May Wrap Up

This was not my best month reading, not my worst either. May is always such a busy month for me. Mother's Day and Memorial Day are always a busy weekend at the restaurant. So I'd set the whole week to gear up, stock, and sort the kitchen to ensure we have everything we need. Then at the turn of this year, I went to visit my parents for a week, and I'm going to get a lot of reading done. It never happens between catching up, spending time, and doing things with them. I only ever read on the plane ride there and back. 

Then add everything I must do outside of Bookish and my job. It just didn't happen. Thank goodness for Silent Book Club. Because that week, Book Club night was the only time I read for more than a chapter here and there.   

Still, no matter what, I got to read Sleep Tight, which gave me a book hangover. It was so good and so weird. But so good!

Books Read: 3
BINGO Books: 1

A to Z Challenge: 0

Pages Read: 624

Currently Reading: Cryptids, Creatures, and Critters

I've said it once, and I'll repeat it, this year's BINGO board is hard! I've read 28 books this year, and I'm leaps and bounds from a BINGO. Mostly because that page count square is killing me! Why did we do that to ourselves? Why? All the whining aside, I did manage to knock the Folklore square off my board thanks to Freak Folklore!

HAPPY READING!!

Sleep Tight - Review

Author: J.H. Markert

Genre: Horror

Format: e-Book

Pages: 336

Sleep Tight will be published on September 24, 2024!

I don't give out a lot of 5-star reviews these days, but this was deserving. First off the book hangover I have is real. My desire to pick up anything or listen to anything is so small. As always Markert's writing has messed with my head. My sleep is all screwed up with weird dreams still and I finished this book days ago. Truth be told that's why I love Markert's writing so much. His books don't scare me outright, but they linger and twist my brain in odd ways. Sleep Tight was no exception.

So a huge thank you to Net Galley and Crooked Tree Press for an early copy of Sleep Tight. 

At this point, I am still trying to figure out where to start this review. This book is so much and so much happens in it, I don't want to spoil any of it. Because the not knowing is what makes this book so good. It's what keeps you flipping page after page to figure out how all the parts fit together and, at some point, just to see if it can get any worse. It can. It does, and none of it is okay.

Sleep Tight starts out as a slow burn, but it's worth sticking through the slow chapters as it builds up the story. Because the first few chapters set everything up for all the characters. It's how you get to know Tess our main character, and when I decided no matter how the book ended, I would never be a fan of Justin. But there are so many characters in this and all of them are brilliant on their own for better or worse. And, for some, it really is for worse.

There's something about the way Markert writes his villains, and there are so many in this book. Some you felt bad for because no matter how the dice were rolled, they would never win. Others, and when you read the book you'll know which ones, I was rooting for a bloody and horrible ending. All of them were great on their own. Oskar is hands down my favorite of all the bad guys, and I adored the ending that he got. Bless Markert for that!

Sleep Tight is written in a way that at any time all the gears Markert has moving, balls in the air, and characters involved, it all could fall to pieces. One plot, one wrong move, if the pacing moves to quick, anything could make this book fall apart. At about the seventy-five percent mark, I only had a fraction of the plot figure out, no idea how all the characters were going to fit together, and was convinced that none of these pieces fit.

Well, I was wrong, it all flows together in the last maybe ten chapters as it all comes to a head. You see that everyone is connected to Father Silence, or in one case, created him. Still, the ending was great and wrapped nearly everything up with a neat little bow. There was one loose end, but I like it when a book ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. 

After all, you should beware the one that got away!

If you love trippy books that will break your brain, keep you on the edge of your seat, and are absolutely hard to put down. I cannot suggest J.H. Markert books. Sleep Tight was the second book I read by him, and while I loved Nightmare Man. This one is my favorite! I still need to read Mister Lullaby, but first I need to read something happy before jumping into another of his books. My soul needs a cleanse or something! 

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.

In the late 90s, five queer kids, whose parents want them “fixed,” find themselves thrown together at a secretive "tough love" camp deep in the scorching Utah desert.

Tormented and worked to the point of collapse by hardline religious zealots intent on straightening them out, they slowly become aware that something in the mountains north of the camp is speaking to them in their dreams, and that the children who return home to their families have...changed.

Why I'm Waiting: This sounds like it's probably going to emotionally damage me, so I'm very excited to get my hands on it. 

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…

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!

Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality—Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won’t say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork—whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew’s wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster—Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator…

HAPPY READING!!

Freaky Folklore - Review

Author: Carmon Carrion

Genre: Mythology / Folklore

Format: e-Book

Pages: 256

Set to be released by July 16, 2024

You know me, I'm always down for a book on creepy mythology and folklore. So I jumped at the chance to get my hands on this one early. So a huge thank you to NetGalley and Wellfleet Press. I really enjoyed this one and might have to get myself a physical copy to add to my folklore and mythology collection.

I liked that this was split so that each section was a different continent because sometimes books will say creatures of the world, but only stick to a certain part of the world. But, Freaky Folklore doesn't leave out a single continent. I will admit that I skimmed through most of North America and Europe, having already read books about most of those creatures. Afterward, there was less skimming, a few creatures here and there in Australia and the Yeti in Asia. But, as a whole there was a big chunk of this book filled was creatures and myths I'd never heard of before. 

Each chapter is fairly small, which my attention span really liked. There is the "Freak Facts" and a brief rundown of each creature/myth, an illustration, and then a short story. Occasionally a little pop-up bubble with a similar creature in the continent is worth noting. Keeping these sections, in my opinion, keeps things from getting too dry or repetitive. However, I will say so many of these stories were to keep children from wandering too far or having a creepy fascination with pregnant women. Just a pattern I noticed.

The illustrations are great. Some of them, a lot of them, were super creepy, but I felt was a great addition to the book. While some of these creatures are easy to picture how they look, some were not because their stories started as word-of-mouth stories, so pieces were lost, or added so much that it was a little jumbled. So having those illustrations really helped with the creepy factor and to actually see what these stories were trying to create. I also really liked that at the end of the book is a little index of all the illustrations.

As for the short stories that were attached to each chapter, they were hit or miss with me. I thought it was a great idea, and was one of the things that drew me toward this book. However, some of them fell flat for me in sections, to the point I started just skipping over most of them toward the end. 

Still, as a whole, I really enjoyed this book and the stories inside. I'm so very grateful to have gotten a chance to read this early. Freaky Folklore hits shelves July 16 of this year, and it might just need to find its way into my creepy folklore collections! 

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.

There's a killer on board a luxury yacht, and two former friends must team up to figure out which of their privileged classmates has a penchant for murder before they become victims themselves. Don't miss out on this gripping thriller from New York Times bestselling authors Kristin Cast and Pintip Dunn!

Ex–best friends Naya Morgan and Yana Bunpraserit have always felt like outsiders in their small Oklahoma town. But this year, everything changes when they’re inducted into an exclusive society of Yatesville High’s top recent graduates. Unimaginable opportunities await them, starting with a celebratory yacht trip to Bermuda. Despite the likely onslaught of microaggressions and backhanded compliments from their peers—in addition to their own rocky past—Yana and Naya are ready for an epic voyage.
Then one of their classmates is brutally murdered, leaving them stuck at sea with a killer. Yana and Naya may have avoided each other for years, yet as the body count rises, rekindling their friendship might be the only way they’ll both survive.

Why I'm Waiting: Listen yachts, cruises, all of them freak me out, and this is one of the many many reasons. But, this also seems like a wild ride, so I'm in!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 Groundhog Day meets Guardians of the Galaxy in Django Wexler’s laugh-out-loud fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides to become the Dark Lord herself.

Davi has done this all before. She’s tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she’s rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she’s killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she’s been defeated every time.

This time? She’s done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that’s who she needs to be. It’s Davi’s turn to play on the winning side.

Burningblade & Silvereye

Ashes of the Sun

Blood of the Chosen

Emperor of Ruin

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!

Faolan Kelly’s grandfather is dead. She’s alone in the world and suddenly homeless, all because the local powers that be don’t think a young man of sixteen is mature enough to take over his grandfather’s homestead…and that’s with them thinking Faolan is a young man. If she revealed that her grandfather had been disguising her for years, they would marry her off at the first opportunity.

The mayor finds a solution that serves everyone but He hires a gunslinger to ship her off to the Settlement, a remote fort where social outcasts live under the leadership of His Benevolence Gideon Dillard. It's a place rife with mystery, kept afloat by suspicious wealth. Dillard's absolute command over his staff just doesn't seem right. And neither do the strange noises that keep Faolan up at night.

When Faolan finds the body of a Settlement boarder, mangled by something that can’t possibly be human, it’s clear something vicious is stalking the palisades. And as Settlement boarders continue to drop like flies, Faolan knows she must escape to evade the creature’s wrath.

HAPPY READING!!

Currently Reading

Well hello out there! So I've put reading A Botanical Daughter, not because I'm not enjoying, because I am. But because I got the chance to read an advance copy of one of my favorite I authors, J.H. Markert! So as much as I was liking, A Botanical Daughter, I put it aside for Sleep Tight. Which I'm loving! I also got the chance to jump into a cute little cryptid book, which has quickly become my bedtime read. It has a lot of folklore inside that I'd never heard of before, which has made it a treat! It's also a nice way to unwind after work, and doesn't give me weird dreams like Markert's books tend to.

I'd love to say after these two books I'm jumping back into A Botanical Daughter. But, when Net Galley gives, it really gives. I have two more books lined up from them to jump into after this. Another cryptid book and a science fiction I'm itching to get my hands into. I adored other books by this author, and I've read the first three chapters already. So I can't wait to deep dive into this one!

HAPPY READING!!

June Silent Book Club

 

Calling all book lovers! If you missed last nights book club here in Edmonds, fear not! We do them every third Wednesday at Leftcraft Tavern from 7:30 to 8:30. Our next one will be June 19th and we'd love to see you there! 

We had a great turn out last night. It's really cool to see so many returning faces, and see what everyone is up to and reading this month! It was also really cool to see a handful of new faces, that I can't wait to see again!

So if you're in the North Seattle area on June 19th, stop on by! You can find more information on our book club through Instagram. The handle is, @silentbookclubedmonds! 

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.

Avra Helvaçi, former field agent of the Arasti Ministry of Intelligence, has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world―and the only place to flee with a secret that big is the open sea.To find a buyer with deep enough pockets, Avra must ask for help from his on-again, off-again ex, the pirate Captain Teveri az-Haffar. They are far from happy to see him, but together, they hatch a take the information to the isolated pirate republic of the Isles of Lost Souls, fence it, profit. The only things in their way? A calculating new Arasti ambassador to the Isles of Lost Souls who's got his eyes on Avra's every move; Brother Julian, a beautiful, mysterious new member of the crew with secrets of his own and a frankly inconvenient vow of celibacy; the fact that they're sailing straight into sea serpent breeding season and almost certain doom.But if they can find a way to survive and sell the secret on the black market, they’ll all be as wealthy as kings―and, more importantly, they'll be legends.

Why I'm Waiting: Because it sounds so much fun!!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

A single mother working in the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets.

Harry Adams loves horror movies, so it’s no coincidence that she accepted a job cleaning house for horror-movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding gray-stone Chicago mansion, Bright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes as well as glittering awards from his career making movies that thrilled audiences—until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.

Javier values discretion, and Harry always tries to keep the house immaculate, her head down, and her job safe. Then she hears noises from behind a locked door, noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help. Harry knows not asking questions is a vital part of keeping her job, but she soon discovers that the house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.

HAPPY READING!!

May Silent Book Club

Hello! Just a reminder if you in the North Seattle area this Wednesday, more exactly the Edmonds area, the Silent Reading Party kicks off at 7pm tonight at Leftcraft! Drinks, food, and book readers as far as the eye can see. All readers are welcomes, all types of books as well, whatever you currently reading, no matter how your reading. I'll be reading from Kindle this month! I've got two great books I'm currently in the middle of reading! If you have any questions you can pop on over to Instagram to @silentbookclubedmonds! HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

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 this terrifying sequel, Evie Archer and her friends face a new evil ready to devour their town whole.Find him, find me. It's been two weeks since Evie escaped the mines after solving the mystery of Holly's disappearance only to discover that Desmond followed her but never came back. Evie knows he’s alive, lost wherever the Patchwork Girl resides. When Evie tries to reach out to Holly again for help, she realizes that her connection to the Lost Girl—and the shadow world itself—has been severed. Desmond is gone, and it’s all her fault.Ravenglass slowly begins to move on from the tragedy of losing Desmond, but as winter creeps closer and the days grow shorter, a sinister being begins to threaten the lives of Ravenglass residents, stealing them away and bringing them back different. Wrong.Evie knows that the only way to stop it is to connect to Holly again. With the help of her friend Tina, and the troubled newcomer Sai, Evie begins to follow the clues Holly left behind, determined to find the Lost Girl once more, at any cost.

HAPPY READING!!

Mini Reviews

Hopefully, this is not the last in the series because I adore both Dee and Johnathon, and I would love more! This was one of my favorites in the series because we get a look at Dee's background, and see him as a young vampire before he became a Judge. As well as a bigger look at the vampire world, and it's set a little at the Library of Alexandria. It was also fun to watch Johnathon fall in love. I just really like the series, it's a lot of fun, and always a quick little read right before bed or over breakfast. Always puts me in a good mood. So I'd love for Tidhar to write more for this series!

So last week, I got to spend some quality time with my niece, which meant hitting a section of my NetGalley Dashboard I rarely look out for. And, that is where I found this gem. This book is about a Bison who's looking for a friend, and along learns about all the things it does to help the world around it. The artwork is adorable, and the story is fun with a great lesson about how little everyday acts can positively change the world around you. The end book has several pages is information on actual bison. This is a lot of fun for kids of all ages, even the older ones. It was a lot of fun reading this out loud to my niece. The Bison and the Butterfly hits shelves on August 6, 2024.

HAPPY READING!!

Night Worms Unboxing

May Theme: Bury Your Secrets

I've been excited about this box because I liked Below by Laurel Hightower. So I was excited to have another book to read. I don't know much about Indian Burial Ground, but it has the phrase, '...wanted a fresh start.' This is always the start of bad things about to happen or a rom-com, but this seems like the former and not the latter. Both books sound great I'm excited to crack into both of them!

Okay, honestly I don't know which I like more, the magnet or the sticker. Both are adorable. The only downside is I'm currently out of forever places for stickers. So all my cool ones are shoved in a drawer on my desk. Do I need to get a sticker book? Has it come to this? In the year 2024?

I'm now looking forward to the next rainy day. Because the flavor of this tea has my attention. I don't drink a lot of decaf anything, which is a problem, but the idea of vanilla and blood orange has my attention. So I'm excited to give this a taste, especially with my new tea infuser. It's so cute!

HAPPY READING!!

Kansas Book Haul

Just went on a trip to Kansas to see family. So of course I had to pop into the bookstore. Actually, I popped into two because a new one opened recently and I'm following it on Instagram. Because they have adoptable cats. So it combines two of my favorite things, cats and books. I could have probably spent a full hour in there, but we'd had other stops to make including another bookstore and an Amazon Bin Store. The Literary Cat Co had the cutest cats, and the whole place was set up with nooks and cranny for the cats to play and sleep in. They had a great selection of books and add the cats and it was even more to look around. Honestly, if I wasn't flying home, that black long-haired one would have come home with me.

I also made it over to Books & Burrow which is a must-stop every time I go home. It's absolutely adorable, and I always find more than just books there. This was a brand new candle from Prairie Fire Candles, which is made locally in Kansas. It smells wonderful and I actually have several things I want to snag from the online shop! 

Oddly enough I found a book at the Amazon Bin Shop. I'm not entirely sure if it's a legit copy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. So of course I had to buy it! 

HAPPY READING!!