All Booked Up

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides My rating: 4 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A debut novel Very clever. View all my reviews

Useless Magic by Florence Welch My rating: 3 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction): Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine I make songs to tie people to me, with a ribbon of fantasy around their necks. Such a beautiful bow that I hold in my fist. And will not let go. Short and lyrical. Literally. The book was full of her song lyrics. While I wish it held more of her poetry, I can see from her drawings, doodles, notes, and the way she sings that she puts all of herself into her art. I feel, like I usually do when listening to her music, that I understand her a little more. That she's given us another piece of herself. And I still think that The End of Love is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. View all my reviews

Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts My rating: 5 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book with a plant in the title or on the cover: Rose Do I even need to sing La Nora's praises at this point? On to Del and Laurel. View all my reviews

R.U.R by Karel Čapek My rating: 2 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book that inspired a common phrase or idiom: Robot There are some subjects that evoke strong, almost visceral reactions from me because I am Black and my ancestors were slaves. And I'm going to leave it there. View all my reviews

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks My rating: 1 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book by two female authors So, no part of this thrilled me. It was not suspenseful in any way because every "twist" had a glaring neon sign that could be seen from Mars; and I'm kind of annoyed at the way nearly every female character was written. And just a tiny word of advice: (view spoiler) [If you're going to have a twisty, bendy, loopy, oh-my-gosh-you'll-never-see-this-coming blurb to describe your book, you might want to make sure you don't reveal the twist on the cover of said book. Anyone can see that it's the same woman on the cover. So...yeah. (hide spoiler) ] View all my reviews

GianMarco by Eve Vaughn My rating: 1 of 5 stars Interracial Romance A to Z Challenge: G A few emotional gems in there wedged between everything that made me roll my eyes. I did like this classification of vampire. View all my reviews

Brothers of the Wild North Sea by Harper Fox My rating: 2 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent: Monastery I wanted to love this because "forbidden love" is basically catnip to me. And you don't get anymore forbidden than a monk and a viking. And, truthfully, I was in. I was; even with the overly descriptive prose (you know how I hate that) and the wrong time period for some of the events in the book (I'll ignore it if it helps advance the plot/character development), but then it deep-dived into the supernatural and I just couldn't ignore that when I went into this book wanting a historical forbidden love story. It just did not work for me. View all my reviews

They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall My rating: 4 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover: Scarf What a wild, fun, tense, frightening, horrible ride with a bunch of people I'm glad I don't know personally. One of my favorite things about RHH's writing, besides her skill at storytelling, is that she creates believable characters. Every one of these characters was complex, and awful, and human. I loved it, even when I wanted to push them all off a cliff. View all my reviews

Stranger Things Have Happened: An Adrien English Write Your Own Damn Story by Josh Lanyon My rating: 5 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A 'choose your own adventure' book HAHAHAHA, OMG, I was killed by a vampire twice. Nice to have some wacky adventures with Adrien and Jake. They are still my favorite JL couple. View all my reviews

The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell My rating: 1 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge 2019 Prompt - A book becoming a movie in 2019 This is going to be one of those times where I enjoy the movie more than the book. Maybe ; because after reading this, I'm not sure that I even want to watch the movie. View all my reviews

The Merman's Kiss by Tamsin Ley My rating: 3 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature: Merpeople That was exactly what I needed to clear this horrible, depressed mood I'm in. View all my reviews

Grimspace by Ann Aguirre My rating: 5 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019 Prompt - A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter: A This was just a non-stop, "unputdownable" thrill ride of fun. View all my reviews

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan My rating: 5 of 5 stars #PopsugarReadingChallenge2019: Prompt - A book about a hobby: Reading This was poignant in a way that I really wasn't expecting and I feel. I'm leaving it at feel because I feel more than one emotion. In fact, I feel several. I feel gutted, and hollow, and sad, and hopeful, and peaceful. This book, to me, was a story about life. How one action, every choice we make or don't, shapes us into who we are. Causes us to have connections and moments that make up an existence. How one action spirals and takes someone from us, brings us together, or sets us on a path we never expected we'd be on. Moments and connections are life. They are what makes life beautiful and horrible and bearable . and ours . And that's what this book was about. View all my reviews