Review|| The Little Star.

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The Little Star by Randy Richburg
5 out of 5 stars.

Description: The Little Star: A Story of Who and What You Are is an illustrated children’s book about the infinite persistence of a mother’s love. Across an ocean of stars, from one end to the other, a Mother Star’s words of wisdom and love will follow her child from the inception of the Universe all the way to the arrival of life on planet Earth. This book has especially appealed to scientifically enthusiastic young parents, and children alike. It is a must read for scientists of any age who may have a soft spot for touchingly tragic stories about life, death, beginnings, ends, transformations, and unconditional love.


The Little Star is a children’s book, but I thought it was great! It was sad, but it was also happy. I was actually able to meet Richburg back in December and he was such a cool guy and I had no idea at the time that he wrote books, but I am so stoked that I know now and was able to buy a copy. I don’t have kids and I honestly don’t know if I ever will, but I really enjoyed the book even without that experience. I got emotional reading it. I put myself in the child’s point of view and thought about my own mother. It was so easy to read and shows a mother’s love for her child perfectly. I really loved it and I think a lot of people would as well, regardless if you have children or not.

Now onto the illustrations! The illustrations were amazing and so colorful. I also love the space and galaxy vibe of the story and illustrations to match. The author illustrated the book himself, which I think is really cool. Here are a few pages from the book, so that you can see some of the awesome illustrations!

I love that they are so colorful and gorgeous. I am a sucker for science and space, so this book was perfection. The book is linked to Amazon (above) instead of Goodreads, because I didn’t see it on their site yet. I definitely recommend checking it out!

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| February.
Hello, Central Florida.
Review|| Just for Clicks.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Book Haul|| February.

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Hey!

It’s already that time for my book haul post! This month flew by so fast. Hopefully this is the last month that I don’t take my own pictures for my haul posts. I am finally moved into my new house (check out my post about it linked at the end of this one), so I should be able to take my own pictures going forward! 😀 And maybe I’ll be able to get back into bookstagram again really soon once I am completely settled into my new house and routine. Thee are the books that I got in February. I got quite a few books to share with you!

Books I Bought:

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner
The Little Star: A Story of Who and What You Are by Randy Richburg

Priory and Rayne & Delilah are two of my most anticipated releases of the year, so of course I had to buy them ASAP! Priory is a freaking beast though and I’m not going to lie…I’m intimated! I am thinking about buying the e-book as well, because I find it easier to read larger books on my Kindle, lol. I am so stoked for it though, because I love The Bone Season series so much so far and I am DYING to see what else Samantha Shannon has up her sleeve, plus…DRAGONS! I had to get Rayne & Delilah, because I love Zentner’s books so much. I need to own everything he writes. I bought The Little Star (it’s a children’s book) to support one of my best friend’s friends. I’ll have a post about it soon. It’s linked to the Amazon page, because it’s not up on Goodreads right now.


Books from Publishers:

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Switchback by Danika Stone
The Pursuit of Miss Heartbreak Hotel by Moe Bonneau
How the Light Gets In by Katy Upperman
Mind Games by Shana Silver

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Going Off Script by Jen Wilde
Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo
Wild Savage Stars by Kristina Perez
(Sequel to Sweet Black Waves)
The Ghost Seekers by Devon Taylor
(Sequel to The Soul Keepers)

I was sent a Spring 2019 ARC package from Fierce Reads and these were the eight books that were included. I am really excited to read them. A couple of them (last two) are sequels from series I haven’t read yet, but I may have to check out the first books ASAP so I can read these sequels.

Netgalley:

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Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner
Husband Material by Emily Belden
Summer of ’69 by Todd Strasser

OH, HEY! It’s Rayne again, :P! I was approved for Rayne & Delilah two weeks before the release date. I honestly didn’t think I would be approved because it was already February and it hadn’t happened yet. I had the HC on pre-order, because like I already mentioned…JEFF ZENTNER! I’m stoked I got approved for the ARC though. I’m currently reading it and plan to write a review sometime in March. I was also thrilled that I was approved for Husband Material, because I really like Emily Belden’s previous books, especially EightysixedSummer of ’69 sounds so fun, so I requested it. I also love the song titled Summer of ’69 by Bryan Adams, which is why I even looked at the description for this book to begin with, haha.


E-Books:

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The Fever King by Victoria Lee
The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry
The Smallest Part by Amy Harmon
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden

I got the first two books free, because of the Amazon First Reads program and then the others are books that I’ve been wanting to read and I’m excited I caught them when they were on sale.

What books did you get in February? Have you read any of the books that I got? Feel free to link me to your book haul posts.

In case you missed it;
Hello, Central Florida.
Review|| Just for Clicks.
Friday Finds #75.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Hello, Central Florida.

lifeupdate

Hey!

Friday was moving day! We packed up the truck on Thursday night and Friday after work we packed up the kitties and the pup and hit the road to our new house. It’s a four hour drive from where we were living. I was so nervous about the cats in the car for four hours, because they hate the car! They cry non-stop in the car. Luckily the hubby took two of them and I only had to take one in my sister’s car. He took the two that are most scared, so I didn’t have to listen to them crying the whole time. It’s always so sad. Leaf (littlest and the one we took) didn’t make a peep! See took it like a champ. Andy said the other two cried 3 of the 4 hours. 😭

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We made it around 10pm and started to unload some of the truck before it started raining. We did the rest the next day (Saturday). On Saturday I unpacked a lot of things and tried to put as much away as I could. The kitchen is pretty much done and so are our clothes. There’s still so much more to do though, sigh. My right arm is killing me today from all the moving and unpacking. Hopefully I can get a lot more done today though. We’ll see what happens!

My younger sister came up with us, because she’ll be staying with me until Andy comes up and until she goes back on the road (she was a truck driver and may go back to that job). She slept a couple nights in the room that will be my office/library until we finished the floor & borders in the guest room (pictures later in the post). I can’t wait until my desk gets here (Wednesday) and eventually be able to buy some bookshelves so I can unpack my books.

The cats took the new house in different ways. October is the shy one that’s scared of everything. Never likes being pet or anything. Always hides. Well…she’s loving it here! She’s out and about and very happy. She even lays with us and wants attention, which was never a thing about her before! She was the one I was most worried about when it came to this move, but she seems so happy. She loves all the windows. She spends a lot of time laying or sitting in front of different windows around the house.

ColbyJack (oldest) was not a happy camper. He spent a lot of time growling and hissing and just being grumpy. He also hid 90% of the time. Little Leaf wasn’t really sure about the house either. She hid majority of the time too. I really thought they would be cool about it, haha. Totally the opposite than I thought! I’m so happy about October though. I really worried about her. They other two kitties seem to be getting used to the house now though, so that’s a plus. I think that now that it’s not as chaotic, they are coming around.

My pup Dax loves the house. He’s been here before this weekend. We brought him up last weekend and he was so happy. He was even rolling around in the backyard. He has his own yard now! We didn’t have one at the last place and he’s never really off a leash outside often. Now he can be. At first he wasn’t sure about it, but by the end of the weekend he was rolling around in the yard.

There’s still so much to do, but I have plenty of time to do it. Hopefully by the end of the week it’ll be mostly done. 🙂 Here are some other random pictures I’ve taken at the new house from last weekend and now.

We’ve been in the process of changing the floors in one of the bedrooms as I mentioned. We took the carpet out and put a dark brown wood laminate flooring. Next I need to paint the walls in the room. I’m unsure what color I want, but I think it’ll be some kind of shade of white. There’s so many shades of white!! We were going to do our bedroom with this same flooring, but I think we may use something else. I want to find a similar color though. We have other remodeling/updating that we want to do to the house, but that’ll come in time.

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Second bathroom (not the master bathroom). This room is currently probably the nicest/cleanest room in the house right now, haha. We currently have boxes EVERYWHERE. I’ll be taking recycle out for weeks before we finally get all of them out of the house.

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My boss gave us a ton of furniture. The dining table and barstools above are some of the pieces that he gave us. The dining table glass is supposed to have that shattered glass look/effect. Andy thought it was broken, but according to the description and my boss it’s supposed to be like that lol. The dining table also has a leaf and two more chairs that we didn’t put out yet. Four is more than enough for us right now. Colby loves that table. He’s been out more now that we have it up. I love the bar stools. They are all the same shade (more the middle stool color), but the lighting and shadow makes them look different.

I’ll have more pictures of the rest of the house another time once we get everything put away and cleaned up. So far this is what is done. So until then, below are some random pictures I’ve taken of the area and outside of my house.

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I seen the below banner hanging up on a window when we were driving through some of downtown Lakeland. A lot of the buildings have different banners of art like this hanging on their walls. We were driving or I would have taken a picture of them all.

Some random flowers and plants growing in my yard. I’m pretty sure the white ones and the orange ones only grew because the grass needs cut. I hate to see them go, but I love that I have this plant in my yard that grows these really pretty pink flowers.

These are all of the tree in my backyard. I take pictures of it every single time I am here, lmao. All different views at least. I got some close ups, some of the branches, and some through my lens ball.

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I took this picture of my tree when we got here on Friday night for my Instagram stories (heyyitsashley) and I was looking at the picture after I posted it and with the lights/shadows it looked like a face and made me think of Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas, haha. 😛

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The sky this morning from my front door. Forever heart eyes. It was actually 60 degrees outside too, which was so nice.

All week will most likely be spent cleaning and putting things away in the house during breaks at work and after work. I have so much to do. I also forgot that we have a ton of boxes that we put in the closet. I plan to go find the library and get a library card this week too. I’m hoping to finish one more book before the end of the month to include in my wrap up, which will be posted in the next few days as well as my book haul. I’ll also try to catch up with your posts at some point this week as well and reply to comments.

In case you missed it;
Random|| Life Update – New House!
Review|| Just for Clicks.
Friday Finds #75.
Review|| Comics Will Break Your Heart.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Review|| Just for Clicks.

justforclicks

Just for Clicks by Kara McDowell
5 out of 5 stars.

Goodreads Description: Mommy blogs are great . . . unless the blog happens to belong to your mom. Twin sisters Claire & Poppy are accidental social media stars thanks to Mom going viral when they were babies. Now, as teens, they’re expected to contribute by building their own brand. Attending a NY fashion week and receiving fan mail is a blast. Fending off internet trolls and would-be kidnappers? Not so much. Poppy embraces it. Claire hates it. Will anybody accept her as “just Claire”? And what should Claire do about Mom’s old journals? The handwritten entries definitely don’t sound like Mom’s perfect blog persona. Worse, one of them divulges a secret that leaves Claire wondering what else in her life might be nothing but a sham . . .


I received an ARC of Just for Clicks from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It was just released on February 19th. 

I love books involving social media and the internet world, so I knew I wanted and had to read Just for Clicks. It did not disappoint and I actually ended up loving it so much! It’s so relevant for today with blogs, YouTube, going viral and becoming internet famous happening pretty much daily. I think a lot of people can relate to that. The story itself was fun and cute, but also had some real emotional and important moments as well.

I loved that there was a lot of focus on family and friendship. I really enjoyed Claire’s and Rafael’s friendship so much. There’s a slow burn romance as well, which was great. I liked that it was more focused on friendship. Poppy and Claire both struggle with internet fame in different ways, which I think is so true for so many people that are internet famous today. So many people handle situations differently and I think this is a huge one. I loved that we got to see a bunch of different sides of it between Poppy, Claire, and their mom. They love each other so much, but there are also so many dysfunctional aspects to their family as well, so you get to see all of that too.

Overall, I really loved Just for Clicks. I loved the characters, the relationships, and pretty much everything about it. It was fun and cute, but it also had its moments where things turn and I’m like “WTF IS GOING ON”. I did get emotional at times as well, because I was really invested in the characters and their stories. I personally don’t know if I would ever be able to handle being “internet famous”, but I love that you get to see all the positives and the negatives of that world and that life. I would definitely recommend reading Just for Clicks.


I am moving tomorrow (ahhhh!!!), so I may be a little MIA for a bit until I settle into my new house and new routine. I’ll still try to pop on as much as I can though, but just a little heads up if you don’t see me very often for the next week or two.

In case you missed it;
Friday Finds #75.
Review|| Comics Will Break Your Heart.
Random|| Life Update – New House!

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

 

Friday Finds #75.

fridayfinds

Hey!

I haven’t done one of these posts in almost a year, but I always love sharing the books that I add to my Goodreads TBR; so I want to get back into doing just that this year. Since I haven’t done this series in such a long time, I have so many books to share. 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.

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The Test by Sylvain Neuvel
The Summer of ’69 by Todd Strasser
The Black Coats by Colleen Oakes
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta, Cori McCarthy

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Recursion by Blake Crouch
Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy
Rules We’re Meant to Break by Natalie Williamson
Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan
How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

Have you added any new books to your TBR? Have you read any of these? 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.

In case you  missed it;
Review|| Comics Will Break Your Heart.
Random|| Life Update – New House!

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyblack

Review|| Comics Will Break Your Heart.

comicswillbreakyourheart

Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks
4 out of 5 stars.

Goodreads Description: Miriam’s family should be rich. After all, her grandfather was the co-creator of smash-hit comics series The TomorrowMen. But he sold his rights to the series to his co-creator in the 1960s for practically nothing, and now that’s what Miriam has: practically nothing. And practically nothing to look forward to either-how can she afford college when her family can barely keep a roof above their heads? As if she didn’t have enough to worry about, Miriam’s life gets much more complicated when a cute boy shows up in town . . . and turns out to be the grandson of the man who defrauded Miriam’s grandfather, and heir to the TomorrowMen fortune. In her endearing debut novel, cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks pens a sensitive and funny Romeo and Juliet tale about modern romance, geek royalty, and what it takes to heal the long-festering scars of the past (Spoiler Alert: love).


I received an ARC of Comics Will Break Your Heart from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Release date: Today, February 12, 2019.

I don’t read a lot of comics and I’m not really into the whole superhero thing either (I feel like everyone is except me, haha). I weirdly was really into Comics Will Break Your Heart though! There’s a lot of comic story talk because of TomorrowMen and the characters in the book being into the comics/series and also because of the family history with the comic as well. Comics Will Break Your Heart is more than just about superheroes and comics though, which I really liked.

I felt like the characters were really relatable and different aspects of the story itself was as well. Miriam struggled with what to do after high school and Weldon had to deal with two mostly absent parents in his life; his dad obsessed with his business and his mom just seemed really unstable. I liked the friendship that Miriam and Weldon eventually grew into. They weren’t sure if they should be friends or how it would all work out with the family drama between their two families.

Overall, I really liked Comics Will Break Your Heart. There were a couple things that I wasn’t that into though, one being that I felt the ending was left unfinished because there was no real resolution to the whole TomorrowMen situation between the families.  I still had questions regarding that situation. That aspect of the story just didn’t feel resolved to me. Everything else in the story was great though. It was a cute, fun, geeky, and even had it’s emotional moments. I really liked the characters and friendships. Great story and I would recommend.

In case you missed it;
Random|| Life Update – New House!
WWW Wednesday #56.
Wrap Up|| January.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Random|| Life Update – New House!

lifeupdate

Hey!

Exciting news….the hubby and I did a thing…we bought a house on Friday (2/8)! We pretty much kept it secret and didn’t talk about it that much to anyone. I didn’t want to jinx things, because we really wanted this to work out! AND WELL….it did!

We are super stoked about it! We took a bunch of our stuff up there that we don’t use often. Funny story…so we brought an air mattress to sleep on, but forgot the air pump to blow it up. So I was like, okay, that’s okay. We have a big comforter we can lay on the the floor with….yeah, forgot that too. LMAO! So we had a ton of sheets and throw blankets to sleep on. Not the best sleep, but it is what it is. HAHA. We aren’t bringing our bed or other furniture until next weekend or the weekend after that.

My mom and aunt ended up coming on Saturday afternoon though and we went out to Walmart to get some stuff. She ended up buying us a couch/futon. It’s a futon, but when folded up it looks like a couch. It is really comfy and it’s really cute. She also bought a couple of air mattresses too, so next time we are good to go until we get all of our stuff up there! It’s currently about 3.5-4 hours from where we currently live.  Don’t mind the mess, we are moving in HAHA. 😛 We spent pretty much all Saturday morning cleaning and doing other things around the house until my mom and aunt got there.

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I haven’t taken any inside pictures yet (besides the one above), but I will probably do that once we are settled in. The weekend was just just crazy busy doing a ton of different things and I guess just taking it all in, because it’s like a huge step in our lives. It’s super cool though! We have SO MUCH space. It’s three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and there’s a bonus room (which we will use like a second living room/family room). The “bonus room” is actually pictured above. We already have a list of things we want to do, haha. That’ll be fun. 😛 We ate lunch on a piece of cardboard Sunday hahah, so we wouldn’t get the floor messy and because we wanted to watch TV. My mom left her hot spot for us to watch TV until we got our own internet setup on Sunday.

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We’ll be going back up Friday night to do some more cleaning and hopefully more organizing of things. The living room when you walk into our house currently has so many boxes, so hopefully we get some things put away and more organized before we bring in the rest of our stuff in the next week or two.

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I took my smaller lens ball with me and got this pretty awesome picture of our house. I’m kind of obsessed with how great this picture turned out. We also have this HUGE tree in our backyard and I’m totally living for it. I already have plans to hang a hammock chair from it. Perfect reading spot while the pup runs around the yard, haha. The yard is fenced in, but we’ll be eventually getting a privacy fence, but for now it’s fine.

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Our house is more in the country side of town, which we actually like. Lots of good picture taking opportunities in the future, haha. Also, there are cows, goats, and horses and lots of woods too. One house across the street before turning into our neighborhood has three goats in their front yard, LOL. The next few pictures aren’t the best quality because we were driving and I didn’t have my zoom lens on my Nikon or the correct setting, but here is some of the area. I definitely plan to get more later this week.

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So we’re now homeowners which is pretty neat! This year is going to be pretty crazy for us. New house, new city, but we’re super stoked to see what happens. We have so much work to do with packing, moving, unpacking so I may not be around too much like I mentioned previously. I apologize in advance! I didn’t even get to read that much this week, which sucked! Hopefully I can finish at least one book this week. I’m halfway through Crooked Kingdom, so I would love to be able to finish that one this week. Guess we’ll see what happens!

In case you  missed it;
WWW Wednesday #56.
Wrap Up|| January.
Book Haul|| January.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

WWW Wednesday #56.

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!

I haven’t done one of these posts since October of last year, YIKES! 😛 I figured I might as well get back into them, because it’s fun to share my reading progress throughout the month and to check out everyone else’s! Here are the books that I’ve been reading this week and ones that I hope to read really soon.

Currently Reading:

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Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
A Soldier and a Liar by Caitlin Lochner

Trying to stay on top of series this year by continuing them instead of putting them to the side after reading the first book, so I picked up Crooked Kingdom ASAP after reading Six of Crows. So far I really like it. I was sent an ARC of A Soldier and a Liar, so I am reading that one as well. It’s being released this month, so I want to get it read and reviewed ASAP. So far it’s pretty interesting. I’m only about 60 pages into it.


Recently Finished:

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The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

I read Rupi’s book Milk and Honey last year, so I wanted to check out more of her work. I flew through the poems in The Sun and Her Flowers. They were good and I liked them. I really liked the illustrations that went along with some of the poems as well.


Reading Next:

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Just for Clicks by Kara McDowell
The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena

These are both ARCs that are releasing this month, so I want to get them read and reviewed. I am really looking forward to the both of them. I don’t know exactly when I will get to them since I am really busy this month with other life things, but I will for sure be reading these two next as soon as I finish my two current reads.

What are you currently reading? Recently finished? Reading next? Have you read any of these books? Feel free to link me to your posts, so I can check them out!

I mentioned in my wrap up post how this month was going to be crazy busy with packing and moving, so I am pretty much just trying to fit in reading and blogging when I can. It’s going to be a little hectic this month, sigh. Hopefully things get back to normal in March though.

In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| January.
Book Haul|| January.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Giveaway Winners!

sociallyawkwardbookwormorange

Hey!

Thank you to everyone that entered my giveaway and for supporting me and my blog! It means a lot to me that I’ve met so many awesome people on here and that so many of you love my blog. 🙂 I so badly wish I could buy everyone a book, but sadly I can’t. If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry though! I’ll have another giveaway again later this year. I used a website that randomly chooses a name for you called “comment picker” and the winners are:

Marie from Drizzle & Hurricane Books
Ashley from Part Time Book Nerd

Congrats! 🙂

I will definitely be having a another book giveaway soon, so be on the look out. Thank you again for entering my giveaway and following my blog. It means a lot to me!

In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| January.
Book Haul|| January.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyblack