Saturday, March 17, 2018

St. Patrick's Day Book Tag!

Hello everyone! How is your March going? Mine is going pretty great. I'm currently reading three books and I'm hoping to finish them very soon. I'm on spring break as I write this so hopefully I'll be able to finish all of them before the end of break and then some! I was pretty lucky to have daylight savings time at the beginning of spring break and St. Patrick's Day at the end of it. Let's go ahead and jump into this post! 

I was thinking of tag ideas for March and I decided to look for a St. Patrick's Day one. I figured that someone had to have made one and I was correct! The original tag was created by Emily of Embuhlee liest and Shivii of Brown Eyed Musings in 2016. 

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End of the Rainbow: What book did you have a hard time tracking down a copy of?
This edition of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. She is my favorite author of all time and I am an avid collector of her books and different editions. The series went through a gorgeous cover change and only the first editions of the first book have this cover.This edition is extremely hard to come by--just trying to find a place to buy it is hard and then I don't feel like paying $60 for it. Finally I found it from a Goodwill for pretty cheap and snatched it up!

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Pot of gold: When you found that book, was it worth the quest?
Definitely. My SJM collection is expanding and I'm so happy to have this on my shelf next to all the others!

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Celebrating a rich heritage: Name a book that contains a well-developed culture.
I think I have to go with Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. It's about an entire group of people with their own culture inside of the real world. I don't think I need to give much more information than that. 

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Shamrock Shakes: what's your favorite food to snack on while reading.
Homemade chex mix. I don't get it very often now that I'm at college but I absolutely love it. When I think of my favorite food in general, my mind always goes to chex mix. It's a pretty easy snacking food for when I'm reading as well. I hopefully will be able to make some very soon!

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Four leaf clover: Name a book you thought would be 'just another generic book', but turned out to be something great.
For this one I'd have to go with Caraval by Stephanie Garber. I thought it would be a good book but I figured that the hype was probably going to be just that: hype. But then I read it and was blown away. 

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Irish whiskey: What's your favorite tradition of St. Patty's Day?
I actually don't have a tradition. I'm usually babysitting or just watching Netflix. I can't drink and I don't party often so I don't really have a St. Patrick's Day tradition.

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Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren

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Sunday, March 11, 2018

Reverse Harem Guide Pt 3: Popular Authors + More Resources

Hello everyone! We are finally back to a new "Guide to Reverse Harem" post and, sadly, it must come to an end. This will be my final post in this guide series and I'm hoping that it will allow you all to get all the resources that you need to discover more about this subgenre!

First I'm going to start with some popular authors in the genre and then move into a few resources that you can use! There are dozens of RH authors that are amazing, but I'm going to talk about a few super popular ones! 

I'm not going to go super in depth with talking about popular authors. If you want to know more, you can look up their Goodreads profiles or their author profiles on Amazon. I haven't read books from all of them, but the ones I have read from have been awesome!

So, in no particular order...some popular/awesome RH authors:
  • C.L. Stone (author of The Ghost Bird and The Scarab Beetle series)
  • Rebecca Royce (author of multiple series including The Last Hope)
  • Lyn Forester (author of multiple books such as House of Glass)
  • AJ Anders (author of The Souja Guild series)
  • B.L. Brunnemer (author of the Veil Diaries and Books of Stone series)
  • LA Kirk (author of multiple books and contributed to the Falling for Them anthologies)
  • Cece Rose (author of books such as The Demon's Blade)
  • Lane Whitt (author of the My Pack series)
  • Jaymin Eve (author of multiple books including the co-authored series Curse of the Gods)
  • Jane Washington (author of multiple books including the Curse of the Gods and Seraph Black series)
  • Nikki Bolvair (author of the Faith series + more)
  • Autumn Reed (co-author of The Stardust Series)
  • Kristy Cunning (author of Four Psychos series)
  • A.S. Oren (author of the Spearwood series)
I have only a couple resources for you guys! One is a readers group on Facebook. It has almost 6,000 members and is how I got all of my knowledge about RH when I was first starting out. The other resource I have is a RH shelf on Goodreads! You can find lesser-known authors and books on both of these sites! 

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Thanks for reading! I hope this was at least somewhat helpful!

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Follow this blog by clicking "Follow" on the right hand column! Add me to your Google+ Circles on the left hand column! New content every month from Reviews to Hauls to Tags! Don't forget to check out all the other parts of this blog by following the different links at the top of the page! 

Follow my Instagram here. Giveaway at 1k followers!

Get 10% off of HD Movie Codes (sponsored by Movies Anywhere) when you use "INFLUENCER" at checkout! *I do not receive commission from HD Movie Codes--I just want to save you some $*

Get 10% off your first order, plus 50 rewards points, when you use this link to purchase a personal aromatherapy diffuser from Monq

Get 10% off your first order on A Court of Candles when you use this link.

Subscribe to Owlcrate using this link and get a discount off your first box using AVIREADS

Get free worldwide shipping with Book Depository using my affiliate link

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Saturday, March 3, 2018

February 2018 Book Haul!

Hello everyone! February has drawn to a close and I'm actually surprised that I only got 4 books this month. I'm pretty proud of that. I mean, I also bought myself a super fancy camera that I'd been saving for for a while, but I'm pretty proud. Now, March will probably be a bigger book haul simply because of a bunch of awesome releases and I have a gift card. In fact, as I write this, I've already gotten three books. Without further ado, let's just go ahead and get into this rather short haul.

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First things first, I picked up Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.
I've had my eye on this book for a few years now and finally decided to get it after finding the hardcover used for $3. It's a fantasy novel about dragons and that's about all I know, but that's all I really needed to know for me to want it. I hope to get around to reading it soon.

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The second book I picked up was Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
I've had this book on my wishlist for years as well, but I just never went and bought it. I finally caved after one of my friends in college kept pushing me to get it and read it since it's his favorite author. It really doesn't take much to convince me to buy a book tbh.

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The last physical book I picked up was Blood and Sand by C.W. Vyk.
I've had my eye on this book since before it's release and I'm so excited to have it in my hands. I can't wait to read it. It's about gladiators and the Roman republic and I can't wait to read it. I've heard nothing but great things about it.

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The lone eBook that I picked up this month was Unconventional: A Reverse Harem Love Story by Rebecca Royce.
I had preordered this cause it just sounded good and I'm pretty excited to read it when I get a chance. It seems like it will be a cute, short RH read. I also have read Rebecca Royce's novels before and really enjoyed them. In fact, check out my author spotlight and interview with her :)

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Thanks for reading! Here's to all the good releases coming up in March!
xoxo
Lauren

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Follow this blog by clicking "Follow" on the right hand column! Add me to your Google+ Circles on the left hand column! New content every month from Reviews to Hauls to Tags! Don't forget to check out all the other parts of this blog by following the different links at the top of the page! 

Follow my Instagram here. Giveaway at 1k followers!

Get 10% off of HD Movie Codes (sponsored by Movies Anywhere) when you use "INFLUENCER" at checkout! *I do not receive commission from HD Movie Codes--I just want to save you some $*

Get 10% off your first order, plus 50 rewards points, when you use this link to purchase a personal aromatherapy diffuser from Monq

Get 10% off your first order on A Court of Candles when you use this link.

Subscribe to Owlcrate using this link and get a discount off your first box using AVIREADS

Get free worldwide shipping with Book Depository using my affiliate link

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

February 2018 Wrap-Up

Hello everyone! Wow, another month of 2018 is already gone and passed by us. Time sure is flying by! I had an okay reading month. I'm behind on my reading challenge, but I've been reading more these past few months than last semester, so I guess I should just be happy about that. I'm assuming that if I got my butt off of Netflix whenever I have free time, I'd have been able to read more. But Vampire Diaries is addictive, so we'll see. 

Anyway, I read 6 books this month and I loved them all. It was the same amount as in January, but I had a lot of 2-3.5 star reads last month. However, this month every single books I rated higher than 4 stars. I'm honestly so happy with the books I read and I'm really excited for March's books. Let's go ahead and jump in! 


BOOKS READ
1.
Title: Nevernight
Author: Jay Kristoff
Rating: 4.75/5 stars
Review: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2018/02/lets-talk-nevernight-by-jay-kristoff.html

2. 
Title: Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Author: Becky Albertalli
Rating: 5/5 stars

3. 
Title: Ash Princess
Author: Laura Sebastian
Rating: 4/5 stars
Review: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2018/02/lets-talk-ash-princess-by-laura.html

4. 
Title: Ryan's Bed
Author: Tijan
Rating: 4.75/5 stars

5. 
Title: Nowhere but Here
Author: Katie McGarry
Rating: 5/5 stars
As this was a reread, I'm going to say some more words on top of my review from 2016. I really enjoyed revisiting this book. I love this series, even if some of the rules of the MC are annoying as crap. Anyway, it gave me a lot of happy, nostalgic feels and I'm glad that I randomly reread it. 

6. 
Title: Whispers from the Dead
Author: B.L. Brunnemer 
Rating: 5/5 stars
It was such fun rereading this book. One day I sat down and had the urge to revisit these characters, but I didn't have a lot of time, so I ended up rereading this shorter installment. It was fun and also heartbreaking to reread this one, as this is one of them that really got to me. It also just made me that much more excited about the next book.


BLOG POSTS
January 2018 Wrap-Up
Let's Talk: "Nevernight" by Jay Kristoff Book Review
Let's Talk: "Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli Book Review
TBR Shame Tag
Let's Talk: "Ash Princess" by Laura Sebastian Book Review
Let's Talk: "Ryan's Bed" by Tijan Book Review


TV/MOVIES
One of my friends' favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption and I finally watched it after a few years of him raving about it. Let's just say that I loved it! I was iffy in the beginning but by the end of the movie I had loved it and I know that I'll definitely watch it again sometime in the future. 

I also rewatched Season 1 of The Vampire Diaries. It's my goal this year to rewatch everything I've already seen and then finish the series. I'm doing well as I've already watched a season and a half in a month. Let's just say I really love Damon and Stefan and I can't wait for Klaus to appear. 


EVENTS
February was a great month. Below are a few events/things that happened that I'm excited about. I'm not going to go into too much detail but just know that they were exciting.

I hit 20,000 blog views! I got 10k in just a couple months, which is insane for me because I more than tripled grew my audience for the past 5 months compared to the years before now. 

We had our winter formal at the Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier, Chicago. It was a beautiful venue and they had great appetizers. My friends and I went and it was really fun to just dance and dress up and hang out. 

I also had my first water polo practice. It was a little embarrassing but I know that I can only go upwards from here. Considering I've never played actual water polo before, I did better than I expected but not as good as I would have liked at my first practice.

And, finally, I bought a camera I've been wanting. I'm particularly proud of this because not only have I been wanting this camera for three or so years, but I also paid for it all on my own. I've never bought my own camera, or own phone, or anything before so it was real rewarding to be able to say that I bought this on my own.

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Thanks for reading! Here's to a fantastic March!
xoxo
Lauren

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Follow this blog by clicking "Follow" on the right hand column! Add me to your Google+ Circles on the left hand column! New content every month from Reviews to Hauls to Tags! Don't forget to check out all the other parts of this blog by following the different links at the top of the page! 

Follow my Instagram here. Giveaway at 1k followers!

Get 10% off of HD Movie Codes (sponsored by Movies Anywhere) when you use "INFLUENCER" at checkout! *I do not receive commission from HD Movie Codes--I just want to save you some $*

Get 10% off your first order, plus 50 rewards points, when you use this link to purchase a personal aromatherapy diffuser from Monq

Get 10% off your first order on A Court of Candles when you use this link.

Subscribe to Owlcrate using this link and get a discount off your first box using AVIREADS

Get free worldwide shipping with Book Depository using my affiliate link

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