July Reading & Blogging Wrap Up (yup, finally!) + Read A Rainbow Wrap Up + A New Readathon

Hi guys, welcome! I know, I know, I know we are almost near the end of this month. Please, forgive me for delaying this wrap up so much. I was really busy. Anyway I won’t make this intro any longer and jump straight into the post. Thus, let’s begin.

Reading Wrap Up

Last month I read 6 books. Yay, it was the most books I have read in a month since the start of this year and I am so very proud of myself!!!!

Red Mistress by Elizabeth Blackwell

First book I finished last month was Red Mistress. I gave it 3.75 stars. Okay, I really enjoyed this book but the problem was after reading the synopsis I had expected a spy thriller brimming with mystery, intrigue and suspense. Though there was mystery and suspense, but it was no where near what I expected, so I was left a bit disappointed. Hence this slightly low rating. And it was also one of my 5 star predictions, so I was left even more disappointed. You can read my full review here.

Fangs by Sarah Anderson

Next I read this super cute graphic novel by Sarah Anderson. And oh my god!!!! It was so so cute and wholesome. I gave this book a 5 stars…. I highly highly recommend it. You can read my full review here (actually this is almost same to what I wrote here. When it comes to good graphic novels, I don’t know what happens, I forget all English words other than cute, heartwarming and wholesome!!!!!). Fangs is going to release on 1st September.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

After Fangs I finished the book that was all over the book community last month. For me I would say I was left a bit underwhelmed, but I still enjoyed it a lot. If you are a fan of weird and creepy and a twist that blows your mind away, this is the book for you. I gave it 4 stars. You can read my full review here.

When Plants Attack: Strange and Terrifying Plants by Rebecca E. Hirsch

Next I finished this audiobook. It is a non-fiction book about different species of weird plants. The plants range from Carnivorous Venus Fly Trap to fiendishly invasive kudzu. I really really enjoyed When Plants Attack and found many plant species in this book that I didn’t know about before. Personally, I felt I would have preferred physical copy for this one over an audiobook. That is the only reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5. You can read my full review here.

We Were Liars by E.Lockhart

5th book I finished last month was We Were Liars. Now, as I have seen while reading the reviews, that people either really love the writing style, or they really hate it. I am in the former category, I loved the writing style. I thought it made the story even more intense. I loved that big twist near the end. It caught me totally by surprise. But even if I keep this twist aside, this book was still awesome. I highly highly recommend this book. I gave We Were Liars a 4.5 stars. You can read my full Goodreads review here. I will post the full review of this book on my blog real soon.

Snow Song by Kate Riley

The final book I finished last month was this cute children’s book. It was in verse which I found really cute, and the illustrations for this one was so so good. Now, I faced two problems with this book. Firstly, this book had no plot. Okay, you can argue that it is meant for very young children, so no plot is fine. And that takes me to my second problem. I think quite a few words used here were quite difficult for the age range this book was targeting. So, if it is for older children, I think this book needed to have some kind story, but if it is for younger children, why use difficult words. Okay, maybe, I was the only one who faced this problem with words because English is not my first language, so my vocabulary developed much later in life. Hence, I would suggest not to discard this book only based on my review. I gave this book a 3 stars. Visit Snow Song’s Goodreads page. Snow Song is going to release on 20th October.

Read a Rainbow Wrap Up

Last month I took part in Read a Rainbow Readathon. The main aim of this readathon was to read 7 books for each of the colours Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Yellow, Orange. You were allowed to use one book for at most two colours.

So, initially I had planned to read 1 book for each prompt, that is 7 books in total. But, I was not able to do that. I had to double up on 2 colours. However, the good news is I did complete the readathon!!!!!!!!! Here is the colour wise breakdown:

Red

For Red I read Fangs.

Green

For Green I read Mexican Gothic.

Blue

For Blue I read Snow Song.

Purple

For this one I read We Were Liars. I know the cover looks almost blue in the Goodreads image above. But in real life it is in fact purple, though it is more violet-y, if I am being completely honest. But look, I wasn’t able to finish the book I had originally planned for this prompt on time. So, I had to improvise. okay.

Pink

For pink also, I read Snow Song.

Yellow

Okay, so this Readathon was plenty flexible. If the cover has even only a little bit of the prompt colour, you can use that book. So, for yellow I used When Plants Attack. The heading is in yellow, it counts!!!!!

Orange

For this one also I read When Plants Attack. Look, those little spaces beside the heading, those are definitely orange!

Trope-ical Readathon

So, this month I am taking part in Trope-ical Readathon. As the name suggests this challenge is based on the various tropes found in books. There are total 5 teams:

• Team Romance
• Team Science Fiction/Fantasy
• Team Mystery/Horror/Thriller
• Team Contemporary/Literary/Historical Fiction
• Team Non-Fiction/Poetry

You can be part of any team you want. There are 13 common challenges and 2 team challenges. And each team has a separate Group book. There are alternates available for both the common challenges and the Group books. Each time you complete a challenge you will get points, and also when you complete a team book. On basis of these points it will be decided which team will win. To know more about this Readathon visit here.

I am in Team Contemporary/Literary/Historical Fiction.

Here is original TBR. But obviously I have made a lot of a changes to my TBR, because well, I can’t follow a TBR even if my life depended on it.

Blogging Wrap Up

Top Ten Tuesday

Recommending Books For Every Letter on my Name

Reviews

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Red Mistress by Elizabeth Blackwell

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Top 5 Saturday

5 Unread Books That Have Been On My Shelf The Longest

Monthly Reading & Blogging Wrap Up

June Wrap Up

Others

Mid-Year Freak Out Tag!

June Book Haul

Under Your Skin Blog Tour: Excerpt

Let’s Chat!

What did you people read and post last month? And are you people taking part in any new readathons this month?