Recent Reads | The Chamber and The Love of My Afterlife

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

Omg lol. I was hoping to finish this in July since apparently it was my worst reading month (ratings-wise) and it would have been nice to keep the bad vibes out of August… but I kept falling asleep on the last day of July when trying to finish this book! THE LAST ONE was one of my favorite thrillers last year. I know a ton of people had mixed ratings based on the infuriating ending but I kinda loved it. The book was so addicting; nothing could stop me from turning pages. I was so excited to see how his style would translate to this book and I have very few words to describe how disappointed I was. This book was as boring as his previous book was enthralling/addicting. I could literally sum up this entire plot in three sentences (which I immediately did for my husband). The same thing happens over and over for 80% of the book, no exaggeration. The divers tell stories from their time in the military or about their diving careers for more than 3/4 of the book while people die off. There is no suspense or intrigue, just repetitive events and conversations I did not care about. It was not claustrophobic or creepy like I was promised; I could barely picture what it looked like despite diagrams and a glossary! I don’t know what didn’t click for me but I basically pictured a small bunk area with a table. I know it was small […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #451: Fave Books in Series

Posted August 6, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series 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 really like this prompt! I have been using a series tracker for a year or so and it’s been so helpful in tracking what books I need to read or how many series are completed/not complete yet. I decided to pick ten different random series (that have more than 3-4 books in them) that I’ve completed and enjoyed, and show my favorite book from each one!

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July 2024

Posted August 5, 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 super solid start to the month thanks to Summerween… which also explains the high number of mysteries and thrillers this month! I also just was in the MOOD for them. You’ll see a ton of them next month too because most of the books on my immediate TBR are mysteries. Hopefully I can mix in some romance too otherwise I may burn out lol. Two books at the end of July were a slog so that’s why I didn’t read as many as initially expected. And this was easily my worst reading month maybe ever rating-wise. 8 books in July 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,745 • Average rating: 3.25 stars Genres: 4 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary Formats: 5 mixed, 1 ebook, 1 egalley, 1 paperback Sources: 2 purchased, 2 review copies, 1 library, 1 owned, 1 borrowed, 1 BOTM Age Target: 8 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 32% 52 Book Club: 56% Book Cover Bingo: 76% 24 in 24: 25% […]

Recent Reads | Fangirl Down and The Lost Story

Posted August 2, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I wanted to conduct an experiment to see if Tessa Bailey could be ~for me~ although I’ve always suspected she wouldn’t be. I read a holiday novella by her and thought it was okay but when this golf-based romance was released, I thought this would be the perfect test for me. I love watching the sport and maybe it would resonate. This was tough to get into from the beginning if I’m being honest. I thought her writing style in general was pretty good and easy to read, but the dialogue and setup had too much cringe for me to overcome. I’d like to start by saying this guy was definitely a jackass the FMC was perfectly fine. I do not like possessive and jealous men; it just comes across as not trusting and I do not enjoy it. I want my husband or boyfriend to treat me like an equal, capable of making my own decisions, and not assuming any guy giving me attention would be able to steal me away. I fully know there are more alpha male type MMCs out there and this just goes to show I would hate to read those books if this bland ass dude bothered me. He said “champagne is for women” and I’d like to kill him, thanks. Their dialogue was super cringe-worthy and he was obsessed with her waaaay too early to be cute or reasonable. He even says in the final few chapters that they barely know each other […]

August TBR

Posted August 1, 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. August TBR I did a good job of keeping on track in July for the most part and hopefully will keep rolling with a lot of fast-paced thrillers in August. I’d love to get ahead on my reading this summer so I can read some bigger/longer books later on. It seems like the bulk of the books on my TBR are mystery/thrillers or suspense so hopefully I can find a way to include some romances! Woof. Egalleys – ARC August I have some already published egalleys I didn’t include here even though I definitely should do a recap on that at some point. I hope to read A NOVEL LOVE STORY finally (despite its mid reviews) and know for a fact I’ll be getting in some favorite mystery authors this month too. I usually participate in ARC August, where I want the vast majority of my reads to be review copies in the month. There’s a decent chance I make it happen because I can guarantee a few of these will get read… let’s say my ARC August goal is that 1/3 of my books this month are review copies. Preordered […]

Christmas in July: Upcoming 2024 Holiday Books

Posted July 31, 2024 / Book Lists, Features / 0 Comments

I’m really sneaking this in right at the end of the month because honestly time has not been REAL this year! I can’t believe we’re at the end of July already. I still thought it would be helpful to some folks to write my upcoming holiday releases post, even if it’s half-assed with no links or descriptions. Contemporary Holiday/Christmas Romance Holiday-Themed Fantasies Christmas Mysteries

Recent Reads | The Unmaking of June Farrow and The Finder’s Keepers Library

Posted July 22, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

This book intrigued me from the start but I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. It doesn’t help that almost everyone gave it five-stars! I was truly expecting to be blown away lol. I think my expectations got the best of me and I really expected MORE from the elements that I knew the book contained: time travel, mystery spanning generations, romance, and general magical realism. I don’t know how to even review this, especially after sitting with it for a few days. The story follows June Farrow, the last in line of the Farrow women, after her grandmother passes away. They all have some kind of “illness” that makes them hallucinate doors and other things. June begins to investigate what’s happening to hear and steps through a door that appears. Cue the time travel science that was hard to follow but I just ignored it while pretending I understood. I realized that there’s a good chance literary mysteries are not for me – it made the book only somewhat intriguing and also quite boring, pulling the weaker elements from both genres together. I wanted more twists and intensity like I’d get in a mystery while also seeing some strong character development and romance. All of the elements of this story felt surface-level. I heard people describe this as a fever dream and discuss how much they loved the characters and didn’t want to leave them behind, which totally baffled me. I felt zero connection to any of the characters […]

Summerween Reviews | Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies and Summers End

Posted July 18, 2024 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Summerween is a readathon hosted by GabbyReads that runs in early July each year. This year’s readathon was hosted July 5th through 11th with the following prompts: read a book in the dark, read a thriller or horror book, read a book with a night sky on the cover, read a book with 5 words in the title, and read a book set during the summer. For more information click HERE. Okay, this was really fun for me! I can absolutely see this as a polarizing book and the low-ish rating doesn’t surprise me. I think you have to be in the mood for something a little different, where the narrator breaks the third wall and involves the reader in the story. There are a couple of other reasons people don’t love this one but I’ll get into that shortly. This book follows Eleanor, bestselling author of the Vacation Mysteries series, as she travels on a “book tour” kind of giveaway event in Italy. Along for the ride are a few other authors (including her ex), the man who inspired her first book, her sister (slash person who manages her entire life), and some fans who won a giveaway to join them. Connor, the hero-turned-nemesis, thinks someone is trying to kill him and the group spends the book trying to figure out who’s doing it, if he’s the real target, and more. I haven’t yet read EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE but from what I understand about the narrative style, […]

10 Years of Book Blogging!

Posted July 17, 2024 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

Believe it or not, this little blog is officially ten years old today yesterday. I started it one summer after finishing BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver, reading some Goodreads reviews and seeing blog links in the reviews, and thinking… I could do that too! Why not? I like to read, I like to write, and I love starting and abandoning new hobbies. Well, joke is on 2014-Lauren because somehow, against all odds, 2024-Lauren still semi-regularly blogs here. The pandemic took a bit of a toll on this space for me and I’ve seen SO many blog friends come and go over the last ten years, and here I still am! Throwback to the OG header as I dive into some of the reading stats across this fucking decade. Note: stats are thanks to Storygraph, since all of my data has been imported there and is the best place to find everything. I can’t promise that it’s 100% accurate but I feel fairly confident in these numbers lol. Ten Years of Reading According to Storygraph, I’ve read over 1200 books since July 16, 2024. That’s insane. It equates to over 404k pages. I also included the fun mood chart here to give you a sense for my reading life over this ten year time period. Clearly I’m still a romance girlie (despite the fact that the bulk of those books are from the first 7ish years lol). My average time-to-finish is 5 days, which checks out in the grand scheme […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #450: Series Love

Posted July 16, 2024 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Ten Things I Loved About… 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. This week’s topic is meant to highlight the ten things you like about a certain book or series. Today, I decided to go with two separate series and discuss the five reasons I like each of them. I can’t think of ten things for one book!! Truly Devious 1. The setting The best part of this series is the Vermont boarding school full of smart kids. I absolutely love reading books set in New England and this takes the cake. Boarding school books are absolutely read-bait for me in general and the location of this one, plus the mystery at the center of the school, are so cool. 2. The cozy-ish vibes I don’t consider this a cozy mystery really but there’s something comforting about this series when you add all of these elements together. There’s just something about it that can’t be replicated for me. No other book series compares – it’s like coming home for me for some reason. It’s like Nancy Drew at boarding school. 3. The characters Stevie is a little annoying and her boyfriend is even worse, but their friend group is really at the […]