Tuesday, June 30, 2015

May and June Wrap-Up

Hello there. I'm doing a two month wrap-up today because of the blogging break I took for studying. I hope you're all doing well, I've missed you! But let's get into what I've been up to the past two months.

What I Read


I read 6 books in May and June and I honestly couldn't tell you which ones they were. But thanks to goodreads, I can just look them up. If you're wondering why all the exciting new releases aren't on this list, here's why: I put myself on a reading ban with all the books I was most excited for because I just knew I wouldn't get any studying done if I started, for example, ACOTAR. But let's get into the ones I did read:
  • Because of Low by Abbi Glines, ★★★
  • So I decided to give the Sea Breeze series by Abbi Glines another chance. After very much disliking the first book, Breathe, I didn't have very high expectations for the sequel. But it's Abbi Glines and I just have a weak spot for her books, which is why I picked this one up anyway. While it was definitely better than Breathe, it still didn't blow me away. It has given me hope, though, that the series might just be getting better with every book, so I do want to continue with While It Lasts eventually. 

  • Pucked by Helena Hunting, ★★
  • This book turned out to be exactly how the cover promised it would be: not for me. Why did I read it then? Because it's Helena Hunting and I really liked her Clipped Wings books. Unfortunately, Pucked was quite the disappointment and for me it's proof that judging a book by its cover sometimes really is the best way to go. 

  • P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han, ★★★★★
  • My one exception from the reading ban. I just couldn't resist this one and it was so worth it. Definitely brightened up my studying days. I gave this five stars just because I love Lara Jean and Peter in general and not necessarily because I liked it better than the first book. Both of the books are just cuteness overload and I love them! 

  • The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, ★★★★
  • I also managed to finish the first Lord of the Rings book. It took me long enough but I did really enjoy it. The beginning was a little slow for me but then the story picked up and I really love all the characters. 

  • The Edge of Always by J.A. Redmereski, ★★★
  • I absolutely loved The Edge of Never and therefore my expectations were extremely high for the sequel. I had a feeling before starting this book that maybe it would just be best not to read it at all so that it wouldn't taint my love for the first book if it couldn't live up to my expectations. This kind of turned out to be true. In my opinion, this sequel was kind of unnecessary and I just couldn't like it nearly as much as the first book. 

  • Beautiful Sacrifice by Jamie McGuire, ★★★★★
  • I will continue to read anything about the Maddox brothers that Jamie McGuire releases. The stories are often kind of similar and I have my problems with each of them but I can't help loving them all anyway. Taylor and Falyn's story started off perfectly and I could even imagine liking it better than Beautiful Disaster. But then the second half was just mehh and some things developed in ways that I didn't like at all. So the five stars are for how Taylor and Falyn fell in love and I'm ignoring everything else that happened. 

  • A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, ★★★★★
  • I had very very high expectations for this book and am happy to say that ACOTAR lived up to them. It wasn't quite what I expected but I enjoyed it a lot. I'm also really looking forward to the next book because I have a feeling things are going to get complicated. 

  • Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo
  • To be honest, I haven't actually finished this book at this point but I'm including it because I'm leaving for Mykonos today and expect to finish it during the three hour flight. So far, I'm not a huge fan but I've only read the first story and hope it will get better. Laini Taylor's writing is beautiful as always but I hope I will be able to connect more to the other two stories.

What I Bought


Sooo I bought 11 books these past two months.. I guess I wanted to make up for the fact that I didn't have time to read by buying as many books as possible. Which doesn't make sense. Anyway, I just needed some summery reads and of course I intend to read all of these as soon as possible because I'm super excited for all of them. Time to get my TBR back down!
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
  • I don't really have to explain this one, right? 

  • 21 Proms by 21 different authors
  • To be honest, I bought this one simply because of John Green. It's been a while since I read one of his books and I just saw this one at the bookstore one day and thought I would get it. I also expected to really like to read stories about prom. I've already read the first few (very very short) short stories and to be honest, I hated each and every one of them. They were just not for me at all and I'm not sure how I'm going to continue with the book in general. 

  • The Heir by Kiera Cass
  • Another one I had preordered and I'm excited to read this one but it's not my top priority. But the cover, THE COVER! I could stare at that gorgeous dress all day and can I please get married in one just like that? Thank you. 

  • P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
  • I just love preordered books. They just show up in my mailbox one day and it's the best feeling ever. And when it's PSISLY, it feels even better. 

  • I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
  • I've heard nothing but fantastic things about this book and I couldn't resist any longer. It sounds amazing and I can't wait to see what all the hype is about. 

  • Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
  • This one just screams summer and it sounds exactly like something I would want to read at the beach, so I had to get it. 

  • What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick
  • Another summery read that I couldn't resist. I really liked The Boy Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick and I'm sure this one will be pretty great as well. 

  • The Wrath & The Dawn by RenĂ©e Ahdieh
  • I've been intrigued by this book ever since I first heard about it, so I'm really excited to finally read it. 

  • Beautiful Sacrifice by Jamie McGuire
  • As you know, I've already read this one and loved it. 

  • Broken Hearts, Fences and other Things to Mend by Katie Finn
  • Last summer I read two of Morgan Matson's books and loved them, so when I found out that Katie Finn was in fact also Morgan Matson, I thought this would be the perfect summer read. 

  • Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
  • Again, Morgan Matson = perfect summer read in my opinion.

July TBR

My July TBR would be ALL THE BOOKS. I finally have time to read again and I intend to do just that all month, so no book is safe. After ACOTAR, I feel like I'm in a fantasy mood but I also intend to read all the summery books that I just hauled. We will see.

On the Blog

Here's where it gets embarrassing. In the past two months, I managed to upload all of two posts. Here they are:

Other exciting things happening in July

As I said, I'm leaving for Mykonos (Greece) today and I'm so excited for a lazy week on the beach, reading all the books. Then I'm going to Vienna for a few days and I'm also spending some time at my grandparent's to go hiking and all that fun stuff in the Swiss mountains. Overall, it's going to be a busy but FUN month and I can't wait.

So that's it for my May and June wrap-up. I hope you are all doing great and that it's nice and sunny wherever you are.



Saturday, June 27, 2015

I'm still alive!

Sooo, hello there. It's been a while and I'm SORRY. But it had to be this way. I finally, finally made it to the end of the my first year at University and I'm happy to announce that I've survived all of my exams. I can't say how they went at all and I'll only know for sure that it wasn't a complete disaster in September. That leaves me two entire months to worry about it and of course to read lots and lots of books! 

I just wanted to write this quick post to let you know that I am not dead after all and that I intend to continue (or more like restart) writing this blog. I will be gone on vacation quite a bit in July but I think I'll still manage to post regularly.

My first order of business is to upload my May and June Wrap Up soon. I didn't read very much but I did buy some books that I want to show you. There are some that I'm dying to read but I've put a reading ban on the ones I was most excited for so that I wouldn't be too distracted while studying. Which means I'm going to be catching up on all of those now. ACOTAR here I come!

So yes, that's it. I'm happy to be back!