February Wrap Up

• I have decided to do a monthly wrap up on the blog this year. Yay for new features! In my wrap ups I will discuss the books that I read during that month, their ratings, and share links to their reviews if I have already posted them on the blog. I will also share my most popular posts of the month, and anything excited that happened throughout that month. At the end of the post, I will also include posts from other blogs that I enjoyed from the month. Please let me know if you like this kind of wrap up, and if there is anything else you would like to see in the post!

Number of Books Read: 9
Number of Pages Read: 2,679

Thoughts: February was, again, not a great reading month for me which is quite disappointing. I suppose that it was a shorter month, and reading more books than I did in January is a good improvement, but I'm still not happy with it. Unfortunately, for the last two weeks I have been ill with a sinus infection, so I did not feel much like reading most of the time. I am hoping that my medicine will kick in very quickly and that I will feel more like reading instead of just laying around. March will be better!

The Books:

1. The Last Order by Angela M. Caldwell | 240 Pages | Published in 2015 | *** | Review
2. 21 Proms by Multiple Authors | 304 Pages | Published in 2015 | **** | Review to Come
3. Eleven Weeks by Lauren K. McKellar | 226 Pages | Published in 2015 | **** | Review

4. Some Boys by Patty Blount | 339 Pages | Published in 2014 | **** | Review
5. Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle | 352 Pages | Published in 2012 |        ***** | Review to Come
6. How Not to Fall in Love by Lisa Brown Roberts | 352 Pages | Published in 2015 | **** | Review

7. How to Unbreakup by Rebekah L. Purdy | 176 Pages | Published in 2015 | ***** | Review
8. The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau | 336 Pages | Published in 2013 | ***** | Review to Come
9. Loki's Wolves by K.L. Armstrong & M.A. Marr | 358 Pages | Published in 2013 | *** | Review

Thoughts: Clearly I am still on a bit of a contemporary kick because six of the nine books fall into that genre. It will probably follow this same theme throughout most of the year since it is what I read most. I did read some fantasy that was okay, and I really enjoyed The Testing. I cannot wait to get my hands on the rest of the series so that I can read them very soon. I am fairly pleased with my reading this month, though I do think that I am going to try out more fantasy in the coming months. Any suggestions?

What Happened This Month? 
This month was not incredibly exciting, like I said earlier I spent most of it ill since it was such a short month and I was sick for about 2+ weeks (sickness is the worst!). I did celebrate one year of blogging, though! I also did get my hair done after six months, and decided to go red. I LOVE it. My husband also took me to a Maroon 5 concert for my Valentine's Day gift, and that was amazing. My formal observation at work was this month as well, and I am anxious to talk to my principal about what he thought of the lesson. I pre-ordered some books, made some banana bread, endured some winter weather, and spent quite a few nights at my parents' house to avoid driving in the ice and traffic mess. Overall, I hope March brings better weather and better health!

Most Popular Post of the Month: 
1. January Wrap Up
2. Blog Tour + Giveaway: The Last Order
3. One Year Blogoversary
4. Sleeping Tom Release Day
5. Top Ten Contemporary Books I Haven't Read

Awesome Posts From Other Blogs:
1. Book Bumblings talked about blogging schedules
2. Parajunkee created a book review checklist infographic
3. Nose Graze discussed how to make your blog future proof

That's it for February. Hoping March brings more reading, better weather, and good health! Happy Reading!

July Wrap-Up

Happy August folks! I honestly cannot believe that July has already come and gone; it seems like it flew by! I guess that's how summer tends to be, though. With August here, that means soon enough I will be back to work. This is actually my last week of freedom before my new teacher orientation and things begin, so I am going to try to enjoy it as much as possible!

Honestly, July was not the best reading month for me. There were several days when I simply did not feel like reading. Because of this, I mostly stuck to reading e-books that I had for review and things like that. I do hope that my reading will pick up again, but it will be interesting to see how things go once I'm back to work.

Alright, enough rambling, here are the books that I read in July, and the ratings that I gave them:

Number of Books Read: 13

Prom Impossible by Laura Pauling - * * * 

Broken Worlds by Anitha Robinson - * * * 

Four by Veronica Roth - * * * * *

 Carrier by Anne Tibbets - * * * * *

Dangerous Dream by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl - * * * 

Twilight: The Graphic Novel Vol. 1 by Stephenie Meyer - * * *

 Twilight: The Graphic Novel Vol. 2 by Stephenie Meyer - * * * *

New Moon: The Graphic Novel Vol. 1 by Stephenie Meyer - * * *

The Maze Runner by James Dashner - * * * *

 The Break-Up Artist by Philip Siegel - * * *

Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand - * * * * *

Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican - * * *

Every Ugly Word by Aimee L. Salter - * * * *

I read a lot of great books this month, but I am still disappointed that I did not get to more of the ones I really hoped to read. I am looking forward to a good reading month in August, though!

June Wrap-Up

I cannot believe that tomorrow is already the last day of June. The month went by incredibly fast, and I hope that things start to slow down so that summer can last awhile before the next school year starts! While I'm excited about my new job, I'm not ready to get back to work yet!

Number of Books Read This Month: 12

1. Don't Fall by Rachel Schieffelbein
2. First Impression by Pauline Creeden
3. Shattered Veil by Tracy E. Banghart
4. Torn Away by Jennifer Brown
5. The Skinwalker's Apprentice by Claribel Ortega
6. Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
7. The Witch of Luna Hill by Neel Kay
8. Perception by Lee Strauss
9. A Risk Worth Taking by Heather Hildenbrand
10. A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
11. She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
12. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Reviews This Month: 14

1. Don't Fall by Rachel Schieffelbein 
2. Shattered Veil by Tracy E. Banghart
3. August Moon by Tammy Morea 
4. First Impression by Pauline Creeden 
5. Gypsy by Trisha Leigh 
6. Torn Away by Jennifer Brown
7. Deuce by Janine Caldwell 
8. The Skinwalker's Apprentice by Claribel Ortega
9. The Witch of Luna Hill by Neel Kay
10. Ex-Factor/Unbreakable by Elisa Dane
11. A Risk Worth Taking by Heather Hildenbrand
12. Heart Shaped Rock by Laura Roppe
13. Hive & Heist by Janine A. Southard
14. A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall 

It was a pretty busy month of reviews on the blog. I had a bad habit at first of signing up for a lot of blog tours, leaving me not much time to read anything outside of those review books. Luckily, I realized pretty quickly that this was a problem and have been careful about what I've signed up for since then. I hope to get it down to about one or two a week in the future months, so we will see how it goes! 

Also, be prepared. Today I plan to post/update all of my posts for the challenges I am participating in this year as it has already taken me way too long to take care of this!

August Moon by Tammy Morea