Welcome to Litsy!

It's always a pleasure to return to Kate Burkholder's world, and while the 16th installment had some plot twists that stretched believability a bit, it was still enjoyable. Love the characters in this series. Kate is gritty and tough without being obnoxious (actually, she kind of reminds me of Eve Dallas of the In Death series) and Castillo always writes the Amish as real people. It's also always fun to read books set in Ohio and actually know ⬇

The husband & I have been off this week, and instead of going to FL as originally planned, we've hunkered down and had the most relaxing, chill week ever - and three days left to go!! I've been reading up a storm and have completed 6 books so far this year. None of them were mind-blowing, but since it's the beginning of the year, they check off so many challenge prompts 😂 So here's the skinny (sorry for the hosts getting tagged multiple times!):

Cannot BELIEVE I am working on a reading journal for ***2025*** That's not a real date!!!! @PuddleJumper is responsible for most of my challenges this year, although @lauredhel is also doing some work 😂 This year: #ISpyBingo #100YearsofBooks (and finishing @Librarybelle 's #192025 ), #Pantone2025 #Roll100 #GottaCatchEmAll and #BookChain

Not pictured - #ReadtheUSA #WickedWords @AsYouWish #FourFoursin25 @lauredhel #FictionalTraveler @julieclair ⬇

Four novellas in one by four different authors.
Making Spirits Bright - 1*, absolutely dreadful. Besides the story making 0% sense, the entire plot of a rich woman just deciding she wishes she had a kid or two and immediately just running out to try and rush through an adoption felt honestly icky, like kids were a commodity that she could just go out and buy on a whim like a puppy. It was weird. But maybe I'm sensitive to it because my youngest ⬇

This is what I'm looking for in holiday romance!! Cheesy, predictable, but still loads of fun with likable characters and storylines that actually make sense!! 😂 I'm a HUGE sucker for marriage of convenience stories, and this one played out pretty well. Super cute, and I'm planning to read the next book this week!!

#WinterGames #HolidayBookDragons @LiseWorks

If I had to choose one word for how I felt while reading this series of books, I think it would be “baffled.“ These characters constantly made decisions that made no sense. The narrative frequently made no sense. The motivations made pretty much no sense. A few samples: two grown adults have a “cheesecake fight“ in the kitchen ruining the desert and dinner party they're attending (after the FMC starts EATING IT WITH HER BARE HANDS?!); two people ⬇

Five years ago a high school senior disappeared. Although her body was never found, police decided that she was murdered by her boyfriend, who committed suicide a few days later. However, Pip - who is now a high school senior herself - has never believed that the boyfriend was the murderer. With the help of the boyfriend's younger brother, she sets out to reexamine the evidence. I really liked the format of this book, with parts of it Pip's notes⬇

Another soft pick. This one starts strong with 12-year-old Naomi discovering that her dad is actually a serial killer and rescuing his latest victim. It's super creepy. Adult Namoi has changed her last name and tried to put her past behind her. She's a successful and somehow stupidly rich photographer and purchases a very rundown but beautiful old house in Washington state. That's where this book got muddled. I actually didn't mind the ⬇

Since I actually finished this 700pg book, you would think that I would have strong feelings about it. But I weirdly don't. There's a lot here that I enjoyed. It's a time-travel book, which isn't always my thing, but it's handled here in a way that actually did (mostly) make sense to me. I actually enjoyed the format, which is a mixture of journal entries from various characters, plus other documents, notes, transcripts, etc.

This book was ⬇