Category: Monthly Wrap-Up (Page 4 of 9)

During our Monthly Wrap-Up, we’ll take a look at what has happened around here in the last month. That’ll include what’s happened in my life, what the four of us have read, any other posts we may have had, giveaways still going on, our most popular Instagram posts, and books that I’ve added to my ever-growing TBR.

*We linked this post to the November Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction*

♥ Enjoy!

Jen’s Life:

Some of my highlights from this month were:

✮ We celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents, my brother, grandma, aunt and uncle.  It was such a wonderful time!  And of course we ate WAY too much food.  For dessert we had pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, peppermint loaf cake, chocolate peanut butter bars, and cookies.  Of course I had to have one of each.  Thank goodness for jeggings since they stretch when you eat ha!
✮ Doggy wise, it’s been rough.  Bentley had surgery the week before Thanksgiving to remove a possible cancerous growth.  The tests came back a mix between pre-cancerous and other parts benign.  So we just need to keep an eye on him and make sure it doesn’t come back.  Here’s a picture of my little boy here.
✮ And Callie, my other dog, has had a gastrointestinal bug.  She’s on her third kind of antibiotics and it looks like we’re finally making head way!  But then she tore her ACL ugh.  They’re hoping she’ll go in for surgery the day after Christmas, since she has to be completely healthy before she can go under.  Here’s a picture of her here.

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What Arielle, Cassie, Chelsea & Jen Read:

5 Stars:
✮ Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland, Penelope Ward
✮ Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1) by Annette Marie

4.5 Stars:
✮ The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
✮ Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
✮ Wish Upon a Cowboy (Cowboys of Creedence #4) by Jennie Marts

4 Stars:
✮ The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah
✮ Stealing Her (Covet #1) by Rachel Van Dyken
✮ Find Me Their Bones (Bring Me Their Hearts #2) by Sara Wolf
✮ Twist of Fate (Heartbreaker Bay #8.5) by Jill Shalvis
✮ The Upside of Falling by Alex Light
✮ Resurrection Girls by Ava Morgyn

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Our Favorite Books of the Month:

 Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1) by Annette Marie  (Jen’s Choice)
A ton of fun, action packed and impossible to put down.  Just from that first chapter I was hooked and I screamed out loud best chapter ever!  Oh my gosh you guys, Annette Marie knows how to pull you in and continually have you begging for more.  

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Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland, Penelope Ward  (Arielle’s Choice)
What the BLEEP this is so cute *goes and cries and blames it on pregnancy hormones*. I had been in SUCH a reading rut, you guys. I seriously have like five books on my currently reading list on GR right now and I finished this gem IN A DAY.

During our Monthly Wrap-Up, we’ll take a look at what has happened around here in the last month. That’ll include what’s happened in my life, what the four of us have read, any other posts we may have had, giveaways still going on, our most popular Instagram posts, and books that I’ve added to my ever-growing TBR.

*We linked this post to the October Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction*

♥ Enjoy!

Jen’s Life:

Some of my highlights from this month were:

✮ Totally not a highlight, but my computer died.  And I use to back up everything, and then spaced for the last few years.  I lost everything.  And then my brother, who is in IT worked on it for days and was able to recover 37%, I’ll take it lol.  So let my epic failure be your lesson, back up back up back up ha!
✮ We took our annual trip to visit my husband’s family in Orange County (Calfornia) and one of my high school friends who lives in Del Mar (little north of San Diego).  It’s always my favorite trip we take!  We hang out on the beach every day and surf, boogie board, read and play in the sand.  It was the best 8 days ever and I wasn’t ready to go home.  Here are some pictures…..
Here’s my husband getting barreled here. 
Here’s me and my kiddos playing around on the beach here.  Ohhh see the cream and green colored house behind us?!  Bethany Hamilton was having an event there and she was with her family on the beach just a few feet away from us!  We got to watch her surf and she kicks ass!!  She is such an inspiration to all ♥. 
And then here’s my 6 year old surfing here. 
And my 8 year old surfing here.

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What Arielle, Cassie, Chelsea & Jen Read:

5 Stars:
✮ The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club #1) by Lyssa Kay Adams
✮ The Witchlands Box Set (The Witchlands #1-3) by Susan Dennard
✮ The Burning Shadow (Origin #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
✮ Sinful Like Us (Like Us #5) by Krista & Becca Ritchie
✮ Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
✮ The Midnight Lie (The Midnight Lie #1) by Marie Rutkoski
✮ The Bookworm Crush by Lisa Brown Roberts

4 Stars:
✮ Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson

2 Stars:
✮ Hidden Bodies (You #2) by Caroline Kepnes

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Our Favorite Books of the Month:

Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson (Cassie’s Choice)
Every Other Weekend, my second Abigail Johnson novel I’ve read, was almost unputdownable for me. Not because it was a thrilling page turner, but because I was so invested in these characters I needed to find out what was going to happen next.

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The Bookworm Crush by Lisa Brown Roberts (Jen’s Choice)
I laughed, cried, sighed and fell madly in love, so it’s no surprise that The Book Worm Crush became an instant favorite!  

During our Monthly Wrap-Up, we’ll take a look at what has happened around here in the last month. That’ll include what’s happened in my life, what the four of us have read, any other posts we may have had, giveaways still going on, our most popular Instagram posts, and books that I’ve added to my ever-growing TBR.

I know this is September’s wrap-up🙈, October’s wrap-up is coming tomorrow.  My computer died at the beginning of October and I didn’t get it back for almost two weeks.  I lost almost all my info.  Then we left out of state for a little over a week to visit family and friends, so I’m finally getting caught up on life.♥

*We linked this post to the September Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction*

♥ Enjoy!

Jen’s Life:

Some of my highlights from last month were:

✮ September was close to the end of our gardening time.  We did amazing for our first year.  We got over 400 tomatoes with just 3 plants.  30+ squash, 30+ zucchinis, 13 cucumbers, over 20 watermelons and a few heads of lettuce.  Spinach was our only failure.  Not bad for us not really knowing what we were doing lol.. You can see one of my gardening pictures here.
✮ We spent as much time as we could outdoors before the snow season hits.  Here’s us at the top of one of the mountains looking down at Lake Tahoe here.  And here’s another one where my besties and I went on a hike after we dropped the kiddos off at school here, yay for friend time!

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What Arielle, Cassie, Chelsea & Jen Read:

5 Stars:
✮ Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer
✮ Helix (International Sensory Assassin Network #2) by Mary Ting
✮ Team Player 2: A Sports Anthology by Charleigh Rose
✮ Promise of Darkness (Dark Court Rising #1) by Bec McMaster

4.5 Stars:
✮ If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka
✮ SERPENT & DOVE (Serpent & Dove #1) by Shelby Mahurin

4 Stars:
✮ The Girl the Sea Gave Back (Sky in the Deep) by Adrienne Young
✮ Hitched: The Bachelorette (Hitched #1) by G.K. DeRosa
✮ Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay #8) by Jill Shalvis

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Our Favorite Books of the Month:

If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka (Cassie’s Choice)
I love Cameron Bright. She is one of my favorite MC in YA books, all genres.

During our Monthly Wrap-Up, we’ll take a look at what has happened around here in the last month. That’ll include what’s happened in my life, what the four of us have read, any other posts we may have had, giveaways still going on, our most popular Instagram posts, and books that I’ve added to my ever-growing TBR.

*We linked this post to the August Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction*

♥ Enjoy!

Jen’s Life:

Some of my highlights from the summer were:

✮ We did a 9 day staycation before our kiddos went back to school.  We did tons of hiking, bike rides, beach time and my favorite was going on a new hike that led us to teaching our littles to jump off of the rocks into the lake.  You can see some of the pictures here, here and here.
✮ We celebrated tons of birthday and anniversaries this month!  It was my Aunt’s birthday, my Mom’s birthday, then my parent’s wedding anniversary, my Grandma’s birthday, my wedding anniversary and then my husband’s birthday.  We had soooooo many parties every weekend lol.  I think I’m officially ready to take a break from cake and icecream!

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What Arielle, Cassie, Chelsea & Jen Read:

5 Stars:
✮ Kulti by Mariana Zapata
✮ The Last Hope (The Raging Ones #2) by Krista and Becca Ritchie
✮ Kulti by Mariana Zapata

4 Stars:
✮ Mine by Courtney Cole
✮ Rage (Stormheart #2) by Cora Carmack
✮ She’s the Worst by Lauren Spieller

3.5 Stars:
✮ Coral by Sara Ella
✮ Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark

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Our Favorite Books of the Month:

Kulti by Mariana Zapata (Chelsea’s Choice)
And this, ladies and Gents, is how you obliterate a reading slump.

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The Last Hope (The Raging Ones #2) by Krista and Becca Ritchie (Arielle’s Choice)
Honestly the best part of this series, unique plot aside, is always going to be the characters. I can say that about any of their books, actually. They always take the time to curate this characters that anyone can find similarities with. They sink their hooks into your soul and never leave.

During our Monthly Wrap-Up, we’ll take a look at what has happened around here in the last month. That’ll include what’s happened in my life, what the four of us have read, any other posts we may have had, giveaways still going on, our most popular Instagram posts, and books that I’ve added to my ever-growing TBR.

*We linked this post to the July Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction*

♥ Enjoy!

Jen’s Life:

Some of my highlights from the summer were:

✮ May – The weather was dreary and snowy, so we were counting down the days until it was hot and my boys were out of school.  Here’s a picture of me driving in another winter wonderland, here.
✮ June – My kiddos finished up school and I cried during my youngest’s kinder graduation.  Time goes by too fast!  Right after that we had over a month of out of state family and friends staying with us.  We live in an area where so many people vacation, so we usually have a ton of visitors.  We hiked, swam, biked, went to a baseball game and spent countless hours at the beach.  Here are some pictures from one of our hikes, picture 1, picture 2, video 1.
✮ July – July was just like June, but with no visitors.  So we got to spend every single day outside and playing around in Tahoe. My favorite thing was how many days we were at the beach, it was the perfect month ever. ♥ Here are some pictures from another one of our hikes – picture 1, picture 2.

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What Arielle, Cassie, Chelsea & Jen Read:

5 Stars:
✮ Worlds Collide (Sunset Rising #2) by S.M. McEachern
✮ The Maddest Obsession (Made #2) by Danielle Lori
✮ New World Order (Sunset Rising #3) by S.M. McEachern
✮ A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) by Brittany Cavallaro
✮ Finale (Caraval #3) by Stephanie Garber
✮ Breakout by A.M. Rose
✮ Superfan (Brooklyn #3) by Sarina Bowen
✮ Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young
✮ Bloodwitch (The Witchlands #3) by Susan Dennard
✮ Fix Her Up (Hot & Hammered #1) by Tessa Bailey
✮ Bad Influence (Bad Love #3) by Charleigh Rose
✮ The King by Jennifer L. Armentrout
✮ Storm and Fury (The Harbinger #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

4.5 Stars:
✮ Overnight Sensation (Brooklyn #2) by Sarina Bowen
✮ A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3) by Sarah J Maas
✮ Brooklynaire (Brooklyn #1) by Sarina Bowen
✮ Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
✮ Kickin’ It (Red Card #2) by Rachel Van Dyken

4 Stars:
✮ Passion on Park Avenue (Central Park Pact #1) by Lauren Layne
✮ Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen
✮ Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro & Emily Henry
✮ There Will Come a Darkness (Age of Darkness #1) by Katy Rose Pool
✮ Roar (Stormheart #1) by Cora Carmack
✮ Say You Still Love Me by K. A. Tucker
✮ On the Corner of Love and Hate (Hopeless Romatics #1) by Nina Bocci

3.5 Stars:
✮ Missing, Presumed Dead by Emma Berquist

3 Stars:
✮ You Owe Me a Murder by Eileen Cook

2.5 Stars:
✮ You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno

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Our Favorite Books of the Month:

Finale (Caraval #3) by Stephanie Garber (Chelsea’s Choice)
There’s just something so magical about this series that goes beyond the actual, well, magic. The words transport you. The world makes you so thirsty for more. The boys are just so addicting and drag you in, even if you don’t want to…and the relationships make you stay.

Bad Influence (Bad Love #3) by Charleigh Rose (Jen’s Choice)
Her writing is addicting, her characters are consuming and Bad Influence is my new favorite Charleigh Rose book!

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Bloodwitch (The Witchlands #3) by Susan Dennard (Arielle’s Choice)
Why. Aren’t. More. People. Reading. This. Series?!@?!?! WHY. I’m serious. Sooz’s writing is on an entirely different level than like 80% of the stuff currently out right now in YA fantasy.

July: