Just a little post to wish you a happy August!
“Leaving any bookstore is hard, especially on a day in August, when the street outside burns and glares, and the books inside are cool and crisp to the touch.” ―Jane Smiley
“Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August.” ―Denise Levertov
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 Wish Had More Spicy Times!
I know, I know…typical me 🤣
What are yours?
Title: The Blackbird Oracle
Series: All Souls #5
Author: Deborah Harkness
The first shadows fall on a Friday afternoon when a single, dying raven lands on the pavement in front of Diana Bishop, harbinger of an invitation that reads, ‘It’s time you came home, Diana’.
Diana is a witch and scholar; her husband Matthew Clairmont, a vampire. Their intense love for one another awoke the dark powers within her and dissolved the Covenant between the three species – Witch, Daemon and Vampire – that live alongside humans. Now, the governing Congregation has decided it must test the magical powers of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Becca. Concerned with their safety, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and travels to Ravenswood, the Proctor family home.
There, Diana begins a new era, becoming her great aunt Gwyneth’s pupil in higher magic. It’s time to confront her family’s past – and her own, inescapable desire for greater power
Oh it was so good to be back in the world of Diana and Matthew, it’s as captivating as ever!
Diana is called ‘home’, a home she didn’t really know existed, Ravenswood. Her Dad’s side of the family, The Proctors, want her to learn about higher magic and the Blackbird Oracle cards.
This is after a summons from the Congregation to test Becca and Pip, something no one really wants, especially Diana after the horrors of her testing.
What we get is family, ghosts, ravens, history, heritage, magic, memories and a lot more about the Proctors. It was just what I needed!
Special mention to Granny Dorcas who filled me with glee every time she spoke!
That ending. There has to be more, yes?!
‘So must it be.’
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?
We’re back from the beach! We had a few good days and one day of rain but we still got in the pool and went to the beach!
My reading took a hit though, I finished the book below on the day we left and then I read a total of 72 pages of my current read whilst we were away! We were just on the go all the time!
Anyway, back to work for me tomorrow to see what state my projects are in!
I got 2 pieces of bookmail whilst we were away!
Blood and Steel by Helen Scheuerer
A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
🎧Bonded by Thorns by Elizabeth Helen
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Look out for my review soon!
Review – The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Feature – Friday 56!
What have you read lately?
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!
He leaned against a table, a hand still on his sword. At least one of them remembered that they were alone together in the library.
“Reading is a bit out of fashion, I’m afraid.”
“Yes, well—more for me to read, then.”
“Read? These belong to the king.”
“It’s a library, isn’t it?”
“It’s the king’s property, and you aren’t of noble blood. You need permission from either him or the prince.”
“I highly doubt either would notice the loss of a few books.”
Chaol sighed. “It’s late. I’m hungry.”
“So?” she said. He growled and practically dragged her from the library.
Title: Throne of Glass
Series: Throne of Glass #1
Author: Sarah J Maas
In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.
The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.
Title: The Spellshop
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.
When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.
In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.
But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.
The author said she wanted to write a book that felt like a warm hug….and she succeeded!
Kiela is a librarian and when a revolution happens and the library burns, she sails to safety to the island she grew up on with Caz, a talking spider plant and some stolen goods! But Caltrey hasn’t fared well since she’s been gone.
What you then get is found family, island life, a close knit community, jam, friends and love! And it was beautiful!
I was so hooked, I just kept on reading until I finished and then I felt all warm and cozy!
Special mention to my favourite character, Caz, I need a talking spider plant in my life!
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: Debut Novels I Enjoyed
I don’t always know a debut author so I’m slightly changing to new-to-me authors that I loved!
What are yours?
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?
We’re going on holiday tomorrow! The beach, swimming pools, lots of good food and relaxation, hopefully with a few good books!
Work has been so stressful lately that my reading mojo has left the building so am hoping a reset on holiday will make it come back!
Nothing this week!
The Blackbird Oracle by Deborah Harkness ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Look out for my review soon!
Review – Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Review – A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
What have you read lately?
Title: A Novel Love Story
Author: Ashley Poston
A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
How amazing would it be to find yourself in your fave fictional world?
Well that’s exactly what happens to Eileen aka Elsy when her car breaks down and she nearly knocks someone over!
Eloraton was the place of dreams! The descriptions, the characters, the meddling, the gossip, the love stories…..just everything, it was all fab!
And so was Anders! I’ll say no more as you need to go visit Eloraton yourself!
This author has fast become a firm favourite for me, everything she’s written has got me right in the feels!
CJRTB Books 