Down the TBR Hole ★ 14

Down the TBR Hole is a bookish meme created by Lia @ Lost in a Story.
Down the TBR Hole 411
Down The TBR Hole is a meme that revolves around cleansing your TBR of all those books you’re never going to read and sort through it all to know what’s actually on there. Most of you probably know this feeling, your Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!
It works like this:
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: Keep it or should it go?

We're back again with the segment known as Down the TBR Hole! Fasten your seatbelts, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, Once Upon a Time, I Read a Book and its owner is not responsible for any additions to your TBR list and is indemnified in any book-buying that occurs as a result.



Born to Rock by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts

In the next book in James Patterson's bestselling Middle School series, Rafe Khatchadorian's hilarious little sister, Georgia, is back for another rollicking adventure! This time, she's vying to be crowned winner of the Battle of the Bands--if she doesn't die of embarrassment first!
It's not easy being Rafe Khatchadorian's sister. He's got quite a reputation around school, and Georgia's got it hard enough as is! With a super secret crush on her classmate Sam Marks, a Rube Goldberg machine challenge to dominate, and constant confrontations with vicious Missy Trillin and her evil Princess Patrol to look forward to, Georgia can't help but throw all her energy into the one thing that makes her happy: her kick-butt, all-girl rock band, We Stink!
When Georgia's favorite rock band, Lulu and the Handbags, advertise a major music competition where the winner gets to jam with Lulu herself, Georgia will pull all the stops to make sure We Stink wins--even if it means asking her annoying older brother, Rafe, for help! Will his crazy ideas work, or land her in serious trouble?
Tidbit
I added this to my TBR to check out for my mum's classroom library, but hey, I don't have to do that anymore since she's not teaching out of subject anymore. Goodbye, Giunta! I'm removing this from my TBR in no fault to the book or author. If you check this book out, let me know what you think about it!

Ever Strange by Alisa Woods

It takes a monster to catch one.
ZANE WALKER—FBI, Magickal Crimes Division
There’s a reason the bureau sends me undercover with the worst drug cartels in the world—my magick is as illegal and dirty as the enhancers they peddle. Just the kind that "Pennies" Machnik—Dziki crime lord—likes to use on his enemies. Being his enforcer lets me keep my own monster locked up while I build a case against him. If I can bring Pennies in, maybe I can finally put the stigma of what I am behind me. But when people start overdosing on his street drugs, a beautiful witch storms in, making demands she thinks she can back up with magick. I have to make a split second choice... and the monster comes raging out.
EVER STRANGE—CEO, Strange Medical Technologies
Someone has killed my father. They made it look like an overdose, but Asher Strange, the world-renown researcher of medical magick, never took an illegal drug in his life… much less tawdry magick enhancers. I run the family empire, but no one was more proud of the Strange family name than my father. A long line of us stretches back to the first days of High Magick—no way he would throw that away chasing a quick high. But before I can get an autopsy, my father’s body disappears… and being a Level One mage and one of the richest women in the city means I will get answers.
Someone’s putting deadly magick into street drugs… and it’s killing people all over Chicago. Zane’s magick is monstrous, and Ever’s power brings out his beast. But she insists on finding her father, and keeping her safe has suddenly become his job—on top of stopping an epidemic of overdoses that just might be cover for a serial killer. Together, they work to stop the dark magick that’s stalking the streets of Chicago… and try to keep their own secrets from consuming them both.
Ever Strange is the first book in a new paranormal romantic suspense series from bestselling romance author Alisa Woods. The first three books in the series (Ever Strange, Mercy Strange, Verity Strange) follow the three Strange sisters, each powerful witches in an influential magickal family embroiled in a mysterious plot to change everything about the magickal world. Part urban fantasy, Legal Magick takes place in an alternate Chicago where High Magick returned in 1859 and is now integral in every aspect of the legal—and illegal—world. Each book is a standalone romance.
Tidbit
I actually bought this earlier this summer and now I just need to find some time to read it. It's available in the kindle store for free as of this posting. For now, I'm keeping this on my TBR list and I'll hopefully be moving it over to my Read list soon.

Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine

There are whispers of a ghost in the slaughterhouse where sixteen-year-old Wen assists her father in his medical clinic—a ghost who grants wishes to those who need them most. When one of the Noor, men hired as cheap factory labor, humiliates Wen, she makes an impulsive wish of her own, and the Ghost grants it. Brutally.
Guilt-ridden, Wen befriends the Noor, including their outspoken leader, a young man named Melik. At the same time, she is lured by the mystery of the Ghost and learns he has been watching her... for a very long time.
As deadly accidents fuel tensions within the factory, Wen must confront her growing feelings for Melik, who is enraged at the sadistic factory bosses and the prejudice faced by his people at the hand of Wen’s, and her need to appease the Ghost, who is determined to protect her against any threat—real or imagined. She must decide whom she can trust, because as her heart is torn, the factory is exploding around her... and she might go down with it.
Tidbit
I've read a lot of the Goodreads reviews of this one and I've been hemming and hawwing over it for a few months now. While this sounds like an amazing book, the reviews give a lot of examples of rape culture that I'm not in the mood to wade through. I think, for that reason, I'm going to take this off of my TBR list. Life is too short to read books I'm not going to love.

Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Mariah Griffin

The house at the end of the lane burned down, and Rita Frost and her teenage ward, Bevan, were never seen again. The townspeople never learned what happened. Only Mae and her brother Rossa know the truth; they spent two summers with Rita and Bevan, two of the strangest summers of their lives... Because nothing in that house was as it seemed: a cat who was more than a cat, and a dark power called Sweet James that lurked behind the wallpaper, enthralling Bevan with whispers of neon magic and escape. And in the summer heat, Mae became equally as enthralled with Bevan. Desperately in the grips of first love, she'd give the other girl anything. A dangerous offer when all that Sweet James desired was a taste of new flesh...
Tidbit
I added this to my TBR for that cover but that synopsis is keeping it there. The paperback is also on my buy list, FYI brother dear. 


From the author of the "unputdownable" international hit The One Memory of Flora Banks comes a fast-paced cross-continental journey of identity, family, darkness and light, and the ways in which we define ourselves.
Ella Black has always had dark inclinations. She's successfully hidden her evil alter ego from her family and friends, but Bella is always there, ready to take control and force Ella to do bad things. When Ella's parents drag her out of school one afternoon and fly across the globe to Rio de Janeiro with no believable explanation, Bella longs to break free--and so does Ella. Because for all that her parents claim to be doing what's best for her, Ella knows there is something going on that they're not divulging, and she is determined to find out what.
Once in Rio, Ella learns a shocking truth about her family that gives way to a mission through the streets and beaches of Brazil in search of her authentic self. But the truth has many layers, and as Ella uncovers more and more about her own history, she struggles to come to terms with just where it is that she came from.
Tidbit
This will probably be a permanent resident of my TBR list, but I like the premise of the story and, of course, the cover. I have cover issues. But the author is tackling personality disorder and good and evil and I'm a fan. I'm keeping this one here.


Total Books Kept 3
Total Books Removed 2





I didn't make a dent in my TBR this time, but I think maybe I got reacquainted with some of them so I can add them to my buy list when I can actually buy books again. I'm on a book buying ban for a bit whilst I come up with $1300 for testing (blood, x-rays, etc) and surgery for Manatee. Our vet visit Saturday involved the Big C word and I'm still reeling at the possibility. Ugh I'm getting depressed again. Let me know if I made any mistakes keeping or removing any of these books or if I added to your TBR! Until next time, have a happily ever after!

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