A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian

Title: A Duke in Disguise (Regency Imposters #2)

Author: Cat Sebastian

Publisher: Avon Impulse 2019

Genre: Romance

Pages: 304

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Finishing the Series

Spice Rating: 5

One reluctant heir

If anyone else had asked for his help publishing a naughty novel, Ash would have had the sense to say no. But he’s never been able to deny Verity Plum. Now he has his hands full illustrating a book and trying his damnedest not to fall in love with his best friend. The last thing he needs is to discover he’s a duke’s lost heir. Without a family or a proper education, he’s had to fight for his place in the world, and the idea of it—and Verity—being taken away from him chills him to the bone.

One radical bookseller

All Verity wants is to keep her brother out of prison, her business afloat, and her hands off Ash. Lately it seems she’s not getting anything she wants. She knows from bitter experience that she isn’t cut out for romance, but the more time she spends with Ash, the more she wonders if maybe she’s been wrong about herself.

One disaster waiting to happen

Ash has a month before his identity is exposed, and he plans to spend it with Verity. As they explore their long-buried passion, it becomes harder for Ash to face the music. Can Verity accept who Ash must become or will he turn away the only woman he’s ever loved?

I picked up the series on the recommendation of a ton of internet friends. And while I didn’t absolutely love the first book (didn’t quite buy the romantic connection), thankfully this book more than made up for the shortcomings. I really fell for Ash and Verity. We get to see two people that have created a found family from struggle and are desperate to maintain that family. Usually I am not a huge fan of the friends to lovers trope, but this one worked. It felt authentic to me. At the same time, we get to see two character struggle with their own issues. The biggest point that I really loved was the fact that they communicated with one another! Loved it so much! Now I’m excited to read the conclusion to this trilogy of romances.

Regency Imposters

#1 Unmasked by the Marquess
#2 A Duke in Disguise
#3 A Delicate Deception

Next up on the TBR pile:

Break Your Glass Slippers by Amanda Lovelace

Title: Break Your Glass Slippers

Author: Amanda Lovelace

Publisher: Andrews McMeel 2020

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 160

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

amanda lovelace, the bestselling & award-winning author of the “women are some kind of magic” poetry series, presents a new companion series, “you are your own fairy tale” the first installment, break your glass slippers, is about overcoming those who don’t see your worth, even if that person is sometimes yourself. in the epic tale of your life, you are the most important character while everyone is but a forgotten footnote. even the prince.

Friends at the bookish recommendation gave this book title to me as something I would enjoy. And I really did enjoy this! Lovelace’s slim collection of poetry is a mix of fairy tale retellings and autobiographical poems. The style and topics are very much in the same vein as Nikita Gill’s writings. I really love her stuff and Lovelace’s came close to it, but not quite surpassed Gill’s poems. I enjoyed these poems but as a collection, they were very slim. I wanted a bit more depth and reflection. But, I think I do need to read to rest of the volumes in her collection.

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Next up on the TBR pile:

Wrapped Up in You by Jill Shalvis

Title: Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #8)

Author: Jill Shalvis

Publisher: Avon 2019

Genre: Romance

Pages: 348

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Finishing the Series

Spice Rating: 5

It’s love. Trust me.

After a lifetime on the move, Ivy Snow is an expert in all things temporary—schools, friends, and way too many Mr. Wrongs. Now that she owns a successful taco truck in San Francisco and an apartment to call home, Ivy’s reinvented life is on solid ground. And she’s guarded against anything that can rock it. Like the realities of a past she’s worked hard to cover up. And especially Kel O’Donnell. Too hot not to set off alarms, he screams temporary. If only his whispers weren’t so delightfully naughty and irresistible.

Kel, an Idaho sheriff and ranch owner, is on vacay, but Ivy’s a spicy reason to give his short-term plans a second thought. Best of all, she’s a tonic for his untrusting heart, burned once and still in repair. But when Ivy’s past intrudes on a perfect romance, Kel fears that everything she’s told him has been a perfect lie. Now, if only Ivy’s willing to share, Kel will fight for a true love story.

And we have come to the end of the Heartbreaker Bay series, or at least I assume it’s the end. I can’t actually find the two short stories that I haven’t read and I don’t think Shalvis has written any more with these characters. So we finally get a story featuring Ivy after being name dropped for the last few books. She gets a decent story involving Caleb’s cousin Kel. I did enjoy those two together, figuring out how to deal with their family dramas and learning to open up to each other. The overall action plot line wasn’t my favorite in the series, but it did add to the overall story. I did wish to see a bit more time between Ivy and Kel before they engaged in a relationship. I’m a sucker for tension and this book left me wanting more. But it was a fun breezy read for the week as I finish this series I started at Christmas last year.

Heartbreaker Bay

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles

Title: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (Doomsday Books #1)

Author: KJ Charles

Publisher: Sourcebooks 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Romanceopoly - Rainbow Row; Finishing the Series

Spice Rating: 5

Abandoned by his father, Gareth Inglis grew up lonely, prickly, and well-used to disappointment. Still, he longs for a connection. When he meets a charming stranger, he falls head over heels—until everything goes wrong and he's left alone again. Then Gareth's father dies, turning the shabby London clerk into Sir Gareth, with a grand house on the remote Romney Marsh and a family he doesn't know.

The Marsh is another world, a strange, empty place notorious for its ruthless gangs of smugglers. And one of them is dangerously familiar...

Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. When the new baronet—his old lover—agrees to testify against Joss's sister, Joss acts fast to stop him. Their reunion is anything but happy, yet after the dust settles, neither can stay away. Soon, all Joss and Gareth want is the chance to be together. But the bleak, bare Marsh holds deadly secrets. And when Gareth finds himself threatened from every side, the gentleman and the smuggler must trust one another not just with their hearts, but with their lives.

A random recommendation from a library list and it was a good one. We get a great romance between two seemingly opposite character and a big mystery. Sometimes I really enjoy a romance book that has a mystery or an action plot attached to it. We get a little something to propel the storyline forward while exploring a romance. This one was a good mix of the two. We get to meet Gareth and Joss and watch them attempt to find common ground out on the marsh. The setting really was another character in this book. I could definitely picture the surrounding area and the plants and insects that inhabit it. it made for a fun aspect to this historical romance.

The Doomsday Books

#1 The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen
#2 A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel

Next up on the TBR pile:

Silent Came the Monster by Amy Hill Hearth

Title: Silent Came the Monster

Author: Amy Hill Hearth

Publisher: Blackstone 2023

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 350

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Related to the Word “Monster”

“Sharks are as timid as rabbits,” says a superintendent of the Coast Guard, dismissing the possibility that a shark could be the culprit in an unprecedented fatal attack at the Jersey Shore. It’s July, and swimming in the sea is a popular new pastime, but people up and down the East Coast are shocked and mystified by the swimmer’s death. A prominent surgeon at the shore, Dr. Edwin Halsey is the one who examines the victim, and the only one who believes the perpetrator was a shark—and that it will strike again.

With the public and the authorities—and even those who witnessed the attacks—so stubbornly disbelieving, Dr. Halsey finds himself fighting widespread confusion, conspiracy theories, and outright denial. Seeking the input of commercial fisherman, he soon learns they have long been concerned about a creature they call the Beast. The Lenape, one of the tribes native to the area, have their own beliefs about this creature, but can Dr. Halsey convince the rest of the world before it’s too late?

The story of the 1916 Jersey Shore shark changed the way Americans think of the seashore, reminding us once again that nature plays by its own rules.

Another recommendation from my favorite book podcast. I was intrigued by the fictionalized account of a very true horror story. This is a very horrifying story full of people who aren’t all real, but feel very real. We are put back into a bygone era. At times, the writing was a bit stilted and the characters were hard to understand. But that’s all a part of fully inhabiting the time period and the story. Overall, I enjoyed the story. I would have liked a bit more to the author’s note, but that’s a minor quibble.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Immortality by Dana Schwartz

Title: Immortality

Author: Dana Schwartz

Publisher: Wednesday Books 2023

Genre: YA Horror

Pages: 389

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Books Club - Includes a Funeral

Hazel Sinnett is alone and half-convinced the events of the year before—the immortality, Beecham’s vial—were a figment of her imagination. She doesn’t even know if Jack is alive or dead. All she can really do now is treat patients and maintain Hawthornden Castle as it starts to decay around her.

When saving a life leads to her arrest, Hazel seems doomed to rot in prison until a message intervenes: Hazel has been specifically requested to be the personal physician of Princess Charlotte, the sickly granddaughter of King George III. Soon Hazel is dragged into the glamor and romance of a court where everyone has something to hide, especially the enigmatic, brilliant members of a social club known as the Companions to the Death.

As Hazel’s work entangles her more and more with the British court, she realizes that her own future as a surgeon isn't the only thing at stake for her. Malicious forces are at work in the monarchy, and Hazel may be the only one capable of setting things right.

A successful and satisfying follow up to Anatomy. I was very annoyed by the cliffhanger at the end of the first book, but thankfully, this volume closes that storyline. We re-encounter Hazel continuing her work alone in her family’s house in Edinburgh. This story line is all fine and good, but the book finally picks up once Hazel is transported to London and meets Princess Charlotte. I loved the royal intrigue aspect of the story and Hazel’s relationships with Charlotte and Eliza. We don’t get quite as much medical talk in this one as the last, but it’s still there. This book did feel like a bit more of a stretch by including so many real characters into the plot line. Most of it was fine, but there were a few parts that I was a bit incredulous by the actions taken by some characters. As such, I still have issues with the supernatural aspects of this duology. A nice quick read, but it’s not going to make my top 10 of the year.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Wasted Words by Staci Hart

Title: Wasted Words (The Austen’s #1)

Author: Staci Hart

Publisher: Staci Hart Novels 2016

Genre: Romance

Pages: 349

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER; Finishing the Series

Spice Rating: 5

Falling for my roommate might be the worst idea I never had.

Guys like Tyler Knight don’t go for girls like me.

He’s an ex-tight end with a face so gorgeous, he belongs on a billboard, and I’m a book nerd with glasses and a comic book obsession. I might not know much, since most of my boyfriends exist between the pages of books, but I do know when I’m out of my league.

So instead of obsessing over Tyler, I put all my energy into playing Cupid, using the book bar, Wasted Words, as my playground.

When he kisses me? Welp, there’s no hiding the truth.

But the last time I trusted someone with my heart, it shattered, and the pieces never quite fit together again. With Tyler’s high profile job and the subsequent barrage of women, there doesn’t seem to be room for me. And so my heart breaks over and over until it finally falls apart again.

And this time, I don’t know if I can pick up the pieces.

*A romantic comedy inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma*

A random pick from my extensive Kindle library. And I really enjoyed this one. We get a contemporary retelling of Austen’s Emma (in my top half of Austen novels) with a few tweaks here and there. I enjoyed seeing a modern Emma deal with modern matchmaking obstacles. Thankfully our heroine, Cam, is not a wilting wallflower or a sheltered damsel. She’s an independent woman with baggage, but manages to work through most of that baggage inside these pages. We get to see her actually grow and change independent of the romance aspects. Focusing on the romance, I really loved Tyler’s point of view the best. He was a great modern Knightly. He had his own backstory to work through. I loved seeing the two of them together as a relationship unfolded. We didn’t have to wait until the end to get our main characters together. Thank goodness! After finding this one, I am definitely reading the rest of Hart’s Austen inspired modern romances.

The Austens

#1 Wasted Words
#2 A Thousand Words
#3 Love, Hannah
#4 Love Notes
#5 Pride and Papercuts

Next up on the TBR pile:

Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost

Title: Eternal Kiss of Darkness(Night Huntress World #3)

Author: Jeaniene Frost

Publisher: Avon 2010

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Pages: 361

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR; Unread Shelf, Finishing the Series

Spice Meter: 5 (albeit with a vampire)

An immortal war has been brewing in the darkness . . .

And now one woman has stumbled into the shadows.

Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. But her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she's only imagined in her worst nightmares.

At the center is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master vampire who thought he'd seen it all. Then Kira appears—this fearless, beautiful . . . human who braved death to rescue him. Though he burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life. Yet sending her away is unthinkable.

But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose either the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction.

Oh this one was a wild ride. Mencheres has always been an intriguing character in the regular Night Huntress series and I was so glad he got his own stand alone book. We get to learn his entire history and put to rest an ancient rivalry, all while finding his match in a private investigator. Kira was the right amount of smart and feisty heroine for our master vampire. I loved seeing their interactions and the ways in which Mencheres is forced to open up to Kira. Of course, I always love drop in appearances from Bones and Cat, but I especially love appearances from Vlad. He may be my favorite character in this entire world. This book has the right amount of action and romance to keep me flipping through the pages until the very end.

Night Huntress World:

#1 First Drop of Crimson
#2 Eternal Kiss of Darkness

Next up on the TBR pile:

Pathogenesis by Jonathan Kennedy

Title: Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

Author: Jonathan Kennedy

Publisher: Crown 2023

Genre: Nonfiction - History, Pandemics

Pages: 304

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires.

Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world’s major religions.

By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past—and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesistransforms our understanding of the human story.

A fascinating look at how pandemics have shaped the history of humanity. While I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to a lot of readers interested in the topic, I couldn’t give it 5 stars. Mostly, I felt like I was reviewing a ton of material that I had already learned. This is the problem with reading a ton of history books and epidemiology books. I probably know way to much to accurately judge a book like this. I did appreciated how Kennedy lays out some basic context for each of the time periods he discusses before showing the reader how a pandemic changed the situation. My favorite chapters were about the Paleolithic and Neolithic plagues. Probably because those were the two chapters that I learned the most from. Our collective understanding of those two time periods has greatly increased over the last 15 years. I am here for all the new information we have gleaned from skeletons and artifacts. Loved it! The rest of the book was a bit review for me, but I did enjoyed the refresher course.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder

Title: Sister, Maiden, Monster

Author: Lucy A. Snyder

Publisher: Tor Nightfire 2023

Genre: Horror

Pages: 265

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR; UnRead Shelf

A virus tears across the globe, transforming its victims in nightmarish ways. As the world collapses, dark forces pull a small group of women together.

Erin, once quiet and closeted, acquires an appetite for a woman and her brain. Why does forbidden fruit taste so good?

Savannah, a professional BDSM switch, discovers a new turn-on: committing brutal murders for her eldritch masters.

Mareva, plagued with chronic tumors, is too horrified to acknowledge her divine role in the coming apocalypse, and as her growths multiply, so too does her desperation.

I’m not quite sure exactly what I just read, but I think I like it? This starts out as a pandemic novel and then becomes something a lot more apocalyptic. We get three seemingly different characters and storylines that coalesce into a story of change and purpose. We get shades of Lovecraftian horror as Snyder explores a changing world. Be forewarned that this novel is very adult and very very graphic and gory. The ending is a wild ride and I’m still not sure what to make of it. But overall, I was very intrigued by this story.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox

Title: The Widow of Pale Harbor

Author: Hester Fox

Publisher: 2019

Genre: Mystery

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Maine, 1846. Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wife’s death, so he moves to Maine, taking a position as a minister in the remote village of Pale Harbor.

But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople claim that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a reclusive widow who lives with a spinster maid in the eerie Castle Carver. Sophronia must be a witch, and she almost certainly killed her husband.

As the incidents escalate, one thing becomes clear: they are the work of a twisted person inspired by the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And Gabriel must find answers, or Pale Harbor will suffer a fate worthy of Poe’s darkest tales.

I picked this one off the library new release shelf hoping for some spooky witchy horror. But that’s not quite what this book is. This book is more of a gothic mystery tinged with a bit of romance. Nothing supernatural happens in this book, but we certainly get a feel for the supernatural atmosphere. Overall I enjoyed the plot line and loved the final reveal of the mystery. The characters were okay if a bit disjointed at times. My biggest complaint is that the writing seemed to drag in parts. Having characters struggle internally over the same issues chapter after chapter got to me after while. I started skimming some of the paragraphs to get to the next action beat. Good atmospheric mystery, but I now know to look elsewhere if I want actual ghosts.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young

Title: Spells for Forgetting

Author: Adrienne Young

Publisher: Delacorte 2022

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 350

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; BOTM Cleanout

Emery Blackwood’s life changed forever the night her best friend was found dead and the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her. Years later, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence on the misty, remote shores of Saoirse Island and running the family’s business, Blackwood’s Tea Shoppe Herbal Tonics & Tea Leaf Readings. But when the island, rooted in folklore and magic, begins to show signs of strange happenings, Emery knows that something is coming. The morning she wakes to find that every single tree on Saoirse has turned color in a single night, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past that the town has tried desperately to forget.

August knows he is not welcome on Saiorse, not after the night everything changed. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother’s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from his past that has never healed—Emery. But the town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises spanning generations threaten to reveal the truth behind Lily’s mysterious death once and for all.

Every month I would get so excited about my Book of the Month deliveries and then I would just let them languish on my shelves. I finally picked one up and flew through the pages. This slightly fantastical tale of secrets, betrayal, and lost loves had me engaged until the last page. I loved being able to experience the story from both August and Emery’s points of view. We get to really dive into these two characters and follow them as the past comes back. Sometimes I am annoyed by the little breadcrumbs an author leaves for the reader, but in this case, it was done well. Every reveal left me wanting more. Beyond the central mystery, which was fantastic, my favorite part of this book was the setting. I could feel rain and the fog closing in on the island as I read. I could see Main Street with it shops lining the curbs and the ferry station at the end. I could smell the salt water and smoke. Young really has a way of setting the stage in her book. Very enjoyable mystery with a side of magic.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

Title: Tread of Angels

Author: Rebecca Roanhorse

Publisher: Gallery 2022

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 201

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Reading Challenge

The year is 1883 and the mining town of Goetia is booming as prospectors from near and far come to mine the powerful new element Divinity from the high mountains of Colorado with the help of the pariahs of society known as the Fallen. The Fallen are the descendants of demonkind living amongst the Virtues, the winners in an ancient war, with the descendants of both sides choosing to live alongside Abaddon’s mountain in this tale of the mythological West from the bestselling mastermind Rebecca Roanhorse.

A bit of a strange book to review. The plot line centers around a women trying to defend her sister in a murder accusation. Pretty straight forward, but the world they live in is anything but straight forward. We get a clear divided between the Fallen and the Elect and appearances from demon lords. I sped through this book in one sitting and was engaged the entire time. The weird theological questions that came to mind keep me thinking of this book. Throw in Roanhorse’s personal history and current place in life, and I was even more intrigued. Something tells me that this book is going to creep back into my life in the future…

Next up on the TBR pile:

Don't Turn Out the Lights

Title: Don't Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Author: Various

Publisher: HarperCollins 2020

Genre: MG Horror

Pages: 398

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Reading Challenge

Flesh-hungry ogres? Brains full of spiders? Haunted houses you can’t escape? This collection of 35 terrifying stories from the Horror Writers Association has it all, including ghastly illustrations from Iris Compiet that will absolutely chill readers to the bone.

So turn off your lamps, click on your flashlights, and prepare—if you dare—to be utterly spooked

I grew up in the 80s and 90s obsessed with Alvin Schwartz’s story collection. I most definitely had to grab this volume off the library and immediately devour it. This collection definitely pays homage to the original stories in their set-ups and payoffs. We get a seemingly normal setting that quickly takes a turn. Many of the stories are urban legends redone, but that’s what makes them so satisfying. We know how the story is going to end and yet still keep reading to find out. This stories are mostly short and sweet giving you a one-two punch in just a few pages. I loved a majority of them. A few didn’t work for me, but that’s usual within a short story collection. Overall, this was a great palate cleanser book between more serious pieces.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Starship Titanic by Douglas Adams and Terry Jones

Title: Starships Titanic

Author: Douglas Adams and Terry Jones

Publisher: Harmony 1997

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 246

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Reading Challenge; 52 Books Club

In this thoroughly satisfying and completely disorienting novel based on a story line by Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Jones recounts an unforgettable tale of intergalactic travel and mishap. The saga of "the ship that cannot possibly go wrong" sparkles with wit, danger, and confusion that will keep readers guessing which reality they are in and how, on earth, to find their way out again.

A random pic from our server library for this week. J has been badgering me to read this for years now and I figured why not? To be clear, this is based on a Douglas Adams story that he didn’t complete before his death. Afterward, Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) finished the story and recorded the audiobook. The Douglas Adams parts, full of asides and strange coincidences were great. The Terry Jones parts, I assume the weird relationships and sex talk, were not as great. If I could have reworked a few scenes, I would have really loved this story. As it stands, it’s a mostly fun space romp for fans of Adams and his quirky sense of humor.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Curator by Owen King

Title: The Curator

Author: Owen King

Publisher: Scribner 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 480

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Reading Challenge

It begins in an unnamed city nicknamed “the Fairest”, it is distinguished by many things from the river fair to the mountains that split the municipality in half; its theaters and many museums; the Morgue Ship; and, like all cities, but maybe especially so, by its essential unmappability.

Dora, a former domestic servant at the university has a secret desire—to understand the mystery of her brother's death, believing that the answer lies within The Museum of Psykical Research, where he worked when Dora was a child. With the city amidst a revolutionary upheaval, where citizens like Robert Barnes, her lover and a student radical, are now in positions of authority, Dora contrives to gain the curatorship of the half-forgotten museum only to find it all but burnt to the ground, with the neighboring museums oddly untouched. Robert offers her one of these, The National Museum of the Worker. However, neither this museum, nor the street it is hidden away on, nor Dora herself, are what they at first appear to be. Set against the backdrop of an oddly familiar and wondrous city on the verge of collapse, Dora’s search for the truth will unravel a monstrous conspiracy and bring her to the edge of worlds.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Duchess Takes a Husband by Harper St. George

Title: The Duchess Takes a Husband (The Gilded Age Heiresses #4)

Author: Harper St. George

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 312

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Reading Challenge

Spice Rating: 5

Despite her illustrious title, Camille, Duchess of Hereford, remains what she has always been—a pariah. Though her title means she’s technically accepted by London Society, the rebellious widow with her burgeoning interest in the suffrage movement and her American ways isn’t exactly high on every hostess’s guest list. But Camille starts to wonder if being an outcast is not without its perks when the tantalizing answer to her secret fear appears in the shape of Jacob Thorne, the illegitimate son of an earl and co-owner of London’s infamous Montague Club.

Jacob is used to making deals with his club members—he’s just not accustomed to them being beautiful women. Nor have the terms ever been so sweetly seductive as Camille’s shocking proposition. To finally buy his own club and gain the crucial backing of investors, Camille offers Jacob the respectability of a fake engagement with a duchess. In return, the tempting widow has one condition: she wants Jacob to show her if it’s possible for her to experience pleasure in bed.

The lure of such a bargain proves too delicious to resist, drawing the enterprising rogue and the wallflower duchess into a scandalous game and an even more dangerous gamble of the heart.

Somehow I had missed that there was to be a fourth book in this series, but I’m glad there was. It would have been tragic to leave Camille in a state of depression for the entire series. I’m glad that she finally gets to find some happiness in this volume. While I enjoyed seeing her start to work through her trauma after her forced marriage to Hereford, I wasn’t completely convinced of the relationship between her and Jacob. Sure, he was a great guy to help her explore intimacy, but he always seemed to have the upper hand in all their interactions. I would have liked to see more vulnerability from, him and a mutual growth. Guess I just prefer stronger female main characters in my romances. Still, an enjoyable history romance to finish out the series.

The Gilded Age Heiresses

Next up on the TBR pile:

Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill

Title: Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters

Author: Nikita Gill

Publisher: Ebury Press 2019

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 248

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

With lyrical prose and striking verse, beloved poet Nikita Gill (Fierce Fairytales, Wild Embers) uses the history of Ancient Greece and beyond to explore and share the stories of the mothers, warriors, creators, survivors, and destroyers who shook the world. In pieces that burn with empathy and admiration for these women, Gill unearths the power and glory of the very foundations of mythology and culture that have been too-often ignored or pushed aside.

Complete with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, Gill's poetry and stories weave old and forgotten tales of might and love into an empowering collection for the modern woman.

I had been slowly reading this collection o poetry and stories over the first couple of weeks of June. I absolutely adored Gill’s Fierce Fairytales collection from a few years back and hoped this one would be just as good. While it’s not quite my favorite, I did enjoy this collection. We get an exploration of (mostly) Greek mythology. At times, Gill’s writing and subjects are very clear while at others she delves into the esoteric and mysterious. I prefer the slightly more straight forward pieces. I like to really grasp onto a meaning while reading poetry. As many of her collections, there is a through line of empowering female figures. My favorite parts of this collection focused on Athena, Artemis, and Persephone. I find a lot of strength from these three figures. As with any poetry collection, this one should be read slowly over the course of weeks. Binging just won’t do.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Title: Happy Place

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 388

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

Steam Rating: 4

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.

They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?

Another solid contemporary romance from Emily Henry! I have enjoyed all four of her novels. This one wasn’t my favorite, but I still really enjoyed it. Her romances are not light and fluffy. They have a lot of substance and serious conversations. In this one, we get a possible second-chance romance happening. One half of the story is told in the present when we know things between Wyn and Harriet are not great. In flashback chapters, we get to see their love story (and breakup). I wanted to absolutely fall in love with the two main characters. Actually, I was conflicted throughout most of the book. I didn’t know if I wanted for them to get back together or not. It sounds like I didn’t like this book, but I really did. I love how Henry writes very realistic characters. These could be my friends. There is not completely unrealistic situation and friendships. Sometimes I want super fluffy romance and sometimes I want something with more substance. Henry is definitely my go to for substance.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Title: The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni #1)

Author: Helene Wecker

Publisher: Harper 2013

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 486

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spring TBR; COYER

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay by a disgraced rabbi knowledgeable in the ways of dark Kabbalistic magic. She serves as the wife to a Polish merchant who dies at sea on the voyage to America. As the ship arrives in New York in 1899, Chava is unmoored and adrift until a rabbi on the Lower East Side recognizes her for the creature she is and takes her in.

Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped centuries ago in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard. Released by a Syrian tinsmith in a Manhattan shop, Ahmad appears in human form but is still not free. An iron band around his wrist binds him to the wizard and to the physical world.

Chava and Ahmad meet accidentally and become friends and soul mates despite their opposing natures. But when the golem’s violent nature overtakes her one evening, their bond is challenged. An even more powerful threat will emerge, however, and bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their very existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

A friend recommended this one and then my online book club chose it for June’s read. Seems like the universe really wanted me to read this one. Don’t be fooled by the summary. This book is squarely character driven. There is a plot, but it operates as a way for us to explore more of the characters’ natures and growth. I was intrigued by the world depicted and the two seemingly disparate cultures presented. I enjoyed seeing how the golem and the jinni are able to find commonalities with each other and their circumstances. We get to see two beings create identities despite their beginnings. I ended up enjoying this novel, but there were a few points where the slow pace got to me. I had hoped for a bit more action or plot. I’m still debating if I want to continue reading this series.

The Golem and the Jinni

#1 The Golem and the Jinni
#2 The Hidden Palace

Next up on the TBR pile: