Month: May 2024

Top Seven Books I Couldn’t Wait to Get My Hands on & Still Haven’t Read

Posted May 27, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 7 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is about those books that I HAD to have and couldn’t stop thinking about and I did everything I could to either gain early access or I pre-ordered and couldn’t wait for them to arrive. And then once I had them, I placed them on my shelf and never thought of them again! In some cases, it’s been years and I still haven’t read these books! I don’t know what causes this obsession in me with some books, but it’s kind of silly. Anyway, here we go! Don’t judge me!

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn
Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
Chasm by Stacey McEwan
Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren

What books did you really, really want but still haven’t read?


Top Ten Authors I’d Love a New Book From Soon

Posted May 20, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 14 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is Authors I’d Love a New Book From. These could be authors that have passed away, who have retired from writing, who have inexplicably (or not inexplicably) gone quiet, or who might just not be able to keep up with how quickly you read their books! So basically… here’s a bunch of my favorite authors. lol.

1. Lisa Kleypas
I’m in some author groups and one of Lisa’s author friends said she’s ok and currently writing a book, so phew! I’m glad she’s doing well. I’m so excited for her next release, whatever it may be!

2. Tessa Dare
I’ve heard that she’s been going through some life things, and I wish her all the very best. She did pop on social media at the beginning of the year to say that The Bride Bet is still coming, but there’s no release date yet. I can’t wait!

3. Rebecca Yarros
I want Onyx Storm waaaaaay sooner than end of January 2025!

4. Mary Higgins Clark
Her books were my gateway into adult fiction as a teen, and my very first mysteries! I miss her books so much. They’ve always been so comforting and nostalgic.

5. Jennifer Armentrout
This is cheating because I know she writes so many books, but I want another romantic suspense from her like Til Death! I loved that book, and she’s so great at romantic suspense.

6. Sarah Morgenthaler
I love her Moose Springs books, and am excited for her untitled 4th one, which was announced to also be the first in a new series as well! She’s got a Christmas book coming out this Fall that I’m looking forward to reading, too.

7. K.C. Dyer
I loved Eighty Days to Elsewhere, and wish she would continue that series. The second book was a DNF for me, but the idea of the series had so much promise and then all word of future installments just slipped away.

8. C.L. Wilson
I am waiting a thousand years for 2030 when, according to Goodreads, The Jaguar King will be published (I’m sure this is a placeholder date). The release date has moved a lot over the years, and I really hope it happens!

9. Mary Ann Marlowe
I loved Dating By the Book! She’s published one more book since then, which is part of a series I’m not interested in. But even so, it’s been a while since she’s released anything and I hope she’s still writing!

10. Nina Bocci and Alice Clayton
They released Roman Crazy, book #1 in the Broads Abroad series, in 2016 and no more books came. Even individually they haven’t published anything in the last couple years, but I’d love it if they got back together to continue this series! Roman Crazy is one of my favorites!

Which authors do you wish would release a new book?


Top Ten (More) Quotes for Book Lovers

Posted May 13, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 20 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is book quotes! I love good quotes from books (and about books), and have made many posts of my favorites over the years like book quotes about hope, quotes for book lovers, inspirational and thought-provoking quotes from books, favorite quotes from my favorite books (here and here), romantic things characters have said, witty snippets of banter in books, memorable things characters have said, and more. This week I’ve decided to make a list of more quotes for book lovers! These are all quotes about books and reading, and I love them all!

1. “We read to know we’re not alone.” ― William Nicholson

2. “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” ― James Baldwin

3. “Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” ― Jane Smiley

4. “Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?” Mo had said…”As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower…both strange and familiar.” ― Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

5. “That’s what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive – all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.” ― Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

6. “I believe in the magic of books. I believe that during certain periods in our lives we are drawn to particular books–whether it’s strolling down the aisles of a bookshop with no idea whatsoever of what it is that we want to read and suddenly finding the most perfect, most wonderfully suitable book staring us right in the face. Unblinking. Or a chance meeting with a stranger or friend who recommends a book we would never ordinarily reach for. Books have the ability to find their own way into our lives.” ― Cecelia Ahern

7. “Reading is…” His brows knit together and then his forehead smoothed as the right words appeared to dawn on him. “It’s going somewhere without ever taking a train or ship, an unveiling of new, incredible worlds. It’s living a life you weren’t born into and a chance to see everything colored by someone else’s perspective. It’s learning without having to face consequences of failures, and how best to succeed.” He hesitated. “I think within all of us, there is a void, a gap waiting to be filled by something. For me, that something is books and all their proffered experiences.” ― Madeline Martin, The Last Bookshop in London

8. “Perhaps that is the draw of books.” James put his hand over hers. “To show us the way even when we think the path is too dark to see.” ― Madeline Martin, The Librarian Spy

9. “I am a part of everything that I have read.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

10. “A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.” ― Lisa Kleypas, A Wallflower Christmas

Which quote here is your favorite?
Can you think of any other quotes for book lovers?
What kinds of quotes did you share in your own TTT this week?


Top Ten Books with Flowers on the Cover

Posted May 6, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 14 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is “May Flowers”, the companion to last month’s “April Showers” topic. Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt. Some ideas include books with flowers on the cover, flower names in the title, characters whose names are flower names, stories involving flowers/gardeners, etc. I decided to showcase flowery book covers because I loooove flowers and pretty book covers make me smile!

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare
Ready or Not by Cara Bastone
All’s Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath
Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle (bonus points for me, the heroine in
this is a witch who tells peoples’ fortunes through flowers!)
The Fiance Dilemma by Elena Armas
Devil In Spring by Lisa Kleypas
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
In the Weeds by B.K. Borison
The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett
Scoundrel of My Heart by Lorraine Heath

How did you interpret this week’s prompt?
Can you think of any other flowery book covers?