Tag: reading

Review | Requiem: Changing Times by R.J. Parker

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Clint and Corbin are having a weird day. Best friends for life, things are getting a little strange around their town, and at school. When they’re followed by a strange man looking for Clint and later attacked by an imp, it makes sense to retreat to the safety of home. But when strangers from another world, Banks and O’Neil, arrive with their medley of allies, things get even weirder. Why are they here? What do they want? And what is The Requiem that everyone keeps talking about? As Clint and his friends and family are drawn deeper into a thrilling adventure, only one thing is for sure. They may not be getting out alive. And class with Mrs Christenson will seem like a walk in the park after this. 

This book was quite an adventure, truth be told. At first I had a hard time seeing where it would go since there is some jumping around in the beginning, but once it got going it was hilarious, witty, fun and felt like it had a little bit of everything. I enjoyed the dialogue between characters and for the most part enjoyed the descriptions though there were a few that I had to read a couple time to make sure I was understanding them right. There is a ton of action in this book and at point it can jump around a bit, but it was a really fun read. It was definitely quirky in a lot of ways and I feel there are a lot of people who would really enjoy the adventure of reading this book. It was a solid read and great for anyone looking for an adventure with a varied cast of characters and a roller coaster of a story!

If you want to check it out it is currently out and available on Kindle Unlimited! Happy reading!

Blog Tour | Jagger by Amanda McKinney | Review

DeAnne1 Comment

Jagger: Steele Shadows Investigations
Amanda McKinney
Publication date: June 18th 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Secrets, lies, deceit… A former Navy SEAL turned homicide detective has met his match in this new *standalone* addition to the number #1 Bestselling Steele Shadows Series…

He found her covered in blood.
She promises she’s innocent.
The question is… Can he trust her?

Feared just as much on the streets as at a crime scene, Homicide Detective Max Jagger has dedicated his life to one thing—speaking for the dead. Everyone and everything else be damned, including his own demons. During one of the most oppressive heat waves to hit the small, southern town of Berry Springs, the former Navy SEAL is called to a scene where a real estate heiress is found standing over a dead body, holding the murder weapon. The local cops immediately dub it a slam-dunk case, but if Jagg has learned anything from his days running special ops, it’s that nothing is as it seems… including this suspect.

Despite her name, Sunny Harper is as beguiling as a fallen angel. Clever, cunning, completely unwilling to cooperate, and, perhaps his least favorite quality—mind-numbingly intoxicating. When evidence from the scene suggests an accomplice, Jagg begins to believe that Sunny is both innocent and in danger, despite the towns’ uproar to lock her up. Torn between his growing feelings for his suspect, he takes Sunny to a secluded lake house where he discovers there’s much more behind those enchanting green eyes… including secrets that could take them both under.

With his career on the line and the clock ticking, Jagg must decide if he can trust Sunny… before they both get burned.

Goodreads / Amazon



This is my first experience with McKinney’s writing so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the blurb sucked me in for sure. I really enjoyed how much complexity she put into characters like Jagger and Sunny and while the romance definitely wasn’t the focus, it was enjoyable. The main focus was definitely the mystery. Still, the story was packed with tension and suspense as it unfolded. The building of Jagger and Sunny’s relationship, though it wasn’t necessarily the focus, was great. All of the characters were great and the story was full of twists and turns, it was a great read!

Author Bio:

Amanda McKinney is the #1 bestselling and multi-award-winning author of more than ten steamy romantic suspense and mystery novels. She wrote her debut novel, LETHAL LEGACY, in 2017 after walking away from her career to become a writer and stay-at-home mom. Set in small, southern towns, Amanda’s books are page-turning murder mysteries packed with steamy romance.

Her books include the HOT new bestselling series, STEELE SHADOWS SECURITY, the multi-award-winning BERRY SPRINGS series and BLACK ROSE MYSTERIES.

Text AMANDABOOKS to 66866 to receive Amanda’s newsletter and get the latest on new releases, promos, and freebies!

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Bookbub


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Be sure to check out the rest of the blog tour stops here!

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Review | Cat and Cat #2: Cat Out of Water

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The adventures of Catherine and her cat, Sushi, continue in more comic escapades. To get away from it all, and get some rest and relaxation, Cat, her cat, and her dad visit the great outdoors. Being a single parent is never easy, and having a daughter such as Cat, not to mention a cat that’s also very much a part of the family, may be too much for her dad to handle no matter how much they all may love each other! Rough waters are ahead for the family of three, especially after Dad drops the bombshell: they’re moving! And we all know how much cats love water…!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one except that it would feature a playful and adventurous cat. The art style was very cute and colorful, though the chaos that was on some pages with sound/speech bubbles sometimes made it a little hard to read. I did feel that some of the pages could have benefited from traditional panels since that could provide some separation. All in all though it was full of fun adventures and scenarios that Sushi the cat and her owner Cat faced and experienced, it was heartwarming and fun.

Happy reading!

Blog Tour | That Summer in Maine | Review

DeAnne1 Comment

A novel about mothers and daughters, about taking chances, about exploding secrets and testing the boundaries of family

Years ago, during a certain summer in Maine, two young women, unaware of each other, met a charismatic man at a craft fair and each had a brief affair with him. For Jane it was a chance to bury her recent pain in raw passion and redirect her life. For Susie it was a fling that gave her troubled marriage a way forward.

Now, sixteen years later, the family lives these women have made are suddenly upended when their teenage girls meet as strangers on social media. They concoct a plan to spend the summer in Maine with the man who is their biological father. Their determination puts them on a collision course with their mothers, who must finally meet and acknowledge their shared past and join forces as they risk losing their only daughters to a man they barely know.

Buy Links | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Books-A-Million | AppleBooks | Google Play

This was my first experience reading Brianna Wolfson’s writing and I enjoyed her style overall. It was descriptive and flowed well, while also being filled with heart. I found myself feeling for many of the characters and their individual situations, even if they weren’t something I could identify with myself, it was written that well.

I felt this was really a story about families and all the different relationships and roles that different members play and how those roles can change with life events, time and changes to the family. I really enjoyed the look at how family dynamics can shift and the different emotions that can happen with those shifts. I didn’t necessarily like all of the characters, but each of their specific situations were well examined and explained.

Brianna Wolfson is a New York native living in San Francisco. Her narrative nonfiction has been featured on Medium, Upworthy and The Moth. She buys a lottery ticket every Friday.

Social Links | Author website | Goodreads

Happy reading!

Review | Rewritten by Tara Gilboy

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After learning the truth about her own fairy tale, twelve-year-old Gracie wants nothing more than to move past the terrible things author Gertrude Winters wrote about her and begin a new chapter in the real world. If only things were going as planned. On the run from the evil Queen Cassandra, the characters from Gracie’s story have all been forced to start over, but some of them cannot forget Gracie’s checkered past.

Even worse, Gracie discovers that as long as Cassandra has her magical book, the Vademecum, Gracie’s story is still being written and none of the characters are safe, including her mom and dad. In a desperate attempt to set things right, Gracie finds herself transported into another one of Gertrude’s stories—but this one is a horror story. Can Gracie face her destiny and the wild beast roaming the night, to rewrite her own story?

After thoroughly enjoying the first book, Unwritten, I definitely wanted to pick this one up when it was available. This one pulls you right back into Gracie’s story not too long after the ending of the first book, and you quickly realize the different difficulties that the group is facing and the repercussions of the events of the first book. This book really becomes a discovery and acceptance of self for Gracie as they once again come up against Cassandra.

I really enjoyed Gracie’s journey in this installment, and while I didn’t really like some other character’s behavior, Gracie did come to internally work through the pain caused by a number of things and definitely grew up a bit in the process.

Happy reading!

Review | Crown Noble

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Crown noble, the breathtaking debut by Bianca Phipps, navigates the crossroads of familial ties and forgiveness. Phipps ruminates on the ways we are shaped as humans. Is it nature or nurture? Is it fate or a happen chance? What teaches us to love our generational inheritance, no matter how harmful? Phipps takes us to the most intimate parts of family matters in hopes of underantdatning conflict as a means of overcoming. 

This poetry collection was an interesting mix for me. A lot of it is very stream of conscious style poetry, which I often enjoy. Some of those included in this collection didn’t flow for me, which can make this style quite hard to read. The content of the poems were written beautifully and had great metaphors and imagery, but the enjoyment was dampened when they became a little clunky in flow. That being said, if you enjoy poetry that really examines difficult familial relationships and how our upbringing can shape us, this has a lot of good content surrounding that.

Happy reading!

Review | Spells on Wheels

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Kate Leth and Megan Levens team up for a magical new series! Spell on Wheels!

Three young witches head out on an east coast road trip to retrieve their stolen belongings and track down the mysterious thief before he can do any damage to–or with–their possessions.

As soon as I saw the premise for this graphic novel I wanted to pick it up. I loved Claire, Jolene and Andy as they went on an adventure to get back their belongings and figure who stole so many of their belongings. What follows is a series of escapades that are like mini episodes of shows like BtVS and Charmed. I loved their antics and personalities and overall it was a really enjoyable read.

The art style was full of rich color palettes and I loved the different settings that were created. Also each of the girls had a very clear and unique style, but they fit together and worked wonderfully together. You could tell that their friendship was solid and that they would help each other in turn.

Happy reading!

Review | The Tea Dragon Tapestry by Katie O’Neill

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Join Greta and Minette once more for the heartwarming conclusion of the award-winning Tea Dragon series!

Over a year since being entrusted with Ginseng’s care, Greta still can’t chase away the cloud of mourning that hangs over the timid Tea Dragon. As she struggles to create something spectacular enough to impress a master blacksmith in search of an apprentice, she questions the true meaning of crafting, and the true meaning of caring for someone in grief. Meanwhile, Minette receives a surprise package from the monastery where she was once training to be a prophetess. Thrown into confusion about her path in life, the shy and reserved Minette finds that the more she opens her heart to others, the more clearly she can see what was always inside.

Told with the same care and charm as the previous installments of the Tea Dragon series, The Tea Dragon Tapestry welcomes old friends and new into a heartfelt story of purpose, love, and growth.

I won’t lie, I will probably read anything Katie O’Neill writes, her stories are filled with so much heart and her art style is beautiful. I really enjoyed how this installment brought all of the tea dragon stories together, but I did want more when I reached the end. I wish there was going to be more in the series/world simply because I feel like there was so much potential for more to be added to the story. Still, it was wonderful to see all of the characters again and see where they are in life and where life is taking them. While I did want more, I still loved the story overall and fell even more in love with tea dragons.

Happy reading!

Review | It’s Your Funeral

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Marnie Winters was going to turn her life around; get out of the house, make friends, no more “Miserable Old Marnie!” Everything was going to plan, but then, of course, she died. Now, Marnie’s a ghost trapped on Earth, and the only one who can help her is the overenthusiastic, alien social worker, Xel, whose job is to help ghosts “close their file” and pass on. Are you ready for a sweetly nostalgic trip through Marnie’s life, correcting mistakes and righting what once went wrong? Well sorry, this isn’t that story! Xel has a much better idea to soothe Marnie’s troubled spirit: an internship in the hopeless bureaucracy of the trans-dimensional Department of Spectral Affairs!

This new do-gooder duo has their work cut out for them in a series of hilarious mishaps and misadventures throughout the space-time continuum (but mostly in and around the office) as Marnie finds pathways through her feelings of worthlessness by helping others.

A paranormal fantasy about healing, learning to love yourself, and being OK with being not OK, It’s Your Funeral is the cosmic office comedy you’ve been dying to read!

I loved the concept of this one, featuring Marnie, who quite suddenly finds herself a ghost suddenly meeting her case worker, Xel – at the Department of Spectral Affairs. They’re struggling to find her place in the afterlife so they end up working together in the DSA.

To me, Marnie was a very unlikeable character. While I understood she was upset, angry and miserable, she was often downright mean to those who were trying to help her. There were definitely lessons learned and I loved the overall messages about healing, but I would have enjoyed it more if she was dialed back just a little bit.

I did love all of the different characters and how Marnie got to know their unique personalities. I also really loved the different settings and the art style. Each characters had different styles/colors of text bubbles, so that was great when you might not be sure who is talking. Overall the story was fun and did have a number of messages conveyed.

Happy reading!

Review | Fangs

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A new gothic romance story from the creator of the enormously popular Sarah’s Scribbles comics.

Vamp is three hundred years old but in all that time, she has never met her match. This all changes one night in a bar when she meets a charming werewolf. FANGS chronicles the humor, sweetness, and awkwardness of meeting someone perfectly suited to you but also vastly different.

As soon as I heard Sarah Anderson was coming out with something new I wanted to get my hands on it. Fangs is her typical short comic format, but this time we’re following a vampire and werewolf as they begin and grow their relationship. Many of the comics had the perfect combination of humor and heartfelt sentiments as they navigate their life together. There were as many moments that made me laugh as there were moments that made me say “awwwwww” This is a great addition to her collection of works and I look forward to seeing more from her in the future.

Happy reading!