July 2019 Recap [part one, reading] yes I’m not meeting my goals for YARC19, what about it

Another month went by, and it was another month of me failing at this yearly reading challenge.

By this reading challenge, I am talking about the Year of the Asian reading challenge.

Which I’m failing.

Also, my bluetooth mouse keeps on failing and disconnecting really randomly, so that is really just spicing up my blogging game!!! It’s really just a *special* surprise for me to move the mouse and oh wow! it’s not working!

My last mouse also broke, so… what does this mean. Why am I so bad at using mouses.

Anyways, I decided to update the way that I format my monthly reading recaps!! Instead of listing all three covers and then proceeding to talk about them, I am now aligning the cover alongside the text, so that you can actually see the cover when I talk about them.

{all covers link to their Goodreads}

books i read

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan [reread] ★★★★★

— I was actually so scared to reread this because I thought that maybe I wouldn’t like it as much as I did the first time, but surprise: I actually loved it so much more!

I think now, I was able to appreciate the themes of it more and just how much I enjoyed the romance, while before I was kind of speeding through it? Also, I thought I would be bored in the beginning because of the traveling scene, but I really wasn’t! (Everybody say thank you Natasha Ngan.) Buddy read with Ilsa! [blog review]

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Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen ★★★☆☆

— I mean… enemies-to-lovers but also, fake-dating is kind of amazing. And the fact that the moms are trying to match-make them? GOLD. However… this wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.

The narrators both had really young voices compared to what I thought they would have, and they were both so NAIVE oh my god. (Even though the pining was cute.) Also, for some reason I thought that the love interest was going to be Vietnamese, but he isn’t, which really surprised me. There’s also some mild cheating going on, which was wild and made me sad. [goodreads review to come]

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Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan ★★★★★

— Was this disappointing? Yes. Am I still giving it five stars though? YES. I love Natasha Ngan and this world so much, so leave me aloneee.

I mean, objectively, this book’s plot? Not perfect. An actual well-done climax? Nonexistent. BUT I LOVE LEI AND WREN AND I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS FOR THEIR ENTIRE GROUP AND of course I am rating this five stars because my heart is emotional and I am emotional. Also, this book really adds another dimension to some of these characters, which I just love. Buddy read with May! Who hasn’t tagged me in their goodreads review??? RUDE. [blog review to come around release date!!]

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There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon ★★★★★

— Wowowowow this might be my favorite Sandhya Menon book!! This was SO cute and I love Ashish and Sweetie so so so so much. (And I am 100% hype for the next one, 10 Things I Hate About Pinky.)

This was also really, really hilarious and I’m just a huge fan of how family was represented positively within this book while also showing how a lot of family members… can be conservative and have terrible and misguided views. [goodreads review to come]

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Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett ★★★★★

— Wow, I mean, I was a little disappointed with Jenn’s Alex, Approximately, but THIS ONE WAS SO GOOD. I love Lennon so, so much and I am here for his two moms??

When I found out that Lennon had two kind moms and that those were who the main character (lmao I forgot her name)’s dad hated, I KNEW HE WAS A TERRIBLE PERSON. Anyways, 100% here for these camping trip shenanigans and the banter. There’s a particular cave/snake scene that was just high quality and 11/10. (Also, this book mentioned this horror manga, The Enigma of Amigara Fault about these human-shaped holes in a mountain, and you all should read it because I read it and I’m scarred now. Like, that LAST PANEL.) [goodreads review to come]

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The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen ★★★★☆

— Uhhhhh so… I liked this. Enough to give it four stars!! However, that was only after I read in about 130 pages and finally got invested enough to care about the main character, Fie, and Tavin. Jasimir is a little wimp.

And I mainly forced myself to read through the first section because I had to read this for a blog tour, so if you try this out, you might straight up just DNF because nothing interesting happens within the first 100 pages. However, the world and concept is actually kind of amazing!! Here for the tooth magic. [blog tour review to come!]

overall reading analysis

Y’all, this reading month was actually kind of great because I didn’t rate anything less than four stars? (Although I might have rated Fake it Till You Break It three stars. BUT IT’S TOO LATE.)

edit: I’m changing the rating of Fake It till You Break It to three stars instead of four LMAO

average rating: 4.5

favorite book: Either There’s Something About Sweetie or Starry Eyes. Both were actually excellent.

least favorite book: Fake It Till You Break It… not to roast this book but I am actually so sad. Also, does the first 30% of The Merciful Crow count? Because that was painful.

books i read for #yarc2019

link to YARC information

Yes, I *am* forever crying because I only read FOUR!!!! books that qualify for YARC, when Jade City was supposed to be my fifth, but then when I had 2 hours and 50 minutes of the audiobook left… it was returned to the library.

I am… deceased. I was going to wake up at like, 7am to hurry and finish the novel, but guess what: I went back to sleep.

Anyways, besides the fact that I have a lot of regrets, I read four books:

• Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan [ownvoices Malaysian-Chinese representation]
• Fake it Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen [ownvoices Vietnamese representation, biracial relationship (white love interest)]
• Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan [ownvoices Malaysian-Chinese representation]
• There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon [ownvoices Indian representation; side m/m relationship]

However… I was going to give myself ONE more book for YARC because I read 24 volumes of manga (Boku No Hero Academia), but… I have decided not to. Because I have always made a big distinction between manga and Western novels in my head ever since I was young?? AND IDK IT JUST FEELS WEIRD TO ME.

So, my current count is 17/50, and I’m clearly living at the peak of my reading challenges.

In August, YES I am going to be reading a short poem book and a graphic novel to boost up those numbers. Of course.

goodreads reviews i wrote

I literally did not write a single Goodreads review. 😎 (which is shown where I say “goodreads review to come” a million times.)

tbr

     

     

Jade City is currently a buddy read with Lily, Tiffany, and trashcan!! (And yes, Lily did finish the book ages before the rest of us.) And I’m going to be buddy reading Lucky Caller with this icon, Melanie.

But… for the rest… please let me know if you want to buddy read!!

physical book haul

      

Thank you so much to Shenwei for sending me The Beautiful!!! The rest were from pubs so thank you to The Novl, Penguin, and Albert Whitman!! (In order!!) (Of course I couldn’t not request the sequel of Ignite the Stars. WHO WOULD I BE.)

digital book haul

     

     

Uh… apparently I’m whitelisted for Macmillan, which means that I can download any of their titles on Edelweiss!!! (I don’t know how that happened but lmao thank you.) Anyways, all of these except for Small Spaces & Infinity Son were titles that I straight up just downloaded. YES, I DID GO WILD… and there are more titles I want to download omg.

Also, Small Spaces was available as Read Now on Netgalley and… it released in 2018 and also, was a PDF. Like, okay.

I’m probably going to be buddy reading All-American Muslim Girl with Khadidja, Gideon the Ninth with Ilsa, and The Girl The Sea Gave Back with Shealea, but for the other titles: if you want to buddy read, seriously let me know!

most anticipated books for next month

 

I mean, you could also read my post about my most anticipated releases of the second half of 2019 or you could not (and be a cool kid). So what is it, be cool or read my posts??

Anyways, of course I want to read The Downstairs Girl because it’s an ownvoices Chinese novel so…. how could I not. Also, I don’t really understand Crown of Coral and Pearl but I think that it’s an arranged marriage but she falls for the brother sort of thing?? WHICH MAKES ME JUST FEEL BAD FOR THE NON-BROTHER. WOW. I’m a fan of that cover though.

past reading goals

I always forget that I do goals, and I STRAIGHT UP WAS GOING TO POST THIS without talking about my past reading goals. Wow.

• read 7 Asian books

✘ Nope!! Wow. I overestimate myself all the time.

• read the arcs I need to (especially the Merciful Crow)

✘ Kind of?? Well, I read The Merciful Crow!! Certainly not Shatter the Sky, though, the book that uhhh published July 30th! Jokes on you!!!

• write seven Goodreads reviews!

✘ NOPE!! This is sad and hilarious at the same time. BYE.

future reading goals

• read all of my required school books !!oh my god!! (there are four in total)
• read all of my physical arcs that have released or are releasing august and september
• write 4 goodreads reviews
• read 8 books
• read 7 asian books

How was your reading in July? What reading challenges did you participate in or are you going to participate in? Have you given a subjective rating of five stars before (and what books)? Are you scared that it’s August now??? BECAUSE I AM. I’M NOT OK.