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review; a midsummer’s nightmare
A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger Whitley Johnson’s dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She’s just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée’s son? Whitley’s one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin’ great. Worse, she totally doesn’t fit in with her dad’s perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn’t even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she’s ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn’t “do” friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn’t her stepbrother…at least, not yet.…
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handle with care; the fairytale retelling edition
Every time a fairytale gets reimagined, I get excited. I’ve said that a lot. But it’s true. There’s just something magical about the same story being told in so many different ways. Sometimes it is a hit, and sometimes not so much. It can be the writing, sometimes, that does not excite me. But sometimes it’s the fact that the original tale hit a mark these retellings did not. Not to say I won’t read them. I am a simple woman with simple desires and fairytales are always welcome. It’s just more likely that I will find a copy I can borrow at a library for these tales. I suppose…
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recipe; chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
Oatmeal cookies, even with chocolate chips, are considered somewhat healthier than normal cookies. Right? I like to believe that anyway. These cookies are yum. I’ve made them multiple times to take for prayers and every time, I get rave reviews. This time? I had a cousin come up to me and tell me if I went to visit my parents without these cookies, she was sending me back home to make her some. Definitely taking that as a compliment. The original recipe calls them the ‘perfect’ chocolate chip oatmeal cookie. I made amendments because a) my family does not consume eggs, and b) most instant pudding mixes (which are apparently…
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review; this shattered world
This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met. Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet’s rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents. Rebellion is in Flynn’s blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion. Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and…
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;representation matters
When I first started planning this blog post, I thought I’d be able to make a nice header, make it pretty because just because it’s an important message doesn’t mean I can’t make it palatable for people. Right? Except then I wasn’t as fired up as I am not. Then I was thinking of writing about the discussion sparked up by someone’s tweet – I don’t remember who anymore and that’s probably a good thing? – about being tired of princess stories in YA, or chosen one storylines, or something to that effect. It had sparked a response from various awesome bloggers and writers I follow who pointed out that…
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june 2018; it’s a wrap
June has arrived, and I feel like I should feel accomplished, but part of me is just meh with the world. Maybe it’s the summer slump? Is that a thing? It should be a thing. On the blogging front, besides a couple of mishaps where I forgot what day it was – I can’t even blame it on anything, I just did? – I have been pretty consistent! My stats may not reflect that – especially because I definitely do not advertise my blog as much as I probably should – but it could be worse, I’m sure. Professionally, I have FINALLY put together a shop. I think I have…
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review; the duff
The DUFF by Kody Keplinger Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out…
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;the last five books I added to my TBR
Alternatively; Help I Keep Adding Things To My TBR And Am Losing Control Of My Life. It took me way too long to figure out what to write for this week’s post, but well, here we are! My GoodReads TBR is big. And growing daily because there are SO MANY BOOKS I WANT TO READ THANKS AUTHORS. So I thought I’d highlight the last five things I added to my TBR. I’m going to be honest, I don’t actually remember adding some of these books, but I must have for a reason? I’m listing the books in the order they were added to Goodreads, from the earliest to the latest.…
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instant to-read; the fairytale retelling edition
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might have noticed that I love fairytale-retellings. I love the Disney versions for most of them too, and the stories from which they are taken – or at least as far as I know them. But my one true weakness when it comes to books? Fairytale-retellings. If the back of the book – or the front! – boasts anything about the story being inspired by or a take on any fairytale ever, the likelihood of my reading it is Very High. Of course, there are some fairytales I veer towards more than others. I love them all, don’t get me…
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review; a thousand pieces of you
A Thousand Pieces Of You by Claudia Gray Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him. Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt – and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her…