Tag: tbr

Posted in Fast-Forward Friday

Fast Forward Friday: The Fastest Way to Fall, 11/2/21!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams.
Expected Release: November 2, 2021

Why wait on this one?

  • Oh man, maybe it’s just because I’m deep into my first read of Lore Olympus, but the idea of the forbidden love is making me swoon! Mostly because it’s only lightly forbidden, since Britta is technically Wes’s client and he probably shouldn’t bang her (bad PR). Plus, Britta is technically doing a review of this guy and his company… so she probably shouldn’t seemed biased toward him (aka by banging him).
  • Weirdly, I’m pretty into the fitness angle here too. Since Wes is Britta’s personal coach and she’s into body positivity, I’m feeling some connection to my recent attempted foray into healthier living. (Note the word attempted…) So maybe reading about two people who really love being healthy (plus each other) can reinvigorate me to move a little more myself!
  • Although I never actually ended up reading it, How to Fail at Flirting was a book I wanted to read (and still do!). So if Denise Williams also wrote that one, then it’s no surprise I’m interested in this other title by her! Plus I just saw How to Fail at Flirting is available at the library, so maybe I’ll grab a copy and use that to whet my appetite for now. 😊

Summary

Britta Colby works for a lifestyle website, and when tasked to write about her experience with a hot new body-positive fitness app that includes personal coaching, she knows it’s a major opportunity to prove she should write for the site full-time.

As CEO of the FitMe app, Wes Lawson finally has the financial security he grew up without, but despite his success, his floundering love life and complicated family situation leaves him feeling isolated and unfulfilled. He decides to get back to what he loves—coaching. Britta’s his first new client and they click immediately.

As weeks pass, she’s surprised at how much she enjoys experimenting with her exercise routine. He’s surprised at how much he looks forward to talking to her every day. They convince themselves their attraction is harmless, but when they start working out in person, Wes and Britta find it increasingly challenging to deny their chemistry and maintain a professional distance.

Wes isn’t supposed to be training clients, much less meeting with them, and Britta’s credibility will be sunk if the lifestyle site finds out she’s practically dating the fitness coach she’s reviewing. Walking away from each other is the smartest thing to do, but running side by side feels like the start of something big.

Posted in Book Talk

October 2021 TBR: A Scary Good Month!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! I’m looking into October with may more books on my list than I will actually read, but that’s fine. xD Because of it, I have plenty of choices! It’s definitely a month where I try to read some thriller-type things outside my usual genres, and I have a few ideas for this month to continue that!

Plus when I say it’s planned to be a scary good month I mean that… pretty literally. 😁 In a sense that can be very cheesy and varied!

Scary

I know I took a few liberties with calling some of these “scary.” Or… calling probably any of them scary. But! They all have at least a slightly spooky thing about the name, cover, or plot!

Golden Boys Beware is a tricky one, because it’s actually one of my favorite books, Foul is Fair, but as a re-release with a new name and cover. Probably because the original cover is hideous, but either way I read this book at least once a year and usually in October because of the magnificent Macbeth-y mood of malignant witchy maidens.

Continue reading “October 2021 TBR: A Scary Good Month!” →
Posted in Book Talk

August Wrap Up: oh, hi there

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! It’s been a little bit, but here’s a small update about how things are going. 🙂

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 8 books and read 5 of those, plus one other that I added during the month.

The Plan:

The Result:

The book that I attempted was one I found, tried, and quickly hated. That’s all I’ll say, because it’s not worth any more time.

The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina didn’t really pull me in because it seems to be told in the perspective of about thirty different people, and that is REALLY not what I wanted any time recently. So I might go back to this, but at the moment I’m just reading a chapter here and there. The Land of Big Numbers was similarly vignette-ish, so same story: even though they were interesting and compelling, that’s probably a later thing.

I *did* however finally finish Skyhunter a year after I learned that I had won it from Goodreads! For real, I got the memory reminder this week. I just made it. 😂

~life

Still some health stuff keeping things limited in August, but getting better. On top of that, work was pretty hectic so there were some long days in there.

~blog

I didn’t do a whole lot of posting myself, but I did read some fabulous ones from other folks! Take a look and check them out. 😊

Here are some of my favorite posts I worked on this month, in case you missed them!

And here are some of my favorite posts by other bloggers!

Posted in Book Talk

September TBR: ABCs and ARCs!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all!

I’m starting off this month really excited about a couple of books! No real reason, to be honest… they just sound good and I’m enjoying having time to read them as my house work dwindles. 😊Last month I had a few ARCs on the list, and this month is following suit. To balance it out, there are also a few backlist books that are new to me. My other main goal is reading a few books to finish up my alphabet reading challenge for the year. Up this month: J and N!

More ARCs!

Bad Luck Bridesmaid is about a woman who’s curse always ends up in a failed wedding if she’s in the wedding party. When it’s her best friend heading to the altar, she’s determined to find a way to break her “curse.” Also, SCOTLAND! ^.^

Hello (From Here) is a COVID-19 YA love story. For some people, reading stories set during covid is basically never going to be ok. For me, it’s actually quite welcome. Example: 56 Days!

And Lupina is a comic that looks fascinating. Young girl is orphaned by violence — taken in by a wolf — and seeks revenge. That was enough for me!

My alphabet challenge books!

I love doing the a-z title challenge, and I’m wrapping up two more letters for this year with The Jade Bones and The Never Tilting World. The Jade Bones is the sequel to The Seventh Sun, so I’m excited for that. The Never Tilting World is an older book that I think has floated through my brain before and somehow gotten lost. I don’t know how I forgot about it though, because it sounds awesome!

That’s it for September! Have y’all read any of these books? Which one should I be most excited to start?

Posted in Book Talk

Trimming the TBR: B-tier, identity, and a forgotten gem?? (8/23/21)

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all!

I’m sure there’s a book tag for this but I cannot find the one I was envisioning! So first off, if anyone happens to know of one, please send it my way. 🙂

My goal here is to check out some books on my TBR (currently ~760) that I have 100% forgotten about. Titles that I see and think “Wow, I could have sworn I had never heard of this book before.” But I’m the one who added it so clearly, I have. Things like that. 😅I want to remind myself about books I was excited to read, and maybe cut some off this list to remove the clutter!

I used Goodreads for this, by sorting my To Read shelf into a random gallery mode and scrolling through covers, making note of ones where I scratched my head trying to remember it. To start, here are six!

How She Died, How I Lived by Mary Crockett

2 sentence summary:
A girl lives with guilt over the random chance of another girl dying instead of her. As she sorts through this, she also starts a maybe relationship with the dead girl’s boyfriend, which is maybe kind of weird and maybe just a “you know what I’m going through” thing.

This cover reminded me of one I read when I was probably 12 or 13, so I thought it was SUPER OLD at first, but it actually published in 2018. The plot, while pretty grim, also sounds pretty intriguing. I’m curious in the crime part of it — the guy who killed that girl, what happened?? But I’m also curious to the aftermath that it focuses on. The navigation of survivor’s guilt. I probably don’t want that right now, but sometime for sure.

keep 📚

Behind the Fan by Caroline Walken

2 sentence summary: An old woman’s family packs up her life to move her into a nursing home. They learn a lot more of her secrets than ever expected.

This sounds kind of like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and that book was so good that I don’t feel the need to read anything similar to it again, because nothing will top it. The blurb also started off sounding like bad erotica, and the overall writing of the blurb wasn’t very compelling. If the book itself is like that, I’m out. The reviews were all GLOWING, which almost compelled me to give it a try, but they were SO good that it made me suspicious. Like only the author’s friends wrote them or something.

cut 🗡

Continue reading “Trimming the TBR: B-tier, identity, and a forgotten gem?? (8/23/21)” →
Posted in Book Talk

This series is hot!! 24 sequels with “Fire” in the title

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all!

I was just messing around today searching book results by random words, and one of them struck me: fire. For some reason, fire seems to be in a lot of titles of books within a series. In particular, books later in a series seem to have the word fire in the title more often than the first book of the series. And, of course, I have a theory as to why. But first: check out how many there are!!!

Continue reading “This series is hot!! 24 sequels with “Fire” in the title” →
Posted in Book Talk

August TBR: Ahoy, ARCs!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all!

This month I’m looking at a mix of ARCs that I requested and/or got approved for recently, after really not bothering with many for a while. I’m diving right back in to the fun! 🙂 I also have a couple that I’ve been craving a bit, particularly nonfiction. There’s so much great nonfiction out there, and I haven’t been reading enough of it!

Here’s the plan for August, although I’m sure as usual, it will change wildly in all the best ways. ^.^

Reading it early #ARC

All of these are books that I had never heard of before stumbling upon them as ARCs and deciding I’d give them a go. I don’t do enough of that lately, as I’ve been reading more of the popular, well-marketed and well-known books. That’s all fine too, but I miss out on some really excellent titles when I don’t explore on my own! I’m almost done with The Tenets in the Tattoos and y’all I am BAFFLED that I haven’t heard more about this book because it is so good!! Pub day for it is 8/9/21, so keep an eye out because it is FAB for a fantasy adventure with magic and cool worldbuilding and a bit of royalty drama, with plenty of culture shock!

Continue reading “August TBR: Ahoy, ARCs!” →
Posted in Book Talk

July TBR: anticipated reads!!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! I’m planning out my reads for July, and most of them are already started or at least in hand and ready to be started shortly. I’m so excited for these ones!

Fast Forward Friday reads

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

I’m always up for traveling somewhere in a book. Plus royalty and court life is my weakness that I just can’t resist 🥰 My library hold just came in, so I’ll be starting this one shortly for sure!

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

I love a good retelling with a twist, and this one had all the elements that promised to be just that! It didn’t hurt that my friend Abby recently finished this and highly recommended it!

Early Copies

Continue reading “July TBR: anticipated reads!!” →
Posted in Fast-Forward Friday

Fast Forward Friday: The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, 7/13

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix.
Expected Release: July 13, 2021

Why wait on this one?

  • Even though I’m not a fan of horror, even I am intrigued by the premise for this one! A group of women who have survived horrific scenes of murder meet regularly to help each other cope with what they’ve lived through. Unfortunately, now someone is targeting their group, seeming determined to bring an end to each of these women who survived the first time.
  • Although I haven’t read anything by Hendrix yet, I had an eye out of The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires when it came out. Whether that one or this one, I’m certainly going to be reading something by Hendrix this year!
  • Judging by some of the author’s personal blog posts and shared items, I think he’ll have a dark sense of humor that, if brought to the story, will be a wicked delight (and potentially make me cackle).

Summary

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized–someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

Posted in Book Talk

The laziest TBR ever (June 2021)

Posted on by Jennifer

It’s 20 days late and barely done at all because I already wrote it but this is what that post now looks like:

😭😭😭

So forgive me for giving up a little bit on it this time. 😅

The List

  1. Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian: got it from BOTM, apparently it’s an ARC, and it’s actually holding my attention pretty well so far (when I can put the time towards reading)
  2. The Complete List of Jericho by Chris Jericho: this publishes tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll have my pre-ordered copy then!!! It’s a list of every match for all of Jericho’s 30 year career with his notes on who & where he was fighting, a rating for the match, and how much he got paid. Absolutely fascinating. ♥
  3. Replenishing the Sea of Galilee by Wagih Abu-Rish: won this from Goodreads (also an ARC) and planning to at least start it this month, but I’m reading pretty slowly right now so we shall see!
  4. Descendants of the Crane by Joan He: in reality I probably won’t start this in June because it’s late and I’m slow right now, but it’s on the list for sure. I had never heard of it, but I’m hoping it’ll be fab.
Continue reading “The laziest TBR ever (June 2021)” →