Author: Cristina (Girl in the Pages)

Adult Fiction Mini Reviews: The Immortalists, The Party, & Forever, Interrupted

Posted May 21, 2018 in Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ll admit I didn’t go into this book knowing much- mostly that is was about a group of siblings that know their death date after a chance encounter with a psychic when they are children (a terrible thing to find out but a great premise for a book). I had also heard it was pretty literary, but I was ready for it since contemporary literary fiction was my JAM in college. And while the plot of the book overall was interesting, I really wasn’t blown away by anything happening here. A few thoughts: I liked how the book was divided […]

Beyond the Books: Yoga

Posted May 16, 2018 in Beyond the Books, Features / 4 Comments

As much as I love reading and book blogging, I have a variety of interests outside of those hobbies that I love to chat about and share with others. I started Beyond the Books as a way to take a break from bookish content and feature some of my other favorite things! I really owe this whole post to Kristin from Super Space Chick, because after stumbling upon her own yoga related blog post one day, I discovered Yoga with Adriene, the Youtube channel that I can safely say is changing my life. After reading Kristin’s post about how Adriene’s […]

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza | Review

Posted May 14, 2018 in Reviews / 0 Comments

I’m not sure what I expected when I started this book, to tell you the truth, but it certainly wasn’t what I read. The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza took me by surprise, as I suppose any end of the world YA story that starts in a Starbucks would. Our protagonist, Elena, is immediately established to be ~unique~ as she was the product of a virgin birth, explained by the happening of parthenogenesis, which was cool in theory but I have no idea if it could ever happen in real life to a human, but I just went along with it, […]

A Court of Frost and Starlight | Review

Posted May 11, 2018 in Reviews / 5 Comments

Everyone who knows me knows I am complete and utter trash for this series, so I was beyond thrilled to receive my beautiful hardcover copy of this, dutifully waiting for me when I arrived home from YALLWEST this year. I devoured it in just a few hours (a luxury I often don’t have, to read a book in one sitting) and I was delighted and content to return to Velaris and read about domestic life with my all my fae baes. We had: Lots of eating, shopping and celebrating which LORD KNOWS they all deserve after the war in ACOWAR. […]

YALLWEST Round 4: Senior Year

Posted May 9, 2018 in Book and Author Events, Features / 6 Comments

I’ve been blessed enough to be able to attend YALLWEST since its inaugural year in 2015, and returned again this month for its fourth year (“senior year,” if you will) in sunny Santa Monica. The festival was a bit more hectic that usual for me due to work commitments as it happened a bit later than it usually does, however we still ended up making it and catching up with our book squad from last year and having a fantastic time! Each year more and more publishers and vendors come out for the west coast event and it was great […]

The Astonishing Color of After | Review

Posted May 7, 2018 in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Astonishing Color of After caught my eye as it’s a mix of a lot of wonderful elements that I hadn’t quite seen put altogether before: magical realism, death & grief, mental illness, and an Asian protagonist. Excited by the synopsis and by the prospect of a setting in Thailand, I dove into the novel curious to see how all of the elements meshed together. What I encountered was a beautifully written story with vivid settings and prose that was literary without being too weighed down or pompous. A longer contemporary (clocking in at almost 500 pages), there are quite […]

What I’ve Been Watching Lately [2]

Posted May 4, 2018 in Features / 12 Comments

Inspired by Lauren @ Bookmarklit, I’ve been wanting to incorporate some more non-bookish things into my blog. Since Netflix is practically a hobby in and of itself these days, I am tagging along on her feature on showcasing what I’ve been watching lately! It’s been a while since I featured that I’ve been watching lately, and now that spring is here I thought it would be fun to feature the shows I’ve added to my tv rotation this season. I’m still watching the shows from my last post (Dynasty, Jane the Virgin, and Riverdale) so I’m only going to be […]

Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch | ARC Review

Posted May 3, 2018 in Reviews / 6 Comments

*A huge thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review!* When I saw the corresponding cover of Love & Luck that matched Welch’s charming debut novel, Love & Gelato, I knew I wanted to read it. When I found it out was a spin off of Love & Gelato featuring the protagonist’s best friend, I knew I HAD to read it. I devoured Love & Luck quickly in one short weekend, and have officially decided that Jenna Evans Welch would be my ideal YA European tour guide, and I sincerely hope […]

Monthly TBR Plan: May 2018

Posted May 2, 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: 32/80 Books Read Keeping my planned TBR light for this upcoming month as I’m headed to YALLWEST the first weekend in […]

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory | Review

Posted April 30, 2018 in Reviews / 4 Comments

There’s been so much buzz around The Wedding Date for months now that I was certain it’d be a perfect read for me: diverse, set in California, adult fiction (which I’ve been craving more and more of these days). etc. I’m also 100% obsessed with all things wedding related since I’m in the midst of planning my own wedding, so I was thrilled to see the protagonists meet and bond over a ritzy San Francisco wedding. Unfortunately, The Wedding Date completely missed the mark for me, and has fallen to the bottom of my list of 2018 reads so far. […]