Things have gone from weird to blatantly absurd in Rome and Julian’s quest to preserve the boundary between the Earth realm and The Void. With Darkbrand numbers growing at a terrifying rate, the escape of Beliarahm, the fiercest Nocturn yet, and the struggle to make ANY headway with the Elementals and all their tomfoolery, The Alliance has hit a veritable wall. Even with the promise of the light Talisman to oppose the forces of darkness, there’s just no telling how or where to find it. All the other Talismans are collected, but that doesn’t necessarily give our heroes any comfort, because to this point, these magical items seem to have served more as crosshairs than protection. Maybe they need something more than the Talismans. But what could that be?
First Line:
The heroes stood in a circle with no idea what to do next. The sun rapidly moves toward its decline into the horizon, but the group had accomplished little in the way of unearthing the next step to take.
A Dragon’s Dyne by Brett Salter
Rome, Julian, and their allies have gathered all of the Talismans and their Elemental counterparts together to preserve the boundary between Earth and The Void. But, they are stonewalled when they are told there is one more Talisman out there. This Talisman, with a Light Elemental, has the power to turn the upcoming battle in their favor. But the Alliance doesn’t know where it is and is given a few cryptic clues to follow. With more Darkbrands escaping The Void and The Tyrant King getting closer and closer to breaking through the barrier, there is no time to waste. Can Rome, Julian, and the rest of the Alliance find the Light Talisman? Will they be able to defend Earth from The Tyrant King?
When the author reached out and asked if I wanted to read/review A Dragon’s Dyne, I immediately said yes. I have been reading this series from book one and was waiting for book six to come out. I had become invested in this series and wanted to know what would happen. I wasn’t expecting this to be the last book in the series.
A Dragon’s Dyne is the 6th book in The Talisman Series. You cannot read this book as a standalone. You must read the first five books to understand character backstories/past battles/and character relationships. You will be confused if you do not read the first five books. And trust me, reading those books before you read this one is worth it.
The main storyline of A Dragon’s Dyne centers on Rome, Julian, their friends/allies, the search for the Light Talisman, and the battle to save Earth. It is a well-written storyline that kept my attention from the beginning. It is also a fast-moving storyline. There is some lag towards the middle of the book (when Rome and friends are searching for the Talisman). That lag I anticipated, and it didn’t take away my enjoyment of this book.
A couple of times, I was surprised by A Dragon’s Dyne. One is a huge spoiler, and the other, well, I should have seen it coming. All I can say about the spoiler is that my soul broke during that chapter. I was not prepared for that. But I also wasn’t prepared for what happened in the next chapter. Talk about a rollercoaster of emotions within a couple of pages. While I didn’t see it coming, the other surprise didn’t surprise me. It made sense (there were hints).
This book is written for middle-grade kids. The main characters are in middle school and act like it (mainly Julian). I could put any of my kids in this book, and they would behave very similarly to how Rome and Julian acted. There are no adult situations (well, Rome and his girlfriend kiss a couple of times) or language.
I loved the lore and the fantasy angle of A Dragon’s Dyne. I could have just read about the different dragons, how they fit in, or just disappeared with the human race, their customs, and magic. Those added touches added depth to this storyline and increased my enjoyment of this book.
I was sad to read that this was the last book in the series. But two things did stand out to me, which made me think the author would have spinoffs. One was Rome’s vision, and the other was what happened at the very end of the book. I hope the author decides to write more books in this universe.
The end of A Dragon’s Dyne was interesting. The author wrapped up all the storylines with the expectation of one. With what was written (see above), I hope that means more books in this universe.
I would recommend A Dragon’s Dyne to anyone over 12. There is violence. But there is no language or sexual situations.
Many thanks to Brett Salter for allowing me to read and review A Dragon’s Dyne. All opinions expressed in this review are mine.
If you enjoy reading books similar to A Dragon’s Dyne, then you will enjoy reading these books:
I saw this meme on It’s All About Booksand thought, I like this!! So, I decided to do it once a month also. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!!
This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books are lovely and take you to places you would never get to. That includes places of fantasy too!!
Bon Voyage!!
Please let me know if you have read these books or traveled to these areas.
Countries I visited the most:United States, England, Scotland
States I visited the most:New York, California, Washington, Montana, Georgia, Oregon
Cities I visited the most: Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Malibu
United States
New York (Burning Lake)Washington (Bainbridge Island, Seattle, Richland), Colorado (Golden, Denver), Washington D.C., Wyoming (YellowstoneNational Park, Mayoworth, Wright), Montana (West Yellowstone Village), Oregon (Portland), South Dakota (Watertown), California (Los Angeles), Arizona (Phoenix), Montana (Glasgow, Fort Peck, Boyd), Georgia (Atlanta)New York (Brooklyn), Illinois (Chicago), New Jersey (Secaucus)New York (Belmont Park), Massachusetts (Cambridge)Pennsylvania (Harrisburg), Maryland (Baltimore)Maine (Mistletoe)Connecticut (Clover Ridge)New York (New York City)Alaska (Ryba Harbor)Florida (Daytona Beach)Colonial Massachusetts (Hinkapee, North Hinkapee)Idaho, Utah (Bliss)California (Malibu, Laguna, Los Angeles), Hawaii (Makaha)Unknown State (East Kent, Samhattan)Washington (Seattle)Montana (Big Sky), Washington (Anacortes), California (Los Angeles)Georgia (Savannah)Wisconsin (Milwaukee)Oregon (Bandon)GeorgiaCaliforniaTexas (Pleasance)Ohio (Dayton), California (Los Angeles, Malibu, Santa Barbara)
Buzzword Reading Challenge 2023 (body-related words: the body itself or body-related works like heart, skin, liver, flesh…etc)—Broken Heart Syndrome
2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (a book with a wild animal in the title. Common companion animals like dogs, cats, ferrets, fish, snakes, lizards, and horses do not count)—The Wolf Within
Here is what I am currently reading, recently finished, and plan to read from Thursday to Wednesday.
Let me know if you have read or are planning on reading any of these books!!
Happy Reading!!
What I am currently reading:
Things have gone from weird to blatantly absurd in Rome and Julian’s quest to preserve the boundary between the Earth realm and The Void. With Darkbrand numbers growing at a terrifying rate, the escape of Beliarahm, the fiercest Nocturn yet, and the struggle to make ANY headway with the Elementals and all their tomfoolery, The Alliance has hit a veritable wall. Even with the promise of the light Talisman to oppose the forces of darkness, there’s just no telling how or where to find it. All the other Talismans are collected, but that doesn’t necessarily give our heroes any comfort, because to this point, these magical items seem to have served more as crosshairs than protection. Maybe they need something more than the Talismans. But what could that be?
What I recently finished reading:
In this queer cozy series debut perfect for fans of Ellen Byron and Ellery Adams, Luke Tremblay is about to discover that Crescent Cove has more than its fair share of secrets…and some might be deadlier than others.
Crescent Cove, a small hamlet on Vancouver Island, is the last place out-of-work investigative journalist Luke Tremblay ever wanted to see again. He used to spend summers here, until his family learned that he was gay and rejected him. Now, following his aunt’s sudden death, he’s inherited her entire estate, including her seaside cottage and the antiques shop she ran for forty years in Crescent Cove. Luke plans to sell everything and head back to Toronto as soon as he can…but Crescent Cove isn’t done with him just yet.
When a stranger starts making wild claims about Luke’s aunt, Luke sends him packing. The next morning, though, Luke discovers that the stranger has returned, and now he’s lying dead in the back garden. To make matters worse, the officer leading the investigation is a handsome Mountie with a chip on his shoulder who seems convinced that Luke is the culprit. If he wants to prove his innocence and leave this town once and for all, Luke will have to use all his skills as a journalist to investigate the colorful locals while coming to terms with his own painful past.
There are secrets buried in Crescent Cove, and the more Luke digs, the more he fears they might change the town forever.
What I think I will read next (I will definitely get to the ARCs on this list. The reading challenge books will be read if I have finished the ARCs.):
The StoryGraph’s Reading Challenge’s Genre Challenge 2023
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
Beat the Backlist 2023
Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.
When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.
Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge
From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself. Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms. this is the recipe of life said my mother as she held me in her arms as i wept think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year they will teach you that people too must wilt fall root rise in order to bloom
Scavenger Hunt
A wryly funny and surprisingly moving account of an extraordinary life lived almost entirely in the public eye
A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at twenty, and one of Hollywood’s top stars to this day, Rob Lowe chronicles his experiences as a painfully misunderstood child actor in Ohio uprooted to the wild counterculture of mid-seventies Malibu, where he embarked on his unrelenting pursuit of a career in Hollywood.
The Outsiders placed Lowe at the birth of the modern youth movement in the entertainment industry. During his time on The West Wing, he witnessed the surreal nexus of show business and politics both on the set and in the actual White House. And in between are deft and humorous stories of the wild excesses that marked the eighties, leading to his quest for family and sobriety.
Never mean-spirited or salacious, Lowe delivers unexpected glimpses into his successes, disappointments, relationships, and one-of-a-kind encounters with people who shaped our world over the last twenty-five years. These stories are as entertaining as they are unforgettable.
ARC
In this new installment of Tasha Alexander’s acclaimed Lady Emily series set in the wild Scottish highlands, an ancient story of witchcraft may hold the key to solving a murder centuries later.
Lady Emily, husband Colin Hargreaves, and their three sons eagerly embark on a family vacation at Cairnfarn Castle, the Scottish estate of their dear friend Jeremy, Duke of Bainbridge. But a high-spirited celebration at the beginning of their stay comes to a grisly end when the duke’s gamekeeper is found murdered on the banks of the loch. Handsome Angus Sinclair had a host of enemies: the fiancée he abandoned in Edinburgh, the young woman who had fallen hopelessly in love with him, and the rough farmer who saw him as a rival for her affections. But what is meaning of the curious runic stone left on Sinclair’s forehead?
Scotland, 1676. Lady MacAllister, wife of the Laird of Cairnfarn Castle, suddenly finds herself widowed and thrown out of her home. Her sole companion is a Moorish slave girl who helps her secretly spirit out her most prized possessions from the castle: her strange books. Her neighbors are wary of a woman living on her own, and when a poppet—a doll used to cast spells—and a daisy wheel are found in her isolated cottage, Lady MacAllister is accused of witchcraft, a crime punishable by death.
Hundreds of years later, Lady Emily searches for the link between Lady MacAllister’s harrowing witchcraft trial and the brutal death of Sinclair. She must follow a trail of hidden motives, an illicit affair, and a mysterious stranger to reveal the dark side of a seemingly idyllic Highland village.
ARC
Sailor Moon meets Cinder in Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, the start of a new, richly imagined fantasy series from S. Jae-Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of Wintersong.
Magic flickers. Love flames. Chaos reigns.
Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before.
Jin Zhara already had enough to worry about—appease her stepmother’s cruel whims, looking after her blind younger sister, and keeping her own magical gifts under control—without having to deal with rumors of monsters re-emerging in the marsh. But when a chance encounter with an easily flustered young man named Han brings her into contact with a secret magical liberation organization called the Guardians of Dawn, Zhara realizes there may be more to these rumors than she thought. A mysterious plague is corrupting the magicians of Zanhei and transforming them into monsters, and the Guardians of Dawn believe a demon is responsible.
In order to restore harmony and bring peace to the world, Zhara must discover the elemental warrior within, lest the balance between order and chaos is lost forever.
ARC
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a warmhearted and empowering new novel about love, family, friendship, secrets, and a life-changing journey.
Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she’s lived since college still looks like she’s just moved in. But she’s got good friends, her bike, and her bicycling club in Philadelphia. She’s at peace with her plus-size body—at least, most of the time—and she’s on track to marry Mark Medoff, her childhood summer sweetheart, a man she met at the weight-loss camp that her perpetually dieting mother forced her to attend. Fifteen years after her final summer at Camp Golden Hills, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, it feels like the happy ending she’s always wanted.
Yet Abby can’t escape the feeling that something isn’t right…or the memories of one thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years previously. When Abby gets a last-minute invitation to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, she’s happy to have time away from Mark, a chance to reflect and make up her mind.
But things get complicated fast. First, Abby spots a familiar face in the group—Sebastian, the one-night stand she thought she’d never see again. Sebastian is a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away. In spite of their undeniable chemistry, Abby is determined to keep her distance. Then there’s a surprise last-minute addition to the her mother, Eileen, the woman Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she’s still trying to undo.
Over two weeks and more than seven hundred miles, strangers become friends, hidden truths come to light, a teenage girl with a secret unites the riders in unexpected ways…and Abby is forced to reconsider everything she believes about herself, her mother, and the nature of love.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet and share what you have been and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kid-lit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in those genres – join them.
Personal:
We had a nice 3-day break from the heat, but guess what? It’s back. We’re supposed to have highs in the 90s all week with a real feel temp of 105. That is going to be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am so done with this weather; it isn’t funny. I am also worried about how my AC is going to hold up.
Miss B’s barn found a permanent home!! They are signing the lease and ironing some things out, but we should be riding at the new barn soon. According to what I’ve been told, this barn is a lot better than the old one (bigger ring, barn, pastures, and they get to grow their own hay). And it is closer to me than where she’s currently riding.
We have one week left until school starts. I got Miss R’s homeroom assignment, and she isn’t thrilled about who she has (she wanted the other teacher). Mr. Z and Miss B are getting their schedules on Thursday, and Mr. Z is getting his Chromebook on Wednesday.
Reading
I am on track for reading my ARCs. My dent into the NetGalley ARCs is getting smaller. I hope to get under 60 ARCs by the beginning of next month.
I am not on track with reviews. I need to write three reviews. If I can get an uninterrupted hour, I can knock all three out. But, if you have kids, you know that uninterrupted next to never happens. Review writing takes me 2-3 hours when the kids are home (an hour when they are at school).
I am not on track with my reading challenges either. But, as I said in last week’s post, I am not concerned about it. I bit off more than I could chew.
Cooking
I made two types of pasta last week (I didn’t want to use the oven). One was butter pasta with parmesan cheese mixed in. The other was pasta with homemade mushroom sauce. The kids were iffy about both dishes but ate them.
I’m not going to use the oven this week, either. Sandwiches, ramen, and leftovers will have to do.
So, that’s my catch-up.
Anything exciting or different happen this week?
Make anything good this past week, or plan on making it this week?
Read anything new?
Read anything on this list?
Let me know!!
What I am Reading Now:
Juno meets Heartstopper in this poignant and emotional story about found family, what it means to be a parent, and falling in love.
Benjamin Morrison is about to start junior year of high school and while his family is challenging, he is pretty content with his life, with his two best friends, and being a part of the robotics club. Until an experiment at science camp has completely unexpected consequences.
He is going to be a father. Something his mother was not expecting after he came out as gay and she certainly wasn’t expecting that he would want to raise the baby as a single father. But together they come up with a plan to prepare Ben for fatherhood and fight for his rights.
The weight of Ben’s decision presses down on him. He’s always tired, his grades fall, and tension rises between his mom and stepfather. He’s letting down his friends in the robotics club whose future hinges on his expertise. If it wasn’t for his renewed friendship (and maybe more) with a boy from his past, he wouldn’t be able to face the daily ridicule at school or the crumbling relationship with his best friends.
With every new challenge, every new sacrifice he has to make, Ben questions his choice. He’s lived with a void in his heart where a father’s presence should have been, and the fear of putting his own child through that keeps him clinging to his decision. When the baby might be in danger, Ben’s faced with a heart wrenching realization: sometimes being a parent means making the hard choices even if they are the choices you don’t want to make…
Books I plan on reading later this week:
In this queer cozy series debut perfect for fans of Ellen Byron and Ellery Adams, Luke Tremblay is about to discover that Crescent Cove has more than its fair share of secrets…and some might be deadlier than others.
Crescent Cove, a small hamlet on Vancouver Island, is the last place out-of-work investigative journalist Luke Tremblay ever wanted to see again. He used to spend summers here, until his family learned that he was gay and rejected him. Now, following his aunt’s sudden death, he’s inherited her entire estate, including her seaside cottage and the antiques shop she ran for forty years in Crescent Cove. Luke plans to sell everything and head back to Toronto as soon as he can…but Crescent Cove isn’t done with him just yet.
When a stranger starts making wild claims about Luke’s aunt, Luke sends him packing. The next morning, though, Luke discovers that the stranger has returned, and now he’s lying dead in the back garden. To make matters worse, the officer leading the investigation is a handsome Mountie with a chip on his shoulder who seems convinced that Luke is the culprit. If he wants to prove his innocence and leave this town once and for all, Luke will have to use all his skills as a journalist to investigate the colorful locals while coming to terms with his own painful past.
There are secrets buried in Crescent Cove, and the more Luke digs, the more he fears they might change the town forever.
Things have gone from weird to blatantly absurd in Rome and Julian’s quest to preserve the boundary between the Earth realm and The Void. With Darkbrand numbers growing at a terrifying rate, the escape of Beliarahm, the fiercest Nocturn yet, and the struggle to make ANY headway with the Elementals and all their tomfoolery, The Alliance has hit a veritable wall. Even with the promise of the light Talisman to oppose the forces of darkness, there’s just no telling how or where to find it. All the other Talismans are collected, but that doesn’t necessarily give our heroes any comfort, because to this point, these magical items seem to have served more as crosshairs than protection. Maybe they need something more than the Talismans. But what could that be?
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.
When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.
From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself. Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms. this is the recipe of life said my mother as she held me in her arms as i wept think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year they will teach you that people too must wilt fall root rise in order to bloom
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet and share what you have been and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kid-lit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in those genres – join them.
Personal:
Our AC kept freezing up. One of our bigger vents (in Miss R’sbedroom) was covered by her dresser and blocked the airflow. Also adding to the freezing was the awful heat and humidity we’ve been having. All 3 of those things contributed. We moved the dresser on Saturday, and AC has run great ever since.
Back-to-school prep is in full swing for us. Right now, I am in the process of moving bedtimes back to our school time routine. I am also waking the kids earlier in the morning (no after 12pm wake up times for any of the kids). Needless to say, I have 3 very grumpy kids right now.
I got an email with the date for Miss B’s senior pictures. She also picks up her schedule and Chromebook after the pictures are done. Also in that email, was a link to pay the school fees. We had to pay: senior fees, instructional fees, Beta club fees, and a fee for the Beta club cord.
I also learned about when Mr. Z gets his schedule and Chromebook and when Miss R goes to meet her teacher. Thankfully, unlike other years, they are not on the same day and same time (it was interesting that year because the schools were in opposite directions and 15 mins apart).
Mr. Z’s laptop shit the bed last week too. Because he does schoolwork on it (he rather uses that than the Chromebook at home), we bought him a new one. Not the expense we need right now but oh well. I hoped his old one would have held out at least until November (his birthday).
I am repeating not cooking from last week. It is just too darn hot and I am still worried about the AC will stop working.
So, that’s my catch-up.
Anything exciting or different happen this week? Make anything good this past week, or plan on making it this week? Read anything new? Read anything on this list? Let me know!!
What I am Reading Now:
When Helene was young, she dreamed of the perfect man and filled her notebooks with stories about him and about love in its purest form. But after a messy divorce, she has let go of such naive fantasies. She has moved to a small town in Alaska, where she is ready to write her novel and build a new life without romance. Fate has other plans, though.
Helene soon meets Sebastien Montague, a handsome fisherman who is her invented hero made flesh, down to the most idiosyncratic details. But how can a man she created possibly exist in the real world?
While Helene tries to discover the truth behind his existence, Sebastien is determined to keep that truth from her, for he is a man scarred by serial tragedy, hiding a secret that has broken his heart time and again. Yet the shadows of the past emerge, endangering Helene and Sebastien’s future before it even begins–and it becomes clear that it won’t be easy to forge a new ending to the greatest love story of all time.
A woman fleeing her disastrous marriage discovers that she is part of a legendary love story that spans lives, years, and continents in this modern-day reimagining of Romeo and Juliet.
Books I plan on reading later this week:
In this queer cozy series debut perfect for fans of Ellen Byron and Ellery Adams, Luke Tremblay is about to discover that Crescent Cove has more than its fair share of secrets…and some might be deadlier than others.
Crescent Cove, a small hamlet on Vancouver Island, is the last place out-of-work investigative journalist Luke Tremblay ever wanted to see again. He used to spend summers here, until his family learned that he was gay and rejected him. Now, following his aunt’s sudden death, he’s inherited her entire estate, including her seaside cottage and the antiques shop she ran for forty years in Crescent Cove. Luke plans to sell everything and head back to Toronto as soon as he can…but Crescent Cove isn’t done with him just yet.
When a stranger starts making wild claims about Luke’s aunt, Luke sends him packing. The next morning, though, Luke discovers that the stranger has returned, and now he’s lying dead in the back garden. To make matters worse, the officer leading the investigation is a handsome Mountie with a chip on his shoulder who seems convinced that Luke is the culprit. If he wants to prove his innocence and leave this town once and for all, Luke will have to use all his skills as a journalist to investigate the colorful locals while coming to terms with his own painful past.
There are secrets buried in Crescent Cove, and the more Luke digs, the more he fears they might change the town forever.
Things have gone from weird to blatantly absurd in Rome and Julian’s quest to preserve the boundary between the Earth realm and The Void. With Darkbrand numbers growing at a terrifying rate, the escape of Beliarahm, the fiercest Nocturn yet, and the struggle to make ANY headway with the Elementals and all their tomfoolery, The Alliance has hit a veritable wall. Even with the promise of the light Talisman to oppose the forces of darkness, there’s just no telling how or where to find it. All the other Talismans are collected, but that doesn’t necessarily give our heroes any comfort, because to this point, these magical items seem to have served more as crosshairs than protection. Maybe they need something more than the Talismans. But what could that be?
Sometimes the most picturesque of places can hide the cruellest killer. Young Billy Jones comes from a notorious family of drunks and thieves. So, when he fails to return home it’s hardly a surprise. However, when mutilated remains are found it becomes apparent that a savage executioner is stalking the untamed windswept moorland that surround this northern town. The clues lead DS Lasser directly to the poverty-stricken Radfield family who once owned great swathes of local land. When another body is discovered, Lasser’s convictions are thrown into turmoil. Someone is playing a vicious game, someone with a burning hatred for the Radfield family. The body count rises and Lasser finds himself enmeshed in a tangled web of deceit as he tries to unravel the dark, twisted secrets that bind two families. Secrets stretching back over four decades, blackmail and murder reaching out to ensnare the innocent as well as the guilty.
Shy, reclusive Frankie and her best friend Lou obsess over Thomas G. Longley, as they reverently refer to him, for their entire first two years of medical school. So when he publically humiliates her at the student bar she is devastated.
Ten years later, Frankie has to work in the testosterone driven environment of Cardiology before she can start her palliative care training and, to her dismay, Tom is her boss.
Thankfully the subject of her long-term crush doesn’t seem to remember her and, given her ability to blend into the background, she’s not really surprised. What does surprise her is how cruel he is. Sure he squished her self esteem like a bug at Uni, but the Tom she spent many a pointless lunch break or library session covertly watching seemed easy going and quick to smile; not an uptight, overly critical bully.
Between passing out whilst assisting in theatre, struggling to force the team to see their bed blockers, and being covered head to foot in the bloody vomit of ‘Scary Glenda’ (A&E’s most frequent, frequent flyer), she can’t wait to get through the six months.
Although she’s too timid to tell Tom to jog on when she is his only target, when it’s her patients that he starts trampling she decides to grow a backbone, and Tom begins to see that she is not the cold, aloof woman he once thought.
As the misunderstandings of the past come to light, Tom realizes that the ‘complete-bastard’ routine he has been clinging to out of hurt pride might not have been his most stellar idea. He has a fight on his hands to win Frankie over and, unfortunately, it’s not just his past behaviour he’s fighting against. You see, Frankie knows all about being pushed around. She’s dealt with enough verbal and even physical abuse before to last a lifetime and she’s not going to be fooled into thinking that this ruthless alpha male has turned over a new leaf.
Even if he could convince her that he’s not really the bully he projected before, her low self-esteem would never allow her to believe that a man like Tom could really be into a boring, bland, nondescript girl like her.
Luckily for Frankie, Tom is used to getting what he wants. He’s determined to make her see herself clearly for the first time in her life and he’s just arrogant enough to believe that he can break through her defenses.
But Frankie’s past is not ready to let her go quite yet. There’s a reason that she spends next to no money but is always skint: a reason that she keeps her flat door open: a reason that she holds herself back from him.
Maybe he won’t manage to convince her and he’ll allow her to push him away. Or maybe (as Lou rightly puts it) he should ‘stop being a pussy and man up already.’
As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and (if you did) what you thought of them.
Books I Read:
ARC from Crooked Lane BooksNon-ARC from authorNon-ARC from authorNon-ARC from authorNon-ARC from authorNon-ARC from authorKindle purchaseFree Kindle purchaseFree Kindle PurchaseFree Kindle PurchaseKU PurchaseARC from Crooked Lane BooksARC from Meryl Moss Media Group, Rosewind BooksARC from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del ReyARC from St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s GriffinNon-ARC from AuthorFree Kindle PurchaseFree Kindle PurchaseFree Kindle PurchaseFree Kindle PurchaseARC from St. Martin’s PressARC from Sourcebooks FireARC from Random House Publishing Group -Ballantine, Del ReyARC from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, DellFree Kindle purchaseFree Kindle purchaseKindle PurchaseKindle PurchaseFree Kindle PurchaseFree Kindle PurchaseKindle PurchaseFree Kindle PurchaseARC from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, BantamARC from St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur BooksNon-ARC from authorARC from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine BooksARC from St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books
Books I got from NetGalley:
ARC from St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s GriffinWish granted from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Delacorte PressWish granted from Sourcebooks FireARC from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del ReyARC from St. Martin’s PressARC from St. Martin’s PressWish granted from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, DellLimited time Read Now from St. Martin’s PressInvite from author via his publisher–Level Best BooksArc from St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s GriffinARC from Atria Books, Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Romanceopoly 2023! (Read a contemporary romance by an author you haven’t tried before): Father Figure by James J. Cudney
2023 TBR Prompts (Shortest book on my TBR): Thirst by Graceley Knox
July:
Buzzword Reading Challenge 2023 (“Weather-related words: weather related words in the title: rain, storm, snow, clouds, sky, sunshine, hurricane): Stormcall by T.A. Marks