Welcome back + Updates!

WOW!! It has been so long since I have posted on this site! My life has been so busy! I graduated graduate school, I moved back to my home state (!!!), I completed my first year of teaching, and I got married!! So much has changed, but now that it is summertime I am ready to put my heart and soul back into reading and blogging!

While I haven't posted on here, I have continued to read! Last year I read a total of 48 books! I'm really proud of that number, seeing as I had a lot of change going on! A lot of those books were books that I read for my job as a 5th grade reading teacher! I want to do a whole separate post on those books, but I do want to update you on my 2018 reading year!

The first book I completed in 2018 was Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning! This is an urban fantasy adult series! I enjoyed this book a lot! It takes place in a different country, a country I have never read from before, which was cool! It also involves fairies, which I don't read a ton of books like that, so that is also cool! Right now I am on book Four, which I am excited to read! (16+)

The last book I completed in 2018 was Fierce Women by Kimberly Wagner. My roommate let me borrow this book and it is SO SO good! It actually took me a long time to read this book, just because I was reading it as a kind of study. I took notes from the chapters, and I prayed about the messages I received. This book is all about strong women and how they can be strong and opinionated, but also make their man feel like a man and support and encourage him. I must admit I am not the best at this, so maybe it is time for a reread, but I really enjoyed this book! It was a five star read!

My favorite book last year is a tie between two. I really can't decide! The tie is between All Your Perfects by (obviously) Colleen Hoover, she is one of my favorite authors, and The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang. They are both adult romances, but very different.

AYPs is about a couple that is coming at a crossroads in their relationship. It is told in the past and present, which is a trope that I love, and she does very well! This book is so tragic and beautiful!

TKQ is about a very successful woman who is terrible at relationships, not just romantic, but all. She has Asperger ((I believe that this is an own voices book, which I super love!) Because she is bad at relationships and her mom is pressuring her (she isn't getting any younger) she decides to enlist some help from an unlikely source ;). Love these two books so much!! I highly recommend (16+).

My least favorite book of the year has to go to How to Love by Katie Cotugna. I listened to this book on the way home from school. It was a long drive, so one of the only reasons I finished this book was because I could listen to it in one sitting. I honestly don't remember a lot about this book except it is full of bad cliches and cringy, annoying tropes. I went on full rant mode when I reviewed this book on goodreads, so if you want to laugh or get more information on how I feel about this go ahead over to GR.

A book that surprised me this year was Erotic Stories For Punjabi Women by Balli Kaur Jaswal. I picked this book randomly because it was one of Reese Whitherspoons choice books. I also listened to this book on a drive, but it wasn't in one sitting. I don't read a lot of adult fiction books, so I don't have a lot to compare this to, but I so understand why Reese picked this book! It is hard to describe, in a few words, so I will give a short synopsis. It centers around a few different story lines. The main one is about this 20 something First generation Indian woman that lives in England. Her story isn't as exciting, she wants to be her own woman, but her family does not understand that, they would like for her to be more traditional. She, through a series of events, starts this creative writing class at the community center. To her surprise a handful of Punjabi women sign up, but they don't read a lick of English. The women grow closer through their stories and history and it is just beautiful, sexy, and creative. I really enjoyed this book (16+)

I mentioned before that Helen Huang is a new favorite author, their are also a couple other new favorite authors that I read from last year. The next one is Ruta Sepetys. I read Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Grey. She writes horribly fantastic YA historical fiction stories. I highly recommend even if you don't like YA books, the history and family that she captures in her books are heartbreaking and so interesting to read about! I wish it was required reading in high school!

Another author that I fell in love with last year is Karen Marie Moning. Like I mentioned in the beginning, I am on her 4th book and I am really enjoying it. The characters and mystery in this series are so thrilling. She writes attraction between characters really well also! I found the main character to be a little annoying in the first book, she is stubborn and headstrong, but she grew on me in the next 2 books! I highly recommend if you like urban fantasy (16 +)

The last author that I fell in love with is Neal Shusterman. I read Scythe from him last year and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I heard so many people rave about it, but when I read descriptions it didn't sound like something I would like. My boyfriend (now husband!!!) got it on audible.com and began raving about it also, so I gave it a chance. I am so glad that I did because, it is an incredibly good series!

Okay, that was a lot of typing and reminiscing. I read some really great books last year, some all time favorites and I am so thankful for that!

This year is going well, but I am off my game in the amount of reading that I wanted to get done by this point. I am hoping to do the Mid Year Book Freak Out tag next, so you all can get an idea of what I've read so far this year and what I am looking forward to reading next!

I hope you all have a great weekend, stay cool and read a good book! Until next time:)