Title: My Killer Vacation

Author: Tessa Bailey

It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod—just me and my beloved brother—but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. Now a rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders.

A brash bounty hunter and an energetic elementary schoolteacher: the murder-solving team no one asked for, but thanks to these pesky attempts on my life, we’re stuck together, come hell or high tide.

I’m just here to do a job, not babysit an amateur sleuth. Although… it is becoming less and less of a hardship to have her around. Sure, she’s stubborn, distracting and can’t stay out of harm’s way. She’s also brave and beautiful and reminds me of the home I left behind three years ago. In other words, the painful hunger and protectiveness she is waking up in me is a threat to my peace of mind. Before I sink any deeper into this dangerous attraction, I need to solve this murder and get back on the road. But will fate take her from me before I realize the road has been leading to her all along?

Taylor and her brother, Jude, are on holiday – they both need it. What they don’t need is finding a dead dude in their holiday home!

Enter Myles, bounty hunter. Taylor decides to spice her life up and armed with her crime docus knowledge, she can’t resist helping!!! Much to Myles annoyance!!!!!

I absolutely loved this book! It was a light-hearted whodunit with humour, banter and segsual tension that nearly drove me over the edge, it was off the charts! Those 2, although polar opposites, are made for each other!

Also Myles’ internal monologue had me laughing out loud (and feeling a bit sorry for him as he experienced all those emotions!!!)

‘That nosy school teacher wants it down and dirty.’

I had an inkling of who I thought was the baddie and I was completely wrong!!!!!

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?

One week and we’ll be off to the beach…..counting down the days!

This week I had an office day and my son had activities week in school which was full of trips, escape room challenges and conservation!

I’ve completed a readalong, listened to 3 audiobooks and I’ve started a reread of A Court of Silver Flames and can confirm it’s amazing what details I picked up after reading Crescent City – made my jaw drop!

---

What I’ve Read

Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Bryony and Roses by T Kingfisher
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

---

New arrivals

Hooked by Emily McIntyre

---

You might have missed…..

Review – The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
Review – The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
Review – Cursed Crowns by Katherine Webber

---

What have you read lately?

Title: Cursed Crowns

Series: Twin Crowns #2

Author: Katherine Webber

Twin queens Wren and Rose have claimed their crowns . . . but not everyone is happy about witches sitting on Eana’s throne.

Cool-headed Rose sets off on a Royal Tour to win over the doubters, but soon finds herself drawn to the Sunless Kingdom. Here secrets are revealed about those closest to her, and Rose finds her loyalties divided.

Meanwhile rebellious Wren steals away to the icy north to rescue their beloved grandmother, Banba. But when she accepts King Alarik’s deadly magical bargain in exchange for Banba’s freedom, the spell has unexpected – and far-reaching – consequences . . .

As an ancient curse begins to arise from the darkness, the sisters must come together and unite the crown. Their lives – and the future of Eana – depend on it.

Break the ice to free the curse,
Kill one twin to save another . . .

Back again with Wren and Rose, twin witch Queens!

Rose goes on a tour to try and drum up love as a witch queen and Wren goes to get her Gran from Ansell’s brother! Let’s just say it doesn’t all go to plan!

What a fab continuation of the story and certainly didn’t suffer from 2nd book syndrome!

One thing that did irk me was the unnecessary (well I think!) love triangle that was put in! Say no to love triangles unless it’s going to end up like a polyamorous relationship – maybe it will and I will have to eat my words!!!

Can’t wait for the next book!

‘Break the ice to free the curse,
Kill one twin to save another . . .’

Title: The True Love Experiment

Author: Christina Lauren

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

Fizzy! The bubbly, hilarious bestie from Soulmate Equation gets her own book!

Fizzy has writers block and is in a lull in life and somehow she gets to be the star of a TV dating show by the beautiful Connor Prince the Third!!!

Although I thought it started off really slow, as it got going, I was hooked! Oh and beware, 3rd act drama made! Whhhhhhy does that have to happen?!!!

Anyway, this was a funny, schexy, chemistry filled read and can I just say that I loved Connor!!! Especially loved him because he’s English and you can’t go wrong there!!!

Title: The Soulmate Equation

Author: Christina Lauren

Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. After all, her father was never around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before her daughter was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close but working constantly to stay afloat is hard…and lonely.

But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands.

At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess—who is barely making ends meet—is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought.

Loved this and inhaled it in a few hours!

Jess is a single Mum on the dating wheel but decides to call it quits, waiting for her daughter to grow up. Her best friend gets them into a trial of sorts on a dating app that uses biology to predict the perfect match which Jess scores very highly on and her match is someone involved in the project!

Her match is Dr River Pena who is quiet, broody and apparently his default energy level is cardboard cutout! I loved him!!!!

This book had such hilarious banter that it made me cackle out loud! The person mostly responsible for this was the best friend, Felicity, aka Fizzy! Loved her!!!!

So all in all this was a fab read with added bonus points for the daughter, Juno, who was so cute with her zest for knowledge!

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: 10 books I’d take to the beach!

It’s a freebie this week so because I’m off to the beach soon I’ve chosen books I’d like to read when I’m there! Some of these would be rereads!

Happy Place – because it was so good!
Lessons in Chemistry – Elizabeth Zott, say no more!
Secretly Yours – because Julian is magnificent!
Fourth Wing – because it’s the best book I’ve read this year and I’m itching for a reread!
Liars Crown – because it’s the best underrated book!

The Roommate – spice x 100!
Witches Guide to Fake Dating a Demon – demon!
Loathe to Love You – 3 novellas to gorge!
Legends and Lattes – who doesn’t love cozy fantasy?!
Hook, Line and Sinker – friends to lovers at it’s best!

What about you?

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?

A pretty normal week here apart from a teachers strike for 2 days so my son was home but I still had to work!

I started a readalong with Tandem Collective so that book will be in next weeks update and I reread Fourth Wing because I felt a bit slumpy!!!

---

What I’ve Read

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Reread – all the stars!!!!

---

New arrivals

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

---

You might have missed…..

Feature – Best Books of 23 so far
Unboxing – Fairyloot Adult: June
Review – Painted Devils by Margaret Owen
Review – A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

---

What have you read lately?

Title: A Deadly Education

Series: The Scholomance #1

Author: Naomi Novik

Lesson One of the Scholomance: Learning has never been this deadly.

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

Wow, the Scholomance is a dark and fun place to be! (Note – it is dark but certainly not fun – but is fun to read about!!)

So we have a school with no teachers where monsters called maleficaria attack everyone at any point, even whilst they sleep!

Galadriel aka El is powerful student and because of her power, she has to limit herself to make it to graduation, and to make sure everyone else makes it too! She basically has no friends until an Enclave student, Orion, inserts himself in her life.

El is grumpy and snarky and, from what I can gather, a genius! But she makes some, how can I put it, tentative friendships!

So basically this is the story of how they survive on a day to day basis as they battle mals trying to get to graduation! There’s action and a revelation I didn’t really see coming!

This was such a creative story but very full of narrative – the audio helped me there! And that last line had me so intrigued!

One question I am left with though is why parents would ever send their kids to this school is absolutely beyond me!

Title: Painted Devils

Series: Little Thieves #2

Author: Margaret Owen

Let’s get one thing straight—Vanja Schmidt wasn’t trying to start a cult.

After taking down a corrupt margrave, breaking a deadly curse, and finding romance with the vexingly scrupulous Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad, Vanja had one great mystery left: her long-lost birth family… and if they would welcome a thief. But in her search for an honest trade, she hit trouble and invented a god, the Scarlet Maiden, to scam her way out. Now, that lie is growing out of control—especially when Emeric arrives to investigate, and the Scarlet Maiden manifests to claim him as a virgin sacrifice.

For his final test to become a prefect, Emeric must determine if Vanja is guilty of serious fraud, or if the Scarlet Maiden—and her claim to him—are genuine. Meanwhile, Vanja is chasing an alternative sacrifice that may be their way out. The hunt leads her not only into the lairs of monsters and the paths of gods, but the ties of her past. And with what should be the simplest way to save Emeric hanging over their heads, he and Vanja must face a more dangerous question: Is there a future for a thief and a prefect, and at what price?

Back with Vanja and Emeric…..

Vanja has got herself in a bit of trouble with one of her schemes, it has sort of back fired so when Emeric turns up they go on another quest!

This book was so fun! It was everything I wanted, I think I loved this book more than book 1!

What we have here:

~ Villains in all shapes and forms,
~ Family and the best of friends,
~ Young love,
~ Banter and humour,
~ Fabulous character growth,
~ A total readable book!

The reveal had my jaw dropping and the ending broke my heart! I need that next book!!