Predicting My EOY Reading

Posted November 14, 2024 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

At the time of writing this post, I’ve read 87 books and am currently reading 3 books. That leaves just 10 books(!!!) between the second half of November and all of December to finish off my Goodreads challenge. If I’m being honest, there’s a good chance I’ll finish more books than this because I have five holiday novellas (plus two other super short/kind of novellas) to read in addition to other full-size books. I thought it would be fun to predict the final ten books of the year if I had to guess, but also share the additional books I think I may realistically read beyond my reading challenge. I knew 100 books would be a challenge since I’ve kept my goal at 80 books the past couple of years. I’ve read some shorter books and novellas to get me over the hump so it would be nice if I can hit 105 or 110 books on the year. Current Reads I’m finishing up reading a cookbook (yes, I read them cover to cover) called WHAT TO COOK WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE COOKING. I have a Christmassy romance going on my Kindle from Libby called I’LL BE GONE FOR CHRISTMAS, which is super cute as of now. And finally, my physical read mixed with audiobook listening is ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY for my in-person book club. I forgot the meeting was already coming this Monday so I had to get going. Holiday Novellas Amazon released another novella series this year, so […]

Recent Reads | Love and Other Conspiracies and Hemlock House

Posted November 8, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I saw this book getting some love on Goodreads and decided to request it on a whim from the library. I really haven’t read a lot of romance this year and was hoping to find a win… and boy did this deliver! I absolutely loved this romance – A+, no notes. Hallie is in need of a breakthrough show for her job at Skroll (basically like Buzzfeed I guess but heavy on video content) when she finds a random conspiracy show on TV and falls for the guest of the episode, Hayden. She learns of his successful podcast and immediately thinks he has something special. The two of them begin a show where he discusses conspiracy theories and hunts cryptids. She’s the skeptic and he’s the believer, and their banter on the show quickly turns into something more. I absolutely loved the tension and chemistry in this book. Hayden honestly set the bar high for other romance heroes. He was thoughtful, caring, and sweet at every single turn. Hallie had a horrible previous relationship with her ex that still works at Skroll, so there was a lot of heaviness and gaslighting in this book. It was hard to read and I prefer my romances super fluffy, but the swooniess of everything else overpowered it. I was rooting for Hallie so hard. I knew pretty early on that this was going to be a five-star read and it maintained that level of excellence throughout the entire story. It will certainly go […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | October 2024

Posted November 6, 2024 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

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. Another weird month for October but generally read a decent amount quantity-wise… just not length-wise! I read a few novellas to flesh out the month since I just never got in a good rhythm with full-length books. I’ll see how the rest of the year goes, I guess. I don’t doubt I’ll reach my Goodreads goal but I do think there will be a lot more novellas unfortunately. I have so many novels I’m excited to read but just can’t make the time! 8 books in October 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 1,952 • Average rating: 4.06 stars Genres: 5 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary, 1 historical fiction Formats: 4 ebook, 3 mixed format, 1 hardcover Sources: 4 Kindle Unlimited, 1 BOTM, 1 library, 1 preordered, 1 purchased Age Target: 7 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 40% 52 Book Club: 69% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 33% Breakdown: 3 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 1 egalley | 2 ebooks | […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #456: Covers

Posted November 5, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books with Flowers on the Cover (TBR Edition) 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 am always a sucker for book cover-related prompts so here I go as usual! I decided to fill in the “blank” on the cover with flowers because duh. I didn’t want to pull the same books you would have seen around here recently so there’s a mix of release dates below. All of these books are on my TBR.

November TBR

Posted October 31, 2024 / 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. November TBR October was weird – I read some novellas from Amazon and got through a few books on my TBR but also forgot what else I even had on here haha. We’ll see how the rest of the year goes! Kindle/KU Books I got an offer for three free months of Kindle Unlimited so I’m trying to read some books off of that TBR over the next couple of months, and potentially holiday books in December! I read the first Chesnut Springs book this past month and enjoyed it so I’m curious to move on to the next one soon. I’m currently reading PHANTASMA for a spooky season book but it’s long as hell, so it’ll definitely take me through November. I have REMEMBER ME TOMORROW as an egalley that I’m really looking forward to but just haven’t read yet. Library Books I have these three out from the library right now. I’m really intrigued by all of them but A CURIOUS BEGINNING has been on my TBR for ages. Really hope to get into it before the end of the year, or else I’m pushing an entire series binge to […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #455: Halloween

Posted October 29, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Halloween Freebie: Creepy, Scary, Atmospheric 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 read a good amount of mysteries and thrillers, not a lot of horror, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the creepy or atmospheric or spooky books I’ve read. Not a ton of jump-scares in my reading life but these books gave me the creeps, had a few scary moments, or just had a great Halloween-esque atmosphere!

Recent Reads | Worst Case Scenario and The God of the Woods

Posted October 14, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’ve been absolutely loving TJ Newman’s books lately – I know I haven’t looked that hard, but I don’t think a lot of authors are writing thrillers like these! (If you have recs, let me know!) They’re basically disaster thrillers where an airplane causes some kind of havoc – her first book was about a hijacked plane crashing, the second book had a plane sinking underwater and needing rescue, and this one is about a plane crashing into a freakin nuclear power plant. The setup, as a result, was a bit different – the plane has already crashed and the team at the power plant / in the small town have to rally together to figure out how to save everyone. There were definitely similar elements to her first two books, like going back and forth between different people involved, but not really a past/present situation. Everything is happening real time in this one. I didn’t expect to finish this book as quickly as I did and ended up kind of sobbing at the end of it! I think each of Newman’s books have gotten stronger (especially with characters and emotional punch) as they’ve come out. I feel like the ending was a little abrupt but otherwise this was super addicting. I cannot fathom the amount of research that must go in to all of her books… She has all of this stuff about nuclear power plants and underwater welding and crazy things that go beyond her normal flight attendant […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September 2024

Posted October 9, 2024 / 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. I had a weird reading month in September, which is kind of par for the course – I always expect to do less reading when I’m bopping around for my birthday and beginning-of-fall plans. I read nearly an entire graphic novel series and just a few full-length novels so my numbers look good at least. 10 books in September 9 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Pages read: 3,143 • Average rating: 3.9 stars Genres: 5 graphic novel, 3 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary Formats: 5 paperback, 2 ebook, 2 mixed, 1 egalley Sources: 5 purchased, 2 preordered, 2 library, 1 review Age Target: 5 young adult, 4 adult, 1 middle grade Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! ADORED This Series binge // // // Popsugar Reading Challenge: 36% 52 Book Club: 65% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 29% Breakdown: 7 hardcovers | 10 paperbacks | 1 egalley | 1 ebook | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest […]

Recent Reads | The Examiner and The Unwedding

Posted October 3, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

Janice Hallett has very quickly become an auto-buy author for me. I’m now officially caught up on all her books (sad!) because I completed her backlist before diving into her new release, THE EXAMINER. Hallett always writes in mixed media or epistolary format so you spend a lot of the initial pages wondering where all of these emails or texts or audio notes will take you. THE EXAMINER is much of the same, except for a little bit longer… It takes a while to figure out what the mystery actually is. The premise is a bunch of students are taking a Masters course in art at a college and something goes haywire, or someone goes missing, or someone dies. You don’t really know right away as the messages are just the students getting to know each other and eventually having disagreements. The story evolves into a lot of wild revelations. I’ve always thought some of Hallett’s premises are a bit far-fetched (primarily the TWYFORD CODE in some ways as well as ALPERTON ANGELS). That hasn’t affected my enjoyment of these books though, as one of them was five stars. I will admit that the EXAMINER was a bit too wild for me. It didn’t feel realistic that all of this would actually happen. I’m not saying all of my books need to be super realistic (ex: I read cozy mysteries or books like FINLAY DONOVAN where the amateur sleuth figures complex mysteries out) but with each reveal and twist, I […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #454: Hype

Posted October 1, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 5 Comments

Books I Read or Avoided Because of the Hype 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 love this one! I wrote a post a while back about books I’m afraid to read so you’ll likely see a bit of overlap on here in one of the sections, but I definitely can let the hype of a book affect my reading. READ AVOIDED