First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
“Once there was a young scholar who was exiled from the imperial court after angering the emperor.”
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?
It’s the last Wednesday in September and I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around it. I don’t think I AM ready for the holidays like I thought I was lol. I know it’s officially Fall, but the weather in Hawaii says nope, it’s not. I saw a house with Halloween decorations out already and I’m like…wait….it’s not even October. 😆 But I guess it’s close enough since October is next week. I had such a busy weekend that I didn’t really have time to read, but I’m hoping for some quiet time during the week so I can catch up on reading.
What are you currently reading?
Stranger Skies by. Pascale LaCelle – 1% – still no progress because I’m reading other things but I will be getting to this one very soon!
My kids had a 4 day school week, but we did have to go to their annual doctor appointment on their day off and get a flu shot. So it wasn’t all fun, but at least they had a day off of school and we got to meet up with a college buddy of mine who was stopping over in Hawaii from a trip to Japan! It was so much fun to see her again and catch up.
Fall break is in 2 weeks – but that means we are almost in October folks! 🤯 And that means the holidays are here and I am not ready. I should do my Xmas shopping now (which I saw every year and never follow through)…but can you believe how fast this year went by? I can’t!
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!
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
“On the morning of her impending death, Life lounged beneath a wisteria tree.”
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?
We are in MID-SEPTEMBER. Ugh…I am tired, but we are near Fall break so that’s something to look forward to and it’s not like we are going on vacation but sleeping in is like a vacation. 🤔 lol…so as if I’m not tired enough I was looking for something creative to do – I haven’t done resin art in awhile and my Etsy shop is pretty slow and something I might close since I haven’t posted new things there and I randomly came across reading journal videos on youtube. And so yeah…I found an extra composition notebook in my kids school supplies box and started one even though it’s almost the end of 2024 🤷🏻♀️. I’ll do a separate post about it and add pics.
What are you currently reading?
Stranger Skies by. Pascale LaCelle – 1% – still no progress because I’m reading other things but I will be getting to this one very soon!
I’m tired. It’s 6 weeks into the school session and my kiddos just started Sunday school so that’s added to their schedule also which means a lot of driving and that exhausts me. 😅 It doesn’t help that the weather is hot also. 🥵 We are counting down the days until Fall Break.
I did manage to get some self-care and got a 30 minute massage, where the therapist worked on my neck and back. It was much needed but a painful recovery because it was a deep massage, so I wasn’t feeling so hot the next day and to that my daughter has another cold but it came with pink-eye. Both she and I are much better now but like a said, a break would be so nice.
Emily in Paris Season 4 Part 2 (netflix) – I love when Emily travels and honestly I was rooting for her to be with Alfie (such a cutie) and that looks like a dead end. I don’t want her to go back to Gabriel, it was just so messy with Cami and everything. And I’m actually loving her in Rome with Marcello (another cutie!!! Emily really has had her fun in Europe!) . But what I really love about this series is Mindy and Emily’s friendship – they make me laugh all the time. And Sylvie is AMAZING – I wish I could be like her. I feel like Season 5 (if they have one because you never know with Netflix 🙄) will be the last one and I just don’t want her back with Gabriel. I like them as friends but we’ll see. I’m sure she will but I won’t love it.
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!
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
“Six years ago, almost to the day, Truly first spotted Justin Gallagher in all his dreamy, sun-kissed, green-eyed glory and thought, I’m gonna marry that guy.”
Title: Nothing Like the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #2)
Author: Lynn Painter
Format: eBook (NetGalley)
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 9/24/24
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Categories: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Sequel
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
In this highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling Better than the Movies, Wes and Liz struggle to balance their feelings for each other with the growing pains of being a college student.
For a few beautiful months, Wes had his dream girl: strong-willed girl-next-door Liz. But right as the two were about to set off to UCLA to start their freshman year together, tragedy struck. Wes was left dealing with the fallout, which ultimately meant losing Liz in the process.
Flash forward months and months later and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together. In a healthier place now, Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart when he ended things, but he is determined to make her fall back in love with him.
Wes knows Liz better than anyone, and he has a foolproof plan to win her back with the rom-com worthy big gestures she loves. Only…Liz will have none of it. Wes has to scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new friend…a guy friend.
Still, Wes won’t give up, adapting his clever plans and going hard to get Liz’s attention and win back her affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, Wes is left wondering if their relationship is really over for good.
Content Warning: death of parent, grief
I loved Better Than the Movies so when I saw that this was a sequel to it I was hesitant to read it because I loved the first one so much! Also it was so good I didn’t think it needed a sequel.
Wes and Liz left me so happy in the first book, but in this one it’s about them growing, struggling, being broken up, and trying to get back to what they were but with so many changes that have happened in to them – it’s kind of impossible to get that magic back.
I thought it was interesting to see how both Wes and Liz navigate college in a different state. Liz is doing really good for herself and embracing everything in college. But wow, I really felt for Wes. He went through so much and he did the hard work to try and get his life back on track. And it really made me sad that they weren’t together, after everything that happened in BTTM. It was too much reality for me! As for the second chance romance? I get the yearning for one another, of what it used to be, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Which makes me wish I didn’t pick up this sequel so I can keep the Wes and Liz from BTTM in my mind. I mean it’s evident Wes is always going to love Liz. But this is one where Liz has to take her time with finding her way back to him.
There is a lot of pop culture reference in this one, which I thought was fine in the previous book because it was movies. But this one used music to tie Wes and Liz together and I think it’s fun but at times maybe a little too much?
My Thoughts:
I think this one will be one of those books you either love or don’t think was necessary and I’m in definitely in the team that found this sequel unnecessary. Overall, it was interesting to see the characters grow and deal with life, but it was also sad, especially for Wes! I just miss the magic, fun and giddiness that the first book made me feel.
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?
It was a busy weekend, and the week continues on – when is Fall break?? I need it, lol. But I did get some reading done surprisingly! Also I did my first beta-read for a book called A Desert of Bleeding Sands by. Lucia Damisa and it’s so good.
What are you currently reading?
Stranger Skies by. Pascale LaCelle – 1% – still no progress because I’m reading other things but I will be getting to this one very soon!
My son had his birthday lunch at his grandparents’ house last Sunday, and my daughter has been fighting a cold but she’s much, much better now. My son though had a few days this week he was nauseous, had a migraine and I don’t know if it’s just the heat we’ve been experiencing this week or a combination of that and the school work load he has now as a middle schooler. It’s so much more than elementary school and I think he’s starting to see how much more. At least my kids are 5 weeks away from Fall Break already! They are counting down to that.
Other than that it was a fairly mild week and now with their Sunday school back in session today we don’t really get a break. 😓 So here’s to Fall break lol…we are so looking forward to it!
Football is back! I caught the Chiefs/Ravens and the Eagles/Packers game.
The Breakfast Club (netflix) – it was on Netflix so I decided to reminisce!
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!
Past Midnight Book Reviews & More 