Monthly Inventory: July 2020

July 2020

This month was bittersweet in a lot of ways. I was supposed to be going on an epic trip to Europe–one I’ve been planning for years–but COVID had stopped that from happening. I still took some of my vacation off from work which was a great decision. Not only did it let me do some seriously great reading but the mental break from healthcare did wonders for me.

Reading wise, I had a stellar month! I finished a lot of series (or read sequels for), fit in a lot of ARCs ahead of schedule, and finished my Scribd trial. I actually felt motivated to read; something that hasn’t really happened in long spurts since March. My reading stats did slump near the end of the month but that’s really only because projects around the house and other summer plans got in the way.

Total for July 2020: 21 Books Read + 0 Novellas Read

DNF’d: 0 Books

Last July 2019: 12 Books Read + 0 Novellas Read + 3 DNFs

Standout Read (★★★★★)

I had a few 5 star reads this month (like You Had My at Hola and If the Sun Never Sets) but this one made me smile and giggle with the great chemistry between the leads.

Biggest Let Down (★★)

This wasn’t bad but it wasn’t fresh for me either. It started off so promising but I got bored with it fairly quickly.

While I’ve been meaning to sign up for Scribd for a little while (it’s one of the last subscription services I haven’t tried), I finally got around to it! July was my last month using the service so I tried to make the best of it!

Like I always do when I sign up for subscriptions, I wanted to see if I got my money’s worth and so I will be keeping track of all the books I read via the service.

Making a Play by Abbi Glines (audio)
Four Seconds to Lose by K A Tucker (audio)
Royal Bastard by Andrew Shvarts (audio)
Man Cuffed by Sarina Bowen and Tanya Eby (eBook)
City of Bastards by Andrew Shvarts (audio)
The Skylighter by Becky Wallace (eBook)
Five Ways to Fall by K A Tucker (audio)
In a House Made of Bones and Teeth by Alyxandra Harvey (eBook)
Maybe Now by Colleen Hoover (audio)
Rebel Heir by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward (audio)

Overall, Scribd has its perks and some disappointments. Honestly, this list would have had more titles if they didn’t have a silly cap on the number of people who could access titles (like the sequels to Royal Bastards and Rebel Heir). I actually ended the service a week earlier than I needed to because there were zero titles I wanted to read that I had access to by that point. I wrote a full review of the series that I will post in August.

I finished a lot of series this month which was great. It wasn’t even one of my “Sequel Months”; it was simply because I wanted to take advantage of the last month of my Scribd trial.

Previously posted series reviews that got updates:

You can always get the full details on all my challenges on my dedicated page but here is a quick update:

5 Year 5 Book Challenge: 0 books added | 15 of 31 Titles Read – 3 books behind!
Goodreads Challenge: 20 books added | 127/155 Books – 38 books ahead!
Tackling the TBR Challenge: 4 books added | 16/24 Books – Ahead!

View my Challenge Progress Here!

I used to do a big Goodreads Purge twice a year but I like the idea of doing a little bit at a time and had great success last year doing this on a monthly basis. The idea is to go through 5-10 books on your Goodreads TBR list chronologically and decide if they should stay or go. My 10 titles consist of 7 “new to me” titles and 3 “previously started series” titles.

This month: