This week’s Top 10 Tuesday prompt is auto buy authors! These are a list of authors that I have loved all the books I have read of theirs so far and would definitely continue to purchase/read anything that they come out with in the future!
So these are my 10 auto buy authors with a few of their books I have read:
Leigh Bardugo
Sarah J Maas
Brandon Sanderson
Cinda Williams Chima
Jay Kristoff
Marissa Meyer
Dan Brown
V.E. Schwab
Sally Thorne
Adrienne Young
This year for the first time I set a few reading/blogging goals and I thought since we are now mid way through 2019 I would do a quick update, see how I am going and what I need to work on for the second half of the year!
My first goal was to continue blogging every weekday and try to produce more fun detailed content – I think I am doing very well with this goal! I don’t think I’ve missed any postings this year which is a win for me and I do feel like I’ve been branching out more and doing some different posts than what I would usually.
The second goal was to read more books that I actually interest me – I think I have definitely gotten out of my habit of just buying books that are super hyped even though I am not interested in actually reading it. Finally going back and utilising my library has been a great means of opening up my TBR and having a lot more options for me to peruse and see what I actually want to read. Also implementing mood reading instead of having a set TBR each month has had a great impact on my reading output!
The next goal was my Goodreads Reading Goal for 2019 which I set at 100 books – I have currently read 89 books in 2019 so far, so I am well on my way to smashing this goal which is really exciting for me!
The fourth goal I set for myself in 2019 is to find a balance between reading/blogging and life – This unfortunately is where I haven’t had the most success. I still feel like I am putting my reading before my health and responsibilities. I have a full time job so at the end of the day when I get home I find I am just shirking everything I really need to do to just sit down and read. I may need to implement some scheduled reading times everyday or have a to-do list I need to complete of an afternoon before I allow myself to be lost in a book!
The last goal I set for myself this year is to just be happy – So far this year has been a bit of a funny one. It seems like so much has changed and also not much has changed either if that makes sense. All I do know is that reading and blogging being a constant in my life has really brought me a sense of peace and calm!
Happy Reading📚
This was a totally spur of the moment pick up for me. I’ve still been feeling a little funky in terms of my reading so I’ve been picking up a lot of romance to try to remedy that because its just so easy and entertaining to read. So when I saw a few different reviews for this book pop up in some recent booktube videos I decided to give it a go and actually loved it!
We follow the story of Jasmine who is a hardcore figure skater who was recently dumped by her skating partner. She hasn’t been able to find a new partner since so she is unable to compete. She has been training at the same complex as Ivan Lukov who is the reigning national champion, a 2 time gold medalist and is known as being the best figure skater in the world at the moment. Jasmine and Ivan cannot stand each other and since Ivan’s partner has bowed out for the season Jasmine is the only one good enough to step up.
The hate to love trope is my absolute favourite in romance novels and this book did so well in building up the sexual tension throughout the course of the storyline. The chemistry between these two from the start was palpable and I loved that it delved a lot more deeper into their backgrounds than what I was anticipating.
Jasmine’s candour really pulled me into the book. There’s just something about characters swearing in books that really endears me to them (lol). I just feel like that’s exactly how I would react in the same situation. As someone who swears a lot it make the book feel more realistic to me, which made me appreciate the story even more. I liked the fact that she is really trying to balance her life and not just have it be all about skating. The gradual arc of her character was very well done and she really had to overcome a lot of situations before she could really accept herself. I especially liked that she noticed how she has treated her family in the past and has tried to rectify the situation by being more involved and aware of everyone and their feelings.
Ivan at the start I thought was a little too good to be true being handsome, rich and the best figure skater in the world. I think his cocky attitude mixed with all the hard work we see him put in to being the best helped to ease my concerns about him as a character. Once we started to learn more about him and penetrate that guard he always has up and see some of the more emotional scenes he has with Jasmine and he finally shows how much he cares about her is when I started to fall under his spell! OMG after he made that speech to Jasmine’s father I was sold!
I highly enjoyed my read of this book. I think I picked it up at exactly the right time and I think it definitely helped me get around this slumpy feeling I’ve been having! I was totally surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and it just left me with some happy feels!
⭐️5/5 stars Caught me by surprise and made me shed a tear!
This is five more relatively hyped books from varying genres that I have heard enough about that I want to pick them up at some point this year!
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
I think I am on the cusp of a reading slump!! It’s already the 10th July and so far I have only completed 3 books, one of which was a novella … usually at this time of the month I’ve already read around 6-8 books and am itching to continue on and read something else but I’m just not in the mood at the moment. Coming off that fantastic reading month I had in June I had high hopes to ride that wave into July but no such luck. I started reading the long way to a small angry planet on Monday and as of today I am still only 100 pages in. I am actually really enjoying the storyline so far but I don’t have that drive to pick the book up and actually finish. I don’t know if I should just start something else that’s maybe a little more fast paced or try to push through? I’ve had this kind of situation happen before and I ended up not reading anything for close to a month and I definitely don’t want that to happen again! There’s just too many books on my TBR that I’ve been looking forward to reading, I don’t have time for a reading slump.. I think I might try some of my other options that I have on hand and try to kick start my reading drive again!
Happy Reading 📚
