Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series | TTT | Top Ten Tuesday 8/6/24

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:

Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series

The Bridge Kingdom (#1) by. Danielle L. Jensen – The first book of The Bridge Kingdom series is probably my favorite because of just how everything begins!

A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR, #2) by. Sarah J. Maas – I honestly love book one a LOT, but then I think about Tamlin and then think about how I dislike so much in the rest of the series so I’m going to stick with book two as my favorite. Also A Court of Silver Flames is one of my favorites too but I figure book two was where everything for Feyra really changes.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (#1) by. Jenny Han – just everything about how they have history to fake dating is so good. I love the whole letter writing – because who does that nowadays?

The Sweetest Betrayal (The Kinder Poison, #3) by. Natalie Mae – book three in The Kinder Poison series is my favorite and just thinking about it makes me want to read the whole series again!

The Empress of Time (The Keeper of Night, #2) by. Kylie Lee Baker – I thought the second book in this duology was better than book one. It’s so dark and full of action.

The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1) by. R.F. Kuang – This book blew me away! I love the whole series but I think book one was amazing.

The Prison Healer (The Prison Healer, #1) by. Lynette Noni – I enjoyed this series and really like the first and third book but for this list I’ll pick book one.

Greythorne (Bloodleaf, #2) by. Crystal Smith – I rarely enjoy the second book in a series but I loved this one!

Legendary (Caraval, #2) by. Stephanie Garber – I loved Caraval but I loved Legendary more!

The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch, #3) by. Rin Chupeco – I almost DNF’ed the first book then gave it another chance and this became one of my favorite series. Book three gutted me and it’s my favorite!

What’s on your TTT?

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The Champions by. Kara Thomas | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Champions

Author: Kara Thomas

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 336

Publication Date: 8/27/24

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Categories: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller

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

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

From the author of The Cheerleaders comes another dark YA thriller set in the same town of Sunnybrook. When a mysterious accident befalls a member of the all-star high school football team, the town’s deadly history stands to repeat itself—and the price of discovering the truth is higher than anyone could imagine.

It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls’ killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school’s championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes–something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past.

Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team’s latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poisoned at a party, and almost immediately after, Hadley starts getting strange emails warning her to stay far away from the football team.It’s becoming clear Sunnybrook’s golden boys have secrets, and after a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley’s beginning to suspect that someone wants the team to pay for their sins. Or does this new target on the football team have something to do with what happened to the cheerleaders all those years ago?

As an outsider in Sunnybrook, Hadley feels like she’s the only one who can see the present clearly, but it looks like she’s going to have to dig up the darkness of the past to get to the bottom of what’s happening now. Luckily, there are still some Sunnybrook High grads who never left–people who were around eleven years ago—and if she can just convince them to talk, she might be able stop a killer before another Tiger dies.

Content Warning: underage drinking, death, mention of hazing, mention of rape

I never read The Cheerleaders but always wanted to and then I got the arc for The Champions and thought I could jump into the story without reading the first book and I think I caught up with everything pretty good.

Hadley is an outsider at Sunnybrook high school which has a winning and popular football team. She’s new to the town so she wasn’t there when the five cheerleaders died there in the past but of course she’s heard of it. She wants to go into the journalism and belongs to the school newspaper when she gets a chance to interview the football team but gets embroiled in something deeper.

This is a story about a school covering up the bad deeds of some of the popular boys in class and how things get unravelled and Hadley being in the middle of it all even if she is an “outsider”. She’s not best friends with any of the popular kids but they know her and talk to her so she’s not ignored at school.

I liked that the story moved fast and I didn’t get lost even though I didn’t read The Cheerleaders. It is the typical story of a cover-up in the athletics department of a popular school and kids getting hurt or killed because of this secret. I do think at times there were too many names for me to follow and I kept having to remind myself who was who.

My Thoughts:

This is a pretty solid, quick read! I was invested in finding out what the football team was covering up and it’s pretty bad but I’m glad in the end there was some justice.

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Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

That Weekend by. Kara Thomas | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Weekly Wrap Up | 8/4/24

Aloha friends!

This week was just us having some simple fun before school starts and to make sure I got all the school supplies. We went to my daughter’s meet and greet on Friday and dropped off all her school supplies. I have to remind the kids that it’s time to wake up early again lol…they don’t like that but at least it’s still August and not dark outside in the morning. So goodbye summer! Hello school days again.

Anyway, I hope all of you have a good week!

Blog Posts:

Ghostsmith by. Nicki Pau Preto | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Books I Wish Had More Romance In Them | TTT | Top Ten Tuesday 7/30/24
Happy Book Birthday | New Releases | 7/30/24
WWW Wednesday | 7/31/24
The Break-Up Pact by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️
First Lines Fridays | 8/2/24

Books I Read:

Can’t Help Falling in Love by. Sophie Sullivan
Nothing Like the Movies by. Lynn Painter

Currently Reading:

Why do I love this color combo right now in the titles I’m reading?! The pink and green? Love!🥰

Shadows of Perl by. J. Elle
Fear the Flames by. Olivia Rose Darling
Butcher & Blackbird by. Brynne Weaver
Isabel and the Rogue by. Liana De la Rosa
Happy Medium by. Sarah Adler

Shows/Movies/Music I Watched/Listened To:

House of Dragon –

Olivia Rodrigo Guts (Spilled) – I just added this vinyl album to my collection! 💜 I love it.

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!

Birthstone Book Covers: August – Peridot

The original creator of this book tag is **Leslie @ Books Are The New Black** so go check out her blog!

THE RULES

Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black ) and link back to me so I can see your post!
Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone.
HAVE FUN!
Nominate people if you want!

Let’s find some book covers in this color:

I nominate everyone! It’s a fun and easy tag to do so try it out. ☺️

First Lines Fridays | 8/2/24

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 was always a gamble, dropping off a body at Birdsall & Son, Undertakers, but this morning, the Bride of FOrtune favored Hart Ralston.”

⬇️

⬇️

Can you guess what book it is?

Did you guess it? Have you read this one?

📖 ~ Yolanda

The Break-Up Pact by. Emma Lord | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Break-Up Pact

Author: Emma Lord

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 8/13/24

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Categories: Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit

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

Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Two viral break-ups. One fake relationship. Five sparkling, heart-pounding dates.

June and Levi were best friends as teenagers – until the day they weren’t. Now June is struggling to make rent on her beachside tea shop, Levi is living a New York cliché as a disillusioned hedge fund manager and failed novelist, and they’ve barely spoken in years.

But, after they both experience public, humiliating break-ups that spread like wildfire online, a photo of them together has the internet convinced they’re a couple. With so many people rooting for them, they decide to put aside their rocky past and make a pact to fuel the fire by pretending to date. After all, that will help June’s shop stay open and make Levi’s ex realize what a mistake she made.

All they have to do is convince the world they’re in love, one swoon-worthy photo opp at a time. Then they can happily go their separate ways with no regrets . . . right?

Content Warning: grief, death of friend

I usually love Emma Lord books but I have to say this might be my least favorite of her books. Let’s start off with the things I did love. I loved when June and Levi finally get intimate with one another – the steamy scene was good. I also like this little beachside community that June, Levi and their friends grew up in – most of them stayed, some left and came back like June. But I liked that whole issue about leaving your hometown and maybe coming back after you’ve been out there in the world. Also, yes these people are in that time of their lives where they are settling down, or trying to figure out what their careers will be and all that, so that is relatable.

It’s got some fun tropes like fake dating and friends to lovers.

What I didn’t enjoy was the miscommunication between June and Levi which just created this huge riff between them. Life comes between them, they date other people, coincidentally they both get humiliated online and it goes viral – not sure how relatable that is, but Levi is still holding out for the girlfriend who cheated on him. That’s the current state of things in the story for most of the story which was frustrating. There is some fake dating, which gives us a chance to see the chemistry between them grow but honestly, I wasn’t feeling the fake dating and didn’t connect to the characters.

My Thoughts:

I’m bummed I didn’t love this one but I just wasn’t connecting with the characters and something was missing for me. I just wanted more from Levi at some points. The miscommunication trope has to be one of my least favorite in any book and it frustrated me in this one for sure. The story had some cute moments and even a good steamy scene but everything around that was complicated. Not my favorite but I’ll still be reading any books she writes!

Find me here: Instagram (bookstagram📚) | Instagram (crafts🎨) | Twitter (X) | Etsy (shop)

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Getaway List by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Begin Again by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When You Get the Chance by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

You Have a Match | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ARC Review | Tweet Cute ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WWW Wednesday | 7/31/24

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?

This is the LAST day of July folks…I am so not looking forward to being back to school/activities schedule next week lol…I have loved just lounging around with my kids and just enjoying time together. I feel like when school kicks in the days fly by SO fast and then you know it’s Christmas. I’m trying my best to get through this arcs and borrowed books but I think I’m reading too many at one time. 😅

What are you currently reading?

Shadows of Perl by. J. Elle – 37% – this one is slow going I think because I don’t remember much from book one! lol…but I’ll probably finish it by the end of this week.

Guava and Grudges – Alexis Castellanos – 2% – no progress

Nothing Like the Movies – Lynn Painter – 31% – I don’t know why but this one is slow going for me!

Isabel and the Rogue by. Liana De la Rosa – 3% – I’m hoping to get moving on this one because it’s a library ebook and soon it will expire!

Fledgling by. S.K. Ali – 13%

What have you just finished reading?

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by. Megan Bannen – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Can’t Help Falling in Love – Sophie Sullivan – ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

What are you going to read next?

What are you reading right now?

Happy Book Birthday | New Releases | 7/30/24

Happy book birthday to these new releases! Check out this list today:

That Prince is Mine by. Jayci Lee

A love-averse Korean royal court cuisine instructor in search of a perfect-on-paper husband is waylaid from her practical, heartbreak-proof plan when she meets a gorgeous professor—and prince in disguise—who will do anything to prove to her that love and happily ever after can be theirs.

Emma Yoon runs a small business as a culinary instructor in Los Angeles teaching Korean royal court cuisine to young ladies striving to marry into the exclusive upper crust Korean families. She has built her business alongside her renowned Korean matchmaker godmother, which brings her one step closer to her dream of opening up a culinary school on her own. But when her godmother’s fellow matchmakers decide to meddle in Emma’s love life in a bid to sabotage her godmother, and indirectly push Emma’s dream out of her reach, she must go on a series of arranged first dates and find herself the perfect-on-paper husband to help save both, her godmother’s reputation and her dream–even if she’s not ready for love. But when she meets Michel Aubert, a professor at USC, after a series of disastrous first dates, she wonders if she might reevaluate her position on love.

Prince Michel Aubert is bound by duty and responsibility to his country, but an arranged marriage is the last thing he wants. If he is going to spend the rest of his life in service of his people, then he at least wants someone he loves and trusts by his side while doing it. He needs to find a woman who loves him for who he is before his engagement to his handpicked bride is announced. Emma Yoon might be just the woman he is looking for.

Goodreads | Amazon

The Mirror of Beasts by. Alexandra Bracken

With the dream of Avalon in ruins, Tamsin and her friends are all that stands in the way of Lord Death’s plans to unleash the horrors of Anwnn on the world of the living. As the Wild Hunt carves a bloody path across continents, Tamsin is mustering allies, tracking down powerful artifacts, and traversing into new otherlands in search of a way to stop him.

Legend tells of a “Mirror of Beasts,” powerful enough to trap even Lord Death in its accursed glass, but the mirror is not all that it seems. Tamsin must confront her own darkest secrets if she hopes to tap the mirror’s strength to defeat her enemies.

Arthurian legend bleeds into contemporary action, and scars of the past are torn open anew by a starcrossed love that refuses to go quietly. This riveting conclusion to the Silver in the Bone duology will hold you in its thrall until the very last page.

Goodreads | Amazon

Castle of the Cursed by. Romina Garber

A delicious and dark gothic romance from bestselling author Romina Garber!

THE HOUSE IS ALWAYS HUNGRY…

After a mysterious attack claims the lives of her parents, all Estela has left is her determination to solve the case. Suffering from survivor’s guilt so intense that she might be losing her grip on reality, she accepts an invitation to live overseas with an estranged aunt at their ancestral Spanish castle, la Sombra.

Beneath its gothic façade, la Sombra harbors a trove of family secrets, and Estela begins to suspect her parents’ deaths may be linked to their past. Her investigation takes a supernatural turn when she crosses paths with a silver-eyed boy only she can see. Estela worries Sebastián is a hallucination, but he claims he’s been trapped in the castle. They grudgingly team up to find answers and as their investigation ignites, so does a romance, mistrust twined with every caress.

As the mysteries pile up, it feels to Estela like everyone in the tiny town of Oscuro is lying and that whoever was behind the attack has followed her to Spain. The deeper she ventures into la Sombra’s secrets, the more certain she becomes that the suspect she’s chasing has already found her . . . and they’re closer than she ever realized.

Goodreads | Amazon

The Grandest Game by. Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Get caught up in the puzzles, games, danger, romance, and riches of this lush new chapter in the #1 bestselling Inheritance Games saga.

Seven tickets. An island of dreams. The chance of a lifetime.

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win.

Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as tensions rise and the mind-bending challenges push the players to their limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally—it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the rules.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes delivers a brand-new series in the world of The Inheritance Games, where fan-favorite and new characters collide in a game you’ll never forget.

Do you have what it takes to play?

Goodreads | Amazon

Beneath These Cursed Stars by. Lexi Ryan

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lexi Ryan comes a romantic fantasy in which a human princess armed with death’s kiss and a fae shifter on the run become unlikely allies when a mission to assassinate an evil king collides with a fatal prophecy.

Princess Jasalyn has a secret. Armed with an enchanted ring that gives her death’s kiss, Jas has been sneaking away from the palace at night to assassinate her enemies.

Shape-shifter Felicity needs a miracle. Fated to kill her magical father, she’s been using her unique ability to evade a fatal prophecy.

When rumors of evil king Mordeus’s resurrection spread through the shadow court, Jasalyn decides to end him once and for all. Felicity agrees to take the form of the princess, allowing Jas to covertly hunt Mordeus—and starting Felicity on the path that could finally take her home.

While Jasalyn teams up with the charming and handsome Kendrick, Felicity sets out to get closer to the Wild Fae king, Misha. Kendrick helps Jasalyn feel something other than anger for the first time in three years, and Misha makes Felicity wish for a world where she’s free to be her true self. Soon, the girls’ missions are at risk right alongside their hearts.

The future of the human and fae realms hangs in the balance as fates intertwine. Between perilous tasks, grim secrets, and forbidden romances, Jasalyn and Felicity find that perhaps their stars are the most cursed of all.

Goodreads | Amazon

Are you getting any new books this week?

Happy Reading!

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Books I Wish Had More Romance In Them | TTT | Top Ten Tuesday 7/30/24

This week’s topic is: Books I Wish Had More/Less [Insert Your Concept Here] In Them

Books I Wish Had More Romance In Them

I live for romance in books! Here are some books I wish had MORE romance in them.

Check & Mate by. Ali Hazelwood – I LOVED this book but I wish there were more scenes between Mallory and Nolan.

The Break-Up Pact by. Emma Lord needed more romance and less miscommunication.

Heavenbreaker by. Sara Wolf needed lots more romance but I hope we get that in book two.

The Hemlock Queen by. Hannah Whitten – needs less of the love triangle unless it becomes a throuple 😅.

King of Sloth by. Ana Huang loses steam halfway through the book. It’s my least favorite book in this series and definitely needed more romance.

Fate of the Sun King by. Nisha J.Tuli did finally get the romance happening in this book but it would have been nice to get it earlier in the series!

This Summer Will be Different by. Carley Fortune – this one needed less of the drama conflict in the last part of the book. I think it had enough romance.

Just for the Summer by. Abby Jimenez – I felt needed more romance.

Destroy the Day by. Brigid Kemmerer – it had lots of couples but the main ones Corrick and Tessa were apart almost for the whole book! Needed more romance between them.

The Prisoner’s Throne by. Holly Black – I needed more romance between Oak and Wren.

What’s on your TTT?

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Ghostsmith by. Nicki Pau Preto | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Ghostsmith (House of the Dead, #2)

Author: Nicki Pau Preto

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 448

Publication Date: 8/13/24

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Categories: Young Adult, Fantasy, Series, Paranormal, Romance

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

Thank you to Margaret K. McElderry Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

In this action-packed finale to the House of the Dead Duology, Wren and her friends put everything they know to the test as they battle the living and the undead to save their world.Wren is still reeling from the revelation that the mother she thought was dead is actually the Corpse Queen, a ghostsmith with the terrifying power to control the undead. It was Wren’s own mother who created the iron revenants—an army of near unbeatable undead soldiers. When the iron revenants attack, no one in the Dominions will have the strength to stand in their way.

Now Wren, Leo, and Julian find themselves once more in the Breach, this time on the run from Wren’s father, who is determined to secure more power for himself and the House of Bone. The three are desperate to stop the upcoming war, but working together is easier said than done with Julian still furious about Wren double-crossing him. And to make matters worse, Wren is plagued by powerful new abilities that force her to reassess everything she knows about being a bonesmith.

When Wren’s long-lost twin brother shows up and vows to help her destroy the well of magic that feeds the iron revenants, she must decide if trusting him is worth potentially playing right into their mother’s hands. After all, the dead might be dangerous, but it’s the living who can betray you.

Content Warning: violence, death, war, evil parents

+ Once I got this arc I read it right away because I loved Bonesmith. The world-building in this book is consistent and it widens up now that we meet Hawke, who is Wren’s brother. He’s lived a very different life from Wren where he is help making the revenants as Wren is on the opposite end trying to kill them. We get more information about their horrible mother, Ravenna.

+ I like how this story keeps moving forward with action, betrayal and the conclusion. I think it’s a great duology!

+ The story has a lot of things going on with Ravenna’s plans to rule with her undead army, Julian and Wren trying to forgive one another, Prince Leo trying prove himself, and Hawke coming to terms how his mother is not a good person and Wren might be the only sane family member he has. I loved that the romance didn’t overtake the story – I like how Julian and Wren eventually work things out in the end. I also liked Hawke and Wren’s story – it was hard to trust Hawke, but he’s got some issues to work out with himself and his mother. They eventually team up together and I love that for them.

+ And how can I not mention Leo who is as charming as ever and brought the humor in the story where it needed it since it’s kind of a dark read.

~ I honestly love how tightly edited this duology is and it wasn’t too long! But I do wish there was more time for Hawke and Wren to get to know one another. I was surprised at how fast Wren forgave Hawke but it did show how Hawke was basically abused and controlled by Ravenna. Still, I wish the siblings had more time to get to know one another.

My Thoughts:

I appreciate how nicely this story actually moved. I loved the action which kept me interested in the story. It’s a dark story about the undead but I also liked the discussion about the dead – one side thinking they need to be set free, and the other that thinks the dead wants to be close to the living. Wren’s mother is an awful person but I’m glad despite having two horrible parents she turned out to be a fighter who was on the right side of things. The characters are great, the romance was just enough, and it’s a great conclusion to the duology!