Recent Reads | The Reappearance of Rachel Price and Funny Story

Posted May 2, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I never got around to reading Jackson’s previous release after the AGGGTM series but there was something about this book that called to me. I think it’s because I only listen to true crime podcasts centered around missing people and unsolved cases. I always thought about how insane it would be to have someone who was missing for so long, presumed dead, turn up VERY much alive. That’s the basis for this story – Bel Price has always assumed that her mom was kidnapped (right from the car they were in together when she was two years old) by an evil stranger and murdered. Her case became one of the more popular ones in New Hampshire and her family was in the middle of filming a documentary when the unthinkable happened… Rachel Price reappeared. I didn’t love Bel as a character – she was definitely prickly and jaded, which was fine, but just didn’t make for the most fun main character POV. There were plenty of times where she annoyed me (ex: asking someone to explain themselves and then repeatedly interrupting them so they couldn’t get a word in). There was an unnecessary romance that I wish wasn’t in there – I think it made the book longer than it needed to be and could have been tighter without it. On that subject – it IS very long for a mystery/thriller but I wasn’t able to put this down. I read it so quickly and used up a lot of my […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #445: Physical TBR

Posted April 23, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon 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 have a ton of owned books that I haven’t gotten around to and I’d love to change that sometime soon! I thought I would focus on some new releases I just got first, then highlight some backlist (2023 or older) titles I want to read soon. New Releases 2023 or Older

6 Months of Spotify Audiobooks

Posted April 12, 2024 / Discussions, Features / 1 Comment

Like everyone else, I was so jacked up when Spotify released Audiobooks in their Premium subscription! I’ve been a member for years and have always debated reducing my membership just because I don’t listen to a ton of music. If you see me driving or washing dishes, I’m likely listening to an audiobook or a podcast. The Spotify Audiobook section of the platform allows for 15 hours of listening time per month, with the option of paying a little bit to “top up” with 10 more hours to finish whatever other books you may want to listen to. In the six months(-ish) since this was released, I’ve only gotten close to finishing it once. I elected to top it up because I saw that you can use the extra hours at any point within twelve months – I spent $12.99 for another 10 hours of listening and I didn’t have to use it up right away. How I Use It This feature has been a game-changer for me personally because my favorite way to listen to an audiobook is when I’m already reading the book physically or on my Kindle. I love to switch back and forth to progress faster in my reading. For example, I usually am reading one physical book and one digital book at the same time. I don’t usually listen to three books at once, so I’ll try to grab an audio copy of either my physical or digital read, and switch back and forth between […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #444: Freebie

Posted April 9, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Freebie: Q1 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 thought a freebie for early April would be the perfect time to share my favorites from the first three months of the year! I have exactly ten favorites if I don’t include one cookbook and one reread that were both 4.5 stars. All of these books fall into the 4.5-5 star range and I’m going to include them in order started from the top – the most fave. (And yes, three of them are novellas lol).

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | March 2024

Posted April 3, 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 went from reading six novellas and a few other slogs to finish with nine books in February, to reading eight full books (including a cookbook) in March. Definitely sounds better but the vibes were honestly still a little low. I haven’t had the same reading gusto I carried all through last year and am usually on track or one book behind on my reading goal. April will be tough due to travel plans but I have ideas for how to keep on track. 8 books in March 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,800 • Average rating: 3.94 stars Genres: 5 mystery/thriller, 1 nonfiction, 1 contemporary, 1 paranormal Formats: 5 mixed format, 2 egalley, 1 hardcover Sources: 5 review, 2 borrowed, 1 purchased Age Target: 7 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 22% 52 Book Club: 33% Book Cover Bingo: 56% 24 in 24: 13% Breakdown: 6 hardcovers | 0 paperbacks | 2 egalleys | 1 ebooks | 0 […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #443: April Showers

Posted April 2, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

April Showers 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, as always, to make this prompt about book covers. I’ll be sharing some books I’ve read and books on my TBR that feature rain on the cover and/or umbrellas! Read TBR

April TBR

Posted April 1, 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. April TBR I had a very successful Netgalley March, where I read 5 total egalleys and got myself back up to 70%! I hope to keep on top of them and really limit my requests to only books by favorite authors. Let’s see how I balance everything in April with new releases and owned books as well. Egalleys I have a couple of holdovers from last month but am overall pleased with egalley progress, as I mentioned. I still need to read THE MAIN CHARACTER and CANADIAN BOYFRIEND this month, and I’m adding THE FINDERS KEEPERS LIBRARY and ONE LAST SUMMER to April’s TBR. Preordered for April I have THE REAPPEARANCE OF RACHEL PRICE preordered and can guarantee I’ll be reading it as soon as possible when it arrives. Same goes for FUNNY STORY, which comes out toward the end of the month. Should be a nice treat to get my reading back on track after a busy Disney trip, where I probably won’t read most of the days! Owned / Physical Copies I didn’t read a lot of owned books in March because I focused on egalleys, but […]

Blog Tour Review: Everyone is Watching

Posted March 30, 2024 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Review This was, surprisingly, my first Heather Gudenkauf book! I own at least one of her others but for some reason haven’t gotten to it yet. I loved going into this one without any idea of what to expect. The synopsis really only advertised a reality show competition, a locked room murder mystery, and secret connections between characters. Big Brother meets Clue? Works for me! I really liked that the summary of the book was basic and to the point – it didn’t give anything away. The story follows a few contestants on a new live-streamed reality show, run by a couple of women (one who remains anonymous). The players were hand-picked by them for reasons that slowly become clear throughout the book. I enjoyed trying to make all of the connections and figure out how people may have known each other. Like many locked room-style mysteries, there were also some flashback scenes that provide additional color to their stories and potential connections. I didn’t really figure out the entire tangled web and just was along for the ride! I don’t think any of the reveals were super surprising or intense but I still enjoyed them. The characters were obviously not great people and they had made mistakes in the past; none of their transgressions were that unique though. I loved Gudenkauf’s writing style – I will absolutely be picking up more of her work after this! I’ve been really in the mood for mysteries this month and am pumped […]

Recent Reads | The Twyford Code and Kill for Me, Kill for You

Posted March 28, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

Janice Hallett has continued to cement herself as a favorite author. Even though this was technically my least favorite of her books, she still managed to pull one over on me and keep me engaged when I was doubting it. THE TWYFORD CODE centers around Smithy, recently released from prison, recording audio files on his son’s old iPhone. The book begins with the transcript being sent over for interpretation. Smithy tries to find out what happened to his missing teacher from when he was a kid and how her disappearance may be connected to Twyford’s books. Is there a secret code in there? Intermixed in his investigation, he’s talking about his young life and how he ended up in a gang. I was really intrigued by the initial investigation and the format – the story reads as if you’re literally reading the transcripts of audio files. I love a mixed media novel but this has less of the same vibe. Kind of reads like a sort of real novel, compared to her other books with emails, texts, and articles. I lost interest a little bit toward the end but as usual, she brought me right back in with the twists! I thought the reveals were a bit lame until they weren’t 😉 Hallett knows how to write a layered and intriguing mystery. When you think you have it figured out, she finds a way to surprise you. I’m so sad to be caught up on all of her books!! Phew, […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #442: Shows/Movies

Posted March 26, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Movies or Shows That Would’ve Made Great 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. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do this one but I decided it seemed fun once I came up with my first example 😉 Don’t come at me if some of these shows and movies are already books – clearly I didn’t research before this post and went off vibes! haha. Kaleidoscope I really enjoyed this show on Netflix when it came out. It involves a big heist and apparently each of the episodes (named after a color) can be watched in any order, as long as you watch one specific episode last. Heist books are really fun and adding in some kind of “choose your own adventure” element like this show could be awesome. The Curse Okay so we haven’t finished this show yet but I do think so far it would make for a very weird little book! It’s entertaining and cringey in the classic way of Nathan Fielder. I do think he brings something unique to the performance that could be hard to capture in a book but the premise itself would work, IMO. The White Lotus I love this show – […]