Tag: eReader

Book Review of A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

January 21st, 2024

A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair is a romantic, spicy, modern retelling of the relationship between Hades and Persephone. In the world of A Touch of Darkness, the gods of Olympus have descended into the mortal world and many of them live amongst humans, much like our modern day celebrities. Persephone is a goddess, the daughter of Demeter, but wishes to live life as a mortal human. She’s never unlocked her own power, but when she convinces her overbearing and controlling mother to let her go to college, she discovers what she’s really talented at. Her dream is to become an investigative journalist and she excels at in-depth research and writing. In A Touch of Darkness, Persephone only has two semesters before she graduates. She lets her best friend and roommate convince her to go out to Hades’ club and she unwittingly enters into a game with him, losing and having to join Hades in a contract. Can she find her power and manage to break free from Hades while navigating her new internship, her final few semesters, and this intense new feeling she gets anytime she’s with Hades?

A Touch of Darkness is enthralling, well-paced, and just the right level of spicy for me. This book came highly recommended from my best friend and I checked it out from my local library through Libby. I downloaded it on my eReader and was quickly sucked in. I couldn’t put it down! Persephone is written as the sheltered goddess she truly is in mythology and there are many nods to true mythological stories in every new god she meets. Every detail in this book from St. Clair’s extensive research comes together in a beautiful way. Her world-building skills are phenomenal.

I give this thrilling romance a five out of five stars. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and plan to continue reading this series. As we speak, my best friend has sent me a care package with the next few books to enjoy very soon.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a modern retelling of greek mythology, spicy and somewhat dark romances, and intrepid investigative reporters like Lois Lane.

If you have any more book recommendations or reviews you would like to see, don’t hesitate to comment them below! My TBR list gets longer every year, but my goal of 50 books this year is not spoken for yet!
Book Review of the Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster

January 13th, 2024

Lord of Stariel is set in a somewhat Victorian-era past with magic thrown into the mix. Hetta is a spirited illusionist working in the city with a local theatre to produce enchanted scenes that twist reality and fiction for the viewer. She’s gifted in her talents but lives exiled from her family due to her love of magic. Her father would love to pretend she didn’t have any magic at all. When she receives word that he’s passed and she is needed at Stariel, her family home, for both the funeral and The Choosing, she jumps on the next train home. Struggling to come to terms with her father being gone, where she stands with her family now that she’s an adult with her own independence, and who may be the next Lord of Stariel. The family is fairly certain who is going to follow in her father’s footsteps, but the land has the final say and seems to think differently. This magic-packed fantasy is a easy, cozy read with twists and turns that will keep you reading while Hetta tries to figure out her place in the world she left long ago.

I absolutely loved this book. Hetta is a likeable main character with enough description in her inner monologue to communicate her traumas without being too drawn out. She loves her life in the city as an illusionist but she missed the feelings of being in Stariel. The twists in the book did actually take me by surprise and I love that in a book. This is the first in a five part series and I absolutely cannot wait to pick up the next book. I would have already picked it up, but I have so many other books on the queue that need to come first.

I’ve read other reviews that said Hetta let everything just happen to her, but I disagree. She is constantly trying to balance not upsetting her volatile family members and doing what she feels is right. With the ominous prologue that I had to re-read at the end of the book to get any sort of context (there’s still not much), I will absolutely be reading the rest of the series and keeping you readers updated! This book is available on Kindle Unlimited if you subscribe to that.

I give The Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster five out of five stars. I loved the journey this book took me on and I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, Victorian steampunk, new magic universes, and family dramas with just a hint of romance thrown in. This book is the full package!
All the Books I Read in 2023

December 31st, 2023
Every year, I have a goal of how many books I want to read. This year, my goal was 50, but I didn’t quite meet that goal. Life got busy and I wrote over 75,000 words instead of reading as much. I successfully finished 39 books in the year, here is the list! These are in the order I read them, not in the order I enjoyed them.
1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
2. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
3. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
4. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
5. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Mass
6. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
7. Ledge by Stacey McEwan
8. The Vanishing Throne by Elizabeth May
9. The Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May
10. Cynthia and Dan: Cyber War by Dorothy May Mercer
11. Twisted Hate by Ana Huang
12. Faelorehn by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
13. War is Just a Word by I.J. Gysen
14. Dune by Frank Herbert
15. Unspeakable Acts by Janet Leigh Green
16. River Woman River Demon by Jennifer Gihvan
17. Fiasco of Adventures by Victor James
18. The Night and Its Moon by Piper C.J.
19. Once We Were Family by Nancy Saling Graham
20. Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie
21. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
22. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
23. You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
24. Parallel by Claudia Lefeve
25. The Shadow and the Rose by Amanda DeWees
26. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
27. It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover
28. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
29. American Nuclear Deception by Daisy B Herndon
30. The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas
31. Cajun Crow and the Mockingbird by Jimmie Martinez
32. Nimue: Freeing Merlin by Ayn Cates Sullivan
33. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
34. Sora’s Quest by T. L. Shreffler
35. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
36. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
37. Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Cordova
38. Killer’s of the Flower Moon by David Grann
39. Runes by Ednah Walters
All in all, I read a lot of fantasy books and some historical fiction books. Some of these reads were absolutely fantastic and I couldn’t put them down. Others… were hard to finish. I look forward to hopefully completing my goal of 50 books next year! The book review for Runes will be coming soon. Here’s to the end of one year and welcome to the next. Let me know if you’ve read any of the books on this list or what your favorite book of the year was so I can add it to my TBR list!
eReader vs. Physical Books

December 16th, 2023

There are plenty of hot debates out there on whether reading physical books or using an eReader is the way to be a real reader.

As a life-long library girlie, I have mixed opinions. I love my eReader, I don’t go anywhere without it. I even once drove back to work in order to pick up my eReader because I couldn’t go a night without it. That being said, I love the smell of a new book. The sound and feel of pages turning is something that can’t be replicated on an eReader of any kind. I also can’t look at where I am in the book and gauge how much further I have for the author to completely destroy my world from an eReader. The percentage completed in some epub files just doesn’t hit the same! Physical books are easier on my eyes and have an added nostalgia factor that makes them the best option for me in most instances.

Now, if I prefer physical books in so many ways, why do I have an eReader that I take everywhere? At any given moment I am reading 3-4 different books. Some of those books are epub files and others are physical hardcopies. I often leave the physical hardcopies at home and bring the eReader along with me. The eReader just travels better, honestly. I travel and don’t have to worry about the size of the books taking up room. I don’t have to worry about water at a pool or in a hot tub with an eReader like I do with paper. My last major trip was a cruise and I decided I wanted to relax in the hot tub with my book. If I had been reading a physical book, I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere near water. It makes me nervous enough that I won’t enjoy reading while anxious about water splashing up or dropping the book. With my eReader that is much more water proof than the average book, I could move to the hot tub and enjoy my time there without being stressed and anxious!

I can download multiple stories and don’t have to worry about not bringing enough to read. I am certain I am not the only one with that crushing fear. I don’t have to worry about the paperbacks that I love getting obliterated in my backpack with everything else in there. With a case, eReaders are secure and small to travel with. They take up miniscule room but can carry 300+ book files in their memory at a time. I keep mine on airplane mode majority of the time and the battery lasts for weeks!

I know it sounds like I read more on my eReader than from my personal library at home, but I truly read more physical books when I’m home. I am an avid Book of the Month BFF and love receiving my beautiful hardcopies every month. I treasure each one. I treasure them so much, I only read them when I’m at home. I’ll take physical books to the office with me sometimes to enjoy on my breaks, but I don’t like to travel with them much further than that. I’ve had too many get stained or damp and never recover. I am not a reader that likes to abuse my books. I want them to be beautiful and pristine for many re-reads.

All in all, eReaders have their place in this world, just like audio books. As much as I prefer a wonderful paperback with cream pages to an epub file, I will continue to carry around my eReader religiously in case the opportunity to delve into a book arrives at any moment.

Tag: eReader

Book Review of A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

Book Review of the Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster

All the Books I Read in 2023

eReader vs. Physical Books