Category: Features

Predicting My EOY Reading

Posted November 14, 2024 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

At the time of writing this post, I’ve read 87 books and am currently reading 3 books. That leaves just 10 books(!!!) between the second half of November and all of December to finish off my Goodreads challenge. If I’m being honest, there’s a good chance I’ll finish more books than this because I have five holiday novellas (plus two other super short/kind of novellas) to read in addition to other full-size books. I thought it would be fun to predict the final ten books of the year if I had to guess, but also share the additional books I think I may realistically read beyond my reading challenge. I knew 100 books would be a challenge since I’ve kept my goal at 80 books the past couple of years. I’ve read some shorter books and novellas to get me over the hump so it would be nice if I can hit 105 or 110 books on the year. Current Reads I’m finishing up reading a cookbook (yes, I read them cover to cover) called WHAT TO COOK WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE COOKING. I have a Christmassy romance going on my Kindle from Libby called I’LL BE GONE FOR CHRISTMAS, which is super cute as of now. And finally, my physical read mixed with audiobook listening is ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY for my in-person book club. I forgot the meeting was already coming this Monday so I had to get going. Holiday Novellas Amazon released another novella series this year, so […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | October 2024

Posted November 6, 2024 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

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. Another weird month for October but generally read a decent amount quantity-wise… just not length-wise! I read a few novellas to flesh out the month since I just never got in a good rhythm with full-length books. I’ll see how the rest of the year goes, I guess. I don’t doubt I’ll reach my Goodreads goal but I do think there will be a lot more novellas unfortunately. I have so many novels I’m excited to read but just can’t make the time! 8 books in October 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 1,952 • Average rating: 4.06 stars Genres: 5 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary, 1 historical fiction Formats: 4 ebook, 3 mixed format, 1 hardcover Sources: 4 Kindle Unlimited, 1 BOTM, 1 library, 1 preordered, 1 purchased Age Target: 7 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 40% 52 Book Club: 69% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 33% Breakdown: 3 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 1 egalley | 2 ebooks | […]

November TBR

Posted October 31, 2024 / 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. November TBR October was weird – I read some novellas from Amazon and got through a few books on my TBR but also forgot what else I even had on here haha. We’ll see how the rest of the year goes! Kindle/KU Books I got an offer for three free months of Kindle Unlimited so I’m trying to read some books off of that TBR over the next couple of months, and potentially holiday books in December! I read the first Chesnut Springs book this past month and enjoyed it so I’m curious to move on to the next one soon. I’m currently reading PHANTASMA for a spooky season book but it’s long as hell, so it’ll definitely take me through November. I have REMEMBER ME TOMORROW as an egalley that I’m really looking forward to but just haven’t read yet. Library Books I have these three out from the library right now. I’m really intrigued by all of them but A CURIOUS BEGINNING has been on my TBR for ages. Really hope to get into it before the end of the year, or else I’m pushing an entire series binge to […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September 2024

Posted October 9, 2024 / 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 had a weird reading month in September, which is kind of par for the course – I always expect to do less reading when I’m bopping around for my birthday and beginning-of-fall plans. I read nearly an entire graphic novel series and just a few full-length novels so my numbers look good at least. 10 books in September 9 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Pages read: 3,143 • Average rating: 3.9 stars Genres: 5 graphic novel, 3 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary Formats: 5 paperback, 2 ebook, 2 mixed, 1 egalley Sources: 5 purchased, 2 preordered, 2 library, 1 review Age Target: 5 young adult, 4 adult, 1 middle grade Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! ADORED This Series binge // // // Popsugar Reading Challenge: 36% 52 Book Club: 65% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 29% Breakdown: 7 hardcovers | 10 paperbacks | 1 egalley | 1 ebook | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest […]

October TBR

Posted September 27, 2024 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

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. October TBR September was a good month for getting ahead on my reading challenge but I definitely read a ton of graphic novels to get me there! I had a DNF as well that I counted since I read more than 50% of it, which is my standard practice. I’m going to finish the month strong to prepare for some longer releases in the rest of the year! Newer (Owned) Releases I’ve acquired all of these over the past few months, either from preordering or BOTM. I really hope to get to all of them because they are super promising reads. I preordered WORST CASE SCENARIO and picked up HEMLOCK HOUSE from the store recently because I straight up couldn’t find it anywhere. The other four books are from BOTM. I will definitely be reading THE GOD OF THE WOODS beginning the end of September into October because it’s my mystery book club’s pick for October. Library Books I have a lot of overdue library books right now and am making a concerted effort to read a few ASAP! October is the beginning of the fantasy months for me […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | August 2024

Posted September 5, 2024 / 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 feel like I can’t get past the eight-book hump which always puts me on track or one book behind on my reading challenge! I know September will be harder because of my birthday and the usual things I do in early fall. I hope to get another 8-9 books done at least! 8 books in August 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,776 • Average rating: 3.44 stars Genres: 4 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary, 1 nonfiction, 1 magical realism Formats: 4 mixed, 3 egalley, 1 hardcover Sources: 4 review, 2 preordered, 1 purchased, 1 borrowed Age Target: 6 adult, 2 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 36% 52 Book Club: 63% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 29% Breakdown: 5 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 0 egalley | 1 ebook | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Physical Books Purchased at RJ Julia event: East Coasting by Chitnis, The Pairing by McQuiston BOTM: Like Mother, […]

September TBR

Posted August 30, 2024 / 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. September TBR I was generally okay in August but had some stretches where I didn’t read very much. September is typically a tough reading month for me because it’s my birthday and usually I do a lot of things to enjoy the end of summer and hopefully some fall-like weather. You’ll definitely also see a lot of holdovers from last month… Egalleys I have some already published egalleys I didn’t include here even though I definitely should do a recap on that at some point. I had THE EXAMINER and TILL DEATH DO US PART on here last month and I’m kind of shocked to still have the former on my TBR. I thought I would have read it asap because of how much I love Hallett. I just had a lot of mysteries to read in August and it meant that I couldn’t double up with my formats like I do. I also hope to maybe get ahead with REMEMBER ME TOMORROW since it publishes in October. Preordered & New Releases Again, the first three are from last month. I definitely assumed I’d get to them but alas. […]

Ranking Books by Favorite Authors | Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Posted August 22, 2024 / Book Lists, Features / 2 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, and Christina Lauren. Today I’ll be featuring… Jennifer Lynn Barnes I wrote my review for the latest Jennifer Lynn Barnes book and realized that she’s definitely one of my favorite authors. I always forget that she wrote one of my favorite YA duologies THE FIXER – that series is due for a resurgence like THE NATURALS has gotten! I’m not going to rank series (since that’s what she usually writes!) – I’m going to actually rank individual books across all of her series, much like I did in the TTT the other day. 5 Stars The Long Game // Clearly JLB knows how to finish a series! The sequel to THE FIXER is one of my favorite books by her. I just remember wishing she’d continue this series and let’s hold out hope she could if people start reading it again, okay?? The Final Gambit // I really enjoyed the way she initially wrapped up THE INHERITANCE GAMES series, before writing some spinoffs. I think it had a super satisfying ending with lots of final twists along the way. 4.5 Stars The Fixer // If you actually look at average […]

Most Anticipated Reads of 2023 – How Did I Do?

Posted August 15, 2024 / Book Lists, Features / 2 Comments

I started to draft this post AGES ago and decided I’d finally finish it up… now that we’re more than halfway through 2024 lol. There are always a few “most anticipated” posts on the blog each year to pull from so let’s see how I did. Did I actually read all the books I thought I would? Overall Stats 39 books on my most anticipated lists for 2023 Read 17 books (44%) | Didn’t read 22 books (56%) Ratings of books read: 5 stars = 3 books = 18% 4.5 stars = 4 books = 24% 4 stars = 9 books = 53% 2.5 stars = 1 book = 5% Books I Managed to Read Overall, a pretty good job here! I feel like the books I did read are not surprising: they’re by favorite authors that I never miss, or the premise was THAT exciting to me that I knew I’d certainly read it. 13 out of the 17 completed books were authors I’d read and loved books from before. 5 Stars 4.5 Stars 4 Stars Under 4 Stars Books I Didn’t Get to There are a lot of books on here lol I think again the main issue with MOST of these were that they were new-to-me authors, or authors I haven’t had success with in a while but used to love. For example, I DNFed my last Kasie West book so I was nervous to read this one.

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July 2024

Posted August 5, 2024 / 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 had a super solid start to the month thanks to Summerween… which also explains the high number of mysteries and thrillers this month! I also just was in the MOOD for them. You’ll see a ton of them next month too because most of the books on my immediate TBR are mysteries. Hopefully I can mix in some romance too otherwise I may burn out lol. Two books at the end of July were a slog so that’s why I didn’t read as many as initially expected. And this was easily my worst reading month maybe ever rating-wise. 8 books in July 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,745 • Average rating: 3.25 stars Genres: 4 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary Formats: 5 mixed, 1 ebook, 1 egalley, 1 paperback Sources: 2 purchased, 2 review copies, 1 library, 1 owned, 1 borrowed, 1 BOTM Age Target: 8 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 32% 52 Book Club: 56% Book Cover Bingo: 76% 24 in 24: 25% […]