Teaser Tuesday #168

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

 After his car crashed through the guardrail and over the cliff, careening into rocks and plowing into a tree before coming to a still, smashed stop. After the previously mentioned asshole drove away in a panic, maybe crying and shaking, too spineless to own up to their crime, leaving her father to die in the remains of his ruined fifteen-year-old Toyota. 

Have you read Sawkill Girls? I've seen this book everywhere. As soon as I saw it at the library I picked it up right away and brought it home with me. I can't wait to see what all the hype is about this one. 

 

Teaser Tuesday #167

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

 The first time we went to Lovelorn, it was raining. This was late June, a few weeks after the end of sixth grade, and I shouldn't have been home. I was supposed to be at ballet camp in Saratoga Springs, New York, bunking up with other dance nerds and spending my mornings perfecting my pas de bourree and trying not to be hungry and generally getting as far as possible from my parents, who had been in a four-month competition to see who could be angrier.

This isn't the type of book I read normally, but it's by an author that I love! I can't wait to read this one. I picked this one up from our library. The library here at my new city is fantastic. They have a whole room for YA! Like it's huge. 

Anyway, have you read this one. Chat with me, but please no spoilers! 

 

Review: Starting Place Study Bible NIV

 I recieved this book for free in exchange for my honest review.  My thoughts are my own and mine alone.

Starting Place Study Bible NIV
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: February 26th 2019
Format: Hardcover
Type: Study Bible

Amazon * Goodreads * Zondervan

Sometimes the hardest part of beginning is knowing where to start!
The Bible’s depth can seem overwhelming, but within the pages of Scripture you will find words of peace, hope, and love waiting for you. The NIV Starting Place Study Bible guides you through Scripture, so you can understand God’s love for you and build a relationship with the Savior who longs to know you personally.

First off I want to thank the publishing company for sending me this AMAZING study bible. Now Bible's aren't something I normally review, but I had been looking for a great one to use to study and Zondervan was amazing enough to send me this one. I didn't go into this knowing much about this Bible, but for that I'm actually grateful, because once I got my hands on this one I was so amazed at how much it included. 

I want to mention how beautiful the cover is on this Bible as well as the quality when you take off the dust jacket. I have always liked Zondervan Bibles and this one was no exception to that. They make Bibles with care and each one is made to last. Which I think is something very important, especially in a Bible that you're going to use to study with.

New International Version is one of my favorite translations of the Bible so this of course was the one that I knew I wanted when I picked this one out. It is a bit larger in size, so it's not really a bible I would take to church with me on Sunday mornings, but it is one that I can use at home to read on a daily basis. I really love all the extra tid bits this Bible has. The study helpers are something I really was looking for in a great study Bible and this one didn't disappoint when it came to that at all. There is a lot jam packed in this Bible. I really enjoy the context notes as well, some of them talk about peoples, lands, and rulers others talk about things like culture and history. Again I love all the little extra's when using a great study Bible like this one. 

 The paper is great quality and the print is large enough to read, which to me is a great thing when it comes to a bible that you're going to be reading a lot. Small print in some Bible's hurt my eyes, this one is perfect when it comes to the size of the print. 

Overall I think this is a fantastic study Bible that I will enjoy each time I open the cover! 
 

I'm going to give Zondervan's Starting Place Study Bible an Ali's Bookshelf...

Mini Audio Book Reviews

So in order to play catch up a bit on reviews, I've decided to add a post every once in a while called Mini Reviews, I've seen a lot of blogs do this recently and I think it's time I add something like it as well. I really love the concept and I hope you do as well. Anyway, below you will find several reviews, this post is all about the audio book. Since this month I'm reading 50% audio book and 50% ebook I'm going to be doing a few posts like this for the month of April and May!  Also my newly released ARC's will always have their own posts.

I listend to this book on Scribd, it wasn't a review book, but I loved it so much that I had to share my thoughts on this one. This wasn't from the publisher so I purchased it myself. No matter what you will always get my honest opinion on any book I review. 

Five Feet Apart by Rechael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, and Tobias Iaconis

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: November 20th 2018
Format: Audiobook (I also own the hardcover)
Pages: 288 pages
Challenges:  Goodreads, Tackle my TBR Challenge, Audiobook Challenge 

Goodreads * Amazon * Scribd  

  Can you love someone you can never touch?

Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.

The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.

Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.

What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?

I don't even know where to start with this review, I just finished this book and I'm a lost for words really. I do know that I love this book! The writing is perfection and the plot is well let's just say this book brought out so many emotions in me. I know several kids and a few teens that have CF and it's something that I never really understood until I saw in in person and talked to them. Through this book I saw a glimpse of what they feel at times. Yes I said glimpse because unless we are living that we have no clue what it's really like. 

Five Feet Apart did at times feel a bit like Fault in our Stars, but not so much that I didn't want to contiue reading it. I adored the audiobook of this one, not sure I would have been able to cry and read at the same time for this one. Yes, I did cry a lot! So tissue warning with this one, trust me you will connect with these characters and you will feel their emotions. It's just that kind of book and I love it for that very reason. 

The characters are so well thought out in this book and I connected with them so much so. I saw bits and pieces of myself in each of them and I guess that's why I connected so much. In Stella I saw the organization geek that had to have everything a certain way, afraid to take chances at first, but also so brave that she doesn't even realize it. In Will I saw my creative side and the rebel. Yep I'm both. Like I said I love these characters so much. Their story is exactly what I thought it would be, but seriously that ending is just....Okay I'm not going to give anything away, but gah I love these two. 

The  writing style of these amazing authors was one that pulled me in and wouldn't let me go, one that made me laugh, want to throw the book and even cry at times. All in all this book is the perfect read if you want to feel the emotions of the characters. I have so much love for this kind of story and this book! 

All in all I'm giving Five Feet Apart an Ali's Bookshelf...

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Publisher: Tor

Published:  January 9th 2018

Format: Audiobook

Pages: 174 pages

Challenges: Audiobook Challenge, Tackle My TBR Challeng, Goodreads  

Goodreads * Amazon *  

 When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests...

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

Warning: May contain nuts.

I have loved this series since I first read the first book and I have also loved the audiobooks. So for this very reason I decided to listen to this one. I did however also read along with the hardcover. This of course is my audiobook review. Let me first start off by saying that I loved the nararation of this one. The narrator is amazing and I figured out how to pronounce certain names that I wasn't sure of, which is a plus if you ask me.

The plot of this series is one that has hooked me from the get go. I mean come on haven't you ever wondered what happened to those characters that go to these magical places but then end up going home. I always wondered how they would cope, if they actually do.

Beneath the Sugar Sky had me from the very first chapter. I had to know how a daughter of a character showed up out of the blue, when said character's mother died in the last book. I mean come on wouldn't that have you hooked right away?  I love this authors writing style so much and of course the world building is just WOW!

I can't say enough great things about this book, but I don't want to give spoilers away. I will say this, I can't wait to read /listen to the next book, which is the newest for this series.

I of course will be giving Beneath the Sugar Sky an Ali's Bookshelf...

Teaser Tuesday # 166

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

 True, Dixon was more swaggering Texan than mannered British, but Shackelford Oil was just as much American royalty as Saybrook's Diamonds. They'd become a couple effortlessly, and shortly thereafter a plan was put into place.

I haven't read a Sara Shepard book in a long time, saw this one at the library and thought it sounded pretty good. We shall see! 

Have you read this one? What were your thoughts? No spoilers please. 

 

Cover Reveal: Better Than Me

You all know I love me some Kimberly Kincaid books! I mean what's not to love right? Anyway, today I get to share with you all a cover reveal for her newest up coming release! Are you ready? 

OH MY God!!! Look at this cover, I thought I loved the first one in this series, if you haven't seen it you can see it here. I think I love this one even more. Anyway, below is all the information you need to know about this hot book! 

 

Better Thank Me by Kimberly Kincaid 

Expected Publication Date: May 7th 2019

What happens when Remington's most notoriously single, notoriously sexy surgeon falls for the one woman he can't have? Did I mention that she's A) his best friend, B) immune to his charm, and C) sleeping on his couch for the next six weeks?

Familiarity breeds temptation for Jonah Sheridan and Natalie Kendrick in this steamy friends-to-lovers medical contemporary romance. While part of the Remington Medical world, this book is a complete standalone and can be read as your first Kimberly Kincaid novel, or your twentieth. No cliffhangers, no spoilers, all red-hot HEA!

I can not wait to read this book! Make sure you pre-order  your copy today! You can do so by clicking the link below. 

Goodreads * Amazon  

 Kimberly Kincaid writes contemporary romance that splits the difference between sexy and sweet. When she's not sitting cross-legged in an ancient desk chair known as "The Pleather Bomber", she can be found practicing obscene amounts of yoga, whipping up anything from enchiladas to éclairs in her kitchen, or curled up with her nose in a book. Kimberly is a USA Today best-seller and 2015 RWA RITA® finalist who lives (and writes!) by the mantra that food is love. She resides in Virginia with her wildly patient husband and their three daughters.

Let's Chat 

What do you think of this cover? I would love to know your thoughts! 

 

April's TBR Plan

I know I say this pretty much every month or so, but I can't believe it's already April. This year is already flying by, it seems like it just started.

I'm trying to take away the pressure that a TBR used to put on me, honestly I think it was more of blogger pressure than reading pressure, but we shall see. Anyway, the idea behind this came from Girl in the Pages. Her TBR's are called a plan and I thought that was very fitting for me. It's just a plan, not a have to!  If you haven't checked her blog out, please go do so now, she's one of my favorite bloggers/blogs. I read this one pretty much every time she posts.  I've also been loving Bookmark Lit lately and I love how she picks her TBR books. So, I thought I would give it a shot as well. If you haven't checked her blog out, it's a must. You should head there and read her blog as well!

 

 

 

 

March Update

 

March was a pretty good reading month for me. I finished 4 books that were on my TBR Plan for March and that makes me very happy. As I've stated before I'm working on reading more ebooks. I tend to forget about them since they aren't right there for me to see them. 

 

 

 

 

 

April's TBR Plan 

So for April I'm going to stick with catagories but I'm going to tweek it a bit from what I did in March, don't get me wrong I really loved reading the way that Lauren over at Bookmark Lit does with the catagories, just that a few of them didn't work for me. So below you will find the new ones. 

 

 

                 Future Release                  Current Release              Current Release

 

 

                 Audiobook                          Audiobook                          Audiobook/Purchased

 

Wildcard

 

Fake it till you Break it by Jenn P. Nguyen

Brief Chronicle of Another Supid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid 

The View from Alameda Island by Robyn Carr 

Beneath The Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire 

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott

Otherearth by Jason Segel  

California Girls by Susan Mallery

There won't be any physical copies for review this month, but I have a few Scholastic children's books that I will be adding to this list and several of these audiobooks I have the physical copies of. So I guess those count! Maybe LOL. 

 

 

 There you have it, my April TBR! I'm still crossing my fingers that this reading by catagory thing helps me get caught up on my reading, so far it's starting to work. Happy April everyone and as always...

 

 

Month In A Glance: March 2019

So as you can see I'm bringing back my month in a glance posts. I've been wanting to do so for a bit, but the end of the months lately have been a bit crazy! Anyway, it's time to bring them back with a new logo as well. I hope you all enjoy this post as much as I do.  Also, I want to mention another amazing blogger in this post, if you haven't checked out Bookmark Lit you should. I love her posts and the idea for this new format is from her amazing blog.  I adore her posts and how real she writes her blog.

March was a bit of a blur for me, I moved and all that goes with moving happened. I now reside in a beautiful house with plenty of space for my books and I moved to a place with so much sunshine. Oh and did I mention that I love it, well even if I did I'm going to say this again...I LOVE IT HERE!  

I read 4 books in March, that is way better than I had been doing and they were four books that were on my TBR plan, which is amazing for me. There were no DNF's and no re-reads. Three out of the four were books from my Netgalley list and that's something new for me too. I have a problem usually reading books on my Kindle. I tend to forget they are there. March was a fantastic month for me. I'm hoping I can keep it up in April. 

Total number of pages read: 1,307 pages! 

The Books I Read in March  

 Challenge Update

CLICK here to see all the challenges I'm working on for 2019

2019 Tackle my TBR Challenge

Read 3 this month /  Total of 7 / Little over 50% finished 

Audio Book Challenge 2019

Listened to 0 this month / Total of 0 / I need to work on this one! 

 

Beat the Backlist Challenge 2019 

Read 0 this month/ Total of 0 / Yep I need to get to work on these challenges. Need to work on the bingo too! YIKES

I've been wanting to share more of my Instagram images here on the blog as well, so I figured my wrap up posts would be the perfect place. Below are a few of my favorites from the Month of March. 

 This last one is of my new house and I had to add it to this favorites of the month list! 

Posts from this Month

ARC review: The Next to Last Mistake 

ARC Review: The Dysasters  

Ali Talks: Ratings and Rating Breakdowns 

Immerse Blog Tour and Guest Post 

These goals will be bookish and blogging ones, not really personal goals like the other post I do sometimes.  I really want to start keeping track of my goals and actually keeping myself accountable for them. I figured the best way to do so is to post them here on my blog.    March Goal: Read 75% of my TBR Plan! (I failed, but it was close) 
The main goal I had in March was to read at least 75% of my TBR Plan. It had 7 books on it and I read 4.  So I didn't fully reach that goal, but I was dang close! A lot better than I had figured I would do. March was a great reading month for me,  I feel pretty good  about it. I 'm hoping I can keep that up in April!  April's Goal: 50% Audiobooks and 50% Ebooks   Now for April, I think I'm going to try a goal that I've seen a few bloggers try. 50% audio books and 50% ebooks. I need help when it comes to reading ebooks, so maybe this will push me a bit more.  We shall see!   

 

Possible TBR Plan for April   If you would like to see my TBR for April CLICK HERE!