July was a really slow reading month for me. I only read two books last month and I fully blame that on the worst reading slump I have yet to run into. I told Noah I felt a slump coming on only two weeks into July and he just laughed and said “I think you are always in a slump.” I guess he is not wrong haha.
Lets discuss these books in more detail.
“Truly Devious” By Maureen Johnson
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Stevie is a teenager obsessed with the Ellingham murders that took place in the 1930’s. She somehow got the chance to attend Ellingham Academy for her Junior year of high school and now she hopes she can crack the unsolved murder case. What she wasn’t expecting was for one of her own classmates to be murdered right under her nose. Will Stevie be able to solve the mysterious murders or will she herself be taken as a victim?
I started this book on July first and finished on July second, that is how good this book was! I am excited to continue the series.
I picked this for my first book club pick for my close friends and we all had pretty mixed reviews, from a DNF all the way to five stars with everything in between. It made for a really interesting conversation and I personally can’t wait to read more books with my group.
“Daisy Jones and The Six” By Taylor Jenkins Reid
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
At a young age Daisy started to find a love for the reckless life of a rock and roll star. Hanging around bands and being exposed to sex, drugs, and booze; she thought this was the life she was meant to live. Her time spent amongst these bands lead her to finding her voice in both singing and writing, she knew she was meant for big things but what she didn’t know is that she couldn’t get there alone.
Pretty soon after, a producer for a big band, The Six, Heard her singing in a bar and he knew that she was the voice that could make The Six reach the top of the charts. The hard part was convincing the bad to let her join. Will Daisy catch her big break or watch her life come crashing down from her addictions?
I read this as a buddy read with one of my new friends and honestly neither of us really enjoyed it. We both felt the interview style was an interesting way to tell a story but that it made it so we lacked a connection with the characters that builds in a regular writing style. I do believe that if I listened to this on audio that I would have enjoyed it more. I also think this book put me into my reading slump.
Favorite Quotes
“All I will say is that you show up for your friends on their hardest days. And you hold their hand through the roughest parts. Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding.”
Direct Quote From “Daisy Jones and The Six”
“Where her books were, she was. Get the books right and the rest will follow. Now she could address the rest of the room.”
I am not sure what I will be reading next. I just made a TBR jar and I think it will choose my next read. I now have about 90 books in this jar that I need to read!
June has been a crazy month full of packing and putting final touches on our home so we could move. We are officially moved into my childhood home and now all that is left is finding room for all of our stuff. Now that we are moved I am hoping to have more time to read next month but if I am honest this move has exhausted me and I am not sure how much brain capacity I have for reading right now.
As always I will post the link to my reviews for you to read those. I don’t post full reviews for audio books so my thoughts will be next to those books here. I mostly listened to audio books this month while we packed so this could be fun.
Physical Books
“Read Between The Lines” By Rachel Lacey
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Rosie’s whole life has been centered around books. She grew up in her moms bookstore surrounded by all the stories she loves. When her mom passes away Rosie takes over the shop which has so many wonderful memories of her childhood and special moments with her mom. All that Rosie is missing is her own romance story, But she thinks she has found that too when she strikes up a conversation with her favorite author Brie on Twitter.
Everything feels like the stars have aligned until the day Rosie gets a letter telling her that the Bookstores lease will not be renewed and that she has till December to find a new home for her beloved store. Rosie pushes love to the back burner in hopes to save her store but why can’t she have it all?
Georgia is about to head off to University never having the chance to have a relationship let alone her first kiss. She felt like she was falling behind in the romance category but she believed that was all about to change when University started. This was her time to find the love of her life.
Arriving at University she finds out that she has a roommate who seems to have relationships all figured out. This gave Georgia hope, thinking she could learn a thing or two about relationships and sex. However, this just caused her more confusion than anything. Why is romance so easy for everyone but her?
Throughout the course of University Georgia has a chance to find her true self but this will turn out not to be an easy task. Will Georgia be able to find love?
I have seen a lot of amazing reviews for this book and I heard it was basically The Bachelor. Because of these things I was super excited to listen to this book. The beginning was super cute and I was hooked but the longer it went on the more I just felt meh about the whole thing. Charlie and Ben both really annoyed me and I never really cared about their relationship. The big romantic gesture happened two hours before the book ended and so once that happened I was just done. The ending really fell flat overall.
“Written In The Stars” By Alexandria Ballefleur
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
This book was Highly recommended to me by many Bookstagrammers and I was super excited to read this one. I think I was pretty distracted while I was listening to this book because I can’t remember much that happened, I did listen to it 30 days ago but still. I know I loved the first part of the book, The middle and all the animosity between the characters really made me feel meh and the ending just felt rushed. I have never liked enemies to lovers so this rating doesn’t surprise me but I do think I would have enjoyed it more if I actually read the book.
“Meet Cute Club” By Jack Harbon
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
This was a super cute story that I think every book lover dreams about. I really enjoyed this book and the characters relationship. However I did not like the narrator and so I probably would have given this 5 stars if the narrator was better, he just took me out of the story more than I would have liked.
Favorite Quotes
“Give your friendships the magic you would give a romance. Because they’re just as important. Actually, for us, they’re way more important.”
From Loveless
“She’s happy with who she is. Maybe it’s not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but… knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.”
From Loveless
“Never trust your fears. They don’t know your strength.”
From Read Between The Lines
“Life would be a lot better if we all spent a little more time staring at the stars.”
From Written In The Stars
June Thoughts
I read a lot of the books I thought I would read this month which I am super happy about! I am also in the middle of reading “Ace” but this is one I am taking my time with to mark and annotate so I can really gather my thoughts.
We have officially moved so I think life will be less busy here soon so I really hope to read and post more in the near future!
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
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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.
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?
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.
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
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
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!
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.
In April I read a total of seven books and I was seriously surprised! However, two were graphic novels I finished in like an hour and another was an 80 paged short story, I guess all those combined might equal one total book but I am still counting them individually. I had an amazing reading month and I read so many amazing books! This year has been full of five star reads, I think it will be really hard to pick my end of the year favorites.
Remember to check out the full reviews for my initial thoughts on the books!
The Books
“The Hate U Give” By Angie Thomas
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Starr is a sixteen year old girl that lives in a poor neighborhood but attends school in the suburbs. Living two separate lives proves to be a big challenge but only gets worse when she witnesses her childhood friend get shot and killed by a police officer. Being the only witness to the murder, it quickly becomes Starr’s word against the officer’s.
The officer thought Kahlil had a gun: he didn’t. People believe Kahlil is a drug dealer: he had nothing on him. The officer thought Starr was a threat and kept his gun on her: she was compliant.
It is up to Starr to break the misconceptions and bring justice to her friend.
Lauren Graham is everything you expect her to be and more. In this memoir she breaks down her life from where she lived when she was little to her struggle to break into the world of acting all the way to the end where she is asked back for “Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life”. Unlike most memoirs I can guarantee you will be laughing and crying from the turn of a page!
Amy lives no ordinary life but this isn’t by choice. She is burdened with a really bad case of OCD and Depression that makes every day tasks nearly impossible. Amy has been missing out on many social situations because her disabilities hold her back. This causes stress between her relationships and it only gets worse because she doesn’t think her friends will understand where she is coming from or why she is always flaking out on plans. But when the opportunity to travel to Australia for work arises she takes ahold of her life and makes the trip. Can this trip help break some barriers or will they only make situations worse?
Lucky has lived a life on the run. Having a con-artist as a father, Lucky never got to experience an ordinary life, just one of crime and fake Identities. All Lucky ever wanted was a shot at some normalcy: a house, a stable job, some kids and a dog. She thought she would finally get this life when she and her boyfriend decide to settle down in Idaho. But when one last con goes horribly wrong, Lucky is found all alone and forced to stay hidden from the cops with a multi-million winning lottery ticket tucked away in her wallet. Her whole life could change, but is it worth cashing in the lottery ticket just to get caught by the cops? Or should she continue to stay on the run?
This Graphic Novel series just came out with a show on Netflix and so I decided I needed to pick them up real quick. For the TV show right now you only need to read the first two books. I am still waiting not, so patiently, for book three and four to be shipped to my house.
I am not typically someone who likes to read graphic novels but I quickly fell in love with the characters and their stories, not to mention the illustrations! The pictures in this book were so beautiful! I loved how much emotion this book had in such a small amount of pages, the art work really brings those emotions alive!
I had my boyfriend reads these books right after I finished so that we can watch the TV show together. We can’t wait to see how well the TV show holds up to the books! Stay Tuned!
I only bought the first two books like a dummy and now books two and three are sold out! I have an order placed but I don’t think they will arrive for another few weeks. I will be posting a full review on these books soon, I will keep you posted! In the mean time get your hands on these cute books!
“Evidence of the Affair” By Taylor Jenkins Reid
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
This is a quick 80 paged book full of Letters between two spouses who have been cheated on. they have found letters between their spouses that reveled a secret affair. Read this book to learn the heart breaking story of how these two strangers found a glimmer of hope in their darkest times.
This was a super cute and really heartbreaking story. I can’t believe so much hurt could come from a few letters. My heart aches thinking about the horrible situation these characters were placed in. Taylor Jenkins Reid has really wrote some amazing books and I need to deep dive into more of her unpopular releases real soon.
Favorite Quotes
“The world’s like that. What matters in one moment, it doesn’t matter the next. Things that fall apart eventually come back together again. Everything passes. You can be sure of that.”
Direct quote from “Lucky” By Merissa Stapley
“That’s the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”
Direct quote from “The Hate U Give” By Angie Thomas
“Because here’s the thing: I was fine on my own, and so are you. But it can be hard when you feel ready for Happy Couplehood and you seem to have missed the train.”
Direct Quote from “Talking as Fast as I Can” By Lauren Graham
“You can’t tell whether people are gay by what they look like. And gay or straight aren’t the only two options.”
I was really motivated at the beginning of March to read because I had just came off of a three week reading slump. I only read three books but I typically read between 3-5 a month so that isn’t too bad. Lets see what I rated these books.
March Books
“The Ex Talk” By Rachel Lynn Solomon
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Shay was raised to be a radio host, her dad said she always had a face for radio. After college she got a job as a producer at the local radio station in hopes to one day get to host her own show. However, she was always afraid her voice wasn’t something people would want to listen too.
After ten years a new hotshot journalist winds up finding himself on the air telling a political story only after a few months of being in the station. Animosity grows between the two over time. But when the station is at risk of going under they fight to keep their jobs by offering to host a hit new show called “The Ex Talk”.
They are suddenly forced to work hand in hand as co hosts who supposedly used to date and now are somehow qualified to give out relationship advice. Can they keep the peace and make their listeners believe they had previously dated or will all the charades come crumbling apart?
Chloe Davis is the daughter of a known serial killer who kidnapped and murdered 6 teenage girls and left his family to deal with the aftermath of his decisions.
Fast forward 20 years and Chloe is now a psychologist in a happy relationship finally getting a grasp on her new life in Baton Rouge. But when two teenage girls go missing there are too many coincidences to ignore. How could her farther be murdering these girls when he is behind bars? There is only one answer, it must be a copycat killer. Chloe then takes things into her own hands to help any future girls from becoming the next victim. Can Chloe find the copycat killer before he gets ahold of another girl?
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” By J.K. Rowling
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I don’t think this one needed a synopsis or even a full review so I will just leave you my thoughts here.
I felt like this book was a really slow read for me and that is only because I had recently seen the movie and so I just didn’t vibe with all the scenes. I did however really like all the stuff about S.P.E.W and also anything that wasn’t in the movie. These things made the book worth the read!
Favorite Quotes
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that, in the process, he does not become a monster. If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
From “A Flicker in the Dark”
“But maybe that’s what we all are—halfway-broken people searching for things that will smooth our jagged edges.”
From “The EX Talk”
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
From “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
QOTD: Have you read any of these? What did you rate them?
World of Bai 