First Line Friday (12)

First Line Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Reading is my Superpower. Like the title suggests, you share the first line of the book you’re currently reading.

Click HERE to see all my ‘First Line Friday‘ posts.

First line: Shadows in the Hyancinth Estate often seemed to move on even the stillest of nights, so a casual observer could be forgiven for thinking the dark figure moving stealthily across the lawn was another part of the house’s long and eerie history.

Title: What Walks These Halls

Author: Amy Clarkin

Genre: Horror, Fantasy

A prickling sensation grew on the back of her neck, spreading up her scalp. It was the feeling of being watched. She whirled to face the doorway but it was empty.

Raven O’Sullivan doesn’t remember what happened in Hyacinth House five years ago. When her father died during a paranormal investigation there, everyone said it was an accident, but she’s pretty certain it’s her fault.

Her brother, Archer, wasn’t there that night. When asked to investigate the supposed ghost of Hyacinth House, he can’t resist saying yes. Even if his sister wants nothing to do with it.

Éabha McLoughlin has grown up seeing and hearing things no one else does. Now that she’s starting college, she finally has the freedom to find out why. The daring Archer and his eclectic team seem like a good place to start.

But everyone has their secrets, and they all lead back to Hyacinth House …

Waiting on Wednesday (89)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was previously hosted by Jill from Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases bloggers are eagerley anticipating. These can be debut novels, sequels, eBooks,…as long as they aren’t released yet. It is currently being continued in Can’t Wait Wednesday over on Wishful Endings.

Click HERE to view all my ‘Waiting on Wednesday‘ posts.

I’m waiting for…

Title: Court of the Undying Seasons

Author: A.M. Strickland

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBT

Release Date: May 16, 2023

In becoming a vampire, I’m less than a girl. And more.
Or maybe I’m becoming what I always have been, deep inside.
A blade.

When nineteen-year-old Fin volunteers to take her secret love’s place in their village’s Finding, she is terrified. Those who are chosen at the Finding are whisked away to Castle Courtsheart, a vampire school where human students either succeed and become vampires, fail and spend the rest of their lives as human thralls…or they don’t survive long enough to become either.

Fin is determined to forge a different path: learn how to kill the undead and get revenge for her mother, who was taken by the vampires years ago. But Courtsheart is as captivating as it is deadly, and Fin is quickly swept up in her new world and its inhabitants – particularly Gavron, her handsome and hostile vampire maker, whose blood is nothing short of intoxicating. As Fin begins to discover new aspects of her own identity and test her newfound powers, she stumbles across a string of murders that may be connected to a larger ritual – one with potentially lethal consequences for vampires and humans alike. Fin must uncover the truth and find the killer before she loses her life…or betrays her own heart.

Court of the Undying Seasons is a deliciously dark romantic novel and a pitch perfect modern take on classic vampire tropes.

“With brutal romance, vicious stakes, and a twisty mystery, Court of The Undying Seasons takes everything we love about vampires and cranks it to a whole new level.” —Hannah Whitten, author of For the Wolf and For the Throne

What are you waiting for this week?

Teaser Tuesdays (98)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Purple Booker. In this meme, we grab our current read, open it to a random page and share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page with our readers.

Click HERE to view all my ‘Teaser Tuesdays‘ posts.

Here is my teaser:

Lorenzo’s gaze is heavy as he slowly moves one of his hands from my face – tracing it down my body before letting it rest on my waist. One step forward, and he’s guiding me back, not stopping until my back is pressing against the door I just came through. My gaze never leaves his.

~Shared Veins (Of Bonds & Blood #1) by Emily Elder

What’s your teaser for this week?

First Line Friday (11)

First Line Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Reading is my Superpower. Like the title suggests, you share the first line of the book you’re currently reading.

Click HERE to see all my ‘First Line Friday‘ posts.

First line: “Police emergency, this is Ella.”

“Yes, hi…hi… Um, my…son is missing. My little boy, he’s missing.”

I chose two lines this time because I thought the first one didn’t have much sway until the second line was added in too.

Title: The Foster Family

Author: Nicole Trope

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

In their holiday home, a stone’s throw from the beach, Elizabeth dials the police with trembling hands. ‘My little boy, he’s missing.’

Elizabeth is Joe’s foster mother, but she loves him like her own. The five-year-old, who adores superheroes and watching the birds outside, is the child she has dreamed of. As she looks into the garden, where he was playing just moments ago, her heart feels like it has been ripped from her chest.

She was meant to save Joe from his birth mother who almost harmed his chances at life. The woman who has been trying to desperately get him back.

She was meant to protect Joe from her husband. The man who, right now, lies to the police, saying he was making breakfast when Joe disappeared. Who squeezes her shoulder, ordering her to be quiet.

She was meant to look after Joe. They are just footsteps from the ocean, and little Joe can’t swim.

Then Joe’s tiny blue sandal is found in the water. If the worst has happened – the unimaginable – Elizabeth will never forgive herself. Because what if the secret she has been keeping for years, the guilt eating her alive, has somehow hurt her little boy?

It’s time to tell the truth – even if it means losing the child who is her whole world. Even if it could be the death of her.

Waiting on Wednesday (88)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was previously hosted by Jill from Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases bloggers are eagerley anticipating. These can be debut novels, sequels, eBooks,…as long as they aren’t released yet. It is currently being continued in Can’t Wait Wednesday over on Wishful Endings.

Click HERE to view all my ‘Waiting on Wednesday‘ posts.

I’m waiting for…

Title: Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything

Author: Justine Pucella Winans

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, LGBT

Release Date: April 11, 2023

Murder most fowl? In this sardonic and campy YA thriller, an anxious, introverted nonbinary teen birder somehow finds themself solving a murder mystery with their neighbor/fellow anime lover, all while falling for a cute girl from their birding group . . . and trying not to get murdered.

Sixteen-year-old Bianca Torre is an avid birder undergoing a gender identity crisis and grappling with an ever-growing list of fears. Some, like Fear #6: Initiating Conversation, keep them constrained, forcing them to watch birds from the telescope in their bedroom. And, occasionally, their neighbors. When their gaze wanders from the birds to one particular window across the street, Bianca witnesses a creepy plague-masked murderer take their neighbor’s life. Worse, the death is ruled a suicide, forcing Bianca to make a choice—succumb to their long list of fears (including #3: Murder and #55: Breaking into a Dead Guy’s Apartment) or investigate what happened.

Bianca enlists the help of their friend Anderson Coleman, but the two have more knowledge of anime than true crime. As Bianca and Anderson dig deeper into the murder with a little help from Bianca’s crush and fellow birding aficionado, Elaine Yee (#13: Beautiful People, #11: Parents Discovering They’re A Raging Lesbian), the trio uncovers a conspiracy much larger—and weirder—than imagined. But when the killer catches wind of the investigation, Bianca’s #1 fear of public speaking doesn’t sound so bad compared to the threat of being silenced for good.

In this absurdist, bizarrely comical YA thriller that is at turns a deceptively deep exploration of anxiety and identity, perhaps the real murder investigation is the friends we make along the way.

What are you waiting for this week?

Teaser Tuesdays (97)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Purple Booker. In this meme, we grab our current read, open it to a random page and share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page with our readers.

Click HERE to view all my ‘Teaser Tuesdays‘ posts.

Here is my teaser:

As she sat in front of the dressing-table mirror, it was impossible not to take stock of her life. Almost twenty-three years old and already she had known too much death. The war had broken out when she was seventeen, and dominated the years when she should have been dancing, falling in love, widening her circle of friends.

~ The Lodger by Helen Scarlett

What’s your teaser for this week?

First Line Friday (10)

First Line Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Reading is my Superpower. Like the title suggests, you share the first line of the book you’re currently reading.

Click HERE to see all my ‘First Line Friday‘ posts.

First line: “Why don’t you go out there and introduce yourself?” he asks me with a charm I had forgotten he possessed – a grin so cloying that a magician might redden.

Title: The Trees Grew Because I Bled There

Author: Eric LaRocca

Genre: Horror, Anthology

A beautifully crafted, devastating short fiction collection from the Bram-Stoker finalist and author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes.

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

Originally published under the title The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales, this is a much-praised collection of deeply unsettling, painfully dark tales.

Waiting on Wednesday (87)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was previously hosted by Jill from Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases bloggers are eagerley anticipating. These can be debut novels, sequels, eBooks,…as long as they aren’t released yet. It is currently being continued in Can’t Wait Wednesday over on Wishful Endings.

Click HERE to view all my ‘Waiting on Wednesday‘ posts.

I’m waiting for…

Title: A Realm of Ash and Shadow

Author: Lara Buckheit

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Release Date: April 11, 2023

Eighteen-year-old princess, Valeria Breault, is sure of three things.

She was exiled from Empyrean because her father didn’t want the hassle of raising her.
Her perfect realm would be better off without a mortal-raised smart-ass with a foul mouth and penchant for trouble.
Neither of those things matter when a horde of demons crashes prom.

Forced to fight for her life, Valeria narrowly escapes being captured by the Realm of the Forsaken, only to be dragged back to Empyrean before she is meant to return. Instead of the beautiful utopia from her bedtime stories, Val finds herself thrown into a hellish nightmare where the poor are dying, the rich are thriving, and her claim to the throne is in jeopardy. But not if Valeria can help it.

The overwhelming desire to belong and a craving for power has her making choices that make it harder and harder to guard her heart against the man who’s bound to protect her, the god she’s vowed to hate, and the darkness that’s growing inside her. Only time will tell if the secrets she unravels and the alliances she makes will lead to the throne or the pyre.

Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Kerri Maniscalco, A Realm of Ash and Shadow will captivate readers until the very last page.

What are you waiting for this week?

Teaser Tuesdays (96)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Purple Booker. In this meme, we grab our current read, open it to a random page and share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page with our readers.

Click HERE to view all my ‘Teaser Tuesdays‘ posts.

Here is my teaser:

It started with his mother. Even before everything else, it had started with her. He remembered the day eight years before, like a scar newly fleshed over. The smell of the hospital and wishing that he would never have to endure that smell ever again.

~ The Broken Places by Blaine Daigle

What’s your teaser for this week?

Stacking The Shelves (29)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It’s all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves – which can be physical or virtual. Meaning, it can include books bought from stores or online, library books, borrowed books, and so on.

Click HERE to view all my ‘Stacking The Shelves’ posts.

On My Shelves

What’s on your shelf this week?