Tales with Nicole

" Vermont, 1950: There's a place for the girls whom no one wants--the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming--until one of them mysteriously disappears... Vermont, 2014: As much as she's tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister's death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister's boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can't shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case. When Fiona discovers that Idlewild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decides to write a story about it. But a shocking discovery during the renovations will link the

February18 book for  Avalon Muggles Book Club   Instagram: @avalonmuggles   "In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn't about to make the same mistake. But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the "Wilds" who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?" ( goodreads ) The dystopian world was definitely an interesting one; love is a disease. Lena's town in Portland was very strict and strange. The story however I just felt boring, it didn't fully keep my attention. I wasn't really invested in the characters and didn&#

When I first started my blog I really wanted it to be related to my favorite book Alice's Adventure in Wonderland but all the related blog names I could think of were already in use. I ended up settling on WonderlanddMadness but never fully settled on the name, especially with the double D in Wonderland. WonderlanddMadness will always be the heart of my blog but I have since grown as a blogger. I needed a new name. My two closest friends share a blog and were part of the inspiration for me starting my own. TalesWithTea was the first book blog I ever faithfully read, before I even became friends with the co-owners, and they were both so supportive when I took my new name under their inspiration for my own blog and that's how TalesWithNicole bloomed.     TalesWithNicole & TalesWithTea will be participating in this blog idea I came up with as a fun post for all three of us to do together. Together with Ashlee & Megan let's begin:   Would You Rat

"Alice: Beautiful, kind, manipulative, liar. Clare: Intelligent, loyal, paranoid, jealous. Clare thinks Alice is a manipulative liar who is trying to steal her life. Alice thinks Clare is jealous of her long-lost return and place in their family. One of them is telling the truth. The other is a maniac. Two sisters. One truth." ( goodreads )     I have been wanting to read this book since it first came out, so when I noticed the audiobook was on sale I bought it! I thought listening to a thriller would be so fun and exciting. Unfortunately, this book was a bit of a disappointment from the beginning. It may even be my own fault. I built up the suspense for this book and from the brief description that's listed above and even the book cover I assumed the sisters (Alice & Clare) were children. It turns out they aren't, while Alice is kind of a mystery, Claire is an adult who is married with two children of her own. Her life is kind of boing and the opening of t

February18 book for Poison Apple Book Club Instagram: @taleswithnicole #poisonapplebookclub   "Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world." ( goodreads ) I usually don't read historical fiction but I couldn't help but be intrigued by the Jack the Ripper aspect of this novel. I desperately wanted to love it, so when I was having trouble getting into the story it actually made me sad. The details were incredible, the amount of rese