I am briefly pausing my hiatus to spread the word about AudioFile SYNC, an annual free audiobook reading project of AudioFile Magazine in partnership with OverDrive and various audiobook publishers. For fourteen weeks starting April 29th (TODAY!) and ending August 4th, two titles each week are accesible and downloadable from the program. What's good is international readers can join in on the fun, too.

Review: Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Ayesha at Last
by Uzma Jalaluddin

Synopsis:
A modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice for a new generation of love.

Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

Review: In Another Life by C.C. Hunter

In Another Life
by C.C. Hunter

Synopsis:

Chloe was three years old when she became Chloe Holden, but her adoption didn’t scar her, and she’s had a great life. Now, fourteen years later, her loving parents’ marriage has fallen apart and her mom has moved them to Joyful, Texas. Starting twelfth grade as the new kid at school, everything Chloe loved about her life is gone. And feelings of déjà vu from her early childhood start haunting her.

When Chloe meets Cash Colton she feels drawn to him, as though they're kindred spirits. Until Cash tells her the real reason he sought her out: Chloe looks exactly like the daughter his foster parents lost years ago, and he’s determined to figure out the truth.

Blog Tour: Stay A Little Longer by Dawn Lanuza (Review)

A BIG HELLO to you book wanderer who is reading my smol book blog! Today is my stop for the international blog tour for Dawn Lanuza's latest romance novel, "Stay a Little Longer"

Props to the amazing duo of Erika of The Nocturnal Fey and Rafael of The Royal Polar Bear Reads for organizing this tour.

Review: 99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai

99 Nights in Logar
by Jamil Jan Kochai

Synopsis:
A coming-of-age story about one boy’s journey across contemporary Afghanistan to find and bring home the family dog, blending the grit and immediacy of voice-driven fiction like We Need New Names with the mythmaking of One Thousand and One Nights.

Twelve-year-old Marwand’s memories from his previous visit to Afghanistan six years ago center on his contentious relationship with Budabash, the terrifying but beloved dog who guards his extended family’s compound in Logar. Eager to find an ally in this place that’s meant to be “home,” Marwand approaches Budabash the way he would any dog on his American suburban block—and the results are disastrous: Marwand loses a finger and Budabash escapes.

PH Blog Tour: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (Review+Giveaway)

I am back, my book wanderer friends! I have risen from the book blogger crypts (or wherever place book bloggers lie when they are dead in the book blogging world) because I need to tell you about this new book by romance maven, Helen Hoang.

Huge thanks to Fay of Bibliophile Soprano for hosting the PH Blog Tour for "The Bride Test" by Helen Hoang.

Improving my Sidebar Subscription Gadgets

Book bloggers do a lot of backend work for their blog. When we don't post or update in social media, it does not mean that we are taking our readers for granted. Most probably, we are still doing or thinking about blog-related stuff. So today, I would like to share what I've been up to lately to improve Rurouni Jenni Reads. It has something to do with my 2019 goal of growing my blog's following. This is ultimately a shameless self-promo post, lol.

My 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge Sign-Up Post

Ahoy, book wanderers! How are you faring 2019, so far? I am popping in for a quick sign-up post for the 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, as announced in my opening post for the year. I skimmed over the books I already own and came up with this list of mostly YA books. I do not intend to finish all these books this year. I can at most do one backlist title per month. And this list can still change along the course of the challenge. I am mostly putting this up in the hopes of finding other challengers who got the same books as me to buddy read with.

Review: Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Two Can Keep a Secret
by Karen M. McManus

Synopsis:
Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone's declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

My 2019 Discussion Challenge Sign-Up Post

Hello book wanderers! As I've said in my opening post for 2019, I am once again joining the Discussion Challenge. Last year, I aimed for the Discussion Dabbler level, requiring 1-10 discussion posts. I was able to do five, so I am gobsmacked right there in the middle of goal reached and achieved. Also for the first time ever, I got featured as the blogger of the month last October 2018, so wow, it's a weird happy feeling to get my posts spotlighted on the monthly linky post.

Review: The Fade by Demitria Lunetta

The Fade
by Demitria Lunetta

Synopsis:
We don't want to disappear. We want to be found.

Something terrible happened in her basement. Haley can feel it.

Four girls went missing several years ago, and the police never solved the case. But Haley know the missing girls were murdered. How else can she explain the hostile presence in her house?

The ghostly girls need something from her. And unless Haley can figure out what they want...she might be next.

My 2019 Book Blogging Plans

Image: Kaboompics

How are your 2019 so far, my fellow beautiful book wanderers? If you ask me, I am currently sick from inhaling all the fireworks and firecracker fumes from the New Year's eve celebrations. Being sick reminded me of two things: 1.) I have weak lungs, and 2.) I hate the New Year's eve. There, I just exposed myself as The Grinch of New Year. (Please don't hate me, I am lovable!) Anywho, Imma dial down the negativity and be more focused on the task at hand: MAKING PLANS!

Review: Fire and Heist by Sarah Beth Durst

Fire and Heist
by Sarah Beth Durst

Synopsis:
In Sky Hawkins's family, leading your first heist is a major milestone--even more so than learning to talk, walk, or do long division. It's a chance to gain power and acceptance within your family, and within society. But stealing your first treasure can be complicated, especially when you're a wyvern--a human capable of turning into a dragon.

Embarking on a life of crime is never easy, and Sky discovers secrets about her mother, who recently went missing, the real reason her boyfriend broke up with her, and a valuable jewel that could restore her family's wealth and rank in their community.

Mini-Reviews: Some Mystery Books

In case you haven't notice with my recent reviews, I am slowly but surely becoming a mystery fan. So here are some more mystery books that I finished this year:

Review: Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
by Arwen Elys Dayton

Synopsis:

For fans of television shows Black Mirror and Westworld, this compelling, mind-bending novel is a twisted look into the future, exploring how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimen and what it means to be human at all.

Set in our world, spanning the near to distant futures, Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is a novel made up of six interconnected stories that ask how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimens, and how hard that will push the definition of "human."

PH Blog Tour: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao (Review+Giveaway)

I have immensely adored Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (FoTL) so I am more than happy to be part of the crew of Filipino bloggers to promote it’s sequel, Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix (KoBP).

Kudos to Erika of The Nocturnal Fey and Rafael of The Royal Polar Bear Reads who organized this blog tour and who also hosted a successful Twitter party last October 27. Check the hashtag #FPBChat to see what went down with that online event graced by Julie C. Dao’s presence herself.

But first, let’s check what Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix is all about.

Review: The Witch Elm by Tana French

The Witch Elm
by Tana French

Synopsis:
Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life: he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

Review: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

A Spark of Light
by Jodi Picoult

Synopsis:
The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

Review: The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa

The Lady Killer
by Masako Togawa
Translated from Japanese by Simon Grove

Synopsis:
A dizzying tale of lust and murder, from one of Japan’s greatest mystery writers.

A hunter prowls the night spots of Shinjuku
But he’s the one walking into a trap…

Ichiro Honda leads a double life: by day a devoted husband and a diligent worker, by night he moves through the shadow world of Tokyo’s cabaret bars and nightclubs in search of vulnerable women to seduce and then abandon. But when a trail of bodies seems to appear in his wake, the hunter becomes the prey and Ichiro realises he has been caught in a snare. Has he left it too late to free himself before time runs out?

10 Author-Character Lookalikes

Photo by elen aivali on Unsplash

CONFESSION TIME! The main reason that I am not big in participating book events is because I am extremely uncomfortable mingling with crowds of strangers. On the few book events that I have attended and recapped here on the blog, my sister was always with me. (Sissy, I love you. You are my rock.) I cannot always drag her to events tho. Thus one time, I braved going to a panel ALONE and WHAT HORROR! I was a BIG panicky mess inside. I was calming myself, taking deep breaths and half-wishing that I become invisible the entire time. The Gryffindor in me managed to ask questions to the panel and to quickly say hi to some book bloggers but the ordeal exhausted me so much to the point that on the way home tears are leaking incessantly down my face for no apparent reason. I am not certain if that was just my chronic shyness or if I am suffering from a case of social anxiety disorder (Full disclosure: I am not diagnosed). One thing I’m sure of is I don’t intend for a public meltdown to happen anytime soon. SO HELLO HERMIT LIFE!