Hoohoo, friends of the blade.
July was a very exciting month for me. I wasn’t home a lot nor read much, but I had so much fun all through the month. The first week was mostly planning and organising stuff job wise (I start a new job in August!!). And then it was time for our summer vacation. We drove to the Tatra mountains in Slovakia where we’ve already been two years ago. We had planned so many hikes but couldn’t do all of them because we only had a few days and also our bodies aren’t trained enough for difficult hikes every day. But we mastered steep inclines and heat and spent beautiful days up in the mountains, relaxing hours in the thermal baths and ate some very good food. Beloved buchta, pirohy and halušky, I already miss you. 
They really do know how to prepare and serve their food in those mountain huts. We spent one week in the High Tatras and then another week in the Western Tatras. I love the nature there and that it’s all national park so a lot of nature is preserved with a wide variety of plants and animals. For the first time in forever I saw yellow-bellied toads again, my favourite animals from childhood. They’re very rare where I live so it made me unbelievably happy to see so many of them there! I already wish to return to the Tatras, I love them so much.
The other big event happening in July was the Eras Tour! Funny how I said before going to Munich that I loved Taylor Swift’s music but I was more of a casual fan. Well, I am obsessed now. The concert was one of my best nights of my life, everything was just so positive, wholesome, fun and uplifting. I was already feeling pretty good, but this concert put a smile on my face and I still cannot wipe it off. The atmosphere was wonderful, everyone was screaming lyrics, dancing, laughing, crying tears of joy and I felt like I belonged. And everyone was incredibly helpful and forthcoming and wanted to trade bracelets. I feel like all words I could find aren’t adequate for the experience that was the Eras Tour. I just want to go back and live there forever in this magical night. But since that is impossible, I am now living in the merch.
BOOKS READ
The Mime Order – The Song Rising – The Dawn Chorus – The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon
Author’s Preferred Texts
The Bone Season #2-4
Paige Mahoney has escaped the clandestine prison city of Oxford. Now a fugitive in London, she nurtures a new taste for revolution.
Oxford may be behind her, but the Republic of Scion is undefeated. As it turns its all-seeing eye on Paige, she is forced to return to Jaxon Hall, her charismatic and brutal employer, to keep her foothold in the underworld.
But Paige will bow to one now, and not even Jaxon will stop her exposing the corruption in the syndicate. As she plots to win the fabled Rose Crown, both sides of an ancient conflict seek her talents for themselves.
These were all rereads but I absolutely loved reading the author’s preferred texts, they gave more depth to an already incredible story and I’m so happy Samantha Shannon could rewrite her books and publish them again how she wanted to! This series isn’t my favourite for nothing and I’m already so obsessed with it again, see me already crying over The Dark Mirror despite it not being out for another half a year. Everyone please read the Bone Season, it’s so good.
The Pradise Problem by Christina Lauren
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam ‘West’ Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.
Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents – his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
It’s been a while since I last read a Christina Lauren book but I truly enjoyed this! I loved how Anna and Liam were true to themselves while trying to keep up their ruse and also falling for each other. I really liked the two of them though I wasn’t a big fan of most of the other characters and I just want to say: eat the rich. Read a slightly longer review of The Paradise Problem here.
The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola
The Ladies Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family: it is emblematic of changes in consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century.
Octave Mouret, the store’s owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life as much as in business he is the great seducer. But when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu, he discovers she is the only one of the salesgirls who refuses to be commodified.
Émile Zola doesn’t know a plot, but he knows his words. Good deductions, highly different characters that make for an interesting society and sharp remarks make this book a highly enjoyable, slightly educational story. It was also the perfect audiobook to keep us company on the long drive on vacation and all of us liked it immensely! Émile Zola definitely knows what to say to get his points across without being too on the nose. There’s subtlety, on the other hand he always manages to pick out the sharpest words to take a crowbar and bonk it on the characters’ heads. Zola truly was a master of words and this definitely won’t be the last book of his I read!
Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong
Foul Lady Fortune #2
Winter is drawing thick in 1932 Shanghai, as is the ever-nearing threat of a Japanese invasion.
Rosalind Lang has suffered the worst possible fate for a national spy: she’s been exposed. With the media storm camped outside her apartment for the infamous Lady Fortune, she’s barely left her bedroom in weeks, plotting her next course of action after Orion was taken and his memories of Rosalind wiped. Though their marriage might have been a sham, his absence hurts her more than any physical wound. She won’t rest until she gets him back.
But with her identity in the open, the task is near impossible. The only way to leave the city and rescue Orion is under the guise of a national tour. It’s easy to convince her superiors that the countryside needs unity more than ever, and who better than an immortal girl to stir pride and strength into the people?
When the tour goes wrong, however, everything Rosalind once knew is thrown up in the air. Taking refuge outside Shanghai, old ghosts come into the open and adversaries turn to allies. To save Orion, they must find a cure to his mother’s traitorous invention and take this dangerous chemical weapon away from impending foreign invasion—but the clock is ticking, and if Rosalind fails, it’s not only Orion she loses, but her nation itself.
Why did I put off reading this for so long? It was so good! I love all of the characters and how they engage with each other. I liked how the relationships were written, and I don’t only mean the romantic ones but also the complex families and the friendships. I also liked how Chloe Gong wove fantasy and fiction into the historical Shanghai setting, making it all come alive. So far, this is defintiely my favourite book by her!
BOOK HAUL
Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel
A mother and a son. A goddess and a prince. A curse and an oath. A river whose course will change the fate of the world.
Ganga, joyful goddess of the river, serves as caretaker to the mischievous godlings who roam her banks. But when their antics incur the wrath of a powerful sage, Ganga is cursed to become mortal, bound to her human form until she fulfills the obligations of the curse.
Though she knows nothing of mortal life, Ganga weds King Shantanu and becomes a queen, determined to regain her freedom no matter the cost. But in a cruel turn of fate, just as she is freed of her binding, she is forced to leave her infant son behind.
Her son, prince Devavrata, unwittingly carries the legacy of Ganga’s curse. And when he makes an oath that he will never claim his father’s throne, he sets in motion a chain of events that will end in a terrible and tragic war.
As the years unfold, Ganga and Devavrata are drawn together again and again, each confluence another step on a path that has been written in the stars, in this deeply moving and masterful tale of duty, destiny, and the unwavering bond between mother and son.
Nine Tailed by Jayci Lee
Sunny Cho aspires to be the dullest, least interesting person in any given room, which can be challenging for a nine-tailed fox spirit. So she drifts from city to city—staying clear of any and all attachment—and keeps her fox buried deep inside her. It is better this way. She would rather live as half of herself than risk losing control of her terrible powers.
Ethan Lee, a friend she left behind eight years ago, is a brilliant and distractingly hot PI. When he tracks her down and asks her to help him find his brother’s murderer, Sunny knows her uneventful life is about to be turned upside down.
Traversing the mortal realm and the world of gods, Sunny and Ethan discover their quest is much more dire than mere vengeance, and their friendship might be…more. An ancient evil is stirring, and Sunny is faced with an impossible save the worlds from annihilation or claim the love fated by the heavens.
Blood Jade by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle
The Phoenix Hoard
Emiko Soong, newly minted Sentinel of San Francisco, just can’t catch a break. Just after she becomes the guardian for a sentient city, a murder strikes close to home. Called by the city and one of the most powerful clans to investigate, she traces the killer whose scent signature bears a haunting similarity to her mother’s talent.
The trail will lead her back to Tokyo where the thread she pulls threatens to unravel her whole world and bring dark family secrets to light.
Meanwhile, the General rises in the East and Emiko must fight the hidden enemies of his growing army who are amped up on Blood Jade, while keeping her promises to her brother Tatsuya as he prepares for his tourney.
Her duties as Sentinel and her loyalties collide when she must choose between hiding her deepest shame or stopping the General’s relentless march.
Intersting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
Enid is many things: lesbian, serial dater, deaf in one ear, space obsessive, true crime fanatic.
When she’s not listening to grizzly murder podcasts, she’s managing her crippling phobia of bald people and trying hard not to think about her mortifying teenage years – which is hard, when she’s lost the password to her old YouTube account and the (many) vlogs that her teen self once uploaded.
She’s worried about herself, her depressive mother, and what the deal is with gender reveal parties.
But as Enid fumbles her way through her first serious relationship and navigates a new family life with her estranged half-sisters, she starts to worry that someone is following her.
As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her… Full of charm, humour and heart, Interesting Facts About Space is a pitch-perfect exploration of the strange ways we try to connect with others, and the power of sharing our secret selves with the people we love.
Sisters of the Snake by Sarena Nanua & Sasha Nanua
Princess Rani longs for a chance to escape her gilded cage and prove herself. Ria is a street urchin, stealing just to keep herself alive.
When these two lives collide, everything turns on its head: because Ria and Rani, orphan and royal, are unmistakably identical.
A deal is struck to switch places—but danger lurks in both worlds, and to save their home, thief and princess must work together. Or watch it all fall into ruin.
ON THE BLOG
Mini Reviews: A Novel Love Story | The Paradise Problem | Not in Love
Euros 2024: Books for the Countries of Group D: France, Poland, netherlands, Austria
BLOG VISITS
posts by other bloggers I loved reading this month
Rating “Romantic” Things Love Interests Do In Books by Aimee @ Aimee can read
Why I’m Self-Publishing My Book by Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books
Fence Vol.6: Redemption by Caro @ Bookcheshirecat
How was July for you? What did you do? What books did you read?
Until next time,
