ARC Review: Leave Me

Posted September 16, 2016 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

Initial Excitement I wasn’t sure what to think when I saw that Gayle Forman was coming out with an adult-oriented contemporary novel. I’ve liked or loved all of her books so far and I personally have been reading more adult books lately instead of YA, so this was a welcome development for me. I had a feeling that she would knock it out of the park. She has a very sophisticated but natural writing style that I figured would lend itself very well to adult fiction as well. Summary in a Second After suffering from a heart attack, Maribeth is so overwhelmed and stressed. She’s trying to get her family up to speed as her husband barely helps, her mom comes in and offers a bizarre style of help, and her kids act like the four-year-olds that they are. One day she just up and leaves. She hides her identity, doesn’t bring a computer or cell phone, and gets an apartment elsewhere. Just like that. Of course, I don’t agree that this is the right move but it’s not hard to see where she’s coming from. Based on her home life at that time, they didn’t deserve her help. It’s really so typical to see a woman that undervalued in her home; she was somehow expected to keep everything going after a serious medical issue. I just couldn’t understand Jason’s thought process. Forman did a great job of making you feel for Maribeth and understand her actions even though abandoning your […]

If You Liked This, Read That

Posted September 15, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 12 Comments

I know a lot of people do this post so I’m not 100% sure if I should be crediting anyone for the idea?? I never felt compelled to do this because I’m pretty bad at recommending books in this way. However, I was inspired when finishing my reread of Before I Fall in August. If you liked some of the books here (some more popular ones), maybe you’d be interested in some of the other (perhaps less popular) other books! The popular one: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver The underrated one: It’s a Wonderful Death by Sarah J. Schmitt Why the rec: Both books have similar themes, but are explored in very different ways. There’s a mean girl who made some mistakes during her life, but a brush with death of some kind makes her rethink what she’s done. She makes amends in one way or another. I liked BEFORE I FALL a bit more, but they’re both seriously unlike anything I’ve ever read! I like anything in that weird “post-life, pre-death” timeframe. The popular one: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach The underrated one: All We Have is Now by Lisa Schroeder Why the rec: I think both of these are relatively underrated, but more people were buzzing about the first. I highlighted ALL WE HAVE IS NOW on a recent post and remembered how much I enjoyed it. Both books deal with the end of the world / apocalypse coming and explore those final days on earth. Or are they?! The popular one: To […]

Late ARC Review: The Year We Turned Forty

Posted September 14, 2016 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Initial Excitement Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have been on my list for so long. The plot summaries of their books ALWAYS intrigue me but I haven’t been able to prioritize reading them yet. When I got approved for this one, I knew I had to read it as soon as I could. In this case, ARC August was the perfect time to get it done! I love books about parallel lives and time travel, and this one was a fun combination of both, kind of. Summary in a Second Three friends (Gabriela, Claire, and Jessie) are approached by a magician who offers to send them back in time to when they were 40. They can live the entire year all over again and change how they once handled things. Then, when the year is up, they have to decide to either stay in 2005 and live their “new” lives, or come back to 2015 and continue with their “old” lives. All three have to agree on staying there in order to stay, otherwise they all come back to 2015. Sooooo cool. Like I said, sort of a mix of parallel lives and time travel… but still very much a contemporary fiction/romance book! Storytelling & Setting Because I loved the concept behind this one, I was super eager to see how the story unfolded. I’ll admit that it was all pretty predictable for me. The girls were very obvious about what they’d change in their new 40th year. The pacing was a […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #106: Favorite Paranormal

Posted September 13, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Nine Favorite Paranormal-ish Books 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 TTT is: Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Books Of X Genre (I know, I know. Picking all time faves. I’m MEAN. But I like knowing people’s definitive faves). Can also break it down into sub-genre if that helps? I decided to go with a category that already doesn’t have a lot of books that I’ve read in it – paranormal-ish. I say ish because I’m pretty terrible about understanding the difference between paranormal, magical realism, sci-fi and fantasy at times. In any case, here’s my list for some of my favorite paranormal-like books. Paranormal & Magical Elements in the Real World I don’t read a lot of straight up paranormal books involving magical creatures. I do, however, like when paranormal or fantasy elements are integrated in the real world. Most of these books have some kind of magical element to them but also take place in our world. I guess that’s the textbook definition of paranormal, but I did keep out the books involving creatures instead of magical/fantastical things or events. Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier • traveling into each other’s dreams Rebel Belle trilogy by Rachel Hawkins • unique paranormal with Paladins and prophecies Down With the Shine […]

Blogging Ebb and Flow

Posted September 12, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 8 Comments

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that my blogging goes through a lot of ups and downs. There are some months where I have SO many ideas for posts and discussions that I find myself moving things around so I can post them all ASAP instead of waiting. I’m excited, eager, and creative. Then, there are some times where I wonder where that energy went. I look at my month and it only has a bunch of reviews from books I read forever ago, plus a few TTTs and wrap-up posts. These months make me loathe myself because I regret not pacing out some of my discussions a little better, and beefing up later months. I’m usually the person who has too many posts scheduled (especially because I always read ARCs super early then write and schedule my reviews as soon as possible). There is absolutely no in-between for me. My biggest issue in general is how much I schedule ahead. I read a book in April and wasn’t able to schedule the review post until June because of the amount of ARC reviews and other posts I packed in. I love having a full schedule because it means I don’t have to worry. I sit back and chill. AND THEN all of a sudden I look at the calendar and the next few weeks are empty. I don’t have much scheduled because I used it all up. It’s an endless cycle my friends. Sooo instead of continuing this […]

Blog Tour | Review: The Goodbye Year

Posted September 9, 2016 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Initial Excitement When I saw the summary for this one, I knew I wanted to partake in the blog tour. I’m always fascinated by stories like this for some reason. The idea of multiple people and points of view – both the parents and kids – intrigued me. The slice-of-life style always ends up on my TBR because I think it’s really interesting to see how people live their daily lives. Summary in a Second A bunch of parents and their senior year students are gearing up for the final year of high school. Each family has some major familial and relationship issues. The story follows all of them through the first half of their senior year as they try to work through their problems and other craaaazy things happen to them. Storytelling & Setting The story takes place in Crystal Cove, California, which is described as an upscale down with lots of gated communities. It sounded like it could have been a setting for a series of Real Housewives, so I was definitely excited about that! I love reading about smaller communities – whether they’re rich ones or just average – because you can really feel how everyone knows each other. That’s absolutely key in this story. About those Characters Melanie, Keith, Seth, and Dane: Melanie has been dealing with her slacker son, Dane, now that her oldest, Seth, is off at college. She copes by drinking a little too much and is trying to get the lives of her family members […]

The Bedtime Book Tag

Posted September 8, 2016 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 3 Comments

Lindsey is doing weekly book tags so I decided to join in on one she recently did! The original tag was created by YouTube user Kelly’s BookSpill and can be found here. As always, if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged! I always choose 99 Days for this category, but I wanted to showcase something a little newer! This book kept me up WAY WAY past my bedtime. I’m pretty sure I read it all in one sitting. It was really addicting even though it wasn’t that great of a book, to be honest. ♥ ReviewI binge-read this series right before I started blogging and it was amazing. A lot of people stopped after book one because it got weird, but this first one was CREEPY. I don’t read a lot of mysteries, especially murder-y ones, because I want to be able to sleep at night thankyouverymuch. ♥ ReviewUgh there are no words for how little I enjoyed this book. I shouldn’t have listened to the audio especially because falling asleep in the shower or while driving is just not ideal at all. Do not recommend. ♥ ReviewThis is tough because I have SO many books I’m excited for. I think this is the one I’m most eager for that happens to be pretty damn far away. Ally Carter always has some cliffhangers but the middle book in this series was a doozie. I can’t wait to see what happens next in this story!I have a lot of book boyfriends – as one does […]

Oldest Unreleased Books on my TBR

Posted September 7, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 19 Comments

When compiling my post about recently announced books I’m hyped about, I started noticing the “date added” on some of the books on my “unreleased” shelf. Like… I’ve been waiting HOW long for these books?? Come on. There are obviously two books by Kasie West because duh? and a few more from favorite authors! Why must you all keep me waiting?? Some of these are literally more than 2 years of wait time. Click on the book cover image to check out the Goodreads page. John Green has been working on this book forever. COME ON. I mean, to be fair, he did work on getting two of his books turned into movies and (as far as I know) working on a third. But still, your job is to write for me so get going please thank you. I’ve been waiting since 2014 for this book and it’s been two years already… with no end in sight. I love Holly Black. I was pretty dismayed to see this book not releasing until 2018 because UGH it sounds so good! It seems like its set in the same world as the last book I read from her, but will dive deeper into Faerie courts. It’s about “focuses on a young human girl who witnesses her parents’ deaths and is forcibly taken to Faerieland with her two sisters—one faery, one human—where she will grow up and one day fight to gain power.”This one is apparently a contemporary but involves a murderer, Scream-style. Stephanie Perkins […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #105: Fall TV

Posted September 6, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 13 Comments

Fall TV Freebie: Ten Favorite TV Shows Ever 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 TTT is: In honor of Fall TV, do a tv-themed topic! Top ten favorite tv shows of all time, ten new shows coming out this Fall that are on my radar, tv shows I wish never got cancelled, tv shows I would recommend to book characters, books I wish would be tv shows, ten favorite shows from the late 90’s or early 2000’s, ten tv shows for every fantasy lover, etc. As usual, all of these ideas sound amazing. It took me forever to narrow this down to just one of these topics! I figured I don’t talk about TV too much on here except in passing, so I wanted to talk about my all-time favorite shows. The other topics may come sometime in the future! Friends I think this should go without saying because I try to toss a Friends gif in every review I write. I once cried about how much I loved Friends on New Years because people didn’t seem to understand it. I don’t even like talking about Friends with some people because I just don’t think they GET IT. There are some people I know I can count on though 😉 […]

Throne of Glass Series – Part One

Posted September 5, 2016 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

I’ve been saying for literal years that I needed to get going on this series. I kept promising everyone “by the end of the year!!” and it never happened. Something just clicked the other day when I needed a new audiobook, and I just pressed play on the first book without thinking. I had actually planned to read the novella bind-up first because people are very passionate about doing that, but I completely didn’t think of it at the time. In any case, I hopped into it right after finishing book one and before heading to book two. SO, here you’ll find my reviews for the first book, the novella bind-up, and the second book. (The order below is in the order I read them, but technically you could definitely read the novellas first!) I finally did it, guys! I can’t believe it. After reading and loving both ACOTAR and ACOMAF, I thought it really was time to get to Sarah J. Maas’s first series. I obviously had built it up a little in my head because it’s so many people’s favorite series ever. Luckily, I also knew that this is a series that gets better with each book (supposedly). My expectations were held in check a little because of that; I knew if I didn’t LOVE the first book I could still likely love later books. That’s kind of what happened here! I was a little bit underwhelmed at times because it felt like not much was happening. I know […]