Friday, March 27, 2015

These make me so giddy!!

You know those little annoying ads on Facebook that just drive you nuts?!  Well for once I was so glad that a certain one advertising British Illustrator, Johanna Basford's adult coloring books Enchanted Forest and Secret Garden!  


I mean people, REALLY look at these drawings!  


They are SICK! (And I mean that in the most awesome way!) 

I'm not actually a huge coloring fan, but I am a huge embroidery fan and these pictures would make some absolutely STUNNING embroidery pieces.  

And apparently, I'm not the first one to have that idea.  Check out Mary Corbet's GORGEOUS work of one of Johanna's illustrations from her website www.needlenthread.com:




Talk about inspiring!  

I know this is a book blog, and technically I AM raving about these astounding coloring books, but they're just too gorgeous not to stitch as well!  And did you know coloring can greatly reduce stress? Lord knows we could all use a lot more of that in our lives ;-)

Copies of both books can be found on Amazon here and here!!  And they're so affordable too!



Wednesday, March 25, 2015

That Night by Chevy Stevens

I don't even need to read the synopsis of a Chevy Stevens book to know I'm automatically going to like it.  And not surprisingly - I actually loved it.

She's still a relatively new author and this is the 5th book she's put out.  Her first two, Still Missing and Never Knowing were insanely awesome and I read those back in 2011.  I didn't even know about her third book The Other Side - I'll need to reserve that from the library.  Then I read her 4th book Always Watching in 2013, which I wasn't a huge fan of but it wasn't enough to throw me off her books altogether.  As soon as I saw That Night was featured on NetGalley I pretty much begged and pleaded to be able to read a copy!  I'm so grateful they allowed me, cause it was sooo good!!  I love a good suspense psychological thriller (my taste seems to be really evolving the older I get...weird).

The entire time I kept trying to figure out how everything was going to play out - though I admit I did have my suspicions and was totally dead on with those. Still, even though I figured it out, I so enjoyed every page of this intense story!  And isn't that cover gorgeous?  I'm such a sucker for covers involving water or leaves.

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for graciously allowing me the opportunity to read a copy for an unbiased review!  This book is already out, so snag your copy here! (*All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.)

Description: They said she was a murderer. 

They said she killed her sister.

But they lied.

As a teenager, Toni Murphy had a life full of typical adolescent complications: a boyfriend she adored, a younger sister she couldn’t relate to, a strained relationship with her parents, and classmates who seemed hell-bent on making her life miserable. Things weren’t easy, but Toni could never have predicted how horrific they would become until her younger sister was brutally murdered one summer night.

Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were convicted of the murder and sent to prison.

Now thirty-four, Toni is out on parole and back in her hometown, struggling to adjust to a new life on the outside. Prison changed her, hardened her, and she’s doing everything in her power to avoid violating her parole and going back. This means having absolutely no contact with Ryan, avoiding fellow parolees looking to pick fights, and steering clear of trouble in all its forms. But nothing is making that easy—not Ryan, who is convinced he can figure out the truth; not her mother, who doubts Toni’s innocence; and certainly not the group of women who made Toni’s life hell in high school and may have darker secrets than anyone realizes. No matter how hard she tries, ignoring her old life to start a new one is impossible. Before Toni can truly move on, she must risk everything to find out what really happened that night.

But the truth might be the most terrifying thing of all.


Rating: *****

Recommend:  Yup! 2 thumbs up!  But in my opinion, if you haven't read Chevy Stevens before, start with Still Missing, I think it's my favorite of them all!