Book – Page 7 – World of Bai

2023 Book Superlatives

2023 was not the best reading year for me but I also didn’t do to terrible either. I read a lot of graphic novels and manga though and I really did enjoy most everything I read so overall I am pretty happy with my year. I think reading 55 books is my max goal for at least this year if not even for 2025 but I guess we shall see!

Fun Stats

My Goal: 57/55 Books Read

Moods

Lighthearted, Funny and Adventurous I guess are the three words that can describe my reading year for 2023. I think this is because I read a bit of cozy Fantasy and also a lot of Easy Manga and Graphic Novels which were all pretty lighthearted.

Main Genres

This list makes me think I have diverse reading tastes but that couldn’t be farther from the case. I did read a lot more fantasy than I would typically read, however I am still surprised that it tied with Manga! Thriller and Horror are also a lot lower than I expected, I plan on reading a lot more thrillers and horrors in 2024 for sure.

Format

I am really happy with my format ratios. I would like to read more audio and digital books but overall this looks better than previous years. 2024 is going to be my digital era, I am calling it now!

Most Read Authors

Tatsuya Endo is the author for the Spy Family Manga Series and I read 9 of those! For sure am not surprised by this list.

Page Number

This feels pretty typical to me as I try to stay away from books that have more than 500 pages. Maybe this should be a goal of mine in 2024.

Pace

Not surprised by this at all seeing how I mostly read short books this year that I flew through! I hardly read any books that were really drug out, thank heavens.

Fiction/Nonfiction

This is one of my biggest goals for 2024, I really want to start reading more nonfiction reads, whether this is memoirs, self-help or even just general nonfiction. I feel hungry for knowledge this year.

Ratings

This Average Rating blows my mind, 4.31 is really high! But again I read so many short and cozy books that it was hard to not give everything 5 stars. I honestly am trying to get tighter with my ratings so I don’t expect this many 5 stars in one year for awhile.

Book of the Year

This is probably the biggest surprise of 2023 for me. Before I read this book I couldn’t have ever guessed I was going to read it let alone LOVE it! I’m not a huge fantasy reader so I was scared to pick this one up along with the huge amount of hype surrounding it, I just had no desire to read it. But then came along @bees.book.buzz and she somehow convinced me to read this one before Iron Flame was released and I can’t thank her enough for introducing me to this world!

Make sure to read my Review for both Fourth Wing and Iron Flame

Top 5

These are my top 5 Books in no particular order and not including my Book of the Year

Top 5 Graphic Novels/Manga

Awards

Favorite Book Club Read

“Divine Rivals” By Rebecca Ross

This was a hard one to pick a winner for because my book club genuinely read quite a few fantastic books this year but this is the one that I had the most fun reading and doing the live show for.

Make sure to check out my book club @bais.reading.corner we have some amazing books planned for the new year!

Full Review

Best Dressed (Prettiest Cover)

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” By Gabrielle Zevin

This cover is honestly so gorgeous! I have the Book of the Month copy which is exactly what you see here but I am so jealous of the people who have the paperback, as from what I have seen, the cover is holographic! Just Gorgeous!

Full Review

Least Favorite Book

“Penpal” By Dathan Auerbach

Oh man, I had some really high hopes for this book and it truly fell flat. I normally don’t rate books I haven’t finished but I made it like 80% of the way through before I decided I had had enough so I am going to rate this one star. If you liked this book I envy you cause I tried so hard!

Favorite Blog Post

“Iron Flame” By Rebecca Yarros

I devoured this book and really got sucked into the hype and all of the what if’s for the future of this series. This review took me literally 8 hours to write but I had so much fun and to this date is my best review view wise.

Full Review

A Book That Surprised Me

“Babel” By R.F. Kuang

I rated this book 4 stars and honestly I didn’t have that high of hopes for it as this is not a genre I would typically go for along with the fact that it was so long and felt “Educational” . Overall very happy with this book! The audio was amazing for it as well.

Full Review

Most Likely To Make You Swoon

“A Cat Cafe Christmas” By Codi Gary

This was the last romance I read this year and it was seriously so cute! The romance was a little bit of a slow burn but while you wait for them to click you get to fall in love with all the cute kitties! This is the perfect setting for a swoon worthy Book.

Full Review and Donation Links

An Overhyped Book

“The Writing Retreat” By Julia Bartz

Before I picked up this book I was hearing so many great reviews from booktubers I truly love and typically have similar taste’s too so I was so excited to pick this one up. Guys…This book was a major flop and not worth your time! The twists weren’t even that good TBH. I suppose it wasn’t even worth a review because I never wrote one haha.

Spiciest Book

“Icebreaker” By Hannah Grace

I went into this book pretty much blind, I knew there was spice but I really thought I would get more time out on the ice but I got mostly bed scenes. I still liked this book but honestly I could have used more plot and less sex lol but to each their own.

Full Review

A Book That I Wish I Read In 2023

“In The Lives Of Puppets” By TJ Klune

This book has been on my radar since it was announced. I have no clue why I haven’t picked this one up yet as it has been on my shelf since it came out. However, I have heard it isn’t his best work which I guess makes me push it off cause he is one of my favorite authors to date.

Overall I am very happy with my 2023 reading. I met all the goals I had set up for myself so that makes me even more excited for 2024. I can’t wait to see how well this next year goes. Thank you for all the support I have gotten this past year and all of the friendships I have made. Here’s to another fantastic year!

Book Review: “A Cat Cafe Christmas” By Codi Gary

This was the last Book I read in 2023 and it was such a perfect romance to end the year on. I am lucky to have friends who know my reading tastes so well that they can provider spot on recommendations, thanks @bees.book.buzz for convincing me to pick this one up during the holidays.

Donation Links

This book talked about how difficult it can be for some of these animal non-profits to make money, In light of that I am going to link the cat cafe’s websites I have recently been too along with their donation tabs if you feel so inclined to donate to one of these amazing places.

Tinkers Cat Cafe (SLC Utah)

Neko Cat Cafe (Seattle WA)

This was Kewpert Mayonnaise, he stole my heart! I was so sad I couldn’t adopt him!

About The Book

Author: Codi Gary

Publisher: Forever Books

Published Date: October 4th, 2022

Page Count: 375 Pages

Main Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction

GoodReads Rating: 3.75

Format: Physical Book

Synopsis

Veterinarian and animal lover Kara Ingalls needs a Christmas miracle. Opening the Meow and Furrever Cat Café to find loving homes for adorable, adoptable cats was a dream come true—but with more cats than customers, it’s quickly turning into a nightmare. If Kara can’t figure out some way to get the café out of the red, it won’t last past the holidays.

Marketing guru Ben Reese may be annoyingly smart and frustratingly bossy, but when he hatches a plan to put the café in the “green” by Christmas, Kara realizes that she’d be a fool to turn down his help. And so what if he turns out to be an excellent problem solver and nerdy-hot—he can’t even handle fostering one little kitten. She needs to keep their relationship professional and focus on saving the cafe.

But if Ben and Kara can set aside their differences—and find homes for all the cats by Christmas—they might discover that, by risking their hearts, they’ll have their own purr-fect holiday . . . together.

Synopsis From GoodReads

Rating

Review

I really haven’t been reading a lot of romance books this year, they just haven’t really been doing it for me like they used too. So I didn’t think this would really interest me all that much especially a holiday romance as I don’t have a great track record with them. But this book was seriously so cute that I couldn’t put it down! I mean how could you go wrong with a book about a cat cafe?! I am a huge sucker for cat cafe’s, in fact me and Noah go to the local one a few times a year and even stopped by one while we were vacationing in Seattle!

This book talked a lot about mental health and the every day struggles people go through especially when having anxiety and panic attacks. I truly loved this representation! The way all the characters handled certain situations just made my heart melt.

The one thing that I truly loved about this book was how little spice was in it. I know this might seem weird to some people but I really just loved reading about the characters emotional connections and watching them grow closer together without physical intimacy being shoved down your throat. In my opinion this was a very cozy romance read and that was exactly what I went in expecting.

Something fun I loved about this book was that each chapter started with one of the adoptable cats names and their cute little bio. Because this was a Christmas read a bunch of the cats names were Christmas themed but they were at least very unique and that made the book just that much better. I highly recommend everyone to read this one!

QOTD: Have you ever been to a cat cafe?

Book Review: “A Good Girls Guide To Murder” By Holly Jackson

Over the last month I have been reading books that my Friend @syds.bookshelves has been recommending to me for ages and this is probably the one she has told me to read the most. I think it is so much fun to read the books your friends love, as it is a great opportunity to actively chat to them as you read so they can see your reactions.

“You go around asking dangerous questions, girl, you’re going to find some dangerous answers.”
Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

About The Book

Author: Holly Jackson

Publisher: Electric Monkey

Published Date: May 2nd, 2019

Page Count: 433 Pages

Main Genres: YA, Mystery, Thriller

GoodReads Rating: 4.34

Format: Physical Book

“women can be just as dangerous as men.”
Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Synopsis

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

Synopsis From GoodReads

“Real men wear floral when trespassing”
Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Rating

Review

I have not been a big Young Adult reader lately. Part of me likes how easy they are to read but then theres another part of me that struggles with that. I feel like I am left wanting more out of Young Adult books and that was the exact case with this one.

This book honestly started off super slow for me and did read really young at the beginning. However, it quickly picked up the pace at about half way which is when I sat down and devoured the rest in one sitting, staying up till 1 am to finish on a work night!

One thing that I really loved about this book was our characters.

Pip was a really great main character, I loved her determination to this case even though it could have gotten her into some really sticky situations, I mean good thing this book is a work of fiction! The love she had for her friends and family really showed in this book and I think this is one of the biggest reasons I liked her. One thing that did bug me about Pip though was the million of nicknames she had in this book, some of them were quite cringy honestly.

Ravi was honestly my favorite character by far. He was so misunderstood throughout this book! I couldn’t imagine having to go through the things he did after his brothers death but as the story unfolded we got to see him really shine and come out of his shell. He for sure had the most beautiful story arc of any of the characters.

My biggest Gripe with this book, and it really isn’t even that horrible of one, is the fact that we had so many suspects! It was hard to keep everyone straight in my mind and they truly all felt guilty to me. This in turn also made the story really interesting as we got to explore everyone in this town and find out all of their deep dark secrets.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I do think I will continue on with this series. As always check your trigger warnings before picking this one up as their is a few big ones to be aware of. For me it was animal death, luckily there wasn’t too many details so it was brief but still emotional.

“But sometimes remembering isn’t for yourself, sometimes you do it just to make someone else smile. Those lies were allowed.”
Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

QOTD: What is a must read YA in your Opinion?

Book Review: “Icebreaker” By Hannah Grace

Icebreaker was honestly a book I wasn’t all that interested in reading. I haven’t been in a romance mood lately let alone a spicy read. I also am not a sports romance girly in general so this book was flying under my radar for multiple reasons. However, I was sent this off of my wish list a few months ago and it was just screaming at me saying “I will give you all the winter vibes!” So I plucked it off of my shelf and gave it a try, here are all my thoughts, the good and the bad.

“You’re my favorite,” I whisper, leaning in to kiss her flushed cheek. “Even if I had crab hands?” “Even if you had crab hands, Anastasia.”
Hannah Grace, Icebreaker

About The Book

Author: Hannah Grace

Publisher: Atria

Published Date: February 7th, 2023

Page Count: 448 Pages

Main Genres: Romance

GoodReads Rating: 3.98

Format: Physical Book

“Of course, I know you really well, Anastasia. You’re my favorite subject.”
Hannah Grace, Icebreaker

Synopsis

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.

Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried…because she could never like a hockey player, right?

Synopsis from GoodReads

Rating

Review

This book took awhile for me to get into. I honestly just struggled with the main character a lot so I had no desire to pick it up and read it. I am not sure what is in the air but I apparently have only been interested in reading books that have an unlikeable main character and it is starting to get on my last nerve. So now you might be asking “Why did you finish it if you couldn’t stand the main character?” That is a great question, I am still asking myself that very thing.

I would say the main reason I kept reading was because I knew a romance was going to be a quick read, especially one that had as much smut in it as this book. Secondly, I liked almost all of the side characters so they made up for it. i really liked that we got Nathans POV every other chapter, that was what really interested me and kept me going. I just really wanted Nathan to be happy even if it was with Stass.

Reading the back of this book you expect a lot of skating and playing hockey, well that was one part of the book I actually missed! There was way more sex scenes than skating scenes! The back of the book makes it sound like Nathan and Stass would be skating together for the whole book but that only lasted maybe 50 pages…100 if we are lucky but again it is barely mentioned, to the point where I forgot what this book was really about.

One thing That I want to really Highlight is the mental health rep in this book. There is one chapter in this book where Stass is having a therapy session and to be honest I almost Cried! This made her character feel more real and I really connected with that. Then we have Nathan who is constantly reminding her to take care of her wellbeing and pushing ever so slightly on her habits to help her create healthier ones and he does it in such a gentle way, my heart was swooning for this man!

Before reading this book I highly recommend looking up trigger warnings. Some of the ones I want to specifically point out because they have a huge presence is Eating Disorders, Body image, Controlling Friendships and Time OCD. Please make sure you take care of yourself when reading any book!

“Don’t give me that shit. I’ve seen what you have on your smutty bookshelf.”
Hannah Grace, Icebreaker

QOTD: Is there a trigger warning in a book that you refuse to read?

AOTD: Animals dying or any animal cruelty for me. I am known to DNF a book even 80% of the way done if I feel like an animal will die.

Book Review: “Love On The Brain” By Ali Hazelwood

This book was one that my friend @syds.bookshelves has been telling me to read for quite some time now. I finally caved knowing I did really enjoy “The Love Hypothesis” By the same author hoping this one would be just as great. Something I forgot about this author is that she is a huge raylo fan so some of her books feel like Star Wars fan-fic and I am not a Star Wars Fan at all, so when Star Wars gets mentioned I tend to roll my eyes haha. But this did not ruin the reading experience at the slightest.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a community of women trying to mind their own business must be in want of a random man’s opinion.”
Ali Hazelwood, Love on the Brain

About The Book

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Publisher: Berkley

Published Date: August 23rd, 2022

Page Count: 354 Pages

Main Genres: Romance, Fiction

GoodReads Rating: 3.93

Format: Physical Book

“if academia ever makes you feel like you’re not good or smart enough . . . it’s not you, it’s academia.”
Ali Hazelwood, Love on the Brain

Synopsis

Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project–a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia–Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school–archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

Synopsis From GoodReads

“I love you, I think, and you are my home.”
Ali Hazelwood, Love on the Brain

Rating

Review

Ali Hazelwoods books typically follow characters in STEM, which is a topic I know nothing about. This can worry me when starting a book like this Because if I don’t know much about the characters hobbies I may get bored and check out when reading about them. However this book was written so well that you really mostly focused on their love story. and their jobs were just there to move the story along.

Now one thing that did really bug me was all the Marie Curie facts. Look, I know this was a huge part of the book and pretty much the Main characters entire personality. But sometimes it felt like facts were just being thrown into here for no reason at all! I could have lived without them but that is just my opinion. If there wasn’t so much information on Marie Curie I probably would have rated this book a bit higher honestly.

Gosh, Levi is the most perfect man to ever exist! I truly love a man falls first trope and this book was the ultimate example of it. But as much as I loved Levi, I was beyond annoyed with Bee for 90% of the book. I really struggle with unlikeable main characters and Bee just drove me crazy! I really wanted to like her but her constantly reminding Levi how much he hates her and not giving him a chance to explain himself was un redeeming in my eyes. Thank goodness Levi is a saint or else I don’t think he would have fought so hard for her.

Regardless of some of the things I struggled with, this was still a super cute book. In fact, I even read it in one sitting so that attests to how much I did enjoy it.

“The real villain is love: an unstable isotope, constantly undergoing spontaneous nuclear decay. And it will forever go unpunished.”
Ali Hazelwood, Love on the Brain

QOTD: Whats your favorite romance book?

Book Review: “Divine Rivals” By Rebecca Ross

This was my Book Clubs November Read, cohosted by my bestie @IrelandsLibrary. I honestly had no intentions on reading this book until Ireland had suggested it as a book club read and of course it was a hit! I should have known she had great taste after her last suggest “Emily Wildes Encyclopedia of Faeries” which also had a very positive review from our book club members. I am starting to think she should pick all of our books from here on out!

“I never told you that I love you. And I regret that, most of all.”
Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

About The Book

Author: Rebecca Ross

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Published Date: April 4th, 2023

Page Count: 357 Pages

Main Genres: Fantasy, Romance, YA

GoodReads Rating: 4.26

Format: Physical Book

“But I think there is a magical link between you and me. A bond that not even distance can break.”
Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

Synopsis

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Synopsis From GoodReads

“I love the words I write until I soon realize how much I hate them, as if I am destined to always be at war within myself.”
Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

Rating

Review

I have said this many times before, I am NOT a fantasy reader! So the fact I read three fantasy books in a row blows my mind. It also sacred me because I read this book Immediately after finishing Iron Flame so I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to focus on the world building, but honestly this book was pretty easy to follow.

I absolutely love books with mixed media so the fact that they were sending letters to each other really grabbed my attention, I just wish their were more letters honestly. I heard someone say that because both of these characters are supposed to be exceptionally great writers the letters were perfect but the writing of the book its self was subpar because it had to make the letters stand out, Honestly I can see where they are coming from but that doesn’t change my mind that this book was phenomenal.

With that said, I still think that somethings could have changed in this book to make me like it even more but if these particular things changed I don’t see how she could have wrote a second book so for the plot line Rebecca was going for I couldn’t have seen this book being written any other way. And the cliff hanger we are dangling off of as we wait not so patiently for the second book to be released was something I did not see coming at all! Why did you have to do this to us?!

I am not usually one who likes an insta love story but this book really worked for me. Spoiler Alert, but they got married so fast! However my heart was rooting for them so hard! I think the reason for this is because Roman fell first and I am learning that I am a sucker for the guy falls first trope. I can’t wait to see where their relationship goes from here but I am not sure my heart can take it!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who might be on the fence, just go ahead and pick it up, you won’t be disappointed!

“It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are. Sometimes I feel the same as you: I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, “You will miss so much by being so guarded.”
Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

QOTD: What Romance Trope is your Favorite?

“I don’t think you realize how strong you are, because sometimes strenght isn’t swords and steel and fire, as we are so often made to believe. Someimes it’s found in quiet, gentle places.”
Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals