Month: October 2015

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – October 2015

Posted October 31, 2015 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 4 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my life happenings, book haul, books I read and reviewed, posts I shared, challenge updates, and more from the previous month. I also let you know what may be coming up on the blog in the coming month. You can read past bulletins here and learn more about the feature here. 13 books read → Physical: 5 | eBook: 2 | eARC: 0 | Audio: 1 | ARC: 2 | Format mix: 3 In 2015… 150 books read of 175 Goodreads goal [86% complete, 6 books ahead of schedule] Blog posts this month: 14 books reviewed and 15 other posts | Challenges this month: 1I had a feeling that October would continue to be lazy, but I had a couple of graphic novels help me get back towards reading more! Sometimes you just need to feel good about the number of books you’ve read and a book of any length will help. Overall, great average rating for books too. Average rating for books read in October: 4.21 stars Highlights of the best and worst… Best of the Best | Pleasantly Surprised | Disappointed All of the books read this month: Average rating for books reviewed in October: 3.86 stars Secret Sister Project My Secret Sister is the BEST. This month, I had a Halloween/fall-themed package containing: a little mug with a sweater; Sliding Doors DVD (I’ve been wanting to see this ever since I saw it mentioned on Hannah’s blog!); stickers for my planner; sticky notes and cards; my favorite candies for the season (Reese’s pumpkins […]

ARC Reviews: The Lies About Truth and Hotel Ruby

Posted October 30, 2015 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

This book started off kind of weird for me. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it for some reason, but I’m SO glad that changed pretty quickly! The book slowly gave some details away about what happened and who the characters were. I finished this book a few days ago (at the time of writing this) and to be honest, I don’t remember much about Sadie – the main character. Nothing really stuck out about her and I think that’s because the book is so focused on the accident and how she copes with it. It’s something that seems to consume the most space in her brain, so there wasn’t really room for her to feel like herself. I loved how complex the relationships were between all of the characters. Sadie’s family was in a sort of group with a few other families; they’d go on vacation and spend a lot of their time together. It was five kids – Sadie, her then-boyfriend Gray, her best friend Gina, Gina’s boyfriend Trent, and Trent’s brother Max. (Phew.) I won’t get too much into why their relationships with each other were complicated, but just know that they definitely were. They all had some healing to go through when they were involved in an accident that killed Trent. There were lies and secrets between ALL of them. The focal point of the story is that Trent’s family moved to El Salvador for a year and is coming back to town. In the […]

Book Buddies One Year Anniversary Review: A Madness So Discreet (and Giveaway!)

Posted October 29, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 14 Comments

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) It’s the one year anniversary of Book Buddies! Back in October 2014, I expressed an interest in finding a Book Buddy to read and review with each month. I just wanted to collaborate with one person by reading the same book and discussing it – like our own mini book club. I put out an “application” for people to fill out and see who had similar books to me on their TBR. Kaitlin and Cristina both stuck out to me right away, and I couldn’t choose between them! I ended up asking them both and deciding to alternate months, with different goals in mind for each. Kaitlin and I would be binge-reading book series together, while Cristina and I would read books based on the season or holiday. It has been such a fantastic experience reading with these ladies and getting to know them each month. I can tell I made the right choice! 🙂 We decided to ALL read the same book this […]

Blog Tour Review: Water on the Moon

Posted October 28, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I’m excited to join in on the blog tour for Water on the Moon, a book that I otherwise wouldn’t have heard about! I’ve decided to go with my “reasons to read” style of review for this particular book. AND, don’t forget to check out the giveaway for a copy of the book at the bottom of the post! Water on the Moon is about how a woman’s life is forever changed by an airplane crashing into her home. She works to uncover the mystery and strange historical connections between herself and the pilot, all while finding romance and caring for her daughters. Reasons to Read Connecticut! | I absolutely love reading books that are set in my home state. It doesn’t come around too often, since it’s ridiculously small and boring. Although Greenwich is the farthest possible town from where I’m from, it’s still cool to read about. I may have to make my way down for a visit at some point. I read another post by a tour host who mentioned living near an airport in Connecticut and fearing similar events. I can completely relate. I actually lived two minutes away from the main airport in Connecticut and all of my childhood home videos feature the noises of airplanes going overhead. I would lay on the grass and watch them go by, wondering what would happen in the event of a crash. Family history and mystery | The story centers around Lidia and her two daughters after a plane crashes into their […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #61: Halloween

Posted October 27, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 14 Comments

Ten Halloween-y and Fall-time Books 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. This week’s TTT is a Halloween-themed freebie. I’m not a scary book type of gal, but I don’t mind something creepy or paranormal from time to time! I definitely find myself reaching for these books during the fall season (and October, specifically). I’m going to split this up into a few categories to keep things interesting (and yes because I probably don’t have enough books to fit in each one). If you’re like me and prefer less creepy books, then these are for you. (ALSO, you should definitely read my guest post on Alyssa’s blog for Fortnight of Fright! It features similar recommendations for not-so-scary Halloween books, movies, and food.) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a really interesting paranormal story with awesome photos included. I read this one last year for Book Buddies and have decided to finish the next two books in the trilogy this October and next October. Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young is incredibly atmospheric and creepy. I was unfortunately able to predict some of the twists (which I blame on similar books/movies I’ve read that others probably haven’t). Regardless, I REALLY enjoyed this one. Shadowlands by Kate Brian is an extremely underrated […]

Inside & Out #17: Laura from Scribbles & Wanderlust

Posted October 26, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 17 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. Laura from Scribbles & Wanderlust Twitter: @LECrockett| Instagram: @lauraecrock| Goodreads Tell me a little about yourself: I’m a literary agent and bookseller by day, and blogger by night. Whenever my life isn’t consumed with books, music takes over. Also, if I meet someone who’s the least bit interested in Victorian literature, I chat their ears off for days. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): Scribbles & Wanderlust mostly has book reviews, but I also participate in Top Ten Tuesday, A to Z book survey, End of Year book survey, #ReRead2015, Seasonal Rewind (my own take on the monthly recap), Advance Excitement at a Glance (a glimpse at ARC reviews coming up for the month), and the occasional discussion/observation post on book and reading preferences. Favorite genre: All genres within Young Adult, though I also read and review whimsical Middle Grade and Adult historical fiction. I realize I mentioned categories more so than genres, but I’m across the board! Three books you recommend most often and why: Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (because it has everything),Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (it’s that perfect upper-YA that even younger YA readers can appreciate and enjoy. […]

The Evolution of Blog Tours

Posted October 23, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 17 Comments

Lately I’ve noticed a new trend within blog tours: creative and unique posts. The content within the posts is more interesting to read about, and there are themes for each tour. Now, I’m not necessarily saying that the more traditional blog tours aren’t fun to read, but these ones have taken things to a new level. There are a few lately that piqued my interest. If this is the way blog tours and promotional posts are headed, I consider that a major win. I wanted to recognize some of the more unique and fun tours I’ve seen lately, as well as share some of my feelings about blog tours and their overall improvements. I’ve always had mixed feelings about blog tours. I am the kind of blogger that generally avoids requesting ARCs (and I don’t often get the ones that I do request), so that means I usually find other ways to gain access to these titles if I’m really dying for them. Blog tours usually provide the blogger with an eARC (or sometimes physical ARC!) of the book, so I would sign up for the tours of highly anticipated books. Sometimes this would blow up in my face if the book didn’t hit the mark for me, but other times I’d be extremely glad I got the opportunity to read the book early. Either way, blog tours can be a commitment. If you sign up and don’t like it that much, your post will change at the last minute to a […]

Review: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

Posted October 22, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

Usually the longer it takes for me to finish a book, the less I’m going to like it. I know that this usually has nothing to do with how good the book is. I happened to be away on vacation while reading this one and just didn’t have enough time to read. When I did sit down to read it, I felt oddly detached from the story as I kept reading. From the beginning, this book was going to be iffy for me. It’s really out of my comfort zone but I wanted to give it a try with my book club. Cults have always interested me, but religion in generally really does not at all. I don’t think this book was too in-your-face about religion, which was nice, but it was still explored quite a bit. It makes sense given Minnow’s history and lack of education about a lot of things. I started out really intrigued by the story, mostly because of the writing style. I loved how the chapters slowly revealed more from her past, while mixing in with present-day in juvie. (I have to say though, I couldn’t stop thinking of Orange is the New Black.) The plot was really interesting and I was certainly wondering what the fuck happened back at the Kevinian camp. There was a good amount of suspense, again because of the writing style, but I still felt too detached from all of it. I liked Minnow as a character – I think she […]

Review: The Deal

Posted October 21, 2015 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

This book was exactly what I needed at the time. I had recently finished a few “heavier” books with stronger sci-fi/paranormal or just plain crazy themes… so I wanted something relatively mindless and fun. I’m so happy that this book delivered that for me! Hannah is coerced into tutoring the school’s egotistical hockey star, Garrett, in exchange for his help in getting her crush to notice her. The two of them end up moving beyond the “fake relationship” stage into something much more. Two of my favorite tropes were here in full-force: slow-burn and hate-to-love. Garrett is cocky and annoying to Hannah at the beginning, but the two of them clearly have banter-filled chemistry. I loved getting inside both of their heads, as this book alternated between their two points of view. Some New Adult books with the guy’s point of view tend to annoy me, at least at first. Garrett was a typical NA guy in the beginning: very focused on how hot she was and all sorts of bullshit about her tits and ass. I generally don’t like reading it, but usually see some good character development that enables me to look past that stuff in the beginning. This book was one of those, thank god. As I said, the hate-to-love romance trope is usually full of banter, teasing, and sarcasm. Their chemistry oozed off the pages from the very beginning of the book. If you’re looking for a steamy New Adult that doesn’t have as much drama and has […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #60: Book Genie

Posted October 20, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 15 Comments

Ten Wishes for the Book Genie to Grant 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’ve been looking forward to this week’s topic ever since I saw it – ten wishes I’d ask the book genie to grant me (new book from a certain author, reading superpower, new library, character to come to life, meet an author, etc.). I’m going to hit on most of the suggested topics because they’re all too fun. Here we gooooo. John Green’s latest book • Yes, I was once an ardent John Green fangirl. My obsession with him, in general, has gone down lately. BUT IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE HIS LAST BOOK. I want to read some new material from him in hopes that it doesn’t follow the same formula. Come on John, blow me away again! The genie better poke John in the butt so he writes faster. Audiobook narration speed • I love listening to audiobooks but they always read too slow for me! I know Audible has the speed-up option but then their voices sound warped. I can’t win. Even trying 1.25x sounds weird. It’s not that they become too fast – you can just tell that their voices are sped up. It’s annoying and I need a happy medium! House with […]