• Book Reviews

    Book Review: 100 Kisses by Malia Ann Haberman

    Kylee Jones will be sixteen in two months, and she’s never kissed a boy. Her best friend Colleen has decided that she doesn’t want Kylee to be that girl who turns “sweet sixteen and never been kissed.” When her scheming twin brother tricks Colleen into making a crazy bet that Kylee has to kiss thirteen boys before her birthday, things go from not-so-bad to terrible. And now this crazy bet could ruin her chances with the only boy she actually wants to kiss. Emerson McKay is the new guy at school, with a terrible secret about why he had to…

  • Ramblings

    A year of January.

    Oh man, this picture is such a mood. As we head towards the year mark of this pandemic, I’m finding myself having to try harder and harder to not just hide in a pillow fort every day. Some days are better than others, of course. Some mornings I wake up and feel top notch, bebopping around our house and doing mundane household chores with flourish. Other days I wake up, immediately remember that I am a responsible human being who basically goes nowhere, and feel like I just want to hide under the covers for the rest of the day.…

  • Book Reviews

    Book Review: The Project by Courtney Summers

    Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo's sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there's more to the group than meets the eye. She's spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it. When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees…

  • Feature Posts/Weekly Memes

    Can’t Wait Wednesday (1/20/21)

    If you’re like me, you’re probably glued to Inauguration news right now. In case you’re taking a break though, it’s time to share what upcoming book I’m super excited for! Are you ready? Today’s pick is a little on the creepier side. I can’t deny that I love a good scare, but what I REALLY love is female written horror. This book looks SO GOOD. Want to join me in fawning over it? Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists. A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations…

  • Book Reviews

    The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

    A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel. Pray they are hungry. Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.

  • Feature Posts/Weekly Memes

    It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (1/11/21)

    Apologies for the radio silence friends! I hoped to have a book review to share with you today but, well, the current state of our country has been weighing heavy and I haven’t felt much like finishing my book. I’m sure I’m not alone, but it’s been a rough few days for productivity of any kind. Still, I promised myself that we’d start 2021 out strong here at HDB Blog, so let’s take baby steps with a weekly meme shall we? Read Last Week: As I mentioned, I haven’t finished a book at all yet. Alas. I probably would have…

  • Feature Posts/Weekly Memes

    Bookish (And Not So Bookish) Thoughts #3

    “I had always had mixed feelings about Narnia, mostly because of the heavy-handed lion-Jesus allegory. I suddenly had very strong feelings that C. S. Lewis had not spent nearly enough time on the sudden realization, when moving between worlds, that nothing could be taken for granted. Maybe fog hung around all day here, even when the sky was bright. Maybe there was no night, or maybe this was what night looked like. Maybe gravity stopped working here on Tuesdays.” The Hollow Ones – T. Kingfisher Starting off the year right, with a quote from my current read! If you haven’t…

  • Ramblings

    Goodbye 2020, we aren’t all that sad to see you go.

    Well friends, we’ve made it! This year has been a… challenge, to say the least. People have had their lives uprooted, lost jobs, lost friends, lost loved ones. I think though, if we look hard enough, we all gained some things too. I spent last night taking a look at things that were actually good about 2020, and I’d like to share them with you. I know it’s easy to just consider this a trash year, and move on. But what lessons has this really given us? Here’s what I found. This year gave me a chance to be truly…

  • Feature Posts/Weekly Memes

    It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (12/28/20)

    Good morning friends! We have made it to the last Monday of the year. How are we feeling? If you’re like me, you might feel torn between having hope and worrying that we’re in for a lot more of the same. But the good thing is that we’ve made it this far! We’ve survived. That is something to celebrate. Anyway, enough rambling from me. Let’s get back to bookish things. I think I’ve been doing pretty well at posting in here semi-regularly, and plan to push that into the new year! I enjoy this a lot! Read Last Week: I…

  • Ramblings

    Merry Christmas!

    While I know that this year looks a lot different than most, we wish you all the merriest of Christmases! May your cocoa be hot, your pajamas be cozy, and all of your presents be of the bookish persuasion.