April 2021

April felt like a whirlwind, but in a good way, which is something I really needed after last month . Outside of me perking up because the weather is getting warmer (though my seasonal allergies have returned in full force), the biggest thing that happened this month is that I got my first dose of t…

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Abbreviations #129: My Epic Spring Break(Up), Dustborn + In a Book Club Far Away

I’ll preface this review by stating, for the record, that my thoughts on this novel are likely influenced by the fact that I’m not the target audience for this story. While I’ve often found it easier to still love young adult in other genres, it’s been difficult for me to really fall in love with Y…

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Paranormal Book Club: Tiger's Curse

Welcome to another Paranormal Book Club post! The Paranormal Book Club is a casual book club I do with my friends Rachel , Kristin & DJ , and it came into being because we decided we wanted to revisit (or experience for the first time) a few older YA paranormal/fantasy books together.  It seems fi…

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Adventures in Anime #7: Magic Knight Rayearth

It's time for more  Adventures in Anime ! My best friend  Rachel  & I team up for this collaboration where we pick out an anime, watch it together and then answer a series of questions about it for the blog. Since we always alternate between watching a new-to-us anime and rewatching an old favo…

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Abbreviations #128: A Princess in Theory, Crushing on You + The Boyfriend Project

While I enjoyed A Princess in Theory , I didn’t necessarily feel like I needed to immediately continue reading the Reluctant Royals series . But I decided to pick up A Duke by Default on a whim one weekend… and I’m glad that I did! In this novel, Portia Hobbs is tired of being a disappointment to her…

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ALB Turns 10!

It feels surreal to be able to say that today, the 13th of April 2021, is officially when this blog of mine turns ten years old. I certainly had no idea when I hit publish on that very first post that this would be my longest-running personal project (and specifically my longest surviving blog, as …

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Abbreviations #127: Between the World and Me, Hood Feminism + The Poet X

Between the World and Me is a piece (part letter, part essay) that author Ta-nehisi Coates wrote to his adolescent son where he grapples with his personal thoughts about what it means to be Black in America in 2015. This is not meant as a guide to the entirety of the African-American experience. Bu…

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Abbreviations #126: The Nightingale, Bringing Down the Duke + The Wife Upstairs

I’ve had The Nightingale , an adult historical fiction novel from author Kristin Hannah centered around sisters Vianne and Isabelle and their individual experiences during World War II, on my TBR for years now, but I kept putting off reading it because I was genuinely afraid that it wouldn’t live up…

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March 2021

March was, without a doubt, the hardest month of 2021 so far. The truth is that I was engaged in an internal battle with my own anxieties for nearly the entirety of March. While I tend to be more private about certain aspects of my personal life, I feel like it's important for me to note that I…

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