Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep

 

What it's about:  Lila Merriweather is an orphan. And a thief. She carries her mother's black blade and knows how to placate the magical faeries and monsters that live in and around Cloudburst Falls, West Virginia. And she has a rare magical talent that she keeps secret. She's also been roped into playing bodyguard to Devon Sinclair, only son and handsome heir of the powerful Sinclair family. Because someone's trying to kill him. And her, too. 

What I thought: Talk about a fun mix of modern and magic! There's intrigue and mystery, action and adventure. And I loved Lila and Devon; they're great characters. Lila is sarcastic and smart and can beat Devon in a sword fight, while he's got his own secrets and talents. Plus, he likes her. Lila's also determined to find out who murdered her mother...and to get revenge. The second book in this fantasy trilogy, Dark Heart of Magic, is equally well-written and compelling. I loved both books and can't wait to read the third.

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 is BOOKS SET IN ANOTHER TIME. 

And I had a lot of fun coming up with ten of my favorite historical fiction reads...all set in very different times and places. 

King and Goddess by Judith Tarr

(Egypt, 15th century B.C.)

Jerusalem by Cecelia Holland

(Holy Land, 1187 AD)

Picture Maker by Penina Keen Spinka

(North America & Greenland, 14th century)

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

(Italy, 1327)

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

(Paris, 1490)

Tokkaido Road by Lucia St. Clair Robson

(Feudal Japan, 17th century)

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

(Istanbul, 16th century)

The Canterbury Papers by Judith Koll Healey

(England, 12th century during reign of King John)

The Queen's Vow by C.W. Gortner

(A novel of Queen Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504)

Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

(A novel of Katherine Parr, 1512-1548)

Happy Reading!

Haiku Reviews...

 

Summit's Edge by Sara Driscoll

When a hijacked plane

crashes, Meg and Hawk join the 

risky mountain search.

An FBI K-9 Mystery .... 308 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.

(One of my favorite mystery series!)

A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen

Boom! Then time resets.

They're stuck in a loop. Why?!

And how do they get out?

Science Fiction .... 346 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.

(Great beginning. But I felt the story lost some momentum in the middle. And while I liked the ending, I didn't love it. Still a good read.)

Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson

She finds family

in Scotland along with a

curse, magic, and love.

Paranormal romance .... 386 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(Key and Lachlan's romance is full of sparks, lots of spice, and the Loch Ness monster, too. It's a fun one.)

Happy Reading!

Please Tell Me by Mike Omer

 

First lines:  Kathy limped alongside the road in the dark, hugging her doll to her chest. The doll was scared, because of the shadows, which was why Kathy clutched her so tightly. Sometimes, when you're scared, the only things that helps is a hug.

The plot:  Kathy is eight when she's abducted; when she shows up on the side of the road a year later she won't tell anyone where she's been. In fact, she won't speak at all. Child therapist, Dr. Robin Hart, is called in to help. She uses play therapy to help Kathy process her traumatic memories. "But as their work continues, Kathy's playtime takes a grim turn: a doll stabs another doll, a tiny figurine is chained to a plastic toy couch. In every session, another toy dies. But the most disturbing detail of all? Kathy seems to be playacting real unsolved murders." Which makes Robin turn to the police. Because if there is a serial killer out there, Kathy just might hold the secret to his or her identity. 

My thoughts:  The chapters in this quietly suspenseful psychological thriller flip between Robin, Kathy's mother, Claire, and Nathaniel King, the police detective working on the case, as well as a few chapters from the POV of the killer himself. My favorite part was Robin's work with Kathy; I found their play therapy interesting. I also really liked Nathaniel.  My least favorite character was Robin's selfish and narcissistic mother. What a piece of work! The mystery was well-paced. And the murders, though dark and based on horror movie murders, are never described in graphic or gory detail, which I appreciated. And I thought the ending was very gripping. All in all, I really liked this mystery. 

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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 is:  BOOKS I NEVER REVIEWED.  Which should have been an easy one to figure out. But I wavered over which ten books to choose. Should I choose ten books from off my own shelves? Books I rated 5 stars on Goodreads? Books I read before I ever started blogging? Romances in honor of February? Classics? Favorite kid books?

See how I sometimes way overthink things? 

So, I decided to write down some of the reasons why I don't review all of the books I read instead. Whether there will be 10 or not is yet to be seen.  

REASONS WHY I DON'T REVIEW EVERY BOOK I READ:

1. The book is too long or the plot is too complicated to be easily summed up in one or two paragraphs. Writing really long reviews is not my thing. And I can't decide if it's because I'm too tired, or just lazy. Or because I just can't think of anything profound to say. 

2. Everyone else has already read and reviewed the book. If I've seen it on three or more blogs, I don't always feel it necessary to review it myself. Though there are exceptions.

3. I didn't really like the book. I don't like to write negative reviews or comments, so if I hated the way a book ended, or didn't even make it to the end, I'm not going to mention it on my blog. I prefer to write about the books I did really like instead.

4. The book is only a 3-star read. There's nothing really wrong with it, but I didn't end up loving it. It's a middling read soon to be forgotten...and I just never know what to say about those kinds of books.

5. And sometimes a book is so amazing I don't know how to put into words all the things I loved about it. Though I do try to at least mention those books on one of my Randomness or Quick recommendation posts.

There you have it. 5 reasons I don't review every book I read. Oh! I just thought of a sixth reason. I read a lot of books (last year I read over 200) and frankly, I don't have it in me to even try to review that many books. Because I read for fun, and forcing myself to try and review every book I read just feels like work. And who wants blogging to feel like that? 

Happy reading!

Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice

 

From the blurb:  "Unoccupied and unsupervised while their mother is working furiously on her new book, the children of widowed mystery writer Marion Carstairs find diversion wherever they can. So when the kids hear two gunshots at the house next door, they jump at the chance to launch their own amateur investigation into the murder--after all, why shouldn't they? They know everything the cops do about crime scenes, having read all about them in their mother's novels. They also know what her literary sleuths would do in such a situation. Plus, if the children solve the mystery before the police, it will do wonders for the sales of their mother's novels. And maybe, they can hook her up with the lead detective on the case at the same time."

My thoughts:  I don't always enjoy reading books about precocious children--I often find them annoying rather than funny--so I wasn't sure I was going to like the three Carstairs children. But Dinah, the most responsible and also oldest at 14, April, the dramatic and all-knowing middle child, and Archie, their impish and active 10-year-old brother, quickly grew on me. Despite their bickering and disagreements, I loved how they worked together to solve the murder of Mrs. Sanford and get a date for their mother with Detective Bill Smith. Their King Tut alphabet language and 1944 slang sprinkled throughout the book was also fun. And their meddling in the investigation, from lying to the police to hiding clues and interrogating suspects on their own, led to some very entertaining antics. This classic mystery was unexpectedly comedic. And I enjoyed every page of it. 

Happy Reading!

P.S. Craig Rice is the pen name of Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig who, in 1946, became the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time magazine.  

February's Bookish Art...

 

Thomas P. Anshutz -- Woman reading at a desk

"Let's be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading." 

--Lena Dunham

Top Ten Tuesday...

 

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

This week's theme is a LOVE FREEBIE.

So, I decided to look back at my past February posts and reviews and choose ten that I loved. 

💟 A Bookish Valentine 

(This was the first list of favorite romances that I ever posted all the way back in 2013.)

📚 A Bookish Arrangement

(A 2014 post I wrote about organizing books and the different ways we do it.)

💬 Bookish First Impressions

(2015:  one of my posts of favorite first lines from recent reads.)

💙 Forever Interrupted

(A favorite February read from 2016)

💛 The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

(2017...because no favorites list is complete without a book about a bookshop! And I did really like this book.)

📜 Reader's Bill of Rights

(2018. I love this list!)

💕 Favorite Bookish Couples

(A TTT post I did back in 2019.)

🌄 Touching the Void

(An outstanding nonfiction read from 2020.)

👧 The Girl With the Louding Voice

(One of my favorite buddy reads with Melody from 2021.)

💟 10 Cute 💕 Stories I Loved

(Another TTT post from 2023 where I list 10 of my favorite romances.)

Happy Reading!

49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards

 Four days. Two hikers. One killer.

The plot:  Cousins Katie and Aster have always been close. Until last year. But Aster is hoping their 4-day backpacking trip among Utah's red rocks and slot canyons will help heal both Katie and their relationship. But their 49-mile hike in the desert brings some unexpected surprises:  an illness, a storm, running low on water & food, an injury, and two strangers. Riley and Finn might be a perfectly nice couple, but something feels off. Katie is suspicious and fearful of Finn, Riley is acting nervous, and Aster isn't sure what to think. When Riley and Finn vanish into the desert night, Katie and Aster know they need to go for help. They just need to survive the last 23 miles.

My thoughts:  It's no secret that I love hiking and wilderness survival stories, so I was immediately drawn to this book for that reason. Plus, it's set in the scenic red rock backcountry of Moab, Utah; and I always enjoy reading books that are set in my own home state. And I definitely had fun reading this one. It's fast, has good tension, builds suspense, and really immerses you in that isolated desert environment. Katie and Aster were relatable characters that I also liked. And I appreciated Katie's personal journey as she overcame her fears and past trauma to stand strong at the end. It's a solid 4-star adventure.

Happy Reading!

Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond

     This Fonz was supposed to be a knockabout guy, a man of few words, rough around the edges. Confident. A guy who could make things happen with a snap of his fingers. If this wasn't the diametric opposite of who I was in the fall of 1973, it was pretty close. I was twenty-seven years old, a short Jew from New York City with a unibrow and hair down to my shoulders, confident about next to nothing in my life.

    The one exception was when I was acting.

    When I was on stage, playing someone else, I was transported to another world, one where pretending made you successful. What I was miserable at was being myself. 

My thoughts:  I was too little to watch Happy Days when it first aired, but when it went into reruns I watched it for one reason: The Fonz. He was always my favorite character. Which made Henry Winkler one of my favorite actors. And his memoir is full of humorous candor and charm.  He tells about his foibles and flaws, his struggles with anxiety, and his severe dyslexia and how he nearly flunked out of high school because of it. He talks about getting into Yale's School of Drama and his love of acting onstage with an ensemble. And how he made the leap from New York to California and landed the role of the Fonz on only his second audition in L.A. A role that changed his life.

I had fun reading about Henry's life and his love not only for acting, but for his wife and kids, his friends, his dogs...and fly-fishing. I related to his fears and insecurities. And I loved his honesty and humor. This memoir is conversational, personable, and as entertaining as Henry Winkler himself. 

Favorite quote:  "...you really don't know what you can accomplish until you try. All you have to do is try. And you will amaze yourself. So simple. But so crucial. And so true."

Happy Reading!

Randonmness...

 Recently finished reading:  South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Webber

Beautifully written, this magical 5-star novel will tug at your heart.

My favorite quote from it:  "Stand in your own light, Blue Bishop. Stand strong. ...Opening yourself up, being you, is the only way to get what you want most in the world."

It reminded me of this sage advice from Vol. 5 of Emma M. Lion's Unselected Journals written by Beth Brower:  "...be wise, and good, and true to the beatings of your own heart..."

Yesterday's library haul:

Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler

Spare Change by Bette Lee Crosby

A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen

49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards

Riverbend Gap by Denise Hunter

Duchess Material by Emily Sullivan

Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice

Coming Out as Dalit by Yashica Dutt

Red String Theory by Lauren Kung Jessen

And, channeling my inner Pollyanna, here are some of the things that made me glad last month:

• A fun game day with some friends where I learned to play Canvas and Skyjo.
• Then, at my family's monthly game night, I got to play Dominion with my nephews & nieces, which was fun even though I came in last every time.  
• I saw a Spotted Towhee in my backyard! I love these birds, but I usually only see them when I'm out hiking.
• I've been listening to and loving Teddy Swims' album I've tried Everything but Therapy...
• And I'm always very glad when cold & gloomy January finally ends because that means I'm one month closer to warmer weather.

What's been making you glad lately?