Monthly Wrap Up: July 2020

Hello everyone! Welcome to my wrap up for the month of July! I can’t believe the year is going so fast. In the blink of an eye we’ll already be in Christmas and… I don’t have a freaking clue of how that’s going to be like this year.

This month definitely improved for me when it comes to reading. I managed to read 6 books, 1938 pages in total. Out of those books, 4 were diverse in some type of way. Without further ado, let’s begin!

Books I read this month

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-García (ARC)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

When I was in my reading slump, this one right here saved the day for me. Mexican Gothic will have you at the edge of your seat at all times, give you goosebumps and get invested in a twisted family history. The main character, Noemí, was amazing and I looked up to her from the very beginning. We love to see a strong, determined and classy Latina trying to save her cousin from the claws of evil. You can read my full review here.

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

In the light of recent events regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, I’ve been trying to include more books by Black authors in my reading, and including a non-fiction book was necessary. Fiction is always amazing but we need to read and/or see a story that actually happened to someone out there in order to have a better understanding of what’s going on. I got invested in Channing Brown’s story from the very first pages, when she tells us how nobody really believed that was her name because her parents gave her the name of a white man. She tells us how she has faced racism in her school and job, and it’s bold, inspiring and raw. This is a very good book on not only racism but also feminism and I encourage everyone to read it now.

Beach Read by Emily Henry (ARC)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

This book was definitely and absolutely NOT what I was expecting. While I thought I’d just read a fluffy romance about two writers, I got way much more. Emily Henry gives us a very hard-hitting story that addresses grief, illness and death, but also divorce and how all of those things can affect people more than they let on. It was a very pleasant surprise and now one of my favorite contemporary romances of all times. Read my full review here.

Mayhem by Estelle Laure (ARC)

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Okay… I’ll do things a little different for this book. Here’s what I liked: it was set in the 80s, it had good flashbacks that helped improve the story, it was addressing a hard topic as abuse is. But that’s about it.

Mayhem was a very confusing book. I already forgot most of the events that happened, most of the time I didn’t even know what was going on and the pace was awful in my opinion. For my personal taste, I like books that build up tension until you have a good plotwist near the end, and this was just a handful of confusing scenes for me. Mayhem’s character didn’t have any development, her mother Roxy was far from a mother figure and more a problem for the book and… ugh. I don’t know, maybe it was me and the slow pace was a HUGE turn-off, but I didn’t enjoy this book.

I’ll Be The One by Lyla Lee

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

THE BOOK OF THE MONTH!!! One day I just clicked on my e-book of I’ll Be The One, read the first chapter, and didn’t stop until I finished the book. Without planning it at all, which is SO not like me to do, but it was the best decision I took.

This is a necessary book in literature. Not only Skye’s character is fantastic, but Henry and all the side characters were perfect too (except you know… those two villains). This book addresses fatphobia, bullying and queerphobia and has lots of kpop references. The character’s personalities were amazing; the talent competition involved had me VERY invested and the message of self-love and confidence that it has made a perfect combination. I can already tell this book is going to be one of my favorites of the year, and I can’t wait for the sequel!!

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

This was the Book of the Month for July in the Twisted Tales Book Club, and I couldn’t be happier about that choice! Cinderella Is Dead was a gripping and very creative retelling in which the author rips the original story to pieces to make a statement against oppression and the rules society has imposed on us. Not only the rep (Black and lesbian) was amazing, but the worldbuilding was awesome and the characters very well-written. The only reason this isn’t 5 stars for me is because the writing style lacked a little complexity for my taste, as well as Constance’s character development could’ve been better.

Posts

This month I did 9 posts, here are my three favorites:

• Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2020
• Taylor Swift’s Folklore Book Tag (original)
• 10 Upcoming Latinx Releases (Second Half of 2020)

Milestones

• I was nominated for the 2020 Book Blogger Awards! Some of these nominations came from the wonderful bloggers Leelynn, Rukky, Sofi, Umairah, and Kay. I couldn’t be more honored for these nominations so thank you to everyone who thought of me for these awards!
• The blog reached 500 followers! This is a huge milestone for me. When I started this blog I wouldn’t have dream of reaching that amount so quick, as the blog launched just in late March. Thank you to everyone who follows and reads my posts!
• I created my first original tag ever, based on folklore by Taylor Swift, which you can read here. I hope to do many more in the future!

August is going to be a very special month because some fellow bloggers and I are going to launch the secret project we’ve been working on for a couple months now! I’m very excited about it and I’m going to make an announcement post here on the blog so stay tuned 😉

Also, I’m going to participate in a readathon this month after not taking part in one for months, it’s the Diversify That Shelf readathon hosted by Noura from The Perks of Being Noura! (Read her announcement post here). I decided on this one because it allows me to read most of the books on my TBR. Here’s my possibility pile:

August has some AMAZING readathons that I highly suggest you to check out, such as:

• Latinx Readathon
• Folklore Readathon
• Tropeical Readathon

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That’s all for this post! What books did you read on July? What’s your most anticipated release of August? Let me know in the comments!