July was a pretty good reading month for me. I got through 7 and a half books (that half went over into August, so it won't show up until next month's round-up). Check out an overview below.



Cujo by Stephen King ★★★★★
Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (2017 prompt - a book from a nonhuman perspective)

Brief synopsis: There's a lot of bad luck going 'round the small town of Castle Rock. There's infidelity, a downturn in business, toxic masculinity, emotional abuse, a monster in the closet. Not to mention it wasn't very long ago a police officer was found guilty of the brutal murder of multiple women and girls in the town. Now there's a different monster in town, one that used to be so innocent. When Very Good Boy Cujo chases a rabbit down a hole, his life changes for the worst, and the town along with it.

Overall thoughts: Just like any Stephen King book, I was really into reading this novel. It was truly terrifying, and though I've seen the movie, I was sincerely shocked by the ending. While most King books are not kid-friendly, this one would be a tough read for anyone with children. Full review here.





Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey ★★★★☆
Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: N/A

Brief synopsis: Ivy is a private investigator in a shady side of town. Most days she's tailing folks suspected of cheating. It's not glamorous, but it pays the bills. When the headmaster of the local magic school (yeah, that's right - magic school) asks Ivy to come investigate a murder, she doesn't exactly jump at the chance. Yeah, the pay is great, but magic's a bit of a sore spot. The magic gene missed her and her twin just happens to be magic school faculty.

Overall thoughts: This book read like YA written for adults and I loved that! It felt very obvious and predictable, but it was a bit more mysterious than I thought initially. I will say there were too many characters, which was very hard to follow, but also kind of one of the major requirements in all murder mysteries. I'd definitely recommend this one if you're into murder mysteries and magic, with just a touch of romance. Full review here.





Whisper Network by Chandler Baker ★★★★★
Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: N/A

Brief synopsis: There are many women who work at Truviv, but this story follows four of them who have each worked there for many years - Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita. When the CEO of the company dies unexpectedly, their boss (Ames) is in talks of getting rolled into the CEO role. But each of these women have a different level of experience with Ames, some of those experiences inappropriate. And when a new female colleague starts getting a little extra attention from him, the women of the office feel some secrets need to be shared before the CEO is a threatening figure to them all.

Overall thoughts: Wow, this book was amazing. I'd heard a lot of positive reviews, but I wasn't expecting how much I enjoyed this novel. It got off to such a slow start, and I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the book very much, but once it got into the story, I was truly hooked. It was such a tough read, but just in terms of the content. This book was absolutely timely as the main plot of the story focuses on the #metoo movement. I didn't particularly like most of the characters, but I did certainly support them and I think that was part of purpose. I recommend this book if the content wouldn't be too triggering. Full review here.





Supermarket by Bobby Hall ★★☆☆☆
Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book written by a musician.

Brief synopsis: The novel follows Flynn, a young man living at home with his mom, recently dumped, and looking for a job. Enter the supermarket, where he acquires a job as a floater and starts to meet a variety of characters who work along beside him. The array of characters is perfect for Flynn because he's writing a book, and basing his characters off his supermarket buddies. But things start to get weird, and somebody just might die.

Overall thoughts: I was entirely disappointed in this book. Bobby Hall is actually the rapper Logic, who is a beautiful lyricist, so I high very high expectations for this book. But the writing was mediocre and almost childish. The story was so unbelievable, and I kept waiting for it to get better - which spoiler, it didn't. This whole novel is basically just a knock-off Fight Club. Full review here.





Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane ★★★★☆
Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: N/A

Brief synopsis: Rachel is the daughter of well-known and possibly sociopathic author, who she never quite got along with growing up. Unfortunately, her mother was all she had as she had no clue who her father was and her mother kept it a secret she took to the grave. Through a series of searches, Rachel hunts down her father and learns more about herself than perhaps she'd like to know. Nonetheless, she rises through a successful journalism career that comes crashing down after a public breakdown on live news. What follows is a series of twists and turns as Rachel tries to find a semblance of normal in her life.

Overall thoughts: The first half of this book was entirely full of background development and entirely slow and boring. But once I got past the character development pieces, I truly could not put the book down. I had no clue what was going to happen and I really needed to know what was going to happen next. My biggest issue is the book had some unexplained situations and descriptions that weren't touched on again, but didn't make sense. I'd certainly read more from Lehane, but could've definitely appreciated more in way of explanation. Full review here.





The Possession by Michael Rutger ★★★★☆
Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: Two books that share the same title (2)

Brief synopsis: Christy finds herself in a small-town following a lead on cyber-bullying, but it seems there's something a bit more sinister happening because the girl being cyber-bullied has gone missing. Oddly enough, Christy's ex-husband is Nolan Moore, a supernatural investigator with a not-so-hot YouTube series. With the clever ruse of investigating mysterious walls, he convinces his team to travel to the small California town his ex is also investigating.

Overall thoughts: This follow-up to my 2018 favorite, The Anomaly, is not in the same league. Truly, it almost seems part of a different series. I didn't enjoy the multi-perspective yet omnipresent dialogue, I didn't like Christy very much, and the team wasn't quite traumatized enough from the first book's events.  I expected more from this book, but it was still a haunting, nightmare-inducing story.  I enjoy the way Rutger mixes real-life mysteries and myths with fictional storytelling. I still recommend reading this one, but don't expect the same effect as its predecessor. Full review here.





Lady Killer* by Jeff Richards ★☆☆☆☆
Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: N/A

Brief synopsis: Mitch is a bit of a "ladies' man." Recently divorced and father of two, there's just something about him that is appealing to women. Though he's not looking for anything serious, he begins romancing with two women he'd likely call friends. Soon, a jealous husband gets in the way and things take a turn for the worst.

Overall thoughts: This book, wow. What can I say? It was corny in a way I truly hated. The use of "pecker" was excessive and the sex scenes all consisted of at least three rounds of sex. This book was marketed as a "babysitting co-op leads to murder," but that was such a minor piece of information and literally had no impact on the plot of the story. I really did not enjoy this book at all, and found myself cringing through the majority of it. Full review here.











* denotes book was received free in exchange of an honest review. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own. 

In the true spirit of adulthood, we're hoping to purchase a house soon (but haven't yet, so this is all pre-meditated, wishful thinking). So, I - being the dramatic human that I am - thought maybe we'd go the extra mile with the party planning, right? Maybe be a little extra and create an entire housewarming party invitation kit, complete with invitation, RSVP card, registry information, and directions all inside a fancy little pocket to keep it together.

I checked out the website over at basicinvite.com and explored all the options they have available and let me tell you - there are so many. I decided to choose from the wedding invitation sets and there are over 1000! I chose a couple different options including the new hearts moving announcement and for the full set I went with the flowing ferns wedding invitations, thank you cards, and response cards alongside the floral celebration registry cards and directions cards all enclosed inside the basic invite traditional pocket. Even though these options came from different sets, I was able to customize the colors and fonts to create a consistent look between the different cards.

















While I was sifting through all the options available on Basic Invite, I may have come across a few random options too.




Graduation announcements

I know it's been a few months, but I worked long and hard to earn my master's while working full-time and I'd like everybody to know, okay? Don't judge me. So, I compiled a few of my wedding pictures taken by the wonderful Sarah and popped them into the finally done graduation announcements because HELLO - it took me an extra year but I freaking did it!






Business cards

On my second round of 101 in 1001, I talked about finally ordering some business cards for the blog and social channels, and so this was a perfect opportunity to give a few options a try. I am absolutely loving the clear and frosted options Basic Invite has (including wedding invites!), so I knew I wanted to try out the big intro clear business cards and the big name clear business cards. I opted for one to be totally clear and the other to be frosted.









I'm still deciding between the two. Which one is your favorite?




Wedding invitations

Okay, okay. So I actually got married almost four years ago. And I really liked our wedding invitations, but these forest watercolor seal & send wedding invitations are so cool. They're pre-addressed and include a tear-off RSVP postcard to send back. It's everything you need all in one and I am obsessed. These would've gone perfect with our fall whimsical woodsy wedding. I'm also a huge fan of these fall coasters wedding favors, though I actually really loved the Whitter button pins we had on our big day.









Seriously, Basic Invite has so many options, there's bound to be something you're looking for regardless of the occasion. Everything is fully customizable (as you can see from the fact I made wedding invitation sets into housewarming invitations). You can pick the colors and fonts and move everything around. There are so many different paper options to choose from (I chose different papers for all the different items above). And it's the only site I've found where you can actually order custom samples so you can truly see what your order will look like in your hands before ordering full sets of multiple invitations or whatever.

TW: Domestic abuse, infidelity, violence, death, misogyny



The premise of Lady Killer is so interesting. It's introduced as a book about a babysitting co-op leading to murder, which I guess is correct, but I wouldn't say it's a totally accurate depiction of the story.


Mitch is a bit of a "ladies' man." Recently divorced and father of two, there's just something about him that is appealing to women. Though he's not looking for anything serious, he begins romancing with two women he'd likely call friends. Soon, a jealous husband gets in the way and things take a turn for the worst.



There's little to no focus on the baby-sitting co-op. I thought this book would be a fun dark comedy, but it's a short and dramatic novella. It was definitely a quick read thanks to page count, but I found myself hating the characters, disliking the writing, and not really aligning with any of the perspectives in the book. The writing was incredibly corny and it read like a heavy romance novel - which is fine if you're into that, but it's just not my cup of tea. (Let's just say the use of the word "pecker" was an absurd amount. And every "makes love" three or four times in a row every time they do it.)

I like to read books about diverse characters with a variety of backgrounds, and this was just so incredibly cis and white. There were no diverse perspectives whatsoever, and there was nothing intriguing enough to make me care about this book at all. I literally found myself rolling my eyes and sighing every few pages because this story was seriously lacking.






(Honestly, what does this quote even mean? This is how the entire book is.)



This book has good some really good reviews, but it's also got some bad ones. On Goodreads, it falls all over the spectrum in terms of ratings. My rating is on the low end. I was absolutely not impressed by this story. I was bored and annoyed to the point I was almost offended by someone trying to pass this book off as good story-telling. I was honestly shocked by how little I liked this book. But like I said, the reviews are mixed, so it may be something that's a great fit for someone else. It just wasn't for me. It will be out in October.




Goodreads rating: ★☆☆☆☆















*I received this book for free in exchange of an honest review. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own.

PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: Two books that share the same title (2)


TW: Violence, kidnapping/abduction 



I selected The Anomaly last year as a Book of the Month pick and I absolutely loved it. It quickly became one of my favorite books, described accurately as a mix between The X-Files and Indiana Jones. When I discovered it was just the first in a new series of books thanks to Ashley, I knew I had to pre-order book two. So that's what I did - I pre-ordered The Possession, and hoped into it almost as soon as it arrived.


Christy finds herself in a small-town following a lead on cyber-bullying, but it seems there's something a bit more sinister happening because the girl being cyber-bullied has gone missing. Oddly enough, Christy's ex-husband is Nolan Moore, a supernatural investigator with a not-so-hot YouTube series. With the clever ruse of investigating mysterious walls, he convinces his team to travel to the small California town his ex is also investigating. 


I love how Rutger uses real-life mysteries to spark an interest in a fictional story. In this case, it's a series of weird walls that are actually all over the world, but have no true purpose (at least to anyone's knowledge). It gets me down into a rabbit-hole of googling, but that's not the main purpose of this book, or this review. It's more of a starting point.

In this novel, the formatting was quite different from The Anomaly. There were so many different perspectives within this book, instead of just Nolan. But at times, chapters would focus on other characters in an omniscient perspective but would be worded as if it was from Nolan's viewpoint. It was very weird and confusing. The confusing perspective situation was definitely one of the things that turned me away from liking this book as much as the first in the series.

I also felt this book had a bit of a YA feel to it though it wasn't a YA novel. I love YA, but this didn't really work for this book for whatever reason. Don't get me wrong - I really enjoyed this book. It just felt so different than the original book and I felt a little let down after being so hyped about it.

I am not a fan of Christy, and would love more from the rest of Nolan's crew. I felt the effects from the first book's story were kind of thrown to the wind, when realistically I think the characters would have been a lot more traumatized. It seemed a bit nonsensical in the bigger picture of the series' storyline. Granted, the story was terrifying. I was incredibly creeped out and having a hard time falling to sleep while I was reading this one. I had to walk around the house with all the lights on. It got a bit ridiculous.

It's still creepy. It's still supernatural. And it's still such a unique way of storytelling, with such a different type of story. It's worth the read.






If you enjoyed The Anomaly, definitely still pick this one up and read it. But expect it to feel very different. The Anomaly was SO DAMN GOOD, it would really be hard to beat it. This is definitely different from the first book, but still a good read.




Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆

TW: Harm to children, death, violence, suicidal ideations, reference to sexual assault, mental illness



I finally picked up Since We Fell after it being on my shelf since 2017. It was one of my Book of the Month picks back then and I read it in an effort to read my backlog of unread BOTM picks. Dennis Lehane is an incredibly well-known author, with bestsellers like Shutter Island and Mystic River - both of which I've seen (and loved) the film adaptations, but Since We Fell is my first Lehane novel and I can totally understand the hype.


Rachel is the daughter of well-known and possibly sociopathic author, who she never quite got along with growing up. Unfortunately, her mother was all she had as she had no clue who her father was and her mother kept it a secret she took to the grave. Through a series of searches, Rachel hunts down her father and learns more about herself than perhaps she'd like to know. Nonetheless, she rises through a successful journalism career that comes crashing down after a public breakdown on live news. What follows is a series of twists and turns as Rachel tries to find a semblance of normal in her life. 


I'll shoot straight - the first half of this book is long and slow and provides little in the way of the plot line. There is so much information given, mostly as a way of character development. Unfortunately, it just made the first half of the book feel like a prologue - I could even say it was inconsequential. It could have been narrowed down into a couple of chapters and I think would've had a similar effect. It was nice info to have, but it felt almost like a different book compared to the fast-paced second half of the novel.

The second half of the book started going, however, and didn't stop until the book ended. It was exhilarating and twisty, if not a little corny and unrealistic at times. I had to know what was going to happen next and found myself flipping through the pages so quickly.

I will say - there were some weird unexplainable situations that I thought would lead to something within the story. For example, there were two different characters described in very similar ways at totally different parts of the book that literally had nothing to do with each other. In another part of the book, Rachel assumes a character's name (but never says it out loud), then later the character introduces himself with that name (how'd he know?), but come to find out later - that's not his name, but we never actually learn his name. What? I know. Very confusing.






Overall, I really enjoyed the novel. It started slow, but had tons of character development (specifically for the main protagonist, Rachel) and by the end, I was soaring through its pages. I definitely had some concerns with the unexplainable, but based off my first experience reading Lehane, I'd definitely read more from him.



Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆