September Wrap Up – The one where college starts again and my schedule is suddenly a lot more full

Taking a little break from the blogger tips mini-series, here’s my wrap up of the month!

Don’t worry though, the blogger tips will be back next Sunday. Shh, don’t tell anyone. 

For some strange reason, this entire month I kept thinking we were halfway through October. It’s almost a relief we’ve reached October, just so that I’ll finally be right 😆

Plus, IT’S AUTUMN! *throws orange leaves in the air* Sure, it means from now until June next year I’ll be permanently cold, but oh well. Everything is cosy and pretty.

As always, this is going to be a long post, so get cosy and enjoy!

This month I read 7 books – the decline in reading pace since starting college is obvious straight away. But I’m still trundling on by.

There are a couple of books here I didn’t technically “read” this month, but the reviews went up this month and I didn’t know where else to put them. I’ll put little *note* on those ones just before the rating, explaining what I mean.

Six of Crows 

by Leigh Bardugo

Rated 4.5/5 stars – [Review]

I finally read Six of Crows! Can you believe it? And I loved it just as much as everyone else seems to 😀 I was so nervous that I wouldn’t, and I’d end up with a crowd of flaming pitchfork wielding fans running after me. But luckily, the pitchforks can remain tucked away.

I adored the characters in this, and really, that’s what made the entire books for me. And I still can’t get over how much Leigh Bardugo’s writing improved since the Grisha Trilogy!

Amazon | Goodreads

Replica

by Lauren Oliver

*Not read in September*

Rated 4/5 stars – [Review]

This one I didn’t actually read this month, I read it a couple of months ago…maybe in July? But the review has been sat waiting in my scheduled box for over 2 months now, and FINALLY it’s less than a month away from publish date – so my review is up!

I loved the idea of this being a flip book. I’ve never read a book like that. And it somehow made the reading experience so much more personal. You get to choose how you read it, and really – which side you start from can really change the story.

Amazon | Goodreads

Throne of Glass Colouring Book

by Sarah J Maas, Illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert, John Howe & Craig Phillips

*The final one technically not “read” in September…though I did USE it in September. You don’t really “read” a colouring book*

Rated 4.5/5 stars – [Review]

This is absolutely stunning, there’s no doubt about it. I can’t stop flicking through the pages and just fawning over all my beloved characters.

I’ve been using coloured pencils (normally I’d use felt tips) to colour the pages in, purely because I want to try my best at making the pictures as stunning as they can be. And I can’t shade with felt tips. Or get the right skin colours.

This will no doubt keep me amused for hours.

Amazon | Goodreads

Empire of Storms

by Sarah J Maas

Rated 5/5 stars – [Review]

OF COURSE this was going to be here. I’ve been waiting for this book for a year. I wasn’t waiting any longer.

This book damaged me. Killed me. Broke me. Whatever phrase you want to use. I cried for the last 100 pages or so just because so much was going on. If it was any other book, I probably wouldn’t have cried. But that’s how attached I am to this series.

It made me want to reread the entire series, not going to lie. I might make it a little mission of mine to reread a book a month, in preparation for the last book.

Amazon | Goodreads

Kids of Appetite

by David Arnold

Rated 3/5 stars – [Review]

I had mixed feelings about this one. I’m glad it was a really quick read, and it felt like it took me no time. It was fun, quirky…and yet the strangeness of it all just didn’t seem to sit well with me. I usually love oddities, but it wasn’t really needed in here.

Amazon | Goodreads

Persuasion

by Jane Austen

Rated 3/5 stars – [Review]

This was the Austentatious Book Club of the month, and I quite enjoyed it. Not as much as Pride & Prejudice, but enough to give it 3 stars. It was slow, and I had to use an audiobook to get me through it quicker. But I loved Anne’s character, and genuinely enjoyed reading about her life – especially with the classy -ness of the time period mixed in!

Amazon | Goodreads

Blue Sun

by Tracy Abrey

Rated 3/5 stars – [Review]

So this one was an interesting mix of science and folklore – and set in the Isle of Man! It was really quick and easy to read, and was on the sort of lighthearted side of YA fantasy. I had a bit of a problem with how quickly the relationships between characters changed, but it didn’t ruin it completely. Just made me eyes roll a bit.

Amazon | Goodreads

Naming the Stars

by Susan Koefod

Rated ???/5 stars – [Review coming on Monday]

I’ve gotten a lot of review books lately, and had to plan a reading schedule to fit them all in at appropriate times. I gave myself a week to read this, like with all my books…only to then realise it was just over 100 pages long and I finished it in a couple of hours 😆

Amazon | Goodreads 

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

by Ransom Riggs 

(REREAD)

Rated ???/5 stars – [Review coming on Friday]

I’d been planning to reread this for a while, since I got the last book in the trilogy a few months ago and completely forgot what happened in the first two books. So with the film release, now seemed the best time.

I still loved this book…but not quite as much as I used to. At the moment, it’s on my “favourites” shelf on Goodreads from 2013, but I think I need to remove it from there now. It just doesn’t fit with those books anymore, unfortunately. I DID still love it though.

Amazon | Goodreads 

I feel like this part is going to be really boring for you guys, purely because the books I’m reading are either going to be unheard of or classics. But oh well.

I’m still catching up on review books, so I’ll be reading Like A Dream by Shina James next. I actually can’t remember what this is about, but I tend to go into books blind so that’s no change.

But hey, it’s got a pretty cover, right?

---

I’m still (shamelessly) reading The Call of Cthulhu…I just keep forgetting to read it, honestly. I usually only read two books at the same time at most, but for some reason I started this classics collection of short stories EVEN THOUGH I knew I’d already be reading one Jane Austen book a month.

I AM enjoying it. Thanks to it being short stories, I can go back and forth to it whenever I want without forgetting the story. And with the gothic theme, I’m loving it even more.

---

And finally, the Austentatious book club book of the month is Northanger Abbey, so I’ll be starting that as soon as possible. Again, I don’t actually know what this one is about, but I’ve heard it has more of a gothic theme so I’M IN.

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, I love gothic books. I really need to read more of them, because right now my collection is limited. Very limited.

Run over posts from August

~ The story of how I really didn’t get along with the miserableness of Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding ~

~ August Book Haul – Probably the most random assortment of books I’ve gotten in a long time ~

Discussions

~ Let’s Talk: THE END. How important is it, actually? ~

 ~ Let’s Talk: Owning multiple copies of the same book – materialistic or helpful? ~

~ Let’s Talk: Is there a sense of pressure on book bloggers? ~

~ Let’s Talk: Which do you prefer – booktube or book blogs? ~

Bookish Reveals

~ Throne of Glass TV show news : My conflicting thoughts turned into incoherent psychobabble ~

Random

~ The Top 10 books I absolutely NEED to read before the end of 2016 comes around ~

~ Blogger Tips: Helping you frolic through your blogging life [Personal Edition] ~

~ Blogger Tips: Helping you frolic through your blogging life [Writing Edition] ~

Ahh, September. The time where I went back to college after a very long break.

There’s not much to say about it really. I know it’ll be the hardest year of education for me, but not necessarily because the work is hard. Just…on an anxiety level.

Oh yeah, that’s another thing. This month I managed to drag myself to the doctors – and I mean literally drag (and it wasn’t a smooth drag either) – only to be diagnosed with anxiety. So that’s a thing now. But it’s not social anxiety…it’s a bit hard to explain. Anyway, it’s making college a bit harder because we have to talk about University and stuff this year, which can be a huge problem for me.

Well, that got kinda deep. I promise I’m fine the majority of the time. Let’s just pass that now, shall we?

*HAPPIER THINGS*

September was the month my blog reached 500 followers! And I can’t believe I never said anything about it! I was planning on making a video to celebrate, but SO MANY THINGS WENT WRONG that I didn’t make it quick enough, and now the moment has passed. But THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE HERE FOR SUPPORTING ME AND MY LITTLE BLOG ❤

And guess what! The video is still going to be a thing! Instead, I’m hoping it’ll be up towards the end of October, this time for my 1 year blogiversary! An announcement will be up about it soon 🙂

And finally, I’m on a book buying ban. Which I don’t actually see as a bad thing. I’ll still be accepting books for review (if I get any requests once I’ve opened them again) & a couple of gifts are on their way to me (for actual reasons, not just random gifts), so you still might see me showing a new book every so often. But I really need to save my money towards gifts to other people – birthdays, Christmas etc – and it’ll take me a while so I’m starting now. At the moment though, I own so many books that are high priority on my TBR, so I won’t run out anytime soon if I don’t buy any. It’ll finally give me chance to catch up on some!

And thus ends the hugest ramble about a book buying ban ever. 

---

---

So there we have it! My month of September, all wrapped up!

Have you read any of the books I read in September? What did you think?

How many books did you read this month? Which was your favourite of the month?

Did you buy any new books? How many and which ones? (feel free to link your haul!)

Did any interesting events happen this month for you? Visit anywhere nice? 

What are you currently reading, going into the month of October?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

Come and visit me!

    

Bookish Snapchat : “frolic_fiction”