Month: June 2023

Blog Tour: The Night It Ended

Posted June 30, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Additional Purchase Links: HarperCollins // Bookshop // Books-a-Million Review I’ve been really into mystery/thrillers lately and this one definitely intrigued me! A boarding school setting is one of my absolute favorites, and this one was even creepier because the 95% of the campus was away for winter break. When a girl dies tragically on campus, Madeline (a psychologist who specializes in female violence) is brought on campus to investigate what happened with the private investigator, Matthew, the family hired. They don’t believe the local police that it was a tragic accident; the PI thinks Madeline can help crack the girls on campus to see what really happened that night. The book was a bit of a slow burn with not a ton happening in the first half, but the setting and characters were intriguing enough to continue. I liked the chapters from the past that were mixed in (an interview or interrogation between two people who are not named) to keep me engaged in multiple stories. I assumed I knew who was in that interview from the previous year, but wasn’t sure if it would be that easy or predictable! I won’t spoil it either way. Madeline was struggling with some mistakes she’d made in her past – I wanted to know more about what she did to make her act this way and/or lose contact with her family in some way. It was interesting because she often felt like an unreliable narrator based on her behavior and issues she was […]

July TBR

Posted June 29, 2023 / 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. July TBR I did a pretty good job of reading books from my TBR from June! I definitely have some that are rolling over but I have good plans for them this month. I think the biggest miss was not getting to KOS in June. Regardless, a good jumping off point for July! Summerween My TBR for Summerween is a little aggressive maybe but five books in one week (where one is a graphic novel) is definitely doable! Here are the prompts and generally what I plan to read for them: black on the cover (KITTY KARR), set in autumn (THE LEGACIES), a thriller (DARK CORNERS), read in the dark (LIVE AND LET CHAI), and a graphic novel (ENOLA HOLMES). Summerween starts on July 7th and I’m really pumped to participate! Leftover from June & New Releases I’m lumping these together because they all mostly fall into the “new release” category from the last few months, with the exception of KINGDOM OF ASH – I’m hoping to finally finish the TOG series this month and read KOS in the second half of the month once Summerween ends. I had THE HALF […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #415: 2nd Half Releases

Posted June 27, 2023 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

July to December Releases I’m Excited For 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. Fun fact: I wrote this post and scheduled it to go live last week, then I was looking at the TTT for this week… lo and behold. I decided to just paste it over here and share with the rest of y’all! As you can see, I’ve been doing a lot of random TBR planning for so many reasons – for the upcoming seasons, for all the random books that the library is going to give me access to, for readathons… all the things. Here are some of the books coming out in the second half of the year that I’m super excited to read! I went month by month but there’s only one December book as of now squished in with November at the bottom. July August September October November & December

Review Roundup | Before We Were Innocent and The True Love Experiment

Posted June 22, 2023 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

I’m always drawn to these stories of complicated best friend groups, especially when there’s some overseas travel involved. I was thinking this might be like The Villa (and a few elements were definitely reminiscent of that) but I did like that book more. The premise is that Bess (our MC), Joni, and Evangeline head to Evangeline’s family vacation home in Greece for the summer before they’re due to go away to college. They’re thinking it’s a last hurrah before they all go to different schools. Evangeline ends up dying there and the two remaining girls are swept up in accusations that one or both of them killed her. This was interesting but definitely some mixed feelings. I think a lot of it reads like a very classic “three teens go on vacation, only two come home, did one of them kill the other one?” story. I had a (very obvious) prediction but the book ended up being less predictable than that… but I’m not sure that made it any better? I got to the end and just said “okay…?” Kind of a bit pointless yet heavy-handed with some of the messaging. One Goodreads review that I totally agree with said that it basically doesn’t do enough. It’s not enough of a mystery or enough of a “toxic best friends” story to really be that good. I could really picture the setting (Greece) during the chapters set in 2008, which made for kind of a fun summer read? There’s also a plotline […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #414: Summer TBR

Posted June 20, 2023 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 20 Comments

Summer TBR: July, August, September 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. Okay maybe you’re sick of seeing my TBRs around here but you know I can’t resist this one! I’ve shared some summery books I hope to read this year, a long-term TBR that includes July/August, and second-half-of-2023 releases I’m excited for (obviously also including this summer). Needless to say, this topic has been covered in multiple posts this month, but this is a concise list of my true ~summer TBR~ with all of those things considered for July, August, and most of September. This will include the books I’m hoping to read during these months as well as the new releases that I’d love to read when they come out! Here we go! July New Releases & Review Copies I have a few of these in my possession as review copies (BUSINESS OR PLEASURE and THE LGACIES) and an early BOTM release (SHE STARTED IT. I preordered ALL THAT’S LEFT TO SAY so that will come right away. The other two (ONE OF US IS BACK and JUST ANOTHER MISSING PERSON) will be snagged from the library or purchased. Other Books on my TBR I hope to read THE NATURALS series […]

ARC Review: The Seven Year Slip

Posted June 19, 2023 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I’ve loved Ashley Poston since her YA book days a few years ago. Her foray into “adult contemporary fiction with a sprinkle of magic” has been LOVELY so far – THE DEAD ROMANTICS was one of my favorite books last year and I can still remember the feeling of sitting on the amazing porch at our Airbnb and reading so much of it in one sitting. While that story gets the half-star edge over THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP, I clearly loved this one too. The story centers around Clementine and her somewhat boring life in NYC, six months after her beloved aunt and travel partner passed away. She was willed her apartment and has been living there ever since, despite how painful it can be. Her aunt always said the apartment was a bit magical and Clementine finds out firsthand how true that was. Somehow timelines overlap, and you may return to your apartment one day and find yourself seven years in the past… yes, including whoever was living there seven years prior. One summer, that turns out to be Iwan, a gorgeous Southern guy that her aunt sublet the apartment to when she was overseas (oddly enough, with Clementine) at the time. The two connect very quickly but Clementine isn’t sure how to tell him exactly what’s happening with their time-related disconnect. Some other ~things~ progressed in this story that were not what I expected when I read the synopsis, but I actually liked it way better than what […]

Blog Tour: Cassandra in Reverse

Posted June 15, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Review I’m a sucker for time travel books or anything involving parallel lives/universes, time loops, Groundhog Day… you name it – if the book messes with time in some way, I’m THERE. This book was on my list a long time ago so I’m thrilled to join the blog tour. CASSANDRA IN REVERSE centers around Cassandra, who is suddenly given the opportunity to time travel in the midst of a terrible day. Her boyfriend breaks up with her and then she’s fired from her job, so she goes home and takes a nap… only to wake up and it’s the previous morning again. She figures out how to choose when to travel and fix her mistakes. It’s not easy for her to interact with people and pick up on social cues, so having a second chance at certain conversations or situations really helps her figure things out. It was interesting to read a time travel story with someone who could control the power rather than just dealing with the Groundhog Day type of thing. I couldn’t put this book down and read the first half in one sitting. The second half was equally compelling. There was a portion in the middle where I was getting slightly bored with how she was using the time travel but it very quickly moved to something more intriguing. There were some twists near the end of the book that I didn’t love (and I wasn’t a fan of the final ending/scene very much), which […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #413: Bookish Wishes

Posted June 13, 2023 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Bookish Wishes 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 book wishlist usually (except for when I scramble to ask for things for Christmas from my dad!), so I won’t be linking anything here today. I usually like to use this prompt to talk about all the books I hope to buy or own someday in my personal library. We currently rent a house and plan to buy in the next couple of years. When I have my own office and/or library space there, I hope to add a lot of favorites to my shelves! Here are some books on my long-term wishlist! New Throne of Glass Covers As you’ve seen in recent posts, I’m exclusively using these new and gorgeous covers for the TOG series on my blog during my reread/finish of the series! I absolutely looooove these new designs. I wanted to buy all the paperbacks (literally had them in my B&N cart one day and almost pressed purchase) but decided to wait until I have more space for them in my home library. I may also ask for all of them as gifts at some point lol. Shady Hollow Series I read and enjoyed the SHADY […]

ARC Review: Something Close to Magic

Posted June 12, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’m a huge Emma Mills fan. Every New Years Day for a few years in a row, I would hang out and read her next release that day, basically in one sitting, to start the New Year off on the right foot. I think I still have one contemporary romance from her backlist to read but I was really excited to see her foray into fantasy… especially one that sounded on the cozier side! I’ll admit that it took me a while to get into this. I think the problem was mostly having to read on my iPad because of the file type but I also just wasn’t hooked like I thought I would be. Her writing style is really different here and fantasy-oriented. I never would have guessed it was her writing without knowing. It just took a little getting used to! There are some elements of her signature clever dialogue between the characters though, so that helped! The story centers around Auralie, a baker’s apprentice in a small village, who suddenly finds herself hanging out with trolls and princes and bounty hunters. They go on a little quest at the beginning and then there’s an interlude of letter-writing (cute!) before some fun drama and action at the end. I’d definitely say this qualifies as a cozy fantasy because it’s breezy and fun to read while not having high-stakes action and worldbuilding. The second half of this book honestly REALLY took off for me. The trouble I had trying […]

Long-Term TBR Plotting

Posted June 7, 2023 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 Comments

I remember a few years ago I got totally wild with planning out my TBR in order to finish a bunch of books off. I had a few readathons and readalongs and book clubs with specific books I had to read and made a crazy schedule to help myself plan out my reading. (I don’t think this really helped me, if I’m being honest, but boy do I LOVE a TBR plan.) You’ve seen so many lists lately of books I hope to read within certain genres or books that I’m scared to read and should read anyways… just lots and lots of potential TBRs up in here lately. The Reasons for Monthly TBRs I’ve started using Libby again and am at the mercy of my hold list all the time. Books keep coming available and I keep letting people jump me in line because I’m knee deep in this stupid (and enjoyable) Throne of Glass series binge. I don’t like to read books within the same genre at the same time so the minute a fantasy book comes available, I find myself freaking out and trying to figure out when the heck I’m going to read it around TOG and all of the other reading plans. I also have a lot of readathons or ~reasons~ for reading certain books at certain times. I thought it would benefit me (let’s be real, I’m the audience for this post, not you guys) to sit here and plan out my TBR for the […]