Always Me

Today I'm featuring my wrap up and mini reviews for the  Magical Hop-A-Thon  which ran the entire month of October and was hosted by Rachel ( @rachelceryx_xo ).  You can check out my original TBR here .  This was such a fun way to celebrate Disney World's 50th Anniversary.  I didn't manage to read nearly as much as I was hoping to for this challenge - I got really busy, but for the most part I liked what I ended up reading.  I managed to read five books - I visited Disney's Hollywood Studios and completed my read for the entrance ticket for Disney's Animal Kingdom.  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I completed for the Magical-Hop-A-Thon: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Have I ever mentioned how much I missed the tv adaptation of  The Passage  ( The Passage  #1) by Justin Cronin ?  I miss it so much.  Now that I've read the book that it's based on, I see just how much I missed out on.  Honestly, though, I think I preferred the first 250 or so pages of the book for Wol

Happy Halloween everyone and welcome to my tenth and final 2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge update with mini reviews!  I completed 7 books this October for a grand total of 50 books finished for the  2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge .  I'd say I had a yearly challenge and got in some great books!  Without further ado, here are my thoughts on the books I completed in October for this challenge in the order I read them in: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ The Boy Who Steals Houses  by C.G. Drews   is a great sophomore novel.  She has a lot of skill when it comes to really making you feel for her cast of characters.  It's tough read at times, but it has excellent mental health representation.  Personally, I think I preferred the before segments to the now.  I hope we'll get to see more from Cait in the future. My review is also on Goodreads . ❋  Audiobook DNF'd @ 10% I thought perhaps a change of format might improve my reading experience for  Wicked Saints  ( Something Dark and Holy  #1) by Emil

On Friday's I take part in two weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , and Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader .  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.  Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my  Magical Readathon Traveller's Key  reads,  Bitten  ( Otherworld  #1) by Kelly Armstrong .  A friend of mine is a fan of this series and it's time I see what the hype is all about. Beginning:  I have to.   I've been fighting it all night.  I'm going t

  Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope everyone's been staying healthy and happy.  How is it almost November already.  Anyway, that means that I've now completed 20 tasks of  Book Riot's 2021 Read Harder Challenge .  The tasks I completed this month required me to read a book with a cover you don't like  and  a food memoir from an author of color.   I selected  Guilty Pleasures  ( Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter  #1) by Laurell K. Hamilton  and  Notes from a Young Black Chef  by Kwame Onwuachi .  Read on to see my mini reviews and what's coming up for November: ❋  ❋  ❋   ❋ I'm glad I finally read  Guilty Pleasures  ( Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter  #1) by Laurell K. Hamilton  . I've been told to read it for ages and it was a fun new to me urban fantasy. The audiobook production was fantastic. I can't believe this was originally released in 1993 because it doesn't feel like it.  It still feels pretty modern all things given. I'll definitely be back for the s

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is a Halloween Freebie, so I thought I'd feature some Horror TV Shows that I've started watching to get into the Halloween Spirit this year, and those that I want to try.  I'll have started in on these at the beginning of the month to get in the Halloween spirit.  Without further ado, here we go in alphabetical order by title: Started Watching: American Horror Story: Cult   - I haven't had the best luck with the more recent seasons of this series, but I'm liking this season well enough so far.  It's all the creepier for still being so timely.  I have to say though that I really wish Tim Kang had a larger role. Black Summer   - I only ended up watching the first episode before I decided to move on to something else.  It just wasn't working for me. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina   - I was really looking forward to this series, but after about

   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 sharing three of my favorite (if favorite is the right word) murder ballads in honor of the Halloween.  Give a listen to "The Murder of the Lawson Family" by Carolina Buddies , "Wind and Rain" by Crooked Still , and "Down in the Willow Garden" by Dan Tyminski :      You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

  On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , and Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader .  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.  Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my  Magical Hop-A-Thon  and  Popsugar Reading Challenge  reads,  Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon  ( Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota  #1) by Larry Millett .  You can't go wrong with Sherlock Holmes! Beginning:  Readers of The Times may recall the great fires which

Happy Wednesday everyone!   I'm very excited to welcome you all to my leg of the Trashlands blog tour !   Today, you'll find the details and summary for this novel,  an excerpt from the prologue, and an about the author,  Trashlands by Alison Stine.  Thanks for visiting my stop on this b log tour! Title:  Trashlands Author:  Alison Stine ISBN:  9780778311270 Publication Date:  October 26, 2021 Publisher:  MIRA Books Buy Links:  Harlequin ,   Barnes & Noble ,  Amazon ,  Books-A-Million ,  Powell’s , & BookShop.org A resonant, visionary novel about the power of art and the sacrifices we are willing to make for the ones we love A few generations from now, the coastlines of the continent have been redrawn by floods and tides. Global powers have agreed to not produce any new plastics, and what is left has become valuable: garbage is currency. In the region-wide junkyard that Appalachia has become, Coral is a “plucker,” pulling plastic from the rivers and woods. She’s stu

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  I've decided to do something entirely different for this week and I'm featuring Favorite Horror Novels I've Read Since November 2020.  Without further ado, here we go in alphabetical order: The Brothers Cabal ( Johannes Cabal #4) by Jonathan L. Howard The Empty Grave ( Lockwood & Co.  #5) by Jonathan Stroud Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez Harrow the Ninth ( The Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir Litany of Dreams ( Arkham Horror #19) by Ari Marmell Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James Unnatural Acts ( Dan Shamble, Zombie PI #2) by Kevin J. Anderson The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant ( Fred, the Vampire Accountant #1) by Drew Hayes What are some of your recent horror favorites?  Have you read any of these books?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and pe