My Yearly Bookish Review of 2021 (late, I know)

I wanted to share some stats from my reading last year with everyone. I had a lovely spreadsheet going that I found on YouTube and was using that one for almost the whole year. Once I put my stats in it would make pie charts of my information. Then I found a more in-depth spreadsheet (pie charts, line graphs, bar graphs- the works!) on a different YouTube page and started filling that one in with all my stats and had two sheets going by November of 2021. I will be pulling info from both sheets for this post. So let’s jump right into it!

My yearly goal was to read/listen to 100 books in total.

I read 109 books, and 4 of those were rereads.
Audiobooks: 56
eBooks: 41
Physical: 12

Standalones: 47
Part of a series: 62

Books published in 2021: 46
Books published 2020 and earlier: 63

My best reading month was September, with 13 books. Probably because four of the books were very short novellas.

Top three genres read were Thriller (29%), Erotica (28%) & Mystery (26%)

The longest book I listened to was The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup (15 hours 9 minutes/ 516 page)
The shortest book I read was Baby Gamer: Video Games by Anne Elder (8 pages). It was a board book for infants I found on Edelweiss.

71% of my books took place in the United States.

I finished, or caught up, with five series: Michael Bennett series, The Zodiac Queen series, NYPD Red series, All The Stars and Teeth series & Spellbreaker series.

I have plenty more boring stats, but these ones I listed are popular within the book community. I track all sorts of stats, from author gender and race, to how much money I spend on books and bookish things, to if the book even takes place on Earth. The spreadsheets aren’t mine, but I can always point you in the right direction if you’re interested in these Google sheets.

Review: Little Pieces Of Me by Alison Hammer

Little Pieces Of Me: A Novel
by Alison Hammer
Series: —–
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: William Morrow Books
Release Date: April 13, 2021
Rating: 4 Stars

Add it on GoodReads by clicking this link

When Paige Meyer gets an email from a DNA testing website announcing that her father is a man she never met, she is convinced there must be a mistake. But as she digs deeper into her mother’s past and her own feelings of being the odd child out growing up, Paige begins to question everything she thought she knew. Could this be why Paige never felt like she fit in her family, and why her mother always seemed to keep her at an arm’s length? And what does it mean for Paige’s memories of her father, a man she idolized and whose death she is still grieving? Back in 1975, Betsy Kaplan, Paige’s mom, is a straight-laced sophomore at the University of Kansas. When her sweet but boring boyfriend disappoints her, Betsy decides she wants more out of life, and is tired of playing it safe. Enter Andy Abrams, the golden boy on campus with a potentially devastating secret. After their night together has unexpected consequences, Betsy is determined to bury the truth and rebuild a stable life for her unborn child, whatever the cost.

When Paige can’t get answers from her mother, she goes looking for the only other person who was there that night. The more she learns about what happened, the more she sees her unflappable, distant mother as a real person faced with an impossible choice. But will it be enough to mend their broken relationship?

Told in dual timelines, Little Pieces of Me examines identity and how the way we define ourselves changes (or not) through our life experiences.

My review: This book hit home for me on many levels. I never highlight anything in my ebooks, but I found myself highlighting tons of things that spoke to me. This story will hit home for any person finding themselves in the same shoes as the main character Paige Meyers. The characters were likeable, and the story flowed nicely. I read this book in six hours, I couldn’t put it down.

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Alison Hammer and William Morrow Books for allowing me to read this digital Advanced Readers Copy.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received a complimentary electronic book through NetGalley.
I was not required to write a positive review, only an honest one.
The opinions I have expressed here are my own.

Recap 2019

xcuse the look of how this post turned out. The HTML was being ridiculous the whole time I was creating the content, and I honestly gave up making it look nice lol.

I actually read way over my usual goal for this year. And I have the #bookstagram community on Instagram to thank for that (I started an Instagram account in July). I really embraced my books the last half of this year and got back into reading, which was taking a back seat because of my depression and other life situations.
My reviews are either here on the blog or on my Instagram. So anyway, I wanted to share all the books that I’ve read with my blog readers. Enjoy!

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Book Tour: I Like The Way You Hurt by Lorrain Allen

I Like the Way You Hurt

A Dark Interracial High School Bully Romance 

by Lorrain Allen 

Genre: Dark Romance 

Publication Date: December 6, 2019

After the tragic death of her father several years ago, Cocoa’s mother has finally found love again. Cocoa is uprooted from Los Angeles, California to a small town in West Virginia before the start of her senior year. Though she’s not enthusiastic about the move, she’s very excited that her mother has found the will to love again. Cocoa meets Maverick prior to the first day of school. Cocoa is biracial and is everything Maverick has been taught to hate. Though Maverick hates her on sight, a fire burns between them that could destroy both of their worlds, leaving them in ashes. Cocoa can sense the hurt and anger in Maverick wanting to burst free and consume everything in its path. Will Cocoa be the one person that can soothe Maverick’s soul before he self-destructs? 

Maverick’s mother committed suicide to escape her abusive husband, leaving six-year-old Maverick to face the fists of his father alone. The only things Maverick can relate to are power, control, pain, and anger. He doesn’t know how to love. He’s afraid of the feelings that Cocoa stirs in him because he’s not supposed to want her with a fever that burns so bright that it leaves him aching. The only way he knows how to control his feelings is to destroy Cocoa and make her hurt. 

WARNING: This book contains strong sexual content and triggers. The subject matter is very brutal. Readers beware. This book isn’t for sensitive individuals. 

This is a standalone book. PRE-RELEASE PRICE IS $2.99 FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

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Lorrain has enjoyed writing ever since she was a child and was also part of the poetry club in middle school. She loves to get away from the world and lose herself in a book. As a young adult, she became a romance book junky and was inspired to pen her first romance by the many creative authors whose books she’s read. She wants to provide her fans with a suspenseful read that has a twist at the end. The subject matters of her books are a little controversial, but life is boring without a little controversy. 

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Review: Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

I requested this book based on the author and the synopsis I read on Edelweiss. And it did not disappoint! This book captured me right from the get-go. It was interesting how the story was told by Malcolm Kreshaw, but it was written like he was speaking to you (the reader) directly. I haven’t read many books like that and I rather enjoyed it. Malcolm is a book store owner who is contacted by a FBI agent named Gwen Mulvey and she is trying to connect some murders around Boston to a list called “Eight Perfect Murders” that Malcolm had wrote on his stores blog a number of years back. He doesn’t really think her case holds water… until some of the story develops and he figured out that the murderer is copying his list AND must know him personally. I thought one or two parts in the middle seemed a little out there but didn’t ruin the story for me. I liked how the the ending went because it fit into the Eight Perfect Murders list, which rounded out the whole thing. And I would definitely recommend this book to all types of readers as I felt it was a breeze to get through.

Thank you to Peter Swanson, Edelweiss and HarperCollins Publishers for the opportunity to read this book. Four out of five stars.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received a complimentary electronic ARC book through Edelweiss.
I was not required to write a positive review, only an honest one.
The opinions I have expressed here are my own.