WWW Wednesday: June 9th 2021

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

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Personal:

Surprisingly, nothing too much is going on in my personal life right now. So, I really don’t have too much to put under this section. This is weird because I usually have something going on. I’ll give it a week.

Nothing too much going on with the kids either. They are all enjoying their summer vacation so far. There are the usual squabbles but I deal with that by separating them. The two older kids go to their rooms and Miss R sits in the living room with me.

Blog:

I haven’t gotten much done on the blog. I didn’t take my laptop with me on vacation. So everything is still the same. I do plan on working on it when the kids are swimming and it isn’t too hot out (I can do it at the table by the pool).

Reading:

I didn’t get a ton of reading done when we were on vacation. I get carsick if I read while the car is moving and once we got to FL, I was too busy to pick my Kindle up. But, once we got home, that was a different story. I finished 4 books from Thursday-Tuesday. 3 were ARCs and one was a library book. I am pretty happy with myself for that.

Watching:

BK and I have been watching Blacklist. I admit to having a bit of a crush on James Spader…lol. We also started watching Game of Thrones on HBO Max last night. I have watched the first episode and had to warn BK that it was a bit racy. He didn’t believe me until Tyrion Lannister’s first scene. Then he said, “Oh, guess we shouldn’t watch this around the kids.” No kidding…lol. I also am going to start watching Shadow and Bone once BK starts traveling again. I really wanted to read the series first but that isn’t going to happen any time soon.

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What I Recently Finished Reading:

Kate and Lauren meet for Sunday lunch every week without fail, especially after the loss of their father–but a knock at the door is about to change everything. A young woman by the name of Jess holds a note with the results of a DNA test, claiming to be their half-sister. As the fallout starts, it’s clear that they are all hiding secrets, and perhaps this family isn’t as perfect as it appears.

I didn’t care for this book, which is surprising because I love thrillers and mysteries. But the main characters, Kate and Lauren, didn’t gel with me. Lauren was too much of a pushover (I would NOT deal with what she dealt with from her husband) and Kate was very confrontational and abrasive. But, the mystery was good (I did figure 90% of it out by the middle of the book) and I liked the ending.

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What I am currently reading:

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

I am super excited to read These Violent Delights. This book has been on my must-read list for months and I was lucky enough to get it from the library (after a small wait). A good majority of the reviews I have read have been favorable and I can’t wait to dive into it.

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What books I think I’ll read next:

I have 4 books that I would like to finish by next week’s WWW Wednesday. These books are all ARCs and a couple of them are overdue for a review.

I am a weed.

Unloved by my abusive, alcoholic dad. Unwanted by my classmates. Unnoticed by everyone else.

But I’d suffer anything to give my kid sister a better life—the minute I turn eighteen, I’m getting us the hell out of here. And some hot stranger telling me I am the key to stopping a war between Heaven and Hell isn’t going to change that.

Let the world crumble and burn, for all I care.

Draven is relentless, though. And very much a liar. Every time his sexy lips are moving, I can see it—in the dip of his head, the grit of his jaw—even if my heart begs me to ignore the signs.

So what does he want?

I need to figure it out fast, because now everyone is gunning for me. And damn if I don’t want to show them what happens when you let weeds thrive in the cracks of the pavement…

We can grow powerful enough to shatter the whole foundation.

Having reached 34, Angelique Santoro finds herself feeling trapped and deeply unhappy within the constraints of traditional relationships.
Uneasy to perform the role of life partner or girlfriend in the way society has designed for all women.

Finally, she takes the courage to break free and becomes single for the first time in 15 years. Breaking away from the ties that bind us. Breaking away from the fear of being alone and lonely to become what she was always meant to be.

Diary of a contemporary woman follows Angelique in her new life, her adventures. Utterly compelling, beautiful, honest and bold.
Angelique will have you laughing and crying at the same time, willing her on to find happiness and that rare calm within.

Around the world, twenty-two people have been murdered. The victims fit no profile, the circumstances vary wildly, but one thing links them all: in every case the victim is branded with a number.

With police around the globe floundering and unable to identify any pattern, let alone find a killer, CIA Analyst Quinn Mitchell is called in to investigate.

Before long, Quinn is on the trail of an ice-hearted assassin with seemingly limitless resources – but she’s prepared for that.

What she isn’t prepared for is the person pulling the strings…

Once a year, actors from across the globe descend on the smog and sunshine of Los Angeles for pilot season. Every cable network and studio looking to fill the rosters of their new shows enticing a fresh batch of young hopefuls, anxious, desperate and willing to do whatever it takes to make it. Careers will be made, dreams will be realized, stars will be born. And some will be snuffed out.

British star Mia Eliot has landed leading roles in costume dramas in her native country, but now it’s time for Hollywood to take her to the next level. Mia flies across the Atlantic to join the hoard of talent scrambling for their big breaks. She’s a fish out of water in the ruthlessly competitive and faceless world of back-to-back auditioning. Then one day she meets Emily, another actress from out of town and a kindred spirit. Emily is friendly and genuine and reassuringly doesn’t seem to be taking any of it too seriously. She stands out in a conveyor-belt world of fellow auditionees. But a simple favor turns dark when Emily disappears and Mia realizes she was the last person to see her, and the woman who knocks on Mia’s door the following day claiming to be her new friend isn’t the woman Mia remembers at all.

All Mia has to go on is the memory of a girl she met only once . . . and the suffocating feeling that something terrible has happened. Worse still, the police don’t believe her when she claims the real Emily has gone missing. So Mia is forced to risk the role of a lifetime to try to uncover the truth about Emily, a gamble that will force her to question her own sanity as the truth goes beyond anything she could ever have imagined.

Actress and author Catherine Steadman has written a gripping thriller set in a world close to home that asks the question: In a city where dreams really do come true, how far would you go to make the unreal real?