Weekly Wrap Up | July 14, 2019

Posted July 14, 2019 by Kaity in Bookish Memes, Wrap Up / 1 Comment

Welcome to my Weekly Wrap Up post! I link these posts up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimberly over at Caffeinated Reviewer, and Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews and Marlene at Reading Reality. For my Weekly Wrap Ups, I’ll recap what I posted, read, and watched this week, plus I’ll let you know about any current giveaways I have up. I’ll also tell you about recent updates on my TBR and new books I received and/or bought. Okay, time to see what happened this week!

On the Blog

I didn’t post last week’s wrap up (thanks endo), or really any other posts that weren’t already scheduled. But this week I will do better! So this week is a recap of the last two weeks. Probably the most noticeable thing on the blog is that I changed parts of the design! (again!) The colors are more obvious in all of the posts (and they have gradients!!!), I changed my canva image (seriously, love canva), I made my own post divider!!!, and I added a second layer behind all the typography so it ~pops~ more! Let me know what you think of everything in the comments!

Off the Blog

Last Week

I had a very nice mini-vacation this week! I worked my normal day Monday, half a day Tuesday, and then I’ve been at home ever since! Well, not just at home. I’ve actually been a few places this week! Like the movies! And the grocery store! (okay, that one wasn’t as exciting)
It’s also period week, which suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. And having endometriosis does not make it better.

This Week

I had a weird week? Like I was super productive at work (yay!) but I didn’t get much reading or blog stuff done. Hopefully this week I’ll be productive at work and personal stuff!

Currently Reading/Listening To: No Place Like Here by Christina June. I’ll have a review coming in a couple of weeks, and so far I am LOVING this book! It’s a retelling of Hansel and Gretel and I am just really impressed with how well it’s going so far! I’m at 44% as of right now, but I’ll probably read more before I go to sleep tonight. I ended up shelving Truly, Madly, Royally as a ‘come-back-to’ book because the book and I just weren’t meshing well. But I do hope to come back to it someday!

Currently Listening To: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan, read by Christopher Guetig. It’s definitely different after listening to the same narrator for all three Apollo books, but I’m glad I get to stick in the Riordan-‘Verse for a little longer!

Just Finished Reading: There’s nothing to put here this week because I DNF’d Truly, Madly, Royally. Oops.

Just Finished Listening To: The Trials of Apollo: The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan, read by Robbie Daymond. I really loved listening to all of these books on audio, Robbie Daymond does a fantastic job! I can’t wait until September to listen to the next one!!!

Books: Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry is the next book on my list! And then I have time for maybe one more quick book before it’s time for N.E.W.T.s in August, which I finished my TBR for already! So look forward to that post coming soon!

Audiobooks: I’m planning on sticking to Magnus Chase for a while. Read all three books, plus the two novella type stories. Not sure what I’ll listen to after that.

Recent ARCs

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby

When Frankie’s mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary—just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That’s why Frankie’s not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket.Now Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans—two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.
And as the embers of the Great Depression are kindled into the fires of World War II, and the shadows of injustice, poverty, and death walk the streets in broad daylight, it will be up to Frankie to find something worth holding on to in the ruins of this shattered America—every minute of every day spent wondering if the life she’s able to carve out will be enough.

The Undoing of Thistle Tate by Katelyn Detweiler

Thistle Tate is a glittering wunderkind–only seventeen, and a bestselling author of the wildly successful Lemonade Skies series, with the highly anticipated final book due to publish next year. She has diehard fans across the globe, flashy tours, and steep advances. And now she’s finally started to date her best friend and next-door-neighbor, Liam, the only one who knows her deep dark secret: she’s not the real author of the Lemonade Skies books.Thistle’s guilt about lying intensifies after she meets the surprisingly charming Oliver, who introduces her to his super-fan little sister–but how can she have friendships based on deception? All she wants is for this last book to be written so she can be done with the ruse for good.
Then with just two weeks left to deliver the manuscript to her agent and editor, a dramatic turn of events puts everything in jeopardy, and Thistle must grapple with her own identity. Is she a victim, a fraudster, or both? On top of that, Liam is increasingly jealous of Thistle’s budding friendship with Oliver–a friendship that leaves Thistle more than a little confused about her own heart.

As the book deadline looms closer, the stakes ever higher, a startling family truth comes to light, and it’s only a matter of time before something gives–and Thistle’s world becomes undone.

The Liar’s Daughter by Megan Cooley Peterson

Seventeen-year-old Piper knows that Father is a Prophet. Infallible. The chosen one.She would do anything for Father. That’s why she takes care of all her little sisters. That’s why she runs end-of-the-world drills. That’s why she never asks questions. Because Father knows best.
Until the day he doesn’t. Until the day the government raids the compound and separates Piper from her siblings, from Mother, from the Aunts, from all of Father’s followers–even from Caspian, the boy she loves.

Now Piper is living Outside. Among Them.

With a woman They claim is her real mother–a woman They say Father stole her from.

But Piper knows better. And Piper is going to escape.

Recent Kindle Books

The Strangers (Greystone Secrets #1) by Margaret Peterson Haddix

What makes you you?The Greystone kids thought they knew. Chess has always been the protector over his younger siblings, Emma loves math, and Finn does what Finn does best—acting silly and being adored. They’ve been a happy family, just the three of them and their mom.
But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children—who share the same first and middle names, ages, and exact birth dates as the Greystone kids—reach the Greystone family. This bizarre coincidence makes them wonder: Who exactly are these strangers? Before Chess, Emma, and Finn can question their mom about it, she takes off on a mysterious work trip. But puzzling clues left behind lead to complex codes, hidden rooms, and a dangerous secret that will turn their world upside down.

It Started With Goodbye by Christina June

Sixteen-year-old Tatum Elsea is bracing for the worst summer of her life. After being falsely accused of a crime, she’s stuck under stepmother-imposed house arrest and her BFF’s gone ghost. Tatum fills her newfound free time with community service by day and working at her covert graphic design business at night (which includes trading emails with a cute cello-playing client). When Tatum discovers she’s not the only one in the house keeping secrets, she finds she has the chance to make amends with her family and friends. Equipped with a new perspective, and assisted by her feisty step-abuela-slash-fairy-godmother, Tatum is ready to start fresh and maybe even get her happy ending along the way.

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas

In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project—and future of time travel—in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team—erasing her contributions from history.Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: could it be Bee? Who would want her dead? And most importantly of all: can her murder be stopped?

Recent Misc. Books: I purchased an audiobook of No Place Like Here by Christina June on Google Books because I had a coupon for $5 off!

I usually end up doing a Top Ten Tuesday post on this once a month or so, but there weren’t any in June! So you get the six most recent books added to my #TBR (that have covers) today!

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life.Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.
Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?

The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess

In the summer of 1987, 25-year-old Eve Rosen is an aspiring writer languishing in a low-level assistant job, unable to shake the shadow of growing up with her brilliant brother. With her professional ambitions floundering, Eve jumps at the chance to attend an early summer gathering at the Cape Cod home of famed New Yorker writer Henry Grey and his poet wife, Tillie. Dazzled by the guests and her burgeoning crush on the hosts’ artistic son, Eve lands a new job as Henry Grey’s research assistant and an invitation to Henry and Tillie’s exclusive and famed “Book Party”— where attendees dress as literary characters. But by the night of the party, Eve discovers uncomfortable truths about her summer entanglements and understands that the literary world she so desperately wanted to be a part of is not at all what it seems.

Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

Zara Evans has come to the Aurelia Theater, home to the visionary director Leopold Henneman, to play her dream role in Echo and Ariston, the Greek tragedy that taught her everything she knows about love. When the director asks Zara to promise that she will have no outside commitments, no distractions, it’s easy to say yes. But it’s hard not to be distracted when there’s a death at the theater — and then another — especially when Zara doesn’t know if they’re accidents, or murder, or a curse that always comes in threes. It’s hard not to be distracted when assistant lighting director Eli Vasquez, a girl made of tattoos and abrupt laughs and every form of light, looks at Zara. It’s hard not to fall in love. In heart-achingly beautiful prose, Amy Rose Capetta has spun a mystery and a love story into an impossible, inevitable whole — and cast lantern light on two girls, finding each other on a stage set for tragedy.

The Degenerates by J. Albert Mann

The Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded is not a happy place. The young women who are already there certainly don’t think so. Not Maxine, who is doing everything she can to protect her younger sister Rose in an institution where vicious attendants and bullying older girls treat them as the morons, imbeciles, and idiots the doctors have deemed them to be. Not Alice, either, who was left there when her brother couldn’t bring himself to support a sister with a club foot. And not London, who has just been dragged there from the best foster situation she’s ever had, thanks to one unexpected, life altering moment. Each girl is determined to change her fate, no matter what it takes.

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

As a successful social media journalist with half a million followers, seventeen-year-old Cal is used to sharing his life online. But when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars, Cal and his family relocate from Brooklyn to Houston and are thrust into a media circus.Amidst the chaos, Cal meets sensitive and mysterious Leon, another “Astrokid,” and finds himself falling head over heels—fast. As the frenzy around the mission grows, so does their connection. But when secrets about the program are uncovered, Cal must find a way to reveal the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.

I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

For Angel Rahimi, life is only about one thing: The Ark – a pop-rock trio of teenage boys who are currently taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark’s fandom has given her everything – her friendships, her dreams, her place in the world.Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark too. He’s their frontman – and playing in a band is all he’s ever dreamed of doing. It’s just a shame that recently everything in his life seems to have turned into a bit of a nightmare.
Because that’s the problem with dreaming – eventually, inevitably, real life arrives with a wake-up call. And when Angel and Jimmy are unexpectedly thrust together, they will discover just how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be.

I’m all caught up on Jane the Virgin!!! Which is great, because I’m pretty sure I’m so far behind on The Bold Type that the season is already over. Oops. The other day I started watching Mr. Iglesias on Netflix, and that’s a funny show. It reminds me a lot of One Day at a Time in that it captures real life in a funny way.

The giveaways widget is always the most current and accurate way to tell what giveaways you can find on my blog, but since you’re here…

So that’s everything! What have you been up to this week? Anything important happen? Did you have any posts that didn’t get a lot of attention this week? I’d love to check them out! Leave your links in the mister linky below and don’t forget to have a splendiferous week!