Month: September 2023

October TBR

Posted September 28, 2023 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

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. October TBR I was hoping to catch up on library books in September because I spent most of August reading my ARCs. I didn’t totally succeed at that but I was able to return some books I knew I wouldn’t read, as well as read two of them (KOA and DROWNING). I have a more manageable stack of books now. Series October As I mentioned, the past two months have been ~themed~ reading months for my TBR and the same is going to happen here. There are two major series I hope to read in October that I have been thinking about all year. Here they are: I absolutely loved the CARAVAL series but for some reason kept putting off her companion series, ONCE UPON A BROKEN HEART. The final book in the trilogy comes out in October, so I thought it would be the perfect time to binge read all three books in a row. I have the first two and preordered the final one, plus the audiobooks are on Scribd. The other series (this one has four books) I’m hoping to fully bang out in October is THE NATURALS. […]

Review Roundup | Sister of the Bride, Drowning, and Murder in the Family

Posted September 27, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve enjoyed Morrill’s YA books before – they’re usually nice and bantery, super easy to read, and a lot of fun. I was so excited when I saw she wrote an adult contemporary romance and requested it immediately. SISTER OF THE BRIDE is apparently a Father of the Bride retelling (?) but I haven’t seen the movie. I loved the premise of a girl having to plan her sister’s wedding while falling in love with her best friend. This is the kind of book that you could easily sit and read in one sitting so I’m a little annoyed it took me so long to finish it! I started it right before my birthday weekend, which always gets too busy for reading. In any case, the Italian food and Boston vibes were immaculate in this book. I’m from Connecticut so Boston is an hour and a half from where I live. It was fun to see what they included and how they presented the story. It was a really unique situation for the MC Pippin and it was fun to see how she would move on with her life after literally everything changed. She was occasionally frustrating but I have to say, the lack of drama and miscommunication in this one (especially in a few key areas near the end) was just perfect. She would get annoyed about something and freak out, then come back to earth and apologize. It was refreshing that she didn’t let things get to her for too long and […]

Finishing Up Challenges

Posted September 21, 2023 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

It became too annoying to share challenge progress in my monthly wrap-ups, so I’ve stopped bothering (aside from basic percentages). I always like to check in around this time of year though to see how I’m doing on my challenges, figure out some books I can read to fill in the gaps, and plan an EOY TBR! Here’s where I am at the time of writing this post (mid-September). Must Read in 2023 Status: 67% complete, 4 prompts left I set up my own backlist reading challenge for the year and yes I’ve totally slacked on it! In fact, I read only new 2023 releases in August… what about my backlist books?! Here are the categories left and some ideas of what I may read, with all books having a 2022 pub date or earlier, unless otherwise noted: Backlist review copy – AMERICAN ROYALS: RIVALS Backlist BOTM selection – THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK Backlist book I preordered or just HAD to buy – FIVE SURVIVE Backlist holiday book – SO THIS IS IS CHRISTMAS Mystery/Thriller Challenge Status: 88% complete, 3 prompts left I definitely think I can finish this one off! I’ve found it very easy to tick them off the list as I read because I read so many within this genre. I didn’t pay attention to a ton of the prompts so I ended up finding a couple of others that I could add here while filling this out. Season is important to the plot – THE WRITING RETREAT Out […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #425: Fall TBR

Posted September 19, 2023 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Fall TBR 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. You all know I love a TBR post! I posted an Instagram story with a big Fall TBR based on someone’s template but thought I’d expand upon it here. I’m going to focus on the books I plan to read through the end of September (some of these are my current reads or maybe just finished), as well as October and November. I usually get into holiday books in November but I’m going to keep them off here until I plan that specific TBR later. Upcoming Releases October November Library Books Review Copies Owned TBR

My Bookmark Collection

Posted September 18, 2023 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a long time. I’m a huge collector of bookmarks and believe you can never have too many! I like to collect them from all the bookstores I visit and different places I travel. It’s so fun to look back at my collection and see where they all came from. I’ve been buying more on Etsy lately for certain fandoms and books that I love, so my collection has grown a lot! I finally got around to organizing them and taking some pictures, so here they are for your viewing pleasure! I’m sure some are missing (I can picture one or two that I have no idea where they are lol) but it’s the vast majority of them. I’m going to discuss where some are from and link to the appropriate websites if I can find them and remember. Bookish These ones all feature books or bookish quotes in some capacity! The READ one is from my local library. The yellow bookstack is from Emily Cromwell Designs. I can’t remember where the white book one comes from, which is a shame because it’s so cute! The same could be said for the wooden book quote and black book qoute ones – I think they were either gifts or came from a bookstore. The blue book/coffee one is new and from Gigi and Bo. The wooden engraved one is from Marked By Mary. The blue book quote on the bottom is from Novelly Yours, […]

Review Roundup | The Honeymoon Crashers, None of This is True, and One of Us is Back

Posted September 14, 2023 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

I was so excited when I learned that THE UNHONEYMOONERS was getting a “sequel” in any capacity. Learning it was an audio exclusive with a full cast, sound effects, and generally full production was even MORE exciting for me. This novella-length audiobook follows the best man and maid of honor for Olive and Ethan’s wedding on Maui! The two announce to Olive’s family they’re just going to elope and get married on the island alone. Cue her twin sister Ami and brother Diego deciding instead to invite 18 family members to surprise the two of them there with a real wedding instead of an elopement. The production here was awesome, and appropriately sparse (if that makes sense) – there were a handful of scenes with background noise and sound effects like the ocean or breezy music, but not all the time. It was perfectly done to not be distracting! Many of the conversations between characters alternated between them like they were actually talking, with the voice actors taking turns and no “he said” or “she said” in between like you would read in the book. I liked Ami and Brody a lot – I think the book did a good job of building up their romance and chemistry in a shorter time period, but I totally could have seen this being a full-length book instead. They had different personalities but in a way that balanced each other out. Plus, you learn a bit more about Brody at the end of […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #424: Character Relationships

Posted September 12, 2023 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Favorite Character Relationships 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. As usual, my Goodreads shelves will come in handy here! I have a lot of customized shelves to track favorite elements or tropes from books. I think “favorite character relationships” can be taken a lot of directions so I’ll use a few of my shelves to show some recent favorites with (1) strong friendship vibes or major squad goals, (2) big time family feels, and (3) new favorite ships! Friendship Goals Family Feels Major Ship

Ranking Books by Favorite Authors | Rachel Lynn Solomon

Posted September 11, 2023 / Book Lists, Features / 0 Comments

I thought this was going to be a more common series on my blog but I basically wrote one post and never tried it again! The idea came from the late Grace at Rebel Mommy Book Blog. I still miss her positivity in the book community and hope I can keep doing this post justice! The first volume was for Sandhya Menon. Today I’m here to rank Rachel Lynn Solomon’s books, because she’s quickly become a favorite… both for her YA and adult titles! These books will be listed in order from favorite to least favorite and grouped by rating. 5 Stars The Ex Talk // My review for this one is minimal for some reason but it was my first adult book by RLS after reading and loving TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW, the first YA I read by her. I had high expectations but ended up loving this one. The MCs work at a public radio station and, because they bicker and dislike each other a lot, think they can pull of this radio show where two exes talk about what went wrong in their relationship. The only problem is that they’re not actually exes… and then they begin to fall for each other. Amazing banter in this one! Today Tonight Tomorrow // Again, my first book by her. I really loved this one too. It’s another enemies-to-lovers where the top two people in their graduating class slowly realize that maybe they aren’t actually enemies. They had so many cute heart-to-hearts and […]

ARC August Reviews: All That’s Left to Say and Same Time Next Summer

Posted September 8, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Emery Lord has been one of my favorite authors since I first started my blog in 2014. It’s kind of alarming to see how underrated this book is (literally, there are only a few hundred reviews and ratings on Goodreads!). Remember when she was the top author in YA?? I feel like some of my fellow YA comrades have fallen off a bit (which I understand) but she’ll be an auto-buy forever for me. I joined some reading sprints on booktube the other day and people didn’t even really know Emery Lord when I mentioned this was my current read. I MUST EDUCATE EVERYONE. As you can see, I’ll read her books immediately regardless of topic. This book is about very fresh and unexpected grief, which is not something I like to read about. I don’t pick up sad books on purpose and just try to escape to a happier place when I read (or solve a murder mystery – nothing more or less!). Reading about the opioid crisis was even harder. However, as always, Emery Lord treated the topic with care and created a very emotional and powerful story. In ALL THAT’S LEFT TO SAY, Hannah is reeling from losing her cousin Sophie to an extremely unexpected overdose. Perfect, vivacious Sophie would never take pills on purpose! The story features her immediate grief and how she decides to get to the bottom of what happens to her. This includes transferring to Sophie’s school and trying to track down where […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | August 2023

Posted September 6, 2023 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 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. August was another good reading month and I met my Goodreads goal of 80 books in August! It’s really exciting to finish it early and read without pressure for the rest of the year… but let’s be honest: my good reading mood has continued so I’m sure I’ll still be reading a lot! I think the biggest difference is now I can read some of the longer fantasy/paranormal books that will take me longer this fall and not worry about quantity of books per month. 11 books in August 10 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Pages read: 4,228 • Average rating: 4.05 stars Genres: 6 contemporary, 3 mystery/thriller, 1 fantasy, 1 paranormal Formats: 5 egalley, 4 mixed, 1 ebook, 1 audiobook Sources: 6 review, 2 library, 2 borrowed, 1 BOTM Age Target: 8 adult, 3 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 72% 52 Book Club: 71% Must Read in 2023: 58% Romanceopoly: 23% Mystery/Thriller Reading Challenge: 85% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 4 paperbacks | 4 egalleys […]