ARC Review: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Happy Friday y’all! I really wanted to get this review out on Wednesday but man y’all, this book took me a little longer to read than I expected (not because I didn’t like it or anything, but because I was too tired to read on Tuesday, didn’t read too much on Wednesday, and then finally was able to carve out reading time yesterday). Iron Widow was one of those books that pulled me in because of the amazing cover and kept me in because of the incredible writing and the really cool plot. Thank you so much to Penguin Teen/Penguin Random House Canada and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of this book! Iron Widow came out on September 21, so make sure you go grab a copy of the book as soon as you’re done reading my review!

Iron Widow 4/5 Stars

ARC Review: The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

Man y’all, when I saw that Text Publishing had The Ones We’re Meant to Find available on Netgalley as read now for the US even though they’re based in Australia, I jumped on it because this has been one of my most anticipated books for a while now! It releases today, May 4th, so if you haven’t already grabbed it or picked it up from your library or talked to a friend about borrowing it from them when they’re done reading it, you need to get on that ASAP!

The Ones We’re Meant to Find 5/5 Stars

ARC Review: The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Thank you so much to Simon Teen and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of The Infinity Courts! Everything from the cover to the summary of this book looked incredible, so I was the most excited to read it and OMG I was not disappointed at all!

The Infinity Courts 5/5 Stars

Blast from the Past Series: 2019 Top 5

Happy Wednesday y’all! Last Wednesday, I took a break from posting Blast from the Past because I was a part of the blog tour for Where Dreams Descend! We’re back now, and we’re on the home stretch of this series! We just have the 2019 posts and then we’re done with Blast from the Past! I’ll have to come up with another series next, because I’ve really enjoyed doing this.

Ah 2019, what a great year. 2019 was the year that I tried to reach more of a balance with reading and life, and I think I really accomplished it! I watched more TV, I started going to more workout classes that I loved, I hung out with friends more, I started dating more (although the dating realllyyyy ramped up in 2020), I went to Harry Potter world for the second time (the first time was in 2010, so this was my first time going to Diagon Alley!), I went to the UK with Bee, my other really good friend got the best little corgi pup, and I had my wisdom teeth removed. All great things! Reading wise, it was a pretty good year too! I read a lot of different kinds of books and looking back over my list on Goodreads, finding my top 5 was pretty difficult, as usual. 

Blast From the Past Series: 2018 Least Favorite Reads

Happy Wednesday! It’s Blast from the Past time! Woop Woop! Today, we’re going to be talking about some of the books that I was not the biggest fan of in 2018.

In 2018, I actually don’t have any recorded DNFs, which is way better than 2017! I think that’s because I was pickier about what I was reading, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have some least favorite reads of the year. Once again, putting this disclaimer on here- this does not mean that these books aren’t great books, they just were not for me and I have definitely seen other people enjoy them, so don’t let me not enjoying them keep you from picking them up! (And, as always, feel free to let me know if some of my least favorites are some of your favorites- I always love seeing other people’s perspectives!)

Blast from the Past Series: 2018 Genres Read

It’s Wednesday again! Woop woop! That means that it’s time for another entry into my Blast from the Past series! Today, we’re going to talk about the types of books I read in 2018.

I feel like I was a little more diverse in my genres read in 2018 than I was in 2017! 

Blast from the Past Series: 2018 Top 5

Happy Wednesday! Another Wednesday, another edition of Blast from the Past! Today, we’re moving to 2018.

2018 was a pretty solid year- I had my golden birthday and my family went to Maui to celebrate it, which was amazing. I also got to co-lead the planning and execution for the biggest conference of the year for my team and while it was a ridiculous amount of work, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever done and me and my co-worker ended up beating every expectation and leading the company revenue wise post event, so that was amazing. And it was in Vegas, so that was also really, really fun- and all of this was only done by the end of March, so there was so much more of the year left to go. In the rest of 2018, I experienced major burnout at work, almost quit my job a couple of times, got a promotion, participated in a Spartan race and subsequently screwed up my knee, went to my first author signing with Renee and Roshani, went to LA, went to a Fall Out Boy concert, and went on a Europe trip for my dad’s 60th birthday, which when I write everything out like that seems nuts, especially since I somehow managed to read 113 books on top of that! What the heck!

It was really hard to narrow it down to a top 5 this time, so I made a top 6, because 2018 was the year that Kingdom of Ash came out and I’m a Sarah J Maas junkie, so of course I reread all of those books and Kingdom of Ash is on that list, so it wouldn’t have been fair to just have a top 5. 

July Wrap Up

Happy August y’all! I haven’t written a wrap up post in so long but this month I was like you know what, I read so many great books in July- I have to talk about them! I’m going to have reviews going out about some of these books later this month, so keep an eye out for those (I’ll make sure to call them out). Let’s get started!

ARC Review: Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for giving me a copy of Court of Lions early to read and review! I won a copy of Mirage (book 1 in this series) in an Instagram giveaway last year and it was so good, so I was so excited to see Court of Lions on NetGalley and I was even more excited when my request was approved! Court of Lions comes out on August 4th, so make sure to check it out/grab it then! 

Court of Lions 5/5 Stars

July Library Holds and Checkouts Update

Hey y’all! I’m so fortunate to live somewhere where there’s an amazing library so close to my house! The Chapel Hill Public Library is less than 5 miles from my house and they have so many physical copies of books and their e-book library through overdrive/Libby is AMAZING as well! It’s definitely made it so much easier for me to read as much as I do- I’ve checked out/read 42 e-books so far this year and 3 physical books and I have 11 books on hold right now (5 physical and 6 e-books) and 8 books checked out (5 physical and 3 e-books). (Also, I know if you follow me on Goodreads, you’re going to notice that it doesn’t have me having read over 42 books yet this year- I’ve actually read 79, but I haven’t been keeping up with putting them all into Goodreads, so I need to make sure to go in and do that at some point soon…)