This is the first book in a cozy mystery series following Nora Breen, a former nun who has left her monastery to investigate the disappearance of her pen pal and also former nun, Freida. It felt like an episode of Midsomer Murders and I really enjoyed it! I liked the small town atmosphere and Nora‘s character, and her banter with the Inspector was top notch. I‘m definitely looking forward to continuing the series. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have a lot of thoughts that definitely won‘t all fit here, but the long and short of it is that this was just okay. The writing and the plot didn‘t do a whole lot for me, but I get why it was super popular. The spooky haunted mansion atmosphere was 10/10 though, very deliciously creepy.

Time to see what all the fuss was about 😊

This didn‘t completely blow my mind like Evelyn Hardcastle, but it was still a very fun and unique mystery! I love how with each book, Turton has explored a new genre (sci-fi for this one) while continuing to give tightly plotted, satisfying mysteries. I think the super isolated setting is a good setup for a locked room mystery, but kind of hinders the overall world building a little. He‘s still an auto read author for me!

What better thing for a road trip than a thousand page book to pass the time?

So very late to this party but I decided to finally start filling out my bracket for this year! I‘ve been reading less this year so it was actually kind of difficult to make some picks since I just have less books to choose from, but I feel really good about where I ended up with this so far! Excited to actively participate for the last 2 months of the year 😂

I definitely liked this one way more than her previous standalone. This one was pretty good, it was engaging and mysterious but it was definitely too long. Leave it to Holly Jackson to make me root for women doing crimes and covering them up.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is one of my favorite books of all time (and Devil and the Dark Water was also excellent), so I‘m psyched to finally get to this one! Really hoping it lives up to my expectations.

This month‘s book club pick! I love a good camp thriller.

Read this regency romcom for book club and it was cute! I really liked the strong characterization in the beginning, and the plot was fun and silly, but other than that it didn‘t do a whole lot for me. Some language/perspectives seemed a bit too modern for the time period, and it got a little too meta with the tropes in places (like one character saying out loud “we‘re like a found family!”) I could be persuaded to read the next book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Today‘s train read!

This is now the third book from Janice Hallett that I‘ve read and I just think she‘s so good! I absolutely love a mixed-media mystery, and this was a quick and fun one. What I appreciated was even though there are so many characters, she lists them out twice for the reader, and is even able to summarize all the clues in a way that makes sense for the narration. This had me pumping my fist when I figured out some of the clues being hinted at 😆

I‘ve read every Megan Miranda book and I truly think this is her best!! The insular small town setting, the tense sibling dynamics, the constant feeling of isolation, and the secrets and twists! This was so good and I literally could not stop reading it. This was the easiest 5 stars to give!

I loved The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels so I‘m excited to finally get to this one!

This was last month‘s book club pick, and surprisingly I ended up reading it twice. This is a character study disguised as a murder mystery, about an old woman spiraling in grief and paranoia. The book is haunting and atmospheric and the writing is excellent, but it isn‘t actually the most enjoyable book. I liked analyzing it more than reading it for pleasure. Definitely experimental and leaves an impact, but not the most fun to read. A soft pick.

Flying to LA today, so I had to pick a good airport book!

I was so interested in the concept, the world, and the themes, which is why I‘m so disappointed I didn‘t love this as much as I was expecting to. The writing itself is where I struggled, and this took me 2 whole weeks to get through. There were way too many POVs, and they switched between 1st and 3rd person and that bugged me. I also wasn‘t sure what I was supposed to take away from the ending. I wished I loved this as much as everyone else does.

This is definitely the weakest of the trilogy and kind of a disappointing ending. I liked the setting, the new tech, and the overall story, but everything else was a let down comparatively. 2 separate plots mashed into one book, lots of casual misogyny (fridging is the whole basis for this book), an unoriginal religious angle, and an underused double sleeve. It feels like all my complaints in the first 2 books were dumped into this one. 3/5 ⭐️

This is a much different book than Altered Carbon in terms of genre (this is more a straightforward military sci fi) but I still had a good time! The introduction of Martian archaeology was so interesting and I loved the extended world building, and I liked the dynamics between Kovac‘s crew. Some parts dragged but it was intriguing enough throughout, though the writing itself was sometimes a bit too vague and jumbled. 4/5⭐️, a solid book 2!

I reread this in conjunction with my rewatch of season 1 of the show and it‘s been long enough that it felt like reading for the first time again! This is such a great sci fi detective noir that sets up a really interesting society where you can basically become immortal by “resleeving” your consciousness in a new body. Takeshi Kovacs is a really great character to follow. This remains one of my all time favorite books. 5/5⭐️

Decided to have some fun and make a tier list of all the books I read in 2023! Deciding what goes in each tier was easy but the specific order was surprisingly difficult in places.

Now that I‘ve finally read this, I can understand why everyone went nuts over it but it just didn‘t do anything for me. I didn‘t like the writing, I didn‘t like the characters, I didn‘t like the convoluted plot twists and the endless red herrings. There was so much suspension of disbelief required for the last couple of chapters to make sense. Unfortunately this one got hyped a little too much for me. Hopefully book club will be a good time.

Going through all my stats for 2023 and I was able to read 100 books in a year for the first time ever!! It doesn‘t seem like a lot compared to some people I know but it‘s my new personal record and I think that‘s neat 😊 Here‘s to a wonderful reading year in 2024!

A little late in posting this but we‘ve got a winner for my #2023readingbracket !!! The Wager, to no one‘s surprise, takes the top spot. I could tell since I read that it would be hard to beat, and indeed it was! This was my first time making a bracket like this so I‘m excited to do it again in 2024!

Feels like I‘m the last person in the world to read this but thanks to book club I‘ll finally do it! Cheers to the last train ride from Philly of the year.

Two words: ghost dinosaurs

Choosing my top read for November was actually way harder than I thought it was going to be since I had so many 5 stars this month, one of them being the new Murderbot novel, and those books have been dominating this year. In the end, The Future won it out with its complexity and sheer scope of topics. Very curious to see what will win in December, and for the whole year! #2023readingbracket

This one was just as cozy and fun as the first one, and I enjoyed getting some more insight into Viv‘s character. I loved that this one was centered around books, and as always I loved the aspects of found family and finding your purpose. I‘ll read anything this author puts out at this point. 5/5⭐️

I‘ve been disappointed by some YA mystery spin offs this year, so I‘m really pleased that I liked this one and it was on par with the rest of the series. Parts of the mystery follows the plot of the main trilogy, and we‘re split between Grayson and Jameson‘s POVs. Because were following both of them and the chapter are short, it felt disjointed at times, like I was reading 2 books that got smashed together, but overall it was a fun time! 4/5⭐️

Once more, with feeling: I Love Murderbot ❤️

It took me a month but I finally finished Doctor Sleep! I‘d seen the movie when it first came out so I knew all the major plot beats already, but I did still enjoy focusing on Danny and his journey with alcoholism and recovery. I don‘t think this one is as scary as The Shining (I couldn‘t sleep with that book in my room it scared me so bad), and I could‘ve done without the very unnecessary slurs, but overall it was a good background read. 4/5⭐️

This book is so stunning and beautifully written. It‘s also definitely a hard story to read, as it follows a young enslaved girl as she is sold in the American South in the years before the Civil War. There‘s elements of magical realism which lend themselves to the lyrical quality of the writing. This isn‘t my usual genre so maybe that‘s why I didn‘t connect with it as much as I could have, but I think on a reread I would savor it more. 4/5⭐️

The Future explores the world of tech, billionaires, environmental activism, and luxury bunkers, and boy does the read deliver. It‘s clever, fast-paced, and intriguing, and even plays with the form by introducing a Reddit-esque thread about survival prepping. It‘s more speculative than sci-fi, but the world is still very fleshed out. I‘m so happy I enjoyed this one since my expectations were so high! 5/5⭐️

I didn‘t love The Power when I read it a few years ago, but this one has been at the top of my highly anticipated list for a while so I‘m excited to dive in!

Fell a bit behind on this so here‘s my update for August, September, and October! August was kind of slim pickings since my only 5 star was a reread and I don‘t count those for this, but September and October were fairly easy to pick. It‘s looking like The Wager might pull out the win for this year! #2023readingbracket

Happy Halloween from me and my current spooky read 🎃👻

This was a very straightforward memoir and I really enjoyed it. The writing style felt conversational and authentic to Britney‘s voice. The first half kind of bounced all over the place a bit with the timeline and felt kind of vague with some details, but that‘s my only critique. It‘s extremely readable. It‘s a really heart wrenching look at her life and I was really moved when she started talking about the conservatorship. ⬇️

Shockingly I ended feeling pretty middle of the road for this one. I think I would‘ve liked it more if the primary focus was the fantasy, because that was the most interesting part to me. I just couldn‘t buy into the romance at all and had a hard time constantly going from “I might die today” to “omg he‘s so hot!!” There was some decent character development and intrigue, and I‘ll probably read book 2, but I wanted more than the book gave. 3/5⭐️

She‘s here! So excited!

Half of my friends absolutely love it, the other half absolutely hate it 🤣 Time to see which side I‘ll be on!

This exceeded all my expectations. Based on the real life murders of two sorority women by Ted Bundy, Bright Young Women focuses its fictionalized account on the women who lost their lives and those who fought to bring him to justice. This book is so expertly crafted, aiming to correct the misguided notion that The Defendant was brilliant and cunning, a narrative that was spun to cover up the police‘s mistake in letting him escape. 5/5⭐️

I got to meet the author a couple weeks ago and she was so sweet! I‘m about halfway through this one and I was expecting it to be good, but it‘s exceeding all my expectations and I‘m blown away at how amazingly written it is.

Finished this in about 24 hours so I think it‘s safe to say my slump has been beaten! This series is so charming and I‘m sad we won‘t get another one for a little while. Now that we‘re at book 4, I‘m reading these for the characters a bit more than for the mystery, and this one was a little more emotional than I was expecting, but a good read nonetheless. 4/5⭐️

Been in a reading slump the past couple of weeks, time to try and get out of it!

This was so fun and action packed and scratched my swashbuckling itch! I liked Amina and her character motivations a lot, as well as her relationship dynamic with her crew. This was very plot focused so I think the characters suffered a bit because of that, and the story got a little off the rails in the second half, but overall I had a great time and this was just the escapist read I needed. Very excited for the next one! 4.5/5⭐️

I‘ve been in a real seafaring and swashbuckling mood lately so let‘s keep it going!

British naval history isn‘t something I thought would be so fascinating, but Grann has proved he‘s an incredible storyteller. This could‘ve strayed into textbook territory very easily, but it was quick and efficient and I was engaged the entire time. It certainly helps that this is an event where multiple people wrote everything down, but Grann still painted a picture of interesting characters and their hardships in an intriguing way. 5/5⭐️

Driving down to North Carolina today, time to read about mutiny!

What do you do when you‘re having a tough week? Read a childhood favorite and watch the US Open, of course 😊

Today‘s reading plans!