Bookish Posts and Books Read of Week of November 5th through November 11th
What an interesting week this has been. We have been seeing the fallout of Tillie Cole canceling. Her books are completely gone everyone so looks like the complainers succeeded in actually banning some books. At least for now. I know the author is going through a lot in her personal life so it probably made it easier just to remove them all and then deal with it later when things in her life calm down. It makes me so sad for this author as she is such a kind person. But her supporters are being attacked too. I know considering I put out a tweet on this and its at 300K views and yeah people are so packed with hate and my tweet was common sense. Apparently, I am going to hell folks haha I do think people are just angry and are looking for anything to bring someone down and destroy their careers and it really sickens me that this is where our community is actually at. We should be uplifting each other and not bringing one another down. And also it’s even more horrific that authors are attacking their own and I am keeping notes. I just can’t support authors attacking other authors because no author is safe and they should be standing together in this because these people will come after anyone. And I am fearful of the type of books we will get if we don’t start taking a firmer stand on this.
So onto happier things, I was able to read 10 books this week. Which is pretty good considering it was a busy week of meal prep as I do heavier meal planning every other week. But since this is a long weekend for me with Monday off, I am hoping to get through a good amount of books this upcoming week. I also got a bonus this month, so I used that to start buying some good physical books. The thing with Tillie Cole has made me realize how important it is to buy physical copies of your favorite books. I am kicking myself for not buying the Hades Hangmen especially as they are really beautiful in physical format. So I bought quite a few which I will be sharing over the next couple of weeks including some special editions from Kristen Ashley.
(All my books read and their reviews are on Goodreads, I have linked for you)
List and Link book reviews with ratings and descriptions of opinions via goodreads
Book Read-The Guy in the Middle by Kate Stewart—Rating 4 Stars–A solid read and my first Kate Stewart. I enjoyed the writing but I think I was expecting something more as so many readers love this series. But still excited to read more from this author especially as she has been canceled in the past.
Book Read-Hook by Bianca Cole—Rating 3 Stars–This was a hook and wendy retelling and to be honest this was a fair disappointment. Unlike the first book in the series, this one wasn’t executed very well. Too much focus on spice and not enough on delivering an actual storyline.
Book Read-Destroy Me by Michelle Heard—Rating 5 Stars–WHAT A WIN of a read this one is. I absolutely loved Misha’s book. It was so action-packed and the Romeo Juliet type of retelling was beautiful (no worries they both have a HEA and NO ONE dies haha).
Book Read-Fury of Denial by Coreene Callahan—-Rating 4 Stars—This was a solid turnout out, not quite as enjoyable as the first two but still really fun. I think the accents turned me off a bit.
Book Read-Nero by S.J. Tilly—Rating 4 Stars—Really had a fun time with this one here. Such a solid mafia romance. And I had a fun time with these two dynamics. It had a bit of similar vibes of with Knight by KA. So recommend this one if you enjoyed that book.
ARC Book Read-My Season of Scandal by Julie Anne Long—Rating 3 Stars—I wanted to love this one, as the previous book was a five-star read. But this book was slow and boring. It was way too much focus on the slow burn and not enough on the relationship or any swoons in it. This series can be a hit or miss as the author does focus a bit too much on slow burns I feel like.
Book Read-Once Upon a Buggy by Shelley Shepard Grey—Rating 3.5 Stars–A solid turnout but wasn’t a perfect read. This had a good family feud involved but my issue with the story as a whole as the conflict of it didn’t feel resolved enough. And there could have been more focus on the relationship but I did like seeing what the couple decide to do for themselves.
Book Read-I Do Babe by Tillie Cole—Rating 5 Stars–This novella was everything I could have hoped for and more. I absolutely loved getting back to Knox and Mae and seeing our hero wanting to voice his own vows for their wedding (he can barely talk) was so heartfelt and deep.
Book Read-The White Lily by Juliette Cross—Rating 3 Stars–*sigh* this series has really not worked for me. This author is a hit or miss for me. I am not sure if it’s her writing style or what but they never execute well for me. Not sure I want to finish the series but we shall see. I do like the fairy tale retelling theme for this series though and they do have great promise.
Book Read-The Reaper by Nikki J. Summers—Rating 4 Stars—A good strong installment. I really enjoyed the characters in this one here. The heroine was refreshing. I think the issue I had with this book was that there was this focus on the heroine who had a kind gentle nature that she wasn’t enough and she had to be this kick-ass woman and the rhetoric of it got so annoying because its very obvious that is not her natural personality and trying to be forced into a personality that just doesn’t fit.
Bookish Posts to Look Forward To
Goodreads Choice Awards Fails the Readers
Book Release Post
Fast Five Friday
Recommend It Post
Current Reads
So my audiobook will be “The Shameless Hour” I didn’t quite get to this one and I will be honest I am not super excited for Bella’s book but we shall see. Maybe Bowen will work her magic here. Then I am finally getting to Bella Di Corte with her Man of Honor & Queen of Thorns and really intrigued by this series. I hear the atmosphere is done really well and features a mafia family in Italy. Then I am taking a risk with Too Good to be True by Kristen Ashley. Her latest books haven’t been wins for me but I have heard this one is a bit better so *crossing fingers*. Then we have Control Me by Michelle Heard. I am really excited for. We saw glimpses of this couple and I am very excited to see their tension and romance as they were so entertaining in Destroy Me.
Book Releases I am Excited For
Until Hanna by Aurora Rose Reynolds
Deserving Cora by Susan Stoker
Scorch by Abbi Glines
After the Storm by Laura Pavlov
The Stand-In by Kristen Proby
My Weekly TBR
These are books that I have for what I term a flexible TBR shelf for the week. As some of you know, I have been working on switching from being a mood reader to a TBR reader where I just work around a flexible weekly TBR. This weekly is working through my KU library and some library books.
Favorite Book of the Week
New Additions to AR Library
This week was a good one for adding books to my library. These are all books I have read, I just wanted to get physical copies of. The KA I am the most excited for because those are collector editions and they have extra content in them. So I am really excited, I don’t really have any special editions for any books so its definitely a splurge but as this is the best series by this author very eager to finally own these. And of course I am eager to see what the physical book of Hollow Heathens looks like, I hear there are beautiful illustrations inside. And Catherine Cowles I am trying to start gathering. This series is the first to be republished and will be newly covered. So I want to collect these beautiful original covers. I think we all know the new covers will pale in comparison to the originals.
Reading this reminds me why I don’t spend much time on social media. I just cannot. I remember liking Shameless Hour. Bowen did a great job with the issue at the center of the story.
Yeah. Much of social media is so toxic these days. Twitter is the worst though. You would probably be safer on Instagram and threads. Tends to be mostly book focused and more kind on there too.
Oh no!! I haven’t heard about this thing about Tillie Cole. I read a few books by her a few years ago and loved them. I’m just in shock with how hatefull people can be.
Enjoy your new books.
Have a great week and happy reading!
Yeah, I am surprised, its pretty big news, even made newspaper headlines lol It really comes down to making assumptions on what her books are about without reading them. Which is just very ignorant. Hope you have a great week!
That series by Juliette Cross is not one of her best, IMO. Her later work is sooooo much better and I think you should give them a try and hopefully notice the difference.
What’s going on with Tillie Cole is a hot mess and she’s not the first nor will she be the last author to be attacked. I wish people wouldn’t give these bullies so much power 🙁
Have an amazing week, luv! 💜
Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of her newest series. They have either been DNF for me or a 3 star or less. So, I had been wanting to try her older work, I did enjoy her Vessel books. I just don’t care for how she writes heroines that much. I think once I finish this series I am probably done with her unless you know of one of her other series I will enjoy better. Yeah its so heartbreaking what is happening with Tillie Cole. The issue is that authors are just caving and apologizing, so the bullies know they have the power. Once authors see that it doesn’t help, I am hoping that they will start standing up to them more.
I saw those KA special editions in her newsletter and thought it would be great to have these on my shelf. I look forward to seing your thoughts on the extra materials in them. Yes, those Tillie Cole covers are hauntingly beautiful.
Have a good week, Renee!
Yeah these editions are really pretty and have bonus chapters which is neat. I can’t wait to reread these editions and read these bonus chapter. They are really nice just to have on your shelf if you don’t have this series yet. Yes Tillie Cole has done a beautiful job with those HH covers. And the physical books just look better in print and they have they soft matte covers that feel amazing too.
What’s happening in Tillie Cole’s private life Renee? And last week, after having read your post I too posted something in my stories because I am totally fed up with people cancelling authors!
So Tillie Cole has a sick child and is on a very strict deadline with her YA sequel coming out for thousand boy kisses. She is also not American and not used to this type of hate and attacks. So its just really shocking for her. these authors don’t deserve this backlash. I don’t understand why people are lashing out like she is this horrible person ya know? Because she isn’t.