Month: January 2022

February TBR

Posted January 28, 2022 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 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. February TBR January was a good month where I got ahead on reading! Here’s hoping February is some of the same. I’ll be focusing on some review copies, as always, and the two library books I’ve had forever. Library Books I managed to read one of my three checked out library books in January. February is hopefully when I’ll get to OF PRINCES AND PROMISES and YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED. I also have an audiobook of OPAP. Review Copies I’m actually doing a pretty good job with my 2022 review copies so far! I’ve seen a couple get not-great reviews so I’ve held off, but these three are high on my list to read soon. THESE DEADLY GAMES is obviously a mystery/thriller. LEASE ON LOVE and WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN are both contemporary fiction, with the second one having my favorite time-twisty trope (what if…?). I’m also including KAMILA KNOWS BEST if I can get ahead into March copies. Owned Books I managed to read one of my newly acquired owned books last month and I’m not sure if I’ll get to the other I highlighted in December. I […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #369: New-to-Me Authors

Posted January 25, 2022 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

2021 Favorite New-to-Me Authors 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 read a lot of favorite authors last year because my reading was so terrible. I still did manage to read books by new authors! I barely scraped up ten here but they were all enjoyable reads – I would read more books by each of these authors for sure.

ARC Review Round Up | When You Get the Chance and Bad Luck Bridesmaid

Posted January 19, 2022 / 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 will never not request a new Emma Lord book! I adored her two previous releases and therefore had high hopes and expectations for this one. I’m not a big fan of musicals or theater-oriented books, generally speaking, so I wasn’t entirely sure Millie or the premise would be for me. However, the whole concept of Millie trying to track down her mother and figure out who she is? That’s right up my alley. That factor plus the author made this an easy NG request. Yet again, Emma Lord nails it. This book was a really nice reading experience. Millie was a bit much (with her drama and Millie Moods) but every time she crossed the line to “annoying,” she would fall back to the “endearing” side soonafter. She definitely had a flair for the dramatic but that was a fun part of her personality in the end. I like how Oliver balanced her out and how naturally they moved away from enemies. Books like this make me wish I liked NYC more – what a fun place to grow up and have the freedom to explore. (I get too nervous in the city lol). The search for her mom (basically a spin on Mama Mia, apparently […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #368: Didn’t Get To

Posted January 18, 2022 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

2021 Releases I Didn’t Get To 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 recently posted the 2021 releases I was eagerly anticipating, and if I managed to read them all (below) so feel free to check out that post as well. I’m going to try to share some of the OTHER 2021 releases I didn’t read and really should get on! Most Anticipated Reads I Didn’t Get to Other Reads I Didn’t Get to

2022 Resolutions and Goals

Posted January 14, 2022 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I used to always do these posts (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) but obviously fell off the wagon for 2021, the first full calendar year of the pandemic. I didn’t even think about making this post honestly! My reading went to shit in 2020 and was even worse in 2021, but I have a renewed sense of energy right now. Generally “resolutions” or the “clean slate of a new year” isn’t my shtick, but sometimes the marking of a new year just helps when setting new goals. It’s an easy marker of time and that’s about it. Try to balance reading and other hobbies better | The resolution to “not be pressured to read; spend time enjoying other hobbies” has been on this list for years now. I used to read during the vast majority of my free time and it got to be draining. I’ve definitely fallen off the wagon a bit in 20-21 though so I’m rephrasing my goal. I want to better balance all of the things I like to do. At this point in my life, that really just means “sometimes listen to an audiobook instead of a podcast” or “stop scrolling on your phone during a wrestling TV show and read instead.” Read 75% contemporary and mystery/thrillers | I used to try to get my contemporary fiction numbers down to under 50% because I wanted to read more widely across genres. I finally achieved this goal! I read 46% contemporary in 2021. I also read 18% […]

Most Anticipated Reads of 2021 – How Did I Do?

Posted January 12, 2022 / Book Lists, Features / 1 Comment

I developed an annual post of “Five Star Predictions” to discuss which books I thought I would rate five stars within that year, and then follow up with a “did my five star predictions come true?” post at the end of the year. It was always fun to not only see if I was correct but also if I actually managed to even READ all of the books. It’s wild how much you anticipate reading something and then just… not even read it. 2020 and 2021 were totally shitty reading years for me and I didn’t even make a predictions post for 2021. When I saw Cristina post about her most anticipated 2021 reads to see how she did with them, I thought that would be a fun alternative for my usual five-star post. I always have two “anticipated reads” posts for the year – one TTT in Dec/Jan for the first half of the year and one in June for the second half. I always include a TON of books instead of just 10 for each section of the year. Here are the details of the 30 books I was excited to read throughout 2021 and how I fared! Overall Stats 30 books on my most anticipated list for 2021 Read 17 books (57%) | Didn’t read 13 books (43%) Ratings of books read: 5 stars = 2 books = 12% 4.5 stars = 6 books = 35% 4 stars = 7 books = 41% 3 stars = 1 […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #368: Recent Acquisitions

Posted January 11, 2022 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Most Recent Acquisitions to My Book Collection 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 only including books I’ve purchased for myself or received as a gift here – no review copies (and not including the Audible credit I used on a book for Chris that I’m not going to read!). Physical Copies – Fiction Physical Copies – Cookbooks Audiobooks

2021 Year in Review

Posted January 10, 2022 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I used to post a lot of life-related updates here when I was blogging more frequently (aka 2019) and the past two years have been kind of a blur. Aside from Covid ruining a ton of things for a long time, we managed to squeeze in our wedding when it was mostly safe to do so. (We didn’t have much of a choice from a contract perspective, but that’s a whole other issue…) I thought I would do a “year in review” kind of wrap-up here since my monthly Bookmark Lit Bulletins literally only discuss reading updates and my Lauren Lately posts fell by the wayside a long time ago. I hope when life is normal again… someday… they’ll resume. For now, here’s a month-by-month recap of my year and the few things I managed to squeeze in when I was able to! January We had a low-key NYE with our friends that we essentially quarantined with (they were the only people we saw when safe to, aside from immediate family members) – just us and our pups. I got really into cooking, finding recipes, and acquiring cookbooks. We had a lot of fun food in 2021! I also continued my obsession with nail wraps from Etsy – I’ve done them on and off and it’s been nice. Unfortunately Chris’s grandfather passed away in January and we had a small family-only Buddhist sendoff for him. I went wedding dress shopping twice in January – once at the beginning of the […]

Blog Tour Review: Love at First Spite

Posted January 7, 2022 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

More links: BookShop.org // Harlequin // Books-A-Million Powell’s // Signed Copies through Third Place Books Book Review Dani moved to Seattle for her fiance, only to find him cheating on her with the realtor of the house they just bought together… the one that he did not include her on the paperwork for, despite their agreement. She quickly learns that Sam is not who she thought he was and is happy to cut her losses on him. When she finds that realtor getting comfortable in the house as she gathers her things, she wonders how she can make his life as miserable as he’s made hers. The small vacant lot next to the house is the answer: she decides to build a vacation home with her cousin, Mia, and new landlord, Iris to spite him. Noisy construction, blocking his view of the water, and a potential revolving door of guests at the Airbnb… all to piss off Sam. She partners with the mysterious, grumpy architect, Wyatt, at her firm to get the project off the ground. The two start falling for each other as Dani struggles to keep the nature of the project secret from him. This book was extremely addicting, especially toward the beginning. I was eager to keep reading and see how Wyatt would slowly open up to Dani. I thought they had some good chemistry, although not necessarily right off the bat – certainly no “love at first sight” here. Wyatt is grumpy and standoffish at work so it was nice […]

2022 Reading Challenges

Posted January 6, 2022 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I decided to keep signing up for challenges because I do enjoy them still. I didn’t actively work on them in 2020 or 2021 but always loved to see how much I could fill out just by reading books and seeing how things went! Here are the challenges I’m signing up for in 2022. I’m excited to sign up for an easy TBR-based challenge, hopefully focusing on books I own already in some format. You can read more HERE. There are prompts for each month and different levels you can aspire to read (example: 12 books is a Safety – maybe I couldn’t help signing up because it’s football-themed). My general plan is to read one per month from my TBR – ideally physical books but I’m okay with “owned” books on my Kindle, review copies or otherwise. The prompts and half of my potential TBR are below. JANUARY – Published in 2021 (most of these)FEBRUARY – Romantic read (The Heart Principle)MARCH – TV or movie adaptation APRIL – New-to-you author (The Ex Hex, Arsenic and Adobo, Everything We Didn’t Say)MAY – Favorite genre (Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love, The Heart Principle)JUNE – Diverse read (The Heart Principle, Arsenic and Adobo)JULY – Summery readAUGUST – Back to schoolSEPTEMBER – On your TBR the longest (Mister Impossible)OCTOBER – Spooky or suspenseful read (The Ex Hex)NOVEMBER – Unfinished series (Mister Impossible)DECEMBER – Holiday read I’ve done this one for at least three years now (HERE). I just like the variety of prompts and challenges! I usually don’t go wild […]