Music Monday hosted by Lauren @ Always Me
Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer
It’s Monday What Are You Reading is hosted by Kathryn @ The Book Date
Music Monday
I’ve been listening to Blackmore’s Night a decent amount lately. I feel like my ‘medieval and pagan’ playlist is such a fun vibe for the summertime (I mean it’s always great but especially so right now). There’s obviously a lot of Blackmore’s Night on there so I decided to share the two most recent plays. I hope you enjoy them 😄!
Locked Within the Crystal Ball by Blackmore’s Night
Album: Secret Voyage
Release Year: 2008
Genre: Folk Rock / Medieval Rock
Loreley by Blackmore’s Night
Album: Ghost of a Rose
Release Year: 2003
Genre: Folk Rock / Medieval Rock
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Just DNF’d
I’m really bummed about this one but I had to DNF Hell’s Heart. It had some cool world-building but it tells the reader what’s going to happen in advance and thus sucks the tension away. Additionally a lot of the characters felt quite one-dimensional which didn’t help. I just couldn’t get invested.
I’ve read another book that I loved by this author so I’m disappointed about The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones. I liked the writing style but it’s the main character and the tropes that didn’t work for me. I feel like I’m honestly too old to be reading about teenagers consistently making stupid choices, it was pissing me off. Plus I read a few reviews which hint at a toxic “romance” and I lost all interest.
Currently Reading
I’m continuing my SOS Hotel journey with the 5th book, No Rest For The Wicked. This is a really fun series and I’m especially enjoying the narration by Michael Lesley. I love the characters exactly as he voices them!
I’m also still slowly reading Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare. I had renewed it the max number of times and had to re-borrow it but I’m having a lot of fun with it! I’m just glad no-one else wants it right now 😂.
Up Next
Finally, it’s my turn for my book pick in my IRL friend book club! I’ll be starting To Be Taught, If Fortunate ASAP. I can’t wait since I’ve mentioned it a bunch, and next time I talk about it I’ll actually have thoughts, haha!
On The Blog Recently
Bookish Lists:
– New This Month: 21 Awesome August Releases
Blog Memes:
– Top 10 Books With Peridot Covers To Celebrate August
– Top 10 Book Series I Want to Catch Up On
Wrap-Ups:
– Monthly Wrap-Up│ July 2026
Let’s chat in the comments!
What are you currently reading? If you participated in any of these memes this week feel free to share your links below 🖤.
Congrats on your anniversary! The zoo sounds fun. 🙂
Thank you, Celeste 🙂 & The zoo was delightful we walked around all day and it was nice being outside I haven’t done that a lot this summer.
I love Blackmore’s Night! Also, To Be Taught If Fortunate was amazing. Enjoy and thanks for linking up with me!
Ah yay, me too, they’re so much fun! And I’m glad you loved TBTIF. My pleasure. I’ve been experiencing some weird issues with InLinkz, for blogs that have been using it I haven’t been able to see the widget in the post when I’m on my computer. Weirdly if I go on my phone it’s fine so that’s how I managed to join up this week but I figure I’d let you know anyways just fyi. Also, I wasn’t able to comment on your post due to weird formatting today, so sorry I’m getting tech issues up the wazoo.
I like the idea of having a date in a zoo, but I imagine your weather must be much cooler than mine. These days I minimize my time outside. We’re like that level of Super Mario 2 (the one that was really Doki Doki Panic) where the sun is trying to kill you.
Oh yes, that day was actually super pleasant, we were worried it was gonna rain but instead it was warm and sunny, nowhere near scorching thankfully! Yeah I don’t blame you for wanting to avoid the intense weather. I just looked up Doki Doki Panic since I didn’t know what that was but the sun trying to kill you is not good in any world lol 😅.
It’s a weird story…there was a REAL Super Mario 2, but it was basically like Super Mario 1 but much harder. I knew as a kid SM2 was weirdly different from all the other games, but it wasn’t until I was listening to LGR talk about Doki Doki Panic that i knew anything about SM2’s unique origin!