*takes deep breath* AAAAAAHHHHHHH!

#NetGalley #ARC

On the run from a controlling/abusive father, Lark finds refuge w/ humanity‘s greatest enemy. She‘s drafted to help protect the city w/ her magical control over fear from monsters. A romance, an enemy within, & an approaching army make finding a home more difficult.

I wanted to like this. The world building was interesting, but everything seemed so shallow. The romance, the magic, the people. I just wasn‘t invested in anything. 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑

The discovery of an old letter hidden in the Belden‘s attic leads the Bob-Whites on the trail of a lost necklace & an old plantation house. But they‘re not the only ones seeking the emeralds.

Such fun, & not just because I‘ve also traveled to Williamsburg & Virginia plantations. It‘s also a fun mystery with secret passages, friends working together, drama, & redemption. Some ableist language for a wheelchair user, but not too bad.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Look at my roses! ❤️🌹❤️

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords @CBee

The young Munchkin Ojo is on a quest to save his beloved uncle. With friends like Scraps the Patchwork Girl, the Glass Cat, & the Shaggy Man, he will travel across Oz to save his family.

I feel so weird about this. I love Ojo, Scraps, & the Glass Cat. But reading this now, I don‘t like Ozma‘s banning of magic except for Glinda & the Wizard, & I really don‘t like the final treatment of the Glass Cat or the Wizard Ex Machina at the end.🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑

When Maddie‘s cat cafe is invited to a literary festival, she‘s thrilled. W/ the debut of her mobile cafe, networking w/ famous authors, & sister Val‘s wedding all coming up, life‘s looking great. & then the guest of honor is found stabbed.

This was a lot of fun! A lot of good red herrings, a fun cast. A few too many characters, but I really enjoyed Maddie‘s community & the relationships she had w/ her crew. Definitely want more! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

#WeeklyForecast

I am so thrilled to be diving into the Patchwork Girl of Oz! I love Scraps and I love the Glass Cat! 💕

#BookReport

Forgot to post this last night! I finished three ARCs in the past week! 🎉🎉

In 1863, Jules Verne wrote a novel of a future Paris. A Paris where the writers & artists are forgotten, & all is done in service of industry & money. & poor Michel is a poet just trying to survive.

This felt just so very sad. Full marks for the terrifyingly accurate predictions of industrialization, the sanitation/devaluation of entertainment, & the rise of capitalism. Stars taken away for a dull plot & really uninteresting characters.🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

The next Raiders of the Arcana book is coming November 2025! 🎉🎉🎉

#CoverReveal

Murdock & her team have been imprisoned in an enormous former warship that‘s run by an AI with delusions of godhood. It‘s going to take everything she has to get them all out safely.

A breakneck story! I really enjoyed the world building, & the story kept the tension at just the right place. I didn‘t really feel for the romance, & the ending felt rushed & haphazard. I‘d read a follow up if I can get more of the secondary characters.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Fantasy. I learned to read with fantasy books, my dad read fantasy to me and my sisters every night growing up. Fantasy is baked into my very foundation. ✨

#SundayFunday Have a great day everyone, and don‘t forget to tag me!

After escaping his abusive father, Charl & his mother find refuge in a small town. Life becomes more complicated when a dragon comes into town hunting them, a plague sweeps through, & Charl can suddenly see ghosts.

Lovely.I was enraptured & felt angry when I had to stop reading to go back to work. I adore Hartman‘s world building. Charl was a wonderful protagonist. He acts his age, but is also kind. Need to dive back into the world.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

#CoverReveal

Alexis Hall? Space odyssey? Moby Dick retelling? I‘m locked in and ready!

Vivian hopes that things will finally calm down at the Nightingale. & then a mobster from Chicago comes poking around the club, & mysteries from her own past come knocking @ her door.

This was gorgeous & what I wanted from a finale. I really love the lush setting of a 1920s speakeasy, the casual diversity of the cast, & the relationships between everyone. The stakes were much higher here & so tense, but it all resolved satisfactorily. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

An in depth exploration on introversion in a world that currently values extroversion.

This was fascinating! A lot of information, along with personal anecdotes made this an interesting read. I wish I had found this book when I was in high school when I was absolutely convinced I was broken in some way, because I was so introverted. There‘s value in how we see the world. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Benny, trying to find a place for himself in NYC, instead finds himself helping a Coney Island sideshow capture a merman. Only, when he starts connecting w/ the merman, Benny must decide what his new family is worth.

I really enjoyed this! It‘s a very slow start, setting up all the fun side characters & the show, but it‘s worth it when the plot really kicks in. & NYC was such a fantastically detailed setting. I did predict the twist. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Using all sorts of resources, from DNA testing to old translations of Homer‘s epics to archaeological ruins, Hauser recontextualizes the women of the Iliad & the Odyssey within history.

As a recovering Greek mythology obsessive elementary kid, I really appreciated seeing all the ways that there is historical evidence behind the characters. Maybe not these specific women, but similar enough. A little dry sometimes, but very informative!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m really looking forward to getting to the next Nightingale Mysteries book! I‘ve really been enjoying this series! 🩷

#BookReport

Just started the #WhimsicalReadsBookClub book today and I am so invested already!

A collection of Novik‘s short stories, including the story that became Spinning Silver and a Temeraire Pride and Prejudice fusion.

I really do adore Novik‘s writing. She has such a gift for scene setting, intriguing characters, & making a tone fit the story. This definitely did its job, because I want to immediately dive into her other books. I put her 1st Scholomance book on hold, double checked I own an audio copy of Spinning Silver.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

I really loved the relationship between Peri and their father in this middle grade book! They are so loving together, but also Peri‘s father isn‘t portrayed as this perfect ideal of fatherhood. He fails sometimes, but he always tries to be better. 💖

#SundayFunday Happy Father‘s Day to all everyone who celebrates, and I hope you all have a wonderful day. And don‘t forget to tag me in your posts!

Got my bingo on my #UnstackMyShelf board! So I treated myself. My buddy read with a friend, an impulse buy, and the next Emily Wilde book! #BookHaul

DRAGONRIDER ELIZABETH MOTHERFORKING BENNET?!? 🤩🤩🤩

I love these sandwiches so much! And this recipe made them so easy! #DinnerByTheBook

Jess, having recently moved to Malaysia w/ her parents, starts hearing a voice in her head that claims to be her grandmother who needs help w/ some unfinished business. Only then Jess gets mixed in w/ a god, gangsters, & family secrets.

I really loved the world building & the fantastical elements in this. But there was something about how Jess & Ah Ma‘s relationship shifted that bugged me. & this got much darker than I usually enjoy.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Before coffee, before Thune, before retirement, Viv is a mercenary waiting to heal while her band moves against a necromancer. Relaxing in a small sea side town should be easy, right?

I adored this prequel! Seeing Viv‘s backstory was lovely, Fern & her bookstore were a delight, & Satchel was hilarious. It felt a little too quickly resolved, & the epilogue felt a bit sequel bait, but overall I really enjoyed this! Even the romance! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

#WeeklyForecast

My hold on Buried Deep just came in and I cannot wait to get to it! 🩵

#BookReport

I am loving Bookshops and Bonedust so much!

Henry, king of Elben, must tie 6 wives to 6 palaces to keep the country safe. When Queen Boleyn & Queen Seymour become friends, a truth of the kingdom‘s magic long buried will be brought to light.

What a lush fantasy! So much political intrigue, a fantastical reimagining of history, & sapphic pining. The romance could have been developed more for me, & I would have liked more of the other queens. But I was enthralled the whole time.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

It‘s not that I haven‘t read a lot of McGuire, it‘s that I want to read even more! I want to get caught up on the Incryptid series. I want to read the copy of Middlegame someone gifted to me years ago. I want to reread the Wayward Children series to get ready for the next one!

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

After the deaths of their parents, 3 sisters find their lives being drawn into different directions from the magical tearoom they run together.

This was delightful! I loved the historical fantasy setting, the sisters‘ relationship was both complicated & lovely, & there was some plot misdirection that kept me guessing. The sisters did feel a little too similar sometimes, & I‘m not a fan of miscommunication for angst‘s sake. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

This cookbook was a Christmas gift, and I had so much fun cooking out of it tonight! So many flashbacks! #DinnerByTheBook

To save his family‘s business, Matti is ready to marry a woman he doesn‘t love. Hiring a swordsman to act as his best man for the wedding may create as many problems as it solves.

A really lovely historical romantasy. Matti‘s dedication to his family broke my heart, & I loved the development both in him & in the love story. It is very slow, & I think The Last Binding series is stronger narratively, but the tension is good & paced well.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Helping my mom run some errands, so of course we‘ve got to stop at this lovely library. ❤️

#SLC #SaltLakeCounty

It‘s here! 💚🩷💚🩷💚

Part two of a movie musical based on a stage musical based on a book based on a movie musical based on a book. Phew!

#BookAdaptations

Semi serious question. I‘ve been going through my books trying to get rid of some (none so far 😅) and I found my copy of Wicked I tried to read back in high school. Should I give it another go?

https://youtu.be/BRt-qexTWy4?si=riPJksD-LycwtNTp

Dog sitting for some neighbors this week, and I thought I‘d head over, hang out with the dogs, and get some reading done out on the lawn.

The dogs did not agree with this plan. 😂

Happy Pride Month! #BookSpinBingo #BingoBoard

#BookSpin The Hanging City, #DoubleSpin Paris in the 20th Century

#Roll100 The Yiddish Policemen‘s Union, Quiet, Gwenhwyfar

#OokBOokClub Men at Arms

#BobWhiteBuddies Mystery of the Emeralds

#BeyondTheYellowBrickRoad The Patchwork Girl of Oz

#QueerBC Black Water Sister

#ThematicCozies Claws Out

#JuneOfARC The Hanging City, Written in Bone

The castle at Carelon is crumbling, Arthur is failing, & Morgan Le Fay has vanished. New characters & old must unite to save the kingdom from all that threatens it.

This was almost everything I wanted from the conclusion. Everything comes together, we get a grail quest, so many references. Some parts were a little glossed over, but very satisfying all around. & I loved our new characters so much! Going to have to look up more by Barron!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

What a lucky break!

My BookSpin read is one of my picks for #JuneOfARC and the DoubleSpin is a buddy read I‘m doing with a friend of mine! (I do still need to buy a copy of it though! 😅)

#MonthlyRoundup

Reading instead of of doomscrolling is paying off this past month! 😂

Was looking through my stats yesterday trying to convince my cousin to get Storygraph and I forgot how much I liked looking at all the little graphs. #Storygraph

#WeeklyForecast

I am so excited for all of my upcoming reads! 🎉🎉

#BookReport

The Stressed Eldest Sibling Energy in Swordcrossed means I‘m either going to blaze through it or take a month. No in between. 😅

Morgan has settled into life at court, only to find her life complicated by Merlin‘s machinations, Guinevere‘s animosity, & Arthur‘s ambitions. & then an old love appears.

A worthy follow up! Absolutely fantastic characterization as Morgan slides into villainy. It‘s believable, the way she finds herself disappointed by the people around her. I wish we could have gotten more of the secondary characters. But I am so excited for book 3! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

The only thing I‘m not ready for in June is the 97 degree weather we‘re getting today. 🫠

#BookSpinBingo

Happy Pride Month everyone! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

The tagged book is my choice for June‘s #QueerBC and I can‘t wait to get to it. I‘ve loved everything else I‘ve read by Zen Cho, although this looks pretty different.

#SundayFunday Hope you all have a safe and wonderful day, and don‘t forget to tag me!

What if it‘s not a prince that rescues Rapunzel, but Jack after his Beanstalk adventures? Together they must face faeries, monsters, & secrets to learn the truth of Rapunzel‘s past & save Jack‘s sister.

This was delightful, if a bit long. It gave me big Gail Carson Levine vibes. There are wonderful little references (Andrew Lang‘s fairy books!) throughout a powerful story about the loss of innocence, standing up for yourself, & family.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Draw your swords and raise your banners! It‘s that time of year again my #NetGalley Littens!

Let‘s get that NetGalley backlog under control! At least a little bit! I have several June books coming up, so I don‘t know how well I‘m going to do on the backlog, but I hope to get at least two done! #JuneOfARC

In Lana‘s most thrilling adventure yet, someone is killing off members of a secret society in Cleveland‘s Asian community. As she helps a private investigator, she might learn more than she wants.

Such fun! I can‘t remember which of this series I‘ve already read, but this 1 stood well on its own. The mystery kept me guessing all through. & I really adored Lana‘s friendships. & I loved how intricately Cleveland was described. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑