Recent Reads | The Last Murder at the End of the World and Past Present Future

Posted June 12, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I enjoyed Turton’s debut after being pretty confused throughout the story, and the same thing basically happened here. I was expecting a weird mystery and that’s exactly what I got – it’s not the type of mystery I’d pass along to my mom to read. She would hate it lol. Turton clearly has a specialty for writing odd mysteries with extremely unique premises and I definitely commend him for that. The end of EVELYN HARDCASTLE, to me, made up for the confusion I experienced throughout. The same can’t be said for this latest release unfortunately. The story follows a post-apocalyptic society living on an island, trapped by a deadly fog. One of the scientists is brutally murdered and a villager (Emory) and her daughter (Clara) try to figure out what happened in order to save them all. The fog will inch closer and closer until the murder is resolved. It definitely had a lot of sci-fi elements in a way that makes it hard to classify. It also barely felt like a mystery novel. Yes, there IS a murder mystery at the base of the plot but there was so much other stuff with world-building that took me out of it. Emory and the other characters ask so many questions and tell random stories – it felt like a lot of telling instead of showing. She would have realizations about things that the reader didn’t see so she just talks it out and gets everyone on board. There was a […]

ARC Review: One Last Summer

Posted June 10, 2024 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I absolutely loved Kate Spencer’s first book and was soooo excited to read her sophomore novel, especially when I read the synopsis. I love a friend group coming back together and anything relating to summer camp! I actually had started this back in April and was really loving the first handful of chapters. I put it aside when I got home from Disney to read another highly anticipated release and picked it back up in early May. I was never motivated to read it unfortunately, even though I generally liked it when I did make myself start reading. Honestly it put me in a bit of a slump throughout the month but I’m glad I ended up finishing it. Clara has missed the past few camp reunions at Pine Lake because of her busy job and life in the city. This year, however, her boss just requested in front of the whole company that she is suffering from burnout and needs a micro-sabbatical. There’s a huge pitch at work the following week that she needs to prep for so it couldn’t come at a worse time, but she IS ready to see her friends again. The crew consists of Sam, Nick, Trey, Eloise (and her new boyfriend Linus), and (of course – her summer crush that still works at the camp) Mack. I guess I was kind of expecting HAPPY PLACE vibes here with the group of friends but it missed the mark a lot of the time. I liked […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | May 2024

Posted June 6, 2024 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. I felt like I covered a lot of ground by reading two books in two days toward the end of the month! I also expected to finish one more that week but ended up finishing the book on June 1st instead. Womp. Overall, a great reading month from a quality perspective. 7 books in May 6 read • 1 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2320 • Average rating: 4.29 stars Genres: 3 contemporary, 2 mystery/thriller, 1 nonfiction Formats: 3 mixed, 2 hardcover, 1 paperback, 1 egalley Sources: 4 owned, 2 purchased Age Target: 6 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 24% 52 Book Club: 40% Book Cover Bingo: 72% 24 in 24: 21% Breakdown: 6 hardcovers | 0 paperbacks | 5 egalleys | 0 ebooks | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Physical Books Purchased: This Summer Will Be Different by Fortune, Dinner Tonight by Snodgress BOTM: The Ministry of Time by Bradley, The Paradise […]

Recent Reads | This Summer Will Be Different and Falling

Posted May 30, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I read both of these books Memorial Day weekend but also managed to finish one book per day across Sunday and Monday. Finally brought me current on my reading challenge! Carley Fortune has been an interesting author for me (and many other readers, as far as I can tell!). Many of us fell in love with EVERY SUMMER AFTER and all of its messiness. MEET ME AT THE LAKE didn’t quite have the same charm or affect on its audience but, to me, was still a worthwhile read. I was looking forward to checking out whatever she did next… and boy did she knock THIS SUMMER WILL BE DIFFERENT out of the park. One summer, Lucy heads to PEI to visit with her best friend and hooks up with a hot restaurant worker named Felix. The next morning, they quickly realize that Felix is actually Wolf and Lucy is Bee – she just hooked up with her best friend’s brother and she’s already landed at their summer home. The two of them end up hooking up on and off throughout the years and it’s just an occasional secret fling… or is it? I loved that this was sort of quiet and slow-moving throughout the romance/plot, despite the initial hot start between the characters. Lucy and Felix really needed to find themselves and it didn’t feel rushed at all, even though every reader probably knew exactly where it was heading. While I do think this is her actual best book, it’s […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #447: Unread Anticipated

Posted May 28, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t 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 haven’t done a TTT in a bit but this was definitely made for me. I used my “jazzed up for this” shelf on Goodreads to see all the fun books I was jacked up about and haven’t read yet. Without further ado, here are some of them!

Recent Reads | The Paradise Problem and The Search Party

Posted May 24, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

Man, Christina Lauren has truly done it again. I know I’m a relatively new reader of theirs but I just think they’re in the top-echelon of contemporary romance / rom-com writers. I noted on my Instagram caption that each year I most look forward to new books by Emily Henry, Abby Jimenez, and Christina Lauren. These gals are my top auto-read authors for romance… and none of them have disappointed. ALL three 2024 releases by them were five stars for me. THE PARADISE PROBLEM has a marriage of convenience trope, super duper rich people with inheritance on the line, a tropical setting with a wedding involved… genuinely what more could I want? Excellent characters with fun personalities, a ton of sexual tension, and really funny moments? Yes, all of those too! Anna and West got married almost five years ago to secure cheap family student housing. Anna didn’t exactly read the finer details of their contract and surprise! They’re still married and West needs her to be his guest to his sister’s wedding on a private island in Indonesia so he can collect his multi-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. While this was the usual steamy, tension-filled rom-com from Christina Lauren, there were definitely some heavier elements involved too. West’s family is…something else. The two of them were not set up for an easy trip, especially with Anna actually being a broke artist instead of the med student he thought she was when they first got married. It was so frustrating to read about […]

Ranking Books by Favorite Authors | Christina Lauren

Posted May 13, 2024 / Book Lists, Features / 2 Comments

I thought this was going to be a more common series on my blog but I basically wrote one post and never tried it again! The idea came from the late Grace at Rebel Mommy Book Blog. I still miss her positivity in the book community and hope I can keep doing this post justice! Previous installments include Sandhya Menon and Rachel Lynn Solomon. Today I’ll be featuring… Christina Lauren I was inspired after finishing their latest perfect release to finally do an installment for Christina Lauren! I’ll be honest – I’m not like my friends who have been reading their books since the Beautiful Bastards days. I joined in reading their books soonafter they made the switch to their current rom-com style. I’ve had a ton of success with their books in general and have essentially loved all 9 of them. 5 Stars The Paradise Problem // This review is coming soon. I have to be honest, their last two releases have been my favorites by them! I loved everything about this book and hope they keep writing books set in tropical locations forever. So many excellent tropes in here! Fake dating, marriage of convenience, super rich family/inheritance, artist and heir… everything! The True Love Experiment // I loved this companion novel to THE SOULMATE EQUATION even more than its predecessor. There was just something about it that totally hooked me. I liked the reality TV show element and that the “third act breakup” was very different here. 4.5 Stars The Soulmate […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | April 2024

Posted May 9, 2024 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. I knew April wasn’t going to be an amazing month for reading because of our Disney trip but I’m glad I managed to finish 8 books by the end of the month! That’s my minimum goal for each month to generally stay on pace with my reading goal. I’ve been cutting it super close haha. 8 books in April 4 read • 4 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 3,856 • Average rating: 4.5 stars Genres: 4 dystopia, 1 graphic novel, 1 contemporary, 1 mystery/thriller, 1 cookbook Formats: 6 mixed format, 1 paperback, 1 hardcover Sources: 5 owned, 2 purchased, 1 libraary Age Target: 5 young adult, 2 adult, 1 middle grade Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! The Program Reread // // // Popsugar Reading Challenge: 22% 52 Book Club: 37% Book Cover Bingo: 68% 24 in 24: 17% Breakdown: 7 hardcovers | 2 paperbacks | 2 egalleys | 1 ebooks | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Physical Books […]

May TBR

Posted May 8, 2024 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. May TBR I got behind in April, as expected, because it was generally a busy month… plus we went to Disney. Pretty sure I read like 2% of one book on that trip. You’ll see a lot of holdovers from April on here. Egalleys Yep, didn’t read any of these. I’m not necessarily behind but a lot of these are publishing very soon or published within the last month. I’m adding a few more upcoming ones because I know I’ll be reading them too. ONE LAST SUMMER is the book I started on my trip but then I put it aside temporarily to read FUNNY STORY. May Releases I’ve been a big Carley Fortune and Christina Lauren fan for a while so these two new releases are on my radar for sure. And thanks to BOTM and their early copies, I’ve already started (maybe even finished by the time this goes live) THE PARADISE PROBLEM. Owned / Physical Copies I didn’t read a lot of owned books in March because I focused on egalleys, but still managed to cross off at least one from March’s TBR! I’m keeping THE SPLIT […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #446: May Flowers

Posted May 7, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

May Flowers (On Covers) 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 love floral covers so it was a no-brainer to share them for the semi-freebie May Flowers prompt for this week! I’ll be focusing on new and upcoming releases for this one. (Yes I also included just regular plants lol)