Hello fellow bookworms 📚 This is going to be a shorter wrapup because I’m currently very busy and May wasn’t that eventful except for doing lots of work for university and reading as much as I could. Due to that stress it’s also time to announce a hiatus of some sort. Don’t panic just now, as I won’t be 100% gone, more like very, very busy the next 5 weeks and that means less time for blogging. I will still be lurking around and do all the blogging things because I have no self-control, just not as much as I would like to 😦 You can always reach me on Twitter though!
Why I needed to take a hiatus
- I’m in a lot of stress due to university. I have a lot on my plate … again. Last semester was so busy and I hoped that this semester would be better, but now towards the end of it, with exams and deadlines fast approaching things have gotten more stressful and hectic again. I have two major exams and I’m still working on getting all my notes together, which is a lot harder than before as I have 2 seminars where I have to read texts and make them myself without any help from the professors. (One of them has no idea what she wants to test us on … not even any idea which text we should read, so that’s ‘fun’). Then there’s my huge research project.
- Especially a research project is STRESSFUL. I finally (!) have all the dates when I will do the testings, but it’s still a lot of work. I’m doing my study in a kindergarten, which is a bit farther away, That means a longer commute and since it’s so remote, the bus connection is really not great. The testings itself take up a lot of time and I also need to evaluate my data within two weeks, as I have to do a presentation at university. Oh that are also the two weeks in which I’m supposed to study for 2 exams. Then there’s the anxiety at being in an unfamiliar environment and having to interact with a lot of people I don’t know, including the children. I don’t have a lot of experience with them in general, so I’m super nervous.
- My mental and physical health is also not the best. If you didn’t know, this entire year I have been not so great due to some physical health problems that were related to stress. Now I really need to take a break, as I don’t want to let things spiral downward as badly as a few months before when the last semester ended. Therefore, I try to put the pressure off myself and get a bit more self-care in without having to worry about everything.
What that means
- The Hiatus will last until July 11th = the date of my last exam. Afterwards I still need to finish up my report for my research project and do an oral exam in September, but the main stress factors should be gone + I’ll be home with my family!
- I won’t post as consistently and much like now. The thing is I actually WANT to post a lot and have inspiration for a lot of posts, it’s just the time I’m missing and the energy after a long, stressful day. Therefore, I won’t really schedule posts or stick to my posting days, I’ll post whenever I have written a blog post! You will still see me a lot, I have a Review planned and a lot of great mid-year stuff that I want to do!
- I’ll not be able to do all the posts I want to. I’m very sad because I want to do T5W, the I Heart Characters Meme by Dani + more posts and Reviews. I might be a bit late with the meme topics, but will probably still do them, because I love the prompts
- I’ll be very, very slow when it comes to answering comments and blog hopping. As we speak I’m so NOT caught up on comments and I have 40+ posts I want to comment on. I won’t be able to blog hop as much as usually in the next weeks, but I’ll try my best – I just cannot promise anything. I will get to all my comments, but please be patient with me if I take longer to reply to yours. I appreciate every comment I get!
- War Storm (Victoria Aveyard) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖 Review
- Ace of Shades (Amanda Foody) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖 Review
- The Brightsiders (Jen Wilde) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖 Review
- A Crown of Wishes (Roshani Chokshi) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖 Review
- Winter (Marissa Meyer) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖 RTC!
- Carry On (Rainbow Rowell) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖 Reread
- A Streetcat Named Bob (Victoria Aveyard) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 (4.5) 📖 Review
- Avatar: The Promise (DiMartino, Konietzko, Yang) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖
- In Real Life (Doctorow, Wang) 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 📖
- Leah on the Offbeat (Becky Albertalli) 🌟 🌟 🌟 (3.5) 📖 Review
- This Savage Song (Victoria Schwab) 🌟 🌟 (2.5) 📖 RTC!
Average rating 🌟 4.4 Stars
For this section of my wrapup I’m linking up with the Favorite Blog Posts of the Month Meme that has been created by Kristin @ kristinkravesbooks to showcase our favorite blogs of the month!
My two faves who you should totally follow
- I literally always list every post of them, so I thought I would do a general shout out!
- Yes I stalk every one of their posts and lurk in the comment section
- Both Swetlana and Marie are amazing read all of their posts!
More amazing posts
- Discussion: Annotating Books (Ellyn @ allonsythornraxxbooks)
- T5W: Non Canon Ships aka the gay ships we deserve (Aurora @ auroralibrialis)
- Discussing the #OwnVoices Label // YA Asian Books You All Should be Reading (May @ foreverandeverly)
- WRITING REVIEWS isn’t easy and we all know it! (Kathy @ booksandmunches)
- I Heart Characters: Is it really a good idea to BFF a God or a Goddess? (Sophie @ bewareofthereader)
- Bullet Journal Update May (Mel @ thebookmo)
- Akinator Genie | How well does this virtual genie know book characters? (Becca @ becandbones)
- Talking Book Genres // 5 Cold, Hard Facts about Commenting Back (Dani @ perspectiveofawriter)
- #NewBloggersWelcome!! May Newcomers (Evelina @ avalinahsbooks)
- The Witchlands Playlist (Marija @ insidemylibrarymind)
- Favorite Quotes from ACOMAF (Bree @ inloveandwords)
- The trouble with ‘meh’ reads (Mel @ awordandawhisper)
- How Do You Manage Your TBR List? // Reading Around the World: Oxford (Beth @ readingeverynight)
- Discussion: Do you fight for your TV show? // The Milestone Book Tag
- (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
- Recs: Books written by Asian authors (Marta @ thecursedbooks)
- Reading on Vacation – Yay or Nay? (Simant @ flippingthruthepages)
Not much happened, so I don’t have as much as usual to share!
- I reached 200 followers on the blog 😱 I’m still shook that this happened and I wanted to thank all of you who follow me and continue to support my blog with all your lovely comments and kind words. I cannot say how much this all means to me, it’s good to feel appreciated by the community. I’m honored that a lot of people seem to like my posts enough to invest time in them and are willing to listen to what I have to say. It means the world to me and makes me very happy!
- I had a week of vacation! The perks of being a university student is that you sometimes have a random week off. At least that’s me. I had a free week because of Pfingsten (= Whitsuntide, Pentecost??? These translations sound weird 😂) and it was very much-needed. I was still feeling a bit stressed and weird, so not 100% appreciating my time without coursework, but
Cover Reveal Montage
- Renegades (Marissa Meyer) 🌺 Spring Fling Readathon (+ Buddy Read!!)
- A Court of Thornes and Roses (Sarah J. Maas) 🌺 Spring Fling Readathon
- Frostblood (Elly Blake) 🌺 Spring Fling Readathon
- Anger is a Gift (Mark Oshiro)
- The Supervillain and Me (Danielle Banas)
As you can see I have a shorter TBR for this month, to not put too much pressure on me! I’m super excited to read my last books for the Spring Fling Readathon and also get to my two remaining Arcs that I’ve been wanting to read! I’m also eyeing Rivetedlit’s free reads for June, because both Tash Hearts Tolstoy and Autoboyography are among them.
I will also be joining Jazzy June created Kathy from booksandmunches! The aim this month is to reread books and you all know that I absolutely love that! It just so happens that I have two rereads on my TBR (ACOTAR + Frostblood) and as of right now I’ve reread another book in June (Am I Normal Yet?) + plan to reread more, so why not join in? 🙂
Books I’ve been wanting to reread
What was your favorite book this month? Has anything exciting happened in your life? How do you deal with stress? 📚
The Bookcheshire Cat 
I’m sending allll the love your way! I can totally relate to your stress right now because I am literally drowning in uni work and I don’t know how I’m supposed to catch up PLUS read and prepare everything for future lessons PLUS study for my exams. It’s all a never-ending cycle. But please don‘t force yourself to do ANYTHING and take the time to relax and take care of yourself, and only blog when you really want to/feel like it ❤
ALSO YES I SEE YOU EYEING AUTOBOYOGRAPHY AND I AM SUBTLY TRYING TO TELL YOU THAT YOU. NEED. TO. READ. IT. HOLY CRAP IT‘S HONESTLY SO GOOD. SO SO GOOD.
But also same, I‘ve been eyeing Tash Hearts Tolstoy and it would be fitting to read it during pride month! I also want to read Anger is a Gift soonish (maybe we could buddy read one or both of these if we‘re both not too busy with uni?? this could be very lowkey and I don‘t even know if i‘ll be able to do this but yeah, I just thought I‘d suggest it!)
Hope you‘re alright and good luck with everything 💖
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JACKIE 💗💗💗 I’m so glad that I took this break, because I was stuck in this never ending cycle as well and really didn’t have the energy to do much outside of work, work work. Now I finally have the time to breath and relax again 🙂
I READ IT NOW … but while I enjoyed it I didn’t end up loving it 😱😱😱
Omg I’m so sorry I’m only know reading comments 😅 I have already read Tash Hearts Tolstoy now (I really liked it!), but we could always buddy read Anger is a Gift, as I didn’t get to that!
Thank you!! Good luck to you too with all your exams coming up! 💕
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I’m stressed out with works too, so I wish you good luck and hope you come back full force!!
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Thank you so much! 💞
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It sounds like a break is best at this point. You have a lot to manage and also need to care for you 🖤 I hope the time allows you to catch up, find a better state of mind and health and feel rejuvenated. Sending you positive vibes!
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Thank you so much for the kind words! 💞 I’m finally done with exams now and taking a break really was the best thing I could have done, because now I’ve got a lot more energy to dedicate to the blog 🙂
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Take your time and we will all be here when you have more time to blog and come back! Your health is more important and I know how draining stress can be. I wish you all the best for your research project and exams and also CONGRATS on the follower milestone 🙂 I am sure there are many more to come. ❤
P.S. thanks for including my posts!!!
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Thank you so much for the kind words!! ❤ ❤
I always love reading your posts!
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Aweee, thanks!! ❤
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Awww I hope your health is able to improve Caro! Nothing seems so important in the face of getting physically well… but of course then you have Uni too! So take all the time you need, we love you and will be here when you get back (but of course we will love to chat when we see you stalking about 😉 !!) as for your meme posts, just do whichever whenever you sweet thing! I’ll link it for you to whatever linkup is running when you have to time. Don’t stress about it please. ❤️ And congratulations on 200 followers!! You deserve it Caro!!
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Thank you so much for the kind words Dani, they means a lot to me!! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
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*HUGS* Take all the time you need. I also needed to take a short break in May because my mental health was just plummeting, and that REALLY helped. Also, it sounds like you have an awesome lineup of books for June, so I hope you enjoy those! ❤ And congrats on the milestone!!
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Thank you so much Kathy! ❤ *hugs back* I really needed that break and now that I finally have less stress and more time, I can dive back into blogging more energized! 🙂
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I completely get what you mean about needing to take a hiatus, sometimes you just need to get away from it all for a bit and it sounds like you have so much going on in your life that it’s really needed right now. I hope your exams go well Caro, I’m sure you’ll kick-ass at them all, and if taking a hiatus is what you need then do it! 😀
You got through some great books this month, and it seems like you loved them all too which is amazing, and congrats on reaching 200 followers. That’s great and I’m sure there’ll be so many more followers coming soon as well. 🙂
Great post, and thanks for featuring two of my posts as well. I’m really glad you enjoyed them enough to feature them. 😀 ❤
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Thank you for the kind words! ❤️ I have finally taken all exam except for one, so we’ll see what the results are. As of now I’m finally back 🙂
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Ohh, well fingers crossed you get the results you want then! 🙂 ❤️
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Sounds like a much-needed hiatus! Don’t worry, we’ll be here when you get back! ❤
Thanks for mentioning my post 🙂
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Thank you ❤
You’re welcome, I really loved it! 🙂
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Oh boo! Sounds like you’re pretty much drowning in all the stuff you have to do so that hiatus was bound to happen. Try to take plenty of time for self-care because we all know that’s SO important; especially if you already know the stress is simply going to keep on coming for the first period of time. You’ll get through it though, I’m sure of it!
And thanks for mentioning my discussion post! Glad you enjoyed it! 😀
Also good luck with Jazzy June! I NEVER reread so this is ridiculously weird for me, but I’m absolutely loving my reread of Harry Potter, haha. 😀
Good luck with everything! ❤
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Thank you so much for the kind words! ❤️ Self-Care is definitely always crucial!
Jazzy June was a full success for me, as I love reread so much and especially this year I have been in such a rereading mood! I really need to reread Harry Potter as well!
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By the time I’m visiting back, you’re probably at least halfway into your hiatus, or possibly even finishing it 😀 I hope things are better with the university. Sorry it’s so stressful! I have had a couple of really stressful weeks myself. Is it a bad moon or somehting? -.-
Ah, I was right, your hiatus will end soon 🙂 best of luck on your last exam! ❤ I hope you're feeling fine after all the exams and that everything went well.
And thank you so much for sharing the #NewBloggers post 🙂 and congrats on your 200 follows!!
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Thank you for the kind words ❤️ I’m finally free and out of this hiatus!! I still have to do a thing or two for university, but the most stress has thankfully passed now!
Always happy to share your posts! Thank you!!
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