I took the term “treat yo self” a little too far // Book Haul

Howdy-doodle-do and welcome to my blog :))

I was really trying not to procrastinate today. I was going to be motivated and productive and finally start studying … and then I started colour coordinating this book haul just because and have put off studying until later on this evening or probably ’til tomorrow. WHY AM I LIKE THIS?!?!

Continuing on with my procrastinating ways, today I’m going to be talking about 12 books I bought recently.

Looking at the list, 12 books seems like a lot, but I don’t feel bad about any of my purchases because most of them are e-books that I waited to buy until I saw them for a reduced price. Also, I take the term “treat yo self” as words to live by because buying these made me happy.

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Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

I still don’t know how I feel about Alice Oseman’s books. Like any sane person I of course love Hearstopper, I literally finished binging the 4 available volumes this morning, but I’ve had mixed experiences with her novel. I wasn’t a huge fan of Solitaire but after reading it earlier this month I did enjoy I Was Born For This.

Clearly to get to the bottom of whether her books are for me or not, I’m going to have to read her other two currently published books: Loveless, which I already own and have read the first chapter or, and Radio Silence, which I picked up for just a couple of euros.

I don’t know much about this book. There’s Aled, who appears in the graphic novels and seems sweet, and Frances and a podcast which one of them makes and the other is a big fan of. I have enjoyed a couple of podcast related books so I’m excited about this one.

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Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year so I read it as soon as I was able to and posted a mini review of my thoughts yesterday.

Just like with her debut novel, this is set in Ireland and follows a lesbian main character. After pushing her school nemesis, Maebh, down a flight of stairs to help her free up some time in her ridiculously busy schedule, Aideen gets a reputation around school as a problem solver and get’s involved in a lot of hijinks solving other peoples problems, while ignoring her own.

I’m not going to go too much into what I thought of this but I did enjoy it and am happy to read anything and everything Ciara Smyth writes in the future.

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Paperweight by Meg Haston

I’m still on a mission to read more books relating around Mental Health and Paperweight is one of the newest books I want to read. It’s been around for a while, and I remember seeing it pop up a lot when it was first released.

This follows a girl called Stevie and we follow her at inpatient therapy, I believe for an eating disorder but I may be wrong, who is planning on taking her own life on the anniversary of her brothers death, which she believes she caused.

I think this is going to be a very emotional story but I’m looking forward to eventually reading it.

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Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar

I barely heard anything about this book until a couple of days before I bought it. I’ve been yearning for more f/f contemporaries so when I discovered this, I immediately went to add it to my Wishlist, but upon seeing it was within my price range, I bought it straight away.

As you can probably guess from the title, this book has fake dating, one of my favourite tropes! When Hani comes out as bisexual to her friends they invalidate her sexuality because she’s only ever dated boys, and so in a panic, she blurts out that she’s actually dating Ishu, a girl her friends really don’t like.

This seems like it’s going to be really fun, and it’s actually from the same author as The Henna Wars which got a lot of hype last year. Speaking of The Henna Wars …

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The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

After a year or wanting to read this, I picked this up, literally this morning.

Like with the previous book I just mentioned, this book has a very popular trope at it’s centre: rivals to lovers. We follow two girls who are running competing henna businesses at school. It also seems like it’s going touch on some more serious topics as when one of the girl’s, Nishat, comes out to her parents they say she can be anything she wants accept herself.

I’m really looking forward to finally getting around to reading this one. Maybe I’ll be able to squeeze either this book, or Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating in this month, although with how big my TBR is this month it seems unlikely. I will be reading both of these book ASAP though!

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One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

I might have bought this one, I might not. It’s weird. My mum got an e-mail last night saying they were giving me my money back because there was some sort of issue with the payment method, despite the fact I bought another book at the same time, and everything was fine. I also checked the tracking for the book and it says it’s still coming at some point.

So yeah. Maybe this book will show up or maybe I’ll get a refund and I’ll try again. Either way, my intention to own this book was there.

Do I need to go into detail of the plot of this book? It’s been so hyped since before we even had a cover reveal but just in case: this follows August who meets Jane on a train, however Jane is actually displaced from the 1970’s.

I’ve been really excited for this book for a long time. I loved her debut novel and even apart from the overall story, I’m excited to just read her writing again because I thought it was so witty and addictive. Hopefully I get my eyeballs on this soon.

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Heartstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman

I read this book this morning and it was a great way to start my day. I’m a huge fan of this graphic novel series, they’re cute and easy to read while still having an interesting plot that pulls at your heart strings.

Of course we follow Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson as they become friends, get together and deal with coming out and overall being boyfriends. This volume focuses a lot on Charlie’s mental health and eating disorder so Trigger Warning for that, as well as self-harm and homophobia.

I really liked this new instalment, how I’m supposed to wait till next year for the final volume is beyond me but, I’ll survive, especially since I’m eating up all the Hearstopper TV show content I can get.

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Wraith by Mere Joyce

If you were to ask me, what’s an underrated book or series you think more people should read? I would say: the Oracle of Senders series by Mere Joyce.

This series follows a boy called Callum who can see ghosts and actually attends a summer specifically for people that can see ghosts. I’m a huge fan of the “I can see ghosts that nobody else can” trope. I was a huge fan of Ghost Whisperer if you can’t tell when I was a kid.

What I love about this series is that each character see’s different kind of spirits. Callum see’s ghosts of people who were murdered, while other characters only see ghost dogs or the spirits of woman who died in childbirth.

Wraith is the third instalment of this series and I wanted to jump into it straight away but I don’t actually remember much from the 2nd book, Revenant, besides the fact that my ship kissed 😂 so I’m going to have to re-read the previous two books, which is totally fine by me.

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Black Flamingo by Dean Ata

There has been so much praise and love for this book and I am so ready to experience it for myself!! Also … THIS COVER😍😍😍

Black Flamingo is set in England and follows a boy as he comes to term with being mixed-race and gay, and then we also follow him at university as he discovers his love for being a drag queen.

This is on my TBR for the month and I’m hoping to read it as soon as possible. Like I said before, my TBR is longg this month so if I don’t get to it within the next couple of months, I’ll definitely be reading it soon.

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The Ravens by Kass Morgan & Danielle Paige

You know how YA loves a bird related book titles? Well, I want to do a post reading and discussing said “bird” books and talk about them and one of the books I plan to feature is The Ravens, and also the book I just talked about, Black Flamingo. I’m basically going to ask the question, do these books actually feature the birds their titled after?

Apart from my planned posts, I also want to read this because it’s about a sorority of witches and that seems really cool to me. I don’t know more then that and I don’t need to. The cover and that premise is good enough for me.

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Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Melinda Lo

This is another new-ish release I haven’t heard much about (although the few people I have seen talk about this had nothing but good things to day), and also don’t have a totally clear idea of the plot but I’m interested and intrigued. What I do know is that this is set in the 1950’s and follows a teenage girl called Lily who stumbles upon a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

While historical fiction isn’t my favroutie genre I’m really excited to learn more about what this time was like for those in the LGBTQ+ community and I think this could be one I really enjoy.

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Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

Concrete Rose Angie Thomas https://app.asana.com/0/1135954362417873/1168658175790681/f

And the final book on this haul is one of everyone’s anticipated releases for the year, Concrete Rose. This is a prequel novel of sorts to Angie Thomas’s much beloved debut novel, The Hate U Give, as it follows Starr’s dad, Maverick, when he’s a teenager involved in gangs and about to become a father.

I have been wanting to read this book for a while but couldn’t afford it. Once again, whatever magical entity is in charge of putting books on sale came through and I managed to add this book to my ever growing Kindle TBR.

I really enjoyed The Hate U Give and the older version of Mavericks character so I’m looking forward to reading about his teenage experiences.

So those are the 12 books I bought myself recently. I’m proud of myself because all of these are books I really want to read so I’m proud for waiting til the price was reduced and not just spending willy-nilly, and I’m also proud for not going getting carried away like I sometimes do with e-books and buying books that I was only kind of interested in, just because they were cheap.

I’d love to know your thoughts and feelings on any of these books mentioned. Thanks for reading :))

Elli xx