Celeste, Author at A Literary Escape

First Lines Fridays: December 16, 2022

Published on December 16, 2022December 16, 2022 by Celeste2 Comments

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? The rules are as follows:

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!

If you’re using Twitter, don’t forget to use #FirstLinesFridays!

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Top Five Powerful Books I Read in 2022

Published on December 14, 2022December 12, 2022 by Celeste7 Comments

In a slightly different approach to a yearly reading list recap, I thought I’d mention my top five powerful books I read in 2022. I first saw this on Stephen’s blog at Stephen Writes and I thought it was a brilliant idea. Basically this is a short list of books that left a strong impact on me, whether emotionally or educationally. As Stephen so eloquently puts it, the writing style also had an impact on how well I connected to a book. I think it’s fair to say that these books would also be included in a “favorite books of 2022” list.

Though December isn’t quite over, at this point in time I don’t really have any reading plans that might potentially upend this list. I have one last BBNYA book to finish, but I can’t talk about it, so naturally I wouldn’t be able to include it here anyway. And my only other plan is to finish the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman.

With that said, here are my top five powerful books I read in 2022, in no particular order.

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BBNYA Spotlight Tour: What Once Was Home by B.K. Bass

Published on December 13, 2022December 10, 2022 by CelesteLeave a comment

This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the 50 books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Today’s semifinalist spotlight tour is for WHAT ONCE WAS HOME by B.K. Bass.

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Book Review: A Thousand Steps Into Night by Traci Chee

Published on December 12, 2022December 10, 2022 by Celeste3 Comments

Today’s review is about A THOUSAND STEPS INTO NIGHT by Traci Chee, a Japanese mythology-inspired tale. Some of the characters reminded me of Studio Ghibili creations. And I loved Miuko’s wry humor coupled with her ability to never lose sight of her goal.

Author: Traci Chee
Series: None
Age Category: Young Adult
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publish Date: March 1, 2022
Print Length: 384

Want to support local bookstores? Buy a copy of A Thousand Steps Into Night on Bookshop.org!*

*These are not affiliate links and I do not make a commission from any purchase made using these links.

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BBNYA Spotlight Tour: The Oracle Stone by Talli L. Morgan

Published on December 10, 2022December 7, 2022 by Celeste2 Comments

Today’s semifinalist spotlight tour is for THE ORACLE STONE by Talli L. Morgan.

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