Wrap Up|| January.

Hey!

I cannot believe January is over! The first month of the new year flew by. I ended the month with the worst luck! Story time? So my friend, my younger sister, and I decided it would be cool to relive our childhood by rollerblading together again after it being 20 years since the last time we rollerbladed. Us three used to do it all the time as kids together. We all bought rollerblades and were so stoked to take them out. It was all going so well and we were having fun and then we decided to go down this hill that didn’t look so big…big mistake! We were catching so much speed. At one point I’m thinking to myself, “I’m going way too fast, what do I do?”. I tried using the brake, but it’s been so long since I’ve ever used rollerblades that I really had no idea what I was doing and I was just going so fast. So, I decided to steer myself toward the grass and then I took a hard fall. My sister and my friend fell too, but their falls weren’t as bad as mine. My friend and I were laughing about it in the moment, because we really had no idea how bad it really was. Plus, there were crowds of people around, so we just played it cool haha. 😛

Afterward, we left the park and got something to eat and then I realized I may have really messed up my shoulder. I decided to go to urgent care to get it x-rayed and YEP! I fractured my right shoulder. I’ve had to limit the use of my right arm, but luckily I can still use my hand. I need to get some other tests done to see if anything else is injured. I really hope not because I do not want to end up having to get surgery. 😦 I definitely regret going to the hilly park. And now it will be a while before I can get back on my rollerblades, which is sad because we were having a lot of fun until we fell. I’m hoping this injury heals up quickly. I have to wear a sling on my right arm, but I usually take it off when I’m working and try to not move my arm/shoulder too much. It’s not really painful until I move my shoulder or arm in a position that it can’t. I’m living in button up shirts, because trying to put clothes on when I can’t lift my arm hurts sooo bad. Fingers crossed this heals fast though and I don’t need surgery!

But anyway, let’s get into my January wrap up. I actually read quite a few books in January, which has been great since the last five months of 2022 I barely read anything. I think I read more books in January than I did in the last five months of 2022 lol. I am hoping the year continues to go this well, but who knows. I’m already starting to slowly feel bleh again, but I think that’s because I’m feeling down about this injury and it’s been on my mind a lot since it happened. It only happened like four or five days ago. So, in January I read SEVEN books! A few were audiobooks and the rest were books that I read myself. You can find a full list of the books that I read in January and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here are the books that I read and listened to in January...

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of January.

Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan – 2 out of 5 stars
Tidesong by Wendy Wu – 4 out of 5 stars
What About Will by Ellen Hopkins – 4 out of 5 stars
The Asylum Confessions by Jack Steen – 3 out of 5 stars

I started Acts of Desperation months before I finally finished it. It was pretty boring, to be honest. There were a bunch of times where I thought about DNF and maybe I should have. But I was already about 60% into it and I finally got myself to finish it in January. Tidesong was a cute graphic novel. I really had fun reading it and all the illustrations are so pretty. I started What About Will at some point last year and never got around to finishing it. I ended up not being in the mood for it. I finally finished it last month and I really liked it. It was really sad, but had its happy moments. The Asylum Confessions was just a random book I found for free on Amazon. It sounded interesting and it was only about 270 pages, so I decided to check it out. I liked it and some of the stories were interesting, but some were just weird. I don’t like how the author wrote the book either, but I guess I shouldn’t complain too much since right at the beginning he says he’s not an writer lol.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of January.

Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson – 3 out of 5 stars
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay – 3 out of 5 stars
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover – 4 out of 5 stars – Review

Love in the Time of Serial Killers sounded pretty interesting, but it wasn’t what I expected. I liked it, but it was just “meh” and didn’t blow me away or anything. I also really didn’t like the main character. My husband and I listened to Darkly Dreaming Dexter on our drive to Savannah, GA. I figured it would give us something to do and we both love the TV show Dexter. I liked the book, but I was hoping I would love it. I guess because I love the TV show so much and watched the show first it influenced my feelings of the book. I still want to listen to the audiobooks for the other books too. I may save them for road trips with the husband though, so we can finish the series together. Might take a while, but that’s okay! It Ends with Us was a reread. I read the book back in 2016, but wanted to reread it again before picking up the sequel. I really liked it as much as I did when I read it in 2016. The review linked above is the one I wrote back in 2016.

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Currently Reading:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of January, but didn’t get a chance to finish them before the month ended.

It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

Since I did an audiobook reread of It Ends with Us, I wanted to read It Starts with Us shortly after. I am really excited to finally read it. I’m currently about 75 pages into it and I like it a lot so far. I’m excited to see where it goes.

What books did you read in January? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I’ll try to find some time this weekend to catch up with your posts and comments. 🙂 It’s been a crazy week with my fractured shoulder and trying to navigate using mostly one arm haha. I’m not allowed to do heavy-lifting, pushing. or pulling. The orthopedic doctor said the heaviest thing I can lift is a coffee mug lol. Sigh.

In case you missed it;
2023 Reading Goals.
2022 Year in Books.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| July – November.

Hi! Happy December! 🙂

A couple weeks ago I posted my wrap up for the months of April through June, so this post will be dedicated to the books that I read from July through November. In my last post I mentioned how I haven’t been reading much and that I hadn’t changed throughout the rest of the year. Although, July was probably my best month and then it started to go downhill after that. I didn’t even finish a single book in September. 😦 I’m so behind on my Goodreads challenge and I don’t see myself completing it this year. I think at this point in time I am 12 books behind, sigh.

With that being said, I am going to jump into my wrap up for July through November. You can find a full list of the books that I read so far this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Anatomy by Dana Schwartz – 3 out of 5 stars (July)
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Saenz – 5 out of 5 stars (July)
The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom – 3 out of 5 stars (July)
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado – 4 out of 5 stars (July)

This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede – 4 out of 5 stars (July)
Finding Chika by Mitch Albom – 4 out of 5 stars (July)
The Fervor by Alma Katsu – 3 out of 5 stars (July)
Birds of California by Katie Cotugno – DNF (July)

Tuesedays with Morrie by Mitch Albom – 3 out of 5 stars (August)
Gallant by V.E. Schwab – 4 out of 5 stars (August)
I’m Glad my Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy – 4 out of 5 stars (October)
Yours Cruelly, Elvira by Cassandra Peterson – 4 out of 5 stars (November)

Even though I didn’t read as much throughout August, October, and November; I did read some pretty good books and a handful of them were books that I’ve been wanting to read for a while now. Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World was definitely my favorite and the only five star that I gave for these. I was looking for something Halloweenish to read in October, so I started Yours Cruelly, Elvira and while I didn’t finish it in October, I did finally get it finished last month. I actually really liked it and reading about her life. She definitely had some crazy stories and a pretty wild life, but there were a lot of fun moments and she’s pretty funny. 👻 Caught up on a couple Mitch Albom books I haven’t read. I think there’s only one left that I haven’t read yet. I’ve always liked reading his books. Overall, I am happy with the books that I read.

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I need to work on 2023 pages and posts for my blog. Maybe change up the look a bit. I also need to update my 2022 book spreadsheet. I am really hoping that I will come around here more at the start of the new year because I miss blogging. Even if I post other types of posts and not just book related ones when I’m not reading much, I still want to blog and I want to catch up with you guys. Like I said in my last post, I feel out of the loop in the book community now. So behind on all the new releases and upcoming releases. I’m sure there are a ton of books I should have bought and haven’t because I missed them! Speaking of buying books, I may or may not do couple wrap up posts. It’s been so long and I’ve gotten a lot of books since the last one. So it might end up being a big post or one that needs to be separated like these wrap ups were. We shall see!

To end this post, here is a picture I took to celebrate that it’s now the Christmas season!!! 🎄 Does anyone have their Christmas trees up yet? I have mine up, but still need to put on the ornaments. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, what do you celebrate? Any fun traditions?

In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| April – June.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Wrap Up|| April – June.

Hi 🙂

I’m still alive…just very much absent on here right now. I haven’t been feeling very motivated to blog. I haven’t really been that motivated to read either. There’s even a month that I didn’t read a single book! 😦 It’s sad because I want to read, just haven’t felt like actually sitting down to read for long periods of time. I’ll read a few pages and then end up not being in the mood to read and stop, so it takes me FOREVER to even finish a single book these days. April, May, June, and July were okay months for reading because I was listening to audiobooks as well. But I started doing more work at my job that is a lot more complex, so listening to audiobooks isn’t easy while working anymore. This year I listened to a lot of audiobooks at the start and that’s how I got a lot of my reading done, so my numbers have definitely taken a hit and I’m actually 10 books behind on my reading challenge, ughh. With not being able to listen to audiobooks much anymore, my reading has taken a huge hit in August, September, October, and currently this month as well.

With that being said, I am going to jump into my April, May, and June wrap up. I’m combining them into one post because it’s not that many books. My next post will be July through November books that I’ve read combined. You can find a full list of the books that I read so far this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen McManus – 3 out of 5 stars (April)
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah – 5 out of 5 stars (April)
Home Front by Kristin Hannah – 5 out of 5 stars (May)
Inheritance by Elizabeth Acevedo – 3 out of 5 stars (May)
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling – 3 out of 5 stars (May)

Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala – 4 out of 5 stars (May)
Book Lovers by Emily Henry – 4 out of 5 stars (May)
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – 5 out of 5 stars (June)
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews – 3 out of 5 stars (June)
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – 3 out of 5 stars (June)

I had a few five star books during these months, which was great because it seems like five stars are rare with me these days. Could be the reading slump making me not be as into books though, who knows. I can’t get enough of Kristin Hannah and it seems like all the books I’ve read of hers have been five stars! There were a few books where I expected them to be amazing and fall in love with them, but then they ended up being only three stars, like You’ll Be the Death of Me and The Midnight Library. I still liked them though. Three starts to me means that I liked them, so it’s okay. 😛

I don’t know how much I will be around the rest of this year, to be honest. I think I might just take the rest of the year to just chill and try to catch up on what posts I want to do to close out the year and hopefully start fresh in 2023! Maybe I’ll get out of this crazy reading slump that I am in and read more and actually want to post on here again. I feel so behind with you guys and all the new books that have been released and are going to be released! I feel so out of the loop in the book world these days! Sigh. Fingers crossed things go back to normal here for me! 🙂

Feel free to link me to any posts of yours that you think I should check out! Also, fill my comments with book recommendations since I am so lost in the book world now lol. ❤

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Book Haul & Wrap Up|| March.

Hey!

I’ve been pretty much non-existent here this past month. I just didn’t really have the motivation to blog or even read much. I guess it was kind of an unofficial hiatus from here and it might be this month as well. I try to pick up a book and then I end up putting it back down. I haven’t really been able to focus too much on reading. I’ve been passing time with TV shows and diamond painting instead. I haven’t finished a single book myself since the beginning of February. If I do “read” a book it’s been audiobooks. I did manage to listen to three audiobooks this month, but that’s all of the reading (well listening) I got to in March. It’s almost two weeks into April and I still haven’t picked up a book (or audiobook), sigh. I’m going to try to read a little bit each day even if it’s only a few pages; hopefully that’ll spark something in me that will make me want to read more again!

Today, I am sharing my March wrap up and book haul though! I may not have read anything like I wanted, I still listened to a few audiobooks. I also did do a little book buying. I am combining the posts together since my haul and my wrap up are small. This post is also almost two weeks late, so I want to just get it up. I’ll start with my March book haul and then get into my wrap up after that! You can check out a full list of the books that I own over here. There’s links to different pages on my blog that show my e-books and my physical books. Here are the books that I got in March…

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith
Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
Playing for Love by Jeevani Charika (e-book)

These are the books that I bought in March! I am pretty excited about them all and even more so because I got them all on sale aside from Gallant. There’s a store here that sells books at HUGE discounts and I was able to get them there for under $4.99 each. Fall or, Dodge in Hell scares me though because it’s so HUGE!! It sounded so good though, so I decided to get it. The others are books I’ve seen around and that caught my attention. WIth the prices being so cheap, I decided to get them.

What books did you get in March? Have you read any of the ones that I got?

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And now for my wrap up! I’m sad I didn’t read as much as I wanted to, but I’m just glad I was able to finish something even if they were audiobooks. I’m still trying to mostly read books I own and the older the better, so two of the books I listened to are older books that I own. You can find a full list of the books that I read in March and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here are the books that I listened to in March…

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – 3 out of 5 stars (Audiobook)
The Patient by Jasper DeWitt – 2 out of 5 stars (Audiobook)
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro – 4 out of 5 stars (Audiobook)

Spinning Silver was a book that I’ve owned for quite some time, so I decided to finally read it. I bought it awhile ago in a Book of the Month subscription box. I really enjoyed it at the beginning and was having fun with it, but then it started to drag on and I was impatiently waiting for the end to come. Overall, it was good and I liked it. It just started to get a little too boring for me after a while. The Patient is just a random book that I found on my library’s website that sounded interesting. The husband and I had a four hour car ride home from visiting my mom, so I found a book we could listen to together. It was good at the start, but the end was just so dumb and unrealistic with everything else that happened in the book. The ending just didn’t fit with everything else. It was weird and dumb how it ended. I gave it two stars, the husband said he would give it four stars…smh lol. A Study in Charlotte is another book that I’ve owned for a while and decided to finally read. I really liked it and had a lot of fun listening to it. I’m excited to listen to the sequel.

What books did you read in March? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

That’s all I got for this post. I am going to try find some time this week to catch up with your posts. I’ll have a little extra time to myself this week, so it’ll be nice getting back on here and see how you are doing! 🙂

I hope you have a great day!

Book Haul & Wrap Up|| February.

Hey!

I usually do my book hauls and wrap ups separately, but I decided to combine them for this month because both are pretty small with the amount of books I bought and read throughout February. Lately, it’s been hard for me to just sit and read. I don’t know if it’s because I’m in some kind of reading slump or what it could be. I didn’t even really want to listen to audiobooks, but I forced myself this month because if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t really have much to share as far as reading goes. Same with buying books. I’ve been really picky these days of what I buy as far as books go, so I didn’t really buy much this month.

Let’s jump into my February book haul and then get into my wrap up after that! You can check out a full list of the books that I own over here. There’s links to different pages on my blog that show my e-books and my physical books. Here are the books that I got in February…

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan (Physical Book)
Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone (E-Book)
Like Me by Hayley Phelan (E-Book)

I always have fun reading Rick Riordan’s books, so I had to get Daughter of the Deep. I had no idea he even had a new one, so I was stoked when I found out. Sweet Talk is the second book in the Love Lines series. I read the first book Call Me Maybe and really liked it, so I got the second one. Like Me was free with Amazon First Reads. It sounded interesting, so why not since it was free lol. So, as you can see my book haul for February was pretty small! Only one physical book and two e-books.

What books did you get in February? Have you read any of the ones that I got?

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And now for my wrap up! I didn’t have much luck with reading this month as I mentioned earlier in this post. I just couldn’t focus on reading. I would sit down, try to read, and then just wanted to pick up my phone instead. Maybe I need to start turning my phone off and put it in another room and set time where I read for at least 30 minutes to an hour each day or something. For February I read one book, which took me an entire month to finish a book under 300 pages ughh. I listened to three books. And I had a DNF book that was also an audiobook that I tried listening to. You can find a full list of the books that I read in January and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Call Me Maybe by Cara Bastone – 4 out of 5 stars – (E-Book)
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia – 4 out of 5 stars (Audiobook)
The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor – 3 out of 5 stars (Audiobook)
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – 4 out of 5 stars (Audiobook)

I’m still trying to read a lot of my older books that I’ve had on my shelves for a while and this month I did really good with that. Aside from Call Me Maybe (I bought it last year), these others were books that I’ve had for a while and had not read yet. Call Me Maybe was really cute and I had a lot of fun reading it. It took me all month to read it and it’s only a little over 200 pages, but I am happy I was finally able to finish it because I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Eliza and Her Monsters. It was not what I expected, but that was a good thing. There were things I didn’t like about it like how Wallace seemed kind of selfish to me in the end and I also really wasn’t a fan of the fanfiction that was included in the story. The Chalk Man was good, but I felt like there was something missing. It was kind of weird too. I think I was expecting something else. I’ve been wanting to read Me Before You for a while now and I finally did! It was really good, but so sad. I didn’t really like how it ended though.

This Girl by Colleen Hoover – DNF

I really liked Slammed and Point of Retreat, but The Girl was a DNF for me. I was bored throughout listening to the audiobook and Layken was really annoying and whiny. I feel like it could have been better without her commentary after each flashback from Will’s perspective.

What books did you read in February? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I am hoping that March will be a lot better as far as reading goes. I want to get back into the swing of things and actually be able to read books myself again! I have a couple of ARCs that I really want to try to read in March, so I can finally get my reviews up for them. Fingers crossed that happens! I’ll catch up with you posts soon. I’ve been trying to blog hop at least once a week and I’ve been pretty good at sticking to that over the last few weeks. 🙂

I’ll end this post with a picture of one of my cats (ColbyJack) hanging out on one of my bookshelves.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| October & November.

Hey!

I haven’t updated in two months, yikes! I didn’t mean to go that long without posting to my blog. Life happened, I wasn’t reading much, my October TBR was a fail….so it just kind of made me not even want to blog. My mind has also just been in this weird place for months. It keeps me from wanting to read much, because I’m constantly just always thinking about things going on with me and can’t focus on reading. Just feel kind of stuck within myself, I guess. So with all that, I took an unplanned hiatus, I guess. I’m not really sure how much I’ll be updating this month either, honestly. I am hoping to start over fresh next year and hopefully I’ll start updating my blog consistently. *fingers crossed*

BUT I am updating today, so that’s cool! 🙂 I’m going to share my October and November wrap up. I decided to combined them since I didn’t really read a whole lot during those months. I also plan to post my October and November book haul (also combining them into one post) later this week or Monday. As always, you can find a full list of the books that I read during these months and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here are the books that I read and listened to in October and November.

October Wrap Up

Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon – 4 out of 5 stars
Wytches by Scott Snyder – 2 out of 5 stars

I had a TBR list of all the spooky books that I wanted to read in October, but I sadly only read two of the ten books that I had listed. I was really bummed out that I didn’t read more than that. I started a third, but I never got the chance to finish it. Hide and Seeker was so much fun to read and I really liked it. I am so happy I finally had the chance to read it. It definitely had its spooky moments. I was really excited about reading Wytches, but it was a huge let down for me. I honestly felt lost the entire time. The only thing I liked about it was the illustrations.

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November Wrap Up

Thirteens by Kate Alice Marshall – 4 out of 5 stars
To Sir, with Love by Lauren Layne (audiobook) – 5 out of 5 stars
My [Secret] YouTube Life by Charlotte Seager – 2 out of 5 stars

Thirteens was the third book that I started in October, but didn’t have the chance to finish it. I finally did in November and I really enjoyed reading it. I’ll have to pick up the sequel sometime. I LOVED To Sir, with Love so much. I listened to the audiobook and it was great. I highly recommend! I was really disappointed with My [Secret] YouTube Life. I felt bored most of the time and I didn’t really love the characters. It was interesting getting a glimpse into the “influencer” lifestyle though.

I am currently reading All I Want For Christmas by Wendy Loggia. I want to try to read some Christmas books this month. Not setting that in stone (or a blog post :P) in case I don’t actually do that. We shall see!

I’m going to spend some time this week catching up with your posts. I can’t wait to see what you have been writing about and finding new book recommendations for my endless TBR. Feel free to link me to any posts you think I should check out ASAP. 🙂

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| September.

Hey!

It’s OCTOBERRRRRR. 🎃 The weather might actually be cooling down a little bit for Florida, that’s exciting! 😛 September was a pretty good month for me as far as things happening in my life. I got a raise at work, working on lowering our mortgage payment, stuff like that. I still feel sad a lot though. I still try to distract my thoughts with reading, TV shows (a lot of Halloween Baking Championship and other competition shows), and video games (still going strong with Stardew Valley lol). But other things in my life are seeming to be really good right now, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

As far as reading goes, it was another month where I didn’t read as much as I wanted or hoped to. I read two books and listened to two audiobooks. That’s okay, but of course I hoped for more. I did complete my Goodreads challenge though! Now I don’t have to worry about if I am going to complete my challenge before the year ends. I was kind of nervous about that a few months ago since I haven’t been reading that much this year. I have three months of no pressure reading now. 😛

Anyway, let’s get to my September wrap up. You can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here are the books that I read and listened to in September.

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of September.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston – 4 out of 5 stars
After the Fire by Will Hill – 4 out of 5 stars

One Last Stop was really good and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t what i expected either, but that’s probably because I saw it was a Casey McQuiston book and immediately decided I needed to read it and not read what it was about. 😛 The ending was kind of lame though, but the rest of it was so good! I’ve been wanting to read After the Fire for a few years now and I finally did! It was really good; shocking and sad. It was another book where I wasn’t really happy with the way it ended though. With that being said, I definitely recommend checking both of these books out if you haven’t!

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio version throughout the month of September.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender – 5 out of 5 stars
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides – 2 out of 5 stars

Felix Ever After was EVERYTHING. Emotional rollercoaster. I laugh. I cried. It made me so happy. It made me so angry. I loved it so much and I am glad that I finally read it. Highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t! The Maidens was a big disappointment to me. I found a lot of it to be boring. I wasn’t that surprised or shocked by most of the things that happened.

What books did you read in September? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

This weekend I am going to catch up with your posts and work on finishing up my Halloweenie TBR post that will probably go up on Monday! 😀 I’m pretty happy with the books that I chose to read this month. Also this weekend, I might check out this new bookstore that opened up here and maybe hit up the farmer’s market since it opened back up again last month. Do you have any weekend plans?

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| September.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Book Haul & Wrap Up|| August.

Hey!

Happy September! That means I can start decorating for Halloween, right? 🎃 So close to my favorite spooky month! I am hoping to make a trip to Target this weekend in the hopes that they have their Halloween decor out. I NEED more! Target always has some really great holiday decor, so hopefully I find some new things I like for this year. I have a couple ideas of what I am looking for and I am hoping they have it. August was a busy month for me. I was finishing up my photography class (which I loved) and then I was able to go visit my family for a weekend. I spent lots of time playing Stardew Valley because once again, this game is addicting. And I got back into diamond painting again. I’m off and on with it. I’ll be really obsessed and do it ALL THE TIME and then I won’t do it for a long, long time until I pick it up again haha. I’ve also been working and got extended at my job to the end of November, which is great.

As you can see from the title of this blog post, I decided to once again combine my book haul and wrap up post together because they are both pretty small for August as well. As you’ve probably seen in the past, I usually do them in separate posts. I will first start with my August book haul and then get into my wrap up after that! I didn’t get many books this month. I believe it was only just six books. Three print books and three e-books. You can check out a full list of the books that I own over here. There’s links to different pages on my blog that show my e-books and my physical books. I haven’t updated that page since early February though (I really need to find some time to do this. I’m slacking, sigh.), so an update for that is coming soon. But anyway, here are the books that I got in August.

Books I Bought:

Fresh by Margot Wood (print)
In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner (print)
I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman (print)

The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (e-book)
The Children’s Block by Otto Kraus (e-book)
The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson (e-book)

Fresh and In the Wild Light were two of my August pre-orders and I am really looking forward to reading them; especially Jeff Zentner’s new book. I always love his books, so I’m excited! I buy pretty much all of Alice Osemen’s books, so I decided to buy I Was Born for This since I didn’t have it yet and I want to read all her books before the year ends. The last three are e-books. I’ve been wanting these e-books to go on sale and I was stoked to see them on sale in July! 🙂 I am so stoked to read them. The Trials of Morrigan Crow looks and sounds good, so I had to get it when I saw it on sale. I read a couple chapters of The Children’s Block and hopefully will get back into it soon. I ended up not being in the mood for it, so I put it down for now. But so far what I read I liked. Might include The Year of the Witching in my spooky TBR for October.

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And now for my wrap up! You can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here are the books that I read and listened to in August.

Books I Read:

Isn’t It Bromantic? by Lyssa Kay Adams (audiobook) (5 out of 5 stars)
Some Kind of Wonderland by Tara St. Pierre (e-book) (4 out of 5 stars)
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (audiobook) (3 out of 5 stars)

Once again I didn’t read as much as I wanted to, but I was able to finish two books that I started in July and one other. Isn’t It Bromantic? was AMAZING! ❤ I loved it so much. I am so stoked we were finally able to get the Russian’s story and it was so gooood. Some Kind of Wonderland was really good and I had fun reading it. I loved all the Alice in Wonderland references and spin on it. I’ll link my review at the end of this post, so you can check it out for more about it. I’ve been seeing Arsenic and Adobo around, so I decided to give it a chance since my library had the audiobook available. It was good, but I didn’t love it. It kept my attention and at times was quite interesting, but I guessed who the killer was pretty fast and wasn’t that surprised. It was neat that they give some recipes from the book at the end!

That’s all for my August wrap up and book haul! 🙂 Feel free to link me to your wrap up posts or book haul posts, so I can check them out. I did some blog hopping yesterday and was able to finally catch up with some of your posts. ❤ If you think I missed any important blog posts, send me a link and I’ll make sure to go look at it. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Review|| Some Kind of Wonderland.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Book Haul & Wrap Up|| July.

Hey!

I usually do my book hauls and wrap ups separately, but I decided to combine them for July because both are pretty small for my July post. Honestly, the last thing I was really thinking about was books in July. I was busy with work, then my photography class (which is still going until the middle of August), and I got REALLY obsessed with Stardew Valley on Nintendo Switch (I still am). My time and my mind were elsewhere and has been for the last few months; especially in July. Because of that, I wasn’t really around on the blogosphere much at all either. I think I blog hopped once, which is sad because I love reading your posts. I just have other things going on right now. It’s not that I don’t want to be here, because I DO! My mind has just been elsewhere and I don’t really know how to explain that. 😦 I’ll be catching up with your posts at some point soon though.

I want to talk about my photography class really quick though. I’ve been having a lot of fun in the class and I am glad I got out of my comfort zone to take part in it. I like learning about about photography and different compositions. It’s also fun getting assignments to take pictures and then sharing them with the class. We even got to go one day as a class out walking around downtown taking pictures. Friendly environment and people too, so that really helps with my social anxiety and not being too freaked out as I usually am. I’ll have to do a post about my experience and share the pictures that I’ve been taking for my assignments. I may even want to do this again, we shall see!

Anyway, let’s talk books now! I will first start with my July book haul and then get into my wrap up after that! I didn’t get many books this month. I think I only got six books, actually. One physical book, two e-books, and then three ARCs from Netgalley. I am super stoked for them all! I especially can’t wait to read the Netgalley ones, so I can finally get some reviews up on my blog again.

Books I Bought

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass (print)
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (e-book)
Elatose by Darcie Little Badger (e-book)

Netgalley

Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone (09/28/2021)
Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu (10/19/2021)
Gilded by Marissa Meyer (11/02/2021)

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And now for my wrap up! So, I didn’t actually get to finish any books on my own in July. What I mean by that is the books that I did read were audiobooks instead of books that I read myself. I was actually bummed out that I didn’t get to finish any of the books I started to read on my own before the month ended. It’s hard to read when you can’t focus. I’m happy I was able to at least listen to some audiobooks though. Below are the two audiobooks that I was able to listen to.

Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa (5 out of 5 stars)
Sunkissed by Kasie West (4 out of 5 stars)

I absolutely LOVED Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun! It’s probably my favorite book of the year so far and I HIGHLY recommend everyone checking it out. 🙂 It had me laughing and also crying. Sunkissed was a lot of fun and I really related to the main character a lot, actually. I always feel like I’m stuck, doing the same things, because I’m scared to get out there and do other things that are not in my comfort zone. Sometimes not really knowing what I want or who I really am. I really related to that.

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I started a couple books in July that I didn’t get the chance to finish reading, so I am really hoping that I do in August. These are the books that I started, but haven’t had the chance to finish yet.

Some Kind of Wonderland by Tara St. Pierre (e-book)
Isn’t It Bromantic? by Lyssa Kay Adams (audiobook)

So far I like Some Kind of Wonderland and I am excited to finish it (I’m halfway through it now), so I can get my review up on my blog for it. I’m making it priority in August. July was just one big reading slump for me, so I didn’t get the chance to finish reading it. I’m currently listening to the audiobook of Isn’t It Bromantic? and it’s good. I was hoping to finish it before the audiobook got returned to the library, but that didn’t end up happening. I had to put the audiobook back on hold UGHH. I also put the e-book on hold too just in case that gets to me faster than the audiobook. I’m a little over halfway through it and I’m sad I didn’t get to finish it before it got returned.

That’s all for my July wrap up and book haul! I have to get back to work. I will hopefully catch up with your posts this week. 🙂 Feel free to link me to your wrap up posts or book haul posts, so I can check them out. Or link me to any posts you think I should check out ASAP! ❤

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| June.

Hey!

2021 is really halfway over? 🤯 June was not one of my best reading months. I didn’t read as much as I hoped I would and all the books that I did read only were only three stars to me. Three stars means I liked them, but I wasn’t blown away or amazed by them. I’ve also been in a pretty bad blogging slump the last couple months as you can see that in May and now June I only posted book hauls and wrap ups. 😦 I’m kind of in this place where I don’t feel inspired (I don’t know if this is the word I really want to use, but I can’t think of another at the moment) and I think I’ve also been kind of unhappy with life in general or maybe not life, but myself. I also feel more anxiety than usual lately and I don’t even know why. I don’t know. *shrug*

I’ve been busy with work, which is nice. I’ve been getting more steady work and I even got my work contract extended for another three months. With that extension comes more stress, anxiety, and obstacles though. I don’t feel like going into why, but it is what it is. I may be busier during July and part of August because I signed up for a photography class that goes for six weeks. Another thing that gives me anxiety (as you can see, I’m just a big ball of anxiety :P), because it’s so out of my comfort zone. BUT I love taking pictures and I want to learn to get better at it, so I signed up anyway. Maybe I need to get out of my comfort zone sometimes, I don’t know. I’ve been hooked on Stardew Valley on Nintendo Switch, so that started to take up a lot of my downtime. It’s been giving me something to do during my blogging and reading slumps. I can sit for hours straight playing and I have been almost every single day for the last week. It’s bringing me joy even if the game can be frustrating at times haha.

A new favorite picture I took a couple weeks ago.

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Anyway, enough of all that. I am here to share my June wrap up with you! Like I said, I didn’t read as much as I wanted to and the quality wasn’t that great either. There’s a couple unpopular opinions here, I think.You can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here are the books that I read and listened to in June.

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of June.

When I Was You by Minka Kent – 3 out of 5 stars
The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent – 3 out of 5 stars

I liked both When I Was You and The Memory Watcher, but they didn’t blow me away and honestly they were so predictable. I wasn’t really that shocked, so I was bummed about that. I will say that The Memory Watcher was a lot better than When I Was You though. There was one thing toward the end that did actually surprise me in The Memory Watcher. I like reading psychological thrillers, but it’s rare that I am ever surprised or shocked by them lol. I almost always guess what is going on early on and I’m almost always correct. So, I wasn’t really surprised I gave them both three stars.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of June.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid – 3 out of 5 stars
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry – 3 out of 5 stars

Malibu Rising and People We Meet on Vacation have both seemed really hyped and I had high expectations going into them both. I loved Daisy Jones and I really liked Beach read, so I was bummed I didn’t enjoy these as much as I hoped I would. I don’t have a lot to say about neither one of them, but I did like them and at times they were fun to read. There were times where I was a bit bored as well. Overall, they just didn’t blow me away and my high expectations were let down.

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Currently Reading:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of June, but didn’t get a chance to finish them before the month ended.

Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza
Some Kind of Wonderland by Tara St. Pierre

I started both of these books in June, but I didn’t get the chance to finish them before the month ended. I’m listening to the audiobook of Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun and so far I love it so much. I haven’t had the chance to really listen to it this past week or so though because I’m doing new things at work that don’t give me an opportunity to listen all day like other things I do at work can. I’m halfway through it though, so hoping I finish it this month. I might listen while I play Stardew Valley sometime lol. Some Kind of Wonderland so far is pretty good and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. If you couldn’t tell by the cover, it’s kind of like an Alice in Wonderland retelling. I’m not too far into it yet, but hoping to finish it soon and get a review up for it.

What books did you read in June? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I am hoping that July will overall be a better month. I’ll catch up with you guys soon if I haven’t already. I did some blog hopping yesterday. I was able to read and comment quite a few posts, so I was happy about that. Feel free to link me to anything you want me to check out in case I missed anything!

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| June.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Wrap Up|| May.

Hey!

I hope you had a great May! As for me, it was a bit of a busier month as I mentioned in my book haul post a couple days ago. Work has been a little busier and the husband and I have been doing a lot more walks almost every day in the hopes to try to get healthier and in better shape. Any downtime was spent catching up on TV shows and of course reading! I was definitely a little (okay a lot) missing in the blogosphere. Hoping June will be a better month and I can get back into the swing of blogging. I have two ARCs that I need to read, so hopefully I can get some reviews posted here. We shall see!

Below are a couple pictures from one of the walking trails that the husband and I have been walking a lot. We were able to see so many different birds and little creatures, like bunnies and otters! I really want to do a big picture post or a bunch of smaller ones since I haven’t done one in a while and I have SO MANY pictures to share, especially from all the walks we have been going on this last few weeks. You may see these photos again when I do the nature walk post/s. 🙂 You should follow my personal Instagram account if you want to see more or what I am usually up to when I’m not blogging or posting pictures about books! Personal IG: heyyitsashley (two “y” in “hey”).

As for reading, it was another month where I read and listened to a lot of books! This has put me so far ahead in my Goodreads challenge (I think 17 books ahead), which I am so happy about. Toward the end of the year is when I start feeling burned out and then the holidays, and I don’t read as much, so I am glad I am really far ahead. I enjoyed most of the books that I read this month, but I am a little bummed I didn’t read some of the newer releases that I bought. That seems to be a problem for me though haha. I buy books and then they sit on my shelf and I read books from Kindle Unlimited or the library. I’m horrible when it comes that. 😛 Anyway, you can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here are the books that I read and listened to in May.

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of May.

The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon – 5 out of 5 stars
Flirt by Lucy Lennox – 4 out of 5 stars
Facing West by Lucy Lennox – 5 out of 5 stars
Felix and the Prince by Lucy Lennox – 3 out of 5 stars
Wilde Fire by Lucy Lennox – 4 out of 5 stars

I finally finished reading The Mask Falling! I started it back in March, but I wasn’t really in the mood to read it yet, so it took me quite a while to finish it. I am so happy I did, because it was so amazing! So many surprises and one that left me almost dead. Now the impatient long wait for book five…ugh. I love the Bone Season series so much so far. I’ve been flying through the Forever Wilde series. I read two books out of order, but then decided to go back and read the rest of the series. I still have four more books to read from the series, but I may take a little break before finishing it. I still have a couple ARCs I really should get to reading instead lol. So far though, I am really enjoying the Forever Wilde series. I don’t really read books like this often, but maybe I should since I seem to fly through them.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of May.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs – 5 out of 5 stars (reread)
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs – 5 out of 5 stars (reread)
Summer Frost by Blake Crouch – 4 out of 5 stars
Ark by Veronica Roth – 2 out of 5 stars
Layla by Colleen Hoover – 3 out of 5 stars
Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry – 4 out of 5 stars

I mentioned that I was rereading the first two Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children’s books, so I can finally finish the series this year. I listened to the audiobooks for those and it was fun rereading it that way and I definitely forgot so much that happened, so I am glad I listened to them. Hoping to start book three this month. I listened to the audiobooks of the first two Forward Collection stories. They were quick since they are short stories. I don’t know if I’ll read the rest of them, but I wanted to read Summer Frost and Ark, because I like Blake Crouch and Veronica Roth. I really enjoyed Summer Frost, it was pretty creepy! I didn’t really care much for Ark though. I decided to listen to Layla since I have a free trial of Kindle Unlimited and and with Kindle Unlimited, they had the audiobook of Layla. I enjoyed it, but I really didn’t like the ending that much. I thought it could be cooler and spookier, but oh well. It was still pretty interesting and different for Colleen Hoover. I’ve been wanting to read Forget Me Not for a while, so I decided to check the audiobook out from my library. It was actually pretty sad, but I really liked the story.

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Currently Reading:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of May, but didn’t get a chance to finish them before the month ended.

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

I am currently reading Burn Baby Burn. It was May TBR jar pick. Since I got sucked into reading some of the Forever Wilde series mentioned above, I didn’t give much time to this one. Hoping to finish it in June though. I’m about a quarter into it and it’s okay so far. Not really a whole lot happening, so I am hoping that it starts picking up soon. Speaking of May TBR jar pick…I think I might skip this challenge altogether, because I didn’t read my April pick yet and I didn’t get through my May one throughout the month. So I think I might just ditch this challenge and read whatever I want and in the mood for instead.

What books did you read in May? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I think that’s all I have for this post. I did some blog hopping yesterday, which was nice. If I missed any posts that you think I should check out, PLEASE feel free to link me to them, so I can go read and comment them. ❤

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| May.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| April.

Hey!

April was a pretty good month overall! I was able to get my first COVID vaccination! I’m getting my second one Thursday. I was able to see my family for my younger sister’s birthday and one of my best friends/cousin was able to come stay at my house for a few days. I got back into diamond painting again in April, so that took a good amount of my time but it also allowed me to listen to more audiobooks. I also started to catch up on TV shows I’ve been wanting to watch. I mentioned in my last post that my job ended, BUT they decided to renew me at the last minute so I am still working! 😀

As far as reading goes, I actually did pretty good in April! I managed to read/listen to TEN books! The only not so good that happened in April was that I did not read my April TBR jar pick for the month (UGHHHH), but I think as long as I read it before the end of the year I’m going to count it. 😛 I just wasn’t in the mood for it, but I did read and listen to a bunch of books this month! You can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here is what I read and listened to in April…

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of April.

Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer – 4 out of 5 stars – Review
Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye – 5 out of 5 stars
Hudson’s Luck by Lucy Lennox – 4 out of 5 stars

Chaos on CatNet was so much fun to read! It’s the sequel to Catfishing on CatNet. Feel free to check out my review (linked above) to see more of what I thought about it. I’ve been wanting to read Date Me, Bryson Keller for like a year now and finally decided to read in. I flew through it because it was SO GOOD and hard to put down. I loved it so much, which as you can see, I gave it five stars! Hudson’s Luck was a random book I decided to read because it sounded interesting and I really liked it. It was cute and I flew through it.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of April.

Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles – 2 out of 5 stars – Review
Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa – 5 out of 5 stars
One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus – 4 out of 5 stars

I had high hopes for Where Dreams Descend, but sadly I was very disappointed. You can check out my review (linked above) for more about that. I finally got around to reading Night of the Dragon! Of course I loved it so much. It had been a LONG time since I cried my eyes out while reading a book, but holy crap did Night of the Dragon make me cry SO MUCH. I finished the audiobook in the car on the way to visit my family, so you can confirm with the husband on how much I cried haha. 😛 I also finally read One of Us Is Next. It was really good and I liked it a lot, but I do think the first book was a little better. I still had fun reading it and it kept me guessing.

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus – 3 out of 5 stars
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dad – 4 out of 5 stars
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire – 2 out of 5 stars
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – 3 out of 5 stars

I liked The Cousins, but I felt like something was missing from it. I wasn’t that shocked by anything and some of it was a bit boring to me. Spoiler Alert was SO CUTE! I really enjoyed it, but I wasn’t really a fan of the fanfic stuff. Everything else about the book was cute and fun though. I was really looking forward to Every Heart a Doorway, but honestly I’m just like “WTF” did I read? It was weird, kind of boring, and I still don’t understand it. *shrug* And because April seems like the month of finally reading books that I’ve been wanting to….I finally read The Kiss Quotient! I know it was REALLY hyped when it came out. As for me, I liked it, but I think it was a little too much for me in sometimes and I think maybe listening to the audiobook wasn’t the best route for this one lol. I’m glad I finally read it though.

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Currently Reading:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of April, but didn’t get a chance to finish them before the month ended.

The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I was really hoping to finish The Mask Falling by the end of April, but sadly I didn’t get the chance to since I was reading other books as well. DEFINITELY in May though. I am currently halfway through it and really enjoying it. It’s just really slow to start, because there’s so much information and things happening. I really love this series though, so I’m okay with reading it slow and taking it all in. I don’t want to miss a single thing! I am also listening to the audiobook of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I’ve read the first two books in this series back in 2014. I really liked the first two books a lot and I want to FINALLY finish the series this year. It’s been so long since I’ve read the first two books, so I decided to listen to those two on audiobook before starting the rest of the series.

What books did you read in April? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I did some blog hopping last night and hoping to do some more this week too. Feel free to link me to anything I should check out in case I missed it. 🙂 I still need to reply to comments and I will do that today. Hopefully once I get caught up on things I missed in the blogosphere, I can get back into the swing of things around here again. 🙂 ❤

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| April.
Do Book Covers Affect Whether I read a Book?

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| March.

Hey!

Happy April! Is it really April already? March was overall a good month but I had a few distractions, because of that I didn’t read as much as I hoped I would. I had such a great reading month in February, so I was bummed about March. Luckily I am still ahead on my Goodreads challenge by five books since I read so much in February. It’s nice being ahead and not feeling so bad during the months where you don’t read a lot. Anyway, onto my March wrap up! You can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here is what I read and listened to in March…

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of March.

Killer Triggers by Joe Kenda – 4 out of 5 stars

I love Joe Kenda so much. I watch his show Homicide Hunter ALL the time. Killer Triggers is the second book of his that I read and I really enjoyed it a lot. He talks about some of the murder cases he worked on and what triggered a person to commit murder in those cases. It was so good and I really enjoyed this book. I hope he writes more books, because I always love reading (or seeing) what he has to say. I’ve been watching his new series on Discovery+ and it’s great. I think I have just a couple episodes left.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of March.

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare – 5 out of 5 stars
Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown – 4 out of 5 stars

I finally decided to get back into The Dark Artifices series and listen to Queen of Air and Darkness. I listened to the other books in the series last year I believe. I loved it so much! It’s honestly crazy loving books by Cassandra Clare again, honestly. After The Mortal Instruments series going SO downhill for me (the last two books in that series were not good in my opinion) it made me want to get away from the Shadowhunter world forever. I decided to try again and I’ve been really loving The Dark Artifices series. Queen of Air and Darkness was so good and I had a lot of fun reading it. I left happy being back in that world again and wanting more of it! Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit was my March TBR pick. I’ve had it on my TBR since it was released in 2016! I am glad I finally picked it up, because I ended up liking it so much. I loved the friendship, the growth of the main characters (and other characters in the book), and the family aspect of it. I really enjoyed the story so much.

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Currently Reading:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of March, but didn’t get a chance to finish them before the month ended.

The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles

I didn’t get a chance to finish The Mask Falling or Where Dreams Descend before the month ended. I am hoping to finish them in April though! I’m about 30% into The Mask Falling and so far I really like it. I’ve just been so slow at reading it because I haven’t been in the mood for it. I don’t want to force myself to read it if I’m not in the mood for it. I love this series SOOO much, so I don’t want to end up forcing myself to read it and not like it as much as I would if I were in the mood for it. If that makes sense? So I’ve just been reading it here and there in between other books. Where Dreams Descend is okay so far, but I am not loving it. I’m about 68% into it. It’s really slow with things happening, which I don’t like. I want something exciting to happen already, sigh. I’ll have a review of this one as soon as I finish it.

What books did you read in March? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

You guys, I am so close to 2000 followers on my blog, which is insane! I never thought my blog would ever see more than ten followers, honestly. It’s really motivating me to want to be more active again. I really need to figure out a good schedule where I can blog more and be around more. That was one of my goals for this year and so far I haven’t been doing very great at it. I’ll come up with something soon. I think I may put together a giveaway soon, because I didn’t do one yet this year. I am hoping to catch up on your blog posts and reply to comments between today and tomorrow too. ❤

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| March.
Friday Finds #89.
TTT|| Books On My Spring TBR.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| February.

Hey!

It’s March already!? And….it’s my birthday today! 🙂 Time seems to be flying by so far this year. As for February goes though, I had a really good reading month! I read a few books myself and listened to quite a few audiobooks. In February I was working my way through my Netgalley shelf and was able to knock three books off there and I only have three left to read. A lot of them were books where the release date had already passed, so it was nice to finally get those older ones read and reviewed. I did end DNF one of them though, so there’s no review for that one. I have two more older ones to read and then my last one is a release for April. I am hoping to get those last few books cleared from Netgalley between now and the end of April. Another cool thing is I am actually six books ahead on my Goodreads challenge! I think most of last year I was forever behind on my challenge each month. It feels good to actually be ahead and by so much! Helps to be less stressed about that goal.

Anyway, you can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here is what I read and listened to in February…

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of February.

You Say It First by Katie Cotugno – 4 out of 5 stars
The Dawn Chorus by Samantha Shannon – 5 out of 5 stars
Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway – 4 out of 5 stars

I really like Katie Cotugno’s books, so I am glad I finally read You Sat It First. It was sad and cute all at the same time. I loved the characters and friendships. The Dawn Chorus was a really great bridge into the fourth book in The Bone Season series. I loved it so much and I am really looking forward to reading the fourth book this month. I’ve been wanting to read Emmy & Oliver for YEARS….like five or six years? The year it was released it was actually my most anticipated book! I pulled it from my TBR jar as my February TBR jar pick and I am so happy that I did. I really enjoyed reading it. I completely forgot what it was about and didn’t read the book description before actually starting it, so it was mostly a surprise for me. A good surprise! It had some pretty sad moments, but overall it was such a great story!

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of February.

The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon – 4 out of 5 stars
Admission by Julie Buxbaum – 3 out of 5 stars – Review
What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo – 2 out of 5 stars – Review
Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer – 5 out of 5 stars – Past Review
Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Schaeffer – 5 out of 5 stars

The Song Rising (The Bone Season series) and Not Even Bones (Market of Monsters series) were both rereads for me. I wanted to reread them, so I could continue with the both series. It was so great getting back into them and I am excited about reading the new books in both series. Only Ashes Remains is the second book in the Market of Monsters series and it did not disappoint. It’s a dark and twisted series and it’s so fun to read! Hoping to read the last book this month and get my review up for that. It’s one of the books on my Netgalley shelf that I’m trying to clear off. And speaking of clearing my Netgalley shelf, I finally got around to checking out Admissions and What Big Teeth. I liked Admissions, but it didn’t blow me away like I had hoped it would. I still recommend checking it out though. I was really disappointed with What Big Teeth, sadly. I had really high hopes for it, but it ended up not being for me. 😦 Feel free to check out my reviews linked above for more about them!

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DNF (Did Not Finish):
These are the books that I tried to read in the month of February, but ended up not being for me so I stopped.

Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass

Surrender Your Sons was the ARC that I ended up DNF. I think I read about 30% of it, but I just couldn’t finish it. I think that a lot of people would like reading it, but it just wasn’t for me. It was a really difficult topic to read about and I found myself struggling to read it because of that. I didn’t stop because it was a bad book or anything like that, it was just too hard for me to read and it wasn’t exactly what I expected it was going to be. I would still recommend checking it out, I think it’s a really important topic.

What books did you read in February? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| February

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| January.

Hey!

January flew by! It was a mostly busy month for me as work started it get a lot busier. With my new job I am able to listen to more audiobooks again, which is nice though! I didn’t blog as much as I wanted to, but I haven’t really sat down to figure out how I want to go about things for this new year. I should really do that soon. Life has been pretty okay; except I found out my immediate family (mom, older sister, niece, nephew, and aunt) has Covid, so that sucks. My older sister got it first and since they all live in the same house, everyone got it. I’m just crossing my fingers that they are not bad cases and that they’ll all be okay.

As far as reading goes, I was able to read and listen to six books! Three that I read myself and three that were audiobooks. I also started a seventh book, but unfortunately wasn’t able to finish it before the month ended. It feels good being two books ahead of schedule on Goodreads. I didn’t write any reviews in January, so that was a bummer. One of my goals for this year was to write more reviews, and *maybe* write at least 2-3 reviews a month, oops. The 2-3 reviews a month number was a loose goal though, so I’m not beating myself up over it or anything.

Anyway, you can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here is what I read and listened to in January…

Print/E-Book Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of January.

Kent State by Deborah Wiles – 3 out of 5 stars.
In December I was reading Mind the Gap, Dash & Lily and the character Dash mentioned Kent State and it sounded interesting from the way he talked about it, so I really wanted to check it out. My library had it available, so that was the first book that I read this year! It was such a heartbreaking story. I flew through it because I couldn’t put it down and it’s also written in verse, so that made it a pretty quick read as well.

Forever Wild by K.A. Tucker – 5 out of 5 stars.
I HAD to read Forever Wild as soon as possible and since I didn’t get to it in December, I made sure to read it in January. It was so amazing! It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I need more!! I believe there is a book three coming! Forever Wild was book “2.5”. I highly recommend checking out the series if you haven’t already; the first book is The Simple Wild.

#VERYFAT #VERYBRAVE by Nicole Byer – 3 out of 5 stars.
I really love Nicole Byer, so I wanted to check out her book #VERYFAT #VERYBRAVE. My library had it available, so I decided to read it. I really liked what she had to say and her message, but the book seemed a little too repetitive and as much as I loved all the pictures that she included of herself, I feel like it was a little excessive with the amount of pictures. It was still a good book though and I’ll forever love Nicole Byer.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of January.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven – 4 out of 5 stars.
All the Bright Places was my pick from my old TBR jar that I haven’t updated since 2017. One of my goals for the year is to read at least one book a month from that TBR jar and this was January. I started off reading it on my own, but then I decided to check out the audiobook from my library instead since it was available. I really liked the book, but it was so heartbreaking and sad. I am glad I finally read it though! I’ve been wanting to for so long. I think I actually bought the book in 2015!

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon – 5 out of 5 stars.
The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon – 5 out of 5 stars.
I mentioned in my book haul post how I am doing an audiobook reread of the first three books in The Bone Season series to prepare for hopefully reading the fourth book soon that just came out in January. I listened to the first two books and they were just as amazing as when I first read them years ago. This series forever has my heart and I can’t wait to read the new fourth book as soon as possible! As I am typing this blog post, I am listening to book three.

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Currently Reading:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of January, but didn’t get a chance to finish them before the month ended.

You Say It First by Katie Cotugno

I wanted to finished You Say It First by the end of January, but the last one and a half to two weeks of the month I wasn’t really reading as much. Hopefully this month I will get this one finished. So far, it’s okay. I don’t really have that much to say about it. I think I’m only about 15% into it though, so not very far into it yet. I have a couple ARCs I am hoping to get to this month, so I can get those reviews up and then whatever else I read is up in the air. We’ll see what happens!

What books did you read in January? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

Today, I am going to blog hop during my break at work and also later when I get off work. I am excited to check out what you’ve been up to and what you’ve been reading. I want to try to come up with some kind of schedule, so I am doing this at least once or twice a week. I have a lot of things I want to do, I just have to get them on paper and figure out a way to do it. Hopefully I’ll figure all of that out soon! I mentioned my old TBR jar earlier in this post and I am thinking about doing another one, but with all of my books in it. I stopped updating my old one sometime in 2017, so it would be nice to have a TBR jar to choose from with other older books on my shelves as well. We’ll see what happens with that. It’s a lot of work making one, unless I print off the books instead of writing them out like I’ve done in the past. Hmm.

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| January.
3 Stars of 2020.
4 Stars of 2020.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| December.

Hey!

Ahhhhhh, December is over. 2020 is over!!! It was a crazy year, it really was. As far as December goes, I was doubting if I would even finish my Goodreads challenge, BUT I managed to do it! I was actually thinking I would read a lot more than I did, but somehow the days got away from me. I started a new job in December, so that took up time; then the holidays and all that stuff. I still managed to read/listen to five books though and that’s pretty good! I may not have read exactly what I wanted to (a bunch of Christmasy books), but I did read some pretty great ones. You can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here is what I read and listened to in December…

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of December.

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black – 4 out of 5 stars
Mind the Gap, Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn, David Levithan – 4 out of 5 stars

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories was so fun to read! I loved reading all the different stories about Cardan and learning more about his past and things he went through. I loved that there were illustrations in the book too. I was so excited when I heard there was another Dash & Lily book! Mind the Gap, Dash & Lily was so much fun to read and I really liked it. It was nice seeing what they were up to since the last book. I love that their books are set at Christmas time, so it was perfect for December.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of December.

Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams – 4 out of 5 stars
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer – 4 out of 5 stars – Review
The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler – 3 out of 5 stars

I had a lot of fun listening to all three of these books. I’ve been really enjoying the Undercover Bromance series and Crazy Stupid Bromance was just as good as the other ones in the series. I really enjoyed Instant Karma a lot more than I thought I would. It was hard to connect with the main character at the start of the story, but she grew on me. The Tourist Attraction was a random book that I found at my library because I wanted to read more wintery books for December and figured this would be a good one since it is set in Alaska, although I don’t believe it was what I was thinking for the setting for Alaska for this story lol. It didn’t feel holiday to me like I thought it was going to. It was still good and I enjoyed it.

What books did you read in December? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

As I’ve mentioned in my haul post, I still have quite a few blog posts I am working on and those will be coming soon as well. Hopefully within the next week or two I will have most (if not all) of them posted. Next up will probably be my 2020 reading stats and then my 2021 reading goals. I’m going to try to find some time between the next couple days to catch up with your blog posts. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| December.
Happy New Year, 2021.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| November.

Hey!

I can’t believe it’s December 1st! I can’t believe 2020 is almost over. Such a weird year, but so happy to say goodbye to it soon lol. As for November though, I didn’t really have a great month as far as reading goes. I was only able to read two books, which was such a bummer. I just wasn’t in the mood to read or listen to audiobooks. I was hoping to get a few ARCs read and reviewed, but that obviously didn’t happen. 😦 I was able to read two books though, so at least I read something! Something is better than nothing, I think. You can find a full list of the books that I read this month and the other books I read throughout the year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. Here is what I read and what I’m still currently reading…

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of November.

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar – 4 out of 5 stars
Pretending by Holly Bourne – 3 out of 5 stars – Review

I loved reading Sideways Stories from Wayside School as a kid, so I decided to read it again as an adult. Still loved it so much as an adult as I did when I was a kid. There’s actually four books in this series and I’ve only ever read the first two, so I am hoping to read the other books as well. I was part of the blog tour for Pretending, so I read that and reviewed it (linked above). Overall, I thought it was a good book. I didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would have, but it was still pretty good. Just not completely what I expected. It’s a lot more on the serious side than I was expecting. It’s super important though.

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Currently Reading Books:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of November, but didn’t get a chance to finish them yet.

Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

I started to listen to the audiobook of Crazy Stupid Bromance, but didn’t get around to finishing it. So far I really like it and hope to finish it soon. I also started reading Instant Karma. I got a few chapters in, but haven’t had the chance to read more of it. I got the audiobook from my library, so I may just end up listening to it instead. I will hopefully have a review for Instant Karma posted in December.

What books did you read in November? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I am only four books away from completing my Goodreads challenge, so I really hope that this is a better reading month for me. Fingers crossed! I think in my November wrap up I included some of our Christmas decorations after we put up our tree. Well, I was able to get the stockings hung and also the Christmas tree now has our ornaments! So I figured I would share new pictures of that. Below is a a couple pictures so you can see what it looks like during the daylight and at night. 🙂 I am super happy with it! Just waiting for some new furniture (hopefully next Friday) and I think that room will be complete.

October decided to walk through while I was taking a picture in the night one. 😛 I love how all the lights reflect onto the wall. It just makes everything more colorful! Our star at the top of the tree also changes colors, which I love too. Anyway, I think that’s all for this post. I hope to catch up with your entries and reply to comments soon. I’ll probably start tonight and continue tomorrow if I don’t get to them all. ❤

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| November.
Blog Tour: Review|| Pretending.
Blog Tour: Excerpt|| Pretending.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| October.

Hey!

October flew by! I didn’t have my best blogging month and I’m sad about that. I just had no motivation or inspiration and that’s so sad. We were also pretty busy at home with a lot of different house projects; as you may have seen in my previous post that we redid my book room! I’ll leave a link at the end of this post in case you missed it and want to check it out. I did try to blog hop once in a while though and stay caught up with you guys! As far as reading goes, I think I had a good reading month, especially compared to past months. I even got ahead on my Goodreads challenge. It felt nice getting ahead after being behind for so long.

So, I made this Halloweenie TBR at the start of October and while I didn’t read as many books as I hoped I would off the TBR, I did manage to read a few of them. I also listened to some thriller audiobooks as well. Before I get into that though, first as always you can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review. So, what did I read and listen to this month?

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of October.

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare – 4 out of 5 stars
Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder – 3 out of 5 stars
Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne – 5 out of 5 stars
Swamp Thing by Maggie Stiefvater – 3 out of 5 stars
Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover – 4 out of 5 stars

I really liked Clown in a Cornfield. It was a creepy and fun story. It was perfect for Halloween. Halloween Season was interesting. It’s a bunch of Halloween/spooky short stories. Some stories were really great and others not so much. I had fun reading them though. I LOVED Beetle & the Hollowbones. It was a cute and fun graphic novel and the illustrations were so pretty. I’m not really a DC Comic fan, but I bought Swamp Thing anyway. I liked it and the illustrations were great, but I felt like something was missing. Or maybe I’m not getting it since I’m not a DC Comic fan? Or maybe it ties in with that new show I keep seeing previews for on TV? Who knows. I probably would love loved the graphic novel if there was more to it. I started to get a little burned out on Halloween vibe/Psychological Thriller books toward the end of the month and decided to pick up Heart Bones. It has skulls on the cover…so I mean, at least the cover fits the vibe of Halloween? 😛 I really enjoyed Heart Bones a lot. I flew through it in just a couple days, it was so hard to put down. Colleen Hoover books usually end up being books you can’t put down.

Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of October.

Final Girls by Riley Sager – 3 out of 5 stars
Perfect Little Children by Sophie Hannah – 1 out of 5 stars
Recursion by Blake Crouch – 3 out of 5 stars

I don’t think I had the best luck with the audiobooks that I listened to this month. While I did like a couple of them, I wasn’t blown away by them like I had hoped; especially Recursion. I thought I would be blown away by Recursion because I loved Blake’s book Dark Matter. Sadly, I was not. I really liked it at the beginning, but then it just got annoying and I wanted it to just end. Final Girls was good and I liked it, but once again I was not completely sold or blown away by it. Perfect Little Children was so bad. I felt like nothing really happened and the main character annoyed me so much. The shock factor just wasn’t there for me either. The entire time I was hoping something would happen and by the time something did happen, I was already over the story, so I didn’t care all that much.

DNF (Did Not Finish):
These are the books that I tried to read in the month of October, but ended up not being for me so I stopped.

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks

I got halfway through An Anonymous Girl before I didn’t I was done with it. I was just so bored and I couldn’t really listen anymore. I wanted to listen to more psychological thrillers this month, but I think I’ve noticed that I’m not that into them or I don’t love them as much as I think I’m going to. Will I still attempt them? Of course, I will. I like to torture myself I guess. 😛

Currently Reading Books:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of October, but didn’t get a chance to finish them yet.

None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney

I am also still reading None Shall Sleep. I was hoping to finish it in October as well, but I just didn’t get around to it. I do want to finish it as soon as I can and get a review posted for it. I started it in the middle of September, but I just haven’t been in the mood for it. I don’t want to force it right now and then end up not liking it because of that. So far, I do like it though. It gives me Mindhunter vibes, if you’ve seen that show on Netflix. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it.

What books did you read in October? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

Yesterday I was finally able to find some time to blog hop, so I got all caught up with your posts. If I missed anything, please feel free to send me links to those posts and I will definitely check them out. 🙂 I am really hoping that I’ll have a better blogging month in November. Fingers crossed!

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| October. & New Book Room!
Book Haul|| September.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| September.

Hey!

It is crazy to believe there is only a few months left of 2020. I honestly have no idea where this year has gone and it’s also kind of sad because it was spent the majority of the time at home. It really bums me out, because we just moved to a new city last year and when the virus happened, we weren’t able to continue to explore our new city or surrounding places. But anyway, I’m here to post my September wrap up of the books that I read this month.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I wasn’t counting audiobooks toward my Goodreads challenge over the last 2-3 years, but that I decided to change that this month and for the rest of the year. In case you missed that post, the reason I wasn’t counting them is because I’ve liked to challenge myself over the years to see how many I could read on my own and audiobooks just being extras. The thought of not completing my Goodreads challenge would have brought me down worse than I already feel these days, so I’m making an exception for this crazy year. Plus, technically it’s still reading, so whatever. I was so behind on my challenge and I knew I wouldn’t catch up. BUT, now that I am including audiobooks…I am only one book behind schedule and I should hopefully be caught up in October. 😀

And now with all that being said, I actually didn’t finish a single book this month on my own. I ended up listening to all audiobooks. I still feel super guilty for this though! 😦 But anyway, here is what I listened to in September. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of September.

This Is My Brain in Love by I.W. Gregorio – 3 out of 5 stars.
I read I.W. Gregorio’s previous novel called None of the Above and loved it so much that I had to check out her new book. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up loving This Is My Brain in Love. I liked it and enjoyed it for the most part, but it just didn’t blow me away. I think my expectations were just way too high for this one.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones – 3 out of 5 stars.
The Only Good Indians sounded SOOOO good and I was so stoked that my library had the audiobook. It was so interesting and I liked it, but it didn’t blow me away and I really didn’t like the way it ended. It was just way too strange for me.

Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim – 4 out of 5 stars.
Unravel the Dusk is the sequel to Spin the Dawn and I really liked it so much. So many feels and it was so great being back in this world. While I did really like it a lot, it felt like it was missing something, which is why I couldn’t give it five stars. Still highly recommend reading these books!

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Adams – 4 out of 5 stars.
I read The Bromance Book Club and I liked it enough to want to check out the sequel. While I didn’t love the first book and only gave it three stars, I actually liked Undercover Bromance so much more. I listened to it in a single day, because I just couldn’t stop and wanted to know what was going to happen. I didn’t like Liv in the first book, but I actually really liked her in this one. Can’t wait to read book three!

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Currently Reading Books:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of September, but didn’t get a chance to finish them yet.

None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney

I started reading None Shall Sleep this month, but I didn’t have the chance to read it. I’m actually only a little over 100 pages into it, honestly. I’ve been in this on-going reading slump, so I just haven’t really been reading much on my own as you can see by how many audiobooks I listened to instead. So far, I really like it though and I want to try to finish it in October and get my review posted. It’ll be part of my “Halloweenie TBR”, which that post will be coming soon!

What books did you read in September? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I have a lot of blog hopping to do this week and I promise I will catch up with your posts and reply to comments soon. I just haven’t really been in the mood to do much of anything on the computer. It sucks being so down that you don’t even want to do the things you love anymore. I’ve spent a lot of time diamond painting and listening to audiobooks while I do that. My mood has just been soooo low the last couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be more active in October in both blogging and reading. Fingers crossed! 🙂 I’ll have my book haul posted soon as well as my Halloweenie TBR that I previously mentioned.

I’ll end this post with a picture of my new cacti/succulent babies that I got a couple weekends ago. So far, I am happy to say that they are still alive! I’m not very good with plants, even with the very easy ones haha. My friend gifted me the cat pots and I finally got some plants to fill them with. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Random|| Life Update.
Release Day|| September Releases.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| August.

Hey!

This is my 800th post! I actually read more than two books this month!! It’s no surprise that this just hasn’t been my year and my reading has been so bad the last couple of months. Well, this month I was actually able to read SIX books! I think it helped that two of the six were graphic novels, but whatever. I’ll take what I can get because I am STLIL behind on my Goodreads challenge and I fear this may be the first year that I don’t complete it. 😦 Let’s hope that doesn’t happen though. Anyway, let’s get into my August wrap up. Here is what I read in August. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of August.

The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel by Renee Nault, Margaret Atwood – 4 out of 5 stars
I’ve never read The Handmaid’s Tale book before, but I did watch a couple seasons of the TV series on Hulu. I decided to check out the graphic novel version and I actually really liked it and I loved the illustrations. I really want to read the actual books now.

Maus I by Art Spiegelman – 4 out of 5 stars
Maus II by Art Spiegelman – 5 out of 5 stars
I’ve been watching to read the Maus graphic novels for a while now and I am so glad that I finally read them. They were so good, but also so sad and heartbreaking. So many feels. It’s about a father and son’s relationship as well as the son learning about what his father went through during the concentration camps. It’s a true story as well.

Beach Read by Emily Henry – 4 out of 5 stars
It seems like EVERYONE has been reading Beach Read and really enjoying it, so I had to check it out. Hype books and I don’t get along that often, but I actually really liked Beach Read and it was pretty hard to put down at times. I really liked the relationship between Augustus and January. The story was pretty heartbreaking as well. Not what I expected when I read the title and see the cover, haha.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo – 5 out of 5 stars
I buddy read Clap When You Land with Maren from The Worn Bookmark. It was exciting doing a buddy reading since it’s been a while since I’ve read a book with a friend. I LOVED CLAP WHEN YOU LAND. I flew through it in just a couple days. I knew I would love it though, because Elizabeth Acevedo writes amazing books and I always end up loving her books. It was so sad, but so good. I loved Camino and Yahaira so much.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – 5 out of 5 stars
I decided to reread Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, because I love this book so much and I have this cool edition that I got for my birthday that I wanted to check out. I could have just flipped through all the pages to see the illustrations, but I thought it would be fun to read to book as I looked through them. This time I was able to go through and save all of my favorite lines too.

What books did you read in August? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

What else did I do in August? I spent quite a bit of time watching Netflix. I watched both seasons of Glow Up, entire season of The Floor is Lava, entire season of Love on the Spectrum,  entire season of World’s Most Wanted, and most of Unwell. I also watched season one of Dragula. I also got REALLY into diamond painting recently. It’s kind of funny with the diamond painting, because I originally bought it in July and never touched it. As soon as I seen how tiny the gems were I was like “nope, this isn’t for me”, but I gave it a chance a couple weeks later and I actually love it now. It’s so calming and chill. I throw my AirPods on with some music playing and I sit there doing it for hours. I may try to listen to some audiobooks while I do it too.

Top two pictures are just random ones from doing the paintings. You can see a little close-up of the gems. The bottom two are the ones that I have completed so far. I also have a baby Yoda one to do, and three others to choose from to do next. I’m going to buy some Halloween ones to do throughout October and even some Christmas ones for December. I’m pretty obsessed now. 😛 Anyway, I think that’s all for this post. I am going to spend today and tomorrow catching up with your posts and replying to comments. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| August.
Friday Finds #88.
Release Day|| August Releases.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| July.

Hey!

Another month where I didn’t really read much, sigh. I did read one book more than last month and I also listened to an audiobook, so I guess that can be a bright side? I’m going to jump right into my July wrap up and talk about some other things later in this post. Here is what I read in July. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of July.

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall – 5 out of 5 stars
Strung Out by Erin Khar – 4 out of 5 stars

Boyfriend Material was so good and I loved it so much. It was cute, fun, and a hilarious story. It also had ALL THE FEELS. I loved Luc and Oliver so much. Feel free to check out my review for more about what I thought. Strung Out was so good, but also so heartbreaking and sad. It’s about Erin’s life and struggle with addiction. She started using pills at eight years old and heroin by thirteen years old. The opioid crisis is a real thing and it’s so heartbreaking. With this virus happening, so many people have relapsed too and so the struggle is even more real and even harder than it already is.

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Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of July.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – 2 out of 5 stars.

I’ve been seeing Where the Crawdads Sing everywhere since it was released and I was so excited to finally read it. It seems like everyone has been raving about this book. My sister and I listened to the audiobook on the way home from Illinois (16 hour car ride). I sadly did not love it as much as I hoped I would. It wasn’t a bad book or anything, it just wasn’t for me and the ending was a bit predictable.

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DNF (Did Not Finish):
These are the books that I tried to read in the month of July, but ended up not being for me so I stopped.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

I started reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in June and I got about 70% through it. I was going to try to finish reading it this month and that didn’t happen. I tried reading it myself and then I tried listening to the audiobook. I didn’t love it at all, I found it kind of boring, and hard to get into. It was a big bummer for me to DNF this book as The Hunger Games series means so much to me. But since this book is about President Snow, I kind of get an idea about how the book ended because of how he is in The Hunger Games series. Without thinking, my mom also told me what happened at the end. Thanks for the spoilers, mom! I highly doubt I ever finish it and I’m okay with that. It just wasn’t for me. I still love the series though.

What books did you read in July? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

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My anxiety pretty much ran rampant in July and I’m not entirely sure why. I want to say part of the reason was that I was gone for an entire month away from home and trying to get back into my normal routine has been difficult. Also, what is sleep anymore? I feel like I’m in this never-ending rut and I’m not really sure how to get out of it. I always tell myself that the next month will be better and then it’s not and it’s frustrating. But I guess it can never really get better if I don’t know why I feel the way that I feel or what is going on in my head. That’s where a lot of the anxiety comes into play and it keeps me up at night.

I get lost in music and tv shows. I don’t even have it in me to sit down and read for too long, because my mind just wanders and I don’t even know what I’m looking for; if that makes sense. I guess an example will be I can read a few sentences, stop because my mind is trying to remember something or figure out something and it can’t grasp the thought or the thing and then it drives me crazy, so I put the TV on or music on and forget about trying to think. That probably made zero sense either, lol. My mind doesn’t make sense lately…so I guess there’s that. I’ve just been doing more mindless things instead of blogging and reading, because I just can’t focus on those things for too long these days. 😦

Anyway, I think that’s all for this wrap up. I am going to go do a couple things around my house, and then jump back on to catch up with your blog posts and reply to comments. 🙂 I didn’t really have time to do it over the weekend like I had hoped. I’ll end this with a picture of the sunset from last night.

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| July.
Book Tag|| Stuck at Home.
Release Day|| July Releases.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| June.

Hey!

Sooo…..June was not my best reading month as I was only able to finish one book. I’m two books behind on my reading challenge. It bummed me out so much that I’ve only finished one book, but I just haven’t been in the mood to read and I’m still in Illinois with my mom, so I’ve just been kind of distracted with my thoughts and also helping out around here. A two-week trip has turned into a month! I’ve had a good time while here though, but I am missing the hubby and my furbabies so much, so my mind has been elsewhere. I’m ready to get home, but that’s still a little over a week away. I’ve taken so many great pictures though, so be on the look out for a post about that!

Anyway, onto books. Here is what I read this month and what I’m currently reading. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of June.

The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg

I’ve been wanting to read The Music of What Happens for a while now and I am so happy that I did. I really enjoyed it and it was hard to put down. I really liked Max and Jordan and their friendships with their different groups of friends. It was such a good book.

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Currently Reading Books:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of June, but didn’t get a chance to finish them yet.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

I started reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at the start of June, read a few chapters myself, and then decided to get the audiobook so that my mom and I could listen to it on our way to Illinois (16 hour car ride!). We were never able to finish the audiobook yet, but I honestly don’t really know how I feel about the book. I still want to finish it (hopefully this month), but it’s really not that great. I’ve read about 80% of the book and I don’t see myself giving it more than three stars. I like it, but it’s kind of a bummer that I don’t love it since I love the Hunger Games series so much and it’s what got me into reading.

What books did you read in June? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to your wrap up post, so I can check it out!

So, earlier in this post that I mentioned that I will be posting a big picture post of my trip in Illinois. Here is one of the photos that I’ve taken and have plenty more to come! If you want to see more now, you can always look me up/or follow me on Instagram to check them out. 🙂 You can find me over here at heyyitsashley.

Speaking of Instagram, I changed my bookstagram username from “foreverbookish_” to “sociallyawkwardbookworm“. I wanted it to match my blog name. I don’t use it often right now, but if I ever get back into it regularly then it’ll be nice having it match my blog name. I think that’s all that I got for this post. I will catch up on all of your posts and comments soon, promise. ❤

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| June.

I hope you have a great day!

 

Wrap Up|| May.

Hey!

Happy first day of June! It’s pretty crazy that the first half of the year is over. May was another one of those weird months for me. I feel like this entire year so far has been one weird and crazy year for me though, honestly. I was busy some of the time. I had family visit at one point. Majority of the time my mind was elsewhere. With that being said, I didn’t read as much as I hoped I would in May and that was such a bummer! I barely got four books read. I finished my fourth book just one day before the month ended. I decided to read a really short book for my fourth book, just so I could have more books read for the month.

So, what did I read this month? You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of May.

Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer – 4 out of 5 stars
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton – 5 out of 5 stars
Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger – 4 out of 5 stars
I’m a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter by Dr. Harper – 2 out of 5 stars

Catfishing on Catnet was a lot of fun to read. I really enjoyed the characters and friendships. It kept me guessing and I can’t wait for the sequel. The Outsiders was a reread. I love this book so much, so I had to reread it again. I think this was my fourth time reading it? It’s so good and I highly recommend if you haven’t read it yet. It’s only about 200 pages, so it’s a quick read too! I wanted to read Follow Me Back for a while now and I completely forgot I even had it on my Kindle. I really liked this one and flew through it. I want to read the sequel as soon as I can, because I am curious as to what happens next. The ending was a little weird and confusing, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

First I want to say that I’m a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter is a ridiculously long book title and that’s kind of annoying, lol. This isn’t even the full title, there’s more on Goodreads. As you can see above, I only gave it two stars. I read through it really fast (it was the short book I mentioned above) and it was interesting sometimes, but it wasn’t really what I expected it to be. At first it seemed like it was non-fiction and that was what I was looking for, but things were way too strange and when I looked it up again in the middle of reading it, I seen that it’s fiction. It was interesting and okay at times, but I didn’t love it. There’s another book in the series, but I’m not sure if I will read it or not.

What books did you read in May? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to you wrap up post, so I can check it out!

I’m not really sure what I am going to read in June, but I may try to finally dive into some of the ARCs that I have and wasn’t able to read yet. I did start The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (the new Hunger Games book), so that may be my first June read and we’ll see what happens from there.

I mentioned in my book haul post a few days ago that I got a new laptop and I was super stoked to get back into blogging again with my new laptop, well…there was a problem with Amazon and I didn’t get the laptop I ordered and had to reorder elsewhere. That was such a bummer. I ordered a brand new one, but for some reason they sent me a used damaged one even though I ordered a brand new one, UGH. I returned it and ordered one directly from Apple’s website instead, and because of that I now have to wait even longer for my new laptop. For now and sadly, I am back on my old laptop. 😦

Anyway, I think that’s all I have for this post but I’ll leave you with this picture that I took at the park a week or so ago. Andy and I decided to go walk around the park for a little while for Pokemon Go community day. It was a nice day out and I really like how this picture turned out.

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| May.
Release Day|| April/May Releases.

I hope you have a great day!

Wrap Up|| April.

Hey!

It’s already May, what?! I meant to get this wrap up posted earlier this morning, but I got sucked into five hours of non-stop Animal Crossing and it resulted in me completely destroying part of my island. I had to step away from it, because I was getting annoyed  with myself LOL. 😛 Animal Crossing is still very much a constant in my life right now as you can see. As for reading, in April I decided to give myself low expectations and read whatever I wanted to read. I had a difficult March, so I wanted to just read whatever I was in the mood for and not be so hard on myself if I didn’t read much. I think that mindset worked well for me! I still wish I would have read more, but I don’t feel so bad about it this month and I read one book more than I did last month so that is a win!

Here is my April wrap up. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of April.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell – 3 out of 5 stars
The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams – 3 out of 5 stars
Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab – 4 out of 5 stars
Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by Lev A.C. Rosen – 4 out of 5 stars

I liked My Dark Vanessa but I found it hard to rate due to the subject matter, which is why I gave it three stars. I also felt like I wanted more from it. Something felt like it was missing. The Bromance Book Club was pretty good and I enjoyed it, but I wasn’t blown away by it and I really didn’t like Thea all that much. Tunnel of Bones was so good and I really liked it. I am enjoying this series so much so far. It’s so fun to read! Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) was a really great book. I loved Jack and his friends and I was sad to see it end. I am glad I finally read it.

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Currently Reading Books:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of April, but didn’t get a chance to finish them yet.

Working Stiff by Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell

I was hoping to finish Working Stiff by the end of April, but that didn’t happen for me. That’s okay though because I plan to continue it in May. It’s only around 270 pages, so it’s pretty short. I bought this book FOUR YEARS AGO and I am now finally getting around to reading it, lol. So far it’s pretty interesting.

What books did you read in April? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to you wrap up post, so I can check it out!

In May I really need to start catching up on some ARCs. I got behind on a few of them and I want to try to stay caught up for May/June/July releases. I’ve been trying to stay away from getting e-books from my library, so I can read more of my own books. That will still be my plan for May. I should be able to read more of my own books and the ARCs that I have if I stay clear of the library, haha. 😛

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| April.
Book Tag|| Goodreads.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Wrap Up|| March.

Hey!

I mentioned in my previous blog post that March was a rough month for me. The entire situation with COVID-19 has brought me so down, as I am sure it has for so many other people in the world. I already have hella anxiety about so many things and have been feeling down about life in general for months now, so throwing this into the mix has messed with me so badly. It’s been hard for me to focus on anything, especially reading. My reading and my blogging took a really bad hit in March because my mental health just hasn’t been there. I haven’t really been sleeping that great either, so there’s that too. I was really disappointed in myself as well that I didn’t read as much as I would have liked, but my mind has been elsewhere. Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out on March 20th though and that has been a light for me, so I’ve been escaping there. I am really crossing my fingers that April is a better month on all fronts.

Anyway though, here is my March wrap up. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month March.

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett – 4 out of 5 stars
Infinity Son by Adam Silvera – 2 out of 5 stars – Review
Wild at Heart by K.A. Tucker – 3 out of 5 stars

I finally read Starry Eyes and it was such a great book. I had so much fun reading it, it was cute, and I really enjoyed the characters. Infinity Son was a pretty bad let down for me and I only thought it was “okay”. There were some things that I liked and some things that were surprising, but it just didn’t live up to my expectations and didn’t blow me away. I was so excited to read Wild at Heart, but sadly it wasn’t as great as the first book. I was bummed out about that. I also couldn’t really stand Calla this time around. She bugged me so much for some reason. Overall, I gave the book three stars because while I didn’t love it, I still liked it and was happy with the ending.

What books did you read in March? Have you read any of the books that I read? Feel free to link me to you wrap up post, so I can check it out!

There were a few other books on my March TBR that I never got a chance to read because I was (and still am) in this huge reading slump all month. Hopefully, I can get the chance to read those soon. I’m trying to just take it easy and not set too many expectations for myself right now (especially not a set TBR) until I get out of this weird headspace and out of this reading slump. I think I just need to focus on other things more right now or I may just completely lose my mind. I will catch up with your entries at some point today or tomorrow. I’m not feeling good today, so I am just taking it easy.

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| March.

I hope you have a great day!