Kindle Deals | 2/28

Hey everyone! Thought I would finish out the month by finding some great kindle deals. As always make sure to double check the prices before buying as they may have changed or be different in your area. Enjoy!

A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope ($2.99) – Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels: the heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn shine brightly. You will never forget them.

Gods of Jade and Shadow ($2.99) – The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. 

Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.

In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

Cinderella is Dead ($1.99) – It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.

Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . .

This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.

Happy reading!

March TBR | Reading Plans

How is it already the end of February?! I know it’s the shortest month, but it went by SUPER fast. Still, I find that when I get towards the end of the month I’m really excited to draw my cards to figure out my stack of six books that I put on my TBR. As a refresher I did take inspiration for this from others, but made the rules my own. If I don’t complete the books I don’t punish myself, I’m simply using this as a fun way to try and tackle my (mostly) physical TBR. Any books not finished do get carried over and I can pick them up in following months if I am in the mood to.

With that, here’s how March’s cards came out:

2 of Spades – Kindle + YA
9 of Clubs – Anthologies
5 of Diamonds – YA
10 of Hearts – Historical
9 of Spades – YA + Color
7 of Clubs – Contemporary

For the first challenge I browsed my Kindle for something that was calling to me and decided to finally finish A Tyranny of Petticoats, which has been on my currently reading shelf longer than I would like to admit. The anthology I grabbed from my stack is Color Between the Lines which I’m super excited for.

Next I decided to go with Pet for my YA pick since it’s something I picked up recently and want to pick up sooner rather than later. Historical is a hard category with me and I’ve pretty much decided I’m going to switch out the Historical prompts for something else in the future – I just don’t have enough books to choose from for this prompt. My pick is definitely stretching it, The Saturday Night Ghost Club – but I decided it counted since it’s set in the 80s.

For YA + Color I turned to the random color generator and came up with a very unique mustard yellow/gold color. For this one I had some difficulties, but my boyfriend agreed that the balloons on 10 Blind Dates were close enough to count.

Again, the last choice was a stretch – when I pick Contemporary I don’t necessarily need contemporary to be the main focus, I just consider it something set in the contemporary setting, so because I wanted something a bit spooky in my TBR I went with The Haunted since people do have it shelved as contemporary on Goodreads (hey! my game, my rules haha).

So those are my plans for March (besides review books and mood reading) and I’m excited. Hopefully I’ll make my way through them!

Happy reading!

Review | Waiting on a Bright Moon by JY Yang

Xin is an ansible, using her song magic to connect the originworld of the Imperial Authority and its far-flung colonies— a role that is forced upon magically-gifted women “of a certain closeness”. When a dead body comes through her portal at a time of growing rebellion, Xin is drawn deep into a station-wide conspiracy along with Ouyang Suqing, one of the station’s mysterious, high-ranking starmages.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I really enjoyed the glimpse of the world that Waiting on a Bright Moon introduced us to, but I did find myself wishing there was backstory and more depth to some of the characters. As a snippet into another world this was a good taste and introduced integral characters to the main plot point. The writing style was really lyrical and immersive, which was beautiful to read. I just wanted more from this one and could see a whole novel built on some of these characters or their back stories.

Happy reading!

Blog Tour | The Vineyard at Painted Moon by Susan Mallery

MacKenzie Dienes’s life isn’t perfect, but it’s as close as she could ever hope to get. Her marriage to Rhys, her best friend’s brother, is more friendship than true love. But passion is highly overrated, right? And she loves her job as the winemaker at Bel Apres, her in-laws’ vineyard. So what if it’s a family business and, even after decades of marriage and incredible professional success, she’s still barred from the family business meetings? It’s all enough…until one last night spent together leads to an incredibly honest—and painful—conversation. Rhys suggests that they divorce. They haven’t had a marriage in a long time and, while he wants her to keep her job at Bel Apres, he doesn’t think they should be married any longer. Shocked, MacKenzie reels at the prospect of losing the only family she’s ever really known…even though she knows deep in her heart that Rhys is right.

But when MacKenzie discovers she’s pregnant, walking away to begin a new life isn’t so easy. She never could have anticipated the changes it would bring to the relationships she cherishes most: her relationship with Barbara, her mother-in-law and partner at Bel Apres, Stephanie, her sister-in-law and best friend, and Bel Apres, the company she’s worked so hard to put on the map.

MacKenzie has always dreamed of creating a vineyard of her own, a chance to leave a legacy for her unborn child. So when the opportunity arises, she jumps at it and builds the Vineyard at Painted Moon. But following her dreams will come at a high price—one that MacKenzie isn’t so sure she’s willing to pay…

Buy Links | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro.fm | Books-A-Million | Target | Walmart | Kobo | AppleBooks | Google Play

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The more I read of Susan Mallery’s writing the more I enjoy it, I’m definitely thinking I’m going to need to pick up more of her books when I’m looking for chick lit. This book really covers the transitive nature of life and truly coming into your own when you discover that what you have may not really be what you need. Even though it was hard at times I really enjoyed Mackenzie’s journey as she found herself after the loss of her marriage and presumed place. It was interesting to see how relationships and actions towards her changed once her marriage ended, but also heartbreaking in some ways. This book will make you feel a wide range of emotions as you follow along with her story.

#1 NYT bestselling author Susan Mallery writes heartwarming, humorous novels about the relationships that define our lives―family, friendship, romance. She’s known for putting nuanced characters in emotional situations that surprise readers to laughter. Beloved by millions, her books have been translated into 28 languages. Susan lives in Washington with her husband, two cats, and a small poodle with delusions of grandeur. Visit her at SusanMallery.com.

Happy reading!

Can’t Wait Wednesday | 2/24

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.

Ever since I heard of this one I’ve been wanting to check it out. It comes out in March and sounds amazing!

The haunting and poignant story of a how a young Japanese girl’s understanding of the historic and tragic bombing of Hiroshima is transformed by a memorial lantern-floating ceremony.

Twelve-year-old Nozomi lives in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. She wasn’t even born when the bombing of Hiroshima took place. Every year Nozomi joins her family at the lantern-floating ceremony to honor those lost in the bombing. People write the names of their deceased loved ones along with messages of peace, on paper lanterns and set them afloat on the river. This year Nozomi realizes that her mother always releases one lantern with no name. She begins to ask questions, and when complicated stories of loss and loneliness unfold, Nozomi and her friends come up with a creative way to share their loved ones’ experiences. By opening people’s eyes to the struggles they all keep hidden, the project teaches the entire community new ways to show compassion.

Soul Lanterns is an honest exploration of what happened on August 6, 1945, and offers readers a glimpse not only into the rich cultural history of Japan but also into the intimate lives of those who recognize–better than most–the urgent need for peace. 

Happy reading!

Review | The Secret Loves of Geeks

Cartoonists and professional geeks tell their intimate, heartbreaking, and inspiring stories about love, sex and dating in this comics and prose anthology, a follow-up to 2016 best-seller The Secret Loves of Geek Girls.

Featuring work by Margaret Atwood (Hag-Seed), Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy), Dana Simpson (Phoebe and Her Unicorn), Cecil Castellucci (Soupy Leaves Home), Gabby Rivera (America), Valentine De Landro (Bitch Planet), Amy Chu (Poison Ivy), Sfe R. Monster (Beyond: A queer comics anthology), Michael Walsh (Secret Avengers), and many more.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

After reading previous books in this group, namely The Secret Loves of Geek Girls, I was excited to pick this one up. I did really enjoy the inclusivity and diversity included in this book and found many of the stories enlightening and interesting, while others were full of humor or deep thoughts. I did enjoy the other collections a little more, just because they did see more cohesive to me, but that’s not to say this one doesn’t belong with them. It includes stories and comics that are going to speak differently to different people and is an important inclusion in the ‘series’ (for lack of a better word). I do love collections like this because you get exposed to different writing styles, voices and in this case, art styles while also opening up conversations and sharing experiences.

Happy reading!

Blitz | Holiday Fakeout

Holiday Fakeout
Publication date: October 19th 2021
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Desperate for a *fake* date for the holidays? Oh Joy and Cheers! We’ve got you covered with 22 holiday tales to heat up your season!

Travel from small towns to cosmopolitan cities, snow covered mountains to gorgeous mansions. You’ll meet sexy billionaires, brainy tech gods, buff journalists, sinfully cocky athletes, and sizzling hot chefs. They’re naughty and nice (and everything in between) and they’re enough to fulfill any romantic fantasies.

These 22 swoon-worthy heroes are ready to be your plus-one at holiday events, from Christmas weddings to Chanukah and Kwanza celebrations. Each starts out as a charade, and though they might lie to family, friends, or co-workers, they won’t be able to fool themselves when a very real romance develops.

Escape into addictive tales of second chances, new beginnings, secret crushes, friends to lovers, love triangles, and forbidden rendezvous. Throw in a mix of suspense, laughs, passion, and temptation, and your holidays are set.

Download HOLIDAY FAKEOUT now to get your Christmashanakwanzika season started. The tingles, butterflies, and swoons brought on by these sweet and scorching stories will have you wondering which book boyfriend you should bring home for the holidays.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo


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Review | Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

Allie Brosh returns with a new collection of comedic, autobiographical, and illustrated essays.

Solutions and Other Problems includes humorous stories from Allie Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life.

This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features all-new material with more than 1,600 pieces of art.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’ve followed some of Brosh’s work for years and was excited to see that she came out with her second book. The way she tackles hard topics with her usual sense of reasoning and also humor. It’s exactly the brand of humor I like and is totally relateable. With this book there are definite trigger warnings for grief, depression, anxiety and death of a loved one. She rehashes what she went through during some traumatic events in her life, which happened in some of the years she was absent. She also recounts tales from her childhood and other parts of her adult life. It’s not always cheerful but is always brutally honest.

Solutions and Other Problems definitely tackles not only the traumatic experiences she went through but also the awkwardness that comes with being a human in general and not knowing how to cope or continue with everything, but knowing you have to find a way to.

Happy reading!

Review | Star-Crossed!! Vol 1 by Junko

From the creator of the hit manga and anime Kiss Him, Not Me! comes another off-the-wall, geeky shojo comedy! A series of mixups leads to God misplacing the souls of a girl and the handsome idol singer she adores–in each other’s bodies! And they can switch back and forth by…kissing?!

DIVINE INTERVENTION

Has a concert ever changed your life? Azusa adores Chika-kun, the cutest and most popular star in the idol group Prince 4 U, and she’s thrilled to get front-row seats to his latest show. She would do anything for him. So when a stage light falls, Azusa leaps onstage and…fails to save Chika’s life. The two are off to heaven, where God gives them a second chance—except a mixup resurrects Azusa in Chika’s body, and vice versa! What on Earth could be in store for this odd couple of pampered celeb and drooling fangirl?!

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I won’t lie, as soon as I saw this contained the switched bodies trope, I wanted to check it out. When it was a fan and their idol, that was sure to add some hilarity. I have seen stories similar to this in the past, but this still had a lot of hilarious moments and mishaps. I feel it was a good introduction to the characters and snippets of their personalities, but I think it was just a surface layer in some ways. I hope that future volumes will expand more on their pasts and what has shaped their personalities, as well as a possible love story between them. I did find this first volume enjoyable and would be interested in checking out future volumes.

Happy reading!

Cover Reveal | I Put a Spell On You by Sarah Vance-Tompkins

I Put a Spell On You
Sarah Vance-Tompkins
Publication date: March 23rd 2021
Genres: Adult, Fairy Tales

A novice fairy godmother falls in love with Prince Charming. What could possibly go wrong?

AVIANA WILLOWBROOK has no idea that her mother is a living legend until the day the tattered old copy of “The Fairy Godmother’s Rulebook” arrives in the mail on her twenty-first birthday. Estranged from her mom, and living in Beverly Hills with her father, her stepmother and two super-achieving stepsisters, Aviana is unhappy and directionless.

Hotel heir and tech billionaire, NASH NOLAN doesn’t know Aviana exists until the day she transforms into a fairy godmother. The chick with the phobia about being pecked to death by a pack of winged creatures suddenly has a pair of unruly wings of her own to deal with. As if that isn’t enough, Aviana’s first assignment is to spark a romance between her wicked stepsister and the tall and handsome tech billionaire who’s been her crush forever.

Will Aviana use her powers to help her wicked stepsister find happiness, or will she use her pixie dust to make sure Nash is destined to be hers?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo


Author Bio:

Sarah Vance-Tompkins received an MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California, and went on to work in feature film development in Hollywood. Prior to film school, she wrote and produced radio and television commercials. She grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan, and now lives in Southern California with her husband and a glaring of unruly cats.

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