Month: July 2026

Recent Reads | Heather and What Happened to Nina?

Posted July 23, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

Do you ever get a book stuck in your head so much that you just need to read it the minute it releases? That happened with HEATHER. I decided I didn’t want to wait for my Libby hold to come in and went to two different local bookstores to see if I could get it. I ended up grabbing it from the second and started pretty soon after for Summerween (which btw was a total fail this year since HEATHER is literally the only book I’ve read). I really loved THE GOD OF THE WOODS and ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, and this book kept getting compared to the first. I feel like any literary, slow-burn mystery is going to. But that’s why I needed to read it ASAP. I like the comparison to Liz Moore but I would absolutely agree that this is more LONG BRIGHT RIVER than THE GOD OF THE WOODS. There’s a heavy focus on sister relationships, drugs and addiction, inappropriate relationships, etc. The book follows a few POVs that generally worked well together to give us the whole picture: Callie (the cop), Annabelle, and Blair. I won’t say who the other two are to avoid spoilers just in case. I’m not a big cop fan but lately I’ve been enjoying more mysteries with detectives trying to solve cold cases like this, so I’ll give it a pass. Callie was a little slow on a few things and I was a bit frustrated with her […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #498: Rent Free

Posted July 21, 2026 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books That Live in My Head Rent-Free 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. Okay this is such a fun topic! I feel like there are a lot of books that I don’t stop thinking about. I even wrote a post a few years ago looking for hyper specific book recommendations because I just neeeeded more books like them. A couple of those will be featured here but there will be some newer ones as well! The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was such a specific experience for me and so many other readers. I remember being so floored by how the narrative was shaped and how TJR went through her life. It’s that fun mix of historical fiction and contemporary that I enjoy. The Black Dog Bay series is one I’ve talked about so much on here. The town of Black Dog Bay is built around being a place for heartbroken folks to travel and heal. It’s like a classic romance companion series on steroids. The businesses have names like Better Off Bed-and-Breakfast, the Eat Your Heart Out bakery, and the Whinery bar. It was just such a clever premise for a book and I’m always thinking about it. Dissonance is one […]

Ranking Books by Favorite Authors | Carley Fortune

Posted July 17, 2026 / 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! Previous installments include Sandhya Menon, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Christina Lauren, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Taylor Jenkins Reid. Today I’ll be featuring… Carley Fortune Now that I’ve successfully read and loved five Carley Fortune books, I thought it’d be a decent time to share my ranking of favorites! There’s a really interesting breakdown here worth exploring. Candidly, because the covers and titles can blend together for her books, I thought this would even help ME remember which ones I’ve loved the most and why, to help better recommend them to people. 5 Stars Every Summer After // The first and probably my favorite. I know this is a very messy story that will not jive with some people, but I sat on my porch and read this thing in one sitting. It had been a long time since I’d done that and the experience of reading this really stuck with me. The plot is a bit predictable but she does such a great job of hooking you with the characters and writing. Our Perfect Storm // The most recent Carley Fortune book takes the second place spot for me. I really love the childhood best friends-to-lovers trope and these two […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #497: New-to-Me

Posted July 14, 2026 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books I Want to Read by New to Me Authors 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 recently wrote about some new auto-read/buy authors but this is a twist for some books on my TBR by authors I haven’t read yet. Hopefully in a year or so these folks will make it onto my new auto-buy/read list too! Upcoming Releases Recent Releases

2026 Midyear Stats

Posted July 13, 2026 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

I usually like to see where I’m at halfway through the year and Storygraph has some great charts/wrap-up graphics, along with the spreadsheet I use. It would have been really nice to hit an even 50 books halfway through the year since my reading challenge is 100, but it is what it is! Here’s a quick rundown of all the books I’ve read this year along with their ratings. My average rating is 3.87 stars but honestly it feels like it should be lower. This has been a very weird reading year! I usually start the year strong and this was no exception, but I literally fell off a cliff in February. Each month I’ve read more and more from there, so this is an interesting chart haha. It really has been a mystery/thriller-forward year so this isn’t surprising. I’m happy to see it! I keep forgetting I added a “romance” category here so unfortunately this is not super accurate and some have been listed as “contemporary” instead. Whoops. I’ve read a lot of Kindle Unlimited books this year, so it’s good I’m getting use out of it. I have been enjoying library/Libby books and review copies as well. I definitely need to read more books from my shelves though… Almost an equal split of series and standalone this year. I’ve bought a lot of books this year and clearly hardcover is the most popular format. I don’t buy a ton of ebooks – only when they’re on sale […]

Friday R.E.P.O.R.T. (7/10/26)

Posted July 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 7/8. R / reading I was really determined to get caught up on my reading challenge and I managed to do that with the Summer Lovin’ collection. I will admit, this was a pretty bad grouping overall. I’ve read many of Amazon’s short story collections and these were easily some of my least favorites. I read THE SEASON OF SINKING, the sophomore novel from Daphne Woolsoncroft, and really enjoyed it. I also read OUR PERFECT STORM and loved it. I’m trying to work on my Summer TBR and complete some challenges but my reading mojo is still really off. I’m back to being two books behind on my challenge! E / eating We just got home from our Fourth of July almost-week in Maine. We had some good food while we were there but it was also incredibly hot, resulting in small appetites for the first few days. One highlight was a local hole in the wall Mexican place – great food and margs! Before Maine, we had a baby sprinkle with some of Chris’s mom’s excellent egg rolls. We had a nice meal al fresco in Colchester on the way to a Sun game a few weeks ago as well. P / planning Since the trip to Maine has come to an end, we’re debating when we should […]

Recent Reads | Our Perfect Storm and The Season of Sinking

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

Carley Fortune quickly became an auto-buy author for me and I’ve loved all of her books so far. Four books, each rated between 4-5 stars. The premise of this one specifically got me excited because I am a huge fan of the childhood best friends-to-lovers trope. When Frankie’s fiance unexpectedly leaves her the night before their wedding, he encourages her to go on the honeymoon still to take a break and recharge. Her best friend George ends up going with her and planning a week to get over her ex and move on. They quickly realize that maybe they’re something a little more than friends… I loved the descriptions of Tofino (a place I’d never heard of) and learning about Frankie and George’s history intermixed. Both characters had really interesting lives and fully fleshed out family backgrounds that added a lot to the story. Their progression from friends-to-more felt very natural; I loved being in Frankie’s head as she realized her feelings. So much natural chemistry! There is definitely a black moment/third act breakup but I think it was generally logical for the story. It explained some questions that lingered from earlier in the book as well. If I could think of a criticism, the book was a little long. I definitely think this could have been cut to a started 385-ish page romance. Carley Fortune continues to be a favorite of mine; I love seeing different tropical or lake town areas around Canada that I would have otherwise never […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #496: Summer Titles

Posted July 7, 2026 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 6 Comments

Book Titles That Include “Summer” (that I Highly Recommend) 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 saw the prompt of “Book Titles That Include the Word [blank]” and thought I’d go with “summer” because tis the season! I sorted my shelves by rating so I could share my favorite books with the word in the title.

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | June 2026

Posted July 2, 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. My goal was to get back on track in June (ideally… by end of summer at the latest lol) and I did it! I read a novella collection to do it, but I still did it. I love reading in the summertime and doing summer reading challenges so I hope July and August are full of books I want and need to read to continue achieving some goals. I did want to read 12 books in June but we are more than fine finishing with 11! 11 books in June 11 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Formats: 5 ebook/audio, 3 physical/audio, 1 audio, 1 ebook, 1 egalley Status/source: 6 Kindle Unlimited, 2 library, 1 preordered, 1 review, 1 Book Box Age Target: 11 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings! Shelf Reflection Challenge: 53% Read with Allison Challenge: 60% Buzzword Reading Challenge: 67% Buzzword Cover Challenge: 67% Breakdown: 6 hardcovers | 2 paperbacks | 0 ARC | 2 egalleys | 1 ebook | 1 audiobook All review copies were provided for free […]