September 2021 TBR + Magical Readathon ✨

I'm back with an actual planned TBR! I don't think I've done one of these since February but my reading has been all over the place for the last few months so I thought having a fixed TBR might be able to help me with my motivation. I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself this month, deciding to only participate in one readathon even though there were a few others I was interested in. 

I'm excited to finally get round to reading all of these books especially Daisy Jones & The Six having put it on so many TBRs over the last year and never actually picking it up. I'm also looking forward to doing a reread of Truly Devious in preparation for continuing the series, I really enjoyed it the first time round and can't wait to rediscover the mystery.    

I'm participating in Book Roast's Magical Readathon this month, an adventure that takes us across a fantasy world and eventually to reach the Orilium Academy. So much planning and creativity has gone into this readathon and I can't wait to participate although I think I'm going to wait until next year to start creating my character! 

WWW Wednesday | 01/09/2021

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking On a World of Words that highlights three questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you'll read next?

 

What did you recently finish reading?

I finally finished Strange the Dreamer by Lainie Taylor and I can't tell you how happy I am to have finally done it!! It took me over two months to complete it cause weeks would go by without me picking it up but I got some reading mojo back cause I needed it done by the time September rolled around. I did really enjoy it, the writing is just so poetically beautifully and the characters and the world just completely suck you in. I'm looking forward to the sequel although hopefully I'll be able to read it quicker then this one!

What are you currently reading?

I have just under five hours left of the audiobook for Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. This has been a terrific listen, so well produced and narrated. It's gotten so dark and violent at times though that it hasn't always been easy to listen to but it's such an immersive experience that has really brought this graphic novel to life despite the fact their are no accompanying illustrations. 

I'm also around halfway through The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor, a YA contemporary set it 60's Yorkshire that is essentially a coming of age story about a young girl discovering who she wants to be. It's been fun so far, I love the humour and the realness of Evie's voice. 

What do you think you'll read next?

I'm gonna do it! I'm going to finally read Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid after continuously putting it on TBR's and never picking it up. But I'm reading it. It's decided and nothing is gonna stop me this time! 

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they split at the absolute height of their popularity…until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? What are you currently reading and hoping to pick up next? Leave a comment or link your own WWW Wednesdays below for me to check out!

Down The TBR Hole #50

Current TBR shelf: 3700

Last week's TBR shelf: 3708

The rules   

1. Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
2. Order on ascending date added.
3. Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
4. Read the synopses of the books
5. Decide: keep it or should it go?

Down The TBR Hole #49

 

Current TBR shelf: 3708

Last week's TBR shelf: 3719

The rules   

1. Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
2. Order on ascending date added.
3. Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
4. Read the synopses of the books
5. Decide: keep it or should it go?

WWW Wednesday | 18/08/2021

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking On a World of Words that highlights three questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you'll read next?

 

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished This Lie Will Kill You by Chelsea Pitcher on Monday and unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of it. The premise had so much potential (revenge plot, creepy old mansion, muder mystery dinner) but the execution just wasn't there. None of the characters were anything other then boring, other then Parker but he was just downright annoying. The dialogue had me cringeing so much, teenagers just don't talk the way these ones did and by the end of the book I just didn't really care much anymore. I'm still on a mystery/thriller binge though so hopefully my next read is better. 

 

What are you currently reading?

 

Locke and Key by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez is my current audiobook read. I enjoyed the Netflix series so I was hoping I would like this even though it's an audio version of a graphic novel. This is a whole production though! I really feel like I'm listening to a professional tv show just without the visuals. The narrators are all great and the sound effects/sounds in the background all add to the atmosphere. It's been really dark so far but I'm liking it. 

 

I also just started The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas and even though I'm only 15% in, I'm already loving it. The plot is so original, time travel is a real thing (but only for the elite) and a future murder has taken place that is connected to the women behind the invention. Think 7 1⁄2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle meets Minority Report. I'm loving the writing and the characters so I'm just hoping the plot continues to impress.         

What do you think you'll read next?

I've been struggling to pick up a physical book so I'm hoping something light and romance focused like The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson will do the trick. I love Morgan Matson and this is the last book of hers that I need to read (that I own, don't have her newest release yet!).    

Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks).

But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing—if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

   

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? What are you currently reading and hoping to pick up next? Leave a comment or link your own WWW Wednesdays below for me to check out!

Down The TBR Hole #48

Current TBR shelf: 3719

Last week's TBR shelf: 3734

The rules   

1. Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
2. Order on ascending date added.
3. Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
4. Read the synopses of the books
5. Decide: keep it or should it go?

Blog Tour (Spotlight) | The Meeting Point by Olivia Lara

Publication Date: September 2nd 2021 by Aria Fiction

Target Audience: Adult

Genre: Contemporary, Romance 

→ Author's Site

 

Synopsis

What if the Lift driver who finds your cheating boyfriend's phone holds the directions to true love?

'Who are you and why do you have my boyfriend's phone?’

'He left it in my car. You must be the blonde in the red dress? I'm the Lift driver who dropped you two off earlier.'

And with these words, the life of the brunette and t-shirt wearing Maya Maas is turned upside down. Having planned to surprise her boyfriend, she finds herself single and stranded in an unknown city on her birthday.

So when the mystery driver rescues Maya with the suggestion that she cheers herself up at a nearby beach town, she jumps at the chance to get things back on track. She wasn't expecting a personalised itinerary or the easy companionship that comes from opening up to a stranger via text, let alone the possibility it might grow into something more...

Come on this 5* journey to love, laughter and back again, perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Josie Silver and Sally Thorne.

 

 About the Author

 

As a child, Olivia not-so-quietly ‘observed’ (AKA bothered with countless questions) her grandfather — who worked for the biggest publishing house in Romania — edit hundreds of books. And when he wasn’t editing, he read. Everything, all the time. Just like her father, who wrote short sci-fi stories, and was set on building the largest library she’d ever seen and her mother who’s never found without a book…wherever she goes. Her love for words came naturally, and after studying marketing, communications & photography, Olivia worked as a journalist for a newspaper and news television network in Romania.

An unapologetic citizen of the world, she spent a few years in Greece, Sweden, France, before settling in sunny California with her photographer husband and young daughter, where she works in marketing and writes. Oh, and let's not forget the ever-growing menagerie that completes the family: Pumpkin, the Maine Coon mix, three black cats and a siamese kitten.

When she's not writing or thinking about writing, she reads (across genres), watches old movies and collects vintage books, vinyl records, and eerie paintings. She loves traveling (and can’t wait until she can do it again, safely), swimming, biking, hiking and of course, photography.

SOMEDAY IN PARIS, her debut, published by Aria Fiction/Head of Zeus in May 2020 became a B&N, Apple, Kobo and Amazon Top 100 Bestseller and was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel Awards 2021. Her second novel, THE MEETING POINT, a contemporary romcom set in Northern California, is set to be published as an e-book on September 2, 2021 and in paperback in December 2021 in the UK and March, 2022 in the US.

Keep up with Olivia: twitter || instagram || facebook

 

Buy the Book

 Goodreads • Waterstones • Blackwells

• Amazon (UK)

 

Thank you to The Write Reads Tours for letting me take part in this blog tour! Make sure to check out other posts and reviews from the tour and to grab yourself a copy of this fun, meet-cute romance!

Book Review (Blog Tour) | Wicked Little Deeds by Kat Ellis

 

Publication Date: 5th August 2021 (UK) by Penguin

Format: Netgalley ARC

Target Audience: Young Adult

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Horror   

→ Author's Site

 

Goodreads • Waterstones • Blackwells

Content warnings: on page death, parental death.  

 

Synopsis

From its creepy town mascot to the story of its cursed waterfall, Burden Falls is a small town dripping with superstition. Ava Thorn knows this well - since the horrific accident she witnessed a year ago, she's been plagued by nightmares.

But when someone close to her is brutally murdered and Ava is the primary suspect, she starts to wonder if the legends surrounding the town are more fact than fiction.

Whatever secrets Burden Falls is hiding, there's a killer on the loose, and they have a vendetta against the Thorns... 

 

Rating

My Thoughts