Hi everybody, happy August and welcome to my July wrap up!
July has been a good reading month overall. I’ve read two new favorites (both cozy time travel romances) and re-read two old favorites. So not too bad! Other than that, the month has flown by, I don’t even remember what happened. How are we August already? I don’t know, but let’s just wrap up July first, shall we?
A Darker Shade of Magic + A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab (Re-read)
With The Fragile Threads of Power coming out in September, I really wanted to do a re-read of the original trilogy, which has been one of my favorites for many years now. I originally read these in a physical copy, but I’ve been struggling to read physical copies lately, so I opted for audio and it’s been a good choice as I’m flying through them. And I fell all the way back in LOVE with these characters <3 So yes, I’m very happy I’m doing this reread and am currently enjoying book 3.
Rating: A Darker Shade of Magic: 4,5 stars | A Gathering of Shadows: 5 stars
Famine by Laura Thalassa (The Four Horsemen #3)
Famine is my favorite installment in The Four Horsemen series, and that’s mostly because I LOVED the characters. Pairing Anna’s feistiness and crude jokes with the most asshole-ish of the four horsemen was a brilliant combination.
Rating: 4 stars | Read full review
Death by Laura Thalassa (The Four Horsemen #4)
I had mixed feelings about Death. I loved Lazarus, the main female lead, but unfortunately the main male lead felt a bit bland as a character. Despite him being Death and me being the most hyped for his book from the start. The plot also suffered from the same repetitiveness that the other books in the series had.
Rating: 3,5 stars | Read full review
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
The Seven Year Slip has been one of my most anticipated reads of the year because I LOVED The Dead Romantics and I was super intrigued by the time travel aspect of this one. And it totally loved up to my expectations. This was such a lovely cozy fantasy romance! I loved Iwan from the moment we met him and I liked that this is so much more than just a romance with the way grief is being handled. And I loved the incorporation of the magical element, with the time-travelling apartment.
Rating: 5 stars | Read full review
Disenchanted by Brianna Sugalski
Disenchanted was previously already released as a YA and it was on my TBR as such, but since I haven’t been reading a lot of YA lately I hadn’t picked it up yet. So I was pleasantly surprised when the author announced that she is republishing the first book as an adult version. I enjoyed this story and thought it had a lot of potential, but also had a few issues with it. I’ll be on the blog tour for this book in August so keep an eye out for my stop and full review.
Rating: 3 stars | Full review coming soon
New Adult by Timothy Janovsky
I was lucky enough to receive this ARC from Netgalley and I’m so happy because this was one of my most anticipated releases for the second half of the year and it did not disappoint! New Adult is basically a ’13 Going On 30′-type of story, in which comedian Nolan Baker makes a wish and is magically transported seven years into the future. In this future, he is super successful and has everything he ever wanted, except his friends and family all ignore his calls and his best friend/crush hates his guts. Yep, cozy time travel romances for the win this month!
Rating: 5 stars | Full review/rave coming soon!
Top Ten Tuesday
Book Covers In the Colors of the Belgian Flag
My Favorite Books of 2023 So Far
Books With One-Word Titles On My TBR
Forgotten Backlist Titles
Can’t Wait Wednesday
The Honeymoon Crashers by Christina Lauren {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
WWW Wednesday
WWW Wednesday: 12 July 2023
WWW Wednesday: 26 July 2023
Tag Thursday
Mid Year Book Freakout Tag – 2023 Edition
There were a lot of great music releases in July, so I tried to list only four songs, but it’s been a great month!
Jungkook – Seven (feat. Latto)
The BTS maknae is smashing it with this catchy, all-English pop hit. I’ve had it on repeat all month.
Jonas Brothers & TXT – Do It Like That
Le Sserafim – Eve, Psyche and The Bluebeard’s Wife
The Rose – Back To Me
Other than my continued Veronica Mars rewatch, I mainly watched one show this month:
The Witcher (Season 3 – part 1)
Ah, it is with mixed feeling that I watched this season. I was very aware this was Henry Cavill’s last season and while I want to give Liam Hemsworth a chance, I’ll miss Henry Cavill like crazy. That said, I really enjoyed this season, but I should have done a rewatch of the past few seasons beforehand, because I was also very confused about a lot of things and characters for a long time. I have only the final episode still to watch and am both anticipating and dreading it.
July was less hot than June, and we also had a few rainy days, but honestly I’m not mad about that. Other than that, it has been a pretty easy-going, chill month.
Things that made me happy this month:
- Caught up with friends over dinner.
- Some chill weekends with bike rides and cozy walks.
- I got a new game on the Switch: Cat Cafe Manager and I am living my dream, haha 🙂
- I’ve been doing ok with (semi) regular workouts and I’m feeling good about it.
THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:
- So much TV goodness! I’m looking forward to Red White and Royal Blue and the new seasons for Heartstopper and Good Omens.
- Exciting book releases! I’m looking forward to Cruel Seduction, New Adult and My Roommate is a Vampire.
- Some planned friend and family dates
- Hopefully, more cozy walks and bike rides and cat cafe managing 🙂
How was your July? What did you read? What did you listen to and what did you watch? What are you looking forward to in August?
I need to remember to watch Red, White & Royal Blue!
I love a good time travel romance.
I’m so looking forward to RWRB! I hope you’ll love The Seven Year Slip AND New Adult if you decide to try them!
It sounds like July was a good month for you. I am glad The Seven Year Slip was such a good read for you. I had a feeling you would love it.
It really was. And yes, The Seven Year Slip was completely my cup of tea 🙂
I still need to watch The Witcher. And that cat cafe game sounds fun!
Hope August is an awesome month 🙂
Hope you’ll love The Witcher and have a great August!
Whoa, hold on. Is Seven Year Slip fantasy? I was not expecting to see deadly schools and grumpy dragons in that paragraph! 😂 I absolutely loved Dead Romantics and I’ve been really looking forward to this one. So glad to see you enjoyed it so much! I hope you have an amazing August 🙂
OMG, thank you for bringing that to my attention! 😂 That’s what I get for rushing to schedule a post late at night 😂 *Quickly fixes it*
But it was an amazing read though, even if there were no dragons in sight… Hope you’ll love it too!
My reading month was slow with my travels to London and then Normandy!
Travelling is always a good reason for less reading though 🙂
I agree it’s hard to believe August is here already! Glad July included lots of good reads for you.
Thanks!
I’m also obsessed with A Darker Shade of Magic and need to find time to reread it. I’m so excited for the new series! I hope you have an awesome August.
I hope you’ll get to do a reread too, because my love for the series has only increased! So looking forward to Fragile Threads now! 🙂