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.

9/30/2025 If you could live in a different country for a year, which country would you choose?

Ireland!!! All those green hills, old castles, the language. Yes it would be Ireland.

10/7/2025 What's a movie or TV show that you'd recommend to everyone?

10/14/2025 Has a book ever ignited a hobby/passion in you?

10/21/2025 What’s something you rebelled against as a kid?

10/28/2025 What was your favorite Halloween (or cosplay) costume? *Bonus for photos!

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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Carole´s Monday: Onyx Storm

Author: Onyx Storm

Title: Rebecca Yarros

Series: The Empyrean #3

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 544

Published: January 21, 2025

Where I got It: Borrowed friend's copy

Summary: 

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.

Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.

Review:

Been holding off on reading this because I KNOW the next book is not released yet and I just knew that this ending was probably going to piss me off again and then leave me needing answers. Sighs. I finally caved and started this bad boy. 

We pick up where we left off. Violet and her friends need to figure out how to stop the wards from failing and find allies for this upcoming war. The trip will take them to unfamiliar lands and test all of their wit, luck, and strength. They need an army, power, and most importantly....magic. However, there is a secret that she must keep that threatens everyone she loves. 

The beginning couple of chapters was intense and great and fun. Things came to a screeching halt for a while though. It dragged and dragged and dragged. If I hear Violet say how hot Xaden is ONE more time I will screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam. We get it Violet. He's a hunk and you love him. I honestly feel like some of this was filler that could've been trimmed down a bit. Don't get it twisted...I loved the talking bits and the political intrigue. That is always entertaining. However, there for sure some filler parts. It felt like the author just wanted to add extra pages to make this bigger. 

Andarna! You sweet, sweet bean of a dragon. I love her so much. 

The ending. Well. TWIST! AND CLIFFIE! GAH! Dang author got me again. I literally flipped the last page a couple of times looking for more. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

All-in-all, I did enjoy this continuation. I worry for everyone and especially Xaden after the conclusion of this one. The cliffie is intense and we do not have another book yet. GAH! I can't wait! I truly hope the author does some good editing though. There was SO much filler in this one. SOOOOO much. It dragged the plot down at some points. We don't need 500+ pages. It's rare that a story needs that much. I think we could've shaved about 50 pages and it would've helped the plot and story. 

Ignoring my annoyance with the filler scenes, I liked this book. I hope the series stays this good or gets better. 

I struggled with a rating. I think 3.5 would be perfect, but Goodreads doesn't have decimals. So after some complicated mathage I decided to land on 3. MAINLY for the fact the other two were better by a margin.

3 stars. 

Favorite Character(s): Andarna

Least Favorite Character(s): No spoilers....but there was a group of dragons that needed to be kicked. PLUS our big baddie of this one.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Format: 482 pages, Paperback

Published: January 14, 2025 by Tor Nightfire

Historical fiction Horror/borrowed

Horror, eh, no, there is no horror, except for the horror of girls being sent away to a home and their babies taken from them.

Fern is 15 and gets sent away to a house for unwed mothers. Their families lie where their daughters are. And here they are pretty isolated, bored and doing chores. While others preach that they ruined their lives and how good it will be to give those sins away.

It is very real and raw at times. The girls all have different stories and hopes, but in the end those are crushed. The babies are all adopted and the girls sent home like nothing happened.

The horror I guess comes from the said title, Fern gets a book about witchcraft and she and her new friends try it out. Magic is real, but there is always a price...

I enjoyed it a lot. It was easy to read and the pages flew by. I really wanted to know how it all turned out. I think the only negative part was part of the kind of epilogue that takes place 40-50? years later. That felt different, a new tone. It was not long, but somehow...bittersweet.

Def a pageturner.

I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I'm going to have to do an evil thing to get out.'

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they're sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she's going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby's father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what's best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it's never given freely. There's always a price to be paid...and it's usually paid in blood.

Audio: The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott

By: Kate Elliott

Narrated by: Ella Lynch

Series: The Witch Roads, Book 1

Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins

Release date: 08-19-25 by Tantor Media

Fantasy/to review

An interesting fantasy set in an interesting land. Where spores can kill you, where the borders are a bit? Like what is beyond, we do not know, it might kill us.

Elen is a courier, she knows the land, well her corner of it. She walks the same roads, she checks for infestations. She does have a past, and it takes some time to unravel that.

Because before that a prince arrives with his entourage, and needs passage. And she has to help them. But what is the prince´s goal? Also she is so lowborn so it is not like she or anyone really could ask .

Off they all go on a dangerous adventure and something happens to the prince....

Great adventure, danger, hidden pasts and that end, how could you do that to me?! Now I need the next book.

Great narration too. She gave a real feel of places and people

When an arrogant prince (and his equally arrogant entourage) gets stuck in Orledder Halt as part of brutal political intrigue, competent and sunny deputy courier Elen―once a child slave meant to shield noblemen from the poisonous Pall―is assigned to guide him through the hills to reach his destination.

When she warns him not to enter the haunted Spires, the prince doesn’t heed her advice, and the man who emerges from the towers isn’t the same man who entered.

The journey that follows is fraught with danger. Can a group taught to ignore and despise the lower classes survive with a mere deputy courier as their guide?