What I’ve been up to in March 🌼 End of Finals & Semester Break

Hello fellow bookworms 🌼 It’s already the start of a new month! It feels like I just wrote my last wrapup, yet here we are again. I cannot believe that we’re this far into 2021, it feels so surreal 😱 I’m a bit sad that my semester break is coming to an end in April, as I definitely needed more time to recover from the intensity of final season. However, I’m excited about my birthday gifts and even the beginning of spring 🌷 I’m trying to enjoy the last weeks of my break and I’m excited to fill them with as much blogging and reading as possible 🥰

Time for new beginnings ❤

Important Resources

• Carrds to check out if you want to educate yourself & help out
• https://globalissuesawareness.carrd.co/
• https://dotherightthing.carrd.co/
• Anti-Asian Violence Resources Carrd
• BLM 2020 Resources Spreadsheet

🔄 = Reread 💌 = Library Books 🌈 = #QueerBookFun2021

 😊 = Readalong/Buddy Read 📚 = #TackleYourTBR2021 ⌛ = Digital Arc

I read 9 books in March and was happy with my progress, given that I still had exams until halfway through the month and papers to hand in. Surprisingly, I reread a lot of books – more than I’ve reread in a long time – which is always comforting to me 🥰 I also participated in two Readathons – the WHM Readathon and Tome Topple – which was fun, as I’ve missed doing Readathons 🥺 I failed a bit at Tome Topple again, though I actually had time for once. I don’t know what it is but I never seem to be able to finish my tomes during the Readathon 😅 I’m currently still reading A Dark and Hollow Star but by now the Readathon had ended already. Especially at the beginning of my break I wanted to read all the things at once, but that didn’t work out as I had many things to catch up on! I still hope to make use of my semester break in April, so I can read all the books that I’m most excited about right now 💕

I read 3 books out of my comfort zone this month and I’m happy with my progress so far. In Our Last Echoes, I found a book I really liked and can now say that the author is one of my favorites in the YA Mystery/Horror genre 🥰 Unfortunately I didn’t like Courting Darkness – YA Historical Fantasy – as much as the original His Fair Assassin book but I’m still curious to see what happens in the next book! And then … we already have a least favorite book of 2020 (and in general) 😅 I just really didn’t get along with Furiously Happy and it was a bit of a chore to get through.

Our Last Echoes (Kate Alice Marshall) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⌛ 

Courting Darkness (Robin LaFevers) ⭐⭐⭐.5 📚 😊 

Furiously Happy (Jenny Lawson) ⭐ 💌 🎧 

1. Frostblood (Elly Blake) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🔄 

2. Frostbite (Richelle Mead) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🔄 😊

3. Shadow Kiss (Richelle Mead) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🔄 😊

4. Sadie (Courtney Summers) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 🔄

5. Our Last Echoes (Kate Alice Marshall) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⌛ ➽ Review

6. Courting Darkness (Robin LaFevers) ⭐⭐⭐.5 📚 😊 ➽ Review

7. Stepping Stones (Lucy Knisley) ⭐⭐.5 💌 ➽ Review

8. Furiously Happy (Jenny Lawson) ⭐ 💌🎧 ➽ Review

9. The Girl from the Other Side Vol 2. (Nagabe) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 ➽ Review

Favorite Book 💕

What I’ve been up to in January & February ❄ Snow, School Stress & Exams ~ Things I Plan on Doing During my Semester Break 💗 Books, TV and other Media

2021 Releases by Black Authors I’m Excited for 📚 ~ Review: Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon in BUZZWORDS 💙 ~ Recommendations for Women’s History Month 💕

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! 💗

• March TBR ft. Readathons (Ali @ reverie with ali)
• New reading goals & a look at what I’m reading now! (Destiny @ howlinglibraries)
• Recent Reads (02) – February 2021 (Emme @ literarylatte)
• 25 Books by Asian Authors to Read Now and Always | #StopAsianHate & Evergreen Content and Book Bloggers | SEO Basics (Kal @ readervoracious)
• What I’ve been binge-watching #55 (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
• Easter Readathon 2021 Announcement (Kate @ readingthroughinfinity)
• Five first kisses in fiction that make me go feral no cap (Lais @ thebookishskies)
• The Anti-TBR Tag | books I never want to read (Margaret @ weirdzeal)
• BOOK BLOGGERS TALK #1: Thoughts On the Future of Book Blogging & Thoughts After a Year On Bookstagram & How to write a blog post people will read (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• Welcome to literally mel: a reintrocution (Mel @ literallymel)
• 21 Books for 2021: A Yearly TBR (Pauliina @ thebookaholicdreamer)
• HOW TO MANAGE SCHOOL AND READING // bookish advice: tips for juggling reading, blogging & studies with a busy schedule ft. starting a studygram (Ruby @ rubyraereads)
• Fanfiction Tropes I Love and How They Appear in Published Books & I’ll Be Reading Soon – A Library TBR & Happy Blogiversary to Us, ft. Things That Have Kept Us Going for the Past Year (Sabrina & Veronika @ wordyandwhimsical)
• Books on the Rice: March 2021 releases from Asian authors (Shealea @ Shut Up Shealea)
• Discussion Post | How to Stay Motivated as Reader & Book Blogger? 📝 PS: It’s my birthday! 🎉 & The Definitive Book Blogger List 📢 (Sofii @ abookathought)
• Why I Cut My Goodreads Challenge In Half // 2021 is a new year of reading differently (Xandra @ starryskybooks)

I finally got my Semester Break! ✨ I had exams until Mid March, but after that the semester was finally over. I still had to do another paper, but it was an immense relief to have done my three exams. I also passed all of them, which is good!! 🎉 There was only one where I wasn’t happy with my grade, but the rest turned out great 😊 Part of me feels like this break is too short for the amount of stress I was under during finals season, but I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can! It was amazing to finally get back to blogging as I really missed writing posts and truly interacting with you all 🥺 ❤ Just doing what I wanted and also being with my family again was really good for my Mental Health and needed in order to be ready for when the next semester comes!

Things that made me happy 😊

➽ Watching Shows ❤  I was barely able to watch anything at the beginning of the year, so it was great to have a bit more time during my break! My friend and I finished watching the first season of Cursed and watched the new Moxie movie, which was really great! We also watched Tiny Pretty Things – another book to TV adaption – and it was fantastic! Now I’m thinking about reading the book as well sometime 🥰

➽ Starting The Magnus Archives 💕 This is all thanks to Veronika who recommended this podcast to me 🥰 TMA is a horror anthology with an overarching storyline and I was surprised by how much I fell in love with it! I’m the biggest scaredy cat out there but I was immediately hooked and it really helps that there’s always a list of content warnings for each episode. I’m almost halfway through and very invested in the characters and storylines, loving all of them so much 🥺

➽ Making full use of my coloring books. Coloring relaxes me so much, but I never get around to doing it, as I always feel like I could be doing something else ‘more productive’. The trick for me was to listen to something while using my coloring book! This could be an audiobook, but in March it was predominatly the already mentioned Magnus Archives. This was such a good type of self-care for me and really helped me unwind ❤ The coloring book I was using is the Pusheen one because I like cats and it’s so adorable 🥺

How I’m spending much of my semester break ❤

Hopefully good things are coming in April 🌷 I’m still on break for half the month and hope to make use of that time to relax as much as possible before my next semester of university starts up again! It’s also my birthday month, which is exciting because of gifts (mostly books and new games for my Nintendo) and being able to spend it at home with my family, before I have to get back to my flat 🥰 (The downside is getting older and more technically ‘adult’ 😅) It’s also the Easter Weekend and therefore time for one of my favorite Readathons of the year: the Easter Readathon, which is always fun and boosts my reading! My plans for April are largely reading, blogging, listening to the Magnus Archives and playing on my Nintendo DS 💗 After the fun times it’s back for my second semester of my Master’s degree and trying to somehow keep myself from being so stressed again. I’m trying not to think about it, but lots of courses and work are coming up, with me having the bad luck of 3 exams (again), but we’ll see how I handle it. The next exam season is still firmly in the far future! For now it’s time to enjoy the first rays of spring sunshine ☀

Readathons I’m joining in April 🌷

TBR Post coming this weekend! 🌷

• Easter Readathon 🐣 April 2nd to 5th
• #ReadFatPositive ❤ April 7th to 13th

What were you up to in March? What was your favorite book? I hope you’re staying safe! ❤