Weekly Wrap Up | 7/20/25

Aloha friends!

Another week is over and here’s what happened:

+ I’m in Las Vegas right now and will be home tomorrow!

Blog Posts:

Books I Finished

  • Metal Slinger by. Rachel Schneider
  • The Night Prince by. Lauren Palphreyman
  • Direbound by. Savle Sorensen
  • Once a Villain by. Vanessa Len

Currently Reading:

Roots of Darkness by. Demi Winters

A Steeping of Blood by. Hafsah Faizal

Shows/Movies/Music I Watched/Listened To:

  • Lady Gaga – Mayhem Ball Tour in Las Vegas

Videos I Posted to Youtube:

How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!

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Let’s Talk Bookish:  Reading Beyond Books | 7/18/25

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish meme originally created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits, where every Friday, bloggers write discussion posts based on a weekly prompt and Dini @ dinipandareads has cohosted since the beginning of 2025.


This week’s topic is:

July 18: Reading Beyond Books

Prompts: What do you read other than books? Do you like non-novel forms of literature, like poetry and plays? Do you read a lot of news articles, op-eds, or essays? Do novels make up most of your reading, or is it a mix of those other kinds of writing? Do you ever listen to podcasts in place of audiobooks?

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What do you read other than books? Do you like non-novel forms of literature, like poetry and plays?

😬 Blogs! Um…does Twitter count?! lol…and email? Or mail? Once upon a time I liked poetry but I never read plays unless it was Shakespeare back in school

Do you read a lot of news articles, op-eds, or essays?

I do! If I find a link on social media and want to read more about the topic. I’ve read my sons essays to double check them! lol. I read a lot of stuff my daughter writes.

Do novels make up most of your reading, or is it a mix of those other kinds of writing?

Yes I only read novels these days.

Do you ever listen to podcasts in place of audiobooks?

I have no patience for podcasts and I barely have patience for audiobooks lol…but I have FINALLY listened to more than one audiobook in one year (this year).

July Topics:

July 4: Duologies vs. Trilogies

  Prompts: Do you prefer duologies or trilogies, and why? What are the pros and cons of having two books vs. three books in a series? What are some of your favourite duologies and/or trilogies? Do you think there are benefits to these shorter series, compared to ones with 4+ books, or are fewer books limiting?


July 11: Book Hype (Melanie @ Melanie’s Book Blog)

  Prompts: Has the hype ever ruined a book for you? Has the hype ever made a book better for you? Do you like lesser-known reads, and finding a gem of a book that no one’s heard of? Or do you prefer to read the more popular, mainstream books? Where are the majority of the books you read, in terms of popularity? 


July 18: Reading Beyond Books

  Prompts: What do you read other than books? Do you like non-novel forms of literature, like poetry and plays? Do you read a lot of news articles, op-eds, or essays? Do novels make up most of your reading, or is it a mix of those other kinds of writing? Do you ever listen to podcasts in place of audiobooks?


July 25: The Elusive 5-star Read

  Prompts: What makes a book a 5-star read for you? Do you give books 5 stars easily, or are you more selective with them? What are your all-time favourite “can’t-live-can’t-breathe-without-them” 5-star reads? Is there anything that makes a book automatically 5 stars for you? Or the opposite — what makes you drop to 4 stars?


WWW Wednesday | 7/16/25

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

Going to Vegas on Friday so I’ve been just getting things ready for my family to babysit my kiddos and our dog! Not looking forward to the weather in Vegas but I think we’ll be staying mostly indoors anyway. Looking forward to Lady Gaga!

What are you currently reading?

A Steeping of Blood by. Hafsah Faizal – 13%

The Executioners Three by. Susan Dennard – 2%

Roots of Darkness by. Demi Winters – 2%

Metal Slinger by. Rachel Schneider – 2%


What have you just finished reading?

The Wolf King by. Lauren Palphreyman– ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Night Prince by. Lauren Palphreyman – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Once a Villain by. Vanessa Len – ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫


What are you going to read next?

Heir of Storms by. Lauryn Hamilton Murray – where is my fairyloot book? It’s taking so long.

A Land So Wide by. Erin A. Craig

The Dating Prohibition by. Taj McCoy

Witch You Would by. Lia Amador

What are YOU reading right now?

Weekly Wrap Up | 7/13/25

Aloha friends!

Another week is over and here’s what happened:

+ Hubby and I are going to Las Vegas on this weekend, to catch Lady Gaga on Saturday. I think this is the first time we are leaving the kids behind together (usually one of us stays back or the kids come with us). So yes, I’m a little anxious over that and probably won’t stop worrying until I make it back home lol. But I’m excited to go to a concert – last concerts I went to in Hawaii was Backstreet Boys (they were amazing) and New Kids on the Block (and TLC was the opener!). Lady Gaga is on my concert bucket list. Beyonce is too and I had tickets but it’s for the following week and I told myself it was crazy to flight out 2 weekends for concerts. 😅 I regret I sold the tickets sigh…BUT that means I’m definitely going to her next concert for Act III – hoping it’s in 2027 so I can start saving NOW.

Blog Posts:

Books I Finished


Currently Reading:

Roots of Darkness by. Demi Winters

A Steeping of Blood by. Hafsah Faizal

Once a Villain by. Vanessa Len

The Night Prince by. Laura Palphreyman

Shows/Movies/Music I Watched/Listened To:

  • K-pop Demon Hunters – Soundtrack – music is sooooo good!
  • We Were Liars (Amazon Prime) – finally finished it and I was like OH YEAH that was the twist!! The twist is good but man was it a sad/dark show.
  • The Buccaneers (Apple TV+) – still going since I only get an episode a week.
  • Kesha (new album) – so good!

Why does this song make me think of all the red-flag MMC’s we all fall for in the books! LOL…

Videos I Posted to Youtube:

How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!

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Let’s Talk Bookish:  Book Hype | 7/11/25

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish meme originally created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits, where every Friday, bloggers write discussion posts based on a weekly prompt and Dini @ dinipandareads has cohosted since the beginning of 2025.


This week’s topic is:

July 11: Book Hype (Melanie @ Melanie’s Book Blog)

Prompts: Has the hype ever ruined a book for you? Has the hype ever made a book better for you? Do you like lesser-known reads, and finding a gem of a book that no one’s heard of? Or do you prefer to read the more popular, mainstream books? Where are the majority of the books you read, in terms of popularity? 

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Has the hype ever ruined a book for you? Has the hype ever made a book better for you?

Yes hype has ruined a book for me AND made a book better. At the end of the day, if I like a book, I like it. If I don’t because the writing just isn’t something I vibe with then I just don’t. Hype can be fun though! I think Fourth Wing was one book where the hype was crazy and I jumped early into the hype and loved it – unfortunately as a series I’m not loving it as much I did as when I read the first book but I’m hoping things change. There are a few books on booktok, which has soooo much hype though, and they have fallen short of my expectations. I definitely am the type of person who will try a book out because of the hype though.

Do you like lesser-known reads, and finding a gem of a book that no one’s heard of?

I do like lesser-known reads because then you don’t quite have the hardcore fandom hyping it up or people coming hard for it because they are not in the fandom. 😅 I can like or not like a book in peace.

Or do you prefer to read the more popular, mainstream books?

I love it all, popular mainstream and lesser-known reads!

Where are the majority of the books you read, in terms of popularity? 

Majority of books I read are popular I’d say but maybe I’d say 60% popular – 40% lesser known reads. At least that’s what I think.

July Topics:

July 4: Duologies vs. Trilogies

  Prompts: Do you prefer duologies or trilogies, and why? What are the pros and cons of having two books vs. three books in a series? What are some of your favourite duologies and/or trilogies? Do you think there are benefits to these shorter series, compared to ones with 4+ books, or are fewer books limiting?


July 11: Book Hype (Melanie @ Melanie’s Book Blog)

  Prompts: Has the hype ever ruined a book for you? Has the hype ever made a book better for you? Do you like lesser-known reads, and finding a gem of a book that no one’s heard of? Or do you prefer to read the more popular, mainstream books? Where are the majority of the books you read, in terms of popularity? 


July 18: Reading Beyond Books

  Prompts: What do you read other than books? Do you like non-novel forms of literature, like poetry and plays? Do you read a lot of news articles, op-eds, or essays? Do novels make up most of your reading, or is it a mix of those other kinds of writing? Do you ever listen to podcasts in place of audiobooks?


July 25: The Elusive 5-star Read

  Prompts: What makes a book a 5-star read for you? Do you give books 5 stars easily, or are you more selective with them? What are your all-time favourite “can’t-live-can’t-breathe-without-them” 5-star reads? Is there anything that makes a book automatically 5 stars for you? Or the opposite — what makes you drop to 4 stars?


WWW Wednesday | 7/9/25

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

How is everyone’s week going? It was a quiet 4th of July, I buckled down and FINALLY finished all my July arcs. 😅 I have only 2 more August arcs to read and then a whole bunch of September arcs. Will be glad to read non-arcs soon but honestly, a lot of the arcs I got I’m so grateful for and have been really good this year!

What are you currently reading?

A Steeping of Blood by. Hafsah Faizal – 13%

Once a Villain by. Vanessa Len – 1% just started

The Executioners Three by. Susan Dennard – just started


What have you just finished reading?

Wrath of Dragons by. Olivia Rose Darling – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Theory of Dreaming by. Ava Reid – ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Soul of Shadow by. Emma Noyes – ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Game On by. Ki Stephens – ⭐️⭐️⭐️


What are you going to read next?

Heir of Storms by. Lauryn Hamilton Murray – where is my fairyloot book? It’s taking so long.

Roots of Darkness by. Demi Winters

A Land So Wide by. Erin A. Craig

The Dating Prohibition by. Taj McCoy

Witch You Would by. Lia Amador

What are YOU reading right now?

Weekly Wrap Up | 7/6/25

Aloha friends!

Another week is over and here’s what happened:

+ I’m in my Labubu buying stage. I didn’t really want one but I wanted to get one for my daughter, since I didn’t know what else to buy her in South Korea as a souvenir. But I was out of luck when I went to Pop Mart there and then we tried looking at Pop Mart vending machines there and at Haneda airport and no luck. So when I came home, I felt like these bubus were haunting me because I couldn’t find one (and no I did not want to pay $75 for one – I wanted it retail price!) I was like, I’ll buy one on the Pop Mart app and went on tiktok to learn all the tricks of Labubu hunting 😅. The app was tedious and hard. It took me awhile to score one. But I scored them easier on the tiktok live US shop – it’s actually so much easier to buy it there. Anyway…my daughter has like 4 Labubus with more coming – Big Into Energy ones. 😂

She has Sisi, Ququ, Coca Cola, and Hehe. Her Coca Cola Labubu couldn’t put the red shirt on so my daughter gave it to Ququ and put a triangle on the shirt and I was like “press play?”. She said no, it’s YOUTUBE! 😅. Anyway, my best friend thinks they look scary and demonic (but her niece is obsessed so she’s buying an unopened one from me for her). I think they are cute! They remind me of Where the Wild Things Are – a book I loved reading to my son when he was young (apparently it scared him and he didn’t tell me until he was older 🫠).

+ My hubby and I have a trip to Las Vegas in 2 weeks! We’re going to see Lady Gaga in concert. I’m trying to figure out what things we can do in Vegas besides EAT and gamble? Any ideas? Last time I went with my friend was for a concert and again all we did was eat and gamble 😬. We aren’t really down for the nightlife – we are so boring, we sleep early at our age! One good thing is the hotels are so huge you have to walk a lot anyway so that’s good with all the eating.

Blog Posts:

Books I Finished


Currently Reading:

Wrath of the Dragons by. Olivia Rose Darling

Roots of Darkness by. Demi Winters

Game On by. Ki Stephens

A Steeping of Blood by. Hafsah Faizal

A Theory for Dreaming by. Ava Reid

Shows/Movies/Music I Watched/Listened To:

  • K-pop Demon Hunters (Netflix) – watched this 2 more times! I love the music.
  • We Were Liars (Amazon Prime) – kind of slow moving, but I’m still watching
  • The Buccaneers (Apple TV+) – still going since I only get an episode a week

Videos I Posted to Youtube:

How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!

Instagram | Tiktok | Youtube

Monthly Wrap Up | June 2025

I went on a much needed vacation in June. I went to South Korea for one week and it was exactly what I needed, mentally and physically (I got a lot of walking in lol)! I even took a break from reading and it felt good to take a break from that too. So I read less books this month, it actually matches what I used to read, which is a good 13-15 books a month.

I read 14 books and posted 15 book reviews in June.

I am going on a weekend vacation in 3 weeks with my husband to Las Vegas. We’re going to see Lady Gaga!

Books I Read – 14 books:

  1. On Wings of Blood by. Briar Boleyn
  2. The Bond That Burns by. Briar Boleyn
  3. Where the Library Hides by. Isabel Ibañez (audiobook)
  4. Spell to Wake the Dead by. Nicole Lesperance (arc)
  5. A Magic Deep & Drowning by. Hester Fox (arc)
  6. Enigma by. RuNyx
  7. Summer in the City by. Alex Aster
  8. You Between the Lines by. Katie Naymon (audiobook)
  9. House of Hearts by. Skyla Arndt (arc)
  10. Warrior Princess Assassin by. Brigid Kemmerer
  11. Of Flame and Fury by. Mikayla Bridge
  12. The Knight and the Moth by. Rachel Gillig
  13. The Homemade God by. Rachel Joyce
  14. Tricks of Fortune by. Lina Chern

Reviews I Posted On My Blog: 15 Books

5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

4 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫:

3 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️:

2.5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️💫

2 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️

Book Tags:

Birthstone Book Covers: June – Alexandrite/Moonstone/Pearl

Blog Tours:

Let’s Talk Bookish:

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Pride Month Book Recs! | 6/6/25

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Traveling for Literature | 6/13/25

Let’s Talk Bookish:  All About Audiobooks | 6/20/25

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Mid-Year Check-In | 6/27/25

Other:

How was your month?

WWW Wednesday | 7/2/25

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

Where has June gone? I don’t think I’m ready for the second half of the year!

What are you currently reading?

Wrath of Dragons by. Olivia Rose Darling (Fear the Flames, #2) – 20% don’t know why this one is going too slowly for me.

Soul of Shadow by. Emma Noyes – 4%

A Steeping of Blood by. Hafsah Faizal – 8%

Once a Villain by. Vanessa Len – 1% just started


What have you just finished reading?

The Knight and the Moth by. Rachel Gillig – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Tricks of Fortune by. Lina Chern – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Of Flame and Fury by. Mikayla Bridge – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Homemade God by. Rachel Joyce – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Bewitching by. Silvia Moreno-Garcia – ⭐️⭐️⭐️


What are you going to read next?

A Theory of Dreaming by. Ava Reid

Heir of Storms by. Lauryn Hamilton Murray (just waiting on my fairyloot copy but it might come in 2 weeks)

Roots of Darkness by. Demi Winters

The Executioners Three by. Susan Dennard

A Land So Wide by. Erin A. Craig

What are YOU reading right now?

Weekly Wrap Up | 6/29/25

Aloha friends!

Another week is over and here’s what happened:

+. Went to lunch with the whole family to celebrate my nephew turning 20!

+ Started to do some back to school shopping for my kids since they go back in August – summer is going by so fast for them.

Blog Posts:

Books I Finished


Currently Reading:

Wrath of the Dragons by. Olivia Rose Darling

Soul of Shadow by. Emma Noyes

Roots of Darkness by. Demi Winters

Shows/Movies/Music I Watched/Listened To:

  • K-pop Demon Hunters (Netflix) – why was the ending tragic?! Ugh. Loved the music!
  • We Were Liars (Amazon Prime) – trying to see if I remember anything of the story, since I have an arc of the sequel to read this year.
  • The Buccaneers (Apple TV+) – of course they only show one episode a week when I’m so used to binging shows. But I do love that I have something to look forward to and I enjoy this show!

Videos I Posted to Youtube:

My May monthly reading wrap up video which is SUPER late I know. There was just too much happening in May and June to put together a video, but I did it before June came to an end. 😅

How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!

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