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.

Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a good week?

July is here and that means Christmas in July, woohoo!!!! The start of July also means I’m going to the beach in 3 weeks! The countdown is on!

I’ve been on an audiobook storm this week as you can see below and it took me all week to read Sword Catcher (was lucky enough to get a physical arc!)

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What I’ve Read

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 The Serpents Shadow by Rick Riordan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Paris Hilton: The Memoir
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

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New arrivals

📚 Shanghai Immortal by AY Chao
📚 Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton
📚 The Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou

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You might have missed…..

ARC Review – Thornhedge by T Kingfisher
Challenge – Audiobook Challenge: halfway!
Challenge – Best the Backlist: halfway!

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What have you read lately?

Happy July!!!

Just a short post to wish you a great month and leave you with a couple of quotes!

“If you’re not barefoot, then you’re overdressed.” – Unknown

“July: Just take me to the Ocean.” – Unknown

BEAT THE BACKLIST CHALLENGE

Do you have books on your to-read list that already released? Do you struggle to get to those backlist books with all the new releases each year? Do you enjoy relaxed reading challenges you can do at your own pace? Then it’s time to beat your backlist!

Join in with Novelknight’s 2023 challenge! It’s not too late!

I set my goal at 20 with the caveat that these must be on my actual tbr with a date before 31 December 2022 and not bought/borrowed before this date!

At the end of March I had read 12 backlist books so wondered if I needed to up my goal. You can see my 1st update here.

I’m pleased to say I hit my goal halfway through the year!

I’m not going to set a new goal but just keep on chipping away at my tbr to see where I can get by the end of year!

Here are some of the books I’ve read in the last quarter from my backlist:

Fairyloot YA – June 2023

Theme = From the Depths

A dark and seductive fantasy where a siren must choose between protecting her family and following her heart.

Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton

Exclusive cover
Digitally sprayed edge
Artwork on endpapers @jhocaaa
Foiled hardcover by @blanca.design
Digital signature

The Audiobook Challenge 2023 – halfway update!

Hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer and That’s What I’m Talking About. #2023AudiobookChallenge


You can see my sign up post here and I said I was going for the My Precious level!!! It’s 30 plus audios and basically means I had my earbuds surgically implanted!!!! 🤣

But……I had listened to 30 by mid-May so I’ve increased my challenge to…..

Marathoner (Look Ma No Hands) 50+

Here are some of the books I’ve listened to:

Let’s hope I can keep on keeping 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: Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023

I have a list and can confirm there are way more than 10! But I’ll save you and just list 10!!!

Lightstruck by Sunya Mara
Soul of Ash by JLA
Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Cursed Light by Emily Thiede
Foxglove by Adalyn Grace

The Cursed by Harper L Woods
Cage of Dreams by Rebecca Schaeffer
Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig
Defiant by Brandon Sanderson

What’s on your list?

Title: Thornhedge

Author: T Kingfisher

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

A loosely based Sleeping Beauty retelling, but oh so different!

And oh so good!

Toadling is stolen from the human world and lives in Faerie but is called upon to try and help right a wrong….but it doesn’t go exactly to plan! Years later a Knight comes knocking at the door and Toadlings tale unfolds!

This is a brilliant short story with some great themes, messages and basically found family….

‘She was theirs; they were hers . The love of monsters was uncomplicated.’

This book is a first for me from this author and now certainly won’t be the last but I do wonder if there will be more in this world?! I’d love that!

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.

Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a good week?

The weather is still too hot here for me although we did have reprieve for 1 day as it rained! The heat is making me sleepy!!!

I had a really good reading week! First I flew through a readalong book, was hooked! Instead of reading it in 8 days, I read in 3 (😲) and then I picked up another beaut and read all 665 pages in 3 days!

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What I’ve Read

The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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New arrivals

Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey
(Thanks again Tessa!)

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You might have missed…..

Review – Ruling Destiny by Alyson Noel
Review – Seven Exes by Lucy Vine
Review – Gothikana by Runyx
Review – The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

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What have you read lately?

Title: The Foxglove King

Series: Nightshade Crown #1

Author: Hannah Whitten

When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the ten years since, she’s lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city.

Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore’s job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore’s power is revealed, she’s taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King. Lore fully expects a pyre, but King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what’s happening and who in the King’s court is responsible, or die.

Lore is thrust into the Sainted King’s glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Guarded by Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, and continually running up against Bastian, August’s ne’er-do-well heir, Lore tangles in politics, religion, and forbidden romance as she attempts to navigate a debauched and opulent society.

But the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her. And even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, they might be drawing closer than she thinks.

A Hannah Whitten book? Yes please!

This book has:

~ A fantastic cover,
~ Death magic,
~ Corrupted political characters,
~ Religious nuts, 
~ Romance,
~ Action,
~ Secrets aplenty!

This book also has:

~ Lore, who was an amazing leading lady,
~ Gabe, a warrior monk who sticks to the rules (and I wanted to shake him whilst telling him I loved him!!)
~ Bastien, the playboy Prince who has a serious and maybe dark side.

If there is one thing I despise, it’s a love triangle but I’m getting the feeling here that there won’t be…..maybe a throuple? (here’s hoping)!

Now I need that next book!