Month: September 2014

WWW Wednesdays #8

Posted September 10, 2014 / Weekly Memes, WWW Wednesdays / 4 Comments
WWW Wednesdays #8

I slacked on my usual memes this week because of moving on Monday and my birthday yesterday. My participation in memes most likely won’t happen on a regular weekly basis anymore now that I’m comfortable with developing some other features. If the topic stands out to me and I have a good response for it, I’ll definitely participate! Without further ado… The books are both for my Goodbye Summer Readathon (and also cheating by having them be a part of Swoony September). I can tell that Second Chance Summer is going to be heavier read, but I’m looking forward to the fact that it will be a more family-oriented book than a romance one. I’m almost done with Open Road Summer and am really excited to see how it ends. I love the characters in this book. Since last Wednesday, I finished two books. It feels weird because this is the least I’ve read since before August. This past week has been ridiculously busy and there are no signs that it’s going to slow down. I liked Five Summers but it wasn’t as good as I expected. I loved Twenty Boy Summer! It was a perfect blend of heavy and light contemporary topics.   I bought this one a long time ago and it’s been sitting on my Kindle for a while. Effortless with You has almost a four star rating on Goodreads so I’m hoping for the best! I currently don’t have any audiobooks lined up next; I’m waiting to see if anything […]

Happy Birthday to Me! [Personal Updates]

Posted September 9, 2014 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 9 Comments
Happy Birthday to Me! [Personal Updates]

Yes, I’m going to be lame and write a post about my birthday! This is definitely one of my favorite days of the year. I really wish I didn’t have to work today, but having yesterday off was a nice alternative. This will clearly be a little personal post in honor of the day and to give you some updates about my life. As I’ve been talking about for a little while, we just moved into a new apartment on Saturday! It is a major upgrade from our previous apartment in pretty much every way. We have been loving it so far and have spent most of our time enjoying it instead of unpacking our stuff. I’m lucky to have some amazing family members (mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad, sister) who are always more than willing to help with stuff like this. I spent the day yesterday continuing to move things from the old apartment to the new one, so it wasn’t a very relaxing day off unfortunately. I’m happy to be starting my second year-long lease with my boyfriend Chris as we hit our two year anniversary in exactly a week. Today I’ll be celebrating my birthday with some friends at dinner and then going to a local bar with a nice outside area afterwards – nothing too crazy on a Tuesday night. This coming weekend I’ll be up at my college for alumni weekend Thursday through Saturday, so I’ll be sure to have some posts scheduled up so no one […]

Review: The Beginning of Everything

Posted September 8, 2014 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments
Review: The Beginning of Everything

Review: Dang. Sometimes it’s good going into a book without any expectations. I barely even remembered the synopsis of this book when I started it and never even bothered to check it out. I vaguely remembered that it was about a jock who becomes injured and is forced away to the “misfit” table. Frankly, this wouldn’t be the type of book I would like. I’m a strong believer in hanging out with whoever you want and being friends with people for reasons other than social standing. The summary is a little misleading because Ezra is much more than a golden boy. He was similar to his popular, asshole friends, while also being more intelligent and hating a lot of what they stood for. The beginning of the book is very powerful as it describes how everyone has a tragedy waiting for them that impacts the rest of their lives. It was very well-written and I was interested from the start. As far as characters go, I really liked coming to know the main players in this book. Ezra was an enjoyable character overall who grew a lot through the book. I loved Toby, who he was friends with as a child and reconnects with over at the misfit table. The one character I really didn’t like (aside from the asshole popular kids) was Cassidy. I didn’t like the way nothing was good enough for her, no matter how hard Ezra tried, and how he was constantly trying to be interesting enough […]

A-Z Bookish Survey

Posted September 7, 2014 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 3 Comments
A-Z Bookish Survey

Happy Sunday! I moved into my new apartment yesterday and just got the wi-fi set up this afternoon. Luckily I already had my post scheduled for yesterday 🙂  We’ve been slowly unpacking but also just trying to relax and enjoy the first real football Sunday!! I came across this A-Z Bookish Survey over at Under Review, and it was originally created over at Perpetual Page-Turner. Author you’ve read the most books from: Cecily von Ziegesar: I’ve read all of her books aside from Cum Laude. This is the Gossip Girl, It Girl, and Gossip Girl: The Caryles series. Best Sequel Ever: Hmmm that’s tough. I think the best recent sequel I’ve read is Hereafter in the Shadowlands trilogy by Kate Brian. That whole trilogy blew me away and the second book was my favorite of the three, I think. [review] Currently Reading: Currently reading Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler and currently listening to Open Road Summer by Emery Lord. Drink of Choice While Reading: Coffee! E-reader or Physical Book? I alternate between both! E-readers are more convenient for a lot of reasons: immediately having access to a new book once you finish one, carrying it around with you easily, not having to hold open pages, etc.. but you can’t beat the feeling or smell of a real book. Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School: Oh goodness. I think I would have liked Josh from Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins. He […]

200 Word Review: Since Last Summer

Posted September 6, 2014 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment
200 Word Review: Since Last Summer

Review: DAMMIT why wasn’t the first book in this series a standalone? And is there going to be ANOTHER book after this one? Because I don’t think I can deal with that. Things I liked: It was a light, summery, easy, and fast read. Things I didn’t like: The DRAMA and typical YA conflicts/misunderstandings. I could literally predict every single decision the characters were going to make…and I groaned every time because they, of course, managed to make the wrong choice. Utterly predictable. The recurring characters all seemed very different. Obviously the book takes place a year later but seriously? People don’t change that much in a year. It seemed like a lot of the problems were invented or all in their heads. The relationships just didn’t make sense to me, while at the same time being completely expected. I guess they just weren’t developed enough for me. I finished this book pretty quickly and it left such a minimal impression on me. I was so happy after the first book ended and thoroughly enjoyed the story, despite some traditional predictability. After finishing the second book, I couldn’t even remember what happened in half of the story. Oh well. *sigh*  

Top 10: My Favorite Places to Read

Posted September 5, 2014 / Book Lists, Features / 14 Comments
Top 10: My Favorite Places to Read

Today I bring you a Friday edition of one of my bookish lists. Today’s “Friday Favorites” includes not a list of book recommendations, but a list of my favorite places to read and why. How does it compare to your favorite places to read? I enjoy reading on the couch, but only when my boyfriend is playing video games next to me. I can never get comfortable on the couch in general, but I don’t mind as long as I have someone beside me. It makes me feel like we’re spending time together even though we’re working on different things.…or anywhere there’s coffee for that matter! I have been searching everywhere near me for a cute, local coffee stop to spend time in. It just doesn’t seem like there are a lot left. The closest one is about 15 minutes away from my new apartment so I think I’ll have to start up with that soon. I love being able to sip an expensive, fancy coffee and relax. I initially didn’t enjoy audiobooks that much because my first experiences involved some crappy narrators. Now that I’ve learned to sample the book before buying it, I can get a feel for the performance I’ll be listening to. Audiobooks are amazing because they allow you to read when you normally wouldn’t be able to. I put them on while I’m in the shower and then getting ready for work. I need to work on getting a new speaker for the bathroom though, […]

Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Posted September 4, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments
Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Review: I finally finished this one and I couldn’t be happier. This book was depressing as shit. Clearly, you can kind of tell that will be the case from the title and the description, but I was still hoping it would be a little uplifting in some way. It TRULY baffles me that so many people loved this book and it has such a glowing rating on Goodreads. I could barely make it through. First of all, I couldn’t deal with the narrator’s voice in the audiobook. I tried to look past it but I just really couldn’t. Then, the first 50% of the book was spent giving a complete play by play of the MISERABLE lives of Ava’s great-grandparents, her grandparents (and their siblings), her mother and father, then finally Ava. She showed up literally over halfway through the book. I guess the description saying it’s a “generational saga” hinted at that, but seriously I wasn’t expecting to not even really meet the main character until that far into the book. Then, once we finally meet her, the story does not improve at all. The description reads: “In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world” …..this just didn’t happen. To some extent, sure, but I was expecting a full-blown exciting quest out into the actual wider world. This book was so exceedingly boring and depressing; I genuinely have no idea why I […]

WWW Wednesdays #7

Posted September 3, 2014 / Weekly Memes, WWW Wednesdays / 7 Comments
WWW Wednesdays #7

The books are both for my Goodbye Summer Readathon (and also cheating by having them be a part of Swoony September). I am currently working on Five Summers by Una LaMarche. So far, so good; I’m about halfway through. The book switches between the four girls’ points of view AND also goes back to their POVs during past summers at camp. With all the switching between characters and moments in time, you’d think it would be confusing. It’s actually pulled off pretty well. I like 3 out of the 4 main characters at this point – Skylar is pissing me off. I just finished my previous audiobook this morning and haven’t technically started Open Road Summer by Emory Lord yet, but I’ll be starting it this afternoon once I leave work! I’ve been looking forward to this one for a longgg time.           Since last Wednesday, I FINALLY finished The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton (review this week; spoiler: very much disliked) on audiobook. I just finished The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider this morning; I really enjoyed it and loved the narrator’s voice. The review will come early next week. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway was good but didn’t blow me away (review). Since Last Summer by Joanna Philbin was somewhat disappointing because the first one was much better. This one was too predictable and had some annoying elements (review soon). Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler has been on […]

Swoony September Challenge

Posted September 3, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 3 Comments
Swoony September Challenge

Hello all! I’m here to announce I’ve lost my mind and am joining another challenge. Check out The Bookaholic Blurbs for more details! It’s basically a challenge to read some swoon-worthy contemporary romances for September. This is my favorite genre, so what better time to do this challenge — during my favorite month (which also happens to be my birthday month)! 🙂 Here’s my TBR for the challenge. The books towards the top of the TBR are technically also in my Goodbye Summer Readathon, so I’ll be carrying the swoony summery books for the first half of the month and finishing them after my other readathon is over, if I don’t get to them in time. I should be able to read the whole list by the end of the month while hopefully being able to throw in some other genres in between.