The Romance Bookie

 Hey Everyone! So I have some catching up to do!  I went on vacation for the last three weeks, and we only got back on Sunday evening, so I haven't been in front of my computer until now.  We had a great time! We got to experience snow for the first time, like the most beautiful powdery white snow you can imagine during our trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, and then after spending a week there we flew to Florida to celebrate the 50th with Walt Disney World!  It was a lot of firsts for our son, including flying on an airplane, snow, and of course going to Walt Disney World, so it was all very exciting.  Albeit, a little stressful at times, but so worth it!   I am excited to be home again.  Just to have these quiet moments while my son is taking a nap, and being able to catch up on some things, feels nice.  Plus a little space never hurt anyone ;).   Anyway, during my trip I utilized the gyms in our hotel room, and during that alone time, I got ...

 Hey Everyone! I am really excited to write this review.  I didn't think I would I would be able to read another book this year, let alone two, and then also have one of them be a favorite of the year!  I am on a roll this month and trying to keep the momentum going! For my review today I have an audiobook I got to listen to, for American Royals  by Katharine McGee. From Goodreads: What if America had a royal family? When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne. As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America's first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling. Nobody cares about the spare except when she's breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn't care much about anything, either...except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her. And then there Samantha's twin, Prince Jefferson. If ...

 Hey! So last book from my weekend reading binge, for now! This is for the novel I actually read this weekend.  Truly Truly enjoyed this one! My review for To Be Honest by Maggie Ann Martin! From Goodreads: Savannah is dreading being home alone with her overbearing mother after her sister goes off to college.  But if she can just get through senior year, she'll be able to escape to college, too.  What she doesn't count on is that her mother's obsession with weight has only grown deeper since her appearance on an extreme weight-loss show, and now Savvy's mom is pressuring her even harder to be constantly mindful of what she eats. Between her mom's diet-helicoptering, missing her sister, and worrying about her collegiate future, Savvy has enough to worry about.  And then she meets George, the cute new kid at school who has insecurities of his own. As Savvy and George grow closer, they help each other discover how to live in the moment and enjoy the here ...

 Hey! Another review from my weekend binge reading! This one is another graphic novel titled, This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. From Goodreads:   Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach.  It's their getaway, their refuge.  Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. It's a summer of secrets and sorrow and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other. In This One Summer  two stellar creators redefine the teen graphic novel. Cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, the team behind Skim , have collaborated on this gorgeous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful story about a girl on the cusp of her teen age-- a story of renewal and revelation.  My Tho...

 Hey Everyone! I finally managed to finish a book!  A lot has been going on, so I haven't had the time or the head to really get into reading recently.  But I found the manga version of Rainbow Rowell's novel Fangirl  at Barnes and Noble the other day, and had to pick it up.  I seem to really be into YA Manga Adaptations this year! Anyway, I finished it today! From Goodreads: The manga adaptation of the beloved novel by #1 Bestselling author Rainbow Rowell!  Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, everybody is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life. Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath just can't let it go. Now that they're in college, Cath must decide if she's ready to start living her own life.  But does she even want to if it means leaving Simon Snow behind? Cath doesn't need friends IRL. She has her twin sister, Wren, and she's a popular fanfic writer in the Simon Snow community with thousands of fans online. But now t...

 Hello Everyone! It's been a minute! I have not been able to read much lately, but finally finished a book!  July was not a good reading month for me, hopefully this month will be a bit better!   I ended up finally finishing Tokyo Ever After  by Emiko Jean yesterday! From Goodreads: Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in -- it isn't easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, Northern California town.  Raised by a single mother, it's always been Izumi --or Izzy, because "It's easier this way" -- and her mom against the world.  But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father's identity... and he's none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess. In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the county she always dreamed of.  But being a princess isn't all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hung...

 Hey! I finally finished an actual novel this month!  It's been a rather odd month.  I'm feeling off at the moment, can't really explain it, but my head has been in the clouds so to say.   But anyway, finished an actual book in July, instead of another graphic novel. The Girl Least Likely by Katy Loutzenhiser was released on June 29th, so a new release! From Goodreads: To All the Boys meets The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (with a dash of Dumplin' ) in this funny, romantic, and heartfelt coming of age story about a teen stand-up comic learning how to be her truest self, from the author of If You're Out There . Gretchen has always been more of a "least likely" than a "most likely" kind of girl. So how does she somehow find herself living out every trope from her favorite rom-coms...? The Best Friend Crush: Why is it suddenly so hard to act normal around her childhood BFF, Samuel? Must be time for a -- Makeover(!): Black leather pants and some red lipstic...

 Hello! It was close, but I completed my reading goal for June!  I read all the books, but one, from my TBR pile, and the one that I didn't, is because it became a Did-Not-Finish for now.   I'm really proud of myself, because I haven't completed a reading goal in years!  For my review today, I'll be talking about The Soulmate Equation  by Christina Lauren! It is their latest release! :) From Goodreads: Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world.  Raised by her grandparents -- who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno -- Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in.  After all, her father's never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn't "father material" before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard...

 Hello! I have been a HUGE fan of Kody Keplinger's since almost the beginning.  I read  The DUFF  back at the beginning of 2011, and absolutely fell in love with that book!  I ended up rereading it almost immediately, and have since read it at least half a dozen times.  The movie adaptation also came out really well!   Since then, I have read every Kody Keplinger book ever released.  So I was really surprised when I realized a few weeks back that I had missed one! Last year's release. Lila and Hadley .  Now to be fair I was pregnant when this one came out last year, we were about to move, and preoccupied with getting everything ready for our son to arrive in a few short months, so I was not reading very much, let alone keeping up with what was being released.  But when I found out about Lila and Hadley , I immediately added it to my Amazon cart, and two days later opened that package greedily.   It was added to my June TBR pile and ...

 Hello! I hope everyone had a nice weekend! I can't believe it is Monday again and that we are approaching the midway point for 2021 already!  It is seriously blowing my mind how fast time is passing by!   Last night I finished Nicola Yoon latest release Instructions for Dancing ! From Goodreads: Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore.  Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began...and how it will end.  After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually. As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X.  X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything -- including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl...

 Hey Everyone! I finished Tahereh Mafi's new book An Emotion of Great Delight .  I could not put this one down.  I mean, I had to, because you know, baby, appointments, chores, errands, etc.  But I was reading any chance I got.  Even during my waits at the chiropractor I was reading.  I finished this one in a day, which is pretty impressive for me at this point. From Goodreads: From bestselling and National Book Award-nominated author Tahereh Mafi comes a stunning novel about love and loneliness, navigating the hyphen of dual identity, and reclaiming your right to joy -- even when you're trapped in the amber of sorrow. It's 2003, several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the American political world has evolved. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the ride, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. Shadi, who wears hijab, keeps her head down....

 Hello! Today's review is on Sophie Kinsella's Love Your Life ! Sophie Kinsella is also the author of Confessions of a Shopaholic and  Undomestic Goddess   (which I reviewed back in early 2011!) I hope everyone is having a good week so far!  It's been a little rough for me, but getting through it slowly.  Taking it one day at a time. :) From Goodreads: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Owe You One , an utterly delightful novel about a young woman who ditches her dating app for a writer's retreat in Italy -- only to find that real love ones with its own filters. Call Ava romantic, but she thinks love should be found in the real world, not on apps that filter men by height, job, or astrological sign.  She believes in feelings, not algorithms. So after a recent breakup and dating app debacle, she decides to put love on hold and escapes to a writer's retreat in remote, coastal Italy. She's determined to finish writing the novel s...

 Hey Everyone! I finished another book! I'm on a serious roll, and I don't want to lose my momentum!  Three books in April, so far!  That's crazy, unheard of for me, in the last few years.  I'm really excited, to have possibly gotten out of this long a** reading slump I've been on for way too long!  And I finished a NEW Book!  Like from this year!!!  I know crazy, right?! 😄 I finished Crystal Maldonado's debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, which came out in February.   From Goodreads: Coming of age as Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard.  Harder when your whole life is on fire, though. Charlie Vega is a lot of things.  Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat. People sometimes have a problem with that last one.  Especially her mom.  Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it's hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn't help.  The world and everyone in it ha...

Yay for Weekend! Okay I finished another book...the second book in the Bridgerton series, The Viscount who Loved Me .  I needed to know what is to come in Season 2 of the Netflix show, and I couldn't wait an entire year!   So I ended up listening to this one, because Amazon has this awesome thing where you can get a really nice discount on the audiobook, through Audible, when you buy the e-book.  And while I was going to read the e-book at times, and listen to the audiobook when I wasn't able to read, I ended up just listening to this book in its entirety.   From Goodreads: Image from Goodreads 1814 promises to be another eventful season, but not, this author believes, for Anthony Bridgerton, London's most elusive bachelor, who has shown no indication that he plans to marry.  And in truth, why should he?  When it comes to playing the consummate rake, nobody does it better... -Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1814 But this time, the gossip columnists...

 I don't even know why I'm writing this post to be honest.  I think it is more to do with the fact that The Romance Bookie has been there for me, no matter what.  Which is weird, because it's a blog.  But it's my escape.  I don't do a lot of interacting anymore.  I've lost pretty much all of my contacts, which in one sense I am okay with, because when I slowed down The Romance Bookie, it had gotten to the point where it was almost a chore to keep it up.  I didn't want that anymore.   I started The Romance Bookie to have a place to talk about books.  No one in my life was interested in hearing me blab anymore about what I was reading that day, and I was feeling lonely, and found the perfect thing.   I've been having a bit of a hard time.  It's taking a toll on me.  Ever since I lost my dad, my life has been a bit darker.  A lot of joy was taken from my life when he passed away very unexpectedly.  One of those joys, was...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 2020 has been an interesting year, to say the least.  I know many of us are not able to have Thanksgiving with our families, so I hope you are all able to make the best of it, and still at least enjoy some delicious food.   2020 has had its up and downs.  Maybe more downs than ups, for some people unfortunately. But it's Thanksgiving, and while I really do try to count my blessings throughout the year, this is the time of year that I really take the time to think about everything that is special in my life, things that I may sometimes take for granted, but should be extra thankful for. My list might have some very obvious things, but here goes: My Family:  First and foremost, always, I am SO unbelievably thankful for my family.  I have an amazing husband who is doing an absolutely amazing job being a daddy to our little guy; while also still paying his needy wife attention.  I remind myself everyday how lucky I am.   I am a...

 Hey Everyone, Recently I randomly decided to watch 7th Heaven.   Does anyone remember that show? So the show is actually even a little older than before my time...in that I was five years old when it premiered...and still living in Germany, where I'm not sure the show played? I used to watch reruns of this show once in a while after school when I was in middle school.  It played on ABC Family (now Freeform), along with other 90s sitcoms and shows.   If you don't know what the show is about:  It is about the Camden family, a family of originally 7 (hence the name 7th Heaven.   It is about a mom and dad raising their five children (later on they have twins, so it turns into seven children).  The father is a pastor, and the mom is a stay-at-home taking care of all the day-to-day things needed to raise 5, later 7 children.  The shows lasted for eleven seasons and showed the children growing up.   Image from IMDB Honestly, it wasn't one of my fav...

Hey Everyone! I honestly didn't think I would be approved, but holy moly NetGalley approved me!!! I got approved for Meg Cabot's latest adult novel No Judgements !!  She hasn't released a new series in years, especially an adult one, so I have been really looking forward to this one!!!   From Goodreads : The storm of the century is about to hit Little Bridge Island, Florida -- and it's sending waves crashing through Sabrina "Bree" Beckham's love life... When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island --as well as its connection to the mainland -- twenty-five-year-old Bree Beckham isn't worried...at first.  She's already escaped one storm -- her emotionally abusive ex -- so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake. But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets.  Now it's up to her to save as many of Littl...