Danielle Thamasa's Blog, page 2

Manga Review: Sheeta’s Little Big World Vol 1 by Yuki Kamba

Hey all, Sam here.

I do believe it has been a little while since I’ve had a Manga Monday post, and it just so happens that I stumbled upon one on NetGalley that sounded absolutely adorable…and thankfully I was approved to read it. Now, don’t worry. There’s not too much longer until this volume is released to the world. The expected publication date is next week. September 23rd in fact, so if this sounds like a fun story to you, then make sure you pick up your own copy (or ask your library about getting it in).

I’m not going to take too much time here in the intro. The Write Brave Challenge started today and I’d like to get my writing in before work (since I technically get off work at like 3am, which is tomorrow, not today). Let’s get started.

Sheeta and Nala live happily inside a hollowed-out log with their fellow “littlefolk,” who stand no taller than a blade of grass. When Nala runs off one day to investigate a mysterious smoke signal, Sheeta must summon all his courage and wits as he sets off in pursuit. Rats, ants, weasels, giants… The wide world is full of dangers, but the plucky Sheeta will stop at nothing to find his friend.

My Thoughts

Rating: 3 stars

There is something cute and cozy about this story, but there are also hazards and dangers. Sheeta was left at this hollowed-out log when he was very young, and has been waiting for his dad to return ever since. It has been years and he still hopes his dad is coming any day now. Sheeta’s best friend Nala thinks that Sheeta’s dad seems super cool and wants to go out and explore the world and be adventurous too. So when they see a smoke signal one day, Nala thinks this must mean that Sheeta’s dad is nearby, and wants to leave the log to find out. He’s convinced to wait but by the next morning he’s gone.

So despite not really wanting to go out and adventure, Sheeta feels like he has to try to find his friend. Away from the hollowed-out log there are rats and ants and weasels and other people. Sheeta runs into one new thing after another, and he is not prepared for this exciting life of new things.

Honestly this story made me think of stories like “The Borrowers” or a bit of movies like “Honey I Shrunk the Kids.” But at the same time, while a lot happens in this volume, it also feels like nothing really happens in this volume. Yes, Sheeta meets a couple new people, and encounters new creatures and dangers, but this also very much feels like a first installment of a series where the creator is trying to figure out the characters and the world and the story.

I read it quickly, as I do with pretty much any manga I pick up, but I can’t say that I was as invested as I am in most of the stories I read. There were so many hints at revelations of information and so many introductions of potential future plot and character threads. But it felt like other things were given up on way too soon. Like Sheeta meets an adult hunter character, who just so happens to be looking for Sheeta because he thinks that’s a way to get to Sheeta’s dad…and so Sheeta says that he is Nala, trying to pretend that Sheeta is still back at the log….but only a couple pages later that little lie/trick is already dropped because it is revealed that he is in fact Sheeta.

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. There were nine chapters in this volume, with each one only being a handful of pages, and it felt like each one was a new encounter with something that was new to Sheeta in the big wide world, but it was also over again just as quickly.

It was still really cute though, so I’m glad I read it.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Books I’m Hoping to Read in 2025

Hey all, Sam here.

There have been so many incredible sounding releases in the past couple of years, and sadly I have not had enough time to keep up with them all. I keep making myself TBR lists, hoping that I’ll be able to find the reading time to get through them all in a timely manner. I used to be pretty darn good with keeping up with any TBR list I made, but lately I have been way more of a mood reader.

There’s nothing wrong with mood reading necessarily. It’s mostly just me getting frustrated with myself because it has been hard to figure out exactly what books are going to hit the spot for me. There are so many epic and adventurous tomes out there, but with everything going on in life and in the world the past few years it is difficult to balance out my desire for epic reads with the need to just feel all the cozy, happy, low-stakes stories because the world is a dumpster fire.

Anyway, I was looking at my bookshelves the other day, as well as browsing through my book releases spreadsheet and my NetGalley review spreadsheet, and I saw a number of books that I’d really like to make sure are included in my 2025 Reading Wrap-Up…which means there are still quite a few books I’m really hoping to read before the end of the year. And I thought perhaps y’all would want to see what books I still plan/hope to read in 2025.

So, let’s get started. Oh, and if it is a book that has not yet been released, I’ll also include the expected release date (as of the time of this posting, anyway).

This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher

Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris

Road of Bones by Demi Winters

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma

Arcana Academy by Elise Kova

The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. Maclean

Until the World Falls Down by Jordan Lynde

This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne (Nov 11, 2025)

Curses & Cold Brew by Ali K. Mulford and K. Elle Morrison

To Bargain with Mortals by R.A. Basu (Oct 28, 2025)

Cry, Voidbringer by Elaine Ho (Oct 28, 2025)

Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife by Deston J Munden (Oct 14, 2025)

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (Oct 14, 2025)

All right….this is also probably where I should do a quick check-in on my progress towards my 25 in 2025 reading goal.

Let’s see…I’ve read part of Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa K. Roehrich, but I had to set it aside because I was feeling more drawn to other books and I haven’t felt the reading urge swing back to it yet.

I finished North is the Night by Emily Rath, and it was incredible. I definitely need to get a review written for it, because I thought it was a fantastic read. I also finished reading House of Frank by Kay Sinclaire and Good Game, Gamer Girl by Reina Zoric. And okay, well I don’t have reviews up for either of those books either.

And…that’s it. Honestly it’s a bit sad that I’ve only finished three books and gotten about 25% of the way through a fourth. I definitely have some reading that I need to get accomplished if I want to finish off this 2025 goal before the year is up.

Well, that is all from me for today. What books are you still hoping to read in 2025? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Weekend Writer: Write Brave Challenge 2025

Hey all, Sam here.

Look at that, I have another post for you already, and this one is writing related. I can’t promise that I’ll be regular with check-ins for this upcoming writing challenge, but if all goes well I will hopefully be giving you weekly updates. We’ll see what happens.

After Gen Con I took a little break from creative writing….again. Honestly I feel pretty bad about that, because I’d really like to be writing more. I really miss getting lost in that creative pursuit, being so caught up in the characters and the story that I can just escape into it for hours at a time and walk away with a couple rough chapters drafted. In the past handful of years I have really let the stress of real life rob me of my creative time, and I need to work on being better about that.

With that being said, I have once again decided to participate in the Write Brave Challenge, which is hosted by Writer’s Atelier. This challenge gives me just enough time to still have a couple of weeks of participation in Preptober for the big Pathfinders Writing Collective writing challenge November-January (and I’ll talk more about that in a future post), because that will be a much different creative project and goal than the one I have in mind for this challenge.

Okay, first let’s talk about the Write Brave Challenge in general, and then I’ll talk about my project and goal specifically. Let’s get started.

What is the Write Brave Challenge?

The Write Brave Challenge is a 30-day writing challenge where a writer sets a daily goal in order to achieve an intention at the end of the 30 days.

For example, if your chosen intention is to complete a 60,000-word first draft of a novel, you would need a daily goal of 2,000 words. Every day while the challenge runs, you’ll be invited to report on your progress within the community for all your fellow participants to see. This will hold you accountable, and seeing other writers report on their progress will inspire you to match their energy!

Important to note: this challenge is in no way limited to novelists—it’s completely flexible while still allowing for the structure needed to focus on getting the writing done.

When is the Write Brave Challenge?

The Write Brave Challenge takes place twice per year:

April 15th – May 15th (Spring)

September 15th – October 15th (Fall)

If you’re finding this after the event’s begun and before it ends—jump right in! Better late than never!

If you’ve found this after the event’s ended, sign up anyway. We plan to host the challenges twice per year.

Who Can Participate in the Write Brave Challenge, and How Much Does it Cost?

We invite writers of all skill levels to join in on the fun, whether this will be your first attempt at a 30-day writing challenge or your tenth!

Because we want this event to be as inclusive as possible, this challenge is absolutely free to participate in from start to finish.

How to Participate in the Write Brave Challenge

1

Join the club within our free online community. There, you’ll be in a group of like-minded writers all working on their own daily goals and intentions.

2

Download your free participant kit. Inside the kit, you’ll find free resources, social media graphics, and a worksheet for brainstorming what you’ll challenge yourself to write during the challenge.

3

Commit to your intention and daily goal. After you’ve chosen your intention for the challenge, you’ll commit to your intention and daily goal using the Google Form available inside the community. You’ll also have the chance to share it, and once the challenge begins, you’ll be encouraged to share your daily progress!

4

Mark your calendar. Once you’re signed up, you’re all set! Tell your loved ones you’ll be taking on a project from September 15 through October 15, and keep your daily goal in mind as you make plans.

5

Spread the word! We believe writing bravely means owning the fact that you’re a writer. Mention the challenge in your other writing communities and group chats, and use the graphics in your participant kit to post about it on social media. When it comes to events like the Write Brave Challenge, the more, the merrier!

What Are the Write Brave Challenge Guidelines?

Be supportive. Encourage and support your fellow participants. No one here is looking for your criticism, cynicism, advice, or judgement. (We can get those things on the rest of the Internet).

Share generously. Your stories and experiences may be exactly what another writer needs to hear today to solve a problem or seize an opportunity.

Be constructive. We’re here to push each other forward and lift each other up. Find ways to help each other think bigger, reframe challenges, and stay curious.

Don’t spam, promote, or troll. The Write Brave Challenge exists to help you learn. It’s not a place to spam or bully anyone else. We also ask that you keep any self-promotion to the designated post. This will help prevent our feed from getting cluttered!

Okay, so the Write Brave Challenge is a 31 day writing challenge. You set an intention for yourself and then break that down into whatever daily goal would be needed to accomplish that intention.

This is something I’ve talked about before, but David and I met while playing Dungeons & Dragons, and it has been a huge part of our life together for the entirety of our relationship, so for nearly nine years already. In the past four years we have played a few different TTRPGs that are set up for just two people, primarily the Date Night Dungeons series by Urban Realms. (We’ve posted a review for their second adventure, Wight Wedding, already, and we plan to write up reviews for the other two currently released adventures as well).

But playing in these two-person adventures has made us consider writing our own. So that’s what I’m going to focus on for this writing challenge. We have the rough ideas for two different adventures currently. I want to write up the synopses and basic overviews for both of these adventures.

I’m going to be conservative in my estimation for how much we’re going to get written, and say that my intention is in the 10,000-20,000 word range. For a 31 day challenge this would mean 323 words a day (for 10k) and 645 words a day (for 20k). Technically for the math it would be 322.58 words/day or 645.16 words/day, so I went ahead and rounded up for the 10k goal.

I’ve never tried writing something like this. I’m not really a plotter/outliner (more of a pantser, or technically a plantser if you consider the worldbuilding to be planning), but I feel like having a solid outline/synopsis for the adventures could make it easier to figure out the necessary story writing as well as the RPG writing and planning. The focus is technically on the story side of things right now, but we do hope to eventually have these adventures available for several different RPG systems (definitely at least D&D 5e/TOV, Pathfinder, and Daggerheart, although we would consider other systems as well).

Wish me (technically us) luck. This could be an interesting project.

Well, that’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

August Wrap-Up

Hey all, Sam here.

So, I had originally planned to have this released on September 2nd. You know, close to the beginning of the month like I do with pretty much all of my wrap-ups. The only thing I had left to do was this little intro section. But work was exhausting on Aug 31 and Sept 1, so I just rested on the 2nd and figured I’d get the intro written and the post live on the 3rd.

What actually ended up happening was an entire weekend spent relieving stress by David and I creating seasonal characters on Diablo IV and going on a demon killing rampage through the seasonal quest line. This meant that I kept forgetting to get this post finalized.

I’m sorry about that. I do have some other posts planned for this month, so hopefully I’ll be able to get those written and posted in a timely manner. I’m certainly going to try. It includes one or two Tabletop Tuesday posts, as well as a couple Weekend Writer related posts.

Anyway, let’s finally get around to discussing what I accomplished in the realms of reading, writing, blogging, and trips/conventions during the month of August.

Reading

While August wasn’t one of my best months for reading, it wasn’t overall bad. In fact I read a few absolutely incredible reads, which was fantastic. I do, however, need to write up reviews for pretty much all of these books, so expect to hear more about my thoughts on these reads coming very soon. There are a couple of books that I’ve marked as “review coming soon,” but that is because those are some of my NetGalley reads, so I’m prioritizing their reviews over the others. Overall I’d really like to get back to reviewing every book I read, but it will take time for me to get to that point again.

Structuring Life to Support Creativity: A Resource Book for Creative People by Sandra Tayler — 5 stars

Dungeons & Dragon Dating by Virginia McClain — 4.5 stars

Beautiful Things by Emily Rath — 5 stars

Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong — 4 stars

Godsrain by Liane Merciel — 4.5 stars

Ghost Business by Jen DeLuca — 5 stars (review for this linked in the Blogging section)

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer — 5 stars (review coming soon)

Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark — 4.5 stars (review coming soon)

Blogging

While I did not blog every week in the month of August, I feel like I still didn’t do a terrible job of blogging, although I admit that I can be better about posting relatively consistently instead of a few posts and then nothing for over a week before another smattering of posts again. I’m still working on figuring out a schedule to get everything accomplished that I’d like to.

I will say that my blog views have been consistently steady or improving each month this year, almost nearing the views that I had at the height of this blog back in 2018-2020. That has been a nice surprise for me, although I’m still always hoping for more interaction in the comments section.

Anyway, here’s a list of all the posts I released in the month of August in case you missed one and would want to check it out.

PaWriCo Bookish Bootcamp July 25-31

Gen Con Wrap Up

July Wrap Up

I’m Anticipating the Release of these September Books

NetGalley Review: Casket Case by Lauren Evans

NetGalley Review: Ghost Business by Jen DeLuca

Writing

Aside from a minimal amount of writing, or thinking about writing during Gen Con, I did not spend time writing in August. Honestly this does feel like a bit of a failure, because I had wanted to come home from the convention and get my writing space straightened out and organized so I could actually start sitting down at least a couple times a week to focus on writing.

But August felt utterly exhausting. There was so much to do, and work was extremely busy, which left me feeling even more worn out on my weekends, and I just ended up doing barely anything on my days off.

I need to try and do better in September. Writer’s Atelier is hosting their Write Brave Challenge again from Sept 15-Oct 15, so I’ll probably figure out a goal for that and give it a try, and then October is prep month for the big November-January writing challenge from PaWriCo.

I’ll talk more about both of these writing challenges separately in a future post, especially after I work out what I want my goal to be for each of them.

Trips/Conventions

Well, we did have a big trip/convention in the month of August, and that was Gen Con. I already linked to my Gen Con Wrap Up post in the Blogging section above, so I won’t do it again here. It was a nice time overall, and we’re already talking about our plans for Gen Con 2026.

Looking forward, in September we have one sort of trip planned, and that is to drive up to Cedar Rapids for the Lindsey Stirling/Halestorm concert at the end of the month. I bought tickets for the concert as David’s birthday present. It’ll be his first big concert (no offense to Library Bards, who we saw perform at Gen Con), so I’m hoping it’ll be a fun time.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Spooky Season 2025 TBR

Hey all, Sam here.

While I’m a believer that Spooky Season begins August 1st (because I enjoy the season and why not enjoy it as long as possible), I know there are some that declare it finally fall/spooky season come September 1st, or possibly after Starbucks brings back the Pumpkin Spice Latte. By any of those metrics, it is now finally spooky season, and over the next couple of months I’m hoping to read some books that fit the vibes of my favorite season.

That is why I have brought you 10 books that I am really hoping to read in September and October, although I suppose I could read them in November as well if it came down to it.

Anyway, hopefully I’m actually able to follow through with a TBR this time around. It used to be that I had many months where I could actually stick to the list of books I wanted to read without issue, but the past couple of years it has been the biggest struggle.

So, who’s ready to see what books are on my list for fall reading this year? I’m ready to talk about them so let’s get started.

First up: Curses & Cold Brew by Ali K. Mulford & K. Elle Morrison, The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore, and A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames

The second Maple Hollow book by Mulford and Morrison will be released September 2nd, so I will be starting this one just as soon as I get my copy in the mail. Yes, I realize I could get the e-book, but I already have the paperback of the first one and I like matching sets. This is a cozy sapphic paranormal rom-com, and I bet it will be just as delightful as the first one, so I’m looking forward to it.

Then there’s the Dream Harbor series, which I’ve been meaning to try out since last year and still haven’t done it. There’s five books out so far with a sixth one coming in 2026. I love a cozy small town series following the various members and businesses in the area, especially if there’s a dash of romance as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll just end up bingeing my way through the whole series.

Finally there’s a whimsical, cozy-adjacent, adventure in the same tradition as “Howl’s Moving Castle.” As soon as I saw A Harvest of Hearts, I knew I needed to have a copy in my library, and I’ve been putting off reading it since spring (well, aside from reading the first chapter in the hotel room after I bought it). Anyway, I think I’m going to enjoy this one and I can’t wait to finally read it.

Next I have: The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner, The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub, and The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson.

I really enjoyed reading The Lost Apothecary, so when I saw this new book by Penner, I wanted to read it…but I waited for it to come out in paperback so it could sit on my shelves with the apothecary book. I’m expecting a historical fiction book with a bit of magical/spiritual elements to it, which makes it perfect for this time of year.

I’m a big fan of any sort of twist or interpretation of Jane Austen works, and having Lydia take center stage and has other concerns not announced in the original texts…concerns like Kitty is actually a cat and Wickham is a demon….well, sign me up because this sounds incredible.

Then I have a book about an immortal ghost hunter who finds spirits and helps put them to rest, until his wandering takes him to a small town in Ohio and is drawn into the lives of the townsfolk, finding for the first time in a long time that he wants something other than death for himself….but can that last when everyone around him will die someday but he won’t? I’m intrigued.

For this last batch there’s: Don’t Let The Forest In by C.G. Drews, The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall, Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris, and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

First up is a bit of a different one for me and that is a horror fantasy, which is not my normal genre/sub-genre, but I’ve heard it’s really good and that there’s Ace rep in the book…so I guess I’ll give this one a shot. Besides the premise does sound really intriguing, with a writer and an artist…and the art coming to life to attack anyone close to the writer, so both boys have to fight off the monsters, but as the writer and the artist grow more obsessed with each other, the monsters get stronger. The only way to end the monsters might be to end their creator. Honestly this sounds a bit dark and intense, but I’m still very intrigued.

The next book is a Romantasy that deals with a main character with no idea who she is or how she got to where she is at the story’s start, gods, a mysterious blacksmith, and a lot of questions. There are a lot of mixed reviews for this one on Goodreads, but a lot of those seem to be people who don’t like Red Tower Books and give this book a one star without giving it more than a handful of pages. While I’m not a diehard fan of Red Tower Books, many of them sound interesting, and I’m willing to give this a try.

Strange Beasts follows Samantha Harkness, the daughter of Dracula’s killer, and Dr. Helena Moriarty, the daughter of Sherlock’s nemesis, and they end up working a case together…and honestly I really didn’t need more than that to make me interested.

Finally, V.E. Schwab’s newest book, which is apparently a multi-timeline story following three women at different periods, and it is also about immortality and hunger, which makes me think vampires. I’ve managed to stay away from a lot of information and spoilers about this one, but it does seem like it will be a perfect read for Spooky Season, so I’m ready for it.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

NetGalley Review: Ghost Business by Jen DeLuca

Hey all, Sam here.

Welcome back to the blog. Today I have a book review for you, and for once I’m actually on top of things and getting this review posted BEFORE the book releases. But don’t worry, you don’t have to wait much longer for this one. The release date is September 9th, 2025, so just over a week away.

I’ve already read and reviewed the first book in this series, so you can check out my thoughts on Haunted Ever After in a previous post.

All right, I don’t want to take too much longer to jump into the post, so I’ll just say that I’m glad we’re getting into spooky season, and hopefully I have a bunch more content coming for you over the next couple months. Let’s get into this.

Clashing ghost tours lead to a sizzling romantic rivalry in the second romance in the new series from USA Today bestselling author Jen DeLuca.

Boneyard Key, Florida, is the only home Sophie has ever known. Her love for its supernatural history has flourished into a career, as she guides the one and only ghost tour through the town’s can’t-miss haunted spots. And while her bank account isn’t full by any means, her heart is. Or at least, it was.

But there’s a newcomer in town. The son of a Fortune 500 businessman, former theater kid Tristan has grown his tours from a fraternity fundraiser to a multicity ghost tour conglomerate. It’s doing well, but not well enough—if he can’t prove that he’s solidly in the black by the fall, Dad’s going to pull his funding, spelling the end of his career. Boneyard Key, with its haunted reputation, seems like the perfect place to boost his bottom line.

When the two ghost tours clash, Sophie’s expletive-filled rant goes viral, and the rivals strike up a deal. Whoever has the most successful business by summer’s end stays, while the loser must ghost. But the more Tristan comes to appreciate Boneyard Key, the more Sophie comes to appreciate Tristan, and what starts as begrudging respect becomes something spicier. Can they put their feuding businesses aside to make room for a chance at love, or is Boneyard Key too small for two ghost tours?

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

The first thing I should note is that while Ghost Business is the second book in the series, you don’t necessarily have to read Haunted Ever After first. Each book has a different duo as the main two characters, and as this is a romance leaning series, it comes with the understanding that the couple will have a HEA/HFN. (That’s Happily Ever After or Happy For Now for any who aren’t aware). What I will say is that we meet Sophie and a lot of the other residents of Boneyard Key in the first book, so I would recommend reading them in order, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

There was another character introduced in the first book that myself and apparently many others had hoped to be partnered up with Sophie in a future installment, but I will say that after reading this book, perhaps they are better off as friends and there is hope for another future book with this other person. And yes, I’m trying to be vague on this one to not ruin the fun but if you read book one then you know who I’m talking about.

Anyway, I loved getting to learn more about Sophie and seeing how much she cares about her ghost tour passion project, bringing the stories of the former residents (some of whom are still there in spirit) to some semblance of spotlight. It was nice to see how much the residents of Boneyard Key support and take care of each other.

Then enters Tristan, a son of wealth and privilege, a theater boy with business dreams of his own. He has his own ghost tour company…and is more interested in giving those on the tour an entertaining time than a factual one.

Naturally this causes some friction with Sophie and with the rest of the town. A viral video moment of Sophie going off on Tristan goes viral, and of course, Tristan thinks he can use this to boost his business profits, which leads to a competition between the two ghost tours.

As they run into each other more and more, both during the ghost tours and not, it’s clear that there’s some sparks between Sophie and Tristan. This one had a lot of tension and lead-up before either character actually made a move, but when it happened it was absolutely delightful.

I loved the romance. I loved learning even more about Boneyard Key. If you’re a fan of twists to the “just one bed” trope, this book features “just one hurricane” because a certain pretty boy out-of-towner is definitely not ready when that happens. Oh, and after I finished reading this book, I saw where author Jen DeLuca was comparing Tristan to Logan Huntzberger from “Gilmore Girls,” you know, if Logan was a theater kid as well as a rich charismatic party boy….and honestly, that is completely accurate.

Anyway, I read this book very quickly and had a blast doing it. I can’t wait to have a finished copy on my shelf with all of my other Jen DeLuca books. But I guess now I have to wait for the release of Ren Faire book 5 or the announcement of Boneyard Key book 3. Jen DeLuca is basically an auto-buy author for me at this point. I’ve loved all of her books so far.

All righty, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

NetGalley Review: Casket Case by Lauren Evans

Hey all, Sam here.

As we have reached “Spooky Season,” I’m wanting to read more books that fill that vibe, so hopefully in my next couple monthly wrap-ups (and very hopefully in some of the upcoming book reviews) I’ll be able to fill it with books of magic and atmosphere plus books of witches, ghosts, vampires, etc.

But today I have a book that I actually read back in January of this year. I don’t exactly remember why I read a Spooky Season book in the middle of winter, but I’m guessing part of it was because I started my year hoping to start catching up on my NetGalley reads and reviews….and yet here we are at the end of August and I’m just now getting around to writing up the review.

Oh well, I’m clearly a work in progress, and I’m just trying my best and hoping to keep improving. Anyway, let’s go ahead and jump into the review.

In this warm-hearted debut rom-com, a young woman returns home to run her family’s casket business and falls in love with a seemingly perfect stranger. But there’s just one problem . . . he works for Death.

Nora thought she was finished with Rabbittown, Alabama, for good. But an unexpected tragedy turned her life upside down, and she’s found herself back in her tiny hometown running the family casket business.

There aren’t exactly a lot of prospects for a single woman in her thirties in a place like Rabbittown. Until Nora Clanton’s ordinary, casket-selling day is interrupted by a handsome stranger wandering into her shop and asking for directions–as well as a date.

Garrett Bishop seems like the ideal guy. He’s thoughtful, he’s kind, and he has a lucrative job as a logistics coordinator, for which he seems to have a passion. She’s not totally sure what “logistics” entails, but she knows it means long hours, lots of travel, and urgent calls in the middle of the night.

When a few of Rabbittown’s residents suddenly pass away–a heart attack here, a car crash there–and Garrett is spotted at the scenes of, well, all of the deaths, his frustratingly vague job description starts to become increasingly . . . suspicious. What is it that Garrett actually does for a living?

He’s a logistics coordinator for Death.

When Nora discovers the truth, she is unable to reconcile the wonderful man she knows with the unthinkably cruel job he loves. Will she ever be able to understand how he can do what he does, or will she have to lay her best chance at love to rest?

Casket Case is the heartfelt story of a small-town girl who feels surrounded by death–literally and figuratively. This clever, endearing, and romantic debut explores how love and loss are forever intertwined . . . but death might not be as scary as it seems.

My Thoughts

Rating: 2.5 stars

The premise for this was intriguing to me, which is why I requested this book (and why I bought a finished copy because I hadn’t read it by release day), but the execution just didn’t land for me.

Individually I didn’t have any issues with either Nora or Garrett. I mean, Nora was still pretty isolated and closed off after losing her family and moving back home to take care of the family business. And Garrett was pretty closed off and secretive because of the nature of his job and being a workaholic. So, you know, one of those standard character set-ups for romance directed stories.

Well, okay, I did actually wanting to know even more about the nature of Garrett’s job (I’m a big fantasy reader, one who enjoys all the deep lore and worldbuilding), and this book fits more of the contemporary romance vibes and nuances, so it was minimal on pretty much all of that. But the two main characters together?!? They did not work for me at all. Nora had better chemistry with her casket business rival, and I found myself hoping that those two ended up together instead.

Yes, there was an attraction between Nora and Garrett, but it felt like their interest in each other was only ever surface level. The first 80% of the book honestly felt very superficial and surface level, and yet somehow after knowing each other for like two weeks and only going on three or four dates, our main duo was thinking that this relationship is pretty serious and they might love each other.

The absolute highlight of this story was Nora’s grandpa, and with the plot beats around him, especially nearer the end of the book, this actually increased my rating for the story. I also did like that whenever there was a death in the community that everyone seemed to gather up for the funeral. It was nice to experience that strong small community bond.

But this book took me WAY TOO MUCH time to read. It was not at all a breezy romance, and not because both main characters are connected to death. Reading it felt more like a slog.

Which is an absolute shame. I wanted to love this book. But the characters and the writing needed more depth. This book was a miss for me, which sort of makes me glad that I didn’t read it during Spooky Season.

Okay, well that’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

I’m Anticipating the Release of these September Books!

Hey all, Sam here.

I have been a little lax with my blog posting this month, after finally catching up to my personal blogging goals in the last couple months, but it took me a little longer to get caught up on rest after Gen Con this year. But I have read some great books in August, and I have a few book reviews to finalize so I can post them. Plus, David and I have a couple of Tabletop Tuesday posts planned, which we need to sit down and write.

So there’s plenty of content coming. I just need to sit down and finish writing them. But, I can at least get up a post today, and that is my Anticipated Releases for the month of September. A little caveat to this post, as with the past several months, this is primarily the books I’ve been approved for via NetGalley. I have book release spreadsheets and NetGalley spreadsheets to keep track of all my books, and there’s usually at least a few that are on the former list that aren’t on the latter.

Anyway, I have a nice list of books for you today, and I’ve read one of them already, with plans to tackle the rest soon (probably starting September 1st, because my current August reading list is still a little full).

All right, let’s go ahead and get started looking at these beautiful books.

The Shattered King by Charlie N Holmberg (Sep 2), Song of the Hell Witch by Taylor Hartley (Sep 9), Ghost Business by Jen DeLuca (Sep 9), A Fellowship of Games & Fables (Deluxe Edition) by J. Penner (Sep 9)

To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth (Sep 16), The Faerie Morgana by Louisa Morgan (Sep 16), The Enduring Universe by Kritika H. Rao (Sep 16), A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal (Sep 23)

What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller (Sep 23), Sheeta’s Little Big World Vol 1 by Yuki Kamba (Sep 23), Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada (Sep 30)

Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark (Sep 30), The Sovereign by C.L. Clark (Sep 30), Princess of Blood by Sarah Hawley (Sep 30)

Whew, that’s a nice list of books…and as a point for the future, my October list is pretty spectacular already too, although my November and December both look a little light. That could be a good thing though, because I have so many reads to catch up on. This has been a year of incredible releases, and I feel like I’m a bit behind on my reading (even if I’m technically ahead of my reading goal).

Anyway, I have a pretty nice grouping of reads, with a manga, a couple novellas, a few sequels and conclusions to series, as well as some series starters. I’m hoping it will be a great reading month, but we’ll see what happens.

All right, that’s all from me for today. What books are you looking forward to in the month of September? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Gen Con 2025 Wrap-Up

Hey all, Sam here.

So, I wanted to have this post up last week, but the first two days we were home from the convention, I had to work, and then on my days off, I couldn’t get the cats off my lap (because they wanted me to make up for several days of missing out on cuddles). That’s always the hazard of going away for a couple days; the cats demand extra attention when we get back. Besides the cats, I was also just exhausted and having trouble regulating my sleep schedule back to normal.

Anyway, Gen Con 2025 is over, and wow, was it a fun time overall. We got to do a lot, including trying some new games (and buying a few of them), and of course attending some fun panels and such.

Before we went, I posted my 2025 Gen Con Schedule, so you can check out what I had planned to do if you want, and now I’m going to talk about what I actually did do…because oftentimes I end up skipping a panel or two depending on how I’m feeling. All right, let’s get into this wrap-up.

Day One

First up, the day started with breakfast at the hotel, or it would have if the selection hadn’t been abysmal. Thankfully we were up early enough that we were able to head towards the convention center and visit the lot and street with all of the food trucks. Naturally, we had to go to our friends at The Naughty Lobstah, which sounds like an odd choice of breakfast, but there was a pretty decent line, so we weren’t the only ones thinking lobster rolls for breakfast. Tator made me an Elote Lobster Roll, which was delicious, and David had a Chicken Quesadilla.

I went to all five of my panels today, and then had the Tales of the Valiant adventure. I will say that for the most part what was discussed in the panels felt a bit obvious and basic, but I still did take some notes. Perhaps I’ll share some of my favorite comments from the Writers Symposium in another future post.

We ended our day going to a Tales of the Valiant RPG adventure. Tales of the Valiant is by Kobold Press and is easily something to adapt to if you are a 5th edition D&D player. You can actually easily convert your 5e characters/monsters/adventure over to ToV, because they have a free Conversion PDF available on their website. We played a really fun adventure, from their recent Labyrinth adventure book, and our Game Master was nice enough to approve the characters we had built on our own, instead of using one of the pre-generated characters.

Day Two

For breakfast today, because it was my birthday, we went to Waffle House, and it was delicious, reasonably priced, and filling (all very important things during Gen Con).

I actually skipped a couple of my panels today so I could spend a little more time walking the vendor’s hall and trying games on the floor. I did go to Drawing Inspiration from Religions and Myth and the panel I was most looking forward to Writing Despite Existential Crisis or Despair.

I will say that the Existential Crisis panel was extremely cathartic and therapeutic, and honestly most of us at that panel were tearing up. Obviously we all know that there is so much awfulness going on in the world right now, and we know we’re not alone with our feelings, but there was something so lovely about being in a room with others and getting to truly see and feel that we weren’t alone.

We also picked up a couple of tabletop games, and ended up playing a couple of them in the hotel room that night, which is always a fun way to end the day after being at a board game convention all day.

Day Three

I went to both of my panels today, got to meet Mark Hulmes of High Rollers, and of course, went to the Critical Role live show. So today’s panels were When to Stop Worldbuilding and Structure 101, but I also managed to squeeze into the sold out 21 Days to a Novel panel as a bonus. The insights in the Worldbuilding panel were interesting, but weren’t as eye-opening as I would have hoped for. It basically boiled down to: stop Worldbuilding when you’re finished.

Mark Hulmes was SO NICE. Most of the time with signings at conventions, you stand up to meet the celebrity, they sign a thing, maybe talk for a minute, maybe take a quick photo, and that’s it. Nope, Mark was running it like a meet and greet. We got to go and sit down at a small table at the Roll & Play Press booth, chat for a handful of minutes about whatever we wanted to, and then we got my 5e Player’s Handbook signed and took a couple photos. That was such an incredibly lovely experience.

The 21 Days to a Novel panel was 2 straight hours of note taking, and this panel was about spending 21 Days of character development and then plot development, so at the end of that period, you’d be ready to start writing your novel. This presumably would make it so you could write your rough draft quickly, but I’d have to test that method first to see if I think it works for me.

And then we drove to Fishers Event Center for the Critical Role live show, which was incredible! It was Bells Hells using the Daggerheart system, and it was a lot of fun, with some serious stakes to it. I won’t talk any specifics because it’s not available for everyone yet, but I can’t wait to watch it again after Critical Role releases it on Beacon and YouTube.

Day Four

Day four started with a Daggerheart adventure, and then playing a bunch of other games around the vendor’s hall.

The tables of Daggerheart were set up for 6 players and the Game Master, and David and I ended up getting seated with a group of four. I know in these scenarios it can be easy to basically stick with your group, but these four guys so eagerly jumped into figuring out how to have all of our characters be connected and to make sure we could all have great moments for spotlight in and out of combat, and it was a really nice time.

After that we only had a couple hours until the end of the con, and we made the most of it by sampling as many games as we could (and buying a few of them). And so we bought our last games like one minute before the show floor closed, so we got to hear the closing announcement, and cheers from the remaining attendees in the hall.

Before our long drive home, we made our customary trip to Giordano’s and got ourselves some mozzarella triangles and pizza. It was delicious, as always. And then we had a five and a half hour drive home.

Gen Con Haul

Here’s our haul. The first photo is everything, all the games, accessories, books, etc. We did a pretty darn good job with getting a nice variety of options, and we’ve already discussed playing through them and bringing back our Tabletop Tuesday series here on the blog. It won’t be every week, but we do have more content coming.

The other two photos are the books I picked up, either from Author’s Avenue in the Vendor’s Hall, or as a freebie at the Writers Symposium. So I got House of the Raven by Ingrid Seymour, Dungeons & Dragon Dating by Virginia McClain, Return of the Sistah Samurai by Tatiana Obey, Structuring Life to Support Creativity: A Resource Book for Creative People by Sandra Tayler (this is a pre-press edition with bonus typos. The fully finished edition will be out soon), an ARC of The Changeling Queen by Kimberly Bea, an ARC of A Philosophy of Thieves by Fran Wilde, an ARC of When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley, and Godsrain by Liane Merciel.

All in all, it was a great four-day con, and we have already begun saving up for next year.

Well, that is all from me for today. I’m sure there will be more tabletop content coming, as well as more overdue book reviews, and hopefully some more writing content. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

July Wrap-Up

Hey all, Sam here.

All right, well today we have another post that I had about 95% of the way drafted before leaving for Gen Con. I couldn’t completely finish it until yesterday, just in case I managed to squeeze in a little extra reading or writing time.

Tonight David and I are going to the Critical Role live show, and while we won’t discuss anything spoiler-y, we will probably vaguely talk about the show in our Gen Con wrap-up post. I think we’re both most excited to see how the cast takes their Campaign 3 characters and adapts them over into the Daggerheart system.

Anyway, today’s post isn’t about Gen Con; it’s about everything I managed to get done in the month of July, which just might have been my most productive month of the year, so perhaps I’ll just end the intro here and jump into the real meat of the post. Let’s get into it all:

Reading

Umm…so somehow I ended up having a really great reading month for July. As of July 29th (when I’m writing this up), I was at 20 completed reads for the month, which makes this my most productive reading month of the year…although still not my most productive reading month ever. I know I had a March a few years back where I read 31 books in 31 days, which was incredible.

Anyway, I read a lot of really great stories this month, and I already have reviews up for a few of them, but I have plans for writing up reviews for as many of the others as I can manage (with a slight priority to books that I requested on NetGalley–I’m still trying to work on getting my review percentage up there). I’ll include the links to any posts already up on the blog.

Here we go with the reading wrap-up:

Pathfinder: Before the Godsrain by James L Sutter, James Jacobs, Liane Merciel, Kate Alice Marshall, Owen K.C. Stephens, Michael Sayre, James Case, and Mark Moreland — 4 stars

Soulgazer by Maggie Rapier — 4 stars

Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon — 4 stars

Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks: Dealing with Dragons by Jaleigh Johnson — 5 stars

Love is a War Song by Danica Nava — 4 stars

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern — 5 stars

Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories by Charlie Jane Anders — 5 stars

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz — 4.5 stars

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson — 4 stars

The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel) Vol 1 by Natsu Hyuuga, Touco Shino (Illustrator), and Kevin Steinbach (Translator) — 4 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 1 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), and Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 2 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 3 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 4 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 5 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 6 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 7 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) – 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 8 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 9 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Solo Leveling Vol 10 by Chugong, HYE YOUNG IM (Translator), Dubu (Redice Studio) (Illustrator), and J Torres (Translator) — 5 stars

Blogging

I’m actually starting to get a little more consistent with getting posts up, and starting to actually reach my 2025 blogging goal of two posts per week/basically 8 posts per month. That means I definitely hit that goal for the month of July. However, I am still very behind on my book reviews, so I’m hoping to focus more on catching up on those going forward. We’ll see how well I stick to that. Anyway, here’s all the blogs I posted in the month of July:

June Wrap-Up

PaWriCo Bookish Bootcamp June 27-July 3 Check-In

NetGalley Review: Soulgazer by Maggie Rapier

PaWriCo Bookish Bootcamp July 4-10th Check-In

PaWriCo Bookish Bootcamp July 11-17 Check-In

NetGalley Review: The Starlight Heir by Amalie Howard

Books I’m Looking Forward to in August

Gen Con 2025 Schedule

NetGalley Review: Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks: Dealing with Dragons by Jaleigh Johnson

NetGalley Review: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Writing

Based on a few of those blog posts, you would think that my writing update would be a good one. While it’s true that I did write a few thousand words towards my D&D novel, most of my writing progress was in plotting, Worldbuilding, character exploration, and basically a bunch of prep work. So…not as much progress as I would have actually liked to have.

But I have quite a few intriguing panels scheduled at the Gen Con Writers Symposium, so I’m hoping I can finally start getting back to a better rhythm and habit when it comes to my creative writing output.

I can definitely say that I do have some Weekend Writer posts in the rough stages of planning. There’s a few writing craft books I’d like to talk about, but I’m also thinking about writing up posts based on the notes I’ve taken at Writers Symposium panels over the last couple of years. Would anyone be interested in that? Let me know in the comments!

Trips/Conventions

As this post goes live, we are at Gen Con, so there will be a Gen Con Wrap-Up post sometime next week. I am hoping to have some update posts going on my Instagram for the convention, so you can probably see some photos there (I’m @SamRushingBooks).

This is honestly one of our biggest trips we plan each year, and we have been looking forward to it for months now. Perhaps I’ll even try to sit down with David and write up a few Tabletop Tuesday posts to talk about some of the tabletop games and accessories we tried out at Gen Con or that we picked up to add to our collection. It’s been a while since we’ve had non-book-related Tabletop Tuesday posts.

All right, I do believe that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.