Dec 31, 2022

Challenges Monthly Wrap-up: December

CHALLENGE 1: 2022 Discussion Challenge

Thriving in Winter


Well, I kind of failed this month, but luckily I did already complete my goal of 35. I have a total of 37 discussions for 2022!



CHALLENGE 2: 2022 Series Enders Reading Challenge

None completed this month again. Sigh. I need to do better at this one next year too! I aimed to finish 5 series this year and I ended up finishing 6!



CHALLENGE 3: The Backlist Reader Challenge 2022

Phantom Wheel by Tracy Deebs (10/16/18)
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins (1/5/21)
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling (9/28/21)


December was all about the TBR books apparently! Lol! I didn't do too bad with this one this month or year! I aimed to read 20 and I ended up reading 25!



CHALLENGE 4: 2022 New Release Reading Challenge

Charm by Tracy Wolff (11/8/22)
When Stars Come Out by Scarlett St. Clair (7/26/22)


So I only got 2 new releases in this month and really the second one up there was a re-released book but since the first edition is somewhat out of print or was ebook only or something like that I kept it as a "new" release. I set out to read 20 new releases and I ended up reading 32!









 

Dec 30, 2022

2023 Challenges Sign Ups--Part 1

 

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 2023 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.


I am going to aim for 5 series again, with the potential for more! Let's hope I can actually binge some of those TBR series this time around!






Here’s All You Have to Do:

  • Create a sign-up post announcing your intention to participate and link up below. There’s no need to say what your discussion posts will be about–just tell us you’re joining and let us know your goal. (Can be in an update post or a post with other challenges–you’re not required to make a completely separate sign-up post.)
  • Please link back to both challenge hosts and include the challenge button in your sign-up posts. Feel free to also link back in your actual discussions (we appreciate it, so more people can find us!), but that’s not required.
  • The challenge runs from January 1st until December 31st, 2023. Sign-ups will remain open through December 28th, 2023. So, you can basically sign up all year long. Come join us!
  • Share it! The more people we get to participate in this, the more awesome discussions we can all be a part of and the more fun it will be! So, invite your friends to join us!
  • On the 1st of every month, a link-up will go up on both Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight where you’ll leave your links for that month’s discussions. Every month, I’ll update the Discussion Challenge widget in the sidebar with the new post–so you’ll always know where to find the latest link-up!
  • There will also be a big yearly giveaway–multiple winners for multiple things!–so do keep entering and checking back!
  • Use the hashtag #LetsDiscuss2023 to share your progress and connect with other participants on Twitter.


The Levels:

1-10 – Discussion Dabbler
11-20 – Creative Conversationalist
21-30 – Chatty Kathy
31-40 – Terrifically Talkative
41+ – Gift of the Gab

 

I think I will go for the Creative Conversationalist this time around! Let's say 15 discussions as I totally struggled last year! 









Review--The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

 

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins, writing as Erin Sterling, casts a spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride” scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.

 

Erin Sterling's The Ex Hex was positively one of the cutest paranormal rom-com's I've ever read! And you know me, I don't usually go for the cute and fuzzy reads, but it involved witches and hexes, so it had its appeal! It was q rather quick read, but delightful all the same!

Vivi had her heartbroken at nineteen when her boyfriend, Rhys told her he had to go back home and deal with his betrothed...just after an intimate moment! After banishing him from her life, she inadvertently and unknowingly cursed him. Flash forward nine years later and Rhys finds himself being sent back to Graves Glen, where he met and fell in love with Vivi and left her after a terrible breakup. His family is the founder of the town and every year at Halloween a family member returns to charge the ley lines and because Fate, and his father, are cruel, Rhys is sent to do the task this year.

Upon entering the town, Rhys finds himself the victim of pure and utter bad luck. Everything seems to be going wrong for him. Then he bumps into Vivi and things heat up more or less. There is still a heated attraction between the two, but for Vivi there's still a lot of resentment too. Rhys himself still feels a bit jaded after the way Vivi treated him after their intimate moment. He did not get a chance to explain what he meant when he brought up returning home to Wales to see to his betrothed. 

Honestly, this bit right here still gets me. What did happen?! Is Sterling saving this for a future book? Because I was left reeling after this revelation and that as the pages went by, there was still never any further mention of what happened to his betrothed. Was the agreement broken? Did he break it, did she? Did she move on? Was she a totally b with an itch and deserve the dumping? What, what what?!! Yeah, lots of questions, but alas...we never even get a name. I know it's not detrimental to the story at large, but since it had a pretty big impact on the characters in the very beginning...I was kind of expecting some sort of followup. Even if it was just to say, Rhys ended the betrothal despite his father's wishes...or just something like that!

Anyways, Vivi wanting to see the ley lines ask if she could come with Rhys when he charges them and since they still have heated chemistry burning between them, he agrees. But when he goes to charge the lines something goes terribly wrong. The curse, that's running through his veins now that he's returned to Graves Glen, goes into the charge and now the ley lines are running rampant with his curse and causing all sorts of havoc in town. Now Rhys and Vivi will have to figure out a way to break the curse and set things to right in the town before things go really crazy. 

This book was buckets of fun! It was such a sweet little read of rekindled romance, but with a nice paranormal twist! And omg, if my 2009 self saw me gushing over a romance book she would've laughed her butt off at that possibility! Lol. What has happened to me?! Lol. I'm a sucker for reconnections. Vivi and Rhys definitely had that, as they met after Vivi's first year in college and spent one incredible summer together before all went to crap.

Since the sequel is out, I know it stars Vivi's cousin, Gwyn, and one of Rhys' brothers and this ought to make for more fun as Gwyn is definitely one who doesn't hold anything back. It was her urging Vivi as teenagers to curse Rhys (in a joking manner). She's going to be a riot in her book! She was very much one in this book as well! She always had Vivi's back and she constantly gave Rhys crap for the way he treated Vivi in the past. Rhys had that kind of rich playboy attitude to him, but since we get his perspective too, we learn he's deeper than his initial appearance. Then there's Vivi who is pretty much a good hearted, kind soul but with a little bit of bite to her. She's definitely not a pushover.

There wasn't a whole lot of other conflicts to this book to keep characters apart. I guess I sometimes expected the mysterious betrothed to come to town and there be some kind of showdown. Just who is this mystery woman?! But I guess I got to let that go, as it doesn't appear to be a problem anymore, but I even wonder why Vivi never questioned it. Like why she didn't ask him how married life was treating him or something. Just something to say that he didn't go through with it, which he did allude to needing to go back home to break it off or something like that. Mysteries we will never know I guess. Unless one of his brothers falls for the betrothed. Who knows? There's only one other book out right now!

Since this is a romance of sorts, you can pretty much guess the ending. Things are perfectly perfect by the last page and all is well. We already know what to expect in the next book based on its description and there's definitely one more to come, but what that one will entail is a mystery at this point. Perhaps the betrothed and brother number 3? If you're looking for a cute and delightful paranormal romance read, I would recommend The Ex Hex! It was light and fluffly and just the kind of read to mix up my darker paranormals!

 

 

Overall Rating 4/5 stars

 

 

 

 


 

Book Blogger Hop

 

 
This meme is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addict!
 
 
 
This week's question is: In 2022, how many books did you read? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer



MY ANSWER: Currently I am 61 books...unless I kept reading last night, I am at 62! Basically I am finishing this book I am currently reading either today or yesterday! Lol. Not too bad since I started my new job and have different things to do. I do miss the days of sitting in an empty office and reading all day...but it's nice to be productive too. Even if I miss those triple digit numbers at the end of the year! 











Dec 29, 2022

Books from the Backlog #11

 

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. This meme is hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books!

 

Charlotte Caine isn't called "the Vampire Chef" because she's a member of New York's undead community-she just cooks for them. Her restaurant, Nightlife, is poised to take the top slot in the world of "haute noir" cuisine.

But when a drunk customer causes a scene, a glowing review from the city's top food critic doesn't seem likely-especially when that customer winds up dead on Nightlife's doorstep. Now, with her brother under suspicion for the murder, Charlotte has to re-open her restaurant and clear her brother's name-before they both become dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

I acquired A Taste of the Nightlife by Sarah Zettel from RT 2012! I also acquired its sequel and I still have not read them! They sounded like fun vampire mysteries so I definitely plan to read them at some point! Back then, when someone handed me free books and they were within my genres I didn't say no! Lol! You pay so much for the convention you have to make up for it with as many free books as possible! Plus this one seriously sounded like a good book to read so I will read it one day!

 

 

 

 


 


 

Dec 28, 2022

Can't Wait Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

 

 

 

Author and single mom Finlay Donovan has been in messes before―after all, she's a pro at removing bloodstains for various unexpected reasons―but none quite like this. When Finlay and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they had "borrowed" in the process of saving the life of Finlay's ex-husband, the Russian mob did her a favor and bought the car for her. And now Finlay owes them.

Mob boss Feliks is still running the show from behind bars, and he has a task for Finlay: find and identify a contract killer before the cops do. The problem is, the killer might be an officer themself.

Luckily, hot cop Nick has just been tasked with starting up a citizen's police academy, and combined pressure from Finlay's looming book deadline and Feliks is enough to convince Finlay and Vero to get involved. Through firearm training and forensic classes (and some hands-on research with a tempting detective), Finlay and Vero use their time in police academy to sleuth out the real contract killer to free themselves from the mob's clutches―all the while dodging spies, confronting Vero's past, and juggling the daily trials of parenthood.

From USA Today bestseller and Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun—the highly anticipated, hilarious, and heart-pounding next installment in the beloved Finlay Donovan series…

 

 

I still need to start this series but it's one I think I'll enjoy so I keep buying the books!

 

TITLE: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun
AUTHOR: Elle Cosimano

PUBLISHER: Minotaur Books
GENRE: Mystery
RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2023



A mysterious crystal.
A legacy of shadows.
The prophecy unfolds…

Cora never dreamed of returning to her old life, but with her kingdom at stake and her brother’s life on the line, she has no choice but to reclaim her former title. Yet with new changes come new dangers, this time in the form of scheming royals with cruel politics. If she can play their games, she just might keep her crown. But can she say the same for her heart?

Prince Teryn has already betrayed Cora’s trust, first with a lie, then with a kiss. Now all he wants is her forgiveness. If he’s lucky, maybe he’ll win her affection too. But just when he manages to convey his deepest feelings, he makes a fatal mistake that unleashes an old threat in a terrifying new way.

Thrust into a web of lies, deadly magic, and hidden memories, Cora and Teryn must uncover secrets of the past to secure the future of their kingdoms. If they fail, darkness will return in a way no one will see coming.

And it will be wearing the face of the one Cora loves most.

A Cage of Crystal is the second book in the Prophecy of the Forgotten Fae trilogy. Perfect for fans of Throne of Glass and Shadow and Bone. If you like breathtaking magic, fierce heroines, and enemies-to-lovers romance, then you’ll love this epic fantasy tale.

A Cage of Crystal in an upper YA fantasy that contains moderate violence and gore, mildly steamy fade-to-black romance, and adult situations such as pregnancy and marriage.

NOTE: A Cage of Crystal was previously published as an earlier edition called Veil of Mist. This updated edition has been fully rewritten and includes some plot changes, name changes, and other modifications from the original. The original edition has been unpublished.

 

 

I still need to start this series as well, but just thought I'd throw it on my CWW list! Having fun with this author as I catch up on her titles!

 

TITLE: A Cage of Crystal
AUTHOR: Tessonja Odette

PUBLISHER: Self?
GENRE: NA Fantasy
RELEASE DATE:  January 31, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Dec 27, 2022

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.

 

"'Now, let's clean up this salt before Aunt Elaine comes up here and figures out we were drinking and magicking.'

Vivi turned away and neither she nor Gwyn saw the candle briefly ignite again, the flame sparking, the smoke curling back toward the open window and the full moon." p 9


 

 

 

 

 

 

TITLE: The Ex Hex
AUTHOR: Erin Sterling

PUBLISHER: Avon
GENRE: Paranormal Romance
RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2021



 

 

 

 

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: Top Ten Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection

 

*in no particular order

 

10. ALMOST THERE by Farrah Rochon
9. A HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER by Darynda Jones
8. A LIGHT IN THE FLAME by Jennifer L. Armentrout




7. LUMARA by Melissa Landers
6. MORRIGHAN by Mary E. Pearson
5. VAMPIRES, HEARTS, & OTHER DEAD THINGS by Margie Fuston




4. RECKLESS GIRLS by Rachel Hawkins
3. QUEEN OF MYTH AND MONSTERS by Scarlett St. Clair
2. PIECES OF ME by Kate McLaughlin

 


1. CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber (5th UK Anniversary Edition)