Hello Mondays, welcome back to #5OnMyTBR, a meme created by the wonderful E @ The Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. This bookish meme gets us to dig even further into our TBRs by simply posting about five books on our TBR! You can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!
This week’s prompt is: Classics
Read More »Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! It’s been a very hot minute since I did one but I figured I might as well get back into it! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.
This week’s featured book is The Little Shop of Happy Ever After by Jenny Colgan. I think this also has a different title (I think in the US) and it’s known as: The Bookshop on the Corner. This is an older contemporary romance (2016) and it has a 3.85 star rating on Goodreads.
Read More »We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
This Sunday I’ve spent my day partially in bed with Gods of Jade and Shadow… Along with about three other books that I’ve started/stopped reading since I finished my last read on Saturday 😂 I’m enjoying Gods of Jade and Shadow, but because of my crazy reading mood it’s taking me a little while to get into it. Basically, I love it while I’m reading it and I’m immersed in the richly described world, but when I put it down I’m not (yet) racing to pick it back up again. This is 100% my mood and nothing to do with the book though!
The Mayan God of Death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore, for readers of The Song of Achilles and Uprooted.
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty, small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it–and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan God of Death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey, from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City–and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
What are you currently reading?
Read More »Welcome back to another Top 5 Saturday! Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is actually: award winning books!
Ooh, this is a tough but fun prompt! I gotta admit that I don’t pay close attention to which books win which prizes, so it took a bit of digging to find what on my TBR fit the bill. I’m surprised to say that I actually have quite a few award winning books on my shelves! These are books that I saw hyped up through book clubs (like Oprah’s and Reese’s) and mainly through gorgeous pictures on bookstagram. They’re also mostly a departure from my go-to YA SFF and Romances and are contemporary/literary fiction books that I do enjoy and can be a good challenge to read, but sometimes they also go over my head. 😅 That said, I’ve picked five from my TBR that I’m really looking forward to reading in the (hopefully) near future!
(book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages!)
Read More »Hi friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for May Day by Josie Jaffrey. Special thanks to the author for the copy in exchange for an honest review!
Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour here.
Goodreads: May Day (Seekers #1)
Publisher: Silver Sun Books
Published: 09 July 2020
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Panda Rating:
If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one.
It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.
When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.
To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she’ll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.
Body bags on standby.
May Day is the first book in Josie Jaffrey’s Seekers series, an urban fantasy series set in Oxford, England.
BUY NOW: Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US)
Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are the rules:
First lines:
“Let me tell you the problem with university students: they’re stupid as f**k.”
Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?
Read More »
I’m back with another blog tour with The Storytellers on Tour for Hollow Road (Maer Cycle #1) by Dan Fitzgerald. Thanks to the Timy & Justine for organising this tour and thanks to the author for the copy in exchange for an honest review!
Be sure to click on the banner below to check out the rest of the bloggers on tour!
Goodreads: Hollow Road (Maer Cycle #1)
Publication Date: 17 September 2020
Genre: Fantasy
Panda Rating:
Legends describe the Maer as savage man-beasts haunting the mountains, their bodies and faces covered with hair. Creatures of unimaginable strength, cunning, and cruelty. Bedtime stories to keep children indoors at night. Soldiers’ tales to frighten new recruits.
It is said the Maer once ruled the Silver Hills, but they have long since passed into oblivion.
This is the story of their return.
Carl, Sinnie and Finn, three companions since childhood, are tasked with bringing a friend’s body home for burial. Along the way, they find there is more to the stories than they ever imagined, and the mountains hold threats even darker than the Maer. What they discover on their journey will change the way they see the world forever.
Travel down Hollow Road to find out which legends are true, and which have been twisted.
Buy: Amazon
Hi friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for The Beast and The Bethany by Jack Meggitt-Phillips. Special thanks to Netgalley and Egmont Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour here.
Goodreads: The Beast and the Bethany
Publisher: Egmont Publishing
Published: 01 October 2020
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Panda Rating:
The most exciting new children’s book of 2020 and a modern classic in the making. The Beast and the Bethany has all the classic macabre humour of Roald Dahl with the warmth and charm of Despicable Me, finished off with a gleeful bite of Little Shop of Horrors! This book should be on every little monster’s birthday and Christmas list.
Ebenezer Tweezer is a youthful 511-year-old. He keeps a beast in the attic of his mansion, who he feeds all manner of things (including performing monkeys, his pet cat and the occasional cactus) and in return the beast vomits out presents for Ebenezer, as well as potions which keep him young and beautiful. But the beast grows ever greedier, and soon only a nice, juicy child will do. So when Ebenezer encounters orphan Bethany, it seems like (everlasting) life will go on as normal. But Bethany is not your average orphan . . .
BUY NOW: Amazon
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
I’ve somehow managed to read seven books since last week and I honestly have no idea how. Just kidding, I do. I literally spent all my time outside of work reading (and admittedly, I also spent a little time I should’ve spent working also reading–I’m so undisciplined 🙃)! It’s been a mood.
The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen ★★½
I’m sad to say I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I’d hoped to. It had its cute moments but ultimately, the MC irritated me too much and the side characters and overall storyline weren’t fleshed out well enough. Review to come!
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara ★★★★☆
McNamara takes you on an incredible ride in this book. It’s obviously dark, gritty and compelling but at times I also felt overwhelmed with all the information she presents–it’s really a lot. It’s sad she didn’t live to see him caught, but her work definitely kept the GSK’s name in the spotlight. Review to come!
I’m back with another blog tour and this time it’s for Love at the Little Wedding Shop by the Sea by Jane Linfoot. Thanks to Rachel @ Rachel’s Random Resources for organising this blog tour, and to Netgalley and One More Chapter for providing the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Be sure to click on the banner below to check out the rest of the bloggers on tour!
Goodreads: Love at the Little Wedding Shop
Publisher: One More Chapter
Release Date: 03 September 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Panda Rating:
St Aidan: a cosy Cornish village where friendships are made for life and it’s always cocktail hour somewhere… Return to your favourite little wedding shop by the sea for love, laughter and a romance to sweep you off your feet!
It’s the most romantic day of the year but the girls aren’t just gearing up for Valentine’s Day and a busy wedding season ahead, it’s also the 10 year anniversary of their beloved shop! Jess is planning the party of the decade and with the champagne and cocktails flowing, sparks are going to fly…and not just from the fireworks display!
BUY NOW: Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US)
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