When We Were Infinite, by Kelly Loy Gilbert // Thoughts & Ramblings on a New Favorite

It’s been a long time since I last read a book that left me feeling viscerally changed. That is, until I finished reading When We Were Infinite a few days ago.

Sitting in the back of my family’s minivan, hurtling down a highway in Tennessee as rain pounded the windshield, I just stared at the blank page at the end of the book and thought- about the novel and the characters, yes, but also about how my life would never quite be the same now that I had read it. I could tell that the emotions I’d felt and the thoughts provoked by what I’d just read would be staying with me for a long, long time.

I’ve always read only recreationally, but ever since I started blogging and especially as I’ve become more involved in the world of Goodreads and ratings and reviews and to-be-read shelves and releases, I’ve become a much more critical reader. I no longer rate a book only on my enjoyment, but I’m also considering so many other factors as I read: do I truly like the characters? Am I bored at all? Is the writing exceptionally good?

Within the last year, I’ve found myself rating very few books five stars, and often I’ll already be thinking about the rating I’m going to give a book as I’m reading. (This might be unhealthy reader behavior.) When I was about a fourth of the way into When We Were Infinite, I knew it was going to be five stars. When I was halfway through When We Were Infinite, I knew I was going to need to talk about this book with someone, anyone. By the time I finished it, I knew that writing a blog post solely about this book was non-negotiable.

I’ve (much to my dismay) abandoned my blog terribly over the last school year. I wish I could attribute it to just being busy, but I know the reasoning lies much more with a lack of motivation or compelling content to blog about. But after finishing When We Were Infinite, I was overflowing with motivation and a desire to get all my thoughts out about this novel. Even if they’re scattered, even if this post isn’t as formatted as I normally would want and doesn’t follow the patterns of my ordinary content (something that caused me a lot of anguish over whether or not I should even post this), I ultimately decided that this is my book blog and there is no right or wrong way for me to talk about a book I truly loved (with no spoilers). So, here’s me doing just that- and thank you for being here. :’)

Mini Reviews From Quarantine Pt. 2 // The Second Installment of Me Crying Over YA and MG Novels!

I’m back again with more mini reviews!

As I’ve said a few times, one of the good parts about quarantine for me has been getting back into reading frequently. I didn’t realize quite how much I’d gotten out of the habit of reading consistently until I recently looked back at some monthly recaps from late 2019 and saw that during the school year I sometimes…didn’t read anything at all the whole month.

Knowing that I’ll probably be in a similar situation like that again (though at this point, I would welcome in-person school stress, knowing my school will probably be online for the foreseeable future), I’m trying to take advantage of all my free time to read as much as possible! That’s resulted in me having read a lot of books that I would very much like to scream about and recommend to you.

To follow up with my first mini reviews from quarantine post, I’m going to be reviewing (in a bullet point fashion) some more books I read so far during quarantine! I’m unfortunately very behind on my reviewing, so these are mostly ones that I read in May but I will be doing more to talk about ones I’ve read in June and July as well.

I’m writing this post while absolutely freaking out about Taylor Swift’s surprise announcement of her new album, Folklore, coming out in (at the time of me typing this) around six hours, so I feel kind of like I’ve just had ten shots of espresso. Hopefully my nervous and excited energy translates into enthusiastic reviews and not rambling, muddled ones??

Mini Reviews From Quarantine pt. 1 // 5 Books w/ Family Relationships, Romance, & Amazing Messages

Me, reviewing books?

This is when you know the quarantine has gotten to me. I’m mostly kidding, but actually sort of not, because I just went back to look at my previous posts and realized the last time I wrote reviews (and they were mini, not even full) was in July. Which was almost a year ago. So I’d say this post is way overdue.

One good thing about being at my house almost all the time now is that I’ve been able to read a lot of new books!! I read some of these books using Overdrive, but some of them are ones I’ve owned for a while and never got around to reading and then realized how disappointed I was in myself for having an unread book on my shelf, and with the free time, thought it would be even more disappointing if I didn’t read it now. Both access to books online and unread books on my shelves allowed me to have books to read even in this time of staying inside.

Thankfully, after spending March and April trying to get access to books online, my library started doing curbside pickup in May! Now, in mid-June, they’re opening back up with distancing measures and mask guidelines and everything, and I haven’t gone yet, but I’m hoping to go really soon.

Anyway, I’ve read a lot of books I enjoyed and wanted to talk about in the last couple of months, and after promising mini reviews both in my April and May recaps and going through the comments to make sure I’m talking about all the books people wanted to hear about- I’m finally actually writing them! This post was originally going to include over ten books, but it was getting way too long, so I’m only going to talk about five books in this post and review the rest in a part two later this month.

What I’ve Been Reading Lately // ft. mini reviews & YA recommendations!!

I’m back at it again with the mini reviews.

This summer has basically been one massive reading and blogging marathon for me, and I’ve been slacking on my reviews lately, so it’s no surprise that today’s post features lots of mini reviews. Shh, no, I’m not scared of full reviews at all. I read all these books in June, but I still can’t wait to scream about them today!

Much to everyone’s shock, especially my own, this post will not only have YA contemporaries in it but also a fantasy novel! I know, the day that I don’t post solely about contemporaries deserves to become some sort of holiday. Or it should at least have a plaque in its honor because this is monumental.

I’m looking forward to talking about all the good books I’ve been reading lately, so without more nonsense rambling, besides this important reminder to go vote in the 2019 Book Blogger awards, let’s get into the reviews!

3 Hard-Hitting YA Novels I Loved // ft. mini reviews + adoration!!

Sometimes you need a little more than fluff.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all here for a cutesy, fluffy contemporary. I mean, take a look at my bookshelf. But often it’s so necessary to read a YA novel that’s more than fluffy. It’s so important to read books that address more difficult topics, or aren’t only sunshine and happiness all the time.

Today I’m going to be reviewing (in a miniature fashion) three novels I recently read that were incredibly hard-hitting. Each of these sent powerful messages and really got me thinking. Like I said, I have nothing against fluff, but fluff isn’t everything, and these three books really proved that point!

I know I just did a mini reviews post last week, but there are just too many books and too little time that I read and then didn’t get to talk about, so after this post I’ll finally be caught up on my reviews and we can go back to more of my regular scheduled programming. 😉

All right, without further ado, let’s get into the reviews!

6 YA Novels I Couldn’t Put Down // ft. Mini Reviews & Much Fangirling!!

You know me, always reading more and more YA.

Today I’m here with six mini reviews of YA novels that I read in the past few months! It’s been forever since I last did a post like this (i.e., a post where I scream your ear off about books), but I’m so excited to be back on my reviewing game.

Yes, I read these books more than a month ago? But I loved them all so much that it didn’t take too long to remember why I gave them such high ratings back in April. 😉

In this post, I’ll be sharing my thoughts and ratings for five contemporary and one (!!) sci-fi young adult book. Like usual, you can expect me to be fangirling immensely over…everything, to say the least.

I have quite a lot to say about all of these novels, so without further ado, let’s get into the post!

All My Thoughts on Six of Crows // Review + Opinions on the Most Hyped Book of All Time (!!)

I did it. I finally read the most hyped book of all time.

Without fail, I have heard about Six of Crows on nearly every blog. It’s been in recommendation posts, in discussion posts, and it lived on my TBR for longer than I’d like to admit.

The hype grew so much that eventually I was torn between a desperate desire to read it and a just as desperate desire not to read it, because what if it didn’t live up to all my expectations??

All these thoughts reached their apex on March 26th, 2019, the day I started to read Six of Crows. I feel like there should be ominous music playing in the background. Needless, to say…it was all worth it, and all the hype was absolutely right.

In this post, I’m going to be first reviewing Six of Crows! If you haven’t read the book yet, you don’t have to be worried about any part of it getting spoiled in that section. After a quick review, I’m going to be screaming more directly about the book, and while I won’t be explicitly spoiling anything, I don’t recommend reading that part of the post if you haven’t yet read the book. I’ll make sure to differentiate between the sections. 😉

I can’t wait any longer to talk about this book, so let’s get started!

5 YA Contemporaries You Need to Read This Spring // Mini Reviews & Heart Eyes!

I’m back again with the contemporary reviews, spring edition!

So far, 2019 has been a wonderful year of reading contemporaries for me. I mean, it’s pretty much all I read. Today I’m back with a new batch of YA contemporaries that I’m going to be doing mini reviews for! Expect lots of squealing and heart eyes. 😉

Of course, these books can be enjoyed any time of the year, I just think they’d be especially amazing during spring or summer…but honestly, it doesn’t matter. We all know I’m going to scream about contemporaries no matter what time of the year it is.

Without further ado, on to the reviews!

5 Books To Overwhelm Your TBR With (!!) // ft. Emma Mills & Other Mini Reviews

It’s that time of the year again.

January is the month of announcing new releases. Your reader is probably full of posts about books coming in 2019, and if you’re like me, your TBR is filled to overflowing- and then you add even more to it, because GOOD BOOKS.

Well, don’t worry, I’m here to make your to-read pile suffer even more. 😉

Today I’m going to be talking about five YA contemporaries that I read in the past few weeks! These have all been released in 2018 or before, but I still think these books deserve all the love in the world.

I’m excited to start screaming, so without further ado, let’s begin!

5 YA Contemporaries You Should Be Reading // Mini Reviews!

I have read so many wonderful books lately.

I owe that all to the many book blogs I read, all of which have provided me with ample book recommendations and succeeded in burying me in my TBR. 😉 I’ll make it out someday. I think. Today I’m really excited to be doing a few mini reviews of some books I’ve been especially loving lately!

I read all of these books in the past two months or so, and they’re all books I highly recommend to you all. Oh, and a disclaimer- there will be no spoilers in any of these reviews (I try to never do spoilers, and definitely not without saying so), so feel more than welcome to read on even if you haven’t read any of these.

Let’s get right into the reviewing!