Shadow and Bone – A Bookworm's Paradise

If I disappeared into thin air, would I be ~~missed~~ mist?

(Oh my god I think in all this time I was away, my jokes have actually become worse. Which, considering how groan-worthy they were before is an impressive feat in itself.)

But I’d like you guys to appreciate how the joke isn’t even hypothetical at this point. Speaking of which yes I am aware I need to explain my *cough* absence. *averts eyes*

Okay so let me start from the beginning. Let us establish that this wasn’t *entirely* my fault. Look I didn’t want to be…

a half-blood.

HAHA GOT YOU. Did you see the PJO show trailer?? Isn’t it so perfect like-

Okay okay you really can’t be distracted for 2 seconds can you? *huffs* Soo about my disappearance. As much as I’d like to tell you it was because I was heist-ing (YES I AM STILL OBSESSED WITH SUCH THINGS WHY DO YOU ASK) or pirate-ing all this while, my life isn’t nearly as adventurous. I was studying and crying about exams and worrying about failing and studying more and topping the class and then studying again so. School basically is a life-sucking force we shall not talk about anymore THIS IS A SAFE SPACE SHOO

Anyway, we’re now going to be doing a combined wrap-up for august-september-october-november (gosh have i really been gone THAT long?). Let’s just say I totally embraced the autumn vibes these last couple of months.

(ugh the formatting is AWFUL on the Reader so please read this post on the website by clicking here)

I’ve read very little these past few months (because SCHOOL!!) but most of them have been quality reads so that’s a win I guess?

So the highlights were that I became obsessed with The Poppy War trilogy and how could I not when the writing was so brutal, so haunting? And after Babel, I have reached RF Kuang worshipper level. I also discovered the joys of dark academia (thank you booksta) and I am officially in love with the genre. I also read my second classic of the year (the first of pride and prejudice) and Dorian Gray still haunts my dreams.

So I FINALLY watched the ICONIC Little Women and my mind was a mush of JOLAURIE JOLAURIE JOLAURIE for a solid hour.

I also gave in to the hype and checked out Dead Poets Society and I WAS NOT READY FOR THE PAIN. I totally understand why it’s a classic- the plot, the acting everything was MASTERFUL.

Other than that, I’ve mostly been keeping up with new shows like Spy Family and Wednesday and the Enola Holmes movies.

Last week I represented my school in an intra-city badminton tournament! We lost in the quarter-finals but that’s okay we won quite a few rounds before that and it definitely was an amazing learning experience.

MIDNIGHTS OH MY GOSH. So you see I’ve become somewhat of a hardcore Taylor Swift fan in the past few months (listening to Fearless while writing this hehe) and her latest album Midnights has been the highlight of my life since October and I am not even exaggerating. Midnight Rain and Snow On The Beach and Great War and Would’ve Should’ve Could’ve are my top songs atm.

ALSO SHADOW AND BONE SEASON 2 RELEASE DATE WAS HERE TODAY i’m dying over here because NIKOLAI!! WYLAN!! TOLYA AND TAMAR!! I apologise in advance for the person I’ll become on march 16th (although i’ll have finals then so i’ll probably have to wait till march end but that means i can watch it on my birthday (28th march)!!)

I bagged 2nd prize at our intra-school chess competition! I feel like I could be even better at the game if I just put in a little time into it which I’ve started doing lately.

Oh and I can finally flex that I’ve taken to playing the keyboard! I am very proud of the fact that I can play the entirety of Snow On The Beach and Exile :)) and also the chorus of Enchanted (working on the whole song rn and the tune just makes me so happy)

I’ve been quite active over on my bookstagram account (though I still can’t click pretty pictures for the life of me :’) all this while so feel free to contact me on there too!

hi besties sorry i disappeared (again) but look! hopping in on the trend: here's my top 3 "this is so me" characters! (also first reel who's screaming that's right i am screaming)

I’ve honestly missed you guys so much so TELL ME EVERYTHING! How have you been?? Random exciting things that have happened in your life?? New posts for me to check out? Favourite Midnights songs? Recent favourite books (I NEED RECS)

Feel free to completely spam the comments, nothing would make me happier!!

~Rachel

So another month gone by! Let’s take a look at my reading, blogging, blog-hopping and other highlights of the month.

April has been, by far, the best reading month this year! I read a total of 7 books, which is pretty impressive considering that I have been trying to level up from my boring 5 books per month since the beginning of this year.

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer [4 stars] Eh, this was one of those books where I was totally lost after the end. I had no idea whether to rate it 3 stars or 4 stars or 5 stars. But finally I settled with 4. At this point of time, I am like – Just tell everyone who Nightmare and Sentinel is!! And if you wanted to keep it secret forever, maybe it could have been unknown to the readers as well? Because it is getting kinda annoying now, to be honest.

The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury [3 stars] My first audiobook! But what a disappointment the story was. It was too repetitive, to the point that so many things got downright irritating. And the beginning was nice enough, I don’t know what happened after that.

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception [4 stars] Actually I don’t remember much about this, but I do enjoy a good heist, so that was one of the reasons I gave this 4 stars.

A Wilder Magic by Juliana Brandt [4 stars] This was my first ever ARC!! I got this as a part of a book promo tour I did this month. It was such a beautiful middle grade with amazing platonic relationships. Read my full review HERE.

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman [4.5 stars] This was easily my favourite book of April. It definitely deserves a lot more hype, I have rarely heard bloggers mention this. There were equal parts mystery, friendship and adventure in Book Scavenger. To read my full review, see my journal spread and play a small bookish game inspired by Book Scavenger, click HERE.

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman [1.5 stars] Well. I am still debating whether to put up a review for this on my blog or not, since I haven’t really posted a negative review here before, and this is also a very new release. But I did post a review on Goodreads, you can read it HERE.

Misfit (Asura Chronicles #1) by Jo Zaida [3 stars] Another ARC!! So I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had expected to, but it was worth reading anyways. Review to come!

I am proud to report that I carefully followed the posting schedule I had set up for myself last month (except for last week, when I had a blog tour post out of schedule, on a Sunday) throughout the month of April! When I started, I didn’t think I would be able to follow it throughout, to be honest, but turns out I was wrong!

I am not going to link all my posts from this month here, only specific ones. If you would like to see all my posts in April, click HERE.

I have included the links to my posts in their featured images below, so all you have to do is click on the ones that catch your attention!

A discussion post all about book titles! I am quite proud of this one actually, so do check it out if you missed it earlier!

I created a quiz for you to find some great recs!!

I tried to be really active on all of your posts this month, and I think I succeeded to a great extent. I interacted with your blogs wherever I could, and came across some interesting posts in the process.

Amy @A Fangirl’s Opinion wrote about some funny books and characters on April Fools day!

April @Booked Till Midnight shared her recipe for a 5 star read!

Alice @Love For Words related Pride and Prejudice quotes to her everyday life! I have not read Pride and Prejudice completely (I’ve read only short excerpts) but this humorous post had me chuckling out aloud!

Ritz @Living, Loving and Reading Netflix’s Shadow And Bone and her thoughts are SO similar to mine!!

Ashmita @the fictional journal made a list of characters who are likely to jump-scare people!

Ritz @Living, Loving and Reading gives us some great sci-fi recs and also shares her sci-fi tbr!

Other updates and highlights of the month

We hit 100 followers in early April!! This is my first big blogging milestone, so thank you so much for that guys🥰 It means a lot to have you enjoy and appreciate my content.
The Home page of my blog now has a brand new look! I have changed the header image, put in a sidebar and stuff like that.
My blog now has a Review Policy page.
I received my first ARCs and took part in my first blog tour this month!
April was Shadow and Bone month!!!! (oops sorry for all the exclamations, this just shows how much I loved the show) By now, you all know how much the Six Of Crows duology means to me. If you don’t, IT’S MY FAVOURITE BOOK OF ALL TIME!! So naturally I was excited for the S&B show on Netflix. Though I started watching it only for the Crows, the Alina-Darkling storyline also got me hooked and made me wonder why I didn’t read the Shadow and bone trilogy earlier (I am not going to read it now, I want to know the story only from the show). I finished watching all 8 episodes of S&B in four days, and wow I loved seeing my favourite characters brought to life. The casting was just perfect. Freddy Carter is going to be stuck in my mind’s eye as Kaz forever, and same with the others. I didn’t think it was possible to love and admire Kaz more than I did after reading the books, but this show proved me wrong…my heart went out for him even more!! The ‘No mourners, no funerals’ line was also so perfect when it happened. Jesper and Milo were absolute showstealers!! Okay, not gonna ramble any more, but seriously, go watch it!!