September Wrap Up

 Happy October!

I can't believe we are already in the last quarter of 2022! I'm not ready for the year to end yet and haven't gotten to near as many books as I was hoping. My reading has definitely slowed down, and I'm sure that will only get worse as we get closer to the holidays and I start using more of my free time to work on Christmas gifts. But otherwise, let's just jump into my stats for September!

September 2022

💗 I read 12 books for 3, 685 pages

💗 I averaged 1.42 days per book
💗 The average page count was 307.08
💗 I read 3 books under 99 pages or less, 2 in the 100s, 1 in the 200s, 3 in the 300s, 1 in the 400s, 1 in the 600s and 1 in the 700s

💗 I read 3 books for clubs and readalongs
💗 5 of the books I read have diversity
💗 I read 6 new authors
💗 I reread 1 book

💗 I owned 3 of the books in paperback and added 4 to my wishlist
💗 I read 3 paperbacks, 8 eBooks and 1 audiobook
💗 I read 4 traditionally published books, 7 indie published and 1 small published
💗 I read 1 book published in the 1990s, 5 in the 2010s and 6 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.08 stars
5 - 4 books
4.5 - 1 book
4 - 3 books
3.5 - 1 book
3 - 3 books

💗 I read 6 contemporary, 3 fantasy, 1 historical, 1 paranormal and 1 sci-fi romance
💗 My contemporary breakdown was 1 dark romance, 1 holiday, 1 small town and 3 normal

1. Ruby Fever by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Win a Date with a Cowboy by Kate Tilney ⭐⭐⭐

3. Dating Your Best Friend's Brother by Lana Dash ⭐⭐⭐💫

4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5. In the Arms of an Android by Tracy Lauren ⭐⭐⭐⭐

6. Foreplay on Words by EL Koslo ⭐⭐⭐

7. Flirty Wolf by Aidy Award ⭐⭐⭐

8. Surrender by Amanda Quick ⭐⭐⭐⭐

9. Gold Rush by Jenny Bunting ⭐⭐⭐⭐

10. The Sight of You by Ashley Mack ⭐⭐⭐⭐

11. Halloween Boo by Sarah Spade ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

12. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💗 It's a hard choice choosing a favorite, but it has to be either Ruby Fever, A Court of Wings and Ruin or Halloween Boo. All of them just exceeded my expectations and were fun reads. A fairly easier choice for my least favorite book of the month is most definitely Foreplay on Words. I just hated that so much of the book was dealing with BDSM but it wasn't mentioned in the blurb.

Like I mentioned before, we'll see how much reading I can actually get to the rest of fall and the year. I am hoping to at least be able to finish Bang in the Night and two of the Fall in Love boards. I also have the Love in the Night readathon coming up soon so I should be able to get some reading done during then. We'll see what happens!

How was your reading in September?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

August 2022 Wrap Up

 Better late than never right! We are here, mid-September to wrap up the books I read in August. There's been a lot of life stuff going on so I have myself a couple week break, but now it's time to get caught back up! August started out really well with the Romance Takeover Readathon, but then my reading certainly took a dip and things got closer to the end of the month. I was at least able to finish the first bingo board for Summer of Swoon though!

August 2022

💗 I read 13 books for 3,907 pages

💗 I average 1.15 days per book
💗 The average page count was 300.54
💗 I read 3 books in the 100s, 4 in the 200s, 5 in the 300s, and 1 in the 600s

💗 I read 8 books for clubs, readathons and readalongs
💗 4 books had diversity of some kind
💗 I read 5 new authors
💗 I didn't reread any books

💗 I owned 5 books in paperback previously and added 4 to my wishlist
💗 I read 5 books in paperback and 8 in eBook
💗 I read 7 traditionally published books, 3 small published and 3 indie published
💗 I read 2 books published in the 1990s, 1 in the 2000s, 6 in the 2010s and 4 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.15 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 4 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 2 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 4 books
⭐⭐⭐ - 3 books

💗  I read 3 historicals, 3 fantasies, 3 paranormals and 5 contemporary romances
💗 My contemporary breakdown was 1 new adult, 2 rom-coms, 1 sports and 1 normal

1. Walking in Fire by Cathryn Cade ⭐⭐⭐

2. Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood ⭐⭐⭐⭐

3. Never Sweeter by Charlotte Stein ⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Gaslight Hades by Grace Draven ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

5. Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

6. A Captivating Touch by Elsa Winckler ⭐⭐⭐

7. Second Star to the Left by Megan Van Dyke ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. Whispers on the Wind by Donna Fletcher ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

9. Proof by Seduction by Courtney Milan ⭐⭐⭐

10. Her Unexpected Roommate by Jackie Lau ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

11. Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter ⭐⭐⭐⭐

12. The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries ⭐⭐⭐⭐

13. Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💗 It's a hard choice for this month on my favorite, but I think Second Star to the Left just edges out Empire of Storms. My expectations weren't as high for it and it completely blew me away. My most disappointing would be A Captivating Touch. I just really struggled reading that one.

We'll see what September brings, but so far my reading is still a little slow. Hopefully it'll pick back up near the end of the month, but we'll see what I end up getting done. We've got the start of the 2nd annual Bang in the Night starting soon as well as halfway through the first month of Fall in Love.

How was your reading in August?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

July Wrap Up

 Happy August!

We are moving right along through 2022. I fee like I was a little more on par with my reading in July and did pretty good. I read a few amazing books and some that weren't as much. Things personally are still pretty up in the air, but I'm running out of time and hopefully things end up working out for the best. It's starting to get pretty stressful though. Anyways, there wasn't too much that happened outside of my first readathon that I hosted, my Hockey Champions Readathon! I thought I did pretty good during it and hopefully if you participated also had some fun!

July 2022

💗 I read 18 books for 5,201 pages

💗 I averaged 0.83 days per book
💗 The average page count was 288.94
💗 I read 3 books under 100 pages, 5 in the 200s, 7 in the 300s, 2 in the 400s and 1 in the 600s

💗 I read 7 books for clubs, readathons and readalongs
💗 5 books had diversity
💗 I read 7 new authors
💗 I had 1 reread

💗 I owned 7 books in paperback previously and added 4 to my wishlist
💗 I read 5 paperbacks, 10 eBooks, 2 audiobooks and 1 paperback with the audio
💗 I read 8 traditionally published books and 10 indie published
💗 I read 1 book published in the 1810s, 1 in the 2000s, 8 in the 2010s and 8 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.39 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 8 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 2 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 4 books
⭐⭐⭐💫 - 4 books

💗 I read 9 contemporaries, 6 fantasies and 3 historical romances
💗 My contemporary spread was 1 dark, 1 romcom, 2 small towns, 3 sports and 2 normals

1. Bright Like Wildfire by Juliette Cross ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3. Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. A Misunderstanding by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐

5. Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

6. Pay Me by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

7. The Cool Aunt by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. Persuasion by Jane Austen ⭐⭐⭐⭐

9. Pipe Dreams by Sarina Bowen ⭐⭐⭐💫

10. My Hallowe'en Heartbreak by Melanie Ting ⭐⭐⭐⭐

11. Offside by Juliana Stone ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

12. The Lady Chosen by Stephanie Laurens ⭐⭐⭐💫

13. Flawless by Elsie Silver ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

14. Raze by Tillie Cole ⭐⭐⭐💫

15. How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton ⭐⭐⭐⭐

16. Her Favorite Rebound by Jackie Lau ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

17. Love at First Fight by Carrie Aarons ⭐⭐⭐💫

18. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💗 So, my least favorite this month would probably be Pipe Dreams. It just really didn't give me the grovel or discussion I was wanting. My favorite is harder to choose, but it has to be either Emerald Blaze or A Court of Mist and Fury. It's hard to choose between those two, but I also really enjoyed Flawless.

There's a lot going on in August, including the currently running Romance Take Over Readathon. I'll also be working to finish up the first and second bingo boards for the Summer of Swoon and the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo. We'll see how much I can get through though.

How was your July reading?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

June Wrap Up

 Happy July!

I can't believe we're already half-way through the year. June was a roller coaster of a month for me, both personally and reading wise. We had some things happen with the world and politically that are just really disheartening and disappointing. I started in a really great reading zone and had quite a few good reads already under my belt by the middle of the month. My reading really slowed down after then, but there's been a lot going on with family and suddenly having to find a new place. In happier news though...

🎆🎆THE AVALANCHE WON THE STANLEY CUP!!! 🎆🎆

That's right, my boys, my team won the cup and it was such a fun run. I've already been joking with my boss that I won't know what to do with my free time since it's been all hockey for the last 9 1/2 months. But, we have the draft coming up soon and then off-season starts the 13th. It won't be as constant, but there'll be news and things happening over the summer for sure.

Back to reading though, I read a lot of really good books this month. I'm having fun in the summer reading challenges I've started and the readalongs I'm participating in. I also was able to successfully wrap up the Taylor Swift Quarterly Challenge earlier in the month! Okay, enough rambling from me. Let's get to the good stuff.

June 2022

💗 I read 15 books for 4,350 pages

💗 I averaged 1.07 days per book
💗 The average page count is 290.00
💗 I read 1 book under 100 pages, 4 in the 100s, 2 in the 200s, 7 in the 300s and 1 in the 600s

💗 I read 4 books for readathons, clubs and readalongs
💗 4 books I read had diversity
💗 I read 2 new authors
💗 I didn't reread any books

💗 I previously owned 8 books and added 6 to my wishlist
💗 I read 8 books in paperback and 7 in eBook
💗 I read 8 books traditionally published and 7 from indie authors
💗 I read 1 book published in the 2000s, 5 in the 2010s and 9 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating is 4.60
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 8 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 2 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 5 books

💗 I read 5 contemporaries, 5 fantasies, 3 historicals, 1 paranormal and 1 sci-fi romances
💗 My contemporary breakdown was 1 normal, 2 rom-coms, 1 sports and 1 holiday

1. Tall Dork and Handsome by Allie York ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Let's Geek It On by Allie York ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

3. Walking in a Geeky Wonderland ⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Dukes Do It Better by Bethany Bennett ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5. Always Practice Safe Hex by Juliette Cross ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

6. How to Steal a Scoundrel's Heart by Vivienne Lorret ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

7. Wildfire by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

9. A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman ⭐⭐⭐⭐

10. Rookie Move by Sarina Bowen ⭐⭐⭐⭐

11. Space Junk by Sara L Hudson ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

12. Master of Crows by Grace Draven ⭐⭐⭐⭐

13. Overlord by Anna Hackett ⭐⭐⭐⭐

14. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

15. The Assassin and the Desert by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💗 As you can tell from my rating stats, I had a lot of really great books this month. It's really hard to tell which one is my favorite of them, but I just was really great overall. If I had to pick a most disappointing book, it would probably be Walking in a Geeky Wonderland. It just felt a little disjointed compared to the earlier books in the series, but check out my review if you want to know more about why.

We'll see what July brings. I'm pretty excited for the next books in my Hidden Legacy and SJM readalongs. I'm not sure if there will be any summer readathons starting. I have a lot that will be going on though, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be getting to too much extra reading. At least with the hockey season over for now I should theoretically have more time I can allocate to reading.

How was your reading in June?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

May Wrap Up

 Happy June!

There was a lot that happened in May and my reading has kind of sat at my new lesser normal reading rate. I was hoping to get more reading done, especially with the wrap of Love Has Sprung as well as the latest rounds of the Mafia Romance and Historical Romance Readathons. Alas, I got a little slumpy and needed to take a break from reading as much to help with my mental and emotional health. I don't have too much else to say, so let's get on to my stats and the books I read.

May 2022

💗 I read 16 books for 5,114 pages

💗 I averaged 1.19 days per book
💗 The average page count is 319.63
💗  I read 3 books in the 100 page range, 4 in the 200s, 6 in the 300s, 2 in the 400s and 1 in the 500s

💗 I read 7 books for clubs, readathons and readalongs
💗  6 books I read have diversity
💗 I read 6 new authors
💗  I reread 1 book

💗 I previously owned 6 books in paperback and added 6 to my wishlist
💗  I read 5 books in paperback, 10 eBooks and 1 book I read and listened to audio at the same time
💗  I had an even split with 8 books published traditionally and indie each
💗 I read 1 book published in the 2000s, 7 in the 2010s and 8 in the 2020s

💗 The average rating is 4.47 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 8 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 2 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 4 books
⭐⭐⭐💫 - 1 book
⭐⭐⭐ - 1 book

💗 I read 8 contemporaries, 4 fantasy and 4 historical romances
💗 My contemporary breakdown is 2 dark, 4 romcom, 1 small town and 1 normal

1. Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Savage Hearts by JT Geissinger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3. A Kiss of Venom by Beena Khan ⭐⭐⭐💫

4. How to Abduct a Highland Lord by Karen Hawkins ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

5. Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron by Julia Quinn & Violet Charles ⭐⭐⭐⭐

6. The Marquess Makes His Move by Diana Quincy ⭐⭐⭐

7. Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. White Hot by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

9. Fool's Gold by Jenny Bunting ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

10. Wife by Wednesday by Catherine Bybee ⭐⭐⭐⭐

11. All Geek to Me by Allie York ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

12. Talk Nerdy to Me by Allie York ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

13. Rules for a Proper Governess by Jennifer Ashley ⭐⭐⭐⭐

14. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

15. Stumbling Into Him by Molly O'Hare ⭐⭐⭐⭐

16. I Touch My Shelf by Allie York ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💗 It's hard to choose a favorite since half of my books this month were 5-stars. I loved being able to get back to some great Sarah J Maas fantasy and starting the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. I have to say though, the new authors I'm now obsessed with, Jenny Bunting and Allie York. My most disappointing read would probably be A Kiss of Venom, but mostly because it didn't meet the expectations I had from reading the blurb.

Hopefully my reading will pick up in June a little more. My readalongs and bookclubs are continuing. Plus we also get the start of the new rounds of Summer of Swoon and The Ripped Bodice's Summer Bingo {tbr coming soon}! There's a lot of personal stuff going on though, so we'll see what happens.

How was your May reading?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

April 2022 Wrap Up

 Happy May!

We are finally getting some rain here in northern Colorado and we have needed it. I don't think I've ever seen so many fire warnings and limitations on outdoor activities in the month of April in my life. It's just been so crazy how dry the snow and early spring has been. But you aren't hear for the local weather, so let's talk books. I've once again had a slower month compared to years past, but it was a little bit of a tick up for this year. I just have more that I'm doing. I did participate in the Dark Romance Readathon again and managed to get two books this time! But let's get to all of my stats for the month.

April 2022

💗 I read 13 books for 3,817 pages

💗 I averaged 1.15 days per book
💗 The average page count is 293.62
💗 I read 2 books under 100 pages, 1 in the 100s, 3 in the 200s, 3 in the 300s, 3 in the 400s and 1 in the 500s

💗 I read 8 books for clubs, readalongs and readathons
💗 7 of the books I read were diverse
💗 I read 3 new authors
💗 I reread 2  books

💗 I previously owned 3 books, added 5 to my wishlist and bought one in paperback already!
💗 I read 3 books in paperback and 10 in eBook
💗 I read 6 traditionally published books and 7 indie published
💗 I read 1 book published in 1990s, 8 in the 2010s and 4 in the 2020s

💗 The average rating is 4.38 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 3 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 5 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 4 books
⭐⭐⭐💫 - 1 book

💗 I read 7 contemporaries, 4 fantasies and 1 historical romance. I also read 1 urban fantasy.
💗 For contemporaries, I read 2 dark, 1 rom-com, 1 small town, 1 sports and 2 normal romances.

1. Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Parks and Provocation by Juliette Cross ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3. Written on His Skin by Simone Stark ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Learning Curves by Molly O'Hare ⭐⭐⭐⭐

5. Hollywood Dreams by Molly O'Hare ⭐⭐⭐💫

6. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

7. The Assassin and the Pirate Lord by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. Untouchable by Sam Mariano ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

9. The Devil and I by Kay Alastor ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

10. Topaz by Beverly Jenkins ⭐⭐⭐⭐

11. Hard Hitter by Sarina Bowen ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

12. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐

13. The Assassin and the Healer by Sarah J Maas ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

💗 For my favorite and least favorite this month, it's a pretty easy choice for my. My favorite is hands down Blood Heir. I can't wait to read more from Ilona Andrews and for what they are going to write in the future. My least favorite is my lowest rated, Hollywood Dreams. Enemies to lovers is harder sell for me so for me to really enjoy that trope it really has to knock it out of the ballpark.

There are a lot of reading plans I have coming up in May. We have the Mafia Romance Readathon shortly followed by the Historical Romance Readathon. Outside of my normal bookclubs I also have the continuation of the SJM-along and the Ilona Andrews readalong. Hopefully I'll be able to wrap up the Love Has Sprung first and 2nd bingo boards as well. We'll see what happens!

How was your reading in April?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

March 2022 Wrap Up

Happy April!

Happy Spring!

With all of my March reading plans, things didn't go so well. I got quite a bit slumpy and didn't read near as much as I both wanted and planned. That's okay though. I've learned to just roll with it and not try to force myself to read more than I want. While it's weird in the slump to not be enjoying reading or even just wanting to at all, I at least have enough other interests that I don't end up feeling completely adrift. Well, there's not too much, so let's get into it!

March 2022

💗 I read 10 books for 3,066 pages

💗 I averaged 1.50 days per book
💗 The average page count is 306.60
💗 I read 1 book under 100 pages, 1 book in the 200s and 8 in 300s

💗 I read 2 books for clubs
💗 I read 5 books with diversity
💗 I picked up 2 new authors
💗 I reread 1 book

💗 I previously owned 4 of the books and added 5 to my wishlist
💗 I read 2 books in paperback, 7 in eBook and 1 audiobook
💗 I read 2 books that were published traditionally and 8 that were indie published
💗 I read 1 book published in the 2000s, 7 in the 2010s and 2 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating is 4.5
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 6 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 1 book
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 1 book
⭐⭐⭐💫 - 1 book
⭐⭐⭐- 1 book

💗 I read 2 historical romances, 2 urban fantasies, 1 paranormal romance and 5 contemporary romances.
💗 For contemporaries I read 1 small-town and 4 normal.

1. The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. The Opposite of You by Rachel Higginson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3. The Difference Between Us by Rachel Higginson ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

4. The Problem with Him by Rachel Higginson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5. The Something About Her by Rachel Higginson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

6. The Proposal by Mary Balogh ⭐⭐⭐💫

7. A False Start by Elsie Silver ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. Burn by Suzanne Wright ⭐⭐⭐

9. The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

10. The King of Fire by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐

💗 This is a hard choice since most of the books I read this month were really good, but I think my favorite would have to be The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate. I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did and it's been a little bit since I've read not just a paranormal romance, but a werewolf one! My lease favorite would be my lowest rated, Burn by Suzanne Wright. I just had a lot of issues with the hero character.

So far I've read a couple books for April and it seems like my reading will be picking up. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make better progress for both the Love Has Sprung and Taylor Swift reading challenges. I also am starting another readalong which will be an author that's highly popular and has been on my tbr for a while, but still haven't picked up. I'm excited for that so stay tuned!

How was you reading in March?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

February 2022 Wrap Up

 Happy March! I can't believe we're already two months into 2022! It goes so quickly.

Let's be honest. I had a lot of plans for February and I didn't get nearly as much reading done as I was wanting and planning. We had the Olympics, a lot of hockey make-up games, Celebrity Big Brother and my boss got me into Married at First Sight. Yeah, that's a lot of tv time for me. Especially lately it's usually just a couple of shows and hockey, but not lately. We saw FaRoFeb throughout the month plus I wrapped up Winter's Kiss. My wrap ups for those should be posted next week. My stats aren't too bad though because I crammed in a lot of novellas to finish the month strong! Well, let's get into it!

February 2022

💗 19 books read for 4,928 pages

💗 I averaged 0.63 days per book
💗 The average page count was 259.37
💗 I read 2 books less than 100 pages, 6 books in the 100s, 1 book in the 200s, 8 books in the 300s and 2 books in the 400s

💗 I read 10 books for clubs and/or readathons
💗 8 of my books were diverse
💗 I picked up 8 new authors
💗 I reread 1 book

💗 I previously owned 1 of the books in paperback and added 16 to my wish-list
💗 I read 1 book in paperback and 18 in eBook
💗 4 books were published traditionally, 1 was from small publishers and 14 were indie published
💗 1 book was published in the 1990s, 2 in the 2000s, 11 in the 2010s, and 5 in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.39
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 6 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 5 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 7 books
⭐⭐⭐ - 1 books

💗 I read 2 urban fantasies. For romance I read 8 contemporaries, 6 fantasies, 2 historicals and 1 sci-fi.
💗 For my contemporaries, 5 were straight contemporaries, 2 were rom-coms, and 1 was small-town.

1. One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halle ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

3. Warsworn by Elizabeth Vaughan ⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Annie's Song by Catherine Anderson ⭐⭐⭐⭐

5. Broken Chains by Demelza Carlton ⭐⭐⭐

6. Enthralling the Orc by Tracy Lauren ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

7. Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

9. Teased by Fire by Molly O'Hare ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

10. Teased by Tinsel by Molly O'Hare ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

11. The Beast of Clan Kincaid by Lily Blackwood ⭐⭐⭐⭐

12. Warrior's Regret by November Dawn ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

13. Sunday's Child by Grace Draven ⭐⭐⭐⭐

14. Kraev by Sonia Nova ⭐⭐⭐⭐

15. Beard Science by Penny Reid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

16. A Very Beery New Year by Jackie Lau ⭐⭐⭐⭐

17. A Match Made for Thanksgiving by Jackie Lau ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

18. A Second Chance Road Trip for Christmas by Jackie Lau ⭐⭐⭐⭐

19. Level Up by Cathy Yardley ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

💗 I feel like I was a little all over the place this month with ratings, although most of it was 4 or 4.5-stars. It's hard to choose a favorite, but I really enjoyed the ending of Kate Daniels and happy I chose to reread Beard Science. It just really hit what I needed at the time. My least favorite is my only 3-star book, Broken Chains. It just didn't quite meet my expectations was a struggle for me to get into.

I can't wait to see what happens next month and hope that I get a little more time to pick up some reading. I'm kind of feeling the more contemporary route at this point, so I have a lot of ideas of books I want to read in that realm. I do want to try to pick up at least a couple of each subgenre though to keep things mixed up! We'll see what happens! I'm also excited to start the new seasonal reading challenge Love Has Sprung!

How was your reading during February?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

January 2022 Wrap Up

 Happy February!

I can't believe we're already to February. How quickly time flies. To start off the year my reading was a little slower, but I feel like the books I picked up were a little higher rated, so I was able to start the years with some great books! I went on another contemporary binge and also had the Romance Takeover Readathon over a weekend and managed to finish the first board of Winter's Kiss. I didn't get too many, but let's get going on my stats!

January 2022

💗 15 books read for 4,568 pages

💗 I averaged 0.667 days per book
💗 The average page count was 304.53
💗 I read 1 book less than 100 pages, 1 in the 100s, 2 in the 200s and 11 in the 300s

💗 I read 3 books for clubs and/or readathons
💗 5 of my books had diversity
💗 I picked up 5 new authors
💗 I didn't reread any books

💗 I previously owned 2 of the books and added 9 to my wish-list
💗 I read 2 books in paperback and 13 in eBook
💗 5 books were published traditionally, 2 were with small publishers and 8 were indie published
💗 10 books were published in the 2010s and 5 were in the 2020s

💗 My average rating was 4.63
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 10 books
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - 1 book
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 2 books
⭐⭐⭐💫 - 2 books

💗 I read 3 urban fantasies. I also read 4 historical, 1 paranormal, 1 sci-fi and 6 contemporary romances.
💗 Of the contemporaries, 1 was rom-com, 2 were small town, 2 were sports and 1 was straight contemporary.

1. Forbidden Miles by Claire Kingsley ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Reckless Miles by Claire Kingsley ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3. Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Magic Stars by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5. Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

6. Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas ⭐⭐⭐💫

7. Using Fejo by Victoria Aveline ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

8. Calling It by Jen Doyle ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

9. Falling Like Stars by Eve Kasey ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

10. Nice Werewolves Don't Bite Vampires by Molly Harper ⭐⭐⭐⭐

11. Dancing with the Duke by Suzanna Medeiros ⭐⭐⭐💫

12. Pairing Off by Elizabeth Harmon ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

13. Taming Hollywood's Baddest Boy by Max Monroe ⭐⭐⭐⭐

14. West End Earl by Bethany Bennett ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

15. Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💗 I had a lot of really great books this month and absolutely loved most of the books I read. It's hard to pick a favorite and already I know that there will be some tough choices when it comes to my favorites of the year! I think the most disappointing was Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas. I had another 3.5-star rating this month as well, but I wasn't expecting as much from it. Not that there weren't parts I adored about Ravishing the Heiress. It just didn't give me the happy payoff I needed for how angsty it was.

I can't wait to really start digging into my February reads, particularly my fantasy romance picks for FaRoFeb. I think I'm not going to do charts for my monthly wrap ups this year, but let me know if you miss them and I can put together some monthly spreads!

How was your reading for the start of 2022?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Heaving Bosoms Reading Embrace 2022

 It's here, the 2022 Heaving Bosoms Reading Embrace! I am a fan of the Heaving Bosoms podcast and love trying to find books that fit the prompts that are jokes from their show! It's hosted by Erin and Melody and they usually have me cracking up. They have great banter between them and I love listening to them as a pick me up. I posted the embrace I did in 2021, so check out my embrace for more ideas.

They go super simple. It's 20 prompts and you can fill them out however you want. They usually do a podcast episode on January reading through everyone that submitted their embrace and it's lots of fun. I remember a couple years ago somebody just did the Mummy and had crazy fun explanations on how it fit each of the prompts. It's not super strict and you can get as creative as you want to meet each prompt. If you haven't tried doing a readathon or reading challenge before, I think this one is a great option since it's only 20 prompts and you have all year to finish it! If you want to learn more, check out their website for more information. They also have a printable pdf of the prompts. Usually in their facebook group there's also a link to a google sheet that's another option to submit your embrace when done (it's what I usually do).

Okay, let's do this! Below are the 20 prompts. As I read throughout the year I'll fill in prompts where I can. When there's only a couple left that are more oddball I'll pick up a book specifically for that. This isn't quite a tbr post, but I'll put some quick fire ideas I have below.

1) Keep Being a Badass

2) Lady Love

3) HB Author

4) Bonkers Romance

5) Scientists in 2022

6) Chekov's Grandma

7) Catch My Farts

8) A Light Kidnap

9) Jimmi Simpson's Robot Adventure

10) Prelude to a Wet Hump

11) St. Vincent Would Always

12) Englandtimes Highlander Vegas

13) Stay Golden Horny Girl

14) Doing 1920s Laundry

15) Forest Bed

16) Murder Robe

17) Ancient Egyptian Glory Hole

18) Pool Floaty Fart Sounds

19) Jazz Bagpipes

20) Funny Joke Dancing

🤗 For HB author I'll probably be using Victoria Aveline once again. I found her thanks to the Facebook group and her next book in the Clecanian series comes out today (January 12th)!

🤗 I feel like reading some sci-fi alien and cyborg romance will cover quite a few prompts. I know that Stay Horny Golden Girl came from an alien romance review, so that would work nicely. It would also easily cover Bonkers Romance and probably Scientists in 2022. If I go with a cyborg sci-fi, that would work nicely for Jimmi Simpson's Robot Adventure.

🤗 For the Ancient Egyptian Glory Hole, I remember there was a trope Tuesday post on instagram that was romances to read if you loved The Mummy. I know there's been a couple other historical romances that have been said to have adventure themes and Indiana Jones vibes. I will definitely need to try to find those posts. I know I added a lot of the books to my tbr on goodreads, but I think it'll be quicker to find the instagram post and see what books were rec'd.

🤗 For Scientists in 2022, my first though was Ali Hazelwood. She wrote The Love Hypothesis last year and has her next book out tentatively this year. She also has three shorter books that are also set in STEM fields.

🤗 For St. Vincent Would Always, I think I'll just pick up a Lisa Kleypas. St. Vincent is the hero from Devil in Winter. I do have the prequel book in the Wallflowers series to read still, but I think I'm going to use any Lisa Kleypas to cover this.

🤗 My last quick idea is to pick up some highlander books for the prompts Englandtimes Highlander Vegas or Jazz Bagpipes. I could also go for a contemporary set in Scotland or with a Scottish main character. I know that Karen Marie Moning has some time traveling highlanders in her Highlander series, so I might finally pick that up.

I hope those quickfire ideas helped jogged your brain in coming up with some ideas, but I'm excited to see how I'm going to fill all these prompts. I hope you are participating as well, even if you don't listen to the podcast! Everyone can get embraced for their reading this way!

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

2022 - January, February & March Releases

 Happy Friday!

This is the first time I'm doing a post like this, but I wanted to share some books that I'm excited for that are to be released soon. I have started following more Independent authors though, and they tend to not announce until right before release. There will be a mix of books I have pre-ordered or that are on my radar. I'll go ahead and list them out in per month and then by date. Just a little disclaimer, these are always subject to change. Heck, there's already been three changes to books I have preordered since I've just started writing down ideas a couple weeks ago. Okay, let's get into it!

January 2022

📚 Jan 1: Digging Up Love by Chandra Blumberg [Book 1 in the Taste of Love series]

📚 Jan 12: Using Fejo by Victoria Aveline [Book 5 in the Clecanian series]

📚 Jan 25: The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis [Book 1 in the Sunrise Cove series]
Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon [Book 2 in the Ice Planet Barbarians (this is a recover and traditional publication of her series that was independently published previously)]
Munro by Kresley Cole [Book 18 in the Immortals After Dark series]
A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass
Bound to Fall by Pamela Clare [Book 10 in the Colorado High Country series]

📚 Jan 27: Twisted Hate by Ana Huang [Book 3 in her Twisted series]

February 2022

📚 Feb 1: Broken Chains by Demelza Carlton [Book 1 of the Heart of Stone series]

📚 Feb 8: Not the Witch You Wed by April Asher

📚 Feb 15: Fated Blades by Ilona Andrews [Book 3 in the Kinsmen series (this is the paperback release; the eBook was published last year)]
The Player Hater by Sara Ney [Book 1 in the Accidentally in Love series]

March 2022

📚 March 1: Big Duke Energy Anthology [Book 1 in the Season of Sin Anthology Collection]
A Brush With Love by Mazey Eddings

📚 March 8: Crowbones by Anne Bishop [Book 8 in The Others series]
If You Ask Me by Libby Hubscher

📚 March 15: Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma [Book 1 in the If Shakespeare was an Auntie series]
Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend by Penny Reid [standalone]

📚 March 29: A Relentless Rake by Anna Harrington [Book 4 in the Lords of the Armory series]
How to Be a Wallflower by Eloisa James [Book 1 in the Woud-Be Wallflowers series]
The Dragon's Bride by Katee Robert [Book 1 in A Deal With A Demon series]
Beauty and the Baller by Ilsa Madden-Mills

📚 TBD: Book 4 in Elsie Silver's Gold Rush Ranch series

Hoo boy, there's a lot of books I'm interested in that are coming out. Especially in March. I don't know how quickly I'll get to a lot of these after release, but there's a lot I'm excited for. There's a couple I need to get caught up in the series before reading. I didn't feel like I had that many, but when I typed them all out in a list, it's a lot. Hopefully we won't see too many release date changes.

Are there any books coming out in the first quarter that you are looking forward to reading?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

2022 Updates!

 Happy New Year!

I hope you had a great end of the year for 2021 and many wonderful things come to you in 2022. Before we start getting into my reading wrap ups for December and 2021, I wanted to do a little update for things that I'll be changing in 2022.

First off, scheduling. This can be in flux, but I am going to stick to wrap ups, tbrs and other info dump posts going up on Tuesday and Thursdays. If I start to get backed up on reviews, I might also post them on the weekends. At the very least this will keep reviews for MWF. Not since I have a lot of wrap up stuff, the reviews will be slimmer this week, but next week we'll get back to my new schedule. I tend to read a lot more in late winter and spring, so it might change slightly, but I'm going to try to go with that moving forward.

As for posts, I mainly want to keep this blog for reviews and my readathon wrap ups. I've thought about moving to instagram or using reels or something, but I just like being able to write my thoughts down. It really helps me with my reviews and it's something that's more accessible for me at this point. However, I am going to try to do more book tags. Maybe one every other month or so, but I mainly want to use them for when I slow down a little. I also want to look at doing new release posts for each quarter. I have been more aware this past year of newer releases and am hoping to stay more on top of new releases where I'm caught up. I thought about starting to do ARCs, but I read so much now and have so many backlists I'd like to get through, I don't know if I want to start doing ARC reviews, but we'll see what happens. If you didn't know, ARC stands for Advanced Reader Copy and usually sent out before release for reviews.

As for my ratings, I started using 1/2 stars at times throughout the year and am officially going to use 1/2-stars moving forward. I'm not sure how I'll be doing my apples, maybe the green will count as a half star? I guess when I get to my first 1/2-star review I'll have to figure it out. Also changing in my statistics area is genres. Last year I had dark and sports and contemporary all separate. This year I'm going to put everything under contemporary. Then I'll do a secondary breakdown of the contemporaries I read. I'll be able to adjust as we go, but right now I have the sub-sub-genres as Dark, New Adult, Rom-Com, Small Town and Sports. I am also going to be tracking how books are published. I have three options, traditional, small publisher and independent. I think the extra breakdown in these stats will be fun and I'm looking forward to see how it looks each month and over the year.

For now that's the most obvious changes. If there's anything you have thoughts about or want me to extrapolate on, let me know! I have updated my google form that I use to track my books and made a copy for you to use if you'd like. I love using it because I can get all the responses in google sheets and play with it from there. If you'd like to see my stats list just let me know and I can pass along a copy of it as well! For a little layout, I have a screenshot of my Stats page (yes I have every month and genre color coded)!

I'm really excited to see how the changes will work this year and how the extra data I'm going to collect will factor in to my reading enjoyment. Just a little sneak peek for what's coming over the next couple weeks: I plan on posting my December 2021 Wrap Up, 2021 Wrap Up, 2022 Quarter 1 releases and 2021 favorites. I'm sure the 2022 Heaving Bosoms' Reading Embrace list will be up soon, so there'll probably be a tbr/idea list posted for that later this month. We also have the Romance Take Over Readathon happening in over the weekend of the 14th so I'll have my tbr for that up later this week as well!

Are you changing your reading tracking this year?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎