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🏅Top Shelf Tuesday 🏅

Happy Tuesday everyone and May the 4th be with you!

This week’s pick is:

The Dragon Reborn
The Wheel of Time Book 3
by Robert Jordan
Paperback
Published by Tor Books, September 2002

This one is another that is pulling deep from the old brain box. I can’t exactly remember when I read it but I think within a couple years of the publication date. I do remember getting caught up and having to wait for the next book to come out. Oh the wait!
This was the book where the series REALLY kicked off. The band of friends that had been together from the beginning has been split up and the plot follows their separate journeys. I don’t want to get into too many details as this this book 3.
It is reminiscent of Lord of the Rings but without the period style writing. I love Tolkien but Jordan brings it to a whole new level.

I also lost my copy moving across country 15 years ago so I have been on the look out when I visit any book stores.

“The leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him—is on the run from his destiny.”

37/100 Books to read in a Lifetime

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Narrated by Stephen Fry
Random House Audio
5:51:37 hours

🌟🌟🌟
Sci-fi, Comedy

Synopsis:
Immediately before the Earth is destroyed, to make room for a galactic freeway, Arthur is saved by his friend Ford, an unemployed actor, or so Arthur thought. Ford is actually from another planet, on Earth doing research for an update to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but has been stranded for the last 15 years.
They get picked up by a group of travelers, two headed Zaphod, his girlfriend Trillion (another Earthling), and a depressed robot Marvin.

My Thoughts:
This was funny and enjoyable. I laughed out loud several times. It’s a quick listen or read, about 6 hours. I wouldn’t say that it’s a must read but it was good. Stephen Fry was the best narrator for this book, perfect choice!

R is for ….

R is for …. Reading and Reptiles

My two favorite things! ❤ We all know I love books and most are aware that I have MANY reptiles that I love. If interested you can check them out @wildrootsreptiles.
Here are all my “R” books with two of my reptiles, Aria and Echo the Bearded Dragons.

Do you see any of your favorites? Reconstructing Amelia is one of mine!

•The Rainmaker
•Rule of Law
•The Runaway Jury
•Rose Matter
•A River Runs Through It
•Red Dragon
•Reasonable Doubt
•Roadside Prey
•Roses are Red
•Reunion in Death
•Rocky Road to Romance
•Rising Tides
•Red Lily
•Rebellion
•Rising Sun
•The Reader
•Reconstructing Amelia
•Rafe and Jared
•The Rain Watcher
•River’s End

April Wrap Up

April Recap:
4 Books
1,426 pages (19:55:50 hours)
Average Rating 3.5

🎧One Hundred Years of Solitude 🌟🌟
Little Heaven 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Duchess If You Dare 🌟🌟🌟🌟
🎧The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 🌟🌟🌟

Happy May Day! Wow, I can’t believe that it is already May! Well April ended better than I thought it would. I finally finished Little Heaven, and Duchess If You Dare from my TBR pile from March. I am a little behind due to being incredibly busy but just taking it one book/day at a time. I know I will catch up. I also was able to finish two more “100 books to read in a lifetime”. Overall very happy and looking forward to May!

Little Heaven – (Paranormal Horror, Extreme Horror) A trio of mercenaries are hired by a woman to trek into the woods of New Mexico to find her nephew who is living in a cult. Ran by an egomaniacal preacher who was led to this area by the voice of God, however this voice was not God but something sinister with evil plans in mind. They made it in to the camp but will they survive when they attempt to leave?

Duchess If You Dare – (Historical Fiction, Regency Romance)
Scarlett, a member of the Maidens of Mayhem, a group of four women who fight to protect women in a society ruled by men.
When Scarlett’s seamstress suddenly goes missing, she knows that foul play must be involved. While Scarlett investigates, the clues bring her to an up scale brothel where she learns some girls have also gone missing from. Ambrose, Duke of Aylesford, is investigating this same brothel as well, a mess his impetuous younger brother got him mixed up in.
After Scarlett and Ambrose’s path cross and they discover they’re looking into same thing and decide to work together. From opposites backgrounds and lifestyles, they don’t have much in common but the chemistry is unavoidable.

What were your favorites from April?

Spring is Finally Here

Happy Spring everyone! My tulips are blooming!

Well I had some unexpected technical issues at work this week that caused me to be unable to do my job. Silver lining, I was able to get a little caught up on my reading. My life has been so crazy lately with work and the reptiles that I have not been able to do much of any reading. By the time I settle down for the night my brain is fried and all I can do is veg. Which is why I only managed to read one audiobook in March.
This week I was able to FINALLY finish Little Heaven (which was awesome!) and Duchess If You Dare! Reviews still to coming. I wanted to get to it before the pub date but life happens and I am glad that it was still close. I also chose this one for 2021 Genre Reading Challenge, March was Historical Fiction.

Duchess If You Dare
Maidens of Mayhem Book 1
Anabelle Bryant
Publishing Date: 3/30/21
Historical Fiction, Regency Romance, Mystery

Scarlett, a member of the Maidens of Mayhem, a group of four women who fight to protect women in a society ruled by men.
When Scarlett’s seamstress suddenly goes missing, she knows that foul play must be involved. While Scarlett investigates, the clues bring her to an up scale brothel where she learns some girls have also gone missing from. Ambrose, Duke of Aylesford, is investigating this same brothel as well, a mess his impetuous younger brother got him mixed up in.
After Scarlett and Ambrose’s path cross and they discover they’re looking into same thing and decide to work together.
From opposites backgrounds and lifestyles, they don’t have much in common but the chemistry is unavoidable.

March Wrap Up

March Recap:
1 Book
719 pages (26:24:27 hours)
Average Rating 3.0

Fire & Blood 🌟🌟🌟

Man, March was a whirlwind for me! Clearly April has been too as its the 24th and I’m just now posting my recap for March, 😆.
I am trying to get things back in order and back to normal but it’s taking awhile. As a lot of you know, I work full time for a bank and things have been just insane because we are short shaffed and keep having management changes. I also run a business with my husband breeding reptiles. We currently have 27 total, 8 different species. We redid all the enclosures this month which was a huge feat and some long days.
I am getting much better at just rolling with it and not getting stressed out that my reading is falling behind. I will get to them when I can and to remember that this is just for fun. 😉

Fire & Blood – (Fantasy) Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

36/100 Books to read in a Lifetime

One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Blackstone Audio
14:04:14 hours
Narrated by John Lee

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

🌟🌟
Classic, Magical Realism

Synopsis:
Story of the Buendia family in the mythical town of Macondo. It follows the lives of seven generations, their successes and failures, children and deaths. When Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran his wife and cousin, leave Columbia and set out to find their utopia. After having a dream one night one their journey, Jose establishes the town of Macondo.
Over the years, the town becomes exposed to the outside world and eventually is brought to ruin. The Buendia family may have been cursed after all, as predicted by Ursula in the very beginning.

My thoughts:
I am sorry to say but I found this book to be boring. I struggled to follow along with so many people with the same names. I Googled a family tree for it so that I could have anything to help keep them straight but it was still difficult. Ultamately I struggle with books built upon symbolism. I read books for the enjoyment and not necessarily to promote deep thinking. I like deep feeling, ones that bring out emotions and make you analyze what you are feeling or cause unexpected feelings. I don’t want to have to interpret every little thing throughout to discover their true meaning. “The ghosts are symbols of the past and the haunting nature it has over Macondo.”
However, I can see why this is a Classic for sure and why so many people love it. It has some great magical realism throughout. My favorite was Remedios the Beauty, said to be the most beautiful woman on Macondo. She is thought to be cursed, unintentionally causing the death of several men who lust after/love her. One man falling to his death after watching her bath. Instead of blood escaping his body it was an amber colored oil that smelled of Remedios the Beauty.

View all my reviews

🏅Top Shelf Tuesday 🏅

The adorable Easter basket that my wonderful husband put together for me. 🥰

Happy Tuesday everyone! And Happy Easter.

This week’s pick for Top-Shelf Tuesday is:

Lawless
by Nora Roberts
Romance, Western
Paperback
Published by Harlequin

I know that I have mentioned before that Nora Roberts was my first introduction into the Romance genre. I had always thought of Romance as those cheesy books with the half naked people on the front and the whole thing was just full sex. I was young then, 🤣. I even enjoy those books from time to time now.
It was Lawless specifically that I read.

When I was in High School, I stared my first job as a barista at a drive through coffee stand and found my co-worker’s copy of Lawless. You have lots of stop and go time for reading throughout the work day. I decided to give it a shot and became so enthralled with it. I have never forgotten the feeling that it gave me and the blossomed love of Romance novels.

It’s been too long since I last read it to be able to provide a good synopsis so I will just provide the blurb instead.

To Tame a Renegade Heart

The Arizona Territory was a dangerous place, but gunslinger Jake Redman was half-Apache and all man–more than a match for the wilderness. Sarah Conway was something else again. She was every inch an Eastern lady, yet she was determined to make Lone Bluff her home.

Jake was annoyed to find himself playing guardian angel to this tantalizing innocent–even more disgusted to find he liked it. Little did he suspect that beneath Sarah’s ladylike demeanor beat the heart of a frontier woman ant that her body yearned for his hard embrace, her heart for his words of love .. . .

🏅Top Shelf Tuesday🏅

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I have decided that on Tuesdays I want to highlight the books that I have given a 5 star rating to. Calling it Top-Shelf Tuesdays (see what I did there 😄).

I have put the names of all the books in a cute little crock and will select one at random each week. Any new books I complete and rate 5 stars will be added as I go.

First on the draw:

Fraternize
Players Game book 1
by Rachel Van Dyken
Romance, New Adult
Kindle Version
Published by Skyscape

Synopsis:
Emerson, a busty, curvy, athlete has fulfilled her dream and made it as a pro cheerleader on her favorite football team. Even with breaking down barriers with body positivity, not everyone is thrilled with this choice as you can imagine. Emerson must work her ass her off to prove she belongs here. And she must follow all the rules, most importantly, No fraternizing with the players.
That is easier said than done. Just traded to the team is Emerson’s first love Miller, who still sends her over edge. Never having closure, Emerson doesn’t know how to feel about Miller being back in her life again. Then there is Grant, oozing sex appeal, with quite a reputation with the ladies. He wants Emerson and he always gets what he wants.

Why I loved it:
I actually liked this book way more than I was expecting to. I received it as a Goodreads giveaway. I am a huge romance fan to begin with. Fun fact, I also was a Cheerleader myself (high school) and who doesn’t love football players? 😉 But in all seriousness, it was a really good read! I love the body positivity, that curvy woman are still sexy and still athletic. It had more substance than just sex. Miller and Emerson need to figure out what happened with their relationship and do they want to salvage it? There is more to Grant than a pretty face and sexy body.

🔸️🔸️Book Mail!🔸️🔸️

Oh it has been a week! So glad it’s the weekend and I get a chance to relax a bit. I finally got to do a little reading today, the first time all week my book has left my bedstand.
But aside from being ridiculously busy, I received some great looking books this week! I love the variety! 😍

Facing the Dawn
Cynthia Ruchti
Christian Fiction
Publication Date: 3/2/2021

Mara is struggling with her current path in life. Her husband is across the world, digging wells in Africa, she is home working a demanding job, trying to raise their three detention prone children and failing to keep up on the house duties. Then a devastating loss occurs and she must lean on those around her to heal and find her faith again.

Perfect on Paper
Sophia Gonzales
Young Adult, LGBTQ+
Publication Date: 3/9/2021

Darcy, a bisexual teen, gives anonymous dating advice to her classmates for a fee. When popular hot guy, Brougham catches on to her, he blackmails her into helping him get his ex girlfriend back.

Murder Unseen
Book 17 DI Skelgill Investigates Series
Bruce Beckham
Mystery
Publication Date: 1/9/2021

A 37 year old woman goes missing. Young detective DS Emma Jones is leading the investigation. With suspects including a new boyfriend, a married coworker who was having an affair with the missing woman, and an ex lover, police certainly have their work cut out for them.

A Touch of Defiance
Book 5 Nick Bracco Thriller Series
Gary Ponzo
Thriller
Publication Date: 3/3/2017

FBI Agent Nick Bracco and his team must track down a racial zealot group before a possible terrorist attack. He turns to his mafia connected cousin to help him track them down by means not available to the FBI.