Month: February 2019

ARC Reviews: The Au Pair and I Owe You One

Posted February 14, 2019 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I’ve been requesting and reading an absurd about of books from Berkley / Berkley Romance lately. I can’t stop myself. EVERYTHING they put out has an adorable or intriguing premise, a cute cover, and/or a lot of buzz. I was initially interested in THE AU PAIR but held off on requesting it (somehow)… then I saw Cristina’s review. I don’t have a lot of success with mystery/thrillers in the sense that I don’t always rate them highly. I love reading them, but my expectations are always higher than reality. I’m going to include a snapshot of her review because it perfectly describes how I feel about this genre and my struggles/wishes: In today’s over saturated world of mediocre thrillers, it can be hard to find one that simultaneously manages to surprise me and that’s well written. So many thriller novels I actually find work better for me in a movie format, so I’m always on a hunt for a solidly written mystery/thriller that manages to create an unsettling, atmospheric world on the page. That’s exactly what I experienced with The Au Pair to my delight, and found myself completely immersed in a mystery that not only enveloped me in its setting, but actually had an ending that I didn’t foresee in advance. – The Au Pair review at Girl in the Pages I actually enjoyed a somewhat mysterious (more contemporary-ish, but you get the point) book earlier this year that was also set in England AND involved some kind of castle/huge house… so this […]

Sharing Reading Progress on Social Media

Posted February 13, 2019 / Discussions, Features / 5 Comments

I was thinking about this as I was updating my Instagram stories with my most recent finished books, as well as those I’m currently reading. That seems to be the latest social media trend for tracking book progress and sharing our reads. Last year, we were all updated Twitter threads and moments with books as we finished them, maybe including a mini review too. Lindsey avidly uses the Bookerly app and shares cool graphics for books as she reads and finishes books. Some people do one thing, some people do multiple, some people do nothing. I think it’s fun to watch reading progress from others and (in general) share mine… but I get so lazy later in the year. I’m just not in the mood to take the picture, especially if it’s of my Kindle screen or I have a poorly formatted egalley. Sometimes I screenshot the Goodreads page and that takes an extra step, plus having the screenshot annoyingly saved on my phone. I’ll get into all that later, but thought I’d go through some of my past preferences for tracking my reading progress on social media and why I went with the ~decision~ I did for 2019. 2017 Tracking I used the Twitter moment in 2017, which was kind of annoying for me personally. After finishing the book, marking that on Goodreads, and writing a little review, I would then have to duplicate those steps on Twitter AND track down the photo of the book/Kindle from when I started reading. […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #222: Shippy Couples

Posted February 12, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 5 Comments

Recent Favorite Couples in Books Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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 have talked about some of my all-time favorite book couples but so many of them are outdated at this point! I think it’d be fun right now to take you through some of my more RECENT favorite couples in books, or the books that I most recently added to my “ship so hard” shelf on Goodreads. Let me know what you think of these, if you’ve read any!

Reader Survey

Posted February 9, 2019 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

Hey friends! I’ve never really done one of these since I started blogging in 2014 (!!!!!) as far as I can recall. I’ve talked A LOT on the blog about ~making changes~ and integrating my life more into this book blog. I typically include a decent number of lifestyle posts each month or week on here and I hope people enjoy it. I don’t get a lot of blog comments in a general sense but I have good viewership, so I think people are at least reading the posts? I just can’t decide what people actually want or need from this blog. I’ve tossed around the idea of keeping the books here (due to the name of the blog, established numbers for review copies, etc.) and then making a second blog about my life. I’ve even made them before but abandoned them without advertising anything to people. As you’ll see below, I would only do this if people genuinely prefer that kind of thing. If everyone is happy with the current breakdown and enjoys my posts as they are, I’m happy to keep everything under one umbrella as a book and lifestyle blogger. It would mean the world to me if you took the survey, especially if you are a regular blog reader. None of the questions are required so you can literally answer any or all of them, but I would really appreciate the feedback! ? Loading…

Requesting Review Copies as Motivation

Posted February 8, 2019 / Discussions, Features / 9 Comments

Okay, this could be an absurd topic, but I need to talk about this. I’m finding myself doing it more and more and it’s NOT a good thing but also kind of a good thing???? I’ve talked a lot about authors that I keep adding to my TBR and never actually read. It’s a bad habit and I keep getting stuck on it. I recently noticed that there IS a way to “force” me into reading these authors – request or receive a review copy. Let me clarify again that (a) these are authors I WANT to read but keep putting off for reasons I’m not sure about; I’m not actually forcing myself to read authors just for shits and giggles, and (b) I’m not saying this is a GOOD STRATEGY but it happens to be working for me, so I want to talk about it… and see if anyone else is as garbage as me. When I like the sound of an author and their stories, I keep adding things and telling myself to just READ one of their books, for gods sake. I don’t know why I drag my feet or get nervous about trying new authors (honestly it could just be me getting crushed my review deadlines and blog tours and the never-ending TBR pile in general). I’ve found that the best way for me to finally get around to reading these authors is just requesting a review copy. Or joining a blog tour. Or borrow an ARC from […]

ARC Review: Just for Clicks

Posted February 7, 2019 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Initial Excitement & Summary I was sold on the premise of this one right from the beginning because it’s weirdly something I think about a lot. Let me first say that people can make their own decisions and this is just MY opinion – but I can’t imagine sharing so much about my children online without their consent. I can see posting some pictures or talking about a few things, but having them reach a certain level of fame before they’re old enough to make their own decisions? That’s hard for me to figure out. One of my favorite YouTubers has said that she won’t feature her children on her channel until they’re old enough to understand and decide for themselves, which is probably what I’d do (aside from some pictures here and there). But I digress! The storyline fascinated me because it’s definitely going to be an area of contention going forward, as more and more people live SO much of their lives online. This book focused on twin daughters of a famous fashion blogger and how they were essentially pressured into creating their own vlog channel and following in their mother’s footsteps. Story & Characters I like that this story was both fluffy and young while also having some more serious topics involved. Claire is struggling with her identity because her life has been shaped by her mom’s blog. She’s famous because she’s a twin and is forced to participate in vlogs and Instagram posts all the time… […]

If We Were Having Coffee…

Posted February 6, 2019 / If We Were Having Coffee, Personal / Information / Etc. / 6 Comments

I LOVE reading personal posts from other bloggers and seeing Jamie’s “If We Were Having Coffee” feature take off is so fun. Laura and Lindsey also have some great spin-offs of this feature too. I was very tempted to also make mine margarita-related (like Lindsey) but coffee is so ingrained in my daily life that it just makes sense to keep it. If you’re not familiar, it basically involves a fake little conversation about what’s been happening in our lives lately. Read on to see what’s been happening lately and feel free to chat back in the comments! If we were having coffee… I’d ask how your weekend was! Start any new books? Get anything done around the house? I’m feeling very on top of things lately and it’s kind of a nice change. Chris and I have been good about cleaning up, staying organizing, buying things we need and not putting them off, and meal prep. I think I still need to work on the grocery shopping part of meal prepping and not wasting food, but baby steps… If we were having coffee… I’d tell you about some of my favorite new beauty and skincare items I’ve added to my current rotation! I don’t change up the foundation of my makeup routine (overall face makeup, mascara, etc.) very often because once I find something that keeps me matte, I don’t change anything… but I’m always excited to try new skincare, eyeshadow, and lip products. I bought the Gerard Cosmetics liquid lipstick […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #221: On the Fence

Posted February 5, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 13 Comments

Upcoming Releases I’m On the Fence About Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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 have an unreleased TBR shelf, general to-read shelf, and consideration shelf on Goodreads. I really don’t put unreleased books on the consideration shelf but maybe I should start doing that… because this was tough to pull out a little bit! The Art of Losing being on here will definitely garner some gasps from friends! I know many people who personally know/love Lizzy Mason from her publishing work, but this book sounds just a little too heavy for me? I have been straying away from non-fluffy contemporaries lately for some reason because I just need the romance and no drama or sadness haha. The Cliff House may be a surprise to some people, who know I am a huge fangirl for the Haven Point series by RaeAnne Thayne. I’m on the fence because its a standalone novel and my favorite thing about her writing is the cozy small towns, explored through multiple books. The synopsis sounds halfway up my alley, so that doesn’t exactly help its case. We Rule the Night is one of a few fantasy books I expect to be on this list because I just never read them […]

On My List (7)

Posted February 4, 2019 / Features, On My List / 6 Comments

I love Jamie’s New to the Queue feature because it highlights new things she’s added to her different “to do/ read/ watch/ etc.” lists. This new random feature – called simply On My List – will show off the most recent books, movies, shows, podcasts, recipes, crafts, and other things to make it on my to-do list. Currently Available The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Meyerson | I added a few books to my TBR because of the Popsugar reading challenge, and this is one of them. I love books involving books/bookstores/libraries/etc. so this was a fun one! It involves a scavenger hunt too. The Iron King by Kagawa | I saw some bloggers reading and rereading these lately and was inspired to finally add it to my TBR. I’m a huge fae fan and these are considered some classics in the genre, from what I understand. The Dreamers by Walker | This keeps getting compared to STATION ELEVEN, which was a fascinating “outside of my norm” read… so you could say I’m intrigued! I love the idea of people just falling asleep but I have a bad feeling there won’t be much closure at the end? Unreleased Books Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered by Kilgariff/Hardstark | I went through a huuuuuge MFM podcast phase, but got SO burnt out after a while. I haven’t listened to an episode in over a year by now. I think I’ll pick it up again at some point and just listen when they come out. I DIGRESS – they have a […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | January 2019

Posted February 1, 2019 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. Fuck yeah, January was exactly what I wanted it to be. I am always super motivated to read in the first month or two of the year to kick it off right. I like getting ahead on my reading challenge up front to allow for more flexibility later in the year. That definitely happened in January – I was usually a book or two or three ahead of my Goodreads challenge for the entire month. I had such good reading mojo and wanted to read (and even listen to audiobooks!) way more than usual. All of the books read this month: Check out my 2019 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 8 read this month | 8 read total | 23% complete Prompts (L-R): About someone with a superpower, should be a movie, plant in title/on cover, published in 2019, meant to read in 2018, featuring an amateur detective, item of clothing or accessory on the cover, told from multiple points of view Monthly Motif Challenge 3 read this month | 3 read total | This […]