#AYearAThon | What I'm Reading

Happy #AYearAThon, readers! Check out my last post to get the information about this month's #AYearAThon theme... because today, I'm showing you which book I'm reading to help work down my TBR pile.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
First published in 1962
This edition is by Penguin, October 2006
160 pages
Amazon + Good Reads

"Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods—until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.

Cover art by Thomas Ott."

-Good Reads

#AYearAThon JULY | TBR Catch Up!

Hello, again! 

Can you believe that we're already in July? I blinked and the year is more than half way over. But another month beginning means yet another #AYearAThon theme is coming up. And this month - we're doing a TBR catch up.

So, what does that mean? Basically, between the days of 7/4-7/10 we're desperately trying to cross titles off of our TBR list because we all know that we have way too much to read. 

We're also excited to announce our first ever "Buddy Read" thread. Because a TBR catch up means that everyone is reading independently and there is not a central group read, we're asking our participants to try and find others within the group to read together. You can check out the Buddy Read thread here, and I encourage you to find a buddy and make a new friend.

So far, the titles that are being buddy read are as follows:
The Maze Runner by James Dashner - Buddy Read link here
The Diviners by Libba Bray - Buddy Read link here
Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - Buddy Read link here

I'd love to know if you're participating in July's #AYearAThon. Let me know which titles you're hoping to read and if you've found someone to read with. I'll be back on Monday to share which titles I'm hoping to tackle during the week.

Happy reading!
-Alyssa

Top 3 Wednesday | #AYEARATHON Recommendations

Hey, all.

Every Wednesday, I'm bringing you a new feature post on my blog - "Top 3 Wednesday." I'll compile a list of suggestions or books related to a theme, and I'd love to hear your responses too! If you have any thoughts as to lists that I can make, please let me know and as always, happy reading.

-Alyssa

June 2016 is our LGBT month for the #AYEARATHON, and I'd like to give you three recommendations if you are at a loss as to what to read! 

#AYEARATHON | Top 3 Favorite New Adult Titles!

Hey, all! In honor of this month's #AYEARATHON theme, I thought I'd talk about three of my all time favorite New Adult titles! I've talked about each of these books a ridiculous amount so I'll simply post a link to my review for each title so that you don't have to listen to my fangirl ramblings once again. I'd love to hear which NA you've been reading and loving - don't forget to leave your suggestions in the comment section! 

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
May 2011
319 pages
Amazon + Good Reads
My Review
Casting Call

"The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand. 

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match."

-Good Reads

At Any Price by Brenna Aubry

December 2013 by Silver Griffon Associates

319 pages

Amazon + Good Reads

My Review

"Achievement Unlocked: Geek Virgin

When Mia Strong, proud geek-girl and popular gaming blogger, auctions off her virginity online, she knows she'll make waves. But what she will not be making is a love connection. Her rules are set in stone: One night. No further contact.

It's a desperate step, but it's the only way she can go to medical school and pay her mother's mounting hospital bills.

Difficulty Level: Millionaire CEO 

Adam Drake, the enigmatic auction winner, is a software prodigy who made his first million at seventeen. Now, in his mid-twenties, he's sexy, driven and--as CEO of his own gaming company--he's used to making the rules. Before Mia knows what's happening, he's found the loophole in the rules of her auction. Every stipulation she's made to protect her heart gets tossed by the wayside.

She can't tell if he's playing her...or if he's playing for keeps."

-Good Reads

Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard

April 2011 by Omnific Publishing

506 pages

Amazon + Good Reads

My Review

"Enigmatic and sexy, Professor Gabriel Emerson is a well respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim, but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption.

When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career, but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.

An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love and redemption, "Gabriel's Inferno" is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man's escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the impossible...forgiveness and love."

-Good Reads

#AYEARATHON | February

Two years ago, a small group of friends decided to create a year long reading challenge with the aims of knocking out our TBR piles and participating in reads that we could do together. Now, we are entering our second year of hosting the thon and have more than 2,500 members who participate. Are you interested? Check out the Good Reads group here.

Hello, and welcome! This month's #AYEARATHON theme is my personal favorite - New Adult and Romance! February's #AYEARATHON will run from 2/1 until 2/10. I hope that you participate! You can check out the Good Reads group here. 

This month we've chosen a group read... and it is one of my all time favorites. I hope you'll join us as we read and gush discuss RULE by Jay Crownover!

Rule by Jay Crownover
December 2012 by Jay Crownover Books
369 pages
4/5 stars - check out my review HERE and my Casting Call HERE! 
Amazon + Good Reads

"Opposites in every way . . . except the one that matters 

Shaw Landon loved Rule Archer from the moment she laid eyes on him. Rule is everything a straight-A pre-med student like Shaw shouldn’t want—and the only person she’s never tried to please. She isn’t afraid of his scary piercings and tattoos or his wild attitude. Though she knows that Rule is wrong for her, her heart just won’t listen.

To a rebel like Rule Archer, Shaw Landon is a stuck-up, perfect princess-and his dead twin brother’s girl. She lives by other people’s rules; he makes his own. He doesn’t have time for a good girl like Shaw-even if she’s the only one who can see the person he truly is.

But a short skirt, too many birthday cocktails, and spilled secrets lead to a night neither can forget. Now, Shaw and Rule have to figure out how a girl like her and a guy like him are supposed to be together without destroying their love . . . or each other."

-Good Reads

#AYEARATHON | January

Two years ago, a small group of friends decided to create a year long reading challenge with the aims of knocking out our TBR piles and participating in reads that we could do together. Now, we are entering our second THIRD year of hosting the thon and have more than 2,500 members who participate. Are you interested? Check out the Good Reads group here.

Hello, and welcome! This month's #AYEARATHON theme is "bench warmers." Basically, pick a book that has been collecting dust on your shelf for way too long. January's #AYEARATHON will run from 1/4 until 1/10. I hope that you participate! You can check out the Good Reads group here. 

This month, I am FINALLY going to read a book that my friend (and #AYEARATHON co-host) sent me ages ago and has been pestering me about.

A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton
March 2006 by Ballantine Books
468 pages
Amazon + Good Reads

"My name is Meredith Gentry, but of course it's not my real name. I dare not even whisper my true name after dark for fear that one hushed word will travel over the night winds to the soft ear of my aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness. She wants me dead. I don't even know why...

I fled the high court of Faerie three years ago and have been in hiding ever since. As Merry Gentry, I am a private investigator for the Grey Detective Agency: Supernatural Problems, Magical Solutions. My magical skills, scorned at the courts of Faerie, are valued in the human world. Even by human standards, my magic isn't flashy, which is fine by me. Flashy attracts attention and I can't afford that.

Rumour has it that I am dead. Not quite. I am Princess Meredith NicEssus. To speak that name after dark is to call down a knock upon your door from a hand that can kill you with a touch. I have been careful, but not careful enough. The shadows have found me, and they are going to take me back home, one way or another.

So the running is over. But the fighting has just begun...

Rich, sensual, brimming with dangerous magic, A Kiss of Shadows is a dazzling tour-de-force where folklore, fantasy and erotically charged adventure collide."

-Good Reads