Category: Features

March TBR

Posted March 7, 2025 / 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. March TBR February was a weird month but I did mostly read books from my TBR! They just took forever to read. March should be good with a cookbook or two mixed in so I can get ahead and finally work on fantasy books. Review Copies I’m a little late on CAUGHT UP IN YOU and the new FINLAY DONOVAN came out this week, so I’m hoping to get to both of them so soon. At the time of writing this post, I’m currently reading THIS BOOK WILL BURY ME and really enjoying it so far. And finally, SWEPT AWAY comes out early next month so hopefully I can get ahead. Library Books I have all three of these out from Libby at the moment and have really been excited for them! I’ve been waiting for THE LODGE for soooo long and it finally came in as a Kindle book. I have TELL ME WHAT YOU DID and CLOSE YOUR EYES as audiobooks (the latter also as an ebook). Owned and/or Recent Books I’m honestly shook I haven’t read these first two yet – the final Emily Wilde and a new […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | February 2025

Posted March 6, 2025 / 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. February was another weird month, and a short one at that. I hit a little bit of a reading slump – I ended up DNFing a book super unexpectedly and almost did the same with another book by a fave author. Luckily I pushed through for that one and ended up enjoying it. All in all…hoping March will be better. 7 books in February 6 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Formats: 5 mixed, 1 egalley Status/source: 2 review, 2 BOTM, 1 preordered, 1 Kindle Unlimited Age Target: 5 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings! 25 in 25: 15% 52 Book Club: 25% Buzzword Reading Challenge: 42% Buzzword Cover Challenge: 58% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 0 paperback | 5 egalleys | 1 ebook | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Physical Books Preordered: The Meadowbrook Murders by Goodman, Under the Same Stars by Bray, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Fawcett BOTM: Famous Last Words by McCallister Review Copies From Penguin/Berkley: […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | January 2025

Posted February 1, 2025 / 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. There’s nothing quite like a new reading year to rejuvenate me! 2024 was a weird year – I read way too many novellas and books under 200ish pages to meet my goal and really just don’t feel like I ENJOYED a lot of what I was reading. I decided to put less pressure on myself and make my reading goal 75 books so I don’t feel as stressed or pressured to read a random novella just to hit a quota. That said, January was a pretty great reading month but had some weird outliers. I’m going to start sharing some of the Storygraph monthly graphics here because they help illustrate what I’m talking about. 7 books in December 7 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Formats: 4 mixed, 2 egalley, 1 audiobook Status/source: 2 borrowed, 2 review copies, 2 preordered, 1 BOTM Age Target: 6 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings! 25 in 25: 5% 52 Book Club: 13% Buzzword Reading Challenge: 33% Buzzword Cover Challenge: 33% Breakdown: 5 hardcovers […]

February TBR

Posted January 29, 2025 / 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. February TBR I definitely did a good job with reading in January despite the huge ONYX STORM taking over the final two weeks of the month. There are a few holdovers as usual. Hopefully I’ll get some good reading done this month despite it being shorter and me being in Disney at the end of it. Review Copies I was going to read YIN YANG LOVE SONG in January but my balance of reading romance vs. fantasy vs. mystery across Kindle vs. audiobook vs. physical just didn’t align. This will be my first Kindle book of February and I’ll most likely have already started it. INTO THE WOODS and CAUGHT UP IN YOU are both upcoming releases I have review copies for. I’m also including the next FINLAY DONOVAN book because I got an audiobook review copy that I have a feeling I’ll get to before early March. Upcoming Releases I read all three “anticipated January releases” featured here last month so please lets cross our fingers this three books have the same fate! I preordered the latter two above and will probably try to preorder the first one because the […]

Fantasy Books I Really Should Read in 2025

Posted January 20, 2025 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

I included an item in my 2025 goal post that I want to read more fantasy this year. I should definitely focus on doing it at the beginning of the year (and end, honestly) because I’m such a seasonal reader. There’s something about the winter and colder part of spring that makes me want to read heavy, long, fantastical books. I pretty much have no desire beyond like May haha. I broke this into two categories: the upcoming or recently published group (books that came out in the last few months of 2024 or will be coming in 2025) and the backlist books. Upcoming or Recently Published The books in this section go by release date. BRISTOL KEATS is just a gorgeous book I got in BOTM that I’m intrigued by. I’ve wanted to read a book by Pearson for a while and this seems like a good place to start. SONGBIRD came out late last year and I really thought I’d get to it before 2025 but alas. No time. And DRAGON CAFE comes out in January, so I hope to read it. Seems cute! ONYX STORM will definitely be read this week when it comes out. I’m truthfully hate-reading this series at this point because I don’t think it’s good, but they’re addicting and I enjoy being a part of things lol. The newest and last (ugh!) EMILY WILDE comes out in February so that’s preordered. The final two here are new-to-me authors but seem really intriguing – […]

Authors I Must Read for the First Time in 2025

Posted January 13, 2025 / Discussions, Features / 2 Comments

I’ve written in the past about books and authors I’m a little scared of reading for various reasons, but I don’t have many excuses for the authors on this list. I was watching some end of year wrap-ups on booktube and thinking about how I should really read a Brandon Sanderson book at some point. I started to then think about all the authors where I keep adding their books to my TBR or shelves on Goodreads just to never actually read from them. Stacy Willingham was a perfect example until I finally read one of her books this winter for book club. All that being said, here are some authors I really need to get to for the first time in 2025, as well as the books by them I think I’ll start with. Kate Alice Marshall / Lisa Under / Alex Finlay Here begins the list of five mystery/thriller authors that I’m shocked I haven’t read a book from yet. They’re all well-established and popular authors who release a book each year and have fairly extensive backlists of three or more books. I own a number of Kate Alice Marshall’s books but I think A KILLING COLD, her 2025 release, may be the first I get to. The same could be said for Lisa Unger and Alex Finlay. Both books shown here are their releases coming out this year that sound really interesting to me. Shari Lapena / Richard Osman / Ali Brady Shari Lapena and Richard […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | December 2024

Posted January 8, 2025 / 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 wanted to finish the year strong and managed to include five novellas to help me reach my reading goal with about a week to spare. I finished the year with 103 books, which is not a pretty number, but it’s fine. I feel like the past couple of months have had a LOT of mid books so I’m hoping to start the year in a better spot with the books on my TBR. 11 books in December 11 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,288 • Average rating: 3.36 stars Genres: 8 contemporary, 2 mystery/thriller, 1 nonfiction Formats: 5 ebook, 3 mixed format, 2 hardcover, 1 egalley Sources: 5 Kindle Unlimited, 3 library, 2 review, 1 preordered Age Target: 11 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Least Favorite Short Story Collection // // // // // Popsugar Reading Challenge: 44% 52 Book Club: 71% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 33% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 1 egalley | 0 ebooks | 0 audiobooks All review […]

January TBR

Posted January 3, 2025 / 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. January TBR I skipped my December TBR due to the uncertainty of holiday reads…I also did a terrible job of predicting my EOY reads as well. Lots of novellas, but oh well. I love the beginning of a year where I can wipe the slate clean and I’m super excited for the books on deck! Review Copies I already decided my first book of the year will be SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME, even though it comes out in April. I know I’ll love it and need that kind of energy for the start of the year. The other January review copy I want to get to is YIN YANG LOVE SONG because Lauren Kung Jessen is an auto-read now. Upcoming Releases January has a few key new releases on my radar that I’m 95% sure I’ll get to in the month. The newest Wayward Children book comes out in the beginning of the month and I always listen to the audiobook right away once its released. They’re short and easy to get off on the right foot for my reading challenge. BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL is a hiiiiighlyyy anticipated read for […]

2024 End of Year Wrap-Up and Stats

Posted January 2, 2025 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

103 Books Read I don’t like finishing the year with a number ending in three (I prefer a 0 or 5) but whatever, let’s get over that and move on. As always, I’d like to share some final statistics for the year! Books Read Yet again I’ve had some success in keeping my combined romance/mystery/thriller section under 75% – this year I finished around 67% between those genres. I think I’d like to read a lot more fantasy next year – I’m just kind of feeling it. I’d also like to increase my literary fiction category. As always, “mixed” format was my biggest category. This will continue to increase as time goes on because I’ve found myself mixing in the Spotify Audiobooks more and more. It’s just so easy! I was thinking I’d find a better way to track that next year but I’m too lazy. Maybe that’s for 2026… I still need to prioritize reading books on my shelves and the ones I keep buying… but I really loved Libby and my Kindle this year, clearly! This was a weird year for me, especially at the end – I read a ton of mid books in November/December. I feel like 4 stars is usually my most popular rating but I am a little alarmed that 3.5 is so close this year. Hopefully I can focus on reading some really good stuff for next year. So yes generally speaking I can read 8 books a month with a few exceptions […]

2025 Challenges

Posted December 30, 2024 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I don’t think I announced my 2024 challenges like I have in year’s past, but I’m doing something a little different this year. I’ve abandoned the Popsugar Reading Challenge because it’s similar to the 52 Book Club and I think one challenge of that type is good enough. I preferred the prompts for 52BC this year. Anyways, here are my plans for 2025 reading challenges! Buzzword Challenges Booksandlala, my favorite booktube channel, always hosts these challenges and this is my first time joining in! She’s doing two this year – one book titles and one for book covers. You need to read a book with a certain word in its title or a certain item/theme on the cover. Kayla breaks this into monthly challenges but some people just try to read the 12 books throughout the year without intentionally reading them during that month. I haven’t decided yet how I want to work on this challenge. I had a few ideas. I never completed my 24 in 24 but thought this could be a fun way to use the same idea for 2025 and try to figure out which books I “have” to read this year and make a set TBR to read one per month that applies to the prompts. I’m REALLY bad at challenges with set TBRs though… any time I’ve done a “must read” thing, it’s failed. In a perfect world that’s semi-realistic, I would like to read each book during the set month. In a more […]