WWW Wednesday: March 30th, 2022

On 2022-03-30 By JolieIn book review2 Comments

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?

Personal:

Nothing too much has been going on here. I’m finally feeling better. Yay!! But now, I have allergies and they suck. The kids are feeling better too. But they can’t miss any more school. They have all missed a lot due to them being sick.

Miss R is going to an ENT next week for the second step in her sleep apnea/PLMD diagnosis. Her sleep study Dr wants an ENT to check and see if her adenoids are enlarged. If they are, she gets them removed and a sleep study to see if she still has sleep apnea. If not, then we get a CPAP machine for her. I am hoping that it’s the first case. I have a feeling that getting her to wear a mask to sleep is going to be difficult.

Mr. Z was worried that he missed out on meeting with the guidance counselor to pick out the classes for next year. He had been out all the week before and she had sent an email stating that she would be there that week. Well, I guess she wasn’t. I got an email saying that she would be at the school next week. So, he’ll get his classes. I can’t wait to see if he’s going to be in any honors classes.

Miss B had a very exciting week last week. She had signed up for her junior year classes and was informed that she qualified to earn college credits for certain classes. I had to look it up and basically, she gets to earn college credits as she does her high school classes. Then she is able to switch those credits to any state-run college and they apply to her major. So, basically, she will be halfway to her Associate’s degree by the time she graduates HS. On top of that, she has to take her Criminal Justice classes. She is taking: Criminal Law, Ethics, Court Procedures, and Introduction to Criminal Justice (which I think is lumped in with Criminal Law). She was also pulled out of class yesterday and told that she got “Most Likely to Make Someone Smile” in the yearbook for sophomore year. She was thrilled. Two of her friends also got awards too (she couldn’t remember what for).

Reading

I am doing OK with my reading. I have gotten stuck on my current book. I hate it when that happens and I am hoping to have it finished tonight (or today!!). I have 2 books that I want to have finished and reviewed by Friday. Then I need to start on my NetGalley backlog (bleh).

Watching:

I finished Curon and wasn’t pleased with how it ended. Right now, I am watching The Chosen One on Netflix. It is a paranormal thriller set in the Pantanal in Brazil. I also have been watching Pieces of Her (American drama), and Invisible City (paranormal set in Brazil) on Netflix.

So, that the catch up with me. As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and what you have thought about them.

What I Recently Finished Reading:

A ghost spirit of dark’s universe falls in love with a ghost spirit of light’s universe, and while they cannot meet, for they wander around separate realms and spacetimes, they live their love through a secret and sacred interaction.

What I am currently reading:

Welcome to Paradise. Daniel’s alchemy has hurtled them 112 years into the future where a mysterious tree-shaped structure rises into the Moroccan sky. Generations have passed, but a culture grounded in ancient Yoruba traditions has sprung up.

Peri must choose between trusting the friendly strangers she meets and following Ayoub, the terrorist-turned-pirate, into the unknown. She fights to keep her family together, but her faith is shaken. Nothing is as it seems.

Caught between two warring factions, the YUS with brain chips and the Natural Resistance Force, Peri must search within herself to discover what truly makes life worth living. How much is she willing to sacrifice for paradise?

What books I think I’ll read next:

Sierra Baker has no idea she’s in danger – until a frightening and unsettling traffic stop late one night. When Cody Parker shows up the next day and announces he’s her bodyguard, she’s even more terrified. Is Parker on the level? Or is this the shadowy stranger who stopped her car the night before?

Her partner Alex assures Sierra the danger is real – the Russian mob is after her. Parker has been sent to protect her. But she and Cody are oil and water. Complete opposites who agree on nothing. Except for their irresistible attraction to each other.

**Two against the Taliban, two wildly different agendas — both crazy risky!**

Laila’s not the type of woman who needs rescuing. Except for a tiny rule-breaking penchant, she’s a model CIA agent—smart, resourceful, brave, and very very determined.. But right now she’s in a tight situation—in more than one way. She’s hiding from the Taliban in a network of pitch-dark interlocking caves, so narrow a cat could barely thread its way through them. A cat or an agent trained for it.

And that would be Jase, her designated rescuer.

Once her CIA training agent, he’s the last man she’d get involved with, even though he’s the hottest guy she’s ever met. He’s bossy. Intimidating. Way too alpha. And a strict rule follower.

All traits on her ‘no fly’ list.

Set against the tense U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, this rapid-fire tale begins with electrifying action, moves on to fast-flying sparks, and never lets up. Laila’s on the way to Kabul to leave the country, where she also teaches a class of village girls, when her driver betrays her. She outwits him, but it’s only a matter of time till the Taliban track her down.

She’s never been so glad to see Jase.

Romance should be the last thing on either’s mind as they frantically crawl and slither their way through the claustrophobic caves, desperate to find an exit. Still, infatuation sparks.

And smolders.

But neither can afford to take their eyes off their own goals. Jase’s is simple–to rejoin his team and deliver Laila safely to Kabul. But Laila has a more ambitious agenda, one that will require breaking rules, disobeying orders, and endangering the whole team.

Scarlet’s life is pretty average. Overly protective mom. Great friends. Cute boy she’s interested in. And a father she’s never known – until she does.

When the FBI show up at Scarlet’s door, she is shocked to learn her father is infamous serial killer Jeffrey Robert Lake. And now, he’s dying and will only give the names and locations of his remaining victims to the one person, the daughter he hasn’t seen since she was a baby.

Scarlet’s mother has tried to protect her from Lake’s horrifying legacy, but there’s no way they can escape the media firestorm that erupts when they come out of hiding. Or the people who blame Scarlet for her father’s choices. When trying to do the right thing puts her life in danger, Scarlet is faced with a choice – go back into hiding or make the world see her as more than a monster’s daughter.

Kate McLaughlin’s Daughter is a novel about trying right deadly choices that were never yours to begin with.

Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

**Inspired by a true story, this exciting debut explores a mystery about missing girls: When a girl goes missing, does she become the people others imagine her to be?**

On December 1, 1946, Paula Jean Welden put on a bright red parka, left her Bennington College dorm for a hike, and vanished into the thin mountain air. Paula Jean’s disappearance captivated the post-war nation, leading to news articles, false sightings, rumors, psychic visions, and a short story by Shirley Jackson. Inspired by this unsolved mystery, quantum girl theory asks: does a missing girl become the person—or even the people—others imagine her to be? Or was she already someone else entirely?

At the center of this brilliant jigsaw puzzle of a novel is Paula Jean herself, now known as Mary Garrett, a clairvoyant with a concealed past, hustling for reward money by searching for missing girls. In 1961, a poster about a missing girl lures Mary to a town in the Jim Crow south, where she discovers that it’s not just one white girl who’s disappeared; two Black girls have vanished as well. With everyone from the white girl’s mother to the local sheriff resenting her presence in town, Mary can’t trust anyone. And then there are the strange visions that come to Mary, a phenomenon she calls “the sight”. As stories appear from other lives Paula Jean might have lived—a circus showgirl hiding from her past; a literary forger on the verge of discovery; a McCarthy–era informant in love with a woman she meets in a Communist cell—a reader may be prompted to ask whether Mary herself can be trusted.

Beautifully written, provocative, and original, Quantum Girl Theory is both a mesmerizing mystery and a startling thought-experiment about people and girls, asking whose disappearances—whose lives—matter, even as it explores the ways we may be haunted by the lives we did not lead. Or did we?

He doesn’t believe in love…

Traveling nurse Janie Atwood has come to Cold River to uncover old family secrets and maybe, if she’s lucky, find a new home. That the gorgeous, glowering sheriff next door thinks her caring for his elderly neighbor is a nefarious scheme is a bonus. Having never been anything but a good girl, Janie finds Zack Kittredge’s simmering suspicion an excellent reason to try being a little dangerous instead…

She doesn’t believe in squandering it…

Sheriff Zack Kittredge is okay with being… intense. He takes his loner status as seriously as he takes his responsibilities to protect Cold River. And he thinks cheerful Janie might be a threat to the town. But the more he gets to know her, the more he faces the truth―she’s brighter than sunshine and he’s like a moth to her flame. When Janie suggests he could use a few charm school lessons, he surprises them both by accepting. He doesn’t need help. But it’s clear he might need her…

Because the only thing hotter than the summer sun in the Rockies is the forbidden passion that burns between them…

Hollow: a Love Life a Life by Jazalyn

On 2022-03-29 By JolieIn book review, Non ARCLeave a comment

Publisher:

Date of publication: December 19th, 2020

Genre: Poetry

Purchase Links: Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis:

A ghost spirit of dark’s universe falls in love with a ghost spirit of light’s universe, and while they cannot meet, for they wander around separate realms and spacetimes, they live their love through a secret and sacred interaction.

First Line:

Love is great!
hollow: a Love like a life by jazalyn

Poetry isn’t exactly my favorite type of book to review. I find it hard to put my thoughts on the book to paper (or, in this case, screen). But, saying this, I have found myself honored to read and review Jazalyn’s poetry. She is a talented writer, and I look forward to her future work.

Hollow: A Love Like A Life was wonderfully written. It is the story of two opposite spirits (dark and light) who fall in love but can not be together.

The poems touched me. I got emotional reading them. I found myself rooting for each spirit and hoping that they got to see each other. I also understood what it was like to love like that, and honestly, it sucked.

I would recommend Hollow: a Love like a Life to anyone over 16. There is mild language.

WWW Wednesday: March 23rd 2022

On 2022-03-23 By JolieIn book reviewLeave a comment

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?

Personal:

I know that it has been a month since I last did a WWW Wednesday. My excuse: I got super busy and for some reason, everything seemed to happen on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Crazy, right!!

Everyone in my family got sick with this awful cold that is going around. Now, I know it’s a cold because I covid tested Miss R and Mr. Z when they got it and each time it was negative. I have it right now and I feel like a truck ran me over. Miss B also got a nasty stomach bug that is making the rounds plus the cold. Fun times in my household.

Miss R is doing well. She is still having issues with her bully at school. Last week, Miss R dropped her chapstick and the little girl picked it up, used it, and then told the other kids that Miss R took it from her. Then she started calling her names. Miss R was in tears when I picked her up from school. Then I reminded her that she is getting over a cold and her germs are all over that chapstick, and now that little girl will be getting her cold. It made her feel better, but still.

Mr. Z got into the high school that he wanted. The wonderful thing about living in this area is that we have an option of 3 additional high schools to apply to if they don’t want to go to the city-run high school. You do have to apply to get into them. The school Mr. Z got into only takes 75 kids out of the whole county and the other 2 take 100 kids. If you don’t get accepted, you get put on a waiting list and will attend your local high school. He was thrilled to get in (he’s taking the computer programming academy). I also think he’s thrilled about the later start and finish times (school starts at 9 am and ends at 4 pm).

Miss R is doing well. We do have to work on her driving. She has a level 1 provincial license and needs 60 hours to move up to level 2. She has 4….lol. I am terrified to drive with her (she drifts and brakes too much) and BK is working a ton. Guess I am going to have to suck it up and take her…lol.

Reading

I am actually doing pretty well with my reading. I have caught up with all of my February backlogs. I do have 4 indie author books to read before the end of the month, but that should be a piece of cake. I am also caught up on reviews (this never happens). Having BK traveling for work again has helped me out on that end….haha.

Watching:

I have been watching a lot of foreign supernatural shows. I just finished Curon (an Austrian/Italian TV series) and am watching Dark (a German TV series) on Netflix. I am also watching Fringe on Paramount Plus and The Stand on HBO Max.

So, that the catch up with me. As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and what you have thought about them.

What I Recently Finished Reading:

**An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake.**

***January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.***

Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.

***Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.***

***None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.***

On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.

***January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents” that start stalking their bidders.***

***There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.***

***But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.***

What I am currently reading:

A heartless psychopath with size 16 shoes, nursing home hookers and an irreverent Las Vegas homicide detective with a gambling habit set the tone for this off-beat tale of revenge and retribution.

Blackjack addict Frank Savic is deeply in debt and facing family problems when he’s asked to delay his retirement to catch a vigilante killer who murders other murderers in a manner the veteran cop has never seen.

While dead bodies stack up in quick succession, the motorcycle-riding policeman also finds himself reluctantly involved with a desperate mother who will do anything to get justice for her dead son.

Savic, his investigation complicated by a suspected FBI coverup and a prison bribery scandal, is unaware that the murderer might be the solution to his own financial and domestic dilemma.

Add a vengeful killer who seeks justice for his own unbearable loss and you have a teasing psychological thriller that blurs the line between good and evil and where surgical bone saws and spiders are just tools of the trade.

Yes, there are spiders.

What books I think I’ll read next:

On December 1, 1946, Paula Jean Welden put on a bright red parka, left her Bennington College dorm for a hike, and vanished into the thin mountain air. Paula Jean’s disappearance captivated the post-war nation, leading to news articles, false sightings, rumors, psychic visions, and a short story by Shirley Jackson. Inspired by this unsolved mystery, quantum girl theory asks: does a missing girl become the person—or even the people—others imagine her to be? Or was she already someone else entirely?

At the center of this brilliant jigsaw puzzle of a novel is Paula Jean herself, now known as Mary Garrett, a clairvoyant with a concealed past, hustling for reward money by searching for missing girls. In 1961, a poster about a missing girl lures Mary to a town in the Jim Crow south, where she discovers that it’s not just one white girl who’s disappeared; two Black girls have vanished as well. With everyone from the white girl’s mother to the local sheriff resenting her presence in town, Mary can’t trust anyone. And then there are the strange visions that come to Mary, a phenomenon she calls “the sight”. As stories appear from other lives Paula Jean might have lived—a circus showgirl hiding from her past; a literary forger on the verge of discovery; a McCarthy–era informant in love with a woman she meets in a Communist cell—a reader may be prompted to ask whether Mary herself can be trusted.

Beautifully written, provocative, and original, Quantum Girl Theory is both a mesmerizing mystery and a startling thought-experiment about people and girls, asking whose disappearances—whose lives—matter, even as it explores the ways we may be haunted by the lives we did not lead. Or did we?

February 2022 Wrap Up

On 2022-03-02 By JolieIn book reviewLeave a comment

And another month has ended. As with the previous months, February seemed to fly by. It was like I blinked and it was over. Of course, not helping, is that February is a short month.

I have made strides with my reading but I am still behind. I finished all of my indie authors read and have started on my impossibly large NetGalley TBR. Wish me luck with that…lol.

I am doing alright with reviews, only about 2 books behind, considering that I hurt my arm in mid-February.

As always, please let me know if you have read any of these books!!

Books I got from NetGalley

**In the first book of a visionary African and Arabian-inspired fantasy trilogy, three women band together against a cruel Empire that divides people by blood.**

*Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.*

*Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.*

*Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.*

Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the Empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.

Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the Empire. But dust always rises in a storm.

Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution.

As the Empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.

Logan Ramsay is about to get the brain he always dreamed of. But will he be transformed into something more than human…or something less? The mind-blowing new thriller from the *‘New York Times’* best-selling author of *‘Dark Matter’* and ‘*Recursion’.*

When the SWAT team gives the all-clear and Logan Ramsay steps into the basement, he has no idea that everything’s about to change.

Then there’s the hiss of aerosol. The explosion. The shrapnel that punctures his hazmat gear. Logan wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed, attended by doctors in their own hazmat suits, his wife and daughter looking on from behind the glass.

The doctors say he’s been infected by a virus–one designed not to make him sick, but to modify his very genetic structure. In a world where the next-generation gene-editing tool known as Scythe is widely available–and has already reaped disastrous consequences–the possibilities are too many and terrifying to count.

Except that after the fever, the pain, the fear…the virus is gone. And according to his government bosses, Logan’s got a clean bill of health.

But the truth is that with each day that passes, Logan’s getting smarter. Seeing things more clearly. He’s realizing that he’s been upgraded in ways that go beyond even Scythe’s capabilities–and that he’s been given these abilities for a reason.

Because a holy grail of genetic engineering–one that could change our very definitions of humanity–has just been unearthed. And now it’s up to him to stop it from falling into the wrong hands.

Logan’s becoming something more. Something better. Even with the whole world hunting for him, he might be able to outthink his opponents and win the war that’s coming.

But what if it’s at the cost of being himself?

**Ohioana Book Award finalist Ruth Emmie Lang returns with a new cast of ordinary characters with extraordinary abilities.**

Five years ago, Nora Wilder disappeared. The older of her two daughters, Zadie, should have seen it coming, because she can literally see things coming. But not even her psychic abilities were able to prevent their mother from vanishing one morning.

Zadie’s estranged younger sister, Finn, can’t see into the future, but she has an uncannily good memory, so good that she remembers not only her own memories, but the echoes of memories other people have left behind. On the afternoon of her graduation party, Finn is seized by an “echo” more powerful than anything she’s experienced before: a woman singing a song she recognizes, a song about a bird…

When Finn wakes up alone in an aviary with no idea of how she got there, she realizes who the memory belongs to: Nora.

Now, it’s up to Finn to convince her sister that not only is their mom still out there, but that she wants to be found. Against Zadie’s better judgement, she and Finn hit the highway, using Finn’s echoes to retrace Nora’s footsteps and uncover the answer to the question that has been haunting them for years: Why did she leave?

But the more time Finn spends in their mother’s past, the harder it is for her to return to the present, to return to herself. As Zadie feels her sister start to slip away, she will have to decide what lengths she is willing to go to to find their mother, knowing that if she chooses wrong, she could lose them both for good.

The Seven―the Divine beings meant to protect the world―just declared war. On me. They took Ray, my baby sister, and now they’re using my boyfriend to do their dirty work.

Well, screw that.

I may not be able to wipe them off the face of the earth now, but I know what can.

Thanks to an Ather connection, I know about the Seven Scrolls. An ancient incantation made by the Creator to counteract the Seven’s great power, scattered into pieces across the world.

With the help of my new crew, we’re on the hunt. And with each located scroll, I face new battles, bloodier and harder than I’ve ever known before. But now the stakes are even higher, because Ray has always been my bright light in the darkness, and Draven is my hope when all seems lost, and if I don’t get them back?

Well, then I might just become the scariest legend the world has ever known.

A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple in order to save his bakery in this sweet and sexy romance from Jamie Wesley, *Fake It Till You Bake It.*

Jada Townsend-Matthews is the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. When she comes home to lick her wounds, Jada finds herself working at San Diego’s newest cupcake bakery, Sugar Blitz, alongside the uptight owner and professional football player Donovan Dell.

When a reporter mistakenly believes Jada and Donovan are an item, they realize they can use the misunderstanding to their advantage to help the struggling bakery and rehabilitate Jada’s image. Faking a relationship should be simple, but sometimes love is the most unexpected ingredient.

Fake it Till You Bake It is a sweet confection of a novel, the perfect story to curl up with and enjoy with a cupcake on the side.

A god wages war—using all of humanity as its pawns—in the unforgettable conclusion to the Founders trilogy.

Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have gone up against plenty of long odds in the past. But the war they’re fighting now is one even they can’t win.

This time, they’re not facing robber-baron elites, or even an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe—a ghost in the machine that uses the magic of scriving to possess and control not just objects, but human minds.

To fight it, they’ve used scriving technology to transform themselves and their allies into an army—a society—that’s like nothing humanity has seen before. With its strength at their backs, they’ve freed a handful of their enemy’s hosts from servitude, even brought down some of its fearsome, reality-altering dreadnaughts. Yet despite their efforts, their enemy marches on—implacable. Unstoppable.

Now, as their opponent closes in on its true prize—an ancient doorway, long buried, that leads to the chambers at the center of creation itself—Sancia and her friends glimpse a chance at reaching it first, and with it, a last desperate opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe. But to do so, they’ll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scriving’s origins, embark on a desperate mission into the heart of their enemy’s power, and pull off the most daring heist they’ve ever attempted.

And as if that weren’t enough, their adversary might just have a spy in their ranks—and a last trick up its sleeve.

**he Davies and Montgomery families have been locked in an ancient feud. But it’s a thin line between love and hate in Kate Bateman’s A Daring Pursuit.**

TWO ENEMIES
Carys Davies is doing everything in her power to avoid marriage. Staying single is the only way to hide the secret that could ruin her—and her family—if it was revealed. For the past two seasons she’s scandalized the ton with her outrageous outfits and brazen ways in a futile bid to deter potential suitors. Outwardly confident and carefree, inside she’s disillusioned with both men and love. There’s only one person who’s never bought her act—the only man who makes her heart race: Tristan Montgomery, one of her family’s greatest rivals.

ONE SCANDALOUS BARGAIN
Wickedly proper architect Tristan needs a respectable woman to wed, but he’s never stopped wanting bold, red-headed Carys. When she mockingly challenges him to show her what she’s missing by not getting married, Tristan shocks them both by accepting her indecent proposal: one week of clandestine meetings, after which they’ll go their separate ways. But kissing each other is almost as much fun as arguing, and their affair burns hotter than either of them expects. When they find themselves embroiled in a treasonous plot, can they trust each other with their hearts, their secrets…and their lives?

Extraordinarily tense and deliciously mysterious, Anna Downes’s *The Shadow House* follows one woman’s desperate journey to protect her children at any cost, in a remote place where not everything is as it seems.

A HOUSE WITH DEADLY SECRETS.

A MOTHER WHO’LL RISK EVERYTHING TO BRING THEM TO LIGHT.

Alex, a single mother-of-two, is determined to make a fresh start for her and her children. In an effort to escape her troubled past, she seeks refuge in a rural community. Pine Ridge is idyllic; the surrounding forests are beautiful and the locals welcoming. Mostly.

But Alex finds that she may have disturbed barely hidden secrets in her new home. As a chain of bizarre events is set off, events eerily familiar to those who have lived there for years, Alex realizes that she and her family might be in greater danger than ever before. And that the only way to protect them all is to confront the shadows lurking in Pine Ridge.

From Lynda Cohen Loigman, the bestselling author of *The Two-Family House* and *The Wartime Sisters*, comes a heartwarming story of two extraordinary women from two different eras who defy expectations to utilize their unique gift of seeing soulmates in the most unexpected places in *The Matchmaker’s Gift.*

*Is finding true love a calling or a curse?*

Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers

Meet Kara Hartman, a photojournalist who is hiding her magic from the world. Traumatized by her brother’s death, she wants nothing more to do with magic. But just when she thought she could neglect her gift, it becomes apparent that the universe has other plans for Kara. When she discovers that an old foe has broken out of prison, hellbent on destroying her new life, Kara has no choice but to embrace the only power that can stop her.

A psychopath with size 16 shoes, nursing home hookers and an irreverent Las Vegas homicide detective with a gambling habit set the tone for this off-beat tale of revenge and retribution.

Blackjack addict Frank Savic is deeply in debt and facing family problems when he’s asked to delay his retirement to catch a vigilante killer who murders other murderers in a manner the veteran cop has never seen.

While dead bodies stack up in quick succession, the motorcycle-riding policeman gets reluctantly involved with a desperate mother who will do anything to get justice for her dead son.

Savic, his investigation complicated by a suspected FBI coverup and a prison bribery scandal, is also unaware that the quirky murderer might also be the solution to his own financial and domestic dilemma.

Add the brooding backdrop of Venice, Italy…and a vengeful killer who reads Shakespeare, and you have a teasing psychological thriller where surgical bone saws and spiders are just tools of the trade.

The sweetness of first love…

Could a fiercely independent cop’s heart be stolen by the guy who makes her favorite doughnuts? Will a maid who used deceit to snare a mail-order husband get a dose of her own medicine? Can her handsome neighbor rescue a modern-day “princess” from a tenacious ex-boyfriend? Can two strangers in a rideshare be honest enough to fall in love for real? Can you remember your first love? How about your second? Third? Fourth?

Featuring the talents of Linda Budzinski, Melissa Maygrove, Michael Di Gesu, Sylvia Ney, Katie Klein, Kim Elliott, Templeton Moss, S.E. White, Denise Covey, and Sammi Spizziri. Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these ten tales will touch your heart and rekindle lost feelings. Prepare to return to that first love…

Life on the street molds emotional athletes.

Three years ago, her brother’s death marked the beginning of Kendra’s new life, an existence with no friends, no family, and no home.

Her new identity crumbles when a specter from her brother’s past demands a package she doesn’t possess. There’s only one person who could know its location. For Kendra, re-entrance into polite society comes with a deadly price, as betrayal comes from both sides of the grave.

Conner Crofton, ex-military, fights his own demons. Failure to protect a teammate on their last covert mission takes penance as a promise to safeguard a family member, a girl he’d unknowingly remanded to a world of darkness and uncertainty, deception and psychopathic stalkers.

The past haunts them both while forgiveness, betrayal, and passion interweave a destiny formed long ago. Romantic suspense with a twist.

Books Read and Reviewed

Lion’s Heart: A Tale of Sherwood Forest by Jacque Stevens (read but need to write review)

Druid’s Moon by Deniz Bevan (read and review will be published in September)

The Insect Room by Felicity Hughes (review here)

Rose: Future Heart by Jazalyn (review here)

Shadow Guard by Reily Garrett (review here)

Crystal Vision by Larry Rodness (review here)

The Devil’s Whispers by Lucas Hault (review here)

Heir of Blood and Secrets by Linda Xia (review here)

The Counterclockwise Heart by Brian Farrey (review here)

vViIrRuUsS: I Never Forget by Jazalyn (review here)

Rose: Future Heart by Jazalyn

On 2022-02-252022-02-24 By JolieIn book review, Non ARCLeave a comment

Publisher:

Date of publication: December 19th, 2020

Genre: Poetry

Purchase Links: Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis:

A beautiful and charismatic but blowsy and lonely rose faces external turbulences and internal battles of life and love, but She overcomes them filtering the positiveness and the negativeness, and She becomes the future heart deep down inside She always was.

First Line:

We rise/And we fall;/We fall/And we rise;/In a time/That rise/Is the new fall/And fall/Is the new rise
Future Rose Heart by Jazalyn

I had stated in a previous review that poetry is challenging for me to review. I am used to reviewing novels and discussing plotlines and such. But it isn’t as easy to do when it comes to poetry. I am going to try my best with this review!!

Rose: Future Heart is about a beautiful rose. The rose is dealing with the loss of great love and negative influences in her life. She realizes that to find love, she needs to love herself. And when she does, she finds a love that transcends everything.

The author beautifully wrote the poetry in this book. The poems themselves were easy to read. While I didn’t connect with them, reading and reviewing poetry is out of my comfort zone, I enjoyed reading them.

I would recommend Rose: Future Hearts to anyone over 21. There is language, no sex, and no violence.

Stocking the Shelves: February 6th through February 12th 2022

On 2022-02-122022-02-11 By JolieIn book review2 Comments

Welcome to Stocking the Shelves. Every Saturday, I will be posting what books I got this week. Stocking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality. So, here is my list. Let me know if you have read any of these and what you thought!!

From the Author/Indie Publisher:

Book Cover — A beautiful and charismatic but blowsy and lonely rose faces external turbulences and internal battles of life and love, but She overcomes them filtering the positiveness and the negativeness, and She becomes the future heart deep down inside She always was.

From NetGalley:

vViIrRuUsS: I Never Forget by Jazalyn

On 2022-02-032022-02-02 By JolieIn ARC, book reviewLeave a comment

Publisher:

Date of publication: December 19th, 2020

Genre: Poetry

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Google Play

Goodreads Synopsis:

A virus invades the lives of all humanity and causes a madness pandemic from the reminder of the past and the exposure of thoughts threatening to change everything, but then another virus attempts to erase the memories and recover the future, while a third virus scopes to save the new generations.

First Line:

virus 0.1/Got embedded/Into the light/And entered/The eyes
Quantum Waves/vviirruuss: I never forget by Jazalyn

I am going to be very honest here; I avoid reviewing poetry. It’s not that I don’t like it (I am a huge Emily Dickinson fan); it’s just that I have a hard time putting my thought to words. To me, reading poetry is something personal. What a poem might mean to one person might not mean the same thing to another. That is excellent about poetry, but it also makes it so hard to review. So, this review is going to be very short.

vViIrRuUsS was an exciting book for me to read, and it did hit a nerve since we are still, technically, in the middle of a pandemic. The poetry’s range (from anger to love) was terrific.

I am curious to see how her other works are. Like I said above, I usually don’t review poetry, but this book was fresh and innovative. It was fast-paced and well written. I can’t wait to see how her other works are!!!

I would recommend vViIrRuUsS to anyone over 13. Other than language, it is a clean book.

February 2022 TBR

On 2022-02-012022-01-28 By JolieIn book review4 Comments

February is the month of groundhogs, love, and the Winter Olympics. I plan on ignoring the first one, celebrating the second, and watching the third.

I also plan on doing reading. A lot of reading. I have carried over a bunch of books from January. Maybe not as much as what I carried over from December, but still a lot.

So, here’s my list. Please let me know if you have read or are reading any of these books!!

January backlog:

February TBR

The Insect Room by Felicity Hughes

January 2022 Wrap Up

On 2022-01-312022-01-28 By JolieIn book review4 Comments

I can’t believe that January is almost over. It seems like yesterday that it was New Years Day and I was talking with my kids about New Years Resolutions (fun fact: we didn’t do any this year).

I didn’t have the best reading month in January. I went a whole week of not reading when my kids were home because of snow and I had an ocular migraine. So, I have a ton of books to catch up on.

I am all caught up on reviews. I know, how can I be caught up on reviews? Simple. I had 4 reviews that were due at the beginning of January and I just got to them. That does make me feel better.

As always, please let me know if you have read any of these books!!

Books I got from NetGalley

Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers

The Insect Room by Felicity Huges (there isn’t a link, yet, for Amazon or Goodreads)

Books Read and Reviewed

Rupture State by M.B. Bartkowski (review here)

The Sisters Sweet by Elizabeth Weiss (review here)

Wish You Were Here by Jodie Picoult (review here)

Girls Before Earls by Anna Bennett (review here)

The Maid by Nita Prose (review coming next week)

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (review coming next week)

WWW Wednesday: January 26th 2022

On 2022-01-26 By JolieIn book review4 Comments

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?

Personal:

After a week of no school (but they did have virtual learning Thursday and Friday), my kids went back to school on Monday. I can’t tell you how excited I was for them to go back…lol. I love them but they were getting on each other’s nerves and mine.

We’re slated to get hit with another snowstorm on Saturday. Like I mentioned last week, any snow that we get, the city shuts down. My prediction….no school Monday and maybe a 2-3 hour delay on Tuesday. Of course, Miss R is thrilled. She loves snow and days off from school.

I don’t know if I mentioned it but Miss B got on her JROTC air rifle team. She got the email the week of January 10th and she is so excited!! She is also doing JROTC events and going up in rank.

I have nothing really to say about Mr. Z. He’s my low-key, no-maintenance kid. He has discovered a love for zombie books. We had gotten him books 1-3 of The Extinction Cycle series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith for Christmas and he devoured them. BK ordered books 4-6 around New Year and Mr. Z finished them. He’s asking for other books in that genre.

As I mentioned above, Miss R is loving the snow. She has spent hours outside, playing in it. I am liking it because she’s outside and not sitting around with her face glued to a screen. In other news (with her), I got her 3-week progress report for Quarter 3 (they get two progress reports a quarter). Her reading level blew me away. She went from an 80L (Lexile Range)-230L to a 665L-815L. Depending on the site, that puts her at a middle/late 3rd grade/early 4th-grade reading level. I am very proud of her!!

Reading:

I barely did any reading last week. I was very stressed out (with the kids being virtual). That also led to me developing my first ocular migraine. That lasted for a little over 4 days (Weds, Thurs, Fri, and Saturday) and I am still not feeling 100%. I am also behind on my indie author reviews. Thankfully, they are understanding (stupid migraine)

Review-wise, I am still behind. Because of my migraine, I wasn’t able to write anything (it hurt to look at the screen). I am hoping to catch up with Random House/SMP reviews by Friday and to have the indie author reviews written by Sunday. I hate being behind!!

Watching:

BK and I started watching Foundation on Apple Plus but we stopped after the first episode. It was because of my migraine and not feeling well. We also started watching Ted Lasso.

Making:

I made the unstuffed shells yesterday. It was a pretty easy dish to make and the kids loved it. Next week, I am making Chile Lime pulled pork. I am not holding my breath with them liking it (they are all very picky) but miracles have happened.

So, that the catch up with me. As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and what you have thought about them. Just a warning, it will basically be the same as last week.

What I Recently Finished Reading: