Tag: reading

#Rombklove 2020: Day 1 Comfort Reads

May 1st, 2020

Hello, friends! How are you today? Can you believe it’s already May?

Since I missed it last year, I decided to participate in #Rombklove this month. It’s a month-long celebration of the romance genre brought to you by Ana Coqui.

Here are the prompts for the month:

Day 1: Comfort Reads

This is a great prompt because this past month I’ve been doing a lot of comfort reading and, more recently, thinking about what authors and subgenres are comforting to me.

I’m not much of a re-reader so I don’t have specific go-to books, but I do have authors I’ve turned to when the anxiety and/or stress has ramped up. One of them is the inimitable Tessa Dare. I listened to The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke #2) last month, and it was precisely what I needed. It’s narrated by Mary Jane Wells, who is an excellent voice actor. It made me laugh and boosted my hope in humanity, and I loved the heroine Alex. Here’s a more in depth review of the book.

Another of my go-to authors for comfort reads is Sarah MacLean. Her books are feminist and lovingly written. One of my favorites of hers is A Scot in the Dark (Scandal & Scoundrel #2), which I read in 2018 and then convinced a friend to borrow last year. It features one of my all-time favorite couples, Lily Hargrove and Alec Stuart, the Duke of Warnick, an imposing, broody Scotsman.

Because of my love of Sarah MacLean’s books, I’m currently reading Brazen and the Beast (The Bareknuckle Bastards #2). Hattie is a savvy, curvy, and determined heroine, and I’m quite fond of her.

So it would seem historical romances featuring smart, determined female characters have provided the comfort reads I’ve needed recently. Perfectly fine with me.

What books, authors, and/or tropes do you go to for comfort reads?

Until next time, friends!

Litsy | Goodreads | Instagram
WWW Wednesday

April 22nd, 2020

Hello, friends! How are you? I hope your day is going well and you’re continuing to stay safe.

Today is Earth Day, and it’s a hot and sunny one (91 degrees Fahrenheit) where I am.

Welcome to another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words. It involves answering three W questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

What I’m Currently Reading

The Expats by Chris Pavone

I’m not very far into this yet, but I’m not sure how I feel about it or if I’ll keep reading. There’s something off about the tone for me. Maybe the book is still finding its footing? We shall see.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I’m reading this children’s fantasy novel for my IRL book club. We’re meeting virtually next week to discuss it.

What I Recently Finished Reading

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

I read this book in one day. It’s a very quick read about a CIA analyst in Russian counter-intelligence who discovers something that changes everything and tests her loyalty. I’ll be sharing a spoiler-free review of it soon.

What I’m Reading Next

I have no idea! Lol. Since I’m a mood reader, I’ll probably browse Overdrive/Libby and my bookshelves to see if anything catches my eye.

What about you? What are you currently reading? Have you recently finished anything good?

Litsy | Goodreads
Manic Monday: Currently Reading

April 20th, 2020
Hello, friends! I hope today’s treating you well and you’re staying safe.

It’s Monday again, so I’m back with a rundown of what I’m currently reading.

What I’m Reading

Info: Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

January 23rd 2018 from Ballantine Books

Summary: What do you do when everything you trust might be a lie?

Vivian Miller is a dedicated CIA counterintelligence analyst assigned to uncover the leaders of Russian sleeper cells in the United States. On track for a much-needed promotion, she’s developed a system for identifying Russian agents, seemingly normal people living in plain sight.

After accessing the computer of a potential Russian operative, Vivian stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents within America’s borders. A few clicks later, everything that matters to her—her job, her husband, even her four children—are threatened.

Vivian has vowed to defend her country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But now she’s facing impossible choices. Torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion, who can she trust?

I picked this ebook up on a whim on Overdrive late last night. I had just finished devouring a different thriller, The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger (review to come soon) and was looking for something with similar pacing and deft writing. I proceeded to fly through the first 20% of Need to Know before succumbing to the need for sleep on my couch.

I’ve found mystery/suspense/thrillers provide great distractions and escape during these bizarre and depressing times of whiplash-fast change. And my local library has been a great source of backlist titles that I never got around to reading when they first came out.

Books I DNF’d Last Week

Not surprisingly, the list is somewhat long!

Info: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

This travel/adventure memoir returned to the library in Libby before I could renew it, and I don’t feel the need to continue reading it at the moment. With that said, I will probably eventually return to it, as it’s well-written and fascinating.

Info: A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian

The fact that I dnf’d this book last week doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, or even that I didn’t like it. As a mood reader, I don’t make myself finish reading a book that I’m not interested in. Life’s too short. Reading historical romance in ebook or paper format isn’t my cup of tea right now.

Info: How Not to Fall by Emily Foster

Info: Headliners (London Celebrities #5) by Lucy Parker

How Not to Fall as well as Headliners are both on my “DNF or finish later” Goodreads shelf now because I plan to finish reading them at some point in the future.

What are you currently reading? What kind of books have you been reading? Do you DNF books?

Until next time, friends. Happy reading!
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First Lines Fridays

April 17th, 2020
Hi, friends! I hope today is treating you all right and you’re staying sane during these strange times.

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!
Ballard and Jenkins rolled up on the house on El Centro shortly before midnight. It was the first call of the shift. There was already a patrol cruiser at the curb out front and Ballard recognized the two blue suiters standing on the front porch of the bungalow with a gray-haired woman in a bathrobe.

Sound familiar? Any guesses?

The Late Show (Renée Ballard #1) by Michael Connelly

July 18th 2017 from Little, Brown and Company

Summary: Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she’s been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.

But one night she catches two cases she doesn’t want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner’s wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the cases entwine they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won’t give up her job no matter what the department throws at her.

This is one of my current reads. I began it this morning shortly after waking up (sometimes I read while still in bed as my brain’s coming online lol). Because the new season of Bosch, one of my favorite TV series, became available today, I was thinking yesterday about reading Michael Connelly’s books. Bosch is an Amazon original based on Connelly’s Harry Bosch series of detective novels.

A still from season two of Bosch.

I was able to check out the first book in Michael Connelly’s newest series about LAPD detective Renée Ballard thanks to Overdrive and my local library. I’m not crazy about the premise of the book, but I like Ballard so far.

Until next time, friends. Happy reading and stay safe.
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WWW Wednesday

April 15th, 2020
Hello, friends! I hope you’re doing well wherever you are.

Welcome to another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

There are three W questions to answer:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

What I’m Reading

Devil’s Daughter (The Ravenels #5) by Lisa Kleypas

February 19th 2019 from Avon

Buy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Summary: Although beautiful young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, has never met West Ravenel, she knows one thing for certain: he’s a mean, rotten bully. Back in boarding school, he made her late husband’s life a misery, and she’ll never forgive him for it. But when Phoebe attends a family wedding, she encounters a dashing and impossibly charming stranger who sends a fire-and-ice jolt of attraction through her. And then he introduces himself…as none other than West Ravenel.

West is a man with a tarnished past. No apologies, no excuses. However, from the moment he meets Phoebe, West is consumed by irresistible desire…not to mention the bitter awareness that a woman like her is far out of his reach. What West doesn’t bargain on is that Phoebe is no straitlaced aristocratic lady. She’s the daughter of a strong-willed wallflower who long ago eloped with Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent—the most devilishly wicked rake in England.

Before long, Phoebe sets out to seduce the man who has awakened her fiery nature and shown her unimaginable pleasure. Will their overwhelming passion be enough to overcome the obstacles of the past?

Only the devil’s daughter knows…

I started reading this earlier today, so I don’t have much to say about it yet–except how much I like the pretty cover. After reading a sample on Libby (thanks, library!) and then seeing the 6 month long waitlist for their one ebook copy, I borrowed the audiobook version. It’s narrated by Mary Jane Wells, who might be a new favorite narrator of mine.

What I Recently Finished Reading

The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke #2) by Tessa Dare

August 28th 2018 from Avon

Buy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Summary: After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke’s heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart . . . without risking her own.

Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education—in pleasure. That should prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling . . . and he’s in danger of falling, hard.

I stayed up late last night to finish reading The Governess Game despite feeling tired because I stayed up late the night before reading it. That’s how much I enjoyed this historical romance.

What I Might Read Next

Wicked Intentions (Maiden Lane #1) by Elizabeth Hoyt

August 1st 2010 from Grand Central Publishing

Buy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Summary: Infamous for his wild, sensual needs, Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire, is searching for a savage killer in St. Giles, London’s most notorious slum. Widowed Temperance Dews knows St. Giles like the back of her hand-she’s spent a lifetime caring for its inhabitants at the foundling home her family established. Now that home is at risk . . .

Caire makes a simple offer-in return for Temperance’s help navigating the perilous alleys of St. Giles, he will introduce her to London’s high society so that she can find a benefactor for the home. But Temperance may not be the innocent she seems, and what begins as cold calculation soon falls prey to a passion that neither can control-one that may well destroy them both.

I’m not sure if this will be the book I read next, but it’s definitely at the top of my ever-growing tbr. I’ve heard good things about the Maiden Lane series, and Wicked Intentions is currently on sale for $1.99 on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.

Have you read any of these books? What are you currently reading?

Until next time, friends. Stay safe!
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Manic Monday: What I’m Reading

April 13th, 2020
Hello, readers! It’s Monday again, and I hope the day’s treating you well.

Without further ado, here’s what I’m currently reading:

How Not to Fall (Belhaven #1) by Emily Foster

June 28th 2016 from Kensington

Buy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Annabelle “Annie” Coffey is a super intelligent undergrad student in her last semester of university when she decides to ask Dr. Charles Douglas, the brilliant and attractive postdoc fellow in her research lab, to sleep with her. For (obvious) ethical reasons, he turns her down.

Since Annie’s graduating in a mere few weeks, she’s hoping their budding friendship “can turn physical–just until Annie leaves for graduate school.”

I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I like this book so far. I’m about 22% in, and I find the voice of Annie completely engaging and believable. It turns out Dr. Charles is also British, endearingly awkward, and kind. Part of me thinks How Not to Fall may be Emily Foster’s answer to Fifty Shades of Grey, which I’ve never read.

After taking a little break from devouring books to play some Animal Crossing over the weekend, I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this.

Headliners (London Celebrities #5) by Lucy Parker

January 20th 2020 from Carina Press

Buy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Sabrina Carlton and Nick Davenport have been rival TV presenters for years. Now, with both of their reputations suffering, they’re forced to work together as cohosts of a morning show in an effort to save the show and their careers.

I started listening to the audiobook over the weekend–surprising no one, I’m sure. As with the previous book in the London Celebrities series, Billie Fulford-Brown narrates the audio. And I am here for it. 🙂

What about you? What are you currently reading?
WWW Wednesday

April 8th, 2020
Hello, readers!

Today I’m sharing WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

Interested in participating? Answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments of Taking on a World of Words’s weekly post.

The Three W questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Current Reads

Pretty Face by Lucy Parker

I started listening to the audio of Pretty Face late last night (thanks, Hoopla!). After taking advantage of a price drop on my favorite contemporary romance—Act Like It by Lucy Parker–to get a copy for my Kindle yesterday, I decided to look for its follow up in the London Celebrities series. (Act Like It is still on sale for $1.99 on Amazon.)

I thought getting back to reading the London Celebrities series, which now includes five books, would provide some relaxing listening while I wound down for bed. I didn’t anticipate how thoroughly the book would reel me in–and how much comfort it would bring.

My Goodreads progress update for today says, “I am loving this book. The narrator does an excellent job.” The author does, too. Parker’s writing is sterling and her heroine witty. Already, I recommend this audiobook, and I haven’t even finished it yet.

A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian

Not too far into this novella, so I can’t comment much. I have a feeling it’s going to be a slow-ish read, as historicals sometimes are for me.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

I’m about 20% into this fascinating and informative adventure memoir about Krakauer’s fateful ascent to the summit of Mt. Everest in 1996.

I began it while in a narrative nonfiction mood post Bad Blood. After making the mistake of reading this right before bed (and sometimes falling asleep to it), I had a few disturbing dreams. Now, Into Thin Air is a daytime read for when I have a few hours to devote to it.

Recently Finished Reads

Sourdough by Robin Sloan

A software engineer inherits the sourdough starter from her favorite sandwich shop and then discovers a secret, underground world in near future San Francisco.

I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads, as it was an enjoyable read. It took me a while to get through, but that’s probably because I’m not the biggest fan of magical realism.

Reading Next

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

As co-moderator of a local book club (meeting virtually due to COVID-19), I chose Coraline as April’s read. I plan to listen to/watch Neil Gaiman and friends read this children’s book on Mouse Circus, Gaiman’s official site for younger readers.

I was inspired by Gaiman recently giving “blanket permission” to educators to read his books on video to each other on Twitter.

Besides Coraline, I don’t know what I’ll read next. I’m very much a mood reader.

What about you? What have you recently finished reading? What do you think you’ll read next?

Until next time, wonderful people. Stay safe out there.
Coming Back from a Break

February 11th, 2020

Hello and happy Tuesday, lovely people! It’s been awhile since I posted. Life’s been busy, and I took a break from reading for a bit there.

Personal

When my time has been free from planning for next month’s wedding celebration, I’ve been watching streamers/broadcasters on Twitch. My favorite streamers play The Sims 4, and their streams are often cozy and welcoming. I can have a channel going on my laptop while I play The Sims 4 on my Playstation 4 or my husband’s PC.

It’s provided a much needed change of pace.

What I’m Reading and Planning

Currently, I’ve got a small stack of books from the library to read, including this month’s pick for my IRL book club:

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

It’s a YA historical with fantasy elements. I’ll share a review as soon as I finish reading it.

I’m also planning on expanding my blogging to encompass more nerdy media in addition to books. I’ll review video games I’m playing and share thoughts about upcoming releases and gaming in general as well as continue to share my thoughts on books I read and bookish topics.

Have you read Sky in the Deep or anything else by Adrienne Young?

Have a wonderful Tuesday!
Goodreads Monday #1: An Upcoming Release

January 13th, 2020
Hello and happy Monday, fellow book lovers! I’m trying a new book feature starting today. 🙂

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners. For this meme, you choose a random book from your Goodreads TBR to share and talk about.

This Week’s Book

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Publication Date: February 18, 2020

The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn’t right at the Sun Down, and before long she’s determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

Three Reasons It’s on My TBR
1. The book is shelved as mystery/thriller on Goodreads and described as suspense in its summary, and I don’t read many thrillers or suspense novels. They’re genres I want to read more of this year–to push my reading outside my comfort zone–especially thrillers and suspense by female authors.
2. I’ve heard good things about Simone St. James’s previous books.
3. The cover captured my eye.
Is The Sun Down Motel on your TBR? Have you ever read anything by Simone St. James? If so, what did you think? Let me know in the comments!