Happy 3rd Anniversary to My Blog!!

It’s that time of the year again, when I dedicate a post to my anniversary! A year has gone by so quickly once again and I am so grateful for everyone who has stuck around to view and even like and comment on my posts!

I have definitely spent more time blogging over the past year which I am happy about and will carry on doing so as I still really enjoy being a part of this community.

This year I need to make more time to look at the profiles from the bloggers I follow!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my journey of being a book reviewing blogger, I hope you do enjoy my content that I publish.

Happy reading,

Claire 📚

The Golden Key by Darlien C. Breeze Book Review

Book Description (via Goodreads): Trials, tribulations and ambitions are depicted in the lives of concubines during the Ming Dynasty. Although owned by the Emperor and kept as slaves to service the Son of Heaven and provide him with male children many concubines had hopes, dreams and ambitions. The Golden Key tells the stories of how some girls achieved their goals. Cho, a Korean girl falls in love with Xian, a young eunuch musician, they plot to escape the Forbidden City. Anja, a blonde Nordic becomes a doctor. Lin Siniang is allowed to return to her former life as a female warrior and Genji achieves her ambition of becoming a higher ranking concubine. Many inventions and discoveries were made during that era. Books made with movable type, compasses that allowed travel in open seas, gun powder and a cure for small pox all cane about during the Ming Dynasty. Recipes you enjoy today in Chinese restaurants were invented by chefs in the thirteen hundreds.

Befriended: Be Careful Who You Trust… by Ruth O’Neill Book Review

Book Description (via Goodreads): Some secrets never leave us alone… Gemma Peacocks life was perfect – or at least she thought it was. She had a home she loved, a job she enjoyed, and a husband she adored. The only cloud on the horizon was the continuing tension between Gemma and her mother-in-law, but that’s the same for everyone, right? After the death of her beloved husband, Ritchie, everything begins to fall apart. Indiana Manors’ life, on the other hand, is far from perfect – but she knows just what she has to do to fix it. Befriend Gemma Peacock – and destroy her.

Red Sky: Rising by Ben Archer Book Review

Book Description (via Goodreads): Hayden Flynn is no hero. In fact, he’s on the run from monsters. Not the kind that go bump in the night, but the kind that eat away at your soul. He’s crossed countless miles and decades trying to escape them; however, when the legendary Dracula is reborn in the body of a powerful child, Hayden becomes trapped in a hunt where no one’s survival is guaranteed. The salvation of our deeply divided world now rests on the weary shoulders of one vampire and the curiously quiet girl, Quinn Merrin, who crosses his path. Is it destiny or divine intervention that brought them together? Either way, they will stop at nothing to find the new Prince of Darkness – even if it means leaving a path of bodies and blood in their wake. Because, after all, what price is too high for salvation?

The Crimson Heirlooms by Hunter Dennis Book Review

Book Description (via Goodreads): In 1832, an American student in Paris was legally blackmailed to search for the “Crimson Heirlooms” – for a period of no less than five years, upon pain of death. There were precisely two, as defined by the High Court of France. The first was a priceless necklace called the Cross of Nantes. The second was less tangible. It was, “the devil’s song, as he danced across the blood-drenched hills of the Vendée Militaire.” Both were found.

Eternity’s Echoes by Evan Hirson Book Review

Book Description (via Goodreads): Aaron was a promising software designer with an upcoming company. He shared a quaint house on the outskirts of town with his best friends; another young man and two girls. They’d known each other since school, and lived together peacefully for years with a few problems. Travis the newcomer however had a dark way about him, and all of Aaron’s attempts to get along with him had failed. But just as the household began to settle down again, a strange device with a peculiar attitude entered their lives. Would it fulfill all of their dream, or instead become a curse?

Please Stay: A Brain Bleed, A Life In The Balance, A Love Story by Greg Payan Book Review

Book Description (via Goodreads): A memoir unlike any you’ve ever read before.

When Holly wakes up with a debilitating headache, confusion soon turns to panic as she suffers a seizure and is rushed to hospital. Diagnosed with a ruptured brain aneurysm and Grade IV hemorrhage, the 39-year old college professor soon finds herself fighting for her life as her heart and lungs fail en route to emergency treatment.

As family and friends rush to be by her side, former students and close friends from around the country write memories to be read at her bedside, detailing a life and legacy that has influenced so many.

Experience what loved ones did in real-time as texts and e-mails sent during the medical crisis form the narrative for this compelling journey through the eyes of Holly and her boyfriend who kept vigil through it all.

A book that will challenge and compel you to reflect not just on love and death, but also the hundred micro-reflections nestled in between as you ponder what constitutes a life well lived, and how one impacts others along the way.