The Hating Game - Sally Thorne // Recommend

RomCom-esque

Beach Read - Emily Henry // Recommend 

Came very close to my 5Star+ category. Teetering. 

Something I highlighted while reading:

“That January was probably buried wherever they put the old Taylor Swift” 

The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Alix E. Harrow // Recommend

Very similar to The Starless Sea

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab // Recommend

I love this author.

Something I highlighted while reading:

“Funny how some people take an age to warm, and others simply walk into every room as if it’s home.”

“Seeing him was like missing a step, like fabric snagging on a nail. A moment thrown off-balance.”

“…paralyzed by the idea that whatever you choose to do, it means choosing not to do a hundred other things.”

“But isn’t it wonderful,’ she says, ‘to be an idea?”

Series 

These Violent Delights - Chloe Gong
Our Violent Ends - Chloe Gong // Recommend 

Also came close to my 5Star+ category
Romeo & Juliet spin off

Something I highlighted while reading:

“They say Shanghai stands tall like an emperors ugly daughter”

“There’s a plague on both your damn houses.”

Writers and Lovers - Lily King // Casually Recommend

Something I highlighted while reading:

“It’s a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone.”

A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles // Very Much Recommend - 5Star+

Series
From Blood and Ash - Jennifer L. Armentrout 
A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire - JLA
The Crown of Gilded Bones - JLA
The War of Two Queens - JLA // Recommend - Very Spicy

Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney // Recommend 

This was a book I wanted to talk about after I finished it. 

Something I highlighted while reading:

“He was the first person I had met since Bobbi who made me enjoy conversation, in the same irrational and sensuous way I enjoyed coffee or loud music. He made me laugh.”

“It would have been dramatic to introduce capitalization at such a moment of tension.” 

Normal People - Sally Rooney // Recommend

Also very much wanted to talk about it after I finished it. 

Something I highlighted while reading:

“Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn’t know if she would ever find out where it was and become part of it.”

“They were attended only by people who wanted to be the kind of people who attended them” 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid // Recommend

Love this author - I liked Daisy Jones and the Six better. 

Something I highlighted while reading:

“When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is “You’re safe with me” — that’s intimacy.” 

Series
A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab
A Gathering of Shadows - VES
A Conjuring of Light - VES // Recommend

Something I highlighted while reading:

“Because caring was a thing with claws. It sank them in, and didn’t let go.” 

The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood // Recommend 5Star

RomCom-esque

After Dark - Haruki Murakami // Recommend

Something I highlighted while reading:

“Everything about the restaurant is anonymous and interchangeable.” 

“Maybe so, but if he loses an ear, he’s got nothing to hang his glasses on.”

“That people’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive” 

“It’s not as if our lives are divided simply into light and dark. There’s a shadowy middle ground. Recognizing and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does. And to acquire a healthy intelligence takes a certain amount of time and effort.” 

Woman on Fire - Lisa Barr // Recommend 5Star

Historical Fiction
Investigative Journalism
Nazi Art Movement

Something I highlighted while reading:

“Details are the deal breaker”

“Who eats his sandwich with a fork and knife” 

Fugitive Colors - Lisa Barr // Recommend

Historical Fiction
Nazi Art Movement 

I had to physically put this book down several times because what was happening to the characters was so awful and because it was reminiscent of what really happened during this war; it made me sick. 

If We Were Villains - M.L. Rio // Recommend 5Star

Murder Mystery but make it Shakespeare
Beautifully written prose interspersed with play script: dialogue

Something I highlighted while reading:

“Murder’s as near to lust as flame to smoke”

“How tremendous the agony of unmade decisions” 

Ain’t Burned All the Bright - Jason Reynolds + Jason Griffon //

Divine - M.J. Woodman //

Saw this book on TikTok
Under the impression this book is self published
It had so much potential - I loved the premise and the main characters name is Electa Steel, like how freaking cool. But it just didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

Five Tuesdays in Winter - Lily King // Recommend

Collection of Short Stories

Holding On to Nothing - Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne //

This one started with youthful excitement, wove its way to naive hope and left you with devastating heartbreak that we all saw coming but really wished we didn’t.

The Spanish Love Deception // Recommend

RomCom

Series
Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo // Recommend

Something I highlighted while reading:

“No mourners. No funerals.” 

”We are all someone's monster.”

”Greed may do your bidding, but death serves no man.”

Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid // Recommend

Book Lovers // Recommend

RomCom

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway // DO NOT Recommend

I hated everything about this book.

Series
It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover
It Starts With Us - Colleen Hoover // Recommend

IEWU will always have a special place in my heart because it was so hyped up on social media that I reallllyyyyy did not want to read it. Everyone was reading it, but I am SO glad that I did.

Gallant - V. E. Schwab // Recommend

So different. Just fits the V.E. Schwab vibe.

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens // Recommend

Love on the Brain - Ali Hazelwood // Recommend

I love Ali Hazelwood so much. That’s it.

Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi //

I love the dystopian society novels, and I think they all take a little bit from each other, but I felt like I had read this book before and was super bored.

Book of Night - Holly Black // Recommend

I hated this book until the last 1/3, loved it, and then hated the ending.
So do with that what you will.

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo //

Ehhh

Carrie Soto is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid // Recommend

I think sports books are really hard to read because I’ve lived that life, but this will be a top favorite book for a long time!

Series
Chain of Gold - Cassandra Clare
Chain of Iron - Cassandra Clare // Recommend
Chain of Thorns - Cassandra Clare

I AM IMPATIENTLY WAITING FOR THE THIRD BOOK TO COME OUT JANUARY 31st!
(Update: It came out. I read it. I didn’t love it.

Men Without Women - Haruki Murakami//

Several short stories.

Lightlark - Alex Aster // Do Not Recommend

This book was hyped up on TikTok, just like Divine, and it was a big let down.
The plot had so much potential and the characters too, but there was like no follow through. I’m all about the love story but you could tell that took precedence over the actual plot of the story instead of being a by-product of the plot.

Alone With You in the Ether - Olivie Blake // Recommend

I loved the characters in this book. Broke my heart.