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Monday, September 30, 2024
*Top Ten Tuesday* Books I Bought Because of the Hype
Friday, September 27, 2024
*Stacking the Shelves* September 28, 2024
Stacking The Shelves is a feature/weekly meme run by Reading Reality in which you share the books you are adding to your shelves, both physical and virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!
Now, I already have a monthly post I do featuring the books I get in the mail (and it's a lot because I have a serious Goodreads First Reads giveaway addiction), and I'm posting my monthly Read-A-Thon posts again too, which covers the books I receive through Netgalley. So my STS post will feature any books I buy at Barnes and Noble and all the books I've been one-clicking on Amazon, within reason. For instance, this week on Tuesday I went on a free book buying binge, but I'm not going to be listing all 200+ books I one-clicked for free.
On that note, here are the books I picked up this week. All Goodreads First Reads ebook wins unless otherwise specified.
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*Book Blogger Hop* Fall Feels (September 27)
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Monday, September 23, 2024
*Top Ten Tuesday* Books on My Fall 2024 TBR
Hanging out with her crush by the bonfire is the perfect end to the night. Except it isn't the end. An old truck starts aggressively tailing Brooke and her best friend on the isolated road toward home. Someone thinks they know the truth about "the incident," and they won't stop until it's all out in the open. This terrifying drive is about to bring out Brooke's worst fears…if she survives it.
Grace, Henry, and Ally grew up together on the same block. They used to be best friends--until Grace's testimony put Henry's brother, Jake, away for killing their English teacher. Now, two years later, Ally and Henry hate Grace, and Grace is doubting what she thinks she saw that night.
It feels like everyone's getting a second chance, then, when due to a mistrial, Jake is suddenly released. And Henry knows his brother is innocent, but when Grace reaches out to say she’s rethinking what she saw the night of the murder, Jake’s reaction is confusing. He doesn’t want Henry—or Grace--getting involved.
For Ally not getting involved isn’t an option, and there’s nothing Grace can say to convince Ally she’s not the enemy. But can Ally afford to push Grace out when she’s one of the only other people willing to believe in Jake’s innocence?
The clock is ticking. Jake’s new trial date is about to be set, and he's sure to be found guilty again unless there's new evidence to prove he's innocent. Grace, Henry, and Ally are going to have to decide whether you can trust an old friend now that they’re your enemy.
A teen girl travels to an exclusive boarding school after a deadly incident at her old school, but the wood-paneled halls of Agathion are built over centuries of secrets—including an ancient society which may have ties to demonic magic—in this dark academia fantasy perfect for fans of Curious Tides.
Page Whittaker has always been an outcast. And after the deadly incident that destroyed her single friendship at her old school, she needs a fresh start. Which is why when she receives a scholarship offer from Agathion College, an elite boarding school folded deep within the moors of Scotland, she doesn’t even consider turning it down.
Agathion is everything Page has ever wanted: a safe haven full of dusty books, steaming cups of tea and rigorous intellectual debate. And for the first time in her life, Page has even managed to become part of a close group of friends. Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey and Oak help her feel at home in Agathion's halls--the only problem is, they're all keeping secrets from her.
Page doesn't know it yet, but her perfect new school has dark roots--roots that stretch back to its crooked foundation, and an ancient clandestine society with rumored ties to demonic magic. Soon, Page will be forced to learn that not everyone at Agathion is who they say they are. Least of all, her friends.
Agathion claims to teach its students history…but some histories should stay buried.
Brielle Petitfour loves to cook. But with a chronically sick mother and bills to pay, becoming a chef isn’t exactly a realistic career path.
When Brielle’s mom suddenly loses her job, Brielle steps in and uses her culinary skills to earn some extra money. The rich families who love her cooking praise her use of unique flavors and textures, which keep everyone guessing what’s in Brielle’s dishes. The secret ingredient? Human flesh.
Written by the storytelling duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, The Summer I Ate the Rich is a biting, smart new horror inspired by Haitian zombie lore that scrutinizes the socioeconomic and racial inequity that is the foundation of our modern times. Just like Brielle’s clients it will have you asking: What’s for dinner?
Aspiring journalist Noa has a secret she's been keeping. Ever since her sister's tragic death, she's felt almost...relieved. Noa and Leah had been locked in competition with one another since childhood, and things came to a head when her sister scored a glitzy internship at a New York society newspaper. Noa can't help but revel in her new found autonomy.
But when she gets a lead about the sketchy circumstances surrounding her sister’s untimely death, she knows she needs to investigate−she owes it to Leah.
Noa sets out to infiltrate the seedy underbelly of Manhattan high society to investigate her sister’s final days. Along the way she finds herself entangled with the glamorous Avalons and their close-knit circle of friends and frienemies. But will Noa be able to resist the allure of the Avalons' world and uncover a shocking scandal. Or will she find herself in over her head...like Leah?
The bestselling author of Good Girls Die First is back with an entertaining, high-octane and read-in-a-single-sitting new thriller.
Walking disaster Saffron and her perfectionist twin sister Georgia have only one thing in common-they are both obsessed with battle royale video game Sole Survivor.
While working at a brand new, high tech escape room complex, Saffron poses a question to the resident AI: which high school stereotype would survive the longest in a real life version of Sole Survivor? She is convinced a rebel like her would beat a know-it-all like Georgia. Unbeknown to her, the AI decides to determine the answer to her question by testing it out for real. It invites Saffron and Georgia's gamer friends to a preview of the escape rooms, but then it locks the doors and turns the rooms into a life-or-death battle to be the last player standing.
The rebel, the know-it-all, the princess, the jock, the geek, the weirdo, the star, the artist and the criminal. Just like in Sole Survivor, only one can survive the night...
- It's Cabin in the Woods meets Squid Game
- Perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen McManus.
- Knife-edge tension and twists you won't see coming.
Had Diana gone out to meet her? Had she been waiting for her, alone in the park?
Or had someone been waiting for Diana?
Lia and Diana are the"it girls" of Empire Hill High. Their lives are perfect....until Diana disappears and the rumors start flying.
Everyone thinks Diana is a runaway, including the police. Lia is secretly convinced it's all a prank. Then she finds a crushed red rose tied with a candy-cane ribbon where Diana went missing. And next to it, a note:
YOU
It's the same ribbon Lia's received on gifts from a "secret admirer." Did someone come for Diana that night? And will Lia be next?
When Chase gets a job at a nearby summer camp, she learns that something happened at the lookout, something no one wants to talk about. Chase isn’t entirely surprised: Pando is a place where odd things happen, like birds singing on a loop or bones sprouting out of the ground like wildflowers. Worse? Pando is changing Guthrie, and Chase doesn’t know how to stop it or even if she should.
Despite her resolve to protect Guthrie, Chase becomes increasingly distracted by Wilder, the lifeguard at camp who offers her a taste of normalcy and a new perspective on her skoolie family. But more time with Wilder means less time with Guthrie, and the mysterious force in the forest draws Guthrie deeper into its darkness—until she’s nowhere to be found. Chase must face her own childhood trauma and find her way into a strange and sinister world to rescue her sister before Guthrie is lost to the lonely places forever.
1890, Lutèce: In this city, Talents are everything: precious gems that gift unrivalled skills to their owners. The most coveted, Elite Talents, are claimed by the aristocracy, passed through generations by blood magic.
Cleodora dreamed of inheriting her father's Tailoring Talent, but when he died, the magic died with him. Now she’s left with empty promises, a dress shop she can’t keep afloat, and her bed-ridden younger sister.
But everything changes when she meets the dark-eyed Lady Dahlia Sibille. Dahlia offers Cleodora a Singing Talent — a chance to save her beloved sister and rewrite her own fate. From the first instant, Cleodora is bewitched. . . there's just one catch: she needs to steal an Elite Talent from the prestigious Lenoir family.
As Lutèce's nightingale, Cleodora is the star of the opera's galas and balls, worlds away from the darkness and dust of home. But the handsome yet infuriating Vicomte Lenoir is nothing like she expected.
Soon, the Vicomte's teasing smiles win her over, even as Dahlia's seductive whispers linger in her ears. Torn between Dahlia, who gave her everything, and the Vicomte, who holds the price of her freedom, is Cleodora in danger of losing it all? Or can she prove that magic isn’t the only gift that counts?
Ruby is a scholarship senior at elite Oleander High School with a chip on her shoulder and an attitude to match—which she puts to good use as the infamous local anonymous gossip blogger ReputationKiller. When she’s outed as the voice behind the account, the entire town turns against her.
But after she’s scared witless by a vision of her own ghost dressed in a blood-splattered prom dress, she is faced with an awful truth. Someone out there doesn’t just hate her—they want her dead.
With less than a week until the prom, Ruby starts investigating. Turns out Oleander Bay isn’t the picture-perfect resort town it appears to be. With so many secrets, scandals, and people hell-bent on covering them up at all costs, the murderer could be anyone. Can Ruby beat the clock counting down to prom—and her death—and survive the night?
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*Review* Josie, Johnnie and Rosie and the Ocean Rescue by Michael Panzner
Here's what one LibraryThing early reviewer had to say about Josie, Johnnie and Rosie and the Ocean Rescue!:
As I love reading to kids, the grade two's I read to had this to say about the book.....
- "I liked it,"
- "It was about cleaning up the ocean so the animals can stay safe."
- "I liked the unicorns!"
- "I liked the fish jumping around at the end."
- "It is a kind book."
- "They help save the ocean to make a difference for future generations."
- "It helps others to learn how to change the world."
- "It is about bravery and kindness."
- "It was about saving the ocean."
- "It is nice and cool that it teaches a lesson."
- "Magical and adventurous."
- "It is about teamwork and making a good influence on the world."
Brooke Beaver is an illustrator with a BFA in Graphic Design. She has worked with wonderful authors, illustrating their children's books and enjoys the fun, whimsical world of working in children's literature.