Angelina, a voluptuous angel, and Damiano, a mischievous devil, are madly in love. But, while she does not intend to give in to temptation, he would very much like to… This is the tale of their bizarre and spicy daily life!
A sex-positive–and incredibly funny–slice of life…full of angels, devils and gags!
The collected edition of Mirka Andolfo’s Un/Sacred Vol 1 will include a bonus section with cover gallery, sketches, and other behind-the-scenes material!
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
This is definitely for mature audiences only and honestly fell a bit flat for me. It’s basically the same general situation told over and over again with the same results. The colors are super saturated and I felt like it was just too much of the same, while also being pretty intent on really pushing the narrative of the stereotypical characters. This one just wasn’t for me, I’m sure that it has its own demographic and there were certainly some humorous moments, but just not my cup of tea.
Dogs are at once among the most ordinary of animals and the most beloved by mankind. But what we may not realize is that for as long as we have loved dogs, our poets have been seriously engaged with them as well.
In this collection, English professor Duncan Wu digs into the wealth of poetry about our furry friends to show how varied and intimate our relationships with them have been over the centuries. Homer recounts how Odysseus’s loyal dog recognizes his master even after his long absence. Thomas Hardy wrote poems from a pooch’s perspective, conveying a powerful sense of dogs’ innocent and trusting nature. And a multitude of writers, from Lord Byron to Emily Dickinson, have turned to poetry to mourn the loss of beloved dogs. Rich and inviting, Dog-eared is a spellbinding collection of poetic musings about humans and dogs and what they mean to each other.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
I always enjoy poems about animals and had previously enjoyed other collections I found, so I was excited to see this one pop up. I really enjoyed the biographical information about each author and the animals that they had in their lives, but I was somewhat disappointed when a good number of the poems weren’t necessarily about dogs, and maybe had only a few lines or a mention of dogs. I was really hoping all of them would have dogs as the central subject, but I did enjoy the variance between styles and subjects overall.
Link by Link: An Anthology of Haunted Holidays
Publication date: December 2nd 2020
Genres: Holiday, Paranormal, Supernatural, Young Adult
“‘I wear the chain I forged in life,’ replied the Ghost. ‘I made it link by link…’”-Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Link by Link is a collection of 9 stories of ghosts, spirits, and creatures unnamed, all come to teach lessons we won’t soon forget. From sweet Christmas tales to terrifying holiday hauntings, these stories take a dive into the past in the hopes of creating a better—or at least different—future.
In this hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel perfect for fans of Fleabag, a woman struggling to move on after a traumatic relationship pretends to be “the perfect girl” in an act of vengeance that goes awry when she finds herself emotionally compromised.
He said he was looking for a ‘partner in crime’ which everyone knows is shorthand for ‘a woman who isn’t real’.
April is kind, pretty, and relatively normal – yet she can’t seem to get past date five. Every time she thinks she’s found someone to trust, they reveal themselves to be awful, leaving her heartbroken. And angry. Until she realizes that what men are really looking for is Gretel.
Gretel is perfect – beautiful but low maintenance, sweet but never clingy, sexy but not a slut. She’s a Regular Everyday Manic Pixie Dream Girl Next Door With No Problems.
When April starts pretending to be Gretel, dating becomes much more fun – especially once she reels in the unsuspecting Joshua. Finally, April is the one in control, but can she control her own feelings? And as she and Joshua grow closer, how long will she be able to keep pretending?
This is my first experience reading a book from Holly Bourne and overall I did find it to be an emotional and impactful read. The absolute win for this book was how April was written and the glimpses we got into her psyche and how she worked through things. Did she always take the right path or do the right thing? No, but who does. Since this is the first time I’ve read anything by Bourne I can’t speak to how alike it is to her other books, but the writing style was easy to get into and flowed really well in my opinion.
Be aware that there are definite trigger warnings for sexual assault, rape and doubting self worth. It is an emotional story and while there is definitely a lot of humor thrown in, I wouldn’t necessarily call it light hearted or a light read. It definitely is tackling a number of issues that can be triggering to people, or may be more on the emotional side for people, so know that going in.
Overall I did feel it was an important story to tell, if at times hard to confront, and did enjoy the reading experience. In the times we are in it is a good story for when you are wanting to examine things that are happening in current society, and how someone who is healing from assault (as well as other lifelong issues) can come back from that and continue to live their lives.
Holly Bourne is a bestselling UK-based YA and Adult Fiction author and is an Ambassador for Women’s Aid. In 2019, she was an Author of the Day at the London Book Fair, and was named by Elle Magazine’s weekly podcast as one of “Six Female Authors Changing the Conversation in 2019”. Pretending is her US debut.
Can you believe it is already November 30th? This month has flown by, which is both a good and bad thing when you think about it. With that said…I have something to share with you all.
That’s right, I did it. I feel like last year’s curse has ended, as have those I suffered through both sessions of Camp NaNoWriMo. I hit 50k way too late (too early?) but once I noticed I was within 1000 words of goal last night I couldn’t stop.
My story isn’t done, but it’s close – still I’m so happy that I managed to win this year. How’s everyone else doing? Where I am there are still a little over four hours left in the day – are you still heading towards goal?
Tis the season…for a second shot at love. Could a fake boyfriend be her real hero this Christmas?
When her ex-fiancé shows up at her shop—engaged to her sister!—dress designer Hannah Carpenter doesn’t know what to do. Especially when her former fling Russell Danielson sees her plight and rides to the rescue, offering a fake relationship to foil her rude relations. The thing is, there’s nothing fake about his kiss… But when things get real, will the sexy soldier once again stop short of commitment?
I’m definitely in the mood for sweet Christmas stories, especially romances, right now and this one perfectly hit the spot. The pacing was good and the writing flowed really well so that this story just flew by. I did enjoy the characters and the progression that happened throughout the story with their own personal issues and growth over the span of the story. I really enjoyed Russell and Hannah as a couple and felt like everyone felt realistic and well developed.
Kathy Douglass came by her love of reading naturally – both of her parents were readers. She would finish one book and pick up another. Then she attended law school and traded romances for legal opinions. After the birth of her two children, her love of reading turned into a love of writing. Kathy now spends her days writing the small town contemporary novels she enjoys reading. Kathy loves to hear from her readers and can be found on Facebook.
Well everyone, here we are – the last three days of #NaNoWriMo! While there are a lot of people who have already hit 50k, for some of us this is the final push.
As of right now I’m sitting at 45,729 and plan on having another writing session tonight. I’m hoping that I might be able to hit 50k tonight if I really get going – but if not would like to hit it tomorrow. That way the last day can be mostly relaxed – even though I know I will write something just so I can get that “write every day” badge.
This year’s NaNoWriMo has definitely gone better than last year even though I’ve had to be kind to myself on the days I could only write a few hundred words because there simply wasn’t time in my days. Still, I’m super excited to be close to goal and actually completing this year. In a year of difficulties this at least has gone well.
How is everyone else doing? Are you going to win this year?
I’ve taken a break from doing monthly reading plans and TBRs because 2020 has not been conducive to my reading habits. I had a number of months where my anxiety and stress were so bad that it threw me into a major slump.
Well, I’ve decided it’s time for them to come back! This is for a number of reasons – firstly because I like having some kind of plans, but also because I really want to tackle my ‘backlist’ and have something outside of review books.
I’ve been seeing a ton of TBR games floating around on booktube and thought some of them looked so fun and I decided that the best one for me to try would be using a deck of cards to determine my TBR. This is in no way an original idea, I saw versions of this on both Maddi’s and April’s channels. So using the same premise I came up with my own version.
On my board I have 36 total prompts which may get re-organized after a while but for now will be kept the same. There are 15 genre specific prompts, 13 more random or combo prompts and then 8 duplicates (4 from genres and 4 from random).
I then picked out prompts for what would happen if I drew the face cards or an ace. For Jack I have to read a book under 300 pages, Queens result in Calypso picking a book, King would be a book selected from a stack of 5 books that Rich has pre-selected (you can see post-its for these on the bottom right of the board) and an Ace would be a book over 500 pages. Rich and I mutually agreed that I can only draw one Ace per month. I also decided to start with selecting six – if it’s more than I can handle I will decrease it, but otherwise I’m going to stick with it. I’m also not going to give myself a punishment if I don’t complete everything (maybe in the future, but for now I want to enjoy the experience).
After helping me figure out everything and helping me make my board, Rich was just as excited as I was to select things for my December TBR – so we did it right away – here’s what happened!
7 of hearts – Mom pick
4 of hearts – Random Color Generator
2 of diamonds – Middle Grade
5 of diamonds – YA
Queen of clubs – Calypso pick
7 of clubs – Contemporary
Hilariously, right after I called my mom and asked her if she was alright with there being a ‘mom pick’ it was the first one I ended up drawing – I read her the titles of five books and she picked Harrow Lake.
For random color I did a random color generator and got a pinkish tone, this one took me a while to find one that fitted, but finally I came up with Throne of Fire having a very similar color throughout its cover.
For middle grade I immediately pulled Dead Voices off of the stack sitting right behind me because I need to read it. For YA I selected one I already have a bookmark in, which is The Silence of Bones.
For Calypso’s pick I presented her with three options and let her see me putting a treat on each of them. Her decision was swift and final, The Last Final Girl it is.
And finally I came to contemporary, this one was another easy pick of one I already have a bookmark in and desperately want to get to – I Believe in a Thing Called Love.
So there you have it, this is my December TBR (besides review books) and we’ll see how I like this new TBR game that I’m trying – I’m super excited! What do you think of TBR games or the rules I have set myself?
Hey everyone! I hope you all are staying safe wherever you are. I know many people are not able to gather with friends or family this Thanksgiving and that’s definitely hard. Whatever you are able to do I hope that you stay safe and are able to at least connect with those you love.
Whatever you end up doing, please stay safe. I know 2020 has been a pretty bad year for most people, what with it never giving us a moment to breathe – but I am hopeful that 2021 will see things improving. I have some exciting plans coming up that I hope to share with you all soon.
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.
Today I want to talk about the next book out by Joan He – The Ones We’re Meant to Find. Not only does the premise sound amazing, but Joan is a wonderful person. She’s been going through a horrible time with her previous publisher regarding her last book, so if you could support her by placing a pre-order for this book if it sounds up your alley – I recommend it!
Cee awoke on an abandoned island three years ago. With no idea of how she was marooned, she only has a rickety house, an old android, and a single memory: she has a sister, and Cee needs to find her.
STEM prodigy Kasey wants escape from the science and home she once trusted. The eco-city—Earth’s last unpolluted place—is meant to be sanctuary for those committed to planetary protection, but it’s populated by people willing to do anything for refuge, even lie. Now, she’ll have to decide if she’s ready to use science to help humanity, even though it failed the people who mattered most.
The Wandering Wordsmith 