Just when I thought that I was about to skip my first month of this year when I ended up not finishing any book, it happened! Phew!
This took place on 21st August, which is quite late if you ask me. By this time, I usually get to finish at least 3 books. Not to mention about my good times when I was finishing a book every two days!
Anyways, July ended up being quite interesting, as I was still reading on the last book in a trilogy, where I already shared my thoughts on the first two books in July, so I thought it was going to be a good month just because I expected to have a quick and good read on this 3rd book from Caraval, but I was wrong.
- Finale (Caraval, #3)
by Stephanie Garber ★★★☆☆
Generated with ChatGPT since I've read it on my Kindle and I don't own the real book
Finale is the book that made me have a love/hate relationship for more than half of the month. First, I expected this to be a lot easier to read since the 2nd volume of the Caraval series had already left me curious to see how the whole story ends.
Sadly, it proved to be a pain, barely getting to read 10-20 pages daily because it sort of pushed me into a reading slump, being boring for a while, then interesting, then boring again and so on.
I don't mind running into boring books, as I get it not every book has a lot of action. The thing that became exhausting was jumping from one mood to another pretty often. Now we were chasing the truth, then right after just contemplate about the past. Then we were back in action. Then back into wasting time. It's the kind of emotion you are not used to seeing in fantasy books, but somehow it took place in Finale.
I loved the plot twist and the ending, which is basically what saved the book from not getting a DNF from me, but I definitely expected more.
Finale by Stephanie Garber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
- Marvel Studios Character Encyclopedia
by Kelly Knox & Adam Bray ★★★★☆
As the month couldn't come to an end without breaking the chain of getting the bitter taste of reading slump installed, I thought about putting my reading list on pause and focusing on an encyclopedia that I wanted to get for so long and I managed to get it as an early birthday gift from my boyfriend.
Actually, I'm not sure how many of you know, but I've always loved superheroes. The funny part comes when I say that I'm not a fan of actual movies or series with superheroes (although I've watched a few), but of video games.
Hence why, I'd lie by saying that I knew everyone presented in the encyclopedia because, in fact, I only recognised maybe like 30% of the characters from the book, but I still had a blast getting through each page.
The single minus is, that this book is supposed to be an updated version after the one that was first released in 2019. So for the current encyclopedia I own and which was released in 2024, I'd have expected to see more familiar superheroes presented, like Deadpool, Daredevil and Jessica Jones, to name a few.
Sadly, that was not the case, as the book was mainly focusing on the universes of the Doctor Strange series, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Black Panther, which, even if it felt fun at first, became quite repetitive after a bit. No doubts though, that this book will have a special spot on my shelf, and I won't hesitate to get a new updated version if and when released.
The Marvel Comics Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the Characters of the Marvel Univers by Tom DeFalco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Check out my previous monthly recaps:
Gabriela Travels is a Curator for Worldmappin and Hive Gaming communities, but also the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (350+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game and book reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 850+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.
~ @GabrielaTravels ~
