Good morning, lovelies! Welcome to my review for Of the Trees, by E. M. Fitch! Boy, this was a hell of a ride for me and I didn’t expect to be left in the dark [haha] for so long =O I received my ebook copy from the publisher, Month9Books, in exchange for an honest review. Here we goo!
Cassie and Laney fancy themselves amateur ghost hunters. When a carnival comes to town, Cassie embraces the chance to try something new.
Carnival workers watch the girls with a collective gaze that ignites in Laney a dark and dangerous fascination, leaving Cassie unnerved.
It’s not just their age or the unsettling way they stare. There is something in the shifting of their skin and the way their features seem to change in the shadows.
Cassie can’s shake this sickening feeling that there’s more to the carnival than meets the eye.
When townspeople suddenly start dying and bloody warnings appear around town, Cassie is lured into a nightmare where trees whisper and strange, shape-shifting men haunt the backwoods she once hunted for ghosts with her best friend.
Then Laney goes missing, and only Cassie can get her back. But the creatures of the trees aren’t simply going to hand Laney over to Cassie without getting something in return.
(Alternative title: ridding a roller coaster wouldn’t have given me more emotions)
Moorning, everyone! Welcome to the review for my first read of 2017! I’d say we started the year with the right foot if only I could just forget about the 748543303 reviews from 2016 I still own you. Ugh.
Today I’ll be talking about another M/M romance that I received from Hidden Gems in exchange for an honest review: The Road Home, from Elsa Winters & Brad Vance. The time has arrived =D Thank you so much for my copy, guys!
Nick Carpenter grew up in the foster system after watching his parents die in a car crash. Now, he’s finally found a place for himself as an EMT. Partnered with a gruff but very competent paramedic as his first assignment in Seattle, he figures that it’s best to keep this working relationship strictly professional, even if Andrew is hot as hell.
Andrew Hazard loves his job, even if he gets paired with a different EMT every couple weeks. Once an EMT proves himself incompetent, Andrew makes no effort to be friends with them. That’s why it’s such a relief when Nick comes along. He keeps the ambulance stocked, he can drive well, and he knows how to start an IV. He’s great at saving lives, and also a great person to hang out with. From hiking to movies, they find themselves spending a lot of time with each other. Nick’s homosexuality definitely isn’t a problem, even though Andrew’s girlfriend jokes that he wants to spend more time with Nick than with her.
When Andrew gets the chance of a lifetime – going to the prestigious UCLA Medical School – his girlfriend doesn’t share his enthusiasm. And so, freshly broken up, Andrew asks Nick to go with him on a road trip down south to check out the area. Nick wants to keep him as his best friend, even though his romantic feelings have reached a fever pitch. But he also realizes that this could be his last chance to let Andrew know how he feels. Will Andrew let Nick into his heart, or will this road trip be their last hurrah?
(alternative title: SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME I HAVE BOOK 2 ON MY EREADER ALREADY, I’M DYING WITH THAT END)
Hello, turkey-stuffed friends! Or at least I hope I am not the only panda around that won, like 3074389302 tons since Christmas eve? Hahaha! But it’s okay if I am, I’ll soon go back to eating only bamboo and I’ll lose the hotness all over again #what
But don’t worry, we aren’t here today to discuss my diet or lack of one! I actually want to scream and fangirl talk about Boy Band, first book in the homonymous series by AWESOMETASTIC Jacqueline E. Smith! I have received a copy of this book and its sequel, Backstage, in exchange for an honest review and the moment is way over late here! Thanks so much again, Jackie! I’m a big fan, but I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with some ranting as well, haha!
Melissa Parker and Sam Morneau have been best friends forever. The kind of friends that have sleepovers, share food, drinks, their families… Whatever the other part needs or wants. No matter how big is their circle of friends, Mel and Sam always end up glued to each other and everybody is used to their twin deal and bizarre relationship.
Unfortunately, Mel’s tale has some glitches: first, Sam is one of the five guys that form The Kind of September, a. k. a. the world’s current greatest boy band. It’s been two and a half years of song recording, shows, tours, interviews and loving fans. SO. MANY. FANS. While Mel isn’t on the spotlight – she is just the band’s photographer, after all – she has been following the guys around since they started the band and witnesses all the wonders and craziness of the VIP world.
If you still think Mel’s life is a paradise, here’s glitch number two: Mel has been in love with Sam since always. How do you confess to someone who can have anyone he wishes? How to show Sam that her feelings were there even before the fame?
How to live without her other half if Sam doesn’t loves her back?
[alternative title: OMG THIS DYSTOPIAN IS ACTUALLY SO CLEVER OMG!]
Hello, guys! How’s everyone doing on this beautiful Sunday? I had a good amount of free time on Saturday, so I managed to prepare some reviews for this week in advance – go, me! Hahaha! In resume, the next posts will probably be scheduled, but I’m here all the time to talk, so please free to comment your heart away and I shall answer as soon as the time zones allow me to! ❤
But enough jibber jabber, I have important business with this post: dear readers, please meet Nobody’s Goddess, first book from the Never Veil series, by Amy McNulty!
I had read this book earlier this same year, but it was so mind blowing I couldn’t find the words to write a review – also, Amy told me the third book would be out in October, so I allowed my brain to be stunned for months and only made a re-read to accompany the last book in the series. Best decision ever ❤ Oh, I got this particular copy from Chapter by Chapter when I participated in their blog tour for Nobody’s Lady =) Thanks again, guys!
They say there is a man out there for every woman – in this case, quite literally.
Noll lives on a good sized village with a rather peculiar trait: men’s lives are dedicated to serve women. Or, more specifically, their respective goddess. Until they have their love returned for the women of their dreams, the men have to walk around in masks.
This is only the tip of the iceberg: women can choose to reject their men, but they will have to live alone and knowing no other men will ever love her. Also, if a woman without direct blood ties sees a man that has yet to have his love returned without a mask, the man will vanish within air.
Things have been like this forever, but Noll is sure it’s some kind of curse. She never quite fit in with the village girls, preferring to run wildly with the small boys, playing at wrestling and wars. One by one, the curse claimed her friends. As they found their goddesses, they abandoned Noll and everyone else. All her friends, except Jurij. Her beloved Jurij. Her sister’s man.
As things get out of control in Noll’s life with the approach of Jurij’s marriage, Noll accidentally falls into the waters of her favorite cavern… And finds herself at her own village, thousands of years ago. She finally has the chance to change her destiny, but at what cost?
Just remembering those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
Can I just start by saying OMG? Because I think that’s an exact definition for Nobody’s Goddess from beginning to end, seriously. This book stole my breath away twice in all the right moments and the cliff hanger on the last chapter would have killed me both times if I didn’t have the next book on me as well, haha! I’m not a huge dystopian fan, but this book has brilliant dystopian touches mixed with a lot of fantasy and OMG Amy McNulty is just totally ingenious writing anything she wants to! I promise I’ll gather my shit together and start my analysis, but this was a high-five stars book! ;D did you see what I did there?
Ahem, now that I’m more controlled, let’s talk about narrative: first person from Noll’s perspective. I can sense some jaws dropping from people that follow me for a while, as I just gave five stars to a book in first person and be prepared to feel your jaws dropping lower: I fought with Noll almost all the time. Our love/hate relationship was epic and extreme, but still I loved the book. The story was just too good, even with all the rage in Noll’s head, haha! The pace of the story is also really good and very fluid.
The plot was brilliant. McNulty plays with her reader, dividing her twists in two categories: the ones you see coming and the ones that take advantage of your self-satisfaction at being right about the sequence of happenings in the story and push you to your knees in the ground until your face is touching the earth too. She understood so well my double personality about being able to guess and being unable to guess things, I just want to hug her. Tight. And never let go.
The fantasy/dystopian aspect of the story was marvelously developed and McNulty created an unique world, discussing at the whole time the genres wars. Are women better than men? Are men better than women? No, for both things. Each time one genre has too much control over Noll’s village, things go terribly wrong and I loved it. This whole series is a lesson in human equality of all kinds, but I’ll develop this argument better on my review for the third book, haha!
Now, characters. I hate Noll like, with a force. The teen angst present in this book was, in my opinion, her best moment, as it was allied with ignorance and made her bold besides stubborn. I also didn’t care for her family or Jurij – in fact, I hate Jurij too, more than Noll. The only characters I loved in this book were the lord, whose name will be kept in secret due spoilers, and Alvilda ❤
I’m a difficult soul to bound, you see.
Also, I wanted to comment on the change of covers of the series right before the release of Nobody’s Pawn, the last volume:
I particularly already loved the first cover, but the new version is so much more passionate! I loved the model and the art ❤ In fact, I won’t shut up about it on Amy’s inbox, haha! She must have already blocked me at this point or started screaming just to see the word “cover” on texts, haha!
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that McNulty brought me something new when I got to read Nobody’s Goddess. It wasn’t about Noll’s teen angst, it wasn’t about the love, it wasn’t even about the gender equality. It all came down to what we decide to do with the choices we are given. No one ever thought they had a choice to fight the system, but Noll chose exactly that. No women had ever dared to confess their loves for other man that weren’t their own and Noll chose to do exactly that. No one ever questioned the way things were before and things only got to change when Noll set them into motion. Don’t get me wrong, she’s one of the most selfish people I have ever seen, but she is brave, she is daring and she changed her fate.
I honestly think that, in a time of so many uncertainties for the whole world, it’s important to remember we are still free to choose, even when everything points you to a “choiceless” path. If we think hard enough, we can always find the perfect solution for our sufferings – we just have to accept the consequences of our actions later. It’s easier to say you won’t take action because there isn’t anything you can do to make things better, but trust me when I say the only thing we can’t fix is death. Most of the time we are indeed powerless in our environments and it sucks on galaxies levels, but Noll shows us that, if we keep ourselves centered and keep trying to do the right thing, we will eventually have what we want. Not because life rewards us, but because we conquered it.
Wow, am I not incredibly deep those last few days? Haha! Sorry, I’ll end up making you guys wish I wasn’t back at all, haha! Maybe I just need to go back to therapy or to write a self-help book and win shitloads of money. Whichever comes first, haha!
I chose some quotes from the book to woo you into reading it, so let’s finish with them =)
“It wasn’t much, but I controlled what the wood would be. And no one told me I didn’t really get to choose.” – Noll
~*~
“A few well-placed stabs from Elgar The Blade to his abdomen might ‘improve my temper’.” – Noll
~*~
“I was cursed by the gift of choice.” – Noll
~*~
“I could live without love. I’d accepted that by now. I wasn’t sure I could live without freedom.” – Noll
~*~
“I feel compelled to do anything I so much as think you want done. It is a battle within me not to slit my own throat at this very moment.” – The lord
~*~
And this winning lines between Noll and the lord of the castle:
The Lord: You were born to torment me.
Noll: I think the same of you.
Overall, if you like YA, Fantasy, Dystopian and heart gripping plots, you have to add Nobody’s Goddess to your bookshelves right now! ❤
Thanks for bearing with the philosopher me once again and for reading yet another overly long review! George R. R. Martin rubbed off a little in me since the challenge, ugh. See you around and love you, guys!
Good Saturday morning to you! Nope, you’re not hallucinating from the booze you had last night, this is not an April Fool’s prank because we are kind of in November and no cameras are going to jump on you to reveal a trap! Or at least, if this happens, which I really wish you never have to experience, I can assure you it wasn’t on me and will lend you a friendly shoulder for some hate shouts towards the pranksters?
I’m back with a review and one for a series that shook my ground hard earlier this year: Lovely Vicious, from the brilliant goddess Sara Wolf. This review is for the second book in the series, Forget Me Always, which I received from the Chapter by Chapter’s team in exchange for an honest review. As always, thanks so much!
As this is the second book in the series, you may want to read what I have to say about the first book before diving into this particular review =)
There are really few things in the world able to ruin Isis Blake’s good moods. Being thrown to a wall and cracking her head open doesn’t even make her top 10 list – she’s doing very well, thank you very much. She’s just afraid her fabulous brain will root in boredom at the hospital her doctor insists she needs.
One of the top 5 things that do bother Isis Blake is Jack Hunter. Apparently, they were epic enemies at the most awesome war the world has ever seen, but Isis is sure she would remember such a beautiful and insufferable guy. She would never ever forget the most awesome war the world has ever seen as well, as she for sure would be responsible for it. To make things worse, Sophia, her friend met at the hospital, insists Isis and Jack not only knew each other, but also had something together.
Isis would remember such life changing facts, wouldn’t she? Besides, how is it possible for the dragon to fall for the prince?
~*~
Jack Hunter cares about really few things in life. One of them is Isis Blake – in fact, she is the whole center of his existence since the Halloween Party they attended together, before Isis’ attack.
For the first time in a long while, all Jack wanted was to make things right. To have peace along the most fabulous and amazing girl he’d ever met. However, it seems it isn’t his fate to find happiness: he wasn’t fast enough. He couldn’t save Isis. And now he had lost her in the worst way possible: she’s right in front of him… and remembers nothing of his existence.
Isis Blake may be the one with the head cracked open, but Jack Hunter is the truly messed up one. And then there is Sophia, closer and closer to the truth about Jack’s feelings despite all his efforts to keep loving her and only her.
Another war begins and memories can prove to be the worst enemies of all times.
Just remembering those are my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
To be honest, when I opened my ebook for Forget Me Always, I was afraid. You see, Love Me Never is one of my best 2016 reads and I was truly scared to my bones not to have all the feels back in Forget Me Always. As soon as I started it, I smiled and all my worries were gone: Isis Blake, one of my best bookish friends forever, was back and even in better shape than before.
The relief was huge and I’m afraid I may have highlighted the whole book with fabulous quotes, dialogues and general life wisdom from both Isis and Jack. You can feel their growth between the books and how much life burdens them, we finally can feel how heavy Wolf’s themes truly are behind all the brilliant jokes and ingenious come backs. We finally start to have some concret answers and still, Wolf shatters our world with another cliff hanger at the end. SERIOUSLY WOMAN, WHY KEEP PLAYING MY HEART LIKE THIS IF YOU KNOW I’LL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MAY NOW TO FINISH THIS SERIES?!
Overall, Forget Me Always has that feeling of déjà vu all over it – you kind of know what’s coming and it’s heavy, but you don’t quite believe it and it’s a shock to find out anyway. Plus, quotes even better than Love Me Never’s and omg answers, and trust me when I say we really needed those. So, all in all, five huge stars!!! ❤
The narrative pace keeps fast and light despite all the dark themes and we are once again follow Isis and Jack’s points of view. The major change is that we see much more of Jack’s POV, as he isn’t a mystery anymore – he is just still part of a bigger one. I really liked to see more of him and understand his motives better, but nothing beats Isis Blake as a narrator – not even Integrity Aidar, I’m afraid. But I’ll get to this later, haha!
The plot was twisted, but not highly complex. I was able to guess at many revelations and uncover some secrets way before they came, but the way Wolf tells you the story, she makes you feel genuinely surprised to see you were right or to watch as your own face collides with the floor. Seriously, this book is. All. The. Feels. I’m in love.
As it happened with the first volume, the characters are the main attraction. Honestly, everyone is so complex! Not a single person here is only good or only bad – not even Avery, I guarantee you. Not even Isis. Everyone has a dark side, the difference is in how much and for how long they can hide it from society. Jack is the epitome of this case, as he looks like a cool and bored teen on the outside and almost has a case of double personality about him. Isis is his perfect match in more than one way, as she seems to be bubbly and obnoxious all the time when actually she has deeper scars on her heart that won’t never ever truly heal. Both of them show us there is never only one way out to cope with grief, with fear and despair. What you do and who you chose to be after your world shatters is what truly tells how strong you are and how strong you can become.
Now that I think about it, the whole purpose of the Lovely Vicious series is how your life choices impact on who you’ll be since your childhood; how there are things you will never be able to truly erase, no matter how much you try to set things right, how much you fight your demons and how much you run from life. Some things will always be a stain to your heart, to your head and your feelings, but it’s you who will decide how much you’ll stop living to keep suffering. Only you can truly free yourself.
Of course, having people to support you and to be there for you counts a lot. Seriously, sometimes it can be the difference between you keep breathing on a moment of weakness. But in the end of the day, no one else can decide how to live your own life: it’s up to you. And this is one of the scariest shits ever.
Sorry, things got a little heavy here, haha! I think this book just hits too close from home and it makes me think so much about my own life choices, oops! I’ll stop with the motivational speech now and keep talking about Forget Me Always – I’ll leave the motivational stuff for Sarah, because if you want to talk about deep, real and serious human problems, that’s how you do it.
Also, just out of curiosity, I heard a song yesterday while working that clicked in so nicely with this book I almost dropped all I was doing and started my reading session earlier, haha! I’m not sure how many of you are acquitted with the song Part II, from Paramore, but I promise it is the perfect soundtack to Forget Me Always ❤ To be honest, I’m really proud of myself for managing to stumble on find a perfect song for this book, as I rarely have this opportunity, haha! For the ones that don’t know this particular song or even this band, I question: where have you been on the late 2000’s? leave here the link to a lyric video for it I found at Youtube:
And, just to wrap up this review, as this is oh-so-long, I wanted to leave you with some wisdom from Sarah Wolf in Forget Me Always! (Meaning: QUOTES TIME!)
“(…) people keep asking [if you’re better] anyway because it’s how you show concern for someone you care about, I guess, but frankly a giant box of chocolate truffles and a reign over a small kingdom would be acceptable stand-ins.” – Isis
~*~
“Sniffing out tragedy is sort of my entire deal.” – Isis
~*~
“I mean, most things that pop into my head are really weird, like that one time when I thought about Shrek in Victoria’s Secret underwear, but I think this actually beats Shrek’s Secret.” – Isis
~*~
“He [Jack] must’ve done something really shitty if I pulled out the medieval terminology.” – Isis
~*~
“Some normalcy has to be put between the darkness and us. That’s how you get enough strength to face it.” – Isis
~*~
“He’s my dream man, right? So, if my dream man is someone who can never really exist, then he can’t hurt me. He can’t come up and make me fall in love with him and smash my heart.” – Isis
~*~
“[Jack] Probably got in a fight with the mirror when he saw it was prettier than him.” – Isis
~*~
“Ketchup is the great illusion. Only when you put barbecue sauce on your fries will you know truth and freedom” – Isis
~*~
And these winning dialogues:
Sophia: What are you thinking?
Isis: Deep, intense thoughts. So deep. At least two indie songs’ worth of deep.
~*~
Isis: Ah, look, never mind. It’s cool. You got some secrets, I got some secrets. Our secrets should get married and have babies. Platonically. Entirely platonic baby-making.
Wren: Is that…a thing?
~*~
Isis: How you’re doing, old pal?
Knife Guy: We’ve known each other five months.
Isis: Five months in dog years is like, ten years. We’re practically family.
Knife Guy: Are you crying?
Isis: What, this? Nah, just a piece of teen angst stuck in my eye. Nirvana would be proud.
~*~
Isis: Oh, I hate you so much.
Jack: Good. I prefer it to the silence.
~*~
Kayla: You can’t even say ‘dick’ without vomiting in your mouth a little. And sometimes on desks. And small children.
Isis: That was one time, and that kid totally walked into the flight path of my vomit. It’s not my fault if he had no grasp of liquid physics.
~*~
Soo, wrapping things up really quick because EVERYTHING happened at this review: deep reflections, quotes, fangirlings, songs that fit books, omg! I’m so sorry to make you come all this way down, but I swear I’m done, haha! All is left to say is: if you like contemporary YA, strong characters, a touch of mystery and pop culture references all over, you need Lovely Vicious in your life and bookshelves!
Again, nice to see everyone again and let’s hope we meet more times per week from now on =) Love you, guys!
Hello, hello! Aren’t weekends the most divine thing in the existence? Despite doing all my chores, I can blog, read and watch Netflix as much as my heart desires – and did I mention my 13 hours of sleep? Hahaha! Seriously, I could totally go back to permanent weekends schedule ❤
Anyway, time to reveal The Reluctant Sacrifice, the first in The Aramithians series, by Kerr-Ann Dempster! I received my review copy from Kerr-Ann herself in exchange for an honest review. Thanks so much! The moment arrived 🙂
Centuries ago, sibling rivalry tore Aramith apart. As punishment, the losers were stripped of their immortal birthright and banished to Earth. There, they wasted away from old age and diseases. However, there is hope…
If a Shaw child, born on the 12th day of the 12th month offers her soul in a public sacrifice, then the exiles will be forgiven and welcomed home to Aramith.
Aubrey Shaw is that child, but dying for the exiles is not on her to-do list. Using her gift as a Jumper, Aubrey leaps between bodies to escape relentless shape-shifting hunters. Only, shedding her skin is not enough. Not when Joshua, her best-friend-turned-hunter, is hell-bent on dragging her to the altar.
Will Aubrey’s love for Joshua change his mind?
Or, will she have to trust the scarred stranger who shows up out of the blue cloaked in lies and secrets? Doing so means giving up on Joshua. But betting on Joshua’s love could do more than break her heart.
It could kill her.
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
The Reluctant Sacrifice started off a little slow for me and for three or four chapters I was seriously afraid that I wouldn’t like it. Thank Goddess the pace picked up after that and I found myself totally immersed on the book and desperate to know how it would end, haha! I loved the final twist and my body positively shivered with how the book ended ❤ I only took off a star because that beginning was a bummer, so four stars!
The narrative was first person styled from Aubrey’s point of view. She was an okay protagonist for me, I didn’t have any strong feelings towards her, for good or bad. While not hating the narrator really helps me to engage with the book, not liking her isn’t exactly ideal, as I couldn’t bring myself to care about Aubrey’s destiny through the book. As a person that loves to make new bookish friends in each page, I was a bit sad with myself, but oh well. Also, Dempster’s writing is very refreshing, simple and luring at the same time. You need to know what happens next, who will do what when and how. That is extremely satisfactory, haha!
The plot is complex and full of surprises – did I mention the big twist?! I totally didn’t see it coming and it was great, haha! It had me biting my nails to know if things would be all right and I even tear up a bit on the bus as I metaphorically closed my ebook. Despite this being the start of a series, I felt like there was a pretty good closure to the book, so I’m genuinely curious to see what comes after 🙂
The characters were one of the highest points of the book – right next to the supernatural aspect of it, but we will get there. Aubrey is very aware of her surroundings and people around her, something born from her survival routine. This is awesome for us readers, as each character has more personality than the other: Aubrey notices the little things that make them real, that make all of us real. That is magic, haha! Unfortunately none of the boys impressed me enough to be ranked in my bookish boyfriends list, but I assure you they are cool and hot 🙂
Also, Dempster really deserves a high-five for the Jumping bodies deal. That was wicked awesome and I had never heard of it. Like, ever! So original and cool! *–*
I wish I could jump bodies sometimes too, creepiness and all… Like, when I can’t make it to the train wagon because it’s too full and have to wait for the next train with several people pushing me around. I could simply jump into the body of someone that has gotten in there, haha!
Overall, if you like fantasy, Young Adult, awesome twists and a badass super power, you need to add The Reluctant Sacrifice to your TBR!
Thanks so much for reading my review! Boy, it feels good to write a decent review for a change! Also, thanks again to Kerr-Ann for trusting me with her book ❤
Love you all and hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!
I know I’m not one to write personal posts that don’t include books very often and that’s a choice of mine – I mean, blogging is a kind of getaway from real life for me, so it seems a bit weird to talk about real life here when there is no connection to books. However, I’ve been feeling the need to talk about the changes in my life since I started working again. So, if you don’t feel like reading a personal post, stop now and give me half an hour to post my scheduled posts for the day over here 🙂
You may want to sit, this will be a long ride.
For those who haven’t been around very long, hello! I’m Annelise, a 21 year old journalist that just got her degree last December. I’ve been released from my former agency last July,thanks to my country’s economical crisis, and just got back to work on the last week of May, on the 25th. It was pratically a year at home, only taking my last classes at college and working on my dissertation.
As I still live with my parents – who work out – and I’m an only child, it was natural for me to unburden my mom from her house chores and absorb them into my day. She didn’t ask me, I simply did it. I was jobless, it was the least I could do in my vision. And I had the blog, that will complete its first year this month, on June 22th. I’d love to say that I have wonderful things planned for the date, but that would be a lie. But we’ll get there.
Anyway, I had a big apartment to run, a legacy of better financial times for my family, an old and lovely dog to take care of (yes, I’m talking about my princess Lady, she’s 14) and a blog to keep running. Oh, and my bookstagram account. For 11 months, this was my routine: take care of the house, make lunch for my parents, take care of my dog and when it all was ready to go, blog and Instagram away.
As wonderful as my life was, I felt constantly judged because I couldn’t get a job. It felt like the working spots were there for everyone but me, no one seemed to need what I can offer as a professional. My parents wouldn’t say anything, but honestly? They didn’t have to, especially my mom. No matter if the house was perfect and tidy, if I was getting review request after review request, or if I was meeting awesome people that became offline friends as much as online. I wasn’t making money, so I logically was wasting my time.
With my family with really low on cash, all the non-spoken pressure and the sense of social failture for leaving college without a steady income, I started to freak out a little. And then I blogged more. Because here I could control my life, I could let my passions run free. Being chubby wasn’t a problem. The lack of a boyfriend wasn’t a problem. The lack of money wasn’t a problem. The sick dog wasn’t a problem. My only problems over here are whether a book deserses a certain rating or not, how to say constructive things for all the books that I read, if I answered all my friends and am up to date with their blogs.
Life on WordPress is wonderful, seriously.
And then last month my ex-boss, a wonderful woman that taught me everything I know about my job, who I deeply admire and am proud to call my personal friend nowadays, gave my name to another former co-worker of ours, for a spot on my area. I was called on the agency, made it through the interview and was hired on the same day.
Honestly, I was so happy – and still am. I felt like my life was on some sort of cosmical pause and that everyday looked exactly like the same, I needed the change of scenario and I feel blessed to have a job among a very huge political and economical crisis. But things changed.
As it happens to everything in life, it’s time to adjust now and that’s where lays the problem. I’m not being able to perform my house chores alone anymore and now I feel my mom silent jugding me because I can’t help her enough. My poor Lady spends the whole day alone and my heart breaks everyday to think that I may not be there for her if the wost happens. I feel like my blogposts are not the same anymore, not even half as complete as I’d like to – hell, I can’t even keep up with myself. I’m reading way more than I can review.
All of this has been bothering me a lot because I honestly don’t know how much of this is really my new routine interfering in my private activities and how much this is actually my fault. And the worst part is that no one can answer this but me. I’m confused and messed up.
I know that sooner or later I will adjust and make room for all my chores + blogging on my daily routine, but I’d rather not freak out until then.
What I’m trying to say with this post is that I’m really, really scared. Living my own life is terrifying. I’ll keep trying until I win this war, but it doesn’t make me more comfortable or brave. Just more… Scared, haha.
Since I entered college, I made a point of not giving up anything in life that I really wanted or believed in. Right now, I want this job to be awesome, I want to keep being a blogger and I want to be able to do my house chores and try to make my mom’s life easier. And, more than anything, I want this choices that I’ve made so far to be the right bets.
My whole point is: you believe in something, you keep fighting for it. That’s my plan and not even all my insecurities, reservations and problems will keep me from it. I will adjust, I will go back to a better post quality (in my humble vision) and I will still have time left to clean up my house. All I need is time.
… And to convince myself of all of that.
Thanks so much for reading and I’m really sorry for this so-out-of-nowhere post, but I needed to unload my heart without being too heard offline. I’m very tired of offline people around me blatantly ignoring my previous experience of three years working in agencies and assuming that all my personal problems are due my new job. I mean, hello? This is the only damn thing that is working out for me right now!! Ugh.
Seriously, you are a hero if you made it to this far and, for that, I thank you 🙂 Sorry for turning my blog into a temporary therapy session, but hey, not my fault if I can’t afford a therapist, hahaha!
See you again in some mintures, when I come back at pretending everything is only rainbows, flowers and love.
Hi, there! Welcome to another gay book review and I got to say that this one is on fire! Haha! Annelise, dear, this joke is so old when referring to dragons, please pull yourself together. Yeah, sorry guys Anyway, I was talking about The Only Option (haha), from Megan Derr! I received my review copy from Bewitching Book Tours in exchange for an honest review, so thank you a lot! Let’s go 😀
A desperate dragon. A lonely necromancer. A marriage neither wants.
When he is summoned to the royal castle, Rochus anticipates nothing more than a particularly difficult assignment. The bothersome journey is almost made worthwhile when he is propositioned by a young, beautiful dragon, Tilo, who seems untroubled by the fact that Rochus is a necromancer.
When Rochus arrives at the castle he is ordered to marry the very same dragon he spent the night with. Though Rochus would rather sign papers and return home, he is helpless against Tilo’s pleas for help, even if it means spending more time around a man he is desperately drawn to but who doesn’t seem to want him.
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! Actually, it’s a novella and honestly? The size was just right! Don’t get me wrong, I would gladly have read more about Rochus and Tilo’s romance, but I think Megan was a queen executing a great plot without that feeling that something was left off or that it has too many pages. Perfection, seriously. I loved every aspect of The Only Option: the narrative, the characters, the necromancy ( ❤ ), the shifting deal, the battle scenes, sex scenes, the cozy mystery… PERFECT. Five stars!
The narrative style was third person from Rochus point of view and I found that awesome, as he is funny, awkward, powerful and dangerous all the same time! I really liked him being a necromancer and how Derr didn’t try to beautify this on him: Rochus had black teeth, for goodness sake! That is so not sexy, haha! You know what would probably help him?
Annelise, dear, he would end up eating the poor dentist’s hand, stop joking around and review the book.
Back to business, I also adored Derr’s writing style: it was simple, with a fine humor behind it, cliché-free, entertaining and really fluid. I flew by this book and almost cried when I saw it ended, haha! Any chances we will have more adventures from Rochus and Tilo??
The plot was simple but with layers of complexity. At first, we have an unknown problem that summons Rochus and a fateful meeting with Tilo. Then, a mystery is added to the mix of guilty, anger and lust that the couple experiences by being forced to stay together. And as Rochus fights to help Tilo, a new layer of complexity is laid for us in the book until the reader has as many – or more – doubts as poor Rochus, haha! I really liked this simple start with a complexity added in bits 🙂 OH, AND NO INSTALOVE!!!! /o/
The characters were very developed and complex, especially Rochus, our narrator. He is a bit self-conscious despite being an experienced necromancer, as being physically different often causes social trouble – come on, it happens to the best of us and we don’t even have a full set of sharp and pointy black teeth, haha! I admit I felt the other characters aside Rochus and Tilo a bit superficial, but I think it isn’t a surprise in a novella. There is so much one can do with 30k words and Derr slayed nevertheless.
No surprises that both men ended up on thatlist, right? 😉
I really need to spotlight the necromancy details and explanations that Derr gives to her reader, as they were fascinating and totally didactic without falling on the boring side. It was awesome to see Rochus’ mind working and putting together his power and spells *–* I really want to dig more into this theme, Derr opened a reading appetite I didn’t even knew I had, haha!
And then there is this cover.
I arrest my case, haha!
Overall, if you enjoy fantasy, shifters, quick reads, macabre themes like necromancy, magic and steamy sex scenes, you really need to read The Only Option!
Thanks for reading my review! Bellow you can find more info on where to find this book, about the author, an excerpt and the giveaway prepared for this tour 🙂
You can find The Only Option in ebook format only 🙂
Megan Derr is a long time writer of LGBTQ romance and keeps herself busy reading, writing, and publishing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers, and can be found all over the internet. For more information on other books by Megan, visit her website.
Rochus briefly considered changing into fresh clothes, but there was little point until after he’d had a bath—and no telling what would happen in the dining hall. It would hardly be the first time some country bumpkins or foreign nitwits wailed superstitious nonsense and tried to kill him, nevermind he reported directly to the crown.
He smoothed out his robes, frowning at a small tear in the right sleeve. He’d have to stitch it later after his bath.
For the moment, it was time for supper, and hopefully he’d get to enjoy it in peace.
Heading back downstairs, Rochus walked into and through the dining hall, keeping his head up even when the whispers started.
Necromancer.
Half-dead.
Blood-drinker.
His lips curled briefly when he heard someone ask their companion if Rochus was a vampire. As though he was one of those needle-teethed, full-dead mongrels. He drank blood and his teeth were meant for hunting, but it wasn’t the same thing. His teeth were more like those of a wolf—teeth he did not use thus because he was a civilized, capable necromancer of forty-three, not some ravening monster.
Rochus sat down at a table in the corner where he wasn’t too close to the fire but would still be warm and would be able to see anyone who tried to approach him.
A couple of minutes after he sat, a pale-faced young man brought him a pitcher and cup with faintly trembling hands. Rochus slid a coin across the table, nodding for him to take it. The boy took it and skittered away, and the whispers increased as Rochus poured himself a cup of blood and sipped it. Pig, which he preferred, save for those rare occasions he was able to get something as decadent as human.
He took several more sips, savored the way it warmed him through. There was nothing he hated more than being cold, but it was the one thing he would always be due to what was called his half-dead state. He wasn’t actually dead, half or otherwise, but necromancy demanded a high price, drained away half his spirit, replaced it with those unique spiritual energies he needed to wield his strange magic. The physical effects—the corpse white skin, the death-black bones, the need for food replaced by a need for blood—were what earned necromancers the reputation of being half-dead.
Three lucky winners will take home each a digital copy of Jumping In, by Cardeno C.!
To enter, just click here and good luck: GIVEAWAY!
Hi, there! Welcome to one of those serendipity moments that I have here and there to discover new book birthdays all by myself, haha!
Today is the release day of Keeper of Pleas, by Annelie Wendeberg, also credited as A. Wendeberg! ❤
from my Instagram 🙂
On December 10, 1880, Coroner Sévère makes a gruesome discovery: nine newborns, buried in flowerpots, and hidden in plain sight in Whitechapel. A mortician receives the bodies and vanishes. Clues for the two seemingly unconnected cases are scarce.
When police and coroner learn that the missing mortician might have spent his last moments at the bosom of the infamous prostitute Miss Mary, a series of events is nudged into motion. Lies are unearthed, rumours spread. Yet, the killer remains a faceless phantom.
His secret seems buried forever.
Until the night Sévère requests Miss Mary’s services…
Warning: Post-mortems and prostitution are shown unprettified.
You must be wondering why is this book relevant to me, right? Well played, dear friend. Well played. You may want to sit, it’s story time.
As soon as I started my Journalism major in 2012, I started to read ebooks. One of my first ebooks was this freebie that I got at iBooks called The Devil’s Grin, first in the Anna Kronberg Thriller series. It was a Sherlock Holmes adaptation and IT WAS AWESOME! I loved it to the core and that was one of the books that made me really take an interest in ebooks – before that, I’d only buy or download an ebook on my phone if it was a gay romance, haha! Annelise, dear, you are a lost cause.
Anyway, the time has passed and I unfortunately never had the opportunity of finishing the Anna Kronberg Thriller series, but I did find Annelie again online and started to follow her on Instagram and subscribed to her newsletter. AND GUESS WHAT?! Some days ago, she sent me Keeper of Pleas in exchange for an honest review!!! *—*
No need to say how incredible happy I was, right? Thanks again for the honor, Annelie!!
Way back then: Grew up at butt-end of the World, also called “small East German village”, total loser at school, then went out with little hammer & little chisel to help tear down the Berlin wall. End of communism resulted in beginning of creative freedom. Best thing ever, even learned something in school. Somehow ended up at university, studied biology, graduated, went with ship across the Atlantic (marine biology, yay!), chucked 20.000€ worth of sampling equipment into deep sea (hauled it up again, phew!), got some price fellowship from Caltech without realising they hand out only one per year, returned to Germany two years later.
Some time in the middle: Adjunct professor in environmental microbiology; blogger for Nature and Spektrum der Wissenschaft.
Right now: Scribbler of Things (which somehow resulted in an award and 4 countries picking up my work for translation), workshop giver on Creative Science Writing, editor (e.g “The Remedy” by Thomas Goetz, Penguin/Gotham), cover designer, mentor for the Afghan Women Writing Project, house-fixer-upper, veggie-grower, cheese-maker, and typo-producer.
That’s it, guys! I hope I haven’t bored you too much 🙂 If you like Victorian era, mystery and thrillers, you need Annelie’s books in your book shelves, whether they are physical or digital ❤
Good night and hello again! As I promised earlier, I’m back with another gay book review, haha! This time, is another marvelous work from one of my favorite authors ever: Jordan L. Hawk! She was awesome and kind enough to send me a copy of Hexbreaker, first book in the Hexworld series and her newest release that hit stores as we speak, in exchange for an honest review ❤ As soon as I discovered the existence of Hexbreaker, I was already fangirling like crazy, so it is no wonder it took me only a day to finish it. It could have been less, but the house insisted on throwing a tantrum and not cleaning itself alone, forcing me to stop my reading in the middle to tend to it, ugh!
But the moment has arrived, so let’s talk about my new sweet darling Hexbreaker 😀
19th century, New York City. But not quite as you know it…
In a world full of magic, shifters – mostly called familiars – and witches, Cicero is a cat working under the Metropolitan Witch Police. As most of familiars, Cicero had yet to find his witch and forge a magic bond, so he stayed under the Magic Police’s protection along several other shifters.
As his animal form may suggest, Cicero is all grace, ego, beauty and sassiness. A true intellectual with passion for any kind of art, a bohemian at heart. A liberal lover, an independent creature that dreaded and fantasized about the moment in which he would encounter his witch (haha). He knew his time was running and he would have to pick someone in case his witch didn’t show up, but what if his witch turned to be a beast in permanent human form? What if his witch would be some random bully with only muscles and no brains at all? Cicero wouldn’t put up with the abuse – but also didn’t want to deal with the rejection, that hit so close to home.
A literal opening of door proved all his fears true in the wardrobe-sized person of Tom Halloran, a bulky ogre. A copper. A man with no brains and zero magic ability… According to tests.
His witch.
Tom Halloran is one of the last honorable coppers left in the regular Metropolitan Police Department. After an awful episode under his watch, he gathered his courage and got his superior’s permission to report to the Metropolitan Witch Police. Tom is a man of many secrets with a terrible stained past, but he never gave up standing for those who needed him. He wouldn’t allow something that awful to happen on his watch and neighborhood again.
And if solving the case meant he would have to put up with some weird and moody fellow and his tantrums, so be it. Tom was sick of seeing blood being spilled by his family’s mistakes. He was sure that he and the cat Cicero could make their forced partnership work if Cicero looked past Tom’s simple ways and appearance.
The only thing both men agreed on was that they would never think of losing their hearts along the way.
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
First things first: I am sorry for the giant blurb, but this is the kind of story that you feel like asking your friends to gather around a fire while you tell it, haha! Second, I’m so not impartial regarding Jordan’s work BECAUSE SHE RULEZ! Hexbreaker was my fitfth book by her and I loved every single one of them ❤ If Ava March is my queen for gay sugared historical romances, Jordan is my queen for gay paranormal historical romances *–*
I had great expectations for Hexbreaker and Hawk managed to surpass them all and still leave me gapping at the final twist. I kind of guessed the culprit pretty fast, but the motives and who really pulled the strings remained a mystery for me until the last second. AND IT WAS GREAT! I loved every minute of this book and now I just need to grab the prequel too or I will have an attack or something! (Yes, there is a prequel, more info here, haha!) Once again, Jordan got my heart, squeezed tight, threw it to the wall and said goodbye with a blown kiss. Results? FIVE BEAUTIFUL STARS!
The narrative style was third person ( ❤ ), with switching points of view between Cicero and Tom. I loved how much sentiment, feelings and depth Hawk manage to put through Hexbreaker’s pages, sucking the reader in and refusing to let go while you were away from the book. Not for the first time when it comes to her work, I found myself vacuuming my apartment and thinking so hard that you could see steam coming from my ears. Who? Why? What am I missing on this picture? Who is safe to trust, who can I blame?
This was my level of concentration on what my body was actually doing lol
I find amazing the amount of power that Hawk has over my mind each time I pick one of her books to read. I can’t disconnect, I can’t let it go, I need to get to the very bottom of the mystery or the problem in order to start breathing again. You may want to grab a chair, it’s reflection time.
Being a book blogger, it’s normal for me to read quite a lot. I already read quite a lot before becoming a blogger, but since then, I’ve been breaking personal record after personal record in reading matters. And despite being lucky enough to enjoy a big part of what I read, there are a handful of books that seem to work some kind of black magic on me. As I read them, I feel like I’m not into my body anymore. There are no pages, paper, screens, hands, eyes. Nothing. Just a wild swirl of emotions that once was me and the story unfolding in my head. And if I’m interrupted, I feel physically difficult to move my body. To get my legs working, my eyes adjusting to the world. And it feels so… Wrong. My own body feels out of place. I feel like I could just detach myself from it and walk away. Fly, I don’t know. I feel like I have to fight to remain in my reality and not fall back into the book’s one. Like my reality was the fictional one, the hard place to get into, and not the other way around.
Hexbreaker was one of the books that stripped me from my own body. To the point that I didn’t hear my phone ringing right next to me, that my dad had to poke me hard in the forehead to let me know about dinner and that my mom had to throw a blanket over me because I was under dressed to the weather and wouldn’t hear her commands to put on a hoodie and socks.
And when I get back and realize what has happened, how hard I fell for the book, I feel in my bones why reading can be the best experience of one’s life. The best moment of one’s day. That breath of fresh air into a dull existence without any real excitement. When I open a book, I become Bilbo Baggins going out on an adventure. And nothing else matters outside of the pages in my hands, no matter if they are literal or digital.
Sorry for the major reflection, haha! My whole point is that I suffered from lured mind into book pages in all my Hawk’s reads so far, just with variation of stages in its seriousness. Hexbreaker for sure is the champion so far on the list, haha!
Back to the story. As you may have guessed, the plot is brilliant, with a nice degree of complexity to it and a perfect mix of elements. Romance, mystery, humor, thriller, drama, action, paranormal… It all entwined in such harmony in Hawk’s writing that I felt like that New York was real and in front of me. Hawk’s combines very well obvious events with jaw-dropping twists and doesn’t waste a single scene over her chapters. Every small thing has a purpose, a catch to it. We still have some questions, but this is a series and I know that Hawk won’t leave us in the dark 🙂 No pressure, haha!
The characters were bewitching and surprised me a lot. I knew I’d like Tom since the moment he appeared, but liking Cicero too was unexpected. I usually prefer my gay protagonists all males that happen to like other all males and Cicero was clearly a diva. But he grew on me so quickly that I didn’t even noticed when I started pinning for him too =O Only Tom made it to My Bookish Boyfriends list, but I’d love to have Cicero as a Bookish Bff. I’m sure we would laugh a lot together, haha!
I loved how perfect Tom was in his imperfections. He isn’t your typical dashing knight in a shining armor or the prince charming. He’s a regular poor guy, built for hard labor, too big, with the minimal scholarship and no fashion sense whatsoever. And, just like Cicero, I found him to be quite refreshing. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the classical handsome and perfect princes and knights, but sometimes is nice to see new scenarios, haha!
I’m also now very interested in Dominique and Rook’s story. They are the main couple in the prequel novella mentioned on the beginning of this review and I am ashamed to confess that I still hadn’t the opportunity to buy it, oops! So poor of me.
I really need to fix that, ugh!
Oh, and can we just stop for a moment just to appreciate this cover? It is so delicate, classy, sexy and colorful! *—*
Also, I’d like to highlight how well Hawk handed the sex scenes on the book. They are few and all have a very distinct purpose: to show how Cicero and Tom’s relationship was growing stronger with time and how they slowly fell in love with each other behind the lust. Dear Jordan…
Overall, Hexbreaker is a swoon-worthy romance packed with surprised and magic. If you like historical romances, paranormal books, shifters and seat-grabbing books, just drop my blog and go get your copy, haha!
Thanks so much for reading my review! Sorry for the size and the thoughts in the middle of it, haha! Also, an enormous thank you to the Queen Jordan, that sent me her book in the first place ❤ CAN YOU TELL I’M IN LOVE WITH THE HEX WORLD?!
Bellow, you’ll find the purchase links for Hexbreaker, my post talking about its release (there are insights of Jordan herself on it) and the other books by Jordan that I already reviewed 😀
You can find Hexbreaker in both paperback and ebook formats!!
Anyway, I was talking about The Only Option (haha), from Megan Derr! I received my review copy from Bewitching Book Tours in exchange for an honest review, so thank you a lot! Let’s go 😀
The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange 