My favorite 2020 reads that are set in America

Hey y’all! Happy July 4th! It’s America’s birthday! Even though the US is 244 years old as of today, it sometimes seems as though we’re living through our teenage rebellious years because we don’t seem to be listening to experts/it doesn’t seem like we care that much about the lives of all of our citizens (have you seen the mess we’ve made of our reaction to the Corona virus and the fact that we’re killing Black and brown people at disproportionate rates?) At least it seems as though we’re making some progress, so maybe we’re learning (slowly but surely). I do love being an American though, so I’m celebrating (at home because I fractured a bone in my foot and I’m in a boot, and again, hello global pandemic) and I’m 100% wearing my red, white, and blue today and my dog has his American flag bandana on.

Today, I figured that I’d feature some of my favorite reads this year that were set in the US. I was going through Goodreads to see which books were actually set in the states and not in different world (based on the US or not) or a different country and of the 36 books I’ve read so far this year, 19 of them are set here, so that’s pretty good. It’s 100% because I’ve read so many romance novels this year, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. So here we go:

First Line Friday: July 3, 2020

Hey y’all! I’m sure y’all have noticed that I’m posting more these days… now that I have more time on my hands, I’m trying to get better about doing more things that I want to do, and book blogging is pretty high on that list! So, I’m going to try and post pretty much every day! We’ll see how that ends up going… today’s post is going to be my first ever First Line Friday! I’ve seen this on some other people’s pages and I’ve always wanted to do it, but now I’m finally diving in!

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Now, onto the line!

“I slammed on my overburn and boosted my starship through the middle of a chaotic mess of destructor blasts and explosions. Above me extended the awesome vastness of space. Compared to that infinite blackness, both planets and starships alike seemed insignificant. Meaningless.”

ARC Review: Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L Armentrout

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for letting me read a copy of Rage and Ruin early! This book came out on June 9th, but I’ve been so busy with other things in life that I finally finished it this past weekend, and man y’all, you need to make sure you’re not sleeping on it like I was! 

Rage and Ruin 4.5/5 Stars 

Blast from the Past Series Intro

Hey y’all! I’m trying something new with this post- it’s the beginning of a series that I’m going to be adding to every Wednesday highlighting some of my past reads! These are going to be focusing on reads from 2017, 2018, and 2019 (mainly because I was really bad at tracking my reading before then, so I’m going to use my reading challenges on Goodreads to help me with these)!

Right now, I’m thinking of focusing on my favorite reads, the genres I read in each year and why I picked them/if I deviated from the norm at all, my least favorite books of the year, and any DNFs that I had that year. Let me know if y’all are interested in these kinds of posts or if you want to see any other highlights- and of course, let me know if y’all have done anything similar. I’d love to see your posts! I’ve started writing up some of my posts, and man y’all, there are going to be some unpopular opinions in these posts and finding my favorites each year was hard! These may completely flop, but I’m ok with that, because I’ve had fun writing them 😂 

ARC Review: Hood by Jenny Elder Mook

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for letting me read a copy of Hood early! I’ve always loved Robin Hood stories (I even watched the shitty 2018 version of Robin Hood with Taron Egerton, so you know I’m serious about this haha) and this one was no different! I really, really enjoyed it!

Hood 4.5/5 Stars

ARC Review: Court of Miracles by Kester Grant

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Knopf Children’s for letting me read the Court of Miracles early! Because of everything that’s been going on in the world, I haven’t been reading as much or writing any reviews, so this review is definitely kinda late since the Court of Miracles came out on June 2nd, but man y’all, it was so good! (Speaking of everything that’s going on in the world, I hope everyone’s been reading and educating themselves and signing petitions- I know I have! I’ve been sharing resources on Twitter, but here’s a link to some amazing resources compiled by the wonderful Mols by Moonlight for anyone who needs them)

The Court of Miracles 4/5 Stars

ARC Review: Dark Skies by Danielle L. Jensen

Hey y’all! I hope your first week of May is going well! I know some states are beginning to slowly lift stay at home restrictions, so if y’all start venturing out for more than the necessities, please make sure you’re being as safe as possible! I’ll probably still be staying in most of the time or if anything, visiting my brother and sister-in-law who live 10 miles away or seeing a few people for walks or dinners at home or at home movie nights. Speaking of the first week in May, yesterday was a really great day for book releases! One of those amazing books released yesterday was Dark Skies by Danielle L. Jensen. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor Teen for letting me read a copy of Dark Skies early! I read Dark Shores (book one in the series) last year and it was definitely highly underrated, and Dark Skies was even better than Dark Shores was!

Dark Skies 5/5 Stars

ARC Review: Seven Endless Forests by April Genevieve Tucholke

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) for letting me read Seven Endless Forests by April Genevieve Tucholke early! I really wanted to read her book Boneless Mercies (which I haven’t done yet…), so when I saw Seven Endless Forests on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it. Unfortunately, this wasn’t really the book for me, but there were some really cool aspects to the book, so keep reading to find out about those!

Seven Endless Forests 3/5 Stars

ARC Review: Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday books for letting me read Ruthless Gods early! When I put in my request for it, I thought there was no way I’d be approved to review it, but pretty soon after I submitted it, there it was, sitting on my NetGalley shelf! Wicked Saints was one of my favorite books of 2019, so I was super excited to read Ruthless Gods this year, and it definitely didn’t disappoint! Ruthless Gods comes out on April 7th, so make sure you grab a copy then!

Ruthless Gods 4/5 Stars

NetGalley TBR Updates

Well, it’s Thursday and I still haven’t finished a book so I can’t get y’all a review yet BUT I’m hopeful that I should have a review ready for y’all by Monday so soon! Instead, somehow, in the past few days, I’ve gotten a ridiculous amount of approvals on NetGalley, so right now I have 10 books (!) waiting for me in my queue, so I figured I’d give y’all an update on what all I’ll be reading soon!