Friday, April 28, 2023
Little Free Library Sightings
Monday, April 24, 2023
Michele's Monday Picks #13
By Harper St. George
Expected Publication: May 23, 2023
From Goodreads:
A scandalous
arrangement between a London rogue and an American duchess leads to
lavish stakes.
Despite her illustrious title, Camille,
Duchess of Hereford, remains what she has always been—a pariah.
Though her title means she’s technically accepted by London
Society, the rebellious widow with her burgeoning interest in the
suffrage movement and her American ways isn’t exactly high on every
hostess’s guest list. But Camille starts to wonder if being an
outcast is not without its perks when the tantalizing answer to her
secret fear appears in the shape of Jacob Thorne, the illegitimate
son of an earl and co-owner of London’s infamous Montague
Club.
Jacob is used to making deals with his club
members—he’s just not accustomed to them being beautiful women.
Nor have the terms ever been so sweetly seductive as Camille’s
shocking proposition. To finally buy his own club and gain the
crucial backing of investors, Camille offers Jacob the respectability
of a fake engagement with a duchess. In return, the tempting widow
has one condition: she wants Jacob to show her if it’s possible for
her to experience pleasure in bed.
The lure of such a
bargain proves too delicious to resist, drawing the enterprising
rogue and the wallflower duchess into a scandalous game and an even
more dangerous gamble of the heart.
This series has been such a treat - do you think you’ll be picking this one up?
Friday, April 21, 2023
Quick Reviews
Daisy Darker and her family reunite at her grandmother's house for her 80th birthday, but over the course of one night, Nana and several other family members are murdered. The remaining members have to face their pasts and long-held secrets in order to survive. First, I kind of accidentally spoiled one of the big twists of the book for myself, which I highly advise against - I would love to know how I would have read the book differently had I known. Also, the blurb references Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which is a total spoiler for another twist, so I was disappointed in that. I thought the book was a bit overwritten at times - Daisy is constantly spitting out these flowery, cliched statements - but the back and forth between past and present was very intriguing, as we find out more about Daisy's childhood and her relationship with her family. I haven't read a thriller in a while, and this was a decent one to start with. The setting, this crumbling estate that you can only reach during certain tides, was pretty incredible! 3.5 stars
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Spectacular
New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis transports us back to 1950s Manhattan and the glamorous Radio City Music Hall. . . .
New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion is over the moon to have been selected to be one of the Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall’s glamorous precision-dancing troupe. It’s an honor to perform in the world’s most spectacular theater, an art deco masterpiece. But with four shows a day as well as grueling rehearsals, not to mention exacting standards of perfection to live up to, Marion quickly realizes that the life of a Rockette has both extraordinary highs and devastating lows.
Then one night a bomb explodes in the theater. It’s only the latest in a string of explosions around the city orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the "Big Apple Bomber." They have been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police, at Marion’s urging, turn in desperation to a radical new technique: psychological profiling.
As Marion finds herself pulled deeper into the investigation, she realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. But she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most. - from Goodreads
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Top Ten Tuesday: Jigsaw Puzzles
Friday, April 14, 2023
Fiction/Nonfiction Quick Reviews: The Bling Edition
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Top Ten Tuesday: I Love You Beary Much
Monday, April 10, 2023
Michele's Monday Picks #12
By Rebecca Yarros
Expected publication: May 2, 2023
From Goodreads:
Enter the
brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA
Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-year-old
Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a
quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also
known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the
hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre:
dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than
everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat
away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They
incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than
cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of
success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s
daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless
wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every
edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet,
with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the
kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues
to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a
terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at
Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there
are only two ways out: graduate or die.
I have really loved Rebecca’s contemporary romances and am so excited to see her branch out into fantasy!
Do you think you’ll be picking this one up?
Friday, April 7, 2023
Quick Reviews
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Top Ten Tuesday: Indie Authors
Indie authors are such a gem to the publishing industry. There are some really great talents out there and they tend to have such great interaction with their readers. I read a lot of indie authors and I’ll try to narrow down my top ten!
Penny Reid – author of the beloved series Knitting in the City and the Winston Brothers. She also has her own publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance.
Melanie Harlow – Small town romance in series such Cloverleigh Farms and Bellamy Creek.
Devney Perry – Small town romance almost exclusively set in Montana.