Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Review: Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame by Meg Long

 


Another Netgalley read off my shelf and a duology completed. I immediately picked this up after finishing Cold The Night, Fast The Wolves. I enjoyed it a lot and it made me cry because I fell in love with the wolf Iska. Everything bad that happened to her, I broke. I hated that she was in a cage. I cried like a baby when her "death scene" was being played out. I needed more of Sena and Iska.

I don't read book synopsis very much but I did read the first line where it mentioned Remy. I thought that we were still going to be following Sena's perspective, but no we were following Remy. I lost a little interest at the very beginning because Remy was an ok character to me. Going in to this book, I was hoping that we wouldn't have reptitive information thrown at us like we did in the first book and sure enough, in the first chapter and on the same page, Remy mentioned being engineered by the Nova company about 3-4 times. It continued to be mentioned throughout the book. If I had my own physical copy, I would have tabbed the hell out of it with every mention of being engineered.

Also the setting and plot of this book were recycled from the first one, except things were flipped. Instead of a freezing world, we got a hot as hell world where the characters sweat and there is a massive storm called the hellstorm that it exactly the same as the blizzards on Tundar.

Remy got on my nerves endlessly with the constant mentions of being engineered and only caring about Alora and how she was betrayed by Kiran, her ex partner and how he did her wrong and left her to die. 

I ended up giving this a 3 out of 5 stars. The ending lft off where there could be a third book, but I don't know how I feel because the characters that I cared about, had few interactions. Sena had this big reveal and we didn't get any information. Iska apparently approved of Remy and the lead scavver instantly which put me into a tail spin because I want to know what Sena and Iska were doing instead of reading the same drama and being told the same damn thing over and over that we learned in book one.

Top Ten Tuesday: Thanksgiving Freebie

 


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

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!! This is a freebie week. Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday right after Halloween. I always cook a big feast. We grill a whole turkey and I look forward to it every year. My husband makes the best homemade mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. This year, we are going to be sending our three daughters off to spend 5 days with my aunt and her partner. They will be leaving on Thanksgiving and be back next Monday night. This will be the longest that my kids have been gone and I am excited about the 5 days that I will get to spend with my husband because we have not been alone that long since our oldest was born 15 years ago. 

I do have a stack of library books that I want to get to before my girls do get back home, but I know for sure that I won't be getting to all of them because my husband and I will be watching TV, gaming, shopping, cleaning the yard and spending time with our animals. Sorry for the ramble, but I am looking forward to my parental vacation and the books I want to get to.

My current read

Hopefuls for the rest of the week




The top 4 are library books and The Assassin's Blade is my copy which if I don't get to, I will get to it eventually. The library books are priority because their due dates are coming up soon.





Sunday, November 24, 2024

BLOG TOUR: Don't Look, Just Run by R.A. Clarke

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the DON'T LOOK, JUST RUN by R.A. Clarke Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: DON'T LOOK, JUST RUN

Author: R.A. Clarke

Pub. Date: October 30, 2024

Publisher: Page Turn Press

Formats:  Paperback, eBook

Pages: 272

Find it: GoodreadsAmazon

Read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited Membership!

Consider this book a cautionary tale. The short stories, flash fiction, micro fiction, and poems contained within this collection are the stuff of nightmares—things you should’ve run from when you had the chance.

You’ll read a rhyming tale about a crafty northern witch with a deathly holiday fetish, the journal of a troubled woman who's been offered revitalization in the form of experimental skin therapy, and two flirty college students who learn exactly why taking strange drugs is bad. Lock your doors and pull your blanket up a little higher while you navigate a feud between neighbours that spirals out of control, operate a camera with a thirst for blood, and even chuckle while a family of vacationing demons let their hungry lil’ guy trick-or-treat, human-style.

If you take away anything from this book, besides a cramp from turning pages too fast or a case of spine tingles that won't quit—it should be this... Don't look, just run!


About R.A. Clarke:

When she's not writing children's literature, Rachael Clarke enjoys writing short stories in all kinds of genres, including dark fiction, and horror. So not to confuse or frustrate her younger readership, Rachael publishes her short fiction under the pen name R.A. Clarke.

R.A. Clarke has a dedicated Facebook page for fans of her work.

You're invited (and very welcome) to join the community!

https://www.facebook.com/raclarkeauthor

Thank you for reading!

Sign up for R.A.’s newsletter! (scroll to the bottom)

https://linktr.ee/raclarkewrites 

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card, International.

Ends December 3rd, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/4/2024

TX Girl Reads

Guest Post/IG Post

11/5/2024

The Momma Spot

Excerpt

11/6/2024

Edith's Little Free Library

IG Post/TikTok Post

11/7/2024

Two Chicks on Books

Interview/IG Post

11/8/2024

Daily Waffle

Guest Post

11/9/2024

Fire and Ice Reads

Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

11/10/2024

Lady Hawkeye

Excerpt/IG Post

11/11/2024

@callistoscalling

IG Post

11/12/2024

Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Excerpt/IG Post

11/13/2024

Rajiv's reviews

Review/IG Post

11/14/2024

Fyrekatz Blog

Review

11/15/2024

Katherinelovesbooks

Review/IG Post

11/16/2024

@enthuse_reader

IG Review/TikTok Post

Week Three:

11/17/2024

@fiction._.fuss

Review/IG Post

11/18/2024

Sudeshna Loves Reading

Excerpt

11/19/2024

Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's

Review/IG Post

11/20/2024

jlreadstoperpetuity

IG Review/TikTok Post

11/21/2024

Deal sharing aunt

Review/IG Post

11/22/2024

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post

11/23/2024

@enjoyingbooksagain

IG Review

Week Four:

11/24/2024

Lifestyle of Me

Review

11/25/2024

@thepageladies

Review/IG Post

11/26/2024

The Real World According to Sam

Review/IG Post

11/27/2024

thefashoionistfiles

Review/IG Post

11/28/2024

Brandi Danielle Davis

IG Review/TikTok Post

11/29/2024

rolo_the_book_lover-

Review/IG Post


Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Oldest Books on My Goodreads TBR

 


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

The topic for this week is the oldest books on your TBR, meaning the earliest published. I am not going to share that because I do not want to go through my entire Goodreads TBR and choose the old ones. Instead I am going to share the top ten on my TBR shelf on Goodreads.












Sunday, November 17, 2024

Review: Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long

 


I have had this on my Netgalley shelf since it released and I am just now getting to it. I honestly should have read this when it came out because I did not own two dogs then. The ending of this had me crying like a damn baby. 

This is about a girl named Sena who loves on a stormy ice planet named Tundar. She is an orphan because her moms died in a race for this resource that is very sought after on this planet. There are corporations and syndicate bosses who go after this resource year after year and it is a very deadly race. Sena is against the race because it killed her moms but also because of her heritage. She is part Scavver and part non native. Her mom worked for the corporations and was about to die in a race when she met a scavver who ended up being exiled because she saved her life. 

Sena is a pickpocket and thats how we first meet her. She hides from two corpos who are chasing her and she ends up getting into a cage with an injured fighting wolf. The wolf belongs to the syndicate boss Kalba who is no good from the very beginning. He knows all and sees all and he is very protective over his wolf. He makes Sena heal the wolf using scavver healing techniques and remedies.

Sena continues to get into trouble and pick pockets. She picks one pocket of a scientist and he ends up offering her a job to teach his team scavver techniques so they can survive the race to study the properties of the exocarbon. Sena just wants to get off world because she hates Tundar. She forms a close attachment to the wolf that Kalba named Iska which was Sena's mothers name. 

They join the race to get away from Kalba and then go from bad to worse. It was so anxiety inducing. I was stressed everytime something happened to Iska or she got thrown while battling a bear or the goblins. I did not want anything happening to this wolf.

I kept thinking of my baby Si the whole time because she is a German Shepherd and she looks so much like a wolf. We call her our little wolf. I also thought of my cat Missy's death because there was a part where Iska was close to death and it had all of the flutterinf of eyes and muscle spasms and I just remembered watching my cat die in front of me last year. 

The only thing that kept this from getting a 5 star was the constant reminders that the corpos were after the exocarbon. What the exocarbon is and all about the storms. How the corpos are changing the climate to make the exocarbon more accessible. I was annoyed by the middle of the book, but I am immediately jumping into the sequel because there is a new world and I am hoping that the same thing does not happen.

Friday, November 15, 2024

Review: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

 


I think I have found my favorite classic for this 4th year od my classic club challenge. I really enjoyed my time reading this, even though it took me a week and a half to get through it. It gave me the same feelings and vibes that I got while reading Stardust.

I never watched the movie growing up but I did grow up watching Robin Wright in Forrest Gump and Carey Elwes in Twister, Liar Liar and Saw. So I know that they are some amazing actors and can't wait to watch this movie this weekend.

I went for years not reading this because I thought I was not a fan of romance books, but if it is tied with adventure and some royalty, then sign me the hell up. A couple years ago I was watching a booktuber talk about this and she kept on about it being abridged and I was like great, now I need to find the original work.

Starting this book was confusing as hell and I almost skipped the introduction altogether because I didn't care about the author's thoughts. I stuck through it and it just made me even more confused about the original. I was also grossed out how the author acted towards the woman at the hotel pool and how he was attracted to her and her body. He was also very fat phobic towards his son and how his wife was babying him.

A good way through I realized that this book wasn't an abridged version of anything and it was part of the appeal. I laughed because I remembered that booktuber and how she felt about this book because she genuinely though there were important parts missing. 

By the end of the book, I was starting to get bored and the Buttercup's Baby section was just not neccessary because most of the section was about Inigo and Fezzik. 


Thursday, November 14, 2024

BLOG TOUR: Safecracker by Jesse Deroy

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the SAFECRACKER by Jesse DeRoy Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: SAFECRACKER

Author: Jesse DeRoy

Pub. Date: November 12, 2024

Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Formats: Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 411

Find it: Goodreadshttps://books2read.com/SAFECRACKER

Jesse Deroy’s debut is a taut and deeply inhabited dive into the criminal netherworld that unfurls with surprising heart, wild specificity, and the tactile pleasure of an intricate well-executed plan.

Grantchester “Duke" Ducaine was born and raised a thief, so working the straight and narrow the last two years has felt like surfing without water. His dad is in the pen and his sister is . . . well, Duke doesn’t like to think about all of the things that are his fault. He’s got more pressing problems, like a bookie who wants to break his thumbs, and a couple of possibly shady Feds who want him to break into an unbreakable safe. When Duke agrees to take the job, thinking he might have the answer to his problems, he discovers that some things are best left unopened.


About Jesse DeRoy:

Jesse DeRoy is a former consultant, rock-climbing instructor, and award-winning journalist. Safecracker is Jesse’s first novel. They live in New York with their family. 

Goodreads

 






Giveaway Details:

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

Ends November 26th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/11/2024

Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Excerpt/IG Post

11/12/2024

TX Girl Reads

Guest Post/IG Post

11/13/2024

The Litt Librarian

Review/Interview/IG Post

11/14/2024

Lifestyle of Me

Review/IG Post

11/15/2024

@bookgirlbrown_reviews

Review/IG Post

Week Two:

11/18/2024

@thepageladies

Review/IG Post

11/19/2024

@fiction._.fuss

Review/IG Post

11/20/2024

AJ Johnson Bookgamer200

Review/IG Post

11/21/2024

Brandi Danielle Davis

Review/IG Post

11/22/2024

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post


Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Destination Titles


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

This weeks topic is destination titles. I love travel and I really enjoy books set in different countries and made up places. All but one of these I have read and I am hoping to read it before the end of the year because I am intrigued. I have gotten really into witches this year and Scotland has a special place in my heart.














Monday, November 11, 2024

BLOG TOUR: Would You Rather by Loris Owen

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WOULD YOU RATHER by Loris Owen Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: WOULD YOU RATHER SECRET CODES: Unique puzzles and quirky questions for tweens and teens, with hilarious picture clues

Author: Loris Owen

Pub. Date: October 25, 2024

Publisher: Quixar Press

Formats:  Paperback, eBook

Pages: 214

Find it: GoodreadsAmazon

Read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited Membership!

The first two-in-one would you rather and secret code book – double the puzzles means double the fun!

A treasure trove of secret codes in letters, numbers and pictures.
Would-you-rather questions ranging from ick to incredible.
Hilarious picture clues guaranteed to make you giggle.
Difficulty builds gradually from 6 to 42 words.

This two-in-one book helps to improve:

  • Observation (reveal the code and spot the gaps)
  • Concentration (don’t accidentally mix up your key grid)
  • If/then logic (test possible letter matches and adjust to make sense)
  • Critical thinking (solve code and make tough decisions)
  • Pattern recognition (recognise frequent words in the code)
  • Literacy (read, write and spell)
  • Debating (tell friends and family why your choice is the right one)
  • Drawing and fine motor skills
  • Creativity (funny questions mean even funnier answers, especially with the help of the picture clues)…
  • All while having loads of fun!


This book will make you think

Figure out the secret code using the instructions and the secret code breaking key. Then prepared to be challenged by one-of-a-kind would you rather questions from children’s and YA author Loris Owen.

This book will make you laugh

Enjoy hours of entertainment with head-scratching codes and imaginative questions, all illustrated with funny and fantastical picture clues.

This book is for all the family

Great for screen breaks, rainy days, weekends, restaurants, road trips and holidays, sleepovers and game nights. Designed for 9- to 13-year-olds but can be enjoyed by everyone. If you're looking for unique puzzles, this secret code book is for you!

This book will feed your brain

Honey badgers? Wormholes? Monkey puzzle trees? Discover all these and more inside, along with a helpful vocabulary list and factual definitions. Use your critical thinking and guesswork to solve the secret codes, with instructions and extra hints included.

 

How to solve would you rather secret codes:



About Loris Owen:

Loris Owen was born in Bolton and raised in Zimbabwe. She was taught to think sideways at an early age by her dad, and went on to study English at Cambridge. After roaming the world in search of adventure, she settled in the English Midlands, where she can often be found behind mountains of post-it notes or reading to ducks. If she can't be found, she's probably disappeared into a particularly good puzzle.

Sign up for Loris’s newsletter!

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Goodreads | Amazon

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card, International.

Ends November 19th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/4/2024

Frugal Freelancer

Puzzle Photo/IG Post

11/4/2024

@mjreadsmagic

Puzzle Photo/IG Post

11/5/2024

onemused

IG Spotlight

11/5/2024

TX Girl Reads

Puzzle Photo/IG Post

11/6/2024

The Momma Spot

Puzzle Photo

11/6/2024

Two Chicks on Books

Puzzle Photo/IG Post

11/7/2024

Daily Waffle

Puzzle Photo

11/7/2024

Rajiv's reviews

Review/IG Post

11/8/2024

@pineshorelittlefreelibrary

IG Review/LFL Drop Pic

11/8/2024

Fire and Ice Reads

Puzzle Photo/IG Post

Week Two:

11/11/2024

One More Exclamation

IG Post

11/11/2024

Lifestyle of Me

Review

11/12/2024

@cocoawithbooks

Review/IG Post

11/12/2024

@thepageladies

IG Review/TikTok Post

11/13/2024

Dana Loves Books 

Review/IG Post

11/13/2024

avainbookland

IG Review

11/14/2024

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post

11/14/2024

Books With A Chance

Review/IG Post

11/15/2024

@enjoyingbooksagain

IG Review

11/15/2024

rolo_the_book_lover-

Review/IG Post


Review: Is This A Cry For Help by Emily Austin

  DNF at 40%. I could not continue this whiplash. I was expecting some big drama surrounding the ex but finding out that she broke up with h...