July Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

This month was a month of saying goodbye to the job I've had for 10 years. I've worked at the same school for so many years and because of my move I'm quitting the job! Luckily for me I've been talking with a project for Libraries at Schools, so hopefully something will come of it. 

Summer holiday has begun for me. I've been just doing what I want, relaxing and working on myself and my physical and mental health.

One of the most fun things this month is me babysitting this cute 10 year old boy who also stays the night every now and then. We have so much fun!

Not much other news, other than me going way overboard with my haul AGAIN. Well, let's just say that money can't buy happiness but it can buy books!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of relaxing and good books.

😎

Review: Tonight You’re Dead (Sandhamn Murders #4)

Author: Viveca Sten

Started reading: July 10th 2022

Finished the book: July 16th 2022

Pages: 411

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Mystery

Published: November 14th 2017

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 4.08

My score:

Synopsis

Soon to be divorced, attorney Nora Linde is finding her way as a single mother, and even falling in love again, when she’s asked by her childhood friend Detective Thomas Andreasson to help in a disturbing investigation. Marcus Nielsen, a university student, has apparently committed suicide, but it’s what he’s left behind that’s so suspicious and damning: his research into the Coastal Rangers, an elite military group where, in 1976, a young cadet died under questionable circumstances, a sadistic sergeant went free, and a case went cold.

When two of Nielsen’s contacts are also found dead—and diaries of their tortuous training turn up missing—Thomas and Nora are certain that whatever happened three decades ago is unforgivable. And for someone who wants to keep those secrets buried—unforgettable. Now they must fight against time to expose a cover-up that hasn’t yet claimed its last victim.

Sunday Post #42

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead.

Review: Welcome to Ferry Lane Market (Ferry Lane Market #1)

Author: Nicola May

Started reading: June 9th 2022

Finished the book: July 8th 2022

Pages: 384 / 8:53:00

Genres: Romance, Fiction

Published: July 22nd 2021

Source: Storytel Audiobook

Goodreads score: 4.11

My score:

Synopsis

Although thirty-three year old Kara Moon loves her hometown of Hartmouth in Cornwall, she has always wondered if she should have followed her dream of leaving to study floristry. But she couldn't bring herself to leave her emotionally delicate single father, and has worked on Ferry Lane Market's flower stall ever since leaving school.

When her good-for-nothing boyfriend cheats on her and steals her life savings, she finally dumps him and rents out her spare room as an Airbnb. Gossip flies around the town as Kara welcomes a series of foreign guests to her flat overlooking the estuary.

Then an anonymous postcard arrives, along with a plane ticket to New York. And there begins the first of three trips of a lifetime, during which she will learn important lessons about herself, her life and what she wants from it - and perhaps find love along the way.

Review: People We Meet on Vacation

Author: Emily Henry

Started reading: July 1st 2022

Finished the book: July 4th 2022

Pages: 364

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Chicklit

Published: May 11th 2021

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 3.99

My score:

Synopsis

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Review: Fallen (Will Trent #5)

Author: Karin Slaughter

Started reading: June 27th 2022

Finished the book: June 30th 2022

Pages: 432

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Published: October 16th 2012

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.21

My score:

Synopsis

There's no police training stronger than a cop's instinct. Faith Mitchell's mother isn't answering her phone. Her front door is open. There's a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother's house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn't see is her mother. . . .

""You know what we're here for. Hand it over, and we'll let her go.""

When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions, not enough answers. To find her mother, she'll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and they'll both need the help of trauma doctor Sara Linton. But Faith isn't just a cop anymore--she's a witness. She's also a suspect.

Review: Awakening (Queen of Spades #1)

Author: E.J. Dawson

Started reading: June 22ne 2022

Finished the book: June 27th 2022

Pages: 280

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance

Published: April 10th 2020

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads score: 4.38

My score:

Synopsis

Ayla is a villain. With a gift that allows her to see when anyone will die, she’s remorseless in her profession as the perfect assassin. When she wakes up in a cryo-tank three thousand years in the future, and no idea how she came to be there, all that matters is survival.

Rescued by Leith and the crew of the Nuria, Ayla discovers a far evolved world of space ships and galactic colonization. But everything comes with a price, and though Ayla is no princess locked in an icy tower, she still has to pay for the rescue she didn’t know she needed.

Given over to Leith, a darkly handsome man who reads Ayla far easier than she’d like, they must work together if Ayla is to repay her debt. As the pair come to learn how dangerous one another are, so too grows a lustful bond that comes with rules of its own. Fighting to learn why she was frozen, Ayla’s dragged into Leith’s past with a criminal organization seeking to take over this sector of the galaxy. In order to survive, Leith will need Ayla’s help, but Ayla doesn’t know if she’s willing to pay what it will cost her…

Two WWII Reviews: Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation & The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

 

I'm waaay behind on reviews, so I decided to review these two WWII books together and put my reviews for them in one post.

Both books that definitely distressing. 

Let's dive right in!

Review: Typecast

Author: Andrea J. Stein

Started reading: June 18th 2022

Finished the book: June 21st 2022

Pages: 400

Genres: Women's Fiction

To be Published: September 13th 2022

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads score: 3.90

My score:

Synopsis

At thirty-one, Callie Dressler is finally comfortable in her own skin. She loves her job as a preschool teacher, and although living in her vacant childhood home isn’t necessarily what dreams are made of, the space is something she never could have afforded if she’d stayed in New York City. She knows her well-ordered life will be upended when her type A, pregnant sister, Nina; adorable four-year-old niece; and workaholic brother-in-law move in, but how could she say no when they needed a place to crash during their remodel? As Nina pointed out, it's still their parents’ house, even if their mom and dad have relocated.

As if adjusting to this new living situation isn’t enough, the universe sends Callie another wrinkle: her college boyfriend—who Callie dumped ten years earlier for reasons known only to her—has a film coming out, and the screenplay is based on their real-life breakup. While the movie consumes her thoughts, Callie can’t help wondering if Nina and her friends are right that she hasn’t moved on. When a complication with Nina’s pregnancy brings Callie in close contact with Nina’s smart and funny architect, Callie realizes she'd better figure out whether she wants to open the door to the past—or risk missing out on her future.

Review: Song of Phoenix and Ink (Song of Phoenix and Ink Duology #1)

Author: Margherita Scialla

Started reading: June 15th 2022

Finished the book: June 17th 2022

Pages: 306

Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQIA+

Published: May 3rd 2022

Source: Digital copy from the author

Goodreads score: 4.08

My score:

Synopsis

[new adult fantasy novel with polyamory themes.]

All Nadzia Kaminski wanted was to finish writing her novel.

When she finally finished the manuscript for Crimson Mayhem, she did what any writer would: gave it to her best friend to read. Her friend’s reaction, however, wasn’t what she had expected and, upset by her criticism, Nadzia left her at the café where they had met.

Waking up the next morning, Nadzia was no longer in her bedroom, finding herself in a world of her creation, surrounded by dangerous magic and vaguely familiar settings. With a country at war and no clear way home, time is running out and Nadzia has to find a way to gain the trust of the very people she created and figure out her confusing feelings for two of her own characters.

She soon realizes stories aren’t perfect when there is no one left to write them.

Sunday Post #41

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead.