mid-year reading update | 2025 ✩

It's so wholesome. It's so beautiful. There's just a lot of really thoughtful kind of philosophical and existential conversations and interactions between the two because Moscap has never experienced humanity before but is so curious about humans and would love to meet them and understand them.

Beachread is about two authors who in college were like academic rivals, and they each write quite different books. One is more romance, the other literary, and they cross paths one summer and are both struggling writing their next novel. So they decide to genre swap.

Book lovers is about two publishing professionals, a literary agent and an editor who kind of buted heads over one project in the past. And our main character goes on this sister's trip to a small town.

He tells his story in the most authentic way. It was such an interesting and educational book for me. So overall, this was just a very eyeopening book for me to read.

And I adored this. I really enjoyed this. I can definitely understand why this might not be everyone's cup of tea. It's not very plotheavy. It is predominantly very much character focused.

But I'm so glad I reread these books. I think my ratings are similar.

I really liked the gothic atmosphere for this one and it was also a really fun read. That said though, I did wish that there was a bit more meat to the story. I feel like they were really strong bones, but I would have loved for it to have been even 50 pages more.

I found a lot of the poems really moving and powerful and there was a lot of really rich and beautiful imagery.

I really enjoyed the premise and setup for this romance where we have two people who are just heartbroken. But I also really loved their dynamic, the banter between the two, but also just like the thoughtful gestures and moments.

Great big beautiful life is about two writers who are in a bit of a competition to secure this once in a career once in a lifetime opportunity to write the life story of this woman who was like an ays a tabloid princess back in the day and then just like disappeared from the face of the earth for decades.

The things that I didn't love about the characters and some of the issues with the relationship are things that hit a little too home for me in kind of an uncomfortable way.

I rated Mocking Jay three stars when I first read it, but I gave it four stars on a reread. Now, I think I just appreciated it a lot more. It is very much more focused on the politics rather than the arena.

I really enjoyed this one. Like I said, a very unique magic system, which I really liked exploring and understanding. It's also very atmospheric, and overall, I did really enjoy this one.

People we meet on vacation is like a friends to lovers situation. We have these two friends that used to travel together all the time, but they had a bit of a falling out and two years later reconnect.

I still adored this book. I didn't have as much of a strong emotional reaction to it. It just didn't hit quite as hard as the first book did, but it was still just as beautiful and whimsical and cozy and wonderful.

I think I was in tears for the last like 75 pages of this book. Struggling to read because I could barely see. So, safe to say this book definitely still hits. It is such a good one.

As to the question of whether it held up definitely and as many people have also said it definitely hits in a different way reading it now.

The Strength of the Few, which is the sequel to The Will of the Many, which was one of my favorite books that I read in 2024.

I loved the found family and the focus on friendships. It's just so rich in the atmosphere.