Category: Book Lists

My Highest Rated Authors

Posted May 20, 2022 / Book Lists, Discussions, Features / 0 Comments

As I wrote yet another glowing review for a Rachel Lynn Solomon book, I wondered if there’s any other author that I consistently rate as high. Taylor Jenkins Reid is up there. Anyone else? Katie Cotugno? I started thinking about this and decided to roll through all of the authors I’ve read and figure out which ones I’ve rated the highest in my years of book blogging. It was a little tedious but my parameters were the following: (1) I needed to have read three or more books by the author to count them for this experiment, since two books can sometimes be a fluke. Novellas or short stories in anthologies did not count as “one book” in the totals to determine if the author should be included, but… (2) …I did include novella book ratings in the rating calculation. For example: I read four books by the author, one of which was a novella, so that was counted for ratings purposes. I didn’t include short stories within anthologies because then I’d have to go into the review post and find the individual story rating. (3) I did not include authors where I’ve only read one series by them (3+ books). Saying I loved the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy doesn’t necessarily mean that Holly Jackson herself is on my highest rated author list, since I’ve only fallen in love with one series by her. For all I know, her next series may not hit me as hard. I did include […]

May TBR

Posted May 4, 2022 / 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. May TBR I got behind yet again in April because I spent the last week of the month with friends on a vacation, which meant I didn’t really have solo time for reading… despite hoping I’d get to enjoy some time with my books in the hot tub! In any case, I hope (as usual) that I can get back on track in May. The month is somewhat busy at the beginning but I’m hoping some car rides will allow for audiobooks… woof. Review Copies I did a great job of focusing on upcoming releases in April – I love when I can delete covers from the previous month’s TBR here! The only holdover is ALWAYS JANE. Usually I dive right into Jenn Bennett books but this one hasn’t had amazing reviews, so I’ve been hesitating. I recently got a review copy of THE CHANGE and it’s actually already been published so hopefully I’ll get to it soon. Seems intriguing! Otherwise, VERY BAD PEOPLE and SEE YOU YESTERDAY are early May pubs so I should hop on them as well. I have other May egalleys I want to read but I’ll leave […]

April TBR

Posted April 4, 2022 / 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. April TBR March was not the worst, thanks to some cookbooks, but I still got behind on my reading challenge. I finished one egalley, one audiobook, and two cookbooks within the last two days of the month to get somewhat back on track. It just took me forever to read things and I wasn’t ever in the mood to read. Review Copies I’m still playing catchup from March review copies and need to get ahead in April. I have IN A NEW YORK MINUTE, ALWAYS JANE, THE NO-SHOW and THE SUITE SPOT on deck. Audiobooks and/or Owned I have a copy of MAJESTY as an audiobook and maybe an ebook? Not sure. I have a copy of THE PARIS APARTMENT coming in my Book of the Month box so I hope to read that and also listen to the audiobook on Scribd. We’re hopefully going to read FRIENDS LIKE THESE for my book club this month and I bought the ebook on sale recently.

March TBR

Posted March 2, 2022 / 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 January was a good month where I got ahead on reading! Here’s hoping February is some of the same. I’ll be focusing on some review copies, as always, and the two library books I’ve had forever. Review Copies I did a terrible job with reading in February. Yes, it’s a short month, but WOOF. Here are the same review copies from last month I didn’t get to. Luckily I think my review copy load for this month is a bit smaller so I can catch up and get back on track there. Audiobooks and/or Owned I have some audio/physical/etc. combos for the month as well. I’ve been dying to read the next FINLAY book but I don’t like reading more than one book of the same genre at the same time. I’ve had a ton of review copies in the mystery/thriller space so I haven’t been able to listen to this via audio. That’s a top priority for me. I also have a copy of MAJESTY as an audiobook and maybe an ebook? Not sure. And finally, I have a copy of THE PARIS APARTMENT coming in my Book […]

February TBR

Posted January 28, 2022 / 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 January was a good month where I got ahead on reading! Here’s hoping February is some of the same. I’ll be focusing on some review copies, as always, and the two library books I’ve had forever. Library Books I managed to read one of my three checked out library books in January. February is hopefully when I’ll get to OF PRINCES AND PROMISES and YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED. I also have an audiobook of OPAP. Review Copies I’m actually doing a pretty good job with my 2022 review copies so far! I’ve seen a couple get not-great reviews so I’ve held off, but these three are high on my list to read soon. THESE DEADLY GAMES is obviously a mystery/thriller. LEASE ON LOVE and WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN are both contemporary fiction, with the second one having my favorite time-twisty trope (what if…?). I’m also including KAMILA KNOWS BEST if I can get ahead into March copies. Owned Books I managed to read one of my newly acquired owned books last month and I’m not sure if I’ll get to the other I highlighted in December. I […]

Most Anticipated Reads of 2021 – How Did I Do?

Posted January 12, 2022 / Book Lists, Features / 0 Comments

I developed an annual post of “Five Star Predictions” to discuss which books I thought I would rate five stars within that year, and then follow up with a “did my five star predictions come true?” post at the end of the year. It was always fun to not only see if I was correct but also if I actually managed to even READ all of the books. It’s wild how much you anticipate reading something and then just… not even read it. 2020 and 2021 were totally shitty reading years for me and I didn’t even make a predictions post for 2021. When I saw Cristina post about her most anticipated 2021 reads to see how she did with them, I thought that would be a fun alternative for my usual five-star post. I always have two “anticipated reads” posts for the year – one TTT in Dec/Jan for the first half of the year and one in June for the second half. I always include a TON of books instead of just 10 for each section of the year. Here are the details of the 30 books I was excited to read throughout 2021 and how I fared! Overall Stats 30 books on my most anticipated list for 2021 Read 17 books (57%) | Didn’t read 13 books (43%) Ratings of books read: 5 stars = 2 books = 12% 4.5 stars = 6 books = 35% 4 stars = 7 books = 41% 3 stars = 1 […]

January TBR

Posted January 5, 2022 / 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. January TBR I had just a couple of TBRs toward the end of the year because I didn’t do a lot of planning with my reading in October/November. My last actual monthly TBR was for September because I did a “holiday reads” kind of TBR and an EOY TBR around November. In any case, I completely forgot to even make a TBR for January for a bit because I’m out of practice! I do love planning the first books I’m going to read for a fresh year and brand new Goodreads challenge though. Library Books I’ve had all three of these since late 2021 and am hoping to get to them early this year! I’ve determined that YOU’LL BE THE DEATH OF ME will be my first read of the year – I’m writing this on the first so there’s a good chance I finished already by the time this post. OF PRINCES AND PROMISES and YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED are two books I was looking forward to last year and will try to read ASAP. Review Copies The first three books here are publishing this week, so I’m aiming to […]

2022 Illustrated Covers

Posted December 29, 2021 / Book Lists, Features / 2 Comments

I asked people for help building out my 2022 release queue because I didn’t spend my usual amount of time on Goodreads this year. Andi and Morgan came through with links to their shelves and I added a ton of books! I was looking at all of the cute covers and thought I’d do a little roundup of some of my favorites coming next year.

Holidays 2021 | To Read & Watch

Posted November 12, 2021 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

Usually I’m getting jazzed up for Christmas in September and forcing myself to wait until at least Halloween, but this year I’ve been feeling weird! I’m not super duper into the holiday spirit like I expected, post-Halloween. I’ve been listening to my holiday music since 11/1 and hopefully reading some holiday books at the end of the month PLUS decorating this week will be helpful. Here we go – onto the usual holiday fun and plans! Here’s a roundup of ALL of the holiday books I may read, including review copies (both backlist and current year), new releases, and backlist titles that have intrigued me. I have one or two review copies from last year and then the rest were this year’s holiday releases. As usual, most come out in October or November and I’m always late to read them. I definitely will be getting to all of the 2021 holiday ARCs I have though because I’m super excited for them! I usually know that I’ll only get to a couple new releases that aren’t review copies, just based on timing of reading! However, I decided to keep a bunch of them here to browse and remind myself. There are a TON of amazing holiday books – I think I’ll go ahead and request some of these from the library! I didn’t read any of the backlist copies I had on here last year, and so many keep carrying over! The two books in the right column are 2020 releases […]

Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read Yet

Posted November 11, 2021 / Book Lists, Features / 1 Comment

Yes, I have been a horrible reader this year. It’s not ACTUALLY that surprising that I haven’t read any of these because I’ve primarily read cookbooks and review copies I’ve been trying to keep on top of (not successfully). But there are a number of books I’ve been super excited for – whether it’s a new book from a favorite author, or a new series/standalone that sounds perfect for me, there are so many books I should really have made a priority to read. The Tea Dragon Tapestry // I always read these ASAP because they’re so quick and cute. The illustrations are completely adorable. Twist // I read and enjoyed LOOP (love me a time travel book) a while ago and definitely should have read book two immediately after. I haven’t been super in the mood for it unfortunately but I do hope to get to it next year! The Unexpected Everything // I do try to leave one book unread by some of my favorite authors for some weird reason, so I haven’t read this one by Matson. It’s also a HUGE book, which is a little annoying for a contemporary romance. A Week of Mondays // I love Groundhog Day-style books and this one has been on and off my “you have to read this soon” list for a long time. I even own it. It’s also kind of long, which doesn’t help. The Fallen Kingdom // This is the third and final book in a series I really loved. I’m kind […]