Category: Features

4 Star Book Love

Posted August 8, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 14 Comments
4 Star Book Love

I feel like I spend so much time highlighting my FAVORITE books, especially for TTTs and other “best of” posts, that I end up leaving out quite a few solid four star books. Four stars is a great rating. It’s probably my most common rating too, which means they all kind of blend together and never get any attention. I was thinking about Magnolia one morning for some reason and wondered why I don’t talk about how much I enjoyed that book. I started thinking about other great four star books I’ve read and enjoyed, and this post idea was born. Magnolia by Kristi Cook From my review: “I loved the build-up to the romance in this book! It’s easily one of the best hate-to-love romances I’ve ever read. Add in the storm and I’m hooked. I was rooting for them right off the bat and thought they had the best chemistry in the beginning… It was fun to read about their families and their long history together. The hurricane/tornado situation was scary, but such a great event to bring the two of them together.” Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore From my review: “All in all, this was a really good book for me. If the author meant to make the whole book feel exactly like a clichéd romantic comedy, she certainly got that message across. I loved the references to the movies that they did talk about and thought they were pretty appropriate given their situations. The promposal element was great for me since I […]

Recent Read-Bait: Fake Dating, Bucket Lists, and Family Drama

Posted August 4, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 12 Comments
Recent Read-Bait: Fake Dating, Bucket Lists, and Family Drama

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. My most recent post discussed reunions, memory loss, and boarding school. Here I am today to talk about recent words that have grabbed me… I’ve been adding books to my TBR that feature these three topics because of the above books. I recently (finally) read The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West. I waited forever because I was nervous about some of the other elements of the story. It wasn’t my favorite by her, but it definitely succeeded in getting me to add more fake dating to the TBR. Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson is a book I read back in 2014, but it got me thinking about bucket lists and other situations where the main character is checking items off some kind of list. I love that kind of thing so much because there are always so many adventures to be had! And lastly, adult fiction is generally something I don’t read as much as I want to… and I have SO many on my TBR! I’ve been loving the books about family drama or changing family dynamics lately, which started with Where We Fall by Rochelle B. Weinstein. Any kind of family going through changes or growing apart or getting divorced makes it onto my TBR very quickly. Recent TBR […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July into August 2016

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July into August 2016

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. This reading month got off to a good start, I’d say. I finished a few books really early on and kept being in the reading mood through the rest of the month. I struggled during the readathon a little because I found myself not exactly in the mood for certain books.This feeling kind of continued through the rest of the month – I read some MEH books and that impacted my reading mojo. I’m well on my way to finishing my Goodreads Challenge early! Average rating for books read in July: 3.86 stars All book covers link to their Goodreads pages  Best of the Best  •  Pleasantly Surprised  •  Disappointed    All of the books read this month: Average rating for books reviewed in July: 3.77 stars   My final Secret Sister package from Ginger was perfect. I can’t believe this round is already over! Insanity. She filled it with my favorite snacks (Oreos, Sour Patch Watermelons, Junior Mints), two books I’ve been super excited for, bookmarks, and some cute sticky notes/paper. I’ve loved receiving her thoughtful packages because she always seemed to intuitively know when […]

Top 10 Most Anticipated Romances for the Second Half of 2016

Posted July 30, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 11 Comments
Top 10 Most Anticipated Romances for the Second Half of 2016

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. Past topics this year:  Anticipated Early ’16 Romances • Recs for Newbies • Favorite Tropes • Favorite Contemp Romances Ever • Underrated Romances Here’s July’s topic: Anticipated Romances through the EOY I love sharing a few sentences straight from the synopsis to really show you why this book made it on my list. Sometimes certain parts of the book summaries just go right to my heart and insist I add the book to my TBR right away. Kind of like my read-bait! Enjoy the shippy goodness below. A Week of Mondays by Jessica Brody “So when she wakes up the next morning to find she’s reliving the exact same day, she knows what she has to do: stop her boyfriend from breaking up with her.”  → Groundhog Day/Before I Fall kind of deal that I LOVE Cherry by Lindsey Rosin “Four best friends make a pact during their senior year of high school to lose their virginities—and end up finding friendship, love, and self-discovery along the way.” → I can smell the sex-positivity from a mile away Game On by Michelle Smith “But when he needs a way to stay on the team, she proposes a plan: […]

Totally Should Have Book Tag

Totally Should Have Book Tag

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a book tag! Dang. I used to love these. This one seemed fun so I tagged myself. I’ve seen this Totally Should Have Book Tag around the blogosphere here and here, which is where I found it. It was originally created by Emma Books on Youtube. A book that totally should’ve had a sequel. From what I understood about The Heiresses by Sara Shepard is that when it was released, there is/was supposed to be a sequel. It looks like there won’t be one now? There’s no evidence of one anywhere and the book was released a couple of years ago. The author has avoided questions about it on Twitter (believe me, I’ve searched), so I think it wasn’t ordered maybe? BUT I NEED MORE. PLEASE LET THERE BE MORE. Update: after some further investigating, it looks like she’s answered the question somewhere online that it’ll be a standalone but she’d like to make a follow-up. PLEASE. Thanks. A book or series that totally should’ve had a spin-off. I’m probably going to sound like every person who did this tag, but obviously Harry Potter series by JK Rowling! I think we all would love something about the Marauders or about Harry’s kids. (I guess one of these is kind of coming with The Cursed Child play-being-published-as-a-book.) I would love to read more about Harry’s father, Lupin, and Sirius. This is the biggest request from everyone. An author that should totally write more books. I loved the long-ass series The […]

Must Read in 2016 Halfway Point (Link-Up + Giveaway)

Posted July 23, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments
Must Read in 2016 Halfway Point (Link-Up + Giveaway)

Do you ever look at a book and think “HOW have I not read this yet?!” I created a link-up for 2016 where you challenge yourself to make a list of those books and then read them, instead of sitting around and waiting for the next year to come and go again. These could be books you’re super excited about and somehow never read (and maybe you even preordered them!). I dubbed this challenge/link-up the Must Read in 2016 Challenge, and a few of you decided to join me! I said that we’d check in around the halfway point in the year just to say “oh shit I forgot about this!” and hopefully use it as motivation to READ. THOSE. BOOKS. I welcome you to join in for the 2nd half of the year! The linky is available for you to post your TBRs and the Rafflecopter is available to enter into the giveaway. That’s really all you have to do. Sometimes making a TBR post alone is enough to get me to read the damn books. I’ve edited the “rules” a little bit so they make more sense, now that half of the year has passed us by already somehow. So here’s what you can do if you’re interested in joining in still: 1. Write a blog post or create a Goodreads shelf that shows what books you were HYPED for in 2015 or early 2016 but somehow never got around to. It doesn’t have to be 2015 or 2016 releases – just any […]

A Half-Assed Series Binger

Posted July 22, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 18 Comments
A Half-Assed Series Binger

I love declaring that I’m going to binge a book series and then abandoning it halfway through. Not usually for lack of interest or anything, but just other books popping up and getting in the way! I make these grand plans and create my binge-filled review posts, then they sit in drafts forever because I don’t ACTUALLY binge the series. This has happened in more ways than I can count – physical book binges, audiobook binges, fantasy books, contemporary books, super-long series, super-short series, and everything in between. Unsuccessful Binges Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas Started: June 2016 /// Books read so far: 2 I randomly pressed play on the audiobook one morning and blitzed through book one, then moved on to the novella book afterwards. I don’t remember why I lost steam, but I remember just wanting to switch to a lighter audiobook afterwards. I definitely plan to get going on this one again really soon, but it’s not exactly the binge I had in mind. I have a review post drafted for the first three books and then will post one for the next three books in September, when Empire of Storms comes out. Then, I’ll read the final book with everyone else the following year! The Islanders series by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant Started: June 2016 /// Books read so far: 1 I brought this one along on vacation with me and it took surprisingly long to read. It was honestly not super engaging for me, but […]

Reading & Rereading Harry Potter | Potterhead July

Posted July 21, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 19 Comments
Reading & Rereading Harry Potter | Potterhead July

When Aentee from Read at Midnight posted about Potterhead July, I knew I had to sign up. The main premise is essentially a blog hop with a bunch of Harry Potter-related topics throughout the month. I knew that I needed to discuss my Harry Potter reading and rereading experiences, since it’s something that will absolutely always be near and dear to my heart. Without further ado, here are my stories! Reading for the first time As a kid, I went to Cape Cod every summer for an expanse of maybe 10 years. We’d usually meet up with my mom’s best friend and her family for a few days within the week we were there. One of their daughters, who was a few years older than me, had brought along Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It had just been released the previous month and she started reading it aloud to us before bed. I had always been a reader so this story immediately captivated me and I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I was trying to sleep. Once we got home from the vacation, I made my mom call up her friend and find out what book that was. We immediately went to the bookstore and picked up the first book. It took me a while to finally sit down and read it for some reason… but I was hooked once I did, of course! Later that year (1999), I got both Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban for Christmas. I immediately continued […]

Audiobook Favorites

Posted July 15, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 17 Comments
Audiobook Favorites

I listen to a lot of audiobooks – usually about 3 or 4 a month, depending on their length. Oddly enough, I don’t really review or rate the audiobook element in my book reviews. I focus on the same things (plot, characters, pacing, etc.) and only mention the narration if it was BAD. I love when people share more information about the audiobooks specifically, so I’m not sure why I don’t. Hence the reason for today’s post! I want to share some of my favorite audiobooks and audio narrators that I’ve read since I started listening to audiobooks a couple of years ago. Tried-and-True Favorites Julia Whelan I’ve listened to the most audiobooks by Julia Whelan – with good reason! She’s done a great job with Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, in my opinion. I’ve listened to half of One True Loves and all of After I Do as audiobooks. She also narrated Tease and Of Beast and Beauty, which I generally enjoyed too. The only thing I don’t really like about her is her “male voice” impression. It sounds weirdly breathy or something. Tim Curry THE BEST. Second to only another guy on this list. I looooved his narration for the Series of Unfortunate Events. I did my whole reread of this series via audio. Some of the books were narrated by “Lemony Snicket” and most were done by Tim Curry. He was absolutely amazing and I loved every millisecond. Even Carmalita Spats. Will Patton I tried really hard to read this […]