Category: Features

Recent Read-Bait: Reunions, Memories, and Boarding School

Posted March 16, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 15 Comments

You may remember my read-bait series from a long time ago, where I talked about certain keywords, phrases, and tropes that call my name. I planned to keep going with these posts because there are many, many topics that suck me right in. I kind of abandoned it but never fear! Here I am today to talk about recent words that have grabbed me…Please note that the “boarding school” category has kind of morphed into also including secret societies/prep schools/etc. Things like that. You know what I mean. Anyways! I’ve been adding books to my TBR that feature these three topics because of the above books. I read What Alice Forgot with Cristina for Book Buddies. I ended up enjoying it more than she did in general, but the whole memory loss issue made me really interested in finding more of these amnesia books. Second Time Around was a book I VERY randomly found somewhere and decided to check out from the library. Very glad I did! It was a cute story featuring a reunion of old friends, revealing of secrets – you know the drill. Tons of fun. Last but not least, I checked out the Hex Hall series from the library recently and wanted to binge. I love the boarding school topic! I ended up getting sidetracked and having to return books 2 and 3, but I totally plan to finish sometime soon. Recent TBR Additions From What I Remember by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas /// piecing together the night before It’s All Your […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #81: Spring TBR

Posted March 15, 2016 / TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 23 Comments

Top Books on my Spring TBR Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I love planning out my TBRs for Top Ten Tuesday because it’s something I rarely do. I’ve already given a glimpse at the books I planned to read in March [at the very bottom of the post] and later this week, I’ll be sharing some other books I’m really excited for. This TTT helps me think of what I’ll be reading between the end of March and probably end of May. (I start my summery reads ASAP in June! I can’t resist a beachy story once the weather warms up.) Wow, I digress. HERE WE GO: So my TBR this spring is a mix of a few things. I want to focus on reading a few books that are being published this spring, because they sound super cute. (I couldn’t resist sneaking Morgan Matson’s new book on here even though I feel like it’s been on every list I’ve made for 2016 so far!) I’m also definitely planning on cranking through a few ARCs I got from ALA Midwinter, because their pub dates are coming soon (if they haven’t happened already) and I’m SO BAD about reading books I get from conferences. Can we talk about the […]

Top 10 Romance Tropes and Themes

Posted March 10, 2016 / Book Challenges, Book Lists, Features / 14 Comments

As you (probably don’t) know, one goal I had when starting this blog was to feature recommendation lists for people seeking new books to read within different topics. Top Ten Tuesday kind of took over for this area for me, which is perfect, but sometimes I like to create my own. The Contemporary Romance Challenge hosts a monthly topic to partake in. Sometimes I’ll be posting these in my Bookmark Lit Bulletin posts and sometimes they’ll get their own post, depending on my blog calendar. Here’s March’s topic: Favorite Romance Tropes/Themes Books featuring some of my favorite tropes Warning! If you don’t want to be “spoiled” about what kind of romance takes place in each book, don’t read on. I only say this because there are a few below that may not be IN the synopsis, as far as the romance goes. Nantucket Blue /// summer love with the best friend’s brother The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy /// summer love with a childhood friend/beach house neighbor On the Fence /// summer love with a neighbor (also brother’s friend) Two-Way Street /// second chance while on a road trip Princess of Thorns /// slow-burn and hate-to-love while on a journey First & Then /// slow-burn and somewhat hate-to-love The One that Got Away /// second chance with a slow-ish burn Emmy & Oliver /// childhood best friend second chance when returning to hometown Second Chance Summer /// second chance during the summertime with a neighbor The Deal /// fake dating with a playing Cyrano/matchmaker situation Faking It /// fake dating with hate-to-love-ish To All […]

Adjusting My Blog Post Schedule

Posted March 9, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 22 Comments

Many moons ago, I wrote a post about my blogging schedule. At that point, I had just started up the blog and had maybe a little too much time on my hands. I was incredibly specific about when I posted certain things and making sure I had 15 book reviews up per month. This was in addition to participating in 4 memes per week and posting 2 “random” things (like recommendation lists or discussions). I’d also post sign-ups for readathons and both mid-month AND end-of-month wrap-ups. You can do the math: that means that most days of the month had 2 posts. I even said, “I really try not to bombard people with any more than 2 posts per day!” SO EXCESSIVE. I mean, I’m glad I dove into this hobby headfirst… but good lord, woman. I can’t lie though, I definitely blog a bit too much still. I love signing up for readathons, participating in tags, and writing so many posts that I’m scheduled out until next year. (Slight exaggeration, but not that much. I’m insane.) I LOVE making lists and TBRs even if I know I’m never going to follow them. I love making graphics and messing around with layouts for my posts. I CAN’T STOP. I’ve changed my organization methods SO many times and I feel like I’m finally getting used to my latest plan. Today I’ll share my new blog schedule and talk about how I organize and plan… everything.Do you have a planned schedule for your […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – February 2016

Posted February 29, 2016 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 11 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my life happenings, book haul, books I read and reviewed, posts I shared, challenge updates, and more from the previous month. I also let you know what may be coming up on the blog in the coming month. You can read past bulletins here and learn more about the feature here. I had a busy end of the month and had to read a bunch of ARCs in a row. (I love ARC tours but man, they add up quickly! Back to back to back.) I made some good progress on my reading challenges as well. Overall, enjoyed pretty much every book I read! Love when that happens. Average rating for books read in February: 4.0 stars Highlights of the best and worst… Best of the Best | Pleasantly Surprised | Disappointed All of the books read this month: Average rating for books reviewed in February: 4.07 stars Secret Sister Project My new Secret Sister sent me her first package! She chose the theme of things I love, to represent Valentine’s Day… and she nailed it! I got some Star Wars stuff (calendar and keychain), as well as some of my favorite candies (chocolate covered cherries, chocolate + raspberry truffles, and gummies). She also sent along How to Kill a Rock Star by Tiffany Debartolo, which is one of her favorites. I’ve been really looking forward to that one! I also ate so much candy immediately. Books Acquired From […]

Taking the Guesswork Out of My Book Ratings

Posted February 18, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 29 Comments

You finished the book! WOOO. Now what? You liked most of it, but there were some things that bugged you. Do you think it’s in the 3-star range or would you give it a nice 4-star? Was it as good as that OTHER book you rated 4 stars or was it worse? 3.5 feels like not enough, but 4 feels like too much. THIS IS THE WORST FEELING, especially if you then have to change your whole decision because Goodreads doesn’t even let you use half-stars. If you decide on 3.5 stars, will you round up on Goodreads because you liked it overall, or will you round down because it really doesn’t feel worthy? I deal with this all the time. I’ve previously talked about rating with your head or your heart, rating books critically, and changing ratings… so clearly this is something that plagues me. To mitigate some of the issues I have with determining a rating, I’ve developed a really easy plan when rating my books. It helps me out the vast majority of the time. I like to follow a couple of different steps if the first one doesn’t work out. There are plenty of books that I read where I just know the rating in my gut, right off the bat. When that isn’t the case, I move to step two. If that doesn’t finalize things for me, I move to step three. It’s a really easy system but it’s made my life a LOT easier.As I said, sometimes […]

Consequences of Reading Too Much

Posted February 11, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 25 Comments

I’ve complained plenty lately about how romance in books has been bugging me. I’ve been more nitpicky about what I like, what annoys me, and what feels too cliché. Even though I’ve enjoyed a lot of the romance-oriented books I’ve read in the past few months, there are elements that make me roll my eyes that never bugged me before. I haven’t read a lot of OTP-level stuff since last year. I had another post drafted about genre burnout and how if I read too many books in the same genre in a row, they blend together and/or burn me out. I need to switch to something else. While listening to my audiobook on the way to work, I started thinking about how this was yet another book where I didn’t feel like I really KNEW the characters that well. What kind of personality did they have? What got them up in the morning? Then I realized… this has been happening a LOT lately. I feel like I’m not connecting with characters. It finally kind of hit me that maybe I’m reading too much and the stories aren’t fully clicking or resonating with me. I’m missing something, getting nitpicky, and maybe even getting a bit bored. Does this happen when you read too much?For me, I’ve noticed about three distinct issues recently when I read a lot of books very quickly. For about a week out of the month of January, I read almost a book per day. I just kept getting addicted […]

Blog Tour + Giveaway | Cover Colors: Arrows

Posted February 7, 2016 / Cover Colors, Features / 8 Comments

It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with book covers. I love the colors, the typography, the different designs that cover artists can create. I even have a guest post feature where people share their favorite book covers and bookmarks! I decided to start up this random feature where I draw color inspiration from my favorite book covers. I may create an outfit, pick out some nail polish, or design a quote graphic. Today’s cover is… Arrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk I love how simple this cover is! I’m a huge fan of ANYTHING with hearts involved. It’s a super cute cover and very representative of the book inside. The Cupid vibe is just perfect. I tried to capture that with my collage below. The shirt and skirt with the bow reminded me of the cuteness and color of the cover. I just kept picturing this big read heart-shaped bag, and I’m so glad I found such a gorgeous one. I also have some matching beauty products and a cute Cupid-y phone case! The jewelry features hearts and arrows. Arrows by bookmarklit featuring a crop top Arrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk Publisher: Delacorte Press Release Date: January 26th 2016 Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Fantasy, Mythology, Retellings, Romance A modern cupid story set in present-day Wisconsin combining the fantastical elements of Greek mythology with the contemporary drama of MTV’s Teen Mom. People don’t understand love. If they did, they’d get why dance prodigy Karma Clark just can’t say goodbye to her boyfriend, Danny. No matter […]

Top 10 Authors for Romance Newbies to Start With

Posted February 4, 2016 / Book Challenges, Book Lists, Features / 6 Comments

As you (probably don’t) know, one goal I had when starting this blog was to feature recommendation lists for people seeking new books to read within different topics. Top Ten Tuesday kind of took over for this area for me, which is perfect, but sometimes I like to create my own. The Contemporary Romance Challenge hosts a monthly topic to partake in. Sometimes I’ll be posting these in my Bookmark Lit Bulletin posts and sometimes they’ll get their own post, depending on my blog calendar. More info about February’s post topic: For this month’s topic we wanted to highlight books and/or authors people could start out reading if interested in dipping their toes in contemporary romance. If you’re a newbie to the genre you could talk about which ones you’re starting out with. I’m sticking with young adult contemporary romance, because that’s kinda my thing. I’ve read multiple books by all of these authors and they’re all absolutely auto-buys for me. The links to the reviews or Goodreads pages for the books are featured below the graphics! The speech bubbles should be all the reason you need to give them a try if you’re thinking about it 😉 Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins | The Distance Between Us by Kasie West Just One Day by Gayle Forman | The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen | The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally | Second Chance […]

Organization Part Five: Goodreads

Posted February 3, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 14 Comments

Inspired by my recent organizational acquisitions (and posts by Hannah), I wanted to share some information about how I keep myself organized – primarily for blogging and reading, but also a little about my personal organization, too. Part Five: Organizing My Goodreads Shelves There have been an influx of Goodreads-related posts online lately (Brittany’s post and Bekka’s post for starters!) plus Hannah’s tried-and-true guide that I think everyone has read. Feeling inspired by these posts, I decided to include how I personally use Goodreads to keep organized. I’ve come a longggg way since I first started using the site in 2010. Hopefully some of these methods help you out too! Time for a Change When I first started using Goodreads heavily when blogging, I noticed everyone had fun shelves that they were using to remember certain things about books. They also had them split up by genre, for easy access to certain kinds of books. I think mine was super general, including just read, to-read, and currently-reading. I decided to at least add in genres so that I could keep track of what I was in the mood to read. This was a REALLY LONG PROCESS. I added all of the books I read and all of the books on my TBR to these genre shelves. I also added a few more to keep track of things further. Step One: Genres, Formats, and More I added the shelves you see on the side (thank god for old screenshots from when my Goodreads looked like […]