Down the TBR Hole #2

Hi everyone! Welcome to week two of Down the TBR Hole! First of all, you guys voted by a HUGE majority for Vampire Diaries to remain on my TBR, so there it will stay. I'll be keeping an eye out for the audiobook at my library! This week isn't so much embarrassing as I think some of you might be slightly concerned for me. XD The Down the TBR Hole meme was started by Lost In a Story and it is the most perfect tool for cleaning off shelves that I've come across. Here's how it works: Go to your goodreads to-read shelf. Order on ascending date added. Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books Read the synopses of the...

Audiobook Review: Styxx by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Title: Styxx (Dark-Hunter #22) Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon Narrator: Fred Berman Publication Date: January 1, 2013Publisher: St. Martin's PressLength: 31 hours, 7 minutes Add to Goodreads Just when you thought doomsday was over... Centuries ago Acheron saved the human race by imprisoning an ancient evil bent on absolute destruction. Now that evil has been unleashed and it is out for revenge. As the twin to Acheron, Styxx hasn’t always been on his brother’s side. They’ve spent more centuries going at each other’s throats than protecting their backs. Now Styxx has a chance to prove his loyalty to his brother, but only if he’s willing to...

Summer is almost over: A spooky ARC & candle giveaway

Happy Wednesday, everyone! September is just days away, which means the end of Summer is right around the corner! Although it'll stay hot in Florida for awhile, Halloween and Fall decorations have started hitting the shelves (and honestly, can we hurry up with the Halloween candy, please?) and I cannot wait! This year on Halloween I'll probably don my Ravenclaw robes, despite the still 90 degree weather, and hand out candy with my friends in the neighborhood. Until then, though, I'll settle for spooky books and spooky candles! To celebrate the end of the worst season (don't @ me), I've decided to host a giveaway! There will be two prizes...

Top Ten Tuesday #202: Non-fiction TBR

Today's Topic:  Top Ten Non-Fiction Books On My TBR This week we had a freebie learning/school-related topic, so I decided to go with non-fiction on my TBR list. My list is a messy mismatched collection of random topics that I'm interested in, from true crime to survival to cults. Honestly, it was hard to narrow it down to ten! Now I'm off to see how many of these are available in audiobook format... An Unofficial History of Disney's Haunted Mansion by Jeff Baham Beyond Belief by Jenna Miscavige Hill Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar Dead Wake by Erik Larson Denali's Howl by Andy Hall H.H. Holmes by Adam Selzer I'll...

Book Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Title: Spinning Silver Author: Naomi Novik Publication Date: July 10, 2018Publisher: Del Rey Pages: 480Add to Goodreads Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold. But having the reputation of being able to change...

Weekly Recap: 8/19 - 8/25

HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG Hi everyone! This week has been crazy busy, as it always is when I have a dog sitting client out of town. There were tons of storms, which made it stressful on my dogs and theirs, but we got through. I also got way ahead on candle making! We have Halloween stuff coming up soon and I'm so excited!! I was right about the 30 hour audiobook eating into my progress. I'm 4 hours from the end, but it has taken all week! NEW BOOKS THIS WEEK Nothing new this week! THIS WEEK I READ IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Monday ARC review of Mirage The topic was blogging slump cures for Top Ten...

Saturday Screen Time #23: Superheroes and witches

It has been a few weeks since I've done one of these and I've watched a few things since then! A lot of people with powers and one or two psychopaths.  THIS WEEK IN SCREEN TIME Hellboy - I FINALLY got around to watching this after years of loving everything I've seen by Guillermo del Toro. I have to say, this is the one that did me in. I'm not a big fan of the darker superhero movies from the early 2000s, so I guess this shouldn't come as a shock. I thought the characters were interesting, though, so I'm actually interested to see the remake coming next year! (3/5 stars) Unbreakable - I had only seen this once when I...

Down the TBR Hole #1

A couple years ago I went through my Goodreads TBR and cleaned it out... kind of? But here we are, in August 2018 and it has just hit 402. Why are there over 400 books on my TBR? Will I ever read them all?? Nope. I've often thought about going through them again but IT IS SO DAUNTING! I was so excited when I spotted the Down the TBR Hole meme on This Dark Material! The meme was started by Lost In a Story and it is the most perfect tool for cleaning off shelves that I've come across. Here's how it works: Go to your goodreads to-read shelf. Order on ascending date added. Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books Read...

Book Review: The Merciless III by Danielle Vega

Title: The Merciless III: Origins of Evil Author: Danielle Vega Publication Date: July 11, 2017Publisher: RazorbillPages: 304Add to Goodreads Reviews for book 1 & book 4 Brooklyn knows that there's no good without evil, no right without wrong. And when a helpless girl calls her teen helpline, whispering that someone is hurting her, Brooklyn knows that she needs to save her anonymous caller, even if it means doing something bad. Her parents and friends assure her the call was probably a prank but Brooklyn has always had a tendency to take over, whether someone has asked for help or not. She discovers the call came from Christ First Church...

How have YA genre trends changed over the years?

There's something I've noticed in my relatively short four and a half years of blogging - trends in YA seem to come and go very quickly and very, very overwhelmingly. A few years ago when I started reading YA and seriously thinking about entering the blogosphere, it was seemed like dystopia and paranormal romance were the most popular genres. Some of the most popular new books of 2013 included Allegiant, Unravel Me, Everbound, and If I Should Die. The next year came and the dystopian novels were a little more scarce, while fantasy and retellings were gaining more traction. Then it was a couple years later and there was hardly a dystopian...

Top Ten Tuesday #201: Contemporary slump cure

Today's Topic:  Top Ten Contemporary Romances I Might  Try Next Time I'm In a Reading Slump This is a weird topic because I actually have a really hard time getting out of reading slumps. For the most part I tend to try different things until something strikes my interest. I have heard that contemporary reads can help to pull you out of a slump so I'm switching things up today. Since I don't usually read these kinds of books, I'm listing ten that I might try next time I find myself in this situation!   Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins Burying Water by K.A. Tucker Easy by Tammara Webber Fangirl...

ARC Review: Mirage by Somaiya Daud

Title: Mirage (Mirage #1) Author: Somaiya Daud Publication Date: August 28, 2018Publisher: Flatiron BooksPages: 320Add to Goodreads //I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review// In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated moon. But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and...

Weekly Recap: 8/12 - 8/18

TRACY'S HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG Hi everyone! This week wasn't too busy, which is always nice! I found the time to go to Disney for an afternoon and promptly dropped a November ARC in a fountain, so that was nice. :) Next week is going to be really busy between a week-long dog sitting client and getting candles ready for next month! I FINALLY finished Spinning Silver and I'm just glad it's finally over! Meanwhile I began an audiobook that I initially thought was 10 hours long, only to find out it was 30 hours long way after I'd gotten invested in the story. My reading progress may suffer next week also... NEW BOOKS THIS WEEK THIS...