Tag: tbr

November TBR

Lauren2 Comments

Quick question. Is it too early to break out the Holiday graphics for the blog yet? I’m a major Christmas decorating person and will be decorating my house next week, hopefully, and I just wanted to know if you think it’s too early to decorate my blog too. Personal opinion, it’s never too early. But what do you think? Let me know.

But since it is still November I suppose I should just make a TBR while I have the chance. Not a big TBR mind you, but a nice one.

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

This is a book club pick for the month of November and I am super excited. Recursion is one of the best Sci-Fi books I had read in a while and I absolutely loved it. I have high hopes for this one, although the mixed reviews I have heard about it give me a little hesitancy.

Isn’t it Bromantic by Lyssa Kay Adams

The Bromance Book Club series has been one of the highlights of my romance reading journey thus far. This is the fourth entry in the series and I have already started it. I’m enjoying it very much.

The Unbound Empire by Melissa Caruso

The third and final book in the Swords and Fire trilogy, I have been meaning to get to this one for a while, and just haven’t hit it yet. For shame, but I do have a problem finishing series. I just don’t want the stories to end.

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

I have been looking forward to this one for a while now, and I am going to make myself read it before the third full-length story comes out next year. My friend just finished it and was very sad the book was over. She needs more now!

And that is my small TBR for the month. Let’s see if I actually stick to it instead of wandering off the path like I normally do!

A Witchy TBR

Lauren2 Comments

October is my favorite month. Well, one of them, it’s tied with December if I’m honest.

I decided to do a bewitching TBR this month. I have collected quite a few witchy Rom Coms over the last few months, and this is the perfect month to read them! I also have one that is not a romance…spooky.

The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling

Gwyn Jones is perfectly happy with her life in Graves Glen. She, her mom, and her cousin have formed a new and powerful coven; she’s running a successful witchcraft shop, Something Wicked; and she’s started mentoring some of the younger witches in town. As Halloween approaches, there’s only one problem—Llewellyn “Wells” Penhallow.

Wells has come to Graves Glen to re-establish his family’s connection to the town they founded as well as to make a new life for himself after years of being the dutiful son in Wales. When he opens up a shop of his own, Penhallow’s, just across the street from Something Wicked, he quickly learns he’s gotten more than he bargained for in going up against Gwyn.

When their professional competition leads to a very personal—and very hot—kiss, both Wells and Gwyn are determined to stay away from each other, convinced the kiss was just a magical fluke. But when a mysterious new coven of witches come to town and Gwyn’s powers begin fading, she and Wells must work together to figure out just what these new witches want and how to restore Gwyn’s magic before it’s too late.

From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper

Wild child Isidora Avramov is a thrill chaser, adept demon summoner, and—despite the whole sexy-evil-sorceress vibe—also a cuddly animal lover. When she’s not designing costumes and new storylines for the Arcane Emporium’s haunted house, Issa’s nursing a secret, conflicted dream of ditching her family’s witchy business to become an indie fashion designer in her own right. 

But when someone starts sabotaging the celebrations leading up to this year’s Beltane festival with dark, dangerous magic, a member of the rival Thorn family gets badly hurt—throwing immediate suspicion on the Avramovs. To clear the Avramov name and step up for her family when they need her the most, Issa agrees to serve as a co-investigator, helping none other than Rowan Thorn get to the bottom of things.

Rowan is the very definition of lawful good, so tragically noble and by-the-book he makes Issa’s teeth hurt. In accordance with their families’ complicated history, he and Issa have been archenemies for years and have grown to heartily loathe each other. But as the unlikely duo follow a perplexing trail of clues to a stunning conclusion, Issa and Rowan discover how little they really know each other… and stumble upon a maddening attraction that becomes harder to ignore by the day.

Not the Witch You Wed by April Asher

Magic-less witch Violet Maxwell wants nothing to do with alpha wolf shifter Lincoln Thorne―the man who broke her fragile, teenage heart. But when the two of them are forced by arcane Supernatural Laws to find mates, Violet and Lincoln agree to fake-date their way to a fake-mating in order to conjure themselves some time.

The joke’s on them. When old feelings make a reappearance―along with Violet’s magic―they both realize there’s nothing fake about their feelings. But there are old secrets and looming threats that could snatch away their happily ever after, again. One thing’s for sure: magic doesn’t make dating and love any easier.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos “pretending” to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
 
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
 
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when peril comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….

Small Town, Big Magic by Hazel Beck

Emerson Wilde has built the life of her dreams. Youngest Chamber of Commerce president in St. Cyprian history, successful indie bookstore owner, and lucky enough to have her best friends as found family? Done.

But when Emerson is attacked by creatures that shouldn’t be real, and kills them with what can only be called magic, Emerson finds that the past decade of her life has been…a lie. St. Cyprian isn’t your average Midwestern river town—it’s a haven for witches. When Emerson failed a power test years ago, she was stripped of her magical memories. Turns out, Emerson’s friends are all witches.

And so is she.

That’s not all, though: evil is lurking in the charming streets of St. Cyprian. Emerson will need to learn to control what’s inside of her, remember her magic, and deal with old, complicated feelings for her childhood friend–cranky-yet-gorgeous local farmer Jacob North—to defeat an enemy that hides in the rivers and shadows of everything she loves.

Even before she had magic, Emerson would have done anything for St. Cyprian, but now she’ll have to risk not just her livelihood…but her life.

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais

Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby—one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for thirty-three years—will surely be their salvation.

But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a legacy he claims was rightfully his. In an act of desperation, Queenie makes a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced. Then things take a turn for the worse when Ruby’s homecoming reveals a seemingly insurmountable obstacle instead of the solution to all their problems.

The witches are determined to save their home and themselves, but their aging powers are no match for increasingly malicious threats. Thankfully, they get a bit of help from Persephone, a feisty TikToker eager to smash the patriarchy. As the deadline to save the manor approaches, fractures among the sisterhood are revealed, and long-held secrets are exposed, culminating in a fiery confrontation with their enemies.

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon―like all other book eater women―is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn’t always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger―not for books, but for human minds.

And that is my TBR for the month. And yes, it is ambitious for me, but I have already read three of them so I’m hoping I’ll be okay. What does your TBR look like?

Current Read: The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

A Very Small June TBR

Lauren4 Comments

Hello beautiful people! And how are you doing this rainy Thursday? I had to take the cat to the vet this morning…always a good time.

I thought I’d go over my very short TBR for June with you today. I think going forward I’m either not going to do TBR’s or I’m going to keep them super short. I seem to be mood reading lately and I enjoy that a lot.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

This was a book club pick for the month. It helps that I also already own this one. Go me!

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Two boys, alone in space. Sworn enemies sent on the same rescue mission.

Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor with no memory of a launch. There’s more that doesn’t add up: evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship’s operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed—not when he’s rescuing his own sister.

In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust each other . . . especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.

I picked this one up from the library, and I am determined to read it before it is due to go back!

And that’s it. That’s my TBR. Short, sweet, and easy! What is on your TBR?

Purging My TBR: Part One

Lauren5 Comments

Well hello, beautiful people! How are you doing? Today I have been inspired by Kerri McBookNerd to do a TBR Purge. I have over 200 books on my Goodreads TBR and some of them have been there for years. Time to get rid of a few.

On to the Purge!

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

So I actually bought this book back in 2013 and have tried to read it several times. I’ve always put it down with the reasoning that I was going to pick it back up again. I’m never going to pick it back up. I do love that cover though. But away with you!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I know this book series is much loved. And I own the first book! I just never picked it up and I don’t think I ever will. I’m sorry cyberpunk Cinderella, you just aren’t for me.

Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer

This one has been on my TBR for soo long that I didn’t remember what it was about. It’s about a guy who can alter reality and he escapes persecution by traveling back to the middle ages. Apparently, you have to read it on a tablet, and not a kindle, as it’s got GIFS and other moving images. That’s just a little too much for me.

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure why this classic sci-fi book has made its way onto my TBR. I don’t own it, and I try to only put books I own onto my TBR, so that’s out. A moment of weakness maybe? Perhaps it was on Kindle Unlimited for a short period of time? Who knows. All I know now is that it’s being removed.

Dark Highway by Lisa Gray

I read the first book in the series for book club two years ago, and while I thought it was just okay, I didn’t really like it enough to continue on with the series. And I’m not sure why, but I only had book three of the series on my TBR, not book two. Go figure.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Okay, so here’s the thing. I keep DNF’ing this book. But I also keep re-adding it to my TBR. I think this time I’m just going to remove it from my TBR and say that’s that. No more trying this book. I mean, after three attempts you have to say enough is enough.

Machinehood by S.B. Divya

So here is another one I do not own that is on my TBR. I’m removing it based on that criterion alone. Not that I’m not interested in this book, it’s just that I’ve also been discovering that hard sci-fi doesn’t interest me the way that it used to. Which is a shame, because I keep buying it!

Well, I think that’s enough purging for today. I actually have to go add books to my TBR today, as I have bought some physical books recently that need to be added. I’m sure the people that follow me on Goodreads hate me when I do that. I never add as I go. I need to work on that.

March 2022 TBR

Lauren3 Comments

Well hello, beautiful people! I’m having a productive day, choosing what I’m going to read for my TBR. I’m not gonna lie, this is a short one. Which leaves more time to read (or re-read) other books! Huzzah!

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

Lord Colum of Sevenwaters is blessed with six sons: Liam, a natural leader; Diarmid, with his passion for adventure; twins Cormack and Conor, each with a different calling; rebellious Finbar, grown old before his time by his gift of the Sight; and the young, compassionate Padriac.

But it is Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, who alone is destined to defend her family and protect her land from the Britons and the clan known as Northwoods. For her father has been bewitched, and her brothers bound by a spell that only Sorcha can lift.

To reclaim the lives of her brothers, Sorcha leaves the only safe place she has ever known, and embarks on a journey filled with pain, loss, and terror.

When she is kidnapped by enemy forces and taken to a foreign land, it seems that there will be no way for her to break the spell that condemns all that she loves. But magic knows no boundaries, and Sorcha will have to choose between the life she has always known and a love that comes only once.

This is the pick for my in-person book club. I’ve read this book a few times and am thrilled it got picked. It’s a chunky book though, but I’m really looking forward to it.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil.

Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.

But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed—to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

This is the pick for my online book club, Literarily Wasted. This book won by only one vote in the Facebook poll, which I am glad for, as I had DNF’d the book it was neck and neck with.

Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.

What Tom doesn’t tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They’re the universe’s largest and most dangerous panda and they’re in trouble.

It’s not just the Kaiju Preservation Society who have found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

I got an ARC for this from NetGalley and as I liked the last book I read from John Scalzi, I have high hopes for this one.

The Impossible Us by Sarah Lotz

Bee thinks she has everything: a successful business repurposing wedding dresses, and friends who love and support her. She’s given up on finding love, but that’s fine. There’s always Tinder. Nick thinks he has nothing: his writing career has stalled after early promise and his marriage is on the rocks, but that’s fine. There’s always gin. So when one of Nick’s emails, a viciously funny screed intended for a non-paying client, accidentally pings into Bee’s inbox, they decide to keep the conversation going. After all, they never have to meet.  

But the more they get to know each other, the more Bee and Nick realize they want to. They both notice strange pop culture or political references that crop up in their correspondence, but nothing odd enough to stop Bee and Nick for falling hard for each other. But when their efforts to meet in real life fail spectacularly, Bee and Nick discover that they’re actually living in near-identical but parallel worlds. With a universe between them, Bee and Nick will discover how far they’ll go to beat impossible odds.

I also received an ARC of this through NetGalley. This one has a lot of potential, and I love the way that description sounds.

I decided to keep my TBR short this month because I did so well with a short TBR last month. There isn’t a lot of pressure on me to read a ton of books. Which is good, because I am a mood reader and it hurts when I can’t just grab a book off the shelf to enjoy. More power to you if you can make a TBR and stick to it, I don’t have much luck with that.

What does your TBR look like?

A Romantic TBR: February 2022

Lauren1 Comment

We hello beautiful people! Today is an auspicious day! Today I announce my romance reads TBR!

I know, I’ve never been a big romance reader in the past, but I have enjoyed a few of the books that have come my way, and I want to continue doing so. So I picked a few books out that come highly recommended!

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. After all, her father was never around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before her daughter was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close but working constantly to stay afloat is hard…and lonely.

But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers:This Jess understands.

At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get ‘to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess—who is barely making ends meet—is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought.

I enjoyed In A Holidaze enough to give this writing duo a second chance. Naturally, I picked this one. Its concept amuses me.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

Apparently this book started its life as a Reylo fanfic, so I was sold by that alone. Also, if you throw a rock you can hit someone on the internet who has read and loved this book. I hope it lives up to the hype.

Spolier Alert by Olivia Dade

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. The world may know him as Aeneas, star of the biggest show on television, but fanfiction readers call him something else: Book!AeneasWouldNever. Marcus gets out his frustrations with the show through anonymous stories about the internet’s favorite couple, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone discovered his online persona, he’d be finished in Hollywood.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s long hidden her fanfic and cosplay hobbies from her “real life”—but not anymore. When she dares to post her latest costume creation on Twitter, her plus-size take goes viral. And when Marcus asks her out to spite her internet critics, truth officially becomes stranger than fanfiction.

On their date, Marcus quickly realizes he wants more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. But when he discovers she’s Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to keep from her.

With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?

Another book that had all the internet hype. I’m hoping it lives up to it because fanfic and a plus-sized protagonist? Yes please.

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
 
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
 
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
 
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

I picked this one up because a friend really seemed to like it. That seems to be the theme of this month’s read. Not romance. People told me it was good. That’s the theme.

Assorted In Death Books by J.D. Robb

So I’m not going to pick any particular books in the series to read, as that might get overwhelming and throw off my pace. I don’t want that. So I’m just going to read how many books I have time to get to! Go me for setting a boundary!

Well, that’s my TBR this month. I’m keeping it short in the hopes that I will make it to all of them. What does your TBR look like?

What’s On My TBR? January 2022

Lauren2 Comments

Hello beautiful people! It’s time for me to tell you my lofty goals for my TBR. I’m pretty sure I’m going to fail again, but I really don’t care! My new philosophy for this year is “as long as I’m reading”!

So what, then, is the point of doing a TBR? Well, it’s fun for starters. It’s also nice to see where the reading gods take me, however far or close to my TBR that may be.

That being said, let us get the book club picks out of the way first!

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.

But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world but the entire multiverse.

Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan

An American woman is summoned by a remote tribe of nomadic Aboriginals who call themselves the “Real People” to accompany them on a four-month-long walkabout through the Outback. While traveling barefoot with them through 1,400 miles of rugged desert terrain, she learns a new way of life, including their methods of healing, based on the wisdom of their 50,000-year-old culture. Ultimately, she experiences a dramatic personal transformation.

Mutant Message Down Under recounts a unique, timely, and powerful life-enhancing message for all humankind: It is not too late to save our world from destruction if we realize that all living things–be they plants, animals, or human beings–are part of the same universal oneness. If we heed the message, our lives, like the lives of the Real People, can be filled with this great sense of purpose.

And on to the non-book club books!

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history–performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society’s watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can’t have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.

This one is a library loan, so I have to read it quick!

Servant Mage by Kate Elliot

Fellian is a Lamplighter, able to provide illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots from an underground complex of mines.

Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good.

But Fellian has more than just her Lamplighting skills up her sleeve…

I am reading this one because one, Kate Elliot, and two, I was approved for the ARC through NetGalley. A review is forthcoming. I just have to read the novella first.

A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass

Nearly a century ago, Gwen Engel’s great-great-grandfather cast a spell with catastrophic side-effects. As a result, the Grand Council of Witches forbade his descendants from practicing witchcraft. The Council even planted anonymous snitches called Watchers in the community to report any errant spellcasting…
 
Yet magic may still be alive and not so well in Zenobia. Gwen and her cousins, Trudy and Milo, receive a letter from Gwen’s adopted sister, Tannith, informing them that she’s bewitched one of their partners and will run away with him at the end of the week. While Gwen frets about whether to trust her scientist boyfriend, currently out of town on a beetle-studying trip, she’s worried that local grad student Jeremy is secretly a Watcher doing his own research.
 
Cousin Trudy is so stressed that she accidentally enchants her cupcakes, creating havoc among her bakery customers—and in her marriage. Perhaps it’s time the family took back control and figured out how to harness their powers. How else can Gwen decide whether her growing feelings for Jeremy are real—or the result of too many of Trudy’s cupcakes?

Okay, this was totally a NetGalley cover pick. Also, I want to read more romantic comedies! But yes, there will be a review soon.

Fan Fiction: A Memnoir by Brent Spiner

Set in 1991, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation has rocketed the cast to global fame, the young and impressionable actor Brent Spiner receives a mysterious package and a series of disturbing letters, that take him on a terrifying and bizarre journey that enlists Paramount Security, the LAPD, and even the FBI in putting a stop to the danger that has his life and career hanging in the balance.

Featuring a cast of characters from Patrick Stewart to Levar Burton to Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, to some completely imagined, this is the fictional autobiography that takes readers into the life of Brent Spiner, and tells an amazing tale about the trappings of celebrity and the fear he has carried with him his entire life.

I’ve been meaning to pick this book up since I bought it in October. It just sounds fun.

And there it is. My completely do-able, probably not going to happen, TBR!

JK, some of these books are rather short, so I should be able to do all of these no problem. Wish me luck!

A Festive TBR- December 2021

Lauren5 Comments

hello beautiful humans! I hope you are doing well this fine day! Me, I’m fine. A little disgruntled that it’s not Christmas yet!

Oh well. I shall tide myself over with festive movies, music, and, well, books! This month I only have a few books on the TBR due to the hectic nature of the holiday season. I don’t know about you, but my month is crazy and I don’t even have kids!

To the TBR we go.

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal.

Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job.

Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop—and Carmen? And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?

If you’ve been following along this month, I have already read this one. It was cute.

The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox

When chef Charlie Goodwin gets hit on the head on the L.A. set of her reality baking show, she loses a lot more than consciousness; she also loses her ability to taste and smell—both critical to her success as a show judge. Meanwhile, Charlie’s identical twin, Cass, is frantically trying to hold her own life together back in their quaint mountain hometown while running the family’s bustling bakery and dealing with her ex, who won’t get the memo that they’re over.

With only days until Christmas, a desperate Charlie asks Cass to do something they haven’t done since they were kids: switch places. Looking for her own escape from reality, Cass agrees. But temporarily trading lives proves more complicated than they imagined, especially when rugged firefighter Jake Greenman and gorgeous physician assistant Miguel Rodriguez are thrown into the mix. Will the twins’ identity swap be a recipe for disaster, or does it have all the right ingredients for getting their lives back on track?

I did a First Lines Friday on this one, and it sounds so cute! Plus I can imagine I will want to bake cookies by the time I am done with this book.

The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews

When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love—but Ivy didn’t bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it’s a full-time job sorting through all of it.

At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit—beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit, she finds a note written in a childish hand: it’s from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?

Ivy’s quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.

Another one that sounds, well, cute. I need to use another word. Adorable! Yeah! this one sounds adorable!

And yes, you are seeing that right. I only have three books on my holiday TBR this month. And one of them is a novella! I wanted to keep it short and sweet so I could have time to do activities and visit with friends and family. Mostly over facetime.

A Turkey Day TBR-November 2021

Lauren4 Comments

Happy November everyone! Are you excited about the month of ritual sacrifice? You know, the month when we offer up a Turkey to our ancestors and hope that the things we are thankful for remain the same or get better.

Yeah, ever since that episode of Buffy where Anya calls Thanksgiving a day of sacrifice I have never been able to look at it another way again. Not gonna lie, I kinda like it that way.

I would like to say I have a themed TBR for you this month, but alas, I do not. So on to the books!

The Unbound Empire by Melissa Caruso

While winter snows keep the Witch Lord Ruven’s invading armies at bay, Lady Amalia Cornaro and the fire warlock Zaira attempt to change the fate of mages in the Raverran Empire forever, earning the enmity of those in power who will do anything to keep all magic under tight imperial control. But in the season of the Serene City’s great masquerade, Ruven executes a devastating surprise strike at the heart of the Empire — and at everything Amalia holds most dear.

To stand a chance of defeating Ruven, Amalia and Zaira must face their worst nightmares, expose their deepest secrets, and unleash Zaira’s most devastating fire.

I read the second book in this series last year and then just never made it to this one! I hope it’s good, especially because I have ordered her two most recent books. So, here’s hoping!

We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

Jamie woke up in an empty apartment with no memory and only a few clues to his identity, but with the ability to read and erase other people’s memories—a power he uses to hold up banks to buy coffee, cat food and books.

Zoe is also searching for her past, and using her abilities of speed and strength…to deliver fast food. And she’ll occasionally put on a cool suit and beat up bad guys, if she feels like it.

When the archrivals meet in a memory-loss support group, they realize the only way to reveal their hidden pasts might be through each other. As they uncover an ongoing threat, suddenly much more is at stake than their fragile friendship. With countless people at risk, Zoe and Jamie will have to recognize that sometimes being a hero starts with trusting someone else—and yourself.

This book has been on my TBR cart ever since I picked it up from Book Of the Month earlier this year. I’ve really wanted to get to it and just haven’t. Shame on me. It sounds so good!

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novick

I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that’s what the world expects. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one.

Another one I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. I’ve never read anything else by the author, though I do have Uprooted by her.

The Night Country by Melissa Albert

With Finch’s help, Alice escaped the Hinterland and her reclusive grandmother’s dark legacy. Now she and the rest of the dregs of the fairy tale world have washed up in New York City, where Alice is trying to make a new, unmagical life. But something is stalking the Hinterland’s survivors—and she suspects their deaths may have a darker purpose. Meanwhile, in the winking out world of the Hinterland, Finch seeks his own adventure, and—if he can find it—a way back home…

I really enjoyed The Hazel Wood, so I have high expectations for it’s sequel.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

The first novel in C.S. Lewis’s classic sci-fi trilogy which tells the adventure of Dr Ransom who is kidnapped and transported to Mars In the first novel of C.S. Lewis’s classic science fiction trilogy, Dr Ransom, a Cambridge academic, is abducted and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet’s treasures and plan to offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there. Ransom discovers he has come from the ‘silent planet’ — Earth — whose tragic story is known throughout the universe!

I’ve wanted to read this since I found out that C.S. Lewis wrote a sci-fi book. In fact, I bought the whole trilogy without reading the first book. I have a bad habit of doing that.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

Nothing is more important than loyalty. But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?

Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn–but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself? With extraordinary world-building and breathtaking prose, Raybearer is the story of loyalty, fate, and the lengths we’re willing to go for the ones we love.

I have heard such good things about this book, I’m hoping it lives up to all the hype surrounding it.

Pirinesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls, an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

This is a book club pick for the Literarily Wasted book club I’m in. You can find them on Facebook. I love it when I get to read a book I already own for book club!

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend.

One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite area for long walks and it’s on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, “DIG HERE.”

Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground?

This is another book club pick (yes, I’m in two). It won by a landslide, which is crazy.

Why, oh why am I trying to read 8 books this month? I have no idea. Also, this seems to be the month of books I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. Pray for me, cause I’m gonna need all the help I can get.

A Spooky TBR-October 2021

Lauren4 Comments

Well, here we are. Trying another TBR. I didn’t do so badly last month. Especially considering I read a few books that weren’t on the TBR, because I can!

This month I am focusing on spooky themed books, cause October. I’ve never been a big fan of the horror genre, and this month I’ve committed myself to reading quite a few of them.

So that’s going to be fun.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

A group of Final Girls get together to, well, support one another after surviving their own harrowing tales. Until one by one they are starting to be picked off. I loved A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, so I have high hopes for this one.

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

The Klan’s ranks have grown thanks to dark forces and it’s up to resistance fighters, led by Maryse Boudreaux, a Hellfighter, to stop them. This sounds great!

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Tom delivers a book to a shop and that opens his entire world to the occult. I’ve heard good things about this book so I have high hopes.

A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

Noah Turner sees monsters. So does his father. His dad built a horror park dedicated to them. Noah just lets them into his life. But why does this sound terrifyingly cute?

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

Vivienne laid a curse on her ex-boyfriend 9 years ago. She didn’t think it would stick. Now he’s back in town and everything is going wrong. It’s a romance and I bought it? Yes! Have I read it already because I couldn’t wait? Also yes! I’ll have a review up on Thursday the 21st.

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Immanuelle Moore does her best to follow the will of the Prophet of Bethel. But when she is lured into the forest outside Bethel, the spirits of the forest offer her her mother’s diary, and her whole life changes. This was one of my book clubs pick for this month and I’m so excited because this was the book I put up for voting! I had been holding onto this one since last year waiting patiently for October to arrive so I could suggest it. Yeah, I regret that decision.

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

This fifth entry in the Mercy Thompson series is all about the Fae. I won’t go into details, because yeah, fifth in the series. But given that I’ve read it before, I know it will be good.

So yes, I know. There are 7 books on my TBR. What am I thinking? I’m thinking that several of these are shorter books so I should be able to get through those, at least, fairly quickly.

Will I get through every book? No idea. Am I hoping to? Of course I am.