For Your Own Good - Review

Author: Samantha Downing

Genre: Murder Mystery

Format: ebook

Pages: 373

This book! This book?! What was this book?! Seriously, I know what I read but this book was not at all what I thought it would be. I can't lie, I was completely ready to DNF this book. Because while the cover drew me, I wasn't a hundred percent sold. Thankfully there isn't any exploration date on when you can read a book, and a huge thank you to my book club for this pick. Because this book was a ride.

Samantha Downing's writing was the first thing that pulled me into this book. It was so easy to read and fall into this story. I was hooked from the first page, the first chapter, the first introduction to Teddy. Even when I was completely sure that he killed his wife. It felt like Downing had a great time writing this book and telling this story even if some of the characters are horrid. Because it was fun to read, even with all the twists and turns. 

Never once did I get lost in those twists and turns either. It was like as soon as I thought I had a grasp on what was going on, Downing was like 'nope try again' and threw in another element. Just when you think this story can't get any crazier, you find you wrong. Because it can get crazier and everything can escalate.

Me trying to explain this story to people made me sound like a crazy person. A couple of times I had to put the book down because I needed to process what happened. So much happens in the second part of this book, that I had to take a breath before part three.

Despite how there was always another twist, always another story, I had a hard time putting this book down. Even when I only had an hour to read. Even I just read five pages, I picked this up. It's all because Downing's writing style hooked me. These characters hooked me in, and I just had to know how far will Teddy go.

The cast of characters is amazing, and I loved that most of this story is told from the teacher's point of view. It's not a normal point of view for boarding school books, but with these teachers it was perfect. Teddy is the worst, but I loved watching his ego play out. And, Fallon, I hated her from the second she showed up for all the right reasons. The way Downing rights is perfect and it's so easy to hate her.

I will say I didn't see the ending coming! At the start of Part Three, I thought I had it all figured out. I knew how I wanted the books to end. However, I wasn't disappointed that I was wrong. It honestly didn't dawn on me that, that ending was an option. It was heartbreaking because I did feel bad for that character, but it was also kind of satisfying in a way. I also really liked Zach's end as well. The little parallel made me happy. 

So I'm glad I gave this one a go because I will be picking up more books by this author. I enjoyed For Your Good, and have been recommending it to everyone lately. The only negative I have about this was I wish Teddy's wife would have gotten a few chapters. It would have been interesting to see her point of view as some of these pieces unfolded. 

HAPPY READING!!

Book Mail

Finally! Finally the last of my book mail has arrived. I sat on the fence about this book for a minute. Mostly because I wasn't sure this was for me. But, the longer I saw it on Instagram and read what people were saying about it. I was like, yup, you need to come home with me.

So finally I ordered it, and I'm so excited it's here! I've heard so many good things about this book. Gonna try to get to this one before the end of the month!

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sundays

  

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!

In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers sitting at the same table, pass the time in conversation, and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

HAPPY READING!!

March Spotlight

 

I am so excited about this book. SO EXCITED! I adored F.T. Luken's last book In Deeper Waters. It was such a wholesome read, and really refreshing. It was also the one book I pushed on a lot of people last year. So, I've been really excited about Luken's next book. Which I just downloaded thanks to NetGalley! 

Arek hadn’t thought much about what would happen after he completed the prophecy that said he was destined to save the Kingdom of Ere from its evil ruler. So now that he’s finally managed to (somewhat clumsily) behead the evil king (turns out magical swords yanked from bogs don’t come pre-sharpened), he and his rag-tag group of quest companions are at a bit of a loss for what to do next.

As a temporary safeguard, Arek’s best friend and mage, Matt, convinces him to assume the throne until the true heir can be rescued from her tower. Except that she’s dead. Now Arek is stuck as king, a role that comes with a magical catch: choose a spouse by your eighteenth birthday, or wither away into nothing.

With his eighteenth birthday only three months away, and only Matt in on the secret, Arek embarks on a desperate bid to find a spouse to save his life—starting with his quest companions. But his attempts at wooing his friends go painfully and hilariously wrong…until he discovers that love might have been in front of him all along.

HAPPY READING!!

Dracula Son of the Dragon - Review

Author: Mark Sable

Genre: Historical Fiction / Graphic Novel

Format: Paperback

Pages: 112

I'm always a sucker for Dracule retellings. This one jumped out at me because it dealt with the man behind the fangs really. The life of Vlad before he became a vampire. So that was a different angle, and I need a quick read after the absolute sadness of my current read.

As for the story itself, I really liked it. I thought Mark Sable did a great job of telling the story of young Vlad. It was definitely a story I would want more of, and I would have loved to have more in book form. Mostly because the only I felt this story really lacked was more back story. I definitely had a hard time keeping a few of the characters straight. Especially the half-brother because there wasn't much of an introduction from him. If there hadn't been a small cast of characters before the story I wouldn't have really known who he was.

The jumps in the timeline were also really hard to keep track of, again because place and people weren't really introduced. While I love the story of Dracula, I only have the base knowledge of the man he was based on. So I spent a lot of time going back to make sure I hadn't missed pages because that was I felt. It also made it hard to get to know any of the characters as well. Everything moved so quickly and jumped from one historic event to the other, you never really got to know Vlad or his brothers. 

So the betrayal halfway through fell flat for me because I never got a chance to get to know these characters.

The biggest distraction for me was the artwork. So much was happening between the pages, I don't think I was able to see it all. And, while each character was easy to tell apart, I got lost in the dialog sometimes. Mostly because the speech bubbles were squished together and you couldn't make out the flow of conversation. The artwork was also really rough and also squished together. To the point, I kind of stopped really noticing it and was just reading the words on the page. Nothing ever really drew my eye to the page. Everything was brown and muted, even during fighting scenes.

I gave this one three stars for the story itself. That part I really liked and enjoyed and would pick something else up this author.

HAPPY READING!!

February Wrap Up

Happy March! I am so very excited that Spring is right around the corner. Every single inch of me is over these grey and gloomy days. I need some sunshine in my life. February was a pretty decent reading month for me. Mostly short reads, but enjoyable which is all that matters. It was hard to read a lot of longer stuff due to a small vacation for my birthday, and work finally picking up. There are not enough words about how excited I am that I'm spent two weeks staying. So much better than going home early.

I have some pretty lofty reading goals for March, mostly because I think my work schedule is changing. My fingers are crossed this week works out because I'd love to keep these three-day weekends. Even I spent one and a half of them sleeping on my couch. I could definitely get used to them!

Books Read: 5
BINGO Books: 2

Pages Read: 894

Currently Reading: In The Garden of Spite

The Broke Bitch Book Club pick sounds interesting so I'm going to try and join in on that one. 

 

Did a couple of book-buying runs this month, and of course my Night Worms package was awesome! I've got my book out in the wind waiting for delivery, but I'm going to try to avoid buying any more books this month. No matter how many tempting it is to fill the two empty spots in my bookcase. But, you know, best-laid plans and all that.

 

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 that 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.

Pregnant out of wedlock, sixteen-year-old Annie Moore is sent to live at a convent for fallen women. When the nuns take her baby, Annie escapes, determined to find a way to be reunited with her daughter. But few rights or opportunities are available to a woman in the 1860s, and after failing to find a respectable job, she resorts to prostitution in order to survive.

As a highly sought-after demi-mondaine, Annie—now Bessie—garners many expensive gifts from her admirers and eventually meets and marries the son of a wealthy jeweler, a traveling salesman with a gambling problem. With her marriage, she believes her dream of returning to proper society has finally come true. She’s proven wrong when she suffers the ultimate betrayal at the hands of the man she thought would be her salvation. But Bessie doesn’t let her story end there.

Set against the backdrop of the burgeoning women’s rights movement, The Lives of Diamond Bessie is a captivating tale of betrayal and redemption that explores whether seeking revenge is worth the price you might pay.

Why I'm Waiting: This sounds like real emotional damage, but it also sounds like a great story!

HAPPY READING!!!!

New Release Tuesday

A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light on a family of serial killers in Kansas, whose horrifying crimes gripped the attention of a nation still reeling from war.

In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders.
 
The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating "a human slaughter pen" appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Set against the backdrop of postbellum America, Hell’s Half-Acre explores the environment capable of allowing such horrors to take place. Drawing on extensive original archival material, Susan Jonusas introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, many of whom have been previously missing from the story. Among them are the families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape.
 
Hell’s Half-Acre is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth-century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community’s fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places.

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!

Inspired by a true story….
Pregnant out of wedlock, sixteen-year-old Annie Moore is sent to live at a convent for fallen women. When the nuns take her baby, Annie escapes, determined to find a way to be reunited with her daughter. But few rights or opportunities are available to a woman in the 1860s, and after failing to find a respectable job, she resorts to prostitution in order to survive.

As a highly sought-after demi-mondaine, Annie—now Bessie—garners many expensive gifts from her admirers and eventually meets and marries the son of a wealthy jeweler, a traveling salesman with a gambling problem. With her marriage, she believes her dream of returning to proper society has finally come true. She’s proven wrong when she suffers the ultimate betrayal at the hands of the man she thought would be her salvation. But Bessie doesn’t let her story end there.

Set against the backdrop of the burgeoning women’s rights movement, The Lives of Diamond Bessie is a haunting tale of betrayal and redemption that explores whether seeking revenge is worth the price you might pay.

HAPPY READING!!

Book Mail

More book mail! This mail was supposed to be part two of two, but now it is part two of three. I have zero regrets. But, back to this book mail that I have in my hands. Last year I was still on furlough in January so I missed the first Night Worms box of 2021. Since then I've been having a bit of FOMO every time I see this book on Bookstagram. Finally, FINALLY, I have added it to my collection. It's currently sitting on the TBR section of my book cart of books I want to read before the end of the year. 

Not only do I love this cover, but all three novellas sound so good. I'm really excited to finally have this book in my hands. It's going to be a lot of fun to show on my mantle above my fireplace. And, I have high hopes all three of these novellas will keep me up at night. 

Maybe I should invest in a nightlight...

HAPPY READING!!

Possums Are NOT Cute - Review

Author: Ally Burguieres

Genre: Nonfiction

Format: Hardback

Pages: 128

A huge thank you to Quirk Books and Ally Burguieres for allowing me to get an early copy of Possums Are NOT Cute! What follows is my honest review.

I was so excited when Quirk Books reached out to me about this book. Growing up in rural Kansas where there is always the risk of running into an opossum in the woodpile at my grandparents' place, or in the barn. This fact is important because I have heard a hundred times a lot of the misconceptions and myths surrounding opossums because of this. None of which have stopped me from thinking them adorable and wanting one as a pet. So I was all about getting my hands on this book.

The first thing I did when I got my copy was to flip through and look at the photos that were included of the possum ambassadors. I just love their weird little face so much. So I'm so very excited that there was page after page of adorable photos. Some of which I follow on Instagram because who doesn't love adorable animals popping up on their feeds.

But, the book itself is also really good. Ally Burguieres has not only filled this book with adorable possum photos and fun facts but also teaches about the lives of these adorable little creatures. So not only was it a fun read, but it was educational as well. Not just teaching about these little critters, but also how they affect the world around us. Teaching us why they are so important.

Never once did this book get boring though. Burguieres didn't just fill the pages with cold facts about possums and assume people would love them. Instead, she told a story about her journey into the world of possums and laid out the facts in a fun way. This book is written in a narrative that feels like you are being spoken to as a person, not just lectured out. This is something I really appreciated because sometimes nonfiction books, especially about animals and anatomy, can become dry.

One of the things I think that helped break up the facts is the fun little section about possums in history. It was a fun look at the random sort of celebrity roles possums have had throughout our history. An odd history at that. But, a fun way to break up the not-so-fun parts. I also think the fact that each section was kept so short, only a page or two, kept this book from feeling dry and boring. Also, being told in an easy way to understand, explaining things that got a little science-heavy with terms. You felt how much Burguieres wanted the readers to learn about these creatures, so she took the time to explain in a way everyone good understands.

Possums Are NOT Cute! is a hundred percent adorable and perfect for both possum lovers and animal lovers in general. It's a fun coffee table book that can spark conversation, and my copy now lives about the fireplace. The whole house has read it and loved it!

Possums Are NOT Cute! comes out May 10, 2022!

HAPPY READING!!