Sparkling Letters Monthly Recap: January 2017

Hello everyone! ♥

As usual, it’s hard to believe that another month has passed. This month, I believe a lot of us had high hopes and expectations, considering this is the first month of a new year! What’s with the resolution and all that. My January was rather interesting, at least more interesting than the previous months. Lots of stuffs happening this month and I can’t wait to share them with you all!

Let’s get started ♣

• I finally started to write my novel! ♥ I’ve had this idea for years and this year I finally decided to really write it down hahaha I’m at 20k now and I’m hoping to finish my first draft at the beginning of February. Take some time off, and then start editing because I kind of hate my first draft hahaha who doesn’t?!
• 2017 wasn’t off to a good start. I lost my cat in a hit and run and it was so, so heartbreaking </3 however, I’m not as sad anymore because I have my kittens to cheer me up. Dory and Jack are really adorable ♥
• I had to make a tough and important decision regarding my career choice. It was a really difficult one! I’m all for making my own decision but this one time I kind of hoped for someone to decide for me… hahaha just kidding, I ended up making my own decision after careful consideration and lots of praying. I hope this is the right decision 🙂
• A lot of holiday trips! Most of them are near my city but it was still so fun and refreshing

This month I managed to read 13 books, in which half of them I received from Netgalley 😂 good news, publishers in Netgalley are being nicer to me 😛 Most of the books  I read this month are diverse contemporary and they’re all so good! I loved them ♥

• More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (4/5). Deals with tough, important issues flawlessly and gives me so much feels </3 Full review here.
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (3/5). WWII, looking at war through the eys of teenagers, great character development, but didn’t live up to my expectation. Review to come next week.
• PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han (5/5). Relatable protagonist, incredible family dynamic, adorable romance, and a love triangle I didn’t hate 😛 Full review here.
• The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye (4.5/5). I thought for sure wouldn’t enjoy this but I did! A hit or miss for most people but in short : Russian setting + magical contest + insta love + love triangle. Full review here.
• Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin (4.5/5). Alternate history WWII, motorcycle race, skin shifting & kick ass protagonist! I’m not a fan of HF but I loved this ♦ Full review here.
• The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (2.5/5). Addictive writing, important stories, but duuuude the insta love! I couldn’t get past it 😦 Review to come next week.
• Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate (4/5). I love Noteworthy so much and am curious to read this. It didn’t disappoint. Seven deadly sins, multiple POV done right, and juicy high school drama.
• Books & e-ARC I received via Netgalley (Thank you!)
  • IDA by Alison Evans (3/5). Asian bi protagonist, non binary love interest & side characters, time travel and parallel universe.
  • The Blazing Star by Imani Josey (3/5). Black protagonist, twin sisters, time travel to ancient egypt. Sounds like a perfect read but the execution fell flat to me 😦
  • The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt (2.5/5). Important stories about gang violence & immigrant experience, but I was too irritated at the female MC to enjoy the book.
  • Noteworthy by Riley Redgate (4.5/5). SO GOOD! Chinese American bi MC, lots of music and friendship dynamic. It’s Pitch Perfect meets She’s the Man, you’re gonna want to pre order it! 😀 review to come closer to release date.
  • You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner (4/5). Deaf & Indian protagonist with two lesbians and equally deaf moms! Lots of arts (and illustration inside) and friendship dynamic ♥ Review to come mid February.
  • Things I Should Have Known by Claire LaZebnik (3/5). Centers around the lives of two teenagers whose siblings are autistic. There’s also a hate to love, adorable romance. Review to come mid Feb.

January Hauls

As you might have known, 2017 promises a lot of amazing books for us bookworms! There are so many new releases I want to buy but so little money that I have, not to mention old releases that I still haven’t owned 😂😂 I looked at my TBR and finally decided that for now I would only buy new releases, unless the old releases are sequels to the series I’m currently reading 😛

For January releases, I ordered Caraval by Stephanie Garber, History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera, A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard, and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. None of them has arrived yet. Also remember my overhaul last month? I try not to buy too many books this month, so my January haul is looking rather sad 😂

See, I only got Wolf by Wolf and I’ll Meet You There!

Aside from those two books, I also received SEVEN diverse books from a giveaway hosted by Heidi Helig! It was my first ever giveaway win so I was super excited. Especially since the books are looking really amazing and there’s also some extra bookish goodies! Thank you so much Heidi, and thank you so much for the lovely ladies who nominated me for this giveaway : Lauren, Fadwa, and Becca. You’re all incredible! ♥

Here’s the giveaway package

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I don’t know if you noticed (I hope you did!) but I did a small makeover to my blog! 😀 I originally planned to only change my banner because of several reasons. (1) I hate that it’s in black while everything else is either pink or green, (2) there’s still a makeup icon on my logo which is irrelevant because I no longer blog about it, and (3) I want more pink and green and flower 😛

Here’s the comparison :
The old banner

The new banner

Alright, what do you think? I personally prefer the new one A LOT! It’s more festive and fits my whole aesthetic perfectly while the old one was more plain. Also I love the font so much and I regret the fact that I didn’t use this one sooner 😂😂 anyway, one thing led to another and I decided to change a few things.

My divider went from this
To this

My blog button went from this

To this

I also changed my header font from Shoreline Scripts to Sweet Pea. You might see it on my sub header. Also, also, I’m working on a new posting schedule! I used to post every other day but starting from February, I’m gonna try to stick with 3 posts each week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I’m also changing my review format just a bit. I used to never put summary and details like publisher, release date, etc. Well, now I’m adding it on the bottom of my review! Also, also, I’ll add a new feature called The Diversity Corner but it’s not done yet so I’ll be making a separate post to introduce it sometimes in the next two weeks ♣

My favorite posts this month :

• For Some of Us, Libraries Might NOT Exist
• How to Turn People Into A Bookworm
• So You Wanna Get Your Heart Smashed? Read These BOOKS!

My most popular posts this month :

• Blog Hopping: For Fun or Necessity?
• The Struggle of Writing a Coherent Positive Review
• For Some of Us, Libraries Might NOT Exist

All around the blogosphere ♥ 

• Emily @ Loony Literate shared some reasons why we need more new adult books
• Molly @ Molly’s Book Nook shared 5 book review ideas for us to try
• Cait @ Paper Fury teamed up with some other bloggers and told us their 2017 YA genre predictions
• Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books introduced a new feature on her blog : The YA Contemporary Corner in which she shares book recommendations. So far she’s done recs for best siblings and road trips, they’re amazing! ♣
• Briana & Krysta @ Pages Unbound shared 30 book blog post ideas. It’s super helpful!
• Karen @ Kissin Blue Karen shared what she learned from visiting 365 different blogs
• Ashleigh @ A Frolic Through Fiction talked about whether being a book reviewer ruins the enjoyment of reading
• MORE amazing discussions in this Discussion Challenge linkup. Go ahead and check it out!

So that’s my January recap, everybody! What do you think about my blog makeover? And how about your January? Anything interesting?  Link me to your own recaps or just tell me! Would love to hear your thoughts! ♥♥

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