June 2016 Wrap Up

Well everyone, we’ve made it into halfway of the year. As I’ve written this, it will be posted on July 1st, which in Canada, is Canada Day. I don’t really plan on doing anything exciting. Just staying home as if it were any other day. I’m not too excited because honestly, statistically speaking, the first of July is always one of the hottest days of the summer, and I can’t stand it. Fortunately, the weather calls for it to be cloudy! Unless I just jinxed it.. Aside from me whining though….

I hope everyone’s June was good? The weather here in Vancouver was weird. It would rain one week, and then be hot and sunny the next. Kind of like how the beginning of Spring was supposed to be. I guess Earth really is changing. I want it to rain more in July, though. I really, really, love the rain.. Anyway! I’ve counted all the books that I’ve read this month, and the number higher than I thought it would be!

I ended up reading a total of 13 books this month.

The first book I re-read was The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski. I read this book originally back in August of 2015. I had been wanting to re-read The Winner’s Curse for a while since I received The Winner’s Crime as a Christmas gift last year.

I managed to finish Antigoddess by Kendare Blake! I think it took me about a week and a half for me to finish Antigoddess. If you didn’t know, reading a book for a week and a half to me feels like reading a book for a month..

I also managed to read Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick. Crescendo is the second book in the Hush, Hush saga. I honestly have no idea why I’m reading the Hush, Hush saga? All I know is that once I start reading a Hush, Hush book, I don’t stop until I read the last word in the story.

Death Sworn by Leah Cypess is another book that I read. I randomly got it from the library, because the cover was familiar. Death Sworn is actually the first book by Leah Cypess that I’ve read. Even though I have her Mistwood duology on my shelf waiting to be read.. Whoops!

And here the other books that I’ve read but haven’t coherently collected my thoughts on yet:

• Fates by Lanie Bross
• The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins
• Ruined by Amy Tintera
• Avoiding Alpha by Aileen Erin
• Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

The Advanced Reader Copies I read:

I read an ARC this month as well! I’ve been really trying to catch up on all the ARC’s I have. So I could request more ARC’s but all I end up doing is requesting, not reading. I’m changing that though!

I read From a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion, and I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

I read Hunter by Mercedes Lackey. I don’t know why I waited so long to read this book. Seriously. If you haven’t already read Hunter, you should!

Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland was borrowed from a friend who went to one of those book conventions down in LA. She surprised me by asking if I wanted to borrow the book! And of course I did, so I borrowed and read it.

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I wrote three TBR Tuesday posts (#9, #10, & #11) , two Top 5 Wednesday posts; Favourite Character Names, and Favourite Literacy Father Figures.

I also wrote nine book reviews.

• A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard
• Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
• Edge of Disaster by A.M. Hargrove
• Antigoddess by Kendare Blake
• Play by Kylie Scott
• The Dare by Hannah Jayne
• From a Distant Star by Karen Mcuestion
• Hunter by Mercedes Lackey
• Fates by Lanie Bross

I posted my June Book Haul yesterday. If you haven’t checked that out, you definitely should!

I’ve also started a Group on Goodreads called Seize The Book. We’re going to be reading Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo this month, and I’m super excited about that! So if you haven’t checked out Seize The Book, yet, you definitely should!

As you may or may not know, I took a week of from blogging (General Life Update) and honestly, that week meant so much to me. I got time to myself and didn’t have to worry about writing any posts. Although I didn’t read all that much in that week, I finally got to relax after writing almost 5 posts a week for a good, solid, 12 weeks. Which has me thinking of getting a schedule for this blog but then I always remind myself that I absolutely hate timed schedules.. And that I honestly feel better about my posts when there’s not a definite time to publish a post. But I’m thinking of generally slowing down my posts a little so I don’t get overwhelmed and have a huge burnout.

On another personal note, I’m learning once again to let go. I had this image of myself stuck in my head where I would be the best blogger I could possibly be. That I would post everything that I could think of, even if I wasn’t sure if it would be some of my best content. And while I do personally believe that, sometimes you have to post some not-so-good posts to get to the better posts, I had set myself up on such a high pedestal that when I didn’t meet my own expectations, I started to freak out. I wasn’t in the mood to draft any future posts. I didn’t even want to think of blogging.

So I’m learning to let go. I only posted two Top 5 Wednesday posts because I didn’t like the last two posts that were up to talk about. So I just….didn’t even try to type up thoughts that weren’t even there to begin with. And honestly, it felt great. A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders when I realized that I don’t have to live up to my own expectations all the time. It’s good to take time off and think, to re-evaluate, to relax.

And when no when yelled at me for not doing what I had set out to do, I felt even better.

So this has been my Wrap Up for this June – with a few dashes of personal stuff. I hope you don’t mind! And thank you for sticking around and reading all of this. I really appreciate it, and you!

Thank you for reading!

Adele