This month I have been in such a big reading slump! I feel as if I go through slumps every other month and I am starting to get really annoyed with it. I find that I am constantly comparing how much I read to everyone else in the booksih community and honestly that isn’t very healthy. I do feel that with my new job my reading has definitely suffered as I work a lot more hours than I previously have and also I am super stressed trying to find my new groove of things. I am hoping this next month will play out a little better.
Mini Review
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” By J.K. Rowling
I am doing a mini review because I feel everyone who wants to read this book have already read it so I don’t feel the need to recap the book.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
I honestly didn’t love this book. I felt as if it was very slow and I just could not get into it no matter how hard I tried! I did like that there were so many more scenes in the book that they didn’t add into the movie, so I did have fun reading some of those scenes. Mostly I was bored and I felt the need to skip some f the dialogue. Yikes!
Big News!
I am ready to make a big announcement!
My bookstaversary is coming up on October 8th and I have some pretty cool things going up for my giveaway!
I have three authors who are signing a copy of their book to give out to the winner(s), That’s right, I haven’t yet decided if we are going to have one grand prize winner who gets all the books or if we will have separate winners. I am leaning towards separate winners so everyone who enters has a better chance of winning something. What do you think I should do?
Also I have interviewed each of these three authors and I am currently working on releasing these interviews on my blog and Instagram! I am so excited to share these interviews and I hope you all will tune in this weekend to learn more about these three amazing people! Also Please go ahead and start following these beautiful ladies because that will be a requirement to join the giveaway!
I am so excited to share this review with you! I received this book directly from the author to read and review it for her and I fell in love! I am now one of her biggest supporters and I honestly believe everyone should give this book a chance, especially if you love romance with a bit of a mystery. That is enough banter, lets dive in!
About The Book
Author: Lily Kathleen
Publish Date: June 16th, 2021
Publisher: Self Published
Page Count: 343
Main Genres: Romance and Mystery
GoodReads Rating: 4.78
But this wasn’t an ending, this was a beginning of a happier life. I felt like I had something to hold onto. Something that would actually let me be free to be who I was and not pretend to be someone I wasn’t.
Direct quote from book
Synopsis
Jessica is a fifteen year old girl who has overbearing parents who make her and her siblings move at least once a year for some unknown reason. When Jessica’s parents make her move from Ney York all the way to a small town in South Dakota they make sure Jessica has no contact with her previous friends, including her boyfriend Jake. This doesn’t make any sense to her and feels as if it isn’t fair, why would her parents not let her keep in contact with old friends, isn’t moving hard enough?
Fast forward to the first day of school. While waiting for the bus stop she meets Aaron, a complete loner who no one seems to care of his existence. The more they talk the faster they become friends and the faster they both learn that they have a lot more in common than they originally thought with some pretty dark secrets following them around.
All Jessica wanted in life is to go to school, make some normal friendships and to stay in one place for longer than a year for once in her life! Will her parents finally start to loosen the reins? Will she find out what secrets her parents are withholding from her?
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Review
This book was the perfect mixture of Romance and mystery tied together. When you think of a YA romance book you want this cute high school relationship that doesn’t feel like an adult love story. This book gave me the nostalgia of high school romance, the way you feel when you have a crush and when you try to hide the way you feel to protect your heart from being hurt. This book had all the feels of high school love rushing back to me.
The characters are so adorable and absolutely relatable! Jessica being this curious, smart bookworm and Aaron being a miss understood loner, I promise you will find something to relate to while you read this book.
I am giving this book a four star rating for a few reasons. I loved this book and I will be recommending it to everyone there were just a few things that I have to bring up that can be fixed really easily! First I would like you to keep in mind this is beautifully written by a 17 year old, and was self published! OK so there are a few distracting grammar and spelling errors but not too many that it would pull you out of the book. Some sentences felt a tad redundant like over using certain words a lot or even the same sentence just re worded a bit. These are things that can be easily forgiven though because of how good the actual story is.
Over all I loved this book and I am so happy I got the chance to read and give my honest review for all of you. This book has such an amazing story with an even better plot twist at the end. The last Hundred pages will have you entranced and you won’t be able to put the book down!
Every time I see you rush down the street to the bus stop my heart starts to beat faster. It’s like even if I can’t see you I can feel you coming.
Direct quote from book
About The Author
Lily Kathleen is a 17 year old high school senior who lives on a farm. Her farm has roughly four hundred goats, how cute! She has a love for music such as; Playing guitar, piano and singing! Her passion for romance started when she was only twelve years old which helped her to start writing her own stories to share with everyone.
(This info came from her website)
If you would like to buy a copy of her book down below will be some links that you can follow to make a purchase or even to just follow Lily on her socials.
This month my genres are going to be all over the place! From Self Help to Fantasy I am going to cover it all, well kind of. There are more than five genres in the world but all five of my books I would say touch different genres and ideas from each other and so I am very excited to get started with this months picks!
My Line Up
Romance
Self Help
Poetry
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Like I said all these books are very different than one another and I think that adds to all the fun! Two of these books are part of buddy reads which I still haven’t decided if I fully enjoy or not, but I am really trying! The other three books are ones I need to tackle so I can say that I have read them, they have been on my shelf for quite sometime.
I haven’t really read a poetry book before so when my new work friend recommended me “I Would Leave Me Too” by Halsey I honestly was kind of skeptical. I am not the best at understanding poetry and I am afraid I will just make a fool of myself trying to interpret the meaning behind the words. However, you will never know unless you try!
I am trying to read through all the Harry Potter books this coming year, one each month. This is part of a buddy read so it helps me to stay motivated to get it read. Also my boyfriends family are having a Harry Potter themed Halloween party so I should probably start finding a character I resonate with. Any help with this is very much appreciated!
“The Intellect” is an Indy book published by a seventeen year old! Yes, you read that correctly! I am so excited that she asked me to represent her book and to try and spread the word about her new romance novel. I am about halfway through the book and I am in love! If you would like to check out her book I will add a link so you can get your own copy.
“You Should Talk to Someone” has been catching my eye for months! I just keep putting it off because I’m not really a non-fiction self help kind of girl but honestly after the month I have had lately I could use some guidance in life. This will most likely be apart of a buddy read as well this month, maybe the other people in this group can help me get my life together!
Last but not least is “The Rose Code”, historical fiction is also out of my comfort zone but I mean who can turn down this gorgeous cover? I have also read so many wonderful reviews on this book and now that the hype has started to slow down I think now could be the perfect time to dive into this book.
Last month was crazy but this month might be worse. I am trying to balance a new job while also taking care of a three week old kitten and honestly I am sleep deprived! I haven’t really picked up a book in over a week and that is kind of depressing, but reading four books last month was a win for me! Now my goal is to keep that up with my busy schedule! Wish me luck!
If you are interested in reading one of these books with me lets do it!
I finished this book a little over a week ago and honestly I have tried typing this review a million times but life has been super busy this past week and extremely stressful! I started a new job and though training has been going very well that doesn’t mean starting a new job and making new friends is easy. Also I found a 3 week old kitten in the dumpster at the new job and me and my boyfriend decided to take him in and adopt him! This has been challenging because I have to feed him every few hours, help him use the bathroom, teach him to play, help him regulate his own body heat and so much more! I am currently typing this while holding a squirming kitten, wish me luck!
“Whenever I want you,” he sang quietly. “All I have to do is dream.”
Direct quote from book.
About The Book
Publication Date: March 17th, 2020 2020
Author: TJ Klune
Publisher: Tor
Page Count: 396
Main Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Fantasy
GoodReads Rating: 4.49
“The things we fear the most are often the things we should fear the least. It’s irrational, but it’s what makes us human. And if we’re able to conquer those fears, then there is nothing we’re not capable of.”
Direct Quote from book.
Synopsis
Linus Baker lives a very boring and structured life always following the rules, working for the Department In Charge Of Magical Youth. His job is to make sure the magical kids living in orphanages are being taken care of or if the children need to be moved. His office space seems fairly hostel with a boss who doesn’t care about her employees, hardly any room to move between your desk, and no personal belongings are allowed! His mouse pad is a picture of an ocean saying “don’t you wish you were here?”
His structured lifestyle gets a wrench tossed in it when he is summoned to go to Marayas Island, a place Linus has never heard of. Everyone who is on the island has been filed away into a classified folder.
Who exactly is on this island? Why is their existence classified? Will Linus learn to break the rules?
This book is filled with magic, friendships and finding yourself.
Hate is loud, but I think you’ll learn it’s because it’s only a few people shouting, desperate to be heard. You might not ever be able to change their minds, but so long as you remember you’re not alone, you will overcome.”
Direct quote from book.
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
A home isn’t always the house we live in. It’s also the people we choose to surround ourselves with. You may not live on the island, but you can’t tell me it’s not your home. Your bubble, Mr. Baker. It’s been popped. Why would you allow it to grow around you again?
Direct quote from book.
Review
This book was very well written and I learned to fall in love with each character individually. My personal favorite character was Sal, he had such a rough past that made him super shy but protective and I feel as if his character progressed the most throughout the entire book.
I feel as if this book started off super slow! It took till about 60% of the way through the book for me to really get into it. With such great reviews from everyone I assumed I would fall in love with the book immediately and I didn’t, but this is ok! Story building takes some time and with this book it paid off. By the 60% mark in the book I started to connect all the characters and I ended up just loving the whole story.
The reason why I am giving it four stars is due to how long it took me to get into the book. The ending of this story was really heart warming and extremely cute! I would love a second book!
I have a lot of stuff going on in my life currently and I thought I would like to share these with all of you! I figured this is my blog and yes it focuses on books but also me, so why not share what is going on currently. What am I reading? What did I just finish reading? What are some major life things happening right now? What am I currently watching? Let’s get a little more personal here.
Let’s Talk Books
Last Read
Current Read
Next Read
I just finished the first Harry Potter book for my first time ever! Can you really call me a book lover if I haven’t read this series? I know all the stuff going on with JKR is very controversial and I have read up on it and by no means do I support what is happening! I personally wanted to start this series to see why this book got so many young kids hooked on reading and what I missed out on growing up.
My Mini Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
I absolutely loved this book and I do understand why so many young kids fell in love with reading after they read this book. I wish I would have gave it a chance when I was younger, as now I am 22 and just started to love reading. I missed out on so many years of falling in love with different worlds and making fictional friends.
I took the Harry Potter house quiz and I got put into the Hufflepuff house. Now I am curious, is there a book or anything I can read to learn more of the Hufflepuff side of things?
I am currently about half way through “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune. This book is the book my own book club is reading for the month of August and I have been so excited to discuss it with them! However, I am not loving the book yet. I feel like it will get better and pick up pace soon but man is it dragging. I feel as if this book is over hyped which makes it harder to get into. Fingers crossed I end up falling in love with it.
My next read is going to be “The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren. I feel like I only read super popular books. As a fairly new reader I rely heavily on other peoples reviews and this book has had many great reviews on bookstagram. I can not wait to dive into this book!
Currently Watching
To say that I am a reality TV snob would be an understatement! My boyfriend is constantly telling me I watch too much reality TV and has tried tirelessly to get me to watch just a basic TV show but honestly they just don’t keep my attention like a “good” reality show.
The main shows that I have been obsessed with lately would be; Hells Kitchen, The Bachelorette, Big Brother and Master Chef. I am a sucker for drama, food, and competition.
Hells Kitchen released two seasons back to back and that was so exciting! Season 19 was an ok season and season 20 (on tv now) isn’t much better. I support Rasmy’s decision to crown Kori the winner of season 19 I feel like she deserved it but man I hated some of those contestants with all my heart! Season 20 is the young gun season and so they are all a bunch of 21 year-olds who know basically nothing! Honestly I despise almost all of these contestants except for like two of the men. Don’t ask why I still continue to watch the show if I hate the people because I can’t give you an answer.
Bachelor Nation has been a crap show for a few seasons now. The last season I actually enjoyed was Becca’s season back in 2018, that was forever ago! Matt’s season was a joke! I thought Katie would kill it but man her season was a mess! Now we are starting Paradise and yes I am excited for it but ehh some of the people on their I could live without. Also I miss Chris Harrison, Fight me if you don’t agree.
Master Chef has always been a favorite! I love the mystery box challenge, it is so crazy to see what these home cooks can come up with! This show just makes me very hungry! This season is the season of legends so the whole show has changed a bit and honestly not for the best. I like the legends they are bringing in, most of them are really cool. I love that Joe is finally back on the show, I hated Christina. What I am hating is that there is no mystery box challenges or elimination challenges or even the ones where they leave the master chef bubble and go out into the world. Its just “Oh hey here is a legendary chef make this dish for them and one of you will go home.” I don’t know, it just feels bleh, but here I am still watching it religiously.
Big Brother has been a family favorite since I was a child but we stopped watching after season 18 because life got busy and it costed a lot to pay for subscriptions to watch things. Now that I have my own money I bought Paramount Plus and it came with Big Brother so I have been binging it for the past two months trying to catch up on what I missed out on. I am on season 22 the All Stars season and man these All Stars kind of suck haha. I love Nicole and Cody so rooting for them for sure!
Do you watch any of these shows?
Life Things
Life has been pretty chaotic this past month! I quit a toxic job, I got a new job, I read a lot, I watch a lot of TV, I am trying to make friends…gosh just a lot! Lets talk about it!
Noah’s Birthday
My boyfriend turned 22 on the 14th of this month and so of course we had to celebrate! We had a whole week of birthday celebrations! He even convinced me to start playing D&D with our friends.
I love lots of things about this man but most importantly I am so thankful for all of his support.
Mental Health
Me and Noah started taking control of our mental health by using this app called “Finch”. You basically get to take care of a baby finch (it looks like a penguin) by answering questions and taking quizzes about your day and completing goals. After you baby has enough energy you send it on an adventure and he typically comes back with something he discovered like a fruit, drink, book or hobby. He then decides if he likes or dislikes the item. When you answer his questions like the one to the right here it gives him personality traits! Over all I recommend this app!
They also just added a pet store so you can buy cute clothes for you finch to wear!
I will have a link to download the app down below.
I have a special code too! When it asks use this 4ECF3QLPWR it will give you 600 starting stones (money) for the store! If code doesn’t work send me a message.
I am currently a rep for multiple places and even an author now! A lot of this information is posted on my “About Me” page but if you are looking for more information I am happy to help you out so just feel free to send me any questions you have, the best way to contact me is through my Instagram or Facebook pages.
My Newest Position
I am happy to announce starting in September I will be an official rep for the author of “The Intellect” by Lily Kathleen.
I have not yet started this book because I want to read it as I rep. I am so excited to read this book and help out a young author!
Lily is only 17 years old and she already has some really amazing reviews on her YA romance novel!
The synopsis below is pulled directly from Lilies website which I will add a link too below.
If you are interested in buying this book use code Theintellect10 for 10% off your order!
“Fifteen-year-old Jessica Adams moves to a small town in South Dakota at the beginning of summer. Moving is normal for her, but this time seems to be a bit different. She isolates herself from the outside world as she begins to question her whole life. Her parents never give her the freedom her older siblings have, nor can she even be left at home alone without her parents constantly texting and calling her. She begins to feel alone, as she spends her whole summer cooped up in her room.
But things quickly start to turn around when she meets a mysterious guy, named Aaron Conners, on the first day of school. No one looks at him, nor talks to him. So why is he always hiding?
He has a seriously huge secret, but so does she. Her secret can lead her into much danger. The only thing is that she doesn’t actually know what her secret is.
Will she make a massive mistake in trying to figure out what her big secret is? And will it lead her and those she loves into more danger than ever before?”
My really good bookstagram friend has started to make the cutest bookmarks I have ever seen and she just released her fall line along with her new Etsy shop!
I love all the designs she has came out with this time but I think my personal favorites are the “A Thousand Suns” collection! Sunflowers are seriously the best flowers out there.
All in all fall is my favorite season and I am so excited to share this collection with you.
Down below I will post a link to her new Etsy shop and her Bookstagram page as well.
Courts Bookmarks Continued
This next picture is the last of this new collection.
Look at that last bookmark, it is see through! Gosh this collection is to die for!
I already ordered mine so what are you waiting for?!
Her other collections will be up soon so you will have a lot of cute designs to choose from. In the mean time order one or two of these to prep for fall!
The last update to my rep position is this new shirt from my girl Amy at Two Sisters Custom Creations. Amy made me a really cute purple shirt that had a book design on it which I immediately fell in love with but come on, how can you beat this shirt?
In Utah it has been raining for two days straight so I have officially claimed Summer to be over and Fall has kicked into gear! I mean we have snow on our mountains in August, so yeah Fall has started.
No Books Were Harmed In The Making Of This Photo
Amy and I have been friends since I can remember really and of course I am going to show off all the cute things she makes!
She has so many more designs on her website and you can also request any idea you have and she will get it done!
The best part? She offers shipping all around the U.S.
Her link will be listed below along with a few of her other designs!
This is everything going on in my life currently! If you stayed and read all of this well I thank you for your determination! My life is always crazy and I will always have a million things to talk about, so stay tuned!
This was one of my buddy reads that I signed up for this month. I think I was the last one to finish the book despite us not having our discussion till the end of this month. I only have two more buddy reads to finish this month with so little time left, I am getting slightly nervous!
About The Book
Publication Date: July 6th, 2021
Author: S.A. Cosby
Publisher: FlatIron Books
Main Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
Page Count: (BOTM Edition) 319
Goodreads Rating: 4.25 Stars
“It wasn’t Isiah being gay that caused problems between the two of you. It was how you dealt with it or didn’t deal with it that caused problems.”
Direct quote from book. Page 47
Synopsis
Two ex-con fathers lost their married sons in some horrific hate crime. Despite not approving of the relationship their sons had, the fathers are out for blood to avenge their sons’ deaths because the cops have no leads! Through all the challenges these men go through they find acceptance for their sons and each other but can they get revenge on whoever did this horrendous act?
This book highlights the struggles the LGBTQ community and Black communities face with acceptance, racism, and everyday life trials.
“This is who I am. I can’t change. I don’t want to, really. But for once I’m gonna put this devil inside me to good use.”
Direct Quote from book. Page 96
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Review
I have really been into reading books about the LGBTQ community lately and I am so happy I added this to my completed pile. The books I have read have been very LGBTQ positive and this book has a lot of darker tones. You see the community from the perspectives of fathers who really disapprove of their gay sons but after their sons pass away due to a hate crime you can see their fathers start to slowly understand their sons lives and choices a bit more and become more accepting of the choices their sons had made. It was just a really beautiful story about two very tough topics that I feel like authors avoid.
The other topic that got talked about heavily in this book was racism, particularly about the black culture. Ike, the father to one of the sons, is a black man. Buddy Lee, the other father, is a white man who grew up in a very racist family and has some habits that need to be broken. Throughout the whole book Ike teaches Buddy Lee the proper way to address issues with racism and things he should or should not be letting out of his mouth. Ike really brings up tough issues in this world that we need to correct.
These topics are things we all need to take time to educate ourselves on just a little more so we can all be more accepting of each others lives. This book was very insightful but mostly emotional! S.A. Cosby really knows how to pull at your heart strings while speaking the truth!
I only had one problem with this book but after doing some quick research I realized it has nothing to do with the book and wasn’t the authors fault. The issue was that it had a lot of grammar errors! I found out that it is because I read the Book of the Month version of this book and they got the book before the final edits went through. So just a heads up, if you have the BOTM version their will be a lot of grammar errors.
Overall I loved this book! It talked about tough issues, It was very emotional and the story was beautiful! I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants a good thriller/mystery that talks about some tough topics.
“Yeah, you can’t hide that you’re black. But the fact that you think I should hide who I am proves my point. Like Dr. King said: an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Direct quote from book. Page 141
This quote is in reference to a part in the book where Ike tells a gay guy that he can hide who he is cause unless he tells anyone he is gay no one would know, but Ike is black everywhere and can’t hide who he is. But like the quote says why should anyone who is gay have to hide who they are just to make everyone else comfortable? Something to really think about!
Possible Trigger Warnings
Racism
Hate Speech
Violence
Homophobia
Murder
Grief
QOTD: What is your favorite book subscription company?
World of Bai 