#BookReview: House of Marionne (House of Marionne #1) by J. Elle

Synopsis: Rich is the blood of the chosen

17 year-old Quell has lived her entire life on the run. She and her mother have fled from city to city, in order to hide the deadly magic that flows through Quell’s veins. 

Until someone discovers her dark secret.

To hide from the assassin hunting her, and keep her mother out of harm’s way, Quell reluctantly inducts into a debutante society of magical social elites called the Order that she never knew existed. If she can pass their three rites of membership, mastering their proper form of magic, she’ll be able to secretly bury her forbidden magic forever. 

If caught, she will be killed.

But becoming the perfect debutante is a lot harder than Quell imagined, especially when there’s more than tutoring happening with Jordan, her brooding mentor and— assassin in training. 

When Quell uncovers the deadly lengths the Order will go to defend its wealth and power, she’s forced to choose: embrace the dark magic she’s been running from her entire life or risk losing everything, and everyone, she’s grown to love.

Still, she fears the most formidable monster she’ll have to face is the one inside.

#BookReview: The Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore

Synopsis: Radcliffe Prep. The third most haunted school in the country, where a student disappearance isn’t uncommon and no one dares stay in the library after dark. And Este Logano enrolls with the hopes of finding her dead father.

Not literally, of course. She doesn’t believe in ghosts. Going to her dad’s school just seems like her best hope at figuring out who he was.

But then Este meets Mateo, who is maybe—probably—definitely—a real ghost. And an annoying one at that.

When Mateo frames Este for the theft of a rare book from the library’s secret spire and then vanishes, Este will have to track him down or risk being expelled and leaving Radcliffe early just like her father did.

Except following her father’s footsteps might be more dangerous than Este ever anticipated. As she investigates the library with its secret passageways, hidden tunnels, and haunted halls, she learns that the student disappearances aren’t just myth. And if she isn’t careful, she’ll be next.

Join @BistroBookBabes @InklingsBook Hosted by @Crossroadreview

Bistro Book Babes Book Club 

is an all ages Woman Only bookclub that meets in person in Lakeland.  

We meet Tuesdays 6pm-8pm

Inklings Book Shoppe

243 N. Florida Ave. in Lakeland, FL

Keep up to date with links. 

Interested in joining a woman's only bookclub? We would love to invite you to the new and improved Bistro Book Babes Bookclub! 

1. Choose any books you wish to join the meeting for!  

2.  Purchase your books through Inklings Book Shoppe (or anywhere)

3. Pay $5 per meeting sent to our Cashapp

4. Read the book(s)! 

5. Meet us at the store for the books you chose! Make sure to text or call me at (863) 594-7726 because we meet after the store is closed. 

You are welcome to come hang out even if you don't finish the book. (however the $5 per meeting is required) 

#BookReview: The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes

Synopsis: "A story of pain, injustice, love, resistance, and hope, this glorious book will lodge inside you and make you feel everything.” —Helena Fox, award-winning author of How It Feels to Float

A queer, YA Handmaid’s Tale meets Never Let Me Go about a dystopian society bent on relentless conformity, and the struggle of one girl to save herself and those she loves from a life of lies

Everyone hopes for a letter—to attend the Estuary, the Glades, the Meadows. These are the special places where only the best and brightest go to burn even brighter.

When Eleanor is accepted at the Meadows, it means escape from her hardscrabble life by the sea, in a country ravaged by climate disaster. But despite its luminous facilities, endless fields, and pretty things, the Meadows keeps dark secrets: its purpose is to reform students, to condition them against their attractions, to show them that one way of life is the only way to survive. And maybe Eleanor would believe them, except then she meets Rose.

Four years later, Eleanor and her friends seem free of the Meadows, changed but not as they’d hoped. Eleanor is an adjudicator, her job to ensure her former classmates don’t stray from the lives they’ve been trained to live. But Eleanor can’t escape her past . . . or thoughts of the girl she once loved. As secrets unfurl, Eleanor must wage a dangerous battle for her own identity and the truth of what happened to the girl she lost, knowing, if she’s not careful, Rose’s fate could be her own.

A raw and timely masterwork of speculative fiction, The Meadows will sink its roots into you. This is a novel for our times and for always—not to be missed.

#ExcerptReveal for The Surrogate by @PenelopeAuthor and @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: The Surrogate

Author: Penelope Ward

Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance

Tropes: Age Gap/Widower/Found Family

Forbidden/Enemies to Friends to Lovers

Release Date: February 26, 2024

BLURB

From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Ward comes a new, STANDALONE novel…

ABBY:

I’m falling for the father of the baby I’m carrying.

The problem is: it’s not my baby.

And the broody widower is not looking for a long-term partner.

As a surrogate, the deal was that I’d only be in England long enough to give birth.

At first, the man seemed as pretentious as his name: Sigmund Benedictus.

He and I butted heads.

Sig challenged my intentions, accused me of just wanting to do this for the money.

Gradually, he learned to trust me.

He even became protective.

Over time, our heated animosity turned into fiery chemistry.

I was falling in love with him.

But my time here had a limit.

I needed to protect my heart from the devastatingly gorgeous older man who’d end up breaking it.

SIG:

When my in-laws told me they wanted to use my dead wife’s eggs to conceive a grandchild, I wasn’t immediately on board.

They swore that on her deathbed Britney told them it was what she wanted—but only if I fathered the baby. Her parents insisted they would be the ones to raise it.

Against my better judgment, I agreed.

I vowed to keep my heart out of it, though.

I’d continue to pretend it wasn’t happening and live the empty, single life I’d become accustomed to the past five years since Britney died.

And despite the fact that a certain younger American named Abby Knickerbocker had awakened things inside me that I thought were long dead…

I most certainly wouldn’t fall in love with the surrogate.

#PreorderBlitz for The Stand In by T.K. Rapp @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: The Stand In

Series: Olde City #1

Author: T.K. Rapp

Genre: Clean Contemporary Romance

Trope: Fake Boyfriend

Release Date: February 29, 2024

BLURB

Coming face to face with a vicious looking dog named Peggy, isn’t how Becca expected to meet her new landlord, who also happens to be her very sexy new neighbor.

Becca Patterson is a successful photographer with a string of happy clients, including her BFF who is about to get married. Realizing she can’t be both the maid of honor and the photographer, she enlists the help of her assistant to take the lead. She thinks it’s all figured out until her very pregnant assistant is put on bedrest and can’t help on the wedding day.

Evan Wallace has just taken over management of the building Becca lives in, and despite his initial hesitance over fulfilling family obligations, things start to look up when he meets the beautiful tenant from apartment 302.

After a rocky start, no thanks to Peggy, Evan and Becca end up forming an unlikely friendship in more ways than one.

When they do each other a favor and pretend to be dating in the presence of their exes and family, it’s clear not only are they lying to everyone, but they’re also lying to themselves. Now their friends and family think they’re together, and they’re playing along.

But this can only end one way…

Right?

Portions of this story were previously published as the short story Opening Up in the One More Step Anthology by The Bookworm Box.

#BookReview: Champion of Fate (Heromaker #1) by Kendare Blake

Synopsis: Behind every great hero is an Aristene.

Aristene are mythical female warriors, part of a legendary order. Though heroes might be immortalized in stories, it’s the Aristene who guide them to victory. They are the Heromakers.

Ever since she was an orphan taken in by the order, Reed has wanted to be an Aristene. Now, as an initiate, just one challenge stands in her way: she must shepherd her first hero to glory on the battlefield. Succeed, and Reed will take her place beside her sisters. Fail, and she’ll be cast from the only home she’s ever known.

Nothing is going to stop Reed--until she meets her hero. Hestion is fiery and infuriating, but what begins as an alliance becomes more, and as secrets of the order come to light Reed begins to understand what becoming an Aristene may truly cost. Battle looming, she must choose: the order and the life she had planned, or Hestion, and the one she never expected.