ShayKay's Review of Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

 Synopsis

Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday's contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.

Hidden within Halliday's vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous - and addictive - than even Wade dreamed possible. 

With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest - a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize. 

And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who'll kill millions to get what he wants.

Wade's life and the future of OASIS are again at stake but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.

My Review

So I should've done a little post about what I thought about this book before I picked it up but I'm going to do a little brief thought on it before I picked this one up. I've been dying to read this book since it was announced because I loved the first one. I really wanted to know what happened to the OASIS after the High Five took over. I thought it would be interesting to see what happened to this world and how the gang handles it. 

Well, this book doesn't do that really. It starts off a week after the first one ends and the beginning was so STRONG! There was just so much information in the first 50 pages and I was loving it. I just felt like it was so intense and there was just so much info that I was loving it. But then it kind of teetered off and I was so aggravated with Wade. I get that he had some rough times but I feel like he was just a completely different person this whole book and it started right after those first 50 pages. I just felt like things were emphasized when they didn't need to be. This time there were 7 stages to this quest and the first 4 were amazing and had so much speed and information and it was perfect. But then The 5th stage until the end pretty much was just so frustrating! I ended up giving this book 3.5 stars because of that. I was a solid read and I really appreciated a lot of the things that happened. Even the ending I kind of got a glimpse of what happened to this world but I don't like how it felt like a stereotypical ending for a sci-fi book. I just wanted more from it. So let me know what you all thought of this book so we can talk about it because I really want to love this book but this is all I got right now. 

ShayKay's Review of Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

 

Synopsis from Book

Braden Mack thinks reading romance novels makes him an expert in love, but he'll soon discover that real life is better than fiction.

Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville's hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef-owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she'll need assistance to take on the powerful chef.

Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv's blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He'll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club.

Inspired by the romantic suspense novel they are reading, the book club assists Liv in setting up a sting operation to take down the chef. But they're just as eager to help Mack figure out the way to Liv's heart.... even though she's determined to squelch the sparks between them before she gets burned.

Thoughts Before Reading

I really loved the first book in this series and normally when series change their leads I stop reading them but I've recently started opening my mind up thanks to Abby Jimenez's books. The first book set up the second one really nicely by introducing us to both Mack and Liv. Liv is Thea's sister who was the main female lead of the first book, and at the time she lived with Thea so we got to see her a lot and get glimpses of her life through Thea. Mack on the other hand we had glimpses of through Gavin's perspectives but he was a real pain in the butt. In the first book we also even got to see these two interacts but it was the bare minimum. I'm really curious to see how this one goes. I do want more background on Liv because we got to see her in the first book but I don't think we left her on the best foot, and as for Mack I don't know if there is redemption for him. Mack was definitely that playboy like character that had a jerky attitude so I'm really curious to see how this one is going to play out. 

I even picked this book up before I even got halfway through the second one because I was loving it so much and I was already at the bookstore! This also breaks the fact that I hardly ever read series back to back but this one I was dying to read so I'm jumping into it now. Plus I really love these covers and they are going to be so cute on my shelves. I can't wait for the third one to come out and now that I've read the first one I kind of already know who it's about but I'm curious about how this second one will set up the third one and I really hope it does the same as the first one. 

After Thoughts

OMG! I was excited about this book after reading the first one and I couldn't wait to get into this one! I even picked it up before I wasn't even halfway through the first one when I knew I needed to get the second one and read it immediately after! I flew the second one once I picked it up and I loved it. I loved getting to see Mack and Liv going from barely knowing each other to falling in love! But that being said I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like this book as much as the first one. The first one I feel like had a different feeling towards it since it was all about finding out how to save Gavin and Thea's marriage meanwhile this one was definitely an enemy to lovers with a twist of revenge thrown and a lot of people don't like enemies to lovers trope. I on the other hand can like it if it's done correctly. I feel like this one had a lot of layers and wasn't the typical enemies to lovers because I wouldn't qualify Liv and Mack as enemies in the beginning. Liv just really had her guard up the whole time and its hard for her to trust men, which is something we experienced in the first book. I think I honestly loved this one more than the first one, which is another rarety! Normally the first book is always the best because it sets up the series but this one I feel like had more depth. I also enjoyed that the book scenes weren't in this one like they were in the first one. I feel like that one just kept taking me out of the story. Now there were still sections of their book in this one so it wasn't gone entirely, I just think it ran together more smoothly in this one. I really can't wait for the third one to come out! It comes out in October. The only thing that I'm worried about is the next one follows Alexis and I'm not sure how I feel about her however I loved Noah and he is definitely someone that I want to learn more about.

ShayKay's Review of Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyers

Synopsis from the Book

Thoughts Before Reading

So I think I mentioned how I wasn't thrilled about this book and probably wasn't going to pick it up. This lasted about a week. I heard such great things about this book that I was interested in it and even now as I hold it I'm skeptical. It sounds like its an amazing story and I'm certainly curious. I just don't think I'm going to enjoy it. Normally when the same story is told just in another perspective I hate it. I hate rereading a story like that and would prefer to have a new story with their perspective in that world instead. But I promise I'm going into this open-minded and very curious. I just don't know. If I give it a 4-stars or higher I am going to reread the whole series and do a whole collection on it.  I just don't know how today Shay would rate these books today. But I promise if I love this one as much as everyone is telling me I will I will definitely do a reread of them all. 

Halfway Through Thoughts

I'm about halfway through this massive book and I'm loving it! I'll admit that I was really anxious to pick the book up because I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I didn't know if I would love it like I did back in middle school, over ten years ago! Well let me tell you this book pulls me back into this world so flawlessly and I love it. I think the time away has done really good for this world because I really couldn't remember much of the little things that happen in these books/movies since it's been so long and I've loved being back in this world! I have been thoroughly obsessed since I picked up this new book. The weekend following after getting this book it was really rainy where I live so we spent all day Sunday watching all of the movies! I was reminded of some of the things that happened that I've forgotten about. I really feel like if this book keeps continuing where it's going I'm going to have to reread the whole series again. I really want to do book vs movie comparisons. A lot of people have been mentioning that this one is so good because Meyers has grown a lot and you really see that showcased in this book and I want to agree but I need to reread the series to do that. I think one of the things that I'm going to do is pick up the audiobook so that I can fly through them a lot faster than I would if I try to reread them on my own.  We'll just have to wait and see how this goes. I've been mentioning how much I really want to continue on with my book vs movie comparison series and I just haven't done it since Crazy Rich Asians so it is something that I really need to do as soon as possible. I have a lot of books that I can do that with, plus now that I'm thinking about doing rereads of my favorite books growing up it opens a lot more doors for content that I think will come out really good so I really just need to jump into it, such as Hunger Games, Secret Life of a Hollywood Star, and even the Marked series, There's just so much that I could do with it. 

Anyways back to the book I really love how Edward's book feels like a completely different story. Instead of it starting where the first book started we actually start off when we meet them in the cafeteria which makes a lot of sense. He talks about how he feels which is something that we never got to see and all of his experiences are completely different and really a whole new book in itself. Meyers has announced that she wants to publish two more books but neither of them will be in his perspective again. I really want to see more stories in his perspective but if that isn't an option I think it would be really fun to see how their lives continued, maybe do like a 100-year jump or something really distant in the future to see how the Cullens live and moved on from Forks, it would be cool to see how Renesmee and Jacob's story went too, or maybe even a story focused on the Volturi would be really cool. We've gotten glimpses on how the Volturi was formed but I think an in-depth look would be really interesting plus we would get that backstory and maybe even Carlisle's time with them. It would be a different type of story. Then everyone wants Jacob and Renesmee's story and I really agree with that would be really fun to see and to be honest it would tie in the Cullens' story after Forks since she is growing so fast they would have to relocate soon I would think and it would be a process that I think would be interesting to see. So this a few ideas that I would love to see if we won't get any more views into Edward's perspective. I would also love to see an Alice origin story which is another idea that has been really popular and to be fair we really haven't gotten much of an Alice backstory that I can remember anyway. I don't know I have a lot of ideas and reading this book has really made me want to experience all of them. Well let me go finish this book and we'll see how it ends. But as of right now I really want to give it 5-stars and I can't wait to finish it and see how the rest of the story goes. 

After Thoughts

So technically I finished this book over a week ago but I needed time to process my feelings about it. As soon as I finished this book I instantly wanted to give it 5-stars and I was OBSESSED with it! It was such a fun read and it really was able to take me back to when I was obsessed with Twilight. I was a huge Twilight nerd back when the movies were coming out, I mean hello I was team Jacob! Anyways I was very skeptical of this book when it was announced that it was coming out. I really felt like it was just going to be another money grab, much like what's going on with the Harry Potter series at the moment (totally breaks my heart because HP will forever be my fandom). Especially after I heard about it just being a retelling of the first book but from Edward's point of view. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post I really hate when authors retell the same story but from another point of view because they just get boring to me. I want that suspense of not knowing what is going to happen next in the story and with retellings of the same story we already know everything that is going to happen it just has different ideas behind why they are happening. This isn't what happened with this book. 

This book ended up being really amazing! I wasn't bored with reading about the same story over and over. The retelling really was only a minor guideline for the book, and by that, I mean Midnight sun took the basic storyline that happened in Twilight and then expanded on it. I feel like everything that happened in Twilight happened in this book, at least the parts that involved Edward, and then the book expanded on it to add Edward's thoughts. I really honestly loved this book. I don't feel like it was a retelling. I loved being able to see Edward's thoughts towards Bella because neither the book nor movie really accurately portrayed it. I also really enjoyed the backstories of the rest of the Vampire world. I thought it was really fun and tied all of the books together so well. Even though we got to see the rest of the vampire world grow and evolve throughout the whole series, but it wasn't until the last two that really got to learn about the backstories of our Cullens along with their friends. 

I needed to wait to write this because I really needed to think about my feelings. Was I just in love with this book so much because it been so long since I read the series? It has been over 10 years since I've been in this world and to be honest I don't really obsess over this fandom anymore. I can't sit here and watch the movies over and over like I can with Harry Potter. I haven't even reread the books since at least high school if not middle school, but I still have them on my shelves. They mostly stay on my shelves now due to the sentimental value that they hold for me. So I really wanted to think about whether or not this book meant this much to me because of itself or because it reminded me so much of this world, and since I've gotten to think about it I know I love this book because of how amazing it is on its own. I loved it and I think it did the series a lot of justice because it reopened people's eyes to it as well as brought in a whole new generation with it. I think Meyers has more planned and I'm honestly really excited about it! I really want to reread the series now and see how I feel about the books today. The younger me loved the third book the most because its when we got to see the backstories of the Cullens and I felt like really built onto this world. I loved it, but will today me agree with that? I needed to reread them all. The 4th one had potential and I remember loving parts of it, but I felt like it was too dragged out and I couldn't deal with it. The newest book even though its a retelling felt like a new book and I loved it. I was honestly hooked from the very beginning and I cannot wait for the next books to come out.

ShayKay's Review of The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

 

Synopsis From Book

The first rule of book club: You don't talk about a book club. 

Nashville's legends' second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in trouble. He's recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife, Thea, has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it's the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he's let his pride and fear get the better of him. 

Welcome to the bromance book club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency novel titled Counting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner-hero and win back the trust of his wife.

Thoughts Before Reading

I've been dying to read this book since it came out but I just have never picked it up! I finally picked it up back in May right before I was leaving for my wedding and I have been really wanting to pick it up. I really think and hope that it is going to be 5-stars because it is something that I really want to continue reading. The book is the first in a series. I just think it's an interesting take on a romance novel because we are following a male lead as he tries to get the girl. Plus it has a book club! I think it's going to be so cute and such a fun read! I know each book follows different people in the club and this one is the build-up for the rest of the books. I just think they are so cute and I need to read it now!

I haven't started it yet and I've been carrying it around for a couple days though. I've just been really pretty with work and I've been really trying to catch my other blog up since I've had a mess over there. A little life update for everyone. Plus September is one of my busiest months of the year since it's my husband's birthday and I'm getting ready for our Halloween festivities, and this year I have some final wedding stuff to finish this month. So let's jump into this read.

After Thoughts

So I just finished this book and I hate that I missed the middle of the book check-in but I really loved it so much. I hate that it has taken me this long to pick it up as well but I'm glad that I finally did. This was hands down a 5-star read for me. I loved the humor in this book and overall it was a fun laid back read. Looking back I feel like some of the things were really rushed but I didn't read this book expecting it was going to be the next Shakespeare I read it for fun and something light and this book delivered I really love it and it was a great read. I even picked up the next book before I was even halfway through this one. The books follow this guy whose marriage is failing and he is fighting to save it and it was amazing because of the humor that the bromance club brought to the book! The next one follows the sister and Mack! I hope it is going to be even more fun and cute because there was a moment in this book between the two and I feel like it would be perfect for them. I really loved Gavin and Thea and this book even had a lot of layers in it but some of the stuff I feel like could've been done better. I feel like the end of the book was really rushed and could've been done better.

Last Half of 2020 New Releases that I need ASAP!

September

This one, like a couple others on this list, I have had the first book in the series since they came out and I really want to read them but I just haven't picked them up yet. Sometimes when the sequels are getting ready to come out and they sound good it helps motivate me to pick up the first one and then read the second one immediately after. Not always, but there's been a few times that those were my motivations. This one comes out on September 1, and it is another one that a lot of people really wish is a BOTM pick for September.

This one is just like the one above it and I picked up the first book as soon as it came out and I really wanted to read it because it sounded amazing, but I just haven't done that yet. The book comes out on September 1 and is one that I know won't be a book of the month option because the first one wasn't either. I really want to pick it up soon because the first one really reminded me of the book I've been playing with whenever I have spare time. 

This book is one that I most likely will not pick up, but I really wish I could. Clare's books will always hold a special part in my heart however, I just cannot get into this world anymore and I try really hard! This one is part of the series that follows Alec and Magnus who are some of my favorite characters in the series. This comes out on September 1st. I really wish I could get back into this world and love them as much as I loved the first three but I just can't. Most of the time I just get super bored with them. 

There are so many Twisted Tales books that are out now and I've got almost all of them but I've only read about 4 or 5 of them. Is that going to stop me from wanting this one? Absolutely not. It won't be one that I will pick up the day it comes out but it will be one that I will want to read eventually. A lot of times I can find the Twisted Tales on BookBub a few months after they come out for like $1.99 which I normally always get but I really love them on my shelves because they are so pretty! Anyways this one comes out September 1st, which seems to be a big day in the book world.

There was no way I couldn't put this book on the list. No, I'm nowhere near being ready to read this book but is that going to stop me from picking it up as soon as it comes out? Nope. I honestly should've bought the signed edition but I'm really holding off getting a signed JD Robb for when I can get it done in person. I really need to dive hard into this series because it's my favorite and it's getting hard for me to admit that since I am only book 28ish out of 51. This one comes out on September 8! I can't wait. One of the things I really want to do is reread the whole series but finish it out this time. I have a lot of ideas of things I want to do for this blog but I just haven't had time to actually do them yet. 

This is one of the books that I found while making this list and I've heard nothing about it but it sounds really good. I think it is going to be something that I will love reading and can't wait to pick up. It comes out on September 15 and the best way I can explain it is definitely chick-lit. The book follows a socialite who ends up living with someone who is totally unexpected and they develop feelings. It gives off flatshare vibes, but I never read flatshare either. But I really wanted too I just never picked it up. 

 

Well Played by Jen DeLuca is a book you may have seen a few times on my blog before now. I really loved the first one and I have wanted to read this one as soon as I finished the first one. This is one that I really hope to see in the Book of the Month September books but I just don't know. Anyways this book comes out on September 22, and even though I'm so excited about this book I'm a little bit nervous because this one doesn't follow the same characters that we were. This time we are following Stacey who we saw in the first one but she was only a side character. I wasn't that attached to her in the first book but I really liked the way DeLuca made that book so I'm curious about this one.

I feel like I have this one on my list because in a way I'm obligated to read it. I usually always pick up Sparks works but as I've gotten older I just don't think they are for me anymore. The last one was okay, and even a Book of the Month book. But I liked the real-life stuff behind the book so much more than the actual book. His books have always been hit and miss with me but his newer stuff has been more misses than hits. So I don't know if its something that I will pick up but it is something that I'm curious about. It actually comes out on my husband's birthday, which is September 29. 

The Three Mrs. Wrights comes out on September 29th and it follows what I think is three, maybe four, perspectives. The three women have a lot in common but they have never known one another. But then they all find out that they are all dating the same person. This sounds like a fun laid back read that I really want to pick up but since this list is going to be really long I won't be able to pick them all up but definitely, a few of them will be added to my TBR pile.

October

I have never read a V.E. Schwab book but I have Vicious on my shelves and this one sounds really interesting. I get little Twilight vibes from it since it spans over so long. I think it is going to be really interesting and definitely something I've heard a lot of cool stuff about. I don't know if I will pick this up immediately or read Vicious first to see if I like her writing style. This one comes out on October 6th. 

I've been so curious series since the very first one and I even picked up the first one not too long ago. I just think it seems like a really cute series and something that I will love to so I just need to stop looking at it on my bookcase and read it because of look at how adorable this one looks! Plus I feel like it came out really fast right after the second one. This one comes out on October 27th! 

November

The Cul-de-Sac comes out on November 10th and it is one of those cute books that sounds like something that is right up my alley. I want to pick it up and it is something that I just found while looking up books for this list. I need more cute standalone like this. They seem to be what I read the most of. 

The Awakening is the first in Roberts' newest trilogy and I'm really curious about it. All I know is that its about dragons. It comes out on November 24.

I can't express how excited I am for this book. I really hope it is a Book of the Month pick for November since the first one is and I can't wait to see it. I know nothing about this book and so much has been kept secret about it so the mystery is definitely pulling me in too. I can't wait to see what this one is about. It comes out on November 24th! I've been looking for arcs for this one and I haven't been successful, and after what happened with Clare's book I really think arcs are going to get harder to find. 

December

I haven't really seen anything for December yet that I feel like I have to have so I'll update this list or do another post for it later on in the year. 

August 2020 Book Haul

Book of the Month Pick

As always we will start with Book of the Month. It is the one constant that I will always get but this month was a real struggle! This seems to be happening a lot lately. Last month I only got Head over Heels so that I could get my add-ons and then this month I kind of did the same thing because I wanted to use my birthday add-on to get the final Riley Sager book that I didn't have which was Lock Every Dook. Now I'm going to be completely honest I think this is the one Sager book that I'm not completely interested in. I want to read it because of the author though so we'll see how it goes. Right off the bat none of this month's selection appealed to me but as I started reading the synopsis of all of the books and The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes sounds amazing and really gave me Evelyn Hugo vibes so I can't wait to read about it. The Night Swim sounded really good too and can't wait to jump into it. All of the pictures are linked to Goodreads.

  

ShayKay's August 2020 Wrap Up

This time I think I'm going to start with my 5-star reads and work my way down. I think it will be interesting to see how it goes. I've been in a reading mood all month, however, I started a new job plus school started so I just don't have as much time to read as I did. This month I also wanted to do the rainbow challenge and I kind of did it until I picked up Midnight Sun and I've been in this bubble almost all month since this is a chunker!

5-Stars

This one shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but I loved this read. I did have a hard time getting into this book, but you can read about that here since I did make a post about it. I learned that I really loved the audiobook versions too. I started reading this one and I was just in a reading slump that I wasn't feeling it so I ended up putting it down and came back to the audio version. I'm really trying to get through my backstock of Book of the Month books so whenever I get the audio version I love it and helps me fly through them. But even then first 50 pages were a little rough, but I got into it eventually and just couldn't stop reading it. I hope to finish Lock Every Door this month too but we'll see. 

4-Stars

This is technically the first book that I finished this month and I loved it! I got it for my birthday and I really wanted to finish it before I watched the newest season but it kind of coincided with one another. Anyways I hate rating comics since they are really short and I didn't have a lot of experience with them. However, my collection has gotten really big and I've started to learn a little bit more about what I like and don't like within the comic book world. But that being said I only have like 4 series in my collection. I really want to read Avatar the Last Airbender series but I don't have any plans for that right now. I ended up giving this book 4-stars because there were some parts that I just got bored with but I love how different this is compared to the show. I really like both for their own unique reasons and they really are completely different from one another. I want to continue on with the series eventually but again I don't have any plans as of today to pick up the next book yet but it will happen soon, and it will probably be closer to Christmas. 

3-Stars

This was my Book of the Month pick this month and I was so thrilled for it because the synopsis of this book sounded amazing! It literally should've been a 5-star read for me. It had mixed media, talking about celebrity life, and really reminded me of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones both books by Taylor Jenkins Reid. But obviously, I didn't love this one. You can read more about my feelings toward this book here. But long story short, I loved the beginning of this book. It really was set up for success. I loved the characters, it really didn't do go in the direction that I thought it would but I loved these surprises. However, it started losing me towards the middle and by the end, I was just dragging through the book. I feel like it really tried to use everything but it didn't need it. I think if they would've gone more tragic back towards the middle of the book it would've been better. Like with Alex. If you read this book you know pretty early on that something tragic was going to happen to him, but I felt like it was going to be very tragic and happen pretty soon. It took the whole book for it to happen and I was so aggravated by it. Unfortunately, I think if something horrible would've happened it would've been more interesting for me and worked better with the story. Then the whole thing went way downhill and took turns that I feel like made no sense. So really thinking about this book now I feel like 3-stars was really generous and should've been more 1-2 star. Or whatever I gave Daisy Jones because that wasn't my favorite book either. I might have to rethink Reid like I've had to do with Greer and Hendricks books. But unlike their books feel like Daisy Jones isn't something that I can really rate Reid on since it is written totally different than her other books and just doesn't work for me. 

2- Stars

Head Over Heels is another Book of the Month books that I picked up this month and to be fair it wasn't a horrible book. It was a light read contemporary book that I picked up because I needed a pick to get the add ons. But as I was looking into it after I had it I felt like it was something that I would love. It was chick-lit, about gymnastics, and kind of like a comeback story. But this book just let me down. Like I feel like it would've been better if there was more growth in it. You can read about my disappointment here. 

ShayKay's Review of The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan

 

This review is going to be really different than normal since I picked it up and read it as soon as I got it and didn't make up the template for the post at all so we don't have a before I read, halfway through, or even a synopsis this time around. I got this book through Book of the Month club which has opened my eyes to so many adult books that I would never have found or picked up on my own and honestly is usually a really great deal. This is actually my August pick so you'll see it again in my end of the month book haul. So let's jump into it.

I loved the synopsis of this book and had so much hope for it. To be completely honest the synopsis reminded me a lot of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones books. One I absolutely loved and the other was just okay. So I picked this book with a lot of optimism that it was going to be an amazing book! After I ordered people in the groups I'm in were raving about it too and some were also linking it to Reid's work. I really wanted to love it and expected too. But that's not what happened.

First I feel like the beginning was really good, the middle was good too, but then it took a wrong turn and just failed by the ending for me. I loved how the book started. Throughout the book we go between Cassidy's experiences starting her singing career, during her career, and the downfall of it. We even get to see behind the scenes and at the beginning of the book I lived for these moments because they were so interesting. In the other part of the book, we would alternate between the three other women's points of view. This shifts by the end and we'll talk about that in a minute. This first third of the book was an amazing build-up and definitely leading towards a 5-star read for me. This part really had some curveballs too which just added to my love for this book starting out. Without giving any spoilers we were reading an event really in the beginning that should've gone one way since this was supposed to be Cassidy's prime but then it did the complete opposite and we watch her deal with the disappointments.

So as I said the beginning of the book I really loved Cassidy's point of view more than the others but towards the middle or maybe a little bit before that, I started appreciating these points of view. Their views happen current day so we see the way after their prime and how they are barely even celebrities anymore. All three of them are living completely different lives from one another and even the one they lived with Cassidy. Most of the format of the book we would see them explaining what they thought about what we just read about with Cassidy or foreshadowing what is about to happen in Cassidy's story. I really preferred the foreshadowing. The biggest foreshadowing that I was really thrilled about was about Alex who is a love interest in the book and it made a sound like he was going to die or something catastrophic was going to happen to him really soon in the book. By that point, I was ready for some drama because Cassidy's story was really slow-burning and I loved their story together. But no that didn't happen how I was hoping. There was something that happened to him that was horrible but that doesn't happen until the end of the book! Which took forever because this book is a chunker! The things that happened with Cassidy started to not make sense to me anymore and I started getting really aggravated with her because I wanted more and was hoping for it. Towards the end of the middle of the book, it took a massive 180 that just felt like made no sense whatsoever, and I'm going to have to use spoilers to explain this part so if you want to read this book without spoilers I'll see you next time! If you don't care scroll a little further down and we'll talk some.

***** Spoilers Below *****

Okay, above I mentioned that towards the end of the book something happens with Cassidy that made no sense to me and this is when she starts having feelings for Rose and her for Cassidy. Up until this point, Rose has been horrible to her and obsessed with the fourth member that Cassidy actually replaced in the band. Up until this point, I had vibes that Rose felt that way towards that other member and I loved it but never thought these two had any chemistry. The only interactions we saw was Rose being horrible to Cassidy. Also up until this point, Cassidy was questioning her feelings towards Alex and I got it. He was her best friend that connected her to her old life pre-stardom so she didn't want to let that go even though she wasn't really feeling those feelings towards him anymore, if ever. But she never acted like she was attracted to females ever in this story. If it wasn't Alex she was talking about it was Stephen which I get he was horrible and definitely not good for her. But these were both guys. I get that it is hard to express her feelings completely in a book but would it have been so hard to show her questioning her sexuality somewhere between the beginning of the book and the end of it? I mean it was like a switch flipped and boom she was all about Rose and wanting that relationship and just made 0 sense to me. This really annoyed me but I was already getting annoyed with the book at this point. 

I hated how the today perspective warned me about how some horrible thing was going to happen to Alex, which it did don't get me wrong and it was Cassidy's fault sort of. But it took the whole book for this to happen, and I felt like the foreshadow should've been faster since it was all really one thing was talked about and then boom it would've happened. I just felt like this was all really problematic and now every time Alex showed up in the book I was expecting something was going to happen and kill him off and when it happened it was disappointing. 

When I finished with the book I decided that it was more like Daisy Jones since it was about a band, the start of it, and the demise of it. But I feel like Daisy Jones did it better and we all know that wasn't my favorite Reid book. Since I really loved the beginning of this book I ended up giving it 3-stars. I just didn't love it like I thought I was going too and it really was more of a let down than anything.

Midyear Freak Out Tag

I know I'm late to this but I've been watching all of the BookTubers doing this tag since June and I've contemplated doing one myself over but I've been putting it off since I didn't know how well it would translate to blog format. But since my content has been pretty dismal lately I feel like it would be a great thing to do and make it a yearly thing that I'll do in June from now on but this is going to be interesting to see the answers. 

As always the links to these books will be on the picture and will take you to Goodreads so that you can see more of the book, have links to where you can purchase them, and see what other people think about them.

1. Best Book You've Read so far in 2020

I had a really hard time deciding on what is the best book I read this year. I've so far have had an amazing reading year. I've already read 32 books (which is a lot for me) out of the 40 books for the year that I have planned to read. Out of all of those books, I have 14 5-star books! So there was a lot of competition for my favorite of the year so far. I ended up leaving this one for the last question to answer because I really like to only use a book once on a list and since I had so many I couldn't pick just one and while working the list I was able to come up with my favorite which is Red, White, and Royally Blue. This book is one of the first ones that I read for the year and it was so much fun reading it. McQuiston wrote such a beautiful book and I cannot wait to read more from her. I think everything in the book was just perfect! I loved the writing, the story, the characters, just everything in this book was perfect so of course, this one had to be on the list I just wasn't sure where. If you want to see more of my thoughts on the book here is the post that I made for it. 

2. Best Sequel You've Read so far in 2020

I knew I was going to have to have The Happy Ever After Playlist on this list somewhere I just had no clue where it was going to go just yet. This is another one that I don't think I gave it it's own post but it definitely deserved it. I did add it to my May wrap up and it even made it onto my Spring Readathon that I was doing at the time. I actually got this book while I was in North Carolina getting married and I just love getting a book and a postcard wherever I travel so that I can have a little memento. I write up what we did on the postcard and put it in the book for it to live. Anyways this book could've gone under a lot of different categories but I ultimately decided that it needed to go under the best sequel because I haven't loved that many sequels I read this year. This book was just amazing and I love how it tied so much of the first book into it. Usually, romance books like this when there are sequels you follow a new character that you were introduced to in the first book but we don't see much of the first book transfer over to the new book. I hate when series follow different characters because it's hard for me to get connected to the characters when it is always swapping. I think Jimenez did perfectly and I loved it so much. I actually picked this up without knowing it was a sequel and I was loving this book so much that I picked up the first one in audio form to listen on the drive home. I learned that Jimenez is potentially a new auto-buy author too. So this book just opened up so many doors for me and I just love it.

3. New Release you Haven't Read Yet but Want To

 

I feel like this one and the last question are basically the same so I'm going to put the two books that I know were released this summer that I already own and want to read really, really soon so here they are. To be completely open I was going to pick up Midnight Sun. I wasn't really excited about it, I'm not really into the supernatural world anymore, and I typically hate books that are the same story but told from a different perspective. So all of these things should equal out to be saving money and not picking it up. The last time that I've read the twilight books was probably back in middle school when I read them with all my best friends and we would go tonight premiers and everything. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious about it. Most of the time I reread books because of the nostalgia and I feel like I should reread the series and read this one. Plus I mean if anything we could get some really good content out of it since I've been wanting to start a series where I reread some of my favorite books growing up which includes Twilight. I have already bought it because when I'm mad or hurt my bookstore is my therapy place and I was mad this week and it was there so hey it came home with me. Spoiler it will be in my August wrap up. I'm also dying to do another book vs movie. The only reason I haven't is one they take a lot of work and two I've just not been reading anything. All of this adds up to feeling like its time to go back into this world.

The Boyfriend Material on the other hand is something that I just purely want to read. It seems like it is going to be a fun read and remind me a lot of Red, White, and Royally Blue so I'm really curious how its written. It's a new author and it was surprisingly not that expensive. I'm so used to adult paperback books being $15-20 but this one was only $12! So I just had to pick it up. 

4.  Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of the Year

    

 

Okay, so I've gone through everything on my list to see what I had coming out between now and the end of the year just to see what I'm curious about, and to be honest the only thing that was coming to mind was Ready Player Two! I've been dying for this since I read the first book and now that it is coming I'm thrilled! Ready Player Two is scheduled to be released on November 24, 2020, and I so hope that it does come out as planned I really want to preorder it but I'm nervous. We have no clue what it is going to be about and even on Goodreads it doesn't give much away. So I'm so curious but very hesitant about it. The way this year is going I'm going to stay optimistic about this book and hope that it comes out as scheduled and we get a little synopsis on it in the next few weeks. 

Since that was the only book coming to mind I went through all of the books I read last year to see what else had sequels coming out because I knew Well Met did but I didn't know what else did so I now have a couple others that I'm really curious about and hope that at least two of them will be a book of the month picks in September and October. Well Played comes out on September 22 so I really hope it's a BOTM pick. But it does follow different characters so I'm curious how it plays out. DeLuca has already said that we will see our OG's but they won't be a main focal point. Troubles in Paradise is actually the third book in Hilderbrand's series and I really hope it will be a pick in October however I feel like the subscription service and Hildrebrand might be having issues because her book over the summer wasn't a pick because they didn't want the subscription to be a Hilderbrand subscription service and she made a post about it. I'm truly sad because this is where I discovered my love for her and really hope that a third book is an option because I need it in my life. This series is amazing and again where I was introduced to Hilderbrand's work and since then I've been picking up her other books as much as possible. If it isn't I'll just have to pick it up on October 6.

During my search, I feel wrong if I don't include Roberts. Nora Roberts is my true adult fiction love and what really got me immersed in adult fiction. She has two books coming out in the fall/winter and the first one is Shadows in Death which is going to be book 51 in the In Death series which is another reason I want to reread that series. I love it so much! The second one is called The Awakening which is going to be her newest trilogy and it is the first one in the series. I'm curious about it and going to pick it up. For her books, I usually just pick them and go with it without much information on it, and this one is no different. The only thing I know about is that it has dragons in it or involves dragons in some way. I'm curious I've never read a fantasy book by her before. 

5. Biggest Disappointment

 

I couldn't choose which one is my biggest disappointment for the year so far so I've put both on them here. Now even though they are both disappointments for me they are disappointments for different reasons. For Alex, Approximately I had such big hopes for this book. I really have heard so many good things about it and it sounds like something that I would adore! Since my bookstore had it on sale I picked it up and read it pretty much right after I got it but I was so disappointed. I ended up giving it 2-stars and for more on what I think about it here is the blog that I made for it. I feel like I ROASTED this book and it is because it did one of the things that I hate which is tell you literally everything that is going to happen in its synopsis! So if you do choose to read this book you will enjoy it so much more going into it blind. 

Now as for You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen I ended up being disappointed by it because of the story. Since I've read The Wife Between Us I was addicted to Hendricks and Pekkanen's work however An Anonymous Girl was awful I hated it so much! I told myself that You Are Not Alone was going to be the break it or make it book for me for these authors. It was going to decide for me if they would stay auto buys and An Anonymous Girl was just a fluke OR A Wife Between Us was their unicorn for me and they just aren't for me. Since reading it, well listening to it on Audible, I've decided that 1. I can't just automatically buy every book that these authors put out. I need to really look into it and decide if it is something that I will like. And 2. if I decide that I want to read a new book by them I will listen to it instead of reading it. I feel like they are more enjoyable for me in audiobook versus me reading it for the first time on my own. You Are Not Alone wasn't a terrible book, I even liked it some, but I didn't love it. I didn't do a post for this on its own but I did include it on my June's wrap up. I'm just awful with doing reviews for audiobooks since I normally just pick them up on a whim. 

6. Biggest Surprise

 

I feel like I had to put the Royal We here because one I didn't even know this book existed. I was sort of in a book slump, I wasn't reading anything, it was late at night and I just wanted to read so bad but didn't have any books that really grabbed my attention at the moment so I saw this one on probably my BookBub email for the day because it was on sale and it sounded so interesting to me. I mean it is a book about an American girl going to England for a semester and falling in love with a prince, like a freaking Hallmark movie that I'm just trash for. Well, the second I bought this book I couldn't put it down! I was staying up until 4-5 in the morning just reading this book and I was living for it! To my surprise, there was a sequel that was coming out the very next day which just pushed me to read through this thing even faster. So I feel like this qualifies it as my biggest surprise of the year so far. Is it the best book ever in the world? No, but it is still a very fun read. You can see what I thought of it and the sequel here. I kind of really want a third book too even though the sequel wasn't as good but if it takes another 5 years to come out I don't know if I'll pick it up. 

After by Anna Todd I needed on this list somewhere and I really had no clue where to put it so I think under biggest surprise will be best. Unlike the Royal We I've seen After EVERYWHERE! I think it got really big while it was on Wattpad so when it started being printed I saw it just everywhere at the bookstore, but my curiosity about it didn't start until the movie came out on Netflix. I watch Tessa and Hardin all the time on Netflix and I just love the movie so much it is probably in the top 10 of my favorite movies on Netflix. I've been really curious about the series since I watched the movie but I couldn't ever talk myself into buying the book since it costs so much money, like $18 since it is adult fiction. Also, I hate the first book with the movie poster cover so when school came to an end, we were under lockdown, and I was just stuck at the house I caved and started renting from the library and this one is what I picked up and I'm so glad that I did. I love Tess and Hardin and even though I don't love them together I had so much fun reading this series. I want to pick up the physical copies soon but until then I can love my eBooks just as much. I might even do reread soon, I just really dislike the middle two books I think they were unnecessary. Since I read these all back to back, and literally did nothing for a week straight but read these books I even made a post for them so here is that post. I go more in-depth as to why I didn't much care for the middle books and how much I loved the first book. 

7. Favorite New Author (Debut or New To You)

Riley Sager isn't a new author, but he is definitely new to me. I've been avoiding Sager ever since he has been appearing on Book of the Month club. I just felt like his books wouldn't be for me because they aren't my typical reads. However, one of my favorite series is a mystery based so I don't know why Final Girls was something I was avoiding so hard. But the second that I read Final Girls I just knew that I needed to read the rest of Sager's work which I have started accumulating through Book of the Month. I just got the last one this month and I really need to just sit down and read them. I started The Last Time I Lied, but I just couldn't get into it. That's on me, not the book, I've just been in a reading slump. If you want to see how my read of this one went here is a post that I made on it.

8. Newest Fictional Crush

Hideaway by Nora Roberts wasn't my favorite Roberts book, even though it should've been. You can see why it should've been here, and more explanations about why and how it went wrong for me. But one of the things that it really did right was the male character. One of the things that Roberts's standalone books do well is write in a love interest and this one was no different I LOVED Dillon so much! I think he was the perfect side character and helped the book so much. But I usually always love her men characters, um Roarke is like the GOAT of fictional crushes and if you don't know who Roarke is I've definitely failed you. 

9. Newest Favorite Character

Beach Read by Emily Henry I feel like I just read at the right time. I read this right after I got back from the beach and it was just so cute and light-hearted. Something that I feel like we can all use while we were all stuck at our houses. I love the characters and I really want more like this from Henry. June was such a great reading month for me and blogging because I posted so much content in June. Here is a post that I made for Beach Read because I suck at doing little snippets of thoughts for books I read. This really does a good job of explaining why I waited so long to do my freak out tag! I was too busy reading! 

10. A Book that Made You Cry

Okay so this is going to be one of the weirder picks on this list but I'm not just picking the first book in the series I'm picking all of Saga. When we ordered new cases for our phones I also used the money to get the rest of the comics that I was missing. There are like 9 volumes I think. They are all so amazing. I've laughed, I've cried, I've gotten so mad at them, and I've fallen in love with them. This series follows the story about a baby who's parents are supposed to be on opposite sides in this war that has been going on for forever. It's all very star warsy as to how its all different alien species with two dominant species using other planets to fight out their war. The last one came out a while ago but I so hope that there are more because the last one just broke my heart! The creators said they were going on hiatus but that was like 2-3 years ago. I did make a post about this last read-through since I read it from Vol. 1 all the way through volume 9 here. 

11. A Book that Made You Happy

Even though I loved this book I had some issues with it. I hated some of her decisions throughout the story and really didn't like the ending but overall I loved the story. It was just such an interesting take on the bachelor/bachelorette and so much fun to read. This is also the book that I took floating down the river that didn't survive too well. You can see how that adventure went here. 

12. Most Beautiful Book You've Bought so far this Year (Or Received)

Okay, this picture is just not doing this book cover justice and I know this is so freaking shocking for me to pick. I normally always pick book covers that are colorful and flashy and I could've picked one of those but I honestly really love this book and its cover is amazing. In real life, it's hardback the black is like that satin feel cover and the emblem is super shiny white and silver writing. It's really beautiful and the picture really doesn't do it any justice. Plus this comic is amazing and if you haven't seen the Netflix show of it you are really doing an injustice because it is AMAZING! 

13. What Books Do you Need to Read by the End of the Year?

Gosh, I have so many books that I need/want to read before the end of the year. As I mentioned above this one and 2020 releases I still need to read really go hand in hand with one another. Up there I mentioned an In Death book coming out soon and I really want to do a full read-through of the In Death series or read any of them I'd be really happy because I haven't read any of them this year! I would love to read all of my backstock of Book of the Month books too so those are always top priorities for me. I actually just made a very embarrassing post of books that I have on my TBR pile that are all Book of the Month books. I pick them with all intentions to read them as soon as I get them but life just has other plans. Then I have a bunch of new books that I've bought that I would love to read, such as the Boyfriend Project and Midnight Sun, so I'm just going to add a bunch of book covers below with links to each one that I would love to read before the year ends. But here are some books that I haven't picked up yet that I think look really good and would love to read before the year ends. Or books that I have sitting on my shelves staring at me, telling me, hey um you've had me for like ever but haven't read me yet! 

            

I know I won't get to all of these books but I would love to read them all before the year ends so we'll see what happens. If I ended up reading them all I'd be even happier but I would be happy with reading at least 4 of them so we'll see. I know I'm currently working on Cassidy Holmes so I'll at least get one finished!

So this was fun if you all like it let me know and we will definitely try to make this something that happens more. I would love to get to the point that I'm reading enough to on Sunday and then do something like this on Wednesday but we'll see. I wish it wasn't so sporadic but I don't read as much and it's only going to get worse as school starts.