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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
L.L. Gray
Read between
December 10 - December 18, 2024
To those who prefer their mysteries cozy, their detectives charming, and their bookshelves never quite big enough.
Welcome home.
Have you ever stood on the precipice of an adventure, your toes dangling over the edge, just one powerful gust of wind away from crashing towards a wholly unexpected fate?
Oh, and it wasn’t hyperbole when I said it was a magical summer, because it was also the summer I found out I was a witch.
She also seemed to know exactly what book someone needed, which was sometimes entirely different from what they wanted.Would
Over the years, Havenwood embraced its supernatural origins by creating festivals and events to draw in the tourists who welcomed a little extra magic in their lives.
No, she wasn’t really my aunt, but she was Granny Bea’s best friend, and Granny always said, “Friends are the family we choose.”
They’d sit and chat over steaming mugs while I’d take mine out to the small garden as long as it wasn’t raining and curl up in the big wicker chair with a book.
Sergeant Major Edward Sullivan was a no-nonsense career Army man.
He always said books were their own kind of magic and should be respected.
Sullivan’s Spellbooks.
but it took a special kind of couple who could live and work in tandem every single day and wake up the next morning to do it all over again, even more madly in love.
Fake it ‘til you make it, right?
So, things didn’t go the way you planned? Welcome to life. Pull yourself up, sugar pea. Dust yourself off. Take the next step. Don’t worry about what’s coming a mile down the road. Just put one foot in front of the other and do the next right thing.
Just like my grumpypaaaaaa
That was more than enough for my Friday, thank you very much.
Food first. Create a foolproof master plan second. Third, interrogate a gargoyle. Fourth, sleep. Was this a typical day in Havenwood, or was I just special?
Captain Benedict Starling.
“Benedict Starling was a merchant captain who regularly sailed the Eastern seaboard, often stopping here in Connecticut. Like most captains of his time, he kept journals of his travels, sales, weather, and so on.”
“To the chosen kin, hold true and strong, for when blood’s bond falters, trust goes wrong. In shadows deep, help shall appear as unexpected aid hovers unseen, but near.”
This isn’t just about the books. It’s my great-granny’s legacy. I don’t want her bookshop to fall to Thaddeus. I want it. I want to run it, to have somewhere to call home, to have something to grow and develop that just might become my legacy, too.”
Bella looked me up and down in an overly dramatic fashion. “What was in those kebabs? I think they made you into a crazier version of Sherlock Holmes.”
“Puddleton, I know we’re doing this naughty stealing thing, but you know who we should invite? Harper.”
Granny always said judging by the cover was for books, and if we were meant to do that to people, they would’ve come with their own catchy illustrations and back blurbs.
“Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.”
Time to introduce the giant to the nymph. At least life in Havenwood was never boring.
“Isn’t that what life’s all about: the journey, not the destination?”
“So, you chased him down? I’ll give you points for gumption but might have to take them away again for lack of common sense.” He smiled to soften his words.
“This whole thing feels like a dream to me. The first time I visited Granny Bea, I thought this place was magical. I just didn’t know how right I was.”
“I couldn’t imagine then what sort of twists and turns my life would take to lead me to be here with each of you, but I feel like I’m living my own personal fairy tale. Getting to run a bookshop in a magical town and putting down roots with so many wonderful people living close by. I am the luckiest girl alive.”
