Top Ten Characters You Wish Would Get Their Own Book This is happening very late in the day for me today! Work has gotten in the way of my blogging 😉 I’m not sorry for using Since You’ve Been Gone twice! It’s for two different reasons, I promise. Goodreads: Since You’ve Been Gone / Aspen / Shadowlands / Catching Jordan / Harry Potter / Gossip Girl / Private / Lola and the Boy Next Door / Scoring Wilder
I was intrigued by this book when I saw the premise. It was a really unique and compelling take on genies. I loved learning about what being a genie entails and how it can be a lot different than the mainstream interpretations of what genies do. (I’m kind of making it sound like genies are real now… maybe I’m convinced.) The writing style in this book was really fast-paced and enjoyable. It was very easy to read, which is what I was in the mood for! I’ve noticed this a lot in some of the books I’ve read lately: I like the slow release of information. It was over halfway through the book when I finally felt like I fully knew what it was like to be a genie and how Oliver’s life worked. I like jumping right into the middle of the action then learning more about the backstory as the book goes on. I loved that this felt much more like a contemporary romance with some fantasy mixed in. The main characters grow closer and develop a relationship despite the fact that Oliver is a genie. It just felt like I was reading a cute romance story and OH YA he’s a genie too I guess. The paranormal/fantasy aspects were really cool and I loved when they were mixed in, too. Oliver is so cute. I love him. That’s all. The concept behind the book overall was really interesting. As I said before, I just couldn’t stop reading […]
YES I AM EXCITED FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!! This post is to share with you some of the holiday-themed happenings at Bookmark Lit, as well as show what secret santas and gift swaps I’ve signed up for this year. I am a huge fan of Christmas music, cozying up by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, and reading holiday themed books. Giving and receiving gifts is so much fun, so I’m eager to buy some swap/secret santa gifts and see what others pick out for me! 🙂 UPDATE: Secret Santa & Book Exchange Reveal | 12 Days of Christmas Reveal I joined the Broke & Bookish Secret Santa! The sign-ups end on November 15th, so hurry there if you’re still interested in joining. You just have to send out an email with some info about your interests and bookish preferences to sign up. I created a wishlist on Goodreads to make it easier for all of these swaps. Jamie pairs everyone off and the exchange begins! You can choose what “level” of expectations you have (the amount of books/goodies you’d like to give and receive) so the price limit is really up to you. Send out your package by December 15th so hopefully the person gets it before Christmas! I’m really excited for this one; a lot of people have signed up so far. I also signed up for the 12 Days of Christmas Swap at Chaotic Goddess Swaps! This is a really fun one. You spend between $40-50 to buy 12 individually wrapped […]
You know I don’t like to reread books. However, when I realized that the final two books in the Gallagher Girls series had somehow slipped past me, I knew I needed to revisit the other books before finishing the series. I remembered that they were fun, quick reads; I figured why not try out the audio version of all the books? So far, so good! The books are just as cute and fun as I remember. I love the characters. Cammie, our MC, is the daughter of the Gallagher Academy headmistress. She’s known as the chameleon because she can blend into any situation; she’s pretty much the epitome of an average plain jane….. except for the fact that all Gallagher Girls are spies in training. I loved listening to all of the spy stuff that the girls would learn, and how Cammie applied it to her personal covert operations mission. Cammie and her friends (Bex, the British badass, and Liz, the country girl klutz) have a great friendship. All of the Gallagher Girls have an extremely loyal sisterhood, which was so cute. When Cammie meets a cute boy in the town one day, Bex and Liz help her learn more about him using their spy tools. Macy, the spoiled rich girl that just started at Gallagher, brings her knowledge of boys and normal prep schools. Armed with this information, Cammie starts seeing her new boyfriend, Josh, as much as she can… and has to lie about her real life. The […]
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. BrickFair 2014 Last weekend, we went to BrickFair 2014 in Somerset, NJ. I luckily have a friend who lives about 10 minutes away from there, so we were able to hang out with her and her boyfriend and go to BrickFair! I was in awe of all the cool stuff people can make. It really inspired Chris to build his own creations instead of buying the premade Lego sets. They had different categories and types of builds around the whole place. They also had vendors that sold custom Lego apparel, jewelry, and figures/accessories. Chris ended up with a few sets and accessories. It was a cool experience and we’re so glad we ended up going! Balancing Everything I feel like I sound like a broken record when I talk about this, but it’s really hard! As a new blogger, I’m still trying to find a way to balance everything in my life. I spend a lot of time blogging at work, which I shouldn’t do, but I find it hard to do otherwise. I used to be addicted to using my computer, browsing the internet, and watching Netflix during college, but now I never do. I don’t want to blog when I get home. I want to pry my eyes away from the computer since I stare at it […]
Like any good book reader and blogger, I LOVE to creep on what others are reading and take recommendations from people. Who better to tell me what books to read than the people who (a) equally creep on my Goodreads and (b) know what the general YA-reading population would like? This can be a beautiful thing; I love this community for that! HOWEVER, I’ve been thinking lately about the books everyone is going crazy for, giving great reviews, or explicitly recommending to you that you DON’T think you’d like. How often do you trust your gut about a book, and how often do you take a risk? It’s pretty safe to say that every review I saw for Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley was glowing. Everyone loved this book or at least really, really liked it… but I was totally turned off from it based on the description. The military school vibe didn’t appeal to me for whatever reason. Once I saw the reviews start rolling in and it seemed that EVERYONE loved it, I started to second guess myself. I figured, if all of these people who usually have similar tastes to mine end up liking it, maybe I will too. I also convinced myself that the military school aspect could be reminiscent of the boarding school books I loved (wrong). I learned that the main character was a badass girl who tried to change the gender norms at military school.. that’s one aspect I could get on […]
The character development was pretty good. The main character, Kinsley, was honest and funny. I loved that the book started the summer before college when she had just moved into the Rookie soccer house on campus. The reader is able to watch her develop friendships rather than picking up in the middle of a character’s life/high school career. The humor between characters in this book was certainly my style. Like Boomerang, this was a fun and sexy New Adult book that I enjoyed. I don’t like the ones that are too angsty. Kinsley and Becca’s friendship was on point for me. I kept highlighting funny parts because they sounded exactly like my friends in all of their interactions. I loved the three main characters: Kinsley, Becca, and Liam. That dynamic really worked for me and we learned a good amount about each of their lives. There could have been a little more characterization but there was enough to work with and really enjoy the three of them. Yes, this book was sexual as hell. So much swooning over Liam Wilder, holy shit. I don’t normally read New Adult so I’m always surprised about how much sex is actually in the books, but this one wasn’t all about that. There was a good balance. The biggest thing I liked about this book was how readable and entertaining it was. I just smiled a lot and enjoyed myself. Sometimes that’s all you really need from a book! Some of the humor was kind […]
WWW Wednesdays are hosted by Should Be Reading, where we answer three questions each week: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What are you planning to read next? I took a break from the Gallagher Girls reread (since I messed up my requests at the library) and finally started The Maze Runner! I just hit the 50% mark this morning and am really enjoying it so far. I like it because I have no clue what’s going on – just like the main character. He’s finally starting to get going with the actual maze running, so I’m excited to see what happens in the second half of the book. Chris and I are trying to see it on Tuesday so I’m hoping to do a little more listening than usual to finish it up soon. I just finished my previous book last night and haven’t technically started my next read (One Past Midnight) yet. I have it with me at work so hopefully I can get some done before the Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Readathon starts tomorrow! I totally didn’t realize it was coming up that quickly. I’ve been looking forward to One Past Midnight for months and can’t believe I put it off for so long. I’m hoping to make some decent progress before I pause my reading. I finished the second Gallagher Girls book, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy. Yet again, totally didn’t remember anything that happened in it! I’m excited to keep going […]
Top Ten Books I Want to Reread I’ve mentioned this before a few times, like in last week’s Five On Friday, that I’ve been tempted to reread books lately. This generally goes against all previous preferences of mine. I started rereading (in audiobook form) the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter, because I realized I never read the final two books in the series. There are four series I’ve been thinking of rereading for different reasons, and six standalones. Series Reread Options: Harry Potter series: This is obvious, right? I haven’t read these books since they first came out (between the years of 1999 and 2007) so obviously I am DUE for a reread. I’ve always said this is the one series I could imagine reading again a few times over the course of my life. I’m thinking that I’ll embark on this one sometime in 2015, maybe as an audiobook. A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle series): I always look back on this series with positive memories but can’t remember as many details as I’d like. It would be awesome to revisit the world. I would probably do this one in audiobook form too, considering that the books are HUGE. Modern Faerie Tales series: I honestly don’t remember if I read past the second book in this series, but I remember really enjoying these. I love books about fairies. Secrets of my Hollywood Life: I loved this series back in the day! I read the first maybe three […]
Naming Your Baby (I mean, Blog) When I started Bookmark Lit, I was looking for a place to discuss books and maybe some other lifestyle kinds of posts. I had no idea that there was a whole book blogging community that I could grow to be a part of. I was trying to think of clever names for my blog when I ended up on Bookmark Lit. I was looking up some puns or play-on-word kinds of names for book-related blogs. I thought Bookmark Lit would be cool, because it’s a play on “bookmark it” and lit = literature. Nothing too exciting or fun, but just enough of a clever name to satisfy me for the moment. The name Bookmark Lit was temporary. I liked it, but wasn’t overly excited by it. I honestly figured the first few months of blogging include me beefing up the site with some posts and reviews. I didn’t want to go out of my way to meet other bloggers or get entrenched in the community until I felt that I had enough posts to show that I was a credible blog. I wanted to come up with my temporary name, add some content, and finalize my site’s identity before really gaining any followers. My blog ended up taking off much more quickly than I expected. It was too late to change the name. I see blogs everywhere with adorable names that suit the person behind them. My site’s name is so blah. It seems stupid to reference […]