Review: Stardust

Posted June 25, 2015 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

I finally read a Neil Gaiman book! And the bonus is that it was an audiobook narrated in his lovely accent. I picked this one on a whim when Alyssa recommended some to me (and showed me her blog post with specific recommendations). To be totally honest, I don’t have much to say. I really enjoyed listening to this but think I would probably need to listen again and/or watch the movie to figure out a lot of what happened. It seems kind of weird to give this one four stars, when I was fairly distracted throughout, but it was so good! His writing (or, in this case, narrating) style was excellent. I loved it. The fairytale elements were so cool and following Tristran on his journey reminded me of all of those classic stories. After finishing Ella Enchanted right before this (which is obviously not the same exact thing, but kind of similar!), I couldn’t help but love the feeling of following someone on a magical journey. Tristran ventures out of his small village called Wall and into the land of Faerie. He meets a lot of interesting characters along the way, in search of the star that he saw fall. He wants to bring the star back for the girl he loves, in order to prove his affection. I loved all of the side characters and how their stories intertwined with Tristran’s. I definitely didn’t see that ending coming and frankly I feel like I should have. It was all […]

The FRIENDS Book Tag

Posted June 24, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 13 Comments

Tagged by Brittany at The Book Addict’s Guide Created by Nick from Nick’s Book Blog and Nereyda from Mostly YA Book Obsessed OH GOD MY LIFE IS COMPLETE. I don’t know how I didn’t think of creating this myself. Many thanks to Brittany for tagging me for this and bringing it to my attention! Like her, I am a huge Friends fan. That’s even an understatement. I’ve mentioned it before on here, that it’s something I genuinely love/hate talking to people about. I’m very protective of my favorite show and only have conversations with ~true fans~ of it. I literally used to sneak out of my bedroom every night that my mom was watching Friends, starting around when I was 8 years old, and pretend that I couldn’t sleep. She’d let me lay on the couch with her and “fall asleep,” when really I was just listening to the show… which was WAY too inappropriate for me at the time. Friends can be quoted ALWAYS, during any situation. Ever. I even added a recent feature to my reviews that has “Feelings from Friends,” which includes a gif from the show. (Check one out here or here!) Without further ado/explanation of my obsession, here is… The FRIENDS Book Tag THE ONE WHERE EDDIE WON’T GO | a character we wish would go away Sydney’s mom and Ames from Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen When I think of characters that annoyed the absolute shit out of me, the mother in Saint Anything is the first that comes to […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #45: Best of TTT

Posted June 23, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Ten Favorite TTT Topics 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. (Top Ten Favorite TTT Topics I’ve Done Since Starting Bookmark Lit) The topic for this week reads, “In honor of 5 years of Top Ten Tuesday ( our first Top Ten Tuesday debuted June 21, 2010) — My Ten Favorite Top Ten Topics We’ve Ever Done In The Past 5 Years.” Because this is my 45th TTT since starting my blog, I’m going to give you my favorite TTTs that I’ve done since starting with this meme. I tried to choose some of the more unique topics, or the ones I thought I did really well. I generally love the TBR topics that pop up throughout the year, but they happen so often that I don’t feel like I can list them as favorites. I also avoided the “freebie” weeks because isn’t it kind of cheating if I invented the topic myself? 😉 Regardless, here are my favorite TTTs that I’ve participated in and why! Top 10 Inspirational Book Quotes Things That Books Have Inspired Me to Do [#36] I had just posted my own list of favorite book quotes, so I changed up the topic a little for this one. I really enjoyed this TTT because it featured […]

Book Buddies Review: Even In Paradise

Posted June 22, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Cristina’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Cristina’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution. Do you see this as a Great Gatsby “retelling” or just a book that makes a few parallels to it? Cristina: For the first 80% of the book I thought it merely had some parallels to Gatsby (such as Charlotte paralleling Nick, the outsider looking in), but at the end of the book, especially with the twists, it seemed to become much more of an adaptation. I sort of thought the first big “twist” was a good nod to Gatsby, but the additional one at the end felt a little too excessive, like it was trying too hard to emulate the novel. Lauren: I agree. I think the book was trying a little too hard. I could tell that some kind of tragedy was brewing for the end, but I didn’t think it would so closely resemble Gatsby. I did like the parallels of Charlie to Nick, because I think […]

Inside & Out #9: Lindsey from Bring My Books

Posted June 22, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 4 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Lindsey from Bring My Books Twitter: @bringmybooks| Instagram: @bringmybooks| Snapchat: bringmybooks | Pinterest | Tumblr Tell me a little about yourself: My name is Lindsey! What can I say? I’m just your average late 20s book nerd. 😉 Butttttt here are some other things I nerd out about: my cats, Neville & Luna; stegosauri (only the best dinosaur EVER); bouncy balls (I have over 400); old globes and thermoses (my favorite is my old classroom map of “Europe during the time of Napoleon – 1812”); the smell of honeysuckle and chili (but not together, eww); and any and all things summer and beachy! I grew up on the East Coast not 10 miles away from a beach, and now can’t imagine my life without water within easy driving distance. My mother started working at a bookstore when I was a teenager, and then I kinda “fell” into working at one myself in my early 20s. I’ve now been at that bookstore for almost 8 years this July, and I’m a manager! It’s been a crazy hectic few years, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything with my life that doesn’t involve books. (I […]

Blog Tour Review: The Revenge Playbook

Posted June 19, 2015 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

I had a good feeling I was going to love this book, especially when I started seeing some great reviews roll in, littered with my favorite word: FEMINISM. I also was excited about the football plot, although it doesn’t make football players look good. (The football guys in this school were absolute pigs and it was awful.) Add in the concept of “different girls brought together under a common revenge goal” and I was SOLD. I felt a lot of things while reading this book! I didn’t ever want to stop reading because I was JUST as determined as these girls to get back at the football players. These guys were absolutley horrible! (Nearly all of them, at least…) They had awful lists about girls and forced guys to break up with their girlfriends if they weren’t up to their standards. They got away with doing anything they wanted and had major preferential treatment from everyone in the school. I kept thinking of the Amy Schumer “Football Town Nights” video, which I won’t link up here for potential trigger warnings. (Google it, if you’re interested!) Everyone in the town perpetuates rape culture without even realizing it. As this book said, “Rape culture isn’t something feminists made up to be angry about.” I liked the romance in this one, although it wasn’t as important. The main point of the book is revenge against dickhead boys, and that took center stage. The most heavily romance-related ones were Melanie Jane’s and Liv’s points of […]

Blog Tour Review: Jesse’s Girl

Posted June 17, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

I love Miranda Kenneally’s books. I just binge read the middle few books in the series (since I previously read Catching Jordan and Breathe, Annie, Breathe out of order) before getting to this one. Although a couple of them (Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget) are more religion-based than I personally enjoy, I still always love and appreciate the characters she writes. The romances are real and fun, the characters have distinct personalities, and the supporting characters also have complexities that get some attention. So, I’m happy to report that THIS BOOK made me so happy and hit the mark for me in nearly every possible way. I never really consider myself to be a big music buff; I don’t spend time seeking out new music or exploring artists. I stick to what I know and love, which is classic rock or 90’s music nearly 100% of the time. I’m not a big 80’s music fan (sorry, everyone!), but Maya still made me extremely happy with all of her musical referenes and her entire personality. I have to say, reading the countless comments about Queen made me incredibly gleeful. I LOVE QUEEN. FREDDIE MERCURY FOREVER. If she was going to be an 80’s girl and I’d be hearing about 80’s music, I’m so glad it was Queen. I do like a bit of country music too, so I was really excited about this book. Maya is Sam Henry’s little sister (so there was a LOT of Sam and Jordan, one of my […]

Musical Memories ft. Just Listen

Posted June 16, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

When Cristina and I discussed our new mini feature, Book Buddies Ask, we decided to start with the Sarah Dessen novels we both planned on reading or rereading this summer. Our first question debuted over on my review of Saint Anything (and hers!). I decided to reread Just Listen when she told me she was on the blog tour, but am still working my way through it. This post was inspired by the strong musical elements of the novel, as well as some general thoughts about it. “A song can take you instantly back to a moment, a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment.” When I read Hannah’s post last week about memories tied to music, I thought it would be a great way to discuss Just Listen. I started spiraling through Spotify and making my own memories-related playlist. I listened to it all day at work and reflected so much on different memories in my life. I don’t think I got much work done, but what else is new. Like her, I don’t really consider myself to be a crazy music person. There are actually plenty of days where I don’t listen to music at all, thanks to my addiction to audiobooks. I will say that there will always be songs that make me crank up the volume when I catch them on the radio. (Namely, most classic rock songs.) Check […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #44: Summer TBR

Posted June 16, 2015 / TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Ten Books on my Summer TBR for 2015 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. The TTT from a few weeks ago included books I plan to throw into my beach bag this summer, so I’m going to give you a brief recap of what those books were (series/duologies represented by the first book’s cover): Aaaaand as usual I have more than 10 here, but I couldn’t resist… Everyone knows my extreme love for Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke, so obviously I am VERY excited to get my hands on Resonance when it comes out! I absolutely love that world and can’t wait to see how it all ends up. Even though I wasn’t super thrilled with Get Even by Gretchen McNeil, I DEFINITELY need to know what happens next with that ending. Get Dirty comes out this summer and I want it. And, last but not least, Maybe In Another Life by Taylor Jenkis Reid sounds phenomenal. I have Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler for review, so I plan to read that and its predecessor (Behind the Scenes) at some point this summer. I’m excited for Anne & Henry by Dawn Ius as well, despite some of the early reviews. I’m on the blog tour for Never Always Sometimes by […]

ARC Review: Emmy & Oliver

Posted June 15, 2015 / Book Reviews / 12 Comments

I can’t lie when I say I was a bit hesitant going into this one. I enjoyed Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway but wanted a little more. I LOVE how unique the concepts of her books are. She takes a cool plot idea, adds great characters, and gives it a great contemporary feel without being too predictable. Sometimes love isn’t something you say, it’s something you do.” (pg. 75, ARC) This book blew me away. I was utterly addicted to it and needed to know how things turned out. If I could have stuck with Emmy and Oliver (the main characters, obviously) forever, I would have. There were so many endearing moments that just killed me with feels. The main premise is that Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, was kidnapped by his father 10 years ago and the family/neighborhood never really moved on. Suddenly Oliver is found and returning home to his mom, who is now remarried and has two kids. Naturally everything takes some getting used to. Oliver doesn’t remember everyone as much as they remember him, but he does end up falling back into his old crowd of friends: Emmy, Caro, and Drew. The minute Oliver was introduced, I fell in love. Seeing him and Emmy fall back in together had me so anxious and full of love; I just NEEDED them to get together immediately. Emmy was an interesting character because she was constantly hiding things from her parents, like the fact that she applied to college and enjoyed surfing, because […]