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 Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

 Synopsis

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

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

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

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

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

My Review

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

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

ShayKay's Review of Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

 

Synopsis from Book

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

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

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

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

Thoughts Before Reading

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

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

After Thoughts

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

ShayKay's Review of Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyers

Synopsis from the Book

Thoughts Before Reading

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

Halfway Through Thoughts

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

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

After Thoughts

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

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

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

ShayKay's August 2020 Wrap Up

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

5-Stars

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

4-Stars

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

3-Stars

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

2- Stars

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midyear Freak Out Tag

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

    

 

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

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

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

5. Biggest Disappointment

 

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

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

6. Biggest Surprise

 

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

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

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

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

8. Newest Fictional Crush

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

9. Newest Favorite Character

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

10. A Book that Made You Cry

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

11. A Book that Made You Happy

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

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

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

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

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

            

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

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

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 Review of Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein

Synopsis from Book

The past seven years have been hard on Avery Abrams: After training her entire life to make the Olympic gymnastics team, a disastrous performance ended her athletic career for good. Her best friend and teammate, Jasmine, went on to become an Olympic champion, then committed the ultimate betrayal by marrying their coach, Dimitri. 

Now, reeling from a breakup with her football-star boyfriend, Avery returns to her Massachusetts hometown, where her old acquaintance Ryan, now a coach, asks her to help him train Hallie, a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Back in the gym for the first time in years, she's surprised not only by Hallie's talent but also by the sparks flying with Ryan. But when a shocking scandal in the gymnastics world breaks, it has shattering consequences for the sport. Avery isn't sure her burgeoning romance can survive it.

Thoughts Before Reading

Since I got this book I thought it was about ice skating which I'm a sucker for but now that I'm actually reading it I see that it's about gymnastics! Which is also a guilty pleasure. I loved all of the Bring it On movies (yes I know its cheerleading), Stick It was one of my all-time favorite movies for a really long time, I love any of the movies that come on TV that I can watch. I just find it so fascinating. I think this is going to be an interesting book and I really want to read it. I've been in such a reading slump though so I'm curious how this is going to go. I've already the first chapter and I was hooked so let's see how this goes.

After Thoughts

Now that I finished the book and have had some time to think about it I agree with my rating. I gave it a 3-star overall. I really got annoyed with it. I feel like it kept repeating itself and I was just getting really annoyed with it. I think my biggest complaint with this book is that everything between her and Ryan just felt so off. I wasn't pulled into their relationship. The way things went down at I think trials between Avery and Ryan I wanted them to just be done because their relationship felt messy to me like it just didn't make sense. This could've been fixed in my eyes IF they would've worked through their issues. In the synopsis, it sounded like they were going to have a big fight over something Avery did in her past but what we get in the book wasn't that. Their fight boils down to a job offer and ultimately destroys there relationship and then it's fixed because he finally realized that what she was telling him was true but they never talk it out. I just wanted more context there. Another place I wanted more story would've been Avery's coach Dimitri. I know that they had a very bad relationship but no one talked about it and when Avery talked about it she could've gone more into her story kind of like a flashback or something but that didn't happen and she just like implied how abusive he was and expected everyone to just know what she went through. This kind of thing happened all throughout this book so I feel like I need to go back and change my rating on Goodreads now that I've had the time to digest this book. I read it so fast because it is an easy read and I liked what could've happened with it but overall it fell really flat. I like how the book pulled in real-life events into the story such as the big scandal with the doctor that happened a couple years ago but even though I loved this aspect of the book I think it could've been done better such as Hallie's involvement with it. Hallie is effected by everything going on with it to the point that it is messing with her performance and I don't necessarily want or needed her to be one of the victims but I feel like it was sort of implied that she was but she never spoke up. I think that would've been an interesting angle to use that would've been really gripping to read. I loved how Avery and Jasmine were able to reconnect, I think that is one of the things this book did really well and was able to discuss where they fell apart and work through it. 

I think the book should've started with Avery training for her Olympic trials that way we would've seen her, Jasmine, and Dimitri training and their interactions together. We would've gotten to experience the abuse Dimitri did, Jasmine and Avery's friendship, and her gymnastics. Then after her accident, we could've cut to today's time and see her in college being this party girl, her relationship with Tyler that pulled her out of that life, to her coming back to her town where the whole story took place. I think this would've helped the story so much and make it where you wouldn't have had to change the story much we could've left all of the implications but evolve her and Ryan's relationship a little bit. This version may have been a little bit longer but I think it would've made it so much better. So the book in my eyes as it is, is a 2-star read and I just updated my ratings on Goodreads.