Hello, bookworms! Long time, no see! You may have noticed that I haven't been super active on my blog this past year. I think I did good in like.. January and that was it. I guess I just wasn't feeling it. I did try out doing booktube instead of blogging this year, but, to be quite honest, I think that I am entirely too boring to be on booktube.

So, if you happened to stumble across my channel at any point, I did monthly wrap ups on there, but I haven't really done any on here. I also haven't written reviews for a few of these, so I decided to do kind of a yearly wrap up for the books that I have read this year if you were curious for any reason.

1. Victor Down and the WWII Ghost Army by Enigma Alberti and Scott Wegener

2. Between the Blade and the Heart by Amanda Hocking (DNF)

3. Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp

4. Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones (DNF)

5. The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

6. Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia

7. The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows

8. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

9. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

10. The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco

11. Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine

12. Of Dreams and Rust by Sarah Fine

13. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (DNF)

14. Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

15. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

16. Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

17. Sailor Moon vol. 2 by Naoko Takeuchi

18. The Legend of Zelda: Legendary Edition vol. 2: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages by Akira Himekawa

19. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

20. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

21. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

22. The Rising Dark by Alexandra Bracken

23. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

24. In Time by Alexandra Bracken

25. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

26. Seafire by Natalie C. Parker

27. Sparks Rise by Alexandra Bracken

28. Wildcat by JP Harker

29. Over Raging Tides by Jennifer Ellison

30. Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

31. These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch (DNF)

32. In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken

33. Beyond the Night by Alexandra Bracken

34. The Darkest Legacy by Alexandra Bracken

35. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

36. Monstress vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

37. Lengths for Love by CS Patra (DNF)

38. Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic vol. 1 by Shinobu Ohtaka

39. Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

40. Leaping Wolf by JP Harker

41. Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

42. Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

43. Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis

44. I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin
45. Toil and Trouble by Jessica Spotswood
46. White Stag by Kara Barbieri

I didn't really do very well on my challenges for the year. My reading goal was 75 books, as you can see, I didn't hit that. Honestly, I really tapered out at the end of the year because I am entirely too busy binge watching medical dramas right now to read.

I was also going to participate in the Beat the Backlist and Series-A-Month challenges. I started off strong on Series-A-Month, but yeah, that didn't last long.

I also wanted to read more beyond just YA novels. And... I didn't really do a very good job at READING different things, but I did a fair job at BUYING different things. So maybe this will be a better goal for 2019.

Did you accomplish your 2018 goals? Let me know in the comments!

Monthly Wrap Up // February 2018

Hello everyone! Can you believe it's already March? I can't!

Anyway, since I never ended up doing a wrap up for January, I'm also going to mention what books I read way back then. My goal for this year is to read 75 books. To hit that, I need to read 6.25 books per month, so I am aiming for about 6 books per month.

In January, I did not hit that little goal, but I made up for it in February! Also, I am counting DNFs toward my goal because I read as much of the book as I am going to!

READ

So here is what I read in January:

          

1. Spy on History: Victor Down and the World War II Ghost Army by Enigma Alberti and Scott Wegener // Review + A Glimpse Back in Time

2. Between the Blade and the Heart by Amanda Hocking // DNF Review

3. Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp // Review

     

4. Shadowsong by S. Jae Jones // DNF

5. The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows // Re-read

Favorite of the month: The Orphan Queen

Least favorite (excluding DNFs): Before I Let Go

---

Read in February:

          

1. Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia // Review

2. The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows // Review

3. The Cruel Prince // Review

          

4. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco // Re-read

5. The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco // Review

6. Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine // Review to come

7. Of Dreams and Rust by Sarah Fine // Review to come

Favorite of the month: THE HEART FORGER (!!!)

Least favorite of the month: Of Metal and Wishes

---

Book Haul

I feel like I lack self control so I have acquired quite a few books in the last couple months... Oops. Sorry, wallet.

January:

1. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

2. Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

3. In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken

4. Through the Dark by Alexandra Bracken

^^ These were the new covers!

5. Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch

6. The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

7. Here We Are by Kelly Jensen

8. Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon

9. Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst

10. Fate of the Tearling by Ericka Johansen

^^ These were from Book Outlet.

11. Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

12. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

13. Sailor Moon vol. 2 by Naoko Takeuchi

^^ These were from a Barnes and Noble excursion.

14. Between the Blade and the Heart by Amanda Hocking

^^ This was from the publisher.

February:

1. Red Rising by Pierce Brown

2. Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows

^^ These were from #booksfortrade!

3. Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

^^ These were from Alyssa, my round 7 secret sister!

5. The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross

6. Orange by Ichigo Takano

7. Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Mamoru Hosada, Yuu

^^ These were from another Barnes and Noble excursion.

8. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

^^ This was the Owlcrate Exclusive edition.

9. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

^^This was because I loved it so much and needed a physical hardcover.

10. Legend of Zelda: Legendary Edition, Vol 2: Oracle of Seasons & Oracle of Ages by Akira Himekawa

^^This one was from my round 8 secret sister!

11. The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross

^^ This was an extra copy from a LitJoy Crate I got.

---

On the Blog

In the last couple months, I have posted a few interesting things besides the reviews I mentioned above!

January:

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert Review

Favorites of 2017

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo Review

Disappointments of 2017

2017 Books I Haven't Gotten To Yet

Anticipated Books of 2018

February:

Things That Will Make Me Pick Up Almost Any Book

---

You may have noticed that I also started a Booktube channel in February! I only have a few videos so far, but if you're interested, I have posted:

New to Booktube Tag

My Alexandra Bracken Collection

LitJoy Crate Unboxing

---

March TBR

These are the books that I am hoping to read in March!

1. Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

2. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

3. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

4. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

5. The Rose and the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh

6. Orange by Ichigo Takano

7. Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki by Mamoru Hosada

8. Sailor Moon vol. 2 by Naoko Takeuchi

9. Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons & Oracle of Ages by Akira Himekawa

The last four are for the Manga Madness Readathon at the end of the month. They have two options. One is to follow a bingo board with challenges and the other is to just read whatever. I will definitely be doing option two because these are the only four unread mangas I have at this time.

---

Life Stuff

So, I guess nothing super exciting has happened in the last couple months here. We had a group of early calving heifers that had their calves in the last week of February. They're basically done by now. But it's always fun to have little baby calves running around! I might put some fun footage of them in one of my booktube videos one day.

Besides that, I have finished all of the DLC in Breath of the Wild. I think I have like 150 korok seeds left to find and a couple of outfits left to level up before I'm ready to defeat Ganon. Because I think that's literally all that I have left to do in the whole game.

I started playing Stardew Valley. I played that like, nonstop for two weeks and now I'm slowly working on building up all of my friendships. I played it so much right away because I REALLY wanted to marry Harvey. Now I'm married and have a baby and am on year three. I even went out and bought myself a fun pink xbox controller to play with!

I still need to come up with a gamertag for my xbox account. Because unhorsedgem### isn't going to work for me. But I can't think of anything good! I'm half tempted to just use my blog name, but I don't know if I want to. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

The one friend I had at work doesn't work there anymore. He just kind of stopped showing up. It makes me sad because he was fun to talk to. But also I was sad because I had let him borrow six of my amiibos and I wasn't sure how I was going to get them back. But someone else from work is kind of friends with him, I think and got them for me. I was so pumped. That was like $100 worth of them and I wasn't sure how I was going to get them back because I didn't know how to get ahold of him.

I have been watching a lot of anime with my sister. We have watched Erased, Your Name, Forest of Firefly Lights, and now we started Your Lie in April. I am going to have to finish that one by myself because there just wasn't enough time when I was home. Which is fine because she claims I'm going to ugly cry and I think I'd rather do that alone. I like the show, but I think it's kind of dramatic for me.

Like I said, pretty uneventful over here. So I guess I'll quit rambling now!

How was February for you? What was your favorite book you read?

June 2016 Wrap Up

Books Read:

A Blanket for Decay by Zack Scott

Review

And I Darken by Kiersten White

Review

All the Feels by Danika Stone

DNF Review To Come

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Review

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Review To Come

Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch

Review To Come

47/75 for the year.

***

Books Acquired:

Bought: 9

The Raven Boys

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Time Traveller's Wife

Ruined

The Dream Thieves

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

The Raven King

Otherwise Acquired: 3

Nevernight

Frost Like Night

Stealing Snow

Total: 12

***

Posts of Interest:

I posted reviews for:

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

★★

The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

★★★★

A Blanket For Decay by Zack Scott

★★★.5

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

★★★★

And I Darken by Kiersten White

★★★.5

A Mirror Among Shattered Glass by Romarin Demetri

DNF

I discussed love triangles and why I don't love them, diverse books and why white children should read them, and my favorite fantasy books!

I had my one year blogoversary!

I talked about Vlad the Impaler in my third A Glimpse Back in Time post!

I talked about what books I'm dying for in July!

***

Life Updates:

June has been a fairly uneventful month. About the only exciting things that happened this month were branding and a trip to Minnesota toward the end of the month!

Branding happens the second week of June every year. Usually, at least for as long as I've been around, it only takes about one day to do the branding. They round up one day and sort the calves off and brand the next day. This year it took about three days. For some reason, this year everyone was really understanding that I had to go to work everyday. Usually I get a lot of crap about how everyone else took the whole week off for branding.

Anyway, I never have to help round up because I refuse to drive around in the pasture because I think it's absolutely terrifying. There's washouts, drop offs, bumps, dams, all sorts of scary things to drive into that I don't know where they all are. So I just come home and help with the actual branding. When I first started coming out for branding, I had the easiest job there. They castrate all the bulls and my job was to spray some stuff on them so it doesn't get infected. Now they put bands on all the bulls when they're born so their balls fall off so I keep books. I just have to write down all the numbers of the calves that go through the chute.

I only ended up having to help on the first day because the second day all they did was round up the second group of cows and then the third day they had already started by the time I left for work. That was perfectly fine by me!

I'm glad that that's over because I find that the longer I am with my BF, the less I like the majority of his family. We don't see eye to eye on ANYTHING.

Anyhoodles, on to the fun part of my month. I went with my sister and three of her friends from work to Minnesota for a trip to Valleyfair, the Mall of America, and Dave and Busters! It was kind of rough for me because all of them work the night shift and I'm the only one who lives during normal human hours.

So Friday we were all supposed to meet at 11 am at the friend of my sister's who was driving. I have found that as I've gotten older, it's been harder for me to go on rides at fairs because I get really nauseous. So in order to try to make my admission into Valleyfair worth the money, I ate some cereal right when I woke up and then that was all I ate all day until I was done going on rides. It worked!! I was able to go on as many rides as I wanted to! I think I figured it out to where I would have ended up paying like $5 per ride and that was a number I could live with.

I went on my first rollercoater! If any of you have ever been to Valleyfair before, I went on the Wild Thing first. Oh. My. God. It was so terrifying. That might not have been the best introductory roller coaster, but I guess go big or go home, right? I think that one was the tallest one in the whole park. I also went on one that had quite a few loops which I liked considerably better because it wasn't so high. I am not a fan of heights. I actually kept my eyes open on that one!

I don't know if the video below works because I've never put a video on my blog before, but this is my sister and her friend going on the Ripcord. My sister probably screamed the loudest of anyone I heard scream the whole time we were there. And right before she went there was like a little eight year old girl that went on this ride.

We got to Valleyfair kind of late so we stayed til it closed at 11 pm. Then we stopped at a gas station where I bought and devoured a lot of junk food. Then it was on the road back to our hotel where I went to bed shortly after arriving and struggled to sleep because the night owls were in the other room talking.

The next day we got up and checked out and headed to the Mall of America. I was so excited because we were going to SeaLife Minnesota! The aquarium on the lowest level of the mall! Oh my WORD was I ever excited for this!!

      

      

      

I was pretty much in heaven here. My favorite thing ever was petting the stingrays! The super colorful touch pool was awesome as well, but I was scared to touch things because I thought they were going to feel gross. But they were really soft and velvety actually!

I bought a sweet stingray magnet in the gift shop and decided that when I go fun places like that my collectible souvenir of choice is going to be magnets from now on. Now that I have my very own refrigerator to stick them to!

Before we left the mall, I really wanted to try bubble tea because I see it all over the place and was curious about it. So I got passion fruit green tea with popping bobas in it. I didn't really think I was going to like it, but I did! It was really fruity and nothing like any tea I've ever tried before so I was really surprised!

After the mall we went to Dave and Buster's for supper and the arcade! It was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. It was getting late when we went there and it was still a 4 hour drive home, but we ended up staying until like 9:30. We ate supper and then everyone but me got game cards because I didn't really have money for that, but my sister shared her credits with me and we racked up 3,000 tickets! We saved them for when we go again in October for ValleyScare. They had some really fun games there! They had Mario Kart games and Luigi's Mansion and just all sorts of really fun games! After we left there, it was finally time to go home! I already want to go back because I want to use my free readmission to the aquarium and take the behind the scenes tour. And also I want to make a Build-A-Bear.

So that was about as exciting as my June got! July is looking to be pretty uneventful as well except it might be time to start halter breaking colts soon. :'( I hate horses so much.

Oh! I also FINALLY got to watch season 5 of Game of Thrones! I need to find a good internet connection and binge season 6! I've already had to unfollow two authors I quite like on twitter because they spoiled season 6 deaths for me! That makes me so angry. I hate live tweeting!!!!

***

Looking Ahead:

I think this month I'm going to go home for my town's summer festival, Farkleberry Days. I'm hoping that I can finish season 12 of Grey's Anatomy while I'm there and figure out where to watch season 6 of Game of Thrones and start that.

As for books, I think I'm going to read:

Wrecked by Maria Padian

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Chasm by S. Usher Evans

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

That's kind of an ambitious list, but we'll see how it goes.

Those are about all the concrete plans I have for July!

How was your June? Do you have any big plans for July??

March 2016 Wrap Up

Books Read:

Review to come.

Review

Review to come.

Total Read: 3

17/75 for the year.

***

Posts of Interest:

I participated in Beauty and the Bookshelf's Get Up Offa That Slump Blogging Extravaganza! I talked about my blogging ways and my dream Easter basket, talked about the positives of blogging, planned a fictional trip, pitched a book, created some book spine poetry, made a mad lib, bashed a book, did a book tag, talked about my top three inspirational women in fiction, and interviewed myself!

I participated in a tour blitz for a suspenseful sounding book!

I signed up for ARC April (which is a big reason why I read so few books this month, all the books I want to read I gotta save so I can hit Diamond Reader Level).

I helped reveal the cover of A Mirror Among Shattered Glass by Romarin Demetri.

I reviewed The Girl From Everywhere, The Siren, and Sword and Verse!

I discussed some questions I had about blog tours!

And I talked about the April book releases I'm dying to read!

I signed up for the Books 'n' Bloggers Swap hosted by CG Swaps!

***

Books Received:

Bought: 5

Sword and Verse

Lady Midnight

The Winner's Crime

The Winner's Kiss

Cruel Beauty

Otherwise Acquired: 7

The Star-Touched Queen

Girl in the Blue Coat

Speak

And I Darken

Asunder

Defiance

Deception

***

Life Updates:

As you can see, I didn't do a whole lot of reading this past month! Part of it was because I finally got around to watching season three of Game of Thrones!! *my heart*

Also I have been waiting for my boyfriend to be ready to watch season four with me so I can return it. But calving started and life has gotten a bit busier for him and it's only gonna get worse from here!

There was one night this month that he came to get me at 4:30 am because there was a cow that was having trouble pushing out her calf and it might have needed to be pulled. By the time he got my grumbling butt out of bed, the calf had started to come by itself. It was a pain in the butt. But they're so cute, how can you even be mad?

I signed up for my own vision care insurance through my work! I feel like such an adult! I was talking to this one lady that I work with about how my tax return didn't go far enough for me and I wasn't gonna be able to get new glasses like I wanted to at my next appointment and she told me how awesome our vision care is!

I never thought to look into it because I'm still on my dad's insurance policy. But it's only a little over $7 a month and you get $10 appointment fee, $25 prescription glasses fee that covers lenses and a new set of frames every two years up to $120 and you get 20% off whatever the leftover cost is!

I think that's a fab deal. Especially considering the fact that I added up my last appointment cost, the cost of my prescription sunglasses, my regular glasses, and the fee I paid to get a new pair under warranty when I broke mine, just that cost me nearly $1000!!! 

Imagine all the books I could have bought!!! :(

I signed up for ARC April. That's another reason I didn't read that much this past month! I have quite a little stack of ARCs to read and I want to hit the highest level so I'm saved them all to start this month. Let the reading begin!!

I ruined my own Easter plans this year because I thought that Easter was THIS weekend, but it was last weekend! I had made plans to go home this weekend and have Easter dinner at my grandma's house on Sunday, but that's kinda hard to do when it's not Easter anymore. I didn't even find out til the Thursday before that I didn't even know what I was talking about. Sad day.

Oh yeah! ANOTHER reason why I didn't read a lot this month is because I was too busy being the blogging queen! I have a LOT of posts done for April already because I'm awesome!

How did the month of March go for you?

December 2015 Wrap Up

Review

This is the second book in the Their Dead Lives series by Zack Scott. This book really impressed me! The first one started to feel like it was dragging because it was so long. This one was probably equally long, but it never felt like it was dragging. And my least favorite character got what was coming to her. YES! If anyone out there reading this is interested in books about the zombie apocalypse, let me know! The author is looking for more people to review the books! I don't think that you'll be making a poor decision by reading them!

Review

Oh. My. God. I was SO pumped to have gotten my hands on this one! I couldn't believe it! It didn't wow me as much as I thought that it would (but it was my #1 most anticipated book of 2016 and I totally hugely hyped it up to myself way more than it was already hyped), but it was still SO ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! The detail and world building was so completely awesome. I am so excited that I get to go meet Alex Bracken in St. Paul at the PassTruth Tour stop! SO EXCITED!!

Review

I FINALLY got this one read! I can't believe it took me so long! I wish I would have gotten to this one sooner! I really enjoyed it! I love me some Nina and Matthias! I can't wait for the sequel to this book to come out!

Review to come

This book was a lot less pirate-y than I was led to believe, but I really enjoyed it! The ending is kind of a brutal cliffhanger and as far as I know there isn't a sequel. Hopefully that changes because mean.

DNF Review

I did not finish this book. I liked the idea of it, it sounds like a fantastic book, but the romance made me cringe and I just didn't want to continue. I might continue at a later time, but not anytime soon.

Review to come

I was super excited about this book. I was even more excited when I scored an ARC! I enjoy reading books about rape culture, and that is what I thought this one would be about, but really, this book supremely disappointed me. It wasn't a HORRIBLE book, but really, it wasn't what I thought it would be at all and I didn't really care for any of the characters except really one. 

I started Arrows in December, but there isn't anyway that I'm going to end up finishing it! I have spent the past week cleaning my house because I'm having company this weekend! So this will end up being my first read of 2016!!

That's what I managed to read this month! I think I could have done better, but this month was also pretty busy! I started watching Game of Thrones! It's SO GOOD!!! I borrowed seasons one and two from a friend. I also borrowed seasons one and two of Arrow, but ugh, I can't even bring myself to watch it because I want it to be more Game of Thrones! I was going to try and borrow more seasons when I went home for Christmas, but I forgot the first two seasons at my house. :( I need more of that even though I'm confident it will just end in heartbreak!

I have totally added the Game of Thrones books to my TBR after watching that!

Christmas was awesome! I was supposed to stay at my house with my boyfriend this year since we spent Christmas with my family last year. But my mom came home for Christmas for the first time since 2006. So on Christmas Eve I got to leave work early and make the four hour drive home to my dad's! I went to my grandma's shortly after I got home and got to see my dad's side of the family and got another one of my grandma's completely random gifts! She got my sister and I each some fancy clothes hangers, one random tupperware container, and a pair of knitted/crocheted slippers. The next day I got to go to my other grandma's house and see my mom and the other side of my family. It was so nice to see everyone.

I got one book for Christmas and it was a Barnes and Noble leather-bound edition of Grimm's Fairytales. Other than that I didn't get any books, but I did get a whole lot of Harry Potter and Yoshi goodies which is just as good! Because I love me some Yoshi! I got Yoshi's Wooly World, a Yoshi pillow pet, and a pink Yoshi amiibo.

Then for New Year's my dad and my sister came to my house to exchange Christmas gifts with my boyfriend since he didn't go home with me for Christmas. Overall, it was pretty much awesome.

***

I'm really excited for 2016. I have already made a post on my personal resolutions for the year, but I didn't even think about making blogging goals until I saw everyone else doing it! So here are a few things that I came up with off the top of my head that I actually want to do blog-wise in 2016.

I think that I am going to do away with Waiting on Wednesday. I saw Nori's poll on twitter and it seemed that most people didn't read them so I guess I could probably come up with something more worthwhile to post. I might not do away with it right away, but eventually I think I'm going to.

I want to post more reviews. I already post reviews for all the books I read. I guess I just need to get reading so I can get those reviews built up and I won't have to worry!

I want to host a blog event. I have an idea for an elaborate read along that I want to do with ways to participate so that people who maybe don't have time in their busy schedules to read the books can still join in the fun. I hope it all works out because it already feels like a lot of work and I'm only thinking about it.

I want to make more blog friends. I feel like I just lurk on twitter and don't really talk to people much. Like even during twitter chats, I half feel like I wait for people to reply to me. But in my own defense, I ALWAYS seem to be doing something else during chats. I'm doing Nori's commenting challenge so I think that that will help out with this goal! 

What are some of your blogging goals for the new year? And what was your favorite book that you read in December? PASSENGER!!! <3