BookWormin'

One thing I have noticed about myself is that during the second half of the year, I tend to get nostalgic and start doing a lot more re-reading, either from earlier that year or from years past. I have also noticed that I am very bad at putting ratings in Goodreads once I finish a book, so I had to read a lot of synopses to try and remember which books were my favorites from July-December. (The downside of reading so many books; I often forget what they were all about and if I enjoyed them. Oops!) Don't forget to check out my top reads of the first six months of the year here , and without further ado, let's get into the rest of the best. 5 Star Reads: July - December 2022 1. Beach Read by Emily Henry Enemies-to-lovers, because this list needs as least one book with that trope! Gus and January are just so great. They have a history from back in school and while they're not technically rivals in the literary world, they are authors living next door to each other, so there i

I reviewed the first four books of the Bridgerton series already , but of course the fun does not stop there!  A large family of main characters means more books for us to enjoy.  While my opinion of the first half of this series was strongly influenced by the Netflix show, most of the main characters in these books are quite young in the show and are not yet stars of the story.  I was able to get to know them through the books first and foremost, and I found myself preferring several of the later books over the early ones - perhaps because the show had not yet influenced my opinion of these characters.  So without further ado, here are my mini-reviews of the last four Bridgerton books! To Sir Philip, With Love After explaining to you that the show had not influenced my opinions of these books, we start off with the exception.  This is Eloise's story, and as she is one of the main characters of the show, I found myself quite confused by the direction they took her storyline once I

 Thank you to Social Butterfly PR and Penny Reid for sending me an e-arc of this book to read and review! I had the opportunity to review an arc of  Totally Folked , book one in this series, last year and was so excited to receive the continuation! I am a big Penny Reid fan :) So excited to be back in Green Valley! I love this small town and have been anxiously awaiting this release. Penny Reid sets you up with wonderful characters - in this case Charlotte and Hank - who have the best intentions but tend to find themselves in messy or unexpected situations.  Charlotte is a single mom who is viewed through a heavy lens of pity by most of the town because her husband ran off with a stripper, leaving her with four children. Hank owns the strip club and is rejected by the polite society that has enveloped Charlotte in their hold. He assumes she feels the same as the rest of the town, but when she shows up to ask him for a job he’s not sure how to take it. Charlotte and Hank both have a l

After finally watching the Bridgerton show on Netflix, I just knew I would not be able to wait for the rest of the seasons to come out.  Instead, I dove headfirst into the source material!  Let me tell you, these books did not disappoint.  While I do usually like to read the book first and then watch the movie or show based on the books, I did decide to watch Bridgerton first at the suggestion of several friends.  My preferences tend to lean more towards the books but in this case, I think the show is what hooked my interest in the books.  It certainly motivated me to read the books faster, as eager as I was to know what is meant to happen.  So without further ado, here are my mini-reviews of the first four Bridgerton books. The Duke and I Because I watched the show first, my opinion on the book is slightly more skewed than my thoughts on books 3-8.  I will say I do enjoy the writing, and the book obviously has different scenes and more in depth looks into each character.  I did like g

 Thank you to Social Butterfly PR and Emma Hart for sending me an e-ARC of this book to read and review! In the wake of the Bridgerton frenzy, don't we all just want to find a duke to fall in love with?  Ellie is lucky enough to actually live this dream... or at least, the main character in her latest romance novel is. When Ellie can't seem to write her next book she heads out to the English countryside to live in a lodge owned by a duke and his grandmother.  If her male love interest (in the book!) immediately takes on several qualities of said duke, well surely it's just a coincidence.  Until it's not.  And suddenly Ellie has a lot more inspiration. I will say, reading this book is a little bit meta. The main character is an author who is writing a book largely based on her life in the moments as we read them, so she often talks about writing something into her book that we just read written in a book.  While I do enjoy moments like that on occasion, it does occur qui

 Thank you to Social Butterfly PR and Sarah Ready for including me in the blog tour for the newest Soulmates in Romeo romance! I am a big fan of this series and was so excited for another installment! While I do love Christmastime, and though the temperature in my part of the world is quickly dropping to 'hibernation with hot chocolate, warm blankets, and a good book' levels of cold, it's a little early to feel too festive. Nonetheless, I could relate to Natalie in her quest to bring extreme levels of Christmas cheer - I love the joy of the holiday season. At the same time, Gabe Scrooge-ness seems perfectly reasonable to me; I'm a person who doesn't like the cold and with the aforementioned dropping temps, I'm getting grumpy. It's a balancing act... and that's really the lesson of this romance. Sarah Ready's soulmate stories give me all the warm fuzzies. Though some of the set-ups are not quite so relatable, Ready makes it easy to believe a soulmate