Month: April 2016

Bout of Books 16 Sign-Up | Clean Sweep ARC Challenge TBR

Posted April 29, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 10 Comments

Bout of Books 16 Sign-Up & TBR Options First things first, I am going to be signing up for Bout of Books again! What else is new? This is a pretty great post to tack this onto because it’s going to tie in directly with the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge. More details on Bout of Books: The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Goal: Read only ARCs (below) during Bout of Books! I would love to get a jump start on the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge by reading only ARCs from the TBR below during Bout of Books. It takes place during the second full week of May, so it’ll be a good way of ensuring that I get off on the right foot. Because I have an actual TBR to choose from, I don’t want to set a specific goal for how many books I’d want to read. As usual, I’d like to read 2-4 books in a week. This is pretty standard for me so let’s see how it goes! […]

ARC Review: The Way Back to You

Posted April 28, 2016 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

So this is a really strong 4 stars for me. Sometimes I think I could round it up because I really loved it so much as I was reading it! The only issue I’m finding is that I finished the book last night and don’t feel as much of an impact as I expected. The book is about some generally heavier topics so I expected for the ~feels~ to last me a few days. I know my bookish memory is not great at all, but still. I don’t know what it is. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the many, many things I LOVED about this book: Characters I loved learning about Cloudy and Kyle. I thought they had an interesting dynamic and I was really interested to see what transpired between them (that led to their current non-friendship). I wish more was fleshed out surrounding that, or at least about their relationship before Ashlyn and Kyle started dating. I guess I just wanted all that spoiler-y stuff to be beefed up more. I didn’t feel some of it as much as I’d like to in that situation. Lots of telling and not showing. Road trip I love books involving road trips and journeys of any kind. This one had a unique reason (more on that in a second), so I was even more excited. There’s just something about being on the open road with someone, going from place to place, that makes me wanderlust-y. What […]

Older Books Get a New Look (then I Buy Them)

Posted April 27, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 12 Comments

I’ve noticed a recent trend where much older YA book series get cover redesigns and re-released, as if they’re brand new books. Right before I started my book blog, I read the Summer series by Katherine Applegate (highlighted in this post, too). It had previously been this super long series with a bunch of short books. Eventually, like 20 years after it first came out, the books were released into bigger bind-ups and sold again. I didn’t realize this when I first bought it, but thought it was kind of a cool idea. Why not give older books a facelift so they appeal to a new audience? I have no issues with this. I’m such a cover snob as it is; anything to help me buy the book is a good thing for authors and publishers. I like to think that YA books are generally timeless – teens will have similar issues today, twenty years ago, and twenty years from now. I know that changing technology is really the bigger difference between those books, though. Some books written 5-10 years ago even feel outdated if they reference flip phones or MySpace instead of Facebook, Twitter, and iPhones. However, the general message and struggles with growing up are pretty universal. Since I noticed this trend, I wanted to highlight a few book series here that recently got updated, republished, and pushed out into the world. And, inevitably, onto my personal bookshelves. 13 Little Blue Envelopes & The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #87: Bookworm Delights

Posted April 26, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 27 Comments

Ten Bookworm Delights 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 topic was inspired by Jamie’s post on her blog recently and I have to say, it was hard not to copy all of her answers! (Don’t worry, I didn’t.) Today we’re looking at the top ten bookworm-y things that delight you or excite you in some way. I have a lot of these, as I’m sure you all do too! Here’s my list of favorite bookworm qualities or moments or other things!

ARC Reviews: The Epidemic and Dream On

Posted April 25, 2016 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I was SO excited to grab this one from ALA back in January, but OF COURSE I waited forever to finally sit down and read it. There’s something wrong with me, okay? But after the cliffhanger at the end of THE REMEDY, I knew I had to get to it as soon as there was a break in my reading schedule. Honestly, I kind of created a break in my schedule; I knew this book was one I could finish in three sittings or less because I get sooo addicted to Young’s writing. This was definitely the case with THE EPIDEMIC! It took a few chapters for me to be reminded of what happened in the previous book. Thankfully, there was a pretty solid amount of recapping THE REMEDY without feeling like too much information. I still loved Quinn and was wondering what would happen with Deacon, after the previous book’s major cliffhanger about him. The biggest question I had throughout the story was HOW. How is all of this happening? Does Virginia have something to do with it all? How is it possible that suicide became an epidemic – something contagious – instead of something just related to groupthink. I was so eager to get to the end see everything tie into THE PROGRAM and THE TREATMENT. It’s weird reading a prequel series because you know how the world ends up afterwards… and it’s not a pretty place to be. I knew that my final rating for this story […]

Help Me Pick a TV Show to Binge!

Posted April 23, 2016 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 32 Comments

Obviously we all have our TBR lists and even posts each month, but I wanted to try to sit here and think of all the TV shows I want to watch. I saw Katrina’s post the other day about the shows she wishes she had more time to watch, and it inspired me a little bit. Maybe you guys can help me prioritize some of these shows! I’ll tell you a bit about shows I’ve loved or am currently watching, and you can make some recommendations (by voting in the poll for your favorites!). Shows I’m currently watching or finished: 90210 • Angie Tribeca • Arrested Development • Breaking Bad • Broad City Brooklyn Nine-Nine • Brothers and Sisters • Chasing Life • Community • Devious Maids Desperate Housewives • Faking It • Friday Night Lights • Friends • Fresh off the Boat Gossip Girl • Heroes • How I Met Your Mother • Humans • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Marvel’s Agent Carter • Marvel’s Daredevil • Marvel’s Jessica Jones • Master of None Modern Family • The OC • Orange is the New Black • Parks and Recreation Pretty Little Liars • Sex and the City • Workaholics • Younger Shows I’m looking to start or binge: Aside from finishing a few of the shows above (Friday Night Lights, Orange is the New Black, Daredevil, etc.), I want to binge something else. Some of these shows are finished, which is nice, but others are still happening on TV. Why I want to watch: bookish main character, it’s coming back on Netflix, located in Connecticut! Why I want to watch: everyone seems to love this show, mystery/crimes, I own some on DVD […]

Exploring YA Mystery/Thriller Novels

Posted April 22, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 9 Comments

I’ve recently gotten into reading some more mystery/thrillers than usual. I’m not a person who likes to be creeped out while reading, so I used to avoid them. (Notable exceptions are obviously two of my all-time favorite book series… whoops?) There’s just something fun and appealing about them lately. My Goodreads shelf is over 150 books strong for this genre, but I’ve only read a handful. So… as much as I enjoy reading them lately, I find it VERY hard to give them a strong rating. Usually this comes from a few different factors that I’ll talk about below. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve really liked quite a few too! There are some elements that I consider read-bait for me, too. Let’s chat about young adult mysteries, mmmkay?I have three main issues when I read YA mysteries. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve generally enjoyed most of the books I’m going to talk about below… but some major elements of each story just don’t work for me. It’s been obvious across a few books and I’ve noticed it a lot lately. Examples: When • Gone Too Far Arguably my biggest issue lately is that I cannot connect to the characters. The main reason I can’t connect with them is because I’m naturally suspicious of everyone. Usually I can get comfortable with the main character because, chances are, they’re not a suspect. I suspect EVERY side character of being involved (because come on, how many times has it been the best friend who […]

ARC Review: Queen of Hearts

Posted April 21, 2016 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

This was overall an interesting retelling set in Wonderland, from the perspective of the soon-to-be Queen of Hearts, Dinah. Something happens very early in the book that still feels like a spoiler (it’s not said in the synopsis), so I won’t mention it… although it’s central to the rest of the plot. Anyways, I have mostly mixed feelings about this one? It’s kind of hard to explain this story… mostly because not much happens. I was about 60% of the way through and was able to explain the entire plot to my boyfriend within three sentences. Part of this is because it’s very info-dump-y in the beginning. There were little conversations where side characters would be explaining something to Dinah even though she already knew these random facts about Wonderland. I know these existed to cleverly explain things to the reader, but it felt SO forced. It really just read like an info-dump about the world. A lot of the early chapters involved this so the book had not a lot of action for a loooong time. Along those same lines, the pacing felt weird. The story seems to happen over the course of a year. The first scene happens, then the next chapter is six months later. Then another scene happens, and it jumps ahead a month or two. I don’t know why this was necessary because I feel like everything could have just happened in a more natural timeline? I saw Khanh’s review where she says the book feels like […]

Library Love | April

Posted April 20, 2016 / Features, Library Love, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

I’ve been wanting to share some library hauls on the blog, since I don’t usually include them in my monthly wrap-ups. I just show the books I acquired for keeps instead of the ones I’m renting 😉 However, the library has been really fantastic lately. I go through phases where I use it A LOT and phases where I forget it exists somehow. Whenever the mood strikes, I’ll share what I’m working on from the library during any given month. [Linking up with Library Loot; details at the bottom] On Location by Jen Calonita /// I keep starting old series and then never finishing them. *eye roll emoji* I’ve been aiming to reread this series and finally finish it off. Continuing with book two! Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge /// Book Buddies pick for April with Cristina! Must read ASAP. The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry /// I was instantly attracted to this one and don’t know why I didn’t pick it up at ALA. It sounds right up my alley and the library was a good place to grab it. The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury /// This has been on my TBR for a long time and I finally got it out from the library. It took forever for me to read for some reason, but I did eventually finish! Fables 1 & 2 by Bill Willingham /// I always stare longingly at this series when I visit the graphic novel section of B&N with Chris. I finally decided the library would […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #86: LOL-Worthy

Posted April 19, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 11 Comments

Ten Books That Will Make You Laugh 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. Today we’re sharing Ten Books That Will Make You Laugh. Have I said lately how much I LOVE my new(ish) Goodreads shelves? (Yes, Lauren, you have.) I have my laughed-out-loud shelf for this very reason. Some books are funny in and of themselves, while others just have a few lines that made me chuckle to myself. Here’s a list for when you’re in the mood to laugh! 🙂 My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows • I think this book will make it on countless TTTs until everyone I know has it on their TBR. The characters and the narrator were so funny throughout this story. It was amazing. The Way Back to You by Michelle Andreani and Mindi Scott • I remember loving the banter between the characters in this story! I don’t remember a lot of the reasons I laughed out loud, but I know there were a few moments that got a chuckle out of me. It’s a Wonderful Death by Sarah J. Schmitt • The main character had some nice sarcasm in this story 😉 Clearly that’s a favorite of mine. The writing was kind of cheesy at times – like some of the […]