Hi everybody, and welcome to my double July AND August wrap up!

I took a blog break during this summer but I used that time to read. A LOT. So let’s take this moment to catch up on everything I read this summer, shall we?

Silver Elite by Dani Francis – A little too much focus on smut and how sexy people look for a dystopian BUT still highly entertaining nevertheless and I’m excited for book two. 4 STARS

Never Been Shipped by Alicia Thompson – loved everything to do with the music band and the fandom cruise, but wished we had a better buildup to the whole childhood friends to strangers to lovers romance as I didn’t feel it. 3,5 STARS

With Love, From Cold Town by Alicia Thompson (re-read) – As I only realized while reading Never Been Shipped that it featured characters from this favorite of mine, I needed a re-read. And yes, still love this one. 5 STARS

Not Safe For Work by Nisha J. Tuli – Such a fun summer read with a great enemies to lovers romance, corporate retreat shenanigans and great insights into the struggle of women (and especially women of color) in the workplace. 4,5 STARS

Caught Up (Into Darkness #2) by Navessa Allen – A dark romance between a mob son and a sex worker… I was a bit hesitant going into this because what I loved about the first one was the humor that the golden retriever main character brought and he was not longer a main character BUT it was still plenty fun and hot, despite being a tad darker than the previous one. 4 STARS

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune (re-read) – I was feeling in the mood for a book with summer vibes and this one was a great re-read, though I have to say I initially gave it 5 stars and would now be more inclined for a lower rating as the vibes couldn’t disguise the fact anymore that I felt like something was off with the pacing. 4 STARS

Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy (re-read) – A feel-good re-read every time! 4 STARS

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (re-read) – I’ve been wanting to re-read this series forever but just couldn’t bring myself to start reading the physical copies I have… so I caved and got the audiobooks instead and I’m flying through them. Still love this series so much. 4,5 STARS

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) by Sarah J. Maas (re-read) – This dragged a bit more than I remembered but that ending still gutted me. 4 STARS

In the Veins of the Drowning by Kalie Cassidy – I wanted to loved this dark romantasy about sirens and I did really love the vibes and for the first 75% or so I thought I was going to adore it… but then the bubble I was in because of the atmospheric vibes burst and for the last 25% I just felt like nothing made any sense at all, the worldbuilding was so lacking and confusing, and the character motivations felt super inconsistent. 3 STARS (for the vibes)

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna – BE STILL MY BEATING HEART! This was the exact found family, shot-of-serotonin, cozy fantasy I needed. The characters own my heart, the setting was amazing and the romance was so sweet. 5 STARS

Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood – I’m an age gap trope newbie (not counting the 400-something year age gap in some fantasy romances) and I LOVED THIS ONE. 10/10, need more, recs are welcome. The banter between Maya and Conor was amazing, the chemistry was on fire and the setting was just amazing. And bonus points for all the amazing side characters, including of course Rue and Eli. 5 STARS

Top Ten Tuesday

Books I’d Like to Re-read
Get To Know Me In 10 Songs {Non-Bookish Post}

Tag Thursday

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag – 2025 Edition

Look, like many, many people I fell into a Kpop Demon Hunters rabbithole this summer. Where there other songs? Yes. But nevertheless, it’s highly likely my Spotify Wrapped will still be completely overrun by this soundtrack and I have no regrets 🙂

HUNTR/X – How It’s Done

Our Last Night – Your Idol (KPop Demon Hunters Rock Cover)

Squid Game S3 – Not the ending I was hoping for, but I can appreciate the message behind it.

KPop Demon Hunters – Look, to be honest, at first I thought this was a kids movie that just wanted to jump on the recent kpop popularity train – but then I saw other book bloggers and bookstagrammers really loving it so I wanted to give it a try. And now here I am, ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED and having watched it 3 times already this summer. Such a fun movie, for kids and adults alike, AND the soundtrack is amazing.

Dept. Q S1 – Not my usual kind of watch but this was so good! I loved Mathew Goode as the grumpy detective and the case had me intrigued throughout the season.

The Summer I Turned Pretty S1 & 2 – I’m having very mixed feelings about this one. Do I like it more than the books? Yes. Does the love triangle still annoy me tremendously? Also yes. Can I stop watching then? No… I’m now way too invested in these annoying characters and their annoying love triangle.

My Oxford Year – Yes, I made the bookish faux pas of watching the movie before reading the book, but in this case I’m glad of it. The movie already made me sob like a baby, so I might not have survived the book.

Wednesday S2 Pt 1 – How better to start off spooky season than a new season of Wednesday?

It’s been a weird summer honestly. I really needed a blog break as it was all becoming a bit much for me. I thought I’d take my break to relax a bit at first and then get super productive and prep all my posts, so I could get back to blogging relaxed but also feeling prepared and organized and on top of the world basically 🙂

And then I did… absolutely nothing productive at all. Honestly, just the idea of getting behind my computer has been too much. I did not feel like it at all. So I decided to just… lean into that. If I felt like rotting, I rotted. If I felt like reading, I read. If I felt like rewatching KPop Demon Hunters again, I did.

So no, I’m not organized or prepared. But I’m glad I did nothing anyway as I really needed that. And now I’m back at blogging because I really started to miss it, but to be honest it’ll still be a bit chaotic and unorganized and maybe there will not be posts every single week but I’m still leaning into it and learning that that’s okay.

THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY THESE MONTHS:

• I saw Linkin Park live! They were so good and while I’ll always miss Chester, I feel like Emily did such a great job and they made me feel like it was 100% Linkin Park was on the stage – nothing was weird or wrong or lacking – they’re new and they’re still themselves at the same time.
• I got a haircut! I’ve had the same haircut and style for the past few years: something very straight and rigid (I straightened it every morning) and now I did something very different and got a wolfcut. My morning routine is now to get my hair wet, scrunch it up a bit with my hands and hope for the best (but the wilder it is the better). So it’s definitely taking me some getting used to but I’m loving it so far (even if, other than my husband who says he loves it, I’ve had zero feedback from friends, family or colleagues and I’m trying really hard not to assume the worst 😀 …)
• I saw a deer AND a fox in the wild! Not at the same time of course, but one day when I was getting to my car to get to work, a deer was taking a casual morning stroll in front of my house and another day while I was taking a walk with Pixel (in a woodsy area), a fox just crossed the road a few feet in front of me. I was in awe!
• I have just started 3 weeks of holiday from work and I am thriving! I’m at the end of week 1 now and I’m already feeling more rested AND feel my productivity coming back! We cleaned out our garage, went on long daily walks with Pixel, I got to sleep in every day (until like 8, but that’s sleeping in for me) and I finally completed an online course I’ve been procrastinating on. I could get used to this, I’m just saying 😉
• Friend and family dates.
• All the Taylor Swift news. Look, I don’t consider myself the biggest Swiftie, but the fact that she announced a new album, was absolutely shining and thriving on that podcast AND announced her engagement? Made me so happy, not gonna lie 🙂

THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:

• THE BEGINNING OF FALL and the best 4 months of the year!
• 2 more weeks of holiday for me!
• My husband and I’s 10 year wedding anniversary <3

How was your summer? What did you read? What did you listen to and what did you watch? What are you looking forward to in September?