Bark At The Ghouls

I saw my good friend Jen mention this tag on her blog Book Den and decided to give it a go. I don't know where it originated and I also don't know how to tag people on my blog so if you're reading this, please consider yourself tagged and let me know in the comments if you decide to do this so I can go creep on your posts. Best Book You've Read So Far This Year  Moth by Lily Mayne   I read a LOT of horror but this sweet, sexy monster/man romance was such a lovely diversion. Best Sequel You've Read So Far This Year  Barbarian Alen by Ruby Dixon The first book had a lot of unpleasant trauma in it but this one left that behind to focus on the romance. I need to read the rest of these soonish. New Release You Haven't Read Yet, But Want To Berries and Greed by Lily Mayne This is a brand-new monster romcom series from Lily Mayne and I am so excited! Most Anticipated Release for the 2nd Half of 2023 Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison I always like Rachel Harrison's bo...

This one is for all of you sci-fi horror fans!  The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown Released April 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads  | Amazon Ness Brown's The Scourge Between Stars is a tense, claustrophobic sci-fi/horror blend set aboard a doomed generation ship harboring something terrible within its walls. As acting captain of the starship Calypso, Jacklyn Albright is responsible for keeping the last of humanity alive as they limp back to Earth from their forebears’ failed colony on a distant planet. Faced with constant threats of starvation and destruction in the treacherous minefield of interstellar space, Jacklyn's crew has reached their breaking point. As unrest begins to spread throughout the ship’s Wards, a new threat emerges, picking off crew members in grim, bloody fashion. Jacklyn and her team must hunt down the ship’s unknown intruder if they have any hope of making it back to their solar system alive. My 2 Cents for Free! The Scourge ...

This was difficult on audio. Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom Released November 2022 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads   | Amazon In a debut novel as radiant as it is caustic, a former influencer confronts her past—and takes inventory of the damages that underpin the surface-glamour of social media. At 19, she was an Instagram celebrity. Now, at 35, she works behind the cosmetic counter at the “black and white store,” peddling anti-aging products to women seeking physical and spiritual transformation. She too is seeking rebirth. She’s about to undergo the high-risk, elective surgery Aesthetica™, a procedure will reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, returning her, she hopes, to a truer self. Provided she survives the knife. But on the eve of the surgery, her traumatic past resurfaces when she is asked to participate in the public takedown of her former manager/boyfriend, who has rebranded himself as a paragon of “woke” masculinity in the post-#MeToo world. With the hours tic...

  Recent Mini Reviews Sometimes the less said the better. Or sometimes I'm just feeling lazy. Camp Scare  by  Delilah S. Dawson ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I had some trouble with The Violence by this writer (wrong book/wrong time) but I highly recommend Camp Scare to middle schoolers and to anyone that likes a creepy campground setting and stories about growing up as an outcast and standing up for yourself even when people refuse to believe you. It's about bullying, and mean girls and creepy goings-on and I could not stop listening. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune ⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is a warm tale of second changes after you've effed up your first. Hey, it happens. I enjoyed it so much. It's cozy, sweet, snarky, funny and also so very sad at times. It felt a little overlong on audio but that might just be me but I never felt the urge to quit because I needed to know how this ended for all of these people I'd become so invested in. Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dar...

This was a lovely romance. A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera Released May 2022 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon Paris, 1889 The Exposition Universelle is underway, drawing merchants from every corner of the globe. Luz Alana Heith-Benzan set sail from Santo Domingo armed with three hundred casks of rum, her two best friends and one simple rule: under no circumstances is she to fall in love. The City of Light is where Luz Alana will expand Caña Brava, the rum business her family built over three generations. It’s a mission that’s taken on new urgency after her father’s untimely death and the news that her trust fund won’t be released until she marries. But buyers and shippers alike are rude and dismissive; they can’t imagine doing business with a woman…never mind a woman of color. From her first tempestuous meeting with James Evanston Sinclair, Earl of Darnick, Luz Alana is conflicted. Why is this man—this titled Scottish man—so determined to help her? And wh...

I think I was too grumpy for this one. Sign Here by Claudia Lux Released October 2022 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads   | Amazon A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul. Peyote Trip has a pretty good gig in the deals department on the fifth floor of Hell. Sure, none of the pens work, the coffee machine has been out of order for a century, and the only drink on offer is Jägermeister, but Pey has a plan—and all he needs is one last member of the Harrison family to sell their soul. When the Harrisons retreat to the family lake house for the summer, with their daughter Mickey’s precocious new friend, Ruth, in tow, the opportunity Pey has waited a millennium for might finally be in his grasp. And with the help of his charismatic coworker Calamity, he sets a plan in motion. But things aren’...

This book some weird turns. Infamous by Lex Croucher Released July 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon 22-year-old aspiring writer Edith 'Eddie' Miller and her best friend Rose have always done everything together-climbing trees, throwing grapes at boys, sneaking bottles of wine, practicing kissing . . . But following their debutante ball Rose is suddenly talking about marriage, and Eddie is horrified. When Eddie meets charming, renowned poet Nash Nicholson, he invites her to his crumbling Gothic estate in the countryside. The entourage of eccentric artists indulging in pure hedonism is exactly what Eddie needs in order to forget Rose and finish her novel. But Eddie might discover the world of famous literary icons isn't all poems and pleasure . . . My 2 Cents for Free! Infamous is set in the Regency period and is a story about emotional growth, learning some very hard lessons, and discovering what (and finally who!) is truly important in lif...

    It's been so cold and rainy here but it's not so bad when you have books to catch up on, right?  Recent Reads & Listens  It's been a bit since I blogged regularly enough to do one of these. So I'll just go back a week or two instead of going back to January 😅 Clicking on a cover will open a new window to my review. Additions to the TBR NONE! I know, I can't believe it either. I'm on a no-buy ban for a bit so unless I get a surprise ARC in the mail, this space will remain depressingly empty. I'm also trying to get more use out of my KU subscription before I weigh giving it up since they've decided to up the price.  Recent Watches We just finished Season One of Sweet Tooth on Netflix. It's an apocalypse story and I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch it because we're kind of living in one (or at least it feels that way most of the time) but it has a good heart and I really enjoyed it. This was a fun Scream installment. I'd give it  ⭐ ...

It started out strong but lost me for a bit. The Corpse Queen by Heather M. Herrman Released September 2021 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon In this dark and twisty feminist historical thriller, a teenage girl starts a new life as a grave robber but quickly becomes entangled in a murderer's plans. Soon after her best friend Kitty mysteriously dies, orphaned seventeen-year-old Molly Green is sent away to live with her "aunt." With no relations that she knows of, Molly assumes she has been sold as free domestic labor for the price of an extra donation in the church orphanage's coffers. Such a thing is not unheard of. There are only so many options for an unmarried girl in 1850s Philadelphia. Only, when Molly arrives, she discovers her aunt is very much real, exceedingly wealthy, and with secrets of her own. Secrets and wealth she intends to share--for a price. Molly's estranged aunt Ava, has built her empire by robbing graves and selling the corpses to me...