I kicked off 2026 with a sapphic young adult horror read containing a unique premise. This Delicious Death depicts life after a pandemic that turned a portion of the population into flesh eaters. This event, called The Hollowing, turned central characters Zoey, Celeste, Val, and Jasmine into Ghouls who need to consume flesh in order … More Review: This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham
It was a magical year of reading, and there’s no better way to wrap things up than to share my 2025 reading list. In 2025, I read 42 books. More than half of those were checked out from my local library. Thank goodness for community resources! My most read genre was romance. I’ll be frank … More My 2025 in Books
A moving mystery and romance about a popular anonymous author. … More Review: The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan
A welcome back to Julia’s Bookshelves! … More Where I’ve Been: The World, The Page, and Other Places
Gerald’s conscience is somehow uploaded to the Slack channel and he is completely disconnected from his body. While his coworkers navigate the highs and lows of office life, Gerald has to convince someone to believe he is not, in fact, working from home, and needs help finding a way back to his physical body. … More Review: Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
Down by the Pacific Coast Highway, tucked between the mountains and the sea, is the story of the Riva family in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising. … More Review: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Happy Pride Month! I’m celebrating with lots of reading (of course) and taking a look back at some of my favorite stories that highlight the experiences of LGBTQ+ community members. … More Celebrating LGBTQ+ Fiction: Must-Read Books by Genre
To celebrate International Women’s Day, I’m sharing some of my favorite books written by women. Part of me always always knew that I would be a writer one day. I love books, and stories have guided me my entire life. But there was another part of me that didn’t understand why I would write, or … More Nine Books by Women for International Women’s Day
Spaceships. Aliens. Found family. A character-centric science fiction novel with a diverse set of characters. … More Review: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Everything I read in 2023. … More My 2023 in Books
Mary Catharine “Merricat” Blackwood lives an isolated life in a large house with her older sister Constance and their Uncle Julian. Six years prior, Merricat and Constance’s family was poisoned and Constance was accused yet acquitted of committing the murders. … More Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Percy teams back up with Annabeth and Grover as they race around NYC doing immortal favors. … More Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Chalice of the Gods
It’s not just enemies-to-lovers in Thea Guanzon’s The Hurricane Wars. Be prepared for a wild ride of enemies-to-conspirators-to-enemies-to-allies-to-friends-to-adversaries-to…who knows? … More Review: The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
The stage has been set, and the final match is about to be played. In The Final Gambit, the third of The Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, teen protagonist Avery Kylie Grambs is about to finally claim the fortune bequeathed to her and become a billionaire. … More Review: The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Carrie thinks she is done with her competitive career. But six years into retirement, Carrie finds her records overtaken by the talented Nicki Chan. At thirty-seven, Carrie’s odds of making a successful comeback to reclaim her title are slim. She’ll have to resume training with her father and learn how to achieve greatness in her changed body. But Carrie has never backed down from an impossible challenge. Carrie Soto launches a legendary comeback. … More Review: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A graphic novel reimagines Alcott’s greatest work, and sets the fearless Jo March on the quest of surviving eight grade. … More Review – Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of) by Kathleen Gros
Happy Place by Emily Henry For those who are longing for east coast summers, desperately waiting for the third season of The Summer I Turned Pretty to be announced, and listening to the new wistful version of Taylor Swift’s “august” that’s taking over social media, Emily Henry’s Happy Place is the perfect summer read for … More Review: Happy Place by Emily Henry
STEMinist fiction is back with the newest book by Ali Hazelwood, author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain. … More Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
What would you do if you suddenly became a billionaire? But there’s a twist. … More Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
A star is born when Jane Quinn sings a cover of famous folk singer Jesse Reid’s top hit at the local Massachusetts music festival. … More Review: Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie
My most anticipated book of 2023 is here! Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles have been a long-time resident of my bookshelves. I was first introduced to this series in middle school (shoutout to public libraries for making books accessible!) and it is one of the few historical fantasy series that I read regularly. Coming in at … More Review: Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare
The Catch by Alison Fairbrother Alison Fairbrother’s The Catch follows a young woman through the early days of grieving the sudden loss of her father. When a young DC journalist’s father suddenly passes, she returns to his home for the funeral and will reading with the expectation that his most prized possession—a baseball from the … More Review: The Catch by Alison Fairbrother
Situated in the Philadelphia suburbs is the historic and unique Baldwin’s Book Barn. This bookstore sells used, rare, and antique books in a variety of genres. Baldwin’s Book Barn is located in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The barn itself is just over 200 years old, and it has been transformed into a dream bookstore for readers … More Buying Used Books at Baldwin’s Book Barn
Reflections on a week vacation in Aruba A quick glance at this blog might lead one to believe that I’m an experienced traveler, but the truth is that before 2022 I hadn’t been to that many places far away from where I live. My family vacation to Aruba felt like a hazy dream in the … More To All the Books that Stayed in My Suitcase
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz is a short story collection that dives into the minds and lives of Floridians of all ages. … More Review: Milk Blood Head by Dantiel W. Moniz
Happy New Year, readers! Thank you to everyone who has stuck along with my blog these past few years. I’m looking forward to telling you all about new books and book adventures in 2023! 2022 was a wild year from me. I spent the first half of the year living in London and exploring Europe, … More My 2022 Year in Books
One of my favorite events in Ithaca, New York, is the Friends of the Library Book Sale. This event takes place over three weekends every fall and spring. Members of the local community and beyond line the block for a turn to wander through the shelves of used books, records, DVDs, and more. The book … More Exploring the Friends of the Library Book Sale
Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is a masterclass in riveting imagery, suspenseful scenes, and fascinatingly unreliable characters. I’m happy to add another book to my list of five star reads. … More Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Emma seems to have the perfect life. She marries her high school sweetheart Jesse, travels the world with him, and settles far away from her hometown. But Emma’s world is turned upside down when, on their first wedding anniversary, Jesse’s helicopter goes missing over the pacific. … More Review: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Bee Königswasser is a badass neuroscientist with a secret viral Twitter account that gives advice to women in STEM fields. Bee encounters her greatest professional and personal challenge yet when she is offered the job to co-lead the project of a lifetime. … More Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
College student Matt Pine is informed that nearly his entire family died from a gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. While the death was ruled accidental by Mexican officials, not everybody in the FBI is so sure of this. And to make make matters worse, the bodies of Matt’s family will not be released unless Matt himself makes a trip to Mexico to retrieve his late family. … More Review: Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay
Laurie’s life is turned upside down when her long term boyfriend ends their relationship. Jamie needs to be in a stable relationship to show the partners of the firm that he’s mature enough for a big promotion. … More Review: If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
January Andrews is a romance writer who has always believed in love. But after the death of her father, everything changes when she is given the key to his secret beach house that he shared with another woman during his marriage. A grieving January heads to this “lovenest”for the summer with hopes of using the time to pen her next novel and clear out the house. … More Review: Beach Read by Emily Henry
In this world, having access to magic means a young death. The only chance for magical kids to survive is to attend school at the Scholomance. … More Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Hidden up in the mountains of Vermont is Ellingham Academy, an elite private school for unique minds, including artists, inventors, and writers. Founded by 1920s millionaire Albert Ellingham, the school was designed to make learning a game, and it only accepts 50 students each year on free tuition to attend. … More Review: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
From January to May 2022, I spent my semester living in London and traveling around Europe. This meant lots of reading time on planes, trains, buses, and the London Underground. Of course I picked up some great books along the way! Here’s ten of my favorite reads from this semester. In London and looking for … More Top 10 Books I Read in London
Whether it’s upped stakes, the introduction of a new character, or a plot twist, the second book can really make or break a series. Here’s four sequels that, in my opinion, turned out better than their predecessor, and four that did not live up to expectations. If you’ve got a sequel that you love or … More Four Sequels That Are Better Than the First Book (And Four That Are Not)
I know that I am late to the game with Normal People. It is one of those books that I refused to buy because I knew somebody in my life could lend me a copy. On family vacation I finally had the chance to read it. The story really flew by. … More Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney
Daisy Jones & the Six tells the story of 1970s rock band The Six and their breakup after their wildly popular album Aurora. The Six was on the rise, led by singer Billy Dunne, when the band crossed paths with Daisy Jones. Daisy came of age in LA, going out on the Sunset Strip and surrounded by a world of sex and drugs. But rock ‘n’ roll was where Daisy’s heart and talents lived. When given the opportunity to collaborate with The Six for a song, Daisy seized the chance. … More Review: Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In Rabu, Automae rule the land. But it wasn’t always that way. In the War of Kinds, these Made beings took power from their human overlords and made human beings the subservient ones. … More Review: Crier’s War by Nina Varela
Magic and mystery—some of what readers can expect in this coming of age story from author Caroline O’Donoghue.
When Maeve discovers a pack of tarot cards in the basement of St. Bernadette’s Catholic School, her popularity skyrockets. Every girl in the school is clamoring to receive one of Maeve’s eerily accurate readings. Everyone except Lily, Maeve’s ex-best friend. When Lily finally receives a reading, she draws a card that Maeve has never seen before. And the next day, Lily disappears without a trace. … More Review: All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue
I’m always looking for texts with a proximity to Twilight that aren’t Twilight. It is why I have a long standing obsession with Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy and rushed to the theater to gush over Kristen Stewart’s performance in Spencer (newsflash, she has always been talented, including in her Bella Swan days). … More Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu is Vampire Goodness
Ten years ago, Adam Lattimer went missing and was presumed dead. A year later, his mother, Kathleen, died of a heart attack. The Lattimer family has always been fodder for gossip in the Irish town of Spanish Cove. No doubt the wealthiest family in town, all eyes have always been on the six Lattimer siblings as they grew up under the watch of their sweet mother Kathleen and cruel father Frazier. One missing, one an entertainment big-shot, one a Dublin hotel owner, one off to New York, one off to Europe, and one staying at home. … More Review: Six Wicked Reasons by Jo Spain
As a newly serious romantic comedy fan, I recently made a trip to The Notting Hill Bookshop to find my next read. The small pile of paper wrapped titles labeled “Blind Date with a book” was absolutely irresistible. Here’s the one I settled on… … More Blind Date with a Book Review!
I was searching for a book that would surprise me. I’ve been reading a lot of romance lately, and a lot of those books tend to hit the same notes. And then The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was sitting on the front table of my local bookstore and I thought, why not? I knew nothing about this book except that it is popular on #BookTok. I love old Hollywood stories, so I gave it a shot. … More Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Lily Bloom is aware of the humor of wanting to open a flower shop whilst being named Lily Bloom. Still, she’s come a long way to get to this point. Her life hasn’t exactly been easy up until this point, and opening the flower shop is her dream. Around the same time, Lily meets the charming and attracting neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. Lily and Ryle hit it off immediately, and although Ryle says he doesn’t do relationships, the chemistry is too real for either of them to deny. … More Review: It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Who wants to meet the family on the first (fake) date? The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas Buy the book here Page count: 480 Genre: Romance, comedy, contemporary, fiction The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas gives everything you might want in a romance novel: a lovable protagonist, classic tropes, and a fun setting. … More Review: The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
The TikTok viral book delivers on troupe filled twists and turns. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood Buy the book here Page count: 384 Genre: Romance, comedy, contemporary, fiction Content warning: Discussions of workplace harassment and assault Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis has earned the title of being a “BookTok book” through being heavily read … More Review: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
How far can the consequences of a stubborn lie reach? When I decide something’s not for me, it’s pretty hard to change my mind. I hate cooked onions. Worms creep see out. My biggest stance for a long time was that I found all museums to be boring. Take, for example, my family’s infamous trip … More Review: Atonement by Ian McEwan
Summer! For a bit there it felt like the weather would never turn warm again. Summer is time for packing bags full of books and heading to the beach. I love buying books throughout the year and mentally adding them to my summer TBR list. As a college student, I’m pretty much always reading something, … More Summer Reads
A swoony romance between two musicians. … More Review: Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto
And I would’ve gotten away with it too! If it wasn’t for…. a smart, cunning teenage girl who employs her expert critical thinking skills, social underdog position, and emotional empathy to solve the case. … More Girls on the Case: My Favorite YA Women-Led Mysteries
Julia's Bookshelves 