Category: Reviews

My Favorite Half-Night Stand | Christina Lauren Does It Again

Posted January 7, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 6 Comments

I’m a bit new to the Christina Lauren bandwagon as I just recently read my first novel by them, Roomies, this past summer and absolutely fell in love with it. I haven’t had a chance to explore their back list yet, but when I went on a pre-ordering spree this fall I decided to add their newest romance novel, My Favorite Half Night Stand, to my cart. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a rare case of an impulse buy being so, so worth it because My Favorite Half-Night Stand was just so fun! Set at UC Santa Barbara (a gorgeous […]

A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti | ARC Review

Posted December 24, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

As the year comes to a close, my biggest question of 2018 is: How is it that everyone isn’t raving about this book? A Heart in a Body in a World snuck up on me and is quite possibly my favorite book of 2018. The novel is heartbreak and activism and politics and grief all wrapped up in a story that manages to capture a tragedy in such a deeply visceral and personal way that the media and news cannot. The novel follows Annabelle, a teenager who has suffered a terrible tragedy and decides to run from Seattle to Washington […]

In Dog We Trust by Beth Kendrick | Black Dog Bay #5 ARC Review

Posted December 17, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

So in typical fashion, I found out that the Black Dog Bay series which I love dearly had a new installment thanks to Lauren @ Bookmark Lit who is probably responsible for a solid 25% of the books on my TBR shelf at any given moment. I hit that NetGalley request button SO FAST you don’t even know. So over Thanksgiving break I was spending yet another summer in my beloved East Coast seaside town of Black Dog Bay on another truly puppy filled adventure. The newest series installment follows Jocelyn, a local Black Dog Bay resident, who runs a […]

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi | When the Teenage Feels Are Too Real

Posted December 10, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 6 Comments

Clearly I am late to the Tahereh Mafi party, as A Very Large Expanse of Sea is the first book by her I’ve read, despite her popular dystopian and middle grade series. I honestly had not heard much about her first contemporary YA novel and decided to check it out on a whim when browsing my library’s Overdrive selection and seeing it was available, as I wanted a shorter contemporary novel to read in conjunction with my long, time consuming TOG reread. What I didn’t expect to find was a story that would so viscerally remind me of what it […]

Sarah Dessen Mini Reviews: Keeping the Moon & This Lullaby

Posted December 3, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 4 Comments

I can’t believe that Keeping the Moon is almost 20 years old! Every summer I set out to reread a Sarah Dessen book or two (the goal being that I’ve reread all in recent memory) and it always blows me away that Sarah’s been writing for so long, and how her stories do feel so timeless despite their age. Keeping the Moon is no exception, and I was curious to see how I would like it as I barely remembered anything since the last time I read it was probably back in 2004 and I remembered it not being my […]

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab | Review

Posted November 26, 2018 in Bookish Thoughts, Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

There’s something about City of Ghosts that drew me to it, despite my black sheep status as being one of the only bloggers and readers I know that didn’t enjoy perhaps Schwab’s most well known book, A Darker Shade of Magic. Perhaps it was the eerie quality of the cover artwork, the decidedly dark premise for a middle grade novel, or simply the fact that it features a pale girl with long dark hair who’s a little different than kids her age and has a cantankerous cat (basically how my 11 year old self would like to have glamorously and […]

The Death of Mrs. Westaway | Review

Posted November 19, 2018 in Books, Boyfriend Book Reviews, Reviews / 2 Comments

“Après moi, le déluge.” -Attributed to Louis XV, later quoted by Mrs. Westaway. Well alright alright alright. This was a fun one, rabid readers. As a big fan of Agatha Christie, my eyebrows pricked up when in the preview blurb for this book Ruth Ware was honored as “The Agatha Christie of our time.” ‘Oh yeah? … We shall see…’ I thought, and downloaded one of her other books, The Woman in Cabin 10. I thought that one was great… ‘till the very end where there was a pretty substantial shark jump. But hey not even Agatha Christie churned out […]

Blog Tour | Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

Posted November 13, 2018 in Blog Tours, Books, Reviews / 6 Comments

Today I’m partnering with The Royal Polar Bear Reads and Bookable Reads for the Empress of All Seasons Blog Tour! Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Google Play | Book Depository Empress of All Seasons may be another title in a sea of YA fantasy releases, however it immediately stood out to me within the first few chapters for several reasons, the strongest being the feminist themes and inversion of tropes generally associated with the male and female privilege in society. Protagonist Mari lives in a village comprised of shape shifting “Animal Wives” who are a kick-butt, take no prisoners, matriarchal society who highly value the […]

Grim Lovelies by Megan Shepard | ARC Review

Posted November 12, 2018 in Reviews / 2 Comments

* Thanks so much to HMH Teen for providing a review copy free of charge!* From the moment I first encountered Grim Lovelies, I was enchanted by its aesthetic. An urban fantasy set in Paris featuring magic and witches? Sign me up! The cover and all of the promotional materials were so gorgeous that I couldn’t help but be excited to read my first Megan Shepard novel. Though I haven’t been to France (yet), Grim Lovelies gave me so many Parisian vibes while reading, from the stately home full of antiques that Anouk and her fellow Beasties (animals enchanted into […]

The Royal Runaway by Lindsay Emory | ARC Review

Posted October 29, 2018 in Reviews / 8 Comments

*Huge thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an review copy free of charge!* If you know my reading tastes at all, you know that word “royals” in a contemporary novel hooks me every.single.time. That’s why I’ve had my eye on The Royal Runaway for a while now, and it’s comp titles are The Princess Diaries and The Royal We (two of my favorite contemporary reads EVER) so I screamed when I was approved for it on NetGalley and immediately dove in once I knew I had some good, solid uninterrupted reading time. The Royal Runaway features a […]