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Book Review: The Cursed Queen’s Daughter, Elly Blake
This is the second installment in the Thirstwood series. Surprisingly, I ended up enjoying this one so much more than the first book. Book one in the series was a fun, interesting read, but nothing to truly rave about… but this book made me want to recommend the entire series!
New books I’m looking forward to this winter
I’ve scoured the internet for all of the new releases from Q1 of this year and made a list of some of them that I’m looking forward to most based on my reading tastes. These books are definitely going to be added to my TBR—an ever growing list of all of the things I want to read soon.
Everything I hope to read in January
TBR stands for To Be Read. And this list encompasses everything I’m planning to read in January 2026. I average about 9 books a month, so this TBR might be a little ambitious.
My 2026 digital reading journal 📓✏️
On my Bookstagram account I recently posted a reel of me setting up my 2026 Digital Reading Journal, but I wanted to share my spreads on the blog here too in case it helps others by providing some inspiration. This is only my second year doing a Reading Journal. Both times I have used my iPad via apps like Procreate and Paper to create a journal that I love to use to track some of my reading. I find that a Reading Journal is a great creative outlet even though I still like to use dedicated apps like Goodreads and Fable for actual statistics and long term tracking of what I’m reading and what I plan to read. Having a Reading Journal just allows me to scratch that creative list and view my reads in a different way (even if it’s a little redundant with what I’m tracking on apps).
Book Review: Cover Story, Mhairi McFarlane
I rated this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A huge thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for sharing an advanced readers copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
I’m having a hard time putting into words how I personally feel about this book. I can tell that McFarlane is an excellent writer, but sometimes I felt as if the British terminology and current topics were going right over my head. In the end, those tidbits didn’t mean much to the book, but for me they took away from the experience. I gave this book 4 stars still though because even with those removed moments within the writing/story that I just couldn’t quite understand, the characters and plot were still amazing.
Book Review: Soul Searching, by Lyla Sage
Here for the vibes, but a little bit bored. I rated this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A huge thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for sharing an advanced readers copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Firstly, I want to start by saying what I liked about this book: magical realism without any explanation, the spooky vibes that honestly I wound up wanting more of, and the Cartwright family whom I’m officially obsessed with.
Hi, how were your holidays?
It’s been a minute, huh? I posted before the holidays that I was going to be taking a break from our weekly update posts which ultimately led to me basically taking an entire break from this blog. Nothing surprising to be honest. We were SWAMPED this holiday season with travel, family gatherings, and just general life craziness that happens around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. But we’re back baby!! And I wanted to give you a little life update on some things you might have missed.
Greysen's 3 year old photos
Hello, hello, hello! We’re finally getting back into the swing of things after busy season and the holidays. Once I feel caught up on all my work is when I can finally tackle personal projects. I take photos for a living, so trust me when I say I have PLENTY of photos of our boys, but often times they don’t get edited or simply get put on the back-burner until after client work is completely finished. Now that the busy season is officially through I firstly decided to edit Greysen’s 3 year old photos I took at the studio back in September.
life lately | taking a break from weekly updates
You’re due for a weekly update, but honestly not a whole lot of excitement has happened on our end. Playdates, library trips, and wrangling two kids is really all that’s happened. We did recently celebrate Forrest’s turning one while in Indiana (he’s not quite one yet, but we’ll be in Kansas for his birthday so we wanted to do something here before we left). I’ll be most likely posting a blog showcasing everything from his birthday though, so be on the lookout for that. Anyways, this post isn’t going to be long, but I wanted to give you all a quick update and let you know that I won’t be carrying on the regular weekly updates like normal during the holiday season. I’ll be sharing more topical updates as holidays happen, but nothing that showcases specific week by weeks.
Forrest is 6 months old!
Well well well ACTUALLY Forrest is now 11 months old. But these are his 6 month photos that I never shared. And gosh darn it, he’s too cute not to share, right?! Here’s what I wrote on Instagram when he officially turned half a year old: The longest and hardest months for us… little sleep, lots of tears (mostly from me), and tons of growth on everyone’s part. We’re so grateful to have Mr. Forrest as part of our family and all the things he’s taught us.
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