Top 5 Tuesday: January 5th

Happy Tuesday friends! I am here today with the first Top 5 Tuesday of the year! Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, and now being hosted by Meeghan reads.

Most of my unread books

Top 5 bookish resolutions

Read 125 books.

Read Books from shelves, I have an entire bookshelf with unread books on it!

Try to be more aware of the books I am reading and that I am reading diversely, I do pretty good at this but just want to be more aware.

Read different genres, in 2020 I mostly read Romance and Thriller. This year I would like to get back into YA and Sci-fi/Fantasy.

Grow my instagram account and my blog.

What are some of your bookish resolutions this year?

Thrift Store Book Haul #1

Hello Book Friends! I am here with my first thrift store book haul of the year! I went to sell back some books and they were running a buy 5 get 5 free deal so I bought 11 books and had a store credit so I spent no money! 5 of these books I have read before and just wanted to own them in physical copy and they other 6 I have not read yet.

Hate Notes by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward – I have read this one twice and really love a good work place enemies to lovers book.

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle – I read an e-arc of this and loved it so much! I am a sucker for a romance about an already married couple.

Marriage on Madison Avenue by Lauren Layne – I read the first in this series and this is the third one, it appeared and a few best romance lists so I wanted to read it.

Animal Attraction by Jill Shalvis – #2 in The Animal Magnetism series, I am slowly collecting all of Jill’s books so this is adding to my collection.

Rescue My Heart by Jill Shalvis – #3 in The Animal Magnetism series.

Then Came You by Jill Shalvis – #5 in The Animal Magnetism series.

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh – #1 in the Psy-Changeling series and I have read it multiple times and just wanted a copy for my shelf.

Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh – #3 in the Psy-Changeling series and my absolute favorite in the series! Judd Lauren is still one of my favorite characters ever!

Naked in Death by J.D. Robb – #1 in the In Death series, I read this earlier this year and loved it and this one is the covers I want to collect.

Witness in Death by J.D. Robb – #10 in the In Death series, I picked this one up because it was signed. I am hoping to make some progress in this series this year too.

Heart of The Wolf by Terry Spear – #1 in the series with the same name. I keep seeing her books around and decided to give them a try.

Have you read any of these? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Six for Sunday

Happy Sunday friends! How was everyone’s week? Aside from Monday being a very difficult day for my family our week was quiet and not a lot happened. It’s been good just taking some time to hang out and not do a lot with the husband and kids. As part of my Christmas presents my hubby built me a long shelf in my office that I am very excited about! Pics will come once I am done organizing. I decided this year I would start off with a new to me weekly meme so I will be participating in Six for Sunday which is a weekly meme created by A Little But A Lot.

This Sunday’s prompt is Bookish Resolutions. I posted my 2021 reading goals a few days ago and you can read it here. So today I am just going to post 6 things that I would like to be conscious about while reading this year.

  1. Mixing up my genres more. In 2020 I read mostly romance and this year I would like to get back to reading more fantasy along with thrillers and YA.
  2. Be more aware of the authors I am picking up and try to read from other cultures.
  3. I won’t say I am on a book buying ban but I would like to try and focus on the books I have on my shelves and to unhaul books I don’t think I will read again.
  4. I would like to become more involved with publishers.
  5. To do better at writing my reviews.
  6. To say yes more to hopefully broaden my presence on here and Instagram.

What are some of your bookish resolutions? Do we have any in common?

Reading Round Up: December 21st-31st

A Princess for Christmas by Jenny Holiday – 3 Stars This is the story of Marie who is the Princess of the country Eldovia. While she is in NY she hires local cab driver Leo to drive her around while she is there. The two form a friendship that ends up with Leo and his little sister Gabby spending the holidays with Marie in her country. I felt like the book was almost two different books. You had the first part where they were in NY and having fun then they go to Eldovia and it got aggressive. I really did not like Leo in this part of the book. I did really enjoy Marie’s friends from her home an dI would be interested in reading their story if there ever is one. Overall this was a cute Holiday story but I don’t think it will be one I re-read again.

Then She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner – 5 Stars Lisa Gardner is one of my auto buy authors. I love her writing and her characters are always so realistic. This is the first stand alone by her in some time and all I can say is I really wish it was going to be series! I loved the main character Frankie so much. Frankie is an alcoholic who travels the country searching for missing persons that the public has stopped looking for. Even though she has been sober for 9 years she struggles everyday and I loved seeing that in the book. Frankie has just moved to a suburb of Boston that is mostly non-white so she is already sticks out being a white middle aged woman and when she starts asking about a missing 15 year old girl she really gets noticed. I loved Frankie’s determination to find her missing person and that she knows she is nothing special just someone who wants to bring closure to families. I really hope this is not the last time we see Frankie because she was such a great character and the writing and story was fantastic. Thank you Dutton and Penguin for my advanced copy in exchange for my review!

The Forever Girl by Jill Shalvis – 4 Stars The Wildstone series by Jill Shalvis is one of my favorite contemporary series. I especially love that you can read them in any order as they characters do not overlap just the town. In this one we are following Cat, Heather, Maze and Walker who all reunite for Cat’s upcoming wedding. When they were younger Cat’s parents fostered Heather, Maze and Walker and they four formed a bond that has lasted since they were teens. We are following three points of view and I love getting multiple perspectives of what is going on. The bond these four share is so sweet and complicated and at times heartbreaking. Seeing them work through everything was so satisfying. If you love good stories about family and love with excellent writing then I would highly recommend picking this one up. Thank you Netgalley and William Marrow for my advanced copy to review.

Like Lovers Do by Tracey Livesay – 5 Stars I picked this one up because @stephsromancebooktalk talked it up so much in her videos and I am so glad I read it. I love books about strong females in male dominated work environments. Our main character Dr. Nicole Allen is sure that she will never be in a relationship because she refuses to put her career second but a trip with her beat friend Ben may just change her mind. I also really enjoyed the friend groups that both characters had and I am excited to go back and read the first book in The Girl’s Trip series. This one was steamy and so good!

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins – 4 Stars I ended up squeezing in one more book for 2020 and that was The Wife Upstairs. This was a fun take on one of my favorite books, Jane Eyre. This book follows our main character “Jane” as she starts a new life in Alabama and is currently working as a dog walker in a very prestigious neighborhood. Here she meets Eddy and quickly the two start a relationship and Jane moves in but she soon learns things are not what they seem. Eddy had a wife who is presumed dead along with another woman who was her best friend. Jane starts to wonder what actually happened to both those women and the truth is not what she was expecting. I really enjoyed the story but wished it was a little more gothic feeling. Thank you @librofm for my ALC of this one!!

January TBR

Happy first day of 2021 friends!! I hope everyone had a safe new years eve and much fun was had. I am here today sharing my tentative tbr for the month.

For my back list books (which is any book I bought prior to today)

  • Crazy Stupid Bromance

I have some buddy reads as well this month and some will double up as backlist.

  • A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (a backlist for me)
  • Beartown (a backlist for me)
  • Pretty Little Wife (a backlist for me)
  • How to Fail at Flirting
  • The Boy Toy
  • Assault and Pepper

For Kayla’s Buzzword

  • Mystery Man (Dream Man #1)

And Lastly I still have some arcs that I need to read this month as well.

2021 Reading Goals

Hello Friends! I am here to day with my reading goals for 2021. I decided to keep them a little more simple this year because I failed so miserably this past year. I don’t min though because I am a mood reader and got into some pretty big slumps this year. I made my goodreads goal and that was good enough.

Goodreads Goal – 125 books

I would like to make my backlist books a priority this year so my goal is 25. And backlist for me is anything on my shelf prior to 1/1/2021.

I would like to get my netgalley to 80%.

Kayla from Books and Lala is doing a buzzword challenge for every month next year. My goal is to read 1 book the first week of each month that fits that month’s word or theme. The buzzword can be in the title or I believe on the cover.

  • January – “Dream”
  • February – A color
  • March – “Time”
  • April – Space or Galaxy terms
  • May – “House/Home”
  • June – Name or a title
  • July – “Last”
  • August – Time of day
  • September – “Dark”
  • October – The elements
  • November – “Lost”
  • December – Day/Month/Season

What are some of your goals for next year?

Book Blitz: Foreplayer by Kate Meader

Foreplayer
Kate Meader
(Rookie Rebels #4)
Publication date: December 29th 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The next Rookie Rebels novel

Featuring Mia Wallace, Vadim Petrov’s sister!

She’s all grown up and ready to play . . .

She’s got game everywhere but the bedroom. Enter the player who knows exactly how to grade her curves . . .

After a very public breakup and a viral post that declares him the villain, power forward Cal Foreman is taking a timeout from women and relationships to focus on hockey. When Chicago Rebels captain and old friend, Vadim Petrov, “volunteers” him to help train Vadim’s sister Mia, Cal figures he can do a favor for a pal and get ready for the season with his new team. But the imperious Russian would slice a skate blade through Cal’s internal organs if he knew what lessons Mia really wants.

Yeah, not that kind of stickhandling.

Hockey phenom and Olympics hopeful Mia Wallace needs help seducing the man of her dreams. That man is most definitely not Cal Foreman: notorious playboy, thorn in her side, and her brother’s bestie. But surely a guy with his reputed skill set has a few tips on how she can nail her target—which makes him the perfect foreplayer.

Cal knows Mia sees him as merely the warm-up act in her grand plan to win another man, but as they spend more time together, he wonders if that’s enough.

If they could be more.

And if he could convince her he’s worthy of the starting line-up . . . in her heart?

Goodreads / Amazon / iBooks / Kobo

EXCERPT:

With a stony glare, he headed to the kitchen and removed a bottle of water from the fridge. “I don’t drink the devil’s bubbles.”

The devil’s bubbles. Cute. “You should use a water filter instead of these one-shot deals,” she said. “It’s terrible for the environment.” She unscrewed the cap because she was a hypocrite and her throat was bone dry.

He took the water from her after she’d downed a quarter of it and put it to his lips.

And drank.

She watched, mesmerized. Her lips had been there, right there, and he was … treating her like one of the guys. This boded well for their upcoming buddy chat.

“I need advice.”

He passed the bottle back to her and headed out to the living room. “Okay. Come sit.” He patted the seat beside him. She could sit where his hand had touched and it would be like her … no. What was wrong with her?

Surely she wasn’t attracted to Cal Foreman. While she could see the appeal—the man had a rough and ready sexual charisma and Tara had talked him up in the sex department—he was not her type at all. Not that she had a recognizable type but she knew it wasn’t this.

She took a seat one cushion over and placed the bottle on a Quebec Royals coaster on the coffee table.

“Is this about your tryout?” he asked.

“No.”

“Vadim?”

“Why would it be about Vadim?”

He squinted at her, obviously annoyed she was skirting the main event. “I assume he’s being his usual big dick brotherly self, so you’re here to learn how to handle him. Or vent about him.”

“No. I mean, yes, he’s being his usual big dick brotherly self but that’s not why I’m here.” Ah hell, here goes. “I like someone, and I need advice about it.”

He inhaled a deep, give-me-strength breath. “Mia, I’m flattered but—”

“For the love of Gretzky, not you, Foreman.”

His brow darkened. “Is it someone on the Rebels roster? Because Vadim won’t like that.”

“God, no. Hockey players, ugh!”

“Present company excepted.”

She shook her head vehemently. “Present company most definitely not excepted. You and your ilk are so not what I’m interested in.”

He grinned and leaned back as if … oh, God … he was presenting all the action below the waist area. He actually liked her diss of his species. Probably saw it as a challenge.

“What’s so funny?”

“I love how you act like being with a jock is so beneath you. You’re a jock, Mia. You’re one of us.” He waved casually between them.

“Okay, but that’s only because I like sports and I’m excellent at my chosen one. However, I don’t have that jock brain cell that you all share and pass like a puck to each other on the ice.”

“I suspect I’m not smart enough to completely understand that, but did you just call me dumb?”

“If the skate fits.”

That made him laugh. It was a nice, warm, wrap-her-up-in-a-sweater laugh and she almost felt bad for calling him stupid because he wasn’t stupid. Not at all. Apparently he read books as big as toasters. But like his hockey brethren, he did have a one-track mind which is what she needed to groove into right this minute.

“So, how can I and the jock brain cell I’m currently renting from the cell pool be of service, Mia?”

“I like someone.”

His brow furrowed again. “Right, you said, but not a player. Because players, dummies, yes?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. This guy is kind of, uh, sophisticated, I suppose. And experienced. More experienced than me. I want to know what guys like.”

At which point dumber than a box of pucks Cal Foreman burst out laughing.

Author Bio:

Originally from Ireland, USA Today bestselling author Kate Meader cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Harlequins thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron, a fire hose, or a hockey stick, and she’s there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Amazon / Instagram / Bookbub


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Top 5 Tuesday – December 29th

Hello Book Friends! For today’s Top 5 Tuesday we are getting a freebie so I went back to the archives and chose my top 5 books on my TBR from November 2019. These 5 are hopefully going to be on my January want to reads but with the way December went we will see. Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, and now being hosted by Meeghan reads.

Fable by Adrienne Young

God’s of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A Duke, The Lady and A Baby by Vanessa Riley

Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey

Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Reading Round Up: December 11th-20th

Happy Sunday Friends! I hope everyone had a great month so far. Things have been a little crazy here for personal reasons and because of that I have not been reading very much. I did get three ARC’s for this wrap up so I am happy about that. Until next time, have a great week and rest of December!

You Have A Match by Emma Lord – 3 Stars This is a YA contemporary story about Abby who takes a DNA test with her friends and realizes that she has a sister she never knew about. While Abby is dealing with this she is also struggling with her feelings for one of her best friends, Leo. On a whim Abby decides to go to the summer camp her sister works at and finds out that Leo goes there too and has been friends with her new sister for years, this adds more confusion for Abby on her feelings for both of them. Overall I thought this was a cute story but it didn’t leave me with a lasting impact. As I am much older then the intended audience I didn’t connect well with the characters but the writing was really good and the story was cute. I really liked the friend groups in this story and am glad they were such a big part of the story. If you like YA stories that deal with more than just high school drama and romance then I think this one is a great fit. Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and Netgalley for my complimentary copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Don’t Look Back by Christie Craig – 4 Stars This was a fun Suspense Romance about an FBI agent and a Cop. I love romances and thrillers that deal with law enforcement! It had the perfect mix of action and romance. We have FBI agent Brie Ryan who is on leave and is investigating the death of her sister without her agency’s approval. Her partner who recently came to help her out is found shot and the case falls on three detectives from the cold case team. Detective Connor Pierce is still dealing with the trauma of his partner dying and his shooting of a teenager is instantly attracted to Brie but the two both have past issues that they need to work through. I really enjoyed the pacing of this one and the romance didn’t overshadow the investigation which I enjoyed. If you are looking for a new suspenseful romance be sure to check this one out! Thank you Forever Publishing for my gifted copy!

Happy Singles Day by Ann Marie Walker – 3 Stars This one is about a woman, Paige, who books a trip to a B&B on an Island off the coast of North Carolina to celebrate Single’s Day, February 15th. The B&B is not what she is expecting when she gets there, instead of charming it’s dirty and unkempt and the owner is a grumpy but hot man. Lucas is still dealing with the death of his wife and trying to raise his 4 year old daughter by himself, his sister who tries to help ends up booking him a guest at his B&B. While Lucas and Paige initially get off on the wrong foot the two end up learning that they both can learn from the other person. This was a fun rom-com with a few serious topics mixed in. Overall I enjoyed the story and characters but I would have enjoyed more of the two of them learning to be a couple together. Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks for my gifted copy!

Winter Magic Book Tag

Hello Friends! Today I am here with the Winter Magic book tag. I saw Stephanie from Steph’s Romance Book Talk on you tube do this and thought it looked like fun. The tag was created by Amanda from @The Naughty Librarian : https://youtu.be/mYAG3o1YFbc

SWEATERS/JACKETS: They protect you from the elements. Pick a book with a cover so pretty it needs to be protected. I love sweaters! They are my favorite part about winter! I chose When We Left Cuba for this one, it is still one of my all time favorite covers!

HOT COCOA: This is the thing I most look forward to about winter. What book are you most looking forward to reading? I love snow days and being inside curled up reading while its snowing outside. Ever since I read Mexican Gothic I can not wait to read more by her.

PEPPERMINT BARK: My favorite winter treat. Pick a book that was a treat to read. Peppermint Bark is my favorite treat! I look forward to it all year and then stock up! I chose Forever Wild for this prompt because the ending to Jonah and Calla was so good!

STARLIT NIGHTS: Pick a character to cuddle with under the night sky. Valentin Nikolaev from Silver Silence by Nalini Singh, he is a bear shifter and I just want to hug him!

SNOW: Pick a book with a white cover. A Bad Day For Sunshine by Darynda Jones.

STORMS: Pick a story where the characters have to contend with nature. I went with You Have A Match by Emma Lord. This one takes place at a summer camp and there are a lot of scenes with them outdoors.

FIRESIDE: Pick a book you wouldn’t mind using as kindling. I don’t think I could pick one, even if I don’t like a book I wouldn’t want to burn it!