This author writes great battle scenes interrupted by young angsty love, secrets, and jealousy. I noticed the good reads 2023 voting choices categorize this book as romantasy vs fantasy. Ah so,, the fusion of two genres - I get it now, but for me the descriptive sex scenes were an interruption to what I liked best. I age myself even more when this book so oft reminded me - my gosh we send babies to war.
Dec ‘23 #DoubleSpin Cat:part of a series

Switching up my BookSpin/DoubleSpin to capture the category of just about any book on my TBR has proved to be great fun in 2023. …The only thing interrupting my reading plans is life with my newest bffs, Gavan, Sparks, Canon, Banks, and RíEllie (3 grandsons, 1 granddaughter, and a grandniece)!

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I love this whole series of books. They are written in such a gentle way, and it makes me slow down and appreciate a good story. I particularly liked this grouping of stories as each challenged the rules and considered breaking them. …But crap, would you risk being turned into a ghost by blatantly drinking cold coffee. Ah, nooo!

The back story here had me thinking I picked up a sequel, but nope. I loved Malory‘s relationship with her younger sisters, and how the author made chess players cool. I thought the insert-conflict-here issue between Mallory and Sawyer was too predictable but that‘s my go-to issue in a romance so maybe it‘s me! I liked the ‘you‘re straight, bisexual, asexual - whatever‘ approach to the character development. Because really, who cares.

Only once did I pay over $20 for a single drink (served in glass smaller a shot glass). It was so good! I drank it slowly allowing my tastebuds to experience the flavor as long as possible. To me Ann Patchett writes the book form of a well-made top shelf drink. This story is so good and timeless (even if Covid brought this family together) and deserves to be savored. And reading in stereo with Meryl Streep‘s narration is perfection.

I was on the fence as to whether I thought this a slow pick or a hot mess and I‘m leaning toward the latter. The steamy thoughts and scenes didn‘t work for me here esp when followed shortly after by graphic description of bodily smells including urine and excrement. When the story did unfold, it kept unfolding beyond where i maintained interest. Still though, this author has potential for future good yarns.

Just let me wish on a star and fast forward to a point in the future where my life will surely be bliss. It‘s a well understood trope. What made this story unique was how the supporting characters were made aware and reacted to Lucy‘s situation. It was fun to read.

I read just a chapter or two at a time from this book because the single POV of 20 yo Mia was so over-analytical. I didn‘t want to read too quickly and start skim her thoughts and felt I owed it to Mia to remain engaged in her telling. Both she and 14 yo Eugene intrigued me.

I don‘t know if it‘s the books alone or my timing when reading them but 2023 has been a really good year for me. Tagged the book I think might be among my overall favorites of the year!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

Sometimes I‘m fully aware that the moon and stars aligned and provided me the right book at the right time and immersed me in the experience and joy of reading. This was that book. The whole situation read so believable to me. A reminder we just don‘t know when we are in it, the year that will become so pivotal to the rest of our life.

When I say this book gave me all the feels, I mean it literally. Seriously, my insides were in knots over the anguish I felt for these fictional characters. It is such a beautiful, compassionate story and kudos to the author for considering so many aspects to a story. I cannot imagine that I‘ll ever forgot this one - that‘s saying a lot because I can forget a story I read the previous week! Thrity is auto-read for me after 2 books.

As I read this, I just kept thinking of the so many large Irish Catholic families that were part of my community in the same era in which Meg details her story. So many secrets because appearance was everything. I‘m so grateful the need for mental health is becoming recognized as a legitimate medical necessity.

The writing is so good here and the subject matter so uncomfortable that I had to walk away from the actual story and read some reviews. It helped when I stopped reading this as contemporary fiction and read it as a creepy thriller. Kudos to the author for making me flip-flop opinions about the adults in the room. I can‘t wait for later this week and my IRL bookclub discussion about this one!

I looked forward to this one after reading the story was inspired by the banter from When Harry Met Sally. The problem for me was I liked Sally from the onset of her story. Ari, uhhh, maybe I need to get to know my characters before I chuckle at their bawdy behavior.

This book paints such a vivid picture of 1958 Jewell Minnesota and the community whose lives were entwined as the Alabaster River flowed through It/them. Every character good, bad, and growing was drawn so precisely. I couldn‘t stop myself from reading to its conclusion while at the same time knowing I didn‘t want to leave this community. I was grateful for the satisfying epilogue that let me imagine their completed stories.

I‘ve often noticed my copy of Maid on my shelves and wondered what happened to Stephanie after moving to Missoula (a town close to my heart and roots). I don‘t agree with some of the choices and decisions she made as a deeply indebted 35 yo single mother. (An IRL bookclub discussion would be so interesting). However, I respect her effort to earn an English degree and model for her daughter the goal to become who you dream to be.

George was a McDreamy, and Lizzie was something shy of a nightmare. I should have been done with her since George deserved better. But something about Lizzie intrigued me, and I wanted her to understand the love in her life. The audio was available so I experienced both audio and print. It gave me Ann Patchett vibes, and I‘m not sure if it was the writing or the author‘s own narration of the story.

Nov 23 #BookSpin Cat: pub 2016-2019

I‘m pretty sure I‘ve never had 3 memoirs in a single grid before so chances were good a memoir might win the grid this time. I have to give it to Mama Love!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

The events of this book are dramatic but the story is calmly told. I was quickly invested in Joe and his younger sister, Ruthie/Norma. I couldn‘t wait to get to end because I needed to know the particulars when Norma finally realized her Nova Scotia roots. I thought this was a very good effort by a first time author.

I gotta say, as this started out and for several chapters, I wasn‘t feelin‘ the love for Mama as her addiction to escape over took her ability to mother her children. But really, her ability to overcome her addiction, forgive herself, control her life, and make a positive difference in such an impressive way truly makes for a memoir well worth reading. Pic is from her Instagram.

My stomach flip-flops when I read the devastation brought on a child because of their parent‘s radicalized faith. And once again it is the opportunity for education that frees a child to become. I knew nothing about what it means to be Rastafarian and found this interesting. …I did think the last part of the book took an odd turn from her personal story to her thoughts on current America.

Raised in NYC-UWS and disrespected by both parents his entire upbringing as they mistook dyslexia for a lack of intelligence, Henry persevered earning an MFA from Yale. Typecast as the Fonz, he continued to persevere in Hollywood with a drive to work. What a pleasure to listen to the life experience and wisdom of this 78 year old man where even now he evaluates who he is/was in life situations and how to be a better man. I mean, life goals.

I‘m a fan of fictional family drama and when the drama is about magic, well, that just makes it fun. We are past the halfway point of the story before these three MCs come together. I thought that was a betraying way to write this because I was equally invested in Joanna, Esther, and Nicholas. The supporting characters were interesting too!

Wow, this month flew by, perhaps because I saved so many of these books to specifically read this month!

#indexcard collection, #MonthlyWrapUp

So I read to page 50 and was ready to DNF until I read the Darker Shade of Magic series. A week later, I started over, slowed down, and was soon immersed in these magical London worlds. My plan however is to read the originating series before continuing on with book 2 of this set because I‘d love to know the backstories.

What to read, what to read!

#BookSpin November 2023
@TheAromaofBooks

I liked this family who had magic - okay, call them witches if you must - and how their magic worked for each of them in an otherwise typical world. Sadie‘s angst over those she loved leaving Poppy Hollow to live their lives made sense had she been a young teenager but not as. Mature adult. It‘s a slow pick where better justification for her bruised heart would have made this a solid HEA pick.

Time travel books are just so much fun for me, I think because there are no rules. Each author gets to define the restrictions, the how, the why of travel. This one has a red door that might be mistaken for an hallucination. The rules here were intricate and I had do some backtracking before it all made sense. But yea, I easily suspended my disbelief for this set of rules!

In my blow-through-books era I‘m seldom a fan of overly descriptive books. Not this time! I was completely drawn into the details, backstories, and the Ireland history of this 1923 Cork murder mystery. When considering 2023 reading challenges I‘d have never guessed my amusement in taking part in #NunLitQuarterly. Thank you @jlhammar for exposing me to four great books I‘d never had otherwise read.

Aside from finding it odd this exited right from a death row legal thriller to become a story of international intrigue, it‘s a good book.
Mitch is now a NYC partner in a law firm spanning the world and Abby is a cookbook editor. …Funny thing is, Mitch and Abby are 15 book years older and I‘ve loved them for 30 IRL years- all I wanted was to read either or both of them in every scene and hear about their personal lives with their twin boys!

The only thing I have that say for myself is that I was saving and/or anticipating these books for October reads, and timing and mood is everything! Tagged my favorite but this was a great grid of reading!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

Oh a Lizzie Borden yarn! There were so many twists in this one. It was just fun to read. It took me a minute to decide I liked the MC, Kit, but once we connected, the ride was a blast. And, the 1983 playlist was a blast from the past, too.

This was so well written, and I was completely engaged in the 14 yrs after-the-fact telling of 4 teenage HS seniors living on this witchy constricted island. I was also intrigued by the impact their families played in the story. At then the ending, I didn‘t see that coming!

Oct #BookSpin Category: Pub 2021-22 @TheAromaofBooks

This was great storytelling. Dracula remains my favorite vampire story, but this is certainly my new favorite vampire adjacent story!

It‘s fun to read a book that crosses genres and entices you to keep reading if only to find out how in the big skies of 1917 North East Montana this will end. It‘s gothic and horror with a monster, it‘s historical fiction in part, its a western, it‘s feminism and friendship, its prejudice and assumptions, it‘s scoundrels, it‘s redemption. It‘s a great story!

Like so many others, I discovered TJ Klune in the Cerulean Sea. I preordered his next 2 books bad hadn‘t read any of his backlog until now. For me the angst in the love story between Joe and Oz took up too much of an otherwise really good story. It gives off Twilight vibes and I thought it hilarious the author even acknowledged this within the story. ↓

October‘23 #DoubleSin Category : Author‘s Canon @TheAromaofBooks

The Scarlett Letter is the only book I can think of that I was assigned to read multiple times so I‘ve always been intrigued by adaptations of the tale. …I really enjoyed part 1 of this story, and wasn‘t ready to leave it when Nathaniel Hawthorn‘s presence and timeline was introduced in part 2, but of course, it makes perfect Alice Hoffman sense. Beautifully written, as well.

Oh, this is a creepy good story about some sort of connection of a long dead serial killer to a current day disparate cast of characters and clues keep dropping to each of the them. But it is only you, Dear Reader, that is fed all the clues to know just what danger lurks ahead. And it didn‘t matter how fast I read - those clues would not congeal until the story‘s end!

Not far into this story, I was convinced this would be a meh kind of thriller because even I had figured out who the ultimate bad guy was going to be. Then the twists came and kept coming until the twists turned into a cat 2 tornado. And again I‘m forced to admit I suck at guessing a good thriller‘s ending!

What a treasure I had sitting for years on my shelves. I knew this was about a woman who died and lived many times over. And it is, Ursula is born many times over and always as the middle of 5 children to Sylvie and Hugh. But it‘s so much more than just that. I was aware this was not a stand-alone read but anticipated being one and done, marking it off my TBR. Now I must read Teddy‘s story that heretofore had not been on my TBR!

Well, I didn‘t know the books that would fall in its grid when I pre-ordered the tagged, but I could have told you then that regardless the other 8 books my favorite would be the tagged!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

This book was packed with a good story! I don‘t even know how to focus on a main takeaway for this review or how to encapsulate spoilers on the 10 skinny lines of the backside my index card! I guess my least favorite part was the thoughts/hope for romance because I wanted that space for more details about the house and its former inhabitants and more Opal, Jasper and the two women that really were their unacknowledged found-family. ↓

Oh this was good! I couldn‘t stop reading in hopes of getting to the truth at the end. Don‘t ask how that went for me :)

I lacked some interest in the story because I didn‘t like how the two female leads were written, but I stuck with it because the story the two women were set in was good. The ending was great so I‘m glad I hung in there.

Yikes. Hannah was one scary toddler and in real life, even when the deck is stacked against a child I‘d never consider them a bad seed from the get-go. But in a fictional thriller, well, it makes for an entertaining read.

Saturday last I landed on Netflix and binged this series. Then I saw the series was based on a German book and the translated book had a short library hold, and I had to go there. Although the series kinda-sorta aligned with the book, there were significant changes in the adaption. The book had more in-depth backstories for the adults in the story, and we were better able to ‘hear‘ the conversations in their heads.

Fictional moms behaving badly books may just be my guilty pleasure even if this had me groaning a few times. There where several years as a working married mom were I was completely overwhelmed and distinctly remember standing on my back deck looking across the horizon to the neighboring subdivision of many a stay-at-mom and being convinced my life would be easier if I just lived one subdivision south. Silly me!

I know this was fictional true (well that‘s an oxymoron!) crime but it felt real, raw and horrifying. I remember 1978 and I‘m heartbroken for the women who had to move through the men in those courts to find justice for their abuse. And oh gosh. Please let‘s not roll gay rights back to this days. …Gah, to be a judge disappointed in a serial killer because said SK wasn‘t better at lawyering for himself!

My October TBR was so stacked that I realized I better use most of September for a head start on that stack!

September 2023 #MonthlyWrapUp #IndexCard

PSA: If you spend 7 years prior to your A-levels in a 4-strong mean girl group relentlessly bullying a fellow student until she fails at her own goals, then 10 years later the four of you are surprisingly invited to an all-expense-paid private Bahama island hen party for said victim - don‘t go. Better yet, go. Just go. ↓