Top Ten Books I Loved But Will (Probably) Never Re-Read

(This meme is actually hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl now, but I am far too lazy to make a new graphic)

I'm quite fond of re-reading, even if I don't do it as often as I'd like. But there are some books that, no matter how wonderful they were, I can't see myself picking up again. Never say never, though!! Who knows what mood will strike me in the future?

Tbh, this topic was really tough because I was going through my Goodreads and kept saying, "Okay, well I wouldn't mind reading that one again!!" with every single book. I had to get cutthroat and make some decisions.

BUT IF YOU HAVE NOT READ ANY OF THESE NOVELS FOR THE FIRST TIME YET, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!

1) Wither by Lauren DeStefano - This was a solid 4-star series for me. I binged it. I enjoyed it a lot. (Check out my review of Wither) I can't see myself re-reading it, though. It was an in-the-moment read for me. I don't find myself missing the characters or the world.

2) Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven - I rated this 4.5 stars. The romance was cute and geeky and there was a lot of body positivity represented in this novel. I just don't feel the urge to give it another go.

3) When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon - Another 4-star read for me. I really loved the characters and the story and I definitely recognize how important this novel is, in terms of diversity. However, I think that I, personally, got what I wanted out of it the first time around. I can't wait to read the companion novel, though!!

4) Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies by Laura Stampler - Once again, I gave this 4 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed traipsing through New York in this novel (unfortunately, not in real life) and the engaging writing. This was just a quick, light read, and I will remember it fondly, but I don't think I'll be revisiting it. (My review!)

5) Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - I will always regard this series as one of my all-time favorites. It's been years since I read it, and I really don't remember much that happens in it, but I was in looove with it as I was reading. There are 2 reasons I can't see myself re-reading it, though. Firstly, that's a commitment. This series has 4 books and they are all clunkers. Secondly, I'm very afraid I won't like it anymore and I refuse to let that happen.

6) Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver - Lauren Oliver is one of my ultimate favorite authors. Her prose is gorgeous, and this novel is no exception. It's absolutely beautiful and it made me SOB when I read it. But I'm afraid this is the kind of novel that loses its effect after the first read. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not going to take that chance. This is one of those novels that I'm not committed to NOT re-reading, though.

7) The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh - I don't know that I'd even describe this novel as good. I remember having a lot of issues/questions while I was reading, but I could. not. stop. It was such an addicting read and I ate up every second of it. But, again, I think I got what I wanted out of it the first time I read it. I have not read the second installment yet, but I want to. Even still, this novel does not have a particularly complex story, so I don't think I'd feel the need to re-read it once I get my hands on the sequel.

8) Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick - Just talking about this series makes me cackle a little bit because this is another one of those series I was SUPER INTO when my reading habits were just beginning to form. I think I might hate it and cringe to death if I went back and re-read it, but I will always hold it in my heart. I do still own the entire series, though, so maybe one day I'll give it a go for nostalgia's sake.

9) An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson - This is one of my more recent reads and it was absolutely delectable. I couldn't tear myself away. I'm pretty sure I read it all in one sitting. But I just don't think it's the kind of book I'd want to re-read.

10) Just One Day by Gayle Forman - I remember really enjoying this one but also finding it a bit slow. I think Gayle Forman is a brilliant writer, and this is probably the book I'm most unsure of.

Top Seven Underrated Books I've Read In The Past Year Or So

One of my favorite things to do is push underrated books, so I got really excited about this topic. However, much to my dismay, I could only find seven lesser-known gems taht I've read within the past year to recommend to y'all today.

We Own the Night by Ashley Poston - (my review)
This novel is so sweet. It also has bi representation, and deals with Alzheimer's, body image, and death of a loved one. Very cute and touching. I have been singing this book's praises since the second I finished it, and I wish more people would read it.

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell - (my review)
This book is good as shit, I tell you what. A peter pan retelling of sorts that is vastly different from the tale you probably heard as a kid. With a dark Neverland, a lush romance, and PIRATESSSS, this is not a book you want to sit out.

Thicker Than Water by Brigid Kemmerer - (my review)
Literally nobody talks about this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! The voices of the two protagonists are incredible and funny and HELLO NEW SHIP.

Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies by Laura Stampler - (my review)
This was a fantastic light, fluffy read with a New York City backdrop.

Beyond the Red by Ava Jae - (my review)
THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC. Please, just...more people read it, please. Aliens and romance and non-stop action!!!! The writing is incredible. This deserves way more attention than it has gotten and I can;t wait for the sequel.

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman - (my review)
Oh my oh my do I love this book. I am HIGHLY anticipating the sequel because that ending left me in pieces. And I know the next book is going to be full of all the swashbuckling I crave in YA.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley - (my review)
This was actually a recent re-read but it was SO AMAZING and in the entire time it has been out (since 2010 in Aussie and 2012 in the U.S.) I've rarely heard people talking about it, but IT'S BEAUTIFUL and deserves all the love forever and ever.

Christmasing Book Titles

Christmas is tomorrow!!!!! Holy crap!!!!!! In an effort to get you as utterly excited as I am (and if you're already excited, at least fuel the fire a little bit), I've taken the liberty of Christmasifying some book titles (and adjusting the covers accordingly)!

Some of these are better than others, I know.

ME BEFORE YULETIDE BY JOJO MOYES

in which a twenty-something woman transforms from unemployed and overly cautious to unemployed and a little adventurous thanks to Christmas magic. 

AMY AND ROGER'S EGGNOG DETOUR BY MORGAN MATSON

in which two teens on their way to Grandma's house go out of their way to find a grocery store and get some eggnog. 

BEYOND THE RED NOSE REINDEER BY AVA JAE

in which Rudolph struggles to be more than what the media portrays

NORTHANGEL ABBEY BY JANE AUSTEN

in which an English girl is convinced there is an angel lurking the halls of her friend's mansion

A COURT OF TINSEL AND RIBBONS BY SARAH J. MAAS

in which a malicious Christmas elf is very protective of his pretty decorations

LITTLE BLACK DRESSES, LITTLE WHITE LIGHTS BY LAURA STAMPLER

in which a trendy teenager struggles for hours to untangle a strand of Christmas lights

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PRETTY CAROLS BY RANSOM RIGGS

in which only the best singers are privy to this strange home as they use their angelic voices to defeat grinches everywhere

A MISTLETOE CALLS BY PATRICK NESS

in which a young boy fights the urge to kiss meet his first crush under the mistletoe for his first kiss

ALL THE BRIGHT POINSETTIAS BY JENNIFER NIVEN

in which readers will learn everything there is to know about poinsettias. 

THE FRUITCAKE IN OUR STOCKING BY JOHN GREEN

in which two teenagers receive fruitcake so horrible they both fall ill

WE OWN THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS BY ASHLEY POSTON

in which all through the house, not a creature was stirring...except a group of mischievous teens desperate to find out what presents await for them under the tree. 

Just a note: this post was not meant to be making fun of these books in any way whatsoever. These are all books I really enjoyed reading and I had a lot of fun thinking about what their Christmased version would be. 

I want to hear your Christmased book titles. 
Bonus points if you tell me what the book would be about! 

Book Aesthetics #1: Summer Books

I am definitely not the first person to do book aesthetics. I see it on twitter and tumblr and pretty much everywhere, and I always think they're so interesting, so I figured I'd try my hand.

In honor of my summer break from school being over, I figured I'd do aesthetics for some of my favorite books that take place in summer. This is the first time I've ever done these, so I'm sorry if they're not very good.

I do not own any of these images. I found all of them on Google.

Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies by Laura Stampler

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

We Own the Night by Ashley Poston

My favorite one is definitely the last one! 

Let me know what you think and which one is your favorite. Also, let me know if you think I should do this again!

Top Ten Books With A Memorable Setting

So I know that for today's topic I was supposed to pick a specific setting, but that was too difficult so I took a different route.

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider - This will forever be one of the coolest settings of all time--a half-hospital/half-boarding school for teens suffering from a new, incurable strain of tuberculosis.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - I love Gatlin, the southern Gothic town this series takes place in! I really enjoyed learning all the town intricacies and quirks. And, of course, the underground community of witches.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - Who can forget New Pretty Town, a place for all the new Pretties to go and party & live in mansions & drink champagne. They can essentially do whatever they want as long as they don't question the surgery to make them Pretty.

Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies by Laura Stampler - I know that New York City has been written about loads of times, but there was something about this book that really put me in New York and made me feel like I was there. MY REVIEW.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - Not only does this take place in Wales, but it takes place in 1940s Wales with a house full of fantastical creatures. MY REVIEW.

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell - If you want to travel to a dark Neverland that shifts and changes at random, this is the book for you. MY REVIEW.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Cuz Panem.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I just adored reading about the Amsterdam adventures in this book! I'm fairly certain I've never read anything else that takes place in Amsterdam.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare - THE LONDON INSTITUTE <33333

And I Darken by Kiersten White - Somehow I always find a way to talk about this book. Because it's fantastic. And part of what makes it so spectacular is the setting. I mean, come on, THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE! MY REVIEW.

July Recap

Time to reflect on my month! 

Okay, July was not my most eventful month! I hung out with my friends quite a bit--going swimming, to the movies, out to eat, etc. I also went to Silver Dollar City (which is a theme park near me), and I saw Kian Lawley & Jc Caylen (famous YouTubers) on tour. 

Thanks to BookTube-A-Thon, I did much more reading than usual, which is wonderful! However, there was a point that I slipped into a blogging slump and had a lot of trouble finding the motivation to blog. I've conquered that, though, and I've come back with lots of fun stuff planned for August! 

ANYWAY. 

Reviews: 

Top Ten Tuesdays:  Top Ten Books With Less Than 2,000 Ratings On Goodreads Ten Fun Facts About Me Top Ten Books That Take Place Outside The U.S. Top Ten Books That Have Inspired Me Summer Blog Promo Tour:  Peyton from A Bookish Mess: Hobbies Jessica from The Book Bratz: Music & Dancing Flo from Book Nerds Across America: Interview Brooke from The Cozy Little Book Nook: Contemporary Novels Kat from Perks Of Being A Book Nerd: Scavenger Hunt
Misc. Posts:  Cover Reveal: Long Way Home by Katie McGarry Live and Let Psi Book Blitz: Giveaway and Interview with D.R. Rosensteel 61 (Non-Spoilery) Thoughts I Had While Re-Reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver  (this is like my favorite thing I posted this month!!)

Followers: 

Bloglovin - 67 (gained 9)

GFC - 16 (gained 2) 

Twitter - 181 (gained 60)

Instagram - 49 (gained 8)

Facebook - 4 likes (gained 1)

YouTube - 73 (gained 42)

Total pageviews - 9,910 (gained 2658)

Books read: 9

5 paperback | 1 hardcover | 3 eARC

Book with the most pages: Delirium by Lauren Oliver (441 pages)

Books with the least pages: Defending Taylor by Miranda Kenneally (304 pages)

Total Pages read: 3,169

Books reviewed: 6

1 star reviews: 0

2 star reviews: 0

3 star reviews: 2

4 star reviews: 2

4.25 star reviews: 1

5 star reviews: 1

Average rating: 3.875 stars

Most popular review:

by pageviews - 

And I Darken by Kiersten White

This is a re-read, but I don't care. It was still incredible! 

Last month's TBR: 

I read 3/4 books I'd planned to read in July, so I did a pretty good job!

This month's TBR:

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler | The Reader by Traci Chee | Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver | Live and Let Psi by D.R. Rosensteel

School starts back up this month so I honestly have no clue how much reading I'll get done, but hopefully I'll get through all of these! 

BookTube:

Here is my most popular video this month! I'll be (ideally) posting twice a week. Make sure to subscribe to me if you want to stay updated on when and what I post! If you have a YouTube channel, send me your link because I wanna see whatchya got!

Music: So I'm probably a little late to the party on these, but here are two of my favorite songs that I discovered this month!  Lost Boy - Ruth B Cecelia and the Satellite - Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness  TV: I have been all about Glee this month! I'm so addicted to this show. It was getting a bit out of hand (I watched 3 seasons in less than a week) so I had to force myself to take a break, but now I'm back at it. I'm on season 5 now and even though it's kind of a mess right now, I don't want it to be over!  Movies: There have been so many wonderful movies released lately, and though I haven't seen all the ones I want to (Finding Dory, I'm looking at you), I have seen a few that were amazing!  The Shallows, which is basically about a shark attack, is SO. TENSE. I kind of expected it to be really stupid, but it kept me on the edge of my seat.  I also saw the new Purge movie and holy crap is it twisted! The previous Purge movies were child's play in comparison. It's about election year, so there's politics and just so much crazy shit going down. 

What has your month looked like? 

Top Ten Books That Have Inspired Me

The original prompt is "Top Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do or Learn About After Reading Them" but that's kind of a mouthful, so I've changed it a bit to books that have inspired me, which is essentially the same thing. I love this topic because books help open our minds to SO MANY THINGS and it's nice to recognize the way books have changed us.

Note: I haven't actually done any of these things, but I still really want to.

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson - Out of all the things I could say about this book, you might be surprised to know the aspect that inspired me was the awesome scavenger hunt. When I was reading it, all I could think of was how fun it would be to have a big scavenger hunt with all my friends.

Paper Towns by John Green - This book made me want to cause minor trouble. I know that sounds stupid, but the adventure that Q and Margo go on in the beginning just made me want to throw all my caution away and do something stupid and adventurous (that doesn't hurt anyone else) like break into Sea World.

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson - I absolutely adore the list of out-of-character tasks that Emily sets out to complete. It made me think about how incredible and exhilarating it would be to make a list with my best friend of silly tasks, go to the nearest bus stop, pick a random destination, and work to complete those tasks together. Tell me you don't want to try something like that.

Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies - Get an internship in New York City. Okay, so this book didn't make me want to do that because that has been my dream for years, but it definitely reinforced the desire. All the NYC adventures just made my heart hurt because I wish I was the one having those adventures.

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - What can I say? Matson writes some really great summer adventures. Unsurprisingly, this book definitely made me crave a cross-country road trip.

And I Darken by Kiersten White - This is a reimagining of Vlad the Impaler, so the entire time I was reading I was thinking about how I need to go study up on good ol' Vlad because I actually know very little about him.

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman - This is a fictional imagining of what Blackbeard's youth was like and how he became the notorious swashbuckler. I'll be honest, before cracking this baby open, I didn't even realize Blackbeard was a real person. The minute I finished, I was eager to learn more about him because THAT ENDING.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - I just adore writing about small towns, and I'm pretty sure this series is the main reason why. The southern gothic small town that these ladies have created is incredibly intricate and detailed and just extremely fascinating.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver - Lauren Oliver is #writinggoals! All her writing has influenced my own style tremendously, but I'd say the captivating lyrical prose of Delirium has been my #1 inspiration. I re-read it recently and that re-read was tremendously helpful. I was having a lot of trouble capturing my own voice in my writing, and after reading this, I found it again.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - Mead's characterization and worldbuilding are phenomenal in this series, and the protagonist Rose Hathaway is my all-time favorite heroine of all time, and while I never try to duplicate her in my own writing, I often keep her sassiness, boldness, and badassness in mind when writing my own characters.

What books have inspired you?