As you might have seen, I am taking part (and co-hosting!) Love in February 21. Its a photo challenge on Instagram to showcase our favourite romance books!

You can join in on Instagram (we would love that!) and there is a GIVEAWAY at the end of the month – 1 winner will get a book of choice up to 24 USD (Amazon or Book Depository must ship to your country).

Make sure you use the hashtag #loveinfebruary21 and follow us on Instagram. To do this go to my announcement post here and that will take you to who you need to follow!

🌸 FORBIDDEN/TABOO ROMANCE 🌸

I am not a person who is easily shocked and I can’t say this book shocked me (in fact I was delighted!!!) but can you imagine this happening in real life?! A priest bumping uglies with a parishioner?!!!

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What are your favourite forbidden or taboo romances?

As you might have seen, I am taking part (and co-hosting!) Love in February 21. Its a photo challenge on Instagram to showcase our favourite romance books!

You can join in on Instagram (we would love that!) and there is a GIVEAWAY at the end of the month – 1 winner will get a book of choice up to 24 USD (Amazon or Book Depository must ship to your country).

Make sure you use the hashtag #loveinfebruary21 and follow us on Instagram. To do this go to my announcement post here and that will take you to who you need to follow!

🌸 HEARTBREAKING/UGLY CRY 🌸

There can only be one choice for me here!

I’m not a person who cries. In fact my friends say I’m dead inside 😂 but A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole made me cry. And not just cry. I’m talking big, fat, ugly, wracking sobs and so many tissues.

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What books have made you cry?

As you might have seen, I am taking part (and co-hosting!) Love in February 21. Its a photo challenge on Instagram to showcase our favourite romance books!

You can join in on Instagram (we would love that!) and there is a GIVEAWAY at the end of the month – 1 winner will get a book of choice up to 24 USD (Amazon or Book Depository must ship to your country).

Make sure you use the hashtag #loveinfebruary21 and follow us on Instagram. To do this go to my announcement post here and that will take you to who you need to follow!

🌸 EPIC LOVE/SOUL MATES 🌸

Hawk and Poppy from Jennifer L Armentrout’s, From Blood and Ash.

I read this in January and was absolutely in love with everything about the book. It’s not often I feel like that!

Of course I jumped straight into book 2, Kingdom of Flesh and Fire and now have the loooooong wait until April for the next installment!

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Have you read this series?

As you might have seen, I am taking part (and co-hosting!) Love in February 21. Its a photo challenge on Instagram to showcase our favourite romance books!

You can join in on Instagram (we would love that!) and there is a GIVEAWAY at the end of the month – 1 winner will get a book of choice up to 24 USD (Amazon or Book Depository must ship to your country).

Make sure you use the hashtag #loveinfebruary21 and follow us on Instagram. To do this go to my announcement post here and that will take you to who you need to follow!

🌸 FAVOURITE ONE TIME PAIRING 🌸

For me this can only be one couple.
I love the author hugely.
I’ve reread this book at least 15 times!
Joker and Carissa from Ride Steady by Kristen Ashley!

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Have you read the Chaos series?

Who are your favourite OTP’s?

Welcome to Closing the Chapter! I hope you had a great reading month?

Well here we are firmly in 2021 and my first reading update of the year!

Everything is still covidy and we are in lockdown (again) so am still working from home and also now homeschooling as schools are closed. It’s…. ummmm, challenging!!!! We also had some snow so we had a day in the garden building snowmen!

I had an ambitious January tbr so I could start the year off with a bang. I participated in the Off The Grid readathon and did a buddy read with the lovely Sophie at Beware of the Reader and Trisy at Bobos Book Bank which was such fun!

I also wanted to tick some books off my Beat the Backlist challenge and I certainly did that with 7 books read and 1 audiobook listened to!

📚 Physical/E-book

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

See my review here. 

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Fire Night by Penelope Douglas

See my review here. 

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From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout

See my review here. 

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Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L Armentrout

See my review here. 

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Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert

See my review here. 

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Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa

See my review here. 

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Skyhunter by Marie Lu

See my review soon!

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🎧 Audiobooks

The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

See my review soon!

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Was a DNF for me for now. I think my issue is with the audio. I think I need to read the actual words so am going to add the physical book to my wishlist and try again.

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What did you read in January?

So this worked well for January. So well in fact that I knew I needed to do myself a February reading list because I have Netgalley and KU reads building up and I want to get ahead of where I am now in the Audiobook Challenge 2021.

So here is my February Reading List!

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

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All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace

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All the Tides of Fate by Adalyn Grace

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Blood, Metal, Bone by Lindsay Cummings

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The Glamourist by Lianne G Smith

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These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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Chase the Dark by Annette Marie

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🎧 The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

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🎧 A Deadly Education by Naomi Novak

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Are you making a reading list this month?

A start to another year and probably a year of huge book buying. But this year I’m going to have no buying limits and no book buying guilt but am going to try and show a bit of restraint (I actually typed that without laughing!!!)
I bought 5 books and 2 audiobooks in January. More than I would usually get but I used the vouchers and audible credits I got for Christmas so is it really like I bought them? I think not!!!! 😂

📚 Physical/E-books

Venom by Bex Hogan

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The Glamourist by Lianna G Smith

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Graceling by Kristin Cashore

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To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters

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Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

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🎧 Audio

The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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A Deadly Education by Naomi Novak

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What books did you haul this month?

Title: A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

Series: Blood and Ash #2

Author: Jennifer L Armentrout

A Betrayal…

Everything Poppy has ever believed in is a lie, including the man she was falling in love with. Thrust among those who see her as a symbol of a monstrous kingdom, she barely knows who she is without the veil of the Maiden. But what she does know is that nothing is as dangerous to her as him. The Dark One. The Prince of Atlantia. He wants her to fight him, and that’s one order she’s more than happy to obey. He may have taken her, but he will never have her.

A Choice…

Casteel Da’Neer is known by many names and many faces. His lies are as seductive as his touch. His truths as sensual as his bite. Poppy knows better than to trust him. He needs her alive, healthy, and whole to achieve his goals. But he’s the only way for her to get what she wants—to find her brother Ian and see for herself if he has become a soulless Ascended. Working with Casteel instead of against him presents its own risks. He still tempts her with every breath, offering up all she’s ever wanted. Casteel has plans for her. Ones that could expose her to unimaginable pleasure and unfathomable pain. Plans that will force her to look beyond everything she thought she knew about herself—about him. Plans that could bind their lives together in unexpected ways that neither kingdom is prepared for. And she’s far too reckless, too hungry, to resist the temptation.

A Secret…

But unrest has grown in Atlantia as they await the return of their Prince. Whispers of war have become stronger, and Poppy is at the very heart of it all. The King wants to use her to send a message. The Descenters want her dead. The wolven are growing more unpredictable. And as her abilities to feel pain and emotion begin to grow and strengthen, the Atlantians start to fear her. Dark secrets are at play, ones steeped in the blood-drenched sins of two kingdoms that would do anything to keep the truth hidden. But when the earth begins to shake, and the skies start to bleed, it may already be too late.

So I’m sat here trying to think what to put in my review. I’ve sat for a while trying to get my feelings together but for the first time in a long time, accurate words escape me!

Then a sense of glee came over me. Many, many people would’ve poured their heart and soul into their reviews so I do really need to??!!! I just don’t think what I will say will do this book, this series so far, justice!

But know this. I inhaled this book. I couldn’t get enough. There are quotes I want to use that I obsessed over. Feelings I wanted to try and explain and write words on how I was so caught up in this story.

So I’m not really going to say anything! I’m just going to say that this book is phenomenal. It’s been a long while since a series has made me feel this happy, this hooked and just left me with a sense of happiness.

I’ll leave you with the one quote that I remembered to take that nearly tore my heart out in a good way. An utterly, deliciously, great way.

‘Thank you.
For what?
For choosing me.’

Title: From Blood and Ash

Series: Blood and Ash 1

Author: Jennifer L Armentrout

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

‘From Blood and Ash. We Shall Rise.’

You know it’s times like this when I wish a swear was allowed in a review. A short, sharp, swift swear bomb to actually explain how I am feeling. To just express the feelings I am dealing with that only a swear bomb could do. Alas I cannot. As it is not allowed. So I’ve decided just to chuck some words down to try and explain how utterly fab this book is but I doubt even that will do it justice.

But before we get to the ‘words’ I have to say this. In the words of Buddy the Elf, I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it! (Sorry, had to say that to further encompass my feelings!)

Hooked
Line and sinker.
Mind blown
Obsessed
Captivating
Absolutely loved.

I do have a small criticism, there was a bit of an overuse of the…..between words in lots of places but I get it. Shielded Maiden. Probably unsure of herself but a tad irksome!

I didn’t even write any quotes of this book which is very unlike me, that’s how sucked in I was (and I’ll regret that later!)

I’m very aware there is nothing in here about plot, story or characters, just an info dump of my feelings. And I don’t care. Read it. You won’t regret it.

And can we talk about that ending. Swoon City.