Recent Reads | It’s a Love Story and Sounds Like Love

Posted August 7, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’ve become a huge fan of Annabel Monaghan based on her previous two releases, and I’ve been saving her adult debut for a rainy day. This book is technically my least favorite but honestly it was quite enjoyable regardless! Annabel Monaghan’s books have a way of growing on me as I read. I consider her an auto-buy author but I never get addicted right away. It’s like a slow burn (with the plot, not the romance) where I’m halfway through and realize I’ve fallen in love with everything finally. That moment happened a little later than usual which is why I wasn’t as invested in the characters as I could have been. I didn’t love the MC here but she’s as imperfect as all of Monaghan’s others, so nothing unexpected. Jane and Dan had a lot of logical reasons for why they behaved the way they did, and also why their romance worked; it felt very realistic. I just didn’t connect to them as strongly as expected or as I prefer in a romance. I love that they were visiting his childhood home away from Hollywood – more on that later – for his parents anniversary party. They started the trip as colleagues and ended it as something a little more. The premise was enjoyable and quiet but also had some fun Hollywood stuff that I tend to enjoy. Jane was a former child star known for goofy antics and Dan is a not-super-successful cinematographer. He’s interested in the script […]

All-Time Favorite Books (Top 20)

Posted August 4, 2025 / Uncategorized / 0 Comments

I’m a bestie over at Kayla’s (Books and Lala) channel and recently filled out her survey of all of the besties favorite books. I was able to whittle down and determine by top 20 favorite books. I approached it in a couple of ways: I thought about my childhood or YA years and those favorite authors/books first. I have a decent amount of “young Lauren” favorites on there and then that moves into the YA reading from the first half of my blogging years. I looked at my favorite authors in general and picked my favorite book from each of them (mostly more recent authors and adult books). Putting all of those types of books together led to my top 20 books that I thought I would share today! They’re not in any particular order so I decided to categorize them with adult in the top half and YA in the bottom half.

August TBR

Posted July 30, 2025 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. August TBR I was really expecting to get back into reading a lot in July but it was pretty chaotic, despite settling in quickly to our rental house. We enjoyed a trip to Maine for the Fourth weekend and I got a good amount of reading done early in the month, only to fall flat for the final half of the month. I spent a lot of time watching Love Island and scrolling the internet this month. Oh well. Review Copies Another month with holdovers like ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND PICKLEBALL and THE THRASHERS. I don’t know what’s stopping me from reading these but hopefully August is the month! I am definitely wanting to get to LOVE AT FIRST SIGHTING because I was actually hoping to read it a long time ago lol. A NOVEL MURDER is a review copy from June but (a) I need to catch up and (b) I like to have multiple genres available for Kindle reads on my TBR to mix it up. Library Books I recently got MURDER TAKES A VACATION via my Libby holds and I was hoping to read this […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #474: Beach Reads

Posted July 29, 2025 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Beach Reads Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I love a good beach read during the summer. I really try to prioritize these each summer but as always, the season gets away from me. This happens during the fall and winter when I want to read fantasy books and never do lol. I thought I would split this between some recent reads that I’d recommend for your beach-time reading while we still have time, and the books I hope to squeeze in August and early September! Recent Faves While IT’S A LOVE STORY isn’t my fave Monaghan, it still was a four-star read and very enjoyable this summer. DEAD OF SUMMER is my one mystery/thriller rec from this summer because it definitely fits the beach read vibe if you’re not a romance reader. I always enjoy a Maxwell though I don’t know if everyone else does! ONE GOLDEN SUMMER was such a perfect, classic summer read – Fortune is an auto-buy now. I’ll always recommend an Emily Henry and GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE is no exception. It’s not the most summer-forward compared to other books because of the historical aspect to it but it absolutely has those elements (beach town, warm […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #473: Books Set in CT & ME

Posted July 22, 2025 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books Set in Connecticut and Maine Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I track book settings on Goodreads shelves and two of them are books set in Connecticut and books set in Maine. These are my two “home states” for the most part and I love reading books that are there! I thought I would share some books in those two settings. These are all books I’ve read and recommend! Connecticut Books Maine Books

Recent Reads | The Berry Pickers and Night Watcher

Posted July 14, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I bought this book on a whim (because of all the positive reviews and hype) at a book event a couple of years ago and it sat on my shelf. I was never sure literary mysteries – especially historical fiction – would be for me. I had a few major success stories with them this year and then my book club picked this for our July meeting, so it was finally time to try it… and it’s really not a mystery honestly. The book follows a Native American family as they come down to Maine from Nova Scotia to pick berries each summer. Their youngest daughter, Ruthie, goes missing one summer and they are never the same. Meanwhile, there’s another POV following Norma – a young girl growing up in Maine. It kind of sounds like a mystery of trying to find this missing girl but it’s painfully obvious what’s happening the entire book. There’s really no actual mystery – it’s more a story of how Norma and Joe (Ruthie’s brother) survive and go through struggles over the years. I really have no idea how the rest of book club will feel about this one. It has such a high rating on Goodreads but honestly I was completely underwhelmed. Yes, some of it is because I was expecting a historical literary mystery – I absolutely loved THE GOD OF THE WOODS and ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. I was hoping for something similar. Even once I realized the book […]

Recent Reads | Dead of Summer and No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

Posted July 7, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I fell in love with Maxwell’s debut THE GOLDEN SPOON. Her sophomore novel was similar – kind of a quiet thriller and a little on the cozy side but not really? She has a very distinct style that was further solidified with this novel. We follow a few characters on Hadley Island – Orla (whose best friend went missing years ago, presumed dead), Henry (the man accused of killing her friend Alice), and Faith (joining her rich boyfriend David for the summer at their mansion). Their POVs alternate to give us a full picture of what’s happening on the island, where Orla is returning for the first time since she moved to NYC. This sets a bunch of things in motion and will eventually tie everyone together and solve the mystery of what happened to Alice. I’m a sucker for a coastal New England kind of book and this had it in spades. It was super atmospheric with the small island setting, everyone-knows-everyone. There’s a lot of build up and scene/character-setting through more than half of the book. Nothing really spooky or edge-of-your seat kind of happens until after 60%. I’m okay with this since I’ve come to expect it from Maxwell’s books. Overall this book was pretty good, albeit predictable. I figured out a few things along the way. I was generally interested the entire time while reading but I don’t think it’s an unputdownable thriller, much like her others! I really enjoyed the first installment in this series […]

Ranking Books by Favorite Authors | Taylor Jenkins Reid

Posted July 4, 2025 / Book Lists, Features / 1 Comment

I thought this was going to be a more common series on my blog but I basically wrote one post and never tried it again! The idea came from the late Grace at Rebel Mommy Book Blog. I still miss her positivity in the book community and hope I can keep doing this post justice! Previous installments include Sandhya Menon, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Christina Lauren, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Today I’ll be featuring… Taylor Jenkins Reid I was pretty shocked when I realized I never featured TJR for this one (along with Emily Henry but we’ll get there) when writing my review for her newest release. I still have ONE super old TJR book to read that I keep hoarding for a rainy day… but otherwise, I’ve read all of the things. You’ll see that I generally have a bias for her earlier work and romance-heavy novels compared to the more historical fiction-leaning books she’s written more recently… still most books in the 4.5 – 5 star range! 🙂 5 Stars Maybe in Another Life // This one is my all-time favorite for a lot of reasons. I’m a sucker for a “what if” kind of Sliding Doors, parallel life story. TJR knocked it out of the park within the specific subgenre or trope. It has always stuck with me and I’d be shocked if this ever made it out of the top spot… After I Do // Another oldie-but-goodie as a top favorite. I just loved the concept of this book […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | June 2025

Posted July 2, 2025 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. Weird month in June yet again. I read a 600 page book in two days but managed to spend more than half the month reading one of my most anticipated reads. I kept having to put books on hold to finish other books and it was kind of a mess. I was hoping to slide one more book in before the end of the month but we moved so that took up an obscene amount of time for the final 5ish days. It was a pain in the butt but we’re now in our one-month rental and ready to close on our house soon! Here’s hoping, with a vacation happening as we speak and a much more chill month ahead, I’ll read more! 5 books in June 4 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Formats: 4 mixed, 1 egalley Status/source: 1 purchased, 1 preordered, 1 review copy, 1 library book, 1 owned Age Target: 5 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings! 25 in 25: 60% 52 Book Club: 67% Buzzword Reading […]

July TBR

Posted June 30, 2025 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. June TBR June was not as productive of a reading month as May but that’s fine – I sacrificed quantity for quality and ended up with two five-star reads back to back! I’m drafting this post before finishing my final book of the month so who knows, what if it’s three in a row?! In any case, I have a bunch of books to choose from in July! Review Copies Okay so embarrassing for June… I only read one egalley from my previous list. To be fair, I was distracted by new releases and book club picks. I also got a book hangover from binge-reading a 600 page book in two days. Anyways, here are the remaining books from last month that I just need to lock in on for July. I especially want to read MAINE CHARACTERS while I’m in Maine for obvious reasons. There’s also Summerween to think about, so that TBR will be at the bottom! Physical Books As you know by now, we’re moving! By the time this post goes up we will have fully moved out of our house (the one we’ve rented […]