July 2020 Monthly Wrap Up // My Covid 19th Birthday, Quarantine Blues, And Blogger Love

So July is over. This year is wild. It’s literally August but mentally I’m still in April. It’s been another low-key horrible month for me, so let’s talk about it!

Reading

1. Wicked As You Wish ★★☆☆☆ // I really really wanted to love this book but I absolutely did not it put me in a reading slump the world building was a mess and there were too many characters.
2. A Thousand Beginnings And Endings ★★★★☆ // Why had I never heard about this book? It’s such an amazing anthology of retellings of Asian fairytales and stories that I loved so much!
3. Loveboat, Taipei ★★★★☆ // I loved this book so much. There were definitely some problematic and annoying parts, I’m a dancer like Ever and my family lives in Taipei where this was set so this book was so beautiful it felt like it was written for me!!
4. Of Curses And Kisses ★★★☆☆// This was a pretty cute diverse boarding school retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

5. Cinder ★★★★★ (reread) // Yes I reread the entire Lunar Chronicles series and gave them all 5 stars okay deal with it. Also this book hits different during covid. why weren’t they social distancing???
6. Scarlet ★★★★★ (reread) // I still love this book.
7. Cress ★★★★★ (reread) // I still love this book and also Thorne.
8. Winter ★★★★★ (reread) // I still love this book its freaking incredible and deserves 6 stars!!

9. Forest of A Thousand Lanterns ★★★★☆// This was such a great Asian retelling of the evil queen from Snow White, it got dark wow. A bit slow at times though.
10. With The Fire On High ★★★★☆// This book made me so hungry! I loved seeing cooking and it was unique and cool to see a teen mom too.
11. Anna K. ★★★☆☆// This was a pretty fun retelling of Anna Karenina (which I have never read but I looked up on shmoop), the characters were kind of awful but it was so entertaining. also this song is literally “illicit affairs” from folklore and I will not be convinced otherwise.
12. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes ★★★☆☆ // My library hold was finally ready lol this was good but nowhere near as good as the original trilogy.

Blogging

I posted seven times this month. Also I had record high views this month so thank youuu for that.

Reviews:

• Frankly In Love Rant Review // An Unlikable Main Character In A Book That Tries (And Fails) To Tackle Too Much
• Her Royal Highness Review // A Cute Fluffy Royal Read
• No Place Like Here Review // A Cute Summery Camp Book With Great Themes

Other Posts:

• June 2020 Monthly Wrap Up // Taking Finals, Baking Cake, And Writing
• My Favorite Spreads From My First Year Bullet Journaling
• The Fourth Annual 2020 Book Blogger Award Nominations // spreading the blogger love 💕
• Mini Reviews & Ranking All Of Marissa Meyer’s Books // Best of the Best Space Opera, Super Battles, & Swoony Romance

Your Posts

I’ve been doing more blog hopping this month! Here are some posts I loved ❤

• May shares 50 anticipated releases for the second half of the year
• Rukky discusses food that reminds her of books
• Ilsa made a folklore (!!!) book tag and I am going to do it eventually I swear
• Kaya discusses why we need more ownvoices
• The Orangutang Librarian discusses ways to be creative 
• Rhi shares some tropes and themes she loves to read
• Marie shares some anticipated YA books for the second half of the year
• Alexandra shares her Folk of the Air bucket list
• Chana shares some upcoming book cover impressions
• Olivia ranks romance tropes
• Xandra shares how to edit instagram photos with a digital book cover

Life

• The US is a flaming dumpster fire and I hate it here. I never go out but apparently I’m the only one since now cases are spiking, my state is a hotspot (12,000+ cases a day ayyy) and I’m pretty sure I’ll be quarantined all year and I don’t think I’m going back to college campus in the fall so that really sucks. Love paying $$$ for zoom u, it really is the college experience!!!!
• consequently… I’ve been overall feeling really bad. sad vibes only. not a great month mentally.

• I chopped off about 15 inches of hair to donate and good riddance it was weighing me down. This is the 5th time I’ve donated lol.
• It was my birthday. I celebrated my covid 19th, aka turned 19 in covid-19 quarantine (sweet 16 who?), stayed home all day and ate cake.

• I baked a ton including my birthday cake and these lemon matcha macarons.
• folklore!!! I’m obsessed. My favorite song right now is illicit affairs, but I also love exile, cardigan, and every single song.
• The book blogger award (hosted by May and Marie!) nominations were this month and oh my gosh you guys ❤ I was nominated several times for a variety of awards and each notification I got truly made my day. This has been a really bad month (and year tbh) for me mentally and I’ve been feeling really shitty and reading all the kind things you said about me was truly amazing and helpful. To everyone who nominated me THANK YOU ❤ ❤
  • Also this technically happened in august but I haven’t posted this wrap up yet but I made it to the second round??? for best young adult blogger and… and… best overall book blogger????? I’m so flabbergasted and honored I truly was not expecting this thank you thank you thank you so much ❤ (and also vote here for me pls… (but only if you want lol))

Let’s Chat

Have you read or enjoyed any of these books? Are you still quarantined? Are you obsessed with folklore???? What’s your favorite song on the album? I’d love to chat in the comments below ❤