Bookish Travels—August 2023 Destinations

I saw this meme on It’s All About Books and 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 (Yellowstone National 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)
Georgia
California
Texas (Pleasance)
Ohio (Dayton), California (Los Angeles, Malibu, Santa Barbara)

Australia

Perth

England

Watford
Horwich, Rivington
London
Lyndhurst Heath
Newcastle, London
Colchester, Devon, Ilfracombe
London
Somerset

Scotland

Dundee
Penicuik
Cairnfarn

Vietnam

Saigon, Dong Ha, Da Nang

Outer Space

Jupiter (New Jupiter Station 1, New Jupiter Station 2)

Post Apocalyptic America

Mentis

Bahamas


Greece

Kefalonia

Wales

Tenby

Nigeria

Port Harcourt, Lagos

South Africa

Cape Town

Canada

Vancouver Island (Crescent City)

August 2023 Wrap-Up

Here is what I read/posted/bought in August.

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:


Books I got from NetGalley:


Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers:


Giveaway Winners

Ignite the Magic by Donna Grant


Books Reviewed:

The Shadow Girls by Alice Blanchard—review here (3 stars)

Ride for Glory by Ann Hunter—review here (4 stars)

Gone Tonight by Sarak Pekkanen—review here (3 stars)

The Gullfather: Birdsy Seagull: Vol 1: A Seahawk Situation—review here (4 stars)

Stalking Around the Christmas Tree by Jacqueline Frost—review coming October 17th

Overdue or Die by Allison Brook—review coming October 10th

A Clue in the Crumbs by Lucy Burdette—review here (4 stars)

The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye—review here (4 stars)

Dark Corners by Megan Goldin—review here (4 stars)

Assault: Girl With a Knife by James T. Hogg—review here (4 stars)

Mister Magic by Kiersten White—review here (4 stars)

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin—review here (4 stars)

A Killer in the Family by Gytha Lodge—review here (4 stars)

Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Malerman—review here (4 stars)

North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan—review here (4 stars)

The One That Got Away by Charlotte Rixon—review here (2.5 stars)

In the Wick of Time by Valona Jones—review coming October 17th

Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman—review here (4 stars)

Unexpecting by Jen Bailey—review here (3 stars)

One Night by Georgina Cross—review here (3 stars)

The Body in the Back Garden—review here (4 stars)

A Dragon’s Dyne by Brett Salter—review coming September 5th (4 stars)


Reading Challenges:

July

Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge (find a book with the same amount of pages as the last book and read it)—Woman Scorned

Scavenger Hunt (a book translated from another language)—Anxious People

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (a book with “Girl” in the title)—The Fireproof Girl

2023 TBR Toppler (a book over 500 pages)—The Yellowstone Conundrum

2023 Monthly Themes (books in the heat/summer)—What Happened at the Lake

2023 Reading Challenge (a book with a yellow cover or yellow title)—A Worse Secret

2023 ABC Challenge (G)—Girl with No Fingerprints

Romanceopoly 2023! (Adult or New Adult friends to lovers)—Anything for Love

2023 TBR Prompts (longest book on my TBR)—The Needle House

August

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

Cover Scavenger Hunt 2023 (a heart)—Lost Shadows

The StoryGraph Reads the World (South Africa)—The Warning Bell

The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge (a nonfiction history book about an LGBTQIA+ issue or person)—Gender Queer

Beat the Backlist 2023 (fairy/folktale you haven’t heard before)—Splintered

Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge (find another book with a title that has the same amount of letters as the last book and read it)—The Beginning

Scavenger Hunt (a book from my least favorite genre that I might like)—the sun and her flowers

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (a celebrity memoir)—Stories I Only Tell My Friends


Books I bought:

Bite Me by Lisa Renee Jones

My Favorite Night by Claudia Burgoa

Tales from a Magical Teashop: Stories of the Tea Princess Chronicles by Casey Blair

Mercury’s Shadow by P.J. Garcin

Sensibly Wed by Kasey Stockton

Runaway Love by Melanie Harlow

Home Game by Lisa Suzanne

Spooning My Chuchunya by Marilyn Barr

Veronique’s Journey by Patti Flinn

The Bond by Robin Kirk

Constantine: A History by Donna Grant

Moon Kissed by Donna Grant

Where Lost Girls Go by B.R. Spangler

One Man by Lisa Renee Jones

Intrigued by Z.L. Arkadie

Shopaholic on a Honeymoon by Sophie Kinsella

Just for Show by Tawna Fenske

When You Return to Me by Dana Morton

The Prince’s Prisoner by Quinn Blackbird

Engelstatt by Samuel Church

Wormwood by D.H. Nevins

It’s in His Kiss by Bria Quinlan

Stay by Chelsea Camaron

Bunny Hearts Bear by V. Vaughn

That’s Why the Lady is a Tramp by Merry Farmer

The Fairy Tale Bride by Kelly McClymer

Duke Looks Like a Groomsman by Valerie Bowman

Il Padrone by Leigh Kenzie

Seaside Sweets by Melissa Chambers

Mystery of the Tea Cup Quilt by Jodi Allen Brice

Herbs and Homicide by Carly Winter

Dancing with Danger by Kerrigan Byrne

Killing Time by K.J. Waters

The Doctor by Nikki Sloane

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Delacorte Press

Date of publication: August 8th, 2023

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Adult, Adult Fiction, Family

Purchase Links: Kindle | Audible | B&N | AbeBooks | WorldCat

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two sisters navigate the turbulent, euphoric early days of California surf culture in this dazzling saga of ambition, sacrifice, and longing for a family they never had, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife

Southern California, 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu, followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky A-Go-Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives, Carol Donelly is breaking the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport–and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of her unconventional lifestyle.

The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother’s absence–physically, when she’s at the beach, and emotionally, the rare times she’s at home. To escape questions about Carol’s whereabouts–and chase their mom’s elusive affection–they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board, Mindy shows a natural talent, but Ginger, two years younger, feels out of place in the water.

As they grow up and their lives diverge, Mindy and Ginger’s relationship ebbs and flows. Mindy finds herself swept up in celebrity, complete with beachside love affairs, parties at the Playboy Club, and USO tours to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Ginger–desperate for a community of her own–is tugged into the vibrant counterculture of drugs and cults. Through it all, their sense of duty to each other survives, as the girls are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood.

A gripping, emotional story set at a time when mothers were expected to be Donna Reed, not Gidget, California Golden is an unforgettable novel about three women living in a society that was shifting as tempestuously as the breaking waves.


First Line:

The surf giveth, and the surf taketh away-thus said the Surf God every morning, noon, and night.

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin

Growing up the daughters of one of the only female surfing legends was hard. Mindy and Ginger learned, at a young age, that their mother’s attention was solely on surfing and the beach. To get their mother’s attention, the girls learn to surf. By the mid-1960s, the girls have grown apart. Mindy has become a legend in the surfing circles.. She gets caught up in the celebrity lifestyle and is soon doing a USO tour in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Ginger has become embroiled in the drug and cult counterculture. Their relationship is put to the test when Ginger commits the ultimate betrayal and asks Mindy for help. Can Mindy and Ginger overcome the emotional damage they both carry to do the right thing?

California Golden is one of those books you will love or hate. For me, I was on the love-it side of the scale. I enjoyed reading about Mindy and Ginger’s unconventional childhood and how their lives drastically changed as teenagers. I also enjoyed reading about the surfing/drug and cult subcultures portrayed in the book.

Usually, I’m not too fond of time hopping or switching back and forth between main characters in books. Nine out of ten times, I need help figuring out who I am reading about (usually because the author doesn’t label the beginning of the chapter). But, in California Golden, I had no such issue. Each chapter was tagged Mindy, Ginger, or Carol. It also had the year that particular chapter was set in (the book spans from 1944 to 1980).

I am also not a massive fan of having three separate main characters for the reasons stated above. I also have them run together in my mind. But, in this book, that didn’t happen. The author created three distinct personalities and kept them separate throughout the book.

I liked Mindy, and I also felt terrible for her. She had so much responsibility put on her at a young age. She also knew, as all children do, that she and her sister were unwanted, and she devised a way to get and keep her mother’s attention: surfing. Mindy genuinely loved surfing, and it shone through in the beginning chapters. So I was surprised when her storyline went in the direction it did. The focus would have stayed on her surfing.

While I liked Ginger, I predicted how her storyline would go. Unfortunately, that is the path of many children who had childhoods like hers. It did get to a point where I didn’t even like to read her storyline. But, at the same time, I liked the look the author gave into the drug/cult subculture of the late 60s. It was frightening and fascinating at the same time. It also drove Ginger to do what she did with Jimmy and what she asked Mindy to do later.

I didn’t like Carol, but at the same time, I felt terrible for her. She never wanted to be a wife and a mother. But she was forced to be anyways. She had no feelings for her girls and neglected them. When her husband finally left, and she discovered the girls were still there, her first thought was, “Why didn’t he take them.” She was selfish and remained selfish until the end of the book.

The end of California Golden was a surprise. I liked how things came full circle for Mindy, Ginger, and Carol. But I disagreed with the very end of the book. Was it good that Ginger had gotten her life together and figured things out? I didn’t think so, which might not be the correct opinion because of what was at stake. I wish there were an epilogue showing what life was like ten years later. I would have loved to see where everyone ended up.

I would recommend California Golden to anyone over 21. There are language, violence, and sexual situations. I also want to warn you that there are scenes of neglect, drug use, and domestic violence.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Delacorte Press, NetGalley, and Melanie Benjamin for allowing me to read and review California Golden. All opinions stated in this review are mine.


If you enjoy reading books like California Golden, then check these out:


Other books by Melanie Benjamin:

WWW Wednesday: August 9th, 2023

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?

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:

Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his freedom approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped—or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? Why was she visiting him in the first place?

When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems only to exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel Krall goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.

When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krell herself. Suddenly a target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.

Rachel Krall, the true crime podcaster star of Megan Goldin’s acclaimed Night Swim returns to search for a popular social media influencer who disappeared after visiting a suspected serial killer.


What I recently finished reading:

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.


What I think I will read next:

Faythe Wentworth was taught by her father how to fight, and never shies from a conflict, no matter the odds. In her small settlement town, she has learned to always be on guard—especially with the Downing brothers, who threaten her at every opportunity. When Chloe, Faythe’s little sister, is viciously attacked, Faythe, armed with a knife and a burning obsession, is determined to seek vengeance, and bring justice to her sister and her family. But is she prepared to fight the superstitions and injustices that led to her family’s destruction? With compelling characters, strong female narratives, and an unpredictable plot, the Girl with a Knife series will have readers sitting at the edge of their seats until the very last page.

Who is Mister Magic? Former child stars reunite to uncover the tragedy that ended their show -and discover the secret of its enigmatic host -in this dark supernatural thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide.

Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friend-ship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic

But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who-or what the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.

Then, a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it’s been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven’t seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they’re the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

Because magic never forgets the taste of your friendship…

Two sisters navigate the turbulent, euphoric early days of California surf culture in this dazzling saga of ambition, sacrifice, and longing for a family they never had, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife

Southern California, 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu, followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky A-Go-Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives, Carol Donelly is breaking the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport–and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of her unconventional lifestyle.

The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother’s absence–physically, when she’s at the beach, and emotionally, the rare times she’s at home. To escape questions about Carol’s whereabouts–and chase their mom’s elusive affection–they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board, Mindy shows a natural talent, but Ginger, two years younger, feels out of place in the water.

As they grow up and their lives diverge, Mindy and Ginger’s relationship ebbs and flows. Mindy finds herself swept up in celebrity, complete with beachside love affairs, parties at the Playboy Club, and USO tours to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Ginger–desperate for a community of her own–is tugged into the vibrant counterculture of drugs and cults. Through it all, their sense of duty to each other survives, as the girls are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood.

A gripping, emotional story set at a time when mothers were expected to be Donna Reed, not Gidget, California Golden is an unforgettable novel about three women living in a society that was shifting as tempestuously as the breaking waves.

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.’

FBI Special Agent Duncan McGuire spends his days–and his nights–tracking real-life monsters. Most humans aren’t aware of the vampires and werewolves that walk among them. They don’t realize the danger that they face, but Duncan knows about the horror that waits in the darkness. He hunts the monsters, and he protects the innocent. Duncan just never expects to become a monster. But after a brutal werewolf attack, Duncan begins to change…and soon he will be one of the very beasts that he has hunted.

Dr. Holly Young is supposed to help Duncan during his transition. It’s her job to keep him sane so that Duncan can continue working with the FBI’s Para Unit. But as Duncan’s beast grows stronger, the passion that she and Duncan have held carefully in check pushes to the surface. The desire that is raging between them could be a very dangerous thing…because Holly isn’t exactly human, not any longer.

As the monsters circle in, determined to take out all of the agents working at the Para Unit, Holly and Duncan will have to use their own supernatural strengths in order to survive. But as they give up more of their humanity and embrace the beasts within them both, they realize that the passion between them isn’t safe, it isn’t controllable, and their dark need may just be an obsession that could destroy them both.

Author’s Note: THE WOLF WITHIN is an adult paranormal romance. It contains werewolves, vampires, adult language, sexy times, and lots of danger. Please consider yourself warned. THE WOLF WITHIN contains approximately 60,000 words.

Jay Zander was a cheerful ten year old living in the painfully quiet town of Mentis, home to only dust and daydreams. But, things take a terrifying turn when this serene town, and many others, are struck by a mysterious meteor shower, forcing Jay’s family to lock him away in frozen slumber as protection from the impending doomsday. Now, thirteen years later, Jay awakes in a new world overrun by vicious creatures know as shadows, where he embarks on a journey to unearth a legendary organization of powerful individuals who may hold the key to saving the planet completely lost in darkness.

A woman uploads her DNA online, searching for her father–but the man who contacts her is Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens. From the acclaimed author of Little Sister, this endlessly twisty crime novel asks: What might a family do to protect or expose a serial killer in its midst?

When the police found the first body, left on a bonfire in the fields, they worried it had the hallmarks of a serial killer.

Now, as they find the second, they know for sure.

Panic about the “bonfire killer” quickly spreads through the sedate, suburban area of Southampton. Women are urged not to travel alone at night, and constant vigilance is encouraged among the local residents. But single mom Aisling Cooley has a lot to distract her: two beloved teenage sons and a quest to find her long-lost father, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a teenager growing up in Ireland.

After much debate she decides to upload her DNA to an ancestry website, and when she gets a match she is filled with an anxious excitement, that her questions about her father’s disappearance from her life might finally be answered.

But to her horror, it’s not her father who’s found her. It’s a detective.

And they say her DNA is a close match for the bonfire killer…

Five harrowing novellas of horror and speculative fiction from the singular mind of the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box

Josh Malerman is a master weaver of stories–and in this spine-chilling collection he spins five twisted tales from the shadows of the human soul:

A sister insists to her little brother that “Half the House Is Haunted” by a strange presence. But is it the house that’s haunted–or their childhoods?

In “Argyle,” a dying man confesses to homicides he never committed, and he reveals long-kept secrets far more sinister than murder.

A tourist takes the ultimate trip to outer space in “The Jupiter Drop,” but the real journey is into his own dark past.

In “Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer(TM),” a trendy married couple buys the latest home gadget only to find themselves trapped by their possessions, their history . . . and each other.

And in “Egorov,” a wealthy old cretin murders a young man, not knowing the victim was a triplet. The two surviving brothers stage a savage faux-haunting–playing the ghost of their slain brother–with the aim of driving the old murderer mad.

New York Times bestseller Allison Brennan’s latest standalone is an unputdownable race to the dramatic finish.

After five years in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristen and Ryan McIntyre have been dreading has arrived: Boyd McIntyre, head of a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small Montana town and is minutes away from kidnapping them. They barely escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The pilot, a man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash land in the middle of the Montana wilderness. The siblings hike deep into the woods, searching desperately for safety—unaware of the severity of the approaching storm.

Boyd’s sister Ruby left Los Angeles for the Army years ago, cutting off contact in order to help keep her niece and nephew safe and free from the horrors of the McIntyre clan. So when she gets an emergency call that the plane has gone down with the kids inside, she drops everything to try save them.

As the storm builds, Ruby isn’t the only person looking for them. Boyd has hired an expert tracker to find and bring them home. And rancher Nick Lorenzo, who knows these mountains better than anyone and doesn’t understand why the kids are running, is on their trail too.

But there is a greater threat to Kristen and Ryan out there. More volatile than the incoming blizzard, more dangerous than the family they ran from or the natural predators they could encounter. Who finds them first could determine if they live or die. . .

August 2023 TBR

Books for Review:


The StoryGraph Reading Challenge books

Buzzword Reading Challenge 2023 (body-related words in title)

2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (A book that has a wild animal in the title)

Cover Scavenger Hunt 2023 (a heart)

The StoryGraph Reads the World 2023 (South Africa)

The StoryGraph Genre Challenge 2023 (a nonfiction history book about an LGBTQIA+ issue or person)

Beat the Backlist 2023 (fairy/folk tale you haven’t heard before)

Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge (Find another book that has the same amount of letters as the last book and read it)

Scavenger Hunt (A book from your least favorite genre that you think you might like)

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (A celebrity memoir)

2023 TBR Toppler (A book by a LGBTQIA + author)

2023 Monthly Themes (Books with a setting in Asia)

2023 Reading Challenge (Book in my least read genre)

2023 ABC Challenge (H)

Romanceopoly! (Contemporary romance with an illustrated cover)

2023 TBR Prompts (A feel good book)

April 2023 Wrap Up

Here is what I read/posted in April.

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 author
KU Purchase—No Review
Free Kindle Purchase—No Review
Free Kindle Purchase—No Review
Non-ARC from Novel Cause
Non-ARC from Novel Cause
ARC from Sourcebooks Casablanca
ARC from author, Level Best Books, IBPA, Member’s Titles
Free Kindle Purchase—No review
Free Kindle Purchase—No Review
Non-ARC from author
KU Purchase—No Review
Free Amazon Prime Reads—No Review
KU Purchase—No Review
KU Purchase—No Review
KU Purchase—No Review
ARC from St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books
ARC from St. Martin’s Press
Non-ARC from Author
Non-ARC from Author
KU Purchase—No Review
KU Purchase—No Review
KU Purchase—No Review
ARC from St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Paperbacks
ARC from Sourcebooks Fire
Non ARC from author
Free Kindle Purchase—No Review
Kindle Purchase—No Review
KU Purchase—No Review
Free Kindle Purchase—No Review
ARC from author
ARC from Crooked Lane Books
ARC from Sourcebooks Casablanca
ARC from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books
ARC from Random House Publishing Group – Random House, Dial Press Trade Paperback

Books I got from NetGalley:

Read Now from St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books
Wish granted from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Bantam
Wish Granted from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Bantam
Read Now from Tor Publishing Group, Tor Books
Wish Granted from Sourcebooks Casablanca
Wished Granted from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Delacorte Press
Invite from Random House Publishing Group – Random House, Random House Trade Paperbacks
SMP Influencer Program pick from St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books
Wish Granted from Random House Publishing Group – Random House, The Dial Group
Wish Granted from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books
Request from Meryl Media Group, Rosewind Books

Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers:

Non-Arc from author
ARC from Novel Cause
ARC from author
Non ARC from author
Non-ARC from author
Non-ARC from author
ARC from Author

Giveaway Winners

Goodreads Giveaway—Kindle download
Goodreads Giveaway—Paperback
Goodreads Giveaway—Paperback
Goodreads Giveaway—Paperback

Books Reviewed:

The Witch and the Vampire—review here

Prince of Typgar: Nurjan and the Monks of Meirar—review here

Read to Death at the Lakeside Library—review here

Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose—review here

Body Count by SM Thomas—review here

Prince of Typgar: Nujran and the Corpse in the Quadrangle by Krishna Sudhir—review here

Wings Once Cursed and Bound by Piper J. Drake—review here

No Time to Breathe by Lori Duffy Foster—review here

Another Chance at Happiness by Dani Phoenix—review here

Tales from the Box, Volume 1 by Weston Kincaide—review here

Pieces of Me by Kate McLaughlin—review here

Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas—review here

Bait by D.I. Jolly—review here

Missing by Amy Kulp—review here

How to Best a Marquess—review here

This Delicious Death—review here


Reading Challenges:

2023 Monthly Themes (Continue a series or reread an author already read this year): Claim My Baby—Finished 3-31-23

Romanceopoly 2023! (Read a book where the main character works at or owns a bar)-About LoveFinished 4-1-23

Buzzword Reading Challenge 2023 (words in the title related to emotions, from happy to sad, smile to frown, pride to rage)—P.S. I Hate You—Finished 4-3-23

2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (a book with one of these words in the title: Sunny, Bright, Cloud or Rain): Brightest Shadow—Finished 4-6-2023

Cover Scavenger Hunt 2023 (a flower): A Spirited Manor—Finished 4-7-2023

The StoryGraph’s OnBoarding Reading Challenge 2023 (read one of the first 10 books you added to your to-read pile): The Night Swim—Finished 4-8-2023

The StoryGraph Reads the World 2023 (Italy): Find Me—Finished 4-10-2023

The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge (a biography about someone you don’t know much about): Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot—Finished 4-11-2023

Beat the Backlist 2023 (take place primarily in winter or a cold region): Tainted—Finished 4-19-2023

Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge (go to the acknowledgments of the last book you read for this prompt. What name did you first see? Find a book written by an author with that name): Frost Burn—Finished 4-20-2023

Scavenger Hunt (Book I found that day): Delicate Ink—Finished 4-20-2023

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (a book by a first time author): The Fifth Floor—Finished 4-21-23

2023 TBR Toppler (continue a series): Ten Thousand Lies—Finished 4-22-23

2023 Reading Challenge (book that has been on my TBR for the longest time): Purple Death—Finished 4-23-23

2023 ABC Challenge (D): Descendants—Carrying over to May

2023 TBR Prompts (A BookTok Favorite): The Song of Achilles—Carrying over to May