Blog Series: Holidays 2018

Tis the Season! | Holiday 2018 Plans

Posted November 16, 2018 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 5 Comments
Tis the Season! | Holiday 2018 Plans

I feel like I’m more excited for Christmas than ever before this year. Not sure why, but it’s true y’all. I found myself getting the itch for Christmas movies in late September and I’ve been holding myself back until Halloween to finally listen to Christmas music – that’s always my deadline. Otherwise, my decorations are up after Thanksgiving and we get our tree the first weekend of December. This year’s holiday posts will be plentiful because I’ve already started reading some light holiday books. Keep reading to see what’s happening on the blog over the next month and a half! I pulled this TBR together back in mid-October because I LOVE CHRISTMAS. It also happened to be because I was in the middle of planning my November TBR and I knew I wanted some holiday reads on there. You’ll see that I have four books for review, four books pulled from last year’s TBR that I didn’t get to, and six books that are either newly published in 2018 or just new-to-me. Mistletoe Cottage by Mason | The Best Little Christmas Shop by Morrey It Started with Christmas by Hale | The Corner of Holly and Ivy by Mason I have one egalley from last year that I never got to – CHRISTMAS SHOP – so I definitely want to catch up on that. I also have three more books. I have a physical ARC of MISTLETOE COTTAGE (plus an egalley by the same author – CORNER OF HOLLY/IVY) and […]

Holiday Read-a-Thons: Progress, Tracking, TBRs

Posted December 8, 2018 / Book Challenges, Features / 4 Comments
Holiday Read-a-Thons: Progress, Tracking, TBRs

As you saw in my initial post and various TBR posts throughout the month, I’ve been joining in on some reading challenges and read-a-thons throughout December! I thought I would make ONE master post for before, during, and after all of these fun posts. I’ll just update this and won’t be doing individual wrap-ups. Tis the Season-a-thon When: December 3rd – 9th | Hosts and information: Twitter / Instagram     Challenges / Progress: Instagram challenges: I did post on Instagram for each challenge day – check it out! Reading challenges: Red or green on the cover: The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily Read while listening to holiday music: The Proposal Warm and fuzzy: Snow in Love Short book (under 250 pages): The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily Holiday-themed book: The Best Little Christmas Shop [didn’t finish during the challenge] Bonus buddy read: Snow in Love Oh What Fun Read-a-thon When: December 16th – 23rd | Host and information: Twitter / Instagram    Challenges / Progress: Instagram challenges: I did post on Instagram for each challenge day – check it out! Naughty Stay up all night reading: It Started with Christmas Holiday romance: Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane Book from last year’s Christmas Read by the fire: Christmas on Mistletoe Lane Book about villains Read and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas Book bought for the cover Nice Read a Harry Potter book Buddy read with a friend/family member 25th book on your TBR shelf Light a candle while reading: Season of Wonder Read and watch The Polar Express Read the nativity story

Favorite Ornaments + Some Holiday Decorations

Posted December 12, 2018 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments
Favorite Ornaments + Some Holiday Decorations

I’m here today with a simple post highlighting my favorite Christmas ornaments, as well as the overall decor of my house right now. I’ve loved Christmas as long as I can remember and have acquired at least one new ornament every year. My mom has a bunch of mine from childhood – including this HUGE picture frame of me that’s all glittery – packed away because she’s stopped getting trees for some Scrooge-y reason. In any case, all of my ornaments from my dad’s house (literally 100% Panthers ones) have made their way to me. At some point in my life I’ll have a second tree for just them! Without further ado, here are some highlights of my favorite Christmas ornaments and the memories attached to them. Tree & Ornaments We went to a local farmstand to get our tree right after Thanksgiving, and it was a nice way to spend Small Business Saturday! The people there were super friendly and we LOVE the perfect shape of it. Finn and Jake (from Adventure Time), a pizza, one of the Winged Keys from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, an ornament from book pages, an ice cream cone Panthers airplane with Santa, Lego cat, lounging snowman, WWE chair (from TLC set), Finn Balor WWE gingerbread man, homemade Elmo from childhood Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter, Lego Christmas tree, Tinkerbell, Christmas sweater, Kurt Angle WWE gingerbread man, Panthers bell, John Cena WWE gingerbread man Goofy from a trip to Disney, Tweety ornament from childhood, […]

Holiday Reviews: The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane, and Snow In Love

Posted December 21, 2018 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
Holiday Reviews: The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane, and Snow In Love

Story I’ll keep it real – I did not love Dash and Lily as much as everyone else (and any good feelings that led me to rate it four stars have definitely faded over time for some reason). I like to eventually finish things I start though, so I decided to give the sequel a shot. It’s a short book and therefore a short audiobook; I thought it’d be the perfect one to listen to during the Tis the Season-a-thon in early December. I really loathe Lily because of her immaturity and Dash is so pretentious. It’s hard to ship a couple when one of them feels like they’re 10 years old and shouldn’t be in a serious relationship. Speaking of which, how is it possible that after a year of dating, they’re in the exact same place they were in the previous book/year? They did not communicate at all and it’s frustrating to see that they were still dancing around things. I would hope dating someone for that long would open you up a bit. Aside from that, they were constantly running to catch up to each other (so to speak). They were never on the same page. Wintry Setting & Holiday Feels The story was mostly depressing with some holiday feels involved? It happens in the 12 days before Christmas, which should bring about the most Christmassy feels possible. While being in NYC for Christmas is the last thing I want to do because of the crowds, I absolutely […]

Holiday Reviews: Season of Wonder, Christmas on Mistletoe Lane, and It Started with Christmas

Posted December 24, 2018 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments
Holiday Reviews: Season of Wonder, Christmas on Mistletoe Lane, and It Started with Christmas

Story ASK ME HOW PUMPED I AM FOR NEW HAVEN POINT BOOKS! (Very excited, obviously.) I love this town. I heard a few mixed things about this main character and the story as a whole, but I knew the small town Haven Point feels would make up for a lot. The lead, Diana, has two girls – one bratty teenager and one adorable six-year-old, and she moved everyone to Haven Point to hopefully run the town’s veterinary practice. She can’t resist her cop neighbor and he seemingly can’t resist her either, especially as he helps the aforementioned annoying teen daughter make up for some mistakes. This one was a bit repetitive with Dani’s internal dialogue, going back and forth all the time. She was an okay lead character but a little too hard to get to know. She was closed off to everyone, including the reader. Ruben was amazing though; the scenes with him and her kids were adorable. Mia was the cutest and Silver was a bratty teen that got better with time. I also think the big “reveal” about her ex-husband wasn’t as bad as expected? Maybe that’s terrible to say given the nature of it, but still – they built it up quite a bit. I definitely missed the cameos here too… not as many as I’d hoped because Dani refused to become a part of the town. I hope the next book, if there is one, features more of actual Haven Point and its residents. Wintry Setting […]