I can’t say “It’s been a while…” because if I do I automatically start singing the song by Staind and it’ll be on loop in my head for the day. Great song, that. Always manages to make me sombre.

But… yeah, I wanted to stop by and catch you up with my reading… Wish I had some fun personal stories to tell, but I don’t… Spring tried to make its way, and we had a good, warm weekend to get a decent bit of gardening done, but now the ground is white again. I also assisted husband with car maintenance tasks. My bag of experience and knowledge is slowly getting bigger. I’ve worked with him on a BMW (it went ded so a lot of dismantling under the bonnet), a Suzuki (gearbox change – that was a total effing task if there ever was one!) and now a Volvo (we’ve just done regular maintenance for now as we just go the machine and breaks, inc bleeding, next up engine mounts). I always enjoy mucking about on the car with him.

Anyway, next week, if all goes well, we’re planning to go to Tartu because the science centre has a dinosaur exhibition and the Kid’s going to positively blow his lid when he sees the dinos! I can’t wait! 😀

But books… Here we go. First up, SPFBO9.

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SPFBO9 has been great for me – I discovered quite a few titles that I loved which normally wouldn’t have gotten a second look from me. I am grateful that I was invited to the judging team at Queen’s Book Asylum. SPFBO9 is getting close to figuring out this year’s finalist… not long to go!

In addition to SPFBO judging, Timy, the Queen of Queen’s Books Asylum also invited me to join her team as a regular staff member, and after mulling it over for some time, I agreed. That doesn’t mean Cover to Cover will go anywhere… I have never been a 5 posts a week kind of person. Heck, if I can get 2 posts up a month, I consider it well done. Even though I love my time with the QBA people, I could not consider leaving Cover to Cover just floating about in the ether…

My little corner of the internet started out as something completely different back in 2013, August 13th, (Naturally, I have now gone and deleted a lot of this other drivel, ye gods, what was I thinking…) And, August 14th, 2014 I posted about The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence, and the rest was history as they say.

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Anyway… back to the present… You can read my first review for QBA here… Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau simply blew me away. I cannot wait for the sequel because it’s just insanely incredible fantasy!

55069591If your mind is the enemy, where do you run?

Years after a harrowing war experience, ex-mercenary Jespar Dal’Varek has taken to drifting. It’s a lonely existence, but, barring the occasional bout of melancholia, he has found the closest thing to peace a man like him deserves. Life is “all right.”

Or so he believes. Hoping to turn the page, Jespar accepts a mysterious invitation into the beautiful but dangerous archipelago of Kilay-and everything changes.

Plagued by explosive social tensions and terrorism, the tropical empire is edging ever closer to civil war. Kilay’s merchant king is the only person able to prevent this catastrophe, but he has fallen into a preternatural coma-and it’s Jespar’s task to figure out what or who caused it. As the investigation takes him across the archipelago and into the king’s nightmares, unexpected events not only tie Jespar’s own life to the mystery but also unearth inner demons he believed to be long exorcised.

Battling old trauma while fighting for his life, his sanity, and the fate of Kilay, the line between dream and reality blurs until only one question remains: If your mind is the enemy, where do you run?

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In March, in honour of the International Women’s Day, I also buddy read of Jane Eyre with La La in the Library. La La gifted me the Chiltern edition of Jane Eyre so now it’s not just a fantastic book to read for its contents but it feels physically amazing as well! Such quality.

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I have some horror titles to catch up on (looking at Steve Starks books), and over the past year I have collected a hefty double-tower of classics on my desk. I have no idea what got into me. The first classic that I will tackle is Shakespeare, no less. It’s been a while I had a buddy read with my colleague Joz so we decided upon A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But I also hope to read Cormac McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy which I got from my parents for birthday a few months back.

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It wouldn’t be an update post if I didn’t show off my latest book purchases… I really don’t need to buy new books, you know what I mean if you’re a reader, but also – who’s ever going to stop us, right?!

Have you read any of the above? Link your review in the comments, if you have reviewed any! I’ll happily pop by!

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Next up on Cover to Cover? Well… It’ll be a banger, pun intended, because I am reading Sledge vs The Labyrinth by Nick Horvath at the moment and it’s all sorts macho action flick. Hot damn, this book is going to split the audience into 2 like an axe would a sapling. Readers will love it for what it is, wholly, or they’re going to despise the guts out of it because of the brutal rawness and unapologetic action scenes. For a book? It’s the best way to be, I reckon! Because the diehard fans will truly be diehard.

171985157SLEDGE. “THE ULTIMATE ANTI-HERO.” – Horror Reads

When his former lover, Kiira, finds herself the target of a mysterious dark web assassin network, modern-day gladiator, Einarr “Sledge” Laukkanen, embarks on a blood-spattered mission to uncover who lurks at its heart. But as he bludgeons his way down to its lowest depths, one thing becomes terrifyingly clear:

NO ONE ESCAPES THE LABYRINTH . . .

“THINK REACHER. BUT MEANER AND LEANER.” – EC Greaves, author of Daughter of the Beast

“HORVATH WRITES WITH THE STACCATO PRECISION OF ‘50S NOIR.” – Coy Hall, author of The Hangman Feeds the Jackal

“SLEDGE IS A THROWBACK IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. AN ADVENTURE WITH ALL THE POWER OF A HAMMER TO THE SKULL.” – Josh Hanson, author of King’s Hill

“LIKE A PULPY ACTION FLICK FROM THE LATE ‘80S OR EARLY ‘90S. A TOUR DE FORCE OF SKULL-CRACKING, KNEE-CRUSHING ESCAPISM.” – Luís Magalhães, author of Legends of Elessia

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So, that’s me for now! And, just because I feel like it, here’s a tune that keeps me going through days of work… I imagine myself a renegade in some dusty American corner with a beat up, rusty piece of shit car, with a boot full of whiskey and cigarettes, nothing and no one to my name….