Bout of Books 19

Posted May 7, 2017 / Book Challenges, Features / 1 Comment

Goals, TBR, Progress/Tracking, Challenges, and Wrap-Up I’m here for Bout of Books 19, as usual! This May challenge is coming at a nice time because I have soooo many summertime ARCs to get ahead on. I also want to read a lot of owned books before I pack them up. Check my small sign-up post here. The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 8th and runs through Sunday, May 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 19 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Goals As I mentioned, my biggest goals are twofold. I want to get ahead on ARCs of books being published in the summer and also read books from my shelves. I had my challenges last month to achieve both of those goals and did pretty well. I exceeded my ARC goal but didn’t quite meet my owned book goal. This Bout of Books will piggyback off of those challenge ideas! Specifically, I hope to start and/or finish 4 books during this week – only ones in those two categories. Possible TBR Tracking Monday May 8 Started reading Always and Forever, Lara Jean Tuesday May 9 Started Waiting On You (audiobook) Finished Always and Forever, Lara Jean Wednesday May 10 Continued Waiting On […]

ARC Review: Brave New Girl

Posted May 5, 2017 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

Initial Excitement I went into this book with really no expectations. When I read the description on the ARC tour website, I just kind of went with it. I don’t read a lot of sci-fi or light-sci-fi books, so I thought it’d be fun to take a leap into something a little different. I’m so glad I did! It actually reminded me a lot of Replica, which was a good thing. Quick Summary Dahlia 16 is one of many. In their world, babies aren’t born through two parents coming together. Geneticists create children in a lab and there are thousands of each person created. They all look identical and have names corresponding to their future career (Dahlia = flower = gardening/growing produce) and the number signifies their age. When Dahlia meets Trigger 17, she is instantly feeling things she hasn’t ever felt before. She feels different… but being different means your entire group is recalled, aka euthanized. She can’t risk everyone’s life for a chance at something with Trigger, but she’s still pulled that way. She soon realizes the world isn’t as it seems. Storytelling, Setting, and Feels The first half of this book involved a lot of setup and it took me a little while to figure out how everything worked. I liked getting a feel for the environment Dahlia grew up in but I think it dragged with not a lot of action. Even when she met Trigger, there was just constant internal dialogue, wondering if she should […]

Ten eBooks I’ve Owned FOREVER

Posted May 4, 2017 / Book Lists, Features / 17 Comments

I love freebie week for TTT because it brings so many other topics to my attention for me to steal borrow later on (with credit of course!). Pure Imagination featured a TTT of top ten books that have been on her Kindle for way too long… and I knew I needed to tackle this topic in one way or another! Top 10 Kindle Books I’ve Owned the Longest and Still Plan to Read Someday I bought so many Kindle books back in the day that I’d love to return. My reading tastes have definitely changed since 2009-2011 when I first got my Kindle(s). Fun fact: the first Kindle book I ever bought and read was The Hunger Games. That was fun to see when looking at my Amazon history! I remember reading it during college nonstop, whenever I wasn’t working on homework. Here are ten ebooks I’ve owned foooorever and still think I’ll read at some point in the future… The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti On my Kindle since 2011 Why I’ll probably still read it at some point: This is definitely the kind of book I used to reach for, but I can still see some of its appeal for my current reading tastes. People coming together to get information and learn about their family, past mistakes, etc. is definitely a topic I’m still interested in reading about. I love seeing the journeys people take and new relationships developing along the way. Key piece of the synopsis […]

ARC Review: The Names They Gave Us

Posted May 3, 2017 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

NOTE: This is one of my favorite reviews I’ve ever written. It’s very long and discusses so many things, like the book does, so TL;DR… I highly encourage you to read this story. Even if religious books or “cancer books” aren’t your thing, I would be shocked to hear you didn’t enjoy it. Initial Excitement Full disclosure: I don’t do well with books involving religion. I like reading books about various topics – especially about people who are not like me – but religious main characters are some I never click with. I’ve only read a few books involving main characters who are openly very religious and reference it, but they didn’t work. I knew I was going to read this book even though any summary involving the world “faith” (unless it’s about cults…) doesn’t make it on my TBR. I just can’t do them, but Emery Lord made me change my mind. I couldn’t not read a book by her. I was cautiously optimistic that she’d use her superb writing style to make me love a book about faith. Quick Summary … and, spoiler alert: she totally did. Lucy and her parents (her dad is a pastor and her mom has cancer) head to their church camp over each summer vacation. Because her mom’s cancer is back, she pushes Lucy out of her comfort zone and into a different camp on the other side of the lake. Its meant for healing and has kids dealing with various home or personal […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #137: Covers

Posted May 2, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Book Covers That Make Me Want to Play Outside 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. LOLZ another blog post about covers. Of course! I live for this shit. Anyways, this week was a ~cover-related freebie~ topic, so I decided to go off of the ideas provided on the TTT master list. I was thinking of doing covers with food on them so I could show off a lot of ice cream, but decided to expand my reach! I love book covers that are outside, somewhere sunny or on a beach, during the summertime, and (of course) usually involve some kind of ice cream. Here are some book covers that make me want to go play outside in the sun once I see them!

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | April 2017

Posted May 1, 2017 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 12 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! Woooof, this reading month started SLOW. Fantasy books have really been tripping me up within the last month. I started one then put it on hold, and had to slog through another one for an ARC tour. Both books kind of de-motivated me for reading in general, so I only read 4 books in the first half of the month. I was able to pick up the pace a bit in the second half so I didn’t do too poorly. Average rating for books read in March: 3.9 stars Highlights & Lowlights This month’s books: Year-Long Contemporary Romance Challenge 7 this month | 25 read total | 152% complete Books read from the pre-planned TBR: 0 this month | 2 total Series Enders Challenge 0 this month | 5 read total | 50% complete None this month! Spring Bingo Challenge All the books: Magic: Zenn Diagram – Brant 2017 debut: What I Lost – Ballard Green cover: What to Say Next – Buxbaum Multi-POV: A Little Something Different – Hall Paranormal: The Best Kind of Magic – Cestari […]

April Netflix and Books Challenge Check-In

Posted April 29, 2017 / Book Challenges, Features / 3 Comments

Erica from Diving Under the Cover and I introduced our Netflix and Books Challenge for 2017 as a way of making progress on books we want to read and TV shows we want to watch. The TBR lists were chosen by matching books up to various TV shows based on characters, plots, etc. You can learn all about the challenge and join in anytime here! Don’t forget, you can also still participate in our Netflix and Books Tag that we debuted in 2016; it’ll give you some points in this challenge too! Reading Progress No news to report here! I’m still in waiting mode for a few books to be released from my TBR. I also haven’t really been in the mood for my rereads on here either (The Great Gatsby and Gossip Girl). I’m afraid that GG will create a whoooole binge of the series and I have too many review copies to read instead haha. I wish I had those books in audio form… Completed books so far: Still to read: TV Watching Progress LOL so yeah no progress here either. I just have been watching very few shows aka mostly Friends. We’ve watched some random other shows, plus Shameless as always, so we’ll see when these final get banged out. I think the most likely one will be Bob’s Burgers because I’ve watched a few recent episodes with Chris. I may let this be my “before bed” show since I’ve seen a lot of them already. I’m also half-watching the current […]

May TBR (and Bout of Books 19 Sign-Up)

Posted April 28, 2017 / Book Challenges, Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 13 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… April Progress & Challenges April’s TBR was a little different because I participated in some month-long challenges. One was my own personal challenge to read mostly books from my own shelves, plus there was a blogging community challenge to read ARCs in April. (More info below.) Overall, I did pretty well! I got derailed because I forgot about my book club pick AND that I had a book coming from an ARC tour. I only read three books from my actual April TBR list because of those things… and I didn’t read much at all until the very end of the month regardless! Owned Book April Goal: 75% of books read in April should be books from my shelves (physical ARCs or pubbed books) Progress: Started and/or finished 11 books in April – 5 of them were owned copies – 45% A Very ARC-ish Readathon Goal: 50% of books read in April should be ARCs (physical or egalleys) Progress: Started and/or finished 11 books in April – 5 of them were ARCs – 45% On […]

Summer Releases to Add to Your TBR

Posted April 27, 2017 / Book Lists, Features / 11 Comments

I have a tendency of reading summertime releases really early for some reason. I posted a round-up last year of summer 2016 releases to watch out for as a result of this weird habit. I happened to notice the same thing happening in 2017, so here we are today. A little more background: I love when bloggers make “save the date” style posts like Jamie and Ginger, so this is sort of a quick version of that. Here are a few books coming out in the summer (starting in May, because I can’t resist) that I’ve already read and enjoyed. This book was a breath of fresh air and really kicked my reading year off right. I love Emery Lord, but NAMES is easily her best story. I don’t like reading about religion but this was incredibly well-done and accessible for people who don’t like it. I wouldn’t have read it if her name wasn’t on it, but I’m so glad I did. I LOVED the characters, the ship, the family and friend feels, the setting… you name it. I loved reading this geeky romance between Dimple and Rishi, whose parents are trying to push them together during a summer coding camp. I thought the Indian rep was really well-done from my seriously limited perspective. If yo’re looking for a new OTP, I highly suggest this book. It was so fun to read and I couldn’t believe how quickly I would fly through it in each sitting. I expected to love […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #136: Opposite of Read-Bait

Posted April 25, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 13 Comments

Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book 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 had this post all ready to go for another day on the blog, but then noticed it fit right in with a TTT topic! I started this post because Michelle wrote about her instant NO’s for books (the things that make her pass on reading a certain book) made me really think. Coupled with this TTT, I decided to explore what topics are the opposite of read-bait for me? What keywords, settings, or storylines make me say NAH no thanks? Motorcycles Yes, I feel the same way as Michelle about this one. I don’t know why but it doesn’t appeal to me AT ALL. I don’t watch Sons of Anarchy and highly doubt that I ever will. The concept doesn’t appeal to me and I personally hate driving near them on the road in my real life (it makes me so nervous). Pregnancy or babies Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like I’ll never read about this, or have any actual problem with pregnancy. I just don’t enjoy the drama it can create in YA books and personally never choose to read them. It’s the main reason I haven’t gotten around […]