Books from the Backlog

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link @ Carole's Random Life In Books, then spend some time visiting some of the other posts.

This week's neglected book

The Host

(The Host #1)
by Stephenie Meyer

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.

  Why did I add The Host to my bookshelf?

The Host is another thick book that I never finished. I am a fan of Twilight and I started reading The Host a couple times and even got the audio from the library but I was frustrated with my iPod. I remember liking the main character and wanted to know more about her.
What are your thoughts? Have you read this book? Would you recommend it to others?

Waiting On Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we are desperately wanting. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

 Books I'm desperately waiting for 

Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers 

This title is set to release on Feb 5, 2019.

Death wasn’t the end, it was only the beginning.
Sybella has always been the darkest of Death’s daughters, trained at the convent of Saint Mortain to serve as his justice. But she has a new mission now. In a desperate bid to keep her two youngest sisters safe from the family that nearly destroyed them all, she agrees to accompany the Duchess to France, where they quickly find themselves surrounded by enemies. Their one ray of hope is Sybella’s fellow novitiates, disguised and hidden deep in the French court years ago by the convent—provided Sybella can find them. Genevieve has been undercover for so many years, she struggles to remember who she is or what she’s supposed to be fighting for. Her only solace is a hidden prisoner who appears all but forgotten by his guards. When tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands—even if it means ignoring the long-awaited orders from the convent. As Sybella and Gen’s paths draw ever closer, the fate of everything they hold sacred rests on a knife’s edge. Will they find each other in time, or will their worlds collide, destroying everything they care about? 

About the Author 

Robin LaFevers, the author of the New York Times best-selling His Fair Assassin books was raised on fairy tales and nineteenth-century poetry. It is not surprising that she grew up to be a hopeless romantic. She was lucky enough to find her one true love and is living happily ever after with him in California. www.robinlafevers.com, @RLLaFevers

Review: All the Little Lights

All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jamie McGuire's All The Little Lights is an emotional representation of a romance between two young and wounded souls. Catherine Calhoun and Elliott Youngblood.
The epilogue starts off with Elliott stuck in a tree in the girl's backyard. Catherine was with her dad, burying their dog Booger and Elliott did not want to come down for fear of disturbing her or risk seen as a 'creeper.'
She lives on Juniper Street in a big old Victorian mansion. He was visiting his Aunt Leigh for the summer. The story moves as slow as molasses. Catherine was keeping one hell of a secret.

All the Little Lights is a contemporary romance, but it felt like reading a suspense novel at times, mainly when the Juniper's "guests" were so weird.
When a girl that Catherine hates disappears everyone blames it on her and Elliott is unaware of the danger she is in.
Catherine's mama is "weird" and has outbursts of rage which is the reason why Catherine lives in fear.

Publisher's Summary

The first time Elliott Youngblood spots Catherine Calhoun, he’s just a boy with a camera, and he’s never seen a sadder and more beautiful sight. Both Elliott and Catherine feel like outcasts, yet they find an easy friendship with each other. But when Catherine needs him most, Elliott is forced to leave town.
Elliott finally returns, but he and Catherine are now different people. He’s a star high school athlete, and she spends all her free time working at her mother’s mysterious bed-and-breakfast. Catherine hasn’t forgiven Elliott for abandoning her, but he’s determined to win back her friendship…and her heart.
Just when Catherine is ready to fully trust Elliott, he becomes the prime suspect in a local tragedy. Despite the town’s growing suspicions, Catherine clings to her love for Elliott. But a devastating secret that Catherine has buried could destroy whatever chance of happiness they have left.

Where To Buy

Free with KindleUnlimited | Paperback | Audiobook

About the Author

Jamie paved the way for the New Adult genre with the international bestseller Beautiful Disaster. Her follow-up novel, Walking Disaster, debuted at #1 on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Jamie lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado with her husband, Jeff, and their three children. Visit her Website

Books from the Backlog #2

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link @Carole's Random Life then spend some time visiting other posts.

This week's neglected book 

✱All books are affiliate links to Amazon

Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders #1) by Robin Hobb

Paperback, 809 pages
Published February 2nd, 1999 by Spectra
Goodreads | The Book Depository | Barnes & Noble | Audiobook
-Tantor Audio
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
Series: Realms of the Elderlings, Book 4, Liveship Traders, Book 1
Length: 35 hrs and 24 mins
Release date: 2010-02-12
Publisher's Summary

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships---rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. The fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy unjustly denied her---a legacy she will risk anything to reclaim.
For Althea's young nephew Wintrow, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard ship, Vivacia is a life sentence. But the fate of the Vestrit family---and the ship---may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider. The ruthless pirate Kennit seeks a way to seize power over all the denizens of the Pirate Isles...and the first step of his plan requires him to capture his own liveship and bend it to his will.

I added Ship of Magic to my shelf on November 10, 2012. I was so obsessed with Laini Taylors Daughter of Smoke and Bone so when she recommended it, I jumped. It is a really thick book 809 pages! I bought the mass paperback but the text is really small and I never got very far with it. So it's something I wish I could read soon. I should probably get the audiobook so it will be easier to read.

Books from the Backlog

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link @carelesrandomlife, then spend some time visiting some of the other posts.

This week's neglected book

The Leopard (Harry Hole #8) 

by Jo Nesbø
Paperback, 624 pages
Published November 1st, 2011 by Vintage Canada
Amazon | Goodreads

Two women are found murdered in Oslo — both of them have drowned in their own blood. What mystifies the police is that the puncture wounds in the victims' faces have been caused from the inside of their mouths. Kaja Solness from Homicide is sent to Hong Kong to track down a man who is the Oslo Police Department's only specialist on serial killings. The severely addicted detective has tried to disappear in the vast, anonymous city. He is on the run and haunted by his last case, the woman he loves, and creditors alike. His name is Harry Hole.

I sometimes stare at my shelf and look at all the books I haven't read that I keep putting off for another day. Time goes by and there is often no particular reason other than maybe I wasn't in the mood or the cover isn't something that caught my eye. Whatever it is my selection this week is of a favourite mystery/thriller/crime writer. Jo Nesbo.

Why did I add The Leopard to my bookshelf?

I've read some of his Harry Hole novels, and he is the reason I keep coming back to that genre.

What are your thoughts? Have you read this book? Would you recommend it to others?