Month: November 2016

Fickle with Five Star Ratings

Posted November 3, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 15 Comments
Fickle with Five Star Ratings

I used to hand out five star ratings like candy on Halloween. If a book hit me particularly hard or really entertained the shit out of me, I just slapped it with the best rating. I was kind of under the impression that for a book to be considered a favorite, it needed the full five stars. Since then, though, I’ve kind of rethought my rating process and factors for determining what a favorite is. I talked about this recently with favorite authors and asked what makes an author one of your favorites. Most people agreed that if you LOVE a few of their books and then just LIKE a few others, they can certainly still be a favorite. Maybe a favorite author is just an auto-buy author. That’s generally how I see it. In any case, we all determined that just because they’re a “favorite” they don’t have to be PERFECT. You can love a book, call it a favorite, and still give it 4.5 stars. Conversely, I feel like you can really appreciate a fantastic book and give it five stars, but it doesn’t make it onto an all-time favorite list. Am I alone in this? I don’t know why I think this is true, but lately I just do. Some books I will scream about how much I love them but still have a few lingering ~negative feelings~ about certain aspects. Thus, they don’t get the perfect rating, but become a book I still yell about. This could […]

Series Review: The Royals

Posted November 2, 2016 / Book Reviews / 11 Comments
Series Review: The Royals

This series was… quite a ride. I don’t know what possessed me to start reading book one back when I had a strict vacation TBR I was hoping to stick to, but it just grabbed me. I finished it within 24 hours because I just couldn’t stop. I knew I had to jump into the next book right after and hope I could wait until the end of October for book three. Ella is a stripper trying to make her way once her mom died, when she’s suddenly scooped up by rich guy Callum Royal. She learns that her father was his business partner and recently passed away, so she will now be living with Callum, attending an elite prep school, and inheriting five “brothers” who want nothing to do with her. Of course, they’re all super hot. Of course, they’re all terrible assholes. And, of course, she falls for one or two. The beginning of the book started out more ridiculous than I could have imagined, but it was fairly easy to settle into the story once I got used to things. I loved watching Ella learn about her new preppy and rich world. Some of my favorite book crack stories involve rich people and/or prep/boarding school, so I knew this book would be a-okay in some ways at least. Throughout the story, Ella grows closer to Reed and the other brothers (luckily in different ways). They’re all certainly problematic assholes but they grow on you by the end. […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #113: Seasonal Book Club

Posted November 1, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 7 Comments
Top Ten Tuesdays #113: Seasonal Book Club

Ten Books to Read if Your Book Club Likes Seasonal Reads 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 topic is… Top Ten Books To Read If Your Book Club Likes _______________ (if your book club likes historical fiction, inspiring stories, YA books, non-fiction, controversial books to debate about, or pick a specific book).  This was a tough one to narrow down because I feel like I’ve done quite a few book club TTTs in the past. I like the freebie nature of this one though. I decided to go with books your book club should read if you read seasonally. There are lots of bloggers (myself included) who read based on the seasons. Cristina and I do our Book Buddies based on each season because it’s fun to match it up to the ~vibes~ of that month. I wanted to give out some recs for each month of the year – minus two – for your book club! January Meeting: Cozy Winter Read Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne //// This book did involve a little bit of the holiday season, if I remember correctly, but it was really just a perfect winter book! The setting of a cold, snowy island and a bed and breakfast? To die for! I […]