May’s Moments of the Month: October // For Once It’s a Good Month Full of Reading and Positive Mental Health!!

That’s right… I somehow had a decent month??

I don’t know how it’s possible but for once it wasn’t terrible! In general, my mental health was surprisingly good (thank you jesus for school breaks), and I somehow managed to break my reading slump?

I still didn’t get to do other things I wanted to (like prepping for NaNoWriMo), and I did fail completely at Inktober, but overall October was… definitely one of my better months. And thank god it was because I needed a break from all the bad stuff!!

Things You Didn’t Need to Know About Me, like My Blogging Fears & Dreams and My Thoughts on Various Book Platforms

Hello, and welcome back to me oversharing!!

Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books, one of the best bloggers you’ll ever meet, was kind enough to nominate me for the Liebster Award! And because her questions are really fun (and the amount of good post ideas I have is dwindling) I decided to do it today.

Of course, I ended up oversharing and writing too much (somehow this is 2K words long??), but at this point, this kind of thing is expected from me, so I’ll just shut up with this intro!

Blog Tour Review: A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy // A Fantasy with a Captivating World, Though Slightly Lacking

First of all: the cover of this book!!

Though the content inside the book is just as pretty, this cover is genuinely one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever laid my eyes upon. POC on pretty covers forever please! And especially for books as deserving as A River of Royal Blood!!

As you may know, this book was one of my most anticipated releases for the last half of the year, so I was extremely excited when Penguin reached out to me about being on the blog tour for it! Though it slightly disappointed in the character department, it was made up for through its enchanting worldbuilding and fast-paced plot.

Your Hypocrisy About “Realistic” Teens in YA: Why Do You Hate Us For Being Too Much of a Teenager, but Also Too Much of an Adult?

Oh, hi, just me with another discussion post!

I feel like I haven’t written a proper discussion in a long time!! (Whether or not I actually have is besides the point, it’s been established that I have a terrible memory.) I just keep drafting different ones and then ditching them when I lose my steam.

But this topic is something I’ve been seeing around in the book community for a while now, mainly in different reviews of different YA books, and if you couldn’t read the title, the topic is: the hypocrisy when it comes to the “realistic” portrayal of teens in YA.

I wanted to talk about it today because 1) I just felt like I finally had the right words to say everything I wanted to, 2) it’s something I’ve seen for some time now and wanted to finally bring up, and 3) while it’s terribly hypocritical, it’s also somewhat interesting. (At least to me!!) I also feel like I can offer some unique perspective on it, seeing as I’m both a teen and a reader of YA myself!

11 Ownvoices YA Latinx Book Recommendations to Celebrate and Read Beyond Latinx Heritage Month!

It’s the last day of Latinx Heritage Month!

I wanted to make sure I’m boosting Latinx stories and voices as much as I can, so of course I’m posting a list of my personal Latinx book recommendations! and even though this post is a bit later than I would have liked, it’s a great reminder that you should be reading these books (and other POC books) beyond their “designated” month!!

I could do a lot better with reading Latinx books, since most of the POC books are Asian (since I’m… Asian…), but there are still quite a few I’ve enjoyed. I also wanted to make sure to list ownvoices novels, though I’ve read some non-OV ones that handled rep just fine, according to Latinx reviewers! (It’s not YA but if you haven’t read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, please do it NOW.)

(And yes I tried to choose mostly lesser popular novels with the purpose of hyping! them!! up!!!)