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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!
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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
The Tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
(please excuse the poor photo quality)
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.
Serial Reader – An app for book lovers!
This morning I’d noticed on Litsy that people were talking about an app called Serial Reader. Being a book lover, I thought I’d check it out!
I know it’s my first day of using it but so far I’m loving it! It’s an app for people who love to read the classics. Your book of choice is split up into manageable bite size pieces called issues (like a comic/graphic novel).
Each day, at a time of your choosing, an issue is sent to you and you’re also given an estimated reading time. – I thought it might also calculate your actual reading time but it doesn’t which is shame. In my opinion, it would be great if they could update it to do that. Once you’ve read an issue, you have the option of waiting until the next day or, if you’re the impatient type and the book is just too exciting to wait, you can read on ahead to the next issue. However, to do that, you have to upgrade which costs £2.99. This unlocks the option to read ahead, sync with iCloud, make highlights and notes, pause & read later, and add more fonts. I love the concept of this app and with the upgrade, it reminds me a lot of the Kindle app. I think maybe £2.99 for the upgrade is a little steep, though, and I’m not in the habit of paying for upgrades in apps anyway but that aside, the app is still definitely worth downloading and gets a thumbs up from me as I love the idea of looking forward to an issue to read each day.
Have a lovely day, guys!
Dayna.
Next On My TBR List: And I Darken by Kiersten White.
A few weeks back the lovely Harriet at Penguin sent me a copy of the soon-to-be released And I Darken by Kiersten White. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet BUT this weekend will be THE weekend that I can finally get engrossed in it! I am so excited to be reading this book! Here’s the blurb:
AND I DARKEN by Kiersten White
Published 7th July 2016
“The phenomenal first book in an epic feminist trilogy set in the bloody Ottoman Empire, by the New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.
Perfect for fans of Game of Thrones and The Queen of the Tearling, this is the ultimate, gripping, ‘can’t-stop-reading!’ novel to get stuck into on your summer holiday. Anti-princess Lada Dracul is destined to be the next feminist heroine, following in the footsteps of recent strong, gritty female characters Arya Stark, Jessica Jones and Star Wars’ Rey.
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.
Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.
Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.”
Look out for my review in the coming weeks! 😃
Have a lovely weekend, all!
Currently reading … And my Valentine’s Day gifts! 💕
Hi everyone! I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth … honest! This pregnancy (I’m now 38 weeks pregnant – eek!) just seems to have taken over! So apologies yet again for being so quiet! I seem to have really lost the reading bug of late but I’m *trying* to get it back! I’ve been attempting to read something on my Kindle but my hands are crying out for an actual book to hold and turn the pages of (you just can’t beat the feel of an actual book, right?) so I’ve given in and chosen to read The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury!
Here’s the blurb:
“I am the perfect weapon.
I kill with a single touch.
Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has its price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla’s fatal touch.
Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla’s chilling role to the girl she truly is.
Yet in a court as dangerous as the queen’s, some truths should not be told…”
I haven’t gotten very far but of what I have read, I’m really enjoying it! I love my YA novels and this was one that was recommended to me by Amazon. Seems completely unique to anything I’ve read in the past so thought I’d give it a go. Can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. 😃
Now on to Valentine’s Day … With having a little one due any day now, Aled and I didn’t go mad this year. He did offer to buy me a new Pandora charm but I opted for books instead! Coz I do love my books (even if I seem to have lost all motivation atm) and thought it a great excuse to get some new ones! These are the books I’d chosen:
For a change, I thought I’d go for a classic by H.P. Lovecraft and a book called Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. As you can see, it’s been compared to The Hunger Games but for me the only similarities seem to be the fact it’s a dystopian. Here’s the blurb taken from the back of the book:
I couldn’t find a blurb online that matched the back of the book, hence this picture.
Oooh Superheroes AND zombies … should be in for an interesting read here!
So, there you have it. I can’t wait to delve into these books and hopefully my reading bug will return and I’ll be back to normal with my head constantly stuck in a book. Or as much as our baby girl will allow, once she is here lol!
Halloween Bookfest. Book #2!
Hi guys. So as stated in my last Halloween Bookfest post, next up on my Halloween TBR list was Stephen King’s Misery.
Oh boy what a read this was! It took a while for me to get into but I think that’s because I was getting distracted too easily. Half way through, though, I was finally engrossed and I couldn’t put it down. I spent the majority of yesterday reading it and finished it at 1am this morning! It was so scary in a suspenseful kind of way and there were moments when I was just too afraid to continue reading (like the axe part! Or the birthday cake)! Of course, I did. I guess I’m glutten for punishment lol! I got so panicky at times and thought my heart was gonna beat right out of my chest! A quote from the actual book summed my feelings up perfectly: “In a weird way it was just too good to put down. It was like a novel so disgusting you just have to finish it.” It was like Stephen King was talking about his own book! And that was another moment where I was afraid to keep on reading in case Annie came home to find Paul reading her “memory lane” book. Misery is one of those books that really gets you thinking about what psychological torture the main character must have gone through. He’s trapped in a house for months with someone who is a complete lunatic! One moment she’s all genuinely loving and caring and then the next she’s a complete psycho monster brandishing an axe (and that’s just one example)!! I’m surprised I didn’t end up having nightmares about it last night to be honest lol but so thankful that I didn’t! I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it really creeped me out. I think I’d better stick to my paranormal books because at least then none of that could ever be real. If you know what I mean.
The third book on my Halloween TBR list is the Crimson Peak novelisation by Nancy Holder. I am so excited to read this. I love Nancy’s style of writing and will no doubt sail through this book in no time!
Take care,
Dayna.
