Tag: black book blog

Book Reviews

September Reading Wrap Up

India

So apparently y’all really do like these wrap-ups huh? Well, let me start posting them consistently. If you don’t want to read this post, I’ve already recorded this for my youtube channel, which you should totally check out and subscribe, and have placed it down below. I’m a couple of months behind, but that’s okay you’ll get over it. I had a good reading month in September and probably hit my average reading. I read 5 books and all of them were either romance or contemporary. Some were great and some… not so much. I’ve added links to all of the books that will take you to amazon. Some links may be affiliate links. Let’s get down to these books though!

American Queen | https://amzn.to/2Br2sbR

American Queen is the first book in the New Camelot series by Sierra Simone and boy oh boy is this book hot and steamy.  I love how this book is told from two different time frames intertwining the past and the present. I also love how the perspectives are told and how you always feel like you’re getting the view of all three perspectives and their stories. This romance features a love triangle/polyamory/mmf as well as military and politics. It’s such an incredible ride and I can’t wait to finish the rest of the series.

I believe I gave this book 4.5 stars overall

 

Save the Date | https://amzn.to/2BsmiDV

Save The Date was recommended to me by my romance guru, Steph over at Steph’s Romance Book Chat. It’s probably the one recommendation that she gave me that fell flat. She gave it to me because I got engaged this year and I have been in a wedding type of mood. Lord knows I still need to order save the dates hahaha, but this book fell flat because it didn’t offer enough tension and I felt like it tried to wrap things up too quickly. This book features fake dating. The tension it tried to bring in just was there for a shock factor and it didn’t even shock. It also was not steamy enough.

I gave this book 3 stars

Parental Guidance | https://amzn.to/2N401lg

Parental Guidance was another book my romance guru recommended and this one I loved! I truly loved. It was a 5 star read for me. This romance is a sports romance that features fake dating, dating apps, and parents choosing for them. I loved the dating app and how it all fell into place and I also loved how the parents were involved in this book and in developing this relationship. This was just such a great book.

I gave it 5 stars!

I Dare You | https://amzn.to/33JXxPB

I Dare You was another sports romance. This one following a collegiate athlete, which I definitely enjoyed because it was different than the other sports romances, which mainly follow professional athletes. I liked how the conversation of collegiate athletes not being paid was brought up and how that can really put a strain on their lives because they don’t have enough time to get a paying job. I liked the relationship in it and how it all came about and how college relationships can be a little different. I truly did enjoy this book and I enjoyed the speed at which the relationship developed.

I gave it 4 stars!

I’m Not Dying With You Tonight | https://amzn.to/31y8B0L

Now, I have multiple videos on I’m Not Dying With You Tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and liked the tempo that it was written at, it’s very fast-paced and as with riots, which are also very fast. I will leave the other videos linked as well. I loved the topic of this book and how it was written from two different perspectives. I did think that there was some character development lacking in our black main character, but I thought there was a good representation of the culture as it was based on Atlanta’s inner-city areas.

I gave this book 4 stars!

All in all I felt like September brought out some great reads and was mainly a romance and contemporary month for me! If you’re looking for more on each book make sure to check out my wrap up down below!! Until next time,

Keep Turning the Pages

India

 

Bookish

Why You Don’t Have Bookish Friends

India

All the time you can find posts of people saying that they don’t feel part of the bookish community, or how they don’t have friends and each time I see this I roll my eyes. Sorry, I do. I’m always left wondering what are you doing to garner friends in the bookish community. Are you expecting people to just “come up to you” on the internet and just be your friend? If so, you need to change your expectations. Also a lot of the friendships that you see happening on the internet did not happen overnight! They took months sometimes years to become what you see on the internet! It’s okay to be jealous, but it’s not okay to let it taint your view of the entire community. As a friend told me, find your tribe. They are there, but they’re just spread out a bit.

In order to have a friend, you have to be a friend. You have to be willing to put in the time to try and foster relationships and you also have to understand that not every person on the internet is meant to be your friend.  Building platonic relationships take just as much work as building romantic relationships. Are you commenting on their content and doing it in such a way that leads to more discussion or is it just a “Love your video! New subscriber!”? Also, understand that it’s easy to get distracted on the internet and that just because it seems like people are ignoring doesn’t mean they are. They might have seen the notification and just forgot to respond to it. That happens! I do it all the time and then it’s like a week later I’m responding. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Sometimes I take a peek at something, but don’t have the time to respond right away and then because the notification is gone I forget about it.

You also can’t expect to be given everything and constantly take from others without giving something in return. That’s toxic. It’s hurtful plain and simple. Also, don’t try to become friends with someone in order to build yourself up. That’s rude. You also have to respect people’s boundaries! If people say they just can’t do it right now, let them have some space to breathe. The internet only shows so much of people’s lives, and sometimes we assume we know more when we really only know a fraction.

I posted a video on my youtube channel about this, that is not nearly as blunt as this post, but I felt like the blog needed some tough love and youtube needed something a little nicer. Feel free to watch! What have you done to build relationships in the book community? What is some of the advice that you have for others? Let’s talk down in the comments! Until next time,

Keep Turning the Pages

India

Bookish, Unboxings

August 2018 Owlcrate Ruthless Royals

India
August Ruthless Royals Box

Another month has passed and of course that means another unboxing. I’m as usual super late to getting this to my blog, but here it is! This months box was themed “Ruthless Royals” and featured a lot of items from different books that featured a kingdom where the royal court might have some ruthlessness in it.

👑 A tin inspired by The Cruel Prince featuring artwork with many different quotes from the book. It was designed by @stellabookishart!👑 A s pocket mirror with pouch, inspired by The Belles! Designed by @catarinabookdesigns.
👑 A set of three magnetic bookmarks handmade by @craftedvan featuring three different evil queens from Disney, which have both their normal selves and their alter ego
👑 A kitchen towel inspired by Throne of Glass and designed by the amazing @littleinklingsdesign!
👑 An agate ring from @geocentral. We sent out a whole bunch of different color gems!
👑 Collectible monthly pin and postcard illustrated by @spykles!
👑 The book for August was Grace and Fury by @tracythewriter! It has an exclusive cover that I like a lot more than the original. I started to read it a little bit, but it just wasn’t what i wanted to read at the time.

I recorded my unboxing, which I will link here and below as well! What did you think of this box? Have you read this book?! Let me know! Until next time,

Keep turning the Pages

India

Book Reviews

From Twinkle with Love, Sandhya Menon

India

— Short Story —

Twinkle Mehra has wanted to be a filmmaker since she was a little girl. She is constantly writing in her journal to famous female filmmakers in hopes of channeling their creative energy and overall bad assery as a women in film. At her school there is an annual showcase where students can create something and present it to their  fellow students at the end of the year. When a classmate of hers, Sahil Roy, and asks her if she would like to make a film for the showcase of course she says yes. Through out her entire time in high school she has always been one of the unseen people and she thinks by doing this she can become seen through out school. Maybe she can even be noticed by Sahil’s twin brother, Neil, who is the most popular boy in school. During her time working on the film she starts to make actual friends, and also starts to receive secret admirer emails from someone with the initial, N. She is certain that it’s Neil Roy who has decided to finally talk to her, and gets herself in a love triangle of sorts. The questions becomes, is being a director of her own film, too much for Twinkle to deal with?

— My Thoughts —

I liked the book. I didn’t love it. Some of the things that Twinkle goes through and says, is honestly downright silly and mean. She becomes so self centered with herself that she does not notice the people directly in front of her, and because of that she ruins a lot of relationships that she is just forming. I would say that it’s how any high school girl acts when she is trying to find herself, but that would not be true. All in all it’s not my favorite. I felt like if you changed the names of the characters you wouldn’t even be able to tell that there are brown people in the book. It could be From Rebecca with Love and it would still feel the same, and I think that’s one reason I really don’t like it.  I break down my thoughts a little bit more in my video. What did you think of From Twinkle with Love? Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
India
Bookish

How To Bookstagram | DIY Background

India

EEEEEEEEE I’m really excited to do this!! A how to guide!! I never thought I would be in a position to make a how to guide for anything. Well, I’m pretty sure that I’m still not, but I’m going to pretend that I am! I stumbled onto something like this from some photography people that I follow on Youtube, and I was like I feel like I can do this for bookstagram pictures as well. Then BAM! I found myself in Joann’s, dragging Eric through the aisles so that he could hold all the bolts of fabric that I was going to have to choose from. Unfortunately I did not take pictures in between each step, but I did make a video of the whole thing that will be linked here and you can watch it down below.

I used two of my backgrounds to make this picture

Here are a list of things that you’re going to need to make your new, amazing, aesthetic – that’s such a hot word right now, say it slowly aaaeeesssstttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhetic- , cool background.

  1. Canvas size of your choosing – I chose 24″ x 48″ and I explain why in the video
  2. Fabric that fulfills your aesthetic pleasure in a yard and a quarter, I believe
  3. Either spray glue OR a staple gun – obviously spray glue is cheaper, but the staple gun is faster
  4. Scissors

 

If you’re using fabric with lines, remember to keep them straight!

And that’s it! It’s that easy and then you have an awesome portable background that you can use for your bookstagramming/instagramming pleasure. I absolutely love mine and it has been seen in a lot of pictures so far. I’m thinking about venturing into more colorful options next.

Choosing the right background can add extra depth and texture

I don’t know how many parts this “How To Guide” is going to be, but each aspect is going to have its own video, so that you can focus on just the parts that you want to know about. I do not claim to be a bookstagram expert. I don’t have that many followers, and my aesthetic is not aestheticy, but I know I learned some things from watching other people’s videos. I learned some things from trial and error and would like to share what I’ve learned, so you can be the next top bookstagrammer and get all of the book deals. Just don’t forget about me on the way up!

When you want to focus on something specific use plain backgrounds

If you have any questions please ask them in the comments. If you have any suggestions on some videos also let me know! You can see how I use the backgrounds in my more recent instagram pictures, so make sure to follow me there! Until next time,

Keep turning the Pages

India