Time Travel Thursday

It’s Time Travel Thursday! This is where I take a look back at what I was reading this time last year (or the year before or the year before that…) and compare it to what I am reading now.

Book Review – Chasing the Darkness by Cassie Sanchez

Book Description From Goodreads:

“Pain is inescapable. Suffering is a choice.

Azrael, the Angel of Death, knows pain. The deaths of his mother and sister, as well as his harsh experiences in the Watch Guard at age twelve, have brutally shaped him into the most feared assassin in all of Pandaren. Azrael’s role as a Hunter requires him to search for those with magic, called Spectrals, which he is happy to do. Hunting allows him to pursue his true goal—exacting revenge on the Fire Spectral who altered the course of his life. 

Azrael’s obsession with revenge and power leads him to undergo an experimental procedure that gives him magic, but when this procedure has unexpected and dangerous side effects, he becomes a liability to the Hunters and the Watch Guard. Rescued by the people he has sworn to eliminate, Azrael finds himself questioning everything he once believed as years of secrets and lies are exposed. His very nature is challenged as he battles unfamiliar emotions and navigates relationships that contradict the heart of a killer.

Can the Angel of Death have a conscience? Can Azrael?

Chasing the Darkness is an escape to a land of magic, sword fights, and love, with memorable characters who must face the darkness within and journey down a path of destruction or redemption.”

Book Description From Goodreads:

“The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker. “Power and haunting,” and “nights of unrest” were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson’s lifetime, unites “The Lottery:” with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson’s remarkable range–from the hilarious to the truly horrible–and power as a storyteller.”

Book Review – The Lottery by Shirley Jackson – DID NOT FINISH

Fast Forward To Today:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (click for link to Goodreads)

Book Description From Goodreads:

“Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a “baby farmer,” who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.

One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.

With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways…But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.”

A Moment On The Lips At Christmas by J Taylor (click for link to Goodreads)

Book Description From Goodreads:

“A Moment on the Lips Christmas may not be a perfect Christmas, but it’s definitely one you do not want to miss.
From: Pamela Wilson

Date: 20 Dec 2021 04:43

Subject: Very exciting news! Prompt response required!

Dear Family and Friends,

You are cordially invited to join us at Midwinter Cottage from 30 December to 2 January, situated in the glorious wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, for a Christmas and New Year break to remember.

Midwinter is an extremely luxurious thatched cottage that sleeps 18 comfortably and was featured in 2020 Your Home magazine. Facilities include gym, cinema, indoor heated pool, sauna, Aga and manicured grounds with fire pit. Small dogs are allowed in the house. Outdoor shoes are not. This break is a gift from us to you. NO financial contribution is required. RSVP WITHIN 24 HOURS as we need the final numbers for the Ocado shop. Transport via executive coach is included. We look forward to hosting you! Let’s make some memories!

Festive love and peace

Pamela and Gillian”

Havana Fever by Leonardo Padura (click for link to Goodreads)

Book Description From Goodreads:

“Mario Conde has retired from the police force and makes a living trading in antique books. Havana is now flooded with dollars, populated by pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and other hunters of the night. In the book collection of a rich Cuban who fled after the fall of Batista, Conde discovers an article about Violeta del Rio, a beautiful bolero singer of the 1950s who disappeared mysteriously. A murder soon follows. This is a crime story set in today’s darker Cuba, but it is also an evocation of the Havana of Batista, the city of a hundred night clubs where the paths of Marlon Brando and Meyer Lansky crossed.”

Comparison:

From Fantasy/Romance and Dark short stories to Gothic Fiction, Christmas and Mystery. I am still keeping to the darker themes as with last year, but with the addition of a lighter Christmas themed book this year!

What were you reading this time last year or the year before (or the year before!)? Add your links in the comments below!

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“book”, “read”, “book blog”, “recommended”, “easy read”, “don’t miss out”, “fiction”, “past reads”,”entertaining”, “what should I read next”,”gothic fiction”, “halloween”, “halloween books”, “christmas”