Always Me

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋   ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Lula feels like an outsider. After Alex gains newfound Encantrix powers have scarred her more than her healing abilities can fix, Lula just wants to be comforted by her family. Thank the Deos for Maks, her boyfriend who sees the best in her and brings a spark of light to her life. Then a bus crash changes everything. All of her classmates are dead, including Maks. With her powers Lula can resurrect Maks, even if she needs the help of her sisters in order to defy Death. Magic that defies the laws of the deos is unpredictable and dangerous. When it's all said and done, though, Maks isn't the only one that's back. Bruja Born ( Brooklyn Brujas #2) by Zoraida Córdova is a fantastic sequel to Labyrinth Lost . In fact, I definitely preferred this sequel to book one. Labyrinth Lost was good and very promising, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me. However, I needed to return to t...

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the first Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Bookish Worlds I’d Want To/ Never Want to Live In, but I've narrowed my list down to placed I'd want to live.  Here we go, in no particular order: The Wizarding World - Just anywhere, please.  Maybe someday I'll get to go to the closed thing we have in Florida... Red London, Arnes - If you've read the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab , you understand exactly what I mean.  If I were visiting I'd also like to be an Antari so I could travel between worlds, but I'd still love to be free to explore more of Arnes and their world. The Shire, Middle-Earth - Hobbits really know how to live and I'd love to visit one of their homes.  Not to mention have a meal with them, or go to one of their parties! Long Island , New York - Specifically, I'd like to see Camp Half-Blood from Rick Riordan's Percy Jacks...

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. This week I'm spotlighting the three singles released so far from Troye Sivan 's upcoming album, Bloom , called " Bloom ," " My My My! ," and " The Good Side ."  I really love the sound of all of these and I don't know how I hadn't heard any of his before now.  I just happened hear "My My My" on...

Happy Sunday everyone!  I can't believe it's already Memorial Day Weekend - it's nice to have some time off!  This weekend is the 44th Utica Sertoma Ice Cream Festival at Velvet Ice Cream's Headquarters which is one of my favorite events to go to during this holiday weekend.  It's is the first real fair of the season and really kicks off the summer.  I got to go on Saturday and their new flavor,  pineapple upside-down cake, was really tasty! Anyway, this past Tuesday I had the opportunity to see Deadpool 2  at the movie theater.  The first film was great (read my review here ) and I had high hopes for the sequel and it really delivered.  Keep reading for my thoughts on the movie, and to see what movies I'm hoping to next up at the theater: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I wouldn't say Deadpool 2 is better than the original movie but it's still just as great. My favorite new addition to the cast is easily Domino - and yes her power of luc...

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. This week I'm sp...

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the first Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Best Character Names - and I'll be spotlighting some of my favorite fantasy names. From The Legend of Drizzt by R.A. Salvatore Zaknafein Jarlaxle Guenhwyvar From The Lord of the Rings  by J.R.R. Tolkien Eowyn Faramir Aragorn From   A Song of Ice and Fire Tyrion Daenerys From Discworld by Terry Pratchett Vetinari From  Throne of Glass  by Sarah J. Maas Chaol Do you like any of these names?  What are some of your favorite character names?  As always, thanks as always for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!

❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Terrors lurk in the Old Country from goblins, bloodthirsty cannibals from nearby Carpathia, nefarious secret societies, to bloodless murder victims. Then there are the government agencies that might take you in for "questioning" in the middle of the night. Sloot can barely keep himself from drowning in the sense of doom that saturates the Old Country. Any minute could be his last, but now things are looking worse than ever as he's been ordered to correct a ghastly financial statement. It's almost certain that this will lead to Sloot's grisly death, but that probably isn't the worst thing that could happen. I have a feeling that if you like Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, you'll also like the tone and style of Peril in the Old Country by Sam Hooker. I loved the dark, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. Sloot is something like a mild mannered Arthur Dent sort of character who ...

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. So I've heard of BTS , the K-Pop boy band for a while now and I know a lot of people love their music.  Somehow, though, I'd never managed to hear any of their songs until this past weekend when I decided to get out from under that rock.  The first song I tried was their newest release called "Fake Love"  which was trending at #1 on...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Tella and Scarlett should be celebrating the end of Caravel - after all Tella finally escaped her father and she saved her sister from an arranged marriage - yet Tella still isn't truly free. Out of desperation, she's made a deal with a criminal and she owes him Legend's, the master of Caraval's, real name which is something that no one has ever been able figure out. Tella only has one chance to figure out his name and that is by winning the next round of Caraval, usually that would be next year but now the schedule has been has been bumped up. She's still reeling from the events of the last one before she's thrown right back into it. Caraval asks a lot of its players, and this time is different, but for Tella the stakes are greater than ever. In fact, if Tella loses and fails to uphold her end of the bargain she'll lose everything and everyone she cares about, but if she wi...

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. This week I'm spotligh...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Cliff is a 6'6" and 250 pound loser, in fact his nickname at school is Neanderthal. He has no one in his corner and everything has gone bad to worse since his older brother's suicide last year. Cliff can't stand the star quarterback, Aaron. When Aaron returns to school after a near-death experience, he says that he saw God when he was out of it. The real kicker is that God gave Aaron a to-do list to make Happy Valley High suck less - and that he needs to help Neanderthal. No one is more surprised than Cliff himself when he agrees to help Aaron with the list which features everything from a vindictive English teacher, a mysterious computer hacker, a decidedly unchristian cult of Jesus Teens, the local drug dealers, and the meanest bully at the school. For the first time since he lost his brother, Cliff feels like he's part of something bigger than himself. Fixing a screwed up school...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The next victim of gorily destructive demons is the One Guy, a major extradimensional crime lord. If he wants to survive a fate worse than death at their hands, the One Guy will have to go to Black Box Inc. to save him. Chase and his team at Black Box Inc. - Lassa, omnisexual yeti; Harper, an ex-Fae assassin; and Sharon, a business savvy zombie—will have to get the One Guy to Washington, D. C.'s Department of Extradimensional Affairs and get him into protective custody. First they'll just have to keep ahead of the blood ghasts, dimentionalist rednecks, vengeance-seeking kobolds, and his many other enemies, including Chase himself who knows first hand that you can’t trust the One Guy as far as you can throw him. I was so happy to be approved for the sequel to Black Box Inc. because book one is just so much fun. Luckily, Blood Ghast Blues really lived up to my expectations. Jake Bible's...

This June (hopefully July and August, as well) I will be participating in the Summer 2018 Comment Challenge, hosted by  Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense  and  Lonna @ FLYLēF .  This will be my fourth time participating in the challenge - Summer 2016, Winter 2017, & Summer 2017 - and it is perfect if you love comments and making new blogging buddies.  For each month that you sign up, you will get paired up with a blogger (a different one for each month - if you sign up for more than one) and you will engage with them by commenting on either 5+ or 10+ of their posts for the month.  It's a brilliant way to reach out to new blogs, make connections (and get your comment activity up at the same time)!  There's even a social media option to connect further with your partner which I plan on taking advantage of on  Twitter  using the hashtag  #Summer18CC .  In short, I plan on being ambitious in June by commenting 10+ times with my to be...