Welcome to Litsy!

This was a good book with an important message.

4/5

Read for:

#SpoopyHolsYearlyPatreonChallenge
#ReadHarder2022
#PopSugarReadingChallenge2022
#52BookClubChallenge2022

“On the island of By-the-Sea you could always smell two things: salt and magic.”

Well, when the prompt calls for #beach I have to go back almost 2 years to the last real vacation we had. But desperate times and whatnot. Hopefully someday we‘ll all get to travel and see loved ones again! Until then, we‘ve got photos & books. And photos of books! 🤣🤣 #litsyspringbreak

A sweet YA fantasy/magical realism tale about twins from a magical family of women, in their final summer before college on the tiny island of By-The-Sea where they grew up. The main character has a crush on a cute girl guest at the family inn. A stormy mystery ensues.

Accompanied by Salted Caramel Oolong in my magically matching mug 😊 ☕️.

Thank you Casey, this was the perfect thing to read this week.

TW in spoiler ⬇️

A collection of wonderful things from some truly wonderful friends! I have a small group of friends, who started as bookclub friends but have become so much more, whom I lunch (outdoor, distanced) with once or twice a month. We had a little gift swap yesterday and I came home with the tagged book 😍🌈, Starless Sea stickers💗, a custom bookmark 🤩, and chocolate from a company who gives proceeds to animal charities 🐕😻.

This book was one of the best I've read this year. It's been months and my mind still goes back to it, to the Fernweh women, to that feeling this book evoked inside of me. It definitely touched me and will stay with me for a while. I miss this little world.

This book started out really slow for me and always made me sleepy when I picked it up but that has nothing to do with the book and a lot more to do with current world issues. But I‘m glad I continued on with it.

The last 100 pages were really great and had me hooked. From chapter one this book gave me Practical Magic feels. I really enjoyed the twins and their mother‘s story and their loved on By-the-Sea.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

1. A coffeeshop with big windows and good AC ☕ / In or under a big tree 🌳
2. A peach 🍑
3. Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno 🌊
4. None with me, one back home with my parents 🐈

#friyayintro @4thhouseontheleft @howjessreads

A booktuber recommended this as a sweet queer read, so I scooped it up expecting to like it, but wow, I loved it. This book was super feminist in a way that felt very genuine, and I desperately want this island to exist. A magical, perpetually autumnal graveyard? A swing on a cliff overlooking the ocean off of which you cannot fall? A family with generation after generation of witchy women? A wild influx of birdwatchers each summer? SIGN ME UP. ⚡

I just recently started reading this and I have already fell in love with Katrina Leno‘s writing. I‘ve heard great things about this book and I‘m hoping I love it. I ordered two more books by her.
#summerofsalt #katrinaleno

I am finding I really enjoy magical realism books. This story was a little slower paced than I normally like, but the interesting characters made up for it.

A queer, magical YA. I really enjoyed pieces of this but I think the stitching together if it wasn't completely successful. I was actually convinced it was a middle grade till a little past half way when *things* happen. I think a YA ages reader wouldn't notice and really enjoy it. I would definitely try more of Katrina Leno, I think she has a lot of potential.

Such a cute read. Great book for the Summer also it was book 4/16 for my reading challenge.
It's raining today in Cali so I need to jump on the treadmill for my steps. #BFC #bookfitnesschallenge @wanderinglynn

I am back to hitting my step goal and finishing up tagged book. #BFC #bookfitnesschallenge @wanderinglynn

I didnt reach my step goal yesterday. 7400 steps is
not too bad for being trapped in the car for almost 12 hour. #BFC #bookfitnesschallenge @wanderinglynn

We had snow flurries all day and so it took me a bit longer to reach my step goal I also read for a bit. I hope everyone is getting some famous reading done and reaching their fitness goals. #BFC #bookfitnesschallenge @wanderinglynn

Did a bunch of research looking for some new #queerbooks the other day and found this one at my local lib. Still early but really enjoying it so far; the small island setting feels very cozy and filled-out, and even though the magics are interesting, they‘re not the whole narrative. Attempting to read a little over breakfast while I entertain the small beast. Ripley continues to live up to her name by being utterly sweet and completely wild.

Overall an easy read with a unique premise. I really enjoyed it until one part at the end that was a major flop for me. I'd say 3.5 out of 5 stars but would have been a 4 without the floppy part. Lol
#youngadult #ya #magic #witch

Onto the next one. 60 pages in. Intriguing so far.
#ya #magic

What a surprisingly powerful and beautiful little book this turned out to be! I‘m a sucker for this exact kind of story — set in the real world with just touches of magic mixed in. Really felt like I knew the town and the people, and loved the relationship among the Fernweh women. The ending was a bit rushed, wish she‘d taken a bit more time to work through the big stuff. But overall I really liked this a lot (thank God after 3 meh reads!) 4/5 ⭐️

Stevie Carmichael, the librarian, acted like he wasn‘t guarding books, but lives.

[But he IS, Georgina. He is.]

Have had three varying-levels-of-disappointing reads in a row, hoping a fun but also serious and a little bit magical YA book will end that streak! #nowreading

Good Summer YA read. 3.5⭐️ I‘m always down for a ouija board cameo appearance. Lol

#2018CheckIn

1. 133
2. 120
3. Summer of Salt
4. Akata Witch

#firstpage of Summer and Salt by Katrina Leno, my next read!

Hot and humid here in NYC. I was outside running errands all morning. I'm planning to spend the afternoon in the AC, cooling off with an iced soy chai, eating banana bread with maple brown sugar butter, and, hopefully, finishing this book.

Today I had an appointment downtown near all the good stores- #TheStrand #ForbiddenPlanet and B&N. I limited myself to 1 or 2 items per stop. I'll try to read the tagged book this month. Looking forward to the Obama-Biden crime solving team-- we need Hope right now. I'm most excited about the Gashlycrumb Tinies mug I picked up at The Strand.
N is for Neville who died of ennui. 😵

My hold on one of these books was going to expire today, and I made it to the library 15 minutes before closing! I had an 11 hour work day, with a long Board Meeting in the evening 😪 Ellen Hopkins is one of my auto-read authors, but I just read the synopsis of this book and I don‘t think I‘ll like it 😕#LibraryHaul

YA novel about twin sisters who live on an island w/magic. This book hits so many topics that it feels like it was written to make everyone, except males, enjoy the story. Birds, magic, lesbians, guns, rape, going to college, friendship, and a flood. Kind of tired of authors trying to write what they think we need to hear instead of just writing a good story that may also cover a problem or obstacle. F word appears by page 5. New record for YA?

I‘ve really been cutting down on the number of books I buy since coming home from France to a mountain of post. 🙈 Locke Lamora was a trade and the signed Summer of Salt was ordered last month.

Nice quiet Monday afternoon 💕 #catsoflitsy #littenkitten

“She was born for oceanside bonfires, long gauzy dresses and uncombed hair, the scent of salt like a blanket you can‘t peel of your skin. She was born for the smell of water, for the way it sank into your bones, stained your skin, dyed your blood a deep, salty blue.”
#24in48 #yassssss #thisspeakstome #obsessedwiththiswriting

What I was expecting: magical realism, a bit of mystery, and a cute #LGBTQ romance.

What I got: all that, combined with an unexpected and deeply moving plot twist that was relevant, heart wrenching, and incredibly well written.

My first completed book in the #24in48 readathon gets a five star rating. And I'm so glad I picked up another of Leno's book at the library sale, because I can't wait to see what else she's written!

I was exceptionally lazy and spent my first 2.5 hours of #24in48 reading in bed with the cats.

This is fairytale-ish in a way. I enjoyed the story with the sisters Georgina and Mary, I feel like the world building could maybe have been more fleshed out and explained. The magic was quaint until the end. I will say I wasn‘t surprised by anything, I knew where it was heading before it got there and I‘ll give you a trigger warning for sexual assault. I don‘t know, it was good but mostly just average.

I think this YA novel will work better with teens than adults (given the predictable nature of the plot), but it‘s got main characters who feel real, an important message about sexuality, & a strong small-town/island setting.

It‘s “Practical Magic” Lite (an influence mentioned in the acknowledgements & one that I picked up on immediately, as a fellow fan) with strong Gilmore Girls/Stars Hollow vibes.

A pick, with some minor reservations.

“There are enough ways to die on this
Earth,” my great-grandmother had famously
declared, “let ‘distracted reading‘ be one
less thing to worry about.”

Bought this one on the trip because it seemed apropos. The salty summer days here in Destin were calling out to this cover. But I am loving it! Magical & dramatic #yaread for the win. #beach #beachread #beachreading #vacation

I love getting to work and all my holds have arrived!

So excited about the tagged book (YA + Magical realism = YES PLEASE!) and “The Word is Murder”

"On the island of By-the-Sea you could always smell two things: salt and magic."

Summer of Salt tells the story of the Fernweh twins, Georgina and Mary, the summer they turn eighteen. The Fernweh women are known by the town to be magicky, but no one uses the word "witch". The island's main source of income is the bird enthusiasts that come every summer for Annabella's Woodpecker.

I loved this book! It reminds me so much of Practical Magic!

Happy Summer💕

1. Plane because it's the fastest.
2. San Francisco. It's too expensive to live there, but the weather's great, there's plenty to do, and there are beaches!
3. Ann Arbor, MI this month and Charleston, SC in the fall.

#trivialthursday @GarthRanzz

Magic has a presence all its own in Katrina Leno‘s vivid tale of sisters, a three-hundred-year-old bird, and an island you‘ll never want to leave. Practical Magic meets “Raven Girl” by Audrey Niffenegger while proving that nothing is stronger than the bond between siblings. 🦅⛈

Thanks to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.