July Whispers // Book Devouring, Summer Outings & ICE CREAM + Book Haul

Welcome to my FIRST monthly recap!

Monthly wrap-ups or recaps or whatever you call them are my favourite kinds of posts to write. They’re just so exciting and FUN and did I mention, they’re always over 1k…SO THEY’re LONG. And I love long, fun-packed posts in my reader. Not everyone is a fan I guess, only some of us are cool like that BUT ANYWAYS, I must force myself away from PUNS.

July was actually one of the months that didn’t exactly drag but didn’t exactly fly past either. It was a quite a slow month, to be perfectly honest and I’m not sure if I’m glad it’s over. So enough of my famous ramblings (but really is it enough…I could go on?) Let’s commence the first ever monthly recap here on A Whisper Of Ink! *cheers*

Ahem, I had a wondrous reading month! Well in terms of QUANTITY they were! I MEAN I READ 11 books which was probably because I have time off school now but more on that later. I mean I did have a fair bit of 5 stars so it was actually pretty good!

READ

       

The Young Elites by Marie Lu ★★★★★ – Excuse me I LOVED it and it crushed my soul
The Rose Society by Marie Lu ★★★☆☆- UGH, disappointing, annoying characters! Still amazing plot and the world though ❤
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas ★★★★★- Such an important book and wonderful family with all the HP references
The Midnight Star by Marie Lu ★★★★★ – I am NOT CRYING YOU ARE. I repeat. I am NOT *sobs*
A Gathering Of Shadows by V.E Schwab ★★★★★ – excuse me, best characters ever.
Rise Of The Sparrows by Sarina Langer ★★★☆☆- Annoying writing style but fantastic plot!
The Problem With Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout ★★★☆☆ – SUPER IMPORTANT but fluffy contemporaries are not my thing.
The Girl Of Ink & Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave ★★☆☆☆ – disappointing and MEH. Let me down
A Conjuring Of Light by V.E Schwab ★★★★★ – HELLO WHAT ABOUT MY FEELINGS? Perfectly perfect.
Allegiant by Veronica Roth★★★☆☆ – Just…Good. OH, and an amazing ending that made me very sad.
Ash and Quill  by Rachel Caine ★★★★☆ – Fast paced, action packed, BOOKS. I’m in love.

LIBRARY

I went to the library and I FOUND ALL THE BOOKS. There were Ash And Quill, The Problem With Forever, An Ember In The Ashes, The Scorpio Races, The Bombs that Brought Us Together, The Infinite Sea and Allegiant. There was ALSO OUR DARK DUET (even though I haven’t read This Savage Song) and I WANTED but apparently, it was an adult book so I couldn’t take it out. #RUDE.

Other people are promoting me??? Like SELF-PROMO is so difficult but somehow these other humans are being nice. So, my review of Strange The Dreamer was shared A LOT for some reason…which is weird since it’s a review but who cares and knows? IT GOT SHARED which is exactly why you guys should be checking it out like right now because it was obviously an amazing review and I totally know what I’m doing!!!

Speaking of Self Promotion…One of my tweets got a little bit famous because other people wanted to be famous! I mean my tweets have NEVER gotten that much attention but basically 100 replies which is SHOCKING. I still haven’t really caught up with this blog hopping BUT HEYYY, thanks, guys. You obviously like Self-promotion much more than me?

I got nominated for the same award…twice. First, Julianna nominated me for The Sunshine Blogger Award even though she gave me no questions to answer. I am confused. But OBVIOUSLY SO HAPPY because the first person to tag LE ILSA!!! And then very recently, The Book Prophet...SO THANK YOU for giving me questions!

And Inkcraft released its magazine. AND MY PIECE is in there so check it out. I ALSO created the tagline so AHEM I AM AWESOME and you must all bow down to this amazing magazine! Anyways, my little story is in there so now I shall be shy and don’t click on that link.

My writing is apparently too dark.Which is the best compliment of ever? I participated in Wordcrafters and wrote my chapter (scroll down to chapter 5) and even though the really dark and evil parts were removed since this is more for younger readers, you should totally read it.

My screams are being appreciated… by May who just had her mid-year blogiversary. Another congrats on 6-months and all you’ve achieved in such a little amount of time. UHM THANK YOU MAY for calling me amazing, that honestly means the world to me ❤ Make sure to check out her blog!

I created a new blog! As you probably know I used to be Mahriya @ My bookish Life and am no Ilsa @ A Whisper Of Ink. I honestly don’t want to talk about my old blog but it’s been a lot of work! I deleted all the old posts, well most of them, from my old blog and transferred my followers by contacting WP which was a tiny bit of a hassle but it got figured out…WHICH REMINDS ME!

I reached 1000 followers! I never got the chance to actually talk about this on MBL and now that my followers are all here, I COULDN’T BE MORE HAPPIER. I just want to thank all you amazing readers for being there for me and supporting me along the way. I wouldn’t have been blogging if it wasn’t for you guys and I also reached 100 likes. In like 1 weeks of blogging? WOW, I am impressed.  I’ll STOP WITH ALL THE MUSH NOW. I definitely want to do a celebration super soon but…I have NO CLUE as to what I should do. I’m too broke for a giveaway and I want to keep my new blog nice and shiny SO…ideas?

Also, look how BEAUTIFUL my new design is. All thanks to Emily @ Books and Cleverness (fabulous name i must say) designed my blog and was SO patient and helpful and added all the changes I wanted. She’s a fabulous designer and I AM BASICALLY in love with how everything looks. If you read my posts in your reader (CRIME RIGHT HERE) then actually check my blog to SEE THIS BEAUTY. And… if you have my button, could you switch it to my new one. AHAHA, as if anyone has my blog button *weeps*.

I’m changing my posting schedule. YES, I know I just started this blog but I feel like Sunday and Tuesday are too close and don’t give me enough time to write posts so I’m switching it to Tuesday and Saturday!! Which hopefully works. I’m probably going to keep on adjusting it so it begins to work for me?

I created a Blogging For Books account. And yet…for Fiction, there is LITERALLY NOTHING THERE. Like I can’t request any books. Maybe I’m just too small of a blogger and that’s why there are ‘no titles available’??? ANY HELP.

In OTHER ARC news…I got some amazing E-ARC’s from NetGalley and I am squealing. Not only have I got There’s Someone Inside Your House, I’ve got Daughter Of The Burning City. I also received Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index and Crazy House by James Patterson. I don’t mean to brag, BUT I AM EXCITE and have been raving over this the whole month. Now I just need to read them, to be honest.

Though I just watched while everyone tweeted about YALC Uk. Like okay, NO NEED TO RUB IT IN MY FACE. And while all my fave authors were there, apparently Benedict Cumberbatch walked in SO I AM JEALOUS okay. *sobs* I had a mental breakdown when I saw this but WHO CARES.

I made a new Pinterest account so go check me out! My boards are actually so aesthetic but so bare and I AM SORRY. There’s not much on my account but I literally just started it a few days ago.

I started to comment back…and let’s just say I’m not doing a very good job of it. LIKE I’m so late on replying to comments now and sometimes I don’t even know WHAT to comment back and it’s so LONG, did anyone mention this. For all you comment-backers, how do you manage all this because I might be drowning?

Also, I just need to take a second to share this video. It’s about ALL the issues In Carve The Mark and even if you haven’t read Carve The Mark, you should totally watch it because it discusses things applicable to a lot of books. It tells us the book really isn’t that problematic and discusses how it’s honestly not as racist as it seems. I actually found it from Cait @ Paper Fury who shared it in her recap and I basically exploded when i saw it. It explained everything I thought about the book and I AM SO GLAD!

Let’s be real. I JUST started this blog so only have 4 posts up (this being my 5th post) so let’s just put my first 3 posts here BECAUSE WHY NOT?

• May @ Forever and Everly warns humans about how they should never trust us bookworms 
• The Book Prophet tells us what makes a good book blog 
• Sasha @ The Stylish Dreamer updates us on all the exciting things! 
• Penumbra Reviews discusses the harsh reality of book blogging
• Ju @ Blots of Ink and Words informs us of how she organises her precious blog 
• Analee @ Booksnacks cries about blogging disappointments 
• Jasmine @ It’s simply Me Jasmine celebrates her 200 followers! 
• Cait @ Paper Fury writes a very important post that needs to be sent to Goodreads 
• Mikaela @ The Well Thumbed Reader introduces us to the idea of over-hyped books getting repetitive.  
• Kris @ Lemon Notes HAS A FREAKING TYPEWRITER !!!!
• Nandini @ Unputdownable books discusses The Cursed Child
• Sarah gives her unpopular opinion about audiobooks.

This month was incredibly exciting for me!  I basically brain-dumped everything I did i my Bullet Journal because there were a lot of things and my memory isn’t the best when it comes to..well everything.

Schools out…Summers IN! To be honest, July was only HALF off from school because I still had school until like the 20th.  But people are making back to school posts and I’m like ‘The party just started?’. America is weird. And the last 10 days went very slowly and I GOT A LOT OF READING meaning I read ACOL in one day despite it being 600 pages. YEAH, that’s what I mean! And even though it’s only been 11 days I have done quite a bit of thing and basically, SUMMER is amazing for BOOKS, BLOGGING and…

ICE CREAM. Now it might seem a bit obsessive to have a whole paragraph dedicated to this in my recap but hear me out. I HAD SO MUCH ICE CREAM this month it is unbelievable. What’s summer without Ice cream? I tried a new Ice cream flavour which was peanutella which is Peanut and Nutella mixed together which was gorgeous ❤ 10/10 recommend. I also tried out Mango Sorbet…which was VERY interesting. And I had Cookies & Cream which was obviously HEAVEN. And more DESERT appreciation, I had a huge waffle to celebrate summer.

I went to a theme park and went on SO. MANY. ROLLERCOASTERS. Hello, they were super scary and fun but I AM SUCH A THRILL-SEEKER. AGH, I absolutely LOVE rides and super frightening ones that i could die, are my kind! It was SUCH a fun day out, and I need to go again!

I also went to a mini zoo and went on boats! Which was really fun because they’re  cute meerkats and mice. And wallabies (who are wannabe Kangaroos) and birds and hello…CUTE ANIMAL APPRECIATION ❤ Even though it wasn’t on the same day, I’m going to squish the events of me eating lunch on a boat about to kill a bird here too. You know because I just said animals are cute and then I nearly damaged a birds’ nest in the water. OBVIOUSLY LOGICAL.

I TRIED to reorganise my bookshelf. Keyword: TRIED. i wanted to make it rainbow themed but then my series were all together and they didn’t want to be separated so ended up switching everything back. #sorrynotsorry. I mean, I don’t really have a bookshelf, it’s more just 2 shelves lined with books BUT not the point here.

I’m writing a story. Correction: WE are writing a story. Sasha and I have been planning and outlining this month and I secretly went Solo and wrote some of the beginning of the book. It’s been so much fun coming up with ideas AND i might do a post about it on here, so keep your eyes peeled! It’s a sci-fi AND a Fantasy with no title just yet but it’s a WIP! I am excited okay? Be excited with me. I am finally feeling like I have a writer’s life.

I re-watched Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them.  Because I can’t get enough of Newt apparently. I actually really enjoyed watching it again and I realised I forgot most of what happened. AGH THE little creatures were so cutttteee ❤

• Interview with the BOOK BLOGGER QUEEN (can you guess who this is?)
• Whispers Of Reviews [THE SOMETHING EDITION]
• A discussion about ‘representation’ in books
• 10 books I want to read this summer
• And obviously more but pfft, SECRETS.

What were your most memorable moments from July? Was it a slow month for you too? Do you enjoy recaps in general? Did you attend YALC or any other book fest? How is your summer going? Tell me all the fun things you did!!! Link to your monthly recaps too.

P.S Why is the post 2k+ words? I RAMBLE? Maybe