Feed Your TBR - These Vengeful Wishes

 

Can't Wait Wednesday, which I have adapted to better suit my blog as "Feed Your TBR" 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.

February 4, 2025

FROM GOODREADS: A teen girl moves to a small town and discovers a mysterious wishing well possessed by La Cegua, a vengeful female spirit with the face of a horse skull, in Vanessa Montalban’s new YA fantasy standalone.

When her stepfather is arrested, aspiring artist Ceci moves back to her mother’s hometown of Santa Aguas, an eccentric small town steeped in the legend of La Cegua, the specter of a wronged witch who appears on lonely roads at night, luring untrustworthy men to their deaths.

Ceci and her mother take up residence in the abandoned manor of the Sevilla family, rumored to have been cursed by La Cegua, where she begins to uncover a past that seems to be connected to her mother. The more she learns of the Sevillas, the more Ceci finds herself forming a strange affinity with the feared Cegua, who she suspects is the one inspiring her paintings of a mysterious door in the forest.

When the very door Ceci has been painting appears in the woods, she decides to venture through it with her new friend, Jamie. Together, they discover a well, guarded by the statue of a veiled woman. A well for granting wishes. The well of La Cegua.

What starts off as harmless fun quickly escalates into something sinister when Ceci realizes that the wishes are putting the people she loves in danger and testing her own penchant for vengeance. After learning others are also searching for the well, Ceci must confront the truth of her mother’s past and prevent La Cegua’s wishes from being used for the wrong reasons. Ceci knows too well how much people will sacrifice for power. Every wish has its price, and La Cegua never forgets the ones who have wronged her.

WHY I CAN'T WAIT:  If I pick up a YA book nowadays, it is usually horror, and this is one I can't wait for.  I love the cover and can't wait to learn more about La Cequa.  I do feel the synopsis is a tad too long though.

WHAT BOOK CAN'T YOU WAIT FOR THIS WEEK???

The Missing Body Blog Tour

 

TITLE: The Missing Person

AUTHOR: Kerry Wilkinson

PUBLISHER: Bookouture

PUBLISHING DATE: July 12, 2024

PAGES: 331   

SOURCE: ARC

FROM GOODREADS: I ran to get help. But her body disappeared. Will anyone believe me? 

Megan is unpacking in the spare room of her sister’s house when she hears the scream. 

Racing to the nearby woods, she is shocked to see a young woman’s unconscious her pink top bright against the earth, her long, dark hair wet from a nearby stream. But when desperate Megan returns with the police, all they find is empty woodland.

She’s been through so much, her sister whispers, welcoming her home with a kind smile. You can’t blame her for seeing things.

But Megan knows what she saw – and her past shouldn’t come into it. Was the young woman dead, or dying? How can a body just disappear? 

Megan left home for a good reason. Now, confronting the past could be the only way to find the truth. But what if Megan is in danger, too? And what price will she have to pay, to find the girl from the woods? 

An absolutely gripping mystery thriller that will make you question who to trust and have you racing through the pages. Perfect for fans of Mark Edwards, Claire Douglas and T. M. Logan.

MY THOUGHTS: While The Missing Person is a thriller, it is definitely a slow-paced one which has a lot going on - sometimes too much.

Megan has left her home and her husband and moved into her sister's attic.  The reader is aware there is a good reason Megan left, but it isn't until the middle of the book that we learn why.  She is there a few days and when she hears a scream from the woods behind the house.  She heads out to look and finds a woman floating in a stream.  She is able to pull her to the bank and offer assistance, but she is too late.  She runs back to call the police but when they return the body is gone.  Megan's sister and the police lead Megan to believe she imagined the whole thing.  And Megan herself might even be convinced if so many other things were so weird such as a tooth she later finds at the crime scene, the secrets her sister and her husband Ben seem to be whispering about when no one is looking, Megan's new business venture despite being thousands of dollars in depth and the kitchen staff working in a locked room at her sister's cafe which Megan has been told to never enter.

Like I said, there is a lot going on in the book and at times I wished the action would pick up a bit.  Yet saying that, every time I put the book down, I would quickly pick it up again saying "Just one more chapter" because I REALLY wanted to know what was going on.  The ending was very satisfying and the way everything wrapped up was done more quickly than anything else in the book. I was cheering for Megan to prove to everyone she wasn't unstable and enjoyed her relationship with her estranged father growing as everything else fell apart.

I have not read from this author before, but if the subject matter piques my interest, I will definitely pick up another book by them again. If you like slower-paced thrillers with lots of mystery elements, then you might just enjoy this one!

MY RATING: 3 PAWS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.

He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.

https://kerrywilkinson.com/
https://www.facebook.com/KerryWilkinsonBooks/
https://twitter.com/kerrywk

June Wrap Up

 

Well, better late than never.  Seems July has gotten away from me, with vacation, a work project and a few renovations around the house.  I am desperately behind on reviews but hope to catch up soon.  In the meantime, it's about time I shared what I read in June.  I would say the theme of the month was "4 paw reads" because that's the majority of the ratings.  

An Enchanting Case of Spirits 

The Presence (Harrison Investigations #2)

Life's Too Short

Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet

We Used to Live Here

Secrets in the Dark (Blackbird Trilogy #2)

White Trash Zombie Unchained (WTZ #6)

Pardon My Frenchie

Dark Things Crawl Out

Nosy Neighbors

Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1)

My biggest surprise was Nosy Neighbors, and I can't recommend it enough.  I loved reading about Darius Rucker so that was a fave as well.  My biggest disappointment has to be We Used to Live Here.  I think it's one of those books you are either gonna love or find "meh."

Some Houses You Just Don't Enter

 

TITLE: Still, Dark Places

AUTHOR: Christina Graves

PUBLISHER: Horrorsmith Publishing

PUBLISHING DATE: June 25, 2024

PAGES: 292   

SOURCE: ARC

FROM GOODREADS: Young girls are going missing in Still Water. And the new sheriff, like his predecessor, is convinced they're only runaways trying to escape the confines of strict parents, stifling religious practices, and physical abuse. 

And why shouldn't the public believe them? After all, Nora Gray did the exact same thing. 

Nora now runs a well-known podcast that helps solve cold cases, and she's being called back to Still Water to help bring attention to one of the missing girls. 

But what she discovers puts both Nora and her co-worker, Rhys, in danger. Nora finds out that every ghost story has a shred of truth in it, and the dead don't keep secrets. 

But will she and Rhys find out what happened to the missing girls, and can they make it out of Still Water alive?

MY THOUGHTS: If you are looking for an immersive horror book to lose yourself into for a day or two, look no further because do I have a book for you!

Nora and Rhys are podcasters who specialize in cold cases.  Rhys suspects that Nora has experienced things in her life which have led to fascination, but he has no idea how deep her trauma runs when a call comes into the show from a lady asking Nora for help and telling her she knows her true identity.

When Nora was young, her sister was one of seven kids who disappeared from Still Water.  The disappearances were never solved, and not only did Nora's family fall apart as a result of her sister going missing, Nora's father, the local sheriff, then became obsessed with the case with led to a huge family estrangement.  Nora has limited memories of what happened but has always thought she should know more than what she recalls.  So, when another girl goes missing after all these years, Nora, Rhys and Rhys' girlfriend return to Still Waters to try to figure out if the disappearances are connected and to learn what happened so many years ago.

Graves does a wonderful job of creating a very spooky, atmospheric tale.  Nora is suffering a lot of mental health issues due to her childhood trauma and while I didn't find her extremely likable, I did become invested in her backstory and seeing her finally overcome her past experiences.  I never bought into the whole Nora/Rhys relationship, which is already over when the book actually starts, and later find out I was correct in questioning THAT connection.  There is a very creepy, desolate house in this tale and a lot of religious horror which shows how extreme some people will act to support their beliefs, whether right or wrong.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat and had some twists and turns I never saw coming.  It was a great vacation read and as I mentioned, I basically read it in under 24 hours.  I find that sometimes, shorter horror works better for me and that was definitely the case with this one.  Graves has already announced a new thriller book on the horizon, and I am very interested in seeing what else she comes up with next.  Bring on the next one!

MY RATING: 4 PAWS

Feed Your TBR - I Got Abducted by Aliens...

 

Can't Wait Wednesday, which I have adapted to better suit my blog as "Feed Your TBR" 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.

FEBRUARY 18, 2025

FROM GOODREADS:  Dorothy Valentine is close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she’s attacked by a lion. On the bright side, she’s saved! On the not-so-bright side, it’s because they’re abducted by aliens. In her scramble to escape, Dory and the lion commandeer an escape pod and crash-land on an alien planet that has...dinosaurs?

Dory and her new lion bestie, Toto, are saved in the nick of time by a mysterious and sexy alien, Sol. On their new adventure, they team up with the equally hot, equally dangerous Lok, who may or may not be a war criminal. Whether it be trauma, fate, or intrigue, Dory can’t resist the attraction that’s developing in their trio....

As this ragtag group of misfits explore their new planet, Dory learns more about how and why they’ve all ended up together, battles more prehistoric creatures than she imagined (she imagined...zero), and questions if she even wants to go back home to Earth in this hilarious and steamy alien romance adventure comedy romp.

WHY I CAN'T WAIT: I devoured the Mead Mishap series this year and both related short stories.  Yes, this author's books are odd and a tad spicy, but they have all been so much fun to read. 

WHAT BOOK CAN'T YOU WAIT FOR THIS WEEK???

2 Bloggers 1 Series - The Presence (Harrison Investigations #2)

 

This month Stormi and I decided it was time to pick up another book in the Harrison Investigations series.  The first one was decent, but the male protagonist drove me crazy.  Read on to see if this one fared better and then hop over to Stormi's at Storm Reads and see what she thought.

 

TITLE: The Presence (Harrison Investigations #2)

AUTHOR: Heather Graham

PUBLISHER: Mira

PUBLISHING DATE: August 25, 2004

PAGES: 422   

SOURCE: Library

FROM GOODREADS: The ultimate moneymaking plan—buy the ancient, run-down Scottish castle and turn it into a tourist destination. Toni Fraser and her friends will put on reenactments combining fact and fiction, local history, murder and an imaginary laird named Bruce MacNiall. 

Just as someone arrives, claiming to actually be Laird MacNiall—a tall, dark, formidable Scot somehow familiar to Toni—the bodies of young women are found, dumped and forgotten in the nearby town. 

But even stranger, how is it possible this laird exists? Toni invented Bruce MacNiall for the performance…yet sinister, lifelike dreams suggest he's connected to the recent deaths. Bruce claims he wants to help catch the murderer. But even if she wants to, can Toni trust him…when her visions seem to be coming from within the very eyes of the killer himself?

MY THOUGHTS: I have to say that as much as the main male in the first book irritated me, I was worried about the character of Bruce MacNiall.  And while he may have started off kind of rocky, it wasn't long before I ended up loving him.  In fact, I liked him a lot better than the female MC, Toni, who I felt made a lot of stupid decisions and was downright bitchy at times.

Toni, her cousin and some friends from the US have rented a Scottish Castle and are doing historical reenactments for tourists.  They believe they have a legitimate contract until the owner, laird Bruce MacNiall, shows up and orders them to leave. Over the past year of so they have also been two dead women found on the woods of the property and McNiall fears allowing the Americans to stay may put them at risk. Toni and her friends convince laird MacNiall to allow them to stay while they figure out the contract scam.  To further complicate things, Toni keeps having visions of a historical laird MacNiall who allegedly killed his wife, standing at the bottom of her bed with a sword dripping blood.  

Now that I'm writing this review, it does seem like there was a lot going on in this book.  However, Graham pulls it together quite well and it was an enjoyable read.  I will say the author works extra hard to steer the reader toward the wrong perpetrator making it obvious it certainly can't be him.  However, the mystery element of the book wrapped up nicely and it was fun to see the tension between Toni and Bruce turn into something else.  Also, I will add I feel that Adam Harrison, the founder of the Krewe of Hunters, did take a long time to appear in this book and I was starting to wonder if he would show at all.

This book was definitely better than the first and I am looking forward to the third one.  Don't know when we will get to it as we have quite a few series reads going right now but the good thing about them is when we decide we want to move forward, all of the Harrison Investigation series is complete.

MY RATING: 4 PAWS

Farm News - July 1, 2024

 

It's been a while since the last news update but as usual, summer has been pretty hot and busy.  Mr. Barb and I had a five-day weekend which started June 19th, but I spent four of those five days repainting and redecorating the bathroom. Our home is 124 years old and doesn't have central air so there is no AC in the bathroom and as the heat index was over 98 on most of those days, I could only work a few hours before being totally exhausted.  Most of it is done now just waiting for a few things we ordered to come in and put on the finishing touches.

We are also on our annual 4th of July staycation right now.  We aren't doing anything spectacular except hanging out with the pups, doing a few more things around the home, and chilling.  I've managed to finish two books on my first two days off so I'm hoping that trend can continue.  I also need to get my haircut if my stylist can work me in.  It's been a while and I need about six inches taken off.

We watched two really good movies over the weekend.  First up was Furiosa, the latest in the Mad Max saga.  I really enjoyed it and if you like action movies or any of the previous Mad Max ones, then you don't want to miss this one.  We also watched The Watchers.  I wanted to read the book first but that wasn't happening.  However, I'm glad we jumped in because it was a great Saturday night scary feature.  I highly recommend it.

The pups are doing fine.  Apollo went to the vet and the vet wants to monitor his lump on his leg a while. It's sitting right on a major vein and his vet says if it doesn't grow and it stays soft, then he's not too worried. He and Zekey are enjoying their summer, but it's been so hot they haven't been able to walk too much

A fresh month means fresh new reads and I have a lot planned this month.  Here's what I think is up first this month.  I'd love to get all three of these read before heading back to work on July 8th but that's probably wishful thinking.  

Fool Moon (The Dresden Files #2) - Jim Butcher
A Novel Love Story - Ashley Posten
Still, Dark Places - Christina Graves

I also received a few ARCs which I'm thrilled about and appreciate more than I can express.

The Book of Witching - C.J. Cooke
The Visitor - Kevin Bachar
An Academy for Liars - Alexis Henderson
Influencer - Adam Cesare
Pretty Dead Things - Lilian West
Memorials - Richard Chizmar

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy summer.  Have you read any of these books already?  If so, where should I start?