Month: February 2015

Stacking the Shelves [18]

Posted February 27, 2015 in Stacking the Shelves, Weekly Features/Memes / 17 Comments

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly feature hosted by Tynga’s Reviews where bloggers share the books that they’ve added to their shelves this week, whether borrowed, bought, virtual, physical, etc! Bought: This week I purchased Red Queen (which I’ve already read and had mixed feelings about!) and was gifted Crown of Midnight…which I’m curious for, since Throne of Glass left me with a lot of complicated feelings! I’ve definitely added some fantasy reads to my shelf this week! I also purchased an e-copy of Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout because it was on sale for $1.99 and it was the […]

Book Buddies Review: Just One Day

Posted February 27, 2015 in Book Buddies Reviews, Books, Reviews / 12 Comments

This month I’m partnering up with Lauren from Bookmarklit for Book Buddies, an every-other month feature where Lauren and I will choose a themed read to buddy read and then get together and discuss the things that stand out! You can see our review in a Q&A format with half posted here, and half on Lauren’s blog! Book Buddy Reviews are usually posted during the last week of the month. This month’s read Just One Day by Gayle Forman. Read the second part of our review at Lauren’s blog here. About the Book Just One Day by Gayle Forman My […]

Why Bad Reviews Don’t Mean Regrets

Posted February 26, 2015 in Discussions / 24 Comments

As a book blogger, negative reviews are ultimately something that are going to wind up on my blog. Not every book is going to click with me, and I’m very upfront how I feel about what I read. My reviewing guidelines for books is to always be honest while being respectful. I don’t trash talk authors, and if a book overwhelmingly didn’t work for me but there were still elements I liked, I am sure to mention the good and the bad aspects. Writing negative reviews is inevitable, and usually isn’t fun for the blogger to write or for the […]

I Was Here by Gayle Forman | Review

Posted February 25, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 10 Comments

“You had a pile of rocks, and you cleaned them up pretty and made a necklace. Meg got jewels, and she hung herself with them.” In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what to expect from I Was Here. It was my first time reading a novel by Gayle Forman and it dealt with the loaded topic of not just a suicide, but a suicide that already happened. So I embarked on this reading journey with a lot of curiosity and a dash of hopefulness, and I was a bit surprised by what I found. I Was Here was not romantic […]

Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke | Review

Posted February 23, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 8 Comments

“She inserts herself into the life that I’m barely living in the first place.” -32 There’s nothing that I love more in books than a good fairytale retelling, so when I came across Damsel Distressed I was so excited to read one that added a twist to the normal conventions. Damsel Distressed is not only a contemporary retelling of Cinderella, but it inverts the typical tropes of the story and has the ugly step-sister archetype as the protagonist, with “Cinderella” as the evil stepsister to invade Imogen’s life. I adored reading such a creative way to retell a tired-a-true fairytale, […]

The Princess Diaries Re-Read: Volumes 4-5

Posted February 20, 2015 in Books, Readalongs/Readathons, Reviews / 5 Comments

This is the second installment in my Princess Diaries Re-Read self-challenge in order to prepare for The Royal Wedding, which comes out in June! In this post I’ll be bundling my reviews for books 4, 4.5, and 5. Princess in Waiting (4)- This is the epitome of a bridge book. Taking place primarily over winter break while Mia’s stuck in Genovia, it’s mainly Mia obsessing over Micheal’s feelings for her. It reminded me of why these books can be slightly neurotic, but I also have to admit that at 14 years old I obsessed over rather inconsequential stuff myself. Some […]

The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel- Review

Posted February 18, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 8 Comments

“Even if it won’t do any good, I will fight. I don’t know if that makes me weak or strong.” -pg 30 From the minute I saw the cover of The Book of Ivy, I was hooked. The premise seemed like an interesting twist on dystopian, and I was expecting an assassin-y, butt kicking heroine and a slow-burn yet inevitable romance that would have me drowning in delicious tension. After all, with a plot that includes the sons of the winning side of society to marry the daughters of the losers for the sake of “peace,” deep-rooted tensions and […]

Sunday Funday: Week in Review [24]

Posted February 15, 2015 in Sunday Funday, Weekly Features/Memes / 3 Comments

Sunday Funday is a weekly(ish) post I’ve started to recap the bookish (and sometimes not-so-bookish) happenings in my life the past week! Feel free to participate, just link back! February 9-15, 2015 Life Like last week, this week I went on a mini vacation, this time to visit my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day! We’ve been together a while so instead of doing something overly-elaborate we chose to do some of our favorite things together, like finding new recipes online to try, catching up on our favorite Food Network shows (we’re obsessed with Kid’s Baking Championship!) and going to the movies […]

I Will Go Down With My Ship: My Favorite Fictional Couples

Posted February 13, 2015 in Fun Stuff / 25 Comments

In honor of Valentine’s day this week, I decided a post dedicated to my favorite YA couples was in order! Sadly, many of my most desperate ships did not sail, but they are alive in well in MY heart (and in the glorious world of fanfiction). Blair & Nate from Gossip Girl Can we just pretend that the last four seasons of the show never happened? Because I have been a Nair shipper since the veryyyy beginning, and this whole Chuck and Blair storyline was SO improbable to me (and had NO validation in the books- the epilogue book doesn’t […]