Cathy746Books has bought back 20 Books of Summer!

Here’s what Cathy has said:

Choosing your list of books is half the fun, as is following along with everyone’s progress on this years new #20booksofsummer23 hashtag.

This year I am kicking off on 1 June and finishing on 1 September.

If you want to join in, just take the Books of Summer image, pick your own 10, 15 or 20 books you would like to read. Post the link to your choices in the comments below so I know that you are taking part. (on Cathy’s post, not mine!!)

I am not going to pile on the pressure this year so I’m going for 20….but…..I’ve picked 10 and then I’ll mood read the last 10.

Ledge by Stacey Mcewan
Chasm by Stacey Mcewan
Ravensong by TJ Klune
The Lightstruck by Sunya Mara
Never a Hero by Vanessa Len

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim
Alone in Ether by Olivie Blake
Mindbreaker by Kate Dylan
Paris by Paris Hilton
Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

What books would you go for?

Title: Secretly Yours

Series: A Vine Mess #1

Author: Tessa Bailey

Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she’ll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isn’t the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girls’ night later, Hallie can’t shake the sense that she did something reckless–and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.

On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She’s eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt–and so unbelievably beautiful, he can’t focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past. Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he’s sucked further into Hallie’s orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian’s gray-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there’s something so familiar about her… and her very presence is turning his world upside down.

Well I absolutely loved this!

Hallie and Julian have unfinished business but one party doesn’t necessarily remember! They are polar opposites but the attraction is real!

Ooooo this had so many spicy moments that I had to fan myself! Julian is magnificent! Utterly magnificent!!! And utterly filthy! And, as usual, I also fell in love with the bestie, Lavinia. Loved her.

Also I love it when a book makes me feel, I personally think that is the mark of a great book.
This book made me feel!!! It made me mad that even though they were more (self-confessed) honest with each other than they were with anyone else, they still weren’t totally honest! The mark of a great book and I guess if they had then the book would’ve been really small. Would’ve saved my blood pressure though!!!!!

You need this book in your life! It was cute, schexy and sweet!

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: Things Getting in the Way of Reading

First of all, I was thinking ‘Oh there’s nothing that stops me reading’, then I thought, hang on, there are lots of things!!!!!

Cleaning,
Cooking,
Shopping,
Book slumps,
Changing the beds,
Helping my son with homework,
Work,
All the social media I lose hours on,
The ‘latest’ TV show,
In short……adulting!

What stops you?

Happy Blogiversary to me!!

Eight years! Wow! It really only feels like yesterday!

I love seeing your posts, replying to comments and have made some fab online friends! I will admit, however, that I wish I had more time to do more!

Here’s to 8 more years and I am thankful for each and every one of you!

Fairyloot Adult – April 2023

Strings Attached

Delve into the futuristic retelling of Pinocchio with androids and found family.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

Exclusive redesigned cover @vitkovskaya_art
Digitally sprayed edge
Foiled hardcover by @blanca.design
Endpaper art by @vitkovskaya_art
Signed

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?

This week has been a week! I was under the weather again with a 2 day migraine and I also slumped so hard, I couldn’t seem to read a physical book but later on in the week I managed to listen to 2 audios! Also spent yesterday morning at urgent care with my son who had a very swollen ear – an inner and outer ear infection so now has some antibiotics!

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What I’ve Read

🎧 The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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New arrivals

Nothing this week! I’ve been so good!

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You might have missed…..

Unboxing – Illumicrate April 2023
Review – The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary
Review – A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin
Review – The Stolen Throne by Abigail Owen
Review – House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

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What have you read lately?

Title: House of Hollow

Author: Krystal Sutherland

Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.

Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.

As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.

The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.

I wasn’t sure this was going to be for me as I’m a big baby….but it really was!

Iris, Grey and Vivi Hollow disappeared as youngsters but then appeared a month after each of them remembering nothing, but each bearing a scar on their necks. Years after, Grey goes missing again so the sisters unravel clues trying to find her.

It had a gothic feel, was spooky, very well written and actually quite weird! But I loved it!

This was my first book by this author and won’t be my last.

Title: The Stolen Throne

Series: Dominions #2

Author: Abigail Owen

My twin sister is the true queen of Aryd. She survives, hiding and clinging to life in the desert, while I reign as the false queen alongside the monstrous King Eidolon. There’s only one escape from this gilded prison: Reven. My Shadowraith. My heart. Only the shadows that he struggles to control are growing more sinister, more powerful.

It’s just a matter of time before they turn on him…and on me.

Even escape doesn’t mean true freedom, though, when we’re still on the run from Eidolon’s unstoppable armies. And when we discover there’s a traitor among us, I have no choice…I must become the queen I was never meant to be.

Because as one evil hunts me, the other loves me more than himself.

And my fate lies with both.

To say I am in love with this series so far is an understatement!

Last time we saw Meren she had been caught by
Eidolon and now we’re back with Meren, Reven and the gang and what followed was explosive!

Here we have new friends, old foes, quests and heartfelt, emotional moments in this high stakes, fast paced, intense plot! I loved every minute!

Also I have a statement to make….MEREN AND REVEN MAKE MY LIFE!!!

‘Forever. In this life and every life hereafter.’

This was a solid second book. That ending  though. Next book please!

Title: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting

Series: A Lady’s Guide #1

Author: Sophie Irwin

Follows the adventures of an entirely unconventional heroine who throws herself into the London Season to find a wealthy husband. But the last thing she expects is to find love…

Kitty Talbot needs a fortune. Or rather, she needs a husband who has a fortune. Left with her father’s massive debts, she has only twelve weeks to save her family from ruin.

Kitty has never been one to back down from a challenge, so she leaves home and heads toward the most dangerous battleground in all of England: the London season.

Kitty may be neither accomplished nor especially genteel—but she is utterly single-minded; imbued with cunning and ingenuity, she knows that risk is just part of the game.

The only thing she doesn’t anticipate is Lord Radcliffe. The worldly Radcliffe sees Kitty for the mercenary fortune-hunter that she really is and is determined to scotch her plans at all costs, until their parrying takes a completely different turn…

This is a frothy pleasure, full of brilliant repartee and enticing wit—one that readers will find an irresistible delight.

After the death of her parents and a broken engagement, Kitty sets off to London with her sister, Cecily, to find a husband to support her siblings.

I do absolutely adore a historical romance and this was so good! There was gossip, drama, trying to fit in, lies, deception and all the pomp of the Ton. Oh and also a slow burn romance that was delish!

I loved Radcliffe, he was tortured and delish!

I also loved Kitty. She was so devious but it was all for very good reasons!

Just to finish off, I was so happy to see Cheapside mentioned. It was where my employers offices first started off in 1810 so it brought back memories! Not that I was there of course!!!!