According to Goodreads, I have read approximately 58 books this year.

These 57 hold quite a few rereads of my personal favorites, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, which has made past year favorite reads. Even though 55 seems like a good number however, it was so hard to figure which of my reads were my favorite from 2018. Suddenly, I looked at all the books I read and it didn't seem like many, especially not many that stood out in a way that I remember reading them and thinking how fantastic they were.

For my top books of 2018, I figured that I would pick ten. Though I was not able to get to that number without repeating favorite authors who produce an insane amount of titles each year, here are my top none favorite books of 2018--with an added bonus book.

Kingdom of Ash

by Sarah J. Mass

Aelin has risked everything to save her people―but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…

With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation―and a better world.

And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen―before she is lost to him forever.

As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.

This series has been such a journey and I cannot believe that it is over, so it was a no brainer that Kingdom of Ash was going to make the list, if not a favorite, one book that made the biggest impression both as I read it as well as in my reading life as a whole for the past how many years since I began Throne of Glass my freshman year of high school.

Filled with action, emotion, and a magical ending that felt absolutely almost completely perfect, SJ Maas did well by this series that started her career as a beloved author by me and so many others.

Secrets of a Summer Night

by Lisa Kleypas

Four young ladies at the side of the ballroom make a pact to help each other find husbands . . . no matter what it takes

Proud and beautiful Annabelle Peyton could have her pick of suitors—if only she had a dowry. Her family is on the brink of disaster, and the only way Annabelle can save them is to marry a wealthy man. Unfortunately her most persistent admirer is the brash Simon Hunt, a handsome and ambitious entrepreneur who wants her as his mistress.

Annabelle is determined to resist Simon's wicked propositions, but she can't deny her attraction to the boldly seductive rogue, any more than he can resist the challenge she presents. As they try to outmaneuver each other, they find themselves surrendering to a love more powerful than they could have ever imagined. But fate may have other plans—and it will take all of Annabelle's courage to face a peril that could destroy everything she holds dear.

I never thought that I would be a regency girl. Seriously. I love romance but I just couldn't see myself getting into girls swooning on the cover. Cue Lisa Kleypas. She stole my heart and a large portion of my bookshelves this past year as I dive into her perfect paperbacks ever since I read Devil in Spring. So far, I have a feeling that the Secrets of Summer Night series though will be my very favorites in this genre through men that even make me swoon and moments that make me never want to stop reading.

The Right Time

by Danielle Steele

Abandoned by her mother at age seven, Alexandra Winslow takes solace in the mysteries she reads with her devoted father--and soon she is writing them herself, slowly graduating to dark, complex crime stories that reflect skill, imagination, and talent far beyond her years. After her father's untimely death, at fourteen Alex is taken in by the nuns of a local convent, where she finds twenty-six mothers to take the place of the one she lost, and the time and encouragement to pursue her gift.

Alex writes in every spare moment, gripped by the plots and themes and characters that fill her mind. Midway through college, she has finished a novel--and manages to find a seasoned agent, then a publisher. But as she climbs the ladder of publishing success, she resolutely adheres to her father's admonition: Men read crime thrillers by men only--and so Alexandra Winslow publishes under the pseudonym Alexander Green, her true identity known known only to those closest to her, creating a double life that isolates her.

Her secret life as the mysterious and brilliantly successful Alexander Green--and her own life as a talented young woman--expose her to the envious, the arrogant, and Hollywood players who have no idea who she really is. Always, the right time to open up seems just out of reach, and would cost her dearly. Once her double life and fame are established, the price of the truth is always too high.

Growing up I had seen Danielle Steele books a lot at my grandmother's house or occasionally on my mom's bedside table. They were old lady books I was pretty sure, until I finally read one, this one, and it was fantastic. This one really swept me up and caused me to read and read and read while camping this past summer. Not only was it about a writer, but someone that inspired me to write for the sake of writing and not for my name on the cover. Plus, of course, there was a bit of romance;)

LUX Series
by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring… until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something… unexpected happens. 

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. 

If I don’t kill him first, that is.

This book was sort of like a classic read for me. Starting off my reading career with Twilight, I have a soft spot for that magical boy next door who I will absolutely fall in love with and gain magical powers from troupe. It just feels right. It is also what I always hoped my life would become (though it hasn't in case you couldn't tell). After reading the first two books however long ago, I finally found the rest of the books in the LUX series at a used bookstore and had such a good time reading them. They were fun, exciting, and I couldn't put them down as I soared through pages and five books one after another.

Restore Me

by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette Ferrars thought she'd won. She took over Sector 45, was named the new Supreme Commander, and now has Warner by her side. But she's still the girl with the ability to kill with a single touch—and now she's got the whole world in the palm of her hand. When tragedy hits, who will she become? Will she be able to control the power she wields and use it for good?

The Shatter Me trilogy held some of the most beautiful lyrical writing I had ever read years ago, and when Restore Me came out, I knew that I had to read it as it continued the journey of Juliette and Warner. Not only was the writing gorgeous as I hoped, but the story we thought was ended continued on beautifully in a gripping and emotionally wonderful way that makes me marked my calendar for book number five.

The Chateau
by Tiffany Reisz

As the Jack-of-All-Wicked-Trades for a secretive French military intelligence agency, 24-year-old Lieutenant Kingsley Boissonneault has done it all—spied, lied, and killed under orders. But his latest assignment is quite out of the ordinary. His commanding officer's nephew has disappeared inside a sex cult, and Kingsley has been tasked with bringing him home to safety.

The cult’s holy book is Story of O, the infamous French novel of extreme sado-masochism. Their château is a looking-glass world where women reign and men are their willing slaves. Or are they willing? It’s Kingsley’s mission to find out.

Once inside the château, however, Kingsley quickly falls under the erotic spell cast by the enigmatic Madame, a woman of wisdom, power, and beauty. She offers Kingsley the one thing he’s always wanted. But the price? Giving up forever the only person he’s ever loved.

So I really love Tiffany Reisz and she puts so many fantastic stories out a year it is hard to choose only one. So here I will give a big shout out to Picture Perfect Cowboy, but Kingsley somehow always manages to woo me over. Technically a prequel to the Original Sinner's series (which you also must read, all you fantastic erotica enthusiasts), this book surprised me in its fun originality and of course, characters that never fail to make me doubt myself as a writer to ever write something as kinky and magical as The Chateau managed to be.

The Glass Eye
by Jeannie Vanasco

The night before her father dies, eighteen-year-old Jeannie Vanasco promises she will write a book for him. But this isn't the book she imagined. The Glass Eye is Jeannie's struggle to honor her father, her larger-than-life hero but also the man who named her after his daughter from a previous marriage, a daughter who died.

After his funeral, Jeannie spends the next decade in escalating mania, in and out of hospitals—increasingly obsessed with the other Jeanne. Obsession turns to investigation as Jeannie plumbs her childhood awareness of her dead half-sibling and hunts for clues into the mysterious circumstances of her death. It becomes a puzzle Jeannie feels she must solve to better understand herself and her father.

If anyone who I do not know ever asks me what my favorite book is, this is it. Seriously, I love The Glass Eye's writing style and potent use of language and time throughout not only to describe grief but life and mental illness. Definitely not a memoir you want to miss.

The Kiss Quotient
by Helen Hoang

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice — with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan — from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

This book was so cute and exactly what I needed as I started my final year at college. It also gave major rom-com vibes which I have been over the moon for recently. As a romance lover, this one is the best of the best from this past year.

Slutever
by Karley Sciortino

"Slut" is a great word. It just sounds perfect-so sharp and clear and beautiful. It's one of those satisfying four letter words, like cunt and fuck. Slut also happens to be an anagram for lust, which is one of those divine coincidences that makes you wonder if God actually exists.

We're lucky that slut is such a great word, because it's safe to say that almost every woman will be called a slut at least once in her lifetime. Despite a slowly shifting sexual double standard, it's still taboo to be a woman who's openly sexual-let alone one who sleeps around. Now Vogue columnist Karley Sciortino is on a mission to reclaim the word "slut" to represent a person who seeks out visceral experiences through sex, and who isn't ashamed about it. Sluts are special. Sluts are radical. And sluts are skilled at time management, because they can handle multiple partners on rotation, plus their jobs and their blogs and their beauty routines. Not everyone is qualified for this coveted position.

SLUTEVER is a call-to-arms, a confessional memoir, a slut manifesto, as told by a sex-radical hedonist in a pink PVC mini dress. It's a thoughtful, first-person account of a modern woman, navigating sex, love, casual hookups, open relationships,, bisexuality, BDSM, breakups, sex work, sex parties, and the power of sexual agency, as told from the front lines.

This book was so much fun and I had a blast reading it and rereading all the funny stories I first read on Karley's blog from when I stalked through years ago when she first started it. Filled with raw and embarrassing life moments that feel like they are so crazy you know she couldn't make this up, not only is this book a good read, but an informative one.

Most Re-Read Book of 2018...

A Court of Mist and Fury
by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

Oh how I love this book so much. After reading it...and rereading it again and again I have come to the conclusion that I love it so much not only because Feyre is badass and Rhysand is magically one of my all time book boyfriends, but because of the sense of love and family within these books. Whenever I open ACOMAF, it is one of those books that feel like home and I am returning to characters that are as much my friends as real ones. Possibly better? I don't know. It sounds like a strange statement, but true none the less.

Recently I have been noticing more and more where my inspiration to blog and create more stories come from. Whenever someone asked where my inspiration come from, I usually say books are my main source. Never have I said Instagram. But it is, Instagram.

Instagram and I however do have a love hate relationship. It is not always so great for my anxiety to be on my favorite and aesthetically pleasing app all the time. It is a place to go for inspiration through the amazing people also sharing their lives online, but also is a place that I easily find myself comparing myself to others, which is the opposite of being inspired. It is a creativity downer.

Still, inspiration comes in so many forms and one must take muse wherever it shows itself whether it be on Instagram or in real life. Here are a few of my recent inspirations on Instagram from bloggers, book lovers, fashion gurus, to a writer who wants to live an authentic and beautiful life.


Grace has been on my radar as inspiration from the first time I discovered her blog, Almost Amazing Grace. A drama and creative writing graduate, Grace is now an aspiring author, unstoppable blogger, obsessive reader, unlikely survivor.

On her blog she talks about the ups and downs of life, great books, theater, as well as body love and sex. She is apart of the #ITalkSex movement with Scarlet Ladies and recently shaved her head for The Brain Tumor Charity.

On Instagram you can find photos of Grace from her latest photo-shoots, coffee shop visits. and smiling selfies showing off her amazing ink I admire on the daily.

Not only an inspiration to me as a writer, Grace is an inspiration as a beautiful and open human being.


Cassie is currently pursuing a masters while reading and reviewing for the Raleigh Review.

Besides have a gorgeous Instagram feed, Cassie is an all around beautiful person as she begins to share her life in all aspects in comparison to previous Instagram accounts known for #bookstagram. Her captions are mindful and calming to read, and she is always up to chat making her someone I felt completely welcomed by when I first got involved with the book and Instagram community to the best of my ability.

Cassie also writes gorgeous and thought provoking letters you can read and sign up for here.


Starling is a more recent follow on Instagram. Her vintage style and vibrancy in life drew me in and makes her one of my recent Insta loves.

Starling lives in Brooklyn and is a coordinator at Man Repeller headquarters and previously read for the Paris Review. If such greatness in the literary industry was not enough, Starling and her sister also started their own traveling vintage shop this past summer, Stillwater Vintage.

Honestly, Starling lives the life I hope I can live one day as a writer and living as myself, eclectic and all.


Grace Smith is currently a student and book blogger at Words Like Silver.

Her Instagram is a great view into her life and packed reading schedule I only wish I could keep up with. With bright colors and low hues, Grace has a gentle and calming feed that includes past and upcoming reads, her own hand lettering, and plenty of friends and coffee which fills the average college student's life.


Megs from Wonderful You is also a more recent follow with great style and honest talks within her captions. Her motto appears in her bio and on her website as, "A Life & Style That Doesn't Follow The Rules."

On her blog she write about personal style, a little bit of beauty, travel, and matters of the heart. Her Instagram holds the same personality and makes me want to add a few more pictures of myself to my own feed of books and coffee.

Whenever I rave about romance novels, one of my guy friends always seems to have to ask, "Is it like those books with the cow boys on them or something?"

For the longest time I have gotten to say, nope! I then also tell him to broaden his romance novel mind a little. This time around though...there is a cowboy. And the story is picture perfect.

Jason "Still" Waters' life looks perfect from the outside—money, fame, and the words "World Champion Bull-Rider" after his name. But Jason has a secret, one he never planned on telling anybody...until he meets Simone. She's the kinky girl of his dreams...and his conservative family's worst nightmare.

Now I should start by telling you that I pretty much will love anything that Tiffany Reisz produces in book form. Or at least, that is what it seems like as of now. If it changes, well, it will be as big of a surprise as if Tiffany actually takes up my challenge I gave her on Instagram of trying to out weird herself. A win for both of us if she does. Picture Perfect Cowboy, though not on the weird scale of my reading, it was certainly on the fantastic level that would make me give this enjoyable fun story back with the original sinners gang a five out of five stars.

Picking up with our famous side character, Simone, one of the pro for the eighth circle and Soren's submissive (which makes her a super sub), we travel back down to Kentucky where Tiffany creates all our favorite lovable men. This includes our picture perfect cowboy, Jason "still" Waters who very well may be a bit more curious than your average retired bull rider when Simone tells him what she does for a living other than taking photos for a nude charity calendar.

"I’m not going to get involved with a guy who treats women like they’ll break if you so much as breathe on them. If you want to respect women, respect the real woman in front of you, not some fake fantasy idea of what women are supposed to be like."

Full of humor, wit, emotion that never stops until you hit the last page. The characters made me never want to stop reading, savoring and devouring each moment as Jason and Simone are tangled in the sheets and also in a new sort of world filled with BDSM and love they are beginning to form together. Even if bubbly Simone isn't quite what the conservative western family values truly desired for their son who was raised to never dare even raise his voice to a woman let alone beat and punish a woman. Let alone like it.

“I need to believe I’m a good man,” he said. “I don’t know if I can be that or do that and also be a good man.”

Throughout the original sinners series, I don't think I have seen enough of Simone. She was always there in the background as a good friend and a side sub for Soren, but man am I happy to have read her. She is fun, joyfully uninhibited in what she says, and someone I could fully connect to in this world Tiffany created where everyone is a bit of a freak, but ultimately perfectly happy about it unless they are in the lab of their former dom crying about being a possibly horrible slave which made me want to laugh and cry with her.

This novel however from past characters in this S&M world challenged the idea that to be a perfect dominant as Simone views Soren in many ways, one didn't have to be super intense. Jason is hers both in her heart and in the bedroom (and anywhere else) with a playful and downright sexy humbleness that makes them perfect to bring out the best in one another's most private dreams.

“Maybe, if I have your permission, Master Jason,” she said, “maybe it would be okay if I fell in love with you?” 

Though this book is a standalone and can be read as a stand alone, if you like erotica or some steamy romance I suggest to finally jump on the Tiffany Reisz Original Sinners train. Seriously, this is technically book 10, and it wants each reader to enjoy the ride of Jason Waters.

I had read Karley Sciortino's blog for some time before I realized that she was publishing a book that closely correlated with the release of her Vice show, Slutever. The moment however that the book came across my radar via her fabulous Instagram, it was on my list for my most excited for books of the year as you may have seen here.


"Slut" is a great word. It just sounds perfect-so sharp and clear and beautiful. It's one of those satisfying four letter words, like cunt and fuck. Slut also happens to be an anagram for lust, which is one of those divine coincidences that makes you wonder if God actually exists.

We're lucky that slut is such a great word, because it's safe to say that almost every woman will be called a slut at least once in her lifetime. Despite a slowly shifting sexual double standard, it's still taboo to be a woman who's openly sexual-let alone one who sleeps around. Now Vogue columnist Karley Sciortino is on a mission to reclaim the word "slut" to represent a person who seeks out visceral experiences through sex, and who isn't ashamed about it. Sluts are special. Sluts are radical. And sluts are skilled at time management, because they can handle multiple partners on rotation, plus their jobs and their blogs and their beauty routines. Not everyone is qualified for this coveted position.

SLUTEVER is a call-to-arms, a confessional memoir, a slut manifesto, as told by a sex-radical hedonist in a pink PVC mini dress. It's a thoughtful, first-person account of a modern woman, navigating sex, love, casual hookups, open relationships, bisexuality, BDSM, breakups, sex work, sex parties, and the power of sexual agency, as told from the front lines. 

It took me quite a time however, to finally chat about the book on the blog. I would like to say it is because I had too much to say to sit down and actually write this post, and to be honest, that actually is part of the reason why. It is also because I think I have a slight Carrie Bradshaw complex. This pretty much means that writing about how open and great Karley is, only makes me wish I was the sex writer in this story. That way, I could also put in cool, yet most likely embarrassing stories, about the crazy life I can only at this point in my life imagine.

Let me tell you however, Karley is no Carrie Bradshaw-- even if she does also write for Vogue for her column, Breathless. For one reason, Karley is a lot more kinker and does a lot less pining over one Mr. Big. She brings for the fun and the educational when it comes to all things sex, possible love, and becoming the slut of your dreams.

A word that, take it from Karley, gets a whole lot more slack than it should in this modern day and age where woman are able to take their own sexual beings into their own hands.


Karley seems to have converted even me on the word after reading this book and browsing the Vice series to use the world slut more in a non-horrible way while also pushing this book or information into the rest of my friends or random acquaintances hands who need to know about the big wide world of sexuality many are still sorely lacking in starting to understand.

Through her memoir I laughed at all the hilarious stories she has managed to accumulate in her life from the people she meets with the awkward situations her journey into slut empowerment, including leaving college in London to become a squatter with a tree and hopeful hooker, to seeing what sadomasochist in training had to offer once she made it to NYC.

“My greatest fear in life is being basic. (Or, perhaps more accurately, regressing back into basicness.) I have a literal recurring nightmare where I wake up one day with a husband, two kids, and a house in the suburbs and can't remember how I got there, as if it's my desitny. To avoid this becoming a reality, my strategy thus far has been to continually destroy my relationships at the first sign they're headed in that direction. So far, I have a 100 percent success rate with romantic sabotage.” 

Each chapter or section of the book felt stronger than the last making this very informative and fun book a breeze (as well as super fun to carry around from class to class with such a beautiful pinup-esque cover).

This is a book for all those who have interest in sex, kink, living life by the seat of your pants, and so much more. This book, in case you couldn't tell by now, is not for those of the faint of heart of the people who cringe at the mention of a threesome. If you do and pick up this book, prepare to cringe a lot, or maybe laugh a lot and feel as if your mind is being broadened to the big wide world you may have never known existed out of good erotica novels.

About the Author

Karley Sciortino is a writer, host, and producer, based in New York. She founded this lovely website! She also writes Vogue.com’s sex and relationships column, Breathless. Karley is the author of the upcoming book Slutever: Dispatches from an Autonomous Woman in a Post Shame World (Grand Central Publishing, Feb 2018), and executive producer and host of Slutever, a documentary series on Viceland. She is also a regular contributor to Purple.

When I work out in the gym, I find that you are either in two categories. A weight lifter who never takes their weights off the bar, or a cardio enthusiast who spends hours on the elliptical. I am neither of these two people, or rather, I am a little of both even though I will announce to anyone that I dislike cardio with all my heart when it comes down to the treadmill and lungs.


Luckily, my running after the past semester of on and off gym attendance has gotten better, but though as I said, I am mix of both types of gym people, when I go to the gym and don't just tell myself that I will do yoga in my room and then don't, I set my stuff into a cubby and I walk into the weight lifting area.

Usually I walk into the weight lifting area as the only woman among a dozen guys.

There is nothing wrong with this. To be honest though, I find myself proud when I am the only lady in the room lifting weights and attempting to do pull ups. Maybe this is because I know that I would never actually have gotten the confidence to lift weights at all if it wasn't for my ex pushing me out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to workout when I couldn't convince him to sleep just for a few more hours.

Back then, I had to ask him for help for everything, including lifting a single bar for fear of making a fool out of myself in front of the other three people who would dare to get up that early. I had no idea what I was doing, let alone if I was squatting correctly since apparently there is a difference between yoga squatting and holding weight on your back and squatting so you don't fall over. Who knew?

In the past the only people I had seen weight lift was scary looking body builders, and my dad in the basement when he and my mom were on another health kick. Not only must I saw was I perpetually worried about looking like that girl who had not a clue what she was doing, but I also am not going to lie, I was also afraid of turning into a veined body builder when I always lusted after ballerinas or those girls in action movies who looked like they could take down a man in two seconds flat.

Yet still, my gym clothes being thrown at me every other day, I literally rolled out of bed and onto the cold tile floor, and went to the gym.


I definitely wasn't confident at all still. But then, after about a month, I began to see a difference. Not only was this difference in my perpetually skinny fat body that I had come to think as cute and petite after losing all the muscle I had previously gained in my gymnastics years. But I also saw a difference in how I carried myself each morning when we arrived. How I carried myself for the rest of the day.

I won't tell you that I love to work out. I don't. I love the feeling after I workout most of the time, but before it takes a few motivating pep-talks from myself to make a plan to go. I tell myself the terrible things like, "you want to look good, don't you?" But I also tell myself other things such as, "pretend that you are preparing for the hunger games or something and feel badass," or "you never know when there may be a zombie apocalypse that you probably won't survive!"

Only sometimes do those three things work. But when they do and I strip myself of my cute clothes I wore all day to class and change into my terrible not matching gym clothes that make me look like the bum of the gym some days, I go.

And sometimes when I lift alone or with a bunch of guys finishing up their off season sports workout, I do feel badass. And always, when I am jamming out to Spotify, if I catch the gaze of another girl I have never seen before in the mirror by the dumbbells, I smile just a little as if to say, "Hell yeah, we got this."

We are strong ladies willing to break the cardio mold...even if tomorrow I won't be able to move my legs.

Half the time in winter when it is snowing out or raining, or doing a marvelous combination of the three, I feel ridiculous. Now, the weather shouldn't make me feel this way, and to be honest, it doesn't. What makes me feel like I might as well be walking around in the same puffy red bodysuit that Randy in A Christmas Story, is the necessity of winter wardrobe.


In Pennsylvania, the winters are strange. The winters usually arrive right after summer spare for the week and a half of what I would love to be my favorite season, fall, due to monsoon season where we make the next flooding hurricane as much of a family name as the dog. Irene, Agnes, Eloise, Fran-- we have a good little family of women from the 60s.

What is hard to have in such a season of unrest where we currently are around November, is a good, fashionable, everyday wardrobe. Especially with the knowledge that blizzard season is set to arrive in all due time now that the first snowstorm has already struck.

It is a waiting game that my closet does not have the space to have.

Neither does my peace of mind now that I have brought back out the looming puffy white coat that makes me look like a marshmallow than ready to hit the slopes.

I can already see my thick plaid pea coat needing to take a turn to it. Plastic snap buttons replacing a trench belt. Bulky kickoff duck boots I bought once when they were on sale make me feel like I am carrying weights on each foot as I make my way up to the third floor of my public relations class. Yet it is time.



The winter wardrobe is here and most likely here to stay until April, and I am not so sure that I can embrace it as much as I was hoping to during the two weeks of fall I missed, afraid my weather app was kidding with me.

Because if I do want to be anything when I walk outside through two feet of snow, it is warm. A style killer? Apparently.

This is supposed to be the season of layers and quirky vintage pins my old roommate gifted to me to make any look uniquely me own when not worrying about the oppressive heatwave that could strike any moment come June. And yet, here I am trying to plan some final fall going into winter outfits to the best of my ability just in case I don't get a normal day like this again where nothing is going on, but it is going to be 47 degrees instead of 41.

If you do not think that is a stark difference you are wrong. Windchill can make any 40 degree day feel like you have exited eastern Pennsylvania and walked straight into the tundra.


Maybe this is my chance though. Laying and pins and scarves...who said the maximulist look was out when you may walk into class from snow and start sweating? Style is supposed to be good in any weather, and why should I drop down to the same outfit uniform everywhere. So what if I look like a marshmallow with big feet when the snowstorm hits?

It will certainly be an outfit to remember at the very least, and one able to spontaneously drop into the snow for a snowball fight or lopsided snow angel in.

Bring on the blanket scarves! The homemade mittens! The cozy hats that make your hair stick up the moment you take them off!

Let's rock winter style this year. Even if it isn't hottest of couture.