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 2024 TBR
These are hard posts for me because I’m mostly a mood reader so I’ve added 3 arcs that I need to read and also soke books I really want to read…..but no promises!
Evocation by ST Gibson The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden Funny Story by Emily Henry A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan Check and Mate by Ali Hazelwood Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey
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?
Well I’ve had a hell of a week! A 2 day migraine to start off and then I had a fight with a hot water bottle and lost, dramatically!
I have second degree burns all over my chest, had to have the blisters drained and am now in dressings for 3 weeks which have to be changed every 3 days!! To look at all the burns you’d think they’d be really painful but they don’t hurt at all which is weird!
To top that off, my son was ill again, the same as he had 2 weeks ago, a fever and a sore throat but he was worse this time.
Glad to see the back of this week!!!!
New Arrivals
Nothing this week!
What I’ve Read
🎧 The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧 The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Look out for my reviews soon!
You might have missed…..
Review – The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden Feature – April Releases Review – The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?
November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.
I was so happy to grab this, Bear and the Nightingale is one of my fave trilogies ever!
January 1918, Laura is back home in Canada and her brother, Freddie is still on the front, fighting. Their parents are both gone so all they have is each other. When Laura gets her brothers effects, she goes off to Belgium to find him as she feels in her bones that he isn’t gone.
Meanwhile Freddie comes to in a strange place with a companion, a German soldier called Winter….
You’ll need to read the rest but this is where our story begins….
I can tell you that the writing was beautiful, it made me feel all the emotions.
This story was also beautiful and it was dark and haunting, I could not stop reading it! Would totally recommend.
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’m Worried I Might Not Love as Much the Second Time Around
I thought I’d mix it up and first put some books that I love to reread!!!
Well there’s a theme here!! With Everything I Am by Kristen Ashley Rock Chicks by Kristen Ashley Ride Steady by Kristen Ashley Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley ACOTAR by Sarah J Maas
And some books I would worry I wouldn’t love the second time around (it’s been ages since I read them!
Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer Fae Chronicles by Amelia Hutchins Sinners MC by Bella Jewel Reapers by Joanna Wylde Craving Constellations by Nicole Jacquelyn
Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.
After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.
If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most – Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares – each other?
Enemies to lovers at its finest, but zombie style!
Well sort of!
Hart is a marshall and in charge of ending and bringing zombie like creatures called drudges to an undertaker, namely Mercy.
Mercy is the undertaker seeing the bodies off to their final end.
Both are overworked and lonely souls and a series of letters pass between them but they don’t know they are writing to each other…..’Dear Friend’…
What transpires is a quirky, unique story with a mystery to be solved!
I loved that the appendix was used as a connection to the soul, I relished the cutting insults between Hart and Mercy, I adored the cast of side characters who captured my heart (apart from Nathan, creep!) with special mention to Duckers and Zeddie who just made love seem easy and chill!
There was a lot to love in this book and can’t wait for more in this world!
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?
A normal run of the mill week here but I did start transitioning into my new job – it’s ok but the training is slow and I’m a fast paced person!
It’s Mothers Day here today and my son got me some chocolate and we took my Mum out for an Indian last night, I also ordered a cake (so I could have some too!!!!) – a 4 layer Victoria sponge!! Delish!
New Arrivals
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
What I’ve Read
🎧 A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧 Charles III by Robert Hardman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧 A Fate Inked In Blood by Danielle Jensen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Look out for my reviews soon!
You might have missed…..
Review – A Fate Inked In Blood by Danielle Jensen Review – Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman Review – Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore Review – Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli
Radcliffe Prep. The third most haunted school in the country, where a student disappearance isn’t uncommon and no one dares stay in the library after dark. And Este Logano enrolls with the hopes of finding her dead father.
Not literally, of course. She doesn’t believe in ghosts. Going to her dad’s school just seems like her best hope at figuring out who he was.
But then Este meets Mateo, who is maybe—probably—definitely—a real ghost. And an annoying one at that.
When Mateo frames Este for the theft of a rare book from the library’s secret spire and then vanishes, Este will have to track him down or risk being expelled and leaving Radcliffe early just like her father did.
Except following her father’s footsteps might be more dangerous than Este ever anticipated. As she investigates the library with its secret passageways, hidden tunnels, and haunted halls, she learns that the student disappearances aren’t just myth. And if she isn’t careful, she’ll be next.
I got this book purely for the cover, didn’t even read the synopsis, I knew I just needed it!
And I was so right!
Este manages to get into Radcliffe Prep as she believes she will find her Father’s ghost there.
What she finds is a host of ghosts (I’m a poet and don’t know it!) with its leader, Mateo, who gets her into trouble almost immediately! And that leads to a mystery Este has to solve!
This was such a fun, paranormal romance read with those dark academia vibes!
It was really atmospheric too with its creepy library! It reminded me of The Luminaries but with a haunted library not a forest!
On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.
Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Rune is a witch hiding in plain sight. Gideon is a witch hunter.
Rune frees witches that have been captured and she now needs to free her Nan’s friend…..but this is the hardest jailbreak she’s done yet so needs to get close to Gideon to get info….and basically Gideon gets close to Rune as he suspects she is a witch. There’s also another complication in the fact that Gideon’s brother is in love with Rune!
Although I could not have been happier to read about enemies to lovers, my heart was in my throat reading this, it was amazing!
I do not like love trianges and this had the weirdest love triangle…..and I kind of liked it!
This book was dark, kind of macabre, fascinating and I could not put it down! There were so many secrets and lies, I was literally on the edge of my seat!
But those last few chapters…..oh my goodness, my heart! The revelations, the promise. Need that next book now please!!!
CJRTB Books 