recommendations – Got Meghan's Blog

Hello!

How are you? How is summer treating you? I truly hope you are doing well.

A little update on me, I’m doing all right. Naturally, I hate summer. I find something on Facebook the other day about when we were kids, we were so excited for summer break, because mainly we’re done with school and would be able to do what we wanted the next two and a half months. I grew up in the late 90’s and most of 00’s, and we did NOT have the summers we do now. However, I remember we were always on the go, taking trips, hanging out with family, had some kind of pool and maybe that’s why I don’t really remember the actual heat outside.

Besides that, I am looking forward to July. We are (hopefully) going up north to visit with family. It’s been a whole year since we’ve made the trip and we’re doing something completely different, and since our plans at in the middle of the month, I will say it now, there will be no blog posts next month. I don’t want to add any more stress on myself to get things done beforehand and after we get back.

Now with that out of the way, let’s get into some music.

This month, I decided to read or rather listen to Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. It took me almost a whole month to get through it, but I did it. I’ve never read a 20-hour audiobook before, so it was very time-consuming, but still enjoyable! I liked it a little more than Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz. I’ve always had an issue or two with her books though.

And yes, I have created an aesthetic playlist for FW on Spotify and I’m still fixing it up before I decide to share it with everyone. I have changed up the music genres in this one to give it more of an edge that I felt it needed as I would continue to listen to it. I may release it just before the Summer ’24 playlist in September.

For June though, these are my Top 20 songs. If you’d like to check out the whole playlist, click here. Enjoy!

Everywhere by Plumb
BADVILLAIN by BADVILLAIN
Astronaut In The Ocean – Piano Acoustic by Kurt Hugo Schneider w/ Sam Tsui
Can U See Me In The Dark by Halestorm featuring I Prevail
ANYTHING > HUMAN by Bad Omens featuring ERRA
YOUtupia by Bring Me The Horizon
Cold-Blooded by Jessi
SAINT by DPR IAN
ZOMBIE by EVERGLOW
I Am Not Okay by Jelly Roll
Salute by Little Mix
Blah Blah Blah by EMPRESS
Stranger by Svea
Enn by Elvor
Eye Of The Untold Her by Lindsey Stirling
Unfolding by Luca Fogale
On My Own by Ifa
WOKE UP by XG
Bitch Don’t Come For Me by Rue Vox featuring Heidi Shepherd
Girls by Rita Ora featuring Bebe Rexha, Charli XCX and Cardi B

Before I go, I wanted to recommend a couple of new albums.

At the start of the month, I saw Bad Omens had a new release, “Concrete Jungle: The OST” – I still don’t understand what the “OST” means, but I listened to it and the first thing it reminded me of Linkin Park’s “Reanimation” album (2002) as it has remix versions of their songs featured on “Hybrid Theory” and it includes a lot of interesting artists, like ERRA, WARGASM, and We Are Fury.

The second was Bring The New Horizon’s “POST HUMAN: NeX Gen” and I haven’t been keeping up with the band since they released “That’s the Spirit” mainly because I don’t like their alternative route. And then, I heard “Strangers” and “Kool-Aid” and I kind of began to love their stuff again. I’m slowly getting into the metalcore scene, and this album is heavy, but full of various elements that make BMTH them as a whole.

Next up, I found Lindsay Stirling was coming out with her seventh album “Duality” and I usually love her albums right away. Lindsay is a completely different artist compared to the bands’ I’ve talked about, her music is mainly instrumental, violin-based, pop. I literally found her first single “Evil Twin” a week or two before the album dropped… And of course, I did love it. My favorites included “Eye Of The Untold Her,” “Purpose.” and “The Scarlet Queen.”

And finally, our last recent release is, Faroese-artist Eivør Pálsdóttir or simply, Eivør. She’s known within the electronica and folk world, but more noticeable working with the Netflix series “The Lost Kingdom.” She sings in Icelandic, Danish and English. I’ve used a few of her songs in my Vikings aesthetic playlists. She released “Enn” the same week as Lindsey, so I’ve had an interesting time lately. It’s gentle, soft and touching, considering the fact I am not familiar with her native langauge. I thoroughly enjoyed the title track as it is so soothing to listen, and the other is, “Jarðartrá.”

That’s it. That’s all I have for you today. I hope you have enjoyed this very long post, but most importantly, found some good music for your summer trip or in the middle of a night.

What are you listening to?

Hello!

If you haven’t read my review for The Summer I Turned Pretty, click here to open the page for your enjoyment. However, if you are currently watching the series on Amazon Prime, you can skip these posts altogether. There will be some spoilers between them, so it’s probably best to put these on the back burner for now.

Belly finds out what comes after falling in love in this follow-up to The Summer I Turned Pretty from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han.

It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.

But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started—at Cousins Beach.

taken from Amazon.

When I started reading, I thought I would rush through it like I had with the first book, but I didn’t. This began to bother me because I had enjoyed the characters and the storyline itself. And then, I found the audiobook on YouTube, and it went by SO much better! I was still able to picture everything as I had before, which was a miracle.

What threw me for a loop was, I actually enjoyed listening to Lola Tung who plays Belly in the Prime series, as she brought Belly out with her way of speaking; you could tell when she was angry or in a comical mood as both a character and person. I’ve never seen her face or any of the actors in the show because I didn’t want to confuse my brain and the world I was creating in my head. She was perfect for the role(s) and I don’t usually say that.

I knew once I ended the first book, Susannah would pass away. I mean; besides the title, you knew everything would be changing drastically for these characters, and this was the only scenario that made sense to me. I’m happy it was right in front, but the realization that she was gone doesn’t register to everyone at that time. The storyline between Conrad and Belly grows to be slightly toxic. They’re relationship is on the rocks, and the passing of Sususah really intensifies these two characters.

This wasn’t my life. But it was my life; it was my life now. After.

However, they are not the only ones to step up (or down, depending on how you look at it I guess.) are Belly and Steven’s mother Laurel. She’s a very stoic person, but this does shatter her. She and Beck were the best of friends, and they created this little escape at Cousins for not only themselves, but their children. If it wasn’t for these women and their friendship, the summer wouldn’t have mattered that much to them. They are the most important characters in the series. I’d consider them higher than the love triangle between Belly and the Fisher boys.

Speaking of them, I was thoroughly irritated with Conrad and his detachment with everything. He feels hopeless and sad, to the point where he doesn’t believe he should be in a relationship with Belly. Honestly, his feelings are valid, but I really felt for Jeremiah the most. Jeremiah is the silly brother and the one who is friends with everyone, but I really believed he was even more emotional than Conrad. I really adored him in this book.

When I was finished, I ended up giving the book four out of five stars, mainly because I wasn’t as interested in the story. I knew how almost everything would turn out and that really bugged me the most. I hope I can be surprised in the third and final book of the series. By the time I had started writing this review, I had already surpassed six chapters and was slightly upset with a certain character. It definitely shook me harder than I figured it would, so I’m obviously going in the right direction there.

Have you read “It’s Not Summer Without You” by Jenny Han yet? Are you currently binge watching the show? Don’t tell me anything about that part — I might actually give it a chance when I finish reading the books.