January 2021 Wrap Up

I haven't been blogging much anymore and that's honestly not a surprise. But I've been really wanting to get back into it and even though I would love to redo my blog I think I'm just going to stay on Blogger because so far I haven't been able to make a new blog that will hold everything I want. I really want to combine my blogs together into one and call it ShayKay's World and then have a page for books, a page for the Disney Sims, and a page for the Berry Sims. Then on the home page, I would showcase whatever's being published that week plus some real-life stuff and even a creator showcase. I just haven't been able to figure out how to make that all possible and make it look good. Since thinking about that I've started not being all that happy with the way my blogs look now either.  I haven't even returned to my Sims blog yet. I want too but until then I wanted to get back into blogging over here. Right now I'm only doing the monthly things such as my book hauls and wrap-ups. I have a couple other things planned too but I don't know when they will be released yet. So let's jump into this month's reads! 

The Stats

I have read so many books this month and I am so proud of myself! I've read 5, and hopefully 1 more by the time this post publishes in January. This month I had 2 eBooks and the rest all physical books and I own them all. Most of them I already owned before this month. I actually bought 1 of the eBooks just so I can read it. Three of the books were written by authors that are completely new to me and I would honestly read more by those authors too. I managed to read a book by JD Robb, the third one in the series (and if I finish the book I'm working on now will be two in the series), and two Book of the Month books! So my yearly goal was at least accomplished this month. I honestly read books that were right around the same amount of pages, the most pages in a book was Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade that had 394 pages and the least amount of pages was 296 in Immortal in Death by JD Robb. Three of these books were contemporary/romance/chick lit, however, you want to categorize them. Only two books were standalone!? I thought I honestly read more standalones than anything but this month that was a negative. But to be fair a lot of the chick-lit books come off as standalones but are actually series and they follow different characters in each book. Finally, there were 2 three-star books, 2 four-star books, and one 5-star book, I'll update whichever category my current read goes into if I complete it tomorrow. I'm going to go into how I got these statistics later because I started using CAWPILE. I also want to talk about my yearly goals at some point. So let's get into what these books are! 

The Books

I started the year off with a reread of Immortal in Death by JD Robb. One of my yearly goals is to read an In Death book and a Book of the Month book every month. I have been having so much fun being back in this world and I feel like this was the best way to start the year off on this year. This is the book that Eve and Roarke get married and we finally get to see PEABODY! I think Peabody had the worst possible start at being showcased in this world because of the things that happened in this book. I just wanted more of the Peabody I love. Now that I'm thinking back while writing my wrap up I really wished I had more of her and the wedding. I talked about both over on my Instagram. I think I ended up giving this one either 4 or 5 stars originally but this time around I gave it 4 stars, borderline 3 stars. I love this series but there are over 50 books in this series so there are going to be some amazing books and some alright books but I love how the background ties together throughout all of them. Anyways my first go around with this book was with the audible book and the person who narrates these does such an amazing job and I love them! But I also think they have encouraged me to give the books a higher rating than I would have if I read them on my own which is another reason why I wanted to reread the series. 

The next book I read this month, and the one after this one, were Book of the Month books! I actually started out with a backlist one that has been on my bookshelf since summer! I was introduced to Riley Sager's books this year and my goal was to read all four of them in publication order however, I cannot get into Lock Every Door. I've tried and I've DNF'd it and it has pushed me not to pick up Home Before Dark but this month that changed because I really wanted to read it this month. Since reading Home Before Dark I want to give Lock Every Door another chance but I have until this summer when his next one comes out. Anyways I ended up giving Home Before Dark by Riley Sager 5-stars, but now thinking about it I think it would really honestly be 4-stars. But I'm leaving everything the way they are because I used CAWPILE to get the ratings and I wanted to keep to it this year. Now that I'm thinking about Home Before Dark I keep linking it to American Horror Story's first season Murder House! The stories are completely different BUT I think the vibes that both of these creations give off are the same and that is my all-time favorite season of American Horror Story. 

After I was done with this heavy thriller book I wanted to pick up something light and fast read so I picked up this month's Book of the Month pick, The Dating Plan by Sara Desai. I have never read anything by Desai, and I think this one actually her debut novel. It focuses on a girl who is incredibly smart but is working a job that is below her because she doesn't like to make ties. I was first pulled to this book because of Daisy. I wanted to see how this book would pull her, her life, and her culture into this book and I LOVED IT! She was my favorite thing about that book. Liam was amazing too but I kept getting frustrated with how much emphasis was put on Daisy's prom and I get to some people that is a huge milestone but for me, I was just never that tied to my prom so it being such a huge event for her was hard for me to relate. Now I did relate very heavily to being abandoned by her best friend and it was really showing me why prom was such a major thing Daisy and helped me link to even though prom was getting annoyed for me. I loved the part where Daisy's coworker was like it's just prom!? I so related to him. I also had an issue with the whole brother angle. I get how Liam was her brother's best friend and that's how they were introduced I just feel like if the siblings were as close as it sounded that he would know more about everything that was going on with Liam and Daisy and potentially get involved in the story earlier on in the book. I loved the writing and I would honestly pick up more from Desai but I ended up giving this book 3-stars. It wasn't bad, it was a solid read, but it wasn't a new all-time favorite read for me.

After I finished The Dating Plan I was in an eBook mood. eBooks are just really easy for me to pick up and read since they are always with me whether through my phone or iPad plus it's easier for me to read them before bed so I can be lazy and not have to worry about turning the lights off since they are already off. Anyways that being said I knew I wanted to read something I just wasn't sure what so I looked through everyone's end of the year favorites and recommendations on Instagram, and ended up buying Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade. This book was another light, fast read but with its own spin on things. I honestly wanted something written kind of like Evelyn Hugo or Red, White, and Royal Blue that had a lot of excerpts and mixed media in it. I definitely got that in this book but unlike those other books, I didn't like the cutouts in this book. I really liked the story between April and Marcus but the excerpts from their fan fiction or scripts just confused me and pulled me out of the story. There was an excerpt between almost every single chapter and normally I would love that but this one for some reason just did not click with me! I related more to April in this book and found her amazing. She was the star of this book. I ended up really wanting more of April, Marcus was okay but he was just eh. He was one of those characters that you don't want to root for, or even really hate him. But I just didn't really care much about him. I ended up giving this one 3-stars. I liked it overall. I just didn't love it. It was a solid read though.

Then finally my last book of the month is Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey. This is actually the second book in her Hot and Hammered series. But it was the first one that I read. Most series like this one can be read out of order because each book follows someone introduced in the previous book. Like the first book in this series follows one of the characters you see in this book and the next one follows another side character in this book. I think I would love to read the first book to see how Rosie and Dominic were in that book I ended up giving this one 4-stars but I feel like it may have been more on the 3-star side of things. I loved the book overall, but I think if I had to compare it to the other two that I read this month that were similar it would be tied between all three of them. But I do want to read the others in this series. I already have the first one, I just wanted to read Rosie's story that's why I picked up this one first.

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.

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 Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Synopsis from Book

Two truths and a lie.  The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. The last she - or anyone - saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, gushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings - massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover shortly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees.

Familiar faces, unchanged cabins, and the same dark lake haunt Nightingale, even though the camp is opening its doors for the first time since the disappearances. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager but soon discovers a security camera - the only one on the property - pointed directly at its door. Then cryptic clues that Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins being surfacing. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing mysterious threats in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to her friends, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.

Thoughts Before Reading

I've been obsessed with Riley Sager and dying to read another book by him ever since I read Final Girls so this month I was able to pick up his second book, The Last Time I Lied! This one sounds so interesting and the only reason I have waited to pick it up until today is that I was in The Royal We bubble that i couldn't escape. Now I'm jumping back into Sager's world and I can't be more thrilled. This one in the beginning I think sounded the most interesting to me when I first started looking at Riley Sager books but I never picked it up. The fact that it starts at a cabin over the summer I think is perfect for the time of the year that it is now. I'm hoping for another can't put down the book, a new obsession, and I'm so thrilled! 

After Thoughts

So I started this book like forever ago but then I stopped after maybe 20 pages. I was in a reading slump and this just wasn't pulling me in. There's nothing against this book I just wasn't feeling it. There was nothing wrong with this book it was purely me, and even though this wasn't the first book I read this month I'm posting this before a couple other books because I started it first. I actually ended up really loving this book I gave it 5 out of 5 stars, and even though I loved it the book doesn't beat Final Girls for me. 

One of my favorite things that happened in this book was that it really had a duel perspective since it went between today Emma and teenager Emma. I loved seeing what she was thinking and how she experienced it. Reading Sager's books I've realized that thrillers really aren't for me but mysteries are right up my ally. I love how he writes these things and they pull me in completely. Which I kind of knew since my all-time favorite series is In Death which is mystery heavy. Shockingly my biggest complaint is that I wanted more romance a little bit. Now let me explain a little. The main book genres I read are kind of romance/contemporary/chick-lit and they are all really romance heavy. For Sager's books, at least this one, I really didn't need romance I mean I loved the book and gave it 5 out of 5 stars. But I've noticed that Sager throws in innuendos between a male and female character but doesn't really deliver. In the first book, I think it was done perfectly because yes I was wanting something to alleviate the tension however I feel like we got it with that twist! Now with this book, I feel like we had the same tension but we didn't have anything alleviating it. At the end of the book, we kind of got a glimpse of what happened to Emma after everything that happened and I was left really wanting to see more of her and Theo not necessarily romantic but just that freaking dinner they talked about! 

With The Last Time I Lied I did have a rough time getting into it, even when I was in a reading mood. So I actually started this book the second time with audiobook and I definitely recommend the audiobook it is really interesting and a really good experience. Once the story started going and we were past Emma building up the story (about 50 pages) I was fully hooked! I couldn't put it down and I loved it so much that I was even reading my physical copy and listening to it at home! So it was a rough beginning at least it was for me. I also think it was a bit slower-paced than how Final Girls was. I just think that story was just boom, boom, boom but Last Time had a really slow burn. I'm really hesitant to pick up the next one, Lock Every Door. Lock Every Door is definitely the book that I'm the least thrilled to read because the synopsis just doesn't sound good to me. But I'm definitely going to pick it up before I read Home Before Dark, so hopefully really soon!

P.S. I know I'm really sucking with Bookstagram posts I've just been super busy between work, school, and also my other blog so something had to give. However, I am working on something for it and I think it is going to come out really cool and something I've honestly should've done from the beginning of this year. I'm also working really hard to have a post every Sunday so in real-time I may have finished a book a little bit ago and the post comes out a couple days or weeks later. But I'll always have them all come out within the same month of me reading it if that makes any sense. That reading slump really just killed my momentum I had going but I love to read for fun and when I'm in a reading slump it just means that I'm not enjoying what I'm reading so I have to step aside for a little bit and come back to it which is what happened in July. However, August is looking like a very promising month and I've just so happened to be really busy as well. Any well see you next week with a new review.

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. 

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.

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.