The enslavement of a main character just does not allow me to be invested in the romance. #hailthebail
Continuing a month of way too many DNF‘s 😣

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.
This is a truly excellent and grotesque horror novel. This takes place in New York during the COVID pandemic. Our main character Cora is an American of Chinese descent who has model wannabe sister and Cora deals with some anxiety and OCD tendencies. When something absolutely horrific happens she falls into a job cleaning up after crime scenes.⬇️

So April has been a rough reading month, so I am mixing things up for May. It‘s my birthday month so I want to give myself more freedom. So I have 10 planned reads-due to #roll100, book clubs and just high interest. Then I will aim to read from the library, a BOTM pick, an ARC, some KU picks and some audiobooks I own. Should be fun!

This was a nice spooky ghost story with a very sweet main character. Not amazing, but a nice quick read. 3.5⭐️
#bookspinbingo!

This is a DNF for now. I do hope to come back to it, but I‘m feeling a reading slump and dense fantasy is just not working for me right now. I‘ll probably come back to this in the summer, but off the TBR for now. #hailthebail #bookspinbingo!

The return of Jennifer Crusie brings a fun cozy romantic mystery.
Strengths of this book - trademark sassy banter and a great main character in Liz Danger. This also builds a fun small town location with several fun side characters.
Weakness - the cop hero feels out of a 90‘s romance and I did not 100% feel chemistry between the characters. I could see this character improving and I liked everyone else enough to check out more in the series. 4⭐️

Here are my #roll100 picks for my #MayTBR

Rewind it Back by Liz Tomforde - this comes out next month
Mislaid in Parts Half Known & Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire - I will be caught up on the Wayward Children‘s series!

I got this as an ARC from NetGalley. Unfortunately I DNF‘d this fairly early as it had a main character that included several traits and actions that I am just not a fan of. Still a fan of this author, this one is just not for me. #hailthebail I am facing a reading slump so trying a silly Ruby Dixon next!

This is not a bad book at all, it is just making me uncomfortable and is just not for me. #hailthebail #dnf

Finally returning to this world after quite a while. This book is almost non-stop battles and our main characters are going through multiple hardships. I am curious to see where the story goes from here. 4⭐️
Another #roll100 pick done!

Finally getting to reading this popular middle grade adventure. It was very fun! I don‘t know if I will continue this series but I can see why it is so popular! 4⭐️

Overall a fun steamy paranormal romance. Not quite as entertaining as the original series - this features the children of the original series. 3.5⭐️

The writing is interesting but the story is boring me a little. I may come back to this one later. DNF
#roll100 pick off the TBR for now this was my #doublespin pick as well.

This is the darkest of the series so far, but still beautifully written. 4⭐️ because I didn‘t enjoy it but appreciate the story none the less.

A beautiful, not always easy contemporary romance. A couple that is perfect together but live 2000 miles apart and are both dealing with family trauma. Definitely check content notes before reading this one. I definitely highly recommend and am such a fan of Abby Jimenez! 5⭐️

Overall, an entertaining but slightly predictable mystery thriller involving amateur sleuths. Very engaging and fast read and I do recommend! 4⭐️

This book had a lot of potential. It has a very unique sci-fantasy world and a very interesting premise. The problem is the book tries to shoehorn in a romance with two incredibly bland and boring main characters. I really probably would have DNF‘d this if it wasn‘t for my personal bookclub. I think this could have been longer to develop characters more or have just not bothered with the romance. 2.5⭐️
March #bookspin finished a bit late.

This was a delightful contemporary romance. Both main characters were both lovable and flawed and their romance bloomed very naturally. I also really liked it not having an unnecessary third act break up-which just would not have fit these characters. Elsie Silver‘s writing gets better & better each new book. 5⭐️
#bookspin pick done!

Here is my #bookspinbingo board for my #AprilTBR
My #bookspin pick is Wild Side by Elsie Silver
My #doublespin pick is Drive Your Plow Over the Bones by Olga Tokarczuk

It should be a fun eclectic month of reading!

A fun twisty domestic thriller, that is just a touch too long. 4⭐️

I had three 5 star reads this month, but my favorite has to be the latest installment of J.D. Robb‘s (aka Nora Roberts) In Death series. A very entertaining mystery with a look at a favorite character‘s mysterious past.

Here are my March reads!
19 books read
1 DNF not shown - Art of Starting Over
14 via audiobook 1 ARC
4 ebooks - 1 ARC from #Netgalley
1 physical book
5 books off my physical tbr

Favorite reads: The Gathering, Bonded in Death, This Inevitable Ruin & The Wraith King
Overall a good reading month, just a couple stinkers.

This installment of the Finlay Donovan series was really fun and had some very satisfying moments. One of the better in the series! 4⭐️

Another blast of an adventure with this delightful cast of characters. There were some truly harrowing sections too. The only bummer is I am now caught up on this series and have to wait for the next one! 5⭐️
#doublespin pick done and another #bookspinbingo

This is such a good series. About a found family finding love and also avoiding various disasters and murders. Can‘t wait until the next one! 4.5⭐️

Here is my #AprilTBR!
As always I am participating in #bookspin #doublespin #bookspinbingo #Roll100 and from YouTube Books and Lala‘s Buzzword challenges. Water Moon is my RL book club read and I need to start that ASAP!

Here are my #Roll100 picks for my #AprilTBR time to build the rest of it!

Age of War by Michael J Sullivan
Valor by John Gwynne
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones by Olga Tokarczuk

Overall, I liked this installment of the Wayward Children. In this one we get to explore the other school for children who have entered mysterious doors. The one thing I didn‘t love was the body shaming, it just felt unnecessary for the plot. 4⭐️

A fun twisty thriller about a woman who has a unique podcast where her traumatic past comes back with a vengeance. I definitely recommend this one as an audiobook. Not perfect, there were a few moments that were a little implausible and a couple poor choices by the main character, but a fun read. 4⭐️
#bookspinbingo!

This was really bad. It wants to be Legends and Lattes but is full of terrible jokes, a complete mess of a story. Also it felt like a bunch of short stories pieced together to make a book. Do not recommend, I only finished for a reading prompt. 1⭐️

Though it had a slow start, and felt very GoT inspired, I enjoyed this epic fantasy book 1. I will continue in the series, hopefully in the not too distant future. 4⭐️
#roll100 pick done

This was a very entertaining Romantasy! I really liked the world building, characters and the overarching story. It also had a very cool magic system. My one criticism is that the book could have used a little more editing. The middle of the book did drag a bit and there were a few repetitive sections. Overall I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to more in this world. 4.25⭐️

I received an ARC of this from NetGalley for an honest review.
Overall, this was a solid thriller. It had some fun twists and turns, and the story loved leaving us hanging at the end of chapters-which did keep me interested and reading.
Where the book was lacking was in character development. I did like our characters overall. The big problem was our protagonists.⬇️

Overall, I‘m giving this a pick, as I really do like Stephen Graham Jones unique storytelling style. It‘s definitely not my favorite of his books. This feels more like a character study and/or a series of essays. The subject happens to be werewolves. So the prose can be a bit meandering and disconnected. Still worth checking out if you are a fan of the author. 3.5⭐️
#roll100 pick done!

This is a beautiful short story that takes place in Ireland in the 80‘s. I don‘t want to say much as it would spoil things. Lovely writing, I just wished for more. 4.5⭐️

My favorite series returns with book #60! This is one of the best in the series. Such a great look at one our favorite character‘s backstory. This has a great balance of heart, action and thrills, with the trademark banter and found family of characters we fans know and love! 5⭐️
My first #bookspinbingo of the month!

Hey everyone, I‘m trying to use StoryGraph more and would love to follow people. My user name is nessavabooks
#storygraph

A cute, cosy fantasy manga. It was very sweet, though light on plot. I have heard this gets much better, so I will continue at some point. 4⭐️

I really enjoyed this previous books in this series, but this was just ok. The characters were just very bland and there never felt like there was much tension. I still love all the side characters, so I will continue in the series. 3.25⭐️

A delightfully twisty detective thriller with vampires. Riveting and impossible to put down as well as atmospheric. 5⭐️!

I received this as an ARC on NetGalley for my unbiased review:
This is a strange novella. It has some beautiful writing, and paints very detailed pictures of the scenes and characters. It seems to take some inspiration from House of Leaves and Shirley Jackson. Very much a story that is more vibes than plot.⬇️

Overall, this was a fun read. I definitely liked it better than the second one, and would put it on par with the first one. More murder mayhem, very wild sex scenes and comedy. If you like horror and steamy romance, you may just enjoy this series. 4⭐️

I think this was a freebie on Kindle and thank goodness it was free. This is really not good. I am bailing because the writing style really needs some editing. Not for me and I would not recommend to others. #hailthebail

I wanted to like this more, but it just didn‘t go in the direction I hoped for. What started like a unique dark serial killer thriller ended bland and predictable. 2⭐️

Belated February #bookspin done!

Overall, I did like this locked room thriller about authors and revenge. I did guess the big mystery, but there were still some solid twists. 4⭐️

Here is my #MarchTBR #bookspinbingo board!

My #bookspin pick is “Water Moon” by Samantha Soto Yambao
My #doublespin pick is “The Inevitable Run” by Matt Dinniman

It was a close call with Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. But I think my favorite is The Favorites!
@Catsandbooks

My final #bookspinbingo board. Two bingos and #doublespin done. I am currently reading my #bookspin pick “How I‘ll Kill You” and I am close to done with “Mayra” a very strange ARC read. Overall it was a bit of a blah reading month, but there were a few standouts.

A perfectly fine mystery where I knew the killer pretty much the whole time, yet was entertaining enough to keep going. There was some good writing in here, but the characters just weren‘t very interesting. 3⭐️

A well written sci-fi horror novella. Definitely recommend for someone looking for a unique creepy read that will make you never want to experience space travel. 4.5⭐️