Week 1 | Down the TBR Hole

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Down the TBR Hole was created by Lost in a Story. Its purpose is to help narrow down your TBR list on Goodreads by selecting 5 titles each week and deciding if you want to keep it on your TBR or get rid of it!

Anyway, it works like this:

• Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

The fact that I (you?) will be repeating this process every week means that I have to keep track of where I ended and where I’m going to continue. E.g. in week one I do book 1 – 5, in week two book 6 – 10, and so on, until I’ve filtered out my entire TBR. If it isn’t clear, read on and I’ll show you!

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I saw this meme on Pinot and Pages and loved the idea. So I thought it would be cool to try doing it on here. My TBR definitely needs me to sort it out since its 1890 books in. It's honestly a mess.

 The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars #1) by Rob Thomas + Jennifer Graham

Goodreads

I added this book back in 2014 when I started my Goodreads account. Its been so long since it's been on my TBR but I still haven't read it much less own it.

And the description of the story makes it sound like a continuation of Veronica's story after college. Though I'm not sure if it connects with the movie since the movie didn't feel like it was a part of the story but just something for fans.

Still, I'm tossing it since I don't think I'll get my hands on this any time soon.

Verdict:

TOSS

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Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer 

Goodreads

Even though Cinder was no only recommended to me by a friend and its been well loved by a whole lot of booknerds I follow on Instagram, I just can't say I want it on my TBR. I don't own it and I can't borrow it so it's got to go.

Verdict:

TOSS

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Goodreads

I have always wanted to read Jane Austen. Even before I became a book blogger. But just now realized I could totally do that because not only are they on Spotify and pretty much everywhere else but my mom got me the big Barnes and Noble one that has seven of her books and this is one of them. So while I'm getting rid of this book I'm still going to keep this story in my TBR.

Verdict:

TOSS

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The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles #1) by Tess Gerritsen 

Goodreads

I loved the tv show Rizzoli and Isles which was why I added this to my TBR. But now that I think about it, even though in the future if I find this I definitely would love to read this, I'm tossing it. No reason it's just a book that I will remember even if it's not on my Goodreads shelves.

Verdict:

TOSS

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The Diviners by Libba Bray 

Goodreads

This is another of those books that I wanted just because it was getting so much hype on booktube, on Instagram, pretty much everywhere. And even now that I'm reading the description I still don't know what it was that attracts ME to this story. So its a toss.

Verdict:

TOSS

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Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins 

Goodreads

To me, this book is in the same circle as To All The Boys I've Loved Before. And I loved that so I'm tossing it but adding it to my someday-maybe.

Verdict:

TOSS

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That Time I Joined the Circus by J.J. Howard 
Goodreads

The MC goes to the circus to find her mother but instead finds her destiny or what she could be. That alone sounds so good.

Verdict:

TOSS

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Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis 
Goodreads

This is a post-apocalyptic dystopian about a world where water is super rare that this girl has to defend so strongly the little pond by her home. So I want to read this boo but I'm taking it out of my TBR and adding it to my someday-maybe list.

Verdict:

TOSS

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Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
Goodreads

Yes! This is a total KEEP. But a KEEP to someday-maybe list. The description sounds so good.  Plus, I love middle-grade books. At least most of the ones I've read.

Verdict:

TOSS

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The Pure Gold Baby: A Novel by Margaret Drabble

Goodreads

I actually own this book and have for years. But no matter how long I've had it I still don't want to read it. I mean, I think I will just to see what its about but I wouldn't buy it if I saw it in a store.

Verdict:

TOSS

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Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington 

Goodreads

The description to this book sounds similar to a book I read, Sanctuary Bay. And that was way too cool so I'm looking forward to this book but I know I won't be getting it anytime soon.

Verdict:

TOSS

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Goodreads

I've heard about this book everywhere and it did sound so good to me but like the one before this. 

Verdict:

TOSS

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I decided to do 12 for the first one just because I don't have anything to do today and because most of the books at the beginning of my TBR are books I don't totally care about.

They were all tossed! Woohoo!

This was fun. I know that it will 100% help me sort out my messy TBR shelf. Since its completely out of control. I definitely want to keep doing this.

Want to see my to be read shelf? Or maybe be my friend on Goodreads?

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The Bookish Island
Blog  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Tis the Season a Thon | Read-a-thon

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Tis the Season a Thon

I found another readathon that I love, and that was Tis the Season a Thon. 

I already had shown my TBR for this on my Instagram and got a lot of love from that which made my day. No, it pretty much made my whole month awesome.

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About the Readathon


#TISTHESEASONATHON
Instagram  |  Twitter

It's a readathon that goes from December 3 to December 9.
It is designed for anyone who loves to read holiday themed books.
There will be random twitter sprints on they're twitter account.


Hosts:
@bookables  |  @acourtofcrownsandquills  |  @btwnchapters  |  @chelseadollingreads  |  @superspacechick



The Challenges

Read a book with red or green on the cover.
Read a book while listening to holiday music.
Read a warm & fuzzy book.
Read a short book (under 250 pages).
Read a holiday-themed book.


Bonus challenge:

Read our buddy read book, Snow in Love by Melissa de la Cruz, Nic Stone, Aimee Friedman, and Kasie West.
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My TBR

Oliver: The Cat Who Saved Christmas by Sheila Norton
Goodreads

Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber
Goodreads

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The Bookish Island
Blog  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday #13 | Books I'd Rather Read Instead of Being with The Family During Thanksgiving

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.


November 20 - Thanksgiving/Thankful Freebie - 
Books I'd Rather Read Instead of Being with The Family During Thanksgiving

The title for this list is just for fun. On Thanksgiving ist just my mom, my grandmother and me so it's not a big thing. We eat and keep going. Just like every other day. 

Have a good and healthy and safe Thanksgiving, Booknerds!

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These books are either books that just feel right to read during this month or books that I've been wanting to read for a while.

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Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

Goodreads

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The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis

Goodreads

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Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Goodreads

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Million Dollar Cowboy by Lori Wilde

Goodreads

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The Shining by Stephen King

Goodreads

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The Bookish Island
Blog  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Goodreads

Maybe This Time by Kasie West Cover Reveal!

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Maybe This Time by Kasie West Cover Reveal!

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Kasie West spoke to the Goodreads people about her new book and I thought I'd include the cover and excerpt here but totally go and check out the exclusive for her interview and more stuff. I'm just doing this cause I love her books and I think this cover is super cute and fun.

Kasie West Exclusive

Earlier this week the new Katie West book, Maybe This Time's cover was revealed. And all I could think was, "Wow! So pretty!" and "Gimme, gimme, gimme!".  

I usually don't 100% love the covers of her books. I find them cute and they follow the look of the story and the main couple. Which always helps to see just how adorable they are. But this new cover is just too beautiful. And it makes me think that its a mix between her other covers and Morgan Matson's The Unexpected Everything and Since You've Been Gone.

Right?!

I don't know maybe it's just me. Or the fact that they are all well-staged photographs specifically made for these books.

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Excerpt

I slid Caroline’s boxes full of gift bags toward me. Unassembled gift bags. Great. I now knew what I’d be spending most of my night doing. I stacked one box on top of the other and carried them back inside. 

I made it halfway down the hall when I heard a voice call out from behind me. 

"Excuse me?"

I turned. A guy around my age, dressed in fitted jeans, a pastel collared shirt, and a tailored sport jacket stood there, a smile on his handsome face. He clearly wasn’t from around here. He was citified. 

I offered him a polite smile, hoping this wouldn’t take long. "The event doesn’t start for fifteen minutes," I said. "But you’re welcome to wait in the lobby. Families are already gathering there." 

I knew every school-aged kid in my town (and most of their living and dead relatives). So this guy had to be here visiting for the event. I tried to place him with a grandparent in my head—Betty or Carl or Leo or… 

"You’re not from around here," he said, as if voicing my thoughts. 

I shifted the boxes in my arms. They weren’t heavy but they were bulky. "What?" 

"You’re not from Rockside," he said. 

"I am, actually. Born and raised." 

"Ah. There it is. I didn’t hear your Southern accent at first." 

I straightened with a bit of pride. I worked very hard on making my accent as minimal as possible so that when I went away to college I wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. 

The guy took several steps forward and pulled his hand out from behind his back to reveal he’d been holding a pink tulip. "Something beautiful for someone beautiful." 

My brows dipped down. Seriously? I wasn’t sure what to make of such a brazen romantic gesture. If that’s what he was going for. Was it? 

I looked at the boxes in my arms, transferred them awkwardly to one hip, and reached out for the flower. With my hand halfway to its destination, I noticed a small green wire wrapped up the stem and supporting the bulb. 

I paused. "Where did you get that?" 

The question seemed to surprise him, his smile faltered a bit, but he recovered with, "It doesn’t matter where it came from, only where it’s going." He extended his arm farther. 

I set the boxes down on the floor and took the flower to inspect it. Sure enough, the wire was wrapped exactly the way I’d done it on over a hundred tulips that very morning. Hours and hours of my life were spent with that wire, in fact. 

"You took this from one of the vases in the cafeteria?" I asked, incredulous. 

He nodded. "Yes, I rescued it from its tacky prison. It looks happier already." 

My mouth dropped open. 

"No worries. There were hundreds of them. Nobody will be able to tell." 

"I sense I’ve offended you," Mr. Obvious said, following me. Or Mr. Entitled? Maybe I’d go for a hyphenated last name since both applied. 

I stood in the doorway and scanned the centerpieces. 

"You’re telling me that you’re going to know which one of these flower arrangements I found this flower in," he said. 

"Found? Yes, I’m going to tell you exactly which flower arrangement you stole this flower from, considering I’ve spent the last eight hours putting them together." 

He coughed. "Oh. Did I say tacky? I meant…uh…festive." 

I rolled my eyes. 

I saw him glance my way, as if sizing me up. I was wearing a green silky blouse with a floral knee-length skirt. My party attire. But even outside of work events, I liked fun colors and classic styles. 

"These centerpieces aren’t your design anyway," he pronounced, "so I don’t know why you’re upset." 

I scowled. "There is no way you could possibly know that." 

He shrugged like he disagreed, then said, "I still don’t think you’ll be able to tell which one I took it from." 

"I will." 

"Without counting the flowers?" 

"You’re adding rules to this made-up game?" 

"Yes!" he said proudly. "If you can’t tell which arrangement is missing a flower, just by looking, then nobody else will be able to tell either and you must accept my gift." 

"Can something that was stolen really be called a gift?" I asked, and began weaving in and out of tables. 

"Deal?" 

Leo’s grandson sure was annoying. Maybe it was John’s grandson. John was known for being demanding. But I could’ve sworn I met all John’s grandkids at the town’s Fourth of July barbecue the previous year. "And if I win?" I asked. 

One side of his mouth lifted in a half smile. "If you win, I owe you a dozen flowers that I must pay for." 

"A dozen flowers arranged by me." 

"Only if they don’t involve foil." 

I narrowed my eyes at him. "It’s called cellophane. And they won’t." 

"I sense this is going to be expensive." 

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Maybe This Time by Kasie West

Goodreads

One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love?
Weddings. Funerals. Barbecues. New Year's Eve parties. Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas.
Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn't so bad after all . . .
Told over the course of one year and following Sophie from event to event, this delightful novel from master of romantic comedy Kasie West shows how love can blossom in unexpected places.

Maybe This Time by Kasie West will be available July 9, 2019

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The Bookish Island
Blog  |  Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth | Book Review #126

The Bookish Island's Book Review:
The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth

Are there spoilers?

No.

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Title: The Killing Jar

Author: Jennifer Bosworth

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Pages: 352

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

Published: 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Mystery

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Date Read: October 20 > October 21, 2018

Rating: ★★★★☆

“I try not to think about it, what I did to that boy.”
Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret.
She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.
On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her… 

The Rating:

My Review:

This was one of the books I picked out for this years Spookathon. And I did manage to read it during this readathon. 

For me the story was good. It had a great fantasy element. That had bits of horror strung throughout. Which makes this book perfect for the more spookier times of the year. And it's also a female author writing a horror so that adds something to this book.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first three chapters when I read them. It reminded me too much of something that could come out of the X-Men. And I loved that. It was so spooky yet cool at the same time.  But as the story continued I did not feel the same by the end. 

Yeah, the story was great but the Main Character was such a ball of conflicting thoughts and feelings that I started to hate everything she did or said. And that made it difficult for me to say that this was a 5 star read for me. 

I think that the story alone, with its fantasy and horror, and the mix of mythology with the moths, and the feeling that something could go horribly wrong at any moment, made this a 5 out of 5 star book. But whenever the MC couldn't make up her mind about her feeling towards her family or the two boys that were after her (the love triangle was also way too weird because I had a feeling one of them was up to no good the whole time I was reading this book) I began to not like everything that was going on as much. That's why I gave this 4 out of 5 instead of 5 like I would have wanted to.

Like I said on Goodreads:

"But the main character ruined a lot of the story and what it could have been. I see this story being so cool and all but the MC was all over the place with her decisions. Sometimes it just felt like she had two personalities."

Goodreads    

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The Bookish Island
Blog  |  Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Goodreads

The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel by Alyssa Palombo | Book Review #125

The Bookish Island's Book Review:
The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel: A Story of Sleepy Hollow by Alyssa Palombo

Are there spoilers?

No.
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Disclaimer:
This book was sent to me by the publishing company in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel
Author: Alyssa Palombo

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Pages: 416

Publisher: St. Martins Griffin

Published: 2018

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Retelling, Historical, Fiction

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Date Read: October 3 > October 14, 2018

Rating: ★★★★★

When Ichabod Crane arrives in the spooky little village of Sleepy Hollow as the new schoolmaster, Katrina Van Tassel is instantly drawn to him. Through their shared love of books and music, they form a friendship that quickly develops into romance. Ichabod knows that as an itinerant schoolteacher of little social standing, he has nothing to offer the wealthy Katrina – unlike her childhood friend-turned-enemy, Brom Van Brunt, who is the suitor Katrina’s father favors.

But when romance gives way to passion, Ichabod and Katrina embark on a secret love affair, sneaking away into the woods after dark to be together – all while praying they do not catch sight of Sleepy Hollow’s legendary Headless Horseman. That is, until All Hallows’s Eve, when Ichabod suddenly disappears, leaving Katrina alone and in a perilous position.

Enlisting the help of her friend – and rumored witch – Charlotte Jansen, Katrina seeks the truth of Ichabod Crane’s disappearance, investigating the forest around Sleepy Hollow using unconventional – often magical – means. What they find forces Katrina to question everything she once knew, and to wonder if the Headless Horseman is perhaps more than just a story after all. In Alyssa Palombo's The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel nothing is as it seems, and love is a thing even death won't erase.

The Rating:

My Review:

I initially saw this book on Goodreads when they had it up for the giveaway and I quickly applied. And lucky enough I won an arc copy f this book. I just set it aside and in my head, I planed when in October I would read it because I wanted to be in the perfect mood. Since it sounded so good and I also wanted to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Knowing this story was an adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow I decided to read it before this. Though this story is its own completely different thing.

So the time came and I found Sleppy Hollow and read it. But I was slightly disappointed in it. Probably because I found it on Spotify and listened to it. I didn't completely let myself get immersed in it. 

The romance part in this was strange to me but I liked it. I was so worried for Katrina (the main character) during the whole story and I wanted her to be cool and for the most part, she was but just not what I expected when I thought of Sleepy Hollow. There was also magic and tarot so I loved those scenes a bunch. Cause I have tarot cards. 😁

Still, the story was amazing on its own. It had fantasy and bits of spooks, and drama, love triangles, and all that good stuff. So even though I was originally going to give this story 4 stars I ended up changing my mind the more I thought about it all. Now I think I it's 5-star material. 

Goodreads    

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The Bookish Island
Blog  |  Tumblr  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads