Lifestyle Of Me

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

BLOG TOUR: A Rainbow Like You by Andrea Fehsenfeld

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the A RAINBOW LIKE YOU by Andréa Fehsenfeld Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: A RAINBOW LIKE YOU

Author: Andréa Fehsenfeld

Pub. Date: October 27, 2020

Publisher: Free Form Productions

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 320

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, TBD

An iconic rock star with everything to prove. A teen runaway with nothing left to lose. Are you ready for the most unexpected journey?

Adrian ‘Jazzer’ Johnson’s gilded rock and roll career is the stuff of legend. From out of the dive bars of Long Beach, this high school dropout rocketed his band to the pinnacle of success. But after a whirlwind decade ended with him broken and questioning, Adrian disappeared.

Now back on tour after a year in exile, Adrian’s still struggling and under pressure to deliver his next hit. The last thing he needs is to find a teen runaway hiding in his tour bus. As it turns out, Hastings Sinclair is a synesthete who can see music in color. But her offer to help color-blind Adrian unpack his creative block upends their lives in ways they never imagined.

Because Adrian’s troubles run deep—beyond what any song can fix—and Hastings hasn’t been upfront about hers. When calamity strikes, a perfect storm of fates unleashes and caught in the crossfire are Adrian’s band mates, a fame-shy beauty he falls hard for, and a scheming journalist with a vendetta. With everything he values suddenly on the line, can Adrian reconcile his own brash history? Or will he be forced to face the music in a way he never has before?

REVIEW: I need a few days to process what I just read! OMG.

From the very beginning, I felt pity for Adrian. He is a 30 year old rock and roller who has a failed marriage. He is struggling in to write new songs and his band mates are losing hope that he will churn out anything that will be a hit. When he found Hastings hiding away on his tour bus, I was like, holy hell! The author's writing just flowed beautifully. Her characters are original and realistic. I need to read more from her. If Andre Fehsenfeld ever writes a sequel or a companion, I want to be one of the first to know.

About Andréa:

An award-winning TV producer, Andréa has delivered over 200 TV commercials, series and movies for Fortune 500 companies, global networks and the world’s biggest brands.

A life long book lover, in 2016 she channelled her storytelling skills into writing fiction. COMPLETION was her debut novel and is currently being adapted for television. Her second novel, A Rainbow Like You, publishes October 27th, 2020.

Voted “Most Original” in high school, she’ll go down bleeding living up to that distinction. No surprise then, she loves unconventional characters and circumstances with a dash of wild and crazy.

Oh…and she never met a margarita she didn’t like.

Giveaway Details:

1 Winner will receive a signed copy of A RAINBOW LIKE YOU and swag, US & Canada Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

11/6/2020	Two Chicks on Books	Interview
11/6/2020	Rockstar Book Tours	Excerpt
11/7/2020	Jaime's World	Excerpt
11/7/2020	JaimeRockstarBookTours	Instagram Post
11/8/2020	BookHounds YA	Interview
11/8/2020	BookHounds YA	Instagram Post
11/8/2020	Books A-Brewin'	Guest Post
11/9/2020	Westveil Publishing	Guest Post
11/9/2020	The Reading Wordsmith	Review
11/9/2020	A Dream Within A Dream	Guest Post
11/10/2020	Lifestyle of Me	Review
11/10/2020	Betwixt the Pages	Review
11/11/2020	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
11/11/2020	booksaremagictoo	Instagram Post
11/11/2020	booksaremagictoo	Review
11/12/2020	callmekaare	Review
11/12/2020	Allie_reads95	Review/Instagram Post
11/13/2020	Do You Dog-ear?	Review
11/13/2020	doyoudogear	Instagram Post

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Book Titles that Would Make Great Song Titles

HAPPY TUESDAY my dudes. This weeks top ten Tuesday prompt is brought to us by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl. The prompt is book titles that would make great song titles. At first when I saw this prompt, I was like I have no freaking clue, but then I started scrolling through my Good Reads shelves and staring at my bookshelves and a couple started to pop out.

1. Spin Cycle

2. The 8th Circle

3. The Wicked Pavilion

4. By Gaslight

5. Hum If You Don't Know The Words

6. Forever With You

7. Bloody Bones

8. I Am Haunted

9. Hatchet

10. Against Authority

I also chose book titles that I feel would go well with my favorite genre of music, which rock & heavy metal.

Monday, November 9, 2020

Review: 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff

A fast paces account of a true story. I did not know much about this event and don't even recall hearing or reading about it in 2012. I had a newborn, so I was giving all my attention to my kids and not the rest of the world.

During the 2016 election, I was hearing a lot of things about Hillary Clinton and Benghazi and had no freaking clue what it all meant. I still don't know the connection besides her being Secretary of State at the time and her being mentioned in this account.

This is a fast paced read from the G.R.S operatives that fought a 13 hour battle against Islamic terrorists when they attacked a Special Missions compound and murdered two Americans, one being the Ambassador to Libya. The other being a communications expert.

The CIA annex that was not even on the Libyan government radar until it was attacked also had two Americans killed. I watched the adaptation today with my husband and it was helped put names to faces and reading it was anxiety inducing, but watching what it must have been like, just made me angry.

Saturday, November 7, 2020

OCTOBER 2020 WRAP UP

Last month, I had a spooky TBR. In my opinion, only a couple of the books were mildly spooky and the rest were not. I read a total of 8 books last month. Here they are. I always post my reviews of the books I read except the books I read aloud to my kids.

1. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

2. Locke & Key volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill

3. Locke & key volume 2: Head Games by Joe Hill

4. I Am Haunted by Zak Bagans

5. The Ship by Antonia Honeywell

6. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

7. Tuesday Mooney Talks To Ghosts by Kate Racculia

8. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Non- Bookish Hobbies

HAPPY ELECTION DAY!!! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana over at the That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is all about non bookish hobbies. My main hobby is reading obviously and takes up most of my time, but there are other things that I love to do. Here they are.

1. ANIMAL CROSSING: My husband Cayce bought this game on his birthday back in May and my kids and I have become obsessed. My top three villager are Margie, Zucker and Raymond.

2. ONLINE WINDOW SHOPPING: We all have those days where we click add to cart all day every day.

3. BOARD GAMES: My kids love to play board games and my husband is a huge collector of different versions of Monopoly and our game nights have lasted until 2 or 3 in the mornings.

4. GHOST ADVENTURES: I binge this show whenever I have free time. It is an addiction.

5. MAKING YOUTUBE VIDEOS: I do make YouTube videos about books, so it's kind of bookish.

6. LESSON PLANNING: I have been homeschooling my kids since 2014 and planning their lessons and what they learn is thrilling and fun and I get to feel like a good parent.

7. BLOGGING: I have been blogging since 2012.

8. GIFT GIVING: I love to shop and give people gifts. It makes me happy and I love to see their expressions when they unwrap or pull it out of the bag.

9. PLANNING: I am always on the lookout for new planner stickers and themes and watching for new stationary items and the new yearly planners.

10. FISHING: I grew up in a family that treats fishing as a religion and it is a thing that I do with my dad a lot.

Monday, November 2, 2020

Review: The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

When I first started this book, I had no idea who Hercule Poirot was. I had only heard the name a few times from watching videos of a favorite actor's interview who was in the BBC show and that the character was brought to "life" by Agatha Christie. While reading, I had to keep researching because I wanted to know the basics and I even watched YouTube videos on how to pronounce his name because I felt like a dummy not knowing how to pronounce it.

My Good Reads review says it all:

my "little grey cells" are in a hot freaking mess. I am confused and agitated to no end by the amount of back and forth and all around stories by Poirot. I wanted him to just get to the point and in my opinion, Catchpool is a shitty detective. He can't figure things out for himself and he whines about how he is supposed to be the leader of the investigation.

I cannot try to summarize this book, because I would definitely mess up and spoil the whole thing and I do not want to take away the confusion, annoyance, and general anger that comes with trying to learn "whodunit" from Hercule Poirot who likes to refer to himself in third person. I want to let you try to figure out the murderer in the first two chapters and then come to a different person halfway through, and then PLOT Twist at the very end.

I will be picking up the rest of this series and I will be watching the BBC show soon because I am "not obsessed" but almost addicted to the mind of Hercule Poirot.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

BLOG TOUR: The Psychic's Memoirs by Ryan Hyatt

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE PSYCHIC'S MEMOIRS by Ryan Hyatt Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: THE PSYCHIC'S MEMOIRS (Terrafide #2)

Author: Ryan Hyatt

Pub. Date: July 30, 2020

Publisher: Ryan Hyatt

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 252

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle

Read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited Membership!

In The Psychic’s Memoirs, a hot-tempered Los Angeles detective and his distracted partner are assigned to find an alleged teenage psychic whose capture might determine the outcome of a looming civil war and humanity’s relationship with a misleading alien force. The standalone novel is part of Ryan Hyatt’s Terrafide series, techie tales of woe and hope in which characters grapple with a world falling apart. The Terrafide universe, which also includes Rise of the Liberators and Stay Younger Longer, takes place on an alternate timeline that mirrors and mimics present-day events.

Praise for The Psychic’s Memoirs:

“The Best Cyberpunk Novels of 2020 and 2021” --Joel Stafford, Joel’s Books

"A mind-warping journey through an all-too-plausible near-future America where sociopolitical revolution and advanced technology represent the promise and peril of human evolution."--Jake Anderson, author of Gone at Midnight: The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam

“Hyatt's superior ability to build a convincing lived-in world just over the horizon is on display page after page. This is not another orgy of post-apocalyptic horrors, but an opportunity to see every calamity as a possible stepping stone toward utopia.”--A.L. Lorentz, author of The Filter Trap and Dead Monkeys

Check out the other books in the Terrafide series!

About Ryan:

Ryan Hyatt was born in Tucson in 1976. He was raised in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago and Copenhagen before returning to his hometown and graduating from the University of Arizona in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in history, psychology and creative writing. Hyatt spent much of his twenties working as a reporter and columnist for newspapers such as the Apache Junction Independent and Santa Monica Daily Press. In addition to the Terrafide series, he is author of the modern western, The Death of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and editor of the satirical sci-fi news site, The La-La Lander, as well as Not Your Father’s Bedtime Stories, children’s tales he creates with his daughter. He holds a master’s degree in education from California State University Northridge and develops and manages literacy intervention programs for Los Angeles schools. For updates on the state of the future, visit thelalalander.com.

Giveaway Details:

3 lucky winners will receive a finished copy of THE PSYCHIC'S MEMOIRS, US Only.

3 lucky winners will receive an eBook of THE PSYCHIC'S MEMOIRS, International.