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Review: Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see only a cosy ramen restaurant. And just the chosen ones – those who are lost – will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as its new owner to find the pawnshop ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike other customers. For he offers help, instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice – through rain puddles, hitching rides on paper cranes, across the bridge between midnight and morning and through a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own – and risk making a choice she will never be able to take back.

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Book Recs: For the Pisces Reader

Happy Pisces Season! As a Pisces myself, I love this time of year. Pretty much every time I see a post that is “___ as the zodiac signs” I stop to read it and take it very personally if Pisces is not something I like — once I saw a Which Gilmore Girls Character Are the Signs one and it gave Pisces Dean…you know I unfollowed that account. Since I love posts like this, I figured it was long overdue that I make one for my fellow Pisces!

There are probably millions of books that I could put on this list, but I managed to narrow it down to 9 books that I think are perfect for Pisces readers!

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Review: Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage

She’s off-limits, but he’s never been good at following the rules.

For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy” Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favorite riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.

Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It’s been years since he’s seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he can’t take his eyes off her. Despite his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.

Emmy’s got too much on her mind to think about romance. And Luke knows he should stay away from his best friend’s younger sister. But what if Luke is just what Emmy needs to get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?

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Wrap Up: January 2025

Oh, January, what a month you were. The month started with me getting a head cold for a little over a week and it was extremely annoying but other than that I was totally fine. The month as a whole though was a little rough. I’ve got a lot going on with work and have felt pretty stressed for the majority of the month.

There were good things though, so let’s get into that! Grab a drink and a snack, get cozy and let’s chat about all things January!

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Review: I Am Not Jessica Chen

After getting rejected by every single Ivy League she applied to and falling short of all her Asian immigrant parents’ expectations, seventeen-year-old Jenna Chen makes a wish to become her smarter, infinitely more successful Harvard-bound cousin, Jessica Chen—only for her wish to come true. Literally.

Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever.

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Review: The Rival by Emma Lord

At long last, Sadie has vanquished her lifelong academic rival — her irritatingly charming, whip smart next door neighbor, Seb — by getting the coveted, only spot to her dream college. Or at least, so she thinks. When Seb is unexpectedly pulled off the waitlist and admitted, Sadie has to compete with him all over again, this time to get a spot on the school’s famous zine. Now not only is she dealing with the mayhem of the lovable, chaotic family she hid her writing talents from, as well as her own self doubt, but she has to come to terms with some less-than-resentful feelings for Seb that are popping up along the way.

But the longer they compete, the more Sadie and Seb notice flaws in the school’s system that are much bigger than any competition between them. Somehow the two of them have to band together even as they’re trying to crush each other, only to discover they may have met their match in more ways than one.

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Mini Reviews: Winterween 2025 Wrap Up

Something I look forward to every January is the Winterween Readathon hosted by Gabby (gabbyreads on YouTube and @_myfictionalworld) and this year’s readathon just wrapped up.

The readathon ran from the 10th – 16th and it was so much fun! As I’ve done with both Winterween and Summerween in the past, I thought that since the readathon is now over, it would be nice to go over the prompts and what I read for each prompt in addition to sharing some mini reviews!

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TBR: 25 in 2025

Hi friends! I hope January has been treating you well! Historically, I’ve been bad at these challenges that are the x number of books for x year, but I wanted to try it this time around and split it into 5 categories. For some reason that made it seem less daunting to me than just picking 25 books at random.

So, get cozy, maybe pull up Goodreads or StoryGraph in case there are books on here that pique your interest, and let’s talk about 25 books I want to read in 2025!

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Review: No Place Left to Hide by Megan Lally

To Brooke, image is everything. She works hard to maintain perfect grades, perfect looks, a perfect life—especially after “the incident” that threatened it all. Getting into her dream university puts her that much closer to a fresh start. How can she say no to celebrating with all her classmates?

Hanging out with her crush by the bonfire is the perfect end to the night. Except it isn’t the end. An old truck starts aggressively tailing Brooke and her best friend on the isolated road toward home. Someone thinks they know the truth about “the incident,” and they won’t stop until it’s all out in the open. This terrifying drive is about to bring out Brooke’s worst fears…if she survives it.

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Reading Journal: Beginning of the Year Spreads and 2025 Goals

Happy New Year, besties! I hope that the beginning of the year is treating you well!

With the new year comes new journal setups for me; it’s truly one of my favorite things to do in December. I love setting up a new journal, new monthly spreads, etc. and I had so much fun setting up my 2025 reading journal. December was a very busy and somewhat weird month for me, and sitting down every night to set up my reading journal was so relaxing and centering.

I stopped using my 2024 spreads in September of last year for no reason other than being extremely busy. The way that I had things set up made it a bit difficult to do with my schedule, so I rethought some of my spreads for this year and I think it’s going to help me stay on top of it.

All the journal kits used in this set up are from seasonjours, I love her illustrations and highly recommend checking out her stuff! 

Alright, get comfy and cozy and let’s get started!

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