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Title: Aurora’s End

Series: The Aurora Cycle #3

Authors: Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

The squad you love is out of time. Prepare for the thrilling finale in the epic, best-selling Aurora Cycle series about a band of unlikely heroes who just might be the galaxy’s last hope for survival.

Is this the end?
What happens when you ask a bunch of losers, discipline cases, and misfits to save the galaxy from an ancient evil? The ancient evil wins, of course.
Wait. . . . Not. So. Fast.

When we last saw Squad 312, they working together seamlessly (aka, freaking out) as an intergalactic battle raged and an ancient superweapon threatened to obliterate Earth. Everything went horribly wrong, naturally.

But as it turns out, not all endings are endings, and the te4am has one last chance to rewrite thirs. Maybe two. It’s complicated.

Cue Zila, Fin, and Scarlett (and MAGELLAN!): making friends, making enemies, and making history? Sure, no problem
Cue Tyler, Kal, and Auri: uniting with two of the galaxy’s most hated villains? Um, okay. That, too.
Actually saving the galaxy, though?
Now that will take a miracle.

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Back with my be’shmai, Kal!!!

Let me get this out the way first. I need to get this off my chest! I know there was a big event at the end of Burning but all I could think of was Aurora and what she did to Kal so going into this, I knew I wasn’t going to forgive her easily!

And then I forgot all about that with this line….
‘I still have riches beyond counting, because I have her.’ I do marvel about how fickle I  sometimes!

Anyway…..so now the war is on. On like Kong with the Ra’haam………’How bright the last fire may flare before it is snuffed out entirely.’ But Squad 312 are here and they want to get the job done!

We see the past, the present and we get action, drama and a whole dollop of my fave characters ever.

~ Oh course my Kal.
~ Magellan, the sassy hero.
~ Tyler and Saedii – my actual dark heart. ‘I will see you in the stars’……
~ And Zila will always be my Queen in everything and especially this moment:
‘Are you two spending precious minutes in the middle of a heretofore unheard-of temporal paradox engaging in frivolous presexual activity?’

The last few chapters had me sitting on the edge of my seat, had me tearing up, had me smiling big. It was utterly beautiful.

I’m so sad to say goodbye to Squad 312 but what a great series this was!

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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.

Theme – Books Featured On My Instagram!

I thought I would add a selection of pictures from my IG and hope that you like!

In case any of you want to drop me a follow, my IG handle is @CJRTB_Books

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Beat the Backlist Challenge!

Here we are with my 3rd update of 2021 for Beat the Backlist Challenge!

You can see my original post here, my 1st update post here and my 2nd update post here.

On my last post I had upped my total to 40 books as I had read 21 by the end of June.

I’m happy to say that in this quarter I read 13 backlist books which brings my running total up to 34! You can see I was on a Cassandra Clare mission which certainly helped with this challenge!

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City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare – see my review here

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare – see my review here

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare – see my review here

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The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare – see my review here

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare – see my review here

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer – see my review here

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Captive of the Horde King by Zoey Draven

Claimed by the Horde King by Zoey Draven

Madness of the Horde King by Zoey Draven

See my series review here

Because You’re Mine by Clare Contreas – see my review here

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Rejected by Jaymin Eve – see my review here

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Dark Prince by Michelle Hercules – see my review here

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Lev by Belle Aurora – see my review here

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Hiya, hope you’re having a good day!

I don’t normally do a reading list but it’s Spooky Month (!) so I’m getting out the witchy, spooky, ghosty etc books I own and reading them for Halloween!

Do you read spookier reads in October?

Here are a few I want to read!

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The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino

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Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

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Threadneedle by Cari Thomas

After I bled my bank account dry with all my September preorders I was sort of hoping that I wouldn’t want that many books that are releasing in October……but I do!!!!

I made a list and cut it down (by cut down I mean I moved to my wish list!!!) and these are my definite buys (and probably more, let’s be honest!!)

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The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni

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A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout

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The Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco

What books have you got your eye on?

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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.

Theme – Books on My Fall 2021 To-read List

I think I’m going to do this differently (you know I always have trouble coming up with 10 of anything!!)

I saw this on a publishers page and thought it was great! I’m going to choose 6 books that I would like to read by the end of the year! That’s actually a stretch for me at the mo as I’m slumping so hard!

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Threadneedle by Cari Thomas

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Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

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Aurora’s End by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

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Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

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Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino

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Amari and the Night Brothers by BB Alston

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Title: Skin of the Sea

Author: Natasha Bowen

A way to survive.
A way to serve.
A way to save.

Simi prayed to the gods, once. Now she serves them as Mami Wata–a mermaid–collecting the souls of those who die at sea and blessing their journeys back home.

But when a living boy is thrown overboard, Simi does the unthinkable–she saves his life, going against an ancient decree. And punishment awaits those who dare to defy it.

To protect the other Mami Wata, Simi must journey to the Supreme Creator to make amends. But something is amiss. There’s the boy she rescued, who knows more than he should. And something is shadowing Simi, something that would rather see her fail. . . .

Danger lurks at every turn, and as Simi draws closer, she must brave vengeful gods, treacherous lands, and legendary creatures. Because if she doesn’t, then she risks not only the fate of all Mami Wata, but also the world as she knows it.

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Firstly, can we talk about that cover? I fell in love with it, it’s what pulled me in and then that blurb had me totally hooked!

‘A way to survive.
A way to serve.
A way to save.’

Simi is a Mami Wata, a mermaid who collects souls from the dead that are pushed from slave ships and passes the soul to Yemoja to be blessed. But one day a boy is pushed into the water, alive, and Simi decides to save him……but she really shouldn’t have…..this was a beautiful, heartbreaking and totally captivating story.

The authors writing style was just beautiful, the pacing was spot on and the romance, although happened quickly, was so sweet! The world that was created here and I’d say all the characters were wonderful and I couldn’t believe it was a debut novel.

I dont know if there is going to be a book 2 but I really want one!!!

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Title: Lev

Series: Shot Callers #1

Author: Belle Aurora

From the moment Lev Leokov spots the young woman hiding behind her hair in the middle of the gentleman’s club, he can’t take his eyes off of her.
For the very first time in his life, he is affected. Having been told his entire life that he can’t process or understand emotion, he considers it a big deal.

When Mina Harris gets caught red-handed with a wallet that isn’t hers, she falls apart. She’s tired, lonely and hasn’t eaten in days.

Lev offers her an ultimatum… A nice warm bed, a hot meal and a job, or the cops.

Mina takes her chances with Lev.
After all, a person with nothing has nothing left to lose.

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Mina is in dire straights. The worst place to be. And sometimes that makes you do things you’d never normally do.

Lev is the one who catches Mina and gets more than he bargained for too!

I loved Lev, his totally honesty in all made me want to know him in real life. This was probably my fave……

‘This is Mina. She was homeless. I found her. I’m keeping her. She loves me. So we’re getting married.
And I died. Embarrassment seeped out of me like oozing slime.’

Their growth, their relationship although quick, warmed my heart. Their family dynamic was so good and I loved that Mina found that.

I loved Nas, loved Alessio but not too keen on Sasha so will be interested to see if his story changes my mind about him!

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Title: By Sin I Rise

Series: Sins of the Fathers #1

Author: Cora Reilly

Maddox – Mad Dog – White hates everything the name Vitiello stands for, after he witnessed his father and his men getting butchered by the Capo of the Italian mob in their territory. Raised by his uncle, the president of the Tartarus MC, Maddox is destined to follow in his footsteps. Now their chapter is on the rise again, but for their ultimate triumph they need to destroy the Vitiello empire. And what better way to do it than to steal the spoilt Vitiello princess and break her piece by piece until her father begs for mercy.

Known as the spoilt princess of New York, Marcella Vitiello grew up in a golden cage. If your father is the most feared man in New York, people gift you with reverence.
Destined to marry the boyfriend approved by her father, Marcella is sick of being treated like an untouchable porcelain doll.
She resents the life forced upon her by her family until everything she took for granted is ripped from her. Where she’s now, her name doesn’t bring awe, only pain and humiliation.

If you’ve grown up in a high castle, the fall is all the deeper.

Sins of the fathers have a way of catching up…who’s going to bleed for them?

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The sins of the Fathers. Do kids have to pay for them?

Well we find out when Marcella is kidnapped by the Tarterus MC (if you remember, Luca offed loads of them at the start of the Born in Blood series).

And we meet Maddox. Oh my gawd  Maddox ‘Mad Dog’ White. He gets more than he bargained for in Snow White!

I’m not saying more apart from 2 things:

‘You. Ever since I met you, only you.’

And…..

That ending! Part 2 please!