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!!

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.

Woods Bay is a quiet Washington town known for the kind of beauty that makes it easy to forget what came before.

Jenna Willcot rarely leaves home, her world narrowed by years of severe anxiety. When she discovers that her partner, who tragically died in a car accident, secretly booked her a stay at a horror-themed rental cabin in Woods Bay, she can’t bring herself to cancel it. The trip feels like a final gift. A last push forward.

Twenty-five years ago, eleven people were killed on the very land where Jenna’s cabin now stands. The truth was never fully uncovered, and Woods Bay moved on the way small towns do: quietly.

Jenna’s arrival coincides with the discovery of a new body just outside town. Then another. As fear spreads and old secrets resurface, Jenna teams up with locals Erica and Steve to survive what’s unfolding and uncover what still lingers in Woods Bay.

Some places don’t let the past stay buried.
Woods Bay is one of them.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

Before Dracula, there were The Brides. . .

1903. Sir John Seward, survivor of Count Dracula’s murderous campaign ten years before, takes up a post as a psychiatric doctor at an Oxford public asylum. There, a new patient arrives whose traumatic experiences resurrect horrors John has spent a decade trying to forget.

1884. Mafalda Lowell journeys from London to Budapest to care for her recently widowed aunt Reka. She uncovers the chilling truth about her uncle’s death, and writes to her secret love Lucy North for comfort. Chaperoned by former schoolfriend Eliza and lady’s maid Alice, Lucy travels across the continent to be with her beloved.

Only Alice, beset by nightmares and terrifying visions, notices the strange black-clad man who seems to follow them wherever they go. When Eliza is struck down with a mysterious wasting illness, her doctor orders her to take the healing waters of Transylvania, a journey with devastating consequences.

There was meant to be four . . .

A dual timeline novel, told through letters, diary entries, psychiatric reports, that places women at the centre of literature's most famous vampire story.

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!

Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. Because, as it turns out, Jamie Newcross is also being haunted. Every house, condo, or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts—at the end of the bed or when pulling back the shower curtain. He hasn’t been able to sleep in weeks. 

But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion—the world’s most advanced self-driving car—a sleek, private, contained vessel that is one-hundred percent safe. Or so he thought.  

Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented—wait, is that blood?—and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out.  

As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he's forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried. Driven is a taut, near-future fever-dream. Mason Coile delivers another one-sitting read that blends science fiction and psychological horror to explore loneliness, grief, and the things that make us human.

HAPPY READING!!

July Spotlight

 

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!!

June Wrap Up

Not bad, not bad. June got busy for me, all of a sudden, I was finding things to do left and right. Upside, all good things, well, minus taking the car in for maintenance. That turned into a whole thing and is a whole actual story.  Anyway, I did manage to squeeze in some reading. I stuck to smaller books, so I didn't feel like I was struggling through the month. Managed to knock out three books that I own, and three from the library. So an even split! How to Survive Camping was a holdout from May, and the others, well, P. Dejeli Clark's book was to jump into one I already own. I wanted to read them as much as I could. As for Happy Marriage, I'm obsessed with this series, and I will be reading at least volume 3, mayhaps even volume 4, this month.

Greer Stothers' book was easily my favorite read this month, and I'm so bummed that I have to wait until next year to jump back into this series. However, they are giving us a new book this year. So I can't be too mad.

Honestly, my all around stat for last month were great as well. Plus, I jumped into the Library Reading Challenge toward the end of June. One, I realized adults can join in. Two, I do love a tote bag. Lastly, three, I love that I can track everything with an app. While I do love pen and paper things, I feel like I'd lose it or it would get damaged. So the app is great!

Now, on to the actual stats:

Books Read: 6
BINGO Books: 2

Pages Read: 1165

Two BINGO books this month. TWO! Plus, I landed an actual BINGO! I knew How to Survive Camping: The Lady in Chains was going to be a BINGO book. I was saving my folklore square specifically for this book. However! I didn't expect Crossroads to end up being a BINGO book, but there was a cat in the book. Not just in passing, either, Pennylane was in quite a few pages. Which took care of the with a cat square!

HAPPY READING!!