Week’s Wrap Up

This week in life

Last week, I was a little behind at work, but I finally caught up and oh boy was I excited. My manager even proposed I celebrate!

So naturally, I broke out the good tea leaves ❤

Other than that, this week was somewhat dull. There was no deep cleaning or going anywhere (besides work). I had planned to start and even finish the BBNYA excerpts, but I barely got around to reading my current read, let alone anything else. I did have a lot of fun on Thursday when my cousin, her kids (my niece and nephew) and my other cousin, stopped by our house. I was working [from home] for most of their visit, but their presence really helped break up the monotony of the shift.

Then, on Twitter, Thursday, I had thrown up a little tweet asking if anyone wanted to be featured on Cozy with Books. I’ve left links on tons of writer’s lifts, blog lifts, and comments (lift?) in the past. For such an amazing community, I figured it was high time to give back. If you’re interested, feel free to leave a link as well! Authors, publishers, bookish content creators, whatever! Throw down a link so I can share the love that’s been shown and given to me!

The links post is going up next Saturday.

Hello bookish community!

I want to give back for all the love this community as shown me!
So, next week, I'm going to throw up a post featuring bookish content creators. Feel free to include links below & I'll add you to the post ❤#bookblog #booktok #booktuber #bookstagram

— Esther | Book Blog | Requesting More Tea 🍵 (@BooksCozy) July 22, 2021

I also made myself a little Beacons page. I guess, in retrospect, maybe my week wasn’t as boring as I thought, huh? Beacons is so much more colorful than LinkTree and I’m liking it a lot so far! Would you believe me if I told you I spent several hours picking out the right theme? Because I did.

This week in posts (this makes for my 20th day posting streak!)

I started this week off with a book review. Last week, I finished reading Sons of Valor by Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson. I had broken it up across multiple work shifts because, for me, audiobooks are my work buddies. Despite a few small flaws (terms, slang, and acronyms flying over my head), I loved the book so much that I ended up buying the first book of the previous series Tier One.

On Tuesday, I followed the book review up with the usual bookish meme, a Teaser Tuesday post. After finishing up Sons of Valor, I had an empty feeling in my heart. I’m still new to audiobooks so my TBR list for them is sparse and book to book. If I finish one, I’d have to hunt down another one before my next in-office shift (at home, I can just listen to Youtube). I was pretty tired that day and mistook the audio excerpts button for the listen now button. My little happy mistake gave me what I needed to post for Tuesday and I even have an upcoming review for it! It was short and sweet and I’m more glad, of my little oops, than anything else.

Wednesday came the WWW wrap up post for the week. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m so behind on Tomorrow’s End that I’m a little worried about my next WWW, but hey, that’s next week Esther’s problem. As mentioned above, I finished True Loaf and Sons of Valor this week and still reading Tomorrow’s End. My plan for my next read is the next up Virgil Flowers book, Deadline by John Sandford, but I maaay take a break from books just to spend some time with the excerpts. Again, that’s next week me’s problem.

Once again, just as with last Thursday, I was struggling to come up with a Thursday post and, just like last week, my lovely friend, Danni, came in a pinch and I ended up with another tag post. This time, it was the Fantasy Tropes Book Tag and I had a blast with it. I think I’m going to spend a bit of time, today, to go read some other book tags out there and hope to return the favor for the upcoming Thursday 😉

For Friday, I had another bookish meme and it was the First Lines Friday post of this week. It was a nice little way to end the work week, but I barely registered it going up and the tweet going out because I was ever slightly frantically getting as much done as possible at work. It’s actually a book from the living room bookcases and I can’t recall its origins. It’s just a book we’ve always had in our possessions, but where we got it is a mystery. It’s a thriller so maybe I’ll get around to reading it one day.

My Saturday post came out of nowhere. I started a little “blog post ideas” note in my phone and yesterday’s post was actually supposed to be “Favorite places to read” but seeing as I purchased Tier One on Tuesday, ordered Rainbow Six which arrived in the post on Friday, and purchased Weapons Grade on Friday as well, I ended up making a book haul post instead.

Did you have an interesting week? How’s your upcoming week looking?

FIRST LINES FRIDAY

Happy Friday! This week went by much slower than the last, but I somehow did much less reading!
I’m hoping that I can fit in some more reading into this weekend.

Today’s lines come from a book I have owned for a long long time. I don’t even know where this book comes from, whether it’s from the old owner of a house I moved into or from a library book sale, but I definitely did not buy this because it spans back to before I started to read any thrillers. The first few pages and the synopsis sounded pretty interesting and since it’s a mystery thriller, I’m sure it’s something I’ll eventually pick up. Maybe.

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

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This week’s lines:

Whitehall Palace
January 28, 1547

Katherine Parr saw that the end was approaching. Only a few more days remained, maybe a mere few hours. She’d stood silent for the past half hour and watched, as the physicians completed their examinations. The time had now come for them to deliver their verdict.

Enjoyed that preview? This week’s book is…

The King’s Deception (Cotton Malone #8) by Steve Berry

Blurb

Cotton Malone is back! Steve Berry’s new international adventure blends gripping contemporary political intrigue, Tudor treachery, and high-octane thrills into one riveting novel of suspense.
 
Cotton Malone and his fifteen-year-old son, Gary, are headed to Europe. As a favor to his former boss at the Justice Department, Malone agrees to escort a teenage fugitive back to England. But after he is greeted at gunpoint in London, both the fugitive and Gary disappear, and Malone learns that he’s stumbled into a high-stakes diplomatic showdown—an international incident fueled by geopolitical gamesmanship and shocking Tudor secrets.
 
At its heart is the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, who is set to be released by Scottish authorities for “humanitarian reasons.” An outraged American government objects, but nothing can persuade the British to intervene.
 
Except, perhaps, Operation King’s Deception.
 
Run by the CIA, the operation aims to solve a centuries-old mystery, one that could rock Great Britain to its royal foundations.
 
Blake Antrim, the CIA operative in charge of King’s Deception, is hunting for the spark that could rekindle a most dangerous fire, the one thing that every Irish national has sought for generations: a legal reason why the English must leave Northern Ireland. The answer is a long-buried secret that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire forty-five-year reign of Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, who completed the conquest of Ireland and seized much of its land. But Antrim also has a more personal agenda, a twisted game of revenge in which Gary is a pawn. With assassins, traitors, spies, and dangerous disciples of a secret society closing in, Malone is caught in a lethal bind. To save Gary he must play one treacherous player against another—and only by uncovering the incredible truth can he hope to prevent the shattering consequences of the King’s Deception.

WWW Wednesday

Going round and round and we end up here on a Wednesday again. Where did the rest of the week poof off to? No idea. I’m not sure how it’s already Wednesday again.

What are you currently reading?

This week’s current reads are split between Tomorrow’s End and BBNYA excerpts. I’m hoping to finish both before next Monday. Tomorrow’s End was in last week’s current reads, but I’m only a small way in. I’m loving it to pieces so far. The characters, the world…but I have to wait for the book review before I can start gushing and plus, I do have a lot of the book still left to go through.

What did you recently finish?

Two this time! Sure, one of them is super small, but I really loved and adored it. True loaf was actually published back in 2020, but the audiobook version is due to come out on the 27th of this month so I’ll wait until next week to throw up a little mini review of it.

I also recently finished and posted a review for Sons of Valor by Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson (and narrated by Ray Porter). I LOVED the read and even found myself some new authors to follow. I even ended up downloading the first book of their other/previous series: Tier One Thrillers (with audio).

What do you think you’ll read next?

The same as last week. I’m still planning on reading Deadline by John Sandford next, but unless I find myself another audiobook on NetGalley, I may throw in Tier One in as the audiobook read of the week.

How’s your week looking?

Teaser Tuesday

I kid you not, I sat at my desk, Monday evening, agonizing over my Tuesday post, not knowing what book to pick up next because I was still reading my last week’s Teaser Tuesday book.

Of course, I ended up at NetGalley, poking around both the request and listen now tabs for my next audiobook (to take with me to work today) and somehow, my sleep deprived self managed to mistake the download button for the audio extract button. My clumsy hands literally found my next read for me before my brain could even process what I’d done. Is this a happy accident? Fate??

It’s a pretty short story (~16-17 minutes) but the cover was absolutely gorgeous and it’s probably what drew me in in the first place. I haven’t really read it yet, simply sliding to a random minute, but where I landed sounded like such a fairytale so I’m quite excited.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker, where all you have to do is to grab your current read, pick a random page, and select a non-spoiler sentence or two (from somewhere on that page) to share! If you enjoy the teaser, you might even want to add it to your own TBR!

This week’s teaser is…

Riley was eager to find her plant and get home to a nice warm bath, but when she looked around the tree, all she saw was more forest. This better not be some type of trick or else I’ll be pissed! Feeling silly, she ran around the tree once, she peeked, still only endless forest.

Enjoyed what you read? This book is…

True Loaf by L. Austen Johnson

Look at this cover. LOOK AT THIS COVER!!

Blurb

A fun and enchanting modern fairytale.

When a strange man puts in a strange request at the bakery where she works, Riley must go on a mini-adventure to find one unusual ingredient. Along the way, she realizes that things are not always what they seem and that fae might just be real.

DURATION: 16 Minutes, 3 Seconds

First Lines Friday

Oh boy! It’s Friday! Happy Friday!
And happy Summer Friday to me! I might get out of the office a little earlier today which is a nice way to greet the weekend.
Today’s lines come from a book that I’ve recently added to my TBR when it went on sale (free) on Amazon. I actually saw it when the author had tweeted about it that day and then I discovered the free section of Amazon book deals.

That’s a scary place for my TBR, but at least it’s not a bad place for my wallet!

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

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This Week’s Lines:

No matter what century you live in, the world will always be filled with assholes.

“Watch the threads, man!” my prisoner cried as I led him roughly toward the booking officer’s workstation. The suit’s hands were cuffed behind his back. I put my hand on his shoulder and drove him face-first into the top of the metal desk.

Hard.

Enjoyed that preview? This week’s book is…

Bloodlines (The Guardian of Empire City #1) by Peter Hartog

Goodreads Blurb:

When former hotshot homicide detective Tom “Doc” Holliday is recruited to join Special Crimes, he trades in his boring desk job for a second chance to do what he does best, hunt down killers. And his first case doesn’t disappoint: a murdered woman with a bogus past, her body drained of blood, and two eyewitnesses wasted on the designer drug goldjoy claiming a vampire did it.

For Holliday is no stranger to the unusual. He wields the Insight, a fickle clairvoyance that allows him to see the dark and terrible things that hide upon his world. After all, when you live in Empire City, where magic and technology co-exist, and humanity endures behind walls of stone and spell-forged steel, anything is possible.

Saddled with a team whose past is as checkered as his own, Holliday embarks upon an investigation that pits them against bio-engineered vampires, interdimensional parasites and the magical masterminds behind it all.

From nightclubs and skyscrapers, to underground drug labs and coffee shops, Holliday’s search for the truth will uncover a shadowy conspiracy that spans the ages, and forces him to confront a destiny he never wanted.

Bloodlines is Peter Hartog’s debut novel, the first in the Empire City Special Crimes series. Scroll up to order your copy, and start reading today!

WWW Wednesday

As someone who is a relatively slow reader, my WWWs are generally far in between and with each one I hit, I feel like I’ve accomplished something golden.

WWW WEDNESDAY IS A WEEKLY MEME HOSTED BY SAM OVER AT TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS.

The Three Ws Are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

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What are you currently reading?

This week is a duo read between something I just started and something I’m hoping to finish off. I just recently started reading Tomorrow’s End by G.R. Morris and I’m looking to finish a NG audiobook, Sons of Valor by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson.

What did you recently finish?

I just finished reading River Queens: Saucy Boat, stout mates, spotted dog, America by Alexander Watson. The review is actually coming up tomorrow and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you because it was an absolutely beautiful read full of adventure, friendship, and love.

What do you think you’ll read next?

As a break from books, next week, I am going to dedicate the entire week to reading my excerpts for BBNYA’s 2nd round. I can’t wait to dig in because a few of the books I really liked in round 1 are sitting in my inbox waiting for me.
If I finish early, I may move on to my next read. The next book I am going to read though, will be finishing my next Virgil Flowers book (#8), Deadline by John Sandford. I may very well just restart the book because I am only a few chapters in (started about a month and half ago) and need a bit of a refresher.

How’s your week looking?

Teaser Tuesday

Monday’s been conquered and now the lull of the rest of the week starts.
I’ve a relative layout and “schedule” of which books I want to read in what order for the upcoming few months and today’s Teaser Tuesday is the first one up. It’s got the most impressive cover I’ve seen in a while and it wraps around.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker, where all you have to do is to grab your current read, pick a random page, and select a non-spoiler sentence or two (from somewhere on that page) to share! If you enjoy the teaser, you might even want to add it to your own TBR!

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This week’s teaser is…

“Glowing in the darkness, Daren threw herself into the task at hand, and with the speed of what could only be explained as lightning, she began cleaning the floor and walls.
Small balls of light, like sprites, emanated from her body and spread throughout the sanitarium. Streaming into pockets of filth, they began to pop away the sewage in a wondrous array of color.”

Enjoyed what you read? This book is…

Tomorrow’s End by G.R. Morris

Goodreads Blurb:

Do you have free will?
He never asked to be a hero, but the universe didn’t give him a choice.

Kevin Knight never wanted to be the one to save the galaxy. But when tragedy upends his life and demonic forces steal his soul, the fate of time and space are sealed. Until a scaly, trench-coat-clad alien appears and gives him a glimpse into the true nature of all things.

Astounded, Kevin learns the world he knows is merely an illusion created by alien beings who control humanity’s every move. With an invasion imminent, he must defeat the blackness and perfect his powers before the bloody battle begins.

Which prophecy will Kevin fulfill… the one of darkness or the one of light?

Week’s Wrap Up

This week in life…

Aaanndd…it’s Sunday!

Sure, my work week goes by at lightning speed but weekends seem to have their own special hellish speed.

This week has been eventful. I made a TikTok account and joined Booktok. I filmed and edited for about an hour for a 20 second clip that I had originally intended to post to IG as a reel (which I did too) but ended up also throwing it up as my first video on TikTok. Speaking of Instagram, I made an oops because I seemed to have skipped the section about reel covers and…now there’s a white wall sitting in my IG grid 😂 and uhhh I learned that you can embed IG/TikTok videos to WordPress posts! *cue excited wiggle dance*

@cozywithbooks

What’s your reading routine like? #booktok #bookish #readingroutine #teaandbooks #booklovers

♬ original sound – Esther

This week In posts…

I started this week off with my usual Tuesday bookish meme post, a Teaser Tuesday of my current read, a book that was long overdue to be my current reads and to be read! I’m nearly done with it and broke it down to roughly 3 chapters a night. I was actually supposed to have finish it yesterday, but I came home, desperately needing a nap, on Friday and then spent all of yesterday replaying SOS: Friends of Mineral Town (in my last file, I married Brandon). If I ever get distracted from reading, it’s probably Astral Chain or SOS/Harvest Moon.

Then came a spotlight for a book that was coming out this week (the Kindle version actually dropped yesterday! You can check it out >HERE< ) I followed up the spotlight with an excerpts post of the book. The author had sent out the first few pages as a sneak peek into the upcoming release and I picked out a couple of my favorite moments to put out as an excerpts post.

The following day, Cozy with Books had its very first author interview. It was a written interview with author Nathan Timmel. You might recall seeing the spotlight or review post, a week or two ago, for his first fiction book, We Are 100, and I really enjoyed it!

And then, on Saturday, I threw up a list post because I hadn’t done one of those in a while (not including any tags). While I’ve had my reading moods, I’ve never been quite so stuck in one for this long. There have been steampunk, fantasy, military fantasy (and general military fiction) moods for a while, but nothing could touch how much I’ve been craving a good cyberpunk book. I fell into another hole while surfing Amazon’s book section and then after adding a bunch of books to my TBR, I ended up just making a list post.

I’m intending to finish the weekend off strong so that I can get into my next book (the cover is amazing). It’s going to be an interesting upcoming week, but I hope I can squeeze in as much reading in it as possible.

QoTD – “What’s your reading routine?”

My reel and first TikTok video was about my reading routine. I tend to read towards the evening because my concentration is at its best (given that I’m not drained from the day). My favorite time to write or draw is after 9pm so naturally, the best time for me to read is around that time too.

There’s always some kind of tea involved. If I read any earlier in the day or if the next day’s a no-alarm day, I drink whatever I want. If the next day’s a work day, I opt for a no caffeine choice instead. There’s never lyrical music, but I do enjoy some ambience in the background. I love the sound of grandfather clocks ticking!

Grab my book, notebook, stickies and pens, and I’m all set for the evening.

What about you? How was your week?
Do you have any reading routines?

Teaser Tuesday

It might not exactly be “post vacation” but do you ever get mild “post-long weekend blues?” I sure do! (Don’t get me wrong, I’m itching to get back).

It’s Tuesday and the first day back to work after that 3 day weekend! I think the last time I did a Teaser Tuesday was for We Are 100 and that was towards the beginning of June. (Yikes!)

So today’s post is finally, another teaser; this one from a book that’s been popping up in many of my “Currently Reading” posts or TBR reads for the month but I never actually reach it…so guess who is finally reading it??
It’s fantastic so far and I can’t fathom why it’s taken me so long to pick it up! Can you guess what book it is?

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker, where all you have to do is to grab your current read, pick a random page, and select a non-spoiler sentence or two (from somewhere on that page) to share! If you enjoy the teaser, you might even want to add it to your own TBR!

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This week’s teaser is…

“You have to admit, Alexander, that two unmarried men, dressed in clean shirts and slacks that smell like a boat, with some outlandish tale about wanting a car to go fetch a car out of state, all in the middle of a heat wave, can sound a little fishy.”
“No pun intended”

Enjoyed what you read? This book is…

River Queens: Saucy Boat, stout mates, spotted dog, America by: Alexander Watson

Goodreads Blurb:
Two men and a spotted dog restore a vintage Chris-Craft motor yacht and launch across the American Heartland from Texas to Ohio. The restoration, the people they met along the way, and life in an America which few know exists are the story of River Queens: Saucy boat, stout mates, spotted dog, America.

First Lines Fridays

FIRST LINES FRIDAY

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Once again, it’s Friday!

Father’s Day is this weekend and I’ve nary a clue on what to get my father other than knowing that today’s the last day I can either order online with hopes that it’ll reach by Sunday or I find something during my lunch break walk.

At this point, I’ve forfeited to the fact that I have about 3-4 books started and reading at the same time. I guess my little reading slump has resulted in me book jumping and mood reading! Today’s lines for First Line Fridays are from an audiobook [current read] from Netgalley. It’s a book that includes the narrator half singing, half speaking the lines from Baby Shark…so you know you’re in for a good time!

Can you guess what the book is?

THIS WEEK’S LINES:

“At half past eight in the evening, the musicians played “Ahesta Bero,” prompting bride and groom to enter the wedding hall after hours of symbolic isolation. Qasim Nadar, along with the three hundred other guests, got to his feet and turned to watch the bridal procession. Round tables and high-backed chairs with white cloth covers filled the cavernous event space, leaving a wide central passage.”

ENJOYED THAT PREVIEW? THIS WEEK’S BOOK IS…

Sons of Valor (Tier One Shared-World #1) by Brian Andrew and Jeffrey Wilson

Blurb

Sons of valor …

Navy SEAL Keith ”Chunk” Redman has been one of the military’s top doorkickers since the day he pinned on his trident: loyal, single-minded, lethal. Tasked to lead a new, covert team of Tier One SEALs — the most elite special operators in the world — Chunk can no longer simply rely on the status quo. To safeguard America, he needs help to stay a step ahead of its adversaries.

Brilliant at spotting patterns in the data that others miss, ex-CIA analyst Whitney Watts sees evidence of a troubling link between illicit Chinese arms sales and an attack on a US military convoy in Afghanistan. If she’s right, it would portend not only massive casualties, but a devastating threat to global stability.

Sons of war …

From the ashes of a never-ending war, a new generation of terrorists has arisen: sophisticated, tech-savvy, and hiding in plain sight among America’s allies. Battered by the Taliban and by the West, they call themselves al Qadr — Power and Destiny — and they’re determined to wrest back control of their homeland. Armed with a powerful combat drone, they can strike with deadly precision at US forces in the region — but their ambitions reach far, far beyond that.

A new legacy …

The new Tier One’s first mission will require them to not only prove themselves, but to stop an enemy who’s using military tactics against them. Chunk and his team aren’t just the tip of the spear; they’re America’s first, last, and best counterterrorism defense. And they couldn’t have arrived at a more urgent — and perilous — time.