Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

October 1993. One night. One house. One dead body.

When single mom Eleanor Mazinski goes out a for a much-needed date night, she leaves her two young children —sweet, innocent six-year-old Ben and precocious, defiant twelve-year-old Mira— in the capable hands of their sitter, Amy. The quiet seventeen-year-old is good at looking after children, despite her anxiety disorder. She also loves movies, especially horror flicks. Amy likes their predictability; it calms the panic that threatens to overwhelm her.

The evening starts out normally enough, with games, pizza, and dancing. But as darkness falls, events in this quaint suburban New Jersey house take a terrifying turn —unexpected visitors at the door, mysterious phone calls, and by midnight, little Ben is in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood, with a dead body at his feet.

In this dazzling debut novel, Emily Ruth Verona moves back and forth in time, ratcheting up suspense and tension on every page. Chock-full of nods to classic horror films of the seventies and eighties, Midnight on Beacon Street is a gripping thriller full of electrifying twists and a heartwarming tale of fear and devotion that explores our terrors and the lengths we’ll go to keep our loved ones safe.

Why I'm Waiting: You had me at creepy children. This sounds like it'll be hard to put down.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Across Italy, there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild—selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives.

It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought.

There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years…and how many people died in the strange chapel inside.

While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina…something stirs.

HAPPY READING!!

Mini Reviews

This was absolutely adorable. It's also covered in tabs: desserts I want to put on the menu at work, desserts I want to try at home, and a few I want to play around with. My favorite part about this was the end of the book where there was a worst of the worst section. The first three-fourths of this book are amazing vintage recipes that have survived thanks to community cookbooks, but that last fourth is full of absolute horror concoctions that at the time I am sure people thought were amazing.  I've been following Dylan on Instagram since 2020, and the eggnog pie he posted made its way onto my dessert menu at work (it was a hit all around and will make a comeback next holiday season). So there was never a doubt in my mind I would adore this cookbook. It's one of my favorites not sitting on my cooking shelf, and will definitely be one that pull down all the time.

I liked this better as an audiobook than as a physical read, and I think that's because I felt more of Pippa's emotions, or maybe her distress. I don't know, I just liked this version better than the the other. That being said. It's only been a few years since I read this book. Long enough I figured I forgot little things, but nothing big. I thought I remembered all the major things that went down in this book. I didn't not. There were a couple of huge side plots I had forgotten that I only started to remember right as they were about to be revealed. This does read like a CW TV Show, and that is also exactly why I liked this. It's very much in the vein of Veronica Mars. Or, at least what that show would be now with social media and podcasts and everything. I did re-read this purpose because I do want to jump into the rest of the series! I'm currently waiting for my hold to come in for book two!

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars and the rise of the floriography craze in Europe, two sisters separated at birth are bound together by a secret language of flowers passed down to them by the mother they never knew. When Cornelia leaves her cruel uncle’s home to join Napoleon’s army as a traveling naturalist, her ability to heal any wound and bring soldiers back from the brink of death earns her praise from higher-ups—and exposes her to those who would exploit her powers for themselves.

Meanwhile, Lijsbeth lives in indentured servitude, her only respite her time spent flower arranging. When she meets a young English soldier and falls in love, Lisjbeth must decide whether to flee the clashing of two great armies at Waterloo or risk everything by staying. As the English and French armies collide in Waterloo, the sisters finally cross paths on opposite sides of the war.

With the sisters reunited on the battlefield, they must work together to solve the mystery of their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, all while surviving the war raging around them.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

After narrowly surviving the Duplicitype, Erica Slaughter must still reckon with the murderous Cutter in order to save the people of Tribulation. Separated from Dolly and driven by desperate rage, Cutter won't stop until she exacts her revenge on Erica. But the horror is far from over as the terrifying Duplicitype, the infamous monster wearing Erica’s likeness that changed Something is Killing the Children forever, also remains at large and in relentless, sinister pursuit! And with Cecilia showing up onsite, will Erica finally find the ally she needs, or is betrayal in the cards? Whose side are they on? Most importantly, what chance does Erica stand? Collects Something is Killing the Children #31-35.

Why I'm Waiting: This is the final one, there will be no more. I've been waiting for this one to come out so I can marathon the last three volumes. Just rip it all off like a bandaid. 

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Emma hasn't told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn't spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she's pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.

That's when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents' house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can't sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.

Were murdered.

And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

"She glanced over her shoulder. Had the scarecrow moved? It stood there, smile stitched on its face, but now it felt like a smirk." Prepare to be scared silly in this creepy middle-grade novel! Twins seek medical help in a remote village after their father is in a canoeing accident...only to discover the scarecrow that stands watch in town may have a stronger hold over the residents than expected. Perfect for fans of R.L. Stine, Dan Poblocki, and Mary Downing Hahn. Twins Oliver and Trisha love going on adventures with their dad. Canoeing and camping on the Champion River will be their best trip yet! But when they capsize in rapids, their father is knocked unconscious. Alone and without cell phone reception, their only choice is to continue down river for help. Hours of paddling brings them to an old dock, and a narrow path leads them to a small village. The townspeople are kind and helpful, but strangely focused on the giant scarecrow in the village square. "He watches over us," the twins are told in whispers. "He keeps us safe." An old woman warns the twins not to spend the night in the village. Not if they ever want to leave. But with the sun soon to set and their father not well enough to be moved, how can they escape? Better yet, how can they survive?

HAPPY READING!!

2024 TBR

This will be part one of hopefully at least one other part. I am not the fastest reader and I get distracted easily (one of the many reasons I finally bought myself a Kindle). But, I've been trying to find ways to start putting a dent in my physical TBR, and not just re-reading books. Or, buying new ones, or adding more things to my Kindle, or going to the library. I have a massive library of great books that while pretty to look out for, also need to be read. 

What I've learned is what doesn't work. Setting any kind of TBR never works. Not for the month, readathons, or even just a stack of things to read for the year. I'm always lucky if I manage one book. I do flip out one stack of books on my spinning bookshelf randomly by theme. Mostly as a reminder that I have some of these books. Because as I said I collected quite the library over the last three years working down the street from the local bookstore. Still, TBRs don't work for me. They just turn into stacks of books I feel bad I didn't manage because I went into something with good intentions, and then my mood changed halfway through.

Last year though, I did find something that worked. It was on a whim to mostly keep my cat from licking books on the bottom of the book cart, and to make my book sleeves easier to see in photos (I have an Instagram @Bookish_Whispers, you should check it out). What ended up happening is I got in a rut about which book to read next, and just ended up tossing the book sleeves at my roommate and telling her to pick without looking inside. She has no idea what she's picking, and I've generally forgotten which books are and which sleeve. 

While saying this put a dent in my physical TBR would be a stretch. It did help me cycle through some of my physical books, and not all of them winners that I enjoyed. Those books ended up in the Free Little Library by my work. So really, a win-win.

It's also something I'm going to do again this year, and the books above are the ones I picked. Yeah most of them are 2023 releases, The Final Girl Support Group has been one I've been meaning to pick for a minute, and The Apparitionists, well, the cat has been knocking it off the shelf for the last two weeks. So I figured he wanted to help me pick. So all five of these went into book sleeves, and the next time I don't know what to read, it'll be up to fate. Because even though I did this just a few days ago.

I don't remember which book went where. Though I kind of hope the Jesse Sutanto book is my first book. Only because I've been in such a cozy murder mystery era the last few weeks. Though my current to reads might leave me with a bit of a hangover. So I might need this system sooner, rather than later.

HAPPY READING!!

Night Worms Unboxing

January Theme: Lost Souls

First Night Worms of 2024! I'm a little late posting this because I've got some staff out sick at work, but I finally snuck two days off. So I'm ready to do it again because I've still got one out sick. But, enough about that! Let's look at the January package for Night Worms, Lost Souls. I had just finished photos when my roommate asked which books I got this month, and she immediately snagged Where the Dead Wait for her TBR stack. She's apparently been very excited about it, while I'm still not sure. It sounds like something I'd like, but when I originally saw it was kind of like maybe from the library. But, if Night Worms is putting in their package. It must be worth the hype. So once she reads it, I'll pick it up! 

As for the Woodwitch that sounds right up my alley, and I'm pretty sure it's going with me on my birthday mini vacation. Which is less of a traditional vacation, and more of an excuse for me to splurge on a hotel and read for two days without needing to answer my phone. The Woodwitch so far is on the top of the pile to go with me.

I am obsessed with the magnet from this month. To the point, it might not stay on my fridge and move to my book cart! The same goes for the sticker. I have no idea where I'm going to put it, but it needs to be a good place because I adore it. Somewhere I won't regret putting it, or lose it, or have to get rid of it.

And, I'm always down for my tea, especially right now with how freaking cold it is in the PNW. Yes, I understand that it's Winter and I'm surrounded by mountains. It doesn't mean I do have to like how fridge it is every time I get on and off the bus. I have however loved the excuse to curl up in front of the fire!

But, as I've done nothing by digress from my point! An amazing start to my 2024, and I cannot wait to see what the Night Worms puts out the rest of the year!

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.

Why I'm Waiting: This isn't something I'd normally pick up, but I do like Katherin Arden's writing and something about this book has my attention. Still, something about this book has my attention, maybe it's the cover, maybe it's more. Either way, I'm excited about it.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Four ambitious climbers hike into the Kentucky wilderness. Seven months later, three mangled bodies are discovered. Were their deaths simple accidents or the result of something more sinister?

This nail-biting, bone-chilling survival horror novel is inspired by the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident, and is perfect for fans of Alma Katsu and Showtime's Yellowjackets.

This is going to be Dylan's big break. Her friend Clay, a geology student, has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan's boyfriend Luke, she is going to document her achievement on Instagram and finally cement her place as the next rising star in rock climbing. 

Seven months later, three bodies are discovered in the trees just off the highway. All are in various states of decay: one body a stark, white skeleton; the second emptied of its organs; and the third a mutilated corpse with the tongue, eyes, ears, and fingers removed.

But Dylan is still missing. Followers of her Instagram account report seeing disturbing livestreams, and some even claim to have caught glimpses of her vanishing into the thick woods, but no trace of her—dead or alive—has been discovered. 

Were the climbers murdered? Did they succumb to cannibalism? Or are their impossible bodies the work of an even more sinister force? Is Dylan still alive, and does she hold the answers? 

This page-turning debut will have you racing towards the inevitable conclusion.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

Lights. Camera. Lies.

18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And – could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

Retired soldier, Alex Easton, returns in a horrifying new adventure.

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.

Why I'm Waiting: I loved the first book and I had no idea it was going to get another book. So I'm excited to see what kind of trouble Alex Easton finds this time!

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

     

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

Two unlikely allies race through the cobbled streets of 1920s London in search of a killer targeting Chinese immigrants.

London, 1924. When shy academic Lao She meets larger-than-life Judge Dee Ren Jie, his life abruptly turns from books and lectures to daring chases and narrow escapes. Dee has come to London to investigate the murder of a man he’d known during World War I when serving with the Chinese Labour Corps. No sooner has Dee interviewed the grieving widow than another dead body turns up. Then another. All stabbed to death withg a butterfly sword. Will Dee and Lao be able to connect the threads of the murders—or are they next in line as victims?

John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan’s groundbreaking collaboration blends traditional gong'an crime fiction and the most iconic aspects of the Sherlock Holmes canon. Dee and Lao encounter the aristocracy and the street-child telegraph, churchmen and thieves in this clever, cinematic mystery that’s as thrilling and visual as an action film, as imaginative and transporting as a timeless classic.

 

HAPPY READING!!

2023 Yearly Wrap Up

 

Six days into the new year, and I'm posting my wrap-up, finally. It was a good read year in reading, a lot of short stories and novellas. I didn't DNF very many books. Mostly because I've gotten better at letting myself take breaks when I'm struggling to read. I've stopped calling it a slump and just let my interest go into other places. Sometimes it's getting back into puzzling, occasionally it's a TV Show, and sometimes I just need a break. One weekend where I do nothing but cook and back and exist. Either way, it worked. I never felt like I was behind on my Goodreads Challenge, even when this summer I only managed a grand total of four books. I still managed to check almost all of my goals off.

Books Read: 77 of 65

Pages Read:  13, 908 of 15,000

Reading BINGO:  24 of 25

A to Z Challenge: 17 of 28

While I didn't clear my BINGO Board last year, that wasn't my goal. The goal had been to manage at least one BINGO, which I did. In fact, I managed eleven BINGOs! Outside of 2020 when I was unemployed thanks to lockdown for several months, this is the best Goodreads Challenge I think I've had. I blew that challenge away by twelve books! I didn't have a goal for the A to Z Challenge because that's a personal challenge to clear away my ever-growing, never-shrinking, TBR. It was a lot of fun, and I'm excited to set this challenge again for myself this year.

Now my page goal, I got so close. So freaking close, just a thousand, and some change, away from that goal. It was closer than I got last year by a couple of hundred pages. So I've set the same one for this year. Will I reach it? Who knows, I have the books to manage it, but I've been reading a lot of smaller books recently, as I mentioned. So hard telling, even if I hit my 70 book goal on Goodreads. Still, I want to challenge myself, and who knows. Maybe I'll surprise myself!

HAPPY READING!!

December Favorite Read

It wasn't hard to pick my favorite read of December because it was one of my favorite reads of the year. Who doesn't want to take life advice from opossums? It sounds weird, but stay with me and check out this book. When it comes to adorable opossums, no one knows them better than Ally Burguieres. She's filled with this book with beautiful illustrations of the creatures giving small pieces of life advice from cover to cover. Most are just reminders to take care of yourself, to take a break, and remember to breathe. Which for me isn't a bad book to have around. Sometimes I feel like I'm being pulled in several directions with too many balls in the air about to crash down.

When in Doubt Play Dead, is the second book by Ally Burguieres, both are about opossums. Both are adorable, quick reads and if you love opossums or any adorable animals, they are both with a look!!

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

What antique would you kill for?

Freya Lockwood is shocked when she learns that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and her estranged mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. She has spent the last twenty years avoiding her quaint English hometown, but when she receives a letter from Arthur asking her to investigate—sent just days before his death—Freya has no choice but to return to a life she had sworn to leave behind.

Joining forces with her eccentric Aunt Carole, Freya follows clues and her instincts to an old manor house for an advertised antiques enthusiast’s weekend. But not all is as it seems. It’s clear to Freya that the antiques are all just poor reproductions and her fellow guests are secretive and menacing. What is going on at this estate and how was Arthur involved? More importantly, can Freya and Carole discover the truth before the killer strikes again?

Why I'm Waiting: This sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!

HAPPY READING!!

January Spotlight Book

 

This is Kate Alice Marshall's second adult novel, the first, What Lies in the Woods, that I have not read yet. A friend of mine has and she liked it. So that added to the fact I've read a couple of Marshall's young adult novels and liked them, gives me high hope for both that book and her newest release. I'm always a sucker for a return to a hometown story that's mixed with a murderous secret. This put No One Can Know on the top of my list of January releases! 

Emma hasn't told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn't spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she's pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.

That's when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents' house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can't sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.

Were murdered.

And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

HAPPY READING!!

December Reading Wrap Up

 HAPPY NEW YEAR! This week alone has felt a month long. So I'm not only glad to see a new year, but a new month and a new week. Though it's Monday, it's also my Friday because I have the next two days off. And I'm so ready for two days with no plans or holiday things to be done.

Just me, the laundry I really need to put away, and my first read of 2024. But first, a look at how the last month of 2023 went! 

Books Read: 6
BINGO Books: 0

A to Z Challenge: 2

Pages Read: 893

Currently Reading: I have no idea. So many choices, no desire to make a decision.

Okay, so I didn't manage to clear my BINGO board. I was so close though, just one book away. However, the 2009 Square defeated me. Because despite having a book picked out, I sort of last the will to read over the last. I started three books and an audiobook. All of them were left partially read. So I thought it was best to take a break.

However, at the start of the month, I did knock two more books of the A to Z Challenge. I'm not sure if this challenge is officially happening this year. I think the host of this challenge is doing a different TBR Challenge. However, I really liked this particular challenge. So I'm going to do it again this year.

HAPPY READING!!