#egalley

The bookish stuff is now out in the world.

TIME AND TIDE

Releases November 2024.

Exciting news: the eGalley is up on NetGalley and Edelweiss! This means, with the promise of an honest review, you could potentially read the book right now. However, if you're not interested in an ARC, you can preorder your Copy Here.

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Historical fiction with a touch of time travel, for fans of Diana Gabaldon, Alexis Hall, and Olivia Waite’s Feminine Pursuits series, where a modern bisexual woman is thrown into Regency England and must figure out how to survive, while she falls in love with a woman who will become a famous author.

Just a twenty-first century gal with nineteenth-century problems…

When Sam’s plane crashes catastrophically over the Atlantic, it defies all odds for Sam to be the sole survivor. But it seems impossible that she’s rescued by a warship in 1805. With a dashing sea captain as her guide, she begins to find her footing in a world she’d only seen in movies.

Then Sam is betrayed. At the mercy of the men and morals of the time, and without the means to survive on her own, she’s left with no choice but to throw herself on the charity of the captain's sisters. She resigns herself to a quiet life of forever hiding her true self. What she doesn't expect is that her new landlady is Margaret Goodenough—the world-famous author whose yet-to-be-completed novel will contain the first lesbian kiss in the history of British Literature, and a clever woman. Clever enough to know her new companion has a secret.

Spoiler Free Review: The Taking of Jake Livingston by Jake Douglass

Title: The Taking of Jake Livingston Author: Ryan Douglass Pub. Date: July 13th 2021 Genre: YA Horror/Queer Format: eGalley Publisher: Putnam Pages: 308 pages GOODREADS | BARNES & NOBLE | AMAZON | LIBROFM (REFFERAL LINK) Those that love Horror Noir with atmospheric/creepy vibes may find a new favorite in The Taking Of Jake Livingston, it is intense across the board invoking many emotions all at…

Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan

4.25/5 stars

Thank you infinitely to Net Galley for an egalley ARC of this magnificent book!

Where do I even begin?

First order of business: Beware the cliffhanger(s).

Seriously, though, this book broke my heart, turned it black, and made it beat at the speed of sound. But in a good way. I promise. It is wicked and Duncan is ruthless all throughout it and it’s just perfect. And even when I hated what was happening, even when I worried about the characters, about their paths and their redemptions, about how it would all come together in the end, even when I was about to throw my phone across the room, I loved every second of it. Because a book that can break your heart and make it flutter is infinitely better than a book that does exactly what you expect of it, a book that satisfies your every wish and fantasy to an entirely dull accuracy.

The plot twists begin on page one. The ending is not at all what you would expect. And for a moment I was worried it would end when everything has crumbled to ashes and dust and I didn’t think I’d be able to pull myself together, but Duncan inexplicably saved the day at the very last second... albeit with an enormous cliffhanger. But a cliffhanger that left me desperately needing more.

All of the emotion in this book, all the love and hate and the million shades of grey in between, all the moral ambiguity and crises of conscience, all of the brokenness and the strength, the divinity and the sin, make this book a well of intrigue. Captivating in every quip and kiss and tear shed.

We get more divine meddling, and altogether more insight into the forces at play behind the curtains. We get more of Malachiasz’s quest for divine destruction, more of Nadya’s for divine salvation, and more of Serefin’s struggle with divine debt. And though their paths diverge, they come together again and again as if drawn to one another by magnet.

Omg, this brought a new face to the horror genre! Yes it’s filled with guts and blood but the plot was AMAZING! I was hesitant to read this book at first. I mean look at that COVER!!! Yes it scared the crapola out of me and had me awake through the night with nightmares but it also had me turning pages as fast as possible needing to know how things turned out! Rafael Chandler truly created a work of art when he wrote Mask Beneath Her Face. If you love a good slasher film and something so intense that has you on the edge of your seat, than look no further than this incredible book. This is a fantastic story that is surely not to be missed and I am so thankful to Shannon @ Reads & Reels Blog Tours and Rafael Chandler for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review! I appreciate this opportunity and all views and opinions expressed are my own. Back to the Book! This book had great characters and a killer fast plot!(Like how I did that?) Also you will be blown away by blood splatter, revenge, gore and an AMAZING ending that will have you begging for more! I highly recommend this horrific gem to anyone who likes the horror or thriller genre! It’s definitely a fast paced thriller worth your time and money!!! You can find my review @ https://touchmyspinebookreviews.com/2018/03/08/reads-reels-book-review-mask-beneath-her-face/

REVIEW: 16 Ways to Break a Heart by Lauren Strasnick

Release Date: July 25, 2017

Age Group: 16+

Genres: Romance, Contemporary

Rating: 1/5 Stars

Original review on Goodreads here. (To view points marked as “view spoiler” go to my original review on Goodreads)

Be warned: This is a rant review and IT IS LONG. I haven’t posted a full review on here in a long time, but it’s late and I wanted to share. There MIGHT be spoilers, I honestly didn’t care too much because this book is just UGH. Okay, happy reading!

I received a copy via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

This book is a disaster.

That's probably the best way to describe WTF I just read (okay, speed read because I couldn't, for my sanity, take my time to read the ridiculousness of this book). I even made notes because I was just so confused while reading this that I needed to keep my thoughts straight. 

Everything in this book was toxic. I literally asked myself multiple times why I was still reading this book because all of the characters were just so unnecessary and (view spoiler). I get that not all characters are made to be likable, but this isn't even about that. These were just characters who were just given so much leniency and they were just horrible characters. They weren't even the kind of characters you love to hate. I just can't with these characters. 

I will include snippets of the synopsis because I don't think anyone will ever really be ready for the disaster they will encounter when they read this book. 

Here's the first paragraph of the synopsis:

Natalie and Dan were electric from the moment they met. Witty banter and sizzling chemistry made falling in love easy—even inevitable. He was in awe of her subversive art and contagious zest for life; she was drawn to his good-guy charm and drive to succeed as a documentary filmmaker.

Yes, the start of the book is a letter from Natalie detailing their encounter and how there was immediate chemistry--but there's also an attempt in the first letter at alluding how Dan, the male protagonist, is a manipulative asshole that completely hid his true self when they first met. I will touch on that later in this review. What this paragraph doesn't allude to is how Dan's jealousy becomes a big issue with Natalie's "success", and how she basically thinks he's wasting his time with his documentary because he's spending so much time working on something that's important to him, instead of spending time with her. Because you know, someone else future dream? Fuck that, right? 

Second paragraph:

But that was before. Before hot tempers turned to blowout fights. Before a few little lies turned to broken trust. Before a hundred tiny slights broke them open and exposed the ugly truth of their relationship.

OKAY. Hot tempers. HA. Whoever created this synopsis failed to mention the mild physical and verbal abuse, the slut shaming, the manipulation, the triggering comments of wanting to "commit suicide" introduced as jokes. Shit is not funny. I find it really freaking troubling that this is such a huge part of the novel and its alluded to as "hot tempers" and "blowout fights". Also, "Tiny Slights" is like putting a kid's superhero bandaid on a bleeding gash. These two people were HORRIBLE together and look, if the synopsis explained it as more than just a little troubled relationship, then maybe I'd be writing a different review, but honestly, WTF.

Rest of synopsis: 

And now Natalie wants Dan to know just how much he broke her.

Over the course of one fateful day, Dan reads sixteen letters that Natalie has secretly, brilliantly hidden in places only he will find. And as he pieces together her version of their love story, he realizes that she has one final message for him. One that might just send his carefully constructed life tumbling down.

Okay, for starters, this was not a "LOVE STORY". This was a nightmare that was attempting to pass as a romance. 

This synopsis makes it seem like this book had a female character who was SO clever about her delivery of her revenge, which by the way was(view spoiler), but really it was her literally dropping off letters throughout his school and life. Honestly, I thought Natalie was fucking nuts and I'm sorry, I don't mean to be offensive or anything, but seriously fuck these characters. The last sentence of that synopsis says that she has a message that "might just send his carefully constructed life tumbling down." SURPRISE: She spent the whole fucking book ruining his life. She destroyed a guy that actually did sound legitimately good.

Look, Dan wasn't a saint by the end of everything. But one of the things that really, really screwed with my mind was how this girl was a legit nightmare. She was controlling, manipulative, and abusive and basically got Dan to put her as number one in his life despite of who and what he was giving up, yet when he starts to do other less than boyfriend-ly things on the side, suddenly he's the villain of the story. I might be wrong here, but it dangerously felt like the character of Natalie going through what she was describing as a horrible relationship because he wasn't who she thought he was was being validated for her actions because Dan almost (view spoiler). 

Dan had his shit, too. His jealousy about Natalie's life wasn't fair, and he also said and did questionable things, I just don't want Natalie's actions to be pushed aside because suddenly he's not a saint in our eyes anymore. Abuse and manipulation CAN NOT be justified just because the victim decides to do other shady stuff. One is not a lesser issue than the other. At the same time, I'm not defending Dan because he was also a massive asshole. 

One of my final points is going to be about the layout of this book. I get what was being done with the letters and the messages and such, but like it felt like it was trying too hard to be either Thirteen Reasons Why or Why We Broke Up. I haven't read the former (but watched the TV Show) and hated the latter. I just wanted to throw the similarities in there because it felt like Natalie's letters were just so over the top dramatic and just really really annoying. 

I'll leave this rant on the note that the ending is 10/10 dramatic and 10/10 unnecessary and just as messed up as this relationship. Also, wtf was up with that one final reveal? Like, not only was it cliche but we had absolutely NO LEAD UP TO IT. I wish I had a physical copy of this book so I could pull a Bradley Cooper.

I don't recommend this book for anyone, sorry. I don't normally say this, but I legitimately did not enjoy this at all and I was just so shocked that this was even a thing.