Tag: #reading #books

I Don’t Know, a Ghost Maybe?

I Don’t Know, a Ghost Maybe?

by ajcwrites ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello! Welcome back to ajcreads. I’m back after a month or so, and going forward, I want to try and at least post biweekly for you guys. I’ve been busy writing my YA fantasy novel (more on that in a few weeks), and reading, and working my daytime job. Anywho, I can’t wait to tell you about Home Before Dark by Riley Sager.

If you read one of my previous posts, Creepy, Creaky Houses, you would know that I am a Sager Fangirl. Sager doesn’t miss, struggle, or falter. Home Before Dark is another slam dunk in Sager’s catalog. Did you know that Riley Sager is actually a pseudonym ? Well, now you do.

So, let’s get into it. Home Before Dark, is a heart pounding thriller that may or may not be a ghost story. I had plenty of fun guessing in between feeling my spine tingle from all of the spooky scary stuff going on in the book.

The story centers around Maggie Holt. She is the only daughter of infamous writer Ewan Holt, and Ewan has recently died due to an illness. Upon his deathbed, Ewan asks Maggie to never return to the subject of the book that made him so famous: Baneberry Hall. Maggie and her family fled Baneberry Hall, a massive estate, when she was five. Ewan wrote about the estate in his wildly successful book, House of Horrors.

The legacy of the book and the controversy surrounding the infamous house where several random and grisly deaths have occurred has followed Maggie her entire life. So much so that she can hardly get away from questions from a nosy receptionist at the lawyer’s office that tells her what Ewan left her in his will.

Ewan has left not only a sizeable amount of money for Maggie, but to her absolute shock, he’s left her Baneberry Hall. Maggie had assumed that her father sold it, but he’d kept it all these years. She ultimately goes back on her promise to not go back to Baneberry Hall due to a burning curiosity to visit the place that her parents fled from when she was so young, but to also fix it up and sell for a profit since she’s a designer.

When Maggie returns to Baneberry Hall, things are instantly sketchy. I mean, some of the stuff happening is an instant hell no for me (for real, like pack it up, turn around, no amount of money is worth this, send me my check) Ghostlike activity keeps happening in the house, people may or may not be breaking into the house to say they did for bragging rights, and Maggie is never too sure who she can trust while she investigates the past and tries to learn the true story of what happened 25 years ago at Baneberry Hall.

This novel was absolutely addictive. I listened to it on Audible and I read the physical book from my library (ahem, go to the library, go right now). This story is a spine chilling mystery that constantly begs the question, are ghosts real? Sager almost instantly drops you into Maggie’s body, and every emotion is so visceral and just fucking scary. So creepy, so good, so compulsively readable.

I would advise you to find out by picking up a copy of the book here or you can find a library in your city and borrow it from there. Beware, it might be difficult to get your hands on a copy of this title.

Have you read this one? Let me know in the comments! Are there any other books that you guys want me to read so that I can do the hard work of finding out if it’s good or not? If it is good, it will appear on the blog. I make a point to keep this a book recommendation blog and I only post about what I liked.

Keep it weird until next time (I know I will)

Keep Reading!

Keep Reading!

by ajcwrites ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Welcome back to ajcreads! I’ve been gone for a while because I can’t seem to finish any book that I start.

However, I recently finished Austin Kleon’s Keep Going and I have good things to say. I’ve been a fan of Austin Kleon since when I read his first book, Steal Like an Artist, shortly after I graduated high school in 2013. I remember being enthralled by his message that we have to stay creative even when we’re feeling uninspired and like nothing we make is original. (Side note: there’s no such thing as an original work these days. Every thing has been done, just do your best version of it!)

Keep Going did not disappoint. While so many terrible things are happening in the world right now, it’s crazy important for us to keep going as creatives. I know a lot of you might be doing Camp NanoWriMo next month, and maybe you should give this a read before you set off on your next challenge.

It’s a brief read, and there are illustrations throughout the book. Winter is a challenging time for me, so I needed the pick me up of something inspiring. Kleon touches on how we can stay creative by doing things like staying off of social media and maybe turning your phone on airplane mode, developing and maintaining a practice practice of your craft, and even having a special spot to do what you do.

This is a great read for creatives that are crawling out of the Winter Sad and need a pick me up to start doing what we as artists need to do most: make things.

You can buy Keep Going here. Or, you can use this unseasonably warm weather (72 degrees in Februrary here in Kansas) as an opportunity to go to the library and pick up a copy.

I want to hear your thoughts on how you stay inspired and motivated to keep going in those down periods. Like, comment, subscribe, and let’s start a conversation!

Till next time!

Alicia

Sweet Gains, Bro

Sweet Gains, Bro

by ajcwrites ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Holy shit! I’ve been away from the wonderful world of WordPress for over a year. So many cool things have happened, a new job, getting more help for my depression, and a total revamp in the way that I approach writing and reading.

I will admit, there was a period where nothing felt good enough to post or brainstorm. I spent a lot of time on books on the craft of writing (which are great, don’t get me wrong) and didn’t spend as much time reading fiction. Well, in the last eight months or so, I have read/listened to so much fiction. Which brings me to today’s post.

Love at First Set is a sexy queer rom-com that often carries an honest, realistic take on the way that class affects us while we try to live our lives. In other words, the capitalist hellscape that we live in just can’t seem to leave us alone, and that is 100% true for our protagonist, Lizzie.

Lizzie is a well-rounded character that has financial and emotional trauma from a less-than-ideal childhood. When she’s asked to attend the wedding of her wealthy best friend’s sister, the last thing she wants to do is share the same rare air that most of the wedding guests have been living in their entire lives. To make things worse, her best friend’s (James) parents are her employers, which is a nightmare.

Lizzie’s ambition is to someday own her own gym so that she doesn’t have to empty out her savings to pay for her mother’s existence. Lizzie reluctantly attends the wedding and ends up being an accidental hypeman for Jame’s sister (the bride) to leave her fiance at the alter. Which she does.

To make matters worse, Jame’s sister, Cara, is smoking hot and everything Lizzie wants in a girlfriend.

Readers can look forward to seeing Lizzie bounce between trying to be the perfect friend, daughter, and secret girlfriend.

I can’t say enough good things about it! Read it, just read it. You can buy a copy here, or you can do one of my all-time favorite things/ addictions and visit the bookplace, or you know, your local library (libraries are integral to having an educated society. Go to the library, damn it!).

I Wanna Be Like Noni

I Wanna Be Like Noni

by ajcwrites ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello, readers! Its been a bit since I’ve posted on here because I am a mess. I’m a depressed, historically unorganized, and squirelly mess. You know who else is a mess?

Noni Blake.

This book kept me company over the last couple of weeks and I think that its perfect timing that I’ve finished it the week of Valentine’s Day.

Here’s what I loved about this book:

  • Its a hilarious and clumsy story of how love can sneak up on you
  • Its an easy read, and its not predictable at any point
  • Claire Christian convinces you to live vicariously through Noni. Do you have an urge you’ve been resisting? One that would be more in line with who you are? Then you will identify with Noni and the rapid snowballing of every decision she makes throughout the course of the novel.

With everything going on, its easy to forget to allow ourselves pleasure. Noni Blake allows herself several months of unrestricted pleasure after she fails to cope with the end of a nine year relationship. She decides to take a long break overseas, and that trip turns into an Eat, Pray, Love, style pleasure quest, but with a lot more jokes.

Ultimately, I loved that Claire Christian helps us keep one thing in mind: we often live our lives the opposite of how we should, with pleasure squeezed in where we can get it, and our priorities at the center. We should be living our lives in reverse.

Pleasure should be at the center of your life, and the rest should follow.

You can pick up a copy of Its Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake here. Or you can visit your local library.

Scary Faeries

Scary Faeries

by ajcwrites ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello readers! I recently finished Darling There Are Wolves In The Woods, and I’m still missing it!

I’ve read a lot of stories about the Fae, many of them were more fantastical and in some cases lighter, but DTAWITD skips that route. This novel, the first in the Wicked Woods Chronicles, is both a satisfying and terrifying romance.

The reader is pulled throughout a terrifying world of faeries, witches, wolves, and just about anything else that could scare the shit out of you while keeping you completely absorbed.

The story does not hold back on showing us the dark side of the faerie world as the protagonist, Teya, makes her way through the scary woods with a handsome faerie, Laphaniel, by her side.

I will definitely be reading the next book in the series, Hush The Woods Are Darker Still because I’m not ready to step out of the world that L.V. Russell has created.

You can grab a digital copy of Darling There Are Wolves In The Woods here.