I posted my review for Casey McQuiston’s second book “One Last Stop” earlier this week. It only felt right to post a throwback book review from when I read Casey’s first book “Red, White and Royal Blue”. I read this book At the beginning of November 2020 and fell in love instantly! Let’s dive into this review!
Synopsis
Alex Claremont-Diaz is a young College boy who dreams of being the next big politician. With his mom being the first female president in the White House, what could possibly hold him back? Maybe a prince who he hates, maybe the lack of knowledge he has for his own sexuality, or maybe his mother’s competition for the 2020 election.
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Review
I was seeing this book all over bookstagram with some amazing reviews! Seeing these reviews made me immediately download the book on my kindle and I devoured it!
This political love story pulled your emotions every which way and had you rooting for the best possible outcome. Putting this book down is extremely difficult because it’s just that perfect!
If you are looking for a romance novel, LGBTQ Novel, or even something a little political based on our nation’s tough times. This book has something for you!
I didn’t run into any issue with this book much like “One Last Stop”. Casey just has this way of creating amazing characters and writing a story that pulls you in within the first chapters! I can not wait for her next book to come out, I will for sure be one of the firsts to grab the book off of the shelf.
QOTD: Have you read both of Casey’s books, even just one? I want to hear your thoughts!
We are four days into August so I think we are past due for our monthly hopeful list. So far for the two months I have posted hopeful lists I haven’t Followed along with them too well. I think that I am just too much of a mood reader to actually plan things and stick to it. As per tradition I will still be posting a hopefuls and I really feel positive about this list!
Hopefuls List
I have chosen these four books all for pretty specific reasons. I am in quite a few buddy reads this month to help me want to finish more books this month.
“The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune
This book has been on my TBR since I started bookstagram a little less than a year ago.
I started my own buddy read on Facebook and this book was this months choice for that buddy read. We have a pretty small group of people but I think it is going to be a really good book for our group.
There is still time to join the buddy read! Click the link below and come join us!
This book is also part of a buddy read I am in this month with Court.Betweenthecovers feel free to click on the link to join this buddy read as well! The more the merrier!
Honestly, I have been looking forward to this book for about a month now and I have heard so many amazing reviews about this book. I have heard it has a ton of violence in it so just beware of possible trigger warnings.
“Been There, Married That” by Gigi Levangie
I received this book in my June premium book box from One Night Stand With a Book. I absolutely loved this box that I got and honestly the title alone pulled me in!
This will be my main romance read for this month. I am trying to pick a bunch of different genres to try and expand my horizons just a bit.
Have you heard of this book before? It only has a 2.81 star rating on goodreads but also very few ratings so I am willing to give it a chance!
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
First of all this book is very short! I feel like I can knock this book out in a day or two and can help me reach my reading goal for the year.
Next this is considered a classic and I really haven’t read any classics in my life other than in school when I was forced. Let’s be honest I didn’t read those books I just used sparknotes.
Lets get this book under my belt and finally say I have read and finished a classic!
This month I have quite a few different genres selected and I think that is what makes me the most excited about this months picks. I also have two buddy reads this month to help me get back on track with my reading goal and to help make closer friendships with other book lovers! This month has a lot of positive things going for me and I can’t wait to see how I do!
QOTD: Are you involved in any buddy reads? Drop them down below and explain what book your group is reading!
At the beginning of this month I made a pretty big TBR hopeful list for myself that I really wanted to tackle. Did I complete my hopefuls or did I fall short? Lets find out!
The Honest Truth
These three books were my main hopefuls for this month! I got “The Maidens” and “One Last Stop” in my June Book of the Month box and was dying to read them! “Devil’s Knot” came in a true crime premium book box from One Night Stand With a Book and I have been dying to read it since!
I am going to be honest with you, I only read one of these hopefuls and that was “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston. I know I will get around to the other two books hopefully soon! I have read so many great reviews about “The Maidens” that I need to hop on that train soon!
What Did I Really Read
Did you really think I only finished one book this last month? I am a slow reader but come on, I’m not that slow!
I read a total of four books this month, one of which was a graphic novel. Have you read any of these books? Would you count a graphic novel towards your reading goals?
Five Star Ratings
“One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston
I gave this book a five star rating because it truly deserved it!
The characters in this LGBTQ book were written so well and I could really find someway to relate to each and everyone of them. From true crime to psychics you can find some reason to love these characters.
This was my first ever graphic novel, I stumbled across this gem at an art festival in Utah! Turns out Chris is also from Utah and created this gorgeous piece of work!
The cat Julius is my absolute favorite! He is so cute and hilarious! I haven’t wrote an official review yet but you should give it a look!
Four Star Reads
“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
I gave this a four star read because it didn’t fully live up to the hype but was still really good! It started off a little slow but the ending was so good!
This is a very talked about book and honestly I would be so surprised if you haven’t read this one yet, but if you haven’t here is your sign!
Last month went a lot better than I originally expected. I have lately only been reading two or three books each month so to get four books finished I am pretty happy with that! I am hoping I can keep this momentum up for August and read at least four books!
QOTD: How many books did you finish this month? Did you read all the books on you list or did you mood read?
I have been on a book journey for almost one year now! Wow, time flies!
I opened my blog about a month ago and since then I have had the chance to become an ambassador for a few small businesses! I would really love to share them with you!
If you would like to support me along this journey of mine I would love for you to check these small businesses out and buy something using my code down below or just saying I sent you!
This would mean the absolute world to me as it lets these small businesses know that I am serious about working with them!
1. One Night Stand With a Book
This is a business that will ship you out a blind date with a book along with tasty treats! You can also order a premium box which will come with all sorts of goodies along with your book and it’s all one big surprise!
They have many options and I’m sure one of them will suit your needs.
Amy and I have been lifelong best friends and she makes these gorgeous shirts and crafts! I will be posting more of what she has done for me in later posts. But if you have a custom t-shirt (or even like mine) maybe you have a tumbler or sign you’d like made, just tell her your idea and she will turn it into something stunning!!
Once again I am beyond excited to share these lovely businesses with you all and it would mean the world if you checked them out! When my code and name gets used with these companies it helps my site grow! It also can help me keep these positions so please check one of them out, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
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
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
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?
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.
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.
World of Bai 