May/June Reading Wrap-Up

Well, today concludes my reading month for June! I’ve decided to combine May and June into one wrap-up because May was my worst reading month so far this year! I only managed to read one book. Eek! But I well and truly made up for it in June! I read seven books this month and I am now one book away from completing my Goodreads reading goal! To see what I read over the last couple of months, check out my wrap-up and mini reviews below!

My Rating System

5 Stars: This. Book. Blew. My. Mind. I’d read it again and again and would highly recommend it.
4 Stars: The book was great! I enjoyed it and I may read it again.
3 Stars: I could take or leave this book. It had some interesting moments, but nothing too captivating.
2 Stars: Not a very good book, I’ll more than likely forget about its existence once it’s lost in the expanse of my book shelves.
1 Star: A book I wish I didn’t waste my time on. I did not enjoy it at all and would definitely not recommend it.

Find it on Book Depository

Title: Winterhued (★★★.5)
Author: E. H. Alger
Genre: Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: This is a really quirky fantasy novel. Winterhued is extremely character driven, which I loved. It can be a little bit tough to get into due to the “old timey” language used but once I got used to this, I really grew to enjoy it!

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Title: I Am Change (★★★★★)
Author: Suzy Zail
Genre: YA Lit

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: This was beautiful. Just go read it please, it had me in tears. Such a beauitful insight into the lives of young Ugandan girls and women.

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Title: Aurora Rising (★★★★.5)
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genre: YA Sci-Fi

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: This was epic! I loved this! The only issue I found was that I couldn’t quite connect with some of the characters, which made harder hitting parts of the book have less of an impact on me. I believe I am in the minority with this though, as most people I have seen reading it have said the opposite! It had incredible world building and a fantastic fast paced plot!

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Title: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (★★★★)
Author: Jenny Han
Genre: YA Contemporary

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: A super fun, light hearted contemporary read. I enjoyed it! It was a fun reading experience and I will definitely be reading the following books. However, I honestly preferred the movie over the book this time! I know! Crazy! I highly recommend both reading and watching it though!

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Title: An Enchantment Of Ravens (★★.2)
Author: Margaret Rogerson
Genre: YA Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: This disappointed me a little bit. Which is kind of upsetting because when a book has a cover this gorgeous, you want it to be amazing! If you don’t have any other books about fae to compare it to, you may like this a lot. I however found the pacing off and felt like there was room for a lot of improvement.

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Title: The Order Of The Rose (★★★.2)
Author: Alysha King
Genre: YA Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: I am definitely not the intended audience for this book. It reads more as a Middle Grade read, but despite this, it was still a lot of fun. It has a similar dynamic to the Harry Potter series when it comes to the three main protagonists and had an interesting mix of fantasy elements!

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Title: Pan’s Labyrinth (★★★★★)
Author: Guillermo Del Toro & Cornelia Funke
Genre: Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: Having never watching the Pan Labyrinth movie, reading it was mind blowing! It actually almost reads like a film. It was incredibly vivid and encompassing, and had me feeling incredibly ill at ease. Definitely an incredible dark fairytale!

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Title: Fangirl (★★★★★)
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: YA Contemporary

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: A fantastic, witty and relatable contemporary about a quirky college freshman who writes fanfiction. The character interactions made this book for me! I loved it. It also tackles some pretty intense topics with grace. I highly recommend reading it!

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April Reading Wrap-Up

April was definitely my worst reading month so far this year! I only managed to get through three books! It wasn’t for lack of trying though, I just never seemed to have much time on my hands. I have a few review books to get through over the next month so here’s hoping I get more time to read in May!

The books I did read this month were all really great, so I had a fantastic reading month when it came to the amount of enjoyment I got from these stories! If you’re interested to see what I read, check out the list below!

My Rating System

5 Stars: This. Book. Blew. My. Mind. I’d read it again and again and would highly recommend it.
4 Stars: The book was great! I enjoyed it and I may read it again.
3 Stars: I could take or leave this book. It had some interesting moments, but nothing too captivating.
2 Stars: Not a very good book, I’ll more than likely forget about its existence once it’s lost in the expanse of my book shelves.
1 Star: A book I wish I didn’t waste my time on. I did not enjoy it at all and would definitely not recommend it.

Find it on Book Depository

Title: The Quiet At The End Of The World (★★★★.5)
Author: Lauren James
Genre: YA Dystopian/Science Fiction

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: This book started out a little slow for me, but as the story progressed I realised that it was actually a really fantastic beginning to the story. It has some amazing LGBTQ+ representation and one of the main protagonists is Asian, which I loved! I had absolutely no idea where this story was going until we got there and it was absolutely incredible! Highly recommend reading it.

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Title: A Curse So Dark And Lonely (★★★★)
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: YA Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: A really fun, fresh take on the story of Beauty and the Beast. I would recommend this to fans of Sarah J Maas, however, it does feel as though it is aimed at a slightly younger audience. Be warned that there are quite a few times where a love triangle is hinted at, so this may be a predominant feature in any future sequels, although I am hoping the author chooses to go another route. Overall, this was a really great fantasy and I really enjoyed the romantic plot line.

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Title: The Rift (★★★★★)
Author: Rachael Craw
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: This was absolutely brilliant! It gave me all sorts of Maggie Stiefvater vibes that took me back to when I read The Raven Cycle for the first time! We got a really perfect romance and incredibly descriptive and magical world building! Unfortunately there is no sequel in the works as of yet, but it was definitely left open enough that one could be written if the author so chooses (FINGERS CROSSED BECAUSE THIS WAS PERFECTION!) I highly recommend giving The Rift a read, it’s easily my favourite read of the year so far.

February Reading Wrap-Up

I can’t believe we’re already wrapping up February! This year has been flying by. This month wasn’t the best for me in terms of reading. In theory it was looking like it’d be amazing, but after reading The Hearts We Sold, I slipped into a weird reading slump and it’s been taking me a good two weeks to finish the book I am currently reading! Here’s hoping I can get through it and smash my March TBR!

So the short of it is that I spent most of February buying more books than I have been reading, but I suppose thats pretty great too.

My Review System

5 Stars: This. Book. Blew. My. Mind. I’d read it again and again and would highly recommend it.
4 Stars: The book was great! I enjoyed it and I may read it again.
3 Stars: I could take or leave this book. It had some interesting moments, but nothing too captivating.
2 Stars: Not a very good book, I’ll more than likely forget about its existence once it’s lost in the expanse of my book shelves.
1 Star: A book I wish I didn’t waste my time on. I did not enjoy it at all and would definitely not recommend it.

Title: Four Dead Queens (4.5 stars)
Author: Astrid Scholte
Genre: YA Fantasy/Dystopian/Murder Mystery
Find it on Book Depository

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: I was lucky enough to receive an advanced readers copy of this book from Allen and Unwin Publishing and I am so grateful because this book was fantastic! I would recommend it to YA fantasy lovers with a soft spot for smart mouthed, theives! The book has a really well executed “whodunit” aspect to it with a touch of dystopia!

Title: Emergency Contact (3.5 Stars)
Author: Mary H. K. Choi
Genre: YA Contemporary
Find it on Book Depository

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: This book was so tough for me to review. I both loved it and disliked it immensely! For some weird reason, I feel like I might re-read it some time despite this. In the end I did come to love both the main characters and I recommend this to anyone looking for a cute but equally as quirky YA contemporary romance.

Title: The Wicked King (5 stars)
Author: Holly Black
Genre: YA Fantasy
Find it on Book Depository

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: Do I even need to write anything here? I am trash for Cardan Greenbriar, High King of Elfhame. These books are amazing, go read The Cruel Prince and follow it closely with The Wicked King, then find me on instagram and fangirl with me.

Title: The Hearts We Sold (1.5 Stars)
Author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy
Find it on Book Depository

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: Uuuuhhhh… I really disliked this book. It had a terrific premise, but it wasn’t executed well at all. I had no strong feelings for any of the characters and a lot of their interactions felt really forced. Nothing really happens until the very end of the book. As such I probably wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

January Reading Wrap-Up

January was a great reading month for me. With my (fairly) new baby taking up most of my time, I didn’t think I’d get much reading done, so my TBR was only two books long! I ended up reading another three! With five books already under my belt, I am well and truly on my way to reaching my Goodreads reading goal!

One of my goals for 2019 was to read more and start a blog so I could review what I read! I feel like I have really hit the ground running this month! If you’re interested to see a summary of what I read in January, check out the list below! All of my corresponding in-depth reviews will be linked.

My Review System

5 Stars: This. Book. Blew. My. Mind. I’d read it again and again and would highly recommend it.
4 Stars: The book was great! I enjoyed it and I may read it again.
3 Stars: I could take or leave this book. It had some interesting moments, but nothing too captivating.
2 Stars: Not a very good book, I’ll more than likely forget about its existence once it’s lost in the expanse of my book shelves.
1 Star: A book I wish I didn’t waste my time on. I did not enjoy it at all and would definitely not recommend it.

Title: Scythe (5 stars)
Author: Neal Schusterman
Genre: YA Sci-fi/Dystopian

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: I would recommend this book to everyone. E-VE-RY-ONE! I am not usually a huge fan of sci-fi, but this book had the perfect blend of genres and it was really captivating! It really gets you thinking about life, death and your morals as a human being! I cannot recommend this book enough! Go read it!

Title: Thunderhead (3.5 stars)
Author: Neal Schusterman
Genre: YA Sci-fi/Dystopian

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: If you enjoyed Scythe, I’d give this one a read. It wasn’t as captivating in my opinion and felt like it suffered from a little bit of “second book syndrome” in which reading it felt like it was more or less a bridging novel, necessary to expand the plot. I think because I enjoyed Scythe so thoroughly, this book had huge shoes to fill for me and it didn’t quite meet those expectations.

Title: The Cruel Prince (5 stars)
Author: Holly Black
Genre: YA Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: I. Bloomin. Loved. This. Book. It was completely up my alley in terms of genre! It was utterly magical and had some awesome characters. I absolutely loved the overall plot and would highly recommend this book to fans of Cassandra Clare or Sarah J Maas.

Title: Stalking Jack The Ripper (3 stars)
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Genre: YA Murder Mystery/Historical Fiction

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: I’d recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind a light “whodunit” read. I found this book too predictable for my liking having picked who Jack the Ripper was within the first few chapters. The book was still entertaining enough due to the witty characters and Sherlock Homles vibes. However, it did feel like a lot of useless “filler” information was given to try and keep the mystery alive. It fell a little flat for me.

Title: Truthwitch (3.5 stars)
Author: Susan Dennard
Genre: Fantasy

You can read my in-depth review here.

My Recommendation: I found this book really hard to review. It felt like the first section of one really long book, with no satisfying conclusions to any of the character storylines. I enjoyed the overall premise of this book, but I would not recommend it to fantasy lovers who enjoy in-depth lore or world building. It had some great moments and some really quippy character banter that I enjoyed. Be warned though, it has a pretty intense case of  “insta-love” that some might find cringey!

Title: Twilight (chapters 1-5)
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

You can read my in-depth review here.

This month I re-read the first 5 chapters of Twilight, 14 years after I read it last. I documented my thoughts and feelings which you can find in my in-depth “review.” I will be continuing my read through of this book as the year progresses as I really disliked it and I’m not sure I can continue anytime soon! I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, I found it to be utter trash. Ha! Sorry 15 year old Aimee!