I’ve not slept. It’s literally almost 7am and I’ve not slept a wink. Not through lack of trying. I genuinley got bored of trying to fall asleep so I got up, made a cup of tea and now I’m here.
Today I come to you in my only-mostly-awake state with the 3 Bookish Things Tag which I was kindly tagged in by Virginia @ The Sassy Library Fox. Apologies in advance if this is a bit more all over the place than usual 🙂
3 Read Once and Loved Authors
Sophie Gonzales – Technically I read two of her books before she was fully cemented as a must-read author for me but the first was co-authored so lets pretend that doesn’t fully count.
Erin Hahn – I fell in love with Erin Hahn from the minute I started reading her debut book. Because I’ve read all her YA books through ARCs I kinda feel like I “discovered” her. That’s obviously not true but this author and her books will always have a special place in my heart.
Tiffany D. Jackson – Please ignore how late I am to to the hype train. I read Grown last year and now I have a long list of books by Tiffany D. Jackson added to my immediate TBR.
I went to a concert last night and like a little old lady I had to suck on a soother halfway through. I didn’t even get to make the most of my hotel bed cause I was tossing and turning all night. Ugh.
Today I come to you from my final resting place (my bed) and I’m gonna be doing the flower book tag, originally created by Wordy and Whimsical, instead of leaving my house to see actual flowers 🙂
🌸 Roses are traditionally given as an expression of love //what’s your favourite romance in a book? 🌸
I’m being a basic bitch right now but I’m ill so give me a break. Currently, I’m finishing off the Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan and I’m having such a good time. This entire franchise is my happy place which is why I’m going with Percy and Annabeth ❤
This is the best slowburn and friends-to-lovers in existence. So many iconic moments in their relationship from their first “you drool when you sleep” meet cute, to the matching grey stripes in their hair, both of them turning down immortality for each other. Icons! I can’t wait to hopefully see them again in the newest Percy Jackson book coming later this year.
I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. To me Easter begins as soon as I see Easter Eggs on the shelf in the shops, reaches it’s pinaccle when I get time off school and ends when I have to go back.
We’re now 1/4 of the way through the year though, which means it’s the perfect time to look back on my reading so far this year. To do that I’m going to be doing the Quater-Year Crisis Book Tag!
How many books have you read so far?
So far this year I’ve read 26 books! My goal for the year is to read 75 (with the internal hope of reaching 100) so I’m doing really well so far. I’m actually 7 books ahead of schedule. I’m really glad that I’ve got off to a good start because I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep this momentum going come the summer when I’m working as much as humanly possible, and then when I start back at uni for third year. I really feel like I’ve been flying through books this year and I wanna keep that going for as long as possible … even if I am in a bit of slumpy mood right now.
If your Tik-Tok FYP page is anything like mine then you probably have seen that Taylor Swift kicked off her Era’s tour this weekend. I’m definitely not jealous of everybody who get to go in the slightest.
Obviously I knew about Taylor Swift growing up, I heard her songs on the radio all the time, but it was really Reputation that made me a fan. I’m late to the party but that’s very on brand for me. I have listened to this album over and over again, same goes for the Tour on Netflix.
My favourite songs on this album right off the bat are Don’t Blame Me, Gorgeous and Getaway Car but I really do love them all. Of all the Taylor’s Version re-realeses, I’m most excited for her to release this one (and Speak Now) especially for the Songs From The Vault!!
…Ready For It ? // a book that you are sooooo ready to read and need to read it ASAP?
I am so ready for the release of The Brothwes Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It’s not even been that long since I completed The Inheritance Games trilogy but I’m already missing these characters and Jennifer Lynn Barnes writing. I’ve been a fan of hers since The Naturals series so I’m definitely counting down the days for this book to come out.
Today we are smashing (the patriarchy) and passing (our classes) in the Smash or Pass Book Tag! This was created by Becky’s Book Blog. I’ve been seeing this tag a lot recently and have been very excited to give it a go.
We’re being speedy with this today though because I’ve been at my dads all weekend and haven’t had a chance to watch the newest episodes of Daisy Jones & The Six and I need to catch up asap.
Bookish Tropes
While I’m not a huge fan of romance books being diluted down to just a bunch of tropes and no actual plot, I’m gonna have to smash this one cause there are more than a fair few tropes that I’m a sucker for: grumpy/sunshine, bad boy, billionaire, there’s only one bed, etc.
Today I am feeling accomplished. My room is tidy and my washing is drying. I’ve not only fed myself with an actual meal instead of just eating snacks, I even made a meal plan for the week. I can almost pretend like my life is organised.
Another thing I’ve accomplished is finishing Alice Oseman’s backlist!!! The other day I finally read Radio Silence, the last Oseman book I had left to read. I really enjoyed this book, so much that I read it in one day. Sure I love the Heartstopper graphic novels but Oseman’s novels have been hit or miss for me so I was super chuffed.
To celebrate I come to you today with a tag I’ve been saving especially for this moment: the Osemanverse Book Tag!
I know it’s late Janaury/early February so this tag may be slightly passed it’s metaphorical sell-bye date but I am an absolute sucker for end and beginning of the year content – wrapping up and looking ahead – so we’re just going to pretend like I got around to this a bit earlier than I did.
Not only that, but I was actually tagged by Dini @ DiniPandaReads so of course I had to do it eventually!!
How many books are you planning to read in 2023?
I have set my reading goal for the year to 75 books but my internal goal for myself is to hit 100 books for the third year in a row. I like to low-ball so that it’s still a goal I have to work towards which will motivate me to read more, but won’t suck the joy out of reading for me. So far I’ve read 7 books so I think I’m on a good track at the minute!
Name 5 books you didn’t get to this year but want to make a priority in 2023.
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas // Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie // The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston // Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter // Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie
I’ve done my fair share blog posts centering around books I didn’t get to and still want to read whether that be with my 12 books for 12 months TBR or my very long list of 2022 releases I didn’t get to but still want to read. And yet, there’s still even more books that I really want to get to sooner rather than later.
As you can tell by the title of today’s post, I am here to do the Spotify Wrapped Book Tag. I saw Laura @ The Corner of Laura do this tag and it seemed fun so I thought I’d give it a try.
The idea of this challenge is to put your 2022 playlist on shuffle, and for the first five songs, you need to pick a book you read in 2022 that fits that song. It doesn’t have to be a perfect fit. You just have to explain why you chose that book for that song.
Gonna be completely honest with you, my Spotify Wrapped was bad last year. All five of my top songs were by Conan Grey – I’m not ashamed by the artist, I will happily wave the Conan Grey flag, he’s actually pretty underrated, I’m just ashamed that all five of my top five songs were his … with Life is a Highway just missing out with it’s 6th place slot.
And then we have the fact that Spotify literally called me a “basic bitch” by describing my music tastes as “pumpkin-spice”. Now THAT is what I’m most ashamed of. So ashamed in fact that I created a whole new playlist called “Don’t Be a Basic Bitch” so this never happens to me again. I’m nervous to see what songs end up being picked for this tag!
Songs 1: Lately by Forrest. Biskwiq, Ryce
Starting off with a song that possibly makes me look like a complete and utter liar about the whole “basic bitch” thing. This book doesn’t even have a music video out so I don’t think many people know about it which is actually a crime because this is a really fun song. At one point it was my go to shower song and you bet your ass I would sing it at the top of my lungs.
For this song I’m choosing the book … Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl by Joya Goffney
I’m terrible at like actually paying attention to lyrics but the vibe I get from this song is that it’s about a couple that have just recently got together which kinda (eventually) fits the romance in this novel. There’s also specific lyrics that make me think of Monique and Reggie like:
“anytime of day that you wanna play you just say the word and we’ll get away // anything you want, know I got it for you” – which reminds me of Reggie helping Monqiue kind of figure herself out and get away from the things she’s been taught.
“opposites attract // picture perfect, photogenic” – she’s the perfect daughter of a preacher, he’s a supposed bad boy.
“you were the piece I was missin no reason for livin // oh I’m thankful that you’re mine, I’m so blessed you’re by my side” – I can’t remember so much for Reggie’s storyline, but Reggie and Sasha were defintely what Monique was missing in her life beforehand.
After a 24 hour travel day, a flight delay making me miss my connection which meant I had to spend the night in Germany, and then sleeping through my alarms and my parents phone calls the next morning, I am finally home!!
Not only am I home but my dad also got home from work today which means the whole family is back together and it’s officially Christmas!
This calls, of course, for one thing and one thing only: a christmas book tag. Last year I created The Modern Day Christmas Song book tag which is exactly as it sounds – I thought up a couple of prompts to go with my favorite new Christmas songs. I had a lot of fun with this tag last year so here I am to do it again this year.
Underneath the Tree by Kelly Clarckson
A book you want to find under the Christmas tree this year.
I have already treated myself to a bunch of new books – pretty new physical copies from Barnes & Nobel and a fair few new ebooks – so I’m actually not expecting to recieve any books under my tree this year.
There’s still a fair few I would love to receive though: Ravensong by T.J Klune because I loved the first book but the sequel is like £10 just for the ebook. Also it took all of my willpower not to buy a fifth book from Barnes & Nobel so if The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas found it’s way into my hands I definitely would not complain.
Do I have a lot of school work to do right now? Yes. Am I going to procrastinate by doing a Taylor Swift book tag? You bet ya!
I come to you today with the Midnight Book Tagby Star is All Booked Up. I’ve been seeing this floating around ever since the release of the album all those weeks ago (it could even be months ago, time is a social construct). As always, I’m late to the trend but I’ve really been wanting to do this tag, so here I am.
Of course I have to talk about my thoughts and feelings on this album before we dive in: I love it. To me it feels like the love child of Lover and Reputation which I really enjoy. The whole vibes of it are stellar. My absolute favourite songs are Lavender Haze and Midnight Rain. These make my ears very happy!
Also before we dive in I should plug the fact that I’m on a quest to do every Taylor Swift album tag. I was actually planning on doing Reputation next but the new album of course took precedence. I have done tags for Folklore, Evermore, and Lover though so you should check those out.
Lavender Haze // A book you will always love and defend
There are two very easy answers here for me but I feel like I’ve been talking abot these two series a whole lot in tags recently so I’m going to mention them super quickly and then move on to a new question with hopefully, more unique answers.
All For the Game by Nora Sakovic – these books have a long list of problems but my suggestion is to just sit back, enjoy and then look to the fandom for fix-it materia. The second is anything by Jennifer Lynn Barnes because an argument can be made that her books can get very dramatic, but to that I say so what?
Maroon // A spicy book
I have been reading a fair few spicy books over the last two years. Probably my favourite that I’ve read, at least this year, has got to be The Edens series by Devney Perry. I like this series because it’s so much more than just a spicy book. It’s got solid tropes (grumpy/sunshine, single parent) and also seperate interweaving plotpoints like an entire murder mystery. I’m really excited to continue on with this series in 2023.
AceReader 