Wrap Up: August 2018

Hello and happy Sunday everyone! Should we talk about how it’s literally September already and how 2018 is just flying by? I honestly have no idea how time is moving this fast and I kind of need it to slow down a bit. Sure, that means I can get my hands on some of my anticipated releases sooner but like everything else? Yeah, no. Please, slow down!

Speaking of anticipated releases, there are some coming in the next couple of weeks and one in particular that has finally kicked me into gear for a series reread (as you’ll see in a second) and I’m so excited to be back in that world and those characters – especially because things are about to be blown out of the park even more with the next book that I’ll be reading.

During the month of August, I ended up reading/finishing a total of seven books (I thought I’d finish Children Of Blood And Bone in July but actually didn’t get to the last chunk of it until the first week of August) with an average rating of 4 stars. Which doesn’t surprise me at all because 5/7 books this month were rereads.

The first book I finished after COBAB was Forest Of A Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao which has been on my radar for months now and I finally finished it in August. And while I still enjoyed this book there were points that just seemed to drag on too long for my taste and I don’t really remember much of what happened in this book a couple of weeks after finishing it. However, I do hope to read the sequel/companion novel to this later this year as I did really enjoy the writing style. Plus, the last fourth of this book was pretty good which has me curious about what Julie does with the next book!

The next book I finally finished (and I am kicking myself for how long it took me to actually finish this book) was Becky Chambers’ A Close And Common Orbit, book 2 in the Wayfarer’s series.

I read the first book months ago and really enjoyed it quite a lot which was the reason for me even requesting a review copy of this book for the German release and then it took me SO long to finally get to it. It’s ridiculous and absolutely not deserved because this was such a great book! I absolutely love the world Becky Chambers created with this series and the way everyone deals with gender and gender roles and even the fluidity of gender with certain species in this universe. There were so many great passages and quotes throughout and I will continue to kick myself for taking ages to get to this and then even longer to finish it.

But for anyone who has had an interest in this series, make sure you pick it up! You should read the first book before picking up this one as it spoils the ending but from what I’ve seen you should be able to read the most recent release Record Of A Spaceborn Few without having read the previous two releases, so get on that! 😉

In the most me way of things, I one day realized that the release of Kingdom Of Ash was ‘only’ ten weeks away and that I hadn’t started my series reread yet, so I did the math and made a plan to get started. I don’t know if what happened next is very me or very not me, but I’m actually already well ahead of myself for this reread (in fact, if any of you guys want to do a series reread there’s still time! Start with The Assassin’s Blade on Tuesday and then move on to the next book every Tuesday – this way, you’ll start KOA right on its release date!) and I am loving every second of it!

It was especially fun being reunited with some of the characters in these novellas and seeing them all the way back before everything happens. And as always, the last two novellas are just downright hurtful and mean and I always fly right through them because stuff keeps happening.

And in typical me fashion, I got hooked on this series again rather quickly and so I moved onto Throne Of Glass pretty much immediately and while I didn’t enjoy this book as much the first time around (back in 2014) because of the predictability of the story, I enjoyed it quite a bit more this time around!

It’s nice getting to concentrate on different aspects of the story during rereads and the anticipation of certain characters appearing on the page again is also really fun! One thing I absolutely love about any of the Sarah J. Maas books (unrelated to how much I end up enjoying the story itself) is how easy Sarah’s writing is and how quickly she sucks me into her books! I finished Throne Of Glass rather quickly and actually picked up Crown Of Midnight that same day.

And with this particular book, I was so sure we’d be meeting a certain general already which might have contributed to how quickly I got through this book (we don’t, by the way. He’s mentioned but doesn’t actually show up until Heir Of Fire… BUT! We meet Mort again which was as much fun the second time around!) too.

For me, Crown Of Midnight is where the story starts to finally develop more and where we start to see more of the world Sarah is creating and introducing us to with the introduction of various characters and plot points. Throne Of Glass is so predictable, as I just said, and with Crown Of Midnight, you finally have a more open-ended story that’ll keep you entertained and sucked in.

I’m already so excited to get to Heir Of Fire because we’re finally meeting some of my, now, favorite characters (Manon, I am looking at you) and we go on such an interesting but also devastating journey with Celeana that fully pushes us into where this entire series is actually going. Everything before HOF often comes across as the pilot episode that sets up the world, characters and dynamics before we get to fully dive into the story. And I am so ready for episode two.

Of course, my rereading mood didn’t stop at the Throne Of Glass series this past month, oh no! I also decided to continue my reread of The Raven Cycle with The Dream Thieves and I loved it! I listened to this on audiobook and I would highly recommend you experience the series that way too! It’s so much fun and the narrator does a really good job!

I often forget how easy this particular series is to read, especially once you get used to the writing and storytelling style Maggie has! When I first read this series, I remember The Dream Thieves being much easier to get into than the first book (which I almost DNFed because I couldn’t get into). I can’t wait to continue on reading this series especially since I honest to god barely remember what really happens? I can’t even really tell you how the series ends?

Also, for my To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before loving people who also read this series: how do you deal with the two Kavinskys? I wasn’t even as aware of that after reading TATBILB last year, right? But since my reread of the book and watching the movie (and falling in love with Noah and Noah as Peter Kavinsky) it’s all a bit confusing. xD Not because I don’t have a favorite (really, there is only one option and it’s the one driving the superior car in the books aka Peter K) but just because my brain goes PETER KAVINSKY whenever it reads the last name.

Okay. I just realized just how talkative I’ve been today and I apologize for it. Kind of. I think we all know that I’m quite talkative, right? I hope you guys don’t mind too much! And now that I’ve talked so much, I want to hear from all of you guys! What did you read in August? What was your favorite and/or least favorite book?

AND DID YOU WATCH TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE YET? Are you as in love with the movie as I am? I’ve literally seen it fives times already. FIVE. TIMES. I also can’t wait to add another movie to my rotation of fantastic films featuring Noah Centineo come Friday because we finally get Sierra Burgess Is A Loser then!!! It feels like I’ve been waiting forever.