FRIDAY READS: SEPTEMBER 6, 2019
I'm on a roll these past few weeks with posting, so I'm keeping that momentum going and doing a Friday Reads because why not?
This past week I've tried picking up several books, and none of them really made me want to keep reading. I'm 100% a mood reader, so if I'm not in the mood for a book, then I'm not going to force myself to read it because there is no point.
I finally landed on a book, and that book is "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Maurene Goo.
Synopsis: Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.
I'm going to be honest, I'm very close to DNFing this book. I'm about 15% in or so and I'm very annoyed by the main character Clara. She irritates every bone in my body and she is the type of girl that I absolutely hated in high school. I'm really hopeful that she'll improve and I'll want to keep reading, but I'm not counting on it. It's not just her I have a problem with. I don't like the way the author is presenting teens and their priorities and behaviors. She makes them seem so self-absorbed and image centric and maybe I am out of touch at the ripe age of 21, but that seems off to me. Like I still very much consider myself a young adult, and this book makes teens deplorable. That's not to say some teens aren't, but I feel like she is generalizing.
Anyway, I'm not loving this book which is disappointing because everyone seems to really enjoy this book, but it is what it is. I'll give this book up to like 25% to 30% to get better, and if it doesn't then it's got to go.
What have you guys been reading this past week, and what do you plan on reading this weekend? Also if you've read The Way You Make Me Feel, what are your thoughts on it? I'm curious to see if anyone else is annoyed by Clara.
TUESDAY TUNES: SLIDE AWAY BY MILEY CYRUS
Now I ain't done a Tuesday Tunes in forever and a day, but I'm in the blogging mood and this song has been on my mind for days, so I here I am typing about it.
"Slide Away" is Miley Cyrus's new song and it blew me away. I haven't listened to anything from Miley Cyrus in a while because her new stuff is uhhhh... we'll use the words different and problematic. She has a bad happening of taking shit from the black community and acting like it's hers, hence why I don't really mess with her. However, this new song is completely different from anything she has done in years, and I love it.
This song is so chill yet raw. For those of you who don't know, her and Liam broke up (got divorced??? Idk what their relationship was and I don't particularly care). It sucks for her, but it really gave her an edge for this song. It's an emotional, show it all to the world type of song that just really hits you in the feels. I find myself constantly humming the song in my head or when I am able to listen to it, just shoving my headphones in, closing my eyes, and swaying to the music. If Miley put out more songs like this, I could be persuaded to be a fan of hers again.
If you haven't given this song a listen, do it down below. I promise you won't be disappointed.
SUMMER (MAY - AUGUST) 2019 READING WRAP UP
So straight up, I didn't get that much reading done this past summer. That's not a bad thing, not a good thing, that's just the way things were. I would have liked to have read more, but at the same time I'm not disappointed in the amount of books I read. I'm ahead of my Goodreads challenge, and honestly that's really all I care about at this point. So without further ado, here are the books I read this summer.
MAY
Pure by Jennifer L Armentrout- This is the 2nd book in the Covenant series and was a reread for me. I'm rereading the entire series with my best friend because we both really enjoyed this series when we were in high school. I've forgotten so much of what happened in these books, but I still love them.
Fuck I'm in My Twenties by Emma Koenig- This book has been on my TBR ever since I turned 20. I didn't expect to get much from it going into it and that's exactly what I got. It took my like 30 minutes or less to flip through this book. It was funny, but nothing special.
Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel- I saw this book at my library and decided to check it out without really knowing anything about it. I hadn't read a book in less than a day in forever, so it felt really good powering through this bad boy so fast. The beginning act was rough, but it grew on me a lot. The romance was so unrealistic but gave me fuzzy feelings nevertheless. The supernatural aspect was really interesting and I would love to know more about the lore behind it.
JUNE
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne- I originally read this book last June funny enough and decided to reread it again this summer. Somehow I loved it even more the 2nd time reading it, and that never happens. This book does the enemies to lovers trope perfectly and the whole nursing the other person back to health trope is one of my favorite tropes on Earth. I could reread this book over and over again.
Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout- This is book 3 in the Covenant series that I'm rereading with my best friend. I forgot how much pops off at the end of this book, and that made me super excited to get to the other books.
Giant Days- This graphic novel series is one I've been reading since like sophomore year of university. I really enjoy this and will keeping reading it until it's no longer a thing.
JULY
Elixir by Jennifer L Armentrout- This is a novella between he 3rd and 4th books in the Covenant series. While it isn't my favorite, it gives some important insight on the events that transcribe between those books. This novella is from Aiden's POV (the MC's love interest) and it just broke my heart reading this because he goes through so much shit for this girl.
Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout- Apparently I only read JLArmentrout in July so that's interesting. This really banged. I can always count on Jennifer L. Armentrout's books being absolutely everything I need them to be. Paranormal romance will forever be my favorite genre and I can't wait to see what happens next. It doesn't even matter that I remembered next to nothing from the main series this spin off series is based on because the characters and plot make it great on its own.
AUGUST
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson- You can read my full review here, but I thought this book was just slightly above okay. There was a lot that wasn't explained and it felt very fantasy-lite. The fact that it was a standalone didn't help either.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston- You can read my full review here, but overall this was a cute read. I didn't like it as much as everyone and their mother did, but I still had a really good time reading it.
Matchmaking for Beginngers by Maddie Dawson- This was a free book I decided to pick up on Prime Reading and it ended up being perhaps my favorite book I read this summer. Like this was a 4.5 Star book. I don't typically like women's fiction or chick-lit, but this book was just an amazing read. I love the two POVs we get to read from and the events that unfold in their lives. It was written so well and I just devoured it for the 5 hours I was at the airport.
Those are the books that I read this summer. As you can see, it was very much a summer of paranormal/fantasy romance and contemporary books, which honestly best describes my reading tastes. Without a doubt, my favorite book with the curve ball out of nowhere, Matchmaking for Beginners. I'd say my least favorite book was Fuck I'm in My Twenties.
What did you guys read this summer? Have you read any of the books I did, and if so what did you think? Tell me everything down in the comments.
Book: Red, White & Royal Blue
Author: Casey McQuiston
My Rating: ★★★★
Synopsis: What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?
If you are a part of the bookish community, then I'm sure you've heard of Red, White & Royal Blue. If you haven't, how??? Anyway, this book caused quite the hype storm for two main reasons: it's a M/M LGBT+ contemporary romance and because it was marketed as an enemies to lovers book and the bookish folk love that trope. Well those two things really get me going just like all the other bookish folk, but I was hesitant to read it at first because of all the hype. If you have been here for a while, you know that I'm not one to buy into the hype. The readathon, Bout of Books came around and I thought this would be the perfect time to finally tackle this book. That being said...
I really enjoyed the book. I don't think I loved it nearly as much as everyone else, but I did truly like it. As promised, we got out M/M romance and the enemies to lovers trope. I think both aspects were done really well. Our main character, Alex, struggled in coming to terms with his sexuality and that played into the whole enemy thing he had with Henry. I was kinda iffy on their relationship in the beginning because it seemed they were just using each other physically and in an unhealthy manner, but as time passed their relationship progressed in a way I was happy with. Going off the whole physical aspect of their relationship, this book is New Adult, which I was not mentally prepared for, so do what you will with that information....
I've never read a book before that centered around being in the political spotlight before so that was interesting. I don't know how accurate all of that was, but it was entertaining for the most part. It kind of ticked me off that Alex's mom, the president of the United States continuously put her presidency and the campaign before her children's happiness and autonomy, but I guess with all that power people's priorities become warped.
As far as the characters and their relationships go, I thought they were all cute. It was an extremely diverse cast of characters, from race, gender identity, sexuality, etc. I think all that representation was cool, but I'm not sure how authentic it was, you know? Like did the author manufacture all of that representation in order for her book to be more diverse? I don't know, but nevertheless it was nice to have a diverse cast where their diversity wasn't a big thing that drove the plot.
All in all this was a light-hearted contemporary that was an extremely fast read. It was the perfect book to read while I was on the cruise and it's something I could see myself going back to reread in the future as a feel-good read. I'm excited to see what other books this author puts out.
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