Cover Runway Sunday

    

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Anna, better known to superheroes as the Auditor, has carved out a name for herself. Any hero unlucky enough to cross her path knows her potential and powers. Surely, success should taste she has an incredible job with lots of perks, and her boss will literally annihilate anyone who crosses her, and her greatest enemy, the former hero Supercollider, has been utterly defeated and literally ground to a pulp.

But Anna still has her sights set on a greater destroying the Draft, the organization that makes, trains, and manages the world’s most powerful superheroes. These “heroes” have shown time and time again that they do more harm than good, and now is the time to stop the damage at its source.

Yet all is not well for the Auditor and her fellow evildoers. Her employer, Leviathan—the world’s most feared supervillain—is not coping well with Supercollider’s defeat at someone else’s hands. Moreover, her unlikely ally and unexpected friend, Quantum Entanglement, has vanished without a trace, leaving Anna to examine all the ways they deceived each other. Tension and uncertainty fill the air, and fear that this moment of triumph is about to crumble looms over all of them.

Anna soon finds herself facing down an opponent unlike any she’s taken on before—not another superhero, but someone like her…someone much more the Draft’s Chief Marketing Officer. This isn’t a test of physical prowess, but ideas, and as the fight spirals deeper and deeper, with new foes popping up every day—she’ll need more than just her superpower—data research—to keep ascending through the supervillain ranks.

It’s guerrilla ad warfare, and the Auditor might have finally met her match.

 

HAPPY READING!!

February Spotlight

 

All his life, Sir Cameron has stayed as far away from danger as possible. He is, quite frankly, too handsome to die a violent and pointless death in battle. But when the Church hands down a prophecy to his fellow knights predicting that the only way to defeat their nemesis, the mad sorcerer Merulo, is to kill Cameron, he finds himself in a situation too sticky for even his considerable wiles. Short of ideas, Cameron throws himself on the mercy of the one person who now actually wants him to survive: the mad sorcerer.

Merulo isn’t thrilled to be babysitting a spoilt, attention-seeking knight, but fate has tied them together. And transmogrifying Cameron into a vulture is at least a great source of entertainment. Cameron, meanwhile, is on a voyage of self-discovery. It turns out he’s really, really into surly sorcerers who lock him up and tell him what to do. Who knew?

As a legion of knights surround their stronghold, the sorcerer’s poisonous ambitions draw ever closer to fruition. Cameron is quite invested in not dying, but he finds he’s also invested in Merulo. And sometimes, supporting the sorcerer you care about means taking an interest in their hobbies. Even if that hobby is trying to kill God.

Even if it might get you killed, too.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released, but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous folks at Breaking the Spine.

Eight years ago, a boy took up an axe and slaughtered a dozen people. That odd, troubled boy, Jericho Dodd, has been dead and buried in his father’s yard for years, but ever since that massacre, Crow Island has been a dark and unsettling place.

When Jericho’s father begins digging up the past he buried, a compulsion to dig sweeps over the island and soon everyone else is obsessively churning up dirt, desperate to uncover buried secrets. The compulsion leads to violence and as neighbors turn against each other, the island’s famous tupelo honey, harvested from trees deep in a swamp, changes too.

As dread and paranoia seep up from the ground, it becomes clear that the island itself needs something from its residents–before it digs itself apart for good.

Be careful what you unearth from the dirt before this surreal horror novel can worm its way into you, too.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

All his life, Sir Cameron has stayed as far away from danger as possible. He is, quite frankly, too handsome to die a violent and pointless death in battle. But when the Church hands down a prophecy to his fellow knights predicting that the only way to defeat their nemesis, the mad sorcerer Merulo, is to kill Cameron, he finds himself in a situation too sticky for even his considerable wiles. Short of ideas, Cameron throws himself on the mercy of the one person who now actually wants him to survive: the mad sorcerer.

Merulo isn’t thrilled to be babysitting a spoilt, attention-seeking knight, but fate has tied them together. And transmogrifying Cameron into a vulture is at least a great source of entertainment. Cameron, meanwhile, is on a voyage of self-discovery. It turns out he’s really, really into surly sorcerers who lock him up and tell him what to do. Who knew?

As a legion of knights surround their stronghold, the sorcerer’s poisonous ambitions draw ever closer to fruition. Cameron is quite invested in not dying, but he finds he’s also invested in Merulo. And sometimes, supporting the sorcerer you care about means taking an interest in their hobbies. Even if that hobby is trying to kill God.

Even if it might get you killed, too.

HAPPY READING!!

January Wrap Up

The January Challenge went out the window with the state of the world. Instead, I picked up books that brought me any sort of joy, any small moments of whimsy. Because the world's on fire and I can only take in so much at one time. I'm currently going into February, reading two books: William and Drumindor. I've also pulled a stack of books as my first picks for February, and I've got a stack of things to pick up from the library. But here are the January stats.

Books Read: 8

Pages Read: 1234

Hours Listen: 17.5

Not a bad start to my BINGO challenge, 7 out of 8 books made the board. Could have done a little better with the Backlist books, 3 out of 8 books. Which doesn't bode well for our January Challenge.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

     

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

molka (n): the Korean term for spy cameras secretly and illegally installed, often to capture voyeuristic images and videos

Dahye can't believe her luck when she finds herself in a whirlwind romance with handsome, charismatic Hyukjoon, the heir to a multi-million dollar fortune.

But then a shocking revelation threatens: the couple has been caught on a spycam amid Korea's growing molka epidemic, and the video is all over the internet. When Hyukjoon flees the country to avoid the intense public scrutiny, Dahye is left to grapple with the ramifications on her own; and the demons from her childhood, long dormant, begin to surface.

Amid the chaos, she catches the attention of Junyoung, a nerdy, introverted IT tech at work. Junyoung harbours a dark secret: he has been spying on the women at work with his own hidden cameras. As Dahye's life begins to unravel, she unknowingly becomes the sole target of Junyoung's perverse obsession.

When the facts surrounding the invasion of her privacy come to light, Dahye is faced with the humiliating truth. Her pain and hurt turn to rage as she faces her past. Her desire for vengeance is insatiable, and she will not rest until the men who have wronged her have paid in blood...

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released, but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous folks at Breaking the Spine.

WELCOME TO THE GILDED AGE. WHERE NOT EVERYTHING GLITTERS.

1890: the Gilded Age, a period of financial success and political corruption. The United States is growing at a breathless rate, with six new states recently added to the Union.

With expansion comes an influx of crime. Outlaw gangs hold sway on the frontier and heists and robberies are commonplace. A lot of businesses shrug off these depredations as the cost of success. Those who don't hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency to get their money back.

The Pinkertons' newest operative is twenty-two-year-old Clare Wright. Highly educated, skilled with disguises, and handy enough in a fight, Clare's future in the agency seems bright. But when she's introduced to Fred Harvey, she finds herself thrown right into the heady mix of frontier life.

Harvey's Arizona hotel has been robbed and Clare is the perfect recruit to solve this mystery. Clare must infiltrate high society and win the confidence of killers like Butch Cassidy as she seeks the truth.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

Former detective and perpetual grouch Charlie Smeg is old–at least that’s the way he feels–and newly retired from the Edmonton Police. He's washed up, burnt out, and unappreciated by younger cops clawing for his job. He’d been a good detective but methods change, times change.

He’s looking forward to a life of solitude, a good book, and staying indoors during the winter months. Unfortunately, his former boss has other plans. He’s not even a week out of the job when she asks him to mentor rising star Meaghan Byatt–one of those upstart detectives–on her first case in the homicide department.

The case is an odd one from the get-go, enough that Smeg decides, against his better judgment, to help.

With a jobless stepson living at home who won't stop encouraging him to get with the times, and his growing fondness for Byatt making him begrudgingly look forward to human interaction, this case might be what Smeg needs to get back in the game.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

     

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.

Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.

HAPPY READING!!

Mini Reviews

 

Somehow, I have more questions. So many more questions. Like, who really is the Killer of Ira Street? Because I was very sure it was Lewellyn, but now, now I'm not so sure. It's still an option. However, now there are other options. Two brand new suspects, of which I hope Lewellyn finds out about and deals with. Because Fawkes is about to become an actual problem. And seriously, what is with the onions! I'm really enjoying this series. I cannot get enough of how weird Lewellyn is, and I really just want good things to happen to Shavonne. He's been through so much, and he's really been a puppet for Fawkes to pull his string in whatever amuses Fawkes.  And someone is also killing people. So there's that.

This was cute. I really liked the addition of her own cats as she told her stories. The stories of her cats were cute and fun. The illustrations were cute, too, though I kept getting her cats mixed up. Though that might have just been a me thing. My brain has been overloaded. Still, this was fun and cute. However, I'm not sure this needs to be a series. I don't know if I want more. Still, the first book is adorable and great for cat lovers.

HAPPY READING!!

February Edmonds SBC

Holy cows, what a turnout last night! We had to spread out to a fourth table and the bar! I cannot thank everyone enough who came out. It was cold, dark, and January had been so long, as usual. Seriously, how is there still another week left in this month? Still, it was so great to see so many new faces last night mixed in with our amazing regulars. Starting off the new year with reading!

If you couldn't make it out this month, don't worry! The Edmonds Silent Book Club meets every third Wednesday of the month. So we'll be back at Leftcraft Taphouse at 7pm on February 18th! I'll have more BINGO cards with me, and a special announcement about the March meeting!!

Hope to see you in February!

HAPPY READING!!