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

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 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)

Instagram Reading Wrap Up: July 2017

Here's my monthly wrap up of all the books that I read in July, 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 @authorjenniferprobst's Any Time, Any Place re-read in July. I technically finished reading A Storm of Swords this morning. It was getting really late last night, so I decided to go to bed, and I listened to the last two chapters on audiobook this morning. I'm definitely feeling pretty proud of myself for reading A Storm of Swords since it's the longest book that I've ever read. Sadly, I didn't like it very much, and I'm honestly not sure that I want to continue reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series at this point. I absolutely love the show Game of Thrones, though. My favorite out of all the books that I read in July is definitely @themackenzilee's The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. 😀 While @jeffzentner's The Serpent King continues to be my favorite out of all the @owlcrate books of the month that I've received so far, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is definitely a very close second favorite for me now. 😀 I also absolutely loved @grantginder's The People We Hate at the Wedding, and I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on the books that Ginder publishes in the future after reading it. 😀 I still need to finish @chessiezappia's Eliza and Her Monsters, but I'm determined to finish it by the end of this month. Despite being very disappointed by A Storm of Swords, I still feel like July was a great month for me reading wise. 😀 #bookstagram #owlcrate #thegentlemansguidetoviceandvirtue #mackenzilee #anytimeanyplace #billionairebuildersseries #billionairebuilders #jenniferprobst #thepeoplewehateatthewedding #grantginder #astormofswords #asongoficeandfire #asoiaf #georgerrmartin #gameofthrones #elizaandhermonsters #francescazappia #bookworm #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookblog

A post shared by Taylor Glissman (@tmswriter6) on Aug 1, 2017 at 8:16pm PDT

FYI: I'm currently working on writing reviews for Jennifer Probst's Any Time, Any Place, Grant Ginder's The People We Hate at the Wedding, and Mackenzi Lee's The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. I'll also be writing a review for George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords.


Related Post:OwlCrate Unboxing: July 2017 (Wanderlust)

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.

Book Review: Titans by Leila Meacham

I’d like to start off this review by saying that I was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone when it comes to the kind of books that I usually like to read by reading Titans by Leila Meacham. However, the plot description that’s on the cover of the book made it sound really interesting to me, which is why I decided to a copy of Titans and read it. When I first started reading Titans, I absolutely loved the book, which really surprised me given the fact that I usually prefer to read books that are set in modern times. However, one exception to that would be books that are a part of the science fiction genre, and in that case, I love it when the plot of the book takes place in a futuristic setting; that being said, here are my thoughts on Titans.

Part of what originally made Titans sound so appealing to me was the fact that the plot of the book revolved primarily around the characters, Samantha Gordon and Nathan Holloway, who are twins that were separated at birth. Their lives eventually start to collide with one another’s years later when they’re adults, which naturally creates some major drama between a lot of the characters in the book. Leila Meacham’s writing for Titans got me completely invested in both Samantha and Nathan as characters, and the plot of the book right from the beginning. It also helped that I felt like the plot moved at a really good pace, at least at the beginning of the book. However the book definitely starts having some issues with the overall pacing of the plot beginning with chapter thirty-one, which I’ll talk about more later on in this review.

While I really liked both Samantha and Nathan as characters, Nathan was definitely my favorite character in the book. I definitely enjoyed the chapters that focused on Nathan the most. One thing that I liked about both Samantha and Nathan is that they were both smart in their own way. Samantha came across as being very book smart, especially when it comes to her interest in dinosaurs and paleontology, whereas Nathan seemed to be smart in more of a street-smart sense, for lack of a better description. I think it’s definitely a good thing that Nathan wasn’t afraid to question the actions and intentions of others, especially when it came to his and Samantha’s biological father, Trevor Waverling. While I don’t think that Nathan is a gullible person, I do think that Samantha should have been a little smarter and more assertive at times.

Admittedly, it has been a few weeks since I finished reading Titans, and while I originally really liked Samantha for the most part, the more I’ve thought about how I feel about Samantha as a character, the more I realize that she’s an incredibly frustrating character in some ways. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Samantha, but she still really annoyed me at times throughout the book. For starters, Samantha is unfortunately way too passive for her own good. For example, after Neal secretly reads the letter that was sent to Samantha regarding her looking for information about her birth parents, he started acting rather cold and distant towards her for two months. During that time, Samantha spends a lot of time wondering what’s going on with Neal and is confused about why he was acting so weird towards her; but rather than actually confronting him about his behavior, she basically just sits around on her ass wondering why he’s acting so cold and distant towards her. When Neal eventually starts acting like he normally does towards her, she never asks him what was going on with him, she’s just happy that things between them have gone back to normal. 

Everywhere and Every Way: There’s nothing quite like heaps of family drama and some romance to make a good book (My thoughts on Book #1 in the Billionaire Builders series by Jennifer Probst)

I’d like to start off this review by saying that despite the fact that Jennifer Probst is an author who has been on my radar for years, Everywhere and Every Way is actually the first book by Probst that I’ve ever read. I decided to finally check out Jennifer Probst’s books after I saw a tweet that Emma Chase had retweeted on Twitter, which included a link to a list of books that are available to purchase from the iTunes store that Jennifer Probst had recommended people read, with Emma Chase’s first book, Tangled, being on the list. That got me thinking about how I had been interested in checking out Jennifer Probst’s books for quite a few years now. For the record, I’m pretty sure that I had come across Probst’s books long before I even discovered Emma Chase’s Tangled series back in 2014, but Emma Chase ultimately played a big part in convincing me to finally take the plunge and read one of Jennifer Probst’s books. Originally, I was planning to read The Marriage Bargain first, and I even bought the audiobook version of The Marriage Bargain, but I ultimately decided to read and review Everywhere and Every Way first instead since this is Probst’s latest book; that being said, here are my thoughts on Everywhere and Every Way.

Right off the bat, I have to say that much like Emma Chase’s Tangled and Legal Briefs series, as well as Christina Lauren’s book Beautiful Bastard have all exceeded the expectations that I usually have for the romance genre, Everywhere and Every Way also exceeded the expectations that I usually have for the genre. If I’m being honest, while I truly believe that Emma Chase and Christina Lauren have definitely both raised the bar in terms of what I expect from a good romance novel; in some ways, I feel like Jennifer Probst managed to exceed some of those expectations when it comes to the writing for this book.

Having recently read and reviewed the book Winter by Marissa Meyer, which is definitely a book that I personally think has a lot of issues with the overall pacing of the plot moving too slow for somewhat large chunks of the book, and the fact that that book is slightly over 800 pages long didn’t help those issues; one thing that I really thought Jennifer Probst did a great job of in terms of the writing for Everywhere and Every Way, is that the overall pacing of the plot moved at the perfect pace for the most part. While I think that having certain parts of any book be very exposition heavy can subsequently cause the plot of a book to feel like it’s being bogged down, and moving too slow; Probst definitely did a great job of handling exposition throughout the book when she needed to. I thought that was especially the case at the beginning of the book, when she was establishing the overall premise of the book, without it feeling like the plot of the book was moving too slow.