Author: Lauren (Bookmark Lit)

Holiday Review: Ex-Mas

Posted December 5, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

I’ve had my eye on this book for a long time, considering how much I love Kate Brian. Up until this year, I never really considered reading holiday-themed books and just never picked this one up from the store. I’m glad I finally did! I sat down the day after Thanksgiving and read it in under two hours. Lila is a popular girl, dating her best friend’s older brother, and about to throw the party of the year while her parents are out of town. Her brother and his best friend decide that they need to venture to the North Pole to save Santa in light of global warming, and Lila is forced to travel with her ex-boyfriend (Beau, her brother’s friend’s brother) to get the boys back before her parents come home. I absolutely loved the road trip that they took. It was fun reading about their mini-adventures and mishaps along the way. The book was predictable, but still had some cute, unique parts. Kate Brian is one of my favorite authors, so I wasn’t surprised that she crafted a well-written holiday tale. There is somewhat of a love triangle, but it was well-done in the sense that you know who she’s going to end up with It was a great story of second chances, both romantically and family-wise. Lila was kind of annoying at first because you can tell that she really had to prove herself and change herself to become popular. I didn’t like that about her […]

Five on Fridays #9

Posted December 5, 2014 / Five on Fridays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Five on Friday displays the the top five things that have been on my mind this week! It could be book-related, but it may be music, movies, TV, personal life, food, etc. It’s been a while since I’ve done of these! The past two Fridays ended up being busy and I just never got around to it. Ally Ambassador I am VERY excited that I was accepted to be an Ally Ambassador! In case you didn’t know, Ally Carter (author of the Gallagher Girls series) has a new series coming out next year: Embassy Row. I didn’t even have to read the synopsis to know I wanted to read it. Her books are about spies, criminals, and now international conspiracies – so cool. The first book in the Embassy Row series is All Fall Down, and because I was one of the first 100 people to sign up, I get an ARC! Wooo-hoo. I sent them my mailing address and am anxiously awaiting my new pretty. This also means that I should probably read Heist Society, finally… Nadine West I may have an addiction called “spending money I shouldn’t on subscription/monthly boxes.” I like the concept of monthly clothing-related boxes, but I have a body type that doesn’t fit in most sizes. HOWEVER, I came across Nadine West a while back and it’s amazing! It’s the kind of box that sends you a few items and you can send back what you don’t like; only keep and pay for what you […]

Top 10 Reactions & Thoughts I Have While Reading

Posted December 4, 2014 / Book Lists, Features / 6 Comments

Books exist to make you FEEL something or LEARN something or just to be entertained. In a perfect world, you get all three in one. A lot of the time I find myself whispering things in my head about the book/characters/author/plot while I read. Most commonly I think “goddammit I wish I could write a book like this,” but a lot of the time I think the following things: Normally this is a very excited kind of “omg what is even happening?” because I have no other ways to phrase my excitement and wonderment about how it’s possible for a book to be this good. Sometimes I just want to squeal and run around with the book. (Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke proved to be a great book for me, in this regard.) There are a lot of instances where I find myself so in awe of the book that I can’t even form a real-sounding sentence in my head about it. Of course, this can also be used negatively: like what the fuck is happening, I am very confused/stupid. I have this thought a LOT. I am always wondering how authors are able to write what they do. I’ve met the characters and explored their world a little bit – now what is actually going to happen in this book?? I love when I read fantasy or sci-fi books and genuinely don’t have the brain power to predict what the plot will be like. I hardly ever think about this […]

200 Word Review: The Scorch Trials

Posted December 3, 2014 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Ugh. This book didn’t grab me nearly as much as the first one. I definitely liked more parts of it than disliked, so it gets 3.5 stars from me. I have a bad feeling about the next book because most people didn’t like it (and my boyfriend HATED it). In the first book, Thomas is a perfect character. No flaws, except for occasional (very rare) stupidity. This book it was like his brain was actually being eaten by the Flare. He was still a smart person and very crafty, but he had no common sense. I don’t want to give much away, but there were MORE times in this book that I wanted to shake some sense into him. I give him props for persevering; I would have given up a LOOOONG time ago if I were them. I don’t trust anyone except for the other Gladers. (I also wish they were featured more in this book.) What’s going on??? I’m eager for the next book because as usual there was a pretty good cliffhanger. I really am hoping there is some resolution in the next one, even though most people don’t have good things to say on that end.

Top Ten Tuesdays #18: Books in 2015

Posted December 2, 2014 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 15 Comments

Top Ten Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading in 2015 Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make LISTS of our top ten books based on that week’s prompt… and then we stalk other people’s answers to add a million books to our TBR. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Releasing in 2015 Embassy Row by Ally Carter: I was one of the first people to apply to be an Ally Ambassador, so I have a lovely ARC of this one (hopefully) being shipped to me as we speak! I can’t wait to dive in, especially because I’m about to finish my Gallagher Girls reread within the next month. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: Yes, I STILL haven’t read Throne of Glass. Do not kill me. However, this book honestly sounds more up my alley than ToG does. I am very anxiously awaiting this one. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen: I didn’t even have to read the summary of this one to know it was an auto-buy. Sarah Dessen is credited for getting me into the YA contemporary romance genre and I binge-read most of her books during one boring summer vacation in Maine. The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West: Yep, I’m a sucker for covers. I STILL have not managed to read all of her books yet, which is surprising… The Distance Between Us was one of my favorite books of the year. I own most […]

December TBR List and Uppercase Box #3

Posted December 1, 2014 / Other Memes, Personal / Information / Etc., TBR Lists / 1 Comment

This is my attempt to show off what bookish goodies I got in my Uppercase box from the previous month, as well as plan out what I’m going to read for the coming month. I don’t usually do too well with planning out my TBRs and sticking to them, but I hope sharing them with you guys will make me more accountable for them 😉 Have you read any of these books? Thinking about joining Uppercase? It’s so fun! Uppercase box is a subscription service with two levels of membership. For the first level, you get an Expert Pick – this is a hand-selected book that the YA experts love and recommend. The Personalized Recommendation box, which is what I have, comes with a book selected just for YOU based on your preference quiz. The boxes are filled with: A book, either chosen specifically for your preferences OR one that is recommended by an expert A gift, like bookmarks, jewelry, totes, etc. (that obviously relate to books!) A personal explanation of the book choice and other similar titles Some discount codes for popular book-buying websites Here are my goodies from the November box! I’m so excited that I got Trust Me, I’m Lying! This one has been on my TBR but for some reason I never got around to buying it or looking into it further. It was recommended because it’s a mix of contemporary and mystery, plus I love the Pretty Little Liars series. The book will keep me guessing until the […]

Holiday Review: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares

Posted December 1, 2014 / Book Reviews / 12 Comments

Man guys. This book. I have a lot of feelings. I instantly loved it because of the setting – New York City! And more specifically, the Strand!!! This book is a book lover’s dream. It really helped that I finally made a journey to the Strand last month, so I was able to picture it really well. The book follows Dash and Lily as they communicate through a red notebook all around NYC. They inevitably have some interesting in-person meetups towards the end that were kind of funny too. The premise of the book was so, so great. We get to see the two of them travel around the city and come up with clever little scavenger hunts for each other. This book is perfect for people who haven’t been to NYC and want to go, or people who have been plenty of times and love it. I think this book is reminiscent of John Green’s work, in that it tries to ingest a lot of meaning and insightfulness into its pages. It felt like it was trying too hard. This could have been a cute, simple read, but it was a little too heavy in places it didn’t need to be. Some parts actually confused me, which should not happen during a contemporary YA romance. Dash: I think Dash is a really interesting, complex character. I’m honestly still kind of undecided on if I even like him. He was very bitter towards the holiday season, which is fine, […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin: November 2014

Posted November 30, 2014 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 3 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin is a bi-monthly feature where I look back on everything I did and everything I plan to do next. Instead of participating in the weekly Stacking the Shelves or Sunday Post memes, I combine it all into two bulletins per month: one at the mid-month mark and one on the final day of the month. You can learn more and see past Bookmark Lit bulletins here!November was a pretty good reading month. It started out with a few solid four star reads in a row, and then there were a few lower ones after that. The best book was probably A Midsummer’s Nightmare, but even then it didn’t completely knock my socks off, for reasons that are too spoilery to include! I think the biggest thing for me in November was switching over to Book Host. It’s been a great experience. I’m so excited to finally have the Ultimate Book Blogger Plug-in, a fully customizable theme, and other great plug-ins. Earlier this month, we visited Chris’s sister up at her college for the day. Otherwise our weekends have been pretty quiet! My life is so lame (and so have my Five on Friday posts… because I don’t do anything!) My weekdays consist of work and then relaxing at home. My weekends consist of relaxing at home and watching football. Oh well! I prefer it that way. The most exciting thing was probably that I saw Mockingjay! I thought it was absolutely great. Katniss did a lot of […]

Review: Biggest Flirts

Posted November 28, 2014 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

What Worked I liked that Tia, our main character, wasn’t afraid to be herself. She would party, have fun, and not worry about what anyone thought of her. I’m not used to main characters that are more sexually experienced or open about hooking up. I prefer that in books and wish I could see it more often. I loved Will. As far as love interests go, he was so cute and great. He pretty much kept me going with his book and was the only reason I cared to finish because I wanted to make sure he ended up happy. And I liked his earring. I haven’t read any other books by this author, but I give her major props for this series. The Superlatives is such a cute idea! The next books in the companion series feature some of Tia’s best friends, who win other superlatives. Overall I’m excited for the series despite some of the reservations below. The ending was really cute. It was very hopeful and not completely closed off. I like when endings leave something up to the imagination while implying that things are headed in the right direction. What Didn’t Work As great as Tia was in her sex-positive ways, she really annoyed me most of the time. My least favorite book trope is when the main character is emotionally closed-off and refuses to entertain the idea of a serious relationship. Normally it’s because they’ve been hurt in the past; in this case, Tia watched […]

Favorite Movies & Music (Getting to Know You Blog Hop + Giveaway)

Posted November 27, 2014 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 5 Comments

The ladies at Cuddlebuggery started up the Getting to Know You Blog Hop so that bloggers can learn a bit more about you and your blog. I decided to join up and made my post on the first day. I shared a special book series to me and offered a giveaway for one of my favorite books that I read since starting my blog. I decided to post three times about different topics so you can get to know me better! The giveaway is posted again at the bottom so you can enter if you haven’t already. 🙂 11/15 – Getting to Know You: Introduction and Special Book Series (here) 11/20 – Getting to Know You: Why I Blog and Other Hobbies (here) 11/27 – Getting to Know You: Favorite Movies and Music Favorite Movies I haven’t been that good with movies lately and it’s always hard to pick a favorite regardless! I’ll pick some favorites here based on the movie categories I like. Favorite romantic comedy: Friends with Benefits Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are literally my favorite celebrities. They’re also two of the HOTTEST celebrities. (Zac Efron is my number three pick, in case you were curious.) Basically an entire movie that involves them having sex with each other is a win in my book. Eek. Favorite comedy: Superbad This is a hard category for me because I like soo many comedies; it’s definitely my favorite kind of movie to watch. I chose this one because it’s a serious classic and so […]