Archive | August 2018

Bookish Delight #7: Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black

Bookish Delight of the Month (Bookish Delight for short) is a monthly feature in which I’ll spotlight the number one book I’m most anticipating at the beginning of the month it releases. This could be a book I don’t have yet, or have an ARC of already – even a book I’m already reading, because it doesn’t matter whether I have it or not, or have read it or not – this is just all about me spotlighting the book I’m most excited for in a given month.

So, without further adieu, let’s get started!

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Welp. Once again, I’m behind on posting this. Epic fail!! However, it’s still technically August and I haven’t read my Top Pick of the Month yet. Soooooo, I’m still excited to share it! With that said…

The book I’m most highly anticipating in August is… Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black! I’ve been dying to read this ever since I saw the cover, title and synopsis. It’s been described as being a “Gothic tale of murder, guilt, redemption…” And HOLY CRAP THIS IS MY KINDA BOOK!

I did buy this when it released but like I said, I haven’t read it yet. It is, however, high up on my TBR and I CANNOT WAIT to dive in!

Here’s the cover and synopsis!

In Girl at the Grave, debut author Teri Bailey Black unearths the long-buried secrets of a small 1850s New England town in this richly atmospheric Gothic tale of murder, guilt, redemption, and finding love where least expected.

A mother hanged for murder.
A daughter left to pick up the pieces of their crumbling estate.
Can she clear her family’s name if it means facing her own dark past?

Valentine has spent years trying to outrun her mother’s legacy. But small towns have long memories, and when a new string of murders occurs, all signs point to the daughter of a murderer.

Only one person believes Valentine is innocent—Rowan Blackshaw, the son of the man her mother killed all those years ago. Valentine vows to find the real killer, but when she finally uncovers the horrifying truth, she must choose to face her own dark secrets, even if it means losing Rowan in the end.

Goodreads

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So, what is/was your most anticipated book of August? Share it in the comments!

Review: The Glass Butterfly by A.G. Howard (Blog Tour)

I received this book for free from Rockstar Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: The Glass Butterfly by A.G. Howard (Blog Tour)The Glass Butterfly by A.G. Howard
Series: Haunted Hearts Legacy #3
Published by Golden Orb Press on August 15, 2018
Pages: 278
Format: eBook
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-half-stars

For close to a decade, twenty-five-year-old Felicity Lonsdale has masqueraded as a dowager almost twice her age—selling caterpillars to butterfly consortiums—enabling her to hide an ill-fated past while raising her late brother’s daughters. Together, the three live on an isolated Irish estate bequeathed by a dying earl. When the earl’s estranged son arrives to claim his inheritance by threatening to expose Felicity’s true identity, she longs to pack up her nieces and run. But a ghostly secret within the castle’s turret holds her captive.

Nick Thornton—a Roma viscount’s heir—is also captive. After a tryst with an investor’s wife nearly destroyed his family’s holiday resort, Nick forsook everything to elope with her. However, a tragic mistake at his hand led to her and his baby’s deaths. Refusing to turn to the family he shamed, Nick travels to seek the countess who once co-wrote a romance with his sister. There’s rumor of a special butterfly in her keep—a transparent-winged species with ties to the afterlife. Nick hopes to contact his dead wife and child, for only their forgiveness can free him.

Upon his arrival to Felicity’s estate, Nick offers to help her defeat the earl’s son, on the condition she allow Nick to investigate her glass butterflies. Felicity agrees, though fears the closer he gets to the ghosts of his past, the closer he’ll come to uncovering her own. As Nick spends time with Felicity and her nieces, he realizes the mystery enshrouding this fragile countess and her castle is more intriguing than the ghosts he originally came to find. And perhaps putting his dead to rest and helping her do the same will be his true path to redemption.

 
Hey everyone! I’m beyond excited to be on the blog tour for The Glass Butterfly by A.G. Howard!! I absolutely LOVED this book!! I hope you enjoy my review!

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Of the three books published thus far in this series, The Glass Butterfly is definitely my favorite! I feel like I say that with each book in this series, but that’s because this series gets better with each book! The more I delve into this world, the more I love it and these characters, and the more I want MORE.

With The Glass Butterfly, I just absolutely loved everything about it – the atmosphere, the writing, the characters, etc. The thing with the Haunted Hearts Legacy is that, the characters feel VERY real and you come to care for them. I loved Juliet, Lord Thornton, Hawk, Willow and Julian. But there was just something about Nick and Felicity that tugged at my heart. Maybe it was Felicity’s tragic past coupled with Nick’s bad boy behavior (that gets me EVERY time. See also: Morpheus). Maybe it was their chemistry. Maybe it was the plot itself. Or maybe it was all the above. All I know is, it really resonated with me.

I loved Felicity’s sass and strength. She has physical and emotional wounds from her past. In the beginning, they weighed her down and held her back. But she had INCREDIBLE character growth and, eventually, those wounds became like a battle cry, surging her forward and enabling her to realize her own worth, and her desire to live and love.

Nick had an equally tragic past, one which consumed him in so many ways. Like with Felicity, he started out weighed down by his past and his guilt. He burdened himself with things that were not his fault, and he sought redemption. But in the end, he realized that he could still be an upstanding man, despite his past. Honestly, I’ve been anticipating Nick’s story for a LONG time. And it truly didn’t disappoint. I loved learning about his past and seeing what made him behave the way he did in The Hummingbird Heart (and for the record, he DID redeem himself in my eyes. Just saying).

The banter and sexual tension between Felicity and Nick was INTENSE. And they had some HILARIOUS quips. Some of my favorite are below (though, be warned, they are not word-for-word as they were written in the book, and are edited for ease of understanding):

“Well, we’re out of sausage. But it appears you’ve brought your own. And excess, in fact.”

“Ah. You obviously haven’t sampled the right sausage.”

“So, it’s to be a mixed company gathering… I suppose sausage is out of the question.”
“Feel free to indulge on your own… You strike me as a man well versed in servicing himself.”

I cackled SO hard at all the sausage jokes, it was ridiculous! But this book also made me sob. A lot. So this book definitely elicited a LOT of emotions.

Aislinn was wise beyond her years, and and Lia was joyful and sassy – just like her aunt. I also loved Clooney. He was a loving father figure who gave sage advice. He was much needed and appreciated. And, of course, I DESPISED Landrigan. He was disgusting and the very definition of a villain.

The ending was absolutely incredible and had me laughing, crying, smiling and sobbing. It was the perfect ending to a perfect book, and I can’t wait to get my hands on book four!

Overall, this book was epic beyond words. A.G Howard is an amazing writer. Her writing, coupled with her incredible world-building skills, sucks you in and refuses to let you go. Her characters feel like real people and you can’t help but become entangled in their well-being – whether for better or worse. I DEFINITELY recommend this book if you’re a fan of A.G. Howard. Also, if you love ghost stories and epic love stories, this book is definitely for you!

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About A.G. Howard:
 
A.G. Howard was inspired to write SPLINTERED while working at a school library. She always wondered what would’ve happened had the subtle creepiness of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland taken center stage, and she hopes her darker and funkier tribute to Carroll will inspire readers to seek out the stories that won her heart as a child.

When she’s not writing, A.G.’s pastimes are reading, rollerblading, gardening, and family vacations which often include impromptu side trips to 18th century graveyards or condemned schoolhouses to appease her overactive muse.
 

Website | Blog | Twitter

Facebook | Tumblr | Pinterest | Goodreads

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Giveaway Details: All International. There are four prize packs up for grabs. The image below shows what each one contains.

 
To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Blog Tour Schedule:

Week One:
8/6/2018 – A Dream Within A Dream – Review
8/7/2018 – Smada’s Book Smack – Review
8/8/2018 – YA SH3LF – Review
8/9/2018 – Book-Keeping – Review
8/10/2018 – Omg Books and More Books – Review

Week Two:
8/13/2018 – Literary Dust – Review
8/14/2018 – History from a Woman’s Perspective – Review
8/15/2018 – Lisa Loves Literature – Review
8/16/2018 – Pandora’s Books – Review
8/17/2018 – BookHounds YA – Review

four-half-stars

Release Day Blitz: The Glass Butterfly by A.G. Howard

 
I am so excited that THE GLASS BUTTERFLY by A.G. Howard is available now and that I get to share the news! I’m reading it right now and it’s definitely my favorite in the series so far!!! If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author A.G. Howard, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for some amazing prizes courtesy of A.G. and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

Title: THE GLASS BUTTERFLY (Haunted Hearts Legacy #3)
Author: A.G. Howard
Pub. Date: August 15, 2018
Publisher: Golden Orb Press
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 278
Find it: Goodreads | Amazon
All other formats and vendors will be available on the official launch date: August 15, 2018

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For close to a decade, twenty-five-year-old Felicity Lonsdale has masqueraded as a dowager almost twice her age—selling caterpillars to butterfly consortiums—enabling her to hide an ill-fated past while raising her late brother’s daughters. Together, the three live on an isolated Irish estate bequeathed by a dying earl. When the earl’s estranged son arrives to claim his inheritance by threatening to expose Felicity’s true identity, she longs to pack up her nieces and run. But a ghostly secret within the castle’s turret holds her captive.

Nick Thornton—a Roma viscount’s heir—is also captive. After a tryst with an investor’s wife nearly destroyed his family’s holiday resort, Nick forsook everything to elope with her. However, a tragic mistake at his hand led to her and his baby’s deaths. Refusing to turn to the family he shamed, Nick travels to seek the countess who once co-wrote a romance with his sister. There’s rumor of a special butterfly in her keep—a transparent-winged species with ties to the afterlife. Nick hopes to contact his dead wife and child, for only their forgiveness can free him.

Upon his arrival to Felicity’s estate, Nick offers to help her defeat the earl’s son, on the condition she allow Nick to investigate her glass butterflies. Felicity agrees, though fears the closer he gets to the ghosts of his past, the closer he’ll come to uncovering her own. As Nick spends time with Felicity and her nieces, he realizes the mystery enshrouding this fragile countess and her castle is more intriguing than the ghosts he originally came to find. And perhaps putting his dead to rest and helping her do the same will be his true path to redemption.

And don’t forget to check out THE ARCHITECT OF SONG (book one) and THE HUMMINGBIRD HEART (book two). Details for both are below!

Title: THE ARCHITECT OF SONG
Author: A.G. Howard
Pub. Date: August 15, 2016
Publisher: Golden Orb Press
Pages: 425
Formats: Paperback | eBook
Find it: Amazon | Goodreads

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A lady imprisoned by deafness, an architect imprisoned by his past, and a ghost imprisoned within the petals of a flower – intertwine in this love story that transcends life and death.

For most of her life, nineteen-year-old Juliet Emerline has subsisted – isolated by deafness – making hats in the solitude of her home. Now, she’s at risk to lose her sanctuary to Lord Nicolas Thornton, a twenty-seven-year-old mysterious and eccentric architect with designs on her humble estate. When she secretly witnesses him raging beside a grave, Juliet investigates, finding the name “Hawk” on the headstone and an unusual flower at the base. The moment Juliet touches the petals, a young English nobleman appears in ghostly form, singing a song only her deaf ears can hear. The ghost remembers nothing of his identity or death, other than the one name that haunts his afterlife: Thornton.

To avenge her ghostly companion and save her estate, Juliet pushes aside her fear of society and travels to Lord Thornton’s secluded holiday resort, posing as a hat maker in one of his boutiques. There, she finds herself questioning who to trust: the architect of flesh and bones who can relate to her through romantic gestures, heartfelt notes, and sensual touches … or the specter who serenades her with beautiful songs and ardent words, touching her mind and soul like no other man ever can. As sinister truths behind Lord Thornton’s interest in her estate and his tie to Hawk come to light, Juliet is lured into a web of secrets. But it’s too late for escape, and the tragic love taking seed in her heart will alter her silent world forever.

International and NYT bestselling author, A.G. Howard, brings her darkly magical and visual/visceral storytelling to Victorian England. The Architect of Song is the first installment in her lush and romantic Haunted Hearts Legacy series, a four book gothic saga following the generations of one family as – haunted by both literal and figurative ghosts – they search for self-acceptance, love, and happiness.

New Adult: Recommended for ages 17+.

Title: THE HUMMINGBIRD HEART
Author: A.G. Howard
Pub. Date: August 15, 2017
Publisher: Golden Orb Press
Pages: 339
Formats: Paperback | eBook
Find it: Golden Orb Press | Goodreads

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Set 19 years after The Architect of Song.

Shortly after escaping a circus tragedy, young Italian orphan, Willow Antoniette, seeks refuge at The Manor of Diversions—a holiday resort in England born of a ghost story. For eleven years, she’s raised alongside the children of the resort’s owners: Julian, his twin brother, Nick, and their younger sister Emilia. Now that Willow is of marriable age, she’s determined to escape finishing school along with everyone’s efforts to make her a proper lady. The only man she wants to spend her life with is Julian, after all. Yet how can she tell him, when he thinks of her as nothing
but a friend?

As a machinist and engineer, Julian Thornton prefers a governable life. He can’t allow his ever-deepening attraction for Willow to distract from his amusement park plans to lure a younger, wealthier clientele to their family’s resort. In hopes to escape Willow and find investors, Julian sets off on a transatlantic ocean liner headed for the St. Louis World’s Fair, unaware Willow has secretly stowed away on the same ship.

A tiny, mute orphan named Newton and a pair of haunted Italian shoes bring Willow and Julian face to face on deck. Forced to work together to solve the mystery of Newton and his vindictive, ghostly companion, Julian and Willow can no longer fight their untapped passions. However, time to admit their true feelings is running out, for the ghost and her murderer have enlisted them as unsuspecting pawns in a karmic game of cat-and-mouse that could cost all of them their lives.

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About A.G. Howard:
 
A.G. Howard was inspired to write SPLINTERED while working at a school library. She always wondered what would’ve happened had the subtle creepiness of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland taken center stage, and she hopes her darker and funkier tribute to Carroll will inspire readers to seek out the stories that won her heart as a child.

When she’s not writing, A.G.’s pastimes are reading, rollerblading, gardening, and family vacations which often include impromptu side trips to 18th century graveyards or condemned schoolhouses to appease her overactive muse.
 

Website | Blog | Twitter

Facebook | Tumblr | Pinterest | Goodreads

~*~*~

Giveaway Details: All International. There are four prize packs up for grabs. The image below shows what each one contains.

 
To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~*~*~

Blog Tour Schedule:

Week One:
8/6/2018 – A Dream Within A Dream – Review
8/7/2018 – Smada’s Book Smack – Review
8/8/2018 – YA SH3LF – Review
8/9/2018 – Book-Keeping – Review
8/10/2018 – Omg Books and More Books – Review

Week Two:
8/13/2018 – Literary Dust – Review
8/14/2018 – History from a Woman’s Perspective – Review
8/15/2018 – Lisa Loves Literature – Review
8/16/2018 – Pandora’s Books – Review
8/17/2018 – BookHounds YA – Review

Review: #Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: #Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil#Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil
Series: #Murdertrending #1
Published by Freeform on August 7, 2018
Pages: 352
Format: ARC
Source: the publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-stars

WELCOME TO THE NEAR FUTURE, where good and honest citizens can enjoy watching the executions of society’s most infamous convicted felons, streaming live on The Postman app from the suburbanized prison island Alcatraz 2.0.

When eighteen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she’s about to be the next victim of the app. Knowing hardened criminals are getting a taste of their own medicine in this place is one thing, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn’t commit. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she’s innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman’s cast of executioners kill them off one by one?

This was my first Gretchen McNeil book, but it definitely won’t be my last! It was The Hunger Games meets The Purge meets The Breakfast Club, with a hint of Criminal Minds mixed in. It was creeptastic, suspenseful, and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading. Honestly, I read it in three or four reading sessions over the course of just four days – the fastest I’ve read a book in a VERY long time.

Dee was super badass. Nyles was SUPER cocky and annoying, but in a hot British kind of way. Griselda was a tough bitch who hardened her heart/emotions to the situation she was in and the people she was around – and rightfully so. Ethan was a little cinnamon roll – I absolutely adored him and his movie-loving self and I AM NOT OKAY WITH HOW HIS STORY ENDED!!!! Mara was…. Whoa. I can’t because spoilers, but whoa…

I know we didn’t see a lot of Monica, for obvious reasons, but I was really intrigued by her character. I’m not sure why, but I kept picturing Monica as Megan Fox in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. But nicer, since she’s described as being nice and actually got along with Dee.

This whole book was creepy and suspenseful. The “Death Row Breakfast Club” concept was incredible, and the Disney Princess thing was sick and twisted but also highly entertaining (I’m a horrible person, aren’t I? Haha). The ending was insane – I was 50% shocked and 50% not surprised. It was like a puzzle – it all came together and made SO MUCH SENSE. I’m 100% excited for the second book, and 100% frustrated we have to wait a whole year to get it!

I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who likes all the things I mentioned above: The Hunger Games, The Purge, The Breakfast Club and Criminal Minds. Also, for those who are fans of mysteries and suspense thrillers – you won’t want to put this book down!

four-stars