February + March Wrap-Up ft. Burn-outs, Feeling Slumpy, 28+ Great Reads and my Birthday!

At this point, I’m 100% sure that time is just a social construct, because where did the past year even go?? I would like to say I’ve been productive but,,,,,,,, no ~ all I’ve done is procrastinate on the work school’s been dumping on us, and have my mental health spiral down continuously 😌✌🏼 I also went through a somewhat slumpy reading patch? I wasn’t exactly de-motivated to read – but I was having trouble liking the books I know I would usually love. I’m also sorry if I haven’t been interacting with your blogs that much recently, or if my post content hasn’t been very original… I’m also sort of having a burn-out, and struggling to find that motivation and energy to do anything, really.

Heartstopper and Webtoon also provided me with constant boosts of serotonin and took up all of my time 🥺 I binged all the Heartstopper novels in a day and NICK AND CHARLIE OWN MY ENTIRE HEART!! Webtoon also provided me with tons of comfort, and I’ve been binging THE most heartwarming comics *cough* Your Letter by Hyeon A Cho and Gourmet Hound by Leehama *cough* thanks to Rain’s post – which you NEED to check out ASAP if you haven’t already.

On a brighter note, I did write my fic for After the Story (a writing project run by Becky and I), and both Beck and Rachel published their pieces which I absolutely loved!! Although I haven’t published my fic yet, it will be up soon, so keep a look out for that!! Hopefully April will get better for me, and I hope all of you guys are doing okay.

Books that I finished reading in the past 2 months

Necropolis by Bethan Evans: ⭐⭐⭐ [3 stars]
House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J. Maas: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
Battle of the Bullies by Fenyx Blue: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ [4 stars]
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
All Girls by Emily Layden: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
The Vines by Shelley Nolden: ⭐⭐⭐ [3 stars]
The Cousins by Karen M. McManus: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]

Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin: ⭐⭐.5 [2.5 stars]
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ [4 stars]
Hot British Boyfriend by Kristy Boyce: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ [4 stars]
Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]

Heartstopper Volume 1: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
Heartstopper Volume 2: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [5 stars]
Heartstopper Volume 3: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [5 stars]
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [5 stars] (Read with the SABC)
Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Doom: ⭐⭐⭐.5 [3.5 stars]
Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Endless Waiting: ⭐⭐⭐.5 [3.5 stars]
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: [DNF]

Your Letter by Hyeon A Cho: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [RE-READ: 5 stars]
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [5 stars]

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
It’s Kind of a Cheesy Love Story by Lauren Morrill: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ [4 stars]
The Secret Recipe for Moving On: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 [4.5 stars]
Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas: ⭐⭐⭐.5 [3.5 stars]

Books I started reading this month (this doesn’t mean DNF, but just means I started in March, but I’m still reading, and will probably finish in like February or something)…

Posts I published in February and March…

In February and March, I didn’t have a lot of original content, and most of my blog posts were just blog tours, which I’m not really proud, of so instead of linking to all the posts I published, I’m just going to link to my top 3 posts of the month!

Discussion Post: Talking About Diversity, Inclusivity, and Representation in YA Fantasy + 13 Diverse Recommendations! I’m really proud of this post, because I spent a lot of time researching on everything, plus, the!! formatting!! I also feel like diversity in books is a topic close to my heart, so along with the post being a lot of hard work, it was also something that made me feel proud? at the end.

In Conversation with Tashie Bhuiyan, Author of Counting Down with You! This was my first actual author interview that wasn’t part of a blog tour, and I think it just intimidated me reaching out to an author!! However, Tashie was super nice, and she gave amazing answers to all my questions!!

ARC Review: All Girls by Emily Layden. This was just a random review that I liked writing so I’m just including it here lol :” )

Other’s Posts I Loved Reading!!

I’m sorry I’m not including anyone over here this time!! Like I mentioned earlier, I’m running a bit low on motivation… to do anything really, especially blog. So, I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit absent on your blog lately, I promise I still love and support you and your content very much 🥺💖 Comment below if you’ve post anything recently that I’ve missed out on reading!! Thank you for sticking with me <33

Blog Statistics!

Note: Before I start, I just want to make it clear that this is for my own reference, and only so I can see how my blog has grown.

• Months on WordPress: 8 (since August, 2020). Inactive for first 2 months.
• Follower Count: 382
• Amount of likes received: 3,132
• Amount of comments received: 1,291
• Number of posts: 46

• The Sleepover (2020): This was fun. And cute. I liked it.
• Finding ‘Ohana: I loved the focus on family and connecting to your cultural roots 🥺 also THE!! FRIENDSHIPS!! 🥺💛
• To All the Boys: Always and Forever: This was also cute. I was really confused about how Lara Jean had Ivy-League colleges as her backup colleges, because I remember it being different in the books, and then I read somewhere that sometimes smaller colleges don’t let movies use their names, so it made a lot more sense later haha.
• It: Chapter 2: Pennywise eating people gives me nightmares. This whole movie gives me nightmares. 💀
• Sleepless in Seattle: One word, no thoughts – cute.
• Moxie: I liked some parts of the book better, but some parts of the movie better.
• Remember the Titans: Okay, we watched this in Humanities, for our unit on Power, and we were looking at segregation laws, etc. But even though this was for school, can we talk about how much I loved it?? The friendships were so heartwarming, and by the end of the movie, I was an emo pile of wet tears 🥺👉🏼👈🏼 The most unexpected friendships were the best ones, and can I just say I ship Gerry and Julius forever,,,,,,,, I NEED them to be gay I’m sorry they’re friendship goals. The montages of them hanging together really reminded me of Nick and Charlie from Heartstopper 🥺
• Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal: I NEVER watch documentaries, but this one was super interesting. I watched it with my parents, and brother, and even though I don’t think my brother really understood what was going on, because he’s only eight, my parents and I really liked it.
• The Blind Side (2009): This gave me ALLLLLLLLL the feels!! The found family is pure gold, and this movie owns my entire heart now. When I say I cried, I mean it (iykyk) 🥺 Seeing what all Michael had to go through was heartbreaking, but seeing how the Tuohy family helped him, and how they grew together as a family made me shed happy tears. Seeing them help Michael excel, and literally help him go from the streets to the best football player in the area was just 🥺 GO WATCH IT NOW YOU WILL CRY AND YOUR HEART WILL FEEL HAPPY.
• Yes Day: It was good. That’s literally all I have to say lmao.
• Happy New Year (2014): I watched this on Netflix Party with my friends, who called me UNCULTURED on various occasions for not watching this earlier 🙈💀 buttttttt it was funny, and I got hiccups at least 6 times during the 3 hour movie so um…
• Zero Chill: I binged 8 episodes in a day before my mum told me to get up. I think that says enough you need to know about the show haha.

• It was my birthday on the 3rd of March!! I couldn’t really do much, or throw a big party, but I called over 8-10 of my closest friends, and we went to this sick VR place called Zero Latency.
• I got my first physical ARC!! Thank you so much to Bloomsbury UK for providing me with a proof copy of Love Is a Revolution by Renée Watson.
• I got a distinction in my singing exam (London College of Music) with 93%!!
• I had a birthday book haul, where I got 30+ new books to read!! (My shelves are running out of space lmao)

Goals from the past month

• Read at least 8 books ✅ I read a total of 28 in February and March, which is 14 books on average (per month), so I think I’m doing pretty well!
• Keep up with ‘Reader’ ✅
• Go blog hopping some more!! ❌ Sadly, this is a no!! I didn’t manage to go blog-hopping even once.
• Continue with the writing projects. ✅ I finished my WIP for After the Story (which is coming soon), and I also started another one, which is based in Medieval France, and features lots of royalty, betrayals, and secrets!!
• Sort and organize old Notion pages. ❌ No!! Motivation!! At!! All!!

Goals for the next month

• Catch up on ARCs
• Read at least 8 books
• Keep up with ‘Reader’
• Go blog hopping!!
• Work more on WIPs

How was your February and March? Did you have any great reads? What was your favourite book? Did you celebrate any special days?