Garden of Serpents by. C.N. Crawford | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials, #2)

Author: C.N. Crawford

Format: ebooks (KU)

Pages:

Publication Date: 7/13/22

Categories: Romance, Urban Fantasy

Once, Orion and I were lovers. Then, the gorgeous demon king broke my heart. He kicked me out of the City of Thorns, exiling me to the mortal world.

Now, I have plans to get back at him–and save the world while I’m at it. Orion wants revenge on all the mortals. If I steal his crown, I can stop the bloodshed. All I have to do is beat him in a series of trials, proving that the gods chose me as queen.

But Orion seems determined to seduce me with his apologies and sensual charm. And the fact is? He’s hard to resist. In the City of Thorns, nothing is ever as it seems, but figuring out who to trust is the most important trial of all. Because if I get it wrong, I’ll have the blood of thousands on my hands.

Content Warning: violence, torture

This is the third book in The Demon Queen Trials series and I was enjoying it for the most part but the ending was too rushed. Here’s what I liked and didn’t like:

+ Rowan has trained and grown into her Succubus powers so she can now go toe to toe with Orion.

+ Rowan and Orion are meant to be. There are some challenges they have to deal with, like trust issues and they already got together in the last book but this felt like another slow burn round between them. There are many sensual and sexy parts though.

+ The epilogue was unexpected and interesting – makes me sort of interested to see where the story goes. But…I’m still on the fence.

~ The pacing of this book was an issue for me. Everything felt rushed. Rowan has to pass these trials but it doesn’t feel high stakes at all. We know Orion will give her whatever she wants. There are new characters introduced to us, but new characters in the last book, especially a villain? There wasn’t enough time to get to know them and their motivations or schemes.

~ Rowan is powerful now, so I wanted to see more of that in her trials but the trials didn’t feel like much.

~ What was up with Shai? Not sure what was going on with her.

~ The ending was super rushed. It felt like the story raced up to the betrayal, Orion and Rowan are united and the end. And the epilogue is 13 years later! So it sets up another story.

Why you should read it:

to finish the series if you started it
Rowan and Orion’s romance

Why you might not want to read it:

wanted so much more and it fell short
the story felt rushed, new characters introduced without much time to really get to know them

My Thoughts:

I was a bit disappointed by this one. I did love Rowan and Orion together, even if they were fighting but I felt like the whole story was rushed to get to the end. This one fell short for me but I’m glad I finished the series. The first two books were great, and this one was rushed with less intensity. The epilogue suggests a new spin-off but I don’t know if I will be reading it.

📚 ~ Yolanda

Weekly Wrap Up | 6/19/22

Aloha friends!

Nothing new happened this week – got some errands and organizing done. We have a wasp situation at our house – my mom got stung about 3 weeks ago while trying to remove her sweet potato plant in my backyard (they don’t live with me, but we have a big backyard so they like to plant stuff in it lol).

I’ve lived in this house for almost 8 years now and usually summer time means a wasp here and there. No one has ever gotten stung until now. We have mud wasps that build these little mud tunnels around our front door and back door…and if we did have a wasp build a comb – it’s one wasp, on a very small comb. But this year we had a big one wasp comb above our balcony which just got sprayed. But my dad also found they are living near the sweet potato plant in the ground, which he just removed. So I hope they stay away now? But they seem to be flying all over my backyard now – UGH. Can they just please go away? Hopefully they decide to build their comb somewhere else. 🥴 Animals sure do love my house! First it was a huge bird nest under our solar panel and now this…😅.

Today is Father’s Day and I wanted to treat my husband to a buffet brunch but the restaurant was booked up until July 3rd! So that’s when we will celebrate Father’s Day and his very very belated birthday. I hope you guys have a nice time celebrating Father’s Day!

How was your week?

Blog Posts:

Books I Read:

Currently Reading:

Shows/Movies I Watched:

Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (Netflix) – every time I hear testimonies about the FLDS it reminds me when it was happening in real time on the news and how disgusted I was with the marrying of very young girls. So glad they can share their experiences but what a toll that community took on people on their lives.
Hustle (Netflix) – such a good sports movie. It’s a basketball movie and honestly the last time I loved basketball was when I was young because Michael Jordan and the Bulls were so dominant. That was the only time I loved basketball. But this Adam Sandler movie is good, tense, and inspirational!
Halftime (Netflix) – this came out right after Hustle and I just let it play since I was blogging plus I love J.Lo – her music makes me dance and I wish I had her body! Also I grew up with her when she was a dancer on In Living Color and then she played Selena. She’s come a long way, such an icon!

Games I Played:

My Singing Monsters

Music I Listened To:

Stranger Things 4 Soundtrack – so good and nostalgic, reminds me of my childhood.

How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!

💖 ~ Yolanda

It Happened One Summer by. Tessa Bailey | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1)

Author: Tessa Bailey

Format: ebooks (borrowed)

Pages: 397

Publication Date: 7/13/21

Publisher: Avon

Categories: Contemporary, Romance, Adult Fiction, Opposites Attract

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar… in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.

Content Warning: death of spouse

Lately I’ve been thinking what qualities make for a good summer-pool-beach read – then I read this book and THIS would be an ultimate summer read!

Piper is rich and an instagram influencer – she is superficial, a social media queen, comes off as an airhead but despite all of that, she’s really a sweet person. Her best qualities? She can adapt to new situations, no matter how out of her comfort zone she is, she’s fun and she loves her younger sister, Hannah, to pieces. I absolutely love Piper and Hannah together – they have a tight sisterly bond and a very loving and supporting one at that.

Brendan is Piper’s opposite – he’s grumpy, loves routine, he is a fisherman, good at his job and he’s a widower. When Piper comes into his life, he doesn’t know what hit him. Piper and Brendan are hot, hot, hot together! Their sex scenes are steamy and spicy but their growing relationship is so sweet. I thought they were perfect for one another. Brendan gave her comfort, and security and likes her for who she is. Piper makes him laugh and he falls for her so hard and fast. But like I said, they really complimented one another – I love their opposites attract love affair and how it grows into so much more.

Brendan’s crew are too funny! I love when they were together and joking with Brendan. I love how Fox is soft on Hannah too – I thought that was cute and can’t wait to read their story!

Overall I loved the story about a rich girl who has to atone for her mistakes by going to a small fishing town where her birth dad is a legend. Piper is such a softie and I like that she was herself, even if she was high-maintenance. She really is a sunshine girl and Brendan is mister grumpy who can’t help himself around her.

Why you should read it:

romance feels – steamy and sweet, Piper is sunshine, Brendan is grumpy
Piper and Hannah’s sister relationship is beautiful, I love the two of them
great book for summer reading, lots of humor and makes you feeling happy

Why you might not want to read it:

too much steaminess? I thought it made the story better because these two were so hot for each other lol

My Thoughts:

I loved this book and read it in one sitting. I found Piper sweetness and Brendan’s gruffness perfect – the steamy scenes between them added to their amazing relationship – because miss Piper was not sweet in bed! I loved reading about them falling for one another and seeing Piper try to figure out what kind of life is right for her. Also the humor is great! But mostly I loved all the heart warming feelings I got from Piper and Hannah’s relationship. The romance is great and all, but the family bond between them really made me want to hug those girls. This is a wonderful book, great for summertime reading or if you want a romance story with a little bit of everything in it. I look forward to reading Hannah’s story!

📚 ~ Yolanda

Quotes From the Book:

Had she ever dated a real man before? Or had they all been boys?”
– Tessa Bailey, It Happened One Summer

This girl. He’d be keeping her. There was no way around it.”

– Tessa Bailey, It Happened One Summer

Book Haul | 6/17/22

Okay, looks like June has been the month I broke my book buying ban. Hey I lasted pretty long I think! 😅 I also went to the library for the first time in months and I got 4 books today! Let’s see what I got in my latest book haul.

NETGALLEY::

KINDLE UNLIMITED:

KINDLE E-Books::

ONLINE LIBRARY::

LIBRARY BOOKS:

I hope I have enough time to read all of these, especially the borrowed library books.

What did you get in your latest book haul?

~ Yolanda

BLOG TOUR} Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by. Cheryl Diamond | ARC Review

Welcome to the blog tour for Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by. Cheryl Diamond!

“A riveting tale of trauma and resilience.”

—People Magazine

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood

Author: Kate Bromley

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 6/14/22

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Categories: Memoir

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

Thank you to Algonquin Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cheryl Diamond had an outlaw childhood beyond the imaginings of most. By age nine, she had lived in more than a dozen countries on five continents and had assumed six identities as her parents evaded Interpol and other law enforcement agencies. While her family lived on the run, she would learn math on an abacus, train as an Olympic hopeful, practice Sikhism and then celebrate her bat mitzvah, come to terms with the disappearance of her brother, become a successful fashion model, and ultimately watch her unconventional yet close-knit family implode. Diamond’s unforgettable memoir, NOWHERE GIRL: A MEMOIR OF A FUGITIVE CHILDHOOD (Available in Paperback: June 14, 2022; $16.95), is a harrowing, clear-sighted, and surprisingly humor-filled testament to a childhood lost and an adulthood found. With its page-turning candor about forged passports and midnights escapes, this is, in the end, the searing story of how lies can destroy a family and how truth can set us free.

Diamond, whose acclaimed first book, Model: A Memoir, earned her accolades as “America’s next top author” in The New York Times Style Magazine, begins her story with her earliest memories as a four-year-old in India. Even at that tender age she had been schooled by her complicated and controlling father to never make a mistake, never betray the family, and never become attached to a place or other people. As the family continent-hopped, switched religions, paid for everything in cash, assumed new names time and again—always one step ahead of the law—young Cheryl (then called Bhajan) developed the burning need to achieve and win approval. By twenty-three she had seen so much of the world, but only through a peculiar lens that had somehow become normal. And she was plagued by fundamental questions: Who am I? And how can I find the courage to break away from the people I love most – because escaping is the only way to survive.

Content Warning: all kinds of abuse, illness, sexual harassment, incest

I haven’t read a memoir in awhile but I found the premise of this story very intriguing. When I was reading Cheryl/Bhajan’s story I for one was amazed that she could remember so far back into her childhood and with so much detail. I don’t remember anything at age 4! But her childhood is unique, scary, and quite traumatic.

I found it to be a very quick read, especially in her early years because she and her family were on the run and traveled so much, barely setting roots anywhere – their whole life was one of multiple identities, loads of lies and I can’t imagine how they even kept it up. Of course eventually things fell apart.

A lot of the chapters end abruptly but I think that works for the most part because their life was always changing but by the end I felt like the story like chapters of her life, were fleeting. Like as a reader, I never got to put down roots into the story also, with her life in her 20’s really felt like it sped by quickly. There was modeling, then Cheryl seeing her dad for what he truly was and suffering from Crohn’s disease but it all seemed so rushed.

I can’t imagine the abuse all of them went through trying to please their father. And what kind of upbringing is that for children? I felt horrible for Cheryl and her siblings. Their whole family was so toxic. All her life it seems she was trapped – it was nice to see there was a happy ending and healing.

Why you should read it:

a family on the run – pretty wild story
to see how it ends and if they get caught
Cheryl’s determination to heal from her traumatic childhood

Why you might not want to read it:

it’s a quick read but a lot of the chapters also feel rushed and abrupt – there were times I wondered how true these details were, especially when she was young
her father is a horrible man

My Thoughts:

Overall, I found this memoir pretty entertaining but also scary and sad. I don’t wish that kind of lifestyle on any child and it was just sad to read about what she went through – even if she had happy memories, there were so many scary ones that she had to internalize all her childhood. I’m glad she came out of the experience alive and learning how to heal with therapy, and knowing who to cut from her life.

📚 ~ Yolanda

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cheryl Diamond is now a citizen of Luxembourg and lives between there and Rome. Her behind-the-scenes account of life as a teenage model, Model: A Memoir, was published in 2008. Diamond´s second book, Naked Rome, reveals the Eternal City through the eyes of its most fascinating people.

“A shocking rollercoaster ride of a story that shares secrets of life on the run but also asks big questions about what family means and who we truly are, no matter what the name on a passport might say.”

—Town & Country

“Within the autobiographical subset of children-overcoming-adversity that was defined by Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle (2005) and Tara Westover’s Educated (2018), Diamond’s tale might just be the most mind-blowing of them all.”

—Booklist, Starred Review

“Like Tara Westover’s Educated, Cheryl Diamond’s memoir tells the harrowing story of how crippling a childhood can be under the despotic narcissistic rule of a controlling father….”

—New York Journal of Books

This Wicked Fate by.Kalynn Bayron | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: This Wicked Fate (#2)

Author: Kalynn Bayron

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 6/21/22

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Categories: Greek Mythology, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Family

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

Thank you to Bloomsbury for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

How much would you risk to save the ones you love? Would you tempt even the most dangerous fate?

Briseis has one chance to save her mother, but she’ll need to do the impossible: find the last fragment of the deadly Absyrtus Heart. If she is to locate the missing piece, she must turn to the blood relatives she’s never known, learn about their secret powers, and take her place in their ancient lineage. Briseis is not the only one who wants the Heart, and her enemies will stop at nothing to fulfill their own ruthless plans. The fates tell of a truly dangerous journey, one that could end in more heartache, more death. Bolstered by the sisterhood of ancient magic, can Briseis harness her power to save the people she loves most?

Content Warning: violence

The second book in the This Poison Heart series continues right away from events in book one. This time, Briseis has to help save her mom but she has lots of help.

There is a lot of action in this one as Briseis and her group come up with a plan to find the last piece of the Absytrus Heart to save her mom. The story immerses us even more into Greek mythology so if you love mythology, you will love this book. The story is fast paced and full of adventure especially when they go after the Heart.

A lot of characters from book one are here again: Marie, Nyx, Mo, Circe and Persephone. Even Karter makes an appearance towards the end. The lovely LGBT+ representation is in the story again with Marie and Briseis’ budding romance. It’s not the main focus of the story but it was nice to see. And of course I was rooting for Bri’s mom to be saved!

Only thing for me was I have to be in the mood to read stories about Greek mythology and I had a little trouble getting back into the story in the beginning.

Why you should read it:

LGBT+ representation
Greek mythology, magic, and adventure
love of family

Why you might not want to read it:

not into Greek Mythology

My Thoughts:

I think this was the perfect conclusion to this duology series. It’s got action, adventure, romance, magic, Greek mythology, LGBT+ representation and it’s a beautiful story about family.

📚 ~ Yolanda

WWW Wednesday | 6/15/22

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

nothing for now since I have a lot I have to finish up!

I have a lot of books to read! What are you reading right now? Have a good week!

Happy Reading!!

~ Yolanda

The Inadequate Heir by. Danielle L. Jensen | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Inadequate Heir (The Bridge Kingdom, #3)

Author: Danielle L. Jensen

Format: ebooks (borrowed)

Pages: 625

Publication Date: 5/24/22

Publisher: CLA

Categories: Series, Romantasy, Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Forbidden Love, Fantasy, Kingdom Politics

Return to the world of The Bridge Kingdom in this sensuous fantasy full of romance and intrigue that is perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Silver Flames.

A soldier raised as heir to an empire, Zarrah is motivated by two truths. The first is that the Veliant family murdered her mother. And the second is that her pursuit of vengeance will put every last one of them in their graves.

The Endless War between Maridrina and Valcotta has raged for generations, leaving thousands of Zarrah’s people dead and countless more orphaned. So when she’s given command of the contested city of Nerastis, Zarrah is prepared to do whatever it takes to destroy the Maridrinian forces who oppose her. And to kill the Veliant prince who leads them.

Yet a chance encounter with an anonymous, and handsome, Maridrinian causes Zarrah to question whether the violence she’s perpetrated is justice or a crime. And as she continues to meet the nameless man each night, she finds common ground – and fiery passion – in his arms.

But when identities are revealed, Zarrah must decide whether to embrace a chance at peace…or march to the drums of war.

Content Warning: violence, torture, death

This is Keris’ story and I thought it was interesting how it runs parallel to The Bridge Kingdom timeline. So this is basically happening while Lara is infiltrating Ithicana and falling for Aren! I did like Keris’ and Zarrah’s perspectives on the different sides of the war because it’s a war between kingdoms. The wonderful world building is back and because this is from outside Ithicana we get a broader scope of the different kingdoms at war with one another. I love everything about the war between kingdoms, the players in it – the unsuspecting ones like the Harem, and I think it’s just written so well! You feel the high-stakes politics being played out from the beginning to the end of this book.

As for Keris, I expected nothing less than the bookish, non-fighting, womanizer that we meet. This is Lara’s full brother! He is charming and clever, staying out of the limelight so he can scheme but Zarrah is his downfall and the way it ends is tragic. Zarrah is a warrior and I love that she’s tough! They are both trying to find their way to peace between their kingdoms while falling for one another. And let me tell you – these two together are scorching hot! Zarrah is a woman not shy about what she wants and Keris gives it to her.🔥

King Silas and the Magpie are in strong villain form but the ending indicates Zarrah’s aunt Petra, the Empress is even worse than they are and I look forward to reading the next book to find out what she has done and see if Keris and Zarrah can ever be together.

By the way, I loved seeing Aren and Lara in this through Keris and Zarrah’s perspectives, I’ll always love those two.

The only thing about this being parallel to The Bridge Kingdom events is that it’s a longer book and smashes the events in the first book into this one. I kept trying to remember the things that happened in the first two books and I’m glad I remembered because it really is a story that I stuck in my head.

Why you should read it:

you love the first two books in the series – Aren and Lara make an appearance in this book also since the timeline coincides with events in The Bridge Kingdom
Keris and Zarrah are hot together! Enemies to lovers, forbidden love, all the feels
high-stakes politics, great world building

Why you might not want to read it:

you haven’t read the first 2 books

My Thoughts:

I liked how this paralleled The Bridge Kingdom as we get to see another perspective and this time from Keris and Zarrah. There are many factors at play in this high stakes political romance story and it fits so well in the series. I love Keris and Zarrah but I can see they have a few challenges to overcome between them. I can’t wait for the next book to see how Keris and Zarrah can make their love work – I’m rooting for them!

📚 ~ Yolanda

Quotes from the Book:

I do want to remake the world so that I can be with you. So that I can get down on my knees and ask you to be my wife. So that I can put a crown on your head and make you my queen. So I can build a shrine and worship you as my goddess. I want all of these things, yet I face a future with none of them, and I don’t know whether I want to fall on my own blade or burn everything to ash because I do not want to let you go.”
– Danielle L. Jensen, The Inadequate Heir

A lifetime wouldn’t be enough. Eternity wouldn’t be enough. Not when I want to map every star in the sky with you in my arms.”
– Danielle L. Jensen, The Inadequate Heir

10 Books I Wish Had a Better Ending | Top Ten Tuesday | 6/14/22

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!

This week’s topic is: (freebie topic)

10 Books I Wish Had a Better Ending

I honestly don’t keep notes on which books didn’t have an epilogue so I’m changing it up today to say which books I wish had a better ending! 😅

** Icky family secrets – was hoping for spooky vibes and instead got icky vibes!**

**Natalie’s actions in the end toward Reid was too much – was so annoyed with her.**

**The ending was so sad…and I never picked up the rest of the books in the series.**

**Everything about this story was rushed.**

**Why throw in a love triangle teaser at the end?! Just no. 😦 **

**Another one that seemed so rushed…**

**I wanted more witchcraft.**

**The ending was interesting but left me so unsatisfied.**

**Sad ending 😦 **

**I felt like the sacrifice in the end wasn’t worth it. 😦 **

This one was a bit of a challenge. How did you do for this week’s prompt?

What’s on your TTT?

~ Yolanda

Happy Book Birthday | New Releases | 6/14/22

Happy book birthday to these new releases!

Alex Turner is never The One–but always the last one an ex dates before finding love–and now she’s determined to find out why in this hilarious new rom-com.

Single divorce attorney Alex Turner is watching reality TV when she sees her latest ex’s new fiancé picking out her wedding dress. Yet again, the guy she dumped went on to marry (or at least seriously commit to) the next person he dates after her. Fed up with being the precursor to happily ever after, she decides to interview all her exes to find out why.

Up-and-coming chef Will Harkness mixes with Alex like oil and vinegar, but forced proximity growing up means their lives are forever entwined. When Will learns Alex and her friends are going on a wild romp through Los Angeles to reconnect with her ex-boyfriends, he decides to tag along. If he can discover what her exes did wrong, he can make sure he doesn’t make the same mistake with Alex.

On this nonstop journey through the streets of LA, Alex realizes the answer to her question might be the man riding shotgun…

She’d failed them. All of them. And now she was paying the price.

Kiva thought she knew what she wanted—revenge. But feelings change, people change… everything has changed.

After what happened at the palace, Kiva is desperate to know if her friends and family are safe, and whether those she wronged can ever forgive her. But with the kingdoms closer to the brink of war than they’ve ever been, and Kiva far away from the conflict, more is at stake than her own broken heart.

A fresh start will mean a perilous quest, forcing mortal enemies and uneasy allies together in a race against the clock to save not just Evalon, but all of Wenderall. With her loyalties now set, Kiva can no longer just survive—she must fight for what she believes in. For who she believes in. But with danger coming from every side, and the lives of everyone she loves at risk, does she have what it takes to stand, or will she fall?

Two teen vigilantes set off on an action-packed investigation to expose corruption and deliver justice in Valiant Ladies, Melissa Grey’s YA historical fiction novel inspired by real seventeenth century Latinx teenagers known as the Valiant Ladies of Potosí.

By day Eustaquia “Kiki” de Sonza and Ana Lezama de Urinza are proper young seventeeth century ladies. But when night falls, they trade in their silks and lace for swords and muskets, venturing out into the vibrant, bustling, crime-ridden streets of Potosí, in the Spanish Empire’s Viceroyalty of Peru. They pass their time fighting, gambling, and falling desperately in love with one another.

Then, on the night Kiki’s engagement to the Viceroy’s son is announced, her older brother―heir to her family’s fortune―is murdered. The girls immediately embark on a whirlwind investigation that takes them from the lowliest brothels of Potosí to the highest echelons of the Spanish aristocracy.

For Dracula lovers and fans of Diana Urban’s All Your Twisted Secrets, this spine-tingling thriller follows seven horror buffs as their dream trip to a remote Romanian castle turns into a nightmare when they begin to be killed one by one.

Alex Rush is ready for the trip of a lifetime.

She and her friends have made some creepily awesome films together throughout high school, so with only a few months left before they go their separate ways for college, they’re determined to make the best one yet: an epic short film that reimagines the story of Dracula, filmed on location at a remote castle in Romania.

But when they get there, it’s not quite the majestic setting they planned for. Menacing weapons line the walls, the twisted halls are easy to get lost in, and with no connection to the outside world, the group is unexpectedly off the grid. After just a few hours spent under its roof, Alex and her friends have no trouble imagining how this dark, terrifying castle inspired one of the most enduring horror novels of all time.

Only soon they no longer have to use their imaginations to understand the location’s terrifying history—just as they get the film’s first shot rolling, one of Alex’s friends disappears, and she’s nearly certain she saw a cloaked stranger lurking in the shadows. As more members of the group begin to meet an untimely demise, Alex is desperate to stop the bloodshed, even if it means facing a monster she never thought would be let loose.

“An absolutely breathless read. Nowhere Girl is a courageous, heart-breaking, and beautifully written story of a girl doing everything in her power to protect the ones she loves.”
—Paul Haggis, Academy Award-winning writer/director of Crash, Million Dollar Baby, and Casino Royale

By the age of nine, I will have lived in more than a dozen countries, on five continents, under six assumed identities. I’ll know how a document is forged, how to withstand an interrogation, and most important, how to disappear . . .

Wild, heart-wrenching, and unexpectedly funny, Nowhere Girl is an inspiring coming-of-age memoir about running for freedom against the odds.

To the young Cheryl Diamond, life felt like one big adventure, whether she was hurtling down the Himalayas in a rickety car or mingling with underworld fixers. Her family appeared to be an unbreakable gang of five. One day they were in Australia, the next South Africa, the pattern repeating as they crossed continents, changed identities, and erased their pasts. What Diamond didn’t yet know was that she was born into a family of outlaws fleeing from the highest international law enforcement agencies, a family with secrets that would eventually catch up to all of them.

By the time she was in her teens, Diamond had lived dozens of lives and lies, but as she grew, love and trust turned to fear and violence, and her family—the only people she had in the world—began to unravel. She started to realize that her life itself might be a big con, and the people she loved, the most dangerous of all. With no way out and her identity burned so often that she had no proof she even existed, all that was left was a girl from nowhere.

Surviving would require her to escape, and to do so Diamond would have to unlearn all the rules she grew up with. Like The Glass Castle meets Catch Me If You Can, Nowhere Girl is an impossible-to-believe true story of self-discovery and triumph.

Are you getting any new books this week? Happy Reading! ~ Yolanda