Two Bluestockings

Public Domain Photo courtesy of George Hodan In honor of Valentine's Day, the girls sat down and wrote out their top fictional crushes. Aarika: Jayna, I think we should have a long talk about how my sex-capades are MY business and not yours. But, because I am a team player, I will share my literary fantasies with the world. Because I am the biggest team player. So, without further ado…who would I do?  1: I am going to have my Queen get the first credit. I love Sarah J Maas, Queen Maas from here on out. Bow to our queen! Okay, enough fangirling. Our man Rowan from her Throne of Glass series. I do not know why I have a thing for guys who would not put up with any of my nonsense, but I do. My husband (Hi, I love you. Jayna told me this was my homework!) He literally puts up with none of Aelin’s shenanigans but trusts her to no end when she comes up with her chaotic plans. That is true love. So, I would have to ride that wave if I were her. But I am married so I would never. I married ...

Aarika's unruly TBR Shelf   This is a hard one for me to write. I have commitment issues and when I committed to this, I didn’t realize how committed I was going to have to be.   Some lady in one of my Facebook book groups was like, “Okay, I am going to be doing the 52 books challenge in 2021! What fun it will be to pick 52 books off my TBR pile and shorten the stack.” And in my mind, I was like oh. I could totally do this. It won’t be so hard. My husband laughed at me. My TBR pile laughed at me. It took me two days of stress and staring at my TBR shelves to pick 52 books. 52 books is A LOT. These are the books I have decided to conquer:   Slyvia Day has her Crossfire series. I started it at the beginning of COVID. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. Now I have two books left in the series. 1. Captivated by You 2. One with You   Kendare Blake has her Three Dark Crowns Series . I started these in the middle of COVID. They are pretty good, but I have commitment issues. ...

I am not the self-help one in the group. I personally avoid my feelings and emotional self as often as I possibly can. My mother laughs at me because I hate being alone. The silence is loud. And silence is good for your mind to be like: "Hey. Let’s discuss all the things you have shoved in these boxes in the basement." (I hoard unpleasant things in my brain. I admit it! Jayna, don’t even try to psych me!) That being said, this book is a little similar to the relationship book He’s Just Not That Into You (yes, it is also a movie). That is the only self-help book I read because I wanted it, and I loved it. This book seemed like it would be well suited for a younger audience, late middle and high school ages. It has no sexual context to it, but is about the reader--written in a generic ‘she’ pronoun to correlate with the author’s gender/preferred pronoun--learning how to move on and let go of those relationships that many teenagers find themselves in. The vicious cycle of ...

Okay, so I have a confession. I love books like this. Not only are the titles confusing and fun, I make a movie up in my head of what the plot is before I start the book. I don’t even read the back of the book, I make my own Hallmark version in my mind, then dive in. For better or for worse. Because, let’s be honest for a minute, sometimes these books are train wrecks that you just have to look at because you are stuck in traffic, and you left the real book in your other bag. I can happily say that this book is not one of those. This book is cute and funny and more on the realistic side than other books in this category. (The only thing I will mention is the criminology aspect had some incorrect procedures, but I will leave my college education on the party killer side of my brain). I enjoyed the characters. They are all loveable, honest and reminded me of my own family. We are loud, we love each other to a fault, and we meddle by accident because most of us are fixers. So we fix. Whic...

This is one of those things we all do. If you read a lot of books, you have come across a book you just could not finish. And let me tell you, I loathe this. I wish I was one of those people who could power through a book that doesn’t grab them, but I am not. These are five books that I could not finish, no matter how hard I tried. 1: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is the most recent I was unable to finish. And I tried, believe me. Jayna gave it high praise and Jane Eyre , by Emily's sister Charlotte, was great. So I gave it a go. I made it 10 pages in and HAD TO STOP. It felt like my brain was coming out of my nose, and I needed the feeling to cease and desist. I apologize to anyone who loves this book. Classics are just not for me. They are too formal. Why do you have to talk to me like I am your grandmother you only see on holidays because you want the inheritance? 2: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King is one I hate to say. I love Mr. King’s book, but this book does no...

  Cory Cowley is on her way to great things. Even though her review fell to Aarika, and Aarika has had the majority of contact with her through her review process, I have found Cory to be a very interesting person. She seems to be such a queen of darkness on her Instagram, so I will admit that I chuckled to find that she is really a giant nerd. I don’t know what I expected. The Queen of the Night? Maleficent, the dark fairy from Sleeping Beauty ?  We reached out to her with some interview questions, because she is fast accumulating a cult following. She’s breaking into Amazon’s top 100 Horror books as well, which is no surprise if you read over the reviews, which reinforce Aarika’s glowing review. (My favorite: “Heaven and hell have similar addresses.”) Someday, I’ll write up a transcript of what Aarika said during the week we did this review. It looked a lot like: “Jayna. Jayna. JAYNA! OMG! THIS BOOK!”  With the introduction out of the way...I present to you the exclusiv...

When I opened Bending Reality by Cory Cowley, I was not sure what to expect. The cover of the book gives you heavy Clive Barker vibes, and the description of the book does as well. This book is brutal, poetic, and leaves you feeling like you are being covered in the proverbial slime and sulfur the book wants to expel. This book is one of those that will stay with you even when you close your page to go on about your day, making you come back again and again to find the next demon, the next leap into the unknown. This book does need to come with trigger warning for those who are easily impacted. There are descriptive scenes of torture, self-inflicted acts, violent sexual encounters, and sexual thoughts of the main character, as well as abusive relationships and drug use. This is right on par with Barker, so if you love his books, or read to fill that perverse curiosity, this book is for you. Ratings: Language: 5 out of 5. I would not be able to share a picture of this book without mul...

Welcome to the first installment of "Coffee Break Thoughts" with Aarika. During this coffee break, Aarika had to consider the following questions: Which character do you think should have survived his or her story? Which character would you kill off? The One Who Should Have Lived: Aarika Baxter Manager, Reader, Mom, Coffee Villain This one is for Queen Maas... Queen, I am coming for you! Bring back our Sam! He did not deserve the death he was given. He was a pure soul whose only crime was loving and adoring our super vain and egotistical Celaena. He showered her with love and attention, hopes and dreams, a future without death and blood, and you took that away from us. I understand why he needed to die. I do. I understand why you destroyed my heart and my commitment to the pure cinnamon rolls in your books. But Sam?! He is the reason the books happened. I get it. But it's still not fair. Give him back to us! We're not okay! You have caused us all to need therapy and w...

I had the pleasure of reading this book in one sitting! I honestly had no idea what to expect, but I can stay without a doubt that this book delivered whatever I was missing. This book was such an easy read, the language was easy to follow and is one of those books you can’t help but curl up with after a long day. This story is easy to follow, but has an interesting concept you can’t help but stay with until you have concluded the story. When you are finished reading, you can close the book, take out your headphones, or just close out the app on your phone satisfied. Ratings: Language: 2 out of 5. There is some strong language throughout the book, but it is not overbearing and easily overlooked if you prefer less language in your books. The language is not used unnecessarily, but more in relation to the characters.  Sexual content: 2 out of 5. There is some talk of sexual situations, insinuations of sexual relations between characters, and conversations about exploring the chemis...