Rewind and Review: January 2015

Hosted by Shae Has Left the Room

My head feels like it's spinning. School started, I've made a trip every weekend (either to home for doctor visits or other places I can do my laundry at), and I've already done one emergency dance party in my dorm room thanks to the the stress of it all. Which reminds me that I need to reread Fangirl (bless you, Rowell) asap after I finish all the pretties I received!

For review:

• Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen (Thank you, Bloomsbury!)
• Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt (Thank you, Bloomsbury!)

Purchases: 

• All Fall Down by Ally Carter (I couldn't NOT buy an Ally Carter book)
• The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna ($2 hardcover from my local thrift store!) 

Books I read: 5 (but I still have quite a few days to add more to that total)

What I'm reading now/next: Pretty much all the books I just received. 

Bookish (and not-so-bookish) happenings:

• I started the spring semester at college and it is CRAZY. Lots of relative classes to my major, but I'm still only semi-used to everything. 
• I'm reaffirmed that group projects are horrible. I can work well with others, but when it comes to college students and grades, getting work done is hopeless. 
• BOOK NEWS: Kody Klepinger is coming out with Lying Out Loud, which sounds like the perfect rom-com. It's a companion to The DUFF and her other novels. *grabby hands*
• But wait, there's more! You can enter in a giveaway for it along with a movie tie-in edition of The DUFF here. 
• I started watching the Harry Potter movies and I'm not sure how to feel. 

How's your 2015 been going so far? And who do you want to win the superbowl?

Rewind & Review: June 15 - June 29

Hosted by Shae Has Left the Room

These past two weeks have been...un-summery, or non-summery, whichever one. Shouldn't summertime be fun? I'd like to consider ME, this Summer, to be fun. But I find myself looking forward to the start of school, not only because I'm moving, but also because I seem to get more things done in the fall/spring. Summertime makes me agitated. School orientation, work, worrying, work, sleeping, work, and more BLAH. Thankfully, we have nice publishers in the world.

Books I Received: 

• Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Thanks, St. Martin's!) 
• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (Thanks, Bloomsbury!)
• Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid SWAG (Thanks, HarlequinTeen!)

Books I've Read: 2?

What I'm Reading Now/Next: 

• Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (MAYBE, I don't know. I'm trying to find the "right" moment.)
• Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
• Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Upcoming Blog Posts:*

• Top Ten Tuesday: Classics
• Review: The Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
• Then and Now: What Do You Want to Be? 
• Top Ten Tuesday: Blogging Confessions
• Thank you, Morgan Matson
• Review: On the Fence by Kasie West

*Subject to change

Bookish (and not-so-bookish) Happenings: 

• I had orientation for my university and I realized I'm a school dork. The best part of it all was registering for classes! 
• I loved my book mail. Publishers rock. 
• I put so many amazing books on hold at the library for my vacation next week. Open Road Summer, Wild Magic, A Mad Wicked, Folly...just to name a few! 
• I RAN A 5K! I've done an unofficial one in my neighborhood before, but this time, I did the Neon Vibe 5k with one of my childhood best friends. Tutus and neon colors, ya'll. 

Then we celebrated with food.

How's your summer been?

Rewind & Review: May 5 - May 17

Hosted by Shae Has Left the Room

*points excitedly to the pretties*

Books I Received: 

• Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne (Thank you, Disney-Hyperion!)
• Defy the Dark by various authors (Random gift from Epic Reads)

Books I Bought:

• The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutoski 

Books I Read: 2

What I'm Reading Now/Next: 

• Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne

Previous Blog Posts: 

• Top Ten Tuesday: Covers I'd Fram as Art
• Where You Are
• Review: The Chapel Wars by Lindsey Leavitt
• Waiting on Wednesday #7
• DNF review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Upcoming Blog Posts:* 

• Top Ten Tuesday: Friendship Books
• Confessional: Commitmentphobe 
• Review: The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes
• Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie
• Waiting on Wednesday #8
• Review: Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

*Subject to change

Isn't it kind of sad that I really have had no more happenings to speak of? I now have two jobs and was offered two more interviews for other jobs, which I'm not sure I'll take a third, but it's still exciting. And...yeah. That was it. I'm feeling like I'm in a life slump. Meaning, I'm in a blog slump, an exercise slump, a motivational slump, and everything slump. It's pretty cruddy. I WANT OUT. 

Have a great end of May!

Rewind & Review: March 24 - April 6

Hosted by Shae Has Left the Room

Newsflash: life is hard. It really, really is. It resembles Florida weather in a way. One moment, all is fine. Florida can be super sunny and the perfect beach day besides the intolerable heat. Then suddenly, it starts raining. But here's the thing about Florida rain: a lot of the time it rains and still looks perfectly sunny. So unless you hear it, you can glance outside and not even realize it's raining. Then it does go to the cloudy, stormy weather. The next thing you know, you can have a thunderstorm on your hands that rivals a hurricane. Where did that beach weather go? What I'm saying is that life can go from fine to what you think is fine to oh this is bad to DUCK FOR COVER in a terrifying, where's-my-peanut-butter instant. 

"Where's the books?" Yeah, yeah, here you go.

Books I Received: 

• To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han (Thanks, Ashleigh!) 
• Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson (Macmillan via NetGalley) 

Number of Books I've Read: 3

What I'm Reading Now/Next: 

• Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson (yay for read-alongs with Heather and Lauren!)
• The Hunt by Stacey Kade

Previous Blog Posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Things on My Bookish Bucket List
• DNF and a Mini Review
• Announcement: Guest Post on Another Blog
• Top Ten Tuesday: Gateway Authors/Books on My Reading Journey
• Waiting on Wednesday #4

Upcoming Blog Posts:*

• Top Ten Tuesday: Most Unique Books I've Read
• The Comparison Game
• Review: The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik
• Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Things That I'd Like to Own
• Waiting on Wednesday #5
• Review: The Hunt by Stacey Kade

*Subject to change

Bookish (and not-so-bookish) Happenings: 

• I got the Bloomsbury Kids' 2014 Fall Catalogue! Do you know what that means? Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, ya'll.
• I meant to do a review this past weekend...but couldn't find time. Tis life. 
• But why didn't I do a review? BECAUSE SCHOOL IS EVIL. Save yourselves, kids. 
• At least I'm doing a read-along with Lauren and Heather. Somewhat. 
• One of my best friends is reading The Fault in Our Stars (and her sister after). Question: Does it make me a bad friend if I'm betting on if she'll cry? *shrugs* 

My life.

What's happened with ya'll these last two weeks? Do you have any major school projects coming up?

Rewind & Review: December 30th - January 12th

Hosted by Shae Has Left the Room

Don't mind me, I'm just searching for the rapidly disappearing time. Anyone seen it? It's already mid-January and I'm torn between feeling like Christmas was very far away or feeling like it was just yesterday. This is hurting my head so I'll just move on to show the pretty books I received and blogging shenanigans that have happened or will happen.

Books I Was Given: 

•  Cress by Marissa Meyer (thanks to Gillian!) 
• Manor of Secrets by Katherine Longshore (thanks to Emma via ARCycling!)
• Antigodess by Kendare Blake (thanks to Rachel!)
• Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce (Rachel again, YAY Tamora Pierce!)
• Severed Heads, Broken Hearts (otherwise known as The Beginning of Everything) by Robyn Schneider (thanks to above-mentioned Rachel!) 

Number of Books I've Completed: 4

Books I'm Reading:

• Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis
• Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor (maybe one day I'll finish this)

Previous Blog Posts:

• Review: United We Spy by Ally Carter
• 2013 End of Year Book Survey - Part 1
• 2013 End of Year Book Survey - Part 2
• Top Ten Tuesday - 2014 Goals
• Hello, My Name Is...
• Mini Reviews: The Cute One, the Fantastical One, and the Two DNFs

Bookish Happenings:

• As listed above, I dropped my pseudonym. And your comments were so sweet.
• I've series binged on Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns so I can now go HECTOOOOR with you all (I've already done so many times). 
• When Top Ten 2014 Goals popped up, I loved seeing everyone's goals for this year. There were repeats, but that made it great to know that other people were striving for the same goal. 
• I'm publicly shaming my mailman because he skipped my house TWO days in a row and now I think that I have missing packages. I don't know his name though so it's not real publicly shaming. But still. He will feel and fear my glare through the window. 

Upcoming Blog Posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Debuts 
• Steps of Fangirling
• Review: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill*
• Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Wishlist
• Followers: The Shameful Truth
• Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein*

*Subject to change

Hope you've had a great haul these past two weeks!

To buy any of the books mentioned in this post, click this button: 


And to follow my reviews or connect with me click this button or subscribe by email by clicking the widget on the righthand side of the screen. 

 

Rewind and Review - May and a little more

Hosted by Bookshelvers Anonymous

Hello, lovelies! So I haven't done one in a while since for whatever reason, I didn't see that Shelver was switching to a weekly thing so I was taken aback and didn't have time to prepare anything. This post will be longer than usual, adding a couple June items in there. I have been extremely excited to squeal over May! 

My Reviews

• The Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone (a time traveling contemporary that I loved)
• The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler (a good familial contemporary)
• Unravel Me by Taherah Mafi (an annoying heroine, but great sequel overall)
• The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg (a cute contemporary read)
• Mini reviews: P&P versions (two cute Pride and Prejudice retellings)

My Meme Posts

• Top Ten Tuesday - When You Need Something Light & Fun
• Cover Love #13 - The Cutting Room Floor by Dawn Klehr
• Wishlist Wednesday #16 - Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Cover Love #14 - United We Spy by Ally Carter
• Top Ten Tuesday - Nicest Authors
• Wishlist Wednesday #17 - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey 
• Cover Love #15 - Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

Other Fun Posts

• Bunch O' Giveaways #2 
• Author Interview with Marissa Meyer, author of The Lunar Chronicles
• Presenting a Blogger...Lauren @ Love is not a triangle

Stuff I Won

• A BRAND NEW CAAAR! Okay, not really. I won nothing...again. 

 

Stuff I Was Given

• Awaken by Meg Cabot
• Heaven Is Paved by Oreos by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
• Enchanted and Hero by Alethea Kontis
• Gallagher Girl notebook (these previous items were all given by Shelver from BEA)
• The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (from Disney-Hyperion)
• Gilt by Katherine Longshore (ARCycling)

Traded

• Five Summers by Una LaMarche (Morgan via YA Book Exchange
• The Elite by Keira Cass (Skye via YA Book Exchange)

Bought

• Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock ($1)
• That Summer by Sarah Dessen ($2)
• Dreamland by Sarah Dessen ($2)
• Scarlet by AC Gaughen (Montana at Book Belles, $6)
• Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita
• Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
• Forever Princess by Meg Cabot
• All's Fair in Love War and High School by Janette Rallison
• Just One Wish by Janette Rallison
• How to Take the Ex Out of the Ex-Boyfriend by Janette Rallison (the last 6 books were on sale at Better World Books for a TOTAL of $11, all HCs!)

Adult books:

• The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin ($2)
• That Certain Spark by Cathy Marie Hake ($2)
• Serendipity by Cathy Marie Hake ($2)
• Cassidy by Lori Wick (2 of them for $2.50. One for me, one for my little sister)
• Sabrina by Lori Wick ($.50)
• An Amish Christmas by Cynthia Keller ($1)
• The Long Road Home & A Gathering of Memories 2-in-1 by Lori Wick ($1)
• Maid to Match by Deanne Gist ($.50)

A Few of My Favorite Blog Moments

• Getting another author to agree to do an interview, which resulted in me learning more about the series!
• Having a favorite blogger of mine on here. I love interviews, if you can't tell. And she is the absolute sweetest!
• Meeting some more fantastic and great bloggers through the internet. You guys are so nice.
• My Nicest Authors list which resulted in the sweetest tweets by the authors on the list. THAT is why they are on there. I couldn't stop smiling all day. 
• All the BEA tweets on Twitter AND getting things from BEA, thanks to my sister.
• Finding out about Better World Books...although that might be a bad thing for my self-control.
• Realization that I had more comments wishing me luck on my ACT than the actual review because that's how sweet everyone is. 
• Update: I took my ACTs yesterday and no matter how I do, I know I literally did EVERYTHING (6 hours each Saturday for a month and major prepping during the week) I could to prepare. I don't exactly feel confident that I got the score I wanted (where I live, if I get a 29, I get 100% of tuition paid for in my choice of school if it's in my state. Right now, I have 75%from last time).

~*~

After this fantastic month and beginning of June, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Bloggers, without a doubt, are some of the nicest people I have ever been in contact with. Authors, at least the ones I have had Twitter conversations with, are as well. I'll be laying off the thrift store, but I do know the rest of June will be fantastic as well (I see a second author event in my future!). However, I am immensely grateful for everything that I have received this month and experienced and for the people I have talked to. 

I hope the rest of your June is lovely and you have a marvelous summer!

*Due to all the books that I have accumulated this month and hectic schedule I have, I didn't post pictures or include links. Sorry!* 

March Rewind & Review

Hosted by Bookshelvers Anonymous

Guys. I always feel as if the next month cannot top the month before. I thought, "February was loaded with books and I felt bookishly full and happy. How can March be better?" Then March was all: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

My Reviews

• Hooked by Liz Fichera (a contemporary novel with a Native American teenage girl who plays golf)
• 52 Reasons Why I Hate My Father by Jessica Brody (a hilarious contemporary novel about a working heiress)
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (a great sequel that made me begging for more)
• Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt (my first ever ARC from a publisher did not disappoint in this hilarious novel)
• The Rules by Stacey Kade (a beginning to a new series that was very twisty and excelled)

My Meme Posts

• Book Blogger Confessions #2 - Giveaways
• Top Ten Tuesday - Series That I'd Like to Start, But Haven't...Yet. 
• Wishlist Wednesday #13 - The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
• Top Ten Tuesday - Books at the Top of My Spring 2013 List
• Cover Love #9 - My Name Is Rapunzel by Leila Rasheed
• Wishlist Wednesday #14 - How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer
• Cover Love #10 - Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts

Other Fun Posts

• Announcing Tomorrow's Post...on Another Blog! (where I talk about my guest post on another blog for the next day)
• Q&A with Ally Carter + a Signed Giveaway! (my first ever author signing and where I gave away two signed books) 
• The Themes in YA Contemporary (where I show my favorite and common themes in YA contemporary and give suggestions)

Stuff I Won

• The Girl in the Wall by Benedis Grab and Pieces of Me by Darlene Ryan (from Megan at The Book Babe) 
• Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce (from Goodreads)
• Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger (from Krystal at Live to Read)
• The Archived by Victoria Schwab (from Miriam Forster at Dancing with Dragons Is Hard on Your Shoes)

Stuff I Was Given

• Project Paper Dolls: The Rules by Stacey Kade (from Stacey Kade and Disney Hyperion!) 
• Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt (from Bloomsbury)
• The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June by Robin Benway and My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison (My mom does the best Easter baskets)
• Asunder by Jodi Meadows (thanks to the author signing where we got to pick up a free book)

Not pictured: Going Vintage due to lending it out to a friend.

Stuff I Bought

• Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen (.99 cents!) 
• The Fairy's Return by Gail Carson Levine ($2) 

A Few of My Blog Moments I Wish to Squeal Share

• I was gifted a book that I really want to read from a publisher/author for the first time!
• Another bookshelf row has been expanded. 
• I MET MY FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL TIME: ALLY CARTER. 
• In that same instance from the previous point, I also got to go to my first author signing.
• The little things please me like a wonderful author *cough* Jessica Brody *cough* tweeting me back. 
• Reaching 6 months of blogging! 
• Two new books thanks to Easter. 
• Really lovely comments overall. 

~*~

 I was only able to go to my local (fantastic) thrift store once, but I plan to be going next week so April's haul will probably be much bigger. Overall, I'm very pleased with how my month has gone. I hope to review more and brainstorm for more "fun posts." 

STAY TUNED:  Tomorrow I will broadcast my post for the Attack of the Assassins blog tour where I will be interviewing the author, Robin LaFevers. 

Hope you all had a lovely March and and will have an even better April!