Joining in late for #IndependentWomen! I unfortunately didn‘t get to reading the tagged book (Feb was a terrible reading month for me).

Posting a pic from my bachelorette party a couple weeks ago - I have to say, building a strong group of female friends has been such an important part of my late 20s and really value those relationships as I‘ve matured into my 30s.

I‘ve been continuously adding to my Girl Power playlist on Spotify for years:

Back to using all my unread #BOTM books for my #BookSpinBingo.

#Bookspin: The Silence of the Girls
#DoubleSpin: The Giver of Stars

I was a bit optimistic in thinking I would finish Chain of Thorns before the end of the month, but my reading got off track in the latter half of February. So I did not finish my #BookSpin (Anne of Manhattan) or #DoubleSpin (Chain of Thorns). Hopping for better success in March!

This is a hard book for me to review. As the child of a Colombian immigrant, and someone who has spent more time in Colombia traveling than anywhere else, I appreciated the realistic but loving depiction of the country. This slim story incorporates themes of immigration, family separation and reunion, and the elusive American Dream. However, as much as I was emotionally moved at times, I also felt very frustrated by some of the plot contrivances.

I finished both of the new issues of Saga during February. So far, these have been a huge improvement over the installments that were released in 2022, which I overall did not love.

I‘m enjoying seeing Hazel and Squire grow and mature, as well as the adult characters‘ continued struggles, and I‘m looking forward to seeing where the plot seems like it is going in this story arc.

February was not a great reading month. Between my bachelorette party, coming down with food poisoning, and a shorter than average month, it was never going to be great.

I finished 6 titles total; two of those were the new issues of Saga and one was a

I was off Litsy all weekend due to being sick with food poisoning, but gonna catch up on some scrolling through my feed today.

I was pleasantly surprised to see an email in my inbox that the March picks were up! I debated adding on something, but decided to hold off.

On Saturday, my friends (including @hclaird ) hosted a bachelorette party for me. The theme was all purple and the the background of this pic includes a piece of the decorations I kept. During the day we had some extra time in between activities, so I had time to go to the bookstore with @Saknicole and @Bummler and picked up this stack. Bottom 3 from my local used bookstore and the Penguin cloth bound was from B&N.

Cannot wait for March!!

The series adaptation of Daisy Jones comes out March 3rd, and Shadow & Bone season 2 comes out March 16th. Then March 23rd my fiancé and I are getting married!

Who knew it was possible to write such a boring book about one of the most fascinating rock bands of all time creating one of the most successful albums of all time?

If you‘re interested in the technical minutiae of sound engineering/music production, then you might enjoy this. But the unnecessary tangents about Caillat‘s dating life, humblebragging about his daughter, and frankly unbelievable recall of conversations contribute to its failure.

Happy V-Day! Thankful my SO comes home from work tonight, so we‘ll get to celebrate together 💞

Recent acquisitions…

Six of Crows duology from my local used bookstore Title Wave.

Boys in the Boat and Walden (only 10 cents each!) from a local thrift store Bishops Attic.

Clockwork Angel (I hate these covers but this copy was like new!), A Tale of Two Cities, and (yes…another copy of) Walden from Goodwill.

#bookhaul

I am using this new shelf in our spare room to offload books from my overflowing main bookshelves. Decided to fill with all my #BOTM books. Only the bottom right shelf has non-BOTM books.

February #BookspinBingo card set up!

Tried to focus on romance from my #TBR for #Loveathon2023.

BookSpin: Anne of Manhattan
DoubleSpin: Chain of Thorns (currently reading!)

January reading stats via Storygraph. I finished 7 books, 3 of which I already owned. A big goal for 2023 is to actually read more books I own from my physical and kindle TBR.

Tagged book was my highest rated read (4.5 ⭐️) and Saint was second highest (4⭐️), but overall kind of a meh month.

January #BookSpinBingo card - I almost completed one bingo line, but didn‘t quite get there. I finished my #Doublespin (Upgrade), but didn‘t quite finish Infinite Country. It‘s hitting a bit too close to home for me, so I‘m gonna need to take that one slow, even though it‘s very short.

Excited to post my February card soon; since I‘m participating in #Loveathon, it‘s going to be full of romance from my #TBR!

Decided to skip this month. I was curious about Georgie, but it‘s currently available for free on Hoopla, and there weren‘t any other options I was too excited for.

Also due to a shipping error, BOTM had to send me a new January box, so I am still waiting for Age of Vice to arrive.

Light pick - a bit underwhelmed by this one. Crouch (like Andy Weir) has a talent for explaining complex scientific ideas in a way non-science people can understand. Unfortunately, I think this was his least successful book (following Dark Matter, which I thought was brilliant, and Recursion, also very good). The premise of upgrading human genes to create a superhuman was interesting enough but the character motivations were not conveyed as well.

Nope, this was god awful. The Cutting Edge premise described in the blurb amounts to 2 training scenes total that don‘t happen until 50% in and is quickly abandoned. Dialogue was so cringey and the sex scenes gratuitous. The epilogue betrays what little character development occurs. Only reason I didn‘t DNF is it felt wasteful since I purchased the Kindle version.

1 ⭐️ for the cute cover and .5 ⭐️ for getting me to hate read the entire thing.

👀 coming soon…

Side note, still haven‘t received my January box due to a USPS delivery error, so they had to send me a new box, which is still not set to deliver until Feb 6-8 at the earliest. 🫤

New teaser trailer AND “Regret Me” single released! I need the full soundtrack, like, right now.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/W0ywkDC9rEo

Regret Me: https://open.spotify.com/track/5a8U9oin9Xh6kM5B2EsONK?si=sYKnWz1URCCOfI9E12t4_Q

The subtitle A LOVE STORY says it all. This slim novel (

My fiancé and I have been trying to do more reading rather than tv watching at night. I read about 50 pages last night. Hoping to finish this before the end of the week.

Anyone else appreciating the Storygraph app update? So many great improvements to the user interface and dark mode looks damn good!

Even though I‘m not planning on abandoning Goodreads entirely (it‘s conveniently tied to my Kindle/Amazon account and allows me to see what more of my IRL friends are reading), I‘m so glad there is a (superior, imo) alternative now!

You can add me @Kimberlone (same username) if you want to connect on Storygraph!

I made an Instagram reel featuring all of the Goodreads giveaways I‘ve won that I want to try to read in 2023!

You can view and follow my #bookstagram
@ readerlykimberly

Light pick. I was really intrigued by the mysterious religious cult investigation plot line, but it ended up being a total dud! While I love all the main characters, the introduction of Moriarty‘s estranged daughter didn‘t really add anything for me. The relationship development between the main characters was a strength, especially Charlotte & Lord Ingram. The ending saved the plot for me, and after reading the blurb for the next, I am excited!

Morning plans…I have a LOT of housework to do today, but I‘ve already done some errands out of the house, so I don‘t feel too bad about taking a coffee/musubi/new book break!

Oops…I went to Target yesterday and couldn‘t resist. Now I need to carefully remove those awful stickers!

I always listen at least 1.2x speed, but occasionally crank it to 1.5x. My fiancé can‘t follow anything above 1.1x, so I‘ll slow it down if we are listening to something together.

At night I often will throw on the sleep timer for 10-15 min or end of chapter and let myself doze off to narration.

My fiancé and I do a few long road trips to go camping every summer and we always pick out an audiobook to listen to. We‘ve been through several SKs.

The Stand was SO LONG. #audiblestats

Did anyone check their #AudibleStats? Will be posting some more highlights for me…

Interesting premise: main character is the titular former “poster girl” of this society‘s previous dystopian government (1984 + iPhones), living in a prison ghetto with other adults who were part of the ruling class and given the opportunity for freedom if she can right a wrong from the past.

The ending was a bit anticlimactic for me, despite several twists. Overall effect felt closer to Divergent than The Handmaid‘s Tale.

Light pick - 3.5 ⭐️

I had a slow start to January reading, but I finished 2 books this past weekend; Saint is my first finished book of 2023.

I really enjoyed Young‘s Fable duology, so I was excited for this prequel.

Similar magic/fantasy/pirate elements as is present in Fable. The main characters were well drawn, but there was no clear antagonist. Female MC Isolde escapes and is on the run from her mother, but that conflict is completely off page.

Better late than never…

Here‘s my #BookspinBingo card. #Bookspin is Infinite Country and #Doublespin is Upgrade.

My top 22 reads in 2022! Although my overall average rating was only 3.7, I still read a lot of amazing books this year.

Not only was Sea of Tranquility my favorite book I read in 2022, but I also think it was one of the best new releases of 2022. Other worthy 2022 fiction releases include: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Lessons in Chemistry, The Candy House, Trust, and The Diamond Eye.

#top22of22

Finally getting around to compiling my 2022 reading wrap-up. I posted a bunch of stats from Goodreads and Storygraph on Jan. 1st, but I wanted to make a cuter graphic highlighting some major stats.

Top 22 in 2022 coming next!

*This is my first attempt at making graphics in Canva for my Bookstagram! I think it turned out cute :)

I only rated 8 books 5 star reads in 2022. Not a very accurate stat, though, since I rate genres differently. For example, I judge literary fiction much more harshly and that genre gets very few 5 stars.

This includes physical books (mostly BOTM hardcovers), Kindle purchases, and audiobooks from Audible.

I was surprised by this series stat! Also I‘m still salty about the fact that this is only Vol. 1 of 2 (and who the f knows when GRRM is going to finish another book).

Some of the other series I started, finished, or revisited: Red Rising, Infernal Devices, Last Hours, ACOTAR, Saga, STEMinista, Lore Olympus, Heartstopper, Cormoran Strike, The Atlas, etc.

I‘m always pretty stingy with my 4-5 star ratings. A book has to be really good to warrant 4 or above and be basically perfect, in my opinion, to deserve 5 stars.

On the other end of the spectrum, I rarely finish books that are going to be rated below 3 stars (what‘s the point?). If I do, it‘s turned into a hate read, is part of a series I want to finish, or I am hoping it will get better before the end.

Mimi Matthews and Cassandra Clare were new to me authors this year.

I read all of the Infernal Devices series and started The Last Hours (although I don‘t ever see myself going back to the The Mortal Instruments). I am looking forward to Chain of Thorns being released in 2023!

I bought a Kindle deal for a Mimi Matthews book, and fell down the rabbit hole of her historical romance series. I recommend checking her out if you like that genre!

Interesting that Storygraph has The Stand as my longest book, but Goodreads has The Ink Black Heart. Both were overly long, but overall I think The Stand warranted the epic length more.

Some more interesting stats from Storygraph!

I am always surprised by how many books that are classified as romance since it feels like I read a good variety of genres, but I can‘t help if I want a HEA for a mood booster more often than not!

My reading was up and down all over the place this year. A very chaotic graph 😵‍💫

Interesting graph! One of my favorite features of Storygraph are tracking the moods of the books I finish. Looks like my year started out dark and got lighter in the summer (makes sense!).

Thoughts on the Storygraph wrap-up compared to Goodreads?

I‘ve been really enjoying using Storygraph more in 2022. I won‘t be giving up Goodreads, but I‘m glad there is a legitimate alternative option now, and the statistics/data and infographics really set it apart.

Follow me on Storygraph: @Kimberlone

All of my 2022 reads!

Will post my more detailed Storygraph stats next!

Honestly, I wasn‘t blown away with the newest issues of Saga that were released this year. It felt like nothing much really happened and I wasn‘t emotionally gutted like I have been in the past.

The Ink Black Heart was WAY too long, and was definitely my least favorite of the Cormoran Strike series so far. It was only worth it for the Robin/Strike relationship.

Incoming barrage of 2022 wrap up posts…

I was hoping to finish at least one more book while on vacation this past week, but ended up being too busy and/or tired to devote any time to reading. Will be getting 2023 started strong on two flights today, though!

Follow me on Goodreads: @Kimberlone