Top Ten Tuesday is my favorite weekly meme by far and wide so, despite recent tweaks, I'm sticking with it.  In case you haven't heard, TTT will no longer be hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  In fact, that blog is dissolving.  You can read goodbye posts from the contributors that include links so you can follow them individually on their own blogs and social media accounts.  Thank you, ladies, for all your hard work over the years!  From now on, TTT will be handled by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.  Be sure to stop in and give her some love.  To join in the TTT fun, just read up on the meme, make your own list, then have a good ole time hopping around the book blogosphere.  It's a great way to find new blogs to follow, revisit old favorites, and of course, add to your TBR list mountain mountain chain.  What's not to love?

This week's topic is: Top Ten Bookish Resolutions/Goals.  I feel like I've already talked about this, so forgive the redundancy.  I'm really not making any hard and fast bookish resolutions for the new year, but here's what I wouldn't mind accomplishing: 

1.  Read 200 Books.  This has been my yearly goal for a number of years now.  The closest I've come is 186 in 2011.  I read 158 last year, so we'll see what happens in 2018.

2.  Read more non-fiction.  I've always been a fiction kind of girl, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy an intriguing biography, a scintillating memoir, a fun pop-psych book, or an uplifting inspirational read now and then.  I avoid anything too deep or too dry, but other than that, I'm fairly open ... Anyone have any great recommendations?

3.  Comment More.  Not gonna lie, I'm pretty good about commenting on other people's blogs.  I know how much I enjoy it when people react to my posts, so I always try to return the favor.  However, I'd like to do better about visiting ALL the blogs on my reader and commenting regularly so the authors know how much I enjoy their work.

4.  Keep up on reviews.  You guys, I totally suck at this.  Totally.  My bookish OCD makes me feel like I have to give every book I read its day in the sun, so I can't cheat with mini-reviews, skipping books, etc.  I must review them all!  Apparently, I am incapable of doing it in a timely manner, though, so yeah, I need to work on that this year.

5.  Limit the amount of books I accept for review.  This one is SO tough because I want to read all the things! It's hard to resist shiny new releases, hopeful debut authors, awesome-sounding ARCs, fun blog tours, etc.  I've gotten pickier over the years about what I accept, but I need to be even pickier so I don't go stark raving mad from the guilt I feel over not being able to review everything.

6.  Clean up my feed reader.  My feed reader is crammed full of book blogs (as well as food blogs, diet blogs, organization blogs, writing blogs, etc.).  It's overwhelming and guilt-inducing to see all those unread posts just sitting there.  A lot of the blogs have fallen by the wayside over the years, or my interest in them has waned, so I need to ditch the dead weight and focus on those that are still dynamic and helpful.   

7.  Find new blogs to read.  I love reading book blogs and am always looking for new ones to follow.  I prefer those whose authors share my reading interests, have a clean, upbeat writing style, and comment/follow back.  This is one of the reasons I love TTT—it helps me find new blogs to enjoy.

8.  Actually complete a reading challenge.  I get so excited for the new reading challenges that come out every year, but then I never finish them.  I'm doing some fun ones in 2018, so hopefully I'll actually have some success this time around.  Wish me luck!

9.  Catch up on all the series in which I am woefully behind.  Yeah.

10.  Keep enjoying doing what I love.  By limiting the number of blog tours in which I participate and being very up front with authors about the amount of time (years!) it will likely take me to review their books, I've minimized (but not erased) a lot of the pressure in my blogging life.  This makes the "job" much more pleasurable.  I want to keep that feeling going this year.  More than anything else, I want to make sure this gig remains a pleasurable labor of love.  When it starts to feel like a stressful slog, that's when I'll know it's time to give it up.

What do you think of my resolutions/goals?  What are yours?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave a comment on this post and I'll gladly return the favor.     

Happy TTT!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

On December 14, 2012, in a small town in southwestern Connecticut, the unthinkable happened.  Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old man who had just mudered his mother, forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School.  He proceeded to shoot and kill twenty first graders and six staff members before committing suicide.  His violent actions left a peaceful town and a stunned nation in horrified shock.  

Among the dead was 6-year-old Emilie Parker, a sweet little girl who loved art and the color pink.  In the wake of the shooting, her grief-stricken parents—Alissa and Robbie—struggled to understand such a senseless act.  Faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they couldn't fathom how God had let such an atrocity happen.  Mostly, they missed and mourned their young daughter, who had been taken from them way too early in a terrifying, tragic way.  

Although Alissa Parker doesn't consider herself a writer, she wanted to share her story.  An Unseen Angel, a raw and heart-wrenching memoir, is the result.  In the book, she talks about the shooting, but she spends most of the pages discussing her long, rocky path to healing and forgiveness.  She doesn't sugarcoat things as she discusses her warring emotions, her bitterness in the wake of her loss, and her constant yearning for the one thing she can't have—more time with Emilie.  I especially love the parts where Parker talks about how learning to forgive Adam Lanza allowed her to not only find true peace but also to more fully feel Emilie's spirit as she moved forward with her life.  This passage has really stuck with me:

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of An Unseen Angel from the generous folks at Shadow Mountain.  Thank you!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for Mortal Arts, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from its predecessor, The Anatomist's Wife.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.

Having been the assistant of her anatomist husband while he made a macabre study of death, Lady Kiera Darby has earned an unsavory, though undeserved, reputation.  Now a widow, the 25-year-old painter has gladly retreated from society.  Her sister's country home has become a refuge, in spite of the unfortunate murder that took place there recently.  When Kiera's pregnant sister is encouraged to relocate to Edinburgh to be closer to medical help, Kiera knows she must go, too.  Leery of society gossips, she tries to remain in the background, blending as well as she can into the scenery.

It's not to be.  When a local girl goes missing and Kiera's old art tutor, William Dalmay, becomes a suspect in a possible crime, Kiera is once again drawn into the intrigue.  Paired with Sebastian Gage, an infuriating inquiry agent whose many charms are not lost on the widow, she vows to prove William's innocence.  The more the duo investigates, however, the more it looks like William may, in fact, not be as innocent as he seems.  Kiera refuses to believe he's guilty, but she can't deny that the 40-year-old war veteran has been suffering from a severe case of shell shock.  Could he, in his debilitating illness, have done something terrible?  It's up to Kiera and Sebastian to find out.

While I liked The Anatomist's Wife, the first book in Anna Lee Huber's historical mystery series, I enjoyed this second installment more.  Mortal Arts boasts a more exotic setting, a more complex story, and a more exciting (albeit slow-burning) romantic subplot.  All of these elements work together to make it more engrossing on the whole.  While Mortal Arts has some grim parts, overall it's a clean, entertaining mystery that will appeal to readers who fancy detective novels with colorful historical settings, strong female leads, and fewer gory, graphic details than you find in a typical mystery/suspense novel.  I'm loving this series that just keeps getting better and better.

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Lady Darby series, including The Anatomist's Wife; A Grave Matter; A Study in Death; A Pressing Engagement [novella]; As Death Draws Near; and A Brush With Shadows)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for mild language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Mortal Arts with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

August 1999—Laura knows little about solar eclipses, but when her college friends decide to take a trip to the Cornish coast to witness one, she's all in.  She meets Kit McCall, a passionate, principled eclipse chaser, at a pre-trip planning meeting and falls swiftly in love.  By the time they travel together to Lizard Point, they're an established couple, both eager to experience the upcoming, sure-to-be-brilliant phenomenon.  But, in the chaotic, carnival-like atmosphere on the Point, Laura witnesses something even more life-changing than the eclipse.  She's not exactly sure what she's seeing; she only knows she has to intervene.  Grateful for her aid, 19-year-old Beth Taylor latches on to Laura, even showing up later on her London doorstep.  Leery of their new houseguest, Kit and Laura do what they can to help.  However, when things with Beth take an unsettling turn, they know they have to distance themselves from the increasingly unstable young woman.

March 2015—Now married to Kit and pregnant with twins, Laura still lives in fear.  Although the McCalls have taken great pains to hide their identities—they have new names, no social media profiles, burner phones, no personal photos published on the Internet, etc—Laura remains anxious, terrified of being discovered by Beth.  Kit's desire to go on an eclipse-chasing trip fills her with dread.  When his excursion triggers a brush with the past, Laura is forced to face the truth about what really happened in Cornwall.  With everything—and everyone—she loves at risk, she must find a way to stop her worst nightmare from coming to fruition.  

He Said She Said by English author Erin Kelly is an engrossing thriller that's both timely (more so when I read it back in July) and terrifying.  Complex and twisty, it kept me guessing and on the edge-of-my-seat until the very last page.  Although the novel is sad and depressing, it's also a tense, suspenseful page-turner from which you'll be hard pressed to look away.  If you're a twisty mystery fan, you'll definitely want to check out He Said She Said as well as other books by Erin Kelly.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of books by Sharon Bolton and Jane Casey)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for strong language, violence, sexual content, disturbing subject matter, and depictions of illegal drug use

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of He Said She Said from the generous folks at Minotaur Books (a division of St. Martin's Press/Macmillan).  Thank you!