Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let’s share some songs we’ve been enjoying lately! If you would like to play, and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below HERE
Hi Everyone. Another week and I did do a ton of reading. I got soooo wrapped up in Jack Killborn’s novels that I couldn’t stop. I read everything I had on my Kindle. WOW…some great stories! Have you read any of his work? I’ve also been reading some A M Hargrove. Have you ever read her work? She writes some steamy romances, but I first learned of her through her Guardians of Vesturon series. We have been having some pretty nice weather since Ida went through. Luckily, for us, it curved around us. We did have some squalls as the bands passed over us, but they were quick and like a normal afternoon summer thunderstorm here in the Florida Panhandle. We are having a bit of a cooling off spell. The pool is more refreshing, though I still prefer the high 80s. I have become a wuss. That means the clock is ticking and summer is going out with a bang. LOL
Stay safe and wear a mask..
LAST WEEK ON fundinmental
COMING UP ON fundinmental
I got the idea and the motivation to start doing Tackling The TBR from All The Book Blog Names Are Taken. It has helped me to keep track of my reading shelf as far as current events and I also started doing a post for Books From The Backlog, from Carole’s Random Life in Books, to tidy up my shelves. I feel better about my out of control TBR and have even knocked off a couple of those old ones that had been hanging around for years.
COME ON….JOIN IN.
Previous Total: 2240
Currently Reading
Books Read
Books Added
Books DNF-ed: 0
Books Deleted: 5
Duplicates Removed: 2
New TBR Total: 2225
Like most siblings, Tuesday and Zed don’t always get along. Unlike most siblings, their arguments are over things like whether their parents are hiding a life of crime, or are simply the weirdest adults on the planet. When they decide to go on the hunt for some solid evidence, things get weirder than ever: two thugs with shape-shifting swords show up, their dog shows off some tricks she definitely didn’t learn in obedience school, and even their treehouse turns out to be more than meets the eye.
Their escape leaves Zed and Tuesday stranded in a land where robots and holograms live alongside quaint medieval villagers and soldiers on horseback. Soldiers who insist their father is a disgraced fugitive, and their dog a legendary monster.
If they ever want to see their parents again, they’ll have to learn to work together. After all, they’ve got a mysterious code to break, secrets to unlock, bandits and soldiers to outwit, and a rowdy dog whose antics are getting more outrageous by the minute. Even if they manage to evade the eerie secret police and uncover enough clues to figure out what’s really going on, they’re not sure they’re going to like the truth.
Zed and Tuesday will have to decide who to trust and what really matters, or they’ll never get back to normal (whatever that is.) Because when it comes to normal, everything is relative.
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Malice in Miami: A Jamie Quinn Mystery
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Independently Published (June 9, 2021)
Paperback : 318 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8518046757
Digital ASIN : B08P27FRL6
Reluctant family law attorney Jamie Quinn is loving life–and why wouldn’t she? Her boyfriend Kip is back from Australia, her long-lost dad finally has his visa and she’s about to start her dream job at an art foundation. But it all falls apart when Jamie is accused of stealing priceless art from a rare book collection. If she can’t find out who framed her, she can kiss her dream job good-bye–and her law license too. Meanwhile, Kip has problems of his own. Now an environmental activist, he uncovers a deadly secret–one that just might get him killed. Jamie’s in trouble, Kip’s in danger, and Duke Broussard has gone AWOL. How could Jamie’s favorite P.I. abandon her at a time like this?
Barbara Venkataraman is an attorney and author of the award-winning Jamie Quinn Cozy Mystery series, as well as Teatime with Mrs. Grammar Person, Quirky Essays for Quirky People, and A Year of Shorts: Flash Fiction. Her books have won numerous awards including Indie Book of the Day, First Place in the 2016 Chanticleer Murder & Mayhem Mystery Writing Competition, Gold Medal in the Readers’ Favorite Contest for Memoir, and Two-time Finalist in the Kindle Book Awards. She also co-authored Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four with her son Josh about his four-year quest to obtain posthumous pardons for The Groveland Four.
Author Links – Amazon Author Page – GoodReads
Purchase Link – Amazon
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Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.
If you would like to join in, swing by Carole’s Random Life in Books.
GOODREADS BLURB
2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist-Young Adult Fiction, ForeWord Reviews
“Sure to win over YA readers looking for a dangerous, dystopian adventure story” —Kirkus Reviews
“Gripping young adult dystopian novel; compelling conflicts; high stakes; powerful narrative; surprises keep coming; strong writing; page-turner; engaging characters; Readers will be hungry for the sequels.”—BlueInk Review (starred review)
“Thomason’s description of Thera’s totalitarianism will make fans of Brave New World shiver… SCI, her fantasy corporation, has disturbing parallels to actual companies and regimes that claim to do good while harming people… The author deftly appeals to both romance-loving teens as well as those intrigued by young adults fighting the establishment.”—Foreword Clarion Review, 4 stars
Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance™. Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving—forced lifetime union between two people who have sex. Punishment for disobeying SCI edicts? Immediate Exile or death.
Meet Kira Donovan. Fiercely loyal, overly optimistic, and ensnared by the promise of a full-ride college scholarship, Kira signs the SCI Recruit contract to escape memories of a tragedy that left her boyfriend and friends dead.
Meet Blake Sundry. Bitter about being raised in Exile and his mother’s death, Blake’s been trained to infiltrate and destroy the SCI. Current barrier to success? His Recruit partner—Miss Goody Two Shoes Kira Donovan.
Meet Ethan Darcton. Born with a defective heart and resulting inferiority complex, Ethan’s forced to do his SCI elite family’s bidding. Cleave-worthy Kira Donovan catches his eye, but the presiding powers give defect-free Blake Sundry first dibs.
Full of competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, daynight is Megan Thomason’s debut young adult dystopian novel and first in the daynight series.
Goodreads Ratings: 3.65 · 1,445 ratings · 205 reviews
I added Daynight by Megan Thomason to my TBR on 1.21.13. I also picked up the second book in the series, Arbitrate, but unfortunately I don’t have the third one, Generate. These sound like some great apocalyptic/dystopian fiction and I plan on reading them and leaviing the third book until the verdict is in. All too often I don’t finish a series, but I have been doing much better at it. How about you? Do you always plan on finishing a series, or do you let them slide?
MY REVIEW
I have read quite a few of Blake Pierce’s first in a series novels that he offers for free. He writes some wonderful mystery, suspense, thriller fiction, and I am happy to be here to share City of Prey with you. The simplicity of the cover still manages to give me a creepy feeling, a sense of foreboding.
Blake Pierce quickly got my attention. My spidey senses were tingling as soon as HE walked in the door.
Let’s step back in time…the 1920s in New York City, to be precise. Women had their place…at home, in the kitchen. Not so for Ava Gold. At her husband’s funeral, when the captain asked if there was anything he could do for her, she blurted out, “…I’d like a job.”
Ava’s father had been a boxer, until he broke his hand. He’s a trainer…and he taught Ava, so beware. This may be the 1920s and women were thought to be helpless, but not Ava. Once she starts working, he helps her with her ten year old son. She doesn’t realize it, but he has the utmost respect for her.
I could rant and rave about how the women were treated, but I want you to feel the same frustration and disgust that I felt at the stupidity of it all. Of course, I believe so much of this still goes on today, so it should be easy to imagine.
Ava has to deal with racism and sexism and understands neither. She loves Jazz and singing. She’s not afraid of Harlem and ignores those that frown at her independence. She is a natural investigator, whether because of her husband’s insight while discussing police business with her, or her own abilities to think like the criminal she is chasing. Investigating was not as sophisticated in the 1920s, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t those who stand above the rest, not willing to accept the easy way out. Piece by piece she puts the puzzle together to catch him.
I had a few issues with City of Prey, but overall they were minor. I loved the character of Ava and those who surrounded her had their place. History shows, it takes characters like these, willing to step outside the box and push the boundaries, to help us all progress.
City of Prey by Blake Pierce touches on racism, prohibition, and women’s rights.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of City of Prey by Blake Pierce.
GOODREADS BLURB
In the rough streets of 1920s New York City, 34 year-old Ava Gold, a widower and single mom, claws her way up to become the first female homicide detective in her NYPD precinct. She is as tough as they come, and willing to hold her own in a man’s world.
But when a psychotic serial killer unleashes a rampage, murdering young women across the city, Ava will have to search the dark canals of the twisted killer’s mind if she has any hope of hunting him down. With psychological profiling still in its infancy, and mocked by most, Ava will be even more alone as she follows her instinct, and hunts him down in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
Just when it seems the stakes couldn’t be higher, Ava comes to an awful realization: she herself may be the next target.
Amidst the speakeasies, jazz clubs, mafia-run prohibition rings, horrific mental asylums and dangerous back alleys of the city, can Ava achieve what all the men cannot: enter the sick mind of a killer, and stop him before more women die?
A heart-pounding suspense thriller
filled with shocking twists, the authentic and atmospheric AVA GOLD
MYSTERY SERIES is a riveting page-turner, endearing us to a strong and
brilliant character that will capture your heart and keep you reading
late into the night.
Books #2 and #3 in the series—CITY OF FEAR and CITY OF BONES—are now also available.
ABOUT BLAKE PIERCE
Blake Pierce is the USA Today bestselling author of the RILEY PAGE mystery series, which includes seventeen books. Blake Pierce is also the author of the MACKENZIE WHITE mystery series, comprising thirteen books (and counting); of the AVERY BLACK mystery series, comprising six books; of the KERI LOCKE mystery series, comprising five books; of the MAKING OF RILEY PAIGE mystery series, comprising six books; of the KATE WISE mystery series, comprising seven books; of the CHLOE FINE psychological suspense mystery, comprising six books; of the JESSE HUNT psychological suspense thriller series, comprising seven books (and counting); of the AU PAIR psychological suspense thriller series, comprising two books (and counting); of the ZOE PRIME mystery series, comprising three books (and counting); of the new ADELE SHARP mystery series; and of the new EUROPEAN VOYAGE cozy mystery series.
ONCE GONE (a Riley Paige Mystery–Book #1), BEFORE HE KILLS (A Mackenzie White Mystery–Book 1), CAUSE TO KILL (An Avery Black Mystery–Book 1), A TRACE OF DEATH (A Keri Locke Mystery–Book 1), WATCHING (The Making of Riley Paige–Book 1), NEXT DOOR (A Chloe Fine Psychological Suspense Mystery–Book 1), THE PERFECT WIFE (A Jessie Hunt Psychological Suspense Thriller–Book One), and IF SHE KNEW (A Kate Wise Mystery–Book 1) are each available as a free download on Amazon!
An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Blake loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.blakepierceauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.
MY BLAKE PIERCE REVIEWS
Book Details:
Book Title: Rebel Correspondent by Steve Procko
Category: Adult Non-Fiction 18+, 356 pages
Genre: Biography & Autobiography, Military and Nonfiction, History, United States, Civil War Period
Publisher: Steve Procko Productions, LLC
Release date: September 2021
Tour dates: September 1 to September 14
Content Rating: PG
Book Description:
Rebel Correspondent is the true story of a young man who joined the Confederate Army days after his eighteenth birthday and served bravely
until the war ended. Wounded twice, he emerged a changed person. But he wasn’t just a returning veteran; he was also a writer.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Arba F. Shaw was a fifty-seven-year-old farmer. On a chilly December day in 1901, he put pen to paper to write his memories of being a Rebel Private in the 4th Georgia Cavalry (Avery), C.S.A. He completed writing his account in February 1902. His local newspaper, the Walker County Messenger, in
Lafayette, Georgia, published his account in more than fifty articles from 1901 to 1903. Then it was all but forgotten. Until Now. Rebel Correspondent presents Arba F. Shaw’s account word-for-word, as first published in the Walker County Messenger almost 120 years ago. Procko annotates Shaw’s account with in-depth research, verifying it and uncovering the back story of his life and the lives of his Rebel comrades. Procko’s research offers a historical perspective on the many
places and events Shaw so richly described.
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