Hello, lovelies! Summer is winding down and I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that September is here! I mean: WINTER IS COMING 😉

Luckily, I read several excellent books last month, watched some fantastic shows, and listened to great music, so I’m feeling energized and ready to dive into fall! 

I Read…

The Ash Princess Trilogy by Laura Sebastian!

I picked up this trilogy while on the hunt for good comp titles for my WIP. The trilogy is the author’s debut work, it has a ton of familiar YA fantasy tropes, and is a quick, easy, straightforward read. 

I particularly enjoyed its well-crafted story world. Ash Princess’ magic system is not new (hellooo, elemental magic and gemstones), but I truly liked the idea of a person having to descend into one of the four mines (fire, air, earth, or water) in order to be either blessed by the gods or become mine-mad and succumb to the force of the magic. DRA-MATIC 🙂

The books in the trilogy are Ash Princess (2018), Lady Smoke (2019), and Ember Queen (2020). Based on the titles, the story’s progression over the course of the trilogy is clear: Theo, our protagonist, starts as an imprisoned princess and slowly grows into a queen ready to join the rebellion, fight for her country, and reclaim her crown. She faces loss, violence, sacrifice, betrayal, and war but finds friendship, love, and courage.

Seriously, I love a good YA rebellion story and I’m definitely keeping this trilogy in my comp mix!

I Watched…

The final season of Netflix’s Locke & Key! 

Why is this the final season, Netflix? WHY? 

Based on the comics by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez, Locke & Key tells the story of the Locke family and their weird but magnificent ancestral home in Massachusetts, called Keyhouse. Keyhouse hides some very cool magical keys that can be used to unlock faraway places, ancient times, or special powers. 

In its third and final season, the series tries to wrap things up once and for all. Of course, we’re introduced to new keys, and I had a lot of fun learning about their magical powers (ehm, snow globes, and time travel? YES, please). Some of my favorite characters return to Keyhouse and of course, there’s a big bad baddy.

Needless to say, like the previous two seasons, I binged this final part of the series and I’m so sad we won’t see anything more of Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode. AGAIN: WHY, NETFLIX? WHY?  

I Listened to…

All the Taylor Swift songs Spotify has to offer!

What can I say? The end of summer threatened to come way too soon and I was in a MOOD. The only solution I could think of? Some serious T. Swift TLC—the mysterious and mystical kind that demands you to lose yourself in the music and the lyrics, and makes you feel ALL the feels.

Like a great fiction novelist, Taylor sweeps me up in her storytelling. 

Her ability to use metaphors and weave in super specific details (red scarf, anyone?) makes her songs come to life. She makes me want to fall in love and break up, take revenge and kick ass, leave and come home.

As a writer, I admire her skills! The specificity of the details inject so much emotion into her lyrics, and they make her songs super powerful. Gah! I might write an entire post about this because mannn: Tay Tay is AMAZING!