#BookReview: The Fire Queen (The Hundredth Queen #2) by @Emily_R_King @Netgalley

  In the second book in The Hundredth Queen Series, Emily R. King once again follows a young warrior queen’s rise to meet her destiny in a richly imagined world of sorcery and forbidden powers.

Though the tyrant rajah she was forced to marry is dead, Kalinda’s troubles are far from over. A warlord has invaded the imperial city, and now she’s in exile. But she isn’t alone. Kalinda has the allegiance of Captain Deven Naik, her guard and beloved, imprisoned for treason and stripped of command. With the empire at war, their best hope is to find Prince Ashwin, the rajah’s son, who has promised Deven’s freedom on one condition: that Kalinda will fight and defeat three formidable opponents.

But as Kalinda’s tournament strengths are once again challenged, so too is her relationship with Deven. While Deven fears her powers, Ashwin reveres them—as well as the courageous woman who wields them. Kalinda comes to regard Ashwin as the only man who can repair a warring world and finds herself torn between her allegiance to Deven and a newly found respect for the young prince.

With both the responsibility to protect her people and the fate of those she loves weighing heavily upon her, Kalinda is forced again to compete. She must test the limits of her fire powers and her hard-won wisdom. But will that be enough to unite the empire without sacrificing all she holds dear?

#BookTube: October #TBR

Welcome to our newest Youtube video!  This one is Jessica's TBR of the month. 

#BookReview: Her Book Boyfriend (The Awkward Duckling #1) by K.R. Grace

  She believes the secret to love is in the tropes of her favorite romance novels. He’s the best friend prepared to prove her wrong.
Then comes the bet.
If she can’t land a boyfriend for prom by recreating the ten popular tropes in her favorite romance author’s books, she has to go to the prom with her.
The glitch?
They’ve been close their entire lives. He’s the rock god and school legend, while she’s the brainy sidekick who does all his dirty breakups. Thus, finding a guy who doesn’t think they’re already an item is going to be a lot harder than she thinks.
Will she land the book boyfriend of her dreams? Or will she be forced to go to prom with her best friend.
The truth is in the pages.

#BookReview: Chasing Red (Red #1) by Isabelle Ronin

  They said she was going to be my ruin...
Then let her ruin me.

Caleb Lockhart has everything—wealth, adoration, a brilliant future. Until a chance encounter with a siren in a red dress changes everything. Until he meets the woman he dubs Red.

Veronica Strafford's past makes it hard for her to trust anyone. Now, kicked out of her apartment, she reluctantly accepts Caleb's offer for a place to stay.

Caleb feels intensely drawn to Veronica. And, for the first time in his life, he really wants something—someone. Too bad Veronica's heart might just be the one thing Caleb can't win.

#BookReview: The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen #1) by @Emily_R_King

  He wanted a warrior queen. He got a revolutionary.

As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she’s an unlikely candidate for even a servant’s position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood’s mountain temple.

But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda’s life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home, set on a desert trek, and ordered to fight for her place among the rajah’s ninety-nine wives and numerous courtesans. Her only solace comes in the company of her guard, the stoic but kind Captain Deven Naik.

Faced with the danger of a tournament to the death—and her growing affection for Deven—Kalinda has only one hope for escape, and it lies in an arcane, forbidden power buried within her.

My Week in Review #13

Welcome to another My Week in Review!  I know that I have not been keeping up with these but I hope to change that. I love letting you all know what has been going on and I hope you all enjoy these. 

#BookReview: Fantasy Sports 3: The King In Green by @sbosma

 Wiz and Mug are back for another magical adventure as they continue their quests for the mighty Order of Mages!

Wiz has always believed in the Order of Mages as a force for good; one that works to destroy tyrants and restore peace, but it seems that may not be the case at all. Prepare for revelations and mini golf in this latest addition to the wildly successful Fantasy Sports series!

#BookReview: The Trust by @ronbalson

The newest novel from the author of Once We Were Brothers finds private investigator Liam Taggart returning to his childhood home for an uncle's funeral, only to discover his death might not have been natural.

When his uncle dies, Liam Taggart reluctantly returns to his childhood home in Northern Ireland for the funeral—a home he left years ago after a bitter confrontation with his family, never to look back. But when he arrives, Liam learns that not only was his uncle shot to death, but that he’d anticipated his own murder: In an astonishing last will and testament, Uncle Fergus has left his entire estate to a secret trust, directing that no distributions be made to any person until the killer is found. Did Fergus know, but refuse to name, his killer? Was this a crime of revenge, a vendetta leftover from Northern Ireland’s bloody sectarian war? After all, the Taggarts were deeply involved in the IRA. Or is it possible that the killer is a family member seeking Fergus’s estate? Otherwise, why postpone distributions to the heirs? Most menacingly, does the killer now have his sights on other family members? 

As his investigation draws Liam farther and farther into the past he has abandoned, he realizes he is forced to reopen doors long ago shut and locked. Now, accepting the appointment as sole trustee of the Fergus Taggart Trust, Liam realizes he has stepped into the center of a firestorm.

#BookReview: Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

 From the bestselling author of All Is Not Forgotten comes a thriller about two missing sisters, a twisted family, and what happens when one girl comes back...

One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.

#BookReview: Dreadlands: Wolf Moon by @thewriteengle

When a Viking boy and his sister are hunted by the ferine, arctic wolves cursed to the Dreadlands, they must reach the city by the sea within one moon cycle; before a sorceress captures them, seals a spell with their blood, and returns the realm to Darkness.
Leif Erikson abandoned the settlement in Labrador, Canada, many years ago when the ferine attacked and murdered his small crew. A band of families stayed behind to build, learning to find balance with those who hunted them. Arud is a third generation Norse on this strange soil, and with a grandmother who is unnatural, an anxious mother, and a missing father, his family tree is rooted in secrets. The harvest moon approaches, a single night when the ferine’s binds to the Dreadlands are broken, freeing them to hunt. But when one appears beneath Arud’s window, his mother rushes him off, urging him to take care of his sister whose sickness grows worse. After meeting a beautiful girl with questionable motives, Arud discovers a prophecy in which the blood of a human and ferine hybrid would shift all power to the Sorceress Edda and her wild pack of hunters. But when Arud learns his sister is the hybrid in this prophecy, his world is shaken as family deceptions unravel. Now the stakes are raised, and getting safely to the city in the sea becomes more than a quest. It becomes survival. 

#BookReview: You Know Me Well by @nina_lacour & @loversdiction

 Who knows you well? Your best friend? Your boyfriend or girlfriend? A stranger you meet on a crazy night? No one, really?

Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed.

That is, until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.

When Kate and Mark meet up, little do they know how important they will become to each other—and how, in a very short time, they will know each other better than any of the people who are supposed to know them more.

Told in alternating points of view by Nina LaCour and David Levithan, You Know Me Well is a story about navigating the joys and heartaches of first love, one truth at a time.

#BookReview: Becoming Bonnie by @jennilwalsh

 From debut historical novelist Jenni L. Walsh, Becoming Bonnie is the untold story of how wholesome Bonnelyn Parker became half of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde duo!

The summer of 1927 might be the height of the Roaring Twenties, but Bonnelyn Parker is more likely to belt out a church hymn than sling drinks at an illicit juice joint. She’s a sharp girl with plans to overcome her family's poverty, provide for herself, and maybe someday marry her boyfriend, Roy Thornton. But when Roy springs a proposal on her and financial woes jeopardize her ambitions, Bonnelyn finds salvation in an unlikely place: Dallas's newest speakeasy, Doc’s.

Living the life of a moll at night, Bonnie remains a wholesome girl by day, engaged to Roy, attending school and working toward a steady future. When Roy discovers her secret life, and embraces it—perhaps too much, especially when it comes to booze and gambling—Bonnie tries to make the pieces fit. Maybe she can have it all: the American Dream, the husband, and the intoxicating allure of jazz music. What she doesn't know is that her life—like her country—is headed for a crash.

She’s about to meet Clyde Barrow.

Few details are known about Bonnie's life prior to meeting her infamous partner. In Becoming Bonnie, Jenni L. Walsh shows a young woman promised the American dream and given the Great Depression, and offers a compelling account of why she fell so hard for a convicted felon—and turned to crime herself.

#BookReview: Delia's Crossing (Delia, #1) by @VC_Andrews

 Kidnapped by cruel fate...

Secuestrado por sino cruel

After her parents are killed in a truck accident, Delia Yebarra's life is turned upside down. At fifteen, she leaves the rural Mexican village where she grew up and embarks on a new life in America. Coming to her wealthy aunt Isabella's huge estate in Palm Springs, California, should be a dream come true for a simple country girl like Delia -- so why does it feel like a nightmare?

A prisoner of destiny...

Un preso del destino

Her aunt refuses to acknowledge Delia's heritage, relegating her to servants' quarters with a licentious language tutor intent on exploiting a beautiful young foreigner. Her cousin Edward is kind, but cousin Sophia is cruel, manipulative, and resentful of Delia's smoky Latina looks. And just when Delia tries to embrace the life of a real American girl, a heartbreaking chain of events sends her spiraling back to a Mexico she hardly recognizes.... Will Delia find a place to call home?

#BookReview: Mothers and Other Strangers by @ginasorell

 "My father proposed to my mother at gunpoint when she was nineteen, and knowing that she was already pregnant with a dead man’s child, she accepted."

Thus begins this riveting story of a woman's quest to understand her recently deceased mother, a glamorous, cruel narcissist who left her only child, Elsie, an inheritance of debts and mysteries. While coping with threats that she suspects are coming from the cult-like spiritual program her mother belonged to, Elsie works to unravel the message her dying mother left for her, a quest that ultimately takes her to the South African family homestead she never knew existed.

#BookReview: Royally Romanov (The Royals, #2) by @TeriWilsonauthr

 In this charming modern day retelling of the 1956 classic Anastasia, a museum curator falls for a mysterious man who may or may not be a long lost heir to Russia’s imperial Romanov dynasty.

Finley Abbot is organizing the most prestigious art exhibit of her career at the Louvre museum—a retrospective of art from the House of Romanov. But the sudden appearance of Maxim Romanov threatens to turn her into the biggest laughingstock of the art world. When she finds herself falling in love, she realizes there’s even more at stake than her career. How can she trust a man with her whole world when he can’t remember a thing about his past?

After suffering a violent blow to the head, Maxim’s only clue to his identity is a notebook containing carefully researched documentation in his own handwriting indicating that he is the sole surviving descendant of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, previously thought dead in the murder of her family during Russia’s Bolshevik revolution. His struggle to put the mysterious pieces of his past back together leads him to Finley. At first, she’s convinced Maxim is nothing but a con artist. But there’s something undeniably captivating about the beautiful, brooding man who claims to be searching for his identity—something Finley can’t quite bring herself to resist. When he reveals a secret about one of the imperial Fabergé eggs in the collection, she accepts he may actually be telling the truth. But as soon as Finley and Maxim act on their feelings for one another, Maxim is confronted with evidence that calls into question everything he’s begun to believe about himself.

#BookReview: Botanical Beauty: 80 Essential Recipes for Natural Spa Products by @aubreandrus

 Soak, scrub, and soothe your way to relaxation with simple homemade spa recipes from award-winning author Aubre Andrus. Using some of nature’s best ingredients, such as beeswax, sugar, coconut oil, shea butter, avocado, sea salt, essential oils, and more, craft everything from a Cooling Peppermint Hand Cream to a Vanilla Honey Body Scrub. Make practical products, like your own all-natural Bugs-Be-Gone Insect Repellent, Minty Homemade Toothpaste, and Natural Shaving Cream. Or pamper yourself after a long day with a Re-energizing Tub Tea, Lovely Lavender Bath Salts, and a Deep Conditioning Treatment. Nourish your body from head to toe with these organic, handmade recipes and crafts, or package them as a gift to share a fresh, fun spa experience.

#BookReview: Truck Stop Love by Cara Duryea

 Love Revenge.

Commit to a path and take action. #Love.

Set shit on fire and blow everything to hell. #Revenge.

Ever think about the one who got away?

How far would you go to find them again?

Hunter Ryder and her stepbrother, Wesley Ellis, are living in a rural Kansas town trailer park with an alcoholic, abusive father (his) and a neglectful, depressed mother (hers). Both have big dreams - Wesley wants to be a famous musician, and Hunter wants to act on Broadway. With only each other as support, the two stumble upon young, first love and the grip that it holds on teenage hearts. When a violent encounter at home forces them to strike out on their own, they navigate the landscape of truck stops, lot lizards, and the traveling ministry to become a killer and a minister in the name of love...and revenge.

#BookReview: Things That Surprise You by Jennifer Maschari

 Emily Murphy is about to enter middle school. She’s sort of excited… though not nearly as much as her best friend Hazel, who is ready for everything to be new. Emily wishes she and Hazel could just continue on as they always have, being the biggest fans ever of the Unicorn Chronicles, making up dance moves, and getting their regular order at The Slice. 

But things are changing. At home, Emily and her mom are learning to move on after her parents’ divorce. Hardest of all, her beloved sister Mina has been in a treatment facility to deal with her anorexia. Emily is eager to have her back, but anxious about her sister getting sick again.

Hazel is changing too. She has new friends from the field hockey team, is starting to wear makeup, and have crushes on boys. Emily is trying to keep up, but she keeps doing and saying the wrong thing. She want to be the perfect new Emily. But who is that really?

Things That Surprise You is a beautifully layered novel about navigating the often shifting bonds of family and friendship, and learning how to put the pieces back together when things fall apart.

#BookReview: Starfish by @akemidawn

 Kiko Himura has always had a hard time saying exactly what she’s thinking. With a mother who makes her feel unremarkable and a half-Japanese heritage she doesn’t quite understand, Kiko prefers to keep her head down, certain that once she makes it into her dream art school, Prism, her real life will begin.

But then Kiko doesn’t get into Prism, at the same time her abusive uncle moves back in with her family. So when she receives an invitation from her childhood friend to leave her small town and tour art schools on the west coast, Kiko jumps at the opportunity in spite of the anxieties and fears that attempt to hold her back. And now that she is finally free to be her own person outside the constricting walls of her home life, Kiko learns life-changing truths about herself, her past, and how to be brave.

#TheBookAddicts: Bad Blood by @DemitriaLunetta @DelacortePress

Well, its Oct!  That means it's time for a new book and a new author! For October we will be chatting with Demitria Lunetta about her books!  The featured book of the month is Bad Blood. This book was so good I can't wait to share it with you!  Make sure to check it out below and to join the group!  We will be chatting with her Oct. 23rd right before Halloween!