#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

I was lucky to get an #audiobook ARC for the 12th Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Pub Day 6th May.

Do I read the books for the cosy mystery? No. I'm here for all the characters and the banter, especially between Maid Florence Armstrong and Lady Hardcastle. I was absolutely not disappointed. Loved every minute of the story and the audiobook!

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView
Late entry for #EasterCrime @Leniverse

Chinese folk tales inspired NA fantasy romance (?) - or older YA romantasy (?) with a pinch of 🌶️

An okay read. A bit too much telling for me. Also, very predictable.

On the plus side, bought and read within 30 hours. I'm proud of myself. 😉 Especially, since it was one of my daughter's picks. 😁

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Yesterday's spring/Easter break excursion #BookHaul. Somehow only one of the books is really for me (not the tagged one). I have to share the other five with the teenager.

#RaisingReaders

#BookMail for the teenager

Got her the first book of the special editions for her birthday and now she has the whole trilogy.

#RaisingReaders

@Oryx has found a gem! I now have to get the next book in the series because this ends with a cliffhanger. 😬

Truly enjoyed being in the head of this psychopath and need to know what is going to happen next.

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1) at the moment, yes - paid for online shopping for the kids and they paid me back in cash. I normally only have about €20 in cash with me, for emergencies. I just don't get out that much. 😉

2) kind of - he comes from money, she doesn't. Influences both, but he's very down to earth and she's embarrassed by her parents' antics.

Low pick.

First book in trilogy that suffers from Middle-Book-Syndrome. Could have been shorter (#audiobook was 24+ hours, I listened mainly at 2.0x); could have less POV (bit confusing and I'm saying that although the narrator did a good job); could read less YA - it's NOT YA, but the dialogue often reads like YA. Why a prologue plus some chapters from the POV of a character that doesn't play an active role in the rest of the book?

⬇️

Liked the locked-room mystery, the gothic atmosphere and the MM romance.

The magic system could have benefited from more explanation.

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Pub Day in UK is 24th April

I blame @Oryx 😉

#EasterCrime @Leniverse

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Quoting the article: "Transworld and Puffin have signed deals for three graphic-novel adaptations of Terry Pratchett‘s Discworld series, marking the start of the "Discworld Graphic Novel Universe".

Puffin acquired world rights to The Wee Free Men, to be adapted by Pratchett‘s daughter Rhianna Pratchett, with an illustrator still to be announced."

#Discworld #SirTerryPratchett #TerryPratchett #PratchettPosse #OokBOokClub

Twisted murder mystery with a book within a book.

It felt a bit long winded at times, probably because I had found out who the killer was very early on. Still enjoyed how Horowitz put it all together.

#EasterCrime @Leniverse

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1) I usually do my tax return in early May.

2) romanti-mysterious 😜

#EasterCrime @Leniverse

From #MountTBR

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Books in a series not being the same size, although issued by the same publisher - and I'm not talking about international paperbacks vs regular paperback. Happened to me with hardback editions too. 😐

#sundayfunday @BookmarkTavern

Took me some time to get used to the framing stories(!) and the writing style.

It might be a bit too long. There could have been a little less whimsical and lyrical writing.

All in all, an epic fantasy (yes, epic!) that I liked.

@Leniverse

Since I tend to forget things, here are my nominations for #CampLitsy25

@Megabooks @BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain

Current #audiobook - I'll report back, as promised, @Leniverse

When life (or the greengrocer who by now knows you) gives you chilli, you string them up to dry while your teenagers dare each other to take a bite out of one of them. 🙄🙄🙄 My daughter won, she ate a large bite and now has €50 to spend on books. 😁😁

#RaisingReaders

Cute story but the ditsy FMC voice made the character feel extremely immature and naive.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Haven't done one in a while.

"Death is the only way to escape being a Monterris."

Pub Day: 24 April

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

#BookMail

Preordered, book was published exactly one month ago. No idea what took them so long.

It might be Christmas in April. Four books I wanted to read and thought I'd never be approved for. 😁😁😁

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

#OokBOokClub

Just a friendly reminder that we'll be reading #GuardsGuards next! Dig out your books, put in your library holds, or place your orders! The next Discworld adventure continues on May 8th! Woohoo!

If anyone wants to be tagged/untagged for future posts please let me know! Happy to oblige!

#Discworld #SirTerryPratchett #TerryPratchett #PratchettPosse #ReadAlong #BuddyRead #EpicBuddyRead

#OokBOokClub-ers, our Discworld adventure continues TODAY with #MrsBradshawsHandbook!

Looking forward to our discussion next month!

Happy reading!

#Discworld #SirTerryPratchett #TerryPratchett #PratchettPosse #ReadAlong #BuddyRead #EpicBuddyRead

#OokBOokClub

Hello friends! Open discussion is in the FOLLOWING POST marked as a spoiler. Find the Raising Steam post & tap "show me" on the spoiler tag to join in the discussion. Join in whenever you can! Today. Tomorrow. Next month! The post will always be up so just tag each other & we'll jump in to discuss with you. Feel free to chat about anything!

#Discworld #SirTerryPratchett #TerryPratchett #PratchettPosse #ReadAlong #BuddyRead

#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern

Heist in space.

First in a trilogy. Incidentally, book 3 is out next week.

I liked Dorothy Gentleman. She's a future Miss Marple. Loves knitting and solving crimes.

I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

I did not dig Digging Dr Jones. Not at all.

I'm not going to write a TLDR post. Here are a few points why it didn't work for me:

- flat characters
- insta-lust
- mediocre adventure plot
- American FMC with daddy issues
- British MMC who just inserts random British words here and there but isn't consistently British at all

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

A historical fiction novel with gothic mystery elements set at the time of the French Revolution.

There are three points of view, the sisters Sofi and Lara and the aristocratic young woman Hortense. While Sofi and Lara's POV is that of working class women who had to upend their lives after the death of their father, Hortense is the poster child spoilt young woman of the aristocracy, who believes the dirty peasants ⬇️

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1) Yes, but very lazy. I made it through school and university with reasonably good marks. Could have been better if only I had not had my nose in books and computers. 😁

2) aye 😉

#52bookclub25 update 41/52 books

March Wrap-up

Obviously, I've read some books. 🫣🫣🫣

#BookMail

I ran through those two books at the weekend and wanted shelf trophies. The next book in the series is expected late 2025.

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Ana and Din are in Yarrowdale to investigate the disappearance of a treasury officer. What seems to be a locked room mystery that might be solved relatively easily, given Ana's skills, turns into more victims and a case of political intrigue.

The world-building continues to be good. Yarrowdale is not part of the Empire, but the Treasury officers working there are, which is why Din and Ana had to be called in. This means that there are some ⬇️

#NetGalley #ARC #audiobook

I liked the story of how Lord Christopher Eden is not only forced out into society to find a wife. In order to secure a wife Christopher needs a valet. But as much as Mister James Harding might be helping Christopher, he's also a huge distraction.

I enjoyed having Christopher's POV only. This way I found out about James' thoughts and feelings alongside Christopher and that made the slow burn romance much sweeter.

I seem to have started this series with the last book. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Guess I'll park it for the moment and try finding the first. I cannot read a series out of order. 🙄🙄🙄

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Joe aspires to be a poet, but has yet to write a poem he truly likes. When he meets Esi his luck is about to turn. Esi is a time-traveller from the future. She jumped on an opportunity to see the famous poet Joseph Greene during his lifetime to make changes to her own past. But to be able to make those changes to her past, she has to help Joe fall in love with his muse Diana.

⬇️

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Those Who Survive is a dystopian post-zombie-apocalypse YA sci-fi novel that is more enemies-to-lovers romance than military fiction.

The main character Ashley and a few friends try to flee from their district the night before they are supposed to conscribe for what equals as military service. Of course they are caught, of course their parents as legal guardians have to bear the brunt of their wrongdoing, by either being forced ⬇️

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1) anything but read/watch the news - in most cases that means I'll be reading and/or crafting/cooking/baking/walking/...

2) something light, a reread probably. In my case either one or The Chronicles of St Mary's, The Rivers of London, or The Stranger Times series. Or a RomCom like the tagged.

#BandBDay nice idea, Lisa @TheSpineView

My daughter asked to watch Pretty Woman, I've probably seen it a thousand times already, she wanted to see it because of 'that' shopping scene.

Beverage is tap water
Book an ARC

Author Tom Cox got his books back from publisher Unbound (they went into administration). He's currently selling the copies he got from the publisher in lieu of payment.

Here's his post about it on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/tomcox/p/hurray-i-now-own-my-books-again?utm_sourc...

He's asking for postage plus whatever you can afford of the cover price, which I think is more than fair.

#KAL partially

Sitting outside her feline highness #GhostCat sits on my leg. I only have my phone, but it has a few books on it. It's just that I don't like reading on my phone. 🤦🏻‍♀️ First world problems.

#CatsOfLitsy

#ARC #MountARC #NetGalley

Happy first day of Spring!

Pub Day in the UK is March 27th

Really enjoyed book 4 in the Lady Astronaut series. A base on Mars has been established and the first "Martians" have moved in. Among the usual problems of working in an uninhabitable environment the members of the first Mars mission, to establish the base, are keeping a secret.

Another strong entry in this series. Gender, race, but also culture and religion, as well as body autonomy play just as much a role ⬇️⬇️

#Romance

She's a fantasy writer, but nobody knows. He's a billionaire executive and doesn't want to be like his father, but actually is. They've known each other since childhood. She's working for his company, but doing a piss-poor job. He's trying to change her.

They both need to change and both need to address their problems.

Characters with disorders.
Toxic workplace. Harassment and assault.
Stayed for the #audiobook.

It's me!!! I really don't do epic well.

Might be a good book/series, but I was bored

Baseball sports romance.

Baseball player and his wife fall out over him feeling betrayed by her faking it. She wants divorce, he wants to get back together. Fortunately, his teammates have formed a book club where they read romance books as manuals for their own HEA.

Liked it overall, but there were some holes in the main couple's timeline.

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

Thanks for the tag! So happy you are back.

1) snowflakes, they usually started to bloom around my birthday (end of March) where I grew up

2) tagged - the UK edition

Low pick! I liked the Fairies and Gods, but it dragged.

Saphic Regency Romance

Getting another chapter in before I am off to read speaking exam rubrics all day.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain