Category Archives: For the love of books

2019 Monthly Status Update: September

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Where the heck did September go! Between my increasing work schedule and a big birthday bash, September flew by in the blink of an eye. Luckily I was still able to get a good amount of reading done. Back in late June I discovered the Fated Mates podcast, I am deeply addicted to both the podcast and the Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series – which at this point I’m unfortunately caught up with all published books. I’m really looking forward to reading some of the Fated Mates Season 2 books though. I’m trying to stick with my scheduled reading also as much as I can but at the same time I just want to read what I want! Especially this month I want lots of spooky reads!! So anyways, here are some highlights from September for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 11
# pages read this month: 4,477
# books read year-to-date: 75
# pages read year-to-date: 26,716

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

I’ve been devouring Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series and have loved almost all those books so far (I’m caught up as of now and can’t wait for the next one to come out!). Other than that I also really enjoyed:

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A Duke in the Night by Kelly Bowen – 4.0 stars – review to be posted soon!

Other Posts this month:

Nothing else for September

Next Month TBR List:

Not many on the scheduled TBR list for next month, but I’m pretty excited about the ones that I do have on the list:

-The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
-Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
-The Duke’s Stolen Bride by Sophie Jordan
-The Lady’s Deception by Susanna Craig

Luckily this leaves lots of room for catching up on my backlog reading from books I missed and also maybe a couple fun ones! My work schedule is getting a bit CRAZY but I’m trying to manage some reading time on the weekends at least. And it is randomly HOT today so I’m hoping to get back to the crisp fall weather and getting cozy with a good book. Happy reading everyone!

2019 Monthly Status Update: August

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August was another strong month for me. Back in late June I discovered the Fated Mates podcast, I am now deeply addicted to both the podcast and the Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. I’m trying to stick with my scheduled reading also as much as I can but at the same time I just want to read what I want! Everyone once in a while I start to chage against the schedule and I’m feeling like now is really that time. Luckily I only have 2 scheduled reads so far for September so there’s lots of room for reading whatever I want. So anyways, here are some highlights from August for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 11
# pages read this month: 4,158
# books read year-to-date: 64
# pages read year-to-date: 22,239

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

I’ve been devouring Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series and have loved almost all those books so far (I’m reading #15 now). Other than that I also really enjoyed:

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The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins – 4.5 stars

Other Posts this month:

Lots of ARC August 2019 posts this past month, that was it for other posts!

Next Month TBR List:

Not many on the scheduled TBR list for next month, like I mentioned:

-29 Seconds by T.M. Logan
-Immortal Born by Lynsay Sands

Luckily this leaves lots of room for both more of Kresley Cole’s books and also catching up on my backlog reading from books I missed. September starts to get much more hectic for me at work but it’s also my birthday month (woot!) so I’ll be trying to block off some reading time for myself since that’s what I like to do! Looking forward to some crisp fall weather coming up and one of my favorite times of the year. Happy reading everyone!

ARC August 2019 – Final Update and Wrap Up!

Posted in 2019, ARC August 2019, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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And so wraps up another ARC August! I thought this one went really well for me. I definitely pushed myself and tried to get as much reading done as possible. I lost traction a little bit over the last week of the challenge but overall was still very pleased with how much I got read! Here’s how I ended up on the ARC Reading challenge for 2019:

MY PROGRESS

July & August 2019 ARC’s 

-Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
-The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-The Arrangement by Robyn Harding – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-A Highlander Walks Into a Bar by Laura Trentham – Read & Reviewed – Week 1 
-The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
-The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-Outfox by Sandra Brown
-To the Stars and Back by Camilla Isley – Read & Reviewed – Week 2

Additions to the list:

– Conversations with a Fat Girl by Liza Palmer – Read & Reviewed – Week 4
– As Good as the First Time by K. M. Jackson – Read & Reviewed – Week 3

Books Read August 25th – 31st

Unfortunately didn’t get any books read this week!

ARC August 2019 Reading Bingo!!

I was so excited to play bingo again as part of this month’s challenge. I unfortunately didn’t get bingo but I still had fun playing. Here’s how I ended up:

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I also liked that there were some new games to play – including a word search, crossword puzzle, and a guess the cover challenge. I did all the challenges but didn’t get a chance to submit them unfortunately. I’m still super interested to find out what the answers are though so I hope they post them!

And so that is a wrap for this year’s ARC August! I had a great time reading and I am already looking forward to next year’s challenge!

ARC August 2019 – Update #4

Posted in 2019, ARC August 2019, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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And so ARC August continues! This past week was a super busy week – my family works at our local Country Fair to help out in different ways. And between that and a quick overnight trip with my husband down near the shore – there wasn’t a lot of extra time for reading! I’m not sure how close I’ll get to the meeting my goal in full but I’m also trying to just enjoy what I’m reading. Anyways, so here’s where I stand right now:

MY PROGRESS

July & August 2019 ARC’s 

-Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
-The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-The Arrangement by Robyn Harding – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-A Highlander Walks Into a Bar by Laura Trentham – Read & Reviewed – Week 1 
-The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
-The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-Outfox by Sandra Brown
-To the Stars and Back by Camilla Isley – Read & Reviewed – Week 2

Additions to the list:

– Conversations with a Fat Girl by Liza Palmer – Read & Reviewed – Week 4
– As Good as the First Time by K. M. Jackson – Read & Reviewed – Week 3

Books Read August 18th – 24th

 

Plan for Upcoming Week

And we’re down to the last week! Wow did August fly by, it’s been such a crazy month but so full of fun things and lots of reading. I’m hoping to finish strong and get in a few more books before the month runs out. Also looking forward to Labor Day weekend next weekend and hopefully getting in some time with my family. Happy reading everyone!

ARC August 2019 – Update #3

Posted in 2019, ARC August 2019, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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And so ARC August continues! I’ve been doing pretty darn well (if I do say so myself) keeping up with my reading schedule this time, I’m hopeful I’ll be able to meet my overall goal this month! Anyways, so here’s where I stand right now:

MY PROGRESS

July & August 2019 ARC’s 

-Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
-The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-The Arrangement by Robyn Harding – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-A Highlander Walks Into a Bar by Laura Trentham – Read & Reviewed – Week 1 
-The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
-The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – Read & Reviewed – Week 3
-The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai – Read & Reviewed – Week 2
-Outfox by Sandra Brown
-To the Stars and Back by Camilla Isley – Read & Reviewed – Week 2

Additions to the list: 

– Conversations with a Fat Girl by Liza Palmer
– As Good as the First Time by K. M. Jackson – Read & Reviewed – Week 3

Books Read August 11th – 17th

Plan for Upcoming Week

The upcoming week is a very busy week for me! Every year my family and I work at the Terryville Fair over the whole weekend while the Fair is going on, which takes up a good amount of reading time during the weekend. Also this year my husband and I are going to see Ron White on Saturday night (exciting!). Hoping to find some time here and there to keep up with the great progress I’ve made so far, but also looking forward to one of my favorite events of the year! Happy reading everyone!

2019 Book #55 – The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins

Posted in 2019, ARC August 2019, Book Genre, Book reviews, Contemporary romance, Fiction, For the love of books, Magical realism, Reading Challenges, Romance, Women's fiction by

51SWKLzVjxLTitle: The Book Charmer
Author: Karen Hawkins
Date finished: 8/4/19
Genre: Contemporary romance, women’s fiction, magical realism
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: July 30, 2019
Pages in book: 368
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Dove Pond series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Sarah Dove is no ordinary bookworm. To her, books have always been more than just objects: they live, they breathe, and sometimes they even speak. When Sarah grows up to become the librarian in her quaint Southern town of Dove Pond, her gift helps place every book in the hands of the perfect reader. Recently, however, the books have been whispering about something out of the ordinary: the arrival of a displaced city girl named Grace Wheeler.

If the books are right, Grace could be the savior that Dove Pond desperately needs. The problem is, Grace wants little to do with the town or its quirky residents—Sarah chief among them. It takes a bit of urging, and the help of an especially wise book, but Grace ultimately embraces the challenge to rescue her charmed new community. In her quest, she discovers the tantalizing promise of new love, the deep strength that comes from having a true friend, and the power of finding just the right book.

My rating:  4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I finished this book for ARC August 2019! Love this reading challenge. And this year I’m especially excited because this year they have a bunch of fun games and challenges, including one of my favorite things, reading bingo! This book will be checking off my “Start one series” box since this book is the first in a new series by this author.

I haven’t read anything by this author before, I was intrigued enough by the description and the cover to give this a read! I love books with magical realism and this one was really just such a magical read. I loved the story building and how the author wove different pieces of magic into the story. The thing I found kind of frustrating was how unresolved the ending was. We spent so much time delving into Sarah’s character, which I understand was necessary to understand the whole book talking and saving the town thing, but I was super bummed that we didn’t get resolved on Sarah’s story at the end of this book. I usually prefer to read series consisting of stand alone novels for that reason, I like the connection but I like for things to be resolved at the end. I’m excited to read Sarah’s story though, whenever it may come! Also I thought there was a lot of build up to the Apple Festival and then the actual event only ended up taking up like a page, which left the event feeling a little anti-climactic to me. I loved all the tension and plot building, then when it was wrapped up so quickly it felt a little rushed. There were so many emotions in this book though, I loved it. I laughed, and I cried a bunch. There were so many touching scenes in the book. All of the characters were charming and I loved how much of a family was formed by the various town members. I’d definitely recommend this book.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2019 Monthly Status Update: July

Posted in For the love of books by

outdated_technology_update_required_thinkstock_871052724-100749659-largeJuly was HUGE! I got so much reading done. I had a vacation at the end of the month but had no internet so I’m just catching up on my blog posts today. Another reason I got so much reading done is that last month I discovered the Fated Mates podcast, which I’m now addicted to and am working my way through Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. I’m only allowing myself to read one though for every ARC I get read, so it’s encouraging me to get my reading done faster! So anyways, here are some highlights from July for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 16
# pages read this month: 5,923
# books read year-to-date: 53
# pages read year-to-date: 18,081

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

I’ve been devouring Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series and have loved almost all those books so far (on #11 now). Other than that I also enjoyed Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient (4.5 stars), which I read on vacation, and Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham (4.5 stars).

Other Posts this month:

Summary Post – NERCA 2019
ARC August 2019 Reading Challenge Sign Up Post

Next Month TBR List:

Check out my ARC August 2019 Reading Challenge Sign Up Post which includes my reading list for August! Looking forward to a successful reading challenge this month!

ARC August 2019 Reading Challenge Sign Up Post

Posted in 2019, ARC August 2019, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Woo Hoo! ARC August is here again, and I can’t wait to dig into some of my backlog and my upcoming releases. I still have wayyyyy too many ARC’s from the past three years that I never got a chance to read, plus I missed the “deadline” for 12 additional ARCs so far in 2019. PLUS I have 6 ARCs scheduled to be read in August. SO you could say I have a lot of reading to accomplish! For those of you that don’t know, ARC August is a month-long reading challenge hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat. and the only participation requirement is reading ARC’s! I participated in this reading challenge for the last four years (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018), and every year this reading challenge has been super successful and productive. I hope to continue the productivity with this challenge this year since I have so much to read! I’ll be on a family vacation during the first few days of August and should be able to get a jump start on my reading for the month!

So here is the list I’m going to be working off of for this year’s challenge:

July & August 2019 ARC’s 

-Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
-The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins
-The Arrangement by Robyn Harding
-A Highlander Walks Into a Bar by Laura Trentham
-The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
-The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
-The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
-Outfox by Sandra Brown
-To the Stars and Back by Camilla Isley

I’m hoping to also possibly get to some backlog ARC’s from previous years, but I’m in the midst of a series right now so between that and the ARC’s I might not be able to make it to previous years’ backlogs. I’m looking forward to a lot of the books I have lined up for August though – I can’t wait to get to reading!

2019 Monthly Status Update: June

Posted in For the love of books by

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June was a bit of a slow month for me. Work really took off again and also trying to balance that with still enjoying a few days off doing fun things – there just isn’t enough time in the day! Thank goodness I was at a reading retreat at the beginning of June since that was when I got over 1/2 my books for the month read. I’m a bit behind with review posts too but I’m working on catching up. June is also when I discovered the Fated Mates podcast, which I’m now addicted to and am working my way through Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. So anyways, here are some highlights from June for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 6
# pages read this month: 1,704
# books read year-to-date: 37
# pages read year-to-date: 12,158

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

 

I liked a bunch of the books this month but none of them really stood out among the crowd. Stay tuned next month for some new favorites!

Other Posts this month:

The Earl Next Door BLOG TOUR!!
Quilting Retreat 2019

Next Month TBR List:

-The Starter Wife by Nina Lauren
-Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland
-Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham
-How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway
-Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
-The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins
-The Arrangement by Robyn Harding

Quilting Retreat 2019

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For those of you that don’t know, I attend a couple different quilting retreats with my Mom every year. You can see my post on last year’s retreat here. I also have a couple older posts from 2014, 2015, and 2016 retreats. I’m not a quilter but I have found over the years that a quilting retreat is a great way to get some good reading done! So I tag along and while all the other ladies are quilting, I read! This year I was also determined that I be creative as well so I brought a coloring book to try and enhance my creative abilities. I also ended up helping one of the ladies with a project for a quilt she was making that was super fun! This year was another super productive and fun year, and I wanted to share with you readers a run-down of what happens at our mystical retreat weekends!

Here was my overall schedule for the weekend:

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We started retreat on Thursday afternoon this year, which was earlier than in recent years. The extra time made a big difference and allowed me just a bit more time to get reading and other things done! Below are some highlights and pictures from the weekend:

  • Thursday:
    • First picture colored! I purchased this Magical Planner on Amazon a few weeks ago because (a) I like magical things and (b) I like coloring. I already have a planner but I liked the information this planner has and I’m hoping to learn something new! Below are before and after pictures of the coloring! Love how all the colors really make the picture come alive.
  • Friday:
    • Mom and I went to a local winery, Chamard Vineyards, and did a tasting. We go here every year to get a stamp in our CT Winery Passports and also because we like wine! I snagged a few pictures below from the winery, which is beautiful.
  • Saturday:
    • My handsome husband came to visit! We shared a delicious lunch and then went for a hike. The retreat center where we go for the Quilt Retreat has extensive trails and also various sporting gear. We found a basketball court along the way and decided to stop and shoot a couple hoops (picture below!). There’s also a gorgeous outdoor worship space that I love taking pictures of every year, it’s right on the water and is just so peaceful. Picture included below!
  • Sunday:
    • I helped one of my friends, Debbie, with a quilt she was working on! I like stretching my creative muscles during retreat and I had great fun helping Debbie pick out which fabrics to use for the doggy glasses!

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I also included a picture below of a few other quilts that ladies (and mom) were working on during the weekend and another picture that I colored during the weekend. Also my desk space where I hang out for the weekend is pictured below!