Books I Can’t Believe I 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 wish I was better about reading books outside of my comfort zone. I stick to a heavy rotation of contemporary YA fiction, with a bit of fantasy, paranormal, “adult” fiction, and mystery/thriller thrown in. But, as you can tell from my chart here, I read more than 50% contemporary books. This list is going to consist of some of the books I “can’t believe I read” because they’re so far out of my comfort zone. I would consider those books to be adult mystery/thriller (or really anything adult non-contemporary), mystery/thriller books that are horror-ish, historical fiction without a lot of magic, dystopias (underhyped ones at least), and some paranormal-y romance books. So, you’ll see below that most of the books featured today fall under those categories.    I can’t believe I read A Madness So Discreet because it’s a little more psychological/horror-almost? And it was historical fiction?? There’s almost nothing about this book that screams Lauren but I ended up totally loving it. This book was the ultimate random read that lead to a pleasant surprise. I can’t believe I read (and loved) The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue for somewhat similar […]

Books I Really Liked from My First Year of Blogging (That I Can’t Really Remember) 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 may as well make this list featuring every single book I read. I am so terrible about remembering books, even if I finished them an hour earlier. (This is a major reason I write my reviews within the same hour of finishing the book!). I have to say though, I’m usually pretty good about remembering my FAVORITE books. I decided to make a tiny spin on the topic and specifically focus on books from 2014, my first year of blogging. Without further ado, here are some books I really enjoyed from 2014 that I can’t really remember anymore. Adult Fiction     Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan | I enjoyed this book a lot, even though it’s definitely one of those random books  from 2014 that were ~out of my comfort zone.~ I read it for a local book club I joined for like two months and found it really interesting. I don’t remember nearly anything about it though… The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson | The only thing I remember about this book is that it centered around a […]

Bookish Resolutions/Goals 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 already posted about my resolutions because I was trying to get ahead of the game, but here’s a very quick recap. (I’m also only including book and blogging resolutions; the post has more personal ones as well.) I’ll be using this post to share some other small bookish goals that I plan to conquer in 2018, which also includes a little bit of spinning off from the resolutions/challenges I signed up for. Official Reading Resolutions Read more here! Continue to not feel pressured to read and enjoy other hobbies Read 50% or less contemporary novels Read books from my shelves – at least one each month but a total 20+ in 2018 Start and complete 3 series next year – at least one reread Develop a blog schedule for each week that mixes in bookish and personal Develop a review system Other General and Challenge-Related Goals Get my Netgalley ratio to 80% and master Edelweiss. I signed up for the Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge to meet this specific goal. I want to focus on reading review books, even trying the ones I’m not as interested in reading anymore. Even if it leads to […]

Ten Books I Meant to Read in 2017 But Didn’t Get To (and Plan to Get to 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 could probably list all of the books on my TBR because good lord, Lauren. I feel like I always get sidetracked about random new books or series instead of ever paying attention to books I’m excited about. I actually own ALL of these freaking books except for the last one, which I have repeatedly checked out from the library and not read. I am the worst. 2018 Priorities    Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl /// A Week of Mondays by Jessica Brody The Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May     The Cursed Queen by Sarah Fine /// Windwitch by Susan Dennard By Your Side by Kasie West /// In This Moment by Karma Brown    If Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak // Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu Far From the Tree by Robin Benway  

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors Read in 2017 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 a lot of great books by “new to me” authors this year but decided to really narrow it down to ten! I loved all of these books and can absolutely see myself buying MANY more by them. Some were debut authors and some are more established, but they were all new to Lauren in 2017! Ashley Poston / Sandhya Menon / Alexandra Ballard    Wendy Brant / Angie Thomas / Julie Israel / Kristan Higgins   Jared Reck / Mackenzi Lee / Karen M. McManus

Eighteen Books I’m Looking Forward to 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 decided to use this as 2018 releases I can’t wait for because of course there are WAY TOO MANY OF THEM. I could have focused on books I’ve put off reading until 2018, but I think that topic is coming up soon on TTT. Without further ado, here are some of my top anticipated releases for 2018 (organized by release month). I only chose books with actual release dates planned AND ones with cover art (otherwise this list could have gotten even MORE out of hand, folks.) January     Together at Midnight by Jennifer Castle | New Years story with random acts of kindness The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory | Fake wedding dates fall for each other Love & Other Train Wrecks by Leah Konen | 24 hour romance stuck on a train in the snow Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke | Big Brother-like reality show for students February and March    All We Can Do is Wait by Richard Lawson | Teens brought together at Mass General after an accident The Sweetest Kind of Fate by Crystal Cestari | Sequel in the Windy City Magic series Not If I Save You […]

Nine Books I Hope Santa Brings 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 didn’t ask for as many books as I usually might this Christmas! I also traditionally feature other things on my Christmas list, but I’m feeling a bit lazier this year. Here are some of the books on my wishlist (and some books I may buy with holiday gift cards!). On my wishlist    Picture Perfect by Catherine Clark // Summer in the City by Elizabeth Chandler Suite Dreams by Rachel Hawthorne I have no real logical reason for requesting these books, except for how much I love old cheesy YA romances! I’ve read these authors before and sometimes they’re JUST what I’m in the mood for. I think they may have been on my list last year and I decided to keep them on? Either way, I look forward to reading these in one sitting after they inevitably appear under the tree. Post-Christmas gift card buys    Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills // I love her books so much. It took a lot of willpower to hold off on buying this book, but I had a feeling that Amazon gift cards would be coming my way. I RESISTED. The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody […]

Favorite Books of 2017 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. Honestly this year did not have as many all-time favorites or REALLY GREAT books as I expected or hoped for. Of course, the ones I did really like were so perfect… but the quantity was just not there with the quality for so many others. In other words… this list may be a little easier to narrow down! However, as I usually do with my top books of the year, I’m going to feature all of my five star books AND 4.5 star books.      The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas //  The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord // When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon // The Cruel Prince by Holly Black    What I Lost by Alex Ballard // Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index by Julie Israel // The Dirty Book Club by Lisi Harrison // The Cruel Prince by Holly Black // The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed  Honorable Mention: 4.5 Stars     Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide by JK Rowling // Geekerella by Ashley Potson // Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett // The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron // Chloe Snow’s Diary: Confessions of a High School Disaster by Emma Chastain    The Adjustment by Suzanne Young […]

Bookish Settings I’d Love to Visit 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 recently posted about how much I love companion series set in small towns, so sorry if this gets repetitive. There are definitely a few other bookish settings I would love to visit though! Black Dog Bay     This series definitely kicked off my obsession with cozy small towns, especially because Black Dog Bay is so unique! Each little shop, restaurant, hotel, etc. has some kind of theme about heartbreak (and getting over it). I loved learning about each resident and the establishment they owned that kept with the theme. Even though I’m not currently heartbroken or single, I would totally visit Black Dog Bay and have the BEST time. Coronado Cove, Countryside B&B Glamping, and European Group Trip    One of the most fun settings I can remember, especially in a standalone novel. It was fully developed in ALEX, APPROXIMATELY as this fun California beach town with a boardwalk and awesome stores and restaurants to browse. One of the main mini settings of the book is the museum where they worked: The Cavern Palace. I don’t remember the major details of this particular museum but it was basically a mansion from a very eccentric rich […]