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.

Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a good week?

It’s been a busy week! My car was serviced, there was a 2 day teacher strike, I had to hunt down gluten free gravy granules and I had an office day! And to top it off some reform changes came in work that we were not expecting and we had to scramble so I am mentally worn out! Today is Mothers Day in the UK and got some nice chocolates I’m going to munch on soon and relax!

Shadow and Bone season 2 came out this week, I didn’t managed to watch any in the week but caught up on a couple yesterday!

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What I’ve Read

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Waters Wrath by Elise Kova
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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New arrivals

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao

City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer

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You might have missed…..

Review – Never Never by CoHo and Tarryn Fisher
Review – A Dowry Of Blood by ST Gibson
Feature – Books I want releasing April
Review – The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty

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What have you read lately?

Title: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

Series: Amina al-Sirafi #1

Author: SA Chakraborty

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power… and the price might be your very soul.

‘For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power… and the price might be your very soul.’

Oh this was like a breath of fresh air!

A 40 something ex-pirate, now full time mum, is hired for one last job and it was such fun!

Back on the sea with her old crew, Dalila,
Majed, Tinbu, a useless ship’s cat and Raksh on a rescue mission. But it all takes a turn for the worst!

It was full of action, diverse characters, magic and fantastical creatures!

Amina was so relatable, especially about her dodgy, weak knee and the love for her daughter.

My favorite however was Raksh. I can’t really say much about him but when you read, come back and tell me how right I am!

Another character that captured my heart was the Scribe. Again, read this and tell me how right I am!

I’m trying. I really am. But I seem to fail each month at trying not to buy books!!!! And April will be no exception 🤣🤣

Here’s what’s tantalising me that’s releasing in April (that I’ll probably buy!!)

Ruling Destiny by Alyson Noel
Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Cursed Crowns by Katherine Webber

What books are you looking forward to?

Title: A Dowry of Blood

Series: A Dowry of Blood #1

Author: ST Gibson

This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .

Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things.

Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

‘My saviour. My teacher. My guiding light in the dark.’

Constanta is ‘saved’ and made a vampire when her village in Romania was attacked and she was savagely beaten and left for dead.

This story is the tale of her life and her love letter to ‘him’, her maker.

Constanta
Magdaleine
Alexi
Him.

The writing was beautiful, almost haunting, all the characters, fleshed out, and I fell in love with them, all of them forced and then found family. It was utterly beautiful.

‘We are children of the same rotten family, survivors of the same intimate war.  We will always be lovers, for ever bonded, scross distance and time.’

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 on My Spring 2023 To-Read List

My physical tbr is out of control, it’s moved from 1 shelf to 2 so I need to do something about it! These books are on my tbr that I want to read soon!

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao
The Raven Spell by Luanne G Smith
Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu
Cruel Illusions by Margie Fuston
Last Tale of the Flowerbride by Roshani Chokshi

What’s on your list?

Title: Never Never

Author: Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

Never stop…Never forget…Just remember.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Starts with Us joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of The Wives. Together, they have created a gripping, twisty, romantic mystery unlike any other.

Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They’ve been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning…they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love…every memory has vanished. Now Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why.

But the more they learn about the couple they used to be…the more they question why they were ever together to begin with. Forgetting is terrifying, but remembering may be worse.

‘I have no past. I have no past.’
‘Never stop. Never forget.’

Silas and Charlie have lost some of their memories. They know they were a couple so they start to piece back together who they were together and apart.

They find out things weren’t good, there was tons of family drama and they actually weren’t great people!

I guess you could call this a romance mystery? But I actually enjoyed the concept! I had my theories and they were wrong!!!!! I don’t quite know how I feel about actually why things happened though – I need to mull it over!!!!

The epilogue made me think oh no way – wonder if anything will happen there!

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.

Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a good week?

Snow! We had snow! But the schools were still open and I lost around 10 years off my life (and sanity), trying to drive carefully down the country lanes to get my son there and back!

I had an audiobook kind of week! I listened to 4 audiobooks (I listen at work and I listen at 2.5 speed or it’s too slow for me!!)

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What I’ve Read

🎧 The Roommate by Rosie Danan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Coven by Harper L Woods
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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New arrivals

I got my Fairyloot and Illumicrate boxes but will post them next week in case people haven’t got their boxes yet!

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You might have missed…..

Review – Inside the World of Bridgerton by Catherine Curzon
ARC Review – In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
Review – Witches Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley
Review – The Dead Romantics by Ashley Postin

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What have you read lately?

Title: The Dead Romantics

Author: Ashley Postin

Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.

Romance is most certainly dead… but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

Loved it!

Florence can see ghosts and, oddly enough, is a ghost writer….but after a relationship break up, has fallen out of love with romance which is making it hard to finish her new book which is overdue!

The young Benji Andor is her new editor and is not happy about a potential missed deadline!

But Florence gets a call and has to go back home to her family where she sees an unexpected ghost!

I’ll say no more about the plot as you need to experience it!

I will say that I loved Florence’s family. They own a funeral parlor and are one of a kind. Beautiful people. And the town’s mayor had a soft spot in my heart!

If you want an uplifting story about hope and love then this is it!

Title: A Witches Guide to Fake Dating a Demon

Author: Sarah Hawley

Mariel Spark knows not to trust a demon, especially one that wants her soul, but what’s a witch to do when he won’t leave her side—and she kind of doesn’t want him to?

Mariel Spark is prophesied to be the most powerful witch seen in centuries of the famed Spark family, but to the displeasure of her mother, she prefers baking to brewing potions and gardening to casting hexes. When a spell to summon flour goes very wrong, Mariel finds herself staring down a demon—one she inadvertently summoned for a soul bargain.

Ozroth the Ruthless is a legend among demons. Powerful and merciless, he drives hard bargains to collect mortal souls. But his reputation has suffered ever since a bargain went awry—if he can strike a bargain with Mariel, he will earn back his deadly reputation. Ozroth can’t leave Mariel’s side until they complete a bargain, which she refuses to do (turns out some humans are attached to their souls).

But the witch is funny. And curvy. And disgustingly yet endearingly cheerful. Becoming awkward roommates quickly escalates when Mariel, terrified to confess the inadvertent summoning to her mother, blurts out that she’s dating Ozroth. As Ozroth and Mariel struggle with their opposing goals and maintaining a fake relationship, real attraction blooms between them. But Ozroth has a limited amount of time to strike the deal, and if Mariel gives up her soul, she’ll lose all her emotions—including love—which will only spell disaster for them both.

Well this was a treat!

Mariel is a witch, a bit of a rubbish witch really but has an infinity with plants. In an attempt to bake she unwittingly summons a demon……

But not just any demon……Ozroth The Ruthless, now disgraced over a tiny mix up with a soul!

He wants her soul, she doesnt want to give it and a Mum moment sets up the fake dating trope…….

This was such a fun read! It was also humorous, beautiful, entertaining, spicy and unique. 

‘Lots of things get old fast, I’m learning. Like the emotional yo‑yo of fake dating a demon who couldn’t seem to decide whether he wanted to kiss her or rip out her eternal soul.’

I know I shouldn’t but I loved Mariel’s Mum! Yes,  she is so self-absorbed and actually cruel but her level of inappropriate was off the scale and I loved that!!!

I see that Calladia is next up in A Demons Guide to Wooing a Witch and I need it! She is hard as nails and will be a tough nut to crack – delish!!