Author spotlight – Tate James

Sometimes you see an authors name get thrown around and you wonder, is the hype warranted. Are they really that good at what they do?

As I said a few weeks ago, I’ve was planning on reading pretty much all romance this month. I had a heap of authors I wanted to try and I managed to snag free kindle unlimited, so I’ve had plenty to choose from. Tate James is a name I’ve been hearing about on instagram for months and when I finally joined the TikTok ranks the romance readers seemed to love her. I selected 6 or so authors and was only going to read one book from each author. 

Author Interview with Khaiah Thomson

I’m incredibly lucky to have Khaiah Thomson, author of Welcome to Blackwood, on the blog today. 

She writes paranormal stories, with a determined, feisty, female lead in the most lush setting you could hope to live. Make sure you check out the giveaway I’m running if you want to win your very own copy of Welcome to Blackwood, links will be at the end. You can see my review HERE.

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Hi Khaiah, thank you so much for taking the time to join me on the blog. Congratulations on the release of Welcome to Blackwood. I had an absolute blast reading it.

Fantasy May Giveaway

To celebrate my love of fantasy and the awesome books I’ve read so far this year, I’m running a giveaway over on Twitter. 

It’s super easy to enter, just head over to my pinned post on Twitter, follow, like, share, tag a friend and tell me which of the four books below you would like to win.

The Giveaway will be running until the 30th of May and I’ll be selecting a winner on the 31st. Open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to you. 

These are some of my favourite reads over the last six month. They also happen to have some of the most amazing cover art, so they will look fantastic on your shelves. 

Welcome to Blackwood by Khaiah Thomson

A chance encounter at the hairdresser brought this book to my attention and I’m very glad it happened. So thank you to my hairdresser for fitting me in and introducing me to the author in the basin next to me.

Welcome to Blackwood is Khaiah Thomson’s debut novel and she has smashed it out of the park with an engaging, well written story.

It is set in the lush, secretive town of Blackwood. The descriptions are fantastic and I want to live there. Not even for all the supernatural shenanigans, but for the absolutely beautiful setting. It has the forest, beach and small town vibes. It sounds like heaven.

Australian authors I have loved.

I originally posted this in 2018 and I wanted to update it a little to add some other Australian authors that I have since discovered and thoroughly enjoyed. It’s going to make it a chonky post so I hope you make it all the way through.

John Marsden – born in Victoria in 1950, he had an interest in writing from a young age. He was a teacher and has written many books, he is successful internationally as well as at home.

The Tomorrow when the War Began series was my favourite series as a young teen. A group of kids go camping for a weekend and when they get back they discover that their area/country has been invaded. Their loved ones are held captive, so they do the only thing they can do – Guerrilla warfare. Ellie and her friends are a diverse bunch with many skills, they use these country kid skills to cause mayhem for the invading forces. I absolutely loved the idea of kids kicking arse and taking it to the bad guys. The relationships between the kids were complex and well written. John Marsden didn’t skim over the details, he handled the mental challenges the kids faced really well, the fallout for them. It’s not all sunshine and lollipops, these kids go through hell and their mental health reflects this. I still reread this series every couple of years. I cannot wait for my daughter to read this series. There are seven books in the series and I just discovered a follow-up series called the Ellie Chronicles that I have yet to read.

(2021 update – My daughter was not a fan of this and didn’t even make it through the first book… Does this mean I failed as a mum? lol)

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Goodreads  –  Amazon

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The Build-up Season by Megan Jacobson

I don’t know about you, but I’m a total cover whore. I don’t need to read the blurb, if it’s bright, shiny and pretty, my inner 4 year old comes out and I have to have it. Admit it, we all do it.

That is how I found one of my top 2016 reads; Yellow by Megan Jacobson. It had some of the most authentic Australian teenage dialogue and I read it in one sitting. So when I stumbled across The Build-Up Season, I didn’t read the synopsis, I didn’t check reviews, I didn’t care about that stuff, Yellow was such a strong, engaging read that I will automatically buy her next 10 books.

Stacking The Shelves

A weekly post where I can brag about my new books? Yes please. Granted I definitely won’t have something to post every week, I’ll just do it as required. I will be including everything from my purchases, to NetGalley, gifts and books from authors. For more information head over to Tynga’s reviews.

I finished The Night Prince series. And if you have read any of my stacking the shelves updates you would know I was on a buying ban and couldn’t buy any new physical books until I had finished the series. I was so excited, I knew which book or five I wanted. There have been some amazing new releases out already this year, I wanted them all. I wanted all the pretty new books for my shelves. So you can imagine my utter despair when I discovered that I couldn’t get any of the books I wanted in paperback. I’m a tight ass, I don’t pay hardback price. DEVASTATED. First world problems I know. I decided to get a different book (great decision) and get the kindle version (I’ll get it in paperback later), and that led me to the other horror book I found.

Ebooks:

The Gulp by Alan Baxter – I may have a slight obsession with Alan Baxter’s books. This one was an absolute winner and my review can be found HERE.

We Are Wolves: A Horror Anthology by some incredibly talented authors and edited by Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower and Cynthia Paleyo – This is one that I wasn’t searching for, it found me and boy am I glad. Feminist dark fantasy and horror. From the forward to the very last page, I was completely enamoured.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse – I’ve had my eye on this since it was first released. I don’t know what the deal is at the moment, but I couldn’t get this in paperback either.

From blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout – There is so much hype around this one. I’m hoping for dark and sexy fantasy.

That’s it from me this week. Have you read any of these? Do you have a favourite?

WWW Wednesday

Today I have a super simple post to let the world know what I’m reading. Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, you answer 3 questions and hey presto, you are all done.

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading –

We Are Wolves: A Horror Anthology – Including authors like Gemma Amor, Jessica Guess, Sadie Hartmann and many more, this book isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s powerful, emotional, empowering and dark.

The Gulp by Alan Baxter

“Welcome to The Gulp, where nothing is as it seems.”

Moody – Dark – Gorey – engaging – Supernatural

Synopsis – Strange things happen in The Gulp. The residents have grown used to it. The isolated Australian harbour town of Gulpepper is not like other places. Some maps don’t even show it. And only outsiders use the full name. Everyone who lives there calls it The Gulp. The place has a habit of swallowing people.
A truck driver thinks the stories about The Gulp are made up to scare him. Until he gets there. Teenage siblings try to cover up the death of their mother, but their plans go drastically awry. A rock band invite four backpackers to a party at their house, where things get dangerously out of hand. A young man loses a drug shipment and his boss gives him 48 hours to make good on his mistake. Under the blinking eye of the old lighthouse, a rock fisher makes the strangest catch of his life.

Five novellas. Five descents into darkness. 

Favourites of 2020

Well it’s a week or so later than I originally planned, but finally it’s here. My wrap up of 2020. Life wise all has been well here, where I live we have managed to avoid, for now, Covid affecting our lives too much. The kids had a couple of weeks off school and a lot of business was closed for a while. I was off work for six months, but a lot of other people were affected way more than us. My daughter and I have started volunteering at a wildlife hospital, my son has taken up a new sport and I’m looking forward to trying new things in 2021 (Well maybe saying that I’m looking forward to new things is a bit strong lol). I also fell in love with reading middle grade books and they kept me reading while I was teetering on the verge of a massive slump.