Review Round Up | Nice Try Jane Sinner and Obsidio

Posted April 6, 2018 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 3 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I had been looking forward to NICE TRY, JANE SINNER, despite never watching Big Brother (or most reality shows, really). The concept of that style of housing situation for college students definitely appealed to me though. It sounded like Jane would be an interesting main character to read about and I was eager to read this one for sure. I didn’t realize it was set in Canada, which was interesting! I honestly don’t know if I’ve read a book set there before… I was wondering why the place names didn’t sound familiar and some of the high school things were a bit different. As I suspected, Jane was definitely an interesting main character. She had a lot of things going on in her life and in her past (it took a long time to learn what the “event” was that kept being referenced). I didn’t really feel super connected to her, which is unfortunate when a book is written in the form of journal entries. Usually that style makes me feel close to the character, like I’m REALLY inside their head. I think it’s just that Jane was kind of hard to pin down; she would be funny and sarcastic sometimes but it was hard to figure out what […]

How are TBRs Working for Me?

Posted April 5, 2018 / Discussions, Features / 3 Comments

The whole TBR thing is pretty new to me. I started making TBR posts about a year ago just because I love the IDEA of them. I’ve found, since then, that they do a pretty good job of reminding me what books I was hoping to read within the month. I’ve only read my entire TBR one time – I’ll get to that later – but otherwise I think I do pretty well. Now that I’ve been TBR-ing for a little over a year, I thought I’d see how I’ve fared. I did a very brief wrap-up about this back in November (link below about mood reading) but wanted to expand more. (Again, this post at Pretty Deadly Reviews inspired me back then and now!) Other relevant posts to check out : about how my bookish planner is impacting my reading and blogging this year, whose books I’m actually reading, and my mood reading tendencies. Monthly breakdown February 2017 [50%] 8 books on the TBR plus a poll to decide between 3 options I ended up reading four of the books on my TBR, but that included the book that was selected in the “help me choose what to read” poll at the bottom. Not terrible, but not too great. I think the idea of having a TBR to choose from kind of motivated me to read the books on there. I feel like half is not bad! March 2017 [56%] 9 books on the TBR plus a poll to […]

In My Bag

Posted April 4, 2018 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 7 Comments

A looong time ago, I did a guest post on Rachel’s blog about what’s in my purse. I still use that purse from time to time but lately they’ve gotten much smaller. I used to carry around a huge bag to and from work because I wanted to make sure I could fit a book in there. However, since moving to the city, I’ve found that I need something a lot smaller. I was using a really cute pink-ish bag from Charming Charlie for a while and decided to treat myself to something new during the Kate Spade surprise sale. Kate Spade Prospect Place Rima | I couldn’t resist this one when I saw it, even though I did narrow down my choice from 6 purses in my shopping bag. Whoops. I was looking at some larger totes for when I’m back in the office (still need one, but might check out an outlet sometime this summer), a backpack purse, and a few wallets or wristlets. I decided on this one because it looked small enough to be a nice cross-body and large enough to fit my Kindle/iPad depending on what I’m reading. #priorities Jessica Simpson Wallet | I bought this a while ago because my other Coach wallet was getting beat up AND was too big for the smaller purses I started to adopt. This one is tiny and doesn’t include a section for checks, which is fine because I basically just use those for rent now anyways! It has cute […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #177: Characters

Posted April 3, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 5 Comments

Characters I Liked… From Books I Didn’t Love 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. Dang, this is a tough one! I feel like the main reasons I dislike books are because I don’t love the characters or can’t relate to them. However, there are definitely a few books that come to mind where I didn’t love the plot, premise, or writing style, but enjoyed the characters. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway Character: Audrey For whatever reason, this book didn’t fully click with me. I absolutely loved Audrey and her friends though. I said in my review that “the characters were fun and EXTREMELY well developed” but I remember thinking that the plot was slow-moving and the humor was too forced sometimes. It annoyed me that a major plot point listed in the synopsis didn’t happen until much later in the book. I hate when things are spoiled for no reason; I sat there waiting for it to happen for the entire book when it could have been a “twist” or something unexpected. However, in hindsight, I would recommend this book to people who like funny books with great characters… but this was only a 3.5 star read for me. Just a Girl […]

Book Buddies: Starry Eyes

Posted April 2, 2018 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 3 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style “review” that takes place with Cristina from Girl in the Pages. (You can check out past posts here.) We both read the book, have a discussion, and post our conversation (plus other fun things sometimes!) here. Book Buddies is a seasonal feature that now happens four times per year. Be sure to check out the other half of our feature and discussion on Cristina’s blog (link below)! Check out Cristina’s post here! Review After absolutely loving both of Jenn Bennett’s other books, I was incredibly excited to get my hands on STARRY EYES. Cristina and I were both thrilled to get this one early and decided it would make for a fun Book Buddies post. In the book, there’s kind of a hate-to-love, Romeo and Juliet-style warring families, childhood-friends-to-more, stuck-in-the-wilderness-together plot… all of which are right up my alley. My boyfriend has been super into researching camping and hiking things for this spring (someone please help me) so it was actually a lot more timely and interesting than I expected it to be. I couldn’t get rolling at the beginning for whatever reason. Zorie and Lennon weren’t clicking with me at first, but with every page I read… I fell in love with them even more. The chemistry that Bennett wrote was so incredibly good and believable. I was shipping them so quickly and so hard. The book is incredibly sex positive, which is excellent and realistic as always. I love how Bennett was able to utilize so many […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | March 2018

Posted April 1, 2018 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 7 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 did a pretty good job of maintaining my reading numbers for March. I finally finished some huuuuge books and got them out of the way, so that was nice. MY PLAIN JANE and OBSIDIO took up a lot of time (because of their size and because I took breaks to read other books too). I also balanced those with a few smaller, quick reads (like the four hour audiobook for DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES). I read FINDING FELICITY in a day because it was just so addicting and readable (not perfect, but good!). I enjoyed my reads this month overall but definitely pushed myself to get to 10 by the final week. All of the books read this month: Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge 5 read this month | 10 read total | 70% NG ratio Popsugar Reading Challenge 5 read this month | 22 read total | 55% complete Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 6 read total | 50% complete None this month Seasonal Bingo Breakdown: 3 bought | 0 borrowed | […]

April TBR

Posted March 30, 2018 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 5 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. March Progress Not bad for March! I managed to read two library books (even though technically I did the audio for DATSAB instead of reading the actual book), two egalleys, and my book club selection. I would have gone deeper into some of the other books on my list but I was distracted by the new and shiny OBSIDIO library hold that came in way sooner than expected. Oh well! I also DNFed NO FILTER. On Deck for April Books with Due Dates – Library & Book Club The Chaos of Standing Still by Brody | The Case for Jamie by Cavallaro The Wedding Date by Guillory | Book Club: Beastly Bones by Ritter I ended up listening to some of the library books I had checked out via audio, which was a cheat-y way to get them out of here, but at least I did! These are my current books. I’ve already started reading and listening to THE CHAOS OF STANDING STILL, and will definitely get to the other two later this month before they’re due back. Also, BEASTLY BONES is our book club pick for later this month! Egalleys […]

State of the ARC | End of Q1

Posted March 28, 2018 / State of the ARC, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

State of the ARC is hosted by AvalinahsBooks, which is a fun way to share our ARC progress (or lack thereof!). Instead of linking up monthly, I’ll be making a quarterly post to check in on my ARC-related progress, especially as it pertains to my 2018 Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge progress. I will not be including physical ARCs here because most of them are borrowed from friends and/or I don’t have as much trouble reading ones from the publisher. This will only be to help me with NG & EW. Current Netgalley Percentage: 70% Each quarter, I’ll recap the ARCs I read from my Netgalley and Edelweiss accounts… Egalleys Read: 9 …and then I’ll share which ones I have left to read, listed in release date order. 2018 Releases: 11 Backlist: 18

Top Ten Tuesdays #176: Another Country

Posted March 27, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 5 Comments

Books on my TBR That Take Place in Another Country 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. This is something I’m always interested in because I have yet to travel outside of the continental United States. The farthest I’ve gone is actually to Florida (and Chicago, I guess, in a different direction). I’ve only been on a plane a few times too. I love reading books that feature international travel because I’m inspired by places I plan to go someday. I even have a Goodreads shelf to help track these books! I decided to feature books on my TBR instead of books I’ve already read. All-Around European Trip The Summer of Us by Ceclia Vinesse | “American expat Aubrey has only two weeks left in Europe before she leaves for college […] She and her best friend, Rae, have planned one last group trip across the continent. From Paris to Prague, they’re going to explore famous museums, sip champagne in fancy restaurants, and eat as many croissants as possible with their friends Clara, Jonah, and Gabe.” I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski | “Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and half weeks traveling […]

Add It To My List – March 2018

Posted March 26, 2018 / Add It To My List, Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

This linkup is hosted by Lauren and Bre, where you’re able to share what you’re currently recommending to people in real life. You’ll likely see movies, shows, podcasts, books, household items/purchases, technology – the list goes on! The linkup happens on the last Tuesday of the month, but I’ll be posting on the last Monday or Wednesday due to Top Ten Tuesday. Add to your shopping list Trader Joe’s Favorites: Pita Bite Crackers, Olive Tapenade, and Everything But The Bagel Sesame Seasoning It’s no secret that I’ve been addicted to TJ’s lately. It’s not quite walking distance to my apartment, compared to the Hannaford right across 2 parking lots, but it’s worth the two second drive to get there. I try to go in between Hannaford trips. One of my new favorite snack combos are their Pita Bite Crackers and the Olive Tapenade (I got the one in the jar instead of the fresh one because it was cheaper by a few bucks). These crackers are truly some of the best I’ve EVER had and my new olive tapenade obsession continues with this stuff for only $2. The seasoning apparently took the internet by storm a while ago and I’m late, but seriously… This stuff is the best. It’s basically like if you took whatever random seasonings are on top of an everything bagel and put them in a container. The first time I tried it was on avocado toast and it was unbelievable – so much flavor! I’ve […]