July Highlights

HELLLOOOOOOOO, MY FANTABULOUS BOOK DRAGONS.

July! Things happened! Many beauuutiful things! One of which was the awesomeness that is Realm Makers. 😍

Why can't #RealmMakers2017 just be school? Because tbh I would adore school if that were the case. 😭 😍

— Liv K. Fisher (@oliviakimwrites) August 1, 2017

(Seriously, though. ^^ )

Since Realm Makers was such a bright and shiny and overall HUGE, I decided that it needed its own post (which you can read here once you're all done with this one 😉). A few of my usual Highlights will be hanging out over there, too! (So you basically have to read it, so you can get the full Highlights experience. And because you should totally be jealous. 😛)

READING CORNER

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1. A Wish Made of Glass by Ashlee Willis. ZIS BOOK, MY FRENZ. Ashlee has such a gift for words! Like, SERIOUSLY. It was as if each line were drawn directly from a poem! Ashlee = my new favorite author. NOW GO READ THIS GEM.

2. Ending Fear by Deanna Fugett. WOWSERS. First off, reading this book was such an epic experience! AND I got to meet Deanna at Realm Makers, and she's such a sweetheart! 💜 GO READ THIS BOOK. You need it in your life!

3. Snow White by Matt Phelan. This was a rather light, straightforward Snow White retelling set during the Great Depression -- and told graphic-novel-style. I enjoyed it, and it pretty much made for a one-sitting read. 🙂

4. The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doué. I did not expect to love this book quite as much as I did. It was so adventurous and romantic! I think this is one of my new favorite Twelve Dancing Princesses retellings, right up there with Wildwood Dancing and A Branch of Silver, a Branch of Gold.

5. Shadow of the Queen by Daniel T. Thompson, Corinna Sara Bechko, Mike Henderson, Stephanie Hans, Vasilis Lolos, and Mike del Mundo. I hate to say it, but this was kind of a "meh" read. I managed to do it all in one sitting, buuuut... it was definitely not a story I enjoyed. I was bored by the end of the first chapter. But I did finish it, and so there's one more book added to my Goodreads challenge!

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6. Dragon Lyric by Bethany A. Jennings. Gaaaaaaahhhh!!!!! I LOVED THIS BOOK TO PIECES. eroowbonfk frw owf;npfpn Bethannnnnyyy, YOU ARE SO AMAZING. 😍 (BTW Dragons, I met Bethany at Realm Makers, too! She's SSSOOOO sweet and kind! 💙)

7. The Little Seed Carrier by Bethany A. Jennings. This was technically an August read, but since it's well into August, I'm sharing it anyway! This book was a short story I got to beta-read earlier this week. I don't want to share too much about it since it isn't out yet, but just know that Bethany is a writing master and probably secretly a ninja, too! When The Little Seed Carrier releases, GO BUY IT.

8. Maid of the King's Court by Lucy Worsley. I hate to hate on a book, but this was a ginormous "no" for me. I read it. I finished it -- all of it. There didn't seem to be much of a plotline, but besides that, there were some things... They were never onscreen, technically, but I was seriously not a fan. I suppose the fault lays on me for picking it up in the first place, though; I mean, when the synopsis brings up Henry VIII? Yeah, not my best idea. Still, at least I got to read some fantastic books earlier in the month!

BOOK HAUL

Poor love interest! The light fell just where we
can't see his face! Oh well. It still turned out better
than my first picture attempts, in which the
protagonist's face was lost to the world. 😜

1. From Goodwill, Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke.

2. From a giveaway, the sequel to The Firethorn Crown -- Lea Doué's The Midsummer Captives. 😊

3. From another giveaway, Ashen City by Sara Baysinger. Though I've yet to read it, I purchased Black Tiger on kindle during one of its freebie days. This looks like a fantastic series, and I've heard such wonderful things about it! 🙂

Sara's covers are so photogenic! 😻

4. Caraval by Stephanie Garber. I've been drooling over the hardcover of this for so, so long, and then while my parents and I were in Sacramento on the way to Realm Makers, a family friend gave me a hardcover. AND SHE KNOWS THE AUTHOR'S FAMILY. #awesomesauce

5. The Lady & the Lionheart by Joanne Bischof. This book's been high on my to-read list since before it released, so when I came home from Realm Makers to find the kindle edition on sale, I snatched it up straightaway!

THAT COVER. 😍

6. Waterfall by Lisa Tawn Bergren. After much drooling and telling myself I shouldn't, then discovering an Amazon gift card I'd been given, I finally gave in and bought it. I seriously love the premise of this story! A girl who falls back in time only to suddenly meet her true love? UM, YES. MY ROMANTIC HEART MUST READ THIS.

7. Hidden Pearls by Hayden Wand. *cues Weird Al's voice* It looked at me... and I looked at it! And it looked at me... AND I LOOKED AT IT! *clears throat* And then I reasoned that, hey, it counts as research for Because of Midnight Poison, riiight? I mean, it is a Hayden Wand novel! Why wouldn't I read it? 😀

WRITING DESK

Last month, I described myself as "preparing ferociously for Camp NaNoWriMo". Um, yeah. That didn't happen. "Ferociously unprepared", more like! But thankfully, Realm Makers gave me the hard shove extra boost I needed. 😁

August goals:

• Mentally relax and finish that pesky li'l Because of Midnight Poison outline
• Maybe even properly start the first draft?

~

*hopes she remembered everything that happened during July because she is tired and feeling scatterbrained and SHE HONESTLY CAN'T REMEMBER ALL THE THINGS*

My dear Dragons, how did you fair, this July? Did you do Camp NaNoWriMo? Did you meet your goal?

❤,