By Tessa Pulyer Posted on

Sunday Post 78 | Vacation’s In Sight

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

I figured since this photo is blurry my daughter wouldn’t mind if I shared it 🤫

The graduation went splendidly last weekend. It was cold and drizzly but luckily the department graduation was inside, so the weather didn’t interfere. And our pride in our baby girl and her in herself kept the day very festive. (These pictures are from the Department of Psychology graduation. The college-wide ceremony is held at the football stadium earlier in the day.)

I didn’t get any sleep on Friday or Saturday night, so this week has been all about catching up. Catching up on sleep, catching up with everyone’s blog and catching up with social media. I haven’t caught up with Twitter and Instagram yet. I even took an unexpected week off from picture taking but hopefully this week I will be catching up with everybody on social media.

This week will be about getting the house in tip top shape because next weekend, we are off to the beach for the week! So, next Sunday’s post should be from Hilton Head Island 😃. I love to come home to a clean house, so I work hard to get it to that point before we head out.

How was your week?

Widgets From Publishers (for NetGalley)

  • Genre: Psychological Thriller / Espionage Thriller
  • Publication Date: August 2, 2022
  • Publisher: Bantam Books (Random House)
“Move over, James Bond—there’s a new hero in town, and she’s fantastic.”—Karen Cleveland, New York Times bestselling author of Need to Know. Nothing about Emma Makepeace is real. Not even her name. A newly minted secret agent, Emma’s barely graduated from basic training when she gets the call for her first major assignment. Eager to serve her country and prove her worth, she dives in headfirst. Emma must covertly travel across one of the world’s most watched cities to bring the reluctant—and handsome—son of Russian dissidents into protective custody, so long as the assassins from the Motherland don’t find him first. With London’s famous Ring of Steel hacked by the Russian government, the two must cross the city without being seen by the hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras that document every inch of the city’s streets, alleys, and gutters. Buses, subways, cars, and trains are out of the question. Traveling on foot, and operating without phones or bank cards that could reveal their location or identity, they have twelve hours to make it to safety. This will take all of Emma’s skills of disguise and subterfuge. But when Emma’s handler goes dark, there’s no one left to trust. And just one wrong move will get them both killed.
  • Genre: Psychological Thriller
  • Publication Date: August 23, 2022
  • Publisher: Atria Books
A “propulsive thriller about secret organizations, hidden agendas, and the lengths one woman will go to reclaim her life” (Laura Dave, author of Reese’s Book Club Pick The Last Thing He Told Me) from USA TODAY bestselling author Catherine McKenzie. At thirty-nine, Nicole Mueller’s life is on the rocks. Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband, Dan, are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional. It sounds like the perfect solution to help Nicole revive her career. So, despite Dan’s concerns that the group might be a cult, Nicole signs up for their retreat in Colorado. Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride. A CEO, an actress, a finance whiz, a congresswoman: Nicole can’t believe her luck. The founders of Panthera Leo are equally as impressive. They explain the group’s core philosophy: they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world. Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon sees dividends. Her new network quickly provides her with clients that help her relaunch her career, and a great new apartment too. The favors she has to provide in return seem benign. But then she’s called to the congresswoman’s apartment late at night where she’s pressed into helping her cover up a crime. And suddenly, Dan’s concerns that something more sinister is at play seem all too relevant. Can Nicole extricate herself from the group before it’s too late? Or will joining Panthera Leo be the biggest mistake of her life?
  • Genre: Psychological Thriller
  • Publication Date: November 1, 2022
  • Publisher: Atria Books
This is not just another novel about a dead girl. Two women—one alive, one dead—are brought together in the dark underbelly of New York City to solve a tragic murder. When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over. Meanwhile, Ruby Jones is also trying to reinvent herself. After travelling halfway around the world, she’s lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman. Alice is sure Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her short life and tragic death. Ruby just wants to forget what she saw…but she can’t seem to stop thinking about the young woman she found. If she keeps looking, can she give this unidentified Jane Doe the ending and closure she deserves? A “heartbreaking, beautiful, and hugely important novel” (Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author), Before You Knew My Name doesn’t just wonder whodunnit—it also asks who was she? And what did she leave behind?

NetGalley Widgets for Blog Tours

  • Genre: Crime Thriller
  • Publication Date: July 12, 2022
  • Publisher: Hanover Square Press (HTP Books)
Detective Anjelica Henley confronts a series of ritualistic murders in this heart-pounding thriller about race, power and the corrupt institutions that threaten us When Detective Anjelica Henley is called to investigate the murder of a popular preacher in his own church, she discovers a second victim, tortured and tied to a bed in an upstairs room. He is alive, but barely, and his body shows signs of a dark religious ritual. With a revolving list of suspects and the media spotlight firmly on her, Henley is left with more questions than answers as she attempts to untangle both crimes. But when another body appears, the case takes on a new urgency. Unless she can apprehend the killer, the next victim may just be Henley herself. Drawing on her experiences as a criminal attorney, Nadine Matheson deftly explores issues of race, class and justice through an action-packed story that will hold you captive until the last terrifying page.
  • Genre: Humorous Fiction / Women’s Fiction
  • Publication Date: August 4, 2022
  • Publisher: HQ Digital
An uplifting story about fresh starts, new beginnings and the power of stories, from the bestselling author of Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop! When Elodie applies for the job of librarian in peaceful Willow Grove, she’s looking forward to a new start. As the daughter of a media empire, her every move has been watched for years, and she longs to work with the thing she loves most: books. It’s a chance to make a real difference too, because she soon realises that there are other people in Willow Grove who might need a fresh start – like the homeless man everyone walks past without seeing, or the divorcée who can’t seem to escape her former husband’s misdeeds. Together with local journalist Finn, Elodie decides these people have stories that need sharing. What if instead of borrowing books readers could ‘borrow’ a person, and hear the life stories of those they’ve overlooked? But Elodie isn’t quite sharing her whole story either. As the story of the library’s new success grows, will her own secret be revealed?

Digital Copies from the Author

I haven’t taken any direct author request in a very long time, but Robin Kirk’s email to me was so organized that it made me want to take the chance. She’s a Duke professor, and I started to joke with her about the fact that I’m a Carolina mom, which is Duke’s biggest rival. I was afraid that the fact that I was joking wouldn’t translate well via email so I didn’t mention it. 😉

The Bond: Winner of the Bronze Medal in the 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. Kirk brings the reader into an intricate, well-imagined world—alandscape so credibleit instantly feelslike a classic. BethKander,authoroftheOriginalSynTrilogy Trust what you see, not what you’re told. In a society that made males obsolete, the Weave engineers a female’s abilities. Girls like Dinitra are engineered by Sowers and assigned their life purpose when they turn sixteen. But sometimes, the Sowers get things wrong. A resistance is growing. Rebels are fabricating humans of their own–including males–and plan to topple the Weave in a war that could destroy them all. When Dinitra is assigned a job with the Legion, she uncovers the ugliest secrets of the Weave. Her loyalty is tested when she’s captured by the rebels and develops a dangerous bond with a male warrior–a shameful crime that she may pay for with her life. Fans of Neal Shusterman’sArc of a Scythe series and Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds series will delight in this heart-pounding adventure.
The Hive Queen: Readers will revel in the lush world-building and carefully woven plot. TheHiveQueen delivers on every level! Kate Pentecost, author of Elysium Girls In the second book in the INDIE-award-winning Bond Trilogy, warrior Fir leads his brothers on a quest for salvation that will threaten everything they hold dear. The dangers they encounter are unlike any they’ve faced before. Savage mutants discarded by the Weave hunt them. More terrifying still is coming to terms with what freedom really means to brothers beset by doubts and fear. The beautiful Hive Queen conjures Fir and compels him to break with his brothers. Their lives hinge on Fir’s ability not only to keep his head. He must remember the girl and the battle dog who helped him find freedom. Fir must choose between his brothers, his allegiance to the Queen, and his love for the girl who won his heart. This epic fantasy combines elements of science fiction and thriller. The Bond Trilogy concludes with The Mother’s Wheel. Fans of Rick Yancey’s Arc of a Scythe series and Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series will delight in this heart-pounding adventure.
The Mother’s Wheel: There are battles, adventures, and struggles for power galore. But ultimately, The Mother’s Wheel is a haunting, heartfelt meditation on love, loss, and what it means to belong to a family.” Emily Colin, New York Times bestselling author of The Memory Thief and award-winning author of The Seven Sins series The Mother’s Wheel is the final, thrilling conclusion to the Indie award-winning Bond trilogy. The mutant draft Sil, who readers met in The Bond, leads a ragtag group of desperate refugees to hoped-for safety in The Deep. Along the way, they meet an orangutan who loves poetry and guards the narrow path into the jungle. But safety proves elusive as the refugees are pulled back into the war unfolding on the heights. A fearsome bee-mutant attacks as part of his plan to murder his sister, the lovely and dangerous Hive Queen. Will love or hate rule? Who, in the end, can you count on as family when you are the only one of your kind? Their destinies entwined, Sil, Dinitra, and Fir reunite and must choose between each other and the worlds they once called their own.

Did you get any good books this week?

I noticed that The Lost City with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum was already on the Paramount app so, of course, we had to watch it. It’s a fun adventure movie – some lol moments and some thrills. Not to mention that Sandra Bullock’s character is a romance writer and Tatum is her cover model – so, some bookish fun ❤️

Did you watch anything good?

  • Monday (May 9, 2022): Book Review – My Wife Is Missing by D. J. Palmer (Psychological Thriller)
  • Tuesday (May 10, 2022): Book Review – Dark Circles by Caite Dolan-Leach (Psychological Thriller)
  • Wednesday (May 11, 2022) WWW Wednesday
  • Thursday (May 12, 2022) Book Review – Kagen the Damned by Jonathan Maberry (Dark Epic Fantasy)
  • Friday (May 13, 2022) Book Blogger Hop
  • Friday (May 13, 2022) Blog Tour Book Review – Knave of Secrets by Alex Livingston (Supernatural Thriller)
  • Monday (May 16, 2022): Book Review – Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak (Psychological Thriller – 5 stars)
  • Tuesday (May 17, 2022): Book Review – Every Cloak Rolled in Blood by James Lee Burke (Supernatural Mystery – 4.5 stars)
  • Wednesday (May 18, 2022) WWW Wednesday
  • Thursday (May 19, 2022) Book Review – The Colony Series by Teri Polen (YA SciFy/Dystopian)
  • Friday (May 20, 2022) Book Blogger Hop

40 Replies to “Sunday Post 78 | Vacation’s In Sight”

  1. Mark says:

    I’m glad to hear you enjoyed The Lost City. It looks like a lot of fun, but I haven’t watched it yet.

    And congrats to your daughter!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      Thank you! The Lost City is a little bit cheesy as well as funny but it’s perfect for a watch at home kind of movie.

      Like

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I am! She graduated with honors so it was really cool to see her graduate in the first group to walk across the stage and her honors announced. ❤️

      Liked by 1 person

  5. CJRTB Books says:

    Glad the graduation went well, do lovely. I wondered where you were on IG, I kept checking but thought you must have been busy! Ooo a holiday sounds great, I have to wait until the end of July for mine! ❤️

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      It’s been such a trying week. I tried to take a blog tour book review down to a spotlight but that didn’t go over as I had hoped, so I just spent the whole week fluctuating between sleeping and feeling overwhelmed. I already have pictures ready for this coming week, though.

      Like

  8. Louise H says:

    I’m so pleased the graduation went well. I’m not sure how things have changed since I went to university but we just had the one ceremony for “The School of Biological Sciences”. I know what you mean about wanting to return to a tidy house after a holiday – we still have 3 offspring living with us (aged 19 – 22) so it doesn’t matter how much we clean up we know it won’t be tidy on our return.
    Hope you have a great holiday!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I understand from friends that University is a bit different in the UK than in the US. In the US, colleges have different departments based on your major. So they have a graduation ceremony for everyone in the college no matter their major and then smaller ceremonies hosted by each department where they actually call names and have them walk across the stage.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Renee Nash says:

    Have a great time! I so want to jump right into The Binding Room but other books that I have to get to publish first!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I’m with you. I wish sometimes I could read all my ARCs in order of want/mood rather than publication date.

      Like

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      Hilton Head is very nice. We’ve been going there since I was pregnant with the daughter that just graduated from college 😮. I can’t believe it’s been that long.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. Cindy Davis says:

    Glad the graduation went well and you are looking forward to the beach (jealous!). Elodie’s Library of Second Chances sounds good! I hope you enjoy all of these. I am also waaaaay behind on Twitter and Instagram (and catching up on others blogs).

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I just love coming home to a clean house ❤️ Hope you enjoy your vacation at the end of the month!

      Like

  13. WendyW says:

    Congratulations to your daughter!! What an amazing accomplishment. Have a great time in Hilton Head next week!!

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Jonetta | Blue Mood Café says:

    Aww, thank you for sharing that photo💜 I knew rain wouldn’t dampen the joy of the day!

    So glad for that feedback about The Lost City. It looked fun and I’m happy to see you confirm it is so.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Teri Polen says:

    I didn’t know The Lost City was streaming, so thanks for the heads up. I saw it in the theater – a fun way to spend a couple hours – but hubby hasn’t seen it yet. Get those books ready for reading on the beach, Tessa!

    Liked by 1 person

  18. jessicabookworm says:

    Oh Tessa, I am so thrilled to hear that your daughter’s graduation ceremony went splendidly! 😊 I can also sympathise with the last week just being about catching up… although I don’t think I did very successfully, after I got back from a lovely weekend away. 😅 As for my viewing it has been pretty low since I finished the final season of the epic, historical TV drama, The Last Kingdom. ⚔

    Take care, happy reading, and I hope you get all your cleaning and packing done in good time!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      It was such a lovely weekend and yes, now I’m working hard at getting everything ready for the beach. Can’t wait!

      Liked by 1 person

  19. Carla says:

    What a wonderful weekend, Tessa. Congratulations to your daughter. My friend and I went to the theatre to see The Lost City and I loved it, glad you enjoyed as well. Enjoy your holiday at the beach!

    Liked by 1 person

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