Litsy

pick

#ChrismasCrimeChallenge @RaeLovesToRead @Ruthiella

Chimney - locked room mystery

True crime podcaster Liza and her corporate financier wife Hanna want to spend Easter in a luxury hotel in the Scottish Highlands. Hanna planned it to rescue their marriage. It soon turns into a Murder Mystery Weekend with real victims.

Very Christie-esque, with chapter headings reminiscent of Cluedo.

RaeLovesToRead This looks cute! 4d

julesG @RaeLovesToRead It's cozy, it blends the homage to Christie (weird characters with secret connections to each other) with modern true crime podcasting and marital problems of a same sex interracial couple. It was a good read. Different from what Alexis Hall usually writes. 4d

RaeLovesToRead Is it only available on Kobo though? 4d

See All 15 Comments

julesG @RaeLovesToRead Unfortunately yes. It was less than €10 in audio and the ebook would have been less than €7 4d

Ruthiella This challenge is clearly right up your street! You are acing it! 🎄🔪💀🎅🏻 4d

julesG @Ruthiella Thank you! It's an 'excuse' to ignore #MountTBR and #MountARC 4d

RaeLovesToRead Sadly I have no Kobo :( 4d

julesG @RaeLovesToRead Neither do I. Hence I got the audiobook and then downloaded the app to listen to it. The ebook would have worked on the app as well, but I don't like reading books on my phone. 4d

RaeLovesToRead Ah, I thought I'd need a Kobo device for the audiobook! 4d

julesG @RaeLovesToRead nope, just the app. 4d

RaeLovesToRead Me looking for excuses to buy more devices 😏 3d

RaeLovesToRead *buys 3 more ereaders* it's for the CHANNEL. It's JOURNALISM! 3d

rwmg It's free on the KoboPlus subscription service. 3d

julesG @RaeLovesToRead 😂😂 3d

julesG @rwmg Thanks! 3d

54 likes1 stack add15 comments

julesG

Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife: A Christmas Murder Mystery Like No Other | Martin Edwards

pan

Six down on their luck mystery adjacent people are invited to the small village of Midwinter to compete in a fictional murder mystery game organised by the Midwinter Trust. Then two actual murders happen.

I read an excerpt late last year which made this sound like a locked room murder mystery homage to the Golden Age Mysteries where the reader is encouraged to guess the clues together with the amateur sleuths.
⬇️

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

julesG The novel was a slog through a lot of repetitive backstory with characters that aren't developed much past their cliché descriptions "failed author," "literary agent involved in scandal," "token American barkeep". The clues weren't very difficult to work out and there is a handy solutions guide at the back.

The final nail in the coffin was the deus ex machina twist to make the ending seem plausible. ?? 5d

julesG #ChrismasCrimeChallenge Snowflake it's set at Christmas time and that part of Yorkshire is under a nice blanket of snow 5d

julesG @RaeLovesToRead @Ruthiella 5d

See All 8 Comments

Ruthiella Sorry this wasn‘t a winner. But it‘s at least of the TBR now. 5d

julesG @Ruthiella Yepp! One less book on the list. 😁 5d

RaeLovesToRead Darn it. This is on my pile :/ 4d

julesG @RaeLovesToRead Sorry. Maybe you like it more than I did. You know I'm not a fan of epic/drawn out backstory/world-building, maybe that's why I didn't enjoy the novel more. 4d

RaeLovesToRead Haha. I'm not getting epic from the cover... but I'll be giving it a go! 4d

57 likes1 stack add8 comments

julesG

This Gilded Abyss | Rebecca Thorne

pick

Nix has left her past in the past and moved on with her life in the military, or so she thought. Then Kessandra, her former lover and the people's favourite 'royal', hires Nix as her bodyguard on a covert operation. On the way to the mission, on board a Titanic-like submersible, Kess briefs Nix about what is really at stake; and not a minute too soon,... ⬇️

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

julesG as the sickness that's turning people into violent killers is spreading among the passengers and crew.

I liked the world-building, the intricately described submersible, but also the background information on the political situation and what kinds of conflicts are brewing within the country and outside of it. 6d

49 likes1 comment

julesG

The Last Wish of Bristol Keats | Mary E Pearson

so-so

#ARC #MountARC #NetGalley

Compared to the first book in the Bristol Keats duology, this was a slow read. The main plot had so many points of view that it felt like it was moving at a snail's pace. In addition, the romance plot leaned very heavily into the miscommunication trope. In the final 20%, though, all the action happened.

⬇️

julesG The last two chapters and the epilogue OF THE ARC -the ending of the published book might be different- didn't make sense in regard to how the time went by in Elphame and the real world. It's mentioned several times throughout both books that a few weeks in Elphame can equal years in the real world, but suddenly both 'realms' run on the same time? 1w

51 likes1 comment

julesG

Arrow of Fortune | Jacquelyn Benson

pick

Ellie and Adam, together with Neil and Connie, are in India this time. With the help of Connie's extensive maternal family finding the Arrow of Fortune should be as easy as pie. Obviously it's not as easy, otherwise we'd have got a novella and not a full-sized novel.

This book is full of adventure, humour, romance, a pinch of spice, and a lot of heart.

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

#SeriesLove

Caroline2 Oh lovely cover. ❤️ 2w

Bookzombie I really enjoy this series and love the covers. 2w

julesG @Caroline2 the first two books have very fitting covers too: https://litsy.com/p/Y0YwN3d4WUg1 2w

52 likes1 stack add3 comments

julesG

Undead and Unwed: A Novel | Sam Tschida

pick

Tiffenie is a 300-year old vampire living a rather reclusive life in LA. She has hardly any connections outside of work at an all-night plasma centre other than her neighbour Heaven and her ex Vlad, who's still texting her every day. But Halloween brings an offer of change to Tiffenie's un-life; the woman whose identity she took on ten years ago inherited an inn in Vermont.

⬇️

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

julesG Tiffenie knows this is her chance to live her very own Hallmark movie life, she packs her bags, her cat and her neighbour Heaven and leaves the big city behind.

Of course it's not easy relocating to a small rural town, especially when everyone in town knew the woman Tiffenie is pretending to be. It's even worse when you're a creature of the night and you've moved to a town that's basically boarded up after sundown. It's even worse ⬇️ 2w

julesG worse when Vlad invites himself to stay and keep an eye on Tiffenie and Heaven. How's Tiffenie going to find her HEA with a rugged small town man under these circumstances?

I really liked the play on romance tropes, the glimpses into Tiffenie's past, and that the current relationships she was making and maintaining were more important than the backstory of her centuries old relationship with Vlad. 2w

MaleficentBookDragon I 😻this cover. 🐈‍⬛ 2w

AnnCrystal Fantastic review 👏🏼🤩📚💝. 2w

Sace This sounds so good! 2w

45 likes1 stack add5 comments

julesG

The Isle in the Silver Sea | Tasha Suri

Three of the five(?) six(?) books I'm currently reading. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️😬😵‍💫

The Isle in the Silver Sea - was just published
Pendergast - expected publication in January 2026
Arrow of Fortune - pub day 20th November (third book of the Raiders of the Arcana series)

#ARC #MountARC #NetGalley

43 likes

julesG

Vampires at Sea | Lindsay Merbaum

pan

"A smutty horror-comedy featuring unbridled narcissism, Vampires at Sea is a hilarious snack!"

I think this book suffers from false advertising. It's not smutty - although there is lots of sex. It's not horror - passengers vanish, but the narcissistic MC never cares about this and it's not investigated. It's not funny - it's poking fun at people by looking down at/insulting them.

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Reggie Ughhhhh that‘s a bummer I was all in on the title alone. There goes that. 4w

51 likes1 comment

julesG

Ring the Bells: The funny and festive new paranormal mystery | C. K. McDonnell

pick

A Christmas-y-ish The Stranger Times novel, do I need to say more?

It's just as weird and funny and bonkers as you probably imagined it to be, and then some.

Published 09 Oct 2025

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Caroline2 Sounds fun! 😃 1mo

Caroline2 Just stacked the first book. 👍 1mo

julesG @Caroline2 it's a fun series set in Manchester 1mo

AlaMich Yes, I had the audio on preorder. I can‘t wait!! 1mo

58 likes4 comments

julesG

A Steeping of Blood | Hafsah Faizal

pick

A Steeping of Blood is the second book in the Blood and Tea duology by Hafsah Faizal. I enjoyed the first book and was happy to receive an early audiobook review copy of the second book. I'm trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible for anyone who hasn't read the books yet.

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Already published

Low pick

⬇️

julesG The story picks up shortly after the events at the end of the first book. The topics are rather dark (colonialism, racism), yet the writing is more juvenile than I expected for such dark topics. There is a lot of quippy banter between the characters, a lot of planning things, lots of action scenes, but in the end there are not as many accomplishments as I expected.

A satisfying, if not great, ending to the duology. 1mo

50 likes1 comment

Welcome to Litsy!

Trending Hashtags

Trending Books