April Spotlight

Prince Tal has long awaited his coming-of-age tour. After spending most of his life cloistered behind palace walls as he learns to keep his forbidden magic secret, he can finally see his family’s kingdom for the first time. His first taste of adventure comes just two days into the journey when their crew discovers a mysterious prisoner on a burning derelict vessel.

Tasked with watching over the prisoner, Tal is surprised to feel an intense connection with the roguish Athlen. So when Athlen leaps overboard and disappears, Tal feels responsible and heartbroken, knowing Athlen could not have survived in the open ocean.

That is, until Tal runs into Athlen days later on dry land, very much alive, and as charming—and secretive—as ever. But before they can pursue anything further, Tal is kidnapped by pirates and held ransom in a plot to reveal his rumored powers and instigate a war. Tal must escape if he hopes to save his family and the kingdom. And Athlen might just be his only hope… 

HAPPY READING!!

March Wrap Up

March kind of flew by for me. I'm back at work finally after about three months of the second lockdown. Third lockdown. I've lost count at this point, but it's nice to be back to work. To have a little bit of normal back in my life. It's been nice to go back and doing something I love. It's also nice to have a reason to leave the house and see people other than my roommate. We've been together more than ever this last year. So nice to spend a few hours apart again. 

I am also very ready for Summer and longer days. Already the PNW has had a few really nice and sunny days, hinting that Summer is on the way, and I'm all for it. This is the first summer I'm going to have free time to enjoy it. I have plans that include the beach and patio reading. Maybe even some social distance Happy Hours with some friends. 

It was also my dad's birthday! I put him together with a little box because this is the first year that I wasn't able to go back home in March. So that's been a little weird, that I haven't been packing and planning for that trip. 

Still, it's been a really good and busy month. I'm still trying to find a new routine now that I'm back at work. Because my writing definitely suffered this month with everything else going on. But, I'm so happy to be back to work, and I read some really good books. I also have some really good books in the lineup for this month!

Books Read: 8
BINGO Books: 3

Pages Read: 1988

Currently Reading: Gideon the Ninth

I have so many amazing books between my Netgalley and what's on my bedside table, I'm not doing any buddy reads. So many books that I want to read in April! Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon is the last weekend of the month. I will be working for a huge chunk of the day, but I'll definitely be reading once I'm home. Maybe even well into Sunday.

This was the month I only bought one book, but between book boxes and Quirk Books, I managed quite the haul this month. I will say I was a little disappointed in the My Thrill Club Box. My first box was amazing and I loved both books. This month was so-so. One of the books is kind of something I might read, but another one was not something I'll read. Nor was it a thriller or a horror novel. It was more nonfiction. So after my gift expires I don't think I'll be doing this box again. 

However, I have loved both subscription packages that I've gotten from Night Worms, and I'm so excited to see what the April package will hold. I've also signed up for the May package! All five books sound amazing, and the extras have been a wonderful bonus to the great books. So I cannot talk about them the more!

Oh! I almost forgot. I finally gave in and bought my first book sleeve, mostly because its Squad 312! It's better than I thought it would be, fits my books perfectly, and it's padded. Right now I'm using it to hold Whisper Down the Lane. If you click the photos it'll take you to Custom Critters' Etsy page. They have so many great options. I'll be buying another one soon!

How was everyone else month? Any good reads? Any good bookish merch?

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about what we have yet to 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 at Breaking the Spine.

Divided by their castes. United by their vengeance.

Iraya has spent her life in a cell, but every day brings her closer to freedom—and vengeance.

Jazmyne is the queen’s daughter, but unlike her sister before her, she has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother’s power.

Sworn enemies, these two witches enter a precarious alliance to take down a mutual threat. But revenge is a bloody pursuit, and nothing is certain—except the lengths they will go to win this game.

Deadly, fierce, magnetically addictive: this Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut is a thrilling journey where dangerous magic reigns supreme and betrayal lurks beneath every word.

Why I'm Waiting: Everything about this has my attention and sounds like something I won't be able to put down.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

The last thing Barclay Thorne ever wanted was an adventure.

Thankfully, as an apprentice to the town’s mushroom farmer, Barclay need only work hard and follow the rules to one day become the head mushroom farmer himself. No danger required. But then Barclay accidentally breaks his town’s most sacred rule: never ever EVER stray into the Woods, for within the Woods lurk vicious magical Beasts.

To Barclay’s horror, he faces a fate far worse than being eaten: he unwittingly bonds with a Beast and is run out of town by an angry mob. Determined to break this bond and return home, Barclay journeys to find the mysterious town of Lore Keepers, people who have also bonded with Beasts and share their powers.

But after making new friends, entering a dangerous apprenticeship exam, and even facing the legendary Beast of the Woods, Barclay must make a difficult choice: return to the home and rules he’s always known, or embrace the adventure awaiting him.

HAPPY READING!!

Our Last Echoes - Review

Author: Kate Alice Marshall

Genre: Paranormal / Young Adult

Format: Hardback

Pages: 416

The cover for Our Last Echoes is what originally caught my eye and then the tag line at the bottom. Then I saw it being compared to the TV show Twin Peaks and I was completely sold. Both these things being said I did go into this book not completely sure what I was getting myself into, and I think this time that was one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much. After finishing this I would say this book is more LOST than Twin Peaks.

Our Last Echoes doesn't ease you into this story. It starts you in the middle before jumping back to the present day. Which does grab your attention from the word go, but also gave me a bit of whiplash. It took me a bit to get my footing with this book, and a part of me thinks that while Our Last Echoes is a standalone book, it connects to another book by Kate Alice Marshall, The Rules of Vanishing. Both of these books not only exist in the same world but by the end of the book connect. You don't have to read one before the other.

I will say the story does move rather quickly, and it's hard to find a place to stop for things like sleep and work. Every time you think you've found a spot to walk away from for a few minutes, something else happened. I also liked how we got back the story of what happened to Sophie's mother. Joy's story is told through a transcript of a video that was recorded at the time of the incident. What I liked about this, is you got to experience Joy's story just as much as Sophie's. It didn't become dry or glossed over. You were with Joy through it all, and it connected to Sophie's story and affected the outcome of the end of the book itself.

The plot for this book is one of my favorite scary tropes of Doppelgangers. I liked the way that Kate Alice Marshall morphed that trope with another of my favorites. Altogether I thought it morphed into a wonderful story that kept me turning the pages because I wanted to know what was happening on this island, how were keeping it a secret, and why were we not making a bigger deal of the fact it was spreading. As you read you start to ask more and more questions that slowly get answered than there are more questions. 

I will admit I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this book. The last hundred pages are so were hard to put down as all the answers started to come together to one explosive ending. 

And that ending, I loved it. With books like Our Last Echoes, I like when it leaves with more than just a few questions left unanswered right at the end. That you don't really know a handful of things. Kate Alice Marshall did set it up so there could be another book series to tie up a few things that were brought to light about another character, but things with our main character were tied up at the end.

My only real issue, and what kept this from a five-star was read, was that I didn't get connect with a single character in this book. They aren't terrible characters, there just wasn't one that I connected with on a personal level. Well, there was the crow Moriarty. I was really worried about him at the end, but as for the human characters. Yeah, I don't think I would have been too overly sad if the main three had died.

But, the crazy twisted story that Kate Alice Marshal tells sucked me right in. I spent the whole book just needing to know the hell was going on with this island! This means I have added The Rule of Vanishing to my TBR, and I'd read another book set in this universe.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally 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'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

Wynd seems like a regular boy in the fantastical world of Esseriel, except he’s got a magical secret. Now he’s set off on a journey with his best friend and the boy of his dreams to discover the magic in the world around him and, most importantly, within himself.

YOU CAN’T FIND YOUR HOME UNTIL YOU FIND YOURSELF.

Wynd lives a quiet life in Pipetown -- working at the local tavern, out of sight in the secret rooms beneath the floorboards, often stealing away to catch glimpses of the son of the castle’s groundskeeper as he works.
 
But Wynd also has a secret… magical blood betrayed by his pointed ears, forbidden within the city limits. His shaggy hair has obscured them for most of his life, but now that Wynd is a teenager they are growing too unwieldy to hide.
 
Joined by his best friend Oakley and Thorn, the groundskeeper’s son, Wynd’s strange dreams and an encounter with the city guard send him on the most dangerous adventure he could imagine, where Wynd will discover the magic in the world around him and, most importantly, the magic within himself.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about what we have yet to 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 at Breaking the Spine.

Inspired by the McMartin preschool trials and the Satanic Panic of the ‘80s, the critically acclaimed author of The Remaking delivers another pulse-pounding, true-crime-based horror novel.

Richard doesn’t have a past. For him, there is only the present: a new marriage to Tamara, the first chance at fatherhood to her son Elijah, and quiet but pleasant life as an art teacher at Elijah’s elementary school in Danvers, Virginia. Then the body of a rabbit, ritualistically murdered, appears on the school grounds with a birthday card for Richard tucked beneath it. Richard doesn’t have a birthday—but Sean does . . .

Sean is a five-year-old boy who has just moved to Greenfield, Virginia, with his mother. Like most mothers of the 1980s, she’s worried about bills, childcare, putting food on the table . . . and an encroaching threat to American life that can take the face of anyone: a politician, a friendly neighbor, or even a teacher. When Sean’s school sends a letter to the parents revealing that Sean’s favorite teacher is under investigation, a white lie from Sean lights a fire that engulfs the entire nation—and Sean and his mother are left holding the match.

Now, thirty years later, someone is here to remind Richard that they remember what Sean did. And though Sean doesn’t exist anymore, someone needs to pay the price for his lies. 

Why I'm Waiting: I had to google the McMartin Preschool Trial, but they had me Satanic Panic of the 80's.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

It's been five years since Wendy and her two brothers went missing in the woods, but when the town’s children start to disappear, the questions surrounding her brothers’ mysterious circumstances are brought back into the light. Attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road and gets pulled into the mystery haunting the town.

Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, claims that if they don't do something, the missing children will meet the same fate as her brothers. In order to find them and rescue the missing kids, Wendy must confront what's waiting for her in the woods.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally 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'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

It knows your fear...

Summer, 1989. Four best friends—Gabe, Kimberly, Charlie, and Sonya—are preparing for their last summer together before senior year, after which they’ll all be splitting up to start college in different parts of the country. They make a promise to always find their way back to each other, no matter how far away from their sleepy Pennsylvania hometown they get.

But their plans are destroyed when a plane crashes right on top of their favorite hangout outside of town—and right on top of them.

In the catastrophic aftermath of the incident, Gabe, Sonya and Charlie are plagued by eerie visions and messages from an unknown watcher. They soon realize that the plane crash was no accident, and now they are being hunted by a sinister presence. And everyone is still searching for Kimberly, who has been missing ever since Gabe saw somebody wearing a gas mask carry her out of the woods the day the sky fell down on them...

HAPPY READING!!

Upright Women Wanted - Review

Author: Sarah Gailey

Genre: Novella / Alt. History / Western

Format: Hardback

Pages: 175

This is one of those books where I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, a little bit, but actually had no idea. Between the synopsis and reviews, I thought I had a pretty good idea what Upright Women Wanted was about. Now let me say, sometimes it's good to be wrong. This book was so much more than I thought, and I still have no idea how Sarah Gailey packs so much into their books as they as do. 

I loved this book, and I would love to have another novella in this universe. It would be so cool to see what exactly caused the world to become the way it currently is, I would love to see Bet's backstory and Cye's, or even a sequel set a few years later. But, I don't need it because I adored how this book ended with Esther finally accepting herself. I loved the representation Sarah Gailey brought to the story, and I feel like this was a story a lot of people needed to hear for many different reasons. I love how they give you just enough information to form an idea of what this future world holds and how character driver this story was.

Esther wasn't my favorite character in the novella, but as the main character, I loved watching her grow throughout this journey. She goes through a lot very quickly and through it, she finds herself and a way to accept herself. And toward the end of the book, I found myself rooting for her to make the right choice.

The size of this story is also perfect in my opinion. Sarah Gailey somehow manages to create a world, badass characters, drama, and shove it into so few pages, and it blows my mind every time. There are slow-building scenes as Esther meets the Librarians and starts on her path as their stowaway. After that, it's literally one moment after another until the Librarians finally reach Utah. Any longer than novella length and I feel like the story would have dragged. Personally, I love learning about the world through the story. I don't want a ton of chapters just telling about the past. I'd much rather do like Gailey did here and teach as they tell a story. Give us key facts and let us build the world around it. Because Upright Women Wanted is so short there is no good place to put down this book. Too much is going on.

And honestly, I go invested in the romance. This is something I don't always do, but here I couldn't help it. I was rooting for them the maybe three, or four, chapters, and I love how it ended. Yeah, it's an open ending where we don't know, but it's so hopeful at the same time. Like maybe that was the year Leda was talking about, and not a year on the road.

Upright Women Wanted has given me such a book hangover. Because this book hits on a cellular level. Some days I feel like maybe the world isn't so far away from the world Sarah Gailey created here on some level, but to also have ended on such a hopeful note. This book packs a punch for a hundred and seventy-five pages. I'm having a hard time letting go of this book, and I'm definitely going to go back and read it again because I feel like maybe there were things I missed the first time around. Sarah Gailey is one of my favorite authors, and this book is exactly why.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about what we have yet to 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 at Breaking the Spine.

Prince Tal has long awaited his coming-of-age tour. After spending most of his life cloistered behind palace walls as he learns to keep his forbidden magic secret, he can finally see his family’s kingdom for the first time. His first taste of adventure comes just two days into the journey when their crew discovers a mysterious prisoner on a burning derelict vessel.

Tasked with watching over the prisoner, Tal is surprised to feel an intense connection with the roguish Athlen. So when Athlen leaps overboard and disappears, Tal feels responsible and heartbroken, knowing Athlen could not have survived in the open ocean.

That is, until Tal runs into Athlen days later on dry land, very much alive, and as charming—and secretive—as ever. But before they can pursue anything further, Tal is kidnapped by pirates and held ransom in a plot to reveal his rumored powers and instigate a war. Tal must escape if he hopes to save his family and the kingdom. And Athlen might just be his only hope…

Why I'm Waiting: This sounds adorable and fun and I've been waiting forever for this.

HAPPY READING!!