
I’ve been busy with work and helping Juliet with school work and infecting people with my cold this week. BUT I am in the middle of reading a book so hopefully soon I can have a review for ya’ll! For now you get another round of lightning fast reviews. Pew pew pew!!
You can find my previous lightning fast reviews here:
The Ritual Yearbook by Theresa Cheung

Synopsis:
We all need to find connection and meaning in the midst of the fast paced world we live in and rituals offer an easy and simple way to do this. In this 365 year-long exploration, Theresa Cheung offers daily practices to help us bring focus and attention to our lives for meaningful and achievable change
Expected publication: October 8th 2019 by Watkins Publishing
Review:
When I was a kid I hated rituals. I found them tedious, mundane, boring, LOATHSOME.
As I grew up however I began to soften towards them. Sure, they could still be dull especially as you went to school and went through the same routine over and over and over again. But I also learned to appreciate them. They kept me grounded for one and as somebody with anxiety, familiarity is crucial to my well being.
This is a great book and its rituals are not of the tedious, mundane, boring, LOATHSOME variety. Instead it focuses on calming you down and living your life freely and easily. As we go on with our day to day lives we encounter a lot and sometimes we need to just center ourselves. Become one with the OM. Although some of these techniques I don’t think I’ll ever fully get but that’s not due to lack of trying! For example: #13 is Be Mess Free.
Listen, I have tried again and again to banish my messiness but it’s just ingrained in me lmao. But, maybe this will help keep the clutter at bay because it does overwhelm me often as the book notes.
It was nice and funny going through this book and realizing how much of my day is stuck in a ritualistic manner and that’s not a bad thing at all! This is a great book for expanding your mind and hopefully finding some ways to live in this past faced ever evolving world.
My favorite has to be the second chapter which focuses on Body, Mind, Spirit, and Heart. This is a great guide if you feel a little bit lost whether it comes to one or all four of those. Most importantly, it’s a great guide altogether and one that needs to be a necessity on your bookshelf ๐
Thanks very much to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in exchance for an honest and fair review.
๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ 4/5

Synopsis:
Kate Collins has been ghosted.
She was supposed to be moving in with her new boyfriend Scott, but all she finds after relocating to Brighton is an empty apartment. Scott has vanished. His possessions have all disappeared.
Except for his mobile phone.
Kate knows she shouldn’t hack into Scott’s phone. She shouldn’t look at his Tinder, his calls, his social media. But she can’t quite help herself.
That’s when the trouble starts. Strange, whispering phone calls from numbers she doesn’t recognize. Scratch marks on the walls that she can’t explain. And the growing feeling that she’s being watched.
Kate refuses to leave the apartment – she’s not going anywhere until she’s discovered what happened to Scott. But the deeper she dives into Scott’s digital history the more Kate realizes just how little she really knows about the man she loves.
Expected publication: October 22nd 2019 by Orbit
Review:
I read Jason Arnoppโs previous novel The Last Days of Jack Sparks and liked it okay. It was fun and fairly creepy.
This? Idek what this is. From the start I despised the main character. Male authors absolutely love to write female characters as these sex craved cool girl Barbies and it is beyond cliche.
I honestly have no idea what was going on in the book. It was all over the place. A bunch of ghosting/Tinder nonsense. This wasnโt for me sadly.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC.
๐ ๐ 2/5
Isolde by Irina Odoevtseva, Bryan Karetnyk (Translator), Irina Steinberg (Translator)

Synopsis:
Left to her own devices in Biarritz, fourteen-year-old Russian Liza meets an older English boy, Cromwell, on a beach. He thinks he has found a magical, romantic beauty and insists upon calling her Isolde; she is taken with his Buick and ability to pay for dinner and champagne.
Disaffected and restless, Liza, her brother Nikolai and her boyfriend Andrei enjoy Cromwell’s company in restaurants and jazz bars after he follows Liza back to Paris – until his mother stops giving him money. When the siblings’ own mother abandons them to follow a lover to Nice, the group falls deeper into its haze of alcohol, and their darker drives begin to take over.
Review:
This is awful forgive me, but I wholly requested this book because of its gorgeous cover and name. Isolde is just beautiful and flows simply from the lips. Iโm glad my childish love of everything pretty paid off because this was a fantastic read. Admittedly, I am in a mood right now where I will cry at the drop of a hat but this book absolutely will pull every emotion out of you with its atmospheric writing and complex characters.
Isolde is not the main characters real name. Itโs Liza and she is an emigrant from Russia who yearns for home and by chance meets a wealthy man who dubs her Isolde. From then on a whirlwind forms and never letโs up.
This book is bleak and real so if youโre expecting a light, fluffy read than this is not for you. What you will get is a weaving of characters going through the rough choppy motions of life. You know youโre in for a good read when even the prologue about the author is able to pull you in. This is a sign of a great writer and translator.
Thanks very much to the publisher and Netgalley for this copy of my ARC. All opinions are my own.
๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ 4/5
Thanks much for joining me for another round of lightning fast reviews! Pew pew pew!
Happy Saturday!!
Ooh Isolde looks good. I can see why you requested it for the cover! How have I never heard of it before?!? Although… I have been avoiding requesting ARCs lately as I may have gone a LITTLE overboard a while ago and now Iโm SWAMPED ๐๐ loved your mini reviews though!! ๐ Jen
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itโs so beautiful!!! oh my god and I definitely did that…I played catch up for a bit and now iโm finally down to a reasonable amount and can breathe lmao. it doesnโt help at all when you have anxiety either. thank you my dear.
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This mini review is a great idea. I need to steal the concept to get through some of these NetGalley books I have ๐
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YES lmaoo it helps so much honestly. itโs too much at times especially when you have a ton.
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OOOOOH I am intrigued by this Isolde book!!
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I have ghostee, now I am worried.
I loved your reviews
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it was just ๐ญ๐ญ I MEAN YOU MIGHT LIKE IT But I hate when men write women this way
thank you!!!
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Fingers ๐ค
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Great lightning reviews, Amanda! Isolde sounds reaaallly good and I’m super intrigued. Will check out ๐
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thank you my love!!!
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I love your mini reviews! Sometimes itโs hard to write full reviews for me. ๐
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Ooo I could probably use The Ritual Year Book! I agree with everyone else that this is a cool idea I can think of a few shorter books I have little to say about lol.
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yes!!! itโs like the perfect way to do it
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