June has been a bit of an up and down month for me, where being stuck in my flat defintely negatively impacts my healthy eating habits. So after a lot of snacking, and a lot of coffee, I’ve somehow managed to be fairly productive when it comes to reading and blogging. So I thought a June Update might be in order.
Books Read in June
This month I managed to read three books in full, and all of them were on last months TBR list so I’m feeling quite happy with myself. It was fantasy heavy which I loved, but all very different kinds of fantasy. Night of the Dragon was a Japanese inspired fantasy world full of kitsune, yokai and warriors. Burn was set in an alternative real world that had dragons. Feathertide was a magical city upon canals where mermaids exist and our main character is covered in feathers.
Night of the Dragon
Julie Kagawa
(Affiliate Links)
Burn
Patrick Ness
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Feathertide
Beth Cartwright
(Affiliate Links)
On top of this, I did read the start of 20 different fantasy books as part of my new SPFBO series. Which is even more reading! If you want to hear or watch some of my quick thoughts about each of these books then I also have a video up on YouTube about it:
July TBR Pile
Next month in July I’m feeling a little bit ambitious and have doubled by TBR list. I’ll also be expanding on my SPFBO series so keep a look out for even more self published fantasy books!
I’m defintely in the mood for a lot of fantasy and so the first three books I’ve picked are all books I’ve heard a lot of hype about. Both Cinderella is Dead and The Once and Future Witches have been talked up a lot across book twitter. I’ve not heard as much about Seven Devils, but I loved Elizabeth May’s The Falconer so I wanted to read another book by her.
Then the other three books are all SPFBO entrants or finalists for We Ride the Storm. They’ve all been in my First Impressions plans and so I’m hoping to challenge myself to read a bit more than usual.
Cinderella is Dead
Kalynn Bayron
(Affiliate Links)
We Ride the Storm
Devin Madson
(Affiliate Links)
Seven Devils
Laura Lam and Elizabeth May
(Affiliate Links)
Emissary
E.B. Brooks
(Affiliate Links)
Once and Future Witches
Alix E Harrow
(Affiliate Links)
The Assassin’s Gift
Claire Boston
(Affiliate Links)
June Book Haul
Another reason why I wanted to increase my TBR goals is that my book haul this month was huge. My bank account is happy that I got most of these books from friends and for free, but my shelves are screaming at me to read more books.
If you want to see all the books I hauled this month, check out my video as it’s too many to fit in this post 😅
Makeup of the Month
With us still being in lockdown I’ve been mostly been wearing basic makeup and only when I have video calls. My go to has been Hello Flawless liquid foundation which is perfect to cover up blemishes and redness on camera, but often looks too dewey which is why I don’t normally wear it.
I still define my brows with the ABH Brow Wiz and my eyes with a quick swipe of mascara. Plus some Clinique Blushing Blush to give myself just a little bit of colour back so I don’t look dead on zoom.
June Update Posts
As for the blog, I actually managed to be pretty consistent with posting and I’ve got a lot of content out this month. I’m hoping this continues going well into July so fingers crossed. If there’s anything you want to see on this blog too, just let me know in the comments and I’ll work on it.
Book Posts
First up is book posts, and I’ve review 4 different books (and spoiler alert: I liked all of them). Wolf of Oren-Yaro, Court of Miracles, Soul of the Sword and The Sisters Grimm are all fantasy books and I liked them all for different reasons. I also started the SPFBO series like I mentioned above, with the SPFBO 2019 Top 10 Finalists being my first post.
Blogging 101 Posts
For my Blogging 101 series I’ve focused mainly on SEO and user experience this month with 3 different posts called The Secret to WordPress Tags, Examples of WordPress Tags and The Proper Way to Use Blog Heading Tags. I also wrote a broader topic post on How to Create Unique and Useful Content which focuses on how to improve your content writing and therefore your blog.
Beauty Posts
For the beauty side of my blog I’ve done two reviews, of Love of Colour One & Done Shadow Stick and Sand&Sky Australian Pink Clay Exfoliator. The exfoliator is great for dry skin, but I unforntunately didn’t enjoy the shadow stick as much as I expected to. I also wrote two comparison posts, one of Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz Skinny Brow Pencil vs Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer Pencil and the other is Benefit Hello Happy Velvet Powder Foundation Vs Benefit Hello Flawless Powder Foundation which questions whether they’re the same formula.
July Goals
- Consistent posting every Wednesday (books), Friday (beauty) and Sunday (blogging 101).
- Consistent YouTube posting on Wednesdays (book review), Thursdays, and Sundays (content TBD).
- Re-start Bookstagram??? (Let’s see if I get to this…)
What are the goals you want to manifest next month?
