Romance – Page 3 – World of Bai

June Wrap Up

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

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?

Full Review

“Loveless” By Alice Oseman

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?

Full Review

Audio Books

“The Charm Offensive” By Alison Cochrun

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

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

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!

Book Review: “Loveless” By Alice Oseman

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

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

“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.”
Direct Quote From The Book

QOTD: Have you read any of Alice Oseman’s Books?

One Year Blogging Anniversary

Today marks exactly one year since my first blog post was released! I read somewhere when I was starting that most bloggers don’t make it past the three month mark (Don’t Quote me because now I can’t find where I heard this). But reaching the three moth mark was my only goal starting this blog and now here I am, a whole year later, still making blog posts!

I am excited to share my journey with you today and I encourage you to check out some of my links that I share. I will post my Bookstagram and any related blog posts for you if you are interested in seeing more of what I do!

I also have a Buy Me a Coffee link and an Amazon Wishlist if you would like to check those out as well.

My Story

My story starts when I was young, I used to HATE reading when I was younger. It just never made sense to me why people would choose to sit down and read words off of something that felt endless, instead of playing sports, videogames or really anything else in the world. I remember being forced to read books in junior high and high school such as; Romeo and Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird and Jane Eyre. I truly believe this led me down a deeper hole of hatred. I just feel when you are forced to do something it can ruin your perspective on those things.

Jump to July 2020, mid pandemic, I had just moved into a new home with my boyfriend who worked long nights. Being cooped up in a new home all alone was really starting to get to me and so I was searching for new hobbies to keep me occupied. While scrolling through Facebook I stumbled across an ad for Book of the Month Club (Not Sponsored) and it peaked my interest! Paying a monthly fee of $15.99 for a book credit and $9.99 for each add on sounded like a steal and let me tell you, it was! I dedicate getting back into reading to BOTM. Cheap, affordable, good quality books that helped me step out of my comfort zone and start an obsession. Now I have an endless TBR pile that will continue to grow and a bookstagram that keeps me on track!

Now

I have been on Bookstagram for about a year and a half now and I have made so many amazing bookish friends, created this blog, became an ambassador for a few companies and even had the chance to interview a few authors! This has been a crazy experience but I wouldn’t change a thing!

I have so many ideas for the future of this blog including more posts, Bookish Merch and author spotlights. All of these things will hopefully be coming soon starting with more posts each week in July! As for the author spotlights I would like to start reading one Indie book each month and really spotlight that book and author and maybe even try and get interviews with the authors each month. I am not sure when this will start but I would love some Indie book recommendations so I can start putting this together.

Fun Facts

As of today I have 95 total followers on my Blog

In the 6 months my blog was running in 2021 I had over 2,000 Views and 488 total likes

My Book stack for a cause to save the bees was my most viewed post

My favorite blog post was about My Greatest Accomplishment

My Favorite Book Review was “It Ends With Us” By Colleen Hoover

Favorite Books

“It Ends With Us” By Colleen Hoover

“Book Lovers” By Emily Henry

“One Last Stop” By Casey McQuiston

“Verity” By Colleen Hoover

“Crescent City: HOSAB” By Sarah J Maas

“The Hate U Give” By Angie Thomas

“The Love Hypothesis” By Ali Hazelwood

I would like to thank all of my followers here on the blog and also on Bookstagram for supporting me in this amazing journey. Every like and share or even just a click on a link makes me so happy! I love seeing how much this blog has grown over the past year and I can’t wait to see what happens in the coming years as well. Please don’t be a stranger, my DM’s are always open and I love talking about books and pretty much everything else, so lets be friends! Here’s too many more years of blogging!

QOTD: What are some of your hobbies other than reading?

Book Review: “Read Between the Lines” By Rachel Lacey

For the month of June I am reading all LGBTQ+ books. I read LGBTQ+ all throughout the year but I thought for Pride I would really focus on these topics and books I have been dying to read or have been on my shelf for awhile. This book was one my boyfriend gave me for Christmas and I thought the synopsis sounded so cute and so I finally dove in!

“I’d date Ms. Maybe to find out if she could be Ms. Right, but not if I already know she’s wrong for me.”
Direct Quote From The Book

About The Book

Author: Rachel Lacey

Publisher: Montlake

Published Date: December 1st, 2021

Page Count: 331 Pages

Main Genres: Romance, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

GoodReads Rating: 3.79

“So, more often than not, she curled up with a book and read about fictional characters falling in love instead of putting herself out there.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Synopsis

“And right now, you’re having too much fun flirting with her on Twitter,” Lia teased. “It’s chatting, not flirting,”
Direct Quote From The Book

Rating

Review

Possible Spoilers Ahead

I honestly had very high hopes for this book because any book about a book store just sounds so cute! Like this book could have been a booklovers dream but it failed to keep me entertained.

Rosie and Jane (AKA Brie) were not compatible at all! Mostly because Janes family business are the ones who are tearing down the bookstore. This causes so much animosity between the two characters that I just didn’t want to root for them to be together. I get the bookstore is special to Rosie but seriously grow up and realize that Jane had no choice in the matter. Also there was one scene where Rosie invites Jane to coffee they have a great five sentence conversation and Rosie who literally invited Jane out stood up and said “Sorry I can’t do this” and left… Like WTF?

Also, don’t even get me started on the pacing of this book. There were things that needed a lot more detail and things that could have used less detail. There were scenes, especially the sex scenes, that were like two sentences and they were already at completion, no that’s not how this works. Then right after the sex scenes there wasn’t much connection between them like we were already moving onto the next day.

Their relationship just felt forced and they really had no time together that was written well enough to make you care about their relationship. All you know about their relationship is that Rosie was always in love with Brie’s writing but hates Jane because of her job. You can’t hate and love someone, one side will always win. And again, all their conversations come back to Janes family business destroying the building, like we get it, can we get some other dialog?

I would have loved this book if Rosie was in love with Brie and they started an online relationship but secretly Brie is Jane, a book lover who comes into the bookstore once or twice a week and they each have secret crushes in real life and in the online world. That would have been amazing! But the whole plot line of destroying the bookstore just built too much animosity that made their relationship unbelievable.

Overall, Rosie’s character was annoying and Janes character had no back bone and both characters combined fell flat. I would love more about Lia and her back story, she was by far the best character who actually did most of the work at the bookstore and to try and save the store. Like Rosie this is your family business and you hardly can even show up to work because you are too busy Hating and loving Jane at the same time to even try and save your store. I just don’t think this is a book you need to read and you should probably skip over this one as a whole.

QOTD: What books plot drives you crazy?

June Hopefuls

June is Pride Month and this year me and Noah are participating in all the festivities in our area! I am so excited to actually get to participate in the Pride festival, our town hasn’t had an actual festival in over three years, mostly because of Covid, but we finally have a chance to gather again!

With June being Pride month I have decided to dedicate my monthly reads to LGBTQ+ reads. I went to Amazon and added about 20 books to my wish list but there is no way I have the time or money to actually read them all. I ordered a few books and I have a few already on my shelf so I will list all my hopefuls down below and see how many I can actually read by the end of the month. I am moving this month and I have a lot of packing to do, along with a vacation, so I don’t expect to read too many books this month but I am very excited for what I can get too.

Hopefuls

I am currently reading “Read Between the Lines” and listening to “Written in the Stars”. So far I am really enjoying both books! “Written in the Stars” is a fake dating trope and I honestly believe besides friends to lovers that this is my favorite romance trope. “Read Between the Lines” I already know is going to be so cute because a bookstore owner falls in love with her favorite author! These two could be my favorite books of this month.

These are the three books that I just ordered and picked over like 20 other options from my Amazon Wish List. I am extremely excited for all three of these books, plus they are all different genres.

“Loveless” is written by Alice Oseman who also wrote the “Heartstopper” Series which I was obsessed with so I already know I will love this. I am also interested to see how different her novels are compared to her graphic novels.

“Ace” is a nonfiction book explaining what Asexuality is and what it is like to be Asexual. I am really interested in learning more about Asexuality because it is something I haven’t had the chance to explore and learn about and now having a book that has a 4.4 rating on Goodreads to help me learn as much as I can will be a great start! Reading all the reviews on Goodreads, I feel like this is going to be such a great experience.

“Coming Home to Her” By Emily Juniper is a poetry book. I don’t have much experience in reading poetry but I think it is about time I start reading it. I am very interested in poetry books but they are so very different from novels that I just haven’t really given them a chance. This one has a 4.1 rating on Goodreads and I think based off of the reviews that this will be a great poetry book to start with.

Like I said above I have like 20+ other books in my Amazon Wish List that I would really love to read but because I am moving this month I really don’t know if I will even be able to finish these five books but I really hope to at least read these ones. I plan on reading more LGBTQ+ reads throughout the year and I am very excited to post my reviews.

QOTD: What are your favorite LGBTQ+ reads?

May Wrap Up

Wow! May was a pretty productive month for me reading wise which is great because I know June is going to be a very sad reading month due to my move! I Read/Listened to a total of 9 books in May which added up to about 3,000 pages! I am very excited to share with you all the books I loved and or hated this month. Make sure to check out my full review for the books, I will have links placed below the books I have a review for. So lets dive in!

Physical Books

“I Kissed Shara Wheeler” By Casey McQuiston

Chloe has one thing on her mind: being Valedictorian. She is so close she could taste it! All that’s standing in her way is her rival Shara Wheeler. Shara is the most popular girl in school, not to mention the principals daughter, but Chloe lives and breathes beating Shara in all that they do. But when Shara kisses Chloe out of the blue and then vanishes, Chloe’s main goal is to find Shara so she can beat her to Valedictorian fair and square.

Chloe quickly realizes that she’s not the only one Shara kissed and ditched. There’s Smith, High school quarterback and Shara’s long term boyfriend. Then there’s Rory, the class bad boy and Shara’s next door neighbor. Together, they must work to solve cryptic clues left in some very creative places in order to find Shara and get some answers.

Along the way, new friendships are made, and old friendships are put to the ultimate test.

Full Book Review

“Book Lovers” By Emily Henry

Nora’s whole life has been centered around books and her little sister Libby. They basically grew up in a book store so it was no surprise to anyone that she became an agent for authors, helping them get the best editorial and publishing deals. But unlike most book characters she’s not that happy go lucky girl who gets the dream guy. Instead, all her relationships fall apart because she is too focused on taking care of Libby and making a career for herself to really focus on her personal life.

Libby is a lot different than Nora. She has always been a romantic and she thinks her sister needs to experience that small town romance all romance book characters get to have. So her and Nora pack up for a month long trip to Sunshine Falls, the small town featured in one of Nora’s clients books. With a bucket list of book tropes to complete will Sunshine Falls finally help Nora find her true self?

Full Book Review

“The Change” By Kirsten Miller

Nessa has always known she had a special gift to hear the dead but when she got married and had kids her power seemed to go dormant due to the craziness of every day life. But with her husband dead and her two kids off at college she finds her life finally slowing down and one day she wakes up to the sound of a dead girl calling for her help.

Something inside of her tells her that she won’t be able to help this girl on her own and so her intuition brings her to find two other women with special gifts as well. Jo, a retired business woman who now owns a local women only gym who is filled with heat and rage. Then there is Harriet, the local “Witch” who knows the secrets of the wildlife and plants around her. Together these three women will bring justice to the girl calling to Nessa.

Full Book Review

“HeartStopper” Volumes 3&4 By Alice Oseman

I have not made a full review for these books yet but now that I have read all four (Book five has not been released yet) I will be posting hopefully this week a full blog post about my thoughts and feelings to kick off pride month!

I absolutely love these books and honestly probably like these two better than the first two. Now that Charlie and Nick’s relationship is official you will see them struggle to find the best time and way to announce their relationship. You will also see them struggle with mental health and eating disorders which are already a really tough topic but were written in a great way.

Audio Books

I have not written full reviews for the Audio Books that I listened too and honestly I don’t really plan too so if you would like a synopsis for these books I recommend checking good reads. I will post my rating and Initial thoughts for these books down below.

“The Honey Don’t List” By Christina Lauren

I love Christina Lauren and the way she portrays her characters! I really liked this book and felt like the relationship was cute but the ending was kind of a let down which is why it is only getting 4 stars and not 5 stars.

“Shipped” By Angie Hockman

I am not really an enemies to lovers fan but this book handled the trope pretty well. I also really liked the sister relationship this book offered. Only four stars for this book just because it was enemies to lovers and the start of the relationship was rough but over all the book ended perfectly!

“In Five Years” By Rebecca Serle

This book started off so good! I was hooked immediately! However, it was not the book I thought it would be. It got really sad and made me cry, which was great! But the ending was just terrible and I really wish it had a different ending. Also the main character was very annoying!

Poetry

“F%#k it! why not?!” By R.S Green

I read this book at 3 am one night when I couldn’t sleep. I am not one who typically reads poetry or really even know what good poetry is. But honestly this was not great poetry and I couldn’t relate to anything that I was reading. I highlighted maybe two passages but the rest was just not great. Maybe if I knew more about poetry I would have enjoyed it but I really don’t recommend this poetry book to anyone and I think it could be a waste of your time.

Wow, that was negative. I apologize but honestly don’t waste your time on this one.

DNF

I don’t DNF (Did Not Finish) books. I almost always either read two chapters and decide its not the right time for the book and come back later or I push through the book because I am already halfway so why not just finish it and give it a review. Well the book Down below made me realize life is too short to force yourself to finish a book you just can’t stand. This is my opinion on the book and if you loved it, great! If you hated it, great! If you want to read the book please read it cause you might enjoy it!

“Darling Girl” By Liz Michalski

(Synopsis is pulled from GoodReads)

Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy–yes, that Wendy. She’s running a successful skincare company; her son, Jack, is happy and healthy; and the tragedy of her past is well behind her . . . until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she’s been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but more dangerous than anyone could imagine.

Eden’s disappearance is a disaster for more reasons than one. She has a rare condition that causes her to age rapidly–ironic, considering her father is the boy who will never grow up–which also makes her blood incredibly valuable. It’s a secret that Holly is desperate to protect, especially from Eden’s half-brother, Jack, who knows nothing about his sister or the crucial role she plays in his life. Holly has no one to turn to–her mother is the only other person in the world who knows that Peter is more than a story, but she refuses to accept that he is not the hero she’s always imagined. Desperate, Holly enlists the help of Christopher Cooke, a notorious ex-soldier, in the hopes of rescuing Eden before it’s too late . . . or she may lose both her children.

This book was just a chore to read. I went in thinking this would be a dark, mysterious, Peter Pan retailing where he is in our world and less of Neverland. Well, yes that is the book but literally nothing happens in this book! I made it a little over halfway and I had no clue where this book was going. I had no connections to the characters and honestly didn’t care how the book ended. When I looked at this book sitting on my nightstand I was just not excited to read it. I have so many books on my TBR and it just didn’t make sense to keep reading something that did not bring me joy. So with this book I have started to DNF!

I Posted a TikTok video explaining why I DNF’d this book in more detail so if you’d like go ahead and check that out!

Favorite Quotes

“Every recipe is a spell and all cooks are witches”
From “The Change”

“Yes, you’re afraid of me because I’m better than you are. And if you give one talented woman the power she deserves, another will follow. Then another. And together they’ll show that their way is better. Then your whole fake f*cking world will come tumbling down.”
From “The Change”

“You’re in books. Of course you don’t have a life. None of us do. There’s always something too good to read.”
From “Book Lovers”

“She feels like the spine of a book about to crack and spill out all the love story guts.”
From “I Kissed Shara Wheeler”

Coming Up

Ok, I have a lot of stuff coming up in the near future! We are just a few weeks from my one year blogging anniversary and I have some fun stuff planned for this so stay tuned! June is Pride Month so I will be posting my June TBR and I bet it all will be LGBTQ friendly! I also will be moving this month so blog posts might be few and far between but I will be back once life calms down.

QOTD: Please recommend me some good LGBTQ reads!