Month: October 2020

Guide to Holiday Movies Releasing in 2020

Posted October 29, 2020 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 6 Comments

Welcome to the first and earliest installment in my holiday series on the blog! Everyone knows that this season begins for me basically on Halloween or the day after. I just want to enjoy my Christmassy stuff for two full months instead of one, and it costs you $0 to mind ya business and let me be happy. I normally refrain from making blog posts until we’re nearing the end of November, but I thought it would be fun to do a holiday movie round-up post BEFORE posting any of my holiday movie reviews, which always come throughout December. This means I’m sharing ALL of the holiday movies on my radar that are releasing this year. I wanted to get this post out early enough for people to make plans, set their DVRs, and order Disney+ in preparation. Without further ado, here are all the movies you could see this year and where to find them! Again, these are broken down by where you can find them. I thought I would get the smaller lists done first, so if Hallmark and Lifetime movies aren’t your thing, you’re able to skip out of this post before reading through them 😉 Anything you see in the purple boxes are synopses pulled from the relevant websites. For complete lists on other websites, I used THIS and THIS. Theaters Believe it or not, there are apparently holiday movies coming to theaters this year. I’m not sure if people will actually go see them, but […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #311: Halloween Freebie

Posted October 28, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Creepy Books I’ve Read 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. Yes, I’m a day late, but it’s fine. What is time? I have definitely read my share of mystery/thrillers these days but they don’t tend to be that SPOOKY. They’re usually psychological or involve some dickhead teenager playing murder games with other teenagers. There aren’t a lot of ghostly or creepy books in my repertoire. For this holiday freebie, here are some of the actually creepy books I’ve read! I’m a little bit of a baby though. HIS HIDEOUS HEART is an anthology featuring Edgar Allen Poe retellings, and many of them creeped me out! This was a really great read and perfect for October if you’re still trying to pack in creepy reads. THIS LIE WILL KILL YOU involved a bit more scary/horror elements than I expected, per my review. I don’t remember much else about the book though and didn’t rate it very highly haha. TEN is essentially a retelling of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, so I was bound to be creeped out, with murders happening left and right. I don’t think it’s cheating to include the entire DIVINERS series, right? I mean ALL of these books seriously […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #310: Recommended

Posted October 20, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books I Read Because of a Recommendation 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 feel like, as a book blogger, at least half of the books I read are because someone I follow or respect posted about it! I find new releases through my friends adding them to their Goodreads shelves, or backlist titles because someone read it and it caught my eye. I also follow a lot of cover-related posts or “books publishing this month!” posts to find new books to read. Grounded by Megan Morrison // Recommended by Morgan Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell // General recommendation from Twitter The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser // Recommended by Kelly The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, and Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker // General recommendation from book internet All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda // Recommended by Grace (#ReadForGrace) The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary and Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston // General recommendation from book internet Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno // Recommended by Laura

Five on Fridays [10]

Posted October 16, 2020 / Five on Fridays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Five on Friday displays the the top five things that have been on my mind this week! It could be book-related, but it may be music, movies, TV, personal life, food, etc. I’ll generally be posting these biweekly and linking up with Friday Favorites (hosted by A Little Bit of Everything, Grace and Love, and Momfessionals). Previous posts can be found here! Westworld After finishing Watchmen on HBO Max, we had determined we would start Westworld next. We’re only a few episodes in so far (I think five or six?) but we’re intrigued. The first few were interesting and kept our curiosity up but the following couple were somewhat boring. I’m really excited for things to start connecting – my friend told me around episode 7 things start clicking into place more. Emily in Paris I watched five of these in a row before work the other day and plan to finish it up before this post goes up (hopefully). I’ll admit, Emily is annoying as hell and the show paints a pretty one-dimensional picture of Paris, but it’s so addicting. It reminds me a lot of Passport to Paris with MK&A or all of their movies where they traveled somewhere and made me want to go ASAP as a kid. I won’t sit here and tell you the show is GOOD but it’s fun and addicting when I need it. House Organization I’m finally getting the “spring cleaning” shit done around the house… now that it’s fall. We started with organizing […]

Review Round Up | Summer at Lake Haven, Today Tonight Tomorrow, and Then She Was Gone

Posted October 14, 2020 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 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’m always thrilled to return to Haven Point! I started this one and then realized there was a prequel novella about the leading man’s sister that should be read first, so I paused and finished that up quickly. Ian is in town for his sister Gemma’s wedding. He rents a house next to Samantha and she’s immediately smitten with his two cute kids. The kids, in turn, are smitten with the puppies she’s temporarily taking care of! Ian and Samantha get off on the wrong foot but they grow to be friends (and then more) throughout the story, of course. I’ll be honest – they were super dry and boring. Their conversations were repetitive and offered too much information about Ian’s research on salmon (yup). I was always a bit tired of them talking, which isn’t what you need from main characters you’re supposed to be rooting for in a romance! As always, the charming Haven Point setting won major points for me. The two of them were on Lake Haven and went hiking to see some waterfalls, which led to some nice scenery descriptions. The rest of the town and the Helping Hands group were always excellent too. I won’t spoil the ending, but it was […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #309: Long Titles

Posted October 13, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books with Long Titles 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 definitely took the easy way out here, since I forgot to prep this post ahead of time! I googled “books with long titles” and found a longgg Goodreads list. I scrolled through and took note of some that I’ve read, as well as some that I hope to read at some point. Books I’ve Read Books on my TBR

Wednesday Wrap-Up #7 | WoW & WWW

Posted October 7, 2020 / Waiting on Wednesdays, Wednesday Wrap-Up, Weekly Memes, WWW Wednesdays / 0 Comments

I don’t like to do too many weekly memes on the blog and usually stick to TTT, but I thought it would be fun to occasionally post Wednesday memes I’m interested in. It won’t be weekly, but it’ll be fun to recap the previous week or so and talk about what books I have on the docket. It will be a combination of WWW Wednesdays and Waiting on Wednesdays (more details below!), as well as anything else I’d like to share. Waiting on…Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine and asks upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating. I’m currently waiting impatiently for… A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer Release Date: January 12th 2021 Brigid Kemmerer’s New York Times bestselling Cursebreaker series continues with two kingdoms on the brink of collapse, old enemies resurfacing, and friends becoming foes. Emberfall is torn between those who believe Rhen is the rightful prince and those who are eager to begin a new era under the true heir, Grey. Grey has agreed to wait two months before attacking Rhen, and in that time, Rhen has sought the assistance of a spy despite Harper’s doubts. Meanwhile, Lia Mara struggles to rule Syhl Shallow with a gentler hand than her mother. But some of her subjects aren’t happy that Lia Mara has an enchanted prince and magical scraver by her side. As Grey’s deadline draws nearer, Lia Mara is forced to question whether or not she can remain allied to his cause. This compulsively readable saga continues as two […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #308: Fall Colors

Posted October 6, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Books with Fall Covers 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’m a huge fall person – I love this season because it includes my favorite months (weather-wise and personal event/life-wise), and involves the lead up to Christmas!

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September 2020

Posted October 1, 2020 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 3 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. Woof, five books. I know September is always hard for me because of my birthday, anniversary, and start of football. Reading just takes a back burner. I ended up reading a good amount early in the month and then tapered off in the second half. It got to be the 22nd and I was like, good lord, I need to at least finish one more. I ended up counting a cookbook again! And a novella! SIGH. 5 books read in September 5 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 1384 • Average rating: 3.8 stars Sources: 2 purchased, 3 review Formats: [Review] 1 egalley and 0 physical ARCs 1 hardcover, 1 paperback, 2 ebooks, 0 audio, 1 combo Genres: 4 contemporary, 1 nonfiction Age Target: 3 adult, 2 young adult Check out my 2020 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 3/40 read total Challenges: Picked because title caught attention Monthly Key Word Challenge None this month Calendar of Crime Challenge None this month Romanceopoly 0 read this […]