Hiya bookish people!

This month seems to have flown by, and with school starting yesterday I am starting to realize I basically wasted my last two weeks of holidays. But hey, isn’t that what the holidays are for?

• I got back from my trip and I had so much fun! I can’t wait to travel again, it was one of the best experiences of my life!
• I made last minute plans to go to the beach with my friends and it was fun! Until Beth decided to roll me upside down and off the pontoon into the water? Like? Why? Beth I thought you loved me! (Joking, guys, joking. I know she loves me.)
• I start school again. Yay. I’m going to be having my first day of Year 12, and while it will / might be good to have a schedule to follow again, I am not looking forward to even more sleeplessness. I’m looking into buying a weighted blanket? But the only one near me is $130? Why?
• I get to see my friends again! I am excited about that, but I am also kinda worried because I have a friend I couldn’t get in contact with after we had a misunderstanding (I said the wrong thing and accept full blame), but am kinda scared she hates me now.
• Lastly, I finally watched Moana and Frozen, and now I can understand the GIF references. Thank you Disney +!

🌷 Wrap Up 🌷

GOAL : I didn’t actually set a goal for this month, which in hindsight is a good thing. Because I flopped, badly. I read three books, which means I am one behind schedule for my 2020 Reading Challenge Goal. Okay, maybe that isn’t too bad?

ACHIEVED : Yes No Maybe So, Sea Witch Rising, The Dream Thieves

TOTAL : Yeah, I read three books and an additional 73% of another book I am currently reading. That makes it 3.73 books this month.

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed — Synopsis & Cover

YES
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.

NO
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she hardly knows—is beyond her.

MAYBE SO
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer—and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural romance of the century is another thing entirely.

Sea Witch Rising by Sarah Henning — Synopsis & Cover

Runa will not let her twin sister die. Alia traded her voice to the Sea Witch for a shot at happiness with a prince who doesn’t love her. And his rejection will literally kill her—unless Runa intervenes.

Under the sea, Evie craves her own freedom—but liberation from her role as Sea Witch will require an exchange she may not be willing to make. With their hearts’ desires at odds, what will Runa and Evie be willing to sacrifice to save their worlds?

Told from alternating perspectives, this epic fairy tale retelling is a romantic and heart-wrenching story about the complications of sisterhood, the uncompromising nature of magic, and the cost of redemption.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Steifvater– Synopsis & Cover

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…

The Raven and the Dove by Kaitlyn Davis — Synopsis & Cover

A princess longing to be free…

On the dawn of her courtship trials, Princess Lyana Aethionus knows she should be focused on winning her perfect mate, yet her thoughts wander to the open sky waiting at the edge of her floating kingdom. One final adventure calls. Upon fleeing the palace, the last thing she expects to find is a raven prince locked in a death match with a dragon.

A bastard aching to belong…

Reviled son of a dead king, Rafe would do anything for his beloved half-brother, Prince Lysander Taetanus, including posing as him in the upcoming courtship trials. When a dragon interrupts their secret exchange, he orders his studious sibling to run. After suffering a fatal blow, Rafe is saved by a beautiful dove who possesses forbidden magic, just like him.

Fate brought them together, now destiny will tear them apart…

Unknown to the world above, on the foggy sea ten thousand feet below, a young king fights a forgotten war. He believes Lyana is the queen prophesied to save the world, and with the help of his favored spy, hidden deep in the highest ranks of the dove royal house, he will stop at nothing to have her.

🌷 TBR 🌷

I’ve been saying it for months, but you’ll hear it again! *Insert B99 GIF here* Wait, I can actually do that!

Anyway, back to the point, Emma. I am actually going to read Sorcery of Thorns this month. I am also going to read another book on my physical TBR and read an Enchantment of Ravens. I will also be finishing The Raven and the Dove (27 % to go) and I would like to start Blue Lily, Lily Blue but know that I might not finish it since I am starting school again.

The Raven and the Dove by Kaitlyn Davis — Synopsis & Cover

A princess longing to be free…

On the dawn of her courtship trials, Princess Lyana Aethionus knows she should be focused on winning her perfect mate, yet her thoughts wander to the open sky waiting at the edge of her floating kingdom. One final adventure calls. Upon fleeing the palace, the last thing she expects to find is a raven prince locked in a death match with a dragon.

A bastard aching to belong…

Reviled son of a dead king, Rafe would do anything for his beloved half-brother, Prince Lysander Taetanus, including posing as him in the upcoming courtship trials. When a dragon interrupts their secret exchange, he orders his studious sibling to run. After suffering a fatal blow, Rafe is saved by a beautiful dove who possesses forbidden magic, just like him.

Fate brought them together, now destiny will tear them apart…

Unknown to the world above, on the foggy sea ten thousand feet below, a young king fights a forgotten war. He believes Lyana is the queen prophesied to save the world, and with the help of his favored spy, hidden deep in the highest ranks of the dove royal house, he will stop at nothing to have her.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson — Synopsis & Cover

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson — Synopsis & Cover

A skilled painter must stand up to the ancient power of the faerie courts—even as she falls in love with a faerie prince—in this gorgeous debut novel.

Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater — Synopsis & Cover

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things, though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.

What books did you vote for? Have you read any of the winners?

I’ll see you between the pages.