Month: December 2022

Holiday Reviews: Once Upon a December and One Last Gift

Posted December 31, 2022 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments
Holiday Reviews: Once Upon a December and One Last Gift

Story This was such an odd reading experience. So many things came to me as I was reading that annoyed me or confused me that I actually had to keep track in a note on my phone… I don’t ever do that anymore! Before I get too far into the details, I’ll chat about the story concept itself… which was actually the best part! Astra has a holiday weekend with her three best girl friends each winter and they usually shop around this little winter market. Each year it’s come to town, she’s encountered Jack (working at the kringle bakery) and he always seems familiar. The market itself (Julemarked) is actually magical and travels around the world every December, popping up in a new location. He’s remembered her over the years and always waits for the market to land back in Milwaukee. They age differently in the Julemarked because they’re really only “alive” for a month each year. In any case, all that backstory to say that this was a unique story. When Astra finally remembers him and slowly starts to gain memories of the market back, the two start to fall for each other. Everything about Astra irritated me: the way she bent over backwards for her ex husband about her dog, answering his calls, and even hemming his pants. She talked constantly how he essentially forced her into abandoning her friends for the few years they were together and how she never wants to do it again (yet […]

Holiday Reviews: Resting Scrooge Face and Lovelight Farms

Posted December 22, 2022 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments
Holiday Reviews: Resting Scrooge Face and Lovelight Farms

Story I picked this one up on a whim when I wanted another holiday novella – clearly I’m all about quantity this year but luckily most of the novellas have been quality too! This one was unfortunately the “worst” of the bunch but still not too bad, especially considering the length. Nola heads home to her cute hometown in Maine after a breakup and subsequent relocation out of NYC. Her high school sweetheart, Caleb, is still there running the local hardware store. He broke her heart and they haven’t had to see each other in a while. The mailman does a little meddling and the two of them end up writing anonymous Christmas-hating letters back and forth without realizing who they’re writing to. It was a cute concept that really should have been a full-length novel. Wintery Setting & Holiday Feels As always, I will read a book set in Maine… especially during the holiday season! The setting was good and explained well enough, I think, for this story. It’s really hard to feel major holiday vibes from a book this short but it was nice hearing the characters go back and forth on their Scrooge-y feelings about Christmas… and then gradually warming up to it all! Overall This is a hard one to recommend or rate just because so much of it went right out of my brain upon finishing. Yes, for the millionth time, it’s very short, which is part of the problem (but not the whole problem). […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #390: Books from Santa

Posted December 20, 2022 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments
Top Ten Tuesdays #390: Books from Santa

Books I Hope Santa Brings Me, Or Books I’ll Buy with Christmas Gift Cards! 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 don’t have a ton of books on my Christmas list this year, actually – I’ll show a few below but for the most part there are a good amount of books I may decide to buy with my inevitable gift cards. Christmas List Gift Card Buys & Preorders  

Top Ten Tuesdays #389: Winter TBR

Posted December 13, 2022 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment
Top Ten Tuesdays #389: Winter TBR

Winter TBR – New/Upcoming Releases 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. Believe it or not, I haven’t done a TTT since the last seasonal TBR post for fall! At least that made it really easy to update and reformat for the winter haha. I’ll be covering new and upcoming releases this winter that I plan to read. As usual, no books that I currently have egalleys for. December January

Holiday Reviews: The Christmas Letters and Season of Love

Posted December 12, 2022 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments
Holiday Reviews: The Christmas Letters and Season of Love

Story Jenny Hale’s holiday books used to be my absolute go-tos each year but the past couple were not quite as good as her earlier books. I’m excited to report that this one was definitely back along the lines of her older books! Elizabeth fled her small farm and hometown ten years ago for the bright NYC lights, high society with a rich boyfriend, and charity work in lieu of a “real career.” When her boyfriend dumps her, she heads home to her recently departed grandmother’s farm, which her mom is currently running. They find old Christmas letters from her grandma and realize her story isn’t quite as straightforward as they once thought. Meanwhile, Liz hits it off with a newcomer who is there for the holiday season and falls back in love with the way of life on the farm. I really enjoyed that she reconnected with her family, friends, and neighborhood. I enjoyed the southern farm town quite a bit. There was a little mystery in the letters and the ending of the book truly surprised me! It was so unexpected and really made this a winner for me. Wintery Setting & Holiday Feels The farm made for a fun Christmas setting – very similar to another holiday novella I read this year. I liked reading about the decor, festive shops in town, etc. but as usual, I could have gone for more! Lots of snowy scenes too. Overall This was more reminiscent of some of Hale’s best […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | November 2022

Posted December 8, 2022 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment
Bookmark Lit Bulletin | November 2022

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. I had a really weird November. I started to get kind of ruthless about DNFing books rather than sticking it out if I wasn’t enjoying myself. I quit two books this past month! I have limited reading time and if I’m not ever in the mood to pick the book up and finish it, why bother avoiding reading? I’d rather WANT to read!      7 books in November 5 read  •  0 rereads  •  2 DNF   Pages read: 2392 •   Average rating: 3.9 stars Sources: 3 review, 2 BOTM, 1 purchased, 1 borrowed Formats: 2 egalley, 1 ebook, 1 paperback Genres: 4 contemporary, 2 mystery/thriller, 1 historical fiction Age Target: 7 adult Check out my 2022 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 3 read this month | 32/40 read total Takes place during your fave season (fall through winter), misleading title (not actually a rewind like time travel), name of a board game in the title (“No Exit” Calendar of Crime Challenge    Word beginning with month’s letter (N), November topic (family relationships) Breakdown: 2 purchased  […]

Holiday Novella Reviews: The Santa Suit and The Christmas Concierge

Posted December 7, 2022 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments
Holiday Novella Reviews: The Santa Suit and The Christmas Concierge

Story This was a random choice this year after having been on my radar since it was released last year. When I decided to read 7 books in 7 days again, it was an easy selection due to its size (and audiobook on Scribd to switch between!). The story centers around freshly divorced Ivy heading to her newly purchased farm property in a small town. Her realtor turned handyman turned love interest Ezra is present throughout the novel. Ivy finds a gorgeous vintage Santa Suit in the attic with a heartbreaking Christmas wish from a child written on a piece of paper in the pocket. She decides to track down the writer of the note and try to figure out what happened that Christmas back in the day. Along the way, she meets and befriends a lot of people in the town who help her on her quest (and beyond – everyone is quite friendly). The story was cute and cheesy, which is what I tend to expect from holiday books in most cases. Wintery Setting & Holiday Feels I love a southern small town romance with Christmas vibes! There was a cute Christmas market setting that I really enjoyed and totally wish was fleshed out more. The farm property was well-known (due to its previous owners) for its lights and Christmas cheer, so it was nice when Ivy got into the spirit with decorating. Overall, decent Christmas vibes but a short novella – so a little hard to get […]

2023 Reading Challenges

Posted December 5, 2022 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments
2023 Reading Challenges

It’s time for the annual challenge sign-up! I decided to switch things up a little bit this year and try a few new challenges, in addition to a tried-and-true favorite. The 52 Club focuses on reading 52 books in a year, aka one book a week. I feel like (at this point in my life) that could be a more realistic goal for me but I refuse to dip lower than 75 books for my goal. I still thought this would be a fun Popsugar-esque reading challenge for the year! I really like most of the prompts. I hope to read all of the books, as always, but I think a more realistic number is 40. I try to read 40 of the 50 Popsugar prompts per year so let’s assume the same for these. Here are all of the prompts for this year’s challenge: Mystery/Thriller Storygraph Challenge I usually do the Calendar of Crime Challenge but am feeling a little bored of that particular format. Still highly recommend for other mystery/thriller readers if they haven’t tried it before! I recently started using Storygraph in addition to Goodreads and decided to partake in a couple of challenges that are listed there. It seems really easy and fun to join them, so why not?! The first is the Mystery/Thriller Challenge. I definitely think I can get to all of these books. Much like Calendar of Crime, I read at least one (or many) mystery/thriller types of books each month. I can […]

Holiday Reviews: A Season for Second Chances and Window Shopping

Posted December 1, 2022 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
Holiday Reviews: A Season for Second Chances and Window Shopping

Story When Annie’s life goes off the rails and she loses her spark, she decides to take on a role essentially housesitting for an elderly woman who will be away from her beachside home for the winter season. Annie moves to the cute little town to watch over the house and keep it running, rent-free, from the fall through the spring. She has to contend with the woman’s nephew, though, who is trying to sell the property to a developer. Naturally you can imagine the Hallmark movie moments that occur from there! Overall, this was a super cute story with a low-key, breezy plot. I loved the setting, cast of quirky locals, and the easy (not truly “easy” but more like drama-free) romance. Wintery Setting & Holiday Feels Beachside holiday or winter books can be really fun – I know that I personally love visiting the beach and going for a walk whenever I visit Maine, regardless of weather. Having a cute seaside town transition into a little Christmassy village in England? Love those vibes. Because the book didn’t take place strictly in December or around the Christmas holidays, it wasn’t quite as Christmassy as it could have been… BUT it was super cute to see how the town went crazy for other fall holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving. This was the perfect book to read in November to kick off holiday reads on a lighter note. Overall I definitely recommend this one for your first holiday-ish read of the season, […]