2021 Reading Challenge - Eat, Tan, Read

June Wrap Up

May Recap:
2 Books
641 pages (6:27:08 hours)
Average Rating 4.5

🎧A Wrinkle in Time 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
A Deadly Influence 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Another month gone, they just seem to fly by these days.
The weather is getting nicer and I am looking forward to lounging outside in the sun relaxing with a book but first outside chores must be done. Top of the list is weeding the flower beds and getting the garden planted. Gonna need to have the Aleve handy. 😄
This year for me has been about reading when I can and not getting frustrated with myself when my completed numbers are low. Normally I would be very disappointed in only finishing 2 books, but I am learning to stop comparing my numbers to others and just be happy that I had the extra time for those two. Life is crazy busy some times and we need to give ourselves more credit. I am happy. I am healthy. I love my family and the life I live. That’s enough for me. I know that I will have big reading months and slow months, but it’s not a competition, just enjoy it when I can.

A Wrinkle in Time – (Middle Grade, Classic, Sci-Fi) Meg, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin are visited by three mysterious women, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which. They have come to help the children retrieve their father who went missing. A scientist who works on classified experiments for the government was on assignment when all communications with his family stopped.
“A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points” rather a tesseract, or creating a wrinkle in the fabric of space, is. The children must tesser to another planet in order to save their father, and the universe, from The Darkness.

A Deadly Influence – (Thriller,Police Procedural) Hostage negotiator Abby Mullen gets a call from a fellow cult survivor Eden. Eden’s son has been kidnapped and the ransome is $5 million . As Abby gets further into the investigation, her past is coming back to haunt her.

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.

February Wrap Up

February Recap:
4 Books
724 pages
Average Rating 4.0

Because of Jenny 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Three to Get Deadly 🌟🌟🌟🌟
To Be Young and In Love 🌟🌟🌟
Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I can’t believe that February is over already! 😲 Although I am so ready for winter to be over. We haven’t even had that bad of a winter this year, but I am just so over it. The cold, staying inside all day, the dark and gloomy sky, so depressing.
But we did have some great reads this month!! Winner for sure is Accidental Activist. I am still working on the review, so stay tuned for that. Because Of Jenny coming in a close second! Both were so good!

Accidental Activist- (Memoir) Young college student becomes committed to getting a posthumous pardon and exoneration for the Groveland Four 66 years after they were falsely accused. This is his story of the four years of dedication and hard work it took to right this aggregious wrong. So inspiring and infuriating at the same time.

Because Of Jenny – (Literary Fiction)
Eric is an 18 year old with severe depression. After a failed suicide attempt, but before he tries again he meets Jenny.
Jenny is a heroine addict, who is ready to become clean. She has friends in California, and a doctor has agreed to provide her with Suboxone, a drug that will help her fight her cravings so she can get finally get clean. Eric offers to drive her across the county to achieve this. Brutally honest book about societal views on suicide and addiction.

See full Review here – Book Review – Because Of Jenny

2021 Book 4 – The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list

This is a book of poetry, 41 pages. Definitely my shortest book.
I chose to read this one next as I am still in the Valentines weekend mood. Carying on the LOVE theme.

Blurb:
Are you in a relationship and are struggling to make a decision? Read this now for some inspiration.

Very interesting…. I’m not struggling in my relationship but I’m intrigued as to what this poetry is all about as the description is pretty vague and reviews are all over the place.

January Wrap Up

January Wrap Up:
3 Books
1,292 pages
Average Rating: 4.33

My Dark Vanessa 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Handle With Care 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Upside of Falling Down 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Well I am a little behind in posting my wrap up but it’s been a little crazy here lately.

January was a pretty good month for me. I stayed home and avoided all the madness going on around me in the country. Having faith that somehow we as a society will work it all out.

I read some great books! I was hoping to complete 4 but I feel good about it taking into account how busy I was.
We added 5 new reptiles 🐢🦎 to our collection. Penelope (Penny) a Cherry head Red foot Tortoise, Echo a Bearded Dragon, and Ragnar, Lagertha, and Freya are our Shinisaurus Crocodilurus (Chinese Crocodile Lizards). My husband does an amazing job on his enclosure builds. So much goes in to getting everything set up for them that it doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for anything else. 😄

My Dark Vanessa was definitely the stand out for the month for me and probably for the year. Devastatingly beautiful. Enthralled … how can something so horrible be written so beautifully. I was captivated from the start. You don’t want to put it down. Be aware that this contains very graphic instances of sexual abuse to a child, at times it is very difficult to read. The story goes back and forth between Vanessa as an adult and then as the 15 year girl reliving the juncture that changed her life forever. Definitely one of the best books I have read.

Handle with care is a heart jerker of a book for sure. Written in several points of view, directed toward the six year old daughter Willow who has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a brittle bone disease. Her parents are suing the OB-GYN for wrongful birth. It’s definitely a conversation starter.

The Upside of Falling Down is a cute, easy, breezy New Age romance. Clementine wakes up in a hospital in Ireland with absolutely no memory; she was in a plane crash and she is the only survivor.

2021 – Book 3: A Book about a subject you are passionate about

I don’t know if passionate is the right word but it is a subject close to my heart. I hate that Depression and suicide is such a taboo topic that gets swept under the rug and people are embarrassed to discussed. Why is this disease viewed any different that diabetes or high blood pressure? Why does society look at people with depression and anxiety as weak? This is unexceptable and needs to change!

A big thank you to Brad Neaton for gifting me this copy!

Blurb:
Eric is an 18-year-old struggling with depression and teetering on the brink of suicide when he encounters a gorgeous, utterly fascinating plot twist named Jenny. They meet in an unlikely way, but soon discover they’re kindred souls. A heroin addict, Jenny is also caught between wanting to escape life and wanting to live. Despite circumstances conspiring against them, Eric takes a leap of faith and decides to try and help Jenny. The two become an endearing pair, connecting through shared struggles and a mutual desire to overcome life’s myriad challenges, and they embark upon an adventure that seems destined to fail.

Funny, irreverent, insightful, tragic, and raw, Because of Jenny explores many of life’s deepest questions while shedding light on what remains a little known epidemic. An unflinching portrayal of addiction, love, and resilience, it’s a book you’ll never forget.

2021 – Book 2: A Book about Forgetting

After my last two books, I need something a little lighter, they sure left a stone in my heart that is weighing me down. I think a little romance is just what the doctor ordered. And I love anything and everything Ireland. 💕

I think that we all loose ourselves sometimes, not necessarily amnesia but we get lost in our day to day life and forget who we are inside.
That is what I am focusing on this year. No “goals” to stress over, just doing things that make me happy.

Blurb:
For Clementine Haas, finding herself is more than a nice idea. Ever since she woke up in an Irish hospital with complete amnesia, self-discovery has become her mission.

They tell her she’s the lone survivor of a plane crash. They tell her she’s lucky to be alive. But she doesn’t feel lucky. She feels…lost.

With the relentless Irish press bearing down on her, and a father she may not even recognize on his way from America to take her home, Clementine assumes a new identity and enlists a blue-eyed Irish stranger, Kieran O’Connell, to help her escape her forgotten life…and start a new one.

Hiding out in the sleepy town of Waterville, Ireland, Clementine discovers there’s an upside to a life that’s fallen apart. But as her lies grow, so does her affection for Kieran, and the truth about her identity becomes harder and harder to reveal, forcing Clementine to decide: Can she leave her past behind for a new love she’ll never forget?