Taylor Fenner's Blog, page 35

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: The Bones of the Story

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: The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman

First Chapter, First Paragraph:

“I’m just having trouble getting back on track.”

Blurb:

The twisty locked-room mystery from two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, about a group of former classmates trapped on their college campus—with a murderer among them.

“One of the best and smartest locked-room mysteries I’ve read in a long time. A page-turner with both heart and brains. Don’t miss it!”—David Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe and She’s Gone

It’s been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the double tragedy. Now, the college President is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.

On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.

When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?

I know the first line/first paragraph doesn’t give much away but I really loved this one! I definitely recommend it if you like locked door mysteries as much as I do!

The Broken Darkness Audiobook Tour

Dark fantasy, speculative fiction, horror, you name it, The Broken Darkness has it! Read on for more details!

The Broken Darkness

Publication Date: January 26th, 2023

Genre: Dark Fiction/ Spec Fiction/ Short Story Collection

Publisher: Gorgon Blood Press

In her debut collection, Theresa Braun explores the inner workings of the human heart and what it is we most desire—forgiveness, acceptance, love, fame, or merely to escape who we really are. Whether we are battling ghosts, demons, mythical monsters, the past, or other dimensions, we are really facing the deepest parts of ourselves. These thirteen tales of horror and dark fantasy may appear to be a matter of good versus evil, but they are all a reflection of the hidden corners of the soul that are often shades of broken darkness. The characters in these stories must face their inner and outer terrors, or else suffer the consequences.

Get it on Audible

About the Author:

Theresa Braun has a Master’s degree in English literature and lives in South Florida where she has taught literature and writing for over 20 years. Traveling, ghost hunting, and all things dark are her passions. In 2018 Unnerving released her horror novel Fountain Dead, a coming-of-age ghost story. Her short works have appeared in The Horror Zine, Sirens Call, Hardened Hearts, and Best Indie Speculative Fiction: November 2018, Double Barrel Horror (Volume 3) and Emporium of Superstition.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Audiobook Tour Organized By:

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 24 July 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 didn’t get a lot of reading time last week because I took advantage of the beautiful weather and got out and about on my days off.

Last Week I Read:The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman

I loved this book so much! I was really sad when I finished it because I really enjoyed it. Luckily I had one of this author’s audiobooks to get to if I want to stay with her writing style.

Currently Reading:Powerless by Elsie Silver

I’m struggling a bit with this one. I’ve loved the rest of the books in this series but I’m having trouble connecting with the two main characters in this one.

The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky

This is a reread except this time I’m listening to the audiobook. I’m about 60% through and I know what’s coming up. Ah our poor naive heroine…

Next Read:The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

I need a quick read after I finally finish all 504 pages of Powerless and this short Christmas thriller should hopefully do the trick.

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

Can’t Wait Wednesday: A Haunting on the Hill

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.

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand

Horror/Thriller

Ebook, Hardcover, Audiobook, 336 pages

October 3, 2023 by Sphere Books

Blurb:

From three-time Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, and Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever authorized novel to return to the world of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House: a suspenseful, contemporary, and terrifying story of longing and isolation all its own.

Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play The Witch of Edmonton , she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the ornate, if crumbling, gothic mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie—the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house out for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone . . .

Why I Want to Read This Book:

The Haunting of Hill House is one of those books I absolutely love all the retellings of from movies to books. This being the first “authorized” retelling intrigued me and I can’t wait to check it out!

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

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books with 1-Word Titles

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish and currently hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books with 1-Word Titles

This week’s TTT was submitted by Angela @ Reading Frenzy Book Blog and is books with one-word titles.

1-4. Flawless, Heartless, Powerless, and Reckless by Elsie Silver5. Fallen by Linda Castillo6. Phantom by Greer Rivers7. Lightlark by Alex Asher8. Credence by Penelope Douglas9. Verity by Colleen Hoover10. War by Laura Thalassa

Have you read any of these? Which books did you pick with one-word titles?

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: Heartless

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: Heartless by Elsie Silver

First Chapter, First Paragraph:

Lucy Reid’s eyes flutter my way. The look in them is just a little too appreciative for my taste.

Blurb:

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.

What do you think? Would you keep reading? I just finished this one and I loved it! It might be my favorite book in the series!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 17 July 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! Did you get a lot of reading done over the weekend? I got a fair amount in, devouring an almost 500 page book in 2 afternoons.

Last Week I Read:Heartless by Elsie Silver

This one might be my favorite of the series so far! I loved it so much!!

Currently Reading:The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman

This book sucked me in right away. The only annoyance I have is the repetitious reminder of Covid/lockdown/the pandemic. We get it, everything shut down for a while and it affected businesses and schools… you don’t need to remind us every other paragraph, we all lived through it.

Next Read:Powerless by Elsie Silver

Once I read this one I’ll be all caught up on the series until Helpless releases.

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

The Sunday Post: Newly Licensed Driver, Good Day/Bad Day, and Catching up on Shows

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.

Newly Licensed Driver, Good Day/Bad Day, and Catching up on Shows

Hey Bookdragons! Happy Sunday! How is your weekend going? It’s a working one for me but I did manage to get some errands ran yesterday.

On Wednesday I had my DMV road test and… I passed! I am now a licensed driver who can go places without someone having to tag along! Its such a relief and I can’t stop thinking of all the places I want to go!

Thursday to celebrate I decided to go get my nails done, have lunch at Chili’s, grab a Starbucks, and then do some grocery shopping. It was all very relaxing until I got to Chilis and no more than sat down and checked my phone and saw a text from one of my mom’s friends demanding – yes demanding, not asking – to know what time I would be arriving to visit my mom at the hospice center. And demanding to be advised of any changes in her health. It hit me the wrong way. This woman is not family and just because she has all the time day in and day out to sit by my mom doesn’t give her the right to guilt trip my sister or I by telling us we’re not visiting enough. Thursday was my last day off before going back to work and I hadn’t grocery shopped in about 2 weeks and needed food for dinners before I go to work. My sister and I also are still working full time. We are doing the best we can. And this was literally the day after I got my license and the hospice center is 45 miles from home in an area I’m not at all familiar with. All I wanted was a self-care day, was that too much to ask?

In other news, I’ve been catching up on shows I’ve either started watching or been meaning to watch. I just started rewatching NCIS on Netflix.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 10 July 2023

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: Summer Rental

Top Ten Tuesday: My 10 Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Holly Horror

The Friday 56: Summer Rental

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 17 July 2023

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros: Heartless

Can’t Wait Wednesday: A Haunting on the Hill

What I’m Binge-Watching

The Friday 56: Heartless

Ebooks:eARCs:

The Friday 56: Summer Rental by Rektok Ross

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 Summer Rental by Rektok Ross!

Blurb:

MEAN GIRLS meets SCREAM in this heart-pounding psychological thriller about a group of friends stranded on an island with a serial killer on the loose.

Riley March and her friends are headed to ritzy, remote Palm Key Island for one last blow-out party weekend before college. It’s the vacation of a beautiful beaches, epic nightlife, and hot guys like Riley’s crush–superstar soccer player Sebastian Ramos. There’s just one catch. Everyone on this trip is hiding something. Riley is hiding her past in order to fit in. Sebastian is hiding his feelings for Riley. And someone is hiding what really happened to Jordyn Chang, a classmate that mysteriously died last summer.

Things take a dark turn after one of their friends goes missing, and a hurricane cuts the group off from civilization. Trapped inside their rental house, a killer stalks them one by one. No one is safe. Everyone’s a suspect. As the body count rises, Riley and her friends will have to confront the secrets they’ve been keeping if they want to stay alive . . .

Friday 56 Excerpt:

“Holy shit!” she exclaims an instant later, jumping up and looking back at us with a mischievous grin. “They have a Ouija board. We have to play!”

Nothing good ever comes from playing with a Ouija board does it? What do you think? Would you read this one? I read it at the beginning of the month and it’s in the Top 5 of my favorite reads in the first half of 2023!

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Holly Horror

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.

Holly Horror by Michelle Jabès Corpora

YA, Paranormal, Horror

eBook, Hardcover, 320 Pages

August 15, 2023 by Penguin Teen

Blurb:

“Playmate, come and play with me…”

A beloved classic reimagined with a dark twist.

After her parents’ painful divorce, Evie Archer hopes that moving to Ravenglass, Massachusetts, is the fresh start that her family needs. But Evie quickly realizes that her new home—known by locals as the Horror House—carries its own dark past after learning about Holly Hobbie, who mysteriously vanished in her bedroom one night.

But traces of Holly linger in the Horror House and slowly begin to take over Evie’s life. A strange shadow follows her everywhere she goes, and Evie starts to lose sight of what’s real and what isn’t the more she learns about The Lost Girl.

Can Evie find out what happened the night of Holly’s disappearance? Or is history doomed to repeat itself in the Horror House?

Why I Want to Read This Book:

A creepy house? A town with an eerie name? A girl who mysteriously disappeared? This just sounds awesome and the cover is really cool.

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