Frequently Used Words in my Recent Reads Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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. This topic reminds of me of the Book Title Buzzwords that Brittany posts on her blog! These posts are really fun because I’ve definitely noticed trends in book titles, depending on what’s hot in a specific genre. I didn’t want to duplicate hers too much, but there are quite a few popular words out there to choose from! I decided to look through the books I’ve read in recent years and pull from there. Most are in the 2017-8 timeframe but I tossed in good ones from previous years too. Truth and Lies Truth | True | Truly | Lies | Lying | Secret I love reading books about some kind of secret, whether that means a secret society, some kind of criminal activity, hiding things from others… the list goes on. These books have some words in the titles about telling the truth or telling lies. All Things Love Heart(s) | Getting Lucky | Love | Kiss | Kissing | Together No surprise that this category has so many books to share! I’m looking at all things love here – the word itself, plus plenty that goes […]

Freebie: Seasonal Covers & Book Looks Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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. Freebies are always so fun… until I realize I have zero good ideas! I naturally gravitate toward book cover posts because they’re my very favorite. I decided for this freebie to do a seasonal book cover topic that shows off a few books that remind me of each season, and a book look based on one of them. It’s completely based on the cover, not the inside (sometimes), so I can’t speak to the book itself. Most covers are for books publishing in 2018. Winter Covers      Spring Covers    Summer Covers    Autumn Covers   

Books I Loved that I’ll Never Reread Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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. This is probably more up my alley than books I’d reread forever! I’m not the biggest rereader in general and there are some books that, even though I loved them, I don’t think I could bring myself to reread. Most of these below have to do with how freaking sad I was when reading them or finishing (because of the topics themselves) and have nothing to do with the quality of the book. These all hit me pretty hard while reading and I’m not sure I could put myself through it again!     The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins | This isn’t for the same reason as many of these on here, but I just… don’t LOVE this series as much as everyone else? I loved them at the time and highly enjoyed the movies, but my excitement about this series is over. All of the fun and hype went away and I find myself feeling more “meh” on it than ever wanting to reread. Come Away with Me by Karma Brown | This was such a powerful, heartbreaking, and even twisty book. I think rereading it wouldn’t leave me […]

Characters I Liked… From Books I Didn’t Love Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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. Dang, this is a tough one! I feel like the main reasons I dislike books are because I don’t love the characters or can’t relate to them. However, there are definitely a few books that come to mind where I didn’t love the plot, premise, or writing style, but enjoyed the characters. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway Character: Audrey For whatever reason, this book didn’t fully click with me. I absolutely loved Audrey and her friends though. I said in my review that “the characters were fun and EXTREMELY well developed” but I remember thinking that the plot was slow-moving and the humor was too forced sometimes. It annoyed me that a major plot point listed in the synopsis didn’t happen until much later in the book. I hate when things are spoiled for no reason; I sat there waiting for it to happen for the entire book when it could have been a “twist” or something unexpected. However, in hindsight, I would recommend this book to people who like funny books with great characters… but this was only a 3.5 star read for me. Just a Girl […]

Books on my TBR That Take Place in Another Country Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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. This is something I’m always interested in because I have yet to travel outside of the continental United States. The farthest I’ve gone is actually to Florida (and Chicago, I guess, in a different direction). I’ve only been on a plane a few times too. I love reading books that feature international travel because I’m inspired by places I plan to go someday. I even have a Goodreads shelf to help track these books! I decided to feature books on my TBR instead of books I’ve already read. All-Around European Trip   The Summer of Us by Ceclia Vinesse | “American expat Aubrey has only two weeks left in Europe before she leaves for college […] She and her best friend, Rae, have planned one last group trip across the continent. From Paris to Prague, they’re going to explore famous museums, sip champagne in fancy restaurants, and eat as many croissants as possible with their friends Clara, Jonah, and Gabe.” I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski | “Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and half weeks traveling […]

Ten Books that Surprised Me Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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 like this topic because books can always be a surprise in one way or another. I have two Goodreads shelves for exactly this – books that were a pleasant surprise and books that were super disappointing (aka an unpleasant surprise after I was excited about them). I decided to share the five most recent books that surprised me in a good way and the five that surprised me in a bad way, thanks to my anal retentiveness on Goodreads. (I knew things like this would come in handy for TTT!). Five Pleasant Surprises    War of the Cards by Colleen Oakes | I didn’t love this series, but the third book was easily the best one. I was always intrigued at the end of them because there were some cliffhangers, and honestly thought about this series a lot when I wasn’t reading it… but none of them were favorites. The final book was the best one and a very pleasant surprise (even though it wasn’t great). There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins | I didn’t expect to enjoy this one for a few reasons. Most of the early reviews seemed […]

Favorite Book Quotes Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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’ve talked about favorite quotes quite a bit recently and frankly I’ve been terrible about recording new favorites in the last few years. Here are links to fave quotes from 2015, some all-time favorites, and favorite love and friendship ones. You’ll definitely see repeats down below… sorry! Review here Review here   Goodreads here   Goodreads here Review here Review here Review here

Books I Could Reread Forever AKA Books I’d Actually Reread More than Once Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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’m not the biggest rereader out there, even though I’d like to be better about it. I made posts in 2017 and 2018 to highlight some books I wanted to reread in those years. I was able to reread the Gemma Doyle trilogy as I planned, as well as Along for the Ride. Sadly, I didn’t get around to any others on my list – the other two Dessen books, the Looking Glass Wars series, or the Anna/Lola/Isla companions. I included Looking Glass Wars on my 2018 post but apparently forgot about the rest. The point of all this is to say that the topic of books I could reread forever really is just a list of books I could actually see myself rereading more than once. There will be duplicates based on some of the stuff I just discussed. Harry Potter Series Frankly the only book series I could see myself revisiting for the rest of my life would be HARRY POTTER. I don’t think I’d get tired of the stories and especially the audiobooks. I love the story in that form and […]