I forgot to wrap things up last month // October & November Wrap Up

Hey and howdy 🤠

I didn’t do a wrap up last month, partly because I forgot and partly because I didn’t read overmuch in October anyways and it would have been pretty boring. Flash forward another month to November and I have much more to talk about so let’s jump in :))

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October was a very romance heavy month but it’s what I needed to get through. Reading romance was a nice contrast the to quite boring books I was reading for Uni at the time.

I completed the Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams in October and really enjoyed it. My favourite from this series is either Undercover Bromance or Isn’t it Bromantic? One of my goals for 2021 was to start this month and here I am having completed it. Three cheers!

The next romance book was The Sweetest Oblivion by Danielle Lori and this book was spicy and not what I usually read at all. It was a case of “I don’t know why I’m reading this but I’m gonna keep going”.

And the final book I read in October was kind of something for Uni and that was Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith.

We read a bunch of poetry at the start of the semester and the only poet I liked even in the slightest was Dear White America by Danez Smith which prompted me to read the entire collection that specific poem was from. My favourite poem from this collection was Dinosaurs in the Hood. I highly recommend checking out some of Smith’s work.

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Reading The Bromance Bookclub was good for my anxiety :)

Hi, hey and hello, welcome to my blog.

I am happy to announce I have finished one of my many reading and overall life goals that I set myself for 2021: reading the entire Bromance Book Club series by Lyssa Kay Adams!

Let’s not dwell too much on the fact that this is one of the only goals I’ve completed and instead celebrate!!

I saw this series all over the interwebs back when it was first released and had the thought of “I need to read this series” every time any of the books were mentioned. Finally I’ve done that. Reading romance novels has been the perfect thing for me recently as they’ve balanced out how much academic and the fact that I’ve been reading companion romances has been even better.

I can now cross this series off the TBR and talk about my thoughts and feelings with you today :))

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The Bromance Book Club

I feel like these books got better with each newer release so this first book is my least favourite of the four. That’s not to say it’s not still really good though! I thought it did a really great job of introducing what this series was going to be all about. If I hadn’t enjoyed this, I probably wouldn’t have carried on.

The first book follows baseball player Gavin who is heading towards divorce. When his friends catch wind of this they let him in on their secrete: they’re part of a secrete romance book club that helps them be better boyfriends and husbands. Gavin is reluctant to say the least but still willing to do anything to save his marriage.

I loved reading about an already established couple, a married couple at that, going through a rocky path, but I just couldn’t connect with their initial conflict, and also the conflict that keeps them apart near the end.

Like I said, this was a good first book to the series evident in the fact that I kept reading!

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End of the Year Book Tag 2021

Howdy.

I’m just a girl, sitting here braless in her friends oversized hoodie, watching CSI and making my way through the last of my Irn Bru and mini chocolate flapjacks, trying not to have an existential crisis over the fact we’re at “the end of the year”. 😬

I realised last night that one of my first assignments is due in on November 3rd and had a mini freak out that because wtf! I don’t even know what I’m doing yet!!!

If I have to face the fact that we’re close to the end of 2021, then at least I can confront it with books, by doing the “End of the Year Book Tag”. I’ve done this tag for the last two years and it’s a good way to check in, see what I’ve accomplished and also what’s left to cross off the list.

2019 // 2020

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Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

I was about to say “to the best of my knowledge I haven’t started any books this year and not finished them. If I have, then I haven’t brought them to Uni with me” … and then I remembered I started reading Payback by Kristen Simmons, the third book in the Vale Hall series, but got distracted by something else. The likelihood of me finishing this book this year is slim.

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I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I read // April Wrap Up

Howdy and hello. Happy Monday, it’s an especially happy Monday because it’s a bank holiday and who doesn’t love a bank holiday??

Today I’m going to be talking about the books I read in April. Overall I read 6 books and got halfway a seventh. I was not expecting to read that much so I’m very happy with that.

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Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare – God how is it that I only read Chain of Iron this month? Feels like ages ago.

This is of course, the much anticipated sequel to Chain of Gold, a book I read last year and loved with my whole heart. I was really excited about this book and it was good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it lived up to my own expectations.

The eerie, almost horror like vibes of the first book is something I loved and that sadly wasn’t replicated. Plot-wise, I liked the focus on Lucie and Jesse and the James and Cordelia but the cliff-hanger with those two was not for me.

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Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – I watched this because of the show. What more can I say?

I’m really glad that I picked this book up this month. It was my third time reading Six of Crows but I loved it just as much. I actually went through and picked out my favourite quotes and moments.

I’ve also added this book to the stack of YA books I want my mum to read. I loved this book, I loved the show and if I have time I’m going to re-read Crooked Kingdom in May just to keep the love going.

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I have no idea what to expect // April TBR

Hey, hello and welcome back to my blog.

I wasn’t going to make an official TBR for this month but I have a few books I really want to read and I think sharing that list will make me more likely to actually go ahead and read them so here I am. Sharing my plans is a way of making sure I follow through on them.

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I totally ditched my TBR :) // March Wrap Up

Hi, 👋

We are officially a quarter of the way through the year. Is anybody else terrified by this? Because I am, but instead of facing my fears of the future, I’m reading through the anxiety. I highly recommend this method.

Some big things happened in March 2021:

• I read 10 books.
• I got a conditional offer to four out of five universities that I applied for (*screams because the future is coming and I’m not ready*).
• I failed my driving test lol
• I became obsessed with the boat blocking the Suez Canal.

In terms of books, I planned to start/make progress in a bunch of series and I kind of accomplished that but also I got distracted by some other books and totally veered off course of my T.B.R. I did enjoy more or less everything I read this month though, so I’m not too mad about it.

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Series Review: Off Campus by Elle Kennedy … (I feel bad for thinking this was going to be bad)

I like reading bad books. Every now and then, I pick up a book, sometime’s a whole series, knowing I’m probably not going to like it but I do it anyway because in their own way, bad books can be fun. My feelings can be summed up by the Iconic™ Kat Stratford:

The types of books I usually do this with are the typical All-American teen romances (like The Field Party series) . There’s just something about these books that I love to hate. I have so much fun rolling my eyes while reading and then ranting once I’ve finished. It also helps that they’re super quick so if I’m in the right mood I can fly through a whole series in like a week.

I thought that was going to be the same case with the Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy but I was so wrong! This series was a lot of fun (in a good way not a “I had fun hating this”) and I’m gonna talk about them today.

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January Wrap Up + Reading Challenge Update

Howdy and hello!

We have officially completed the first month of 2021. Let’s give ourselves a round of applause. I think we need it. 👏👏👏

I started the year off with a reading slump but you wouldn’t think so considering the fact that I read eleven books this month. Eleven! That means I’m over 25% of the way through my reading goal for the year and I’ve just started.

The thing that ended up helping me get over the slump I was in at the start of the year was the New Years Reading Resolution Challenge created by Laura @ The Corner of Laura. Writing out my TBR to fit the prompts was a motivator or sorts so thank you to Laura for tagging me in the challenge!

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A weird thing about my book slump? I was still reading, and wanting to read, but the only thing my brain allowed me to read was the Heroes of Olympus series. Why!? I have no answers. I have no explanation. In the end I ended up reading the entire series except from The Lost Hero which I skipped over because I re-read a year or two ago and didn’t want to do it again. I literally read The Son of Neptune, a 500+ page book, in one day. It was wild.

If you’re, for some reason, interested in my thoughts on every book in this series, I did a whole post about it the other day:) This also completed the challenge of: Screw Resolutions, I Quit! // Re-read an old favourite, specifically the bonus question:  Re-read an entire series.

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Back in late December/early January I made a list of series I want to start and also some series I want to continue on with and I got started on that list straight away by reading:

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Get a Lift, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert has been on my radar for a while now as I try to dip my toes in some more adult romance and I can now officially say that it deserves the hype!

I was initially taken aback by the fact that sit is set in England and the vibes just weren’t what I expected but I got over that pretty quick and came to love everything about this book from the various types of representation to the romance which I couldn’t help but ship (Red🖤). Apparently the sequel is even better. How that could even be possible, I don’t know but I’m excited to find out.

This completed the challenge of Learn a New Skill // Read a book from a genre you never usually read.

Book Review: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Publication Date: November 5th 2019

Series: The Brown Sisters #1

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Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior… (Read More)

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