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Review: Stolen Time

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Review: Stolen Time

Author: Danielle Rollins

Genre: YA Fiction/ Time Travel

Publisher: HarperCollins / Harper Teen

Published: February 5, 2019

“Seattle, 1913

Dorothy spent her life learning the art of the con. But after meeting a stranger and stowing away on his peculiar aircraft, she wakes up in a chilling version of the world she left behind—and for the first time in her life, realizes she’s in way over her head.

New Seattle, 2077

If there was ever a girl who was trouble, it was one who snuck on board Ash’s time machine wearing a wedding gown—and the last thing he needs is trouble if he wants to prevent his terrifying visions of the future from coming true.”

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There are things I loved about this book, and things I didn’t love so much.

This is a book about a woman from the 1900’s who accidentally gets more than she bargains for when she sneaks into an airplane that is actually a time machine and finds herself in Seattle, 2077 which is now a wasteland mostly underwater after a series of massive earthquakes and a giant tsunami took out most of the West Coast. (As someone who grew up in the PNW, always being brought up to prepare for “the big one”, even having drills in school, this is freakin terrifying to think about.)

What I DID enjoy was the fast paced adventure it took me on, the dynamic between the main character and the male protagonist, the group as a whole, and DEFINITELY the cliffhanger/holy crap moment you get at the end.

As for not so much: I thought the characters weren’t as developed as they could’ve been and the dialogue definitely wasn’t that amazing. Also the “Villains” were a tad cliche for my taste.

This wasn’t enough to keep me from reading the next book, though. I damn sure need to know what happens next. 👌

I’m useless and would rather sell all my things and run away to live in the hills as a hermit eating nothing but pork n beans for the rest of eternity than the commit to the star system in cases like this. And it’s my blog, I run this joint. So I don’t have to. 🤨

#bookreview #netgalley #Stolentime #Harperteen

Review: Llewellyn’s Complete Book Of Essential Oils

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Title: Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Essential Oils {How to Blend, Diffuse, Create Remedies, and use in Everyday Life}

Author: Sandra Kynes

Genre: Nonfiction (adult), Religion & Spirituality

Publisher: Llewelyn Publications

Publication date: August 8, 2019

 

*I received a copy of this from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for a review. Thank you! All opinions are my own. *

I have MANY of Llewellyn’s products in my own personal collection; from books to almanacs to Tarot decks. They’re generally my most trusted publisher for all things “woo woo”. That being said, I still don’t just run out and buy everything they put out because

1. I’m poor, WOMP. 

and

2. When it comes to topics like this that require thorough education and are advertised as “complete”, it has to be worth the price and not a bunch of fluff.

This book. Is. COMPLETE. I’m shocked at the amount of information covered in here. I have many books on the same topic that don’t even come close to this.

It’s broken into 7 sections, which I’ll try to summarize.

Part 1: History. Starting with ancient times,  from Egyptians to Greeks to Medieval times to now. Also talks about safety practices.

Part 2: Blending. Explains scent notes (with charts) even has a chart of oils for each Sun Sign and complete instructions on how to make personalized Birthday scents.

Part 3: Healing Properties. VERY thorough section. Includes common ailments, oils associated with them, and tons of recipes/instructions for ointments, salves, baths, diffusion, etc.

Part 4: Beauty. Recipe and chart galore. Tables for skin types or hair issues, from dandruff to hair loss with the best oils to help. Recipes for face masks, moisturizer, body scrub, bath bombs, shower melts, room spray, and much more.

Also had a very in depth section about Chakras and how to add oils into your spiritual practice. Even has recipes for scented candles.

Part 5: Home Care. Recipes to freshen and deodorize, general cleaning (any cleaners you can imagine), and a very detailed chart for pest control. Includes a detailed section on Feng Shui.

Part Six: An in-depth profile of over 60 oils. This part was a pleasant surprise because it was PACKED with info. Each one even has its own recipe for something, either personal or home care. MORE RECIPES! Yay! 

Part 7: Detailed section on carrier oils, where they derived from, what they’re best used for, etc.

Appendix and glossary in the back for reference.

This is by far the best book I’ve seen of it’s kind EVER. And I have both owned and looked through a lot of them. I wish I had it in my hands right now. I feel like this is one of those ones that’d get all crinkly and bent and stained up from use. A well loved book.

I MUST FIND A WAY TO HAVE THIS BOOK!  It’s going on my Xmas list!

Solid 5 crystal balls 🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮

#LlewellynsCompleteBookOfEssentialOils #Netgalley #Llewellyn #bookreview

 

Review: To Drink Coffee With A Ghost

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I keep searching for a mother in every woman I meet, but if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t even begin to know what it is I’m supposed to be looking for.

–which parts make up a mother?

Review: To Drink Coffee With A Ghost

Author: Amanda Lovelace

Genre: Poetry

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Publication Date: September 17, 2019

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* I received a free copy of this from the publisher and Netgalley for review. (Thank you!) All opinions are my own.*

This is the finale of Bestselling Poetess Amanda Lovelace’s duology “things that haunt”.

The first, ‘To Make Monsters Out Of Girls,” focused on being in a toxic relationship.

This one is about the loss of her mother and their very complicated relationship.

When I was younger, poetry was like an extension of me. It was the THING. That thing that took the tired jumbled tangle of inexpressible emotions and made sense of them.

I knew it’d be risky business for me to dig in to this topic.

See, what makes death so hard is the ABSENCE of that person. So, while my mother is very alive, I’ve spent the majority of my life feeling like she has been dead.

As I read through these pages I realized that I had experienced nearly every situation she had described.

Difficult relationship? What little relationship I had with my (non-custodial) mother was conditional and manipulative. The author speaks of her contradictory feelings of wanting approval and almost idolizing her mother, no matter how torturous and toxic she knows it is. And her relationship with her sister; how much they had to step up and take on the grown up roles for each other.

This book runs the entire gamut of emotions. From the resentment to grief, to the acceptance, to moving forward.

It was written for the lost girls like me. The ones like my sister who had to put our mother to bed because she fell asleep sitting up smoking a cigarette or trying to get a spoonful of food to her mouth. Our mother is no longer very much mother. She’s more pills than mother now.

Amanda Lovelace has that rare gift of saying a multitude of things in just a few short sentences.

If you’ve never read her work, I highly recommend it.

And this one was so beautiful and touching to me. It’s ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5 stars, no doubt. Sad I don’t have a copy on my shelf right now!!

”I don’t necessarily think you should have to

forgive those who have mistreated you in

the most life-defining ways. Forgiveness is

something sacred. However, I would like to

think I could forgive you, if given the

opportunity. I would like to think you would

give me reason to.”

—Here’s Hoping 

#ToDrinkCoffeeWithAGhost #Netgalley #Goodreads

Review: Into The Hourglass The Evermore Chronicles book 2

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Title: Into The Hourglass  The Evermore Chronicles Book 2

Author: Emily R. King

Genre: YA Fantasy/ Teens/ New Adult

Publisher: Skyscape

Publication Date: August 20, 2019

176A969E-BE21-4158-A3B2-C37AFA44FB85.pngEverley Donovan’s mission: retrieve the hallowed sword of Avelyn stolen by the wicked Prince Killian, who slayed her family and left her for dead. Should she fail, the seven worlds will come to an end, as could time itself. And no one treasures time more than Everley, whose lifesaving clock heart cannot beat forever. She has set sail with a rogue crew for the otherworlds, where the key to dethroning the prince lies deep within the Land Under the Wave.

But passage through these unknown seas—where horrors lurk and pirates rove—proves a treacherous gamble. The Land Under the Wave was not made for humans, particularly one with a fragile clock heart. Here, Everley’s tragic past resurfaces unsolved questions. Here, too, the prince has hidden secrets more precious than pearls, secrets that could fracture the future forevermore. Everley must take back her sword and break free from this watery world before her time runs out…or so will everyone else’s.

I received a free copy from the publisher and Netgalley. (Thank you!)

All opinions are my own.

This is the second installment in The Evermore Chronicles by Emily R. King, and it continues the adventure we first began in Before The Broken Star.

Everly, our beloved spicy heroine with the clockwork heart is still hellbent on defeating our villain, although while her intention may have been personal in the beginning, she has learned there’s far more at stake now should she fail.

This book has Everly taking us through quite an adventure: we sail with her ragtag crew toward a treacherous place called The Land Under The Wave.

This book had my nerd brain in heaven. There were twists and turns, DANGER!, mermaids, a sea witch, pirates, elves, fairies, time-hopping because, oh yeah I forgot to mention, she’s on a mission from FATHER TIME.

All of this combined with her trusty-ahem-loyal, (cough theyweremeanttobetogether cough) sidekick made for another solid enjoyable read.

Again, it wasn’t one I couldn’t put down. But there wasn’t anything I disliked about it and it kept me entertained. So I give those ones 3.5 stars.

#IntoTheHourglass #NetGalley #Bookreview

Review: Before The Broken Star

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189B0840-A127-4D02-829A-A5D558161712.jpegTitle: Before The Broken Star (The Evermore Chronicles Book 1)

Author: Emily R.King

Genre: YA Fantasy/ Adventure

Publisher: Skyscape

“Everley Donovan is living on borrowed time. The lone survivor of her family’s unexplained assassination, she was saved by an ingeniously crafted clockwork heart. But the time she was given won’t last forever. Now, every tick-tock reminds her how fragile her existence is and hastens her quest to expose Killian Markham, the navy admiral who shattered her world and left her for dead. But Everley’s hunt for justice will be a long and hard-won voyage.

Her journey takes her to a penal colony on a cursed isle, where she will be married off and charged to build the new world. It is here, and beyond, that hidden realms hide, treasures are unearthed, her family secrets are buried, and young love will test the strength of her makeshift heart. When Everley discovers Markham may not be who he seems, her pursuit for truth is bound to his redemption, her tragic history, and her astonishing destiny.”

My Take:

Everly is a girl who both is and has a secret: after her entire family was murdered by her father’s partner, Markham, she was believed to be dead as well. But her uncle, a clockmaker, saved her by constructing her a clockwork heart to replace her human one.

He has been keeping her safe and hidden, just a girl that works in his clockmakers shop.

Until the day that Everly discovers that Markham is in town and everything she’s been secretly working up to until this point comes to fruition: she can finally get her revenge.

She plots her way onto Markham’s ship, but soon find revenge is no simple or quick deed. The universe has many other people and journeys for Everly to encounter; some wonderful, some are a bitter pill to swallow.

Everly as a character is a fierce and stubborn girl, a stark contrast to the fragility of the clockwork heart keeping her alive.

The characters she encounters are all perfectly written in the way that I believe they make you feel exactly what the author intended you to.

The good ones you feel a fondness for, the sassy ones make you chuckle, and the bad guys you despise.

This is an ongoing adventure, part of a series. I have already read the next book; review coming soon.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It didn’t blow me away, but it didn’t disappoint me either. In these cases, I always give it a 3.5

💫💫💫.5

Review: The Whisper Man

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The Whisper Man

Author: Alex North

Genre: Mystery/thriller/horror & suspense

Publication date: August 20, 2019

*arc provided by Celadon/Macmillan and Goodreads. Opinions are all my own.

The Whisper man is a fantastic debut suspense novel.32BBDCB5-7223-4E55-9E14-2F4C9424BF33.jpeg

Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake are reeling and trying to wade through the grief from the unexpected death of Tom’s wife Rebecca, AKA “The Family Glue.”

Tom thinks a fresh start is the best hope for healing, so they relocate to the village of Featherbank.

Unbeknownst to Tom, Featherbank has a trauma imprint of its own: a serial killer dubbed The Whisper Man (due to how he’d lure his young victims out by whispering at their windows at night,) terrorized the area 20 years ago until being captured and thankfully is still imprisoned.

Soon after settling, Tom learns that a young boy has gone missing in eerily similar circumstances. Then Jake starts behaving VERY strange. Even saying someone is whispering to him at night.

It’s the scenes between Tom and Jake that really shine in this book. This isn’t your average thriller. There’s a level of depth and complexity in the dynamic between a father and son desperately trying to connect that’s so human it’s heartbreaking. Jake is socially awkward and odd. Tom doesn’t understand, he gets frustrated. He’s not perfect. He wants to unscramble the signals. You can feel his emotional struggle and the guilt he feels.

For his part, Jake is the leading character in this story in my opinion. He adds this element of being so odd and behaving in ways that make you question what’s actually happening. Does he have a bigger part in the story? He has an almost supernatural vibe to him that makes you never quite know how to feel about him.

I’ve seen this advertised as “the stuff of nightmares,” or “terrorizing.”

I don’t think I’d go that far. There ARE some extremely creepy brief moments in there, and there’s almost a supernatural undertone thrown in, but I’d describe this as a REALLY GREAT psychological thriller.

It’s a five knives for me. 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

#TheWhisperMan #review #netgalley #goodreads #macmillan #edelweiss #bookreviews

Review: The Girl In Red

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F22FC747-300A-4EDF-B8AE-FA6132D80CA1.jpegTitle: The Girl In Red

  • Author: Christina Henry 
  • Genre:  Fantasy Fiction/Dystopian
  • Publication Date: O6/18/2019
It’s not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn’t look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.
There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there’s something worse than all the horrible people and vicious beasts combined.
Red doesn’t think of herself as a killer, but she isn’t about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods…

* side note: Synopsis was taken from an ARC received before publication.

🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺 Five Wolves.

I seriously could have read this all in one day if adulting hadn’t interrupted my life for a week.

I didn’t even know I LIKED post-apocalyptic/dystopian books, but this one was SO good! The main character is the right kind of female badass. No cheesy, sexualized ridiculousness with this one. She’s smart. SUPER smart. She knows her shit. She’s also not taking anybody’s shit. That’s not to say that she’s heartless, though.

The thing I loved the most about this story was the flashback chapters of life before the event & leading up to where she is now. Her memories are heartbreaking, she oftentimes forces them out of her head in order to move on, and it’s such a thing we do out of necessity, it really got to me.

This is the first novel I’ve read by Christina Henry, I’m definitely going to be reading her other works now!!

I received this copy early from the publisher and Goodreads as a win, however that in no way influenced my opinion. This book kicked ass. Especially since I was a snob who always said I would never read dystopian sci-fi. 🤭

#TheGirlInRed #Netgalley #Goodreads

Pillow Thoughts III by Courtney Peppernell

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This is what I will call “the book review that wasn’t … but still is.”

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“A beautifully raw and poignant collection of poetry and prose, Pillow Thoughts III continues the series from poet Courtney Peppernell. Fix yourself a warm drink and settle into Peppernell’s words as she pens a tribute to her readers who are bravely continuing their journey from hurt to healing.”

I’d like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an advance e-copy, but bummer of all bummers!

I’m sorry to say that there was a feedback error with the formatting when I tried to download this, which is so disappointing because I was looking forward to diving into these poems so much!
There’s something about the way she writes that always seems to settle in just when I need it to in my life. I will definitely be picking this up anyways, she is one of my “auto-buy”
Poets along with Nikita Gill. I haven’t had a chance to buy any extras as preorders this Summer, but it’s on my list!!
Will be giving this stars on the good faith that I know something in there is guaranteed to hit me right in the feels!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out of 5 because I wanted to do halfway but why not tip it in her favor because I’m a fan. 👌

Pillow Thoughts III / 224 pgs.

Publication date: August 06, 2019

 

Narrator voice: “One Hundred YEARS later…” AKA I’m baaaak!

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meeeeeI’m not sure if it’s really clear or not, but… Shelby’s been through some shit, guys. [yeah, Shelby swears too. better get used to that one as well.]

I was SO damn excited when I set this blog up A YEAR AGO it almost makes me sad for my poor little self. I was so happy to have lifted myself off of that rock bottom  floor that I didn’t think there was anything that could bring me down again. 

All I have to say to that is pshhhhhh… that would be nice, wouldn’t it? that isn’t really how life works, though. So while I started this blog with a head full of goals and ambitions, my subconscious numbed out brain had a little PTSD-fueled surprise waiting for me to throw my world upside down.

All I can say is life has been a gauntlet of surprises this past year. Nothing like I thought it would be. And while I find myself quite critical about the slow progress I make, the comparison trap I get stuck in between who I was and who I am now, and how that girl in the first picture had so much more ahead of her and I failed her; I do have ONE thing that I am so proud of.

Through all of it, every up and down, I read. I read my ASS OFF this past year. I set those monthly goals and I hit them or surpassed them every damn month. I also challenged my comfort zones on Bookstagram. I set goals to rep for companies because I KNEW that sometimes having that accountability to someone would be the only thing that got me out of bed when times were hard.

And NOW? I’m ready to do what I’ve always wanted to do. Be a book reviewer. I want to establish myself in the community and be someone publishers would take seriously. I’ve wanted to do that since I was a little girl. I got married In High School and started a family. My kids are grown and it’s just me now. If I couldn’t make a career out of it, why not do the next best thing?

So, now begins my baby steps into learning the ins and outs of it all. Not gonna lie, my reviews are a little unpolished right now. I’ll get there, though.

I’ve been approved for TWO ARCS that are coming out in the Fall, there’s no turning back now! BUT, I wouldn’t turn down any tips, that’s for sure, lol!

Thank you for reading my debut novel titled “all about me, me, me.” From now on, it’ll be better. I promise!