Month: April 2026

May TBR

Posted April 30, 2026 / 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. May TBR April was yet another weird month, with me trying to keep up with my challenge and completely failing. I feel like I wasn’t in the mood to read anything! I ended up getting through a few of the Emma M. Lion books because they involved very little brainpower but it wasn’t great for keeping up with my TBR. Here’s hoping May looks better… and I’m going to finish that series to get it over with! lol Review Copies I did a really bad job with review copies in April but there are quite a few on my radar for May. I decided to keep it tight since I know I’ll be reading a lot on my Kindle for one of the TBR sections below. ONCE AND AGAIN, STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED, and THE ANNIVERSARY are probably the big ones to get to soon. New/Recent Releases incl. Preorders I have a copy of THISTLEMARSH from the library on my Kindle and also the audiobook, so I’d really like to get to that soon. I’ve preordered some books by authors I love, like Carley Fortune, Sarah Dessen (her first book in […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #491: Freebie

Posted April 28, 2026 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 6 Comments

Freebie: Current Preorders 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 make it a point to preorder books I’m excited about in order to support authors and publishers. Usually I only preorder books by favorite authors because I know I’ll (hopefully) enjoy them and want to have them in my collection, which also leaves wiggle room for supporting my local indies and buying books when I pop in to visit. Here are all of the books I currently have preordered through the rest of the year!

Recent Reads | The Night We Met and Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line

Posted April 13, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’ve read every single Abby Jimenez book before its publication date (thank you to Forever Romance as always!) and this was the first one where I had to actually wait until the book came out! It was a weird experience honestly but it WAS nice to enjoy the audiobook for once. The synopsis implies a love triangle and/or potential cheating, which is such a risky trope for Abby to cover… but honestly I knew she’d kill it. Larissa met Chris and Mike at a concert one night and chose Mike (instead of Chris) to bring her home. Months later, she and Mike are dating and Chris missed his opportunity. Mike asks Chris to help him out one day and bring Larissa and her mom to a surgery appointment, and a friendship blooms between them. They accidentally rescue a dog together and start a lot of buddy reads. They have a ton in common…especially compared to her and Mike. As with all books by Abby Jimenez, there are some touchy or tough subjects covered in this one. The full trigger warnings are described at the beginning of the book. In short, Larissa is barely scraping by financially and Chris is dealing with some complex grief. I really loved the chemistry development and how the “complication” or issue happened throughout the whole book. How could these two ever be together, even if Larissa and Mike broke up? Chris and Mike are childhood best friends. There wasn’t necessarily a third act breakup because […]

Friday R.E.P.O.R.T. (4/10/26)

Posted April 10, 2026 / Friday REPORT, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

This Friday R.E.P.O.R.T will consist of what I’ve been reading, eating, planning (instead of playing, I don’t really think it works for me), obsessing over, recommending, and treating. Written on Wednesday 4/8. R / reading Like everyone else in the book world, I’m reading THE UNSELECTED JOURNALS OF EMMA M. LION. It’s a historical fiction novella series that follows Emma as she returns to London, living with her cousin in her family home, and encountering all kinds of people and things. It’s really cute so far though I don’t see the hype of folks naming this a favorite series. I finished the second book early in April and am almost done with the third installment now. I need to take a little break and get into some egalleys on my Kindle once I finish this one, but I do anticipate finishing all 8 in the first half of the year. I also plan to finish FINLAY DONOVAN CROSSES THE LINE later today during my pedicure appointment. I have the audio, which I always love, but grabbed the physical copy from a library last week too. E / eating We’re eating a lot of easier things lately (thanks to the new pup) and finishing up the true crockpot season. I still use mine during the summer for certain things because it’s lovely to not use a hot oven on the nights we don’t grill something. Otherwise, we’ve been making it our mission to try different breakfast takeout spots on the […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | March 2026

Posted April 6, 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. March was a better month for sure! I feel like we got into a good swing with the pups and I was able to crank through books. There were some days I didn’t read and some days I read an entire book, but it was a great month overall. 6 books in March 6 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Formats: 4 physical/audio, 1 ebook, 1 ebook/audio Status/source: 2 preordered, 2 library, 1 book box pick, 1 Kindle Unlimited Age Target: 6 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings! Shelf Reflection Challenge: 38% Read with Allison Challenge: 33% Buzzword Reading Challenge: 42% Buzzword Cover Challenge: 58% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 1 paperbacks | 0 ARC | 4 egalleys | 2 ebook | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Review Copies From Hachette: Book Club Boyfriend by Holiday, The Thoroughbreds by Hilderbrand/Cunningham From Macmillan: The Women in White by Pekkanen, Hot Girl Murder Club by Winstead Physical Books Book box: This Story Might Save Your […]

Mini Reviews: A Perilous Undertaking, The Plot, and Her Last Breath

Posted April 4, 2026 / Bite-Sized Reviews, Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’m not sure when I’ll finish this long ass series but I’m proud I prioritized the second book fairly quickly! I continue to enjoy Veronica and Stoker’s slow-burn (I’m assuming) romance. I don’t think I paid a ton of attention when reading (so I forgot who characters were) and the mystery was fine. The lower rating is probably due to my reading slump and lack of interest in reading much of anything, but to be fair – other books have managed to keep my attention when this one didn’t as much. Happy to move onto the next within a few months though! This was a good albeit predictable read. I did enjoy the mystery of trying to figure out what the twist in the novel-within-the-novel was going to be, but the bigger reveals toward the end were more obvious afterwards. I read like 95% of this in one day so I didn’t find it slow like other readers (though the book club deadline helped lol). My other friends in book club agreed that it was super predictable but we are all curious enough to read the sequel! I have a feeling it will follow a similar trajectory though, which would be a little annoying and possibly repetitive. Like with most Taylor Adams books, the story seems so closed off and straightforward. I kept asking myself how he was going to find twists within this plot line, or keep the book interesting. I really didn’t think it was possible but I […]

April TBR

Posted April 3, 2026 / 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. April TBR March was a better month though there were a couple of short books in there! I hope to continue that series and add to my progress. As of now, I’m on track with my reading challenge. Review Copies I have more review copies upcoming than I thought! I really hope I can keep on track. Most of these are April books but there’s at least one May book because I’m excited to read it and may jump the line lol. New or Popular Releases I decided to consolidate this section because it’s kind of a mix of physical books I own, preordered, or have coming soon, among other things. I’m currently reading the new FINLAY DONOVAN book and the third EMMA M. LION book. I got into the Emma series on a whim because everyone’s been loving them and they’re fun to read at bedtime on my Kindle. I preordered AGNES AUBERT and got ADRIFT from my last book box so I definitely want to read them soon. And finally, THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF and THIS WEEKEND DOESN’T END WELL FOR ANYONE are coming this month via BOTM or […]