Month: February 2017

Links To Love #1 | February 2017

Posted February 28, 2017 in Features, Links To Love / 6 Comments

One of my favorite things that comes along with blogging is discovering new posts and new bloggers to follow that aren’t in my online social circle already. I’ve found post recommendations from other bloggers so helpful, and found many a helpful blog post and new blogger to follow that way. Now that I’m using Feedly to keep track of the blogs I follow, it’s easier than ever to create boards and track the posts I would definitely recommend to others. This new feature is my way to shout out all of the wonderful posts that I’ve loved reading over the […]

Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer | Review

Posted February 27, 2017 in Reviews / 6 Comments

Nowhere But Home has been on my radar since I saw Lauren rave about it on her blog. Since we’re basically twinning 99% of the time, I was sure that if she loved it, I would love it too. I was looking for some guaranteed good reads to kick off 2017 while I was in Hawaii, so I happily downloaded this on my brand new Kindle and dove in while lounging on the beach. I finished this book in less than 24 hours because it does NOT disappoint. I was so, so engaged in all of the elements of the […]

Incorporating Feedly Into My Blogging Routine

Posted February 22, 2017 in Blog Tips / 28 Comments

One of my biggest resolutions for 2017 is to get more involved, organized, and strategic about my blogging. Blogging can be an incredibly time consuming hobby, and between reading books, creating content, keeping up with my corresponding social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, etc.), and responding to comments, it’s hours of dedication per week. That’s not even including the time to visit other bloggers and engage with their content. Therefore, I decided I wanted to try a new approach this year to better organize myself when it comes to interacting with other bloggers. When I first began book blogging, I predominantly […]

Sarah Dessen Mini Reviews | Along for the Ride & Lock and Key

Posted February 20, 2017 in Reviews / 12 Comments

Along for the Ride is one of the best Sarah Dessen books that I’ve read in a long time. While many of her books focus on flawed family dynamics, this one gave such an intimate view on so many specific issues: divorce, second marriages, half-siblings, parenting gender roles and responsibilities, and age differences in marriages, just to name a few. These are all witnessed and/or experienced by Auden, the protagonist who goes to visit her father and his new wife and baby in Dessen’s well-loved seaside town setting of Colby. Though Auden isn’t a warm protagonist (at least at first), […]

Love-a-Thon Mini Challenge: Let Me Sing You A Love Song

Posted February 19, 2017 in Blog-A-Thons / 6 Comments

I was super excited to find out about this challenge because I usually have very specific songs that run through my head while I read. Sometimes it’s because the lyrics are relevant to the plot or a character, and sometimes it’s just because the overall tone of the song matches the feel of the book for me. The below songs are favorites of mine that have a vibe that really matches the feelings I get when reading about the couples from the stories! (To be honest, a lot of these songs aren’t “love” songs, but they are about relationships!) I’ve […]

2017 Love-a-Thon Kickoff!

Posted February 17, 2017 in Blog-A-Thons / 24 Comments

Hosted by: Alexa of Alexa Loves Books, Cee of The Novel Hermit, Kristin of Super Space Chick & Mel of The Daily Prophecy I’m so incredibly thrilled to be participating in the annual Love-a-Thon for the second year in a row! Last year I made some INCREDIBLE connections and it led to some fantastic collaborations! I can’t wait to get involved this weekend and meet even more amazing bloggers! Basics What’s your name? Where in the world are you blogging from? Cristina! I hail from the famous California Bay Area (and contrary to popular belief, it is not always sunny […]

Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon | ARC Review

Posted February 15, 2017 in Reviews / 12 Comments

Sometimes when you request an e-galley you really don’t know what you’re going to get, especially if it’s by a debut author or an author that you’re not familiar with. Done Dirt Cheap was a book that fit that criteria for me, but I felt drawn to it with its sassy cover and gritty synopsis. I’m happy to report that Done Dirt Cheap has 100% renewed my faith in trying out new authors and diving into unfamiliar plots, because it was a truly engaging and utterly fantastic read that I wish I could completely purge from my brain so I […]

January 2017 | Month in Review

Posted February 13, 2017 in Features, Month In Review / 8 Comments

Hello, 2017! We’re officially more than one month in now, and it’s been quite the ride so far. Though there’s a lot of ~things~ happening in the world right now, January proved itself to be a really exciting and wonderful month for me, full of incredible experiences and new resolutions (I am ALL ABOUT making New Year’s resolutions. I use my Erin Condren planner to break my resolutions into multiple categories and track them throughout the year!) I kicked off 2017 by heading to Aulani, Disney’s resort in Hawaii, for my birthday! I visited two years ago for my college […]

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven | Review

Posted February 10, 2017 in Reviews / 6 Comments

I missed the All the Bright Places bandwagon, so Holding Up the Universe is my first encounter with Jennifer Niven’s writing. While it featured two interesting protagonists who had unique circumstances surrounding them, it was an enjoyable contemporary read that didn’t exactly blow me away in the sea of options available in YA. I remember when I first read the synopsis, I was sort of shocked, as Niven was using rather a rather extreme physical condition for her protagonist (Libby, who was at one point so overweight that she had to be lifted out of her house with a crane) […]

Welcome, Welcome! | Caraval & The Secret of a Heart Note Launch

Posted February 8, 2017 in Book and Author Events, Events / 11 Comments

I was so incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to attend the dual launch last week of both Caraval and The Secret of a Heart Note. While Kepler’s has an amazing line up of visiting authors ahead in 2017, attending a launch is always extra special, getting to see the author jittery with nerves, excitement, and euphoria as their book, often with years of work behind it, finally finds its way into the hands of readers. The dual launch for Caraval and The Secret of a Heart Note was such a genuine celebration, with readers coming to the Bay Area […]