Friday, November 16, 2018
Review: Six Miles To Charleston by Bruce Orr
A short nonfiction book that was totally different from what I was expecting. I was expecting facts about the legend of John and Lavinia Fisher and how they murdered people, chopped them up and Lavinia being the first woman serial killer in America. To find out none of it is actually true and a great made up ghost story is mind blowing.
Turns out that John and Lavinia Fisher were not murderers, they did run the Six Mile House is Charleston, but they never killed anyone and chop the bodies into tiny little pieces. To fins out that they were themselves victims by the South Carolina government in property disputes. They had their rights violated and were wrongfully charged and executed for a crime they did not commit. They were sentenced for a crime that they were not charged with at all.
The first time I heard of Lavinia Fisher was on Ghost Adventures when they were in Charleston investigating the Old City Jail where she was held for a year with her husband. I had to know more because of South Carolina history and ghost stories.
To know that to this day, they are still guilty of a baseless crime, they have no grave marker ( the MUSC building is on top of John and Lavinia Fisher's grave), they were not able to have children of their own and they are known to the state, country and possibly the world as murderers. If i was a spirit and died knowing all this, I would also be one pissed off spirit.
The sad thing is, 200 years later and they have no pardon.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
BLOG TOUR: Wildwood & Windswept by Jadie Jones
Rockstar Book Tours is hosting this tour for the amazing series. They were given brand new covers earlier this year and they are stunning.
Title: WILDWOOD (The Hightower Trilogy
Book #1)
Author: Jadie Jones
Pub. Date: September 26, 2017
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Pages: 294
Summary: Tanzy Hightower is not crazy. At
least, that’s what she tells herself. Crazy looks more like her mother, who
studies each sunrise with the same fascination other women give tabloid
magazines in the grocery store checkout line. Crazy sounds like the woman on
the radio claiming there’s a whole separate world existing parallel to our own.
Still, Tanzy can’t deny the tingle of recognition she feels each time she sees
her mother standing at the kitchen window, or hears the panic in the woman’s
voice coming through the speakers of her father’s truck.
Tanzy intends to follow her father’s footsteps into the professional horse world. But the moment she watches him die on the back of a horse in an accident she feels responsible for, everything changes.
On the first anniversary of his death, a fight with her mother drives her back to her father’s farm in the middle of a stormy night. Neither Tanzy nor life as she knows it escapes unchanged when she is struck by lightning and introduced to a world... unseen, and receives proof her father’s death was no accident.
Two strangers seem too willing to help her navigate her new reality: Vanessa Andrews, a psychiatrist who believes lightning chooses who it strikes, and Lucas, a quiet, scarred stable hand with timing that borders on either perfect or suspect. But Tanzy has secrets of her own. Desperate for answers and revenge, Tanzy must put her faith in their hands as her past comes calling, and her father’s killer closes in.
Review: First off, the summary gives a lot away. There are a lot of spoilers in the synopsis. I give this book a solid 5 out of 5 stars!!
Tanzy has always known that her mother was a little off and her father never asked any questions. Her mother is not a reliable character and she becomes despondent after the death of her husband. She is obsessed with routine and tradition and doesn't want it broken for fear of everything coming out in the open that she is hiding to protect Tanzy.
This is a great paranormal novel that had me flying through the pages. It was disturbing, shocking, fluffy, betraying and heartbreaking. There were a few times I caught myself crying when ever Tanzy would remember her dad and his little ticks or what he liked or what he would say. It reminded me of an episode that I watched of Flash with the girl and guy kept being reincarnated and had to kill whoever was killing them because everytime this guy killed the couple, he would get stronger. There were similarities but I found this reincarnation story SO much better.
Title: WINDSWEPT (The Hightower
Trilogy Book #2)
Author: Jadie Jones
Pub. Date: November 13, 2018
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 276
Summary: Tanzy's journey continues in
Windswept, the second installment of the Hightower Trilogy... An Unseen World
believes Tanzy Hightower is the key in an ancient prophecy meant to deliver the
only new birth in all of time. They have waited a thousand years for her soul to
return to life in human form. Some of them will stop at nothing to fulfill the
prophecy, and others have sworn an oath to end Tanzy's existence, permanently.
Tanzy's body is compromised. Her veins are now home to the blood of a savage,
wild horse, and its instincts are becoming impossible to control. Her world is
also divided. She is determined to rescue Lucas, an Unseen creature who has
loved her since her first life, and to find her treasured Harbor and the other
stolen horses, which are bound for a catastrophic end in a world she can't
access on her own. Yet the only allies she has left insist she seeks refuge in
a remote safe house on the Outer Banks. While her fellow candidates beg her to
stay in hiding, new enemies work to draw her out, making it clear Lucas and the
horses are hers for the taking. But Tanzy knows all to well that when your
loved ones are used as bait, finding them is only the beginning.
Review: Will contain spoilers. This second installment of the Hightower trilogy was more action packed, and full of plot twists. We pick up from where left off with Tanzy escaping and running into the new girl, who admits right away that she is there to help protect Tanzy and that she has been in touch with Hope, Tanzy's mom. This book takes place on the beach and surrounds the wild horses on the OuterBanks in North Carolina.
Tanzy is hell bent on saving Lucas and she eventually tracks him down. The new characters in this book were integrated so well because their past lives were introduce in the first book and their re-incarnated souls were perfectly matched, just a bit more modernized.
I hope that something beautiful will happen for Tanzy and Lucas. I hope Vanessa, Reese and Asher go straight to hell.
Tanzy is hell bent on saving Lucas and she eventually tracks him down. The new characters in this book were integrated so well because their past lives were introduce in the first book and their re-incarnated souls were perfectly matched, just a bit more modernized.
I hope that something beautiful will happen for Tanzy and Lucas. I hope Vanessa, Reese and Asher go straight to hell.
Jadie Jones
Young-adult author. Equine professional. Southern gal. Pacific Northwest
Transplant. Especially fond of family, sunlight, and cookie dough.
I wrote my first book in seventh grade, filling one hundred and four
pages of a black and white Mead notebook. Back then I lived for two things:
horses and R.L. Stine books. Fast forward nearly twenty years, and I still work
with horses, and hoard books like most women my age collect shoes. It's amazing
how much changes... and how much stays the same.
The dream of publishing a novel has hitch-hiked with me down every other
path I've taken (and there have been many.) Waitress, farm manager, road
manager, bank teller, speech writer, retail, and more. But that need to bring
pen to paper refused to quiet. Finally, in 2009, I sat down, pulled out a brand
new notebook, and once again let the pictures in my head become words on paper.
As a child, my grandfather would sit me in his lap and weave tales about
the Cherokee nation, and a girl who belonged with horses. His words painted a
whole new world, and my mind would take flight. My hope - my dream - is that
Tanzy's journey does the same for you.
Giveaway
Details:
One lucky winner will win a $10 Amazon Gift Card, International.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
11/12/2018- Here
is what I read blog- Excerpt
11/13/2018- Mythical
Books- Excerpt
11/14/2018- lori's little house
of reviews- Review
11/15/2018- Lifestyle Of Me- Review
11/16/2018- Rhythmicbooktrovert- Review
Week Two:
11/19/2018- Adventures
Thru Wonderland- Review
11/20/2018- Whatever You Can Still Betray- Excerpt
11/21/2018- BookHounds YA- Interview
11/22/2018- Graced
with Books- Excerpt
11/23/2018- Texan
Holly Reads- Excerpt
Week Three:
11/26/2018- PopTheButterfly
Reads- Review
11/27/2018- Daily
Waffle- Spotlight
11/28/2018- Novel
Novice- Excerpt
11/29/2018- The
Book Bratz- Interview
11/30/2018- Character Madness and Musing- Excerpt
Week Four:
12/3/2018- Dorky
Girl and Skeletor- Spotlight
12/4/2018- Viviana
MacKade- Excerpt
12/5/2018- Smada's Book Smack- Review
12/6/2018- Parajunkee- Excerpt
12/7/2018- Sincerely
Karen Jo Blog- Excerpt
Week Five:
12/10/2018- Good
Choice Reading- Excerpt
12/11/2018- Oh Hey!
Books.- Interview
12/12/2018- Two
Chicks on Books- Excerpt
12/13/2018- Two
points of interest- Excerpt
12/14/2018- D
Books and Reviews- Review
Monday, November 12, 2018
BLOG TOUR: Wilder by Andrew Simonet
I am excited to announce that I am the first stop on the Wilder blog tour that Rockstar Book Tours has organized. Wilder is a debut novel by Andrew Simonet. It will be hitting shelves, tomorrow on November 13, 2018.
Title: WILDER
Author: Andrew Simonet
Pub. Date: November 13, 2018
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Pages: 320
SUMMARY: I met Melissa in the rubber room, a.k.a. in-school suspension. And that’s not her real name.
She had secrets, I had enemies.
“People are either useful or dangerous,” she said. “One or the other.”
“Which one am I?” I said.
“You’re both.”
Meili was right. (That’s her real name.)
You can solve a lot of problems if you don’t mind getting hurt.
“People are either useful or dangerous,” she said. “One or the other.”
“Which one am I?” I said.
“You’re both.”
Meili was right. (That’s her real name.)
You can solve a lot of problems if you don’t mind getting hurt.
Jason Wilder is in permanent in-school suspension for fighting. Meili Wen gets there by breaking a girl’s finger. Jason and Meili don’t just connect; they collide. Two people who would never cross paths—outsiders from radically different backgrounds—they form an exhiliarating, unpredictable bond. When circumstances push, they push back. There’s no plan. And there’s no stopping.
"I am so crap. How can you stand being with me? Don’t answer that or I will crash this thing with both of us on it, swear to god, are you ready?”
Yes. No. Didn’t matter.
Yes. No. Didn’t matter.
I reached both arms around Meili’s waist as we zoomed down the hill.
REVIEW: Jason's life is literal hell. He is the school outcast and is in permanent in school suspension. He has to spend his days in a no longer used classroom, which has been dubbed the Rubber Room. He can't talk to anyone, he can't take any "weapons" with him, He just has to sit there, shut up and do his work. His boring days change when the new "foreign" girl gets put in the rubber room for breaking a popular girls finger. They connect and form a bond when they shouldn't be associating at all.
As the story goes along, we find out that "Melissa" has a lot of deep dark secrets and she can not be found out by the cops or any one of importance. Jason just can't let her go and he forms a very quick and intense relationship with her. he has a lot of problems of his own. Being the town arsonist is a lot to handle, not to mention the many assault cases he has.
This story was not what I was expecting at all. I thought it would end up being about some troubled kid who finally gets things to go right after learning, but nope. I then expected some of "Melissa's" family to be behind all of her disastrous family drama. Maybe a kidnapping. I also did not expect all the sex scenes. WHAT!!!! But I should have expected it from two teenagers who are alone with no parents or guardians.
I give this a 4 out of 5 stars because the expectations I had were no where near what actually happened. I also felt like Jason had some sort of Norman Bates type personality... maybe.
Andrew Simonet
I am a
writer and choreographer in Philadelphia. I am interested in messy, complex
humans colliding with rigid systems. I am interested in how unequal everything
is, and the stories we tell ourselves about that. I am interested in the
stories men tell ourselves about everything. I am interested in what bodies
know that brains don't. I think pretty is the enemy of beautiful.
My debut
young adult novel, Wilder, will be published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in
November 2018. I am currently writing a sequel.
I was a
founding Co-Director of Philadelphia's Headlong Dance Theater from 1993-2013.
We made raucous performance works.
I am an
activist and organizer for artists having sustainable lives. I founded Artists
U (programs in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and South Carolina) and wrote Making
Your Life as an Artist.
Career
stuff: my creative work has been supported by the Creative Capital Foundation,
The NEA, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The New England
Foundation for the Arts, Yaddo, and Ucross. I received a Pew Fellowship in the
Arts, an Independence Fellowship in the Arts, and a Bessie for Choreography at
the New York Dance and Performance Awards.
Giveaway Details:
3 Winners
will receive a finished copy of WILDER, US Only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
11/12/2018- Lifestyle Of Me- Review
11/13/2018- Here's
to Happy Endings- Review
11/14/2018- The
Pages In-Between- Review
11/15/2018- Adventures
Thru Wonderland- Review
11/16/2018- Novel
Novice- Excerpt
Week Two:
11/19/2018- BookHounds- Interview
11/20/2018- Do
You Dog-ear?- Review
11/21/2018- The Desert Bibliophile- Review
11/22/2018- Two
points of interest- Review
11/23/2018- Oh Hey!
Books.- Review
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Review: The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel
The first book to start of my Nonfiction November TBR challenge. I started reading this on the 1st and I finished it on the 9th. It was a long and repetitive chunk of a book. There were so many dates and places to remember. I should have written it down to memorize. Basically it is about the Nazi's looting millions of pieces of art work, cultural master pieces and owner less Jewish possessions and hiding these artifacts all over Germany.
This book is the recognition of The Monuments Men that was a unit of American and British soldiers that were put together to try and recover and save stolen important art works and statues and doing it with the bare minimum of supplies and help. They recovered of hundreds of thousands of stolen and looted pieces from France, Poland, Austria and other German occupied countries.
I will have to see the movie, to understand better the people who helped save the most important relics in history.
Friday, November 2, 2018
Review: Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han *spoilers*
The third and final book in the To All The Boys I've Loved Before series and I freaking flew through it in less than 24 hours. I could not put it down, I had to see what was happening with Lara Jean and Kavinsky.
We follow them through their senior year and them trying to figure out how their relationship is going to work when they are going to attend different colleges. Peter is an automatic shoe in for UVA because he is an athlete. Lara Jean is waitlisted for UNC and rejected at UVA. It puts a strain on their relationship and eventually there is some distance.
We lose a beloved and funny character and we see Lara jean try to take over a wedding.
I cried so much during this book. I was grinning from ear to ear and I laughed so loudly at times that I had to stop and calm down. It also made me think a lot about my senior year of high school and all the experiences I missed out on because I was pregnant with Samantha. I missed out on graduation pictures and prom and a lot of stuff and I was upset. 10 years ago I was ready to end high school and was looking forward to going to college, but now as a mom to an almost 10 year old, I would not change much. I would do a whole lot more.
I need this series in my life. This series is one that I will re-read over and over and over again. It is so cute, fluffy, heartbreaking, funny and so so real.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
October Wrap Up
I read 9 books in the month of October and most of them were on my October TBR. I didn't get to The Walking Dead this month and also Gone by Michael Grant didn't get read. I will probably make that on a priority in December. I did finish a series this month. You will probably figure it out by the pictures, and my reviews.
1. The Darkest Legacy by Alexandra Bracken
2. Endurance by Alfred Lansing
3. P.s. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
4. Open Mic Night At Westminster Cemetery by Mary Amato
5. The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett
6. The House by Christina Lauren
7. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys edited by April Genevieve Tucholke
8. Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
9. Nightbooks by J.A. White
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