August 2020 Wrap Up

Salutations Chapterlings! How have you been? I hope you’re doing well, you’re staying hydrated, and safe! I know I’ve been a ghost, even more so with my wrap ups. I think the last wrap up I did was back in February or March? However, August has been a really successful reading month for me! I think this has been the month where I’ve read the most thus far (July might be the second, I think). If you’ve been following my content and my updates recently, you know there has been a lot of things happening that have been shifting my content, how much I’ve been reading, etc… So I was really nervous that August was going to fall short of my personal expectations, but I’m so, so happy that I exceeded past those goals.

I have read some truly fantastic books this month. Many of these books are upcoming releases, but some are not and two have made it onto my ‘top books of 2020’ list. I’m really hoping to keep this momentum going as we rapidly approach into September and hopefully, I’ll have even more books I’ve fallen in love with to share with all of you. For the month of August, I’ve read thirteen books (technically it’s a little bit more than that, roughly around sixteen, but some I don’t want to count those). Below you can find the reviews for each book. I also wanted to try to do something a little bit different this time with my wrap up to kind of give it a bit of a fresh start since I haven’t done a wrap up in months. So I hope you like this freshening up of my content and I hope you give some of these books a chance!

🌻 The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen ⭐⭐⭐
I know, I wish I would have loved this book so much more. This wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting it to be. As a lover of retellings and the fact that this is A Midsummer Night’s Dream retelling, I think my expectations were just too high. But I do encourage others to pick this book up. There are some great elements and as I said, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream retelling.

🌻 Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Buddy Read with Destiny 💜
This book was truly a roller coaster of emotions. There were twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting, some taking me completely off guard. My only real issue with this book was the multiple point of views. For the most part we were in the perspective of the main character, but there were three other point of views and most times, if there’s more than two povs, they start to bleed together. Otherwise, this was a fantastic read. I loved the rougarou.

🌻 The Language of Ghosts by Heather Fawcett ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was a fast paced, fantastic time. I had a real blast reading this book. There’s invisible cats, a lazy dragon, a sea serpent who adores cake, and lost magical languages! It was a really fun time. This book is also broken down into three sections of the book which was really unique. Plus, the sections were named after islands in the book. I haven’t seen that in a middle grade novel, yet. I think the reason this wasn’t a full five stars was due to Mite’s pov, spiders in Mite’s pov, and I wish there had been a little more insight or details some of the backstory. Otherwise, anyone who picks this book up will fly through it!

🌻 Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall ⭐⭐
Big oof, this one hurts a lot. I truly feel like I’ve read an entirely different story compared to everyone else. Yes there were some funny times and there were some wonderful moments between the main character and love interest, yes there was great family dynamics, but that’s not enough to make me forget a lot of the content that was put in this book. I truly wish I could have loved this book and maybe I’m being too much of a critical reader, but I really didn’t enjoy my time reading this. We’re just going to pretend this didn’t happen.

🌻 Unbirthday by Liz Braswell ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love a good retelling especially if it’s Alice in Wonderland! I have a lot of history with Alice in Wonderland; whether it’s my nickname, childhood memories, or the way it comes into play with my bookish content, the story has been a part of my life for a very long time. So naturally when I heard Disney-Hyperion was releasing a retelling, I jumped on that train to request an arc so fast. When I say I loved this book, I absolutely loved this book. This made it onto my top books of 2020! That’s how much I enjoyed this book and it was so hard to put down. Sleep and I were in discord with one another because of this book, but it was so worth it!

🌻 Teen Titans: Beast Boy (Teen Titans #2) by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo ⭐⭐⭐⭐
There it goes again, my nerdy side is showing and I have no regrets! Beast Boy is probably my favorite Teen Titan. I’m a big lover of shape-shifting and the way Kami and Gabriel brought Beast Boy to life in this graphic novel just filled my soul with so much love. I think the reason why this wasn’t the full five stars like I expected was due to not really seeing enough of Gar being there for his friends. His friends had a lot going on and I wish we would have seen just a little bit more of them and Gar being there for one another.

🌻 Well Played by Jen DeLuca ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I fell in love with Well Met earlier this year and when all my friends told me there was a second book coming out, I couldn’t be happier! I’m even more happy because the pandemic has cancelled a lot of plans. One of those plans being the Maryland Renaissance Festival (yes, that’s an actual event that takes place from August-October). This will be the first year I don’t get to attend and I’ve been a little sad by it. So getting an arc of Well Played has lessened that sadness and I’m happy to say that I enjoyed this book. And I’m even more excited for the third book, Well Matched! I just adore this series so, so much!

🌻 There Are Things I Can’t Tell You by Edako Mofumofu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was truly a beautiful experience. This is just such a wholesome manga and my heart was a mess. These two cinnamon roll characters deserve the best and I’m hoping we’ll see more of them in the future by the author. I just can’t believe I sobbed through the majority of this book. I’m still not okay, but I love this so, so much and can’t recommend it enough!

🌻 Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is such a powerful and an emotional read. I can’t recommend enough making sure you practice self-care while reading this book. When I read this book, I was definitely not in the best head space and there were parts that were so hard to read through. I do have the majority of the content and trigger warnings listed in my review for book. Content and trigger warnings for almost anything you could think of. So please make sure you read that before deciding to pick this book up.

🌻 In An Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4) by Seanan McGuire ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Oh gosh did I love this. I loved this book so, so much. Truly, I think a piece of my heart was left in between the pages of this book. Seanan McGuire’s writing is always so beautiful and just has a wonderful way intertwining important topics that aren’t often discussed enough throughout the book. And I mentioned this in my review, but Lundy, oh sweet Lundy, I connected with her on such a personal level. I just fell in love with this book so hard and if you’re a fantasy reader who loves portal worlds, I can’t recommend this series enough!

🌻 Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have heard the whispers of Mark Oshiro’s writing before, but I’ve never read anything by Oshiro before… until now. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I fell in love with the writing and the incredible world building. Throughout this book you can feel how high the stakes are and the ending was beautifully done. I definitely recommend keeping a water bottle close by because this book does a great job at making you appreciate water and making you feel incredibly thirsty.

🌻 The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Read for the Dragons & Tea Book Club 🐲

This book was so much more than I expected. Going into this book I knew that it was going to deal with a lot of important topics, but I didn’t know that I would spend giant chunks of this book crying my eyes out. This was truly a beautiful book and it was so hard to put it down. There’s truly so much to love about this book and I don’t want to spoil any of it for you. Just know, that despite the four stars, this book has made it onto my top books for 2020.

🌻 Midnight Poppy Land by Lilydusk ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Before I start, this is a free webcomic and you can read it for free HERE!
I loved this so darn much! Let’s just be honest, I love the mob/innocent girl trope. I love anything that has to do with a syndicate or roaring 20’s with speakeasies, mobs, etc… You get where I’m going. So when a little birdie dropped a link for this in my inbox, well I disappeared for two days and reemerged hooked on a new webcomic. I loved this. I have so many questions and I need answers! And the artwork is so beautiful. Every time I read a new piece of this story, I just fall in love with it even more. I definitely recommend giving this webcomic a chance and supporting the independent creator of this comic. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this author.

I truly cannot believe I read so much during the month of August! Who am I anymore, truly? Okay, friends! My August wrap up has finally come to an end. I hope you enjoyed this little reboot of my wrap up! I haven’t talked about it much, but August has been a really hard month and if you’ve been following my content, you know that I’ve been devoting a lot of energy into giving my blog a breath of fresh air. Kind of like spring cleaning, but it’s actually summer cleaning. I just really wanted to spice up my content, but give my blog the love it truly deserves because I truly love my blog (it makes me so, so happy), the content I make for it, and we’re healing each other with that love. And all of you play a role in this too because you continue to love my content, my blog, and you let me be myself. I’m so, so grateful for that, truly. This ending ended up being longer than I anticipated, but let me know in the comments below if you like the new wrap up style (with some final thoughts on the book) or tell me if there’s something else you’d like to see me do. Until next time, I love you! 💛