Stacey Wright
The Merriest Misters by Timothy Janovsky
Patrick and Quinn haven't even been married a year and they can feel the cracks in their domestic life.... It's Christmas eve and Patrick has hit Santa and now he has quit. It's up to Patrick and Quinn to save Christmas and they both sign on to stay at the north pole for one year but what do you call a man who is stepping into Mrs. Claus's shoes?
This is too cute for words. A gay couple struggling in their marriage but a change of scenery doesn't really fix the issues. The book gives a rather glaring viewpoint that sometimes love isn't enough. It has a HEA so don't panic but it wasn't the ending I wanted.
I love that Patrick learned the kind of husband he was and that Quinn found a way to advocate for himself, that was super heartwarming.
I would adore christmas every day, I would love to be Mrs. Claus! The snow... well I could do without that but this book was so full of Christmas, that it sent me down a christmas book rabbit hole.
The book comes from both POV and I did prefer Quinn's tone but the book really was enjoyable. Loved the audio.
4 stars
Deja Brew by Celestine Martin
Sirena has been putting her life on hold but when she finds a wish tea in her cupboard, one her grandmother must have made, she makes a wish and goes back to the beginning of the month. Meeting Gus and their friendship blooming, Sirena realizes that her life wasn't on hold, she was holding herself back.
So cute.. too cute. Omg it was so dang adorable. It's the witchy romance I didn't know I needed! Small town - check. Opposites -check. Soul mates with HEA.. check! It's for all the fall romance you need. Well written, well paced and just perfect for any autumn day.
4 stars
The Christmas Dog Sitters By Lucy Mitchell
Rachel doesn't get the Christmas that she wanted but she got the exact Christmas she needed.
Mourning the loss of her friend Rachel is floundering and she goes to take care of her sisters huge home and her sister's dog over the holidays and it seems like a great escape. She ends up looking after her grandad and he was my favorite! Eric didn't let his age stand in the way of having some fun!
Don't get me started on the real star of the book... Humphrey the dog! The book was super sonic cute in a lot of areas and dealt with grief on a really deep and relatable level.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
4 stars
The Christmas you Found me by Sarah Morgenthaler
The ink isn't even dry on her divorce papers but her friend puts an ad in the newspaper to get Sienna a new husband. It was meant to be a joke but for Guy Maple, he is desperate enough to see if it is true. The stability would get his 4 year old daughter in stage 5 kidney failure on the transplant list.
Something in Sienna cracks wide open and they start a marriage of convenience to save a little girl who desperately needs a Christmas miracle.
The book made me cry so hard but don't worry, it has a HEA and you will feel every emotion working through you by the time you get to the end. I'm not gonna lie. A ton happens in the space of a few weeks. I love a good insta love story but this one was fast even for me.
You won't not fall in love with Guy. He literally would do anything for his daughter and he is so gentle and kind with Sienna that she doesn't know how to reconcile who her new husband is compared to the man she was married to before. Emma, his daughter will worm her way into your heart too.
This is the wholesome kind of love that every hopeless romantic dreams of and I couldn't get enough. The audio was phenomenal.
Definitely worth the read.
5 stars
Don't eat the Pie by Monique Asher
Spending the summer on an island with your new husband and his family should be fun but what do you do when your new husband's first wife died there and your daughter is seeing some strange things on the island...
I love horror so I set the bar high... This one started out not so good. I almost DNF it. I was so underwhelmed and my brain was elsewhere then BAM.... I got pulled in and that was that... I was hooked.
It did flip between different POVs and it did get a bit confusing for me at times but it did round the story out having all of them.
It was a really solid horror book once it found its footing. The story of the missing roanoke settlers and the witchcraft...wooooweeee it was one heck of a ride!
4 stars
This was a super fascinating book. I neber thought about genres in the contexts laid out in the book but I was blown away with how indepth the book really was. It is a super long audiobook and while I enjoyed the listen, the book really needs to be read with a physical copy too. I needed to make notes and you cant do that with an audiobook so I felt that hinder me just a little.
Really great subject matter but it does make me feel like a book/film can be written based on an almost mathmatical equation and kinda takes the passion away from the idea of writing but its a handy book and if you are looking at getting into writing or you are a nerd like me, grab a copy today.
4 stars
Eric Roberts with Sam Kashner - runaway train
You may not know who he is. I only do because he was in an Akon video and the Expendendables which is one of my fav action movies....
What did I get from this memoir? He isn't a good dad... He isn't a good brother but his wife must be otherworldly.
It was pretty candid and I liked that. It was a pretty interesting read. I wish I had seen more of what he had been in to get more scope of the kind of actor he is but all in all, pretty good! It's hard to give a rating for a memoir but I will give it a 4 stars
Pretty little thing by Kit Duffield
Beckett has to return home for the funeral. Both her mother and father die within a week of each other. Beckett didn't have a happy childhood and returning to a place who revered her father makes her sick to her stomach but things she had forgotten start to reemerge but a woman who claims to have been her best friend.... Isn't someone she remembers at all.
This one wasn't brilliant. I don't know but I kinda felt like the storyline missed its mark. I feel like the author let her father off with its aha moment and that didn't sit well for me. I didn't find the story very believable either and I think had the ending been different, it could have been a great thriller but it made a huge mistake at the end and I can't unsee that.
It has the atmosphere presence and the creep vibes in spades but it tried to force something I couldn't buy and that is a real shame. The stuff with her parents too.... HMMM yeah I didn't like how it unfolded. It was a shame because it could have been epic. The characters were solid and all the elements were there.
3.5 stars
I just finished The Book of Witching by C.J Cooke and here are my thoughts.
Clem's literal worst nightmare comes true when her daughter, away for the weekend with her friends, ends up in the burn unit in hospital, she is unconscious. The only people who can answer the question of what happened are either dead or missing.
Clem realizes she doesn't know her daughter like she thought she did. She is into some dark stuff and the more Clem digs, the more she learns about the reason why her daughter was in the Orkneys.... The site holds a tragic event long ago, a woman executed for witchcraft. So why was Erin drawn to the site and why, upon waking, is she only answering to the name Nyx?
I was hooked right from the word witchcraft. The book straddles two timelines. We get the book from the current day and Clem's POV and centuries ago from Alison, a mother of 2 and a healer... A woman who was accused, falsely accused, of witchcraft.
I didn't need so much of the jumping back in time. I think the book was trying to go for a balance but I would have really been hooked by more on the current day and that dang book! While I understand the story of Alison is loosely based on a real witch trial and it added some serious weight to the story, it didn't excite me the same way the Clem and Erin storyline did.
The writing was eerie as all heck and I can almost feel the atmosphere running over my skin. There was so much going on but it held it all together with serious gravitas and kept the creepy vibes going the whole way through. That is an incredible feat in itself. The characters were great, they all felt realistic and I really enjoyed the book from start to finish.
Such a great horror book. It's not in your face horror but that under your skin spooky vibes that I simply adore.
4.5 stars ( I need the audiobook of this one)
Out now! (oct 8th)
Thank you to @berkleypublishing and @netgalley for my gifted copy.
Greta by Manon Steffan Ros an audiobook
Greta is dead. The whole village is reeling. Trouble is no one really knows Greta and while the police try and piece together what happened to her, people's secrets are starting to unravel.
Shane has a secret. He and Greta were close friends. His mother cleans her parents house. He knows things he wishes he didn't know. He knows things about Greta he wishes he didn't. He may hold all the keys to what happened.
This one was really a slow one. It did a nice job of building up to quite the ending though.
Shane is a typical teenage boy who lives with his single mother. The more he hears about the case, the more things he hears he wishes he can unhear.
I enjoyed the characters and the build up as to why Greta was killed. It was a mind blowing ending and it was all very well written!
I would definitely read more from this author.
4 stars!!
The Twin by Steena Holmes
What do you do when you spend your life listening to your father treat your twin so much better than you, for a prophecy that you don't believe... Thinking you are free when your father dies just for your brother to take his place and things have escalated to the point you can't trust the one person you used to trust with your life.
It was a really weird book but I really loved how twisty and weird it was. Two albino twins, living with the idea that their father believes this crazy prophecy about them but treating them both so differently. Brynn comes to realize that her brother isn't the person she thought he was and Bryce wants Brynn to give herself over willingly. It was a huge tug-o-war for Brynn and man oh man I got the creeper chills from the whole thing!
I loved the family drama, I loved the lowkey psychological games that were going on and I loved how the book ended. So dang good!!
I really think you should give this one a try!!
4 stars
I just finished Not Exactly a small-town romance by JJ Knight on audio and here are my thoughts.
When a psychic tells Kelsey that she needs to get on the road to find her soul mate, she take the literal scenic route to bring some of the rom-com tropes she loves so much to life in hopes of meeting her true love. Her best friend Zachery joins her on the road to make sure she doesn't get into trouble.
Changing her Hollywood ways to get more small town Zachery can't help but fall more in love with her but he will stand with her even if she's looking in all the wrong directions.
It was cute. I love the small town, friends to lovers vibe that was emanating out of this book. Zachery is an actor who now works behind the scenes. He thinks he is too old for Kelsey but he cannot help his feelings but he doesn't tell her.
The characters weren't stellar. They were passable. They weren't great at conversation and they didn't rock my world but it was a really cute story and I did enjoy how they ended up together.
If you like small town with an age gap, give this one a shot
3.75 stars
The book of psychic self defense..
Game on!
Leanna and Beleta Greenway have come up wirh the kind of spiritual self help book everyone needs but most will sneer at.
You can tell the aurhors have chaotic minds.. there is a lot of bouncing around.. works for me because i am also chaotic.
This book provides a easy to understand guide on how to practically, protect yourself, clear bad energies and more.
I loved that they included plants and crystals in their book so it is a great jumping off point for you to understand what to read next.
Remember to treat others as you would want them to treat you.
4.5 stars thank you to @St. Martin's Press for the gifted copy that my husband stole
I just finished The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern and here are my musings.
Augusta Stern is just about to turn 80. When she moves into an active senior community, the last person she expected to run into is the man who broke her heart 62 years ago. She never knew what caused him to disappear from her life and marry someone else but she always wondered if the elixir she gave him all those years ago was the cause or something else that sent her life on a different trajectory.
Augusta was a badass. She followed in her fathers footsteps which is unheard of in the 1920s. She learned how to become a pharmacist which was insanity during prohibition. Her aunt had a different view on pharmacology, choosing a more herbal root to help the people of Brooklyn. Augusta gets to learn both ways. I loved how strong Augusta is but she never married or had kids because Irving... He was the one who left with her heart.
The writing was phenomenal. I was blown away with the author's ability to weave a beautiful story of love, loss and quiet strength and resilience. The story straddles two timelines. Current day and Augusta's childhood.
I loved the second chance romance. It is always so much more heartwarming when they are seniors. The ending was amazing, I totally understood what happened and why Irving left like he did. Broke my dang heart but you can see how it was an impossible situation.
The book illustrates the differences between men and women and the barriers women have had to overcome.
I also listened to the audiobook and it was absolute perfection! It was my kind of historical fiction!!
5 stars
Thank you to st martins press for my gifted copy
The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
The Bog has given the Haddesley family everything it has needed but this generation of 5 siblings seems to have done something to upset the bog as it didn't send the bog wife to birth the next generation. When middle sister Wenna comes home for the funeral of their father, she tries to free her siblings from the desolate life the bog is holding them to.
It might have been the weirdest book I have ever read. It's like a gothic family drama. Never read anything like it. It's slow. Like really slow and had it been paced a tad faster, this book would have won book of the year for me.
The characters all backwater in their views because they only know the bog. Wenna managed to leave and got married, something that wasn't allowed with their almost cultish belief. It was a bizarre book but I couldn't stop listening. If you need a family drama book with a wild storyline... This is it.
4 stars
This worked as a standalone book but it is a book 2.
I could tell. I have't read the first book and I felt like I was missing something.
It was damn good though! I would like to read book 1 now for extra context but whoo-weeeee this book had it all.
I loved the characters. I loved the whole feel of the book.
4 stars
Gaslight by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard
Fleeing a cult pregnant isn't easy, staying under the radar so they don't find you... The constant fear but when her best friend turns up at her door one day, pregnant and starving, Rebecca knows she can't turn her away but why she is there now, she knows it could be much more sinister than she is letting on.
This one was great. The writing was really good and I loved all the cult stuff. Massively creeped me out and the psychological mind F-ing that Ben was doling out to his followers made me cringe. Those poor people. Rebecca's husband irritated me a lot in the book and sometimes Rebecca wasn't written as well as I would hope but all in all, this was a cracking novel and the pace was perfect. I listened to the whole thing in one sitting.
4 stars
Book 2 focuses on Rowan's brother Lachlan and his need to get out of criminal clean ups and Lark, Sloane's best friend. Lachlan is called in to clean up a mess Lark has made. Trouble is, they take an instant dislike to each other and he throws her in the trunk which she escapes from. This causes issues from his boss but when people in Lark's family start to die and they think it's Lachlan.. She makes the decision to marry Lachlan to protect him, Sloane and her new husband. They have to fool her family to save them all.
This one was even better than the first installment. Watching Lachlan and Lark find common ground as eventual friends and then falling for each other is adorable. All the smut is at the back end of the book. They spend their time trying to figure out who is killing off Lark's family and the ending of the book was AMAZING!!
The writing is phenomenal and I listened to the audio. The narrators were excellent. Lachlan so far, is my fav brother but we still have another brother to goooo....
5 stars
Butcher and Blackbird
So we are introduced to Sloane and Rowan... Both serial killers... Both are attracted to each other and it starts a competition between the two. They are given a location once a year and they have to figure out who the serial killer is and kill them. It's dark, it's funny and smutty AF!!!!
The banter was some of the best I have seen in a long time and the idea that Sloane is a serial killer, killing other serial killers is fun. I loved watching their relationship develop into something much more than either of them ever expected.
It's more spice than I normally sign up for but it was well done and it had my temperature rising!!
I was surprised at just how good the writing was....
4.5 stars
The Specimen by Jaima Fixsen
What do you do when you need to advance science... You make the science happen.
It's 1826 and Isobel Tate is not over her son being taken and when she goes to see a collection of specimens... she is drawn to the fact one is a heart with the exact defect her son had... She secures herself into the household of the doctor who has the heart and he is also the doctor that treated her son's heart condition.. Is it a coincidence or did something sinister happen to her son?
This book was great. I really enjoyed the narration. It had the best gothic vibes in a historical fiction setting and I was here all day for that.
The characters were great and this is loosely based on a true event so it made it even more exciting. The plot was awesome, a little slow but it was worth it.
4.5 stars
We used to live here by Marcus Kliewer was heavily recommended in my horror book group on FB and I was like.. DANG I gotta try this book! Lucky for me, libby had an audio version with virtually no wait time... GAME ON
So we are introduced to Charlie and her girlfriend Eve and the house they just bought to flip. What they don't expect is for a family turning up on their doorstep asking to have a look around as Thomas, the father, used to live in the house as a child... Eve lets them in but it doesn't take long for her to wish she never opened the front door...
Things get weird when Eve lets them in, seeing things that aren;t there and they don't seem to get the hint it's time to go. Eve has issues and when Charlie goes missing.... She can't hold onto her grip on reality...
The book comes from the story of Eve and the house and cuts into old police reports and podcasts that cover Mandela effects and things changing on people with no explanations. I usually hate not knowing the why at the end of the book or what was real and what wasn't but this book... It worked for me. Not knowing if it was supernatural or if Eve lost her grip on reality.
I was creeped the F out and it was one heck of a mind F!!!! The book had such sinister undertones and the audio really took it to another level for me.
5 stars!!!
Bitter is the heart by Mina Hardy
When Tamar has to allow her abusive mother to move in with her temporarily, all the old memories resurface but the things happening now can't be explained and remembering what happened in her mothers house all those years ago... Makes her wonder just what other evils were lurking within those walls.
I really enjoyed this book. It was the right mix of horror and thriller with some excellent characters. The pace wasn't fast enough for my freaky brain but this book was fantastically scary on a whole other level. I thought all the threads came together nicely at the end and definitely a must read for the spooky season.
4.5 stars
A kidnapping in new year by Jackie White
A baby girl is stolen in broad daylight... Another woman loses her baby... A career criminal ties both of these women together... Trouble is the mother is an attorney but she isn't being honest with the police about what she knows and this could spell trouble for them all.
This one was a really unique book. The story was what really drew me in. The characters... well, none of them were easy to connect with and I usually hate that in a book but this one was so dang interesting that that didn't matter. The police parts of it were a little boring, it almost felt unnecessary but all in all, this was a well written, well paced book. It didn't really have thriller vibes for me but as a general fiction book, this one ticked a lot of boxes.
4 stars
I just finished Fall for him by Andie Burke and these are my musings.
Dylan couldn't have the worst luck. His downstairs hates him and when he causes a flood in his unit and crashes through the ceiling.... It couldn't get any worse.
Derek has had just as bad luck... he's broke after paying his sisters debts, his plumbing is why the ceiling collapsed and HOA is sniffing around.
The men come to an agreement to help each other out... begrudgingly...
UM.... Yeah the characters are too samey. Both are grumpy and their names are too similar... WHYYYYYYY WOULD YOU DO THAT!!!!!!
I needed opposites or some kind of difference. One had glasses and one didn't... that's it. It's a bit one dimensional and do not get me started on trying to figure out who's POV it was at any given moment. It was frustrating.
The story was fun and I really enjoyed it, but there wasn't a lot of structure to the book and that didn't help.
The book had chemistry in spades which really did keep me going. I also enjoyed them working together to take on the HOA lady... She was a pain in the derriere!
It was a quirky, original story and I am glad I read it. There are just a couple of problems that need to be addressed and then this book would have rocked it.
Thank You to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy. Out now ....