July Wrap Up 2017

Hi everyone!

It's been a little while, but I am really working hard at my new site and new channel, so I'll be back soon. Combined with traveling, I've had very little time to construct filler posts or visit many blogs. But I will be popping around to see you all soon. 

Life has been going full throttle. In July I was still in Spain in for the whole month. I got to a lot of different things. I continued with my hiking adventures and went hiking every week with the same gang as last month. However, this time we also went rock climbing. My fear of heights definitely kicked in, making it an exhilarating and terrifying experience at the same time. I could've kissed the flat ground when we finally got to the top. And I don't mean the controlled indoor rock climbing. I mean more like climbing up the face of the cliff part of the mountain! 

We continued our beach days, which were perfect as the weather ricocheted up to average about 35 degrees at the height of the day. We also went up into one of the castles that was nearby and had a lovely view of all of Alicante. I really love finding somewhere high and getting a nice view while on holiday! 

I finally got my exam results! I passed IB, which made me happy. But what was better? I made it into my top choice of university! It is now sure that I will be going on to study English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick University in the UK. Which means I will be moving away from the Netherlands and back to my home country after all these years. That scares and excites me at the same time. I can't wait :) 

I finished editing my older sister's manuscript (which was amazing by the way! More on that later) and also on a creative writing novella booklet for my little sister. I feel like I've been doing a lot of editing because I've been editing my own novel. As well as that I wrote short stories and poetry a lot because suddenly I've been brimming with a lot of ideas. I'm quite satisfied with the amount of writing I've been doing lately. I've been sending out my work to literary magazines and hopefully something will come back positive. *Fingers crossed.*

We went to see the annual parade in Novelda, and I absolutely loved the costumes. We didn't stay for the whole event because that would be quite long, but it was really nice to see the beautiful clothing. I wonder how long it must have taken to make all of them, and in such detail too! 

I also ended up rewatching Inception (seriously one of my favourite movies of all time) and I finished season three of Baby Daddy. Still loving it :D

If you want to see more of my life updates, follow me on snapchat! But actually, I post more on my insta stories now, so make sure to follow me over there too ;)

I'm still not home, so I still haven't taken a full wrap up picture. But I read 3 physical books (I only had three more unread ones with me on holiday) and some other ebooks too. I'm counting nine books because I'm totally including my sister's manuscript.) 

Private Reserve by Diana Sobolewski was a nice new adult romance which was a good read. I liked the second half more than the first half, but it was still a fairly good read.

The Dragons of Nova by Elise Kova was a very strong sequel in a series I love. I can't wait for the finale. I might not have liked it as much as book one, but it was still so good!

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood was one I buddy read with Hannahreadstoomuch from Instagram. Although I wanted to love it, I couldn't for various reasons. But I loved it for other reasons at the same time. Mixed opinion... so a review to come soon? 

Fade by Santino Hassell and Ais was a 1214 page conclusion to a series I absolutely love and have devoted too much of my life to recently. THE ENDING WAS NOT OKAY. I didn't even manage to know if some of my favourite characters had survived or not... and a cliffhanger ending? I couldn't take it... 

So I had to read 1/27 by Santino Hassell and Ais. A short story collection which was for after the ending of the series. It settled my feels a little and ended the cliffhanger. But, it also promised a sequel series D: It was promised in 2010, and it still isn't around. But I will always help because I can't let go of these characters. A new favourite series! I still don't want to admit it has all ended. 

You Can't Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson was an autobiography about black culture and feminism. I liked it, and could relate to it a lot. But I also had a few problems with it too, which I will discuss further in an upcoming book review. 

Strong Signal by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell is the first book in a series I had some hang ups about. But I got over them quickly because this book was just SO CUTE. Like, if this book was a human I would have squished their cheeks in my fingers. I loved the romance, loved the online relationship aspect and especially the themes it dealt with. 

The Surfers Solution by Cathy Yardley was a quick, summer-y kind of romance which was also about being a workaholic. It had a lot of enjoyable, nice elements to it. I don't think I will ever be able to really dislike a book by her because she writes perfectly to what I need when I look for her books. 

And lastly, my sister's manuscript. I can't wait for this novel to hit the shelves. She writes so wonderfully, sisterly bias aside. It also has such relevant themes, about tensions between countries on an international level, the refugee crisis, family, friendships and humanity as a whole. It also relates to world war three... Eeee, just writing about it makes me so excited!

The new website will be here soon! I'm working on it with my dad to get it all set up. Hopefully it will be done by mid-August and the next post can be over there! Then I will back to posting more frequently. :) Thank you for your patience!

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New Video! Wrap Up from my channel for those who would prefer to watch rather than read :)

Olivia's Question: How was July for you? What did you get up to? What was your favourite read?

Olivia-Savannah x