- Audiobook #20
Monday 29 April 2024
Carole´s Monday: Longbourn - Dragon entail
- Audiobook #20
Friday 26 April 2024
Three nights with a scoundrel by Tessa Dare
Series: Stud Club (#3)
Format: 362 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published: February 1, 2022 by Ballantine Books (first published 2010)
Historical romance /own
The only Dare book that I had not read, but now I have caught up and there are no more.
Lily is mourning her brother. Now she is left all alone. She is also deaf and her brother always helped her out at times in society settings.
Julian was her brother´s friend and he is obsessed with finding the person who killed Leo. So it is also a murder mystery as he is trying to hunt down the killers and the why. He is also a bastard and not of their class.
He will help her find a husband. She wants him as her husband. Sparks fly, danger closes in, and he will also slowly realise that he can not live without her. Silly men, not knowing what they need.
It has been ages since I read the other books in the stud club. This is also one of her earlier series. So it took me almost 10 years to finish this series, oops, but this last one was harder to get a hold of.
A fun Dare as always
The bastard son of a nobleman, Julian Bellamy is now polished to perfection, enthralling the ton with wit and charm while clandestinely plotting to ruin the lords, ravish the ladies, and have the last laugh on a society that once spurned him. But after meeting Leo Chatwick, a decent man and founder of an elite gentlemen’s club, and Lily, Leo’s enchanting sister, Julian reconsiders his wild ways. And when Leo’s tragic murder demands that Julian hunt for justice, he vows to see the woman he secretly loves married to a man of her own class.
Lily, however, has a very different husband in mind. She’s loved Julian forever, adores the man beneath the rakish façade, and wants to savor the delicious attraction they share—as his wife. His insistence on marrying her off only reinforces her intent to prove that he is the only man for her. Obsessed with catching a killer, Julian sinks back to the gutters of his youth, forcing Lily to reach out with a sweet, reckless passion Julian can’t resist. Can her desire for a scoundrel save them both—or will dangerous secrets threaten more than their tender love?
Wednesday 24 April 2024
Audio: The backup bride proposal by Jaci Burton
Narrated by: Holly Chandler
Series: Boots and Bouquets Series, Book 4
Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
Release date: 04-23-24
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Contemporary romance/to review
Mae works at a vineyard with weddings. Kane is a big movie star. She does not recognize him at first and his interest is peeked. The faith throws them together as he is a filming a movie there and she has to help out.
She is not interested in longterm...but he is darn handsome. While he likes the fact that she likes who he is and not the movie star.
Sparks fly at once, but it still takes time. I have not read the previous book, but they are there in the background and it seems like their books could be good too.
Sweet, some spice and some drama before they find their HEA
Good narration. A voice that could play with all emotions and voices. It felt right at home
Bellini Weddings has agreed to allow a production company to film a movie at Red Moss Vineyards. It will be great PR for both the vineyard and the wine and wedding businesses. Mae Wallace, who works for the Bellini family, is thrilled with the possibility of new business. What she isn’t thrilled with is actor Kane August, who she finds crashing one of the weddings. He tells her it’s research for the movie, but she finds him overconfident and annoying.
Kane August is rarely surprised by anything—until he meets Mae Wallace. She’s sharp, just a bit on the snarky side, and the most refreshing woman he’s had the pleasure of meeting. She constantly challenges him, and he can’t remember having this much fun on a movie set. He takes every opportunity to spend time with her, peeling back layers until he gets to the heart of who this amazing person really is. And, unexpectedly, he realizes that he’s letting her in, too, something he hasn’t done with anyone before. However, they live very different lives and he’ll need to be careful around Mae, because she’s someone he could see a future with. But can she see the same thing?
When Kane takes her to his family’s ranch in Texas, Mae discovers a whole new side to him, learning about the heart and soul of a kind and gentle man. And as they grow closer, her guard goes up. Once burned, she has no intention of falling in love ever again, despite this very hot and sexy guy who’s trying his best to turn her world upside down and work his way through the steely wall she’s built. Kane is determined to show her he’s the one man she can trust with her heart. If only Mae will allow herself to fall.
Tuesday 23 April 2024
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.
4/23/2024 TBR Update: How is your list coming along?
The previous TMST post I had with all my unread books, well I am happy to say that 3 are read and I am reading a 4th. So slooooow going.
4/30/2024 Social Media: Where can you be found these days?
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.
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Monday 22 April 2024
Carole´s Monday: It´s in his kiss
Friday 19 April 2024
The pumpkin spice café by Laurie Gilmore
Series: Dream Harbor (#1)
Format: 357 pages, Paperback
Published: August 31, 2023 by One More Chapter
Romantic cozy mystery /library
I am unsure what this book tries to be. Not contemporary romance. Maybe romantic fiction, maybe a bit of cozy mystery. Edit. Oh now I see, romantic cozy mystery, dang reviews and tiktok for saying other things
I saw a tiktok review who was all spicy! Ha, it takes them almost 300 pages to get it in. Most of the book is about his trauma that no woman wants a small town boy. The romance felt a bit lacking. I do think it would be a fun movie though, if they put the romance in focus. Hallmark cheese for sure. The cover really spell it out.
The mystery is that someone does not seem to want her there. I¨d be angrier than she was for sure
The grumpy sunshine feel is not really there either. He is more oh the trauma of my ex leaving me. And she is, well normal.
The book club people sounded fun though.
And yes it was ok. Filled with cheese, and easy read
When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.
Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.
Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes…
Wednesday 17 April 2024
Birdbox by Josh Malerman
Series: Bird Box (#1)
Format: 381 pages, Paperback
Published: December 13, 2018 by HarperVoyager
Library/fiction horror dystopic
Now this was scary. It even gave me nightmares, yes I am a lightweight. I liked the kind of horror that is not blood and gore. Instead it is the what is out there?!?!?!?! And I do not know what is out there. Damn that is scary.
The world is ending. People see something and go insane. They kill others or each other. And since everyone snaps no one knows that they saw before they did it. Malorie is pregnant and tries to find safety. She finds a safe house, all winds boarded up. Never go out without a blindfold. Never let anyone in before checking. They are shut in in this house. Not knowing. But having to go outside for water and finding food. Claustrophobic as the worlds ends around them, and they do not have a clue.
Like wtf is out there? Why did everyone go insane? Is there safety? Are people still alive in the world? They are isolated and if there are people they are hidden too.
Such a good book, but since my imagination is way too vivid it did make me dream.
Malorie raises the children the only way she can: indoors, with the doors locked, the curtains closed, and mattresses nailed over the windows.
The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall, but soon she will have to wake them and blindfold them.
Today they will risk everything. Today they will leave the house.
Tuesday 16 April 2024
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.
4/16/2024 What new-to-you authors have you enjoyed in the past 12 months?
Ok so last year was the read of re-reads and Dare, and other ones I had read before, so not really any new authors that blew my mind.
Josh Malerman, so scary!
Janet Fitch, I really need to try other books by her
CL Polk. Fun and I need to try book 2
4/23/2024 TBR Update: How is your list coming along?
4/30/2024 Social Media: Where can you be found these days?
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.
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Monday 15 April 2024
Carole´s Monday: Godzilla x Kong
Rating: PG-13
Where I Got It: Movie theater
Sunday 14 April 2024
Audio. Only this Beautiful moment by Abdi Nazemian
By: Abdi Nazemian
Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Iman Nazemzadeh
Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
Release date: 05-09-23
Publisher: HarperAudio
YA fiction / from storytel.fi
I liked the other one I listened to by Nazemian, so I decided to try another one. It was a good one, but I did feel at the ending that I wanted more. Like now what? What happened next? Is there hope?
This is a book about 3 generation. Bobby whose mother is trying to make him a star. He is gay in a time that that certainly is not accepted. Then we have Saaeed who has to flee Iran because he took part in demonstrations. You know when they thought they made it better and they made it even worse. He did not even know that he has a grandmother living in LA and that she is American. Then there is Moud. Who is gay in a time when it is certainly more accepted, but he is going to Iran, where is so is not accepted. He will visit his dying grandfather (whose secrets he does not know.)
I think I would have liked to see Bobby actually go to Iran. And maybe more about Saeed later on. And def what Moud does afterwards. The book ends when they are all still in Iran and I just want to know that everything works out. Nothing says it will not, but yes I could have listened to more. I was so invested in these lives.
There were 3 narrators, and yes I chose the book too partly cos one of the narrators. I just really like his voice.
Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself. 1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country's burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse--he's forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed. 1939. Bobby , the son of a calculating Hollywood stage mother, lands a coveted MGM studio contract. But the fairy-tale world of glamour he's thrust into has a dark side. Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this tale of intergenerational trauma and love is an ode to the fragile bonds of family, the hidden secrets of history, and all the beautiful moments that make us who we are today.
Wednesday 10 April 2024
Audiobook: Christmas and other horrors
Narrated by: Carrie Coello, Andrew J. Andersen
Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
Release date: 03-19-24
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Horror/short stories/to review
A lot of short stories. All about different things too. We have Xmas, we have solstice, Hannukah. Lots of winter holidays, and lots of different monsters that show up. I still think those Austrian ones were the creepiest.
Some were better, some were meh, but that is the thing with an anthology. Some were not scary at all, some had some horror in them. Though none made me look at the window in fear.
But I do like short stories in audio. I really do. They work so well, a fast listen and on to the next one.
It was the same narrator, but I was so immersed in the stories that I didn´t really think about it. So she did well there. Same with the man.
"The Importance of a Tidy Home" by Christopher Golden:
A creepy tale about what happens if you have not cleaned your house before xmas.
"The Ones He Takes" by Benjamin Percy:
A sad xmas turns into a happy ones and then horror
"His Castle" by Alma Katsu:
I liked this one. A little twist to what happens in Wales on xmas
"The Mawkin Field" by Terry Dowling:
I am not really syre if I understood this one fully, I think, but, what? Not scary either
"The Blessing of the Waters" by Nick Mamatas
Another not scary one about a runaway inmate and blessed waters
"Dry and Ready" by Glen Hirshberg:
It took me a while to get it, but yes no eerie feels here before the boom at the end
"Last Drinks at Bondi Beach" by Garth Nix:
I liked this one. I wondered about a few things. It could have been longer. Never scary though
"Return to Bear Creek Lodge" by Tananarive Due:
I wondered about things here too. Like wtf was that thing? I want to know
"The Ghost of Christmases Past" by Richard Kadrey:
I had no idea where this was going, and it went dark
"Our Recent Unpleasantness" by Stephen Graham Jones:
This just had me confused what was happening.
"All the Pretty People" by Nadia Bulkin:
Kind of wanted more blood
"Löyly Sow-na" by Josh Malerman:
A story set in Finland, and all in the sauna. No xmas feels here. Just some wood demons I know nothing about
"Cold" by Cassandra Khaw:
I managed to fall asleep to it twice
"Gravé of Small Birds" by Kaaron Warren:
Same with this one, I feel asleep twice. Dunno why
"The Visitation" by Jeffrey Ford:
Interesting one. Creepy ending
"The Lord of Misrule" by M. Rickety:
A slow start, then it turned creepier
"No Light, No Light" by Gemma Files:
Could have been better
"After Words" by John Langan:
Confusing, but meant to be so
The winter solstice is celebrated as a time of joy around the world—yet the long nights also conjure a darker tradition of ghouls, hauntings, and visitations. This anthology of all-new stories invites you to huddle around the fire and revel in the unholy, the dangerous, the horrific aspects of a time when families and friends come together—for better and for worse.
From the eerie Austrian Schnabelperchten to the skeletal Welsh Mari Lwyd, by way of ravenous golems, uncanny neighbors, and unwelcome visitors, Christmas and Other Horrors captures the heart and horror of the festive season.
Because the weather outside is frightful, but the fire inside is hungry . . .
Tuesday 9 April 2024
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.
4/9/2024 What have you been watching? Share your TV show or movie picks.
I have been watching Love is Blind. Sometimes I just need the drama, and watching stupid people doing stupid things.
Right now we started watching Monk. I used to watch it, but it was not one of those watch every ep shows, so we are binging on it now. Fun.
I have started a bunch of shows that seems good, but yup, doing our Monk marathon now so they must wait
4/16/2024 What new-to-you authors have you enjoyed in the past 12 months?
4/23/2024 TBR Update: How is your list coming along?
4/30/2024 Social Media: Where can you be found these days?
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.
Monday 8 April 2024
Carole´s Monday: The set up
- Audiobook #18
Friday 5 April 2024
Witchmark by CL Polk
Series: The Kingston Cycle (#1)
Format: 318 pages, Paperback
Published: June 19, 2018 by Tor.com
Fantasy/library
I even had this as a free ebook, but we all know those never get read here. So I picked it up from the library, finally! And I am glad I did because this was a really well written book. The one that is just so well written that you just float along for the ride.
It was an interesting world, an England of sorts where WW1 just ended and the men are returning home. Many with ptsd. There is magic, but the upper families hide that they are in fact the ones holding it. Miles the main character has magic, but he has the kind that he is doomed to be a sort of magic slave to someone else. Someone who would take magic from him and leave him used up. So he left.
There is a murder mystery that goes deep, and there is a threat that is growing bigger for each moment. Actually several threats but who is counting. And then there is a romance blossoming between Miles and a handsome stranger he meets.
But damn it was a trilogy! Now I need more, damn it.
In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own.
Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans' hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.
When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.
Wednesday 3 April 2024
Best of March
Best TV show of the Month:
Blodeuedd - Love is Blind
B's pick - "Also best cover cos so cool!" |
Tuesday 2 April 2024
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.
4/2/2024 Are you fluent in more than one language?
Well, I like to think that I am pretty good at English, but who knows.
I can understand Norwegian at times (depends on where they are from), reading is easy. I can read Danish, but damn I struggle with understanding. Not fluent then since I can not speak either of them.
My German is rusty, so no I am not fluent. I think I am at that point that it is so far from school that I can understand but not really speak anymore. I did take 3 years of it.
And last, the bane of my existence, Finnish. The hardest language in the universe. Yes, yes I can understand, obvi, but please do not make me speak it. The grammar is so hard. I make so many mistakes. I aced word exams and understanding, but failed miserably at written things
And for those who went, what, isn´t she Finnish? We have two national languages, mine being the latter, and that is why I have a much easier time with indo-european languages than Finnish.
4/9/2024 What have you been watching? Share your TV show or movie picks.
4/16/2024 What new-to-you authors have you enjoyed in the past 12 months?
4/23/2024 TBR Update: How is your list coming along?
4/30/2024 Social Media: Where can you be found these days?
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.