Bookmark Lit Bulletin | August 2017

Posted September 1, 2017 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 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! FINALLY! ?? I finished a good amount of books this month, which was my goal. The A-LIST series reread really pushed me over the edge. I wanted to read over 10 books this month (aiming for 15+) and binge-reading that series definitely got me there. I was always in the mood to read, sometimes reading one book in a day or two. My mojo is back and I’m further ahead on my reading challenge. My goal is to find some more outdoor spots to read before the weather gets too cold for that. Average rating for books read in August: 3.71 stars Highlights & Lowlights This month’s books: Year-Long Summer Bingo Challenge Book Reviews Discussions, Memes, and More Breakdown: 8 bought | 0 borrowed | 1 gifted | 5 for review From the publisher: More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer, When Light Left Us by Leah Thomas From the publisher via Edelweiss: The Dazzling Heights by Katharine McGee From the publisher via Netgalley: A Dangerous Year by Kes Trester From the author: The Key to […]

September TBR

Posted August 31, 2017 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 9 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… August Progress LOL at my August TBR. That seriously got thrown out the window. I can mostly blame my extremely enjoyable A-LIST binge but I also don’t care. I was looking for books to beef up my reading and general desire to read, and everything I read did just that. I hope to get on target for September though because UGH I’m the worst?? On Deck for September Finish off THE A-LIST Series Heart of Glass, Beautiful Stranger, and California Dreaming by Zoey Dean I plan to attack these pretty quickly because our feature is next week. I can usually read them in 1-2 sitting so I’m definitely not nervous about it. I don’t need to complete everything until Wednesday because that’s the review day in our feature. Anyways, I needed a little break from the series before finishing it up, but I’m ready now. Finish The Reading Quest I think I had hearts or stars or something in my eyes when I thought I’d have time to finish off […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #147: Hidden Gems

Posted August 29, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments

Ten Hidden Gems in (Mostly YA) Fiction 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 feel like I always repeat the same books for these “underrated books” topics, but hey – those are the books that often need the most love and pushing! I was originally going to do just contemporary YA but there were a few non-contemps that I HAD to mention. It just didn’t feel right to leave them out! Aaand then of courses there’s one or two adult fiction books on here, because clearly limiting myself to one genre/age is not possible. Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index by Julie Israel | The Awkward Path to Getting Lucky by Summer Heacock | Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott | Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham | Just Like Fate by Kat Patrick and Suzanne Young | The One Thing by Marci Lyn Curtis | It’s a Wonderful Death by Sarah J. Schmitt | Monstrous Beauty by Elizabath Fama | Sometimes We Tell the Truth by Kim Zarins

3 Ways I Find Out About Upcoming Books

Posted August 28, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 18 Comments

I love torturing everyone with my posts about books I’m excited for (when they haven’t even been released yet). Making my TBR huge means you get the same treatment, #sorrynotsorry. I’m curious though: where do you guys hear about upcoming releases? I wanted to talk about the most common places I personally learn about new and upcoming book releases or book deals, in hopes that you can show me where you get your info from. I always see people adding books on Goodreads (see point two) and wish I could pay better attention to find out earlier! 1. Cover Snark At the time of writing this post, Christina at A Reader of Fictions has posted over 240 installments of Cover Snark, which are truly my favorite posts to read on a regular basis. She highlights new cover reveals / releases for various books across multiple genres and age targets. I have added countless books to my TBR just because of this feature, especially when certain cover designs catch my eye! There’s a bonus feature of her commentary under each cover and fun Cover Battle polls at the bottom of the post. Without a doubt, this is my favorite way of finding new books to add to my TBR-unreleased Goodreads shelf! 2. Goodreads Statuses I’m pretty obsessed with Goodreads. I use it to track just about everything, from my TBR to books I’ve read to covers I like to books I own to books I want to own to my current reads… you get the […]

The Reading Quest Tracking (Week 2)

Posted August 25, 2017 / Book Challenges, Features / 1 Comment

The reading quest is hosted by Read at Midnight (information here!) and runs from August 13th through September 10th. My sign-up is here. I’ll be doing weekly tracking and wrap-up posts each Friday or Saturday throughout the readathon so you can see my progress and goals as they develop. This Week’s Thoughts I finished The Dazzling Heights a day or two later than projected because it dragged a little bit, TBH. I decided to jump into Love & Gelato for the Respawn box (giving another chance to a book you previously DNFed). I have kind of put that one on pause yet again because for some reason I just don’t have much desire to read it. I am determined to finish it by the end of this quest! I read Gilded Ashes to get one of the quick/novella boxes done, and I really enjoyed it. I’ve moved my TBR around a little bit by starting The Knowing to work further on my Knight’s quest – a book with a verb in its title. I also have an ebook expiring from the library (Always) that I think I’ll start tomorrow for the Open World freebie box. My quest board is looking pretty good! (Cristina and I pushed our A-List reread out another week, so I have more flexibility to read other things first.) Week 2 Progress & Tracking The dates you see below are the dates I start and finish books, so you won’t see every date there. It’ll be running totals and information about […]

ARC Review: The Dazzling Heights

Posted August 24, 2017 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

There will be some spoilers for book one in this review, so don’t read it unless you’ve already read THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR! This was absolutely one of my most anticipated books this year, so you can only imagine my excitement when I got an advanced copy from Edelweiss. I don’t want to say that this sequel disappointed me, because the final 25% of this book made up for the slower start for sure, but it definitely didn’t reach my expectations. I sped through book one and was so eager to learn all their secrets, discover new places in the tower, and see how it would all end. This book was less addicting for me and I was surprised that it took me so many sittings to actually finish it. It really felt like this book was heading nowhere for a loooong time. It was slow-going and almost no action really happened until the 75% mark. THE DAZZLING HEIGHTS is centered around mostly the same characters, except for Eris for obvious reasons. I originally thought Mariel was going to be a new character POV for this one, but it ended up being a completely new character – Calliope. I didn’t exactly understand why she was introduced (even now after finishing it) because her character didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. I did enjoy her POV for sure, so I’m not complaining, but I kind of think the book would have benefited more from having Mariel’s perspective as that last […]

Gimme the Books (1)

Posted August 23, 2017 / Features, Gimme the Books / 6 Comments

I’ve written a few posts to talk about books I’m super excited about that haven’t been released yet, but I felt like adding to that title repeatedly like I had been doing was a bit much. See early posts here: 1, 2, and 3. I decided to make this into a realistic regular feature where I do kind of a Waiting on Wednesday wrap-up post for when I add books to my TBR and “jazzed up for this” Goodreads shelf. All We Do is Wait by Richard Lawson {February 2018} I love the idea of characters meeting in a hospital waiting room. I have a feeling this one will obviously pull on the heartstrings, but people pulled together in interesting circumstances is a book plot I’ll always add to the TBR. I also love that this takes place in Mass! This Heart of Mine by CC Hunter {February 2018} Again, people pulled together in unique circumstances. I’ve always been fascinated by books involving organ donation and this one is no exception. The twin brother of the boy whose heart she is receiving doesn’t believe his brother committed suicide, and the two of them grow closer. Together at Midnight by Jennifer Castle {January 2018} Holiday books are my favorite and I don’t think there are as many New Years stories as there should be! This book involves random acts of kindness after witnessing an accident. The two characters seem to have interesting backstories so I’m curious to see how they come together […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #146: Back to School

Posted August 22, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 7 Comments

Books I’d Have in my Backpack for Study Hall Reading 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. Not gonna lie, I often miss high school and college… I think that’s part of the reason I always wanted to be a teacher. Something about being in that environment just resonates with me. I decided to use this back to school freebie topic to talk about the books I plan on reading this fall, aka the books I’d be taking with me in my backpack for free reading during study hall. I obviously had to pair the books with actual backpacks I’d legitimately use in my school days, if they still existed.

It’s a Nice Day for a White Wedding

Posted August 21, 2017 / Book Lists, Features / 8 Comments

I read a couple of books recently involving wedding planners and/or general event planners. It’s something I’ve always loved reading about for some reason. I wanted to be an event planner when I was younger (even as recent as high school – my friend and I were going to be P&L Events ?), so I’m always drawn to these books. I figured I’d highlight some here – both ones I’ve read and enjoyed, as well as some on my TBR! Read & Recommended Once and For All by Sarah Dessen | Dessen’s latest novel was a really fun book (with some serious moments) based around a wedding planning business. The main character’s mom owned her own business with her best friend, and she helped them out. Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally | The parents in Kenneally’s latest are event planners. They’re fighting for a chance to win the contract of a town-related event throughout the story. I definitely wish their business was highlighted more because I love event planning. There’s Cake in My Future by Kim Gruenenfelder | I remember really enjoying this one a few years ago. The story revolves around some best friends and one of their weddings. There was a lot of wedding planning involved, but wasn’t about that business necessarily. On My TBR The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder | “Paul and Alice’s half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at “it” restaurants and a reception at […]

The Reading Quest Tracking (Week 1)

Posted August 18, 2017 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

The reading quest is hosted by Read at Midnight (information here!) and runs from August 13th through September 10th. My sign-up is here. I’ll be doing weekly tracking and wrap-up posts each Friday or Saturday throughout the readathon so you can see my progress and goals as they develop. This Week’s Thoughts Weee, it’s here! I decided to start with The Lucky Dog Matchmaking Service audiobook since I was commuting into the office for a few days during the early part of the week. I also got the physical copy out from the library before I went back to Maine because I knew it’d be faster to finish that copy when I returned. I changed my TBR option for the Time Warp category because I was shockingly approved for The Dazzling Heights on Edelweiss and had to read ASAP! I expect to have that one done this weekend at some point. I’m leaning toward starting Love & Gelato next because I already got through some via audio last month. It should be a quick summery read. Week 1 Progress & Tracking The dates you see below are the dates I start and finish books, so you won’t see every date there. It’ll be running totals and information about each book and how it applies to the quest itself. August 14th – 17th Book: The Lucky Dog Matchmaking Service by Beth Kendrick Source/format: Audiobook and physical copy mix, both from library Quest board: Animal Companion (side quest) Points: 10 EXP and 32 HP August 17th – Present Book: The […]