Xepherus Reads

    Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,           Daisy Darker is written by Alice Feeney and is published by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing. In it, we are introduced to Daisy Darker, a woman with a rather quiet life. She is a volunteer at an aging home, and has faced several near-death experiences due to a faulty heart. Her family is a fractured bunch that only cares about themselves and rarely contacts her.   Her grandmother, Beatrice Darker, is the exception. And on October 30th, Daisy and her family are invited to a birthday celebration for the elder Darker on an island. It's business as usual, with Daisy's family ignoring her. Her niece, Trixie, has taken to align herself with Beatrice, noticing the shallow ways of her own mother and relatives. She is pleasant to Daisy. As the birthday celebration nears, a reading of the will takes place which infuriates the family. The next few hours continue as each fami...

      Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,            At the beginning of the year I decided to change the way I tackled my To Be Read shelves. I used a bell jar filled with photo stickers of various book covers. As the covers were added the jar became too small. I graduated the collection to trading card snap boxes: one for comics and one for novels.    I took into consideration nearly 10 years of collecting digital books and my current TBR shelves. I used my HP Sprocket to print 4 book covers per sticker. I cut the covers out and combined any series or authors into tiny baggies for easy retrieval. The rest were stacked together loose. Sample of my 2" x 3"sticker sheet    Let's take a few minutes to see how my experiment is progressing. And the changes that were made since:    Always maintain 50 or more books in the jar. (I have exceeded that number, adding comics and graphic novels to 2 trading card boxe...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,        August was one of the most productive reading months I have had in a long time. The balance between writing my second novel, and re-formatting of my debut novel added adrenaline to August. My desire to read and challenge myself was at its peak.    Here are my results (reviews linked in title).      Novels Read: Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell The Wilds by Sarah Pearse Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney Comics Read: Amazing Fantasy #15 by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko   Amazing Spider-Man #1 by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Batgirl Special #1 Barbara Randall Kesel & Barry Kitson Blackbird #4 by Sam Humphries and Jen Bartel Blackbird #5 by Sam Humphries and Jen Bartel Blackbird #6 by Sam Humphries and Jen Bartel Fantastic Four/ X-Men #1 by Chip Zdarsky & Terry Dodson Fantastic Four/ X-Men #2 by Chip Zdarsky & Terry Dodson Fantastic Four/ X-Men #3 by Chip Zdarsky & Terry D...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,           The Wilds is the third book in the Detective Elin Warner Series. It is written by Sarah Pearse and is published by Penguin Random House.    Elin Warner survived The Sanitorium and The Retreat with cracked ribs and a new outlook on life. She reconnected with her brother, Isaac, and she has managed a getaway to Portugal for some R&R. In the past, Kier, has found love with celebrity chef, Zeph. He is charismatic and whisks her off her feet. But when she heads to Devon for her brother's wedding, she is introduced to Zeph's dark side.    She begins to investigate her new beau only to find past bad break up, where Zeph stalked and terrified his ex.  As Kier and Elin's stories converge in Portugal, a killer may be on the loose. Kier has disappeared in the same vacation spot Warner has chosen. Can Elin and her brother find out what happened to Kier before a killer finds them? ...

    Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,         The Retreat is the second book in the Detective Elin Warner Series. It is written by Sarah Pearse and is published by Penguin Random House.    The events of The Sanatorium catapulted Detective Elin Warner out of administrative leave, and into a murder investigation. Weeks later Warner is officially back on the job. Someone is picking off vacationers at Reaper's Rock, a wellness retreat off the English Coast.  Elin meets up with Jo and her vacationing group after one of their own is found broken and bloody at the bottom of a cliff.    Elin cannot trust any of them and keeps her sense sharp. As she breaks in a new partner and deals with a new boss, Elin is against the odds. But a mysterious stalker has begun threatening Elin, leaving photographic evidence that they are steps away from her. Could the stalker and the killer be one-in-the-same? Elin will have to move quickly before ...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,         The Sanatorium is written by Sarah Pearse and is the first book in the now three-book series. It is published by Penguin Books and was a Reese Witherspoon pick.     In it, we are introduced to Elin Warner, a detective on leave after a traumatizing case almost killed her. She is on her way to the posh hotel, Le Sommet, in the Crans-Montana area of Switzerland. There, she will be reunited with her estranged brother, Isaac, to celebrate his engagement to their longtime friend, Laure.    But the hotel has a past that has been kept hidden from the public. It is a past that begins a new body count, as staff begin to turn up dead. And with a snowstorm, avalanche, and cunning killer on the loose, can Elin defy the odds to solve the case or become the next victim?    The Sanatorium was a page-turner. Pearse has a writing style I enjoyed and she gave the reader a cast of excellent...