New-to-Me Authors from 2018 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 read 120 books in 2018, while managing to read 104 different authors. That’s not a lot of repeats! I read so many great books throughout the year and was introduced to a lot of authors I need more books from ASAP. Here are some author highlights from 2018.

Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2019 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 honestly feel like this is one of the few times I’ve really thought ahead to 2019! I looked a little bit when I prepared my winter TBR for bingo, but I didn’t go beyond February (or review copes I have publishing later). It was fun to check out my “TBR-unreleased” shelf. Without further ado, here are some of the top releases I’m excited about in the first half of the year! [I am typically not including books I already have ARCs for because I can technically read them whenever, but some I’m REALLY pumped for may appear.] January February March April May June

Best Books I Read in 2018 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 talked about my lack of 5-star reads recently, but this is a good place to also recap the OTHER great books of the year. I’ll be looking at the top favorites as well as plenty of 4.5 star stories here today. 5 Stars 4.5 Stars      

My Christmas Wishlists 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. The original topic was BOOKS I hoped to find under my tree this morning, but I asked for shockingly few of them. I thought I’d highlight some of the items on my wishlists this year. I have one for my mom/stepdad and one for my dad/stepmom, but broke everything down by category. Also, don’t judge me for the amount of things on this list. First of all, my parents like a lot of options so I don’t know exactly everything I’ll be getting and they can choose what they think is most fun/interesting. Second of all, these lists/items make their way to four different parents, who also share with grandparents. [All of the images came from Amazon but I am way to lazy to link everything – comment below if you’re curious about something!] Books / Planner Happy Planner budget insert for my new planner, plus a Happy Planner sticker book with basic icons | Sightwitch by Susan Dennard | Hand lettering book so I can finally learn some more modern calligraphy | I’ll Be There for You by Kelsie Miller (my mom, the Friends lover, will totally get this!) | Cravings (both books) by […]

Winter (Bingo) TBR 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. What a perfect place to share my ideal bingo TBR for the new Winter Bingo card over at Pretty Deadly Reviews. As you saw in my recent Bookmark Lit Bulletin, I managed to fill out the Fall Bingo card fully except for two boxes. As usual, there are many holiday reads to fill the wintery spaces, and this bingo card also continues into January/February. Here are my ideas along with some of the books I’ve already read for the card. Already Completed / Currently Reading    Features technology: The Towering Sky by Katharine McGee I was hoping to finish this audiobook in November but I wasn’t able to do so in time. It was 13+ hours long and I have a lot of podcasts to listen to or Hallmark movies to watch while I get ready in the morning! I was able to finish this one up in early December though. Technology is super involved here, as the book takes place in the distant future and everyone lives in a tower with 1,000 floors… Blue cover: The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory I randomly decided to start this one on December 1st because somehow – […]

Top Series I Need to Finish 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. Today’s freebie topic is going to be about some book series I need to finish! There’s usually no in-between for me: I’ll binge-read a series within a short amount of time, or take forever to finish (even if all of the books are released). My goal is definitely to finish off some series next year, so I thought I would make this post to remind myself! Books pictured are the ones I still need to read. Hope’s Crossing Series I kept putting this one off because I wanted to read one per month, allowing the holiday book to be read in December. I ended up messing this up and avoiding the timing I was hoping for, so now (because I’m annoying about reading holiday books only in the winter) I will probably not start this remainder of this series until September 2019… or just read the next three books and wait for the final two later in the year? I’m the worst. Dark Star Trilogy I enjoyed the first book here even though it was definitely out of my comfort zone? These are superhero-ish books from before that genre became […]

Cozy Winter/Holiday 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. I’m the queen of holiday reading, as you probably can see from my two-month-long holiday celebration each year on the blog! I’ve given general recommendations of favorite holiday books before but thought I would REALLY lean in on the “cozy winter” theme here. Yes, there will be plenty of holidays involved, but all of these books will be cozy and snowy at the very least.     Jenny Hale’s Books ICYMI – there’s a read-a-long happening right now! They’re the epitome of cozy, somewhat cheesy, holiday romances. I always read my annual Jenny Hale book the week of Christmas because they give me the very most Christmassy feels. There’s always snow, a grumpy leading man, family feels, and lots of gorgeously described decorations. Bonus information: COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS is also a Hallmark movie! Snowed In Trope   I love books where the main characters are snowed in together and ~love happens~ in the meantime. The first two books above were pretty good, quick reads, but nothing major to write home about. SNOWFALL ON HAVEN POINT is one in a series I LOVE that has season-based reads. It alternates between summer and winter stories, so […]

Favorite Platonic Relationships in Books 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. Today’s post shares some of my favorite platonic relationships in books I’ve recently read. I decided to split this out to share a few friend groups and relationships I loved, as well as ones with great family feels. Friendship Intercepted: hard-to-find real friends in a circle of NFL wives/girlfriends In Other Lands: friends that feel like family, making each other better Unclaimed Baggage: very different personalities growing close through work Top Ten: strong friendship with hints of more – based on top ten friendship moments Foolish Hearts: inside jokes, banter, online gamers and theater kids Family The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats/Piracy: sibling relationship work-in-progress The Kiss Quotient: very strong family relationships on the lead male’s side The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls: four sisters growing up and learning about themselves Love & Luck: overall family feels, repairing a brother-sister relationship Save the Date: big family over a wedding weekend, learning to cope with change

Books Read in 2018 that I’m Thankful For 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 always feel a little lost and/or overwhelmed when I prep this yearly Thanksgiving post. I think it’s because I always feel repetitive when I talk about books or blogs or people/bloggers I’m thankful for. This list could look the same every year. I’m going to focus on all the books I’m thankful that I read this year for various reasons. Thank you for… adding variety to my usual genres Most of the books I read are young adult fiction, and most of THOSE are contemporary. Sometimes I mix in paranormal, fantasy, historical, etc….but this year I was all about the adult fiction! This took a few different forms too, because I tend to read a lot of adult romance/contemporary anyways. I listened to wonderful audiobook memoirs of two black comedians/actresses that I love and admire. I listened to a true crime book instead of just podcasts. I binge-read an adult mystery series that sometimes frustrated me but usually kept me addicted. All of these books above definitely expanded my reading horizons in 2018. Thank you for… living up to my high expectations or hype I built […]

Bookish Items / Merchandise 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 don’t acquire a lot of bookish merch, if I’m being honest! I’ve tried to buy less and less THINGS over the past few years (I’ve moved so much since high school that I’m so tired of lugging items everywhere I go!). The two bookish things I like to collect the most are candles and bookmarks, so here are some of those (and more). Some items below are specifically on my wishlist while others are just favorites in general – I’ll mark them so you know. All photos are credited to the original websites/shops or were taken by me if noted. Favorite Novelly Yours Candles Full disclosure: I am incredibly picky about candles. Most are too sweet for me and give me a headache, but I knooow I can count on a few specific scents to work perfectly. Usually they involve apple, but not always. Brittany’s candles are some of the BEST out there and I have a couple of go-to scents. I thinkkkk Winter is still my favorite here because it’s the most apple-y of them all, but the close second is probably Brave. I love the pumpkin pie scent mixed in! Cabeswater is […]