Welcome To My Bookshelf | What I Read August 2020 + Currently Reading

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Hey sweet, beautiful, wonderful friends. How are YOU today?

I realise I’m a little late, as typically this post would have gone up you know, in, well, AUGUST, but on top of being busy hiking in Wales, the past couple of weeks or so, your girl has been feeling unmotivated. I’ve been taking it easy on myself, and completely embracing my feelings of, ‘nah, not today’ as I’m all for embracing every aspect of our lives and not stressing… I knew the motivation would come back soon, and now here I am, with a fresh kick of fire in my belly (is that even a saying?) ready to get going. But honestly, just a reminder, if you’re not feeling on top of your A game at the moment, it’s fine, go easy on yourself and know that it’s not forever… enjoy your rest time, and know life goes in phases like the moon, and as they say –

‘The moon is a reminder that no matter what phase I am in, I’m still whole’

Moving on… and getting to the point of this blog post, today I am here with my ‘What I Read In August’ reviews – woohoo!!! I’ve really been getting into my reading lately and it’s felt so good, last month I definitely read more than I did back in July where I only completed one book, though, it was a pretty hench book sooo… makes sense ;). Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into the reviews.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS / SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

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What I’ve Read | August 2020

I Heart Hawaii – Lindsey Kelk

The last in the ‘I Heart’ series from Lindsey Kelk, ‘I Heart Hawaii’ sees main character Angela jet off to Hawaii with her best friends Jenny and Louisa, along with her boss and several other lucky guests and influencer’s who have been invited on the trip as promo for a mascara, living the dream!!!

I read this book pretty quickly, as I lay out in the sunshine it had me wishing I too was in Hawaii, craving a poolside bar and a good time with the girls. I’ll just allow that to manifest right this second… 😉

Back to the book! The beginning of this story has you instantly intrigued, as the Prologue is set in the future and is a little mysterious… it has you thinking ‘what on Earth has happened’, which instantly draws you into the book, as you of course need to know what happens. Well, I’ve followed Angela on all her journey’s so far, I had to see how the story wrapped up.

What I love the most about the ‘I Heart’ series are the friendships, Jenny is my favourite character, and her friendship with Angela is so warm and endearing, the friendships in this series are ultimately what draws me to these books, they’re just so lovely and heartwarming. I love the adventure, the life goals. Angela’s having a great time, with a great group of people. Now that the series has come to a close, I’m truthfully already missing the friendships, so I do expect to re-read these books at some point in the future, and of course I need to read the short spin offs based on Jenny’s life!

Being that this book is the last in the series, I think it was a lovely wrap up. It’s a warm, endearing, comforting read with a steady plot. I absolutely loved the location settings, Hawaii, New York and even a teeny bit of England (well, just Angela’s parents house), everything wrapped up absolutely beautifully.

Whilst I enjoyed this book, being that it’s more the ending of the story (for now – who knows what the future holds), it was more of a lovely, comforting read as opposed to excitement, excitement, excitement, which is to be expected from a closing novel – though of course, there was still a storyline to follow and plenty going on!

Overall, ‘I Heart Hawaii’ wrapped the ‘I Heart’ series up beautifully, and I am so grateful for this gorgeous tale of friendship, adventure and love.

What a beautiful series.

I rate ‘I Heart Hawaii’ a 4/5. Thank you Lindsey Kelk!

Queenie – Candace Carty-Williams *SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

What a great book, I stayed up so late finishing this, I couldn’t put it down. ‘Queenie’ is a fast paced read, jam packed with so much going on, and thankfully, lots of likeable characters which is super endearing. Queenie herself is a great character, and it was such a blessing to witness her character growth. She came SO far, and whilst at times she made decisions I didn’t always agree with, that’s the point – she was depressed, but she got herself help, she experienced growth and that is the beauty of this novel, the hope, the character development. My favourite character from this book would have to be Kyazike but the friendships are all great, I love Darcy too.

Queenie is such a shocking book at times, when I tell you certain plot twists had me gasping, also, this book provokes emotion. I felt angry, hurt and frustrated when reading throughout this book as some of the situations were horrible and unbelievable! I couldn’t believe the way certain people behaved – and how they allowed other people to behave. For example, Tom, Queenie’s ex – unbelievable!!! He should have defended Queenie more – not to say that she didn’t play her part in the relationship breaking down, as she acknowledges herself and learns / grows from, but he should have defended her. And he should have been more clear with her about moving on. I am so pleased with how this book turned out though, the ending was beautiful, with love, friendship and the perfect round up to an epic journey of a novel.

A fantastic read, thank you Candice Carty-Williams!

5/5.

The Game Of Life and How To Play It – Florence Scovel Shinn

When it comes to self help books, I like to now write about them in my journal throughout and after reading, to reflect on what I have gained from the book. So before I say anything more, I’m actually going to share my own personal reflections from my journal –

‘I completed this book, it’s a very good book but a little old fashioned. Of course being that it is older, that makes sense. One thing that stands out to me from this book is having faith in my intuition. I have been following my intuition more recently, I hear it – lol. I just felt my intuition calling me to go outside so I did, a guy next door was fixing the fence / doing something with it. I don’t know who he is, but it was obviously meant for me to meet him. I don’t know, it’s just funny. But I knew I couldn’t ignore what I was hearing, lol. This is so funny. Anyway, the book, as I said, it has taught me about following my intuition more, listening to Divine Guidance. It’s also opened me up to prayers in the Divine etc. I like the affirmations at the end. This is quite a simple, easy to follow book. I’d rate it a 4 out of 5. Not all of it resonated with me, although I guess ultimately it has led me on the right path to trusting in the Divine and listening to my intuition. I’ll probably read this book again at some point, and I think it’s a great go to with lots of great examples. This reading I mostly got ‘listen to your intuition, follow your Divine guidance’ as what I’ve gained from reading this. I’m sure there is more for me to gain from having a re-read of this. Follow your intuition!’

So there you have it, my initial thoughts on the book. I really love this book and think it’s such a great teaching, I’m sure it’s going to be one of my go to’s from now on and it’s definitely up there as one of my top recommendations for LOA / Spirituality books – I gained a lot from it and will definitely be going back to it for more.

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Currently Reading

Get Out Of Your Head – Lizzie Lloyd-Raynes

Woohoo! I just started reading this eBook yesterday as I am now affiliated with Lizzie Lloyd-Raynes and her eBooks & courses – this is something I am SO excited about as what she does is verrry much up my alley. ‘Get Out Of Your Head’ is an eBook teaching YOU self confidence, how to ‘get out of your head’ and command your confidence, improve your communication skills and ace public speaking. You know how much I love a self development book and I’m all for self confidence, so I am so excited to read this. I am only a few pages in and so excited to delve in a little deeper, especially considering the fact that there are – eek – exercises to do too as part of this book. Woohoo! I love a book that has an exercise, I’m really excited to get involved with this and experience even more personal development and growth.

If you’d like to check the book out for yourself you can click the link here* where you’ll find a free 9 page preview of the book and of course access to purchase the book yourself. Be sure to use my code JENNIE30 for 30% off your purchase. Once you’ve purchased the book, you’ll also be added into a private Facebook group where we participate in challenges together in order to grow even further and help each other with our growth. So exciting! *Affiliate Link

The Two Lives Of Lydia Bird – Josie Silver

Oh – obviously I won’t ramble on too much about this one as I only started reading it a few days ago and I’m 102 pages in. I wasn’t actually going to continue on with this book after a few chapters as TRIGGER WARNING – it’s heavily focused on grief and is quite an emotional, heavy read, which I was finding a little distressing. I’m not a fan of leaving books though unless I’m REALLY not feeling them, so this one I decided to persevere with and now I’m loving it!!! I look forward to diving into the world of Lydia Bird when I fancy a read, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading more. Also it’s a win from me, as it’s already made me chuckle… tear up a little too, but also chuckle. And I think it’s fantastic when a book can make you laugh! Stay tuned for my ‘What I Read September’ to see my full thoughts on the book, hehe.

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There you have it loves, my monthly book wrap up!

I am so happy to be enjoying reading so much lately, and so thankful to have enjoyed some great books last month. I’m thrilled I gained so much from ‘The Game Of Life and How To Play It’ and I absolutely adored getting lost in the world of ‘Queenie’ too. Hurray for books!

Have you read any of the books mentioned in this post?

What are you currently reading?

What’s your favourite genre of book to read?

Be sure to let me know all your thoughts in the comments below.

As always thank you so much for reading,

with lots of love and light,

Jennie

❤️

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