**I stand in front of my shelves, and just like every month, throw my recent reads on my small table. I like to look back at all of the books I read in the last month. It’s nice to take time and reflect on those books instead of just finishing them and writing them off, rejecting them to the shelves for the rest of their days. I double check my reading journal to make sure I have all of my books. I usually have the rating shaded in beside the book title, but I actually stopped rating books this month. I want to try it out for a bit, making reading relaxing again.**

Welcome or welcome back to bookishcore. Like the character in my normal creative storytelling part above, I stopped rating books this month. I felt like rating my books put this added pressure on to find a five star read, when I should just think about whether I liked the book or not, not what star rating it should get. I only started rating in 2020, but I have decided to take a break from it so I can focus more on enjoying the story.

To start off, we have We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han. I have been making my way through the series, and finished it off with this one. I listened to this one on audio while I was journaling, which I think was the better choice since I didn’t really like this book. I didn’t like Jeremiah in this one and felt like Belly made certain decisions, not because she wanted to, but because she was going with the flow. I just couldn’t get into this book, or this series as a whole.

Rating:

After that, I read Sun to Me by Cleopatra Margot. This was the only book that I actually read from my July TBR. This one follows Ember, barista and bookstagrammer, who is tasked to interior decorate a house, which leads her to working with Graham Del Ray. I thought that this one was okay. There were moments I liked, but overall I just couldn’t fully get invested. I usually feel like that when I read adult books, so I really just need to get back to my young adult. There’s something about indie books that also make me feel that, and I can’t place my finger on it. There was nothing wrong with this book other than it just not being my thing.

Rating:

Next I read Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis, which is where I stopped rating. I am trying to read the Narnia series this year, and have really been enjoying it. This one is the fourth book in the series (though I read it as the third) and it follows the Pevensie kids. I definitely like the ones that follow the kids better. I did like The Magician’s Nephew for the backstory, but the ones with the kids in Narnia are much better in my opinion. It’s such a magical story about kids finding their way to Narnia and meeting all of the creatures there. Going into this story, I didn’t think I would like it because it’s older, but I have been pleasantly surprised. Out of the three I’ve read so far, this is my second favorite. I’m hoping to watch the movies soon and do a post on my thoughts about that as well.

My next book was Teen Titans: Beast Boy by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo. This is the second graphic novel in their Teen Titans series, following the one about Raven, which I read a few years ago. I really liked the art style so I figured I would continue, plus I like the Teen Titans, so that was an extra incentive to continue. I had never fully known Beast Boy’s backstory, so it was interesting getting to learn it through this graphic novel. The art style in this series is one of my favorites, so I recommend checking it out just for that reason. The story was fine, but a bit lacking in my opinion, though maybe don’t take that from me since I don’t read graphic novels often. Overall, this one was fine, and I may continue on to read about the rest of the Titans at some point.

My next book was Shadows by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I have been making my way through the Lux series all year, so I wanted to read this one. This is actually a novella following Dawson and Bethany, two of the characters we know from the main series. I actually enjoyed this one and it was interesting to learn more about their story from their own perspective instead of just through the eyes of Kat or Daemon. If you are reading this series, I recommend checking this one out.

The last book I read was one that I actually finished on the last day of the month, which was Flirty Little Secret by Jessica Lepe. This one is about a school guidance counselor with a secret Instagram account where she deals out advice, and a history teacher who has an online relationship with @TheMissGuidedCounselor. Fletcher transfers to Lucy’s school, but they don’t know that they are friends online. I don’t know how I felt about this one. I think I wanted a bit more of it to be set at the school. We never really see Fletcher teaching and I think it could have been more interesting. The main reason I picked this up was because they worked in the school, so I was kind of hoping for more of the school setting, and not just when they are in meetings. I feel like the school was more just the setting used to make the story happen and didn’t add anything. It also just felt like nothing really happened. I couldn’t care about the romance, or even the characters for that matter. I also thought they talked about the tea fiasco for way too long and it made it seem very dragged out, when it could have been a small incident in the beginning to set the motion of the story, then dropped. This one was fine, but it wasn’t for me.

Those were all of the books I read in July. I really want to focus in the coming months on reading more of what I really want to read, to not rush my reading, and to not rate my books so I can enjoy my reading again. Let me know any books you read in July.

xoxo,

Just another reader