June Wrap Up (2020)

Hey guys, this is Abi here,

And it's the end of June, so my next post is the June Wrap Up (2020)!

I read a lot of books this month. I didn't even think I was going to get my monthly TBR finished this month honestly, because of how large the first three books were. But I did, and I even read extra, to my enormous surprise.

Enjoy!

-BOOKS-

I read a total of 9 books this month, and just like last month, I've enjoyed every book (some more than others though.)

Here's what I read this month.

1. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0), by Suzanne Collins

If you want to see more of my in-depth thoughts of this book, the link to the review is in the title. But to sum it up, I thought there were both good parts, and things that could have been improved. But, I'm hoping, that if Suzanne Collins is able to write a book like this for a character we're not meant to like, then she should be able to write an even better book for a character we do like (like Finnick, Mags, Haymitch, Johanna, Cinna or Effie- please Suzanne Collins?) But, I read this book so I could form my own opinions on this book, because so many people are divided on this one.

2. Seasons of War (Skulduggery Pleasant #13), by Derek Landy

I've been following the Skulduggery Pleasant series since I was 12 years old, and it hasn't disappointed me once. Once again we follow Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain in their next adventure. This time around, they travel to another dimension, to stop them taking over their reality. They make the journey with a (mostly) new bunch of characters and it was nice to meet the people that clearly weren't all they seemed. I also feel like I found out a lot more about Valkyrie on a personal level in this one, which isn't something I was expecting to read about. Of course there was lots of action, and I'm bummed I have to wait a whole year until the next book. (Also that there's only two books left until the end (I've been following this series for so long, even two years feels like nothing to me where this series is concerned.) But, this was just as fantastic as all the other instalments have been. Welcome to the collection, Seasons of War.  

3. Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3), by Seanen McGuire

After loving the first two books of this series, I was excited to see what came next in the series. This one was a little confusing compared to the first two books, but it was also a kind of story, because it wasn't focused on a particular character, and the main action did take place at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children either. It was kind of a group adventure where they have to try and save a character, before she ceases to exist (in the past, her mother was killed before she was born- try working that one out.) But it was an interesting chapter in the Wayward Children universe, and it can't have been that confusing because I'm currently listening to the fourth instalment of the series.  

4. All Your Twisted Secrets, by Diana Urban

This was so good! I can't think of one thing I could say that this book could improve. Addictive, intense and full of surprises, All Your Twisted Secrets is about six teenagers that are invited to a scholarship dinner- or that's what they think. But when they get there, they realise that there's no such thing. Stuck in a room with no clue what's going on, they're left with a choice: choose one to die, or they all do. At first there is disbelief, of course. But as the bomb continues to count down, disbelief turns to fear, and fear to panic. Is this a trick? Or will they really have to choose? I flew through this, and I'm not surprised. If I didn't know that this is Diana Urban's debut novel, I wouldn't have thought so. If you like the One of Us Is Lying series, I highly recommend this.  

5. Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2), by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

The second book in The Illuminae Files and even though I feel like this one had a different pacing to the first one, (I didn't feel like I was thrown into the action straight away like in the first one), I was still amazed by how much I grew to love the characters. I also can't wait to pick up Obsidio to see what happens to this fantastic cast of characters in the conclusion. (Have no idea what's going to happen, but I hope there's action... wait, of course there will be.) Anyway, Gemina introduces us to two new protagonists: Hannah, the daughter of the captain on-board the Heimdall, and Nik, her drug dealer. Thrown together to defend their home from invaders, soon they're not just fighting for their own survival, the fate of everyone on the Hypatia- and possibly the known universe- is in her hands.  

6. The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar

I loved this book so much, I had to write a review for it- link is in the title if you want more in-depth thoughts. But the first thing I will say is that this was such a well-written story. The Henna Wars follows Nishat, a Bengali girl who is allowed to be whoever she wants- except a lesbian. When her school announce a contest where the students can start their own business, both Nishat and Flavia- a girl she used to know, who has recently enrolled at her school, both decide to start a Henna stall. I have to say, I love everything about this book- but my favourite part was the relationships. Nishat and Priti (her sister) was the most realistic, but it was Nishat and Flavia's relationship that was spark that kept the will they, won't they get together question stuck in the back of my mind the entire book. It's such a cute book, but I love how it deals with serious issues too, like racism, or a character being outed too. Top class.

7. The Call (The Call #1), by Peadar O' Guilin

I read this years ago, back in 2016, and donated it, so someone else could enjoy it. Four years later, when I bought the sequel, The Invasion, I decided to give it a re-read on my Kindle. The Call is about Nessa, a girl that has been training for four years, to prove to everyone that she can survive the call, where adolescents are transported for a day of hell, where the creatures that reside there like nothing more than to twist and torture the teenagers of Ireland. Having suffered from Croup as an infant, Nessa's legs are little more than useless, but she is determined to prove everyone wrong. Can she survive? This is a classic horror book if ever I've read one. The writing is gruesome, and you can't help but wince at some of the prescriptions. If you're in the mood for a short horror story, this is the one for you.

8. The Invasion (The Call #2), by Peadar O' Guilin

Taking place nearly immediately after the end of The Call, once again we read from the POV of Nessa, going to meet with Anto. But she never gets off, as she is arrested for something that I will not talk about because spoilers, and whisked away to prison. And it all escalades from there. Unlike in The Call, we follow both Nessa's perspective and Anto's over the course of the book. I wouldn't say this would make a good film, but it sure as heck would make a great videogame, because of the balance of character ARCs and fighting for good there is in this book. The concluding book to a decent duology, even though I wasn't expecting it to go the way it went, but that doesn't mean I wasn't satisfied. A decent duology to fly through if you're in the mood for routable characters and a book filled with action.

9. In An Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4), by Seanen McGuire

I literally finished this today, and I'm glad I could fit it in because my TBR for next month is HUGE. Maybe it's because it's my favourite one so far? Cos it totally was. In An Absent Dream is about a very studious girl called Lundy, who doesn't want to conform to a respectable housewife in the future, as well she shouldn't. But when she finds a door to the Goblin Market, full of rules and lies and deals, she thinks she's found her wonderland. Until she makes a deal, one that won't end well. (This is a prequel, so anyone that has read this series knows where she ends up.) But what I loved about this was that it was so much more than what the blurb says, I definitely liked Lundy more as a main character than all the other characters I've met so far. I wish the next book isn't the last one that's currently out.

-FILMS AND TV SHOWS-

Films

1. Table 19 (2017)- Not as amazing as I thought it would be, but still a funny film. Starring Lisa Kudrow and Anna Kendrick.

2. P.S. I Love You- One of my absolute favourites. Should really read the book. Starring Hilary Swank & Gerard Butler. Also worth a mention: this also features Lisa Kudrow.

TV Shows

1. RuPaul's Drag Race- Finished current season.

2. RuPaul's All Stars- Started current season.

3. The Next Step- Slowly making my way through Season 4.

-What I Did This Month-

Honestly, the exact same things as last month. Working, read, running. Not much else.

Okay! That's it for this month! I got a heck of a lot of reading done, more than I think I've ever read in a month (and I hope you had a good reading month too.) I will see you later with my July TBR, and because The Reading Rush is next month, I'll be doing two TBR posts, and that means a whole lot of books!

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I'll see you soon!

Byeee!

-Abi xxxx

The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar

Hey guys, this is Abi here,

And I think I see a pattern forming.

Last year, I did little to no reviews. Compared to when I first started this blog, the amount of reviews I used to do, like most of what I posted were reviews, even for books I'd already read.

And I think I got sick of them, and I got bored of planning to post reviews.

Now, I'm on my fourth spontaneous review in three reviews.

And that's what I'm going to do:

For the time being, I'm just going to post reviews for books that I want to review, spontaneously.

Okay, epiphany over.

Today I'm writing my review for The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar!

Enjoy!

Title: The Henna Wars

Author: Adiba Jaigirdar

Genre: LGBT Romance

Status: Standalone

Pages: 383

Blurb: "Nishat's parents say

she can be anyone

she wants- as long as

she isn't a lesbian.

Nishat's doesn't want to lose her family,

but she also doesn't want to hide who

she is, and it only gets harder once a

childhood friend walks back into her

life. Flavia is beautiful and charismatic,

and Nishat falls for her instantly. But

when a school competition invites students

to create their own businesses,

both Flavia and Nishat decides to show-

case their talents as henna artists. In a

fight to prove who is best, their lives

become more tangled- but Nishat can't

quite get rid of her crush, especially

since Flavia seems to like her back.

As the competition heats up, Nishat

has a decision to make: stay in the

closet for her family, or put aside her

differences with Flavia and give their

relationship a chance."

My Thoughts

I had thoughts on this book before I even read the first page of The Henna Wars. Two thoughts in particular: 1) The cover is beautiful, incredibly simple, yet it very accurately shows what it's all about to any potential readers, and I love that. 2) The message before the story books, forewarning readers about what's included (content warnings are: racism, homophobia, bullying, a character being outed.) It's great to know that it's at the start of the book, so people are forewarned, in case any of those themes are sensitive to them. 

 But when I heard about this novel I was all for it. I was excited to pick up a book that I had heard discusses the issues surrounding being black and gay, especially in our current circumstances. So I was all too eager to pick it up.

Having finished it, I can say that there's a lot to love about this book. The Henna Wars follows a Bengali girl named Nishat, who has to juggle her family's shame and denial to her coming out as a lesbian to them at the start of the novel, as well as the racism and homophobia constantly at school.

Nishat's character was my favourite part of the book honestly. She felt like a very fleshed out character, not rushed at all. All she wants is to be accepted by her parents, and not feel like she has to hide her sexuality like some shameful secret.

Although I don't have a personal experience similar to Nishat's, it was easy to gauge and sympathise with what she was having to deal with. What I liked was that she didn't seem to have just one emotion throughout the entire book, it felt like I was reading the story of a real person, not just a character. She was nervous at social situations, got butterflies at the thought of her crush, and stood up for herself when confronted about her sexuality.

Other than totally falling in love with Nishat's character, the best part for me was the relationships she shared with her sister, Priti, and her crush, Flavia.  I don't know whether I'm just reading the wrong books or what, but one thing I don't see a lot is that sibling love, particularly sisters.

But I love how Priti is always Nishat's cheerleader, it was so dear to see.

Although we didn't see Flavia and Nishat together as much, their romance was a nice relief between all the shite Nishat had to put up with. I liked how for the whole book there was a question of will they kiss, or won't they? As for whether Flavia felt the same as Nishat did? I was on tenterhooks as for what would happen, whether they'd get together, or Nishat would end up without Flavia.

Although there were a lot of heavy issues discussed in The Henna Wars, I feel like the sweet and the shite moments were very well balanced out, and very well-written. I liked how Jaigirdar was able to address social issues whilst keeping it lightweight, not too heavy.

I'm not saying The Henna Wars didn't discuss heavy topics, far from it. I was impressed by how she was also able to incorporate the beliefs of Bangladesh in a critical manner, whilst also showing Nishat's love for her culture.

The only critique I would have for this is that the writing was a bit simple, which is why I rated this 4 stars, instead of 5. There were just a couple of sentences that didn't sit well.

Overall, a wonderful novel, I can't wait to read more of her work, because I thoroughly enjoyed this. I can't wait to see this get the hype it deserves, because it was amazing. I highly recommend to anyone who likes Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda because this read very similar to that.

Right! Those are my thoughts on The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar! I hope you enjoyed it, and I feel free to comment down below.

I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you all soon.

Byeeeee!

-Abi xxxx

The Mid-Year Freakout Tag

Hey guys, this is Abi here,

And even though I do this tag every year, it never gets old. At least for me anyway.

So I'm doing it again.

Enjoy.

1. The best book you've read so far in 2020.

I really don't know with this!

I can't decide now, but here's my top three:

-Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1), by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

-Skyward (Skyward #1), by Brandon Sanderson

-What If It's Us, by Adam Silvera & Becki Albertalli

They're all amazing, I recommend picking up any of them. Clearly, What If It's Us is a contemporary, it's an LGBT romance that takes place in New York, and there's musical theatre references too so it's frickin adorable. Skyward is an amazingly well crafted novel about proving people's opinions of you wrong, and Illuminae is a case study made out of reports and text messages, it's not structured like an ordinary tale. Obviously there's more to these amazing novels, these are just sum ups, but all three are fantastic in their own right. (And the authors are absolutely phenomenal.)

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2020.

I haven't read a whole lot of sequels yet this year for some reason, but so far, this is my favourite sequel:

I finished this today, so I'm counting it! This series is so amazing, unlike anything I've read before, especially with the format, and aside from that, it's basically surprise after surprise, that I just didn't see coming. More on my wrap up, but if you haven't read this, come and join! Jump on the bandwagon. It's a crazy ride.

3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to.

I'm planning on getting every book from my April-June anticipated releases post that I haven't read yet for my TBR next month, and out of all the books that are left, The Lightness of Hands is the one that's been stuck in my brain the longest. The Lightness of Hands is about sixteen-year-old Ellie, and after her Dad's magician gigs dry up (after he fails on the biggest stakes trick ever), their insurance lapses, leaving her Dad's heart condition unchecked, and forcing Ellie to battle her bipolar II disorder without medication. But when he's offered a chance at redemption, a second chance to perform the trick that ended his career, Ellie takes it and lies about it to drag him across the country. But when her lie is exposed, Ellie will have to take her illness head-on- to save her father- and herself.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail on this one, if you want all the in-depth information on Grown, you can see it here. Grown is a story based on the allegations and accusations of the R&B star R Kelly, but there are a long list of trigger warnings, and even though I feel like this is a book I need to read, I urge people to do your research on what this book discusses before jumping into it. This comes out in September, and you can bet I'm going to be tearing through the pages as soon as I get my hands on it.

5. Biggest disappointment.

After loving Tomi Adeyemi's debut, I had high expectations for the sequel. Children of Blood and Bone took the Booktube community by storm when it's own voice narrative struck the YA section in 2018, so I had high hopes. And even though I still enjoyed it, I didn't hold a candle to the first book in the series. If there's one more book, I've managed the first two, so without a doubt I'll continue to the end, but Children of Virtue and Vengeance just fell flat for me. (Don't hate me please.)  

6. Biggest surprise.

Although I'd heard everyone singing this book's praises, I didn't truly believe it until I listened to the audiobook back in April. Every Heart A Doorway takes place at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, for children that have come back from secret lands (through magical doors that take them to places outside of the ordinary world) and haven't been able to deal with it. The tale starts when Nancy first arrives at the Home, and before basically 5 minutes, disaster strikes. And it just starts from there. I was so surprised at how much I instantly loved this, and how much was packed in within 174 pages/ 3 ish hours (audiobook), that I had to choose this. I'm three books in now, and this series continues to be amazing.

7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you.)

I finished this just last Friday, and the ending is still spinning in my mind. (Yes, even after picking up Gemina after.) I'm telling you now, Diana Urban is an author to watch. All Your Twisted Secrets has a simple, yet incredibly deadly, fast paced, edge of your seat plot- 6 teenagers trapped in a room with one instruction- kill one of them, or they all die. The character development is spot on, it's so easy to link events to the characters, I never had any problems. Such an addictive read.

8. Newest fictional crush.

I'm pretty sure I skipped this one last year, and the trend continues...
I don't really have a new fictional crush.

Oh wait...

KELL!

I suppose he counts.

(Of course he does, I'd never forget you, my dear Kell.)

9. Newest favourite character.

I really hate to name two characters from one series...
But not enough to not do it anyway!
LILA BARD.

She's not stupid, she doesn't try to take on the world. (Often.) She's incredible with a knife, and I think her and Tanith Low would be an awesome team. Maybe not Lila and Valkyrie though. But she's awesome.

10. Book that made you cry.

There are a few contenders for this one, so I'm just going to list them:
-The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman
-The Mercies, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
-A Girl in Three Parts, by Suzanne Daniel
Go and read these three, they're all masterpieces. (In my opinion.)
Also I love all of these covers.

11. Book that made you happy.

Although this wasn't Mo Farah himself talking in my ear when I was listening to this audiobook (the physical copy is out of print at the moment), it was fantastic to hear about his experience from a scrawny secondary schoolboy to Great Britain's golden medal winner he is today. Being the runner and athletics fan that I am, I found it truly inspiring, hearing about the work he put in for years, as he faced obstacle after obstacle. But he did it, and it wonderful to find out about his journey and how he reached his success.

12. Most beautiful book you've bought this year (or received.)

Just look at that cover. The physical copy is just as gorgeous, and it's perfect for the plot too. I mean, Marie Lu has always had stunning covers, but this one really takes the cake. And the language for The Kingdom of Back is just as luxurious and beautiful as the cover. I'm so glad I was able to read it when I did because it's pretty phenomenal for a debut historical fiction novel.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

These are the only books I need to read to complete all of my TBR Jar Challenges for the year. The reason I haven't devoured these yet is because I'm saving them for October (I already have a special spooky TBR planned and it includes The Chronicles of Alice duology.)

Okay! That's it for today!

As always, if you want to do this tag, you're certainly free to do so.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of reading and I'll see you all next week. I'll be starting The Henna Wars, by Adiba Jaigirdar this weekend. What are you reading?

Byeeee!
-Abi xxxxx