It’s Monday, what are you reading? (4/4/22)

My sister has brought up this fantasy series on Kindle Unlimited multiple times. She only recommends books if they were really good and I made the mistake of starting book #1 last Thursday and boy did I get sucked in! So I’ve spent all my free time reading this series this weekend. I’m on the last book in the series, immediately picking up the next when I finished the previous book. I both love and hate finding great new authors like this. Love it because she has a lot of books I can read, but hate it because I forget about all my other obligations and only want to spend my time reading. I’m going to list the first and second books below if you’re interested.

Thanks again to The Book Date for opening this conversation to book bloggers to talk about the books they read over the last week. It’s a fun conversation, join in!

JUST FINISHED

This fantasy novel series is fast paced with an underdog heroine. Arrow has been rejected by her people, treated horribly, but is the strongest War Mage her people have seen in over a century. This series shows Arrow fighting for peace between the Taellaneth, humans, and shifkin. There’s a lot of action, great character development, and world building. Be prepared to want to read all of them at one time1

JUST STARTED

Book #5 is the last one in the series, whew! What a fabulous series! I’ve stayed up late reading every night and have been hooked in by these characters and Arrow in particular. It’s been great to see her growth into a woman who has confidence. She has come a long way. If you love fantasy novels you need to read this series. Seriously good.

This is what I’ve been reading for the last few days. Are there any books you’ve gotten hooked by?

Happy Monday and happy reading!

Deb

This Chick Read: The Storm’s Whisperer (The Broken Lands #5) by T.A. White

Eva is the Kyren’s chosen Ambassador to broker an alliance between their two races. At their invitation she and Caden take a group of Trateri into the herd lands to form a colony and become the bridge between the two groups. Evil follows them and threatens the threads of their alliance. Eva must figure out her new abilities in order to save the man she loves and the two people’s her duty calls to her to protect.

It seems a simple synopsis but there was a LOT happening in this novel! Eva is the Kyren’s chosen Ambassador, but when trouble knocks on the Trateri’s door, her alliance seems to dissipate leaving Eva reliant upon the Trateri’s strength and her own uneducated skills as a Caller. Despite the dissipating alliance with the Kyren, Eva still finds strength in her friends and shows incredible leadership when it comes to her responsibility for other side characters like Brisa a young Tenrin who becomes attached to both she and Jason, her apprentice and future Trateri warrior. These subplots are what ultimately bring the book together and give it the meat it needs to reach its conclusion.

I mention Jason, above, because despite the love story between Eva and Caden, Jason’s character shows the most growth in this story arc. Eva has her calling and sometimes seems to struggle finding the strength and will to overcome her obstacles. Jason acts as the impetus to drive her character. As her apprentice and responsibility it’s through her interactions with him that we see her “become” her destiny. I liked that for him as a character because despite his whiny self-involved beginnings he has turned into a strong character and has become one of my favorites.

Did I like Storm’s Whisper as much as the previous novel? No. Despite it reaching its conclusion I didn’t feel the tension of the first novel, or any of the first three in the series. Even so, it was a decent story, and showed knew aspects to the world these stories reside. So to me it was worth the four or five hours of reading. I do hope she picks Jason as the next character to follow in the series. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

Click this link to purchase!* The Storm’s Whisper (The Broken Lands Book 5)

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chicks TBT- An Interview with Faith Hunter

This throwback Thursday post links to my interview with Faith Hunter, author of both the Jane Yellowrock and Soulwood series. At the time, her third Soulwood novel, Flame in the Dark was released and I was (and still am!) obsessed. Soulwood is a spin-off series to Jane Yellowrock and at the time Dark Queen, book #12, had just been released. That series will have the 15th book released this fall. A HUGE urban fantasy fan, I stumbled upon Soulwood having never read one of the Jane Yellowrock books. Yeah, I know, big miss! However, I quickly figured out this author’s talent for the supernatural and dove into Jane’s series and at the time of this interview I had read three books of each. I knew I was missing a lot of context about a couple of the main characters but thought I did a pretty good job of delivering thoughtful questions about her characters. After having re-read it just now and being caught up in both series I’m surprised to say that I think I succeeded!

My interview with Faith Hunter was released on December, 3, 2017, which seems so long ago, but it took me that long to catch up on the Jane Yellowrock series that now sits at 15. You see, I fell in love with the audiobooks and would listen to each one with a great patience, enjoying all of those action scenes and Khristine Hvam’s voices for each character. If you’d like to read my interview, please follow the link below!

An Interview with Faith Hunter author of the Faith Hunter and Soulwood Series

If you’d like to read my reviews of the Jane Yellowrock and Soulwood series here are a couple to get you started. You can search at the top by author to find all of the others. I hope you enjoy this throwback to 2017!

Blood of the Earth (A Soulwood Novel)

Raven Cursed (Jane Yellowrock #4)

I truly can’t say enough good things about both of these series. If you like urban fantasy and haven’t read these you are totally missing out.

Enjoy this blast from the past!

Deb

This Chick Read: Always Jane by Jenn Bennett

Every summer Jane works with the domestic staff of a famous rock producer at a music festival in the mountains. She has been long-distance dating Eddie Sarafian, the son of the family who runs the festival and she’s excited to finally be in close confines. When he jets off to do business in the Philippines she finds out things that makes her question that relationship and brings her closer to Fen, his brother. Over the next few weeks they go from antagonistic friends to falling in serious like throwing a serious loop into her summer plans.

When Jane and Fen first meet he is dark, disturbing, and seems to be the black sheep of his family. We soon discover that the Sarafian brothers may not be what Jane thought and the more time she spends with Fen the deeper their attraction grows. I’ll admit, I loved Fen, but boy is he a dark soul! He is tall, dark, and handsome and has been obsessed with Jane since he saved her when she fell in the ocean two years ago. He has even commemorated that accident with a tattoo. As she gets to know the Sarafian family she is drawn to how “normal” they seem but as she gets to know them she sees the problems that reside at their roots which lead her to making some difficult choices.

I was surprised by the dark undertones in this book. The synopsis made it sound like it would be a young adult contemporary with a bit of a romance and it was, but there was also quite a bit of angst and pain. Not a bad thing but just unexpected. Fortunately I really liked both Jane and Fen. The more that was revealed about each of them the more their quirks made sense and I wanted to keep getting to know them.

I’m a sucker for books that have a music theme. Not that I know that much about music, I don’t! I just love that vibe and creativity. That Jane and Fen got to know each other through their love of music gave them a commonality that was fun to read and was a good contrast to the dark themes throughout the novel. Have you read a lot of Jenn Bennett novels? I’ve read a few and thought I knew what to expect but this novel surprised me. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for my honest review and it was honest.

Click this link to purchase!* Always Jane

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this novel through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

It’s Monday, what are you reading? (3/28/22)

If you’re an avid reader like I am you will fit in time for reading despite having a busy schedule. This week was a performance week which tightened up my schedule even more but I found time to read some light and fun novels. Let’s jump right to it!

Thanks again to Kathryn from Book Date who started this fun conversation and allows us to share what we are reading each week.

JUST FINISHED

I was in the mood to read a rock star romance and I turned to the author of a series I love, Kylie Scott. Her Stage Dive series was a lot of fun and very well written so I thought I’d start on the spin-off Dirty. I really enjoyed these characters and the story that was much more character driven than rock star drive.

JUST STARTED

I am about a third of the way in on this ARC I received for Sari not Sari and I am loving this debut author’s writing style!

What books are on your nightstand waiting for you to finish working and get back to reading?

Happy Monday and happy reading!

Deb

This Chicks Sunday Commentary: My Top 5 Book Releases- April’22

For me, April is a pretty light month for books released that I’d like to read. Although I’ll admit if I actually read the synopsis of each book release I could probably add 25 books to my TBR, but I’m trying to avoid that at the moment. I took at look at the Goodreads list and came up with the five I’m most likely to read according to my own taste. Here’s my list!

#5 BOOK RELEASE

Kylie Scott writes great rock star romances so I’m always curious when the first book in a new series comes out. This one sounds good! The guy next door in a small town is a rock star and Ani Bennett is none too pleased (despite being a fan).

Synopsis:

What chance does a small-town girl have with a world-famous rock star?

Two years after his wife’s death, rock star Garrett Hayes hasn’t moved on. But he has moved out of L.A. Where better to escape his past than a small town in the northern California mountains? If only he could get the townsfolk of Wildwood to leave him the hell alone.

Ani Bennet returned to her hometown for some much-needed serenity. The last thing she needs is a grumpy, too hot for his own good, rich and famous rock star living next door—and rent-free in her brain.

She set her fangirl tendencies aside and deleted his photo from her cell when they became neighbors. But when Garrett asks for help, she can’t say no. The problem is, spending time together is making those fangirl feelings resurface—and bringing them to a whole new level.

What chance does a small-town girl have with world-famous rock star? It’s time for Ani to set her fears aside and find out.

Click HERE to purchase!

#4 BOOK RELEASE

This is a debut novel by Sonya Singh about a young woman whose parents were raised in India but raised her to be “All-American” and her identity crisis and re-discovering her South Asian roots. This is described as a rom-com and after reading several South Asian romance novels in the past year I’m eager to read this new author!

Synopsis:

Manny Dogra is the beautiful young CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people manage their relationship breakups. As preoccupied as she is with her business, she’s also planning her wedding to handsome architect Adam Jamieson while dealing with the loss of her beloved parents.

For reasons Manny has never understood, her mother and father, who were both born in India, always wanted her to become an “All-American” girl. So that’s what she did. She knows next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, and that’s never been a problem—until her parents are no longer around, and an image of Manny that’s been Photoshopped to make her skin look more white appears on a major magazine cover. Suddenly, the woman who built an empire encouraging people to be true to themselves is having her own identity crisis.

But when an irritating client named Sammy Patel approaches Manny with an odd breakup request, the perfect solution presents itself: If they both agree to certain terms, he’ll give her a crash course in being “Indian” at his brother’s wedding.

What follows is days of dancing and dal, masala and mehndi as Manny meets the lovable, if endlessly interfering, aunties and uncles of the Patel family, and, along the way, discovers much more than she could ever have anticipated.

Click HERE to purchase!*

#3 BOOK RELEASE

I’m not usually drawn to books that have several protagonists, but for some reason this one sounds cute. Maybe it’s the girlfriend group? Not sure, but Beth O’Leary is a bestselling author for a reason and I bet this novel is cute.

Synopsis:

Three women who seemingly have nothing in common find that they’re involved with the same man in this smart new rom-com by Beth O’Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare.

Siobhan is a quick-tempered life coach with way too much on her plate. Miranda is a tree surgeon used to being treated as just one of the guys on the job. Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer for the local charity shop with zero sense of self-worth.

These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: they’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up—Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man.

Once they’ve each forgiven him for standing them up, they are all in serious danger of falling in love with a man who may have not just one or two but three women on the go….

Is there more to him than meets the eye? Where was he on Valentine’s Day? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?

Click HERE to purchase!*

#2 BOOK RELEASE

As soon as I saw the description using a comparison to Ocean’s Eleven my interest was peaked! I have never read a novel by this author so I hope it grabs me from the start.

Synopsis:

Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. 

Will Chen plans to steal them back.

A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. 

His crew is every heist archetype one can imag­ine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down. 

Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted at­tempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.

Click HERE to purchase!*

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase one of these books through the above links I’ll receive a small stipend.

MY MOST ANTICIPATED APRIL’22 BOOK RELEASE

When a book comes out by Penny Reid it gets added to my TBR immediately. I love her writing style and her characters are always quirky and fun. I can’t wait to finally read this novel!

Synopsis:

Winnifred Gobaldi and Byron Visser are not best friends.

Yes, they’ve known each other for years, but they’re not even friendly. Winnie considers them more like casual, distant acquaintances who find each other barely tolerable, especially when he’s being condescending (which is all the time).

The truth is, they have nothing in common. She’s a public school science teacher with stars in her eyes, and he’s a pretentious, joyless double PhD turned world-famous bestselling fiction author. She loves sharing her passion for promulgating women in STEM careers and building community via social media, and he eschews all socialization, virtual or otherwise. She’s looking for a side hustle to help pay down a mountain of student debt, and his financial portfolio is the stuff of fiduciary wet dreams. So why are they faking a #bestfriend relationship for millions of online spectators?

When a simple case of tit-for-tat trends between nonfriends leads to a wholly unexpected kind of pretend, nothing is simple. Sometimes, it takes a public audience to reveal the truth of private feelings, and rarely—very rarely—you should believe what you see online.

Click HERE to purchase!*

What do you think? Do you agree with my top 5? Do you have your own that you want to shout out to the world? Please feel free to let me know about a book that’s on your own top 5 list.

Happy reading!

Deb

This Chick Read: Aurora Burning (Aurora Cycle #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Squad 312 has been declared terrorists and everyone in the universe is looking for them. That makes it extra hard to purchase a ship and find the weapon that will put an end to the Ra’Haam who want to send its spores into every crack in the universe and pull people into its hive. Chased by the Hive and Kal’s creepy sister they head back to where it all began. Hadfield is the ship that Aurora was on when she was brought out of stasis, changed. It’s black box may have the answers that they need to complete their mission.

As with the first novel Aurora Rising, this second installment had a fast-paced plot, witty dialog, and some great action. It played out in my head like a movie, which is what I’ve come to expect from this writing duo. All of the Squad 312 characters were so connected and I enjoyed reading about those interconnections so much that their being separated for most of the book threw me. Yeah, I know, they needed to move the plot forward and it was probably easier to do that in separate stories, but I’ll admit that all of those narration changes made my head spin. I’m hoping the third novel completes a few of these stories so that we can concentrate on the main arc instead of all of the side journeys.

Despite the head spins from changing character perspectives every chapter, I did enjoy where they took the story and I’ll admit that in most cases those stories evolved those characters helping readers pick and choose who to root for and identify with. For me, the least interesting was Aurora’s and considering she’s the title character that probably isn’t a good thing. There’s still one more book to see how this plot resolves, and I definitely am not waiting another year to read it.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle Book 2)

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chicks Audio Review: Where the Dead Lie (Sebastian St. Cyr #12) by C.S. Harris

Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, has become aware that someone is preying on the cities children. After a young boy has been found mutilated and his younger sister missing, Sebastian starts to investigate, uncovering a sadistic world among London’s brothels. Following a trail of rare books by the Marquis de Sade he finds the killer may be among his peers.

There are many things that I love about these audiobooks but first and foremost is the narrator, Davina Porter. She is a talent beyond compare, narrating all of the voices in these novels, handling multiple accents from different countries and even different parts of London. I forget that it is one woman that I’m listening to as I immerse myself in these very well written mysteries.

As this is book twelve in the series, I am completely invested in all of the regular characters. We have seen Sebastian grow from a youthful love for an actress, to an honorably married man and father. What hasn’t changed are his skills as an investigator, which are greatly tested in Where the Dead Lie. This is the first novel where his investigation is taken on because of who he is as a husband and father, not because of his place in the peerage. I found that an interesting contrast as he didn’t throw his title around as much as he’s done in previous novels, in order to get an answer to his question. In fact, that wouldn’t work, would it? His frustrations at being unable to get answers made him dig in even harder and truly use every skill in his toolbox. This made the novel stand out for me, which is hard to do because this author has written a series of great novels.

As Sebastian searches for the killer, his wife Hero undergoes her own interviews of these orphan’s, hoping to write a book to help bring light to their plight as they try to survive on the street. She often pays them for their time speaking with her and I can feel her helplessness as she gives them a little bit of money for their time. I’m sure she’d like to give away all of her money in order to open up a home and I’ve often wondered why she hasn’t done this already as this theme has continued through a few books. Interestingly her interviews often bring to light small nuggets that help Sebastian understand a situation better, or in fact gives him an answer. Despite not wanting her to be in danger he should think of using her more because she has serious skills!

This novel had a gruesome topic and again dredged through London’s darkest corners, which I both love and hate. These dark corners do make a great contrast to the glitter and glam of the peerage and help strike home that some of this world’s cruelties are wrapped up in pretty paper to help disguise it’s dark center. C.S. Harris is an amazing writer crafting a novel where you are both disgusted and made to feel hope at the same time. I think that’s why I keep coming back. Well that and the talent of this author and the estimable Ms. Davina Porter who brings the characters to life in audio form.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to order this book!* Where the Dead Lie (Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery)

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

It’s Monday, what are you reading? (3/21/22)

Isn’t it awesome when you have a bunch of free time and can read just any ol’ thing you want? I’ve been going through my library wishlist and checking out what sounds good as well as taking a look at what’s been on my Kindle and have read through a few great books over the last week. It’s been so fun!

Thanks again to Book Date for starting this conversation and allowing us all to share what we’re reading.

JUST FINISHED

I saw this book on a Goodreads list about great romances of 2022 and thought I’d give this author a try. It’s the third book in the series but I didn’t miss not reading books 1 and 2. It was a different kind of historical novel that I actually really liked. I may go back and read the other two books!

JUST STARTED

This book has been on my Kindle for over three years. I didn’t read it during the Pandemic because it’s about a virus that kills off a majority of the world’s population but I picked it up yesterday to give it another try. It is very Nora Roberts in writing style and it was easy to get interested. I’ll admit, it’s kind of weird reading about a deadly virus but I’m going to power through and see where this book leads me. I know it’s a three book series so I’ll make my decision later on whether I continue reading the other books.

Have you read either of these books? What did you think? If they aren’t books you’d see yourself reading, please share what’s on your coffee table.

Happy Monday and happy reading!

Deb

This Chick Read: Homecoming King (Three Kings #1) by Penny Reid

Rex McMurtry, pro football defensive end for the Chicago Squalls, has a reputation for dating a woman and having the next person they date marry them. Always a bridesmaid and never a bride, Rex is tired of the journalists poking fun at him. When Abby finds her high school crush sitting quietly at the bar where she works, she silently serves him two drinks not realizing that he is blind drunk. Feeling responsible, she has a few friends help get him into her car where she plans to drive him home. His throwing up all over the both of them derails that plan and she decides the safest place for his famous face is on the blow up mattress in her apartment. When he wakes up and realizes she took care of him he makes a proposition that she unfortunately just can’t refuse.

I loved Abby! She is more than slightly distrustful of people and so guards her heart very tightly, but Rex was her childhood crush. She couldn’t really refuse any request he’d make of her, even if it was to be his fake wife. She was the perfect mix of innocence and arrogance. After a failed marriage and a brief stint in prison I don’t blame her for not trusting men. Her ex was a dirtbag! Despite Rex’s fake marriage proposition she feels like she knows him because she semi-stalked him all through her youth. Truthfully, he isn’t much different than he was back in high school, putting a wall up between he and anyone who wants to get close. Abby has a way of disarming him and soon she becomes one of the most important people in his life. Once again, Penny Reid writes a charming, different type of romance novel that is just fun, funny, and really damn appealing.

Most of Rex’s friends have gotten married, all to ex’s of Rex’s. LOL. However, there are two friends who’ve remained single and dare I guess that they will be King #2 and #3? While not War and Peace, Homecoming King is utterly charming and the series has promise. I can’t wait for the second to come out. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase!* Homecoming King (Three Kings Book 1)

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.