Hi everybody, and welcome to my June wrap up!

June was a great reading month, again thanks to audiobooks (what did I ever do without them?). For some reason, I seem to have read a whole lot of contemporary romance this month, but I have no regrets since it’s been great in getting my reading groove back. I also slowly but surely have been catching up and getting organised, so hopefully I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled programming soon enough. Oh, and music was pretty great this month too!

Basically, here’s what I’ve been up to this month:

The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston

I read and loved Geekerella a while ago, but unfortunately I was not interested in The Princess and the Fangirl because of what turned out to be a misunderstanding. I had heard ‘f/f romance’ and ‘lookalikes’ and had wrongfully assumed the two girls who looked like eachother would fall in love. Which would be very narcissistically WEIRD. But I was assured it was not like that, felt verryy silly about my misunderstanding and picked up the book right away. And I highly enjoyed it. The world of Starfield is still so vivid that I wish it was real, I adore all the nerd love and I actually adore Jessica Stone. Imogen on the other hand was pretty whiny. Also, though I love the con setting, it meant that both romances happen over one weekend and I’m sorry but that’s too insta-lovey for me. Don’t get me wrong, the romances were both cute, but insta-lovey. Still recommend for fans of Geekerella – if only to see Darien and Elle again.

Rating: 3,5 stars

Geekerella by Ashley Poston (re-read)

I couldn’t help myself, I had to re-read Geekerella after finishing The Princess and the Fangirl and I’m happy to say I still love it just as much. Darien and Elle are the cutest, nerd love for the win and I’m still a sucker for penpal/texting kind of romances.

Rating: 4 stars

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

The Kiss Quotient is one of my favorite books, so I was highly anticipating The Bride Test and the story of Khai. I love that this is another autistic character, written by an #ownvoices author. I can’t speak for the representation, but I felt Khai was so well fleshed out. I also adored Esme and their romance was the cutest. I laughed out loud at multiple occasions and I fell even more in love with Quan, Khai’s brother who we already met in The Kiss Quotient and is getting his own book! Overall though, I have to admit I like The Kiss Quotient just a smidge better.

Rating: 4 stars

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

“Tiffy and Leon share a flat. Tiffy and Leon share a bed. Tiffy and Leon have never met.”

I listened to this on audio and I must admit I almost DNF’ed it, just because I couldn’t understand a word the narrator for Leon was saying at first. Maybe it was the slight Irish accent combined with the fact that I’m not a native English speaker, but I just couldn’t understand at first. Luckily, I got used to it, and after a few chapters I had no issues anymore. And am I glad I did, because this became one of my favorite books ever! It had the cutest romance that grew through notes before the two characters ever even met in person (be still my heart), hilarious scenes, but also dealt with some heavier topics such as emotional abuse and gaslighting. One of THE romances of 2019, highly recommend to all!

Rating: 5 stars

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

I love Christina Lauren’s writing and I love a good enemies-to-lovers story, so this book felt like it was written just for me. And I loved every minute of it. The Hawaiian setting, the premise, the characters, the banter, the chemistry, the shenanigans,… I also loved that it didn’t go exactly the way I thought it would, which was awesome. I don’t even want to spoil too much of it, just read and find out for yourself!

Rating: 4,5 stars

Birthday by Meredith Russo

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo has been on my TBR for ages but unfortunately I still haven’t gotten to it. But when I saw Birthday, I just couldn’t resist. Eric and Morgan are born on the same day and best friends since day 1. But Morgan has a secret and that’s that she wants to live as the girl she knows she is inside. Birthday tells the story from their thirteenth until their eighteenth birthday. This was my first book with a trans main character, written by an #ownvoices trans author and it was quite the experience. I loved the story, the friendship and romance between Eric and Morgan, but it definitely was pretty heavy at times. The bullying Morgan has to face was just painful to read. Also, I thought the ending was a bit rushed and I wanted just a bit more. But it’s such a very important read that I still highly enjoyed and definitely recommend!

Rating: 4,5 stars

Again but better by Christine Riccio

I’ve been a regular watcher of Christine Riccio’s booktube channel and I was so excited that she read her own book, major respect for that. Plus I immediately adored the premise: a girl going to study abroad in London as a way to do her college experience again, but better: make friendships, go on adventures, fall in love, write her book,… All things she hadn’t gotten to do yet. I have to admit, I struggled a bit with the book. Mainly because the main character, Shane, frustrated me enormously. Even though I related to her in so many ways, I also found myself screaming in the car (cause I listed to this on audiobook) to “get her act together”,  “don’t do that stupid thing’ or just “can’t you see at all what’s going on here?” I also thought the romance with the love interest was a bit insta-lovey and also just weird because he had a girlfriend and both him and Shane seemed to forget about that little fact constantly. And Shane’s relationship with her parents irked me, as they felt very emotionally abusive and it was brushed over. BUT near the middle some magical elements came into play and I must admit that I quite enjoyed everything from then on. So while flawed, I’d still highly recommend to anyone who has ever wished to be able to relive a certain experience again, but better.

Rating: 3,5 stars

TOP TEN TUESDAY

• 18 June 2019: Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2019
• 25 June 2019: Books on my Summer 2019 TBR

Blog Tour

If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann Blog Tour

CALENDAR GIRLS

on hiatus…

Tag Thursday

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag – 2019 Edition

Something Different Sunday

The Therapists Pumping Through My Speakers

June saw me obsessed with 4 songs, and those 4 songs couldn’t have been more different from each other, but they’re all soooo good that they’ve been on repeat constantly 🙂

Stray Kids – Side Effects

Is it even possible for Stray Kids to release a bad song? I must admit, this song surprised me and I had to listen a few times to get used to this new sound. But now I’m in love. It’s so fresh and different, while still quintessential Stray Kids. I love the Halloween vibes and I’m living for the choreo, which is why I’m sharing the performance video instead of the official MV here:

Sleeping with Sirens – Leave It All Behind

Sleeping With Sirens is back y’all, and they’re rocking this comeback. Their previous album was not entirely my thing, but I love the return to a heavier sound now. I heard Matt Good from From First To Last is one of the producers of their new album, which explains why I already love this song and has me excited for the rest of the album.

Monsta X ft French Montana – Who Do You Love?

These boys, I fall more in love with every song they release. Though I love their Korean songs, I also have a weakness for their English songs and this song has been stuck in my head for weeks.

Taylor Swift – You Need to Calm Down

Honestly, I’m not normally into the cutesy, colorful type of songs. I wasn’t a huge fan of Taylor’s previous song, but this? LOVE IT! Not sure why, but I can’t stop singing along. Maybe it’s the video that is just awesome with all the cameos <3

 

Touch Your Heart

Goblin is one of my favorite kdramas, and I absolutely loved Lee Dong-Wook and Yoo In-Na and their chemistry in that series, so of course I was beyond excited to see them reunited in Touch Your Heart. Plus the story about an actress working at a law firm, with a super serious lawyer, as preparation for a role and then falling for said lawyer just sounded too cute to pass up, since lawyers are important for trials and more, More about the author here. And it is. Cute. I can say no wrong about this series, the actors, or the chemistry, and yet it’s taken me two months to finish this. For some reason I couldn’t get that invested, though I can’t say why.

Dumplin’

Though I haven’t read the book yet, I was looking for a movie to watch one evening and my eyes landed on Dumplin’ and I just couldn’t resist. And am I happy I chose this, because I LOVED everything about this movie. It made me smile like a happy goof. Has anyone read the book? Do you still recommend it if I watched and loved the movie?

 

June had me slowly but surely catch up on life things. I got some admin done that I needed to get done months ago, I got my last few boxes unpacked, I got my desk organised, parties planned, courses attended and a new pc installed so I THINK I’m ready to get my blogging on again, woop woop!

Things that made me happy this month:

• I got organised (kind of)! Weird thing to be happy about, but I am! We got our office installed, I got a new computer because the one I had was really dead after 10 years, and I got my desk drawers neatly organised and papers put in binders and I feel so free again without all the chaos!
• I went to two festivals. I live just a 15-minute bike ride from one of Belgium’s biggest festival sites, and I got to see Triggerfinger, Snow Patrol and Fleetwood Mac one day, and Janelle Monáe, Bring Me The Horizon, Years and Years, Kylie Minogue, Tool and The Cure another day. My music-loving heart is happy. Highlights for me definitely were Janelle Monáe, whom I didn’t know but fell in love with (so expect some of her songs in next month’s wrap up) and Bring Me The Horizon who were SO GOOD OMG. Their performance felt rejuvenating, like the boost I needed.

THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:

• PUPPY VISIT. We are looking for a dog and are on the waiting list at someone whose dog just had puppies. We’re going to visit the puppies for the first time in July and if all goes well, we’ll get to take one home in August. I hope so, so fingers crossed 🙂
• Stranger Things season 3! Veronica Mars comeback! TV is good in July!
• Friend dates! I missed them <3

HOW WAS YOUR June? WHAT DID YOU READ? WHAT DID YOU LISTEN TO AND WHAT DID YOU WATCH? WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR July?