December 2016 Monthly Highlights

Well, December went by quickly! It didn't help that I was sick for about half of the month. First with a cold, then a week before Christmas I think I had the flu. I was completely miserable then. Goodbye, 2016 and Hello, 2017! 

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!!

I can't believe it is already a new year. I didn't get as much accomplished in 2016 as I wanted to blog-wise. But I did get a couple scrapbooks done for my girls, taught myself to crochet via Youtube videos, and met most of my reading challenge goals. So I am happy with what I did get done. 

Overall, 2016 wasn't exactly the best year. There are several celebrity deaths that surprised me and saddened me a lot. David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Alan Thicke, and Carrie Fisher, especially. All because these were people that I didn't know personally, but they still influenced my life in one way or another. 

I still get sad when I think of David Bowie's death. I cried for a while when I heard the news. I also remember a few days later I heard one of his songs on the radio while I was driving with my youngest daughter, and I fought back tears. Then after the song ended and another one began, I remembered "Oh yeah, 'Two for Tuesday'". Luckily, I was almost to the store, so I was able to park and cry in my car. My daughter asked, "What's wrong, Mommy?" And I told her, "Mommy just really loves David Bowie's music, and it is sad because he died recently." She then said to me, "Oh. I really wish I could have met him." Which made me smile and I told her that I wish I could have too. 

There are some other things that disappointed me this year, but I am choosing to look at the good things that have happened instead.  Because there are a lot of good things that have happened as well. 

Enough of me rambling about the year. Here are the books I read in December and how I ended with my 2016 Reading Challenges!

November 2016 Monthly Highlights

October 2016 Highlights

Wow, October was an extremely busy month for me. So I didn't spend a lot of time reading. It doesn't help that I am also in the biggest reading slump. I just haven't felt like reading. I have spent a lot of my month working on crocheting projects. 

September 2016 Highlights

August 2016 Highlights

May 2016 Highlights

May started off a bit slowly for me. I had a HUGE BOOKISH HANGOVER from reading The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater at the end of April. So I didn't feel like reading much. But then my pre-order of A Court of Mist and Fury arrived and I couldn't wait to read it! Which helped with my TRK feels. But then I had an even bigger bookish hangover! I had a hard finding motivation to read, so it felt like I didn't read a lot. I still ended up reading 11 books in May, which I am pretty happy about! 

Liars and Losers Like Us by Ami Allen-Vath

Title: Liars and Losers Like Us

Author: Ami Allen-Vath
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary
Release Date: March 15, 2016
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Sky Pony Press!)

Keep calm and make it to prom night—without a legit panic attack.
For seventeen-year-old Bree Hughes, it’s easier said than done when gossip, grief, and the opportunity to fail at love are practically high-fiving her in the hallways of Belmont High.
When Bree’s crush, Sean Mills, gives her his phone number, she can’t even leave a voicemail without sounding like a freak. Then she’s asked to be on Prom Court because Maisey Morgan, the school outcast nominated as a joke, declined. She apologizes to Maisey, but it’s too late. After years of torment and an ugly secret shared with their class’s cruel Pageant Queen, Maisey commits suicide. Bree is left with a lot of regret…and a revealing letter with a final request.
With Sean by her side, Bree navigates through her guilt, her parents’ divorce, and all the Prom Court drama. But when a cheating-love-triangle secret hits the fan after a night of sex, drinks, and video games, she’s left with new information about Sean and the class Pageant Queen. Bree must now speak up or stay silent. If she lets fear be her guide, she’ll lose her first love, and head to prom to avenge the death of the school outcast—as a party of one.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository 

***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

Why I Think You Should Read Dreamology by Lucy Keating

Title: Dreamology

Author: Lucy Keating
Length:
Publisher: Harper Teen
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Science Fiction
Release Date: April 12, 2016
Source: ARC via Publisher (Thank you, HarperTeen!)
Read: April 2016

For as long as Alice can remember, she has dreamed of Max. Together they have traveled the world and fallen deliriously, hopelessly in love. Max is the boy of her dreams—and only her dreams. Because he doesn’t exist.
But when Alice walks into class on her first day at a new school, there he is. It turns out, though, that Real Max is nothing like Dream Max, and getting to know each other in reality isn’t as perfect as Alice always hoped.
When their dreams start to bleed dangerously into their waking hours, the pair realize that they might have to put an end to a lifetime of dreaming about each other. But when you fall in love in your dreams, can reality ever be enough?
Whimsical, romantic and utterly original, Lucy Keating’s debut novel will win readers’ hearts.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository 

***I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review***

April 2016 Highlights

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Title: Love & Gelato

Author: Jenna Evans Welch
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: May 3, 2016
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Simon Pulse!)

A summer in Italy turns into a road trip across Tuscany in this sweeping debut novel filled with romance, mystery, and adventure.
Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.
But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept from Lina for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and ever herself.
People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more. 

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository 

***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

March 2016 Monthly Highlights

Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor

Title: Into the Dim
(Into the Dim #1)
Author: Janet B. Taylor
Length: 432 pages
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Release Date: March 1, 2016
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, HMH!)
Read:

When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing.      Addictive, romantic, and rich with historical detail, Into the Dim is an Outlander for teens. 

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository 

***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

February 2016 Highlights

Well, I was really busy this month. I was sick for a couple of weeks. Which resulted in me not reading as much as I wanted and not posting nearly as much as I planned to. March is going to be an extremely busy month for me for many reasons, so I probably won't read that much then either. (I do have a lot of post I plan to write for March!) Hopefully I will have the chance to catch up on the reading and blogging stuff in April that I miss in March. 

January 2016 Highlights

Where did January go? It doesn't feel like it is already February 2016! Time is flying by!

The Distance From A to Z by Natalie Blitt

Title: The Distance From A to Z
Author: Natalie Blitt
Length: 316 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (Epic Reads Impulse)
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: January 12, 2016
Source: e-book
Read: January 2016

This full-length novel by debut author Natalie Blitt is a pitch-perfect blend of Stephanie Perkins and Miranda Kenneally that proves the age-old adage: opposites attract.
Seventeen-year old Abby has only one goal for her summer: to make sure she is fluent in French—well, that, and to get as far away from baseball and her Cubs-obsessed family as possible. A summer of culture and language, with no sports in sight.
That turns out to be impossible, though, because her French partner is the exact kind of boy she was hoping to avoid. Eight weeks. 120 hours of class. 80 hours of conversation practice with someone who seems to exclusively wear baseball caps and jerseys.
But Zeke in French is a different person than Zeke in English. And Abby can’t help but fall for him, hard. As Abby begins to suspect that Zeke is hiding something, she has to decide if bridging the gap between the distance between who she is and who he is, is worth the risk. 

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble

Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira

Title: Bookishly Ever After
(Ever After #1) 
Author: Isabel Bandeira
Length: 350 pages
Publisher: Spencer Hill 
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: January 12, 2016
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Spencer Hill!)
Read: January 2016

In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martins’ life would be a book. Preferably a YA novel with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn’t even qualify for a quiet contemporary. But when Phoebe finds out that Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her, she turns to her favorite books for advice. Phoebe overhauls her personality to become as awesome as her favorite heroines and win Dev’s heart. But if her plan fails, can she go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing? 

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository

***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***