Meet Jessica, Amber, and Emily of The Book Bratz
If you’re on Book Twitter, you know The Book Bratz. Three friends blogging about their favorite reads and love of books, these girls are icons in the book community. So naturally, I had to reach out to them about my dream of becoming an honorary BB. And as wonderful as they are, they agreed to collab on an exclusive pencil set and interview!
I got to chat with Jessica, Amber, and Emily (aka: The Book Bratz) about how TBB began, what a five-star read looks like to them, and what reading recs they’d give to YOU!
Everyone, meet: The Book Bratz!
How did The Book Bratz get started?
Amber: I wish we had a better origin story, but honestly? We were just a bunch of bored 15/16 year olds who wanted to share their love of books on a wider scale!
Jessica: Amber actually came to me with the idea when we were in high school — we’ve been friends since the first day of kindergarten, but never had collaborated on a project like that before! We both loved reading so much and were constantly swapping book recommendations, so we decided to share our love of books (and our thoughts after reading each of them) with the world, not thinking anyone would ever really care. Needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised!
What does TBB look like behind the scenes? How do you choose which books to read and review?
Amber: Behind the scenes is chaos, and I mean that in the best way possible! We are 3 very different people who are always coming up with new ideas for content or just things to talk about. We are 3 best friends (besides co-bloggers), so our group chat is intermingled with book content, gossip and talking about book smut. We honestly review what we want, we don’t have a strict schedule of what to read. We are very big mood readers!
Jessica: Echoing what Amber said here! If we receive ARCs that we want to read, we have to make sure those are read before publication, but other than that, it’s complete mood reading. It’s also helpful that all three of us have different reading tastes, so pretty much whenever a book is offered to us, at least one of us is willing to check it out!
What do you do when you’re not reading?
Jessica: When we’re not reading, we all have our own hobbies! Emily is a nurse (which is why she’s so busy that she didn’t have time to answer questions), Amber is currently a college student, and I’m in an MFA program for YA romance writing! So basically, it feels like reading is the hobby that we have to squeeze in among all of our other responsibilities. And of course, we love going out for Mexican food together. It’s one of our favorite things to do as a group, especially when we can disguise it as a business dinner!
What do you look for in a five-star read?
Amber: A 5 star read for me has to be a feeling, because I could have issues with a story, but if it gave me a certain feeling then it will still be a 5 star read. It all depends!
Jessica: I totally agree! I don’t have a specific checklist that I follow. I consider a 5-star read to be one that I can’t put down, and then I want to recommend it to anyone and everyone. That’s what it means to me, anyway.
Which literary character would you like to meet IRL?
Amber: Ohh there are so many! If I just had to pick one it would have to be Aaron Warner from the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi.
Jessica: Warner so I could marry him. Or any of the love interests from the Christina Lauren books. *swoon*
What recent book recommendation would you give to the Longhand Pencils audience?
Amber: Twisted Games by Ana Huang!
Jessica: Literally anything by Christina Lauren, or Verity by Colleen Hoover!
How did you choose the phrases for the LP x TBB pencil set?
Amber: We all sent one that we liked, and then we just kept shooting ideas until we had phrases that we all liked and agreed on!
Jessica: Honestly, it was super easy. For a group of people with so many different interests, we have a hive mind sometimes for sure!
What should be Longhand Pencils’ next book pencil set?
Amber: Hmmm, I’d love to see a set for Verity by Colleen Hoover!
Jessica: A Christina Lauren set! Or just in general a set including some of the best rom-coms lately. Or a set with all purple-hued pencils — my favorite color!