Category: Features

Authors I Keep Adding to my TBR that I STILL Haven’t Read (Part 1)

Posted May 28, 2018 / Book Lists, Features / 4 Comments

I can’t be the only one who does this, right?! There are so many authors out there that keep writing books that sound AMAZING, so I add them to my TBR… and then never actually read those books. There are some authors on this list where their DEBUT was right up my alley, I was so pumped, and then never got to it… and now they have five books out and I keep adding them to my overflowing TBR list and still haven’t even read their first story. Here are some of those books and authors… even just to remind myself they exist and I NEED TO READ THEM. Stephanie Kate Strohm This was the author that inspired this list because GOD her books sound soo wonderful and adorable, yet I have yet to read one. She just keeps announcing more and more excellent books and here I am, still waiting to read PRINCE IN DISGUISE sometime in this century. Jen Wilde Wilde writes a good amount of books involving music and movies, which sometimes work for me… but not all the time. I think that’s why I’ve hesitated on her works? The synopses sound so great overall though, so I keep adding them and adding them! Kara Thomas I don’t read a lot of darker books and I think Thomas’s new releases always scare me a little bit. I’m never fully turned off because clearly I add them to my TBR and continue to find them intriguing, but I […]

Gimme the Books (3)

Posted May 24, 2018 / Features, Gimme the Books / 6 Comments

I’ve written a few posts to talk about books I’m super excited about that haven’t been released yet, but I felt like adding to that title repeatedly like I had been doing was a bit much. See early posts here: 1, 2, and 3. I decided to make this into a realistic regular feature where I do kind of a Waiting on Wednesday wrap-up post for when I add books to my TBR and “jazzed up for this” Goodreads shelf. Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen McManus Pub date: February 5th 2019 Synopsis: Ellery Corcoran has never been to Echo Ridge, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen, and five years ago the town became notorious when its Homecoming Queen was killed. Now Ellery has to move there with a grandmother she barely knows. Malcolm Kelly grew up in the shadow of the Homecoming Queen’s death, his older brother the prime suspect. His mother’s remarriage vaults the Kellys into Echo Ridge’s upper crust—but nobody has forgotten what Malcolm’s brother might have done. The town looks picture perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. Before senior year even begins, someone’s declared open season on Homecoming. They’ve promised to make the dance as dangerous as it was five years ago. And, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing. Ellery and Malcolm, the last people to see her, are on a hunt for the truth. But the thing is, secrets are dangerous—and knowing them can be the most […]

Lauren Lately | May 2018

Posted May 16, 2018 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 6 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ This has been a crazier month than usual, my friends. I’ve done a lot things and traveled to many places between the end of April and beginning of May! Here’s a big ol recap: Week 1: Hikes, Makeup, and Food The weather started warming up again and we tried to get out as much as possible for a little while… before our crazy few months started up! We went to Mackworth Island for our favorite local hike. We need to keep getting out there but it’s been tough! I started to get heavily into makeup and beauty things again, as evidenced by many of my recent posts/sections. I’ve spent a lot of money on it lately and I MUST BE STOPPED. Week 2: Home in Connecticut (Lots of Celebrations) My sister and mom have the same birthday, which happened to fall the same weekend as my cousin’s bridal shower in Connecticut, so it […]

Bout of Books 22 | Tracking and Challenges

Posted May 14, 2018 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 14th and runs through Sunday, May 20th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 22 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Bout of Books is underway! The nice thing is that I stay up pretty late, so starting at midnight I was able to get some reading time in 😉 In my sign-up post, I shared my goals and TBR list. Quick recap: I want to get ahead on my Goodreads goal by the end of the week, read 4-5 books, and to alternate between physical and ebooks to maintain the 1:1 ratio this month. My TBR definitely has an equal mix of my physical TBR and egalleys publishing throughout the month. Tracking Monday May 14th Currently reading: Herons Landing Tuesday May 15th Currently reading: Herons Landing Wednesday May 16th Finished reading: Herons Landing Started and finished reading: Home to Honeymoon Harbor Started reading: Shuffle, Repeat Thursday May 17th Friday May 18th Saturday May 19th Sunday May 20th Books read so far: 2 0 owned physical copies | 1 egalleys | 1 non-TBR books Challenges Daily challenges that I want to participate in will be below!

Blog Tour | Cover Colors: Love & Luck

Posted May 10, 2018 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 2 Comments

More purchase links: Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound | iBooks I’m excited to be another stop on the blog tour for LOVE & LUCK! Any book involving international travel makes it high on my TBR because I love learning about other countries. I haven’t been outside of the US yet (anywhere!!) so these books give me ideas about where I may want to take my first trip someday. This story is about Addie, a girl who travels to Ireland with her family for her aunt’s destination wedding. The book opens with her and her brother falling down a hill and getting muddy while in their wedding party attire. It’s definitely not a good look. For me, the most fun aspect of the story was the guidebook, Ireland for the Heartbroken, that is featured throughout. Addie finds it in the library before the trip and uses it to guide her travels around the country. I really had a wonderful reading experience with this one. I love road trip books and I don’t know if I’ve read one set internationally before! The family feels were super strong and the main character was a lot better than her best friend was in the previous book. There was a little bit of every emotion throughout the story and I really love the journey that they all went on. I genuinely cried AND laughed out loud. There were so many moments that could have been corny but somehow they just worked in the story felt deeper as a […]

Groundhog Day Fiction

Posted May 7, 2018 / Book Lists, Features / 6 Comments

One of my biggest read-bait keywords/phrases in a book synopsis is the Groundhog Day scenario – the Bill Murray movie where he relives the same day over and over again, trying to figure out how to escape. I love books involving time loops and alternate universes, and I definitely view this as a subsection of that “genre.” Countless YA books and other fictional stories have centered around this plotline as a “retelling” of sorts, and I’m here today to chat about them! Tried & True Favorite The book that started it all for me is obviously Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. A mean girl dies in a car accident but keeps waking up the next morning to relive the day over again. She tries to right her wrongs and figure out what it will take to break out of this loop, so she can move on to the afterlife in peace. I loved every single element of this book and Lauren Oliver’s writing. It remains a favorite even after rereading it last year and ‘m so glad it held up for me. I loved seeing how she lived each day a little differently, taking advantage of this “extra time” by doing things she normally wouldn’t do. She got all sorts of things out of her system, that’s for sure! It definitely was reminiscent of the movie version because it involves a “bad person” learning from their mistakes and hopefully making amends for things they’ve done wrong. The fact that […]

Bout of Books 22 | Sign-Up, Goals, and TBR

Posted May 4, 2018 / Book Challenges, Features / 3 Comments

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 14th and runs through Sunday, May 20th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 22 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team I’m here for what feels like my millionth round of Bout of Books! I feel like I say this every time, but I definitely need this week of reading. I wanted to participate in the Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon a couple of weeks ago but ended up having a friend come to visit instead. This round of Bout of Books is going to help me boost up my totals so I can prepare for a busy late June/early July. I have so many things to do, between weddings and moving and traveling across the country, so I’m not sure how much I’ll read. I’m sure I will on those flights to and from California but I didn’t want to bank on it. In any case! I have big goals for this week. Goals The biggest goal that I can’t really put numbers to is to get ahead on my Goodreads goal by at least a few books. I’m hoping for it to say somewhere between 3-5 books ahead […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | April 2018

Posted May 2, 2018 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 6 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. Another weird reading month! I’ve been going through these phases where I’ll barely read anything for multiple days, then pick up a book or two and finish them in one day/sitting. It’s very weird. I know this is partly because I got addicted to a few things… primarily watching beauty videos on YouTube. With Wrestlemania weekend happening, there were so many wrestling podcast episodes to listen to that my audio listening was weird. I did listen to bits and pieces of three this month (which is huge considering how few I’ve been listening to). I’m in the middle of an audiobook now and have a loooot of driving, commuting, and taking-a-train-into-NYC to do over this weekend. Hopefully May gets a good jump-start and this is the last slow reading month for a while! All of the books read this month: Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge 2 read this month | 12 read total | 71% NG ratio Popsugar Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 24 read total | 60% complete Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge 0 read this month | […]

May TBR

Posted April 30, 2018 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 3 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 Progress April was a shitty reading month overall but I managed to get some books off my TBR. I was struggling to find the desire to read for most of the month, and got super wrapped up in all things wrestling or beauty YouTube. Oh well. It’s nice to find time for other hobbies but as usual, I need BALANCE dude. On Deck for May Books with Due Dates May 10th | Blog Tour | Love & Luck by Welch May 31st | Book Club | Ghostly Echoes by Ritter I recently joined the blog tour for LOVE & LUCK. I enjoyed Welch’s writing style when I tried to read LOVE & GELATO but didn’t like the main character, so I’m excited to give another one of her books a try! I also have book club’s May pick (which we are squeaking in literally in the last day of May) to continue our read of the JACKABY series. May Egalleys A Date with Darcy by Schmidt | August and Everything After by Doktorski Valley Girls by Lemon | From Twinkle, With Love by Menon | Furyborn by Legrand I […]

Love, Simon Book Tag

Posted April 25, 2018 / Book Tags, Features / 5 Comments

I was tagged by Madalyn after basically bothering her twice to tag me in it. Whoops? I’m SO EXCITED because this book and movie are woooonderful. Need to read/watch again for sure. My sister and I saw it as soon as we could (when I was back in town) and swooned nonstop! “I like your boots” | Talk about a cringey book romance If I Fix You by Abigail Johnson This one was tough because there are a few ways to take this. The lighter one is just that the romance was sooo cheesy that it made me cringe. The second, heavier way would be to focus on a problematic romance that made cringe. I decided to go with a book that, to me, featured a little bit of both. There were two romantic prospects that were problematic in various ways, plus the level of cheesiness in the romance plots made me cringe constantly. No thank you to 90% of this book. Liberal University | Shout out your favorite diverse book The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord So the reason I’m specifically calling this book out is because it somewhat changed my opinion on religion in some ways? I am very much not a religious person, was raised with the complete opposite belief system from both of my parents, and have tended to be slightly judgmental on that front in the past. I don’t like books involving religion for a litany of reasons, but this was wonderful. […]