I really enjoyed this romantic fantasy because it had all that I look for in a good book...well-developed and interesting characters, great world-building, and an intriguing plot to tie it all together. First, and foremost in this instance I think, I loved the unique and detailed world of basically a fictional USPS (the Otherwhere Post) which is based on the art of scriptomancy (the art of magically enchanting mail). This was a location setting🔻

In Hall's US debut, we get a powerhouse of a story featuring awesomely drawn flawed characters, a rich and descriptive location setting (North Dorset farming village 1968-1975) and a sprawling, at times heart wrenching storyline. First, let me say that while reading this it felt monumentally grand scale to me, and at 319 pages, how can that be, right? Hall has crafted a compact, concise portrait of the lives of three interconnected characters 🔻

Here‘s my #ReadYourKindle list for March.

I managed to read 3 out of 4 this month…had some good ones in the bunch!

Thanks, Cydney! Hope you‘re doing well. 😊

Here‘s my March #BookSpin / #DoubleSpin list.

I only managed to read my #DoubleSpin this month which actually led me to re-read the prior book AND the new recently released one! 😂😂😂 Kind of went off the rails…and considering one was 600+ pages, one 700+ and one 900+…yeah. 🤦🏻‍♀️ A bit hungover to say the least. 🤪

Thanks, Sarah, and I hope your move goes well! 😊

REPOST for @LitsyBirthdays :

Can you believe we are two-thirds through February already? Soon it will be March and time to celebrate the birthdays of all these lovely Littens!

🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁📚📚📚📚

If you‘d like to be added to the list to receive some #birthdaylove on your special day, simply email your Litsy handle and birthday to litsybirthdays@gmail.com and the Birthday Fairies will do the rest. 😊

This is a sweet (no language, no sex), tug-at-your-heartstrings kind of book from an author that I have fallen in love with (this is my 4th book of hers to read and they‘ve all been wonderful).

Bryony Page is watching as her grandmother‘s nonprofit organization (The Bridge), where Bryony teaches ESL, is failing without funding. As a last ditch effort, she writes an overlong novel based on her grandmother‘s experiences but is turned down at an 🔻

A great draw for February! I‘d love to get through ALL of these! 😳🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks, Cydney! 🩷

My #ReadYourKindle list for February. 😊

My #BookSpin /#DoubleSpin for February. 😊

Thank you, @TheAromaofBooks , for sending me the beginning of yet another series…ahhh, you know me so well!! 😂😂😂

I‘ll look forward to meeting Daisy and going along for the ride in her adventures. 😊🧐

So excited to have won a prize in your #BookSpin yearly drawing. 🎉

Thanks again!!

PS. That cover…💚💚💚

Second in the Dez Limerick series, I am currently reading an arc of the next installment so I went back to read the previous two so I wouldn‘t be totally lost.
This one features Dez, a mysterious “retired” covert operative (his former job, The Gatekeeper), going to the aid of a musician friend whose sister has unknowingly become a target in the coverup of a breach in the Witness Protection Program and a bid to establish an autonomous country 🔻

I'll be perfectly honest this is not my usual kind of book. While I do enjoy mysteries and thrillers, I don't normally go for male protagonists (nothing against men in general, I promise). That said, I really enjoyed this series starter about a "retired" mysterious ex-mercenary and amateur musician who is pulled into an embezzlement scheme and an armed coup (among other things) when he winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time. ?

REPOST:
Such a wonderful group of Litsy friends celebrating during the month of February. Looking forward to sending lots of #birthdaylove their way! 🩷

If you‘d like to be added to the Litsy birthday calendar, just send your Litsy handle and birthdate to litsybirthdays@gmail.com and the #birthdayfairies will look forward to the party! 😉🎉

Ok, I get that editors aren‘t perfect, but with these back-to-back sentences, I‘m trying to figure out whether the cat is a “he” or a “she”…🤷🏻‍♀️🤣🤣🤣

It‘s a conundrum…and yes, these are the things I ponder. 🧐🙄

Cydney!!! What a wonderful surprise in my mailbox today! 💙💙💙

Thank you so much for thinking of me, and this book sounds right up my alley (and if you loved it, I‘m 100% sure I will too 😉). Also, the bookmark…🩷 And that BUNNY…adorable!

You‘re such a sweet, thoughtful friend. 🤗🤗🤗

PSA: This is NOT book related. 😂

This is the view from my front porch this morning…8 inches here in North Alabama.
I know, I know…but this is a BIG DEAL for us southerners, folks. 😳🤍☃️

I always forget how silent and peaceful the world is after a snowfall. ❄️❤️

To finish up 2024 I had 3 5⭐️ contenders…two from the same series and the other second in another series.

This was a hard choice for favorite, but I‘m giving that to the tagged book. I really loved everything about it…well written, great world building, well fleshed out characters, etc.

Looking forward to reading more in both these series!

Thanks for the walk down memory lane, Andrew. 😊

#12BooksOf2024

One 5⭐️ read for me in November ‘24, and of course it‘s a Kim Stone book. 😂😂 Surprise, surprise. 😉 This one was a bit over-the-top gruesome (as in how depraved can torture be?! 😳).

There were 2 other runners up from Marsons and 2 from the same author under different pen names (Alison Stuart and A.M. Stuart).

#12BooksOf2024

October ‘24 I had a record 5 5⭐️ reads! Love those kinds of months. 😊

I picked Cambridge‘s as my favorite as it was a wonderful addition in the Phyllida Bright series. Lots of forward movement and an excellently plotted mystery.

#12BooksOf2024

Two 5⭐️ books for me in September ‘24…and three others very close.

I give the edge to the tagged book because of its heartwarming, feel good, sweet factor. ❤️

But the Bailey book was an excellent addition to the Lady Fan historical mystery series. 👍🏻

#12BooksOf2024

August saw 3 5⭐️ books for me and obviously a Kim Stone binge! 😂😂 But IMO if you‘re going to binge, it‘s hard to beat Kim. 🩷 Her Dying Truth case was an especially heartbreaking one to get through.

However I‘m going to pick the tagged book as my favorite as it had all the feels and felt more like an epic than a regular novel. Not great ratings here on Litsy, but I really enjoyed it.

A Deadly Scandal was a great addition to a fave series.

Out of 3 5⭐️s for July, I‘m going with the character-driven, funny and well-plotted second book in the Porter Beck series. This has Longmire vibes as it centers around a small town Nevada sheriff.

Both other 5s were excellent as well and the roundups are definitely worth mentioning.

#12BooksOf2024

June saw 4 5⭐️ reads for me and 2 rounded up. My two favorites were both historical mysteries from beloved series…Raybourn with her Speedwell and Huber with her Darby. Both authors NEVER disappoint.

#12BooksOf2024

3 5⭐️ books for May with 3 others rounded up.

Marsons was not surprising as the Kim Stone series is consistently excellent. I‘m picking the tagged book as my favorite though…quirky, sentimental and deeper than I expected. A very nice surprise!

#12BooksOf2024

My only 5⭐️ book in April ‘24 was the tagged historical mystery, an entry in a series that I love but which is coming to an end with the next book. Say it ain‘t so! 😩😩

The other 3 books were close runners-up with the Marsons book being the start of the 2024 “Kim Stone Spree” for me. 😂😂

#12BooksOf2024

Looking forward to whittling down my TBR list even more in 2025.

Thanks, Cydney! Happy 2025! 🎉

#ReadYourKindle

A new year, a new opportunity to wade through my TBR list before it drowns me. 😂😂😂

Thanks, Sarah! Happy 2025! 🎉

#BookSpin / #DoubleSpin

For March ‘24 I had 3 5⭐️ books, but the tagged one was probably my favorite. There were also a few that bumped their way into 5⭐️ territory.

#12BooksOf2024

I had one 5⭐️ for Feb ‘24 and a bunch of really good 4.5s rounded up.

My 5⭐️ was a first for me from Rebecca Serle but definitely won‘t be my last.

#12BooksOf2024

Sorry I‘m already breaking the rules, Andrew, but I‘d like to include those books that ranked a 4.5 and were rounded up too. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️ Always a troublemaker…🙃

The tagged book was my only 5⭐️ for January ‘24.

#12BooksOf2024 (or a few more…)

The second chapter in the Hurricane Wars fantasy series finds Alaric as the Emperor and master of the Shadowforged Legion and Talasyn, his Empress from his enemy rival nation navigating their new reality and trying to find their way through powerful political machinations behind the scenes. They are forced to work together as Shadowforger and Lightweaver to overcome a threat to both their countries. I‘m really enjoying the 🔻

An equally good second in series, this one saw more action (including a daring rescue), more romantic angst and more sibling interactions for Lara and her half sisters and brother. While some of Lara‘s derring-do was a bit over-the-top, that‘s OK because I loved her fierceness and determination to persevere. Looking forward to getting to the third book. 5/5⭐️

I‘m happy to have discovered this fantasy series and enjoyed this one so much I‘ve already read the second one. Lara is one of 12 princesses, half sisters raised as warriors in a secret desert compound with the main objective of bringing down Aren, a rival king of the Bridge Kingdom who basically controls trade. Following her arranged marriage to Aren, she uses her cunning and skills to spy and smuggle out information for invasion to her father.🔻

The reason I‘ve had this on my Kindle over a year is because I purchased it on an author‘s backlist that I discovered and really like. Glad I did because I liked this first in series and plan to continue with the next one.
Set in 1650 England our heroine Kate is a widow with a son who takes him to meet his father‘s family they had never met because of a family falling out. When the patriarch dies, she is left in control of the family estate 🔻

Unfortunately I had to bail on this one. The characters did not grab me and neither did the story. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was one of my #readyourkindle books for the month.

This is second in series and Violet Hamilton continues to delight as an intelligent, no nonsense, forward-thinking eccentric who is assisting her fiancé in his furniture shop as well as his side business of private investigating. As she‘s learning to be a Lady Detective, I admired her dedication, her focus and her sense of humor in dealing with the ins and outs of job as well as the variety of people she comes in contact with. You can‘t help ?

This 5th and last in series was a sad and heartbreaking murder mystery with the victim a former West Indies planter. While revolving around the British slave trade, particularly in the West Indies (1785), there were some uplifting and hopeful moments as well. While I enjoyed this finale for the plot and characters, particularly the spotlight on a former slave who works as a bookseller, I found myself (on top of being sad that this great series 🔻

My final #ReadYourKindle list for 2024.

Thanks so much for hosting, Cydney!

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

My last #BookSpin / #DoubleSpin list for 2024.

Let me just wrap my head around that. 😳🫢😂😂

Thanks, Sarah and Happy Thanksgiving. 🦃

REPOST for @LitsyBirthdays :

Don‘t forget! 😳

If you‘d like to be added to the Litsy Birthday Calendar, just send your Litsy handle and birthdate to litsybirthdays@gmail.com.

Looking forward to celebrating all these lovely December babies soon. ♥️💚

Love me some Ruby Vaughn. 🧡

My review on this one is rather long (it‘s a definite 5⭐️ for me), so if you‘re interested, here‘s the GR link:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6562240496

And I‘d recommend starting with its predecessor The Curse of Penryth Hall to get the full effect. 😉

This debut suspense novel is the story of a group of folks stranded on Trouble Island, a stop-off place for prohibition criminals between Canada and the US (Lake Erie). Pretty much all of them are keeping secrets and are morally gray characters with plenty of double-crossing going on. The story is told through the eyes of Aurelia Escalante, the maid to the wife of the powerful criminal prohibition gangster Eddie McGee, who has been basically 🔻

I really enjoyed the first in series, and I must say that I think this one was even better. I think often the first book in establishing a series can be a bit tedious with all the details, backstories, etc. But both books have been entertaining and engrossing and not the least bit tedious. This finds Catriona struggling as she has lost her reporter job and is coming to terms with her new engagement. She throws herself into charitable work 🔻

I was happy to discover this debut author‘s first in series historical mystery set in London. I was so happy with it that I went ahead and read the next book immediately after. Catriona Winters is a young woman working at her father‘s newspaper who struggles to be taken seriously and treated with respect in her field of journalism. She‘s a bit on the rebellious side (which will eventually lead to her banishment from the office) and 🔻

So happy to have discovered this mystery series set in 1815 London. It‘s fun (with a smart, unabashedly original and funny heroine), has great storylines so far and introduces Lady Petra, a confident and courageous young woman for her time.
Lady Petra shockingly discovers that her current paramour Duncan Shawcross might have murdered her fiancé three years earlier. She‘s also tasked by Queen Charlotte with an undercover assignment into a death ?

Second in the Dr. Julia Lewis mystery series set in the Victorian era, and I‘m still enjoying Dr. Julia‘s strength and determination in forging inroads as Scotland Yard‘s first female medical examiner. She is supported by the intelligent and upstanding Detective Inspector Richard Tennant. Love them both and how they complement each other in their jobs.
This mystery involves the art world, specifically a group of female artists and artist 🔻

Another good outing for American heiress Stella and her new husband Lyndy as they journey to visit some of Stella‘s never-before-met relatives and also attend a prestigious golf tournament. With unexpected guests, murderous deeds (there is some offscreen sexual abuse as well), and Lyndy‘s perceived guilt there‘s a lot going on. Definitely more sad parts than usual but well crafted and an enjoyable read. 4.25/5⭐️

When I began this book, I had not done any research on it and did not know that it was a "cozy". I'm glad that I did not as that might have put me off reading it (I'm not a big cozy fan).

Alice Beeton (50+), as the owner of the Good Household Management Agency and descendant of the famous authoress Mrs. Beeton (The Book of Household Management) discreetly meets the needs for top household staff for the rich and influential. She is normally very?

I'm always excited when another book releases in the Gilded Age mystery series, and as usual, this one doesn't disappoint.
Prudence is called upon by a friend to help protect her cousin's rights as a playwright for the authorship of a play that promises to be big at the box office. However, when murders begin racking up connected to the play, both ladies go undercover to try and flush out the dastardly villain(s). With their lives in peril, 🔻