Top Ten Tuesday: Which books are giving me all the vibes

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday.

It’s held over at That Artsy Reader Girl, where every week bloggers list their top 10 bookish lists to the theme for the week. This week’s topic is supposed to be about those covers that are giving us all those winter or summer vibes — but I am just going for all the vibes, I guess. For this one, I am going to go to Goodreads and pick new ones, and totally judge them by their covers!

Spiders From Mars: My first thought a weird, weird alien, scifi romance with a dash of humour and yeah I was way off because here’s what it’s really about:

When Sylvia Stryker’s mentor is jailed for a crime Sylvia helped commit, she jumps on a plan to break him out. Her inspired rescue mission attracts attention from a covert branch of federation intelligence who may have their own agenda. But when a high-profile prisoner is murdered inside the jail where Neptune is held, offers of help evaporate like water on a dry planet. Neptune is moved to a penal colony on Mars where he’ll fulfill the duration of his life sentence mining rocks in sub-zero temperature.

There’s only one way out: prove Neptune is innocent. But is he? Sylvia knows better than anyone that Neptune will cross lines other people won’t. Without knowing what transpired in the prison, she can’t know if he’s complicit or not. Sylvia uses her sleuthing skills to solve a locked room mystery . . . while knowing the truth may keep Neptune locked up forever.

Yeah, I like the cover more now that I know what it’s really about LOL!

No Filter: Well, it says cozy mystery on the cover, and there’s a dog and an adorable hotel, kind of won me over. It’s the sort of cuteness that brings a smile to my face. Here’s what it’s really about:

BOOK ONE in the ALL-NEW BARKS & BEANS CAFE cozy mystery series!!

Welcome to the Barks & Beans Cafe, a quaint place where folks pet shelter dogs while enjoying a cup of java…and where murder sometimes pays a visit.

Fed up with her go-nowhere job, newly single Macy Hatfield moves back to her small hometown in West Virginia. She joins forces with her brother Bo in his crazy new venture—the Barks & Beans Cafe, which caters to dog lovers and coffee drinkers alike.

When a golf instructor is murdered at the nearby spiritual center, Macy winds up adopting his Great Dane. Just after Macy finds a mysterious message sewn under the dog’s collar, her Dane is dognapped. She launches into a relentless search for her newfound canine friend, but along the way, she digs up a cruel and confident killer.

Join siblings Macy and Bo Hatfield as they sniff out crimes in their hometown…with plenty of dogs along for the ride! The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series features a small town, an amateur sleuth, and no swearing or graphic scenes.

The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series in order:
Book 1: No Filter
Book 2: Iced Over

I LOVE that this cafe lets people pet shelter dogs! And it is as cute as I thought!

Suddenly Psychic: I’m not even kidding, I saw “psychic” in the title and that’s all I need to see, but thought it might be a YA too. I need a good “psychic” read in my life! Here’s what it’s really about:

Every woman goes through changes in their forties.
Just not… these changes.

Robin Brannon was a normal wife, mom, and antique shop owner until a brush with death turned her day-to-day life upside down. Now she and her two best friends are seeing things that belong in a fantasy novel. Ghosts. Visions. Omens of doom. Nothing that belongs in the peaceful mountain town they call home.

Added to that, Robin’s marriage is on the rocks, her grandmother’s health is failing, her mother is driving away the customers at her shop, her teenage daughter refuses to get her drivers’ license, and her left knee aches every darn morning.

Robin doesn’t have the time, energy, or knees to unearth the secrets buried at the bottom of Glimmer Lake, but fate doesn’t seem to care. Some secrets are just dying to be exposed.

Suddenly Psychic is a stand-alone paranormal women’s fiction, and the first book in the Glimmer Lake series by USA Today Bestseller, Elizabeth Hunter, author of the Elemental Mysteries.

Oh hello, a couple of psychics! And not a YA character in sight!

#skinandblisters: Totally the hashtag title. That’s all I needed to stop and take a look. I realllly am liking how authors are bringing social media into their work! Turns out, this is actually book 2 in a series about a dysfunctional sisters, which are my favourite kind:

#SkinAndBlisters. Love. Hate. Sisters.
#Toots Book 2.

Jess drives herself insane, trying to prove her husband’s affair. Timing his trips to the shops? Check. Looking for burners in the toilets’ cistern? Check. Can she stop herself before she breaks her own marriage?

Louise pretends to be vegan, spiritual, and teetotal. Only vino and fags can ease the stress of wedding preparations, but she bravely decides to give up on her vices. Can she turn into a saint before her fiancé finds out who she really is?

Carla is falling for her very young assistant. Will she follow her heart or her head?

Emily is a magnet for psychos and losers. Her new, normal, seemingly-nice boyfriend asks for a break. Will she get back with him? Or at him?

If things can go wrong, they will. Luckily, there’s nothing that cocktails, lousy sisterly advice, and friendship can’t fix.

One Year of Ugly: It’s the title – and then the colour, Picasso-like cover. IT’s an arresting cover! I would hazard a guess that it’s a coming-of-age story. … and boy was I WAY off:

After fleeing crumbling, volatile Venezuela, Yola Palacio wants nothing more than to settle into a peaceful new life in Trinidad with her family. And who cares if they’re there illegally—aren’t most of the people on the island? But life for the Palacios is far from quiet—and when Yola’s Aunt Celia dies, the family once again find their lives turned upside down. For Celia had been keeping a very big secret—she owed a LOT of money to a local criminal called Ugly. And without the funds to pay him off, Ugly has the entire family do his bidding until Celia’s debt is settled. What Ugly says, the Palacios do, otherwise the circumstances are too dreadful to imagine.

To say that the year that follows is tumultuous for the Palacios is an understatement. But in the midst of the turmoil appears Roman—Ugly’s distractingly gorgeous right-hand man. And although she knows it’s terrible and quite possibly dangerous, Yola just can’t help but give in to the attraction. Where, though, do Roman’s loyalties lie? And could this wildly inappropriate romance just be the antidote to a terrible year of Ugly?

Faking it:I immeditely went to social media and a mum, maybe, faking it on social media? And yeah, I was WAY off again.

Meet Hannah Thompson: wife, mother, teacher and… secret erotica author?

My Guilt List:

1. If we have a date night then I’m always asleep before it’s halfway through and honestly, if I had to choose, I’d rather have a hot bath and read my book than engage in any other nocturnal activity.

2. If we do actually have you-know-what then it’s not unheard of for my mind to wander… and I’m not talking about sexy things – I’m talking about what food there is in the fridge and when the car is due for its next service.

3. I am struggling to write about anything that could be classed as even a little bit sexually adventurous which is a problem when I’m supposed to be an erotica writer and I am speaking at Sex Con in exactly one month.

With a book to publicise, Hannah has no choice but trade her M&S cardis for S&M parties, and become her writing alter-ego. What could possibly go wrong…

*dies laughing* Yeah, the blurb was much better in this one!

The Sushi Principles: Honestly, this book made me realise that I haven’t had sushi in ages. But the word “prophecy” had me curious about a Harry Potter/ Chosen One  of Sushi lol! Here’s what it’s really about:

Vancouver has become a disturbed, retched mess of murderous blue-bloods and lost hipster gardeners, sadistic baristas and immortal sushi masters. A drug-fed breeding ground of scoundrels set in an orgy of late-night tapa bars, yoga classes and sunset booze cruises.

Tribes have descended upon Lotusland, and at the center lies a hero and a hostage. Sebastian, an idle artist barely escapes crippling social anxieties by managing a posh urban gardening center and its group of varied misfits. He awakens one morning to a new world where all around him the preternatural and fantastic have crept through his city…and his mind.

Battle lines are drawn as mediocre villains and awkward heroes climb up into a dumpster fire of ancient morality and inventive revenge. At the center of it all lies The Plant, a mysterious tropical succulent that destroys minds, or fixes them, depending on where your morals lie. Thrust into leadership, Sebastian and his weirdos have six days to unwrap a messy family conspiracy before the city is lost and dread overtakes the entire west coast.

… this was nowhere what I thought it was about, and even reading the blurb, I’m not sure what this is about!

That’s it for me, and covers and the vibes they give me!

What are your vibes from these covers?