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Spotlight: Caitlyn’s Favorite Reads of 2021 So Far

As the end of June comes and July begins (what on earth, please — how is it July 1st tomorrow?) I thought it would be a great time to talk about some of my favorites reads of 2021 so far! It was definitely difficult to pick only a few favorite reads as I’ve already read so many amazing books. In fact, out of the 85 books that I’ve read this year, I’ve rated 74 between 4 and 5 stars. Ultimately, when deciding on my favorites, I went with the books that I continue to think about long after I’ve finished them. 

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ARC Review: This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman that Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and the surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it. . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift and protect herself and her family.

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Review: The Dark Elements Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Layla just wants to fit in at school and go on a date with Zayne, whom she’s crushed on since forever. Trouble is, Zayne treats Layla like a sister–and Layla is a half demon, half gargoyle with abilities no one else possesses. And even though Zayne is a Warden, part of the race of gargoyles tasked with keeping humanity safe, Layla’s kiss will kill anything with a soul–including him.

Then she meets Roth–a demon who claims to know her secrets. Though Layla knows she should stay away, it’s tough when that whole no-kissing thing isn’t an issue. Trusting Roth could ruin her chances with Zayne, but as Layla discovers she’s the reason for a violent demon uprising, kissing the enemy suddenly pales in comparison to the looming end of the world.

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Review: The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto

A classic sort of love story… except somebody might wind up dead.

Nobody knows Delilah like Logan does. Nobody. He makes sure of it by learning everything he can through her social media and watching her through a hidden camera he has trained on her house. Some might call him a stalker. Logan prefers to be called “romantic.”

But after Logan sees Delilah killing her abusive stepfather, he realizes there’s still more about her to discover. His sweet, perfect Delilah isn’t so perfect after all.

Delilah knows she should feel guilty, but all she feels is free. She’s so over the men in her life controlling her. Except Logan saw what she did, and he won’t let her forget it.

Delilah is done being the victim. And she refuses to be a character in Logan’s twisted fantasy. If Logan won’t let her go… she’ll make him.

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teatimereads July pick: The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

Hi, hello friends! We can’t believe half of the year is gone already, but we’re super excited to be bringing you our July pick. The tea party attendees have chosen The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He for this month’s pick. We cannot wait to be reading this with everyone, we just know it’ll be a great read for the month of July! 

Here’s a little bit more information about The Ones We’re Meant to Find: 

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay. Determined to find her, Cee devotes her days to building a boat from junk parts scavenged inland, doing everything in her power to survive until the day she gets off the island and reunites with her sister.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

Links for The Ones We’re Meant to Find: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | Indie Bound

Content Warnings: Parental death, assault (choking), death, suicide, drowning, terminal illness, natural disasters, blood mention, minor gore, post-apocalyptic themes, large-scale natural disasters, mass casualties. 

To find out more about teatimereads please click here. You can also join the server by accessing this link! 

Happy reading! 

Let’s Talk: What I’ve Been Reading & Loving Lately + How I’ve Read So Much This Year

Hello friends! I’m often asked how I read so much and what books I’m loving lately, so I figured I’d do a little post on it today! 

If you follow me on Goodreads, Instagram, or any other social media, you might’ve seen that I’ve been on a bit of a reading spree lately: I read 36 books last month, and I just finished book 28! I also wanted to say that we’re all readers, no matter how little or how much we read in a certain timeframe. With all that being said, let’s get started! 

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Blog Tour + Review: The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

After solving the case of Truly Devious, Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson.

Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.

But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.

Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders.

But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.

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ARC Review: Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins

Natalie is living her dream: topping the charts and setting records as a Brazilian pop star…until she’s dumped spectacularly on live television. Not only is it humiliating—it could end her career.

Her PR team’s desperate plan? A gorgeous yet oh-so-fake boyfriend. Nati reluctantly agrees, but William is not what she expected. She was hoping for a fierce bad boy—not a soft-hearted British indie film star. While she fights her way back to the top with a sweet and surprisingly swoon-worthy boy on her arm, she starts to fall for William—and realizes that maybe she’s the biggest fake of them all. Can she reclaim her voice and her heart?

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Let’s Talk: Annotating

Something I’ve recently started doing is annotating my books. I know what some of you are thinking, how could I possibly mark up a book with pens and highlighters of all things, but I promise it’s a lot of fun! There’s something, I dunno, therapeutic about forever marking favourite quotes, passages and simple moments on a page. Through trial and error, I think I have finally found my own annotating system that I thought I would talk you through today! Admittedly, I have only annotated three books so far (and one of them now belongs to Cossette!), but I feel like I have a good grasp on what does and doesn’t work for me. The supplies I typically favour for this process are either brush pens, pastel highlighters and page tabs. Without further adieu, let’s get into it! 

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