Welcome to Litsy!

I am surprised with how much I liked this book. Though it did creep me out with the bees. And now I see bees and get freaked out even more.

I liked both timelines and I think Audrey was my favorite. I thought I was going to be annoyed about reading a book set in RI, but I didn‘t know this area too well, so it was fine.

This would work for sapphic novel for #pop22

I was today years old when I realized lede and lead were 2 different words 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

#AlwaysLearning

Currently in a mood of not knowing what I‘m in the mood to read. Here is my May #BookSpin list. I don‘t think I read a single book actually on my April list. 🤷🏻‍♀️

We‘ll see if I do better in May.

I am so happy I am reading this indoors while there is still a chill in the air because I would be freaking out about flying insects if I was reading this outdoors in the Summer.

Lots of book mail today! 📚My BOTM choices for March, tagged book for #challengeyourshelf run by Bettie‘s Pages in Lowell, MI and the mystery looked fun. Sticker is from the same challenge.

I wasn‘t sure what to expect from this book. It definitely had people who hated it and people who loved it online. The writing was quite beautiful and flowed so nicely that it was so enjoyable to read.

I wanted more development in certain parts of the story with more background and explanation. It was left very ambivalent about certain things and plot pieces. It had a wonderful build though, which I was expecting to lead to a much bigger end.

I wasn‘t sure what to expect from this book. It definitely had people who hated it and people who loved it online. The writing was quite beautiful and flowed so nicely that it was so enjoyable to read.

I wanted more development in certain parts of the story with more background and explanation. It was left very ambivalent about certain things and plot pieces. It had a wonderful build though, which I was expecting to lead to a much bigger end.

#Netgalley #ARC #PlainBadHeroines

This ARC was provided by Harper Collins UK (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

1 Word Review – Intense. 3 Word Review – S**t Gets Weird!

I would recommend this those who like books that keep you off balance & who love it when a book steps outside the strict confines of genre.

Full Review here https://thereadersroom.org/2022/02/14...

Opened up my #LitsyLoveValentinesDaySwap package today!

Thank you so much for the books! Can‘t wait to pick them up and read them! I love the mug and bookmark. The chocolate did not make it in the mail 😬 (it melted) but thanks so much for the candy!

Gothic creepiness? Check. Interesting characters? Check. Interesting plot? Check check

All of the physical books I read in 2021! It was a rough year and books are what got me through it. Hoping for a better 2022! 📚

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Well this book genuinely freaked me out. I heard a buzzing in my kitchen from a random bug and my first thought was “Wasp!”. This book keeps a steady level of tension. The deflation of that tension was too abrupt for me. I wanted more. I wanted to know what was real and what wasn‘t. Still recommend as a great horror read.

#doublebookspin complete @TheAromaofBooks

I really enjoyed this! The story revolves around a movie being adapted from a book, and the relationship between the author of the book and the two lead actresses in the movie. I really wish I could somehow watch the movie they were creating in the book, if that makes sense :)

Listening for the night. 🌌🌃😴😴

I read 15 books in July! Favorite book is tagged. So many great reads this month, though. Only 1 DNF (No One is Talking About This) and 1 2-star read (The Comeback). 5 audiobooks, 4 ebooks, 6 physical. 9 owned, 1 #LMPBC, 2 borrowed from #Scribd, 3 from my #library. Not bad at all!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: One Last Stop, And Then There Were None, All Systems Red, The Seep, Plain Bad Heroines, Turn of the Screw, If Beale St Could Talk, Siege and Storm

That club sounds like so much fun!

❤️ing this just as much as I'd hoped to!

Here's pic 2 of 2!

I got 2 books from B&N today. I wanted to buy the whole store becuz I kept seeing all the wonderful books I see on Litsy and BookTube.

@ElizaMarie @AsYouWish @jb72

June wrap-up! 🥇was definitely Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth, which I LOVED! I focused on books featuring LGBTQIA+ authors and/or main characters, and really enjoyed almost everything I read. 🥈Kit Webb; 🥉Somebody's Daughter or maybe Conventionally Yours!

Back to Plain, Bad Heroines this morning ❤

My new phone has just arrived, so now you can all enjoy a slightly higher resolution Pickles this morning 😊 She's still just as soggy. #catsoflitsy

Also, now I can use these emojis 🥰🤪🤭 yay 2021.

I expected to get creeped out by this book and all the insects, but... not really? Maybe I've just grown out of being creeped out so much.

Loving this so far 😊❤

This book is so chonky, but I'm not finding it difficult to stay along for the ride (albeit at the slow pace my brain is capable of digesting stuff at the moment. Really wondering how supernatural (or not) it's going to get. (Don't spoiler me!)

Whoa, this is a whopper of a hardback. Intrigued so far, though horror isn't always my thing so not sure if I will stick with it...

Creepy & haunting with excellent atmospheric writing. The characters were incredibly tactile. I loved that there were so many distinct personalities at play & so many different backstories. The complexity worked. There is a LOT of mystique. It's something like a dark fairy tale juxtaposed with real life. The ending wasn't my favorite, leaving things slightly open, but I still enjoyed the eerie way it left things. I need more books like this.

Sansa is waiting to go for a walk and can‘t believe I‘ve picked another book up. It‘s big and I‘m a bit frightened of the wasp. But really want to read it anyway.

Read by the talented Xe Sands who is one of my go-to narrators. I had to take a look at the physical book to check out the illustrations and lo and behold I find the cutest fish bookmark. It‘s the type of bookmark that‘s like a paper clip. I‘ll of course leave it in this library copy and hopefully it will find its way home .

This was such a unique read!

The best part of this book was definitely the overall vibe and aesthetic. It had a slightly creepy and gothic feel that ran throughout the entire book, even the present day parts. There was also a fair amount of humor and satire that worked well with the gothic vibes and made for an interesting juxtaposition.

Full review: https://oddandbookish.wordpress.com/2021/04/21/review-plain-bad-heroines/

Saturday afternoon reading soundtrack #readingsoundtrack

A creepy, complex story, chock full of lesbians in two timelines. New England WASPs with corseted wasp waists. Sapphic Hollywood buzz. Spooky secrets and yellow jackets. So many yellow jackets. #LGBTQ #audiobook read by Xe Sands.

In the language of the day, Mrs Brookhants was a young widow and Miss Trills was her devoted companion. Her very, very dear friend. Her confidante. Her bestie. But, like, with benefits.

(Internet photo)

Reader, I LOVED it! I loved: the narrator, the dual timelines, the gothic setting, the knowing nods to the reader, the dramas, the recurring motifs, the intricacies. I would have liked a bit more depth to the characters, but otherwise I loved it all. Will reread.

I'm marking this as a DNF for now, which is very disappointing as I highly anticipated this book, having loved Cameron Post. But this one is not doing anything for me. The characters are all so bland. The story is not grabbing me. I can't bring myself to care. #QueerBooks

I hate panning books, but this was a miss in pretty much every way for me. There is way too much going on and it never felt, to me, like Danforth had a good grasp on any of it. The only story that I was really interested in, about the students in the early timeline, (Florence, Clara, and Eleanor) got the least attention. Disappointing, but on to the next…

#audiowalk #brightspot #feelingliteral

Eh. This was fine. The synopsis is fairly misleading. Wasn‘t really attached to any of the characters, the story felt like it took forever to get going, there was a few horror-esque descriptions but not nearly as scary as it was pitched. Overall I would have been fine not finishing it, the ending didn‘t resolve or explain anything and was frankly unsatisfying. #bookspinbingo

Ever start a library audiobook so long you know you won‘t finish it, but start it anyway? #audiostitching

3⭐I had high hopes for this book, so perhaps it was a case of misplaced expectations, but I thought it was just okay. It definitely wasn‘t as creepy as I hoped it would be, and while I really liked the historical fiction aspect of the story, the present day story was much less interesting.

There was so much going on, and maybe I would have enjoyed this one more had the focus been on just one story or the other, but I struggled with this one.

It's a terrible story and one way to tell it is this: two girls in love and a fog of wasps cursed the place forever after.

#firstlinefridays

I really fucking loved this book. I loved how unapologetic it was - it is messy and sprawling and weird and so incredibly queer - and proud of it. It is dark and spooky and delicious. It is sexy and overblown and winking and witchy. It is the first time you almost felt grown up, a campfire with slightly older kids and sticky sweet alcohol and laughter and shivers and shadows and undercurrents you don‘t understand yet but crave. 4 1/2👍🏼

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
I loved the 1902 storyline, and the writing was wonderful. It was just so long and I couldn‘t get into the present day sections so for me they seemed to drag.
*I went back and changed it to a pick. It was way better than so-so.*

About halfway through this one and have to say I am struggling a bit. Luckily scary bits are set in RI where I am so it has been holding my interest for more reasons than just the story. I REALLY want to love this one so I hope it picks back up soon.
Thanks again @Megabooks for the bookmark. It is fitting with this story!

Side note, I changed my Litsy name to ElleSkel to ditch that cumbersome underscore. Sorry it took me 2 years to do that! 😂

Did anyone finish this and like it? I could not get into to listening to it bc I hate the narrator. Is it worth reading though?

Phew, I made it and I finished my last book for 2020. Its beautifully written and full of mysteries, but the whole thing gets old very fast and it felt like a snoozefest.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,5

#plainbadheroines

I REALLY want to finish this book before midnight on New Year‘s Eve because I‘d like to start the new year on a fresh page. So far, I‘m on page 152 and it‘s very slow, but kind of endearingly written. We‘ll see how it goes.

I am also looking forward to researching all the books that are scheduled to come out in the next months!

#plainbadheroines #holidays #goals

Oh, what do I say about this book?

Firstly, I love how out of the first page this book hits you with the Queer and doesn't let it go. Almost all of the characters are on the LGBT spectrum and it's so good.

This story gives such suspense because it goes between present day and to the past 1904. Danforth paints such a good picture of all the storylines intersecting and how wonderful it is when all these loose ends ending up being tied together.

Oooh, thank you @dgingo for my wonderful #JolabokaflodSwap gift! (There was more chocolate in the gift bag, but I've been nibbling on it all week.) Can't wait to dive into this book!

@MaleficentBookDragon

Look what also happens to accidental fall into my last minute home delivery from my Indie @DGRachel ! 🤣🤣🤣🤣#booktwins

Her bestie*

*But like, with Benefits

-ohmygod I love this book so much xD

“Maybe some girls had, in fact, later said that he looked rakish and fine, but for now let‘s discount their certainly incorrect opinions”

I‘m loving this already