TMST

 

 

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,

6/30/2026 Mid-Year Check-In: What books have you loved so far in 2026?

I who have never known men by Jaqueline Harpman! Amazing!

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman is such a fun series

This kingdom will not kill me by Ilona Andrews, what a start to a new series!

And many more :D It has been a good 6 months

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´s Monday: By his vow

Author: Tracy Lorraine

Title: By His Vow

Series: Callahan Billionaires #1

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format: ebook

Pages: 678

Published: April 21, 2024

Where I got It: My shelf (Bookbub)

Summary: 

As the daughter of a powerful businessman, I wasn’t expecting to inherit much when my father suddenly passed.

There was only one thing I truly wanted.

The cottage— the only place that ever felt like home.

But it turns out that I got a lot more than I bargained for.

Kingston Callahan.

Arrogant, egotistical, power-hungry, demanding and all the other not-so-charming attributes I despised.

He’s also my brother’s best friend.

And now, thanks to my dearly departed father, my husband for the next year.

He’s everything I hate about the life I was born into. Everything I’m not.

One short year...three hundred and sixty-five days in return for the life I've always dreamed of.

It’s a merger, not a marriage, but I’m not prepared for the hunger Kingston uncovers with his touch.

It’ll all be over soon, just so long as I remember not to catch real feelings for my fake husband while we’re pretending.

Review:

I picked this up because 1) freeeeeeee and 2) it fit a reading challenge. It all seemed like the perfect storm. 

Here we have Kingston and Tatum. The two have known each other for years. After the death of her father, she thinks she'll finally get the quiet life of her dreams at the family cottage, and she'll be out of the family business for good. However, her father and Kingston have other plans for her. To get her cottage and be left alone, she has to marry Kingston for one year and, hopefully, give him a baby. Problem? She hates him.

Sighs. 

Sighs again but louder and more eye rolling. 

I hate Kingston. I hate his face. Tatum RUUUUUUUN!!!!

I'm a smut gal, and this had too much smut. It was like every other page. Did they ever really talk? Barely. That is why it took 600+ pages for them to finally get on the same page; they were able to finally talk here and there in between the rolling around on the sheets. UGH.

I powered through because I wanted the credit for the reading challenge, and I had the smallest bit of hope maybe, just maybe, Kingston would grow on me. He finally did...kinda....in the epilogue *faints*

But yes. Not for me. This has a high rating, so people must love it. I guess I'm in the minority on this one. 

2 stars. I give this an extra star because I liked Tatum and her cat. Good kitty! Scratch him again!!!!!

 

Reading Challenges:

- Reading Romance Challenge #15 (Blind Date/Arranged Marriage)

The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

Series: The Cosmere Universe (#19)

Format: 385 pages, Paperback

Published: March 4, 2024 by Gollancz

Sci.fi/own

I did feel like I was thrown into the middle of a story. Nomad is on the run and jumps from planet to planet to escape some bad guys. And this planet sucks. You have to be on the move constantly escaping the sun. It is so powerful that it melts everything in its path. Luckily the planet is small but yes run run run around the planet.

And a crazy guy wants to rule everyone. He also leaves people to burn to death and then collect their souls to power the machines that take them across the world.

Nomad must save the planet....

Interesting world. Scary world. I enjoyed the story, but at the same time. Maybe I am like beginning to tire, everything is good, but not fantastic anymore

Years ago he had comrades in arms and a cause to believe in, but now the man who calls himself Nomad knows only a life on the run. Forced to hop from world to world in the Cosmere whenever the relentless Night Brigade gets too close, Nomad lands on a new planet and is instantly caught up in the struggle between a tyrant and the rebels who want only to escape being turned into mindless slaves-all under the constant threat of a sunrise whose heat will melt the very stones. Unable to understand the language, can he navigate the conflict and gain enough power to leap offworld before his mind or body pay the ultimate price?

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates

Format: 342 pages, Paperback

Published: August 14, 2016 by Black Owl Books

Horror/borrowed

If your house starts feeling creepy, if birds flee your house, if the dead seem to move, get the F OUT!

Adrienne is out of luck, money and a place to live so when she inherits an house she goes there at once. Sure the house seems creepy, locals thinks it is haunted, and her unknown great aunt´s family were all slaughtered there....yes get the F OUT Adrienne!

The houses is filled with messages like your family is dead....no mirrors!...light a candle on Friday. But who cares about that. Oh you should care Adrienne, you should care.

Things get darker and darker, until they are so dark there is no way to escape anymore. It is just Adrienne and her cat and whatever there is in that house.

I enjoyed it. It starts of with not much happening, then it gets a bit eerie, and then it gets creepy and scary.

There's something wrong with Ashburn House...

The ancient building has been the subject of rumours for close to a century. Its owner, Edith, refused to let guests inside and rarely visited the nearby town.

Following Edith's death, her sole surviving relative, Adrienne, inherits the property. Adrienne's only possessions are a suitcase of luggage, twenty dollars, and her pet cat. Ashburn House is a lifeline she can't afford to refuse.

Adrienne doesn't believe in ghosts, but it's hard to ignore the unease that grows as she explores her new home. Strange messages have been etched into the wallpaper, an old grave is hidden in the forest behind the house, and eerie portraits in the upstairs hall seem to watch her every movement.

As she uncovers more of the house's secrets, Adrienne begins to believe the whispered rumours about Ashburn may hold more truth than she ever suspected. The building has a bleak and grisly past, and as she chases the threads of a decades-old mystery, Adrienne realises she's become the prey to something deeply unnatural and intensely resentful.

Only one thing is Ashburn's dead are not at rest.