Hey Bibliofriends…if you’re still out there!

Life has been such a whirlwind of adulting over the past few months which has meant that my poor little blog and actually ‘reading’ books has had to take a back seat. In short, there have been house renovations (still not complete!), a large amount of family birthdays and getting a new job! Life in the jobosphere has been quite tricky over the past 12-18 months so it was a massive relief to be offered a new position in a different school; it comes with a higher workload and a lot more responsibility but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. I’ve also gone from teaching the oldest kids in the school to the youngest ones so September is going to be a pretty steep learning curve for everyone in my class. In the absence of my Hogwarts letter it looks like I’m teaching the muggles again for this year at least!

Books I’ve Read: August has finally handed me some free-time to be able to enjoy reading again. I hastily compiled a Newts Magical Readathon List together at the end of July which I’ll be discussing in a forthcoming post. I think I’m still on track to reach my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal by the end of the year – I’m currently at 33/50.

• The Immortal City by Amy Kuivalainen – This was my first ever Netgalley book to review *mini cheer*and I really enjoyed it! If you love Atlantis, Venice and want a more grown up mystical-fantasy story then this may be the pick for you; keep your eyes peeled – a full review will be coming soon.
• Legendary and Finale by Stephanie Garber – With the release of Finale earlier this year there was no better time for me then to finally complete this magical series. I was really intrigued by Stephanie’s take on the Fates and became truly submersed into the world of Tella, Legend and Caraval.
• Obsidio (Illuminae #3) by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – Another series I was able to complete was the Illuminae Files. I’ve made no secrets of my love for this series and I’d highly recommend it to anybody. I don’t think you have to love the Sci-Fi genre to enjoy this; I’m not the most impassioned reader of spaceships and galaxies far, far away, but the characters Kaufman and Kristoff created and weaved together through this cleverly plotted and captivating series was absolutely 5-Star and will be one of my favourites for many years to come.
• Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch – This book really called out to my inner wanderlust. Florence is one of my favourite cities in the world so the fact that this was based here was what attracted me to it. Although I would have loved a little more Florence from the novel, the story of Lina’s journey to the Tuscan city and the relationships she made there created a perfect light-read for Summer.
• Evermore (Everless #2) by Sara Holland – Can you spot the theme running through my reads yet…? Everless was another series that I wanted to finish this summer. I loved the first book and the fable revolving around the Alchemist and the Sorceress. Whilst this one didn’t enthral me as much as the first novel in the series, I really enjoyed seeing how it all ended.
• Lethal White by Robert Galbraith – I’ve been reading the Strike series since finding out that J.K. Rowling was secretly Robert Galbraith. This latest instalment in the series did definitely not disappoint and I’d even go as far to say that Lethal White is my favourite of all the Strike novels so far. Although I was initially a little scared of its brick-like size clocking in at 656 pages, my need to keep turning the pages to find out what was happening enabled me to breeze through it in about 5 days. I already can’t wait for Book 5!
• The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw – This book had been on my TBR for ages and being a standalone it wouldn’t have broken the little task I set for myself to try and finish some of the outstanding series I had on my shelves. I thoroughly enjoyed this witchy read and despite working out where the plot was going fairly early on, I still became immersed in the way the story was told and how everything unfolded towards the end. If the town of Sparrow was a real place, then it’d definitely be on my Literary Travel Bucket-List!
• The Midnight Game (Episode 1) by Cecilia Dart-Thornton – If I’m being perfectly honest, I read this book as it only had 94 pages and would enable me to complete one of my subjects for the Newts Magical Readathon quite quickly. One of my pet hates in real-life is people who try and talk with a fake accent or use language/words which are almost forced – unfortunately this story did precisely that and I don’t think I’ll be reading Episode 2 anytime soon – it’s definitely not the story for me.
• England in Cameracolour, Cotswolds and Shakespeare Country – This was a delightful and surprising find. It was a collection of stunning photographs from lots of places in the areas surrounding where I live. Accompanying each photograph was writing about the history of each place. Definitely an interesting coffee-table style book which appealed to a Cotswold local like me.
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman – I recently purchased all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe boxsets on Blu-Ray as I hadn’t seen any of the films before Captain America: Winter Soldier. This Summer I’ve been gradually working my way through them in chronological order and the appearance of Thor made me want to dig Norse Mythology from out of my TBR pile. My knowledge of the Norse Myths is very vague and Gaiman is one of my auto-buy authors so it was great to finally tick this one off my reading list. Gaiman really is a master story-teller and this book definitely satisfied all of my mythological cravings!

Now I list them down, I’m actually quite impressed by the amount of reading I’ve managed to do this Summer, particularly as 4 out of my 6 week break has been spent working at my new school to try and get it ready for the new academic year! 😳

What have you been reading this month and what are you looking forward to reading in September? As ever, drop me a comment below to chat!

T xx