Hallowtween Read-a-thon!

So my bestie Stormi is hosting a month-long Hallowtween read-a-thon over on her YouTube channel which runs the entire month of October and focuses on Middle Grade reads.  Of course, I'm using this as a great excuse to read some Goosebumps books.  I missed out on them as a kid and feel like they are something younger me would have loved so I want to pick up a few in October.  I am linking Stormi's announcement post HERE.

Below you will find the board and the prompts along with what I plan on reading to obtain my Bingo!

 

• I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost - Book featuring a ghost.

• Read a book with red on the cover - Doesn’t matter how much red.

• Monster mash/Halloween - A book featuring any kind of monster or set at halloween.

• What’s that coming out of the sky - Book with Alien.

• Book with black on the Cover - Doesn’t matter how much black.

• Scooby Doo where are you? - A friend group.

• Spooky cover - You determine the level of spooky.

• Book with orange on the cover - Doesn’t matter how much orange.

• Haunted house or object - Choose between a haunted house or maybe a haunted object or both! 

So I'm going with Spooky Cover, Black on the Cover and Monster Mash.

Feed Your TBR

Can't Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings to spotlight highly anticipated books.  It is based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme which used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

FROM GOODREADS: Rory Morris isn't thrilled to be moving back to her hometown, even if it is temporary. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant, estranged from the baby's father, and needs support, so Rory returns to the place she thought she'd put in her rearview. After a night out at a bar where she runs into an old almost-flame, she hits a large animal with her car. And when she gets out to investigate, she's attacked.

Rory survives, miraculously, but life begins to look and feel different. She's unnaturally strong, with an aversion to silver--and suddenly the moon has her in its thrall. She's changing into someone else--something else, maybe even a monster. But does that mean she's putting those close to her in danger? Or is embracing the wildness inside of her the key to acceptance?

This darkly comedic love story is a brilliantly layered portrait of trauma, rage, and vulnerability.

WHY I CAN'T WAIT:: I read Cackle last year and really enjoyed it and can't wait to see what the author does with werewolves.  I really feel like I am reentering my paranormal phase and am anxious to read all things vampire and werewolf related.  Plus, I'm not gonna lie - look at that cover!

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU WAITING FOR???

Farm News - 09-12-22

 

WHAT I'M DOING: 

Basically just working and playing peacemaker.  All and all it was a good week.  I still haven't felt 100% since having Covid but I don't feel badly enough to say I'm actually still sick.  I know that probably makes no sense right?  

Yesterday my Mom and I went to the local Sternwheel Festival.  Noting like festival food right?  It was nice to walk along the river and look at all the sternwheelers but I won't lie, I'm not much of a crowd person anymore.  At least it was all outside.

WHAT I'M READING:

I finished two books and a graphic novel this past week.  I hope you saw my raving review of The Dead Romantics which is shaping up to be my favorite read of the month.  I really need to get busy on The Witching Hour so it will probably be my focus once I finish my current read.  I'm over half way through The Weight of Blood, which is looking to be either a 2 paw read or a 5 paw read.  That's how confused I am on my enjoyment level.  I also need to get to The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches before it's due back on Overdrive.

WHAT I'M WATCHING:

Football - lots and lots of football.  And my Alma Mater beat #8 ranked Notre Dame yesterday.  It was a complete upset and I'm loving it.  I always hate it when powerhouse schools put smaller institutions on their schedule as pretty much "gimme games."  Smaller schools take the games because they rely on the big payoff for doing it.  And I have to say, I can't really blame them.  But yesterday, Notre Dame paid 1.25 million dollars to have Marshall come into their house and hand it to them. 

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

My bestie Stormi had to move her blog this past week and since we get a lot of the same visitors, I told her I would make sure and share her new location.  Make sure you stop by and visit her at Storm Reads.

The Dead Romantics

 

TITLE: The Dead ROmantics

AUTHOR: Ashley Poston

PUBLISHER: Berkley

PUBLISHING DATE: June 28, 2022

PAGES: 368

SOURCE: Library

FROM GOODREADS: Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is. 

Romance is most certainly dead... but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

MY THOUGHTS: I feel like I can't gush enough about this book. Honestly, it completely have me Addams Family set in Stars Hollow vibes.  Florence is a ghost writer for a famous romance novelist.  She is about to miss a deadline because she can't finish the last book of her contract because thanks to a bad relationship, she doesn't believe in love or happy endings anymore.  She is suddenly called back home when her father dies and not only does she has to deal with ghosts from her past, but she also has to deal with a new one - her editor, who was very much alive the last time she saw him.

This book was such a wonderful read.  I really adored Florence, who has the ability to communicate with ghosts when they seek her out, and the rest of her quirky family.  While some might think this book could be a tad depressing due to key plot elements, I would say it's more a celebration of life and an testament that it truly takes all kinds of people to make the world go around.  And did I mention, the Mayor is a DOG!!!!!  I wish my Mayor was a dog - the city would be in much better shape probably.

I would love to go on and on about this book but don't want to ruin it.  If you enjoy romance novels, but are looking for something a little odd then The Dead Romantics is definitely for you.   It was the feel-good novel I needed when I wasn't aware I needed one.  

RATING: 5 PAWS

Feed Your TBR

 

Can't Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings to spotlight highly anticipated books.  It is based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme which used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

FROM GOODREADS: Heavy metal, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and the occasional beer at the White Horse have defined urban Indian Kari James’s life so far. But when her cousin Debby finds an old family bracelet that once belonged to Kari’s mother, it inadvertently calls up both her mother’s ghost and a monstrous entity, and her willful ignorance about her past is no longer sustainable…

Haunted by visions of her mother and hunted by this mysterious creature, Kari must search for what happened to her mother all those years ago. Her father, permanently disabled from a car crash, can’t help her. Her Auntie Squeaker seems to know something but isn’t eager to give it all up at once. Debby’s anxious to help, but her controlling husband keeps getting in the way. Kari’s journey toward a truth long denied by both her family and law enforcement forces her to confront her dysfunctional relationships, thoughts about a friend she lost in childhood, and her desire for the one thing she’s always wanted but could never have.

WHY I CAN'T WAIT:  I was pretty much sold from the first sentence in the synopsis.  However, I also love the idea of Indigenous horror.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU WAITING FOR THIS WEEK???

Vicious Creatures - Ashton Noone

 

TITLE: Vicious Creatures

AUTHOR: Ashton Noone

PUBLISHER: Scarlet

PUBLISHING DATE: August 2, 2022

PAGES: 312

SOURCE: Library

FROM GOODREADS: Ava Montgomery never wanted to return home. She fled Reachwood fourteen years ago after the discovery of Adam Albright’s body in the forest shattered her young life. But when a violent divorce sends her running back to her parents’ house with her troubled daughter Marjorie in tow, Ava discovers that not much has changed in the small Oregon town where she grew up.

It doesn’t take long for Ava to fall back in with her old crowd, most of whom stayed in town after high school. Each one of her childhood friends found fame and fortune after they graduated, including Victoria Gallagher—Ava’s high school best friend and ex-lover, now unhappily married to a wealthy husband from one of the founding families of Reachwood.

Meanwhile, Ava’s daughter becomes intrigued by the forest, fascinated by an urban legend about its secret power—and her curious questions bring Ava’s long-repressed memories of the traumatic events surrounding Adam’s death back to the fore. And then, when the body of a missing child is found in those same woods, that dark past begins to repeat itself.

After a knife is left on Ava’s doorstep and a threatening message appears on her front door, she wonders if her friends have something to do with the newest crime. They never told anyone how much they really know about what happened to Adam on the night he died; does one of them want to drive her out of Reachwood to keep that secret? As Marjorie becomes obsessed with the infamous murder, and old friendships and feuds reignite, Ava is drawn back into the forest to confront her own role in its violent history—before her daughter becomes its next prey. 

MY THOUGHTS:  I was really looking forward to this book and I have to admit,  it was probably 99% because of the cover.  I still love it and think it sets the tone for this Southern Gothic tale pretty good.  And while I did enjoy this book and am looking forward to more from this author, it was kind of a miss in some areas.

First of all, I found all of the characters pretty unlikable. I don't always have to like the characters I am reading about, and sometimes I admit the more despicable the better, but there were numerous times I wanted to smack Ava and Marjorie.  And don't even get me started on Ava's mother.  It's no wonder Ava is seriously lacking some basic living skills and support systems.  Ava is running from her past which is her normal go-to coping mechanism.  And her hometown, where she ends up landing, truly holds lots of secrets which were probably better left alone. I feel the above synopsis gives you more than enough additional information about what happens in the novel so I'll skip the details.

In the end, the mystery did kind of keep me guessing, but wasn't really that shocking.  I felt the conclusion was satisfying but rushed.  I did think Noone did a wonderful job creating a creepy atmosphere and an spooky urban legend surrounding Reachwood and its most prominent families.  However, I was left wanting more supernatural and less spoiled kid drama.

RATING: 3 paws

Farm News - 09-05-22 (I'm Back)

 

WHAT I'M DOING:

So basically, I'm back.  Or at least I'm hoping to be back.  I never meant to be away this long and you can thing my good friend Stormi for encouraging me to start back.  You might notice we still have been doing our buddy reads but that's about the only time I've touched the blog at all.  I have missed you guys though.

I'm still working the job I started right before I left.  I really love it and you can't beat working from home 95% of the time.  Howevher, most of the day is spent in front of the computer either typing, researching or reading so you can only imagine how hard it can be at the end of the day to open another computer back up.  I still read a lot though and lots of different genres so I figured I better start sharing some of my faves again.  I am hoping to post 2-3 times a week but we'll see how that goes.

WHAT I'M READING:

Speaking of reading.  I have been reading everything from horror, thrillers, cozy mysteries, some memoirs and even a book I affectionately call "Disney Smut" recently.  It's been kind of nice to read whatever I want with very little pressure,.  I also tend to read more than one book at a time now, or at least plan out my current reads in 3's so each week I would like to share what's on the upcoming reading agenda.

My hold on Dead Romantics came in this past week and I am anxious to see if it's something I enjoy.  Romance mixed with ghosts sounds right up my alley.  Stormi and I are doing a 2-month read of The Witching Hour for the spooky season. I read it years and years ago when I was in high school so we'll see if it still stands up.  Plus I'm really excited about the TV series coming out soon. And finally, I hope to pick up Home Sick Pilots Vol. 1.  Gotta love a horror graphic novel from time to time.

WHAT I'M WATCHING:

Sadly to say both Mr. Barb and I recently came down with Covid a week apart from each other.  I spent a lot of that time catching up on Season 6 of Riverdale.  If Covid didn't kill some brain cells, the latest season of Riverdale definitely did.  It's so far out there now and they all have superpowers and I was mega-confused for at least the first 6 episodes.  But seriously, I couldn't stop watching and can't wait for the next season.

We also watched Nope, which was good but not what I expected.  It was more sci-fi than horror and I wasn't really in the mood for sci-fi when we watched it.

And finally, it's football season again which means lots of college and pro watching and cheering on our favorite teams.

PUPDATE:

And last but not least, the pups are doing well.  Apollo is almost 3 and Cassius will be 9 in November.  It's hasn't been easy the past 9 months though.  Cass started exhibiting some aggressive behaviors which probably coincided with Apollo reaching the age of maturity (around 24-36 months) and exhibiting some dominating behaviors.  Cass would fly off without a moment's notice and sad to say, I've been bit in the left hand (all the way through) and on the cheek.  Mr. Barb was also had his left hand shredded pretty good a few weeks ago.  Needless to say, Apollo was recently neutered, we've made some modifications at home (baby gates and supervised visits only) and we are hopeful this will help.  But other than that, they are still spoiled rotten and the loves of our lives. 

If you made it this far, thanks for stopping by.  I'm so excited to be back in the blogging world and can't wait to start chatting with you again.