​Didn't I say I wanted August to fly by? Well, it hasn't half done so for me! To be fair, I think the Edinburgh Festival Fringe had a lot to play in that but I'm not complaining. I saw some great shows (COLIN. FUCKING. CLOUD) and I even chaired my first bookish event as a blogger (thank you again, Ink Road!) - Yes, I'll eventually stop talking about it. Maybe. Not yet.

We're finally creeping into September and that means getting closer and closer to Pumpkin Spice, shorter days, candles and sweater weather (ok so the song by The Neighbourhood just came on as I wrote that... woah) which basically are my favourite things because it's just so cosy. If you ask me to picture my ideal night in, it's a dark autumn evening (thunder storm optional) with candles, a massive knitted jumper, cinnamon hot chocolate, and a gripping book. 

I'm not sure what books I'm in the mood to read. I have my October pile sorted with a bunch of thriller-types but as for the weird 'sort of summer-sort of autumn' month of September, I haven't a clue what I'm in the mood for. Luckily, there's a bunch of new releases coming out that sound super interesting!

I've spent weeks talking about Dare To Fall and the fact I was invited to chair the event last Friday (which I happened to write a post about my thoughts before the event that ended up not posting so that was fun! Sorry about that). 

The event was so much fun and it was such a nice turnout so if you came, thank you so much; if you couldn't make it, I'm sure there will be plenty more book launches and signings to come! It was nice to see some familiar faces, new friends, and even someone who was visiting Scotland all the way from Canada - this I found out when Estelle turned to me and yelled "EMMA THERE'S A CANADIAN!" Never has someone been more excited about meeting a human from Canada than me that one time I met Justin Bieber...

As it would be impossible for everyone to make it to the event, I jotted down some of the answers Estelle gave to my questions and have been so excited to share them with you - do forgive me for any misquotes but I wanted to keep this fairly short so I may change some questions/answers for clarity. If you wish to see the event in full (minus the first question where I asked Estelle to provide a brief synopsis and she forgot what the book was about) you can find the live stream on Estelle's Facebook page.

I've experienced writer's block a number of times in my life. In fact, I'm sure most of us book lovers-cum-aspiring authors have dealt with this in our lives. But I've never had 'Blog Block' until now. I've sat and stared at the blank page for a long time today wondering what to post. I have a master list with all my ideas for tags and discussions but none of them are grabbing me. I just don't know what I want to share.

So what do I do? I write about how I don't know what to write about. I guess this is my way of saying "HA!" to my block. "You won't stop me posting on my normal schedule". It's also a way for me to make sure I keep writing. Because sometimes that's what you have to do. No matter how much you think there is nothing in you to type out and share with the world, you just have to put something on the page. 90% of those things will never be shared, but it opens your mind back up and sometimes just letting words flow is the best way to go about writing. 

Ink Road Books have done it again. What is it with every single book of theirs being incredible? (Well, at least 3 out of 4 as I'm still yet to read The Jungle!) When they contacted me about being a part of the blog tour for 'T is for Tree' by Greg Fowler, I immediately said yes.

This is the story of Eddy, a boy who is different. He has spent his whole life in his bedroom and knows nothing of the world outside of it until Reagan moves in next door and introduces him to things - including jam sandwiches. 

I gave T is for Tree 4.5 stars because it broke my heart, filled me with hope and enlightened me into the minds of other people by reminding me that people are never what they look like on the outside. 

Well... I'm sure you're wondering what the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has to do with books, and the answer is: nothing. I'm not going to lie, I was a little uninspired today and just couldn't find the motivation to get a bookish post up, and I put the blame entirely on the fact that I just can't stop thinking about a show I saw on Friday.

Now, whilst I did see my favourite Fringe show ever for the third year in a row, (Hi, 'The Improv Musical'. I love you guys and still want to be your resident suggester so I can witness every marvellous, hilarious creation!) this isn't the show I want to talk about (at least not today!) - I highly highly recommend you do go see it! It's amazing.

​Nope, today I want to talk about the show that fucked me over, had me join a cult and willingly reveal an embarrassing secret infant of probably 1000 people. The show that I just cannot get off my mind (or rather, stole it entirely) is Colin Cloud's, DARE.

This show was 100% a 5 STAR show for me. I'd give it 500 if I could.

This post won't be like other haul posts you see on my blog for one reason; I bought 47 books this month. I don't have the time to talk about 47 books. 

Before anyone thinks I've lost my mind (well, I kind of have but shh) and spent like a thousand pounds on brand new books, almost all of these books were purchased from charity shops, and where I live a lot of them do books for £1/£2 each or have 3 or 4 books for 99p or £1! The worst part of that deal though is most of the shops still charge £1 if you only get one book so if there's one you want you may as well grab another 3 since it's the same price - this does mean that out of the 47-ish books I bought, only about 15/20 are ones I really am interested in. Regardless, I picked up some books I'm very excited about and I can't wait to share them with you!

Grab yourself a cuppa and get comfy because this is gonna be a looooooong one!

By far the best day of the month is usually around the 18th when I hear a knock at the door and see the wonderful Royal Mail red coming through the window of the front door as 90% of the time that means one thing… OWLCRATE.
 
July’s theme was WANDERLUST and, as it was such a specific theme, I pretty much instantly guessed what the book would be… there weren’t many travel-esque YA novels coming out in July! This month had a great variety of items within the box with just the write mix of book/series related items and more generic, theme related things.

Summer has come and gone but now we are finally breezing in to the best months of the year! July was an alright month for me. It sort of just happened with no excitement surrounding it - which was welcome after the hellish June I had - and I'm looking forward to a new month and fresh start.

I haven’t done a wrap-up or kept track of how many books I’ve read each month for a long time so when checking my goodreads for this post I was insanely surprised to find out I’d read 10 books in July! I kept clicking on a title thinking ‘ok so this one will be June – nope, July… Ok, the next one – and nope again’. I think this is because I’ve stopped trying to pressure myself to read a million books a month and instead read because I want to and it has certainly paid off! So, without further ado, here are my ten reads from July: