#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. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Got an arc for this, and it looks like it would work really well for June‘s Celebration theme for #ThematicCozies ! @julieclair

Love this shoyu chicken recipe out of this cookbook! #DinnerByTheBook

I am so excited for the June #Roll100 reads!

Dark Lord Davi now has the unenviable position of convincing her Horde to not actually kill all the humans, please & thank you? While trying to broker peace, Davi also begins to come to terms with her past & learns why she‘s here in the 1st place.

Liked this MUCH more than 1! Still funny, raunchy & violent, but Davi‘s character growth is great, her relationship w/ Tsav is wonderful. Wish there was more of the side characters from 1.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

A summer vacation gets upended when the BobWhites find a mysterious letter hinting at a map & a lost fortune. It‘s up to the club to track down the money, only someone else is looking too.

A solid mystery, & a pretty good resolution too! I really wish I could find a list of the ghost writers. Who leaves out Dan, who tones down Mart‘s bullying. I also really appreciate how Trixie‘s empathy is forefront through this whole story! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Thanks for the tag @Eggs !

1. Honestly, I‘m pretty fond of my name, but if I had to choose a new one, I‘d pick a plant one. Nigella or Belladonna or Amaryllis.
2. Beta fish named Grover, dog named Riley, cat named Lucy.
3. I love a lot of the names in Tamora Pierce‘s Emelan books: Sandrilene, Trisana, Rosethorn.

#WondrousWednesday

I‘ve been spending the day working on a new novel idea, and it‘s my first time writing without any kind of outline.

It is both terrifying and exhilarating. 😂

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords @CBee

W/ the bank ready to foreclose the farm, Dorothy decides to plead to Ozma to let Uncle Henry & Aunt Em move to Oz. At the same time, the Nome King has decided to invade Oz.

A much more solid plot. Nome recruitment & war planning alternates w/ Dorothy showing new places of Oz to her family. There‘s also a huge increase in puns 😆. The ending was a little disappointing, but I‘m also no longer the real target audience for Ozma‘s speech.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Ava is a vampire kept in her tower home by her mother. Kaye is a witch, vowing to kill the vampires that murdered her mother. Former friends, now enemies, when they have to make it through the forest, they‘ll only have each other to depend on.

For a story of a vampire/mortal war, this felt too slow. All the characters felt flat, & I did not care about the romance. I was fascinated by the magic system, & the narrators were pretty good.🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m enjoying Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me so much!

#BookReport

What an eclectic collection this past week has been! 😂

Introducing Alexander to her family is so much more fraught when Saffron discovers that the dastardly Bill Wyatt has infiltrated her family home as a doctor. It‘s up to her to find what he‘s looking for, before he follows through on his threats.

My favorite! It felt so much tighter, we had an interesting B plot, & I loved the introduction of Saffron‘s family. The romance is also much more solid here, & Elizabeth continues to delight me.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

This one! It was a buddy read with a friend, and oh this one moved me so much. And the audiobook was fantastic.

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

An informative and emotional history of one of my favorite indie bookstore: The King‘s English in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I grew up visiting this store, and it was a true delight to learn how it came to be and how it operates. I really appreciated reading of the difficulties they‘ve dealt with. And many big name authors have visited! Also many, many book lists to peruse and take notes on! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Clem & Cris are twins dealing w/ untold troubles: the death of their father, their mother sick, their family reputation lost, & a widening gap between them. When they learn that something else may be behind that, they‘ll have to work together to figure it out.

W/ unnecessary POV chapters, uneven pacing, & too many characters, I wasn‘t completely sold. But I was fascinated by the sibling relationship & the magic system through the end.🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑

It‘s time for yard work! #AudioGardening

Sometimes, you just gotta buckle down and do the work. 💙

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords @CBee

When Lily arrives in the afterlife she finds that nothing is what she expected. The demons are hot, Hell is for Justice, & she enjoys working the Hellp Desk

If you haven‘t watched Jaysea‘s TikTok series that inspired this book, I recommend it! This book is the prequel, telling of Lily‘s journey, & her discovering the joys of the afterlife. A little long, & a little more sex, but full of heart & tears & an afterlife I could get behind.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Tanith‘s job as a ride conductor becomes much more complicated w/ drug deals between cast members, management union busting, & oh yes, somebody is killing the other park employees.

Everything just felt so rushed. I liked the idea of poking fun at big amusement parks, mixed w/ a fairy tale themed serial killer, & the art was good & felt on brand, but we didn‘t get time to get to know anyone, & the ending wasn‘t set up enough for me. 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

Celeste is trying to escape the poverty of her home town. Dominic is trying to survive manipulative parents & a controlling boyfriend. & their ship is also transporting alien remains. Only, the aliens aren‘t as dead as they thought.

Loved the 2 MCs though their voices were too similar for both to be 1st person, & it had a slow start for a novella. But also fun world building in a short time, great side characters, & a hook of an ending!🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

#WeeklyForecast

My hold on The Witch and the Vampire came in and I‘m super excited!

#BookReport

Lots of fun reads this past week!

After the averted end of the world, Greta is tasked w/ a road trip w/ an angel & a demon to see if they can work together w/out having allergic reactions. Too bad this trip coincides w/ an attempted coup of the New York undead mob.

I‘m torn. This fixed 1 of my major problems w/ book 3, but also went straight back to Greta & The Boys. I found the mystery fascinating, the side characters charming, but the ending a bit abrupt & too open.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

I listened to this on audiobook, and while I really enjoyed the story, boy this sucker is long! 😂

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

Thousands of years into our future, an AI bonds w/ a young boy who is only trying to survive in his small town w/ his brother. & then the local wizard tries to force a specific story into happening.

I LOVE stealthy retellings. Arthurian characters get thrown into a blender w/ post apocalyptic science fantasy elements + your basic quest storyline. The pacing got a little wonky in the middle, but I loved Ariel & all the side characters.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

🎶 We couldn't be luckier, I couldn't be happier🎶

💚🩷💚🩷

#BookAdaptations #SLC #SLCLitsy

New Alix E Harrow book! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

#CoverReveal

I‘ve got my choices together for #14books14weeks ! This includes all of my gifts from past Litsy swaps that I haven‘t read yet (I know 🫣) and my four most recent purchases from 2024.

We‘ll see how this goes! @LizM

It‘s raining outside, I‘ve got hot chocolate, the blanket right out of the dryer, and a lovely book. It‘s a perfect afternoon.

Do I have 10 different rain related words saved in my notes app? No comment.

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords @CBee

The story of the highs and lows of the four March daughters: Meg, Beth, Jo, and Amy.

I‘m still not sure how I made it out of an English degree without reading this, but I‘m kind of glad I came to it later. I don‘t think I would have appreciated the relationships between the sisters, or what we see of the March parents as much. There‘s a bit too much moralizing & women‘s duty is marriage/babies/emotional labor, but it is of it‘s time.🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

In her efforts to escape a controlling uncle, Emilie accidentally stows away on a ship traveling through aetheric currents to the Hollow World. The discoveries made there will change everything.

2 novels, both wonderful reads! Emilie is an engaging protagonist & realistically young, & I love her growth especially in book 2. The side characters were fun, & the world building was fantastic. Very similar vibes to the movie Treasure Planet.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Arthurian retelling?!? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

What happens when a miserable farm wife gains access to a wizard‘s books of magics & thinks “why not”? Chaos. & then add a sassy familiar, the goblin market getting introduced to capitalism, & a talking plant.

Such fun! You can tell this is a writer raised on Terry Pratchett. There‘s humor & a moving story of a woman deciding what she‘s worth. I wish the side characters hadn‘t been so 1 dimensional, & too many threads left unresolved. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

#WeeklyForecast

I‘ve enjoyed everything I‘ve read by Robin Sloan so far, so I can‘t wait to start Moonbound!

#BookReport

I had completely forgotten about my preorder of For Whom the Belle Tolls, so of course I had to start it as soon as I could! 😆

I am loving Mrs March in the tagged book! She‘s so gentle with her daughters, but firm when she needs to be!

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

Fiction and non fiction collected from Marina Keegan‘s published works after her untimely death.

This was lovely. Her nonfiction essays were stronger for me, and I desperately wish more of her poetry was included. Her voice is compassionate and attentive. And I wish we could have seen what she would have done. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

What would you do if you knew how much time you have left?

This is less a time management self help book, and more of a philosophical examination of how we prioritize our time, and how we‘ll never actually achieve perfection so it‘s okay to let some things go. Lots of good advice, and I will be buying a copy to mark up, but it didn‘t need to be as long as it was. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView !

1. Finished two arcs this week!
2. Got a new preorder book I can‘t wait to start!
3. Bought tickets to Hadestown for when I visit London this summer!
4. I discovered my badass magical powers as a cleric in our DnD campaign!
5. Got the nibling for the evening, so it‘s time for cookies and reading!

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

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