Friday 24 February 2023

Love To Read Books with Cats? Book Reviews with Amber at The Mewton-Clawson Library #231 featuring **Tricks and Trials** by Morgan Vale PLUS Friendly Fill-Ins + Photo Fails Blog Hop

Book Reviews with Amber Valentine's Banner ©BionicBasil®.jpg

Hello furbulous library guests 

and 

Welcome to the Mewton-Clawson Library at BBHQ 

Thank mew for joining me in the stacks today, and mew just caught me going to the kitty kitchen for some extra snacks.

And yes, I do eat between meals! In fact, I love a bit of fresh tuna and mew know that cat food we did a review on a couple of weeks ago, it was called Fuzzball, mew can check it out here. I really, really love their tinned food.

Amber's Book Reviews #231 ©BionicBasil® Amber off to the kitty kitchen for snacks

So that's where I'm off, to get a little platter of shredded chicken as I need the energy for my next catnap! MOL


Part of The Mewton-Clawson Library ©BionicBasil®
Amber's Book Review Library Mice Divider ©BionicBasil®
Today the P.A. is also joining in Friday Fill-ins Blog Hop with the pawesome 15 & Meowing and Four-Legged Furballs.
1. An item discontinued that I want brought back is ______________________.
2. I would ____________________every day if I could.
3. It’s almost time for _________, and I can’t wait.
4. _________ were the good old days.

The P.A.'s answers are...

1. An item discontinued that I want brought back is my old Urban Rebounder aka mini trampoline. It was amazing, it had the perfect bounce/tension for jogging on, and I was gutted when after nearly 17 years it finally bit the dust. I bought a new one after much research by Maximus Pro - supposedly one of the best - it was horrid and impossible to jog on as it was so soft, so I gave that to my mum and she loves it. I then bought one which has bungees instead of springs, which was touted as a hard bounce. It's not, and while I can jog on it, it's not a patch on the Urban Rebounder circa 2004! LOL 

2. I would go swimming every day if I could. I did want to put one of those swim spas in the garden, but with energy prices right now and the next £500.00 (approx) price hike coming in April, that will sadly remain wishful thinking for eternity! Apparently, wholesale energy prices have fallen 75%, but unfortunately, those hefty reductions are not being passed on to consumers.

3. It’s almost time for Spring, and I can’t wait. I really don't like the cold weather anymore, even though this winter hasn't been so bad. We've had a few weeks of freezing temperatures but in all honesty, the winters were way worse when I was younger, and we had hotter summers in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It does make me laugh that in the last couple of years, the fear culture that has been spawned off the back of the covid situation, a weather headline just last week was 'Terrifying Winds will Batter Britain'. Now just for argument's sake, we've always had storms, some of which result in a lot of damage. But my point is the narrative being used to describe events which are of a normal, cyclical occurrence is beyond comprehension for someone of a reasonable, sensible and rational mind. Why attach such an insurmountable amount of fear to a weather forecast?

4. The 1980s and 1990s were the good old days. I liked it much better back then. It was a lot less complicated.

Amber's Book Review Pink Dot Divider ©BionicBasil®

Today, as it's the last Friyay of the month, we're also joining in the furrbulous...


So do drop by the marvellous Mudpie's blog at www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com to join in.

Mew know how Melvyn does his modelling on our Midweek News Round-Up? Well, sometimes all doesn't go as planned, especially when trying to get a good snapshot of him wearing the bandana! MOL 

Friday Fluffers at BBHQ ©BionicBasil® Melvyn's Modelling Fail

He gets rather excited, and a lot of rolling ensues, though we must say on this week's catwalk run, he did it in the first take, check him out on TikTok.

Some weeks, if Fudge is loitering it can take half a dozen runs to get the final sashay down the catwalk, as Melvyn doesn't have the best attention span! MOL

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Let's see what I've got to show mew this time!

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This week's top book pick is...

Amber's Book Reviews #231 What Are We Reading This Week ©BionicBasil® Tricks and Trials by Morgan Vale
Mewton-Clawson Library Copy

Tricks and Trials 


  Charmed and Dangerous Series book 4

by 

Morgan Vale

       Here's a little snippet of the book blurb:      

When the Sheriff confronts earth witch Kat Sullivan with a strange letter, it’s just another day in Haven. Until she finds out her partner-in-solving-crime, Chance Wilder, is missing. He’s no stranger to bending the law and has more than a few secrets up his sleeve, but are they bad enough for someone to take him out…permanently?

Kat’s stuck with only a handful of leads and a human police department that doesn’t even know the half of it. In the background, a secret organization is hunting down people of unusual supernatural heritage. People like Chance.

Amber's Book Review Mice Divider ©BionicBasil®

This is book 4 in the Charmed and Dangerous series. And as I'm writing this I've just realised that I should be doing book three today - OOPS! MOL 

Actually, I lost my book list, I keep a list of all the books I'm reviewing and tick them off each week, but this week the library mice have tidied my desk and said list is on the missing list. I do suspect it's now been shredded and is currently being used as a mouse nest.

Anyhoo, I'll review book three next week and then we'll be back on track.

If mew missed the two previous book reviews here are the links:



So what did I think to book four in this action-packed, paranormal series? Well, Kat's werewolf buddy Chance is missing without a trace, strange things are apaw and the sheriff is so stumped he's asked for the heroine's help.

Albus the cat is front and centre throughout, it's nice to see his character develop, and he has just the right amount of snark, which endears him greatly to me; a cat after my own heart! MOL

The story is well-paced, and the ancillary characters are getting a bit more depth. The plot dots about a little, and there were a couple of scenes that really didn't make sense; Spoiler Alert: Kat and Albus get split up after a near-miss mudslide, and as she's trying to get to his location she stumbles upon a door in the ground and decides to go and investigate. Yes, down a pitch-black hole in the ground, on her own, with no weapons, and no cat. I won't go any further but it just seemed a little stupid and unnecessary. As for the other one, if mew read it, mew will know.

Overall book four is a good, solid read. It's a nice continuation in the series with enough hooks to keep mew turning the pages, plus there's a dash of honour and a little romance if that's your thing.

I did notice that the author left quite a lot of unanswered questions hanging in the ether as it concluded, my only guess is she wants us to keep reading the series to find out if those questions are answered or resolved. And I'll let you in due course as there are five books to read so far. 

I did get this included with my Kindle Unlimited programme, so if mew subscribe why not try it!

Paperback:  188 pages
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My Ratings Scale

Amber's Book Review Paw Ratings Scale Pink ©BionicBasil®

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Ratings of:

Tricks and Trials

Overall Enjoyment

Amber's Book Reviews 4 Paw Rating ©BionicBasil®

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Other Fun Blog Hops to Join in Today


          Brian's Home   Catblogosphere    Feline Friday   Nature Friday    Flashback Friday   Friendship Friday          

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Do let me know if mew read it, and what mew thought!

It's time fur me to say BFN or bye-fur-now as mew know the drill, so many books, so little time and I'll be back next week with another specially paw-picked book just for mew, and don't furget that all my previous reviews can be found on my Book Review page.

Until next time...

Keep calm and read more books

Amber 


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& @BionicBasil® on Instacat

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another review! 

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 graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

11 comments:

  1. You look like you were having fun sweet Amber. Those were good fill-in answers, we seem to be in an early Spring here and we like it. That was a really good review too, you always do such a great job. Thanks for joining our Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!

    ReplyDelete
  2. guyz...sneekin round two day on free wi fi and wanted two make sure we stopped bye two say hi, hope everee onez doin sooper grate and heerz two an awesum week oh end !! ♥♥♥

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  3. Love the P.A.s answers! No fear! :-) Glad you got to try out some new foods and get your extra snacks in. We do that too! Thanks for the review. Our Mom likes those kind of books and will hopefully read that one.

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  4. Cute photo fail. Sorry about your list Amber, you need to let some of your siblings into the library to tend to the mouse problem. Nice review, that sounds like a good series.Thank you to the PA for participating in the fill-ins, great answers except I am sorry her trampoline is no longer available. She should check ebay, maybe someone has a new one they didn't use. XO

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  5. That was a good review Amber; sounds like another intriguing series! Spring is early for us too, things are blooming ... But it's not unusual for us to have a cold snap or two after everything starts to bloom..

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  6. Good review Amber, the book and series sound intriguing! Things are blooming here, and it feels like spring. We're ready, but it's not unusual to have a cold snap or two here after the flowers start coming out. Cute pictures today, too!

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  7. Another great review and sounds like a good book over all, Amber.
    I agree about the fear culture from the media. We live quite high up and open looking down across Cornwall. We regularly get winds of 60+ and gusts of 90, but to hear about it you would think it was a hurricane! If a tree comes down it just means more fodder for the wood burner in a couple of winters time.

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  8. The "over the top" weather forecasts are either the new media hyping everything up just to stir up news and feelings and ratings, or they are really trying to warn us of danger. The problem is, by warning us this way every-single-time, they make sure we become jaded and don't listen.

    Pet photo fails are some of my favorite photos sometimes.

    Thank you for joining Feline Friday!

    ReplyDelete

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