I saw this meme on It’s All About Books and decided to do it once a month. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!!
This post is exactly what it says: the places I travel to in books each month.
Enjoy my travels, and please let me know if you have read these books.
Countries I visited the most: United States, England
States/Provinces I visited the most: Illinois, Florida
Cities I visited the most: Chicago, London, Rosewood
United States
China (during the Opium Wars)
England
Personal Highlights from this month:
Reading Highlights from this month:
Books I Read:
Monthly Playlist (I use songs featured in the book, if there are any, along with a playlist generated by ChatGPT).
Featured Song of the Month
Prompts I finished in December
Bonus—Latinx Summer Fiesta (Summer Holidate)—Read a book by a Latinx author that captures the vibrant energy of summer
Bonus—Spooky Reads {Fall Holidate}—Read a Halloween or horror romance book
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet and share what you have been and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kid-lit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in those genres – join them.
What I am Reading Now
My life has been full of half-truths tangled in lies—I’d been to hell and back more times than I could count.
But nothing could have prepared me for the fear in her voice, and then the sight of that building going up in flames.
After the way I treated her, the way I hurt her, I’d earned that pain back tenfold. I deserved to lose the only bit of light in my dark, twisted life.
Neither of us have survived the suffering only to have it end this way and I refuse to believe that our time is done. It can’t be. Because she was made for me—the only good thing that came out of my past.
And the first chance I get, I’m going to make sure she knows exactly what she means to me.
No more lies.
No more pretending.
Just the raw, honest truth.
I can’t live without her and I’ll spend the rest of my life proving to her that she belongs with me.
That the life we were born into might have left us damaged, but it made us stronger.
And when she claims her rightful place amongst us, I’ll be by her side and together we will rule this reckless dynasty.
But first we have to survive…
What I am reading Monday and Tuesday:
I’ve lived my entire life in the shadows…
Sheltered yet painfully aware of the haunting reality of who my family really is.
I’m tired of being the good girl— of doing everything I’m told. Halloween seems like the perfect time to explore my hidden desires.
And that’s exactly how I end up in the arms of a masked mystery guy.
He doesn’t handle me like glass. He takes exactly what he wants and gives me everything I didn’t know I needed— until he vanishes into the darkness leaving me with one burning question…
Who was my mysterious knight that introduced me to the dark side?
She’s the mafia princess he was meant to stay away from.
And he did.
Until that one night when he was able to hide his identity and his darkness under a different kind of mask.
But one taste wasn’t enough.
Only the next time their paths cross, his inner demon is truly exposed.
Can she handle it, or will his darkness send her running back to her castle and smothered life?
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme that Sam hosts at Taking on a World of Words.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Here is what I am reading, recently finished, and plan to read from Thursday to Wednesday.
Let me know if you have read or are planning on reading any of these books!!
Happy Reading!
What I am currently reading:
The moment I discovered the dark truth, it descended on my life and threatened to swallow me whole.
It tore at my soul, piece by piece. But I refused to go down alone.
My need for vengeance pours out like a gaping wound… directed at the man I thought was my father. The one who trained me to become the monster I am.
I will not rest until he’s hurt the way he’s made us hurt.
I will not stop until he’s bled like those I love.
Until he’s paid the price, I’ll never truly be free.
An eye for an eye— he once told me.
And I’ve found the perfect target.
Someone he thought he could keep safe. Tucked away from the depraved world I barely survived.
But I’ve found her.
The innocent pawn in my twisted game.
The seductive demon who’s going to help settle the score once and for all.
All’s fair in love and war… checkmate.
What I recently finished reading:
I wanted to drown. I wanted the world to swallow me up whole and take me back to a time when everything was okay. A time when I hadn’t just buried the only father I’ve ever known. One where I’m not watching as my mother loses herself to her grief. One where the pain isn’t so insufferable. Everything in my world is a dull muted grey. I crave colour. Excitement. Recklessness. And that’s when he walks into my life. Tall, dark, handsome, and able to drag me from my own head for just a few hours of wild abandon. He’s the perfect one-night stand. But is everything as simple as that?
What I plan on reading Thursday through Sunday:
The moment I discovered his lie, everything I thought I knew about him was destroyed in an instant.
I thought I knew pain.
I thought I knew grief.
I knew nothing.
And nothing could compare to the moment Toby ripped my heart right out of my chest. Confirming all my worst fears.
Shattering the very foundation my life has been built on.
It was all an act.
A sick and twisted game.
He’s nothing more than a monster.
Deception is his weapon.
And now I’m his victim.
Rock bottom is a familiar place, and once again I’m trying to drag myself out of the pits of despair.
But fate is an evil master, and before long I find myself with no other place to turn… but him.
He might be cruel.
Reckless.
Dangerous.
But I also know that he’ll do anything to right his wrongs.
Despite my tattered heart, and my better judgment, I know he’s still trying to prove to me that he’s not all bad. That the sweet guy I fell so hard for really does exists.
But will it be enough?
My life has been full of half-truths tangled in lies—I’d been to hell and back more times than I could count.
But nothing could have prepared me for the fear in her voice, and then the sight of that building going up in flames.
After the way I treated her, the way I hurt her, I’d earned that pain back tenfold. I deserved to lose the only bit of light in my dark, twisted life.
Neither of us have survived the suffering only to have it end this way and I refuse to believe that our time is done. It can’t be. Because she was made for me—the only good thing that came out of my past.
And the first chance I get, I’m going to make sure she knows exactly what she means to me.
No more lies.
No more pretending.
Just the raw, honest truth.
I can’t live without her and I’ll spend the rest of my life proving to her that she belongs with me.
That the life we were born into might have left us damaged, but it made us stronger.
And when she claims her rightful place amongst us, I’ll be by her side and together we will rule this reckless dynasty.
But first we have to survive…
I’ve lived my entire life in the shadows…
Sheltered yet painfully aware of the haunting reality of who my family really is.
I’m tired of being the good girl— of doing everything I’m told. Halloween seems like the perfect time to explore my hidden desires.
And that’s exactly how I end up in the arms of a masked mystery guy.
He doesn’t handle me like glass. He takes exactly what he wants and gives me everything I didn’t know I needed— until he vanishes into the darkness leaving me with one burning question…
Who was my mysterious knight that introduced me to the dark side?
She’s the mafia princess he was meant to stay away from.
And he did.
Until that one night when he was able to hide his identity and his darkness under a different kind of mask.
But one taste wasn’t enough.
Only the next time their paths cross, his inner demon is truly exposed.
Can she handle it, or will his darkness send her running back to her castle and smothered life?
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme that Sam hosts at Taking on a World of Words.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Here is what I am reading, recently finished, and plan to read from Thursday to Wednesday.
Let me know if you have read or are planning on reading any of these books!!
Happy Reading!
What I am currently reading:
Sofia
One night.
No cuddling.
No sleepovers.
These are the rules I live my love life by. Running a business as a bar owner leaves no time for relationships—or their drama. But when I meet international rock star Brenner Reindhart, he makes me want to break all the rules . . .
Bren
Keeping Industrial November at the top of the best-selling charts for over eight years has taken a toll on me, and I’m ready to slow down.
I’ve been burned by love before, and I’m finally ready to try again. I think Sofia Ocampo might just be the one. Only, she has no plans to ever be in a relationship.
Aware she has no interest in it, I still give her my heart.
I can only hold my breath and hope she won’t break it.
***This high-steam, contemporary rock star romance contains adult content with some taboo elements not suitable for all readers. Read responsibly. All novels in the Industrial November on Tour series can be read in any order.***
What I recently finished reading:
Rival florists. Spite bouquets. A Monster Romance enemies-to-lovers YOU’VE GOT MAIL in the Discord age
— this flower shop has everything.
Sumi is on top of the world.
Well, as on top as one can be after learning a relative one never met has died, leaving one a small fortune.
Deciding the unexpected windfall is a sign she needs to follow her dreams, quitting her job, moving to aspirational Cambric Creek and opening a flower shop is the obvious move. Definitely not just a midlife crisis. Applying for franchise ownership with a giant flower conglomerate seems like a piece of cake — they provide the equipment, the distribution contracts, and all she needs to do is front the money and live happily ever after.
There’s only one catch . . . she didn’t realize chasing after her dream might cause someone else to lose hold of their own.
Ranar never wanted to inherit the family business.
There’s an enormous pressure to keep his family business going — started by his grandfather, passed to his father, and now to him. Pressure as a non-human business, pressure as the grandson of an immigrant, pressure as the eldest son . . . but as it is, brick and mortar flower shops are a notion of a bygone era in this digital world.
When Bloomerang, an online flower conglomerate, opens one of their soulless flower factories in Cambric Creek, Ranar knows it’s only a matter of time before he’s forced to close the door on his family’s business for good. It doesn’t matter how pretty the sylvan owner is or how friendly she seems — she represents everything wrong in the industry, in his world. She’s bound to put him out of business eventually . . . but he can make her regret it first.
Sumi is positive there is room for two flower shops in Cambric Creek, if only the owner of The Perfect Petal wasn’t such a rude, condescending, infuriatingly handsome jerk. Despite being non-human herself, Cambric Creek is a learning curve she wasn’t anticipating, and she knows she has a lot to learn about multi-species living — starting with the conundrum of her naga rival’s junk, because where is it? She’d love to discover the mechanics, if only he wasn’t so terrible.
When she joins an online server for local business owners, discovering The Perfect Petal’s owner is chatting there as well, she decides it’s the perfect opportunity to discover his weaknesses and take him down . . . if she doesn’t wind up falling for him first.
He Loves Me Not is a high heat standalone monster romance in the Cambric Creek universe. One does not need prior knowledge of the world to enjoy.
What I plan on reading Thursday through Sunday:
She voiced one of Disney’s most infamous villainesses. With her husky timbre and most unforgettable cackle, Betty Lou Gerson terrified an entire generation as Disney’s original “Cruella de Vil” in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). Betty used her whiskey-soaked voice to give us an innovative portrait of elegant villainy beyond entertainment’s stereotypical “old hag” antagonists in radio, film, and television. She had a prolific radio career in both Chicago and Hollywood before the silver screen and was featured in many popular television series in the 1950s and 1960s such as Perry Mason, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Hazel. Though “Cruella” is perhaps her most recognized role, she also performed in other beloved film classics including Cinderella (1950), Mary Poppins (1964), and Cats Don’t Dance (1997).
The great irony of Betty’s story is that while her voice frightened audiences through nearly all mediums, off mic, she was in fact no villainess at all. Betty traversed through some of the most volatile eras in American history, while overcoming many personal tragedies of her own. She was among twentieth century entertainment pioneers and an iconic voice of feminism.
Learn the compelling story of Betty Lou Gerson as the “voice of villainy.”
In 1842, the gunpowder might of China’s Qing Dynasty fell to Britain’s steam engines. Furious, the Emperor ordered the death of his engineers, eliminating China’s best chance of fighting back. Since her father’s execution eight years ago, Jin Soling has kept her family from falling apart. With her mother addicted to opium and her younger brother in danger of being sent off to the factories, Soling has no choice but to sell off the last of her father’s possessions. Unwittingly, her actions bring her to the attention of the imperial court—the same court that betrayed her father. The Crown Prince has launched a secret mission to bring together the remnants of the former Ministry of Science. To restore her family’s name, Soling must track down the rebel alchemist who holds the key to powering the imperial fleet. Her only ally is a man she’s just met—the engineer with a mysterious past who was once meant to be her husband…
USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Tracy Lorraine brings you another couple in her dark mafia, high school bully romance Knight’s Ridge Empire series.
I’ve lived my entire life in the shadows…
Sheltered yet painfully aware of the haunting reality of who my family really is.
I’m tired of being the good girl— of doing everything I’m told. Halloween seems like the perfect time to explore my hidden desires.
And that’s exactly how I end up in the arms of a masked mystery guy.
He doesn’t handle me like glass. He takes exactly what he wants and gives me everything I didn’t know I needed— until he vanishes into the darkness leaving me with one burning question…
Who was my mysterious knight that introduced me to the dark side?
Dear Readers,
Dark Halloween Knight is a prequel to Dark Knight trilogy. The events of this prequel coincide with the end of Wicked Princess.
After a devastating breakup, instead of drowning in her tears, Amelia Day starts a new business. For a hefty fee, she uses the methods for training foster dogs to transform men into suitable marriage material. Her track record is impeccable until she meets perpetual bachelor Phin Baxtor. From the start, she’s confused as to why this guitar-playing hunk would even want to hire her, but she needs the money, so she takes him on. Phin is content with working in his food truck all day and playing the field at night. But his business partner, Jay, offers him a bet he can’t refuse. If Phin can complete Amelia’s program without changing his ways, he will win Jay’s rare guitar. Certain his task will be easier than playing “Hound Dog,” he agrees to enter the program. With Phin and Amelia spending all their time together, her techniques begin to slip past his defenses. He might become her biggest success, but falling for a client isn’t supposed to be part of the deal.
Escape Into Reading 