Jan 31, 2019

Random Thursday

Today we'll wrap up the War & Military chapter in The Little Book of Answers by Doug Lennox. I'm real excited for the next chapter which is on Holidays! But let's get to the end of this one first!


(image borrowed from Amazon)
The term turncoat came about  when the duke of Saxony found himself in between a war with the Saxons and the French. He made himself a reversible coat with the Saxon colors on one side and the French on the other. This way he could change his coat around based on who was occupying the land.


That's an interesting story. I didn't know that "turncoat" had such a colorful history!


(image borrowed from Sail Boston)
Letting women and children off first of a sinking ship or other instance came about first in 1852 on the HMS Birkenhead which was off to war in South Africa. Sadly the ship ran aground and started to sink. There weren't many lifeboats and all the usable ones were filled with the 20 women and children that were aboard. The remaining 476 soldiers lined up on the deck prepared to go down with the ship. This is where the tradition of letting women and children go first came from and in naval circles is referred to as "the Birkenhead drill."


I didn't know that either. Though it sounds so sad that there was still almost 500 people who died while only 20 survived. It's like Titanic but with smaller (greatly) numbers.


(image borrowed from The Parody Wiki)  
Gossip was also called "scuttlebutt" in the 19th century on the warships of the British Navy. On these ships would be large wooden casks with holes cut into the lid for drinking water. "Scuttle" means a hole, like the one in the cask. The water cask itself was called a "butt." And just like with watercoolers today, the "scuttlebutt" was the place to dish out all the good gossip going around.


That's funny! Though it does give new meaning to good ol' Scuttle here. Can't believe his name just means "hole!"


(image borrowed from Variety)
A display of crushing public humiliation became known as a public holiday when the Romans conquered the Etruscans. The Romans borrowed the Etruscans way of honoring their dead by sacrificing the lives of the prisoners taken in battle, but instead of just killing them, they had the prisoners duke it out in another kind of battle; a gladiator battle. the spectacle was eventually declared as a "Roman holiday," which became an expression that related to cruel and crushing public destruction.


(image borrowed from Williams Sonoma)
When early warships fired cannonballs they kept them stacked in a pile next to a cannon. In order to keep them in place they would place a piece of rust-proof brass with indentations to secure the bottom layer of balls. They nicknamed the plate "monkey." When it got cold, the brass monkey would shrink, causing the balls to fall out and roll around on the deck. It's said that it was "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey," and that is where that particular phrase comes from!


Interesting! Very interesting!







Jan 30, 2019

Let's Discuss: Finding Harry Potter

We all have our stories about how we found Harry Potter, what age, what books in the series were out, stories relating to the movies and I felt like I would share mine!


How I Found Harry Potter


I was in sixth grade and one of my teachers would read to us from a book for like 15-20 minutes and one day she picked up a book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Now I was a reader at this time, maybe not as obsessively, as that would happen in the next year! But I'll admit that I gravitated towards books that had a girl heroine versus the boy hero. This was such an early year for YA books and Harry did fall more towards middle grade perhaps.

Regardless I only half listened to the book at the time, because much like now, back then I had a hard time focusing on the story when it was being read to me. But somehow this story got through to me. It was still hard to sit still at the time and enjoy a story being read to me, but it wasn't long before I was hooked. 

Then for Christmas that year, my grandma actually got me a copy of this one! Perhaps I talked about it to my mom and that was how it happened. I can't quite remember, but I have the distinct memory of it being a Christmas gift and that she gave it to me.

I really want to say that I ended up starting the book over and reading it through, all before my teacher finished it for us! Now, this class I had was like every other day, maybe every three days? It's been so long I can't remember. It wasn't an everyday class, so the reading of it took longer than it would if it were everyday

Then my sister borrowed it from me to read and she liked it a lot too. I think we convinced my mom later on that we needed to get the next books, which at that time were two and three. There was however a debate over who got to read book 2 first. I am pretty sure I won that! I am the faster reader of the two of us! Lol.

There were many more happy memories with Harry Potter of course! All surrounded by Borders! That's where all my books came from (2-7 at least! Can't say where the first one was bought since it was a gift!) and let's not forget the midnight release parties. I want to say that I was there for books 5-7. I remember hanging out in the aisles, participating in the games and trivia. It was always fun! I even still have my ticket that says I reserved 2 (by accident) copies of book 6!



And yup, I was number 28 in line!! Though I am trying to remember if they lined us up numerically or by groups. It might have been numerically and then the final year was groups! Sadly, there was no magical ticket for that one. It might have just been a slip or ordinary paper that was taken at the register because I SO would've saved it with this one! Anything with the Borders name gets saved! 


So how did you find Harry Potter?






Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here, at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine. If you're continuing with WOW, feel free to link those up as well! Find out more here.
 
 
The highly anticipated sequel to The Queen’s Rising!

Finally, Brienna is a mistress of knowledge and is settling into her role as the daughter of Davin MacQuinn, a disgraced lord who returned to Maevana to reclaim his house. Though she’d just survived a revolution, one that will finally return a queen to the throne, she faces another difficult challenge. She must prove herself trustworthy to the MacQuinns. But as Queen Isolde Kavanagh’s closest confidant, she’ll have to balance serving her father’s house as well as her country. And then there’s Cartier, a wholly separate but desirable factor in her new life.

Aodhan Morgane, formerly known as Cartier Évariste, is adjusting to the stark contrast between his pre-rebellion life in Valenia as a master of knowledge and his current one as the lord of a fallen house. During his castle’s restoration, he discovers a ten-year-old boy named Tomas, whose past and parentage are a complete mystery. So when Cartier’s former pupil Brienna is as taken with Tomas as he is, he lets his mind wander—what if he doesn’t have to raise him or his house alone?

As the Lannon trial rapidly approaches, Brienna and Cartier must put their feelings aside to concentrate on forging alliances, executing justice, and ensuring that no one interferes with the queen’s coronation. But resistance is rumbling among the old regime’s supporters, who are desperate to find a weakness in the rebels’ forces. And nothing makes a person more vulnerable than deep-seated love.
  


So I still need to read The Queen's Rising, but I'm hoping *fingers crossed* that it will be one I love and that I will be eagerly needing this one too!


PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
GENRE: YA Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019





Jan 29, 2019

Review--The Vampire's Accidental Wife by Kristen Painter

Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year.

Las Vegas headliner and vampire Desdemona Valentine is one cool, collected diva on the outside. On the inside, she’s petrified of falling in love after her last relationship nearly killed her...literally. Protecting her wounded heart makes for a lonely life, but she has her fame and fortune to keep her company. Who needs anything more?

Julian Ellingham does. One look at Desdemona on stage, and the vampire is smitten. She initially ignores him, but his relentless pursuit pays off when a wild night ends in a Vegas wedding. Finally, Julian has everything he wants while all Desdemona wants is...a divorce.

Julian sweet-talks Desdemona into letting him prove his love, but his time is running out. Especially after someone repeatedly tries to turn his bride to ash. When Desdemona flees Vegas for the spooky streets of Nocturne Falls and Julian’s protection, he’s more than willing to help out. But can he convince Desdemona to trust him, or will ‘death do us part’ become a reality?



Needing a break from all the fantasy I’ve been reading lately, I decided for a quick read within my favorite town in the world, Nocturne Falls! This time I read The Vampire’s Accidental Wife, a book I’ve been waiting forever to read! In it, we see playboy Julian finally decide to settle down, only for a change of pace, the woman he loves doesn’t want a relationship with him at all.

Desdemona Valentine is a Vegas celebrity with her own show, she’s a vampire pretending to be a human pretending to be a vampire, so it all works out! Julian has been to many of her shows and somewhere down the line, fell in love with her and one night after way too much to drink, Desdemona wakes up to find herself a married woman, which wasn’t in her plans whatsoever. Despite enjoying Julian’s friendship, she swore to herself she would never love again after her first relationship went seriously wrong.

Julian decides to give Desi a deal, he asks that she wait one year until they file for divorce and in that year, he would try to convince her to stay married to him. Months have passed, and while Desi continues to enjoy Julian’s company, she still has no feelings for him other than friendship. But then out of nowhere an accident occurs, Desi’s daylight partner, Sam, who’s a shapeshifter and makes herself look like Desi during the day to protect Desi’s vampire secret, gets attacked, Desi fears for her life and knows the only person who can help her is Julian.

After making sure Sam would be protected by a bodyguard, Desi goes with Julian to Nocturne Falls where she soon falls in love with the delightful town where supernaturals can be themselves openly. While she’s here, Julian tries to figure out who could be after Desi and want her dead. It’s not long before Desi’s stalker realizes she’s in Nocturne Falls and her life once again becomes in danger.

Ever since I started this series I was eagerly awaiting the time when it would be Julian’s turn to settle down! He’s the youngest of the Ellingham brothers and the residential playboy of the town. Thinking of him settling down seemed impossible, yet I was more than eager to see that time come! Desi was definitely a challenge for him, as she rightly should be! That she didn’t fall for him as the many women have fallen for Julian in the past was the icing on the cake.

Though we all know that this series is part mystery and part paranormal romance, so you can pretty much figure out how things will end for Julian and Desi. And I must say I quite enjoyed their journey to their romance! It was sweet and just kind of perfect! I love a nicely drawn out romance, it’s such a breath of fresh air from some of the insta-love stories I come across!

Oddly, I find myself really want to know more about Desi’s shapeshifter friend, Sam. As we learn a thing or two about what’s going on with her through phone conversations with Desdemona. There’s definitely a possible story there, maybe a novella even! And I really want to know more about that! Lol! You never know who will turn up in the next Nocturne Falls book, so anything is possible!

The mystery to this one was rather good! I had my suspicions and was actually rather thrown when I found out I was very, very wrong! Lol. Though it was still a realistic turnabout to find out who the stalker was. The dramatic change of events made for a heart-racing conclusion as well, but in the true fashion of this series, all ends as it should be!

The Nocturne Falls series is one I cannot get enough of! It’s the perfect read for paranormal lovers and mystery readers too! I’d say it’s a nice 50/50 balance of love and mystery, making for quite the enjoyable read! While each novel is a standalone of sorts, there will be teeny tiny spoilers regarding other characters and their happily ever afters, but none that should surprise you in the long run should you want to start with a particular novel instead of the first one!

All in all, The Vampire’s Accidental Wife was an enjoyable read and a worthy ending for one of my favorite characters. Of course, that’s not to say that Julian (and Desi) won’t pop up again in future books as side characters, that’s positively the best part of this series, you never truly say goodbye to any of the characters!

 

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars






10th Blogoversary Extravaganza!!!

I'm here. I am actually here! Today is the 10th anniversary of my blog! I've been blogging for TEN YEARS!!!! Omg, I feel old!! Lol. I honestly never expected to get this far. I felt like at some point blogging and reviewing would fizzle out for me somewhere, yet it never did.

While I've been doing this for TEN long years, I am by no means a professional or have any idea of what I am doing! Lol. There are still blogs that are way more popular than mine who get way more traffic and arcs and all that good stuff from blogging, and yet I still never quit what I was doing here. There have been times where I felt like I wasn't doing something right and maybe that is still true, I don't know what it is that I am doing or not doing, but I have to admit, I still have fun doing all this!

I've kept this blog partly for myself and the other part is because I know I have a following of some kind! I read each and every comment I get and honestly, they always make me feel giddy inside to know that you all took the time to read my reviews or posts. So thank you! 

So in honor of my TEN year anniversary, here are TEN random facts about myself:

10. I've had 6 surgeries throughout my childhood due to being diagnosed with neurofibromatosis at an early age. And it's because of this condition that I have that I found reading! When I had to sit out of most sports and whatnot in gym class, you get bored very easily. Luckily for some of it I was allowed to read a book! :D

9. In international travel I've been to 3 different countries: Greece, Italy, and Canada!

8. I've traveled to 18/50 of the United States, 19 if you count my home state, while I'd like to say I hope to visit them all, I'd settle for half! Lol. Of those 19, 16 states were for purposes of visiting authors! Granted I did do some sightseeing in a few of those states too!

7. Despite being a huge Disney fan I've only been to Disney World, though I plan to go to Disneyland by myself most likely in 2020 or 2021!

6. The first time I was "published" was when I was a preteen and my letter to Scooby Doo appeared in the Scooby Doo comic series!

5. I was sorted into Gryffindor by Pottermore and it totally blew my mind, but I'll take it! Really thought I was a Hufflepuff with my shy demeanor!

4. I got to meet Cary Elwes at a book signing once...best Valentine's Day ever!!



3. Ever since I was young, I've had this weird obsession with coins! I don't know why. Not even monetary ones, although I do like keeping my foreign currency (coin wise) whenever I happen across it!



2. I swore I'd never buy an ereader since I was all about the real books, I am shockingly on my second Kindle! Lol. Though I admit I use it mostly for ARCs and indie/self published books!

1. I have an estimated 1761 real books in my collection! There's probably a few books I could stand to donate, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Really can only think of 2 at the top of my head, so 1759 books in my collection! Not all are read ones either.



Now for the giveaway! There will be TEN winners, naturally!


The giveaway is open to wherever The Book Depository will ship, although one prize is US only and that is the set of signed books.

THE PRIZES:

5 Readers will get their choice of any book that releases TODAY, 1/29/19--within reason. No super uber expensive editions of anything folks! ;) 

Books can include King of Scars, Moonlight Scandals, A Curse so Dark and Lonely, The Cerulean, The Lonely Dead, and any others I might be forgetting!

1 US Reader will get a set of signed books that include The Lonely Dead by April Henry, Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard, To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo*, and Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller*

*This signing doesn't happen until after the contest ends, but those details will be discussed with the winner at the time.

3 Readers will get their choice of 1 book up to $15 (US) from Amazon or The Book Depository.

1 Reader will get a $40 (US) gift card to either Amazon or B&N (winner's choice)...should that winner be international they will get to spend that amount at The Book Depository (preorders accepted as long as you don't go over the spending limit).


a Rafflecopter giveaway











Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker.



Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a page

3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE
4. Name the title, author, etc.



"She hadn't changed other than to put on sky-high black platform boots. Studs decorated the front of them. He laughed softly. 'You are nothing if not practical, darling.'


'I am who I am.' She spread her arms wide. 'And this is who I am.'


Which was exactly what he loved about her." Kindle loc. 11%







 
TITLE: The Vampire's Accidental Bride
AUTHOR: Kristen Painter
PUBLISHER: Sugar Skull Books
GENRE: Paranormal Romance
RELEASE DATE: May 8, 2017



Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 


This week's topic is: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My To-Read List


*in no particular order


10. THE VANISHING STAIR by Maureen Johnson--I STILL need to read Truly Devious, but I have a problem with buying sequels despite that fact! But this is Maureen Johnson, so I'm fairly confident I made a safe bet here!
9. THE CERULEAN by Amy Ewing--a recent acquisition in a books-for-trade deal! I was curious about this one, yet a little hesitant, so I'm happy to have made a trade for it!
8. HOCUS POCUS & THE ALL NEW SEQUEL by A.W. Jantha--another books-for-trade deal! Though I am likely saving this for October to read! Lol!


7. STORM AND FURY by Jennifer L. Armentrout--this was added to my TBR list for wishlist purposes! Because OMG I NEEDZ IT!! 
6. BEAUTY OF THE BEAST by Rachel L. Demeter--this one was on my radar some time ago and recently got back on it! I'm always up for a TB&TB retelling and had to add this to the wishlist!
5. THE WICKED KING by Holly Black--an obvious recent addition. An obvious recent addition. An obvious recent addition. (Yup, 3 editions! LOL!)


4. LADY SMOKE by Laura Sebastian--another wishlist add...I forget for which purpose! Lol. I STILL need to read the first book!
3. BLOODLEAF by Crystal Smith--this one I received for review and will hopefully be getting to sometime next month!
2. NIGHTCHASER by Amanda Bouchet--since I ADORED Amanda's first book I decided to pick up her new series...though I still need to finish her first trilogy!


1. THE LIVING by Isaac Marion--another series I am behind in...though I did read the first book! Lol. But I wanted to jump on getting a hardcover SIGNED when the opportunity arose!




 

Jan 28, 2019

2019 Series Enders Reading Challenge

The 2018 Series Enders Reading Challenge is in the books, and Sandy and I decided we're in this for yet another year. Welcome to our 6th Annual Series Enders Reading Challenge. While the rules this year are essentially the same as last year, we did tweak the wording on a few and add some clarification so please be sure to check them out for a refresher.

This challenge is for all of you series readers who are scared to death of that last book in the series. You anxiously await it. You stalk it. You get your hands on it as soon as possible. But then…you put off reading it for fear that it might not be everything you thought it would be. Or, maybe you just have a backlog of series started and you need to finish that last book.

Join us in knocking out those pesky last books in a series. This is your chance. Here’s your motivation. Better than that, we have prizes!

Challenge Guidelines:

  1. This challenge will run from January 1, 2019 until December 31, 2019.
  2. Anyone can enter. You don’t have to have a blog just as long as you review your books somewhere: on your blog if you have one, Amazon, Goodreads, etc.
  3. Any genre, length, or format is acceptable as long as it is the last book in a series where all books in the series have been published and no more books are currently intended to be published in the series. If an author makes a decision somewhere during the year to add on to the series, we will count both the original last book in the series and the “new last” book in the series assuming the author isn’t going to write more than one additional book. Last book published in a series doesn’t count if more books are expected to be published.
  4. You can list your series enders ahead of time, but this is not required. If you decide to list them up front, feel free to change them throughout the year as necessary.
  5. When you sign up in the linky, please use the direct link to your post about joining the 2019 Series Enders Reading Challenge. If you don’t have a blog, please post about it on Facebook or Twitter and include that direct link as your sign up.
  6. You can sign up until December 15, 2019. This allows you to join the challenge at any time during the year.
  7. On the 25th of every month, we will post a wrap up on both Somewhere Only We Know and Words Fueled by Love with a linky for you to link up your reviews for the month. The monthly giveaway will be open until the next wrap up post goes up (ex. From January 25th to February 25th). For each link to a review, you will get an (1) entry into a drawing for that giveaway. This will be open internationally. Please link each review separately as each link in the monthly wrap up linky acts as an entry in both the monthly giveaway and the grand prize giveaway at the end of the year.
  8. Monthly giveaway prizes will be an e-gift card of your choice up to $5 (USD) from Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. While the challenge and giveaways are open internationally, please make sure that you can receive e-gift cards via Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. We want to make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to participate and to receive the prizes. Please remember that Holly and I are funding the giveaways out of our own pockets as something that we want to do, and we would like to continue to do so.
  9. If you miss a wrap-up post and giveaway, you can link your review the next month. Please do not try to link to one review twice. We will be verifying these.
  10. December will be the wrap up for the entire year. All reviews linked from January through December will be entered into a Grand Prize giveaway. Also due to Christmas, the December wrap up will post on December 23rd and will be open until January 23rd.
  11. You don’t have to follow Somewhere Only We Know or Words Fueled by Love to participate in the challenge, but you do have to follow both of us in order to be entered in the giveaways.
  12. Please make sure we have a valid email address or other means of contacting you if you choose to participate. Linking up to Goodreads is perfectly fine, but we have found that Goodreads is not a reliable source for contacting someone should you be selected as one of the monthly giveaway winners. This could be due to your Goodreads notification settings or Goodreads themselves could be at fault. We're not sure which. And since we want to make sure that everyone who is eligible for one of the giveaways will receive their prize should they win one month or the grand prize at the end of the year, it is up to you to ensure that we can contact you and that you respond within a reasonable amount of time (usually stated in the email notifying you of your winning).
Levels: (how many series enders you are planning to read)
Level 1: 1 – 5
Level 2: 5 – 10

Level 3: 10 – 15
Level 4: 15+

If you have any questions, please contact us at: Sandy's Email or Holly's Email or comment on one of the Series Enders blog posts on either or both of our websites.

To join the challenge:

  1. Write a blog post about joining the 2019 Series Enders Reading Challenge on your blog. For those of you who would like to participate but don’t have a blog, post about it on Facebook or Twitter.
  2. In your post, please include: the button, a link back to the sign up page, a link to both Somewhere Only We Know and Words Fueled by Love, the level you hope to achieve, and (optional) a list of the series you hope to complete.
  3. Place the button for the challenge in your sidebar (use the “grab this code” at the bottom of the post here).
  4. Link up in the linky using the direct link to your post/tweet/etc.
And that’s it! Welcome to the 2019 Series Enders Reading Challenge. Good luck!
This reading challenge is hosted by Somewhere Only We Know & Words Fueled by Love.






ARC Review--Stolen Time by Danielle Rollins

Seattle, 1913

Dorothy spent her life learning the art of the con. But after meeting a stranger and stowing away on his peculiar aircraft, she wakes up in a chilling version of the world she left behind—and for the first time in her life, realizes she’s in way over her head.

New Seattle, 2077

If there was ever a girl who was trouble, it was one who snuck on board Ash’s time machine wearing a wedding gown—and the last thing he needs is trouble if he wants to prevent his terrifying visions of the future from coming true.
 








I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.


Danielle Rollins' latest release, Stolen Time, is unlike any book she's written before. There's no horror or demons or monsters or magic of any kind. Instead, there's time travel via scientific means! It was an intriguing read, I will give you that. But it's also a time travel book, and with time traveling comes the need for explanation of how that works and how it's possible and all that. I quickly learned that it was all very scientific, VERY scientific. And as you all might know, science is not my subject!

The story starts out with our heroine Dorothy, not Gale either. No, this Dorothy is a con woman, or young woman. She and her mother get by in life by running cons over wealthy young men. Dorothy's mother arranged for Dorothy to marry a young doctor who Dorothy has zero interest in, but money is money according to her mother. Dorothy however plans to play runaway bride and does. It's at that moment she meets Ash, who is in fact a time traveler, but she just thinks he's a pilot of some kind with a fancy airplane and after stowing away on it in order to escape the life that her mother planned for her, she learned just how wrong she was.

Ash is a pilot and he and his friends have been trying to find their missing professor, the one who brought most of them to this time in the future, 2077. He's gone missing and they fear the worst, but when Dorothy appears, a girl from 1913, things get a little complicated, but after her initial shock, Dorothy is more than willing to help out. She may be a con woman, but she's also a sixteen-year-old girl looking for an adventure and a place to belong.

Honestly, this story wasn't really all that bad! I enjoyed seeing these different characters who all came from different times come together and basically time travel for a living. What bogged me down were the excerpt from the professor's journal that explained in great detail how the time traveling came about, how it's possible, how it works...basically using words and terms that made no sense and having some of them even be made up. Yeah, that totally threw me through a loop!

Other than that, which did take up about 1/4 of the story at large, I really enjoyed the book. I loved the dynamics between Ash and Dorothy who didn't really gravitate towards one another at first. Ash has had a vision of his future that a woman he currently loathes will be the woman he loves and when he kisses her, she stabs him the gut, killing him. He's basically tried to stay away from love and relationships beyond the casual flirting and whatnot. So naturally, when Dorothy shows up, you just know his plan is about to be thrown out the window. And the possibilities and reasonings behind everything may not make sense at first but by the end you get the OH WOW revelation. I kind of suspected some of this along the way, but man, time travel books are trippy and totally mess with your mind! You have to read extra carefully.

The pacing to this one was pretty good. Nothing too slow or overly fast, it was honestly a nice steady pace but those journal interruptions really messed me up especially because they were science related and usually left me more confused than when I started. But reading them was necessary to know more about our secondary characters, mainly Ash's friends and crew.

I still feel like there are things we don't quite understand just yet and while the ending made some shocking revelations and cleared up a little bit of this and that, it also made things still rather difficult. There's still a lot we don't fully understand at this point and only future books will help us to fully understand what will happen to bring us to the future that Ash foresaw. This series is planned to  be a trilogy so I will be interested to see what will happen in these next two books.

Stolen Time was a magical kind of read but without the actual magic, more science instead. Yet there was still a decent amount of magic that evolves from a good story. While I did struggle with some parts of the story here and there, I still found it to be an intriguing and engaging book overall. I will definitely be giving the second book a try come next year!


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars


Stolen Time releases February 5, 2019






It's Monday! What are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.


Last Week I Read:

Stolen Time by Danielle Rollins (ARC)--Review to come at a later date
Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller (ARC)--Review to come at a later date
The Lost Sisters by Holly Black (3.5 stars)


Reviews That Were Posted: 

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer (ARC) (5 stars)
Moonlight Scandals by Jennifer L. Armentrout (ARC) (5 stars)


Currently Reading:

The Vampire's Accidental Wife by Kristen Painter


What I Hope to Start this Week:

Sherwood by Meagan Spooner (ARC)


Other Posts of Interest:







Jan 27, 2019

Stacking the Shelves

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! The meme is now hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality.


Another quiet week for the most part. Acquired a few new reads, mostly from the books-for-trade hashtag and one new release! Next week promises to be a BIG release day! I can't wait to go to the bookstore for all of it!! :D


Here's what I got this week:

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson--I really, really try not to buy the sequels to books I haven't read the first one too, but with Maureen Johnson I feel like I made a safe bet! Lol.


Books I received from books-for-trade:

The Cerulean by Amy Ewing (ARC)


THANK YOU Bri & Kristalynn!!


Then I found out I was the winner in the 2018 Series Enders Reading Challenge and won myself a gift card to Amazon!!


THANK YOU Sandy & Holly!
 

Then I received my preorder swag from Crystal Cestari and The Fairest Kind of Love!


I received a SIGNED bookplate, a bookmark, a postcard and STICKERS!!


THANK YOU Crystal!!


And then because I am HUGE Disney geek, I found myself buying these...in my defense they're purple AND it was a free ship day! :D

I'm tentative planning to take my first ever trip to DisneyLAND maybe in 2020 (fall) or early 2021. I initially was shooting for February 2020 but Sleeping Beauty's castle will still be under construction and if I am going all the way out there I am seeing that castle in all its glory! So I'm debating between September 2020 or February 2021--February was apparently a low volume crowd kind of season, but then I worry about the air travel and the possibility of snow in areas like Missouri and Colorado! So I'm still in my debating/planning stages of things!



And that's it for me this week! What did you all get?