Month: February 2026

Literary and Slow-Burn Mysteries

Posted February 20, 2026 / Discussions, Features / 0 Comments

I’ve always been a fan of mysteries and thrillers. Some of my first memorable favorites were the Pretty Little Liars and Private series, featuring rich teens behaving badly to various degrees. Sometimes murder and death was involved and other times a little less, but still… I didn’t always just read cute contemporary romances when I was a teen! However, I’ve realized that I’m way more likely to read a classic mystery or, more often, a fast-paced thriller. I like the twists and turns and am often disappointed when the book isn’t giving me whiplash with twists. I’m always expecting more from it and that’s probably not fair. One thing I’ve noticed lately is that – despite my nerves about reading them – I really enjoy the slower-burn literary mysteries. I read BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN thinking that it was a bit out of my comfort zone but for some reason it called to me. It was my first book of the year in 2024 and my brief Goodreads review said: This is going to stick with me. I was on the fence about reading it 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 […]

Recent Reads | The Fair Weather Friend and Out of the Loop

Posted February 16, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I really enjoyed the twists and overall mystery of THE BUSINESS TRIP and was excited to read more by Jessie Garcia. Her second book also featured a newsroom/weather woman so I was thinking she may turn into a TJ Newman (flight attendant or airplane setting) for me, carving out a specific niche within mysteries. When popular weather girl Faith is found strangled in her car during her dinner break, her superfans, colleagues, and old friends are left reeling in different ways. There were multiple POVs like her previous book and many of the plot lines and characterization were similar. The big twist was good in theory but it was very implausible in practice. I thought the writing was cringey in places and fairly juvenile – the character conversations and inner thoughts were just written in a weird way for me. I definitely enjoyed the ride, as I did with the first book, but it was unsatisfying in many ways – especially the very end. There were certain characters or POVs that got completely lost by the end and we got no closure on. I’m not saying that I had fallen in love with them and wanted to know more about them, but there were a number of loose ends that would have been more satisfying to know about. People weren’t built up enough – especially Faith – for me to care about what happened to her. I’m a sucker for time loop books or what I usually refer to as […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #486: Love Freebie

Posted February 10, 2026 / Goals & Planning, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Love Freebie: Books I Didn’t Expect I’d Love 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 like to track the books I was pleasantly surprised by for exact moments like this. No idea what to feature for this Love/Valentines Day freebie post until I looked at my Goodreads shelves. I thought it would be fun to show some books that I was surprised that I ended up loving (or at least really enjoying!). Yes, You Do Like Literary Mysteries I always get intimidated by the more literary, slow-burn mysteries because thrillers – in my head – are more twisty and fun. I’ve learned in the last couple of years how much I really enjoy these slower burn mysteries! Two of these are by the same author and I’ve learned that apparently I’ll like anything Liz Moore writes, even if the plot isn’t totally up my alley. I hope to keep this up by reading more in the future. Getting inspired to write a blog post now… Second Chance Surprises Both of these books were by authors I’d already read once or twice and were pleasantly surprised by these follow-on experiences with them. I’d enjoyed a book or two by them in the […]

Recent Reads | Razorblade Tears and Can You Solve a Murder?

Posted February 9, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’d heard good things about Cosby’s work but for some reason I assumed he wrote horror novels. It may be the covers or the fact that so many reviews talk about violence and darkness. Either way, we decided to read this one for my mystery/thriller book club and it created a lot of great conversation! Buddy Lee and Ike are two fathers whose sons were married with a young daughter. They’re from the south and of a certain generation/upbringing so they were not supportive of their sons’ relationship with each other. When Derek and Isiah are brutally murdered, Ike and Buddy Lee pair up on a quest for vengeance and to make amends for being bad fathers. I really loved watching Ike and Buddy Lee go on this journey… and I’m not sure what that says about me, rooting for all of the chaos and murder along the way. The book brings Ike and Buddy Lee together – again not only on a quest to avenge their sons deaths and figure out what happened, but also to come to terms with their relationship. The book tackles homophobia, transphobia, and racism. I thought their character arcs were believable and powerful. It was definitely hard to read at times but hard to put down at the same time. This was so brutal but so important. I absolutely loved the ending too. While this is not ~for me~ given all the violence and darkness and male-centered plot, I will be reading all of […]

#75booked – Completed!

Posted February 5, 2026 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I posted back in November that I was doing my own version of 75 booked. I’ll put some of the basics from the first post below, with a few pieces cut out and simplified to explain my reasonings and approach: It was created originally by emilypaigebooks on Tiktok. As you may have guessed, it’s a spin on the 75 hard or 75 soft fitness challenges that go around every once in a while. I’ve usually had a pretty hard stance against those challenges for a lot of reasons, primarily because I think you should always strive for progress over perfection. Any challenge that you have to start over when you “fail” doesn’t actually set you up for developing habits or living a “healthier” life in the long run. You get frustrated and quit and never make any progress on your goals. This is mostly the case for those challenges about working out, fitness, and/or dieting. However, 75 booked caught my attention because I REALLY need to get going and finish my reading challenge. I started it right before a work trip where I literally did not actually have a spare moment to read (I promise, I truly did not) so I decided to actually start it when I got home and could settle in for the next 75 days. I also reduced some of the goals (two 45 minute sessions felt daunting to me and I decided to go down to 30 minutes to ensure I’d actually do it… progress, […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | January 2026

Posted February 4, 2026 / 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 was really excited to get off to the races this month, as I increased my reading challenge goal to 100 books this year. I finished 2025 and started 2026 with #75booked so I knew I’d be reading an hour every day to get off to a good start. I also wanted to read the six novellas in the new Unexpected Meet Cute collection, so that also helped. 14 books in January 14 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Formats: 2 paperback, 2 egalley, 5 ebook, 1 audiobook, 2 ebook/audio, 2 full mix Status/source: 1 preordered, 2 review, 3 library, 1 borrowed, 1 book box, 6 KU Age Target: 13 adult, 1 middle/young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings! Shelf Reflection Challenge: 18% Read with Allison Challenge: 15% Buzzword Reading Challenge: 17% Buzzword Cover Challenge: 33% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 0 paperbacks | 0 ARC | 4 egalleys | 0 ebooks | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Review Copies From Harlequin: Served […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #485: Typography

Posted February 3, 2026 / Goals & Planning, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Favorite Book Covers with Cool Typography 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 book cover designs and track them on Goodreads, so I went to my “cover love” shelf and pulled my favorite covers that feature some kind of nice or cute typography! Nothing crazy or super fancy but basically my favorite fonts and typography featured on book covers.