Bookmark Lit Bulletin | April 2021

Posted May 3, 2021 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 2 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. I actually was able to get on track in April by finishing 9 books, but then I was lazy in the last week of the month. I started a new book and just didn’t get around to finishing it. I’m behind again. But it should be easy to catch up, I hope. Lots of good ones in April! 9 books read in April 9 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 3521 • Average rating: 4.28 stars Sources: 4 review, 1 purchased, 1 library Formats: 3 hardcover, 3 audio, 2 egalley, 1 mixed Genres: 3 contemporary, 2 fantasy, 2 mystery/thriller, 2 nonfiction Age Target: 6 adult, 2 young adult, 1 new adult Check out my 2021 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 6 read this month | 20/40 read total Heart on the cover, MC works at dream job, genre hybrid, set mostly outdoors, dark academia, book from TBR that reminds you of favorite person A-Z Reading Challenge 1 read this month: L Calendar of Crime Challenge 1 read this month: word with month’s […]

May TBR

Posted April 30, 2021 / 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. May TBR I finally caught up on my Goodreads challenge, thanks to an audiobook addiction for a few books AND my new cookbooks that came in. As a result, I did pretty okay with my TBR. The audiobooks I listened two were technically books I HAD on my library hold list, so they’re kind of from my April TBR too. I didn’t do well with review copies because I mostly tried to read my cookbooks and a couple of physical books, but I managed to finish a couple egalleys up by the end of the month too. Owned Books/Audiobooks to Read Yep, these three guys are still here. I do hope to read them sometime in 2021 haha. MAJSETY, SEX AND VANITY, and INSTANT KARMA are all available to me by hard copy and audiobook. I’m keeping this here again and just saying I managed to finally finish ACOSF… only to now add RULE OF WOLVES. I’m going to see if Scribd adds the audio in May, because they’re renewing its predecessor’s audiobook. If not, I’ll just buy it from Libro.fm. Review Copies I didn’t do that well with review copies […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #337: Animals

Posted April 27, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Animals from Books 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 wish I previously tracked things like this (animals in books that I love) but my love for dogs is more recent, since I’ve gotten my cutie boy. I thought I would pull a classic Lauren here and focus on books with dogs on the COVER. Generally that means there’s a dog or two inside as well. I’ve read the majority of these but some where just books that came to mind or were in my Goodreads scrolling as I put this together. I’m making the cover images larger so you can see some of the tinier cute puppies 😉

ARC Review: Take Me Home Tonight

Posted April 26, 2021 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Generally speaking, Morgan Matson can do no wrong. She always writes amazing friendships and cute romances surrounded by fun plotlines. And, best of all for me, they usually take place in Connecticut! TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT is no exception to that rule. This is a classic “one night in New York City” kind of story. Kat and Stevie are secretly off to the city to have a fancy birthday dinner for Stevie after her dad bails. They’ve been best friends forever even though they’re complete opposites. Kat was… very annoying to me in the first third of the book. She absolutely steamrolled over everyone else and didn’t seem to care (or notice) that Stevie had different opinions than her. She just went for whatever she wanted and assumed Stevie would always go along for the ride. To be fair, Stevie didn’t always stick up for herself or let Kat know when something wasn’t working for her. I think their friendship got into a comfortable routine of Kat deciding and Stevie following… until they finally had the inevitable fight about it all. As the synopsis suggests, there are a ton of shenanigans involving cute boys, dry cleaning, bad plays, and an adorable pomeranian. I enjoyed the journey both of the girls went on, especially when they weren’t together. Kat without Stevie was WAY less insufferable. I liked following along with multiple people as the night progressed because everyone was having a very different kind of evening – Kat begins a budding […]

Rereading the ACOTAR Series // Review: A Court of Silver Flames

Posted April 22, 2021 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Spoilers for the books pictured above only, not ACOSF. I wasn’t planning on rereading the ACOTAR series ahead of the new release – I planned to read a recap somewhere for each book and just dive right in. However, when I saw a readalong planned that broke down when to start and finish each book, PLUS I found the audiobooks on Scribd… I figured I may as well! I was a big fan of the first book and was surprised at how quickly I read it. Usually fantasy books take me forever, especially ones of this size! The magic and world-building was very accessible so I think that helped. I loved Feyre and Tamlin and was fascinated by the trials Under the Mountain. I definitely thought, upon rereading, I would hate Tamlin the whole time or see some inklings of what was really going on, but that didn’t happen too much. If I thought I enjoyed ACOTAR the first time around, I was certainly not prepared for ACOMAF – my favorite of these above. Rhys was immediately captivating yet again. I remember thinking I’d hate him heading into book two but he wooed me right away. Some of her writing started to grate on me in this one, with her constantly making “vulgar gestures” way too often or calling him a “prick” as the only insult. Just made for a lot of repetitive scenes. While I do see why I loved this one the most the first time around, I […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #336: Colorful Covers

Posted April 20, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Colorful Book Covers 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. You can always count on me to eagerly put together a TTT about book covers! I like that this one is somewhat up to interpretation. I thought I would go through, like with the Crayola post I just did, and pick favorites with a ton of pretty colors and/or rainbow-ish covers.

Eating Lately via My iPhone

Posted April 16, 2021 / Food & Drink, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

Like everyone during quarantine, we’ve been doing a lot of cooking and baking! It’s been so fun to find new meals, work with what we have, and bake tasty (well-deserved) treats. I was inspired by Communikait and her “what I’m eating lately via my iPhone” posts. They’re simple photos of meals she’s had and a little description about the recipe. I’ve been on a Skinnytaste recipe kick lately. I purchased two of her books within the last month or so. This is a blackened salmon with an avocado cucumber salsa and wild rice. So good! We made carrot cake for Easter for the first time, even though we didn’t go anywhere or have any plans that day. Another Skinnytaste recipe and made with pineapple – so good. I love a cream cheese frosting. Half Baked Harvest has been another favorite recently, website and books included. She’s been making some copycat restaurant recipes lately. This is a Taco Bell crunchwrap supreme dupe, so it’s a regular crunchy taco with a soft taco baked on the outside with cheese in between. We’ve been wanting to use our blender more so I made some smoothie bowls with frozen fruit, avocado, blueberries, coconut, nuts, and granola. So good. I don’t even remember what recipe this was – it’s a riff on a Half Baked Harvest one with some kind of meat and Asian flavors lol – but we added an egg. I think it was a Korean bowl with steak? So good regardless haha. […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #335: Crayola

Posted April 13, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments

Books as Crayola Crayons 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. The prompt for this week is to think of book titles that could be crazy Crayola crayon colors. They have so many weird ones. I thought the best approach would be to look on my Goodreads shelves for existing colors in book titles and go from there. When I ran out and didn’t want to repeat too much, I thought of other color-like words (moonlight, sunshine, etc.) and filled in some gaps! All of the colors below next to the colors were pulled directly from the book covers. (If you enjoy things like this, check out my favorite feature I need to resurrect – Cover Colors!) Words in Deep Blue: a deeper, not yet navy, shade of blue Serious Moonlight: light yellow shade of moonlight Once Upon a Wine: a burgundy shade like red wine Blackberry Summer: black like the berries Across the Green Grass Fields: grassy green fields Little White Lies: “dark white” aka lighter gray Orange is the New Black: a dark, deep orange Hello, Sunshine: bright, vibrant yellow shade Nantucket Blue: an ocean-esque blue color Nantucket Red: dark red sky for sailor’s delight

ARC Review: Life’s Too Short

Posted April 8, 2021 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I kind of fell in love with this book within the first page or two. Something about Jimenez’s writing just clicks for me – it’s natural, hilarious, and addicting to read. I generally liked her debut but had some lingering issues with it as time passed. I LOVED the second book in this companion series and my faith was fully restored and ready for book three. I’m happy to sat that my super high expectations were exceeded with this one. I fell hard for Adrian and Vanessa right off the bat. I’m pretty sure if I started this first thing in the morning instead of late at night, I could have or would have finished this book in one sitting. Vanessa is a YouTuber with a popular channel highlighting her travels around the world. You find out from the synopsis and early in the book that she may have ALS like her mother and her sister. She wants to live it up during however long of a time she has on earth. Adrian, on the other hand, is her seemingly vanilla attorney next-door-neighbor who goes to his job with long hours and doesn’t do much else. I loved him right away – they had so much chemistry. Vanessa’s personality was luminous and hilarious – a different kind of funny from Kristen in book one, but similar in that she made me laugh out loud all the time. They balanced each other out and early “friends only” relationship made things effortless […]

Review Round Up | Influence, This is Not the Jess Show, and Girls With Rebel Souls

Posted April 7, 2021 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! All Sara Shepard books are the same… and I mean that as a compliment. I know what I’m getting into and her books always hit the spot. They’re so easy to read, are super addicting, and always have a surprising ending. That’s all I ask for with my mystery/thrillers, to be honest, and reading her books feels like coming home for me. I remember the good ol’ PLL days and some of her older series. So good, so classic. This one involves influencers – a topic I personally haven’t encountered much in YA books yet. Just a little bit here and there. It goes between Delilah, Jasmine, and Fiona, with flickers of Scarlet’s live streams and vlog transcripts in between as well. Delilah just moved to LA and is a budding influencer after saving a puppy from a burning shed. Jasmine and Fiona are well-established influencers hiding major secrets, both trying to break out of their shells. I liked each of the points of view here but Delilah’s felt a bit young compared to the other two. Of course, because it’s Sara Shepard, there’s a mystery involved. The book starts with a prologue where one of the girls (we assume one of the MCs) ends up dying […]