Month: March 2016

Five on Fridays #19

Posted March 4, 2016 / Five on Fridays, Weekly Memes / 9 Comments

Five on Friday displays the the top five things that have been on my mind this week! It could be book-related, but it may be music, movies, TV, personal life, food, etc. Previous posts can be found here! I’m aware that I’m probably the last person to listen to Serial. Chris started getting addicted to podcasts because he was sick of listening to books at work. (Rude, right?) I recommended Serial to him without ever having listened to it myself, just because of the hype. We’re both not thriller/murder mystery kinds of people. He was hesitant (and so was I) but he ended up loving it and demanding I start it right away. He also started season two but I’ve already decided not to bother with it. ANYWAYS, holy shiiiiiit we’ve been talking nonstop about this case for the past week. I binge-listened to Adnan’s case in a matter of a week. Just so addicting, it’s unreal. He also started Undisclosed, which is a podcast by some other people involved with the case. I guess it goes into more detail about everything (like, way more than Serial does) and can get pretty addicting too. I decided to start that one this week but only allow myself one episode per week. I can’t handle binge-listening to another podcast like I did. Did you listen to Serial?? Who do you think did it? I don’t think Adnan did but I’m also not entirely sure that Jay did either…I’ve referenced this a few times so […]

Review: After I Do

Posted March 3, 2016 / Book Reviews / 13 Comments

I’ve now read 2/3 of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s published works and she’s easily a favorite author. 5 stars for both books. Not only are they favorites, but they both taught me so much. Her books just have a way of impacting you unlike any others. I don’t know how she does it, but she takes regular people going through pretty average things (like falling out of love and making decisions) and just makes their stories so incredibly engaging and enthralling. For once, the hype about a book didn’t ruin anything for me. I’m not entirely sure how to describe how much I loved this book and all of the characters, so I’m going to break some stuff down. The realest relationship I loved Lauren and Ryan’s relationship from the very beginning. The book shows how they met and how their relationship developed before getting to the point where they choose to separate. It was a nice segue, showing some different increments over time: when they met, a few years into the relationship, and all the way to months before the book starts. It was truly necessary to see why these people should be together and the kind of relationship they’re fighting to fix. On top of the flashbacks, I just loved them and shipped them like crazy. At the same time, it was so obvious how they started to fall apart. There were so many lessons about keeping a relationship going during each and every moment. The little things can seriously add up. Family feels […]

Mini Novella Reviews: Fairest and Stars Above

Posted March 2, 2016 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

I don’t have a lot to say about this one overall. I liked it and am glad it exists, because Levana’s point of view is fucking crazy, but it wasn’t at the same level of the rest of the books. Obviously the entire series is ridiculously epic and twisty and turny. This book was really just a summary of Levana’s life before Cinder technically takes place. I think this would make more sense as a 0.5 instead of 3.5, but what are ya gonna do? My Goodreads review successfully sums up my feelings on this book: I’ve been looking forward to this epilogue foreeeeever. Oh yeah, and the rest of the novellas in there 😉 I actually hadn’t read any of the existing novellas for this series yet, so the whole book was new to me. It was an absolutely great way to wrap up the series. Here are some very mini reviews on each novella included: The Keeper: I loved seeing Michelle and Scarlet’s relationship develop! Getting a little background about how everyone came together pre-Cinder was awesome. And I loved seeing her become Cinder (and why that name!) Glitches: I’m pretty sure this one was previously released, but I’m reading all of these novellas for the first time! It was heartwarming to see how Garan and Peony really did care for her, unlike the rest of them. Made me sad/happy. Also IKO! The Queen’s Army: Really interesting (and terrible) to learn about how the queen acquired her army. I felt […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #79: In the Mood for…

Posted March 1, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 15 Comments

Ten Books to Read if You’re in the Mood for Some #SquadGoals 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 don’t even feel bad for using the term #SquadGoals right now, because it’s exactly what I’m hoping to encapsulate today. I think there’s one book series I think of RIGHT away when I think of the term and that’s honestly what got me thinking about this topic. Sometimes you just need a book with a GREAT group of friends. They support each other, have great chemistry, and sometimes save the world together. These groups of great friends are included here below! Because I only had seven at the top of my mind, I included three books with more #BFFgoals instead. Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick • A great group of friends who met in college end up living together (and living out their dreams) ten years later Winter by Marissa Meyer • Do I need to explain? The epitome of #SquadGoals: Cinder, Kai, Wolf, Scarlet, Jacin, Winter, Cress, and Thorne – love their chemistry the most ever The Revenge Playbook by Rachael Allen • A group of very different girls smashing the patriarchy and sexist tendencies of their high school/boys football team Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway • Despite the title with only two names, I fell pretty hard for […]