Monthly Recaps

JUNE RECAP // pride reads, end of semester, profile photo change, movie watching & fave blog posts

July 9, 2020 / 26 Comments

Hi hello there friends

I keep doing these saying I’m trying to be on time and then I never do and it is an… endless cycle.

Seriously, I need to stop making broken promises.

Anyways, some fun things happened in June so let’s just get into it

I didn’t have the most amazing June in terms of new faves, but I nonetheless enjoyed mostly (we’ll get into that later) all of the books that I read!

Pride by Ibi Zoboi {★★★½☆}: what a delightful book oh my gosh. I stayed up until like 4 am reading this because I was enjoying it so much. I haven’t read Pride & Prejudice, only seen the film, but I loved this twist on the story and thought it was very well done. I definitely need to go and read all of this author’s backlist now too because I just really enjoyed her narrative and lyrical voice. The romance was sweet, although frustrating at times ahhh, and I LOVED the sister dynamics. I loved how Zuri could stand her ground. I do think this book could’ve been longer for character development but I also do like how short it was? Anyways, a fun time and I definitely recommend <3 GR review here!

✎

Children of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi {★★★½☆}: askljshf I FINALLY READ THIS FREAKING BOOK!!!! It took me WAY too long and I’m glad I could finally knock a book off my 2020 tbr. This book was,,, a WILD FREAKING RIDE. It’s like 500 pages and I read it in the span of a few days because I was so invested. I’m now OBESSED with Tomi Adeyemi too and will read everything she writes hehe. I have a whole review up so I’ll just send you over there. But oh boy did I have a lot of ~ EMOTIONS ~ welp. Click here

✎

Sea Star Summer by Sally Partridge {★★★☆☆}: this book… wow again a lot of emotions. It’s by a local South African author and set at a beach that I’ve BEEN too which was very exciting. I loved the f/f romance, they were so wholesome. And I was thoroughly impressed with it. I do wish it was longer and I felt that sometimes there was a bit too much SA slang, but apart from that, it was a really loveable story and I’m glad that I read it. Full GR review here.

✎

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston {★★★★★}: I don’t need to say much here, I was dumb and reread it. Because I have ABSOLUTELY no self-control. All I’ll say is NEW APPRECIATION for Nora and also the writing style. This book was amazing as ever GO READ IT!!

Take A Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert {★★★½☆}: did I stay up until midnight waiting for this book to release? Indeed I did. Am I mad about it? No, I am not. Wow, I loved this book so much more than I did Chloe Brown and I think it’s because the set-up is way more my thing, concerning what I look for in an adult romance. Also now obsessed with Talia, she’s so adorable! I LOVED the romance in this one, although sometimes very dramatic omg. They also experienced as many emotions as I did. I loved the premise and the banter and how the romance progressed. I loved all the sub-plots and also Zafir’s family. As well as how diverse it is, Dani is black, bisexual and plus-size and Zafir is a non-practising Muslim with anxiety (who reads romance novels omg love to see it). Such a great read *insert heart eyes* GR review here.

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Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye {★★★½☆}: and here is ANOTHER book by a South African author!! We be winning. Ugh, this book was like a WARM HUG. I really enjoyed it. I thought the romance was cute and I loved how healthy and wholesome the two of them were. I did, however, not find the writing anything special and also did not like the bi-erasure going on there. It was only mentioned once and should’ve been clarified. But apart from that, I loved the funny dialogue and again ROMANCE, those two boys gave me all the feels *insert yet more heart eyes* Click here for my GR review!

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Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzalez {★★☆☆☆}: sksksks BIGGEST FREAKING DISAPPOINTMENT unfortunately…. I,,, did not like this one. Idk it might just be me because the reviews are all quite high. But I didn’t like writing, the characters were meh and I didn’t like basically any of them. The romance didn’t have any chemistry, plus they were kinda toxic. There was fat-shaming going on and I was just not a fan and really disliked. AH, I’m so mad because I was so highly anticipating it *sighs* more in GR here.

Because this post is late I have actually already read THREE books so far!! Granted one was very short and the other I’d been reading all of June but STILL *happy dance*

  • The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (The Topping The TBR book club pick)
  • The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
  • Call Down The Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
  • The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune
  • Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee
  • Frankly In Love by David Yoon
  • People Like Us by Dana Mele

Big thanks to Penguin Books South Africa for the copies of Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi and Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee.

And to NB Publishers and the author for Sea Star Summer by Sally Partridge for having me on the bookstagram tour.

So I’m introducing something new to my blog’s monthly recaps and it’s something I should’ve done ages ago, but I’ve recently got super into blog hopping and I’m trying my hardest to keep up to date. And I want to shoutout all the amazing blogger’s posts that are basically all GENIUS so here are my favourite posts!

 

So I think I’m slowly getting back into watching movies because I watched a whole bunch this month.

I rewatched The Princess & The Frog (I’ve been watching a lot of animation) and really loved it. We don’t like how they were frogs basically the entire movie. Nope. But I really loved the story and the romance. It was just VERY sweet and such a great twist on the story.

I rewatched a fave, She’s The Man, which I’ll always love.

As well as FINALLY getting to Spies In Disguise which eeekkk LOVED LOVED LOVED IT. You HAVE to watch it. The same thing as P&TF, Will Smith should NOT have been a pigeon as much as he was but I loved his and Tom Holland’s dynamic. Iconic duo. The story,,, had some strange jokes. But I loved it all the same and thought the story was genius. It just reminded me why I love animation so much and gave me ALL The Incredibles vibes, which is one of my all-time favourite movies. I just had an inkling this film was going to be brilliant and it was. Ruby, a psychic, confirmed.

And I also finally watched One Day which, um, was not expecting THAT. Not going to say much except that I didn’t care much about the movie until the END. Emotions. Beautiful score btw.

I FINISHED MY FIRST YEAR UNIVERSITY SEMESTER!! It got CRAZY busy near the end and I had a ton of assignments due. But am so glad that I’m done and that it’s mid-year vacation, because jeez was it a lot.

Also, it happened in July, but I STARTED A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!! Well, a booktube channel but it did happen and I wanna self-plug. See my previous post below xx

WHAT DID YOU GET UP TO IN JUNE? WHAT BOOKS DID YOU READ? WHICH WAS YOUR FAVOURITE? WHAT ELSE DID YOU DO? I’D LOVE TO KNOW!

xo

Hi, I'm Ruby: chaotic mood reader, aspiring writer and lover of movies. If you want to know more, feel free to peruse xx

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26 Comments

  • Margaret @ Weird Zeal

    July 9, 2020 at 9:34 pm Reply

    Rereading Red White and Royal Blue sounds like a fantastic idea. I may have to do that myself soon…
    So glad to hear you enjoyed Take a Hint, Dani Brown!! I’m very excited to get to that 😀 And ahhh I hope you love The Starless Sea and Call Down the Hawk!! They were both among my favorites of last year. Good luck with your tbr, and happy reading in July!

  • youneedtoreadthesebooks

    July 10, 2020 at 3:13 am Reply

    I’m so excited to get to some of the books you talked about! Looks like you had a pretty decent reading month. Also, I love the inclusion of other bloggers posts! Such a lovely idea, and I’ll definitely be checking some of them out 🙂

  • Kay @ Hammock of Books

    July 10, 2020 at 3:53 am Reply

    Congrats on finishing the year of university and creating a book tube channel! Ahh now that you mention it I want to reread RWRB… and wish that’s what America was like right now lmao. I rewatched Princess and the Frog too because Disney announced they’re retheming Splash Mountain and ahhh it was amazing the music is phenomenal Tiana is my queen (who shouldn’t have spent the whole movie as a frog) I just love it <3 hope you're having a great July <3

    • Ruby Rae Reads

      July 10, 2020 at 1:26 pm Reply

      Thank you Kay! Well I still have one more semester but still, feels like I’m done hehe.

      I freaking wish that we lived in RW&RB welp… I heard about Splash Mountain, which is amazing. But sksksk SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A FROG! Damn Disney

  • Jessica C Writes

    July 10, 2020 at 8:27 pm Reply

    Ahh I can’t wait to read Dani Brown!! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it more than the first book. Also, I can’t wait for you to read The Starless Sea (aka my favorite book of all time). Wishing you the most incredible july 🥰

    • Ruby Rae Reads

      July 10, 2020 at 8:30 pm Reply

      Ah Jessica, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!! Okay now I’m even MORE excited about The Starless Sea if its your FAVE book hehe. Thank you, right back at ya ❤️

  • Olivia @ Purely Olivia

    July 10, 2020 at 10:07 pm Reply

    Yay, congrats on finishing your semester!! I hope you’re enjoying a lot of relaxation at the moment and having a great July so far.💛 This wrap-up was so much fun to read and I loved reading all your thoughts on all the books- this reminds me that I need to read Pride, as I do love Pride & Prejudice (though I have yet to see the movie ahh what I should do that soon!), and that possibly a reread of RW&RB should be in my future too.

    Good luck with everything in July and I hope it goes amazing! Also, I love all your pictures in this post too. xx

    • Ruby Rae Reads

      July 10, 2020 at 10:36 pm Reply

      Thank YOU Olivia for this kind comment.

      Oooh if you do read Pride, would LOVE to know yo thoughts!! I’m also not a great influence bc I will DEFINITELY encourage you to reread RW&RB…

      … oh well hehe

  • May @ Forever and Everly

    July 11, 2020 at 1:03 am Reply

    ahh so many congrats on finishing your first university semester, that’s so exciting!! <3 i'm super excited to do my reread of red, white & royal blue — that book boosts my serotonin so much lmao. and i've been hearing great things about talia hibbert's books for the longest time so i'm excited to get to them and i'm glad you liked dani brown! thank you so much for linking to my post and i hope you have a great july <3

    • Ruby Rae Reads

      July 11, 2020 at 1:08 am Reply

      Thank you May!! I shall be a bad influence and not not encourage you to reread welp. If you do read Talia Hibbert, I’d be very interested to see what you think and they’d be your thing 😉

  • Nimika @ wordhaven

    July 11, 2020 at 12:10 pm Reply

    i shall give you a 🎉for finishing the uni sem! my freshmen year just got over and let me tell u, i feel homesick for college (im surprised too lmao)

    sometimes books miss my radar and i am so glad i came across Pride on this post b/c it looks and sounds absolutely SMASHING.

    high five on rereading rw&rb, it just be like that. i would absolutely reread it right now AGAIN. smh @ me

    that COVER of anna k, i am in LOVE. i want that copy in my very two hands and i want to take a million pictures.

    one day!!!! i’ve always been meaning to watch that movie and i never do b/c i think it has a sad ending???? my already fragile heart cant take it

    thank you for the shout out, mate, i’m so honoured to be featured on this amazing blog 😭 i can’t wait to constantly stalk your posts <3

    • Ruby Rae Reads

      July 11, 2020 at 1:39 pm Reply

      omg yay for you finishing too!! I,,, like being at home tbh hehe

      oooohhh yes Pride. It’s just such a FUN book, good for smiles and happy feeling ya know? I’m also a terrible influence bc I would 1000% NOT stop you from rereading welp.

      BOTH covers of Anna K are so stunning though?!?! CANT DEAL

      also,,, hmmm,,, idk I shan’t spoil one day bc me no knowing about THAT ENDING made the movie good for me lmao. But I shall say it is UNEXPECTED. Just,,, WATCH IT. Then dm me haha

      thank YOU for being so kind and SO GLAD to have found your blog too. I shall go forth and do MORE stalking <3

  • Amy P

    July 27, 2020 at 9:28 pm Reply

    I love your blog so much! Thanks for sharing all kinds of recommendations/reviews and just daily life musings with your readers. Thanks to social distancing I can read more (lol). It’s nice to be able to check in with my favorite bloggers too! In June I read the BEST rockstar romance book called “Endless” by author Kaylene Winter. I am always ALWAYS a sucker for a guy with a “tortured” past who actually is sweet and wonderful once you know the REAL him… I can’t help it! Why do I like damaged goods? The premise of this book is that Ty is the “bad boy” rock star who falls in love with Zoey “good girl – good student – exact opposite of Ty” ….They have a whirlwind romance that leads to Zoey ghosting him because she wants to be a lawyer and knows she has to focus on school, etc. Fast forward to their reunion and all the drama that ensues. I don’t want to give too much away but I could NOT put this book down and I loved both characters (which is rare… I usual like the guy more)… You can read more about it on the author’s website. I really hope you will check it out https://rockerromance.com/
    HAPPY READING 

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