Shadow and Bone Characters

Artist: @annaabolaart / @anna-abola-art

THE QUOTES 😭😭😭

I WANNA LISTEN TO YOU RECITE POETRY, TOLYA

I ALREADY MISS HIM

🪄The book: Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin

🪄Dates read: Feb. 14-15

🪄Thoughts (no spoilers): This book features a group of hilarious witches (yes this is romance but also fantasy, somewhat similar to the idea of Halloweentown but way better). Even thought this line is not particularly related to the book, I definitely take it to heart now whenever I am asked how I am doing. Fine really does equal feelings not expressed.

This romance was beautiful. Not only did I love the main characters but the supporting characters were also extremely well developed and I would 100% read stories about them as well. I will admit, this type of spicy was not my fav and I found it a bit uncomfortable to read. But the characters and plot itself was great and heartwarming.

🪄 "Tropes"/themes: long-time crush/interest, fantasy with different mythical creatures, small cutesy town, wedding of supporting characters

Rating: 🪄🪄🪄🪄

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

Witchful thinking goodreads

My goodreads

🔔The book: After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

🔔Date read: Jan. 29, 2023

🔔Thoughts (no spoilers): TJR has my heart what can I say. Even though I am not anywhere close to being married, I think about what would happen if I fell out of love with someone I married ALL THE TIME. What would I even do? How would I go on? This book addressed some of these concerns in terms of showing me an experience of a couple who were working through issues despite being madly in love with each other for a pretty long time. I love TJM because she takes what seem like mundane topics and translates them into gripping stories. This book was not perfect, but neither are relationships. I firmly believe that this book has reaffirmed the fact that things happen for a reason because even though the ending is anticipated it took a lot to get to it. This quote specifically shows that aspect in the book and that sometimes we need to take ourselves outside of the emotional moment.

🔔 Who I would recommend it to: people who like Reid, people thinking about the "opposite" end of love, people interested in marriage or even opposed to marriage.

Rating: 🔔🔔🔔

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

After I Do Goodreads

My goodreads

🌊The book: Beach Read by Emily Henry

🌊Dates read: Dec. 21-22, 2022

🌊Thoughts (no spoilers): ANOTHER EMILY HENRY. I GET IT BUT I'M NOT SORRY. I love a good romance, ESPECIALLY Emily Henry. This book is the epitome of sunshine and a grump fall in love with each other but Henry is able to develop deep characters with real struggles that they work through (and learn to understand) together. The banter in this book is unbelievably incredible and I was laughing out loud basically the entire time. I would love to know your thoughts about this because I know Emily Henry can be a hit or a miss!!

🌊 Who I would recommend it to: beach lovers, romance lovers, opposites attract, long-lasting feelings, michiganders!

Rating: 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

Beach Read Goodreads

My goodreads

👑The book: Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare

👑Dates read: Feb. 2-3, 2023

👑Thoughts (no spoilers): I have to admit that I am a Cassie Clare stan. Sometimes, I hate to admit how much of a hold she has on me and basically the world. But, we have to admit she has done so much to build characters we love and worlds that we want to know more about. There are MANY things I would like to sit down with Cassandra and talk about but if you want to talk about it in detail (and I mean IN DETAIL) please DM me. There is too much to say and no way without spoilers. Ultimately, I had to love this book. I've given too much to not love it but I think it is important to stay critical. All I really can say is that Alastair and Tom carried.

👑Who I would recommend it to: TBH I don't know there's just too much prior knowledge needed to enjoy this book.

Rating: 👑👑👑👑👑

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

Chain of Thorns Goodreads

My goodreads

🪟The book: A sky beyond the storm by Sabaa Tahir

🪟Dates read: July 24-August 8, 2022

🪟Thoughts (no spoilers): A Sky Beyond The Storm is the fourth and final installment in Sabaa Tahir's An Ember In The Ashes series. After reading this series over the course of years, I have so much respect for her and the world-building she has created. This series is one of the best fantasy YA series' out there because of how much effort and devotion has been put into these books. I have to admit, at the beginning of the series I was not as interested because of how deep it was but once you get into it, you can't stop. These are not light reads but they are 100% worth the time.

🪟 Who I would recommend it to: I would HIGHLY recommend reading the rest of the books but ultimately this is great for any deep fantasy lovers mixed with some beautiful characters and heartwrenching narratives.

Rating: 🪟🪟🪟🪟🪟

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

A Sky Beyond the Storm

My goodreads

📼The book: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

📼Dates read: Dec. 8, 2021- January 19, 2022

📼Thoughts (no spoilers): While this is not my favorite of her books, I think it is very representative of her style and I still appreciated it. I think that sometimes great books involve the reader wanting to yell and shake some sense into the characters which definitely occurred with me. There were multiple profound parts of this book which made me think about my own life and experience (including the chosen quote) which TJR always does *lowkey eye roll*. I personally loved the style of writing she chose for this book but it can definitely be a turn off for some so consider reading her other books even if this isn't your cup of tea! I am also very excited for the show!!! They will (hopefully) rock it!

📼 Themes/"tropes": Strong female main characters, rock and roll band (and the life that comes with that), a love triangle, struggling friendships/relationships

Rating: 📼📼📼📼

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

Daisy Jones and The Six Goodreads

My goodreads

🕯️The book: The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

🕯️Dates read: Dec. 21-22, 2022

🕯️Thoughts (no spoilers): I adored Becoming so I am pretty sure that I did not even read what this book was about before picking it up. This book is what I would consider a cross between a self-help book and a biography because it connects life lessons to experiences Obama has had in her life. I absolutely appreciate the diversity of stories ranging from her early life to what seems to be the present, demonstrating to the reader that learning is a constant process, even for the former first lady of the United States. Obama places herself as being different in a lot of the places she found herself including college, the white house, the workplace, and more. Even though most people will not have the same experiences as her, I think we can all connect to this idea of "otherness" and learn how to grow and embrace it.

🕯️ Who I would recommend it to: people who liked Becoming, those who like self-help books and biographies, fans of Michelle :)

Rating: 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

The Light We Carry Goodreads

My goodreads

🏆The book: Making a Scene by Constance Wu

🏆Date read: October 18, 2022

🏆Thoughts (no spoilers): Constance Wu is a great storyteller, this book had me hooked from the very beginning. I loved the diversity of stories she told ranging from throughout her life. She was very brave and honest with some of these stories and connected so many different ideas within. I hope that we get to read more from her and get a little glimpse into her mind. I also just learned about her, I love picking up random biographies of celebrities/famous people even if I haven't seen much that they have been in because they often provide interesting insights and ideas, and Wu is a great example of this.

🏆 *Tropes*/themes: "Hollywood" biographies, making it as an actress, struggles of being a public figure, situationships(?)

Rating: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

Making a Scene Goodreads

My goodreads

📖The book: Book Lovers by Emily Henry

📖Dates read: June 27, 2022; June 29-July 7, 2022

📖Thoughts (no spoilers): Yes I read this twice one immediately after the other. I am a huge Emily Henry fan and while this wasn't my favorite of her books, I still loved it very much. The characters felt very different from her others and overall very hilarious, adorable, and wholesome scenes come from these wonderful people. It really made me consider what I would do if a loved one passed because Nora really took us through her journey. There are so many quotes that I loved from this book (which you can see on my Goodreads) but I chose this one because everyone on booklr to an extent feels this way about books and it general characterizes why I continue to read! (Also where I got the name of this blog!)

📖 "Tropes"/general themes: Enemies to lovers, small town charm, book lovers!!!!!, characters working through the passing of a loved one

Rating: 📖📖📖📖📖

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

Book Lovers goodreads

My goodreads

❤️‍🔥The book: Misfit in Love by S.K. Ali

❤️‍🔥Dates read: Jan. 25-Feb. 2, 2022

❤️‍🔥Thoughts (no spoilers): This quote to be honest seems like it has nothing to do with the premise of the book but I think it is actually very representative because of how the romance is set up. I absolutely loved this novel because of how hilarious, and beautifully developed the characters were. It is very different from the romance books I would say I usually see being promoted (this is not *steamy* because of some of the cultural/religious beliefs the characters have and I think we need to have diverse representations of intimacy in this genre). This is not the only book by S.K. Ali that I loved so I think that there is so much to be explored from her works.

❤️‍🔥 Who I would recommend it to: Wholesome modest romance, people who want to read about Muslim main characters, a wedding in the background (aka you love love :))

Rating: ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you

❤️‍🔥Misfit in Love Goodreads

My goodreads

💞The book: The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan

💞Dates read: June 23-24

💞Thoughts (no spoilers): This is the second book I have read by Rosie Danan and I have to say that I love her style. She creates amazingly interesting characters and develops them to push each other and grow internally and intimately. Personally, I felt like I was learning about the experiences Ethan described along with Naomi and overall just broadened my understanding of Judaism. Of course, this is pretty spicy in an amazing way and I recommend this book for anyone looking for a cozy read.

💞 Who I would recommend it to: Strong female main characters, s*x positive experience, heartwarming romance

Rating: 💞💞💞💞

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💞

The Intimacy Experience goodreads

My goodreads

Note: this quote was cut down for coherence but the words are Rosie Danan's.

⭐The book: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

⭐Dates read: Sept. 12, 2022

⭐Thoughts (no spoilers): I am an avid Taylor Jenkins Reid fan which has definitely influenced my thoughts. I also think that if I was not a tennis fan I would not have liked it as much as I did. But it provides a very different narrative for the tennis female athlete, and female athletes overall in terms of name-calling, expectations, skill level, and social appearance. Also very relevant with Serena Williams and other greats that I grew up with retiring and the magnanimity of choosing what to do after you "lose" what you worked for. I appreciate the unique take this book has and explores important ideals female athletes face frequently.

⭐ Who I would recommend it to: Tennis lovers, tragic romance lovers, people who want to explore themes of grief

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

With love,

M (aka @book-lover-recommends)

P.S. please comment/reach out to me with any feedback, comments, or questions. I would love to hear from you 💛

Carrie Soto is Back goodreads

My goodreads