ARC provided by Forever through NetGalley. This proves it: Abby Jimenez cannot write a bad book. I loved reading Part of Your World way more than I had anticipated. The writing was absolutely phenomenal. Abby Jimenez is… More
BOOK REVIEW: The Roughest Draft – Emily Wibberly & Austin Siegemund-Broka
ARC provided by Berkley through NetGalley.
As I’ve begun to grow out of reading YA novels, I was super excited to see Wibbroka writing an adult romance. It’s no secret these two can seriously write and The Roughest Draft was no exception. The concept of the story was great and the chemistry between Katrina and Nathan was definitely palpable in the later half. However, the book is not without its issues.
Unfortunately, the book dragged for a majority of the story. It felt like it took forever to get to the actual meat of the story. The second problem I had while reading was the way in which ‘past’ scenes were written. I always appreciated flashbacks chapters in stories like this, but the way they were placed in the story felt really disjointed. The tone/setting of them also felt so similar to what was happening in the present that I would occasionally get confused.
The Roughest Draft is a great concept. Even with the small issues I had, I still really enjoyed reading this and would definitely recommend to fans of Wibbroka or contemporary romances in general. I hope this duo sticks to adult books and I look forward to reading what they write next!
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ½
A Year in Review | 2021 Reading Stats
Hello everyone and welcome to another review of my reading habits this year! Last year was the first year I looked at all my reading stats at the end of the year and I really enjoyed do that, so I decided to do it again. My only and biggest gripe this year was that I was totally on track to reach my goal–I only needed to read THREE books in the entire month of December–but my brain decided to once again have another huge reading slump and I couldn’t even manage that.
I also wanted to break down my reading habits between the first half of the year vs. the second, because I felt like they were totally different. I read way less in the first half, and it felt like I was reading more adult titles and hardly any fantasy books (definitely no fantasy that I liked, at least).
TOTAL NUMBER OF BOOKS READ: 97 / 100
PAGES READ: 38,168
LONGEST BOOK: 645 pages
SHORTEST BOOK: 154 pages
AVERAGE RATING: 3.7 stars
MOST READ GENRE:
This year it’s a tie between fantasy and contemporary romance, and while I’m not too surprised by those results, I am surprised fantasy was that high of a percentage. I was surprised by the big chunk of erotica, although that can be blamed on #smutok 😂
MOST READ AGE GROUP:
A complete difference from years in the past! This is the first year I’ve ever read more adult titles than young adult, and it’s not by a small margin either. In recent years I could feel myself growing away from young adult and now I have the stats to back it up. I still enjoy reading YA books, but I’m honestly much more pickier about which ones I want to read and tend to stick to well beloved authors and series that I’ve already started.
MOST READ FORMATS:
Unsurprisingly, I once again read mostly e-books on my Kindle. I got a library card after I moved into my apartment and I’ve been borrowing a lot more books from the library this year. My goal was to read at least 25% of my books with a physical copy but I did not reach that at all…I actually think I read less physical books 🙈
Another huge change in my reading habits from previous years was the number of ARCs I read. My number decreased by half this year! This was because not only was I not requesting as many titles on NetGalley, but in-person book events are really the only way for me to get physical ARCs and since those have been cancelled for the last two years….💁🏻♀️
I’m looking forward to another year of reading some wonderful books and I can’t wait to see how my stats compare at the end of 2022!
Top Ten Tuesday: Book Covers with Flowers & Foliage
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is a freebie. I’ve always been drawn to covers with bursts of flowers on the cover. I think they’re so pretty. For today’s post, I decided to round up some of my favorite covers with flowers and foliage!
ARC REVIEW: Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves – Meg Long
ARC provided by Wednesday Books.
Sled racing, a frozen planet, and wolves? I don’t believe there’s another book out there as perfectly tailored to my wants and needs as Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. I’ve made it very clear in the past that if the title says “wolves” or “wolf” there is a one hundred percent chance of me reading it and this was no exception. I was so excited for a story about the bond between a wolf and girl, especially one that features sled racing (I mean, I named my husky Balto for crying out loud).
The worldbuilding is definitely the book’s strong point. The author did an amazing job creating a setting that was both believable and imaginative. The vivid descriptions easily bring to mind images of an inhospitable frozen planet and the feel of the sharp sting of cold winds on your face. It was so easy to feel transported into the story while reading. The entirety of the setting of Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves was detailed, well thought out, and excellently written.
I was truly expecting to love everything and anything about this book, but the pacing of the story needed some work. The actual sled race doesn’t happen until well past the halfway mark. The beginning half of the story spent way too long setting up for the events of the second half and I was getting frustrated. I felt like the same plot line was reused multiple times: Sena angers her boss, Sena runs away from her boss, Sena has to go back because she needs something–rinse and repeat until the race begins. My expectations of the story were hoping for a book that spent a majority of time following Sena and Iska during the sled race as they fought for survival in the deadly elements of their world.
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a debut that I still highly recommend, despite my personal shortcomings. The worldbuilding and atmosphere of the novel is phenomenally written and who can resist a book about the bond between a wolf and girl and a deadly sled race?
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ½
YALLFest 2021: Book Events are Back!
In-person author signings and book events are finally back and I could not be more excited! YALLFest took place this past weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. I started making plans to head back to Charleston as soon as I saw the announcement that YALLFest would be back this year. I hadn’t been in a few years (last year was cancelled, the year before I was in school) so it was doubly exciting for me.
Continue reading “YALLFest 2021: Book Events are Back!”
Paws & Paperbacks 