Sooo, I spent last month traveling through Scandinavia. In my humble opinion, Scandinavia is one of the most beautiful places in Europe! The landscape varies from large, forested areas to rugged, mountainous terrain, cliffs plummeting into shimmering fjords, and wide, aquamarine lakes.

The more north I went, the more magical the landscape became, and it wasn’t hard to imagine that Vikings, trolls, goblins, dwarfs, and a flock of other mythical creatures once roamed these lands. While I did a lot of exploring during this trip, I also managed to take some rest, dig into my TBR list, and watch a few episodes of one of my favorite shows!

I Read…

I WISH YOU WOULD by Eva Des Lauriers! Oh, Eva, what have you done to my heart? 😉

For those of you who don’t know, Eva was my fearless cabin leader during Writing with the Soul’s Query Camp in the summer of 2023 (hummingbird cabin for life)! In May, she published her debut novel: I WISH YOU WOULD, and I am shooketh by the stunningness of this perfect YA summer romance read!

I WISH YOU WOULD’s story takes place over the course of the senior class’s final school weekend: an overnight at the beach—complete with volleyball competitions, bonfires, popsicles, and camp gear. Tradition demands that everyone writes a “private” (yeah…not for long) letter to themselves answering the question “what would you do if you were braver?”

We get our high school drama and teen romance (which I shamelessly love), but it’s mixed with more mature themes about family, expectations for the future, the best-friends-to-lovers trope (should we/shouldn’t we?), and the realities of life beyond high school.

The story is messy, charming, and very relatable. The drama, the angst, and the swoon are top-notch—as is the pacing, the dual POV, and the romantic tension! Congratulations on this wonderful book, Eva!

I Watched…

The second season of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON!

As I’m writing this, I’m still waiting for the season’s final episode to be released. BUT I can already say that HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2 is yet another masterpiece from George R. R. Martin and Ryan Condal!

Like season one, this season is riveting, outrageous, and incredibly cinematic in both scope and scale. Also, the series jumps straight into the usual shenanigans of beheading, backstabbing, and family feuding. Huzza!

Surprisingly, however, this season sprinkles some much-needed gentleness into the story (especially during the first couple of episodes): whereas the men are out for blood, the women (Alicent, Rhaenyra, and Rhaenys) show a certain level of restraint, kindness, and compassion. Of course, this will soon change due to age-old sexism and prejudice, and several vicious (male) advisers and their wicked agendas.

What I also loved about this season is that it’s hard to choose who the villain is (spoiler alert: they all are) and who to root for: there’s cocky and blood-thirsty Daemon (who becomes tormented by strange visions touching upon his deepest fears); strange, off-kilter Aegon (who started off as a total idiot but held court in an unexpectedly empathetic manner); and handsome and noble Sir Criston (who turns into a devious, power-hungry warlord—RUDE). There’s also Rhaenyra, who is doing everything in her power to keep her father’s peace even after her son’s blood has been spilled. Similarly, Queen Alicent, unaware of her father’s duplicity in organizing a coup after the king’s death, is dutifully carrying out the king’s last wish with an astonishing, kind-hearted grace.

Anyway, as I said, I’m still waiting for the season finale to be released (in two days, ahhh), but so far: YES to all of it!

I Listened to…

THE LORD OF THE RINGS audiobooks!

I spent over 6000 kilometers roadtripping Scandinavia last month, so I took the opportunity of many, many hours in the car to listen to the unabridged version of Tolkien’s famous trilogy.

I’m not usually an audiobook person: my mind inclines to wander (story ideas, to-do lists, what-if scenarios, etc.…), so I tend to miss out on parts of the story, and then I simply DNF.

With these books, however, it was fairly easy to stay “in the game” because the narrator does an amazing job of telling the story while also “performing” the different characters (and with Tolkien, there are so many, many characters), singing the songs and reciting the poems (and with Tolkien, there are so many, many songs and poems) 😉

These audiobooks also include all kinds of sound effects (a gurgling river, a creepy forest, sword fighting, the howling of orcs) and beautiful music with fragments from Howard Shore’s original movie score!

All these things enhanced the storytelling and made for incredibly magical listening. I found myself paying attention in a way I hadn’t in a long while, and it was altogether an experience I never thought I’d have with an audiobook!