Visiting Spain | With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo.

«With the Fire on High» was my first Elizabeth Acevedo book and now I understand why there has been so much hype around her books. The writing is beautiful, flaws seamlessly, which made the whole reading experience an absolute pleasure from the beginning till the end.

This is one of those “unputdownable” books that will make you addicted to the story and the characters from the very first pages.

Mid-Year Goals Review | How did I do in 2020 so far?

The first semester of 2020 was full of unpleasant surprises. But I still was able to take some advantage of the quarantine and a little bit more free time to keep up or finalize some of the things that have been sitting on my to-do list for far too long. 

I love to constantly review my yearly goals to make sure that I know what the next steps will be in accomplishing them. 6 months mark feels like a good time to take a look at the goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year, see if I accomplished / failed any, and adjust them for the remaining 6 months. 

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London | Great representation but poorly handled romantic relationships!

I wish I could say that I loved «One to Watch» by Kate Stayman-London… Sadly, it fell really flat for me. Maybe I should have known better and stayed away from a book inspired by the Bachelor TV show, which I’m not a big fan of. As much as I wanted to like Bea, the main character, her somewhat dubious behavior, and poorly handled relationships in the reality show context left a bad aftertaste. 

Now, don’t get me wrong! It wasn’t a total miss for me, and in fact, there were certain things that I liked a lot – for example, the plus-size women representation, the introduction of the asexual character, the lesbian friend (who was very smart about all the relationships I must say) and also seeing a fashion blogger who is not a standard 90-60-90. These were all great. But it definitely didn’t live up to my expectations.

July 2020 Monthly Goals | Four weeks of traveling!

Phew! It’s officially summer in Portugal. The temperature is rising every day, and I still haven’t gone to the beach this summer. I even put it on my to-do list, but there are always more important things to do. 

This year, with everything that is happening, I won’t be traveling anywhere. But I really love visiting new places and I still wanted to entertain this idea. So I decided to create a little challenge for myself. I dug through my large TBR pile and found books set in different countries.

June 2020 Wrap Up | The month I learned how to enjoy little things!

Looking back on June TBR that I created at the end of May, my motivation to read was definitely very high. Sadly, for the first week of June, I barely read anything. I kept picking up books and reading a couple of pages from each of them nothing really capturing my attention. I kept making to-do lists of all the things I wanted to accomplish, but couldn’t focus on a single one of them. My head was elsewhere and all I could do was watch something to get myself distracted. 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia | A true horror story that will make your heart beat faster!

Emer! Thank you so much for reviewing this book and for making me so curious about it! I honestly don’t think that I would have picked it up if it wouldn’t be because of your review. 

That being said, I didn’t quite like it as much as Emer did [make sure to read her review as well!] but I definitely enjoyed the suspense and horror bits Silvia-Moreno Garcia included in «Mexican Gothic». I think I’ve only read 1 or 2 gothic-ish books before, so this one was definitely a lot of fun.

The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda | The perfect book to read in one sitting and preferably with lights on!

Apparently, the word “thrilling” means causing excitement and pleasure. I can agree with excitement, but pleasure? When I think thrilling, I imagine stories that make my heart beat faster, slightly spooky, maybe a little bit creepy, with a lot of unpredicted plot twists! And that’s exactly what «The Girl from Widow Hills» was like. 

It’s been a very long time since I’ve read a book until late at night, refusing to go to sleep because I needed to finish it and see the things finally unravel. This was my second Megan Miranda book and it took me completely off guard.

Beach Read by Emily Henry | Witty, entertaining and absolutely swoon-worthy! ❤

Why don’t I read rom-coms more often? 

I’m so happy that I decided to listen to many glowing reviews of «Beach Read» and request it on NetGalley! Guys, if you haven’t read this book yet, make sure to pick it up this summer. It’s such a fast-paced and funny book, that will make you feel the whole spectrum of emotions. 

For a while now I have been avoiding romances and women’s fiction only because a couple of last books in these genres I read last year were nothing special, and after finishing them I always wished I’d spent my time reading something else instead. But «Beach Read» by Emily Henry is a must-read book for every book lover out there, even if romance is not your favorite genre. 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett | The must-read book of this summer!

This book was phenomenal! It’s for a reason that many popular magazines and bookish media keep mentioning «The Vanishing Half» by Britt Bennett as one of the most-anticipated releases of this summer. I literally saw a dozen of 2020 summer reading lists with this book. 

It’s such an important book as well, especially with everything that is going on right now and the need that people feel to educate themselves on race and racial identity. I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to read it and discuss it with all of you.

How to Save a Life by S.D. Robertson | The shot of positivity I desperately needed!

For my second book of June, I went with «How to Save a Life» by S.D. Robertson and I’m so glad that I did! After picking up several books and not really feeling any of them, I craved something light, fast-paced but meaningful at the same time. And that’s exactly what I received. 

«How to Save a Life» was the shot of positivity I so desperately needed. I just wish this book had a little bit more editing done to it, as it reads like it’s meant for an older generation while the message it carries is meant for everyone, and the sooner you learn it the better it will be.

Books on my summer TBR | Book Haul, Self-education & way too many books!

Hey, guys! I hope all of you are doing well! 

2020 has been very tragic, but also very important, year, and we are only halfway through it. From COVID induced quarantine and the need to take care of ourselves and the others to the BLM movement and absolutely horrible events that made the world finally revolt against the injustice and racism, 2020 is one of the most important years of my life and I really hope that we take something from this, learn on our mistakes and try to build a better future for ourselves and for the future generations. 

The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan | Beautiful writing but disappointing slow-burn romance!

As many of you know, some books are very difficult to review. I definitely struggled with «The Age of Witches» by Louisa Morgan, considering that I finished it at the beginning of May and only sitting down to finally put my thought on paper [well… on screen] on June 10th, almost one month later. 

There were many weekends when I thought “This is it! I’m writing this review!” and then not actually doing it because I couldn’t find the right words to describe how I felt about «The Age of Witches». 

Wonderscape by Jennifer Bell | “Travel with wonder!”

The main reason why I love watching booktube videos so much is the opportunity to discover new amazing books! «Wonderscape» by Jennifer Bell is a new middle-grade sci-fi / fantasy that I first heard about from Jade @Jadeyraereads, and I was so excited to find it on NetGalley and also getting my request approved!

Currently, on Goodreads, this is not listed as part of a series, but I’d love to read more about Arthur, Ren, and Cecily, even their school and normal life shenanigans. I just miss them and want more of these characters, and hopefully more Wonderscape worlds (?!).

What’s on my Kindle? | E-books I recently added to my digital TBR

I’ve never done a Kindle book haul before! In general, I rarely talk about my Kindle, as e-books don’t excite me as much as my physical TBRs. But I’ve been meaning to share with you some of the e-books I got for my Kindle for quite a while now, so this week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme couldn’t be more perfect! Well… maybe not so perfect as the actual theme is to talk about the books you’ve added to the TBR and forgotten why. But let’s just focus on the first part instead. 

The Obsidian Tower (Rooks and Ruin, #1) by Melissa Caruso | A bizarre reading experience!

At first glance, «The Obsidian Tower» has so many elements that I love in fantasy books, that’s why I was so surprised to find out that I didn’t like it. I was even more surprised when I couldn’t pinpoint what exactly was wrong or what exactly I didn’t like. 

So this review will be my attempt to discover what went wrong and hopefully give some meaningful feedback at the same time.