Month: April 2019

Top Ten Tuesdays #233: Quotes

Posted April 30, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 8 Comments

Inspirational/Thought-Provoking Book Quotes 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 been utterly terrible about recording book quotes in the last couple of years. It’s something I used to pay so much attention to! For whatever reason, I just can’t bring myself to care anymore??? There aren’t a lot of new ones here but I’m going to sort by my “recently added” on Goodreads! I made these in the app Word Swag, FYI. Toil and Trouble story by Elizabeth May Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid Heartless by Marissa Meyer The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith

May TBR

Posted April 29, 2019 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 5 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. April Progress I definitely was successful in reading only ARCs in April, but I didn’t get as much reading done a I usually might. I managed to get my book club choice done as well as some backlist/already published ARCs. I did a buddy read of ROSA with Nick and it was great! Overall, solid month of sticking to the TBR despite not reading as many books in general. Up Next in May Review Copies (Egalleys) Again But Better by Riccio, The Printed Letter Bookshop by Reay, Passion on Park Avenue by Layne, Hungry Hearts edited by Richmond and Chapman, Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Lim Blog Tours Romanov by Brandes [also for Retellings Challenge] Only Ever Her by Whalen Physical Books / Review Copies / Audiobooks Review copies: Fame Adjacent by Skilton, Welcome to Last Chance by Ramsay, The Summer House by Hale, The Devouring Gray by Herman, The Lovely and the Lost by Barnes [not pictured] Picky Pledge / audiobook combo: Emerald Green by Gier Picky Pledge: Saga #5-6 by Vaughan [not pictured] Other TBR Business Monthly Motif: One Sitting Reads – I’ll be reading at least […]

ARC Review Round Up | The Truth About Leaving, You Owe Me a Murder, and The Dating Game

Posted April 26, 2019 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 5 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I sincerely loved Blitt’s debut and have been eagerly awaiting her next YA release! THE TRUTH ABOUT LEAVING intrigued me, as I haven’t read many books involving Jewish characters (especially ones straight from Israel, now living in the United States). I actually read this book in one sitting without planning for it; it was easy to fall into and get lost in. Blitt’s writing is easy in that way, which is a great thing. The story centers around Lucy, who is in her final year of high school and trying to balance everything – helping with her brothers while her mom is away, figuring out what she wants to do about college, getting back into her old hobbies, and that new boy in town. Dov is the aforementioned character who comes to the US from Israel for a year, transferring into her senior class. Despite the very different futures they have planned, they quickly fall for each other. While the plot itself is pretty straightforward and simple (meaning not much actually happens – just a lot of character development and “finding yourself” moments), the bigger issues are definitely covered well. They have different lives, different plans, and different family situations. I thought they had pretty good chemistry […]

Balancing All the Forms of Entertainment

Posted April 25, 2019 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 6 Comments

I feel like I’ve discussed this a little bit in the past, but I’m in the mood to talk about it again. I’ve actually developed a pretty decent system for getting ALL of my media time in. I’m looking at books, audiobooks, music, and podcasts. I’ve had really good months and really bad months for reading, and it’s usually based on my current addiction level to something else. 2018 was a big YouTube year for me – I could not stop watching things and didn’t read that much at all. I also got addicted to a few TV shows. This year I’ve been really into podcasts, since I have a commute again, but I’ve also been mixing audiobooks in a LOT. I’ve been also reading many, many books, which means I’m not watching TV or YouTube as much. In the post I linked above, I talked about developing some kind of schedule to balance my hobbies: Between audiobooks, podcasts, regular books, Netflix, and YouTube, I really need to allocate my time better. I need to focus on what’s important and what isn’t. Just because I love Nikkia’s YouTube videos doesn’t mean I NEED to watch her review of a product I’m 90% sure I won’t buy or care about. I don’t have to watch every single creator I love when they post something. I’d love to, but it’s not feasible. Tati posts 5 times per week and I already cut back to just the topics I’m interested in; I should […]

Seriously, How Have I Not Read This Yet? (Pt. 2)

Posted April 24, 2019 / Discussions, Features / 10 Comments

I wrote a post like this back in 2017 and SPOILER ALERT: I still have not read a *single book* that I put on that list. Please, someone come punch me and direct me to my backlist. I decided to do an update to this post, a few years later, to look at all the books between 2017ish and 2018 that I definitely should have read by now. Some more background: A lot of books end up on my “jazzed up for this” shelf on Goodreads. I made a whole 2015 challenge about the books I MUST read because I was previously so excited for them. So why do I never read them?! This happens way way way too often. Here are some of the books I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t read even though I’ve been ~so excited~ about them for years. By Your Side by Kasie West | I’ve seen so many mixed reviews for this one, plus you know my weird method of always having at least one KW book on my TBR to fall back on when I really need it… so it’s not overly surprising this one is still hanging around. However, it’s my sister’s favorite by her for some reason. I’m surprised she hasn’t killed me yet for not reading it! Worthy by Donna Cooner | Cooner writes these kind of timely, slightly preachy novels that always involve YouTube or social media or something else that won’t hold up in 5-10 years. However, I have fond memories […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #232: First Reviews

Posted April 23, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 16 Comments

First 10 Books I Reviewed 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 never reviewed books anywhere but on my blog, honestly, even though I had Goodreads for a few years beforehand! I would definitely RATE my books on there but didn’t leave reviews. Thus, the first 10 books ever reviewed happened right here on Bookmark Lit back in 2014. With my blogiversary coming up later this year, it’s fun to look back at the beginning! 1. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart – July 16, 2014 “Well, I decided to make my first review about a book I didn’t like too much. I have mixed emotions about this book, so let me try to work through them here. I have to admit, I was extremely interested in the book based on the cover. I don’t know who is making all these cool, graphic book covers lately, but I love them. I was fascinated by the small amount of plot-related information that was out there and it kept getting rave reviews, so I decided to try it out.” 2. The List by Siobhan Vivian – July 18, 2014 “The basic plot summary is as follows: at some random high school, each year […]

ARC Reviews: Her Royal Highness and Don’t Date Rosa Santos

Posted April 22, 2019 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I enjoyed the first book in this series. I think it’s because, despite my overall grumpiness about all things royal, the main character matched those sentiments. I was able to relate to Daisy and get accustomed to this kind of royal-meets-normie tale. I became excited for the f/f companion novel, even though this one directly involves an actual princess, and hopped to it right away. This ended up being super shippy and mostly wonderful. Flora and Millie were an excellent pair. I loved the kind of hate-to-love situation that developed, with Flora being Flora aka not the nicest person on earth? Millie was cute with her love for her dad, love for geology, and general love for Scotland without ever going there. As usual, I would have loved even more family feels, but she had a really nice backstory. This ship sailed its way into my heart for sure. My main issue is how abrupt the ending was. In general, the whole second half-ish of the book was a bit rushed? I could have done with like 50 more pages interspersed in the second half of the book, both around building the ship and chemistry and toward the end. I would venture to say that the pacing here was relatively terrible, with the inevitable fight/breakup/tension (and the usual things that follow) WAY too close to the end of the book. Overall though, a worthy companion to the first book! Give me a book about Seb now PLEASE. I was really […]

Spotlight: YA Anthologies

Posted April 19, 2019 / Features, Spotlight / 8 Comments

My new Spotlight feature highlights anything within the bookish world that I feel deserves a spotlight for a few minutes – publishers (or more specifically, imprints!), new or old favorite authors, bookish people/bloggers, covers or cover trends, topics/genres within books, and anything else that should be on your radar. Young Adult Anthologies My first Spotlight feature that came out recently highlighted a favorite publishing imprint, so this next installment will show another kind of ~thing~ I plan on focusing on – bookish trends and types of books! I’ve always been a sucker for short story collections, especially holiday ones like Let It Snow, Mistletoe, and Snow In Love. These have 3-4 stories, so I’m not going to talk about them here. I’m talking about big anthologies that have upwards of 10-15 stories in them, from prominent YA authors, centered around specific topics. I’ve noticed SO many more anthologies being announced lately, so I thought it’d be a fun list to round up. I’ll be ranking my favorite anthologies and talking about some I’m excited about. Anthologies I’ve Read, Ranked While I tend to look back on BOTH Perkins anthologies with rose-colored glasses, only one of them was really that great. I loved the stories in My True Love Gave to Me and found them to be such perfect cozy holiday stories. I love that Summer Days and Summer Nights has the same adorable cover style, but the stories themselves were very meh for me, for the most part. The Meet Cute […]

ARC Reviews: The Bride Test and Meet Cute

Posted April 18, 2019 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

HOW DOES HELEN HOANG DO IT? This was perfection. Hoang writes such unique romances in just about every way, but especially the circumstances in which the characters get together (an “arranged marriage” here and the whole “male escort” thing KISS QUOTIENT). When Khai’s mom heads to Vietnam to essentially hand-pick a woman for her son to marry, she finds that Esme, who is working in the restroom, would be the perfect match. She is hesitant at first because she has a young daughter, mother, and grandmother to support. Her mother insists that she comes to California for the summer to try to make things work with him. She can also try to find her father, an American on business who never knew he got her mother pregnant. She eventually agrees for those reasons – why not give it a shot? Khai, on the other hand, just decides to appease his mom, live with Esme, and see what happens. He was obviously in for a surprise when he found himself instantly fascinated by her. I was completely charmed by both Esme and Khai; they were totally lovable in their different ways. Esme talked a lot while Khai would just take it all in. They were opposites but complementary. Watching them open up to each other was so entertaining and heartwarming. They didn’t just grow as a pair, but absolutely grew as individuals too. Esme learned about her own interests and goals while Khai opened up to the fact that he DOES have […]

Egalleys Over Physical ARCs

Posted April 17, 2019 / Discussions, Features / 7 Comments

I’ve talked quite a bit recently about my ARC-related habits, how I plan my TBRs around them, and how I progress through reading them in a mostly timely manner. All of this is well and good but you may have noticed that I don’t often talk about my success with PHYSICAL ARCs. That is because I have very little success with them, to be frank. Here’s why they sit idle and don’t get read (sometimes at all, sometimes in a timely manner, etc.): 1. There’s no real ratio to hold me accountable (like a Netgalley percentage). This is the number one thing here for a reason. Because I don’t have any solid number to associate my physical ARCs with, I tend to ignore them in favor of egalleys. There’s a ratio or percentage that helps you out on Netgalley specifically, so I can tie my overall success to that number. I can find out when to improve it or how much it will take to increase it to 80% at any given moment. If the number is too low, I can’t really get all of the great books I’m hoping for. The NG ratio is obviously a bit annoying to maintain or improve, but its existence totally holds me accountable for reading those review copies. 2. While I’m grateful to get them, many are unsolicited, which often means “not for me.” I’ve gotten more and more unsolicited ARCs lately, which is awesome! I genuinely feel that I am finally gaining […]