Top Ten Tuesdays #463: TBR Additions

Posted January 21, 2025 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc., Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

10 Recent Books Added to My TBR: Physical and Digital 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. This prompt is to share the 10 most recent additions to your TBR. I decided to split this out and share the five books I most recently added to my physical TBR, then the five books I added to read on Goodreads/Storygraph. Here we go! 5 New Physical Books Acquired I preordered BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL by buying tickets to the Sarah Adams discussion and book signing up in Portland, ME. I knew my sister would want to go since she lives in Maine and I try to go up there as often as humanly possible haha. It was a fun event! While at the Books-a-Million store, I decided to pick up a copy of HEARTLESS HUNTER kind of randomly. Everyone is reading this and loving it. I also realized that it’s on Kindle Unlimited, so I’m a little annoyed I bought it lol. I’m trying to be in my fantasy era this year so hopefully I’ll just read it using both formats. My January BOTM arrived recently so those are the other two books I recently acquired. I picked THE FAVORITES because everyone keeps […]

Fantasy Books I Really Should Read in 2025

Posted January 20, 2025 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

I included an item in my 2025 goal post that I want to read more fantasy this year. I should definitely focus on doing it at the beginning of the year (and end, honestly) because I’m such a seasonal reader. There’s something about the winter and colder part of spring that makes me want to read heavy, long, fantastical books. I pretty much have no desire beyond like May haha. I broke this into two categories: the upcoming or recently published group (books that came out in the last few months of 2024 or will be coming in 2025) and the backlist books. Upcoming or Recently Published The books in this section go by release date. BRISTOL KEATS is just a gorgeous book I got in BOTM that I’m intrigued by. I’ve wanted to read a book by Pearson for a while and this seems like a good place to start. SONGBIRD came out late last year and I really thought I’d get to it before 2025 but alas. No time. And DRAGON CAFE comes out in January, so I hope to read it. Seems cute! ONYX STORM will definitely be read this week when it comes out. I’m truthfully hate-reading this series at this point because I don’t think it’s good, but they’re addicting and I enjoy being a part of things lol. The newest and last (ugh!) EMILY WILDE comes out in February so that’s preordered. The final two here are new-to-me authors but seem really intriguing – […]

Recent Reads | Only If You’re Lucky and Lost Man’s Lane

Posted January 16, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’ve been meaning to read this author forever and I’m pleased that I think I’ll enjoy her other books – maybe even more than this one based on reviews! This story follows Margot at the end of her freshman year of college – she lost her best friend Eliza before school and is just trying to get through the year. When enigmatic Lucy randomly invites Margot to live with her and her two friends, she jumps at the chance to forge some real friendships again. The book flashes “before” and “after” – in the after, Lucy is missing and a frat boy from Margot’s hometown is dead. How is everything connected? The author did a great job of making me wonder that the entire story, but my biggest complaint is around pacing. The story starts and builds pretty slow. There’s a lot of “privileged kids getting drunk and doing drugs” to build up the friendship dynamics, which made sense, but it didn’t feel like a mystery/thriller for the bulk of it. Don’t get me wrong: the college setting was super fun and I want more books there… but the beginning felt like a YA contemporary. However! Once the twists started, I was enthralled. There were a number of reveals I absolutely didn’t see coming, though there were a couple I had predicted. The ending was really surprising and enjoyable. I feel like some pieces were unbelievable but I didn’t really care – it was well-plotted in many ways. Willingham will […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #462: Goals

Posted January 14, 2025 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc., Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Bookish Goals for 2025 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 usually write a bookish goals and resolutions post but I didn’t this year. I feel like I never actually pay attention to these things throughout the year! I thought I would keep it simple and go over my basic goals and thoughts for my reading in 2025. Reading Goal = 75 Books Last year I squeaked out the 100 books I had set for my Goodreads goal. I ended up reading a lot of books under/around 200 pages like graphic novels and novellas in order to stay on pace. It was kind of a weird reading year where I didn’t love a lot of books and everything felt very mid. Knowing that I could easily read 6 books a month instead of 8-9, I decided to set my goal at 75 books. My secret back-of-mind goal is to actually read 100 books but we’ll see. Challenges Simplified I have historically signed up for a number of challenges and even tried to do the same thing again for 2025. Right before my challenge post went live, I decided to bow out of one and keep it even simpler. I’m doing the […]

Authors I Must Read for the First Time in 2025

Posted January 13, 2025 / Discussions, Features / 2 Comments

I’ve written in the past about books and authors I’m a little scared of reading for various reasons, but I don’t have many excuses for the authors on this list. I was watching some end of year wrap-ups on booktube and thinking about how I should really read a Brandon Sanderson book at some point. I started to then think about all the authors where I keep adding their books to my TBR or shelves on Goodreads just to never actually read from them. Stacy Willingham was a perfect example until I finally read one of her books this winter for book club. All that being said, here are some authors I really need to get to for the first time in 2025, as well as the books by them I think I’ll start with. Kate Alice Marshall / Lisa Under / Alex Finlay Here begins the list of five mystery/thriller authors that I’m shocked I haven’t read a book from yet. They’re all well-established and popular authors who release a book each year and have fairly extensive backlists of three or more books. I own a number of Kate Alice Marshall’s books but I think A KILLING COLD, her 2025 release, may be the first I get to. The same could be said for Lisa Unger and Alex Finlay. Both books shown here are their releases coming out this year that sound really interesting to me. Shari Lapena / Richard Osman / Ali Brady Shari Lapena and Richard […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | December 2024

Posted January 8, 2025 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

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. I wanted to finish the year strong and managed to include five novellas to help me reach my reading goal with about a week to spare. I finished the year with 103 books, which is not a pretty number, but it’s fine. I feel like the past couple of months have had a LOT of mid books so I’m hoping to start the year in a better spot with the books on my TBR. 11 books in December 11 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,288 • Average rating: 3.36 stars Genres: 8 contemporary, 2 mystery/thriller, 1 nonfiction Formats: 5 ebook, 3 mixed format, 2 hardcover, 1 egalley Sources: 5 Kindle Unlimited, 3 library, 2 review, 1 preordered Age Target: 11 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Least Favorite Short Story Collection // // // // // Popsugar Reading Challenge: 44% 52 Book Club: 71% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 33% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 1 egalley | 0 ebooks | 0 audiobooks All review […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #461: Most Anticipated

Posted January 7, 2025 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Most Anticipated Books of 2025 – First Half 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 really love the start of a new year to look at things like this and feel refreshed. I’ll try to not go crazy here but I like to track what’s coming so I can reflect on it later and see what I actually read. Based on the books below, May is my most anticipated reading month – there are so many good ones scheduled! January February March April May June

Blog Tour Review: Temple of Swoon

Posted January 6, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

When I first saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST HEART, it immediately became one of my most anticipated books of the year. There’s something about a romance with a super unique, adventure-filled premise that intrigues me. I enjoyed the general concept of SOMETHING WILDER by Christina Lauren for example – yes that one got a little far-fetched at times but this kind of ~adventure~ story mixed with rom-com elements has me written all over it for some reason. I ended up enjoying RAIDERS quite a bit, and seeing TEMPLE OF SWOON announced soonafter was a dream come true. Another rom-com with archeologists and Indiana Jones vibes? Yes, keep them coming, Jo Segura! TEMPLE OF SWOON follows Miri (mentee of the MC from the first book) and Rafael (a journalist with an overbearing father who forced him on this mission even though he tried to quit). Miri is looking for the lost City of the Moon and leading her first expedition without any help. Rafael’s mother and her ancestors had been protecting the lost city for years; his real reason for being there is to sabotage the mission on her behalf (and his father’s) to ensure its legacy remains intact. He didn’t expect to start falling for Miri and her tenacity though! This book was even better than Segura’s debut – the same Indiana Jones adventure vibes were prevalent without being too unrealistic. The romance was excellent. Yes, the two had a little bit of instalove, but I enjoyed it a lot. […]

January TBR

Posted January 3, 2025 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

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. January TBR I skipped my December TBR due to the uncertainty of holiday reads…I also did a terrible job of predicting my EOY reads as well. Lots of novellas, but oh well. I love the beginning of a year where I can wipe the slate clean and I’m super excited for the books on deck! Review Copies I already decided my first book of the year will be SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME, even though it comes out in April. I know I’ll love it and need that kind of energy for the start of the year. The other January review copy I want to get to is YIN YANG LOVE SONG because Lauren Kung Jessen is an auto-read now. Upcoming Releases January has a few key new releases on my radar that I’m 95% sure I’ll get to in the month. The newest Wayward Children book comes out in the beginning of the month and I always listen to the audiobook right away once its released. They’re short and easy to get off on the right foot for my reading challenge. BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL is a hiiiiighlyyy anticipated read for […]

2024 End of Year Wrap-Up and Stats

Posted January 2, 2025 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

103 Books Read I don’t like finishing the year with a number ending in three (I prefer a 0 or 5) but whatever, let’s get over that and move on. As always, I’d like to share some final statistics for the year! Books Read Yet again I’ve had some success in keeping my combined romance/mystery/thriller section under 75% – this year I finished around 67% between those genres. I think I’d like to read a lot more fantasy next year – I’m just kind of feeling it. I’d also like to increase my literary fiction category. As always, “mixed” format was my biggest category. This will continue to increase as time goes on because I’ve found myself mixing in the Spotify Audiobooks more and more. It’s just so easy! I was thinking I’d find a better way to track that next year but I’m too lazy. Maybe that’s for 2026… I still need to prioritize reading books on my shelves and the ones I keep buying… but I really loved Libby and my Kindle this year, clearly! This was a weird year for me, especially at the end – I read a ton of mid books in November/December. I feel like 4 stars is usually my most popular rating but I am a little alarmed that 3.5 is so close this year. Hopefully I can focus on reading some really good stuff for next year. So yes generally speaking I can read 8 books a month with a few exceptions […]