Month: June 2017

July TBR

Posted June 30, 2017 / Book Challenges, Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 8 Comments

I recently started a monthly TBR feature, where I try to pin down which books I plan to read in the upcoming month. It also helps remind me throughout the month which books I’m supposed to be reading, for various reasons. I add a little poll at the bottom too, so you guys can vote and help me narrow down some of my options as well. Here are my top TBR choices for this month and how I did last month… June Progress June was apparently when I read all of my highly anticipated books! Between finally reading JUNIPER LEMON, diving immediately into ONCE AND FOR ALL, and also finally starting LUCKY IN LOVE (at the end of May), it felt nice to read a bunch of solid books in a row. I didn’t do too bad on my TBR. June – toward the end of the month – definitely got a bit crazy, but I managed to keep reading. On Deck for July ARCs to Read The Possible by Tara Altebrando I Believe In a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo In Some Other Life by Jessica Brody So yes these are repeats from previous TBR posts, but whatever. I am bringing all three to Portland tomorrow (eek!) so they’ll be read soonish. I need to send IN SOME OTHER LIFE back to Marg before it’s published as well. I’m not sure why I keep putting these ones off. Egalleys A Short History of the Girl Next […]

Books on the Move

Posted June 29, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

My upcoming move to Maine might have you wondering… where are all of my books going to hang out for 1-2 years? I never planned to bring all of them with me because I just don’t NEED them during that time period. I don’t take a lot of bookstagram photos where I’d want to have my favorites around me, so I’m not to worried about leaving them behind. I have them spread between three different locations, all with pretty easy access to swap them out and read things as I need them. Dad’s House: Read Books & Later TBR The vast majority of my books are at my dad’s house in my old bedroom. It’s pretty sparse in there since I put some things into storage, so I was able to set up my bookshelves for easy access. I can’t lie though, my sister totally set up all of these books. She even put them in alphabetical order because she’s good like that.? The best thing about this setup is that my sister can read my entire library while I’m gone, and I can swap books out from it when I come home. Again, all of my completed books are here, but this is my biggest collection with unread books too. She’s so excited to read all of my books and already broke into a favorite (The One Thing!) Since I’m only keeping a few books at Chris’s parents’ house and in Portland, I’ll be able to come here and switch in […]

(Re)Reading Sarah Dessen | Wrap-Up – Once and for All and Dessen Favorites

Posted June 28, 2017 / Book Lists, Features / 4 Comments

Everyone knows that Sarah Dessen is the queen of contemporary romance and adorable, coming-of-age summer stories. I have read and loved most of her books already, but I made it a point recently to read (or in a lot of cases, reread) all of her books. Her books are important to so many people and really are what got many of us into reading contemporary romance books. This summer, Cristina from Girl in the Pages and I have teamed up to talk alllllll about Sarah Dessen – when we started reading her books, our experiences with rereading, and other fun discussions, recommendations, and personal stories. Our feature will take place over four weeks this June, starting today for me and tomorrow for her. Here’s the schedule: Introduction, Our Sarah Stories, and Discussion of Someone Like You June 7th on Bookmark Lit – June 8th on Girl in the Pages Dessen Recommendations and Similar Stories June 14th on Bookmark Lit – June 15th on Girl in the Pages Blog Features: Cover Colors (BL) and Event Recap (GitP) June 21st on Bookmark Lit – June 22nd on Girl in the Pages Once and For All, Dessen Favorites, and Wrap-Up June 28th on Bookmark Lit – June 29th on Girl in the Pages For the final week in our Dessen feature, we wanted to highlight Once and for All, as well as discuss some of our favorites! I’m still in the middle of my reread so I’m not sure I could give a full rank order […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #144: Best of 2017 So Far

Posted June 27, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 13 Comments

Best Books I’ve Read So Far in 2017 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. Yet again, another quick and easy TTT for me! I keep up with my Excel sheet about my books, so I went in and did some sorting by rating. Ta-da! Here are the best books I’ve read so far in 2017, with links to my reviews where applicable. (I didn’t include rereads or novellas.) 5 Stars What I Lost / When Dimple Met Rishi / The Names They Gave Us The Hate U Give / Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index 4.5 Stars Geekerella / Alex, Approximately / The Forgetting Confessions of a HS Disaster / The Adjustment / What to Say Next My Not-So Perfect Life / Once Upon a Wine / The Best Man Hello, Sunshine / Always and Forever, Lara Jean / The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Saying Goodbye to the Hundred Oaks Series | ARC Review: Coming Up for Air

Posted June 26, 2017 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

This is it! The end of the Hundred Oaks series by Miranda Kenneally. I’ve looked forward to each new installment since I read BREATHE, ANNIE, BREATHE back in 2014. I thought because of the cover that it wasn’t included in the same series, so I read it first. I ended up going back soonafter and reading the rest of them in order. Some of these books are all-time favorites and MK became an auto-buy author for me. I thought the final review for the final book would be a great place to share how much I love the series as a whole and rank them in order of favorites. Favorites, Ranked: #1- Catching Jordan – 5 stars – Football This one had me at football, but I love friends-to-more! #2 – Breathe, Annie, Breathe – 5 stars – Running Clearly my expectations for the rest were high right off the bat. #3 – Jesse’s Girl – 4.5 stars – Music There was something so addicting and cute about this one! #4 – Coming Up for Air – 4 stars – Swimming Super steamy and a wonderful conclusion to the series! #5 – Stealing Parker – 4 stars – Softball I loved reading about Parker and c’mon… Corn Dog. #6 – Defending Taylor – 4 stars – Soccer Taylor was a frustrating character, but the story was good. #7 – Racing Savannah – 3.5 stars – Horseback Riding This one just lacked a spark I can’t put my finger on, but still good! #8 – Things I Can’t Forget – 3 stars – Camp Too much religion […]

Review Round Up | Blacklist, Once and For All, Blood of Wonderland, and The Hate U Give

Posted June 23, 2017 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 4 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 reviews of already published books (either older/backlist or newer releases) that I’ve read or listened to recently. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! After enjoying UNRIVALED and being incredibly interested to see what would happen next, it felt like BLACKLIST would never arrive. I checked it out from the library and stashed it under my bed (where I unfortunately keep and forget about all of my library books). I finished up what I was reading and suddenly remembered that I had BLACKLIST to dive into. Let me tell you, it was exactly what I needed at the time. Like its predecessor, I couldn’t put this one down. I don’t see many differences in my feelings between the two books, to be honest. I felt the same way about the characters (didn’t really care about or for them). I felt the same way about the pacing (awesome). I felt the same way about the mystery (really interesting; I have a few theories!). I don’t know why but I think I liked this book more than the first. Maybe it’s because the stakes feel higher? I can’t put my finger on it. Long story short, I stayed up late to finish one night and had to wake up at 4:30 AM the next day. On my way home that evening, I was so excited to think I had more to read when I […]

The Aesthetically Pleasing Book Tag

Posted June 22, 2017 / Book Lists, Features, Personal / Information / Etc. / 13 Comments

Man, I have never seen such a perfect book tag for me! I’m so glad Morgan pointed it out to me when I asked for recs on Twitter. She originally saw it on A Kernel of Nonsense and then did it herself too. It’s about boooook coversssss. MY FAVE. Best color combo on a book cover Piper Perish | All We Have Is Now | The Summer After You + Me I’m a big fan of bold colors or watercolors on book covers. These three use color very nicely! I have waaaay too many others on my shelves I could feature here but I was struck by these when I went through my list. I like colors blending together or fading like an ombre. Best typography/font on the cover TATBILB | The One That Got Away | The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend Okay this is something I could have A MILLION for. I’m a huge sucker for fonts and fancy, handwritten typography on book covers. All of the TATBILB covers in the trilogy have the same perfect typography, so I’m including just book one as a placeholder. Clearly I’m a fan of cute cursive! Best simple cover Who Runs the World? | An Unkindness of Magicians | We All Looked Up I know you could argue that the center cover is not simple, by any means, but I love the simple colors mixed with the intricate background. Otherwise, the simple covers shown here get the job done by intriguing the reader (for me […]

(Re)Reading Sarah Dessen | Cover Colors

Posted June 21, 2017 / Features / 6 Comments

Everyone knows that Sarah Dessen is the queen of contemporary romance and adorable (and often darker or more complex), coming-of-age summer stories. I have read and loved most of her books already, but I made it a point recently to read (or in a lot of cases, reread) all of her books. Her books are important to so many people and really are what got many of us into reading contemporary romance books. This summer, Cristina from Girl in the Pages and I have teamed up to talk alllllll about Sarah Dessen – when we started reading her books, our experiences with rereading, and other fun discussions, recommendations, and personal stories. Our feature will take place over 4 weeks this June on Wednesdays (here) and Thursdays (there). Schedule Introduction, Our Sarah Stories, and Discussion of Someone Like You June 7th on Bookmark Lit – June 8th on Girl in the Pages Dessen Recommendations and Similar Stories June 14th on Bookmark Lit – June 15th on Girl in the Pages Blog Features: Cover Colors (BL) and Event Recap (GitP) June 21st on Bookmark Lit – June 22nd on Girl in the Pages Once and For All, Dessen Favorites, and Wrap-Up June 28th on Bookmark Lit – June 29th on Girl in the Pages I decided to feature two covers of Dessen books that haven’t previously been used on the blog. These two are the ones I’m most looking forward to rereading but haven’t yet (because I’m nervous I won’t love them as much!) For these books, […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #144: Series to Start

Posted June 20, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 16 Comments

Ten Series I’ve Been Meaning to Start 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 needed an easy TTT this week, so thanks for helping me out on that one. I’m famous for starting series and not finishing them, but I do have a LOT that I haven’t started yet somehow. Here are the top ten I hope to start at some point… maybe… someday… Splintered series by AG Howard | I was really obsessed with the cover for this book for some reason but I’m not 100% sure it’s for me. We’ll see if I ever get around to it, but I do love Wonderland retellings. Every trilogy by Ellie Marney | A looooot of people love this series, so I’ve always been looking forward to reading it. I hope to binge them in a row when the time finally comes! Blythewood trilogy by Carol Goodman | I feel like this series is right up my alley (hello, magical boarding school) but definitely flew under the radar. I own the first book and wanted to wait for the rest. Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison | I’ve owned this book for YEARS and have never gotten around to it. I’ve heard its hilarious though, so we’ll see. Heist Society series by Ally […]

ARC Reviews: Roar and Trusting You & Other Lies

Posted June 19, 2017 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

I’ve seen some pretty stellar early reviews for this one, plus Cora Carmack is one of my favorite NA authors… so needless to say, I had fairly high expectations! I usually would blame my negative feelings about this book on those expectations and hype, but I absolutely don’t think that was the case here. I was on the fence about reading this one in the first place because the synopsis didn’t really sound like a Lauren book. I decided to give it a go because of the reviews and author, but I ended up pretty disappointed. I’ll keep this short and break it down by the main elements of the story. Main plot: The story is about a princess, Aurora (or Ror, or Roar) who doesn’t have any magic. She has a marriage alliance planned with a prince of Locke (another kingdom) in order to avoid this information getting out. She soon learns that there’s a way of essentially buying magic on the black market and decides to set off on a journey with a group of stormhunters. I honestly thought the plot was kind of boring? I really didn’t care what was happening and often had no motivation to pick up the book. It was a struggle. I like books where people are on the road journeying and training with magic, but this book had almost no ~major events~ I can think of. Main character: On top of the pretty boring plot, Aurora was a boring character for me. Locke thought she was […]