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Update for this Blog

 Hi! It's been a year and a half since I posted anything. My life changed and this blog didn't really fit it anymore. Which is why I am here. I want to start reviewing again, but I don't want to be just a book reviewer. 


This means from now on I will be reviewing several different forms of media. Books, Manga, Manhua, Anime, K-Dramas, K-Movies, C-Dramas, C-Movies, J-Dramas etc. Really any type of Asian media. I am currently working on learning Korean and Mandarin so I consume as much as I can in those languages. 


Not just reviews! I might change the name to something else, but that will be in the future. I will also be posting things I make that go along with the shows and movies I watch. That maybe food or it could be art. 


Overall, I am back, but in a different way. A way that makes me happy and not panicked about having to post certain content.  


Thanks



2021 Challenges

 Before I get into my resolutions for 2021, let's go over how I did with the 2020 goals.



I had high hopes for this challenge. It is my second or third year participating and again, I failed. I read ONE retelling this past year. I had wanted to get a bingo, but that didn't happen. 


I set my goal of 5-10 for this. I am happy to say I reached this goal before the first quarter was over. I had a really good reading streak going on at the beginning of the year. I listened to a total of 15 books this past year. 

I didn't get through this entire list, though I knew I probably wouldn't. I did get more than I was expecting, though. 

I still have no idea why I even joined this challenge last year. Probably the same reason I will end up doing it this year. I WANT to finish series. I just never do. I finished 0 series in 2020. The majority of the things I read were standalones or new releases. 


Now let's talk about my 2021 goals. I am not setting any resolutions, because I that never really works for me. I am going to list the challenges I will be taking part in this year. And please note, I wanted to join the Retelling Challenge again, but I don't think Tracy is hosting it this year. 




I did really well with this last year, so I am upping my goal for this year. I would like to read 15-20 this year, which puts me in the "Socially Awkward" group. You can find the sign up page and original post HERE.


I am going to try this again! I didn't finish any series last year and I feel bad about that. I would like to finish 1-4 this year. I set my goal WAY too high last year with 9+ series, but at least with 1-4 it isn't as bad if I fail. Original post and sign up HERE.



This one is new to me. I saw another blogger doing it this year and thought it would be fun. As most people have noticed, Netflix is churning out book to movie adaptations like there is no tomorrow and I am here for it. Plus, Passionflix has started filming JLA's Wicked and I want to read that. You can find the original post and sign up HERE.



This doesn't seem as hefty as last year, which makes it seem more reachable. 

Beyond the Shore and Shadows by Chantal Gadoury Cover Reveal



Today Chantal Gadoury, The Parliament House, and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover for BEYOND THE SHORE AND SHADOWS, the second book in her YA Little Mermaid Retelling Series, which releases May 2021! Check out the awesome cover and enter to win a $10 Amazon GC!

On to the reveal!


About The Book:
Title: BEYOND THE SHORE AND SHADOWS (Lena #2)
Author: Chantal Gadoury
Pub. Date: May 2021
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: ?
Find it: Goodreads

A Merrow with a Choice
A Man Who Loved Her
And an Evil that could destroy them both
The Sea Is Calling. . .

Lena is a merrow in possession of the Magick Skal, the shell once owned by the Queen of the merrows. And now, Lord Jarl knows her secret and wants it for himself.

After running away from the Lundby-Wyatt Inn, leaving behind everything she was familiar with, Lena finds herself in the company of the warm and kind Soren Emil.

When the villagers turn against her and Soren, they’re forced to leave the burning Bror Boghandel behind and escape to a forgotten cottage on the edge of the shore, where no one will find them. Lena knows she must get the shell back to the sea and destroy it, before it falls into the hands of Lord Jarl, or worse, his apprentice, Jace Wyatt.

With the help of some unruly pirates, Lena and Soren journey to the sea, a place Lena never thought she’d return to. There, she will have to face not only the Sea King’s army, the Fosse-Søfolk, but the impossible choice to sacrifice her own life, or the life of the man she loves.

What will Lena choose?

About Book 1:
Title: BETWEEN THE SEA AND STARS (Lena #1)
Author: Chantal Gadoury
Pub. Date: June 19, 2018
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook, audiobook
Pages: 268

A Legend, 
A Magical Shell 
A Girl Who Dreamed Of Something More... 

Lena, a Merrow girl, lives in the Skagerrak sea with her father, Carrick and her brother, Javelin who tells her of the legend of the Merrow Queen murdered by her human lover when greed takes over. But what’s worth spilling the queen’s blood? Gifted from Poseidon, himself, a magic shell gives any human the ability to control both land and sea. 

When Javelin is called to join a clan of Merrow soldiers bent on protecting their waters from human invasion, Lena resists Merrow law and ventures to the shore with no choice but to swim to land. 

With newfound legs, Lena is whisked away on a new adventure with new friends and new trouble. Everyone seems to want something from her as intrigue lurks around every corner. 

Trying her best to hide who she is and remain safe from the dangers of the human world, will Lena finally find where she belongs, or will she be swept into a strong and stormy current by lust, greed, and jealousy?





Excerpt from BETWEEN THE SEA AND STARS (Lena #1):

“Tell me the legend of the Skagerrak queen.”

Javelin lifted a brow. “It’s hardly a legend, Lena,” he said. “It’s barely been a decade.” His voice was easy, unbothered by the possibility of being overheard. They were alone in this place. There was no need to whisper or scold or shush. Still, he groaned. “I’ve told that one a thousand times. You should know it by heart. Aren’t you tired of it yet?”

“Come on,” Lena urged him. “It’s my favorite. Tell me again.”

He rolled his eyes, but his mouth curved into a grin. “Fine.” His scooped a clam shell out of the sand and began sliding the sharp side of a rock against its grain. “The queen fell in love with a human man,” he began, his strong fingers holding the clam firmly in place. “Every full moon, she used her magic to travel ashore to see him.”

Lena settled onto her elbows, relishing the smooth sound of her brother’s voice as he recited the tale. A dreamy smile spread over her lips.

“I wonder how she met him,” she murmured softly, tilting her chin up and letting her lashes flutter shut.

“Likely the same way any merrow meets a human,” Javelin teased. “Shipwrecked during one of Poseidon’s storms. She should have drowned him immediately.”

“But she couldn’t!” Lena’s eyes pinged open. “For he was devilishly handsome, even soaking wet. The most handsome man she’d ever seen.”

“Devilish is right,” Javelin allowed. “Whether he was handsome or not, I’ll let your imagination decide.”

“Oh, he was.” Lena was smiling widely now. “He was, perhaps, the most beautiful human man in existence, and desperately enraptured by the queen. Each full moon, he waited for her, pacing the beach like a madman. And when she would emerge from the sea, he’d run hip-deep to meet her, unable to spend one more moment apart. He’d wrap his muscular arms around her—”

“For Poseidon’s sake, Lena.”

“And they’d dance together,” she pressed on, giggling, “as only humans can do. They’d dance and dance the hours away, bathed in starlight, humming songs into one another’s ears.”

“Until one night. . .” Javelin prompted smugly, and Lena rolled her eyes.

“Until one night,” she sighed, “something overcame the queen’s lover. Greed.”

“Human greed,” Javelin corrected. “Human nature. It was only a matter of time.”

She glared at him, but didn’t interrupt as he continued. This was the best and the worst part of the tale, and Javelin—damn him, was good at telling it. And he knew.

“That night, the queen swam toward the surface, impatient as ever she was. Ready to be rid of her tail. Ready to be human again. Her magic was a gift from Poseidon himself, contained in a delicate shell which she wore around her neck on a gold chain. It gave her the ability to explore the shore, and to control the storms and seas.”

Lena leaned in.

“As she swam, the queen began to change. Faint sobs faltered over her blue-scaled lips—cries of pain, lost to the rushing lull of the waves and the urgent beating of her fins. Swiftly, her tail separated into two perfectly shaped legs, and she rose out of the sea.”

“Don’t leave out the good parts,” Lena whispered. She knew her brother would skim over the romance just to annoy her.

Javelin gave her a pointed look. Then he grinned. “The moon was high that night,” he said, lowering his voice to a hush for effect. “The land was illuminated by an eerie, silver glow. Beneath its light, the queen’s new flesh was creamy and soft. Her hair became one with the wind, and her body shivered against a violent, uproarious breeze. Perhaps it was a warning from the gods, but the queen didn’t see it as such. The human lands were cold, suffering a new, frigid season, but her heart remained warm. She smiled, though her transition had been agony, when she heard the sound of water splashing and saw her beloved moving toward her through the shallows.

“She sang his name as he brushed chaste kisses against her neck, and relaxed fully against him, trusting him completely. She was blind to the wicked yearning which had wrapped around his heart. Which made his body tense, which crushed his lungs till he could hardly breathe. He wanted her shell, for he’d discovered what powers were locked inside that delicate charm. Powers gifted to whomsoever possessed it. His fingers dipped to her throat, caressing the shell which had allowed her to return to him, again and again. The queen eyed him strangely, and he dropped his hands to her waist, tugging her against him, kissing her deeply.”

Lena sighed, and Javelin smirked.

“She was a fool,” he said.

“She was in love,” Lena amended.

“She was both,” he conceded. “And that foolish love consumed her. Deceived her. Seduced her. Clouded her eyes, so love was all she could see. But that fateful eve, her beloved’s affection was not what it seemed. He’d seduced himself too, with all the prospects of what might be. His own love had been replaced by a lust for riches unknown. For control of the land and sea.”

Lena winced, for she knew what came next.

“He pressed his mouth against the queen’s skin, whispering sweet words, distracting her. She was smiling as he sent a knife into her back. Smiling, even as her eyes went wide with shock.”

Lena shuddered, picturing it. A joyful mouth, frozen in place. Bulging, horrified eyes going dim.

“The queen’s lover twisted his blade, releasing her cold merrow blood to the sand. He reached for the shell, yanking on its golden chain. But in the last throes of breath, the queen resisted him and threw the shell into the crashing waves, bidding Poseidon to wash it away.

“With a promised curse on his lips, her lover trailed back into the night, determined to one day possess the world between the sea and stars, and all who dwell beneath the earth, in the ocean’s depths. Our people.” He glanced sidelong at Lena, his meaning clear. “The merrows.”

“And the queen. . .” Lena murmured, though she already knew how the tale would end.

“He left her to dissolve into sea foam. She was washed away forever by the waves.”

Lena released a long breath and gazed at her hands, trying to imagine what it would be like to watch herself slowly disappear; what heartache and betrayal the queen must have felt in her last moments. She knew this was a gruesome tale, but a part of her thought the better parts, the magic and romance, were worth the gruesome bits.

“What do you think it would be like, to walk?” she wondered aloud. “Would it be like having two tails?”

“I don’t know,” Javelin chuckled. “I suppose it might be.”

“Where do you think the shell is now?”

Javelin shrugged. From a stony shelf above his head, he retrieved a slim, wooden railing he’d found in a ship a few days before and carefully tied his sharpened clamshell to its jagged end.

Lena smiled, realizing he’d made her a hunting spear.

“Poseidon is said to have hidden the shell before the human lover, or any human, could steal it. It could be anywhere.”

“If you could go to the surface, would you?”

Javelin pinched his lips together and didn’t speak. It was a silent reprimand. He knew how Lena longed to break through the waves, to see the human world with her own eyes, to know the uses of all the odd objects they’d collected over the years. But the laws of the sea were strict, and the king’s leniency had all but vanished in recent years.

Any merrow caught peeking at the shore was punished. Some were even struck down by Poseidon and reduced to sea foam, just like the queen.

“This is where we belong, Lena,” Javelin said softly, firmly.

“But how do you know?” She swirled upright and swam along the edge of the grotto, brushing her fingertips over cups and spoons and heaps of sodden fabric. Over small chests and tarnished, palm-sized figurines and other mysterious, unnamed things. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like, to live on the land? To live among them? To be one of them?”

“Not as much as you have, I can see.”

She groaned, and sank to her brother’s side, resting her head on his shoulder. “It can’t be as bad as everyone believes. Humans can’t all be the same. We’re not all the same,” she reasoned quietly.

About Chantal:

Chantal Gadoury is an Amazon Best Selling Author who is originally from the countryside of Muncy, PA. Chantal likes anything Disney, plays a mean game of Disney trivia, enjoys painting and has a interest in British History. Chantal first started writing stories at the age of seven and continues that love of writing today. As a recent college graduate from Susquehanna University, with a degree in Creative Writing, writing novels is a dream come true.








Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a $10 Amazon GC, International.


Reborn Yesterday by Tessa Bailey Review


50609790. sy475 Title: Reborn Yesterday
Author: Tessa Bailey
Format: Ebook

A timeless love story with bite.
It was a night like any other for funeral home director Ginny Lynn, until the exceptionally handsome—and unfortunately deceased—young man on her embalming table sat up, opened his emerald eyes and changed the course of her life forever, making her feel quite fluttery while he was at it.
Humans aren't supposed to know Jonas Cantrell, or any vampire, exists. It's kind of a major rule. Despite his instantaneous bond with perfectly peculiar Ginny, he has no choice but to erase her memories of their one and only meeting.
That was the plan. Before a reluctant Jonas can wipe Ginny's mind clean, she reveals a secret that brings their worlds crashing together. Human and vampire. Past and present. Darkness and light. And while their love is strictly forbidden, it might be the only thing that can save them…



Quarterly Challenge Check-In

At the beginning of 2020 I joined a verity of challenges for 2020. You can find the original post HERE

The first quarter of 2020 has come to an end and I thought I would do a check-in to go over where I am at with each of the challenges.


I have done horrible with this one. I did read Alexa Donne's Burning Brightly. It was the first book I read this year, but I haven't read anymore retellings. I started listening to the new Kirsten White book, but I didn't like the narrator and couldn't get into it. So hopefully I will get back into this one soon.


Audiobook Challenge 2020 - Hot Listens & Caffeinated Reviewer
I have actually completed my original goal for this which was 5-10 books. I have listened to 11 audiobooks as of right now, listening to a Kasie West book currently. So I am probably going to up my goal to 30, but we will see.


Another one I haven't done well with. My goal was to finish 9 or more series that I have already started. I haven't even read any books in a series this year. they have been standalones. So hopefully in the next 3 quarters of the year I am better at this one.