ShayKay's June Wrap Up

June was a fantastic reading month! The summer months always seem to better reading months for me than any other time of the year. I don't typically have school or anything else going on other than work so it leaves me with a lot more free time. But this summer has been sort of flipped. I have online classes but I'm still looking for a new job so I have some free time to read. Anyways this month I've read a total of (9 how many books)! That's amazing! Out of those books, there were (audiobooks), (6 comics), (ebooks), and (3 physical books). I think I read so much over the summers because I love going on the boat or just float somewhere and read while my dogs and family play in the water. It's just relaxing and I can't take my electronics so it's freeing and it leaves me with just physical books to read. 

A little more break down before we jump into a little detail of what was read, I had (how many 1-stars), (2-stars), (3-stars), (4-stars), and (5-stars).

Each of the sections is broken down first by their star ratings, and then in order of when I read them. I did the lowest ratings to the top-rated this month.

The links to all of the Goodreads pages for each of the books listed below should be on the picture, just have to click the picture of the book to be taken to the Goodreads page if you are interested in the book itself, and I'll list out the ones that have blog posts too. This month I think I blogged a lot! I think the HouseCupAThon really helped with that.  

2-Star Read

I actually had a 2-star read this month! I didn't hate this book! To be honest my review came from the fact that the synopsis gave everything away! If that didn't happen I would've at least gave it 3-stars because I did enjoy a lot of the book. I also hated how Bailey and Porter had so many chances to come clean and tell each other who they were so many times that it drove me nuts! Then there was some pretty cringy parts that I don't think needed to be in the book, it could've been like assumed instead of went through if that makes any sense. They had some intimate moments and I'm not opposed to that stuff in books but I don't think this book needed it, at least not how it was done in this book. To be completely honest I totally forgot that I even read this book until I looked back on my Goodreads to see what I read this month to make this post. Like I said in my review for the book I was really looking forward to this book and I went in with full intentions to love it but unfortunately, that isn't how it went and I'm just done talking about this thing now. 

3-Star Read

Since I just wrote the 2-Star read for June I was thinking maybe this book should've been a 2-star but then I was comparing the Safe Place and Alex, Approximately and I'm sure this book is still a 3-star read for me. I did a full book review on this one as well. Again I had so much hope for this book because it was an ARC and I love it when I get ARCs, and only apply for books that I know that I want to read. This book sounded so fun and interesting to me and as I was reading it I kept getting The Wife Between Us vibes, but it fell short of that and I definitely hated how the book ended. I just felt let down there. I go more into detail over on my post about it. 

I read/listened to You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen really late last night and I liked it. It was okay, but it wasn't The Wife Between Us level. I don't think it had that shock value that the first book did. Now I did enjoy this one more than An Anonymous Girl. I think their books are just something that I need to listen to through audiobook to enjoy, but I don't think I'll love them like I did The Wife Between Us. That book had its dull moments too don't get me wrong but they were for a reason and it picked up really fast. This book I think was good, but not something I'm going to reread. I got really annoyed with Shay and the whole time we knew something was going on with the sisters. The 'big reveal' I don't think was shocking, it really fell flat for me. I kept saying that this book was going to be the tiebreaker for me since I loved The Wife Between Us and I hated An Anonymous Girl. I decided that this one was going to tell me if I will continue with the authors or that my love for their first book is just a fluke. I think if I do continue with them it will be through audiobooks since I really seem to like them through audiobook more than reading it myself, but the new book needs to sound really good and have amazing reviews before I pick it up. 

4-Star Read

 

Saga has quickly become my favorite comic book series and I've never left one without loving it. Even though this is a 4-star read it doesn't mean I didn't love this book. I just finished what the series has out and I was incredibly lucky enough to by the last 6 volumes that I didn't already have so I could just binge read them all. There is literally 9 volumes and my lowest rating for any of them is a 4-star and even this one I still loved. I just got a little bored with it and to be honest, not all of them could be 5 stars. I did a little post about the whole series a little more in-depth a couple weeks ago. 

5-Star Read

This was the perfect book to start June off with! I had so much fun reading the Beach Read and my only regret is if I would've read it while I was at the beach because I so wanted a picture of it on the beach, but I got married instead. I did a book review for this too and it was such a fun read. It was just a light read and it was the perfect one to start June off of with. 

   

I talked a little more about this series above and also in its own post from a couple weeks ago but here are the other four that I read this month. I loved how the last one ends even though it is sad and a huge cliffhanger. I hope there are more for this series but it has been a while since any has been published for it. But I'll be hoping for something else for it! 

Oh, Bea! I definitely adored this book so much. I've made a post about my reading experience and I would check it out because my book went through hell pretty much, hint it involved a river. I Was lucky enough to finish it and I'm in love with this book! It was so fun and cute. But as you can see in my review I struggled with how to rate it even though I loved it so much! Since my other post is so long I'm just going to leave it with the fact that I loved it overall, but we had some rough moments in the end.

This is the first Riley Sager book that I've ever read and it definitely won't be my last. I really enjoyed it and had so much fun reading it! I really could not put this book down. I've ranted on and on about this book over on a review post for it. So I won't put much on here since it just came out the day before. It was such a great way to end out this readathon. I had so much fun with it. I have one more book that I'm trying to finish before the end of the month so we'll see if it makes onto this list. I can't wait to read Home Before Dark now since I already have it. 

June 2020 Book Haul

It's that time of the month again where we get to see what I picked up throughout the month! I don't think I really got that much this month I did get two Book of the Month books this month! So let's start there since that is the first set of books that I got this month.

June Book of the Month Picks

 

As soon as I saw One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London on the spoilers board on one of my Book of the Month groups on Facebook I was immediately intrigued by it! It looked so freaking cute and the fact that it is being sold as a bachelor themed book with a plus-sized lead I wanted to look more into it. Then the synopsis and the reviews on Goodread sold it for me! I actually picked it up in the same month of getting it! I know its crazy and I'm having a hard time. I'm sad to admit that the book may have to be laid to rest soon though! I took it out into the wild with me and thought that it would be safe because whenever I take books in the pool or even on the lake they never get wet or messed up well my experience floating down the river didn't go as smoothly and it got banged up a lot! If you're on my Instagram then you have seen this picture of the state of my book. I have a new copy currently in my cart to get next month but mine is still readable. It's still together, and I'm still in love with it so I might just keep my banged up one because I love books with character and this one definitely has character. Plus the dust jacket stayed here so we may have to see what this one looks like with the dust cover back on.

I also got Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. Although I haven't personally read a Sager book yet I now have 2 Book of the Month books by him and I need to try them. I think I'm going to pick this one up next because I do need to branch out and it will be a different genre than what I have read in a while. The synopsis sounds really interesting to me.

Audible Subscription

I still technically have my audible subscription and I'm having a hard time letting it go since I really love it. Lately where we are on the road going back and forth to the lake, errands, and so on I do still have some opportunity to listen to the audiobooks. Anyways this month I'm doing the HouseCupAThon and one of the challenges is to listen to the audiobook. I was planning to read this book a couple months ago for BooksandLaLa's readathon but I didn't get to it, I was in a book slump. Since I'm working on this month's readathon I want to try really hard to complete them all and I picked this one up as my audiobook. I need to jump into it ASAP! 

The Comics

So last month I got married and one of our wedding presents was an Amazon gift card! We ended up getting new phones this month and while we waited for them to come in we ordered Otterboxes since I'm awful about dropping my stuff. Since we were already ordering stuff we finished the card off and I bought the rest of the Saga series that I didn't already have! I binge-read these while I waited for my book to dry. I love this series so much and even did a blog review of the series a couple weeks ago! It was an amazing series, and the way it was left there could be more but it has been a couple years since anything was released for this series. 

Random Picks

That whole saying you can find a book to buy pretty much anywhere is definitely true for me. I was having a rough day and needed to go to the grocery store. The past couple of times I've seen this sitting there for a while and finally I picked it up! I and Patterson have a love/hate relationship because I loved the Maximum Ride and Wizard and Witch series, and even most of the confession series, but then there are times I hate his stories. So we'll see how this one goes. This one sounds curious so I want to give it a go!

The eBook(s)

Facebook and even Instagram keep popping up adds for books, plus I have an email that I get every day from Bookbub for eBooks that are on sale. Anyways I've been seeing ads for this book, and the whole series, a lot lately! I've been thinking about getting it but I couldn't justify getting it just yet since I have a ton of books to read. It was like only $2.99. But the other day it popped up for $0.99 so I went ahead and got it. I really have been doing really good at not buying a lot of them very often now and I decided I can splurge on some every now and again and I really hope this is my next obsession. The last obsession that I couldn't stop reading on my Kindle was the After series. So I can't wait to jump into this book.

ShayKay's Review of Final Girls by Riley Sager

Goodreads: Final Girls by Riley Sager

Synopsis from Book

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie-scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to - a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Slack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them and, with that one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.

Now Quincy is doing well - maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost fiance, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won't even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past. 

That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam has sought her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished. 

Thoughts Before Reading

I have been interested in Sager's books for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to picking one up yet. I ordered this one from Book of the Month a couple of months ago and after having a streak of romancy/contemporary books I think I'm ready to swap it up on a little. The synopsis sounds really interesting and I'm really curious about what is going on. I actually thought about waiting on this read but since reading up on the author I figured out how it could fit for my HouseCupaThon that I'm working on this month. I think I'm going to look for a readathon for next month, I definitely want to try to fit one more in this summer so we'll see if I find one that we can just jump into. Anyways I've heard a lot about Riley Sager's books since being apart of Book of the Month, and even though I really wished they had Elin Hilderbrand's book this summer I went with his newest book this month so maybe I'll jump into that one next. We'll see I have a lot of prompts for the reading challenge that I could potentially do so we'll see what happens. 

Halfway Through Thoughts

I really am enjoying Quincy so far. I think she is a really interesting character to follow and overall I think the Sager really used Quincy's whole life as part of this book. By this, I mean that sometimes we are told that a character does baking for a living, but the story doesn't draw any part of that into the story, we are just told that this is what they do. In Final Girls, we actually see why she bakes and even is introduced to her baking. I think it is so far really developing really good and I am so hooked to it! I've heard a lot of good things about Sager, but also a lot of bad things too. So I went into it really open-minded into this read. But the chapters are short and really captivating, I even really love the flashbacks because Quincy has no memory of the massacre and this was an interesting way to learn about what she went through. I have a feeling that either Sam or Jeff could potentially be the 'new' bad guy in Quincy's life. I think maybe Jeff because we don't really see him that much, at the beginning of the book he was even out of town when everything happened to Lisa, and he is a public defender that loves sticking to the fact that they are innocent until proven guilty regardless of if they are actually guilty or not. We really see that value shine in his character a lot when he first meets Sam. I kind of really want Quincy to end up with Coop because I think they just have that connection that she should have with Jeff, but she doesn't. 

I really don't know why I've been holding off to read Sager's work! I've become really obsessed with this book and should hopefully finish this tomorrow! I really need to know what is happening and what is going to go on with Quincy! Does she ever remember the attack? Who killed Lisa? I really love how this is kind of a mystery with a settle undertone of a thriller because we are watching Quincy figure out what is going on but at the same time, you know this is a thriller so I like I said I need to finish this book ASAP!

We even have some books in the wild pictures this go around! I read on the way to the lake last weekend and then some at the wake. Summertime we get really active because I love taking my dogs out to go swimming! 

On the way to the Lake

It seems like a pretty accurate bookmark for this one!

After Thoughts

OMG! I just finished this book and I cannot believe it! It really tied up really fast, but the book didn't feel rushed while I was reading it. I feel like everything really got tied up and guys I was wrong about people in this book! I'll get to that more in a little bit I want to try to stay spoiler-free first. I think this is a new favorite. I think I really need to do a reread of it now that I know how it ends just to see if there were signs that I missed because even though I was kind of right about the ending I was also so freaking wrong! So it is kind of obvious that this book had to be a 5-star read! I mean I could not put it down, I loved the writing style and the pace of it, the characters were so amazing and interesting to read about, and overall I just could not put this book down, plus I already want to do a reread of this book.

Since it is still June this book was able to be apart of my HouseCupaThon, and I used it for Tom Riddle's journal which was reading a book where the author used a pen name or their initials and Riley Sager is a pen name, he actually publishes books under another name too, and I actually fell into this bit of information. I really thought this book wouldn't count on my chart but it did and I'm so happy that it worked out this way. I'm going to add the pictures before the spoiler section so that you won't accidentally see spoilers if you don't want too. So there is a spoiler review (kind of) at the very bottom underneath the pictures. 

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

Looking back at my notes that I made while reading this book is so funny because I was so close! I guessed that either Jeff, Sam, or Joe's girlfriend was the person that killed Lisa. The reason I put Joe's girlfriend is that back in the beginning of the book, well more of the middle of it, Joe is explaining that he does have a girlfriend. So that really pulled in a new suspect to Lisa. But there was never a name for that girlfriend until the end of the book, which was Tina Stone who was in the asylum with him! I love how even these small details ended being a really big thing in the book. I'm not going to talk about the big bang at the end of the book even though I labeled this section as spoilers, I just think that Tina was already a huge spoiler and I don't want to go further into it as to who was the killer. 

Anyways I'm not surprised that Quincy and Jeff ended up splitting up. I don't think they really had that much chemistry together and even though he was her rock I don't think she loved him how she thought she did. I just wish she would've broken up with him versus doing what she did. I kind of think Quincy might check in with Tina from time to time now that everything ended, but I don't think they will be friends or anything like that. I do love that she remembers that night even though it was painful for her because that added so much more OMG moments for me. You really need to read it because you won't expect it, at least I didn't and this isn't my normal genre. But this was such a fun, unexpected read. At the very end of the book Quincy kind of picked up Lisa's shoes and went to be there for a new Final Girl and I really loved it. I think it kind of helped the book go full circle and I really loved it. Definitely a 5-Star read for me.

Potential July Readathons

I've really been enjoying doing readathons lately and I'm currently working on my second one and the first one that has been really active. So since I have another month of summer before my classes really bounce back into a full-time mode so I thought to look for a readathon for July. I have a couple that has found that seems pretty interesting. There is a YouTuber that also has a blog that keeps up with a calendar of active readathons and I'm in love with her list! Here's the calendar she has, and it is so detailed! 

So far I've been doing month-long readathons because I'm generally a slow reader and I like having a whole month to work on it. With the HouseCupaThon I've learned that I love when there is a discord so you can talk real-time with people doing the same reading challenges, I love Instagram and still despise Twitter, and I when there are prompt and a point system. The prompts thing is something that I truly fell in love with over on a group on Facebook that I did for Spring and was pretty devastated that there wasn't a summer one published so far, which is why I want on the hunt for readathons. This is how I found HouseCupaThon and the fact that these groups use discord quite a bit. So let's look at the potential readathons that I found that I'm currently curious about for July!

Page-A-Thon

Page-A-Thon is a month-long readathon that uses a set up really similar to HouseCupaThon. First, you get divided into teams, which this one is by your birthday and the teams are seasonal. They have like a google doc that explains the rules of this readathon. The points are broken down a little more simplistic than the last readathon is, which is AMAZING! So you get a point for every page you read, every book you finish is automatically 25 points, and then you get 5 points for every bok that hits one or more of the seasonal 'bonus criteria.' I wonder if these bonus criteria are like a bunch of tasks that I can make into pretty grids for Instagram! I've really fallen in love with those things and I enjoy making them! The finished books need to be added to the Finished Book tab so that is new to me, I think it goes on the google doc that this readathon is tied too. The document explains that books that are over 100 pages, in any format, and are on Goodreads can count. They need to be at least 50% read. Or it can be a combination of short stories, but it needs to be at least 4 stories. Or the book can be fanfiction. 

The Seasonal Bonus Criteria is already listed! So your book can get 5 extra points per each thing. So it isn't really a chart thing, but I have an idea of how I can make it into one. I think I could make the list and for each one that the book takes off I'll have the book cover it and then whenever I finish the book I'll be able to use that picture to tell which ones it works for. It might not make sense here but it sounds likes a good idea in my head, and I do better and showing an example. So if we do this one we will definitely do that. Anyways the list is:

• The cover is mostly red and/or yellow
• The book is set mostly in summer
• A book with the word 'Summer' in the title
• A book with a summer-related word in the title
• A book written by a queer author and/or has a queer character(s)
• A book that was written by a black author

I was really confused about the prompt that says the summer-related word in the title but it has a link in it that takes you to a list and it is HUGE! Here is that list, and it definitely explains all my confusion away. Now that I see the list I can definitely work with it and I love it. 

This readathon sounds like a lot of fun and really laid back, which are both things that I definitely need. It seems like the point system is pretty laid back too. I already joined the discord for this one, but I don't know if this is what I'm going to do yet, but I definitely do like how it is set up. Plus it is a little different from what I have been doing. It is is also very doable for me. I'm really in a contemporary/romancy mood which is usually ALL about summer/summertime aesthetic. Plus I got tons of backstock that can work for this. My goal for summer is to only read backstock books, especially my Book of the Month ones. So I can definitely work with his.

Here's some book ideas since I don't tend to do TBRs ever since I love having the freedom to just pick up whatever I'm feeling like reading in the moment:

• Books that are mostly Red/Yellow:
• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• I know I'm super late to this one but it has been sitting on my shelves for a couple years. I've been really curious about a lot of Albertalli's books that has come out since this one but I haven't picked any up yet. So I would love to get to this one finally
• Forever in Blue by Anna Brashares
• This is the fourth book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and I've honestly been wanting to reread it ever since the very last one came out and since I'm contemplating doing the To Be Continued Readathon then this one would definitely work for both!
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
• This is a series much like the Sisterhood one that I would love to reread since I now have Inkdeath.
• Evernight by Claudia Gray
• This series I would love to go back too since it was so cherished to me growing up but I never finished it. I now have the whole series and would love to go back into this world. I didn't know I had so many series that I need to complete until I started really looking at my shelves.
• How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
• Technically I could pick this one up for my current readathon since I picked this book up and read like the first couple chapters then lost the book so I unknowingly DNF. But I found it (under the couch) and it is back on my shelves now. I loved Things You Save in a Fire and really want to read all of Center's books and she has a new one that just came out too. So I need to read this one ASAP. If I don't get to it in June then we will get to it in July hopefully.
• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stig Larsson
• I've had this one for forever! I remember trying to read it but I know I couldn't get into it, but this was back in high school so over ten years ago!
• Scythe by Neal Shusterman
• Um, this one is read AND yellow AND beginning of the series! So I feel like this one is a must-read! 
• MULTIPLE In Death Books by JD Robb
• Originally the only reason I was even thinking about doing the To Be Continued readathon because I really want to do a complete read of the In Death series starting at the very beginning! There are multiple books that are red, yellow, and even summer related. There are 50 books in the series so there's a little bit of everything in this thing.
• Books Set in Summer:
• All of the Sisterhood Books
• Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
• Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt
• I loved this book when I first read it and I would love to reread it. I'm thinking about doing some rereads of books that I loved growing up and seeing how I feel about them today.
• 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
• Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
• Starburst by Robin Pilcher
• The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
• Books with the word 'Summer' in the Title:
• The Summer House by James Patterson
• The First and Second books in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
• Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
• Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell
• Books with a Summer-Related Word in the Title:
• Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin
• The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
• Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
• A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall by Andy Abramowitz
• Happy and You Know It by Laura Hankin (BOTM)
• Sweet Indulgence by Debbie White
• Bittersweet by Danielle Steel
• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven (BOTM)
• Under the Lights by Abbi Glines (Book 2)
• Lights Out by R.L. Stine
• Books Written by a Queer Author/About Queer Characters:
• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (BOTM & Reread)
• Immortal Instruments Series! 
• I've been wanting to read them all because I want to read Magnus and Alec's book! 
• Books Written by Black Authors:
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
• Truly Madly Royally by Debbie Rigaud

To Be Continued Readathon

This one I've had on my radar since I've found HouseCupaThon. It was initially the one I was going to do in July, and I still might but I don't know yet. I kind of thought for this one I could binge read through my In Death series, which is something that I've been really wanting to do for a little while now. This group has a twitter account that seems pretty active and a discord. I don't use Twitter that often so I only look at it sometimes. 

For this readathon, you have to complete prompts to 'level up,' which means you care to complete a bingo and each bingo is a level. There are 8 levels. The only requirement is that the book is part of a series. There are no stipulations on any of the genres or types of books. You can also double up on prompts, which means one book can go in multiple places. I should do that since I don't read that much but I try not to do that. This is all listed out on a google doc. This document has the sign-up sheet and where they keep track of their books and buddy reads. They also have a discord, and I've been in it for a little while and it seems like a good readathon to do. So let's look into these prompts and what you have to do to get a bingo:

• Top of the TBR Pile: A book in a series that you are most excited to get too
• New Kid: The most recently published book in a series on your TBR
• This Road is Long: Read a book from a series with at least 3 books
• WildCard: Read whatever you want, as long as it is part of a series.
• I Like Them, Another!: You know the last book (that was part of a series) that you read? Read the next one in that series. (so read two books in a series back to back)
• Procrastination (Pick One): There's always that pesky book, side-eyeing you from the shelf. Read a book in a series that has been on your TBR the longest that up to find intimidating, OR that you've simply been putting it off for no good reason!
• Right Back Where We Started: Read the first book in a series
• Boss Level (Pick One): A book in a series that features a mentor OR a villain OR someone larger than life

This readathon is set up for me to really succeed by reading just the In Death series alone. Since it is so open and seems really easy I think I could potentially do this one along with Page-A-Thon. This one already has a picture made out with the prompts on it. The only thing with it is that I don't particularly like that it just has the prompts on it without explaining what the requirements are, but other than that the picture is really cute!

Right now these are the only two that I've found that last all month. Like I mentioned earlier I could potentially do both of these readathons. It just depends on the online class that I'm doing right now. I also hope to start a new job really soon! But where they could easily be worked together I could see trying to double up on them since I don't plan on doing any more readathons except maybe the Triwizard tournament in the fall, which we will talk about closer to the beginning of that one since it is long and definitely more complex.

Since I did such a long list of could be read books for the Page-A-Thon I decided I needed to do something down here. It's going to be shorter (hopefully) and I won't go as in detail as I did above since it's going to be a lot of repetition. 

• Top of the TBR Pile: 
• In Death Series by JD Robb (I could honestly put this down for ALL OF THE PROMPTS)
• New Kid: 
• This one I'm not really sure. Technically my newest In Death book was published in February but I know I won't be ready for that one. Then BOTM book that is a series I've already read it. I'll need to really need to look into what one I have that is the newest published one.
• This Road is Long: 
• Alison Weir 6 Queen series. I have the first three but they are CHUNKERS!
• WildCard: 
• I have so many that  I can just pick up for this and the fact that it can be anything as long as it is a series I can definitely make this prompt work if I do the readathon.
• I Like Them, Another!: 
• 
  
• Procrastination (Pick One): 
• 
  
• Right Back Where We Started: 
• 
  
• Boss Level (Pick One): 
• Vicious by V.E. Schwab

ShayKay's Review of One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

Goodreads: One to Watch by Kate Staman-London

Synopsis from Book

Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers - and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising number of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition: Under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She's in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a gree hot-air balloon ride. That's it.

But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes that things are more complicated than she anticipated. She's in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale. In this joyful, razor-sharp debut, Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men - and herself - for a chance to live happily ever after.

Thoughts Before Reading

First off I'm in love with this cover! This is one of June's Book of the Month books that I got and I'm actually picking it up in June!? I am so thrilled! Anyways back to the cover, I love the blue and pink, with Bea standing in the middle of all of these cameras in pink with a ring behind her back. Based on the synopsis this cover really sums up what the book is supposed to be about and overall I love this cover! It pulls me in and makes me want to read the synopsis and see if I will like it. Bright colors are my favorite, especially pink and blue so the colors alone are really calling to me. 

Now looking into the actual synopsis of this book really pulls me in too. It sounds like it is going to be cute and fun, even though the book is a little on the chunky side I feel like I can really fly through the book. Let me just tell you I've already read some of it and I could not put it down! My husband actually had to take it from me so I could sleep since I was up when he got up for work. So I feel a little like crap today since I'm running on no sleep. I couldn't put this book down! Just from flipping through the pages, I see that there are tons of mixed media in it! I don't know if they are texts in the book or articles or what yet but I'm already so thrilled and can't wait to really jump into the book! I have a feeling I'm really going to fly through this book since it sounds like so much fun and I'm already in love with it. I'm planning on doing a float down the river this weekend too so I'll be able to just lay in the sun and read for a while this weekend. Hopefully, I'll get it done before I start my second class next week.

On a side note, I think this book could be used for the readathon for the Burrows, which is a cozy book. I'm really loving the way HouseCupAThon is set up because I love the teams and point system. It makes reading into a game and I love challenges like this. 

I love the dedication that's in this book! It's so cute!

Halfway Thoughts

I'm now a little bit past the halfway mark and I'm obsessed! I have a really hard time putting this book down! Well, let's first start with the sad part. I went on a float down the river expedition and I thought I was just gonna relax, work on a tan, and really spend most of the time reading my book. Umm, that's not exactly what happened. I had my book and I thought it would be safe in my bag. I didn't get to read any, and to add to the disaster my book got trashed! I had to let it dry out for a few days and I really wanted to go buy a new copy but where this book doesn't come out for a few more weeks I couldn't wait! My book is readable and now that it is mostly been dried out I've been plowing through it. Now that I'm reading it I don't think I'm going to get a new copy and if I do I'll buy it from the bookstore. But I love it when my books get some character like this, just not to this degree. Here's a picture of it. It doesn't even show how bad it is now that it is pretty much fully dried out. But it is a good thing that Book of the Month really makes their book sturdy!

It's really ballooned up now that it is dried

Good news I didn't have the dust jacket with me so it's still in its pristine condition. I haven't tried putting it on the book yet so maybe after I'm done reading it I'll put it on the book and take another picture at the end!

So my thoughts on the actual book so far. I really feel like I resonate with this book because the way Bea talks and feels about her body is both how I feel and how I wish to feel because when she talks about body positivity and how she has learned to love how she looks is how I want to feel, but when she starts having negative feelings and feeling self-conscious that's how I feel all the time about me. So I really get how Bea feels! Ray is a douchebag! I feel so bad for Bea and wish she could move on! I really hope that she doesn't give him another moment of her time, but I feel like she is going to at least consider it once she sees that he has been messaging her! I just want her to be happy and I don't see how this book could possibly not end with 5-stars! It has to really mess up somewhere between here and the end for that because I'm completely obsessed and I love it! 

*****Spoilerish*****

(Talking a little bit about the guys below)

Now for the guys, since she is technically their bachelorette. I'm so conflicted! I love Sam, but I get how she feels about a younger man. I want to like Asher since she does but I don't see the chemistry of him except that's what I'm told that's how she feels. Luc isn't bad but I agree I need more substance for him before I can really decide on my feelings for him. But I really think these are the front runners. I know Wyatt is super sweet and should be considered but at this point, I don't think she is really considering him and the same for Jefferson. I'm to the point where she just now started really trying to participate so I'm curious what's going to happen now. She is about to go on a date with Luc! I need to know what is happening here. Can you see why I can't put this thing down!? I'm obsessed and I need to know more stat!

So I gotta go and finish this book! 

After Thoughts

So I stayed up until about 5 in the morning to finish this book because I just could not put it down! I love how Bea kind of went full circle in this book and I really feel the same way Bea did and I just wish I get to the point where I love me for me. So the whole entire time I was reading this book I was really connecting with Bea. I thought this book was a for sure 5-star read! Well, then the ending happened. The ending wasn't terrible. It just got super predictable, like I knew Ray and Bea's story wasn't over, I just didn't know how it was going to finish. I will say that I do like how that part of the story ended and I was screaming at Bea the whole time after he popped up because I did not want her to go back to him or end up with him! I do like how he came back into the story I think it really fit the storyline. There was never a dull moment with Bea while she was on the show! She literally had every drama that happened in the Bachelor/Bachelorette thrown at her and it really kept me as reader super involved in it. But like I said the ending really made me question what  I was going to rate this book. The whole entire time I was in love with this book, I could not put it down! However, the ending fell really flat for me. I loved how she ended the show, it was perfect for her situation. At the end of the book, it does like a time jump and looked back on the popular contestants to see where they are now and I loved that too! I just honestly did not like the drama that went down in the final scene in I think Paris? I feel like it was unnecessary and even the characters explained that they didn't feel that way right after. So I was just more aggravated with it. So let's try a rating thing with this book:

Characters - 5 stars for sure! 

The Beginning of the Book/Book Set-Up - again definitely 5 stars, it's what really hooked me in

Main Squeeze - Umm I think this would be 3.5-4 stars for me, I got really aggravated with some of the drama that happened here. Some of it just wasn't necessary! I got super aggravated with Lauren because of the things she threw Bea into without any idea of what was going to happen all for the sake of ratings. 

Mixed Media - 4 stars, you all know I'm a freaking sucker when a book has things like text messages, interviews, emails, and so on that is typed in a different font and made to stand out in the book. I don't know why but I've always loved it! And boy did I get a heck of a lot of it in this book between the text messages, interviews, emails, contracts, and chat rooms. Even though I adore this and I loved it so much I got a little flustered with it. There were some scenes in the book that were done in this format as a reaction to the scene (usually the kissing ceremony) and I would've rather have been in the book seeing it from Bea's perspective. Later in the book, it kind of does half and half. This book is a chunker so I see why there was so much of it, and it really fits in with the book's story so I think 4 stars are really good here. 

Ending/Bea's Finale - I think this is the hardest part to rate! The whole point of the book is Bea sharing her body positivity and finding love! I get it and I saw a lot of it. Even though Bea had a lot of issues while being on the show I can really relate to it because your on a show that millions of people are watching, and at least a third of those people aren't nice to you. So those scenes are very relatable for me, even though I'm not on TV or anything like that but I do feel like that all the time just on a super smaller scale, and it happened a lot. These scenes even when they sometimes got a little annoying or repetitious I still give them a 5-star, BUT the finale/ending of the book I think is possibly a 3-star for me! It's hard to explain because when I say I hated the ending it doesn't really explain it. I hated what went down with Ray, but I like how it happened, I love how the show ended, but I hated how Bea got to her happily ever after. I feel like it was meaningless because, in the end, they ended up together, they should've just talked it out. I just feel like this couple is super problematic because I didn't really see the guy she saw I guess. The guy she ended up with I didn't think she had much chemistry with or even worked well together since they were always having issues. Then the actual ending of the book does a time jump and does a where are they now thing and I loved it because it touched on all of the huge players in the book. It was a good way to end. So I don't think the ending deserves a 3-star, but it isn't a 5-star. I don't even know about 4-stars here. see this is why it is so difficult to figure out my rating for this book! 

So I know all of that above is a little confusing but that is how I've been having to think when I came to rating this book. I loved it don't get me wrong, but it had its problems and those were hard for me to explain, so I thought to list it out and show where I was having issues. I honestly had no clue how I was going to write this review because I didn't know how to explain my opinions for it. So I had to do this. Sorry if it was a little frustrating or confusing.

Ultimately I ended up giving this book a 5 star. I couldn't pass up how much I loved most of this book and I really relate to Bea which is something I don't do really often. I had so much reading about her journey even though after a while it did get kind of repetitious. I struggling between a 4-star and a 5-star for this thing. The whole time I was writing this, rating it on Goodreads, and posting on Instagram about it I was struggling with that. I don't like doing half stars and it's super rare for me to do it, and this to me wasn't in need of a half star. It was either going to be 4-stars or 5-stars. Since I was so sure it was a 5-star read for so much of the book I decided that is how I was going to rate it. 

Since it is still June I was able to fit this into my HouseCupAThon, I think this is perfect for the Burrow's Challenge! So here is an updated HouseCupaThon bracket so far! I'm having a blast right now. I plan on for sure completing Tom Riddle's Journal (Final Girls by Riley Sager) and Mandrakes (You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen) since I'm currently reading and listening to them both. I think I might be able to find something for Dobby, Lockhart, Fawkes, and De-Gnome the Garden. Now can I actually read them and get them done in June, I don't know but I would love to read 4 more books plus the two I'm working on! This would be a record for me so I'm going to try to make it happen. I also need to finish my Harry Potter reread that I have been working on for far too long!

ShayKay's Review of Saga Vol. 1-9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

I've recently just finished Saga Vol. 4-9 and I wanted to do a review of them but since I didn't do 1-3 review we are just going to wrap them all up into one review! So what is Saga?

Saga is a comic that is written by Brian K. Vaughn and then illustrated by Fiona Staples. The main focal point of the whole series is Hazel. Hazel is actually the main narrator throughout the whole series and they are set up in her point of view. She's retelling the story of her family and how she came to be. Hazel is a product of her parents' love for each other regardless of their species. One key thing to mention is that this is set in space and Hazel's parents are from two different worlds, her mom is from a planet and her father is from the planet's moon. They two species have been at war with one another for centuries and Hazel's parents were actually in their respective armies. Her mom, Alana, was a soldier that was guarding her father, Marko, after he was captured. Long story short they fall in love and ended up pregnant with Hazel. Throughout the course of these 9 volumes, we see how this couple struggles with regular family problems plus the additional problems of being wanted fugitives. They go through everything and we don't just get their perspectives we also see the perspectives of the people who are trying to capture them as well as each of their governments and war. As time goes by the family grows and also loses people. The comics span over years so we really get to watch Hazel grow up. This is the bare synopsis of the whole series, and there's so much that happens in these books that I'm intentionally leaving out because I don't want to spoil how amazing these comics are!

Now I will say these are definitely not comics that you want to give to kids because there's a lot of explicit scenes and language so it is definitely an adult comic. 

There's never really a dull moment in any of these books because you have them trying to survive with a newborn baby while being on the run from both of their governments, you see people chasing them and their whole dramas, we see bits and pieces of the war, and so on. Things keep getting added on in each comic too, so you never have any moments that are just hard to get through. My lowest rating for one of these volumes was a 4-star, most of them are all 5-stars in my eyes. Even the average ratings for each comic are 4-stars and they each have thousands of reviews. I want a more in this world and I honestly don't know if we will get any more. The last one left off on a huge cliff hanger and it was released years ago. I've found an article saying that the authors wanted to take a hiatus after that cliff hanger but this has been years ago so I'm truly curious about whether or not if there will be more because there is potential to be a lot more. But at the same time the way the last one ended it could be the finale, I just think there could have been more if this was the finale such as a time jump to see how Hazel grew up. 

I was lucky to finish this series today because I was able to buy the six volumes I was missing the other day, and as soon as we got back from our little adventure I binge-read them all. I plan on keeping these on my shelves and if there is ever anymore that comes out I'll binge read them all over again. They are just fun to read and packed with so much. I really want to know more about the characters! Since this is June I was also able to count these towards my HouseCupAThon, and even put them on the Flying Car challenge. As always Instagram gets first to look at everything because it's easier for me to keep it updated in real-time and over here I don't want to publish everything right as I read it because I want to spread my content over time and have more. Which is why this post has come out basically a week after I've read them. Anyways I'm working on getting through One to Watch, which that is going to be an interesting post hopefully coming out soon, I try to keep something published every Sunday and Wednesday over here. Wednesday is sometimes skippable but we'll see. Book reviews tend to be on Sundays and random or book reviews on Wednesday. Sometimes fun things here and there when I can fit it in.

Let's Talk About Book Covers!

I've been trying to think of some other things to write about and I thought this would be interesting. Book covers are something that is very fluid! They change based on which country they are released in, special editions, even book subscriptions will publish their own books, and so on! Out of all of these different covers, there are some clear winners and losers. There are also updates that book covers will go through to try to boost their sales. Covers are the first thing any reader sees regardless of where you get your book and most of the time publishers are the ones that come up with what the cover will look like. So let's look at some books that have different covers!

Different covers, covers updated, the OG covers vs new covers, why do covers change - Anniversary editions, low sales, different countries, my favorite of the ones listed below. I like the series to match or even books from the same author to match (Katherine Centers books all match)

Harry Potter

I feel like I needed to start this list off with the book that first comes to mind of different covers! Harry Potter has had so many different editions and a lot of them have their own unique covers! Here are the original Harry Potter covers.

These are the United States Harry Potter original covers and I love them! they are some of the most recognizable books, at least for me. I just had to get new copies of my Harry Potter series since my previous editions were so beat up from childhood wear and tear and were lucky enough to get all of these covers in hardback! They are some of my favorites, but let's look at the United Kingdom's original covers.

First off the first Harry Potter book in the United Kingdom was called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! This is something that happens a lot when a book is published in different countries, things are changed to make them unique to that country. The illustration on both covers look very similar and I like them both, but between these two I have to stay true to my first love the U.S. editions. 

But what about the new editions. When a book has been published for so long we will get anniversary editions or books being rebranded for a new market, which is what happened with Harry Potter. They want to appeal to the new generations so new book covers were released! Here are the U.K.'s new books. 

I love these new UK books! I swear you'll see as we look at the newer UK books that the covers on them are so amazing and will beat some US ones! I promise. Anyways these new sets of books are amazing and I adore them so much! I think they fit their stories so much more than their original books, both US and UK. They really pull you in and capture your attention. The only thing I would change about this picture above is to have the books in their reading order. If these books were new to me and I had to pick out of all three editions I think I would instantly be drawn to these ones! However, nostalgia has the best of me and I have still picked the OG US editions as my all-time favorite books.

Here are some honorable mentions for the Harry Potter books. I really couldn't just leave them off and they are all beautiful! There are just too many that I can't have them all in the post but we can have as many that can fit on here as possible! 

Immortal Instruments

Another series that has a lot of different editions is the Immortal Instruments. Originally the United States editions had the different characters on the covers. I remember binge reading the first three in this series in a week and there is so much nostalgia there for me. However, I didn't know Clare continued on with the books, and at that time in my life, I stuck with a certain series until I finished it and had a few other series/authors that I would always get. Here are the US's original editions:

I can see why people don't like these covers. Having people on the book cover can always be problematic. But to me, I love the colors and how these covers look. I definitely like the first three more than the last three. I don't really like the last three all that much. I think they take on a completely different vibe than the first three. 

The next set of books are the new covers in the United States:

They still have people on the covers and they are still colorful. Looking at these covers in this picture they look better! I love how they look in this picture. I think they showcase the characters in this series perfectly and they even have the runes underneath their titles. I think these ones stay true to the books' content. The spines on the new ones form a picture altogether and it helps motivate you to have the entire series in the same edition. The thing that I don't like about this edition is that the cover is shorter than the page and they are in paperback, this makes the cover stick out/up when you aren't reading it. If we are going off just the way it looks I think I would pick the new ones because I like them all in the whole series and the spines. But in reality, I like how the original ones look. When the books are still published today the hardcovers are published in the same original aesthetic then the paperbacks come out with this type of aesthetic. I haven't kept up with the series. I've wanted too but I just haven't gotten back to it yet.

Lunar Chronicles

The Lunar Chronicles is something that I binge read when they came out. I loved this so much! The series are fairytale retellings that take on a new life throughout these books. I really want to do a reread since I finally got them in physical form! Anyways the original covers look like this:

I find these covers gorgeous! To me, they are very simplistic and they all really match one another (except Fairest). Each of them really speaks to which fairytale it is a retelling and I just really love them! Even Fairest I get why it stands out and it makes sense if you have read the series you'll get it too. 

Here are the new covers that are coming out in the United States, this is a rebranding:

Guys when I first saw these editions I thought they were going to be comic series and they work for a comic version of this series. But it isn't. These are the new book covers for the same stories. I don't think they fit the books they are representing and they don't match like they did. I like for my series to match one another and I know a lot of other readers do too. I usually like these poppy, bright colors but of course, no this just doesn't work for me. These are just so depressing to me. 

Skyward - US vs UK

 

(US on the left and UK on the right)

I think Skyward is the first book that I really started seeing that the United Kingdom book covers are really stepping up their game and are looking amazing! I always knew that different countries have different book covers that are unique to them but for a long time the UK editions were more cartoony like the Harry Potter ones for example. But these new ones are amazing. The United States edition is pretty colors I'll give them that, but the UK edition is so much more dramatic and I think really pulls you in and make you want to pick it up. Now I personally have the US edition because I just picked it up while I was the book store on one of my sprees. 

Nicholas Sparks Books

Okay, so the above picture showcases all styles of Sparks books. I love the way the originals look that doesn't have people in them, which the first row of books is all original covers. The second and third rows show how all of the movies that Spark's books are adapted from get movie covers. Movie covers are usually some form of posters from the movie that is based on the book. I usually try to stay away from them since I personally just like to have the original covers. Then the last set of books on the third row showcases what the new covers look like. These ones aren't bad and I normally like the pictures that are on the book themselves. I even like how they all match each other. On these covers, you can see how they all have a white border. the new covers are bordered, and like I said I would love these covers if the rest of my Sparks books had them too. Slowly the older books are being reprinted to have the same format and being rebranded this way. This isn't a terrible rebranding, and the new books are matching this format. I just hate that they don't match what I already have. But that is just my pet peeve. I have an assortment of all three of these styles but I have even gotten rid of some of the covers that I don't like in trade for ones that I have. I've been slowly rebuilding my Sparks collection. Just like Patterson, I have a love/hate relationship with Sparks writing but I think with this one it is more so since with these books I either love them or I really despise them. Yet I can't tell until I finish the book and his books are always chunkers and super long chapters. Where I've been doing movie vs book challenges lately I've been dying to do a reread of some of his books because I know most of the books always hands down beats the movies since the movie adaptations are always really rough. The only movie that I think beats the book for Sparks is the one that we all know and love, which is the Notebook. 

Mass Market Copies

Mass market books are paperback books that are usually kind of on the tiny side, with tiny print, and usually really cheap. These copies can be as cheap as a couple of dollars, and usually, the most expensive ones are like $5. Do I love these versions? No, but I still have a ton of them. I usually don't care if these ones get messed up while I'm reading them so I love reading them in the summer by the lake. But at the same time, one of the most coveted series I have mostly in mass-market editions because they are part of an older series and these are the only editions I can find. Sometimes these are the paperback versions of the book, which is my case in my series, the In Death by JD Robb. Anyways, a lot of books can be made into mass-market and usually happens after they have been out a little while. Everyone has their own opinions about these books. 

ShayKay's Review of The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Goodreads: The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Synopsis From Book 

Emily is a mess. Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day.

Emily is desperate. Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily.

Emily is perfect. Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife, Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headline into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.

Thoughts Before Reading

Every time I read this synopsis I cannot wait to dive into this book! It sounds amazing and so fun! I need to know what happens to Emily! This is an ARC, advanced reading copy. I was lucky enough to sign up for one a couple months ago and I've had the arc about a month now and I've been meaning to jump into ti but I've been doing a lot of other challenges but now is the time to jump into it. So far the book has over 800 reviews on GoodReads and the rating is over 4 stars so I'm really curious to see how I fall on the spectrum. It sounds intense! I'm going to try to do a book aesthetic as well as halfway through check-in and final thoughts, so let's see what happens. I'll add whatever pictures I get of the book on here too! 

Halfway Through Thoughts

I'm not sure how I feel about the book yet. When I read thrillers I tend to get more into the book when I listen to the audio version than when I read it. I can just get more into the story that way. But this was an ARC and I've been wanting to read it before it comes out so I've started reading it and I'm not really sure what is going on. I think it is supposed to be a thriller but I just keep question everything! I'm almost halfway through the book so there are more questions than there are answers right now but I'm starting to think that parts of the book might be based in the past and others are in the present day. Mostly because of Scott's mom is why I think that, mostly because of how they talk about Nina and Aurelia. There is just a big disconnect between Emily's scenes and Scott's scenes now versus how it was at the beginning of the book. During the beginning, the two were pretty connected between both scenes and it ran really fluid. But now I think it is all starting to unravel. This is all my thinking while reading not spoilers. As I started the book I really thought that Scott and Emily were going to have an affair but since I've been reading it I don't know what's going to happen or what is even happening anymore. Scott's scenes seem like they have nothing going on with Nina, Aurelia, and Emily anymore ever since Emily went to stay with them in France. So I'm really curious about what's going to happen in the book. 

 

I really don't know if I like it or not yet. The book itself has really short chapters which I love because I love flying through them. But the story itself I don't know if it is for me. Now I thought the same thing while reading The Wife Between Us by Greer Henricks and Sarah Pekkanen and that is now one of my all-time favorite books. I'm hoping this one goes in the same direction but I definitely need to finish it in order to see what happens. I'm just too curious to finish it instead of DNFing it, but right now I'm really bored with it. If I wasn't so curious about what happens I would stop reading it. 

After Thoughts

Well, I finished this book. I was so thrilled to read this book when I read about it on Facebook a few months ago and was so excited when I got an ARC of it! It started off interesting with the book setting up the world, but then it really crashed and burned for me. I want to mention that I don't normally read thrillers however there are some that I really adore, such as The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. Even with that book, I didn't love it starting off but when the twists and turns started unfolding I fell in love with the book and then looking back through it all trying to figure out how I missed stuff is where I got most of my fun.  I started thinking that maybe I would have the same feelings towards this book as I did with that one. Well, I didn't. I was really just bored from the start but I was interested. So by the time that I got to the part that I really just couldn't stand anymore I was already 2/3s of the book in and I was obsessed with figuring out how it ends. I was so sure there was going to be an affair, but there wasn't. Pretty much everything I thought was going to happen didn't, and that really is okay with me and how I actually prefer it but I just got so freaking bored with this book. I was afraid that my big reading mood was going to dissipate into a reading slump. I ended up plowing through the end of the book last night and the ending just fell really flat for me. I wasn't satisfied with how it all unfolded. I didn't make a book aesthetic for this one. But I did make a rating one. And to be honest it took me a little bit to write this because I wasn't sure how to write down my feelings towards it other than just boredom. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me since I don't normally go for thrillers but even looking through the ratings on Goodreads I don't think I'm alone. 

Right now on Goodreads, the book has an overall rating of 4 stars. This is another reason I got really excited because this is really good rating and the book already has almost 1,500 reviews. So I was looking at them after I finished the book and really examined them. I typically only look at the star rating because I don't want any spoilers or how other people think about the book to determine my own views. But now looking at the reviews most of the star ratings are 4 stars (46%), but there are some 1-3 star ratings so I looked into those first. People were saying things like it was boring, the main character is very problematic (so true by the way because if she wasn't so gullible she wouldn't have ended up in her situations), very predictable, and that the twists really didn't deliver. All of these things I completely agreed with. So just curious to see what the 4-star people were saying I looked at those reviews too because I wanted to know why these people loved this book so much. They also say that this book is predictable and that it struggled with its own identity but overall they enjoyed it. Overall they really found it as an enjoyable read. So I get it, but  I just don't have the same feelings towards it. I'm happy I got it and that I read it, I just didn't love it like I was hoping I would.

I was able to make the book fit in the June readathon that I'm doing and it even fit into one of the challenges! The challenge I got it to fit on was the Howler, which meant the book's characters have to face the consequences of their actions. That hit this book to a T! Not only was Emily the one that figured out everything that was going on but Scott had been living with his wife and all of messy life ever since they got married. He had to live with his consequences full-on, but I wish we would've gotten more of the aftermath of what she did since the book spent so much time building this up just for it to fall pretty flat and left a lot of stuff out.