May Wrap Up | Lots of Epic Ends And Maybe Some Not So Epic Ends?!?!

Hey everyone!!

I hope you had a great May and read some fabulous books!! May didn’t include anything notable for me really but it has been like the comeback of the spiders and I hate it!! They seem to be everywhere and it is causing a lot of stress!! But other than this it has been a good month!!

But let’s get on to what I read and watched this month (because that’s the most exciting part)!!

BOOKS

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch//⭐⭐⭐⭐// A high fantasy book with a great main character. I really recommend this to fantasy lovers who adore a mischievous thief. The book has many good points, it has excellent world-building, perfectly morally grey characters and a plot that had gotten many different layers and isn’t afraid to give the characters problem after problem. Locke Lamora is clever, funny and a really compelling character. The only reason I am not rating it 5-star is because it didn’t have that ‘feel’. But I did love reading it, even if it did take me half of the month.

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer//⭐⭐.5// A collection of short stories from The Lunar Chronicles. I enjoyed the Lunar Chronicles, it had a great cast of characters and I would say the short stories are for fans of the series. And I definitely appreciate wanting every detail from a world you love but I still think the stories could have been better. I am not the biggest fan of short stories but as you were following characters you know it was better. BUT some stories didn’t feel like they had much going for them and slightly pointless in my opinion. Although I did really enjoy Winter and Jacin’s story, so I am glad I read it for that. Full review on Goodreads.

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews//⭐⭐⭐.5//This story follows Sam who is dealing with A LOT and is feeling quite lonely but when we meet him as things might begin to change. You see him running from his past, wanting to protect his autistic brother and wanting a home and to be seen. I think it is an interesting story with some lovely, heartfelt scenes between some great characters (Avery and the De Laineys are wonderful). But I wasn’t fully invested in the romance and didn’t always connect with the story. But I still really enjoyed reading this. Full review on Goodreads.

I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak//⭐⭐⭐⭐.5//I really liked this book and it just reminded me how much I love Markus Zusak writing. I listened to this on audiobook and I really love this format. I think it helped get the voice and the sense of humour across. I loved this book because it is about the ordinary and it just covered so many emotions we feel and about valuing the little things. Also it had a mystery element which definitely made me curious and by the end you just have to read it all and it was definitely interesting. But I really loved it– for the story and what it meant more than anything. The characters are likeable but there are not my favourite characters ever but I love what the story tells you– you can connect it to yourself. I just finished this so I am kind of still processing it but I hope to do a review!!

FILMS/TV

Avengers: Endgame//The end of an era *cries* I watched this at the very beginning of the month and I still don’t feel like I have processed it. It had a lot of good things. The fighting scenes in this movie were brilliant and a massive group of characters who you love coming together to fight evil will always be incredible and visually it was BEAUTIFUL. I liked the characters that were put at the forefront of the story as it was the end of this era so I am glad that those characters were focused on I would have liked some other characters to have been touched on more but I get why they didn’t, kind of? I really want to re-watch it and I did really love it. And I think saying that the 3 hours felt like 1 hour sums up how epic it was and the fact that I could cry with all the emotions whilst thinking about it sums up how I feel about it.

Game of Thrones: The Final Season// Oohh.. there have been a lot of opinions surrounding this. And I was left feeling unsatisfied with the season finale. I expected more of a clever plot with twists and interesting character conflicts and I just think it fell flat for me. As much as there were epic battles I think something was missing and they was a few continuity errors and I think some information and characters ended up feeling a bit pointless in a way. But the cinematography has been AMAZING. Some scenes were visually astonishing and the dragons, WOW!! Also, the acting has been great as always. It was the writing that let it down, unfortunately.

CLICK FOR SPOILERY THOUGHTS

• Podd (my favourite character) remained great this season– I love my perfect fave– he had a great end (YASS he is a knight) and I love every scene with him. (even if I am lowkey disappointed he isn’t the king)
• Jon and Ghost are together which I am so happy about– almost had a panic when Jon left Ghost. And I am glad he is with Tormund (when Tormund and Jon reunited and hugged it was epic) but there was something unsatisfactory about his ending though. I didn’t like him killing Daenarys even though I could see it coming from episode 5 and he was barely involved with the Night King when they felt like such a big plot for him. I was expected more from the Night Walkers in general (like what was the point?) and I was unsure what happened with Melisandre tbh.
• In my Game of Thrones predictions post I wrote that I expected Daenarys to die and I didn’t think I wanted her on the throne as I wanted in to be unexpected but I take that back now. We followed her on a journey and it would have been nice to see her on the throne with the Daenarys that we loved– she was very just and that was an important part of her character and its like that was forgotten in a way. I understand why fans of her are disappointed. I wasn’t the biggest fan of her and I’m disappointed.
• Jaime it was a shame about his character arc and I understand why fans would be disappointed in that as well.
• Sansa I thought she would be more involved and come with up a clever plot but I am happy where she ended up as The Queen in the North (that whole Stark montage at the end was beautiful) and she deserved it. Even though I was slightly disappointed all the Starks separated as it was always ‘the pack survives’ but I guess it kind of makes sense.
• Arya— I am glad she stopped just seeking revenge and that the hound helped her realise there is more to life that getting revenge. As much as I love her powerful fighting, it doesn’t need to be everything.
• Bran– long may he reign I guess– it’s not bad at all. He would be a fair ruler I believe and he has a good team around him. But it was kind of random so it wasn’t as satisfying as it would have been if it had been someone else.

John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum// There was a lot of action and I mean A LOT. There probably wasn’t a lot else so if I ever need inspiration for an action sequence when writing I highly advise watching this. It is impressive and well-filmed, I appreciate the skills behind making this film. Also, the system built up in these movies is GREAT. It is set in our society but there have built an assassin world within and every detail is thought out and I love that. It is unique in that sense. But due to the heavy action it wouldn’t be a movie I would watch a lot as I like more character and dialogue in my movies.

The Big Bang Theory Final Season//I really enjoyed the final season and this is how you do a last episode. It was an emotional goodbye but kept the humour. It also linked back to the beginning and I really like that. Plus it covered topics that had gone on before and gave them a satisfactory conclusion but you can still imagine the character’s lives going on afterwards (I know its not real but in my head). I think ‘The Big Bang Theory’ are really good at relationships and it makes it very enjoyable to watch. And I love how it embraces ‘nerd’ culture, every time they make a reference I love it and I would love to be in many of their conversations. It remained strong in its last season and gave a really nice farewell.

Once Upon A Time Final Season// I think I lost interest in this series at one point but I have watched it all now and it does have some brilliant complex characters, character arcs and some beautiful scenes in general but I don’t love every episode. The last season wasn’t my favourite, it was quite different and for me, it dragged a little bit and I wasn’t invested in all the characters. But the last ever episode was good and I am happy with how it has left the world and the characters so in terms of that it was a great finale.

Timeless Finale Part 1 and 2// After it got cancelled at the end of season 2 it was given two episodes as a ‘finale movie’ and I was excited because season 2 was amazing. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t what I wanted– it must have been hard when the writers had probably planned to wrap it up over a couple more seasons and they only got 2 episodes. The plot was not as complex as I would like and relationships weren’t given enough time to sufficiently develop. It was alright and I’m still glad I got to see the EPICNESS that was season 2 and do recommend watching it all for that!

LIFE

• McDonald’s has released an iced coffee and I AM SO HAPPY!!! It is delicious!!
• Writing- I am at the point when I realise I have to change things because it is a mess but I also don’t want to let things go. But it will be better if I do. Also, I am doing some proper world-building because I hadn’t done any and I can’t believe I hadn’t done it sooner. But I am very EXCITED!!!
• I am currently very tired as well (which may or may not be shown in the editing of this post *laughs through tears*)

BLOG

I am going to be writing more reviews on Goodreads from now on so if you like my reviews follow/friend me on there as I hope to write most of my reviews there but some will still be on my blog!!

Blog Hopping:

• Brianna @ Brianna the Bookworm shared some books which had good mental health representation. It is a wonderful list with lots of great books. She also included a quote from each one which I loved.
• Micheala @ A Novel Idea did a Hogwarts house book tag which had some great questions and she wrote really in-depth answers which were really interesting to read.
• Lauren @ Twenty Seven Letters did a post all about her experience at BEA and Bookcon (Yes I am currently looking at everyone there and wanting to be there myself). I loved reading about her experience with some amazing authors and she provided some great tips which I definitely would use if I am ever lucky enough to attend.
• Ally @ Ally Writes Things wrote a post talking about the different type of reviewers and it was amazing!! You can definitely see the different types and she wrote in a humorous way and it was great to see which one you were. I think I was the thorough reviewer because all my reviews on basically over 1000 word!!!!
• Fadwa @ Word Wonders wrote a lovely post talking about whether heavy topics should be in Young Adult books and she wrote it so perfectly and I 100% agree with her.
• CW @ The Quiet Pond wrote about how to read more diverse books and why it is important. It was a brilliant post and has lots of helpful tips and resources to have diversify your reads.
• Nyx @ Drizzle and Hurricane books did the perfect book tag where she talked about different things that would make a book perfect for her– from boyfriend to genre to family to ending. It is a really fun tag and I loved reading her answers.
• Rain @ bookdragonism did a Edelweiss tips and tricks post and I have never used Edelweiss so this was really helpful to read and so useful if you want to know more about getting involved with requesting arcs off Edelweiss. It was a great post.
• Malka @ Paper Procrastinators did a post about the struggles of reviewing and I could definitely relate to this– I think reviews take the longest to write and it can be hard to find the right words and sometimes my poor memory doesn’t help with this. It was a great post and you should absolutely check it out.
• Divine @ Rea(d)ivine did a post about amazing book covers and their artists and WOW so many pretty covers and she gives the incredible artists credit which they more than deserve so it was great to read.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my month. And thank you for all the support and love you have given me— it really means a lot and I can’t thank you all enough <3!!

Also this week of June (03/06), I am going on holiday for a week so my posts are up as normal but I won’t be around that much to blog hop or reply to comments. I will be back on the weekend so I will catch up then. I’m so sorry I will be slightly absent but it’s not for too long!!

As always, I wish you an AMAZING June and happy reading. Also happy pride month!! ❤

 

Tell me about your month, What did you think to Game of Thrones? What was your favourite book you read?

Do you love iced coffee as much as me? (I think it is one of my favourite things ever)

Have many unread books do you have on your bookshelf?