• Book Reviews

    MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT BY JESSICA PENNINGTON // spoiler-free book review: swimming, summer and enemies-to-lovers gloriousness

    Look at me!! Reading an ARC on time!! I feel accomplished and my life is complete. Anyways I’m here to talk about this delightful book that I also positively devoured in 12 hours. MY READING MOJO IS TRULY BACK MY FRIENDS!! Title: Meet Me At Midnight Author: Jessica Pennington Page count: 336 Date published: 7 April 2020 Genre: Young Adult romance contemporary ༄ Synopsis: They have a love-hate relationship with summer. Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two-star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But every summer it’s the same— in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding the ultimate ways to prank each other. And now, the summer after their senior year, they’re determined to make it the most epic summer yet. But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects summer to continue as usual. But then she gets a note—Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer…

  • Monthly Recaps

    MARCH RECAP // back home, getting my mojo back and to a better April

    Hello, there my friends, how are we all holding up? Boy is the entire freaking world glad that MARCH IS OVER!! Thank the high heavens. Anyways, I’m attempting to get my recap up early so that I can share my APRIL TBR on time. But without further ado, let’s get into it. One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus {★★★★½}: it is a true sadness that I only read ONE book last month, and that it only took me half a day to do so. But it’s fine. I really loved this book, which is a huge shock and also a pleasant surprise. But yeah, I had SO MUCH fun with it and thought that it was really well done. I was super invested in the mystery and really liked the main characters. I thought the plot was well done and the writing was easy to read. It was a tad slow at the beginning but otherwise, there aren’t any complaints. I actually already a whole review of this one up if you’d like to check it out – click here. Thanks to Penguin Random House SA for sending a copy my way!!   My list here is quite…

  • Book Reviews

    ONE OF US US NEXT BY KAREN M. MCMANUS // spoiler-free book review: a mystery i actually loved ft. deadly games and great characters

    My friends LOOK I READ AN ACTUAL BOOK!! It has been too long aghhh. But my mojo is back, I’M BACK FOLKS. And it feels SO GOOD. Anyways yes book review! Let’s just chat about this book that I positively devoured in like 12 hours. That I also freaking LOVED.   Title: One of Us Is Next Series: One of Us Is Lying book #2 Author: Karen M. McManus Page count: 375 Date published: 7 January 2020 Genre: Young Adult mystery thriller ♢ Synopsis: It is a year after the action of One of Us Is Lying, and someone has started playing a game of Truth or Dare. But this is no ordinary Truth or Dare. This game is lethal. Choosing the truth may reveal your darkest secrets, accepting the dare could be dangerous, even deadly. The teenagers of Bayview must work together once again to find the culprit before it’s too late . . . ♢   STAR RATING: (4.5 out of 5 stars) ♢ A huge thanks to Penguin Books South Africa for kindly sending this review copy my way! All thoughts and opinions are my own. I apologise that I only just now remembered that I also…

  • Miscellaneous

    TOPPING THE TBR BOOK CLUB IS BACK // an announcement ft. our rebranding & my readathon tbr

    Hello there friends This is a slightly different post from me but I’m so super excited about this new project that I just wanted to scream about it over here. If you’ve been around for a while you’ll know I started a book club with a few of my local bookstagram friends. Like really, ages ago. But everyone kind of got busy so we decided to take a break. It was later just my friend, Melleny and I, and we tried to get it back and running like a year ago, we yet again got busy. But you know, with all this time at home due to this virus, we thought well what better time to get the restart the book club. And omg I am SO EXCITED ABOUT IT!! we rebranded Anyways, introducing to you TOPPING THE TBR – the book club dedicated to crossing books off your TBR. It’s a tough task I know. Anyways, this is the new logo profile photo that I FREAKING LOVE and am SO proud of, if I do say so myself. We just really wanted to put together a book club that is lowkey and easy and just have fun. ➳ Follow…

  • Monthly Recaps

    JANUARY & FEBRUARY RECAP // end of holidays, starting uni and some reading

    Yes hi hello. I AM BACK. Wow, people I know I said I would try to not just disappear off the face of the earth and, of course, I don’t keep my promises WHOOPS. I literally just realised it had been a mont Again WHOOPS. I’m so bad at warning people I know. Anyways, the university has been A LOT. Which is why I haven’t been active. Like anywhere. I occasionally post on Instagram. True emphasis on occasionally. So… yeah. We’ll get more into that later. Let’s just get into the small number of books I’ve read so far this year!   Aristotle & Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz {★★★★½}: I think it’s now become my thing to start the year off with a gay book? We’re living a good life up in here. Anyways I just decided it was about time that I read this book and boy oh boy was it a delight. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a full five star but it was almost there. The characters man!! They’re just such smol beans who require hugs. Lots of hugs. They’re also chaotic drama queens who make no sense at all but it’s…

  • Book Reviews

    SERPENT & DOVE BY SHELBY MAHURIN // spoiler-free book review: a great enemies-to-lovers romance and witches

    Look I don’t know who I am anymore either. Like actually being on time with book reviews? Who dis? Can you tell that was past me a month ago who forgot I could post this book review?? Because yes. Anyways, hi hello there friends of the interwebs. I am terribly sorry for disappearing for a literal month. And I’m going to explain why in my recap (which is going to be both January and February in one oh well) which should be up in the next few days. But I wanted to post this so that I’m not a complete blogger failure. So feast your eyes on this messy review and sit tight until I can actually come up with a schedule and back to posting. We’ll all pray for a miracle. Also read look at me reading A POPULAR BOOK ON TIME?? Well alomost on time, and not like 3 years later. Truly I must be a new person. Anyways, let us just get into the review *squealing noises* Title: Serpent & Dove Series: Serpent & Dove book #1 Author: Shelby Mahurin Page count: 519 Date published: 3 September 2019 Genre: New adult historical fiction fantasy ✧ Synopsis: Two…

  • Anticipated releases,  Movies

    MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIES OF 2020 // being blessed with the book adaptations and more exciting releases

    So um hi, it has been a while since I talked about movies over here. It’s just been BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS. It’s also been a while since I posted, my January recap is late, but I really wanted to get this up. Yeah, I started uni and it’s been quite hard. So I disappeared off the internet for a bit. Whoops. Anyways, I KNOW I always do these posts late, I just never get the time to do them before the end of the year. AHHH A CONSTANT STRUGGLE. Also, I hope I don’t bore you with this content, as I’d really like to start doing more movie posts. I hardly watched any movies last year which is why they were so scarce. But I have a ton of ideas for this year and I guess we’ll see what happens. Anyways, without further ado let us just get into it. ANIMATION Onward (4 March 2020): All I needed to know was that Tom Holland is in this movie. Well, he’s a voice actor. Same difference. Also, there are purple men. I need it in my life. Oh and Chris Pratt but eh I don’t care about him as much. Soul (17…

  • Book Reviews

    THE QUEEN OF NOTHING BY HOLLY BLACK // book talk: is the folk of the air series worth it? ft luscious writing and delicious romance

    Huh I really just did that to myself didn’t I?? I mean I can truly only blame myself. I… had heard a lot about this series. But they didn’t really seem like my thing? Then I had serious FOMO so decided what the heck let’s do it. I’d planned on reading The Cruel Prince right away but I heard that the cliffhanger at the end of book two was INTENSE. So I waited until this finale came out and binged them all. Which btw, is the BEST ONLY way to read series, as I have come to conclude. This is going to be a strange sort of review. I don’t have that many thoughts on the first two books, at least enough to do whole reviews. Or I’m just lazy and don’t feel like doing ones for them all. I mean probably that. So I’m not going to talk about either of them separately. I hope this post isn’t too confusing. As if every other of my blog posts aren’t confusing either HA. ** Preface: this post is going to contain spoilers of book three later on, but you shall be warned hehe ** Because this isn’t a book talk on…

  • Book Reviews

    TWEET CUTE BY EMMA LORD // blog tour book review: the best YA rom-com ft. snarky banter and baking

    I am so excited to talk about this book OH MY GOSH. Achievement reached: I actually read this before the release date!! Which is new for me because I’m such a mood reader and am always late. But yes ACCOMPLISHMENT. And as you read in the title, this book was just such an unexpected favourite. I was totally taken by surprise, having heard next to nothing about this book apart from a pitch on Instagram. And I knew I needed to read it. And boy did it not disappoint. But without any further ado, let us just get into how brilliant this book is. A huge thanks to St. Martins Press & Wednesday Books for inviting me to join this blog tour! Title: Tweet Cute Author: Emma Lord Page count: 368 Date published: 21 January 2020 Genre: Young Adult contemporary ♥ Synopsis: Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account. Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t…

  • Blog awards

    REAL NEAT BLOG AWARD // my first ever nomination ft. school subjects & happy books

    Hello there friends! So apparently I was nominated for a blog award?? And I didn’t know about it until recently so am I only now getting around it welp. A huge thanks to Daria @ Bookaholic’s Therapy for nominating me, so sorry it took so long. Anyways, I’m just going to answer all the question and hopefully not fail at these. THE RULES Display the Award Logo. Thank the blogger that nominated you and post a link to their blog. Answer the questions from the blog who nominated you. Nominate 7-10 bloggers. Ask them seven questions What is a book that made you happy? My immediate thought was to say Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston but in the spirit of trying not to be repetitive as I usually am, we’re going to go with Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks. I don’t think I’ve talked about this one too much so I decided it needed some spotlight time. This a graphic novel and also lowkey my all-time favourite one (of the ones I’ve read so far as I only started reading them last year). It was just such a delight. The art style is just…