This one has been on my want-to-reread list forever, so having it be a #Roll100 pick this month gave me that final nudge! While some parts of this story feel a little cluttered, overall it's just such a fun little story with some delightfully memorable characters. Feiffer's illustrations really add so much.

Despite the cover blurb, I don't think I would term this one as “nail-biting“. However, it did keep me turning the pages. This is a sort of character-study thriller, with a slow reveal of backstories and motivations, exploring both a current and past case. While I did have some mixed feelings about some aspects, overall I enjoyed it and actually reserved the second book at the library. 😁

Now that we've finished our Nancy Drew read for the month, I'm starting another childhood nostalgia series!! I read Nancy when I was younger, 9-10ish, and didn't discover Trixie until I was a little older, maybe 12-13. I remember finding her a more relatable character - where Nancy is almost superhuman in her skills, Trixie, with her everyday family, love of horses, and parents who made her do homework, felt more approachable! A few of us are ⬇

(thru ch10) No idea what is going on with this whacky cover 😂

Whew, a lot of drama in this week's chapters!!! Marcellus is on the mend, but determined that there has to be some kind of logical/non-spiritual reason for everything that has happened to him. I really loved meeting Benjamin, and the whole section where he is closely questioning M as to whether or not Jesus was really, truly dead is goosebumpy, knowing that His followers are now ⬇

Another series I'm rereading this year - absolutely LOVED the Swallows & Amazons books when I first read them, so I'm going through them again. This is the second book in the series, full of exploring, pirates, shipwrecks, mountain climbing, caves, and more! Every page was a delight.

I've been wanting to reread this series for quite some time, so I was pleased when the first book was chosen as this month's read for the #BakerStreetIrregulars, giving me an excuse to kick off the series reread!! This book was just as funny and entertaining as I remember, with just delightful characters and a romp of a mystery. I remember reading that Peters wasn't intending this to be a series originally, so this one ends with a HEA epilogue ⬇

(thru ch 5) Well! We've been given quite the set up. What do you think of the characters so far? I feel like I should make it clear that I don't know much about the culture from this era/place, so I will NOT be speaking about the inaccuracies and/or accuracies thereof 😂 Marcellus and Demetrius are both intriguing characters to me. I really admired Marcellus's determination to make the best of a bad situation, trying to live up to his ideals. ⬇

On the whole, I really enjoyed this romantic suspense, although I did find the suspense part to be a bit unevenly paced. The characters are likable and I totally shipped the main couple. I also liked that Landry was becoming part of an entire community/support system, not just learning to depend on one person. I had a few niggles, but found this to be a solid start to a new series.

Bwahaha the Fates have been KIND to us this month, friends!! BookSpin, DoubleSpin, and a free space all in the same row!!! Funny story, I had already drawn the BS number like a week ago because I'm in charge and can find out my own BS read early 😂 but didn't draw the DS number until after I had filled in the card! I couldn't believe when I pulled the 2!

Good luck, everyone!!

My regular monthly text/info below ⬇

Good morning, everyone! The moment you have all been waiting for!! Our official #BookSpin number is ELEVEN! Our official #DoubleSpin number is TWO!! I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at everyone‘s lists & am really looking forward to seeing your reviews!!

My next post will be the #BookSpinBingo card. I am NOT tagging anyone on that post!! If you want to bingo, please just check my profile for the card. This saves me having to double tag ⬇

I kind of fell of the bandwagon with posting on this one. Things have been a little crazy!!!

In the end, this book was just okay for me. There were parts that were interesting, but there was also way too much wandering around aimlessly - I never was sure what the actual point of this story was. Plus, I didn't particularly warm to David, who seemed conceited and not overly bright haha Some of the adventures were fun, but I didn't enjoy this ⬇

@kshakal - Thank you so much for this lovely #FoundFamilySwap package!!! I'm in love with this gorgeous tote bag!!!!

Thank you for hosting @KateLovesYA !!!

The conclusion to The Hoboken Chicken Emergency is just as ridiculous and fun as the first two. Nick and his two friends are bored in the summer heat and decide to try creating art. They make new friends, participate in an art contest, and visit a museum under the chaperonage of a giant chicken dressed as a nun. 😂 Somehow Pinkwater makes it work.

#SeriesLove2024 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
#100YearsofBooks (2005)
#BacklistReadathon

Nick's parents have sold their house in the suburbs and moved into the heart of Hoboken so he can experience urban culture. Luckily, Nick makes friends with two kids who live in the apartment next door. They spend the summer looking for the Phantom, who sometimes leaves odd gifts for people, and trying to find out more about a giant chicken who rampaged through the city years ago. Super fun sequel to The Hoboken Chicken Emergency.

Either you find Pinkwater's snarky, offbeat humor to be hilarious, or you find it to be completely bizarre and not particularly funny. I'm in the pro-Pinkwater camp and while this isn't as funny as The Snark-Out Boys and the Avocado of Death, it's still great fun.

Soft pick for this MG historical fiction about one of Daniel Boone's daughters, who adopts a cat just before the family heads west to Kentucky. It was a perfectly nice little story, but it covers several years so the pacing was a little odd for a younger reader's book. It also would have been nice to have a note from the author about what was made up for the story and what was based on real life. Not my favorite by Mason - I think I prefer ⬇

I ended up feeling pretty ambivalent towards my pick for this month's #ReadorDonate challenge. There are a lot of positive reviews for this one, but I found the pacing to be slow and never particularly warmed towards the characters. I never felt a sense of urgency, or like time was running out or that something bad was going to happen. Just... oh, your husband isn't who you thought he was. I guess we should find who he really was. Oh. Awkward. ⬇

Well friends, there is only a week left of March! What even! I'm not going to lie, I've been way more into playing Stardew Valley this week than reading, so maybe a new list is what I need to spice things back up 😂 If you're interested in spinning along for April, it's time to think about your lists. Looking forward to seeing what everyone is hoping to read!!

As always, the details about this challenge can be found on my blog at the link below ⬇

(thru ch21) - I don't know why, but this book just isn't really holding my interest much. There doesn't seem to really be a plot?? Just wandering around from place to place haha And the chapter where David was “stranded“ on the island because he was too dumb to check and see if he could cross when the tide was out... 😑

It's not a terrible read, but I find myself rather ambivalent towards it. What do you all think?

I think I'm in the minority here, but this one just wasn't for me, despite having really enjoyed some of Harper's other books. This story was just relentlessly depressing. With a strong focus on abuse and how that reverberates through a family even when the abuser is gone, plus some bonus content regarding rape, divorce, community ostracizing, depression, suicide, isolation, etc. I was just honestly sad the entire time I was reading this. ⬇

This book gets full marks for being absolutely lovely, with tons of beautiful photographs. However, while the theme was good, the material was very repetitive. They gave the steps for planning a garden (found in virtually any gardening book: hardscape, focal points, anchor plants, filler plants, groundcover), then said, “you can replace any of your regular plants with edible plants!!“ and then covered the same steps for your front yard, back yard⬇

A soft pick for the first #BakerStreetIrregulars buddy read. I liked the concept and the characters, but the pacing was all over the place. This definitely had “first book in a series“ vibes (hopefully it is!!), with a lot of character introductions. So many different mysteries meant that some things felt glossed over in the end. However, all in all a fun read, and I would definitely pick up a sequel.

I may regret this, because obviously I don't have enough buddy reads going on 😂, but is anyone interested in reading the Trixie Belden books with me? I'm thinking very similar to the Nancy Drew readalong - one book a month with a few discussion posts? Since we read ND in the first half of the month and discuss on the 15th, I'm thinking Trixie in the second half and discuss on the 30th?

If yes, start this month or in April?

@LitsyEvents

I'm not sure how many of you will be interested in April's #RandomClassic as it does center around Christianity, although I'm not sure I would exactly call it a religious book. Historical fiction published in 1942, this book topped the best seller list for months. The main story is about one of the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus and his journey, but there are a lot of other threads woven in. If anyone wants to read along, let me know!!

This #RandomClassic gets a soft pick from me. I actually loved Evelina and enjoyed much of the writing, but some of the scenes where we had to listen to obnoxious people being obnoxious just went on wayyyy too long. Still, parts were quite funny and overall this one was a lot of fun.

Thank you all for reading along with me!!

When I was ambivalent towards the first Lord Peter book, I had SO many people tell me that the series gets better as it goes along, so I've had the second book sitting about for quite some time waiting for me to pick it up. I did enjoy this one more (and found Lord Peter less annoying), but I also thought the mystery was a little weak. Still, I'll get around to book 3 one of these days. Soft pick.

Wow, reading the GR synopsis made me realize that my 1931 edition is LITERALLY an entirely different story from the later version! Maybe that's because this one didn't have a super cohesive mystery. It's mostly Nancy and her friends riding around mountains getting almost eaten by wild animals 😂 I was cracking up at the way some of the situations resolved themselves at the end (wife of husband with amnesia perfectly happy he's coming home with a ⬇

So in the end, the first book was my favorite of the four, but this was still a satisfying conclusion. There was one plot gimmick that mildly annoyed me (see spoiler), but these books are so ridiculous that I just kept rolling with it haha 100% absurd, shallow melodrama that I totally was into 😂

Soft pick for the third book in the series. This one got really repetitive to me (like I get it, being a not-white person dating white royalty is super tough, do we have to mention it in EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER??), although I did like the direction some of the drama went. So trashy, but I still am totally into it haha

I've had mixed results with Goudge's books, but this one was a win for me. She tends to write books that are more like interconnected character sketches for the first half of the story, so it's a slow start. But she also writes compellingly realistic and relatable people. Religion plays a big part here, but her characters don't use it as a crutch or a bandaid or an excuse. ⬇

(thru ch 13) Sorry I have kind of fallen off the face of the earth with this readalong!! Okay, so I literally had to do some research on the Jacobites and that whole deal. Stevenson has a much higher opinion of my historical knowledge than I deserve 😂

While this story is perfectly fine, I'm not in love with it or anything. But I can definitely see it appealing to its target audience with gold! Danger! Shipwrecks! Sword fights!

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(thru ch5) Well, I think we may be closing in on the kidnapping part of our story!! What's up with David's uncle? That almost-murder scene was actually a little terrifying!!!!

#RandomClassics
@BarkingMadRead @CatLass007 @ChelseaM6010 @julieclair @Lcsmcat @Read4life

Woohoo!! BookSpin and DoubleSpin in the same column with two free spaces!?!? I seriously did NOT plan this! I actually drew the BS and DS numbers AFTER I made the bingo card 😂 But hopefully this spiffy set up will give everyone a lil boost!!! Can't wait to see all of your cards!!

Regular info below ⬇

Good morning, everyone! The moment you have all been waiting for!! Our official #BookSpin number is TWO! Our official #DoubleSpin number is SEVENTEEN!! I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at everyone‘s lists & am really looking forward to seeing your reviews!!

My next post will be the #BookSpinBingo card. I am NOT tagging anyone on that post!! If you want to bingo, please just check my profile for the card. This saves me having to double tag ⬇

ch 1 - David is off to make his fortune!! Or maybe find out he has one when he meets his rich... relative?? I quite loved his sweet neighbor sending him off with three gifts (round, square, cubical haha) However, I'm seeming to find mixed results when I try to see if you can actually make Lily of the Valley tea, so maybe hold off on using that as a cure-all!

Looking forward to seeing where this adventures leads!!

#RandomClassic

What's going on. I should have hated this book, and instead I totally ate it up and can't wait until I get my hands on the second book 😂 This is absolutely ridiculous stuff, with shallow, vapid characters, so-so writing, a paper-thin plot, and 100% soap opera level drama on every page. LOVED IT 😆

#SeriesLove2024 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
#BacklistReadathon
#TPRC - The Double R @Yuki_Onna

Am I the only one reading this series who finds Laurence to be an insufferable twat? He literally refused to perform genocide at the end of the last book, and spends this entire book moping about it/sighing that he deserves to be killed for treason. To me, if you believe that what you did was right, then just blindly accepting the punishment for it makes no sense. Still an enjoyable read, but I'm here for Temeraire, not Eeyore-Laurence 😂

Not the tagged book, but by the same author. This horse story has languished on my shelves for decades, and I'm not sure why I've never read it. Published (and set) during the Korean War, a young man leaves for the armed forces. His younger brother, who has a club foot and is ineligible to fight, stays behind and raises the colt they're convinced can be a champion harness racer. While fairly typical horse book fare, I still really enjoyed this ⬇

I complained about this book at length on Goodreads, and on my blog. Short version: Emma Gatewood was amazing. Ben Montgomery's writing sucked, and the entire rhythm of this book made no sense. What I actually need are Emma's diaries.

#BookSpin - February
#ReadtheUSA2024 - Maine
#GottaCatchEmAll - Nature Featured Prominently @PuddleJumper
#BookSpinBingo

I had some trouble rating this book because the book itself can't quite seem to decide what it wants to be. It‘s also not exactly a novel, but somewhere in between. A novel with some thriller aspects. A slow-paced suspense with a lot of backstory. A spy story not about the spy at all. A missing person case with a long explanation as to why the detective takes on missing person cases. Something like that. The point is, I really enjoyed it. But⬇

I originally read these back in the early 90s when they were being published and I was close to the same age as the middle grade protagonists. Libby has been living with her aunt and uncle since her mother passed away, but now her dad, a steamboat captain on the Mississippi in 1857, thinks she is old enough to come live with him again. Libby learns about the evils of slavery (a topic she's never thought deeply about) and finds out that the cabin ⬇

I'm enjoying these way too much haha Fun concept, engaging characters, and secondary characters that I remember from book to book.

#SeriesLove2024 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
#100YearsofBooks
#GottaCatchEmAll - Set Someplace You Don't Live @PuddleJumper

I'm a sucker for kids' books from the 50s and 60s, but this one was a dud. I don't mind a young character being kind of not-smart/ignorant so that the reader can learn alongside of them, but the girl in this book was so stupid that I worried for her overall survival into adulthood. I think it was supposed to be funny? But it was just annoying lol

#Roll100 @PuddleJumper
#100YearsofBooks
#BookSpinBingo

Sorry, this book title cracked me up 😂 Forget the lottery, friends - come play March Madness AKA #BookSpin with me next month instead!!

If you'd like to play along, now is the time to be getting your list together!! I can't believe that we're almost done with February already!

Link to How This Challenge Works (can also always be found in my profile) - https://thearomaofbooks.wordpress.com/bookspin-bookspinbingo-litsy-challenge/

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Hey friends, here are a few options... I have roughly half a million more, so if none of these suit, I'll post another batch 😂 Let me know what you think!! #LMPBC
@Jerdencon @robinb @bookandbedandtea

Okay, last review for this morning. Another mixed-feelings read. I did like this one, although it's more “can't look away from the upcoming train wreck“ than it is thriller. There were a few things that just didn't jive for me. But the pacing was good - Jewell has a definite knack for making me think I should read just another chapter... or five. However, I'm not sure I'll pick up the sequel.

#Roll100 @PuddleJumper
#BookChain
#BookSpinBingo

I enjoyed the second book even more than the first. I'm getting better at skimming over the gory bits 😂 Basically, I love every character in this series. Even the sketchy ones. The concept for this world is so creative and engaging.

#SeriesLove2024 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
#100YearsofBooks (2008)
#GottaCatchEmAll - Woman in Charge @PuddleJumper
#BookSpinBingo