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!

Happy Mothers Day and not-so-happy clocks going forward – I miss my hours sleep already!

I didn’t do a Sunday Post last week because, although I was in the middle of 4 books, I hadn’t finished not one! And now I’ve only finished 1 of them!!! My reading is absolutely shocking this year!

I did do a readalong this week with Tandem Collective and I really enjoyed it! Was completely obsessed!

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A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Look out for my review soon!

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Review – Blood and Steel by Helen  Scheuerer                                                   
Review – Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli
Unboxing – Fairyloot YA: February 2025

Challenge – Audiobook Challenge: 1st Update
Challenge – Beat the Backlist: 1st Update

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Calendar – Hello April!
Calendar – Holiday!

What have you read lately?

Beat the Backlist 2025!

You can still join in – see the new BTB site here.

The challenge runs from 1st January and ends on 31st December, and you can only count a book as applicable if it was published before 1st January 2024.

I didn’t set a goal but said I had 87 books on my tbr….let’s see how I did in quarter 1 – did I show my tbr who’s boss?!

Not quite 😂 but I haven’t done too badly – 5 books read off my tbr!

#BeatTheBacklist

1) When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker
2) The Shadows Rule All by Abigail Owen
3)The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle
4) Blood and Steel by Helen Scheuerer
5) Heir by Sabaa Tahir

The 2025 Audiobook Challenge is hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer and That’s What I’m Talking About.

We were told to grab our earbuds, decide on goals, and sign up to the page! #2025AudiobookChallenge

You can find out all the details on my post here.

In my sign up post, I said I was going for 20-30, Binge Listener, but (secretly) hoping to increase to My Precious!

I wanted to get at least 7 audiobooks off my total….lets see how I started off!!

I DID IT, JUST!

1) When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker
2) The Shadows Rule All by Abigail Owen
3) The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune
4) The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle
5) A Language of Dragons by SF Williamson
6) Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis
7) Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli
8) Heir by Sabaa Tahir

Did you join?
How are you getting on?

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 I Like to Reread

This week it should be Books I Did Not Finish but I’m not comfortable with this topic – I just think it’s a bit disrespectful, even though I do dnf books, I just don’t publicise them.

So…Books I Like to Reread….

What would be yours?

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! And audiobooks. Don’t forget audiobooks!

In other words, if you can read it or if it can be read to you – no matter how you got it – it belongs in Stacking the Shelves.

The Stacking the Shelves meme was originally hosted at Team Tynga’s Reviews. It is currently hosted by Reading Reality.

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I haven’t done a STS for a while, and because I haven’t finished not 1 book this week, I thought I’d shame myself further by posting about how many books I’d hauled!!!!

Books I Bought
Deathless by Catherynne M Valente
Emberclaw by LR Lam
The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith

Advanced Reader Copies
Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon
Damned by Genevieve Cogman
A Steep and Savage Path by JJA Harwood
Shadow Bride by Shelby Mahurin

I’d better get reading!

 

Fairyloot YA – February 2025

Theme = BEWITCHING BARGAINS

I haven’t really done any unboxings this year….and I’m not sure why!

I got the February young adult full box from Fairyloot…..and then can’t remember where I’ve put all the goodies so this is just the book (and I promise to do better next time!)

The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith

The first of a duology where a young woman enters a deadly competition to win the heart of a powerful fae prince, in hopes of saving her family and freeing her sister from a destructive bargain. As romance and danger intertwine, she uncovers a sinister scheme that could unravel everything she holds dear.

🌹 An EXCLUSIVE REDESIGNED COVER by @bluelyboo
👑 A REVERSIBLE DUST JACKET featuring a colour variation of the trade cover
🏰 A DIGITALLY SPRAYED EDGE by @bluelyboo with solid sprayed top and bottom edges
💫 FULL COLOUR ARTWORK WITH FOIL DETAILS ON THE HARDCOVER by @gabriella.bujdoso
🥀 FOILED CHARACTER ARTWORK ON THE ENDPAPERS by @gabriella.bujdoso (different front and back)
🧚 BONUS CHAPTER – an author letter with a digital signature bound into the book.

Title: Rebel Witch

Series: The Crimson Moth #2

Author: Kristen Ciccarelli

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BOOKS IN THE SERIES

#1 The Crimson Moth

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BLURB

A WITCH…
Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish.

A WITCH HUNTER…
Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by allying herself with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmares of the past. In order to protect this new world he fought for, every last witch must die—especially Rune Winters.

AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE…
When Rune makes Gideon an offer he can’t refuse, the two must pair up to accomplish dangerous goals. The more they’re forced into each other’s company, the more Gideon realizes the feelings he had for Rune aren’t as dead and buried as he thought. Now he’s faced with a terrible choice: sacrifice the girl he loves to stop a monster taking back power, or let Rune live and watch the world he fought so hard for burn.

A WITCH…
A WITCH HUNTER…
AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE…

We are back with Rune and Gideon and their dance….

~ Dancing around each other,
~ Dancing around their chemistry,
~ Dancing around their feelings,
~ Dancing through their differences,
~ Dancing around the memory of Alex,
~ Dancing around Cressida,
~ And trying to stop the Reign of Witches being reinstated.

This duology is a double stunner! The characters, the enemies to lovers element, the forbiden love trope, the magic and some great reveals!

Here’s some quotes!

‘She was the Crimson Moth. A rebel witch.’

‘If this was weakness, he wanted to be weak. If this was sin, let him be damned to hell.’

‘Because I was stupid enough to fall in love with a witch hunter. Stupid enough to hope he might love me back.’

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Sound like something you’d like?

Title: Blood and Steel

Series: Legends of Thezmarr #1

Author: Helen Scheuerer

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BLURB

With her death foretold, Althea Zoltaire only has three years to become what she’s always dreamed of being: a warrior legend.

Women are forbidden to wield blades, so she has trained in secret her entire life. Now racing against the clock, she fights to secure her place in the elite guild charged with the protection of the five kingdoms.

The sparring and hazing of the new trainees border on deadly, but even more dangerous is her growing attraction to Wilder Hawthorne, her unwilling warrior chaperone.

All around them, schemes are afoot and darkness looms.

Will Althea pass the perilous initiation test and take her place as a champion of Thezmarr – or will the invading evil snatch away her dream before it starts?

Omg. I have actually found a new fave and it was DELISH! Hawthorne is my new books boyfriend!

Full disclosure – I totally read these connected series out of order because I read Iron and Embers first but, even though I sort of know what happens, I didn’t expect to fall head over heels for this book!

Orphan sisters, Thea and Wren couldn’t be more different. Wren is an Alchemist at Thezmarr and Thea longs to be a warrior… but as she is a woman, she is forbidden.

At a time in this land where monsters are getting through the Veil, Thea is found to be carrying something she shouldn’t by the Warsword, Hawthorne, and this is where the story begins!

As you can probably tell, I loved this book! I wasn’t going to read book 2 straight away. But I am. I feel a series binge coming on!

‘Then know this… If you seek power in a world of men and monsters, there is nothing more powerful than knowledge and the ability to wield it.’

‘A legend is forged with blood and steel. It takes time.’

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Sound like something you’d like?

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 2025 to-Read List

So this is a problem for me….I’ve decided that from April onwards I’m going to mood read for the rest of the year but I do have 3 arcs I need to read and some series I need to catch up on.

I’m not saying I’m actually going to read these….but I really should!

The Witch Who Trades With Death by CM Alongi
Tea you at Altar by Rebecca Thorne
Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
The Maids Secret by Nita Prose
Gleam by Raven Kennedy
Glow by Raven Kennedy
Gold by Raven Kennedy
Immortal Prince by Caroline Peckham

Which books are on your list?