Always Me

Happy Sunday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the Code Black series by V.E. Ulett .  Book one is titled Golden Dragon  and book two is named  White Elephant .   Thank you very much to Ryder Author Resources for providing me with an ecopy in exchange for my honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts:   ❋  ❋  ❋   ❋ Miriam Kodio Blackwell is caught between East and West. When a Code Black arises she is recruited by Lord Q, head of British intelligence and airships, who helps Miriam escape Iran only to press her into service of the Crown. Will Miriam survive when she's put aboard the airship Nonesuch—with her captain, crew, and a Hell-Cat of fearsome reputation—and the assignment to rescue the niece of a Dutch ally taken captive in the South China Sea? [ Golden Dragon  summary] To keep her place aboard the airship Nonesuch, Miriam must complete another mission for Lord Q — persuade the first white rajah of Sarawak back to loyalty to the British Crown. Wh

❋   ❋ I received an ecopy from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review. Based on the international award-winning screenplay and set in a future where matriarchy has toppled patriarchy, Moroz is a flawed, old-fashioned gumshoe fighting for equality in a society where human-form androids have become the norm. Notorious roboticist and artificial intelligence whiz Isadora is his greatest adversary yet his only hope is to restore justice between the sexes. Yet her own plans are to keep men under her thumb. When Isadora is charged with murder, Moroz must consider the cost of trying to solve the case: something that could cost him is family, any chance of true equality and his very life. Additionally, footage of Isadora committing the crime makes the task seem like a fool’s errand. In a world where the lines between human and robot love are blurred, Moroz must also find a way to stop a pending contract that threatens to enable a new rise of the robots, one where their bi

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope everyone's been staying healthy.  May seems to have passed pretty quickly in comparison to the last few couple of months as things slowly and hopefully begin to head back toward normal.  Anyway, I've now completed 10 out of 24 books of  Book Riot's 2020 Read Harder Challenge !  The tasks I completed required me to read a retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, or myth by an author of color   and a  historical fiction novel not set in WWII .  For the tasks, I selected  Pride  by Ibi Zoboi  and  Daisy Jones & The Six  by Taylor Jenkins Reid .   Read on to see my mini reviews and what's next for June:  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Pride  by Ibi Zoboi  is a unique and quickly paced YA Contemporary Pride and Prejudice retelling. It probably would have a three star rating because I didn't feel as invested as I should have been in the story itself, but I think Elizabeth Acevedo's narration of the audiobook was fantastic. She doe

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. Happy Friday everyone! 

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today I'm sharing three mini reviews with you:  Corporate Gunslinger by Doug Engstrom  (ARC, available June 16th, 2020),   What Branches Grow by T.S. Beier  (released April 12, 2020), and Where Acorns Landed by Anne M. Curtis  (released February 19, 2019).  Thank you very much to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of  Corporate Gunslinger  in exchange for an honest review and to T.S. Beier and Anne M. Curtis, the authors of  What Branches Grow and Where Acorns Landed  respectively, for the ecopies of their novels in exchange for my honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts on these three books: ❋   ❋  ❋   ❋ Corporate Gunslinger by Doug Engstrom is a near future dystopian satire featuring corporate greed, crippling debt, and gun violence. I had no idea what to expect, but it's well-worth reading. There's a lot that happens in this fairly short book and I don't want to give anything important away with spoilers. I will say t

Happy Wednesday everyone!  As you may know, June is Pride Month and I've decided to celebrate the occasion by tackling some LGBTQIAP books this month. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to try them.  Here are some of my own books and library books I hope to read in June.  Which one should I read first? Books I Own: Wake of Vultures  ( The Shadow #1) by Lila Bowen  - I just happened to stumble upon this one at a secondhand store and it sounds like it just might become a new favorite. These Witches Don't Burn ( These Witches Don't Burn #1) by Isabel Sterling  -  I don't know about you, but this sounds cool. The Hidden Oracle ( The Trials of Apollo #1) by Rick Riordan  - Riordan's one of my favorite authors and even though I'm not entirely caught up on all of the Heroes of Olympus series I still want to go ahead and jump into this series. Wraeththu ( Wraeththu  #1-3) by Storm Constantine  - I had never heard of this at all until I

Happy Tuesday everyone!   I'm very excited to welcome you all to my leg of the  Out Now by Saundra Mitchell blog tour from Inkyard Press !   Today, you'll find the details and summary for this novel,  an excerpt, an about the author,  Saundra Mitchell, as well as my review.  Thanks for visiting my stop on this b log tour! Out Now  by Saundra Mitchell On Sale: May 26, 2020  Inkyard Press  Young Adult Fiction/Diversity & Multicultural | Young Adult Fiction/Romance/LGBT 9781335018267; 1335018263 $18.99 USD 416 pages  Buy Links:  Amazon ,  Barnes & Noble ,  IndieBound , Books-A-Million , Apple Books , & Google Play A follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Out anthology, Out Now features seventeen new short stories from amazing queer YA authors. Vampires crash prom…aliens run from the government…a president’s daughter comes into her own…a true romantic tries to soften the heart of a cynical social media influencer…a selkie and the sea

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Opening Lines (Best, favorite, funny, unique, shocking, gripping, lines that grabbed you immediately, etc.).  This could go a lot of ways, but this time I'm featuring my Favorite Opening Lines In YA.  Here we go, in alphabetical order by title: The screw through Cinder’s ankle had rusted, the engraved cross marks worn to a mangled circle. – Cinder ( The Lunar Chronicles #1)   by Marissa Meyer The pipe under the sink was leaking again. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except that Nick kept his favorite sword under the sink. –  The Demon's Lexicon  ( The Demon's Lexicon  #1) by Sarah Rees Brennan This is how I kill someone. –  The Female of the Species  by Mindy McGinnis There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. – The Graveyard Book by Nail Gaiman There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. –  Holes  by Louis Sachar

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. Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting a couple of songs from the soundtrack of  A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019) .  Shaun the Sheep is so much fun and their newest movie (on Netflix right now) is absolutely delightful. If you're a fan of Wallace & Gromit , I have a feeling you'll love this as well.  Shaun

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. Happy Friday everyone! 

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Reasons Why I Love [insert your favorite book title, genre, author, etc. here]. I'm going to focus on one of the best new tv series of the season, Prodigal Son on FOX. The awesome season finale aired on Monday, April 27th and so far there's been no word of the series being renewed for a second season, but I really hope they will decide to bring it back for more.  By the way, I hope we one day that we get to see more adventures from these characters in the form of tie-in novels - my dream author to bring them to the series to life in this format would be V.E. Schwab, no question.  Anyway without further ado, here we go: Fantastic cast - Martin Sheen is one of my favorite actors and he is the main reason I decided to start watching this series. He's absolutely delightful, including in his role as a serial killer in this series.  It'