Nothing good to report about real life this month.

I forgot to mention last month that I tried Paralives. It’s still in early access, and I think it has a lot of potential! I probably won’t play it much for now though. To be honest, learning a whole new life sim sorta feels overwhelming. Especially when I don’t think any life sim is ever going to top The Sims 3 for me. I’ve already found my life sim soulmate. But I really do think Paralives could be someone else’s favorite. And the freedom in build mode is phenomenal. Finally a game giving players to the option to actually just do what they want. You want to have things clip into each other? You can! You want to extend a window past the wall? You can! Also the option to rotate objects on all axes? Really great. And I love seeing all the builds and characters people are creating in the Paralives subreddit.

Aside from that, I’ve been playing the same games when I have a little time and energy for myself. I’m currently doing a random choices run in BG3, those are always wild. I have surprisingly made it to Act 3 without any dialogue choices resulting in instant game over. Though almost every companion you can recruit is dead 😅

I don’t think I watched any movies or shows, but I did find this video that randomly showed up while I was scrolling through shorts and it made me laugh a lot, so maybe it will bring you some joy too.

Blog/Bookish Updates:

It was my 11th blogiverary last month! Here’s my celebratory post about some of my first and favorite posts, in case you want to check that out.

I’ve also just noticed that one of my sidebar sections has broken. How did it break when I have not touched my sidebar or changed any code recently? I truly do not understand.

Books I Received for Review:

July was another great month for me with the Libro.fm ALC program!

Adam, Mine by K. Ancrum – A queer YA Frankenstein-inspired story about a teen boy creating a monster out of another teen boy. I love Frankenstein stories, and it’s been a while since I’ve read one.

The Lord of the Wood by E.M. Anderson – Queer romance(?) about a man venturing into an enchanted forest and finding a man with power over the forest turning into a beast.

Mosswood Apothecary by JP Rindfleisch IX – Cozy, queer fantasy with romance and plant magic that looks to be the first in a series.

Doppelbanger by W. H. Lockwood – M/M rom-com where two versions of the same man from parallel universes fall in love. This sounds fun.

A Dangerous Bargain by Erin Cotter – A queer YA historical fantasy about a young man who has bargained away most of his life to an angel to support his family teams up with Leonardo da Vinci to try and save his brother. This definitely sounds like my kinda book! (Also did I bargain part of my life for this photo? I didn’t know my phone could do depth of field. How did it do that for this photo and only this photo?)

Survival Show by Juno Dawson – A YA dystopian(?) about a girl who enters a deadly televised singing competition to save her family.

Dead Girls by Beck Kubrick – A YA graphic novel about the daughter of a serial killer hunting down a copycat killer with the help of her friends. The beautiful cover art is also on the hardcover itself. Also I just flipped to a random page to show the inside art, I have no idea if it’s a good page for sharing 😅

Killing Sadie by Rachel Peterson – A YA thriller about a murder with multiple unreliable narrators, and finally the victim herself narrating what actually happening leading up to her death, which sounds like a cool concept. And the first printing has red page edges!

Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez – A queer coming-of-age story about three teen boys in the early 2000s. Tbh I lost the paper that came with this in the mail, but it looks like this may be a reprinting that’s being released with a new cover and some very fun page edges!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me all these in the mail!

Books I Finished:

If you’re considering buying any of these books from Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link!

Midnight Project by M.N. Arzu – This was a unique idea about a vampire starving because blood is sickening him, so he turns to a human hematologist for help, and I enjoyed it!

Nemesis, Mine by Amy Archer – This was a silly and fun and sweet M/M romance between a wrongdoer and a champion in a fantasy world! This was one of my Libro.fm books last month.