So, my birthday is in less than 2 weeks (July 7th! Gah!) and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk about the 10 books that are currently at the top of my wishlist! I've taken these all directly from my current Amazon Wishlist (*wink* to any family reading this) which is ridiculously long... I know.

1. The Fate of the Tearling: I know this isn't out until November, but I want it! It's my most anticipated book of the year and I cannot wait for it be in my hands. Right now I'd settle for a pre-order ;)
2. The Magician's Trilogy Boxed Set: Such a good series! I ready through these a while back, but I really want a set of my own. 
3. The Last Star: Um, yes! I need to finish this series. I need to know what happens to Cassie and Evan Walker and everyone else.
4. A Court of Thorns and Roses: Already read this one, but if I'm going to have Mist and Fruy, need a complete set right?
5. A Court of Mist and Fury: I don't think I can wait any longer to read part two of Feyre and Rhysand's story! I keep seeing everyone gush over it and I don't want to be spoiled. 

1. Uprooted: I keep seeing Uprooted pop up in my feed, winning awards, and getting lots of great feedback, not to mention it sounds like a great story. So I figured why not give it a shot?
2. Passenger: Passenger is part cover buy, part synopsis. It has mixed reviews, but it sounds interesting to me!
3. Rebel of the Sands: Sounds oh so intriguing, has been on my list for a while, and look at the gorgeous cover! Look at it!
4. Wink Poppy Midnight: I've heard tons of great things about Wink Poppy Midnight and I'm looking forward to crossing it off my tbr.
5. This Savage Song: VE Schwab is an instant read/buy author for me, so it was really a no-brainer.

Okay, there's a large amount of exclamation points in this post. Do you have a wishlist? Have you read any of these? Do you agree with any of my choices? Or completely disagree? I'd love to hear your take! Especially if you've read any of these!

Where to even begin with this review? Many, many people have touted The Serpent King as the book of the year, and I wouldn’t say they’re wrong. This book has received a ton of praise and it is worth every bit of it. To put it plainly, The Serpent King broke my heart.

It’s a beautifully written, emotional roller coaster that I cannot recommend more. I know I recommend books all the time (more often than not), but hear me out. Jeff Zentner took all of my feelings, crushed them, and yet here I am telling you to READ. THIS. BOOK. Do it. You will not regret it.





Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is content where he is thanks to his obsession with an epic book series and the fangirl turning his reality into real-life fantasy.

Their diverging paths could mean the end of their friendship. But not before Dill confronts his dark legacy to attempt to find a way into the light of a future worth living.









Life in small town, rural America is not easy by any means, but Dill Early’s life is not one that I envy in any way. I could not imagine growing up with Dill’s parents or his lifestyle. The amount of extreme religion, bordering on fanaticism, that ruled their lives and skewed their judgment was frightening – made even more so by the fact that this type of radicalism is alive and present in the real world. His parents viewed him as a tool; a sinner; something to be used, tread upon.

Luckily he had Lydia and Travis, his two and only friends, to help keep him going. Without them, he probably wouldn’t have made it through his narrow and confined life. Dill is a great person, who has faith in God but believes that his father’s and grandfather’s demons are in his blood and he can’t outrun them. When tragedy strikes their group, he has trouble fighting the darkness that threatens to take him under. The weight of obligation he feels to his parents and this life is dragging him under, and it’s only with his friends that he can see the light.

I loved their little trio. Such a vast and dynamic group that you wouldn’t expect to work so well together, but they just clicked. Lydia is so outgoing with great parents, a wonderful home life, money, and a whole future in front of her. Travis is happy with his small town life and his love of an epic fantasy book series. He doesn’t fit a traditional southern mold, wearing a dragon necklace all the time and carrying around a staff. He doesn’t have a great home life, but he has plans for a better future for himself. Zentner wrote them all in a way that made them real, and raw, and human.

I was angry for Dill, that he didn’t have parents who supported him and who could be so selfish and cruel. It really made me take a step back to think about how lucky I am. While I don’t really see eye to eye with my parents on everything, at least they believe in and support me. I loved Lydia’s parents and I kept thinking, “I hope I’m like them when I have kids. I hope if my kids have friends in that type of situation, I’m that supportive, that understanding.” I wanted to yell at Travis’s dad that he was perfect and to get off his case. I literally had to turn the audiobook off while driving to work one morning because it was making me cry so much that 1. it wasn’t safe, and 2. it was ruining my makeup that I had just applied before I even got to work.

If my ratings scale went above 5 this one would go to 11. I will probably be recommending it to people until forever and will probably buy copies to slip into Little Free Libraries and to lend out.

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?


I listened to the audiobook of Fangirl and I’m glad I did. Rebecca Lowman is a great narrator and she has a way of bringing Rainbow Rowell’s characters to life in a way not many audio narrators can – she also narrator Eleanor and Park and I loved that one too. Okay, back to Cath and Fangirl.

Fangirl is a relatable story for most in that she’s from a dysfunctional family and she doesn’t know how she fits in the world. She has one thing she loves and knows well, Simon Snow, and doesn’t know how to give it up in her transition from childhood/high school into college/adulthood.

Cath is a major introvert. Fangirl explores her freshman year at college, which starts with her not on the greatest terms with her twin sister Wren – who is attending the same college. She’s big into Simon Snow, which is like Harry Potter in their world, but Harry Potter also exists – don’t ask. When I say she’s big into Simon Snow, I mean posters on her wall, commemorative busts on her desk, t-shirts, one of the most popular Simon Snow fan fiction writers out there. She and her sister used to collaborate together but Wren has drifted away from Simon and that world, wanting to “meet new people” and explore her new life. Cath wants the opposite of this. She wants to go to class and hole herself up in her room and talk to no one. She hates the world and basically everyone in it, including her roommate and her roommate’s boyfriend. Cath is witty and smart, but she’s also scared of the world. Through Fangirl you get to see her come out of her shell.

It’s a heartwarming story of a year of heartache, and pain, and growing. Rowell isn’t afraid to write about tough subjects like parents leaving or binge drinking because it’s taboo. It’s real life; it happens. It’s raw and emotional, and I appreciate that about her novels. I liked that Cath wasn’t afraid to say what she wanted, she wasn’t afraid to tell others that she wasn’t okay with something and she wasn’t afraid to stand by her convictions when it came to certain aspects of her life. BUT on the same token, she also knew when to forgive and when to move on.

All in all I have Fangirl 4 out of 5 stars because I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending. It left me with the, “Wait, it’s over? That’s it?!” feeling, and that’s just not okay!

The first installment of an adventure featuring stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies - think Doctor Who with librarian spies!

Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.









“Don’t be ridiculous…we may collect fiction, but we are not required to imitate the stupider parts of it.”

“…chases through the street, dangerously flamboyant personalities, [and] cyborg alligators” – this perfectly sums up the crazy whirlwind that is The Invisible Library. It truly took me by surprise. I went in expecting one thing, and the opening scene totally threw me for a loop. I was picturing Irene as the maid from The Leaky Cauldron in The Prisoner of Azkaban, then all of a sudden she’s being chased by gargoyles and running for a magic portal into the Library! From there the real story begins in earnest, and you get to see Irene in a whole new light.



The Library lives in this in-between place, between universes/dimensions/realities, that is also impervious to time. When in the library, you don’t age, and no one can be born or die. It’s a very interesting concept really. The Library has those that work for it – from what I gathered they recruit those that have no families; people who wouldn’t be missed. Librarians live long lives in their service, spending their younger years retrieving rare books from alternate worlds for the Library’s collection, and retiring to their research once they’re older (they age while out of the library). For the Library, and its Librarians, books matter above all else. They do not interfere in the worlds themselves.

Irene is unique in that both her parents are Librarians; she was raised with the Library. It’s all she’s ever wanted to be. After returning from her mission from the opening of the novel, she’s immediately assigned a new one, and a new assistant, Kai. Neither of them is prepared for this, or for the state of the alternate they’ve been assigned. Each alternate world is unique; there is magic, fae, werewolves, dragons, and all kinds of fictional and mythical creatures and the like in existence in different places, to varying degrees. In this particular world, chaos has taken hold and there’s a great deal of the supernatural. As the synopsis says, their mission is to retrieve a dangerous book, but by the time they arrive, the book has already been stolen. True to her job and love for the Library, Irene and Kai go undercover to find it and end up on a path that is far more dangerous than she ever dreamed.


As I said before, The Invisible Library took me by surprise. I went in not sure what really to expect and I ended up loving every minute of it. The story took so many twists and turns and was so full of imagination! The idea of multiple dimensions has always intrigued me, and the idea of this Library being at the center of it all it really interesting, but creepy at the same time. The Library has the ability to travel between the alternates, and possibly do real good and help people, but it won’t, all it cares about it its quest for knowledge and keeping itself hidden. I also really appreciate that the dimensions can be so wildly different, not just some are space age and some are like the dark ages, but some have magic and supernatural creatures. It's very steampunk crossed with magic and fantasy, with a good mix of all.


Overall, I give it a 5 out of 5! The writing was clever and on point. Cogman knew how to make me laugh out loud and keep me on the edge of my seat. I was able to guess a few of the twists but some I didn’t see coming at all. I have a few theories for book two, which I can’t wait to see if I’m right about! The great thing about The Invisible Library is that the whole series is already written and was released in the UK, so we won’t have to wait long between releases!

The Invisible Library is available June 14th with The Masked City, book two, scheduled to publish September 6th, and The Burning Page, book three, scheduled to publish on December 6th! How awesome is that?! So mark your calendars and add them to your TBR!

How was May for you? It's been a bit crazy here in Northern California. The weather has gone from mild, to 90 degree days, down to rainy and in the 50's, back to 106 deg by the end of this week. 106.



May was a successful month for me book-wise! I finished 13! Reviews of some are still to come, including Fangirl and The Invisible Library, but overall I'm happy with my numbers. This brings me to 56 books read for the year, well on my way to my initial goal of 100 for the year (and my secret ultimate goal of 120).

1. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine  5/5 🌟
2. Ruins by Dan Wells*  4/5 🌟
3. Rosie by Anne Lamott  2/5 🌟
4. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling* 2/5 🌟
5. The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry by Gabrielle Zevin  5/5 🌟
6. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith*  4/4 🌟
7. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell*  4/4 🌟
8. Ignite the Shadows by Ingrid Seymour 3.5 🌟
9. Lady  Midnight by Cassandra Clare  4/4 🌟
10. A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray* 3/5 🌟
11. Starflight by Melissa Landers  4/4 🌟
12. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews* 5/5 🌟
13. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman  5/5 🌟