Top Ten Tuesdays #94: Best of 2016 So Far

Posted June 21, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 26 Comments

Ten Best Books I’ve Read So Far in 2016 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’m not including rereads here (Harry Potter forever), but these are the top 10 books I’ve read so far this year! I have read a lot of really good books but not a lot that I would classify as favorites. I had to cut back on quite a few 4.5 star books, but these are the very best of the best for me. Links go to Goodreads or my review. 5 stars The Score by Elle Kennedy • We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid • The Lost & Found by Katrina Leno The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes • History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera 4.5 stars A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas • The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Dreamology by Lucy Keating • My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

ARC Review: Winning + Mean Girls Book Tag

Posted June 20, 2016 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

When I read this book a few months ago, it reminded me SO much of the movie Mean Girls. Honestly, I think the actions of the characters in this book might even be worse than the people in the movie. Because of this, I decided to do something a little different and combined my review with the Mean Girls Book Tag! I saw this one and saved it from Alexa’s blog back in 2015 and have been waiting for the right time to debut it on the blog. (Header graphic credit to her as well!) It was originally created by BookTuber and book blogger Sarah-Jane (check out her her booktube channel and book blog). First, the review! I started this book with really complicated feelings about the main character and her incredibly bitchy behavior. She was the EPITOME of a mean girl. I genuinely couldn’t imagine how this would be okay behavior for actual young adults to read about. I mean, I’m in my mid-twenties so I know how to act and not be a horrible person. But younger people could still be impacted by this! I was nervous, honestly. However… I took another look at the synopsis and realized that this book has no issues with making it very obvious that this is about a mean girl. The more I read, the more clear it became – this doesn’t glorify the mean girl trope (that being a terrible person gets you ahead in life). It exposes it and makes it very obvious that you shouldn’t behave this […]

Summer 2016 Goals and TBR List

Posted June 18, 2016 / Book Lists, Discussions, Features, TBR Lists / 14 Comments

When I saw Rachel’s summer bucket list post a few weeks ago, I needed to incorporate some of that into my Summer TBR post that I was planning! I tend to have a lot of summer ideas and then never follow through with them, so this is me holding myself accountable! I have some bookish goals and some personal ones. Then, of course, you’ll see my TBR list for the summer. Read the summery books I planned to read last year As you can tell from the TBR at the bottom, I have some plans to read reaaaally summer-oriented books. There’s nothing like reading a book that takes place on a beach and/or during summertime than in the actual summertime. I made a TBR last year and this year for my beach reads but, as usual, I’m terrible with TBR lists. Go to the Book Barn I adore the Book Barn but it’s about an hour and a half away from me, so I don’t go too often. I actually have some books to sell to them so I really should make that a priority before the summer gets too hot. (Wishful thinking.) We previously enjoyed the Niantic Lobster and Craft Festival and went to the Book Barn after, so maybe we can do that again this year. That ticks off another item on my bucket list too. 😉 Sit on the porch and read more often One of the main reasons we moved from our old apartment to our […]

ARC Reviews: The Marked Girl and The Vanishing Throne

Posted June 17, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I really liked this a lot! It took me a little while to get engaged with this for some reason; I think the beginning threw me off. After the first few chapters, I started getting really into it and was super curious about where it was heading. The synopsis says that Liv is in some way connected to the people who come in from the other realm, so I was wondering nonstop how all that was going to connect at some point. The basic idea behind the book is that a girl, Liv, finds these three people (Cedric, Kat, and Merek) who end up explaining that they came in from another land (Caelum) through a portal. I haven’t read a lot of books like this, but it reminded me immediately of a cross between Thor and The 20th Kingdom (I’ll admit I’ve only seen one episode, but the premise at least seems similar!). I became hooked soonafter. I’m a bad judge of what a GOOD fantasy story is because I read so few of them. To me, this book was really unique and super interesting. As I said, I’ve never read a book involving realms and portals; I’d only seen it on the shows/movies. So yeah, I thought this book was unique and engaging for sure. Not sure how experienced fantasy readers will feel! There were lots of twists and turns that I honestly didn’t see coming, which was refreshing. Lately I’ve been on a kick where I’m too good at predicting what’s going to […]

Make Me Read It | Readathon TBR

Posted June 16, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 14 Comments

Thanks for voting in the poll for this readathon! I laid out all of my potential reads and you guys helped narrow my list down. I pulled some of the top books (more than I’ll actually read, to be honest) and will be reading them in order starting with the most-voted-for book. Hosted by Ely @ Tea & Titles and Val @ The Innocent Smiley /// July 9th through 16th Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you’ve borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I’d pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten. Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read. When the readathon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there’s a tie, then it’s your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. Alright friends, here are the top books that your voting gave […]

Blog Tour | Review: Mystic Summer

Posted June 15, 2016 / Book Reviews / 11 Comments

It is my absolute favorite thing to read books that take place in towns or cities I’ve been to before. What’s even better? When it’s a location I know very well and is in my home state! I adore Mystic and haven’t been there in way too long. This book absolutely inspired me to get in the car some weekend soon and take a trip down there. It’s only an hour-ish from where I live and is full of fun things to do. So, needless to say, the setting for this book was pretty wonderful. The author did a fantastic job of setting the scene for people who may have never been there. I’m positive that all readers want to visit Mystic after reading this. Aside from the setting, this book was incredibly enjoyable. Maggie, the main character, starts spending time in her hometown of Mystic when her summer vacation starts. She was a teacher in a Boston prep school but finds out that she may lose her job due to budget cuts. She’s in the midst of helping her best friend plan a wedding, figuring out where she’ll live when her friend moves out, and determining some next steps with her actor boyfriend. When she comes home, she discovers her ex-boyfriend from high school has also returned to Mystic…with a lot going on that she didn’t expect. The two spend time together and you can imagine the rest! I enjoyed Maggie’s personality a lot and loved being inside her head. […]

Blog Tour | Review: Run

Posted June 14, 2016 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

MORE LINKS: Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository I am super impressed by this book, friends! I have been known to be a bigggg Kody Keplinger fangirl so I was absolutely excited to be a part of this blog tour. She just writes the best stories: usually a nice mix of fluffy and serious, with great strong leads and friendships. This book definitely had all of those things, but it struck me as very different from her other books right off the bat. I wasn’t sure at first, honestly, if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I love her backlist titles so much – would a “different” book by her work for me? The answer is definitely. Let’s chat about how great this book is. Her other books may have slightly higher ratings than this one but that’s completely my personal preference. This book is probably her best book – the most well-written, at the very least. She’s grown quite a bit as a writer and I love that she told this story. It’s about two friends, Agnes and Bo, who essentially run away from home. Bo has a messed up family life and Agnes is blind; the two make an unlikely pair but their friendship has grown to be something strong. Bo doesn’t treat Agnes like she’s fragile because she’s blind, but still helps her when she needs it. They just had such a sweet, caring friendship! There wasn’t much romance at all and I generally […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #93: Anticipated Releases

Posted June 14, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 23 Comments

Ten Most Anticipated Releases for the 2nd Half of 2016 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 weeks topic is: Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half Of The Year (since we did a topic about the releases we were excited about for the first half of 2016 back in the beginning of the year) Feel free to tweak it how you want to — like most anticipated fantasy for the second half of 2016 or debut authors. Whatever you want! I will be going along the same lines as my first post and including my most anticipated releases from July through December, encompassing all genres I read. Also, let’s talk about how I read exactly half of the books I highlighted in that earlier post. I kind of suck but that’s better than usual. I also DNFed another but let’s NOT talk about that part. The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee ♥ December This one is definitely one of my top exciting releases. It just sounds so unique and fun to me! Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty ♥ July I’m a big fan of Liane Moriarty and am excited for this one, even though I have a lot of her backlist to read still. PS I Like You by Kasie West ♥ July […]

Book and Movie Review: Me Before You

Posted June 13, 2016 / Book Reviews, Book to Movie Reviews / 7 Comments

On the book So, I’m surprised to say I had kind of mixed feelings upon finishing this book. I fully expected to bawl my eyes out. Honestly on any other day I might have, but I had an extremely emotional day for some other reasons and maybe by brain was too tired to cry more. In any case, big surprise. My Goodreads review sums up everything perfectly to get things started: It’s been an extremely emotional day for me in general and tears have come easily for other reasons… So I have to say I’m utterly baffled by the fact that this book didn’t make me cry. At all. I loved the slow burn, banter-filled story because that is my JAM. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the characters, but am kind of underwhelmed by the ending? I think that, as usual, because it’s an all-time favorite of some people, I just held it to too high of a standard. I am suuuuuper ready for the movie this weekend! Soooo kinda mixed feelings although not really because I liked it a lot?? I’m going to break it down in a few different ways so fully explain my feelings. I liked the vast majority of things about this book, but there are some that left a bit to be desired for me. Characters and romance I LOVED both Will and Lou. Their story was amazingly slow-burn and full of banter. The whole hate (at least on one side) to love trope is […]

Make Me Read It | Readathon Sign-Up and Poll

Posted June 11, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 17 Comments

Last year’s Make Me Read It Readathon was actually quite successful for me! It pushed me to read a number of books that I kept putting off for one reason or another. I will be including a few from last year’s poll, some now-published ARCs I have sitting around still, and a few from my Must Read in 2016 Challenge. Hosted by Ely @ Tea & Titles and Val @ The Innocent Smiley /// July 9th through 16th Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you’ve borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I’d pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten. Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read. When the readathon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there’s a tie, then it’s your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. Now that you […]