TMST

 

 

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog. Feel free to leave your links in the comments if you are participating,

6/23/2026 Do you have any summer plans? If not, what would you like to do?

Not really, we usually do  do a daytrip and the plans are more like, ohhh look at that sign, let´s go there. It might begin with a plan and then we do more things. Last year we started with going to the biggest crater lake in Europe, and ended with going to this famous beach with amazing dunes.

I usually just want to chill and read

6/30/2026 Mid-Year Check-In: What books have you loved so far in 2026?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog. Feel free to leave your links in the comments if you are participating.

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Carole´s Monday: Off-Campus

 

Author: Elle Kennedy

Title: The Deal

Series: Off-Campus #1

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format: ebook

Pages: 342

Published: February 24, 2015

Where I got It: Borrowed from library

Summary: 

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

...and it’s going to be oh so good

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

Review:

This FINALLY arrived from the library! I think with this becoming a show, it has become very popular again. 

Here we have Hannah and Garrett. The two couldn't be more different. He's a hockey player and doesn't date. He only cares about hockey... school is secondary. Hannah is in the music program and has a lot of baggage from her past that she thought she left behind. Garrett needs help passing a test to stay on the college hockey team. Hannah helps if he can help her bag the cute boy. 

The beginning was a little rough for me. It took me a few chapters to get sucked in, but once I was sucked in, I couldn't stop reading. I adored our two mains here...esp Hannah. Awww.

I loved watching them go from strangers to study-partners to friends to lovers to more. It was lovely, and the transition worked for them. They needed the time to find love. 

There is some drama, especially with what happened to Hannah in High School and with Garrett's asshole dad. However, it felt naturally dealt with. It wasn't a soap opera or swept away quickly; I appreciated how the author dealt with these issues. They are serious but didn't derail the story. 

There are some cringe dialogue, but not as much as the spin-off. This felt more natural. I wonder if she was trying too hard in the other one? 

But yes, I really liked this one. I am tempted to keep going. I might even watch the show! ;)

4 stars. 

Reading Challenges:

- Library Love #16

The wedding people by Alison Espach

Format: 367 pages, Paperback

Published: July 3, 2025 by Phoenix

Lit fic/own

This one was boring on one hand, and interesting on the other hand. I am very conflicted. I was bored at time, but I also really wanted to know what would happen.

I also got really annoyed when Pheobe said that women read romance novels to get an orgasm. Ok FU Pheobe, that was uncalled for. Does the author think the same? That all romance novels are pRon?

Anyway, Phoebe was left by her husband and goes to a Hotel to kill herself. It seems there was a mistake and she shouldn't have gotten a room cos a wedding party has booked everything. Long story short, the bride shows up, Phoebe tells the truth. The bride says no! This is her wedding and Phoebe can not kill herself. Little by little Phoebe gets involved in the wedding and sees that everything is not as it should be.

So obviously I wanted to know if Phoebe would kill herself. Then I wanted to see what happened to the wedding. There was always something new to get invested in.

A good book, also a boring book in the beginning. But still a book where you want to know if she can be happy again.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, without luggage, alone. Everyone in the lobby mistakes her for one of the wedding people at an impending wedding on the site, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t there for the big event.

Phoebe is there because she’s dreamed of coming for years. She hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

The Fisherman by John Langan

Format: 348 pages, Paperback

Published: October 9, 2023 by Canelo

Horror/borrowed

Abe starts fishing when he becomes a widower, then later on he meets Dan, who also lost his wife, and they start fishing together. Soon their fishing will take them to Dutchman´s creek.

I liked the beginning. Abe was really struggling with his grief and fishing saved him. He notices Dan is struggling too and fishing becomes the calm in a storm.

But then it got really boring. They meet this guy at a restaurant and he tells the story of The Dutchman´s creek, and how dangerous it is. And I was like ok some chapters and it is over but it was 200 pages! Luckily after some time it got better. It told the story of a stonemason and his family and then things become darker and darker. And then I was hooked again. It got crazy.

After that we are back at Abe, and he really should not have gone to that creek with Dan. It gets dark again, and that end, damn. I liked that

Yes I did like this horror story, it is more Lovecraftian in its horror.

In upstate New York, within the woods, Dutchman’s Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked and fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true.

When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumours of the Creek and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss them. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir.

It’s a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.