March has flown by for me (I don’t know about you guys).
Indie Authors/Publishers
NetGalley
April TBR 2023
Tag: SM Thomas
WWW Wednesday: March 28th, 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?
Personal:
Things have been quiet around here, which it hasn’t been for a couple of weeks. We are all feeling better and back to our day-to-day activities. Even the cats have been chill, which is amazing.
Shows I watched this week: Shadow and Bone: Season 2, 1899 (which is super creepy), and OnPatrol Live.
What I Cooked/Baked: Nothing. I am waiting for meat and chicken prices to come down before experimenting with recipes.
Reading/Blog:
I think I have made up for the books I didn’t read when I was sick…lol. I finished all of my reading challenges as well as all of my ARCs for this month. So, yay me!! I will try to get a head start in April and May, mainly May. I kinda overbooked myself for that month.
The longest book I read this week: The Dark Rift. There was so much happening with that book. Add in that I was having concentration issues. It took me a couple of days to read.
The shortest book I read this week: Vicious Delights. It was a cute Hunger Games knockoff that took me under 4 hours to read (thank you, car rider line!!)
What I Recently Finished Reading:
Set on the planet Syzegis, in a distant galaxy, Nujran is the spoiled pre-teen son of King Rababi and Queen Roone in the kingdom of Typgar. Enter Maestro Amsibh, a gifted teacher with extraordinary qualities, and the prince’s transformation begins.
But, why does he have to leave his sheltered life at the palace and his gorgeous friend Zaarica, with the maestro and two bodyguards? Who are the mysterious Monks of Meirar, and what strange powers do they possess? What motivates Hoanan, the villainous politician, who wants to unseat the king and usurp the throne? And amidst all the turbulence in Typgar, can Nujran find his way back home?
With numerous plot twists and turns, the reader will be transported on a fast-paced adventure with our young prince, where he encounters romance and conflict, friendship and betrayal, while building strength and character through his experiences in the real world.
What I am currently reading:
Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Ellery Adams, Rain Wilmot must find a novel solution in order to catch another killer—before her book club members are picked off one by one.
Summer is in full swing as tourists flock back to the Northwoods and travel to Lofty Pines, Wisconsin. For Rain Wilmot, owner of the Lakeside Library, this is the perfect opportunity to bring back her mother’s summer book club. But the summer sun starts to really heat up when one of the club’s members, Lily Redlin, is found dead in her own home not long after the first meeting.
Alongside her sidekick and neighbor Julia Reynolds and the charming Jace Lowe, Rain discovers that the murder is seemingly inspired by the book club’s recent selection of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery novel, Sparkling Cyanide. But who would kill Lily, and more importantly, why?
The deeper Rain goes into the story, the more confusing and complicated the plot becomes. Was Lily murdered to cover up a tragic accident involving an old classmate years earlier? Or were the rumors true—did Lily really possess priceless original Laura Ingles Wilder manuscripts and someone killed her for them? And who stands to gain the recently inherited piece of waterfront property that Lily received from a long-lost relative?
With a long list of suspects and motives, Rain realizes that all leads come back to people involved in the book club. Rain and her friends take a page from Agatha Christie’s book by hosting a reenactment of the club’s first meeting to flush out the killer. Will Rain’s plan succeed—or will this librarian’s book be checked out for good?
What books I think I’ll read next:
A twisty, domestic suspense debut about a clique of mothers that shatters when one of their own is murdered, bringing chaos to their curated lives.
She was the perfect wife, with the perfect life. You would kill to have it…
Ciara Dunphy has it all–a loving husband, well-behaved children, and a beautiful home. Her circle of friends in their small Irish village go to her for tips about mothering, style, and influencer success–a picture-perfect life is easy money on Instagram. But behind the filters, reality is less polished.
Enter Mishti Guha: Ciara’s best friend. Ciara welcomed Mishti into her inner circle for being… unlike the other mothers in the group. But, discontent in a marriage arranged for her through her parents back in Calcutta, Mishti now raises her young daughter in a country that is too cold, among the children of her new friends who look nothing like her. She just wants what Ciara has–the ease with which she moves through the world–and in that sense, Mishti might be exactly like the other mothers.
And there’s earth mother Lauren Doyle, born, bred, and the butt of jokes in their village. With her disheveled partner and children who run naked in the yard, they’re mostly a happy lot, though unsurprisingly ostracized for being the singular dysfunction in Ciara’s immaculate world. When Lauren finds an unlikely ally in Mishti, she decides that her days of ridicule are over.
Then Ciara is found murdered in her own pristine home, and the house of cards she’d worked so hard to build comes crumbling down. Everyone seems to have something to gain from Ciara’s death, so if they don’t want the blame, it may be the perfect time to air their enemies’ dirty laundry.
In this dazzling debut novel, Disha Bose revolutionizes age-old ideas of love and deceit. What ensues is the delicious unspooling of a group of women desperate to preserve themselves.
Widowed sounded better than divorced.
Or at least it did the first time.
Despite having survived the trials and tribulations of The Diseased – Paige finds herself in a situation that seems even more impossible.
The President is dying.
Those four words set Paige’s life on a course she could never have predicted.
The President is dying, only Paige can save him.
Those eight words are the only ones keeping her friends Georgia and Violet alive.
The President is dying, only Paige can save him. She won’t.
It is those ten words that keep Paige motivated, that keep her sane.
You’re going to be a daddy.
Those were the last words I ever expected to hear.
As one of the fabled Hamilton twins, I enjoy my life just as it is. Why wouldn’t I? Check out my stats.
Co-owner of Hamilton Realty, a multimillion dollar business.
Doting uncle to my niece, Laurie, and my soon-to-be nephew.
All-around sexy, single guy who doesn’t do strings—ever.
Then I went to Vegas with my sister-in-law’s best friend, Sage.
Choices were made. Alcoholic beverages were consumed. Virginities were taken.
Hers, not mine.
Then Sage announced I’d knocked her up. And oh yeah, she doesn’t expect me to take an active role, because she knows I can’t handle anything except my d*ck.
Say what?
She’s so wrong, and I’m going to prove it to her. I’m going to claim my baby—and Sage.
USA Today Bestselling Author, Lexy Timms, brings you a new series About Love and everything in between the road to forever.
The course of true love never did run smooth… William Shakespeare
After losing her money and fiancé in one go, Kellie Margolis, the one-time owner of a lucrative business, checks out of society. She needs to become something—or someone—unassuming. She’s hired on as a waitress at a bar called Darkness. It’s in a dangerous part of town, locally known for its Russian-American population.
Betrayed and humiliated by her fiancé who used her business as a front for an escort service, Kellie wants to keep her world small and simple. Unexpectedly, her new life involves the erotic, shady, and incredibly charming Sasha Petrov. Sasha’s too good-looking for words. Life for Kellie becomes passionate, adventurous, erotic, and bold—but by no means simple.
Though too many signals say Sasha plays dirty, Kellie decides she’d be a fool to deny herself the pleasure he brings her. Their affair becomes more like a fairy tale, and Kellie starts believing Sasha is the love she deserves after her hard times. He lavishes her with opulence and tends to her every need like no one has ever done. When Kellie’s past unexpectedly comes full circle, she realizes how small the world really is.
Will an unforeseen discovery break Kellie’s heart for good, or will Sasha be the bad boy hero he’s set himself up to be?
February 2023 Wrap Up
Here is what I read/posted in February.
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
Books Reviewed:
Murder Up to Bat by Elizabeth McKenna—Review Here
Dead and Gondola by Ann Claire—Review Here
The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi—Review Here
Jackal by Erin E. Adams—Review Here
The Drift by C.J. Tudor—Review Here
Not Your Ex’s Hexes by April Asher—Review Here
After the Music by Elena Goudelias—Review Here
Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman—Review Here
Take the Lead by Alexis Daria—Review Here
Once a Killer by Margaret Watson—Review Here
The Family Game by Catherine Steadman—Review Here
The Tracks We Leave by Maggie Maxfield—Review Here
Angeline by Anna Quinn—Review Here
Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah—Review Here
Reading Challenges
Buzzword Reading Challenge (Life and Death)—Death’s Queen—Finished 2-17-2023
Buzzword Reading Challenge (Verbs)—Deadly Awakening—Finished 2-18-2023
2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (book with direction in title)— Southern Rocker Boy—Finished 2-20-2023
2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (book with a season in title)—Summer’s Deadly Kiss—Finished 2-18-2023
Cover Scavenger Hunt (A Door)—Kurtain Motel—Finished 1-31-2023
The StoryGraph’s Onboarding Reading Challenge 2023 (Read a book you discovered via the community page)—Fine or Punishment—Finished 2-14-2023
The StoryGraph Reads the World 2023 (Columbia)—Lightlark—Finished 2-15-2023
The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge 2023 (a nonfiction book about startups)—Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin—Finished 2-2-2023
Beat the Backlist 2023 (cozy read or cover)—Her Long Walk Home—2-16-2023
Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge (What color was on the previous prompt’s book’s cover? Read a book with the complimentary color on the cover)—The Demon Deception—Finished 2-3-2023
Scavenger Hunt (book written by a man using a woman’s perspective)—When They Came—Finished 2-9-2023
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (A book you bought from an independent bookstore)—The Happy Chip—Finished 2-3-2023
2023 TBR Toppler (The newest book you own)—A Duke for All Seasons—Finished 2-8-2023
2023 Monthly Themes (Fantastical February)—Nostalgic Rain—Finished 1-30-2023
2023 Reading Challenge (A red book. Can have red on the cover or in the title)—My Sister and I—Finished 2-8-2023
2023 ABC Challenge ( B)—The Billionaire Shifter’s Curvy Match––Finished 2-11-2023
Romanceopoly 2023 (Free Choice)—A Guide to Being Just Friends—Finished 1-21-2023
2023 TBR Prompts (A book from an author you love)—Capture Me––Finished 1-14-2023
Bookish Travels—August 2022 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 originally posting this!!
This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books are wonderful and take you to places you would never get a chance to go. That includes places of fantasy too!!
This is where I traveled in August:
- United Kingdom
2. Spain
4. United States
5. Canada
6. Godsland
7. Earth Two
8. Aerthlan
Let me know if you have read any of these books and, if you did read them, what you thought of them.
WWW Wednesday: August 17th, 2022
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:
- Miss B and Mr. Z got their schedules for their HS classes this week. Miss B is taking 5 classes (English, History, Criminal Law, Introduction to Criminal Justice, and Ethics and Communications Relations) that will give her dual HS and college credits. She also takes Physical Science, Math 3, and Psychology to round out her schedule. Mr. Z is taking Math 2, Honors Earth Science, Spanish II, Honors English 1, Honors World History, Introduction to Computer Science using MakeCode, and Intermediate Orchestra. He started HS with 2 credits, having taken Spanish 1 and Math 1 last year in middle school.
- Miss R found out who her 3rd-grade teacher is. I felt it was going to be this specific teacher (Mr. Z had her), but nothing was confirmed until I got the letter on Monday. She is very excited, and I can’t wait to see how this teacher will push her (she is smart and get bored fast)
- I had to take our newest kitten, Tony, to the vet on Monday. I had scheduled a visit for him just so the vet could give him a once over. But, a few days after we got him home, he developed a nasty cough and was very sick. He didn’t eat at all on Sunday, which concerned us. He ends up having a nasty upper respiratory infection. He is currently taking amoxicillin for cats and just finished up pain meds (for his throat, the vet said it was very red). He is feeling much better but would rather not take the medication….lol.
- I have been neglecting my StoryGraph reading challenges up until this week. I went over the 5 I was doing, updated them, and added books from my TBR to all of them. What challenges am I doing? They are Popsugar 2022, Beat the Backlist, The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge 2022, The StoryGraph Reads The World 2022, and The StoryGraph’s Onboarding Reading Challenge 2022. I realize and know that I probably won’t finish all of them, but I will try it. I’ve already knocked two books off Popsugar and Beat the Backlist this week and hope to knock off more in the coming weeks.
- I have been watching Season 3 of The Orville on Disney Plus with my kids. I watched the episode with Isaac and cried my eyes out. The writers (and Seth McFarland) did a great job of tackling a couple of sensitive subjects.
So that’s the major things for this past week. How was your week?
As always, let me know if you have read or are planning to read any of these books!!
What I Recently Finished Reading:
Book One of The Dawning of Power Young Adult Epic Fantasy trilogy. Echoes of the ancients’ power are distant memories, tattered and faded by the passage of eons, but that is about to change. A new dawn has arrived. Latent abilities, harbored in mankind’s deepest fibers, wait to be unleashed. Ancient evils awaken, and old fears ignite the fires of war.
What I am currently reading:
In his semi-autobiographical novel, This Time Next Summer, Mikheyev weaves a tender tale about love and loss, one that is distinctly personal and yet universally human.
She was beautifully broken. And his everything.
Hurt and scarred by every man in her life, Jasmine had vowed to never love again. Then she meets Avgust, and her broken heart resumes beating.
A romantic idealist who measures love by his poetry output, Avgust had given up on finding that elusive once-in-a-lifetime kind of love he’d always dreamed of. But the moment he spies Jasmine in a coffee shop, he knows unequivocally that she is his Her—the woman who will change his life.
It was the perfect love story.
Until the secrets and betrayals of the past threaten to break them apart.
Will their love be strong enough to save Jasmine from her past, and Avgust from his future?
Zoe was still in high school when she saw her father shot dead by a classmate obsessed with her, and then still a kid, witnessed the killer’s sentencing. A horrible tragedy, but now, thirteen years later, she’s thoroughly rebooted her life.
She’s the CEO of her own cyber security company, a celebrity in her field, and a speaker in high demand.
She’s just the kind of strong, self-reliant woman who can take care of herself in any situation.
Except the one she’s in.
She’s got a stalker.
And she already knows he’s a killer.
Given her background, Zoe knows instantly that she needs protection and she knows how to get it—her sister Mel’s the owner of Blackhawk Security.
But trust Mel to send Spence Flynn, the one agent Zoe can’t be alone with, but not because they don’t get along. It’s because attraction sizzles between the two of them like runaway electricity. And because they both know the last thing a body guard should do is get into a relationship with his principal.
It’s unethical and dangerous.
But how are they supposed to fight this thing? Spoiler: Good intentions suffer a knockout in the first round. And then, to the delight of the reader, the earth moves in the most delicious way.
Meanwhile, Zoe’s stalker is still sending her charms from a bracelet he stole from her thirteen years ago, the scariest being a heart he’s had engraved with both their names. Unnerving enough– and then he starts dropping off lunch for her, tailing her in a white Subaru, and trying to break into her condo.
Spence has his hands full in more than one way. And Zoe has a public appearance coming up. The perfect time for a stalker to strike.
What books I think I’ll read next:
They were from two different worlds.
Like two trains never crossing paths, they would have gone on without any shred of their lives coinciding. Until a late-night encounter brings them crashing into each other’s lives.
Cole, a small-time New York gun trafficker who has been unlucky for the better part of his life knows better than to dream of a better life. Jaded, exhausted and down on his luck, he struggles to deal with the reality of his choices.
Amidst dodging the keen attention of the authorities, and evading the sly notice of his crafty companions, he certainly has no patience to indulge a spoilt busy-body reporter with peas for brain and a hankering for danger. He thinks she’s crazy and wants nothing to do with her even if her smile takes his breath away and her presence soothes his wounds.
Samantha, on the other hand, is not letting go. She is a shark who has smelt blood and is honing in for the kill or the caresses.
But one thing is certain; Cole is a puzzle she is determined to unravel.
As the web of dark schemes and mysterious ploys thicken around them, passion flares to life, and so do other threats. These two are utterly defenseless against the attacks or the kisses.
Will they survive the imminent explosion that draws ever nearer or will these two finally get a chance to go after their fairytale romance?
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…
One man’s curse is another man’s weapon.
Genetic engineer Neah Haversham thought unlocking the code to her psychic gift would ease the way to blocking it, something she’d wanted since puberty.
Unable to turn off heightened senses means experiencing life on a different level. Shiya, her golden retriever, is the only companion tolerated.
Within months of finishing her studies, she learns the life she planned has vanished with the rescue of a sarcastic, hardheaded teen with an unprecedented ability.
Ouray Bernard is a healer and warrior, a Native American who uses his skills to train other uniquely talented individuals. When called to help the woman invading his dreams, he can’t refuse.
Loyalties collide as each defends their position in the battle against a secret society determined to dominate them all.
“Where is your husband?”
Since waking up from the accident Dr Paige Hanson has been asked that question over and over. By the hospital staff, by her mother in law and by Government officials.
As she struggles to grasp the wisps of memory returning to her Paige learns that there’s more at stake than Leo’s whereabouts.
Turning towards the teachings of the one person she swore never to become she begins to realise that some questions are best left unanswered.