July was a fun month! My three month vacation is still going strong and I’m loving every minute of it. I spent a few days at one of my friends’ parents’ house with a couple of other friends and just got back from a short holiday to Belgium with my father yesterday. We went to see David Gilmour (from Pink Floyd) live which was amazing. Wish You Were Here is in my top 3 favourite songs of all time and when he started playing the intro I nearly cried. So, yeah – it was good!

I also did loads of reading and participated in BookTube-A-Thon which was so much fun and really productive too: I finished 5 books – two of which I’d been “reading” for months. The bookstagram challenges they did also gave me a good way to get back into Instagram and I posted a few pictures I’m really happy with.

So, what else happened this month? I mostly hung out with friends, read, and did some plotting and planning for the fantasy story I want to write. It was just a really good month overall with lots of happy memories.

And then today, the 31st of July, the birthdays of J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child came out. I wasn’t planning on buying it right away at all, because, honestly, I wasn’t really feeling it, but then I saw all the hype on Twitter and Instagram and I just got so excited!

I picked up a copy as soon as the bookstore opened at 12 and I’ve just finished reading Part 1 and guys – guys – IT’S SO GOOD. It has waaay exceeded my expectations and I’m going to fangirl A LOT (my review will probably come on Thursday) but first it’s time for this recap, because it was a pretty good month for the blog, too!

Let’s go!

Read this Month

I read six books this month!

Queen of Shadows was absolutely amazing and I was completely blown away by it. I need Empire of Storms asap!
Go Set a Watchman had been on my TBR for ages, and I decided to buddy read it with my friend Emmie from Another Night of Reading. I have loads of thoughts on it, which will be up in a blog post some time in August.
Next up was Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island. I’d actually been reading that since the start of March, but other books kept taking priority. I really enjoyed it, though, and it was a nice change to read non-fiction.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite out of all of the Harry Potter books and this reread only confirmed that once again – even though it took me ages. I listened to the audiobook and I’m not in the habit of doing that, so it took me a couple of months to actually finish it.
The Raven Boys is one of those books that I’d seen floating around the blogosphere loads of times and then decided to buy one day because everyone and their mum was raving about it – and then promptly dropped to somewhere in the middle of my TBR and stayed there. But now I’ve finally read it and all I can say is what took me so long?! I love it with a fiery passion.
I’d never read Animal Farm before and BookTube-A-Thon seemed like the perfect opportunity since it’s only a very short book. I liked it, but it doesn’t come close to beating Nineteen Eighty-Four for me.

Reviewed this Month

This was a month of rave reviews!

I wrote a review on Isla and the Happily Ever After, which I thought was an absolutely wonderful book.
The novellas of The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas provided an amazing back story to one of my favourite characters of all time – Celaena Sardothien.
I was on such a Sarah J. Maas high that I immediately read Queen of Shadows – beware of the fangirling mess that is this review.

Baked this Month

This might be one of the most popular cakes I’ve ever made: it’s a Chocolate Caramel Cake with Sea Salt!
It’s pretty as well as delicious – and perfect for summer: my no bake Dutch Cream Cheese Pie with Fresh Fruit.