Month: June 2022

A Scandal in Brooklyn by Lauren Wilkinson

A Scandal in Brooklyn by Lauren Wilkinson Published by Amazon Original Stories on June 30th, 2022 Genres: Mystery Pages: 48 Format: ARC Buy on Amazon Goodreads A classic Holmesian detective untangles a locked-room mystery with a very modern twist in this venomously diverting short story by Lauren Wilkinson, the Washington Post bestselling author of American Spy. A top-secret experiment at a restricted virtual-reality compound pulls attorney Tommy Diaz back into the orbit of Irene Adler, an old friend with an eidetic memory, a love of true-crime podcasts, and a knack for solving the unsolvable. But this? At a remote warehouse, a VR trial goes awry when a willing test subject, alone in the observation room, drops dead of anaphylaxis—from the sting of a virtual bee. Though the tech titan behind the research believes in the power of the outrageous, Irene relies on clues, hard facts, and a level head. However, in a case this peculiar, how elementary can it be? Greetings! Welcome to our stop on the Blog Tour for A Scandal in Brooklyn. Wow you guys, this was such a brilliant detective short story by acclaimed author, Lauren Wilkinson. Presented in the spirit of a true Sherlock Holmes mystery, […]

Posted June 30, 2022
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The Girl with the Whispering Shadow by D.E. Night

The Girl with the Whispering Shadow by D.E. Night Series: The Crowns of Croswald #2 Published by Stories Untold Press on January 3rd, 2019 Genres: Fantasy Pages: 384 Format: ARC Source: Netgalley Buy on Amazon Goodreads Even a secret town cannot protect Ivy from a mysterious darkness… Only hours after Ivy Lovely discovers that she is the fulfillment of the Moonsday promise, she is whisked away from her beloved school to Belzebuthe, a secret town for only those with magical blood. Ivy sets out on a mission to uncover the second facet of the Kindred Stone while eluding the Dark Queen’s wrath. But even when she’s supposed to be safe, something is shadowing Ivy. She will need all her natural-born magic and more as she battles to find the rest of the Kindred Stone and return to the Halls of Ivy. Before it’s too late… Whoosh! And we’re back from our latest thrilling visit to the Magical School of Ivy Hall. Our detour trip on the cabby through The Town, Belzebuthe, was quite the experience as well. Once again, a reminder to travel as light as possible. Can you still remember where we ended off in the first instalment, The […]

Posted June 29, 2022
4 Comments

Ten Books on our Winter TBR

Greetings you guys! It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. I actually didn’t feel like participating in this week’s TTT as geography has never been my strong suit. Northern and Southern hemispheres always feel like such an unnecessary complication. When it’s time for most of you guys to show your winter reads, it’s summer here with us. And vice versa of course. We do love reading in winter though and statistically we read slightly more in winter than in summer. Books on my Summer TBR are still months away. But we do have a whole stack of winter reads just waiting for us to snuggle in with! The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton Romancing Mr. Bridgerton (Bridgerton #4) by Julia Quinn The Milk Tart Murders by Sally Andrew The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Lock Every Door by Riley Sager The Whisper Man by Alex North Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar I’m sure that most of you have read at least one of […]

Posted June 28, 2022
67 Comments

The Sunday Post #75

Greetings you guys! How have you all been doing? I am happy to report that we’ve had a bit of rainfall in our region. Our water supply dam is still only at 13%, but we continue to be hopeful for more rains to fall. It’s dreadfully cold here and I have to let you guys know just how wonderful my Mommy and Daddy is. My Daddy sees I’m a real little sh*t and spoiled rotten, but I think it’s important to know what you want in this life and stick to it. I don’t like to sleep under the bedcovers. Or in a basket. I want to sleep on Mommy and Daddy’s bed with just a light blanky over me. My own blanky please. Nothing else is acceptable. Therefore, Mommy and Daddy climbs into bed every night with my pink blanky close at hand. Wherever I move on the bed during the night, they will then tuck me in with my blanky. Aren’t they just wonderful?! Most of the renovations are done and now the fun parts start. Decorating, unpacking, throwing stuff away… Quite a few DIY projects are happening here as well and my Mommy is going through a box of […]

Posted June 26, 2022
46 Comments

Close your Eyes: A Fairy Tale by Chris Tomasini

Close your Eyes by Chris Tomasini on May 2022 Genres: Fiction Pages: 256 Format: ARC Source: Netgalley, Reedsy Discovery Buy on Amazon Goodreads Set in early 1400s Europe, Close Your Eyes is a sincere, yet light-hearted and lustful, ode to love. As Samuel, the court jester, struggles to describe why his friends, Agnieszka the cook, and Tycho the story-teller, fled the King of Gora’s service, he learns that love was the beating heart behind everything that happened in the castle. He learns as well that more ghosts than he knew of walked the midnight halls, and that the spirit of Jeanne d’Arc haunted his friend, and once slid into bed with Tycho, daring him to leave – to take to the cold roads of Europe, where he had once wandered orphaned and alone, and find his destiny there. In the Kingdom of Gora, in early 1400s Europe, the King of Gora has assembled a collection of entertainers, scholars, cooks, and others, to care for and educate his young children, the Prince and Princess. Tycho, the children’s storyteller, and Samuel, the court jester, are happy in Gora, yet it becomes apparent that the children’s cook, Agnieszka, was lured to the castle […]

Posted June 23, 2022
10 Comments

Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed-Romance

Someone in Time by Jonathan Strahan (edited) on May 10th, 2022 Genres: Romance, Short Stories Pages: 420 Format: ARC Source: Lola’s Blog Tours Buy on Amazon Goodreads Anthology of inclusive tales of people through time looking for one another and for ways for the world to be better. Love brought together or torn apart by time travel. This anthology is the latest collection of time-travel romance sci-fi short stories from prominent, award-winning sci-fi authors including Nina Allan, Carrie Vaughn, and Seanan McGuire. Follow timetravelers of all genders as they go backward and forward in time, sometimes to save the one they love, other times as a sacrifice, and others simply because it’s their job. Some travel through memory, others through dreams, and others still through time machines to touch people who would otherwise be out of reach, and to join them together. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad and poignant, some are tales of fresh love and some of love forever lost, but they all are rather wonderful. Including stories by: Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Gailey, Jeffrey Ford, Nina Allan, Elizabeth Hand, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Catherynne M. Valente, Sam J. Miller, Rowan Coleman, Margo […]

Posted June 21, 2022
13 Comments

Throwback Thursday #11 – The Companionship Of Harold Fry and Miss Queenie Hennessy

Greetings you guys! It’s a public holiday here in South Africa today, so we finally have time to do another Throwback Thursday. After being on WordPress for 9 months now, it really is time to start pulling through all those reviews that are not on our archive list. What better way to do that than to join Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review’s fun link-up meme, Throwback Thursday. The Chocolate Lady’s #Throwback Thursday takes place on the Thursday before the first Saturday of every month. Yes, there is a linky and it will remain open until she uploads the new one. Thank Goodness. My first and last sometimes gets very confused. Your post must highlight one of your previously published book reviews and Davida encourages other participants to do the same. Add the link to your post and remember to link back to The Chocolate Lady’s Book Blog And do not forget to #ThrowbackThursday! Yes, I know our Thursdays are a bit messed up. At least it’s Thursday. For today we will take a look at our first and actually up to date, our last, companion reads: Aaah, my Mommy says she’s feeling very nostalgic after seeing this review pop up […]

Posted June 16, 2022
22 Comments

Happy Second Anniversary!

Oh happy day you guys! Today is our two year anniversary here on Elza Reads. Can you believe that? I know, I know – how wonderful live is since we’ve joined the blogosphere. For me, for my Mommy and for you guys. Over the last two years we’ve posted …. I don’t know how may posts. I also have no idea how many comments we’ve had so far. Or page visits. Followers are easy, but that might not be a fair calculation. We’ve switched to WordPress less than a year ago and lost our Blogger followers. Still not sure how to built that up again. Sometimes I miss Blogger, their stats were easier to follow than WordPress. I just had a quick look at our first anniversary blog post and as predicted, my Mommy did tweak the theme and graphics and everything else more than once, again. Heck, she switched platforms and basically had us starting all over! But I am not complaining, I do love the WordPress site. Even though we hardly understand anything. However much I love this site, I still say our very first theme in Blogger, Fluffy white Kitten (that was honestly the theme’s name) was the bestest. What more […]

Posted June 15, 2022
28 Comments

The Scarlet Oak: Murder, Spies and Spirits by Jerry Aylward

The Scarlet Oak by Jerry Aylward on July 4th, 2022 Genres: Mystery Pages: 324 Format: ARC Source: Reedsy Discovery Buy on Amazon Goodreads The bodies of two high school sweethearts are discovered beneath a venerable scarlet oak tree in a vacant horse pasture on the posh north shore estate of J. Barrington Cook, a wealthy, Oyster Bay, Long Island landowner. With no forensic evidence to support his suspicions of a double murder, other than a hardened cop’s intuition, Finn embarks on an unsanctioned homicide investigation that soon exposes a long but skeptic thread of unexplained deaths dating back two-hundred and thirty-eight years, mixing with an enigmatic and beguiling apparition of a young woman residing in the same Revolutionary home of all his victims. Finn’s is mysteriously transported back to colonial Oyster Bay at the height of the American Revolution to the home of one of General George Washington’s covert Culper spies. It is here he must discover the motive for all the unexplained deaths along with the mystifying reason they have remained undetected. Finn’s life takes an unexpected turn when he meets the beautiful but cryptic Sally Townsend, forcing him to abandon a self-imposed protective shell of indifference to solve […]

Posted June 13, 2022
11 Comments

The Sunday Post #74

Greetings you guys! Another week just flew by and here we are again at Sunday wondering where the heck the week has gone. How are you guys doing? We are good! I’d say we are about 97% done with the renovations. There are still a few things that need to be done. The big clean up is starting this week and I can see that it’s going to be a bit of a challenge. We are starting with water shedding tomorrow. Between the hours of 10:00 – 16:00, we will have not water. Monday to Friday. Our dam levels are at critical levels and we need rain desperately. Let’s not go into the politics and rather just pray for deliverance. And rain. Faith like potatoes and this little guy. Adding to the Litter If only the rains want to fall as much as the books fell from the sky this week. I am not going to make a graphic now, but we promise to give a fully updated post on all the new books for Book Club. It will be my Mommy’s turn to host in July, so she went and bought the books she thinks they would like to […]

Posted June 12, 2022
46 Comments

Month: June 2022

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