August Playlist

Hello!

Did you think I forgot the monthly playlist?

There are times where I take advantage of things and since August ends at the start of a brand new week, I rook it as a sign!

August in general was an odd month. We got a new puppy that has been running our house like crazy! I got a new TV, which meant I wasn’t really reading much and spending a good chunk of time between watching my favorite Disney films and Criminal Minds late at night. And then to top it all off, Nolan was diagnosed with COVID a few weeks ago. Thankfully, he is feeling much better but it’s been slightly stressful but full of enjoyment for everyone in my household lately.

Honestly, my music tastes kind of reflect everything that happened this month, so I wasn’t too focused on one genre, but earlier in the month, I decided to do something different and arrange all of my Liked songs to Title and listen to each one and I have been enjoying this a lot, because I’m not stuck in on a loop of the same songs, sometimes I do want to change it up, and I am loving this switch a lot!.

Here are my Top 20 songs for this month. If you want to check out the full list on Spotify , click here.

In Another Life by Crown The Empire featuring Courtney LaPlante
Urinal Rodeo by Rev Theory featuring Heidi Shepherd
Survivor by Pop Evil
Last Dance by Butcher Babies
Kiss My (Uh Oh) by Anne-Marie x Little Mix
Show Yourself by Idina Menzel and Evan Rachel Wood
Bleed It Out by Lauren Babic featuring Halocene
Kill This Love by Social Repose
Run It by DJ Snake featuring Rick Ross & Rich Brian
Hallelujah by Underoath
Stronger by The Phantoms featuring Black Violin
Do Not Disturb by Halestorm
A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes by Ilene Woods
Hard To Kill by Beth Crowley
Harley by Letters From The Fire
It Won’t Kill Ya by The Chainsmokers featuring Louane
Choke by The Warning
Monsters by All Time Low featuring Demi Lovato & blackbear
Risk It All by Ella Henderson
Visiting Hours by Ed Sheeran

I am really excited to get my summer 2021 playlist up for all of you next month. Hopefully the last of bangers will release before the post like last year but you can never quite tell when it comes to music these days!

What were you listening to in August? Have you already picked out your anthem for this summer? Let me know in the comments!

Book Review: “Glass Sword” by Victoria Aveyard

Hello!

This wasn’t the post that was suppose to go up today–actually I had two I was tempted to work on this week! The first idea will (hopefully) go out in September but we’ll see what truly happens there. And the other was going to be a review of a novella but I honestly don’t want to talk about them. They have to be really great to get the same treatment as L.J.’s “The End Zone” and so far nothing has piqued that far yet.

Anyways, I am absolutely thrilled to talk about my thoughts on the second book in Victoria Aveyard’s “Red Queen” series, which is “Glass Sword.” I have had this book for many years, I’ve tried to read it but would always lose interest in it fairly quickly, and this always bothered me because I want to know what happens next to Mare Barrow.. The lightning girl. I am hoping I can convince my mom to let me purchase books three and four to keep me moving along and be able to finish another series for 2021.

WARNING: If you have not finished with Red Queen or Glass Sword yet, I would recommend you skip the rest of this post! There are spoilers mentioned below so be careful.

---

If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul. 

taken from Goodreads.

---

Okay, so, we begin after the events that happened in the Battle of the Bones and we switch into lots and lots of running for both Mare and Cal. They meet the head of The Scarlet Guard, Farley and her gang of soldiers, including a ghost from the past for Mare and head back to a place called Tuck. I remember few details of chaos after arriving there, because I first started reading this part back in mid 2016–honestly much of that year is still a blur for me obviously!–but I feel like it’s fair to say it’s the headquarters of The Scarlet Guard, and Mare and Cal are not well welcomed there, even though Mare’s family are all there but since they brought back a Silver, a exiled prince as matter as fact, and the Colonel doesn’t quite know what to think of either one and locks them up.

By the end of 2019 and start of 2020, I decided to give it another chance and was moving really good for a while but then one day as I was sitting outside with the cats and the one time my cat Stormy decided to lay out next to me, he went to stretch out his front paws and literally hooked one of his dirty claws on the opposite side of where I was reading and as he pulled his paw back to normal just shredded it on both sides. I was horrified at what happened but I do not know what I did to Stormy. Thankfully for him, he hadn’t shared with us on how much he loves belly rubs! After it happened, I stopped reading it, the only reason why I went back to it this year was because my mom repaired it and honestly spoiled my chances of buying the paperback edition…

I must believe enough for all of us. I must put up my mask again, and be the lightning girl they need. Mare can wait.

My ability or imagination intensified because I was able to see majority of the structures and silhouette of the characters, and when Farley, Shade and Kilorn come to break Mare and Cal out of their stronghold, they walk out of it and immediately feel their powers coming back to them. So, as this scene was progressing I was seeing each of them step over to their rescuers while basically showing off their restored abilities of fire and lightning. Out of everything that happened in this book, this was the scene that played over on a loop everytime I wanted to give up and forget about it again.

Anywho, my overall view of this book was good. It does feel to drag on once you hit the chapters of Mare and the others go out looking for the newbloods and despite the fact that there are some powerful action between the characters and Victoria went into great detail on everything from the buildings of Silver lands and the Notch, However, it makes the reader continuing to read off and on like me, really annoying, which is probably why it took me so long to complete in the first place.

On a positive note, I am excited to get started on the third book in the series, perfectly titled as “King’s Cage” but I will be honest with you, I am worried it’ll become boring in the middle again and as much as I love these characters and want to know what happens next to each one in the next book. I am hoping I won’t have to wait too long but I do have others that can keep me interested for a while.

Have you had the chance to read “Glass Sword” by Victoria Aveyard yet? If you have, what were your favorite scenes, and how long did it take you to finish it?

Top 5 Favorite Reads On My Bookshelf

Hello!

We have a single, skinny bookshelf in my nephew’s playroom. I’ve always wanted to do a tour of it but I haven’t found a way to do it as a blog post and make it so that it’s fun and unique. The majority of the books are mine, while my poor nephew has like three! It’s a little sad but I don’t have any more room in my own bedroom to have proper shelves for them. I have a smaller one next to my bed but I don’t have any more room for anything really. Anyways, for today, I wanted to talk about my favorite books featured on the shelf and at first, as I was coming up with this post, it seemed like an easy conquest, when in reality it was the opposite but still I got it all done for you!

I’ve added a link to the reviews I’ve done in the past on the pictures listed below, so, if you want to check them out, all you have to do is click the photo. Be aware though, they could contain spoilers so please keep that in mind beforehand! It was extremely hard to list all of these books because I really love them all the same, or so I thought…I still hope you enjoy all of the books and maybe you will find your next favorite too..

---

5. “Origins” Stefan’s Diaries Vol. 1 by L.J. Smith, Julie Plec & Kevin Williamson

I do remember buying this book because from the moment I saw Julie promoting it on Twitter, and I was curious to see a written form of Stefan Salvatore’s origins, If you want a more detail look into the life of both Stefan and Damon on the day Katherine arrives to their home in Mystic Falls, VA, and turn them into murderous vampires, this was make you smile in a very odd way!

If you are like me and desperately miss the entire show (and The Originals too!) then reading the entire collection could be something you should consider someday. I have only read to the second book, but there are five more books afterwards “Bloodlust” and I think Julie wrote a series about Klaus too, correct me if I’m wrong in the comments, but they all seem great stories for the fall?

4. Children Of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

I did buy it mainly on how it looked without a dusk jacket. I saw it on all of my favorite BookTube channels, There are not very many books that can match or even look close enough to their majestic jackets, but when I started reading it, and I was thoroughly into the story of these characters. I saw everything as I was reading and I still have Zélie’s dark skin and white hair in my brain. The most interesting part is, I cannot tell you how much this book pops into my head nowadays! This entire summer had me thinking about Zélie and Princess Amari, and what could happen for everybody involved in the next phase, so that means I should make a point to get the second book in the series soon or else it’ll just keep coming up to me at all hours..

3. The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

This is still one of my favorite reads after nine years of reading it.

This book tells you of a story of a young woman who can do anything she wants in the world but she doesn’t see her natural beauty. She has anorexia and is bulimic, and it is a very sad story underneath this interesting person. I’m still kind of bothered on why I wanted to read it in the first place, but I think it is purely to remind me that not everybody is happy with their bodies, and everyone has different struggles with seeing beauty within themselves.

2. Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

I know this one still freaks a lot of people out, but it actually started out innocently enough as I wanted to know what all the fuss was about with the film. I knew there was an able-bodied actor for the role of Will Traynor and thankfully a year or two before, I made a vow to read the book first and if at one time the main character was “normal” and became disabled after having cancer or was involved in an accident, it was easier to tell myself, this can happen (and I know a lot of people who have experienced it firsthand!) and once I finished I could find the right words to tell everyone in both the book and disabled communities my views on it.

What I didn’t expect was being absolutely taken by the story of Louisa or Lou as she likes to be called instead. How she was in this book was so amazing and very educational too. For someone who had no experience taking care of a person with a very serve physical disability, she had a lot of spunk in her. This was one of my favorite qualities in her, she could hit back on Will’s depressing wit. Despite the fact that she wanted to help his family change his mind about committing medical suicide, and you realize that Will holds all of the cards for her. The story isn’t necessarily about him, it is on her, at least that was the way I saw it at the end.

1. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

All of the books listed in this post are truly amazing, but nothing compares to Victoria Aveyard’s “Red Queen” for me. I absolutely adore the story of Mare Barrow, the poor red who had the same abilities as the elite silvers.

It’s interesting, I remember before picking this up at Walmart back in 2016, and thinking it was about a vampire queen. It wasn’t until I read the blurb on the back that I realized I was a bit wrong there and I think I almost put it back on the ledge but something about it intrigued me and I finished with it a week after I bought it! I was thoroughly impressed and a bit surprised by everything mentioned in the book. One of my favorite scenes was when Mare tries to escape out of the castle and as she heads for the window, she has guards coming at her and she makes a run for it and manages to lean back and skid underneath the men and for some odd reason this scene is so vivid in my mind and pretty much sealed the deal on my doubts and expectations.

After five years, I can officially say I am almost done (depending on when this post goes live) with the second book in the series, Glass Sword and the review will publish Friday morning, and I am hoping to start on the third book by the end of the month if everything works out the way I am hoping it would. I would love to complete this series before the end of the year as well, but I’ll be proud of myself on that accomplishment whether that part happens or not though.

---

Now I have one more thing to say before I let you go!

I do love the “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” series by Jenny Han, but I do not keep those books on this shelf. They are located in my bedroom; I am hoping to store all of my beloved books, whether they are part of a series or standalones it doesn’t matter, so I can be reminded everyday of my accomplishments. Of course, this also means my dad will have to build me actual shelves on my wall someday because I have quite a few that I’m done with and want store them all together and I’m really running out of space on the floor so we need to go up for this project.. Also, do you have any advice on how I can get rid of the price stickers? They are seriously annoying and would love to have them removed from the beautiful covers. I am open to hear everyone’s suggestions at this point!

What are your top five or ten favorite books on your shelves? What makes them different than the others?

Meet Our New Puppy!

Hello!

This year has been a little bittersweet for my family as in late March, we lost our beloved dog ChiChi, three days before we left to visit some family up north. For those of you who never had a chance to meet ChiChi, she was a feisty little thing! She barked at literally everything, people, dogs, the cats, and even poor Nolan… We were happy that she had turned her tune of him in the last two months before her passing, but if he was outside and she was sunbathing in front of the screen door she would bark and bark at him for trespassing on her property.

Her death was hard on all of us, but it probably affected my dad the most as they were best buds, although I clearly remember him almost keeping her away from him when we first brought her home. I remember coming home from school and hearing my mom tell me about how they went to Walmart and dad was so worried about her getting stuck in the couch and being like that for a couple of hours, so they ended up taking her with them. Apparently she was stuffed inside mom’s purse because at that time she had a big purse and she told me, it was like Bruiser bobbing his head out of Elle’s bag at the end of Legally Blonde, she was so alert and curious of everything, but this was also before she learned how to be a guard dog too!

When my mom goes to work, it was just the three of us. Dad, ChiChi and I hanging out and fighting against sleeping the whole afternoon. ChiChi would sleep a lot. She was as bad as the cats sometimes! However, when she was awake, dad would cuddle and play with her, until he would venture outside and it was just me and the dog. Once he would leave, it was hard to resist making her sing while inside her blankets in the living room. She loved to howl (sing) to the theme songs of Cops, The Golden Girls, SpongeBob SquarePants, and the operatic J.G. Wentworth commercial. After she died, I have heard that commercial five times and my parents do not watch Cops anymore because that was one of her absolute favorites!

---

Since she’s been gone, we’ve had three chances to get a new dog.

I think the main reason why it took so long was because my dad was very committed to the possibility whereas my mom wasn’t feeling the idea at all. I actually remained pretty neutral about it. I understood why dad wanted another dog but also get my mom’s reasons behind it too. I tried my best to talk them into letting my cat Stormy inside instead but neither one thought it was a good idea since he sheds quite a bit and he has never spent a lot of time indoors either.

It wasn’t until late July that my folks were on the same wavelength and decided to search for another dog. They were mainly searching into German Shepherds since they are mom’s favorite breed. I wanted another pittie and I almost got dad to follow along with me until they stumbled upon a couple of Belgian Milionis puppies. They are one of my dad’s favorite breeds, and I think what got his attention is that the guy who was saling them was a police officer or something like that and the father of the pups was his K-9. The guy was also looking for $800 but got him to go down on the price by half and that’s how we ended up with Rumer.

She was born around Memorial Day weekend so she is around 13 weeks (I think) by the time this post goes out, and she has finished with her final shot, and I’m happy to say as the vet was not ChiChi’s favorite person, Rumor loved him! Technically, dad and I spell her name with a “U” instead of an “E” so don’t be surprised if you see some mistakes on here and my social medias!

One of the things that the breeder told my parents was she likes to bite feet… And for the record, she does in fact enjoy this hobby, but the only time she bites me is whenever I try to play with her. For the most part, she would rather lick my feet instead and we are very grateful for it. She is actually incredibly adorable and is already showing off how she will protect you or me in this case. If you want to get close to me, you have to get through her first. She doesn’t quite know the deal about my wheelchair, much less how I go to the bathroom. If dad is helping me, she barks at us. I think she thinks I’m hurting him because she is ALWAYS around dad, but when mom takes me, she barks at her.

She has figured out how to jump into my bed, but not the couch, and I’m sure dad is hoping that day comes soon because she continues to eat like our cats, which is all the time. Speaking of the cats, her welcoming present from Bootsie was a big wack on the head when she went over to sniff at her. Two days later Grumpy got ahold of her as they walking outside for a bathroom break. Rumor is very curious of our cats though, and thanks to our back deck, they are able to see each other and watch the other’s movements. According to my mom, Felix did let her smell him the other day without any attacks so there is hope that maybe some will become friends with her one day.

Lastly, we kept ChiChi’s bed (although she mostly used it as a toy box than a bed!) and since she’s still small, she fits perfectly in it. Unfortunately, she’s ripped a hole in it and now she only has her blanket to lay on but I think she’s better with it, everytime she gets a toy or dental bone she’ll put everything on the blanket. My parents purchased a medium size cage for her and that’s where her food bowl is located but she hates being in it obviously. The other day Nolan came over and we had to put her in it and she actually did better than she had earlier this month.

• 

• 

• 

• 

When you have lost a family pet, how long did you wait until you brought home another animal? Are you familiar with the breed: Belgian Milionis? Do you have any advice on training or anything else for my family? Please share down in the comments.

Book Review: “The End Zone” by L.J. Shen

Hello!

If I am being totally honest, I’ve been going through a bit of a burn out with reading romance books in the last month or so. I have one other book in the genre that I am trying to finish, but I wouldn’t surprised if I decide to not read any more for a while.

Nevertheless, this one was a freaking godsend but first, let’s check out the blurb about it.

---

Jolie Louis is a smart girl.
She knows that her best friend, Sage Poirier, is a bad idea.
He’s a walking, talking cliché. The Adonis quarterback with the bulging biceps and harem of fangirls trailing behind him on campus like a stench you can’t get rid of.
Sadly, that’s also the reason she can’t stay away from him.
Well, that and the fact that they’re roommates.
Jolie is already straddling the line between friendship and more when Sage comes to her with an offer she cannot refuse: be his fake girlfriend and live for free for the rest of the semester.
She tells herself that she can handle it.
He’s just the boy she saved ten years ago, right?
Wrong. So very wrong.
He is a man now, and she is his captive Heart, body, and soul…

taken from Amazon.

---

Every August I go through this thing of missing high school with its football games, colder nights, and gorgeous boys I had a crush on throughout those four years. I usually try to keep myself out of reading romance that talk about various sports, mainly football and basketball since they were the most present in my life. However, I decided to take a chance on it and ultimately I enjoyed The End Zone a lot more than I anticipated, so if you’re like me, going through the same thing around this time of year, hopefully this will help you out a little bit.

If you are afraid that because it has a football player on the cover, it’ll have a bunch of football terms, it doesn’t! Despite the fact that I enjoyed it so much, that was one thing that really lacked the most. As I’ve said above, every August to end of October, I want something to do with football in it, and this didn’t quite fit the bill for me.

My forever crush.

This is not a long story, it’s definitely written in the novella style so you don’t get a lot of information about the characters. It’s basically a day-to-day sort of read, which isn’t something I usually strive to find with books, because I use to do the same thing in the past and was always told I didn’t have enough history, for a lack of a better word, to learn everybody’s purpose in the story.! If you want something that is basically straight to the point–or in this case, straight to the sex–and everybody moves on, then you might enjoy it too. Honestly, it is like the shorter version of Kennedy Fox’s “This Is War” in certain ways, so you if you want to check out that book or vice versa beforehand, it might put you in the mood for the others.

I have one more thing to mention, with the Kindle edition, you get two extended endings or epilogues. My favorite is the final passage and I like how the entire scene is flat out hilarious in the beginning and ends on a very hot and steamy note, and that is all I am going to say about it.

Have you read :”The End Zone” by L.J. Shen yet? What were your favorite parts of the story? Is there any other books by the author you think I should look into in the future? Send me some suggestions below!