Mimi's Tales of Terror by Junji Ito

Title: Mimi’s Tales of Terror

Author: Junji Ito

Publisher: VIZ Media 2023

Genre: Horror Manga

Pages: 224

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

University student Mimi and her boyfriend Naoto encounter one chilling mystery after another. There’s the enigmatic neighbor woman dressed in black from head to toe—but if she’s so odd, why does it seems like there are many others like her? Then, whose eyes track Mimi’s movements from the cemetery next door? And why does a bizarre red circle drawn on a basement wall change with each passing day?

Nine scary stories that really happened, drawn from the famed collecton of urban legends Shin Mimibukuro (New Earmuffs), and adapted into manga by horror genius Junji Ito!

I randomly found this horror comic collection on a list from my local library. I dove int and it was exactly what I wanted. We get some truly horrifying stories that mostly have no ends or explanations. I really loved the shorts; they were just long enough to hold my attention with a big punchline! Loved them. The black and while drawings added to the horror. Do not pick this one up if you at all squeamish.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Sellout by Dan Ozzi

Title: Sellout: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy that Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore 1994-2007

Author: Sarah Hollowell

Publisher: Dey Street Books 2021

Genre: Nonfiction - Music

Pages: 416

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nonfiction Reader

Punk rock found itself at a crossroads in the mid-90’s. After indie favorite Nirvana catapulted into the mainstream with its unexpected phenomenon, Nevermind, rebellion was suddenly en vogue. Looking to replicate the band’s success, major record labels set their sights on the underground, and began courting punk’s rising stars. But the DIY punk scene, which had long prided itself on its trademark authenticity and anti-establishment ethos, wasn’t quite ready to let their homegrown acts go without a fight. The result was a schism: those who accepted the cash flow of the majors, and those who defiantly clung to their indie cred.

In Sellout, seasoned music writer Dan Ozzi chronicles this embattled era in punk. Focusing on eleven prominent bands who made the jump from indie to major, Sellout charts the twists and turns of the last “gold rush” of the music industry, where some groups “sold out” and rose to surprise super stardom, while others buckled under mounting pressures. Sellout is both a gripping history of the music industry’s evolution, and a punk rock lover’s guide to the chaotic darlings of the post-grunge era, featuring original interviews and personal stories from members of modern punk’s most (in)famous bands.

I ran across this book as a recommendation on interesting nonfiction from the last few years. I was intrigued by the topic as I’m a huge fan of punk and emo. This book breaks down the history of eleven bands. Some of the chapters are more engaging than the others. Hands down my favorite chapter was the first one about Green Day. Their story was absolutely fascinating! At times, Ozzi gets a little too in the weeds with the profusion of name drops and technical aspects of the music industry. But overall I enjoyed this journey through music history. As a bonus, it inspired me to download a few key albums from my past.

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Next up on the TBR pile:

Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert

Title: Midnight Ruin (Dark Olympus #6)

Author: Katee Robert

Publisher: Sourcebooks 2024

Genre: Romance

Pages: 336

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; She Reads Romance - Spicy

Spice Rating: 8

Eurydice Dimitriou has always been the innocent sister, but she's finally ready to step out of the long shadow cast by her powerful family…and the ex who shattered her heart. Perhaps rough hands on soft skin are exactly what she needs to forget her heartbreak once and for all?

Charon Ariti has been Hades's right-hand man for years. He's given everything to the lower city, but now he's ready to take something for himself. He's only too happy to give Eurydice a special kind of education…but is her heart really free enough to be claimed?

Orpheus Makos will do whatever it takes to make things right. Once the golden boy of the upper city, he's now a shadow of his former self. He'll do anything to get Eurydice back…even if it means she's not coming into his arms alone. Three hearts. Three futures. Countless ways to get it wrong.

But with enemies slipping through Olympus's faltering barrier to lay siege on the lower city, a trio of broken hearts will be the least of these would-be lovers' worries…

Oh this one was intense! We get a very dramatic and yet beautiful romance story wrapped around the larger political and fantastical storyline affecting Olympus. We move our action to the Lower City and find Eurydice attempting to find her new balance after the events in the first book in the series. I was very much into following her journey. At times, she is much too immature for my personal tastes. Enter Charon, the stabilizing force in her life. I have been wanting his story since the very first book. I was so very excited to see how he connected with Eurydice. As a bonus, we get to see how Orpehus fits into Eurydice and Charon’s relationship. And it was very spicy! I was so very into their relationship evolution. Even more, I’m very into the larger storyline featuring all the characters in the Dark Olympus series.

Dark Olympus

#0.5 Stone Heart
#1 Neon Gods
#1.5 Hades and Hades
#2 Electric Idol
#2.5 Zeus and Hera
#3 Wicked Beauty
#4 Radiant Sun
#5 Cruel Seduction
#6 Midnight Ruin
#7 Dark Restraint

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft

Title: A Fragile Enchantment

Author: Allison Saft

Publisher: Wednesday Books 2024

Genre: YA Romantasy

Pages: 373

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - New Adult Romance; Library Love

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland.

But Avaland is far from the fairytale that she imagined. While young nobles attend candlelit balls and elegant garden parties, unrest brews amid the working class. The groom himself, Kit Carmine, is prickly, abrasive, and begrudgingly being dragged to the altar as a political pawn. But when Niamh and Kit grow closer, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more—until an anonymous gossip columnist starts buzzing about their chemistry, promising to leave them alone only if Niamh helps to uncover the royal family’s secrets. The rot at the heart of Avaland runs deep, but exposing it could risk a future she never let herself dream of, and a love she never thought possible..

I’m not exactly sure why I picked this one up to read. I had previously read another of Saft’s books and was pretty disappointed in it. In fact, my biggest complaint was that “We get a YA fantasy set in a fictional world but with parallels to the religious divides in our own world. All through the book I was confused as to why were were coding the different groups with fictionalized words and practices instead of just making a direct comparison.” This one isn’t about religious divides but instead nationalistic divides. Niamh is clearly from British controlled Ireland with Kit being of the British royal family. Infanta Rosa is clearly from Spain and a rival power to England. Instead of setting this in an alternate Europe, Saft “creates” a fictional magical world. But why? I was very disappointed in the unnecessary complications. Further more, I really disliked the romance. I wasn’t swoon, it was downright cringy. Everyone claims that Kit hates everyone but Niamh, but in my mind, he still really dislikes Niamh. We don’t ever really see a probably softer side of Kit. I wanted more for Niamh, but she is completely enamored with his terrible attitude and behavior. I really need to put Saft on my “no” list.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

Title: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known(Wayward Children #9)

Author: Seanan McGuire

Publisher: Tordotcom 2024

Genre: Fantasy

Pages:146

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - No People on the Cover; Library Love

Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children.

When the school’s (literally irresistible) mean girl realizes that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, Antsy is forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise.

Along the way, they will travel from a world which hides painful memories that cut as sharply as its beauty, to a land that time wasn’t yet old enough to forget―and more than one student's life will change forever.

“People who’ve been hurt often think they have some sort of right tot go around hurting other people,” said Sumi. “They think trauma’s a toy to keep handing down forever. Bu the fact that someone hurt you and tied you up in knots doesn’t give you the right to it to anybody else.” Pg. 94

That quote right there sums up the entire series and literally had me in tears. Beautiful story about a collection of characters struggling to find their places in the world (or multiple worlds). This volume is most definitely directly continues the story in the previous volume. We get a concise story of Antsy finding her way back and helping other characters on the way. I felt something akin to catharsis when I reached the final page. One of the best feelings.

Wayward Children

Next up on the TBR pile:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Dawn of the Dreadfuls #1)

Author: Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Publisher: Quirk Books 2009

Genre: Classics; Horror

Pages: 359

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf

Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an audacious retelling of English literature's most enduring novel. This expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem begins when a mysterious plague falls upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. It's the perfect read for literature lovers, zombie fans, and anyone who loves a reanimated Austen.

Technically this is a reread for me, but it was chosen as a Nerdy Bookish Friends selection. After we picked it, we realized that there are two different versions: the original and a reissue with 30% more zombies. Apparently I read the original, but own the new deluxe edition. So this was basically a new read for me. To be clear, this is not high literature. Sure it’s Jane Austen’s writing for 90%. But then we thrown in random zombie phrases and scenes. It create a mishmash of genres. But I enjoyed every page of it. I love Austen and zombies, and this was the perfect read for me. I suspect that this won’t be a favorite amongst my Nerdy Bookish Friends, but I still really loved it.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Hunt on Dark Water by Katee Robert

Title: Hunt on Dark Waters (Crimson Sails #1)

Author: Katee Robert

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 320

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - Witch Romance; Library Love

Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She’s immediately given a choice—join their ship’s crew or die.

Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his band of pirates are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues Evelyn, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she’ll steal.

But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, the danger at sea escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price....

I finally picked up another one of Katee Robert’s series. And it wasn’t quite as good as the Dark Olympus series, but I did enjoy it. We get a portal jumping witch who finds herself involved in the Wild Hunt. But things are not quite as they seem and she becomes an agent of change as well as finding romance. Bowen and Evelyn aren’t my favorite couple but they grew on me as the book progressed. I was very intrigued by all the other characters and the background storyline. I do enjoy Robert’s storytelling and romance, so I imagine that I will be reading the rest of this series.

Crimson Sails

#1 Hunt on Dark Waters
#2 Blood on the Tide
#3 Pirates

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman

Title: The Butcher’s Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl #5)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: Dandy House 2022

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 726

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Apostrophe in the Title

Attention. Attention. The gates are down. The hunters are loose.
Run, Run, Run.

A lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. A mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed “The Butcher’s Masquerade.”

The sixth floor. The Hunting Grounds.

As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, a new, terrible threat looms. Outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are here and ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.

But their prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back.

I finally made it through this giant chunker of a book. And holy cow was it a ride! I cannot believe every thing that happened in these pages. Carl and Donut are put in more impossible situations that they then have to concoct ridiculous plans to get out of. I don’t want to spoil the events, but I will say that there are some real emotional moments in this one. I am going to take a short break before diving into the next book. As much as I love Carl and Donut, I need to process this one for awhile.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Next up on the TBR pile:

Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband by Melissa Maybe

Title: Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband (Daughters of the Glen #1)

Author: Melissa Mayhue

Publisher: Pocket Books 2007

Genre: Romance

Pages: 356

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; 52 Books - Hybrid Genre

Scotland, 1272. Connor MacKiernan, a descendant of the Fae Prince, is a warrior who lives only for honor and duty. Though he’s vowed never to marry, that’s exactly what he must do to save his sister. Enter a little Faerie magic, and the search for a bride is on.

Denver, 2007. Caitlyn Coryell is having a really bad day—she just discovered that her fiancé is cheating on her, marrying her only for her family’s money and influence. Imagine her surprise when she puts on an antique pendant and Connor suddenly appears in her bedroom, begging for her help. He offers an outrageous adventure: travel to his time, marry him for a short time, and return home.

But nothing goes as planned. Cate’s trapped in the 13th century, the wedding’s delayed, and someone’s trying to kill her. And in the middle of all this, she realizes that she’s falling in love with a man who can only be her husband for thirty nights. It will take more than the magic of the Fae to help them now. It will require the most powerful magic of all—the magic of true love.

This book has been sitting on my Unread Shelf for years so I finally picked it up. The book should probably have been left on the shelf. This is a poor imitation of Outlander with a weird time travel bent to the romance. I didn’t quite buy the whole time travel and Fey angle to the story. It' seemed a little too hooky. The romance itself was also pretty lackluster. I didn’t love Cate and Connor and didn’t really buy their relationship. My biggest complaint has to do with the gender dynamics. Connor plays the alpha crap and Cate decides that the way tot play the relationship is to use her feminine wiles. It’s cliched and super annoying. Not a fan. I perused the rest of the series and it looks like we are going to get the same types of relationships. I think I will not be continuing to read this series.

Daughters of the Glen

#1 Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband
#2 Highland Guardian
#3 Soul of a Highlander
#4 A Highlander of Her Own
#5 A Highlander’s Destiny
#6 A Highlander’s Homecoming
#7 Healing the Highlander
#8 Highlander’s Curse

Next up on the TBR pile:

Malamander by Thomas Taylor

Title: Malamander (Legends of Eerie-on-Sea #1)

Author: Thomas Taylor

Publisher: Walker Books 2019

Genre: MG Horror

Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf Project; 52 Book Club - Features an Ocean

It’s winter in the town of Eerie-on-Sea, where the mist is thick and the salt spray is rattling the windows of the Grand Nautilus Hotel. Inside, young Herbert Lemon, Lost and Founder for the hotel, has an unexpected visitor. It seems that Violet Parma, a fearless girl around his age, lost her parents at the hotel when she was a baby, and she’s sure that the nervous Herbert is the only person who can help her find them. The trouble is, Violet is being pursued at that moment by a strange hook-handed man. And the town legend of the Malamander — a part-fish, part-human monster whose egg is said to make dreams come true — is rearing its scaly head. As various townspeople, some good-hearted, some nefarious, reveal themselves to be monster hunters on the sly, can Herbert and Violet elude them and discover what happened to Violet’s kin? This lighthearted, fantastical mystery, featuring black-and-white spot illustrations, kicks off a trilogy of fantasies set in the seaside town.

Oh this was utterly delightful! I love a good setting and this series set in Eerie-on-the-Sea is perfect. We get some fun spooky town in winter full of wonderfully quirky characters. From there we are flung into a mystery of the Malamander and Violet’s parentage. Herbert is the perfect narrator for the story. We get to see the town through his encounters and rambles. I especially loved Mrs. Fossil and her shop of oddities. Once the action begins, it truly doesn’t stop until the end. It was perfect and so much fun. I will have to read the rest of the series.

Legends of Eerie-on-Sea

#1 Malamander
#2 Gargantis
#3 Shadowghast
#4 Festergrimm
#5 Mermedusa

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas

Title: The Paleontologist

Author: Luke Dumas

Publisher: Atria Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 356

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf Project; 52 Book Club - Grieving Character

Curator of paleontology Dr. Simon Nealy never expected to return to his Pennsylvania hometown, let alone the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History. He was just a boy when his six-year-old sister, Morgan, was abducted from the museum under his watch, and the guilt has haunted Simon ever since. After a recent breakup and the death of the aunt who raised him, Simon feels drawn back to the place where Morgan vanished, in search of the bones they never found.

But from the moment he arrives, things aren’t what he expected. The Hawthorne is a crumbling ruin, still closed amid the ongoing pandemic, and plummeting toward financial catastrophe. Worse, Simon begins seeing and hearing things he can’t explain. Strange animal sounds. Bloody footprints that no living creature could have left. A prehistoric killer looming in the shadows of the museum. Terrified he’s losing his grasp on reality, Simon turns to the handwritten research diaries of his predecessor and uncovers a blood-soaked mystery 150 million years in the making that could be the answer to everything.

A complete impulse buy around Christmastime. I thought it might be a fun thriller with a focus on dinosaurs. And it mostly is. We get a potentially unreliable narrator who decides that his next step in life is to revisit a place that holds the beginning of his trauma. Seems like a bad idea to me, but Simon does it. From there, the paranormal elements start to occur and we are left to piece out the mystery of just what is happening the museum. My biggest complaints are focused on the side characters. The various employees of the museum are pretty terrible. The board members are extra terrible. Every time I picked up the book, I really did it pretty begrudgingly. By the end of the book I really as pretty tired of every one and the story. A bit of a disappointment, but it was fine.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Dead Voices by Katherine Arden

Title: Dead Voices (Small Spaces #2)

Author: Katherine Arden

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons 2019

Genre: MG Horror

Pages: 256

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; 52 Book Club - Timeframe of a Week or Less

Having survived sinister scarecrows and the malevolent smiling man in Small Spaces, newly minted best friends Ollie, Coco, and Brian are ready to spend a relaxing winter break skiing together with their parents at Mount Hemlock Resort. But when a snowstorm sets in, causing the power to flicker out and the cold to creep closer and closer, the three are forced to settle for hot chocolate and board games by the fire.

Ollie, Coco, and Brian are determined to make the best of being snowed in, but odd things keep happening. Coco is convinced she has seen a ghost, and Ollie is having nightmares about frostbitten girls pleading for help. Then Mr. Voland, a mysterious ghost hunter, arrives in the midst of the storm to investigate the hauntings at Hemlock Lodge. Ollie, Coco, and Brian want to trust him, but Ollie's watch, which once saved them from the smiling man, has a new cautionary message: BEWARE.

With Mr. Voland's help, Ollie, Coco, and Brian reach out to the dead voices at Mount Hemlock. Maybe the ghosts need their help--or maybe not all ghosts can or should be trusted.

After reading the first book in this series, I was completely hooked. I love a good spooky series and this one has a great premise. This one picks up soon after the first book. I loved the change of scenery and new situation that our kids find themselves in. The hotel in the middle of the snowstorm gave awesome Overlook Hotel in The Shining vibes. From there, we very quickly dive into the main conflict. I love how the mystery unravels. The scary parts are truly terrifying and I loved very single page of it. I’ll definitely be continuing this series soon.

Small Spaces

#1 Small Spaces
#2 Dead Voices
#3 Dark Waters
#4 Empty Smiles

Next up on the TBR pile:

Haunted Holiday by Kiersten White

Title: Haunted Holiday (The Sinister Summer #5)

Author: Kiersten White

Publisher: Delacorte Press 2024

Genre: Middle Grade Horror

Pages: 272

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Revenge Story; Lifetime - Child Protagonist

Trapped in Aunt Saffronia’s spectral house, Theo and Alexander must work together to escape, stop their newfound nemesis Essa and her henchman Edgaren’t, save Wil and their friends, find their parents, and maybe, just maybe, get things back to normal.

Following the clues left behind, the twins find themselves at Siren’s Song Seaside Amusement Park. Old faces and new surprises await them in a park that was built to lure in visitors…and their secrets.

As they get closer to answers, the twins are left with the biggest question of all: Who is Essa really, and why is she so determined to find their parents?

And we come to the end of the Sinister Summer series! And it was utterly delightful! I loved this play on A Series of Unfortunate Events with references to classic horror stories. In this volume, everything and everybody finally comes together for a happy ending. We get to see the family reunited as they solve the last mystery of the summer. I especially loved the setting of the amusement park in this one. The kraken and robot battle at the end was the cherry on top of the sundae. Definitely a recommendation for most of my friends.

The Sinister Summer

Next up on the TBR pile:

Untouchable by Talia Hibbert

Title: Untouchable (Ravenswood #2)

Author: Talia Hibbert

Publisher: Nixon House 2018

Genre: Romance

Pages: 344

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; She Reads Romance - Forbidden Romance

Spice Meter: 5

Sleeping with the staff wasn’t part of the plan.

Sensible, capable, and ruthlessly efficient, Hannah Kabbah is the perfect nanny… until a colossal mistake destroys her career and shatters her reputation. These days, no-one in town will hire her—except Nathaniel Davis, a brooding widower with a smile like sin and two kids he can’t handle.

Prim and proper Hannah is supposed to make Nate’s life easier, but the more time he spends around his live-in nanny, the more she makes things… hard. He can’t take advantage of her vulnerable position, but he can’t deny the truth, either: with every look, every smile, every midnight meeting, Nate’s untouchable employee is stealing his heart.

The trouble is, she doesn’t want to keep it. Forbidden love isn’t high on Hannah’s to-do list, and trust isn’t one of her strengths. When dark secrets threaten to destroy their bond, Nate’s forced to start playing dirty. Because this reformed bad boy will break every rule to finally claim his woman.

I’ll admit that I was skeptical of this book going in. The nanny trope is not one that I enjoy. Usually it involved a pretty big age gap and most definitely a power imbalance. Thankfully this book does not fall into those traps. Hannah is a fun character to follow through from the first book, but it’s Nate that really pulled me into this story. I totally felt for him. The sob story with his wife, the current sob story with this mom, and the beautiful relationship with his kids coupled with the whole vibe (hello tattoos) and I was completely smitten. There were a few decisions that I wasn’t excited about, but it all ended up okay by them last page.

Ravenswood

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

Title: A Holly Jolly Ever After (Christmas Notch #2)

Author: Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

Publisher: Avon 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 432

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - Pregnancy

Spice Rating: 5

Kallum Liebermanis the funny one™. As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, he enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame and then moved home where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! He’s living his best dad bod life, hooking up with bridesmaids at all his friends’ weddings. But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he’s ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel.

Winnie Baker did everything right. She married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. Hell, she even waited until marriage to have sex. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself—and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie?

With decade old Hollywood history between them, Winnie and Kallum are both feeling hesitant about their new situation as costars…especially Winnie who can’t seem to fake on screen pleasure she’s never experienced in real life. She’s willing to do the pleasure research—for science and artistic authenticity, of course. And there’s no better research partner than her bridesmaid sex tape hall of fame costar, Kallum. But suddenly, Kallum’s teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.

They say opposites attract, but is this holly jolly ever after really ready for its close-up?

Spoilers Below!

Oh this was such a disappointment… After the first book in the series, I was very exacted to read the next book featuring Kallum. And the first half of the book was great. I fell for Winnie and Kallum. I really enjoyed the discussion about purity culture and the after-effects of bad relationships and marriages. I was excited to see Winnie making strides in her own sexual growth and independence. I loved seeing the two main characters begin to open up to each others and their friends and families. It was delightful. And then we get tot he second half of the book and absolutely everything gets destroyed. Instead of continuing Winnie’s journey of growth, she becomes pregnant and everything goes off the rails. She tells everyone but Kallum. She doesn’t communicate or handle anything well. But my biggest complaint is that instead of continuing the journey, Winnie immediately becomes pregnant. In many ways, purity culture warns that having sex leads to degradation and immediate pregnancy. In this case, at least the second part becomes true. And it annoys me so much! This is not a good message.

Christmas Notch

#1 A Merry Little Meet Cute
#1.5 Snow Place Like LA
#2 A Holly Jolly Ever After

Next up on the TBR pile:

System Collapse by Martha Wells

Title: System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2023

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 245

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.

This definitely should have just been the second half of Network Effect in that it picks up right after that book ends. We finally get to see the end to the story about the alien contamination on the planet. I was intrigued by the back-and-forth between Murderbot’s team and the Barish-Estranza team. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t have the snark and fun side commentary that I really enjoy about the Murderbot stories. I just wasn’t as connected to the story as I wanted to be.

Murderbot Diaries:

Next up on the TBR pile:

Confetti Realms

Title: Confetti Realms

Author: Nadia Shammas, Karnessa

Publisher: Maverick 2023

Genre: YA Graphic Novel

Pages: 196

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

Follow the story of four New Jersey teens who, after breaking into a cemetery on Halloween, get transported to a strange and fantastical world by a mysterious automaton named Tom. When Tom sends them on a quest to gain him entry to a party at the end of the world, our unlikely (and mostly unwilling) heroes will have to navigate murderous frogs, an insect orchestra, and the cracks in their own friendships.

Found this slim graphic novel on a library list for Fairy Tale books. I grabbed it and sped through in an afternoon. This is a beautiful little story about finding your joy and accepting who you are. We get four friends (well, almost friends) who are navigating identity and community. They get thrown into another world which heightens all their feelings. I loved the magical take on finding yourself. And some the side character are utterly delightful.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Title: Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #6)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2021

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 172

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Apparently I did read this one when it came out, but completely forgot the plot. While it is #6 in the series, chronologically the story belongs between Exit Strategy and Network Effect. We are right back on Preservation Station solving a seemingly impossible murder. Of course Murderbot is stuck in the middle making sure the humans don’t die. This felt like a strange little side adventure and didn’t include much snark from Muderbot. The snark is why I read this series. Oh well.

Murderbot Diaries:

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Last One by Will Dean

Title: The Last One

Author: Will Dean

Publisher: Emily Bestler Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 448

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Clock - One; 52 Book Club - Abrupt Ending

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.

And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.

I’m not usually a thriller person. I find them way too predictable and silly. But I heard good things about this one and was intrigued by the last person on a cruise ship setup. Of course she’s not actually the only person on the ship, that would get old quick, but a great limited people setup is revealed near the beginning. I sped through the pages desperate to see what happened next, wondering what the next challenge or obstacle would be. There was one particular scene near the end that made me gasp out loud. This was the perfect book to spend a few days on the edge of my seat reading.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Title: The Snow Child

Author: Eowyn Ivey

Publisher: Reagan Arthur 2012

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 423

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Decades - 1920s; In Case You Missed It - 2012

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart -- he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone -- but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

Our Nerdy Bookish Friends selection for the month and it’s been on my TBR shelf for years. I’m glad that we decided to read it, but ended up being fairly disappointed in the book. I absolutely loved the writing of this book. Ivey manages to make the bleak landscape and the wilderness sound beautiful. I found myself lost in all nature descriptions. They are gorgeous and kept me engaged in the book. But that’s where my enjoyment ends. I wanted to love the storyline and I did enjoy the Russian fairy tale angle. Unfortunately, the characters and the storyline do not make much sense to me. Mabel and Jack are extremely unlikeable throughout the book and I never truly connected to them. They seemed to show growth and then would lose all growth in the next chapter. I had lots of thoughts about where the plot was going throughout most of the book and then the last section happens and nothing made sense. I don’t want to give it away, but the end of the book makes no sense to me at all. I just couldn’t get over the lack of logic.

Next up on the TBR pile: