Sundays In Bed With… Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

May 15, 2022Leave a comment

Welcome to the Sundays In Bed With… Meme! The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.

This weekend I’m reading Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. I’m about 100 pages in and so far I’d give it a 5 stars based on the writing alone. I’ve never tabbed a book before but I already have a bunch of little lavender tabs sticking out to remember quotes that are just so perfect. Also, every woman’s story is so interesting as well as the chapters with the countdown to Ansel’s execution. I’m so curious to see how this story is going to turn out.

Title: Notes on an Execution

Author: Danya Kukafka

Series: Standalone

Publisher: William Morrow

Release Date: January 25, 2022

Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.
Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the homicide detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.
Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.

Sundays In Bed With… Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

April 24, 2022Leave a comment

This weekend I’m reading Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas. 800 years later and I’m finally getting to this series. I’m about 200 pages into it and so far I’m really enjoying it. Even though this was her second book and it was published almost 9 years ago, I find it still holds up pretty well. I’m looking forward to continuing this and the rest of the series.

Title: Crown of Midnight

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass #2

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens

Release Date: August 15, 2013

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.
Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.
Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

Sundays In Bed With… One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

March 6, 2022Leave a comment

This weekend I’m reading One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid. When I tell you I am obsessed with this book I mean it. It is so heart wrenching and emotional. Emma is put in this unimaginable position and you can feel every single emotion the three of them are feeling. I am so invested in this story it’s crazy. Her writing is phenomenal. Oh, and I’m totally team Sam.

Title: One True Loves

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Series: Standalone

Publisher: Washington Square Press

Release Date: June 7, 2016

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.
On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.
Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.
That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.
Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?
Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

Sundays In Bed With… To Have and to Hate by R.S. Grey

February 20, 2022Leave a comment

This weekend I’m reading To Have and to Hate by R.S. Grey. I’ve been feeling a bit slumpy after such a good reading month in January so I decided an R.S. Grey book is the way to get out of a slump. She is the queen of rom-coms in my eyes and I think this is the 16th book of hers I’ve read. I’m around 40% of the way through and I’m loving it. Marriage of convenience is my favourite trope and so far she’s knocking it out of the park.

Title: To Have and to Hate

Author: R.S. Grey

Series: Standalone

Publisher: Self-published by R.S. Grey

Release Date: March 18, 2021

Marry a man I barely know to save my family from ruin.
It might’ve been simple, if my betrothed were anybody else.
On our wedding day, my husband-to-be arrived at the courthouse like a black cloud rolling over Manhattan. Walt didn’t crack smiles or pepper in pleasantries as we exchanged hollow vows in front of the judge.
His disdain for me was so palpable I assumed we’d walk out of that ceremony and resume our regularly scheduled programming. But then fate was like, Hold my beer. I got this.
In desperate need of help and with nowhere else to turn, I had no choice but to ignore a crucial rule in our contract: I shall only contact Mr. Jennings II in case of emergency. But hey, what’s a little fine print between husband and wife?
Turns out, Walt’s a stickler for legalese—I think it might be his love language. Oh, and his attitude at the courthouse wasn’t a put-on. My so-called husband is a jerk. He takes what he wants without giving any consideration to other people—specifically ME, his blushing, contractually-obligated bride!
I knew life with Walt would be no honeymoon, but a marriage of any sort should still come with a few standard guarantees:
To have and to hold.
For richer or poorer.
In sickness and in health.
But after experiencing Walt’s version of wedded bliss, I say let’s forget about all that lovey-dovey crap and just take me straight to death do us part.

Sundays In Bed With… Bunny by Mona Awad

February 13, 2022Leave a comment

This weekend I’m reading Bunny by Mona Awad. It’s the February selection for Katie Colson’s book club over on Patreon! At first I had no idea what on earth I was reading, but after finishing the first part so much of the story has come together and I can’t wait to see where this insanity goes. Emphasis on insanity. This book is truly a ride.

Title: Bunny

Author: Mona Awad

Series: Standalone

Publisher: Penguin Books

Release Date: June 11, 2019

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn’t be more different from the other members of her master’s program at New England’s elite Warren University. A self-conscious scholarship student who prefers the company of her imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort–a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other “Bunny,” and are often found entangled in a group hug so tight it seems their bodies might become permanently fused.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies’ exclusive monthly “Smut Salon,” and finds herself drawn as if by magic to their front door–ditching her only friend, Ava, an audacious art school dropout, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into Bunny world, and starts to take part in the off-campus “Workshop” where they devise their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur, and her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies are brought into deadly collision.

A Lovely Book Affair

the only kind of affair worth having

Tag: sundays in bed with…

Sundays In Bed With… Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Sundays In Bed With… Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Sundays In Bed With… One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Sundays In Bed With… To Have and to Hate by R.S. Grey

Sundays In Bed With… Bunny by Mona Awad