Recent Reads | The Searcher and The Lodge

Posted April 7, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

My book club is really getting me out of my comfort zone at times but so far it hasn’t been a successful endeavor lol. I guess I just know what I like, and this kind of book is not it. The books that were already on my TBR when we selected them have generally worked out pretty well, and the two books I’ve read ONLY because of the club… not so much. Why do we need to read about annoying men? This book follows Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop who moves to Ireland to fix up an old house and live quietly post-divorce. When a young boy approaches him one day and asks for help looking for his missing brother, Cal can’t resist helping him out. Unfortunately, this was SO INCREDIBLY BORING. I could truly sum up the plot in three sentences (just add one to the paragraph above that describes the ending) and yet I had to read almost 500 pages. Even the reveal at the end was incredibly obvious. Most reviews were surprised by it but I thought it was pretty glaring who was involved. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I just don’t like reading about men. Or cops / ex-cops. Or guns and hunting. Unfortunately all three of these things were present in spades. Tana French wrote Cal Hooper in a way that a lot of men write women – stereotypically and frustratingly. Did we really need to hear about him adjusting […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | March 2025

Posted April 4, 2025 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. My reading slump unfortunately continued into March. I fell back into some old habits with reading two cookbooks to keep on track lol. I did enjoy a few books but otherwise there were a lot of unfortunate misses. Please cross your fingers April is better. 7 books in March 7 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Formats: 3 mixed, 2 hardcovers, 1 egalley, 1 Netgalley audiobook Status/source: 3 purchased, 2 review, 2 library Age Target: 7 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings! 25 in 25: 20% 52 Book Club: 35% Buzzword Reading Challenge: 42% Buzzword Cover Challenge: 67% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 3 paperback | 5 egalleys | 1 ebook | 1 audiobook All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Physical Books Purchased: The Official Disney Parks Cookbook and The Official Disney Parks Celebration Cookbook BOTM: Our Infinite Fates by Steven Book Swap: Broken Things by Oliver Purchased: Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Fawcett [audiobook] Blind Date with a Book then purchased: Mistborn trilogy by […]

April TBR

Posted April 2, 2025 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. April TBR March wasn’t bad but I really need to get back into reading 8+ books per month instead of the 6-7 I’ve been reading. I just keep scrolling on my phone instead! I’m hoping with college basketball coming to an end and there being a lull with sports for a few more months, maybe Chris will play video games while I read in the evenings. Review Copies I started SWEPT AWAY this week and am hopeful it’ll go better for me compared to O’Leary’s last release! I’ve also had THE SEVEN O’CLOCK CLUB on my Kindle for months – I’ve been tempted multiple times to read this super early and now release month is actually here. I think it will be a refreshing genre to read in the midst of the others I’ve been reading. And finally, I was recently approved for A PROPOSAL TO DIE FOR and think it’ll be a fun cozy mystery. Library Books & New Releases Believe it or not, I’ve put off both the new Emily Wilde book (it’s the last in the series so I’m sad) and the new book by Libba Bray (it’s […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #468: Spring TBR

Posted April 1, 2025 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Spring TBR (Late Post) Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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 never miss a TBR post, except apparently this month. I haven’t been keeping up with blogging too much lately. In any case, I can’t actually skip a seasonal TBR! Here’s my late Spring TBR Upcoming Releases: April Upcoming Releases: May Released & to Read in Spring

ARC Review: Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

Posted March 31, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I really enjoyed the first VERA WONG book and was pumped to hear there would be a sequel! I thought the premise was well-suited to a series because Vera is such a unique and interesting main character. I loved the found family vibes and all of the people she brought into her life (that she originally accused of murder…). I thought they’d turn into a nice crime-solving crew for future books! This story follows Vera as she tries to solve the mysterious death of Xander Lin. Is that even his real name? Or just his online persona? She finds a young distressed woman crying over his death and then just so happens to see some case files in Selena’s briefcase… suddenly Vera has another case to spice up her life. Vera always describes herself as a “Chinese mother” and that’s why she’s so good at everything she does lol. She has a unique personality that honestly is a little abrasive and off-putting at first. Once you get used to her unique charm, her behavior can be lol-funny at times! I also am desperate to eat some of her food. Vera collects her suspects and people connected to Xander (very much like the first book). The bones of the book are very similar to the original Vera Wong story in this way. However, the actual plot/mystery is a lot darker and more grim – especially for a cozy mystery. I don’t want to spoil it but look up trigger warnings if […]

ARC Review: Say You’ll Remember Me

Posted March 24, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I decided that in order to start the year on the right foot, like I have done many times in the past, I wanted a guaranteed 4-5 star read. Who better than Abby Jimenez to deliver that? I decided to read her upcoming April release right on January 1st to ensure a solid start to 2025 and of course she delivered. The synopsis is really vague and I genuinely had no idea what to expect from this book. All I knew was that a grumpy vet and headstrong woman would have a magical night together, only to be told “just forget about me.” Turns out, she’s moving away to the other side of the country to deal with some family issues. I loved Xavier and Samantha from the very beginning and still managed to laugh in between the crying. The story follows them and their long distance love story. There really is just something about the way Abby Jimenez writes – this was a HEAVY read and at times repetitive, but her characters and their chemistry and emotions just make it all worth it. I really don’t like reading sad books and if this was written by anyone else, it would never make it on my TBR (knowing what I know now at least – as I said, the synopsis is super basic). Samantha’s mom is suffering from dementia and Xavier grew up in an abusive household so there’s a LOT of tough things to work through. Because the two […]

ARC Review: This Book Will Bury Me

Posted March 20, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

We’ve all been chasing the high of IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE since it was published, but Winstead’s mystery/thriller books since then have been a bit different. I’ve honestly skipped both of them for various reasons. This book, however, called to me – it felt closer to what I was looking for from her. While I don’t think you should come into it hoping for another IMDIHAK, I was definitely not disappointed. The story does read like a true crime book and breaks the third wall. Our narrator, Jane, is writing a memoir of her time working with online amateur sleuths to help solve a triple homicide on a college campus. (Winstead’s authors note does mention that she took inspiration from a lot of real cases including the Idaho murders – it’s incredibly similar to that case.) She’s “setting the record straight” with her own book, as others close to the case have written tell-all books that, according to her, are not accurate portrayls of the case and her involvement. We follow Jane in the wake of her father’s unexpected death. She finds solace in an online community (think Web Sleuths) and quickly falls in with a group of them: Mistress, Goku, Lightly, and Citizen. The group helps solve a case local to Jane and soonafter, the Idaho murders take place on a college campus. They mobilize in more ways than one and become intwined in the case in ways absolutely no one expected. (…except for me, as […]

Audio ARC Review: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave

Posted March 13, 2025 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve loved this series, even when it goes off the rails a little bit. These are cozy mysteries with a slight edge compared to others I’ve read. I think this book specifically is more on the cozy side than the others and a bit more grounded than a couple of the previous ones. I was happy to encounter a new mystery instead of a continuation of the other plot that had run its course. The first four books each had individual mysteries that get resolved in each book, but there was a larger mystery and thread throughout all of those. It got a little tiring. All of that to say – this book follows a new mystery based in Finlay’s neighborhood. It was set up at the end of book 4 when a body is found in Mrs. Haggarty’s yard. Finlay and Vero spend this installment trying to figure out who murdered this dude and buried them in the yard, since her ex-husband is the one implicated in the crime. Finlay believes, as much as Steven sucks, that he isn’t responsible for it. I will say that I love how this book brought the series back to its roots, as I touched on before. There’s a new storyline to follow that kind of reads like a standalone story. The humor and heart of these books get met every time and keep me reading. I know that a lot of people are sick of the antics or thought the books veered […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #467: Timey Wimey Stuff

Posted March 11, 2025 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Books that Feature… Time Travel / Parallel Universes / Time Loops Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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 a huge fan of books that feature time travel, parallel universes, alternate realities, etc. – the list goes on. I have a shelf on Goodreads for tracking “parallel timey stuff” for this reason, and have written countless blog posts about it: here and here to start. I thought this post could be fun since I haven’t written one in a while! I’ll feature books on my TBR that fall into these categories as well as some tried-and-true favorites for recommendations. Timey TBR Books I did my best to categorize these but obviously there’s some overlap for certain books. I consider there to be 4-5 main categories of timey-wimey books and will explain them in each section below! Time Loops / Groundhog Day This one involves someone repeating the same day or week etc. over and over again, like the movie Groundhog Day. I’ve read quite a few of these books but none SUPER nail it for me. There are a lot of directions the author can go with the ending but usually there’s something the person needs to learn before resuming life again. […]

March TBR

Posted March 7, 2025 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. March TBR February was a weird month but I did mostly read books from my TBR! They just took forever to read. March should be good with a cookbook or two mixed in so I can get ahead and finally work on fantasy books. Review Copies I’m a little late on CAUGHT UP IN YOU and the new FINLAY DONOVAN came out this week, so I’m hoping to get to both of them so soon. At the time of writing this post, I’m currently reading THIS BOOK WILL BURY ME and really enjoying it so far. And finally, SWEPT AWAY comes out early next month so hopefully I can get ahead. Library Books I have all three of these out from Libby at the moment and have really been excited for them! I’ve been waiting for THE LODGE for soooo long and it finally came in as a Kindle book. I have TELL ME WHAT YOU DID and CLOSE YOUR EYES as audiobooks (the latter also as an ebook). Owned and/or Recent Books I’m honestly shook I haven’t read these first two yet – the final Emily Wilde and a new […]