We’re already more than a week into April, but I thought I should still discuss my reading plans. With everything going on I am feeling like I’m in a bit of a slump, but I’m hoping April I will really tackle the books I have on my list.
My main goal for April is to get ahead on my review books so that I can then really tackle backlist books or those I have coming in. Bringing in books to ease anxiety is a real thing, I just need to get reading.
As for clearing the hoard, I kinda failed this last month. I only read three books that I have physically, and one was a re-read, so technically only two counted. Still, after the month that was March I am not too disappointed.
Here’s hoping April will be a great reading month!
Like most university students, Kim works a part-time job to make ends meet. Unlike most university students, Kim’s job is pretty cool: she’s a grim reaper, tasked with guiding souls into the afterlife.
Like most university students, Becka has a super intense crush. Unlike most university students, Becka’s crush is on a beautiful gothic angel that frequents the underworld. Of course, she doesn’t know that.
Unaware of the ghoulish drama she’s about to step into, Becka finally gathers up the courage to ask Kim on a date! But when she falls into a ghostly portal and interrupts Kim at her job, she sets off a chain of events that will pit the two of them against angry cat-dads, vengeful zombies, and perhaps even the underworld itself. But if they work together, they just might make it… and maybe even get a smooch in the bargain.
As soon as I saw this one available on kindle unlimited I wanted to pick it up since I have heard about it in the past. It follows two college girls, one of them Kim who is a part time grim reaper. She and Becka go on a number of misadventures after Becka follows her through a portal. What she thinks will allow her to ask Kim out becomes something completely different.
The first volume is full of laughs and crazy escapades as Kim and Becka try to navigate getting to know each other, their growing relationship and Kim’s job of reaping souls when it is their time. It’s light hearted and tongue in cheek. Looking at where it left off it will be interesting to see what happens to these two as well as what the Reaper’s council has in store for them.
As I said, this is currently available on kindle unlimited, so be sure to snag it if you want to read it – happy reading!
Can’t Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on the meme Waiting on Wednesday by Breaking the Spine. In this weekly post people share a book that they’re excited about being released.
This week I want to bring attention to Time of Our Lives by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund Broka. This is their 3rd book together and after reading the first two I can’t wait to get my hands on it. They’ve definitely become auto-buy authors for me. Time of Our Lives comes out on April 21st so if it sounds like something you might like be sure to pick it up!
A boy desperate to hold on, a girl ready to let go.
Fitz Holton waits in fear for the day his single mother’s early-onset Alzheimer’s starts stealing her memory. He’s vowed to stay close to home to care for her in the years to come–never mind the ridiculous college tour she’s forcing him on to visit schools where he knows he’ll never go. Juniper Ramirez is counting down the days until she can leave home, a home crowded with five younger siblings and zero privacy. Against the wishes of her tight-knit family, Juniper plans her own college tour of the East Coast with one goal: get out.
When Fitz and Juniper cross paths on their first college tour in Boston, they’re at odds from the moment they meet– while Juniper’s dying to start a new life apart for her family, Fitz faces the sacrifices he must make for his. Their relationship sparks a deep connection–in each other’s eyes, they glimpse alternate possibilities regarding the first big decision of their adult lives.
Time of Our Lives is a story of home and away, of the wonder and weight of memory, of outgrowing fears and growing into the future.
Already the first week of Camp Nanowrimo is coming to a close. Hopefully everyone who is participating is using it as an escape in these very difficult times. It’s been hit or miss with me as it is hard to get into the writing groove when you’re stressed out, but still, I feel as if I have an okay start after the week I’ve had.
My goal for this year’s camp is to get 30k words added onto my first NaNoWriMo project from a couple years ago. While I did win that year and got over 50k words, the story was far from over. I figured this was a great chance to pick it up again and work on it.
So far this month I’ve added 2,781 words to it. Less than I would have liked, but understandable and still a good starting off point. We’ll have to see how the rest of the month goes. Either way I consider it a win if I’m writing and working on it.
March was a difficult month, I’m not going to lie. While I’m not going to go into details as to exactly what I went through, let’s just say my anxiety and stress were maxxed. Still, I managed to read 22 books this month. Twelve were review books (inlcuding one print ARC), 2 were print books on my TBR and eight were on my kindle.
While I didn’t read as many physical books as I would have liked, I’m happy with the amount I read.
As to the number of books I brought in, there ended up being 12. I’ve already read two of them (Love Looks Pretty on You and Night of the Dragon though I read Night of the Dragon in April).
So that was March. It was a hard month for everyone I think, but now we’re moving forward.
No wrap up and haul would be complete without an appearance by Calypso, so here she is supervising my pictures as usual!
To save everyone she loves from imminent death, kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko gave up the final piece of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. Now she and her ragtag band of companions must make one desperate final effort to stop the Master of Demons from using the scroll to call the Great Kami Dragon and make the wish that will plunge the empire into chaos.
Shadow clan assassin Kage Tatsumi has regained control of his body and agreed to a true deal with the devil—the demon inside him, Hakaimono. They will share his body and work with Yumeko to stop a madman, and to separate Hakaimono from Tatsumi and the cursed sword that trapped the demon for nearly a millennium.
But even with their combined skills and powers, this unlikely team of heroes knows the forces of evil may be impossible to overcome. And there is another player in the battle for the scroll, a player who has been watching, waiting for the right moment to pull strings that no one even realized existed…until now.
Night of the Dragon was easily my most anticipated book of the year. I have been eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the Shadow of the Fox trilogy and HAD to know what happened to the characters. That being said, this book pretty much broke me. If Julie Kagawa has a tear quota she needs to meet, I’m pretty sure I provided what she needs.
That being said, Night of the Dragon was just as amazing as the other two books and was a fast paced, well formed conclusion. I don’t really feel like anything was left unresolved but it was certainly a difficult and emotional journey to get to the end. We follow the same characters as we have followed previously as they continue to try to defeat Genno in his quest to claim the Dragon’s Wish. There were so many twists and turns (some predictable and some out of left field) and Kagawa again succeeded in writing this book so that it reads like an anime. It is action packed and there’s never really a dull moment.
It was heartbreaking and amazing at the same time, if you have grown to love the world she has created in the first two books, be prepared to get emotional but to also love this conclusion to the trilogy.
Julie Kagawa, the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey, Blood of Eden, Talon, and Shadow of the Fox series was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.
When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.
To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full time.
Julie now lives in North Carolina with her husband, two obnoxious cats, and a pair of Australian Shepherds that have more Instagram followers than she does.
Welcome to Cat’s Café, a neighborhood coffee shop where all are welcome! Based on the popular webcomic, Cat’s Café introduces readers to the adorable denizens of this world. There’s Penguin, who has a bit of a coffee problem; Rabbit, whose anxiety sometimes overwhelms him; Axolotl, whose confidence inspires his friends; the always-supportive Cat, who provides hot drinks made with love and a supportive ear for anyone’s troubles; and many, many more. With a sensitive take on real issues and a gentle, positive outlook, Cat’s Café is about the power of acceptance, friendship, and love … and delicious cups of coffee.
Ok I won’t lie, I wanted to read this simply because of the title and the fact that there are a range of animals portrayed, including a cat and a penguin, but I’m so glad I picked it up. This collection features short comics revolving around the same group of animal characters, all with different personality traits and struggles. The central theme that connects them is that they live in the same community and frequent the same cafe (owned by Cat!).
There are tons of little discussions regarding anxiety, self confidence issues, depression and more. Each comic was a great snapshot into different situations and were full of inspiration and heartwarming messages.
In the summer of 1937, Amelia Earhart is the most famous woman in the world – a record-breaking pilot, a best-selling author, and a modern woman shattering the glass ceiling in the early days of aviation.
And then she vanishes.
In Tampa, Florida, 15-year-old Lizzie Friedlander spends her afternoons glued to her father’s radio, tapping into the enormity of a world she longs to travel. Lizzie can hardly believe her ears when she picks up a radio signal from a faraway source that sets her heart racing: “Amelia Earhart calling SOS!”
As Lizzie copies down the transmissions, it’s clear that the Amelia Earhart is not lost at sea, as the newspapers are dreading, but alive and calling for help. In a race against time, Lizzie must convince the local Coast Guard that the radio transmissions were real and that Earhart’s life hangs in the balance. But will anyone believe her?
Written for audio by David R. Gillham, the acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author of City of Women, and performed by Emily Bauer and Hilary Huber, Alone with the Stars is a breathtaking and illuminating tribute to a woman who risked her life in pursuit of new heights, and the young girl who tried desperately to save her when everything went wrong. Inspired by actual events, Alone with the Stars reveals, in riveting detail, the final moments in the life of a great heroine, whose courage changed the world forever.
I feel like this story just fell short of what it was attempting. It was an intriguing take on the Amelia Earhart and the girl who famously thought she heard some of her last transmissions, but there were points where it either didn’t go far enough, or was just a little over the top. It has huge themes regarding how women and young girls were viewed at the time, and what Amelia did to break those stereotypes.
I think a little more length and some softening of the extreme points (such as when they are talking to the Coast Guard) would have made it amazing. It was still enjoyable, but I feel it could have been better.
In the thrilling conclusion to The Undertaker’s Daughter series, THE DARKNESS WE HIDE, Doctor Rowan Dupont has been staring death in the face for so long, she’s willing to meet it for the secrets it holds. Death has followed her back to her hometown of Winchester, Tennessee, ten months ago, cloaking the walls of her family’s Victorian funeral home like a shroud. In investigating the mysterious deaths of her loved ones, Rowan has unearthed enough family secrets to bury everything she’d previously thought true. But each shocking discovery has only led to more bodies and more questions; the rabbit hole is deeper than she ever imagined.
Despite settling into a comfortable life with Police Chief Billy Brannigan, Rowan knows dangerous serial killer Julian Addington is still out there. She can’t let her guard down now. Not when she’s this close to ending it once and for all. But with a storm brewing on the horizon, she’ll get only one shot before the impending darkness takes hold, threatening to wipe away every truth she’s uncovered—and everything she holds dear.
Oh boy, this one was full of twists and turns that I didn’t expect. I had not read the other books in the series and kind of wish I had read them first. I may go back and read them even though I’ve already read this one, just so I can better understand all the nuances of the characters and story.
That being said, it was still a really enjoyable and thrilling story. There were a number of points where I was both scared to find out what was going to happen and also eagerly needing to know. I’ve only read a few of Debra Webb’s books so far, but she is quickly becoming an author whose writing I really enjoy.
I would definitely say read the rest of the series first, but I would recommend picking them up for sure!
Debra Webb is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of more than 130 novels, including reader favorites the Faces of Evil, the Colby Agency, and the Shades of Death series. With more than four million books sold in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood on a farm in Alabama. Visit Debra at www.DebraWebb.com or write to her at PO Box 176, Madison, AL 35758.
Gengineers extraordinaire! The intrepid duo of Joy (Prof. Williams) and George (Prof. Martinez) tackle challenges ranging from invasive pyromaniac knapweed to pretty poisonous pet Puppysaurs. A lighthearted romp through the future of genetic engineering.
These stories are set in a future roughly 60 years from now (approximately 2080). All of the stories feature organisms with unusual genetics. These organisms were either created intentionally for various reasons (“Sofia’s Seed Weevils”, “The Great Knapweed Round-up”, “Grandma’s Kittens”, and “Please Don’t Feed the Wildlife”) or were discovered in the wild (“Terroctopus Paxarbolis”, “The Squirrels of Snohomish County”, and “Gigantanthropus Canadensis”).
In each story, George and Joy face a genetic or environmental challenge. The challenge may be invasive plants (“Sofia’s Seed Weevils” and “The Great Knapweed Round-up”), identification or protection of rare or challenged species (“Terroctopus Paxarbolis”, “The Squirrels of Snohomish County”, and “Gigantanthropus Canadensis”), or dealing with the consequence of poorly managed genetic constructs which have escaped into the wilderness (“Grandma’s Kittens”, and “Please Don’t Feed the Wildlife”).
In each story, Joy and George are successful in resolving the issues, typically through some combination of cleverness, scientific acumen, and more than their fair share of good luck.
The stories are lighthearted and optimistic, George and Joy (and their students) have a lot of fun along the way, but nonetheless each story is grounded in real and factual challenges facing the wilderness of the future.
For the reader interested in the underlying scientific details, an Appendix is provided which clarifies the science versus the fiction in each story.
I won’t lie, I was sucked in when I heard the word “puppysaurs” and was instantly intrigued by this collection. Through the stories in this collection we follow two scientists (Joy and George) as they face different genetic dilemmas. They are often called on to identify mysterious animals or flora. The banter an friendship between the two of them is one of the best things in the collection, and really carries over from story to story.
One thing to keep in mind is that there is a lot of scientific language and sometimes the explanations are very technical, so if do not enjoy that type of writing this may not appeal to you. I absolutely ate it up since it is something I enjoy, and I loved the talk about genetic splicing as well as examination of what some of the consequences of messing with genes may be.
I really enjoyed this collection and it was wonderful to follow Joy and George through their adventures. Thanks so much to the author for reaching out to me and offering me a copy of this book!
The Wandering Wordsmith 