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 […]

Lots o’ Backlist Books I Own & Need to Read 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 am the actual worst when it comes to reading owned physical copies. I wish I had the money back that I spent on SO many books, especially the ones that I got rid of before I moved last year. I’m a sucker for sales and will inevitably buy something I’m not 100% sure I’ll ever read… but then spend weeks hemming and hawing about buying physical copies of from my favorite authors. I DIGRESS, but the point is: I’m terrible about reading my books. There are so many backlist books on my TBR/shelves that I need and want to read still, so I thought I’d highlight them with pics of my actual shelves too! Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo I liked SOC quite a bit but keep putting off CK for some reason. I think it’s because I’m not prepared for the feels, but it also probably involves me not really being in the mood yet to re-listen to SOC via audio first. I determined I really want to but haven’t found the motivation yet. The Diviners series by Libba Bray The Gemma Doyle books are […]

Halloween Over the Years & Some Favorites 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 can’t lie, I’m not really a Halloween person. There are a lot of movies I like to watch each year and think dressing up can be fun, but I’m not really a Halloween-ish reader or fan of super scary movies. I thought I would do a little round-up of Halloween-related posts I’ve done and highlight some spooky-ish favorites from over the years. Guest Posts for Fortnight of Fright I’ve participated in Fortnight of Fright multiple times since I started blogging and had the pleasure of posting on the blogs of all three hostesses 😉 I’ve talked about less spooky Halloween media that I love, as well as my birthday trip to Salem from last year. 2014: Halloween Movies & Shows on Tripping Over Books 2015: Less Creepy Halloween at Books Take You Places 2017: Birthday Trip to Salem, MA at Book Addict’s Guide    Top Ten Tuesdays You can always count on a TTT post to highlight Halloween near the end of October! Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve done some fun Halloween-related posts over the years. Here are some highlights… Books/Movies to Read/Watch for […]

Fascinating & Complex Villains 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 originally wasn’t even going to do this topic because honestly I’m not REALLY one to love villains, care about them, read books from their POVs, etc… I decided to instead take the plunge and talk about some of the most fascinating villains overall: the ones I love to hate, the ones I hate that I love, the most intriguing ones – you name it. The last time we had this topic, I did “villain superlatives” and also listed ~punchable~ characters (not villains, just annoying people!). Here are some of the most intriguing villains I’ve read about… The Darkling from the Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo Catherine from Heartless by Marissa Meyer Dinah from the Queen of Hearts Saga by Colleen Oakes AIDAN from the Illuminae trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Levana from the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer Ignifex from Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge Basically everyone from The Cruel Prince by Holly Black Lirael from The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett   The Descendants (Mal, Jay, Evie, Carlos) from The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz Legend from the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber

Favorite Bookstores I’ve Visited 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 technical topic for this week is “bookstores and libraries I’ve always wanted to visit” but honestly I don’t have many on that particular list. I do a lot of adventuring to used/indie bookstores whenever I can, so I’ve seen some great ones up in the northeast. Here are some highlights from those visits! New York The Strand I feel like I have to start my list with one of the most famous bookstores available, especially in the northeast! The Strand does live up to the hype for me. I’ve been there multiple times and they always have a vast selection. I apologize for these garbage pictures – I haven’t been in a few years and for some reason haven’t taken many photos there. Massachusetts Montague Book Mill This is such a scenic spot in Mass! I love the country roads and the fact that this mill is basically hidden in the middle of nowhere. It was the kind of used bookstore you may not really find what you want, but it’s so worth checking out. You can read about our bookish adventures in the country from way back in 2014 […]