Bookish Travels—November 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, Australia, England

States I visited the most:

Cities I visited the most: Brunswick, London


United States:

New York (Brooklyn, Westchester, Manhattan, New York City), California (Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo), Illinois (Hadenfield)
Wisconsin (Black Harbor)
Connecticut (New Haven), Oregon (Portland)
Ohio (Cincinnati)
Nebraska (Harrod’s Reach)
Texas (Hamchet)

Mexico


Australia

Brunswick, Flinders
Brunswick, Melbourne

The Caribbean

Lawrence Island

Enlightened States

Five Ugly Brothers, Cloud Pillars, Bahngtown, Wugoh, Caobiu, Danziyi, Sunri, Grass Sea, Shetty Caldera, Liqusa, Allanto, Kopacara, Hrusha, Daleh

England

London, Ridgepoint
London
Suffolk (Newmarket), London

Bali


Germany

Weimar, Berlin, Allach, Munich, Dachau

Argentina

Buenos Aires

Egypt

Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan, Philae, Thebes

The Lands of Men

Harbor’s End, Jagged Reach, Pressia, Swansong Colony, Southern Island

The Lands of the Fae

Viridian Deep, Helles, Water Sprite Homelands, Far Reach City

November 2023 Wrap-Up

Here is what I read/posted/won/received/bought in November.

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 Reviewed:

Friends Don’t Fall in Love by Erin Hahn—review here (4 stars)

Heir of Broken Fate by Mads Rafferty—review here (4 stars)

The Arcannen Chronicles: Magicom by Adam Joseph—review here (4 stars)

Perfect in Death by Reily Garrett—review here (4 stars)

What Doesn’t Kill You by Ken Brosky—review here (4 stars)

Jigglyspot and the Zero Intellect—review here (4 stars)

Secondhand Daylight by Eugen Bacon and Andrew Hook—review here (3 stars)

People to Follow by Olivia Worley—review here (4 stars)

When I’m Dead by Hannah Morrissey—review here (4 stars)

The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu—review here (4 stars)

No One Left But You by Tash McAdam—review here (4 stars)

Betrayal by Phillip Margolin—review here (4 stars)

Search History by Amy Taylor—review here (4 stars)

The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy—review here (4 stars)

Never Wager with a Wallflower by Virginia Heath—review here (4 stars)

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez—review here (4 stars)

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord by Celeste Connally—review here (4 stars)


Books I got from NetGalley:


Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers:


Giveaway Winners


Books I bought:

Worth the Risk by Evey Lyon

Between Takes by Morgana Bevan

A Lighthouse Cafe Christmas by Jennifer Faye

Harleigh Sinclair and the Raiders of the Lost Ankh by Tamara Grantham

What He Wants by Tawny Taylor

Silent as the Grave by Cheryl Bradshaw

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Finding Grace by B.E. Baker

One Cruel Night by K.A. Linde

Cruel Money by K.A. Linde

Cruel Promise by K.A. Linde

Cruel Kiss by K.A. Linde

My Legacy by Samantha Skye

Rivalry Gone Wrong by L.C. Turner

Club X by Lauren Landish and Willow Winters

Deal With the Devil by Vivian Wood

Find Her, Keep Her by Z.L. Arkadie

He’s So Bad by Z.L. Arkadie

No Ordinary Love by Ann Christopher

Sing Me a Song by C.A. Rene

Steal the Light by Lexi Blake

A Kiss Beneath the Stars by S.L. Sterling

Photo Bombed by Daria White

The Widow of Fallbrooke Court by Kasey Stockton

Wounded Kiss by Willow Winters

A Grave Error by Michele Pariza Wacek

Invitation to Murder by Delta James

Our Daughter’s Bones by Ruhi Choudhary

Little Girls Sleeping by Jennifer Chase

Night in His Eyes by Alisyn Fae and Emma Alisyn

Bad Blood by Bella Jacobs

Mystery on Hidden Lane by Clare Chase

Swept Away by Susan Kiernan-Lewis

Secondhand Daylight by Eugen Bacon and Andrew Hook

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing, Cosmic Egg Books

Date of publication: October 27th, 2023

Genre: Science Fiction, Time Travel

Purchase Links: Kindle | B&N | AbeBooks

Goodreads Synopsis:

Something is happening to Green. He is an ordinary guy, time-jumping forward at a startling, uncontainable rate. He is grappling to understand his present; his relationship is wholly tattered; his ultimate destination is a colossal question mark.

Zada is a scientist in the future. She is mindful of Green’s conundrum and seeks to unravel it by going backwards in time. Can she stop him from jumping to infinity?

Their point of intersection is fleeting but memorable, each one’s travel impacting the other’s past or future. And one of them doesn’t even know it yet.

Secondhand Daylight is a reverse story in alternate timelines between two protagonists whose lives must one day intersect.


First Line:

I came to on the tarmac outside the Sarah Sands Hotel.

Secondhand Daylight by Eugen Bacon and Andrew Hook

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: The pacing of Secondhand Daylight was medium-paced. While the medium pace worked during sections of the book, the book needed more speed to the storyline-well, at least to Zada’s. There is lag during the book, and I attribute it to the book just plodding along.

Trigger/Content Warning: There are no trigger warnings in Secondhand Daylight.

Sexual Content: There is sexual content in Secondhand Daylight. But it is not graphic. The authors do not go into detail and use the fade to black at the end of one chapter and begin the next chapter the next day.

Language: There is moderate swearing in Secondhand Daylight.

Setting: Secondhand Daylight is set in Australia—past, present, and future.

Tropes: Artificial Intelligence, Dystopian, Time Travel

Age Range: I recommend Secondhand Daylight to anyone over 16.


Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

John Green is in a problem. One night, in the late 90s, he started traveling through time. At first, it was a few days, then expanded to a few weeks. Soon, he was missing months, years, and ultimately decades. He is desperate to stop his uncontrollable journey through time.

Zada took her job knowing that she would eventually be doing the impossible, going back in time to help the company’s founder, John Green, stop time traveling. This is a one-way journey, with Zada stuck in the past once she figures out why John is time-traveling. But finding John before he travels is proving more complicated than she thought, and Zada isn’t sure she can fix his issue. Can Zada stop John from time traveling, or will her journey be for naught?


Main Characters

John Green: I had a tough time connecting to John’s character. But, I chalked that up to his constant confusion over his time traveling.

Zada: Like John, I had a tough time connecting with Zada. But, and I stress this, it was because of her personality. She wasn’t very likable. She had a massive chip on her shoulder, and it showed. But, she was the person to at least attempt to get the job done (reset John).


My review:

When I downloaded Secondhand Daylight, I did it on a whim. That is something other than what I usually do when considering a book to review. I have learned that I either usually love on whim books or I am meh about them. In this case, I was “meh” about Secondhand Daylight.

I had issues following the storyline of the book. It was choppy, and the timeline was all over the place. I found myself reading and rereading paragraphs and chapters. There was a point where I was going to DNF, but I decided to keep reading.

The time travel storylines were interesting. I wish the authors had explained why John was jumping forward in time sooner in the book. I also worried about paradoxes. The only thing that made sense about the time travel storylines was John and Zada missing each other.

The end of Secondhand Daylight was OK. I liked how the authors wrapped up the time travel storyline. The very end of the book did make me think. It was who was involved and the ages that piqued my interest. I would have liked it better if the authors had started with the book’s last page and built on it.

Many thanks to John Hunt Publishing, Cosmic Egg Books, NetGalley, Eugen Bacon, and Andrew Hook for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Secondhand Daylight. All opinions stated in this review are mine.


If you enjoy reading books similar to Secondhand Daylight, then you will enjoy these books:


Other books by Eugen Bacon:


Other books by Andrew Hook

WWW Wednesday: November 1st, 2023

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme Sam hosts 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:

Something is happening to Green. He is an ordinary guy, time-jumping forward at a startling, uncontainable rate. He is grappling to understand his present; his relationship is wholly tattered; his ultimate destination is a colossal question mark.

Zada is a scientist in the future. She is mindful of Green’s conundrum and seeks to unravel it by going backwards in time. Can she stop him from jumping to infinity?

Their point of intersection is fleeting but memorable, each one’s travel impacting the other’s past or future. And one of them doesn’t even know it yet.

Secondhand Daylight is a reverse story in alternate timelines between two protagonists whose lives must one day intersect.


What I recently finished reading:

Carnivals, Cannibals, and Clowns. Oh My!

Wanna go for a ride?

Meet Jigglyspot, a five-foot tall half human half warlock carnival clown who spends his free time moonlighting as a drug dealing pimp and lackey for demonic entities who prey on the weak and vulnerable, casting their dark shadow across humanity through manipulation, and fear.

Jigglyspot was selected to serve as the event coordinator for 2019’s Summer Solstice Celebration at the prestigious Cannibal Café. A celebration that brings together both demon and human alike. But with less than two weeks before the celebration, Jigglyspot’s got so much to do and little time to do it. And the feds are hot on his tail. Between securing new recruits for demonic possession, choosing fresh bodies to slice and dice for dinner, and the fact that his girlfriend, Kera, is eating up most of his time, Jiggly’s at his wit’s end.

Hopefully, those demons appreciate all his sacrifices. Hopefully, but unlikely. Those demons can be hell to deal with. Jigglyspot knows; he’s been dealing with them for decades.

Will he rise above, or will tragedy and mayhem lead to dire discoveries poisoned with manipulation and betrayal that will ultimately destroy all Jigglyspot holds dear?

Discover Jigglyspot and his cast of clowns, killers, demons, and wretched fiends, in a novel like you’ve never experienced. Horror, mayhem, thrills, chills, fantasy, and spoils are waiting for your reading eyes with an escape into the underworld of mind control and human slavery.

Warning: This book contains scenes with profound psychological suffering, and graphically violent acts, behaviors, thoughts, deeds, and ridicule. No one has been spared, and no label is safe. Although we are proud to report, no animals were harmed during the writing of this novel, so that’s a good thing. Everyone else is fair game. After all, if you were a demon, what would you think of humanity?

Fans of Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward, Clive Barker, and Stephen King will be captivated by this edge of your seat, eye-popping, wtf horror novel that is certain to be your next addictive read. As they say, you don’t just read Jigglyspot… You DEVOUR Jigglyspot!


What I think I will read next:

Ten teen influencers come to a remote island to star in a reality show, but when one of them winds up dead, they realize that this time, the price of being “cancelled” could be their lives.

A reality show on a remote Caribbean island. Ten teen influencers. One dead body.

Welcome to “In Real Life,” the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live” without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars–including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators—it’s about to turn into a nightmare.

When the production crew fails to show up and one of their own meets a violent end, these nine little influencers find themselves stranded with a dead body and no way to reach the outside world. When they start receiving messages from a mysterious Sponsor threatening to expose their darkest secrets, they realize that they’ve been lured into a deadly game…and one of them might be pulling the strings.

With the body count rising and cameras tracking their every move, the creators must figure out who is trying to get them canceled—like, literally—before their #1 follower strikes again.

One girl murdered. Another one missing. And a medical examiner desperate to uncover the truth in the latest Black Harbor mystery by acclaimed author Hannah Morrissey.

On a bone-chilling October night, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp investigates the death of her daughter’s best friend. Hours later, the tragedy hits even closer to home when she makes a devastating discovery—her daughter, Chloe, is gone. But, not without a trace.

A morbid mosaic of clues forces Rowan and her husband to question how deeply they really knew their daughter. As they work closely to peel back the layers of this case, they begin to unearth disturbing details about Chloe and her secret transgressions…details that threaten to tear them apart.

Amidst the noise of navigating her newfound grief and reconciling the sins of her past, an undeniable fact rings true for Rowan: karma has finally come to collect.

It’s Monday: What Are You Reading?—October 30th, 2023

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:

Nothing exciting happened this past week. I spent it ferrying cats to the vet and kids back and forth to activities and appointments.


What I am Reading Now:

Valerie Miller and her younger brother have spent their entire lives in the dreary town of Seven Sisters, where most people are resigned to a bleak future of debt and despair. But when a mysterious woman with a dark past arrives, she brings with her a gift that could transform the town’s fortunes – and the lives of Val and Danny.

This extraordinary woman’s power is both awe-inspiring and terrifying, capable of unleashing a force that will shake Seven Sisters to its core. The stakes are high, and danger is omnipresent. Can Val and Danny rise to the challenge and seize the opportunity to finally break free from the suffocating grip of their hometown? Or will they fall victim to the terrors unleashed by this enigmatic figure? One thing is certain–when the sun rises on Seven Sisters, nothing will ever be the same again.

Part creature-feature, part survival story, What Doesn’t Kill You will keep you on the edge of your seat as Val and Danny fight for their lives and all of Seven Sisters.


Books I plan on reading later this week:

Something is happening to Green. He is an ordinary guy, time-jumping forward at a startling, uncontainable rate. He is grappling to understand his present; his relationship is wholly tattered; his ultimate destination is a colossal question mark.

Zada is a scientist in the future. She is mindful of Green’s conundrum and seeks to unravel it by going backwards in time. Can she stop him from jumping to infinity?

Their point of intersection is fleeting but memorable, each one’s travel impacting the other’s past or future. And one of them doesn’t even know it yet.

Secondhand Daylight is a reverse story in alternate timelines between two protagonists whose lives must one day intersect.

Carnivals, Cannibals, and Clowns. Oh My!

Wanna go for a ride?

Meet Jigglyspot, a five-foot tall half human half warlock carnival clown who spends his free time moonlighting as a drug dealing pimp and lackey for demonic entities who prey on the weak and vulnerable, casting their dark shadow across humanity through manipulation, and fear.

Jigglyspot was selected to serve as the event coordinator for 2019’s Summer Solstice Celebration at the prestigious Cannibal Café. A celebration that brings together both demon and human alike. But with less than two weeks before the celebration, Jigglyspot’s got so much to do and little time to do it. And the feds are hot on his tail. Between securing new recruits for demonic possession, choosing fresh bodies to slice and dice for dinner, and the fact that his girlfriend, Kera, is eating up most of his time, Jiggly’s at his wit’s end.

Hopefully, those demons appreciate all his sacrifices. Hopefully, but unlikely. Those demons can be hell to deal with. Jigglyspot knows; he’s been dealing with them for decades.

Will he rise above, or will tragedy and mayhem lead to dire discoveries poisoned with manipulation and betrayal that will ultimately destroy all Jigglyspot holds dear?

Discover Jigglyspot and his cast of clowns, killers, demons, and wretched fiends, in a novel like you’ve never experienced. Horror, mayhem, thrills, chills, fantasy, and spoils are waiting for your reading eyes with an escape into the underworld of mind control and human slavery.

Warning: This book contains scenes with profound psychological suffering, and graphically violent acts, behaviors, thoughts, deeds, and ridicule. No one has been spared, and no label is safe. Although we are proud to report, no animals were harmed during the writing of this novel, so that’s a good thing. Everyone else is fair game. After all, if you were a demon, what would you think of humanity?

Fans of Grady Hendrix, Catriona Ward, Clive Barker, and Stephen King will be captivated by this edge of your seat, eye-popping, wtf horror novel that is certain to be your next addictive read. As they say, you don’t just read Jigglyspot… You DEVOUR Jigglyspot!

Ten teen influencers come to a remote island to star in a reality show, but when one of them winds up dead, they realize that this time, the price of being “cancelled” could be their lives.

A reality show on a remote Caribbean island. Ten teen influencers. One dead body.

Welcome to “In Real Life,” the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live” without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars–including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators—it’s about to turn into a nightmare.

When the production crew fails to show up and one of their own meets a violent end, these nine little influencers find themselves stranded with a dead body and no way to reach the outside world. When they start receiving messages from a mysterious Sponsor threatening to expose their darkest secrets, they realize that they’ve been lured into a deadly game…and one of them might be pulling the strings.

With the body count rising and cameras tracking their every move, the creators must figure out who is trying to get them canceled—like, literally—before their #1 follower strikes again.

October 2023 TBR

NetGalley:


Indie Authors:


Reading Challenges:

Buzzword Reading Challenge 2023 (magic-related words: magic in the title or related words. Example: Witch, Charm, Conjure, Spell…etc.)

2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (a book with a double or triple number in the title: Any number between 10 and 999 count)

Cover Scavenger Hunt 2023 (a star)

The StoryGraph Reads the World (Trinidad and Tobago)
The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge (a travel memoir)
Beat the Backlist 2023 (set or inspired by the 1700s or 1800s)
Scavenger Hunt (a book you had to read in school that you want to reread)
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (a romance with a fat lead)
2023 TBR Toppler (A 5-star prediction)
2023 Monthly Themes (October—Thrilltober)
2023 Reading Challenge (A Green Book: either a green cover or green in the title)
2023 ABC Challenge (J)
Romanceopoly 2023! (romantic suspense set in a country that you don’t live in)
2023 TBR Prompts (a book about mental health)

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my fall TBR—September 19th, 2023

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Every Tuesday, a new topic is assigned from the schedule below. Then, you take that topic and fly free with it. You can do as little or as much as you want to (I have done as low as two before). If you want, you can link back To That Artsy Reader Girl and show her what you posted.


The Schedule

September 19: Books on My Fall 2023 To-Read List


September 26: Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book


October 3: Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year (We’ve just begun the last quarter of the year! What bookish goals would you still like to accomplish? If you participated in TTT’s Bookish Goals for 2023 topic this past January, update us on which goals you’ve achieved, which you’ve given up on, and which ones you’re still working on!)


October 10: Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free (Real or Imaginary) (Submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ bout Books)


October 17: Books with Weather Events in the Title/on the Cover (I’m picturing a list of titles with weather-related words in them like storm, rain, blizzard, flood, lightning, hail, snow, wind, etc. OR covers with lightning/storms in the picture.)


October 24: Atmospheric Books (The Novelry explains this concept as: “A novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.” Study.com explains that, “The atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to convey feelings, emotions, and mood to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.”)


October 31: Halloween Freebie


November 7: Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines (Submitted by Cathy @ What Cathy Read Next)


November 14: Mainstream Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read (Submitted by Rissa)


November 21: Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books (In honor of Thanksgiving in the USA.)


November 28: Books Set In X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.)


December 5: Freebie


December 12: Books On My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List


December 19: Books.I Hop Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes


December 26: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf (Maybe share your holiday book haul?)

2024

January 2: Favorite Books of 2023


January 9: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024
January 16: Bookish Goals for 2024


January 23: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To


January 30: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023


So here are mine.

All my books are taken from my NetGalley Goodreads shelf.


Books on my fall TBR: