Halloween Weekend// Sunday Post #41

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. 

Hope everyone is having a good fun weekend. To those who celebrate Halloween, what did ya'll dress up or what did you do, and those who don't celebrate I hope you all had an amazing, safe, and fun weekend. The past week has been full of long work days and school lessons with my kids. I read some good books. I finally read The Phantom of the Opera which is one of my favorite movies of all time. The book was so good and different that I didn't hate my reading experience. I am currently reading A Dowry of Blood and I am enjoying it so far. I am hoping to finish it later today so I can get one more book read or at least started from my spooky TBR. I am wanting to pick up The Walking Dead Descent or Home Before Dark.

This week I made a big purchase for our family that my husband has been eyeing at Walmart and honestly the deal was to goo to pass up. I bought a Pit Boss Memphis Ultimate 2.0. It was only $425.00 due to Rollback. We LOVE grilling and it is a good electric bill saver. We tried out the smoker yesterday and the meat was so delicious.

We also went to get our pumpkins and gourds last Sunday and we got some colorful pumpkins and some funky looking gourds that we are going to paint white and make into ghosts.

This weekend, my parents asked to have the girls spend the night so they could take them trunk or treating and when we got to my parent's house, my mom was dressed and ready to go and it was a sight. My mom loved the girls costumes this year and it may be the best year of dressing up.

my little Jedi padawan

my rockstar

my hippie

I didn't blog much this week. The only post that was posted was my The Phantom of the Opera review.

I am hoping to up my blogging game this week since it is the end of October and the beginning of November which completely blows my mind. 

November is a big month every year for us. We are a big Thanksgiving family so the weeks leading up to it we focus solely on that and it will also be 11th year we have lived in our house because the first meal we cooked was Thanksgiving Turkey. But then after the excitement of being homeowners that long, comes the renewal of home insurance and the home and property taxes. Along with planning Christmas. 

Anyways I hope everyone has a good Halloween or Monday and get a lot of candy. 

Review: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

When I was a freshman in High School back in 2005, my friends and I watched the movie The Phantom of the Opera and FELL IN FREAKING LOVE!! We talked about it the whole year and it was the cause of us being late to many school events. When my husband and I started dating, this was the first movie we watched together and he enjoyed it alot. It has become our movie and we try to watch it together once or twice a year. 

Back in 2020, right when the pandemic started, I saw that a book subscription service that is no longer in operation did a Phantom of the Opera box and I had to have it. I bought it and now I finally picked it up. I was supposed to read it last month for my spell the month in books TBR. I was already excited about getting to it and then a show I am watching had an Andrew Lloyd Webber night and of course he is known for bringing this classic book to the West End and Broadway. 

Going in, I expected things from the movie to be similar...... but boy was I wrong. I am usually one of those people that hates changes from book to movie. But since I have seen the movie hundreds of times, I knew I couldn't be mad at what changed. I actually enjoyed the book and love that we got backstory into Christine's life and that the story that Madame Giry tells in the movie is similar to The Persian's narrative in the book. There were some scenes that happened in the beginning of the book that happened at the end of the movie and it was very jarring but it all came together so nicely in the end. I didn't like that the phantom died before Christine in the book because one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Raul visits Christine's grave and he sees a rose with the ring. 

The torture chamber room was a surprising part and I kind of wish that it was left in the movie. 

Overall I give this 4 out of 5 stars. I wish it was longer and had more of the songs from the plays that were mentioned. 

Review: My Hero Academia Volume 1 & 2 by Kohei Horikoshi

 I realized that I didn't do a review for Volume 1. I have always wanted to read this series and my husband's 11 year old cousin spent the weekend with us and got my 13 year old excited and she asked me to get the books from the library. I have no idea when we will finish this series because our library system has few copies of each volume and we had to wait 3 months for the second volume to become available because everyone else was reading it. 

Anyways, it also has a show on Hulu if you don't want to read the manga series. My kid has watched the first season and she says it stays true to the first volume. Now on to what the series is about. 

It is set in a world where most of the population has this thing called quirks. The main character Izuku or Deku has not developed his quirk and he is stressed about his entrance exam into the U.A. High school. Which is basically the Disney movie Sky High. He also has help training for his entrance exam by his idol and the main and famous superhero All Might, but not everything is what it seems.

Now volume two picks up where the first volume left off. It consistes of three training exercises for the heroes and then a big battle to leave off on. I liked the story, but it jumped from character to character and it wasn't consistent throughout the book. I was confused and felt like I turned multiple pages at a time. The story was just choppy. There was also a lot more sexism and cussing in this. Not expecting that.

It also goes into more detail about other character's quirks and I was completely disgusted with some of them. One has nitroglycerin sweat and another has balls that he throws that I believe may be poop. I am not sure. 

If anyone has read and/or watched the show, I would love to know and talk to you about your opinions and how you like or dislike it. 

BLOG TOUR: The Lords of Night by J.C. Cervantes

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE LORDS OF NIGHT by J.C. Cervantes Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: THE LORDS OF NIGHT (A Shadow Bruja Novel Book 1)

Author: J.C. Cervantes

Pub. Date: October 4, 2022

Publisher: Rick Riordan Presents

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 320

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents J. C. Cervantes's exciting new spin-off from the best-selling STORMRUNNER trilogy.

"This duology opener is accessible to readers who are new to this world. An engrossing, god-filled delight."--Kirkus Reviews

Fourteen-year-old Renata Santiago is the most powerful godborn of them all, a bruja with a unique combination of DNA. The Mexica blood from her dad's side gives her the ability to manipulate shadows. Her mom Pacific, a Maya goddess, gifted her a magical rope that controls time, and Ren recently used it to save a few gods from getting stuck forever in 1987. She brought them back to the present, but her BFF Ah Puch, the once fearsome god of death, darkness, and destruction, is now a teenager with no divine powers.

Ren is also a girl with ordinary hopes and dreams. She wishes, for example, that her blog about alien sightings would garner more respect. She's always been absolutely convinced that there's a connection between aliens and the Maya civilization. Plenty of online haters feel differently, and they call her a fake, a liar, and a loser.

When Ren receives an email about an alien sighting in Kansas, she thinks it may support her theory. She also suspects that the cinco--five renegade godborns--are up to no good. Soon she finds herself embroiled in a quest to prevent the troublemakers from awakening the nine Aztec Lords of Night. Problem is, none of Ren's friends are available to help her hunt down the cinco and the dangerous gods they are resurrecting. Ren has no choice but to team up with two strangers recruited by Ah Puch: Edison, a teen hybrid demon, and Montero, an eleven-year-old Aztec hunter. Succeeding in this quest will prove that Ren is no fake, liar, or loser. But it isn't just another challenge. It could well be an impossible one that leaves Ren questioning her very existence.

Anyone who enjoys fast-paced myth-based adventures will be swept up in this one featuring Maya and Mexica gods and their magical offspring.

Review: coming soon

 

About J. C. Cervantes:

J.C. is a New York Times best-selling author of books for children and young adults. Her books have appeared on national lists, including the American Booksellers Association New Voices, Barnes and Noble’s Best Young Reader Books, as well as Amazon’s Best Books of the Month. She has earned multiple awards and recognitions, including the New Mexico Book Award, the Zia Book Award, and most recently the 2021 New Mexico Land of Enchantment Readers’ Choice Award. 

She currently resides in the Land of Enchantment with her family, three spoiled dogs, and a lifetime collection of books. But she keeps part of her heart in Southern California, where she was born and raised. When she isn’t writing she is haunting bookstores and searching for magic in all corners of the world.

Her work is represented by Holly Root at Root Literary.

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | Bookbub

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of THE LORDS OF NIGHT, US Only.

Ends November 5^th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

10/1/2022

A Dream Within A Dream

Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

10/2/2022	@meetcuteromancebooks	Excerpt/IG Post
10/3/2022	Ya Books Central	Excerpt/IG Post
10/4/2022	The Momma Spot	Review/IG Post
10/5/2022	Wanderingwitchreads	TikTok Review/IG Post
10/6/2022	YA Book Nerd	Review/IG Post
10/7/2022	Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog	Review/IG Post
10/8/2022	booksaremagictoo	Review/IG Post

Week Three:

10/9/2022	@jacleomik33	IG Review
10/10/2022	The Bookwyrm's Den	Review
10/11/2022	Nonbinary Knight Reads	Review/IG Post
10/12/2022	Ohyouread	IG Review
10/13/2022	A Backwards Story	Review/IG Post
10/14/2022	travelersguidetobooks	IG Review
10/15/2022	Jeff_of_allmedia	IG Review

Week Four:

10/16/2022	GryffindorBookishNerd	IG Review
10/17/2022	The Moon Phoenix	Review/IG Post
10/18/2022	Blog Write. Read. Live	Excerpt/IG Post
10/19/2022	The Chatty Bookworm	TikTok Review/IG Post
10/20/2022	Mindyourshelf	Review/IG Post
10/21/2022	Lifestyle of Me	Review
10/22/2022	Kait Plus Books	Excerpt/IG Post

Week Five:

10/23/2022	onemused	IG Spotlight
10/24/2022	bookbriefs	Review/IG Post
10/25/2022	Enthralled Bookworm Blog	Review/IG Post
10/26/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review/IG Post
10/27/2022	@drew_ambitious_reading	Review/IG Post
10/28/2022	PopTheButterfly Reads	Review/IG Post
10/29/2022	Books with Brandie Shanae	YouTube Review/IG Post

Week Six:

10/30/2022	Jenguerdy	IG Spotlight
10/31/2022	The Erudite Labyrinth	Excerpt

Review: Aerie by Maria Dahvana Headley

 

The conclusion to the Magonia duology. I read Magonia last year and really enjoyed it. Going into this, I realized that I had forgotten most of what Magonia was about. I remember the main character and what Magonia was, but then everything else... I drew a complete blank. I didn't remember that Aza had a bond with Dai. I didn't even remember him or her sister Eli. I had forgotten that Jason had two moms and I forgot about his alligator costume.

So needless to say, that I really didn't enjoy my time reading this because I was confused and trying to remember what the hell happened. I was annoyed with Jason so much because of his constant control of Aza and wanting her to be "safe" and in one spot and not leave. He was also obsessed with Pi and constantly reading all of the numbers for Pi was aggrevating and it took me out of the story. 

I was really intrigued with the new government agency element that Jason was apart of. I like the introduction to underground worlds and creatures and I would like to see another book dealing with the underwater world. 

There was some shocking moments and I did want to cry at one point because I felt bad for Aza and her losing this was heartbreaking.

Review: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

 

Continuing with my Agatha Christie reading challenge. I am trying to read every single one of her works. This is the fourth I have read so far. This one is the start of her Colonel Race series and so far, I am not impressed with these characters. I mean there series is named after a minor character. 

Our main character Anne Beddingfeld witnesses a death of someone falling on the train tracks and she decides to become an investigator and find out why the person looked frightened before he fell backwards and why the scent of mothballs is so prominent. 

I was annoyed with her character all throughout the book because she was annoying as fuck. She had no clue what she was doing, yet she decided to be an investigator in something that was none of her damn business. She wanted to be an adventuress and that is basically what starts her adventure. This story is one big wrong place, wrong time. She also is very naive and dumb. She gets these letters telling her to go to certain places and she goes and falls into a trap and then she cries wolf. This happens not once but twice. The third time I was completely over it. 

This book takes place on a ship heading to South Africa. There is characters who all think bad of the other. They can't wait to get to Rhodesia and see the "black people" and have them do their bidding and make them little trinkets and drive them around. Rhodesia is Zambia and Zimbabwe today.

This story is very unforgettable and the plot was not that interesting. I honestly don't know how or who did what.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Words

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl. 

When I was a freshman in high school, I started this thing where I gave myself a word of the day for all 180 days of school. I would write it on the back of my hand so I could see it all day. It pissed my parents off for a week or two and then they got over it. My teachers noticed and said it was a great idea. 

This week's topic definitely took me down memory lane. So here are ten of my favorite words.

1. golly
2. whippersnapper
3. mother-flurkin (Marvel)
4. whizzpopper (the BFG, Roald Dahl)
5. puttanesca
6. dude
7. wabam (best friend came up with this word in school, code for talking about sex...lol)
8. why
9. majestic
10. dynasty

TIRED!!!!// Sunday Post #40

 The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. 

A busy week indeed. If you have not read last week's post, I go into detail about the two birthdays I celebrated this week. On Monday, my middle daughter Ariana turned 12.

She spent the majority of her day listening to BTS, and drawing the BTS boys. 

Tuesday through Friday were normal school days. We got so much done and my husband continued working on our outdoor kitchen area that is connected to the deck. 

Today which is Saturday, we went to my best friend's son's 2nd birthday where we also celebrated the finalization of his adoption and to celebrate them finally getting married after 10 years.....lol, my friends words... not mine. There was a giant ass bounce house and lots of good food and a kick ass face painter.

After the party we hit up the dollar general for some sweets because apparently the cupcakes weren't enough for my kids. Also missed out on the smores because everyone was leaving the party and it was getting cold. 

This coming week should be chill until next Sunday and it's my dads birthday party. Got some reading in this week. I read The Man in The Brown Suit by Agatha Christie. It wasn't my fave and it may be my least fave series by her, but I still have to start Miss Marple. 

Monday: Romeo and Juliet review

Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday

               

Wednesday: Small Favors Review

Thursday: Blog Tour: Vagabonder

Friday: Blog Tour: Wrath

Saturday: The Spy House Review

The Man in the Brown Suit Review

Aerie Review

Top Ten Tuesday

Lords of Night review

I got one book this week and that was for a blog tour that was posted on Thursday.

I didn't watch much TV this week. Wednesday night The Braves game had a rain delay and messed up the time slots for Masked Singer and Lego Masters. Not that mad because the Braves won.

Can't wait to read all about ya'lls weeks. I am really bad at commenting, but I am hoping to get back into commenting and replying to ya'll. 

Review: The Spy House by Matthew Dunn

I am still reading this series and have two more books and two novellas that I found on Hoopla, so I may be finish this series early next year. I was hoping that this one would be another 5 star, but it is a 4 star because it was a sad one. It was sad because so many characters that were in every book are no longer and they were beloved characters. I do have to say that the plots are similar in every book, but our main character Will Cochcrane has had major character growth. He is no longer the arrogant - nothing can touch me- im invincible man that I despised in the very first book. He is more humble and grounded and open minded to the dangers and he has realized that people actually care for him.

The one con I had with this was that the chapters were short. I like short chapters but these were like short short. There was also a lot of POV's from the very beginning. Thos book starts off with an Israeli ambassador to France being assassinated and then a group of CIA, DGSE and Mossad having to hole up in a bunker in Lebanon to find Hamas targets. The CIA agent in the bunker is one of Will Cochcrane's friends and he ends up being accused of killing the team members. 

There is also the main villian of this story who goes into Gaza and poses as a UN representative and he basically kidnaps a boy and then brainwashes him throughout the book to become a suicide bomber. There is trigger warnings out the wazoo for this. 

I think the next two that I read will be the two novellas and then read books 6 and 7 at the beginning of 2023. Or if I want to be a completionist, I will add the last two to my ever growing December TBR.

 

BLOG TOUR: Wrath by Sharon Moalem and Daniel Kraus

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WRATH by Shäron Moalem and Daniel Kraus Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: WRATH

Author: Shäron Moalem and Daniel Kraus

Pub. Date: October 11, 2022

Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 320

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

New York Times bestselling coauthors Sharon Moalem and Daniel Kraus's terrifying sci-fi horror thriller takes place in a future that is much nearer than you think. It is a world where scientific experimentation is exploited for commercial profit and under-supervised cutting-edge technology creates a menace that threatens the very fabric of our existence.

Wrath is the story of Sammy, a lab rat instilled with human genes whose supersized intelligence helps him to engineer his escape into the world outside the lab: a world vastly ill-equipped to deal with the menace he represents. Modified through advances that have boosted his awareness of humankind’s cruelty in the name of science, and endowed with a rat’s natural proclivity to procreate regularly, Sammy has the potential to sire a rodent army capable of viciously overwhelming the human race. The key to Sammy’s capture and humanity’s salvation may be ten-year-old Dallas Underhill, whom Sammy temporarily adopts. But while Dallas and Sammy bond, time is running out for humankind: once Sammy sires his progeny, the exponential proliferation of his kind could spell the end of the world.

 Reviews:

PRASE FOR WRATH
“Moalem and Kraus highlight some clever scientific concepts as the narrative details the variety of health problems that plague the Sammy Rats—and the sometimes barbaric methods employed to solve these issues . . . . Sienna and Noah prove ambitious and dynamic as pressure to perform brings out the absolute worst in them.” —Publishers Weekly

“Animals communicating or acting strangely is creepy; rats, in particular, give the book an extra level of sinister vibes. Add in that the rats can talk to humans, and you have an unsettling narrative that will leave you unable to look at rodents the same way again.” —Booklist

"The first book to really take up Michael Crichton's mantle. . . . Ratatouill meets World War Z in a Big Blockbuster Book that reads like Crichton, only with more eyeball-eating."—Grady Hendrix, New York Times-bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

"Moalem and Kraus have put the science back in science fiction. Wrath is grounded in very real technologies, making this grisly thriller about genetic engineering gone wrong all the more terrifying."—Bill Sullivan, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Indiana University School of Medicine, and author of Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces that Make Us Who We Are

"Wrath manages to meld a story with elements of horror, philosophy, human psychology, and the realities of animal use in scientific research. Besides being a gripping story, Wrath is a thought-provoking read for anyone who has wondered how to feel about genetic engineering, artificial intelligence and how humans use animals."—Lisa Moses, Faculty, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School

About Shäron Moalem:

Shäron Moalem MD, PhD, is an award-winning scientist, physician, and New York Times bestselling author of The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women, Survival of the Sickest, How Sex Works, and Inheritance. Moalem has served as an associate editor for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, cofounded three biotechnology companies, and his clinical genetics research has led to the discovery of two new rare genetic conditions. He has also been awarded more than 45 patents worldwide for his inventions in human health and biotechnology.

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr | Goodreads | BookBub

 

About Daniel Kraus:

Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling author. His recent collaboration with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero, The Living Dead, was acclaimed by the New York Times and Washington Post. With Guillermo del Toro, he coauthored Trollhunters (the basis for the Emmy-winning Netflix series) and The Shape of Water, based on the same idea Kraus and del Toro created for the Oscar-winning film. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Books of the Year.

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of WRATH, US Only.

Ends October 18^th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

10/3/2022	Bookhounds	Excerpt/IG Post
10/4/2022	Bookish Trisha	Review/IG Post
10/5/2022	@shangread_la	IG Review
10/6/2022	I'm Shelf-ish	Review/IG Post
10/7/2022	GryffindorBookishNerd	IG Review

Week Two:

10/10/2022	Book Reviews by Taylor	Review/IG Post
10/11/2022	Brandi Danielle Davis	IG Review
10/12/2022	@just_another_mother_with_books	IG Review
10/13/2022	The Momma Spot	Review/IG Post
10/14/2022	Lifestyle of Me	Review/IG Post