AFTERLIGHT – October 25

Theme – Locked Out of Heaven

We’re locked out of heaven, but hell is hotter with you here.

✨ Adult standalone paranormal romance
✨ Enemies to lovers
✨ Poly romance

Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi

✨ An exclusive redesigned cover (art by @hillarydwilsonart; design by @perrycuffdesigns)
✨ Full colour and foil on the hardback (by @perrycuffdesigns)
✨ Digitally printed edges (by @perrycuffdesigns)
✨ Illustrated endpapers (by @gbenle_maverick); different front and back
✨ Bound-in author letter
✨ Digitally signed by the author

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BLURB

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.

Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he’s not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn’t—that she isn’t human either. 

Leviathan. As Lucifer’s most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee’s attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.

Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power in this astonishing, seductive, and wildly original fantasy.

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.

I hope you had a great week!

Firstly, it was a great reading week – 2 five star reads!

It was back to work for me after a week off, it was firework night aka Guy Fawkes so we had fireworks in the garden along with hot dogs and I started my Christmas shopping!!!!

I’ve got an eye hospital appointment tomorrow to see if the high pressure has gone after my op. I don’t think it has as my eye keeps twinging so shall see what happens!

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🎧 We Fell Apart by E Lockhart
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

See my reviews soon!

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Review – We Fell Apart by E Lockhart
Calendar – Firework Night aka Guy Fawkes!
Stacking the Shelves – October

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Review – We Fell Apart by E Lockhart
Feature – December releases

What have you read lately?

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.

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OMG.

I’ve been really bad.

And I’ve not read 1 book in October. Not 1 (apart from rereads).

But I’ve managed to ‘collect’ 20 new books.

20. In one month.

Save me! (from myself!)

I haven’t even put all the pics here as I thought it would take too long!

Books I Bought

SE’s of One Dark Window/Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig (yes, my 2nd set of this!)
The Second Death of Locke by VL Bovalino (Illumicrate)
Alchemised by Senlinyu
Holly by Adalyn Grace
Princess of Blood by Sarah Hawley
Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber
Nightshade by Autumn Woods
Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Road Trip with a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent
Bonds of Hercules by Jasmine Mas
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon


Advanced Reader Copies

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
Fallen City by Adrienne Young
The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis
We Fell Apart by E Lockhart
A Dark Forgetting by Kristen Ciccarelli

I’d better get reading when I can get out of this horrible slump!

 

Title: The House Saphir

Author: Marissa Meyer

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BLURB

Mallory Fontaine is a fraud. Though she comes from a long line of witches, the only magic she possesses is the ability to see ghosts, which is rarely as useful as one would think. She and her sister have maintained the family business, eking out a paltry living by selling bogus spells to gullible buyers and conducting tours of the infamous mansion where the first of the Saphir murders took place.

Mallory is a self-proclaimed expert on Count Bastien Saphir—otherwise known as Monsieur Le Bleu—who brutally killed three of his wives more than a century ago. But she never expected to meet Bastien’s great-great grandson and heir to the Saphir estate. Armand is handsome, wealthy, and convinced that the Fontaine Sisters are as talented as they claim. The perfect mark. When he offers Mallory a large sum of money to rid his ancestral home of Le Bleu’s ghost, she can’t resist. A paid vacation at Armand’s country manor? It’s practically a dream come true, never mind the ghosts of murdered wives and the monsters that are as common as household pests.

But when murder again comes to the House Saphir, Mallory finds herself at the center of the investigation—and she is almost certain the killer is mortal. If she has any hope of cashing in on the payment she was promised, she’ll have to solve the murder and banish the ghost, all while upholding the illusion of witchcraft.

But that all sounds relatively easy compared to her biggest learning to trust her heart. Especially when the person her heart wants the most might be a murderer himself.

Oh how I love a Marissa Meyer read and this was no exception!

Mallory and her sister accept an invitation to go to Armand’s home to vanquish the ghost of murderer, Count Bastien Saphir aka Monsieur Le Bleu…..but Mallory promises more than she can deliver because she actually cannot banish ghosts as she claims!

What follows is a dark, supernatural, gothicy pleasure of a read!

Some of my faves include:
~ Triphine – I love her and her ailments!
~ Monsieur Le Bleu was actually very scary!
~ Sweet, sweet Armand ♥️
~ Constantino and Fitcher,
~ The fact that it was a very dark fairytale,
~ The ending was so action packed, I was on the edge of my seat!

I’m hoping there will be another book following some characters after that ending (can’t say anymore or spoilers will be flying everywhere!!)

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Sound like something you’d like?

Happy Firework Night UK!

Stay safe!

Don’t know about Firework Night?

From Wikipedia: Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London; and months later, the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure.

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: The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

This was really fun! I chose my tbr shelf (which I haven’t sorted for a while!!!)

Voidwalker
Bonds of Hercules
Holly
Firebird
Watermoon

Captain of Fates
Beautiful Carnage
What the River Knows
Ghostsmith
Heir

Have you read any of these?

Title: We Fell Apart

Series: We Were Liars #3

Author: E Lockhart

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BOOKS IN THE SERIES

We Were Liars

Family of Liars

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BLURB

The invitation arrives out of the blue.

In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood.

Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary.

With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater.

And everyone here is lying.

Oh I love these books! Same summer, a new set of liars and one unwitting girl thrown into the mix!

Now we are at Hidden Beach where Matilda has received an invitation to meet her Dad for the first time. However her Dad is a no-show but there instead is her half-brother Meer, Brock and Tatum….and Meer’s slightly eccentric/slightly creepy Mum, June. Let the lies begin. White lies, outright lies and secret lies……

To say I was glued to this story is an understatement! What is it about remote islands and the families that live on them that makes me so hooked? Maybe it’s something I need to explore in real life – my own island but without any of the drama!

The mentions of people, places and events from the 2 previous books were like coming home. I totally recommend this book (and the others!) if you haven’t read them!

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Sound like something you’d like?

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.

Happy November! I hope you had a great week!

There’s been no Sunday Post from me for the past few weeks because I’ve been in a horrible reading slump. I didn’t want to read or listen to anything. I tried taking a break, reread old faves…..but nothing made me want to read anything new! But I’m pulling up my big girl pants because I have commitments so this week I am determined to listen to 3 alc’s that need to be done by 4th November! Wish me luck!

So this week’s Sunday Post is going to look different, small and different! I’m hoping I will get back to ‘regular programming’ next week!

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In the last 3 weeks, I’ve reread The Last Riders series by Jamie Begley and interconnecting books. They are such easy readers!

Razer’s Ride/ Viper’s Run/Knox’s Stand/Teased/
Tainted/Shade’s Fall/King/Cash’s Fight/Riot/Standoff/Lucky’s Choice/Hostage

Although that’s quite a few books, I realised I couldn’t do anymore and need to get back to real life!

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There’s been posts that I scheduled in and, because there are many over the past few weeks, I won’t list them here, but invite you to go back and take a look!

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I need to get back in the swing of things so look out for new posts!

What have you read lately?

Happy November – have a great month!

“Fear not November’s challenge bold—
We’ve books and friends,
And hearths that never can grow cold:
These make amends!”
— Alexander Louis Fraser, “November”

“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” – Jim Bishop