Book Review: A Novel Proposal

Hey everyone!! I'm back with a new post! Today, I'm reviewing "A Novel Proposal" by Denise Hunter. I've been wanting to read her books, and am so glad I finally read one! I borrowed this book from the library, and I loved it!! Read on to hear my full opinion. 

You guys, I loved this book so much!! It was amazing! I loved everything about it! I loved the beach, small-town setting. It's set in South Carolina, and the main character stays in a duplex right near the beach. She shares it with her neighbor, Sam. I loved being transported to this coastal town. The main character, Sadie is an author. I love books where the main character is an author, or works with books. I loved the plot, and there's even a little mystery subplot thrown in, and it was fun to read. I loved the characters. Sam and Sadie were both so likable, and relatable! They both struggled with their own issues, and overcame them by the end of the book. The romance between them was super slow-burn and adorable! I loved them together, and loved that they were friends first, and really got to know each other first. That's all I want in a romance book. Denise did such a great job at developing the romance, and their character developments. I loved Sam's family, especially his sister. I loved the later plot in the book, where they go to a wedding in Florida. That was fun to read! As you can  see on the cover, there's a little free library because Sadie puts up a little free library near the beach. I was so surprised by how much the library is in the book. It was so fun to read, because the main character always checks it, mentions what books are in it, and talks to other people that stop by, and she even recommends books to the locals. I loved the little free library plot so much! There's also another plot with it in the book, but I don't want to spoil it for you. This book has a really cute proposal in it! I was smiling non-stop while reading it! I'm a romance editor, and I think the reason why I think this book was so well-written, is because it checks off all the boxes, for what makes a good romance novel. She really knows how to write romance, and I love how in the beginning of each chapter, she puts a tip for writing romance. I loved that! The last thing I want to mention is, I love the faith and family values she put into the book. I'm a Christian myself, so that was wonderful to read. The book mentions God, and the characters going to church, so, if that's not for you, I wouldn't read this book. However, if the faith stuff doesn't bother you, you should give this book a try! 

Overall, I loved this book so much! I'm going to buy a physical copy for my shelves, since I need to return the library copy. This is one of the best books I've read so far this year, and I highly recommend it! If you're looking for a cute, clean, summer romance with no-spice, then you need to pick this book up!! Denise has so many other books I want to read! I can't wait to read more books from her. Thank you so much for reading this review! Stay tuned for more coming soon! Happy reading!! :) 

 

What I'm Reading This Week!!

 Hey everyone!! I'm back! I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a few months. I just recently got back into doing YouTube, so I've been focusing on that lately. I still like to post on here as well! First, I want to give you an update. So, I've finished some books recently, and have finished 6 books so far this year. I have some book reviews that I want/need to post, so stay tuned for that! I love writing book reviews, but I'm a little behind. My next post should be a book review. Anyway, I want to share with you my reading plans for the week!

I just recently got out of a slump. I'm actually currently filming a library reading vlog for YouTube. I took a week off from it, because I wasn't liking any of the books. Since my reading slump is over, I'm back to reading library books. So, I'm currently reading "A Novel Proposal" by Denise Hunter. She's a Christian author, and I've been wanting to read her books. I'm about halfway through the book, and I'm really liking it! I love the setting! It's set on a beach in South Carolina. The main character is staying at a duplex on the beach. There's a romance between her and her neighbor, Sam. It's very slow-burn and very cute! I'm loving everything about the book so far! I will probably finish it later this week. So, that's what I'm reading this week. What are you currently reading? I would love to know! Thanks for reading! Happy reading! :)

I Got Rid of Most of My Books!! (Why I decided to down-size my book collection)

 Hey everyone!! I'm back with a new post! Today, I want to share with you something that I've been wanting to talk about since I started blogging again. 

I've been a huge reader my whole life. I used to mostly borrow books from the library. I've used the library most of my reading life, from elementary school- after high school.  I very rarely bought books, and used to have a very small book collection. That was before I discovered BookTube in 2012. After that, I did still use the library a lot, but once I started my BookTube channel in 2014, that's when I really started buying books. I bought books a lot in the past 10-12 years. It was really bad when I worked at bookstores. My book buying addiction became very bad! I used to own lots of bookshelves, and previously had four bookshelves filled with books. Most of them were books I haven't read yet. It really got out of control.  That was several years ago, in 2024. I ended up quitting my bookstore job, and after that, my book-buying went down. That's when I started purging books. Owning so many books, started to really stress me out, especially because I'm a very slow reader now. I used to read a lot faster when I was younger, but not anymore. It was so stressful to look at my shelves, and see 200-300 books that I haven't read. I asked myself what was the point in having them, if I'm not reading them, or reading them right away? It would take me years to read all of those books. I didn't want to feel stressed out looking at my books anymore. So, that's when I decided to go through my book collection, and get rid of books. I went through and got rid of books that I wasn't interested in reading anymore, and I honestly DNF'd a lot of them, so that helped get rid of them faster too. After un-hauling books the past two years, this is what my book collection looks like now! 

It's only two bookshelves! I went from having four full bookshelves, to only two now, and all of the shelves aren't even filled up! The pink cart is my physical TBR, and it's so small now! I only have 7 books on my physical TBR, instead of 200 books.  It feels so good! I'm not stressed out looking at my book collection now. I'm very strict with what books I choose to keep now. I'm only keeping my favorite books/series, and I'm only keeping books that I will reread. I love rereading, and it's been saving my reading life lately. I renewed my library card last year, and started using the library again. It feels so good! I literally went back to my reading roots! I used to be mostly a library reader, like I said before, and that's what I'm going back to. I'm using the library a lot now! I'm not buying books anymore. I've been having a blast taking trips to the library. It fills the void of going to the bookstore, but I'm not spending money. I love going through the shelves and browsing at the library. My plan now is to borrow new books from the library, and then, if I end up loving the book, then I'll buy a copy for my collection. I wasted so much money buying books that I ended up DNFing, and it makes me cringe, because I literally could've borrowed all of those books from the library, instead of wasting my money. So, yeah. You probably won't see any book hauls much in the future. I will do library hauls instead, to show you the books I check out from the library. I forgot to mention that I have a Kindle. I love my Kindle, and use it a lot. Right now, I currently have around 90 books on it. I recently went through my Kindle, and got rid of a lot of books. I like both formats, but nothing beats a physical book for me. I love holding a book, and feeling the pages. 

If you liked this post, please leave me a comment. I would love to discuss this with someone. Do you have a big physical TBR? Do you use the library? Let me know!

Thank you for reading!! I'm so glad that I finally got to share this with you. Stay tuned for more posts coming soon. Happy reading!! :)