October Wrap Up - November TBR

Goodbye October

Hello November

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So October flew by I could barely keep up! Halloween finally came and went!! I know we will start Halloween 2017 in December but I have November to catch up on life!!! 

October was a busy month for me.  I went away with my husband and friends for the first weekend and it was awesome!! We went to Baltimore and I loved every moment of it! We did eat a lot, but it was well worth it!! 

I got to see another show in the city with my friend this time it was puppets of the Golden Girls! It was one of the funniest things I have seen ever.   The show was adapted to present day and the jokes where great!!  

November is going to fly by to my husband and I are going on vacation to Barbados the first week, which is why this post is delayed and I hope to get tons of reading done!!  

My goal for November is going to be to focus on blogging and updating my blog.  I should have some more free time so I also hope to get through a lot of reading!! I also want to get more of a social media following.  

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My top clicked on post for October was: Curse of the Moon - Beth Trissel (Review)

My favorite book I read in October was:  It's Been You - Rina Grey (Completed 10/26/16)

I can't wait to read in November:  Aftermath - Clara Kensie
 
Books Completed in October:
The Row - J.R. Johansson (Completed 10/2/16)
Curse of the Moon - Beth Trissel (Completed 10/11/16)
Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld (Completed 10/11/16) 
The Lost and Found Life of Rosy Bennett - Jan Birley (Completed 10/16/16)
Tell Me Again - Michelle Major (Completed 10/17/16)
Cowboy Karma - Mia Hopkins (Completed 10/19/16)
It's Been You - Rina Grey (Completed 10/26/16)
The Panther Moon - Beth Trissel (Completed 10/27/16) 
Return of the Continuum - Jennifer Brody (Completed 10/30/16) 


Audiobooks Completed in October:
Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell (Completed 10/7/16)
A Season for Fireflies - Rebecca Maizel (Completed 10/12/16) 
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell (Completed 10/19/16)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling (Completed 10/24/16)
Cinder - Marissa Meyer (Completed 10/31/16)
 

My November TBR List (which will most likely change 100 times):
Everyday Magic - Emily Albright
Aftermath - Clara Kensie
Can't Stop Loving You - Miranda Liasson 

Challenge Participating in:

Backlist Books Reading Challenge 2016

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 How was your October?  What do you have planned for November?

{Blog Tour} Everyday Magic (Untitled #2) by Emily Albright (Review & Giveaway)

Everyday Magic (Untitled #2)
by Emily Albright
Publisher: Merit Press
Release Date: December 2nd 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

For once, Maggie McKendrick just wants to control her own life. Her overbearing Hollywood director father has it all planned out for her: UCLA, law school, then working as an entertainment lawyer, preferably for him. But Maggie has other, more creative-spirit friendly, plans. Namely, Thrippletons School of Fashion and Design in England, and then onto becoming a designer, preferably a wildly successful one. The big snag in her plan? Getting it past her dad.

A movie shoot takes the family to the Scottish Highlands for the summer, and closer to Maggie’s dream school. While there, she runs into the charming Preston Browne. Maggie is intrigued and decides to bend her no guys rule—instituted after her ex used her to get close to her dad. Forced to keep secrets from Preston in order to protect the future plans she’s made, Maggie finds herself falling for the tall Brit. And for once in her life she knows that he’s interested in her, not her Hollywood connections. When Maggie's father blackmails her into dating his lead actor, she isn’t left with a choice. The biggest problem isn’t having to date hunky, mega-hottie, Ben Chambers. No, it’s praying she doesn’t lose Preston in the process.

Excelling at her dream school, Maggie’s personal life is a tangled mess. She needs to decide if living a lie is worth losing Preston or chance going against her father and facing his wrath. When the tabloids expose the truth of her fake relationship with Ben, Maggie's world is thrown into a tailspin. Ultimately, Maggie must find the courage to take risks and forge ahead on her own path.

Review

This book follows Maggie and her family as they move out to the Scottish Highlands for the summer.   Maggie is close with her mother and brother, but her father is a big director and she is far from close from her father.  We can tell right off the bat that Maggie's father rules the family and she is constantly walking on eggshells around him.   Maggie really opens up throughout the book about the struggles that she has had in life.

The author did a great job setting up the scenes for the book and all of the little details.  I felt like when I was reading I was able to picture where Maggie was going and what she was seeing.  The author did a great job with details to help create a very vivid picture of what was going on.

I liked Maggie as the main character in the book.  She is still very young with just entering college so some of the things that she does is not in the best judgement, but it matches with her being so young.  I felt like Maggie had a very strong support system in place even if she didn't always see it that way.  The story is told completely through Maggie's eyes and she really grew on me throughout the book.  I did like that we got to see her fears and flaws as well as her successes it gave me a true picture of who she was as a character.

There are a few side characters in the book that I just couldn't stand like Ben Chambers.  I felt like the author didn't really focus on him to much so I got a bad taste in my mouth from the small details that I knew about him.  

The story is very cute to follow along with and the author does a great job keeping the reader entertained.  I didn't see some of the stuff coming in the book so it was a great read!

Things I didn't love was the topic of abuse was brought up a lot during the book and I felt like it was handled well.  I sort of felt like it was an after thought.  I felt like we all knew what was going on and the author didn't want to make it to graphic because then it would have needed to be addressed further.  This was the main reason I couldn't give this book a 5, although it is a very enjoyable read.

I would suggest this as a perfect nighttime read.  The book was very easy to follow along with and I enjoyed reading about Maggie's life crisis.  The book is pretty fast paced so it was very easy to take your mind off of everything.

I received a copy of this book from The Fantastic Flying Book Club for the purpose of providing an honest review.  This does not effect my opinion of this book.

Emily Albright's debut novel, THE HEIR AND THE SPARE, is releasing January 18, 2016 from Merit Press.

She's a writer, a major bookworm, a lover of romantic movies, a wife, a mother, an owner of one adorable (yet slightly insane) cockapoo, and uses way too many :).

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{Blog Tour} Return of the Continuums (The Continuum Trilogy #2) - Jennifer Brody (Review)

Return of the Continuums (The Continuum Trilogy #2)
by Jennifer Brody
Publisher: Turner Publishing
Release Date: November 1st 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Rate: 4/5

Synopsis:

One thousand years after a cataclysmic event leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, the survivors take refuge in continuums designed to sustain the human race until repopulation of Earth becomes possible. Against this backdrop, a group of young friends in the underwater Thirteenth Continuum dream about life outside their totalitarian existence, an idea that has been outlawed for centuries. When a shocking discovery turns the dream into a reality, they must decide if they will risk their own extinction to experience something no one has for generations, the Surface.

This is not a book that could be read as a standalone novel.  The book jumps right into the action following Myra and her friends as they search for the First Continuum.    It picks up with the same characters and the plot line exactly from The 13th Continuum.  Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character.   We get to learn a lot more about the world that the characters live in.  We also get a much better picture of how everything is related. 

 

I loved how we get to learn a lot more about the individual characters and really see their personalities take form.   I loved Myra as a character, we get to see her strength and loyalty grow throughout the book.  We also get to see her make mistakes and grow even stronger.  I loved getting to see her interact with other characters as well as reading about her from different perspectives in the book.  I also love her brother Tinker I feel like he is way beyond his years in his knowledge and he really brings out the best side in people.   I feel like I would love a Tinker standalone novel or even chapters told by Tinker.

 

This story takes place mostly in the present tense, but we do get a lot of flash backs into what happened to some of the continuum's.  The author did a great job showing how humanity evolved during the Doom.  We also get a lot of details pieced together towards the end of this book.  There is still a large amount of questions and I will be reading the next book in these series because I need to know how it all pieces together.  The author does a great job with leaving you wanting more while you are reading. 

 

I loved how the author really brought a whole new world to life in my mind.  The details the author gives really help to create pictures in my mind of what the author is thinking about.    

 

Things I didn't love was some of the details in the book I felt like the author could have went into a little more detail.  I felt like some of the science details we were getting quickly and I could sort of picture what the author was talking about, but still had questions.  I felt like this book was a very fast paced nature and I would have liked the author to expand more upon some of the details so create a clearer picture in my mind. 

I would suggest this as a weekend read.  I felt like the story had a lot going on and it took a lot more of my focus while I was reading.  Science fiction is generally a harder book for me to follow so I like when I have more time to digest the novel.  Also, there was a lot of suspense so it made me keep wanting to read.

 

I received a copy of this book from The Fantastic Flying Book Club for the purpose of providing an honest review.  This does not affect my opinion of this book.

Follow the The 13th Continuum by Jennifer Brody Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Jennifer Brody’s debut novel The 13th Continuum sold to Turner Publishing in a 3-book deal and is being packaged into a feature film. The book is the first in a trilogy and will come out in Spring 2016. She is a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. She lives and writes in LA.

After studying film and graduating from Harvard University, she began her career in feature film development. Highlights include working for Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes and New Line Cinema, most notably on The Lord of the Rings films and The Golden Compass. In 2008, she produced the feature film Make It Happen for The Weinstein Company. Her recipes and articles have appeared in xoJane, Fox News, Parade Magazine, Whole Life Times, and Meatless Monday, and many other publications.

She is an alumni of the Sirenland Writers Conference, where she studied with Meg Wolitzer, and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, where she studied with Victor LaValle. She recently completed a 3-week residency at The Lemon Tree House and has been accepted for a residency in Spring 2016 at the Helen R. Whiteley Center, run by the University of Washington.

She founded and runs BookPod, a social media platform for authors with 400 members. She’s also a mentor for the Young Storytellers Foundation. In Spring 2015, her mentee’s script was picked out of over 900 scripts for the Glee Big Show, where it was performed by the cast of the hit Fox TV show, and in Fall of 2015, her mentee’s script was chosen for the Biggest Show, where it was performed by Jack Black and Leslie Mann.

The Panther Moon - Beth Trissel (Review)

The Panther Moon by Beth Trissel
Series The Secret Warrior #3
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy
Publication date: September 30th 2016
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc. 
 Format: ebook, 157 pages
How I got it: From Beth Trissel for an honest review
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
My rating: 4/5
 
Being the seventh Morcant has its perks: Morgan is learning to fly and wield magical blue fire.

But the coyote shifters are growing bolder. Mateo and his panthers seem impossible to defeat. And vampires aren't real – are they?

When the elusive and enigmatic Chief Okema disappears and the wards protecting the Wapicoli territory falter, Morgan and Jackson are forced into the role of leaders. Badly outnumbered and outgunned, do they have time to search for the secret of the Divining Tree, and will it help them in the final battle?

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My thoughts:

This book continues the story of Morgan as she learns to become a strong seventh Morcant.   This time the group seems to be up against an impossible force and in fights with several groups.  Also, they have lost the direction of Okema the leader of their group. 

I don't feel this can be read as a standalone novel, I felt like there were a lot of references to the other two books and you would need to know important stuff from the other books.   I also highly suggest reading the first two books as they are short and quick reads that help make one complete story.  

I really enjoy reading more about Jackson in this book.  I feel like Jackson is coming into this own now.  We get to see that he is not sure how to go forward in his life and take the power.  Everyone is trying to encourage him to take the lead, but he just isn't sure.  Jackson decides to make a co-leadership with Morgan.  I feel like in this book he still isn't positive he is ready to take charge and has more growing to do in the future. 

The author did a great job with all of the details in the book again.  I felt like as a reader I can fully visualize what the author is trying to describe.   The details really make you feel like you are part of the book while you are reading. 

I hope that this story will continue on and we get to learn more about what Morgan and Jackson are truly up against.  The author has a lot of options available on how to continue and I can't wait to see how the story goes. 

I would suggest this as a nighttime read it is a great book to unwind with.  I felt like the story was easy to follow along with as well easy enough to put down and pick back up while reading.  

I received a copy of this book from Beth Trissel for the purpose of providing an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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About the Author

Married to my high school sweetheart, I live on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia surrounded by my children, grandbabies, and assorted animals. An avid gardener, my love of herbs and heirloom plants figures into my work. The rich history of Virginia, the Native Americans and the people who journeyed here from far beyond her borders are at the heart of my inspiration. In addition to American settings, I also write historical and time travel romances set in the British Isles, YA fantasy romance, and nonfiction about gardening, herbal lore, and country life.

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