The Romance Bookie

 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 Everyone! My husband and I recently moved our little family to a new town, and last week we decided to go for a walk together and check out our new (to us) local library.  It was such a great experience, because for one, I haven't set foot in a library in quite some time (both due to Covid, but also because my old local library wasn't really all that great), and two because we have such a great library now.  They have a beautiful children's section, decked out with a giant pirate's ship, columns holding up the building that look like giant books, and a wonderfully stocked Young Adult section.   They had an ample supply of graphic novels, and because of my newly found obsession this year, on graphic novels, I found myself filling the stroller with those initially.  I ended up with four graphic novels, and two regular chapter novels.  To which my husband said, "That's probably enough."  Well, challenge was accepted apparently, because I finished all...

 Hey Everyone!   So I finished another book! I actually just upped my  Goodreads  reading goal, because I had it set to 10, and I've already surpassed it! I have it now set to 25, which if I keep going the way I have been these last few months, I shouldn't have a problem at all!  :).  It was a long week for us!  We had appointments after appointments.  And then on Friday I did the most horrible thing...dropped my phone into our pond.  😭😭😭😭😭 It is gone.  We can't find it.  Our pond is super deep, and you can't see to the bottom.  My husband tried for hours!  He went in, and swam around, and then I ran from store to store to find a huge magnet and rope, and then he went fishing for it for hours and hours.  But no luck.  So Friday we got to run to the Apple Store in the evening and get me a new phone.  I'm just super bummed, because normally I would love a new phone, but I truly love my XS Max.  And t...

Hey Everyone! I found this really great sounding book on Amazon for my new Kindle, and I found myself reading it, and just couldn't get enough of it!  So I finished it! From Goodreads: For Clementine Haas, finding herself is more than a nice idea.  Ever since she woke up in an Irish hospital with complete amnesia, self-discovery has become her mission.  They tell her she's the lone survivor of a plane crash.  They tell her she's lucky to be alive.  But she doesn't feel lucky.  She feels...lost.  With the relentless Irish press bearing down on her, and a father she may not even recognize on his way from America to take her home, Clementine assumes a new identity and enlists a blue-eyed Irish stranger, Kieran O'Connell, to help her escape her forgotten life...and start a new one. Hiding out in a sleepy town of Waterville, Ireland, Clementine discovers there's an upside to a life that's fallen apart.  But as her lies ...

Hey! Wow, two books finished in two days!  It's amazing what you can do when you have no internet to distract you!  Seriously! I honestly, thought I was just going to get this one started, and finishing it after YA'll West! From Goodreads: It's 2002, a year after 9/11.  It's an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who's tired of being stereotyped. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be.  She's tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments --even the physical violence -- she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day.  So she's built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her.  Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother. But then she meets Ocean James.  He's the first person in forever who really seems to want to ge...

Hey Everyone! I finished another book!  I bought this one along with Shrill , when I found an Amazon Books store in NYC last week! I cannot believe I already finished both in less than a week, when I hadn't finished a single book since last July! From Goodreads : In season four of Darren Star's hit TV Land series Younger , the editors of Empirical Press are shocked and deeply moved when they read Marriage Vacation , an autobiographical novel by the publisher's estranged wife, Pauline Turner Brooks.  Knowing the book will cause a sensation, they decide they must publish it.  Now you can read what the hype is about. To find herself...she might lose everything. By all appearances, Kate Carmichael had the perfect life: two adorable daughters, a pre-war town house on the Upper East Side, and a husband who ran one of the most successful publishing companies in New York.  But when Kate attends the wedding of two of her oldest friends, and reconnect...

Hello Everyone, I want to tell you about a moment of human kindness that I happened to me a couple of months ago.  Something that I haven't experienced in a while from a stranger. I was YA'll West, in Santa Monica, and in line for an author signing.  This was my third year attending, and I was a bit disappointed by how the event was going.  Don't get me wrong, I still had a great time, and got to add quite a few signed copies to my collection. But when I first started going to YA'll West, it was only in it's second year, here on the West coast.  It was a two day event, with so much to do, easy to get around, SOOOOOOO many giveaways (which were not the main reason I was there, but a wonderful bonus!), and you could literally just walk up to 80% of the authors without waiting in line, to get your books signed. This year, my husband and I got there at opening.  We went in, the first giveaways had already been given away, before anyone could even get in l...

Hello! So my husband and I celebrated Valentine's Day a few days late, because of work and us both having gotten the flu.  So Saturday we spent a nice day out, getting Nitrogen made Ice Cream at a place called Sub Zero, eating a late lunch out, and seeing the movie Fifty Shades Freed .  Even though this series's luster has died down a bit, since its insanity began a few years back, I still find these to be a guilty pleasure.  While the first movie, I found there to be a few things missing, I loved the second one!  I found the character growth to be phenomenal!  The part where Christian bows down to Anna and you see that moment of submissiveness in him, I found to be incredible! So yesterday my husband and I saw the final installation in the series.  Now, thinking back on it, it has finally hit me that this is it!  There will be no more, and to be honest, I am going to say the one thing that many people will not agree with me on...I wish they had sp...