teatimelit

Review: Death and Dinuguan by Mia P. Manansala

Love is in the air for the citizens of Shady Palms, but Cupid’s arrow isn’t the only thing striking the town—not with another killer on the loose.

Things are looking up for the Brew-ha Cafe, and Lila Macapagal can’t think of anything that could break the spell, especially with Valentine’s Day coming up—she can’t wait to celebrate with her boyfriend, Jae Park. Adding to the lovey-dovey atmosphere is Hana Lee, Shady Palms’s newest resident. She’s also Jae’s beloved cousin and chocolatier at Choco Noir, the latest addition to the town’s culinary offerings. Everything is coming into place for Hana, who left her old life in Minnesota behind to work at Choco Noir, owned by her best friend.

Unfortunately, beneath the sweet surface of Shady Palms runs a bitter undercurrent, as a series of attacks against women-owned businesses in the area escalates from petty theft to assault and murder when Hana is found knocked unconscious inside Choco Noir, and the chocolate shop owner is put out of business—for good.

With Hana left in a coma, a murderer hiding amongst them, and the safety of the women entrepreneurs of Shady Palms at risk, the Park brothers team up with the Brew-ha crew to put a stop to the villain before they strike again.

Read more

Review: Hot Wax by M.L. Rio

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

Read more

Mini Reviews: Reading Only Mystery/Thriller Books for a Week

We all know I love a good reading challenge, so I thought that with my first week of vacation time I would challenge myself to only read two genres. Since they’re my favorites, I obviously went with the mystery and thriller genres; especially since I have multiple unread mystery and thrillers on my physical tbr.

Over the course of the week I ended up finished 5 books and started a 6th! Now let’s get into the reviews!

Read more

Mini Reviews: Summerween Wrap Up

And just like that another Summerween has come and gone. I wasn’t able to be as involved with Summerween as I wanted to this year, but I was still able to participate and complete the prompts, which I’m very happy about!

As always, with the end of Summerween comes my wrap up and mini reviews, so let’s get to it!

Read more

Review: Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.

She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.

Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder.

Read more

Mini Reviews: 30 Plays in 30 Days Readathon

Towards the end of May I thought “You know, it would be fun to read all of the Tony nominated plays this year!” which then turned into “I’m gonna read a play for every day in June” and suddenly my 30 plays in 30 days readathon was born!

For someone who lives and breathes theatre, I actually don’t read plays as often as one would think (excluding Shakespeare); plays aren’t as accessible as musicals are, but I do buy a lot of plays, especially whenever I’m in New York since it’s not a NYC trip if I don’t go to the Drama Book Shop multiple times. Because of this, a lot of unread plays have gathered on my shelves, and that was another incentive to me deciding to do this reading challenge. I knew that in doing so I’d get through all of the unread plays on my shelves which meant that I actually had to buy some new plays (I know, I had to, it was a real sacrifice) to make it to 30! I mean, I could’ve read 3 other Oscar Wilde plays, but I wanted to limit it to one unread play per author, so I decided against that.

Anyway, I finished my 30 plays in 30 days readathon on June 29th, and I’m honestly so proud of myself for actually completing the readathon! Yes, plays are typically short, but reading 30 in 30 days, especially during the busiest time of my work year, is quite an accomplishment. It was also so much fun! I got to read a lot of plays that I’ve been wanting to read for years, discovered some new ones and found some new favorites! 

Since I read all of these, I figured I just had to make a post of mini reviews for them, so get comfy and cozy and let’s chat about the 30 plays I read in June!

(Please note that some of the plays I talk about include mentions of death, murder and rape)

Read more

Review: Smile and Be a Villain by Yves Donlon

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark… and that ‘something’ is magic.

HELSINGØR, 1536.

Ophelia is a disgraced handmaid to the queen, the cast-off lover of Prince Hamlet.

She is also a witch, and a good one at that. And she can see that Denmark is rotting from the inside out, afflicted by dark magic.

WITTENBERG, 1536.

Hamlet is a useless son, a failed heir. He is the prince of a nation about to fight a war they won’t win.

He doesn’t know about magic, but if he did he would use it to destroy their enemies—no matter the consequences.

As Hamlet and Ophelia find themselves increasingly torn apart, they must decide: how much are they willing to sacrifice in order to save Denmark?

And, by the end of it all, will they be beyond saving?

Read more

Review: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

Read more

ARC Review: For the Record by Emma Lord

An electrifying rom com of rivalry and redemption, perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Daisy Jones and the Six, from New York Times bestselling author Emma Lord.

Once the most notorious rivals in the music scene, pop princess Mackenzie Waters and punk rockstar Sam Blaze electrified audiences as their bands clashed on stage. But behind the scenes, their simmering tension grew into something more — until suddenly both bands fell apart, and the idea of Mackenzie and Sam did, too.

Two years later, Sam has traded the rockstar lifestyle for a quiet life raising the son he didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Mackenzie is dealing with a postoperative change in her voice by only singing under a pseudonym. The only way to revive their public careers? A joint comeback album.

With fans over the moon and their futures on the line, Sam and Mackenzie face their biggest challenge yet: giving up the old rivalry and learning to work together. But as old sparks fly and new secrets emerge, they set off a chain reaction neither of them could have anticipated — one that proves that sometimes, the greatest hits are the ones yet to be written.

Read more

ARC Review + Blog Tour: Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin

Hidden off the coast of Washington, veiled in mist, there is an island that does not appear on any map. And on that island is Ellery West.

Ellery West has always been home for Faith. After an international move and a childhood spent adjusting to a new culture and a new language, the acclaimed school for magic feels like the only place she can be herself. That is, until Faith and another student walk into the forest, and only Faith walks out.

Marked with the red stripe across her uniform that designates all students deemed too dangerous to attend regular classes, Faith becomes a social pariah, an exile of Ellery West. But all she has to do is keep her head down for one more year to graduate, and she gets to keep her magic. Because when students fail out of Ellery West, they have their magic taken away. Forever. And Faith can’t let that happen.

Except terrifying things are still happening to students, and the dark magic that was unleashed in the forest still seems to be at work. To stop it, Faith and the other Red Stripes will have to work together, risking expulsion from the magical world altogether.

Read more