The month I reached 100 «books» | August Wrap Up

Publicado el por Aldii

Hello everyone!

I hope you are well and that you had a great month! Today we are wrapping up August, the month I reached 100 «books»* read and a little bit more! I’m so surprised about that. My goal was 50 books and I didn’t expect I would read this much, only before I started uni did I read so many books. Might be this time with coronavirus, although my country didn’t have mandatory lockdown many of us decided to do it voluntarily and stayed home more than we would on normal basis!

*I say «books» because Goodreads counts them like that but there are some short stories in there and some audiobook short stories too!

Escaping Destiny & Seducing Destiny – 2.5/5 ⭐ (rating for the four books read)

Well, you might have read on my July Wrap Up that I read the first two books and then started August with the other two. As you may have seen there, I had had the first book on my TBR for 5 years. I’m happy that I finally decided to read it, because if not I would always have it there and thinking «maybe this is something I love». I don’t, but I’m happy that I finally know that.

I have decided to stop reading this series as of right now. I don’t want to continue investing my time in this one.

It’s definitely a series that is easy to read, to follow, and quite addictive as well. However, the power dynamics are very off, Syn is surrounded with people who «care» about her but only want her to do the job and don’t really care about her at all; the author’s voice is very weird, the way she developed the story, the words she used just didn’t sit well with me.

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Take a Hint, Dani Brown – 4/5⭐

Goodreads

After hearing so many good things about this one, I finally read it! I had a really great time with it! The representation in this book was great (Black, bisexual, Muslim, anxiety, panick attacks, death of parent/sibiling). I felt more comfortable with the sex scenes as I didn’t feel like it clashed with the story as much as in Chloe’s book. Other thing I loved is how Zaf worked in this organization to help young boys be in touch with their feelings but that was also a current theme for the protagonists too! The communication between characters isn’t really an issue because they work through it, but still they feel very real because they make mistakes, learn and try to figure things out as any of us would. I laughed out loud many times, and had an amazing time with the fake internet relationship as it evolved into something more. I think I prefer Chloe’s book but I had an amazing time with this one and I highly recommend these books if you want some romance with humour, great representation and that leaves you high in romance.

Tome Topple Readathon Round 12

This month I decided to participate for the first time in this Readathon. There are some prompts but I decided to not follow them. The goal of this readathon is to read books that are over +500 pages, that is the only «must» and I stuck to that but not anything else.

My original TBR was:

But then I also added:

I never expected to read all those but I wanted to have some margin to see what I was in the mood for and read that! As you will see, I didn’t read most of the list but the ones that still are unread I think I will leave them for the next round. This readathon is a fun way and excuse to read these longs and maybe sometimes intimidating books!

King of Scars – 5/5 ⭐

Goodreads

I was surprised by how much I liked it! I loved how politics, religion and fantasy were combined. Following (mainly) three POVS, they all moved the two story lines forward in a way that compelled me to read more and to never lose interest. Objctively maybe there were some chapters that I felt a bit meh but I would say 95 percent of this book got me into it from the beginning.

I’m very curious to see how the next book develops, and a little afraid for and about it too if I’m being honest!

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The Woman In White – 4/5⭐

Goodreads

This was one of the classics I found it easier to get into.

While I had some criticism for the characters, I absolutely loved the writing. The way the author developed this story throughout different «testimonies» worked out for me so well. I got to see the story from different POVs and that allowed me to go deeper into intentions and motives but also into the characters and their personalities.

So happy I decided to read this one!

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The Poppy War – 4/5⭐

Goodreads

I had seen this book on youtube being recommended or on TBRs and I was curious. I decided to give it a go and it was a great fantasy.

There are some trigger warnings you might want to read before deciding to start this one.

If you decide to read it, let me tell you it’s a great adult fantasy, with both action and magic with hints of religion at some points. The characters are great and seeing Ring throughout the story and her decisions and motives was really well done by the author.

Definitely reading the second one soon!

So, as this readathon is all about reading books +500 pages, I decided to do some math and see how many pages (from the editions I read) I ended up reading in it:

  • King of Scars: 527 pages
  • The Woman in White: 826 pages
  • The Poppy War: 644 pages

In total I read: 1997 pages! I’m surprised and proud of myself! There are still books to read from my TBR because I absolutely changed it but I will be saving some of them for the next round of Tome Topple!

Let’s continue with the rest of the month!

Read Me Romance

Okay so, this month while reading those tomes I discovered the Read Me Romance Podcast and omg I was am obsessed. I love the podcast itself, when the hosts talk about whatever they decided that day, but I also love the short romance stories because it’s a HEA for sure! I love just going for a walk, or staying in bed on Sundays and listening to the new episode. I’m not saying I like all the eps the same, or that there are no things to criticize. But, this time I don’t care. I enjoy this podcast, the stories and I’m not apologizing for that. So! With all that being said, I wanted to add those here too and will do so each month from now on! This month I listened to:

Racismo Estrutural – 4.5/5⭐

Goodreads

You could say this book is short (about 200 pages) but it’s dense, heavy full of content.

This was a great great read because the author was so clear and direct presenting his ideas. He never gave anything as «known» by the reader, he explained the basics first and then did he present his point.

Definitely recommending this one if you can read in portuguese! (as there are no translations yet)

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The Tower of the Swallow – 3.75/5⭐

Goodreads

Okay so, this one wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as great as the previous one. I had an issue with the way the author decided to develop this story, specially the time frame. I never was entirely sure of when I was reading. The story felt mixed and just complicated without needing to be that way. Other thing I felt was a little disappointment over Ciri’s character and never seeing her magic really developing or being used. The ending wasn’t the strongest and that made me lower the rating a bit more too.

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Red, White & Royal Blue – 3.5/5⭐

Goodreads

I finally read it! And it was good but for me nothing else. My main problems with this one were: the third person perspective, which I think made me feel all the time at an arm’s length of the story and the characters, I ended up not caring that much for them; my second problem was that I didn’t buy the «political» aspect of this. I didn’t like how the author managed that because not once did I believe in it. So, it was good, the romance was cute, but just didn’t work as well for me as it has done for other people!

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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – 5/5⭐

Goodreads

OMG. I didn’t expect to love this one as much as I did. I was into it from the beginning. I think the author did a wonderful job developing human emotions, motivations and different personalities through the characters. I ended up being a mess of tears and having so many mixed feelings about Evelyn Hugo. Absolutely loved it and I’m so glad I finally read it!

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Alpha Night – 4/5⭐

Goodreads

I have to give the credit to Nalini Singh for selling me something I don’t really like: love at first sight. Actually, it’s more of a mating at first sight situation. This was new to the series and I actually really liked. The thing for the success for me was that the author gave the characters the time to develop their relationship and get to know each other and because of that I really liked how she pulled off that! The overall plot was good, not one of my favourites but Nalini always delivers for me good comforting stories!

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Wild Hunger – 4/5⭐

Goodreads

After months of taking a break from this world I finally came back and I’m so happy I did! I took my time to come back and see these characters be adults and develop their own way of doing things. While we know where the romance goes I loved that the author didn’t think it was already all said and done. She gave the characters space to set and present themselves first, and then she started the romance. Being started the key because it was barely an introduction but I really liked that! The structure of the plot and the main group of characters is very similar to the Chicagoland series but that is not something that I specially dislike.

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Sherlock Holmes

You could say this month I took something of a break from Sherlock. However, I still managed to read (more like listen as they were audiobooks) two of the stories:

BOOKS I NEED TO READ BY THE END OF THE YEAR

Time to catch up!

One of the questions on the Mid Year Freak Out tag was to say the books I “need” to read by the end of the year. I listed two books in different categories that I want to read and that hopefully help me read different things! I’ll be crossing those I have read and updating each month so it’s not just other list I’ll have but take no action to complete

Two non-fiction books: Caliban and the Witch // O que é racismo estrutural?

Two books that have been for a long time on my TBR: The Song of Achilles // Fighting Destiny

Two classics: 1984 // Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Two books that I have seen them being recommended in the blogosphere: Red, White and Royal Blue // The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Two books that I have seen in booktube: Red Sister // Trail of Lightning

Two books released this year: Black Girl Unlimited // Felix Ever After

That’s it for this month!

I read so much more than I expected and I feel like I discovered some great books this month. August ended up being way better than I imagined and I’m so glad about that!

Let me know how was your August! Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think of them? Do you have any of them on your TBR? Let’s chat!

Thank you so much for reading!

Love,

Aldii

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