SEPTEMBER RECAP // a month of adult romance, book mail, tv shows, essays & finally listening to evermore!!

Uni kicked me in the butt yet again but hey, at least I read 4 books!

Living my bestest life… not. But actually yes.

Let’s get into it!

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It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover {★★★★☆}: It’s been a hot second since I read this book because I think I finished it the very first day of September. I also didn’t plan on ever reading it, as I was under the impression that this author was problematic, not sure where it came from. Anyways, as you can tell by the rating, I enjoyed this book HOWEVER I want to place a heavy emphasis on how incorrectly marketed it is. The BookTok girlies are shouting about this being a fun NA romance when IT IS NOT!!!! Trigger warnings are not a spoiler and this book is about being in an abusive relationship, so please be aware of this before you go into it. Idk maybe I’ll do a full review for this book because there’s a lot to say and talk about. More thoughts in my GR review here.

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Marriage For One by Ella Maise {★★★★☆}: Wowee colour me suprised because I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH WTH?!?!?! If you read last month’s recap, you saw I read a different book by this author and gave it 2 stars. She was not it. But for some reason, I caved and decided to just give this one a go. To be honest, she has 4.5 star potential, but I’m ultimately giving it 4 stars because the writing could be better. But aside from that, I just had the best time with this book. I haven’t been so excited to just return to my book because of all the happy feelings in a while. Absolutely loved the romance in this book, it was so special and definitely my kind of slow-burn. Highly recommend this one for a stunning time. Gushed more in my GR review!

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The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood {★★★★☆}: Someone needs to kick me off TikTok honestly because I just keep caving and my physical TBR is unhappy about it. Anyways, I was extremely excited to read this book and was counting down the days till it came out. Then I literally read the whole book in like a sitting. First time ever that Ruby has started and finished an entire book in an afternoon and IM LOWKEY PROUD OF MYSELF. This was such an addictive read and I throughly enjoyed the reading experience. I do however think I need to read it again because I wasn’t in the right headspace and it has the potential to be rated slightly higher. Loved the characters and the writing. I thought the dynamic between the love interests was brilliant, but I did want a more fleshed out ending and needed more from it. GR review here!

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The Risk by Elle Kennedy {★★★★½}: Agshdyhogbdhth I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! I’m seriously stunned and simultaneously very glad I’ve found an Elle Kennedy book that I can recommend with my whole heart. This book just did things for me that the two others I’ve read have not. I’m literally inserting myself into Brenna and Jake’s relationship because I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE *insert heart eyes*. Just listen, this book has bad girl trope, sports romance, enemies to lovers, fake dating (kinda) and forbidden love as it’s between the coach’s daughter and the rival team’s captain. I just adored this book so much and I’m living my best life. I was bad at accumulating thoughts but click here for my GR review <3<3

The kindest people over at Pan Macmillan SA sent me:

• The Heartstopper Colouring Book by Alice Oseman
• Sistersong by Lucy Holland

Huge thanks to Jonathan Ball Publishers for the stunning PR package to celebrate:

• Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

And to Penguin Random House SA for sending a physical copy of:

• The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

Went a bit wild last month oops:

• Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater
• Soul Tourists by Bernadine Evaristo
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Vanilla by Billy Merrell
• Listen To Your Heart by Kasie West
• Love Songs for Sceptics by Christina Pishiris
• Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane
• Mrs Dalloway by Viriginia Woolf
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Click to go to post

Eeep I FINALLY DID IT!!! Please, round of applause to me, because I finally got off my ass and listened to evermore from the one and only Taylor Swift. If you’re mentally slapping me across the face, keep going, I give you permission. I seriously am stupid for waiting this long and I deserve the reprimand. I thought I’d fall in love with this album and fall in love I did. I go through stages with music, especially with entire albums. I can find something and listen to it on repeat for weeks straight, and then one of two things happen. I either grow slightly tired of it after a while, not hate it or anything but just not love it as much OR I’ll stop listening and when I hear it again, I’ll be re-obsessed. Anyways, I loved folklore when it came out but I have since found that I only love a select few and I don’t listen to it as much. However, so far I haven’t grown out of this and I have quite the list of FAVOURITE songs.

Here’s a list (from fave-fave downwards idk words):

1. gold rush
2. right where you left me
3. no body, no crime
4. willow
5. champagne problems
6. marjorie
7. long story short
8. ivy

STUNNING STUNNING STUNNING. It’ll be a thousand years late and I think I’ve been tagged to do 2 separate tags but hopefully book tag coming at some point in the future *wink wink*

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I mentioned a couple of recaps ago that I was watching Sex and The City, not entirely sure when and I’m too lazy to check. It became my Friday ritual to watch a couple episodes with a pizza, and I have absolutely no explanation. Anyways, I kept on with this and was feeling fairly similar: I got it but I didn’t really connect with it. However, as soon as we hit Season 4, I was lowkey loving. It’s not a new fave but I just absolutely love the female friendships and the heart of the show really stood out to me. It was just a sudden shift. As I write this, I’ve actually finished the show so I may as well wrap up my overall thoughts in this recap. Which are: I enjoyed my time with this, Miranda is 100% my favourite character. I’ve liked Charlotte and Samantha somewhat and I’m mixed about Carrie. I’ve seen some reviews saying that the friend group only talked about relationships which I don’t agree with, and I was lowkey ready to agree with that statement, to be very honest. Maybe more thoughts when I watch the films because I kind of want to. I also literally just googled it the other day and, low and behold, I see on the news that they’ve just announced another reboot. A sign from the universe mayhaps

I didn’t watch all that many films last month apart from a couple for Film class, which I don’t think are that worthy of noting. Though I did watch Pretty Woman for the first time, which was average. Also watched this random movie called This Is Where I Leave You on Netflix which actually surprised me and I loved the sibling representation. Finally, I rewatched Fantastic Mr. Fox and Monte Carlo, which were both super fun.

As you can tell by my exponentially decreased amount of reading compared to my last recap, I was very preoccupied last month. This was because I was reading academic papers and trying to stay afloat with essays. I managed okay and my grades turned out well, so I’m happy with that. I’m doing a lot better academically at the moment and I’m feeling a lot more myself than I have in a while.

We went on a little holiday at the end of the month (which has branched into October but oh well we’ll talk about it now). My family and I went to a game park for a few days and it was such a stunning time. I saw giraffes for the first time and also had a very special encounter with the lions, as well as zebra and various other game animals. Anyways, I’ve been doing really well and I’m hoping it stays like this <3<3<3 Hope you’re all doing well, and if not that’s okay, you’ll get there.

WHAT DID YOU GET UP TO IN SEPTEMBER? WHAT DID YOU READ? WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE READ? HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THE ONES I TALKED ABOUT? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON EVERMORE? OR SEX AND THE CITY? LET ME KNOW!