Let’s Talk Bookish:  Motivation to Read | 5/9/25

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish meme originally created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits, where every Friday, bloggers write discussion posts based on a weekly prompt and Dini @ dinipandareads has cohosted since the beginning of 2025.


This week’s topic is:

May 9: Motivation to Read (Jillian @ The Bookish Butterfly)

Prompts: How do you motivate yourself to sit down and concentrate on reading? Do you have a set reading time/schedule that works best for you to focus? Do you have tips/tricks that you would recommend others try?

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How do you motivate yourself to sit down and concentrate on reading?

I actually have lots of motivation to read to escape from reality! lol…so I have no trouble doing it.

Do you have a set reading time/schedule that works best for you to focus?

I actually like to read at night when it’s nice and quiet, when everyone is asleep. If I’m blogging and doing stuff on the computer or stamping out orders for my Etsy shop then I try to find an audiobook or not. Sometimes I have an hour in the day before picking up my kids from school. But mostly I do my reading at night.

Do you have tips/tricks that you would recommend others try?

Yikes, I’m not sure how to motivate anyone to read. I suggest it to my son only because sometimes he can’t go to sleep right away and reading a little does help him, I think. Audiobooks does help if you are determined to knock some titles off your TBR list or something like that and don’t feel like picking up a book. If you don’t have any motivation to stay still, sit and read, then you can even work out and read – I’ve definitely walked on the treadmill before with my kindle app on my ipad (or audiobook) and read a few pages of a book in the 30-45 minutes I work out.

May Topics:


May 2: Bookish Fandoms

Prompts: There are very popular bookish fandoms out there, especially in the romance fantasy genre (Maas, Yarros, LOTR, etc.). Are you part of a bookish fandom? If you are, what do you love about it? If not, do you think you’d ever want to be part of one? Does being part of the online book community help you connect to fandoms?


May 9: Motivation to Read (Jillian @ The Bookish Butterfly)

Prompts: How do you motivate yourself to sit down and concentrate on reading? Do you have a set reading time/schedule that works best for you to focus? Do you have tips/tricks that you would recommend others try?


May 16: What is one book that everyone else seemed to love except you? (Isabella @ The Ink Bound Reader)

Prompts: Have you ever experienced what seems like the whole book community raving about a book, only to discover it’s not all that? What are some story elements that put you off while reading? What about books others dislike that you love? Feel free to share examples of which books everyone loved and you didn’t, and vice versa! 🤭


May 23: Literary Palette Cleansers

Prompts: Do you ever feel like you need a reading reset? Maybe you’ve been reading dense literary fiction, or in a reading slump. Are there certain books you read to help reset? Do you ever take a break from reading? Do you find yourself needing those literary palate cleansers at certain times of year?


May 30: Freebie

Prompts: It’s the fifth Friday of the month, so this week is a freebie! Use this week to revisit an old LTB topic, or write about something you’re interested in! You can check out a bunch of topics on our blogs (Dini’s & Aria’s) and Rukky’s blog for more ideas!

Of Earthly Delights by. Goldy Moldavsky | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Of Earthly Delights

Author: Goldy Moldavsky

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 336

Publication Date: 5/13/25

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Categories: Contemporary, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult, Gothic, Horror, Thriller, Mystery

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!


A contemporary YA gothic romance about a dark family secret, a lush, mysterious garden, and a love that never dies, from New York Times bestselling author Goldy Moldavsky.

Aspiring artist Rose Pauly is not happy moving from her home in New York City right before her senior year of high school. But on her first miserable day in Connecticut, she meets Hart Hargrove. The two share an immediate, undeniable connection.

Hart introduces Rose to his slice of paradise–the immense private garden nestled behind the Hargrove family mansion. There, the two spend a fever dream of a summer together. But as their bond blossoms into love, Rose can’t shake the feeling that all is not as it seems.

When Rose uncovers the truth about the garden, she’s forced to question how genuine her love story truly is. But Hart can’t bear to lose Rose, and he will stop at nothing to save their relationship.

Posing haunting questions about beauty and desire, this is an atmospheric and darkly romantic tale that will enthrall readers.

Content Warning: violence, grief, accident, body horror

+ The twist in this story blew my mind, it’s the one book this year that has made my jaw drop.

+ Rose is new to town, but right away she meets Hart Hargrove. He’s popular, he lives on the biggest estate in town – an estate whose gardens are infamous for secret, exclusive parties. Rose and Hart fall madly in love, almost insta-love, but there are clues along the way in this book where it feels like something is off. Something doesn’t feel right with their love story.

+ The grief that is presented in this book is heartbreaking. I could understand the decisions of Hart and his twin, Heather, but when everything is revealed, it made my heart ache for all of them involved. Without spoiling the story, I couldn’t imagine what they were going through.

+ Though the love story about Rose and Hart feels invincible and meant to be, there is a dark, sinister undertone to this story. It shows up in the garden parties and Rose’s best friend, Llowell. There is some body horror but really brief and the ending is wild with action and violence.

~ Because I knew there was something off to the romance, and some moments of the “future” sprinkled in as the story went on…I did get confused. But I’m glad I pushed through to the end – the end though, it’s an open ending which shocked me.

Final Thoughts:

This story is creative, dark, has a gothic contemporary atmosphere and the romance is heady but it’s also so sad and tragic. It explored a lot of topics like love, grief, friendship, and wishes. But if you could make your wishes come true, what would you be willing to give up? The ending of this story made my jaw drop and I think it’s one of those books that I’ll never forget.

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Monthly Wrap Up | April 2025

Another month has passed, another month I was loading up on books to escape reality. Can you believe April is done? I cannot. I read 20 books in April. And posted 14 book reviews on my blog.

Here’s my monthly reading journaling video:

What I Posted: 14 Books

5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

4 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫:

3 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️⭐️:

2.5 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️💫

2 Star Reads – ⭐️⭐️

Book Tags:

Birthstone Book Covers: April – Diamond

Blog Tours:

BLOG TOUR} Their Monstrous Hearts by. Yiğit Turhan | Book Excerpt

Let’s Talk Bookish:

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Reading Relatability | 4/4/25

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Do You Buy Books with Intention? | 4/11/25

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Favourite Bookish Accessories | 4/18/25

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Do Blog Tours Build Community? | 4/25/25

Top Ten Tuesday:

Books With “Fool” in the Title | TTT | Top Ten Tuesday | 4/1/25

Books with Springy Covers | TTT | Top Ten Tuesday | 4/8/25

Books That Surprised Me | TTT | Top Ten Tuesday | 4/22/25

Books with the Word “Night” in the Title | TTT | Top Ten Tuesday | 4/29/25

Top 5 Tuesday:

Top 5 Tuesday | Top 5 anticipated reads for Q2 2025 | 4/1/25

Top 5 Tuesday | Top 5 books set in America | 4/8/25

Top 5 Tuesday | Top 5 books set in Europe | 4/15/25

Top 5 Tuesday | Top 5 books set in Asia | 4/22/25

Top 5 Tuesday | Top 5 books set in Africa, Australia and New Zealand | 4/29/25

Other:

How was your month?

Nightshade by. Autumn Woods| Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Title: Nightshade (Sorrowsong University, #1)

Author: Autumn Woods

Format: ebook (borrowed – KU)

Pages: 416

Publication Date: 1/27/25

Categories: Romance, Academia, New Adult, Mystery, Enemies to Lovers


When Ophelia Winters accepts a scholarship at a prestigious Scottish university to prove that her parents’ death was the fault of Cain Green, an American aviation tycoon, her plan is simple; keep her grades up and her head down. The last thing she wants is to wind up in a mafia war or step on the toes of royalty.

Her plan gets off to a rocky start when the mysterious man that almost kills her on her first day turns out to be Cain’s eldest son. As far as she’s concerned, Alex Corbeau-Green is a younger version of his billionaire father. A monster hiding beneath a beautiful facade.

Loneliness has been Ophelia’s only dependable companion for years, but when anonymous threats and mysterious occurrences start to haunt her time at Sorrowsong, she wonders if she really can survive there on her own.

Between being paired together for a project and ending up as each other’s alibi for a murder, avoiding Alex becomes increasingly impossible. She begins to fall for the soft heart that hides beneath his hard exterior.

Tormented by a malicious stalker and growing closer to Alex, Ophelia’s desperation for revenge wavers for the first time. Can she really bring herself to pull the trigger on Cain now that she knows the family it’ll split into two?


Content Warning: violence, stalking, bullying

+ I randomly picked this off of Kindle Unlimited because of the cover, and the synopsis. And I devoured it in one night! 😳 It’s a dark academia, new adult story that includes an atmospheric setting in Scotland at a place called Sorrowsong University where the students are divided into four houses and the students that attend are the rich of the rich. There are even kids from Mafia families there. Ophelia is there for revenge but then she meets Alex Corbeau-Green and her world is changed.

+ The setting is in Scotland and it’s dreary, cold, wet and the buildings are drafty, old, and barely has a wifi signal. But it lends to the mystery that takes place in the story. Ophelia is trying to figure out who caused the event that killed her parents and that’s why she’s at the school. She has a suspect in mind but after someone starts stalking her at school she has to go back to the drawing board and find more evidence.

+ Ophelia is alone after her parents death and she craves attention and affection but she doesn’t know how to make friends, or how to allow people to be close to her. She definitely doesn’t fit in with the rich kids but I like that she doesn’t let that stop her from talking to kids. She is determined to find more evidence about her parents death and I did feel for her – she’s so alone.

+ Now let me talk about Alex. Alex was a major red flag when they met, too hot, tatted, rich, friends with the Mafia kids, he smokes and then we find out he has like 6 sisters and a mom with mental health issues and he takes care of them the best he can from overseas?! Oh and he plays rugby. The more the story went on and he interacts with his sisters, and you can see how loyal he is to his friends and then how he’s trying not to fall for Ophelia but he’s always there taking care of her. I fell for him – I can see why Ophelia fell too even though she tried to stay away from him. Book boyfriend alert!

+The banter between Ophelia and Alex is so good. At one point they were flirting with emails and crossword references (because she loves crossword puzzles!) – swoon! I can’t get enough of them! And it’s a slow burn, they don’t really do anything until later – they start off as enemies and even when they turn into lovers I didn’t feel it was too graphic. And their spicy scenes were fade to black. I thought their romance was beautiful with both of them being vulnerable and opening up to one another (at least Alex did).

~ The book was predictable – I could tell who instigated Ophelia’s parents death pretty quick but I still enjoyed getting from the beginning to the end of the book. The end leaves our lovers in some heartbreaking drama but I know when they fix it in book two, it’s going to be epic or I hope it will. There is also another twist at the end which I thought was good.

~ Ophelia was not the best investigator for this murder mystery. She got caught several times trying to find evidence and she’s not one to really ask for help since she is a lonely girl – who does she really know and trust? She did make some friends but we’ll see what happens after that ending.

Final Thoughts:

I’m going to say all the stars for this book I’m giving to Alex (and all his yearning) and his patience with all the females in his life 🥺, the enemies to lovers romance and the BANTER that was taking place in this story. I was eating it all up. Yes, the story was predictable but I enjoyed it anyway and need to know when book two is coming out!

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

WWW Wednesday | 5/7/25

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

I finally got some audiobooks for this month – and why did so many library holds become available to borrow at the same time?! Also my son came down with a cold or the flu or some virus on Sunday – he went to school the past 2 days but last night he had a fever so I said he is staying home today. I’m trying not to get his germs – I’m already dealing with allergies from pollen and volcano vog! We just need to get through this week. 😅 And forget my book buying ban – I give up lol…the pretty edges are too enticing. 🫠

What are you currently reading?

The Rivaled Crown by. Holly Renee – 20% – no progress – I might put this aside and come back to it another time.

The Love Haters by. Katherine Center – 35% – okay so far.

Vilest Things by. Chloe Gong – 33% – I don’t know if I’m going to finish this one – I don’t feel invested.

His Mortal Demise by. Vanessa Le – 129 pages in out of 400, some progress

A Forgery of Fate by. Elizabeth Lim – 26% – started this arc and it’s moving quickly!

The Courting of Bristol Keats by. Mary E. Pearson – 20% – I got the audiobook.


What have you just finished reading?

Nightshade by. Autumn Woods ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Love Haters by. Katherine Center ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Embrace the Serpent by. Sunya Mara – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


What are you going to read next?

Summer in the City by. Alex Aster

Silver Elite by. Dani Francis

Shield of Sparrows by. Devney Perry

Great Big Beautiful Life by. Emily Henry – I was allowed to borrow this on Libby and “skip the line” but I have only 7 days to read it 😅

What are YOU reading right now?

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by. Kylie Lee Baker | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Author: Kylie Lee Baker

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 304

Publication Date: 1/7/25

Publisher:  MIRA

Categories: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal, Social Commentary

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to  MIRA for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!


Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner—but the bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. The killer was never caught, and Cora is still haunted by his last words: “bat eater.”

These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can’t be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.

Content Warning: violence, death, gore, parental neglect

+ I love this author and she’s a must-read author for me now. The story is set in New York City during the COVID pandemic – early 2020, remember that? This brought me back to a time of so much fear and uncertainty, it was nostalgic but not in a good way. Cora Zeng is Chinese-American and she has some issues that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, like her being a germaphobe. She’s also dealt with a traumatic childhood with parental neglect and divorce so Cora is complicated, anxious, closed-off, and now she is haunted. Literally. Cora’s voice is so honest about what she thinks about her family, society, and herself.

+ This story is filled with gore, but I was surprised with how much there was because I was grimacing for half the book I think. It is that gory but I should have expected it since Cora is a crime-scene cleaner. Outside of the gore, there is something else going on in a paranormal aspect in the story. Cora is being haunted and it is the month where the Chinese honor the dead or hungry ghosts with some rituals like putting out food for the ghosts and burning joss papers. I learned something cultural that I didn’t know much about which was cool but the way the author wove it into this story about COVID and crime against Chinese and Asian people during that time period is really amazing.

+ I really liked how the tension built in this story. Cora’s mental state is not the best, so I thought she was just going through psychosis due to PTSD but add the anxiousness about COVID during that time really upped the tension in the situation around the city. Add to that the crime scenes she is cleaning up has a pattern and then the hauntings start happening – there were times when I was laying in bed in the dark reading this that I got a chill. Because who wants a hungry ghost haunting them? Not me!

+ I loved the side characters, Cora’s co-workers, Harvey and Yifei. They brought humor but also gave Cora support even though they weren’t close friends. They were there for her even if things got super crazy. And bless her aunts too, even though they were extreme opposites – I’m glad she had people, even though it wasn’t a lot or people.

+ The social commentary of this book is what really hits home with me. The racism Cora experiences in this story made me so angry and heartbroken that racism is so prevalent in our country. The violence of the deaths in this story just makes me question how can people be so filled with hate as to want someone to suffer in these ways.

~ There was a small lull in the middle of the book, as Cora is dealing with some ghosts but nothing that stopped me from reading. Going into this book I was thinking too hard and saying what is this? Is it a horror story? Murder mystery? Paranormal haunting? What is going on? And once I just went with the flow and went along for the wild ride, I was blown away by the end.

Final Thoughts:

I loved how this author combined the time period of COVID, the social commentary of racism, the paranormal hauntings of hungry ghosts, and the possibility of a serial killer on the loose plus all the gore, violence and creep factor into one wild ride of a book. It touched on the challenges of family, friendship, mental health, grief and so much more. It’s brutal and violent and I can’t stop thinking about it. I know this story will probably stay with me forever.

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Scarlet Alchemist by. Kylie Lee Baker | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Blood Orchid by. Kylie Lee Baker | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

***********

BLOG TOUR} The Empress of Time by. Kylie Lee Baker | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

BLOG TOUR } The Keeper of Night by. Kylie Lee Baker | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let’s Talk Bookish:  Bookish Fandoms | 5/2/25

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish meme originally created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits, where every Friday, bloggers write discussion posts based on a weekly prompt and Dini @ dinipandareads has cohosted since the beginning of 2025.


This week’s topic is: (whoops forgot to post this one on May 2, so here it is on May 4th ☺️)

May 2: Bookish Fandoms

Prompts: There are very popular bookish fandoms out there, especially in the romance fantasy genre (Maas, Yarros, LOTR, etc.). Are you part of a bookish fandom? If you are, what do you love about it? If not, do you think you’d ever want to be part of one? Does being part of the online book community help you connect to fandoms?

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Are you part of a bookish fandom?

Hmmm, I guess I am a fan of S.J.Maas and I have read all her books. I am a fan of Fourth Wing series but haven’t read anything else by Yarros. I definitely love Holly Black books and so many I can’t list them all.

If you are, what do you love about it?

I just love when you find other people and fans that love the authors or books as much as you do. It’s nice to know others feel the same way you do about a certain book or author.

Does being part of the online book community help you connect to fandoms?

Being on social media definitely connects me to fandoms, especially popular ones like S.J.Maas books. If I wasn’t online I wouldn’t know who to fangirl with! It is only now that one of my best friends have gotten back into reading and she just picked up the ACOTAR series and I gifted her the Fourth Wing series so basically I’m telling her to hurry up and catch up so I can have someone to talk about them with! 😅. I can’t say I’m active in the fandom in that I’m always posting about my favorites, (it gets tiring, I don’t know how you the social media booktokers, boostagramers, etc… do it!) but I like to see all the posts, so you people keep posting it!

May Topics:


May 2: Bookish Fandoms

Prompts: There are very popular bookish fandoms out there, especially in the romance fantasy genre (Maas, Yarros, LOTR, etc.). Are you part of a bookish fandom? If you are, what do you love about it? If not, do you think you’d ever want to be part of one? Does being part of the online book community help you connect to fandoms?


May 9: Motivation to Read (Jillian @ The Bookish Butterfly)

Prompts: How do you motivate yourself to sit down and concentrate on reading? Do you have a set reading time/schedule that works best for you to focus? Do you have tips/tricks that you would recommend others try?


May 16: What is one book that everyone else seemed to love except you? (Isabella @ The Ink Bound Reader)

Prompts: Have you ever experienced what seems like the whole book community raving about a book, only to discover it’s not all that? What are some story elements that put you off while reading? What about books others dislike that you love? Feel free to share examples of which books everyone loved and you didn’t, and vice versa! 🤭


May 23: Literary Palette Cleansers

Prompts: Do you ever feel like you need a reading reset? Maybe you’ve been reading dense literary fiction, or in a reading slump. Are there certain books you read to help reset? Do you ever take a break from reading? Do you find yourself needing those literary palate cleansers at certain times of year?


May 30: Freebie

Prompts: It’s the fifth Friday of the month, so this week is a freebie! Use this week to revisit an old LTB topic, or write about something you’re interested in! You can check out a bunch of topics on our blogs (Dini’s & Aria’s) and Rukky’s blog for more ideas!

Weekly Wrap Up | 5/4/25

Aloha friends!

Another week is over and here’s what happened:

+ My kids have 4 weeks of school left! They are so excited. I am too only because I have two trips coming up – one being South Korean in the 2nd week of June with my older sister. Today we are going to our tour luncheon so I can finally find out our travel information!

+ We went to Shabbat service on Friday because it was led by the kids and my son was going to have speaking parts – which he needs and is good practice for his Bar Mitzvah next year (he is NOT looking forward to it 😅). Speaking of Bar Mitzvah – I have a party to plan for next year I guess! My daughter’s class did go up to do the candle blessing and a song so that was nice.

I hope you all have a great week!

Blog Posts:

Books I Finished:

The Love Haters by. Katherine Center

Wandering Wild by. Lynette Noni

The Twisted Throne by. Danielle L. Jensen

Embrace the Serpent by. Sunya Mara

Nightshade by. Autumn Woods


Currently Reading:

The Rivaled Crown by. Holly Renee

King of Envy by. Ana Huang

Smoke and Scar by. Gretchen Powell Fox

His Mortal Demise by. Vanessa Le

A Forgery of Fate by. Elizabeth Lim

Shows/Movies/Music I Watched/Listened To:

  • Beyonce , Cowboy Carter concert on Tiktok (thank you to all for your service!!!!🥰)

Videos I Posted to Youtube:

How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!

Instagram | Tiktok | Youtube

The Thrashers by. Julie Soto | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Thrashers

Author: Julie Soto

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 352

Publication Date: 5/6/25

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Categories: Young Adult, Mystery, Paranormal, Thriller

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!


Either you’re in or you’re out.

Welcome to the Thrashers, the elite friend group at New Helvetia High.

They’re everything everyone wants to be.

Jodi Dillon was never meant to be one of them. Julian, Lucy, Paige, and the infamous Zack Thrasher are rich, sophisticated, and love attention. Jodi feels out of place, but Zack’s her childhood best friend, so she’s in.

Then Emily Mills, who desperately wanted to be a Thrasher, dies—and the whispers about the Thrashers begin. As Emily’s journal surfaces, detectives close in, and Jodi faces an impossible choice: betray her friends or protect herself.

But as eerie messages and strange occurrences escalate, it becomes clear—Emily isn’t done with them yet.

A twisty thrill-ride of unforgettable drama and suspense that “encapsulates the vulnerability of adolescents playing adult games” (Ali Hazelwood) from USA Today bestselling author Julie Soto, The Thrashers will keep you up at night desperate to read just one more page.

Content Warning: death, accidents, injuries, weed, drinking, suicide, alcoholism, mentions of physical abuse

+ I am loving how Julie Soto (one of my new favorite/must-read authors) has been branching out! I am hooked and ready to read all of it. I could not put this down. In this YA thriller, we meet a group of five friends called The Thrashers. They didn’t name themselves but it’s a reputation people at school gave them. This story is dark! It centers around a suicide and bullying, and brings up some good questions too. There is weed use and lots of underage drinking, plus the issue of alcoholism by an adult and abuse. This story is multi-layered and complicated.

+ Jodi is the only one of the Thrashers who isn’t wealthy or easily popular. She got lucky that she was best friends with Zack Thrasher in the second grade. He is like a beacon to everyone. All the girls want to be with him and all the boys want to be him or hang out with him, but he keeps an exclusive friend group with Jodi, Julian, Lucy, and Paige – Jodi being the most average of them all. This creates insecurities among the friends, mostly we see it in Jodi but later you see it in Julian and Paige. I like how the author explored the feelings one can have of being left out in a friend group – wondering what your place is in the group and if anyone actually cares.

+ A classmate of theirs, a girl named Emily, who latched onto their group and tried to become a Thrasher committed suicide. And now the Thrashers are under a microscope and some people are turning on them. Emily left a journal and what she writes about this friend group implicates them in her suicide. Is the journal real? Did Emily lie or is Jodi’s best friends lying? Who is telling the truth or are they leaving her out?

+ I was reading this late into the night, after midnight, and there were some parts that gave me slight chills. Emily was creepy but was her ghost/spirit really haunting them? Also the characters are all very unique, which I enjoyed. They are all morally gray also which makes my feelings about certain characters so complicated.

~ The ending! What was that? It’s very unexpected, and leaves me questions but also…can we get a book two? Haha, I mean I can see something happening for book two!

~ These friends, were always making their world revolve around Zack and I was questioning like…what makes him SO special besides him being super charming, nice, and drop dead gorgeous? For all of them to either be in love with him, want him, or jealous of him making other friends or dating other girls was wild to me.

Final Thoughts:

I read this in one night so I enjoyed this a lot. I loved the morally gray, complicated characters and their dynamic even though they are close and “best-friends”. Even in a friend group you can feel alone and outcasted and Jodi portrayed those insecurities very well. I was hooked to the drama happening in this friend group and seeing how everything played out. Learning about Emily and the “hauntings” was also creepy so overall, I think this was a great YA thriller and that ending. I don’t know what it means, but I want more! I can’t wait to read her fantasy debut this year also!

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Other Books I’ve Read From This Author:

Not Another Love Song by. Julie Soto | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Forget Me Not by. Julie Soto | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WWW Wednesday | 4/30/25

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

And here we are at the end of April. WOW. May is gonna go fast because it’s the last month school for the kiddos. And I’m trying to read my July arcs, because there are so many 😅. I go on my trip to South Korea in the second week of June, so I’m trying to stay on top of things.

What are you currently reading?

The Rivaled Crown by. Holly Renee – 20% – no progress but I am determined to finish by this weekend.

The Love Haters by. Katherine Center – 35% – love it so far!

Vilest Things by. Chloe Gong – 15% – so I didn’t finish my library copy of this book last year, so I borrowed the audiobook to see if this will help me finish the book.

His Mortal Demise by. Vanessa Le – 100 pages in out of 400, some progress


What have you just finished reading?

The Floating World by. Axie Oh ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Never List by. Jade Presley ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Twisted Throne by. Danielle L. Jensen

All Paths Lead to Paris by. Sabrina Fedel

A Fate Forged in Fire by. Hazel McBride


What are you going to read next?

Summer in the City by. Alex Aster

Embrace the Serpent by. Sunya Mara

A Forgery of Fate by. Elizabeth Lim

What are YOU reading right now?