Month: October 2015

ARC Review: Signs Point to Yes

Posted October 7, 2015 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments
ARC Review: Signs Point to Yes

I definitely have mixed feelings about this one. I usually write reviews right away, but I can’t really put all of my thoughts together. It doesn’t help either that it didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I started out being a fan of the three perspectives: Jane, Margo, and Teo. It sort of switched between the three of them with each chapter. Jane and Margo had an interesting sister dynamic. They apparently weren’t close before the book started, but conveniently became friends literally right as the book was starting. I also didn’t understand the friendship between Kavi and Teo. It took absolutely forever to figure out why Kavi hated Jane so much, and the reason ended up being completely ridiculous and stupid. I didn’t get it at all. The biggest thing I can say about this book is that it was awkward. Literally one part of dialogue was, “you keep doing these awesome things (69).”  I just didn’t feel like the dialogue worked at all. They were awkward characters, but it was further emphasized by the writing style. It was very “he said, then she said, then he said.” The third person point of view was interesting in some ways, but it made everything feel detached and not emotionally connected at all. There was a lot of telling instead of showing, which definitely bugged me. The whole premise of the book was kind of bizarre. I literally wrote in my notes that they had lots of “hairbrained” ideas. Next thing […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #58: Quitting

Posted October 6, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 13 Comments
Top Ten Tuesdays #58: Quitting

 Five Book Topics I will NEVER Quit Reading About and Five Bookish Habits I Need to Quit 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 love when the TTT allows me to pick a special topic (that gives a bit of guidance!)… but it usually means I can’t pick which topic I want to use. I decided to split this week’s list into two lists of five. The general topic is ten bookish things I want to quit or have quit. I decided to go with five book topics I’ll never quit reading about and five bookish habits I need to quit. Without further ado… Some of these may qualify as overdone tropes and some of them are just fun things I really will always love reading about. Some of my favorite books in the world feature one or more of these topics. I’ve included some similar topics in my read-bait series (yet to be finished…) because if any of these five things are included in a book, it’ll probably end up on my TBR and/or quickly become a favorite.Give meeeeee. Any book that’s full of banter is one for me. When there’s any HINT of this trope in the plot description, I must have it. I love the idea that two people can bicker so […]

Review: How to Be Bad

Posted October 5, 2015 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments
Review: How to Be Bad

Just take a look at the rating report below and you’ll know how I feel about this book: very mixed. On one hand, it was kind of a fast, friendship-packed story that had a great road trip premise. On the other hand, the characters were terrible at their worst and annoying at their best. Let’s see if I can explain the pros and cons of this one. What worked The road trip premise is something I’ll ALWAYS be interested in reading. Unfortunately, like an idiot, I read this outdated road trip right after reading another outdated road trip book. Both were written around 2007 so the technology and social media aspect was totally dated. Not a huge deal, but still worth mentioning. I loved the setting (Florida) and the reason for the trip (visit Vicks’s boyfriend at his college in Miami). I also liked that the book switched between three perspectives: one for each girl, written by each author. The girls and their reasons for going on the trip were very different, so that was pretty cool. I liked Mel the most out of the three girls, I think. It was engaging and easy to read. I also am kind of obsessed with the fun cover and am still glad I bought it for my shelves. What didn’t work Man, these characters didn’t work for me. Jesse was judgmental (about everything and everyone) and incredibly religious. Mel was self-loathing and self-conscious. Vicks was the typical bad girl who made terrible decisions. Well, […]

Comic Reviews: Saga #1-2 and Saved by the Bell #1

Posted October 3, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments
Comic Reviews: Saga #1-2 and Saved by the Bell #1

Aside from a random Adventure Time comic I read at one point, Saga is really my first foray into this… genre? medium? Either way, I’m so glad I randomly decided to read it. I was sitting at Books a Million with Chris and he decided to read a little comics before we left the store, to make sure he wanted to buy it. He’s been getting into graphic novels and comic books lately. I decided to pull Saga off the shelf for literally the millionth time and read the first chapter. I wanted to see if it was for me or not, once and for all. Well, I ended up reading the entire first volume while sitting there in the store. I couldn’t stop and didn’t want to stop. I’m not experienced at all with what makes a good comic, but this story was SO cool and SO bizarre… I loved it. It took me a long time to fully understand what the fuck was going on. I mean, they’re on a whole different planet (literally) and there’s some intergalactic war going on. It was a bit confusing at times because you’re kind of thrown right into the action, but I’m not complaining. I can’t give this volume a perfect score because I’m still not 100% sure if I understand it, but it’s pretty damn close. Overall, Saga has some really cool art, fun characters, and LOL-worthy moments. I’m excited to see what happens next in Volume 2 and will […]

Review: Two-Way Street

Posted October 2, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
Review: Two-Way Street

For an outdated road trip book with characters I barely liked, this book wasn’t bad. It was a really quick read and perfect for Bout of Books (when I read this back in August). I’m glad I finally read it but it’s definitely not a new favorite. This had alllll the makings for a book I’d love. I read Ex-Mas back during the holidays last year and loved the concept: exes taking a road trip together and falling back in love. In this book, Jordan and Courtney are taking a road trip from their hometown in Florida to their new college in Boston. They broke up a few weeks earlier but decide to make the trip up together still. The gist of the story is that Jordan says he dumped her for some girl he met on MySpace (yep, this book is old) but really that’s a lie. He’s covering ~something~ up that I happened to figure out within the first few chapters. I really, really didn’t like Jordan that much. He made CONSTANT sexist references to girls, their clothing, their habits, and their bodies. I rolled my eyes and/or cringed at something he said or thought in literally all of his chapters. He’d talk about girls like they were crazy, generalize all of them into one big group, and talk shit about their “slutty” clothes. He even said Courtney looked like a tramp at one point! All of that macho bullshit is SO not okay with me. Otherwise, I did […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – September 2015

Posted October 1, 2015 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 8 Comments
Bookmark Lit Bulletin – September 2015

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. 10 books read →  Physical: 5 | eBook: 2 | eARC: 1 | Audio: 1 | ARC: 1 | Format mix: 0 In 2015… 137 books read of 175 Goodreads goal [78% complete, 7 books ahead of schedule] Blog posts this month: 14 books reviewed and 14 other posts  |  Challenges this month: 1Well, the time finally came where I decided to get lazy about reading. Definitely not a great month overall, but there was a decent amount of quality over quantity. I enjoyed a lot of the books I read! Average rating for books read in September: 3.9 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 September: 3.92 stars I don’t buy a lot of books in general, but I receive a lovely amount from my Secret Sister and through some preordering! I didn’t spend a lot of money on books this month, which is a big win for me. Secret Sister Project New sister’s second box: Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas, Naomi & Eli’s No Kiss List by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier, matching sticky notes […]