Hello y’all! How are you today? I hope you are feeling well both physically, mentally and emotionally. If you’re not, take care of yourself today. Drink water, take your meds, wrap yourself in a cocoon of blankets, and pick up a book that you love, an old favorite, if you will. I myself have very few spoons today, so writing this is a big accomplishment.
Today’s post is a WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words but was previously hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm. WWW Wednesday asks three simple questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
What are you currently reading?
The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
This is a book club pick for one of my groups. I started it on audiobook because it was on Scribd, but I’m not enjoying it. I find the narrator irritating. But not for the reason you think. I like her for one of the characters and not for the other one. It takes me out of the story every time I have to hear her read the one I don’t like, so I will be picking up a physical copy, or a Kindle one. I haven’t decided yet.
What did you recently finish reading?
The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Technically I haven’t finished this one yet. I’m just not in the mood to read it, unfortunately. I started it over a week ago and got a hundred pages into it and just lost interest. Now it is a good book. I was enjoying what I was reading, I just had life stuff happen and I haven’t picked the book up since. And to be perfectly honest, I probably won’t right now. I will try again later, but just not right now.
What do you think you’ll read next?
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
I just got this from my library, so I am excited to get started on it. I’ve heard such good things about this YA series and I hope it lives up to the hype. By the way, if you don’t use Libby (powered by Overdrive) through your local library, what are you doing? Check to see if your local library uses it and then sign up! It’s free! Libby is an app you can get on your phone, and you can read the books you get on it there or on your Kindle. I don’t know if it’s available everywhere, but I do know it’s available in the US and Canada.
Well, there is my WWW Wednesday for the week. What are you reading this week? Anything good I should know about that I can add to my seemingly never ending TBR Pile?
Welcome to November! Tis the season for cool weather, comfy, cozy blankets, hoodies, flannels, and hot tea. Well, I drink hot tea all year long. But still. Hot tea!
But why don’t you get flannels and blankets in October, you may ask? Well, I live in Texas. Fall starts in November. I mean, I guess fall started last week when a storm front brought in 65-degree weather with it. it also brought in raging winds that have knocked over trees and Burger King signs and put people’s trampolines into their neighbor’s backyard. Wind in Texas is no joke.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Top Ten Tuesday. But still, fall!
This is an absolutely wonderful book. It’s so heartwarming and lovely. But it’s slow-paced and doesn’t have to be read in one sitting, although you probably will. It’s full of positive LGBTQ+ rep and has a lovely reminder that what society deems as “different” does not mean bad.
Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Yes, another TJ Klune book. It’s also heartwarming and full of LBGTQ+ rep. But it also deals with death in a way that I haven’t seen before. It’s a medium-paced book that is sure to entertain you and make you cry along the way.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
The premise of this story is A+. The ending is amazing. The writing is fantastic. Another medium-paced book, but this one you won’t want to put down.
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
This detective story set in the near future has long been a favorite of mine. The In Death series is a great, quick read. It has murder, it has romance, it has a colorful cast of characters, also a hint of sci-fi in the future tech and flying cars. Also, it’s a great way to get someone to read Nora Roberts without telling them they are reading Nora Roberts.
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
An excellent start to another excellent series. It has everything. Vampires, werewolves, fae, romance, action, mysteries that need solving. These fast-paced books are quick easy reads that are sure to intrigue anyone who likes any of the creatures listed.
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
This short novella is perfect for the thoughtful, introspective person. It’s slow-paced, sweet, and really does make you think about what it means to be human. And those last few paragraphs, whew.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier
Have a science lover in your life? Or how about a hardcore sci-fi fan? Project Hail Mary is for them. This book is heavy on the science jargon, but it is so, so very good. It’s medium-paced, with a lot of fantastic elements to it. It’s a weird one to recommend to be sure, but for someone who loves the science of it all, it’s perfect.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
Absurd life comedy meets non-fiction in this memoir. You get it all. It’s one of my favorite books. In fact, if you want to ease someone into the world of non-fiction, have them try this as an audiobook. Sure, it’s missing the pictures, but it’s still a fun time.
This Place: 150 Years Retold By Various
Graphic Novels are a great way to get someone interested in reading. This collection of short stories told in word and art form are excellently done. The subject matter is very heavy and educational, but it’s a great place to really start with storytelling.
The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey
Want to introduce someone to fantasy but aren’t sure how? Try anything in the Valdemar universe. It’s high fantasy, but not epic fantasy, so it won’t seem too daunting. Plus the stories are just the right mix of light-hearted and heavy. Some are heavier than others (looking at you, Last Herald Mage trilogy).
I know I didn’t put all of my favorite books on this list, like A Discovery of Witches, but that’s because I think it would be too much for a reader who doesn’t really enjoy the experience.
And hey, don’t forget to suggest audiobooks to your non-reading friend. Even if they don’t pick up a physical or e-copy of a book, they can find enjoyment with audio copies. Sometimes those are easier to digest. And audiobooks are real reading!
Why is it, that when I think I have all the new releases for the month figured out, it turns out that I don’t? This is my life I guess. But the good news for you is that I have found more books for you to pre-order.
If you want to see other new releases for the month, you can go here. There are some good ones!
Unfortunately, due to supply line issues, the dates listed below are subject to change, but these are the publication dates as of November 2nd.
The Making of Incarnation by Tom McCarthy-Nov 2nd
Bodies in motion. Birds, bees and bobsleighs. What is the force that moves the sun and other stars? Where’s our fucking airplane? What’s inside Box 808, and why does everybody want it? Deep within the archives of time-and-motion pioneer Lillian Gilbreth lies a secret. Famous for producing solid light-tracks that captured the path of workers’ movements, Gilbreth helped birth the era of mass observation and big data. But did she also, as her broken correspondence with a young Soviet physicist suggests, discover in her final days a “perfect” movement, one that would “change everything”?
An international hunt begins for the one box missing from her records, and we follow contemporary motion-capture consultant Mark Phocan, as well as his collaborators and shadowy antagonists, across geopolitical fault lines and through strata of personal and collective history. Meanwhile, work is underway on the blockbuster movie Incarnation, an epic space tragedy.
This book sounds weird, but in a good way.
Cosmogramma by Courttia Newland-Nov 2nd
Kill parties roam the streets of a post-apocalyptic world; a matriarchal race of mer creatures depends on interbreeding with mortals to survive; mysterious seeds appear in cities across the world, growing into the likeness of people in their vicinity.
Through transfigured bodies and impossible encounters, Newland brings a sharp, fresh eye to age-old themes of the human capacity for greed, ambition, and self-destruction, but ultimately of our strength and resilience.
This afro-futurist short story collection sounds really great. I’m going to add it to my Christmas list.
Gilded by Marissa Meyer-Nov 2nd
Long ago cursed by the god of lies, a poor miller’s daughter has developed a talent for spinning stories that are fantastical and spellbinding and entirely untrue.
Or so everyone believes.
When one of Serilda’s outlandish tales draws the attention of the sinister Erlking and his undead hunters, she finds herself swept away into a grim world where ghouls and phantoms prowl the earth and hollow-eyed ravens track her every move. The king orders Serilda to complete the impossible task of spinning straw into gold, or be killed for telling falsehoods. In her desperation, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious boy to her aid. He agrees to help her… for a price. Love isn’t meant to be part of the bargain.
Soon Serilda realizes that there is more than one secret hidden in the castle walls, including an ancient curse that must be broken if she hopes to end the tyranny of the king and his wild hunt forever.
I have yet to read a Marissa Meyer book, but I’ve heard good things.
Comfort Me With Apples by Cathrynne M Valente-Nov 9th
Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.
It’s just that he’s away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.
But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband’s face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can’t quite meet her gaze…
But everything is perfect. Isn’t it?
This one was originally supposed to come out in October, and it slipped under my radar then. I’m not missing it now!
The Perishing by Natasha Deon-Nov 9th
Lou, a young Black woman, wakes up in an alley in 1930s Los Angeles with no memory of how she got there or where she’s from. Taken in by a caring foster family, Lou dedicates herself to her education while trying to put her mysterious origins behind her. She’ll go on to become the first Black female journalist at the Los Angeles Times, but Lou’s extraordinary life is about to take an even more remarkable turn. When she befriends a firefighter at a downtown boxing gym, Lou is shocked to realize that though she has no memory of meeting him, she’s been drawing his face for years.
Increasingly certain that their paths previously crossed—and beset by unexplainable flashes from different eras haunting her dreams—Lou begins to believe she may be an immortal sent here for a very important reason, one that only others like her can explain. Setting out to investigate the mystery of her existence, Lou must make sense of the jumble of lifetimes calling to her, just as new forces threaten the existence of those around her.
The idea of immortals walking among us has always intrigued me. Plus, I got this book with Book of the Month last month so, yeah.
The Every by Dave Eggers-Nov16th
Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire at the Every. A former forest ranger and unwavering tech skeptic, she charms her way into an entry-level job with one goal in mind: to take down the company from within. With her compatriot, the not-at-all-ambitious Wes Makazian, they look for the Every’s weaknesses, hoping to free humanity from all-encompassing surveillance and the emoji-driven infantilization of the species. But does anyone want what Delaney is fighting to save? Does humanity truly want to be free?
This sounds like something that would happen now, and not something that would happen in the not-so-distant future. Creepy.
You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo-Nov 16th
TwiceFar station is at the edge of the known universe, and that’s just how Niko Larson, former Admiral in the Grand Military of the Hive Mind, likes it.
Retired and finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the remnants of her former unit are content to spend the rest of their days working at the restaurant they built together, The Last Chance.
But, some wars can’t ever be escaped, and unlike the Hive Mind, some enemies aren’t content to let old soldiers go. Niko and her crew are forced onto a sentient ship convinced that it is being stolen and must survive the machinations of a sadistic pirate king if they even hope to keep the dream of The Last Chance alive.
Honestly, I made this list just for the title of this book alone. I mean, can you blame me.
Mind Bullet by Jeremy Robinson-Nov 23rd
Jonas kills people…with his mind. He reaches out, focuses for a moment, and feels a snap of pain between his eyes. Then his target falls over dead, a hole in the center of their brains. The cause of death is unknown to all aside from Jonas, and his lone companion: Bubbles, a sarcastic AI with aspirations to be more human, or a serial killer. One of the two. Maybe both. Jonas calls his ability…
MIND BULLET
Sensing Jonas is lonely and depressed, Bubbles arranges for Madee, a Thai delivery woman by day, and a thief by night, to enter his life. For a moment: sparks. But chaos follows as the people Madee last robbed catch up to her. They also happen to be the Shrieking Ninjas. After surviving the assault, Jonas and Madee find themselves on the run, and a 10 million dollar hit called on Jonas.
Killers from all over the globe pursue the pair as they run for their lives and headlong into Jonas’s mysterious past, uncovering the surreal origins and extent of his abilities. They discover a dark and twisted history that threatens to unravel his mind and leave him susceptible to control. Working with Bubbles, Madee, and a growing list of new allies, Jonas battles his way through waves of assassins, some with abilities like his, all to protect the world from a recently discovered, untraceable weapon of mass destruction—himself.
This one sounds like a rip-roaring good time! Also, where did rip-roaring come from? That’s not usually part of my repertoire.
King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Claire-Nov 30th
Their union is his revenge.
Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day to be her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him.
But her assassination attempt is thwarted, and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries to kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court.
Except it isn’t the court she fears most—it’s Adrian. Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the king—fierce, savage, merciless—chose her as consort.
The answer will shatter her world.
Vampires seem to be making a comeback. But spooky vampires. Wait, is this spooky vampires?
Ledge by Stacey McEwan-Nov 30th
If she has to cut her own fouled toes from her feet, she will. She will crawl to the bottom if she must. But even so, as the frost steals through her clothes and claims her by inches, she wonders if it wouldn’t be wiser not to follow him any longer. She wonders if it would hurt less to lie here and let the cold take her. Dawsyn does not know what it is to live below. She was born on the Ledge – a natural prison enclosed by a vast chasm and sheer mountain face. When an opportunity to escape the Ledge presents itself for the first time in half a century, Dawsyn must take it. All she has to do is trust the very creature who kept her captive in the first place.
Ooh, creatures. But what kind of creature? Inquiring minds want to know.
And there you go. Some more fun new releases for November! Remember, some of these dates will change, so keep an eye out if you are waiting to pre-order something. Also, If you don’t pre-order and a book sells out, be prepared for the second printing to take a while. A book I am planning on getting is going for its second printing and that won’t be available until March of next year! March! Ugh.
It’s almost time for my re-watch of Gilmore Girls. Which means it’s almost November. That means it’s monthly wrap-up time!
More New Releases-October 2021: I started this month off a little differently with the new releases for the month. This is the second new release of October posts I have written. I hope you go your orders in! Especially because one of the books I mentioned in my original post is headed to a second printing but won’t be available until March! March!
TTT-Bookish Pet Peeves: This week’s Top Ten Tuesday was bookish pet peeves. I liked coming up with this list. The last one on that list is my favorite.
WWW Wednesday-October 6th: This is the week I read Child of Light. There is a review post later on in this post.
Every Book I Read in September 2021: I read ten books in September. What a month. Of course, it was helped along by all the Mercy Thompson books I read. But still. Ten books!
Child of Light-A Book Review: And here is where I reviewed Child of Light by Terry Brooks. Spoiler alert, I didn’t love it.
TTT- Favorite Book Settings: A list of my favorite book settings. There were the obligatory ones, like Middle Earth and Hogwarts, but also some not-so-obvious ones.
WWW Wednesday-October 13th: I was reading two books at once this week. I’m not saying I have a problem, but I have a problem.
Book Haul-September 2021: And this is where I posted my September Book Haul. Just wait until you see October’s!
First Lines Friday-October 17th: This was my first attempt at First Lines Friday. I have seen other bloggers do this and thought I would give it a try.
A Spooky TBR-October 2021: My TBR for the month was filled with spooky books, which is funny because I don’t read spooky books. Usually.
TTT-Online Resources For Book Lovers: I shared my favorite online things for book lovers. But I feel like I left one off. Bookshop.org. It’s a great website that supports local bookstores.
WWW Wednesday-October 20th: I was reading A Cosmology of Monsters at this point. I did not finish that one.
The Ex Hex-A Book Review: Um, I reviewed a book. Twas a good book. Read more about it in my review!
Noor-A Book Review: I read Noor by Nnedi Okorafor. I liked it. Check out the full review.
TTT-Halloween Freebie: This mess of a post was all of my favorite Halloween things. It included things from The Addams Family to that 12-foot skeleton.
WWW Wednesday-October 27th: In which I admit to my love of fanfiction. AO3 for the win!
Why Do I DNF?: A post that includes all the reasons I DNF a book. Of course, now that I’ve posted this list, I will for sure think of something else to add to the list.
First Lines Friday-October 29th: I must say, I am loving doing this meme. It’s a lot of fun picking out the books I use for the first lines. Mind you this is only my third post for this meme, but still.
My two most popular posts for the month were WWW Wednesday-October 6th and TTT Tuesday-Online Resources for Book Lovers. It’s always fun to go back and see these things!
I hope you all enjoy this Saturday before Halloween! Happy Spooky Days!
Happy Friday folks! How was your week? Did you take care of yourself? Drink lots of water?
I forgot to drink all the water. Oops.
Friday means it’s First Lines Friday!
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
The Lines:
People who move to New York always make the same mistake. They can’t see the place. This is true of Manhattan, but even the outer boroughs, too, be it Flushing Meadows in Queens or Red Hook in Brooklyn. They come looking for magic, whether evil or good, and nothing will convince them it isn’t here.
Intrigued?
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there.
Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.
A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?
I’m on a novella kick for First Lines Friday it seems. This book is on my TBR for October, but the question is, will I get to it?
There are people out there who chose to suffer through a book they are not enjoying.
I am not one of those people.
I will chuck that book into the donate/resell pile.
But why do I choose to DNF a book? What criteria does a book have to meet to be ding dong ditched?
The Writing. I’m not a big fan of overly flowery prose or frantic, chaotic writing. Those are really big warning signs for me. I may try to listen to flowery prose as an audiobook, but sometimes that doesn’t even work and the book ends up in the DNF pile.
The Plot. My goodness, this can be terrible. Is there anything worse than getting 100 pages into a book and still not knowing anything about the plot? I hate it when that happens. That usually leads to a DNF. Usually. If the characters are great, sometimes, sometimes, I can forgive it, but that’s very, very rarely.
Speaking of Characters. Weak characters in a book. Ugh. And I don’t mean can’t hold a sword or even a pen. No, I mean they can’t hold the weight of the story. Just no. There is no redeeming a book like that. Not even for a good plot.
Bad art style. This one is a bit niche, but it has a place. I like graphic novels, but if the art style is bad, I won’t make it through. Or, maybe I will make it through, but I’ll hate myself a little afterward.
But what if a book has everything and I still DNF it? Well, it must not be fun. I like having a good time while I read, and a book can have everything I’m looking for in a story, and lack that fun factor. I do make exceptions to this rule, for example when a book deals with serious subject matter or non-fiction reads, but for the most part, it has to be fun!
And there you have it. My list of reasons to DNF a book. Why do you DNF a book?
Well, it’s another WWW Wednesday where I didn’t write the post the day before. In all fairness, I stopped reading my book towards the beginning of it last week and fell down a fanfiction rabbit hole. My favorite pairing at the moment is Darcy Lewis, you know, from Thor and WandaVision, paired with almost anyone from the MCU. Reading a backlog of those took about four days. And there are a ton of good stories there.
Remember, any reading is valid!
On to WWW Wednesday! WWW Wednesday is hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words but was previously hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm. WWW Wednesday asks three simple questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
What are you currently reading?
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
I’m not gonna lie, I barely started this one before I got distracted by the aforementioned fanfiction. But I have picked it up again and what I have been reading has intrigued me. It’s the story of a group of Final Girls that meets in a support group led by their therapist. When one of the girls turns up dead, they all wonder if they could be next. Such is the life of a final girl.
What did you recently finish reading?
A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill
I must confess, I didn’t actually finish this one. I DNF’d it. It wasn’t because I thought it would be cute horror (what was I thinking?), it was because it just wasn’t very good. The premise was interesting. A kid whose family has built their lives around the fact that their dad sees monsters, but Noah sees monsters too, and he lets them inside. It just fell really flat for me.
What do you think you’ll read next?
River Marked by Patricia Briggs
Honestly, I’m on the fence about what I’ll read once I’ve finished Final Girls. I have two novella’s left to read to finish my TBR off, but I want to read something I know I’m going to enjoy. So it will probably be River Marked, the sixth book in the Mercy Thompson series. Can’t tell you the plot, because it’s the sixth book, but I will say, Mercy gets in touch with her Indigenous roots.
And there ya go. My WWW Wednesday. I can’t believe I spent so much time reading fanfiction in the last week. It really is a time suck. But a fun one!
My copy of Noor by Nnedi Okorafor was kindly provided by NetGalley and DAW publishing for a thoroughly honest review. Thanks!
Noor is, as of writing this, scheduled for release on November 16, 2021.
Noor is the story of AO, a young woman who, through circumstances of her birth and a car accident, is heavily augmented. One day, while shopping in the market, everything goes horribly wrong. Now she is on the run. Along the way she meet a Fulani tribesman named DNA, who also finds himself on the run.
Since everything is streamed, the whole world has seen their crimes and is glued to their screens watch the chase play out. Now AO and DNA must flee from their pursuers across the unforgiving desert, with very little hope of survival.
I guess I should start off by saying that I really enjoyed Binti by the author. I thought that book was really well done, so I hoped this book would be just as thought provoking and entertaining as that one was. And I wasn’t disappointed.
Noor was a fast paced adventure story that also encourages you to stick it to the man. Or, at the very least, the very large corporation. It uses Africanfuturism (the author’s preferred way of calling it) to tout the dangers of letting a corporation become to big.
The characters are wonderfully written. You really feel for AO and DNA’s plight as they race through the unforgiving desert wasteland that makes up their only refuge. AO and DNA could not be more different and yet their dynamic is brilliantly done.
Speaking of the desert. Nope. Do not want to go there. Not even for a short visit. The desert in Nigeria has undergone a massive cataclysm that makes it inhospitable to human life, and it’s there that our main characters must flee.
This book did not end the way I thought it would, which is a good thing. But I also think it was the only way it could have ended. I dislike predictable endings. Because when I say I really thought it was going to end a different way, I mean it.
But what do I rate it? I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
Wait? Why am I so excited? I’m a homemaker! Every day is Friday for me should I so choose.
I usually don’t choose. I have stuff to do, okay! This house doesn’t clean itself.
I liked doing First Lines Friday last week, so I decided to keep on doing it.
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
The Lines:
“The scene at the front door was seared into Khild’s mind: a child, hanging by a chain from the second story window, his swollen, bloody face confronting her as she approached the manor. Protocol was to leave the location of the crime untainted for as long as possible. Khlid had nonetheless ordered a beat cop to remove the horrid sight-the boy, no older than ten, deserved his dignity-but the chain was thick and the officer was still sawing away.”
Intrigued?
Breach of Peace by Daniel B. Greene
An imperial family is found butchered. Officers of God are called to investigate. Evidence points to a rebel group trying to seed fear into the very heart of the empire itself. Inspector Khlid takes the case and begins a harrowing hunt for those responsible. But when a larger conspiracy comes to light, will Inspector Khlid be able to trust those working within her own precinct?
This novella is a first offering from YouTuber Daniel Green. I don’t usually pick up YouTuber books, but this one caught my eye. I had a great time reading this detective story meets fantasy world. It was great. And as for wanting more in the world, well, there is a sequel coming out soon.
This book was published by Avon and was released on September 28, 2021.
At the beginning of the book, Vivienne is 19 and just having had her heart broken. She and her cousin, Gwyn, decide to use their witchy wiles (and a Bath & Body Works candle) to curse her ex, Rhys, with silly things like bad hair days and not being able to please a woman. Then the book jumps 9 years to a 28 year old Vivienne, who is more self assured but still dreading Rhys’ arrival in town.
Rhys pretty much knows who he is. He’s confident in his magic, successful in his business, and always dreads trips home to see his overbearing father. So imagine his surprise when his father sends him to Graves Glen for a short trip to recharge the mystical town’s ley lines.
Of course, that’s when everything starts to go horribly wrong and Vivi realizes her curse may have actually worked. Now Vivi and Rhys have to work together to stop the curse before something terrible happens to Rhys or Graves Glen.
I have a confession. I don’t read romance books. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate them. I just like it when my romance has a fantastical element to it. Or is a fantasy book with a little bit of romance in it.
That being said, I did enjoy myself reading this book. I thought it was a lot of fun and cute and quirky.
The setting was wonderful. I found myself wanting to visit Graves Glen and when the book ended I was sad that I wasn’t going to be able to stay there. It gave Stars Hollow vibes, but in Georgia.
The plot was well executed with a nice twist that I didn’t know you could get from a romance book. Shows what I know. The medium pace of the book was pretty consistent throughout, though there is a sense of urgency that sets in at one point.
The characters were simply divine. I enjoyed each of them and Gwyn, Vivienne’s cousin, was an absolute hoot. I would love to see a story featuring her, please.
When I finished this book, I found myself wanting more from this world, which I didn’t expect. As a result I have to give this book 4 stars!
Lauren Corcur 