Wishlist | Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

 Hell Bent is the sequel to Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House.

Alex Stern returns in another tale of murder and dark magic set among the Ivy League elite…

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of hell—even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. But Alex is playing with forces far beyond her control, and when faculty members begin to die off, she knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if Alex is going to survive, she'll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university's very walls.

I loved Night House - the first book in this series.  My {review of Ninth House}. It was a great cross between fantasy and horror. I'm looking forward to reading Hell Bent at the beginning of 2023.

Bunnies are becoming the mascot for horror lately! I'm so sorry, bunnies. You are all becoming so scary.

Are you a Leigh Bardugo fan? Have you read Ninth House?

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This post is being shared as part of Can't-Wait Wednesday over at Wishful Endings.

Books I Love That Were Written Over Ten Years Ago

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. 

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon {review of Boy's Life}

Swan Song by Robert McCammon {review of Swan Song}

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons {review of The House Next Door}

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White 

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie {review of And Then There Were None}

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier {review of Rebecca}

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Princess Bride by William Goldman {review of The Princess Bride}

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood {review of The Willows}

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | August 14

We were back to school this week. It feels like it came out of nowhere this year. I'm not sure where the summers are going, but part of it is just the simple fact that they go back to school so early now. We had our first cross country meet of the year yesterday. My son had to be on the bus by 4:15am, and then we traveled to watch his first race.

I have a question for back to school moms. Do you have any favorite go to tips, tricks, snacks, meals for lunches? My kids ate at school a lot last year because the district still had covid money and didn't charge for meals. All of that has ended and lunches are way too expensive for mediocre food (as my son's computer science teacher delicately put it!) I'd like to give them some variety, and I worry about them eating enough being so active all day.

Finished Reading

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr ⭐⭐⭐★★ - I am hoping to have a full review up this week. I think this book is great for the right audience.

Paper Girls, Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughan ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - I'm having a lot of fun with this series. I'm hoping to start the show soon.

Currently Reading

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson - The Alloy of Law is Mistborn #4 (the first book in era 2 of Mistborn). I'm loving it. I'm hoping to read one a month until the final book of era 2 is released in November.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - You might remember I just read this in 2021. It took me all year. I don't know why I had such a strong desire this week to read it again, but I'm giving into my moods this year.

Added to the TBR

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall - Yay! I love Kate Alice Marshall so much. This was a preorder, and I can't wait to read it!

Gunmetal Gods and Conqueror's Blood by Zamil Akhtar - I've been hearing such great things about these books so I grabbed the audiobooks to check them out.

I couldn't resist the ebook sale for the The Winnowing Flame Trilogy (The Ninth Rain, The Bitter Twins, The Poison Song) by Jen Williams. I love these covers so much, I'd still love to own them in hard copy some day, but I may just have to read them first and buy them if I love them.

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, Book Date It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | August 6

I just learned you can pin posts to the top row of your Instagram page. Did you know? I'm sure this is Instagram 101, but I'm terrible at Instagram 😂

You can follow me on Instagram if you want more proof!

Seriously, though, I'd love to use Instagram more, but it's such a struggle. My feed seems to only be reels and sponsored posts that aren't even about books. It's kind of miserable. But I enjoy scrolling back and looking at what I've read so I'm trying to get in the habit of using it more.

Posted Last Week

Book Review | Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Finished Reading

I read Paper Girls, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ and reread The Sandman : Sleep of the Just by Neil Gaiman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in hopes of starting each of the Netflix series soon!

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - I also finished my reread of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Glad to have read this one again.

Currently Reading

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr - Cloud Cuckoo Land was my pick for this month's book club. I'm starting to love it. I was worried at first due to all of the POVs and the sprawling timeline, but I have high hopes for this one. I just need to figure out how to squeeze in 600+ pages this weekend 😆

Added to the TBR

Mister Slaughter, The Providence Rider, The River of Souls, Freedom of the Mask, and Cardinal Black by Robert McCammon are all finally available in trade paperback editions so I had to order them! I'm hoping to finally catch up on the Matthew Corbett series. These are books #3-7.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney - I was keeping my fingers and toes crossed that Daisy Darker would be a selection for the August Book of the Month box, and it was! I enjoyed Feeney's Rock Paper Scissors, but more importantly the reviews for Daisy Darker have been so great. I'm looking forward to reading it!

Currently Watching

Baseball. Baseball, baseball, baseball and not much else.

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, Book Date It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Time is the first book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series.

Adrian Tchaikovksy's award-winning novel Children of Time, is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Who will inherit this new Earth?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age -- a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

So I hate spiders. But what I do love is reading about alien life forms. That is a favorite thing. There are uplifted (intelligent) spiders in Children of Time, and they are honestly the best story line of the book.

Children of Time also follows a dual timeline of a ship crewed by the last humans.

I originally gave this book 3 stars when I read it back in 2019, but I can't remember why my rating wasn't higher. It has remained with me and I've been wanting to reread it ever since. As per usual when I reread something, I'm upping my rating. Children of Ruin (the sequel to Children of Time) came out a few years ago, but I haven't read it yet. It's been hard for me to read the chunky, epic books that I used to read, but I've made a few changes to my reading life this year that will free up more time for the chunky SFF books I've been missing.

I recently found out the third book (Childen of Memory) will be coming out later this year so this turned out to be perfect timing to jump back into this universe.

The only other book I've read by Adrian Tchaikovsky is Walking to Aldebaran which I really enjoyed as well. I'd love to read a lot more of his catalog. I've heard amazing thing about his fantasy novel Guns of the Dawn.

If you haven't read anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky, it sounds like you can really start anywhere with his books, but I do recommend this one if you love science fiction and discovering new species (even if that new species happens to be spiders!).

4/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐★

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