Hallowreads 2017!! 🎃

Hey all. Sorry I’ve been MIA for a couple of weeks. My little girl and I went back to my home town to spend some quality time with family and friends and to also celebrate my mum’s birthday. We had such an amazing time, it was so great seeing everyone again. I even got to pop into my old work and have a catch up with some of my ex colleagues! Of course they all adored Willow who was chatty and cheeky and walked round like she owned the place. 😂

Anyway, onto today’s post…
October is nearly upon us which means… Halloween season! Wooo! In my house that means watching as many scary movies as possible and reading spooky books! This October’s Halloween reads will be… 

The Crow Man by Katie M. John

Book of Spells by Christina Benjamin, Katie M. John, Carlyle Labuschagne, Caroline Gill, Susan Burdorf, and Tia Silverthorne Bach

Sooo excited for the release of The Crow Man by the fabulous Katie M. John and Book of Spells a spooky anthology by amazing authors Christina Benjamin, Katie M. John, Carlyle Labuschagne, Caroline Gill, Susan Burdorf, and Tia Silverthorne Bach! Perfect for the season!
What will YOU be reading?? Do you have any spooky, scary reads to recommend?

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Beta/Proofreading Requests.

After spending 3 years studying hairdressing only to realise this wasn’t for me, I went on to study Business Administration. But really my passion lied in books; I always had the urge to correct errors left in a book’s final copy.  It would just drive me crazy and being a self-confessed perfectionist, I can’t help but want everything to be 100% correct. So I decided to study proofreading as I wanted to help authors and be that second eye to look over everything and make sure that it was all perfect. Since then, in my spare time, I have been lucky enough to work as a proofreader for an e-zine and also for several indie authors.

I have decided to start advertising my Beta/proofreading services should you need a second eye to go over your work and, if you wish, I can also help with promo, etc. I may not be a professional proofreader working in a publishers, but I am accurate and will always give 100%.

If you would like to talk to me about any services please email me at secretlivesoffictionlovers@gmail.com

Book Mail!

Ahhh look what dropped on my doormat this morning! 

Thank you Penguin Random House! Can’t wait to review Bonfire by Krysten Ritter! I am actually stupidly excited to have received this! I love Krysten as an actress so I can’t wait to read her new book! All being well I shall start it tonight once Willow is in bed!

Here’s the blurb:

Should you ever go back?

It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town’s most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’ biggest scandal from more than a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good.

Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as Abby tries to find out what really happened to Kaycee, she unearths an even more disturbing secret—a ritual called “The Game,” which will threaten the reputations, and lives, of the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her.

With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote, rural town of just five claustrophobic miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of the question: can you ever outrun your past?

Sounds pretty cool, right? Review coming soon! 

#bookblogger #bookreview #bookblog #reviewer #bonfirethebook #books #krystenritter #reading #amreading #tbrlist #influencer #bblogger #bbloggers #bblog #bookgeek #bookworm #booknerd

What’s next on my TBR list?

Hey guys! I hope you’re all having a lovely Wednesday! Today I have been wondering what to read next. Since Gone Girl was such a let down for me, I want to read something that would totally suck me in and completely have me lost in its pages. Then I remembered my Mother in-law lending me The Darkest Surrender by Gena Showalter! It’s part of the Lords of the Underworld series and my mother in-law couldn’t rate it highly enough. She absolutely raves about this series and talks about how dreamy one of the characters is. That’s me sold then! I need something that will have me totally engrossed and I think this book may be the one to do it!

It’s actually the 8th book in the series (oops!) but you don’t have to read them in order,  although it does  pain me to start part way through. I hate not starting with the first book in a series. For  those who may be interested, here’s the blurb from Goodreads:

Possessed by the demon of Defeat, Strider cannot lose a challenge without suffering unimaginable pain. For him, nothing stands in the way of victory. Until Kaia, an enchanting Harpy, tempts him to the razor’s edge of surrender.

Known among her people as The Disappointment, Kaia must bring home the gold in the Harpy Games or die. Strider is a distraction she can’t afford because he has an agenda of his own-steal first prize, an ancient godly artifact, before the winner can be named. But as the competition heats up, only one prize will matter-the love neither had thought possible…

I love the sound of this! I’m a big fan of myths/fantasy novels. Can’t wait to get started! Have any of you guys read this series? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – Mini Book Review.

I’ve just finished reading Gone Girl. That’s how it ends?! Really?! It’s actually left me feeling quite deflated and disappointed. 🙁 Throughout the book I got so frustrated (in an excited, tell me who did it godamnit, kinda way) and just wanted to cheat and skip right to the end. Then I eventually get there and I’m like… “Oh. Meh.” Kind of annoyed by it, ya know? Wasn’t quite what I was expecting. For me, it’s ended up being that one book that everyone raves about, so you read it, and it doesn’t live up to your expectations. Very anticlimactic. The book in itself was fast paced and kept me glued. I mean, I was bloody reading every chance I got, hoping that karma would make an appearance, but she didn’t and things took a really random turn with an odd ending that felt a bit rushed and sort of like the author was running out of ideas on how to conclude it, or something like that. It just didn’t sit right with me. I feel bad leaving a negative review, especially as people rate this book so highly but, I’m sorry guys, I just didn’t love it. It gets a thumbs down from me.

#reading #amreading #books #gonegirl #bookblog #blogger #bookreview #bookreviews #blog #disappointed

Book Mail!

I always love getting books in the post! Today Penguin have
sent me “A New Darkness” and “The Dark Army” by Joseph Delaney and also “The Creeping Shadow” by Jonathan Stroud. Have any of you read the Spooks or Lockwood & Co series? I’m so excited to read these! I shall be saving them for Halloween season!

#bookmail #books #reading #amreading #horror #halloween #spooks #lockwoodandco #bookblogger #bookblog #blog #blogging #halloween

I love proofreading!

One of the things I love about being a stay-at-home mum, rather than having your usual 9-5 day job, is that I can now concentrate on the things I’m passionate about and one of them is proofreading. A lot of people may think it’s boring but I love it! I love spotting mistakes and correcting them before they’ve made their way to the readers’ eyes! If you know of anyone who needs another pair of eyes to go over their work, feel free toleave a comment below or send them my way. I’d be more than happy to help! You can also email me: secretlivesoffictionlovers@gmail.com
Take care,
Dayna.

Blame by Simon Mayo – Read-along!

Hi everyone. The lovely people at Penguin recently sent me a copy of Blame by Simon Mayo. I’m so excited to read it! My boyfriend’s mum has also got a copy so, starting tonight, we have decided to do a read-along where we’ll read a chapter each night. This is actually a great way for me to read as with having little Willow now, I’ve been struggling to read as much as I used to, but setting aside half an hour or so to read a chapter is doable!

If you haven’t heard of Blame yet, here’s the blurb:

“Heritage crime [noun]: A previously undetected crime committed by your parents or grandparents for which you are held responsible. 

Ant and her brother, Mattie, are locked up in Spike, a new family prison.  Society demands they do time for the unpunished heritage crimes of their parents. Tension is simmering inside the jail.  When the tension breaks and a riot begins, Ant realizes they’ve got one chance to break out. 
It’s time for Ant to show the world that they’re NOT TO BLAME.”

Have any of you read Blame? If so, what did you think? Do any of you have it on your TBR list? Do you fancy reading along with us? Let me know in the comments below.

Take care,
Dayna.

The Tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

(please excuse the poor photo quality)

Beatrix Potter is one of my fave children’s authors. I love her stories but I think I love her illustrations even more. – They’re so beautiful. Tonight, when my little girl couldn’t sleep, I decided to read The Tale of Peter Rabbit to her for the first time. She’s now falling asleep. 💤
 

Even after all these years, I still enjoyed reading it and really felt for poor, naughty, Peter.

It gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling to be so lucky as to have my very own daughter that I can read books to and pass down my childhood favourites to. I really do hope she becomes a book lover just like me.
My apologies for such a short review tonight. Brain is getting sleepy so has given up for the night lol!

Take care, guys,

Dayna.

My Summer Book Stack.

Woohoo the Summer has officially arrived! Happy belated Summer Solstice everyone! Living in Pembrokeshire now means I get to go to the beach a fair bit during the Summer as we have several near by. That is on the few occasions that we actually get to see a bit of sun lol! I’m not one for the hot weather, but I do love bright sunny days where the sky is a beautiful shade of blue with a few fluffy clouds floating by. The perfect opportunity to sit on the beach and do a spot of reading. This brings me to my post. I’ve decided to put together a few books that I’d like to read over the Summer. My Summer book stack! Now, whether I’ll be able to get through them all, I don’t know but I shall certainly try. The books I’ve chosen are:

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

Burn For Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Life and Death Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer

I’ve had some of these books for quite some time but hadn’t got around to reading them. Hopefully I’ll get through them all this Summer! I am particularly excited about reading Lady Midnight as I adore Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. Have you read any of these? Do you have a Summer TBR list? What will you be reading? Let me know in the comments below! 😃
Oh, and if you don’t already know, we’re on Facebook! Stop on by and say hi!

Take care,

Dayna.