I am not sure what I will be reading next. I just made a TBR jar and I think it will choose my next read. I now have about 90 books in this jar that I need to read!
This month I started a small Book Club with some of my closest friends on Bookstagram. Our first book was “Truly Devious”. I finished this book in two days! Our book club is supposed to only read one book throughout the course of the whole month but I couldn’t put this book down or slow down my reading at all to make it last the whole month.
“You have to take things as they are, not how you hear they’re supposed to be.”
Direct Quote
About The Book
Author: Maureen Johnson
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published Date: January 16th, 2018
Page Count: 416 pages
Main Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Contemporary
Average GoodReads Rating: 4.00
“Where her books were, she was. Get the books right and the rest will follow. Now she could address the rest of the room.”
Direct Quote
Synopsis
Stevie is a teenager obsessed with the Ellingham murders that took place in the 1930’s. She somehow got the chance to attend Ellingham Academy for her Junior year of high school and now she hopes she can crack the unsolved murder case. What she wasn’t expecting was for one of her own classmates to be murdered right under her nose. Will Stevie be able to solve the mysterious murders or will she herself be taken as a victim?
“Anything is better than doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Direct Quote
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Review
I honestly can’t remember why I wanted to start reading this book or where I even heard about this series. What I do know is that I bought the three books in a box set and immediately fell in love with the covers.
This was such a good YA mystery! I haven’t read a lot of YA and I think I am slowly finding my YA grove. I really loved all of the characters, especially Stevie. Stevie reminds me a lot of myself, I too love true crime but I think she is a lot more brave than I am. I thought the friendships made in this book could have been a bit more defined but I think those will grow in the next few books.
I am happy I get to read this with my Book Club and I am so excited to talk to them about this book in more details. I found this book had a lot of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and I think this will make for a really interesting discussion. I will be honest there were parts that frustrated me or even just didn’t fully make sense, but like I said, I think it will all come together in the rest of the series.
“There is something about early mornings that changes your perceptions subtly. The light is new; no one has put on the defences of the day. All is reset and not quite real yet.”
Direct Quote
QOTD: Have you read this series? What were your thoughts? If not what is your favorite YA mystery?
We just started July! This year has seriously flown by and I am not sure how to feel about it. So far this year I have read 33 books which compared to last year is crazy because I read a total of 35 books last year I believe so I have basically already surpassed last year in just 6 months!
I am excited to start this last half of the year because my birthday is only a week away! What a way to start these next 6 months, right?
Today I will be going over all the books from the first six months of this year. This Book Tag originated, I believe, by Chami. I don’t think I participated in this tag last year so I am excited to actually be apart of this tag finally this year! Lets Dive in!
The Best Book You Have Read So Far In 2022
“It Ends With Us” By Colleen Hoover
This book was written very well in my opinion. This stole my heart and broke it in half all at the same time. I was so in love with this book that I now have a tattoo for this book so I will forever remember how this book made me feel. I highly recommend this one!
These two books in the Heartstopper series were my favorite! They talked so much about mental health and feeling comfortable in the LGBTQ+ Community and just left me feeling all the emotions! This is a graphic novel series that everyone needs to read.
A New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To Soon
“The Messy Lives of Book People” By Phaedra Patrick
This came out back at the end of May and it was in my most anticipated releases for June but I have yet to get a copy of it on my shelf. This is one that I know I will really enjoy and I can not wait till I can actually read the book.
Honestly I haven’t seen this book talked about anywhere which really surprises me!
Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half Of The Year
“It Starts With Us” By Colleen Hoover
This is the second book of “It Ends With Us” (My Favorite book of the year so far) so I am extremely excited for this book to come out in October! I haven’t pre ordered it yet but I know I will be getting my hands on this book as soon as it comes out!
So far Colleen Hoover can do no wrong in my eyes! I have only read two books so far by her but I have so many of her others high on my TBR that I need to get to.
Biggest Disappointment
“Darling Girl” By Liz Michalski
I had such high hopes for this book because I am a huge Disney fan and I love Peter Pan stories however, this one fell super flat for me. I Knew it would be a dark twist on the classic Peter Pan Tale but I read half the book and nothing had happened. I was so bored that I DNF’d this book half way through. I just didn’t look forward to ever reading it so it wasn’t worth my time in the end.
Biggest Surprise
“A Flicker In The Dark” By Stacy Willingham
I know I really like thrillers but I hadn’t heard too much about this book going into it. Once I started reading this book I couldn’t put it down. This was easily a five star read for me!
Alice Oseman For sure! She wrote the “Heartstopper” Graphic Novels and “Loveless” Both were easily five star reads and I really can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of her books!
Newest Fictional Crush
Easily my newest fictional crush comes from Emily Henry’s new book “Book Lovers”. Charlie I feel is the perfect broody man. He is a booklovers dream boyfriend and by far my favorite book boyfriend I have ever read about!
Starr From “The Hate U Give” is such a strong character and she really made an impact on my life. Her and Her story will stick with me for a life time and I think everyone needs to read this book to learn about her story and her character. I think the whole cast was wonderful as well.
This might be cheating but I haven’t actually finished this book yet but this book means a lot to me and I may only be 30 pages in but I have already cried a few times based on it’s topic. I am really enjoying this book and I am taking my time to mark and fully understand everything this book talks about. I know I will reread this book several times!
A Book That Made You Happy
“Loveless” By Alice Oseman
Once again this book was easily five stars. don’t get me wrong, there were parts of this book that made me want to chuck it against a wall based on characters misunderstanding each other however, This book in whole made my heart sing! I love the Ace representation in this book and I love how Georgia was able to find herself and start to fully understand who she is. This is an amazing book!
The Most Beautiful Book You Have Bought Or Received This Year
I am seriously Obsessed with this cover! The cover is actually the main reason I ordered this book, I had no clue what this book was about and honestly still don’t. This book is 800 pages long which is super intimidating so I haven’t even tried to start reading it yet.
What Books Do You Need To Read By The End Of The Year
Best Book To Movie Adaptation You Have Seen So Far This Year
“Heartstoper” Is not a movie but it is a TV show on Netflix. Me and Noah fell in love with the graphic novels and then quickly fell in love with the TV series. They casted this show so perfectly! I had high hopes and they exceeded those expectations a million times. I am so excited for the fifth book to come out I think next year. Netflix also renewed the show for two more seasons! Nick and Charlie will live on!
The first half of this year has been really amazing and I can’t even imagine how the last half will go! This last half starts with my Birthday on July 9th so I do think that is a great way to start it off! Here’s to the next 6 months!
QOTD: How did the first 6 months of the year go for you?
I have seen TBR Jars all over TikTok lately and I decided that I need one because I have so many books on my Physical TBR that I need to read! I have also decided to try and go on a book buying ban for the month of July to not only save money but to get through some of my books I already have on my shelf.
How It Works
TBR Jars are all pretty much the same, you put the names of all your books on your TBR onto a piece of paper, cut them up and drop them into a jar. Every time you need a new book to read you pull a random title out of the jar. Pretty simple but this is also my nightmare! I am a major mood reader so I am making some new rules just for me to follow.
Each Pull I get a second chance to pull a different book and I read the one I would rather read more than the other at that time.
I must read at least 50 pages of the book before I can decide whether I would like to DNF the book or just put it back in the jar for another day.
I need to read at least five books before I can buy another book to add to my shelf.
The start of my Jar
Choosing Stickers
Final Product
Overall
I am very excited to see what my first book is from my jar. I am also very interested in seeing if I can actually stick with this and save some money for the month of July and maybe even longer! Because of this I don’t have a hopefuls list for July but I do know I have two buddy reads so you should be seeing reviews for “Truly Devious” and “Daisy Jones and the Six”.
June has been a crazy month full of packing and putting final touches on our home so we could move. We are officially moved into my childhood home and now all that is left is finding room for all of our stuff. Now that we are moved I am hoping to have more time to read next month but if I am honest this move has exhausted me and I am not sure how much brain capacity I have for reading right now.
As always I will post the link to my reviews for you to read those. I don’t post full reviews for audio books so my thoughts will be next to those books here. I mostly listened to audio books this month while we packed so this could be fun.
Physical Books
“Read Between The Lines” By Rachel Lacey
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Rosie’s whole life has been centered around books. She grew up in her moms bookstore surrounded by all the stories she loves. When her mom passes away Rosie takes over the shop which has so many wonderful memories of her childhood and special moments with her mom. All that Rosie is missing is her own romance story, But she thinks she has found that too when she strikes up a conversation with her favorite author Brie on Twitter.
Everything feels like the stars have aligned until the day Rosie gets a letter telling her that the Bookstores lease will not be renewed and that she has till December to find a new home for her beloved store. Rosie pushes love to the back burner in hopes to save her store but why can’t she have it all?
Georgia is about to head off to University never having the chance to have a relationship let alone her first kiss. She felt like she was falling behind in the romance category but she believed that was all about to change when University started. This was her time to find the love of her life.
Arriving at University she finds out that she has a roommate who seems to have relationships all figured out. This gave Georgia hope, thinking she could learn a thing or two about relationships and sex. However, this just caused her more confusion than anything. Why is romance so easy for everyone but her?
Throughout the course of University Georgia has a chance to find her true self but this will turn out not to be an easy task. Will Georgia be able to find love?
I have seen a lot of amazing reviews for this book and I heard it was basically The Bachelor. Because of these things I was super excited to listen to this book. The beginning was super cute and I was hooked but the longer it went on the more I just felt meh about the whole thing. Charlie and Ben both really annoyed me and I never really cared about their relationship. The big romantic gesture happened two hours before the book ended and so once that happened I was just done. The ending really fell flat overall.
“Written In The Stars” By Alexandria Ballefleur
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
This book was Highly recommended to me by many Bookstagrammers and I was super excited to read this one. I think I was pretty distracted while I was listening to this book because I can’t remember much that happened, I did listen to it 30 days ago but still. I know I loved the first part of the book, The middle and all the animosity between the characters really made me feel meh and the ending just felt rushed. I have never liked enemies to lovers so this rating doesn’t surprise me but I do think I would have enjoyed it more if I actually read the book.
“Meet Cute Club” By Jack Harbon
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
This was a super cute story that I think every book lover dreams about. I really enjoyed this book and the characters relationship. However I did not like the narrator and so I probably would have given this 5 stars if the narrator was better, he just took me out of the story more than I would have liked.
Favorite Quotes
“Give your friendships the magic you would give a romance. Because they’re just as important. Actually, for us, they’re way more important.”
From Loveless
“She’s happy with who she is. Maybe it’s not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but… knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.”
From Loveless
“Never trust your fears. They don’t know your strength.”
From Read Between The Lines
“Life would be a lot better if we all spent a little more time staring at the stars.”
From Written In The Stars
June Thoughts
I read a lot of the books I thought I would read this month which I am super happy about! I am also in the middle of reading “Ace” but this is one I am taking my time with to mark and annotate so I can really gather my thoughts.
We have officially moved so I think life will be less busy here soon so I really hope to read and post more in the near future!
June has been seriously flying by! We are just over halfway through June and I have now finished two physical books and two audio books! That’s really not terrible but I don’t see myself finishing any more books for this month if I am going to be completely honest with you. As I have stated in a few of my latest posts we are moving and we are down to exactly one week till the moving truck arrives, eekk, so much stress!
“I’ve learnt some Things. Like the way friendship can be just as intense, beautiful and endless as romance. Like the way there’s love everywhere around me – there’s love for my friends, there’s love for my paintings, there’s love for myself.”
Direct Quote From The Book
About The Book
Author: Alice Oseman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published Date: July 9th, 2020
Page Count: 433 Pages
Main Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult, LGBTQ
GoodReads Rating: 4.31
“She’s happy with who she is. Maybe it’s not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but… knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Synopsis
Georgia is about to head off to University never having the chance to have a relationship let alone her first kiss. She felt like she was falling behind in the romance category but she believed that was all about to change when University started. This was her time to find the love of her life.
Arriving at University she finds out that she has a roommate who seems to have relationships all figured out. This gave Georgia hope, thinking she could learn a thing or two about relationships and sex. However, this just caused her more confusion than anything. Why is romance so easy for everyone but her?
Throughout the course of University Georgia has a chance to find her true self but this will turn out not to be an easy task. Will Georgia be able to find love?
“You know why people pair up into couples? Because being a human is fucking terrifying. But it’s a hell of a lot easier if you’re not doing it by yourself.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
“People are really out there just … thinking about having sex all the time and they can’t even help it?’ I spluttered. ‘People have dreams about it because they want it that much? How the – I’m losing it. I thought all the movies were exaggerating, but you’re all really out there just craving genitals and embarrassment. This has to be some kind of huge joke.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Review
When I first ordered this book I had just finished reading the “Heartstopper” Books and honestly I assumed this would be a graphic novel as well. To my surprise I opened the book up and it was a full novel! It is really hard to compare Alice’s writing in the novel and in the graphic novel. They both have such a different impact. In the graphic novels you can see the emotion but in this book you really felt the emotion, which I really enjoyed! I am very happy this was a 400 paged book, I felt like the topic of Aero Ace really needed a full story and explanation because it isn’t something many people know about or can really understand.
I have a lot to say about this book but I do feel like I am still trying to fully process everything that I read. Asexuality is a very broad spectrum with many sub sexualities and I am very thankful of the way this book was written. Alice really explained Aero Ace in a way that you can understand their feelings and emotions even if you aren’t feeling the same way. I just can’t tell you enough how well this book was written. I think that anyone who thinks they might fit into the Aero Ace sexuality or even those who want to learn a bit more about it, this is a great book to start with.
I will always be recommending this book and I know I will be rereading this one. I am also dying to order the rest of Alice Oseman’s books, She has quickly became an auto buy author for me.
“The aromantic and asexual spectrums weren’t just straight lines. They were radar charts with at least a dozen different axes.”
World of Bai 