Top Ten Tuesday is featured by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Topic: Animal Companions
Animal companions do really make a story…and here’s some good ones!
Nevernight – Mr Kindly Greenteeth – Cavall Heir of Fire – Abraxos Skyward – Doomslug Iron King – Grimalkin Fourth Wing – Tairn Emily Wilde’s – Shadow and Orga the murder cat Blood Orchid – evil alchemy duck, Durian So This is Ever After – a murder crow Shadowhunters – Church the cat
The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received.
I hope you had a great week!
Yes….a day late because I was very hungover yesterday!!!
I disappeared for a few days there, apologies but work has been so busy plus I’m not in work this week so was trying to make sure everything runs without me which meant some extra hours!
It’s my big 5 0 on Friday so I’ll be day drinking to forget how old I am 😂
I completed my reread of Fourth Wing and I’ve now moved onto Iron Flame!
A Steep and Savage Path by JJA Harwood ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Look out for my reviews soon!
Review – The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig Challenge – 2025 JIAM Audiobook Challenge
Review – The Half King by Melissa Landers Review – A Steep and Savage Path by JJA Harwood
The last thing I need is another challenge BUT I do want to read more off my TBR so…….
June is the 2025 JIAM Audiobook Challenge hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer & That’s What I’m Talking About.
There’s a few challenges but I’m only doing the last one. I am hoping to listen to 5 tbr audiobooks – pray for me!!!!!
Challenges Complete at least one challenge to enter giveaway. See rules listed below. • Finish/Start a series in a month. (listen to at least 3 audiobooks in a series) • Love your Library (listen to 3 audiobooks from your local library) • Let there be Monsters (listen to 3 audiobooks with monsters/paranormal elements) • Going the Distance (listen to 3 audiobooks over 12 hours each) • Tackle your Audiobook TBR Pile (listen to 3 audiobooks you already own)
Rules • Challenge runs from June 1, 2025 through June 30th. • To enter, you must complete one challenge. You can complete more than one for extra entries, but no audiobook title can be used twice. • Audiobooks must be a minimum of 4 hours. • Audiobooks count towards your 2025 Audiobook Challenge goals and can be used for other challenges. • Declare your intentions by posting a blog post or sharing on social media. Link back to this sign up post. Let’s get everyone listening in June! #JIAMAudiobookChallenge
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
Listen up Batholomew – if you’re going to read 1 book this year, let it be this one!
A Diviner, a Knight, a King, a gargoyle, Omens and dreams.
A coin, an inkwell, an oar, a chime, and a loom stone.
If you loved One Dark Window then you’re going to LOVE this!
There was banter, there was drama, there was heartache, joy and A LOT of shocking revelations (that I didn’t even guess!) in this fast-paced story.
What an absolute hit this was! How the heck am I going to wait until the next book?!
I’ll leave you with these:
‘Swords and armor are nothing to stone.’
‘Knights are shooting stars, Six. They come and go. But you and me, our sisterhood of Diviners—we’re the moon.’
‘The gargoyle batted his eyes. Oh, Bartholomew. He’s dreamy.’
Top Ten Tuesday is featured by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Topic: Books Set In Or Around Forests
I know this is a swerve on the original topic but it’s been a long day and my mind couldn’t conjure up any and forests wouldn’t get out of my brain!
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd Jones Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw The Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood The Luminaries by Susan Dennard For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten Happyhead by Josh Silver In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received.
I hope you had a great week!
Not much has happened this week, just really run of the mill! And maybe that’s good!
But it was my 10 year blogiversary so here’s to 10 more years!
I don’t want to say it out loud in case I jinx myself, but my reading is going really well this month, 6 books read so far and 3 of them were over 500 pages!
Gleam by Raven Kennedy (reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧 The Half King by Melissa Landers ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Look out for my reviews soon!
Review – Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide Calendar – 10 Years!
Review – The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig Challenge – 2025 JIAM Audiobook Challenge
Set in Regency England, The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide is a queer historical fantasy of magic, murder, high heat and humour.
Lord Nicholas Monterris, the last remaining heir of a crumbling ducal house, must marry to save his family from complete decline. His father chooses Lady Leaf Serral, eldest daughter of his greatest rival, at which point Nic is sure it can’t get any worse. Until he learns the head negotiator is to be Dashiell sa Vare, an old flame he has neither forgiven nor forgotten, a man their rigid class structure forbids him to love.
Locked in the mouldering grandeur of Monterris Court (a house more haunting manifestation of dynastic ambition and ancestral guilt than home), the first dead body is troubling. The second, a warning that someone doesn’t want the contract to go ahead. But while Nic and his wife-to-be team up to banter their way through a secret murder investigation, it’s Dashiell he can’t stop thinking about. What would be worse? To love and have to let go, or to wholly deny the yearning of one’s heart forever?
I do love a historical romance, there’s nothing better than the charm, their mannerisms and how they lived in the 1800’s (well the rich anyway!)
This one features a run-down estate, a young man being forced to wed to save his family, creepy goings on, and deaths…or it is murder?!
I won’t say anything about the plot because that will ruin it, but I will tell you that you’ll fall in love with Nick, Leaf and Dashiel!
Nick was so amusing (homosexual cutlery), Dashiel….was, well dashing and Lady Leaf was so inspiring! The magic and the magic system was so well crafted as well as their world, the writing = superb and the twists = jaw dropping!
Top Ten Tuesday is featured by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Topic: Ways in Which My Blogging Style Has Changed Over Time
So I thought I’d separate out into 10 sections about my blog, my posts, me and how it’s changed over the years!
1. My blog and age! I actually started my blog in 2015 but predominantly posted PR company material about cover reveals, releases etc for romance books until I moved that to my Facebook page as I wanted my website to be my ‘own voice’.
2. Genres As I said above, I only used to post about romance but then I branched out to my first love: pnr, fantasy, romantasy….and I haven’t stopped!
3. Favourite posts I used to really love making posts about next month’s releases that I want. I used to comb through Goodreads lists, Bookbirds lists and several romance blogs and marvel at all the books I wanted but now I just dont seem to have the time – I need to get back to that!
4. Favourite aspect of book blogging? The community. I love reading people’s comments on my posts and love reading other bloggers posts and commenting. I try and put aside an hour every evening to do this and it’s normally the most interesting, relaxing hour of my day!
5. The worst thing…… Facebook/TT/Booksta and the drama! The book community used to be a fab place to be but now, not so much!
6. Writing posts…..time and relaxation! What is time?! I try and write some bulk posts and schedule in just in case time runs away with me at work! I put my pjs on and tap away at posts!
7. Writing posts – prep I usually type posts up on my phone in notes (like I’m doing now!) and then I add to WordPress, add pics, look at spelling, fonts, colours and add anything I think the post needs. I find the WordPress app easier to use than the full site!
8. My favourite series I found because of blogging? Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. I read years ago (and have reread) and am still obsessed!
9. Blog Success If I’m happy in my bubble, that counts as success to me!
10. Will I ever stop blogging? I have no idea! I guess if my love for reading ever goes away then my blog will too (even typing that made me sad!)
CJRTB Books 