This last month has been a rollercoaster. It started off with me not being in the mood to read anything new, and that kind of continued all month. Don’t get me wrong, I did read some things as you’ll see but mostly I just read segments of previously read books. And I didn’t play any video games as I focused the month on Twitch with body painting. Well, I did play Dreamlight Valley but it was still less gaming than I normally do overall.
Not to mention, one of the teeth I had fixed a few months ago broke after seeing a soft taco from Chiptole. This resulted in my dentist going “yeah I’m not going to use a filling to fix that tooth or it will just break again”, so I had to get a crown. Thankfully it didn’t involve a root canal. But it showed me what I have to look forward to in the future, as at least one of my bottom teeth requires that process. Ugh. Also, why are teeth so damn expensive? I knew this year was going to be a massive expense as I had a massive list of things to fix with them, but seriously? This is ridiculous.
Note to future self: Never let your job tell you again you could never take time off for appointments (doctor, dentist, etc.) because this fucking happens.
I’m glad my current company doesn’t put up a stink about that kind of thing. If anything, they encourage you to use your PTO.
Right now, I have a temporary crown in place until the real one arrives in early November. This means for half the month of October, I had to stick to a soft food diet. Let me tell you, I miss other types of foods right now. I’m not a
I also decided to deal with a menstrual problem I’ve been having since April. Not going to go into details on what the problem is because that’s TMI. I might share a lot on here but I’m not sharing that. What I will say is I ended up having to go to the gynecologist’s office a few times. Thankfully all the tests came back negative. But that doesn’t explain what the fuck is happening. So, we’re trying birth control to see if that helps. Fingers crossed.
I also did a whole bunch of events with my family this month. We went to an MN Gophers Football game (we won 31-0), an MN Gophers Women’s Hockey game (we won 9-4), and the MN Zoo Pumpkin Festival. This is probably the most sporting events we’ve gone to in ages. Normally we get to one or two a year, this year we’ve been to four so far and will probably end up at another few before the year is up. And I know my mom and me decided we’re going to go to more football games next year. Which I’m 100% ok with as I love going to sporting events. I can take or leave watching them at home, but going to them is always a blast.
Body Paints of the Month
Instead of playing video games this month, I decided to do body paints for every stream in honor of Halloween. However, my internet wasn’t 100% happy so not all of these were streamed as it got to the point during some streams where it crashed multiple times within the first ten minutes. Sigh. But I still love how these looks turned out. Sure, for some of them I would adjust small details, like my Snow White evil Witch look I would change the nostrils if I went back and redid it. But I love the look regardless.
Books I Managed to Read this Month
If they have a ♥ next to them, they are available on Kindle Unlimited. If I did a review, I’ll link it outside I decided to include quick reviews of books or series. If it’s a series, the mini-review is at the end of all the books. Mostly it’s just a quick blurb about what the book/series was about.
- The Warrior God (The Ares Trials, Book 1) by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson – 3.5 stars ♥
- The Savage God (The Ares Trials, Book 2) by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson – 3.5 stars ♥
- The Golden God (The Ares Trials, Book 3) by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson – 3.5 stars ♥
- Technically these are three different books, but I read them together in The Ares Trials, which is part of the Dark Gods of Olympus series. This one is about Ares and Bella, the God and Goddess of War. The two share powers as they are forced to go through a series of trials together in order to release a group of guardians who are being held hostage by a demon. This ties together with Zeus’ failed attempt to release Chronos during The Hades Trials. Zeus enlists the help of another Olympian who has a vendetta against Ares and Bella (no spoilers on who or why). And it ends by setting up the next series of three books: The Poseidon Trials.
- Secret of the Broken King (The Poseidon Trials, Book 1) by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson – 3.25 stars ♥
- Surrender of the Brutal King (The Poseidon Trials, Book 2) by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson – 3.5 stars ♥
- Sacrifice of the Brave King (The Poseidon Trials, Book 3) by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson – 3.5 stars ♥
- This series started off with Almi needing to be rescued every two minutes, which was annoying. We also don’t get many Poseidon chapters, though he does get a few in the last two books, each of which is a page long. So, we’re completely in the dark about what’s going on with him. I thought this series was going to follow what Aphrodite did to Poseidon’s wife as that had been the setup in the Ares trials. But she’s nowhere to be seen in this one. Also, Almi is never called Amphitrite. So, not sure what happened with that plot line but the Poseidon trials follow Almi and Poseidon as they face off against Atlas while trying to find a cure for a stone blight and find the heart of the ocean. It was cute but I’m still curious about what happened to the original plot. And where the Ares trials fit in the timeline against this book, as we know it’s already happened since they made reference to it.
- Caraval (Caraval, Book 1) by Stephanie Garber – 3.75 stars
- See my review for my thoughts.
- Dance of Kings and Thieves (The Broken Kingdoms, Book 6) by LJ Andrews – 4 stars ♥
- See my review of this series for my thoughts.
- Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie, Book 6) by J Bree – 4.25 stars ♥
- See my review for my thoughts on this series.
The Ares Trials and The Poseidon Trials I read as combined books on Kindle, so I really only read 5 books. Which is way under my usual amount, but I just wasn’t really in the mood to read. No matter how hard I tried.
My Rating System
Check out this post to see how my rating scale works, but the quick version is:
- 5 stars = Masterpiece. Nothing can literally be better than this. Not to mention, a major book slump happens afterward where I am unable to pick up another book for quite some time.
- 4 stars = One of the best books I’ve ever read, I couldn’t put it down and found little fault in it.
- 3 stars = A good book but there were some flaws, from editing to plot to you name it.
- 2 stars = Liked the book, but wouldn’t say it was something that was memorable.
- 1 star = Book wasn’t for me.
I almost never give a 5-star rating. Some books have come close, but something always held me back from giving it to those books. I also use .25 increments with the ratings, so there’s a range in each of those levels.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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