Month: January 2024

February TBR

Posted January 31, 2024 / 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 got a way from me even though the month felt like 5 months packed into one! I definitely used the final two weeks of the year to binge-read the Crescent City series so I know I didn’t read as much to start the year as I would have preferred, but I’ve got like six novellas to read in February so I’m sure I can make up for it! Egalleys I got derailed on egalleys in January because of my commitment to reading Crescent City lol. I plan to catch up with CANADIAN BOYFRIEND and THE HEIRESS this month for sure. I have FINLAY DONOVAN ROLLS THE DICE waiting on my Kindle as well as THE OTHER LOLA. Romance for February I plan to read, if I can, all six novella in the IMPROBABLE MEET-CUTE collection this month, especially during a couple of romance read-a-thons and Valentines Day weekend. These feature some of my favorite authors and one new-to-me author. They have ebooks and audiobooks, which is even better! Owned and Preordered THE WRITING RETREAT and TRUE CRIME STORY have been on my immediate TBR for many months […]

Review: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands

Posted January 24, 2024 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

It’s no secret that the first EMILY WILDE book was my favorite of 2023. I had high hopes and expectations that the same could be said about the second installment. Luckily, I ended up loving it! It took me a while to read but that’s because I ended up waiting for release week to mix in the audiobook I had preordered. I really enjoyed the first audiobook so it only felt right to keep that going! We follow Brambleby, Emily, her niece, and one of the other professors at their university in the Austrian Alps. She’s working on a map book this time and they hope to track down a lost professor of dryadology while they’re there. This story was just as whimsical and cozy as the first, with a dash of intrigue and danger where appropriate! I like that Emily has become more self-aware and able to recognize when she’s struggling to related to other people. The first book took a while for her to understand how to avoid insulting the locals. Emily was aware when she was messing things up with her niece and tried her best to fix them. We got to learn more about Brambleby’s world, which was a lot of fun. There were lots of faeries to meet and discuss along the way too. I know I’ve said this before but I was obsessed with faeries as a kid. Not the ACOTAR type but these small sprites and little mischievous ones. I don’t think this type […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #439: Meant to Read in ’23

Posted January 23, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books I Meant to Read in 2023 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 shared my 24 in 24 in last week’s TTT, which featured many books I said I was going to read in 2023, along with a few 2024 releases. I put all of the 2023-must-reads on my TBR cart and took a cute photo, so here’s my answer for this particular TTT!

Recent Reads | First Lie Wins and Red String Theory

Posted January 18, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I haven’t read a lot of books centered around con women/men before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. All I knew going into it is that Ashley Elston wrote it, and I love her YA books! Happy to support any of my favorite authors if they make a genre and/or age target jump. I didn’t even read the synopsis before I dove into the story. FIRST LIE WINS follows Evie Porter as she works on her next assignment. She doesn’t really know what the purpose is but she’s meant to get close to Ryan Sumner; her mysterious boss Mr. Smith hasn’t given her anything else to go on. I liked getting to know “Evie” and unraveling her past throughout the story. I will say that the first half was fairly boring, unfortunately. I was generally curious about what was happening but that also led to the question… what is the point of all this? It took a little too long to get there for me. Elston did a really great job of connecting people from her past and linking the flashbacks to present day – it was really well done and made for a great end of the story. The final half of the book flew by for me and I was finally curious to know what was going on. There was a bit of an info dump at one point to explain a bunch of things but I guess there really wasn’t a way around it. The story […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #438: Bookish Goals

Posted January 16, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Bookish Goals for 2024 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 wrote my usual bookish resolutions and goals post a few weeks ago but thought I’d highlight five major categories and two specific goals in each. Some may be repetitive from that post but I hope (for the most part) to share a few things I really hope to accomplish this year! General Reading Read 100 books // I had some down years from 2020-2022 and read less than I have in a long time. I finally felt rejuvenated in 2023 and managed to read 115 books (my goal was 80 books). I decided to challenge myself this year to reading 100 books, since I managed to exceed that last year, but also didn’t want to make it too much of a stretch. Focus on Netgalley books and get my ratio up to 75% // I’m currently at 69% and am being incredibly picky about what books I request on there. They really have to be top, highly anticipated reads! I want to, as always, try to read books in the same month they come out (or well before!). I know that there are a lot of backlist reads on there that […]

Reading Life Lately: Blog, Booktube, Spotify, and Genre Shifts

Posted January 15, 2024 / Reading Life Lately, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

I thought I’d share some random book- and reading-related thoughts, since it’s been a while! Blog I miss when my blog was a place where I could or would chat about all the things… and I actually wanted to write posts! For me, it’s hard to imagine giving this spot on the internet up even if people don’t read blogs much anymore. I never did this for the comments (clearly because I’m terrible at replying to them!) but I just enjoy putting my thoughts out there. I’ve debating lately as I approach the 10 year anniversary if this is a space worth having, but like I said… I can’t imagine not sharing about books here. You may notice my reviews get shorter and the “extra” fun posts slowing down, but I’ll still be here <3 Booktube I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been wanting to start a booktube channel or another video medium for my book thoughts. At a bare minimum, I’d like to use my booktok more (and get used to showing my face on there?). I keep making excuses but the main reason is that we live in a dark little house (very cozy, but not amazing for filming content). We’ll be buying a house next year and I’ll have so many bookshelves and spots to film, so part of me is thinking that’s the right time. But is it ever the right time? Maybe I should just go for it… Spotify Audiobooks This feature has genuinely been a […]

First Read of the Year: Bright Young Women

Posted January 12, 2024 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 1 Comment

This was a really surprising first book of the year for me. I thought about making it my last book of 2023 but it was too clean and nice to end the year at 115 books instead of 116 😉 I just took a little reading break for a few days as we ushered in the new year and I got over being sick. BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN follows two women on opposite coasts affected by the same serial killer. Pamela’s sorority house is broken into – two girls are murdered and two are gravely injured, and she is dealing with the fallout as sorority president and friend to these girls. She soon encounters Tina, a woman who believes she knows who the killer is… Her friend Ruth (the other POV we get in the book) was one of his victims before he made his way from Washington to Florida. As you may be able to tell, this story is based broadly on Ted Bundy and his horrible acts across the US. I was on the fence about reading this book and hadn’t even marked it as “to read” on Goodreads when I bought it on a whim at the store and started it within the week. I don’t follow serial killer true crime stories or podcasts because the victims aren’t at the forefront so my only knowledge of the man “featured” in this book was the Zac Efron movie (watched only because of said actor). This reads like a true […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | December 2023

Posted January 10, 2024 / 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. I made the executive decision to stop reading once I hit my 115th book of the year, even though there were a few days left in December. I got sick the weekend before NYE and just decided to keep it at a nice round number for the year and give myself a break. I finished the book with 10 books read plus one DNF, which was a nice and easy way to end the year. 10 books in November 10 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Pages read: 3,114 • Average rating: 4.05 stars Genres: 6 contemporary, 4 mystery/thriller, 1 graphic novel Formats: 6 mixed format, 2 egalley, 1 ebook, 1 paperback, 1 hardcover Sources: 5 review, 3 purchased, 2 borrowed, 1 library Age Target: 11 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 76% 52 Book Club: 77% Must Read in 2023: 75% Romanceopoly: 26% Mystery/Thriller Reading Challenge: 96% Breakdown: 4 BOTM | 2 review | 4 gifted | 2 purchased All review copies were provided for free […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #437: Anticipated

Posted January 9, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Most Anticipated Releases: First Half of 2024 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 love writing this post each year! I always get so rejuvenated reading-wise when the new year begins, which is so funny because I usually don’t care much about resolutions and NYE stuff. Nonetheless, here are the books I’m excited to read through June of 2024! January February March April May June

January TBR

Posted January 5, 2024 / 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. January TBR I usually try to post my TBRs before the end of the previous month but January always feels like such a fresh start that I try to not plan or overthink until 1/1 happens! I also got a little wild at the end of December with what books I was picking up to end the year so I barely read any of the things I thought I would. Will any of them make it to the January TBR below? Let’s find out. January Egalleys I have some really exciting January releases for review and I strongly believe I’ll read all of these in the month! I have CANADIAN BOYFRIEND, RED STRING THEORY, and THE GETAWAY LIST for contemporary romance selections. THE HEIRESS is another Hawkins mystery. And finally, most excitingly, I have EMILY WILDE’S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS. There’s a good chance I make that one my first book of 2024. January BOTM Picks Here’s a quick screengrab of my BOTM picks from January. I usually wouldn’t promise to read all of these immedaitely when they come in, but I’m really excited about these selections! There’s a good chance […]