May Wrap Up

hello! Its May and it has been a great month which unfortunately started with finals in the first week but then progressed into three or so weeks which have been full of relaxing and vacationing while also getting some stuff done with doing my internship and working on some stuff from my blog and starting my new bullet journal!

ABSOLUTELY ADORE

A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft

This was a delightful book with great characters, an intriguing world I couldn’t help but want to know more about, fascinating magic system and a mystical hunt. I listened to the audiobook of it and I have to say, the author perfectly wrote an eery magical vibe which the narrator described very very well. Overall, I loved seeing how different the characters and their motivations were and how they developed and changed through the course of this book!

Little Thieves by Margaret Atwood

Before I say anything about this book in particular I have to admit I love seeing things in a different light and having this book follow who was supposed to be the ‘villain’ already had me quite excited and I am so glad it delivered so well with the mixed up intentions and reasons making up want to root for her and see her side and hope she pulls it off. In particular, this book is wonderfully written with great characters, character growth, plot and romance. It is full of twists and secrets and some betrayal and I cannot recommend it enough.

Hood feminism: Notes from the women that a movement forgot by Mikki Kendall

This was a powerful book which is a collection of essays regarding feminism and how these issues are very much affected by ti and should be a big part of the feminist campaign. There was certainly a lot I didn’t know that this book taught me and I loved getting to know more about feminism and specifically what black women need out of it. I hadn’t considered a lot of these issues to be feminist ones so to revise the ways I looked at them was quite interesting.

For The Wolf by Hannah F Whitten

I reread this book as I prepared going forward to reading the sequel and in short, I thoroughly enjoyed the reread. I loved going through this story again almost a year later via audiobook. I think I liked it more the second time around since I got to see the smaller details of it and it was such a great book overall. In fact, I may have an interesting post regarding this book coming out sometime this or the next week so stay tuned for that!

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

I loved this book so much. It takes on lesser known Greek myths along with some plant based magic with a girl who doesn’t know what is going on or how her powers work moulding into a convoluted tale with a lot of family history and mythology involved. I absolutely adored the main character and I think that’s a major reason of me liking this book. I also liked how the book starts slow and confused and then becomes faster towards the end as everything unravels. I know a lot of people don’t like this and prefer a more even pace of the book but I did and I hought it suited this book very much!

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

This book was everything. Kaikeyi is often villainised and cast aside in Indian Mythology as an evil, jealous queen who wants power but this book takes on another perspective looking at her life and how things came abut to be from her side of things. There was so much about Kaikeyi I didn’t know and I loved getting to know her early life, her intelligence, all the work she did and a different perspective on why she banished Ram on that trip. I also loved the subtle magic system the author used in this book – it was so fascinating and added little things to the story I adored.

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

I edned up binging this entire series in 5 days and I am glad to tell you all I thorougly loved it.

This series was wonderful – it had me hooked and squirming in my seat as I read and the secrets were revealed. I cared so deeply for the characters and would do almost anything to protect them and I absolutely loved the world that this book set up for me. Overall, I highly recommend this series and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t read it yet!

THOROUGHLY ENJOYED

The Emma Project by Sonali Dev

This was most definitely my favourite book of the Raes series and I adored it. I could relate to both Naina and Vansh and their insecurities and could feel for them in the problems they were facing. They were constantly underestimated, misjudged and in Naina’s case, also mistreated by those around them and I loved how together they came to see better in themselves and help bring it out in the other. I also adored this book for having a love story for the eldest Raje, Esha brief as it may have been!

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

I loved this book so so much. It’s a coming of age story about a messy queer teens who is unsure but dedicated and determined and makes mistakes but at the same time loves so fiercely and cares so much and I couldn’t help but fall in love with her. I loved the romance and it was certainly cute but more importantly I loved the relationship between the siblings and seeing how it changes and is complicated. This book can get dark and harsh and I had some hard times reading it but just know it has a happy ending and I loved it.

Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

This was a cute, fun contemporary where two unlikely people are thrust together and as they work and live together and get to know each other eventually falling in love. The two were so different from each other hiding parts of themselves but opening up slowly and surely letting the other see the most vulnerable parts. I loved the banter between the characters and I would have loved to see a few more interactions between them. While it didn’t live up to You Deserve Each Other for me, I quite enjoyed this book and can’t wait for whatever Sarah Hogle has in store for us next!

Merry Inkmas by Talia Hibbert

This was a fun short novella by Talia Hibbert who really doesn’t disappoint. While I wasn’t as invested in this story because of its short length and not getting to know the characters as well, I did quite enjoy it and really liked the plot and the Christmas setting. It was small and wholesome and had great smut and yeah, if you’re looking for soemthing fun but short, read this book!

A Song of Wraiths and Ruins by Roseanna A Brown

I read both books of this duo logy practically back to back in a span of three or so days and really enjoyed it! I definitely enjoyed the first book more where everything was being set up and wasn’t as convoluted and I was more surprised by the twists and turns of the story then. The second book got a little tiring for me because of the miscommunication and multiple changing of sides but it was still really good and I especially loved how everything concluded in this series. I have to say I adored the world building and folklore and culture which seeps out of this book in abundance and just made tit so vibrant.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

This book has been on my TBR for quite some time and I am glad I finally got to it. IT was intriguing and fascinating and so different. I loved the different perspectives which sort of took away the mystery but at the same time allowed you to see everything in full detail from the beginning itself which is so different from most such stories and I loved how the author dealt with using this perspective. Briefly, I loved the feminism, the friendship and the queer representation!

IT WAS OKAY? 

How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao

l had high expectations for it but I just didn’t care for the characters or even like them and I thought the consequences weren’t well done and just brushed past and I needed more? I think the characters didn’t really grow or care all that much about their secrets being exposed in the long run and just kind of forgot about it. I think it also especially didn’t work for me because I didn’t care about the characters so I had no investment into hoping their horrible secrets remained secrets or who was after them.

MY FAVOURITE BOOK(S) OF THE MONTH: 
This Poison Heart and Kaikeyi

April Wrap Up

A Far Wilder Magic | Book review

Branching Out Into Other Genres | Reading Update

20 Asian Queer Books To Add To Your TBR

WHAT I WATCHED 

I havent really been watching things since I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks and packing games which is basically Stardew Valley and Genshin Impact for me!

SPY X FAMILY

This show is so wonderful and I’ve been loving watching the episodes as they are released with my friend! I love Anya so so much and I would literally kill for her. Loid and Yor are also great and I love them as well!

I really wish I had more episodes and could watch them at once because the wait to each one is so excruciating.

INVENTING ANNA

OH this show was so amazing and I loved it. I still have quite a few questions about Anna and how she pulled it off and I will try to research them a bit and see how exactly she did it all because wow, she is a little crazy but so brilliant. I was so invested in this show and could not stop watching for a significant part of it so if you’re like me and get addicted to thing, be sure to set otut time where you are completely free to watch this show.

WHAT I DID IN MAY

OH, May was quite a month for me. I have done so much this month and I can’t believe all of these things happened within a span of 30 days because honestly it feels like its been many many more days than that.

I started off May with exams in the evry first week which as you can imagine were long and hard and stressful and truly I do not know how I got through them and I know I barely got any sleep and it was so bad and unhealthy for me and I am currently looking back on some of the decisions I made regarding sleep then and seriously reevaluating my thoughts and actions but that was that. It was the first time for me givign offline exams in two years and my first offline college exams so I guess mys tress and bad habits can sort of be excused? LMAO I don’t know.

Following that I came back home on like the 8th of May, and buried myself in my room for the next week doing nothing but watching tv shows or movies, reading, playing games and listening to audiobooks. I was in desperate need of some alone time and needing to recharge my battery as a whole and this week did give me that if nothing else and I am glad.

After that I sort of established a normal or so routine with my internship work in the day (which is remote so yay for working rom my bed), meeting up with friends in the evening sometimes, spending some time with my mum in the afternoons and also visiting my grandparents for the weekends. It’s been delightful to return to this life with the comforts of home and not having anything much going on and I am having so so much fun!

I also started doing things for my blog and restarted my bookstagram which I love and am so happy to do! I have a few posts already planned and almost scheduled for next month and I really hope you’ll enjoy them!

• Ophelia After All by Raquel Marie
• The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur
• I kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuinston
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry

PLANS FOR JUNE

June is going to be quite the month. I have so much I want to get done in June but also so little time to do so with me going on vacation with my family. I finish up my internship on the 10th of June which is the same night I leave for a week long vacation in Thailand. So I expect the first 10 days of June to be busy with a bit of shopping, packing and preparing for my trip while also doing work for my internship followed by a week of hopeful relaxation (and a lot of sight seeing and beach activities).

Once I come back home I will again have to start packing to go back to campus for the summer semester in the beginning of July but at the same time probably will have some more free time to see my friends one more time each and go stay at my grandparents for a couple of days again!

That was May for me! How was May for you? How many books did you read? Which one was your favourite? What are your plans for June? Let me know in the comments below.

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