New Book Releases – 30 May 2023

Hola, Book Dragons, new book releases today!

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Threads That Bind #1 – Threads That Bind – Kika Hatzopoulou
Blurb:
In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, a descendant of the Greek Fates must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city.
Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante.
But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. To find the culprit, she must work alongside Edei Rhuna, the right hand of the infamous Mob Queen—and the boy with whom she shares a rare fate-thread linking them as soul mates before they’ve even met.
But the investigation turns personal when Io’s estranged oldest sister turns up on the arm of her best suspect. Amid unveiled secrets from her past and her growing feelings for Edei, Io must follow clues through the city’s darkest corners and unearth a conspiracy that involves some of the city’s most powerful players—before destruction comes to her own doorstep.

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What about you guys? Any new releases you’re anticipating today?

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

New Book Releases – 23 May 2023

Hola, Book Dragons, a new book release from one of my favorite authors today. Happy Book Birthday to IDENTITY by Nora Roberts.

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Identity – Nora Roberts
Blurb:
A new thriller about one man’s ice-cold malice, and one woman’s fight to reclaim her life.
Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan’s job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who’d been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.
Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. “Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.
What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn’t his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan’s nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother’s home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn’t flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn’t forgotten the one who got away.

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You can find my review here:

e-ARC Review: Identity – Nora Roberts

What about you guys? Any new releases you’re anticipating today?

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

e-ARC Review: Identity – Nora Roberts

Rating: 4/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers, Romance

Publication Date: May 23, 2023

Review:

You think you have your whole life planned, you work hard on your goals, doing the best you can, projecting when you’ll have “made it”. Then life hits you with a horrible blow and all those careful plans, that well-aligned path you set for yourself—all gone and you’re left with nothing.

Morgan learns this terrible lesson when her identity is stolen by the man she’d just started seeing and he steals everything she has, including the life of her closest friend. Grieving, broken, it takes all her strength and courage to remake herself.

I loved the main and side characters a lot—Morgan’s mom and grandmother, the Jameson clan. I enjoyed all the interactions and the romance had a sweetness that was endearing. The story was well-paced and the plot was a good one too. The values and women’s power in this story were my favorite part, and I’m looking forward to re-reading it again in the future.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

Blurb:
A new thriller about one man’s ice-cold malice, and one woman’s fight to reclaim her life.
Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan’s job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who’d been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.
Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. “Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.
What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn’t his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan’s nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother’s home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn’t flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn’t forgotten the one who got away.

 

F Is For Friday – 19 May 2023

Hola, Book Dragons! How are you guys doing? Long weekend ahead for me. We get Monday off, yay! Hoping t0 get some reading done.

Well, how goes your Friday? Cozied up at home with an awesome book or just started on a movie marathon? Second option for me. I’m watching the MI movies. Tom Cruise looks so young in the first one!

F – Feature your latest book obsession (it doesn’t have to be your current read)

How cool is this cover! It comes out on Aug 29!

e-ARC Review: Yellowface – R.F. Kuang

Rating: 4/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Literary Fiction, Mystery Thriller

Publication Date: May 16, 2023

Review:

This was my first experience reading a book by R.F. Kuang and let me tell you, the writing was excellent! Engaging, intriguing, with that spark that keeps you hooked in from the first page. I enjoyed the writing a lot, so much that I read Yellowface in one sitting. That’s how good the writing was.

The main character was so mired in her exaggerated sense of self-importance that she’d built this whole reality where she was the victim. I kept reading to see just how far she’d go and how she’d rationalize to herself every awful thing she did. It was like watching a Final Destination movie. You know it’s going to get horrible but you’re hooked and you can’t stop watching, i.e. reading in this case. And that ending? Yet another twist.

I think it took a lot of courage to write and publish this story. Kudos to the author. It’s made me an instant fan and I cannot wait to read R.F. Kuang’s other books.

Thanks to HarperCollins Canada for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

Blurb:
What’s the harm in a pseudonym? New York Times bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American–in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R. F. Kuang.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

 

Music Monday – 15 May 2023 – Nightlight – Annika Wells & Illenium

Hola, Music Dragons, I’ve finally found a new favorite song. Hope you like it.

Oh, and it goes without saying, Mondays should be part of the weekend. Enjoy the song!

Music Monday is hosted by Drew @ The Tattooed Book Geek. Be sure to check out his awesome blog.

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

New Book Releases – 16 May 2023

Hola, Book Dragons, new book releases today!

The True Love Experiment – Christina Lauren
Blurb:
Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.
Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.
Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?
Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.
The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.

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Yellowface – R.F. Kuang
Blurb:
What’s the harm in a pseudonym? New York Times bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American–in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R. F. Kuang.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

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Fake Dates and Mooncakes – Sher Lee
Blurb:
Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.
Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.
Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.
In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems.
Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

What about you guys? Any new releases you’re anticipating today?

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

F Is For Friday – 12 May 2023

Hola, Book Dragons! It’s been a while since I’ve done this post. How is your Friday going? This week has been a mess, just glad it’s over.

What’s everyone reading?

F – Feature your latest book obsession (it doesn’t have to be your current read)

OMG how cool is this cover! I love it!

Music Monday – 08 May 2023 – There’s Fear of Letting Go – I Prevail (short accoustic)

Hola, Music Dragons, can you believe that when I wanted to do this post yesterday, I just couldn’t decide on any of my favorite songs? Which means that I really need some new favorite songs, otherwise I’d be like a broken record playing the same song over and over again.

Well… how about, the same song but sung in an entirely different, goose-bumpier version than the original one? (And yes goose-bumpier can be an actual word when it fits in my sentence).

I love I Prevail. Their songs are so deep, they hit right where it hurts the most. They always make me feel every emotion. I can’t find enough words to share just how meaningful their songs are.

One of my favorites of theirs There’s Fear of Letting Go. I went on Instagram today and guess what, I Prevail just did a short, acoustic version of it and OMG, it’s so powerful, I was stunned. I love it and hope ya’all enjoy it as much as I did.

Music Monday is hosted by Drew @ The Tattooed Book Geek. Be sure to check out his awesome blog.

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn

e-ARC Review: The Firefly Summer – Morgan Matson

Rating: 4/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Middle-Grade, Mystery, Adventure, Family

Publication Date: May 02, 2023

Review:

One summer that becomes your defining moment and changes everything you know about yourself and the world around you. Ryanna finds that out when she gets an invite from her maternal grandparents, whom she knew nothing about, to spend her summer at their old summer camp. Ryanna agrees, determined to find out why her grandparents and her dad stopped talking after her mother’s death.

This was such a feel-good story, centered on family, with a wonderful cast of characters who tug at your heartstrings and make you laugh out loud at the same time. One of the genres I’ve always enjoyed is middle grade and this type of story is the reason why. The characters were authentic and delightful, flaws and all.

The plot was engaging and interesting, with a little mystery sprinkled in and I credit all that to the author’s excellent writing. The words were a pleasure to read and I enjoyed this little gem a lot. This was my first book by Morgan Matson and I can’t wait to try her other books!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stay tuned.

∼Lyn 

Blurb:
The Penderwicks meets The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street in a story about a young girl who gets to know her mom’s side of the family and hunts for hidden treasure over the course of one chaotic summer.
For as long as Ryanna Stuart can remember, her summers have been spent with her father and his new wife. Just the three of them, structured, planned, and quiet. But this summer is different. This summer, she’s received a letter from her grandparents—grandparents neither she nor her dad have spoken to since her mom’s death—inviting her to stay with them at an old summer camp in the Poconos.
Ryanna accepts. She wants to learn about her mom. She wants to uncover the mystery of why her father hasn’t spoken to her grandparents all these years. She’s even looking forward to a quiet summer by the lake. But what she finds are relatives… so many relatives! Aunts and uncles and cousins upon cousins—a motley, rambunctious crew of kids and eccentric, unconventional adults. People who have memories of her mom from when she was Ryanna’s age, clues to her past like a treasure map. Ryanna even finds an actual, real-life treasure map!
Over the course of one unforgettable summer—filled with s’mores and swimming, adventure and fun, and even a decades-old mystery to solve—Ryanna discovers a whole new side of herself and that, sometimes, the last place you expected to be is the place where you really belong.