Thoughts|| Love and Other Carnivorous Plants.

Posted on March 30, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Love and Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves
3 out of 5 stars.

“She makes me feel like I’m not myself and more myself at the same time. She devours me in the best way and kills me in the worst way, but I’m happy to be killed by her because she’s heaven too.”

Goodreads Description: Freshman year at Harvard was the most anticlimactic year of Danny’s life. She’s failing pre-med and drifting apart from her best friend. One by one, Danny is losing all the underpinnings of her identity. When she finds herself attracted to an older, edgy girl who she met in rehab for an eating disorder, she finally feels like she might be finding a new sense of self. But when tragedy strikes, her self-destructive tendencies come back to haunt her as she struggles to discover who that self really is.

I was sent an ARC of Love and Other Carnivorous Plants from The Novl. (Check out their monthly newsletters for chances to win books from them!) It is expected to release May 15th of this year.

I have mixed feelings about this book and writing this review is so difficult. It’s not that I didn’t like the book, because I did like it. I would even recommend reading it, because it talks about a lot of important things; such as eating disorders, mental illness, alcohol abuse, questioning your sexuality, and a few other things as well. It’s jam packed with important things.

As far as the characters go, I liked the characters. They were all going through something different. They were all struggling with something in their lives. Danny was really sarcastic a lot of the time and she tried to use humor to cope with some of the things happening in her life. I really liked her relationship with Bugg (the girl she meets in rehab). Bugg was a really cool character. Danny’s best friend, Sarah, I wasn’t the biggest fan of hers. But again, she was also going through a lot as well. I can see how it could change her.

This tragic event that happens, I honestly wasn’t expecting it at all. I think that’s also where the book took a turn for me and where my mixed feelings about the story came into play. The pace of the book started to slow down. I was waiting for things to happen and they just weren’t happening or at a decent pace anymore. It was taking awhile to get there. I was also hoping for a little bit more with the ending and for certain things to go differently. Like the tragedy that happened, I personally felt like that didn’t need to happen. It’s hard to really talk about it without giving spoilers though.

Overall, I liked Love and Other Carnivorous Plants. I thought it was a good story. It dealt with a lot of pretty important and tough things. For the most part they were handled pretty well. I liked Florence’s writing style and it was easy to read. I wish the pace didn’t change in the second half of the book, but it was still a good read. I would still recommend reading it.

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In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| March.
Travel|| Butterfly World.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Book Haul|| March.

Posted on March 29, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I have a pretty big book haul this month, but I only bought three of these books (not including the e-books I got). A couple were gifted to me for my birthday that happened earlier this month and publishers & authors sent me others for review. I am going to start with the three that I bought myself. This post may be a little lengthy with all my ramblings about them.

Oh and one last thing, I had every intention of taking pictures of my books this time. Nothing was working out for me though. I couldn’t get the right lighting and my books just did not want to cooperate with me. I called it quits. I did manage to get a picture of the stack though, just not each individual book. I honestly can’t wait to get out of this tiny apartment and into a place with more space, so I can get back into bookstagram the proper way and get back to sharing my pictures on here of my books too. I’m just in this tiny little place and there’s literally no good lighting or good anything for that matter. It’s so frustrating! Now onto the books that I got this month.

Physical Books I Bought:

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

Children of Blood and Bone is one of my most anticipated books of the year. It’s got SO MUCH HYPE and I really hope I love it, because I usually don’t love hyped books as much as everyone else. I was able to have breakfast with Tomi Adeyemi last year at BookCon (and a few other authors at the Fierce Reads breakfast), which was pretty cool too. I’ve been eyeing Emergency Contact since I first seen it back in November, so I decided to finally just preorder it. I mainly ordered Aru Shah and the End of Time because it was a “Rick Riordan Presents” book and I love anything by Rick Riordan and need to own anything he likes! Even if he was to present me with his grocery list, I would gladly take it off his hands and read it a million times over. 😛 He has a couple others releasing too, which I need to go preorder, LOL. I haven’t read anything by Roshani Chokshi yet, but I do own The Star-Touched Queen, so I probably should read it soon! Aru Shah and the End of Time sounds really good though and like something I will fall in love with. I love books about different mythologies. The other two Rick Riordan Presents are also based off different mythologies as well.

Birthday Books:

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Olivia Twist by Lorie Langdon

My older sister gifted me Reign of the Fallen for my birthday earlier this month, which I was stoked for! I actually picked it out before my birthday, but she didn’t let me have it until my birthday. We went to Target and she let me pick a book out. Also for my birthday, I got these pretty awesome socks. Funny story, the hubby and my older sister got me the same exact ones. LOL. Totally fine, because I love them so much and now I have two. They say “fuck off, I’m reading”. 😛 My younger sister got me a copy of Olivia Twist for my birthday, which I also picked out. I’ve been so stoked about it, because it’s a retelling of Oliver Twist.

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Books from Publishers & Authors:

I was sent quite a few books from publishers and authors for review this month. Some ARCs and some finished copies. Here’s what I’ve been sent. I have a TON of reading to do. AHHH!

Love & Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves (ARC)
Hot Mess by Emily Belden
Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles

I was sent a copy of Love & Other Carnivorous Plants from The Novl, which I am currently less than 50 pages of being finished with it and will have a review up soon. I read this book called Eightysixed by Emily Belden back in 2014 and the publisher reached out to me and asked if I wanted an ARC of her new book Hot Mess because she seen I read Eightysixed, so of course I said YES! She actually sent a finished copy though, which was cool! I even got it a few days earlier than the release date. I got a copy of Anatomy of a Miracle from Blogging for Books.

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
Defy the Worlds by Claudia Gray (ARC)
The Falling Between Us by Ash Parsons

I got a surprise package from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers that had a paperback copy of Defy the Stars and an ARC for the sequel, Defy the Worlds. I own the e-book of Defy the Stars, but I haven’t had the chance to read it yet. I am excited I have both now and can finally read them. Penguin reached out to me to see if I was interested in reviewing The Falling Between Us and I said yes, because it sounds so good! Super stoked about that one.

Huntress by Julie Hall
Warfare by Julie Hall
Logan by Julie Hall
Dominion by Julie Hall
*I just linked Huntress, because the other books are in that series; Huntress is the first book.*
Lullaby by L.R. W. Lee

I was asked if I wanted to participate in an Bookstagram tour for the release of Dominion (book three) over on Instagram in April, so I said sure and I’m excited about it; I’ve never done one before. I haven’t had the chance to read the series yet, but I was sent all of the books to read and review. I will be doing a review on Huntress and then later the entire series as a whole once I read them all. I was also sent Lullaby by the author and I can’t wait to read it and review it. It sounds like something I’ll really like. By the way, I am living for all of these book covers!

I Will Find You by Joe Kenda (Netgalley)

I haven’t been requesting books on Netgalley much these days, but when I seen I Will Find You, I took the chance. I was so stoked that I got approved. My older sister and I love Joe Kenda. We love watching his TV show on the Investigation Discovery channel. It releases in September and I am super stoked to read it! It’s basically about his life and some of the murder cases that he’s solved in his career.

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E-Books:

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo
Paper Princess by Erin Watt
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
The Year of Less by Cait Flanders

I am not really big into superheroes or the DC/Marvel worlds, but LEIGH BARDUGO. That’s pretty much the only reason I got Warbringer and the $1.99 sale price helped too. I’ve been wanting to read Paper Princess for such a long time, so I finally decided to get it. Truly Devious sounded right up my alley and I was stoked to see it on sale. I’m pretty excited to read The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store. This is something I personally need to work on, because I LOVE THINGS TOO MUCH. *cries* It also goes along with what I said in the beginning of this post. No space in this tiny apartment and I own too much stuff. I’ve even had to pack away more than half of my books and get rid of some bookshelves, sigh.

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Anyway, that is all for my March book haul! What books did you get this month? Have you read any of the books that I got? Let me know and feel free to link me to your book haul posts, so I can check them out!

I plan to catch up on your blog posts and comments today and tomorrow. 🙂 I don’t usually get a whole lot of time during the week now that I am doing school and work. I’ll have some time today and tomorrow though. This weekend I have a ton of school stuff to do, like make a million flash cards.

In case you missed it;
Travel|| Butterfly World.
Travel|| Biscayne National Park.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Travel|| Butterfly World.

Posted on March 27, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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Hey!

The hubby and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary over the weekend (March 25th). We decided to finally check out Butterfly World. I’ve been wanting to go for so long now. Here are a bunch of pictures that I took while there.

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There are different sections of Butterfly World. These first four pictures below are part of the area where the butterflies are. The garden area was really pretty.

These next set of pictures are of some of the butterflies. It wasn’t easy getting pictures when they were flying around like crazy. There were some that did land though, so that was cool. There were so many big butterflies and they were all so pretty too. My favorite were the blue ones, but it was so hard to get pictures of them; they never landed and when they did it was with their wings folded. With their wings folded, they weren’t blue. I did manage to get one picture with a few of them flying though (toward the bottom of the set of pictures).

A butterfly even landed on the Andy’s hand! That was pretty neat. We were just walking around and it landed on him. I was totally jealous, haha. I wanted one to land on me, but I knew I would have probably freaked out if one did. LOL. When they were all flying at me, I was freaking out. So probably a good idea they didn’t.

Once you leave the butterfly area, there are some other little garden areas with flowers and birds. There was also this cool suspension bridge.

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Walking across the suspension bridge you run into a little area that had some Macaws. They were really cool and I loved their colors. There were also some other little birds around. I got a few pictures of them, because they mostly just flew around.

Another garden area with some random flowers and plants. There was a monarch butterfly on one of the flowers, so I was able to get a few pictures of that which ended up honestly being my favorite pictures of the day. Below are the flower pictures.

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Overall, it was really neat, but I wouldn’t say that it was worth the price. It was $30 a person and it only took us 20-30 minutes to walk through the entire thing. If I wasn’t stopping to take pictures, it would have taken even less time. It was still really pretty and the butterflies were really awesome. I still really enjoyed it and happy that we went at least once. We ended up walking through it twice, because I didn’t like that we spent $60 for a 20-30 minute walk-through. The second time around we decided to sit down in the butterfly garden area and let the butterflies fly around us.

I got some good pictures though, so that was nice. I also got to hangout with Andy, which is always great. It’s rare that we have days off together. He has to ask for the day off work or I have to ask for the day off work in order for that to happen, so we don’t always get to do a many things together. I am pretty stoked that we got to hangout for our anniversary. We even got P.F. Chang’s for dinner and it was so good. I still think about that sesame chicken and dumplings days later.

That’s all for this post! Hopefully I’ll have a review of Love and Other Carnivorous Plants posted in a few days. I don’t have much left to read. I also really want to finish it before the end of March. I want to go into April with no unfinished books, because I have a ton of review books that I need to get to. I think I have at least 4-5 books that I need to read and review. I’ll have my book haul post in the next couple days too. I have quite the haul this month.

In case you missed it;
Travel|| Biscayne National Park.
Friday Finds #72.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Travel|| Biscayne National Park.

Posted on March 21, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

Over the weekend I went to go visit my dad with my younger sister and our mom. It was a really great time. While he showed my younger sister around his place, I was off taking pictures with my camera. I’ve been there before, so I seen the majority of it. My dad has the most amazing garden and plants. Here are a few pictures, but let me first tell you that this isn’t even half of his plants/garden. His entire place is surrounded and this is only a small portion. I still haven’t taken pictures of everything yet, but I did get a few of my favorite area.

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FAVORITE AREA BEING THE CACTI AND SUCCULENTS!! HOLY CRAP! I was literally in picture taking HEAVEN. Next time I go see my dad, I’m going to ask him if I can take a few plants home. He always asks us if we want any and I always say no. Next time I’m gonna say yes, lol.

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Found these guys on a couple of my dad’s plants. The caterpillar is going to turn into a monarch butterfly, which is pretty cool. The below picture is just a random picture of these little plants that are hanging from the big trees in his yard. I love the trees and I really love this picture.

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Most of these from my dad’s garden (like the hanging tree and the butterfly and lady bug) haven’t been on Instagram yet. Eventually they’ll make there way there. I hoard pictures to post later. So if you follow me on there, you may see these again! Instagram: heyyitsashley

After he showed my sister around, we were gonna go grab lunch. Before lunch though, we went to Biscayne National Park to walk around. He said he goes there a lot. It was so pretty there and I was super stoked to be able to take pictures. I’ve pretty much taken pictures of almost all the parks in my area, so it was nice going to a new one I haven’t been to. There were a ton of people out fishing and swimming there. There’s two parts to the park, but we only went to the fishing part, which was still so pretty. Here are some pictures I took while there.

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MOM & DAD.

We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. I never been there before, but my sister swore they were amazing. I didn’t really get the hype. The food wasn’t that great. At least their chicken tenders weren’t. The beer was good though.

Well, that’s all for this post! I should hopefully be able to catch up with your blogs and comments in the next couple of days. Been a busy weekend and week so far for me with getting some school stuff done on top of work and trying to fit in some non-school related reading as well. I also got addicted to Nailed It (baking competition show) on Netflix and watched the entire season in a day. 😛

I was hoping to finish my current read (Love and Other Carnivorous Plants) by today, so I could get my review up, but I ended up going to the movies last night to see Love, Simon. So that didn’t happen. I hope to at least have it up before the end of the week. By the way, Love, Simon was AMAZING. I laughed and cried throughout the entire movie. The hubby even cried throughout the movie too, lol. SO MANY FEELS!

In case you missed it;
Friday Finds #72.
Random|| Birthday, School, & Other Things.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Friday Finds #72.

Posted on March 16, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

fridayfinds

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

Hey!

I haven’t updated since Monday, so I figured I would do a Friday Finds post since I haven’t done one since December. I’ve been in the worst blogging slump and I haven’t been reading that much over the last couple weeks. I just haven’t been wanting to post or not sure what to post about. I think coming up with content to post is always difficult! Let me know what you guys want to see! I should hopefully have a ton of reviews coming soon with all the ARCs and review books I have lined up though.

Anyway! Here are some of the books that I added to my Goodreads TBR shelf over the last few months. There won’t be book descriptions this time since I am posting ten books, but I will link them all to Goodreads, so you can check them out! You can see more of my TBR over on my Goodreads account over here and feel free to add me as a friend!

Hot Mess by Emily Belden
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Storm Runner by Jennifer Cervantes
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
Beautiful Mess by Claire Christian

I am super stoked for Hot Mess and I’ll talk more about it in my book haul later in the month. Rick Riordan Presents The Storm Runner…Rick Riordan, enough said. I will also be talking more about Rick Riordan Persents in my haul post too. I am living for the book cover of Circe and Beautiful Mess. The Wicked Deep gives me Hocus Pocus vibes and I am all about that.

Paper Cranes Don’t Fly Away by Peter Vu
Ballad for a Mad Girl by Vikki Wakefield
The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
Take Three Girls by Cath Crowley

I feel like these five books are going to give me ALL THE FEELS! Also, all of these book covers! HEART EYES FOR DAYS. New Markus Zusak book, YESSSSS!

Have you added any new books to your TBR? Feel free to link me to your posts if you have one or leave a comment letting me know what new books you added to your TBR. 🙂

What are your plans for the weekend? My younger sister is going to be in town this weekend. She’s a truck driver with her boyfriend, so she’s gone all the time driving around the country. So I’ll probably be hanging out with her a lot and the family. I am also hoping to be able to go to the movies to see Love, Simon!! I am DYING to see it, because I loved the book so much when I read it back in 2015.

In case you missed it;
Random|| Birthday, School, & Other Things.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyblack

Random|| Birthday, School, & Other Things.

Posted on March 12, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

pictureupdate

Hey!

Doing a picture/life update, because I haven’t really been reading that much lately. I don’t know if I am necessarily in a reading slump or not though. I am just preoccupied with other things going on or wanting to do other things instead. With that being said, I am still in the middle of Immortal Reign and The Hammer of Thor. I really want to try to finally finish them this week though.

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BIG THING THOUGH! I signed up for school again! I now have a valid reason for buying ALL THE SCHOOL SUPPLIES. 😛 I already do, but I never use it and feel guilty for spending the money. But now I can finally use the things I bought and buy more. LOL. 😉 I signed up for a Bookkeeping program, which is pretty exciting! I signed up over the weekend. It’s an online school, so I’ll be able to do it from home. I am not sure how much time I’ll have to read now that I am doing online school as well, but I will definitely squeeze in as much as I can. The school is pretty flexible too, so I can work at whatever speed I want. So I can do everything ASAP or I can space it out over 12 months. So that’s a plus! Another cool thing is that my aunt and my older sister are also doing the Bookkeeping program, so we’ll be able to help each other out. My mom is also doing a program too, but hers is something medical related. I think Medical Billing.

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For my birthday (it was on March 3rd), the hubby and I went to LauderAle to get some beers. We’ve never been to this brewery before and it was such a cool place. We ended up both getting a flight of beer. The ones that I got were Gulfstream Cream, Gozezilla, We Dem Boysenberry, and Black Widow Cider. The hubby got a couple of the ones that I got and a banana pepper one. Mine were so good! The place was really cool and chill. They even had a dog roaming around, which was cool. He would bring you his ball to throw to him. Every day they have a different food truck that you can get food from. They also had this really cool octopus painted on the building and a shark. If you didn’t know, I LOVE sharks. Below is the flight of beers I got and the octopus mural.

Cadbury Mini Eggs and champagne for my birthday. 😀 The hubby got me so many mini bags of mini eggs. HEAVEN! 😛 He also got me some cute socks too. I’ll share them in my haul post later this month. I don’t have a picture of them right now. My mom and sister literally got me a 1.5 pound bag of mini eggs too. HOLY CRAP! Honestly, the best birthday present though. I love those things!

I got a lot of shoes for my birthday this year, LOL! I’ve been obsessed with shoes lately, so it’s what I wanted. HAHA. My mom got me the yellow TOMS (top left), the hubby’s parents got me the pink bow TOMS (top right) and my friend Lauren got me the black skull/cacti VANS. I am freaking obsessed with them all. I’ve never had slip on VANS before and I’ve always wanted some. Now I am obsessed and need more. HAHA.

I’ve been wanting to try out different clothes than I typically get (I love t-shirts & jeans), so my older sister got me these two shirts for my birthday as well. They’re really cute and I am pretty obsessed. The first shirt in the first two pictures is something I wouldn’t typically buy. The second one is one I would typically buy, but I don’t have enough. I like cute designs like that. I also decided to buy a few dresses this weekend. I NEVER wear dresses unless it’s like a cover up for my bathing suit when I go to the beach.

Here are the dresses I got this weekend. Sorry about the lighting. I used just the light coming from my window and I didn’t brighten the pictures up on my phone. My mom and I went to Ross and I picked out a few to buy.

The first was this sunflower one (it’s navy blue) and it came with this gold necklace too. I don’t know if I like the necklace though, haha.

I seen this pink one and had to have it, because it has cats all over it! Plus pink is my favorite color. 😛 BUT THE CATS!!! It’s really cute.

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Last one I got was this pink one. I really liked the design on the top and it’s loose fitting, which I love. It’s gonna start getting really hot here (t’s forever hot here, but it’s gonna get worse), so it’ll be nice to have some dresses. Like I said, I never wear dresses, so it’ll be interesting trying these out. If I like wearing them, then I’ll buy more.

Here are a few books that I got this month so far! I had to buy Children of Blood and Bone. Super stoked to read it! Little, Brown Books for Young Readers sent me Defy the Stars and Defy the Worlds. I had no idea these were even coming, so that was exciting. I’ll talk more about these books in my haul post at the end of the month. And some other random bookish pictures.

We got a new sofa!! We haven’t had one for a couple months, so it’s nice that we finally have one now! It also reclines! SO COMFY. As you can see, Dax is LIVING for the new sofa. 😛 Leaf LOVES it. She likes to parkour on it and climb in the back. It’s closed with velcro, but she gets it opened and climbs inside. She’s weird. Ocotber and ColbyJack love it too.

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Here’s a random picture of my three kitties. ColbyJack, October, and Leaf. Love these guys so much.

My mom planted these really cool orange and yellow flowers. They’re pretty cool and pretty.

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A random sunset picture I took in the parking lot of the grocery store. Featuring the hubby pushing the cart. I am obsessed with this picture.

That’s all for this post. Feel free to follow me on Instagram to see more. 🙂 A few of these I haven’t had the chance to post on Instagram yet, so you got to see them first.

Instagram: heyyitsashley
Bookstagram: foreverbookish_

In case you missed it;
Thoughts|| The Roanoke Girls.
Random|| Photo Update.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

WWW Wednesday #48.

Posted on March 7, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

wwwwednesdayflower

WWW Wednesday is a weekly MEME hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Simply answer the following questions. 🙂

The three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

*Goodreads linked below.

Hey!

This week was kind of busy for me and it was my birthday on Saturday, which was exciting. 😀 I need to catch up on blog posts and comments, which will hopefully happen tomorrow or Friday. I haven’t been reading a ton the last couple of weeks, but I did manage to finally finish a book. Here is what I’ve been reading since the last time I did a WWW post, which I think was two weeks ago.

Currently Reading:

immortalreign hammerofthor

Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes
The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan

I am still reading Immortal Reign. I’ve been taking my time with it, because it’s the last book in the series and I don’t want it to end! I am also dying to see what happens though, haha. It’s so good, you guys! I also started The Hammer of Thor this week too. I haven’t been bringing Immortal Reign with me anywhere, because last time I did I forgot it at work and had to go an entire weekend without it. NOT doing that again. 😛 So I started The Hammer of Thor, because I bring my Kindle with me everywhere. It’s also going to be returned back to the library in nine days, so I need to read it. I have a physical copy to though, so I guess it’s going if it does go back. lol. BUT STILL, I like reading on Kindle more. I am really stoked to be back into the world. I love Rick Riordan’s books so much. They are always so entertaining. I’m not that far into The Hammer of Thor, but it’s really good so far.

Recently Finished:

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The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

I was sent a copy of The Roanoke Girls from Blogging for Books for review and I was able to finally read and finish that one. It was really good. Pretty twisted and disturbing too. My review will be linked at the end of the post. It’s a short review, because it’s better to go into it not knowing much about it. It was also really hard to write a review for it to begin with.

Reading Next:

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Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

I am not entirely sure about what I am reading next, because I have a TON of ARCs and review books that I want to try to get to. I haven’t decided which of those to start on. I mentioned last time that I have like at least nine of them. I had Autoboyography e-book on hold for awhile at my library and it finally got checked out to me, so I am hoping to also read that one too.

What are you currently reading? Recently finished? Reading next? Have you read any of these books? Let me know and link me to your posts if you have one!

In case you missed it;
Thoughts|| The Roanoke Girls.
Random|| Photo Update.
Wrap Up|| February.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Thoughts|| The Roanoke Girls.

Posted on March 5, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
4 out of 5 stars.

“Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.”

Goodreads Description: After her mother’s suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother’s mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran…fast and far away. Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again. As it weaves between Lane’s first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart.

I was sent a copy of The Roanoke Girls from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am having bit of a struggle to write a review for The Roanoke Girls, because it was beyond twisted and disturbing, and dysfunctional. You want to go into this book with as little knowledge as possible, because it makes it that more interesting and twisted. The more I read it the more I was like “what am I reading, what is going on, SO MANY SECRETS”. It switches between the past and the present, which helps you to figure out what the big secret is early on but that didn’t make it any less disturbing or twisted. I was hooked and addicted from the beginning. I had this need to know what was happening and especially what happened to Allegra.

I enjoyed this book, it had me hooked from the beginning. It was addicting, but also really messed up. It’s hard to review a book like this because of some of the things that were going on. It’s hard to say that you enjoyed something that is so messed up! I did though. It was a good story. If you like twisted and disturbing, then you’ll really enjoy this one. It’s emotional and it’s shocking. It has all the things needed for a really great book. I don’t want to give too much away, so that’s all I’m going to say about The Roanoke Girls. I would recommend reading it.

In case you missed it;
Random|| Photo Update.
Wrap Up|| February.
Photo A Day|| February Part Three.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Random|| Photo Update.

Posted on March 2, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

pictureupdate

Hey!

Happy Friday! 😀 So stoked that Friday is finally here and tomorrow (Saturday) is my birthday! That makes the weekend even better! Not entirely sure what we are going to do for my birthday yet, but the carnival is probably one of the things. My older sister and I usually take my niece and nephew every year. This little carnival always lands on my birthday, so we go every year for them. We plan to sit in the beer garden while they play games and go on rides, lol. During the day I’m not sure what we’re gonna d. probably go out to eat with the hubby since he took the day off work.

Last weekend I went to the beach with my older sister, my cousin, and her son. That was a pretty fun time. It was really hot that day though! I got a little sunburned. We also seen dolphins! They were playing and jumping out of the water, but I couldn’t get a picture. Wasn’t fast enough!

After we ate, we went to get something to eat. We chose to eat at this place called Le Tub Saloon. I’ve always wanted to eat there after reading one of Tarryn Fisher’s books. I don’t remember which one it was, but it mentioned this restaurant and I decided to look it up and it’s right on the beach! That was last year I found out about it and FINALLY checked it out. Their decor consists of bathtubs, toilets, toilet seats, etc. LOL. It was interesting. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but here are a couple.

They also serve these HUGE burgers that they said they are well known for. It was 13oz they said and holy crap it was huge! HAHA. It tasted so good though and I was really happy with it. They had some good fries too. I need to go back ASAP!

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Last weekend I also chilled out in the hammock a lot of the day and drank this new blackberry beer that I found at the grocery store. OMG, this beer was freaking amazing! I need to go see if I can get some more, because it was so good. I ended up drinking all six beers, LOL.

I don’t remember if I shared this on here or not, but I got my February Pura Vida Bracelets pack and it was pretty awesome. It was a Valentine’s Day themed one, which was really cool. I also don’t have a lot of pink bracelets, so I was happy. I love their bracelets so much.

50+ bracelets (I also have some anklets too), you guys! I’m not lying when I say I am obsessed with Pura Vida Bracelets, lol.

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FLOWERS! I love taking pictures of flowers. Funny story about the yellow ones, so my mom planted this random branch in her garden and sore it was going to grow into something. I didn’t believe it for second, because it looked like a dead broken branch. For a year it didn’t do anything at all. A couple days ago I walk past her garden and these yellow flowers (found out they are called plumeria) grew from it, lol. I guess I was wrong, oops. 😛 Every year around this time, these redish/pink flowers grow next to my sister’s door. They are really neat and pretty. I’m still not sure what they are called. At the time of the picture there was only two, but now there are like 20+!

Onto all the furbaby pictures, because I am obsessed with my babies. My boy, Dax. He’s always so cute. We gave him a haircut, because his hair was getting a little ridiculous, plus it’s going to start getting even hotter here soon.

My girl, October. She’s going to be two this year! Crazy how time flies. I miss her being a tiny kitten, but I still love her so much. I am still and forever obsessed with her face, lol.

My little girl, Leaf. I can’t believe she’s going to be one year’s old in like 4-5 months. It’s hard to believe that I’ve already had her for more than half a year.

She always loves being held and I freaking love her to death for it. She loves all the attention while the others do not, lol.

And my other boy, ColbyJack. I love this guy so much. He’s so needy sometimes though, haha. He’s going to be five years old in 5-6 months, which is just crazy! When I first got him he was the tiniest little kitten and now he’s this big chubby cat, haha.

Leaf & ColbyJack. Sometimes they do love each other. Most of the time Colby can’t stand Leaf. She’s too crazy for him.

I believe that’s all for this post! I think I’ve pretty much shared all my other pictures. Feel free to follow me on Instagram to see more. 🙂

Instagram: heyyitsashley

I also have a Bookstagram account as well, but I haven’t been able to use it as much lately. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to get back into it like I used to be. Since moving into a smaller place and currently in the process of moving again, it’s just harder to take pictures. I also packed up over half of my books too, so that’s that.

Bookstagram: foreverbookish_

In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| February.
Book Haul|| February.
Photo A Day|| February Part Three.

I hope you have a great Friday and weekend!

ashleyyellow

Wrap Up|| February.

Posted on March 1, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

wrapup

Hey!

I didn’t read as much in February as I hoped I would. I got into a bit of a reading slump, so I didn’t get the chance to read a ton. I also got back into replaying Kingdom Hearts again, so that’s been taking up some of my time. I personally (not audiobooks) read three books less in February than what I read in January. 😦 The books (and audiobooks) that I did read this month were really good though!

Here’s what I read in February. 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 if I did a review for them.

DNF Books:
These are the books that I attempted to read in February, but couldn’t get into them and don’t plan to ever finish them.

I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn

I couldn’t get into this one at all, which was kind of sad because I usually love books that are told through text messages and emails. I couldn’t stand either of the main characters and I was so bored with the book.

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

What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum – 5 out of 5 stars.
I loved everything about What to Say Next. It was so good and so many feels. Julie Buxbaum seriously writes good books. I already want to reread it. I loved the characters and the story. I hated saying goodbye to them.

your name. by Makoto Shinkai – 5 out of 5 stars.
your name. was so amazing! SO MANY FEELS, HOLY CRAP! Hands down one of my favorite books that I read so far this year. The hubby and I watched the movie as well and it was just as amazing and pretty much identical to the book (considering that the movie was written first). When I say there are so many feels, I am not even lying. The hubby was like “why did you do this to me?” and he totally teared up too. He was so into the movie.

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon – 4 out of 5 stars.
I loved When Dimple Met Rishi. It was so cute and fun to read. I pretty much fell in love with Rishi, haha. Honestly, I need a sequel.

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

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater – 4 out of 5 stars.
I enjoyed The Raven King a lot more than the last two books. I am still not sold on this series though. I just couldn’t love it as much as everyone else did. I wanted to, but I was pretty bored the majority of the time throughout the entire series. The Raven King was pretty good though.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding – 4 out of 5 stars.
I read Lord of the Flies back in high school, but it’s been a really long time since then. I couldn’t remember everything that happened, so I decided to listen to the audiobook. The audiobook is read by the author and he made the story so boring. He doesn’t change his voice for characters or really give any expression at all. So I was BORED. I still really like the story though..

Currently Reading Books:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of February, but didn’t get a chance to finish them yet.

Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

I am currently reading both of these books and I didn’t get the chance to finish them in February like I had hoped. I am LIVING for Immortal Reign. It’s so good, you guys! The Roanoke Girls is weird…sometimes I’m like “WTF AM I READING?”, but it’s really interesting too. I should have these both finished in hopefully the next week? *crossing my fingers*

I think in March I am going to try to start on some of these ARCs that I have. I currently have eight new ARCs (Spring releases) and another on the way. I read this book called Eightysixed by Emily Belden (LOVED IT SO MUCH) back in 2014 and the publisher reached out to me recently and asked if I wanted an ARC of her new book Hot Mess (releasing this month) because she seen I read Eightysixed, so of course I said YES! I can’t wait to read it. I have two older Netgalley ARCs as well. I want to get all of these read and schedule reviews to go up ASAP! So over the next few months it’s ARCs, ARCs, ARCs, lol.

What did you read in February? Have you read any of the books that in February? Feel free to link me to your wrap up posts, so I can check them out!

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| February Part Three.
Book Haul|| February.
Tag|| The Book Blogger Insider.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

socially awkward bookworm.

Monthly Archives: March 2018

Thoughts|| Love and Other Carnivorous Plants.

Book Haul|| March.

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Physical Books I Bought:

Birthday Books:

Books from Publishers & Authors:

E-Books:

Travel|| Butterfly World.

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Travel|| Biscayne National Park.

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Friday Finds #72.

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Random|| Birthday, School, & Other Things.

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WWW Wednesday #48.

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Currently Reading:

Recently Finished:

Reading Next:

Thoughts|| The Roanoke Girls.

Random|| Photo Update.

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Wrap Up|| February.

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