2021 Favorites

 Okay, after getting through my December and 2021 Wrap Ups where I had all of my stats, it's time for me to really reflect on what I really enjoyed reading last year. I picked up a lot of new authors and really expanded the genres that I typically read. Mostly because I really got into BookTube and started watching a lot more people. Because of that, I also started doing more with Bookstagram and joining in a lot more readathons and reading challenges. I really have a lot of fun participating and can't wait to see what books I pick up this year!

So for my favorite books I created some brackets (my sports loving heart loves brackets). It's really hard for me to choose, so I thought if I break them up it might make it easier. We'll see what happens. So before we get to the brackets, I do want to go over some other favorites lists. Just as a little note, I have decided to breakdown my books into three genre categories, historical romance, contemporary romance and paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy romance.

Favorite New Authors:

So this was a tough choice, but I am going to pick a couple per my three genre breakdowns. I narrowed it down by looking at how many were added to my want to own list as well as if I've already bought some of their books in paperback. I'm also looking at how many of their books I read (or plan to read). Their names will be linked to a compilation of their book's reviews.

Contemporary: Elsie Silver and Max Monroe

Historical: Donna Fletcher and Kathryn Caskie

Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Grace Draven and Annabelle Rex

Favorite 2021 Releases:

I have read a lot more newer releases this year and thought it might be fun to look at what was new that I picked up right away and absolutely adored! Some of these might be in my brackets below, but I also wanted to highlight them separately in case you are looking for any recent releases as well.

Contemporary: Off to the Races by Elsie Silver & A Bullet Between Us by K. Dosal

Historical: The Wrong Marquess by Vivienne Lorret & Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas

Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross & Tempting Auzed by Victoria Aveline

Favorite Books of 2021:

Okay, so before we get into my brackets I want to mention a couple things. First, I didn't count any of my rereads. I obviously love them enough to do a reread and wanted to focus on new books I read this year. Second, there were a couple months where I didn't read one genre. I just counted it as an extra bonus space. Speaking of, I have several planned bonus spaces. This is to allow for a proper full bracket and also allow me to mix some honorable mentions into the mix. It was hard enough narrowing it down to just one per genre per month. Okay, so I do still have a few honorable mentions as well (that didn't make it from my favorites to the bonus brackets). I'll list those before the bracket. Also if you want to use the brackets, here are the links to the templates in Canva: Contemporary  Historical  Paranormal
If you'd like for me to send you a copy not through Canva, just send me a message on instagram or twitter or something and I can send it to you directly!

Also, I decided to something fun and record me talking through my thoughts and filling out my bracket! I'll post the winning bracket below so you can see how it ended up without watching the video, but please do if you want to listen to me ramble on about books! The first round takes the longest because I go into every book and my feelings about it, but the rest of the round go pretty quickly!

Contemporary:

Honorable Mentions:  A Photo Finish by Elsie Silver, The Devil and I by Kay Alastor, Ruthless Creatures by J.T. Geissinger

Round 1:

Jan vs Oct: Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn vs Unraveling Him by Claire Kingsley

Mar vs Dec: Her Big City Neighbor by Jacki Lau vs The Front Runner by Elsie Silver

May vs Bonus Book 2: Savage Lover by Sophie Lark vs Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland

 July vs Bonus Book 4:  The Rebel by Sophie Lark vs Off the Record by Chelle Sloan

Sept vs Feb: To Hate Adam Connor by Ella Maise vs Trouble With the Guy Next Door by Holly Renee

Nov vs Apr: Off to the Races by Elsie Silver vs Trouble With the Fake Boyfriend by Holly Renee

Bonus Book 1 vs June: Meant to Be by Terri Osburn vs A Bullet Between Us by K. Dosal

Bonus Book 3 vs Aug: Rushing In by Claire Kingsley vs Single Dad Seeks Juliet by Max Monroe

As you have just seen or can see below, the winner was Off to the Races by Elsie Silver! This book just blew me away and started my mini Elsie Silver binge. I've followed her on all the socials and signed up for her newsletter. She has quickly become one of my favorite contemporary authors and I can't wait to read whatever she comes out with next! March we should be getting the fourth book and I can't wait. It was a little tough to decide between Unraveling Him and Off to the Races, but I just had to go with instinct. I loved them both so much though!

Historical:

Honorable Mentions: The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne, Daring Miss Danvers by Vivienne Lorret, Dearest Rogue by Elizabeth Hoyt

Round 1:

Jan vs Oct: Bound to a Warrior by Donna Fletcher vs In Bed with a Highlander by Maya Banks

Mar vs Dec: Return of the Rogue by Donna Fletcher vs Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett

May vs Bonus Book 2: Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas vs How to Seduce a Duke by Kathryn Caskie

July vs Bonus Book 4: The Earl I Ruined by Scarlett Peckham vs My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid

Sept vs Feb: Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase vs Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey

Nov vs Apr: The Husband Trap by Tracy Anne Warren vs Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt

Bonus Book 1 vs June: How to Engage an Earl by Kathryn Caskie vs The Wrong Marquess by Vivienne Lorret

Bonus Book 3 vs Aug: The Highlander's Forbidden Bride by Donna Fletcher vs Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas

And the winner is... The Wrong Marquess by Vivienne Lorret! This was one of  my favorite books of 2021 that was published in 2021 and just further cemented my love of Vivienne Lorret. I was so hyped to start this book leading up to release and it exceeded all expectations. I can't wait for book 4, How to Steal a Scoundrel's Heart. It comes out May 24th and I preordered it as soon as the links went live. I feel like Vivienne Lorret is an underrated author and I can't urge enough people to read her books! Especially her newest series. So good!

Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Fantasy:

Honorable Mentions: Tamed by the Troll by Tracy Lauren, Hades by Alessa Thorn, Saving Verakko by Victoria Aveline

Round 1:

Jan vs Oct: The Sea King by C.L. Wilson vs Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Mar vs Dec: A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole vs Walking in a Witchy Wonderland by Juliette Cross

May vs Bonus Book 2: A Kiss for Solstice by Elizabeth Allyn-Dean vs Medusa by Alessa Thorn

July vs Bonus Book 4: Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross vs Wildest Dreams by Kristen Ashley

Sept vs Feb: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews vs Radiance by Grace Draven

Nov vs Apr: The Undying King by Grace Draven vs The Alien's Ransom by Ella Maven

Bonus Book 1 vs June: Tempting Auzed by Victoria Aveline vs Aubin by Annabelle Rex

Bonus Book 3 vs Aug: A Touch of Stone and Snow by Milla Vane vs Alien Tongues by Chloe Parker

And the winner is... Radiance by Grace Draven. It was a really hard choice, but as I mentioned at the end of my video, if I seperated the subgenres my favorite paranormal would be the runner up Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross and my favorite sci-fi would be Tempting Auzed by Victoria Aveline! Depending on how these genres end up percentage wise of my reading next year, I might separate the brackets. We'll see what happens! I just had to go with Radiance as my overall number one though since Grace Draven was a new author to me and I've gone through most of her backlist at this point.

That is it. We are done. Officially my favorite books are Off to the Races by Elsie Silver, The Wrong Marquessby Vivienne Lorret and Radiance by Grace Draven. Honestly though, you could pick up any of the books I mentioned here today and probably have a good time! I had a lot of fun filming my favorites and filling out my brackets. I definitely want to do more brackets again next year! There was a good mix of authors and books. I was happy that while there were some tougher decisions, it went pretty smoothly overall. If you enjoyed watching me fill out my brackets, let me know! I'm starting to foray into booktube and will be posting an announcement when I'm a little more comfortable and have a few videos posted.

What were your favorites of 2021?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

2021 Wrap Up

 And now, the time has come to wrap up the year of 2021. I have mentioned this before, but I have really enjoyed keeping up with my reviews and statistics. This was the first year that I had really pushed myself to do so and can't wait to see how everything turns out. I will keep my stats in a similar order as my monthly wrap ups, but I have a lot more charts from my data that I'm excited for! Since there's a lot to get through, lets get started!

2021

I read 258 books for a total of 73,301 pages

💗 I averaged 1.03 days per book

💗 The average page count per book was 283.02

💗 I read 32 books under 100 pages, 35 in the 100s,  46 in the 200s, 121 in the 300s, 21 in the 400s and 4 in the 500s. I also had 1 book is DNF'd

💗 130 of the books I read were specifically for clubs and/or readathons

💗 74 of my books were diverse
💗 I read 85 new authors
💗 I reread 21 books

💗 I owned 54 of the books in paperback and added 147 books to my wish-list (of which a number have already been purchased)

💗 I read 50 books in paperback, 204 in eBook, 4 in audiobook and 1 was a web comic

💗 I read 2 books published in the 1970s, 3 book in the 1980s, 12 books in the 1990s, 28 books in the 2000s, 124 books in the 2010s and 90 books in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.36

🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 119 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 117 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 19 books
🍎🍎 - 3 books
DNF - 1 book

💗 63 of the books I read were Contemporary, 28 were Dark, 26 were Fantasy, 87 were Historical, 18 were Paranormal, 11 were Sci-Fi and 6 were Sports Romance. I also read 20 Urban Fantasies.

💗 Usually I would list books read next, but instead I'll link to my monthly wrap ups. If you are looking for something specific feel free to use the tag word cloud in the side bar.

💗 For the last bullet point in my wrap ups, I tend to go over my favorites and disappointments. I'm going into 2022 with as much positivity as possible, so I'll leave the out the disappointments for the year. However, next Tuesday I'm going to be doing a special post for my favorites. I've created three brackets for the year, one of contemporary, one for sci-fi/paranormal/fantasy and one for historical romances. I'll be filling out my brackets and struggling to find my favorite books (it's going to be tough). If you are interested in using brackets yourself, I have them linked with previews on my instagram. When my favorites post goes up, there will be links to the brackets.

I am so proud of myself that I stuck with this blog for a full year and have stayed caught up on reviewing every book I've read. I'm really happy to have found a lot of new authors and loved looking at all my stats. It'll be even more interesting when I can compare them to this year's stats and see how my reading tastes evolve! I also had a lot of fun participating in a lot more readathons and enjoyed the challenges I participated in that made me stretch outside my normal reads. I picked up mafia and dark romance for the first time, which is crazy! I also got a lot more into fantasy romance over paranormal and was surprised to see how little I read of one my go-to genres. Or at least it was a go-to.

I hope you had a great reading year as well and are looking forward to what's to come. Most of my wrap up for the year have been posted, but we still have my favorites of 2021. I'm planning on posting it next Wednesday the 12th and will have something a little different! Stay tuned for that!

How was your reading last year?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

December 2021 Wrap Up

Surprisingly my December reads was higher than I expected. I was stressing out about getting presents made, but I wasn't as bad as I thought. I was able to get some good reading after Christmas and pack in a few reads that last week! I had a lot of fun participating in the few readathons that happened and am really looking forward to digging into Winter's Kiss this next couple months. I feel like I'm going to go crazy the next couple weeks and only read. I usually ramble a little bit more before getting to my stats, but we have a lot of wrapping up to do this week, so let's get through December!

December 2021

19 books read for 4,578 pages

💗 I averaged 0.84 book per day
💗 The average page count per book was 240.95
💗 I read 4 books under 100 pages, 1 in the 100s, 8 in the 200s, 5 in the 300s and 1 in the 400s
💗 9 of the books I read specifically for clubs and/or readathons

💗 6 of my books had diversity

💗 I read 5 new authors
💗 I reread 2 books

💗 I previously owned 9 of the books in paperback and added 7 to my wish-list

💗 I read 9 books in paperback and 10 in eBook

💗 I read 14 books published in the 2010s and 5 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.47
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 11 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 6 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 2 books

💗 5 of the books I read were historical, 5 were contemporary, 2 were paranormal and 2 were sports romances. I also read 5 urban fantasy.

1. Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

2. Magic Steals by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

3. Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

4. Tempting Mr. Weatherstone by Vivienne Lorret 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

5. Daring Miss Danvers by Vivienne Lorret 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

6. Prequel to Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

7. Kate & Curran Texts, Dabwaha by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

8. My American Duchess by Eloisa James 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

9. Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

10. Loving the Mountain Man by Adriana Anders 🍎🍎🍎🍎

11. The Front Runner by Elsie Silver 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

12. One Naughty Christmas Night by Janet Berry 🍎🍎🍎

13. Mister Hockey by Lia Riley 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

14. Head Coach by Lia Riley 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

15. All I Want For Christmas Is A Cowboy by Jessica Clare 🍎🍎🍎🍎

16. Pleasures of Christmas Past by Lexi Post 🍎🍎🍎

17. Walking in a Witchy Wonderland by Juliette Cross 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

18. Dear Ava by Ilsa Madden-Mills 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

19. Broken Miles by Claire Kingsley 🍎🍎🍎🍎

💗 I had a pretty good reading month, especially with the Historical Romance Readathon. I read a lot of great historicals that really hit the spot. It's a little hard to pick a favorite of the month, but I think I'd have to go with The Front Runner and Any Rogue Will Do. They both just blew me away and I can't wait to read more from both authors! I also really loved finally get to Walking in a Witchy Wonderland and it just increased my excitement for Always Practice Safe Hex. My most disappointing is probably my 3-star read, One Naughty Christmas Night. I didn't expect too much going in, but it still didn't quite hit all the notes I was needing.

I can't wait to see how the stats look for the whole year. Look for that to be posted on Wednesday! I'm super intrigued to see what my stats end up looking like for the year and how things break down. 2021 was the first year I went really nerd with my reading and I'm so intrigued to look at all the stats! Also keep an eye out for Quarter 1 releases on Friday and my 2021 Favorites next Tuesday. I created some brackets to help me decide per genre and am looking forward to filling them out!

How did your reading go in December?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Charts: Decades, Genres, Pages, Ratings

November 2021 Wrap Up

 So we come to December. I can't believe we're almost done with 2021 and my first full year of blogging. I am so proud and happy that I decided to start this blog and have actually kept up on it. I have some ideas to change things up slightly for next year and am really enjoying being able to write about the books I read. I'll address those changes come the new year. Anyways, November was a slower month for me, but that was expected. I was able to wrap up the 2nd board of Fall in Love which was fun and ended the month with the Black FaRoFriday Readathon. I was able to find a couple more new authors to add to my tbr and keep track of and still find it crazy that there's so many authors I've come to love this year. Before I keep going and end up going over my yearly review early, let's get to it. Here are my stats for November 2021!

November 2021

18 books read for 4,531 pages

💗 I averaged 1 day per book
💗 The average page count per book was 251.72
💗 I read 5 books under 100 pages, 3 in the 100s, 7 in the 300s and 3 in the 400s
💗 4 of the books I read specifically for clubs and/or readathons

💗 5 of my books were diverse

💗 I read 4 new authors
💗 I reread 1 book

💗 I owned 2 of the books in paperback and added 14 to my wish-list

💗 I read 1 books in paperback and 17 in eBook

💗 I read 1 book published in the 1990s, 1 in the 2000s, 11 in the 2010s and 5 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.56
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 11 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 6 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 1 books

💗 2 of the books I read were historical, 6 were contemporary, 2 were fantasy and 1 was sports romance. I also read 7 urban fantasy.

1. Rushing In by Claire Kingsley 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

2. Off to the Races by Elsie Silver 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

3. Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

4. Magic Tests by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

5. Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

6. Magic Gifts by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

7. Out of the Gates by Elsie Silver 🍎🍎🍎🍎

8. A Photo Finish by Elsie Silver 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

9. Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

10. The Boss Who Stole Christmas by Jana Aston 🍎🍎🍎

11. The Wedding by Julie Garwood 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

12. Chasing Her Fire by Claire Kingsley 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

13. The Husband Trap by Tracy Anne Warren 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

14. Wildest Dreams by Kristen Ashley 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

15. The Undying King by Grace Draven 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

16. Retribution Clause by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

17. Kate and Curran Texts, The Wilson Building by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

18. An Ill-Advised Rescue by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

💗 I had another great reading month. Even though I didn't read as much, I feel like most of what I read was highly rated. It's hard to pick a favorite this month, but I think I have to go with Elsie Silver. I am obsessed with her books and can't wait for The Front Runner to come out Dec 4. I'll definitely be trying to squeeze it in before the Historical Romance Readathon starts. As for most disappointing, that would have to go to my only 3-star, The Boss Who Stole Christmas. It just didn't give me what I expected and wanted from a Christmas novella.

I can't wait to see what books I end up finishing the year with and have a couple books that I definitely want to try to get to. I'll try to get to more holiday themed romances thanks to the Winter's Kiss challenge. I'm also looking forward to another historical romance binge with the readathon happening next week. Thankfully it's early enough in the month that I should be able to get a few books read that week. I have a lot of crafting for gifts to get done (I got a little behind) and also have over 30 Hallmark Christmas movies on my DVR to watch. The Colorado Avalanche's schedule also picks up a lot this month too. My stats will probably be in a similar vein with less books read, but I'm hoping it'll be a lot of really good books again. We'll see what happens!

How was your reading in November?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Charts: Decades, Genres, Pages, Ratings

October 2021 Wrap Up

 Happy November! I can't believe we're already to November and I only have two more months to get my reading done for the year! I've been percolating some new ideas for the blog next year and how I might change things up slightly, but we'll see what I decide to do come January. Things are still a little slowed down for me, but thanks to a lot of Halloween and spooky novellas my reading looks a little higher than I expected. I am a couple projects behind on my Christmas makes, but I try to make the more intensive projects first and save the easier patterns for last. Hopefully I can get caught up more this month.

There were a couple readathons this month as well as the continuation of Fall in Love and Bang in the Night Bingo. I'm not sure how many readathons or challenges I'll participate in for the rest of the year, but we'll see what gets announced. I know that Melissa mentioned in the discord for Bang in the Night that they were thinking of doing a shorter holiday readathon with a smaller board. But back to October. As before, stats are below. Books are listed in order read!

October 2021

22 books read for 4,885 pages

💗 I averaged 0.86 days per book
💗 The average page count per book was 222.05
💗 I read 7 books under 100 pages, 6 books in the 100s, 1 book in the 200s, 4 books in the 300s and 4 books in the 400s
💗 19 of the books I read specifically for clubs and/or readathons

💗 6 of my books were diverse

💗 I read 12 new authors
💗 I didn't reread any books

💗 I owned 3 of the books in paperback, added 8 to my wishlist and already bought 2 in paperback

💗 I read 3 books in paperback and 19 in eBook

💗 3 books were published in the 2000s, 12 in the 2010s, and 7 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.18
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 6 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 14 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 2 books

💗 1 of the books was historical, 7 were contemporary, 4 were fantasy, 2 were paranormal, 1 was sci-fi and 2 were dark - all romance. I also read 5 urban fantasies.

1. Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

2. Magic Mourns by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

3. Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

4. Curran POV by Gordon Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

5. Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

6. In Bed with a Highlander by Maya Banks 🍎🍎🍎🍎

7. Riding His Broomstick by Shaw Hart 🍎🍎🍎🍎

8. Pumpkin Everything by Beth Labonte 🍎🍎🍎

9. Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

10. Tamed by the Troll by Tracy Lauren 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

11. The Devil and I by Kay Alastor 🍎🍎🍎🍎

12. The King of Hel by Grace Draven 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

13. Crazy, Sexy, Ghoulish by G.G. Andrew 🍎🍎🍎🍎

14. Protecting You by Claire Kingsley 🍎🍎🍎🍎

15. Fighting for Us by Claire Kingsley 🍎🍎🍎🍎

16. Unraveling Him by Claire Kingsley 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

17. Gothikana by RuNyx 🍎🍎🍎🍎

18. Jack by Layla Fae 🍎🍎🍎🍎

19. Wicked Captor by Zoey Draven 🍎🍎🍎🍎

20. Bite Me, Your Grace by Brooklyn Ann 🍎🍎🍎

21. Hot as Hades by Alisha Rai 🍎🍎🍎🍎

22. Green-Eyed Monster by Elsie Winters 🍎🍎🍎🍎

💗 I had a lot of really good books and got a pretty good mix of genres. With Christmas coming up soon and my mood shifting to wanting more cozy reads. Getting back to Claire Kingsley was such a nice treat and one of my favorite books of the year is hands down Unraveling Him. It was so freaking good. Definitely my favorite book of the month. I also really enjoyed reading more in the Kate Daniels series and am really loving the readalong. Such a great idea for the longer running series. As for most disappointing read, it is 100% Pumpkin Everything. I was looking so forward to it and it just let me down. If you've read my review, I got a little ranty.

I'm excited to see where my mood takes me in the coming months. I'm certainly feeling contemporary right now after reading the Claire Kingsley. I'm hoping to finish the second board for Fall in Love this month, I should be able to. I know I won't be pushing for the third board, even if I end up with extra time. I'm excited to see what other books I discover the rest of the year!

How was your reading in October?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Charts: Decades, Genres, Pages, Ratings

End of Year Book Tag

Time for another book tag! I first saw this one thanks to Crystal from Crystal's Bookish Life! She's one of my favorite booktubers to watch and has the cutest dog Cosmo. Definitely check her out if you haven't yet! Now, despite the name, this is a book tag focusing on your plans for the rest of the year and not a wrap up tag. Let's do the thing!

1. Are there any books you started this year you need to finish?
Outside of what I'm currently reading, nope. I'm pretty good at finishing what I start. I mean at this point I have only one DNF and I don't plan on picking it up again.

2. Do you have a autumnal book to transition to the end of the year?
Not really. I do tend to read more paranormal this time of year. Although, this kind of goes with fall, but I tend to read more hockey (and other fall sports) romances late summer and fall. Mostly because I'm getting hyped for hockey coming back. This year I didn't really pick up many, but I kind of want to reread at least Mister Hockey by Lia Riley.

3. Is there a new release you're still waiting for?
I mean, I have a quite a list of preorders that are supposed to come out later this month. I do have a couple books I'm keeping my eyes for November and December as well. Most are mentioned in my Mid-Year Freak Out Tag. The ones that aren't are mentioned are Walking in a Witchy Wonderland by Juliette Cross (out Tuesday!) and The Lady Gets Lucky by Joanna Shupe (out 10/26 & look at that gorgeous cover). Also recently announced was The Wit and Wisdom of Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, but it's more of an official guide.

4. Three books you want to read before the end of the year?
Well, outside of any new releases, this was harder to narrow down to just three. I think if I look at my backlists or more current reads... First is Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade. It's been on my tbr forever and I have the paperback copy. The second book comes out in late Ocotber, so I should finally get to, especially with the hype having lowered lately. Two, I want to get to Marriage for One by Ella Maise. I really enjoyed reading her recently and have heard good things about it. I also need to finally start Molly Harper's Mystic Bayou series; the first book is How to Date a Dragon.

5. Is there a book you think could still shock you and become a favorite of the year?
Sure. I still have a lot of reading left in the year and can't wait! Outside of new releases that might blow me away, I'm always looking to add a new author and/or series. In the past couple months I've already found several new contemporary authors and their books are definitely in the running for my favorites of the year.

6. Reading plans for next year?
So I don't usually plan too much into the future outside of book club books (if they happen to be announced early). I do know that the Kate Daniels readalong is currently planned to finish the series in February and start the spin-off Aurelia Ryder in March. Outside of that, just any new releases I know that are coming out that I'm super excited for. I do have a list of ideas for tweaks to how I'm doing reviews on here and with my book tracking. When we get closer to the end of the year and I firm up what changes I'll be making, I'll post the updates!

I had a lot of fun thinking about what's to come. This was also a shorter book tag with more precise questions I feel like. I definitely didn't get quite as rambly as I tend too. I can't wait to see what new books I find and how things end up. A little possible teaser, I'm thinking for my yearly wrap up of doing a bracket style competition to find my favorite books. I know for sure I'll be separating out historicals and doing a separate bracket there, but I'll have to see how my stats end up looking. If you also do the End of Year Book Tag, let me know so I can check it out!

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

September 2021 Wrap Up

 Happy October! I can't believe we are into October and it's really starting to feel like fall. This is my favorite time of year and I am so excited. We have football back (Go Broncos!), hockey comes back soon (Go Aves Go!), the general merriment of people is higher with impending holidays and good cheer and I love the cooler weather! So, September was a slower month for me. Things picked up later in the month-ish, but I just needed a little bit of break. I ended up not picking up a book for the first 8 days. My reading will start to taper as we hit the end of the year since I'll have more games to watch and need to get moving on crafting Christmas presents. Hopefully I can still get to at least 10-15 books a month. If me reading really starts to taper, I'll probably start posting every other day instead of daily, but we'll see what happens! Thankfully I really outdid myself in August so I didn't get too behind with posts last month.

I have several readathons planned and ongoing through the month. Last month I had the start of Fall in Love and Bang in the Night Bingo. Today starts the weekend of Love in the Night Readathon Round 3 and also just announced is the Paranormal Romance Readathon. I'll have my tbr posted for that tomorrow!

As always stats are below. Books are listed in ordered read. Let's get to it!

September 2021

15 books read for 4,319 pages

💗 I averaged 1.47 days per book
💗 The average page count per book was 287.93
💗 I read 3 books under 100 pages, 3 in the 200s, 7 in the 300s and 2 in the 400s
💗 6 of the books I read were for clubs or readathons

💗 1 of my books were diverse

💗 I read 9 new authors
💗 I reread 1 book

💗 I owned 7 of the books in paperback and added 6 to my wishlist

💗 I read 6 books in eBook, 7 in paperback and 2 in audiobook

💗 I read 1 book published in 1990s, 5 in the 2000s, 7 in the 2010s, and 4 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.33
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 6 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 8 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 1 book

💗 7 books were contemporary, 2 books were historical, and 3 books were paranormal romance. I also read 3 urban fantasy.

1. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase 🍎🍎🍎🍎

2. Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

3. Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

4. A Questionable Client by Ilona Andrews 🍎🍎🍎🍎

5. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

6. The Duplicate Bride by Ginny Baird 🍎🍎🍎🍎

7. To Love Jason Thorn by Ella Maise 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

8. Something About Emmaline by Elizabeth Boyle 🍎🍎🍎🍎

9. To Hate Adam Connor by Ella Maise 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

10. Yes & I Love You by Roni Loren 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

11. Her Halloween Treat by Tiffany Reisz 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

12. How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper 🍎🍎🍎🍎

13. Remembering a Witch by Lauren Connolly 🍎🍎🍎🍎

14. Forgotten Storm by A.R. Vagnetti 🍎🍎🍎🍎

15. Pumpkin Pounder by Laura Lovely 🍎🍎🍎

~ Curran POV Part 1 by Gordon Andrews

💗 I had a lot of really good reads this month even though I didn't have many. I absolutely adored Ali Hazelwood's debut novel and am so excited to finally start Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels series. I also really loved Ella Maise's Love & Hate duet. My least favorite read would have to be Something About Emmaline, but I did enjoy it better than the previous book I read by Elizabeth Boyle. I don't know if she's quite redeemed, but we'll see if I end up picking up another one of her books.

I'm super excited to continue the Kate Daniels readalong this month and also for a couple book club books! I'm also excited to get to more paranormal with the spoopy vibes and can't wait to start getting to some more cozy and winter vibes as well. I keep saying it, but I love this time of year and can't wait. I am so ready for hot tea/sweater weather. I'm excited to see how well I end up doing on the various readathons and challenges I'm participating in. Hopefully I can get some good reads in. I feel like this month I did a good job picking up books I knew I was in the mood for and would like. Also almost everything was in paperback and I also had a lot of new authors. Hopefully I can continue reading more new authors throughout the end of the year!

How did your reading go last month?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Charts: Decades, Genres, Pages, Stars

August 2021 Wrap Up

 Happy September! I don't know about you, but I am beyond ready for fall. They had the pumpkin spice creamer back in the stores last Friday and I of course had to get a bottle. I may have already had several cups of pumpkin spice coffee... But anyways, back to books. I was able to get through a lot this month and this has been my best of the year! I was able to finish the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo as well as Boards 2 and 3 of the Summer of Soon! [link will be added once the 3rd wrap up is posted.]

Most of my reading came towards the end of the month once I was really able to get out of my slump. I tried to participate in the Dark Romance Readathon, but only ended up with one book for that. That's okay though since I didn't want to get back into that funky mood where I'm not quite in a full blown slump. I was also pretty varied this month and ended up reading a lot of contemporary, which isn't a genre I'm drawn too usually. A lot of the challenges I've been participating in though have prompts that are usually easier met with contemporary, so that is a big part of it. Also, I started following several readers that mainly stick with contemporary to help curate my selections there. I've also continued my trend of reading a lot of newer releases. As always, my stats are listed below followed by the list of books I read in order read. The links will be to the corresponding review and I'll update as they are posted!

August 2021

31 books read for 8,929 pages

💗 I averaged 0.58 days per book
💗 The average page count book was 288.03
💗 I read 4 books under 100 pages, 3 in the 100s, 5 in the 200s, 18 in the 300s and 1 in the 500s
💗 4 of the books I read were for clubs or readathons

💗 10 of my books were diverse

💗 I read 5 new authors
💗 I reread 5 books

💗 I owned 10 of the books in paperback and added 14 to my wishlist

💗 I read 21 books in eBook and 10 in paperback

💗 The decades broken down with 1 in the 1990s, 5 in the 2000s, 11 in the 2010s, and 14 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.19
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 10 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 18 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 2 books
🍎🍎 - 1 books

💗 17 books were contemporary, 3 were dark, 1 was fantasy, 9 were historical and 1 was sci-fi. All were romance!

1. The Spy by Sophie Lark 🍎🍎🍎🍎

2. Wrong Car, Wright Guy by Megan Wade 🍎🍎🍎🍎

3. Deep, Deep Donuts by Megan Wade 🍎🍎🍎🍎

4. Meant to Be by Teri Osburn 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

5. Up to the Challenge by Teri Osburn 🍎🍎🍎🍎

6. Single Dad Seeks Juliet by Max Monroe 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

7. Hot Stuff by Max Monroe 🍎🍎🍎🍎

8. Grumpy Cowboy by Max Monroe 🍎🍎🍎🍎

9. Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

10. Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

11. Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

12. Run Posy Run by Cate C. Wells 🍎🍎🍎🍎

13. Written On His Skin by Simone Stark 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

14. Going Cowboy Crazy by Katie Lane 🍎🍎🍎🍎

15. Ain't Myth-Behaving by Katie MacAlister 🍎🍎🍎🍎

16. How to Seduce a Duke by Kathryn Caskie 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

17. How to Engage an Earl by Kathryn Caskie 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

18. How to Propose to a Prince by Kathryn Caskie 🍎🍎🍎🍎

19. Rocky Waters by C.M. Steele 🍎🍎

20. Hot Water by Fern Fraser 🍎🍎🍎

21. Alien Tongues by Chloe Parker 🍎🍎🍎🍎

22. Twisted Love by Ana Huang 🍎🍎🍎🍎

23. Ravished by Amanda Quick 🍎🍎🍎🍎

24. Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips 🍎🍎🍎

25. The Ultimate Pi Day Party by Jackie Lau 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

26. Ice Cream Lover by Jackie Lau 🍎🍎🍎🍎

27. Man Vs. Durian by Jackie Lau 🍎🍎🍎🍎

28. The Governess Game by Tessa Dare 🍎🍎🍎🍎

29. The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare 🍎🍎🍎🍎

30. Live and Let Grow by Penny Reid 🍎🍎🍎🍎

31. Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

💗 It's a little hard to pick my favorites this month since I was pretty varied in my subgenres. For historical it has to be Kathryn Caskie. While the Lisa Kleypas books were amazing, it was as expected. Kathryn Caskie is a new author to me and I'm so happy to find a new historical author to read. I can't wait to get through the rest of her backlist! I also found a couple new contemporary authors, Max Monroe and Teri Osburn. I really loved Single Dad Seeks Juliet and almost want to reread it already. As for disappointment, there are two that stick out. I was really let down by Rocky Waters. The premise sounded so good but it was too short and just written really oddly. Then there's Kiss An Angel and that fact that I was triggered for the first time. Just a perfect storm that really messed with my head. I'm glad I was able to binge Jackie Lau to get me out of my head.

Things might start calming down in September. Today starts the autumn reading challenge Fall In Love. I'm sure we'll see another round of the Paranormal Romance Readathon and/or the Love in the Night Readathon since we are getting closer to spooky season. I don't know if there's anything else planned at this point. I do need to start buckling down on getting some Christmas presents made, but I might try looking for some audiobooks. I kept checking this month if there were audiobooks for what I wanted to read on my apps, but no luck. I could join a service, but since I'm not 100% into them yet, I wanted to stick to the free options available via my library. I also found a new marvel podcast called The Abingers so that's been my jam lately. I've been wanting to rewatch the MCU and want to do that paired with the podcast. I tend to watch a lot of tv and youtube when I craft, but we'll see what happens! Especially with football coming back as well as hockey (preseason starts later this month)!

How was your reading last month?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Charts: Decades, Genres, Pages, Stars

July Wrap Up

 I can't believe we're already at August and the Olympics are almost over. July was a weird reading month for me as I kept jumping around trying not to hit a book slump. Also with the Olympics, I usually start my Christmas crafting in July and I did more crafting while watching than reading. I felt like I was reading a lot slower and a lot less, but my stats aren't as low as I expected.

There weren't really any readathons this month, just the end of the Historical Romance Readathon. I was also able to make some good progress for Summer of Swoon and the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo. I can still that if I read the wrong thing I could get back into a book slump, but hopefully I can continue to stave it off. As always, my stats are listed below. Books are listed in order read. Also, I'm not sure on the page count for Tempting Auzed, so I went off what the page count was on my computer based e-reader program. Once the amazon listing is updated with page count, I'll update stats if need be. Also, I read a lot of newer books this month. Mostly because I went on a couple binges of dark/mafia romance and most of those were released in the past couple years.

July 2021

22 books read for 7,261 pages

💗 I averaged 2.05 days per book
💗 The average page count per book is 330.50
💗 The page ranges I read were 1 in the 100s, 5 in the 200s, 11 in the 300s, 3 in the 400s and 2 in the 500s.
💗 4 of the books read were for clubs or readathons

💗 11 of my books were diverse

💗 I read 6 new authors

💗 I own 7 of the books in paperback and added 12 to my wishlist

💗 I read 14 books in eBook, 6 in paperback, 1 web comic and 1 in audiobook

💗 The decades I read were 1 in the 2000s, 8 in the 2010s and 13 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.50
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 13 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 7 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 2 books

💗 4 books were contemporary, 8 were dark, 1 was fantasy, 6 were historical, 1 was paranormal, 1 was sci-fi and 1 was sports. All were romance!

1. Olivia and the Masked Duke by Grace Callaway🍎🍎🍎🍎

2. The Earl I Ruined by Scarlett Peckham 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

3. The Rogue of Fifth Avenue by Joanna Shupe 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

4. Carnal Urges by JT Geissinger 🍎🍎🍎🍎

5. Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

6. Her Pretend Christmas Date by Jackie Lau 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

7. The Virgin Sex Queen by Angela Verdenius 🍎🍎🍎

8. Tempting Auzed by Victoria Aveline 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

9. The Daring Twin by Donna Fletcher 🍎🍎🍎🍎

10. Witches Get Stitches by Juliette Cross 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

11. Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

12. Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

13. Blindsided by Amy Daws 🍎🍎🍎🍎

14. Ruthless Stranger by Maggie Cole 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

15. Broken Fighter by Maggie Cole 🍎🍎🍎🍎

16. Overruled by Emma Chase 🍎🍎🍎

17. Ivan by Sophie Lark 🍎🍎🍎🍎

18. Snow by Sophie Lark 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

19. The Heir by Sophie Lark 🍎🍎🍎🍎

20. The Rebel by Sophie Lark 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

21. The Remarried Empress by Alphatart & Sumpul 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

22. The Bully by Sophie Lark 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

💗 I was a little all over the place this month and had more 3-star reviews than normal. I also read quite a few new releases that I loved. It's hard to pick my favorite of the month, but I think it'd be either Witches Get Stitches or Tempting Auzed. Both are the next installments for a couple of my favorite newer series and I'm always ready to pick up the next book! My most disappointing would be The Daring Twin and Overruled. Donna Fletcher is usually a comfort read for me, but I knew at some point she'd have a book that would miss a little bit for me, I just wasn't expecting to be that one. As for my take on Overruled, just read the review. There was a lot that frustrated me about the book, although I will try Emma Chase again. Another fun note, The Heir was my 150th book of the year and officially ended my goodreads challenge!

I have a few plans for August. There's another weekend readathon that I'll do a tbr for later this week, so stay tuned for that. I also have my usual couple of book club books. I also need to finish both the Summer of Swoon and Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo challenges. Hopefully I can really beat this reading slump back and get back into a good reading state of mind. It's fine if I don't read everyday, but I also usually need to read at least a little bit before bed to really settle. Sometimes though it's hard to find the right book to meet my mood.

How did your reading go last month?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

charts: decades, genres, pages, stars