TMST

 

10/27/2026  Who do you want on your team during the zombie apocalypse and why?

Real people? No one!

People I do not know? Someone who knows the woods and knows how to survive. I also need a doctor that can help out. I am thinking Mr Woods guy does not know everything so I need some sort of McGyver type too. Oh and someone who is great with hand to hand combat, knives and the works. Everyone who can help me survive.

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog. Feel free to leave your links in the comments if you are participating.

If you are interested in participating in TMST or receiving periodic emails that list the upcoming TMST topics and questions,  please fill out this GOOGLE FORM.  Participation is optional and never required.

Carole Monday: Mate

Author: Ali Hazelwood
Narrator: Ellie Gossage & Teddy Hamilton

Title: Mate

Series: Bride #2

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Fantasy
Format: Audiobook

Published: October 7, 2025
Where I Got It: Library


Summary: 

Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey for the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left if he'll have her.

As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn't matter if Serena doesn't reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…

Review:

Been meaning to read book 2 for a while now. I enjoyed book 1 so much. But you know how it goes...things get...well...forgotten and put on the back burner. 

Okaaaayyyyy. Here we pick up around-ish where we left off, but now we are following Serena. She is a half-human, half-were. She didn't know it until now. She is the first of her kind, and people either see her as a threat or a way for relations to heal between the species. She wants to be left alone in her cabin, but with her enemies closing in around her...Koen brings her to his pack. 

Awwww I adore Serena sooooo much. I feel so bad for her. She has not had a good time of it in her life, but she is so kind and loving. 

OooooOooo Koen is a rough one, but he will worm his way into your heart, especially after....a certain scene LOL. 

This world is sooo fun. I want to learn more, but it sounds like we are only getting these two books....not even a spin-off! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT!? AUTHOR NOOOOO! I want more. There are some friends I want to see find love. Find happiness. GAH. 

I loved watching the progression of this love story. It is a super, duper slow burn because Koen can't and won't allow her to get close. Rules are rules, baby. No further explanation/spoilers coming from these lips...aka fingers....

The narration was fine. I wasn't crazy about the formatting. It is all in Serena's POVs, but we get like a sentence or two of Koen's POV at the beginning of each chapter. And the male voice reads all the male dialogue. Mmm. Not crazy about it for sure. MORE KOEN PLEASEEEE.

But yes, I enjoyed this, and I want more of this world and these groups of people. I feel like there are sooooooo many stories that could be told. Sadly, there isn't a Book 3 anytime soon or at all. Maybe the author will hear my prayers. 

4 stars from me. It would be 5, but the narration format didn't sit well with me. I read a physical book for book 1, so I have zero idea what they did with that. 

Reading Challenges

- Audiobook #46

- Library Love #27

Visa citerad text

The Killing Time by Elly Griffiths

Series: Ali Dawson (#2)

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Published: February 12, 2026 by Waterstones UK 

Mystery/Crime/From library

No more time travel. Her coworker is stuck in the 1850s. Life goes on.

Ali gets a new cold case and that takes her into contact with a medium. Who says strange things. There is also the fact that she has proof that she will travel back in time again. And then her cat goes missing! Ok, this sounds weird when I write it, but dang I would do anything for my cat too.

Ali is mean to have an affair in the past so will that happen now? Wink wink? Will she ever find her cat? And can the medium really see ghosts as he knows things?

I enjoyed it and I like Ali, she is 40+. Been married 3 times and takes no shit.

Ali Dawson is a police detective who leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel to the distant past to solve them. But Ali and the team haven't been allowed to time-travel ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London, never to be seen again.

To distract herself from meaningless tasks, Ali decides to look into a present-day case - a series of apparent suicides, all young men who fell to their death from high places. She believes the deaths are linked to a psychic medium called Barry Power, who convinced the boys they could fly. Ali goes to one of Power's shows where he claims to be in contact with Jones.

When Ali notices that evening that her cat, Terry, has gone missing, she decides to go back in time just long enough to prevent Terry from escaping through his open cat flap. A dangerous plan which backfires, and she finds herself once more in Victorian London, where she meets Jones, as well as Power, and the darkly mysterious Cain Templeton with whom Ali has unfinished business from her previous visit to the past . . .

A New Start at the Happily Ever After Bookshop by Emma Bennet

Series: Book 1, Castle Cove

Release date: 08-27-26

Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher: Audible Studios

Narrated by: Clare Corbett

Romance

I was looking at audible freebies and found this one. It was cute and fun and the bookshop drew me in.

Carrie is a single mum and then her aunt asks her to look after her bookshop by the seaside for a month. First she is all no, but then she realises, that she and her kid needs this.

Cute bookshop! A happy kid. A resident bookshop cat. And most of all, a handsome neighbor called Micheal.

Nice narration and a cute book. I enjoyed it

Single mum Carrie Worsley doesn’t need another disappointment — she needs a fresh start. So when she’s offered the chance to run her great-aunt’s romance bookshop in the Cornish seaside town of Castle Cove, she packs up her six-year-old daughter and takes the leap.

Secret beaches. Golden sunsets. And The Happily Ever After Bookshop — a pastel-pink sanctuary filled with stories of second chances. But it’s only temporary.

Until she meets Michael — the quiet, brooding, local bookbinder with kind eyes and an adorably chaotic dog!

Michael isn’t looking for forever. Carrie doesn’t believe in it anymore. But stolen glances turn into slow-burn tension. Friendly coffees become lingering touches. And suddenly the chemistry isn’t just fictional — it’s undeniable.

Between sea-salted evenings, cinnamon-scented mornings, and long afternoons lost among the shelves, Carrie begins to wonder . . .

What if this time, the love story is hers?