Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet 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 folks at Breaking the Spine.

The American West is no safe haven for women—least of all in the Gold Rush town of Coloma, California. Not for Clara Tice, the blacksmith’s strange and stubborn daughter. Not for Mei, the healer whose calm presence the makeshift camp for Chinese immigrants contrasts sharply with her brother’s hard-eyed pursuit of riches. And certainly not for Haloke, a Nisenan Shaman’s granddaughter whose native village has been devastated by smallpox, hunger, and the relentless greed of Outsiders.

One night, Clara and Haloke meet at the river’s edge and watch in horror as Clementine Cobb, the town beauty, is lured across the water. Together they witness something terrible in the Night Pool. Soon after, an unseen attacker descends upon the mining men of Coloma, abandoning heartless bodies one-by-one. As the gruesome killings in Coloma threaten to incite further violence, Clara, Haloke, and Mei find themselves unlikely allies—without the gangs, guns, or bravado of the men who claim Coloma’s riches. The three women must work together to confront the evil that menaces them from both monsters and men.

A gripping tale of sisterhood, vengeance, and survival, The Night Pool explores the horrors of greed and lust, and the hidden strength of the most vulnerable among us.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

Terrifying true tales to keep you up at night—from TikTok sensation Sebastian Krahl
This deeply horrifying collection of 50 chilling stories is not for the faint of heart. Collected and told by viral true crime storyteller Sebastian Krahl, these true tales dive into the unexplained, the unsettling, and the unimaginable, with frightening and gruesome real-life accounts of murder, mystery, abduction, hauntings, and so much more.
From popular creator Sebastian Krahl—With over 9.5 million total followers, Sebastian Krahl (@Sebastiank22) is known for his well-researched and detailed recountings of true crime, paranormal encounters, unsolved mysteries, and more.
True, and truly scary—These stories don’t shy away from the darkest corners of reality—read them with the lights on.
Discover stories
A set of haunted bunk beds who turned a family's dreams into a nightmare. A woman whose ghost solved her own murder. A kidnapping victim who was kept in a box for years. An alien encounter from one of the real-life men in black. A murderer who lived in his victims' home for days. A set of creepy reincarnated twins.

Are you scared yet?

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 take a closer look at a book. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Cole and Lorraine playtest board games for some extra cash as they save up to buy a home. But after a series of bizarre coincidences, and signing a strange NDA, the couple finds on their porch a mysterious indie developer’s tabletop role-playing game called The Ship of Death. The game relies heavily on the players’ imaginations, and takes up an ever-growing amount of space: in their kitchen, and in their minds. As its true sinister nature becomes clearer, and its forces capture more in its web, the boundary between the game and reality begins to dissolve. . . and the pair are instructed to possess a stranger’s soul.

Told entirely through game reports, emails, game forum posts, personal journals, and police reports, reading The Ship of Death feels like a dangerous dice roll. It’s a sleep-stealing, possession-inducing work of intense, intelligent found cosmic horror that announces Kyle Winkler as a spectacular voice in the genre.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet 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 folks at Breaking the Spine.

THE HARROW HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS has long stood as a place of secrets. The estate has housed hundreds of young women hidden away during their pregnancies, their homesick cries echoing through the halls, providing a haunting score to Grace Harrow’s childhood.

Now, in the summer of 1947, the Home has been sold to a wealthy hotelier. Grace expects the new owner's daughters to be spoiled. Yet Rose, the eldest daughter―unaware of Mr. Harrow's abusive tendencies―is jealous of Grace's seemingly easy confidence. But as they’re drawn into each other's lives, an unlikely friendship begins to form. Fortunately so, because not all of the wayward girls made it out...

One still lingers. Lurking in the shadows. Looking for vengeance.

To expose the truth buried in the walls of the Harrow Home, Grace and Rose must unravel a legacy of silence and cruelty. But Grace’s father will stop at nothing to keep the past hidden, and if the truth comes to light, it could destroy both their families.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

When aspiring crime journalist Fliss Keller uncovers a disturbing self-portrait of a man at an estate sale, her Art History professor dad buys it, despite how unsettled Fliss feels. The portrait has been lost for decades and completes a set of four existing paintings of women by the same artist already hanging in the town’s gallery.

That evening, the portrait falls to the floor, revealing paperwork inside the frame that suggests the artist was a serial killer and that the women depicted were his victims. Despite her alarm, Fliss vows to investigate and uncover the truth.

But when a series of gruesome murders rock the community, and some think the resurrection of the self-portrait has unleashed a curse, Fliss knows better than to believe them. There are shocking similarities between the poses of the modern-day murders and the painted women, and she’s sure there’s a copycat killer on the loose.

Racing against time, can Fliss unravel the clues before she becomes the murderer's next muse?

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 take a closer look at a book. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

You better watch out. You better not cry.

It’s Christmas in the village of Yule, Maine.

In fact, it’s always Christmas in Yule. Here, Santa Claus isn’t a storybook figure. He’s an icon. A god. The villagers don’t just believe in him—they worship him. And the world is better for it.

Halley Belanger hates Christmas, and she doesn’t have much love for Santa either. But when a string of child disappearances across Maine seems to spare only the village of Yule, Halley—a sharp, skeptical reporter—decides to investigate.

What she finds is a town that guards its secrets with gingerbread smiles and a snow globe sheen. Outsiders aren’t welcome. She isn’t welcome. And something sinister is keeping the Christmas spirit alive.

As Halley digs deeper, she begins to uncover the horrifying truth behind Yule’s eternal cheer. Christmas comes at a grisly cost. And Santa Claus is no saint.

HAPPY READING!!

Night Worms Unboxing

 

July Theme: Summer Slasher

This might have been the package I was the most excited for. Both of these have been on my TBR since last winter. I grew up watching summer camp slashers, and I've been collecting the camp slasher books for a year now. There are so many on my TBR now, I could probably read nothing but camp slashers for an entire month! So when I saw that Night Worms was adding two to their July packages, I was so excited! 

Both of these stickers are, chef's kiss, I love them both. I'm not sure about the beverage, but I'll give it a try. I love that we got a small composition notebook. I will definitely get use out of that because I use small notebooks at work to keep track of inventory and other things, and I like things that fit in the pocket of my chef's coat. So I was thrilled to see one of those in our goodie bags!

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet 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 folks at Breaking the Spine.

Twenty-one-year-old Malowin Gladstone was raised by the dead—two skeletons to be precise. While his parents keep a close eye-socket on him, he just wants to get through the rest of university without using any more of his much-loathed necromancy. A hope that gets all the more difficult when he’s recruited by a secret Order to hunt a serial killer.

Dunwich, the hidden magical capital of England, has its fair share of oddities, its most recent being a series of murders that have the police at a dead end. But Detective Walters has an unorthodox suggestion. Who better to find a killer than someone who can talk to the dead? He proposes Mal use his necromancy for good, and solve the case before it goes stone-cold.

As more bodies begin to drop, Mal befriends several misfits who help him unearth the culprit. Among them, Des, a fledgling vampire; Hala, a magical empath; and Yu, a shapeshifting genius.

The team put their unique set of skills to the task, but as they get closer to digging up the truth, the group’s ghosts come back to haunt them and the killer won’t rest until they’re all dead and buried.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Have you ever visited a forest or an abandoned building and gotten a bad vibe? There are places that are rife with rumors of hauntings, monsters, and sinister phenomena that can’t be explained. And there are just as many sites that are the confirmed home of disasters, murders, and man-made mistakes. Everyone’s heard about the Bermuda Triangle, but do you know these chilling sites?

There’s a lake tucked high in the frozen Himalayan Mountains . . . and it’s full of skeletons.Mount This mysterious mountain in California inspired the I AM cult and is said to host UFOs, bigfoots, and lizard people.Nahanni National Called the “Valley of the Headless Men,” this national park in northern Canada is famous for legends of a hidden gold mine . . . and a series of decapitated miners.Pine Best known as the home of the Jersey Devil, this desolate pine forest has also hosted pirates, the mafia, and moonshiners.Ciudad This fabled pre-Columbian “Lost City of the Monkey God” in Honduras doesn’t want to be found, and explorers seeking it have met violent ends.

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 take a closer look at a book. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

As the laboratory assistant to the brilliant but demanding Doctor, Igor spends his nights robbing graves, stitching together body parts, and ensuring that his master doesn’t electrocute himself (too badly). It’s thankless work, but Igor knows it’ll all be worth it once they finally succeed in the Doctor’s all-encompassing quest to create new life from dead flesh. 

When a mob of peasants wielding torches and pitchforks drives them out of town (again), Igor and the Doctor relocate to the isolated Ravenwald Manor to resume their experiments. But Igor and the Doctor are not the only ones seeking refuge within the walls of Ravenwald. The manor is already home to a vampiric Count and his highly dissatisfied bride, Cornelia—and an enigmatic witch and her feline familiar, Grimalkin, intend to use it as the site of a magical ritual.

At Igor’s suggestion, the three pairs come to an uneasy agreement to cohabitate in Ravenwald, lest they attract the suspicion of the nearby village. In the wake of this truce, Igor, Cornelia, and Grimalkin soon begin to realize that they might have more common with one another than their respective masters. When the trio discovers that they've been unwitting participants in a horrible plan to destroy the world as they know it, they must work together to stop their masters from bringing on armageddon... and stop the increasingly suspicious villagers from reaching for their pitchforks and torches. 

Igor, Grim, and Cornelia must unite to cast off the chains of their masters and embrace life on their own terms in the hilarious, heartwarming, and just-spooky-enough The Henchperson's Guide to Unionizing.

HAPPY READING!!

Reading Update

We're halfway through 2026. HALFWAY! That means it's time for a check that absolutely no one asked for, and yet here we all are. Outside of a month-by-month basis, I haven't actually been looking at my overall stats. Though I have been watching my graphs on StroyGraph because they bring me joy. The amount of "dark" themed books I've read in the last six months says a lot about me. Like it's the second-highest graph. By one book! Which considering both of my books I'm currently reading, it's about to reach my highest graph. 

I've hit one goal already this year, I've read 10, and still counting, books from my physical TBR! I actually haven't counted how many Silent Book Club events I've been to this year. Maybe it's seven. I missed one of my Edmonds SBCs because I was out of town. However, I've been to a couple of other SBC chapters this year. Plus, I have a huge Silent Book Club event at the Space Needle, and I'm so excited to attend! So, I should be able to hit this goal by the end of the year, maybe sooner! 

As far as BINGO goes, I'm actually super close to this goal! I've hit two of three BINGOs I wanted, and I'm so close to hitting a third. I've never hit a BINGO goal before, so I'm super excited that this one is so close to happening! 

Oddly enough, I'm ahead on both books and pages that I want to read. Usually, I'm thousands of pages behind at this point, so really excited that this year the opposite is true! Currently, I'm sitting at 45 of 75 books (ahead by 7 books), and I've read 8,055 of 14,000 (ahead by about 960 pages). 

Basically, this all adds up to having a reading slump coming my way soon. I thought it was last month, then I devoured a ton of books in the middle of the month. It might be this month because somehow I booked myself with so many fun things to do. But, who knows, maybe it'll sneak up on me. But it has to be coming, because I'm too far ahead on my goals, and it's weird.

HAPPY READING!!