Monthly Wrap-Up – February 2023

Hola, Book Dragons! How are you all faring with February gone? I hope you’re all doing well and not suffering from the agony of an existential crisis. Yep, that’s my default as a norm lol.

February wasn’t bad, though I was more in a morbid mood than in the frame for romance lol so it was mostly Dean Koontz books for me, which I still have to review.

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I quite enjoyed Secretly Yours, Leopard’s Scar, Reckless Road & Hideaway.

What about you guys, how was February for you?

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

January Wrap-Up – 31 Jan 2023

Hola, Book Dragons, last day of January. The time zipped by so fast, I feel like the month was over even before it started lol.

Reading Front:

I started out being productive, hit a slump, then I messed up my sleep schedule again when I stayed up late re-reading Enchantment of Ravens. On the bright side, I managed to read 12 books this month, and might even finish off #13 before tonight.

Blog Front:

I did more posts this month than I usually do and had a good time with the Bloganuary prompts. Let’s hope I manage to stay productive during the coming months.

What about you guys, how was January for you?

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

Monthly Wrap-Up – February 2022

Hola, Book Dragons! February’s over, can you believe it? Well, it was kind of a slumpy month for me but here’s my wrap-up.

I read only 3 books but one of them, 10 Blind Dates, was pretty amazing and a new In Death book was released so I had my dose of Eve and Roarke. 🙂

I loved 10 Blind Dates! It was a super-fun book.

Blog-wise I mostly did my weekly posts and finally did my review for Fated Blades and I’m quite pleased with the bookstagram shot. 🙂

Book Review: Fated Blades (Kinsmen #3) – Ilona Andrews

What about you guys, how was February for you?

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

Monthly Wrap-Up – January 2022

Hola, Book Dragons! Can you believe I’m doing a monthly wrap-up after almost 2 years? That’s how badly I tanked in my blogging. But hopefully, this is just the first of 12 monthly wrap-ups. So here’s my January wrap-up.

Reading Front:

I started Vespertine at the end of Dec and buddy-read it with my bestie. Stay tuned for my review. And though The Mediator series is an old favorite series for me, I feel good that I read 9 books in January.

Blog Front:

I did 14 posts and I know it doesn’t sound a lot but I feel like it’s a good start. I think that it’s important to pat yourself on your back for even the smallest of accomplishments. 🙂 Here are my 2 book reviews and 1 movie review for January:

Book Review: The Becoming (The Dragon Heart Legacy #2) – Nora Roberts

Book Review: Dark Tarot (Dark #31) – Christine Feehan

Movie Review: The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

What about you guys, how was January for you?

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

Monthly Wrap-Up – October 2019

Goodbye, October! Only two months left to this year. Reading-wise, October was pretty good for me. I read 33 books in all! IKR! It’s the first time ever I’ve read that many books in one month. It’s pretty amazing and all thanks to my bookish journal which I started back in July. 🙂

I still have a long way to go till Dec as you can see by my GR challenge stats: 

Monthly Wrap-Up – September 2019

Oops, already 2nd Oct! I’m a bit late with my Sept wrap-up but here goes:

I read only about 14 books in September. Goodreads says I’m 36 books behind schedule. Oh, boy.

Monthly Wrap-Up – August 2019

Time for the monthly wrap-up. Can’t believe eight months are already gone. Wasn’t it just new year? When did it get to be September? Ah, well, gotta move on. So, reading-wise, I managed to plow through 13 books. Looks like there’s some hope for me yet.

7 books by Sarah Dessen (The Rest of the Story, Just Listen, Saint Anything, Along for the Ride, That Summer, This Lullaby, The Moon and More)

 

Synopsis: It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live. A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend. In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.

Synopsis: Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when she was ten. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges. Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family—her grandmother and cousins she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl. When Emma arrives at North Lake, she realizes there are actually two very different communities there. Her mother grew up in working class North Lake, while her dad spent summers in the wealthier Lake North resort. The more time Emma spends there, the more it starts to feel like she is divided into two people as well. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her. Then there’s Roo, the boy who was her very best friend when she was little. Roo holds the key to her family’s history, and slowly, he helps her put the pieces together about her past. It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of North Lake—and Saylor finds herself falling under Roo’s spell as well. For Saylor, it’s like a whole new world is opening up to her. But when it’s time to go back home, which side of her will win out?

I’m calling this month my Sarah Dessen month. I was in a YA contemporary mood and some were good, some not so good but they were fast reads. One thing that’s pretty awesome about Sarah Dessen’s books is the insightful writing, with deep meaningful sentences that made her words a pleasure to read.

Monthly Wrap-Up – July 2019

Another month that was an epic fail! Where did the time go? I barely read 6 books in all during the month! But I did manage to finish my backlog of Netgalley books and I was up-to-date with my reviews so I’ll take that as a win for now.

Here are the books I read in July:

1. Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik

This was a re-read. I was missing Miryem and the Staryk Lord and it was good to return back to this story. I enjoyed it all the more. I last read it at about the same time one year ago, give or take a few days. 😉

2. Pretty Reckless – L.J. Shen

I started this book on a whim, while I was stuck at my cousin’s Indian wedding (the rituals can drag hours and my phone was my sole survival option) and I got so hooked that I have no idea when the time passed and the wedding was over. This book is raw with messy characters full of flaws and it was pretty good.

3. Beasts of The Frozen Sun – Jill Criswell

Nice little gem I found on Netgalley and got approved for. I loved this book. I have rotten luck with Netgalley books – I always get approved for the ones whose stories turn out to be boring and a drag but in this one, things just kept happening over and over again. It was a rollercoaster ride. Release date is 06 August 2019 so if you love YA Fantasy, grab this book. You won’t regret it.

4. Bound by Blood – Cynthia Eden

Another re-read. A novella that I sadly did not enjoy as much as I did the first time. I think I was getting the beginnings of a reading slump.

5. An Enchantment of Ravens – Margaret Rogerson

This book! What can I say about it? It was so awesome it left me in a book hangover afterwards. It’s a fantastic story that I enjoyed a lot.

6. Wicked Fox – Kat Cho

Blurb: Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret–she’s a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive. Because so few believe in the old tales anymore, and with so many evil men no one will miss, the modern city of Seoul is the perfect place to hide and hunt. But after feeding one full moon, Miyoung crosses paths with Jihoon, a human boy, being attacked by a goblin deep in the forest. Against her better judgment, she violates the rules of survival to rescue the boy, losing her fox bead–her gumiho soul–in the process. Jihoon knows Miyoung is more than just a beautiful girl–he saw her nine tails the night she saved his life. His grandmother used to tell him stories of the gumiho, of their power and the danger they pose to humans. He’s drawn to her anyway. With murderous forces lurking in the background, Miyoung and Jihoon develop a tenuous friendship that blossoms into something more. But when a young shaman tries to reunite Miyoung with her bead, the consequences are disastrous . . . forcing Miyoung to choose between her immortal life and Jihoon’s.

When you look at that awesome cover, you think, this must be a dynamic story, right? Wrong! It was so slow-paced and the main character annoyed me so much I wanted to drop it. Wicked Fox was a disappointing end to my July.

On the blogging front, I managed to stick to my blog memes and finished 4 reviews. Not as productive as I’d expected but still, acceptable.

How about you? How did your month go?

Monthly Wrap-Up – June 2019

I’m a few days late with my June wrap-up but here it is. 🙂 Well, June wasn’t any better than May. I only read about 7 books and I’m 26 books behind my yearly challenge on Goodreads. Oh, boy.

1. The Devil’s Own (Murphy’s Law, #1) – K. A. Fox

I got this book from Netgalley and at first it looked good but turned out to be disappointing.

2. Shadow Warrior (Shadow Riders, #4) – Christine Feehan

Another book that was a bit disappointing. I’m not a prude but the sex scenes were just too much. And a bit of a turn off for me. 😕

3. The Kiss Thief – L.J. Shen

This book started out so well but I hated how Francesca fucked up in the end, how immature she acted and how she didn’t defend Wolfe when she should have and just watched. Totally tanked the whole story.

4. Treachery in Death (In Death, #32) – J.D. Robb

12 times and this book is still as much fun as the first time I read it.

5. The Year of Shadows – Claire Legrand

4 YEARS LATER AND THIS BOOK STILL HAS MY HEART!

6. Sorcery of Thorns – Margaret Rogerson

Solid good book.

7. Midnight Bite – Cynthia Eden

The plot-line was pretty good but the story lacked the depth I enjoy from Cynthia Eden’s books even in her novellas.

On the blogging front, I only did one review and have 2-3 pending! Hope you guys had a better, more productive month than I did.

Monthly Wrap-Up – May 2019

I should start with, May was a total disaster. Yep, 31 days gone just like that, a snap of my fingers. My read count was sadly low. I only read 8 books and I’m 15 books behind my Goodreads challenge. Oh, boy, I need to get my act together.

1-3 – Vicious, Ruckus, Scandalous (Sinners of Saint, 1-3) by L.J. Shen

Synopsis: Emilia They say love and hate are the same feelings experienced under different circumstances, and it’s true.The man who comes to me in my dreams also haunts me in my nightmares. He is a brilliant lawyer. A skilled criminal. A beautiful liar. A bully and a savior, a monster and a lover. Ten years ago, he made me run away from the small town where we lived. Now, he came for me in New York, and he isn’t leaving until he takes me with him. Vicious She is a starving artist. Pretty and evasive like cherry blossom. Ten years ago, she barged into my life unannounced and turned everything upside down. She paid the price. Emilia LeBlanc is completely off-limits, my best friend’s ex-girlfriend. The woman who knows my darkest secret, and the daughter of the cheap Help we hired to take care of our estate. That should deter me from chasing her, but it doesn’t. So she hates me. Big fucking deal. She better get used to me.

Synopsis: Ruckus (Sinners of Saint #2) by L.J. Shen (Goodreads Author) 4.30 · Rating details · 17,076 ratings · 2,154 reviews Rosie They say that life is a beautiful lie and death a painful truth. They’re right. No one has ever made me feel more alive than the guy who serves as a constant reminder that my clock is ticking. He is my forbidden, shiny apple. The striking fallacy to my blunt, raw, truth. He is also my sister’s ex-boyfriend. One thing you should know before you judge me; I saw him first. I craved him first. I loved him first. Eleven years later, he waltzed into my life, demanding a second chance. Dean Cole wants to be my bronze horseman. My white knight has finally arrived. Hopefully, he isn’t too late. Dean They say the brightest stars burn out the fastest. They’re right. She sets my mind on fire. All smart mouth, snarky attitude and a huge heart. In a world where everything is dull, she shines like fucking Sirius. Eleven years ago, fate tore us apart. This time, I dare it to try. Getting to her is a battlefield, but man, that’s why they call me Ruckus. Rosie LeBlanc is about to find out how hard I can fight. And conquering her will be the sweetest victory.

Synopsis: They call him The Mute for a reason. Hard, cold and calculated, he rarely speaks. When he does, it’s with disdain. When he does, his words aren’t meant for me. When he does, my stomach flips and my world tilts on its axis. He is thirty-three. I am eighteen. He’s a single dad and my father’s business partner. I’m just a kid to him and his enemy’s daughter. He’s emotionally unavailable. And I am…feeling. Feeling things I shouldn’t feel for him. Trent Rexroth is going to break my heart. The writing isn’t just on the wall, it’s inked on my soul. And yet, I can’t stay away. A scandal is the last thing my family needs. But a scandal is what we’re going to give them. And oh, what beautiful chaos it will be.

I read L.J. Shen’s book Scandalous back in January, I think and I liked it a lot. So when I saw Vicious on Netgalley, of course I requested it. Got approved for it too (which will never cease to surprise me). However, Vicious and Ruckus were both 2 stars for me. I just couldn’t like the main characters.

4. Audrey, Wait! – Robin Benway

Audrey, Wait! was a re-read for me, the 3rd time over the years and it was as witty and hilarious as the first time. I had a blast re-reading it.

5. A Vampire’s Christmas Carol – Cynthia Eden

This was a novella and a 2-star rating for me.

6. One of Us Is Lying (One of Us is Lying, #1) & 7. Two Can Keep a Secret
Karen McManus

Synopsis: Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

A new author for me. I enjoyed One Of Us Is Lying a lot. Two Can Keep A Secret wasn’t as great as One Of Us Is Lying but it was a good book. (Does this sentence seem strange to you? With the titles of the books and all, I’ve been staring at this sentence for the past 10 minutes lol.)

8. Can’t Get Enough (Original Heartbreakers, #6) Gena Showalter

And a steamy, witty romance to round off May. I finally read a book by Gena Showalter. I have her YA series on my Kindle which I have yet to read but with Can’t Get Enough, I enjoyed her writing a lot. It was witty and fun and very entertaining.

New Blog Meme
I started a new blog meme, Whatcha Doin’ Wednesday, to celebrate Mental Health. It’s a simple meme designed to make you take a moment and assess your emotions and state of well-being. So often, we don’t stop to think how we are and taking that one moment, to just stop and think and breathe can change your outlook and maybe, improve it.

Well, that’s it for May, folks, 8 books in all and a teensy-eensy new blog meme.