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May Theme: Summer Reading Challenge

Welcome to another update of my reading journal! Let’s kick things off with a review of April. I’m actually going to re-share the cover for April’s theme because I was able to add more stickers when I got the Ninja Suey collection from Wonton in a Million, and it turned out so stinking cute!

The Steam Team goes along so well with the art style from Sanrio! I even had tiny stickers that were the perfect size to mark the days that I read. (Which was every day! I’m on a roll. Haven’t missed a single day yet this year!) But how many books did I read? Let’s check the stats!

Only seven books for just over two thousand pages. Not a lot. But as you can see, I read many episodes of web serials, mostly on Kindle Vella. There are quite a few stories that I’m trying to keep up with now and it’s getting to be a little crazy. I noticed that the Kindle app only sends me a notification about a new episode sometimes, maybe one out of every 3 or 4 stories I’m following. What’s the point of following if it won’t tell me about all of them? I keep having to go check each one to make sure that I’m not missing anything!

Anyway, this month is going to be different because it’s the start of the YA SFF Addicts’ Summer Reading Challenge! I’m a team captain for the House of Vampires, so I’ll be trying to read as many YA Fantasy and Sci-fi titles as I can over the next four months. To help us record the challenge, Evelina Everest made us a beautiful reading journal. I printed it out and pasted the pages inside my year-long journal so it would all stay together.

Isn’t it pretty? I love the bright summery colors! And I already had the perfect washi tape to match the journal. It’s the “Here Comes the Sun” box from Simply Gilded. I may switch out some of the designs for the other months of the challenge, but this is a great way to start.

A new type of page for me to track in my journal: a reading log and a star tracker. So far, I’ve only finished one book this month. I need to get cracking to catch up with the Fae team, because they’re killing it right now!

We can also get bonus points for reading books that fit certain themes. It’s helpful to have the whole list so I can use it when I’m trying to pick the next book.

And here’s the first book that I finished for the challenge: Our Violent Ends! I tried to avoid mentioning any spoilers for the first book. It was great, even though the ending was so sad. (Not a spoiler if you know anything about Romeo & Juliet.) It was a cool format to use, even though there isn’t much room to write a review. I’ll have to decide if I want to keep using it for this challenge or if I’ll use my own.

Don’t forget that this challenge is going on for four months and you can still join at any time! If you want to learn more about the challenge, follow the link below. And everyone who signs up gets a digital copy of the reading journal for free, so you can use this design, too!

May 1-September 1

Kristen

I'm an author, a blogger, and a nerd. I read and write fantasy.