Hi everybody, happy August and welcome to my July wrap-up! This was the first month in a while where I felt like my reading game was back! I read more books than the previous months and I enjoyed them all, so that is great 🙂 Let’s dive into my wrap up…

A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl #8) by Matt Dinniman

I am all caught up with this series. 8 books. 7 months of my life. WHAT DO I DO NOW? I’m already missing Carl and Donut so much!

I loved this book and how even after 8 books, this does not get stale. Once again, this book felt so different from the previous books. And that ending had me shocked. Did not see that coming at all. 5 STARS – Can’t wait for book 9 (and 10)!

Game On (Into Darkness #3) by Navessa Allen

I was a bit worried about this book as I wasn’t a big fan of Tyler in the previous books. And yes, he’s pretty douchey for a big part of the book. But he and Stella won me over! I really enjoyed this one, and it was a great read to help stop the post-DCC reading slump – 4 STARS

The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed #2) by Brigitte Knightley

Book one admittedly took me a bit to get into, but once I was in, I was IN. I was very excited for the sequel and I ADORED IT! The banter. The yearning. The humor. The chemistry. Absolutely loved this and am already itching for a re-read. 5 STARS

Well Met (Well Met #1) by Jen DeLuca (RE-READ)

I wanted something very unlike Dungeon Crawler Carl to listen to for my next audiobook, and I couldn’t choose so I went with a re-listen of Well Met! I love this series, it’s perfect for summer, it’s light and cozy for a post-DCC listen AND I get to prepare before the next installment in this series releases later this year. Definitely a great choice for a summer re-read! 4,5 STARS

Well Played (Well Met #2) by Jen DeLuca (RE-READ)

I love a good pen pal romance and this one definitely has that, though I would have preferred it without the catfishing plot… But nevertheless I still really enjoyed Stacy and Daniel’s story upon re-read. 4 STARS

The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston

I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall, I really enjoyed the whimsical aspect of it (who doesn’t love a secret magical garden?). The setting is super vivid, as I almost felt like I was walking around Lilymoor myself. There is a strong grief aspect that is heartbreaking yet wonderfully written. And the secondary characters were a lot of fun. But I couldn’t really connect to the romance – maybe because Sophie only had short moments with Rus in the garden, but I didn’t see where the strong feelings came from so suddenly. And that took me a bit out of an otherwise lovely story. 4 STARS

Top Ten Tuesday

The Alphabet Challenge: Books Starting with “C”
Ten Books By New To Me Authors I Recently Added To My TBR
Books That Live in My Head Rent-Free
Books I HAD to Have Immediately but Still Haven’t Read

Can’t Wait Wednesday

Villain Edit by Rosie Danan {Can’t Wait Wednesday}
Victorious by V.E. Schwab {Can’t Wait Wednesday}

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday: 22 July 2026

Tag Thursday

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag – 2026 Edition

Against The Current – Always You And I

Another beautiful song by one of my favorite bands!

Well, it seems like I either watch a lot of TV and read few books, or read more books and watch no TV. July was definitely the latter. I started watching the latest season of Emily in Paris, but that was only 2 episodes or so… Maybe August will bring some more time to binge series and movies!

After an exhausting May and June, my husband and I were determined to take July off from any and all obligations. And we mostly succeeded… So that means a lot of chill weekends, which were very welcome!

THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY THIS MONTH:

• The abovementioned chill weekends. One weekend we went to a shopping mall (I only got one pair of new pants and some skincare, my husband got a lot more outfits but we both had a lovely day), other weekends we just stayed at home and chilled or went on walks with Pixel
• We had one family dinner to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday and one dinner at friends’ place – both were really nice.
• I (tentatively) started a workout routine again. So far, I’ve been able to do 2-3 workouts a week for the whole of July, so hopefully I can keep it up. It’s just some workouts from home – I have a yoga mat and dumbbells and I’m taking it easy – any movement counts and is better than me hardly moving from my desk job except to walk with Pixel.

THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:

• I have three weeks off from work at the end of the month! Definitely looking forward to that! 😀
• We have a family gathering planned to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday.
• Other than that, I hope to continue my streak of chill weekends 🙂

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