Search Results for: read-bait

2018 End of Year Survey

Posted December 30, 2018 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

I loved filling out Jamie’s survey in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. This is the 9th time she’s hosted this survey and it’s so fun to see what everyone chooses for the categories. Last year, I didn’t allow myself any duplicates. I’m going to try to keep them to a minimum for this survey, but it feels impossible. I’ll need to have a few. To learn more about it and see a blank set of questions, check here! It was so fun to reread my answers for last year, since I copied that survey here to clean out and fill out. Number of Books You Read: 120 Number of Re-Reads: 2 | Number of DNFs: 5 Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary 1. Best Book You Read In 2018? Totally cheating and adding multiple categories! (Not including rereads.) See a full list of my “best reads” of the year (5 stars and 4.5 stars) here if you’re curious. Best of the best: Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills Best contemporary: Love a la Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm Best non-contemporary: The Wicked King by Holly Black Best adult fiction: Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid Best sequel or companion: 9 Days and 9 Nights by Katie Cotugno Best diverse read: Dear Martin by Nic Stone 2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t? My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows just, for me, was not as good as the previous companion. I enjoyed that it followed a […]

ARC Review: The Last Wish of Sasha Cade

Posted October 3, 2018 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I’m a sucker for SO many elements of this book, which is why it was immediately added to my TBR and requested on Netgalley. I love the cover, for starters, and the whole “following a list of tasks and for someone who has moved/passed away” premise is read-bait for me. It reminds me a lot of the movie PS I Love You, which is potentially where this fascination came from for me originally. When Rocki’s best friend Sasha passes away from cancer, she sends Rocki on a scavenger hunt of sorts to keep her memory alive and make sure Rocki doesn’t go off the deep end without her. She quickly learns about and meets Elijah, Sasha’s biological brother that wasn’t adopted along with her, and starts to complete these tasks with him. I liked Sasha and her memory, but it felt like she was perfect. I’m not trying to “speak ill of the [fictional] dead” but it was like she was this never wrong, always kind, completely flawless person, so it was a little hard to feel much for her. I felt for Rocki and absolutely cried multiple times in the beginning of the book when she passed away, but it wasn’t easy to connect with her. Rocki constantly viewed herself as “Sasha’s friend” instead of her own individual person, which also made HER hard to connect with. I had high hopes, though, that this hunt would allow her to find her individuality. Elijah was a bit mysterious at the beginning […]

Gimme the Books (4): Fluffy Contemporary Edition

Posted September 20, 2018 / Features, Gimme the Books / 3 Comments

I’ve written a few posts to talk about books I’m super excited about that haven’t been released yet, but I felt like adding to that title repeatedly like I had been doing was a bit much. See early posts here: 1, 2, and 3. I decided to make this into a realistic regular feature where I do kind of a Waiting on Wednesday wrap-up post for when I add books to my TBR and “jazzed up for this” Goodreads shelf. Upcoming Fluffy Contemporary Fiction These posts are usually more general but I decided to focus on fluffy-ish contemporary fiction for this edition instead! I love books like this and think the term “fluffy” is NOT an insult by any means. Sometimes there’s nothing better than a book that will make your heart happy. All of these books SEEM to fit the bill based on the synopses on Goodreads, but no promises that they’re 100% fluff – how would I know until I read them?! Hearts Made for Breaking by Jen Klein Goodreads | Release date: April 30th, 2019 From the author of SHUFFLE, REPEAT and SUMMER UNSCRIPTED comes a new novel about mysterious boys, first-time love, heartbreak, and the incredible bonds of friendship. 17-year old Lark knows how to survive high school dating: date boys briefly, let them down gently, remain friends, and move on. Her best friends, Copper and Katie, think that Lark is denying herself the opportunity for true love because she does not want to be hurt. They challenge her […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #198: Back to (Boarding) School

Posted August 28, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 9 Comments

Boarding School 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’m always a fan of these back to school-oriented freebies because there are endless possibilities. (This time around, Jana suggested: In honor of school starting back up soon, come up with your own topic that fits the theme of school or learning! Books that take place at school/boarding school/during study abroad, books you read in school, textbooks you liked/didn’t like, non-fiction books you loved or want to read, etc.) Some topics that I’ve done in the past are here in case you’re curious: books & backpacks and required reading at the BL High School. This time around, I decided to feature some books about boarding school or fancy private schools. This was inspired by Nick asking me if I’d read any good ones lately, since people are pretty well-aware of how much I love this book setting! I’ve featured private school books as read-bait and other boarding school books in various posts. Without further ado, here are some boarding school books! On the TBR The Deceivers by Kristen Simmons | Welcome to Vale Hall, the school for aspiring con artists… When Brynn Hilder is recruited to Vale, it seems like the elite academy is […]

Blog Tour | The Art of Inheriting Secrets

Posted July 18, 2018 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I was very intrigued by the synopsis for this one and couldn’t resist joining the tour. Family secrets, old manors, and small English villages are always read-bait for me. It seemed like a book that would grab me and not let me go until I was finished with the story, which I definitely needed in my unexpected reading slump this summer. The main character, Olivia, heads to England to uncover the mysteries of her mom’s past. She quickly learns that she’s essentially royalty in this small village. The book started off with so many intriguing elements that I was dying to know what was going to happen next; I loved meeting many of the local characters so early in the story. There was even a very unexpected reference to one of my favorite old movies, The Point! Literally did not see that coming in any book I’ll ever read haha. (The dog was mentioned later but it was awkward because he asked if she had pets and he already knew she had a dog, Arrow, based on this early reference… Just a missed continuity error! I noticed a couple of those, but nothing major.) I thought there were some repetitive conversations early on, when Olivia was learning about her mother and grandmother. Many of the side characters in the village that she met had similar things to say about them and it felt like I read the same conversations multiple times. I also didn’t love how her relationship with Grant, […]

Groundhog Day Fiction

Posted May 7, 2018 / Book Lists, Features / 6 Comments

One of my biggest read-bait keywords/phrases in a book synopsis is the Groundhog Day scenario – the Bill Murray movie where he relives the same day over and over again, trying to figure out how to escape. I love books involving time loops and alternate universes, and I definitely view this as a subsection of that “genre.” Countless YA books and other fictional stories have centered around this plotline as a “retelling” of sorts, and I’m here today to chat about them! Tried & True Favorite The book that started it all for me is obviously Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. A mean girl dies in a car accident but keeps waking up the next morning to relive the day over again. She tries to right her wrongs and figure out what it will take to break out of this loop, so she can move on to the afterlife in peace. I loved every single element of this book and Lauren Oliver’s writing. It remains a favorite even after rereading it last year and ‘m so glad it held up for me. I loved seeing how she lived each day a little differently, taking advantage of this “extra time” by doing things she normally wouldn’t do. She got all sorts of things out of her system, that’s for sure! It definitely was reminiscent of the movie version because it involves a “bad person” learning from their mistakes and hopefully making amends for things they’ve done wrong. The fact that […]

A-Z Book Survey, Round Two

Posted April 13, 2018 / Book Tags / 0 Comments

I did this book tag/survey from Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner WAY BACK in 2014 when I first started my blog. My answers were obviously quite different and I don’t even really want to link to it because good lord, the graphics from then make me cringe. In my quest for finding a fun book tag to do for today, I wanted to redo this one with updated answers! Author you’ve read the most books from: Thank you Goodreads, for making this very easy. I’ve read the most books from Sara Shepard, which is truly the least surprising news ever. I’ve read THIRTY-TWO books by her because I’ve read each of her super-long series and a lot of the standalones as well. This number continues to increase. Best Sequel Ever: I think the best sequel is probably a toss-up between PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han (5 stars, same as TATBILB) The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (5 stars, which is actually more than book #1), or Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (5 stars, also up from the first book in the series). I also totally did this by only looking at the second book in a series as the sequel because otherwise it’d take me forever to investigate my archives. Currently Reading: I’m writing this on April 6th, so I’m currently reading The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody (also mixing in the audiobook sometimes) and Infamous by Alyson Noel. The latter is the final book in the trilogy and I’m so pumped Scribd had […]

Behind the Screen: A Book Blogger Tag

Posted March 5, 2018 / Discussions, Features / 5 Comments

I caught this making its away across the blogosphere and was tempted to join in, but then Madalyn made my life easier and tagged me! This was created originally by Amber @ Du Livre. When did you start blogging and what was your first review? I started blogging on July 16, 2014 and my first review was for We Were Liars. I did not enjoy the book, to say the least! My first non-review post happened on the same day (because I was a bit intense when I got started) and was for my Top 10 Summer Reads. I think that’s pretty indicative of my reading preferences! Who/what inspired you to start blogging? I remember reading Before I Fall back in July 2014 for the first time and having so many thoughts about it. I was scrolling through some of the reviews on Goodreads (before finishing the book, whoops) and noticed a lot of people had links that said “for more thoughts, go to X blog here!” and I was intrigued. I always wanted to blog (I had so many failed ones back in the day) and it truly had never occurred to me that reading/books would be a blogging topic. It wasn’t my first review because I started the blog when I was in the middle of reading it, but still – this book and some of the Goodreads reviewers inspired me! What is a blog-related goal you have? I’m really not sure because my blog has changed so much over […]

Degrees of Separation and Connections

Posted February 19, 2018 / Book Lists, Features / 4 Comments

I’ve talked repeatedly on here about how I love books where random people come together over a shared event or traumatic experience – people who would otherwise never have met each other. Movies like Valentine’s Day, Love the Coopers, and New Years Eve always interested me too, where interconnected stories play out slowly throughout the movie and you wonder how the people you’ve met will end up knowing each other. There are a lot of topics that fall under this kind of “connection” category, like people meeting up during trips (traveling around the world, road tripping, etc.), being snowed in or stuck somewhere with someone, health-related connections (through organ donation, being in a hospital, etc.), working together for the summer or at a first job, or even being connected over time (where some of the story happens in the past and some happens in present day, but the characters’ stories are related). There are A LOT of flavors to this category that I love so much, but one thing remains true: these people would not know each other if it weren’t for the weird, extenuating circumstance that ends up binding them together. In my recent read-bait post, I talked about “travel meet cutes.” This is the kind of situation where someone meets a ~special person~ during their travels (road trip, airport, stuck on a train – the list goes on) and fall in love. I’ll talk about those books here a little, but I wanted to also expand into those […]

Review Round Up | A Taxonomy of Love, Together at Midnight, and The Upside to Falling Down

Posted February 2, 2018 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 3 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! I finally read it, guys!! I’ve had this book in my clutches for months and finally made myself read it. I was really excited for it because I love Rachael Allen, but I just couldn’t get myself in the mood for it. I knew it might be a sadder, harder to read contemporary, so I think I was just avoiding that part. Spencer and Hope have been friends and neighbors since middle school, with countless ups and downs in between. It’s a neverending cycle of one of them wanting something more at the wrong time, and going back and forth for years. I love neighbors/friends-to-more stories so I was definitely hoping for a happy ending. I thought the two of them were a good pair, but it was a LITTLE hard to get the feels because of how up and down their relationship was. On top of that, the story is broken into sections for different ages, starting with 7th grade and working up until they’re 19 years old. I liked seeing the development over time, but it was also a little hard to keep up with their relationship developing in a linear way? Not sure how to describe it. The story has little taxonomies, online chat […]