- # of books read: 16
- audiobooks listened to: 2
- graphic novels read: 8
- total page count: 4,395
- year total page count: 24,472
A large portion of my month was spent reading 2 books by Cassandra Clare.
The first was Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, which I picked up mainly because I’ve been meaning to read it for a while and because I found out I wasn’t first on hold for Lord of Shadows… I wasn’t expecting this to be, essentially, a book about Simon. It was sort of like The Bane Chronicles, a series of short stories, written by Clare, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Robin Wasserman, that focused on Simon’s time spent learning Shadowhunter skills, trying to recover his memories, and dealing with not being a vampire anymore. There were a few lovely Malec moments, and a very sad moment at the end that for me, overshadowed the death at the end of Lord of Shadows.
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I’m glad I read Tales before I read Lord of Shadows, simply because of some of the background, a reminder that Alec and Magnus now have children and to meet some of the Shadowhunters who appear as part of the Centurions. There are many romances going on in Lord of Shadows, but my favorite relationship was between Kit and Ty. I feel like in my review of Lady Midnight I didn’t even mention Kit, even though he was one of my favorite characters, because he wasn’t essential to the complex plot. But here he was featured more, and I can’t wait to see what happens. Two more years till the next book…
After these two tomes, I was ready for a huge graphic novel binge.
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A few blog posts helped me discover a load of new graphic novels. This one recommended the memoir Imagine Wanting Only This, and this one introduced me to Giant Days. I swear there was a blog post that recommended Ten Count and The Angel of Elhamburg by Aki but unfortunately I can’t find it. Ten Count has been highly enjoyable, so much so that I bought v. 2 and couldn’t wait for volume 3 to arrive and starting reading online. My library director got an ARC of Lighter Than My Shadow, an intense memoir of a young woman with an eating disorder.
This month I also finished two books from Wattpad that have been published. The first was a horse-related story called Born to Run which I enjoyed because it felt like a mash-up between Thoroughbred and Wildfire. The second was The Casquette Girls, which I started reading on Wattpad and ending up buying, as Wattpad isn’t the easiest way to read and the book is over 500 pages. I really loved Casquette Girls – if you’re looking for something with amazing world-building and some paranormal romance, this is it.
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Sarah Dessen’s new book came out this month, which I was thrilled about. While it followed the Sarah Dessen formula, it’s still a great summer read.
Into the Water was another new release I’ve been looking forward to, since I loved The Girl on the Train. Unfortunately I found the issues I had with Hawkins’ first book (confusing multiple narrators) were even worse in this book, while this was also less of a thriller. The mystery was interesting, and the story got better as it went along, but still a little disappointing.
With my trip to Ireland coming up next month, I’ll either read way more because I’m traveling, or read way less (sometimes vacations are too busy for reading!). But I do have another stack of graphic novels to read, and about 4 OwlCrate books I need to get to, plus I’m going on a pilgrimage to the Book Barn in Niantic, CT tomorrow, so I’ll be sure to have a haul from that 🙂 The TBR list never stops growing!
The complete list of all the books I read this month (links take you to my Goodreads reviews)
- Born to Run (North Oak #1) by Ann Hunter (via Wattpad)
- The Voices by F.R. Tallis (audiobook)
- Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare et al.
- Torso by Brian Michael Bendis (graphic novel)
- Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green (graphic novel)
- Torso by Brian Michael Bendis (graphic novel)
- Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay (audiobook)
- Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2) by Cassandra Clare
- Ten Count v. 2 by Rihito Takarai (graphic novel)
- Giant Days v. 1 by John Allison (graphic novel)
- Imagine Wanting Only This by Kristen Radtke (graphic novel)
- Ten Count v. 3 by Rihito Takarai (graphic novel)
- Once and For All by Sarah Dessen
- The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden
- Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
- The Angel of Elhamburg by Aki (graphic novel)
Work in Progress 