A busy summer has left me SO behind in my book journaling! Happily, Agatha Raisin kept me company as I try to start to catch up.

The beginning of this DID NOT age well. But I enjoyed the new scenery and am delighted that James Lacey may not be the centre of Agatha‘s world anymore!

I‘m also delighted that I have space on my audio book dance card to jump back into this series for #SeriesLove2023!

Jesse Q. Sutanto does dark as well as she does funny.

Kinda like if Phaedra Patrick and Beth O‘Leary teamed up - heartwarming & gut punching all in one book.

Book 10 for #14books14weeks2023 (and I did get it finished before the end of the 14 weeks. This might be the best I‘ve ever done!)

A really interesting book of essays but I don‘t recommend listening to it straight through because there‘s a lot of repetition. It was good company while I canned a bushel of tomatoes, though.

Roll 66 for #Roll100

You‘d think since it took me 4+ months to read, this wasn‘t one I was too keen on but I really enjoyed it. I found the audio needed a lot of concentration, though so it wasn‘t what I turned on most days. I wish I had made a point to go for a walk for an hour every days to stay focused on it but maybe next time!

Thank you to @AllDebooks for motivating me to finally pick this up!

My #Roll100 for September. Subs for the re-roll of 4 and for 79, which I have already read from my list. We‘ll see how this goes…

Three POVs and letters from the past was a lot to keep track of and Feeney overhyped at least one thing that she was trying to plant seeds for but enjoyable nonetheless

Book 9 for #14books14weeks2023

Not my favourite Beth O‘Leary - there should have been less time on the early days of the relationship and more on when it started to break down - but damn, she can rip your heart to shreds!

Book 8 for #14books14weeks2023

I usually love Ann Patchett but this one didn‘t do it for me. It felt a little scattered and disjointed with the way the shifts happened back and forth in time. There was just something off to me in the current timeline with the daughters but I can‘t put my finger on it.

Not quite the Evelyn Hugo comp I had heard it was but enjoyable enough. I think Ramisetti rushed through the wives a little too quickly, I‘d have liked more there.

Sub for Roll 4 for #Roll100

There‘s something about QEII solving murder mysteries that really tickles my fancy. Rozie is a great investigator alongside the Queen and I like what Bennett does with the real people we all know.

Book 7 for #14books14weeks2023

I love this series and I really enjoyed spending more time at the Mistry home in this instalment. I don‘t think I understand why the person who committed the murder did it. I totally get the overall motive but it didn‘t seem like it connected as well to the murderer compared to other characters. Maybe I missed something…

I much preferred the first part over the second half and I would have liked more about the time Daphne was in Toronto with her father. This is a hard book to say one enjoyed because there‘s some tough stuff around Daphne‘s drug addiction and Harry‘s alcoholism but the writing was good and the character development was very strong.

My August #DoubleSpin

I kept hearing about this book and every time I did, I thought “oh, that sounds fun” and would go to put it on hold at the library and discover I already had.

All that to say, this did live up to the hype. It was fine but it was a little much. Too many quirky characters, too many jokes, too many weird things that didn‘t seem to tie in to the story (I still don‘t understand the frogs.)

This is book is a balm for the soul. It‘s sweet and kind and lovely and a little sad and wistful. It‘s the kind of book that makes me fall in love with books all over again.

There were times this felt a little over-the-top and was veering into the wrong side of farcical but either I got used to it or the author toned it down because the ending was so great!!

Roll 85 for #Roll100

I think Downing should have rewritten this - the first half was unnecessarily slow and the last third was dizzyingly fast. And that‘s typical of a thriller but first, Downing is known for fast from page 1 and second, the slow was really slow. I did like the story, though, it just needed some more editing.

I‘m so pleased that Shari Lapena has found an outlet for her insane twisted thoughts through writing, cause if this woman didn‘t get these thoughts onto paper, there would be a lot of chaos in her life.

I have been SUCH a good girl about not buying books but no one is perfect.

What a delightful little cozy mystery. I‘m still not a fan of Suzie but I‘m loving all the other characters and REALLY loving how Thorogood constructed the mystery. I hope there‘s more!!

This is a DEBUT?! HOW?!

Thai packs so much into its 325-ish pages and it‘s beautifully written. It is one of my top reads of the summer, if not the year.

An all-around winner at #mummydaughterbookclub! Was this predictable? Yes. Was it more about the how than the what? Yes. Was the part with the FBI confusing and none of us understood the point? Yes.

I enjoyed this second instalment so much more than the first! I think it worked much better to not bring all of Austen‘s characters together and that we saw more new characters than the first instalment. The mystery was well put together and getting to know Jonathan and Juliet more was enjoyable.

I‘m feeling particularly smug because not only am I getting my #bookspin list before the numbers have been drawn, I also finally got my first bingo of the year last month.

Will August treat me as well? No. It‘s canning season. I‘ll just be happy if I keep up with my library books.

Oh man… so late with my August #Roll100 books! I‘ve already read 2 of the 3 rolls so I‘m subbing in other picks from the same categories. I‘m so excited for all 3 of these. Will this be the first month I read all 3 rolls in the month they were rolled?! I‘m not the betting kind but if I was, I would not put money on it!

Not what I was expecting!! The format of alternating between a short mystery and conversation between author/editor was an interesting one but really took off in the last 1/3 or so.

Book 6 for #14books14weeks2023

This is such a wistful, contemplative, yet ultimately heartwarming book, just like the others in the series. It always takes me a few minutes to sort out the characters but that never lasts long.

Book 5 for #14books14weeks2023

I had really high hopes for this but it did not meet them. I found the beginning really slow and somewhat confusing. While it picked up, I didn‘t ever really feel like I knew what was going on. Maybe I needed to be better versed in the real life history? But I don‘t want to have to read a bunch of history books to enjoy fiction.

Excitedly, though - with this, I finally got my first bingo of the year in #bookspinbingo!

A nice change from the typical WWII historical fiction and while I found it engaging overall, I found some of the details difficult to follow (could not keep ages straight…) and there was a bit of drama for the sake of drama, which never works for me.

Also, the end papers on this book!! Stunning!!!

Who knew I‘d find a book about girls and their horses so enthralling?! I should have known - I love a story about rich people problems and this one was so satisfying.

I don‘t understand the title of this - the girls were from London. They weren‘t sent to Paris. My fixation on this tells me the story wasn‘t strong enough for me to overlook this oddity.

My #doublespin for July

What a sweet little gem of a book. This was my first Meg Mitchell Moore but I think I need to make time to read more.

The was SO atmospheric!! It had the same dark feeling as The Thirteenth Tale with a Lizzie Borden-esque setup. Great summer thriller!

Fiona Davis is just so good at writing the setting as a character! I really enjoyed the psychological profiling aspect of this one and Davis balanced all the competing aspects of this novel really well (friendships, family, relationships, the mystery)

I‘m really enjoying getting to know a different Austen relative in each book! And I really liked how this one resolved, Barron is doing such a good job of keeping this series from becoming formulaic.

#janeandtheexcellentreadalong (many months late!)

As per usual, I am late with my #bookspin list! Will this finally be the month I get my first bingo? I wouldn‘t put my money on it, if I were you.

Valetta writes strong emotion very well but as a whole, this was stilted. It‘s a good effort as a debut but she needs a stronger editor and given how well she carried off the emotional scenes, I think she should look outside of mystery/thriller as a genre.

Book 4 for #14books14weeks2023

This has gotten so many comparisons to Daisy Jones and sure, it is - on the surface. But this has more depth and deals with more complicated issues. Such a great book!

Thank you to @Librarybelle for hosting this #literarycrew buddy read!

Book 3 for #14books14weeks2023

My #Roll100 for July. 25 was a TBA so I took the next closest number. Looking forward to rushing through 1/3 titles in the last 5 days of July when I realize once again that I had another month monopolized by library holds!

For me, this was definitely a pan because of the sort of supernatural demon element - I‘d have enjoyed this a lot more without it. But I also found the writing inconsistent. Sometimes it was short & choppy, sometimes it was more meandering and that just made it hard for me to really stay in the groove of the story.

Roll 18 for #Roll100

My loathing of MLMs already runs deep and man, this just fuelled that fire. It‘s definitely more about spilling the tea than thoughtful analysis, which is what I was in it for, so I loved it.

What a page turner, exactly as you expect from Ruth Ware. While I thought it was pretty obvious who was connected to the whole mess, that actually made it a stronger pull for me to get to the end and see how everything came together.

Oh, I could have done with a little less description of Jack's cut, though 🤢

This was a roller coaster of a family drama with secrets coming out left, right & centre. Bouncing between joy and sadness, this had some great one-liners that had me laughing out loud and feeling ready for a cry.

So… I couldn‘t really keep the characters straight and the first 1/3 or so left me wondering how this has gotten such good buzz but I really loved the last 1/3. This is a strong first book for a series, I think I‘ll get to know the characters better over the course of the series and so, I‘m overlooking that confusion for now!

My #Bookspin for June
Book 4/4 for #JoysOfJune
Book 2/14 for #14Books14Weeks2023

Watt-Cloutier is an amazing woman but honestly, this a slog to get through. The early chapters covering childhood and the bit after her time in politics were more narrative in nature but the political years are very factual streams of meetings and organizations with very little colour or emotion. So it was dry, often hard to follow (because of acronyms) and sadly, boring.

Roll 40 for #Roll100 and Book 3/4 for #JoysOfJune

Damn, Stacey Abrams is brilliant.

This is a continuation of her first novel under her name, which I didn‘t realize and there were enough references that I wish I had read a good summary before starting this one. But it worked okay as a standalone. There‘s a lot going on here and a lot to keep track of but DAMN it comes together in a satisfying way. And I‘m thinking we haven‘t seen the last of Avery Keene yet.

Book 2/4 for #JoysofJune

By far, this is the book that has sucked me in the fastest in the series. I really enjoy Jane and Lord Harold‘s partnership, too. It‘s my favourite part of the series. This did drag a little in the last third but resolved nicely.

#janeandtheexcellentreadalong

Book 1/4 for #JoysofJune

Between work schedules and previous plans and travels, we were only able to have our annual #MummyDaughterBookClub book choice unveiling this past weekend. This is the first year I‘m excited for every choice - usually there‘s one that I‘m not super keen on!

This isn‘t as funny as I expected it to be and the mystery wasn‘t as good as I expected it to be but for some reason, the whole “breaking the fourth wall” really tickled my feathers and that made it work for me.

This has such an odd premise but the book isn‘t about the wooly mammoth. It‘s about a woman overlooked at work and struggling as a single mom, her relationship with her daughters, and their relationship with each other.

I had a hard time with the first chapter feeling very, very slow but that seemed to be limited to the first chapter only.