ARC Review | Unnatural Magic

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Unnatural Magic

Author: C.M. Waggoner

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 400

Publication Date: November 5, 2019

Categories: Fantasy, Mystery, Adult Fiction, Romance

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education. But as soon as Onna arrives, she’s drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls.

Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader’s daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Soon, unbeknownst to each other, Onna and Tsira both begin devoting their considerable talents to finding out who is targeting trolls, before their homeland is torn apart…

Thank you to ACE and Netgalley for giving me an opportunity to read this eARC.

My reason for requesting this on NetGalley was first and foremost the cover. I love it and then the synopsis mentioned magic and trolls? Well it definitely piqued my curiosity!

But when I started this book I thought maybe I had made a mistake and I wasn’t sure I would be interested in even finishing this book. I thought okay, a girl who is trying to get into a school with mostly boys…nothing new there. I put it aside for a few weeks and finally came back to it and wow, I did not stop! Though this story starts off with a teenage girl named Onna – this is not a young adult novel. It has cursing and lots of sexual themes exploring a romance between a troll and a human male. Yes there is troll sex. 😲

There are two main characters in this story. Onna, is a seventeen year old genius wizard and it’s rare for a girl to exhibit these traits. She is trying to get into a school to further her studies but her gender works against her, no matter how smart she is. Tsira is a troll, who is half human, but in her troll community she is too small, and not considered good looking among her people. She leaves her clan to make her own living, earning her own money but Tsira is also conflicted with her cultural rules about begetting a clan.

Though their paths and lives are different there is one thing Onna and Tsira have in common, they are trying to figure out who is the serial killer on the loose targeting trolls.

The world building in Unnatural Magic is so unique! I love how smart Onna is even though at times I didn’t understand parameter spells – it’s basically complicated math, enough said on that. She’s smart! She thinks out of the box and Onna doesn’t give up, which I love about her.

The most fascinating part of the story has to be about the trolls. It was so interesting to learn about their customer and way of life. Females (and some with male parts) ruled the clans! Tsira’s vahn (which I didn’t totally understand right away), vahn being her “wife” but a male wife – in her case, a human male, was totally the submissive one in the relationship. Tsira and Jeckran’s romance is different and unconventional – Tsira is very masculine, and 10 feet tall! So just trying to imagine how they managed to do the deed was…interesting! 🤔 But hey they managed it! Anyway there is a lot to learn about troll life. I was learning along with Jeckran (Tsira’s vahn). In this world for the most part trolls and humans lived together side by side peacefully until the murders occur. Then we start to see how some humans resent trolls and their magic.

There are other colorful characters in this story, one of my favorites being the Lord Mage, Loga, of Hexos. Onna becomes his apprentice and he is quite humorous and flamboyant, I enjoyed his fun personality!

As for the mystery of the troll murderer, I did have my suspicions and I was right. Onna, Loga, Tsira and Jeckran made a great team together hunting down the killer. This book really had a bit of everything and it pushed my imagination in ways I didn’t expect! It has a happily ever after ending as well but also leaves me wondering what will happen to these characters? Will Tsira and Jeckran be okay? The author did a great job of making me care for these characters. 💕

This is a fantastic debut and I hope to read more from this author! Unnatural Magic is an unforgettable fantasy story full of complicated magic, humor, adventure, mystery and romance.

ARC Review | The Weight of a Soul

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Weight of a Soul

Author: Elizabeth Tammi

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: December 3, 2019

Categories: Norse Mythology, Family, Fantasy, Young Adult

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

When Lena’s younger sister Fressa is found dead, their whole Viking clan mourns—but it is Lena alone who never recovers. Fressa is the sister that should’ve lived, and Lena cannot rest until she knows exactly what killed Fressa and why—and how to bring her back. She strikes a dark deal with Hela, the Norse goddess of death, and begins a new double life to save her sister.

But as Lena gets closer to bringing Fressa back, she dredges up dangerous discoveries about her own family, and finds herself in the middle of a devastating plan to spur Ragnarök –a deadly chain of events leading to total world destruction.

Still, with her sister’s life in the balance, Lena is willing to risk it all. She’s willing to kill. How far will she go before the darkness consumes her?

Thank you to Flux and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eArc.

This was an interesting read and what kept me reading was watching Lena deal with the grief of losing her sister. But as the story went on and Lena makes a deal with the goddess of death to bring her sister back, I thought Lena was at some points, truly losing it.

Making that deal made her do some heinous things and all because she wanted her sister back. Talk about sisterly devotion.

The Norse mythology with the involvement of gods and goddesses in Lena’s life was something I enjoyed. It definitely made Lena make some interesting choices.
Lena’s love for her sister is admirable and tragic. Everything was motivated by Fressa’s death, or so we think.
The portrayal of grief and how it can make someone spiral into depression and despair was well written. I could totally relate to all of that.
I like the expression of a “weight of a soul” and how it is explained. That was quite fascinating.
I love the cover and the gray palette!

Poor Amal (Lena’s friend), I felt like all he was doing was crying in this book. But his life is so messed up by Fressa’s death and then Lena’s actions. He couldn’t catch a break. But I felt like he could have stepped into the role of future leader of the clan much better. But all we see is someone falling apart as much as Lena is (understandably) – and here I am now not cutting him some slack! Sorry Amal! 😂
I felt like most of the book was just going through Lena’s grief and not much else. It was a bit slow for me in certain parts and some chapters were really short, I don’t know if that was on purpose or an error.
With all the Norse mythology represented, I felt like it was lacking something – not enough mysticism? It was dark for sure but I think I wanted it to delve more into Lena’s darkness. Is it bad that I want this dark book, to get darker? 😅

I mostly liked the book but was left feeling the story was just okay. But the writing is good, I think it’s just I’ve read a few Viking inspired stories the past few months and they were much grittier, harsh , brutal, and you get my drift. So I felt like this book could have gone deeper, especially with Lena’s character. But that’s just my personal preference though!

I think most people who like Viking-inspired and Norse mythology stories will actually enjoy this one.

Book Review | The Echoing Green and Other Stories

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Echoing Green and Other Stories

Author: David Jordan

Format: eBook (provided by author for an honest review)

Pages: 113

Categories: Short Stories, Irish Mythology, Adult Fiction

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

From a quest to find the Starbucks mermaid, to a god’s dream of saving the planet, this collection of short stories has an abundance of imagination as well as ingenuity and style. In serene and sparkling prose, David Jordan will introduce you to places and people that you have never encountered before, with a unique voice and vision that will satisfy story lovers everywhere.

Thank you to David Jordan, for providing me a copy of his new book, The Echoing Green and Other Stories.

I don’t read or feature many short story collections on my blog but I am always open to reading works by indie authors. And who would have thought that this book, The Echoing Green and Other Stories would pique my growing interest in Irish mythology. I’ve read a few books set in Ireland and featured Irish mythology lately, so what a coincidence that these short stories fit in with what I’ve been reading lately.

In this short story collection the stories are contemporary yet mixed with fantasy, psychology and mythology elements. In whole it felt like I was I was sucked into a dreamscape atmosphere, which I enjoyed!

The infusion of Irish mythology in a modern day setting is fantastic because I’m from somewhere so far away from Ireland, I don’t know a lot about Irish mythology. In this collection I learned new words and names like Fomorian and Goibhniu. I definitely googled a few of these names and words. I did recognize a few names so I wasn’t totally lost.
The writing is wonderful, it drew me in right away. I got a sense of the setting, and the characters which just a few lines.
My favorites of the collection are The Echoing Green and Dreamer’s Eve because it’s fluid and strange like how real dreams are. I mean, searching for the Starbucks mermaid? It’s clever and why not? I’m always searching for the Starbucks mermaid myself, almost daily haha! Gods and Monsters was another story I enjoyed for it’s psychological twist.

Nothing really…maybe that a few of these would make really good full stories? 🙂

The Echoing Green and Other Stories is a really quick read as it’s just only a little over hundred pages. I enjoyed the Irish mythology that is infused in the contemporary settings of each story. Overall this is a wonderful, creative collection of short stories and I’m glad I had a chance to read it. If you like short stories and mythology, definitely get a copy of this book!

Get your eBook copy here: Amazon

Get your hardcover copy here: Shadow of the Glen

Author Bio: David Jordan lives in Cork Ireland, where he was born and bred. He has an MA in English. He loves music, coffee and peace.

First Lines Fridays | 11/1/19

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!

It’s November! Woohoo! That means birthday month for me, my best friend, a few other friends and cousins. So many celebrations this month plus I’ll be dog sitting a beautiful, sweet husky named Maya. My family and I can’t wait – we miss having a furry friend in our home.

So let’s see – I got in some library books so I’ll randomly pick one. Here are the lines:

“Being nice is like leaving your door wide-open.”

🤔

It’s kind of nice to get out of reading dark-themed books haha, I needed a break from it! Has anyone read this book? Leave me a comment below!

Monthly Wrap-Up | October 2019

Happy Halloween everyone! What a month it has been and here we are at the end of it. That means there are 2 more months of 2019 left…WOW.

Tonight we are going to dress and go trick-or-treating. My daughter will be Princess Aurora, I’ll be a fairy but not one of the Sleeping Beauty ones haha, my son is going to be an Angler Fish and my hubby doesn’t have a costume. After trick-or-treating we will pass out candy and then call it a night. I hope all of you have an amazing night.

I read a bunch of arcs, borrowed books and owned books. But there are the books I posted reviews for in the month of October:

I read a bunch of dark stories which was cool but I didn’t get through some of my library books, which is a bummer. So many books left unread lol…oh well, so many books, so little time! I hope I have some time in November to catch up. I did read a bunch of NetGalley eARCS but they will be posted nearer to their publication date. Here’s a list of those arcs:

And that’s been my October! How was yours?

Also yesterday, I got a notification I finally hit 200 followers! I absolutely appreciate all of you for following my little blog. If you have instagram I’m doing a few birthday giveaways on there that end on 11/03, so definitely try and enter them!

Happy Reading everyone and Happy Halloween!

{BLOG TOUR} | The Giving Heart by. Toni Blake

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: The Giving Heart (Summer Island, #2)

Author: Toni Blake

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 384

Publication Date: October 29, 2019

Publisher: HQN Books

Categories: Contemporary, Romance, Holiday Romance, Small Town Romance

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Lila Sloan wonders why she ever thought house-sitting for her sister Meg on the remote Summer Island was a good idea. And to make matters worse, local real estate developer Beck Grainger is trying to cut down the beautiful trees that line the property. Lila can’t let this happen; Meg will never forgive her.

Beck can understand Lila’s anger—sort of. The trees are actually on the neighboring property, and the land was zoned for development months ago, so his plans were no secret. But he dislikes being at odds with his friend’s sister, especially because Lila is appealing in every way: loyal, quick-witted and completely stunning.

Lila hates that she’s so attracted to Beck, who seems like a genuinely good man, despite his tree-murdering tendencies. And their chemistry is off the charts. She just wishes he’d let this development go. As Summer Island counts down to a snowy Christmas, Lila and Beck will have to strike a compromise that seems impossible for them both—or risk losing the best thing either of them has ever had.

Thank you to HGN Books and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

I didn’t read the first book in this Summer Island series but I think The Giving Heart can stand pretty good on it’s own.

Lila is inn-setting for her sister Meg on Summer Island, a place in Northern Michigan where not even vehicles are allowed there. But Lila has an ulterior motive for being there also, to escape something that happened to her in Chicago. Beck Grainger is an estate developer who is about to raze down trees on Meg’s property and Lila is not having it. What starts off as an escape for Lila has turned into a mission to protect Meg’s estate…and then some. 😉

I was all for this romance between Lila and Beck but what I didn’t anticipate is the storyline of Beck’s past interest in another Summer Island resident, Suzanne. Like I said, I didn’t read book one so if that’s where he flirted with Suzanne then I can understand it. But coming in fresh into this book, I really didn’t like Beck’s feelings for two women.

Outside of that though, Lila and Beck’s story is a fun and spicy Christmas romance with a lot of angst too, mostly because Lila is not a resident of Summer Island, so there is that to figure out between them. I love their interactions, bickering and banter. But the story isn’t only about them falling for each other. Lila is going through some tough times with what happened in Chicago and Beck has issues to deal with his past estranged relationship with his dad.

It’s one of those books that would make a great Hallmark Channel Christmas movie! It’s sweet, heartfelt, it has its hot moments and the characters have personal issues to work through as well. The setting of Summer Island sounds like a wintry, wonderland dream! Not that I would want to be stuck on an island with bad winter conditions but it makes for a great romantic setting. And the cast of characters adds to the setting as well, the people are nice and friendly, especially to nonresidents like Lila.

Like any Christmas romance novel it ends with a very happily ever after. And will Suzanne get her HEA in the next book? I hope so, because I felt awful for her!

This is definitely the kind of novel to enjoy right after spooky season is done or if you like to read holiday romance novels year round as well, more power to you! The Giving Heart will definitely give you the holiday feels. 🎄

Purchase your copy at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1335505059

About Toni Blake

USA Today bestselling author Toni Blake’s love of writing began when she won an essay contest in the fifth grade. Since then, she has written over twenty contemporary romance novels. Her books have received the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers’ Best Award, her work has been excerpted in Cosmopolitan, and she has been nominated for a RITA Award. Toni lives with her husband in Northern Kentucky.

Author Links

Website: http://www.toniblake.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorToniBlake

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorToniBlake

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authortoniblake/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/402788.Toni_Blake

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Blog Tour Schedule

October 21^st

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

Reviews and Promos by Nyx (Spotlight) https://nyxblogs.wordpress.com/

Tsarina Press (Spotlight) https://www.tsarinapress.com

October 22^nd

On the Shelf Book Reviews (Spotlight) https://ontheshelfreviews.wordpress.com

Crossroad Reviews (Spotlight) http://www.crossroadreviews.com

My Bookish Bliss (Review) http://www.mybookishbliss.com

October 23^rd

Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com

I’m All About Books (Spotlight) https://imallaboutbooks.com/

October 24^th

Romantic Reads & Such (Spotlight) http://romanticreadsandsuch.wordpress.com

Viviana MacKade (Review) https://viviana-mackade.blog/

October 25^th

The Bookish Mrs. Harding (Review) http://thebookishmrsharding.home.blog

Dash Fan Book Reviews (Review) https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/

October 28^th

Misty’s Book Space (Spotlight) http://mistysbookspace.wordpress.com

Ruby Red Romance Review (Review) https://rubyredromancereview.com/

October 29^th

Books, Teacup, and Reviews (Spotlight) https://booksteacupnreviews.wordpress.com/

Eclectic Reviews (Review) https://eclecticreview.com/

Jane Hunt Writes (Review) https://www.jolliffe01.com/blog

October 30^th

Alys in Bookland (Spotlight) https://alysinbookland.wordpress.com/

Past Midnight (Review) http://pastmidnight.home.blog

November 1^st

Inked and Blonde (Review) https://inkedandblonde.blogspot.com/

Unboxing | LitJoy Crate | October 2019 Box

Hi everyone! We are at the end of October and for this month I only got one book box because I have a few coming for November. And my birthday is next week so it makes sense to treat myself during my birthday month right? HAHA…right!

This is the LitJoy Crate for October so let’s see what we got!

Here is everything that was in the box, so let’s break it down:

The book this month is Angel Mage by Garth Nix and I haven’t read anything from this author before. The card with the character photos illustrated by Stephanie Brown and it has a note from the author on the back which I always like to read. The book is signed and actually has a reverse dust jacket with a beautiful illustration by Lorena Lammer (just forgot to photograph it, sorry!). Every book from LitJoy Crate comes with a book sleeve and this time it’s pink, which is cute.

One of my favorite things in this book is these collectors trading cards and look at these villains! I LOVE Ursula and Maleficent, the past Halloween’s I’ve dressed up as one of them. 😂😍 The art on these are AMAZING.

Here’s a super cute Shadowhunter Rune bracelet. Very cute but probably going to give it away.

A Daughter of Smoke and Bone collector pin! Super duper cute! You know I’m not big into pins, what do you do with them? Wear them or just collect them? Trade them? I’ve been accumulating a lot from the different box crates I’ve purchased.

Another pair of fingerless gloves! These are so cute but I don’t need gloves in Hawaii, it’s too hot, so these will probably be given away.

And my least favorite thing in the box was this notepad. But I’m sure it’s the most useful thing in this box so…🤷🏻‍♀️.

Overall I can say it’s not my favorite box of LitJoy Crate I’ve gotten. I will be skipping their November box because they have the same book as OwlCrate coming out and I’m opting for the OwlCrate box this time around.

Stay tuned for more unboxing in November – I think I have 3 or 4 boxes coming in!

Goodreads Monday } 10/28/19

This is a weekly meme that was started by Lauren’s Page Turners so check out her blog for more bookish content!

All you have to do is choose a title on your Goodreads Want To Read category and say why you want to read it.

Book Blurb:

She never felt like she belonged…until magic pulled her into a world beyond her wildest imagination.

Sixteen-year-old Aurora wishes she were anyone else. Mistreated by her adopted family and bullied at school, she believes things can’t get any worse. But when she’s kidnapped and dragged through an ancient tapestry into the magical world of Avalonia, she soon discovers that some dreams can easily turn into nightmares.

Hunted by the evil tyrant Queen Morgana, who will stop at nothing to get rid of the last surviving heir to the powerful Firedrake dynasty, Aurora struggles to fit into her new life as a mage at the prestigious Academy of Evolon. Threatened by treachery at every turn and desperate to prove herself worthy, she uncovers a dark, complicated web of political intrigue that threatens the very existence of the seven kingdoms of Avalonia.

Aided by the powerful Duke of Silverthorne, a fae friend, and a handsome but mysterious outlaw called the Black Wolf, Aurora struggles to master her magic and get her rare powers under control before it’s too late.

If she fails, her new home and her family will be enslaved forever…

The Last of the Firedrakes is the first novel in The Avalonia Chronicles series of enchanting YA fantasies. If you like resilient heroines, plentiful magic, immortal fae warriors, and sizzling romance you’ll love Farah Oomerbhoy’s enthralling story.

Why Do I Want To Read This?

Cover love haha – I picked this out of the list today because the cover called to me.
Love stories that have Fae in them.
Had this on my TBR since 2015! I think it’s a complete full series now which is much more appealing because now I can read it straight through.

Has anyone read this series? Is it any good?

That’s all I got today, and this post is so late! I had a crazy busy weekend and I don’t have my posts scheduled for this week. 😫 I haven’t gotten much reading done either but that’s okay, hopefully I’ll have more time after Halloween. Thanks for reading!

Book Review | The Hazel Wood

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: The Hazel Wood

Author: Melissa Albert

Format: eBook (borrowed)

Pages: 359

Categories: Urban Dark Fantasy, Young Adult, Adventure, Dark Fairy Tales

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

I think I tried reading this when it first published but I wasn’t in the mood and put it off until…now. But honestly, I don’t think I would have picked it up again if I wasn’t approved for the sequel on NetGalley. 😅

I finished this in two days which is surprising so I guess it really caught my attention this time around. Alice and her mom Ella is basically living on the run, but from what? Curses? Bad luck? It’s not clear but there is an undercurrent in this story, a mystery about a book called Tales from the Hinterland that Alice’s grandmother, Althea Proserpine, wrote. Alice and Ella are settled in New York City but the bad luck that seem to stop following them has found them again and Ella goes missing. The only clues Alice has are linked to the book. But what is Hinterland? She thought it was just a book of fairytales, that it was just a story. Alice and her friend Finch, go on a quest to find The Hazel Wood, her grandmother’s estate, so she can figure out what has happened to her mom, Ella. Instead they find out some stories are very real.

Alice’s voice is very unique. Is she likable? Most people wouldn’t like her I think but she’s a fascinating character, very mysterious, blunt, full of this unexplained anger. But she loves her mom Ella very much. Her gypsy upbringing (not by choice but survival) has shaped her greatly. When we find out more about her then it totally makes sense why she is the way she is.
There were words in this book that I had to google! I was intrigued by the writing, it’s very lyrical – if you don’t lyrical writing you will not like this book.
I liked the scary fairy tales that are told throughout the book. They remind me of the fairy tales we grew up. When you think of Snow White, as a child it was supposed to be cute because the singing dwarfs singing hi-ho, it’s Disney! But it’s actually a scary tale of the Queen wanting to kill Snow White and she poisons her. Like…that is not cute! The Tales of The Hinterland is straight out frightening, nothing cute about them at all.
I like the world of the Hinterland but it is mostly revealed in the later half of this book. When regular people cross into the Hinterlands they are called refugees. So the Hinterlands was almost like another country but in an alternate universe! I liked meeting Janet who explains a lot about this world. Thank you Janet!

A lot of things in this book made me go hmmm! Like I mentioned I liked the writing BUT I was also thinking wow, does Alice really think like this? It didn’t feel realistic that a teen would use these words, words from like an SAT test vocabulary list, to narrate her story but then again, her grandmother was a writer. Alice seemed very well read and a lover of literature. Of course we find out more about Alice, and when we do…it makes sense that she’s “different”. Because she IS.
There is a part in this book, 60% in where I felt like my brain BENDED, it was a total mind-bend and as someone who has vertigo when my sinuses get clogged/affecting my ears and such….when I read the part when Alice gets into The Hazel Wood, I got dizzy. Literally. A lot of the first part of the story is a mystery about The Hinterland and The Hazel Wood and when it is revealed, it was a bit too much for my head because the way it’s written. It almost feels all over the place and I couldn’t pin things down and that was disorienting until the story stabilized again. It was like Alice in Wonderland when she gets to Wonderland…🤔. I felt like I was Alice. It was jarring.
Alice gets kidnapped in the beginning, and she literally says she went into a car with this strange guy but he wasn’t a perv…he told her stories, etc…and I’m like say what? 😳 We also find out it’s not the first time she was kidnapped! What is with the kidnapping in this story? I guess it’s reminiscent again of the fairy tales we grew up with like Rapunzel. And there is a purpose to her being kidnapped but just reading it in the beginning I was a bit wary of where the story was going.

When I finished this I needed a moment to digest what I just read. Overall, I liked it because of it being so dark, weird, and fascinating. I liked some of the fairy tales that were told in the story, it is very Brother’s Grimm fairytales instead of the cutesy Disney ones.

If you like stories like Alice in Wonderland, then you will like The Hazel Wood. I’m about to read the sequel and we’ll see how that goes. I think it might follow more of Finch’s adventures because there is more to discover in the Hinterlands. Overall a fascinating, mind bending story that probably wouldn’t appeal to everyone.

All About Halloween Book Tag

Hi everyone! Since Halloween is a few days away I thought this tag was perfect to add to my blog. I found it at Kristin Kraves Books, check out her beautiful blog and give her a follow!

What are your favorite Halloween movies?

I admit I haven’t binged on Halloween movies since my son turned like three because he’s scared of all things Halloween…except he did sit through The Nightmare Before Christmas. Now my daughter loves Jack Skellington, Sally and Zero as well but she hasn’t seen the movie yet. So it’s a favorite in our house.

But this Halloween, I have a craving to watch Beetlejuice! I need to find a moment when my kids aren’t around me haha.

And of course Practical Magic because sisterhood and witches! 😍

And oh yes the cheesy, I can’t help myself for loving it – Teen Witch! LOL

I grew up with many male older cousins, I was the youngest of the bunch and for years as a child I was stuck watching Poltergeist, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc…😭. Weird though, of all those movies from my childhood, Poltergeist probably freaked me out the most but I have a strange love for it, maybe because it’s nostalgic? But for sure I can’t watch that movie around my kids. 🤣

What is your favorite Halloween book?

I don’t think I’ve ever had a favorite Halloween book. 🤔 But the book I read this month that gave me lots of witchy, Halloween vibes has to be:

What other Halloween books would you recommend?

For another witchy read I’d recommend, The Wicked Deep:

Do you own any Halloween ugly sweaters?

I didn’t realized they existed haha, and it’s not sweater weather in Hawaii at all. It’s 85 degrees! So I don’t.

What are some of your favorite Halloween costumes?

I’m always a villain! I was Maleficent, The Evil Queen and Ursula the last three years! But I love seeing when people have creative costumes.

What are you doing for Halloween this year?

We will be trick or treating first, my kids can’t last long and sometimes my son opts to stay with my hubby at the house and pass out candy. After trick or treating we pass out candy. We have a lot of trick or treaters!

What is your favorite childhood Halloween memory?

I don’t have a favorite memory. Trick or treating around the neighborhood was so much fun as a kid. Back in the 80’s, I didn’t dress up for Halloween, at most maybe my mom bought me a mask at the store. My parents didn’t trick or treat as kids, they lived in farm country and they didn’t spend money on candy. So as a kid, I don’t think they understood the whole going all out in a costume haha, they gave me a plastic bag, a mask and we went around the neighborhood. I loved it! Every year was awesome, and I love going trick or treating with my kids it reminds me of being a kid again! 😍