Review — The Speaker by Traci Chee

I was on one of the campuses I often substitute teach on, and I had a class in the library when I looked over and the librarian had a nice stack of just-out-of-the-box books. In beautiful purple and gold, there was The Speaker, Book Two of Sea of Ink and Gold. I could have died. When I told her I had read and loved The Reader and couldn’t wait to read The Speaker, she let me borrow it! I  am so very grateful to her! I read The Reader almost exactly one year ago, and I’m posting this review a year later on the dot, which is pretty cool timing. Here’s my Review.

Review — The Substitute by Denise Grover Swank

I found The Substitute on Amazon for free, so I picked it up a few months ago. I hadn’t read anything in nearly a month, and the description promised plenty of misunderstandings and a bit of romance–possibly the perfect thing to get me out of my funk.

Blog Tour — These Healing Hills

THESE HEALING HILLS

by

ANN GABHART

Genre: Historical Romance / Christian

Publisher: Revell

Date of Publication: September 5, 2017

Number of Pages: 368

Scroll down for giveaway!

Review – The Red Door Inn by Liz Johnson

This is the first book in a series. Last year I reviewed the second book, Where Two Hearts Meet (review), as part of a Lone Star Book Blog Tour. I was so excited to find the series on Hoopla and be able to read the first installment.

Review – Beastly Bones by William Ritter

At the beginning of the year I read Jackaby by William Ritter. You can see my review here.

I’m fortunate enough to have access to both Overdrive and Hoopla through my library, and I borrowed the ebook version of Beastly Bones from Hoopla.

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Young Adult / Historical Fiction / Mystery

I’ve found very little about private detective R. F. Jackaby to be standard in the time I’ve known him. Working as his assistant tends to call for a somewhat flexible relationship with reality . . .

In 1892, New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, are called upon to investigate the supernatural. First, members of a particularly vicious species of shape-shifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens. A day later, their owner is found murdered, with a single mysterious puncture wound to her neck. Then, in nearby Gad’s Valley, dinosaur bones from a recent dig go missing, and an unidentifiable beast attacks animals and people, leaving their mangled bodies behind. Policeman Charlie Cane, exiled from New Fiddleham to the valley, calls on Abigail for help, and soon Abigail and Jackaby are on the hunt for a thief, a monster, and a murderer. (Goodreads)

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I just love how quick the story moves along, and I think Ritter does a good job of capturing the language and pacing of the literature that emerged in/around the time the Jackaby series is set in. I love how all the pieces of the story come together. There is a lot of wit in the writing.

I didn’t think this installment was quite as entertaining as the first, but I still very much enjoyed reading it. I look forward to reading Ghostly Echoes sometime, although it may be another few months before I get around to it.

4 of 5 stars

Have you read this series? Did you enjoy it?

❤ Julia

Stacking the Shelves – June 3

Hello there! Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. Usually a weekly meme, mine pop up on a monthly basis. These are the books I’ve acquired since the May edition.

Bought

A Space Girl from Earth (The Kyroibi Trilogy Book 1) by Christina McMullen

The Extraction List by Renee N. Meland

The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

The Legacy Human (Singularity Series Book 1) by Susan Kaye Quinn

Borrowed

Managed by Kristen Callihan

Sweet Southern Trouble by Michele Summers

Craving by Helen Hardt

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia, audiobook [Review]

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon, audiobook

Beastly Bones by Will Ritter

Free-Wrench by Joseph R. Lallo, audiobook

Starflight by Melissa Landers

Won/Gifted/ARC

Before the Rain Falls by Camille Di Maio [Review]

Breakfast in Texas by Terry Anderson [Review]

Blood Oath and Badlands by Melissa Lenhardt

Heart on the Line by Karen Witemeyer

 

This Week’s Five!!!

Things that have made me happy this past week or so:

Reading good books

Eating yummy cookies

Flowers

Rain? (It’s supposed to be on it’s way)

Seeing friends and family

❤ Julia

How about you?

#RockMyTBR 2017 April Recap

#RockMyTBR (link) is a reading challenge hosted by Sarah K., The YA Book Traveler. Basically, the challenge is to read books that you already own that were published before the beginning of the year. I love this challenge. Even though I didn’t complete it last year, it was still fun to participate in and see what others were reading. Here’s my intro post for this year.

So how did I do in the month of April?

Altogether I read four books in April, and NONE of them were for #RockMyTBR.

Really, I thought I read more than that :-\

And really, I need to get hoppin’!

Are you participating in this or any other reading challenges? How are you doing?

❤ Julia

Review — A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

I recently finished and reviewed A Darker Shade of Magic, and luckily the wait for the second installment, A Gathering of Shadows, wasn’t long! This time I read the ebook version instead of listening to the audiobook, borrowed from my library’s Overdrive.

Blog Tour and Review – The Grave Tender

THE GRAVE TENDER

by

Eliza Maxwell

Genre: Women’s Fiction / Psychological Suspense

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Date of Publication: April 11, 2017

Number of Pages: 248

Scroll down for Giveaway!