With Empress Sisi of Austria-Hungary at the restful Gödöllő Palace, enjoying time away from the restrictions of the Imperial court in Vienna (and being fussed over by dashing romantic rivals).

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Ashton Rasputin Hayes, we take care of our elders in this family. We do not just ship them off to another dimension. If she wants to slam my door and kill every plant I bring into this room, that's her prerogative."

Marlowe rebuking Ash for suggesting they exorcise the ghost of her Meemaw.

"Good?" Ash asks, eyeing my cup.
"Brain-altering good," I say. "Seriously. There's an amino acid called tryptophan, which is found in chocolate, and it's the precursor for serotonin." He smirks as I take another gulp. "Chocolate wants us to be happy. How can we not adore a food that cares so much about our well-being?"

"But let's be honest, shall we? When adults tell a child or a teenager that they're precocious, what they're really saying is, 'Please don't say that aloud.'"

The accuracy...

Also stationed at Arlington Hall, Virginia during WWII learning to break codes

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@Cupcake12

Back in Rennedawn, serving as apprentice to The Villain and attempting to fulfill or thwart an age old prophecy (and maybe smooch the Villain).

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Whisked off to Jakarta, Indonesia with Sharlot to escape an unsuitable relationship by spending the summer with family. Of course, family catfished the heir to the 2nd largest fortune in Indonesia and now the media think Sharlot is dating George Clooney Tanuwijaya...

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@Cupcake12

I'm at a manor house in the 1,000 Islands that has just been opened to the public after having been closed up when tragedy struck in 1932...
I expect new tour guide Marlowe will help uncover the mystery.

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Journalist Jack McEvoy is being downsized. Determined to go out in a Pulitzer-winning blaze of glory, he engages with a murder case to write something sensational to prove his worth. But when he finds himself on a serial killer's radar, only the actions of FBI profiler (and ex-flame) Rachel Walling save him from the killer's trap.

Investigation is pacy, but the reader knows too much too early, but also not enough about the killer to satisfy me.

Romantic suspense with a vicious serial killer abducting young women, a newly minted Lieutenant who gets mad every time the beautiful FBI profiler opens her mouth and an unfortunate approach to ethics. Add a hefty sprinkling of Google Translate phrases from Italian and Irish; bro-jokes and commitment-phobia; and whiplash from chapters of trauma and tears to hanky-panky. I think I sprained my eyes rolling them so hard.
Not for me.

A bookish squire, a blowhard knight, a cursed town beset by calamities and a dragon! Inspired by Wart and Sir Kay from Sword in the Stone, our protagonist squire sets out to solve the village's problems with research, observation and critical thinking.
Super charming with a wise-cracking dragon. Looking forward to more volumes!

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@Cupcake12

In a library in a small town in Washington state where part-timer Chloe has just found a bootleg copy of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer with flirtatious conversations in the margins...

A teen retelling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Prickly Vi Reyes masquerades as a boy on an Arthurian inspired MMORPG to avoid bullying. Jack "Duke" Orsino is football royalty who starts playing the game after a season-ending injury.
We have a GoT style TV show, a sff/gaming convention, tabletop D&D, feminism, computer gaming and both characters growing in a realistic way.
I really liked all the characters (with a few obvious exceptions).

A nameless young woman gets a job at the Ministry minding "expats" from other times and helping them assimilate. Hers is Lt. Graham Gore, lost during Franklin's lost expedition seeking the Northwest Passage.
The narrative touches on colonialism, bureaucracy, climate change. But then we got sex scenes which didn't work for me, and I went from very invested to having lost almost all interest.
And Why did we have the scenes from the Terror at all?

A fun children's graphic novel. Mulan is called to the palace to help protect the Emperor who finds himself in danger. She struggles to fit in at court (etiquette is hard), but is helped by Mushu, her grandmother and Li Shang.
I enjoyed the storyline, and the characters all looked "right" to me except for Mulan herself. But the interstitial artwork is lovely watercolors.
Fun and fitting the character.

A Gothic horror/thriller with dual timelines. In the present Shea Collins is stuck in a dead end life due to past trauma, but spends her leisure hours writing and managing her true crime blog. And one day she meets a famous (acquitted) suspect in some brutal local murders. St. James excels at creepy paranormal that seems like it could be real. I made the mistake of reading at night during a storm...Good Book, Bad Decision

Essentially a young Bletchley Circle set during the war and in America with a sweet sapphic love story. We have a team of 4, including a clever maid masquerading as her employer and a Black codebreaker destined to be a computer at NASA. Important war work and crimes connected in ways only the girls see.
Plenty of catnip for me!

A graphic novel queer retelling of Northanger Abbey set on a ranch in Texas. Cade Munoz is a horror movie fan with an overactive imagination and a huge crush on the son of his summer employer. So far, so cute.

Addie is a travel consultant sent to Edinburgh to help make the Heart of the Highlands family-run tour company more profitable. Logan is a kilted tour guide, son of the owner and a gifted storyteller. The book is a love letter to Scotland and a look at grief and connection. While I was sometimes annoyed at Addie's insistence on deflection and prickliness, it still felt real. Loved these two together.

"But what I'll never understand is why people are so quick to trash this one thing that‘s always been for women first."

I love the heroine's love of romances.

"The truth of it was that I'd probably never have the kind of luck with love the women who live in fictional seaside towns do."

"Contrite astronomers with strong erections and a poor understanding of female anatomy might well be what the literary market was missing."

Somehow...I think not...

"It told the story of an astronomer who had failed to notice the signs of a world-ending asteroid and roamed the empty streets of New York in search of forgiveness and family. And, apparently, excessive confirmation of his sexual prowess."

I feel like I have read that book...

Wombat likes everything just so - something her neighbors aren't as great at. But Wombat minds her own business. But when difficulties arise in the neighborhood, Wombat puts on her digging overalls and her gardening hat and does her best to help everyone out.
As if anyone needed another reason to love wombats, this is inspired by stories of wombats sharing their burrows (however reluctantly) with other critters during bushfires.

In a mansion, then reform school, now dorm at a prestigious boarding school in Maine, 11 students and staff find themselves trapped during a winter storm surge. Overnight, Headmaster Boddy turns up stabbed and the murderer must be present.
Inspired by the board game, our characters all have secrets that keep the reader guessing at the murderer's identity. I kept wavering as to who I thought it was. Enjoyable if light, looking forward to Book 2.

A "fix it" fic for Wuthering Heights. Instead of marrying Linton, Catherine Earnshaw is taken under the wing of a Great Aunt (Maria Branwell, nod to the Brontes' mother) and has a Season in town. Heathcliff is there under a new name, stirring revenge, but yearning for Catherine's love.
We get to bypass the murderous abusive rage and see these two find happiness. I enjoyed this, the nods to pen names and the move away from overwrought passion.

Not actually bad (not like Ripper), but this historical YA about a girl obsessed with forensic science falling in love in the mortuary and investigating the Jack the Ripper murders wasn't for me. It's gory (with pictures), certain of the artistic choices taking liberties with the time period annoyed me rather than serving the story. I was not charmed by the know-it-all love interest. Plus, I predicted the culprit and motivation early on.

Not my usual genre.
Three talented ballet dancers at a conservatory. Three competitive dance moms. A feckless French star turned ballet dancer looking to film his redemption and search for a scholarship student to Paris. Backstabbing, jealousy, burnout, grief, ambition, arson.
I enjoyed this - it would make a great drama of a miniseries.

Forensic anthropologist Kelsey stumbles across something big during one of her digs in the Philippines - something that leads to her former fiancé being murdered and her being next. Not able to trust law enforcement, she teams up (reluctantly) with her Navy SEAL ex Gage to investigate and take down a terrorist plot.
I liked the suspense in this one and the second chance aspect of the romance, but the fix for their big issue didn't work for me.

A cute YA romance featuring a teen baker from a Bangladeshi family with a talent for donuts and puns. We have a rival ex-girlfriend, a new crush, a saboteur and competitive baking - plus set in Ireland. Shireen rises above nasty social media bigotry and leans into her skills and flavors. Made me want to binge Nadiya's season of GBBO with a box of treats.

A bit of I Capture The Castle plus some Austen heroines. Our beautiful heroine is determined to marry rich to help save her family's crumbling estate, but her overly forthright tongue keeps frightening away prospects. When a handsome baron and his financially savvy cousin come to town, things are looking up - even if one of them is terribly annoying with his bluntness...

I may not be hopelessly devoted to this Regency era Grease! Retelling, but it's great for those Summer Nights... Tell you more? Tell you more?
It was lust at first sight when notorious rake Dane, heir presumptive to the Duke of Rydell sees prim and proper Sandrine floating in a secluded bay "drowning". I laughed so hard at his "rescue". And though Sandrine may be lousy with virginity, she has a wicked list she sets out to fulfill. Scandal!

Queen Elizabeth II's first investigation with an assistant private secretary - in this case a dependable, clever woman named Joan McGraw who had an "interesting war". When the Queen fears there may be a plot to sabotage her State Visits and murders in an acquaintance's house that may link to the Royal Family (however obliquely), she brings in Joan to help make discreet inquiries. An interesting denouement and I am half in love with Hector Ross.

A girl wakes up on a hillside, disoriented, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened to her or her best friends.
Great premise, right? This one is very twisty as Claire tries to work out what happened, and I loved a lot of the guesswork, but about 3/4 through it lost momentum in an ugly muddle and the final twist was a big NOPE from me.
She really had me gripped at the beginning, though, I'd try another of hers in a heartbeat.

Listen, if you liked The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, you will probably like this one. It suffered from a similar problem - I just couldn't believe the ignorance, naivete and utter incomprehension of the situation and surroundings. Our main character, a street kid who grows up thieving, can't recognize cruelty? For me, this really didn't work at all and I didn't get a sense of what life in Warsaw and the ghetto was like.
Recs tagged below:

Madeline Hathaway has grown up on the Ren Faire circuit, but the past year she lost her mother to illness and is grieving. The last stop for the summer was her mother's favorite but everything has changed.
Annoying bard Arthur brings her out of her shell and on little adventures, and it is mostly cute, fun and positive (both body and emotionally). Conflict ended up being a bit irksome as it was so wildly evident to everyone but those involved...

The second Phyllida Bright mystery, this one is a little less Downton mystery. It involves a bunch of bloodthirsty amateur detective writers, the famous Detection Club and the most lethal of English traditions - a village fete. It is once again up to Agatha Christie's housekeeper to puzzle out the culprit, motive and methods. I am still Team Dr Bhatt and his handsome inky black moustaches.

Honor is a people-pleaser and peacemaker for her dysfunctional family - all normal boundaries a mess from the reality show they starred on. Honor can't stand being alone, but is too mistrustful of others to connect outside of her family, so she clings to her family - until they fall apart.
I'm not sure the story actually unpacked the toxicity of her family, though Honor herself does improve. Hated all the jabs at Baylor, though.

I soft pick - this was an expectations problem. I was lured by the premise of a female artist stumbling across a naked man and using him as a model, only to find out he is a Duke. I expected hijinks and trading for modeling sessions and fun.
This went a lot deeper into PTSD, alcoholism, corruption, mental institutions - especially the last third went to some dark places and I'm not sure the pay-off really got out of them. More painting please!

Tentative pick - I don't usually love true crime, but this looks at Lollie and Julie as people and as a couple, not just as murder victims. The author's recurring theme is how women and marginalized groups feel unsafe in the outdoors and she attempts to counteract that but also highlight very real concerns. It is a tricky balance.
I was more interested in the evidence and investigations (and their mismanagement) and found her approach not lurid.

I enjoyed this second in the Ghost Lands series, though I preferred the non-linear episodic format of the first. Bobby Cross lays and elaborate trap and Rose must rely on a woman who hates her Prof Moorhead to beg a favor of Persephone.
Rose is particularly whiny in human form, but I really enjoyed the reimagining of the Underworld.

A case of mistaken identity by Hadrian's Wall has a young woman pretending to be Annabel Winslow at the behest of Annabel's gorgeous but menacing cousin Con who is seeking to secure his own inheritance of the farm. There are three potential heirs (including Annabel), old love affairs to negotiate and several attempted murders. Twisty and Gothic and clever with surreptitious sandwiches being sneaked to the cat hiding under the armchair.

The book opens along Hadrian's Wall looking down at a majestic sycamore. I could picture exactly where our heroine was which was lovely, but it made me sad for that gorgeous tree, too.

I wanted to love this: Team of diverse girls staging a HEIST of a jewel-encrusted book aboard the Titanic. What's not to love?
Unfortunately, the leader Josefa has an irritating backstory (running away to thieve because a life of material comfort is too confining) and we don't spend enough time with the other girls to really round out their motivations or relationships with one another as they rush aboard and the countdown to sinking begins. ⬇️

Sweet. Garlic finds herself grappling with a big change - she may be turning human! - and on an adventure with her friend the Count.
The first resonated more for me. This one felt a little more on-the-nose about puberty.

"I'm a BLOOD orange! I'm done for!"
Even vegetables are not immune to fears of vampires...

Adorable story about facing your fears, being brave and resisting prejudices and catastrophizing. Garlic is a very relatable vegetable and has a sweet supportive friendship with Carrot. When the vegetables fear that a vampire has moved back to the castle, Garlic is chosen to vanquish it despite her misgiving.

An interesting starter bio of a remarkable woman - though the level of detail/complexity seemed to vary. Also I had hoped for a bit more time spent on spy hunting. Definitely has me interested in further reading.

Divergent + Shadow and Bone + Dragonriders of Pern, season with a smidge of Tortall.

I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to the sequel.

Kind of Jasper Fforde-ian.
Lawyer Rob Sutherland's literary genius of a younger brother has the ability to "read out" or summon characters from the books he's reading. One such character, Uriah Heep, warns him that a rival summoner is afoot, determined to create a new world that threatens reality.
We have a heroine straight out of Famous Five, several Mr. Darcys, Heathcliff, Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray and a number of Dickensian figures. Fun.