Hey! 🙂

One of my resolutions this year was to not make anymore TBRs throughout the year. I decided to go against that for February, because there are some books that I know that I want to read ASAP and preferably in February. I don’t think I will stray from these books though, so hopefully I don’t fail at a TBR this time around. Goodreads linked. Let’s get into the books!

I did not finish Winger by Andrew Smith, sadly. It’s not that I don’t like it, but more I just haven’t been in the mood to read and when I do want to read, not this type of book. I want to try to finish Winger. This isn’t my top priority though, so it may get left behind again in February. SORRY WINGER! No hard feelings, because I really like you!

I will definitely be reading Cruel Crown (second half, because I already read one of the novellas that is in this book) and Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard! One of my highly anticipated reads and I have been DYING for it! I technically don’t own Glass Sword yet, but it will be delivered to my front door on release day, don’t you worry!

I also plan to read Blonde Eskimo by Kristen Hunt, because it sounds interesting and I am going to California in March and I want to bring it along to get signed by Kristen. I can’t wait to read her book and meet her! It sounds really interesting, so I am hoping that I love it. It’s about Eskimos and Alaska!

I am buddy reading a couple books in February, one of those will be Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. I feel like I’ve had Carry On on all of my TBRs ever since it released, lol. I will finally be getting to it in February. I will be buddy reading that with Shelbie at Lu-Lu’s Rants & Reads and Maren at The Worn Bookmark. I am really excited to finally read Carry On and I am even more excited because I will be reading it with them! They are my NinjaOtterSox girls! 😛

I am also buddy reading November 9 by Colleen Hoover with Lauren (Shattered Blue) and I am excited about that one because I’ve heard so many good things about it. I have also been loving Colleen Hoover’s books so far, so you know, I am so stoked for this one! I am so excited to get sucked back into a Colleen Hoover book. Ugly Love (my review) took me on a crazy ugly emotional roller coaster and I want more CoHo!

The last book that I plan to read in February is Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate. I was approved for this eARC from Netgalley and it gets released in March. I think I may start off the month with this one, because I want to get my review up before I leave for California.

I chose seven books, which is kind of being optimistic if I am being honest. I don’t know how much time I will even have in February to read since I need to plan and get ready for my California trip in March. It’s actually in the first week of March, so I have a lot to do in February to prepare! I am super stoked for this trip though and I get to meet Maren from The Worn Bookmark! 😀

What are some of the books on your February TBR? Let me know and link me to your posts!

Feel free to check out my January recap and book haul posts linked down below and feel free to link me to your book haul and recap/wrap up posts too!

Recap||January.
Book Haul||January.

I hope you have an amazing day! 🙂

Hi!

First I’d like to say that I am ending the month of January with 500 followers! Thank you guys SO much! I know I haven’t been the most active around here this month, but I am so glad that you guys still enjoy my blog and I am so excited for both my old and new followers! Hopefully soon I will get back into the swing of things and back to being more active on here.

And now, I can’t believe January is already almost over! I’ve been in this reading slump since the last few months in 2015. I was still managed to get some reading done though. I mostly read a lot of short books and finished another two that I was reading for awhile. It’s better than nothing though!

Let’s get into the recap! You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

DNF (did not finish) Books:
(or still reading)
These are the books I started, but did not end up finishing throughout the month of January.

winger by andrew smith.
I do plan to finish Winger, so this isn’t the typical DNF where I plan to never pick it up again. I will definitely be finishing this book, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet and I haven’t been in the mood for it. I do want to finish it, because so far what I have read has been enjoyable. I don’t believe I will have this finished before the end of January though.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read by myself (aka not audio) throughout the month of January.

cress by marissa meyer – 3 out of 5 stars.
I haven’t really been enjoying the Lunar Chronicles series as much as I hoped I would and as much as everyone else does. Cress was okay, but I wasn’t blown away by it. Too much hype around this series and I am just not feeling it. I will still eventually be reading Winter and Fairest though, because I do want to see how Winter and the story ends. I am in no rush to pick it up though.

living dead girl by elizabeth scott – REVIEW. – 3 out of 5 stars.
I liked Living Dead Girl, but I didn’t really like how the book ended. I wanted more from the ending. It’s a pretty short book and I still would recommend it. Feel free to check out my review for more!

the straw king by danielle page – 3 out of 5 stars.
I really enjoy the Dorothy Must Die series so far and The Straw King was a pretty decent novella. It wasn’t one of the best ones, but it was good. I can’t wait for the next novella and book this year!

blank confession by pete hautman – 2 out of 5 stars.
Blank Confession was just plain boring. It’s a very short book, but it was so boring and hard to get through. I am sitting here trying to remember what happened in this book and I don’t even remember. Maybe two stars is being generous.

Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions of throughout the month of January.

shattered blue by lauren bird horowitz – REVIEW. – 5 out of 5 stars.
Shattered Blue was a reread for me. I read the book last year and loved it. I decided to check out the audiobook and I loved it just as much. Feel free to check out my review for more!

boy meets boy by david levithan – 3 out of 5 stars.
I wasn’t blown away by Boy Meets Boy. It had it’s good moments, but I didn’t like it as much as I hoped I would. The characters were a little annoying too.

confess by colleen hoover – REVIEW. – 4 OUT OF 5 STARS.
I enjoyed Confess so much and it was my first Colleen Hoover book. I loved all the confessions and how the story came together. It was a good introduction to CoHo books for me. Feel free to check out my review for more!

ugly love by colleen hoover – REVIEW. – 5 out of 5 stars.
Ugly Love was SO SO SO amazing! I loved this book so much. I loved the characters and I loved this story. I was starting to get discouraged with all of these not so great books I’ve been reading so far this year, but this one just got me excited about reading again! I can’t wait to read more from Colleen! Feel free to check out my review for more!

Please feel free to link me to your wrap up/recap posts! I would love to see them!

I will be doing a February TBR post soon as well. I know I said I wasn’t going to be making any TBRs, but for February there are just so many books I know I want to read next and a couple buddy reads. So be on the look out for that!

You can check out my January book haul over here.

I hope you have an amazing day!

Top 5 Wednesday was created by gingerreadslainey. You can join by checking out the Top 5 Wednesday Goodreads group!

Disappointing Eye Candy (books that looked beautiful, but were awful)

Hi 😀

I am a sucker for a beautiful book cover (as I am sure you all know by now), but here are some books that that I read that had awesome book covers, but the story inside was not as great as the cover was.

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Flier
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle

A few of these were just plain blehhh for me. I had high hopes for The Shock of the Fall, The Dead House, and We Were Liars but they fell SOOOO flat for me. I really didn’t enjoy them much at all. The Wrath and the Dawn was just an okay read for me. It was more confusing than enjoyable. The last few chapters were good enough to give me hope for the second book though. Vivian Apple at the end of the World had it’s good moments, but I just felt like it was lacking a lot. I love the book covers for all five of these books, but the stories themselves didn’t meet the expectations I got from looking at the book covers.

What is some of your disappointing eye candy? Let me know and link me to your posts!

I hope you have a great day! 🙂

Hi 🙂

This will be the last month that I go extremely crazy with book buying. It’s really taking a toll on my bank account and honestly, it’s stressing me out so much. I have so many books to read and I feel like it’s never going to end and I’ll never get it under control if I don’t stop buying books! So I may get the occasional book here and there, but no more craziness like you are about to see. And with that, here is my January book haul.

Amazon:

November 9 by Colleen Hoover
Blonde Eskimo by Kristen Hunt
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
Passenger by Alexndra Bracken

I also won an awesome giveaway for This Is Where It Ends and I won that red Polaroid camera and a red lanyard from Sourcebooks. 😀 The little picture of my cat ColbyJack was printed with the Polaroid camera.

Target:

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard
Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

I’ve been dying to get my hands on all of these books, so I had to pick them up when I seen them at Target.

Other/OwlCrate:

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse (The Novl)
Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley (OwlCrate)

I was sent an ARC of Girl in the Blue Coat from The Novl and I am really excited to read this one. I should be reading it within the next month or so and getting a review up.

I was a little disappointed with the OwlCrate this month and even more so because I didn’t get everything that was supposed to be in the box.

Included was:
Snape Funko
Raven Boys bookmark
Patronus chapstick
Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley *pictured above*
A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley ebook

I was supposed to get a Throne of Glass print, but they forgot to include that in my box. Kind of a disappointment since everyone got one in their boxes and I feel like if I paid a lot of money for a box, I should have everything. The box this month wasn’t as great as past boxes, that’s for sure. I just wasn’t thrilled about any of the things included. I do love the Snape Funko, but that’s about it.

Book Outlet:

Okay, so I went a little bit crazy on Book Outlet and I slightly regret it right now. Most of these were from Boxing Day sale and then I think another sale they had. Most of these books are books I never even heard of, but got them because I felt like I had to buy something during these sales and they sounded interesting. I will NOT be doing that anymore. GOODBYE BOOK OUTLET…unless it’s a book I actually know for sure that I want. Hopefully they’ll be decent reads and I won’t feel so bad about getting them. The first five (first picture) are ones that I did really want then the rest are just random ones.

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
Pivot Point by Kasie West
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Reawakened by Colleen Houck
Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld

They All Fall Down by Roxanne St. Claire
The Whisper by Aaron Starmer
Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre
The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan
Boy21 by Matthew Quick
In a World Just Right by Jen Brooks

Hungry by H.A. Swain
The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan
Hidden by Helen Frost
The Last Best Days of Summer by Valerie Hobbs
Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

E-Books:

I actually didn’t go crazy with buying e-books like I usually do, so at least that is one good thing to come out of this crazy book haul. I’ve been trying to stay away from Amazon and e-book deals as much as possible. I already have over 200 e-books that I need to read.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
The Whispers of the Fallen by J.D. Netto
Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Undertow by Michael Buckley
Need by Joelle Charbonneau

That was my crazy January book haul! I have no idea how it ended up being like this, but I do not plan on ever doing this again, lol…hopefully! I have to save save save money, because I am going to California in March! 😀 I also really need to work more on reading the books that I own rather than continuing to let my book count get even more ridiculous, lol.

I hope you had an awesome weekend! 😀

Hey! 🙂

I am so excited to announce that today is my one year blogiversary! I can’t believe it has already been a year! I had no idea what I was going to do when I started this blog. I was a lost little pup and no idea what to expect. Check out my first blog post! It was a little all over the place, because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and wanted to do everything. LOL!

The response I received from the book blogging community has been so amazing thus far. I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many of you lovely followers and have really become great friends with you guys! I started this blog with only one follower, which happened to be my bestie Tammy from The Art of Failing. I now have almost 500 of you lovely friends! That’s huge, especially being a first time (and first year) blogger!

It has been one of the greatest years for me! I really enjoyed sharing my love for books with you and even discovering so many amazing books! Books I probably would have never even heard of had it not been for blogging! I am so stoked to continue with blogging and sharing my love for books with you guys!

Thank you guys so much for being there for me and reading my blog! You all definitely helped to make my blog successful! I’m not entirely sure I would still be blogging without you! I am so excited to see what this year has in store for me, my blog, and what you guys will be up to and reading!

HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY TO ME! 😛

I hope you are having an amazing weekend!

Hey!

Major reading slump going on, sigh. I was so excited for a new year of reading, because I didn’t end 2015 on the best note as far as getting tons of reading done. The last few months I have had limited reading, which is never fun. I WANT TO READ!

I am currently reading Winger right now, but I’m not that far into it. I’m about 50 pages in and so far it’s okay. It’s pretty funny too, which I like. I always love a good laugh when I am reading. I am also currently listening to the Shattered Blue audiobook. I loved the book so much and decided to grab a copy of the audiobook to see what it’s like in that format. I still love it. 😀 haha.

Since I have no reviews for you (so sorry, hopefully I get out of this slump ASAP), I figured I would post some pictures! I think that last time I did a picture post was around Christmas. Most of these are bookish themed, because I’ve been doing a monthly bookish picture challenge on Instagram. Feel free to add me: heyyitsashley.

I’ll first start off with a funny story, because I don’t think that I wrote about that in here (if I did, then I apologize, but you get to laugh again!). Lauren (author of Shattered Blue) was accepting pictures for her Destination Shattered Blue, which is take pictures of her book around your city. So I knew of the perfect place for this. It was on top of a tower that over looks the beach, so I climbed away and snapped some pictures.

Well, it started to rain and I was trying to put my book inside my purse and my phone fell out of hands and right off the tower (I was at the very top). It also landed on some concrete and guess what….it did NOT shatter! I was shocked and happy, haha. It would have been even funnier had it shattered since I was taking pictures of “SHATTERED” Blue. 😛 Always gotta protect your books, haha.

A couple more pictures from the tower. The boyfriend and I decided to be cute middle schoolers and wrote “Ashley & Andy 4 ever” with a heart on the tower lol.

Speaking of Lauren and Shattered Blue. She was having a giveaway in December and I was the winner! I was so excited that I won, because I won a lot of awesome stuff! I’ll show you below everything that I won! 😀 I am in love with everything, especially the bracelet!

Signed copy of her book.
HP illustrated book.
HP Funkos.
$100 Amazon gift card.
A bracelet (right) inspired by her book.

Shelbie (Lu-Lu’s Rants & Reads), Maren (The Worn Bookmark), Lauren and I have been talking all the time for the last month or so. We decided to do sock Sunday together! That was a lot of fun! We all got socks with otters on them and took pictures with Lauren’s book. Ninja (the cute pup) is Lauren’s dog and she decided to wear the socks instead. 😛

These are the pictures below are from my January picture challenge on Instgram so far.

Day 1: January TBR (Carry On is going to be next month now)
Day 2: Books to read in 2016
Day 3: Book & bed

Day 4: Map in books
Day 5: Favorite spine
Day 6: 2016 book to movie adaption

Day 7: Fast paced (Simon vs.)
Day 8: Slow paced (Scarlet & Throne of Glass)
Day 9: Unpopular Opinions (I really didn’t like Paper Towns, it was a DNF)

Day 10: Longest series you own (Lunar Chronicles, but it’s not the longest. Only longest completed physical copy series I own, my others are on my Kindle)
Day 11: Simple Covers
Day 12: Favorite Series (Jasper Dent – I Hunt Killers, some of my others are on my Kindle)
Day 13: Blue Books

I think that is all for the pictures! Lots of bookish pictures for you guys! It’s better than not posting at all. I really hate that I’m not reading as much as I was during the first half of 2015. Hopefully this passes, because I want to read and I want to blog! Feel free to let me know if you have any posts that you want me to do. I better get to work now.

I hope you have a great day! 🙂

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books..share them!

Hi 🙂

I’ve never done a Sunday Post before, so I’m not entirely sure how this is going to turn out. Hopefully not a complete fail? We’ll see.

Recently Finished/Currently Reading:

I was finally able to finish Cress by Marissa Meyer this week. I originally started it back on Thanksgiving! Sad to say that I am not enjoying this series as much as everyone else has. It’s not horrible or anything, but it just hasn’t lived up to all the hype for me. I think one of the main things that bothered me about the series so far is that it switched from one character to another. I really just wanted to read about Cinder and having to wait to get to her scenes was annoying. I will still read Fairest and Winter eventually, but I decided to put those aside for now.

I am currently reading Winger by Andrew Smith. I’m not too far into it, but it’s okay so far. I attempted an Andrew Smith book (Grasshopper Jungle) last year and I couldn’t do it. It was a DNF for me. So I am hoping I can read this one with no problems. So far it’s fine though and I don’t have any desire to DNF it…..yet. Crossing my fingers on this one!

New on my shelves:

It’s only the 10th and I’ve already went way overboard with the book buying. OOPS! I have one more book I want to get and then I’m done with buying books this month. I have to be lol! I have other things I need to save money for and I also just really need to stop, so I can read the books I already own.

One book that I got that I am excited about is Cruel Crown (the Red Queen novellas paperback). I was excited to get it, but then disappointed when Target ruined the cover by putting their little note about the book having exclusive things to their edition. It’s usually a sticker that I can peel it off. This time it is actually part of the cover and it just ruined the cover for me. 😦 So I will eventually be buying a new copy.

See what Target did with that ugly box that ruins an amazing cover? Exactly why I will be buying a new copy from Amazon when I can.

And speaking of shelves, I still need to reorganize my four bookshelves. They are a complete mess right now and so cluttered with books and things that aren’t books. Blehh, so much to do! So little time and motivation to do it. It’s a little intimidating, because there is just so much going on and no place to put everything.

Blog things:

I have tons of blog posts to catch up on today, so I will be off and on reading your blog posts which I am excited about. It was such a crazy week at work and by time I got home I didn’t want to do anything. It made the week go by quicker though, but still a bit annoying. Hopefully I can get through all of your blog posts today and hopefully I won’t get so behind again!

I did a few blog posts this week which are linked down below, so feel free to check those out if you haven’t already! 🙂

Friday Finds #41. – Ten books that I added to my Goodreads TBR lists this week.
Top 5 Wednesday #1. – My top five favorite Fandoms.
Top Ten Tuesday||Resolutions. – My top ten resolutions for 2016.

Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things really soon and get some more blog posts up and definitely some more reviews and other type of posts! As much as I love doing memes and tags, I do hope to do other things as well.

Random:

I really need to sit down and organize my life and blog stuff. I actually have so many things I want to do and I’m making myself a bit overwhelmed with it all. I need to make a new list of the things I want to do with both my blog and my personal life and start checking things off. Number one being declutter my apartment, because I have so much stuff and majority of it is useless things.

I think that’s all for now! This was my first attempt at a Sunday Post, so hopefully future Sundays will be a lot better. I just wanted to get some kind of idea about it, so we’ll see. I am off to clean the house and possibly read.

How has your week been? Let me know and link me to your posts!

I hope you have a great day!

Hi! 😀

I am really excited to do the 2015 end of year book survey, which was created by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page Turner. All of the graphics were created by her as well and can be found over on her page linked above. You can also link your 2015 survey over there for others to see! Shall I get started?

Number Of Books You Read: 130 – 56 physically read & 74 audiobooks.
Number of Re-Reads: No rereads for me this year.
Genre You Read The Most From: Young Adult.

You can find all of the links to Goodreads for these books over here.

1. Best Book You Read In 2015?
(If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2015 release vs. backlist)

Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz. It left me pretty speechless and DYING for the next book! I will forever recommend this book to everyone!

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I was so excited to finally read it and it was a HUGE let down. The huge twist at the end was not worth all the nothingness of everything else that book was. Nothing was really going on. So boring and it was a short read and probably could have been even shorter and been perfect.
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. I really thought I was going to love this book, but I didn’t enjoy it that much sadly. It was little difficult to read (so many characters thrown at you and each character had multiple names) and I think that played a huge part in me not really connecting with it. It was a little on the boring side for me as well. Not what I expected.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn. This book was so much fun to read and the twist at the end was pretty crazy! So hard to put down. I was pretty surprised at how fast I flew through this book and the second book in the series.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

Definitely the Jasper Dent series by Barry Lyga, haha. I raved about that series so much and I have gotten so many people to read it. So far none of them have been let down either! 😀 I Hunt Killers is the first book in the series if you interested! Now I am impatiently waiting for Joey from Thoughts and Afterthoughts to read it! 😛

5. Best series you started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015?

Best Series: Jasper Dent (I Hunt Killers) by Barry Lyga.
Best Sequel: Revenge, Ice Cream, and Other Things Best Served Cold by Katie Finn.
Best Ender: End of Days by Susan Ee.

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2015?

Rainbow Rowell – I had never read any of her books and I never thought I would like any of them, so I decided not to even attempt to read her books. I decided to finally do so this year and so far I have not been disappointed!
Lauren Bird Horowitz – I absolutely fell in love with Shattered Blue and getting to know Lauren has been so amazing and fun! She’s such a sweet person and so nice to talk to! She also has the cutest dog named Ninja! 🙂 It’s been fun obsessed about Neko Atsume with her. I am really looking forward to seeing more amazing things from her!

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I ended up loving this book so much. I listened to the audiobook and it had the perfect narrator and I think that is also what made me fall in love with it even more.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. I flew through this book and loved every minute of it. So hard to put down and I personally thought there was tons of things going on. The second book not so much for me, but this one definitely had some crazy things happening!

9. Book You Read In 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

I plan to reread Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz and also the Jasper Dent series. Two of my favorite reads this year and I need to experience them again and again!

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2015?

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia. I love the blues and the watercolors. I also really loved this book!

11. Most memorable character of 2015?

Digby from Trouble Is A Friend of Mine. He was such a fun character and he reminded me so much of Sherlock. I am hoping that there is another book, because I need more of Digby’s wittiness and I need more fun adventure. It ended in a way that it is possible for a sequel.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2015?

Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde. This was a new genre for me, but I fell in love with the story and the way Catherine writes. Expect to be crying a lot 😛

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2015?

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy. It was really though provoking for me, because it actually dealt with things I struggle within myself and it really made me look at my own self and it was easy for me to connect with Willowdean.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2015 to finally read?

Angelfall by Susan Ee. This book (and series) was so amazing and I am so glad I was able to read it.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2015?

“Here’s what I think, I think maybe everybody falls. I think maybe we all do. And I don’t think that’s the asking. I think the asking is whether we get back up again.” – The Knife of Never Letting Go

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2015?
How I did this: Went to my read books on Goodreads and sorted by page number and just looked for what I knew I read this yeaer that was the shortest and longest.

Shortest Book: Career Day by Barry Lyga (Jasper Dent novella).
Longest Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling.

17. Book That Shocked You The Most
(Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.)

Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz. There was so many exciting things going on in the book with so many twists and surprises. Huge cliffhanger at the end.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Noa and Judah from Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz. I am a Judah Rebel ALL THE WAY! I am dying to see what happens in book two, especially with Noa and Judah. I really hope that Lauren doesn’t sink my ship, but if she does, I will hold my breath and go down with it.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Todd and Manchee from The Knife of Never Letting Go. They are without a doubt two of my favorite characters ever and together they are even more perfect.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2015 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

I actually think that I read all new authors this year besides the second book in the Seven Wonders series; Lost in Babylon by Peter Lerangis. That one was pretty good. Or the new R.L. Stine Fear Street books.

21. Best Book You Read In 2015 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

I haven’t really been recommended any books to read, but I did see Josie from Josie’s Book Corner write an awesome review of Jasper Jones, so I decided to give it a chance. I loved it SOOO much and it’s now one of my favorites.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015?

SO MANY, lol. I think I am actually going to go with Prince Maxon from the Selection series. He’s the one that really sticks in my mind. He deserved so much better than America, that’s for sure. Honestly, the entire series I just wanted him to pick ME!

23. Best 2015 debut you read?

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. This book was beyond amazing and I flew through it. I am so excited to see more from Nicola!

24. Best World-building/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I didn’t really like this book a whole lot, but the world-building was really good and I think she did an awesome job with it.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I don’t think I ever stopped smiling as I read this book. It was so fun and cute.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2015?

All of them? 😛 I read HP for the first time this year, so I am going to go with the Deathly Hallows. This entire series broke my heart over and over again though.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

After the End by Amy Plum. It doesn’t have the greatest rating on Goodreads, but I loved it so much and I gave it 5 stars!

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I don’t think I ever stopped crying when I was reading this book. It tore my heart into a million pieces and I still haven’t fully put it back together again. You lose all hope and then all of a sudden you slowly start getting your hope back and then Patrick just rips it away again. My soul is forever crushed. I still haven’t picked up the second book yet, because I had to mentally prepare myself.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2015?

Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom. I’ve never read a book with a blind main character, so this was different for me. I enjoyed it so much!

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Butter by Erin Jade Lange. I enjoyed the book, but a lot of the time it really made me angry while reading it. There is bullying going on and talk of suicide.

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2015?

I discovered so many of you lovely bloggers and choosing just one is crazy! I would not be here today without you guys. I probably wouldn’t have stuck around as long as I did. I love hopping on WordPress and seeing what everyone is doing and reading, it’s been so fun. Here are just a handful of the blogs that I discovered this year and love. I really do love all of you though!

Shelbie from Lu-Lu’s Rants & Reads
Maren from The Worn Bookmark
Kayla from Booked Solid 1989
Marie from Drizzle and Hurricane Books
Josie from Josie’s Book Corner
Yvo from It’s All About Books (fun fact: she was my number one commenter this year!)

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2015?

I think my favorite review was my Red Queen one and the one for The Knife of Never Letting Go. *both linked to my reviews* They both left me pretty speechless and my Red Queen review was pretty much just gif reactions.

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

I did a Top Ten Tuesday about the best books I read in 2015 and that got quite a bit of comments, which was nice and it was the second most viewed post that I had this year,

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

I haven’t been to any author signings or events, sadly. 😦 I was really excited when Lauren (author of Shattered Blue) signed my copy of her book though. I was able to send her a copy and she sent it back signed and personalized;  she even sent some goodies for my furbabies as well! Told you she was a sweet person!

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015?

I think my best moment was starting my blog to begin with. I started it in January 2015 and have loved it ever since. I have met so many amazing friends on here. It’s been so fun talking to you all and sharing my love for books. I’ve also loved being able to get to know you even outside of just the blogosphere. I follow a lot of you on Instagram, Twitter and Goodreads too and it’s been a lot of fun!

Instagram: heyyitsashley
Goodreads: heyyitsashley_
Twitter: whoa_itsashley

Feel free to follow me if you haven’t and let me know, so I can follow you back! 🙂

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

I think the most challenging thing about blogging was when I had no idea what posts to do. In 2016 I hope that changes and I am hoping to come up with some ideas for that. I had quite a few reading slumps as well and that made it even harder to do any blog posts since I wasn’t reading much sometimes.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

My blog post “A Book Based Entirely On It’s Cover” had the most views on my blog this year. It had 181 views! In that post I talked about the book Greyhound by Steffan Piper, which was definitely an amazing book!

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

Hmmm, I’m not sure on this one. Maybe some of my earlier posts I guess? I don’t know. I just started out this year, so I honestly really didn’t expect the amazing response that I got this year from the book community! I’m going into 2016 with almost 500 followers and that alone is insane since I just started in January 2015!

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

I am really glad that I found out about OwlCrate! It’s been so exciting and fun getting a new book and other bookish goodies and it being a surprise!

10.  Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

I was able to complete my Goodreads challenge about three times this year, lol! I changed my goal a few times throughout the year as I passed it each time. That was exciting!

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2016?

WOW, I have a ton of those! haha. I think I’ll go with Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman. It was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I am sad I never got around to it!

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2016 (non-debut)?

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. I am so excited to read this book and can’t wait!

3. 2016 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry. This book sounds so amazing and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2016?

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard. I loved Red Queen so much and I am dying for the second book!

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2016?

I hope to just get more organized! I know this was my first year of starting out with this and I think I have done pretty good with it. I do think I need to be more organized though, so I am hoping to find ways to make that happen.

6. A 2016 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:

I only read one 2016 release, which was Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn. It wasn’t the greatest read, but it might be for you more than it was for me. I gave it 3 stars and recently posted my review up of this one over here.

That’s it for my end of the year survey! There were tons of books I wanted to add into the survey, but I had no idea where I wanted to place them. I think I had a pretty amazing reading year though and I am so excited to see what 2016 has in store for me! There are so many books that I never got around to reading 2015, so I am really looking forward to diving into them all in 2016!

Please feel free to link me to your end of the year surveys or any end of the year recap posts that you may have! I would love to see them! 😀

Thank you so much for sticking around with me all year! I am really looking forward to this new year of new books, new friends, and more fun! I plan to get more organized and I hope to do even better this coming year!

I am so stoked to see what happens next!

Hi & Happy New Year!

December flew by and I can’t believe Christmas (and New Year’s Eve) just came and went! I didn’t have the greatest reading month, sadly. The end of the year every year seems to be like that for me though. My December TBR did not go quite as planned, sigh. I posted my December book haul which you can check out over here. I got quite a few books in December!

Let’s get into the recap! You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read by myself (aka not audio) throughout the month of December.

six earlier days by david levithan – 4 out of 5 stars.
I really loved Every Day, so I was excited to see some of the other bodies that A wakes up in. It was nice just getting more A! I really enjoyed this one.

not if i see you first by eric lindstrom – REVIEW. – 4 out of 5 stars.
It took me a little while to get into this one, because the beginning wasn’t really blowing me away. It was written in a way that was easy to read though even if it wasn’t the greatest start. I ended up really enjoying this book a lot though. So despite the slow start, it ended up being SO good. Feel free to check out my review for more!

firsts by laurie elizabeth flynn – REVIEW. – 3 out of 5 stars.
This was a little weird for me, because I don’t know if I would have completely categorized this as YA. It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t the greatest. It dealt with a lot of things though, like bullying and shaming. It had it’s good moments. Feel free to check out my review for more!

Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions of throughout the month of December.

anatomy of a misfit by andrea portes – REVIEW. – 3 out of 5 stars.
I had a bit of a problem with this book with a lot of the characters and the way they used some words in completely bad context, but aside from that it was an okay read. The ending was a complete shocker that I never seen coming. Feel free to check out my review for more!

every day by david levithan – REVIEW. – 4.5 out of 5 stars.
I really enjoyed this book so much and I am actually surprised at how much I liked it. At the start it was a little bit weird for me, but it ended up being so good! I can’t wait to see what happens next! Feel free to check out my review for more!

I decided that making a monthly TBR is a really big problem for me. I make these TBRs, get excited about them, and then I start feeling like I am forced to read these books. Then I start getting into a reading slump thinking about how many books I need to read and how I am not reading fast enough, etc. TOO MUCH PRESSURE! So no TBR for January or possibly any TBRs anymore.

This year I am taking part in Maren’s 2016 Read My Books Challenge, so I will be reading some older books that I bought and never got around too. I’ll be using my TBR jar to draw choices for that. I’ll pick at least two books from that jar and then whatever else I read will be what I am in the mood for or really want to read.

Feel free to check out her page linked above and join in on the challenge! Sign ups are until January 10th and at the end of the year there is a giveaway where you can win $30 USD for the book depository if they ship to your country and you have 13 chances to win! Here is a link to my page where you can see my personal goal for the challenge.

I’ll be posting a 2015 end of year book survey up on the blog soon, so be on the look out for that! 😀 Feel free to link me to your recap/wrap up posts; I would love to see them!

I hope you have a great day! 😀