It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.
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.
This has been an extremely long week and very trying weekend. I'm dogsitting a dog that literally never shuts up. He's barking constantly as he still misses his bro who went to the great big dog park in the sky back in July. It's literally been nothing but barking over and over and over again since I walked in the door Friday evening. He apparently sleeps when I run errands and whatnot and when I'm home BARKING NONSTOP. I let him outside and he just barks there too. I figure I don't want him disrupting the neighbors, but my throat is already getting sore from all the yelling and begging him to stop and needless to say, he hasn't.
Soooo, next weekend ought to be better and will actually be my time off from work to enjoy and whatnot. I tried watching movies last night but he wasn't having it. I mean, I get it. We all still miss our other dog, but oooomg you guys, I could barely sleep the night before!! I am sooo tired! I'll be going to be bed like uber early tonight in a vain hope of trying to catch up on missed sleep from the weekend and you know, the work week before.
And honestly, Friday evening was the absolute worst. I finally got some of my packages in the mail. One thing I totally ordered the wrong size. It's cool, I sent it back and ordered the correct one. But it's annoying since I gotta wait longer. Then an item I won at auction on eBay arrived totally broken! I was crushed! Like I practically had tears in my eyes because I was soooo excited for this piece and it was broken due to poor packaging. Luckily the seller is letting me return it and I should be refunded accordingly, but this was the first time I had a BAD eBay experience. I hope that won't happen again. I'm hunting for this piece again, but am fearful that I will have a repeat occurrence.
Now I guess, onto the better part of the week! The goodies!
Skyhunter by Marie Lu--SIGNED! I ordered a signed copy from Good Choice Reading and it finally came in! Though I've no clue when I will be able to read it! Lol!
The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo--Illumicrate Edition! I was surprised by how quickly this one arrived! Check out this artwork too! Isn't it just gorgeous!?
Then I did get one eBay item I bought unharmed! I mean, it would take mad skills to damage it, but I've seen that happen too...
Yup, it's a Caraval patch! I've a few bookish patches floating around and recently bought a tote bag that I plan to decorate with them! Naturally, this will be the centerpiece!
And perfectly timed was this beauty, I believe it arrived the same day as my book:
It's my Skyhunter metal bookmark!
THANK YOU Macmillan!!
And that was it for me this week! What did you get?
I saw this tag over at Nick's The Infinite Limits of Love and thought it looked like a lot of fun! I did not know that this was a TV show! Lol. I'm not a reality TV show person. But I thought it would still be fun to do! I love these tag posts, though I know I could never do one on my own! I like being given prompts! Lol. This tag was created by Paige at Minimal Bookie. I also borrowed the above picture from Nick because, you know, it goes with the tag! Lol.
RECOUPLING: a book or author you want to give a second try
I started reading an ARC of Where Dreams Descend but couldn't get into it, so I marked it DNF. Well, I decided, eventually, I'm going to give it a second try. I think at the time I was so eager to get back to my TBR pile and it was my "last" review book at the time that since I wasn't immediately grabbed by it, I set it down. Well, I'm going to give it another try at some point!
I GOT A TEXT: a book someone recommended to you, on or offline
Down Comes the Night was recently put onto my radar, likely by a WoW! It sounded deeply intriguing, so I added it to my list right away!
MUGGED OFF: a book you get gripe for liking
Well, I don't know if you would call it "griped." But since pretty much EVERYONE HATED Allegiant and how it ended...I honestly didn't feel that way. No, I wasn't excited for what happened, but I didn't regret reading the entire series. I honestly started to see it coming what with the glaring hints and all! Lol.
FACTOR 50: a book that went hard, for your feels, with its content, it just did the absolute most for you
Tella was my girl! I loved this girl. Legendary had sooo many feels and the next one just increased all those feels!
GRAFTING: a book you've seen a lot of hype about that you now want to read
Well, I technically wanted to read Blood & Honey asap, but I ordered the Fairy Loot box and if you've ordered one of those too, you know they've been delayed. What with my book buying habits as of late, I could not justify buying a second copy. So wait I must. But the hype around it has been strong since last month! Lol.
SHOOT YOUR SHOT: a book you'd die to read early
Go big or go home right?
CASA AMOR: a book that romanced you into buying it even though you already have too many books to read or one you have your eye on
The latest one was A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik...yeah...that was totally impulsive!
HEAD'S BEEN TURNED: a book everyone should read right now even if they're in the middle of something else
Yeah I know, I know. I keep having the completely unbelievable idealistic hope that Gena might actually write the finale one day. And yeah, I know, once upon a time she had a brief paragraph outline for how the book would go. But that's since disappeared and it did not have all the answers, so I was left bereft. SOOOO if everyone bought this book and read this book and reviewed this book in ALL the places...then maybe it would get its finale! I've seen it happen before with another canceled series, so I live on this idealistic hope! LOL!
BANTER: a book that made you laugh or that you think is really well written
Wow. That's two totally different topics! Lol. I decided to go with the latest Charley Davidson book because these books always had me LOLing!!
ON PAPER: a book with all the qualities you love that you're looking forward to reading
Yeah I know. I'm wayyyyy behind! I was hoping to get an early copy of this one, but sadly that did not happen. Now I'm stuck in review limbo and am not sure when I will get to this one. Hopefully soonish...
Ba Bam! Another tag completed! Woohoo! I pretty much tag anyone who wants to do this tag! Whether you know of what show its based on or not. Because I seriously had no idea upon doing this! Lol!
Five years ago, Abby
Booth’s mom, co-host of a ghost hunting reality show, went missing while
filming in a ‘haunted’ cave in Arizona.
Since then, Abby’s life
has all but fallen to pieces, most notably because of her dad’s deep
depression and how they’ve drifted further and further apart.
But
now, at seventeen, Abby has decided that things will change. She plans
to go to the same cave where her mom and the crew went missing and to
find out, once and for all, what happened there.
With the help of
the co-host’s son Charlie and two of his friends, Abby sets off on a
quest for answers…but what the group ends up finding, what they stumble
across in that dark, primordial cave in Arizona, is nothing they could
have ever imagined.
Abby was investigating a possible haunting… she never expected that there could be something worse.
I’ve been wanting to read Tom Leveen’s Hellworld
for ages! I remember hearing that it was a super creepy read that was
just chilling and it definitely had that, but it was far different from
expected. This book was crazy weird
and it definitely kept me turning the pages, but man, that ending!
The story begins in chaos, quite literally.
Something big just happened and now Abby, her friend Charlie, and his
girlfriend Selby are trying to escape a cave when Selby has a serious
injury and needs medical attention. They are running
from something, several somethings.
Then after the first chapter we go back to the
beginning, the very beginning and learn all the who’s, what’s, and
why’s, so to speak. Which soon sets off a back and forth matter of
reading the NOW which is escaping from sudden danger and
the THEN that led them to said danger. It was pretty wild. I mean, I
would’ve preferred it to be the story just straight up chronological,
but that’s just my way! I like reading a story as it unfolds not knowing
ahead of time that OMG one of us just DIED!
Kind of a spoiler, you know?
But in a sense, I can see why it worked for this
story. Things are freaking crazy in the now, like apocalyptic crazy. In
fact, it’s quite possible that’s where this is all headed. That when we
get back to those THENs you almost don’t care
anymore because you want to know how the survivors are surviving, you
know?
A little more on the story, so you’re not totally
confused like I was at its beginning…Abby’s mom used to be on a show
called Spectre Spectrum and it was like Ghost Hunters in some way. Going
to places and proving them haunted and whatnot.
Well, then one day Abby’s mom and crew never came back. For five years
she’s had to basically raise her dad who went into a catatonic state you
could say. He’s there and moving and breathing, eating, but not really
living. She had to drop out of school to
work to help pay bills and is studying online. Then she finds a book
among her mother’s things, one that she thinks points to what they might
have been doing in that cave all that time ago.
She contacts her old friend, who’s father was among
the missing crew members, and with his girlfriend and other friend who
lost a parent in the debacle, they set off a quest for answers. But what
they find was far more terrifying then they
could ever imagine—no spoiler since they pretty much tell you this from
the get-go!
This book was pretty terrifying in more ways then
one. First the spooky stuff, and then you know, apocalypse scenarios in
play! Those books always tend to freak me out because I know I’d be one
to die in the first wave! Lol!
The ending though was far crazier than you would
think! While we thought we were headed towards answers we get something
somewhere in between. The ending leaves quite a bit unsaid and almost
sets you up for a sequel, but since it’s been
a few years I’m pretty sure this was just meant to tease and stress us
out! But after reading a slew of horror reads, I’m getting the sense
that this is just what that genre author likes to do to readers!
If you’re looking for a read that is downright terrifying and will keep you on the edge of your seat then definitely pick up
Hellworld! It’s a wild and horrifying ride, but it’s quite the page-turner in the end! Except that ending!!
This week's question is: Would you consider giving out books to trick-or-treaters instead of candy? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)
MY ANSWER: Uh...no. For many reasons. One: omg that would be wayyy more expensive than candy! Two: I don't like to force a genre on someone who may not like it. I mean if I was a paranormal reader going trick or treating and you gave me a contemporary romance...I'd want the candy instead! Lol. I just feel like it would be wayyy too complicated. You get too many kids of different ages from toddler to high school, because yeah, we get the wayyy older kids at our door sometimes. So it'd honestly be impossible to really do this properly. And yeah, the money of course! Candy is cheaper by far!
I haven't had a discussion post in awhile. Mostly because I HATE new Blogger and it's stupid interface that make blogging a thousand times more difficult! I mean seriously, why do you have buttons to align the text if the text is going to go wherever it wants?! Totally ignoring the button command! It's so stupid! So yes, I've been struggling to blog beyond the norm lately...I'm already shuddering at how difficult my year end survey post will go.
Onto happier discussions because I hate talking about new Blogger's stupidity, I tweet enough about it while arguing with Blogger when I write my posts.
Let's discuss the most wonderful time of year...and yes, I mean Halloween! Lol!
Halloween
Though I never do anything for Halloween, I do find that I enjoy the holiday! It's like the paranormal holiday! Time to celebrate all things creepy and SUPERNATURAL! I go to every store looking at all the decorative pieces, looking for stuff for bookstagram, decor-decor pieces, and even things for my giveaways.
I just love all the weird and creepy things. I've found myself a few snowglobes already this year! Two are bookish even and I love love love them! When I get more space, I might just keep the one out all year round because it's sooo cool!
I've been buying a lot of pieces from Target lately and oh wow. I already need to buy a box to store them all! They had a lot of nice stuff that was super cheap too! Sadly there was one item I could not find. I've checked multiple stores, scoured the internet and came up with nada. It's a little $3 Ghost Succulent thingymobob and though I saw it on eBay, I refuse to pay in the $15-$30 range for it! It's THREE dollars! I get supply and demand and trying to make more money on something you bought, but not on a $3 item! Selling for $6 would be just fine, I'd probably buy it for that, but the cheapest I saw was $15 with shipping. Eck.
I love all the Halloween Disney items too! I'm on ShopDisney a lot looking at different things because it's Disney and Halloween! Best combination ever!
So yeah, this just turned into a post about me talking about what Halloween stuff I like. Clearly I've run out of ideas for discussions. I'd write one about my hate of new Blogger, but don't want to piss Google people off more than I likely have with all my tweets and feedback submissions.
What about you? Do you like Halloween? What's your favorite part about the holiday?
Did you know one species of turtle can breathe through its butt? The white-throated snapping turtle of Australia has the nickname of "bum-breathing turtle" because of that factoid.
OMG. I thought the book was kidding! Lol! Note this turtle above is not that turtle! ;)
Today I am excited to share in the release of Touch of Evil, the first Touch book, and tenth novel in the Weird Girls urban fantasy series. Come check out an excerpt, grab your copy and enter the fabulous giveaway....
The award-winning Weird Girls urban fantasy romance series continues to blow away modern fantasy and adventure fans with heart-stopping action and romance. Centered around four unique and powerful sisters, it’s time for Emme Wird, the youngest sister, to step into the supernatural spotlight.
Emme Wird, the healer and powerful telekinetic in the Wird family, hasn’t had the best of luck with males. While her sisters have found their mates and forever loves, Emme has found males that are better left as lost. Is a decent meal with polite conversation too much to ask for? Yes, it is.
When a pack member that Emme has dinner with is discovered dead and dismembered, it is up to Emme and her werewolf friend, Bren, to solve the murder. But spine-tingling danger and touches with evil have ways of bringing close friends closer.
Could the male that Emme searches for be right in front of her? Or will evil snatch him away from her, just as it did once before?
I received this ARC from Caffienated PR to
participate in the blog tour with an honest and voluntary review. I was
in no way compensated for this review.
At long last, Cecy Robson gives the youngest Wird sister, Emme, a turn at the wheel!
Touch of Evil is Emme’s solo debut and it was everything I
was hoping for from her! Though, I do want to say, because it took me a
little too long to fully and 100% realize (besides speculating) it,
this book takes place before the end of Taran’s
series. I can’t place it exactly in the Weird Girls timeline as
it’s been too long since I read Celia’s books, though I’m thinking it
was somewhere in the midst of Taran’s stories, definitely before the
last two books.
Emme was having a pretty terrible night when her
shifter date decided sex was the only way to save their night, after he
admitted that she’d do since Taran was taken. But let it be said that
Emme is not all sweetness and sugar when it comes
to jerks and she shows him that beautifully. She ends up spending the
rest of the evening with Bren at his bar when they suddenly get a call
that a shifter’s body was found in multiple pieces. And as you’ve
probably guessed, it was Emme’s date.
Now she and Bren are trying to figure out who or
what could have possibly killed a shifter in such a brutal manner and it
takes them far beyond the realm of normal. Emme uncovers a plot to kill
her sister Celia, and there’s one thing to
know about Emme, the sweet little healer; never mess with her family.
Emme may be the sister that gets overlooked because she’s the youngest,
the smallest, the less fierce, but she is absolutely a force not to be
reckoned with. No pun intended since her power
is referred as force. Lol.
What made this book extra special and that I
positively LOVED even more, was that it’s told from both Emme and Bren’s
point of views! Holy cow I was not expecting that! And I was totally
blown away with the thoughts Bren had. It’s been
so many years since I started this world series that I couldn’t
remember everything we knew about Bren and his past, I just knew that he
was always there for the Wird sisters and they’re his family since his
was gone. Seeing him start to see Emme in a new
light was unbelievably sweet, and at times funny as he tried to talk
himself out of it because he knew the ass kicking he’d receive from her
sisters should something happen to Emme’s heart.
And since this is a prequel of sorts to what will
be Emme’s series I am now driving myself crazy with want for more! Ever
since it was revealed that Bren and Emme are mates in Taran’s series
I’ve been dying for a glimpse of more between
them, and now things are totally insane since Bren apparently knew all
this long before Taran made the revelation! My mind is blown you guys!
Emme and Bren were able to take care of things
supernatural wise in this one, not that that is any surprise as this is a
sort of “past moment” novel. We all know everything is going to be okay
by the end of this one. Although, this book
does include the “event” Emme mentions briefly to Taran in her last
book. When I read it then, my brain was whirling with what this moment
was and this, you guys, is heavy stuff!
I am now basically dying to read the next book and I
don’t even know when that will be! Being a younger sister myself, I
always had a soft spot for Emme in the
Weird Girls series to date. She’s been through a lot, like
seriously a lot if you recall everything from the Celia story days and I
want to see this girl get her happy ending! I mean when all your
sisters already have their mates and are living in bliss,
you can’t help but feel like an outsider. And I totally relate with
Emme on that front too. I’m rooting for this girl to the very end and I
cannot wait to see what’s next for her in her series to come!
If you’re looking for action packed mystery with a twist on love, then you’re going to enjoy
Touch of Evil to the fullest just like I did! The Weird Girls
series has been one my favorites since its debut and I love that Cecy
has extended the series as much as she has! I cannot wait for the next
adventure!
Overall Rating 5/5 stars
Read an Excerpt
There’s a naked werewolf standing in front of me.
Let me kindly explain.
There’s a naked werewolf—a man who can change into a werewolf—standing naked, in human form, in front of me.
They do that a lot, change from beast to full naked glory. Typically, it’s pre and post bloody battle for the sake of the world and to protect its unsuspecting human populace. However awkward, I’m used to it.
“Like what you see?” he asks.
Make that sort of used to it.
He flexes and gives a little thrust to show off what he thinks are some delectable goods and oh, my…he has three testicles.
I slap my hands over my eyes. I take it back. I take it all back. I’m not used to all this.
“Emme,” Ted asks. “Did you just gag?”
I’m not a rude person.
I’m not a liar.
“Yes?” is my response.
Ted is a lot bigger than me. He’s also stronger and can snap my spine without changing to his beast counterpart. I keep my hands over my eyes. As a nurse by trade, and a supernatural fighter by sheer terrible luck, I have seen things, ugly, frightening, and unexceptionally evil things, and I’ve encountered creatures so menacing mere thoughts reduce me to trembles.
I draw the line at extra testicles.
The sound of slapping and bouncing skin causes me to shrink inward. Ted seems to be putting on quite the show. Honestly, it sounds like a one-man juggling show involving best-left-covered body parts.
I’m tired of dating Teds.
And humans, they wouldn’t survive me or the world my sisters and I were thrown into.
No, in order to be with me you must have something special.
And I’m not referring to what Ted is currently playing with.
My hands slip away from my face when I sense his approach.
“In my world, I’m revered for my virility,” he says to my back.
“Mm-hmm,” I reply. I pity the packmate forced to run behind him.
Ted is either referring to his obscenely large member weres are known for (“They’re built for attracting females,” my perky sister once explained) or the extra semen sack dangling halfway down his thigh. Neither impress me and neither does Ted.
I carefully step over the second of two discarded pizza boxes and make my way toward the exit.
My steps slow as I reach the door.
I turn to me left, then to my right. Something else is here.
Dread and resentment drag their long spindly fingers across my skin and hate coats my tongue.
I’m scared and on guard, and it’s not because of Ted.
About the Author
Cecy Robson is an international and multi-award-winning author of over twenty-five character driven novels. A registered nurse of eighteen years, Cecy spends her free time creating magical worlds, heart-stopping romance, and young adult adventure. After receiving two RITA® nominations, the Maggie Award, the Award of Excellence, and a National Reader’s Choice Award nomination, you can still find Cecy laughing, crying, and cheering on her characters as she pens her next story.
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