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Hey guys it's Trina and this is my July reading wrap-up. This month I did read a
total of six books and you saw what they were in the introduction there so if you
want to jump straight to my review of one of these books, or if you want to
skip over my review of any of them because you haven't read it yet and you want
to avoid any kind of impression, don't forget that I do include time stamps
down in the description so you can easily use that to navigate this video.
Before I get into my reviews of these books that I read this month I am
going to check in with my July TBR. I did have a TBR again this month and I had
six books on it. Out of these six books there were two of them
that I didn't even have the chance to read at all this month and so I'm not
going to hold them against myself. With Obsidian and Stars my reading buddy did
not get her copy in at all this month so like we just could not do the buddy
read. So I couldn't possibly do it, I'm not going to hold it against myself. I'm
taking that one off of this TBR. And then with The Lying Game my reading buddy and
I both got our copies in right at the very end of the month, like I just
got my copy on like the 29th. I don't read books in two days at this point in
my life so again, not even possible. Taking that one off of my TBR as well. So
out of these four books remaining that I could have read this month I did manage
to read three of these in total and I am almost like three-quarters of the way
through that fourth book, Bad Romance I just didn't finish it up before I needed
to make the time to film this video but you can expect to see that one next
month. Out of the six books that I did read and finish in July, four of them were
audiobooks and the other two I read in the print format. So again audiobooks
are kind of dominating my reading year in 2017. So let's get into the book
reviews now and as always I am starting with my lowest rated book and working my
way up to my favorite read of the month. And the lowest rated book that I read
this month was Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh. This is the first book in a
YA fantasy duology and it is kind of a Japanese inspired
setting and our main character Mariko is a girl who she's in an arranged marriage
and then on her way to the Emperor's son to meet him and get into this arranged
marriage her convoy is attacked by this notorious Black Clan and she wants
revenge so she decides to dress up as a boy and infiltrate the Black Clan by
becoming one of its members. I gave it two stars because I just found this book
really predictable and pretty boring. I didn't enjoy this book but it wasn't
harmful and I wouldn't like un-recommend this book to you guys or
anything. It just didn't work for me. I feel like the entire plot and all the
twists in this story we're just so completely predictable. The romance was
unconvincing, felt very contrived. I had no connection with the main character. I
did like the setting but I didn't enjoy like the scope of this world or the
fantasy elements of it. If you've been watching my channel for a while you know
that I did not like her The Wrath and the Dawn duology. It just didn't work for me
and so I was very eager to see her next work and to see if I would like this one
better but unfortunately I just feel like I'm finding that Ahdieh's writing is
not something that works for me in the fantasy genre, in terms of her fantasies.
I don't think that her magic systems are well developed or well explained.
I never connect with her main characters. I don't like her romances because they
seem so contrived and it's all of this tell and not showing so I'm never
convinced of the relationships there. So like as a fantasy, as a romance it
didn't work for me. It's not that this is a terribly written or horrible book that
no one would enjoy, it just is not... for me unfortunately. The next book I read
this month was Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index by Julie Israel this is a YA
contemporary that is about a main character whose sister recently passed
away in a car accident and the main character is going back to school for
the first time after this and just kind of like dealing with the absence of her
sister. Her friendships are no longer the same, her relationship with her parents
is no longer the same because everyone is just dealing with this loss. This is a
debut novel and I had heard about it a few months ago and to be honest with you
guys I was not interested in picking this one up at all and the reason I did
pick it up is because it was the BookTubeAThon group book for this year
and I decided I'm not going to be able to participate
in BookTubeAThon that much but the one thing I can do is to read the book along
with them so I picked it up and I am glad that I did because I enjoyed this
book a lot more than I thought I would. I don't typically go for books that are
about grief or losing a loved one because I lost my mom as a child and I
don't really want to relive feelings of grief in a book because I have enough of
that in my life that I have gone through so I don't really want to relive it but
as for this book I actually thought that it handled the grief and the loss aspect
very well. It felt very genuine, very true. Of course my experience and
Juniper's experience is not going to match up with everybody's experience but that was an
aspect of this book that I really enjoyed. I also really enjoyed the
friendships in this book. They've got their problems, they aren't perfect, but I liked
how the book explored the ups and downs. The things I did not like about this
book were I just didn't like the romance. It's a trope I don't like. The
bad boy thing. I just - I just couldn't. And then I also did not like the way
that the mystery element of this book was tied in. A big aspect of this book
which is right in the book jacket summary is that Juniper finds a letter
from her sister to her sister's secret lover and so throughout the book she's
trying to figure out who this person is so that she can deliver that letter and
I was really into that mystery aspect, I really wanted to figure this out but
after having finished this book and really thought about it
I feel like that mystery element was a bit out of place. I do like how some
things happened but I was so wrapped up in this thing and then ultimately I feel
like maybe that shouldn't have been emphasized so much because this story
definitely had much more of a focus on grieving than this mystery. Next I read
The Conspiracy Of Us by Maggie Hall, which is the first book in a trilogy.
This is a YA series about just like this globe-trotting adventure and
mystery. Our main character finds out that she has ties to these ancient
secret societies and there's this race to find the tomb of Alexander the Great
because he supposedly left behind this legacy and there are these prophecies
involved and our main character finds herself
tied up in this. This is just a fun series.
I really enjoyed it. I rated it 4 stars. What kept this one from being higher
rated is there was just something a little bit off for me. Maybe it was a bit too
simplistic at times and I just wanted like a little bit more but I think you
would definitely like this if you liked The DaVinci Code or National Treasure,
stuff like that. It definitely has those vibes. I found this very enjoyable and I don't
have a lot to say about it because nothing about it really bothered me it
just like could have been a little bit more for my taste but I was totally here
for it and I definitely will be continuing this series. Next is
Unraveling by Sara Ella. This is the second book in the Unblemished trilogy.
This is a YA urban fantasy / fantasy series about parallel worlds and our
main character grew up in our world and discovers that parallel versions of it
exist and that she has a big role to play in one of them. This is basically an
epic tale about light versus darkness. I do know Sara Ella and her publisher sent
me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review but all these opinions
are my own opinions and I did enjoy Unraveling a lot more than the first
book and I think that's really because I find it very difficult to get into urban
fantasy series. Now that I know what this world and these characters are
about I was able to see the plot line more clearly in this one. I think that
the storytelling was a bit more streamlined this time, a little bit
less was thrown at you. I love where the story is going. I love how this book
ended. The things that I didn't like as much about this book were that I'm just
not a big fan of tons and tons of references to Disney songs, Disney movies,
musicals, bands. A lot of these references I'm unfamiliar with
so it goes over my head and a lot of the references that I am familiar with it
takes me out of the story because then I'm just thinking about Rapunzel or
Tangled or something because you know I'm getting the song lyrics in this book
and I thought that they were just a little bit too heavy-handed a bit too
frequent for my personal taste but if you love Disney I think you would
definitely enjoy that aspect to it. I know a lot of people are enjoying that
aspect to it it's just not personally my thing. I was glad to see a little bit
more diversity in the cast of this one, unfortunately I think that some of those
characters had a lot of stereotypes in terms of their development or things
that happened to them and you know that was a little bit of a
bummer but I can definitely see how Sara Ella's writing has grown in her second
book so I will definitely be continuing this series and reading that
third book because again this book just left me like... hoo! Next I read Lord of
Shadows by Cassandra Clare, which is the second book in The Dark Artifices trilogy,
which is the third series in her Shadowhunters overall universe. I really
enjoyed this one. I have loved seeing how Cassandra Clare's writing and characters
have grown throughout the years. I have read all of her Mortal Instruments and
The Infernal Devices series and I believe this series is definitely my
favorite of this three. There's a lot of diversity in the characters in this book.
We have a character who is trans. Transgender is something stated on page,
autism is something stated on page, bisexuality is something stated on page
and we have characters who have point of views in the book that fit all of these
identities. There's also a Hispanic character and of course there are gay
characters, we all know some of her ships from old series that have kind of
carried through to the other books. It's a bit long for my preference and some of
these relationships got into such geometric shapes that I don't even know
what to call it. What did we have, like a love hexagon or something at one point? I
don't know, like it got a little bit soap opera-y for my taste in the romance
department but regardless of that I just I think Cassandra Clare has come a long
way and I do really enjoy this series. And finally I read Hunted by Meagan
Spooner, which is a YA fantasy standalone retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This
is so true to a typical fairy tale type of world and village and legends and
fantasy element, and it's so true to the Beauty and the Beast story but it's so
different as well and it incorporates other tales and legends into this book
and kind of like combines them. I just really liked how it did it because it's
a story that you're familiar with but it's in a world that is totally its own
and these characters are totally their own. Beauty and the Beast retellings have
not been doing it for me lately but this one did.
I think my favorite thing about it is that the beast in the story is an actual
beast. He's like a wolf and bear and cat-like hybrid and I'm a little bit over
Beauty in the Beast retellings that turn the beast into just like a normal
dude who happens to be angsty and everyone thinks he's awful so I was very
pleased with how this one stayed true to the story and still made it its own thing
and it convinced me of a lot of the reasons why these characters actually
came to care for each other as opposed to just a really quick story. There are
some slower parts of this book, particularly in the middle where it just
seems like a long stretch of the plot not really advancing, but honestly I
didn't mind that because I was so hooked by this book. It was one of those reading
experiences where I'd get to the end of a chapter and then just want to read one
more chapter, and then just one more, and then just another chapter. Like, I was so
hooked by it that I didn't mind spending that time in the slow parts because I loved
living in this world. It was my favorite read of July. The reason this isn't a
five-star read is because I did at the end need a little bit more in terms of
the beast's curse. The beast's curse is kind of the most fascinating part of Beauty
and the Beast and I feel like these characters were just like like, 'oh well it's this thing.' The end.
Although I think this is a standalone, I secretly hope that Meagan Spooner will
do a little series of other fairytale retellings like set in the same world. I
would love that in this type of setting. I know a lot of authors do that kind of
a thing. like companion fairy tale retellings. I need that out of Meagan
Spooner and this series. Yeah, I just need that to be a thing. I would totally read
those books! So those are the six books that I read in July and what I thought
about them. If you guys have read any of these books and you want to talk to me
further about any of them we can definitely chat more in the comments. I
would love to know what your favorite read of July was and I will see you soon
with an August TBR video. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the comments. Bye!
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