Tag: summer

Summer Releases to Add to Your TBR

Posted April 27, 2017 / Book Lists, Features / 11 Comments

I have a tendency of reading summertime releases really early for some reason. I posted a round-up last year of summer 2016 releases to watch out for as a result of this weird habit. I happened to notice the same thing happening in 2017, so here we are today. A little more background: I love when bloggers make “save the date” style posts like Jamie and Ginger, so this is sort of a quick version of that. Here are a few books coming out in the summer (starting in May, because I can’t resist) that I’ve already read and enjoyed. This book was a breath of fresh air and really kicked my reading year off right. I love Emery Lord, but NAMES is easily her best story. I don’t like reading about religion but this was incredibly well-done and accessible for people who don’t like it. I wouldn’t have read it if her name wasn’t on it, but I’m so glad I did. I LOVED the characters, the ship, the family and friend feels, the setting… you name it. I loved reading this geeky romance between Dimple and Rishi, whose parents are trying to push them together during a summer coding camp. I thought the Indian rep was really well-done from my seriously limited perspective. If yo’re looking for a new OTP, I highly suggest this book. It was so fun to read and I couldn’t believe how quickly I would fly through it in each sitting. I expected to love […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #104: Back to School

Posted August 30, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 16 Comments

Back to School Freebie: Required Reading Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, 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 TTT is a Back To School Freebie — anything “back to school” related like 10 favorite books I read in school, books I think should be required reading, required reading for all fantasy fans, required reading for every college freshman, books to pair with classics or books to complement a history lesson, books that would be on my classroom shelf if I were a teacher. WAY too many great options for this TTT! It took me a while but I decided to do a mix of a couple of these and make a “required reading” umbrella post. Course catalog entry: Explore history in a new way! Learn about past historical figures through present-day retellings and explore historical fiction with a magical twist. This course will cover figures such as Lady Jane Grey and Anne Boleyn, while also exploring other time periods of history. Required reading: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray • 1800s + magic My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows • Tudors + magic Anne & Henry by Dawn Ius • Present-day version of Anne Boleyn Course catalog entry: Learn about the great YA Contemporary genre through some of the industry’s best. This course […]

Mini Reviews: The Islanders #1 and Nantucket Red

Posted August 25, 2016 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Beachy Backlist Reviews I wanted to read all of the books in THE ISLANDERS series this summer but… they weren’t binge-worthy. The characters weren’t so easy to relate to a lot of the time. I think I’d enjoy spreading them out a little more. I’m tossing in my review for NANTUCKET RED because I finally decided to catch up and finish this duo! I obviously needed at least one more ~summery~ book before the actual end of summer comes around!This book was legitimately exactly what I expected it to be. It reminded me right off the bat of the old books I’d read during middle school when hanging out at the library after school. I’d pull some teen drama from the 90’s off the shelf and love every dramatic minute. While I definitely loved the drama, it’s harder to stomach as an adult! In general I think books have come a looooong way since this series too. It has its insane amount of instalove (like, literally every single couple loves each other within the first day) and love triangles (yes, multiple – these kids change partners like nobody’s business!). I can’t deny that this book feels a bit realistic in that way. These kids live on an island with a total of 300 people and they’re the only teenagers. What more do you expect? I don’t have a favorite character. They all kind of blend together and there are quite a few people involved: Zoey, Jake, Lucas, Claire, Ben, Aisha, and Nina. Damn. […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #103: Pre-Blogging TBR

Posted August 23, 2016 / TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Ten Books that Have Been on Your Shelf/TBR from Before Blogging that You STILL Haven’t Read Yet Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, 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 TTT is the top ten books that you’ve had on your TBR (physical or digital!) from your pre-blogging days that you still haven’t read. I definitely wanted to examine the books on my physical shelves – especially because I’m not doing so great at reading from my personal collection – and hopefully it pushes me to get going on them. All of these books were published and acquired by me in 2014 or earlier. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison • This is definitely one of those pivotal growing-up series that many people have read. I bought it back in the day when they did the cover redesign and just never got arond to reading it for some reason. I’ve heard it’s hilarious though. I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella • I went through a big Kinsella phase right before I started blogging and I want to get back into her backlist. I read the Shopaholic books (maybe the first three or so) back in the day and really enjoyed them too. This one seems great. Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein • This […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #102: Beach Setting

Posted August 16, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 16 Comments

Ten Beach Settings in Books that I Loved Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, 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 TTT is the top ten books with X setting (boarding school, England, etc.). I chose one of my favorite bookish settings – BEACH TOWNS. I was thinking of the boarding school thing but I recently talked about this since it’s one of my read-bait terms for sure.I’m usually all about the summery, beachy contemporaries during the warm months. I often save books specifically for summertime for that reason. I don’t go to the beach very much, even though there are plenty closeby, so these books are a perfect alternative for me during the summer. Fluffy contemps are perfectly fine during this time of year, but the ones that are literally set on the beach or in a beachy town location are THE BEST. Here are ten of my favorite books with beach settings. Keeping the Moon and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen The ultimate book setting is Colby, North Carolina. I’ve never had more desire to visit a fictional place in my life. Colby appears to be the perfect little beach town and acts as the main setting for a handful of Dessen’s books. It’s referenced in a few more. NEED […]

Book Buddies Review: Summer Days and Summer Nights

Posted July 6, 2016 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 4 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Cristina’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Cristina’s part of the discussion here. As we did in our previous anthology discussion, we split up and alternated the stories. Here you’ll find the even-numbered stories; on Cristina’s blog you’ll find the odd-numbered stories! We’ll discuss each one at a really high level here and share ratings (individually and overall). Even though the average for all of the stories ends up being around 3.7 stars for me, I have to round all the way down to 3 stars. Not a lot of them left a great impression on me and I was overall more disappointed than happy. The anthology was less season-based and more… weird… than I wanted it to be. I was hoping for a book full of summery contemporaries, with a few other unique ones mixed in, but I got too many meh stories that didn’t meet what I wanted. Womp womp. The End of Love by Nina LaCour Lauren: I liked this one! I was a little nervous about the […]

Summer 2016 Goals and TBR List

Posted June 18, 2016 / Book Lists, Discussions, Features, TBR Lists / 14 Comments

When I saw Rachel’s summer bucket list post a few weeks ago, I needed to incorporate some of that into my Summer TBR post that I was planning! I tend to have a lot of summer ideas and then never follow through with them, so this is me holding myself accountable! I have some bookish goals and some personal ones. Then, of course, you’ll see my TBR list for the summer. Read the summery books I planned to read last year As you can tell from the TBR at the bottom, I have some plans to read reaaaally summer-oriented books. There’s nothing like reading a book that takes place on a beach and/or during summertime than in the actual summertime. I made a TBR last year and this year for my beach reads but, as usual, I’m terrible with TBR lists. Go to the Book Barn I adore the Book Barn but it’s about an hour and a half away from me, so I don’t go too often. I actually have some books to sell to them so I really should make that a priority before the summer gets too hot. (Wishful thinking.) We previously enjoyed the Niantic Lobster and Craft Festival and went to the Book Barn after, so maybe we can do that again this year. That ticks off another item on my bucket list too. 😉 Sit on the porch and read more often One of the main reasons we moved from our old apartment to our […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #92: Beach Reads

Posted May 31, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 16 Comments

Ten Beach Reads: Recent & Upcoming Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, 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 weeks topic is: Beach Reads Week (top ten great beach reads, ten books I plan to read on the beach, ten beach reads for those who don’t like typical ~beach reads~, ten authors who are my go-to for beach reads, etc.).This is actually a perfect topic for today because at this moment I am soaking up my last minutes of vacation! I’m headed home from Hilton Head Island at some point today and will be back to normal life after a long car ride home between tonight and tomorrow. Because I’m in the midst of a beachy, warm vacation, I’m going to share the planned beach reads for this summer and some of the books I brought with me on my vacation this past week. Because I’m on vacation, I’m going to be lazy and not offer any commentary about these books. You’ll have to find the Goodreads yourself 😉

Summer Releases to Add to Your TBR

Posted April 14, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 21 Comments

I’ve spent a lot of time so far reading May, June, and July releases really freaking early. I’ve included a few of my favorites on a TTT lately, but wanted to highlight a couple more you should keep your eye on. I love when bloggers make “save the date” style posts like Jamie and Ginger, so this is sort of a quick version of that. Here are a few books coming out in the summer (starting in May, because I can’t resist recommending MOAR BOOKS) that I’ve already read and enjoyed. BONUS: This morning I finished The Lost and Found by Katrina Leno and EVERYONE needs this book on their TBR. Magical and engrossing and so, so wonderful. Comes out July 5th!

ARC Review: When We Collided

Posted April 6, 2016 / Book Reviews / 14 Comments

I have a ridiculously large amount of mixed feelings on this book. It’s a tough one to rate for me, because what am I supposed to go by – the way it made me feel and my level of enjoyment? The quality of the story and its importance? These two ratings are insanely different. I talked with Angie about it after finishing and she helped me put it to words. The book itself – the story, the portrayal of mental illness – is VERY important. It’s so well-done. However, it just isn’t a book that I like reading about. It was frustrating, sad, and kind of disappointing because of it. I didn’t go into it expecting something super fluffy, like Lord’s other books, but I also didn’t expect to be so upset throughout the whole thing either. I was hoping for a mix of the two. The first third of the book was utter perfection, like the entirety of Lord’s other books that I’m obsessed with. The setting of Verona Cove was amazing and reminded me of all the Sarah Dessen books that happen in Colby. Jonah was fucking adorable and Vivi was vivacious. (See what I did there?) I loved them right away. The book had some instalove but for some reason it felt right. I don’t necessarily have an issue with it because I really think some people do hit it off right away. I have no issue with people feeling like they’re meant to be. I don’t know; […]