 Hello cuties! How are we doing? How are we doing good? Today we're going to be doing my July wrap up. Talking through how did I went to meet and I just need to, I can't wait any long to talk about it. We finally broke the five stars! Happy if you don't know I didn't have any five stars in May or June and I feel like a good chunk of April as well. I was like in a five star draw. Five stars were nowhere to be found or we finally broke it with not one but two five stars this month! Finally, I feel like five stars to me have really been lacking this year. I've had a lot of like three stars, four stars but five stars have been difficult to come by. So I'm really excited to chat about my reading. If you've watched my wrap ups before, we do all my reading stats at the start. Then I just mention all the books I've read with their rating and then we get into my disappointment surprises and hits because almost all of these books are in reading vlogs. I'm actually going to talk about one of the ones that isn't in a reading vlog. The only one I'm not going to talk about in depth that isn't on a reading vlog on my channel is a River Enchanted but this is on a reading vlog on my Patreon. If you want to know more of my thoughts it was fine. Basically it's my thoughts on that. So yeah shall we just get into it with the reading statistics? So in July I read 13 books which is always a good position to be in. I think to average 150 books which is kind of my like push goal, is that a thing? My push goal this year. You have to average like 12 books a month so we're on it babes we're doing it. Do you know what I feel so amazing and strong and me? I believe this is the start of me now and nothing's gonna change it. The amount of pages I read was 3,316 that works out to an average pages per day of 107 and an average pages per book of 255. I read quite a few shorter books this month because I did Summerween which there's vlogs for all of that on my channel. So I read a lot of short books so that I could read seven books in seven days for that and then I probably like didn't read for a week after Summerween. I could have read more but like I didn't read for a week because I felt overwhelmed. That's the thing whenever I read that many books in a short space of time even if they're short books it's like not about the amount of pages I read that kind of puts me into a little bit of a brief reading burnout. It's the amount of stories I consume. It's consuming that many stories and ideas like you can read a 500 page book and like three books that make up that same amount of page lengths but those three books feel I don't know just like I've consumed more and sometimes I need a bit of a break after that. My average rating was a 3.7 which I think is my average rating for the year so far which isn't super high for me. I felt my average rating used to be a bit higher and the average time spent on my TBR was nine months. We had a lot of books that had been on my TBR for zero months. I had literally just acquired and then we had some like I'll Be Gone in the Dark which I think had been on my TBR for 54 months. So it all averages out to nine months. So let's look at the graphs shall we? In terms of genre I read one classic three fantasy five horror oh yeah that was something I was like so many horror one nonfiction one romance two thriller is that it? Yes that's it that's my genre split again a good split no mystery this month which always kind of makes me sad when I don't have a mystery. In terms of ratings I had one two star one 2.5 star one three star three 3.5 stars five four stars and two five stars in terms of how I read the books one was just an audiobook seven books I read physically and five I had a mixture of the physical and the audio usually I read a lot of books just physically this month usually I'm tending to listen to a lot of audiobooks with the physical book that's kind of been how my reading has transitioned but a lot of just the physical book this month. I did try out the audiobooks for a few of the books I had and I just didn't like them so I didn't continue with them. In terms of audience I read eleven adult one I would class as new adult and one YA in terms of the format I read two graphic novels eight novels one novella one short story and one anthology in terms of series stats I read one book that was part of series nine that was standalone and three firsts in the series how many of those series am I continuing oh two yes we did add two series to my series spreadsheet this month. I don't want to talk about it. In terms of where I acquired the books one was from book of the month five were gifted six were books I bought myself and one was from script and in terms of author status three were debuts three were authors I'd read from before and seven authors were new to me I think that is all of the reading stats so yeah a pretty good solid average nice kind lovely reading month. Let's get into all the books I read this month with their ratings. So first I read the tea dragon festival which I gave five stars how could I not how could I not I'll be gone in the dark which I gave four stars a river enchanted by Rebecca Ross which I gave 3.5 stars the writing retreat by Julia Bartz which I gave five stars what moves are dead by tea kingfisher which I gave four stars the fall of the house of usher by Edgar Allen Poe which I gave three stars you're not supposed to die tonight by Kaelin Bayron which I gave 3.5 stars fangs by Sarah Anderson which I gave four stars horror store by Grady Hendricks which I gave 3.5 stars our wives under the sea by Julia Armfield which I gave four stars her body and other parties by Carmen Maria Machado which I gave four stars fourth wing by Rebecca Garros which I gave two stars and the drowning woman by Robin Harding which I gave 2.5 stars okay now it's time to talk about disappointment surprises and hits and disappointment let's just let's just begin okay what's that go there I don't need to talk about fourth wing too much because I just posted a whole vlog just for this book chances are if you're watching this you've probably seen that or like it's in your watch later but I gave this two stars I went into this with hope okay I know it's not my kind of book I know roman to see I've never really read them I've never really wanted to read them but I just wanted to know what the hype was about with this book and I quickly discovered that you're all like something's wrong no here's the thing some people said why didn't you give this one star and here's the thing I can understand why people like this I think it is entertaining I think it is kind of a fun time I think if you don't think too hardly if you like squint and tilt your head and like turn face half away then you can try I mean I don't know where to begin with my problems with this book the world building is simultaneously overwhelming and truly unclear and there's not enough of it but there's also too much of it the romance I didn't care the plot I mean it dragged me to me two weeks to read this book other people are like oh it reads so fast I read it in a couple days it took me two weeks two weeks I can't remember the last time it took me two weeks to read a book I just like did not want to read it granted it is the book I read after summer wean and like I said when I read that many books in a short period of time sometimes I need a little break afterward so there was that so like it's not entirely to blame but like it's mostly to blame go check out the whole vlog if you want to know all my thoughts but I just think it's stupid and some of you are some people I knew there were going to be comments on my fourth wing vlog of people trying to like convince me why certain aspects of the book make sense and they just don't okay you're fighting a losing battle I feel like that sounded quite Australian then fighting a losing battle but I do there's something about this like the ending this I'm like if I had to read the second book I could do it I don't know I'm undecided I don't think I will I think the chances of me not reading it to reading it are like 9010 do you know what I mean I don't think I'm gonna read it but you know it just go watch the vlog okay I don't want to talk about it I don't want to talk about it I don't I don't want to talk about it I just thought it was stupid the writing wasn't great it had I think the reason I don't like romances often has those like cheesy like lines like quick quick whips quick quick I don't know it was quick one-liners that people say and they they annoy me they annoy me so there we have it and then my other disappointment was The Drowning Woman by Robin Harding this is the other book that I read this month that isn't in a vlog I read it before I was co-hosting a book club on Sav from Riveting Reads channel and Ashley from Ashley's Little Library was there as well I'll leave the link for the live show if you want to go watch it down below because I do have a lot of thoughts on it we spoke we had a really good discussion about this book this book if you don't know I didn't give a plot for fourth wing because you don't need to know for this one basically we need to know is that our protagonist is recently homeless she's living in her car and she one day saves a woman who is trying to drown herself and their kind of lives become entangled and linked and it's a thriller it's like a domestic kind of thriller from there I didn't love this I gave it 2.5 stars I didn't go into it expecting a ton because I hadn't actually heard of this before it was chosen for the book club but it just didn't work for me I loved the first half of this but the second half it just gets redone it gets redone oh no this has now gone downhill there's a lot that didn't work for me with where this story went I think the first half was great we also have split perspective which is always my favorite and we have that thing where like you read a hundred pages one perspective and then it switches to the other perspective and you read what has just happened in the last hundred pages from their perspective kind of condensed but like the same thing again and I hate that I really don't like it I'm trying to think of what I can say without spoiling stuff because I didn't read it with like I read it for a book club not for like a vlog and so my brain hasn't changed to think of what's a spoiler or not there's just a lot of twists in the second half that I don't feel like the book pulled off you know I think there's a lot of pros to it I really liked the main character hit that a star Lee who is the homeless woman I thought her story was fairly very compelling I thought her perspective was a very interesting perspective to read from but I don't know it also has one of those kind of like evil villain abusive husbands in it who you know there's what happens in a lot of thrillers but I feel like it was more of a caricature rather than showing some of the nuance that can happen in abusive relationships and I felt like I don't know if that was entirely handled with care in my opinion yes there are evil people who abuse their spouses or abuse other people but I don't think it was I don't know handled in a realistic way for me personally and he also had a lot of power like we were just told he if you if you know his wife were to escape him his men would immediately find that he has men all over the city he's a this well connected lawyer but there was never they would just tell us that all the time there was never any actual showing of that but that's just one aspect the main parts that didn't work for me were kind of the way that the story unraveled in the second half and I can't really tell you any of that so there we go I don't think I'm necessarily gonna pick up another Robin Harding again in the future if I don't have to her writing didn't entice me to try again and read more unlike for example Rebecca Ross a river enchanted for my book club which wasn't a disappointment but I just didn't love there was something about this writing that I loved I love Rebecca Ross's writing so I'm gonna probably continue with this series and try divine is it divine something her new book that everyone's reading I'm intrigued by that but yeah Robin Harding I think this may be the end of the road for us I'm sorry then four surprises I only have two this month and they're kind of like half surprises so we'll talk about them quickly first is her body and other parties by Carmen Maria Machado this is a kind of horror thriller weird anthology of like I think eight short stories in here and for me my average rating of all eight leveled out perfectly at a four I had some fives I had some threes do I mean and it leveled out perfectly at a four I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed some of the short stories in this I was a little bit worried it was gonna be a little bit too intelligent for me let me not short sell myself but you know what I mean sometimes there's certain literature that I just feel like I'm not that kind of reader and I don't have to be do you know what I mean there's like other sides of booktube where like everyone reads all the booker prize books and reads I don't know that's lovely for them that's not the kind of reader I am I'm a much more genre reader you could never read let's fix because you are not that kind of girl and there's just a few short stories in this that I thought were absolutely amazing I absolutely loved the law and order svu short story what was the other one I loved is it eight bites maybe I don't know the husband stitch the first one was really good there was a lot of really good short stories in this and I was just surprised by how much I loved it and I think coming real child is writing it's absolutely incredible some of my favorite writing I've read so I'm really excited I know in the dream house is a heavier book but I'm still looking forward to getting to it and then my other surprise I would say is you're not supposed to die tonight by Kaylin Bayron and this is just because I hated Cinderella's dead by Kaylin Bayron and this was like my second chance and even though this is only a 3.5 I mean 3.5 is still a good rating but I mean it wasn't like a 4 or whatever I still had some issues with it I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed her writing in this because the writing for me was a real issue and Cinderella is dead this is like a YA slasher at a summer they like act out horror nights every night and so it's like a summer camp and then people start disappearing and like turning up dead at the summer camp and I thought the first half was a bit slow and the second half was a bit rushed I wasn't entirely happy with like the villain of the book it felt very unrealistic and I didn't feel I felt like we did 50 more pages to fully flesh that out and make it deserving of being the villain of this book but when this was good it was good when the pacing was there when the horror was there when like the gruesomeness was there it was really good they were my favorite scenes of it and then it is time to talk about my hits of the month which we have to first is The T-Dragon Festival by Kay O'Neill I mean what is that to say literally I am obsessed I'm so excited I'm definitely gonna finish this series this year guys let me just say that now I'm gonna read the third one before the end of the year I know what video I'm gonna be reading it in this is the prequel to The T-Dragon Society and then the next one The T-Dragon Tapestry takes place after the first book and this one we're following this village as they discover this dragon that has been dormant in the woods and that's all you really need to know we have the little T-Dragons in this of course who are little kind of like puppies who can brew tea basically let me find a T-Dragon although probably be one at the start there they are that's the T-Dragons these are just the most beautiful graphic novels ever exist they are cozy they are comforting they are heartwarming they teach you so much about the world and about how we should treat others I said in this I loved the aspect of community I love I've been loving books this year that have community at the heart of them and the beauty of community there's a character in this who uses sign language to communicate and all of the people in the village have learned sign language so that they can communicate with them as well I read this twice when I read it I read it twice like once in the evening then once the next morning I cannot get enough of these graphic novels once I read the third one I know I'm gonna go back into Kayo Newell's backlist and some of their newer books as well I'm excited to read this to my kids one day I think this these books just just still down who you should be at the core of your human I think they're absolutely gorgeous some of my probably my favorite graphic novels I've ever read do I prefer them to Heart Stopper I think I might are you actually actually saying that I love them I love them I mean I love Heart Stopper I love the Sheets series as well but there's just something about the teedragons that are incredible and like change my life and then my final five star of the month was the writing retreat I said it it was in my five star predictions everyone was like what that's like a bold whoa Megan five stars I loved it I loved it you need to read it guys if you're like thinking about it just go for it okay just go for it and see what happens okay we're following these characters who go to this writing retreat of like this world famous favorite author and things get weird that's basically all you need to know I said in the vlog wherever this this was the first book I read for summer wean this is a mix of kathryn house and bunny right it has that kind of like claustrophobic setting that kathryn house has a weird off kilter stuff happening it has those female relationship elements of bunny honestly I pride myself on that comparison because that was a good you know that was a good wreck I loved this I loved the writing in this I loved the the relationships in this I loved the they went off the rails it's so good it's so good it just I could not stop I could not put it down I could not put it down like you might read this off my recommendation you might not like it I can understand that everyone will enjoy this okay but I want you to read it I want you to read it and report back and just tell me what do you think I can't believe this is a debut I'm so excited for everything that junior barts is going to put out in the future because this could be a new favorite author for me like this really went there in a way that I love thrillers to go it got a bit weird it got a bit outside the bounds of reality a little bit like it went off the rails and I loved it I loved it I loved it I loved it I was so happy that I loved it as well because I was so sure I was going to there was doubt I never had any so yeah I cannot recommend enough but go into it knowing you may not enjoy it I can understand why this is a polarizing book okay everyone that is my July wrap up um like I said I will leave all the vlogs linked down below from this month that any of these books were in I hope you enjoyed watching this let me know how July went for you let me know did you have any five stars did you get out of any five star droughts that you had oh my god I'm so happy I feel like five stars are like in my reach again in my in the reach of my climbing little pause guys I have really small hands do you know that about me they're like short and stubby they're like tiny I don't know if you guys can like I need to like show you with someone who has normal sized hands I have very small hands anyways I'm just not like other girls I have small hands anyways I love you and I will see you soon in another video bye hands