Bookstagram Post: My May TBR Dilemma

Here's a picture of almost all of the books that I'm considering including in my May TBR.

I’m definitely having a really hard time finalizing my May TBR. These are the books that I’m currently considering the possibility of including in my May TBR, along with A Court of Frost and Starlight by @therealsjmaas and The Soldier by Neal Asher, which aren’t included in this picture due to the fact that they don’t come out until next month. Obviously I won’t be able to read all of these books next month, which is why I’m in the process of trying to narrow this selection of books to a more manageable number of books to read next month. I already know for sure that I’m definitely going to read A Court of Frost and Starlight, Ace of Shades by @amandafoody, and The Queens of Innis Lear by @tessa.gratton. I’m also hoping to listen to @stephanie_garber’s book, Caraval, on audiobook again in preparation and anticipation for the release of Legendary on May 29th. Listening to @genashowalter’s Everlife trilogy on audiobook is also pretty high on my list of priorities when it comes to reading at the moment, so I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to make that happen next month, too. I really want next month to be the month where I finally read @vanessafewings’ book, The Chase, because I’ve wanted to read it for a very long time. 😀 I would also love it if next month could also be the month where I FINALLY read @adamsilvera’s debut novel, More Happy Than Not, because all three of his books have been in my TBR pile for the longest time. Of the three @aleatharomig books that are in consideration for my May TBR, I’ll most likely read two of them at most. I’ll probably at least read Plus One again next month so I can write a review for the book. If I end up reading a second Aleatha Romig book next month, I’m leaning towards reading Respect. The plot synopsis just has me feeling really, really, really excited to read it, so I’m really glad that Romig wrote it as a standalone book that people can read, even if they haven’t read the rest of the Infidelity series. 😀 It really is proving to be very difficult to finalize my May TBR, because these are all books that I really want to read or re-read for various reasons. 😀 #bookstagram #bookblogger #bookblog

A post shared by Taylor Madison Street (@tmswriter6) on Apr 24, 2018 at 11:32pm PDT

Books Featured in this Post  

Ace of Shades (Book #1 in The Shadow Game series) by Amanda Foody

Firstlife (Book #1 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Lifeblood (Book #2 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Everlife (Book #3 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Caraval (Book #1 in the Caraval series) by Stephanie Garber

Royally Endowed (Book #3 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

The Chase (Book #1 in the Icon trilogy) by Vanessa Fewings

All or Nothing at All (Book #3 in the Billionaire Builders series) by Jennifer Probst

Plus One (Lighter Ones series) by Aleatha Romig

Betrayal (Book #1 in the Infidelity series) by Aleatha Romig

Respect (An Infidelity series novel) by Aleatha Romig

Lucky in Love by Kasie West

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

A Court of Frost and Starlight (Book #3.1 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series) by Sarah J. Maas (Not featured in picture; Comes out May 1st)

The Soldier (Book #1 in the Rise of the Jain trilogy) by Neal Asher (Not featured in picture; Comes out May 15th)

Related Book Reviews

A Court of Thorns and Roses (Book #1 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses Saga) by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury (Book #2 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses Saga) by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings and Ruin (Book #3 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses Saga) by Sarah J. Maas

Book Review: Dark Intelligence (Book #1 in the Transformation trilogy) by Neal Asher

Firstlife (Book #1 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Royally Screwed (Book #1 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Royally Matched (Book #2 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Everywhere and Every Way (Book #1 the Billionaire Builders series) by Jennifer Probst

P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

Book Review: Royally Matched (Book #2 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Right off the bat, I have to say that as much as I loved Royally Screwed, I honestly loved Royally Matched a little bit more than Royally Screwed. Having listened to Royally Matched on audiobook two times, I have to admit that I actually loved this book even more than I originally did after listening to it on audiobook a second time. The main reason I would say that I liked Royally Matched a little bit more than Royally Screwed is because as much as I love Nicholas and Olivia as a couple, I honestly found myself liking Henry and Sarah as a couple even more than I liked Nicholas and Olivia as a couple in Royally Screwed; which I’ll talk about in much more detail later on in this review.

When it comes to the overall plot of Royally Matched, the tone of the book as a whole definitely felt a little bit lighter and less angst-ridden than Royally Screwed often did, which is something that I really liked about this book. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really have too many problems with the overall tone of Royally Screwed; I simply thought that the tone of Royally Matched felt very different compared to the overall tone of Royally Screwed. Regardless of whether or not Emma Chase was consciously trying to write Royally Matched in such a way that the overall tone of the book felt much lighter compared to the more angst-filled tone of Royally Screwed; I personally like that they felt very different in tone, because I feel like it’s a great way to set Royally Screwed and Royally Matched apart from each other, while still having them be a part of the same series. After noticing a difference in the overall tone for Royally Screwed and Royally Matched, I’m definitely really interested and excited now to see how the third book, Royally Endowed, turns out from a tonality standpoint.

It was definitely interesting to see Henry struggling with adjusting to his new role as the heir to the family throne at the beginning of the book, especially since it was a role that he had never expected that he would have to fill. While I understand that Royally Matched and the Royally series as a whole is supposed to first and foremost be about the love lives of a royal family, something that I felt Emma Chase should have explored in this book more than she did, was Henry carrying out his new responsibilities as the heir to the throne, and his struggles with adapting to his new role in his family. Ultimately, the fact that Chase didn’t explore that aspect of Henry’s life very much in this book wasn’t really detrimental to my overall enjoyment of Royally Matched; but I still wish that she had done more with that aspect of who Henry is as a character now, especially considering the way he was written in Royally Screwed.

Instagram TBR Post: September 2017

Here's my TBR (To Be Read) post of all the books that I want to read in September, which I originally posted on Instagram. 

Here are all of the books that I'm planning to read in September. I'm going to read The Sandcastle Empire by @authorkaylaolson first. I had just started reading George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords when I got my June @owlcrate box, so I'm just now getting around to reading The Sandcastle Empire. I'm definitely excited to read it. 😀 I'm either going to read Royally Endowed by @authoremmachase or All or Nothing at All by @authorjenniferprobst once I finish reading The Sandcastle Empire. The order in which I read those two books depends on where I am in the writing process for my review of the second book in the Billionaire Builders series, though. I'm probably going to read Three Dark Crowns by @kendareblake relatively early in the month so I can decide if I want to buy the sequel when it comes out. Reading The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by @themackenzilee really got me in the mood to read historical fiction again, which is why I'm planning to read My Lady Jane this month. 😀 I'm really looking forward to reading Devil's Cut by @jrwardauthor. I'm also planning to read Heart of the Matter by @emilygiffinauthor again in honor of my blog hitting the 2 million page views milestone earlier this week since one of my very first blog posts was about my initial thoughts on Heart of the Matter. I really want to do a full review of the book as a part of my celebration for my blog hitting the 2 million page views milestone. 😀 All in all, I'm definitely really excited about my reading plans for September. 😀 #bookstagram #owlcrate #bookblogger #bookblog

A post shared by Taylor Glissman (@tmswriter6) on Sep 1, 2017 at 10:51pm PDT

Books Featured in my September TBR:

Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley

Royally Endowed (Book #3 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

All or Nothing at All (Book #3 in the Billionaire Builders series) by Jennifer Probst

Three Dark Crowns (Book #1 in the Three Dark Crowns series) by Kendare Blake

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Devil's Cut (Book #3 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson



Related Posts:

Book Review: Royally Screwed (Book #1 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Book Review: Everywhere and Every Way (Book #1 in the Billionaire Builders series) by Jennifer Probst

Book Review: The Bourbon Kings (Book #1 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin (My 2010 Initial Thoughts) 

Instagram Reading Wrap Up: August 2017

Here's my monthly wrap up of all the books that I read in August, which I originally posted on Instagram. I've been posting monthly wrap ups of all the books I read each month on Instagram (A.K.A. Bookstagram) for a while now, and I've decided to start posting them here as well.

Here are all of the books that I read, or in the case of Francesca Zappia's Eliza and Her Monsters, finished reading in August. @authoremmachase's Royally Matched and @jrwardauthor's The Angels' Share were both books that I was reading for the second time in preparation for the release of the third and final books in their respective series. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to read either of those books last month, so I'm going to read both Royally Endowed and Devil's Cut this month. I absolutely loved @kasiewest's book, Lucky in Love. 😀 I really liked @lainit's Strange the Dreamer, but I definitely thought that it was a very confusing book. I'm definitely going to read the sequel, though. 😀 Despite the fact that a lot of people seem to absolutely love Eliza and Her Monsters, I unfortunately hated it for the most part. Honestly, there quite a few times that I considered DNFing the book, and I've only done that with two books in the years that I've been reviewing books for my blog. While I wish that I had been able to read at least one or two more books that were in my August T.B.R., I still feel like I had a pretty good month reading wise as far as how the month of August was for me. 😀 #bookstagram #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookworms #bookworm #bookblogger #bookblog #strangethedreamer #lainitaylor #bourbonkings #theangelsshare #jrward #luckyinlove #kasiewest #royallymatched #royallyseries #emmachase #elizaandhermonsters #francescazappia

A post shared by Taylor Glissman (@tmswriter6) on Sep 1, 2017 at 10:07pm PDT

Books I Read in August 2017:


Royally Matched (Book #2 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Lucky in Love by Kasie West

The Angels' Share (Book #2 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

Strange the Dreamer (Book #1 in the Strange the Dreamer series) by Laini Taylor

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia


Related Posts:


Book Review: Royally Screwed (Book #1 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Book Review: The Bourbon Kings (Book #1 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

Book Review: The Angels' Share (Book #2 in the Bourbon Kings series) by J.R. Ward

OwlCrate Unboxing: May 2017 (Comic Explosion)

Instagram TBR Post: August 2017

Here's my TBR (To Be Read) post of all the books that I want to read in August, which I originally posted on Instagram. Much like my July reading wrap up post, I've been posting monthly TBR posts of all the books that I want to read each month on Instagram (A.K.A. Bookstagram) for a while now, and I've decided to start posting them here as well.

Here are almost all of the books that are in my August T.B.R. Two books that are high on my list of priorities to read are J.R. Ward's new book Devil's Cut, and @authoremmachase's Royally Endowed, which comes out August 14th. Unfortunately, the copy of Devil's Cut that I got in the mail yesterday was missing approximately the first 20 pages of the book, so Amazon is sending me a new copy of the book, which should come in the mail tomorrow. I'm determined to finish @chessiezappia's Eliza and Her Monsters by the end of the month. Royally Matched, Heart of the Matter, and The Angels' Share are all books that I'm re-reading for various reasons. My blog will be hitting the 2 million page views milestone in the next month or so, and one of the very first blog posts that I did was a post on my initial thoughts on Heart of the Matter. I want to read the book again so I can write a full review of the book in honor of my blog's upcoming viewership milestone. One of my main reading goals now is to read some of the @owlcrate books that I've received, but haven't read yet. Reading @themackenzilee's The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue really got me in the mood to finally read My Lady Jane, especially since I've always been a fan of historical fiction. I'm really excited to finally read Strange the Dreamer. I think it's pretty safe to say that I won't be able to read all of the these books by the end of August, so I'll most likely end up including some of these books in my September T.B.R. Please, wish me luck on my reading this month, Everybody! #bookstagram #owlcrate #strangethedreamer #lainitaylor @kasiewest @lainit @emilygiffinauthor @kendareblake @authorjenniferprobst @authorkaylaolson

A post shared by Taylor Glissman (@tmswriter6) on Aug 2, 2017 at 10:02am PDT

Here's the list of all the books that are in my TBR for August in case anybody has trouble reading the titles of the books or the names of the authors' of the books that are featured in this picture:

Royally Matched by Emma Chase (Book #2 of the Royally series)

Royally Endowed by Emma Chase (Book #3 of the Royally series)

All or Nothing at All by Jennifer Probst (Book #3 of the Royally series)

The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson

Lucky in Love by Kasie West

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake (Book #1 of the Three Dark Crowns series)

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

The Angels' Share by J.R. Ward (Book #2 of the Bourbon Kings series)

Devil's Cut by J.R. Ward (Book #3 of the Bourbon Kings series)

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (Book #1 of the Strange the Dreamer series)

Book Review: Royally Screwed (Book #1 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Right off the bat, I have to say that as someone who’s a huge fan of Emma Chase’s books, I was really excited about Royally Screwed and the Royally series as a whole ever since she first announced the series, and I’m very happy to say that I absolutely loved this book. That being said, while I’ve always thought that the overall quality of Emma Chase’s writing for the Tangled series was pretty good, in retrospect I do think that Chase’s writing for the series is somewhat uneven. Tangled (The book) is a very well written, and impressive debut novel from a first-time author; and in my opinion, it’s the best book in the series. Twisted was okay, and it did have some great moments, but it’s definitely not a great book, as far as I’m concerned. Tamed is definitely my second favorite book in the series, and despite the fact that Tied does include some great moments throughout the book, it’s still the weakest book in the Tangled series, in my opinion. When it comes to the Legal Briefs series, I didn’t think the first book, Overruled, was quite as good as Tangled (The book) was, but it was definitely better than the majority of the Tangled series. I felt like the Legal Briefs series pretty much only went uphill from there, making the series better than the Tangled series. That being said, while I don’t necessarily think that Chase topped herself yet again with Royally Screwed, I do think it’s the strongest first book that she has written for one of her book series.

The reason I’m beginning this review by mentioning my thoughts on the Tangled series is because one thing that I found myself thinking about a lot as I was listening to Royally Screwed on audiobook, was that I felt like Chase has really honed her craft if you compare her writing for Royally Screwed to her writing for the Tangled series. Much like Drew Evans from the Tangled series, the primary protagonist of Royally Screwed, Prince Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook, is definitely what I would describe as being a “lovable asshole”. However, compared to Drew, I felt like Chase did a much better job of creating the perfect balance of Nicholas acting like a real asshole at times, while also having him demonstrate a lot of great, redeeming qualities throughout the book as well; making him a very nuanced and lovable character.

When it came to Drew, I started out the Tangled series absolutely loving him, but by the end of the series, he had repeatedly pissed me off, and annoyed me quite a bit throughout the series, to the point where I ultimately simply just liked him a lot by the end of the series. I definitely didn’t love him as much as I did when the series began, especially due to how he was written at times in Twisted and Tied. Plus, he really pissed me off in “Holy Frigging Matrimony”. A big part of why I loved the Legal Briefs series even more than the Tangled series is because I ultimately loved Stanton, Jake, and Brent a lot more than I liked Drew by the end of the Tangled series. That being said, after reading Royally Screwed, I’d say that Nicholas is definitely my favorite out of all the male protagonists in Emma Chase’s books.

Book Review: Beautiful Bitch (Book #1.5 in the Beautiful series) by Christina Lauren

Right off the bat, I have to say that reading Beautiful Bitch was definitely somewhat of an unusual experience for me due to the fact that I hadn’t realized that it was considered #1.5 in the Beautiful series, and that Beautiful Stranger is labeled as #2 in the series until after I had finished listening to the audiobook version of Beautiful Stranger. Putting aside the fact that it was kind of weird for me to backtrack a little bit by reading this book after reading and reviewing Beautiful Stranger, I absolutely loved this book. One of the many things that I loved about Beautiful Bitch is that we got to see the next chapter in Chloe and Bennett’s relationship after they got back together at the end of Beautiful Bastard, and embarked on an actual committed relationship. I felt like the relatively immediate aftermath of Chloe and Bennett getting back together at the end of Beautiful Bastard that we got to see in flashbacks that were featured in this book was very true to how I would imagine things playing out between Chloe and Bennett; regardless of whether Christina Lauren had written Beautiful Bitch, or if they hadn’t, and it had been left up to the reader to imagine what next chapter of Chloe and Bennett’s relationship after the events of Beautiful Bastard would be like.

As much as I ultimately grew to love Bennett as a character by the end of Beautiful Bastard, and had thought that he had undergone some pretty great character development throughout Beautiful Bastard; he definitely didn’t come across as being the kind of guy who would immediately transform into a guy who would be worthy of receiving a “Boyfriend of the Year” award by the end of Beautiful Bastard. I imagined him experiencing some growing pains as he and Chloe embarked upon being in a committed relationship with each other, and that he would struggle with it a little bit; so I was absolutely thrilled to see that Christina Lauren wrote Bennett that way to a certain degree in this book. That being said, I did think that it was kind of odd that Chloe didn’t really struggle at all in terms of dealing with the way that their relationship had evolved over time like Bennett did. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not upset that Chloe didn’t really struggle in any way when it came to dealing with the two of them going from being in a rather casual workplace romance to being in a committed relationship, as well as the evolution of their relationship in the time that had passed between the end of Beautiful Bastard and the beginning of Beautiful Bitch. I just thought that it was a little odd that Chloe didn’t seem to really struggle at all with the shift in their relationship.

Despite the fact that Bennett did seem to struggle in some ways in terms of adjusting to being in a committed relationship with Chloe, I love that Christina Lauren really portrayed Bennett as being incredibly invested in his relationship with Chloe, and that they showed Bennett really making an effort to work on their relationship throughout the book. While I usually think that having a romance novel or any kind of book for that matter be low on conflict and angst can really make a book incredibly boring, I’m honestly really glad that Christina Lauren didn’t have anything too dramatic and angst-ridden happen between Chloe and Bennett in this book; such as have one of them cheat on the other, or have one of them almost cheat on the other. The fact that most of the problems that Chloe and Bennett had to deal with throughout the book basically had to do with their conflicting work schedules getting in the way of them being able to spend time together now that Chloe is no longer Bennett’s assistant, reminded me a lot of the simplicity of the problems that arose between Jake and Chelsea throughout Emma Chase’s Legal Briefs novella, Sidebarred. Pretty much all of the problems that Jake and Chelsea dealt with throughout Sidebarred had to do with them raising Chelsea’s nieces and nephews together, with Jake serving as a father figure to the kids now that he and Chelsea were married with a baby of their own on the way, but I digress.

Book Review: Beautiful Stranger (Book #2 in the Beautiful series) by Christina Lauren

I’d like to start out this review by saying that while I’ve been planning to read and review the entire Beautiful series, as well as Christina Lauren’s other series, Wild Seasons, ever since I read and reviewed Beautiful Bastard back in May, the decision to read and review Beautiful Stranger at this particular point in time was very random and spontaneous on my part. That being said, I’m so glad that I decided on whim to read Beautiful Stranger now, because I absolutely loved this book, even more than I loved Beautiful Bastard.

When it comes to what motivated me to read Beautiful Bastard, the main thing that originally made me want to read it was that I had heard that much like E.L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy, Beautiful Bastard also originally started out as a Twilight fan fic. Because the similarities to Twilight are very obvious at times in Fifty Shades of Grey, a big part of me wanted to read Beautiful Bastard to see if its Twilight fan fic origins were at all obvious in the book. I’ll admit that while I was genuinely interested in reading Beautiful Bastard, I definitely went into reading it with a certain amount of cynicism when it came to my expectations regarding Christina Lauren’s writing ability and the book as a whole.

Ultimately, I ended up absolutely loving Beautiful Bastard, and I really hope I made that clear in my review of the book. I also realized that it was definitely unfair of me to project my thoughts regarding the fact that I personally think that E.L. James is a terrible writer onto Christina Lauren in any way, simply because both Fifty Shades of Grey and Beautiful Bastard originally started out as Twilight fan fiction before I even actually read Beautiful Bastard. After reading Beautiful Bastard, I came to the conclusion that regardless of the book’s fan fiction origins, Christina Lauren are legitimately talented writers who definitely deserve to have the success that they’ve achieved with their books. While I haven’t read the original fan fic version of Beautiful Bastard, I’d say that they did a really great job of making Beautiful Bastard its own thing that’s completely separate from Twilight.

Honestly, I was very surprised by the overall quality of Christina Lauren’s writing when I read Beautiful Bastard, and Beautiful Stranger also proved to be a wonderful surprise in some very different ways. The thing that probably surprised me the most about Beautiful Stranger is the fact that while the plot of the book is pretty much about Max and Sara being in a sex with no strings attached relationship, it’s a surprisingly sweet and romantic story. I was also really surprised by the emotional depth that Max and Sara’s relationship ultimately had, which I’d say is a real testament to Christina Lauren’s talent as writers. I don’t think a writer whose writing is either rather mediocre, or just plain bad could write a book about two people who’re in a sex with no strings attached type of relationship in such a way that the relationship and the book as a whole actually has a lot of genuine emotional depth to it. Christina Lauren, on the other hand, really did a fantastic job in terms of the way the relationship between Max and Sara was written, writing them as individual characters, and the writing for the book as a whole.

Sidebarred (A Legal Briefs Novella): The gang’s all back, and I couldn’t be happier (My thoughts on Book #3.5 in the Legal Briefs series)

Right off the bat, I have to say that as much as I loved Appealed, and while I thought that it was a fantastic ending to the Legal Briefs series, I still wasn’t quite ready for the series to end; mainly because I was loving the series so much. That’s definitely one of the main reasons why I was really excited when Emma Chase announced that she had written a novella for the Legal Briefs series. While I did think that Appealed was a great way to end the Legal Briefs series, I think that Sidebarred was an even better ending to the series.

Prior to Sidebarred’s release, I initially got the impression that Emma Chase had written the novella with the story shifting back and forth between each of the main characters from the series. It was only a few weeks before Sidebarred’s release that I found out that that wasn’t the case, and that Sidebarred was written solely from Jake’s point of view. Personally, as much as I love Stanton, Sofia and Brent, I think that Jake was definitely the perfect choice when it comes to which character from the series should be the protagonist of Sidebarred. At its core, the character development and internal conflict that Jake underwent throughout Sustained was all about wanting to be a part of Chelsea and the kids’ lives, while also thinking that he wasn’t capable of being a family man with a wife and kids.

Sustained pretty much ended with Jake realizing that he had become a family man without even realizing it, thanks largely in part to the “intervention” that Stanton, Sofia and Brent had for him. I love that we got a brief glimpse in one scene from Appealed of what Jake was like after he had embraced the idea of being a family man, with him acting like a protective father to one of the teenage girls in the family when she came to his work with him, and there was a boy there that could have easily made advances towards her. However, that whole scene was written from Brent’s point of view, so we didn’t get that much insight into what had happened with Jake, Chelsea and the kids after Sustained ended. That being said, Emma Chase did a fantastic job of really giving the readers of the Legal Briefs series an in depth look at Jake’s life as a husband to Chelsea, and a father figure to Chelsea’s nieces and nephews in Sidebarred.

When it comes to the plot of Sidebarred, while I’m not sure that the plot and the book as a whole would have worked as well had it been a full-length novel; I thought that it worked perfectly as a novella. The reason I say this is because while Jake and Chelsea do face various problems throughout the book that were genuinely interesting and got me completely invested in the story, the plot of the book and the conflict that Jake and Chelsea face in Sidebarred wasn’t big and dramatic enough to sustain a full-length novel, in my opinion. The plot of the book revolves primarily around the fact that Jake and Chelsea decide to have a baby after Chelsea had thought that she might be pregnant, only to discover that she wasn’t pregnant after all when she took a pregnancy test. I could be wrong about the exact timespan of the book, but Sidebarred takes place over the span of about a year and follows Jake and Chelsea as they try to get pregnant and then follows them through the pregnancy, while they also deal with problems involving the kids and their work. Nothing truly dramatic happens to them or any of the other characters throughout the book. Honestly, I’m perfectly okay with that because I think that the problems that Jake and Chelsea face both as a couple, as the problems that they deal with individually, while also raising Chelsea’s six nieces and nephews, are all very relatable. Plus, I’m really glad that Chase didn’t have Jake and Chelsea dealing with any major drama and angst in their marriage, such as having one of them cheat on the other, or at least be tempted to cheat.

Beautiful Bastard: This book is seriously even better than I was expecting it to be (My thoughts on book #1 in the Beautiful series by Christina Lauren)

Before I get too far into discussing my thoughts on Beautiful Bastard, I definitely need to mention that this is actually a book that I’ve wanted to read for several years. The list of reasons for why I’ve wanted to read this book has definitely evolved over the years. I initially wanted to read Beautiful Bastard because I had heard that much like Fifty Shades of Grey, Beautiful Bastard was also originally a Twilight fan fic. Fifty Shades of Grey and Beautiful Bastard’s origins as Twilight fan fiction has definitely led to a lot of people that I’ve encountered online frequently comparing and contrasting the Fifty Shades series and the Beautiful series to each other, which naturally caused me to become interested in both series since I do like the Twilight books.

However, what ultimately served as my motivation to finally read Beautiful Bastard is the fact that I discovered that pretty much everybody who has been a narrator for the audiobook versions of Emma Chase’s books from her Tangled and Legal Briefs series have also served as narrators for various books and short stories from Christina Lauren’s Beautiful series, as well as their Wild Seasons series. I’ve loved all of the narrators for the audiobook versions of Emma Chase’s books, so that has definitely made me want to listen to the audiobook versions of Christina Lauren’s books even more than I already wanted to in the first place; that being said, here are my thoughts on Beautiful Bastard.

For the record, when I started reading Beautiful Bastard, I decided that I wasn’t going to spend the entire time that I was reading the book actively looking for similarities to Twilight and things about the book that might hint at or give away its origins as a Twilight fan fic; even though learning that Beautiful Bastard started out as a Twilight fan fic was one of the first things that got me interested in reading the Beautiful series. Based on what I’ve read of Fifty Shades of Grey so far, there’s no denying that it’s pretty obvious at certain points in the book that it originally started out as a Twilight fan fic. However, when it comes to Beautiful Bastard, there wasn’t really anything about it that I think screams, “Twilight!” Since I haven’t read the original Twilight fan fic version of Beautiful Bastard, which was called “The Office”, I obviously can’t do a comparison of Beautiful Bastard to the fan fic version of the story. That being said, I think that Christina Lauren did a great job of really distancing the story from Twilight and making Beautiful Bastard its own story. Honestly, if I hadn’t known about Beautiful Bastard’s origins as a Twilight fan fic before I started reading it, I’m pretty sure that I never would have guessed or believed that it ever had any connection to Twilight at all.

This just might be one of the best books that you’ll ever read (My thoughts on The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner)

Before I get into my review of Jeff Zentner’s book The Serpent King, I’d like to start off by briefly talking about how I found out about this book. While I originally saw The Serpent King when I was looking around at Barnes & Noble one day and both the cover and the title of the book caught my attention, I didn’t buy the book at that point in time. I ended up getting it in the March OwlCrate box. In case you don’t know what OwlCrate is, it’s a monthly YA book box. There’s a different theme for the box each month, for example the theme for March was “Writer’s Block”. Each month the box includes a recently released hardback YA book, along with three to five items centered around the theme for that month. Here’s a picture of everything that came in the March box that I posted on Instagram to give you an idea of what kind of stuff they put in the boxes each month.

Here's what came in the March OwlCrate box that I got in the mail today. I'm super excited about the book that they picked this month, which is The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. :)

A photo posted by Taylor Glissman (@tmswriter6) on Mar 19, 2016 at 2:22pm PDT

This past December was my first month of OwlCrate, and the February box is probably my favorite of the boxes that I’ve gotten so far. The theme for that month was “Sci-fi Love”. Plans start at $29.99, plus shipping. The people who run OwlCrate are really nice, and they’re very good at answering any questions that people may have about OwlCrate on Twitter. I highly recommend signing up for OwlCrate, especially if you’re a fan of YA books. If you’re interested in learning more about OwlCrate or signing up for it, you can check out their website here. For the record, I wasn’t asked by the people who run OwlCrate to promote their business on my blog; I’m only mentioning OwlCrate here because I’m really loving OwlCrate, especially now that I’m mostly reviewing books for my blog instead of TV shows. With all that said, here are my thoughts on Jeff Zentner’s book The Serpent King.

Cress: This sure isn’t your typical Rapunzel retelling (My thoughts on book #3 in The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer)

Let me preface this review by saying that out of all the fairy tales that Marissa Meyer incorporated into The Lunar Chronicles, the story of Rapunzel is definitely the one that I know the least about. That being said, I feel like the fact that I wasn’t very familiar with the story of Rapunzel actually enhanced my enjoyment of Cress in a lot of ways. When I was reading Cinder and Scarlet, I found myself constantly thinking about the original stories of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood and was frequently wondering how Marissa Meyer might or might not incorporate and reimagine various elements from those stories into the series. However, when I was reading Cress, I just enjoyed it as its own unique story without ever really comparing and contrasting it to the story of Rapunzel.

Before I go any further, I’d like to just go right ahead and say that Cress is definitely my favorite book in the series so far. If you’ve read my review for Scarlet, you may remember that one of the things that I talked about in my review is that the book wasn’t quite what I was expecting when it comes to it serving as a follow-up to Cinder and a continuation of the series. Cress, however, was much more in line with what I had originally been expecting the books that followed Cinder to be like prior to actually reading Scarlet. One of my biggest criticisms about Scarlet is that I felt like Cinder was kind of hogging the spotlight throughout the book, and when that wasn’t the case, the book felt like too much of an ensemble piece for my taste. I really feel like Marissa Meyer should have focused at least a little more on Scarlet and Wolf in Scarlet than she did. While Cress is also very much an ensemble piece, I think Meyer did a much better job of putting most of the focus of the book on Cress, as well as Thorne since he’s Cress’ love interest in the series.

One of things that I have to give this book a lot of praise for is the fact that the story had really great pacing, in my opinion. There was a lot of action and different things happening throughout the book, but the story never felt like it was moving too slow or too fast. Plus, all of the storylines that were going on throughout the book were very interesting and engaging, so I never found myself getting bored, or having trouble paying attention to the story as I was listening to the audiobook version of Cress.

Crescent “Cress” Moon Darnel is definitely a very likable and interesting character. In a story that’s full of fantasy elements, she really felt like a real person and a well-rounded character, especially when it came to her feelings for Thorne. Given the fact that Cress had lived a rather sheltered life, being stuck in a satellite in space for pretty much her entire life, it made a lot of sense to me that she would have somewhat of a naïve view of the world and the stories that she had read about Thorne in the news. She believed that Thorne had had noble reasons for the various questionable things that he had done over the years, often breaking various laws in the process, when in reality Thorne’s motives for his actions had typically been rather self-serving.

Scarlet: This sure isn’t your typical Little Red Riding Hood retelling (My thoughts on book #2 in The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer)

Now that I’ve finished reading and reviewing Emma Chase’s Legal Briefs series (Overruled, Sustained, Appealed), I’ve decided to read and review the rest of the Lunar Chronicles basically back-to-back-to-back. Admittedly, I originally thought about doing that when I read and reviewed Cinder back in January, but I ultimately decided to hold off on doing that since I wanted to do the same thing with the Legal Briefs series; that being said, here are my thoughts on Scarlet.

Right off the bat, I have to admit that while I loved Scarlet, this book ended up being very different from the way I was expecting it to be. I was really expecting the titular Scarlet Benoit to be featured in this book front and center with her being the protagonist of the book, and Wolf basically being the co-lead character of the book. However, this book ultimately ended up feeling like more of an ensemble piece than anything else. That definitely really took me by surprise as I was reading it.

While I’ve always thought that three of the most important tasks that the first book in a series is supposed to accomplish is to introduce the main characters, introduce the premise of the series, as well as establish the status quo for the series; I feel like this book did a much better job of establishing what I can expect from the Lunar Chronicles as a whole. Sure, Cinder did a great job of introducing the characters Cinder, Kai and Queen Levana, as well as various aspects of the series such as how the characters are dealing with the threat of the letumosis plague; but as I said, I was originally expecting each book in the series to focus primarily on a different character, with the characters from the previous books being featured in a rather reduced capacity. However, Scarlet really ended up coming across as an ensemble novel that focused on a variety of characters instead of focusing primarily on Scarlet, along with Wolf.

Appealed: It’s official! The Legal Briefs series is even better than the Tangled series! (My thoughts on Book #3 in the Legal Briefs series by Emma Chase)

As I said in my review for Sustained, while I thought that it was Emma Chase’s best book yet, I was still open to the possibility that I might end up thinking that she topped herself yet again with Appealed once I read it. Right off the bat, I have to say that I’m very glad that I kept my mind open to that possibility, because that’s exactly what ended up happening. As much as I loved Sustained, I definitely found myself loving this book even more than I loved Sustained in some ways.

One of the things that I’ve always loved about Emma Chase’s books, going all the way back to Tangled, is the fact that she often writes her books in such a way that it feels like the protagonists of her books are talking to the reader in the narrative and telling them a story. This particular aspect of Emma Chase’s writing style is definitely more noticeable at times than others, and it was definitely very noticeable in Appealed. The reason why I really love it when she has the protagonists of her books basically talk to the reader from time to time, is because it really helps to draw me into the story and become very invested in the characters and the story itself. This particular aspect of Chase’s writing style is definitely one of the many things that made me fall in love with the book Tangled when I read it, and it was one of the many things that has really made me fall in love with her writing in general. While I’ve always loved it when she has her protagonists basically talk to the reader, I especially love how she handled that particular aspect of her writing style for this book. It was something that really made me fall in love with the character Brent as I was reading Appealed.

I feel like I’ve made it pretty clear by this point that one of the biggest reasons why I love Emma Chase’s books so much is because all of her books are written partially, if not entirely, from the guy’s point of view. Brent is yet another great character, and I’d say that I love Brent about as much as I loved Jake in Sustained. Brent is an all around great character, and I loved Brent’s internal narrative, because I often times found the things that he was thinking rather amusing. However, the thing that I loved the most about Brent is how he acted towards Kennedy, especially at the beginning of the book before they really get together, his therapist, Dr. Waldo Bingingham, and his butler, Harrison. I found it rather amusing that Brent was so hung up on the fact that his therapist’s first name is Waldo. I could also kind relate to that, because I definitely have a tendency to get hung up on what a person’s name is sometimes, especially if it’s a name that’s kind of unique. I also really enjoyed the dynamic between Brent and Harrison, because I definitely saw a little bit of myself in Brent when it comes to how he acted towards Harrison as well.