June Wrap-Up 2017

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! I must say that I am very proud of my reading month in June. I feel like I definitely got my kick back in the reading game lol! So without further ado, let’s get started!

What I Read:

A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3) by Sarah J. Maas ★★
Genre: New Adult Fantasy
I have a full RANT review here. The review has a lot of spoilers so I wouldn’t recommend it if you haven’t read the book. Let’s just say that I was very disappointed and will not be reading more from this author.

 

 

 

 

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Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2) by Victoria Schwab ★★★★★
Genre: YA Paranormal, Fantasy
Amazing conclusion to the Monsters of Verity duology. I am still in my feelings and can’t quite believe it’s over. I have a non-spoiler review for it here. The review does however contain spoilers from the first book, please be cautious.

 

 

 

 

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Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia ★★★★★
Genre: YA Contemporary
Ugh I absolutely loved this book and will recommend it for days to come! It is contemporary but it talks about some very important things like mental health, family dynamics’s, and friendships. I also loved how the author inserted some of the webcomic in the book. I have a non-spoiler review here.

 

 

 

 

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soft magic. by Upile Chisala ★★★★★
Genre: Poetry
I’m not sure if I’m going to do a review on this one. But definitely a FOREVER FAVORITE!! Wow this book should be read by all women, especially Women of Color. This one was amazing.
Goodreads Synopsis:
‘soft magic.’ is the debut collection of prose and poetry by Malawian writer, Upile Chisala. This book explores the self, joy, blackness, gender, matters of the heart, the experience of Diaspora, spirituality and most of all, how we survive. ‘soft magic.’ is a shared healing journey.

 

 

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;recovery by Jasmine Smith ★★★★
Genre: Poetry
For anyone who likes break-up poetry, I would recommend this one. The author takes us through the ups and downs of a relationship and her thought process.
Goodreads Synopsis:
a collection of modern poetry surrounding the most vulnerable time – post-breakup. follow the journey of hurt on the road to recovery

 

 

 

 

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lavender petals and a wild heart by Cheyenne Raine ★★★★★
Genre: Poetry
Such a beautiful written collection. filled with curiosity, color, and wonder. I cannot wait to read more by this author!
Goodreads Synopsis:
A lavender sky of words, thoughts, poetry and prose written with love and curiosity. A collection inspired by the emotions that flow from the heart due to the gentle presence of a wild and adventurous soul. This book dives into the mixture of warm and lovely feelings that blossom when adoring another’s heart.

 

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Poetry Posted in June:
a letter to the moon
some kind of self-love

for my short poetry, you can check out my instagram! link is at the end of this post ❤

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I did a few memes this past June but the two that I will be featuring are the Top Ten Tuesdays since the others were WWW’s and Friday Reads.

TTT: Series I’ve Been Meaning to Start But Haven’t
TTT: Best Books You’ve Read in 2017 So Far

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that is all for this monthly wrap-up! have you heard and/or read any of these books? let’s chat in the comments!

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Instagram: @chicnerdreads
Twitter: @ChicNerdReads

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia Spoiler Free Book Review

Title: Eliza and Her Monsters
Author: Francesca Zappia
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Greenwillow – HarperCollins
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

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***Trigger Warning: Suicide and Attempted Suicide

Summary/Plot

When reading the synopsis from this book, I jumped into a few theories of what to expect with his book. We meet Eliza who is a very introverted, shy, friendless teenager in real life. However online when she is LadyConstellation and even Eliza online is very open and talkative. LadyConstellation is the creator of a mega popular webcomic Monstrous Sea, it is so popular that even publishing companies have sought out to obtain it. Eliza has turned it down so many times because she loves the platform of her comic just the way it is.

Eliza’s world is about to change when Wallace Warland transfers to her school and come to find out that he isn’t just a regular fan but a huge fanfiction writer. Everything takes place in slow motion but he eventually helps her get out in the world more. He doesn’t know that she’s LadyConstellation. And things are about to take a huge hit when the secret is out. Not only does this effect Eliza and her mental health but it also affects the world she’s created online, her family, and her relationship with Wallace.

Writing

This is my first Francesca Zappia novel. I actually have been wanting to read Made You Up for so long but I didn’t correlate the two as the same author so I was ecstatic to see she had written this one as well. I loved the writing!! Especially the insert pages of the graphic novel and illustrations. I think for this being a YA book, it was realistic. Francesca wrote some dialogue via instant messenger which I loved. The dialogue between the characters were great and her details were super amazing as well. I appreciate the author writing about mental health and really giving us the readers a lesson per-say through a character at the end of the book.

Characters

I feel like each character in the book played such an important role in Eliza’s life and what was going to happen next. I spoke enough about Eliza but I have to say that she is definitely going through it with her mental health. This is something that the author doesn’t explicitly talk about throughout a lot of the book because it’s not something the character knows about. However, through Eliza’s interactions with her family, people, and just her thought process, you get a feel that there is something deeper. Living a life online one way vs. how her life is in the flesh, and her parents not really knowing much to then the pressures of high school can be hard on a teenager. I know that at least for me, I found Eliza’s character relatable.

We meet Wallace Warland and I thought he was the most adorable soft boy. Once he is presented in the book, I wanted to know him more. His character arc was really well done and when I got to know him on a deeper level, I cried. No lie, I really cried because here is this character who has been through a lot and he’s just taking everything one step at a time.

Eliza’s family; her parents and siblings. Let me tell you something!! I absolutely loved this family because in my opinion, we don’t see much family dynamic. Yet, here you have in Eliza and Her Monsters, parents that are all up on Eliza, super worried about their child and not knowing what to do with her. Which I thought was realistic because a lot of parents don’t know what to do with their first-born, especially during teenage years. We’re like the guinea pigs. You can tell that Eliza’s parents just want the best for her and are trying to steer her in the “right” direction but they don’t really understand her direction. I loved the brothers, their relationship was so great to see and the sibling relationship had amazing representation.

We do get to see other minor characters but I won’t really get into that because if not then I’ll definitely be spoiling the whole book lol.

Thoughts

I am going to keep this really short since I pretty much scattered my thoughts throughout the review in the previous sections. I absolutely loved this book and thought it represented mental health, family dynamic’s/relationship, friendships, and internal battles in a great way. The author definitely takes us through the highs and lows, I had found myself at times just really hoping for the best. Francesca Zappia wrote an amazing novel filled with reality and honesty in a form that everyone can read and still feel warm and happy at the end of it. I would LOVE if the author made Monstrous Sea into an actual graphic novel because everything about it was great. I feel like it would really go far. Overall, I would highly recommend this book.

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and that is the end of the review! have you read this book? or plan on to? what are your thoughts? i would love to chat in the comments!

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Instagram: @chicnerdreads
Twitter: @ChicNerdReads

Friday Reads

Hey everyone! Happy friday!! I am so happy the weekend is here because this week has been just a little too long for me. I look forward to relaxing and doing absolutely nothing lol. I finished Our Dark Duet last night and my heart is still broken, I have so many feelings and thoughts but there will be a review up for it in the next comings days.

While on my long anxious way to work, I started reading Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia. I say anxious because there were two ladies talking, more like SCREAMING, on the bus ride. And to top it all off, two more ladies stepped on the bus and it was like a screaming match on who can have the loudest conversation. Music couldn’t even save me from silencing them. Ma’am I do not care about your baby daddy situation, can I just read my book? Please and thank you.

I only got to read 20 pages of Eliza and Her Monsters because I couldn’t really concentrate with the loud mouths on the bus. However!! what I did get to read got me really excited and I cannot wait to read more tonight and this weekend.

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synopsis from goodreads:

Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

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i hope you all have a great weekend! have you read Eliza and Her Monsters or plan on to? let’s chat in the comments! i would love to know your thoughts ❤

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Instagram: @chicnerdreads
Twitter: @ChicNerdReads

WWW Wednesday

Hi everyone! I thought I would participate in WWW Wednesday today. This meme is hosted by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. You can link your blog post to Sam’s website that way we can interact and find other bloggers =)

The questions are:
1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

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what are you currently reading?

I am currently reading A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOTAR #3) by Sarah J. Maas. This is the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses “trilogy”.. quotation marks because there will be more books added into this world but with different characters..let’s see how that goes. So far I am LOVING this and I am so happy that I’m reading about some of my favorite characters again because I missed them so much. After the ending of A Court of Mist and Fury, this third one was long overdue. I will not be adding the synopsis because I don’t want to spoil anyone. But you should definitely check out A Court of Thorns and Roses if you haven’t because its a New Adult Fantasy with romance and faeries and magic!

 

 

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what did you recently finish reading?

i recently finished Afterlife by Melissa Jennings. it is a dark poetry book! i love love loved it and i cannot wait to read more by this author! i have a mini poetry review for it here.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
“The sun does not rise when you need it most. You rise instead.”
Afterlife is a collection of poetry about catharsis, self-love, and self-revolution. Afterlife is a journey from the darkness to the light again, and again, and again.

 

 

 

 

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what do you think you’ll read next?

there are two books that i know for certain i will be reading next! just depends on how quickly i finish A Court of Wings and Ruin since one of these books comes out this Tuesday. these are the two:

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, smart, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community. Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school, and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart. With pages from Eliza’s webcomic, as well as screenshots from Eliza’s online forums.

Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2) by Victoria Schwab
Since this book is the second in a duology, I will not be posting the synopsis since I do not want to spoil anything again lol! But This Savage Song was amazing and I really cannot wait to read Our Dark Duet! Schwab has not disappointed me, I NEED THIS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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and that is it for this post! what are you currently reading or reading next? are any of these books on your radar? i would love to chat in the comments!

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Instagram: @chicnerdreads
Twitter: @ChicNerdReads
Goodreads: Gretchen (ChicNerdReads)