Hi! Hope you had a good week?

I’ve changed to monthly updates for a few reasons, mainly due to the horrific slumps I keep going through and weekly updates just felt like too much. Maybe I’ll go back to them or maybe not, who knows!!!!

It’s really feeling like Autumn here and I couldn’t be happier. Cooler days make me happy (and cooler nights too!) Even the week long rain we have had hasn’t dampened my feelings!

September was Schwabtember! I have 5 books of hers that I hadn’t read so this gave me the perfect opportunity to read some!

Tunnel of Bones – review to come around Halloween!

A Darker Shade of Magic – see my review here.

A Gathering of Shadows – see my review here.

I’m currently reading A Conjuring of Light so I’ll post a review when I’m done!

I also tried to read (and listen) to The Near Witch but unforts is a DNF for me. I didn’t get on with the narrator at all in audio so tried to read the book but alas, also not for me!

Closer by Kylie Scott

I’m on Kylie’s arc team so was given an early copy….and it was delish! See my review here.

Valiant by Holly Black

My first audible listen! I’ve started to listen at work in order to get my tbr actually read! But dang it’s expensive! See my review here.

How was your reading week?

What books did you read?

Lately I have found myself in the mother of all slumps so I know I needed to do something about it…..so I made a list….a list of all the books I have on my tbr!

It’s an old skool written list and I am in love with it and not sure why I haven’t done this sooner…..and this is where I need your help!

Pick for me!!!

Which of the books below should I read next week?

The book with the most mentions in comments is the one I will read….

Lifel1k3 by Jay Kristoff

In a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.

Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.

But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.

Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.

Trickery by Jaymin Eve

Willa Knight: Dweller. Slave. Non-magical being.

In Minatsol, being a dweller means that you are literally no better than dirt. In fact, dirt might actually be more useful than Willa. Her life will be one of servitude to the sols, the magic-blessed beings who could one day be chosen to become gods.

At least her outer village is far removed from the cities of the sols, and she won’t ever be forced to present herself to them… Until one small mistake changes everything, and Willa is awarded a position to serve at Blesswood, the top sol academy in the world—a position that she definitely did not earn.

Under the sudden, watchful eye of the gods, she will be tasked to serve the Abcurse brothers, five sols built of arrogance, perfection and power. They are almost gods themselves, and under their service she is either going to end up sentenced to death, or else they are going to ruin her so badly that she will wish for it.

Either way, she is in trouble.

Vote in the comments for which one I should read next!

Top 5 Tuesday is brought to you by Shanah at the Bionic Bookworm, see her original post here.

Today’s Theme = Top 5 fall reading reccies

This was really hard! Only 5?!!!

There are so many books that I want to recommend but have narrowed it down to 5. Some of these will be very popular so part of me thought not to use them for this but cause I really want to read them, I want everyone to read them!!!!!

** I didn’t want to add the blurbs on for each as thought it would be too much in 1 post so if you click on the cover it will take you to Amazon to read the blurb.**

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Leigh’s first debut into the adult world and promises to be a tale of power, privilege, dark magic and murder.  OMG, yes please!

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

Vampires!!!!  Vampires are making a comeback! And I am all for it!

Heart of the Moors by Holly Black

I love Malificent. I know she looks funky but she is my fave villain ever!

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

I loved The Wicked Deep so I need this!

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

I can’t wait for this book! I have ordered Fairyloots special edition box and I NEED it!!!

What are your Fall reccies?

Stage Dive are back……well sort of!

I loved Kylie Scott’s series and these little add ons are such a great way to catch up and meet new people who are associated with them!

This time….Ziggy the bodyguard and Mae the model…….

Title: Closer

Series: Stage Dive 4.6

Author: Kylie Scott

When a stalker gets too close to plus-size model Mae Cooper, it’s time to hire some muscle.

Enter former military man turned executive protection officer Ziggy Thayer. Having spent years guarding billionaires, royalty, and rock n roll greats, he’s seen it all. From lavish parties through to every kind of excess.

There’s no reason some Instagram stylista should throw him off his game. Even if she does have the most dangerous curves he’s ever seen…

Continuing my read of The Modern Faery Tales series by Holly Black! This was also the winner of my first ‘Select Me Saturday’ post where you pick my next read and this was also my first audible read!

Title: Valiant

Series: The Modern Faery Tales #2

Author: Holly Black

When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she’s trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city’s labyrinthine subway system.

But there’s something eerily beguiling about Val’s new friends. And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

My first ever audible listen!!!! Renee Raudman hit the nail on the head with this. I especially loved the different voices!

The ultimate betrayal leads Val to Lollipop, Luis and Sketchy Dave (paaaahahaaaa!)…..and when her curiosity gets the better of her things get weird, super weird for Val and she finds herself indebted to a troll!

I loved the premise of this book but mist admit I hated Lollipop, just depised her a d my hate grew for her throughout the book!

But I did love Ravus, I mean trolls get bad press and are seriously under loved (except Justin Timberlake as Branch, he was well loved!!!) so I loved this part!

I’m told Ironside picks up Kaye and Roibens story so am looking forward to that!

Lately I have found myself in the mother of all slumps so I know I needed to do something about it…..so I made a list….a list of all the books I have on my tbr!

It’s an old skool written list and I am in love with it and not sure why I haven’t done this sooner…..and this is where I need your help!

Pick for me!!!

Which of the 2 books below should I read next week?

The book with the most mentions in comments is the one I will read….

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.

The Fever King by Victoria Lee

In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.

Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.

The winner from last week was Daisy Jones and the Six so that has gone to the top of my TBR pile!

Let me know in the comments which of these I should read first and the book with the most comments goes to the top of my to read list!

You might have seen this but I wanted to share to spread the joy!

This is a series that I love and Cora and Tor Teen have released the cover for Reign, book 3 in the Stormheart series.

See the full reveal from Tor Teen here.

There is no release date on the post but it’s on Amazon for 25 August 2020!

First, she roared…

Then, she raged…

Now, it’s time for her reign.

Aurora Pavan wanted to change her world.

She wanted to protect her people, not because they paid taxes, but because they deserved to live without fear. She wanted Pavan to be a home that welcomed everyone—remnants, stormhunters, and witches included.

For the first time in her life, she did not dread the duty into which she was born. She wanted it.

Then she met him. The Stormlord—the man who wielded the same magic as she, but with the intent to destroy rather than save. The Aurora Pavan who came home from that confrontation was not the same girl that had braved the wildlands and joined a rebellion. She was no longer the girl who was ready to change the world, ready to rule.

But she’s the queen now all the same. And her kingdom needs her.

If only she can keep the new darkness inside her at bay.

I’ve had this on my tbr shelf for an age! No idea why I haven’t read it yet but with Scwabtember in full effect, it was the perfect time to read it!

Title: A Darker Shade of Magic

Author: VE Schwab

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

I have waited an age to read this series and I have no idea why?

‘Magic was a truly beautiful disease.’

I’m not going to rehash the plot but basically when a relic turns up from a supposed ‘fallen’ city, Kell and Lila need to protect it from people who want to misuse it.

What I loved:

• World building was utterly superb,

• The London’s,

• Kell,

• The coat of many sides, I want one,

• Barron, the way he looked out for Lila,

• Lila, I didn’t gel to her at first then as I got to ‘know’ her, that changed,

• Kell,

• Rhys, so, so fun! ‘He would flirt with a nicely upholstered chair.’,

• The writing, fabulous,

• The plot was just so fun,

• Did I mention Kell?!

I did actually find the story kind of slow for the first half but then I was so hooked that I raced through the rest!

Top 5 Tuesday is brought to you by Shanah at the Bionic Bookworm, see her original post here.

Today’s theme = Top 5 Funniest Characters

Who: Hazel

Book: Josh and Hazels Guide to Not Dating

Author: Christina Lauren

Hazel is just hilarious. I don’t think I could’ve loved a character more. She really reminded me of me!

‘I tend to be too chatty, too silly, too exuberant, too random, too eager. Too Hazel-y.’

Who: Carswell Thorne

Book: Cress

Author: Marissa Meyer

In every story there is a hero and mine is Thorne. But he isn’t a typical hero. But his dry, quick wit won my heart!

Who: Mal

Book: Play

Author: Kylie Scott

Mal can only be described as a nutcase but a totally hilarious nutcase!

Who: Randy Ballistic

Book: Pucked Over

Author: Helena Hunting

Affectionally known as Randy Balls…..and one of the funniest men I ha e ever read in a book!!!!

Who: The Rock Chicks (yes all of them!!!)

Series: The Rock Chicks

Author: Kristen Ashley

Read ALL the books in this series and then try and tell me that these birds are not the funniest thing since sliced bread!!!

Who are your top 5 funniest characters?