If you visit this blog regularly, you will have noticed that I have been MIA. Extremely MIA. I'm starting this post with a little bit of an apology, mostly for myself, but also for you. I have been ignoring Books and Balks. I had a whole month's worth of posts planned out for May and I didn't post even half of them. Why not? I really have no excuse. I could blame work or TV or anything but, really, I have no excuse.

With that being said, I'm going to try to do better. Try being the operative word there. I'm going to start trying right now with what this post is actually supposed to be about: a layout of my reading plans for the summer. Currently, I am super into thrillers, mysteries, everything of that sort. Erotic thrillers? Into it. Psychological thrillers? Into it. Straight-up murder mysteries? INTO IT. It's getting out of control.

So, for the summer, I'm not going to really be making any structured TBR lists or On My Radar posts. Consider this a blanket On My Radar for the next several months. I'm going to be reading a lot of thrillers. There will be other things, too, but, as far as the eye can see, thrillers are on the menu. Not just YA, not just adult, not just anything. If something catches my eye, I'm going to pick it up and read it. That's how this whole thing should work, right?

For a more specific look: I'm currently reading Cam Girl by Leah Raeder (now Elliot Finley Wake) and cannot put it down. On my up-next shelf are Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica, What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan, Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter, and The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight. Sounds good to me.

Anyways, I just wanted to get some kind of post up for you guys (and for myself, really) in order to feel like I haven't completely failed at this blogging thing. Look for a new group of reviews to go up soon (I mean it, promise).

I don't really discriminate against reading certain types of books in certain types of weather, but there are definitely some titles (and authors) that scream summer fun.

I didn't do too well with my April list, so let's hope that May turns out a little bit better. I'm really excited about this month's options. And, yes, this graphic is simple as hell.

After receiving last month's Owlcrate box, I decided to try out something new: Uppercase. Like Owlcrate, Uppercase includes a newly released YA book, along with some other goodies. There is no strict theme from month-to-month, something that I actually may prefer - there is a wider range of items available each month without being tied to a certain idea. I knew that the April box (err... bag) was going to include something Harry Potter-related so I thought that I might as well give it a shot. I'm so glad I did.

The past few weeks of reading (seriously, how is April already half over) had their ups and their downs, but, really, they were pretty average.

I have a lot of blogging planned for April. I also have work, TV shows to watch (mainly Fixer Upper - I have downloaded all of the episodes because my life is a mess), and watercolors to paint with. April is also Camp NaNoWriMo (more to come on that tomorrow), which, let's be honest, I'm not entirely prepared for. Of course, reading will be happening somewhere in the middle of all of that.

It's been a while, and I've been extremely inconsistent with my reading lately, but I do have 6 books to talk about today.

In the last week and a half of February, I fell into a deep disinterested reading slump. Needless to say, my stats are not that impressive. I read 7 books for a total of 2626 pages. My average rating was 3.21 stars. Out of those 7 books, my favorite was Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys and my least favorite was A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly. I only read 3 of the 6 books that were on my February OMR and completed 3 Popsugar challenge prompts.

I haven't finished a book in a week. That might not sound so bad, so let's give it some context. In the first week of February, I finished four books and started another one. I read some of these at the same time, at least parts of them, but, still. Four books in seven days is, for me, a good reading week. Three books in a week is about my normal pace. But. I haven't finished any book that I have started in the past seven days. It isn't fun.

In all honesty, I don't get books recommended to me in the way that this topic probably refers to. In other words, I don't have a lot of bookish friends "in real life" that I discuss books with and get recommendations from (apart from my sister) and, in the same vein, I don't really get recommendations from friends online, either. Really, I'm a reading lone wolf (read: I'm too awkward to approach other bookish minds and strike up a conversation). Anyways, for this topic, I'm going to be discussing books that I found out about more indirectly; these titles weren't mentioned to me, specifically, but it is possible I wouldn't have found out about them or read them otherwise. On with the list.

I knew that I wanted to make a Valentine's Day-related post in which I talk about some of my most cherished OTPs (One True Pairing), but I didn't know that this idea would develop into a larger idea of a series that I am now calling In Honor Of(...). Basically, I will be inspired by a holiday, a time, an event in general, or even a specific feeling and come up with a (mostly) bookish list that relates to this inspiration. Simple enough. What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a discussion of OTPs?