1/5 ⭐️ you can tell it‘s based on Dahmer. All-around strange.

4/5 ⭐️
I enjoyed this sequel much more than the first! It even had me a little teary at one point (chapter 21). I bought the beautiful physical copy with the green pages (I liked the color blue of the first book better). An easy and fast read. This was non-stop fun adventure!

3/5 ⭐️. Some things that made me smile but I‘m a bit older now, so I definitely would have found it funnier back in middle/high school (I read one of them back then.) I will say sometimes Georgia is not a very nice friend lol. My favorite lines were about wet Lindsay.

3/5 ⭐️. A fun and quirky read. The premise I enjoyed: falling into the stories you read and becoming them, but there was a twist near the end I wasn‘t expecting! There were a few serious and sad moments amongst the mostly silly happenings. I thought the comic book part was extra fun!

This is how I pictured Rafi. (Rasha from Degrassi played by actress Dalia Yegavian)

4/5 ⭐️ This was a really fun read-behind the eyes of Rafi, a teenage stalker. It was like a young female version of “You.”

Using my cute lil cereal bowl bookmark for this one! 🥣🥛 what‘s your favorite cereal? Mine is Fruit Loops 😊

3.5/5 ⭐️. I found the stories fascinating but sad and disturbing. Makes me thankful for my childhood.

Gorgeous pages!

Pretty cover

3/5⭐️ the physical copy of the book is beautiful! I didn‘t love it like I thought it would. Still a fun book though and reads fast.

The actual publication of my specific copy pissed me off. Mine is a 2010 Bantam Books Trade Paperback Edition. I hit page 784, went to read the next page and realized I had pages missing. So I thumbed through and found that for the rest of the book, 30 freaking pages worth, was all jumbled and mixed together. I had to keep flipping back and forth. There was some high-tier drama during these pages and it was pretty dampened with this annoyance!

5/5 ⭐️.
I laughed, I bawled, I gasped. My heart would swell then be crushed. This series feels like home to me. The last 200 pages were extra great-full of shocking drama!

4/5 ⭐️. I cried, I squawked, and that ending has me wondering what the heck is going to happen!!!!

My January 2024 reads! Favorite was “All the Lost Things”

2/5⭐️. It was interesting, but I didn‘t like how out of order and all over the place the stories seemed to be.

3.5 ⭐️ a good story! After reading the author‘s note, I learned George Stinney was a real person which makes it sadder. I enjoyed this debut novel!

This book left me crying. It was such a good story and deeper than it came across. It was charming with all the silliness Dolly and her “twin” Clemesta would say and think. 4.5/5⭐️

2.5⭐️ because what did I just read? All I have are questions. Had this been fleshed out, this could have been so freaking good but instead, it was rushed, only creepy in parts and confusing as heck.

House of rain
Starting 1/3/24
Finished on 1/7/24
2.5 ⭐️ slow in parts, a little confusing in others. I liked some of the twist at the end.

This is who I pictured as Xaden, Dain, Lilith, and Professor Kaori. Levi-Attack On Titan, Argiris Karras-Riley/Degrassi, MyAnna Buring-Tissaia/The Witcher, and The Emperor-Mulan

Missing the copy of Verity I borrowed from a friend, but here‘s my books for the year! I managed to read 27 books which is great for me! Read some really good ones! (Had to separate stacks but they are in order starting from the left stack bottom up to the right stack bottom up as well.)

4/5⭐️. The end left me gasping! I cried at one point. I enjoyed the spicy scenes and loved the dragons. Tairn is freaking cool and Andarna is a little sweetie. Love the bond between those two and Violet.

My side note says Outlander wins but I wanted to see which books outside of that one won. Gap Creek was wonderful but Verity was just batshit crazy enough to keep me super entertained!

I like to try and match my bookmarks to my books 🤓

I pictured Jack Lyons as a mix between Gerard Butler and Ron Livingston.

4.5/5⭐️ I really enjoy what I call “quiet reads” like this. A very good story that filled me with dread, shock, and anger.

How I‘m picturing Muire Boland (Rhona Mitra who played in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans as Sonja)

Was sort of picturing Johnny Marinville as Donal Logue (King Horik from Vikings) only with all gray hair

Was picturing Collie Entragian as Allan Ritchson from Jack Reacher

3.5/5 ⭐️
Finally finished this book after two months! I liked it, it was good but not good enough to make me WANT to read it nightly. I kind of had to force myself to in a way. But I really did enjoy the creepiness of it, and I appreciated God being seen in a good light for the most part.

Story 4: “Alive Day” - Maberry
3/5⭐️. Parts were fascinating (I love old lore, legends, monsters) but I was a little confused as to what was really going on and what the bargain truly was. The title of the story is dull and doesn‘t really go with the story I don‘t think.

Story 3: “A Bad Season For Necromancy” - Liss
1/5⭐️. Hated what I read. I even tried restarting it the next day to have a fresh start but I couldn‘t focus or care. I started skimming and skipping around, but overall it was a DNF.

Story 2: “Pipers” - Golden
4/5⭐️. This short story had me asking “wtf is going on?!” out loud to myself. The ending was a little confusing but the story was definitely intriguing nonetheless.

Story 1: “Suffer the Children” - Armstrong
3/5 ⭐️. Had some really interesting bits. I enjoyed Browning‘s POV most.

I would give the whole book a 3/5 ⭐️

She had been the light in his life, the sun around which his heart and soul revolved.

3/5⭐️ WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! The book was slowish up until the murders begin but the last 50-100 pages are when it really gets juicy! I was shocked three times in a row, each time feeling much more shocked than the last. Wow! I am stunned! I will say all the italicized issues I kept finding annoyed the heck out of me.

“He‘s no longer running to catch his prey. He steady, calculated, a lion right before it pounces.”

“You don‘t respect the sea, you drown. The ocean can change in an instant if you‘re not vigilant.”

...” he‘s a flash of black and then gone. Like getting a glimpse of a ghost.”

How I picture some of the cast from The Island!
Harper: Nya (Nyareadsandsmiles from YouTube)
Kenna: Zethu Dlomo-Mphahlele (Madi from Black Sails)
Liam: Lukas Gage (Adam from You)
Ava: Taissa Farmiga
Malcolm: Mark Strong

2.5-3 ⭐️. A short and hopeful read.

3⭐️. A little disappointed, could have been a lot better. I don‘t know if it‘s because it was translated to English instead of written in English but I felt the same way about another Spanish to English translated book I tried to read. I wonder if things tend to get lost in translation? I loved the whole premise though! The ending had me sad, stunned, and saying “wtf?!”

5 ⭐️. Adored the tv series and the book is great. Joe is a perfect villain! You almost can‘t help but root for him. Fast-paced read.

3 books for August 2023!