It's currently 9:00 pm and I don't know why I'm making a post. Today's topic somehow compelled me to drop my homework assignments and here we are. The other posts I checked out are a bit more book-related as the topic is an audio freebie. But, because my brain has been in a bit of a muck recently, here are ten songs that have been keeping me sane.

sunrise - gfriend

Every time I hear this song I get chills. It's a go to for lip singing to (cause I can't Korean very well) and Eunha's note literally gets me every. single. time.

stay the way you are - boyfriend

Fun fact, Boyfriend was the first K-pop boy group I legitimately stanned. Take a look at some of their Korean comebacks and you'll understand why - their concepts are amazing. It's really sad that they didn't get a lot of traction in Korea but they're slaying in Japan. Honestly, this song just makes me happy, I can't go through the chorus without at least breaking into a smile.

four seasons - taeyeon

For the record, I love Taeyeon. This song has only been out for four days and it's my new obsession. It is my current go to when I'm walking to class and her vocals are just so buttery it's great. The MV is also just straight up aesthetic goals.

like it - clc

This song stood out to me the most when I first listened through CLC's No.1 album and after I saw the live stage - I think I was sold. There's just something about the choreo for this particular song that stands out to me so that every time I listen, my body is internally dancing along.

where you at - loona

Loona's first comeback is basically groundbreaking for their use of diverse representation in the MV and all the tracks are honestly my favorite. I had such a hard time picking a favorite but honestly, whenever I pull up the album on Spotify, my finger always lands on this song to kick things off. For that reason alone, it got featured but I honestly would not be able to tell you a favorite from this album.

cantabile - wjsn

Hands down my favorite song from the album simply because Dawon wrecked my bias list with her cover of "Youth" and now all I want to hear is her voice. She gets the first part of the chorus in Cantabile and I have honestly been listening to this song on repeat simply for her voice. 

you are not alone - gfriend

Cheat #1 - we have an artist duplicate. This was technically my favorite song from their album but Sunrise grew tremendously on me. Still, since it stood out to me the most, I had to include it on the list. I guess it also has to do with little English line (which also happens to be the title) that calms me whenever I hear it.

show - clc

Cheat #2 - I couldn't not include Show because I love it just as much as Like It. CLC's entire album just showcased their power as a group and for lack of a better reason why I love this song: they got their first win after four years so they can just get two shout-outs.

i wanna be - key ft. soyeon

This is another song that just makes me happy whenever I listen to it. Admittedly, I checked this song out because of Soyeon's feature but I fell in love with the song as a whole. Soyeon's vocals shocked me a bit but they just fit so nicely with Key's as wel as the entire vibe of the song. 

sayonara - red velvet

Concluding this list is this lovely ballad that honestly just sounds so smooth it's calming. This has such a different sound compared to Red Velvet's other Japanese releases and really showcases all of their vocals so nicely. Just listen, I promise it's like a warm fluffy blanket.


Well now that I have efficiently wasted an hour of my time, here's my list. Honestly, these ten songs are just a couple of mentions because I couldn't list everything I've listened to (that would take forever and I do eventually need to submit this reading assignment).

Music has always been a therapeutic source of escape that I can plug into while stressing over work and I would love to know some tunes you're enjoying!

your turn: what's the last song you listened to?

Publication Date: August 6, 2019

Tags: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings

Publisher: Delacorte Publishing

Pages: 416

★★★
In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

🌊 a horror retelling: this story is pitched as retelling on the 12 Dancing Princess with a bit of scary thrown in. I haven't actually read a lot of retellings following this story, so I was definitely interested in how the author was going to deliver her rendition. The world has so much to offer and the author does a really great job in introducing the People of the Salt as well as their neighboring cities. The original story was used as a foundation for the plot but there was a lot of creative freedom that was taken to make the novel unique.

🌊 vivid descriptions: imagery was definitely the highlight of this novel. The word choices made from describing the beautiful balls to the horrific visions were all so vividly portrayed. The amount of detail that is used to describe the dresses and the fairy shoes take an entirely different turn when describing the ghosts and monsters - but it had the same powerful impact of evoking very clear imagery while reading. 
🌊 pacing is a bit lulling: this point was probably one of the biggest “eh” factors that made this story…less enjoyable. The pacing of this story goes from very slow to a sudden rollercoaster of events. I’ll admit, I definitely skimmed a good chunk of pages because I was getting bored and then all of a sudden had to stop and go back because out of nowhere, ten different plot twists were happening. It makes the flow of the story feel jarring with less of a flow. 

🌊 relationship settings: I really loved the portrayal of sisterhood and family within the story. We start with Eulalie’s funeral and the entire family in mourning - right from the start there is deep connection between the sisters that help them get through all the ups and downs of the story. They do have their disagreements and disillusionments, but they ultimately are rooted in their love for each other. The romantic relationships on the other hand…left me conflicted. We are technically introduced to two love interests for our MC: Fisher the childhood friend and Cassius the mysterious stranger. I’ll be honest, I didn’t trust Cassius but Fisher didn’t really stand a chance. Because of those conclusions, Fisher’s interest in Annaleigh felt redundant (though he did handle her “rejection” well) and I never quite got on board the CassiusxAnnaleigh ship. There just wasn’t enough in their relationship to really ground me - I ended up skimming past their conversations and it all boiled down to just a common interest in the other and a realization that something was wrong and this stranger person could help. I don’t know, maybe it’ll grow on me.

have you read House of Salt and Sorrows? check out my spoiler thoughts:

  🌊 Morella: I honestly did not even suspect her which caught me by surprise. I was definitely too busy pitting Cassius and Fisher against each other and trying to figure out who I “preferred” with Annaleigh that the possibility of any shady business on the stepmother’s part was forgotten. The scheming stepmother is such a common trope but the author addresses it in a way that doesn’t jump out at you till the end - making the reveal more impactful.

o However, Morella does have some redeeming factor. Seeing how Annaleigh’s father reacts while drunk, it’s not a surprise that he slept around with the help so Morella actually believing his “love” makes sense. The murdering of her predecessor is obviously unforgivable as Camille reacts, but she does love her husband (in a weird way) and feels enough remorse to pay for her actions. I don’t know, but I definitely feel sorry for her.

🌊 Verity: She was such a creepy child but in the best way possible. I’m heartbroken that she was the target for Kosamaras’ nightmarish vision but going back to the vivid descriptions, I could see the horrific artwork and it was oddly beautiful (scary still.) The scene where Annaleigh wakes up and finds Verity waltzing with her black eyes - that was terrifying.

🌊 Visions: On the topic of Kosamaras, the sheer strength of her power is terrifying. She manages to weave an alternate reality where the characters are essentially her puppets to guide all because a higher deity has asked her to carry out a bargain. By the description of her status, I would say she’s probably on the middle of the power spectrum but it’s still scary to imagine what Pontus’ power would be, or Viscardi as we only really saw a smidge of his power. Also if Viscardi is so powerful shouldn’t Vestia have been able to save her son - I guess it was all for the dramatic factor.

🌊 All the deaths at the end: Lord Thaumas’ death was…unfortunate. I’m not quite sure how I feel about him because he wasn’t the best of people, but at the same time, he truly loved his daughters and his passing left all of them in a lurch. However, I also feel like it’s fitting because his generation severely messed up and now their descendants can literally rebuild their legacy and home. It’s conflicting. And then we have Cassius. His death was sad mostly because Annaleigh had lost everyone already, but then he came back and I’ll admit, I was disappointed. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Annaleigh to be happy, but there was just a bit too much of mush and gush of “I love you much I wished for your return” that killed the ending a bit for me.

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Does House of Sorrows sound like something you'd pick up when it comes out? 

A quick thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC for review. :) 

The Path Keeper by NJ Simmonds

Publication Date: May 28, 2019

Tags: Young Adult, Paranormal/Urban

Publisher: BHC Press/H2O

Pages: 416

★★★

What if all our lives were mapped out before birth? Does anyone have the power to change their destiny?
Ella hates London. She misses her old life in Spain and is struggling to get over her past—until she meets Zac. He’s always loved her but isn’t meant to be part of her story. Not this time. Not ever. Little does she know that his secret is the one thing that will tear them apart and force her to live in a world that no longer makes sense. A world full of danger, lies and magic.
THE PATH KEEPER is a passionate tale of first loves, second chances and the invisible threads that bind us. Can love ever be stronger than fate?

👼 in between young and new adult - our main character is in university but for some reason, I went into this novel thinking it was categorized as YA. It's a bit confusing because the accurate age range of characters would fit the new adult genre but the way Ella acts can feel a bit childish. We don't get a lot about her life before her mother married Richard and even though she says she's unused to the luxurious lifestyle, she definitely uses her status to her advantage with ease. It was a bit hard to take her seriously at times due to how she reacted to several events in the story.

👼 do you believe in fate? - this novel is definitely rooted in the insta-love trope. Admittedly, our MCs have technically been in love for multiple lifetimes but personally, I'd like a relationship that had more substance. It seems like Ella was infatuated with Zac from the moment they met and that was all she needed to know about him was his physique to become completely obsessed with him.

👼 past lives - since a huge part of the plot revolves around individuals having predestined life paths and focuses on what happens when one doesn't follow said path, the way that past lives were interwoven was definitely an important aspect. Personally, the delivery of Ella's past lives was a bit confusing at first because we jumped from present to multiple past lives randomly. The formatting could have been a bit weird due to my copy being an e-ARC but the different snippets of the past took a while to get used to. On the bright side, all the pieces do eventually fall into place and everything makes sense.

have you read The Path Keeper? check out my spoiler thoughts!

  👼 Zac's sacrifice - the ending was...overly dramatic. I felt like we had built up to a pretty decent finale and the ending felt like it cheapened that build-up. It was definitely a very "climatic" event and very Zac-like to choose mortality over murdering his father. I felt like if we had maybe one more chapter that helped the story wind down a bit, it would have made the ending feel more resolute. It seemed as if the author wanted the shock factor to keep readers interested in the sequel rather than keeping readers based upon the personal connection to the plot/characters.
👼 What's going to happen to Ella's mother and stepfather now that she's reunited with Ella's father? - this point was very glossed over and it's something that I hope will be addressed in the sequel. It's just a bit murky and I'm a bit worried about how the author will choose to address it. Also...what exactly did she say to the stepfather to make him marry her? Questions...
👼 Josh (?) and Sebastian - I have multiple things to say about these two characters. Firstly, it felt unfair to Josh (I hope that's his name...) that he was portrayed as such a douchebag. I get that Ella is supposed to be in love with Zac and I'm not a personal fan of love triangles, but the guy never stood a chance. If he was who Ella's path was supposed to include, would she really fall in love with a guy like him? My answer would be no so in my mind his character was redundant.
o For Sebastian, I had a feeling he had done something to Ella to make her dislike him and while sleeping with your new stepsister the night of your parents' wedding is bad and it's revealed that he does a lot worse things to girls (aka he's unforgivable) - his character trope felt...cliched.
o I don't know if I'm being too...picky about how the other "men" other than Zac were portrayed, but all the other "young" guys were portrayed very negatively other than Zac. Which gives off the impression that all men are horrible people unless they're an archangel who lowkey has been in love and stalking you for several lifetimes. Just a thought.

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Does The Path Keeper sound like something you'd pick up when it comes out? 

A quick thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC for review. :) 

I honestly thought today was still February but surprise surprise it's March. This month was actually not totally horrible in the realm of books - I felt like I finally got recommitted to reading even though I still only read three books for fun. I've also tried being more active with blog posting and bookstagram (we're going on two weeks strong now!) So yeah, this month was an improvement.

herland by charlotte perkins gilman - (★★★) - I read this for my Women's Voices Literature class and it was honestly quite an interesting book. I really enjoyed all the conversations that we had in class about Gilman's portrayal and implications of a feminist utopia. It read very much like an informative journal as opposed to a novel which helped with the speculative process.

their eyes were watching god by zora neale hurston - (★★★☆) - This was also for the same lit class and I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The experiences that Janie, the main character, had felt so universal and relatable despite her coming from a completely different historical time period and racial background. I think I resonated with this novel so much because of how women in the racial minority spectrum were portrayed - it was just so cool to experience a sense of kinsmanship with a character that I have nothing in common with other than gender.

the demon king by cinda williams chima - (★★★) - review - Took me long enough to jump on the Seven Realms bandwagon and honestly I'm a bit underwhelmed. I enjoyed the premise and creation of the story but the character development honestly fell flat. I'm struggling still to garner up a desire to continue on with the series but a part of me wants to find out why people love these books so much.

the crown's game by evelyn skye - (★★★) - review - It only took me approximately one school semester to read this...but I finally did it. I definitely didn't fully get into the story until the later 50% but I still ended up getting the sequel so hopefully it won't take me another semester to read that. I enjoyed how the author portrayed the high stakes of the Crown's Game, but I wasn't blown away by characterization.

the winter of the witch by katherine arden - (★★★★★) - review - My heart was ripped, roughly sewn together, and then ripped apart over and over again with this one. I am blown away by the amount of love I have for this trilogy as a whole. As a grand finale, this book did it all. I think it's been quite a long time since I've felt as satisfied with a series ending of a favorite as I did with this one. Even though I just finished, I'm already checking my schedule to see when I can do a reread.

I think just ending February with a highly anticipated release and having my expectations met and blown just left me feeling really excited and hyped. I'm already looking into what posts I can create inspired by the Winternight trilogy so stay tuned for that in March. I'm counting down the days until spring break when I can spend all day reading and hopefully catch up to my Goodreads challenge because I am unfortunately still behind. 😅

- your thoughts -

What are some books you have finished this month and recommend to me your favorite read, I would love to check some new books out! 

Also, if you have read Herland or Their Eyes Were Watching God, I would love to discuss what you thought as well!