2022 Challenges and Resolutions

We did it, friends! We made it through 2021. Once again, the year really didn't go how I thought it would. I really, truly thought we'd be through COVID by now. Meanwhile, we're steadily logging more cases. At least many of us are vaccinated now, so we probably won't end up in the hospital if we catch it. One thing that did come of this year was that I had plenty of time to read and demolished my Goodreads goal! Yay for that, at least! I also managed to beat my Audiobook Challenge and came really close to meeting all of this year's PopSugar prompts. I did accomplish two of my three off-blog goals for 2021: avoided getting COVID and read more...

Twelve Days of Christmas Book Tag

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope all of you are having a wonderful week so far. My brother is visiting and we've been watching (not Christmas) movies and eating lots of great food already. I'm so excited for Christmas eve when we'll go to look at Christmas lights with hot chocolate. I thought I'd do a Christmas book tag today to get even more in the Christmas spirit! This tag was created by Lizzie Loves Books!ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE SENT TO ME: A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE.The partridge stood alone in the pear tree. What is your favorite stand alone?ON THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE SENT TO ME: TWO TURTLE DOVES.Love is...

Book Review: The Girl Who Lived by Christopher Greyson

Title: The Girl Who LivedAuthor: Christopher GreysonPublication Date: November 24, 2017Publisher: Greyson MediaPages: 297Add to GoodreadsTen years ago, four people were brutally murdered. One girl lived.No one believes her story.The police think she’s crazy.Her therapist thinks she’s suicidal.Everyone else thinks she’s a dangerous drunk.They’re all right—but did she see the killer?As the anniversary of the murders approaches, Faith Winters is released from the psychiatric hospital and yanked back to the last spot on earth she wants to be—her hometown where the slayings took place. Wracked by the lingering echoes of survivor’s guilt, Faith spirals...

Weekly Recap: 12/12 - 12/18

HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOGHi, everyone! This has been A WEEK! I spent Sunday through Friday getting Christmas candle orders made and ready to ship, then finally got them all in the mail. It was EXHAUSTING, but it's finished! It also explains why there's only one new post this week. Also all week, I've been itching like crazy! I've always had seasonal allergies, but this was seemingly out of nowhere and without discernible cause. It also wasn't significantly improved with my daily allergy medicine and, by Saturday, I had to make a trip to urgent care because it was just so bad. The doctor had literally no idea what was causing it so he gave me steroids...

2021 End of Year Survey

2021 READING STATS Number Of Books You Read: 121 (so far) Number of Re-Reads: 4 Genre You Read The Most From: Romance :/ 1. Best Book You Read In 2021?For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten. I didn't read much fantasy this year, but this one was my favorite!  2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? A Vow So Bold and Deadly was easily my biggest disappointment of the year. The rest of the series were easy 5-star reads for me and this one was a huge let-down.  3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read? Into the Dark by Dana Isaly. Serial killer romance??? That...

Weekly(ish) Recap: 11/28 - 12/11

HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOGHi, everyone! Yep, still aboard the fanfiction train. It looks like I haven't read much in the past two weeks, but that's only because I can't share most of what I've actually been reading. :/ In "real" books, I'm mostly still reading dark romance. Alas. I do have a couple YA fantasy audiobooks checked out from the library! This week I went off the deep end and bought a Cricut, specifically for painting and stenciling the edges of books. At least my husband is supportive of my hobbies, I guess! NEW BOOKS THIS WEEK THIS WEEK I READ   IN CASE YOU MISSED ITThe topic was books I loved as a kid for Top...

Why I'm shamelessly reading fanfiction

I first talked about fanfiction back in 2017. Back then I was discussing whether it should ever count towards reading goals, despite the fact that I really didn't read it. The post was definitely written with a mocking tone and I can tell from reading it that I didn't think fanfiction should really be taken seriously, despite the length of many stories. Sometime in the past year or so, it seems that fanfiction has become more mainstream in the book community. It's very common to see more popular fics included in recommendation lists on BookTok. I've seen Manacled, in particular, recommended and discussed more and more in the past few months...

ARC Review: At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

Title: At the End of EverythingAuthor: Marieke NijkampPublication Date: January 4, 2022Publisher: Sourcebooks FirePages: 400Add to Goodreads//I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review//From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends comes another heartbreaking, emotional and timely page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat.The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist.Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day...they don't show up. But...

The unexpected ways my reading habits changed in 2021

In 2020 and 2021 I used a reading spreadsheet in addition to Goodreads to track all of my reading stats. In addition to the categories shown, I started tracking categories in 2021 to challenge myself to read more diversely. For the purposes of this post, though, I'll be sharing how my reading habits changed in relation to genre, age range, and book format!READING BY BOOK FORMATStarting off with the least interesting, I wanted to see how I've changed my physical reading habits. For example, in 2020 I read mostly audiobooks, followed by hardcovers. So how did I do things differently in 2021? This was certainly an unforeseen change! For starters,...

Book Review: The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

Title: The Husband's SecretAuthor: Liane MoriartyPublication Date: July 30, 2013Publisher: BerkleyPages: 396Add to GoodreadsMy darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died...Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community,...