Top Ten Tuesdays #153: Autumn Books

Posted October 10, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 6 Comments

Ten Books that Remind Me of Fall 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. This week’s topic is “Ten Books With Fall/Autumn Covers/Themes.” I didn’t want to limit myself to just one of those options, so I pulled it all together and will be sharing ten books that remind me of fall. It could be because of their cover (fall-like or spooky, perhaps), the season they take place in, or the genre. I’ve done something similar with summery covers and TBH that was much easier.

ARC Review: The Nowhere Girls

Posted October 9, 2017 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Initial Excitement & Summary I was over the moon when I got approved for this book. It ended up being one of those digital ones you can’t use on your Kindle, so I added it to my other ebook app. Loooong, annoying story: the book was set to expire on 9/13 (and I just happened to open the book up that day, thinking maybe I’d read it). I decided to binge it in one day to finish before it expired, updated Goodreads, and made my reading plans for after work. The next time I opened the book that day, it had expired. I spent a good 30-45 minutes trying to figure out if I could redownload it and screaming at my computer. I ended up just having to go to Netgalley and redownload it onto my iPad. SIGH. ANYWAYS, all of these issues led up to me just reading the book anyways. The story is about three girls from very different backgrounds who band together against the horrible boys in their high school. A former student was gang raped and no one believed her. Grace, Rosina, and Erin start “The Nowhere Girls” to take on the school’s sexist, lopsided views of what happened and try to make it a better place. Storytelling & Characters The chapters focus on the individual girls, plus a bunch of chapters called “Us.” I thought those chapters were incredibly powerful, as they focused on various girls around the town and what they were feeling. Those […]

Less than 3 Months to Go…

Posted October 7, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 5 Comments

I always do a mid-year wrap-up to check on my progress for challenges and goals, but sometimes things just HIT ME when it gets this late in the year that I really don’t have that much time to get all my shit done. I made some gooood progress by the middle of the year but my reading since then has definitely declined. June and July were tough reading months since we were gearing up to move and then actually moving and enjoying our new city. We’ve spent a lot of time being lazy in the last few weeks because of Chris’s surgery, but we’re mostly watching TV shows and movies together. I work during the day while Chris watches his stuff and does homework, then we start watching our shows from 5 PM until bedtime. It’s a lazy life right now and I enjoy it most of the time, but I’m definitely grateful that he’ll be out and about more as time goes on and he gets used to the walking boot. Sometimes a quick trip to a little grocery store/restaurant or Target makes things better! I hope to get more reading in as the weather gets colder and I can be cozy in my bed. On that note… Books and Goals So Far Books read: 116 / 150 {Ahead of my Goodreads challenge} Click for a bigger image to see my reading year so far, thanks to my favorite spreadsheet ever… Challenges Contemporary Romance Challenge: 52 / 21 ✔️ Flights […]

What I’ve Been Watching

Posted October 6, 2017 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 8 Comments

I always highlight a few things in the media section of my Lauren Lately posts, but sometimes a nice round-up is the way to go. You’ve seen some of these in those posts but I wanted to highlight everything here. Recently Watched | TV Shows American Vandal | Huuuuge fan of this. It’s hilarious. It essentially pokes fun at all of the crime dramas we know and love, while focusing on a hilarious topic – graffiti of penises on teachers’ cars. There are a lot of awesome elements involved relating to teen habits, social media, and high school expectations. Really loved it. I’d be here for a season two but not sure how they could repeat the same magic. Sense8 | We really loved the first season and finally sat down to catch up. There was a large holiday episode (2 hours long) that kicked off season two, so we decided to start binge-watching when Chris got his surgery. I’m eager to see how they wrap up the show in the final special (and am SO glad Netflix went ahead to do it!!) Crazy, confusing concept but if you love major ships and friendship feels… watch this! Currently Watching | TV Shows Total Bellas | I got myself allll caught up on Total Divas and Total Bellas before the season started last month. I’m enjoying the new episodes a lot because the timeline is finally to where I actually started watching wrestling. The previous seasons were all from a few years ago […]

Bite-Sized ARC Reviews: 36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You & The Knowing

Posted October 5, 2017 / Bite-Sized Reviews, Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I know I have full reviews and I have mini review round-ups, but there are some books that could be reviewed in just a few sentences. This is mini round-up I’ll have sometimes for books that really don’t need much more than my small Goodreads review and progress updates say. First up, we have a pretty disappointing reality check for a book I was really excited about. I’ve heard about the 36 question study where people develop a connection by the end of it and the thought always fascinated me. When I saw a book based on that study, I immediately requested it. I wish I DNFed because it was not nearly as good as I expected. 🙁 Next, a companion novel I was SO excited for! I loved THE FORGETTING and was so excited to learn more about Canaan. I didn’t realize it was a companion novel at first, but I’m happy to report that it was as good as expected. Many thanks to Ellice for letting me borrow this one <3

Top Ten Tuesdays #152: Book Boyfriends

Posted October 3, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Thirteen Book Boyfriends 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. According to my Goodreads shelf, I have 71 book boyfriends (approximately – there are probably some instances where I have multiple books from one series on this shelf). I’m going to split this into some of my new faves, plus some of my tried-and-true babes. I’ll also keep this to just YA since I need to limit myself somehow or else we’ll be here all damn day. Recent Book Boyfriend Additions Noah Shaw | Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin Levi | Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally Seth Nguyen | Lucky in Love by Kasie West Porter/Alex | Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett Rishi | When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon Rhys | ACOMAF by Sarah J. Maas (please note I’m not using ACOWAR) My Longtime Loves Every Emery Lord Boyfriend | All Emery Lord books… seriously Thorne | Cress by Marissa Meyer Sam Henry | Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally Frank Porter | Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

ARC Review: The Dirty Book Club

Posted October 2, 2017 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Initial Excitement & Summary Lisi Harrison’s CLIQUE series was one of my favorites back in the day. I used to count down new book releases on my white board before Goodreads was really a thing, and this was one of those series I’d try to track. When I saw that she was releasing an interesting-sounding adult contemporary, I was immediately on board. The book showed up on Goodreads YEARS ago and I was pretty convinced it would never come out. So, you can imagine how pumped I was when I was approved on Netgalley. I read it ASAP in July. ? The premise for this one is that MJ finally moves to California to be with her long-distance boyfriend. She befriends her elderly neighbor, Gloria, who once had a Dirty Book Club with a few of her best friends. They vowed to move to Paris when their husbands all died and the day finally comes, so they pass along the DBC to MJ and three other women. Storytelling I was looking for something like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and honestly this book is the closest I’ve come in some ways. I loved the inter-generational storyline of both books and the fact that they revolved around some kind of media (Evelyn as a movie star and Gloria/her friends reading dirty books). Both involved magazines and journalist main characters too. I don’t think they’re exactly the same, but if you’re looking for something similar… maybe give this one a shot! Okay, so […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September 2017

Posted October 1, 2017 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my book haul, books I read and reviewed, posts I shared, challenge updates, and more from the previous month. I also let you know what may be coming up on the blog in the coming month. You can read past bulletins here. I recently split out my personal posts into the Lauren Lately feature, so this is a bit shorter! Sigh. Not as many books as I hoped, but whatever. I was really hoping to finish some more during the last week of the month but Chris’s surgery sort of derailed that. He had to be lazy and watch TV, so that’s what I did most of the time too. Not a huge deal, but hopefully I can get back to being ahead on the reading challenge for next month. I’m currently reading 2 books so finishing them soon will help! Average rating for books read in September: 4.05 stars Highlights & Lowlights This month’s books: Year-Long Contemporary Romance Challenge 0 this month | 51 read total | 510% complete None! (Woah) Flights of Fantasy Challenge 1 this month | 21 read total | 73% complete Rock My TBR Challenge 0 this month | 15 read total | 100% complete None Series Enders Challenge 1 this month | 13 read total | 130% complete Fall Bingo Challenge Book Reviews Discussions, Memes, and More Breakdown: 3 bought | 0 borrowed | 1 gifted | 2 for review Meet Cute edited by Jennifer […]

Five Things

Posted September 29, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 12 Comments

In an effort to post more random, personal things, I wanted to hop on this “five on Friday” kind of post. I saw it here and she saw a spin on it here (just to give all credit where it’s due!). The lists are not in order, so the five favorite books this year aren’t listed from most to least favorite. Just figured I’d throw that out there! Five favorite books this year The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed The Dirty Book Club by Lisi Harrison The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid Five books I plan to read soon Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl Haunting the Deep by Adriana Mather Ash and Bramble by Sarah Prineas As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti The Key to Everything by Paula Stokes Five unreleased books I can’t wait for Ringer by Lauren Oliver Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills The Becoming of Noah Shaw by Michelle Hodkin Life, Love, and the List by Kasie West The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand Five things I’ve eaten lately Cinnamon Apple Treats – not sure how to describe them but basically Chris and I had a LOT of these a couple of weeks ago when I bought apples. We just added cinnamon sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla ice cream and baked them Sheet Pan Meals – I’ve been a big fan of these easy dinners […]

October TBR

Posted September 28, 2017 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 Comments

I recently started a monthly TBR feature, where I try to pin down which books I plan to read in the upcoming month. It also helps remind me throughout the month which books I’m supposed to be reading, for various reasons. I add a little poll at the bottom too, so you guys can vote and help me narrow down some of my options as well. Here are my top TBR choices for this month and how I did last month… September Progress Not too bad… Kinda. I mean, my goal was to read a few library books and a few physical books and I totally failed at that. But! I did manage to finish off a series and bring all 10 books home to CT. My shelf is freeeee! And, to be fair, I’m still reading THE CRUEL PRINCE, but it’s worth mentioning here that I’m at least working on it. I got totally distracted by the MARA DYER trilogy for my book club and binged those three in a row. Whoops? On Deck for October Read ALL Library Books Ash & Bramble and Rose & Thorn by Sarah Prineas The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable I’m so annoyed with myself because I had a lot of great books checked out and let them fall by the wayside. I ended up having to return just about everything. I’m determined to read this fairytale retelling duo, plus one more summery book! Let’s see if I can pull it off before […]