole my heart, and it held such diversity.
• Women in Science | 5 stars | Beautifully illustrated, informative, and important. Increasing the presence of women in STEM is incredibly close to my heart, and I hope that every aspiring scientist gives this a read.

• The Hating Game | 4.5 stars | Snarky banter and hate-to-love romances are my catnip and The Hating Game executed both perfectly
• Uprooted | 4.5 stars | This went in a completely different direction than I had anticipated; I loved the magic system and the uniquely creepy villain

• Toil & Trouble | 4 stars | Easily one of the better anthologies that I’ve read; it’s wonderfully diverse, filled with all sorts of magic, and has so many beautiful and feminist messages
• The Heart Forger | 4 stars | This thankfully had more substance than The Bone Witch, restoring my faith in the series
• The Bear and the Nightingale | 4 stars | Lyrical writing coupled with a gorgeous wintery setting created an absolutely atmospheric read

Other Reviews

• The Traitor’s Game | 2 stars | There wasn’t much to distinguish this from other YA fantasy novels, making it a fairly bland read
• The Smoke Thieves | 2 stars | Incredibly ambitious but with far too many POVs and a really slow pace; this felt more like an extended introduction rather than a finished first book
• Of Fire and Stars | 2 stars | I wanted to love this for the f/f romance, but the underwhelming characters and poorly fleshed out world-building left me disappointed
• Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit | 2 stars | I was intrigued by the intersection of faith and queerness but just couldn’t get on board with the premise

Book Purchases/From Publishers

I managed to win a signed copy of The Iron Trial from a Twitter giveaway (thanks, Scholastic Canada!). I also somehow managed to avoid purchasing any books this month, though I was quite tempted by the V.E. Schwab collection that my local independent bookstore held (including a signed copy of ADSOM, which was nearly impossible to leave in the store).

While most of my reads were library loans, I was approved for the following ARCs via NetGalley:

• Toil & Trouble
• Nightingale

Other Posts

• I wrote about some of the things I must have when reading at home (ft. a lot of throw pillows)
• I turned my giant TBR pile into a gorgeous star jar to make choosing my next read a bit easier

Favourites from Around the Blogosphere

• Kristen compiled a list of interesting items people have asked for at her library (and as a former student library page, half of them don’t surprise me)
• Rachel made an incredibly thorough spreadsheet of 2019 YA releases to exponentially increase the size of your TBR

Winding Down…

What were some of your favourite books/moments/posts from August? And what do you have planned for September? Let me know in the comments below.