Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5) by Sarah J Maas | Review

Posted September 26, 2016 in Reviews / 3 Comments

The world will be saved and remade by the dreamers. I had the chance to meet Sarah J Maas this spring at her book signing at Kepler’s, and she was the funniest, sassiest, most unapologetic author I’ve seen speak. She was on tour promoting ACOMAF, but in just a few short months Empire of Storms was set to release, so it’s safe to say it was a HUGE year for her fans and everyone in the audience was simultaneously giddy and awestruck. It was in that moment that I realized she had truly and deeply solidified herself as one of […]

Food for Thought: Cookbooks and Pinterest Adventures (& Giveaway!)

Posted September 12, 2016 in Features, Food for Thought, Giveaways / 4 Comments

Food for Thought is a new feature where I discuss my sometimes bookish, and sometimes not, endeavors in the kitchen. Max and I love to experiment with recipes and are both huge foodies, and this feature is a fun way to showcase another hobby of ours! Being a YA book blogger, it’s easy to get stuck in a vacuum where sometimes you forget the existence of other books aside from novels. In our home, another sizeable book collection we own is made up of cookbooks. Max has long held a love for cooking, and while I wasn’t exposed to it […]

Religious Recommendations: Books with Religious Themes and Topics

Posted September 7, 2016 in Book Recommendations / 15 Comments

No matter how you feel about religion, it’s a pervasive theme in most forms of media, and it lends itself to evocative storytelling. As I’ve mentioned before on my blog, I was a Religious Studies major (as well as an English major) in college. Most people confused Religious Studies with theology, but it couldn’t be more different. Religious Studies is a major comprised of sociology, anthropology, history, humanities and more. You can think of it as comparative world religion- I was able to customize my classes and take classes about all different kinds of religions and theorists, and study how […]

The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout | Review

Posted September 5, 2016 in Reviews / 4 Comments

This was the most different book by Jennifer L. Arementrout that I’ve read. Having read all of her Lux series and her stand along thriller Don’t Look Back, I enjoyed her books but I thought her writing voice, and formulas, could be a bit predictable at times. Going into The Problem with Forever, I was a little skeptical because I wasn’t sure Armentrout’s trademark sarcastic humor and hot guy formula were going to work with the topics at hand. I was pleasantly surprised to find The Problem with Forever a book with a quiet yet intense romance that had a […]

Down the Reviewing Black Hole: Do You Review Every Book You Read?

Posted August 30, 2016 in Discussions / 14 Comments

Hello! Yes, I am indeed alive! After a seriously crazy summer season at work, I am returning to talk about one of the most integral parts of being a blogger…reviewing. I’ve talked before about how important and enjoyable I find writing and reading reviews, and I usually feel duty bound to review every single book I read here. Considering I read anywhere from 50-75 books a year, this is a ~somewhat~ manageable goal. However, I know there are bloggers who read hundreds of books per year, and it got me thinking….how many bloggers review ALL of the books they read? […]

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab | ARC Review

Posted August 29, 2016 in Boyfriend Book Reviews, Reviews / 1 Comment

Boyfriend Book Reviews is a feature where my book-loving boyfriend, Max, reads and reviews YA that I either haven’t yet read or is outside of my current TBR. If you want a thorough and thoughtful perspective on a guy’s take on YA, keep reading! “ ‘And you?’ asked Kate, “Your brother is righteous, your sister is scattered. What does that make you?’ When August answered the word was small, almost too quiet to hear. ‘Lost.’ He exhaled, and it seemed to take more than air out of him. ‘I’m what happens when a kid is so afraid of the world […]

Mini Review Round Up: Lies We Tell Ourselves, The Start of Me and You, & The Serpent King

Posted August 22, 2016 in Reviews / 15 Comments

Lies We Tell Ourselves is one of the hardest-to-read books I’ve encountered in a while, and rightfully so. It chronicles school segregation in the south in the 1950s, a time when racism was at its ugliest and most obvious, and cruelty was currency to be used in establishing one’s place in the racial social hierarchy. Watching Sarah and her peers have to deal with such blatant and intense harassment, and for them to have to just take the bullying for the sake of the greater good of segregation, made my blood boil, especially to think that this wasn’t THAT long […]

Maybe in Another Life |My First Taylor Jenkins Reid Experience

Posted August 15, 2016 in Reviews / 7 Comments

“I don’t believe that being in love absolves you of anything. I no longer believe that all’s fair in love and war. I’d go so far as to say your actions in love are not an exception to who you are. They are, in fact, the very definition of who you are.” I’d been wanting to pick up Taylor Jenkins Reid book for a really, really long time when I saw that Maybe in Another Life was available through my library’s Overdrive account. It wasn’t the novel of hers that was highest on my TBR list or the one that […]

It Ends With Us.

Posted August 8, 2016 in Reviews / 6 Comments

“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.” Please note that this review will contain spoilers. Major plot spoilers. This book is too important to talk about without them. I’ve had my fair share of book hangovers. Books that have been sad, books that I’ve swooned over, books that I’ve been obsessed with and can’t stop rereading. However, I think It Ends With Us is the first book that I’ve read that gave me a hangover because I so completely crawled inside of it, lived it, cried and feared with it. I’m not hungover, I’m haunted. I […]

Pre-Order Priorities [2]

Posted July 27, 2016 in Features, Pre-Order Priorities / 14 Comments

Pre-Order Priorities is a feature that highlights all of the books that I’ve recently pre-ordered and am anxiously awaiting to arrive at my door! Release Date: August 2nd, 2016 I haven’t read a Colleen Hoover book yet, but there’s something about the buzz surrounding this one and the cover is really visually pleasing to me, so I decided to take a risk and pre-order it! Release Date: September 6th, 2016 I don’t think anything really needs to be said about this one. ROWAN+AELINE 4 LYFE. Release Date: October 4th, 2016 I missed this one at YALLWest, but I’ve heard great […]