Nora Roberts might be a bit formulaic, but I love her formula. It rarely gets old 9it's a comfort really) and I have almost everything she writes as Nora Roberts. Her mysteries are believable, and you can almost see yourself as the heroine in the story. There are just enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting to know how everything will unfold and play out. She reminds you to be happy you aren’t the one being chased and stalked by evil! Roberts is always good for a dive into the darkness surrounding the killers but then she bobs out into the sun again so you can bask in the love blooming in the pages. Another thing I love about Nora Roberts is she tries to pick different professions to write the story around and in Legacy we get that spark of fun with the heroes, Adrian and Raylan. Adrian is a fitness guru and Raylan is a comic book illustrator and creator. So fun! I just want to go grab my sketch pad and draw, maybe paint, then later do some yoga to stretch out.
Welcome!
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Nora Roberts might be a bit formulaic, but I love her formula. It rarely gets old 9it's a comfort really) and I have almost everything she writes as Nora Roberts. Her mysteries are believable, and you can almost see yourself as the heroine in the story. There are just enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting to know how everything will unfold and play out. She reminds you to be happy you aren’t the one being chased and stalked by evil! Roberts is always good for a dive into the darkness surrounding the killers but then she bobs out into the sun again so you can bask in the love blooming in the pages. Another thing I love about Nora Roberts is she tries to pick different professions to write the story around and in Legacy we get that spark of fun with the heroes, Adrian and Raylan. Adrian is a fitness guru and Raylan is a comic book illustrator and creator. So fun! I just want to go grab my sketch pad and draw, maybe paint, then later do some yoga to stretch out.
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Sarah J. Maas' House of Flame and Shadow
House of Flame and Shadow is freaking pulse pounding, thrilling, had me constantly on the edge of my seat, gifts us with a full (!!!!) cast ensemble, mates and romance are around most corners, keeps you thinking and wondering what the heck is going to happen next and how are they going to end the book and this series?! How are we, oops they, going to live through this!? “Through love, all is possible.” And Maas definitely loves us. I also really enjoyed all the crossovers to her other series…. Maas is so talented. No spoilers here but if you love Sarah J Maas and you have loved or enjoyed the Crescent City series- just read this beautiful monster of a novel. It is 100% worth it. Light it up!
Now I need some bookish friends who have read and finished this book to go gush and spill the tea about ALL THE THINGS!!!!! THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I need to talk about! Like, I got CHILLS when Hunt screams.... and what about Tharion Ketos?! And what seems to be a set up for ---- nope, stopping myself now....
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Books and Sharing- the Unpleasant Side
Today is another cold, ice slicked day, but at least the sun is shining. The ice is glittering as you try not to fall while penguin walking from your car to school and work. This had me thinking of bookstagram, and book reviews in general. I don't know why, it just did. I recently saw a bookstagram account I follow share their DNF (Did Not Finish) for 2023 and I remember thinking, “Wow! That is so bold to put that out there! How brave to share the unpleasant side of books.” As readers, we don’t love or even like some books and at times even detest or can’t finish a book for a multitude of reasons. Do you want to know if I didn’t like, didn’t finish a book, or had some other unpleasant feelings towards a book? It’s such an individual thing and the author and their team have put so much work into getting published and out into the world. Should I cushion my review and feelings of a book I didn’t enjoy with some positivity or just let it fly where I stand, when I share with you? I feel like I tend to do a sandwiching with bad or negative things, okay, confession, I literally do this with everything in my life… something positive, something negative or corrective, something positive. In taking up a position as a book blogger though- is that ok or is that enough? Is it a turnoff to read someone’s dislike or just if it happens periodically, as we know happens with inevitable book slumps?
For people who visit my blog and Insta often (thank you
friends!), can you tell my tone and choice of words as to what my enthusiasm or
position of a book might be, even if it’s not explicitly said? I do have shelves
on Goodreads (happy to friend you there) that I will shelve books so I remember
in the future how a book landed. Examples of the more unpleasant shelves are “can
get annoying frustrating,” “never going to finish,” “once was enough,” “plan
never to read,” and “started stopped might try again.”
What is the etiquette bloggers are wanting to set as their
standard? What do you want to hear or know? I can share with you, that if I
posted on a book and you wanted to know more or you read it and wanted to rant
or rave, I would be so happy to dive in and gush or purge beyond my short
opinion I posted! Talk books with me! LOL!
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Recap of My Bookish Love for 2023
Hello Dear Readers!
Happy New Years 2024! |
2023 was a surprising year for me! I had no idea I would venture into the world of Instagram bookstagramming. I was trying to remember to update The Small Book Blog at least once a month and not always doing well with that task. However, with encouragement of my dear friend who loves to push me to be my best self, I dove into the deep end and have been happily treading water and swimming fairly successfully for the last half of the year as a bookstagrammer (@smallbookblog) AND keeping up with my web blog too! Wahoo! Go me! Now I just need to keep reading, learning, making more bookish friends, and sharing my world of books with anyone and everyone.
For those readers tracking their annual number of reads, I use Goodreads. I love that website for tracking books, looking up books, etc. This year my annual goal was to read 80 books. I am shocked to share that I not only achieved my reading challenge goal but almost doubled it! At the end of 2023, I will have read 142 books!!!! I am happy to say, after looking at all their beautiful covers and remembering snippets of them, there are very few that didn't bring me joy. I am posting my bookish adventures with this post. Hopefully they aren't too tiny to see. How did you do with your 2023 reading goals? I am unsure what my 2024 book challenge will be, but historically I try to do a few more books if I achieved the previous years goal. No stress, just trying to grow and see what I can do.
With this look back, I just wanted to wish all my delightful and beautiful bibliophiles a very Happy New Year! "Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one." -Brad Paisley
Friday, December 29, 2023
Erin Sterling's The Ex Hex
The Ex Hex is a cute paranormal romance. We follow two lineages of witches whose role is to reinforce the town of Graves Glen ley lines periodically. However, from a past entanglement, subsequent breakup that results in a potentially drunken curse placed on the lost love, Vivienne isn’t excited to work alongside Rhys all these years later. Unknown to the other, both look back on their lost romance as the one that probably got away all these years later. When the ceremony goes disastrously wrong, Vivienne and Rhys are forced to troubleshoot what happened and how to correct the magic before it’s too late. More than just twisted magical sparks are flying before long.
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Rebecca Yarro's Iron Flame
“Sorry to inconvenience you, but this year the role of Violet Sorrengail”—he points to me—“ will be played by Xaden Riorson”—he taps his chest—“ who will drag her, kicking and screaming if he has to, into a real relationship with real discussions, because he refuses to lose her again. If I have to evolve, you do, too.”
-Rebecca Yarros, Iron Flame
OMG! This is such a great second book in a long series!!! I feel like the above quote really encapsulates it. Iron Flame gives us more foundation, it adds twists yet answers questions while posing more… there is love, sex, violence, love, betrayal and loyalty… ugh! So many secrets, revelations and discoveries! I really can’t say anything more specific without being a potential spoil sport & I don’t want to be, but my gosh! Soooo good!!!!
Once again Yarros takes us into her world, expanding it, while we taste, touch, feel and experience it. The action and movements I could picture and walk the frozen grounds and dark caverns with the characters, happily in the safety of my reading space of course. Lol! I wouldn’t want it shorter or longer because we needed everything to set up the longer series. We need the mundane with the exciting and electric elements. I knew when I learned this was a 5 book series it would get messy, complicated, more history would come forward to keep the series elongated, entertain, interesting and add as many elements as possible to weave the story and characters into. If it was just 3 years of college with an epilogue at the end, no one would love or be as addicted to this series as we are. There are so many things to talk about and yet… I can’t… not here. Hurry up and read dear readers so I can theorize and have a therapy session with you!
I wonder what my signet would be… I definitely would be a rider with my dragon and not a flier with a gryphon. And yet I am still waiting on my letter to Hogwarts too. Luckily it's Christmas time and magic is in the air. *winks*
Friday, December 1, 2023
Alix E. Harrow's Starling House
This book… it’s good! I can see why Reese Witherspoon wanted this book to be her book clubs’ monthly choice. The writing is fantastic, it’s engaging and everything just flows. I did the audiobook version and it was almost relaxing. The reader was wonderful to listen to and, like I said, the story was a smooth ride. I wasn’t pulled out of it at all…well… other than to have to pause and work here and there. *Winks*
We find ourselves wandering through the pages of mystery,
adventure, magic, and light horror within the walls of Starling House as Underland
gets stronger and the monsters more frequent. I enjoyed the research and
information on the past. It really helped inform on the present predicament
Arthur and Opal find themselves trying to fight. I loved how sentient the house
is and the magic within it- the house can accommodate whatever the warden needs,
or the house decides is needed, even updating itself with the changing times for
things like plumbing and electricity! I also loved the idea of the magic
fighting the outside world so you can’t map it, photograph it, describe it… it’s
almost a living thing, deciding who is a trespasser and who is welcome. Starling
House protects its own.
This is my first Alix Harrow book and after reading Starling House, it has given me the push
I need to finally read her 10,000 Doors of January. I will admit I have been
moving it down my TBR pile. I think it’s the “10,000” in the title, my mind
says, “that’s how long the book is” and I shy away. I just checked, less than
400 pages. *Phew* I will also share, I felt Starling
House had tones of Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House and Stephen King’s Fairy
Tale. I’m just delighted I pushed myself to read this book and find a new
author to follow. I hope you do to. Let me know!
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Hannah Grace's Icebreaker
Drama, drama, drama! At least in Icebreaker it's the good and juicy kind. *winks* I enjoyed this book wat more than I expected to. It made me reminisce my college dats, dating, campus fun, going to events, and feel blessed at how much happier my liver is without ALL the college drinking. LOL!
Icebreaker's plot went deeper than I expected. At first, I was figuring it would be like the movie Cutting Edge or the book Pucked, but it really held its own! I loved the competitive ice skater vs competitive hockey player. There was an inherent understanding of what they need to get done to succeed and also how enjoy life and blow off steam. It has a good intro and story, we meet the players, there is a natural arc, realistic twists and issues to try and tear Anastasia and Nate apart, followed with understanding and the reiteration that positive communication is key, and finally, we get our beloved happily ever after. As Susan Elizabeth Phillips would tell us, that's what you need for a successful romantic comedy novel. Anything less is a tragedy. Also, these aren't really spoilers since you know this is marked as an "enemy to lovers" book.
Also, wowza! Ms. Grace gives us steamy, spicy, drippy, sexy scenes throughout the whole book! You will not be disappointed and...this is your warning if you are listening to an audiobook. I had no idea my 30 minute jog through the park was going to be 25 minutes of lusty bedroom antics. I can't even remember if I was jogging, or stutter step jogging, or going between jogging and racing. LOL!
If you want some great romance, Icebreakers is your friend.
Friday, November 3, 2023
Becky Banks' Flux
Vega and Hoyt are the enemies to lovers you didn't know you needed. They are the hacker-world book version of Yellowstone, the drama you can't help but get sucked into as you read along with their adventures and antics. Who knows where you might end up: jail, a penthouse suite, a gala or on the run. Flux is a layered story with a great arc, time doesn't stall anywhere and the characters are always developing and evolving as the mystery and thrills are unraveling around us. Plus, lots of luscious spice with Vega and Hoyt... lots.
Author Becky Banks has a talent for writing characters with quirks, charisma, sometimes broken and in need of healing, as well as humor. She has a talented way with words to paint you into the scene; smelling, tasting, feeling everything, electrifying the air around the characters. I have read everything this author has written and Flux is my new favorite book of the authors.
Vega comes from an abusive past that continues to haunt her and her family. She is passionately dedicated to protecting those she loves, herself, and other women who reach out in desperate need of the Valkyrie, to swoop in and save them from abusive men. While I had a love/hate relationship with Vega, we encounter time and again, a positive balance of strength in her because Vega tries to see both sides of the issues and situations, even if she has rules placing her more on the dark side (usually the lawbreaking side) than the light, that your scales tip in favor to love her. It is this willingness to see, absorb, and react that builds Vega's character throughout the book and strengthens her nature into someone likeable and loveable. You want to cheer her on as she evolves with the story.
Hoyt is a beautiful, intelligent, ruthless, billionaire, ex-NFL player, who will give you all the hot and bothered feelings we want to escape into. He has a head for tech, protecting people and placing securities in companies with an unbreachable tech system. I found myself falling more in love with Hoyt when I noticed his penitent towards patience, over and over, teaching Vega kindness is something you can give without cost to your confidence or value. Hoyt is a spot on character for this story. He was raised in a loving home but has battled his own demons and come out the other side stronger on every front.
Vega and Hoyt are uniquely capable of loving, challenging, and understanding each other as no one else has been able to. It is this new twist in reality, this glimpse into a stable shelter, supportive partner in life, and unconditional love, that Vega has secretly always sought. Through a chain of events that quickly spins out of control, Hoyt and Vega have to decide if their new found love is worth fighting for, in a world that seems to want to tear them apart, or, to be corny, will the breach to their hearts be repaired as the language is rewritten to incorporate the new variables they desperately dream of?