I‘ve been a fan of Jaysea‘s Hells Belles TikTok series for years, so you can bet I preordered this as soon as she announced it! #TikTokFind

Danika has a lot on her plate between doing tarot readings & working for her mother‘s detective agency. She finally gets to use her skills when a classmate disappears, & she gets to lead her 1st case.

Such fun! A strong narrative voice for Danika, pacing was mostly good (if a bit slow in the middle), & I loved all the characters. The final reveal didn‘t feel as set up as I wanted, but would definitely read a whole series of Danika! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

After Yeva kills her 1st dragon, she is sent to the capital of the Empire to train as a guildknight. Eventually, the Emperor commands her to a nearby country w/ rumors of dragons. But the rumors, & the country itself, are not what they seem.

Yang‘s world building always captivates me. & the queer normative cultures are amazing. This is a lovely, quick tale of finding where one belongs, discovering what duty really means, & finding love.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Intent on finding the group responsible for the creation of the wraiths, thread cutter Io partners w/ an unlikely ally to hunt down this conspiracy & stop them from killing any more.

I liked this one a bit better. Better pacing, fascinating & even more expansive world building, & less focus on the destined romance. But I really wish we could have seen more into the relationship of the 3 sisters, & the ending really disappointed me. 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

#WeeklyForecast

Up next I‘ve got a book about one of my favorite indie bookstores! The King‘s English in Salt Lake City, Utah!

#BookReport

I‘m already halfway through my #QueerBC book for this month!

Literally any of the feasts in the Redwall series. Jacques always manages to make everything sound so delicious I feel like if I take a deep enough breath I could smell everything.

#SundayFunday Have a safe and happy day, and don‘t forget to tag me in your posts!

Stasia has spent her whole life warning the people around her that she‘s an alien & that an invasion is coming. & then the first signal is received. Everyone will have to believe her now.

So interesting! Grant does such an amazing job making me love characters, even the advance spy of a race coming to destroy humanity. There were a couple pacing issues, but the horror was so well done, & the ending took me completely by surprise!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

I was ready for spring, not over 80 degrees heat. 😂 #BookSpinBingo #BingoBoard

#BookSpin Wonderland, #DoubleSpin Tale of Kore

#Roll100 The Opposite of Loneliness, The King‘s English, Rising Strong

#OokBOokClub Men at Arms

#BobWhiteBuddies Mystery on Cobbett‘s Island

#BeyondTheYellowBrickRoad The Emerald City of Oz

#QueerBC Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame

#ThematicCozies A Botanist‘s Guide to Rituals and Revenge

So many great and fun books this month! And I actually did pretty well keeping up with my NetGalley ARCs! #MonthlyRoundup

Happy Dracula Day everybody! Anybody else participating in #DraculaDaily this year?

Newsletter here: https://draculadaily.substack.com/

Audio dramatization here: https://pod.link/1679833472

W/ old friends coming for a visit, Trixie & the other BobWhites get swept up in the glamour of NYC, a strange statue, & a mysterious poem hinting at a great treasure.

Much bigger stakes in this one, & Trixie‘s recklessness reaches a new high. I really liked how integral Dan was at the end. Loved the intro of Dr Joe, & poor Ms Trask having to corral a bunch of headstrong kids while dealing w/ her own problems.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Goat cheese, arugula, and heirloom tomatoes oh my! #DinnerByTheBook

I definitely need to work on my pie dough! 😂

Philip of France & Richard the Lionheart discover a mutual spark of attraction @ the same time Phillip is establishing his reign & Richard is dealing w/ a controlling father & an imprisoned mother.

Interesting characters & good scene setting, but 2 problems for me. I wasn‘t invested in the romance, & I‘m not usually into books that reimagine established historical figures so much. W/ a different background, I would have liked it better.🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑

Out running errands and showing support to my #LocalLibrary ! ❤️❤️❤️

A Ghanaian concept, the word is expanded into the proverb “se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi.”

Sankofa is the understanding that only by knowing your (personal, cultural, national) history can you know your current self, and know how to become better.

The concept feels particularly relevant right now.

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords

Willa‘s peace is interrupted when her ex-fiancée & his new partner move into town & open a business near hers. Things get worse when he becomes the prime suspect when a journalist is murdered.

Enjoyed this 1 better than the last! Plenty of suspects, a clever twist, Willa‘s investigating w/ her Team Cheese, & a bunch of recipes that I want to try! Moss does such a great job making all the suspects valid. & Willa‘s friendships are so fun!?????

Dorothy again finds herself traveling through fairy lands & meets a variety of characters on her way to Princess Ozma‘s birthday party.

Baum has such a way with creating unique, beautifully absurd characters. We get to meet Polychrome, Button Bright, & the Shaggy Man! & one of my favorites Johnny Dooit. Button Bright may be silly, but it strikes me that if more people were willing to admit they didn‘t know something, we‘d be better off.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m so excited to get to Seanan McGuire‘s newest book under the Mira Grant pen name!

#BookReport

I‘ve deleted most of my social media related apps off my phone, and if I get the urge to log into something and doom scroll, I‘ve opened up my kindle app instead. Which is resulting in more ebooks getting finished! 😂

A series of short stories examining loss, grief, & queer existence.

Such an interesting collection! A variety of genres, all ranging in tone from a slight edge of unease to outright horror. Olguín has a remarkable ability to make me feel on edge throughout each story. There were a couple that felt too unresolved. And a couple I didn‘t like. But the last two stories were remarkable. Would make a great audiobook.?????

Had to share a picture, because I love all the extra artwork shared throughout this trilogy!

#SundayFunday

“To the gremlin girls,
I would like to tell you something inspiring,
but the truth is,
when life closes a door for us,
it doesn‘t always open a window.
The good news is:
that‘s what bricks are for.”

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

Margaret Owen is quickly making herself an auto buy author for me!

#SundayFunday Happy last Sunday of April, and don‘t forget to tag me in your posts!

Had to work today, but did my due diligence for #IndieBookstoreDay by placing an order for a couple preorders! 💸

#IndependentBookstoreDay

A group believes that Ankh-Morpork would be better w/ a king in charge. & how do you get a king? Summon a dragon to be heroically defeated by a “lost heir” of course. Only, nothing about this goes the way you‘d think.

God I love Lady Sybil so much! I want to be her when I grow up. This one is more focused on poking fun at the tropes of high fantasy at the time, & it does it so well, while giving me some of my favorite characters.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

I am so ready for spring and flowers and reading outside in the sun! #BookSpinBingo

I‘m going to use an ARC for May‘s #ThematicCozies theme of Flowers and Plants!

This is a cute series and I can‘t wait to dive into the next one!

Whitney‘s construction company takes on the job of remodeling an old boarding school into a retirement community. But the old headmaster‘s house had a murder suicide long ago that she finds impossible to ignore.

A very twisty mystery, but overly tell & descriptive of actions that I was getting a bit bored. & I still don‘t get the point of the cat‘s POV chapters. But I really liked the characters, & I loved the architecture details. 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

Oh I‘m so excited for this round of #Roll100 !

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan, The King‘s English by Betsy Burton, and Rising Strong by Brené Brown.

A powerful collection of poetry following Vuong‘s journey of grief after the loss of his mother.

Incisive and sometimes brutal, this is a wonderful collection. But for me, Dear Rose was the strongest poem, by far, and actually brought me to tears & ended up with me texting my mother to let her know I love her. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

After her brother‘s death, Frances decides to join the Army & serve as a nurse in the Vietnam war. She discovers a camaraderie w/ the other nurses that she needs when they return from war.

I get the hype, but it didn‘t land completely for me. Frankie‘s struggles are real, & the stories of service members returning from war to a lack of support or outright hatred need to be told. But I think this would have been stronger as a multi POV. 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

My lilacs are blooming, my hydrangeas are up. And the roses are budding! I am so ready for spring.

This word also has a chemistry related definition, used to describe the process of a substance loosing moisture and turning into a fine powder, but I like the first one better.

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords

I just did my best impression of a tea kettle just now. I was so sure I wasn‘t going to get this, but I did! #NetGalley #ARC

This was so wonderful to see after the day I‘ve had.

Megan‘s got a job as an extra in a movie about rock climbing. Things get complicated when the star of the movie is found dead at the base of the rock wall. At first, it seems like an accident. & then the second body is found.

Fun. It got a little overly technical w/ rock climbing details, & there were way too many characters to keep track of. But it did keep me guessing, & I liked all of the characters & the friendships involved. 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

Four dissimilar women come together for a holiday in a small castle in Italy. And find they have a lot more in common than they thought.

Very, very slow story, & very character focused. Not a lot happens, but the way the setting was described was so gorgeous I just had to keep reading. Very much of its time, but I appreciated how changing their surroundings helped each woman reevaluate their lives. 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m so excited to get to start the next Discworld book this week!

#BookReport

I had forgotten how much I enjoy the Incryptid series. I can‘t wait to dive in again.

After the death of her parents, Fern continues her father‘s work of studying & raising magical plants. Her next job is complicated by the fact that the mysterious vine is carnivorous & magically connected to a rare dragon.

Lovely! I adored almost all the characters, the magic was interesting, & I loved the discussion of the power of stories & what makes a life have worth. A bit predictable & the world building could have been deeper. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

A buddy read I‘m doing with a friend of mine!

I don‘t care too much for most of the characters, but the perfectly lyrical way Von Armin is describing the blooming of the flowers, the scent of the ocean on the wind, makes me want to book a flight to Italy immediately. 💖

#SundayFunday If you celebrate Easter, I hope it‘s a happy one! And everybody else have a wonderful day and don‘t forget to tag me!

Verity‘s dancing persona is invited back for a season of Dance or Die. Unfortunately, the show becomes quite literal when eliminated contestants start disappearing.

I love my popcorn urban fantasy series. It‘s so campy, but so delightful. Verity is such fun, the introduction of Grandma Alice made me cackle, & the Mice continue to be a goddamn delight. I was disappointed in the end, but I loved the world expansion & the side characters!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

An in-depth historical and folk lore exploration of twenty murder ballads.

This was so fascinating! I knew some of these songs, but not all of them. And a lot more of these were traced back to historical, documented incidents than I was expecting! I loved the illustrations! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Dinner and movie night! #DinnerByTheBook

And I got a lot of reading done while the sauce was simmering for three hours! 😂

Orchid has settled in a new town as her mother recovers from cancer. She‘s got a job tending the orchids & a new husband. But there‘s something lurking in the rivers, looking for revenge.

This novella felt like prose poetry, & I loved it. The real life horror of abusive, power hungry men paired w/ mythological creatures waiting was so well done. I would have loved for this to be expanded a bit more as the resolution felt a bit abrupt.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Be the hope you want to see in the world. ❤️

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords @CBee

I‘m at 60%, one of the characters is trying to pry into the big mysterious scandal at the center of the book, and I‘ve realized that I just don‘t care about whatever it is or whoever is involved. 😅 I‘m just bored.

Which is a pity because Hollinghurst is excellent at grounding his stories in a time and place. I think I‘ll have to try a different book by him at another time.

#WeeklyForecast

I am so excited for all three of my next reads! ❤️

#BookReport

I think Afia is going to be my favorite read of April. 💙

Afia wants a life outside of her isolated home. & one day she follows an enigmatic carver into the woods, only to find a kingdom w/ a ruthless queen, where nothing is as it seems.

Delightful! A wonderful, West African influenced twist on Alice in Wonderland. A story of self discovery, where curiosity can take you, what you leave behind, & what you can move towards. Afia was a wonderful protagonist, & the illustrations were all gorgeous!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Movie tie in covers. I dislike them so much! And intellectually, I understand that they might be useful in enticing someone who has only seen the movie to pick up the book.

But if I wanted something for the movie, I would buy the movie. Let the books be separate, please! 😂

#SundayFunday Hope you all have a safe and happy day, and don‘t forget to tag me in your posts!

The princess is cursed to die by a spindle, she is stolen away & raised as ordinary. But her fairy gifts cause problems, & there is still the curse to worry about.

The scene setting is unparalleled, as I expected from McKinley, but lord the plot is glacial. I think I would have enjoyed this better as an audiobook as the writing is lush & lyrical. & I wasn‘t invested in the romance. I kept thinking Rosie & Peony should get together.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑