Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Title: Hidden Pictures

Author: Jason Rekulak

Publisher: Flatiron 2022

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 373

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.

I got this recommendation from Meredith at the Currently Reading Podcast. Every once in a while I really want a fluffy spooky thriller. I want something that I can speed through and get involved in a story but not think too much about anything. This book hit just exactly what I needed this week. I immediately got sucked into the spooky drawings and figuring out the mystery of what they mean. We are on a roller coaster of emotions as we speed through the mystery. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the unreliable narrator trope. Couldn’t we have made Mallory a regular person and not a former drug addict? Why dies every protagonist have to have a tragic backstory? Other than that quibble, I enjoyed the rest of the story. I definitely did not guess the ending of the mystery.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Mermaid by Christina Henry

Title: The Mermaid

Author: Christina Henry

Publisher: Berkley 2018

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 325

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Once there was a mermaid called Amelia who could never be content in the sea, a mermaid who longed to know all the world and all its wonders, and so she came to live on land.

Once there was a man called P. T. Barnum, a man who longed to make his fortune by selling the wondrous and miraculous, and there is nothing more miraculous than a real mermaid.

Amelia agrees to play the mermaid for Barnum and walk among men in their world, believing she can leave anytime she likes. But Barnum has never given up a money-making scheme in his life, and he's determined to hold on to his mermaid.

I was excited for a dark retelling of a mermaid story. What I got was a bit of a bore. Barnum is not a great historical figure or book character. He’s definitely a bit of a villain. Despite all of that, I was fairly interested in that story. Seeing how a real life mermaid becomes an exhibit for Barnum’s museum could have been a good novel. And yet, Henry decided to interject a big romance plot line and lost me. The romance plot line was plodding and boring and really dragged down the story. I got to the end without my dark storyline and felt very disappointed.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

Title: The Left Hand of Darkness

Author: Ursula K Le Guin

Publisher: 1969

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 315

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...

I tried reading this one again as part of the Nerdy Bookish Friends book club read. And I still didn’t like it. Back in 2011, I found this very clunky, slow-moving, and confusing. This time, I mostly still agree with that. While I can appreciate Le Guin’s attempt to discuss the big questions in sci-fi and her inspiration of many modern writers, I still find her work oddly stilted and non-engaging. I disliked every singly character we meet and was not engaged in the supposed plot line. The discussion of non-gender can be interesting, but I found many of the passages to contain a lot of misogynistic language. Feminine behaviors and attributes are almost always deemed to be unsavory. I would prefer to read a more modern take on gender and questions of gender than this ponderous tome.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Lore Olympus Vol. 2 by Rachel Smythe

Title: Lore Olympus Volume 2

Author: Rachel Smythe

Publisher: Random House Worlds 2022

Genre: Fantasy Comic

Pages: 368

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Persephone was ready to start a new life when she left the mortal realm for Olympus. However, she quickly discovered the dark side of her glamorous new home—from the relatively minor gossip threatening her reputation to a realm-shattering violation of her safety by the conceited Apollo—and she’s struggling to find her footing in the fast-moving realm of the gods. Hades is also off-balance, fighting against his burgeoning feelings for the young goddess of spring while maintaining his lonely rule of the Underworld. As the pair are drawn ever closer, they must untangle the twisted webs of their past and present to build toward a new future.

This volume collects episodes 26–49 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.

Another great volume from my favorite Webtoon! We get further development between Hades and Persephone as well as learning more about some of the side characters. I really love Hecate and Hera. I definitely want to see more of them in future issues. Minthe causes me such distress. I really hope the next volume starts unraveling that particular relationship so we can see the development of the one that I want.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Dirty Rowdy Thing by Christina Lauren

Title: Dirty Rowdy Thing (Wild Seasons #2)

Author: Christina Lauren

Publisher: Gallery Books 2014

Genre: Romance

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Despite their rowdy hookups, Harlow and Finn don’t even like each other...which would explain why their marriage lasted only twelve hours. He needs to be in charge and takes whatever he wants. She lives by the Want-something-done? Do-it-yourself mantra. Maybe she’s too similar to the rugged fisherman—or just what he needs.

Okay better than the first book in the series. I really did love Harlow and Finn as individual people. I even enjoyed them together as a couple. My biggest issue with this book is the communication issue. I understand that the non-communication is the main conceit of this romance, but I don’t quite buy it and I definitely don’t love it. The steamy scenes were fairly steamy, but I would have liked more relationship scenes.

Wild Seasons

• #1 Sweet Filthy Boy

• #2 Dirty Rowdy Thing

• #3 Dark Wild Night

• #4 Wicked Sexy Liar

Next up on the TBR pile:

Hide by Kiersten White

Title: Hide

Author: Kiersten White

Publisher: Del Rey Books 2022

Genre: Horror

Pages: 319

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win—to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past—Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that.

It’s the reason she’s alive and her family isn’t.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

An overall entertaining horror novel. This wasn’t the best I’ve ever read, but it definitely kept me wanting to turn the pages and see what happened next. We start with a fairly unlikable character, Mack, that I never can to love, but definitely came to understand by the end of the book. We throw in 13 more contestants and a few game organizers and set them loose in an abandoned amusement park. Chaos and murder ensues. I figured out the big allusion to another story by the end of Day 1, but knowing the big secret didn’t deter me from continuing to read. I still found it a very entertaining ride. There is gore (a lot of it), murder, and suicide. Not a book for everyone, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Title: The Lincoln Highway

Author: Amor Towles

Publisher: Viking 2021

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 576

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York.

Oh my this was another winner from Amor Towles! I didn’t quite know what I was going to think of it when we first met the characters. Emmett seems like a likable guy, but Duchess and Wooley are hard to like at first. I was concerned that we would be leaning on white America tropes (and we are a bit), but it’s more of a story of journey for two brothers and their adopted family. We get to see Emmett and Billy try to make sense of a world after losing their parents and facing prejudice from the inhabitants of their hometown. They attempt to strike out for a new life and encounter a variety of obstacles. I loved how Towles weaved the narratives of multiple side characters into the story of the brothers. I ended up really caring for all the characters we encounter (even the pretty vile Pastor John). Towles has a way of really diving into the lives of characters and showing you as the reader their humanity. In many ways this is a quiet book, but the plot keeps us moving from day to day until we reach the closing on chapter for Emmett and Billy and an opening of another. Delightful!

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Title: Atlas Six (The Atlas #1)

Author: Olivie Blake

Publisher: Tor 2020

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 375

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.

Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.

Goodness this was not good. I was super intrigued by the premise (I’m always up for a book about the Library of Alexandria), but this book did not live up to any of the promise. The plot moves incredibly slow with nothing really happening for about 80% of the book. I never felt compelled to pick it up and keep reading. That’s never a good sign. The characters are all pretty terrible. The jacket copy makes it seem that although they all start out as enemies, the six characters will come to care deeply for each other. They didn’t. They mostly hate it each other throughout the entire book. I just wanted to see some genuine affection for another person. If these six people are the best of the best, we are a species are doomed. They are all terrible. Libby may have been the least terrible, but she would have been a pain to live with and ended up with the corruption arc. That didn’t make any sense at all… I hated this book.

The Atlas

• #0.5 Sacred Hospitality

• #1 The Atlas Six

• #2 The Atlas Paradox

Next up on the TBR pile:

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Title: Hench

Author: Natalie Zina Walschots

Publisher: William Morrow 2020

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 403

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?

 As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured.  And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.  And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

This book came a recommendation from my favorite podcast, Currently Reading. I don’t always align with the hosts’ tastes in books, but when we do, I absolutely love the book! We get a complete flip of the superhero genre, imagining if the fact of having superheroes create much more damage and trauma than they save. I fell for Anna right away even if she is very prickly and has questionable social skills. I was rooting for her to find a good position and then the incident happens. From there, I felt like the novel was full-steam ahead, diving us and Anna into the world of real supervillains. We get to peel back the layers to see all the dirty secrets and revel in the downfalls of many superheroes. I especially loved Leviathan and his entire character arc. This is a very fast-paced thriller style science fiction novel with a few very graphic scenes of mutilation. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but just imagining the body horror scenes at the end has me shivering a bit. Oh so good!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor

Title: Hotel Magnifique

Author: Emily J. Taylor

Publisher: Razorbill 2022

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 400

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

All her life, Jani has dreamed of Elsewhere. Just barely scraping by with her job at a tannery, she’s resigned to a dreary life in the port town of Durc, caring for her younger sister Zosa. That is, until the Hotel Magnifique comes to town.

The hotel is legendary not only for its whimsical enchantments, but also for its ability to travel—appearing in a different destination every morning. While Jani and Zosa can’t afford the exorbitant costs of a guest’s stay, they can interview to join the staff, and are soon whisked away on the greatest adventure of their lives. But once inside, Jani quickly discovers their contracts are unbreakable and that beneath the marvelous glamour, the hotel is hiding dangerous secrets.

With the vexingly handsome doorman Bel as her only ally, Jani embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of the magic at the heart of the hotel and free Zosa—and the other staff—from the cruelty of the ruthless maître d’hôtel. To succeed, she’ll have to risk everything she loves, but failure would mean a fate far worse than never returning home.

Now this book is totally my jam! We get a fun fantasy story featuring magic and the illusion of magic. I absolute adore books where the setting becomes a real character. The Hotel Magnifique itself is one of the most important characters in the novel. As Jani slowly uncovers the secrets of the hotel and the employees, I fell more in love with the hotel itself. My biggest complaint about this book is that we didn’t get to see more of the guest rooms and enchantments. As for the human characters, I loved Bel and his mysterious ways. I despised Alaister and his underlings (as you should). I grew to love Jani’s strength and commitment to her sister. I called the twist as it relates to character, but it felt appropriate instead of gimmicky. This book gave me big The Night Circus vibes but with much more action. Loved it!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Pachinko by Lee Min-Jin

Title: Pachinko

Author: Lee Min-Jin

Publisher: Grand Central 2017

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 490

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.

Unfortunately, this one really did not work for me. Everything was so dour and bleak that I never wanted to pick this volume up. I let it languish on my nightstand for days while I read other books. I dreaded having to go back to this very serious novel. And I definitely was not a fan of the time jumps. I don’t really enjoy the “sweeping family saga” genre of books and this one fits that to a tee. The writing was very detached and void of emotion during the most intense scenes. I forced myself to finish as we had picked this one for book club., but I was not fan at all.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Inheritance by Elizabeth Acevedo

Title: Inheritance

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo Illustrated by: Andrea Pippins

Publisher: Quill Tree Books 2022

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 48

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

In her most famous spoken-word poem, author of the Pura Belpré-winning novel-in-verse The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo embraces all the complexities of Black hair and Afro-Latinidad—the history, pain, pride, and powerful love of that inheritance.

Paired with full-color illustrations by artist Andrea Pippins in a format that will appeal to fans of Mahogany L. Browne’s Black Girl Magic or Jason Reynolds’s For Everyone, this poem can now be read in a vibrant package, making it the ideal gift, treasure, or inspiration for readers of any age.

Slim poem put to beautiful illustrations celebrating natural hair. I was moved by the words and the visuals. This would be a great book to have on any shelf and especially those of shelves belonging to little girls. There is such a celebration in these pages. I would love to hear Acevedo perform this piece accompanied by the visuals on screen.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Wretched Waterpark by Kiersten White

Title: Wretched Waterpark (The Sinister Summer #1)

Author: Kiersten White

Publisher: Delacorte Press 2022

Genre: Middle Grade Horror

Pages: 256

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Meet the Sinister-Winterbottoms: brave Theo, her timid twin, Alexander, and their older sister, Wil. They’re stuck for the summer with their Aunt Saffronia, who doesn’t know how often children need to eat and can’t use a smartphone, and whose feet never quite seem to touch the floor when she glides—er—walks.

When Aunt Saffronia suggests a week pass to the Fathoms of Fun Waterpark, they hastily agree. But the park is even stranger than Aunt Saffronia. The waterslides look like gray gargoyle tongues. The employees wear creepy black dresses and deliver ominous messages. An impossible figure is at the top of the slide tower, people are disappearing, and suspicious goo is seeping into the wave pool.

Something mysterious is happening at Fathoms of Fun, and it’s up to the twins to get to the bottom of it. The mystery, that is. NOT the wave pool. Definitely NOT the wave pool. But are Theo and Alexander out of their depth?

Such a delightful middle grade horror book! This reminds me of a cross between A Series of Unfortunate Events and a Goosebumps. We are thrust into a mysterious adventure where Will, Theo, and Alexander have no idea what to do or how they got there. I loved seeing the three siblings attempt to navigate the strangeness of the waterpark. Even though the waterpark is very strange, I totally would love spending a day there. I flew through this book and cannot wait to read the next one once it is published.

The Sinister Summer

• #1 Wretched Waterpark

• #2 Vampiric Vacation

• #3 Camp Creepy

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Title: A Flicker in the Dark

Author: Stacy Willingham

Publisher: Minotaur Books 2022

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Pages: 357

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

When Chloe Davis was 12, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

Ooof. This is not what I wanted tor read this past week. I was hoping for a good mystery/thriller, but this is just full of 2-dimensional characters and terrible tropes detrimental to women. Our main character sometimes act like she’s 19 and other times like she’s 30. There’s a big mixed bag to her behaviors. And then we see how she operates as a psychologist and there is just so many ethical violations that I couldn’t take her seriously. Worst yet, she’s painted as an addict popping pills and downing alcohol that leaves her in a fugue state for most of the book. Can we stop with this trope. Women can have lots of issues and baggage to deal with without resorting to drugs and alcohol. And some women are addicts and alcoholic without the issues and baggage. The book really paints Chloe as some “typical” damaged woman and I was very over it but the middle of the book. And then we get to the central murder mystery and I cannot believe how the plot resolved itself. I was so angry. One visit from Chloe to her Dad or even her listening to mother would have pointed Chloe to the real killer. Instead we get the big red herring of the fiancee. And don’t get me started on the fact that the fiancee never actually communicated anything with Chloe. All these people kept way too many secrets from each other and that resulted in multiple girls being murder. I just could not handle this book at all.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren

Title: Sweet Filthy Boy (Wild Seasons #1)

Author: Christina Lauren

Publisher: Gallery Books 2014

Genre: Romance

Pages: 418

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

When three besties meet three hot guys in Vegas anything can—and does—happen. Book One of the New York Times bestselling Wild Seasons series from the author of the Beautiful Bastard series.

One-night stands are supposed to be with someone convenient, or wickedly persuasive, or regrettable. They aren’t supposed to be with someone like him.

But after a crazy Vegas weekend celebrating her college graduation—and terrified of the future path she knows is a cop-out—Mia Holland makes the wildest decision of her life: follow Ansel Guillaume—her sweet, filthy fling—to France for the summer and just...play.

When feelings begin to develop behind the provocative roles they take on, and their temporary masquerade adventures begin to feel real, Mia will have to decide if she belongs in the life she left because it was all wrong, or in the strange new one that seems worlds away.

I finally got around to starting the other early Christina Lauren series that I haven’t read yet. And my response is a resounding meh. I loved the setup of the surprise marriage in Vegas, but the book quickly went a bit downhill from there. I liked Ansel up until his secret was exposed. I could have dealt with his secrets and the fallout if we could have seen a good cathartic conversation. Instead, we get a quickie happy ending and I was annoyed. And then we turn to Mia and I just could not get behind her at all. Not a fan of her character at all. As a final note, I am going to say something very unexpected. I think this book might have had too many sex scenes… There I said it. Too many sex scenes in this contemporary romance.

Wild Seasons

• #1 Sweet Filthy Boy

• #2 Dirty Rowdy Thing

• #3 Dark Wild Night

• #4 Wicked Sexy Liar

Next up on the TBR pile:

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Title: Light from Uncommon Stars

Author: Ryka Aoki

Publisher: Tor Books 2021

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 372

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.

This book defies a simple description or genre. There’s sone science fiction. There’s some fantasy. There’s some family saga, even if it’s a found family. We’re thrown into multiple lives without much extra information. The first section of this book is rough. We get details of familial abuse. We get details of sexual assault and some descriptions of sex work. Once Katrina starts to settle into life with Shizuoka, I started to settle into the story and really appreciate the book. We dive deep into the main characters and sit with their highs and lows. It’s the lows that really pull at the emotions. While I really enjoyed the story and characters, it does settle into a melancholy atmosphere that I appreciated. The writing style took a bit to get used to, but ended up being a an interesting concept. We get a bit of stream of consciousness as a variety of music is played. I loved how we get to read exactly how the specific music affects certain characters. I’m still processing all my feelings and thoughts on this book, but it was definitely a winner.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Lobizona by Romina Garber

Title: Lobizona (Wolves of No World #1)

Author: Romina Garber

Publisher: Wednesday Books 2020

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Some people ARE illegal.
Lobizonas do NOT exist.
Both of these statements are false.
Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.
Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered.
Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past—a mysterious "Z" emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.
As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it's not just her U.S. residency that's illegal. . . .it’s her entire existence.

I listened to this on the way back from Indiana. While the book starts fairly slow, I was completely hooked by the time Manu finds herself in the Everglades and encounters a whole new world. This book tackles identity and family as well as cultural heritage, gender constructs, immigration, and body autonomy. Garber deftly weaves together a host of topics to paint a complete picture of one teenage girl. I loved imagining the various scenes (especially those that involved the tree) walking into Manu’s world. I most definitely need to read the folllow-up as this one leaves us on a big cliffhanger. And for the record, I totally called the identity of Manu’s father way before the reveal.

Wolves of No World

• #1 Lobizona

• #2 Cazadora

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

Title: The Wedding Date (Wedding Date #1)

Author: Jasmine Guillory

Publisher: Berkley 2018

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 317

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend....

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other....

They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want....

I grabbed this one as my audiobook selection for driving to Indiana. I was looking forward to a breezy fun contemporary romance. This one was okay, but definitely not my favorite. Let’s start with what I did like. I liked the meet-cute set-up between Alexa and Drew. I loved that they both had jobs that they were passionate about. I loved the interactions between each of them and their friends. I was board with all that. Unfortunately, this could not completely make up for a few of my issues. My first point is not about this particular book, but I did realize that I don’t love listening to open door scenes. I would most definitely prefer to read them instead. With respect to this actual story, I didn’t love how abrupt the ending was. I really wanted more of a discussion between the two characters about the miscommunication they engaged in. I wanted both parties to have a more serious discussion of their hang-ups before the obligatory epilogue chapter. I also became very annoyed with Alexa’s constant disparagement of her body. It really got old really fast. I imagine that I will continue reading the series, but this wasn’t the strongest start for me.

Wedding Date:

• #1 The Wedding Date

• #2 The Proposal

• #3 The Wedding Party

• #4 Royal Holiday

• #5 Party of Two

• #6 While We were Dating

Next up on the TBR pile:

100 Essential American Poems edited by Leslie M. Pockell

Title: 100 Essential American Poems

Author: Leslie M. Pockell

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books 2009

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 304

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

The way we view our nation---its history, its traditions, even our distinctly American voice---is largely determined by our literature. In this rewarding and thought-provoking book are gathered poems that have been essential components of our common American culture, from the earliest days of our nation through canonic works of the nineteenth century and up to the present day. 100 Essential American Poems includes fondly remembered works by such familiar figures as Longfellow, Poe, and Whitman, and popular classics like "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and "Casey at the Bat," but it also features passionate outcries from poets like Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes that highlight our ongoing national racial tensions, and poems by such women as Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, and Edna St. Vincent Millay that supply a distinctly female perspective on American life. Also included are the lyrics of such expressions of the American spirit as "Yankee Doodle," "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "This Land Is Your Land," in addition to a few surprises! The immortal poems and songs included here, each preceded by an illuminating headnote, will remind every reader of the richness and variety of the poetry of America and its people.

Meh. I am really not having a great reading week here. Two three star reads in a row. For this one, I was excited to read a variety of poets and styles. Instead, I feel like these are all the of the most well-known poems that appear in every anthology. And then we don’t really get very diverse in our poets and styles. Lots of the same over and over again. And we don’t really get any recent selections. I found a few gems in here, but overall I found the collection to be lacking greatly.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Haunting of Blackwood House by Darcy Coates

Title: The Haunting of Blackwood House (Haunting of Blackwood House #1)

Author: Darcy Coates

Publisher: Sourcebooks 2015

Genre: Horror

Pages: 356

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Mara is the daughter of spiritualists. Her childhood was filled with séances, scam mediums, and talk of ghostly presences.
When Mara left her family’s home, she vowed she would never allow superstition into her life again. She’s ready to start over with her fiancé, Neil, in a world based on rationality and facts.
But her past isn’t ready to let her go just yet.
Mara and Neil purchase Blackwood House, a derelict property outside of town. They’re warned about strange occurrences in the crumbling building. Doors open by themselves, voices whisper in the night, bloody handprints appear on the walls, and cold spots linger in the basement, where the house’s original owner was murdered.
But Blackwood was dirt-cheap. Mara loves her new home, and she disregards the warnings.
Because ghosts aren’t real…are they?

I was hoping for some pulpy horror to tied me over during my trip, and this mostly delivered. I really loved the actual horror sections of this novel. The ghosts and ghostly occurrences were very creepy and set up nicely. I even found myself listening for odd noises in my house a few times. But then, I turned to the actual main characters and thoroughly disliked both Mara and Neil. I didn’t find either of them likable and did not root for either of them. I couldn’t even see the real attraction between those two. It didn’t quite make sense to me… The very late addition of two more characters didn’t do anything to make me like any of them more. My love of the horror aspects couldn’t bring this book up past three stars. Oh well.

Next up on the TBR pile: