15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day(s) #7-11 (Oops I know! I know!)

It's Day #11!! In the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. You can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine. 


Okay so I got side tracked with review books and blog tours and life so I'll do a little catch up. This is going to be Days #7-11...Oooh 7-Eleven...now I want a Slurpee...*Smacks self* FOCUS! Okay so here we go!

Day #7 Talk about your blogging quirks.

I'm not really sure I have any "quirks". It took me a while to find my "style" and by that I really just mean how I format my blog and I'm happy with it. 

I've grown fond of throwing quotes in. I don't do it every single time but it's fun to find ones and try to either write around them or fit them in somehow.

Sometimes I'm able to jump right into a review after I've finished reading it. Others times they sit there for a week or two. *Side eyes "needs review" shelf on Goodreads* But I try not to let more than 3 reviews stack up at a time. Once I hit 3 I will sit here until I get all 3 written and won't allow myself to move on to another book until they're done. 

After finishing a book I will at least go in and do everything for my review post and have it all set up so all I need to do is put in the review. It's a helpful little reminder that screams at me every time I go into my dashboard saying "HEYYYYY GET THIS DONE!"

I tend to go a day or two between catching up on comments and/or blog hopping. Though this past week I've been horrible because I'm trying to get so many review books read. But I always catch up eventually. Some of you will get comments on week old posts be warned haha.

I dunno I'm not all that quirky I guess.


Day #8 Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!

Review wise:

• Book covers displayed - I'm sometimes a visual buyer
• Goodreads links - I'm lazy I don't want to type it in :D Just click and go!
• Ratings - It's silly but not everyone does this and I like to know numbers!
• Honesty - Loved it or hated it always be honest
• GIFs - This isn't required but when they're on there they are so much fun!
• Quotes - Again also not a requirement but I love me some quotes!
• Pages - I like to know how long a book I may potentially like is going to be. It's nice to have all that available as I'm looking through the review
• Author links - Once again it's my laziness. I like to just click to find out more of what I want to know if I'm not familiar with the author!

Blog in general:

• Having a post archive easily accessible so that I can look at some of your old posts
• NO CAPTCHA! Seriously there are times when I just close a post instead of putting it in. 
• Our blogs reflect our personality. I like getting to know you that way :)
• Memes obviously aren't required blogging material but they're a fun way to find new books and blogs to read!
• Features. I have a few blogs I follow that have their own features and they're always interesting and open up dialogue and conversation. 
• Having a variety of follow options. I like to have a choice on how I hear about your newest posts :)
• Keep it simple. Keep it organized. (Obviously I don't follow this one very well myself haha)

None of these things are required for me enjoying blogs I visit. These are just things that when I see them I'm like "Yay!!!"


Day #9 Why do you blog about books?

I'd been wanting to start blogging again for a while, see way back in the MySpace days (I know right?), when everyone was still like "Facewhat?" I was part of the MySpace blogging community. It was all just random life posts at the time. I made a lot of great friends though once everyone switched over to Facebook I've lost track of all but one and I still talk to her on a daily basis and it's been like YEARS and YEARS. She started a nail blog. Erika @ Polish Fixation if you're into that sort of thing too go show her some love! :)

But I remember having so much fun blogging. Telling crazy life stories filled with humor, at my own expense, and I wanted to do something like that again. I tried doing something like that on blogger a few years ago but I was having trouble getting into it. Then I discovered Goodreads and I was reading a review and someone said something about their blog and so I went and then I started hopping from blog to blog soaking in these reviews and it was so exciting for me. One day I thought to myself..I can write about books I should try it. Nearly 7 months later here I am. It's fun. It's cathartic. It helps me to decompress after reading whether the book was good or bad. It's not my total intention to influence someone one way or the other about the books I've read, I just want a platform to talk about what I've read and even if it's only me who reads it, I feel better after I've gotten it out there.


Day #10 How do you choose what book to read next?

It used to be me browsing through page after page on Barnes & Noble in their "teen" section trying to find a new YA book to love. But now a days I find things sometimes on Goodreads but for the most part it's my friends, other blogs and Twitter. If something is being raved about I will usually pop on Goodreads and check it out then add it or buy it straight away! 


Day #11 Show off! 5 of your best blog posts!

Oh boy this is scary. I'm highly critical of myself and it's a miracle posts actually go out but I'll see what I can come up with...


REVIEW: The Human (The Eden Trilogy #2) by Keary Taylor

REVIEW: Tangled (Tangled #1) by Emma Chase

ARC REVIEW: Taste the Heat (Love and Games #1) by Rachel Harris

REVIEW: Real (Real, Raw & Ripped #1) by Katy Evans

REVIEW: Point of Retreat (Slammed #2) by Colleen Hoover

Bonus: 

REVIEW:  Accused (Ganzfield #4) by Kate Kaynak

I was just going to skip this one but it made me happy seeing how much Kate enjoyed this review. Total fangirl moment.

Alright sorry for the long post but I wanted to catch up on this and hopefully I'll stay more on schedule for the remaining few days!! xoxox

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day #6

It's Day #6!! In the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. You can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine. 


Describe how you shop for books.

Haha...if you've spent any sort of time at all on my blog during my Weekly Haul posts then you'll know that there is no method to my madness. Just click, click. click. Then weep in the corner because I went overboard... AGAIN.

Since getting my Kindle I have grown into more of an eBook person. I fall victim to the 1 click buying very easily especially with all their freebies and $0.99 deals. It's hard not to. I still get my favorites in hard copies from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble whichever is the cheapest. But for the most part everything has been going straight to the Kindle. But try not to mention anything around it. It's starting to feel a bit fat.

In the beginning I would get things that popped out at me in my Goodreads feed or I would search through the YA section in B&N for new titles. But these days I get a lot of stuff from the influence of my friends and the stuff that isn't from them is stuff I see mentioned on Twitter or I signed up for BookBub and get daily emails with tons of bargain recommendations. I'm not one to resist temptation so I've usually accumulated quite a bit by the end of each week!

That's about it I guess, there's not much else to tell.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day #5

It's Day #5!! In the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. You can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine. 

Recommend a tear jerker.

My gut instinct for today's topic was to pretty much go for any Colleen Hoover book, namely Hopeless or Losing Hope. Both insane on the emotions scale. But let's face it, those are probably going to be popular picks and I want to throw something different into the ring. So I was shuffling through my "Favorites" shelf on Goodreads and something that I'd forgotten all about jumped out at me. So if you're looking for a great emotional read:

Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher


Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

Very powerful. Something I wish everyone would at least attempt to read

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day #4

It's Day #4!! In the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. You can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine. 


What's the last book you flung across the room?

Had you asked me this yesterday afternoon I would have said The Impact of You by Kendall Ryan. Oh boy what a difference one simple day makes! I am currently reading Torn by K.A. Robinson. Believe it or not I am completely 100% sucked into this book and I can't seem to turn the pages fast enough. But since I hit about 18% I started to feel this growing frustration with the characters and it's getting increasingly worse the further I get into it. I sit here fuming and mentally cussing out each one of the main characters in my head. And obviously I haven't physically thrown the book since it's on my Kindle and I would cry if anything happened to that. Ugly cry. BUT I have, in an almost as satisfying manner, thrown this book repeatedly across the room, through the window, against the wall you name it, in my head many times since about 1am this morning. 

You know I notice this book is making me do a lot of things in my head. I wonder how healthy it is for me to finish....*Shrugs and picks up Kindle* Okay shhh! 33% to go. If you don't hear from me in a few hours call a mental health professional. I may have cracked *Eye twitches*

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day #3

It's Day #3!! In the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. You can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine. 

Who are your blogging BFFs?

So this one is gonna be easy! Though I've met a lot of really awesome fellow bloggers, there is a group of ladies that I've grown the closest with. It all started with a book. One book. Girl With Guitar by Caisey Quinn. One of my girls (Jess) started the ball rolling on Twitter and got a couple of us to buy the book (really all she had to do was say "hey this looks good you should get it" we're all so easy haha) next thing I know there are 8 of us all together who had just bought it and we're all excited chatting about the book when someone suggested "Hey we should all read this together!" And so our little weekend read-along group was born. Girls With Books #GwB.

We're about to start our 5th book this weekend and we're still having a blast. I've loved getting to know these ladies, it's never a dull moment with them and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't talk to at least one of them. Love you girls and I'm so glad to know each and every one of you. :)

My #GwB:

Jessica from Lovin' Los Libros 

Danielle from What Danielle Did Next 

Wendy from Book Scents 

Tonya from lilybloombooks 

Trish from Between the Lines 

Chelsea from Starbucks & Books Obsession  

CeCe from CeCe's Steaming Mug of Books

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day #2

It's Day #2!! In the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. You can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine. 

What's your bedtime reading ritual?

Honestly I don't really know that I have one. I read off and on throughout the day in my spare time but once dinner's been done and eaten it's really different every night. Sometimes my kiddo is home and we hang out or he goes to video games and I grab a book. I don't have a set evening. But at some point after all the teeth brushing and face washing and throwing the hair up in a messy bun, eventually I do get to cozy up with a book and just read until I can't keep my eyes open any more (that's in between bouts of messing around on Twitter :P).

If the book is really good and has sucked me in, sleep sometimes doesn't come at all. And then I spend the next few days kicking myself as I'm draggin ass trying to keep from napping constantly. Apparently I'm not as young as I used to be.

15 Day Book Blogging Challenge | Day #1

Never one to turn away from a good challenge I've decided to (better late than never!) join in on the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge and you can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine. The first challenge is to Make 15 book related confessions. This should be interesting...

1.) I can't read without music. It used to be the other way around, if I had music on I'd be distracted and sing along. But now I find life distracting, so I pop my earbuds into my phone turn the music up and bam, peace.

2.) I've read the Twilight series at the very least 8 times from Twilight to Breaking Dawn and yanno what? I'm pretty damn okay with telling you this.

3.) The more traumatic or emotional or tear inducing a book is, the more I'll more than likely wind up loving it. I enjoy having my heart ripped out for some reason. Maybe it's slightly masochistic, but the moment a friend says a book has done a number to them I race to B&N or Amazon and buy it.

4.) If I'm into the story and/or characters, I am 100% into it. I laugh, I cry, I get angry, I get embarrassed for them. I feel everything that's being put out there. And I love every single minute of it!

5.) Show me a book with a well written love triangle and I will kiss the ground you walk upon! Eww okay maybe I won't go that far but I do love a good triangle of luuurrrve. As long as it improves the story and isn't just thrown in there for the sake of having an obstacle in the way.

6.) If there's a love story and I'm totally into the couple and for some reason something happens... I tend to take the guys side. I don't know why! You'd think I'd be loyal to my gender? But nope I sit there thinking "How could you do that to him?!" Case in point? The end of Fallen Too Far. I freaking adored Blaire right up to the end and now I can't stand her.

7.) I cringe, and it physically hurts me if I know people do things like dog ear pages. It's abuse people!

8.) Similar to #7 I have a bit of anxiety when someone wants to borrow a physical copy of a book. Take any one of my eBooks you want!!! But I go Smeagol on your ass when you want to touch any of my other preciouuuuuuuuussssssss. Seriously. My mom wanted to borrow my Hunger Games books and it hurt to hand them over. You know how in movies when someone is giving something to someone that they really don't want to hand over and they don't let go and it's like a sort of tug of war thing with said object? That's me and my books. Don't judge me...

9.) My TBR pile is out of control. I quite literally have enough books to last me probably a year comfortably, both physical and eBooks and I still go out of control week after week either with free and/or $0.99 stuff from Amazon or requesting binges on NetGalley. I have no self control.

10.) There are books that I have on either my Nook or Kindle....that I also have physical copies of. Sometimes I have to be able to touch the pages and stare at the cover or whatever but I don't have the patience to wait for the book or the funds for the hard copy at the time so I buy an eBook so I can read it right away and then down the road I buy the actually print copy. Hello. My name is Sheri. And I am a book hoarder.

11.) I will admit to occasionally judging books by their covers. I'm not proud of it. I'm sure I could be missing a lot of good books. But sometimes I see something and it's like, "Meh...." and I walk away.

12.) Having to DNF a book sometimes makes me nearly physically ill (I mean review books). I will put myself through such torture trying to finish review books instead of just walking away, which I should do. I'm getting better at it. But I try to hold out as long as I can.

13.) Bad and damaged guys win my heart each and every time. My current number one book boyfriend is Remington Tate from Real. Bad. Damaged. Caveman. Sexy as all hell. Yep. I have  issues.

14.) If something really good is about to happen in a book I will literally cover up the parts I haven't gotten to yet so I don't accidentally see something that would spoil it for me. I'm so paranoid about this.

15.) It's very rare that I actually picture characters as they're described. You can describe them to me down to the very last detail but it won't guarantee that's what they'll look like in my head. Sometimes it's as simple as hearing a name and if you tell me Joe Blow is blond, blue eyed and 6ft tall, sometimes I hear Joe Blow and in my head pops brown hair green eyes and short. *Shrugs* it's my brain and my fantasy people! (Oh and I seriously hope I never run into a Joe Blow...)


So that's what I've come up with. It was harder than I thought!