Taylor Fenner's Blog, page 7
January 27, 2025
Top Ten Tuesday: 10 New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024
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 New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024This week’s TTT is about new-to-us authors we read for the first time in 2024. Here are mine…
1. Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
2. Jenn Plummer 
3. Alison Weir
4. Brynne Weaver 
5. Eva Simmons
xr:d:DAF5EZYuRPo:56,j:365209648298368942,t:240208216. Jenny Kiefer
7. Erica Ruth Neubauer
8. Ali Hazelwood
9. Amy Daws
10. Bee Littlefield
What authors did you read for the first time in 2024? Did any of mine make your list?
January 26, 2025
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 27 January 2025
This week I’m linking up to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? Hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date!
#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.
Last Week I Read:Holly Horror by Michelle Jabes Corpora
This one wasn’t awful but I didn’t love it either. It was like I described it last week, predictable. But that gorgeous cover… 
I loved this one and my friend is just finishing it up for our buddy read. I already placed a hold on book 2 through my library’s Libby system.
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
What if there was a cult dedicated to your favorite childhood show? That was this book. I enjoyed it but I felt the ending was a letdown.
Sweet Girl by Jenn Plummer
This was a really hot Valentine’s Day novella. If you like spicy why choose romance check this one out!
Currently Reading:The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
I had this one on hold so long I forgot what it was about. Right now I’m leaning toward DNFing it.
Reading Next:A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
My Libby hold came through on this one so it will be my next audiobook.
What are you reading and loving this week? Have you read any of these?
January 25, 2025
The Sunday Post: Cold Snaps, Onyx Storm, and Slowly Emerging
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.
Cold Snaps, Onyx Storm, and Slowly EmergingHey Book Blogger Friends! I won’t ask how your week was. This past week was… a lot.
The beginning of this week brought some of the coldest windchills I can remember in my part of Wisconsin in my lifetime (I’m 32) at -35 degrees. When I picked up groceries on Monday I had to wear leggings under my sweatpants, 2 pairs of socks, a t-shirt under my hoodie, my heaviest winter coat, gloves, a hat, and scarf. I looked kind of like Count Orlock from Nosferatu in my coat.
Tuesday as many already know was release day for Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. Amazon was unable to fulfill my preorder due to “supply chain issues” as of Thursday and I spent 2 hours looking for it yesterday at any store I could think of that sold books. Don’t worry, I have a friend hopefully tracking me down a copy on Monday otherwise I’m 1,414th in line for the audiobook from my library. I still think this is an unfair gimmick on the publisher’s part.
Now that we’re approaching the end of January and the cold snap has ended I’m slowly getting back out into the world as my seasonal affective disorder lifts a little and I’m glad it doesn’t feel like I’m being strangled by depression anymore.
Last Week on the Blog:
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 20 January 2025
Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection
Can’t Wait Wednesday: Victorian Psycho
First Line Friday: 24 January 2025
Stacking the Shelves: 25 January 2025
It’s Monday! What are you reading? – 27 January 2025
Top Ten Tuesday: 10 New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024
Can’t Wait Wednesday: Tears of the Wolf!
Book Review: All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles
First Line Friday: 31 January 2025
eARC:
January 24, 2025
Stacking the Shelves: 25 January 2025
Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.
Books Added to My Shelves This Week:This week I received a new release from an author whose Patreon I subscribe to and a special edition I found used.
Signed Book:I subscribe to Eva Simmons’s Patreon and the tier I’m on always gets signed paperback copies of her new releases. Ghost just released last week.
Special Edition:I knew I wanted a physical copy of Butcher and Blackbird after reading an ebook copy from the library last year. I debated between the collector’s edition and the Bookish Box edition which I’d been eying on PangoBooks and decided to go with the Bookish Box one because it had cooler special features.
What books did you add to your shelves this week? Have you/do you plan to read either of these?
January 23, 2025
First Line Friday: 24 January 2025
This week I’m joining First Line Friday. First Line Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Carrie @ Reading is My Superpower! So grab the book nearest you, your current read, or the book on top of your TBR stack and share the first line.
My pick this week is…
Holly Horror by Michelle Jabes CorporaBlurb:“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?
And the first line is…
The little silver car darted down the country roads like a minnow, cresting the hills and dipping low into the valleys, carrying three new souls into western Massachusetts.
As first lines go this one is just so-so. Kind of like the book overall sadly.
January 21, 2025
Can’t Wait Wednesday: Victorian Psycho
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.
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Horror/Thriller, Standalone
eBook, Hardcover, Paperback, 208 Pages
February 4, 2025 by Liveright
Blurb:From the devious author of Mrs. March comes a gruesome and gleeful new novel that probes the psyche of a bloodthirsty governess.
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines, and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan. Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past. When her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning, Winifred is finally ready to deliver on her generous gifts.
Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.
Why I Want to Read This Book:I just saw a glowing review of this book online and the reviewer said it was dark and readers might find it repulsive and grotesque but it was also funny and had really good twists. With descriptions like that I’m more than curious about it!
Will you be checking this book out? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?
January 20, 2025
Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection
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: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Book CollectionThis week’s TTT is all about the most recent additions to our book collections so let’s talk recent book mail!
1. All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles (Signed Copy)
2. Ready or Not by Jenn Plummer (Signed Copy)3. The Night in Question by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
4. Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver (Bookish Box Edition) 5. Ghost by Eva Simmons (Signed Copy)6. The Witch’s Guide to Manifestation by Mystic Dylan
7. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (Audiobook)
8. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (Physical Copy – previously borrowed audiobook from library)
9. Mind Games by Nora Roberts (Physical copy, read an eARC last spring)
10. A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall (ARC)
What was your most recent book mail?
January 19, 2025
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 20 January 2025
This week I’m linking up to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? Hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date!
#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.
I feel like I’m dragging my way through books this month even if I have finished quite a few so far. Last week wasn’t a great reading week…
Last Week I Read:The Family Plot by Megan Collins
I was so eager to read this book but I ended up hating most of the characters but especially the main character and I shelved it for now. I may go back to it, I may not.
Currently Reading:Holly Horror by Michelle Jabes CorporaThis one has been on my TBR since before it released and I got it through my library’s Libby app. It’s kind of predictable and I’m just trying to get through it.
What The River Knows by Isabel IbanezI’m doing a buddy read of this one with one of my friends. I’m enjoying it so far but I’m way ahead of my friend. Oops. It is a library audiobook borrow and it’s due tomorrow though so I’ll either have to binge it to finish or renew it.
Reading Next:Mister Magic by Kiersten WhiteThis is another library audiobook hold that just came in. I didn’t love Hide by this author (it was okay, 3 knives) but I’m intrigued by this one and hope I like it!
What are you reading and loving this week? Have you read any of these?
January 11, 2025
The Sunday Post: Flu, New Coffee Shops, and Candle making
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.
Flu, New Coffee Shops, and Candle MakingHey Book Blogger Friends! How was your week?
After everyone around me had some type of flu right after New Year, last Sunday I finally succumbed. Thankfully I had the flu shot so I had a really minor case and only was out of work one day.
Friday was my only day off this week (besides having a sick day on Sunday I mean) and I needed to get out and do something and after much debate I went to the gourmet food store in the next town for charcuterie supplies and then checked out the new coffee shop I was supposed to go to with one of my friends last week. I had a cortado and it was really good.
This weekend I busted out the candle making kit I gifted myself for Christmas and made a candle. It turned out pretty good for my first attempt in about 6-7 years.
Last Week on the Blog: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 6 January 2025
First Line Friday: 10 January 2025
My Year In Books: A Meme – 2024
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 13 January 2025
ARC Review: The Lost House by Melissa Larsen
First Line Friday: 17 January 2025
This week I borrowed Holly Horror from the library’s Libby program.
Bookmarked This Week: My Year In Books — a meme (Head Full of Books)
January 10, 2025
My Year In Books: A Meme – 2024
Anne Bennett from Head Full of Books is bringing back this meme from 2017 and I had so much fun joining in. All my thriller reading in 2024 made for some fun answers!
My Year In Books 2024Rules?
Answer the questions with titles from books you read in 2024. (Some may end up being silly, others may seem overly serious.) The goal is to have fun. Participate by copying the questions below. Erasing my answers and inserting you own. Once you’ve created your post, link it at Head Full of Books so others can see it, then visit others’ posts to see how they answered the questions.Spread the word. Let’s see if we can make this a thing again this year!Questions:In high school I was: Keyless at the Coffee Station (Bee Littlefield)
People might be surprised: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect (Benjamin Stevenson)
I will never be: In a Dark, Dark Wood (Ruth Ware)
My fantasy job is: Beyond Those Gilded Walls (Jessica S. Taylor)
At the end of a long day I need: Mad Love (Wendy Walker)
I hate it: What Grows in the Dark (Jaq Evans)
Wish I had: The Long Weekend (Gilly Macmillan)
My family reunions are: Twelve Days of Murder (Andreina Cordani)
At a party you’d find me: Only If You’re Lucky (Stacy Willingham)
I’ve never been to: The Midnight Feast (Lucy Foley)
A happy day includes: One Poison Pie (Lynn Cahoon)
Motto I live by: No Strangers Here (Carlene O’Connor)
On my bucket list is: Coram House (Bailey Seybolt)
In my next life, I want to have: The Hotel (Louise Mumford)
