The Saucy Wenches Book Club

It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character. ~ Joseph Heller, Catch 22

The first step of understanding anything--whether it's the Bible or Fifty Shades of Grey--us acknowledging that we come to it with agendas of our own. We want it to mean something, we are biased whether we know it or not, and usually what we walk away with is what we want to walk away with. American Queen ~~Sierra Simone

Followers of our What the Wenches are Reading posts will know that I listened to the audio books of the Outlander series last year. Now, I join the ranks of Outlandians... Outlanders...Sassenachs....I don't actually know what the Outlander fans call themselves, anyway, now I join them in not so patiently awaiting the release of book #9, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone . As I finished the series, I was thinking about all of the amazing characters there are that I wouldn't consider main characters. Every single person, no matter if I like them or not, is so well developed and rounded out. Ms. Gabaldon has certainly created a rich and versatile world. And, since I am a sucker for a good side character, here I am to tell you about some of my favorites. Spoilers are a definite, so make sure you are caught up on all of the books before you follow me after the jump!

I’ve needed some major distraction from the incessant sucking sound 2017 keeps making in my brain. Something transcendent, to mend the edges of my tattered dreams, to inspire hope in tomorrow, to reawaken my heart to awe. Kaleo has been that distraction — or more like a REVELATION!! They’ve made me excited about music again, and truly soothed this savaged breast. It’s impossible for me to stay sad whenever I immerse myself in their very distinctive, sexy, eclectic sound. I’ve given Kaleo’s A/B CD as birthday gifts all year. (Haven’t seen any repurposed as coasters, either!) But since I’m running out of money, I decided I should write a fangirl post while I rebuild my savings. Because I think everyone should have a chance to hear (not to mention feast their eyes on) Kaleo. It’s my new mission in life. So I’ve rounded up a few tunes. And pictures. Be warned, these are definitely Man Candy! (Such a difficult task, researching this post. Hahahaha.) I hope you enjoy them! ...

"I love you, little prince," he whispers, palm warm against my chest. Underneath my blindfold, I squeeze my eyes closed in something like pained rapture. After all these years, those words still haven't lost their power to terrify me, because being loved by a man like him is no small burden. American Prince ~~Sierra Simone 

That's how you know you love someone, I guess, when you can't experience anything without wishing the other person were there to see it, too. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

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“Oh, we talk of progress, but what we really desire is the perpetuation of the present. With its seemingly endless excesses, its ravenous appetites. Ever the same rules, ever the same game.”

Whatever may have been my political opinions before I have but one sentiment now. That is we have a Government, and laws and a flag and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now, Traitors and Patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter. ~~Ulysses S. Grant discussing his conviction to fight for the American Union Grant ~~Ron Chernow

https://www.instagram.com/saucywenchesbc/ That feeling you get when you pick up a book and the bookcover takes your breath away. Here's 15 book covers that have blown us away this year. Each is beautiful in its own way and very eye catching. Sometimes it's the font used, sometimes it's the images and colours that pull us towards a book. How often have you started to read a book, just because the cover looks amazing? Scroll through to see some of our favourites covers this year.

“How can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not, on any level whatever, live the way they say they do, or the way they say they should?”    James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell This fangirl friday we have a guest wench writing about a book that she loves and can always read. Some of you have read it, some of you have watched the mini-series, and some of you are possible fans. So join Rian after the jump and read all about it. But, BE WARNED, there will be spoilers!!

" We   aren't human." "Yes. We. Are." His voice turns fierce. "I don't give a shit what the something-somethingth council of big important farts decreed, or how the geomests classify things, or any of that. That we're not human is just the lie they tell themselves so they don't have to feel bad about how they treat us.” – The Fifth Season ( The Broken Earth #1), N.K. Jemisin

"Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was. But I gave myself up to it; it was an antidote to any pain, and I had more pains than one." Henry James "The Turn of the Screw"

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“The contamination at the sites … has continued to grow, despite our best efforts.” “What kind of contamination?” Although he thought he knew. “The kind that cleanses everything. The kind you can’t see until it’s too late.” “There’s nothing you can do?” A rasping laugh escaped her, like she was trying to cough something up. “What are we going to do, John? Are we going to combat it by starting a mining operating there? Pollute those places to hell and back? Put traces of heavy metals in the water supply?” ~ Jeff VanderMeer, Authority ( Southern Reach #2)

I don't want boring, common ways of being bad. I want ways that rattle me to my bones, that send me to my knees in repentance, I want to be the kind of bad that leaves me wrung out with bite marks blooming purple on my body. I want to go to the brink of not knowing myself, I want someone to take me there and hold me by the neck and make me stare at an entire reckless realm of possibility.  American Queen ~~Sierra Simone

Until everything topples, we have no idea what we actually have, how precariously and perfectly it all hangs together. Dark Matter is a fast-paced, sci-fi thriller about identity and alternative universes. It begins with some creepily ominous foreshadowing that immediately piqued my curiosity, then quickly launches into a series of perplexing events that kept me compulsively turning pages, desperate to find out what happens next. So be warned, you might not be able to put this book down once you begin!

It's October, and I've had horror on the mind since the first day of the month. I can't help it, I'm a sucker for a good horror story. On page, or on screen. It's not really surprise that I've been a Stephen King fan since I was a kid. Although I haven't always been a fan of on screen adaptations of his stories (Nope, not even The Shining).  This year's IT is a huge exception to that. I cannot recommend it highly enough! Which is why I decided to try and convince you guys to give it a shot and watch it asap!  Click through to read more.

He'd made it clear in the past that he expected me to walk away from him the moment our family became a House. He didn't think out magic was compatible. If we had children, they might not even be Primes. He viewed this as the beginning of our end, but he came anyway. He was also a complete idiot if the thought I'd let him get away. He was mine. My Connor. Wildfire ~~Ilona Andrews

Ty would much rather run down a guy and tackle him into the Inner Harbor than have to sit and fill out forms. He'd ruined that suit, but it had been a hell of a good day. Divide & Conquer by Abigail Roux and Madeline Urban

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“He wanted to achieve something of surpassing beauty that would last. A creation that would mean that he--the mosaic worker Caius Crispus of Varena--had been born, and lived a life, and had come to understand a portion of the nature of the world, of what ran through and beneath the deeds of women and men in their souls and in the beauty and the pain of their short living beneath the sun.”

Liam looked at Moses. "You get anything from that file?" "Oh, are we remembering I'm in the room now?" His voice was the perfect mix of egotistical and long-suffering. That was pretty much Moses to a T.  The Hunt ~~Chloe Neill

I am back again loyal readers, with questions from our final short story of the series, Phantom Kiss . This is the penultimate volume of the series. Because this was a short story, this is a short little post. As always, spoilers ahead, read at your own risk after the break.

Gunfire all around him. Guards and prisoners bursting with blood and falling. Smoke now, and not just from the pit: fires starting all across the camp. He made it to the fence, near some others and somehow, with anonymous hands lifting him to the top, doing what his broken hands could not, he fell to the other side.   He lay on the ground, rifle rounds and machine-gun fire ripping into the dirt around him-and again, helping hands and arms raised him up, lifting him to his feet.   And as his unseen helpers were torn apart by bullets, Setrakian ran and ran and found himself crying...for in the absence of God he had found Man.   Man killing man, man helping man, both of them anonymous: the scourge and the blessing.   A matter of choice.   The Strain (The Strain Trilogy #1)  by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan

“Using the chair is not a punishment. It is not a prison,' he said softly.  'It never was. And I am as much of a man in that chair, or with that cane, as I am standing on my feet.'  He brushed away the tear that slipped down her cheek. 'I wanted to heal you,' she breathed. 'You did,' he said, smiling. 'Yrene, in every way that truly matters . . . You did." Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass#6), Sarah J. Maas

"They weren't just his trusted warriors - the Seven were family." Nalini Singh's Archangel's Heart

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That’s how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality. ~ Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation ( Southern Reach #1)

I still think he looks beautiful in the moonlight, Ash said to me once, and I see it now. Perhaps everyone looks better in moonlight, but only Embry can look like this, like a decadent prince after the candles are snuffed, left alone with his regret and grief. Like an ancient statue, chipped and cracked and still the epitome of male beauty. Except with Embry, all the chips and cracks are on the inside, visible only in the icy flare of those blue eyes, the bitter twist of his lips when he thinks no one is looking.  American Prince ~~Sierra Simone  

You just never know what book is going to be a diamond. I've reached the point with Sierra Simone that I will read pretty much anything she writes, but I wasn't expecting P*orn Star to be anything more that silly filthy fun. Because silly filthy fun has its place. The fact of the matter is, this book was basically a perfect contemporary romance, the kind of book that restores your faith in the genre when you've read too many and rolled your eyes too much.  Come with me through the jump and I'll tell you why you should add this to your TBR in the slot reserved for fluffy sexy reads with a great big heart.