musings about books, drinks, and adventures with Megs & Jax!
one month from today this cutie patootie’s third book (which will be too dark and sexy to be considered cute or patoot 🫠) will be released and we couldn’t be more excited! it also happens to fall on jax’s birthday and we’re going to pretend that was intentional 😜
meeting and falling in love with her toxic paradise series was definitely a highlight! we’re counting down the days (31) until we get more of nikki and dex 😍
It’s Bookstack Mani Monday - Holiday Edition ❄️
While they may look black, they are actually a very dark green! Surprisingly, I am light in the green book section of my book shelves. 😂
Swipe for mani close up!
As always, thanks to for starting this amazing challenge 😘
we have many new faces around here, so we thought we’d reintroduce ourselves with a few of our faves.
lastly, meet jax!
jax is equal parts sass and sparkle. she’s the queen of the all or nothing. she handles our branding and social pages. she’s currently in her dramione & book binding era. oh and it’s jax never jackie. 😉
swipe for more 🖤
jax’s faves ✨
tv show: schitt’s creek
season: autumn
color: sparkle
hobby: skiing
book: the ghost of you by
character: hermione granger
place: the beach
movie: up
song: everywhere, everything by noah kahan
allow us to reintroduce this pod 🎙️
hey! we’re musing over mugs. we are fueled by books and chaos. you can find us rambling about books and bookish things here and anywhere podcasts are found!
we believe:
✨ that everyone deserves to be hyped up and we will not be chill about it.
✨ in zero shelf control. we will fully support you in your decision to buy more books.
✨ that we are besties with all the authors we meet.
✨ that dululu is the solulu. (see above bestie note).
✨ that small businesses are the literal best.
✨ that one more chapter is always a good idea.
✨ in magic.
we love you lots, party people 🖤
we have many new faces around here, so we thought we’d reintroduce ourselves with a few of our faves.
first up is megs!
megs is a badass with a great ass. she manages & produces our podcast. she devours books at the speed of light. she currently deep into her dark romance and dark academia era.
swipe for more 🖤
megs faves ✨
tv show: murder, she wrote season: autumn
color: green and purple
hobby: reading
book: princess bride
character: tinkerbell
place: mt. gorham
movie: casa blanca
song: you should see me in a crown by billie eilish
When I saw .and.flame.apothecary’s fall collection was (dramione) after dark, I could not resist!
With seven delicious sounding scent options, I couldn’t decide on just one so we ordered the sampler pack. I’m already obsessed 🖤
The second annual Musing Holiday Book Swap is here!!
How it works:
1. Register to participate by Thursday, November 9th.
2. Match emails will be sent by Friday, November 10th.
3. You’ll have until Monday, December 11th to send a book to your book buddy and shipping confirmation to us.
4. If someone has gone silent and books have not been sent, we’ll do rematching by Friday, December 15th.
5. Rematch gifts and confirmation will need to be sent by Sunday, December 31st.
Let’s gift some books this holiday season!
Well it’s officially midnight in Amsterdam and she deserves an extra 6 hours of birthday love so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGS!!! 🥳
May your day be filled with stroop and windmills! Honestly, thank god for that internship because without it this pod/page would not exist and my days would filled with way less laughter! Please always remember that you are a goddess from above, you light up every room you walk into, and your ass is out of this world!
I love you more the words 😘
xxoo, Jax
Musing over Holland!
Megs finished her work trip and is having a very Roy Kent day with windmills in the Netherlands! 🌷💜
What do these books and this mani have in common? 🤔
DM us your best guesses!
Books featured in this week’s :
Heartbeat by
Heartless Heathens by .knox
King of Wrath by
Club Blood by &
Helfyre by
Skeletons of Society by
As always, thanks to for starting this challenge 🖤 we’re having way too much fun with it!
Happy Labor Day!!
Which means Summer Reading Challenge Trackers are due today! Be sure to email your printable tracker (the one with space for your email and IG handle) to musingovermugs [at] gmail.com by 11:59 pm EST tonight to be entered into the drawing for one of our 4 main prizes, plus the coffee gift card bonus prizes!!
Happy Back to Hogwarts Day to all who celebrate 🪄
I saw do a get to know me HP Q&A and I just had to join in! So without further ado
Get to know Jax Hogwarts Style 🧙♀️
✨The Basics in Emojis 📚
Favorite class: 🪄
House: 🐍
Familiar: 🐉
Patronus: 🐈⬛
✨The Questions🧙🏽♀️
💭Which character do you identify the most with?
Hermione has been my favorite since I was a kid! I remember reading the books for the first time and being so excited to have a character like her exist. Also, Bellatrix because we’re all a little unstable here.
💭Which character death was the most heartbreaking?
Always Dobby!
💭Who was worse: Umbridge or Dumbledore?
Is this even a question?! There is no one worse than Umbridge!
💭What words or names did you find you mispronounced when the movies came out?
I can recite the movies my heart at the point, so I don’t even remember what the incorrect pronunciations are anymore
💭How long have you read fan fiction and what’s the earliest fic you remember reading?
Rang in the new year with Manacled and I’ve been here ever since 😂
💭Manacled or DMATMOOBIL Draco?
But they are such different Dracos 😅 and honestly depends on which mood reader personality has taken over. But wand to my head, High Reeve all day!
💭What’s one fic you desperately want everyone to read?
I mean there’s so many to pick from and truly something for everyone, but I will never ever shut up about The Ghost of You by . Pack tissues - you’ve been warned!
A non-book related high of the trip? THIS 🤣
And that’s a wrap on ! 🤍
We have so much to say about this weekend (podcast episode coming soon 😉), but we’ll leave you with this for now:
- bookish people are the best people
- the team and all of their volunteers are incredible!
This weekend was a dream! 😍
Day one of is in the books 😍
We met so many amazing authors and new friends! We’re exhausted, so damn happy, and cannot wait to do it all again tomorrow!
JAX REVIEW ☕️
Book: A Smile in a Whisper
Author:
Genre: Romance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
A Smile in a Whisper is a delightful second chance romance that follows small-town, Evie, and her childhood celebrity crush, Nick.
What I loved most about this book was the way Jacquelyn centered invisible illnesses (Crohn’s disease, panic attacks, anxiety) in a way that felt so authentic. She give us a real look at what it’s like to live with these illnesses and the constraints they put on someone’s life, especially Crohn’s.
As a fellow hot girl who has tummy troubles™️, it was so refreshing to see a romance highlight the struggles of living with GI diseases! 🤍
Happy pub day !!
JAX REVIEW ☕️
Book: Forget Me Not
Author:
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Celebrating the launch of Forget Me Not the only acceptable way - with a chocolate donut 🍩
When I heard that Julie Soto, aka aka author of some of my favorite Dramione fanfics, was having her publishing debut, I couldn’t add it to my TBR fast enough! When I was blessed by the book gods, aka and , with an ARC of this beauty I literally screamed.
And let me tell you, I ADORED EVERY PAGE! At this point you all know my love for this book and Julie runs DEEP!
A second chance romance between a grumpy, delicious, tattooed florist and a sunshiney wedding planner with forced proximity AND a splash of forbidden/workplace romance?! What’s not to love?!
Elliot is everything - I immediately fell in love with his soft guy heart under all that grump. He’s also just the sweetest and constantly showing up for Ama. Ama is a spit fire and I couldn’t be more obsessed with her. She made me want to revitalize my dream of being a wedding planner. And don’t get me started on the side characters!! Mar, Jackie, Lady Cat-ryn… all incredible!
I have loved Julie’s writing for a while, but this is the crème de la crème! It’s beautiful. It’s filled with humor. It will literally keep you up at night because you won’t be able to stop yourself! I can’t even begin to explain how perfectly done the flashback and dual POV writing was done. Absolutely amazing!
Happy Pub Day ! 🥳
Stunning cover art by 😍
This Bookstack Mani Monday is brought to you by Miss and her debut novel, Forget Me Not 😍
Yes, this is the first mani I’ve planned for a specific cover.
Yes, I am in love with Ama and Elliot.
Yes, you need to go buy this book immediately!
Swipe for a close up of the nails… and Elliot’s delicious jaw line and man bun courtesy of 🫠
Happy Fourth of July! 🤍
Happy Pub Day ! 🥳
I started this cutie last night and am already obsessed! An overworked publicist is dealing with her grief as she moves into a magical apartment only to fall in love with her temporary roommate who lives seven years in the past. I cannot wait to see this story unfold!
This bookstack mani Monday was interrupted by Quinn who then had the AUDACITY to give me this level of side eye 🙃
A little blush/neutral stack because says on Mondays we match books to manis 🥰
We got to spend some time with & this evening and it was such a blast!
Thank you to .library for this great event!
Please join us in wishing Musing Over Mugs mascot, Gracie Girl, a very happy 13th birthday! 🥳
It’s Bookstack and Mani Monday 😍
I’ve been counting down for my reputation era mani and couldn’t wait to match a stack! Peep the cutest nail snake 🐍 yes, I did name them Theo and Draco after my fave Slytherins 😘
Happy birthday to us! 🥳🥳
This past year has truly been a wild adventure. On 5/20/22, we launched this little IG and in the year that followed, there has been HUNDREDS of books read (and even more added to our TBRs), reading challenges and book swaps, cocktails 🥂, beta and ARC readings (which omg-still always an honor!), a podcast, and over 800 new friends!
We truly love you all and thank you for your support in our absolute chaos. 🤪
Stick around for even more fun in year 2! 😘
Xoxo
Megs and Jax
𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 😊
Here we are cheesin' with our friend, and biggest pod supporter, at My Fair Lady a couple of weeks ago! Thanks to for starting this fun challenge. Want to play? Tell us things that make you smile with a photo of you smiling!
• BOOK •
J - There are far too many, so I'm narrowing it down to the read that made me smile the most this year and that's Remain Nameless by HeyJude19. Yes, I went with fanfic!
M - how do I choose!? Let’s go with the Vancouver Agitator series (books 1-3) by since I recently binged them. We love some and a happily ever after!
• SONG •
J - All You Need to Know by ! We are big Gryffin fans in this house, but this song I'm particular is our fave. We walked up the aisle to this one at our wedding so naturally we had to go his concert the night before our rehearsal dinner.... Also I2I from a Goofy Movie! IYKYK
M - Jump in the Line by the late, great Harry Belafonte. If you know, you know. And I know I’ve been singing this song to myself (and others much to their annoyance) for years!
• MOVIE/TV SHOW •
J - There are far too many to pick just one, so I'll give you my top 2 - Ted Lasso & Schitts Creek
M - for sure, right now it’s Ted Lasso and Shrinking. I mean, come on!
• BOOKSTAGRAMMER •
J - Again there are far too many!! But ' kitchen dance parties never fail to make me smile!
M - . Her skits have me howling every time.
• WILDCARD •
J - Most recently smiled the hardest at Beetlejuice with my Broadway in Boston Crew. Honestly, if you haven't seen this show and enjoy musicals, it's a must! I was laugh snorting for the full 2.5 hour show!
M - buddy reading. Jax and I buddy read all our beta books together - no really, it's the only way we can read them. We FaceTime and we read aloud to each other for hours. I swear, every time, at least one of us is crying from laughing so hard.
Happy Pub Day Bella Matthews Author!! 🏒 🖤
I have really enjoyed the Defiant King series thus far and am excited to finish Iced soon. Stay tuned for a full review!
Iced, an all-new single dad, forced-proximity, sports romance from USA Today
bestselling author Bella Matthews is available now!
Grab your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited→
https://mybook.to/iced
Literally Yours PR
Heard we’re out here matching book stacks to manis and we couldn’t say no to this challenge! Even if we’re a day late 😂
Thanks for sharing this challenge and for starting it!
Books in my purple stack:
💜 one last stop by .mcquiston
💜 shall we dance by
💜 loath to love you by ( edition)
💜 too wild to tame by
💜 harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban by she who shall not be name
HAPPT PUB DAY !!!
We are so freaking proud of you and couldn’t be more obsessed with Noah & Juliet!!
To celebrate, we are doing a fun little GIFTAWAY for a signed copy of Thin Lines!! 🥳
To enter:
🧑🚒 Follow both and
👩⚕️ Tag two friends below
⚾️ Comment with your favorite baseball team
✨ Bonus entry if you’d like to share to your stories!!
*Giftaway is not sponsored by Instagram!
Happy Cover Release Day !! 🥳
You may remember that I found and fell in love with Jacquelyn (name twins!!) at the end of last year with her holiday romance, The Certainty of Chance! I’ve been dying to read more from her since and good news is her new book, A Smile in a Whisper comes out August 10th!
✨ Dual timelines
✨ Second chance romance
✨ Crohn’s representation
✨ Set on Scotland’s Orkney Islands
SIGN US UP!!
Preorders yours today: https://mybook.to/smileinaw
JAX REVIEW ☕️
Book: The Matchmaker
Author:
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Happy Pub Day!! 🥳
This was my first Catherine Walsh read, but it certainly won't be my last! I quickly learned I adore her writing style, witty charm, and outstanding sense of humor. (Unrelated to the book, but if you aren't already following her on Instagram, you should do so now!)
The Matchmaker follows the story of small-town resident, Katie, who goes up against *the man* to save the local pub. Here enters the love interest Callum. While I enjoyed their love story, especially their banter, some of the best parts of this story happened outside of the romance!
The relationships Katie has with her friends and family were so relatable! Gosh, I loved them all, but especially Granny and Plankton. Plus the passion she showed for her town was inspiring. But most of all I loved that this was SO focused on being a small town and that being happy with that was more than enough. So often in media, whether that be books, TV, movies, etc., we're fed this narrative that you need to dream bigger, reach for the stars, want more. It was lovely to read something that reinforces the idea that it's a-okay to be content with where you are and what you have for once.
I adored this book and cannot wait to read others from Catherine soon! I've already purchased her entire backlist!
-------
A big thank you to and for gifting me this ARC.
This cutie by comes out in just two days (April 18th) and you should probably go preorder it!
The Matchmaker follows the story of small-town resident, Katie, who goes up against *the man* to save her local pub from being destroyed as they build a hotel. Here enters hot hot-shot developer, Callum. 😏
Full review will be up on pub day, but in the meantime swipe for one of my favorite bits of banter. (Is this allowed?! I hope so because it’s so good and as a stomachache girlie, it was too perfect!)
Thank you , and for the ARC!
Also, surprise ! This .designs mug is part of the “sh*t I shouldn’t be buying, but had to get for us” bag I have for you 😘
A little Boston Marathon colored stack I’m honor of One Boston Day 💙💛
It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years already. Today we remember those who tragically lost their lives as a result of this attack, honor those who survived, and celebrate the resiliency and strength this city showed in the aftermath. We are forever proud to call Boston home!
We've just wrapped our reread of Helfyre in preparation to beta read her sequel, Honey! Despite already knowing the ending, that cliffhanger still left us screaming! Consider this your reminder to pick up Mariel Pomeroy's masterpiece, if you haven't already done so! And also to check the trigger warnings!
Stay tuned for the Honey cover reveal tomorrow!! Trust us, she's a beaut and Hatchatwork hit it out of the park. 😍
And yes, yes I did pick today's B***y By Brabants because they matched the cover 😏
Happy Easter to those who celebrate! 🐇💐🐣
We hope your basked is filled with good books and all the chocolate your heart can handle! We also hope you enjoy our Easter colored stack as much as we do 😍
It was a really good book mail day 😍
We’ve been drooling over these UK covers from the moment we saw them. We ever had friends traveling in the UK look for them for us! Then I realized you can just order from and BAM, now they’re here!
They are even more stunning in person and honestly, I may spend the rest of the afternoon staring at them!
So many books. So little time.
The struggle I had taking this photo 🤣
Thank you to everyone who voted all month long in our stories! Together you have crowned our Book Boyfriend Supreme - CASSIAN 😍
Written by the queen and illustrated by the incredible , Cassian is forever one of our faves and clearly yours too!!
We plan on bringing back our book bracket for next March Madness, but may change it up from book boyfriends to something else! Drop your suggestions in the comments! 👇🏼
As you know, from our Instagram stories, I (Megs) have been deep into the throes of hockey romance books! I just finished binging the “Defiant Kings” series by .author, and am obsessed! 😍 I am so stoked for the cover reveal of “Iced” today, the next installment of the series. "Iced" is an all-new forced-proximity, grumpy-sunshine sports romance. I cannot wait to read all about Jace Kingston’s story on May 4th! Check out the book blurb below and be sure to pre-order "Iced" today.
★★ ICED ★★
I never wanted to be a nanny.
That wasn’t in my carefully crafted, five-year plan. The one I came up with after I got a second chance at life. Neither was giving my heart to the beautiful baby boy I was
taking care of. Even if I saw that coming the moment I laid eyes on him.
Falling in love with his father… now that, I didn’t see coming.
But I’d dare anyone to spend time getting to know the real Jace Kingston…
The man behind the hockey jersey, grumpy attitude, and panty-meltingly gorgeous face.
The one who sings his son to sleep so sweetly… who holds him with such care.
The same man who knows how to light every inch of my body on fire.
The one I can’t resist.
It was supposed to be one year of my life.
I’d pay off my student loans.
He’d get through his first season of pro hockey.
Then I’d help him find my replacement.
If only it was that easy.
Pre-order your copy today→ https://mybook.to/iced
Add Iced to Goodreads→ http://bit.ly/3xMzdNS
Photographer: Jane Ashley Converse - J. Ashley Converse Photography and Images
Cover Models:
Maddi Hansen - Maddi Hansen
Dane Peterson – fitness_danep10
Cover Designed by: Shanoff Designs
Literally Yours PR
I don’t think I want to know how many of these are in the already read vs TBR pile 😬
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This week on the pod we’re musing over all things Miss @tessabaileyisanauthor! We talk about her books that we’ve read, meeting her on the Cape, and yes, that time she put a dick in @megorourke’s book! Find it now wherever podcasts are found! #Musing #musingovermugs #book #bookaddict #bookaholic #bookblogger #bookish #booklove #booklover #booknerd #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookworm #igreads #readersofinstagram #reading #jaxreads #megsreads #northshorema #northshore #boston #tessabailey #pod #podcast
On the pod today, we're discussing book tropes! We cover a bunch of the big ones and some of the books we've read that fall into those categories. Tune in (almost) everywhere podcasts are found and tell us below - what are your favorite tropes?
In case you missed it (because I sure did 😅) episode 6 of the podcast went up yesterday! We’re chatting all things seasonal reads with many ridiculous tangents thrown in because why not?! Tune in and come back to tell us all your recommendations! #Musing #musingovermugs #book #bookaddict #bookaholic #bookblogger #bookish #booklove #booklover #booknerd #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookworm #igreads #readersofinstagram #reading #jaxreads #megsreads #pos #podcast
Monday's mean new podcast episodes! Well every other Monday (for now 😉), that is! This week we're chatting about one of our favorite books to discuss, Colleen Hoover's Verity! Nothing makes us happier than debating #TeamManuscript vs. #TeamLetter. Tune in, wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website, to see which we are and hear Jax's never-ending list of reasonings.
Today on the podcast, we are musing over Bonus Chapters!! 📚 And we want to hear from you! Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Tune in wherever podcasts are found and let us know below! 👇🏼 #Musing #musingovermugs #book #bookaddict #bookaholic #bookblogger #bookish #booklove #booklover #booknerd #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookworm #igreads #readersofinstagram #reading #jaxreads #megsreads #northshorema #northshore #boston
Is it Friday yet? Because the urge to skip work and read all day is real. 📚☕️ Tell us your favorite escape reads 💜 #Musing #musingovermugs #book #bookaddict #bookaholic #bookblogger #bookish #booklove #booklover #booknerd #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookworm #igreads #readersofinstagram #reading #jaxreads #megsreads #northshorema #northshore #boston #reel #goodplace
New episode is up on the pod! Spoiler - Megs did in fact finish the book 🤦♀️ Tune in everywhere* podcasts are available! *We hope, we're still new here 😅
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