Goodbye July and hello August! While I didn’t read a ton of books in July because I was on vacation for 2.5 weeks, I posted more reviews than usual. I also finished some ARCs and posted those reviews. It’s always nice to check another off one’s ARC list. Anyway, before I end up rehashing everything at the beginning, let’s dive into what I did in July.

Book Reviews

I posted six reviews in July. From earliest to latest they are:

• North Queen by Nicola Tyche
• Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison
• Brittle by Beth Overmyer
• Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
• Forged By Blood by Ehigbor Okosun
• The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe

I also participated in some book memes, which you can find in my July 2023 archive.

Blog Statistics

Every month I share some statistics from Google Analytics because I think it helps put expectations into perspective for other micro-bloggers like me who are out there.

I switched over to Google Analytics 4 because Google forced my hand. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the ability to show me unique page views like the previous version of GA. To do so I’d have to make coding adjustments to every page on my website. Frankly, that is a waste of my time. So, instead, I’m forced to switch to total page views. Not apples to apples, but this metric still shows what was most popular on my site in a given month.

My top five posts for total page views are:

1. Book Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: 248 views
2. Arthurian Retellings Reading List: 122 views
3. ARC Review: North Queen by Nicola Tyche: 89 views
4. Book Review: Gild by Raven Kennedy: 77
5. GraphicAudio A Court of Thorns and Roses: 69

SEO is kicking in and I can attribute the majority of my views in July to this. I didn’t tweet at all about my GraphicAudio review of ACOTAR in July, so that’s a prime example of SEO viewing.

July was also the first month my blog hit 2000 views! I was just shy of that last month by 100 views. Thank you to everyone for your support! I also gained one blog follower for a total of 145.

#BeatTheBacklog

I finished two books I’ve had on my TBR prior to 2023: TO WAKE A KINGDOM by Nisha J. Tuli and FELIX EVER AFTER by Kacen Callender. The former is a Sleeping Beauty retelling, which reads as a standalone despite it being part of a larger work. And the latter is a YA book with a trans main character working through being deadnamed at his high school. Both of these are Kindle books I bought a while ago.

NetGalley

My feedback ratio is 80%, 1% higher than last month. I submitted three reviews: BRITTLE by Beth Overmyer, FORGED BY BLOOD by Ehigbor Okosun, and THE NAVIGATING FOX by Christopher Rowe. I have two ARCs due in August that I plan to read as part of Trope-ical Readathon.

Other Bookish Items

I finished six books in July, which I consider pretty good given I was on vacation in Europe for 2.5 weeks.

• BOOKISH PEOPLE by Susan Coll (audiobook)
• FORGED BY BLOOD by Ehigbor Okosun (ARC)
• THE NAVIGATING FOX by Christopher Rowe (ARC)
• SISTER, MAIDEN, MONSTER by Lucy A. Snyder
• TO WAKE A KINGDOM by Nisha J. Tuli
• FELIX EVER AFTER by Kacen Callender

Since I don’t plan on writing a review for FELIX EVER AFTER, I want to write here that I enjoyed this book even though I don’t read much YA. The facet I appreciated the most was the inclusion of the discrimination of LGBTQ+ people within the LGBTQ+ umbrella. I felt that was very important to include.

I posted another On My Radar roundup of some posts I enjoyed in July.

I imposed a book-buying ban on myself for the indeterminate future. To help quench my desire to buy books it helps that I still have preorders arriving. However, there are a couple of events that I’ll bend this ban for: Fairyloot trove sale and two upcoming library sales.

Non-Bookish Items

Like last month, I made no progress on my non-bookish goals in July. However, I suppose I can consider walking 7+ miles every day in Europe to be plenty of exercise. I closed my Apple Watch rings every day for 2.5 weeks straight.

My husband and I traveled to Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Iceland for vacation this year. We spent 2-3 days in each country in their major cities. Tallinn, Estonia was a medieval delight. Stopping over in Iceland on the way home was refreshing because we could prioritize outdoor things. We saw puffins on Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) and some of the major waterfalls on the mainland without a ton of people due to our itinerary timing. Our planned shining star event was a splurge to go inside a dormant volcano and explore the magma chamber, which was awesome. And it still is one of the coolest things we’ve done. But we last minute squeezed in a fly over the current fissure volcano. We got so lucky there were seats left on a flight (tiny Cessna plane) in the morning since we flew out that afternoon to come home.

Gardening is going well with some things and trying my patience with others. I harvested the rest of our potatoes and planted one last small crop of them. We’re starting to get ripe tomatoes and peppers. But other peppers are growing at a snail’s pace. I picked some okra. We had to do a serious de-bugging of our kale plants. Despite some of the annoyances, I love gardening, though.

And that’s it for my monthly book blog wrap-up! How was your July?