May 2020 Wrap-Up

Hello everyone! I am back today with my wrap-up for the month of May! I can't believe it's already June and that I'm about to start an online summer course next week. Time has been simultaneously flying and going by at a snail's pace.

May was a pretty alright month. I finished up my junior year of university (I'm now officially a senior and the pressure is setting in) and have worked a lot on my mental and physical wellbeing these past few weeks I've been stuck at home. This included watching a lot of Netflix...oops. That being said, I had a pretty intense reading goal for this month and I didn't even come close to achieving it but I'm happy with that. I never want to force myself to read if I'm not in the mood.

That being said, I read 8 books in May, with some of them being long, and enjoyed all of them. Some I absolutely loved and others I simply liked. There was not a single book that I didn't enjoy which signifies a successful reading month to me! That being said, let's go ahead and dive right in!

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BOOKS READ

1.
Title: The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly 
Author: Jamie Pacton
Rating: 4 // 5 stars
Review/Blog Tour

2.
Title: The Henna Wars
Author: Adiba Jaigirdar
Rating: 5 // 5 stars
Review/Blog Tour

3.
Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Rating: 5 // 5 stars
Review
-reread-

4.
Title: The City of Brass
Author: S.A. Chakraborty
Rating: 4.5 // 5 stars
Review
-reread-

This was a fun reread for me. I read this book the first time over a year ago and knew that I definitely needed a refresher before finishing the trilogy. It was so nice to be back with familiar characters in a familiar world. I did struggle a bit at times because I'm so unmotivated because of quarantine and there aren't a lot of high-action scenes, but overall it was an enjoyable reread that I finished in just a few sittings. I loved getting to see these characters again and reorient myself in this world as there were a lot of things I had forgotten.

5.
Title: Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria
Author: J.M. Bergen
Rating: 4 // 5 stars
Review

6.
Title: The Tiger at Midnight
Author: Swati Teerdhala
Rating: 3.75 // 5 stars
Review

7.
Title: The Kingdom of Copper
Author: S.A. Chakraborty
Rating: 5 // 5 stars
Review
-reread-

I decided to reread the first two books in this trilogy before going onto the third and final one and I'm so glad I did! I forgot how much I loved this book. I knew I loved it but I forgot how much and why. It was honestly such a fun (aka stressful) ride rereading this book and I am so scared for what is going to happen in the third and final book that I'm so blessed to have an early copy of. 

8.
Title: The Empire of Gold
Author: S.A. Chakraborty
Rating: 5 // 5 stars
Review

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MAY BLOG POSTS

April 2020 Wrap-Up
April 2020 Book Haul
Blog Tour: "The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly" by Jamie Pacton + GIVEAWAY
Blog Tour: "The Henna Wars" by Adiba Jaigirdar + GIVEAWAY
Book Review: "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
Spring Cleaning Book Tag
Book Review: "Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria" by J.M. Bergen
Book Review: "The Tiger at Midnight" by Swati Teerdhala
How I Get Free Books

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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BLOG TOUR: "The Henna Wars" by Adiba Jaigirdar Review + Giveaway

Hello everyone! Today I'm bringing you another awesome blog tour in collaboration with Page Street Kids. This one is all about The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar, a book that I absolutely adored! This post is full of a bunch of awesome stuff including my non-spoiler review, an exclusive playlist, and a giveaway.

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SYNOPSIS

When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.

When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.

Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.

Publisher: Page Street Kids

Release Date: May 12th 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBT, Contemporary, Queer

Goodreads

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MY REVIEW

5 // 5 stars

I loved this book. I want to start by saying a big thank you to Page Street Kids for providing me a free copy for review. I am so happy that I'm a part of this tour and got the chance to read this amazing book. 

What speaks most to my enjoyment of this book is that it's almost 400 pages and yet I read it in one sitting. The writing was so easy to fall into, I connected well to the main character, and the story itself was so rich and addicting to read. 

I loved Nishat and she's such a compelling character to read from. She goes through so much and is definitely not perfect, but she's resilient and she cares about others and she calls people on their bullshit. Even if I couldn't relate to everything she's going through and struggling with, I did feel like I could still connect to her for other reasons. Nishat felt like a very well-rounded character and watching her development throughout the book was so fun. 

The side characters were also very well done. I think Priti was my favorite side character followed by Flávia. Priti was a very prevalent character as Nishat's sister and I really enjoyed her. She also felt like a well-rounded character--even though she was there a lot to support Nishat, her own issues and life were also addressed on the page and I felt that that made her more relatable to me. There were a host of other side characters I enjoyed as well. I like that we weren't oversaturated with them but the ones who did get page time were well-written and engaging. 

I felt that this book was very eye-opening to me and I learned a lot. Our main character, Nishat, is a lesbian, Bangladeshi, and living in Dublin. Throughout the book, she experiences a lot of instances of racism, homophobia, and bullying because she's not white and straight. To me, it was definitely a moment of I know these types of situations happen in the world and I've read second-hand accounts but I've never experienced it before. One of the reasons I like books so much is because I can put myself in other people's shoes. Even if it's not the same, I felt like this book definitely helped me realize that racism and homophobia are still very big issues even in "1st world" countries. 

I loved getting to read about Nishat's culture as well. I'm not Bangladeshi so I can't comment on the representation's authenticity, but as the author is Bangladeshi herself, I feel confident that it was written in an authentic and respectful way. I love getting to read about other cultures and learn about them so I really liked how that aspect of Nishat's life wasn't glossed over to make room for the romance. One of my favorite scenes was when they were describing all of the different foods at the  big wedding and I was literally salivating while reading it and had to make myself a snack because it was making me so hungry. 

Another thing I felt was well done was the family dynamics. Family is a huge part of every culture, I'd say, but the dynamics are different depending on that culture. Not only did I like getting to learn all the different names for family members, but I also thought the way the family was written was quite eye-opening. There's a big emphasis on how your actions affect your family and their reputation as a whole. But I also just liked the sisterly moments between Nishat and Priti and the cute family moments in the car. I just loved how prevalent and important family was in this book and to Nishat. 

Another thing I liked was the romance. I'm a big fan of enemies-to-lovers tropes, though I'd say in this case it's more of a rivals-to-lovers because Nishat and Flávia aren't really enemies, just competitors in this business competition. I just really enjoyed getting to read their relational development and how they overcame different issues. 

So many things were discussed in this book: family and culture, cultural appropriation, romance, bullying, racism, homophobia, friendship, etc. However, I never felt that one thing overshadowed another. These are all things that Nishat was struggling with and I liked how they all got addressed and not brushed over. 

I said "loved" a lot in this review and I'm not sure how coherent this book is as a whole but that's just because I loved this book. I loved everything about it and it is definitely one of my favorite reads of 2020 and will always have a spot on my Favorites shelf. I highly recommend this book and I hope everyone will enter the giveaway below or go buy a copy to support this amazing author!

There are content warnings listed at the beginning of the book, but I will also list them here: "contains instances of racism, homophobia, bullying, and a character being outed. All of these are challenged and dealt with on the page."

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PLAYLIST

YouTube

Beautiful People - Ed Sheeran ft. Khalid

Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

I'm Just a Kid - Simple Plan

Fight Song - Rachel Platten

I Don't Want to Be - Gavin DeGraw

Turning Out - AJR

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MEET ADIBA JAIGIRDAR

Adiba Jaigirdar is a Bangladeshi/Irish writer and teacher. She lives in Dublin, Ireland. She has an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Kent, England and a BA in English and History from UCD, Ireland.

She is a contributor for Bookriot. Previously, she has published short fiction and poetry in various journals and anthologies.

All her work is aided by copious amounts of (kettle-made) tea and a whole lot of Hayley Kiyoko and Janelle Monáe.

She is represented by Uwe Stender at TriadaUS.

GOODREADS     |     WEBSITE     |     TWITTER     |     INSTAGRAM

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PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON     |     BARNES & NOBLE     |     KOBO     |     GOOGLE PLAY

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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You can follow my bookstagram here for more bookish content!

To get more awesome posts like this post, click the follow button to the right!

Get free worldwide shipping with Book Depository using my affiliate link

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April 2020 Book Haul

Hello everyone! Today I'm here with my book haul for this past April. I'm actually really proud of myself because all of these were either sent to me for free or were books I paid for previously meaning I didn't buy any new books this month! This was a goal for me since I bought so many in March and I'm trying to focus on not spending money (especially as a coping mechanism for lockdown) or growing my TBR even more. That being said, I am super excited for most of the books I got this month so let's dive in!

The first book I got this month was a signed copy Crave by Tracy Wolff. This was sent to me by Entangled Teen for my participation in the blog and instagram tour for this book hosted by FFBC. Unfortunately, I also read this in March and hated it so I'll be unhauling it as soon as it's safe to go places.

The second book I got was a book I ordered all the way back in October and that is the A Court of Thorns and Roses Collector's Edition by Sarah J. Maas. I ordered this through the Apollycon Virtual Signing and it was supposed to come signed and personalized to me but with COVID the event got cancelled so I got a bookplate instead. I am slightly annoyed because I already had a Collector's Edition but I really wanted a personalized copy and, to me, paying full price + shipping + extra shipping since I couldn't get the address switched and had to pay for it to be forwarded wasn't worth  a bookplate. I in no way blame Apollycon or Sarah, but I am annoyed that COVID made this happen.

Up next I got sent an ARC of The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton from Page Street Publishing. I'm participating in the blog and instagram tour for this book as well (also hosted by FFBC). I'm really excited for this one--it was on my radar and wishlist, so when I saw there were tour signups for it I jumped at the chance! I'm actually posting about this book on Thursday and there will be a bunch of fun stuff including a giveaway!

Then I got sent an ARC of The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar, also from Page Street Publishing for a blog and instagram tour through FFBC. I am also so excited about this one because it's a sapphic love story with rivals-to-lovers and it's an ownvoices novel. I'll be posting about this one on May 13th so don't forget to check back in for all the fun stuff I have planned!

Up next I finally got my UK tour edition of House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. The story behind this one is quite long--I was supposed to see Sarah on her UK tour when I was in London for spring break (before COVID response actually started) but she cancelled it because of COVID. I wasn't too upset since I've met her before and I wouldn't want her to endanger her health or family but I also was hoping I'd still be able to get this edition. Waterstones was nice enough to put it up for general sale and I was able to snag a copy with some extra goodies (an enamel pin & temporary tattoos). It took over a month to get to me (it shipped March 17 and didn't get here until April 21st). Shipping is already slow because of COVID so it took three weeks to get to my college since I wasn't able to change the address, and then another week until I was able to pay them to ship it to me. Overall, I'm just glad that it's finally here and I can add it to my SJM collection since it is stunning.

The last book I got this month was sent to me by Book Publicity Services and it was an ARC of Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria by J.M. Bergen. I read the first book in this middle grade series last year when it came out and really enjoyed it, so I was very excited when they reached out again this year to offer me a review copy. I'll have a review for this up likely by the end of the month so stay tuned for that! 

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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You can follow my bookstagram here for more bookish content!

To get more awesome posts like this post, click the follow button to the right!

Get free worldwide shipping with Book Depository using my affiliate link

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