teatimelit

Review: Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen

Always a matchmaker, never a match…

Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her Pó Po’s traditional Chinese zodiac approach all about “animal attraction,” her emotions skew more toward furious-slash-outraged. Especially when L.A.’s most-eligible bachelor Bennett O’Brien is behind the app that could destroy her family’s legacy . . .

Liv knows better than to fall for any guy, let alone an infuriatingly handsome one who believes that traditions are meant to be broken. As the two businesses go head to head, Bennett and Liv make a deal: they’ll find a match for each other—and whoever falls in love loses. But Liv is dealing with someone who’s already adept at stealing business ideas . . . so what’s stopping him from stealing her heart too?

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ARC Review: Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong

In A Foul Thing, Roma and Juliette have established themselves as the heads of an underground weapons ring in Zhouzhuang, making a living the way they do best while remaining anonymous in their quiet life.

But when they hear about Russian girls showing up dead in nearby towns, they decide to investigate – and discover that this mystery is closer to home than they ever imagined . . .

In This Foul Murder, Benedikt and Marshall have been summoned by Roma to find the elusive scientist, Lourens, and bring him to Zhouzhuang. Time is of the essence aboard the week-long Trans-Siberian Express, but when someone is murdered on board, Benedikt and Marshall convince the officer in charge they are investigators and promise they can solve the murder if he doesn’t stop the train.

But as they dig deeper, they realize that the murder might having surprising ties to their own mission . . .

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Review: All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.

Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads. 

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ARC Review: Central Place by Delia Cai

Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny town in central Illinois where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé, Ben. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she’s become, from those she left behind.

But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Audrey’s relationship with her parents has been soured by years of her mother’s astronomical expectations and slights. The friends she’s shirked for bigger dreams have stayed behind and started families. And then there’s Kyle, the easygoing stoner and her unrequited crush from high school that she finds herself drawn to again. Ben might be a perfect fit for New Audrey, but Kyle was always the only one who truly understood her growing up, and being around him again after all these years has Old Audrey bubbling up to the surface.

Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey’s proximity to her family and to Kyle forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she’s worked toward and everything she’s imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?

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Journal with Me: Caitlyn’s 2023 Reading Journal

Happy happy New Year, dear readers! I’m so excited to be sharing some of my favorite spreads from my 2023 reading journal with you all!

In 2022 I set up a traveler sized reading journal, and though it was nice, I didn’t end up using it as much as I had wanted to. I thought that the traveler size would make me feel less pressured to create large and detailed spreads, and while it did achieve that, I actually felt that the size was really restrictive to my creative process and I ended up only using two spreads consistently.

For 2023, I really want to utilize this journal not only for tracking my reads, goals and challenges, but also for creative spreads for books that resonated with me throughout the year. This time around I decided to go with an 8×8 journal, and I’m feeling much more creatively inspired!

So, grab a cup of tea, get cozy and let’s take a look at some of my spreads for my 2023 reading journal!

*Note that I am not affiliated with any brands that are mentioned in this post. 

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Let’s Talk: Cossette’s 2023 Reading Goals, Content Goals & Tracking

Happy New Year, dear friends! I hope your 2023 is off to a great start, and is filled with lots of good reads, fun adventures, and good health. Personally speaking, I’m so glad to be back after a bit of a break — It’s definitely one I needed, and I’m excited for what the new year brings. Over this break, I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted my 2023 to look like as a reader, a blogger, and a bookstagrammer, and also started my reading journal. I thought it’d be fun to share some of my goals for the year with y’all here!

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Wrap Up: December 2022

Hello dear readers! Can you believe that 2022 has come to a close? We hope that you had a wonderful month and holiday season. It was a very good reading month here at teatimelit, so check out the post to see what we loved this month!

This month Caitlyn read 15 books, and Cossette read 20 books

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An Announcement

Hi, hello friends! 

We hope you’ve had a lovely December so far, and that you’re all staying safe and cozy. We wanted to share a few quick announcements with you today!

First, we’ll be going on a hiatus from now until the new year! In the meantime, you can still find us on Twitter at @teatimelits, or on our personal bookstagrams — @readbycait for Caitlyn, @cossettereads for Cossette, and @bookswithmary for Mary. 

With the new year brings some new changes as well. In case you missed it, Mary has stepped down from the blog. You can read more about this in her most recent blog post. When we’re back in January, we’ll also have some new graphics, and a new posting schedule — You can now expect posts from us on Tuesdays and Thursdays! 

Lastly, our December pick — The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches — was our final tea time reads pick. We’ve really loved being your hosts and it genuinely has been wonderful reading with you, hearing your thoughts, getting excited about upcoming releases, and sharing recommendations. The server will stand for people to continue chatting, however we will not be continuing to run it as is.

Hope the rest of your December is wonderful!

Love,

Caitlyn, Cossette, & Mary

Let’s Talk: Five books I wish I could read again for the First Time

Hi, hello everyone! Welcome back to another post from me! Before we get into today’s post, I wish to inform you all that this will be my last post on teatimelit. I have adored my time creating content for the past two years, but it’s time for me to hang up my creator cap. Admittedly I’ve learned that creating blog content isn’t what I’m passionate about anymore, and that’s ok! I’ll still be hanging around in the book community, so if you want to see what I get up to and what I read feel free to follow me on Instagram @bookswithmary (revival pending) and Goodreads @maryreading. Thank you all for the most wonderful two years; I have loved engaging with you all and bonding over a shared love of books. But without further adieu, let’s get into this week’s post. 

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