Wrap-Up: July 2019 | a not-so-great month with a lot of books

Hi everyone! I feel so incredibly weird writing a July wrap-up because somehow I was convinced it was August already? July really felt like the longest month ever to me, which makes sense since it really wasn’t my best month. But really. I can’t even remember the beginning of the month anymore, it feels so long ago?

Anyway, like I said, July wasn’t my best month. At the beginning of the month I pushed myself too far, resulting in a panic attack and me going into a pretty dark space for a week. Then I did well for about a week and even managed to participate in the first few days of the #ReadingRush, and then the heatwave started. I’m very bad with heat, so a week of temperatures around 40 degrees felt awful. I spend a week barely sleeping and having a lot of anxiety because heat is, for some reason, a trigger for me.

So yes, July was definitely not my month, but luckily I did manage to read quite a few books! Let’s just hope August is a little kinder on me.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi – I had incredibly high expectations for this one since everyone on my timeline was raving about it once it came out and I did really like it, but not as much as I expected.
Kat Wolfe Investigates by Lauren St. John – This was cute but kind of forgettable. I mean, I read it this month and I barely remember a thing from it. All I can say for sure is that I did have a fun time with it.
People Like Us by Dana Mele – I listened to this in one go while playing The Sims so everything about this book is very hazy to me, to be honest.
Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian – I was expecting this book to be a cute, quick 3-star read and that’s exactly what it was. I enjoyed it, but I honestly didn’t really like the main character that much.

From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks – I’m going to be writing my full review of this one soon but, spoiler alert, I really liked it and you should definitely put it on your 2020 TBR.
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay – This was, hands down, the best book I read this month. I couldn’t stop reading it once I picked it up and it absolutely blew me away. Just, wow.
Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali – Every single person I heard rave about this was right: this book is incredible. I loved it so, so much and I just want more books by S.K. Ali, please.
The Battle by Karuna Riazi – This book was my most anticipated middle grade release of the year so you can imagine how excited I was to pick it up, and how sad I was when I ended up not liking this book at all. Sigh. I’m going to write a full review of it but this was just such a huge disappointment, and I’m so sad about it because I wanted this book to be good so badly.
Lumberjanes: The Good Egg by Mariko Tamaki and Brooklyn Allen – The Lumberjanes are basically happiness in book/comic form and this one, again, made me incredibly happy. I couldn’t stop smiling while I was reading it.

All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells – It’s safe to say that I’m absolute murderbot trash now. I read All Systems Red for the #ReadingRush and I marathoned the sequels immediately afterwards and I enjoyed all of them a lot.

The 13 Problems, The Body in the Library, The Moving Finger, A Murder is Announced and They Do it With Mirrors (Miss Parple #2-#6) by Agatha Christie – For some reason Agatha Christie audiobooks really help me calm my anxiety, and I just love Miss Marple, so when I wasn’t doing well I read five of them in a week. My favorite one of these was definitely A Murder is Announced, and my least favorite was The Moving Finger.

Lumberjanes #58-63 and Somewhere That’s Green – I thought it’d be the perfect time for me to catch up on some comics, and the one I most wanted to catch up on was the Lumberjanes series. I love them so, so much and the comics always make me happy so I had the best time with this. I was also very pleasantly surprised by Somewhere That’s Green, because I hadn’t known of its existence until I saw it on Hoopla and it ended up being my favorite out of all of these. Now I just need to read The Infernal Compass and I’ll be all caught up on my Lumberjanes material. I think.

I also really wanted to catch up on Ms Marvel, Ironheart and Raven: the Pirate Princess this month but I didn’t manage to get to it. Hopefully I’ll be able to in August!

I’m currently only reading one book, which is kind of weird for me since I usually read around 3 books at once. But then again, I did finish my audiobook today so I’ll probably pick up a new one very, very soon… Anyway, the book I’m currently reading is called Stealing Luna by Carla de Guzman. I read the first book in this series (The Queen’s Game) and really liked it, so when I saw that this once is described as an art heist romance set in Barcelona I knew I had to get it. I’m currently about halfway through and I’m enjoying it, so I’m hoping I’ll finish it soon!

I really hope you all had an amazing July! Please let me know what the best book you’ve read this month was, I would love to know!

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