People Change and Life Goes On.

Tampa | Alissa Nutting | 3.9 ⭐️

Holy shit this book is fucking wild. I did not know what this book was about so it was quite the shock to find out she is a pedo lol. Like I was not expecting to read about a grown women having sex with fourteen year olds like whoa.

It was a good book, I liked the story and it held my attention the whole time even through the longer chapters. I also thought the main character was pretty funny. Not sure if she was meant to be but I chuckled here and there. There was something I didn’t like though and it happened a few times. She would be like “we never thought it would happen like this” and then explain something bad that happened like getting caught or whatever and like maybe once that lead up works but I feel like it was way too many times that she used that same line. Maybe I’m over exaggerating and I didn’t like count how many times it happened so it’s possible in very much over shooting, but regardless, it was too many times for me lol.

The Lost Apothecary | Sarah Penner | 3⭐️

My office has a little book club it’s super fun and cute and The Lost Apothecary was the book last chosen and as the procrastinator I have always been my whole life that is also in a slump, I had to listen to the audiobook on 2.2x speed so I could finish it in time and then it ended up getting pushed a week🤪

I am not a historical fiction girly so I was super nervous I would actually hate it but this one was a multiple POV AND dual timeline where the past and present timelines parallel. It was very good. I very much enjoyed it. I do think some of the past timeline would drag but the present timeline always brought me back. It was another example of why men are 🚮 for sure and I loved the strong FMCs.

The Housemaid | Freída McFadden | 3.8⭐️

I have all but abandoned this little blog but I’ve also been in a pretty steep reading slump so can’t exactly post a review if I don’t read lol

That being said! I just bought a Kindle to help me 1. Spend less money on physical books and 2. Get me out of this slump ~hopefully~. So far it’s working since I’ve clearly just finished this book!

I was so into this book, it was definitely enticing and held my attention from start to finish. I don’t like to guess endings because I think it ruins the book and I want to be taken on the ride the author intended so if I ever guess the ending, it means the book was bad. Thankfully that didn’t happen!

I didn’t know the book was in parts or that it was multiple POVs so that was a nice surprise and I was very much falling for all the twists and turns within the book. I will say the ending was a bit too convenient and wrapped it all up with a perfect pretty little bow and the comment his mom makes at the funeral was very obvious which is why my rating was knocked down a bit.

OKAY!

So, new format. I think I will be playing around with different looks on this "blog" or like whatever you would call this? It's tbh cringe to call this a blog like who am I Gossip Girl like literally no. Anyway so yeah if anyone actually reads these, there will be a bit of a transition stage for an unknown amount of time lol.

And here is the review now:

3.75⭐

So this is like the shortest book ever and I was hoping it will get me out of my reading slump. Spoiler: it didn't. I'm not entirely sure if I didn't love this book because of the slump but I also didn't hate it. It was fun and I love an unreliable narrator. I think the beginning was a little boring but the ending was interesting and wild.

Okay so I haven't posted since I think like November, but I started a new job and fell into a reading slump at the same time so I didn't read literally anything for over a month. I'm still struggling at the moment to get out of this slump and I'm hoping by doing this reading challenge it will 1. force me out of my slump and 2. help me read more books than I did last year. My current goal is 60 and this list including the advanced prompts is 50 books in total, so 10 over that would get me to 60 (obvi cause basic math). Last year I hit my slump at 58 books which was so tragic but it's fine because this year I'm going to read AT LEAST 60. Or that's the goal anyway lol. It's not my definitive list since I might not be in the mood to read the option I chose or something but for the moment this is it and I will update y'all as I go!

As you can see, one of the books has already been crossed off! I forced myself to finish this one first because it was only 130 pages and slow and steady gets you out of a slump. Tragically it did not work so now I'm going to force myself to read a book that I've had on my TBR since I got back into reading in June of 2021. I will keep that one a secret but like it's one on the list so you can guess! I will post my little review or whatever of the book I just finished, probably tomorrow so I will talk to you then!

ALSO here is the link to the PopSugar 2023 Reading Challenge sheet if you would like to join in on it!

Long Live The Pumpkin Queen | Shea Ernshaw | 4.5 ⭐️

This book is a real sequel to the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. Like actually cause that movie is owned by Disney so people can’t just go around using their property to make money. So this book takes place (I wanna say) the day after Jack and Sally get married, hence Pumpkin Queen. Sally is super not feeling the vibes she just wants to be happy with Jack and make her potions and tend to her garden but as Queen a lot is expected of her, of course. As to not give away anything if you want to go in fully blind, some stuff happens and Sally is now the only one awake and has to figure out how to wake everyone in Halloween Town up.

I thought this book was so cute. It is YA so it’s super easy to consume and follow which I think fits the vibe of the movie anyway. It’s nothing too deep and existential, everything is written out for you. It added to the Sally lore which was really cool and also to the lore of Halloween (and all the other) Town(s) too which was awesome. I felt like I was really walking around Halloween Town and having the movie on in the background pulled me into the book even more.