How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather | Review

Posted November 16, 2016 in Reviews / 14 Comments

I have a confession to make: I love all things witch-y. Whether fantasy wizards or modern day sorceresses or just basic witch Halloween costumes with the pointy hat, I am all about the witch theme. Somehow How to Hang a Witch sort of slipped my radar when it first came out, but I came across it a few weeks from Halloween and used the magic of the library hold system to acquire it into my greedy hands right before Halloween. How to Hang a Witch not only dabbles in the paranormal, but in historical fiction as well, which endeared the […]

October 2016 Month in Review

Posted November 13, 2016 in Month In Review / 8 Comments

Books I Read This Month: Wow, I have to say I read a LOT of books this month, considering October is the busiest month of the year for me at work! I think I was using reading as a way to relax quite a bit. I’d come home from work, exercise, read, sleep, repeat. I’ve found myself reading quite a few contemporaries lately, so I’m hoping to squeeze in more thrillers before the end of the year! Books I Reviewed This Month: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid (4 Stars) Gemina (Illuminae Files #2) by Jay Kristoff and Amie […]

2017, is that you…? | Priority TBR before 2016 comes to an end!

Posted November 9, 2016 in Features / 19 Comments

Can you believe that it’s already November? NOVEMBER. As in the start of the winter holiday season, the sixty day countdown to the end of the year, and the last minute scramble to get the essentials marked off your TBR lists before we’re hit with a slew of amazing 2017 releases! I’ve seen a lot of bloggers making end of 2016 TBRs and I think it’s a great way to prioritize what books to grab for over the next few weeks. Luckily, I’m almost done with my Goodreads 2016 Challenge (48/50 books completed so far!) and my reading tends to […]

The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia | Review

Posted November 7, 2016 in Reviews / 1 Comment

Technically, you owe my grandmother. She says people can learn everything they need to learn from life from a good telenovella. -pg 171 Oh gosh. For some reason I went into this book thinking I was going to 100% love it because of diversity! Hype! Pretty Cover! Beautiful Creatures! Sadly, The Lovely Reckless was, while still overall an OK read, a bit of a letdown in a lot of areas. This is what I get, once again, for impulse buying books off of Amazon (I’ve been burned before recently). The Good: Undercover cops: I thought the plotline with Frankie’s father […]

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon | ARC Review

Posted October 31, 2016 in Reviews / 8 Comments

Nicola Yoon’s writing contains a grace that I haven’t ever seen another author capture in quite the same way. She takes difficult, heavy, and at times overwhelming topics and manages to have her prose dance through them, keeping her characters challenged by not bogged down by them. Everything, Everything was a beautiful story of trust, deceit, illness, and physical and mental strength, and Yoon’s sophomore novel build upon its the expectations set by its predecessor with an even stronger delivery. First and foremost, the thing I adored above all else in The Sun is Also a Star was the narrative […]

How Could You Be So Heartless?

Posted October 24, 2016 in ARCs, Reviews / 6 Comments

Heartless is one of the most fantastic ARCs I have ever been privileged enough to receive. I waited two hours in line at YALLWest and it was a hot mess getting it (it was pretty much a swarm) but I can’t be more thankful that I acquired it, because it’s a haunting tale that really shows the range of Marissa Meyer’s writing capabilities. Set from the perspective of the Queen of Hearts before she was royalty, Heartless follows Catherine, the daughter of a Marquess in the land of Hearts who wants nothing more than to open a bakery. Baking is […]

Book Buddies Review: Daughter of Deep Silence

Posted October 19, 2016 in Book Buddies Reviews, Reviews / 2 Comments

Cristina & Lauren Read: Book Buddies is a fun, collaborative review feature that I participate in once a season with my friend Lauren who runs the blog Bookmarklit. We choose a themed book for the season, read it, and then answer fun questions that pertain to the book’s themes and each feature the book in our own way! Check out the second part of our feature on Lauren’s blog! Cover Contest! A new trend in YA book recently seems to be the changing of a book’s cover when it is released in paperback. While this has been something that’s happened […]

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman | ARC Review

Posted October 17, 2016 in Boyfriend Book Reviews, Reviews / 2 Comments

Boyfriend Book Reviews is a feature where my book-loving boyfriend, Max, reads and reviews YA that I either haven’t yet read or is outside of my current TBR. If you want a thorough and thoughtful perspective on a guy’s take on YA, keep reading! “Quiet fell. Quiet so deep it was deafening. And into that quiet, Falk spoke again. ‘Who is in command of this jump station?’ Nobody replied this time. Everyone knew the answer now.” *Author’s note; I will be referencing the events of Illuminae as if you, the reader, have read it. That means spoilers for the […]

If I Can’t Have You, No One Can: Why Do YA Thrillers Focus on Unhealthy Female Friendships?

Posted October 13, 2016 in Discussions / 7 Comments

*Warning: This post will contain major spoilers for almost all of the books mentioned!* I’m a huge fan of thrillers, but I don’t read them super often because it can be hard to find quality books in the genre. They can be too predictable, too cliché, have an unsatisfying reveal for who the antagonist is, etc. However, when a good thriller comes along it’s really all anyone can talk about and it tends to take the reading community by storm (for example, I currently have The Girl On the Train in my Amazon shopping cart, because I cannot escape the […]

Month in Review: September 2016

Posted October 9, 2016 in Month In Review / 9 Comments

Hello friends! Monthly recap posts are ones that I’ve only done sporadically throughout the past year, as I feel like some months I don’t have a whole ton to say. However, a lot of fun/exciting things have been happening so I’m excited to get back on the bandwagon with this feature! Books I Read This Month Books I Reviewed This Month Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas (3.5 Stars) The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L Armentrout (3.5 Stars) Stats: Total Books Read: 3 Total Novellas Read: 0 Rereads: 0 Favorite Book Read This Month: Heartless by Marissa Meyer […]