Swerve by Vicki Pettersson (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"It’s high summer in the Mojave Desert, and Kristine Rush and her fiancé, Daniel, are en route from Las Vegas to Lake Arrowhead, California, for the July Fourth holiday weekend. But when Daniel is abducted from a desolate rest stop, Kristine is forced to choose: return home unharmed, but never to see her fiancé again, or plunge forward into the searing desert to find him…where a killer lies in wait."

My Thoughts:

What a crazily intense way to start out my year of reading in 2018!  I picked up this book expecting a thriller but what I didn't expect was this book.  I don't even have words to describe this one really.  It was so much darker and way more intense than I could have ever guessed.  There were times that I literally had to put this book down and stop reading.  I just couldn't continue as I thought it might end up giving me nightmares.  That's how squicked out I was (not a word but you can tell what I mean by it).  Honestly, this book probably isn't for everyone which is completely okay.  I even marked my copy with a little note of warning as I'm passing it on to my sister to enjoy.  All of that to say though, it was also such a great read!  Easily a four star read and one that I won't be forgetting about anytime soon.  

One of the things that I find most surprising is that this is Pettersson's first thriller.  What a way to begin your mystery writing career!  She actually also has an urban fantasy series that I want to check out but this looks to be the one and only thriller that she has written.  I sure do wish that I had more books to look forward to!  I found this book to be very fast paced and hard to put down.  Sure there were times that I "had" to put it down but by the time I hit the halfway mark, I just couldn't stop reading.  I was at the point where I was this close to reading the ending just to make sure that everything turned out okay.  That's seriously how intense this book was!  I'm not going to say anything more because I really don't want to spoil this book for anyone.  Suffice it to say that it is the following:  crazy, dark, and thrilling to say the least!

Overall, I enjoyed this book and wish that I hadn't waited so long to read it!  It was different than I originally expected it to be but that isn't a bad thing in the slightest.  Instead I got a book that was both dark and twisted - two of my favorite things in a thriller!  I can't recommend this book to everyone as it is a bit violent to say the least and not always an easy read.  But if you want a thriller that is completely different from everything that is currently out there....then this is the book for you.  It was a pretty great way to start off my reading in the new year.  I'm going back to check out this author's other books for sure!  Recommended but be warned that this isn't a book for sensitive readers.

Bottom Line:  A dark, thrilling read!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publishers.  My apologies for waiting until now to read it!  

The Sunday Post #41 (No Sleep Edition)

"The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme"

I'm writing up this post on Saturday evening as I have a sleepover in progress for my youngest and won't be getting sleep anytime soon.  I figured now would be the perfect time to get some blogging in ahead of the game as tomorrow all I'm going to want to do is relax.  That's not going to happen but hey...a girl can always dream!  It's my youngest son's birthday today - he is eight years old.  It's entirely too crazy to think how fast the time has gone but he is a great kid who completes our crazy family.  He is having a great birthday with lots of friends to hang with for the night.  Good times for them...no sleep for me.  LOL!

Life went back to normal this week with work, overtime, practices, and more.  This is technically our "quieter" time when it comes to sports but that honestly doesn't mean too much.  My oldest has football lifting four days a week.  My daughter has softball practice two days a week and then my youngest has basketball practice one night.  That's not counting basketball games on Sunday as well.  I'm tired just typing it.  I still managed to have another great week of reading though so that's a win!  I finished two more books which puts me at six books read for the year already.  Who is this girl???  I've now read four books that count towards #COYER Winter Switch.  My goal is ten books read so I'm getting there but need to focus on reading my e-books a bit more often if I want to meet that goal.  Exercise-wise I ran once but did exercises (sit-ups, etc) two other nights so that's definitely better than last week!  I'll probably take next week off of running entirely and just focus on my other exercises instead.  But on to the books!  Here is what I finished last week:

A Whisper of Bones by Ellen Hart is book #4 read for #COYER Winter Switch.  It was an enjoyable read and has me excited to now go back to the beginning of this long running series.  Also it features a lesbian main character if you are looking to diversify your reading a bit.  I won't be sharing my thoughts on this one until February since that is closer to when this book releases.

Montana Heat: Escape to You by Jennifer Ryan was a mixed bag for me.  I enjoyed parts of it and some of it not so much.  I liked it enough that I want to read more by this author so not all bad but not all good either.  I'll try to explain it a bit better in my review.  It was a good change of pace switching to a romance after finishing a couple of mysteries though.  I'm going to try to do that more often this year!

I'm now currently reading the following:

Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley is my current print read.  I've been wanting to read this one every since I first heard about it.  I've just barely begun but I can already tell that I'm going to like it.  This is my first book by Ashley despite my having her other series on my TBR list for some time now.  Look For Me by Lisa Gardner will be my next Kindle read.  I haven't actually started reading it yet but it is definitely up next.  Two years ago I read and loved Find Me by this author (it was a top ten read for me).  This book features some of the same characters and I'm so excited to read it!  I have very high hopes for both of these books!

New Additions:

 

I've been a bit horrible this week when it comes to new books as you can see.  And this is the reason why my NetGalley ratio never seems to get any better....I just keep requesting more.  Sigh.  I think that I need #COYER to be a year long challenge at the rate that I'm going.  There are just SO MANY good books though!  And I want to read them all!  (Please know that I'm shaking my head at myself over here LOL!)

Plans for tomorrow (or today when you are reading this) include a nap for sure!  We have a basketball game to go to for my youngest and laundry to be done as always.  Other than that, I'm leaving everything off of my schedule so that I can just relax.  I'll probably try to spend as much time as possible curled up with my book because that sounds just about perfect!  In reality I will spend at least part of my day putting my house back in order.  It will be worth it though as I love to start the week with a clean (or semi-clean) house.  I'll be by to visit with all of you throughout the week!

Happy Sunday and Happy Reading!

Reading Plans 2018 (Bout of Books, 2018 Reading, and Winter's Respite)

The next Bout of Books read-a-thon is coming up and I'm super excited to join in on the fun.  I think that I've participated in this read-a-thon the last three years in a row at least.  It is always a good way to get my reading started off right in the new year!  If you haven't yet had the chance to participate in Bout of Books before now, here are the rules:

 "The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 8th and runs through Sunday, January 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 21 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team"

I would love to finish at least two books for this challenge.  Since I'm writing this post a bit earlier than usual, I'm not really for sure what I plan on reading yet.  These two are definite possibilities though as I'm hoping to read both of them this month:

It will all depend on what I actually finish reading this first week of the new year - I'll post updates on Litsy and Twitter of what books I actually end up reading during this read-a-thon.  I'm really looking forward to it though and cannot wait to begin!

I've previously talked about my TBR challenge that I'm doing in 2018 which is a personal challenge.  I'm also planning on a 2018 releases challenge (which will also be personal).  The plan is I have a list of 30 books being published in 2018 that I want to read.  For every book that I read off of this list, I'll add a new release in it's place.  Participating in both of these personal challenges will help to give my 2018 reading a variety of backlist reads along with new releases.  The best of both worlds if I do say so myself!  I will also be creating a page to list out all of my 2018 releases that I'm wanting to read if you are interested.

The final change to my 2018 reading that I'm hoping to put into place is really stretching my reading limits.  I read a TON of mysteries and thrillers last year.  I would say that the majority of the books that I read were books that were part of a series.  I'm fine with both of those things alone but I also really want to stretch myself as a reader.  I want to expand my reading horizons and that means trying new things.  It means reading more nonfiction (in 2017 I finished 3 nonfiction reads which is a pretty low number; but also a really great number for me considering there were many years where I didn't read any nonfiction books).  It also means participating in read-alongs, focusing on reading books featuring diverse characters or written by diverse authors, and just picking up books that I normally might not.  Reading different genres is also something that I want to do more of!  In the spirit of all of this, I have signed up for a read-along of the following book on Litsy:

I know absolutely nothing about this book other than it was one of the choices for the Book of the Month club.  I went ahead and put it on hold at the library anyways because this is the year where I'm going to try something different.  And for me, this is definitely outside of what I would normally read.  I'll keep you updated with the different books that I read but I'm hoping to become a much more well-rounded reader in 2018!

Finally, I'm also signing up to participate in the Winter's Respite read-a-thon which goes through the entire month of January.  There are no rules to participating besides read, read, read.  I'm planning on using this read-a-thon to help me get some quality reading done in January while also making progress on the #COYER Winter Switch challenge that I'm participating in.  I'm really hoping that month long read-a-thon will start my 2018 reading year off on the right foot with tons of great books!

Enough rambling, I'm off to get some quality reading done but let me know what your reading plans/goals are for 2018!

When Reading Plans Go Awry....

or your reading mood changes completely and this book feels like a MUST read right now.  You just have to go with it.  I'll be back to my January reading plans after this (or at least I think I will be- ha!).

I've also decided to participate in the week long, A Winter's Respite read-a-thon, that begins today.  Cruel and Unusual will be my first book for it and then I will see where my reading mood takes me.  I've participated in this read-a-thon multiple times and it is always fun.  My goal will be to finish two books this week.  

Happy Monday and Happy Reading!