Always Me

          Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the book I read this month for  Choose Your Own Adventure: Year In Adelia, The Boardgame , an additional challenge to  G. @ Book Roast 's  Magical Readathon .  You can see my full tbr  here .  Without further ado, check out my mini review for my September book below: ❋  ❋  Bait and Witch  ( Witch Way Librarian Mysteries  #1) by Angela M. Sanders  is a solid cozy mystery fantasy. It takes awhile to really get going and get into the aspects of the story I was most interested in - primarily the magic and the reason why Josie left the Library of Congress in the first place. Coming from working in a smaller rural library, I will say that it got old fast how to see how Josie thinks about her new community. I will be continuing the series, since it seems like now that all of this stuff is out of the way the fantasy element of this series could rea...

          Happy Saturday everyone! Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the book I read in August for  Choose Your Own Adventure: Year In Adelia, The Boardgame , an additional challenge to  G. @ Book Roast 's  Magical Readathon .  You can see my full tbr  here .  Without further ado, check out my mini review below: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I'm not familiar with The Twa Sisters but now I'm going to have to check out other retellings of it after reading  Sistersong  by Lucy Holland . I'll also have to try more from the author in the future. I really liked her lyrical style of historical fantasy which is a subgenre I can't resist.  If you like Natalie Haynes, Sophie Keetch, or Madeline Miller, I have a feeling you'll like Lucy Holland too. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . Next Month:  September  - September’s book can be part of your Sprint Equinox TBR if you’re participating and fit both promp...

Happy Sunday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my wrap up and mini reviews for both my August 2025 Bingo Round of the  Trope-ical Readathon  (which is hosted by  Jenjenreviews ) and Nevermore-athon (hosted by  Chaos in Bookland  with co-hosts amy from ‪@ AmyMcCaw ‬, Barbora from ‪@ bookworm.wander‬ , judith from ‪@ judithcakelover‬ , and Elena from @ they_read_and_spin ).  They both ran all of August.  I read all of the books on my original tbrs which you can check out here for Trope-ical Readathon and here for Nevermore-athon.  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read for these challenges: Trope-ical Readathon ❋   ❋ The Briar King  ( Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone  #1) by Greg Keyes  has a lot of potential to be great, but it didn't make the cut. The dialogue style grated on me after a little while. It's like the author is trying to show off. Some authors can really do that with no issue and you're even happier f...

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today, I'm sharing my seventh update and mini reviews for the  Read Around the World Challenge .  Of the 46 books for the 46 European countries on my original  tbr , I managed to complete 9 in August for a total of 42 completed so far.  I've only got 4 books left!  You can check out my profile here on the challenge website  here .  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read this month: ❋   ❋  The Teacher of Cheops  by Albert Salvado  isn't bad, but I wonder if something just got lost in the translation to English. I normally like stories set in Ancient Egypt, but this one wasn't worth it for me.  I definitely wouldn't have bothered with this one if it wasn't for the Read Around the World Challenge. My review is also on  Goodreads  and  The StoryGraph . ❋   ❋  D (A Tale of Two Worlds)  by Michel Faber  is definitely a case of wishing I liked it quite a b...

Happy Saturday everyone!  Today, I'm featuring my wrap up and mini reviews of my Spell It Out Reading Challenge 2024.  I started this challenge at the beginning of last July (you can see my original tbr here) and now that I've completed it, I figured I'd better share my results since I somehow neglected to do so for my 2023 challenge.  As a reminder, the rules for this challenge are pretty easy because you just have to read books to spell out your name by using book titles. So I read 14 to spell books beginning with the letters that make up my first name and blog name, LAUREN ALWAYS ME.  Without further ado, keep reading to see what I thought of the books I read for this challenge: ❋   ❋  ❋   The Library of the Dead  ( Edinburgh Nights  #1) by T.L. Huchu  is an enjoyable atmospheric fantasy novel.  I was hoping that the library element would have played a larger part in this story, but I still liked getting into this Edin...

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today, I'm sharing my seventh update and mini reviews for the  Read Around the World Challenge .  Of the 46 books for the 46 European countries on my original  tbr , I managed to complete 5 in July for a total of 33 completed so far.  You can check out my profile here on the challenge website  here .  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read this month: ❋   ❋  ❋   ❋ A Death in Malta: An Assassination and a Family's Quest for Justice  by Paul Caruana Galizia  had been on my radar for quite awhile.  I knew this was a recent case, but for some reason I had it stuck in my head that it from a long time ago. What they went through is horrifying. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . ❋   ❋ The premise of  Blackout  ( Blackout  #1) by Marc Elsberg  sounded interesting, but it just fell off for me midway through.  It's marketed as a thriller, but I w...

Happy Sunday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my seventh and final update for my July progress on the year long  Beat The Backlist 2025  reading challenge, hosted by  Austine Decker .  You can see my original tbr  here .  In July, I completed 2 books for a total of 24 read so far out of 24 total books on my tbr.  Go me for finishing this year long challenge in July! Without further ado, keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in July to finish up my challenge: ❋   ❋  ❋   ❋ Why did I put off reading  The Twelve  ( The Passage  #2) by Justin Cronin  for so long?  I think I might have liked this a bit more than book one.  Plus, I really appreciated that unique recap at the beginning.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I wish more book series had recaps at the beginning of each progressive book.  I can't wait to read the finale and hopefully I won't put it off for as long...