I’ve been really bad at updating my blog recently. I kept starting posts but not finishing them. This is something I really want to improve upon.

There are quite a few books that I want to read over the next few months, and I’ve already planned out the books I want to read by the end of the summer.

So far this year I have finished four books, as well as DNF’ing one book when I was half way through it.

I’m a little disappointed that I haven’t read more, which is why I want to encourage myself to read as much as possible for the next few months. I know it’s silly, and that the numbers shouldn’t matter, but I own so many books that I’ve never read, and I’d really love to get to as many of them as possible.

If you are not aware, I currently have a term time only job, so I get a lot of free time in the school holidays, especially with six weeks off in the summer. Therefore I decided that I want to challenge myself to complete six books over that break this year.

But first I want to talk about the books I want to read in the lead up to the summer.

I just finished re-reading Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend. This is the third book in the Morrigan Crow series. This is a middle grade fantasy, and I honestly love this series so much, and the fourth book is due out in May.

This series is so fun and whimsical, with lots of different kinds of magic, and some truly wonerful characters. It’s hard to describe the third book in the series, so I’m going to talk about the start of the series for those who don’t know it.

In the first book, Nevermoor, we follow Morrigan who is a cursed child, which means that she causes a lot of bad luck to happen around her, and she will die on the night of her eleventh birthday. However, on the night of her eleventh birthday she is whisked away to the wonderful world of Nevermoor by a man called Jupiter North. From there she is put in a competition against hundreds of other children her age to get a place in a prestigious society.

I don’t always enjoy competition based plots, but this one really was super fun. The second and third books are set in a magical school, and the world just keeps developing and getting more and more interesting.

I cannot explain how much I love this series, it is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It is so well written and I just love the characters, the magic, and the setting.

On 8th May the fourth book, Silverborn, is released. Honestly, this book was due for release in, like, 2022, but they just kept pushing it back. I’m so glad that it’s finally time for this book, I have no idea what’s going to happen in it. But I’m just excited. I pre-ordered this book when it was first going to be published. Now that’s it’s finally published, I’m still waiting for it to arrive, which is quite frustrating!!

I believe this series is going to be about ten books long, I’m not certain, but it’s going to be long. I can’t wait to keep exploring and learning more about the characters and the world. I want to share this series with everyone because it is truly just the most enjoyable series I’ve ever read.

After that I plan to (finally) finish reading Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey. This is the second book in The Expanse series. I started this book back in June last year, and I am still not even half way through it (yikes!). Therefore I’d really like to try to finish this book within a year. It’s ridiculous that it’s taken me so long because I found the first book to be really good.

The first book is called Leviathan’s Wake and it follows the crew of a cargo ship in space as they discover a deadly virus that has wiped out the entire crew of another ship. They then meet a detective, and together they start investigating what is going on with this virus, and trying to stop it.

There is also a lot of politics involved in this series. I would say that it isn’t an easy read, it is one of the first sci-fi series that I’ve got into, and I’m reading it a lot slower than other books. It’s requiring a lot more focus for me, which is fine, it’s a good series, I just can’t read it as quickly as I’d like to.

I have been buddy reading this book with my brother, but honestly I don’t think he has read much of it either. We both rather lost interest in reading last year. Lol.

My intention is to finish this book by the middle of June (I think I started it on 16th June last year). Then I will have about three weeks before the summer holidays begin. I’m not sure what I want to read in those three weeks, I still need to find something.

To be honest, there are four books that I started back in February, and I only read about ten pages of each of them, so I should probably pick up one of those books and try to read it in those three weeks.

Then at the beginning of July the summer holidays will start and I’m going to try to complete six books in six weeks.

I have thought carefully about the books I want to read. I have chosen some shorter books, some YA or middle grade books, and a comic bind-up. I wanted to be sure that I could get through each of these books in about a week each without putting too much pressure on myself.

I’ve already worked out how much I will need to read over the holidays, and found that I need to aim for about 45 pages per day. This should be manageable as I won’t have much else going on. I don’t tend to read that much most days, especially while I am at work, which is something I really want to work on over the next few months.

Anyway, here are the books:

Book 1 – Everblaze by Shannon Messenger.

This is the third book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. This is a really fun middle grade fantasy series, and each of these books is over 500 pages (this one is 609). However I still reckon I can complete it within about a week as it is aimed at children, so it has quite a simple plot and use of language, as well as fairly big line-spacing.

This is a really fun series following a girl called Sophie who is a telepath. She has grown up in the human world but one day she finds out that she is an elf, and is taken to live in the elven world and attend elf school. Lots of strange things keep occurring around Sophie, and she keeps discovering knew things about herself and her new elven life.

This series is full of adventures, magic, and mysteries. I think it is really fun, and a bit of a lighter read despite the length, so I’m really looking forward to getting back into the series.

Book 2 – The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

This is the second book in the Truly Devious trilogy, which is a Young Adult mystery series following a girl called Stevie.

In the first book, Stevie starts at a prestigious boarding school for highly gifted students. Every student in the school has their own specialty, and Stevie’s specialty is detective work.

Many years ago the founder of this school lost his wife and daughter to kidnappers, and the culprits were never caught. This is a large part of the reason Stevie chose to attend this school, and she is determined to discover what happened.

I’m really excited to get back into this series. I read Truly Devious last year and quite enjoyed it. Sometimes I struggle with YA books, as I feel that I have mostly grown out of them, but this series I find to be really good.

Book 3 – Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

I intend to buddy read this book with my brother, so we’ll see if either of us can actually complete it this time. Haha.

This book is part of the Stormlight Archives series, and it is a novella set between books two and three.

The Stormlight Archives is quite a complex epic fantasy series, and it is difficult to describe. It is a multi-POV series following a lot of different characters, and a lot of different events are happening all at once.

At the beginning of the first book, A Way of Kings, our three main characters are Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan.

Kalladin is a former surgeon turned soldier, now he is a criminal who is put to work as a Bridgeman in a major war. Being a Bridgeman means that Kaladin and his fellows have to carry large wooden bridges and place them between plateaus on the Shattered Plains where they are fighting.

Dalinar is the King ruling the Alethi people, and leading them in battle against the Parshendi people, who have been accused of killing the former king, Dalinar’s brother.

Shallan is a scholar with a secret who goes to study with Jasnar (Dalinar’s niece, and the daughter of the former king).

There is obviously a lot more to it than that, like I said, it is hard to describe. There are so many different characters, and the world is so vast, and the magic is so complex (to do with absorbing light and defying gravity, as well has having powerfully magic armour and weapons).

The first two books in the series were each over 1000 pages long. This novella is only 265 pages, which honestly feels like nothing after the first two.

This series is so fantastic and complex, A lot of drama occurred at the end of the second book, although I might need to look up a summary of it just so I can remember exactly what happened.

Book 4 – Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

This, I believe, is the first book in a romantasy series, where the main character, Evie, follows a job advert to become an office assistant for a villain, but ends up falling in love.

It sounds light and funny, I’m really intrigued to read this book. This book is just over 300 pages, so it shouldn’t take too long to read.

I really do not know much detail on this book, but I’ve heard good things about it.

Book 5 – All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red is the first book in the Murderbot Diaries, which is a series of novellas. This is a sci-fi series following a robot who was created by a corportation as a security guard. However, Murderbot does not want to to do this job, Murderbot wants to watch TV and enjoy human leisure activities.

This book is 150 pages, so it should really help me to complete this goal over the summer break.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this series, and I’m really excited to finally get into it.

Book 6 – Wolverine (Deluxe Edition)

The last book on my list is a comic book bind up. I have no idea what the plot is.

I’ve watched the X-Men movies and some of the TV series, so I know the characters and stuff. I just don’t really know what is going to happen in this story.

Honestly, I’m not great with reading graphic novels and comics. I tend to give up on them quite quickly, so I’m really hoping that knowing the characters already will help me to stay focused this time.

I think this is going to be fun, and at least a little quicker to read than the full-length novels.

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So those are the books I plan on reading over the next few months. I have really positive hopes for getting through them, and I am super excited to get back into so many series.

Let me know if you have read any of these books or series, and let me know what you thought of them.

Have you got any plans for what you want to read soon?

Until next time,
Love, Bobbi. Xx.