Life Update

I know I've been MIA from here and my Instagram pretty much the whole month of July and I really have no excuse. I've really been in a reading slump and the only book I even read in July is the Umbrella Academy's first comic that I got for my birthday. I'm a mood reader and I'm not going to force myself to read if I can't get into a book and that's just what happened. But I've never gone a whole month without reading like this. I've also been really busy. First I started a new job so I've been doing all of the onboarding stuff for that. I've had a lot of fun learning all of this new stuff. It's been too long since I've gotten to work so it has been really good. July is also my birthday so we celebrated that, and it is also my brother's birthday. The summers are always really hectic because we normally go away literally every weekend so we have been at the lake a lot. Then my baby got neutered too so that was two weeks of healing and then cleaning up. He's actually getting groomed right now to get all of the junk shaved off since he drained so much, I know it was gross but he needed to be fixed. I like to let my dogs grow as much as they can before I fix them so I don't normally get them fixed until their a year old and Ky is a newfie so he's been growing quite a bit. 

I was able to do my monthly post on the books that I got through the month and to be honest if I didn't pick up eBooks throughout the month I don't think I would have much to add to that post. My goal for the month is to do the Book of the Month rainbow challenge. There is a group on Facebook called the Book of the Month (BOTM) Club where we all get to sit around and talk about the books that the subscription service picks and so on. Usually, they do monthly challenges or even seasonal ones and it helps me keep up with reading. I don't know why but challenges like this always get me and help me get into books. So all of August will be dedicated to completing this challenge. This is pretty simple this month we basically have to read books that match these colors. It can be any book, doesn't have to be Book of the Month ones, but since I have a backstock to read I like to use them to help get through my backstock. You can either use the covers or the spine or even the naked book to complete the rainbow. If you get Book of the Month books you know the naked cover is usually 2 colors and their really pretty and can very easily do this challenge. Or you can use the covers to do it. Since it is so laid back I'm going to do it. This month and on my Instagram, you'll be seeing the picture below a lot I hope and we'll see if I get out of this reading slump. 

I just want to mention that my classes are supposed to start sometime in August so I'll be back in school soon and that is what normally puts a damper on my reading. So we'll see what happens. 

ShayKay's June Wrap Up

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

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

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

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

2-Star Read

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

3-Star Read

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

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

4-Star Read

 

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

5-Star Read

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

   

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

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

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

June 2020 Book Haul

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

June Book of the Month Picks

 

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

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

Audible Subscription

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

The Comics

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

Random Picks

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

The eBook(s)

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

ShayKay's Review of 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.

The Spring Book of the Month Reading Challenge Tally

Here are my results from the 2020 spring book of the month reading challenge. It's not perfect, but it's not bad either. I just wanted to do more than what I had. I planned on finishing my Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone reread by now and it was going to go in the 'Children's Chapter Book' tile. I had a couple books that could've fit in 'Most Anticipated,' 'Book Cover with Your Favorite Color,' and 'Book within your Favorite Time Period.' But I just never got to them or kept trying to fill up other tiles first. I love bright colors in general so these ones on here could've fit there. Lately, every time I looked at this chart I kept thinking I had more or some on top of other tiles like I swear I had one on '400+ pages' and the 'NY Times' one, but I'm not seeing it on here. I thought about rereading Hunger Games for the Totalitarianism one but I just wasn't feeling like rereading it. I rearranged the books a couple times but this is the ultimate lineup. The only thing I can see happening to this chart now is if I finish the Wayward Children series between now and Sunday because I could see them fitting on 'Fairytale Retelling,' 'Favorite Colors,' and 'Classic Retelling.' If I do get to them the chart will resemble that, I wrote this up on 5/27 so we'll see what happens. I'm really wanting to read Hideaway by Nora Roberts right now! 

As for my favorite books on this chart, I think its a tie between The One by John Mars, Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, and The Happily Ever Playlist by Abby Jimenez. My least favorite is probably After We Collided by Anna Todd, the middle books in the After series were so rough to get through. There's only one reread on here, Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. I could also see me maybe finishing my Nora Roberts book that I got and if I do that then I will add it to the '400+' or 'Most Anticipated' tile. We will just have to wait and see. I do have a pretty busy next few days coming up. 

Just updated the final tally and I did manage to complete Hideaway by Nora Roberts! My review post will be up in a few days!

ShayKay's Review of the After series by Anna Todd

Normally I try to do a before reading thoughts and after reading thoughts when I do a book review because I like being able to compare what I thought about the book and what I'm left with after reading it. But this whole series I didn't do that with. To be honest I didn't expect to read them, or even enjoy them if I did read them. I've just been really wanting to read the books because of how the movie is and I've wanted to compare the book to the movie, which I didn't even do. I know I'm a terrible slacker with this whole thing. But I've really been so captivated by the story that I couldn't leave this world once I started it.

For anyone that has seen the movie you know After follows a girl and a boy and their very turbulence romance. It's very toxic right from the beginning. They are both in college, she's a small-town girl that is being thrown into the big world all by herself for the first time and he is the bad boy. Without spoiling we all know this trope, and it is a very common thing in books, TV shows, and movies. The movie ends in a cliffhanger and I've been really wanting to read the book to get closure from this cliffhanger. I say that I really want to read it but this is something that I have been looking into for over a year now. It has taken me so long because one, the books are expensive because they are adult books and I've been looking for them to go on sale but they have never been on the clearance aisle at my bookstore, or even a used copy. I can never justify spending so much money on a new book from a new author. I get too nervous about it. Plus if I bought the same book on Amazon, even the physical copy was like $10 compared to the $16-18 from the bookstore. Since there are 4, technically 5, books in the series that is a lot of money to venture out on something that I have no clue if I will like or not. I've also been watching my local library but the waitlist for the audiobook is so long and I don't tend to get eBooks because I know I take too long reading them and I don't want to hold onto them. Since we are stuck inside right now I splurged on renting the first book as an eBook from my library. AND I DEVOURED IT! Another reason it has taken me so long is that I've just been busy with school and work, which I know is my excuse for everything but it's true. 

Just a little warning there are no spoilers below but at the same time it is a little wonky format since I had originally planned just posting this on Instagram but there was just too much. At the bottom of each book, you will see me talking about tiles, that is the Spring Book of the Month challenges and I'll have that listed at the very bottom.

After by Anna Todd

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I've been really wanting to read this book because I love the movie and have been so curious about the book. If you've seen the movie you know it leaves you wanting more, at least it did me. I needed to know what happens with Tessa and Harden. However, the books at the bookstore are always so expensive since they are adult books. I am a bargain shopper when it comes to book buying and there was no way I could justify the cost of them, especially since it was an author I've never read before. Since we are stuck at home, I was able to get the eBook from my library and I could not put it down! I was obsessed with it and I had to read it! I got through it pretty fast, but it does end in a cliff hanger just like the movie, I think the whole series all pretty much ended in cliff hangers except for the fourth one. 

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I loved it and I was left wanting to go into the next book but I don't think it was perfect. Yet out of the whole series, this one might have been the closest to 5 stars.

I ended up putting this book on the 'Book about a game.' I sort of really played with the where to put this book because I had so many different places I could put it and I honestly was leaning towards either 'Most Anticipated Book,' 'First in a Series,' or '400+ Pages.' But since the main storyline involved truth or dare, beer pong, and bets I thought it would be perfect for this one. I know this is really far-fetched, but I really liked the idea of it. I might end up moving it before I'm done with all the books, but this is what I got so far. 

After We Collided by Anna Todd

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the book that I really started finding my annoyance with the series. Even though I needed to know what happened with Tessa and Harden I couldn’t help but get so aggravated with them. I kept comparing my obsession with how everyone is so obsessed with that Tiger King show on Netflix right now. It isn’t the best writing or even the best story, but it is something that I just couldn’t look away from it. I’m trying to stay spoiler-free and to be completely honest about my annoyance with the book is their relationship. If you’ve seen the movie or read the book, then you can understand that they are very problematic, and the book just shows it way more than the movie does. To be completely honest if the book didn’t end in a cliffhanger, I think I would’ve ended it here. But I’m really glad now that I finished the series out

I ended up giving this book a 3 out of 5 stars. Even though I had a hard time a lot throughout the book I didn’t hate it and it did still have a lot of enjoyable moments so it wasn’t horrible, but I didn’t like it as much as the first one.

The book ended on the ‘Multiple POV’ because this is the first book that we start seeing Harden’s perspective and not just Tessa’s. I really didn’t question this one or even think of another place for it other than that one.

After We Fell by Anna Todd

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the third book in the After series and I honestly think it is one of my favorites. I really loved it so much, but it was still very problematic and to be completely honest I was getting really tired of how toxic Harden and Tessa are. This is the book that I really started thinking that I enjoyed reading more when Harden and Tessa weren’t together than when they were. 

Even though I really loved this book I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars. I loved the first one more. I wasn’t as annoyed with Tess and Harden in the first book and even though I loved the different point-of-view that carried into this book I was still very annoyed and just over Hessa’s relationship.

For this book, I put it on the ‘Male Main Character’ tile. I actually moved Red, White, and Royal Blue off of it and down to ‘2019 Goodreads Choice Awards,’ which works out a lot better. I was really struggling with what book would even qualify for that tile.

After Ever Happy by Anna Todd

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the final book in the series, and I believe it is the one that I read the fastest. I started reading it yesterday and I finished it just now. I can honestly say that I either love it more or just as much as the first one because I finally get an ending to Tessa and Harden and I really think I got the perfect ending. I don’t want to go into too much detail about how it ends because you literally have to go through fourth books just to get to it and I think it was really perfect. I just hated the drama between Tessa and Harden that happened throughout the whole series to get to this point, some of it I understand but most just infuriated me. Were these reads the best books I’ve ever read and I’m going to reread them all the time I do Harry Potter? No, they definitely weren’t. But they were a fun read that I didn’t have to put too much thought into and really transported me away from this world. I had to literally give my book to my husband so I could do my homework because I was so stuck in this world the last couple of weeks.

Just like the first book I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars. Like I said I either love this one just as much if not more than the first book, but it wasn’t a 5-star read to me. I still loved it though.

I ended up putting the book on ‘A Book about a Book or Book Club.’ If you have read this series, you will know why I did it and how I came to this conclusion. It might not be as obvious as it is supposed to be but, in my head, it makes sense and I really love how it fits.

Overall

I really loved this series even though they got really annoying and very repetitive. I really enjoyed the way it started and how it wrapped up. The middle I think was just really drawn out. There were a lot of things that I really like and thought fit it, but then there was just as much that I think could've been left out. There is another book in this series, but I do believe that I will not read it. Even though I really liked the series I think that the fourth one is where I'm done with it. The last book, from my understanding, is a prequel and I don't normally like prequels. I would rather read the prequels first. I want the story in order versus reading something, finishing the story, and then going back. One tip that I will give you as a new reader to these books is to just jump into them. I didn't read any of the synopsizes for any of the books and I  went in with very little information outside of the first book and I loved it. I loved not knowing what was going to happen and just going with the flow. I literally picked the first book up just a couple of weeks ago and completed the whole series. I don't read a lot like I used too anymore and I really enjoyed being able to just plow through them like I did.

Any book-related posts that I read between March and May I'm going to add the following image because I'm trying to complete the whole table. BOTM is the Book of the Month, and one of the groups I have for the subscription service on Facebook was doing these Book Goals so I turned them into this grid below and been adding everything I read to this lately. 

Book Case Building

I've been wanting to show off my bookcase since I've finished building it but first I didn't have books on it, then it wasn't completed, and then I needed to rearrange the books since I added two more shelves to it. Finally, it's done and instead of showing it off completely I kept saying that I needed to clean the living room and straighten up the bookcase before I had a picture good enough to show off to the world. Well, that was back in September and now it is January! So it's time to show off all of the hard work I put into this behemoth of a bookshelf it is.

Since we moved into this house I've been dying to build a bookcase. We had a couple of crates just sitting around the house and I wanted to try building a bookcase out of them, like the ones I saw on Pinterest. My first bookcase only took me a month or two because all I had to do was stain the wood and then screw the crates together. For the first time building anything completely on my own, this was the perfect project! Staining the wood is what took the longest but the end result was amazing! I love the bookcase that I built. This was the summer of 2018.

Crate Bookshelf
(another two crates at the bottom not in the picture)

This last summer (summer of 2019) I wanted to be more ambitious than the previous summer. I wanted to build a bookcase that would span over a whole entire wall! I thought about it for a year and looked through different types of wall bookcases. I thought about buying multiple ones that would fit between the ceiling and the floor or maybe even have custom ones made. Both of these options are so expensive and I would've had to compromise the size I wanted it to be because of the price or not being able to find one that would fill the space. So I started thinking about the previous summer and how much fun I had building my bookcase. I loved building that bookcase and I wanted to be the one that built this one since it was for my library! Then I stumbled upon this picture on Pinterest (picture below), and then I was tagged by multiple people on Facebook of the same type of bookcase. I got to thinking about this bookcase constantly! It looks so simple yet beautiful! I could build my own custom bookcase!

Original Inspiration Picture

Money was tight so my need to build this bookcase went to the back burner. By April we were finally financially stable enough to start branching out on projects such as building a bookcase. I talked to my fiance and family about the different options I had to do this and we all decided that if I wanted to build the bookcase I needed to be 100% sure this was the type of bookcase I wanted and that it would be sturdy enough to hold the bookcase and not pull the wall down. So it was time to start investigating the plans for this bookcase. At this point, I had no clue what material I needed to build this thing, at the time all I knew was that I needed pipe and wood. How hard could it be to build this relatively simple bookcase? 

I started looking at Pinterest to see if anyone had posted the plans that they used and I found the picture above. I started learning the names of the materials I needed such as flange, elbow, and tee. I started getting an idea of how wide the wood needed to be. From here I started measuring walls in my living room to figure out which wall I wanted it to be on and how long it could potentially be. We ended up moving our entire living room around so I could build on the biggest wall available for me. I figured out I had about 17 feet of wall to play with! I was so excited! So with the inspiration from the picture above, I started drawing up plans of my own! I had a general idea of how big this thing was going to be but it wasn't until I made my first trip to Home Depot that I really started seeing how much it was going to cost to build this thing! 

My first trip to Home Depot was so funny because I couldn't find anything! I've been to stores like Home Depot before but I've never gone to just shop I've always gone with my parents or we went for a purpose so I never really just walked around to shop before. This first trip I found the lumber without any issue but do you know how many different variations there are!? I knew before walking into the store I didn't want 20" wide shelves. I just felt like that was way too wide because I wanted to build it around my TV set up I already had. If you think there are a lot of different options for wood then wait until you hear about the pipes and metal stuff! Once I finally found the pipes I was looking for (in the plumbing aisle!) I had to figure out what size pipe worked best for my project. I ended up going with 1/2" pipe which was the cheapest option. I really didn't need anything bigger because there are so many supports going into it. I decided it was time to go home but I bought a couple of metal pieces just to see what it would like and how many pieces it would take. I like visual aids and it helped me see the bigger picture. So here is what I had after the first day of actually putting stuff together.

This was two feet long and the arms are four inches

This piece above showed me that this bookcase is going to be not just wide but also very tall! Another thing that I learned while working with this piece was my bookshelves needed to be wider. The arms on this piece were only 4" long and the tall pieces were 12" long. With the arms here I was able to sit the books on them and I saw that some of them needed a bigger shelf to sit on and in some places I wanted to be able to have the option to sit some extra knick-knacks here and there. So I definitely needed to make those longer but the 12" long ones were perfect! I wanted to keep them this long because it helped make the math side of things easier for me to figure out how many pieces I needed. 

From here I went back to my designs and started chopping them into the imaginary pieces I would need so I would know how many flanges I would need to connect the pipe to the wall, how many 6" pipe I would need for the shelves, how tall the actual bookcase would be, and more importantly how long each piece of wood was going to have to be to fit onto these metal pieces to make the shelves. My final design on paper ended up being 7 feet tall and 17 feet wide. I had the bookcase broken down into 3 different sections, 4 if you count the TV that was already on the wall. The first section was the top part of the bookcase which was going to be the full 17 feet wide. This section was made to fit the whole entire wall and really connect the whole bookcase, TV, and the space in the living room altogether. The second and third sections were going to mirror each other and they were both going to hold 4 shelves each. All of the shelves were going to be 5 feet long. The remaining 6 feet hold the TV stand, TV, and all of my gaming consoles. So this was my final idea that I had back in May so why did it take me so long to finish the bookcase? Well, that's easy, the answer is money. Plus I like to take my time working on this thing because it was so massive and I really wanted it to be perfect. This meant breaking it down into sections and working on it over time. 

The small piece I had in the picture grew. That piece turned into four pieces. This was one of my first sections almost done! At this point, I haven't even bought the wood yet. I was just slowly building my metal pieces and collecting some of the metal pieces that I would need because some were cheaper than the others. For example, I was able to get a 10 pack of flanges on Home Depot's website and this was an amazing deal especially since I needed almost 30 flanges, so I bought two packs with my next check. In June I splurged on my bookcase! I bought my 8 pieces of 2x6 wood, wood stain, my straps, spray paint for my straps! I was so busy for the next couple of days spray painting the straps, staining the wood, and then adding a second coat of stain to the wood! It was a lot of fun and really felt like the bookcase was coming together! Here are some of the fun I had at Home Depot that day along with how much fun it was to finally have a full 7 feet long end piece for the bookcase! 

 

Yes, I stained the wood in the house! It was a very stupid idea but it was so hot outside and this way I was able to work on it before work, after work, before bed, and so on. During this time I worked constantly on this bookcase because I wanted it perfect and it was so relaxing just staining the wood. In the background of the wood staining, you can see that the pieces of connected pipe just hung out behind my other bookcase, patiently waiting to be connected to the wall. After the wood was dry they hung out behind my couch until I had enough metal to hang to the wall. Eventually, my metal bookcase pieces doubled.

Two of the little end pieces

At this time I had enough to put one of the sections up on the wall, and this is where my dad had to come to help me because the stud finder and I couldn't see eye to eye. Another thing that was going on during this time was that I had two end pieces that were going to be the full 7 feet long and then the two pieces by the TV were going to be only 5 feet long. I had an idea for the separate section holders at the top but they weren't connecting to the other 5 feet. I don't know why but I was adamant about this design to the point that this first section was built just like the plan.

As you can see in the image above I finally had some shelving up! I was so excited but I had a design fail. At this time I wasn't seeing it and it honestly wasn't an issue. The pictures hanging on the wall isn't the design fail I'm talking about. I left those up for as long as I could because even though I finally had this first section done it was going to take me a couple more weeks to get the second section up because I needed more metal piping. The design fail is the small leg and you will see where it becomes an issue later on in these pictures. My next step was to finally get my books out of the floor!

Ignore the metal bowl on the floor that's my dogs' water bowl
and I was obviously cleaning for once since
the broom is in this picture! 

The books on this bookcase obviously had no structure to them at all. I really just threw them on there to get them out of the floor of my bedroom and I knew I was going to have to reorganize them after I had the rest of the bookcase finished. Plus even though this picture shows how disorganized and dirty my living room stays all the time I had to include it because look at grumpy Lu peeking around the corner! She is such a grump! I love her!

Finally, the third section was up on the wall! I was so excited that this was finally done and up on the wall. I was so excited that I had to start putting my books up! Literally right after that last screw went into the wall I had all of my books on the floor and I was organizing them by the last name of the author and trying to figure out how I wanted to put them in the bookcase! I was so happy! At the beginning of this build, and even at this point, I was only going to use these 8 shelves to hold books. My top two shelves were going to be for my funkos. But my plan had two big flaws that I was starting to see a little bit here but I couldn't accept it yet.

Yes, that is Secrets of an American Teenager, I was obsessed with it over the summer.

So here was my final result for my bookcase minus the first section. It stayed like this for at least a month if not longer. I didn't have all of my books out there but I had cleared up so much room with just these ones being on there! Even these books were very messy and looked like I just threw them in there. I didn't have much structure with my end caps and middle holders. I definitely didn't have my Roberts/Robb shelf yet, but I was in love with it regardless of the chaos, plus the top two shelves were just for my Funko collection that was hiding out in my bedroom closet. So even though I would've loved to have the bookcase completed I spent my extra money on my wedding that we were planning. At the time my wedding was still somewhat in the beginning stages and weddings cost money so that's where my extra money had to go. Finally, August was coming and school was about to start and I was determined to finish the bookcase! If I had to go back to school then I was tying up some loose ends and one of the biggest ones I had was this bookcase!

Another huge roadblock I was having in completing my bookcase was how in the world was I going to get two 17 feet boards home??? My dad has a truck but 17 feet is still too long for our truck to hold. Or so I thought. The pictures below show our fun journey on getting the boards home from Home Depot, which is only 10-15 minutes away from our house.

We ended up putting the boards through the window in the truck so we could hold them. They also had wraps on the end of the truck bed tying them down and one stabling it into the bed so they couldn't slide out. They are so long! I stained the wood outside like I should've done with the first 8 but by this time it was cooler outside and made it easier to work outside. By this time I had already realized one flaw in the design. Why were the two ends shorter on the inside of the bookcase and the outside ones going all 7 feet? These two shorter sides were up 5 feet tall so why not connect them to the other two feet? So I had to buy a few more metal pieces that were missing and we had to take off the top two pieces of both of the smaller sides and add the remaining two feet to them. Once those two ends were fixed we were able to add the two long shelves, which took 3 people to carry them in, navigate them into the metal racks, and then secure them. All of the racks have metal straps underneath them securing them to the metal pieces so the wood shelves won't move around. Here is the final result, which I just took this picture at Christmas time.

It took me until Christmas to get a picture that I really liked. With four dogs running around I have to dust every day and the sweeping and mopping get done weekly but the room is still never clean. I believe this was taken the day of our ugly sweater party so the whole house was extra clean which made it so easy to grab this picture. Still, the Funkos aren't perfect here because you can see the gap up there but it's the best I've been able to do so far. Obviously, this end result isn't completely the same as my original plans. Originally the top two shelves were supposed to be all Funkos. First I love how it ended up because I have more space for books, the only shelf I don't love is the very bottom shelf on the right because it isn't all that organized compared to the rest. Second, it ended up like this because the second shelf was about an inch too small to hold two rows of funkos but there was too much gap to fit just one row of Funkos. It didn't look right with that gap between the shelf and the Funko. So I have some of my Funkos in there on the very top shelf than more books, but instead of connecting all the way over with books I broke them up with family pictures! I love that even more than my original plan! My OCD kind of went berzerk with the pictures because I have two of just me, two of me and my fiance, two of my family, and two of my dogs! I always smile when I think about that. Since this picture was taken I've added a soundbar to the wall underneath the pictures and above the TV, which was something I didn't plan on doing. Just like the bookcase I originally wanted to mount the TV on the wall to help fill that space some. I was able to get a really good TV mount during Black Friday but while I was thinking about it I came to the conclusion the TV looks perfect in this picture and it hides all of my controllers and wires I have going behind the TV stand so I decided to mount the speaker instead and I mounted the TV in my bedroom. 

I honestly cannot express how thrilled I am to finally have my bookcase completed! I love it so much and every day while I'm in the living room I love being able to look up at my books and see them all 'staring' back at me! I still have my crate bookcase in the living room. It has moved over giving room for my fiance to have his computer desk in the living room as well. My next project is sadly not book related I think I'm going to be ripping up the flooring in my bedroom and laying down some wood floor along with building a big dog kennel for my two dogs that stay with me 24/7. We'll just have to see what happens with that because my original plan is to put the kennel under the TV in the bookcase to hold both dogs but I don't know if 6 ft is long enough for the plans I have. We'll see what happens, I already have a second location in mind. I've learned to just be okay with things that don't always go to plan because it is okay to rearrange plans!