I was not expecting to have to start this document on June 1st, but here we are and I have already finished a book in June. So, I have to start the post. I am hoping to really knock a big chunk of my current physical TBR, I know that I have my TBR books and my extras books.
I am really hoping to read about 13 books this month, if not more. I have the time off so I might as well get some reading done and completed and all of that. I have some books I am really looking forward to reading this month.
The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross (3.7/5)
This one was cute, I love a good Beauty and the Beast retelling, I read all of it in a day. It was predictable because it is for sure a retelling so it is going to be predictable and the last like 20 pages were a little weird. I really enjoyed it though, it took me a little bit to get into but then I for sure got into it. I really liked the mirror mechanic in this one and all of the little twists and turns that were not in the Disney version. Beauty and the Beast is for sure one of my favorite Disney movies so when this was given to me as a gift, I was excited. I have not read the original fairytale but it is for sure a book I own and would like to read eventually.
Not the Witch You Wed by April Asher (4.5/5)
I picked this one up in March when I was on spring break in Indiana, it was the on the BookTok table, but I have never seen this book on BookTok. Who knows? It was super cute, accepting yourself and all of that. I laughed out loud more times than I would like to admit. I loved Violet and Lincoln’s dynamic and there are of course a lot of tropes that were utilized in this one. It’s of course a happy ending because it wouldn’t be a cute little rom com if there wasn’t a happy ending. I loved the characters and her grandmother is my favorite character in the whole book. I cannot wait for the sequel with her sister Rose as the main character (I think?) I looked at the synopsis for a total of three seconds before adding it to my want to read list. I really enjoyed this one and it was a super cute and quick read.
Hot Vampire Next Door Season 3 by Nikki St. Crowe (5/5)
I don’t rate many things five, that’s a hard rating for me to give out, but this one, this whole series has me in its clutches and I cannot wait for the next one! It all takes place over like 48 hours before to during Jessie’s pledge. Like all hell breaks loose and it let me on a cliffhanger! Nikki! Come on! Also, if Jessie and Bran don’t get a happy ending, I will riot, I will 100% riot, no one will know any peace. Like it’s spicy (real spicy and a little dark) and we got some from Bran’s perspective in this one. I cannot, it was so good! I got this like the moment it was released in paperback and then it burned a hole in my desk for two days while I read Not the Witch You Wed, it was so worth the wait though and if I really wanted to, I could read it on Kindle, but I like the tension of me checking Amazon several times a day after the ebook has been released for me to get it in paperback. There are also a lot of tie in plot lines with this one and an expanding world so here is my patiently, but not patiently at all waiting for her to give me more!
Hooked by Emily McIntire (4.5/5)
This was not supposed to be my next book, but I got three chapters into another book and got bored so I am going to work on that while I read other books or I am going to get bogged. A very dark reimagining of Peter Pan, hold crap was it spicy and like real dark romance. It was really good though, I read it in two sittings because I could not put it down. Like he’s not a hero, but at this point heroes are a little over rated, I love a good morally grey book boyfriend. It’s about revenge and family and loyalty and betrayal, that one thing can cascade events through time and space and it’s a lot. I have read a lot of Peter Pan themed fiction in the last year or so and this I think has been my favorite. Y’all there are a lot of trigger warnings with this one, if you want to look them up go and do it, it’s not for the faint of heart. I can promise that, it’s so good, but it’s dark.
The Sleeping King by Bill Flippin and Cindy Dees (DNF)
I don’t DNF and everyone who has been around my blog for a while knows that. I got like 40 pages in and it just…I didn’t like it. I have decided that I am going to DNF it and the rest of the series. Not every book is for everybody, and this one did threaten to throw me into a reading slump. So, I have chosen to let it go and move on. I am not going to count this toward my TBR now, I will pick another fantasy book from my Extras pile to replace this one. I just decided that this one isn’t for me and instead of slogging through 600 pages or skimming, I’m moving on. I should have done that with a number of books in May and I regret it. This might be your favorite book, but I felt like I was reading a weird transcript of someone’s D&D campaign, also with the forced breeding insinuation and aspect at the beginning, nah, I’m good.
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary (3.5/5)
It was a cute book; the premise was really fun. There were just some things that rubbed me as a person the wrong way. I loved Leon and Tiffy and the whole concept of getting to know someone through post-it’s that is so cute and I do mean so cute. The unhinged ex-boyfriend, that hit me, that was weird and like emotional manipulation and gaslighting is never okay in a relationship. If you do something wrong, own it. Don’t let someone feel like they aren’t good enough because you want to be right. I have dealt with emotional manipulation in life more than I would like to discuss and reading this it hit me. There were some things that I feel like got left or untethered, was there ever a restraining order? The epilogue was what lost me on it, it really was, it was cute and they finally get together and he proposes with notes but not with words, I understand being an introvert, but that was a lot. The writing style with Leon’s chapters was also more like a transcript than prose and it was odd. It was cute, don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the cute little romcom, but I think that it will suit someone else’s bookshelf better.
The Long Dark Tea Time of The Soul by Douglas Adams (2.8/5)
Okay, I loved the TV series, I really did it was so good and this series as a written model just doesn’t make any sense to me. I finished this because I had to. Like I liked the parts with Thor and Kate in them more than I liked the parts with Dirk Gently in them, I will be unhauling it because I don’t want them in my permanent collection. I skimmed a lot of it, I don’t and didn’t mean to skip pieces of it but I just couldn’t get into it like I wanted to. But I’m done with it and that’s fine. I know that Douglas Adams is one of those authors that so many people love, I just didn’t and that’s okay.
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (4.5/5)
This one was my June Book of The Month, it will have its own post up soon. I will be thinking about this book for the rest of the year! I loved it so much and I cannot wait for the other two! Like it took me a while to get into it and then I could not put it down, I loved the characters, the story, the imagery. The ending of this one, I cannot wait for the next one!
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas (5/5)
It should shock no one that this series is a 5 for me. This book was amazing. I laughed so hard at some points and almost cried at others. Like there are so many twists and turns and a few times I for sure said “holy plot twists Batman” thanks to BookTok I know some things, but there was a part that my heart stopped beating in my chest. I was like Sarah! Sarah, don’t you do this to me. I love the bat boys, but I would be blind and stupid not to. A lot of people that I have seen on BookTok did not like this book all that much, I loved it. (I also finished the day I found out that I didn’t get a job I wanted so it hurt for a lot of different reasons.) A Court of Frost and Starlight is actually the last book on my TBR for this year so I am looking forward to reading that one too.
Sea of Lost Love by Santa Montefiore (3.5/5)
It took me a long time to get into it. Like it was a who-don-it with several interesting twists, I called most of them. The plot felt a little messy for me and I had some moments where I wasn’t sure whose perspective it was in. I enjoyed it for the feel-good parts of the story, not the espionage parts. The whole plot line with the priest was a little weird. The parts in Italy were the best, it was just a lot to be honest. I liked it, I have had it in my collection for a really long time and it was time to read it. If you like a British high-born family in the late 1950’s falling apart at the seams, this one is for sure for you.
I didn’t hit my 13 goal and that’s okay, I read a lot of big books this month and I took some days off. I also wrote over 250,000 words in June and that is so many words, like I finished drafting three books, as of right now and I still have two days left. I might get another in that I started this month. I have been off in my own head a lot and sometimes that means I don’t read as much.
I am unhauling four books this month, which is weird for me. I also unhauled a whole series because I got 40 pages in the first one and didn’t want to read anymore, so I am just letting the whole series go. I did still read quite a bit this month, I enjoyed most of the books that I read, I am going to say that. Just because I am unhauling the book does not necessarily mean I didn’t enjoy it. I just never plan on reading it again.
I want a library and I know that takes 1,000 books, but I want to make sure of those 1,000 books that I love every single one. I like a lot of books, but if I want them in my permanent collection, I have to love them. If the ones I unhaul are your favorite books, that’s totally okay! We all love what we love and we can get along, I promise, we don’t have to step on each other’s toes to just live.
If you want to check out what else I have read this year, you totally can because there are over 60 books now. January, February, March, April, and May!
Alright, I was going to give my normal end of post salutation, but with everything that’s happening in the world right now, stay safe out there. Be nice to each other. A lot of us are going through it.
-MJ
Let’s Keep Track Shall We?:
General Fiction: 6/10 (The Runaway Princess, Since You’ve Been Gone, Admission, Delicious, The Royal We, The Long Dark Tea Time of The Soul, )
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 5/9 (because one has been DNFed) (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Hiddensee, The Crystal Cave, Sword of Destiny, The Map of Time, )
Historical: 8 /10 (The Velvet Hours, In the Shadow of Paris, And Only to Deceive, Radio Girls, Black Rabbit Hall, A Study in Death, In Falling Snow, Sea of Lost Love, )
Thriller: 2/2 (The Alienist and Meddling Kids)
Free Choice: 10/14 (Love and Gravity, A Fate of Wrath and Flame, City of Lost Dreams, It Devours!, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Study in Ashes, A Clockwork Heart, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Beast’s Heart, A Court of Wings and Ruin, )
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 2/2 (Buffering and Always Look on The Bright Side of Life)
General Non-Fiction: 2/2 (The Happiness Advantage and Teacher Misery)
Book of The Month: 6/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, Dating Dr. Dil, Kaikeyi, Darling Girl, The Stardust Thief, )
Extras: 16/? (Midnight Spells Murder, Hot Vampire Next Door S1, Twisted Love, Malibu Rising, A Deal with the Elf King, Hot Vampire Next Door S2, The Fine Print, Well Met, Book Boyfriend, The Sound of Stars, Twisted Games, A Not So Meet Cute, Not the Witch You Wed, Hot Vampire Next Door S3, Hooked, The Flatshare, )
Well, here we are, in May, how? How is it already May? Aldo how am I currently (at the time of writing this part of my post on May 3rd) at 44 books read. How? Last year I didn’t hit the 40’s until August, it’s May.
I blame BookTok and my need to read like 100 pages a night. I would probably be at 45 or 46 if I hadn’t taken some nights off…oops.
I am hoping to be done with my TBR pile by the end of the summer and then just read what I want the rest of the year, which will be super dangerous because when I get sad, I buy books. Seriously though, my love language is books, I have determined that. Just books, buying them, reading them, talking about them, writing them; that’s it, that’s me.
Well, I have my first book though and I want to talk about it!
A Study in Death by Anna Lee Huber (Lady Darby #4) (4/5)
I love this series, I picked this series up because I was in a bookstore in like 2015 this was the book on the shelf and wanted it, but this was the fourth one in the series so I had to order the first one and then I read it in like 2016, I read the second one in 2020, and the third one last year. I love the series because Kiera is amazing, but I love a strong Victorian woman in a time that women were meant to be seen not heard. This one had me guessing throughout, I didn’t guess until it was pretty much revealed and I love a mystery that keeps me completely guessing until the end. I cannot wait to read the next one, it’s on my TBR for next year already because I have very little self-control when it comes to mysteries. (All books, I’m lying, it’s all books.) If you like a strong heroine and Scotland, I would suggest this one to you.
A Not so Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn (4.8/5)
I read it in one day, this book had me in a choke hold from about chapter two. It took me a second to get into it and then, man, did it hook me. Fake dating and all of that is a trope that would not work for me in real life, but in books it always turns into real dating. Huxley. I mean…that’s it, that’s the sentence. I loved the whole book, it was so good, the ending was a little abrupt but I am totally for it. It was spicy, not as spicy as I figured it would be, this was a ‘I saw three sentences on TikTok and bought it.’ This was for sure a BookTok made me buy it book, and it was so good. He flies her to Portland for a concert! Where are these guys in real life? I mean, they exist, I hope? It was really good and the scene in the dining room, wow.
The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma (2/5)
This one had such potential. I didn’t like it, I thought the premise was super interesting when I picked it up, time travel in Victorian London, sign me up. It was three stories and I was confused, the prose was great but so dense that I skimmed parts because I was getting bogged down in it. Lots of lies and deceit, I just didn’t like it. I have the second one, I will be unhauling without reading because I cannot suffer through another 600-page novel that I am not enjoying. That’s right, I read the whole thing because I cannot DNF. Like there were like 30 interesting pages in the mid-500’s and that was it. It starts out literally with a guy picking a gun to kill himself. That was trigger for page one and it didn’t get any better than that.
Darling Girl by Liz Michalski (4/5)
I wrote a whole post on it, literally a whole post because this was my May Book of the Month, so that will be out soon. I really enjoyed it, there are a few trigger warnings (drug use and mentions and depictions of SA) so go into that mindful to that if you want to read it. It’s fast paced and very twisty, sometimes we don’t like the hero anymore, though all villains are just heroes in their own minds.
A Clockwork Heart by Liesel Schwarz (3.6/5)
I read the first one in the series last fall and I ordered the third as I was finishing this one. It’s good, I liked the story, it was for sure a slow start and this one hurts. Like you want people to have a happy ending and I know there will be bumps in the road to a happy ending, but if this one doesn’t end happy you bet your sweet bippy that they will be unhauled. I will unhaul them if I am left feeling unfulfilled because the Goodreads reviews say that there was supposed to be a fourth one, well the third one was published in 2014 and nothing since then. Right, it picks up with Elle and Marsh, who I love together, then he gets taken made into a zombie and she’s trying to free him. The ending hurt! It hurt so much!
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (2.5/5)
I wanted to like it, I really did, like I bought this and I was so excited because who doesn’t love a royal love story (this was seriously a pretty carbon copy to a certain royal love story we saw in the early 2010’s). It was so long! It had some really funny parts but the rest of it I slogged through, there was just so much needless and senseless drama involved. Like this book was just not for me I guess and that’s fine. Like they didn’t need to have his brother in love with her too, that was so unnecessary. I will not be reading the second one because I don’t care, I honestly and truly do not care about the resolution of Bex and Nick’s story, this will be unhauled. I almost DNFed this book a half dozen times but I would have stressed about not finishing it. It had so much potential and I found myself just trying to get through it, I don’t read ahead, I read ahead because I really did want to see if it was worth finishing. It had a happy ending? I have no idea because I gave up my interest in it. Seriously, so much potential and it just didn’t do it for me. Not every book is for everybody and this one was clearly not for me. (This was book fifty of the year though.)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (4/5)
I liked it, it took a while for me to get into it and I really left the door open (pun accidental but intended) for a sequel because there are a lot of threads left unbound. The splicing in of the Ten Thousand Doors really detracted from the story for me. I understand having to put context on things but they were so long and wordy, like those are what took me the longest and after they ended it was so much better and a much more fun story to read. I loved the characters and all that and do I hope that there is a second one of January going through all of these worlds and opening the doors back up, yes, I really do because I would read that. I would read that hardcore. I know that it’s a story within a story within a book and I understand that, but I need to have a more resolved ending than how this epilogue ended.
In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl (2.5/5)
I didn’t really enjoy it. There were too many randoms shifts in the timeline, if it would have all been WW1, I think it would have been better. There was too much drama and a lot of stuff that just felt unnecessary to the plot of the story. It left me feeling unfulfilled and that’s okay. The World War One stuff was compelling, the present? 80’s? I am not really sure when it took place in the “present”, but I was confused and it was just odd. I wasn’t even sure if it was taking place in Australia in the present or not, I think it was? I really don’t know, I think so. The chapters were either like three pages or 60 pages and that’s too much. Too much! I was just confused for 450 pages, it had potential, it didn’t deliver.
So that’s it for May, I had a really unfulfilling reading month and that is disappointing. Like I read nine books, I will be unhauling three and I wasn’t super wowed! by any of them. That’s so hard, why was A Not So Meet Cute the most exciting book I read this month. I liked most of them, I did, but some just left me feeling like I could easily stop reading all together, and I know that I am on book 54 of the year and we aren’t even halfway through the year. I know that some of them will not be winners, I am completely aware of that because when I bought a lot of them, I was a different reader.
I have some books that I will be reading in June that I am super excited about and I am so looking forward too, I want to get through the TBR so I can read whatever I want. I changed my Goodreads goal from 75 books to 100 books and I cannot believe that I did that. (I also didn’t think that I would have already finished writing three entire books this year already, but here we are.)
If you want to see what else I have read this year, you completely and totally can, some months are better than this one, I promise: January, February, March, and April!
Well, I will be back later in the week with another post so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy!
-MJ
Let’s Keep Track Shall We?:
General Fiction: 5/10 (The Runaway Princess, Since You’ve Been Gone, Admission, Delicious, The Royal We, )
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 5/10 (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Hiddensee, The Crystal Cave, Sword of Destiny, The Map of Time, )
Historical: 7/10 (The Velvet Hours, In the Shadow of Paris, And Only to Deceive, Radio Girls, Black Rabbit Hall, A Study in Death, In Falling Snow, )
Thriller: 2/2 (The Alienist and Meddling Kids)
Free Choice: 8/14 (Love and Gravity, A Fate of Wrath and Flame, City of Lost Dreams, It Devours!, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Study in Ashes, A Clockwork Heart, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, )
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 2/2 (Buffering and Always Look on The Bright Side of Life)
General Non-Fiction: 2/2 (The Happiness Advantage and Teacher Misery)
Book of The Month: 5/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, Dating Dr. Dil, Kaikeyi, Darling Girl, )
Extras: 12/? (Midnight Spells Murder, Hot Vampire Next Door S1, Twisted Love, Malibu Rising, A Deal with the Elf King, Hot Vampire Next Door S2, The Fine Print, Well Met, Book Boyfriend, The Sound of Stars, Twisted Games, A Not So Meet Cute, )
Last month was not a great showing on the number of books that I was planning on reading but I kept up such a pace in February that a mini-slump was inevitable. I knew it was coming and clearly March was that month, oops. I had such plans on where I wanted to be on my TBR this month. If I want to actually hit the goal that I thought that I would get to I would need to read a little over a dozen books and I just don’t see that happening, it might, but who knows. I am going to try, but I am not going to burn myself out to get there.
I have read 33 books so far and as I am writing this; I only have another hundred or so pages in the book I am reading, hence why I started this post today because I know I’m going to finish it and I need to have this part started before I do. I want to get a good chuck of my TBR read earlier in the year so I can read whatever I want later, I’m beginning to think that is a mistake because being a mood reader means that I want to buy all the books that I see that I think I might like so here we are. I do not have the room for more books but I could be doing things that are a lot worse.
Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase (4/5)
It was a slow start but when I got into it, I could not put it down. I know that I say that about a lot of books, this one was no different though. It was good, there was a moment in it where I almost hurled it across the room because incest is not allowed in this house. (It was a lie so we are good.) I guessed the plot twist pretty early on, but it was a fun read and felt very cinematic overall. The Epilogue was weird and it felt completely unnecessary to be completely honest. It had a really happy ending before that though and I was smiling a lot throughout it. I am not 100% when the “modern” timeline took place actually, I just couldn’t pin point it. I was happy with the read overall though and that is my fifth historical fiction (yes, I’m counting it as historical) of the year so I am half done with that category which is a lot of fun.
Book Boyfriend by Claire Kingsley (4.2/5)
Well, it was short, sweet, and hella spicy. Like I read it in two days because I finished the one above and started this one on the same day. It was so spicy, like there is spicy and then there is SPICY this one was that. It was cute, it really was and it was one of those books that kept me turning page after page. I loved the characters and the plot was interesting, I mean it was a lot, but it was such a fun, quick read. I will probably read the other two in the series that focus on Alex’s siblings. If you want a cute little romp with something I wish would happen in real life, someone buying you books in a bookstore like they would buy you a drink, this one might be right up your street.
Always Look on The Bright Side of Life by Eric Idle (4/5)
I love Monty Python, I watched The Holy Grail in high school, I was probably just a touch young to watch it and then one of my first Netflix binges after I moved to Arkansas was finally watching all of Flying Circus, twice. I love the humor and I for sure will make random references every once in a while, I for sure have said “and now for something completely different” to my students before and they just look at me. I have also said Ni over and over again like a crazy person. I loved reading about one of my favorite Pythons, I think that the humor has both lasted for decades and also become so quotable and timeless. I have for sure also said ‘nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition’ in casual conversation to see who understands it. Reading stories about these storied figures in pop culture history was fascinating to be completely honest, man times were wild and there were chapters dedicated to people who changed the world because of who they were. I laughed, a lot, while reading this book and now I want to go back and watching Flying Circus again. My copy is also signed because Barnes and Noble did that in like 2018 and I had to have it.
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (3.5/5)
It was my April Book of the Month book, if you want a full review of it, you can totally can when it comes out in a few days. I liked the book; it was not super for me and that is totally cool. Not every book is for everybody and that is what is really cool about having varying reading tastes. You don’t have to 100% love everything, not every book can be your favorite book. Some books are just there to teach you things.
The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow (4/5)
This came out right before the pandemic and reading it now almost hurts. It’s YA dystopian alien fiction. It was good, maybe I’m not the target demographic but it was good. The ending was weird and I have no idea if there is a second one because I was confused by the ending, it felt like it came up too quickly and I don’t feel like it was resolved, but it leaves it open so who knows. It was a super cute little love story between a human and an alien trying to save the world from more aliens, it kept me engaged throughout the novel so that’s always a good thing. This is one of those books that I could for sure being made into a film, it was written like a movie and I enjoyed it overall.
Pleading the Fish by Bree Baker (4/5)
This is the last in the series and I am upset about it! I love the series and I hate when series ends, I mean really, it’s short for a cozy series to be completely honest, only seven books. I loved Charm and all the characters. Like reading it was very Once Upon a Time for me for some reason, I think it was the names, I don’t know. I loved it though, but I am sad that it’s over. The epilogues were weird, I got really confused for a minute and had to re-read them because you know it skipped like thirty years between one epilogue and the next, there were three. The story was good, it was a little bland for me though to be honest, I loved the love story in this more than the mystery in this one, which for me is really odd when it comes to cozies. I am just a little crushed that this was the last one. Now I have to find a new series to read, dang it.
Twisted Games by Ana Huang (4.3/5)
I couldn’t put it down; I literally told my cousin that it’s like The Princess Diaries but they do it. It was so good and it ripped me apart the same way that Twisted Love did, this one is a lot spicier though, like so spicy. I love Ana’s writing, she’s great and I cannot wait to read the other two in the Twisted series. I love Bridget and Rhys and how it followed for a little while at the beginning alongside the timeline of Twisted Love, the twists and turns had me turning page after page. I loved the found family aspect, though I for sure called the plot twist like 200 pages in, I was even right about the character that the twist pertained to. I don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing, she laid some amazing groundwork for it. This one had a lot of very traumatic moments, so if you are averse to that, I would avoid it. Though it seems the whole series is like that and Ana, don’t rip my heart out again, please! Like I love a happily ever after and I am no above throwing books across my office! (Then carefully picking them up and apologizing to them.)
A Study in Ashes by Emma Jean Holloway (4.2/5)
This is the third and final in this series, I read the first one in 2016 and the second one last year. I loved this series, it was so fun sherlock Holmes, sky pirates, steampunk, a London ruled by the steam barons. This book was dense and the ending did leave me with questions, but that is totally cool. I have had this book on my shelf for a long time and it was so worth the wait. I wasn’t really sure how I would feel about the series when I purchased them, but it was amazing. I wanted so much different for the main character in the first book, but the person she became was dimensional and I loved watching her grow through the series and the trauma that she went through.
Delicious by Ruth Reichl (3/5)
Three is a generous score. I liked most of the book though, that’s the only reason that it is getting a three. It had so much potential, it was so good and then like 75 pages from the end it shifted. I hated the ending; it was so quick and left me absolutely unsatisfied. The wrap up was an email and it just felt so rushed. Like if you like this book, cool, I loved parts of this book but the ending and a lot of that felt inconsistent with the rest of the novel. I was so hopeful that I would like this book because I was enjoying the read so much, the ending ruined it for me.
Well, I only read nine books in April which I wanted to read more, I had a goal of 13, but April came through and kicked me in the teeth so here we are. I read some good books this month and some that I will be unhauling at the end of the year. Though I am on book 42 of the year so that means there are books that I probably won’t like. I also bought a bunch of books in April because I have a problem.
If you want to see all the other books that I have read this year, you totally can with January, February, and March.
I will be back later in the week with another post, so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy.
-MJ
Let’s Keep Track Shall We?:
General Fiction: 4/10 (The Runaway Princess, Since You’ve Been Gone, Admission, Delicious, )
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 4/10 (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Hiddensee, The Crystal Cave, Sword of Destiny,)
Historical: 5/10 (The Velvet Hours, In the Shadow of Paris, And Only to Deceive, Radio Girls, Black Rabbit Hall, )
Thriller: 2/2 (The Alienist and Meddling Kids)
Free Choice: 6/14 (Love and Gravity, A Fate of Wrath and Flame, City of Lost Dreams, It Devours!, A Court of Mist and Fury, A study in Ashes,)
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 2/2 (Buffering and Always Look on The Bright Side of Life)
General Non-Fiction: 2/2 (The Happiness Advantage and Teacher Misery)
Book of The Month: 4/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, Dating Dr. Dil, Kaikeyi, )
Extras: 11/? (Midnight Spells Murder, Hot Vampire Next Door S1, Twisted Love, Malibu Rising, A Deal with the Elf King, Hot Vampire Next Door S2, The Fine Print, Well Met, Book Boyfriend, The Sound of Stars, Twisted Games,)
I don’t know how we got here. I really don’t, it’s March, somehow. I read 15 books in February, only 14 made it to the last blog post because I finished the other one after the post came out, so I read it in February but it’s on this post. There is just too much some days.
I have literally a dozen books in my Amazon save for later cart because I am on a book buying ban until the end of April (I made it to the tail end of March, my bad), I’ve bought 14 books this year and it’s March. That’s a lot of books, I love books though and I am such a mood reader and BookTok doesn’t help. It doesn’t help one little bit.
I am starting this month off with a book that is not on my TBR, it was an extra add-on I got with Book of the Month. I am learning that I need to mix in extra books that I want to read in with my TBR books so I don’t hit the dreaded reading slump because no one needs that.
Well Met by Jen DeLuca (4.3/5)
I couldn’t put it down. I love a good rom-com and enemies to lovers; it’s a really good trope and I loved this book. It was super cute and super real. I read like 230 pages in one night because I couldn’t put it down and the rest of the series so far is in my Amazon cart because I want to read the rest of it! I loved the family angle and the Ren Faire angle so much, the handfasting bit was so fun and I love Emily and Simon, this book for sure gave me New Girl vibes and I was here for it! It was super cute and had me laughing out loud several times alone in my apartment. It’s a rom-com so it’s a little spicy, but tame compared to some of the books I read last month.
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart (4/5)
This book came out in the 1970’s. I want to preface it with that, who doesn’t love an Arthurian legend though? I love Arthurian legend and this is a telling of Merlin growing up and it was really good. It was a lot to read but totally worth it. The next one is already on my TBR for next year, do I think I will complete the whole series? I am going to try. I pictured only the characters from BBC’s Merlin the whole time I was reading it because why not. There is so much in the legend and the canon of Arthur and his round table. I have The Once and Future King in my collection as well, I should have read that in high school, I didn’t, it was a mistake to not read it then but I didn’t want to. I’ll loop back around to it eventually. It was interesting seeing the origins of Merlin who is such an intragyral character in fantasy, the idea of him spans much further than the legends themselves.
Teacher Misery by Jane Morris (4.3/5)
I am a teacher, this book was hilarious, it hurt so much at some points though because it is so true that it’s pathetic and it came out before the pandemic! Like I cannot imagine what could be added if the pandemic was included. There were so many things that had me laughing but also nodding and shaking my head because apparently it is not uncommon for things that I have seen or heard that happen in schools happen in more than one place and that seems a little ridiculous. TeacherTok is a real place that I have found myself in and we are all going through it y’all. This book was hilarious, real, and I wish I could say shocking, but it wasn’t. It was a reflection of the current state of our education system and while I love teaching, I love my kids, and my school family, but some days you just want to sit at your desk and cry because it’s overwhelming at all times anymore. Please check in on your teacher friends, we are not okay.
Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma (4.4/5)
This was my March Book of the Month so this one has its whole own dedicated post. I am going to brief overview it here, but if you want to know my more in-depth feelings on it you can check that post out when it does, I will link it here so you can read it if you want. It was cute and I enjoyed it a lot, it had a lot of interesting topics and fun moments. A little spicer than I am used to when it comes to more of the romantic comedy genre. It was a really fun book though and if you are looking for a cute enemies to lovers and fake dating rom-com, this one is for sure something that you might want to look into.
Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2.5/5)
I didn’t like it, actually there were no redeeming qualities for me when I read this book. I bought it when the movie came out because I wanted to read it before I saw the movie. I never saw the movie and this book has been in my collection since like 2013. Maybe I would have liked it more then, but now, it gave me all the icky feelings. Like it was boring, the drama was predictable and annoying, and the ending was terrible. Like I didn’t like the main character at all, I feel like I should, I feel like I should have felt bad for her and everything she went through, I don’t. I am angry about this book, like this is the closest I have gotten to DNFing a book since like 2016. I put off starting this book for almost a week and read another book instead. It wasn’t good. I normally say that not every book is for everybody and I do still think that. A lot of people liked this book, I was not one of them. Normally I can find qualities in a book that I like, this one had none for me. The relationships and friendships felt forced and unnatural, the plot lines were a lot and not in a good way, and I found myself skimming sections because I didn’t care to read them. Most of the time I at least kind of recommend the books that I read; I don’t recommend this one. This is one that will be leaving my collection at the end of the year and I won’t be sad to see it go.
It Devours! By Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (4/5)
I have been an avid listener of the podcast Welcome To night Vale for a long time, I actually need to catch up on it because I loved the series and then I stopped listening to podcasts. I forget them, sorry, my bad. This is the second novel from that universe and this one was a little weird; in Night Vale though that is 100% par for the course. This focused-on Carlos and his band of scientists trying to figure out why pieces of the town are being devoured. The Joyful Congregation of the Smiling God makes a large appearance, that was fun. I was not a huge fan of the ending to be completely honest, I liked the rest of it, it was a lot of fun. Violent, but a lot of fun. Just the end made it a little less cohesive, also I like happy endings and it really wasn’t 100% that. It was fun though and I will eventually read the third novel, I just have to get to it.
Sword of Destiny by Andjez Sapkowski (4/5)
I mean, I like The Witcher Netflix series, it’s fun. I started reading it because my best friend was obsessed with the game, at the time she had played something like 1,300 hours and that to me is insane, more power to her. I have played something like 500+ on Animal Crossing so I understand that better now. It was good collection of stories, some that were in the series already and a few that I would like to see in the series in the future. The one with the mermaids was fascinating, I will say this, they are different than the series for sure. Some are closer to what you see on screen and some are vastly different. I am excited to read the actual series and I will probably read it later in the year when I am done with my TBR.
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero (4/5)
This took me days to read. It was good, Scooby Doo meets Supernatural. It was weird, I am going to put it that way, it was just weird, but it was fun. I enjoyed reading it, I am on vacation so I didn’t read it like I should have. There were a lot of comments on Kerri’s hair, which was really weird. The whole book was really weird, it was a good weird though. Like I wanted to go back and re-read things but I didn’t, it was interesting though and I did enjoy it. It was written a little strangely which was okay, again, the book is strange. I feel like I want to say more about it and I really don’t know what to say about it though, I enjoyed the book, that’s the bottom line, it was just a little odd and I can’t think of any more synonyms for it.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (5/5)
I couldn’t put it down and it’s like 600 something pages. I get why the internet gives one of the characters a not so nice nickname, I completely understand I swore at him a lot throughout reading it. I want to go to the Night Court; I want to be there and I loved all of those characters that I have been seeing on the internet. The imagery is stunning and I cannot wait to read the next one. The end, it broke me a little, actually it broke me a lot, there was swearing, almost tears, and just heart break; absolute heartbreak even though we all know there are more books in the series. If I was reading these when they came out, I think that the waiting for the third one would have killed me. I love Rhys, that should shock no one I always go for that type in books, he’s a lot, but in the best way.
Well there you have it, I only read nine books in March, there is one that isn’t on here because it was for One School One Book and we read Frindle.
I for sure wanted to read more in March and I expected to because I was off for a week with Spring Break but we traveled and it was like 2000 something miles in the car and I can’t read in the car. So, I didn’t read as many books as I wanted to.
My goal in April is 10 books, I think, I had a much more ambitious goal but I don’t see that happening because I didn’t read all the ones I wanted to read in the month of March. That’s okay though, reading 15 in February was an unsustainable.
If you are curious what else I have read this year, you totally can and see what I read in January and February. This list will grow and grow as the year goes on and I am looking forward to it.
I hope everyone has a great day and I will be back soon with another post! So, until then stay safe, happy, and healthy.
-MJ
Let’s Keep Track Shall We?:
General Fiction: 3/10 (The Runaway Princess, Since You’ve Been Gone, Admission,)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 4/10 (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Hiddensee, The Crystal Cave, Sword of Destiny)
Historical: 4/10 (The Velvet Hours, In the Shadow of Paris, And Only to Deceive, Radio Girls, )
Thriller: 2/2 (The Alienist and Meddling Kids)
Free Choice: 5/14 (Love and Gravity, A Fate of Wrath and Flame, City of Lost Dreams, It Devours!, A Court of Mist and Fury, )
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 1/2 (Buffering and )
General Non-Fiction: 2/2 (The Happiness Advantage and Teacher Misery)
Book of The Month: 3/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, Dating Dr. Dil, )
Extras: 8/? (Midnight Spells Murder, Hot Vampire Next Door S1, Twisted Love, Malibu Rising, A Deal with the Elf King, Hot Vampire Next Door S2, The Fine Print, Well Met, )
Here we are again with another month and another set of books that I have read, again, I am doing this monthly so there will be less books on these than my posts of last year. There were so many in some of them last year and it was too much. If you want to read about the 9 books I read in January, you totally can.
I am hoping to shrink my TBR pile even more this month and read a few more books that BookTok made me order. I mean I am easily swayed when it comes to reading, so I bought six books in January because of BookTok…It’s a lot.
A Fate of Wrath and Flame by K.A. Tucker (5/5)
The second one comes out in July and I will be preordering it soon, like really soon. This was the first book that BookTok made me buy and it was because of one exchange. I bought the book for like four lines of dialogue. It was so good; I loved the spinning of the worlds and it was such a fun read. I laughed, I questioned my very existence, and I read 300 pages in one day. One day! I loved the story and the characters and it was just a touch spicy and it is for sure enemies to lovers and who doesn’t love that trope? I mean I really do and here we are. It was totally worth the 492 pages; it was so good I could not put it down. I cannot wait to read the next one because this one left off at a cliffhanger and I want a happy ending because I like books with happy endings and this was for sure only my second five-star book of the year. I saw people reviewing it that they didn’t like the politics in it, I didn’t really think that I thought that it added a layer of realism and intrigue to it, and the twist was something I kind of figured but it’s fine. I cannot wait to read the next one and see how this story concludes, or keeps going I am not sure if it’s a duology or a series, we’ll find out I guess.
Hot Vampire Next Door (Season 1) by Nikki St. Crowe (4.3/5)
It is rare for me to buy a book and read it in the same week, this was a novella and it is a serial on Kindle. I saw it on TikTok and it is spicy, a lot spicier than I usually read. It was really funny though and I didn’t really mean to read it but it was only 132 pages and I did, while finishing the book that is right above this one. I laughed a lot, I cannot wait to see where it goes in Season 2, which I will buy when it comes out in paperback because I don’t read e-books. I really should have a “TikTok made me buy it/or at least add it to my Amazon cart” post. Maybe down the road I will. It was a really fun little paranormal romance with so much going on. It was fun, it was sexy, and overall amazing.
And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander (3.8/5)
Three out of the last five books I have read have been historical mysteries and this is was my favorite of the three. I have had this book in my collection for probably nearly a decade, maybe not that long but who knows. I bought the 8thbook on clearance and bought this one after. I have not read any of them until this one, the second is on my TBR for next year and I might read it sooner than that but who knows. I loved the intrigue of this one, I hated Emily’s mother but that is modern sensibility as opposed to the Victorian morals. The story had me guessing until we actually find out who is guilty. It’s not a murder mystery! Which is super cool because I loved the fact that it was about stolen antiquities and I hated the person who was actually behind all of it from the beginning. I wrote in my book bullet journal in my thoughts section that I wanted to punch him. I am really excited to read the series. (Even though there are 15 published and the 16th comes out later this year.) I cannot wait to see what happens next in Emily’s life.
Twisted Love by Ana Huang (4.3/5)
Well, this is another book that BookTok made me want and I read it in one day and I read 100 pages in another book. It was really good and I could not put it down. I mean my reading tastes have for sure changed since last summer. I am going to be honest about that one, I don’t know why. It was hilarious at parts and absolutely broke me at others. It was so much, like so much and I could not put it down. Mind you it is currently February 5th and I already have four books on this post! That’s so many! I cannot wait to read the rest in this series since they are intertwined standalones. So excited for them, I cannot order any of them at the moment though (spoiler alert, I did order them…oops) because I promised myself that I would whittle down my physical TBR before I bought anymore and I bought 6 books because of BookTok in January and that is so many. Y’all, BookTok is a wild place, a really wild place and I have never had more fun reading.
Since You’ve Been Gone by Anouska Knight (3.8/5)
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this one. I really enjoyed it, I saw some mixed reviews and I need to stop looking at reviews. It was really cute and I have had it in my collection for a long time. This is one for sure that I don’t think I would have liked when I bought it but I read it in two days. This was the book that I read 100 pages in when I was reading Twisted Love, I read two books this weekend. It’s the 6th… I mean really. I need to stop devouring books this fast. It was a really cute story and so much. There were parts where I had to put the book down and laugh because I love a good rom-com. I was a teenager and into college at the height of the rom-com movie phase. There is a lot of talk about death in this one but it was good and showed that dealing with grief is not a linear and straightforward thing, it can take a long time to get over. It was a powerful story and it was fun, super fun.
City of Lost Dreams by Magnus Flyte (4/5)
City of Dark Magic is one of my all-time favorite books and I should have read this in like 2016 when I read the first one but I didn’t want to finish the series and here we are six years later and it didn’t have the same magic for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved the book. I called the plot twist early on though, and for me that’s odd. The ending left me a little underwhelmed because it just felt too sudden and almost too peaceful for the rest of the book and even the one before it. I loved the time travel mechanic and who doesn’t love a sarcastic immortal dwarf. It’s a good book and I need to go back and reread the first one. I loved it so much when I read it and it was a good duology.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (3.5/5)
Well, this book got so hyped last year and it was a lot. I enjoyed it to an extent but it is not my favorite. The fact that it was told through the eyes of what felt like 30 people was a little much for me and the ending was lacking. It just kind of ended and it was very odd. It was a fine book but it was not my favorite. It was an interesting story and it only took me three days to read and that’s pretty normal for me. I read it, I liked it enough, but it not going to be a top ten read this year. It was just a lot and all of the family drama was interesting but a little much for me as a reader.
A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova (4/5)
I read it in two sittings because I couldn’t put it down, the blurb on Malibu Rising I wrote yesterday to give you some context. This was another book that TikTok made me buy, I don’t even remember what enticed me to it. It was real cute, like real cute. It had very strong Beauty and the Beast vibes which I was totally there for. It was predictable in the best ways and there was a moment there were I was thinking that it wouldn’t end happily and y’all know your girl almost threw it across her office. It was such a fun read about learning and being in a new place and how sometimes you find what you are looking for when you aren’t even looking. It was a touch spicy, just a little and that’s fine. I really enjoyed the magic in this story and I will be reading the other books in this series when I get a chance to order them but I am putting myself on a self-imposed book buying ban until at least my birthday (except my BoTM) because I really need to stop buying books and then neglecting the books that I own and need to read.
Hot Vampire Next Door (Season 2) by Nikki St. Crowe (4/5)
It was really good, I read it in about an hour literally the day it showed up at my apartment. There were for sure some parts where I would urge you to read the content warnings. I had to stop reading for a minute an collect myself because I was in shock, let’s just say if you are averse to blood… I wouldn’t recommend it. I cannot wait for Season 3 and I could read it on the Kindle but I don’t like eBooks, I never have. This book left off on a soft cliffhanger, I don’t want to call it a hard cliffhanger but it’s still a cliffhanger. I want to read the rest of it. I love the characters and the story is absolutely bonkers. I mean it’s really bonkers but I am really enjoying it. It’s spicy and I mean it, well, it’s spicy for me. I know people who can blow through a lot spicier content than me with a straight face, I will sit and blush like an idiot. That’s just who I am as a person. Seriously, TikTok made me buy it and that’s just apparently who I am at the moment.
A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross (4/5)
I was not planning on opening this document again tonight, I did though and here we are. I have been reading this through the last two books so here we are. I really enjoyed this one and I wrote a whole post on it because it was my February Book of the Month. So that will be out next week at some point so I am not going to go into heavy detail here. I enjoyed it and the next one doesn’t come out until December so that’s a bummer.
The Fine Print by Lauren Asher (4.4/5)
I even liked the epilogue in this one and everyone should know by now how much a detest epilogues. I could not put this book down and I am reading a non-fiction at the moment as well so I needed a break from that. I loved this book; the concept is amazing and well I mean it’s a theme park that feels very much like a certain mouse themed park and that was a fun thing. Rowan is so grumpy; I love the grumpy/sunshine trope though so that was fun. I really liked how there were some tough topics discussed and that was so important to see in a book like this. It’s spicy, it’s real spicy. I cannot wait to read the second one though and that comes out somewhere near the end of the month, which is next week and I am really excited for it because let’s be real; I love series like this that focus on one group or family apparently.
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor (4/5)
This was a gift from my step-grandmother when I graduated from high school in 2010. At the time I thought it was an odd gift to give someone at 18. Now at 29, I see the value. I have an undergraduate degree in psychology and reading this book made me remember and realize how much of my time as an undergrad was spent trying to chase the high of positive psychology. This book was great, it’s non-fiction which for me takes a lot longer to read but the contents of it were fascinating and I am going to try and implement them in my real life. It’s a lot, it’s so much trying to be happy at work somedays but we all try and we all want to do better (at least I hope that’s the case). It was eye opening to read this book that was published in 2010 that it still holds true because we went through another crisis and I feel like most of us throughout the pandemic have been living in a constant mode of crisis and uncertainty. It’s a good read if you are interested in psychology and I know that Growth Mindset is on my list of books to buy and has been for years. We are allowed to be happy in all aspects of our lives, it just takes time.
Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire (3/5)
I didn’t really enjoy it and that is okay. I have had this in my collection for years and I was hoping it would be much more fantasy and much more about the nutcracker than it actually felt like it was. I didn’t really like the pacing; it was just a little weird for me and it wasn’t a book that is for me. That’s totally cool because it is for someone else. I just didn’t jive with the story and the style of it. I thought it was interesting but it was just odd in many aspects and jarring in others. It was just weird. I don’t really have anything else to say about it, it just wasn’t my favorite.
Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford (3/5)
This book has been in my collection for a long time. I liked the idea of the BBC in its infancy, there is a lot of espionage and I didn’t know that one of the characters was a real person. Not until the end. I expected very different things from this novel. I liked the character of Maisie, but there were a lot of things that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I know men treated women like this back in the day, but man, I wanted to punch things reading parts of this book. I expected more radio, less fascism. It was a lot and it just wasn’t for me and that is totally okay. I have read 14 books this month, and I have read almost 25 this year, we are bound to find a few that aren’t for me.
I didn’t expect to read this many books this month, I read 14 in December and this post is just as long or longer which is insane. I have trained myself to read like 100 pages a night and some nights that goes by super-fast, sometimes it takes me a long time. I had some highs and lows this month in my reading because some of my TBR books are just things that I am forcing myself to get through. I don’t DNF, I just don’t because what if it gets good ten pages before the end and that makes it all worth it? Will that actually happen? No, but do I think maybe someday it might? Maybe.
I have no idea how I read so much this month besides a few AMI days and books that I just couldn’t put down. I think on average it took me something like two days to finish each book which is insane and a breakneck pace that I cannot sustain. I need to not condition myself to do this because I will be finished with my TBR by the summer and I don’t need to be.
I cannot wait to read some of the books that I have planned for March and I am going on a book buying ban until my birthday so I cannot buy the four or five books that I have sitting in my Amazon cart, I need to get off BookTok because it’s one sentence and I am buying a book, which honestly seems a little insane; but here we are.
Well with all of that I will be back later in the week with another post, so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy!
-MJ
Let’s Keep Track Shall We?:
General Fiction: 2/10 (The Runaway Princess, Since You’ve Been Gone, )
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 1/10 (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Hiddensee, )
Historical: 4/10 (The Velvet Hours, In the Shadow of Paris, And Only to Deceive, Radio Girls, )
Thriller: 1/2 (The Alienist)
Free Choice: 3/14 (Love and Gravity, A Fate of Wrath and Flame, City of Lost Dreams, )
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 1/2 (Buffering, )
General Non-Fiction: 1/2 (The Happiness Advantage, )
Book of The Month: 2/12 (Reckless Girls, A River Enchanted, )
Extras: 7/? (Midnight Spells Murder, Hot Vampire Next Door S1, Twisted Love, Malibu Rising, A Deal with the Elf King, Hot Vampire Next Door S2, The Fine Print, )
Something I learned last year was that I read a lot of books. A lot more than I usually do and I enjoy reading, I always knew that. Here’s the thing though; I only had six parts to this series last year because I did it every other month. There was a problem with that, some months I read 3 or 4 books or 9 but in December when I read like 14 and that means that my longest post was either part 4 or part 6 and that is a lot of books to cram into one post when I know it’s a lot to read. You can still go back and see what I read last year and proof that once I finish my TBR I solely become a mood reader is proved at the end of the year, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.
I am 100% aware of how long those posts were and I was not expecting to have posts that long. I was expecting to read 45 books and then I read over 70 and here we are in another year and this year my TBR goal alone is 50, plus my 12 Book of The Month books, and any other books that I want to read throughout the year so I have a lot of books planned this year. I know people who can read 100 books in a year and that boggles my mind.
So, this year I am going to be doing monthly posts about my reading habits. Y’all are going to be seeing a lot of book content and that’s just where I am right now. I love the fact that my blog while is lifestyle, lifestyle can literally be anything so here we are, on brand, on theme.
Like last year I have some TBR pile goals and I am going to do the break down first and as always there will be a tracker at the bottom because by now y’all know how much I love to track like everything, well I like to track things that probably aren’t super important to most, but I enjoy it. I am also keeping a Book Bullet Journal this year and you can see some of the content of that in the Intro post I did that is linked just above.
What do I plan on reading this year? Most of the books that are in these categories come from my current collection or books I bought in 2021. I have a lot of books and I am trying to dwindle my current collection before buying more. I have had a lot of them for a long enough time that they aren’t really my genre faves anymore, so I might as well read them and unhaul them if I don’t enjoy them.
Fiction: This is my largest category because let’s be honest, I read a lot more fiction than non-fiction and that’s just my scene so it’s okay.
– 10 General Fiction, this has not changed from last year, I just doubled the number of books in it and that is going to be a common theme. I also feel like when you say general it’s more contemporary or whatever I want to read that doesn’t fit into other categories.
– 10 Sci-Fi/ Fantasy, most of them are fantasy and about half of my planned Free Choice this year are also fantasy. It is very clear to me what my favorite genre outside of cozy mystery is.
– 10 Historical Fiction, self-explanatory, I have a lot of historical fiction in my collection and I have for a while so reading them sooner rather than later is probably a good idea on my part.
– 2 Thrillers, I actually really liked reading thrillers last year, but I don’t have enough in my collection to want to read more than two.
– 14 Free Choice, this is my flex category of books that I want to read that I can’t or don’t want to fit into a category, I thought this would be mostly cozies, but I ended up picking up several books last year that I really want to read as well as leaving some spots open for books coming out this year that I am waiting on.
Non-Fiction:
– 2 Autobiographies/Biographies/Memoirs, I just like to read about people, usually about people who I find really funny and this year is no different.
– 2 general non-fiction, one is a teaching related book the other is something fun and that is just want I want with non-fiction.
Book of the Month:
– 12, I mean, it’s going to be 12 there because that’s how many months are in the year, so it’ll just be my 12 BotM books.
Let’s get started! Also, this year because I am a literal idiot and didn’t do it last year (I might go back and augment every single post with the ratings), I am going to put my rating next to each book because why not?
Midnight Spells Murder by Mary Angela (3.5/5)
This was the Once Upon a Book Club pick for Halloween of 2021, I got it on New Year’s Eve because well, shipping is awful right now and I didn’t want to wait to read it. It was a quick read, not my favorite cozy but the gifts that came with it were super fun. I probably will write a whole post on it at some point. It’s the second in the series so I was just a touch lost but it was good. The ending felt rushed to me which is weird for a cozy but this one was only like 203 pages which is also on the short side for books that I usually read. That is all fine, my longest book this year is like 700 something pages from my TBR so here we are. This one was a little magic and it was fun.
The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman (4/5)
Well, I read The Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable in like 2016 and it is about the same apartment in Paris, I was a little worried when I realized that this was the same context because I didn’t end up really liking The Paris Apartment. This one was amazing; I loved the story how it switched by Marthe from the 1880’s to the present of the 1940’s and Solange who is her granddaughter living in the 1940’s. My favorite thing about all of this is that it’s a real place and a real painting that was discovered in like 2010 which is super interesting to me. This story was complex and vivid and I really enjoyed it throughout my reading.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (5/5)
I could not put it down, I read half the book in one day and it kind of broke me. It broke my heart just a little bit like all the best books do. I loved this book, I want I Remember You tattooed on me, I loved the characters and the story so much. It hurt, so much of it hurt but this book is one of those that will go on my favorite shelf. I love the writing style, the imagery, and how real it all feels to be trapped in the world where someone doesn’t remember you. I get it. I totally get it and I would love to read it again without knowing how it ends. There were so many moments where I was holding my breath and yelling at nothing because of what was going on. This book wrapped me up like a hug, a hug that is just a little too tight but you don’t want to let go because it feels good because you just need a good hug.
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (3.6/5)
I wrote a whole post about it and that will come out next because this was my first Book of the Month book for 2022, it was good, a little beach read thriller that went from 0-60 in like ten pages and left me with a few dozen questions. I am not going to spoil it but it felt very much like Clue to me but on a deserted island in the Pacific not a manor house.
The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne (3/5)
It was cute, I enjoyed it but I guessed the ending about 45 pages in. Which is frustrating because it hit a lot of those cliches and I walked into this book really looking forward to it and if I would have read it in 2014 or 2013 when I bought it; I probably would have been head over heels for it. It’s not so much that anymore, a prince to come and sweep you off your feet and then pretty much give up whatever for you. (I did that like touch because normally it’s the other way around.) I cannot judge a book in 2022 standards that was written in 2012 and it was cute but it left too many threads undone for me. It was made very clear that her sister had done something but you don’t find out what that is until about 45 pages to the end, maybe later and I felt like that rushed it, that it was just thrown in as a plot point. Her being normal, not super thin, a little weird, all of those were plot points to be almost mocked and I understand because of the royal aspect, but that was a lot for me.
Buffering by Hannah Hart (3.5/5)
I bought this when it came out and I watched a lot more YouTube at the time, I also loved My Drunk Kitchen. My tastes have changed since then and that’s okay. It was a good book, it talked a lot about struggling with mental health and as someone who deals with that one the daily, I get it. I have moved away from certain creators on the internet and that’s totally cool, I wanted to get it read and I did. This is just a book that’s not meant for me and that is also okay. It’s meant for a lot of other people and I hope those people find it.
Love and Gravity by Samantha Sotto (4/5)
This book was good, it was a lot though. I love a good time travel book and the crack in the wall very much reminded me of Doctor Who. I was totally cool with that. I did like all the twists and turns and everything that happened throughout. There was a huge plot twist that made the end of the book worth it, I was for sure going to say that I didn’t like the ending but it wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed the read and I did like how it went, it ended happily and its own way. It was a really quick read and that is not a bad thing but there were moments where I was slightly confused, also really sad.
In the Shadow of Paris by Claude Izner (3/5)
I was so confused, it’s my own fault because this is not the first in the series. It’s a mystery and it was fine but I know very little about 1890’s Paris. Also, the perspective shifted so many times I was getting lost. Not every book is for everybody and I know that, this one is not really for me. It was fine but I had no idea who did it until it was very suddenly revealed and I was even more confused because I just wasn’t keeping up with the story. I couldn’t keep up with who was talking at some points because there would just be a paragraph space and it would switch perspectives only to switch to someone else a page later. Not my favorite book and that’s okay. I could go back and read the rest of the series but I don’t want to, it was just a little too much for me.
The Alienist by Caleb Carr (3.6/5)
I wanted to watch the series so bad when it came out because it sounded so cool. I enjoyed the book it was just dense like a lot of turn of the century based literature is, it was written in the 1990’s so it’s not like it’s that old. It was a good story with compelling characters and I enjoyed it. It was a lot, but most books are a lot. It was a gruesome story for sure and that threw me for a few moments but this book took me almost a week to read. For me it’s usually about three days to read a book but this one took some time. It had some amazing treatment of mental health and psychopathy from that time period, not a lot was known about the human brain and reading it through the lens of today it was fascinating.
I was hoping to have one more on here, but that was just not the case. It will be the first one on my February post and it’s a good one. I promise, if you are into fantasy and murder plots, it’s for you.
I only read nine books in January, I mean compared to last January I think I only read three or four, I shouldn’t complain about reading nine books but I have seen people on the internet who read like 20 in a month and I am like “How?” I also have a full-time teaching job and you know writing that I do so I don’t have the undivided attention that some people do for reading. I also don’t have the attention span or the want for sleep deprivation to stay up all night and read books anymore like I did when I was younger.
This post was supposed to come out sooner, but I wanted to try and finish a book and then we had some snow so I wasn’t home to take the pictures, so this is coming out later than planned, oops! I also was not home because it snowed so I was snowed in at my parent’s house and this idiot didn’t take any pictures before she left her apartment, so it’s quite a bit later than planned!
I will be back later in the week with another post so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy.
-MJ
Let’s Keep Track Shall We?:
General Fiction: 1/10 (The Runaway Princess)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 1/10 (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
Historical: 2/10 (The Velvet Hours, In the Shadow of Paris)
Yes, I do want everyone to start singing the song that corresponds with the title of this blog post. I cannot believe that 2021 is coming to a close, I am starting this post at the beginning of November with my first book after I finished my part five post.
If you want to see what else I have read this year, you totally can, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5. I will be doing one post a month next year because some of those posts were super long and I want to have less lengthy posts next year. I am trying and it’s going to be a lot, I am already planning blog posts for next year, so here we are.
This one is super long! I mean it’s really long and I’m sorry. I was not planning on reading like 14 books in December, but here we are and I am sorry.
This might contain spoilers so if you want to read the book skip the blurb.
I bought a bunch of extra Book of The Month books because I have a book problem, it’s an expensive hobby, but it’s a lot better than other hobbies that I could be into.
Like the last post in this series, I am hoping for about a dozen books (I was wrong and I am sorry!) on here and that will include the last two classics I have to read this year and that is the end of my TBR which is really cool, I just have to read them.
Circe by Madeline Miller (4/5)
Well, I read it in just a few days, I really enjoyed the book as a whole. Who doesn’t love Greek myths? I read TheOdyssey in high school so hearing about a character that had a hand in that myth. It was easy to read and I spent a lot of time turning page after page because I couldn’t put it down. This was the Book of The Month book of the year in 2018 and this is one of those books that I have been seeing in Barnes and Noble for years and have been thinking about reading it. I am glad I did; Circe is such a multi-dimensional character and I loved how her story was told. If you like Greek myths, some feminism, magic, monsters, and some crazy situations; this is for sure the book for you.
No Good Tea Goes Unpunished by Bree Baker (4/5)
This is the second in the Seaside Café cozy mystery series and I didn’t need to start a new series this year but I read the first on in a day and I read well over half of this and finished it the day that I am writing this blurb. I love the characters of Charm and (spoiler alert) the two killers have been ladies, which I feel like for cozies and real life, not as common and I loved it. I have a character now that I really don’t like, but we aren’t supposed to like him. We don’t root for him, at least I don’t. I cannot wait to read the next one and I probably will before the end of the month. I have my Book of the Month book and another book or two to read first before diving back into Everly’s world. Seriously, this book was so fun and I cannot tell you how much I am loving this series so far.
The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker (4.3/5)
I wrote a whole post on this. It was really good and I cannot wait to read the second one, there were a lot of twists and turns with some really amazing and vivid imagery. If you want to read the actual post about it you totally can because it’s already posted so if you want to know more about this book then I suggest you click on the link here and go over and read that one!
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco (5/5)
I read it in two days, I could not put it down. I know that this book made it’s rounds on TikTok but I picked it up because I have read the other series that Kerri Maniscalco wrote which was Stalking Jack the Ripper, I read the entire series this year because it was also amazing. This one was vivid and amazing. Wrath and Emilia make such a great team and the ending made me want to keep reading so I will be going to Barnes and Noble tomorrow and picking it up because I really want to read it. I love stories with family, magic, a curse, and the sometimes blurring lines between light and dark. It pulled me in from about chapter two and I could not put it down. I read half of the book yesterday and the other half today. Lots of blood mentioned and murders so if you aren’t cool with that, I would skip this one, but honestly, I wouldn’t skip it, it’s amazing. Apparently the second book is spicy and I don’t know how I feel about it but with the plot of this one, I want to read it.
Tide and Punishment by Bree Baker (4/5)
This is exactly why I chose to do a TBR this year because otherwise it would be a lot of cozies, and while I love cozies, I can go through them in two days if I have the time read. Spoiler alert, another lady killer. That I kind of predicted when I started this because of the pattern from the last two. I love Charm, I also really love cozies so there is no shock that I love a small town with a fun heroine who has a really close family. I also love Hallmark movies so it should shock no one. I am already excited to read the next one and that will be shortly, I just want to read some cozies because I haven’t gotten to read many this year because of my TBR. I am still doing a TBR next year and cozies will be threaded through the list as well as at the end because I will have the time with no real plan on reading or a list to go on. I cannot wait to read the next one and see where it goes from where this one left off.
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (3/5)
I am going to preface this with not every book is meant for everybody and that is totally cool. This book was fine, I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it. I felt like I was reading about three different books at the same time. There are a lot of what felt like throw away moments, and holy mother of plot twists Batman. I don’t think I mean that in a good way either. Like I did not see the ending coming, well I kind of did I made a joke early (super spoiler) what if her dead husband was the murderer and I wasn’t super off. It was a lot, I cannot describe how much of a lot that it is, it was a really interesting premise of making someone feel like they are insane, it just wasn’t one of my favorites and that is totally okay. I have read 60 books this year, I am allowed to not be head over heels for all of them. I am also pretty new to reading thrillers for fun and again, not every book is for everybody. What I like and dislike are very different from what other people like and dislike and we can all agree that books are great, but there are books that are out there that may wow us while other people dislike them and vice versa. It’s okay, this one was just not for me in my current life stage and in my current reading and genre habits, and that is okay.
A Call for Kelp by Bree Baker (4/5)
Can y’all tell I am pretty much finished with mt TBR for the year, look I found all the cozies. I was not planning on opening up this document for the second day in a row, but here we are. I read this in one day (I’m on Thanksgiving break, so I have the time.) It was really good; I love the story and the characters and the very near-death experiences that Everly finds herself getting into. This one was really good and (spoiler alert!) the killer in this one was not a woman which I was cool with. This one for sure did keep me guessing the whole time I was reading it and I am a sucker for a good relationship. I love the built relationship of Everly and Grady, it’s so much fun. Seriously, read the whole book in one day and I need to stop doing that, but here we are anyway. I’m also now rooting for the person that I didn’t want to root for when he was introduced in the second of the series (No Good Tea Goes Unpunished) I like him now that he is not a potential suitor. I am reading at least another book or two before I read the next one in this series because if I don’t, I will read four books this week and I just don’t want to. Seriously amazing series though, if you like cozies I would for sure give this one a try.
Last Summer at The Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland (3.6/5)
Another Book of the Month add-on because I have a problem. I liked this one. It’s all about family and how secrets can rip a family apart. It reminded me of Not a Happy Family, but with less murder. I read it in a day and a half because I just needed a second full day of reading during my Thanksgiving Break. It was fun and it was a good story, it took me some time to get into it but when I did, I couldn’t put it down. There are so many tangled relationships and family drama that is evident throughout that it felt like I was watching a movie and I for sure would watch this movie. I wish the dog was in it more though, he felt like an afterthought and that was a little weird. I completely forgot for a while that he was even a character in the story and then he disappeared? I’m not really sure maybe I missed something but it was a fun what a lot of people call a beach read.
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab (4.9/5)
This is the second in the Darker Shade of Magic series, I loved it so much. I read it in like four days, I think. I know that’s not super quick but I have read enough books this year that I wanted to actually savor reading a longer book instead of blowing through another one. This one was amazing, I loved the Element Games, the dynamics shifting, and all of the characters that were featured. I cannot wait to read the next one, and it is on my TBR for next year so that’s really exciting. I love the characters and I will be reading a few V.E. Schwab books next year including A Conjuring of Light and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. There were so many twists and turns in this book and it left me on a cliff hanger, I have had so many cliff hangers this year and all I want to do is read the next one; like right now. I am not going to read it right now because I want to space out my reading. If you want to see what I thought about A Darker Shade of Magic, you totally can. Also, I still want Kell’s coat, I think that was such a cool idea.
Closely Harbored Secrets by Bree Baker (4.3/5)
Seriously, I told y’all that there would be a bunch of cozies throughout the end of the year, and there sure are. I literally just ordered two more because I have a problem. Some people love romance, I love a good cozy mystery. This one was amazing; I figured the killer out in this one most of the way through the book because I binged like 250 pages in one day. Again, I have a problem. Everly and Grady are probably one of my top five cozy mystery couples. They are amazing and this book really showed that they are meant to be, no spoilers. I loved the little add ins of the ghosts and the unraveling of a centuries old story. It was so good; I could not put it down and I found myself smiling through most of the book even though for a certain part I wanted to throw it against a wall because I was upset with a certain turn of events. I cannot wait to read the next one and then have to wait until April for the follow up. I really do hope that this series is nowhere near completion because I need some Sun, Sand, and Tea in my life.
Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco (5/5)
I am going to preface this one with, I should have tabbed both of the ones in this series, when I do my re-read I will, because there were lines in this one that had me rolling with laughter and I want to go back and read them over and over again. This was a little spicy, I will not lie about that but I could not put it down. I cannot wait for the final installment in the trilogy with the cliffhanger this book left it on. I loved all the princes and all of the crazy twists and turns in this book. I read it in like three days just because I have to be a person. This one is one of my top books of the year because it was just so good. I would suggest this series to anyone and everyone, the imagery is amazing, the characters are amazing and sarcastic and I love them, and the world building it is amazing. This for sure is a lot of moral grey area and it’s so fun. I laughed so much while reading this and I really do regret tabbing this book; next time. I rarely re-read books but some of the books I have read this year for sure deserve a re-read in the future.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (3.5/5)
I love pretty much every retelling of this story and I finally read it. Half of the Christmas movies that I own are retellings of this quintessential Christmas novel. I read the whole thing in like an hour. It was only like 68 pages for the Dover Thrift edition so it was not a hard read. I don’t know how it’s taken me this long to read it because it’s one of those things that is so much a part of our popular culture that I have no idea how I haven’t read it before now even though I have heard the story over and over again in cartoons, in TV shows, and in films.
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (3.5/5)
This book was good, this is the second Greek mythos-based novel that is in this specific post since I started it with Circe. It was not my favorite book ever; it was good though. It got sad and I will for sure say if you are averse to mentions of suicide or the death of children, maybe don’t. It was a quick read when I actually got into it. I don’t really have much to say about it, it made me a little sad and a little confused and then there was some weird stuff.
The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox (3.5/5)
Do you want to read a Hallmark movie? This is for sure the book for you. I wrote a whole post on it that will be out at the beginning of January so if you want to know my more in-depth details on it, go read it over there. I have read 68 books this year so far and they can’t all be my favorites.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 2 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3/5)
I skimmed it; I feel bad about that but reading ten classics in a year was as mistake especially when two of them were over 600 pages. I love Sherlock Holmes but like I said with the first one; I should have read it as an audiobook. I will probably do that eventually, just listen to it because I think I would enjoy it so much more. It was a good book, but it was just long and I couldn’t find the strength in myself to read it completely all the way through. I skimmed and I hate skimming books because each novel deserves your complete attention. It’s Sherlock Holmes and the character and stories are amazing, but reading it was hard and I just couldn’t get interested and gripped by it like I do with most of the books I read. It is a masterwork of fiction, that is no lie, it just was difficult to get through.
Partners in Line by Bree Baker (4/5)
This one was really good, I for sure had moments where I wanted to throw it across a room because of Everly and Grady, I love them but I got mad a little throughout this one. I cannot wait for the next one to come out because I need to know what happens next. I loved this whole story and I honestly didn’t guess the killer until it was revealed and I love a cozy mystery where I am guessing until it’s all over. I love how her relationship with Wyatt has changed and progressed through this series because when he showed up, I hated him. This book shocked me at a certain point that I don’t want to spoil so I am not going to say it but I was upset. This one was a lot, it was a good a lot but it was a lot.
The Love Hypothesisby Ali Hazelwood (5/5)
I read it in pretty much one sitting, like I only took breaks to go to the bathroom, let the dogs I am dog sitting out, and eat; I could not put it down. This was one of those books that blew up and I could have gotten it for a Book of The Month in September, I got it as an add-on this month. I regret, whole-heartedly regret not reading it sooner. I found my new favorite funny book quote in this book and that is, ‘carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man’ I laughed so much while reading this book and it does get a touch spicy, but I could not put it down. It was fun and pretty much every other page through at least the first half of the book had me closing it so I could laugh silently or like a dog squeaky toy. I love a good grumpy and sunshine trope relationship and this one, it was so fun and so good. I loved the characters and just everything about it, it hooked me from the first page and didn’t let me go until I closed the book.
The Falcon Always Wings Twice by Donna Andrews (4/5)
I have been waiting to read this one because my Barnes and Noble just never got it, shame on them. The Love Hypothesis gave me a little bit of a book hangover so it took me like three days to read this one. It was good, I love all the characters in Meg’s world since I have been reading this series since like 2016. I have all of them that are out at the moment if they are out in paperback because you know that your girl like paperback more than hard cover if I can manage it. I loved the ren faire and I honestly didn’t figure out who the killer was until like a chapter before it was revealed, I had my suspicions but other than that, no idea. I hopefully will get the next one read before the end of the year as well because that’s just who I am as a person. The next book I am reading it a BookTok favorite so pray for me.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (5/5)
Well, I am way behind the times on this one but BookTok introduced it to me and here we are. I read most of it in a day, I just didn’t have the motivation to read and then it got good and I know why everyone loves Rhys. It is totally worth the hype with a very Beauty and The Beast feel mixed in with a mad queen and ridiculousness throughout. I could not put it down once I got into it and I feel like all of my favorite books this year have been fantasy. I have always loved fantasy and from everything I have seen on TikTok about this book I am for sure in for a rollercoaster. It took a while for me to get into it but when I did, man, I read from chapter 15 (pg 131) to the end of the book. So many twists and turns and so much going on, I cannot wait to crack into the second one at some point in the new year. I probably won’t wait to read it and that just means that the free choices on my TBR might be a little out of order.
Gift of The Magpie by Donna Andrews (4.3/5)
This one had a happy ending! I was so happy. Normally you don’t like the people who dies, I loved this book, it was so good and so happy. I love a good Christmas cozy mystery. I love meg and her cast of characters; I have been reading the books for years so it’s like a weird extended family and I love them. This one was back in Caerphilly and I missed the townsfolk that I have learned to love so much since I started reading the series. It’s number like 30 in the series and finding the earlier ones is hard if you want a physical copy, but it’s so worth reading like all of them because I love the characters and let’s be honest Spike, he steals the show constantly. I remember reading the first one and not knowing exactly what was going on, and now these characters are so familiar to me and they are all amazing. I read this one in one day and I am hoping to get like three more books read by the end of the year.
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren (4/5)
It was cute, it was a Hallmark movie meets Groundhog Day, I read it all in one day. It was a super quick read but I wanted to keep reading it so I did. This was book 75 this year and I really rather enjoyed it, I was not sure if I was going to, but I love a good romantic comedy and this was a lot. I like the mechanic that she was reliving the same day or week over and over again trying to find happiness. It was really fast paced and so fun. The Epilogue, like the one in The Holiday Swap probably could have been left out, but that’s just me. I like a good wrap up but I also like the unknown when it comes to books, letting the reader make their own conclusions. It was a really cute book though.
Petals and Poison by Jess Dylan (3.5/5)
I read the first one earlier in the year and I honestly can’t remember much of it. It was a fun little book but the ending left me meh, it was kind of anticlimactic and that’s a little odd for a cozy mystery. I like the development of the characters and this is only the second book in the series. I know that the next one comes out next year and I’ll read it because I like the characters and the story. This one was fine, it was absolutely fine.
Absence of Mallets by Kate Carlisle (4/5)
I bookended the year with two of her books! That’s so weird and exciting. I love Shannon and I found myself really enjoying this ninth installment of her series. She’s a lady carpenter and that is so important because girls can build stuff too. I seriously have walked through a Home Depot and a Lowe’s and had guys ask me if I know what I am looking for and I just want to do the Ron Swanson thing from Parks and Rec when he says “I know more than you” sometimes. I loved the story and I still hate Whitney, this one had a lot of subterfuge but I figured out the killer kind of early on, so either I am getting better at picking out the killer or this one was a fluke. It was good though, a nice short read for my final book of 2021.
Can y’all tell by this post that I am 100% a mood reader? I read what I want to, that is 98% the reason that I have decided I have to do a TBR every year because otherwise I would not read any of the books I own. I would just read what I want and that means buying more books. While I will still buy all sorts of books (thanks BookTok) I need to stick to at least part of a list. I need to go through the books that I own and unhaul the ones I don’t want.
Speaking of unhauling, I normally don’t, normally I keep every book I read. This year because I read so many and I know that I will never crack them open again I am just going to get rid of them. I am not going to tell y’all which books I am unhauling but there are about eight from this year. I am not saying them because for some people those might be their favorite books and my favorite books might be ones they hate. We are all allowed to like and dislike books and stuff without hatred or malice, I promise. We all like what we like and that’s okay.
As I did last year, here is a picture of all the books I read this year except four, one that is my mother’s and is at her house, and three that I read at school. This is my Book Stack and I couldn’t put it in one pile without it falling over, so two piles this year. Spoiler alert about a minute after I took this picture the stack on the right fell over and half of it ended up on the windowsill behind it which was funny.
By the time that this post comes out, I had to move some things around so it’s the beginning of January, Happy 2022! I am hopefully halfway or completely done with my first book of the year.
I am hoping to hit 70 books again in 2022 but I am not holding myself to that goal, my TBR is at 50 so my GoodReads goal will start at 50 as well because then I can just go up from there. In like July of 2021 I told my mom I had another 20 books on my TBR and she questioned if I could do it (my mother reads a lot more than I do) and I took that as a challenge so I read almost 40 more.
Alright, I think that’s enough because this post is super-duper long and that is part of the reason that I am doing monthly next year not bi-monthly. Too much. I will be back later in the week with another post so until then, I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy!
-MJ
Let’s keep track shall we?:
Classics: 10/10 (Alice in Wonderland, Tuck Everlasting, The Secret Garden, Dracula, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1, A Confederate Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Peter Pan, Frankenstein, A Christmas Carol, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 2)
Historical Fiction: 5/5 (The Painted Girls, The Last Days of Night, The Marlowe Papers, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, West of Sunset)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 5/5 (A Conspiracy of Alchemists, Dream London, Soulless, The Starless Sea,Good Omens)
General Fiction: 5/5 (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris, Me Before You, All is Fair in Love and Cupcakes, Bridget Jones’s Diary)
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 2/2 (Yes, Please and Scrappy Little Nobody)
Non-Fiction: 1/1 (Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire)
Thrillers (one is non-fiction because I am an idiot, but it’s still thrilling): 2/2 (I, Ripper and Depraved)
Free Choice: 15/15 (Eaves of Destruction,A Wrench in the Works, Shot Through the Hearth, Stalking Jack the Ripper, Premeditated Mortar, Hunting Prince Dracula, Death in Bloom, A Study in Darkness, Escaping from Houdini, The Dalek Generation, Live and Let Chai, A Grave Matter, A Darker Shade of Magic, Capturing the Devil, Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Book of the Month (late addition): 6/6 (Half Sick of Shadows, Not A Happy Family, Rock Paper Scissors, The Ex Hex, The Keeper of Night, The Holiday Swap)
Extra’s (books I read during my TBR and after I finish it): 21/21 (how?) (See Something, Idiot, A Tale of Two Cookies, Circe, No Good Tea Goes Unpunished, Kingdom of the Wicked, Tide and Punishment, The Maidens, A Call for Kelp, A Gathering of Shadows, Closely Harbored Secrets, Kingdom of the Cursed, Ariadne, Partners in Lime, The Love Hypothesis, The Falcon Always Wings Twice, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Gift of the Magpie, In A Holidaze, Petals and Poison, Absence of Mallets)
As I said in my 5th installment of my Books Read in 2021 series, here is the long form and more in-depth review of my October choice from my Book of The Month. It was a lot of fun and I am going to tell you all about it.
I wanted a book this month for BoTM that was a little magic and this one was the most magic one that was on the list. It was described as a fantasy, there is for sure some romance. Just a few pages and if you know my reading habits; romance is not something that I typically read. This one wasn’t too graphic and that made me super excited because I didn’t know really what to expect when I cracked the first page.
I am going to say this just because, this is a book review and that means that there will be some spoilers. So, if you are planning on taking this book for a spin; stop reading and I will see you all with the next post.
I am still figuring out how to write long form blog posts with book reviews, so just for now, bear with me.
Alright, I gave this one a 4.3/5, which is a super high score for me because usually I don’t love books. I have only rated like three books a full 5 this year and I really want to start being a little laxer on ratings. I love to read and I pretty much read anything and everything, so when I rate books, I need to give them more stars.
I have been reading a lot of books with multiple perspectives recently, which is fine. This one is told from both of the main character’s perspectives and it’s so much fun.
There is a lot of swearing in this book so if you are a little adverse to that; I would skip it, but it had me rolling. I absolutely loved the humor in this book and the characters were so much fun. I loved the fact that the hex was caused by a broken heart, too much vodka, and a Bath and Body Works candle. The main character reminded me of Jess from New Girl, I cannot tell you why but she did and I loved it.
It was a really quick and easy read that I could not put down. I read it in like three days and I loved it so much. I know that I have been saying that over and over again and I feel like that’s okay. I don’t get excited about books because I have had enough people in my life not share my excitement for books so I don’t share my excitement.
Rhys is portrayed at the beginning as an ass, I mean he kind of is and then you fall in love with him and Vivienne’s relationship because you want to root for them no matter their past. They fight ghosts, living plastic skulls, and an old curse that goes beyond anything that Bath and Body Works can do.
It’s old magic meeting new magic and I could not get enough of the fun and fast paced rom com that this was. I love a good rom com, there were so many in the mid-2000’s and the early 2010’s that I can still remember to this day. This is like Hallmark meets a romance novel and it was so much fun. I love a good fun book and this was one of the most fun books I have read this year.
There is not a lot of physical descriptions of intimacy in this book, which for me was a plus when it comes to a romance. I just don’t enjoy reading a lot of “BookTok” style books because there is a lot of graphic descriptions and I just don’t enjoy that. I used to, back in high school I read a lot of stuff that was probably more mature than I should have, I don’t read it now and that’s okay. Tastes and book choices change over the years, I used to hate thrillers and I have read like four or five this year alone.
If you want a quick, almost beachy feeling read, this book is for sure for you. It was a lot of fun and I need more fun in my life. Who doesn’t need more fun in their life while we deal with what is going on in the world?
I want a cat that just screams “Treats!” over and over again, I can’t have cats but I love the idea of a cat that just screams at me when it wants food. The characters are fun and feel real also it’s modern, I haven’t read a modern novel since September. (It’s the second full week of October as I write this.) It was the last cozy I read and then before that it was my September BoTM, I needed something modern in my life before I go back into fantasy and historical before I finish my TBR.
I have bought add-on books so far but I don’t think that they will be long form all by themselves, I got The Maidens and Circe. Both of which I am really excited for, but they will be in blurb form more than these longer form reviews.
If you really want to read my other reviews, you totally can. I have a few so far because I started getting BoTM in July, so you can click on the month and get my little review: July, August, and September.
Well, I hope that everyone has a great rest of the week and I will see everyone over the weekend with another post. If you do read this book, I hope you enjoy it. To me it was a whole lot of fun and I really do want a shirt that says, ‘Never mix vodka and witchcraft’ because that is so much fun.
How is it that I am already writing the fifth installment of this series? That feels impossible. 2021 had been a whirlwind and I can’t believe it is already the end of October. As usual I am writing this post incrementally so it is the first of September when I am writing this first blurb.
I feel like I have read so many books this year and I really have because I haven’t just been reading cozy mysteries. I am actually reading from a To Be Read pile which is weird and exciting because it means that I am finally getting books off my shelves that have been there since college.
I am missing one here because I lent it out and haven’t gotten it back yet!
If you want to check out what else I have read this year, you totally can, just click on the part and it’ll take you to those posts. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 (which is really long so prepare yourself.)
I am hoping that this list has about a dozen on it, unlike part 4 which had 17 books. That is so many books and I probably should have split it out. Maybe next year I will put a limit on the post, like if one month has over 7 it gets its own post. I don’t know if I will do that, but it was a lot to read in one sitting for one post.
The Painted Girl by Cathy Marie Buchanan (2.8/5)
This is my last TBR historical fiction this year, which is crazy to think that I have finished one of my categories. It’s really exciting though. This book was a lot, I read three historical fictions in a row and that is super taxing on my brain. I need some modern in my life even just for a moment. It was good though, not my absolute favorite, but still good. Each chapter split the perspective between two sisters, which is an interesting writing device. There was a lot of drama and as one of my teaching friends put it, ‘It’s historical fiction, wait til it gets sad.’ It got sad and confusing. I love Edgar Degas, I love impressionist and post-impressionist art. I have a magnet of The Dancer on my fridge. I have been to the Art Institute in Chicago and seen his work. I thought when I bought this book it would be more about him, it really wasn’t. It was fine, I bought it in like 2014 or 2015 so my tastes have changed since then, but if you like 1880’s Paris, the ballet, a family struggle, and painting; it might be for you.
A Conspiracy of Alchemists by Liesel Schwarz (3.5/5)
Alright, I liked this one. It was a little romantic, a lot of adventure, and a strong female character. I don’t think that I can ask for much more in a book. I mean really. I have had this book for at least five years and my mom read it before I did. I plan on adding the sequel to my list of books to read next year and eventually getting the third and final one as well. I liked it though, it took me a minute to get into it and then I read 40 chapters in 2 days and the last 16 on the third day. It was twists and turns and actions, betrayals, and a spark that kept me wanting to read it. If you are into steampunk and magic, I for sure would recommend this one. This is also my fourth historical thing in a row and I need a break. So here I am loving fantasy like always and ready to read the next one next year because I cannot wait to see what happens with Marsh and Elle.
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney (3.9/5)
This book blew my mind. It was so much you guys, so much. I really enjoyed it though. I wrote a whole dedicated post on it because that’s what I do for Book of The Month and I enjoy doing it that way. I know that it is kind of annoying to have to click to another blog post to read a full review, but that’s how we do it around here. It was a thriller and I am still reeling from it, everyone is crazy, there is a billion secrets, and you will not believe how everything unfolds. It’s crazy and that’s all I’m going to say about it.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (2.8/5)
It was a good story, that’s what I need say first and foremost. I liked the story, but the formatting had me having trouble reading it. There were no quotation marks and that was hard for my brain to comprehend and process. I desperately wanted to go and take a pen to it as I read to put in the marks myself. I liked the premise when I picked up the book, it sounded amazing and then I read a review online about six months after I purchased it where the person doing the review also complained about the lack of quotation marks. Again, the story was great but the formatting made it difficult to follow along at points.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (5/5)
So good, I really enjoyed this book. I have been following the author online for a few years now and this book has been on my to be read list for a lot longer than I would like to admit. I hate that I waited so long to read it, especially since The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is the second book on my TBR for next year. I have heard so many good things about this book and I was not disappointed. I want to go out and buy the other two like tomorrow even though I don’t know when I am going to get around to reading them. I loved the story and the characters, the twists and turns of all the London’s in the story. I have seen the opening line about Kell’s coat on the internet for years now and reading that line for myself was exciting. I loved it so much, if you like fantasy, magic, and just a touch of sass this is for sure a book for you. I actually tabbed this book and I am not great at it yet, but I’m trying.
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (3/5)
I grew up on the Disney version of this story. I grew up on the Disney versions of a lot of classical stories and this was for sure different than the Disney version. All the big things are still there and it was a good story. It was only like 160 pages long and it took me like four days to read because classical literature is dense. I say that with every classic I read. I am still working on Sherlock Holmes Volume 2 and at this point I will be lucky to finish it by the end of the year. That’s the goal folks, the end of the year. I did enjoy the book, it, like a lot of Victorian literature is tragic and a little dark. I have another retelling of Peter Pan called The Child Thief and I started reading it in high school and never finished it. I plan on reading it eventually, I promise. So, there is it another classic to tick off my list and that is so exciting at this point.
See Something by Carol J. Perry (3.8/5)
I wasn’t planning on reading a cozy right now, I was planning on reading a non-fiction that I though was a fiction because I am an idiot. That will be the next on the list. I read this one because I was at my parents for a few days and needed something non-hard cover to read on the bike. I chose this one. I loved it; it was so much fun but by now everyone knows that I love a good cozy mystery. I love the Witch City Mysteries because they are just slightly magical. It’s not an overarching theme, it’s just part of Lee’s life. I don’t want to spoil anything but something in this book is a long time coming and it made me smile like and idiot for like a minute and a half last night when I finished it. I can’t wait for the next one because I love these characters, I love the series, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in Lee’s life. Well, all the things that will happen next in Lee’s life.
Depraved by Harold Schechter (3/5)
First book of October, how is that possible. I bought this book years ago and I thought at the time that it was fiction; because apparently, I cannot read. I can read, that is proved by the fact that I have read like 48 books this year according to my Good Reads list. It was a really interesting story though, I love turn of the century true crime, who doesn’t like Jack the Ripper or H.H. Holmes. He was a devious and devilish sort of man. He was the devil in the White City, I know there is a book by that name as well that I want to read eventually. I think that serial killers are fascinating, let me rephrase that, I think that long dead serial killers are fascinating. It’s a true account of everything that he did from arriving near Chicago to his trial and hanging. (It’s not a spoiler, it was over 100 years ago, calm down.) It was such an interesting and diabolical story all wrapped up in the glamour and hardship of the later 19th century. Normally to me non-fiction is dry, but this book kept me turning page after page because it didn’t read like a non-fiction it read like a story and who doesn’t love a good story.
Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco (4/5)
I cannot believe that this is the last in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. It was a little spicier than I am used to with this series. It was so good though, there were so many twists and turns throughout the book and it didn’t take me long to read. This series conclusion was absolutely phenomenal and I will one day read the whole thing again, yes that’s right this series deserves a re-read and I am planning on tabbing the books the second time I go through them. I loved how everything wrapped up and man this one had me on the edge of my seat for longer than I am used to with a book. After finishing Depraved this was a really good fictional telling of the horrors of H.H. Holmes and the murder castle. The imagery in this, like all the others, is very vivid and I could not have asked for a better wrap up to Audrey Rose and Thomas’s story.
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling (4.3/5)
Well, BoTM told me it was fantasy, it’s also romance. I wrote a whole blog post on this that will be out next month. I am not going to spend a lot of time on this here. I loved it, even though it did get a little saucy. I was laughing so hard throughout the book and it was such a cute little campy story. I really do want a shirt that says ‘Never mix vodka and witchcraft’.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Jason Fry (3/5)
I did not grow up a Star Wars fan, it just wasn’t a part of my life. I knew about all of it of course because I was a child when the prequels came out. Truth be told I didn’t watch all of the prequels until last year or the year before. I like Star Wars and I didn’t hate the new trilogy, I liked it. I know a lot of people hated it though and that’s totally fine, that’s your opinion. I watched the movies and I like to read novelizations of movies; I always have and this was just another in the list of books that I have read that were movies first. It’s The Last Jedi which I know a lot of people hated, I know that because I am a human on the internet and that means that I get to see everyone’s opinions of everything all of the time. It’s a quick read and I enjoyed seeing a different side of what I had already seen on film. I don’t complain about many books and this was fun, it was a good retelling that gave a little more information and that’s all I can ask for.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (3/5)
Reading this many classics this year was a mistake, like a huge one because I am not actually enjoying them. Classic literature is just not my cup of tea and I still have two more to read and Sherlock Holmes is one of them and I crave death. This is one of my best friend’s favorite books and I didn’t really like it. I liked the concept but it was just a lot. I found myself skimming it and being bored with it even though Frankenstein’s monster is such a popular character. The classic horror character is not articulate like the creature in the book so that was fun. It was sad and there was a lot of death which made it hard to read. It also had a fairly ambiguous ending and as someone who likes a conclusion that made me itch a little bit. I think this is another one of those books where if I listened to it as an audio book I would have probably been a lot more invested but just reading it didn’t do it for me.
Idiot by Laura Clery (4/5)
I was one of many people to absolutely die laughing while watching some of her sketches on Facebook, she’s so funny and this memoir is so honest. I don’t know what it’s like to have an addiction, I have a lot of it in the family though. I read this entire book in a day because I couldn’t put it down. As someone who grew up near Chicago on the Indiana side, I understood the humor of staying in the town you grew up in. I did not, but many of my classmates did. Her humor is not for everyone, but that is how comedy works. It’s not universal, not everyone finds the same styles of humor funny, I just like funny people. If there is any sort of self-deprecating humor, that is my kind of funny. It was a good read and I will eventually read her sequel to this novel, but that will be a little ways down the road.
A Tale of Two Cookies by Eve Calder (4/5)
I am taking a break from my TBR because it’s just two classics and I will be done but I don’t want to read A Christmas Carol until December and Sherlock Holmes the daunting size of that book has me craving death. This one though, I have had this book since it came out and I was going to read it earlier in the year, but my mom was reading it so I couldn’t and then I got busy with my TBR. I read the first two in the series back-to-back in November of last year and I could not put them down. This was another great example of that even though I had to pace myself on this one because it’s been a long week. I love Kate and the inhabitants of Coral Cay. This is a more unconventional cozy, most of the cozies have the main lead (usually female) in the room with the killer, this has much more fun endings to it, the person still gets caught, but it doesn’t involve violence. I really like that about the book, I also would love to experience Coral Cay for myself because the picture of this little community is so vivid throughout the novel and I cannot wait for the next one, I want to see how Kate gets on with everything that’s going on and I want to continue to experience this fun little beach town over and over again.
I kind of forgot that I needed to wrap this post up when I was finished with it. I am posting this on Halloween and I am in the middle of reading another book, which should shock no one. I’m really enjoying it, but it will be not on my TBR because the only two books left on my TBR, as I mentioned in the last blurb and two classics and I need to actually read things beyond that. I am almost done which is so hard to believe but I for sure had a goal of 45 books this year and I have read 54 so I think I have hit my goal.
I will be back in the middle of the week with another post so until then I hope everyone has a great start to their week and Happy Halloween!
-MJ
Let’s keep track shall we?:
Classics: 8/10 (Alice in Wonderland, Tuck Everlasting, The Secret Garden, Dracula, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1, A Confederate Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Peter Pan, Frankenstein,)
Historical Fiction: 5/5 (The Painted Girls, The Last Days of Night, The Marlowe Papers, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, West of Sunset)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 5/5 (A Conspiracy of Alchemists, Dream London, Soulless, The Starless Sea,Good Omens)
General Fiction: 5/5 (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris, Me Before You, All is Fair in Love and Cupcakes, Bridget Jones’s Diary)
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 2/2 (Yes, Please and Scrappy Little Nobody)
Non-Fiction: 1/1 (Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire)
Thrillers (one is non-fiction because I am an idiot, but it’s still thrilling): 2/2 (I, Ripper and Depraved)
Free Choice: 15/15 (Eaves of Destruction,A Wrench in the Works, Shot Through the Hearth, Stalking Jack the Ripper, Premeditated Mortar, Hunting Prince Dracula, Death in Bloom, A Study in Darkness, Escaping from Houdini, The Dalek Generation, Live and Let Chai, A Grave Matter, A Darker Shade of Magic, Capturing the Devil, Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Book of the Month (late addition): 3/6 (Half Sick of Shadows, Not A Happy Family, Rock Paper Scissors, The Ex Hex)
Extra’s (books I read during my TBR and after I finish it): 2/? (See Something, Idiot, A Tale of Two Cookies)
So here was are in the last days of August or the early days of September. I am starting this at the beginning of July and I am hoping that by the time that this is posted I have read like a lot. I have over half of the books I want to read this year still currently sitting on a shelf. I am so hoping by the time that this goes up on the blog that I have made a significant dent in that list.
This year is for sure overall different from my book habits of years of the past, I actually have a To Be Read pile, I usually just read what I want. That’s why last year I read 20 cozy mysteries. I have well over 100 books in my collection that I have had forever and not read, so for now those are going to take precedence. That will also be true for next year and the year after as I have already picked the books I plan on reading, at least some part of them.
Well here I am with the fourth of six of these posts this year and hoping that there is like a dozen books on this list because I need to read more. If you want to know what else I have read this year you can click on the number and it’ll take you to that post: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Soulless by Gail Carriger (3/5)
I have had this book in my collection since late 2014 and so it’s moved with me a few times and I have another book by the same author that really sparked my interest in reading her work. Soulless was very funny and by now everyone should know how much I love Victorian England. This was much more my taste in 2014-2015 with supernatural creatures and all of that. I liked a lot of the characters, but I don’t know if I will read the rest of the series because there were some parts that were a little much for my sensibilities. I don’t read romance any more, I used to, but not so much now. There are some characters in this book that had me rolling with laughter while there were some parts where I just skipped or skimmed. That is really just my personal taste in books though, it was cute and a fun story to read with an interesting mystery element. That all being said I don’t know if I will continue to read the series, I know I said that already but I feel it needs to be said again. I love an outspoken main female lead especially when it’s written in this time period, but for me if you want a strong female lead in this time period without the more adult content I really would suggest the Stalking Jack the Ripper series.
Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (3.5/5)
I liked the book, World War 2 era Britain, very interesting. I will say this, I did not like the n word used so much, I know that it was common place at that time and historically accurate, but not super great to the modern ear. I liked the book otherwise. I love a good love story that is touching and can be tear filled when necessary. Love is war and war is hell. I had a number of family members serve in World War 2, my paternal grandfather was a gunner on the USS Pensacola, and according to him when he was alive, he was the only one on his gun that survived. My paternal great uncle, my grandfather’s brother, my Uncle Jack, was a Marine and lived the rest of his life with a drinking problem. My maternal grandfather was an army doctor on the front lines in France, he never talked about the war. My maternal great uncle, my other Uncle Jack, was in a field hospital in London, also a doctor. I can’t imagine what World War 2 was like, I have only seen it through the lens of history in both fictional and non-fictional accounts. This book was good, it mixed characters and struggle, and hardship, but also love and commitment. It was good.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2.5 (because it was so long)/5)
This took me like a month to read, it was so much. I love Sherlock Holmes, I have read a number of books that use this character, I have watched movies and TV shows and I love the character. This book was so long though, I found myself skimming it and I never skim books. I wish that it was split a little differently but that’s what I get for buying the Barnes and Noble versions in 2012. If it was split out a little more I think I would have enjoyed it much more than I did.
Dream London by Tony Ballantyne (3/5)
It was weird, it was good, and interesting. I feel like I don’t really have words to describe this book. It took me some time to get into and then I read like 300 pages in a day. I am not used to reading books from a male point of view, usually the narrator or main character is female. I have had this book in my collection since I was in college, the first time. (I have two bachelors and a masters, so I have been through a lot of schooling.) It was good when I got into it, and I loved how the chapters were titled. (you will just have to see for yourself if you want to) I love the idea of something starting to change the city that you are living in, the theme kind of reminded me Annihilation, which I read about this time last year. When I say this, I mean in regard for something happening to a place that was normal before and no one is sure why. It’s vivid and a little confusing, but the story is meant to be confusing and rushed. There is a lot of swearing so if you are sensitive to that, this may not be the book for you. I’ve been watching Loki and for some reason Angel Tower and that whole concept reminded me of the show, again, I don’t know why, but it did.
A Study in Darkness by Emma Jane Holloway (3.6/5)
This is the second book in the trilogy and I read the first one in January of 2016, I remember enjoying it, but I don’t remember much about the story. Which was a problem as I read this one, I really did enjoy it though. It puts a twist on Jack the Ripper for sure and I have now read what feels like a half dozen books this year where Jack the Ripper is a figure. It’s very strange to have that much contact in different novels with one true crime character. Though I have read a lot of Victorian era fiction this year, so I should not be surprised. I read this book in 4 days I think, it was just really good if you like steam punk and Sherlock Holmes. I plan on reading the third and final novel in the series next year as one of my free choice books because I have had the series for at least 5 years now and I actually need to get things read that I have in my current collection.
The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (1.5/5)
I liked the subject matter and the content of the book, however, I didn’t like how it was written. It was written in verse and while I thought that would be cool, I feel like I absorbed almost nothing. It made it a very quick read because I read this book after finishing A Study in Darkness. I love the conspiracy theory that Shakespeare wasn’t a real person, that it was someone else who wrote all of his plays under a pen name, it’s fascinating. It was an interesting read, but the form of the book itself and how it was written in verse made it difficult for me to read. I like a novel, I love a good book of poetry, but I am not a huge fan of a book written in the form of many poems. It’s just not for me, it might be for you and that’s super cool. I read the back and thought how cool it sounded, I didn’t look into the book before buying it at least a few years ago, I also missed two critical words in the synopsis on the back, in verse. This would be a really good audio book, I don’t listen to audio books, but this, like a play should probably be read to you; you should listen to it. I now want to do more research on Christopher Marlowe because I know very little about him and this book did give me some understanding, but also confusion because I didn’t absorb much of what I was reading.
A Confederate Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (2/5)
This one also took me almost a month to read and I feel like I didn’t gain much from reading this book. I know that I should like the classics, but they are a little hard to read with a modern ear. Sometimes it’s books like this that also need to be read aloud and listened to. I love Arthurian legends, who doesn’t? It was an interesting premise, bringing someone from the 19th century into the sixth and allowing modern (well modern at the time of writing the novel) technology to be implemented. It would be like going back to the time of the American Revolution and bringing cell phones and Wi-Fi, you would probably be burned as a witch. I did skim some of it because I was finding myself bored, I don’t like to be bored when I am reading a book and I was reading two at a time this month trying to make up for the fact that I have not read enough books so far this year. We all had to read something by Mark Twain in high school, where I went we read Tom Sawyer, I SparkNoted it and 11 years removed from high school, I can say that with no shame. Mark Twain, while a cherished American writer, is a little dry for me.
Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco (4/5)
I did not think that I would be reopening this document for the fourth time this week and the second time today, but here I am. I could not put this one down, I really couldn’t. I love this series, it’s now one of my favorite series and I only have one more book left in it and I’m salty about that. It was so good, it reminded me of The Night Circus which is my favorite book. I love circus and carnival stuff themed around this era of Victorian England. I love Aubrey and Thomas and this novel got a little interesting with the added intrigue of the ringmaster, if you want to find out his name read the book, I promise it’s worth it. I read it in three days and I do not regret it, though I do because that means I’m ¾ of the way done with the series and that I am not okay with. I didn’t pick the killer, I never do in her books and it sets up the next one so well with a certain turn of the century serial killer. I am so excited to read the next one, though that will probably be in November or December because I have a number of books stacked up in front of it. I love the Tarot cards that are illustrated at the end of the novel and I cannot get over how detailed and vivid imagery that Kerri Maniscalco has in her novels. To me it doesn’t really read YA, it just has young characters.
Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick (3.8/5)
I like funny books by funny people, that should shock no one anymore. I think Anna Kendrick is hilarious and I have for years. I was a teenager when Twilight came out and I was at the proper age for Twilight-mania, I didn’t read the last book. I was in college when Pitch Perfect came out and a bunch of my sorority sisters all went to Buffalo Wild Wings (as you do in a sorority in college) and went to go see it together. I have very fond memories of that evening. I loved this book, I laughed out loud, alone in my apartment a lot throughout reading it. This book came out in 2016 so a lot has happened since then, but these books are almost a time capsule to a time before today, before all of the things that have happened since 2016. It was funny, it was touching, and it got a little weird, but I would expect nothing less. It was good, give it a try if you want to, I don’t think that you’ll be disappointed.
The Dalek Generation by Nicholas Briggs (3/5)
About once a year I read a Doctor Who book, I really enjoyed the series for a long time. I don’t get BBC America at the moment so I haven’t watched since Peter Capaldi left, but there was a time when I bought a lot of Doctor Whonovelizations. This was one of them. I don’t really have much to say about it, I enjoyed it and 11 was my favorite Doctor so it was cool. It was also interesting to see the tables turned with the Doctor’s oldest foes. It was good, it was a quick read, and I don’t even know if you could get this book if you wanted it, but if you like Doctor Who, it’s worth a read.
Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire by Rafe Esquith (4/5)
This book was in a box of books that I got from a teacher that I worked with, she was retiring and we went through all the books in her office. She spent the last several years of her career as a literacy coach (and my across the street neighbor) in the school where I was an instructional assistant while I was getting my Masters in Education. I found this book in one of those boxes, it had been in a box for years. This year has been difficult with teaching, I lost out on a job that I really wanted because of circumstances beyond my control. But it was something that I really wanted. Reading this book helped restore my faith in things, even just for a moment. I couldn’t put it down because I needed to read about someone that has been in this profession and has seen so much. I worked in a high poverty, high gang activity, and high risk district when I still lived in Indiana. That district taught me a lot and prepared me for pretty much anything a classroom can throw at me. Even though this book came out in 2007 most of the advice is still relevant and I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry about that. It feels like we haven’t gone anywhere in education in over a decade and the kids are the ones who are suffering. You cannot go into sixth grade with a first grade reading level, but it still happens. It’s broken and no one seems to know how or wants to fix it, everyone wants the Band-Aid, blaming the teachers, blaming the funding, blaming the curriculum, and blaming everything else. The kids are suffering and they shouldn’t be.
Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian (4.5/5)
I wrote an entire post about this that came out a few weeks ago and I will say it again here, the book was phenomenal. I cannot describe how much I loved it. I love fantasy and historical fantasy is always cool. If you want to stay spoiler free don’t go and read the post, it’s full of spoilers. I will leave you here with the first line and a warning, “I will die drowning; it has always been known.” It does talk about some sensitive topics, like mental health and suicide, so if you are sensitive to those walk into it with that knowledge. As someone who deals with their own mental health issues on the daily I still loved it, those issues were handled well, and it was so good.
Not A Happy Family by Shari Lepena (4/5)
Like Half Sick of Shadows there is going to be a dedicated post on this book as well, it’ll be out in a few days. It’s a good murder mystery that kept me guessing the entire book. I had no idea who had actually done it until it was revealed at the very end. This book like the last one I read shifts perspectives a lot and it made the tension in this book palpable. The characters were convincing and even though I have never seen Knives Out it gave me Knives Out vibes, it was something about the trailer that made me think of it when I was reading this book.
The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan (3/5)
It took me awhile to get into it and then I read like 200 pages in a day. It’s a cute story, it’s heartwarming. It was also sad. I can’t describe it any other way, I enjoyed it. I was left a little confused by the epilogue, but sometimes that happens because the end came on so fast and it felt like there were still loose ends. I don’t mind loose ends, it leaves interpretation to the reader and leaves you to draw your own conclusions. I have heard Paris is a beautiful place, I cannot speak French, I regret not taking it in high school. The book mentioned Notre Dame a lot and it was published a number of years before the fire but that is one place that I always wanted to see. That and all of the art museums, I just love old historic cities. It was good, it was cozy, and it was a quick read once I got into it. I read from chapter 10 to the end of the book in one afternoon. I hadn’t meant to, but I got sucked into it and that meant that I read most of the book. Oops.
Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker (3.8/5)
It’s a cozy! I love cozies and that should shock no one, I have written a lot of blurbs on cozies. I even wrote a cozy suggestion post last year. I really liked this one. The last name Swan will always remind me of Once Upon a Time which I loved when I was in college so that was fun. It was a really quick read, I started it in the morning and finished it in the evening with lots of breaks in between because I had other things I had to do. I was not going to read it in one day, I did though. It’s about an iced tea shop in a fun little beach town and it had me guessing on who done it until about the last five or six chapters, I did figure it out before the end of the book. For a cozy, that is odd for me, but I figured this one out. I would recommend it if you like a good little cozy mystery and I plan on going to buy the rest of the series or at least the next few this week so I can read them soon. (Because after I am done with my year TBR, I can read whatever I want and it’s all going to be cozies, prepare yourselves.)
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore (3/5)
I love historical fiction, that is not a secret. This one has been in my collection for quite a long time. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I got this book, it’s about the war over the light bulb between Edison and Westinghouse, with Tesla thrown in as well. It’s focused on Westinghouse’s lawyer, it’s really interesting. I feel like normally this wouldn’t be a book that I would pick up, but it was so cool. I learned a lot and I now want to read the non-fiction accounts that are talked about at the end of the book. It took me almost a week to read just because it was the first week back to school and I have not had a lot of time to read this week. I loved it, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it when I read the synopsis in the front, I don’t know what possessed me to pick up this book from the book annex at Barnes and Noble when they used to actually have books in the Annex. (Now it’s coffee table books, cook books, and a small section of regular books and it makes me sad.) If you like inventions and law then this one is for you. There was a brief moment in my life that I thought I would go into law, (entertainment) it was a very brief moment, but I find law fascinating.
A Grave Matter (Lady Darby Mystery #3) by Anna Lee Huber (3.5/5)
This is the third in the series and it just keeps getting better. Everyone should know by now that I love a book with a good relationship. Strong, stubborn, and independent woman and the man who just has to deal with her and her ridiculous behavior. Maybe that’s just the relationship that I am looking for because I am a ridiculous person. I love a good mystery and this is a really good one even as someone who normally doesn’t read realistic fiction that takes place before about the Victorian era, this takes place in the 1830’s. Like I said though, I love this series. I have been reading it since like 2017 or so and I am only on the third book because I am so bad about reading the books I already own. The grave robber aspect of this one was really interesting and the twists and turns of who did it and the reactions and revelations that took place throughout the novel itself. Keira is an amazing protagonist and her and Gage are really cute. I am reading the next one next year for sure, it’s already on my list and I need to finish all of the ones that I own because with the promises made in this one I cannot wait to see where it goes.
So I read a lot more than I thought I was going to, just under 20 books in two months and that is so insane to me. I wasn’t planning on having a post this long because I wasn’t planning on reading this much in two months and then I did. So here we are, I hope that you liked the post because it is so much longer than I expected it to be.
I still have a chunk of books to read and every time I look at the books shifting on my shelf it makes me feel better that I am getting closer and closer to my goal. I have already decided that if I hit my goal before the end of the year I am just going to read cozy mysteries and I am totally cool with that. I kind of miss them ,but I am also getting a chance to read such a variety of books that I have been sitting on my shelves for years just collecting dust.
Eventually when I move into a house a plan on being able to unbox all of my books and have a library of my own because that really is the dream. A library all my own because I can’t live in an actual library or a book store even though that would be really cool.
Well that’s my book list until my next book post, which by the time this comes out I might already be ready to start the next one. I hope that everyone has a great rest of the week and I will see everyone on Sunday with a new post.
So until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and heathy.
-MJ
Let’s keep track shall we?:
Classics: 6/10 (Alice in Wonderland, Tuck Everlasting, The Secret Garden, Dracula, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1, A Confederate Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,)
Historical Fiction: 4/5 (The Last Days of Night, The Marlowe Papers, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, West of Sunset)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 4/5 (Dream London, Soulless, The Starless Sea,Good Omens)
General Fiction: 4/5 (The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris, Me Before You, All is Fair in Love and Cupcakes, Bridget Jones’s Diary)
Memoirs/Autobiographies: 2/2 (Yes, Please and Scrappy Little Nobody)
Non-Fiction: 1/1 (Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire)
Thrillers: 1/2 (I, Ripper)
Free Choice: 12/15 (Eaves of Destruction,A Wrench in the Works, Shot Through the Hearth, Stalking Jack the Ripper, Premeditated Mortar, Hunting Prince Dracula, Death in Bloom, A Study in Darkness. Escaping from Houdini, The Dalek Generation, Live and Let Chai, A Grave Matter)
Book of the Month (late addition): 2/6 (Half Sick of Shadows, Not A Happy Family)
Wait It's MJ 