I will never publicly admit to reading this series … but I loved it.

If you’re that one girl from my english lit uni course who said I couldn’t read her poetry (despite never asking to) because I give off the vibe of a “golden retriever who’s just happy to be here” please stop reading this post right now. You already think so little of me, I don’t need you to know that while you were spending your summer reading top-tier literature … I was reading the Mindf*ck series by S.T Abby.

If you’re thinking “Elli, if you’re never going to publicly acknowledge reading this series, why write an entire blogpost about it?” and the answer to that is that this blog is a safe-space. I trust you not to judge me too much.

---

8 possible reads for my 8 hour flight

I’ve done the 3 hour flight from England to Spain, Spain to England what feels like a million times now. I’m an expert at it and have it down to a science: headphones in, snacks on hand, Netflix movie downloaded or book ready to go.

My favourite part of flying is takeoff and landing. The in between is when I get restless no matter how much I’ve got on hand to keep me entertained. So I’m getting prepared for my 8 hour flight to America.

Today is going to be a longggg day. I’ve got a 3 hour train journey down to London, at least 4 hours in Heathrow to avoid stress, 8+ hour flight to New York, a 2+ hour layover, and then 1 hour flight to get to my final destination. I’m going to die.

The thing that’s keeping me sane is looking at it like this: I’m going to have a lot of downtime to read. So today we’re going to be looking at the eight books I have my eye on that I think will be very good to read while travelling.

---

ARCs

I’ve been slacking with a capital ‘S’ recently when it comes to ARCs. It’s probably because a lot of the ARCs on my shelf right now are quite chunky fantasy novels which excites but also terrifies me. I’ll be taking my Kindle instead oh any physical books for convenience sake so it seems fitting to try and start one of these intimidating fantasy ARCs.

• Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong – I’m determined to read this book before it’s release. An 18 hour travel day seems like enough time to at least make a dent.
• With Fire in Their Blood by Kat Delacorte – I have a good feeling about this book. Can’t explain it, don’t want to explain it. It’s got dark magic, mafia clans and a teenage girl stuck in the middle of it. Seems like the right amount of action and drama to keep me entertained.
• Gallant by V.E Schwab – Shwab’s books are best consumed in as few sittings as possible. The writing style of her books recquire long periods of time to get into and get lost in the story hence why it’s on this list.

---

I’m going to read book-tubers favourite books of 2021

Hello👋

My procrastination leads me down many roads, this weeks bout has me stuck with the idea that I’m going to read booktubers favourite books of 2021. This is why I spent a fair bit of time watching various videos and compiling a list.

After watching these videos and writing out this list I realised that I’d already read a decent amount of the books, and a fair amount that I hadn’t are ones that were already on my physical TBR.

Those are the books I’m going to be attempting to read before the end of the year, the ones I already owned and planned to read in my own time anyways. Ideally doing something like this would push me out of my reading comfort zone but I don’t have the money to splurge on a ton of books which is why I’m doing it like this.

The book-tubers whose favourite’s I’ll hopefully be reading are: Hailey in Bookland // Emma Books // Peruse Project // Jack Edwards // Noelle Gallagher // Fictional Fates // This Story Ain’t Over // A Clockwork Reader.

---

Concrete Rose Angie Thomas https://app.asana.com/0/1135954362417873/1168658175790681/f

• Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas – Hailey in Bookland
• Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé – Fictional Fates

---

Book Review: It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Publication Date: August 2nd 2016

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up
— she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

---

Starting the month early // Mary TBR

Hey and howdy.

April was not the reading month I wanted it to be. I was super excited about my TBR last month but most of the books I wanted to read were ones I had physical copies of. The problem there being that I was away for most of Easter so couldn’t read any of them.

As I’m writing this there’s still a week and a bit left of April but I’m calling it quits on this month early. I can’t explain why I’m doing this, because I don’t know, but basically any books I read from now on I’m going to class as May reads.

Like I said, I can’t explain why I’m doing this, I just know that this is going to help me avoid a reading slump so I’m just rolling with it.

With that being said, here are the books I want to read in May (… and the last week of April).

---

---

Blog Tour: The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams

*Review copy courtesy of Headline*

Publication Date: April 26th 2022

The friend zone is not the end zone for Bree Camden, who is helplessly in love with her longtime best friend and extremely hot NFL legend, Nathan Donelson. The only problem is that she can’t admit her true feelings, because he clearly sees her as a best friend with no romantic potential, and the last thing Bree wants is to ruin their relationship. But those abs . . .

Nope! Nothing but good old-fashioned, no-touching-the-sexiest-man-alive, platonic friendship for Bree. In any case, she has other things to worry about. After a car accident ended her chance at becoming a professional ballerina, Bree changed paths and now owns her own dance studio, with big dreams to expand it. But one more rent increase could mean the end of the studio entirely.

Then, as usual, Nathan comes to the rescue and buys the entire building. A stubborn Bree is not happy about it and decides to rebel with a couple–okay, maybe more than a couple–of tequila shots. Then her plan backfires as she spills her deepest, darkest secret to a TMZ reporter. One viral video later, the world thinks Nathan and Bree are the perfect couple. Before they can really talk about her confession, Nathan’s publicist proposes a big opportunity that could mean financial security for Bree. The catch? They have to pretend to be in love. For three whole weeks.

---

I read a lot of books! // March Wrap Up

Hello 👋

I’ve just not long ago got back home after attending my first book club meeting. I was terrified but it ended up being really nice, albeit super awkward. I feel like when we all get to know each other and grow more comfortable it’s gonna be better so I’m hoping to keep going each month.

With that being said, I’m now going to attempt to wrap up all the books I read this month, one of them being the book-club pick. I read a lot this March. And by a lot I mean 13 books! It’s April and I’ve completed my Goodreads goal for the year. How???

Okay I know how. I read a couple of graphic novels for uni, and then I had a week and a half of reading non-stop romance. Just one after the other, couldn’t get enough so that helped boost up my numbers.

---

---

New bookmarks to go with new books!!

Howdy.

You know that specific kind of frustration that comes when you have work that really needs to get done but your brain is just no co-operating?? Yeah that’s me right now and if I don’t distract myself for a bit, we’re gonna spiral and nobody wants that.

And so here I am to talk not only about the books I got recently, but the bookmarks too!!

LaurelMaeArt // PeachPandaStudio // serenmaddison

---

Why do I now have a thing for single-parent romance?

I am not a parent. I am very far off from being a parent and yet I’ve been reading single-parent romance books. I’m talking one-after-another, can’t get enough as if they’re M&Ms and I just need to devour them all.

I seriously need to chill, for the sake of my sleep schedule and my bank account, never mind the fact that I have a shit-ton of other books I should be reading instead!

The single-parent romance trope is a sweet one. I like seeing that outside person step in and be a parent to a child that isn’t biologically their’s, probably because that’s the relationship I have with my dad who got with my mum when I was one.

Here are my thoughts on the one’s I’ve read recently :))

Juniper Hill by Devney Perry

Juniper Hill is the one that kicked it all off for me. After seeing it all over Tik-Tok recently (because Tik-Tok is always the cause of my trope-related cravings) I finally picked it up one night when I just wanted to lay in bed and read something quick and easy.

I’ve become obsessed with romance novels.

Once upon a time I said over and over that romance was my least favourite genre and that I especially never thought I’d like Adult Romance. Well, well, well how the turntables because fast forward a couple of years and here I am!

I really milked the romance cow back in February and I kinda feel bad about still going on the romance train BUT i realised I’ve not talked about up and coming New Adult romance books I’m interested in reading so I’m going to do that today!

---

Terms & Conditions by Lauren Asher – February 24th

I’ve been seeing people reading Terms & Conditions over the last week since it’s release and I am so jealous!

The Dreamland Billionaire’s series follows the grandsons of the fictional version of Disney. Each grandson is given a task, I guess you could say, they have to complete in order to secure their shares in the company. The second book follows the eldest brother Declan who has to marry to secure his position and so he marries his assistant Iris.

I loved the first book in this series which I read late last year. I did a whole review on it in my grumpy/sunshine post if you want to check that out. I’d like to say for the record that I am anti-real-billionaire’s but fictional-billionaires are very fun to read about!

---