There was so much here, and so much potential. But there was so much left on the table. The ending was weak; some of Sloane‘s development is left undone; and she needs some resolution with Naomi. Still, the story is interesting enough that I wish we‘d gotten more.

Wow 🤩
I loved The Book of Speculation, so I was excited to read another book by Swyler.
But I was blown away by how amazing this is.

If you are a fan of the Netflix series DARK, you should check this out. Not exactly the same story. But same themes, and a similar scenario.

Just a beautiful story of how far we‘ll go for love ♥️

This was a pass for me.
People dancing to please gods and necromancers - it‘s not a situation for me 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is a DNF - for now.
There are elements to this I could like.
But it just didn‘t grab me and I didn‘t want it to turn into a slog.
So I‘m putting it away for now.
Maybe I‘ll come back to it next year.

This 👏🏻 was 👏🏻 so 👏🏻 good🙌🏻
A family vacation in Florence goes very awry.
There‘s family dysfunction at White Lotus levels ~ a transatlantic haunting ~ creepy kids ~ so much and so good.
And the horror of the haunting mirrors the horror of the family dysfunction so well.
Definitely worth a read, and I think the audiobook is a plus here.

So there were no vampires in this 🤷🏻‍♀️
In fact, I‘m not quite sure what Cass Jones is up against - I‘m gonna have to read the next book 💁🏻‍♀️. And it‘s good enough that I will.

Between a Pick and a So-So.
Lots of action, but not quite as much character development as I would have liked.
There‘s a lot of characters, and some we feel we know well by the end. But others… 🤷🏻‍♀️
Good enough for a light read.

A man who can hear the dead sing has to work as a witch hunter to protect the innocent.
The core of this is good, but there‘s a lot of side stories that don‘t play out as well - they muddy things up.

Witches! Ghosts! Ghouls! Set as a Western, complete with a shoot-out! This book was such a great surprise! It‘s the first of a series - can‘t wait to get my hands on the next one ♥️

Maybe this didn‘t work for me cos I listened to it.
But this just never really engaged me.
I hung in til the end, so it held me enough for that.
But Pinborough has done much better.

Really great debut 👍🏻
Mesmerizing prose ~ woman in the attic vibes ~ shapeshifter lore ~ dark romance ~ this covers a lot of ground, and that‘s before we even get to seeing all this through the eyes of a biracial orphan in Victorian England.
I‘ll be looking for more from Coles.

I gave this a hundred pages. But it was too much of a slog for me 🤷🏻‍♀️. Too much detail - I don‘t need every single room described; not enough character development.

Really great premise, but entirely forgettable 🤷🏻‍♀️
Maybe it didn‘t hit right cos I listened to it rather than read it. The narrator was fine - it wasn‘t that. But nothing really stuck from this.
I‘ll give McMahon another chance - I‘ve liked other works by her. But this one did nothing for me.

Ancient, awakened, vengeful god?
Yes, please 🙌🏻
Connolly just keeps churning these out, and I keep loving them 😍

I was rocked by the allegations against Gaiman, and I‘ve put off reading/listening to the things I have left in my TBR.
I decided to listen to this - it‘s a full cast, so it didn‘t feel like just a Gaiman experience.
Unfortunately, of the 3 volumes of this Audible put out, I enjoyed this least.
Or maybe fortunately? Maybe this eases separating from him and his work? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Appalachian folk horror road trip?! Hell, yes!

This book was like a Twinkie: enjoyable while you‘re consuming it, but ultimately empty of substance.
I liked the premise, but it doesn‘t play out great.
And then there was this:
The author says Sleepy Hollow and Lake Ontario are “just down the road from each other”.
As someone who did live just down the road from Sleepy Hollow, I can say they are absolutely not 🙄
I hate when a stupid detail like that takes me out of the book, but it did.

Engrossing read 🙌🏻
While the territory of an old friend group having a misdeed catch up with them is well-worn territory, there were enough twists with this that it kept me on my toes.
And that ending … 🤯

A prequel to Her Majesty‘s Royal Coven.
Sometimes a re-imagining of a historical situation is fun; sometimes it just doesn‘t hang together 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was by far the scariest thing I read this month 🤯. I blew through it in a day.
I need to just binge all of Malerman‘s stuff one of these days - it‘s so good 😊

Not my favorite by this author but still a good read.
A coming-of-age/dual timeline story, involving teenagers casting spells by spinning the perfect record 🪄🎶.
She loses the plot a little, but never the characters ♥️

I read a TON for #SpookySeason and this was one of the first.
It‘s about 3 hours - an hour of lectures on each of these classics, with some insights I hadn‘t considered before.
If you like the genre, give this a try 👍🏻

Can anyone tell me:
Are there vampires in this?
I am looking for a vampire book to wrap up Spooky October reading, and I have this in my TBR bookcase.
And I thought I‘d heard there were vampires in here.
If not, I either want to find a different vampire book, or pick something else spooky on my shelf.
Thank you!

Whoa 😳. I need some help!
In burning down other “piles” of audiobooks, I‘ve racked up 19 credits (😯) on Libro.fm.

I need recs, please 🙂
I know these credits don‘t expire. But I want to reduce this number by at least half.

So hit me - what do I need to listen to rather than read? I‘m open to all genres, and audiobooks account for close to half my reading.

Please and thank you 🙏🏻😊♥️

Guys…read this book 📚
This is the first page - it‘s just daring you to open it 😏.
This is a found footage novel about a cult. It was so good I tore through it.
It‘s my first 5⭐️ read of the year.
If you‘re looking for something to dive into, this is for you 👍🏻

Farewell, 2024!
I stayed up late trying to finish one more, but that‘ll have to be this year‘s first book 📕.
In the meantime, here are my stats 🙂

So these are all the books I got for my bookish #adventcalendar 🙌🏻

I have only read 1 of these 👍🏻
Several are hardcovers 👍🏻
At first blush, many seem to be historical fiction - I could be wrong - and I‘m iffy on that. That‘s not my usual genre. We‘ll see.
🤷🏻‍♀️
Many are set in Pacific Rim/Asian countries. Which was part of the draw for me 👍🏻

Overall, I‘m looking forward to many of these books.
Glad I did this.

Day 3 of my book Advent calendar.
I‘ve actually read this one, but it was an ebook. It‘s nice to have a physical copy of this one 👍🏻

Day 2 of my Book Advent Calendar
♥️🎄📚

#10beforetheend

Finished The Hunter ~ moving on to What Lies in the Woods

So I did a thing this year.

Last Christmas turned into Hospice for my Dad, and I‘m anticipating this holiday season to be tough.

So I‘m treating myself.
I got 3 Advent calendars
- Godiva chocolates
- Sephora goodies
- the Book Grocer books!

Today is Day One 🎄

#10beforetheend
Starting with The Hunter

Starting this one tonight - it looks 👻 👀🤗

4.5 ⭐️🙌🏻♥️

This is finally out today in the US… but I didn‘t wait until today to get my hands on it. I can‘t exactly lay it all out here on the interwebs… but, oh, Littens, I‘d love to to tell you. And you‘d love to hear it. And Joe would love to hear how committed I am to the things I love. He loves a person with passion. Does he finally find The One in Wonder? Lucky for you, Joe is very forthcoming about his misdemeanors… and more…

Yay! I did a thing!! I got more people to read!!!
People at work were having a little fun with how much I read.
So I suggested we read together - a book a month.
I chose this first, because it‘s funny, and has a lot of heart, and has broad appeal, and there‘s plenty to talk about.
I thought it was going nowhere, but I got two takers today - yay!!!
We may stay a small band of 3.
But my hope is that others see how great talking about books is ♥️📚

My favorites from 2022 - with 273 reads, I can‘t pick just 12 🤷🏻‍♀️
Notes on each in the comments below…

My stats for 2022!
All challenges completed ✔️

Is anyone else doing the #tenbeforetheend challenge?
Pick 10 books to finish by the end of the year.
Here are my picks 💁🏻‍♀️

Do I need a tarot deck?
No.
Am I gonna start telling fortunes 🔮?
No.
Do I want a tarot deck Erin Morgenstern developed while writing The Night Circus 🎪?
Hell, yeah, I do!
This is a work of art ♥️
Check out the Phantomwise Tarot. It‘s gorgeous 🤩

Do I need a tarot deck?
No.
Am I gonna start telling fortunes 🔮?
No.
Do I want a tarot deck Erin Morgenstern developed while writing The Night Circus 🎪?
Hell, yeah, I do!
This is a work of art ♥️

It‘s #nationalreadabookday and I just heard the sad news that Peter Straub has passed away.
So I‘ll take today to recommend his Talisman books with Stephen King, and his Blue Rose Trilogy. Pick up any book by Straub if you‘ve never read him - he‘s a treasure - and let him live on through the works he‘s left behind.

Just got a friend request on Goodreads from some guy.
Checked out what he reads - I don‘t need to fill my feed with stuff i‘m not interested in.

And it‘s allllllllll stuff like this 🤦🏻‍♀️
Nope! 💁🏻‍♀️😂😖

It doesn‘t matter what it‘s called - it only matters that IT‘S HAPPENING 🤩👍🏻🍾♥️

Got #bookmail today
Brought this to my local bar to enjoy with an adult beverage
Opened it up and voila! I scored a signed copy!🙌🏻🏆

So my niece is heading off to college next week.
And her first Lit class isn‘t English Composition 101.
Or Early American Literature.
No.
It‘s “American Ghosts.”
What?!?!!
So, so jealous 😜
And… also so excited I can already recommend books to complement her reading and maybe use for a paper 💁🏻‍♀️♥️

That‘s a wrap for July!
Here are my faves for the month.
Try any ~ try them all ~ I enjoyed each of these 😊
#julywrapup

#bestof2022sofar

Reading this book was like watching athletes warm up, when you‘re really here for a good game. You see the potential, but it‘s just not happening.
I had high hopes for this. There is so much praise for it.
But I just couldn‘t attach to it.
And I have too many other books to read 💁🏻‍♀️

4.5 ⭐️

If you haven‘t read this book yet, you‘ve already waited too long - go read it NOW!
Time travel ✔️
Space travel/colonization ✔️
Life in a Matrix ✔️
Humanity in the face of being a simulacrum ✔️
Less than 300 pages ✔️
And more pandemics than I could keep track of ✔️✔️✔️
I loved it 😍

Anybody else doing the #kindlespringchallenge?
I have done ALL the tasks.
But it won‘t credit me for one - the 2021 Chart Topper.
I finished it (this book 🤞🏻) weeks ago.
I have synced and refreshed my Kindle & my Kindle app on my phone countless times since then.
Everything else has synced and been counted.
Anyone know why it‘s not working?
Did I have to buy a NEW book out of the top 100 of 2021? That‘s the only thing I can think of 🤷🏻‍♀️