I’m Back!

From a legit, scheduled hiatus this time. I’m so proud of myself. (Edit: So I said back when started this post on time, a week ago and full of hope.)

But yeah, I’m back, I had a lovely time, and I have some post ideas, so I’ll hopefully STAY back. Although I also have no clue how busy my fall is going to be, so I might have to tone back my posting a bit* depending on my schedule. But I will LET YOU KNOW this time! I hope.

Anyways, since I have two wrap-ups to cover here, I’ll get right into it!

*By which I mean tone back how much I TRY to post, not how much I do post, because I already barely post, so that would mean basically… not posting.

July Wrap-Up

So I actually have no clue what happened in June. I spent the last week of it in camps, as I talked about in my last post, but… I have no clue what else I did.

Actually, that is quite possibly because I did almost nothing. But alas.

So I actually managed to read twenty books in July which is more than I have for a while, and wayyy more than I thought I’d read! (I was mixed up with August I think… August was the worst reading month I’ve had ALL YEAR. But July was a good one it turns out!)

I guess I was right, I did nothing almost nothing, and sat around and read. So worth it.

(Ratings link to my review)

This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee – This was SUPER good! I mean, Mackenzi Lee, so obviously, but I have to say, this book surprised me! It isn’t something I would normally pick up, but I am SO glad I did! – 4.5 stars.

The King’s Men by Nora Sakavic – Um, hello, my name is Iris, and I am complete and utter trash for this series. The obsession is real. And yes, it did take me ages to read this, but it was only because of how FREAKING STRESSFUL THIS BOOK IS!!!! – 5 stars!!

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – Yes, I did read this for a fourth time, but I HAVE AN EXCUSE! It was the book club book, and no, I didn’t need to reread it, but it ended up in our house, and I figured it couldn’t hurt... – 5 stars!*

*Obviously.

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann – This book was so sweet and cute! It was one of my most anticipated releases, and it completely lived up to my expectations! I highly recommend this book. – 5 stars.

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab – Why on earth is this book so underhyped?! How is this her DEBUT?!?! This book was deliciously creepy, and I absolutely ADORED it! Go read it. – 5 stars!!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller – MY. HEART. I was such an emotional mess after this book, and AHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭 – 4.5 stars.

Crystal Storm by Morgan Rhodes – These books are so much fun, and impossible to put down, but… not actually very good. But I’m finally finding myself feeling fond of the series? So that’s something? Also I had so much fun writing my review of this. – 3 stars.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – Another reread for book club. I got a lot more out of it this time round, and I enjoyed it SO MUCH. I love these characters. – 4.5 stars.

The Unbound by Victoria Schwab – What. A. Book. This was dark and creepy and wonderful! And I mean, come on, it’s Scwhab, did you expect anything else? IT WAS AMAZING!  – 5 stars!

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth – This book was powerful, beautiful, and so, so important. I had a few issues with it, but overall this book is amazing, and so worthwhile! Highly recommend. – 4 stars.

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake – Wow. This book was so powerful. It was so raw and real, and I cannot recommend this book more! Seriously, this is one of the best books I’ve read all year, and it is just so good. I don’t know how to put into words how wonderful and important this book is. – 5 stars!

Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills – This book was so fun and cute and silly! It didn’t necessarily have a TON to it, but it was a well needed break from the dark contemporaries I’d read prior to it, and I just enjoyed it a LOT. Cute romances, sweet friendships, and messy families. All in all, a fun book, and worth a read! – 4.5 stars.

More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer – This was really enjoyable, and I GOT TO SEE MORE OF REV AND DECLAN AND JULIET! I definitely didn’t enjoy this as much Letters to the Lost, but it was good, and I got to see more of my precious children! – 4 stars.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – THIS BOOK. This book is SO deserving of the hype!! How on earth was it THAT GOOD?!?!?! Wow. This book blew me away, and THE CHARACTERS were SO AMAZING. – 4.5 stars.

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour – I… didn’t like this book? Look, nobody is more disappointed than me. I’ve heard such good things about Nina LaCour, and I really think she’s a good author. I certainly intend to give her another try. But the fact is, I was bored out of my mind by this one. – 2.5 stars.

Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberly & Austin Siegemund-Broka – I really loved this book! Theatre! Romance! Theatre! Friendship! Theatre! Hilarity! Oh yeah, and did I mention theatre? I did have one personal issue with it, but it was very much a me thing, and I still loved it! – 4 stars.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han – This was fun and cute, but entirely unnecessary. Still though, I love these characters, so I’m glad I read it, and it was definitely enjoyable! – 3.5 stars.

Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman – This was such a beautiful, powerful, emotional book. It was really heartbreaking, but hopeful too. Such a gorgeous book! – 4 stars.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – This book was incredibly disappointing. I has such high expectations, and they were NOT met. Not even close. This book was boring, tropey and cliche, sorta sexist, and overall not good. – 2 stars.

Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor – This little gem of a book was SO. MUCH. FUN. I may have been somewhat unimpressed with the last couple books in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, but Mik and Zuzana were always my favourites, and this book did NOT disappoint! – 5 stars!

Soooo… since I’m doing this so late, I obviously won’t be making any goals for August, and so I’ll just see how I did with my July goals!

• POST TWICE A WEEK!!! ❌✅ Not technically? But I actually blogged semi-consistantly… So I sorta did it?
• CATCH UP ON RTC’S!! I have no clue. I’m behind again, but I WAS caught up, sooo… ✅
• Get to bed earlier. ❌❌❌ No. Nope. Not even close.
• Wake up earlier. ✅ Yes, shockingly. I managed to get up at a semi-reasonable time most days.
• Get out of the house more! ✅ Yes, again. Two in a row! (I should NOT be so pleased with myself for this…)
• Read AT LEAST a couple of the books I borrowed from my cousin! ❌❌ Um, no. Did not happen. I borrowed another one? That counts, right? (Don’t ask how this logic works. It just does.)
• Keep my bookshelf organized. ✅✅ Was there ever any doubt that I would complete this goal?
• Tidy my room up, and keep it (semi) tidy. I mean, it’s not tidy NOW, but I think it might have been tidy for a while…
• Do something! Get together with friends! Go out and be social! Ummm… maybe? I have exactly zero clue what I did in July. So maybe.
• Write some posts in advance, because I’ll be busy for most of August. ❌❌ Not even close.

August Wrap-Up

I actually have a clue what happened in August, so that’s nice! August was jam packed. I had a LOT of fun. I blogged once (At least I planned a hiatus this time!), and I barely read, but I spent some lovely time camps (Human interaction!), and then a fun weekend with relatives, and had a friend staying at my place for the last few weeks. So overall, August was pretty great!

I read an all time low of ten books is August. And four of them were 200-300 pages, and middle grade. If you’ve been following me for long, you’ll know that I’m disappointed when I only read fifteen books, so I have to say, I’m not too pleased with my reading this month, but I was REALLY busy, so I suppose I’m okay with it.

(I completely recognize that ten books is a lot for some people, and that’s great. I’m not in ANY way looking down on you for that. I’m just used to having a lot of free time, and therefore reading a lot. Also I hold myself to impossibly high standards, so there’s that. Also I just really missed reading. Mostly that honestly.)

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian – This was surprisingly good! I expected a fun, tropey read. I also expected unremarkable characters and mediocre writing. While I did get a fun tropey read, the characters gripped me immediately, and the writing was anything but mediocre. I’m excited to see where this series goes. – 4 stars.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi – This book blew me away! It had so much important social commentary in it, as well as having a solid plot, great world building, and fantastic characters! I’m very impressed with Tomi Adeyemi for managing this, and wow. – 5 stars.

New Beginnings by Victoria Schwab – My obsession for Victoria Schwab knows no bounds. Yes, I did read her random middle grade series about a twelve year old guardian angel. And yes, it was so worth it. This book was actually WAY better than I expected. This book was NOT supposed to make me CRY. But it did. – 4 stars.

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall – ALL THE NOSTALGIA! This was one of my favourite series growing up, and in honour of the fifth book’s recent release, I’m rereading the series! (Read: Because I can’t remember what happened.) – 4 stars.

Bright We Burn by Kiersten White – AHHHHHHH!!!! I have to admit, this started off pretty slow, and I was worried, but it got SO GOOD! And the ending was just perfect! MY HEART!!! AND MY SHIP!!!! AND AGFGGHGGFGFDSGGFHGFJDSDFGKJH!!!!! – 4.5 stars? (Ahhhh I’m so indecisive! I can’t decide! But I think 4.5 stars is right.)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – Look, I couldn’t help myself, okay? But yeah. It’s Harry Potter, so I obviously loved it. – 5 stars.

Second Chances by Victoria Schwab – I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the first one, but it was still a lot of fun! I would have LOVED this one when I was younger. – 3.5 stars.

I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman – ALICE OSEMAN! I loved it, obviously. I loved it a lot. I adore the way she writes, I love the focus on friendship (Instead of romance!!!!), I love all the geeky fandom stuff! I love basically everything about this book honestly! – 5 stars!!

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows – This was so much fun! I liked My Lady Jane better, but this was such an enjoyable read, and I really liked it. – 4 stars.

Tortall: A Spy’s Guide by Tamora Pierce – This was SO. MUCH. FUN. So nostalgic, and so goofy and ridiculous, and I just adore these characters, an AHHHHHHHH!!! I enjoyed this a lot. – 4 stars.

As I obviously didn’t have goals for August, I’m just going to dive right in to making some for September!

• Post twice a week. I will give myself some leniency here and say I can CHANGE this goal, so long as I ANNOUNCE that I’m changing it.
• CATCH UP ON RTC’S!! Again.
• Get to bed at a reasonable hour. Please?
• Wake up at a reasonable hour. Start setting an alarm Iris. For goodness sakes.
• Get out of the house more! This shouldn’t be AS much of a problem once classes start up.
• READ SOME OF THOSE DARN BOOKS I BORROWED. Come on, Iris. Come on.
• Keep my bookshelf organized. This is pretty much a given, but I really like completing goals. So it’s valid.
• Tidy my room again… I can do it. Will I do it? Probably not. But I could…

Book Haul

Look, I don’t have a clue what was in which month, but I got quite a few books over July and August, and I’m very excited about it!

(I apologize for the terrible photos, it’s raining and the lighting sucks, and this post is already over a week late)

I caved and bought Let’s Talk About Love, My Plain Jane, and Smoke and Iron, I needed The Raven Boys so I could reread and then lend it out for book club, I found Ruby Red in a thrift store for two bucks so I figured why not, and my wonderful friend bought me I Was Born For This as a (very, very early) Christmas gift (Because it’s STILL NOT OUT IN CANADA!).

And yes, my friend is amazing. They didn’t even read it before giving it to me! (Which was impressive seeing as they want it as bad as I did!)

I also got an ebook of Ace of Shades, because it was on sale. And possibly another ebook, but I can’t remember what…

Yeah, this was a pretty amazing couple months for books hauled!! ALL of these (that I’ve read) have been amazing!!

How was your summer? Any goals for September? Have you read any of these books? I read so many nostalgic books this month, what are some of your childhood favourites?