It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 31st)

"It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organise yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!"

Monday, Monday!  It has been a really long time since I did a post like this.  I'm going to sound like a broken record here but it has been a poor year for me in terms of both blogging and reading.  I'm not stressing- it happens.  But I am hoping to make both of these more of a priority in 2018.  School starts this week for my oldest- he is a freshman.  Wow, where in the world has the time gone there?  It's hard to believe but I'm excited for him and this new adventure that he is beginning.  The start of school also means the beginning of football which is something I am VERY excited about.  He's been practicing at the high school all summer long but I'm so ready to go to the games.  My youngest will also be starting flag football for his 2nd year.  My daughter's next travel softball season is getting ready to begin.....I think you can already tell where the majority of my time goes!  Work is crazy as all get out - lots and lots of overtime going on and this coming month is no different.  What else?  I wrote out another book review that will be posting later this week.  I'm pretty proud of myself as this will be two weeks in a row of blogging!  I haven't posted that regularly in months.

Since my last reading update I finished the following book:

 The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal was a really great read!  I enjoyed this one immensely and will be sharing my thoughts on August 11th as part of a TLC book tour.  I've got lots of good things to say if you are curious.

I'm now reading the following:

The Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels & Other Gentlemen by Victoria Alexander - STILL but I'm finally making some good progress with this one.  It has gotten better and I'm hoping to curl up with it this week to see how it will all end.

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen - This is my current print read and FINALLY a book off of my own shelves.  I don't know that I'm really "currently reading" it as I've only read the first couple of pages but I'm definitely reading it next.  I've just been really focusing on the above book as I feel like I've been reading that one for ages.

New Additions:

With how slowly I've been reading I should be saying none here.  Sadly that never seems to be the case with me.  I've been to the library twice and have a towering stack of books checked out. Here is the latest print book to enter my house thanks to the publisher:

This is for a TLC book tour in August- it sounds great and I'm looking forward to reading it soon!  I've got NetGalley books I could share about as well but.....that is for another day. 

Happy Monday and Happy Reading!

 

Dark Saturday by Nicci French (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Thirteen years ago eighteen year old Hannah Docherty was arrested for the brutal murder of her family. It was an open and shut case and Hannah's been incarcerated in a secure hospital ever since.

When psychotherapist Frieda Klein is asked to meet Hannah and give her assessment of her she reluctantly agrees. What she finds horrifies her. Hannah has become a tragic figure, old before her time. And Frieda is haunted by the thought that Hannah might be as much of a victim as her family; that something wasn't right all those years ago.

And as Hannah's case takes hold of her, Frieda soon begins to realise that she's up against someone who'll go to any lengths to protect themselves ..."

My Thoughts:

Wow. Wow. Wow.  I have to say that this was the perfect book to read to help break this nasty reading slump I've been in lately!  I couldn't (and didn't want to) put this book down.  It is so funny how you can be struggling just to find the time or will to settle down with a book....and then you pick up the right one and it is like you never stopped reading at all.  I found myself absolutely immersed in this book and just so excited about reading in general after I finished.  I love when that happens!  I also really appreciated that it happened with this book as this is a well established series that I started right in the middle of.  Did I miss certain things from not reading the previous books?  I'm sure as there were references to other cases that Frieda was involved in.  But for me if just has me super pumped to go back to the beginning to see how it all started.  I love the fact that I have all of these other books to look forward to now.  It's a great feeling!

One of the things that I enjoyed most about this book was the premise of the story.  It was both horrifying and compelling to think about the idea of a young girl convicted of the murder of her entire family with the possibility that it was a wrongful conviction.  Add to that the setting of a psychiatric hospital and a mystery and I was basically hooked from the very beginning.  I mean how could I resist??  I really enjoyed Frieda's character.....there was just something about her that pulled me in as the reader.  I found myself intrigued by everything that has happened to her - yet another reason why I'm so excited to go back to those earlier books.  I just really enjoyed by entire reading experience with this book.  The bonus was a completely surprising ending and this book turned into a five star read for me.  I haven't had many of those this year which is why I can't say enough good things about this book!

Overall, I really loved this one and am so excited to see what other readers think about it as well.  I should have listened to my book blogging friends and started this series sooner!  I've already got the first book on my library holds list so I won't be waiting too long before I go back to the beginning.  I thought that this book was both fast paced and intense which are two of my favorite things to have in a mystery.  I would recommend this book to both mystery and thriller fans.  You can definitely do what I did and start with this book (it obviously didn't affect my reading enjoyment at all).  I do think that there are things you miss not reading in order but that just gives me an excuse to reread this one once I catch up on the rest.  Ha!  Highly recommended!

Bottom Line:  Very likely to become one of my favorites of 2017!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher as part of a TLC book tour.

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

 

The Sunday Post #30 (Summer Fun 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"

Happy Sunday everyone!  It has been awhile yet again but let's ignore that fact and catch up.  I'm working on this post later than usual as we just picked up the kiddos from their five day stay with my parents.  It was a quiet week with them gone and it is nice to have everyone home again.  They had tons of fun though swimming and boating the entire time.  My husband and I managed to watch the entire first season of American Horror Story while they were gone.  It is a very weird, dark, but strangely addictive show.  I'm sure that we will start watching the next season soon.

I don't know what my deal is this year but my reading sure is suffering.  I feel like I say this every post but I just haven't been reading (or blogging obviously) like I used to.  It doesn't stop me from going to the library and checking out huge stacks of books though.  LOL!  Some things never change on that front.  I decided though that I just need to get back into the habit of blogging and hopefully that will get my blogging mojo started up again.  I'm not sure if it will work but it is worth the shot!  I don't have much of a reading update but here is what I've recently been reading/finished:

 Dark Saturday by Nicci French - I loved this one!  Absolutely couldn't put this one down which is saying a lot as I just haven't been reading lately.  I found myself completely hooked by it all even though I started right in the middle of this series.  The best part about that is now I can go back and catch up with all of those other books.  I'm going to be writing up my thoughts on this one later today but expect lots of gushing to be involved.



I'm currently reading the following books:

The Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels & Other Gentlemen by Victoria Alexander - This is my current kindle read and it is okay so far.  I'm not hating it by any means but I'm just not sure it is what I'm in the mood for.  I'm supposed to have been reading it for a blog tour but I'm way late at this point.  I'm definitely going to work on getting some quality reading time in with it this week.

The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal is my current print read that I just started earlier this morning.  I can already tell that I'm going to enjoy this one as I sat reading in bed for way longer than I intended.  It was exactly what I needed if I'm being honest and I'm looking forward to continuing on reading this afternoon. 

Other books that I need to share my thoughts on in the near future include:

Looks like my spotty blogging has helped to create a little backlog in the review department.  I'll slowly work on catching up and getting back into the blogging groove.  Now I'm off to work on my laundry piles and also get some quality reading time in.  I'll be by reading all of your blogs later this evening! 

Happy Sunday and Happy Reading!