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!

#COYER Summer Reading List!! (My Reading List)

I was just saying how much I needed the next #COYER challenge and here it is!  Serendipity!  This time around they are changing it up with two different options.  The first one is to just read and everything counts.  I love the sound of that because really that is exactly what I need the most.  To just read, read, read!  The second option is to create a summer reading list of 30 books to read from.  This completely appeals to the list making side of me who just can't resist coming up with a pile of books (despite the fact that I rarely ever follow through on these types of things).  Oh heck, I'm going to create that list- you guys should know that by now.  LOL!  I'll count it a success no matter what as long as I really do get some reading done. 

My summer reading list is going to include the following books (which I will create a page for as well):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow - that's a lot of books to get through!  I love a good challenge though.  The best part is if I read five books off this list - I can add five more.  So if I need a little more romance added to the pile, there is that possibility to help with my reading moods.  I picked only e-books which is obviously not the only way I read.  I will count the print books towards the first part of the challenge but I would really like to focus on the summer reading list as much as possible.  I can't wait to begin!

Are you participating in the #COYER summer reading challenge?  Let me know if you are so we can support each other in having a bookish summer!  Happy Reading!

The Sunday Post #26 (Blogging Break 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 since I last posted.  It has been pretty darn busy as of late and it isn't going to end any time soon.  Reality is starting to set in as my oldest gets ready to graduate from eighth grade in a little over a week.  I say this all the time it feels like, but I cannot believe that he is going into high school already.  He is lifting for high school football after school four days a week.  My daughter's softball is going strong as well.  We have tournaments about every other weekend.  She has improved so much this season - it has been a joy to watch!  The youngest is also very busy with his baseball season.  Soccer ended  for him which was a bit of a relief....so many practices and games with all of this going on!  I'm not complaining though as my husband and I love every minute of watching them play.  But this is why I am largely absent from the blogging world.  My weekends are filled and if they aren't I'm just playing catch up with everything.  I've toyed with shutting the blog down but I just can't do it.  Who else would I talk books with?  Maybe I will be a very spotty blogger for awhile but I will still be here.  I read all of your blogs even if I don't comment that often.  I am taking the rest of this month off.  I have a quiet Sunday planned for today and I'm going to work on scheduling some posts out for next month.  That seems to work best for me so I'm going to try working on June's posts and count this month as a loss.  It happens!

My reading has slowed down to a trickle.  I don't know what my deal is lately but I sure haven't been reading like I usually do.  I think I'm at least ten books behind on my Goodread's challenge.  I'm not stressing though- it is what it is at this point.  At least it means that I'm not as far behind on writing up reviews as I usually am.  So there is a positive!  I'm currently in the middle of three separate books:

Love & Death in Burgundy by Susan C. Shea is one that I've just barely begun.  I'm reading it mainly on my phone but it is my current kindle read.  The publicist emailed me about this one and I liked the sound of it so I couldn't resist downloading it.  It's too early to tell you much more than that other than I'm loving the French setting.

Midnight Rescue by Elle Kennedy is my current print read and a library book.  In the hopes of jump starting my reading, I decided that I would read whatever I wanted to in May.  No "must reads" or anything like that.  I've gotten this book from the library multiple times but finally decided to give it a try.  I'm about 3/4th's of the way through and just haven't sat down and finished it.  Which I really need to do already!  I'm enjoying it for the most part although the subject matter isn't always to read about.  Honestly, that is part of the reason why I still haven't finished as I'm a bit nervous for what is to come.

Locked In by Kerry Wilkinson is also a print read and one that I bought awhile back but am just now finally reading.  I'm about halfway through this one but kind of stalled out on it.  I plan to go back to it as it is good....I'm just being a really moody reader right now.  It happens and I didn't want to force myself to read as this just turns into a reading slump.

New Additions:

Apparently even when I'm not reading I'm quite capable of downloading books from NetGalley.  Sigh....I sure hope the next #COYER challenge is going to be starting up soon.  I'm definitely going to need it.  I'm really hoping that I can turn my reading troubles around pretty soon.  I find that I stress a lot more when I don't read as much.  I'm off to go work on my laundry piles to get this week started off right.  I hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend.  I'll see you in June!

Happy Reading!

Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Hannah Monroe's boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call she ever made to him, every text she ever sent, every photo of him and any sign of him on social media have vanished. It's as though their last four years together never happened.

As Hannah struggles to get through the next few days, with humiliation and recriminations whirring through her head, she knows that she'll do whatever it takes to find him again and get answers. But as soon as her search starts, she realizes she is being led into a maze of madness and obsession. Step by suspenseful step, Hannah discovers her only way out is to come face to face with the shocking truth..."

My Thoughts:

This book was completely not what I expected it to be.  It is funny when you go into a book knowing next to nothing but still "think" that you have an idea of what is going to happen.  Obviously that isn't what happened here at all!  I don't know what I was really expecting other than a thriller.  What I got was a thriller but also an intense psychological reading experience.  There was always this feeling while I was reading this book that everything wasn't as it seemed.  As the reader, you don't know who or what you can trust.  That helped to make the book quite a page-turner for me!  I'm going to get into slightly spoiler-ly ground here so stop reading if you don't like possible spoilers and skip ahead to the next paragraph.  I found about halfway through the book that I didn't trust Hannah either.  I also didn't quite care for her either.  I don't think that we are really supposed to do either though.  That is the point of the book- that we don't know or what to believe when it comes to Hannah's missing boyfriend.  I would say that I figured out some of the mystery about 3/4ths of the way through the book.  Not everything though which is why I was unable to set the book down until the very end.  I cannot wait to see what other readers think about that ending.  It is one to discuss, that's for sure!  Actually, I think that there are a lot of different things that you could discuss about this book.  The author isn't afraid to make really unexpected choices when it comes to the story line.  It gives readers a lot of things to mull over and talk about!

Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this book as it was a unique reading experience.  It was different than many of the other thrillers I've read so far this year and I appreciated that.  I still stick with my statement previously that I'm a bit over all of these unlikeable main characters.  Ha!  I can't really complain much as this was too compelling of a read.  I love how willing this author was to take chances with this book.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next!  I can easily recommend this one but especially to those readers who love suspenseful and thrilling reads.  A solid four star read for me (if I actually gave star ratings that is).

Bottom Line:  A thriller that kept me on my toes as I didn't know what to expect!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.

The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Anna Winger can know people better than they know themselves with only a glance—at their handwriting. Hired out by companies wanting to land trustworthy employees and by the lovelorn hoping to find happiness, Anna likes to keep the real-life mess of other people at arm’s length and on paper. But when she is called to use her expertise on a note left behind at a murder scene in the small town she and her son have recently moved to, the crime gets under Anna’s skin and rips open her narrow life for all to see. To save her son—and herself—once and for all, Anna will face her every fear, her every mistake, and the past she thought she'd rewritten."

My Thoughts:

Wow!  This was such a good read and I'm guessing that there is a good chance that it will end up on my top reads list for this year.  Yep, it was really that good!  I adore a book where the atmosphere carries me through the story.  This book had that in spades.  There were times that I just had to stop reading because I couldn't take it any more.  That feeling of dread....that bad things were coming just permeated the pages of this book.  I couldn't get enough even when I didn't want to keep reading.  I took my time with this book though and really savored the reading experience.  The author took chances with this one as it has possible triggers for those who don't like reading about certain things.  She did it wonderfully though by not glossing over it while also not being too graphic.  I don't want to say more than that as it feels kind of spoiler-ish.  The mystery of this book was more of a search for this missing little boy.  The author took her time with letting us get to know Anna and her son.....and I felt like we were given this information piece by piece.  The reader wasn't always supposed to know why Anna behaved the way she did even if we could guess.  I just really loved the my entire reading experience with this book!

I also really enjoyed Anna's job as a handwriting analyst.  I don't know a lot about this type of thing but I found all of the details so intriguing.  The idea that you can learn so much about a person just based off of their handwriting is almost a little terrifying when you think about it.  I can see why some of the characters didn't want to write anything down around her.  I wouldn't want someone analyzing my handwriting...or would I?  I'm not entirely sure.  LOL!  I found that I hit a point in this book where I knew that I was going to have to see how it would all end.  Before that, I took my time with it and slowly made my way through the pages.  Afterwards though I was reading as fast as I could just so I could see how it would all end.  This was a book that left me thinking about it afterwards, just mulling over everything that happened.  I am super excited to have found this author especially after enjoying this book so much!

Overall, this was a delightfully good read and one that I didn't want to see end.  I loved the way the author just brought these characters to life- they all felt so real to me.  I am thrilled to see that this author has other books for me to enjoy.  Especially as this one was so good so I have very high hopes for everything else that she has written.  I would recommend this one to mystery/thriller fans but also those who just enjoy a really great read.  Highly recommended!

Bottom Line:  Most likely this will make my top reads list for the year- read it!!

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

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"EVERY DAY THE SAME
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

UNTIL TODAY
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?"

My Thoughts:

I finally read this one - or should I say that I finally finished reading this one??  This is one of those books where the hype really put me off reading the book.  Am I the only one that this happens to?  I almost don't want to read a book when I'm hearing too much about it so I wait till the buzz dies down.  I finally picked this one up because the movie was released and all of the trailers reminded me that I wanted to check it out.  So I started it and then......back to the library it went unfinished.  This just wasn't the book for me the first time that I read it.  Rachel was too much for me to take.  She made me want to pull my hair out with all of the crazy (and bad) decisions that she was constantly making.  As much as I was intrigued by what was going on, I couldn't handle her at the time so I just took a break from reading it.

Obviously I went back to this book (or I wouldn't be writing this review lol) and went into reading it a bit more prepared for Rachel.  I started from the beginning and this time my reading experience was so much better.  I think knowing ahead of time how much Rachel might annoy me helped if I am being honest.  And then I hit this point of no return with the book and could not stop reading.  By then I had figured out that this was what the hype was all about because I just could not set this book down.  What worked best about this book for me is that you can never fully trust Rachel due to her alcoholism.  Her memories are completely subject to interpretation - is she really remembering things correctly or is part of what is happening all in her head?  By the end I was completely hooked on this book and ready to read more by this author.  What a change!  This went from a book that I almost DNF'ed to one that I overall enjoyed.  It wasn't my favorite thriller or book but I did enjoy it enough to want to watch the movie. 

My final thoughts on this one are that it is definitely worth the read.  I think that I would have enjoyed it more in the beginning if I had been prepared more on how much I would dislike Rachel.  I do think that this author seems quite talented so I'm excited to read her upcoming book.  It sounds really good so hopefully I won't wait as long to check out.  If I gave out ratings this would probably be a 3.5 star read for me.  Recommended but with a few hesitations.

Bottom Line:  Took me two tries to read this one but overall I thought it was a good read.

Disclosure:  I checked this one out from the library (both times).

Hard-Hearted Highlander by Julia London (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"An ill-fated elopement cost English-born governess Bernadette Kent her reputation, her fickle lover and any chance of a future match. She has nothing left to fear—not even the bitter, dangerously handsome Scot due to marry her young charge. Naive wallflower Avaline is terrified to wed Rabbie Mackenzie, but if he sends her home, she will be ruined. Bernadette's solution: convince Rabbie to get Avaline to cry off while ignoring her own traitorous attraction to him.

A forced engagement to an Englishwoman is a hard pill for any Scot to swallow. It's even worse when the fiancee in question is a delicate, foolish young miss unlike her spirited, quick-witted governess. Sparring with Bernadette brings passion and light back to Rabbie's life after the failed Jacobite uprising. His clan's future depends upon his match to another, but how can any Highlander forsake a love that stirs his heart and soul?"

My Thoughts:

I am officially sold on this author and her books!  Earlier this year I read and enjoyed Sinful Scottish Laird so I jumped at the chance to read this one.  This book was just as good and a delight to read!  I have to say that I love how this author put her characters in next to impossible situations.  From the very beginning of this book, I couldn't see how things would ever be able to work out for the hero and heroine.  This makes for an interesting reading experience as this is always in the back of my head.  I didn't read the above summary before starting this book so I honestly didn't know what to expect.  What I got was a much more tragic and brooding hero than I expected.  Rabbie wasn't very likeable at the beginning of the book even though you began to understand why as the reader.  I loved the fact that Bernadette didn't try whatsoever to pretend like the way he was behaving was okay.  She didn't cut him any slack at all and it was fun to watch them hate each other (especially knowing that at some point this would all change).  

Although they didn't like each other in the beginning, the best parts of the book were when Rabbie and Bernadette's relationship started to change.  I adore a good romance and this is exactly what this book had.  I wanted everything to work out for these two even if I was wondering how it possibly could.  It definitely kept me reading which hasn't always been the case this year.  I seem to be so easily distracted by everything else but I wasn't while reading this one.  I also appreciated the fact that there weren't always easy answers.  The author keeps true with the story lines that she sets up and I appreciate that.  I finished this book with a smile on my face which should tell you enough about how I felt about this book.  I absolutely cannot wait to read more by this author!

Overall, this was a really great romance and I'm super excited to have found this author!  I am so excited to see what else she has written - I believe there is a first book in this series that I need to get my hands on.  Books like this remind me of why I enjoy romance so much.  I need to read more of it because it was the perfect change of pace to all of the mysteries and thrillers that I usually read.  I would recommend this book (and Sinful Scottish Laird) to historical romance readers and romance readers alike.  It was a really great read and one that I enjoyed immensely!

Bottom Line:  A delightful read of an author that I can't wait to read more of!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley as part of a TLC book tour.

Murder at the Altar by Veronica Heley (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"The couple argue next door, the boy next door seems to know more than he is saying, and the murder victim's mother is missing. This first in a series of mysteries is set in a church, and features Ellie Quicke, a recently widowed woman who finds herself to be something of a sleuth."

My Thoughts:

This was such an enjoyable beginning to this new to me mystery series.  I picked up this book after seeing a further book in this series on NetGalley and being intrigued.  I decided to request it from the library and am now so glad that I did.  Isn't it funny how we come across books sometimes?  This was a delightful read and reminded me of the Faith Fairchild series by Katherine Hall Page that I adore.  There is just a certain element to both of these series that I like.  It is almost like they are a cozy mystery but without the usual things that you see in cozy series (like cats on the covers and puns for titles).  I'm not even sure that I'm really explaining myself all that well but they just have that cozy vibe that I love.  

In this book, Ellie Quicke is trying to deal with the very recent death of her husband.  She has always let him make the decisions and she basically worked on being a good wife to him.  Now she is finding and trying to figure out how to stand on her own two feet for the very first time in her life.  I loved it!  There was just something about reading about her working on coming into her own that I couldn't get enough of.  I found that I was really rooting for her.  She had a horrible daughter that I didn't care for that was trying to control her like her husband almost had.  I spent the majority of this book really more focused on Ellie than the mystery itself.  Don't get me wrong, I was also intrigued by the mystery but what became important to me very early on was Ellie herself.  I just wanted to see her find happiness as well as learn how to stand up for herself.  The mystery story line was just secondary for me to everything else.  I liked the way that this book wrapped up and I find myself very eager to continue on with this series.  

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this book and these characters.  It wasn't this mind-blowingly great mystery but the characters completely made this book stand out for me.  Ellie is the main reason why I want to read more of this series.  The way the author wrote her just brought her to life in a way that felt so real.  I also enjoyed that there was a bit of humor thrown in throughout the book which just made it that much more fun to read.  I'm super excited to continue on with this series and have already requested the second book from the library.  Fans of Katherine Hall page should definitely give this book a try but I would also recommend this book to mystery fans in general.  Recommended!

Bottom Line:  A great and enjoyable beginning to this mystery series!

Disclosure:  I checked out this book from my local library.