Mixing It Up
I know tomorrow is Monday once again but hopefully these Harry Potter cupcakes will brighten your day! I don’t normally share a lot of things about myself because honestly I’m not all that interesting. 😂 Although I love reading and painting, I also love decorating cupcakes. I used to have a lot more time on my hands before I has three sweet kiddos so I’m able to decorate cupcakes as much as I used to. I still love getting out the fondant every once in a while.
What’s something you enjoy doing other than reading (running, hiking, bowling, gardening, painting)?
The Institute by Stephen King- Book Review
This was my second Stephen King book I read earlier this year and absolutely loved it. I literally couldn’t put it down and read it in 3 nights. I really enjoyed this one because the story was so intriguing with a different twist. I fell in love with all the kids in this book and rooted for them until the very end! This story was engaging and King does amazing writing when it surrounds pure evil. He knows exactly how to get you hooked into a story of innocence and bring out the evil and selfishness of those around it. This one is a definite 5⭐ read!
Synopsis:
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.
Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh- Book Review
I have loved @melindaleigh1 books for years now, especially The Morgan Dane series. She is one of my go to authors because I love both her stories and her characters. I’m excited and already hooked on her new series, The Bree Taggert Series, which debuted in March! The characters are great and so easy to connect with and the story is intriguing with just the right amount of suspense/mystery and a little romance. Thank you to @netgalleyand @amazonpublishing for the ARC. This book came out it March but there is a second book in this series that is scheduled to come out in September and I’m so excited this story continuing. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Synopsis:
For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.
Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home. Once again, Bree’s family is caught in a death grip. And this time, it could be fatal for her.
The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths- Book Review
have loved this series since the first book and the latest book in the series did not disappoint. I love Dr Ruth Galloway’s character once again. I always come back to the series because her. This book offered the suspense and mystery that I love and the ending completely surprised me. This is the 12th book in the series and I love to continue reading about some of my favorite characters. The only problem I had was that this book takes place two years after the last book so I was a little confused and wondering if I had missed something while reading the first few chapters. Thank you to @netgalleyand @hmhbooks for the ARC. If you haven’t heard of this series then I highly encourage you to check it out. This book will be published July 14th. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.
Synopsis:
Everything has changed for Ruth Galloway. She has a new job, home, and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried—but only if Ruth will do the digging.
Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees. March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths.
Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over?
Quote found on Pinterest.
The Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight- Book Review
Thank you to #partner @harperbooks for gifting me this book! I flew through this one because I couldn’t put it down. It was so freaking good and such a great mystery/suspense book. I loved the main character Lizzie and felt she was easy to connect with which is always a plus when I feel a connection with the main character. @kimberlymccreightdid an amazing job with all the twist and turns in this story and completely surprised me with the ending. The last few pages had me biting my nails as all the truth was coming out! I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.
Synopsis:
Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart. No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes. The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect. As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.
Well Played by Jen DeLuca- Book Review
Thank you to @berkleypub and @netgalley for this ARC. This was another fun read by Jen DeLuca. I read Well Met earlier this year and when I received this ARC I immediately started reading and ended up finishing it in one night. Those sleepless hours were lost but not regreted. I love that this story tied in with the characters of Well Met and focused on Emily’s friend Stacy (Anastasia). I laughed out loud many times trying not to wake my husband sleeping next me. It was such a cute and fast paced read! This book will be published Sept. 22nd. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.
Synopsis:
Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it’s been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she’ll even find The One.
When Stacey imagined “The One,” it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she’s not sure what to make of it.
Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey’s shock, it isn’t Dex—she’s been falling in love with a man she barely knows.
Well Met by Jen DeLuca- Book Review
I really liked this book and thought it was super cute. Emily was a fun character and extremely relatable. It takes you into the whimsical world of the Renaissance Faire and makes you feel as if you are truly there with the characters. The chemistry between Simon and Emily was perfect and made you root for them the whole was through. I also enjoyed there relationship because it showed flaws in it as well as them and that’s definitely part of reality. If you are looking for a cute and fun rom com then I highly recommend this one. There were so many great laugh out loud moments in this one! It’s also a great summer book that you won’t be able to put down. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Synopsis:
Emily knew there would be strings attached when she relocated to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland, for the summer to help her sister recover from an accident, but who could anticipate getting roped into volunteering for the local Renaissance Faire alongside her teenaged niece? Or that the irritating and inscrutable schoolteacher in charge of the volunteers would be so annoying that she finds it impossible to stop thinking about him?
The faire is Simon’s family legacy and from the start he makes clear he doesn’t have time for Emily’s lighthearted approach to life, her oddball Shakespeare conspiracy theories, or her endless suggestions for new acts to shake things up. Yet on the faire grounds he becomes a different person, flirting freely with Emily when she’s in her revealing wench’s costume. But is this attraction real, or just part of the characters they’re portraying?
This summer was only ever supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else for Emily, but soon she can’t seem to shake the fantasy of establishing something more with Simon or a permanent home of her own in Willow Creek.
This Girl's Bookshelf 