bookreviews Archives - LUXE LIFE // SMALL BUDGET

What I Read: March & April 2025

April 29, 2025 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 0 Comment

I don’t know about anyone else, but life has been… chaotic? I’m not even sure that’s the right word to describe it. Unrelenting? It didn’t help that I spent most of March either sick with a cold or sick with food poisoning.

But regardless, I’ve still been finding time to read. I read 10 books in March and April with the list including quite a bit of fantasy:

-Quicksilver by Callie Heart
-Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
-A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty by Stacia Stark
-The Passion Test by Chris Attwood and Janet Bray Attwood
-The Woman Destroyed by Simone De Beauvoir
-Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J. Tuli
-Rule of the Aurora King by Nisha J. Tuli
-Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman
-Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
-FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven

Let’s get into the reviews!

What I Read: January 2025

February 4, 2025 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 1 comment

I don’t know why, but January always seems to drag on forever. Is it the return to routine after the disruption of the holidays? Is it the cold and gloomy weather? Whatever the reason, I found books to be a big comfort this month.

January’s reads included:
-The September House by Carissa Orlando
-Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun
-Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
-All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
-The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene
-Something Lost, Something Gained by Hillary Clinton

Let’s get into the reviews!

What I Read: December 2024

January 4, 2025 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 0 Comment

Somehow, 2024 has already come to an end.

I don’t know if it’s getting older or what, but I swear each year passes faster and faster. And each year feels slightly crazier…

But the end of the year chaos didn’t slow down my reading. December’s reads included mostly fantasy:
-Caraval by Stephanie Garber
-A Court This Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark
-Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco
-The Chain by Adrian McKinty
-Fate Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
-We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Let’s get into the reviews!

What I Read: November 2024

December 10, 2024 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 0 Comment

I can’t believe 2024 is already almost over. Yet, I find myself sitting here next to my Christmas tree and thinking about new year’s resolutions. I feel like this fall has been an absolute whirlwind and I’m not sure exactly why. Does anyone else feel this way or is this just a me thing? Regardless of this weird time warp that I’m in, I continued to pick up books and made it through some long ones! One was 608 pages…

What I Read: September & October 2024

October 29, 2024 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 2 comments

Does anyone else feel like life is non-stop lately?

Both September and October have been an absolute whirlwind and with the holidays fast approaching, I’m not sure I’ll have time to catch my breath. But that’s clearly not stopping me from picking up a book…

I read 12 books over the course of September and October:
-The Other Woman by Sandie Jones
-The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
-Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
-The Housemaid Is Watching by Freida McFadden
-The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen
-The Spite House by Johnny Compton
-The Butcher Game by Alaina Urquhart
-Bride by Ali Hazelwood
-Nobody Wants Your Sh*t by Messie Condo
-Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White
-The Unraveling by Vi Keeland
-The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

As you can see, fiction has my attention lately, and I’ve been continuing quite a few series.

Let’s get into the reviews!

What I Read: August 2024

September 8, 2024 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 1 comment

I’m resisting the urge to start this post off with lyrics from Taylor Swift’s ‘August’, but I do feel like this month really slipped away.

On one hand, I’m sad that the summer vibes are ending, but on the other, I can’t wait for fall. (Yes, I have already pulled out my Halloween decorations and have been burning the fall candles!)

Despite how fast the month seemed to go, I did get in quite a bit of reading:
-Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell
-The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner
-Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
-In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
-Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
-The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen
-The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden
-Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg
-The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

Let’s get into the reviews!

What I Read: July 2024

August 6, 2024 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 1 comment

I’m not sure when it happened or exactly how it happened, but July proved to be a big month of reading for me! Maybe, it was all the time sitting in airports this month?

I read 10 books (somehow!) and it was quite a mix of titles:
-Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter
-Red Rising by Pierce Brown
-The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
-The Twilight Wife by A.J. Banner
-Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand
-The One-Minute Workout by Martin Gibala
-Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm
-Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
-My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
-Tactical Barbell II: Conditioning by K. Black

Let’s get into the reviews!

What I Read: June 2024

July 6, 2024 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 0 Comment

Vacations are funny.

The days are long. The week is short. It makes time slow down and speed up. As I look at my list of June reads, some of these books feel like I read them a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then. But at the same time, everything is the same. I’ll stop rambling now…

Overall, June proved to be a solid month of reading. I’m definitely on a thriller/mystery/suspense kick:
-Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose
-Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena
-Don’t Believe It by Charlie Donlea
-The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
-One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
-The Coworker by Freida McFadden
-The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

Let’s get into the reviews!

What I Read: May 2024

June 6, 2024 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 1 comment

I know it’s not technically summer, but it might as well be. It’s hot. It’s humid. And I find myself craving beach reads and summer camp thrillers.

While I got started on that trend later in the month, this month’s reads actually started rather heavy with fascinating (but disturbing and horrifying!) books on climate change and nuclear war.

This month’s reads included:
-You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen
-Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
-The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell
-Choosing Theo by Victoria Aveline
-The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
-Never Lie by Freida McFadden

Now for the reviews!

What I Read: April 2024

May 10, 2024 luxelifesmallbudget Comments 1 comment

This was an odd month of reading for me!

My picks were a bit all over the place: Thriller, fantasy, historical fantasy, magical realism, literary fiction and non-fiction:
– Red Island House by Andrea Lee
– The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest
– The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
– Nightmare Fuel by Nina Nesseth
– The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
– Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
– To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang

I enjoy shaking things up from time to time, but I am definitely getting the urge to return to ‘romantasy’ (romantic fantasy) or picking up a beach read from Elin Hilderbrand now that temperatures are really heating up.

But first, let’s get into the reviews!