Category: Books

December 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It is the last reading wrap up of the year and there is only one book I read. And honestly, if I hadn’t been in the mood for reading this last week it wouldn’t have been finished lol. But it’s the end of the year and usually around this time of year I don’t read much and that’s fine. We did a lot of reading the rest of the year so we deserve a break.

West with Giraffes

This was an Amazon Prime First Reads book and I have to say I enjoyed it. It was not something I would usually read and so it took me a while to get into it but once I was in I thought it was good.

The writing style was not my favourite but we can forgive that because the story was a cute one. Plus I got very emotional towards the end which I was not expecting. Like literally read the last pages and then burst into tears so I guess the book had more of a hold on me than I thought.

But that was the last read of the year and I’m glad we ended on a high. And there’s plenty more reading to come in 2023, especially because my boyfriend got me a bunch of books for Christmas and a Kindle. So I am more than ready to begin the next year reading-wise.

I think I am setting my goal for next year at 30 books. I mean I’ve achieved it in the last couple years without trying so I think it’s a safe goal. I can’t imagine being a 52-book goal person. I read a lot but a book a week is too much lol sometimes you need longer sometimes you need shorter. But never say never.

I hope you will continue on my book journey with me I’m 2023. Who knows. Maybe my reading will inspire you to pick up your own book. Or not lol I imagine my books aren’t to everyone’s taste but still as long as I’m reading I’ll be here sharing it. See you in 2023!

November 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like in terms of reading November was a slow one, but I also thought I’d read more than I had lol. Oh well, it’s the end of the year things, in general, are winding down I’m not too mad about not reading much, especially when I have already reached my goal.

Stunning PLL #11

Full thoughts here.

From what I remember about this one, I didn’t like it that much. I also felt like I read it months ago but it was only a few weeks ago. I think the story was just getting a bit too farfetched for me, which is saying a lot considering how wild the TV show ended up being. But still, we soldier on as we only have a handful of books left.

Daisy Jones & The Six

I picked this up after loving the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This one had a very different vibe from that one but still the same theme of women who have more layers to them than people realise and we love that.

It took me a while to get into the writing style because there was about six people’s thoughts going on at all times but eventually I got into a groove. It was a good story and I really enjoyed it.

I also found out they are turning the the book into a TV show so I’ll be tuning into that when it’s released to see how everything comes to life on the screen. I also feel proud of myself for reading the book of something first before I watch a film/TV show adaptation lol.

Currently Reading: West with Giraffes

I’m not ready to return to PLL just yet so I decided to pick up one of the many Amazon Prime First Reads books I have accumulated over the last two years. I think I’m finally on the 2021 picks lol.

This one will take me a while to read though, mainly because it’s taken me a while to decide if I enjoy the style of writing or not. I feel that if most people aren’t feeling it right away they would bail out within the first few pages but I was really giving this one a go.

But I’ve finally adjusted to the writing and I think it’s an interesting story so I’m going to stick with it, even if it’s going to take me twice as long as normal to read. It’s not that the language is difficult or anything, I just feel like I need my full attention on it compared to other stories.

It might be my last read of the year but that’s okay it just means we have even more to be reading next year as my to-read pile continues to grow lol.

Stunning PLL Book #11 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

This one was a wild ride. First of all, the girls think that a grown-ass woman is A? Almost like when on the TV show they thought A was Jessica DiLaurentis lol. Why would a middle-aged woman care so much about your secrets? It’s so random. I guess they do provide good reasoning as to why they think she is A but it never quite added up for me.

Anyway yeah, so this one was like extra ridiculous, and I know I usually go into a full-blown account of what happens but with this one I’m going to try to keep it brief. I say try because when I start writing it just kind of gets away from me.

So first of all the secrets and the drama the girls had was very random and not relevant to anything. I mean Emily was the main focus here so everyone else’s drama was just thrown in because they all have to be tortured equally you know?

For example, Aria finds out that Noel’s dad did drag and then A threatens to expose it unless she breaks up with Noel. Like what was that? It is so random and provides nothing aside from it just being funny. I think the most shocking thing was that Noel knew about it and that it was just a normal accepted thing. Which, I mean fine, Noel’s dad do what you want but if he’s not actively hiding it then surely more people in Rosewood would talk? I don’t know just wasn’t my vibe. There had to have been more scandalous secrets for a family as rich as Noel’s to be hiding, but that’s what we went with.

Next, there is Hanna stalking Mike and his new girlfriend, I mean not surprising but A leads Hanna on this wild goose chase acting as if Mike’s girlfriend Colleen has been hiding a huge secret. Again a lacklustre reveal – she did an embarrassing commercial and Hanna was going to share it with everyone. Hanna has a change of heart though, realising that she didn’t want to be a bully and so instead, A shares a video of her stalking Mike and Colleen making her the loser.

Again, nothing surprising, I feel like a lot of Hanna’s stuff is very repetitive. Plus Mike ends up getting back together with Hanna in the end anyway because he thinks it’s cool she loved him enough to stalk him?? It’s very dumb.

As for Spencer, she is trying to impress a club at Princeton by baking pot brownies and bringing them to the club’s potluck. Yeah, this one also was dumb. Basically, Spencer makes fast friends with this girl but then feels uncomfortable seeing her smoking pot, A calls the cops on her and everyone thinks Spencer did it. Then Spencer apologises to the girl and the girl invites her to a potluck and Spencer thinks she means to bring food with drugs in it? Yeah okay.

Naturally, this idea backfires, like seriously backfires as A switches Spencer’s brownies out for some that are much stronger and laced with LSD and something else I don’t remember. This is definitely a step up for A and hella dangerous. Someone definitely could have died but they did not and it was all kind of fine in the end.

Definitely not my fave situation and honestly thought Spencer was smarter than that but yeah that’s where we are with that one.

Finally, there is Emily, and we finally learn what happened to her and her baby. So Emily had promised this woman, Gayle, her baby after Gayle offered her a lot of money but Emily ended up changing her mind because she seemed like a psychopath. Which is fair because who randomly offers someone $50k for their baby?

Emily ends up calling her friends to help her get the baby to the original adoptive parents Emily had chosen before Gayle offered her money and she thought she had gotten away with it, until Gayle shows up again in her life. Gayle has moved into town recently to help fund Tom Marin’s senate campaign. Coincidence? The girls think not and sus out that she’s A because she is getting revenge for Emily changing her mind about the baby.

It’s a stretch, because why would Gayle want to punish the rest of the girls for something Emily did? Seems a bit random. Also they justify it because Gayle is always around, she knows Hanna’s business because she’s on her dad’s campaign and she knows about Spencer’s Princeton activities because she’d been spotted there before. Doesn’t really explain how she knew Aria’s thing but the girls are just adamant she’s A.

Not to mention, Gayle comes face to face with Emily and says she wants what she’s owed, which people assume is the baby. So now everyone thinks Gayle is trying to track down Emily’s baby and steal it from her. Again this whole thing sounds ridiculous as I type it. Like between this book and the last, it’s like some switch in me has flipped and I just find all this so dumb??

I mean at least in the last book, Kelsey was the same age as the girls and you could see her as A because she’d be petty like that. And the drama was still silly between the girls but it wasn’t so over the top it was unbelievable. This time though I feel like things were wild for the sake of it.

PLUS A lures the girls to Gayle’s house at the end of the book saying that they had Emily’s baby and then A ends up killing Gayle at the end like…are you serious? Why? What is the point?

The girls also find out that Gayle was Tabitha’s step mum which is something new but they didn’t know until the end. I mean if they had known before that would have been a stronger case for her being A if she somehow knew about Jamaica. But seems like she didn’t know.

And the final bomb to be dropped is that at Gayle’s funeral, her husband, aka Tabitha’s dad, reveals that he got an autopsy done on his daughter and he knows it was a murder and not an alcohol overdose. So the girls are not out of the woods for this murder just yet.

So that’s everything, still quite a long post but I feel hits the main points. Like I said I feel like this book was way too OTT with the drama that it just made everything seem ridiculous. I suppose this is the downfall when a series runs on too long, the same thing happened with the PLL TV show. Which is sad but since I have made it this far we might as well continue on.

We still need to find out what Aria did in Iceland that was so horrible and Hanna has a summer secret too so I hope we get those revealed soon. I just need them to be a lot less extreme because I don’t know how to take this series seriously anymore. I guess it’s not supposed to be super serious as a teen drama series but still, there has to be some layer of believability.

Maybe I’ll read something else before diving into the next book to cleanse my mind from all the craziness that happened in this book…Or we just power through and get it done as quickly as possible…either way I am finishing this series.

October 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like this month I wasn’t reading very much which is weird because I didn’t feel particularly busy with anything but it is what it is.

The Spanish Love Deception

This one I did like when I started reading but as things went on it really started to drag for me. Plus when the characters finally got together I really started to not care anymore which is not what you want with a romance novel. Don’t get me wrong I love a good enemies to lovers story but this one was not it for me.

I am sad though because I did want to like it but I think it was too long and descriptions started to get repetitive. So I was just glad I made it to the end.

Twisted PLL Book #9

Full thoughts here.

We are back in the PLL world again for the second half of the series. The girls thought they were free from A until Spring Break goes wrong for them and A is back with a vengeance…

I am interested to see where we go in this second half of the saga, mainly because the first half ended so nicely. Hoping that it doesn’t go south like the TV show but so far things seem good.

Ruthless PLL Book #10

Full thoughts here.

I count this as having being read in October since I only read about 20 pages on the 1st November. But this one was okay, I think I wanted more reveals. Like the Kelsey thing was fine and definitely a good red herring but overall lacked something for me. Still I am enjoying being back in this world so looking forward to seeing where we go from here.

And that has been my reading for October. It would have been nice to wrap up PLL at the end of the month but no big deal. I predict the end of the year will involve more PLL books and maybe some other things sprinkled in. Which has basically been the theme of reading this whole year haha but I’m proud of myself for making it through this series it’s been a long time coming.

One thing I can say for sure is I probably won’t be reading any seasonal reads because I never time those things well but never say never.

Ruthless PLL Book #10 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

We are back again with our Pretty Little Liars. And we have quite a few things to unpack so let’s get down to business shall we?

First off, Aria. Her drama didn’t really add anything to the main story so we can talk about it briefly. Basically, Ezra comes back. Yeah I know. I thought we were done with him but no, Aria sends him an email saying she misses him and next thing you know, he’s back in Rosewood.

He is still his old creepy self and it turns out while he and aria were apart he has written a book about her! And instead of Aria finding this really inappropriate and weird she loves it and thinks it’s romantic. Ugh. I admit it’s only marginally less creepy than in the TV show because at least he didn’t know Aria was a minor when they met and wasn’t obsessed with her because of Alison. But even then…a teacher writing a love story about his student is crossing so many lines.

It’s kind of brushed off as no big deal though because when Aria says she has some criticisms about it, Ezra turns into a whiny defensive baby and won’t listen to her. So there’s that.

Plus when Ezra suggests the idea of Aria introducing him to everyone as her boyfriend he doesn’t see any problem with it. Like yeah okay he’s not her teacher anymore but everyone in Rosewood knows he used to be. He doesn’t see anything wrong with the situation yet Aria sees some sense to it and doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

Again Ezra gets pissy about this with Aria and so they break up lol. Good riddance. Not to mention Ezra ends up making out with Klaudia, the Finnish exchange student who Aria accidentally pushed off a ski lift lol. Looks like Ezra will always be a creeper hitting on minors. Well it’s stated Aria is eighteen in this book but even then that doesn’t really make it okay.

And at the end of all that Aria and Noel get back together. So really Aria’s storyline amounted to nothing. Boring.

Hanna’s story is also in the love department as she starts a romance with the son of her dad’s political enemy. It’s supposed to be romantic and all star crossed lovers until Hanna sees a news article about him being a serial dater. Yawn. To get back at him she decides to tell her dad the drama she found out from the guy she was seeing. Oops. That’ll teach him not to mess with Hanna.

Didn’t get to see the fallout of what her dad will do with the information but I imagine it’s coming. So I guess we sit tight and see. Kate doesn’t even use this information against Hanna because apparently she’s been cheated on before too so I guess that’s nice?

Then there is Spencer and Emily. They are tied together this time around because of one girl. Kelsey.

In this book we find out that Spencer had spent the summer on some pills trying to ace her AP classes to get into Princeton. Her and her friend Kelsey got hooked on them and while all of Spencer’s other friends thought it was a bad idea, she didn’t listen.

Unluckily for Spencer, the girls get caught by the police with the pills and so Spencer decides to save her ass by getting Hanna to plant the drugs in Kelsey’s room and pin the whole thing on her. Harsh.

Spencer thought she was free from that whole situation and that she was getting into Princeton early admission. Only she gets a letter to say that there was a mix up and they accidentally accepted two people with her name and now she needs to work extra hard to secure her place.

This sends Spencer into a whole guilt trip frenzy as she channels her guilt of what she did to Kelsey into her performance of Lady McBeth. All for her to find out that A was messing with her. Cool.

Another reason Spencer was spiralling is because Kelsey reappeared in her life after leaving juvie. She is back at school and working on some orchestra thing with Amelia, Spencer’s step sister to be, so Spencer is constantly on edge. She also believes that Kelsey is A, especially after stealing her phone and finding out that she was in Jamaica that spring break. So she thinks Kelsey saw what happened, figured out Spencer is why she went to juvie and is out for revenge.

It’s a bit far fetched considering the other girls weren’t really involved in the drug bust, well Hanna was but how was Kelsey meant to know? But at the same time it makes more sense than other A theories that floated about on the TV show.

Spencer tells the girls her theory and shows them a picture of Kelsey to be on the lookout and this is when Emily discovers she knows her.

Emily ended up going to a party and meeting Kelsey. The two hit it off right away and were having a good time and it looked like Kelsey could have been Emily’s new love interest. It turns out Emily has a thing for bold women who are a little daring and a little dangerous. Who knew?

But then Spencer and Emily fight about Emily spending time with Kelsey and then Emily ends up telling Kelsey that Spencer is the one that turned her in for the drugs and sent her to juvie. Uh oh.

Spencer then gets a text from A which contains a photo of Tabitha on the beach in Jamaica the night that Aria pushed her and she thinks Kelsey is the one that sent it. Especially when she runs into Kelsey and she asks Spencer if she got her text, this leads to Spencer attacking Kelsey making her look like a psycho.

This then sends Kelsey off the rails and she drives Emily out to the quarry – the same one where Mona tried to kill Spencer – and it looks like Kelsey is trying to kill Emily in the same way…until it is revealed that Kelsey is trying to kill herself?

So the girls theory about her being A is wrong. Naturally I didn’t think Kelsey was A but the girls did have every right to believe that she was. Turns out that Kelsey ended up relapsing on drugs after finding out Emily was friends with Spencer and was mad at her for keeping a secret. Things spiralled out of control for her when she found out that Spencer sent her away to juvie. But the girls ended up saving Kelsey’s life and she wrote them apology letters for what happened.

Kelsey ends up being put into the Preserve, the same institution where Courtney/Alison once stayed and that Hanna also had a stint in. They also discover that Tabitha went there too…so many coincidences. And of course A is still around so it’s not going to be that easy to get rid of her.

And that is where we end things. Naturally it got a bit dramatic at the end but I think it was lacking something for me, I guess I just wasn’t convinced that Kelsey would suddenly be so sucidial? It seemed out of left field for me but yeah.

Oh! And also they keep mentioning Aria doing something unspeakable in Iceland and I hope we find out that soon. I also feel like there’s more to the Emily pregnancy story that we are missing. She can’t just give up a baby at sixteen and go back to life like nothing happened, especially not with A around…so yeah lots of mysteries still be to revealed. Fingers crossed they are good reveals because I’ve been enjoying them so far.

Twisted PLL Book #9 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

After two months we are back with some more Pretty Little Liars! And the tea is GOOD so let’s dive in.

The story starts off with our four favourite girls, Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna on spring break vacation in Jamaica they are having the best time until a blonde girl at the resort catches their eye. Each girl has an interaction with this blonde who goes by Tabitha and they can’t help but feel there is something familiar about her…she reminds them of Alison – not their Alison, the one they were friends with and died, but Alison the twin who tried to kill them in a fire months before…yikes.

Fast forward to a year later and the girls have drifted apart after their holiday, it is clear something happened between them and this Tabitha girl but we don’t know what yet. And even if A has disappeared from their lives the girls aren’t exactly having a good time they all are facing their own issues as always because being a teenager is hard.

Though to be honest, the person that was probably having the worst time of it is Emily so we can talk about her first. Naturally, she seems to be the one we feel the most sorry for after the whole Alison thing because Emily was in love with her.

But not only that but the biggest bomb about Emily was dropped so casually in this book like while the girls are in Jamaica, Emily is assumed to have some sort of food poisoning or something as she is always throwing up. And it is also mentioned that she quit swimming again for a while which seems unlike her. I mean she was going to quit for five minutes when she started dating Maya but that didn’t go anywhere. Turns out the reason she was being sick is because she had morning sickness and that she actually ended up getting PREGNANT when she slept with Isaac that one time so she had a baby!! LIKE WHAT?! I was not expecting that, honestly, I was so shocked. Naturally, it’s a big secret – one that Emily wouldn’t want people to find out not even her parents know, she spent the summer with her sister so she is the only one that knew. Well, until Emily told her new best friend Chloe.

Chloe is a new girl in town and she moved into the Cavanaugh house. Spooky. As we know both of the Cavanaugh children died which is wild like first Toby committing suicide and then Alison killing Jenna…no wonder the parents wanted to get out of town. Anyway, Chloe and Emily hit it off really well and become friends. Chloe confides to Emily that she had a bit of a drinking problem before which is her big secret but not exactly on the same scale as Emily’s.

The two don’t really stay friends for long though, because it turns out Chloe’s dad is a proper predator. Like this just seems to be a bit of a theme in Rosewood and should we even be surprised? But basically, Chloe’s dad says he can help Emily get a swimming scholarship and he does, but he also makes a move on Emily and it is so gross. So Chloe sees Emily and her dad in a comprising position and as always blames the victim aka Emily. Which puts the girls on the rocks. Emily begs Chloe to keep her baby secret and she agrees but only if Emily keeps the secret about her dad being a creep…and that’s where we leave them. Not sure what comes of any of this but I imagine it’ll blow up soon enough.

Especially because A comes back to threaten the girls after Jamaica. We all know with A around secrets don’t stay buried for long…

But let’s move on to Spencer. Her mom is dating someone new, Mr Pennythistle. We hate him from the get-go naturally. He has two children, one is Amelia who is the younger sister and a brown-noser and annoying and the other is Zach who is a year or two older than Spencer. Spencer and Zach end up hitting it off right away and we see some weird flirtation happening between the two basically step-siblings…gross.

We find out after Spencer tries to kiss Zach that he is actually gay. Or so he says, I think he’s still trying to figure it out. But the night that Veronica and Mr Pennythistle announce their engagement, Spencer and Zach get drunk and pass out in Zach’s hotel room together. Mr Pennythistle finds them the next morning and freaks out about the situation since now they really are going to be step-siblings. Spencer thinks the best way to solve the solution is to out Zach to his father but instead of Mr Pennythistle being relieved he is actually just angrier and naturally, Zach isn’t too happy either.

Where we leave this mess is that Mr Pennythistle is sending his son to military school because he’s a clear homophobe and Spencer feels terrible. I am not sure if Veronica is still going to go through with the engagement but she probably will. She tells Spencer that it’s not their place but if they’re all about to become a family it kind of is their place…so yeah we see what happens with that.

Next, we have Hanna whose Dad is running for state senate or something? Seems a bit random, not that I really remember what he did before that. Anyway, the family films an advert for the campaign and it turns out audiences really responded to Hanna as they find her more relatable than Kate who seems too perfect. This is great news for Hanna but it’s not all great.

At the taping of the advert, Hanna meets this photographer guy who says she would make a good model, so she decides to meet up with him and get some photos taken. Totally innocent right? Well Mike – her boyfriend, because who can forget she’s dating Mike Montgomery? – thinks it’s a bad idea and they break up. Which is sad, But Hanna thinks she’s justified when the photoshoot with the photographer goes well.

Until she ends up back at the guy’s studio and she’s goofing around and her dress slips down and the guy gets some sleazy shots of her with her bra out. This leads him to blackmail Hanna with the photos because the last thing she needs is this getting out and ruining her dad’s campaign.

Hanna decides to pay the guy off using money from her dad’s campaign and she ends up blaming someone who works on the campaign for the missing money. She thinks she’s gotten away with it and all is well, but no this is A country we live in. And she is more than ready to expose Hanna as the thief and liar she is. Super fun.

And that brings us to Aria. Oh, Aria ended up in one of the worst positions right up there with Emily. At first, it seems petty, Noel’s family is hosting a foreign exchange student for a while and it turns out to be a European Goddess named Klaudia. This doesn’t make Aria feel good about her relationship with Noel, especially when she hasn’t slept with him yet and now he is going to be sharing a house with this blonde Finnish bombshell…not fun.

At first, Aria ends up bonding with Klaudia, she thinks they are friends and Klaudia is just misunderstood. Until she finds out that Klaudia has been texting about her and Noel to her friends back home. Turns out Aria’s suspicions were right and Klaudia thinks Noel is too good for Aria and she’s trying to steal her boyfriend. Poor girl.

This ends up with the girls fighting when the Kahn boys invite Aria and Klaudia to go skiing with them and Klaudia explains to Aria clear as day that she is going to sleep with Noel. The girls end up squabbling while on a ski lift and Aria ends up accidentally shoving Klaudia off of the lift. Yikes.

Klaudia ends up okay, well as okay as someone can be when they fall off a ski lift. Thankfully she was near the top so she only broke her leg but everything else about her is perfectly fine. Including her memory of what happened on the ski lift. So things are not looking good for Aria and Noel at least while Klaudia is around.

It is pretty harsh of Aria to push Klaudia off the ski lift but at the same time she was defending herself because Klaudia had pushed her first…still doesn’t look good to your boyfriend to find out this happened especially when Noel already thought Aria was jealous of Klaudia…so we see what happens with that. Though honestly not that interested in that drama.

Because Aria doesn’t even have time to process what goes on with Klaudia before she’s getting a text from Spencer telling her to come over quickly because the girls are finally going to have to face up to what happened in Jamaica.

Turns out that after the girls encountered Tabitha in Jamaica she had invited them out to a crow’s nest lookout point at the resort. The girls decide to go and see what she wants and it seems to them that Tabitha really is Alison in disguise and she has brought them to the top of this resort to finish what she started when she started that fire and kill them once and for all.

Before this happens, Aria ends up pushing Tabitha over the edge first and the girls scramble to the beach to find the body but there was none…until now. A year later, there is a breaking news story about a body being found in the water in Jamaica. The body belonged to a girl who really was called Tabitha and she was apparently from New Jersey. The police are ruling her death as an accident but it doesn’t make the girls feel any better about the situation.

Now they know they didn’t kill Alison and that it was just some innocent girl…yikes. And naturally, A is there to remind the girls that she’s just getting started.

So yeah, a lot to unpack in this one. Mainly, who was this Tabitha girl? Was it Alison? Or was it someone Alison paid to antagonize the girls for her? It’s clear to me Alison didn’t die in the fire like everyone suggested but where is she now? And is she A? I mean I wouldn’t put it past Alison to hire some girl to pretend to be her in front of her old friends and not even bat an eye that she ended up dead. After all, she killed her own twin, Ian and Jenna so I mean it’s plausible.

Regardless of what the truth is, I’m kind of glad to be back in the PLL world I missed it. I mean thought the series was wrapped up pretty nicely before so I wasn’t sure what was coming next for the girls but I am really enjoying it. I thought it might feel a bit tired or unnecessary but the new mystery has me intrigued. We will see where it ends up this time but it’s safe to say I am fully invested in finding out.

September 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

After reading so much in August, this month was a flop lol. I would blame Disney Dreamlight Valley for lack of reading but considering I only read when I’m out of the house that’s not really an excuse. I think it’s just my routines with work and such are different now so there’s less reading happening. But it’s fine, we reached our goal anyway and that’s all that matters.

The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After

This took forever to read and I really was trying to get through it as quickly as possible. I definitely feel like not reading this would have been a better choice but since I bought the physical book I had to do it. These epilogues did not add anything for me to be honest, I could have done without most of them. I guess if you were really invested and wanted to know what happened next this would be for you but wasn’t my fave. I am also glad to officially put this book series behind me now, I feel like it had been dragging a bit towards the end.

Currently Reading: The Spanish Love Deception

Would 100% class this as a summer read and I did pick it up way back in July or something but we are reading it now haha. I have been enjoying it so far, though Aaron is just a little too frustrating and he’s getting on my nerves. But still, something fun to read and I have been looking forward to it every time I actually make the time to read.

So that’s where we are at the minute, I am about halfway through the Spanish Love Deception so I should finish it this month and then I don’t know where we will go from here. I have a few other physical books I could read and then there’s the second half of the PLL series…so got some options. I usually don’t have seasonal reads but I think it would be nice to find some books with Gilmore Girl vibes to read this time of year. So if you have suggestions let me know!

August 2022 Reading Wrap Up!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This month, I read A LOT. I was not expecting to read so much but it’s not like I’m complaining.

On the Way to the Wedding

I don’t even remember reading this, it already feels like a lifetime ago lol. But I made it to the final book with the final Bridgerton sibling and I am proud of myself. I vaguely remember the story of this one and I did enjoy reading it but all the same glad to put the series behind me it was a bit up and down with the tropes and such.

Though I have one book left in the series which is just a bunch of epilogues pulled into one book and since I bought it, I feel I may as well give it a read. Still, very excited for the Netflix series to continue considering we are getting our long-awaited Colin and Penelope love story so that’ll be good. Not fussed about the Queen spin-off though will probably give it a watch.

Heartless PLL Book #7

Full blog post here.

Everyone being sent on wild goose chases to figure out what happened to Alison, yet no one really discovering anything? I think Aria was closest with her thing and she went to a psychic for that lol. Also, Spencer finding out about the Jessica DiLaurentis and Peter Hastings affair – glad to see this came from the books because it just added a good layer of drama we needed in the book and on TV. That being said so many people are related to the DiLaurentis/Hastings family on the TV show it got a bit ridiculous.

Oh and also Hanna got sent away to a mental institution and she met someone who was Courtney DiLaurentis’s old roommate but nothing comes of this really. Sad I thought this is maybe where everyone would have pieced things together but I guess Hanna didn’t know Courtney was a DiLaurentis. Nor did her name come up? I think it might have been said one time but yeah. And I guess A sends Emily out to Amish country for the craic that was fun lol.

Wanted PLL Book #8

Full blog post here.

The long-awaited Ali/Courtney reveal. This was a good one and I enjoyed the reveal. I mean it was a bit confusing to read but I got the gist lol. There was a lot of switching between Courtney and Alison and figuring out who swapped places with who but it was fine.

I also wonder where we go from here as this one was wrapped up pretty nicely but we will find out soon enough. Not too soon because I decided to take a break from PLL and read some other things but I’ll get there. Also, love how the author was set on ending the books here and wrote 8 more lol.

I’m Glad my Mom Died

Decided to read this one because everyone was talking about it. Honestly, heartbreaking to me reading the shit that Jennette’s mom put her through but proud of her for moving past it. I am also grateful that her mom died.

I would recommend if you are interested in getting to know the girl behind Sam from iCarly. Also should say the book discusses eating disorders and abuse very candidly so if you’re triggered by such topics then stay away.

The Flatshare

I’m late to the party with this one but once I started it and got into it, I finished it within a few days. It was a bit jarring at the start with the two wildly different points of view but I got used to it and liked the contrast.

I can definitely see the hype from this book though it was super cute. Plus I liked that there were more layers to these characters compared to other romcoms that I’ve read. Plus it was just the right amount of cliche which is good. So yes I highly recommend it.

And that wraps up the August reading recap. I actually finished the Flatshare on the 31st which is satisfying to finish a book the same day the month ends.

Books for the month of September include the Bridgerton epilogue book since I might as well get it out of the way and some physical books I bought a while ago that I neglected for PLL.

I suspect I’ll be back into PLL sometime next month or October for sure. Just because I’ve taken a break from reading them doesn’t mean I can forget there’s a whole second half of the series to read. It took me like 10 years to read the first half haha.

So yes, still lots of reading to be done, I’ve reached my 22 books for the year but if anything my reading has been increasing so I’m excited to see how many books I can get in before the year ends!

Wanted PLL Book #8 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

This one was a wild ride from start to finish and I was OBSESSED.

First of all, the DiLaurentises decide to hold a press conference to announce they’ve had a secret daughter for the last 16 years. I mean wtf lol. Personally, I feel like I wouldn’t hold a press conference for this but at the same time, their daughter was murdered and if her identical twin just started appearing around town it would be questionable. So yes, welcome to the stage Courtney DiLaurentis.

Naturally, the first thing Courtney does is talk to the four best friends of her sister Alison. The girls are shocked and weirded out by how much this girl looks like the Alison they knew and loved but she wasn’t. Or is she??

One by one, Courtney reveals to the girls she’s actually Alison and that Courtney was mentally ill and pretended to be her. So Alison ended up getting sent away to a mental institution. So the girl that was killed was actually Courtney.

Kind of confusing but that’s where we are. Alison also says she wants to be friends with all the girls again just like old times and the girls don’t really take much convincing.

I mean Emily was the easiest because she was so helplessly in love with Alison, all that Alison had to do was kiss Emily and she agreed. Which is sad because I wanted more for Emily but no she’s just annoying when she’s blinded by her love for Ali even though she did horrible things to them and lead her on.

After Emily, came Hanna. Alison easily swept in and complimented Hanna, promising her that she’d get revenge on Kate, Riley and Naomi for being mean to Hanna. Now Hanna and Alison could be the besties Hanna has always wanted now that Hanna was getting the validation she needed from Ali.

Next, Alison exploits Spencer’s fragile feelings about them being sisters and says they could really be the sisters they’ve always wanted. Especially when Spencer’s family has exploded and Alison is the only relative of hers that is interested in talking to her. Poor Spence, again thought she’d be stronger.

Last but not least, Aria was the hardest to convince and I am glad because someone needed to be suspicious of Alison coming back into their lives like nothing happened. Sadly for Aria, she was not immune to Ali’s manipulation tactics because as soon as Ali accuses Noel of kissing her and not the other way around, Aria is ready to dump Noel and hang out with her old best friends again…

So all the girls are headed out to Alison’s family’s house in the Poconos to recreate the night of the sleepover where Alison disappeared. And all the while things have seemed hella suspicious for example, Alison not remembering things that happened with the girls when they were friends. But Alison convinces them that recreating the night she disappeared will be helpful for her to rewrite the memory and so they agree to be hypnotised.

Next thing you know, the girls open their eyes and Ali is nowhere to be seen, they find a letter which details the truth about Alison and Courtney DiLaurentis. Turns out that Courtney switched places with Alison the day of the Time Capsule flag, Alison was sent away to the Preserve and Courtney became friends with Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer and that was the Ali they knew and loved. Alison managed to escape the Preserve and get her revenge on Courtney and now she was going to kill the girls too for enabling Courtney to steal her life.

Alison had set fire to the house the girls were in and while they are trying to escape they discover Ian’s dead body in the closet, along with Melissa. Now Melissa had been acting shady this whole book and it turns out she was investigating Alison because she was suspicious of her the whole time. Apparently, Melissa knew Alison had a twin all along and she knew they didn’t get along as soon as Alison came back as Courtney and said her sister talked about the girls all the time she knew something was up. So the girls always saw Melissa being shady, talking to Wilden, skulking about in the woods etc.

Somehow Alison managed to drug and kidnap Melissa and stuck her in the trunk of her car before she drove the girls to the Poconos. Wild. I like to believe that Melissa is taller than Ali and so it’s hard to imagine her coming in and drugging and stuffing a grown-ass woman like Melissa into her trunk but there you go haha. I suppose Ali is highly unstable and capable of anything if she was killing Ian and Jenna so makes sense she could kidnap Melissa.

Anyway that all happens, the girls manage to escape and they think Alison died in the fire, as Emily was confronting her before there was an explosion inside the house. And then the girls’ lives go back to normal and they all live happily ever after.

BUT WAIT – there are EIGHT more books hahaha. So yeah in the acknowledgements at the end of this book Sara Shepard clearly says this is the end but clearly not. I guess Sara wasn’t as done with the series as she thought. And so we must continue this journey.

I gotta say though if the TV show had just stuck with the original story of Alison having a twin I would have preferred it. I know they wanted to add a spin with Spencer having the twin instead and I guess that would have been fine but only if they hadn’t thrown in CeCe in the middle. Like I did recently rewatch all of PLL and I’ll say the reveals weren’t as terrible as I originally thought they were but they still weren’t great. I would have rather had an Uber A who was pulling the strings the whole time rather than the game being passed around.

Plus the last season of PLL was TERRIBLE in general, they focused way too much on the girls’ relationships and the tasks A made them do were pitiful. So I’m glad the books wrap things up in a nice way. I fully believe I could just stop reading the books here and it’ll be fine but I bought all 16 for my Kindle so gotta stick it out.

All I hope is that the quality doesn’t dip because sometimes you can have too much of something and it goes downhill and I think the TV show is a prime example of that. So we’ll see, I guess it will be interesting to see if the TV show takes anything from the later books…

But yeah that’s where we are with PLL, and I think I will take this opportunity to read some other things before diving back into PLL. I have been really enjoying these books, don’t get me wrong but if there’s ever a time to take a proper break from a book series it’s when there’s a clear break in them. Like I said, this book wraps the series up pretty well, Alison is seemingly dead and the girls have begun to rebuild and move on with their lives so I can safely leave them there until I am ready to pick it up again and see what drama is next.

Plus it gives me time to blog about something else for a change lol not that I hate this but it would be nice to have some other content on the blog. Not sure what that content will be but we’ll see, I’d say give it a month or so before we get back to PLL though because I do want to complete the series and not forget about it.

Also with this book, I have completed my reading challenge for 2022! So exciting! I definitely have not finished reading for the year but I’m proud of myself for hitting my goal – I guess next year we will have to set it a bit higher. It’s all about being realistic with the goal though, don’t want to aim too high. But anyway that’s not something we have to think about ’til next year lol.

Heartless PLL Book #7 By Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

In this one, everyone seemed to be sent on wild goose chases as they tried to figure out what happened to Alison and it was wild.

First, we have Emily, who tells the police after the fire at Spencer’s that they saw Alison and everyone thinks she’s insane because everyone knows Alison died. They found her body. Wilden even tells the girls that the body they found matched Alison’s DNA so it has to be her right?

Naturally, a side effect of this is everyone in the media thinking they are ridiculous, as the girl they saw disappeared around the time the authorities came, so they have no proof if it was Alison. This causes the media to brand the girls “Pretty Little Liars” how cute.

So yes Emily refuses to believe it is not Alison and A sends her on a mission to sneak into an Amish community to find out what the tea is there with Alison. And it’s so random, but what I really can’t believe is that Emily blindly went with it. Like yeah just blindly follow A out into Amish country for a while, that’s cool.

All that comes from this is that Emily finds out a girl who lives there disappeared around the same time that Alison disappeared and that the girl was dating Wilden. Which I guess sounds like a big deal because who knew that Wilden was Amish? Or like even was around the community to be dating someone…

It is also sus that the girl disappeared after saying she was going to leave her community to be with him but at the end of the book, Wilden tells Emily “it’s not what you think,” yeah like we believe that. I just hope that this plot point goes somewhere and isn’t dropped randomly just because.

Meanwhile, Aria didn’t have A to guide her as she went searching for answers on her own. After talking to her parents she thought maybe Alison’s ghost was trying to tell her something, so she goes to a seance. Where she sees Noel Kahn of all people?

The seance turns out to be a dud but Noel finds a different medium who Aria and he meet at the site Alison was buried in her garden and this is where Aria gets a note that says “Ali killed Ali”. Meaning Alison killed herself? Confusing but also kind of makes sense if you know what happens but the girls don’t yet so Aria is just trying to make peace with the fact that Alison might have killed herself. Which seems so off base like why would Alison put herself in the ground with the cement if she was going to commit suicide, even if she took sleeping pills or something that’s very suspicious…

Also of note, Aria and Noel bond after having lost someone close to them, for Aria it is Alison and for Noel, it was his older brother. Noel’s brother committed suicide when Noel was six, this is sad but it also seems like a weird thing for them to bond over. And they kiss so I guess they are kind of a thing now which is good because Noel is the same age as Aria so we approve of this.

No more mention of Ella’s creepy boyfriend hitting on Aria again so I wonder if this is just going to be dropped completely? I mean the girls have bigger things to worry about at the minute so maybe it’ll not come up again, which is fine by me I don’t need it.

Moving on to Spencer, something good happened to her! Sadly it only lasted for a short time, she confessed to her parents about the Olivia situation and they told her that Olivia was their surrogate and she did give birth to Spencer but she was not her daughter. And her parents aren’t even mad about the money being stolen and Spencer being scammed they realise they’ve been shitty parents and so decide to treat Spencer and the Hastings are a happy family once again.

Well, until A tells Spencer to go digging on her dad’s hard drive and she discovers the Peter Hastings and Jessica DiLaurentis affair. Like I said in a previous post, I’m glad this was a thing from the books that made it into the TV show. It’s so dramatic and shocking and I love it. Though in the books, Alison is the one who is the twin and was the result of the affair but in the TV show it’s Spencer. I also think on TV Jason was also Peter’s child because Peter Hastings really couldn’t keep it in his pants lol.

But yeah so Spencer finds this out and drops the bombshell on her mother because she thought she already knew and once again implodes their family with drama. This sucks for Spencer because she was finally living the life she had craved for so long and now her parents are going to be fighting about this. Poor Spence, I guess she has Andrew at least lol.

As for Hanna, well she’s living the most interesting life but she doesn’t know it yet. She ends up getting sent to a mental facility because her father thinks she needs to deal with her PTSD from Mona and now the fire. And I agree because honestly who doesn’t need therapy after their best friend runs them over with their car?

So Hanna is staying at this super fancy place Preserve at Addison Stevens and she has a super cool roommate there called Iris who gives her Alison vibes. She finds out that Iris had a roommate before who is called Courtney who was super cool but she got released recently – this is important because Courtney is Alison’s twin!! But the girls don’t know yet, sad. But also crazy that A would lead her so close to themselves like I didn’t think A wanted to be found out so soon.

Anyway yeah so Hanna makes friends with this girl but other people at the facility try to tell her that Iris is a psycho but she doesn’t listen until she finds out Iris sold a story to People magazine about Hanna’s mental institution stay. Not cute. Hanna is about to confront Iris about it and accuse her of killing Alison but she is hauled away by the police who arrest her.

Ah yes, I didn’t mention before but all the girls end up getting hauled off and arrested for murdering Alison and Ian. So wild and also dramatic for A to set up, especially because minutes later they all get released as the police have found Ali’s “real” murderer.

Apparently, the real murderer is some guy who was working on the construction of the DiLaurentis gazebo, the one where Alison’s body was found. There was evidence of him stalking the girls and sending the A messages, which wraps things all up in a nice neat bow…except we all know that is not what happened and that this man was set up by the real A because why would a grown ass man care enough to send these girls anonymous messages and find out all their secrets? Surely he would just stay hidden and creepy and stalkerish without that right?

And that’s not all that happens at the end of the book, we find out that Jenna was murdered?! Um, what?! So this came out of nowhere for me, I mean we know Jenna knows more than she had let on when she spoke to Aria that one time but we didn’t even get a chance to know what she knows. Aside from the photo A sent Emily with Jenna, Alison and another blonde. She also was spotted outside Aria’s house that one time looking like she wanted to tell her something but we never found out what…

So now we have to see if the girls are able to find out why A would kill Jenna. Which I am sure A will make as difficult as possible because why else would they kill Jenna if not to keep what she knew a secret?

Naturally, I have to start the next book right away because I need to know what’s happening. Also amazed that Alison’s twin has the power and strength to be out killing people, I mean killing your sister is one thing out of rage, adrenaline kicks in and they’re your size so you can take them. But then killing Ian? And moving his body to and from the woods, A definitely has help. And then I guess Jenna is not too far-fetched as she has a disadvantage being blind…poor girl.

And that’s where we are, for now, I’ll probably be back in a few days with another post because I need to find out what happens…I also can’t believe there are still 9 books in this series like that’s crazy but I’m too far gone now to stop and I don’t plan to so I’ll be back soon!