As a mom of four I don’t always get time to read in a cozy book space, but I decided to make one anyways. It’s incredibly inviting and even if I can’t read as much as I want to, when I have the time I can choose to curl up here.
You don’t need to go shopping and spend a ton of money to create a space that’s all for you. I shopped my house for everything here!
1.Shop your house!
This chair was in our bedroom and honestly it became a dumping ground for laundry pretty quickly. Moving it in here served two purposes, it gave me a cozy seat next to my bookshelf and cleared up our bedroom.
2. Add some art
I’ve had this piece of book art since Christmas! It was a gift from my husband and I just didn’t know where to hang it. Luckily this shelf was in storage and I repurposed a frame I had to add it to my space. I placed a new special edition book from my favorite author next to it and a small candle. Simple yet elegant.
3. Create a TBR cart
I started something new this year, an immediate TBR cart. I still have a rather large amount of back list books on my shelves, but I decided every time I get something new it goes on this cart. That way when I need something to read I can reach here and chip away at the books I already own.
I’m using a cart from IKEA here, but I’ve seen these same designs at Michaels. You can also use a side table or just simple make a pretty stack on the floor. I love a good book stack.
4. Add plants
This one step completely changed my book space! There’s just something special about nature and adding it into your space brings it alive. I grabbed a few plants I already owned and brought them in here for some extra greenery. It makes the space feel fresh and lived in.
Making a cozy space to read doesn’t have to be anything grand. You can simple add a pile of books next to your favorite chair with a cozy blanket and read until your hearts content. Do you have a dedicated reading spot? I would love to hear about it.
Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all―until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.
Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate. When they glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.
Review:
I love this style of writing with multiple perspectives, but not too many. It was just the right amount of back and forth without the confusion. I thought Avery’s character was the most interesting. She was edgy but sophisticated and could take care of herself. On the other hand I didn’t enjoy Marissa as much. I can see how her character was meant to be a little weak and vulnerable, but I found it hard to care for her.
There are a lot of side stories and characters that help round out this book. They keep things interesting and added enough intrigue that I found myself needing to know more. Once you think you know where things are headed your’e thrown a twist that changes everything.
I’ll be honest, a couple of times I thought I had it all figured out and I turned out to be wrong. It wasn’t until one clue at the end that it all came together for me before the big reveal. That’s how I like a thriller. I want to be taken in the wrong direction as long as possible to make the reveal that much sweeter.
If you like a little martial drama and an unsolved murder from the past, you’ll likely enjoy this one! It’s a slow burn in the beginning, but stick with it, you won’t be disappointed.
Seasonal Fears, the sequel to Middlegame, takes you on a journey through another parallel world where the seasons are much more than they seem. Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my review.
Melanie is a cheerleader, her boyfriend is on the football team and besides her failing heart her life seems pretty great. Harry loves her, and would do anything to protect her, and he might just get the chance sooner than he thought. Without warning they are thrust into a new world full of violence and unexplainable magic that has their heads spinning.
The intricacies of this world are beyond anything I could ever come up with. This is the complex world in Middlegame on steroids. There are familiar concepts including alchemy, but there is also an entirely new direction, each layer being peeled away to reveal more complexities.
The side characters became just as important, if not more important, than the main characters because they are the ones explaining everything to us. Without their detail we would surely be lost. I can see how that may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I love detail in a book.
The book felt a little slow throughout and then the ending rushed by so quick I felt cheated. I would have preferred less in the middle and a more drawn out ending as that was what the entire book was building up to. That being said I look forward to more from this world and I’m curious to see which direction the next one takes.
SYNOPSIS
The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins!
Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul.
Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world.
So, when a new road is laid out in front of them―a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together―walking down it seems to be the only option.
But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts.
It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all….
“One must maintain a little bit of summer even in the middle of winter.” ―Thoreau
A man who can’t remember who he is wakes up injured and alone in an apocalyptic world. That first line made me want to read this book, but it turned out to go in a direction I wasn’t expecting. If you go into this book hoping for an apocalyptic story you’ll get parts of that with a strange narrative built in. I don’t want to spoil the direction this story takes by saying too much, but it’s not the traditional apocalypse story.
The inner dialogue of our main character, who doesn’t get a name until the end of the story, is often at times uncomfortable and a little crazy. It doesn’t feel grounded, his thoughts are distracted and sometimes disturbing. As the books progresses you start to understand his state of mind better, but in the beginning it’s a wild ride.
For the majority of the book we’re left wondering if he has lost his mind. There are constant flash backs to a normal life he had and it makes the reader want to know what happened to this guy, how did he end up like this. His mind was very crumbly and fragile.
I think there were several important topics by the end of this book. It’s a shame the beginning with the uneasy dialogue lost me. The ending was poetic and deals with grief and friendship. It’s hard for me to rate this one. While I liked the story as a whole, I didn’t enjoy the ride to get to the end.
This is one of those books where you have to decide if you want to go on the ride. It’s weird and uncomfortable and tragic and sad, but if you can make it through it has a glimmer of hope.
If you’re looking for a hauntingly beautiful and poetic story this one is for you. It’s a mystery wrapped up in a series of journal entries and new discoveries made by our main character, Olivia.
SYNOPSIS
Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for Girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home; it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile, or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways.
Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from.
Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?
REVIEW
This was a slow start for me, but I cared so much about the story and the characters I couldn’t stop reading. Olivia was an easy character to feel for, her story is tragic but her determination is powerful.
As a person who loves journaling, I was really intrigued by the mysterious journal entires scattered throughout. The look into her mother’s journal was probably my favorite part! It was like trying to solve a puzzle.
I will say this book is frightening! You have your fair share of super creepy ghosts and monsters in this story and V.E. Schwab’s writing brings them to life in a terrifying way. I was completely creeped out and curious at the same time.
The ending was poetic. There is no other way to describe it. I don’t cry when reading books, but this ending had me drowning in my feels. I gave this book 5 stars! It’s a little slow but oh so beautiful.
If you’re reading this you might be in the lowest of low places right now; a reading funk. To an avid reader this is worst case scenario, bottom of the barrel, a disaster. You may have four books on your night stand right now that you’ve started but never finished. The book store still calls to you, so you buy more, but they wind up on that teetering TBR pile threatening to consume you whole. You want to read but once you start something happens, something unexplanable that causes your mind to drift and before you know it you’re slowly setting your new book down. This is a major problem.
If I just described you, know that you’re not alone. I was just there. I think I was also in a blogging funk because hello, it’s been a while! When they say life gets in the way, they aren’t kidding. I feel like I’m getting my groove back and I wanted to share a few tips for helping you get yours back as well.
Tip #1 Put Down that Phone!
This one may seem pretty obvious, but when you actually pay attention to it you’ll realize it’s a huge problem! It’s so tempting, having everything at your fingertips, all the beautiful book pictures on Instagram, the reading vlogs of people doing exactly what you SHOULD be doing, and the endless scrolling of social media acting like a black hole sucking you further in. When I started to pay attention to how often I was on my phone I was quite honestly pretty embarrassed. There were so many times I was endlessly scrolling instead of reading. I was waisting away precious minutes looking at what seemed like the same thing on repeat. I promise you, you won’t miss out on that much when you step away from the device. It will all still be there when you return.
I started leaving my phone in another room so I wouldn’t be tempted to pick it up. Seems silly when you think about it right? I’m a grown adult who takes care of three kids, pays my bills, and keeps my household running, but I had to set a limit for myself. With my phone in another room it was much easier than I thought. Out of sight, out of mind. That saying is pretty true. If I left my phone next to me it was almost as if it was calling to me with it’s little light up screen and constant notifications. So I banished it to another room and it freed up my mind to concentrate on other things.
Tip #2 Read an Old Favorite
Ahhhh the feeling of nostalgia, it’s like coming home after a long trip. It feels safe, happy and familiar. Most people think of places or people when they think of the word “nostalgia”, but us bookworms think of our favorite read. Whether it’s your favorite childhood chapter book or your top pick for last year, it’s nice to revisit an old friend. Because that’s what books are to us, friends who sat with us during moments of joy and moments of sadness. They were there for us in the middle of night, under the covers while we couldn’t sleep. They kept us entertained on long trips and on the edge of our seats in anticipation. Sometimes all you need to get out of your reading funk is to revisit an old world full of characters you already know and love. They’re always waiting, ready to take you on that epic adventure once again.
Tip #3 Be apart of the Hype
In the book world there is such thing as “hype”. It can be good or bad, but one thing is for sure people who are hyped about a book are some pretty passionate people. Those people aren’t in a reading funk, in fact they are exactly the type of people you need right now. Their excitement about a new release is contagious. They will pull you right out of the depths of despair and get you so excited you may even start sporting some new gear to match your new book obsession. Whether it’s a new release or a long anticipated sequel, find those people who are passionately waiting for it to come out. The best place for a bookworm is surrounded by other bookworms right? Those are your people.
Sometimes a reading funk can last days or weeks or even months! But don’t worry, we seem to all go through it and somehow we return to or old selves once again. Your books will always be waiting for you.
Lovely Reader Girl 