Good evening! I was going to write a post for the fourth, but I missed it because I was a little #lazy. So, to all of you Americans, Happy Late Independence Day!! I hope y'all had a blast. (Haha, ten points to anyone who gets the pun.) So then, since I said I would try to post twice this month, I was going to write a post for a new series called As-of-Recent, but I didn't finish that either since recap posts like that take a loooong time to pull together. And then the most magical thing happened. I went to the library. Yes, the magic always happens in the library.

So I thought that since I had to post this week about something before my hiatus starts, what better than to do a library book haul? Y'all like talking about books, right? Don't worry, I have some other posts planned out for when I get back, but it's been a while since I wrote a bookish post so we'll go with this for now.

NOTE: I go to the library at least twice a month, but recently I've been getting fewer books and giving myself the whole month to read them so I can manage my reading habits better. I called this post a "haul" but it's more of like a pitiful excuse for a sad, slacking bookworm to get in some fun reading before school starts again.


I don't know if this is a common trend in bookworms, but I really like checking out books that have coordinating color schemes. So thus the title of this post, with accents of gold and black.

The first book I got was The Traitor's Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen. I absolutely adored The Ascendance Trilogy she wrote, so I was super excited for her other books. Funny story: my library has only the third book in The Mark of the Thief series, and so I've been waiting forever and silently cursing the ordering system for my library to order the first. (WHO FREAKING ORDERS THE THIRD BUT NOT THE FIRST TWO?? WHY!!) So when they got The Traitor's Game about a month ago, I really only saw the "book one" tag on the spine before I snatched it up. Yes, I accidentally checked this one out. Oops. I started it, but then returned it because I had also checked out a bunch of Ally Carter books and those were basically by life about then. Thus leads me to checking it out now, because I hate to leave books unfinished. They're like lonely souls no one cared to learn about. well that got depressing quickly.

The first two chapters were kind of slow, and I'm not particularity enthralled with the main character, but I have faith that it will get better. I have a foggy memory that the beginning of The False Prince was similar, and yet I loved it.


The second book I got was The Hazel Wood. I vaguely recall reading a Paper Fury review on it, but I honestly have no idea and am too lazy to go search it up. It looks intriguing though. Let me know if you guys have read this before and what you thought of it. I would also appreciate questionable content recommendations before I start.


By this time, I realized that these two beauties had matching color schemes, so I obviously had to find a third to complete my shelf. Now I was going to check out another Ally Carter book (surprise surprise) or an Alex Rider book (I haven't finished the series yet), but I decided they could wait. Actually, they didn't have the second Heist Society book and I died and my sister checked out the fourth Gallagher Girls book before me THE LITTLE TRAITOR. In the midst of my despair, I forgot about the Alex Rider books. 

I decided to grab Pax, which I've been eyeing for a while but I heard it was sad and didn't know if I was willing to sacrifice the rest of my soul but OH WELL. It's for the color scheme, people. Anything to make it match. My little brother confirmed that, yes, it is sad from the get-go and so I now know that I will no longer have a soul by the time I finish these because these books keep eating it up and I have no soul left to give. #thismightbeaproblem


So what the heck does cacti have to do with this? Well...I also found this cute book, and while it broke the color scheme, it was the most adorable size (I'm known to check out library books based solely on this criterion) and it's about a girl without arms. Sounds fun.

So far, I've been loving it. The setting takes up several chapters to establish, but it's not boring at all. There's a lot of entertaining banter and background info. There's also supposed to be a mystery, so I'm excited. I'm seventy-five pages in and so far so good. Plus cacti are cute. That has nothing to do with how great the book is, but it's a fact, therefore you should listen to me. XD

haha, I'm sorry about the quality of these photos. Next time I'll use my DSLR. XD

Also, here's a reminder that I'm going on hiatus next week, and you're invited to join me! I'm taking all of next week, from the 8th through the 14th, entirely off from blogging and social media. If you would like to join me in this challenge, please do! I can promise that it will be so beneficial for you in so many ways. Here is the post I wrote about my personal experience from last month.

I hope you all have a lovely week! I will be at summer camp part of the time, as a youth camp leader/counselor, and I am! so! excited!!! I will see you all next Sunday. :D