July Wrap-Up (2018)

Hey everyone,  Victoria here! Today I'm going to be sharing with you my July wrap-up! I read 5 books in July, which I'm really happy with! I read a lot of really great books and a lot of mediocre books. So, let's just jump right into the wrap-up...


1.) The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (3/5)



*TRIGGER WARNING- Suicide, Depression, and Self-harm

I thought that this book was going to be a definite 5 star read for me, turns out I don't like reading magical realism. This book is about a girl whose mother commits suicide, and she is now convinced that her mother has turned in to a bird. This is not a bad book, by any means. In fact, I would even recommend it to you if you like magical realism. I enjoyed the mental health aspect of this book, and I thought it was really well done. However, in the middle of this book, I was ready to DNF it. I was very bored in the middle of this book, as were some other readers (as I found out when reading Goodreads reviews). However, I pushed through to the end and thankfully it got better. Overall, I'm not mad that I read this book and didn't like it too much, I just think it wasn't for me.


2.) Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (5/5!)



*TRIGGER WARNING- Rape and Sexual Assault 

WOW! This book has to be one of my favorites of the year, as well as one of my favorite YA contemporaries of all time! This book details our main character, Mara, and how she deals with her best friend, Hannah, accusing her brother of rape. If you read and enjoyed The Way I Used to Be  by Amber Smith, I would highly highly highly recommend this to you! It was such an emotional read and I just enjoyed it so so much. The characters, the family and friend relationships, and just the entire thing really was absolutely perfect and heartbreaking all at once. I don't know what else to say besides YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!!


3.) They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Rating: ⭐️  ⭐️ ⭐️  .5 / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (3.5/5)





I chose to read this book as required summer reading for my school. This book was good. Nothing spectacular, but it was good. The concept is spectacular: in an alternate world, Death-Cast calls you on the day you are going to die. This book follows two characters, Mateo and Rufus, who receive the call and spend their last day together. However, the execution was somewhat lacking in my opinion. I felt that this book dragged at times and it wasn't as emotional as other people made it out to be. I thought the characters and their storylines were well fledged out, but the overall story didn't live up to my expectations. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I would still recommend checking this book out if the concept interests you. Just know that it is more of a slow read :)


4.) Love and Luck by Jenna Evans Welch
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (4/5)



This was very cute! This is the sequel to Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch, which I read last month and LOVED! Love and Luck wasn't as good as Love and Gelato in my opinion, but I still did really enjoy it. It took me a while to get into this book, but I read the last 200 pages all in one sitting.  Love and Luck follows Lina's friend (mentioned in Love and Gelato), Addie, and her adventures in Ireland where she is attending her aunt's wedding. However, things definitely don't go as planned. I liked the characters in this story, the setting, and the romance. It is one of the better contemporaries I've read this year, but not a 5 star read. If you read and enjoyed Love and Gelato, I would for sure recommend picking this up even if you don't like Addie as a character (I didn't really like her either).


5.) Little Monsters by Kara Thomas
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (4/5)



This book was really creepy and suspenseful! It follows the investigation of the disappearance of a girl named Bailey. I really enjoyed the small town mystery plot and the characters were all really interesting to read about. My only complaint about this book was that I didn't' really enjoy reading the diary entries in this book, but overall I didn't have any other problems with it. I don't want to say too much about this book to keep from spoiling anything, but I would definitely say don't read this book at night with the lights off! :)

These are all the books that I read in July! Be sure to check out my TBR for August to see what I'm planning on reading this month and let me know in the comments if you read any of these books! See you next week with another new post!

-xoxo Victoria

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