Hi everybody, welcome to my July wrap up! I hope you all had a great July and will have an even better August. For now, I’m wrapping up my July so let’s go:
Heartstopper Vol 5 by Alice Oseman
I’d been feeling a little slumpy and catching up on the latest Heartstopper volume seemed like a good idea to combat the slump. And I was right! I finished this in one sitting and was reminded how much I adore this series. It’s so wholesome and adorable and make me feel happy and light while reading it. I love it and am already sad that the next volume will be the last one.
Rating: 4,5 stars
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Given my current state of slump, I was a bit hesitant to start this one, and I thought I made a mistake when I read one chapter and then didn’t pick it up for another week. But when I eventually did pick it up again, I made huge progress and didn’t want to stop reading. Yes, it’s quite different from Ali’s previous books, but I thought it turned out great.
Rating: 4 stars
Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #2)
While this may be a dark romance, it’s definitely still plenty quirky and hilarious for me, so that’s balance 🙂 Though I didn’t love this one quite as much as I did the first book in the trilogy, Butcher & Blackbird, I still deeply enjoyed it. Especially the character of Lark was such a hoot to read about. Also highly recommend the audiobooks for this series, they are amazing!
Rating: 4 stars
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
I’ve been seeing this one around FOREVER and never actually picked it up. Until I saw the trailer for the tv adaptation coming to Netflix in August and I just had to give it a try. And this was fun! Well, I mean fun for a thriller mystery about a murder case. Except that one part about the dog, that sucked so definitely be warned that any dog-loving heart will get very bruised reading this. But I loved Pip and Ravi so much and I was so invested in the case that despite my slump I still couldn’t stop reading. Definitely recommend and now I’m looking forward to the adaptation.
Rating: 4 stars
Play Along by Liz Tomforde
This was another one that I read in one weekend, despite feeling a bit slumpy still, and being this much into a book felt so good! I think this installment is probably my 2nd favorite in this series so far (I don’t think anything will be beating The Right Move). But I LOVED Isaiah and Kennedy, the drunken marriage in Vegas that turns into a marriage of convenience trope, the ‘he-falls-first’ golden retriever sweetheart that is Isaiah and the badass that is Kennedy Kay.
Rating: 4,5 stars
Tangled Up In You by Christina Lauren
Tangled is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. And Christina Lauren are amongst my all-time favorite authors. So a Tangled retelling by Christina Lauren was definitely high on my bucket list! I really enjoyed this one, I loved the very Disney-esque vibes and how they made it very similar to the movie events but still also a very modern twist. Sweet and fun.
Rating: 4 stars
Business Casual (Lovelight #4) by B.K. Borison
I was so happy to be back in Inglewild! I loved Charlie and Nova’s story and felt like they were 2 really interesting characters. Nova was just such a cool character and Charlie is just a teddy bear that needs a hug and is now one of my favorite characters ever. But other than the romance, I just loved being back in this small town and meeting all the characters again. It’s just such a lovely place to escape to – I’m sad it’s the last book set here, but I’m already sure I’ll re-read the series often.
Rating: 4 stars
Top Ten Tuesday
Books with My Favorite Color on the Cover
I Had 10 Anticipated Books For The First Half of 2024 – How Am I Feeling About Them Now?
12 Debut Novels I Enjoyed
Romance in Books: Books I Wish Had More, Less, Or Were Just Perfectly Balanced
Can’t Wait Wednesday
Fan Service by Rosie Danan {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
WWW Wednesday
WWW Wednesday: 10 July 2024
WWW Wednesday: 24 July 2024
It was an amazing month music-wise with a lot of great new releases that I can’t all feature because this post would get bogged down by all the music videos so here are just my 3 top highlights:
Chrissy Costanza ft Voilà – Seven Minutes in Hell
The singer from Against The Current released her solo debut this month and I AM OBSESSED. This pop-rock song perfectly fits my villain romance era (that started with The Acolyte last month) 😀
Stray Kids – Chk Chk Boom
ONE OK ROCK – Delusion:All
The Acolyte
I started this last month but finished this month so I’m counting it twice. This is the Star Wars series that got me into Star Wars again. I don’t want to spoil anything but OMG this cast was amazing and I loved that it wasn’t afraid to try a different outlook on the SW universe and the Jedi and that villain romance is amazing and has me wanting season 2 like ASAP please *fans self*
Lovely Runner
I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS KDRAMA. It’s one of the best kdramas I’ve watched in ages (Romance is a Bonus Book will always be n°1 though) and I’m so happy it’ll be on Netflix soon so even more people can fall in love with it (I watched it on Viki). This is a time travel romance about a girl who’s a big fan of an idol who gave her the courage to go on and find joy in life again after she had a major accident. However one day, her idol dies under mysterious circumstances and she is devastated. In that devastation, she somehow ends up travelling back in time 15 years ago when she was in high school and her idol was still alive and just a regular student living in the same town as her. So she’s determined to change the past in order to save his future. But even this explanation doesn’t do this show justice as so much happens and it’s a rollercoaster of emotions and the romance is just the best. I can only recommend this show so so much, please watch it and come rave with me.
July has been good overall. I’m still feeling more slumpy than I would like, but I feel like it is getting a bit better and I did read quite some books this month and ended up loving a lot of them so that’s good. Work has been busy but I’ve also started to see improvement there in terms of stress level and because of the summer period, traffic has been so much better so that’s also good. I am looking forward to having three weeks off soon though!
THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY THIS MONTH:
- We had tickets for 4 days of a local music festival and it was so much fun! The highlight for me personally was Against The Current, but others were Lenny Kravitz, Simple Plan, Yungblud, Sum 41, MÃ¥neskin, Avril Lavigne, Nothing But Thieves and Marc Rebillet.
- Saw Deadpool vs Wolverine. It was amazing and I already want to see it again.
THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:
- My brother is getting married!
- I’m having 3 weeks off from work at the end of August!
- Excited to watch A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, as well as new seasons of The Umbrella Academy and Emily in Paris.
- And excited to read The Pairing, The Fiancé Dilemma, Haunted Ever After and Wisteria.
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 also read Heartstopper 5 this month 😉 I’m curious to see what I think of Not In Love. I’ve liked her romances so far but I could not make it through Bride.
Heartstopper is such a fun read! I’m curious as to what you think about Not In Love too! I liked it better than Bride, so hope you will too.
Everyone is seeing Deadpool vs Wolverine and I feel left out! Most of all I wanna see Dogpool 😛
Dogpool was definitely the biggest star in the movie! <3
Three weeks off of work – that sounds amazing! We are finally going to see Deadpool this Friday!
I’m so looking forward to a good long time off 🙂 Hope you loved Deadpool!
Seven Minutes in Hell is good!
Yay, glad to hear you love it too Sophie!
I love Heartstopper and I love that it was a slump-saver. It’s such a wholesome, heartwarming story, and I love them all so much!
I have never heard of Against the Current, but I’m loving this song and I’m so glad you decided to share it here. Thank you!
Congratulations to your brother! That must be so exciting. So happy to hear about all the good things happening!
Haze
https://thebookhaze.com/
Heartstopper is indeed so heartwarming and wholesome! I still need to catch up on season 2 of the adaptation but hope I’ll get to do that in time for season 3 🙂
So glad you’re loving the Chrissy Costanza song!
Thanks so much!
Starting to feel a bit slumpy too, but we both read 7 books in July! So many of the books you read are on my TBR. I really need to try Liz Tomforde and BK Borison, so I’m excited that you enjoyed those! 🙂 LOVED Chk Chk Boom as well! I haven’t listened to the whole album yet, but the title track was very classic Skz in the best way. Lee Know ATE.
I’m sorry you’re feeling a bit slumpy too! But I hope you’ll love the Liz Tomforde and BK Borison and that they’ll help you reduce the slump like they did for me 🙂
OMG, Chk Chk Boom is still on repeat all day and I’ve been watching the Lollapalooza show so much as well in the hopes I’ll get to see them live too one day.
Hallo Lindsey,
die Sache mit dem Stress kenne ich nur zu gut. Irgendwann braucht man dann auch einfach mal eine Auszeit. Ich freue mich, dass du nun drei Wochen hast, in denen du dich erholen und einfach mal das machen kannst worauf du Lust hast.
Von Heartstopper habe ich das erste Buch und die erste Staffel im Fernsehen gesehen. Hat mir richtig gut gefallen. Ich glaube, ich muss die Reihe bald mal fortsetzen.
Das K-Drama, das du erwähnst, kannte ich noch nicht. Spricht mich von deiner Beschreibung aber sehr an. Das kommt gleich mal auf die Watchlist. Danke für die Empfehlung! :o)
Ich wünsche dir einen wunderschönen August.
Liebe Grüße
Tanja
Thanks so much, Tanja! I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of the Heartstopper series (books and tv show) and that you’ll enjoy the Lovely Runner kdrama if you give it a try 🙂
Have a great August too!
I hope you enjoy your time off! I still need to read Heartstopper. I love the show.
Thanks! I need to catch up on season 2 of Heartstopper the show before season 3 comes out 🙂
Looks like you had a great July! I’m glad the books you read helped save you from Slumpville.
Congrats to your brother on his upcoming wedding! 😀
I hope you have a great August!
Thanks so much! I hope you have a great August too!
I’m curious about the adaptation for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, too! I read and enjoyed the book (though I think, like you, I gave it maybe 4/5–not my favorite favorite). I’m interested to see how they’ve adapted it!
I hope we’ll both enjoy the adaptation to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder! I’m only 1 episode in so far, and so far I like it but we’ll see.
I finally read ‘Good Girl’ and thought it was quite good. The series too is good and I think mostly true to the novel. 🙂
I’m glad to hear you liked the series adaptation! I’ve only watched one episode so far, but I’m liking it so far too 🙂