Title: Closing Time Author: Neil Gaiman In: Hauntings (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Ghost stories, Horror Dates read: 15th August 2021 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Tachyon Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: It existed solely to take advantage of the licensing laws of the day, which forced all pubs to stop serving drinks at eleven PM, closing time.
It’s closing time at the haunted old pub, the time of reminscing, hauntings and the telling of tall tales.
This had a kind of comfortable ghost feeling. Which I didn’t know was a feeling until I read this. I was expecting something dar more haunting considering the book I found this in… but, instead it was… comfortable.
I think that things from the past haunt all of us. That there is something that everyone remembers (whether correctly or incorrectly) from our pasts that makes us stop and think. This story felt like reminiscing on those moments. Those unanswered questions that we didn’t even know to ask when we were younger.
This story may not be haunting. But it was powerful. We’ve all been there at closing time and it always has that… empty feeling. That feeling of finishes and doors closing that we didn’t know we wanted left open. It’s a bit like saying goodbye to questions from our childhood…
Title: Take Me Home Author: Inez Kelley Series: Country Roads #1 Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Contemporary, Contemporary romance Dates read: 12th – 15th August 2021 Pace: Slow Format: eBook, Novel Publisher: Carina Press Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: Outside his office, phones rang.
Logging manager Matt Shaw is wary when Kayla Edwards, the owner of Mountain Specialty Spices, hires his firm to harvest timber on her Appalachian property. It’s a place he knows better than the back of his calloused hand—it’s his family’s old homestead, lost years ago in a painful foreclosure. He’s hauled himself up from dirt-floor poor since then, and resolves to stay professional… But Kayla’s vivacious beauty makes it hard to focus on his job.
Home. That’s how army-brat-turned-foodie Kayla feels about her new mountain hideaway. What’s more, the hottest lumberjack ever to swing an axe has agreed to manage her timber crop and get the old maple syrup operations back on tap. Matt’s ruggedly sexy ways and passion for the land have her falling hard.
The heat between them grows wild…until Kayla discovers that Matt hasn’t been upfront with her. She feels devastated, and worst of all, used. How can Matt prove it’s her he wants and not her land?
This is an incredibly easy read. The kind of simple, happy romance that makes you feel comfortable and content. It’s the perfect story to read on your ereader when you’re working and have to split your concentration a little. Fun, easy and light. The perfect contemporary romance.
I love that the biggest hurdle for this couple was their pasts. Kayla is caught up in a lack of “home” and feeling betrayed when she wants to trust. Matt is caught up on his pride and the tearing apart of his childhood. Its a nice little reminder that we all have ties to the past that can be difficult to move on from. But that sometimes, we need to at least get them in the open if we have any chance at a future.
I know bits about forestry from my own environmental science background, and I liked how Kelley weaved some interesting forestry facts throughout this story. Even though I don’t know anything about this ecological region, I loved the descriptions of the setting and the economic / ecological benefits for sustainable forestry. Then, there’s the creation of maple syrup… something I’d never even thought about. And now want to know SO much more about!!!
This was a great story. It was cute and sweet with just the right amount of heartbreak. There was a beautiful mountainous setting and a good score of secondary cast members. And at its core a gorgeous and sweet romance that will leave you smiling.
Josh thinks he has the perfect plan – he’s got a vampire trapped, he’s going to be immortal and he’s going to get rid of his mum’s annoying boyfriend. But, as with all teenage plans, things just don’t quite go to plan.
I always want to yell at the silly children in vampire stories who make a deal with, well, a vampire… I mean, come on! Haven’t you read the stories? Don’t you understand that it NEVER TURNS OUT WELL?!?!?
This story was no different. I spent the whole time metaphoriy banging my head against an imaginary wall… I mean, seriously Josh? You expected any of this to end in any other way? Silly, silly boy…
Alright, even though I was constantly finding Josh frustrating and seriously silly in this… I did also enjoy the story. It was one of those that you knew things would end bad, but you kind of wanted to see HOW they would end badly…
Title: Honor Among Thieves Author: Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre Series: The Honors #1 Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Science fiction, Space, Young adult Dates read: 9th – 14th August 2021 Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books Year: 2018 5th sentence, 74th page: I already knew – however impossible it was – why Marko Dunajski was here.
Petty criminal Zara Cole was shocked to be recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by a race of sentient alien ships to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.
Zara seizes the chance to change her life, and when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned to, she feels like she belongs for the first time. But nothing – not her Honors training or her street smarts – could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.
This book is just so dang good!!! I honestly didn’t want to put it down and found it really hard not to leap for Honor Bound the second I finished this. I have a huge stack of books to read… but man was it still tempting. This was such a phenomenal beginning to a trilogy.
Zara is a fantastic lead. She’s feisty and has a seriously horrible past. And, the part that I found the most attractive? She’s rebellious as all hell. It gives her this fun edge and relatability that made me feel connected almost immediately. It also created a really good coming of age feeling to this story. As the story unfolds, Zara slowly comes into her own and finds her own identity.
I’m still fairly new to the Sci Fi genre as a general. And particularly, fairy new to the stories of sentinent ships in space. They do have a bit of a same same to them. But Caine and Aguirre are able to add in this extra layer of mystery that is lacking in most of the other similar stories I’ve read. You know that there is a Big Bad out there somewhere… you just don’t know what or whom.
All in all, I absolutely loved this book. It was hard to put down, easy to relate to the characters and filled with twists and unexpected turns. The world building is phenomenal and the relationships help to further support this incredible reality that was created. This book was amazing and completely impossible to put down.
Title: Undying Love Author: Hilary Davidson In: Murder and Mayhem in Muskego (Jon & Ruth Jordan) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Crime, Ghosts Dates read: 13th August 2021 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Down and Out Books Year: 2012 5th sentence, 74th page: She lived down the street from us.
He’s got a ferryman trying to take him to the other side. But instead, he wants to find out why there is a knife protruding from his chest. And maybe, just maybe, protect his wife from the same fate.
I kind of guessed that the marriage that takes centre stage in this story wasn’t quite as picturesque as one would hope and imagine. That the murder that takes centre stage probably had something to do with the marriage. It was not quite what I had expected… but I was still right. Kind of.
I got a pretty serious Ghosts of Christmas feeling from this story. There was just something about starting a story with a man with a giant white beard that made me feel… nostalgic for that great Charles Dickens tale. And it’s always fun to wax nostalgic about things. Alright, it’s all about a murder and there was no Christmas feel to this whatsoever. But it still made me feel somewhat nostalgic.
This really wasn’t quite a romantic story, but I did like the ties that are strong even in death. Even if those ties are kind of what caused your own death… there is still that feeling of consistency even in the horrors that we afflict on one another. It might not be a great story for love, but this was certainly an intriguing one.
Title: Modern Coyote Author: Shane Jones In: Xo Orpheus (Kate Bernheimer) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!), My Bookshelves:Horror, Mythology Dates read: 10th August 2021 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Penguin Books Year: 2013 5th sentence, 74th page: His ears were more prominent and they too had gray hair.
After the doctor gave them the choice, they took their baby home. “He’s here,” said Ben, into the phone. “They let us leave.”
This was one of those jumpy stories that doesn’t quite feel complete. And thus is fat more horrifying. Its uncomfortable and confusing, with so many things left unsaid. Which honestly just added to the appeal.
I think this story felt more horrifying and uncomfortable to me because there was a new born baby in it. And the whole expecting thing made that so much realistic… and triggering.
I actually liked this. It didn’t feel hugely like a coyote story to me, but it was brilliant. And horrifying. And twisty.
Title: Bring Me Home for Christmas Author: Robyn Carr Series: Virgin River #14 Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Christmas, Contemporary, Contemporary romance Dates read: 5th – 8th August 2021 Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Mira Year: 2011 5th sentence, 74th page: Something like maybe we’d better get this settled between us and move on.
Welcome back to VIRGIN RIVER with the books that started it all…
This year, Becca Timm knows the number one item on her Christmas wish list – getting over Denny Cutler. Three years ago Denny broke her heart before heading off to war. It’s time she got over her silly college relationship and moved on.
So she takes matters into her own hands and heads up to Virgin River, the rugged little mountain town that Denny calls home, as an uninvited guest on her brother’s men-only hunting weekend. But when an accident turns her impromptu visit into an extended stay, Becca finds herself stranded in Virgin River. With Denny. In very close quarters.
As the power of Christmas envelops the little town, Becca discovers that the boy she once loved has become a strong and confident man. And the most delicious Christmas present she can imagine.
Denny’s story was something that came a little put of left field in Wild Man Creek. It was incredibly unexpected, but you immediately fall for the happy, easygoing young lad. I didn’t realise that Bring Me Home for Christmas would be about him. But when I realised that it would be… oh, my heart melted.
Becca is a great female lead. She has so much gumption and independence. The fact that she tricks her brother into doing what she wants to start her whole adventure just made me love her even more. She is so fun and independent. And the perfect woman to go toe to toe with Denny.
I was expecting there to be a bit more of a hang up with Becca’s current boyfriend. But, that whole relationship just kind of… dissolved neatly. It was pretty much no hurdle at all. I’m not even entirely sure why he was there as a plot line. But, it still worked and the angst really wasn’t there. So I suppose it’s not too bad.
This is yet another beautiful Virgin River Christmas story. Its simple and sweet. About two people finding their happily ever after, but also about community spirit and supporting one another. Its always the kind of story that just makes you want to live in a small mountain town in a great community.
Title: Sky of Ash Author: Rachel Madbury Series: The Sevens #2 Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Paranormal fantasy, Paranormal romance, Witches Dates read: 27th July – 8th August 2021 Pace: Medium Format: ARC, eBook, Novel Publisher: Rachel Madbury Year: 2021 5th sentence, 74th page: I’m not going to make you uncomfortable.
Time heals nothing.
Rose Bishop has been dead for forty years, but her blood has never left Colin Finch’s hands. As a warrior of the Seven he’s charged with protecting the most powerful witches on earth, but he failed the one that mattered most to him.
Or so he thought.
When the case of a missing witch brings Finch back to Savannah, where his mistakes cost him everything, he comes face-to-face with his most painful regret – but she’s not dead at all. In a world where lies run thicker than blood, can Finch find the information he came for and keep Rose safe at the same time?
Rose never thought she’d see Finch again, but when she learns the reason for his return, she’s drawn into the darkness of his world and offered a chance at her own redemption; save this missing witch, and free herself from the ghosts that have haunted her for forty years.
The more Rose becomes entangled in Finch’s case, the more old sparks threaten to reignite, and Finch will be torn between his duty to his brothers and the woman he never meant to leave behind.
After the first book in this series, I was wondering how the search for Penny and have a whole new couple as lead. I have expected Penny to be the female interest, but then the big story line wouldn’t really continue all that well… Madbury managed to have an entirely new focus for the lead couple, but still managed to keep the hunt for Penny alive.
I love how Finch’s past builds on the hunt for Penny and pulls in Rose. In fact, unlike many of the romances I’ve read, there is no Meet Cute or a bit of an understanding. The past between Finch and Rose is incredibly painful and tragic. Meaning that most of this story involves both of them trying to move on from past hurts and scars to a new future.
It turns out that the villain (for me) in this story was one who you could completely sympathise with. Even though his actions were abhorrent, you could kind of understand the decision making when all of the cards were laid out on the table. I still got that horrified feeling in my stomach, but it was tempered with a little understanding.
Sky as Ash helped to build more of a conspiracy within this world. It strengthened the mystery and horror of the world of the Sevens. I loved the set up for Wolfe in the next book. But, more than anything. I love that there are betrayals and mysteries still to come in this series.
Title: Witching Moon Author: Rebecca York Series: Moon #3 Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Paranormal romance, Romantic suspense, Werewolves Dates read: 26th July – 7th August 2021 Pace: Fast Format: Novel Publisher: Berkley Sensation Year: 2003 5th sentence, 74th page: Her name was Betty Sue, and she was about his age, mid-twenties.
The swamp is their sanctuary. Its nights echo with the beat of their moonlit revels, feeding their dark hunger for power – and for revenge…
The Nature’s Refuge preserve deep in the southern Georgia swamp was a place steeped in superstition and legend – and death. The previous head ranger had ended up dead, but werewolf Adam Marshall is ideally suited to explore the park and investigate its dangers. But in the still of the night, a mysterious fire burns, and even Adam’s highly honed instincts are disoriented by the thick, drugging smoke – leading to a near disaster…
Adam’s suspicions are raised by Sara Weston, a botanist who has come to the swamp to research the vegetation. He finds himself drawn to her in ways he doesn’t understand, yet fights the passion that threatens to cloud his judgment. And when a coven of witches with a score to settle with the locals decides that Adam and Sara are in their way, Adam will discover that Sara is hiding secrets as powerful as the one that runs through his blood.
One of the things I love most about this series is that York writes from both points of view of the two leads. BUT she also gives snapshots into the villains point of view. Not enough so that you’d have any idea who the villain could be. But enough to get the heart racing since you know the danger that is coming their way.
I love how, even as the third book in this series, the women all have different talents. Although, Sara is the first one with paranormal talents of her own. The way she grew into them throughout the story, and accepted her past was phenomenal. I was left grinning throughout the entire story.
Drawing Ross back into this story towards the end of the novel continues the connection that I’m enjoying throughout this story. I can’t wait to see who the next couple in this series will be and how they’re going to connect in with the rest of the story. Each of these novels have been so fantastic as a standalone. But they also have those threads that make you want to continue the whole series in one big, binge read.
I love how York is able to show the good and the bad in the paranormal world that she’s created. That, and the haunting mystery of the swamp created a textured world that I honestly didn’t want to leave. I can’t wait to see where she takes me in the next novel.
Title: Furies of Calderon Author: Jim Butcher Series: Codex Alera #1 Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:High fantasy, Magic, Medieval fantasy Dates read: 13th July – 7th August 2021 Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Orbit Year: 2004 5th sentence, 74th page: Furystorms could be deadly to anyone caught out in the open.
FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, THE PEOPLES OF ALERA HAVE BEEN UNITED BY THEIR UNIQUE BOND WITH THE FURIES – ELEMENTALS OF EARTH, AIR, FIRE, WATER AND METAL. BUT THEIR WORLD IS CHANGING.
Deep in the Calderon Valley, young Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. And as the Alerans’ most savage enemy – the Marat – returns to the Valley, this weakness will seem more important than ever.
Amara is a spy, seeking intelligence on possible Marat traitors to the Crown. And when the Valley erupts into chaos – when rebels are with loyalists and furies clash with furies – Amara will find Tavi invaluable. His talents will outweigh any fury-born power – and could even turn the tides of war.
This is one of those beautifully complex and intricate story lines that will sweep you up from the very first moment. It was also completely different in tone from Butcher’sDresden Files series. I had no idea what to expect when I opened that first page. But, wow, was I swept away.
All throughout this story, my thoughts constantly bounced to Oh Tavi, what trouble are you in now? It didn’t seem to matter the situation, that boy just seemed to bounce from one chaotic not so good moment to another. Which, of course, kept you turning the pages and wanting to know what was going to happen next.
It took me a little while to get my head around what Furies were. But, once I did, o really enjoyed the variety of powers that the different furies were able to provide to their people. I loved how it was almost a partnership of powers between element and human. One that drew on the strengths of both to enhance their natural powers.
I was so hopeful that the really horrifying bad guys would be dead at the end of this. Or at least, one of them would be. But, instead there is the beginning of a war on the horizon. Alright, I kind of knew that that was going to be the case because this is the first in a series… but I was still kind of hopeful. Yet, the brilliance of the villains is a huge part of why I will be looking forward to reading the next book in this series.
Earth and Skye 