Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor 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?Here are the rules:
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!
First lines:
“Wren had learned early on that trouble comes in all sorts of packages. Even vanilla ones with rose petal frosting.“
Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?
Hello, friends! It’s been a bit of a stressful week so I thought I’d take it ‘easy’ with a fun post. It’s been a long while since I’ve done an award or tagged post and I’ve got an embarrassing number of them that I need to get to. I should really plan this better (but also what’s new?)!
Several months ago I was nominated by Kathryn @ Metaphors and Miscellanea for the Sunshine Blogger Award! I love reading her insightful reviews and other entertaining posts, such as when she’s spilling the tea on hot bookish topics. If you’re not following Kathryn yet, I would suggest getting on it now!
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is:the last ten books that gave me a book hangover!
This is a toughie because I really can’t remember the last time I had a book hangover? I don’t think I have them that often and most of the time it’s because I try to push through those feelings (and I guess I’m pretty good at it)! 😂 When I think about books that have given me hangovers, they’re usually the ones that leave me so emotionally devastated and thinking “what in the actual f did I just read?!” They’re the ones I can’t get out of my head when I want to try reading something new; the ones whose stories and characters play on an endless loop because I want more of exactly that kind of emotional devastation (such a masochist but it’s true). Some books I’ve read lately have high book hangover potential, namely Love Lettering, but I refuse to allow myself to dwell too long on the feels because I have book deadlines! But the characters are definitely lingering in my mind.
It’s the first Goodreads Monday of 2020, friends! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.
This week’s book is Tweet Cute by Emma Lord. The hype is super real for this book! I think I’ve already mentioned this book a few times in several posts so y’all know how excited I am to read this contemporary YA romance. It has a 4.12 star average with 3.4k+ ratings and 1.4k+ reviews.
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I’m spending the rest of this Sunday in bed with Love Lettering. I’ve been excited to read this one ever since I first heard about it. The synopsis makes it sound like a heart-melting, warm and feel-good romance, and I can’t wait to dive into it. Plus, there’s something about this cover that’s just so cute. I love it!
Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing beautiful custom journals for New York City’s elite. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Like the time she sat across from Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée, and knew their upcoming marriage was doomed to fail. Weaving a secret word into their wedding program was a little unprofessional, but she was sure no one else would spot it. She hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid . . .
A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out—before he leaves New York for good—how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline, a fractured friendship, and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other about their lives, work, and regrets, both try to ignore the fact that their unlikely connection is growing deeper. But the signs are there—irresistible, indisputable, urging Meg to heed the messages Reid is sending her, before it’s too late
We’re back with another Top 5 Saturday! I might’ve missed last week’s topic but I will come back to it at some point 🙂 Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is: books about mermaids!
I don’t know about you but I’ve always loved the idea of mermaids and especially of being one! I surprisingly (or not) can’t recall having read many books about mermaids but I do have several on my TBR now (and they’re not all of the pining-teenager Ariel variety but more like the will-eat-you-alive kind)! Here’s what’s on my list:
I was lucky enough to get picked for the blog tour for The Deep. It looks and sounds sufficiently creepy and since we all know I’m a chicken, I’m starting to wonder what business I have reading a book that’s guaranteed to terrify me? I guess I just won’t step into the ocean for a while (not at all hard to do when living on a tropical island *cough*)!
I’ve been really looking forward to giving Sea Witch a try. I have to be honest and say the gorgeous cover is what initially caught my eye but I’m hoping the content will be just as good (although I have heard some mixed reviews)!
All the Stars and Teeth isn’t only about mermaids but I thought it still counts. Again it’s mostly thanks to the insanely good looking cover that caught my eye that this was put on my radar, and I’m only convinced to read it even more now because I’ve seen so many reviews for it lately. They are mixed reviews but I’m hoping I’ll enjoy it all the same!
I’ve heard a lot of great things about Christina Henry’s books and a few of them have admittedly been sitting on my Kindle library for quite some time now… The Mermaid is one of them and I’m really curious to see what her writing is like!
I’ve been looking forward to giving Coral a try ever since I first heard about it but I heard it can be quite triggering as it’s quite heavy on the mental health issues. I’m looking forward to finally picking it up once I feel ready for it though!
Upcoming Schedule:
02 Feb 2020: Dystopian books
08 Feb 2020: Mental Illness
15 Feb 2020: Books about Mermaids
22 Feb 2020: Books about spies
29 Feb 2020: Books inspired by mythology
Do you like reading books with mermaids? What are some of your favourites? Share your recs down below!
Hello, hello! I’m back with more romance mini-reviews and this time it’s for another Teagan Hunter series: Slice. This is her most recent series and there are currently three books out, but these reviews will cover the first two books. I will continue with this series eventually but I was hoping book three would be about another male lead and I’m kinda bummed it’s not (lol I swear I’m not salty), so I’m moving on to another romance series for now!
Most people would probably be embarrassed to land themselves back in their hometown and working at a pizzeria after an ugly divorce. Not me. It’s home, and I have one last shot to make Wren Daniels see me as more than just her brother’s best friend.
When the opportunity to show her what’s been right in front of her this whole time presents itself, I take it, holding nothing back this time. Wren thinks we’re pretending, but there’s nothing fake about the way I feel.
After all, she’s always had…a pizza my heart.
I couldn’t wait to read this pun-tastic title so I was disappointed that I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped to. It was a fast and easy read but it took me a good long while to warm up to the characters and what I missed most was the character development. Wren and Foster’s friendship was already an established thing, and I liked when it came through in the cute banter between them, but we also don’t learn a lot about them before now; it’s a lot more tell than show. I felt like the characters were trying hard to be sassy and smart-mouthed but it just came off as obnoxious. Silly decisions that I probably would’ve found quirky in her other series had me questioning ‘why?‘ in this one (like how they named their dog Prison. Who names their dog Prison?!).
That said, while I initially didn’t feel that frisson of… anything between Wren and Foster, that changed as the story went on and then it didn’t take long for me to enjoy their chemistry–and there was definitely a lot of that! This would be a good 4/5 on the steamy scale. What I really enjoyed about this was that the “pining” feelings came from the male’s perspective when it’s usually the opposite!
I hate Drew Woods, and she hates me. Even so, I’m not the cold jerk most make me out to be, and I have no problem moving the single mom and her baby into my home. I do, however, draw a line when it comes to acting on the way her loose lips make me feel.
Alive.
She’s too mouthy, too prying, and her curves are way too distracting. I might have lost my way after a nearly fatal car accident, but I’m not stupid. Giving in to Drew would be a short-lived fix for this pain I’m saddled with, and I knead something permanent. I’d be insane to think what we have could be anything other than temporary…right?
YAAS the sassy smart-mouthed characters and the fun AF banter is BACK and I couldn’t be happier! I wasn’t particularly impressed by both Drew or Winston when we’re introduced to them in book one but I’m so glad I read their story because this is the classic Hunter romcom that I was looking for! I loved that there wasn’t a lot of unnecessary angst in this enemies-to-lovers romance. Drew and Winston are a great couple with a maturity and understanding of each other that grew steadily throughout the read, and I do hope that we get to see more of them in future books in the series! I loved their love 🙂
Although Winston came off as a douche when we first meet him, I knew without a doubt that there had to be more to him than meets the eye. My heart broke for him when learning about his backstory especially with the accident. Yes, his pride and stubbornness made his situation worse but I also understand not wanting to be pitied or to feel helpless. I wish that it didn’t take him so long to get his head out of his ass but his character growth was pretty solid throughout and I was really rooting for him! Drew was hard-headed but has all the sass and spunk that I love in a female lead! She was a fiercely determined and hard working single mother. I was surprised by how much I ended up loving her character! The banter between these two was so great and I was constantly cracking up at their sarcastic remarks, and not to mention their chemistry, which was fire! 🔥 This read was a solid 5/5 on the steamy scale!
Overall, I’m glad that I started this series. It was an unsure start but I loved the second book. Although I’m kind of disappointed that the next book in the series isn’t about the male lead I was hoping for, I will be continuing with the series (eventually)!
Have you read the ‘Slice’ series or is it on your TBR? If you’ve read both series, which one do you prefer?
Welcome back to another Friday Favourites, dear friends! Last year this weekly meme was hosted by the wonderful Kibby @ Something of the Book! However, this year Kibby has passed the torch on to Lorraine @ Geeky Galaxy. This week’s topic is: favourite romances.
Well it certainly is the week for romance, isn’t it? I’m actually having a hard time choosing my favourite romances because if you haven’t noticed, I’m a sucker for the stuff and go through my fair share every year (of romance books, not actual romances lol). So how am I meant to pick out my favourites and keep it to a Top 5 list?! It’s a tough one… But after some thought here are five romances that I will always recommend:
Pride and Prejudice will forever and always be my favourite and I cannot recommend it enough. After reading it I’d also recommend immediately watching one of the two adaptations, both of which are amazing but I’m partial to the 2005 version because Matthew Macfadyen (don’t @ me)!
Give me any book set in Alaska and I’m guaranteed to fall in love with it. Hah, kidding. Maybe. Don’t ask me why but I have a low-key thing for Alaska so that was already a bonus for The Simple Wild. However, throw in some great characters, real growth and a simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking storyline and well, I’m sold. I became so invested in Calla and Jonah’s relationship. Jonah had me swooning big time!
I love the diversity that Hoang brings to romance–not only in having Asian MCs but also in writing about characters on the spectrum. It’s refreshing to read romances with characters who look like you and who come from cultural backgrounds similar to yours. The Bride Test has a mix of unique characters, an interesting plot and a good dose of steam, too.
I loved Josh and Lucy, but Josh was the shining star for me in The Hating Game. I loved his character so much. It might not be for readers who don’t like angst because well, this one was seriously full of it, but oh it was so, so much fun!
If you want a romcom with wonderfully fun characters who’re sure to give you a good laugh, then look no further than Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating! I love CLo and would recommend them to anyone but Josh and Hazel have a special place in my heart. I have a huge girl crush on Hazel — she’s such a fun-loving character and so full of life! Their chemistry is perfection and I love their love 😍
That’s it for my favourite romances!What are some of your favourites that you think I should read ASAP? I’m always on the lookout for recs!
HAPPY FRIDAY AND LOVERS DAY, book friends! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor 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?Here are the rules:
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!
First lines:
“On Sunday I work in sans serif. Boldface for all the headers, because that’s what the client wants, apexes and vertexes flattened way out into big floors and tables for every letter, each one stretching and counting and demanding to be seen.”
Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: a love freebie!
Is it merely a coincidence that I am in a romance mood when it’s Valentine’s Day this week? Absolutely. I’ve never been big on the ‘holiday’ and not because I’m single–I just feel like it’s an unnecessary way to spend more money (lol ok grinch) but of course I’m happy to receive chocolates from friends and colleagues (I’m not kidding anyone about having a secret or not-so-secret admirer lmao)! 😉 This past weekend I binged a new favourite romcom series and now my heart is ready for more laughs and loving feels. Since this is a love freebie, I’m going to share ten contemporary romances that I’m going to try and read this week (kidding! …maybe).*
*Sorry I’m boring and not sharing cool favourites or recs lists! 🤣
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