Words of July || Wrap-up

Whenever the time comes to write the monthly wrap-ups, I'm simultaneously excited and worried.

I love going over what I've done, read, and watched. But I don't like wondering, "what did I do that I can talk about?" which I almost always do before writing wrap-ups. Unless I've had a super busy month, you can bet that I go through my Storygraph and planner to figure out what I did to talk about it.

I'm not sure how much I'll have to catch you up on today. Grab your favourite drink, let's find out together ☕️

reading 📚

My reading has redeemed itself in July after a low reading month in June with 11 books read. After realising that I wasn't reading as much as I used to while writing my Mid-Year Notes, I somehow felt like reading more even though I decided not to care about my reading numbers. I still don't care about it but I miss reading obsessively, you know?

I didn't read every day but I read a lot once I started. Similar to my high school days, I stayed up past 1 am reading multiple times. I'd pick up the Kindle aiming to read a little before sleeping and ended up reading for hours, leading to lots of yawns the next day. StoryGraph says my average reading time was 1 day in July (discounting one book that took several days).

All the books I read were ebooks (I'm not touching my physical shelf at all...) and all of them were fiction. 1 was a reread. 3 of them were over 500 pages, a feat considering I usually read only a few 500+ page books in a whole year. In a surprising twist, most of the books I read were fantasy.

Continuing the Fable series, I read The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young. This is actually a spin-off from the first two books. I didn't realize it because Storygraph says it's book #3. I vaguely recognized some of the characters and had to go back to book 2 to place them. Surprisingly, I liked this book better than the first 2. The story was more high-stakes and the characters were way more interesting. I wasn't a fan of the romance but the rest of the plot was good.

My friends and I decided to buddy read Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid this month. I ended up reading it on the first Sunday in one sitting and they scolded me for it saying it's the book of the month and not book of 5 days 😆 The joke's on them though, one of them also read it in one sitting a few days later and I told the same thing back to her. I loved the astronaut aspects of the book. The romance was fine but I didn't like the characters much, the chemistry wasn't felt, probably because of the narration style. It's a good book, as expected from TJR, but it's not one of my favourites by her.

After Atmosphere, I was scrolling through the older books I had on my Kindle and accidentally selected A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth. Apparently the universe wants me to read it, who am I to say no? It was on my TBR years ago when it had released and everyone online was talking about it. I didn't get to it, until now. Good timing too because the series is now completed (I found out after I started the book). I would have loved this book way more in my teens but I quite enjoyed it now too. My favourite character is Nausicaä, of course. She made the book 10 times more interesting.

The first book ended in a cliffhanger so I immediately got and started reading A Cruel and Fated Light by Ashley Shuttleworth. This took me much longer to read (it's 640 pages long) and I liked it better than the first book. The first book was mostly set up and a lot of stuff went down in this. We could really focus on the plot since the characters and world were established. I was forcing myself to read slower at the end so that I don't miss anything because I was accidentally skipping stuff in anticipation for what's coming. This book ended with a bang.

I needed a break from the series after book 2's ending so I picked up Never Thought I'd End Up Here by Ann Liang. It was everything I expected from the book and more. I loved it. I especially related to the parts about not being fully familiar with one's language and fumbling with it—ashamed of it but also running away from it. I wasn't a fan of the romance but since it was only a small part of the book, I didn't mind. The main character's journey was great. I read the book in one sitting. I've officially read all of Ann Liang's books (until she releases another, of course) and I enjoyed every single one!

I wasn't ready to go back to The Dark and Hollow Star Saga so I procrastinated by rereading Bride by Ali Hazelwood. I've already read it and yet I stayed up till 1 am reading it! I liked the book the first time I read it but I think I like it even more now. It's like a fantasy hug. It's so comforting. The romance and found family aspects are great. Maybe I should update my review to include my newfound extra appreciation for it. This is the only werewolf romance that I've liked so far, maybe I need more lowkey ones like this instead of proper omegaverse ones. So I went on Reddit and looked for recommendations based on Bride.

The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson was the most recommended in the one Reddit post I saw and it was available on KU so I renewed my subscription. I have a few other books on my TBR that are on KU anyway. I liked it! The very modern setting with werewolves integrated into the society instead of being hidden was great. I liked the no-nonsense attitudes of the main characters. I liked that they were both mature. The third-act break-up was not good but oh well. My biggest problem with the book is that it never explained the "alpha and omega thing". I am new to werewolf shifter romances and omegaverse. I have/had no idea what the book was referring to. It just refers to it as if it explains a lot about the main characters but never actually says what it is! I was so confused. The book was not omegaverse beginner friendly.

The next KU book I picked from the Reddit post recommendations was The Alpha's Mate by Eve Bale. This was supposed to be short and comforting. I hated it. Zero stars. Most of the interesting plot happened off-page or in flashbacks. I did not give a damn about the romance. The alpha i.e. leader of the pack let his people fight a battle for his mate while he holed up with her in a treehouse somewhere else?! Huh?!?! I didn't like the characters either. There was one death which was supposed to be heartbreaking but I just couldn't care. Thankfully, it was short and didn't waste a lot of my time.

The last book I picked from the Reddit post recs was The Marriage Hex by Sarah Blue. This sounded really good and I hoped it would make me forget about the previous disaster read. This delivered everything it promised along with a few twists. I liked it. It had good world-building and a good setting. I liked the characters. I liked the romance. I also liked the mystery plot outside of the romance, it was really interesting, especially towards the end when a lot happened. The only thing that didn't work for me was how the wolves were apparently separate people? Like, a totally different consciousness within the same body? This is the first time I'm coming across this concept and it just.. did not make sense to me. I can handle werewolf shifters whose certain aspects are more intense due to being werewolf but I don't think I can handle entire different wolves in the same people. It was as if the main characters were possessed by wolves. Unfortunately, this aspect ruined the book quite a bit for me.

After a long-enough break, I got back to the Hollow Star Saga with A Grim and Sunken Vow by Ashley Suttleworth, book 3 in the series. I wasn't very happy with this book. It was slow for a long time with the characters running around doing a lot but no real advancement in the plot. When the plot finally picked up, it felt like there was too much to cover in a short time so it was rushed and some things were even skipped. Like we didn't see 2 "legendary" fights as they happened, instead seeing them in pieces in flashbacks. This book delved into 2 characters that weren't given too much focus earlier, making their story rich. However, I wasn't captivated by their romance like I expected to be, given who they were. I was disappointed, but at least the book somehow kept me engaged through 640 pages.

I didn’t think I’d be able to finish the 4th book in the last few days but I somehow ended up finishing it on the last night. A Wild and Ruined Song by Ashley Shuttleworth was… a lot. I liked parts of it, mainly the friendship aspects, and I didn’t like parts of it like the random time jumps where we don’t know what happened. The story had one last backstory that I was not expecting which meant a lot but didn’t change the current trajectory a lot, it was interesting but I wish it meant something in the current timeline. Somehow the story ended with a happy ending in the last chapter with everything wrapped up. Overall, interesting series inspired in part by Dungeons and Dragons. Could have been written better though.

I mentioned in my Mid-Year Notes that I want to read more series and I'm happy to say that I'm working on it. I read Fable, of course. The highlight is The Hollow Star Saga, though. It's my first series with more than 3 books in YEARS. I have been so out of touch with series, especially fantasy ones. For a while, I was too intimidated to even start series because they were long. Trilogies were the max I could do. (Discounting, or partly because of, The Plated Prisoner series which I started in 2022 and am yet to read the last book.) So yeah, I'm glad to have broken that lack of a streak. That too with a series with HUGE books. 640 pages is really a lot, okay. I would have gobbled it up easily when I was a student but it's a big deal now.

There are a couple of series that I'm eyeing on KU so hopefully I won't go years without reading a full series again.

blogging

I was 3 blog posts ahead when July started so I was hoping to be 4 blog posts ahead by July (all of th is in preparation for the weeks when I can't blog due to upcoming travels). However, it did not work out that way. I'm currently 2 blog posts ahead, a bit behind than what I started the month with.

The time that I'd usually spend blogging was spent doing other things so I didn't blog as much I hoped to. I've been maintaining the current blogging schedule even with the growing length of my blog posts because I spend a good number of hours every week blogging. Taking out any time, let alone a significant number, to do other things significantly affects blogging.

It's fine, though. Yes, one of my goals is to post 50 blog posts this year which I'll exactly make it if I stay on the current schedule. But I have other goals and wants as well. The point of my other goals is to do other things as well and not only blog away my days all the time like I've been doing for years. I want to branch out to other hobbies too.

I'm being overly dramatic considering I'm still 2 blog posts ahead though 😂 I'll probably catch up if I write a book review at some point, those are the easiest posts to write. Will I write a book review though? I don't know. I'm not in the mood for them lately, my mind is brimming with other ideas to write about. We'll see how it goes.

In case you missed them, here are my July posts:

• The Artist's Way || Weeks 1-4 Experience
• Mid-Year Notes 2025
• 2 Years Without Social Media — I'm the most proud of this post.

Somehow, the blog got more traffic in July compared to a whole year’s numbers. July saw 13.9k views! The nearest previous month which 14k views was June 2024. Usually, January’s numbers are the highest but this year, July surpassed January! I’m so surprised haha.

From a little snooping, it looks like a few reviews of mine are doing well. Mainly A Time Called You (starring Ahn Hyo-seop who was in Kpop Demon Hunters which went viral this month) and Lovely Runner (people are getting into Kdramas after seeing Kpop Demon Hunters, I guess?). Surprisingly, my review of The Rain in España is doing really well! I published it only in June but it’s already one of the top results on Google search. Maybe not many have reviewed the series so mine is instantly getting traction? It has a bunch of traction already through YouTube Shorts (which is how I found it and wanted to watch it). It’s been an interesting month in terms of stats.

Other than blogging, I've been really thinking about Substack. I decided to move my newsletter back to Kit but I'm not sure when, mainly because I have a few other things that require my attention in the coming months. It's going to be a pain to move back and that's causing procrastination. Maybe it'll actually be easy but just thinking about it is tiring. I'll procrastinate a bit longer so that I can focus on life admin things that are of way more importance currently. I will move when I get a free day, although it may be a few months later.

Meanwhile, if you can't get enough of my writing, check out these!

• My Comfort Books
• Games at 9pm?
• A Year With An Apple Watch

content consumed

Blogs

• Competitive reading needs to calm down
• how my blogging style has changed since 2012
• I REVIEW BOOKS TO DISCUSS THEM WITH READERS, NOT PROMOTE THEM FOR AUTHORS
• “Do Women Only Read Smut?” – Let’s Talk About the Latest Sexist Trend on Social Media
• I Have A Discord Server For The Blog // How A Discord Server Became An Invaluable Tool For Planning Ahead
• My simple Annotation System : How I Annotate Books

Newsletters

• Notes on parenting
• The model minority myth and I
• Why does my asexual ass like fairy porn so much? and Re: Asexual loves ACOTAR but doesn’t tell you why

Movies

• Watched Kpop Demon Hunters because many of my friends told me to. I am not a movies person and this reminded me why—not enough depth but then it's hard to with the time constraints of a movie. Although I agree it's catchy, I didn't like the song Soda Pop as much as most of the world. I really liked the songs Golden, Your Idol, and Free, though. It took a few days for them to grow on me but I like them now.

Surprisingly, I barely watched YouTube or TV shows in July. I'm not in the mood for vlogs or rewatching any TV shows lately, and nothing new is catching my eye, so I've mostly been away from TV. Maybe that's why my reading picked up a lot 😆

life

My calendar was (almost) empty in July. I spent every weekend at home, I didn't have anything going on, and I didn't end up doing any of the big things that I planned to either (like my health checkups). July somehow passed with me doing the most regular things. Every day felt full but overall, I didn't actually do much.

I worked, read, blogged, and worked out in zumba. I didn't play badminton or run even once because the weather has not been great for it. It's been raining a lot in South India and this city seems to get flooded easily. We had two storms which led to knee-height water logging in a road near my house which I have to cross to go to office. I didn't go out at all in weekends mostly because of rain—I didn't want to get caught anywhere and have to wade through water to get back home.

The only "extra" thing I did was crochet a doll which is actually a big thing. I used to crochet as a kid and lost touch with it for over 10 years. Reading The Artist's Way made me want to try out more creative hobbies and I thought crochet would be a good place to start since I'm a bit familiar with it.

I bought a crochet kit which comes with all the equipment—needles, different coloured yarns, marker clasps, and any props. I'm not planning to crochet a lot, just do it a bit and try out other hobbies, so I didn't want to buy individual things myself and let it go to waste. The kit was actually very helpful too because it came with a link to video tutorials. Those were really helpful.

It took me a few hours to gain familiarity with crocheting again. I messed up the first thing I made because I kept undoing and redoing it, and I made the stitches too tight. But after making the first thing, my confidence grew and I was able to do the rest with more ease. It was still a challenge because I had only ever crocheted a scarf when I was younger and it's much simpler than crocheting a doll which requires proper measurements and different types of stitches. Through the video tutorials, I learnt how to read patterns too—I was delighted to realise that I can understand R1: ch, (1sc, 2inc, 1sc)*3, ss now!

I spent about 25 hours on making the doll. All of those hours were proper deep work hours with full concentration. I wasn't listening to music, looking at my phone, or thinking about other things. Multiple times, I'd be so engrossed in it that I wouldn't realize that hours have passed and I should have lunch, probably. It felt great to spend hours lost in making something with my hands and have a finished product at the end.

Isn't it so cute?! It's a fox holding a mushroom. The hands unfortunately don't stand out in this photo but those are tiny red hands holding the mushroom. The doll is a bit wonky (especially at the back which you can't see in the photo) and the ears are too high on the head but it's cute and I'm proud of it.

Finally, one item crossed off in my "hobbies to try" sticky note on the wall! I'm excited to try the rest 😌✨

chat with me!

How was your July? What did you read? What did you watch? What's one "extra" thing you did in the month, apart from your normal routine?