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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Book Review: "Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria" by J.M. Bergen

Title: Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria

Author: J.M. Bergen

Series: "The Elandrian Chronicles" #2

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy 

Page Length: 370 pages

Publication Date: May 20, 2020

Rating: 4 // 5 stars

Goodreads

Book 1 Review

*I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own*

I read the first book in this series last year and has a wonderful time so I was incredibly excited to read this installment. These books follow Thomas, who I believe is now thirteen, as he discovers that magic  runs in his family legacy and his help is needed to foil an enemy's plot that could impact the entirety of the world.

I really enjoyed book one. I thought it was light-hearted and fun with plenty of action and magic to keep any lover of middle-grade entertained. This book, however, developed in such a different and unique way. While we still have action and magic and the fun interactions between Thomas and his best friend, Enrique, the stakes have also risen and the book has a lot more tension throughout.

This book was a quick read. The writing is easy to follow and fall into while the story is engaging. The tension throughout also helped keep the pages turning because I wanted to know what happened next and I wanted to know immediately. This book is almost 400 pages long and I read it in one sitting in only a few hours.

The storyline itself was rather interesting. It builds on threads that were weaved from the first book and adds new information and events. There's plenty of action and fighting scenes as well as just magical training scenes. One thing that was nice is that the magic system is explained well to readers through the training scenes with Thomas so it doesn't ever feel like we're being info-dumped on. That being said, there were a lot of strategical and lower energy scenes throughout the book as well. It was an interesting balance between the two.

I will say that some parts of the novel didn't feel necessary to the overall plot line, though that didn't mean I didn't like them. I won't give specific examples because of spoilers, but there were a few scenes where I was reading and thinking, "what does this add to the story or character development?" and would draw a blank. That being said, I still enjoyed these scenes but some younger middle grade readers might find them tedious in an already long book.

I could definitely see how Thomas has grown up some from the boy we meet at the beginning of book one. He's been through a lot of tricky ordeals and stressful situations and you can see the effect that these have had on him. I also loved getting to see Enrique again. I love the value placed on friendship that is often in middle grade books and this was no exception. Thomas and Enrique always have each other's backs and I loved seeing it.

I will say that something I did get overwhelmed with was the sheer number of characters in this book. I probably should have reread the first book to refresh myself on everyone beforehand, but I found most of my struggles weren't with recognizing characters from the first book but with trying to keep all the new characters straight. I always struggle with names both in real life and in books. This means that I typically need a character to do something memorable individually on the page for me to keep them separate from the others. While a few characters did that, I ended up not spending the brain power trying to remember who's who in the frequent multi-character scenes. However, there were definitely a few new side characters who were introduced that I really enjoyed having in this book and am excited to see in the next one.

Overall, I really enjoyed this installment in the Elandrian Chronicles. I think Thomas is such a fun, nuanced character to read from and these books have a good balance on light-hearted middle grade fun and the more mature aspects that come with battles and saving the world. There was also a lot of new information that we got in this book about Thomas's family, magic as a whole, and more that I'm excited to see play out in the next book. A big thank you to Book Publicity Services for sending me a copy to review!

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Author's Website     |     Amazon     |     Barnes & Noble     |     Signed Copies

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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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!

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Let's Talk: "Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows" by J.M. Bergen

Title: Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows

Author: J.M. Bergen

Series: "Thomas Wildus" #1

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Page Length: 352 pages

Publication Date: February 2, 2019

Date Started: March 20, 2019

Date Finished: March 22, 2019 

Rating: 4.25 // 5 stars

Goodreads
Author Website

*I was sent a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own*

I was super excited to read this book when I got a copy of it. I've been reading a lot of very high fantasy, a lot of dense books for school, and just some books that have been disappointing. I was hoping that this would be a bit of a palate cleanser between books.

This book was so fun and lighthearted, yet tackles current issues in a way that makes them accessible to younger readers. I found that I couldn't put the book down by the time I was a little over halfway. I ended up reading most of this in a day and it was so fun!

The main thing I enjoyed about this book was just how fun it was and how quick of a read it was for me. I liked reading about Thomas and his adventures. He was such a good character and his interactions with those around him were spot on. My favorite thing, I think, about this book was Thomas's friendship with his best friend, Enrique. Just the unrequited excited friendship that these two share isn't something that we typically read about for older male characters. It was nice to see that younger readers are getting a good model.

The magic was also interesting. I would have liked to explore it a little bit better, but again, as this is a middle grade it made sense to not overload the book with complex descriptions of how the magic works. I honestly would love to have the magic that Thomas has. There's a lot of different aspects of it that were really fun to explore.

The plot was pretty good. I was able to read the book pretty quickly because the plot moved at a relatively fast pace which I enjoyed. I am excited to see where things go in the next book and how little things that were mentioned in this book play into the next few books.

Overall, this was a fun read and I had such a good time experiencing this story. I felt a wave of nostalgia the entire time I was reading this book for middle grade books and I'm glad that I enjoyed this one as much as I did. I'm super excited to see what happens in the next book, though I'm a bit sad I have to wait almost a year for it! I highly recommend this book to fantasy lovers everywhere!

Amazon
Banres & Noble
Signed Copies
Book Depository

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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