Yikes. Hello there. I've only been MIA for, what? Almost 8 months? 😅 Things happened, what can I say?!?

I'm really overwhelmed about going through ALL of the happenings in my life since late April, so let's do some highlights! Cool? Cool.

Our window view in Hawaii

Rowan at the beach in HI

Let me start off with saying that I LOOOOVE watching tv shows, I really do! Let me follow that up with: I don't have a lot of spare time to watch the shows that I want to watch! Between parenting, reading, blogging, exercising, and doing my side-photography gig... that doesn't leave a lot of extra room. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to sleep. (But oh, how I love to sleep. 😴)

Nevertheless, I still love talking TV and what I've been watching, so here's my (small) list of shows I watched in April!

April: What I Watched

Tell me, how does one read at least one book a week and keep up with TV shows and work a 40-hr job with a side hustle and be a parent and practice self-care and exercise and sleep 7-8 hours per night? Would love to learn your tips and tricks, if you have any!

💭 What are some of your favorite shows to watch? 

Hey y'all, May is right around the corner!!! What?!? Why don't you grab a cup of your favorite drink, maybe a comfy blankie, and just prepare yourself to add all of these titles to your TBR? Because let's be honest, you probably will. (I did.)

So, I'm excited for May. Next week, it's my co-teacher's birthday and it's Teacher Appreciation Week! I can't wait to show my new co-teacher appreciation (we've only been working together for about 5 weeks, but I LOVE her), and also to receive it! 🤣 ALSO, it's my birthday month, as well. 😅 I'm looking forward to a 3-day stay-cation I've taken off for myself to do whatever the heck I want. Maybe nap? Maybe read? Maybe day-drink? Who knows!

Coming Out in May 2021

Realm Breaker (Realm Breaker #1) Victoria Aveyard	10 Truths and a Dare Ashley Elston	The Summer of Broken Rules K.L. Walther
May 4, 2021	May 4, 2021	May 4, 2021

Take Me Home Tonight Morgan Matson	Cool for the Summer Dahlia Adler	Last Chance Books Kelsey Rodkey
May 4, 2021	May 11, 2021	May 18, 2021

It Goes Like This Miel Moreland	May the Best Man Win Z.R. Ellor	Perfectly Parvin Olivia Abtahi
May 18, 2021	May 18, 2021	May 18, 2021

Sixteen Scandals Sophie Jordan	Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating Adiba Jaigirdar
May 25, 2021	May 25, 2021

💭 What books are looking forward to release in May? Did you receive/buy any new books?

Happy Tuesday, my friends. Tuesday is the perfect day for a list, don't you think? The prompt for this list is 'animals in books', and boy did I have a hard time with this list! 😅

And naturally, all of the ones that came easy to me were from the imagination of miss Sarah J. Maas. She always creates creatures and pets that give me heart eyes! 😍

Top 10 5 Animals in Books that I've Read

1. Abraxos (Throne of Glass) ⌁ This magnificent creature is a wyvern, and he's actually a soft lil bby and I love him so, so much. One of my favorite fictional relationships is between Manon and Abraxos. He was a "bait beast" in the beginning, abused and scarred with broken teeth, until Manon claimed him as hers and replaced his teeth with iron ones and put iron spikes on his tail, and even fixed his broken wings by grafting Spidersilk to them. But even though he's on the smaller side, he's super intelligent and enjoys wildflowers, and is affectionately referred to as "worm" by his rider. 😂

2. Syrinx (Crescent City) ⌁ Like I said, SJM creates the BEST pets! Syrinx is a chimera that belongs to Bryce Quinlan. He is an affecrionate beast, but is not afrqaid to be vicious when it means protecting those he loves. He has the power to pick locks, and even teleport!1!! (Which is super amusing when Bryce found out after putting him in a crate at night for so long.)

3. Fleetfoot (Throne of Glass) ⌁ Fleetfoot is a regular species of dog, gifted to Celaena Sardothien by Prince Dorian Havilliard on Yulemas. She's just the goodest girl who is loyal to Celaena, and cautious of any other stranger. I have yet to read Kingdom of Ash and I swear if anything happens to Fleetfoot.......

4. Silas (Sorcery of Thorns) ⌁ I know this is stretching it a bit... If you've read Sorcery of Thorns, you know that Silas the cat is actually a demon, and not really a cat at all. Despite his demon capabilities, I really believe he is the goodest, most loyal demon.

5. Kishmish (Daughter of Smoke and Bone) ⌁ A cute little chimera from Laini Taylor's imagination; he has bat wings with the body of a crow and the forked tongue of a serpent. Cute, right??? He's the sweetest little messenger. Fun fact: Kishmish means "raisin" in Persian!

And... well, guys, that's really all I've got! I think the moral of this post is that I need more books with memorable animal characters!! Give me some suggestions?

💭 What are your favorite animal characters from books you've read?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here.

Once again, the midwest just can't pick a season! We've had snow, we've had cool, spring days, and we've had days where we sweat because of the heat. When will the madness end? Yeah, probably never.

💭 What have you been up to lately? Have you been personally victimized by the weather, too?

Happy Tuesday! For the past two weeks, I've had intentions of doing another Top 10 post, but then life gets in the way and I don't finish it, or I don't get to it. You know the feeling, right?

Any-who-ser! Something COLORFUL this way comes! The prompt this week was just colorful covers in general, but I took it one step further and just included books that I've already read, because there are just too many books to choose from! This helped narrow it down just a wee bit, and didn't make my head want to spin. 😅

Top 10 Colorful Covers of Books I've Read

💭 What are some of your favorite colorful covers, read or unread?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here.

Happy Monday, and you know what that means?? It's Music Monday! So I finished A Court of Silver Flames not too long ago... and just, wow. SJM has really crossed the border of Young Adult to ADULT. (If you've read it, you know.)

I'm still cooking up a condensed review, but for Music Monday, I thought I'd compile a little Nessian playlist for your auditory enjoyment. 

Artwork created by Charlie Bowater.

Despite the drastic weather changes the Midwest is wreaking on my sinuses, I managed to have a good holiday last weekend, and this past week wasn't terrible either. In case it wasn't fundamentally clear with the pictures above, I basically only take pictures of nature's phenomenon, and my son! 😅 (Also, you know, the occasional book pic.)

💭 What are some things that happened to you this week? Did you have a good Easter?

Welcome to my first round of Bite Sized mini reviews! This is a collective of small reviews of books that I've read since I revamped my blog on March 23rd. 😜 

I so badly wanted to call this "Friday Night Bites" since it's Friday, but decided against it. 😂

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

★★★

This book felt a little reminiscent of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, and I actually DNF'd that one last year – might try it again in the future? I also tried it via audiobook, but there was something about the narrators' voices that just didn't work well for me. However, The Ten Thousand Doors of January had a pleasant narrator, who is also conveniently named January. 🤨 I feel like maybe this was done on purpose to fuel the aesthetic of the story and the way it was written. That's what I'm going to tell myself. I rented this audiobook through my library, but didn't get through it in the 21 days I was allotted, so I ended up having to rent the ebook for the last 40% or so. That's why it took me longer than necessary to read, because I had to switch formats halfway through. The feel and rhythm of the story felt good, but something about the story just didn't enthrall me the way I wanted it to. I enjoyed January as a MC, and also had a soft spot for her dog, Sinbad (whom she fondly referred to as 'Bad'). I thought Samuel maybe deserved better though, and if you've read it, you know what I'm talking about. The story is kind of slow, a little fanciful, about a girl who doesn't fit in but finds her power in a world where she is powerless. ⌁ She accumulated the dust of other worlds on her skin like ten thousand perfumes, and left constellations of wistful men and impossible tales in her wake.

Regretting You

★★★★

Lucky in Love

★★

Hey, happy weekend!! I meant to post this yesterday, but I've been a bit down and out with a sore throat, cough and headache due to spring allergies. 🤧 It's not been fun. But talking about books is bound to cheer me up, especially the handful of April books that I'm super-duper excited for the release of! So sit tight, grab a cup of your preferred beverage, and prepare to add ALL of these titles to your Goodreads to-read list. 

April not only brings the birthdays of the two most important boys in my life (boyfriend + son), but it brings some pretty awesome books (especially a most-anticipated sequel!!!)

Covers take you to goodreads.

Coming Out in April 2021

The Infinity Courts (The Infinity Courts #1) Akemi Dawn Bowman	House of Hollow Krystal Sutherland	Zara Hossain is here Sabina Khan
April 6, 2021	April 6, 2021	April 6, 2021

She Drives me Crazy Kelly Quindlen	The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash #3) Jennifer L. Armentrout	Witches Steeped in Gold (Witched Steeped in Gold #1) Ciannon Smart
April 20, 2021	April 20, 2021	April 20, 2021

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses Kristen O'Neal
April 27, 2021

Now... let's talk about the books that I've acquired during the month of March!

What I Bought in March

This is NO JOKE, the first three months of 2021 are over!!! I honestly don't know whether to feel amazed that it's April, or flabbergasted that I've read 17 books so far. If you look at my track record from previous years (2020: 28 books; 2019: 24 books; 2018: 13 books; 2017: 20 books; 2016: 14 books), you'll see that I've really upped my game this year!

I started my very first book blog in 2014, and those first two years are the only years I made it over 50 books a year. This year, something has changed. That something is audiobooks. I'll be honest when I tell you that my attention span has been going to crap, especially since I had a baby. I thought audiobooks would be so tough to try, but it really has been a game-changer. I definitely had to train my brain to stop wandering as I listened, but I started with an easy series: Harry Potter. I listened to all seven books on audio, and now I just crave more. If I don't have a book to listen to on the commute to work/home, or something to listen to as I edit my photography sessions, I feel lost. 🥴

The Monthly Breakdown

Books I've read from January - March

1. A Court of Wings and Ruin ★★★★★ Re-read, via audiobook. It was super nice to re-read this series as audiobooks this time around. I swear, I've become quite the audio-reader! I have a 20+ minute commute to and from work each day, so it's become quite useful to listen to books.
2. A Court of Frost and Starlight ★★★★★ This was a first-time read (I know, I'm late to the party), but I felt like it was a nice interval between ACOWAR and ACOSF.
3. You Have a Match ★★★★★ This was such a surprise! I didn't expect to love this so much, but it was the cuuuutest. I totally loved that the MC was into photography, and that it was a camp setting. Also, long-term unrequited best-friend love - gimme more!
4. Love at First Like ★★ This book was pretty aggravating. And the MC was annoying lol so I can't really give this any more than 2 stars.
5. Technically, You Started It ★★★★ Okay, the way this book was formatted was w o n d e r f u l. It was strictly text conversation, 100% through the book. Not joking. 
6. Today Tonight Tomorrow ★★★★ This was another pleasant surprise. It was a hate-to-love, senior-year rivalry between valedictorian candidates. Highly recommend!
7. Escaping From Houdini ★★★★ I read the first two books (Stalking Jack the Ripper and Hunting Prince Dracula) last year and it took me a pretty long time to finish this one. I wasn't as into the second half of the series, but I definitely still loved the dynamic of Thomas and Audrey Rose.
8. How to Hack a Heartbreak ★★★ This was a nice read, but it wasn't exceptional. It's basically about a techie who makes her own app called 'Jerk Alert' to point out all the douchebags in the online dating world. 
9. Capturing the Devil ★★★★ Like I stated with Escaping from Houdini, I didn't love it as much as the first two books, although this held a satisfying end to the series! Also, can I have my own Thomas?
10. A Song of Wraiths and Ruin ★★★★ This was pretty amazing, I'll be honest. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel.
11. Ninth House ★★★★★ WOW. I knew Leigh Bardugo could write well, but this blew me away! Even though I had moments of confusion, everything pieced together so nicely and left me wanting so, so, so much more. When are we getting this sequel???
12. Kind of Cursed ★★★ This book gave me such Shameless vibes with the way the older sister has to take care of her younger siblings... except they were financially better off. And they got a brand new kitchen remodel, led by a handsome, dreamy guy. It was a nice book to listen to on my commute!
13. 99 Days ★★★★ A re-read for me (vis audiobook this time), and the rating stayed the same. I really liked the story, and I'm looking forward to making time to read the sequel that's sitting on my bookshelf!
14. Ugly Love ★★★★ Holy crap on a cracker. CoHo did it again! I know I'm late to the party on this book as well, but wowww. I'm definitely making a point to read more CoHo books this year! (Regretting You is on my Spring TBR)
15. A Court of Silver Flames ★★★★ 🥵 Is it hot in here, or is it this freaking book??? I didn't really know I needed the Cassian/Nesta side of the story...until I got about 15 chapters in. Then BAM, I was obsessed. I know a lot of people are harping on the fact that Feyre and Rhys had too much of a presence in this book, but... I think it was fine. The only thing that threw me off was it all wrapped up way too nicely. I was expecting a big ol' fat cliffhanger? I mean, I guess I shouldn't complain. 😅
16. The Ten Thousand Doors of January ★★★ I think it took me longest to read this book than any other so far this year. I started out listening to the audiobook, borrowed from the library, but I had to return the book before I finished. I had to read the rest of it (I think just the last 30%) and my reading pace has been super slow. It was good, but I wasn't blown away by it.
17. Regretting You ★★★★ This book gave me feels. 🥺 CoHo really knows how to weasel in and squeeze my heart, y'all.

What Am I Reading Now?

A good portion of last quarter had me juggling through 2-3 books at any given time, and right now, I just have ONE book on my currently-reading shelf. It's Lucky in Love by Kasie West, which is one of the books I'd pledged to read from my spring TBR.

💭 Do you have a good start on your reading this year? What's been one of your favorite reads so far?