October Blog Ahead Challenge

Welcome to the 3rd annual Blog Ahead Challenge being hosted over at The Herd Presents.

There is still time to sign up just click on this link and it will take you to the sign up page http://theherdpresents.blogspot.ca/2017/09/sign-up-blog-ahead-2017.html

As you can see from my blog I haven’t been blogging like I usually do and that is due to the fact that things have happened in real life that were a little bit more important then my blog but when it came back to blogging I am having a hard time to get back into the swing of things.

I am looking at building up my stash of blog post especially ones for the holiday season when I know it will be a little tough to get blog post up. It was so much fun the last time getting posts up and ready and it was nice knowing that I had extra stuff I could use if needed and that is what I want to do this time around.

So the challenge will be running from October 1st to 31st, 2017

What counts:

Any completed and scheduled posts counts.

The catch? The posts must be dated November 1st or later. They cannot go live in October and count towards the event.

Example!
On Oct 1– you have 1 scheduled post
On Oct 31–  you have 31 scheduled posts
Are you going to take part?

Upcoming Fall Titles I am Interested in Reading

Its hard to believe we are already into fall, where did the summer go? It really went by super fast this time around.

As much as I love the summer I look forward to fall because that means cooler weather and curling up with a good book or books in most cases.

Today I thought I would share with you some fall titles that have piqued my curiosity. Any of these interest you?

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken and this is already available to purchase.

“I would say it’s a pleasure to meet thee, Prosperity Oceanus Redding, but truly, I only anticipate the delights of destroying thy happiness .”
 
Prosper is the only unexceptional Redding in his old and storied family history-that is, until he discovers the demon living inside him. Turns out Prosper’s great-great-great-great-great-something grandfather made-and then broke-a contract with a malefactor, a demon who exchanges fortune for eternal servitude. And, weirdly enough, eight-hundred-year-old Alastor isn’t exactly the forgiving type.
The fiend has reawakened with one purpose–to destroy the family whose success he ensured and who then betrayed him. With only days to break the curse and banish Alastor back to the demon realm, Prosper is playing unwilling host to the fiend, who delights in tormenting him with nasty insults and constant attempts to trick him into a contract. Yeah, Prosper will take his afterlife without a side of eternal servitude, thanks. But with the help of his long-lost uncle, Barnabas, and his daughter, Nell, a witch-in-training, it seems like Prosper has at least a fighting chance of ridding himself of Alastor before the demon escapes and wreaks havoc on his family.
Little does Prosper know, the malefactor’s control over his body grows stronger with each passing night and there’s a lot Alastor isn’t telling his dim-witted (but admittedly strong-willed) human host.

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo is also another title that is available now.

Enter the Grishaverse…

Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid’s voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy’s bidding but only for a terrible price.

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, these tales will transport you to lands both familiar and strange―to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, all of them lavishly illustrated with art that changes with each turn of the page, culminating in six stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves.

Invictus by Ryan Graudin and this is coming out next week.

Time flies when you’re plundering history.
Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far’s birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he’s ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past.
But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far’s very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems.
In this heart-stopping adventure, Ryan Graudin has created a fast-paced world that defies time and space.
Bad Girls with Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten comes out at the end of October.
When I looked up, his smile was wide and real. “Ready?” he said.
I faked a smile back. I had gotten so good at faking things.
I thought: You brought this on yourself, Sasha. You will have to pretend forever now.
He squeezed my hand again. He couldn’t begin to imagine what this actually was. He had no idea what I’d done. What any of us had.When Sasha’s best friend Xavier gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away.But Sasha’s plan goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be because you might be surprised by who you become…

Told in multiple points of view, Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is sexy and twisted with shocks at every turn.

 Kiss Kiss Me in New York by Catherine Rider and this will be available in two weeks and if you know me and my love for NYC you know this will be bought.

It’s Christmas Eve at JFK in NYC.

Charlotte is a British student, waiting for a flight home after the worst semester of her life. Anthony is a native New Yorker, surprising his girlfriend at the airport after three months apart. Charlotte has just been dumped, and Anthony is about to be dumped, right in the middle of the holiday crowd.

Charlotte’s flight is canceled when a blizzard blows in, and Anthony can’t bear to go home. So, they set out into the city together, clutching a book Charlotte picks up in the airport gift shop: Ten Easy Steps for Getting Over Your Ex. For this one night, they’ll focus on healing their broken hearts … together.

Step-by-step, the two struggle to put the past behind them. But the snow is so enchanting, and the holiday lights are so beguiling, that soon their shared misery gives way to something else. Soon, they’re not only over their exes — they’re falling for each other.

Then a subway ride splits them up by mistake. Will they reunite before Charlotte’s flight leaves New York forever?

Part Before Sunrise, part Sleepless in Seattle, this delightful story will appeal to anyone who sees the romance in a swirl of snowflakes at the top of the Empire State Building, or anyone who’s wondered if true love was waiting at the other end of the airport ticket counter.

This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis.

Sasha Stone knows her place—first-chair clarinet, top of her class, and at the side of her Oxford-wearing boyfriend. She’s worked her entire life to ensure her path to Oberlin Conservatory as a star musician is perfectly paved. But suddenly there’s a fork in the road in the shape of Isaac Harver. Her body shifts toward him when he walks by, and her skin misses his touch even though she’s never known it. Why does he act like he knows her so well—too well—when she doesn’t know him at all?

Sasha discovers that her by-the-book life began by ending the chapter of another: the twin sister she absorbed in the womb. But that doesn’t explain the gaps of missing time in her practice schedule, or the memories she has of things she certainly never did with Isaac. Armed with the knowledge that her heart might not be hers alone, Sasha must decide what she’s willing to do—and who she’s willing to hurt—to take it back.

13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough will be available to buy in two weeks.

Natasha’s sure that her friends love her. But does that mean they didn’t try to kill her?

Natasha doesn’t remember how she ended up in the icy water that night, but she does know this—it wasn’t an accident, and she wasn’t suicidal. Her two closest friends are acting strangely, and Natasha turns to Becca, the best friend she dumped years before when she got popular, to help her figure out what happened.

They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you’re a teenage girl, it’s hard to tell them apart.

 

 

 

These are just a few of the upcoming fall titles that I am excited to pick up and read. What about you?

Fall Into Reading Read A Thon

I have been thinking about this for a little while now and I decided that I am going to do a Fall Into Reading read a thon next week, September 25th to 30th.

Not sure if any bloggers actually have anything like this going and if they do please let me know so I can join or at least link them to this and future posts.

Sadly the first day of fall is tomorrow (22nd) and with the current temps outside we are definitely not into fall here. Its like the tale end of summer decided to finally join us. Which is okay because if its going to be as hot as they say it will be then I am looking forward to staying in a nice A/C house and reading.

Not quite sure what I want to read since I have a ton of books that I should get through but here is a few ideas of titles I want to dig into:

  • Warcross by Marie Lu
  • Wonderwoman by Leigh Bardugo
  • Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
  • Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
  • Caroline by Sarah Miller

plus a ton of others I have in my netgalley sitting to be read.

Are you excited for fall reading?

Blog Tour/ The Missing

 

The Missing by Jerico Lenk
Publication Date: October 10, 2017
Publisher: Month9Books

 It is 1890, and London has secrets. For sixteen-year-old Will Winchester, born Willow Winchester and raised as a young man, the safety of his own secrets rests one atop the other. Hiding his gender queerness is important. But so is hiding the ghostly voices of the Missing, which Will hears when no one else can … until the Spiritualist Black Cross Order of Occult Occurrences wants him in their service to keep peace between London’s living and dead.

The freedom to be himself may come with a price. Working alongside a patchwork team of misfits and unlikely allies, Will finds he isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Someone does not want him to uncover the truth about the ghosts who aren’t just missing from the world of the living, but missing from history itself. Can he find the Missing before he ends up becoming one of them?

Link to Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25946793-the-missing

Purchase Links:

BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N

About the author:

Undergraduate studying Creative Writing, Classics, Russian and Western European History. Unabashed weeb probably burning incense and drinking too much coffee at this very moment. Out for queer representation and great sex hair. Beyond ready for the upcoming Vampire Chronicles TV series.

Lenk writes Young Adult/New Adult, spec fiction, poetry, and screenplays. He is currently unagented.

His poems have appeared at/in USF Tampa’s Thread Literary Inquiry, biannual 6×6 creative writing showcase, and placed second in National Poetry Month 2015; Tethered By Letters’ F(r)iction Spring 2016 poetry contest finalist; winner of the 2017 Bettye Newman Poetry award.

Ways to connect with the author:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

Link to Tour Schedule:
http://www.chapter-by-chapter.com/tour-schedule-the-missing-by-jerico-lenk/

Giveaway Details:

• One (1) winner will receive an Echo Dot

Code:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review/ The Missing

Review/ The MissingThe Missing by Jerico Lenk
Published by Month9Books on October 10th 2017
Goodreads

It is 1890, and London has secrets. For sixteen-year-old Will Winchester, born Willow Winchester and raised as a young man, the safety of his own secrets rests one atop the other. Hiding his gender queerness is important. But so is hiding the ghostly voices of the Missing, which Will hears when no one else can … until the Spiritualist Black Cross Order of Occult Occurrences wants him in their service to keep peace between London’s living and dead.
The freedom to be himself may come with a price. Working alongside a patchwork team of misfits and unlikely allies, Will finds he isn't the only one keeping secrets. Someone does not want him to uncover the truth about the ghosts who aren’t just missing from the world of the living, but missing from history itself. Can he find the Missing before he ends up becoming one of them?

Before beginning my review I just quickly want to thank Chapter By Chapter Blog Tours for allowing me to be a part of this tour and to Month9Books for sending me a eArc of this debut novel to read and review for my participation in the blog tour. This is my honest and sincere review of The Missing.

If you are a reader of my blog you will notice that I don’t read or review historical fiction and that is honestly because I haven’t found that one book that would lure me in to this genre of books. This has been a genre of books that I never could get into no matter how many times I read I just couldn’t but I have to say after reading this I am thinking of trying something else within this genre, do you have a recommendation? If so please leave it in the comments and I will check it out.’

While I was reading The Missing I would have to say that I classify this as a bit of mystery, historical fiction, a little bit horror, (there was a few encounters with spirits that gave me the hibbie jeebes and I had to put the book down to get that image out of my head) paranormal and some fantasy. Clearly I am expanding my reading genre’s with this book.

Okay so the book takes place in London (one of my favorite cities that I am hoping one day to visit) during the 1890’s and its main character is Will/Willow Winchester, who is a teenager and he is hiding two big secrets from everyone. During this time period both are quite the big deal. The first one is that he can see the spirits of the dead and the second is gender. Meaning that he was born a female and has all the girl parts but when he presents himself to the world he acts and dresses like a male.

Something you might not know about me is that I believe that their is spirits are us on a day to day bases both good and bad. I have to say thankfully I have never encountered the bad ones just the good ones. For Will he has this special talent that allows him to see the spirits of the dead and in the book he stumbles upon some  paranormal investigators. He gets recruited into the Black Cross and its this organization that studies and investigates the hauntings around London. For the first time ever Will feels like he finally has found a place were he belongs and he can be who he wants to be.

Over all I have to say I really enjoyed the book and I am happy that I got the chance to read and review it but I just have one little issue and that was a lot of characters in the book and as I would read a few pages I would have to go back and figure out who everyone was but I quickly solved that with keeping a piece of paper in the book with the list of characters and info about them so that I could refer back to that.

Even though there was a lot of characters the writing was fantastic and it kept me hooked and interested although there was a few people I would have loved to know more about and I hope that this continues into a series of books so that we can find more out more about them.

I look forward to reading more books by Jerico in the future.

Sunday’s In Bed With…

Welcome to our Sundays In Bed With… Meme! The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

This is being hosted by two of the sweetest people I have to privilege of knowing in real life Kate and Kim. Sadly we don’t talk like we use to because you know real life happens but there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of them both. If you click on the banner it will take you right to the Midnight Book Girl blog.

Good Morning everyone. I hope you are able to curl up and read for a bit this morning. Sadly I am not able to be curled up reading because today is literally a jammed pack day. Michael has pre-camp this morning for hockey, then I am running to Costco with my sister, Michael is shadowing in score keeping (he wants to do that this year) and then tonight he has a score keeping meeting so it will be none stop.

 

This past week I finished:

33509076

This is the second book in the slammed series and  so far so good. I am really enjoying Colleen’s books.

For the upcoming week I am reading:

This Girl: A Novel (Slammed) by [Hoover, Colleen]

The Missing: The Curious Cases of Will Winchester and the Black Cross by [Lenk, Jerico]

After that I am not quite sure what I will be reading next.

What are  you reading this week?

Review/ Night of Cake & Puppets

Review/ Night of Cake & PuppetsNight of Cake & Puppets (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2.5) by Jim Di Bartolo, Laini Taylor
Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on September 12th 2017
Pages: 256
Goodreads

In this stand-alone companion to the New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone series comes the story of Mik and Zuzana's fantastical first date—as a gorgeously illustrated gift edition with bonus content included.
Petite though she may be, Zuzana is not known for timidity. Her best friend, Karou, calls her "rabid fairy," her "voodoo eyes" are said to freeze blood, and even her older brother fears her wrath. But when it comes to the simple matter of talking to Mik, or "Violin Boy," her courage deserts her. Now, enough is enough. Zuzana is determined to make the first move, and she has a fistful of magic and a plan. It's a wonderfully elaborate treasure hunt of a plan that will take Mik all over Prague on a cold winter's night before leading him to the treasure: herself! Violin Boy is not going to know what hit him.
New York Times bestselling author Laini Taylor brings to life a night only hinted at in the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy—the magical first date of fan-favorites Zuzana and Mik. Originally published as an ebook, this new print edition will include breathtaking black and white illustrations, plus bonus content in a gorgeous package perfect for new and current fans of the series.

I quickly have to thank HBG for sending me a copy of the book so that I could read and review it.

Before beginning my review I have a confession to make and that is I have never read the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy yet and I have them sitting on my tbr shelf. I really need to binge read this series as I have heard amazing things about it.

I do know that I want to pick up a finished copy of The Night of Cake & Puppets because the book is gorgeous and I know I will reread it.

The Night of Cake & Puppets was originally published as a e-novella exclusive. This can be read as a stand alone or you can read it between Days of Blood & Starlight and Dreams of Gods & Monsters.

Now for me reading this I realized that I was missing out on who the characters Zuzana and Mik were and what their relationship was like. This book is basically the first date these two characters had so it will probably fill in the gap you will need had you read the series.

Since I didn’t read the series I have to say that this was a cute story just the same. The premise of the book is that it takes place in one night. Zuzana has a crush on Mik and even though she has this huge crush on him and is nervous/shy like most people are around their crushes she decides enough is enough and that is now or never so she goes ahead and comes up with one of the cutest and probably sweetest things to get him to notice her. She comes up with this treasure hunt. All through the process both are extremely nervous. What will happen when they meet face to face?

This was a super quick read and I devoured it pretty much in one sitting. I highly recommend this if you have read the series or are just beginning to read it. Now I can’t wait to read it.

Have you read this series?