Taylor Fenner's Blog, page 35

The Sunday Post: Saying Goodbye, Volunteering, and Rest

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Saying Goodbye, Volunteering, and Rest

Hey Bookdragons! Happy Sunday. It’s been… a long week.

My mom passed away early Wednesday morning. We expected it to happen after how quickly she was declining last Sunday. I don’t know if it hasn’t sunk in yet or I’m in shock or what but everyone keeps asking how I’m doing expecting me to break down and I just sort of feel… nothing. Numb maybe?

Thursday I took my mom’s volunteer hours at the Symco Weekender Hot Rods and Customs weekend that my family volunteers at every year. It was a good distraction.

Otherwise I’ve spent most of my funeral leave time resting. I caught up on laundry, binged season 2 of True Blood, started putting out my Halloween decorations outside, and snacked. It’s back to work tonight.

I missed the first week check-in for Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season 2023 on Thursday due to all that happened this week, but I will catch up this week.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 7 August 2023

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: Dead Eleven

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Black Sheep

The Friday 56: Heartless

I didn’t finish any of the books I’m reading in the past week so I will be skipping It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, and First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros this week.

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Hopeless

Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season Weeks 1-2 Check-In

The Friday 56: Happily Haunted Afters

Kindle Unlimited:

Wikipedia: The Mary Celeste (after reading a review of The Last One by Will Dean)

The Friday 56: Heartless

The Friday 56 is a weekly blog meme hosted by Freda’s Voice. How to participate: Grab a book, any book. Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay. Find a snippet, short and sweet. Post it, and link up on Freda’s Voice so everyone knows to visit.

This week I’m participating with: Heartless by Elsie Silver

Working as a nanny for the world’s grumpiest single dad should have been simple. Except I can’t keep my eyes off him. And he can’t keep his hands off of me.

Cade Eaton is thirteen years older than I am and barely looks my way. Until I get him into the hot tub one night for a game of truth or dare. Then all bets are off—and so are our clothes.

He’s gruff, a little rough around the edges. But broad-shouldered ranchers with calloused hands and filthy mouths are this city girl’s kryptonite. So who am I to resist?

But it’s in our quiet moments together that he softens. It’s when he takes care of me that I realize his hardened exterior is just a façade. It’s when I watch him go all sweet with his little boy that I really fall for him.

Someone convinced him once that his best wasn’t good enough. But I’ve never felt more cherished than I do in his arms.

My contract may say this arrangement is only for two months.

But my heart says this is forever.

The Friday 56 Excerpt:

When the lights turn into Cade’s driveway and shine at the picturesque rancher, my body sags with relief. This isn’t my home, but . . . I feel like I’m home.

What do you think? Would you read this one? I’ve been in a contemporary romance mood lately and this was my favorite of the series so far!

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Black Sheep

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released.

Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison

Standalone, Horror

eBook, Hardcover, 336 Pages

September 12, 2023 by Berkley Books

Blurb:

A cynical twentysomething must confront her unconventional family’s dark secrets in this fiery, irreverent horror novel from the author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle.

Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.

Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.

When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.

Why I Want to Read This Book:

Rachel Harrison is one of my auto-buy authors, though The Return will always be my favorite and I haven’t read Such Sharp Teeth yet. Everything about this book just screams read me now, especially that the main character’s mother is a former horror film star.

Will you be checking this one out? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: Dead Eleven

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Socrates Book Reviews where you share the first paragraph of one of the books that you are currently reading. Each week bloggers will choose a book or books of the week (which will be one of the books that you are currently reading) and that book will take part in this book blog meme.

This week I’m participating with: Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano

First Chapter, First Paragraph

Blurb:

On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son’s death–but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules…

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son’s bedroom, she’s perplexed. She’s never heard of it before, but soon learns it’s a tiny island off of Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow’s home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island.

After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: this place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: they wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: close your curtains at night.

High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island’s twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She’s been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders’ beliefs are a sham. But are they?

Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow’s brother Harper comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth–that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined–he is determined to blow the whole thing open.

If he can get out alive…

What do you think? Would you keep reading? I just got this book and started it on Saturday. Another read set in Door County! The card at Barnes and Noble called it “if Stranger Things were set in Door County.”

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 7 August 2023

#IMWAYR is a weekly 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.

Hey Bookdragons! Happy Monday! I was a bit all over with my reading last week. Starting books I was going to wait on, putting others on my TBR off for a while in favor of starting books that fit it with my spooky season kick off, and reading a couple ebooks bit by bit.

What I Read Last Week:In the Pines by Mariah Stillbrook

I fit this ARC in when I could and it definitely gives witchy, cozy vibes. If your into the witchy, cottagecore, Wiccan lifestyle or you enjoyed Tish Thawer’s The Witches of Blackbrook series of Melissa de la Cruz’s Witches of East End series I think you would enjoy this one!

A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan

I couldn’t wait to read this one and I devoured it!! It made me want to try to squeeze in another day trip to Door County before winter sets in. I can’t wait for book 2!

Currently Reading:Happily Haunted Afters by Brittany Kelley

This one grabbed me right away and I’m reading it while having downtime while out and about because I have the ebook on my phone.

Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano

This is from last week’s birthday Barnes and Noble haul. It was on the same table as A Death in Door County and billed as “if Stranger Things were set in Door County!” Of course I had to start it immediately and it hooked me!

Next Read:Always Mine by Laura Pavlov

My mood has spoken, I can’t wait any longer to read this one!

What are you reading and loving this week? Have you read any of these?

The Sunday Post: 31, Beyond Belief, and Spooky Vibes

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

31, Beyond Belief, and Spooky Vibes

Hey Bookdragons! Happy Sunday! How was your week? Have you had nice summery weather or are you over it and ready for fall?

Friday I turned 31. It was the highlight of my week. The day where not only was I thought of by so many kind friends, family members, and coworkers but I got to do some fun, relaxing things. I started the day with my monthly manicure and picked a shade slightly darker that last month’s pink. Then I might have spent a little too much money at Barnes and Noble (shhh). I had dinner at Olive Garden and had a waitress who was so kind and welcoming to this solo diner that I almost cried (as a lot of restaurants lately have been annoyed and unfriendly to serve me when I eat alone… a story soon to be shared on my travel blog). And I ended the afternoon with Starbucks in which I attempted (and succeeded) using a drive-thru for the first time since getting my license! Then when I got to work and one of the officers I work with found out it was my birthday he brought me cookies his wife had just baked when he went on patrol. Another had left a birthday card in my box.

It was such a special day after a hard week. On Tuesday the hospice facility my mom is in said they were shipping her home on Friday whether we liked it or not because she wasn’t dying fast enough for them. My sister fought with them all week and tried to find another facility in between. We thought she had with one that said they would take her for two weeks if we paid up front. We were all ready to dip into the funeral fund to do so but then they talked to the current facility and did a one-eighty and refused unless we could come up with two months up front (almost $18k which is impossible.) Hearing that we would draw on the funeral fund the current facility suddenly decided she could stay for two weeks if we paid the two weeks up front. Fishy huh? Suddenly her bed wasn’t being given away after all. It’s not like they haven’t been getting paid, we have promptly paid them every week exactly the amount they asked for.

Anyway, this week I also kicked off my spooky season celebration! I am all in for spooky and cozy reads and streams. I’ve been binging a show on Hulu which I’ll talk about this week on my weekly check-in and my spooky season TBR is getting underway.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 31 July 2023

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: A Death In Door County

Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season 2023 Kick Off: 92 Days of Spooks, Scares, and Cozy Reads

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Nightbane!

The Friday 56: The Mary Shelley Club

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 7 August 2023

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: Dead Eleven

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Black Sheep

Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season 2023 Week 1 Check-In

The Friday 56: Heartless

Birthday Book Haul

Ok, so I picked these up at Barnes and Noble vs getting them in the mail. Still counts.

The Bones of the Story: I have the ebook and I loved it so much I wanted a physical copy.

Psyche and Eros: has been on my TBR for a while and it looked good when I flipped through it

Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes: the only book I actually went in for (looking for books on shipwrecks in Door County/Lake Michigan specifically but this one looked good

Dead Eleven: was on a table with my last read, A Death In Door County, and is billed as “if Stranger Things was set in Door County,” so I had to have it!

Death in the Dark Woods (to see if I can order a signed copy from Boswell Books in Milwaukee)

The Friday 56: The Mary Shelley Club

The Friday 56 is a weekly blog meme hosted by Freda’s Voice. How to participate: Grab a book, any book. Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay. Find a snippet, short and sweet. Post it, and link up on Freda’s Voice so everyone knows to visit.

This week I’m participating with: The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky!

Blurb:

New girl Rachel Chavez is eager to make a fresh start at Manchester Prep. But as one of the few scholarship kids, Rachel struggles to fit in, and when she gets caught up in a prank gone awry, she ends up with more enemies than friends.

To her surprise, however, the prank attracts the attention of the Mary Shelley Club, a secret club of students with one objective: come up with the scariest prank to orchestrate real fear. But as the pranks escalate, the competition turns cutthroat and takes on a life of its own.

When the tables are turned and someone targets the club itself, Rachel must track down the real-life monster in their midst . . . even if it means finally confronting the dark secrets from her past.

Friday 56 Excerpt:

I would be like Malcom McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. My eyelids forcibly pulled back as I watched the horror unfold before me.

What is the horror this character is facing? Can you guess? Would you/have you read this one? I just relistened to the audiobook of this one and enjoyed it.

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Nightbane!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released.

Nightbane by Alex Asher

Lightlark, Book 2

YA Fantasy

eBook, Hardcover, 384 Pages

November 7, 2023 by Abrams Books

Blurb:

Isla Crown has secured the love of two powerful rulers and broken the curses that plagued the six realms for centuries, but few know the true origins of her powers. Now, in the wake of a crushing betrayal, Isla finds herself hungry for distraction, preferring to frequent Lightlark’s seductive haunts instead of embracing her duties as the newly crowned leader of two separate realms. Worse, her fellow rulers haven’t ceded victory quietly, and there are others in Isla’s midst who don’t believe her ascent to power was earned. As certain death races toward Lightlark and secrets from the past begin to unravel, Isla must weigh her responsibility to her people against the whims of the most dangerous traitor of all: her heart.

Why I Want to Read This Book:

I loved the first book, Lightlark, and I’m eager to see what’s going to happen in book 2!

Will you be checking this one out? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?

Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season 2023 Kick Off: 92 Days of Spooks, Scares, and Cozy Reads

Hey Horror, Fall, and Halloween Fans! We’re back for year 2 of Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season! This year is going to be bigger and better than ever featuring games, giveaways, a read-a-thon and 92 days of spooks, scares, and cozy reads now-Halloween!

How it Works:

Calling everyone who loves reading spooky, paranormal, or cozy books during the fall season. Everyone who’s streaming queues are loaded down with slasher flicks, paranormal treats, and seasonal movies/shows. Join me in celebrating Spooky Season 2023!

How You Can Join In:Declare your Spooky Season TBR List on social media or in a blog post and tag it with #taylorfennersspookyseason2023 (Horror, Thriller, Cozy Mystery, Paranormal, Vampire, Werewolf, Witchy Reads Welcome! They don’t have to be first time reads, rereading is welcome!)Make A Spooky Season Watch List Make a post (blog, twitter, threads, TikTok, facebook, instagram, etc.) talking about your favorite things that go bump in the night, favorite movie monsters, mini or full reviews of your Spooky Season reads and movies and use hashtag: #taylorfennersspookyseason2023Make a post (again anywhere you wish) about folklore, Halloween behind the scenes, or events local to you that have an air of the spooky season and use hashtag: #taylorfennersspookyseason2023Show off your Halloween costumes!Participate in Spooky Season Bingo, participate in the Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season Bookstagram Challenge in October, and participate in the Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season Halloween Weekend Read-a-Thon! Spooky Season TBR:Happily Haunted Afters by Brittany KelleyThe Wicked Unseen by Gigi GriffisThe Heiress by Rachel HawkinsDon’t Stay Up Late by R.L. StineHallowe’en Party by Agatha ChristieA Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth HandGood Bad Girl by Alice FeeneyThe Only One Left by Riley SagerHow to Sell A Haunted House by Grady HendrixThe Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu MandannaThe Dead House by Dawn KurtagichThe Return by Rachel HarrisonSpooky Season Watchlist:

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

A Haunting in Venice

Hocus Pocus 1 & 2

Scream 1-6

Halloween 1, 2, H20, and Halloween Ends

Friday the 13th

Halloweentown 1-4

The Fog

Crimson Peak

Virgin River Season 5

Light as a Feather (Hulu)

First Kill (Netflix)

The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)

Good Witch (movies and show)

and more…!

Events:August 1 – October 31

Tag @taylorfennerwrites (IG and TikTok) and @tayloredinwisconsin (IG and Threads in posts so I can see them

Use hashtag: #taylorfennersspookyseason2023bookishbingo

1 Randomly Chosen Winner who shows a filled out bingo card will receive a book off their Amazon wishlist (US) or a $15 Amazon e-gift card (Winner Chosen November 1, 2023)

October 1-31

Post books following the weekly themes on Instagram and use hashtag #taylorfennersspookyseason2023

October 27-29

What Genres Count?

Horror, Thriller, Cozy Mystery, Paranormal, Vampire, Werewolf, Witchy, Seasonal, Books Set in Fall! Rereads are totally fine! Audiobook, Physical Books, eBooks, However you read books!

Use hashtag #taylorfennersspookyseasonrat on social media to join the fun.

There will also be a post where you can link up your Goodreads shelf or blog posts to track your progress!

Let me know below if you will be participating by linking to your Goodreads shelf for “Taylor Fenner’s Spooky Season 2023” or your blog post/social media post!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: A Death In Door County

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Socrates Book Reviews where you share the first paragraph of one of the books that you are currently reading. Each week bloggers will choose a book or books of the week (which will be one of the books that you are currently reading) and that book will take part in this book blog meme.

This week I’m participating with: A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan

First Chapter, First Paragraph:Blurb:

A Wisconsin bookstore owner and cryptozoologist is asked to investigate a series of deaths that just might be proof of a fabled lake monster in this first installment of a new mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan.

Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she’s not tending the store, she’s hunting cryptids—creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be real. It’s a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she’ll never give up on.

So when a number of bodies turn up on the shores of Lake Michigan with injuries that look like bites from a giant unknown animal, police chief Jon Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart, Morgan can’t turn down the opportunity to find proof of an entity whose existence she can’t definitively rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to the Death’s Door strait to hunt for a homicidal monster in the lake—but if they’re not careful, they just might be its next victims.

What do you think? Would you keep reading? I just got this book and I’m looking forward to reading it soon. Plus it’s set in my home state!