Month: September 2017

Sep 30
September Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

September Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

Best of the Bunch, Monthly Recap 30

  My Goings On in September: I went to the 6th Annual Novel Cuisine Luncheon. I never did end up writing a recap for the event, but it was lots of fun and there were plenty of fantastic books AND lots of fantastic food! Our homeschool co-op is in full swing, so I’m now teaching four classes. Yikes! (I should point out that three of these classes only meet once a week, so it’s not as crazy as it sounds). Most Popular Posts: My top post for this month still seems to be the Spoiler-Filled Discussion of Three Dark Crowns, but second was my Spoiler-Filled Discussion of One Dark Throne. I’ve puzzled over my stats for a while now, and I think I might write a post about it… Next was my August Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway (with a new interactive Make Me Read It twist) – I was really happy… Read more »

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Sep 27
Bite-Sized Reviews of One Dark Throne, Wonder Woman: Warbringer, Before She Ignites & A Crown of Wishes

Bite-Sized Reviews of One Dark Throne, Wonder Woman: Warbringer, Before She Ignites & A Crown of Wishes

Reviews 26

I’ve got four bite-sized reviews today—three of these are recent releases and one is a book I’ve been avoiding for a while. Oh, and a “bonus” review of a novella. 🙂  I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! If you’ve already read this book, check out my Spoiler-Filled Discussion of One Dark Throne and let me know your thoughts and predictions about what’s going to happen next! If you’ve been around my blog at all in the past year, you know I’ve been anxiously awaiting this book. After all, I adored the first book—and then my Spoiler-Filled Discussion of Three Dark Crowns became my most viewed post of ever, which managed to keep the series at the forefront of my mind (always important when you’re waiting for the next book). I even reread TDC in preparation for One Dark Throne, and I never reread. (Turns… Read more »

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Sep 26
September Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up

September Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up

Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 3

It’s time for the September Wrap-Up Round-Up! I did something a little bit different with the August giveaway (which ends today, so hop on over there and enter, if you haven’t), and I think it’s going to turn out to be really fun! I plan to do it again in September (well, I guess in October for the September wrap-up—that’s confusing!) so keep your eye out. This is the link-up for our September wrap-up posts. If you don’t already know about the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, read the information below: Every month, at the end of the month, I’ll put up a monthly wrap-up link-up post where everyone can link up their month end posts. There are no specific requirements for what needs to be in your post, as long as you have a book blog and your wrap-up summarizes your month in some way.   Then, one week later, I’ll create… Read more »

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Sep 24
Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 9/24/17

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 9/24/17

Sunday Post 46

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): How is September almost over? Seriously, I’m baffled by the passage of time lately. This week… things happened. I don’t remember what, but I remember that I did stuff. Oh, wait—I do remember one thing. My daughter got 13 inches of her hair cut off so we could donate it to Locks of Love. She always gets comments on her long hair, so it was tough to let it go, but she loves her new shorter style. Makes so many things easier! Here’s what you may have missed on the blog this past week: Top Ten Books on My Fall… Read more »

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Sep 21
Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco: Review & Giveaway

Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco: Review & Giveaway

Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 26 ★★★★½

This second installment in the series is just as creepy as Stalking Jack the Ripper. These books could probably be read as standalones since each one contains its own complete story, but of course, you’ll understand a lot more of the context if you’ve read the first book too. What Fed My Addiction: Audrey’s demons. Audrey isn’t nearly as sure of herself as she was in the last book. She’s haunted by memories of what happened with her family in that book (which I won’t spoil, in case you haven’t read it), and she’s even occasionally seeing visions of things that aren’t there. It’s awfully hard to work on dead bodies when you’re scared to death of them. And yet, Audrey isn’t a timid girl who’s content to let the men around her protect her. She’s very ahead of her time—an independent woman—and she fights to get herself under control so… Read more »

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Sep 20
A Spoiler-Filled Discussion of One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

A Spoiler-Filled Discussion of One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Let's Discuss, Reviews, Spoiler-Filled Discussion 85

NOTE: In case you missed the title of this post, BE WARNED NOW THAT IT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! If you want my non-spoilery thoughts on this book, check out my review instead! (It will most likely go up on Friday.) Or, if you’ve only read the first book, then feel free to check out my Spoiler-Filled Discussion of Three Dark Crowns! (And then immediately read One Dark Throne and come back here!) I just finished book two of this series, and it was just as good as I was hoping it would be! We may not have gotten all of our questions answered (of course—there are still two more books!), but we did learn a lot in this installment. And there was a lot of excitement! So, let’s dive right in… I’m going to go through some of the predictions that we all had after reading the first book and see how many of them… Read more »

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Sep 19
Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday 36

It’s been a while since I’ve done a TTT post, so I thought I’d join in this week. Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is: The Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR These are all books that I have for review that I’m REALLY excited about reading! (Links go to Goodreads.) 1. The Knowing by Sharon Cameron The Forgetting is an All-Time favorite of mine, so I’m super excited about this companion! 2. Dare Mighty Things by Heather Kaczynski I was already really excited about this debut and then Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight told me she loved it. She’s my bookish twin, so I just know this book will be perfect for me. 3. Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me by Carrie DiRisio I’ve actually already started this one, so this is cheating a bit, but I’m LOVING it, just as I suspected. If you don’t follow @BroodingYAHero on Twitter,… Read more »

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Sep 17
Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore- 9/17/17

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore- 9/17/17

Sunday Post 28

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): This week was back to being crazy busy because I added three new classes to my teaching schedule at our homeschool co-op. Our co-op has some 32-week classes and some 24-week classes, and three of the four classes I teach are 24-week. (I was already teaching One Year Adventure Novel, and now I added two acting classes and a middle grade language arts class). I’m teaching poetry in language arts to start off, which is lots of fun—maybe it will inspire me to do those poetry reviews I was talking about before. I also did some editing on the first… Read more »

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Sep 16
I Wrote in a Book and I Liked It. Gasp! Let’s Discuss.

I Wrote in a Book and I Liked It. Gasp! Let’s Discuss.

Let's Discuss 46

So, I just reread Three Dark Crowns in preparation for reading One Dark Throne (and I’m SO glad I did—I had no idea how much I’d forgotten!). And I underlined things. Yep, you read that right—I underlined things. Okay, you might not be all that surprised to hear that someone underlined passages in a book, but both my husband and my daughter saw me doing it and they were shocked. Possibly appalled (at least on my behalf). You see, I don’t write in books. I don’t crease their spines. I don’t dog-ear or let my books get wet near the pool. Books are treasured items that must be kept pristine. Perfect. So what made me change? (Well, at least take a little baby step toward change.) I think it started because I did a traveling ARC review for After the Woods way back in February of 2016 where we were… Read more »

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Sep 15
Bite-Sized Reviews of The Blood Will Dry, Hunted, Hostage, and Monstress

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Blood Will Dry, Hunted, Hostage, and Monstress

Reviews 10

I’ve got four (technically five) bite-sized reviews today, including two for graphic novels I’ve read recently.  I just now realized how bleak or horror-filled all of these titles sound, and I suppose that the books are a bit on the bleak side (though Hunted is more of just a regular fantasy—paired with the others, it sounds bleak indeed!). I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Kate L. Mary has once again managed to pull me into a unique post-apocalyptic world with her newest book. If you’ve been on my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably seen my reviews of her Broken World zombie series (a definite favorite of mine). This new book delves into a world of aliens instead of zombies, but it’s just as heart-stopping. At the beginning of the book, we meet Diana and see how she struggles to get… Read more »

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