Can't Wait Wednesday is a blog hop of anticipated book released hosted by Tessa @ Wishful Endings.

Title: The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
Author: Imogen Hermes Gowar
Release Date: September 11, 2018
Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

This voyage is special. It will change everything…

One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.

As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This chance meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, a journey on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost…

What will be the cost of their ambitions? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess?

In this spell-binding story of curiosity and obsession, Imogen Hermes Gowar has created an unforgettable jewel of a novel, filled to the brim with intelligence, heart and wit.

I'm a sucker for books set anytime before the 1900s and that cover really caught my eye! I've really been wanting to dive into more books that feature mermaids and I think this one will be right up my alley!

What are you waiting for?

The Ugly Side of Motherhood

The side that no one likes to talk about. The side that tells me I will never sleep again. The side that makes me think I will never be my old self again. I will never have time to read books ever again or play bingo with my friends. Will I ever get back to this blog regularly? I hope so. I haven't finished a single book all summer and I've been reading Something in the Water since the beginning of June. Hopefully, I can at least finish that book and post on the blog about it.

The ugly side has give me a love/hate relationship with my baby. It makes me wonder how I will ever survive going back to work in August when Eme still wakes up every one and a half to two hours to eat. That ugly side of motherhood makes me feel like a failure because motherhood hasn't been effortless for me. I have some weight to lose. I'm still wearing my maternity clothes and my regular skinny jeans don't fit. I have purple stretch marks all over my belly and I wonder if they'll ever fade. That ugly side makes me feel guilty because I can't wait to go back to work. I can't wait to get back to a regular life. Does that make me a bad mom? I hope not.

But then she wakes up in the morning, I see her smile and it makes me so glad that I have her in my life. I see her grow and get stronger more and more every day and think, "How did I make such a beautiful, tiny person?" I may not be happy with how my body looks at this moment, but it has done something pretty amazing and I wouldn't change it for the world.

I've come to understand that everything is going to take time and for some things, a little extra time. Eme will learn to sleep through the night eventually and she will start eating solids soon. Then she'll learn to crawl and move around on her own. Then she'll learn to talk and by then, I probably won't even remember what life was like without her!

But for now, motherhood is hard. Eme and I are getting through it together and I know it will all be worth it in the end.

Can't Wait Wednesday: Blood Sisters

Can't Wait Wednesday is a weekly blog hop of anticipated book releases hosted by Tessa @ Wishful Endings.

Title: Blood Sisters
Author: Jane Corry
Release Date: January 30, 2018
Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

Three little girls set off to school one sunny morning. Within an hour, one of them is dead.

Fifteen years later, Kitty lives in an institution. She can't speak, and has no memory of the accident that put her there, or her life before it.

Nearby, Alison, a local artisan, struggles to make ends meet and to forget her past. When a job opens up in a prison as an art teacher, she takes it. Soon, though, she starts to receive alarming notes--followed by a frightening prisoner-on-prisoner assault while her back is turned. When an impressive new student arrives in Alison's class, things seem to settle down. But not for long.
For someone is watching both Kitty and Alison. Someone who wants revenge for what happened that day. And only another life will do. . .

What are you waiting for? Let me know in the comments!

2018 Reading and Blogging Goals

2018 is here and when the new year arrives, I always love to set new goals and challenges for myself in my reading life. After evaluating my reading from 2017, I found that I read a lot of just mediocre books and nothing really blew me away; nothing challenged my world view or really made me think. And just in general, not one single book that I read stood out to me. So here I present my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2018:

As you can see I've only challenge myself to read 25 books this year. There are many reasons why I've set my goal at only 25 books but the main reason is because I didn't meet my goal last year of 50 books. In September, I found out that I'm pregnant which really effected my reading life and I've only finished 2 books since then! I've been reading a lot more lately and I want to get back to a semi consistent reading life. But I am going to have a baby in May and I know that I'm not going to have a ton of time to read for the first few months. I also think that challenging myself to reading only 25 books this year will allow me to focus on quality books instead of the quantity of books that I read. I also have a bunch of books that are 800-1000 pages long and I don't want to feel guilty spending so much time on them. 

The second and final reading challenge that I'm participating in 2018 is the Beat the Backlist Challenge hosted by Novelknight. I feel like this one can really go hand in hand with my Goodreads Challenge because I know I have a lot of quality books on my shelves and I really want to read what I already have. I'm only setting my goal at 10 books which I hope I can achieve and then just see where it goes from there!

As far as blogging, I would like to post a least a couple times a month. I want to keep you guys in the loop, let you know what I'm reading and what's going on in my life and I know almost everyone loves cute, squishy baby pictures! I love blogging and reading and since I've been pregnant and I haven't had that aspect of my life, I have felt like something is missing because it's so important to me. So, even though I'm pregnant, I'm getting back to what I really love! 

Here's to an awesome 2018!!!

Book Review: The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

Title: The Accident Season
Author: Moira Fowley-Doyle
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
Release Date: August 18,2015
Genre: YA, Magical Realism
Length: 304 pages
Source: Library
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably and unavoidably accident-prone. Some years it's bad, like the season when her father died, and some years it's just a lot of cuts and scrapes. This accident season—when Cara, her ex-stepbrother, Sam, and her best friend, Bea, are 17—is going to be a bad one. But not for the reasons they think.

Cara is about to learn that not all the scars left by the accident season are physical: There's a long-hidden family secret underneath the bumps and bruises. This is the year Cara will finally fall desperately in love, when she'll start discovering the painful truth about the adults in her life, and when she'll uncover the dark origins of the accident season—whether she's ready or not.

My Review:

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle was a very enjoyable read for me. It's actually been on my TBR for quite some time so I decided to check it out from the library. I thought about purchasing it but I'm glad that I didn't because it would end up being just another mediocre book siting on my shelves. 

There are many aspects that I liked about The Accident Season and many reasons why I chose to read it. It really seemed to have a magical realism quality to it that I really love. There is something so intriguing in the synopsis that just brought me in but it didn't quite deliver what I expected. 

I loved that the book was set in Ireland. I visited Ireland many years ago and there's just something about it that has a magical quality. Like if there was really something called the accident season, it would probably be in Ireland. Fowley-Doyle is a really great writer and I truly enjoyed her lyrical writing style. The characters are all really great and while I was reading the story, I felt like I was invested in their lives. But really, I just wanted to know what was causing the accident season. And that was where the story fell a little flat for me. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but it turns out that all the magical realism aspects of the novel are actually just the main character's way of dealing with some of her trauma.

Other than that one aspect of the novel which isn't really revealed until almost the very end, I really enjoyed The Accident Season. I loved the way the story slowly unravels and reveals what is really going on. 

Let's Discuss: Reading Rituals

Hey readers! Welcome to Let's Discuss where I like to talk about book related topic! This week we're talking about reading rituals and what makes an environment conducive to reading.

I always like to know about people's different rituals and traditions. Do you have a certain reading chair, do you like to munch while you read, do you usually have some kind of beverage in hand while you read? I like to know little quirks like this about people.

Now that I'm so busy all the time, I literally get my reading in when I can. I read on my lunch break, I read a little before bed and if I get off work early and I'm not doing homework or working on this blog, then I'll get some more reading in. Before I started this program, I used to be able to sit down for long periods of time and read like half or at least most of a book in one sitting. When I used to have more time to read I would usually sit in my reading chair, get myself a cold beverage and sometimes I would like to snack on M&Ms or like a cheesy popcorn. Here's what my spot looks like:

I really love my reading chair and I wished I had more time to use it. But I'm not really like a ritual type person and I can read almost anywhere at anytime. 

Do you have any reading rituals that you like to practice? Do you have a favorite reading spot? Let me know in the comments! 

Can't Wait Wednesday: Caroline: Little House, Revisited

Can't Wait Wednesday is a weekly blog hop of anticipated book releases hosted by Tessa @ Wishful Endings.

Title: Caroline: Little House, Revisited
Author: Sarah Miller
Release Date: September 19, 2017
Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

In this novel authorized by the Little House estate, Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a captivating story that illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving pioneer woman as never before—Caroline Ingalls, "Ma" in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books.

In the frigid days of February, 1870, Caroline Ingalls and her family leave the familiar comforts of the Big Woods of Wisconsin and the warm bosom of her family, for a new life in Kansas Indian Territory. Packing what they can carry in their wagon, Caroline, her husband Charles, and their little girls, Mary and Laura, head west to settle in a beautiful, unpredictable land full of promise and peril.

The pioneer life is a hard one, especially for a pregnant woman with no friends or kin to turn to for comfort or help. The burden of work must be shouldered alone, sickness tended without the aid of doctors, and babies birthed without the accustomed hands of mothers or sisters. But Caroline’s new world is also full of tender joys. In adapting to this strange new place and transforming a rough log house built by Charles’ hands into a home, Caroline must draw on untapped wells of strength she does not know she possesses.

Why I want this: I loved the Little House books when I was a kid and I love the Little House show as well! It's a huge part of my childhood. I've also been to the original homestead that is in South Dakota which is just amazing! While I was there I purchased the whole set of original Little House books that I really want to dive back into. I also think it will be interesting to read what it might have been like for Ma to live in the harsh wilderness. That cover for Caroline: Little House, Revisited is just stunning!