Month: September 2015

Book Buddies Review: The Remedy

Posted September 30, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Kaitlin’s blog! (Link below) View Kaitlin’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead! In the climax of the book, Quinn becomes too entangled in Catalina’s life and can’t remember who she is anymore. Did you feel for her in that moment, or did you feel like she was straight up deranged? Kaitlin: I obviously don’t understand much about this “being a closer” thing because I thought Quinn was overreacting a little. The thing is, it’s not like whenever you go into an assignment you’re brainwashed. It takes time to adjust to being a new person but over time it becomes easier to live the life of someone dead. Plus, she has been a closer for so long, you would think Quin knew how to pretend to be someone without actually thinking they were that person rather than themselves. I also had to consider the fact that she wasn’t “Quinlan McKee” for 2 weeks. That definitely could have messed with her head a bit. I don’t know! […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #57: Second Chance Summer

Posted September 29, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 10 Comments

Ten Books to Read if you Loved SECOND CHANCE SUMMER Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, 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. A well-rounded summer contemporary with heavier issues & family feels Morgan Matson is a wonderful contemporary writer that almost every blogger has read at least one book by. My favorite of hers, so far, is Second Chance Summer. I cried like a baby throughout the ending and was constantly hit with different types of feels throughout. To me, this book is such a perfectly well-rounded summer contemporary. It had families dealing with complex issues (including father-daughter feels and sibling relationships), a childhood love that was reignited, unique themes of friendship and moving on from past mistakes, and an overall summer contemporary with heavier issues. I have a lot of recommendations for books based on these themes, so I figured that’d be a fun topic for this TTT! Here are all of the books I’d recommend based on specific elements of Second Chance Summer. KEEP IN MIND that I’m assuming you’ve read this book! Most of these stories flew under the radar, but there are a few more popular books intermixed here. What are you looking for? A book featuring a long lost or childhood love that comes back into the picture In Second Chance Summer, Taylor reunites with […]

Inside & Out #15: Cynthia from Bingeing on Books

Posted September 28, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 0 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Cynthia from Bingeing on Books Twitter: @Bingeingonbooks| Instagram: Bingeingonbooks | Goodreads Tell me a little about yourself: I have been blogging for almost one year (my blog will be one in November!!) and I live in Naples, Italy with my husband and my dog. When I’m not reading books, I love talking about them and writing about them. Oh, and I love pretending that I will actually read all the books on my TBR one day. In addition to all the books, I love travel and binge watching shows on Netflix. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I mostly blog about Young Adult books, though I read a lot of Adult stuff and Classics too. I post reviews, giveaways, Top Ten lists, and book related discussions. Sometimes I even sneak in some pictures of my recent travels around Europe. Favorite genre: Mostly Fantasy and Science Fiction, though I love a lot of Contemporary Stuff too. Three books you recommend most often and why: This is a difficult question because everyone’s tastes are so different. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the same thing to everyone. A […]

Disney Princess Book Tag

Posted September 25, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 6 Comments

I saw this one over at Lost In Literature and knew I had to join in! I love all of the Disney Princesses. My favorites are Aurora and Ariel, in case you were wondering. Obviously the categories are below, matched up with each princess and my book pick. I created all of the graphics myself, but the tag was created by Of Stacks and Cups. Here are my picks below! (Links go to my review or GR.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald | This one was hard for me to pick! That’s not because I read a lot of classics, but because there are only a few I really loved… and I love them a lot. It was close between this and To Kill a Mockingbird, but this is the most memorable for me. I loved reading this in high school and learning about all of the symbolism. I’m totally due for a reread.Anne & Henry by Dawn Ius | This is the most recent book that kept me up reading late, at least! I read the book in three sittings (almost two) after Chris went to bed. Bless Kindles with backlights. I really liked this book a lot even though I don’t know much about the actual history of Henry and Anne. I almost stayed up WAY too late reading, but decided to finish the next morning. 😉I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios | I feel like I haven’t read a lot of books where the main character […]

Fate, Destiny, and Choices – Parallel Life Books

Posted September 24, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 11 Comments

I think I’ve talked about this in so many reviews that it’s finally time to bring this topic to its own discussion post. I’ve also touched on it quite a bit during my read-bait series (that will be revived again, I promise) and as a guest post for Andi during Parallel Time Loop. It’s a topic that I think about A LOT and, as a result, love reading books about. I’m going to talk a bit about what guides us through life: fate or choices. Are we destined to reach the same final destination in life, regardless of the decisions we make? Or does each and every choice impact us in some way, where one decision changes everything? I’m not sure we’ll ever know the real answer to this, but some books I’ve read within the past couple of years definitely bring it up in different and interesting ways. I’ll share what piqued my interest in this topic, my thoughts on it, and then some books that deal with it.I think I should preface this conversation with the fact that I am not religious at all. When I sit here talking (uh, typing) about fate and choices and all that jazz, I’m not implying in any way that I think God is the mastermind behind all of it. I’m thinking more along the lines of some grander plan out there. I don’t know what or who or anything… just something bigger than us. I just wanted to clarify that first because I think usually […]

Review: My Life Next Door

Posted September 23, 2015 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments

Okay obviously the first thing I need to mention is CONNECTICUT! I love when books are set in my state; I can definitely get a better feel for the setting and environment. Of course, the made-up town in this book is clearly down by the shore (an area I am definitely not from), so it barely feels like Connecticut. My part of the state features a lot of farms and smelly cows. This book was definitely hyped up, but – thank god – met my expectations! I really loved Jase, and he’s the reason this book was so fantastic. Sam was an okay character, but a little flat. I know that she’s had a pretty sheltered life and Jase helped her get out of of her comfort zone a bit, but I just wasn’t totally on board with her. Regardless, I shipped them as a couple very hard. I liked how sex was kind of an important part of the book. Any YA book that talks about it or actually does it is okay in my book. It’s real! It’s a part of teenagers’ lives. There were a few things that bugged me. I mean, clearly Tim had a problem with drinking and some drugs, but AS USUAL the portrayal of weed-smoking in a YA book bothered me. It’s something that I think authors don’t usually get right. This was no exception. Tim was a huge dickhead in the beginning but seriously shaped up throughout the book. At first, I […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #56: Fall TBR

Posted September 22, 2015 / TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 20 Comments

Ten Books on my Fall TBR List Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, 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 like to try to read a lot of different things, across genres, formats, and where I got them from. I am utterly terrible about sticking to a TBR each month because my moods change SO much. The only “required” reading I usually have to do is if I signed up for a blog tour, for my Book Buddies review, and for my real-life book club. I’ve wanted to find a TBR format that works for me so I can still have some kind of method to my madness and I’ve been lurking on Andi’s TBR methods for a while. I decided to try it for the rest of September and October. Here are some of the categories I came up with… I tried to think of the books I genuinely want to read this fall, and what categories they may fall into. I don’t want to restrict myself too much so I did leave a freebie option or two. I filled this page with categories – 18 books – but I will most likely exceed that number between the rest of September and all of October. That gives me even more wiggle room! Now, some […]

Reread Review: Keeping the Moon

Posted September 21, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Some summer many years ago, I think. I remember bringing a few Dessen books to Maine with me throughout the summer and I’m pretty sure this was one of them. This is the book I remembered the most details about out of all of her books, actually. I remembered the main character working at the Last Chance Cafe and how much I loved Colby, NC. This is the first Dessen book I read that is set in Colby, so it kind of held a special place in my heart. I pretty much forgot all of the other details though. Dessen reread 2015! I was thinking of what audiobook I should start next and decided on this one because I finally tracked it down. I just kept remembering the one book with the restaurant setting and was determined to get to it next. After reading the synopsis again and not seeing a hint of romance, I was kind of excited to see how a book with friendship as the main focus would be. I’ve read plenty of books with friendship as a strong theme, but I feel like it’s usually coupled with family issues and/or romance. This one seemed to be straight up friendship feels.Ah, this was so good. I’m surprised to see that most people don’t count this as a favorite or even like it that much. Colie was an interesting character and I totally forgot about all of the bullying she dealt with. I absolutely loved the friendship storyline in this […]

Football + Books

Posted September 20, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 11 Comments

It’s not a secret that I love football too much. I will stay up until midnight on a weeknight, watching a game that doesn’t even involve my own team, even if I’m sick and should get 8 hours of sleep. Yes, that has already happened this season. “I went to bed and didn’t catch the end” doesn’t cut it for me. I’ve been trying to think of a way to incorporate a little football into my blog this year, and thought this tag-style post would be a good start. WARNING: This tag is not for the casual football fan! Only die-hards will probably have strong enough feelings about each team to participate 😉 THE RULES: Sort the 32 football teams into the categories listed below based on the feelings that the teams give you. Each category has a certain number of slots available for teams. Pair a book with each team based on which book relates closest to the matching bookish category. Don’t use any team more than once!! * There is a plain text version of the categories and graphics at the bottom of the post! You can copy and paste that section for easier use, if you choose to participate. PICK ONE TEAM & BOOK THIS IS MY TEAM. I love them more than anything and don’t care if the obsession is unhealthy. | Favorite book of all time MY ONE TRUE LOVEEEEE, the Panthers! I’m very happy to see the Panthers sitting next to Anna and the French Kiss. It’s hard […]

Review: Cinder

Posted September 18, 2015 / Book Reviews / 11 Comments

Let me start out by saying, YES I finally read this book! Yes, for the first time. No, I’m not sure what took me this long. When Brittany mentioned a Lunar Chronicles readalong for this year, in preparation for the newest release, I knew that this would be my reason to finally read the series. I’ll say quickly: I’ve never had this much trouble coming up with a Friends connection for my GIF below! It usually takes me forever to find or create the right GIF, but the reference itself comes right into my brain. Regardless, I think this book is just so unique and hard to classify that – for once – my Friends-obsessed brain had some trouble! Well, what did I think? This was a really great series-starter! I’m so intrigued with this world and can’t wait to see what happens in the next installment. Cinder was an interesting character – she’s a cyborg who dealing with the prince’s sudden interest in her and her sister’s sudden illness, all while slowly learning some insane things about herself and her past. I didn’t fully connect with her for some reason, but that didn’t really damper my enjoyment for the book overall. It seems like her story is going to be the one carried through the rest of the series, all while highlighting new characters and, probably, locations. There’s this phenomenon that happens to me sometimes while I’m reading that I call being “mockingbirded.” When I was in high school reading To […]