Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Book Review | Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor

Seeing Things is a new horror release from Sonora Taylor.

Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor

Abby Gillman has discovered that with growing up, there comes a lot of blood. But nothing prepares her for the trail of blood she sees in the hallway after class - or the ghost she finds crammed inside an abandoned locker.

No one believes Abby, of course. She’s only seeing things. As much as Abby wants to be believed, what she wants more is to know why she can suddenly see the dead. Unfortunately, they won’t tell her. In fact, none of them will speak to her. At all.

Abby leaves for her annual summer visit to her uncle’s house with tons of questions. The visit will give her answers the ghosts won’t - but she may not like what she finds out.

Seeing Things is my third book to read by Sonora Taylor. Her previous releases Without Condition {review} and Little Paranoias {review} are favorites among the Ladies of Horror Fiction team.

I'm so happy Taylor has gifted us with a ghost story. Combining my favorite horror element (ghosts) with her storytelling really put me in my happy place with this one!

Seeing Things follows Abby Gillman as she begins "seeing things" that others claim are just her imagination. Weighing in at under 200 pages, Seeing Things is a quick read, but it packs in a full story of legends and family secrets.

I would be happy if Taylor decided to make a whole series following Abby and her family and how she copes with seeing things. I'll be reading what comes next either way.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★


Review copy provided by the author

Jennifer

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Sunday, June 21, 2020

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | June 21

Happy Father's Day, and my love to anyone who is struggling today. ❤️

This past week was a rough week for me, but it was an amazing week for the Ladies of Horror Fiction team. Each year we team up with author Steve Stred to select a grant recipient to receive $100 toward their writing goals. This year author Laurel Hightower joined in so we could offer two grants. After we made the announcement, Andrew Cull, Sonora Taylor, S.H. Cooper, Ben Walker, Cemetery Gates Media, and anonymous donors jumped in, and we now to get to select TEN grant recipients this year! The horror community is such a wonderful and generous community. I'm so happy to be a part of it.

For more information and to apply for the grant: 2020 LOHF Writers Grant

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

We also selected the book for our July group read over on Goodreads!  We are going to be reading Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas if you'd like to join in.

Posted Last Week



Finished Reading


Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor

I finished reading Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal. I'm really enjoying this series, and I hope it continues! ⭐⭐⭐💫★

I also read Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor. Ghosts! I love Sonora Taylor's writing style. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Currently Reading


Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

More ghosts! I am loving Home Before Dark by Riley Sager so far.

Recent Acquisitions


The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby The Bright Lands by John Fram

Thank you to the folks at Berkley for sending me a widget to download The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry. I have a literary thing for both ghosts and trees so my expectations are way high for this one.

Many thanks to Flatiron Books for inviting me to be on the blog tour for the release of Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby. I am highly anticipating reading this one!

And thank you to Hanover Square Press for sending me out a copy of The Bright Lands by John Fram. This will be a perfect Friday night read.

Current Distractions


Ocean's Eight Knives Out The Lighthouse Inglourious Basterds The Theory of Everything

Are we friends on Letterboxd? Since I've been regularly rating movies on Letterboxd, I'll share them here, too.

Ocean's Eight ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - I enjoyed this much more than I expected.

Knives's Out ⭐⭐⭐💫★ - This was a rewatch for me. Daniel Craig's accent was much easier to handle not in surround sound this time.

The Lighthouse ⭐💫★★★ - My apologies to everyone who enjoyed this movie. It was so not for me.

Inglourious Basterds ⭐⭐⭐★★ - I really thought I had seen this, but I hadn't. My feelings are split down the middle on this one. It's typical Tarantino.

The Theory of Everything ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This was my favorite of the week. Don't expect to learn much about Hawking's science, his work, or his methods. This is the story of the relationship between Jane Wilde and Stephen Hawking.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading (or watching) this week or leave me some links!


This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Jennifer

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Wednesday, June 17, 2020

On My Wishlist {32}

On My Wishlist is where I share a few books that have recently made it onto my wishlist. These are the books that have recently caught my eye!

Horrid by Katrina Leno
Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Horrid by Katrina Leno

From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.

Following her father's death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor's doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone...and more tormented.

As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident "bad seed," struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane's mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won't reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the "storage room" her mom has kept locked isn't for storage at all--it's a little girl's bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears....

Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more...horrid?

Any time Stephen King meets Agatha Christie I am there. You aren't keeping me away from this book.



Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling
Expected publication: September 5th 2020 by Neon Hemlock Press

Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling

Powerful shipping magnate Evelyn Perdanu lives a tight, contained life, holding herself at a distance from all who would get close to her. Her family is dead, her country is dying, and when something foul comes to the city of Delphinium, the brittle, perilous existence she's built for herself is strained to breaking.

When one of her ships arrives in dock, she counts herself lucky that it made it through the military blockades slowly strangling her city. But one by one, the crew fall ill with a mysterious sickness: an intense light in their eyes and obsessive behavior, followed by a catatonic stupor. Even as Evelyn works to exonerate her company of bringing plague into her besieged capital city, more and more cases develop, and the afflicted all share one singular obsession: her.

Panicked and paranoid, she retreats to her estate, which rests on a foundation of secrets: the deaths of her family, the poisons and cures that hasten the dissolution of the remaining upper classes, and a rebel soldier, incapacitated and held hostage in a desperate bid for information. But the afflicted are closing in on her, and bringing the attention of the law with them. Evelyn must unearth her connection to the spreading illness, and fast, before it takes root inside her home and destroys all that she has built.

I absolutely loved The Luminous Dead so I can't wait to read Yellow Jessamine!



We Hear Voices by Evie Green
Expected publication: October 6th 2020 by Berkley Books

We Hear Voices by Evie Green

An eerie debut about a little boy who recovers from a sickness and inherits an imaginary friend who makes him do violent things...

Kids have imaginary friends. Rachel knows this. So when her young son, Billy, miraculously recovers from a horrible flu that has proven fatal for many, she thinks nothing of Delfy, his new invisible friend. After all, her family is healthy and that's all that matters.

But soon Delfy is telling Billy what to do, and the boy is acting up and lashing out in ways he never has before. As Delfy's influence is growing stranger and more sinister by the day, and rising tensions threaten to tear Rachel's family apart, she clings to one purpose: to protect her children at any cost--even from themselves.

We Hear Voices is a mischievously gripping near-future horror novel that tests the fragility of family and the terrifying gray area between fear and love.

Have you read or are you planning to read any of these? What books have recently made it onto your wishlist?



This post is being shared as part of Can't-Wait Wednesday over at Wishful Endings.

Jennifer

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Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Top Ten Books on My Summer 2020 TBR

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girls comes a new twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery—until she decides to return to her mother’s hometown . . . where history has a tendency to repeat itself.

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker - she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she's swiftly packed off to live with a grandmother she's never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father's most iconic horror movie was shot.

More Better Deals by Joe R. Lansdale Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

More Better Deals by Joe R. Lansdale

Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

From a stunning new voice in fiction, BLACKTOP WASTELAND is a dazzling, operatic crime novel that holds up a cracked mirror to the American dream. The perfect page-turning read for fans of acclaimed writers such as Don Winslow, Attica Locke, Bill Beverley and Thomas Mullen.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones The Shadows by Alex North

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives.

The Shadows by Alex North

The haunting new thriller from Alex North, author of the New York Times bestseller The Whisper Man.

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne

Terminally Ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she'll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and fine a cure.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?

Do you have plans to read any of these over the summer? What books are on your summer TBR?



This post is being shared as part of Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl

Jennifer

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Monday, June 15, 2020

June 2020 Book Releases in Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Thrillers, and Non-fiction

Better late than never: these are all of the June releases I'm most excited about and hoping to read at some point.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Published June 2nd 2020 by William Morrow

The bride ‧ The plus one ‧ The best man ‧ The wedding planner ‧ The bridesmaid ‧ The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?



Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal

Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal
Published June 2nd 2020 by Tor Teen

Category Five is a new supernatural YA thriller from Ann Dávila Cardinal, set against the backdrop of a post-hurricane Puerto Rico.

After the hurricane, some see destruction and some smell blood.

The tiny island of Vieques, located just off the northeastern coast of the main island of Puerto Rico, is trying to recover after hurricane Maria, but the already battered island is now half empty. To make matters worse, as on the main island, developers have come in to buy up the land at a fraction of its worth, taking advantage of the island when it is down.

Lupe, Javier, and Marisol are back to investigate a series of murders that follow in the wake of a hurricane and in the shadow of a new supernatural threat.





Splash!: 10,000 Years of Swimming by Howard Means
Published June 2nd 2020 by Hachette Books

Choose a stroke and get paddling through the human history of swimming!

From man's first recorded dip into what's now the driest spot on earth to the splashing, sparkling pool party in your backyard, humans have been getting wet for 10,000 years. And for most of modern history, swimming has caused a ripple that touches us all--the heroes and the ordinary folk; the real and the mythic.

Splash! dives into Egypt, winds through ancient Greece and Rome, flows mostly underground through the Dark and Middle Ages (at least in Europe), and then reemerges in the wake of the Renaissance before taking its final lap at today's Olympic games. Along the way, it kicks away the idea that swimming is just about moving through water, about speed or great feats of aquatic endurance, and shows you how much more it can be. Its history offers a multi-tiered tour through religion, fashion, architecture, sanitation and public health, colonialism, segregation and integration, sexism, sexiness, guts, glory, and much, much more.

Unique and compelling, Splash! sweeps across the whole of humankind's swimming history--and just like jumping into a pool on a hot summer's day, it has fun along the way.





Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels by Hannah Ross
Published June 9th 2020 by Plume Books

A history and celebration of women's cycling--beginning with its origins as a political statement, beloved pastime, and early feminist act--that shares the stories of notable cyclists and groups around the world

More than a century after they first entered the mainstream, bicycles and the culture around them are as accessible as ever--but for women, that progress has always been a struggle to achieve, and even now the culture remains overwhelmingly male. In Revolutions, author Hannah Ross highlights the stories of extraordinary women cyclists and all-female cycling groups over time and around the world, and demonstrates both the feminist power of cycling and its present-day issues.

A cyclist herself, Ross puts a spotlight on the many incredible women and girls on bicycles from then to now--many of whom had to endure great opposition to do so, beginning in the 1880s, when the first women began setting distance records, racing competitively, and using bicycles to spread the word about women's suffrage. Revolutions also celebrates women setting records and demanding equality in competitive cycling, as well as cyclists in countries including Afghanistan, India, and Saudi Arabia who are inspiring women to take up space on the road, trails, and elsewhere.

Both a history of women's cycling and an impassioned manifesto, Revolutions challenges a male-dominated narrative that has long prevailed in cycling and celebrates the excellence of women in the culture.



Hella by David Gerrold

Hella by David Gerrold
Expected publication: June 16th 2020 by DAW

A master of science fiction introduces a world where everything is large and the problems of survival even larger in this exciting new novel.

Hella is a planet where everything is oversized—especially the ambitions of the colonists.

The trees are mile-high, the dinosaur herds are huge, and the weather is extreme—so extreme, the colonists have to migrate twice a year to escape the blistering heat of summer and the atmosphere-freezing cold of winter.

Kyle is a neuro-atypical young man, emotionally challenged, but with an implant that gives him real-time access to the colony’s computer network, making him a very misunderstood savant. When an overburdened starship arrives, he becomes the link between the established colonists and the refugees from a ravaged Earth.

The Hella colony is barely self-sufficient. Can it stand the strain of a thousand new arrivals, bringing with them the same kinds of problems they thought they were fleeing?

Despite the dangers to himself and his family, Kyle is in the middle of everything—in possession of the most dangerous secret of all. Will he be caught in a growing political conspiracy? Will his reawakened emotions overwhelm his rationality? Or will he be able to use his unique ability to prevent disaster?



Wonderland by Zoje Stage

Wonderland by Zoje Stage
Expected publication: June 16th 2020 by Mulholland Books

If Shirley Jackson wrote The Shining, it might look like this novel from the acclaimed author of Baby Teeth: A mother must become a protector when unnatural forces threaten her family's new and improved life in a rural farmhouse.

The Bennett family - artist parents and two precocious children - leave their familiar urban surroundings for a new home in far upstate New York. They're an hour from the nearest city, a mile from the nearest house, and everyone has their own room for the very first time. Shaw, the father, even gets his own painting studio, now that he and his wife Orla, a retired dancer, have agreed that it's his turn to pursue his passion.

But none of the Bennetts expect what lies waiting in the lovely woods, where secrets run dark and deep. Orla must finally find a way to communicate with - not just resist - this unknown entity that is coming to her family, calling to them from the land, in the earth, beneath the trees ... and in their minds.



Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor

Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor
Expected publication: June 23rd 2020

Abby Gillman has discovered that with growing up, there comes a lot of blood. But nothing prepares her for the trail of blood she sees in the hallway after class - or the ghost she finds crammed inside an abandoned locker.

No one believes Abby, of course. She’s only seeing things. As much as Abby wants to be believed, what she wants more is to know why she can suddenly see the dead. Unfortunately, they won’t tell her. In fact, none of them will speak to her. At all.

Abby leaves for her annual summer visit to her uncle’s house with tons of questions. The visit will give her answers the ghosts won’t - but she may not like what she finds out.



The Last Flight by Julie Clark

The Last Flight by Julie Clark
Expected publication: June 23rd 2020 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Two women. Two Flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets ― Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

The Last Flight is the story of two women ― both alone, both scared ― and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.



Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
Expected publication: June 30th 2020 by Dutton Books

What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?



I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick

I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick
Expected publication: June 30th 2020 by Margaret K. McElderry Books

This gripping thriller follows two teens whose lives become inextricably linked when one confesses to murder and the other becomes determined to uncover the real truth no matter the cost.

What happened to Zoe won't stay buried...

When Anna Cicconi arrives to the small Hamptons village of Herron Mills for a summer nanny gig, she has high hopes for a fresh start. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year's Eve. Anna bears an eerie resemblance to Zoe, and her mere presence in town stirs up still-raw feelings about the unsolved case. As Anna delves deeper into the mystery, stepping further and further into Zoe's life, she becomes increasingly convinced that she and Zoe are connected--and that she knows what happened to her.

Two months later, Zoe's body is found in a nearby lake, and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna's confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn't satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina's podcast uncover the truth?



Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Expected publication: June 30th 2020 by Del Rey

An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic artistocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . .

From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico—“fans of classic novels like Jane Eyre and Rebecca are in for a suspenseful treat” (PopSugar).
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.



The Empire of Gold (The Daevabad Trilogy #3) by S.A. Chakraborty

The Empire of Gold (The Daevabad Trilogy #3) by S.A. Chakraborty
Expected publication: June 30th 2020 by Harper Voyager

The final chapter in the bestselling, critically acclaimed Daevabad Trilogy, in which a con-woman and an idealistic djinn prince join forces to save a magical kingdom from a devastating civil war.

Daevabad has fallen.

After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.

But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.

Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.

As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt.



What June releases are you most looking forward to reading this year?

Jennifer

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Sunday, June 14, 2020

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | June 14

It's an absolutely gorgeous day, but I have to stay inside to catch up on reviews today. The summer blogging slump is real, and I'm going to fight it.

I think I'm going to go back to using half stars in my ratings. For the last year or two I've committed to not using half stars, but I've read a few books lately that felt clearly between stars so I'm thinking the half star is making a comeback.

Do you use half stars? Why or why not?

Finished Reading



I finished reading Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper. It was a lot of fun. I'll have a full review up hopefully this week! ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

I also finished listening to Alien: Rio de dolor (Alien: River of Pain) by Christopher Golden. This series has been so great to listen to. I need to find more full cast audios in Spanish. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

This week I also tore through You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. This was my first Hendrick and Pekkanen, but it definitely won't be my last. ⭐⭐⭐💫★

Currently Reading


Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal

I'm still reading and enjoying Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal.

Recent Acquisitions



Thank you so much to Sonora Taylor for sending me a copy of Seeing Things! I will be reading this one next.

Current Distractions



These are the new (to us) movies we watched this week.

I had never seen Blade Runner before and wow was it bad. I didn't learn my lesson, and I tried to rent Blade Runner 2049 the next night. It's a three hour movie, and I didn't manage to finish it before my rental time ran out. Oops! But it was a really bad movie, too.

I can't believe it took me so long to watch Midsommar. It was stomach churning, but I liked it!

I really liked Rocketman, too.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading (or watching) this week or leave me some links!


This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Jennifer

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Sunday, June 7, 2020

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | June 7

I'm sorry I missed out on posting an update and checking in last weekend. I spent the weekend at an (online) language learning conference which was really great. Since I write up all of my posts/reviews on the weekend, things have been super quiet around here. Hopefully I can catch up on things today!

Posted Last Week


On My Wishlist {31} - These are the books that have recently caught my eye.

Finished Reading


The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson Status The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson Rated

I finally finished reading The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. I think I made that one last as long as I could! AAH, that series is so good! I'm not sure I've reviewed any of them so I may have to do a series review for the first Mistborn trilogy.

5000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox Lifelong Writing Habit by Chris Fox Write to Market by Chris Fox

Is anyone interested in full reviews of writing books?

I picked up 5000 Words Per Hour after attending the Flights of Foundry conference. It's a short book without a lot of substance, but it had some great information on writing sprints that has been helpful ⭐⭐⭐⭐★.

I decided to continue on with the next book in the series Lifelong Writing Habit. There were a few more tips to keep the habit going that I found useful ⭐⭐⭐★★.

Despite knowing better just from seeing the title Write to Market, I decided I'd read book three. Yikes ⭐⭐★★★.

Currently Reading


Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal

This week I started reading Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper and Category Five by Ann Dávila Cardinal.

Recent Acquisitions


More Better Deals by Joe R. Lansdale Home Before Dark by Riley Sager Seven Devils (Seven Devils #1) by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

I keep forgetting to share books I've grabbed from NetGalley! Here are the latest:

More Better Deals by Joe R. Lansdale - Thank you Mulholland Books!

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager - Thank you Dutton Books! You will see this one again when my Book of the Month comes in.

Seven Devils (Seven Devils #1) by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May - Thank you DAW!

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

I ordered the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I'm contemplating reading them over the summer before book 4 is released.

Current Distractions


Jumanji The Next Level The Lovebirds A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Uncut Gems Shirley

These are the new movies we watched this week. The stand out was The Lovebirds. I highly recommend it!

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading this week or leave me some links!


This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Jennifer

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