June Monthly Recap

July is here and summer is in full swing, which means it's time to take a look back on June.

Books Read

The UnbeatableSquirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World – 4/5 stars

I didn't do a lot of reading in June, something I'm hope to change in July. I have a lot of books on my TBR list, and I'm hoping to start making a dent in it.

Movies Watched

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

This movie was better than I thought it'd be. I enjoyed the first Jurassic World movie, but things I had heard about this one had made me a bit iffy on it. While it did have it's problems, it was still an enjoyable movie. Also, Blue is the best dinosaur and I wish she'd had more scenes in the movie.

The Incredibles 2

The Incredibles was one of my favorite Pixar movies growing up, and I have been so excited for it's sequel. And I have to say, it was worth the wait. It was so nice to see these characters again and to see the improvements in animation. Also, Jack-Jack was great, but I kind of pity his family. With all of the powers he has, he's going to be a handful as he grows up.

Travels

I had a nice time spending a few days in Pigeon Forge, TN in June. I had the opportunity to ride through Cades Cove, which is something I hadn't done in a long time. It's always nice seeing all of the scenery in that area. I also got to spend a day at Dollywood, which is always fun.

July's Book of the Month

A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale

What if Aladdin had never found the lamp?

When Jafar steals the Genie's lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish. To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war.

What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.

I stumbled across these Disney Twisted Tales books while looking in a bookstore in June and decided to buy the first three books in the series. I love just about everything Disney and I have to admit that the premise of these books sounds interesting. I plan on reading all three during July (while relaxing at the beach), but I decided that for my monthly book review I would stick with the first book in the series. The ratings on these books seem pretty mixed, so I'm curious to see whether or not I'll enjoy them.

Book of the Month: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World

Fourteen-year-old Doreen Green moved from sunny California to the suburbs of New Jersey. She must start at a new school, make new friends, and continue to hide her tail. Yep, Doreen has the powers of . . . a squirrel! After failing at several attempts to find her new BFF, Doreen feels lonely and trapped, liked a caged animal. Then one day Doreen uses her extraordinary powers to stop a group of troublemakers from causing mischief in the neighborhood, and her whole life changes. Everyone at school is talking about it! Doreen contemplates becoming a full-fledged Super Hero. And thus, Squirrel Girl is born! She saves cats from trees, keeps the sidewalks clean, and dissuades vandalism. All is well until a real-life Super Villain steps out of the shadows and declares Squirrel Girl his archenemy. Can Doreen balance being a teenager and a Super Hero? Or will she go . . . NUTS?

My Rating: ***** 

The first thing that needs to be said about this book, is that it's meant for younger teens/kids. The only other Marvel book I've currently read is Black Widow: Forever Red, which was more of an older teen novel. To make another comparison, Black Widow would be like the MCU and Squirrel Girl would be like the Marvel cartoons. This is something that I've tried to keep in mind when it comes to my rating and review.

Overall, I found The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World to be an enjoyable read. It's funny, energetic, and lighthearted – much like it's protagonist. Doreen is a sweet kid. She's very optimistic and upbeat, and she's the type of person who would be a great friend to have. She's a big fan of heroes, which is something I think a lot of us can relate to. She's also pretty naive, which kind of got old after a while for me, but I'm willing to overlook it.

The formatting/style of the book is nice. It's primarily told in 3^rd person POV, with occasional chapters being 1^st person. It also will switch between Doreen/Squirrel Girl, her friend Ana Sophia, the book's villain, and Tippy Toe (Doreen's squirrel friend). Tippy Toe's chapters are the ones told through 1^st person. There are also occasional chapters that are text messages, and these are where you can find some appearances from some of the other Marvel heroes. Also, throughout the book you can find footnotes from where Doreen is reading the story with you. These footnotes provide some entertaining insight and additional information about some of the characters – like the fact that Ana Sophia reads comic books about made up heroes who are angsty, brooding, grown men who wear tights. Hmm, that sounds kind of familiar…

While the book is entertaining and it is meant for a younger audience, there were some areas I had a few issues with.

For one thing, the book can be pretty cliché/stereotypical at times. In the high school, you have the stereotypical popular girls. They're not nice, and you can only speak to them if they acknowledge you first. They're called the Somebodies, and even though there's nothing related between the two, the fact that they're called that made me think of Kingdom Hearts.

The villain, the Micro-Manager, is also pretty much a cartoon style bad guy right down to the fact he actually goes “Mwa ha ha”. His main goal is to be recruited into Hydra, and he thinks beating Squirrel Girl is the way to do it. That's about all there is to him, minus a small bit of backstory that did make me feel a little bad for him. Even though this is a book for younger audiences, I still think that the Micro-Manager could have been fleshed out a little bit more. From how the book ended with him, I suspect that he probably appears again in the second book, so maybe they'll do more with him then.

Another part that I didn't 100% like was the treatment of some of the other Marvel characters. Some of the characters were fine, like Black Widow and Thor. Rocket (and by extension Groot) provided some of the most entertaining text messages and was ultimately the most helpful to Doreen, which was a little surprising. The main issues I had were with Winter Soldier and Iron Man. I don't even know how to describe Winter Soldier except as intense. His idea of helping is to tell you to tell him where to go kill a guy and then for you to go change your name with something that starts with a 'Y', which just seemed sort of weird to me. In Iron Man's case, Doreen doesn't think he's a real hero. She think he's the Avengers errand boy. Her reason for this is explained, and while it does make me laugh, it's a pretty weak explanation. Considering how popular all of the heroes are, to the point where paparazzi follows Thor on occasion, I have a hard time seeing how Doreen is clueless about Iron Man being a hero.

I also didn't really care for Tippy Toe's chapters, and I didn't really see what the point was for a good chunk of them. This is a more minor problem though, as her chapters were usually on the shorter side and there wasn't a whole lot of them.

Despite these few problems, I still like this book and it gave me some good laughs. There is a sequel to it, and I think I might try to read it sometime, though it's not going to be a book I'd be in a hurry to read.

If you're looking for a fun Marvel read, or you have a younger cousin, sibling, or child who enjoys Marvel, I would recommend picking this book up.

Daydreaming Butterfly Partial Relaunch

The Bibliophile Sweater Tag

Jameson from Lovely Whatsoevers tagged me for the Bibliophile Sweater Tag! Thanks, Jameson!


Here are the rules:

1.) Give the person who tagged you a never-ending supply of cookies (or just thank them - either works).
2.) Answer all the questions and use the blog graphic for this tag somewhere in your post (the original graphic is above).
3.) Pass along the tag to at least five other people wear a sweater (okay, this is optional...but why wouldn't you want to??)

Okay, here we go!

Fuzzy Sweater

(a book that is the epitome of comfort)

There a lot of books that could fall under the comfort category, but if I have to choose just one it would be Echoes. This is the third book in The Glenbrooke series (all of which are comfort books), and I'm choosing it as the epitome of comfort because it was the book in the series that introduced me to Irish Breakfast Tea. I mean tea pretty much goes with comfort, right?

Striped Sweater

(book which you devoured every line of) 

I've mentioned it before, but I adore Harlan Coben's books. If I'm being completely honest, I devour every line of pretty much all of them. They are addicting. But since I have to pick one, I'm going with The Stranger. It's not my favorite novel of Coben's, but it is one of the ones I've read the fastest.

Ugly Christmas Sweater

(book with a weird cover)

I don't really own many books with weird covers, so this was a hard one. Ultimately, I'm going with Gone for Good. It's yellow and the title is embossed (it's like that on the spine as well), so it's not always the easiest to read from a distance. Is it the weirdest cover out there? No, but it's one of the weirdest that I own.

Cashmere Sweater

(most expensive book you've bought)

Yeah, there's no contest here. Hardcore Twenty-Four is the most expensive book I've bought.

Hoodie

(favorite classic book)

Treasure Island is one of the few classic books that I've read, so it's kind of my favorite by default. Thanks to Pirates of the Caribbean, I was kind of obsessed with pirates for a while (they still fascinate me to this day), so I think it's pretty fitting that this is one of the classics I've read.

Cardigan 

(book you bought on impulse) 

The Lacemaker and the Princess is a book I bought on impulse years ago when I was on vacation. It takes place around the French Revolution and is about a girl who befriends Marie Antoinette's daughter.

Turtleneck Sweater 

(book from your childhood) 

I've always had a fondness for fairy tales (thanks Disney!), so I think it's fitting that one of my favorite books from my childhood is Fairest, which is a Snow White retelling. It's by the same author as Ella Enchanted, and I've read this one multiple times.

Homemade Knitted Sweater

(book that is indie-published)

The vast majority of the indie-published books that I own are e-books, so the only ones that I have physical copies of are my own book and Dragon Lyric.

V-Neck Sweater & Argyle Sweater

(book that did not meet your expectations and book with a unique format)

Two in one! While Black Widow Forever Red is a book that I enjoyed for the most part, it definitely didn't meet my expectations. When I heard about this book, I expected more Natasha Romanoff and less Ava and Alex. I'm also choosing this as my book with a unique format, because I don't have many books with unique formats. In this one, on occasion, you have transcripts from where Natasha is having to give a debrief about the events of the book, so I thought that was pretty unique.

Polka Dot Sweater

(a book with well-rounded characters)

This was a hard one. I really don't know which books have the best well-rounded characters, because it's been a while since I've read a lot of them. I'm going with Heist Society though, because I did really enjoy all of the characters that are in this book and the ones that follow it.


As far as tags go, I'm not tagging anyone in particular. If you see this and want to have a go at it, feel free! Here are the questions:

Fuzzy Sweater (a book that is the epitome of comfort)
Striped Sweater (book which you devoured every line of)
Ugly Christmas Sweater (book with a weird cover)
Cashmere Sweater (most expensive book you've bought)
Hoodie (favorite classic book)
Cardigan (book that you bought on impulse)
Turtleneck Sweater (book from your childhood)
Homemade Knitted Sweater (book that is indie-published)
V-neck Sweater (book that did not meet your expectations)
Argyle Sweater (book with a unique format)
Polka Dot Sweater (a book with well-rounded characters)

Six Month Anniversary Giveaway

Today marks six months since I first published Iridescent, and I believe that calls for a celebration. And what better way to celebrate than with a giveaway?

In honor of Iridescent's six month birthday, I'm hosting a giveaway. One lucky winner will receive a copy of Iridescent, and a $10 Amazon gift card. All you have to do is enter below. The giveaway will end on January 19, so don't forget to enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oh, What Fun! Christmas Blog Party: Week 2

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas! And since it's almost Christmas, I need to do week 2 of the Oh, What Fun! Christmas blog party hosted by Jameson C. Smith. You can join in on the fun here: 🎅. Here we go!

Do you make any special treats during the holidays? Which are your favorites to make? Your favorites to eat?

Cookies, peanut butter fudge, and sausage balls are some of the treats that I make during the holidays. They're also my favorites to make and my favorites to eat.

Do you leave out the traditional milk and cookies or something else?

It's been a few years since we've done it, but we used to do the traditional milk and cookies. Although one year, I think it was cookies and Mountain Dew. 

Favorite holiday flavor/scent (peppermint, sugar cookie, cinnamon, etc.)?

In general, it's a toss up between gingerbread and peppermint. 

Decorating: Keep it simple or go all-out? Do you have any favorite decorations or ornaments?

My family usually keeps it pretty simple as far as decorating goes. I have a lot of favorite ornaments, but the one that means the most is an angel ornament with a picture of my grandma who passed away years ago. Having that ornament on the tree makes me feel like she's still always with us at Christmas.  

What is your can’t-miss Christmas special?

It is pretty much a family tradition that we watch A Christmas Story at least once during the holiday season. 

Show off your Christmas tree! 

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Oh, What Fun! Christmas Blog Party: Week 1

This week, I'm participating in the Oh, What Fun! Christmas blog party hosted by Jameson C. Smith, which you can find more about here: 🎄. After all, what better way to celebrate Christmas on this blog than with two weeks of Christmas themed questions? So let's begin!

What’s your favorite holiday (it doesn’t have to be one from the “holiday season”)?

Christmas, of course!

How do you know when the holiday season has officially begun?

Right after Halloween. Christmas decorations are in stores, people are starting (or in some cases finishing) their Christmas shopping, people are getting ready for Thanksgiving. It just feels like everyone is starting to get into the holiday spirit.

What is your favorite part of the holidays?

The traditions, Christmas lights, music, holiday treats. Really, I love just about everything about the holidays!

Have any holiday wear? Show off those hats, socks, and ugly sweaters!

Unfortunately, no holiday wear here. I do want to get a Santa hat sometime though. 

Some friendly controversy: When is it appropriate to listen to Christmas tunes?

Whenever you want to. :) I usually start wanting to listen to Christmas music around the beginning of November, though there are a few songs that I'll listen to year round. 

Speaking of Christmas tunes: Share your favorites!