Lisa's Looking Foward To #24 - July 30th and August 1st 2019

Back to joining up with the Waiting on Wednesday Posts, and the Can't Wait Wednesday posts hosted by Wishful Endings.  This week there are three on my list, two for July 30th, and one for August 1st.

From my ARC list for July 30th:

This sounds like a lot of fun right now, a fun romance perfect for summer or just for what I'm doing these days!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster.

By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed helpdesk tech at a startup incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—"Hatchlings"—who can't even fix their own laptops, but are apparently the next wave of startup geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she's matched with on the ubiquitous dating app, Fluttr.

But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It's called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight.

Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she's the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 
 

With my love of Outlander, this just fits right in.  Seems like there are some good romance books coming out this week!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The timeless romance, soaring passion—and gorgeous men—of Scotland comes to modern-day America. And the rules of love will never be the same…


Isabel Buchanan is fiery, funny, and never at a loss for words. But she is struck speechless when her mother returns from a trip to Scotland with a six-foot-tall, very handsome souvenir. Izzy’s mother is so infatuated by the fellow that Izzy has to plan their annual Highland Games all by herself. Well, not completely by herself. The Highlander’s strapping young nephew has come looking for his uncle…


Alasdair Blackmoor has never seen a place as friendly as this small Georgia town—or a girl as brilliant and beguiling as Izzy. Instead of saving his uncle, who seems to be having a lovely time, Alasdair decides he’d rather help Izzy with the Highland Games. Show her how to dance like a Highlander. Drink like a Highlander. And maybe, just maybe, fall in love with a Highlander. But when the games are over, where do they go from here?

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

From my ARC list for August 1st:

I'm a little surprised I didn't get an ARC of this one, as Sourcebooks usually sends me all their books it seems.  Or a lot of the time they do.  But it sounds like a creepy one! 

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of codependent sisterhood, the struggle to claim one’s own space, and the power of secrets

Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over.

In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.

Then Deirdre disappears.

And when something awful comes scratching at Skye's window in the middle of the night, claiming she's the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 

Final Thoughts:
Have you read any of these yet?  Are they on your TBR?  And hey, while you're here, you should go try to win some of my ARCs from Cleaning Up My TBR Post HERE. The US only giveaway is open till Friday at midnight, there are even some 2019 ARCs that can be one of your two choices.

ARC Review: The Dark Beneath the Ice by Amelinda Bérubé

Book info:

Title:  The Dark Beneath the Ice
Author:   

Amelinda Bérubé

Genre:  YA Suspense/paranormal
Release Date: August 7th, 2018
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Fire
Source:  ARC requested from publisher for review, which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  3 stars

Synopsis:
Something is wrong with Marianne. 

It's not just that her parents have split up, or that life hasn't been the same since she quit dancing. Or even that her mother has checked herself into the hospital. 

She's losing time. Doing things she would never do. And objects around her seem to break whenever she comes close. 

Something is after her. But a first attempt at an exorcism calls down the full force of the thing's rage. It demands Marianne give back what she stole. And Marianne must uncover the truth that lies beneath it all before the nightmare can take what it think it's owed, leaving Marianne trapped in the darkness of the other side.

My Review:
This was a book that caught my attention when I first heard about it.  I am a big fan of paranormal stories, and I love a good ghost story, especially possession or even poltergeists.  In fact, when I was a teenager, I used to check all the nonfiction books on poltergeists and other ghosts out from the library all the time.  While there were points in this that were spooky, all in all I wasn't blown away.  I get that part of the author's plan was to leave us wondering the whole time just what was real and what wasn't, hence the reference to the movie Black Swan on the back cover.  However, it also references Paranormal Activity, and that made me expect some more jump in your seat type of moments.  It's possible that this is a story that just would need to be on screen for the effect of losing time and creepiness around the edges to do anything really for me. And I could totally see this as a movie.  I feel like in this case, I'd probably appreciate it more.  For a book it just didn't grab me enough, soon enough, for me to be blown away by it.  I still gave it 3 stars, because as I said, I could see it as a movie doing a good job at scaring me.  And I'm sure there are others who enjoy that kind of story in a book, so I don't want anyone to not pick it up because of my issues with it.  I think if you've been interested in reading it, you should just think about whether the things I look for in a story are the same as what you look for, and if not, then you should definitely give it a try!  That's what so great about books, there are so many different types and different stories and different writing styles out there, there is something for everyone.