“Yet his soul was mad,” Ebenezer whispered. “Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.”
“There is a saying that goes: Evil never dies; it merely sleeps. And when that evil awakes, it can do so soundlessly—or almost so.”
Something comes in the night, a pied Piper of sorts, and takes Micah’s only daughter. Micah knows immediately who took her and where it is taking her. He knows that he will have to return to the place where it all began, Little Heaven.
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.
My Q stack is small but they are a couple great series books! Two of my favorites series actually.
Another little fun fact about me, I am a also a Quilter! I don’t have quite as much time as I would like to give to this hobby but it brings me so much joy when I can.
This is one of my favorite Crime Thriller series and I talk about it all the time! I can’t remember when I first started the series, it’s been over a decade, lefts start there. 🤔 I found The Killing Game (Book 2) and The Search (Book 3) at a garage sale. The books themselves do not call out that they are a series or what order they come in, so I assumed they were just stand alone books. After I started on the second one, I quickly realized these were related and looked up the rest to see where they fell in the series. I was very thankful that they were just # 2 and 3. I have to say that I absolutely hate starting a series unknowingly somewhere in the middle or god forbid the end. 😩 I will be honest, have a slight control problem 😏. I quickly figured out the series order and book 1 and got back on track, been reading them ever since and loving it! I will be reading Eve (Book 12) this year as part of my 50 Books 50 States Challenge.
I love everything forensics, and I am so intrigued by the forensic sculpting. To be able to reconstruct the face of the person just from the skull is amazing to me! Aside from the great plot and twists these books have, I think that it is the mix of science and art with forensic sculpting that has me captivated the most in these.
Book Blurb:
The number-one blockbuster bestselling author returns with a thriller that pits Eve Duncan against the one man who can put her darkest horror to rest – or make her relive it over and over again….
“Do you still miss your little Bonnie?”
This one sentence, spoken by a madman in an anonymous phone call, is all it takes to drag Eve Duncan right back to that horrifying day years ago when her only daughter vanished without a trace. Since that day, her life has become an obsession to find Bonnie’s remains and put the pain of her death to rest. However, one man wants nothing more than to prevent that from happening. He is every woman’s waking nightmare: a brilliant, ruthless killer whose hunting ground stretches from coast to coast. But taunting Eve Duncan might be his first and last mistake….
For Eve is armed with more than just her talent as a forensic sculptor and her fierce protective nature. She brings with her former Navy SEAL Joe Quinn, an Atlanta detective who will do whatever it takes to bring Eve some kind of peace, even if he has to lie to do it.
Eve’s only salvation may be through the mysterious skills of another woman whose chilling talent leaves her as tormented as Eve – and as driven to bring this monster to justice. But when lives are in danger, every step could be a trap, and every inch of solid ground seems to be shifting under their feet. And this killer wants nothing more than to lure Eve further and further into his swamp of madness….
With relentless pace and gut-wrenching intensity, Quicksandis Iris Johansen at her best.
I was introduced to this series just a few years ago by a great friend who also gave me all the books up to this one. 💕 As a huge fan of Private Investigator books, I love these! Even with only the first two books completed I can tell already why this series is so popular and loved around the world. I can’t believe that I had never heard about them before.
I love that this particular book in the series is based on a true crime and that the author is trying to help identify the victim and bring her peace.
Book Blurb:
She was a “Jane Doe,” an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California’s Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff’s Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the murder remained unsolved.
That was eighteen years ago. Now the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to help with their legwork and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued and agrees to the job.
But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe’s real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer.
“Q” is for Quarry is based on an unsolved homicide that occurred in 1969, and Grafton’s interest in the case has generated renewed police efforts. During the past year, the body was exhumed and a nationally known forensic artist did the facial reconstruction that appears in the closing pages of “Q” is for Quarry. Both Grafton and the dedicated members of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department are hoping the photograph will trigger memories that may lead to a positive identification.
On the day Jane Doe was reburied, many officers were at the gravesite. “It’s eerie,” Grafton writes, “to think about the power this woman still has. Here we are, thirty-three years later, and she still wants to go home.”
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.
I am very excited to read a new horror author I have never read before. Any book that King says scared the hell out him is worth a read to me!
Thank you to Gallery Books for this gifted copy!
Blurb: An all-new epic tale of terror and redemption set in the hinterlands of midcentury New Mexico from the acclaimed author of “The Troop” which Stephen King raved scared the hell out of me and I couldn t put it down…old-school horror at its best. From electrifying horror author Nick Cutter comes a haunting new novel, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” and Stephen King s “It,” in which a trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous. Stirrings in the woods and over the treetops the brooding shape of a monolith known as the Black Rock casts its terrible pall. Paranoia and distrust grips the settlement. The escape routes are gradually cut off as events spiral towards madness. Hell or the closest thing to it invades Little Heaven. The remaining occupants are forced to take a stand and fight back, but whatever has cast its dark eye on Little Heaven is now marshaling its powers…and it wants them all.”
“I wasn’t sure why I was still working for Vinnie. I suspected it had something to do with the title. Bounty Hunter. It held a certain cat he. Even better, the job didn’t require panty hose.”
Stephanie Plum is at it again and this time the bodies are really piling up.
“Christ, Stephanie, this makes four! Four dead bodies. Eight if you count the ones in the cellar.” “It’s not my fault!” I stuffed my fists onto my hips. “You think I want to keep finding dead bodies? This is no picnic for either, you know.”
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.
Getting back to Stephanie Plum and Grandma Mazur! I love this series so much, it is so fun and entertaining. When you are in a reading slump or a book hangover, they are the perfect medicine. No matter what challenge I am participating in, I always find room to fit at least one of these in.
Blurb: Stephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick is back and she’s having a bad hair day — for the whole month of January. She’s been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemier, Trenton’s most beloved citizen, arrested for carrying concealed, gone no-show for his court appearance.
And to make matters worse, she’s got Lula, a former hooker turned file clerk — now a wannabe bounty hunter — at her side, sticking like glue. Lula’s big and blonde and black and itching to get the chance to lock up a crook in the trunk of her car.
Morelli, the New Jersey vice cop with the slow-burning smile that undermines a girl’s strongest resolve is being polite. So what does this mean? Has he found a new love? Or is he manipulating Steph, using her in his police investigation, counting on her unmanageable curiosity and competitive Jersey attitude?
Once again, the entire One for the Money crew is in action, including Ranger and Grandma Mazur, searching for Mo, tripping down a trail littered with dead drug dealers, leading Stephanie to suspect Mo has traded his ice-cream scoop for a vigilante gun.
Cursed with a disastrous new hair color and an increasing sense that it’s really time to get a new job, Stephanie spirals and tumbles through Three to Get Deadly with all the wisecracks and pace her fans have come to
“If you chose to stop a loved one’s suffering—either before it began or during the process—was that murder, or mercy?”
“I would never have wished for an able-bodied child, because that child would have been someone who wasn’t you.”
“You were Willow, pure and simple. There was nobody else like you. I knew it the moment I first held you, wrapped in foam so that you wouldn’t get hurt in my arms: your soul was stronger than your body, and in spite of what the doctors told me over and over, I always believed that was the reason for the breaks. What ordinary skeleton could contain a heart as big as the whole world?”
Six year old Willow was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which is a brittle bones disease. She will have several hundred broken bones in her, most likely, short life, among an array of other disabilities that will cause pain and constant struggle. Her parents, Charlotte and Sean love her just the way she is, she is perfect. After a nightmarish trip to Disney World, they visit a lawyer who advises them they have a case for a lawsuit, just not the kind they were thinking, a wrongful birth suit.
Blurb: When Willow is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, her parents are devastated–she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. Every expectant parent will tell you that they don’t want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they’d been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of “luckier” parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it’s all worth it because Willow is, funny as it seems, perfect. She’s smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.
Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte had known earlier of Willow’s illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?
