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The Sun Down Motel

By Simone St. James

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

"Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isn't right at the motel, something haunting and scary.

Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. Carly decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt."

Review

Simone St. James has been and continues to be one of my favorite authors. She has this way of captivating her readers and trapping them in the worlds she creates. The Sun Down Motel consumed me and had me holding my breath to the very end. My body physically relaxed at the end of this book, that is the BEST feeling by far. Everything is played out beautifully and leaves you wanting more. I was up till 1 a.m. determined to finish this book.

At the beginning of reading The Sun Down Motel, I was annotating and enjoying it until I wasn't. It had begun to feel like an assignment rather than for fun so it hindered my reading progress for this book. I need to figure out a way to properly annotate so I don't fall into another reading slump.

Any tips would be appreciated!

Anyways, back to the book review.

Simone St. James speaks of the reality of what it means to be a woman in society. How the world perceives and treats us. How predators are lingering in the shadows, waiting for the right opportunity. How women's voices go unheard and our lives so easily discarded. Simone doesn't sugarcoat our reality, she airs it out for all her readers. Her books hold powerful messages if you are willing to pay attention to them.

Viv and Carly are amazing in their own ways and have a special place in my heart. There was a part or two I didn't enjoy, but it wasn't bad enough for this book to lose a star over.

All around a great read!

Simone St. James started my reading journey with The Book of Cold Cases and continues to push me forward with The Sun Down Motel. I owe Simone St. James a lot.

Favorite Quotes

"I know you from somewhere. Where? There are so many. I know all of their faces. But I can't see you. Which one are you?

I'm the one you didn't kill."

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #booktok #fiction #thriller #supernatural thriller #supernatural themes #ghosts #The Sun Down Motel #simone st. james #book to read #booklr #book photography

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Small Announcement!

So as everyone is aware, TikTok is getting banned in the U.S. and I decided to open an Instagram account! My username is rvynpopbooks! If anyone is interested you can click on my LinkTree to find it! It is a brand new profile and I have made 2 posts and 1 Reel. I am starting with my current read The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James!

I would love to see you there!

It is going to be difficult to start from scratch...especially on Instagram. I haven't used it in so long and have to figure out a pattern to expand!

Well, that's all for today! I will still continue to post here as well. I love Tumblr. I am grateful for those who are following me and liking my posts. It means a lot to me.

Hope to see you soon!

Love,

Vyn

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #booktok #social media #instagram #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #announcement #book review #fiction

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Haunting Adeline

By H.D. Carlton

⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

"The Manipulator

I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me. I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh, make you sigh. But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave. He's always there, watching and waiting. And I can never look away. Not when I want him to come closer.

The Shadow

I didn't mean to fall in love. But now that I have, I can't stay away. I'm mesmerized by her smile, by her eyes, and the way she moves. The way she undresses...I'll keep watching and waiting. Until I can make her mine. And once she is, I'll never let her go. Not even when she begs me to."

Review

When I picked up this book from my local bookstore, I thought the synopsis was great. It had me hooked and I wanted to read it. It was the synopsis and the many TikTok videos I had seen screaming it was the BEST dark romance to date. That marketing was a lie! A downright lie. The synopsis is an even bigger lie.

Yes, I am well aware this was a smutty book and I have no problem with smut. I love it and I will read it any day to my heart's content. However, when I say that this was literal Wattpad material...I mean it. The writing was horrible. The FMC was absolute garbage and had no depth to her. The synopsis depicts her as this total badass and yet as you read the book, she is this meek, flat, unamusing woman. I couldn't stand her.

Zade was no better. The way the synopsis portrayed him was far from what was happening in the book. Yes, he's a stalker and yes he does horrible things for good reasons. I appreciate that in him. His work is admirable and that was the ONLY reason I continued to read the book. There is a second part to this book, but I will not read it. I'm sorry. I can't. I've read better smut and dark romances on Fanfiction. Not all smut has substance and I get that! However, even the smuttiest books have better writing and character development than this. The author could've done so much more with this and didn't. So disappointed.

This is only 1 star above the abomination that is Credence and the uncomfortable obsession the author had with the FMC always having pigtails!!!!!

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #booktok #fiction #dark romance #haunting adeline #zade and adeline #zade meadows #romance

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Ready or Not

By Cara Bastone

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

"Eve Hatch lives for surprises! Just kidding. She expects every tomorrow to be pretty much the same as today. She loves her cozy apartment in Brooklyn, close to her childhood best friend Willa and far from her traditional midwestern family, who have never really understood her. While her job is only dream-adjacent, it's comfortable and steady. She knows what to expect from life--until she finds herself literally expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.

Now Eve's loyal friendship with Willa is feeling tense, and it's actually Willa's steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help. He's always been friendly, but now he's ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is...suddenly kinda hot? Then there's the baby's father, who is (technically) supportive but (majorly) conflicted.

Maybe it's her surging hormones, maybe it's the way Shep's shoulders look in a T-shirt--but Eve starts to wonder if she's been secretly desiring more from every aspect of her life.

Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the right next step in her expanding reality, she learns that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it."

Review

There are not enough words to explain just how much I enjoyed this book! A beautiful friends-to-lovers trope that had my heart squealing with joy. Even though I am an enemies-to-lovers kind of girl.

Shep is so wholesome and sweet. Eve is funny and relatable. Being a mother of 3 children, I could only dream of having a man do what Shep did for Eve. He didn't hesitate once! Not once! He was thrilled from beginning to end.

Ethan, the baby's father...I tolerated him mostly. There were so many times I wanted to punch him in the face but the baby had that covered for me. Thanks, little one! You showed him! If you decide to read the book...you will know which scene I'm talking about.

Being pregnant can be such an isolating experience, especially when you don't have someone to turn to. I feel that Cara Bastone captured that experience well. I felt that there could be some tweaking here and there, but I was so in love with how everything played out. I will be checking out her other books as well.

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #booktok #fiction #cara bastone #ready or not #friends to lovers #romance #romance books

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Verity

By Colleen Hoover

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

"Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her."

Review

Let me begin this review with a piece of my day...I have reheated my coffee in the microwave over 5 times. The end.

Now for the book! This is the same author who wrote It Ends With Us, and I could not fathom the amount of darkness this woman could depict. It had my blood boiling and my bones chilled. I could not put this book down and finished it at 2 in the damn morning!

Verity Crawford is a monster. A vile character who should've never been allowed to exist on paper. I found myself full of anxiety with every confession she made.

I know that Colleen Hoover is not the author to promote or stand by with the controversy surrounding her, but this book was good. I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I still have two more of her books on my bookshelf back when she was the hype of the book world. So with that being said I will be reading those and not purchasing more of her work. So please do not come for me. I am just a reader sharing her thoughts and book journey with you.

MY COFFEE IS COLD AGAIN!!!!

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #booktok #fiction #romantic thriller #thriller #suspense #colleen hoover #verity #booklr #booklover #reading journal

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A History of Wild Places

By Shea Ernshaw

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis:

"Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James--a well-known author of dark, macabre children's books--he's led to a place many believed to be only a legend.

Known as Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. But soon after Travis stumbles upon it...he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis's abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not without the risk of bringing a disease--the rot--into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn't as safe as they believed--and that darkness takes many forms.

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind."

Review:

What better place to escape than in the mind? It can concoct vivid dreams where we are capable of anything our heart desires. However, what are the consequences of remaining in our minds for too long? Where does reality begin to fade and our dream world begin? What happens when our dreams become nightmares?

Shea Ernshaw creates this slow build as we encounter each of the characters and their innermost thoughts. I will not lie to you, I was very impatient. I was turning page after page wondering when it was going to up the suspense. Well, not long after I had ranted and raved about how long this book was taking, it decided to pick up speed. I was desperately turning the pages trying to find out what was happening in Pastoral.

Out of all the characters within this book, Bee was my favorite. She was the main character in my opinion. Although she is blind, she is fearless. She challenges the very fibers of Pastoral and she cares deeply for those she loves. I would do anything for Bee.

Nonetheless, Shea Ernshaw drags the reader into the depths of their minds to the point where one would question themselves. Just how far one would go to leave the real world behind? How far would you go? What would you be willing to sacrifice?

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #book recommendations #book reccs #book reading #A History of Wild Places #Shea Ernshaw #fiction #thriller books #mystery books #booktok

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The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

by Jamie Ford

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

"Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

As Washington's former poet laureate, that's how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.

As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn't the only thing she's inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who's loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and to gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price."

Review:

Jamie Ford brings into perspective the impacts of generational trauma and how it can shape us into the people we are in the present time. Did you know that our history can be traced back through matrilineal genetics because everything we are from our looks to our organelles is accomplished through our mothers? Yes, our fathers contribute to our creation by providing a piece of DNA, but it is the women's contribution that brings us to life.

Dorothy was a highly relatable character to me to an extent. I had experienced a similar situation to the one she was in.

Stuck in a toxic relationship, but doing her best for her daughter. She deserves more, better than what she was given. As all the Moy women deserve.

The generational trauma that she had inherited from the women before her had consumed her entire being. She couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was heartbreaking.

I will warn you guys, there are some heavy topics within this book so be aware of this. There were times I was begging for a break, a light in the darkness of the pages. None of these women deserved what happened to them and I wanted nothing more than to hug every single one of them.

I loved that Jamie Ford also dove into the Buddhist religion. I was always fascinated with Buddhist teachings and how those within the religion approach life. I plan to purchase a book or two to expand my knowledge of it. I never want to stop learning. Religion has always been a difficult topic for me, but we won't dive into that.

I will not lie to you all, I am finding myself hoping and believing in the invisible string of fate. Where the person who was destined for us is waiting for the right turn of events to bring us together. I can be both a cynic and a hopeless romantic. Just a warning!

I enjoyed this emotional read, but it did take me a while to finish due to how heavy it is. If you are up for an emotional read...pick this book up. Cuddle up with a blanket, some tea, and some Kleenex. Be prepared for the heartache and the longing for a long-lost love.

Favorite Parts/Quotes:

"He gently put the ear tips in her ears, then slipped the metal chest piece between the buttons of his shirt, directly above his heart.

'What are you doing?'

He smiled again and leaned closer.

'I wanted you to hear my heartbeat when I kiss you for the first time.'"

The amount of girly squealing I made at this part was ridiculous. Ridiculous! Anyway, there you have it!

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #The Many Daughters of Afong Moy #Jamie Ford #booktok #booklr #romance books #book journal #book journey #book quote #fiction #romance #emotional

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First Read of 2024!

Where The Crawdads Sing

By Delia Owens

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis:

"For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life-until the unthinkable happens."

Review:

This book was my first read for the year 2024 and I loved every bit of this book. I read this back in January so I am doing a bit of backlogging here for you guys. Anyway, I prevented myself from watching the movie on Netflix when it was trending so that I could enjoy the book first. I have always felt that the books were better than the movies, but that is just me.

Kya has become my sister, a fellow firefly if you will. She was everything I could've imagined. Beautiful, wild, and full of a strength I wish I could possess. She went through so much at such a young age and still, she overcame it all. She was the untameable. She was a force of nature.

I applaud Delia Owens and the amount of detail that went into describing the marsh that Kya had grown up in. Her work inspired me to be outside more and listen to the birds, feel the grass and soil beneath my feet, and wonder at the life around me. I even found myself listening to a nature soundtrack of the marsh just to fully immerse myself into Kya's world.

It was this sad and beautiful tale of a girl who longed for love, but at the same time could handle herself. Her community had failed her in so many different ways, but in the long run, Kya was the one who proved them all wrong. By the end of the book I found myself screaming, in the best way of course, because only great books make a person behave in such a way.

It was a great way to start off 2024.

Favorite Parts/Quotes:

"Until at last, at some unclaimed moment, the heart-pain seeped away like water into sand. Still there, but deep. Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother."

"...she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, Where, all night long, by a fire-fly lamp, She paddles her white canoe. And her fire-fly lamp I soon shall see, And her paddle I soon shall hear; Long and loving our life shall be, And I'll hide the maid in a cypress tree, When the footstep of death is near."

(Sorry for the format of the above quote, it's a poem within the book).

"Looky here, hon, Ah got us a big un, big as Alabamee!"...He had called her "hon." --When I tell you I was on the brink of tears reading this part! My heart and emotions were all over the place.

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #where the crawdads sing #reading journal #reading journey #delia owens #fiction #readers #authors #booktok #book to read

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Welcome To My Bookshelf

Hello and welcome!

I go by Vyn here on social media and this blog is dedicated to all things books! I recently started my reading journey after not picking up a book for years. I have decided that I would like to try and share this new journey with like-minded individuals who enjoy reading and talking about books. I do have a TikTok as well if anyone is interested in that.

A little about myself before we dive into the book world and leave reality behind. I am 30 years old and a mother of 3 children. I am currently in school for a degree in Public Health, so there will be moments when my posts may be spaced further out. So just a heads up before we get started.

I will be posting reading updates, book reviews, and other random posts about my day-to-day life. If you have gotten this far into the post, I want to say thank you and I cannot wait to make this journey with you all. I love all things fiction and dive into poetry from time to time. If you have any recommendations to give please feel free to interact!

I cannot wait to get to know you all.

Love,

Vyn

#bookblr #book blog #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #book journal #book journey #booktok #book to read #journaling #journal #my journal #digital journal