The Vampire Trap follows Dex and Ella as they try to lure in the vampires with Elle as bait. Elle is desperate to know how the vampires know her mother while Dex wants more knowledge on the “Allegiant” vampires. Meanwhile, Elle’s step-mother just becomes more and more awful. This chapter is far more action-packed than I expected. There are several plot twists and I loved seeing more of this world. These characters are witty and well-written. It is such a delight watching Elle go out with Dex and his friends. I would love to see more of Dex and his world. If you’re a fan of fantasy then I definitely recommend you give this a try. This is a unique twist on the Cinderella fairytale which I enjoyed immensely.
“The Memory Thief” is an urban fantasy Cinderella retelling. Set in a world full of fae, vampires and werewolves, “The Memory Thief” follows Elle, a human with the unique power to remove memories. Elle spends her days as a slave to her step-mother while her nights are spent removing memories in return for Essence. Essence is a substance that will allow Elle to purchase a wish in order to escape her vile step-mother. Elle’s plan is on track until she runs into a vampire who takes a sudden interest in her. When the vampire goes after Elle’s family, she has no choice but to fight back if she wants to keep her plans (and her Essence) a secret. This was an intriguing read that I devoured in one sitting (and then immediately started on the next part because I just COULD NOT STOP!). The world-building is amazing. The plot is intriguing and I love that Rachel Morgan has a series that includes vampires (I’ve been waiting for her to write vampires since her Creepy Hollow series ended). I cannot wait to read the next part of this serial.
Excuse me while I hide out in my pillow fort…forever
Last week Saturday, my family and I received news that my dad was turned down for a job.
It was pretty startling since it was made to seem as if the job was 100% certain. The company made travel plans and accommodation arrangements for him. Now they were saying they thought it over and did not actual require a manager.
I dealt with this in a very mature fashion. I went to my bed and stayed there for half an hour.
I felt numb and in shock. Did I read the signs wrong? Why would you talk about travel and accommodation plans if you are NOT hiring? What on Earth had happened?
Finally once I was done moping I decided to reorganise my vanity cupboard and sort out my scarves for winter. I told myself this was fine. Sure, my dad didn’t have a new job but he still had his current job.
I knew the company he worked at was closing but that was in a few months So he just had to look for something within the next two to three months. No biggie.
The Tuesday after this, the company my dad worked at, sent out their official communication that they were closed.
It was like a very cruel prank. This was the one thing I was depending on.
Here’s the thing. I come from a family of three. As in me, my mother and my father.
My mother is medically boarded and I am still in pretty early stages of my career. Basically my father’s the main earner in the house. (Also can I just say how pathetic my story sounds? Boohoo my dad has no job and my mother has Lupus. I could cringe just thinking about it).
If there is one thing my epic magazine failure (yes, going to an interview and deeming the industry as dying is definitely an epic failure in my books) taught me, it is that you should cry. Cry a river if you feel like it would make you feel better. But after that, build a bridge and get over it.
The parents and I sat down. Drew up a budget. Inside, a part of me died. There is one thing we did not address in our family budget. One unspoken but very critical rule.
The shopping would need to stop.
I love shopping. It makes me feel better. I have a stressful job and shopping is my way of fixing it. Could I really give it up? (Spoiler Alert: It is really looking like I can).
So we decided on who would cut out which spending and replace it with paying an account. All was good.
Then my dad’s side job as a driver fell through. At this point I feel like I’m living in my own “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. It is kind of amusing though. Anything that can go wrong is going wrong
So why am I sharing this?
At some point in the distant or not too distant future, I want to look back at this and say “hey remember that time your dad lost his job and you had to change your spending habits? You say you couldn’t but you did!”
Or even “remember that time everything was going wrong and it was so bad it was funny? It will just be nice to look back and say “I made it. Even when I thought I couldn’t.
There has been several times when I was like “nope, I can”t do this. I will not do this” but I got through it fine.
Like my final of year of college when the campus was on fire and I had to skip classes because my Criminology module clashed with English. Then there was that time I was convinced I would never get a job because I was scared to speak on the phone (hello, I now work in a call center).
You never really know what you can and can’t do until you have actually tried to do it.
I am very excited to be sharing an excerpt from Valerie Bowman’s latest “Playful Brides” series.
This series is one of my favourite historicals and I love seeing old characters pop up again and again.
Synopsis: A lady with a love potion. A Duke who takes it by mistake. Romance and mischief ensues when plans go awry in No Other Duke But You by Valerie Bowman. SINGLE LADY SEEKS DUKE Lady Delilah Montebank has her marital sights set on the Duke of Branville. There’s just one problem: he barely knows she exists. But no matter, she’s got a plan to win him over with her charm, her wit—and perhaps the love potion she has in her possession wouldn’t hurt her cause… Lord Thomas Hobbs, Duke of Huntley, thinks his best friend Delilah’s quest to become a duchess is ridiculous. He’s always said he’d rather give up all the brandy in London than commit to one person for life. Besides, he knows that Delilah’s love potion can’t possibly win over Branville…since she accidentally gave it to him instead. But perhaps this is the excuse he needs to show her he’s always loved her… Delilah can’t believe she gave the potion to the wrong duke. Then again, Delilah could do a lot worse than win the hand of her handsome best friend. Could it be that the right duke has been before her eyes all along?
Excerpt
Delilah glanced up and down the dim hallway. It was well past three in the morning, she was still dressed in the pink ball gown she’d worn to the party, and she clutched the small vial of Cupid’s Elixir in her sweaty, guilty palm. She pressed her back against the shadowed wall not far from the Duke of Branville’s bedchamber. She could do this. More importantly, she would do this. She’d come this far, hadn’t she? What did a little sneaking about in the middle of the night matter? She’d got detailed instructions to Branville’s room from Derek, who thankfully hadn’t asked any questions about why she wanted to know. According to him, the room was four doors to the right, just past the staircase on the third floor. The third floor was where all the bachelor gentlemen were sleeping. It would be a complete scandal if she was found lurking about alone at this time of night, but she’d waited until the household seemed quite asleep and then waited a bit longer for good measure. Anyone who saw her now would be skulking about themselves, which meant they would hardly be in a position to judge her. She briefly wondered if she’d run into Lavinia. It was not as if she was out to do anything particularly scandalous. It was more silly and frivolous than anything else. She’d simply die, however, if Branville woke up and asked her what she was doing sprinkling pixie water in his eyes. She’d already decided to pretend as if she were dreaming, thinking she was Puck in the play. Sleepwalking. That would make all the sense in the world. Wouldn’t it? She swallowed hard. Probably not, but she wasn’t about to let the fear of being caught stop her. Besides, all of her and Lucy’s matchmaking had turned into a colossal mess. If a spray of perfume could sort it out, so be it. Of course, Delilah’s conscience reminded her that she hadn’t offered any of the perfume to Rebecca to use on Thomas. She didn’t want to even contemplate that. She’d already shared it with one other person, and that made her guilty enough. The image of Madame Rosa’s disapproving, craggy face had haunted her all evening. Delilah shook off the thought and turned her attention back to the matter at hand. Pressing her empty palm against the darkened wall, she inched her way along until she came to Branville’s door. She felt like a spy. This was how professional spies did such things, wasn’t it? Too bad she was too embarrassed by her actions to ask the veritable house full of professional spies who happened to be asleep behind other doors right now. She transferred the vial into her opposite hand and slowly reached to grasp the door handle. The metal was cold in her bare hand. She’d discarded her gloves, deciding that they would make her actions more clumsy. The last thing she needed tonight was to be more clumsy than usual. Decidedly, she needed to be less so. She clutched the door handle like a lifeline and closed her eyes, steadying her shaking fingers on the knob. She was close, so close. Praying that the door wouldn’t squeak, she turned the handle slowly. The only sound was the thumping of her own heart in her ears. When the handle was turned as far as it would go, she pushed it, praying fervently that it wasn’t locked. It took a moment before she realized the door was opening. Its hinges silent, merci a Dieu. Completely silent. She slipped inside the cool, dark room. Steady, deep breathing came from the bed. Thank goodness, she hadn’t woken the duke with her entrance. She could barely see a thing, but she didn’t dare light a candle. A tiny stream of moonlight filtered into the room through a small opening in the curtains on the far window. She used that to identify the hulking bed in the center of the room. She tiptoed over to it slowly, taking care in case there was anything to trip over. No doubt she would find it if there was. She made it to the foot of the bed without incident and paused, trying to quell her nerves and dispel her guilt. She clutched the vial more tightly in her palm, shaking with fear and anxiety. Now that she was here, she had no earthly idea how to drop liquid on a man’s eyes without awakening him. Besides, how much of it was she supposed to use? Surely not much. She would employ the tiniest drops possible so as not to disturb him, but she also needed to ensure the perfume touched his eyelids. Tricky business, this being a fairy. She had a sudden appreciation for Puck.
Holding her breath, she lifted her skirts with her free hand and tiptoed to the right side of the bed. Because it was summer, the bed curtains weren’t drawn. The window was open, and a slight breeze blew through the crack in the curtains. The outline of the duke’s body was barely visible in the moonlight. He was turned away on his side, his back to her, his face toward the window. She would have to lean over his body to sprinkle the elixir on his eyes. The bed was tall. She must carefully climb up to do this task properly. She only hoped she didn’t jostle the mattress enough to wake him. She waited in silence for a few moments to ensure his breathing remained steady, then she carefully lifted first one knee and then the other, bracing them on the mattress and pulling herself up, still clutching the vial. She winced as he moved slightly in his sleep, but he kept his face turned away. Blast it. Once she was fully atop the bed, she paused and hoped the hammering of her heart didn’t wake him. He smelled good, a combination of soap and maleness that she wanted to breathe in. There was something vaguely familiar about his scent. Shaking away that unhelpful thought, she moved gingerly across the mattress on her knees until she came to a stop at his side. His shirt was off. The beam of moonlight hit his smooth, muscled arm. She swallowed. The man’s chest was positively swoon-worthy. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and uncorked the vial. Then she carefully leaned over as far as she could to locate his eyes. They remained shrouded in the dark, but she took a guess as to their general direction and tipped the little vial as slowly and carefully as she could. He turned then, and she was afforded enough light to see that the first tiny drop of liquid did indeed fall directly onto his eyelid. He blinked, and she held her breath. When he settled back into sleep, she closed her eyes and said a brief prayer that she would get away with it a second time before tipping the vial once more to allow another tiny drop to fall on his other eyelid. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes while Delilah held her breath again, paralyzed with fear. Soon, he settled back into his pillow and his breathing returned to its steady pace.
She pressed a hand to her throat. It was over. She was done. All she had to do was extract herself from the bed and the room without being seen or heard. The difficult part was behind her. Still praying he wouldn’t stir, she backed away from the duke. Slowly. Slowly. She’d nearly made it to the edge of the bed when he flipped over to face her. A beam of moonlight slid over his sleeping features. Delilah gasped.
Author Bio: Valerie Bowman grew up in Illinois with six sisters (she’s number seven) and a huge supply of historical romance novels. After a cold and snowy stint earning a degree in English with a minor in history at Smith College, she moved to Florida the first chance she got. Valerie now lives in Jacksonville with her family including her mini-schnauzers, Huckleberry and Violet. When she’s not writing, she keeps busy reading, traveling, or vacillating between watching crazy reality TV and PBS.
I found the below in my drafts and thought to share it. The below was a drafted blog post probably sometime in 2019. Why is this relevant? Because I remember t the excitement of getting called back for a Marketing or Editorial role. I also remember the sole-crushing disappointment whenever one of these roles didn’t work out. What I didn’t know at the time of writing was that just a year later, in 2020, I would get my first Marketing role. I would write copy and learn advertising. And eventually, I would go on to get my dream job.
By the time this post goes live I may or may not still be working in the call center (who am I kidding? I’m pretty sure I’ll never leave but anyway).
So it’s been a few months since the horrible dream job rejection. Since then I’ve applied for tons of jobs in my field. I have zero expectations of being hired. However these job applications were not going the way I would have expected.
Some are far more successful than others. Some have resulted in zero feedback. Some have resulted in rejection emails. And some have resulted in pretty positive responses.
Here’s the thing though. I didn’t expect to have any kind of response. I’ve been job hunting this entire year for something in my field and recently for anything with an increased income (unfortunately for my family, the company my dad worked at, has closed). I got zero responses. This last batch that has people responding to me has given me some little bit of hope.
Dimple is passionate about coding much to the disapproval of her traditional parents. It seems like all Dimple’s mother wants for her is for Dimple to find the Perfect Indian Husband. Ideally someone who believes in all the same traditions as Dimple’s family does. Dimple, on the other hand, is much more excited about her future at Stanford University. When Dimple’s parents let her go to Insomnia Con, a program where you design and code an app, it looks like they are finally starting to respect her and her dreams. What Dimple does not expect is the strange guy who walks up to her and greets her with “Hello, my future wife”. The exact opposite of Dimple, Rishi is eager to please his parents and follow family traditions. His parents and Dimple’s parents have decided that the two of them will make a great match. Rishi is more than willing to go ahead with their plans. However what Rishi did not expect was that his future wife would have no idea of these plans. Dimple and Rishi do not get along AT ALL. But when they are paired to work together for Insomnia Con, they have to put aside the animosity if they want to win. This was a cute, feel-good read that I enjoyed. While I only read this book so that I could read “As Kismet Would Have It”, I liked seeing how Dimple and Rishi fell in love. I instantly hated Rishi the first time I read this book and he was the reason I stopped reading. However after finishing it I was glad to have gotten to know his character more. This is a well-written book that I suggest to anyone who enjoys contemporary YA. I cannot wait to read “There’s Something About Sweetie.”
Okay, confession time. I have no book review to post today because I have picked up an awful, new habit.
Netflix.
My uncle gave me an Amazon Firestick as well as access to his Netflix account so it has been pretty difficult for me to tear myself away from the televison (mind you, I have never been a fan of television so this is new to me).
So I have decided to combine my love of Netflix and books into listing five book adaptations on Netflix that I think you absolutely MUST SEE.
Pretty sure this is what I look like most days during my Netflix sessions
1) To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Based On: “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” by Jenny Han.
Watch Because: This is a cute story about a girl who writes secret love letters to all of her crushes. One day all of her letters are accidentally sent out which leads to a very adorable fake relationship with one of her crushes.
Watch this if only to see the hype over Peter Kavinsky and Noah Centineo, the actor playing him.
2) The Kissing Booth
Based On: “The Kissing Booth” by Beth Reekles
Watch Because: This also features a cute story with an incredibly hot lead. I think Netflix is kicking it with their choices of male leads. Also watch this because they are coming up with a sequel.
3) Riverdale
Based On: The Archie Comics
Watch Because: How could you not want to see the beloved characters of the Archie comics come to life? In fact while we are on this topic, feel free to check out “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” which is loosely based on the Sabrina comics.
4) Shadowhunters
Based on: “The Mortal Instruments” by Cassandra Clare
Watch Because: Personally I don’t think this can be enjoyed by anyone who is NOT a fan of Cassandra Clare’s series (hell, it took me two tries to get into this and I absolutely loved “The Mortal Instruments”). However if you enjoy fantasy and intricate world-building, give this a try.
5) The Vampire Diaries AND The Originals
Based On: “The Vampire Diaries” by L.J Smith
Watch Because: Watch this because I said so and these series are amazing. Also with the new spin-off “Legacies”, this is a perfect time to watch or rewatch these two shows.
Did I miss any of your favourite Netflix book adaptations? Do you have any Netflix recommendations for me? Feel free to leave a comment below. (Especially if you have any recommendations. Who needs to read? Not me obviously).
Francesca Rossi is the daughter of the biggest mobster boss in Chicago. Her entire life has been planned. No work, no college. Just marriage to her childhood best friend, Angelo Bandini and then she needs to pop out children. That is the way it has always been in the Chicago outfit. However things don’t go as plan when Senator Wolfe Keaton spots Francesca and decides that she will be the perfect revenge for him. Wolfe steals the kiss that Francesca intends on sharing with Angelo before going to Francesca’s house and stealing her. Wolfe has hated Francesca’s father for ruining his life and his family. Taking her away from her sheltered life and ruining all the plans her father has intended for her is the best way for Wolfe to avenge his family. I saw this book recommended on Audible and was not really interested. So I do not know how I ended up purchasing a copy after seeing it on Goodreads. However I started this book and could not put it down (so much so that I now have an ebook copy AND an audiobook). This was an interesting read with a unique plot and beautifully crafted characters. I absolutely detested Wolfe however it was difficult to not feel sympathy for him and root for his relationship with Francesca throughout this novel. If you are a fan of romance books, definitely give this a try. You will not regret it.
While most people are interested in creating new year resolutions at the start of the year, I personally look forward to creating a Goodreads reading goal. While I may not be that good at meeting my Goodreads goal since I have started working, I do have a few hacks to make it easier to read more books.
Read shorter books- This is the easiest way to make your Goodreads goal without much effort on your part. Simply grab a few short books or novellas and power through them. My go-to books are Mills and Boons or kid’s novels from the 90s such as Goosebumps and Sweet Valley.
Pick lighter reads- Pick a light and easy read so that you’re able to blow through it quickly. I especially like rereads for this reason.
Read in multiple formats and multiple places- I always have a paperback (currently in the middle of three at this moment), an ebook and sometimes an audiobook so that depending on my mood and where I am, I have something ready to read.
Read multiple genres- It helps if you balance something sad and heavy with a more easy read or if you just keep varying genres to read. Sometimes I get bored of reading historicals nonstop so I keep a YA that I can switch to if necessary.
What are some of your TBR hacks? I would love to know below.
Subscribe and get access to a printable TBR list. You’ll never have to wonder “What book should I read next?”
“The Wrath and the Dawn” tells the story of Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. Every day Khalid marries a young girl and kills her soon after. When Shahrzad’s best friend becomes one of Khalid’s latest victims, Shahrzad vows that she will avenge her murder. Shahzad volunteers to be the next bride. She will not only stay alive, she will also kill the king. Night after night, Shahrzad entertains Khalid with stories, stopping just before cliffhanger endings. Intrigued, Khalid postpones her murder each and every day. However it isn’t long before Shahrzad starts to fall in love with her new husband. “The Wrath and the Dawn” was a well-written read that I enjoyed immensely. I loved the world building and this story sucked me in immediately. At first I thought the whole hate to love plot was overdone but it is executed beautifully here. You can clearly see the chemistry between Shahrzad and Khalid and it is hard not to root for their romance. Shahrzad’s stories are as captivating to the reader as they are to Khalid. This is an unforgettable read that I recommend to anyone who enjoys YA romance.
