First Half of 2018 Releases I Haven’t Read Yet

Posted July 18, 2018 in Features / 5 Comments

After reading Lauren’s post on January-June 2018 releases she’s surprised she hasn’t read yet, I knew I had to do my own! I specifically have a “2018 Releases” shelf on Goodreads that I use to keep track of my most anticipated new releases, and I was just scrolling through it to other day to see which ones I’ve missed so far. I’m including below the reads I was most excited for that I haven’t gotten around to yet…ideally they will make it onto some upcoming TBR posts! January-February Releases Reign of the Fallen // Honestly I feel like I don’t […]

Dear Martin by Nic Stone | Review

Posted July 16, 2018 in Reviews / 2 Comments

I decided to try Dear Martin on audio because I had heard that it’s a short book that packs an emotional punch, and still being one to ease myself into listening to audiobooks regularly, I was eager to see how a vivid tale could be told in just four short hours. However, Dear Martin doesn’t disappoint and is by far the best contemporary audio book I’ve read so far, as the varied format kept me on my toes and the narrator does a phenomenal job telling the tragic yet extremely important tale of Justyce McAllister. More and more YA books […]

Disneyland Summer 2018 | Blogging Besties Unite

Posted July 11, 2018 in Features, Travel / 1 Comment

If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you’ll know that Max and I make every effort to visit a Disney park at least once per year. Generally we go around Halloweentime (we love the decorations!) but when I heard that Lauren was going to be in SoCal this summer I could not pass up the opportunity to finally meet her in person, and I suggested that her and Chris meet us at the happiest place on earth since they’d never been! What ensued was basically one of the best days EVER. Day 0 Max and I drove down […]

Crazy Rich Asians Series Review

Posted July 9, 2018 in Reviews / 4 Comments

*Warning: While the reviews are not inherently spoiler filled themselves, each successive review will talk about what happened in the previous book(s). I’d seen Crazy Rich Asians at bookstores for years, and always pondered what it was about, with it’s stark salmon cover and rather brash and forward title. When I caught wind that it was going to become a movie, I decided it was time to finally pick it up and see what it was all about, so I joined the 30+ Overdrive waitlist back in October and patiently waited for my hold to come in. When it did, […]

Monthly TBR Plan: July 2018

Posted July 5, 2018 in Features, TBR / 7 Comments

I’ve made a lot of reading resolutions, and one of them is to be better about cultivating a monthly TBR. I know so many bloggers do beginning of the month TBR posts and I always LOVE reading them, so I’ve decided to post my own as well! I will include my physical, e-book, and ARC TBRs as well as a status update of where I am prior to starting my upcoming month’s TBR. Reading Progress Prior To This Month: 47/80 Books Read So I think I totally jinxed myself in June because I was SO proud of reading 10 books […]

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson | Review

Posted July 2, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 8 Comments

Let’s be upfront here: This book was really good, but it was WAY too long. The length of Since You’ve Been Gone scared me off and I ended up DNF’ing at about 100 pages in, so I was wary about The Unexpected Everything, but I was super intrigued by the political slant of Andie’s dad being a politician, so I picked up a paperback during an Amazon sale and decided to give Morgan Matson another try. I’m so glad I did, because despite another slow initial 100 pages, I really became invested in Andie (and her friend group, and her […]

YA Books Featuring Grandparents

Posted June 27, 2018 in Features / 14 Comments

It seems like years ago there were hardly any YA books that featured parents, let along grandparents. Remember the good old days of Gossip Girl and paranormal romance where the protagonists just ran wild/amok with supernatural creatures and their parents were none the wiser (if they were given any page time at all)? I feel like in the past 5 years we’ve seen so much more representation of parents and family systems in YA which is fantastic, but I feel like it’s still somewhat rare to find a YA book that prominently features grandparents. As someone who’s grandparents played a […]

Spring 2018 YA Contemporary Mini Review Roundup: Royals, Puddin’, and Leah on the Offbeat

Posted June 25, 2018 in Reviews / 10 Comments

Somehow Royals flew under my radar until right before it’s release date, and I was shocked. How could I, who credits The Princess Diaries series as being the reason for my love of YA, not be in the loop about a book about modern day royalty, which is one of my FAVORITE fiction tropes EVER?! So when I came home from YALLWEST I immediately put this on hold at my library and flew through it in just 2-3 sittings. While this was certainly NOT my first contemporary royalty story, it was my first Rachel Hawkins book, and I have to […]

Top Ten A Song of Ice and Fire Characters Who Were Cut From the Game of Thrones Show

Posted June 20, 2018 in Features / 2 Comments

I’ve got another confession to make. I’m your fool. Nah, just kidding fam. My confession is this: I love A Song of Ice and Fire. Notice how I call it A Song of Ice and Fire. Because that’s what the book series is called. Game of Thrones, in the eyes of myself and many other fans, is a completely different animal. A completely different story with a skin of our favorite story. Don’t mistake me; Game of Thrones has some great moments. But we’re all book people here. The books are always better. The plot, at this point, has almost […]

Blog Tour | Dive Smack by Demetra Brodsky

Posted June 19, 2018 in Blog Tours, Reviews / 4 Comments

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound | iBooks If the cover of Dive Smack doesn’t pull you in, the synopsis is sure too: fire, family secrets, hidden memories and a possibly unreliable narrator are just some of the core elements that make up Dive Smack, a new thriller right in time for the summer reading season. I had the privilege of joining the blog tour for this buzzy YA thriller that runs in a similar vein to the Mara Dyer series where nothing is as it seems and the lines between psychology […]