worldofbai

(Book Review) “One Last Stop” By Casey McQuiston

One of the most talked about LGBTQ books I have seen lately is Casey McQuiston’s second book “One Last Stop”. After reading her first book, “Red, White and Royal Blue”, and absolutely loving it, I knew I had to pick this one up and see if all the hype lived up to the expectations.

“I don’t know how to have something that I do, every day, like as an adult who does a thing. It’s nuts that we all start out having these vague ideas of what we like to do, hobbies, interests, and then one day everybody has their thing, you know?”
Direct quote from book. Page 159

Summary

August moves to New York for school but mostly to escape her mothers obsession with finding Augusts missing uncle. With luck she finds a cheap apartment for rent with the most unlikely roommates, a decent job at a pancake diner and a perfect subway route on the Q train. But she could never have imagined this combination of things could change her life.

A coffee stain threatens embarrassment when she stumbles onto the Q train and a very attractive girl is standing there starring back at her. After a delightful conversation a friendship, but mostly a big crush, blooms.

As August goes about her daily routines the Q train takes her to each destination and Subway Girl happens to always be on the train with her. Life continues, love blossoms and trials occur. Will love concur all? Will Augusts mom ever figure out what happened to her brother? Read this book and fall in love as every mystery gets opened up.

“But to kiss and be kissed. To be wanted. That’s a different thing from love. And maybe, maybe if she tried, they could have something. Not everything, but something.”
Direct quote from book. Page 210

Rating

Review

I absolutely loved this book! It had everything that I could have ever asked for in a good romance read. Steamy scenes, check! Loveable characters, check! Great writing, check! I fell in love with this book from the first chapter, no joke. I really love Casey’s writing, she has this way of pulling you into the story and making relatable characters.

There was a sentence at the beginning of the book, Page 49 to be exact, that states “All I listen to are podcasts about murder.” When I read that one single sentence I knew that August and I were pretty similar. I really do listen to true crime podcast all day every day! I feel that it is very important for authors to create relatable characters so their audience gets pulled into their books and feel some kind of emotional ties to the characters they are reading about.

I honestly didn’t find anything about this book that bugged me. It felt like an original idea, I didn.t find any spelling or grammar mistakes or at least any that caught my attention, I had no issues with any of the characters and I devoured this entire book! I Highly recommend for everyone to stop what they are doing and grab this book!

I will be completely honest, I haven’t read too many LGBTQ books and I really regret it. Especially after I read this book I know I will be searching for my next LGBTQ read! If you have any suggestions please send them my way!

If You Liked This Then You Will Love This

Written by the same author, of course you would love her second book. However, I feel like “One Last Stop” was even better than “Red, White and Royal Blue” which amazes me because I loved RWRB so very much! If you haven’t read either of them then pick them both up!

QOTD: What is your favorite LGBTQ book that you have read? What is one on you TBR?

Throwback Thursday (Book Review): “A Type Of Hunger” By: Pamela D. Beverly

I found this book while I was scrolling through blogs and reading comments. Pamela has a few books available for people to read other than this one, one is even a children’s book that sounds so adorable! She published these books on her own and I am so excited to support her!

Title: A Type Of Hunger

Author: Pamela D. Beverly

Number of Pages: 132

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

Nate is a man who values the idea of working hard to get the things in your life. When he loses his job unexpectedly he would rather keep it to himself instead of talk to his girlfriend and get some advice. This caused some issues in his relationship and they ended up breaking up due to the secrets. After months of searching for jobs and picking up temp work and scrounging every penny his health declines and serves as a major wake up call! Will he find a job? Will he come clean about his secrets?

Review

Pamela published this book all on her own which is so great! I love Indy authors! The only issue with this is that I found quite a few spelling and grammar errors that were very distracting when reading the book. However, you will run across these errors even in professional editing situations.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book because she sets up her characters so well! However, towards the middle of the book it started to feel quite rushed and I missed some key elements to the story. I loved a lot of the ideas behind this story but with the book only being 132 pages I felt there was room to expand the storyline and add in some missed details. But overall this is a book and an author that you should really give a chance.

Pamela D. Beverly’s Blog

Buy The Book

I always feel like three stared books get a bad rep because it seems mediocre or just not good enough. This book is honestly worth the read! I am just giving it a three star rating right now because of the many grammar and spelling errors along with the fact that it was really short and felt rushed. However, maybe you are looking for a really quick read, this book would be a great option for you.

Please check out my rating scale here to better understand why this book received this rating.

Rating Scale

Book Stack For A Cause: Save The Bees

I have seen some book stacks for a cause on Instagram and I have never participated until I saw one for Honey Bees. I think Honey Bees are extremely important to our world and human survival!

A book stack for a cause is basically exactly how it sounds, you post a picture of a book stack with certain colors pertaining to your specific cause to raise awareness. Some people will put money towards these posts saying for every book stack for a cause that uses this certain hashtag I will give a certain amount of money.

Bee Information

While looking into this cause to save the Bees I ran into two websites that I thought were really helpful and amazing!

The first website I came across is called Project Honey Bee. This website is mainly focused on just the honey bee species. They list a lot of alarming facts that make you really think about where this world might end up without the bees. Let me share some of these facts with you. (All these came from the website linked above).

Beekeepers all over the world lose up to 90% of their bee colonies per year!
Millions of honey bee hives are disappearing every year!
Bees pollinate 1/3 farm crops

“If Honey Bees die out, Humans will follow a few years later”
-Albert Einstein
Found on Project Honey Bees website

This website also offers you the opportunity to adopt a bee by buying one, or more if you choose, of their cute bee merchandise. you have four options; A necklace, earrings, bracelet or a cute little bee enamel pin. All proceeds go to UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center to help fund research.

I bought the cute little bee necklace!

After I finalized my purchase I got an Email with a certificate saying I adopted a bee and then I got this email introducing me to the bee I adopted!

Everyone meet my Queen Bee Aviva! She is the bee that has a colored dot on her. Did you know that is how they keep track of their queens? According to my source here beekeepers follow a common mnemonic each year to remember which color they should use for their newly introduced queen. “Will you raise goods bees”, White/gray, yellow, red, green, and blue.

Adopt Your Own Bee

The second website I came across was The Bee Conservatory. This website is the one most people are using to donate in order to save the bees. This website really highlights what our world would be like if we lost bees by also listing some pretty interesting facts. The biggest thing that stood out to me were the lists of things that are killing the bees. (All information is pulled from the above website).

Habitat Loss
Climate Change
Chemical Pesticides
Invasive Plant Species
Diseases and Parasites

You might be curious what you can do to protect the over 20,000 bee species. Maybe you don’t feel comfortable giving your money to some company in fear they won’t do as they promise. Try some of these ideas instead! (All information came from The Bee Conservatory website)

Plant a Bee Garden
Go Chemical Free
Provide Trees
Create a Bee Bath

Donate To The Bee Conservatory

Find Other Ways To Help

Book Stack For A Cause: Save The Bees

Instagram has been so inspiring lately posting all of these book stacks for a cause including things like a rainbow stack, mental health stack and now a bee stack! I figured it is time for me to hop on this train and finally do one!

Bees are a very important part to human survival and they are in critical need of our help!

I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to either post about bees to share the issue, donate in one way or another (links above) or try to plant more flowers in your garden to promote bee survival.

Anything helps and I promise a small act makes a big impact!

Let’s Make A Difference!

Whether you are sharing awareness to save the bees or any other cause that is important to you, you are making a difference! I hope you all will take a moment to reflect on things that are important to you and share those thoughts with someone today. Don’t be afraid to make a change.

How can you not help a face as fluffy as that cute little bees?

QOTD: What other Stacks For a Cause should I do?

Other Save The Bees Book Stacks

Sources

Project Honey Bees

The Bee Conservatory

Piedmont Bee Keepers

Book Mail

Last week I received three boxes of book mail! What an exciting week! My favorite day of the week is what ever day I have a package at my door. Whether I know what I ordered or if I have honestly forgotten what I got for my house, it will always be a good day when I see that mailman.

My three boxes came from only two different sources. One came from One Night Stand With a Book and the other two were from Book of the Month Club. I know I am a bit obsessed with Book of the Month, I can never pick just three books so I have two subscriptions to it, yikes!

One Night Stand With a Book

This is not a subscription based book site. They have many options to choose from and each option comes with a drink mix and some snacks! The option I chose from for this order was their primum book box that changes theme each month and comes with a book, snack, drink mix, and many other fun goodies!

Lets explore!

This boxes theme was “Summer”!

Inside we have so many goodies!

“Been There, Married That” by Gigi Levangie
Flamingo rubber duckie
Two bookmarks
Tumbler
Sunglasses
Lei
Scrunchie
Beach ball
drink cozy
Snacks
drink mix

All of this was only $34.99 and it was all a surprise! What a fantastic company! I promise you will not be disappointed! July’s theme is true crime and it looks as if they still have a few boxes left, go check the web site out ASAP!

One Night Stand With a Book

Book of the Month Club

For the people who haven’t heard of this subscription service let me walk you through it real quick! Each month for $15.99 you get one credit that is good for your first book any book after that is $9.99, up to two extra books, so a total of 3 books for $36.00! That is honestly a steal if you think about it! Every book is a hardback which normally runs for about $26.00 a piece! Sorry, I am just so excited about this subscription! Each month they will pick five main picks for you to use your first credit on and then with your two extra books you can pick any book from previous months. A lot of these books are new or early release, this is a fantastic opportunity!

Ok, that is plenty of information , let’s move on to the good stuff!

My four picks were…..

“Last Summer at the Golden Hotel” by Elyssa Friedland

“We are the Brennans” by Tracy Lange

“Razorblade Tears” by S.A Cosby

“56 Days” by Catherine Ryan Howard

Three of these books were main picks this month which is insane! Normally I like one or two main picks and then I choose from previous books. This month they had so many good choices and if money would have allowed I would have gotten all six books.

Look at all these cute bookmarks!

Each box will come with a funny, or should I say puny, bookmark. I have a decent sized collection going but these are a few of my favorites.

If you sign up using the button below you can get your first book for only $9.99!

Book of the Month

I am so excited to read these books! I would dare say that this is the best haul I have ever gotten since I started this journey. If you haven’t looked into these book boxes please give them a try! I promise they are worth it!

(Book Review) “Where the Crawdads Sing” By: Delia Owens

I finally finished this book last night and I can’t wait to share this long over due review! This book was supposed to be finished by the end of June for my book club. However, the other two girls in my club didn’t finish the book either and still haven’t.

This book has been on my TBR list since I started to deep dive into books about a year ago. I am so excited to have finally finished the book and see how it compared to other bookish reviews.

Synopsis

🚫 Possible Spoilers 🚫

Kya was six years old when she watched her ma, four siblings and pa one by one leave her behind in their Marshland home.

All alone Kya is forced to find ways to survive off of the land around her. She gets money by selling mussels and smoked fish to Jumpin, the convenience store clerk. Surviving off the land helped her learn a lot about the marsh and its living components.

Being alone for so long, Kya wishes for companionship and affection. Two boys take interest in her wild Marsh Girl ways, Tate Walker and Chase Andrews. Tate is a smart sweet boy while only wanted Kya to be happy. Chase is known for “getting around”.

When Chase goes missing all eyes point towards Kya, the mysterious Marsh Girl. With hardly any evidence can they convict her?

Rating

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5 stars

Review

This book swaps between timelines from when Kya was left at age six to when Chase Andrews goes missing and then progresses through time chronologically through the two phases.

When I started reading this book it went by really slow. I found it hard to transition from my previous reads to this because of the southern writing style. The storyline at the begging was also just a tad slow, I honestly didn’t fall in love with Kya’s character until probably 150 pages in. Once the murder trial began, I couldn’t put the book down and finished the rest that night.

Overall this book was a gorgeous read! I really loved how it started when she was six and you got to watch her grow up and become the woman she is. What a great coming-of-age story!

I do believe this book lived up to its hype! I definitely would recommend this book to anyone who asks.

Have you read this book? If so, what were your thoughts?

Is this book still on your shelf? Why haven’t you read it yet?

Flashback Friday: A Birthday Post

Guess What! That is right, It’s my birthday! Typically on Thursdays I do a throwback Thursday post but with today being my birthday it felt right to skip TBT and do a Flashback Friday to show you how I got to where I am today.

Here’s to 22 Years of Life!

I Don’t really think you want or really need a play by play of my life so I am just going to share some of my favorite memories and pictures and some big life events maybe even some interesting facts. Fair warning, this will most likely have absolutely no structure to it! Just sit back and enjoy!

Fun fact Number One

For the first two or so years everyone thought I was a boy because my hair was very slow to grow. I mean after seeing this picture I guess I don’t really blame them.

Fun Fact Number Two

Memorial day is my absolute most favorite holiday! Every year we wake up at the crack of dawn, rain or shine, to put flags on the headstones of fallen veterans. It is the most surreal feeling out there.

I am the oldest child of two, my brother and I are extremely close. I honestly don’t remember really getting into big fights other than what TV show we should watch or how loud the volume should be. I have recently found out that this isn’t a typical thing with siblings, so I am very grateful that I have such an amazing brother who can also be my best friend!

Family has and will always be very important to me! The left and right photos are pictures with all the cousins on my moms side of the family. As you can see my brother is the only boy but yet he is a trooper! The middle picture is a photo of my family during my brothers first prom. We can be a pretty silly group of people.

Fun Fact Number Three

I am holding a lambs brain in this photo. Yes, This is pretty sad but it was donated for science.

In high school I was part of our schools medical club called HOSA and I even became an officer for my senior year! I won two competitions during state events that sent me to Nashville and Disney World to compete in national competitions!

I grew up as a tomboy, playing all kinds of sports throughout my life. My least favorite sport I think would have been basketball or flag football, I guess I just wasn’t very good at them. My favorite sports were volleyball and bowling, I will get to bowling in a minute. I was on the freshman volleyball team which was a really fun experience for me! I was really good but ended up finding a stronger love for bowling and left volleyball.

I went from the first photo, using bumpers and hardly scoring any points to being one of the best bowlers on my high school team and getting second place in state. Now most people don’t actually believe bowling is a sport, in fact my high school cut our team completely after my first year forcing me to bowl for other schools my last two years. Let me tell you, Bowling is a tough sport! After high school I tried out for my college team which was all men and I made the team as their first and only girl!

Fun Fact Number Four

Me and my brother are so close we even broke our wrists at the same time! He fell out of a tree and I played keeper in soccer and it snapped back when I blocked the ball. His cast was green with blue sparkles and mine was blue with green sparkles. See, so cute!

My Favorite Picture

This is me and my grandpa riding his horse. I lost my grandpa when I was twelve years old and every year I look back to this photo because it has so much meaning to me!

He was the best grandpa a kid could ever ask for! We went on so many fun and amazing adventures so I have a life time of memories to cherish!

Now that my grandpa has passed my brother, mom and I go to his headstone every year on his birthday and make a big balloon arch with the same amount of balloons as the same age he would have been that year. This is one of my favorite traditions we have to keep him in our hearts.

Fun Fact Number Five

I have only dyed my hair an unnatural color once and it was this gorgeous blue hair! I absolutely loved this color on me! Maybe one day I will get the nerves to dye it another fun color!

Me and Noah met in November of 2018 and started dating shortly after. He has been my rock and major support system ever since then! We now live together along with my kitty ollie. We have the greatest adventures and you can always find us laughing!

Ollie is my six year old cat. His personality is very spunky and honestly, like most cats, he will decide when he does or does not want love. He is not afraid to swat at you if he has had enough love. However, when he does want love he is so sweet and very cuddly! Also, doesn’t he look so good in bowties?

These past twenty two years of my life have been so amazing and I honestly have so many amazing people to thank! I am beyond excited to continue sharing all my bookish thoughts with you all and I am so happy you are here for my content. This blog is my biggest accomplishment as of lately and I am so proud of myself for getting it started.

Here’s to a lifetime more of memories!