Tears of the Wolf by Elisabeth Wheatley

 

First line:  "Marriage was the second fastest way to get rid of a woman, and the King was quite eager to get rid of Brynn. ... But for King Aelgar to marry her off to the husband of his choosing, he first had to deal with Brynn's current one."

Plot summary: Brynn is an Istovari sorceress grieving the death of her young son. Her mother chose her first husband for her, an older widower who neither loved nor respected her. This time she's choosing for herself. Cenric of Ombra is an alderman in the far northern reaches in need of a sorceress. He has no connection to the king or her mother. Marrying him offers Brynn escape, and freedom. Or so she hopes. She's not hoping for love. But Cenric just might surprise her.

5 Things I loved:

• The richly detailed viking-esque setting and all the magic.
• Brynn's and Cenric's tentative friendship that grows into something more.
• Brynn's steely resolve to not be anyone's pawn ever again, and Cenric's own resolve to protect his new wife.
• All the personable dyrehunds that belong to Cenric (and that can talk to him).
• And all the many fun side characters.

My thoughts:  I saw this fantasy on the new books shelf at my library and picked it up on a whim, and I'm SO glad I did. I loved everything about this one and I really hope Wheatley hurries up and writes a sequel!

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Haiku Reviews

 

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Two sisters deal with

heartache in different ways.

Find love in the end.

Classic .... 353 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(My 2025 Jane Austen reread to celebrate her 250th birthday this year; it's not my favorite Austen novel, but I liked it more this time around than I did the first time I read it. Though I still love the Emma Thompson movie version best.)

Fly Girl by Ann Hood

The reality and

adventure of being a 

flight attendant for TWA.

Biography .... 265 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.

(Remember when flying used to be a more glamorous way of traveling? Ann Hood does in this interesting memoir.)

Star-Crossed Crush by Sarah Deeham

Hot rock star. Cute dog.

Best friend's little sister.

Secret crush. True love.

Contemporary Romance .... 335 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.

(Slowburn romance with lots of heart, humor, and only a few steamy scenes...it also has a very cute Corgi name Archie.)

Happy Reading!

Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme:  BOOKS WITH A HIGH PAGE COUNT...or "Chunksters" as I like to call them. Here's 10 of the longest books I've read:

The Stand by Stephen King  (1472 pages)

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand  (1168 pages)

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell  (959 pages)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke  (846 pages)

Middlemarch by George Eliot  (852 pages)

The Passage by Justin Cronin  (766 pages)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling  (759 pages)

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand  (736 pages)

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville  (722 pages)

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen  (688 pages)

Whew! 

These days I prefer much shorter books, but these were all good.

Happy Reading!

Do No Harm by Robert Pobi

 

Meet Lucas Page:  devoted husband, father, professor, astrophysicist, ex-FBI agent, double amputee, and a genius when it comes to analyzing numbers and patterns, and spotting unexpected connections. Which is why he's the only one who notices the strangely high number of doctors either committing suicide in the city or suffering fatal accidents. The odds are mathematically impossible. Now he just has to convince the FBI they were all murdered. And then try to figure out why. And by whom.

My thoughts:  I could not put this book down. This psychological thriller is propulsive and perfectly plotted. And Lucas Page is the greatest character. He sees things others don't, and he has no tolerance for small talk or fools. I loved his snark and his smarts. Though it puts him and his wife (who's a doctor) both at risk. His investigation becomes a race to find the murderers before the killers come for him. This book is fast-paced, full of action, and so well written. I loved it. I can't wait to read Pobi's first two books about Lucas Page.

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

 

What this book is about:  Birdie, a young single mother, and her six-year-old daughter, Emaleen, who live in Alaska. Birdie yearns for freedom and flight and wild places. And Arthur Nielsen, a quiet, scarred recluse who lives in an isolated cabin in the mountains beyond Wolverine River. He and Birdie fall in love and for awhile the three of them are happy living together far away from everyone else, exploring the wilderness, picking berries, catching salmon. But Arthur has a secret--a side of himself that isn't so tame. And it threatens their fairy tale ending.

My thoughts:  I loved Ivey's fairy tale-inspired novel, The Snow Child. She has a way of evoking a sense of wonder with her lyrical prose while at the same time creating a setting so real you can practically smell the wildflowers. And she's done it again with this novel. I loved the richly drawn Alaskan wilderness setting, and I loved Arthur and Emaleen and their cute interactions, too. But like many a Grimm fairy tale, I sensed early on I might not get my hoped for happy ending in this one. Because this book is sad. Which didn't make me like it any less, though it did break my heart just a little. I wanted more for Arthur, Birdie and Emaleen. But I still love the way Ivey writes.

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

August's bookish art...

 

Rupert Bunny -- Woman Reading

"Books are good company, in sad times and happy times..."

--E.B. White

Dark Ride by Lou Berney

 "This is not the plot twist that my life required. I wish I'd never noticed those kids on the bench. I wish I'd never walked over. I wish, most of all, that I existed in a version of the multiverse where hurting kids with the glowing tip of a cigarette falls far beyond the boundaries of the human imagination. But I don't and it's not."

 

Hardly Reed is not a hero. He's a twenty-one year old college dropout who spends his days blissfully stoned and his nights working at an amusement park as a scare actor for minimum wage. And he's extremely content to drift through life hardly working, hardly trying. It's how he got his nickname. 

Then he spots two young children sitting silently, alone, scared, and sporting cigarette burns. And something inside Hardly shifts. He has to help those children. And when CPS does nothing, he knows he'll have to do it himself. 

"I'm not delusional. I know this is kind of crazy. I do. But look me in the eye and tell me it's not worth the risk. How many times in a lifetime do you get an opportunity to actually make a real difference. Like, a true life-changing difference. This might be the one point in my entire life that is the entire point of my life."

My thoughts:  From the first sentence to the last, this book is brilliantly written and compellingly intense. And such great characters! Hardly is a funny, engaging, and heartbreakingly likable narrator. I loved him and all his quirky friends. And everything he does to save those kids! What a gripping ride. He makes mistakes along the way and some of the outcomes are brutal, but he never gives up. This is a book I won't soon forget. It reads fast and packs a punch. And it might make you cry at the end. 

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Top Ten Tuesday...

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme:  GENRE FREEBIE.

And I was going to go with my favorite historical mysteries, because there are several series I'm currently reading and loving, but then at the last minute I changed my mind. Instead, here's a list of 10 of My Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Books:

 Alas Babylon by Pat Frank

(Because it was the first one I ever read in this genre.)

 

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

(Because who didn't read and love this one?)

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

(This is one of my favs.)

Until the End of the World by Sarah Lyons Fleming

(Yes, there are zombies in this one.)

The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson

(I read this one with Melody.)

The Stand by Stephen King

(It'a classic!)

Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill

(This one has robots. And Pounce is the best!)

Going Home by A. American

(Dystopian survival at its best.)

Outage by Ellisa Barr

(A great YA survival novel.)

Positive by David Wellington

(You knew there would be a 2nd zombie book somewhere on this list.)

Other books I've read and loved that I could have added to this list: World War Z, The 5th Wave, Divergent, Autumn, Feed, Life As We Knew It, When the Power Is Gone, Devil's Wake...and the list goes on and on. I do love reading these kinds of dystopian novels. So if you know of any good books to add to my list, please let me know! 

Happy Reading!

Post from the past...

 I was searching my blog the other day for a certain book set in England and ran across this one instead...and for a moment I couldn't even remember reading it. Sad when you can't remember a book you read only three years ago. Good thing I wrote about it. So, just for fun, I'm re-posting my short review of it, because I think it's worth remembering. 

Title & Author:  Friend of the Devil by Stephen Lloyd

Setting:  Danforth Putnam, an elite boarding school located on a private island off the coast of New England.

Main characters:  Sam, an insurance investigator and former marine who's tough, perceptive, sarcastic, haunted, and funny; and Harriet, a teen reporter with epilepsy who's determined, smart, and spunky, Sam's looking into the theft of a rare book, and Harriet's investigating an incident of bullying when their paths intersect. Dark and strange things at Danforth Putnam surprise them both.

My thoughts:  This book is a fun combination of mystery, detective fiction and supernatural horror. There's good suspense and lots of humorous moments, and it reads fast. I loved Sam's snarkiness and Harriet's stubborn fearlessness. And there's a very explosive demonic twist at the end that I was NOT expecting. But I thought it was a good one. I ended up really liking this book. It's an entertaining summer read. 

Happy Reading!

(Review first posted on this blog on August 25, 2022)

Randomness...

 

Recently finished reading Fairy Tale by Stephen King ... and I really liked it. It centers around seventeen-year-old Charlie Reade who befriends his elderly neighbor Howard Bowditch; when Bowditch dies, Charlie inherits his house, a sweet and aging German Shepherd named Radar, and a doorway to another realm.

King knows how to craft amazing and memorable characters, and Charlie and Radar are no exceptions. I loved both of them. Charlie's journey into Empis with Radar reminded me a little of Lucy's journey into Narnia when it needed saving from the White Witch. Empis has been overrun by evil and needs saving, too. And though he doesn't know it, Charlie is just the hero to do it.

Fairy Tale is well named because in many ways it does read like a fairy tale...a 598 page one...without any of the scary horror that King is known for in his other books. It's compelling and entertaining and full of magic...and it won't give you nightmares.  4/5 stars.

Another delightfully funny and entertaining cartoon from John Atkinson at Wrong Hands. You have to check out his website...he will always make you laugh. 

Some of my glad things from July: 

• Seeing Pelicans, Cormorants and Bullock's Orioles along the Jordan River trail. 
• Got my shingles shot...at least the first does...which wasn't fun, but good to get it done.
• Saw the movie Jurassic World: Rebirth. It was very entertaining.
• Lunch at Mo Bettah's with my niece and nephew. Yum!  😋
• My family's annual 4th of July breakfast; it's always good seeing everyone.
• Hearing from Sam (from Book Chase). Thanks for your comments, Sam! I'm glad to know you're alive and doing well. 
• Eating chard freshly picked from my garden.
• Playing a fun round of the bookish game It Was a Dark and Stormy Night with my family. (You have to guess the book title or author from just reading the first line, and there are different categories like Mysteries, Pre-1900 books, Children's books, etc.)