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Arc Review: Begin Again by Emma Lord

As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together.

But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay needs a major, and despite Andie’s impressive track record of being The Fixer, she’s stumped on how to help. And Milo, her coffee-guzzling grump of an R.A. with seafoam green eyes, is somehow disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships one sleep-deprived wisecrack at a time.

But sometimes, when all your plans are in rubble at your feet, you find out what you’re made of. And when Andie starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away–Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.

Filled with a friend group that feels like family, an empowering journey of finding your own way, and a Just Kiss Already! romance, Begin Again is an unforgettable novel of love and starting again.

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Annotate with Me: Portrait of a Thief

Hi, besties! As I am fully in my annotations era, I thought it would be fun to start a new post series called Annotate with Me. In this series, I’ll be highlighting one of the books that I’ve recently annotated, show you what supplies I used, share photos of my annotations and discuss some of the things I chose to highlight and comment on throughout the book. Since we just wrapped up our read of Grace D. Li’s Portrait of a Thief for TeaTimeReads, I figured this would be the perfect book to start with!

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Wrap Up: August 2022

August really has slipped away into a moment in time, hasn’t it? Well, as it’s the end of the month you know what’s next — our monthly wrap up! Grab a cup of tea and see what we read and loved this month and what we’re looking forward to in September!

A quick reminder that Mary is on an indefinite hiatus, and you can catch up with her on @bookswithmary!

This month Caitlyn read 16 books, and Cossette read 31 books.

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TeaTimeReads: Portrait of a Thief Discussion Questions

Hello friends! We can’t believe that the month of August is almost over, time is flying. We have absolutely loved reading PORTRAIT OF A THIEF with everyone, and we’re super excited to share our discussion questions and thoughts with you!

A quick reminder that Mary is on an indefinite hiatus, and you can catch up with her on @bookswithmary!

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Review: This Place is Still Beautiful by Xixi Tian

Two sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever.

Despite having had near-identical upbringings, sisters Annalie and Margaret agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Nineteen-year-old Margaret is driven, ambitious, and keenly aware of social justice issues. She couldn’t wait to leave their oppressive small-town home and take flight in New York. Meanwhile sweet, popular, seventeen-year-old Annalie couldn’t think of anything worse – she loves their town, and feels safe coasting along in its confines.

That is, until she arrives home one day to find a gut-punching racial slur painted on their garage door.

Outraged, Margaret flies home, expecting to find her family up in arms. Instead, she’s amazed to hear they want to forget about it. Their mom is worried about what it might stir up, and Annalie just wants to have a ‘normal’ summer – which Margaret is determined to ruin, apparently.

Back under each other’s skins, things between Margaret and Annalie get steadily worse – and not even the distraction of first love (for Annalie), or lost love (for Margaret) can bring them together.

Until finally, a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever. 

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TeaTimeReads September Pick: The Tea Dragon Society series by Kay O’Neill

Hi friends! We’re so excited to announce that for our September TeaTimeReads pick, we’ll be reading THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY by Kay O’Niell! With graphic novels being on the shorter side, we decided to read all three books in the series. We can’t wait to read and discuss with you!

Here is the full summary for The Tea Dragon Society:

From the award-winning author of Princess Princess Ever After comes The Tea Dragon Society, a charming all-ages book that follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons.

After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon care-taking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives—and eventually her own.

Here is the full summary for The Tea Dragon Festival:

Rinn has grown up with the Tea Dragons that inhabit their village, but stumbling across a real dragon turns out to be a different matter entirely! Aedhan is a young dragon who was appointed to protect the village but fell asleep in the forest eighty years ago. With the aid of Rinn’s adventuring uncle Erik and his partner Hesekiel, they investigate the mystery of his enchanted sleep, but Rinn’s real challenge is to help Aedhan come to terms with feeling that he cannot get back the time he has lost.

Here is the full summary for The Tea Dragon Tapestry:

Join Greta and Minette once more for the heartwarming conclusion of the award-winning Tea Dragon series!

Over a year since being entrusted with Ginseng’s care, Greta still can’t chase away the cloud of mourning that hangs over the timid Tea Dragon. As she struggles to create something spectacular enough to impress a master blacksmith in search of an apprentice, she questions the true meaning of crafting, and the true meaning of caring for someone in grief. Meanwhile, Minette receives a surprise package from the monastery where she was once training to be a prophetess. Thrown into confusion about her path in life, the shy and reserved Minette finds that the more she opens her heart to others, the more clearly she can see what was always inside.

Told with the same care and charm as the previous installments of the Tea Dragon series, The Tea Dragon Tapestry welcomes old friends and new into a heartfelt story of purpose, love, and growth.

Links for The Tea Dragon Society: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
Links for The Tea Dragon Festival: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
Links for The Tea Dragon Tapestry: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound

We’ll be doing a loose reading schedule this month, but of course, feel free to read at your own pace.

Content Warnings for The Tea Dragon Society Series: blood, violence, abandonment, injury/injury detail, animal cruelty, animal death, confinement, death, memory loss

We hope that you have a lovely rest of the month and we look forward to reading THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY in September!

Let’s Talk: Partial August TBR

Happy “salt air and the rust on your door” month to all that celebrate! With August comes the end of the summer camp program that I run — we officially wrap up on the 12th — and I’ll be taking some time off work to rest and recharge before starting our fall programs. I’m planning on getting a lot of reading done in the 2 weeks I’ll be off work and I thought it would be fun to share some of my August TBR with all of you!

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Wrap Up: July 2022

Another month has come and gone, which means it’s time for another wrap up post! July was a pretty busy month for all of us but we’re excited to share what we read in July!

A quick reminder that Mary is on an indefinite hiatus, and you can catch up with her on @bookswithmary!

This month Caitlyn read 27 books, and Cossette read 25 books.

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Arc Review: Seoulmates by Susan Lee

Her ex-boyfriend wants her back. Her former best friend is in town. When did Hannah’s life become a K-drama?

Hannah Cho had the next year all planned out—the perfect summer with her boyfriend, Nate, and then a fun senior year with their friends.

But then Nate does what everyone else in Hannah’s life seems to do—he leaves her, claiming they have nothing in common. He and all her friends are newly obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas, and Hannah is not. After years of trying to embrace the American part and shunning the Korean side of her Korean American identity to fit in, Hannah finds that’s exactly what now has her on the outs.

But someone who does know K-dramas—so well that he’s actually starring in one—is Jacob Kim, Hannah’s former best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s desperate for a break from the fame, so a family trip back to San Diego might be just what he needs…that is, if he and Hannah can figure out what went wrong when they last parted and navigate the new feelings developing between them.

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