Review: Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

Title: Celestial Monsters

Series: Sunbearer Duology #2

Author: Aiden Thomas

Teo never thought he could be a Hero. Now, he doesn’t have a choice.

The sun is gone, the Obsidian gods have been released from their prison, and now chaos and destruction are wreaking havoc on Reino del Sol. All because Teo refused to sacrifice a fellow semidiose during the Sunbearer Trials.

With the world plunged into perpetual night, Teo, Aurelio and Niya must journey to the dark wilderness of Los Restos, battling vicious monsters while dealing with guilt, trauma, and a (very distracting) burgeoning romance between Teo and Aurelio. Once more racing against the clock, the trio are determined to rescue the captured semidioses and retrieve the Sol Stone. With it, Sol and their protective light can return and order can be restored.

Now the future of the whole world is in their hands.

Back with Teo and the other semidioses right where we left off in book 1 with the Sol Stone taken.

So much action! My heart was in my throat because those horrible Obsidians were evil….and let’s not talk about Xio!

As in book 1, the descriptions in this book were so vivid it was almost like I was there. The tree houses are something I’d love to see in person. IYKYK!!!

I don’t want to say anything about the plot but what I will say is that Aurelio and Teo make my heart sing!

There was a couple of lines in this book that I  couldn’t resist adding here:

Teo is so right:
‘It doesn’t make any sense to pay money to sleep outside without a real toilet and cook your food over an open fire!’

And this one got me right in the feels:
‘It may not be real in fact, but it’s real in feeling.’

And that ending that I never saw coming in million years, but what a corker!

Illumicrate Unboxing – August 24: Look What You Made Me Do!

August 2024
Theme = Look What You Made Me Do

Push too hard and push too far, and watch what you’ll make me do.

Items inspired by The Serpent and the Wings of Night, Bride, One for My Enemy and Silver Under Nightfall.

💛 Oraya’s Blade Replica Dagger – designed by @stacey.mcevoy.caunt from Serpent and the Wings of Night
💛 Alliance of Enemies Packing Cubes – inspired by Bride, designed by @carlywattsart
💛 Ruthless Remedy Pill Organiser – designed by @chattynora inspired by One For My Enemy
💛 Looking Out/In Snack Bowls – designed by @studio_ao



💛 FEATURED BOOK 💛

Mistress of Lies by KM Enright

✨ An exclusive cover
✨ Full colour printing and foil on the hardback (by @danlinz_art)
✨ Digitally printed fore-edge (by @danlinz_art); block-sprayed top & bottom edge
✨ Illustrated endpapers (by @spookgeist, different front and back)
✨ Bound-in author letter
✨ Digitally signed by the author

TTT – Books Involving Food

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 Involving Food

This was hard and I am totally reaching here!!!!

The Spellshop – jam
The Honey Witch – honey (but haven’t read!!!)
A Tempest of Tea – tea
A Lesson in Chemistry – food show (!)
It Happened One Summer – fish (!)
A Ballad of Never After – apple (!)
Serpent and Dove – sticky buns
Rock Chicks – coffee
Legends and Lattes – baked goods!

What are yours?

Stacking the Shelves – week 36 (September 24!)

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.


I was coerced into buying 2 books this week – totally not my fault 🤣

Mistress of Lies by KM Enright
Quicksilver by Callie Hart
Trials of the Sun Queen by Nisha J Tuli

So 2 ebooks and 1 physical! I haven’t got any library holds this week or bought anything on Audible! So restrained!

 

The Sunday Post! A week off work!

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.

Hope you’ve had a good week!

Happy September – we’ve made it to the ‘ber’ months, my favourite time of year!

My week off work was so relaxing and chill….but went oh so fast!

We went for a walk around a wooded area just outside the town totting up 17k steps (my poor feet!), we had a lovely pizza out and we generally just had a good time!

My reading has picked up too so that’s good!


What I’ve Read

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 A Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

🎧 Catherine, Princess of Wales by Robert Jobson
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Look out for my review soon!


You might have missed…..

Unboxing – Fairyloot Adult – August 2024
Unboxing – Fairyloot YA – August 2024
Tag – The Blog Tag
Feature – Friday 56
Challenge – 20 Books of Summer – the end!


What have you read lately?

Hello September!

Just a little post to wish you a happy September!

“Making your Christmas cake in September is perfect, as too fresh a cake crumbles when cut.” ―Mary Berry

“By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

20 Books of Summer! Did I do it?!

Cathy746Books bought back 20 Books of Summer!

I looked back and found this was my 7th year joining in!

I said I’d read 20 books but wasn’t going to name them!

So did I do it?!

I DID!!!!!!

I just managed to scrape in with 20 books even though summer has been a washout for reading but the amount of books I read in June saved me!!!!

Here are my 20!

1) Zodiac Academy 9 by Caroline Peckham
2) A Temptation of Magic by Megan Scott 
3) Dead Happy by Josh Silver
4) Caged Wolf by Caroline Peckham
5) Alpha Wolf by Caroline Peckham
6) Feral Wolf by Caroline Peckham
7) City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
8) Queen of Shadows by SJM
9) Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth
10) Peregrine Quinn and the Cosmic Realm by Ash Bond
11) Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
12) A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
13) The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
14) The Blackbird Oracle by Deborah Harkness
15) Bonded by Thorns by Elizabeth Helen
16) The Hunters Gambit by Ciel Pierlot
17) Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
18) Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas
19) Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
20) Wild Wolf by Caroline Peckham

The Friday 56….a debut author!

Friday 56 is a book meme – I can see who originally hosted but the site looks to have been taken over so don’t really want to share the link!

The Rules:

1. Grab a book
2. Turn to Page 56 in a physical book or 56% in your eReader of choice.
3. Find a line or paragraph that jumps out at you and share!

Her blood was singularly useless in activating spells and magic had no effect on her whatsoever. As a kid she’d been fascinated by her families work- what kid wouldn’t be?-but as the years had passed, she’d turned decisively away from books and blood and spellwork, and towards the tangibles: things she could touch, see, manipulate, fix.

~ A book about magical books!
~ A magical library,
~ An utterly fab magic system,
~The dastardly villain,
~ The unassuming heroes,
~ Characters who were relatable and loveable.

Title: Ink Blood Sister Scribe

Author: Emma Torzs

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

The Blog Tag!!!!

This tag was created by My Book World – go take a look and join in!

How did you come up with your blog name?

Years ago, I used to Facebook blog with my friend in America, and she came up with the blog name, A Brit and a Yank! As I wanted to tie this in with the Facebook page so it was more recognisable, I called my WordPress blog CJR (me) The Brit (to tie in with FB)!!!!

If your blog was a person (fiction or real), who would it be?

Someone slightly crazy, slightly lazy with a love of books. Got to be my one and only bbf (or one of a few anyway!), Will Herondale!

What helps you create new content if you feel like you need some inspiration?

To be honest, I don’t create much new content, I tend to stick with what I know. Time is an issue with me, but sometimes I sit and have a little brainstorm and try new stuff out! I’m a planner so I need to have stuff done in advance!

Is there anyone you would like to collaborate with?

I think I’d love a collab! Over the years I’ve done stuff with Sophie aka Beware of the Reader and Trisy at Bobo’s Book Bank but nothing lately!

Is there anything more you wish you had or would like to learn as a blogger?

~ I wish I had more time to come up with new ideas.
~ I wish more people were interested in website blogs now.
~ I wish bloggers who are here would engage more with the community. I comment on people’s blogs daily and then crickets!

Do you have a specific style of blogging?

I’d say I’m a hobby/lazy book blogger with a love for Christmas!!!