Month: August 2024

September TBR

Posted August 30, 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. September TBR I was generally okay in August but had some stretches where I didn’t read very much. September is typically a tough reading month for me because it’s my birthday and usually I do a lot of things to enjoy the end of summer and hopefully some fall-like weather. You’ll definitely also see a lot of holdovers from last month… Egalleys I have some already published egalleys I didn’t include here even though I definitely should do a recap on that at some point. I had THE EXAMINER and TILL DEATH DO US PART on here last month and I’m kind of shocked to still have the former on my TBR. I thought I would have read it asap because of how much I love Hallett. I just had a lot of mysteries to read in August and it meant that I couldn’t double up with my formats like I do. I also hope to maybe get ahead with REMEMBER ME TOMORROW since it publishes in October. Preordered & New Releases Again, the first three are from last month. I definitely assumed I’d get to them but alas. […]

Recent Reads | Death at Morning House and Just Playing House

Posted August 28, 2024 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

Much like the INHERITANCE GAMES series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Maureen Johnson’s TRULY DEVIOUS books are some of my favorite ones to read – I can’t explain why or how these series are so cozy to me but the writing style, unique character voices, and fun mysteries have a lot to do with it. I’ve said over and over again that Johnson could write a hundred TRULY DEVIOUS books starring Stevie Bell and I would read them like they’re Nancy Drew mysteries. There’s something indescribable about her writing style that will keep me coming back over and over again, even as I stray away from young adult fiction. When I heard (during her last book’s tour stop at RJ Julia) that she was pausing the TD series to bring a new standalone mystery set on a creepy island, I was still pretty excited. This book ended up having very similar vibes to TD but with juuuust a bit less magic for me. I think the story could have honestly fit into the series and starred Stevie – that’s how similar it felt at times. Truthfully, I think that I missed Stevie and that’s the main reason I wish it was a TD book; this main character was kind of annoying. Marlowe is very stuck on the girl she left behind in her hometown when she leaves for the summer so it’s hard to get invested in any other romance potentials on the island or even if we SHOULD ship her with […]

Ranking Books by Favorite Authors | Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Posted August 22, 2024 / Book Lists, Features / 2 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! Previous installments include Sandhya Menon, Rachel Lynn Solomon, and Christina Lauren. Today I’ll be featuring… Jennifer Lynn Barnes I wrote my review for the latest Jennifer Lynn Barnes book and realized that she’s definitely one of my favorite authors. I always forget that she wrote one of my favorite YA duologies THE FIXER – that series is due for a resurgence like THE NATURALS has gotten! I’m not going to rank series (since that’s what she usually writes!) – I’m going to actually rank individual books across all of her series, much like I did in the TTT the other day. 5 Stars The Long Game // Clearly JLB knows how to finish a series! The sequel to THE FIXER is one of my favorite books by her. I just remember wishing she’d continue this series and let’s hold out hope she could if people start reading it again, okay?? The Final Gambit // I really enjoyed the way she initially wrapped up THE INHERITANCE GAMES series, before writing some spinoffs. I think it had a super satisfying ending with lots of final twists along the way. 4.5 Stars The Fixer // If you actually look at average […]

Recent Reads | The Grandest Game and A Novel Love Story

Posted August 19, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 2 Comments

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is one of my auto-buy authors and really has been since 2015 with her criminally underrated THE FIXER series. It’s been banger after banger. This book was pretty much no exception to that! THE INHERITANCE GAMES series is the one that has stuck with me the most out of all of her books and series, I’d say… I love that she keeps adding to the world! The previous installment was a bit of a bridge book between the original series (with Avery as the main character), featuring some of the Hawthorne brothers. It definitely felt like a bridge and was a little hard to get into, so I was hopeful this “fresh start” series would be better. It certainly was! Avery, with her billions of dollars, developed an annual game to give away her money in the spirit of the way SHE got it… games and tricks and riddles and puzzles. This story is the second annual game and brings the POVs of characters like Rohan, Lyla, and Gigi to the table (along with other players in the game like Knox, Brady, and Odette). I’ll admit this did take me a while to get into, much like the previous book, but I think it’s because it’s a new story and I was on the fence about the characters. Once I got into it though… it was hard to put down! That’s what I count on JLA for. The story itself was fun and chockfull of different puzzles […]

Most Anticipated Reads of 2023 – How Did I Do?

Posted August 15, 2024 / Book Lists, Features / 2 Comments

I started to draft this post AGES ago and decided I’d finally finish it up… now that we’re more than halfway through 2024 lol. There are always a few “most anticipated” posts on the blog each year to pull from so let’s see how I did. Did I actually read all the books I thought I would? Overall Stats 39 books on my most anticipated lists for 2023 Read 17 books (44%) | Didn’t read 22 books (56%) Ratings of books read: 5 stars = 3 books = 18% 4.5 stars = 4 books = 24% 4 stars = 9 books = 53% 2.5 stars = 1 book = 5% Books I Managed to Read Overall, a pretty good job here! I feel like the books I did read are not surprising: they’re by favorite authors that I never miss, or the premise was THAT exciting to me that I knew I’d certainly read it. 13 out of the 17 completed books were authors I’d read and loved books from before. 5 Stars 4.5 Stars 4 Stars Under 4 Stars Books I Didn’t Get to There are a lot of books on here lol I think again the main issue with MOST of these were that they were new-to-me authors, or authors I haven’t had success with in a while but used to love. For example, I DNFed my last Kasie West book so I was nervous to read this one.

Top Ten Tuesdays #452: Travel Books

Posted August 13, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles – Books with Travel 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 a good road trip book! I even have a Goodreads shelf where I track books like that. Many of these came off that shelf actually but a couple involve other modes of transportation (like boats, planes, etc.). These are all top reads for me so I highly recommend checking any of them out!

Recent Reads | The Chamber and The Love of My Afterlife

Posted August 8, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

Omg lol. I was hoping to finish this in July since apparently it was my worst reading month (ratings-wise) and it would have been nice to keep the bad vibes out of August… but I kept falling asleep on the last day of July when trying to finish this book! THE LAST ONE was one of my favorite thrillers last year. I know a ton of people had mixed ratings based on the infuriating ending but I kinda loved it. The book was so addicting; nothing could stop me from turning pages. I was so excited to see how his style would translate to this book and I have very few words to describe how disappointed I was. This book was as boring as his previous book was enthralling/addicting. I could literally sum up this entire plot in three sentences (which I immediately did for my husband). The same thing happens over and over for 80% of the book, no exaggeration. The divers tell stories from their time in the military or about their diving careers for more than 3/4 of the book while people die off. There is no suspense or intrigue, just repetitive events and conversations I did not care about. It was not claustrophobic or creepy like I was promised; I could barely picture what it looked like despite diagrams and a glossary! I don’t know what didn’t click for me but I basically pictured a small bunk area with a table. I know it was small […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #451: Fave Books in Series

Posted August 6, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series 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 really like this prompt! I have been using a series tracker for a year or so and it’s been so helpful in tracking what books I need to read or how many series are completed/not complete yet. I decided to pick ten different random series (that have more than 3-4 books in them) that I’ve completed and enjoyed, and show my favorite book from each one!

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July 2024

Posted August 5, 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 had a super solid start to the month thanks to Summerween… which also explains the high number of mysteries and thrillers this month! I also just was in the MOOD for them. You’ll see a ton of them next month too because most of the books on my immediate TBR are mysteries. Hopefully I can mix in some romance too otherwise I may burn out lol. Two books at the end of July were a slog so that’s why I didn’t read as many as initially expected. And this was easily my worst reading month maybe ever rating-wise. 8 books in July 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,745 • Average rating: 3.25 stars Genres: 4 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary Formats: 5 mixed, 1 ebook, 1 egalley, 1 paperback Sources: 2 purchased, 2 review copies, 1 library, 1 owned, 1 borrowed, 1 BOTM Age Target: 8 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 32% 52 Book Club: 56% Book Cover Bingo: 76% 24 in 24: 25% […]

Recent Reads | Fangirl Down and The Lost Story

Posted August 2, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I wanted to conduct an experiment to see if Tessa Bailey could be ~for me~ although I’ve always suspected she wouldn’t be. I read a holiday novella by her and thought it was okay but when this golf-based romance was released, I thought this would be the perfect test for me. I love watching the sport and maybe it would resonate. This was tough to get into from the beginning if I’m being honest. I thought her writing style in general was pretty good and easy to read, but the dialogue and setup had too much cringe for me to overcome. I’d like to start by saying this guy was definitely a jackass the FMC was perfectly fine. I do not like possessive and jealous men; it just comes across as not trusting and I do not enjoy it. I want my husband or boyfriend to treat me like an equal, capable of making my own decisions, and not assuming any guy giving me attention would be able to steal me away. I fully know there are more alpha male type MMCs out there and this just goes to show I would hate to read those books if this bland ass dude bothered me. He said “champagne is for women” and I’d like to kill him, thanks. Their dialogue was super cringe-worthy and he was obsessed with her waaaay too early to be cute or reasonable. He even says in the final few chapters that they barely know each other […]