What are you reading in 2022?

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Here's a little update on what I've read lately:

I really liked this series! I love mythology and these graphic novels do a great job at at telling those stories concisely. Poseidon was a re-read.

This one is an anthology and I really enjoyed it! As with most anthologies I read, some of the stories weren't that great, but there were some that I really loved! The last story in the book was actually an I Hunt Killer prequel, which I was not expecting, but I loved it!

So that story at the end of the anthology made me want to get back into the series, so I read these 3 prequel novellas, and I really enjoyed them!

I really liked this book too! One of my main complaints about this series was the love triangle, but it was pretty much nonexistent in this one, which made me very happy! I also really liked the story and how action-packed it was.

And then this one I just read last week and... I didn't like it. It's UF and totally something I would love, but it just didn't work for me. It was definitely the whole amnesia thing. Sometimes it works, but it didn't here.

And right now I am in the middle of 3 books:

This one the pacing was a little slow and I just didn't really know where the story was going, but I didn't stop reading it because of that. I think I need to read the prequel duology to avoid anymore spoilers, but I'm not exactly in the mood for post-apocalyptic soooo... idk. I'll finish this eventually lol.

This is the one I'm actively reading and am about 100 pages away from finishing and I LOVE it! It is such a good series!

And this one I've only read a couple pages of, but it sounds interesting and the beginning is very promising!

[Brittany]

Gord as always I enjoy hearing about your book weeks!

Lili, agreed about the amnesia thing. I find it usually doesn't work. What do you love about the I Hunt Killers series? It sounds intriguing. Also yay for the love triangle being almost nonexistent in that last book

[Brittany]

I still haven't been reading as much as I was. But I finished and listening to they were alright. Archangel is a series I keep meaning to get back to but this wasn't the strongest of Singh's books. So I'll get to the next one eventually, I may need to switch to audio as I love her psychangeling books on audio.
For the Unveiled book its still my least favourite guild codex series but I found Saber better in this one and I am curious about the cliff hanger at the end.

[Elena]

This week was much better! I am slowly going back on track with reading and enjoyed every book I finished recently.

- amazing cozy mystery series, so far one of my favs in the genre. The only thing I don't like is that I don't know when I can get the next book!

- stories of several different people meet in one great happy friendship, what could be happier? Very nice book and the writing style is warm and pleasing.

- I liked The Secret to Happiness and decided to give a try to the series by the same author and wasn't disappointed. Those are very nice, light romantic stories, worked perfectly when I didn't want to start something heavy on the plot with major world and character development.

[Brittany]

Yay for good reads this week Elena!

[Gord]

This has been an... interesting week of reading. Nothing overly bad but nothing overly great either.

-3 Stars
This was one of those new releases that I found through the local library. I thought it sounded interesting and requested a copy of it. This book is set in the Bronx and is based around an urban legend that has been circulating called the Echo Game or The Train Game. Something along the lines of Bloody Mary. You do these steps and something spooky will happen except in this case the spooky thing is legit. I just never clicked with this book from the beginning. It was alright but it really didn't blow me away at all. It's also one of those books where I'm having a real difficult time pointing to any one thing that didn't work for me. Nothing really impressed me, nothing really annoyed me. I also feel that this is one of those books where you might get more from it if you are familiar with the setting. For me the Bronx is a name I hear on TV sometimes in association with New York. I have no knowledge of its history or any thing like that. It was just ehhhhh and I probably won't remember this one at all.

-3 Stars
This was a group read for one of my book clubs and it's a book I've heard about here and there. When it came out it was part of group of UF where the MC was an older woman instead of the usual younger women that is the norm. It's an interesting premise and I'm interested in having a variety of main characters to read. After going through a nasty divorce our MC is given a house from a women she has never met through a will. She goes to check it out and that is where the story unfolds. There is of course the comparisons to the authors other main series, Charley Davidson, but I was also drawing comparisons to Stephanie Plum. It came down to main tropes and the setups. The MC is a chaotic individual down on her luck with an even more chaotic friend getting into situations. Oh and there is of course the man meat. Character names and what not are not important to these characters as they are there to be the sex on a stick. In this case it's Roen (spelling? I was listening to the audiobook so I have no clue) and I swear if you cut out all the descriptions of his muscles, his butt, his voice sounding like some alcohol, his tattoos and the affects he has the MC's lady bits/nether regions/etc/etc/etc you would probably lose about a quarter of this book. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing but it definitely highlights the target audience. Overall this book was alright. It's a good little popcorn read that really doesn't do much outside of what you would expect the book to do. I'll be moving on to the second book next month with everyone else.

-4 Stars
This was 3.5 rounded up to a 4. This was another Redwall novel and is what one would expect. A large roster of characters. The usual good animals are good and the usual bad animals are bad. There are songs, riddles, food, and secrets. Most of the book was a solid 3 for me but the ending tugged on the emotional strings a little and bumped it up.

-3 Stars
Work was a bit slow this week so I had some time for some comics. This was the first one that I read and in some ways this is the kind of superhero comic I like. It's a simple self contained story that doesn't require you to read a billion other connecting comics to understand and get the story. Something is out there hunting all the major villains of Gotham and taking them out. It's now up to Batman to figure out who it is, track them down, and stop them. It wasn't a ground breaking story but it was entertaining. The one thing I wasn't fan of was the artwork. I'm not generally a fan of this kind of artwork in general. I have no idea what you call it but to me it looks like you splatter random paint on a page and smear it around with your thumb. I know it's a lot more than that but to me that is what it looks like. It's hard to make out details and it just looks ugly to me.

-4 Stars
When I was a wee little lad back in the 80's I loved the TMNT series that was on TV and watched any episode I could get. Over the following years I would return to this series from time to time. I watched all three of the movies from the 90's, I watched some of the more modern cartoons, I even watched the Micheal Bay movie. I've also dabbled in some of the comics here and there. I knew that the comic world for TMNT was massive but had no idea where to start. After some reading I decided to start with this run from IDW. This is a reboot of the series by the original author in an effort to clean up the story and tie all these various elements together a bit better. I really enjoyed reading these and it was an interesting experience for me. It felt like something new while also feeling kind of nostalgic at the same time. Through out what I've read there were elements that I would recognize from the original comics, the original cartoon, the 90's movies, more modern stuff, etc but it would also sprinkle in completely new stuff. I definitely plan to read more in this series.

-3 Stars
This is one of those harem romcom mangas but it has an interesting twist. All of the main girls in the series are sisters who happen to be identical quintuplets. You know from the very beginning that the MMC marries one of the girls but because they are all identical you have no idea who he actual marries. The MMC is from a poor family and he is dedicated to his studies so he can provide for his family. His father gets him a tutoring job that pays well. The ones that he ends up tutoring are these quintuplets. These first couple of volumes sets up the situation, the tension, and starts to introduce the girls to the reader. Overall it's all right with some unique feeling elements but nothing is blowing me away yet either. I plan to read this whole series as it's only 14 books and my library has them all.

-3 Stars
Now that I'm finished Toriko it's time to start working on another series I had started. I decided to start over as my memories were a little fuzzy about the events so far in the series. This book is still alright and I'm enjoying it enough. My biggest challenge right now is just separating the artist from his art. It's not like it's tainting my enjoyment of the series but my knowledge about what the mangaka was involved with is like an elephant in the room that I can't avoid.

For the next week I'll be starting on audiobook

I also have a bunch of stuff I need to get done for the library. I plan to read and .

On the manga front I have more Rurouni Kenshin to read as well as Quintessential Quintuplets

[Brittany]

Thanks for the update Gord! Too bad the Quints isn't better. Love the anime

[Brittany]

I finished listening to and loved it. Was everything I didn't know I needed in a book.

Starting next

[A Little Mystery Book ᰔ]

I finished Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. Now I’m reading The Guest List by Lucy Foley.

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

Brittany wrote: "I finished listening to and loved it. Was everything I didn't know I needed in a book.

Starting [bookcover:The House in the Cerulean Sea|4504738..."

I absolutely ADORED The House in the Cerulean Sea. It was so good!!!

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

I'm still in a bit of a slump. I have finished one book since the beginning of June (physically, I've finished maybe 2 audiobooks in that time).

I'm off work for the next 4 weeks so I am hoping to get some reading done in that time, but I'm not putting any pressure on myself to so we will see how it goes.

I'm currently reading and listening to

[Anastasia]

I just finished They both die at the end by Adam Silvera. Interesting concept about life and death a little Rumblefish vibe.
Before that I read She who becomes the Sun by Shelley Paker- Chan. Mulan but grown up and sad story about women and how were perceived. And again, before that one I read Light from uncommon stars by Ryan Aoki. Such an intertwining of ideas laid to paper.

I’m thinking about reading
An arrow to the Moon
A dreadful splendor
Hallow Kingdom

Now reading all of your comments to find my next books!

[Brittany]

Enjoy the time off Kay and hopefully you break the slump but agreed no pressure on yourself

I haven't gotten far into House in the Cerulean Sea so far. It hasn't captured my attention enough to get me to want to not stop listening. But I have heard so many good things so I'm sure it will get there

[Brittany]

Anastasia wrote: "I just finished They both die at the end by Adam Silvera. Interesting concept about life and death a little Rumblefish vibe.
Before that I read She who becomes the Sun by Shelley Paker- Chan. Mulan..."

Sounds like you've been enjoying your reads. I liked they both die at the end. haven't read the other ones

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

I finished it was good but took me a good 150 pages to properly get into it. I just struggle with this authors writing but once I got into it I enjoyed it.

I'm picking up next

[A Little Mystery Book ᰔ]

I started reading You’ll Be The Death of Me by one of my favorite authors, Karen M. McManus.

[Elena]

@Lili after reading you thoughts on Hide I want Halloween to come :D

[Elena]

This week was a nice one, I had some cosy and heartfelt reads.

- cosy Christmas reads, I wanted something very romantic and cosy, so went for those two books. Yep! Christmas in the middle of summer :D

- the series is good so far if you forget about some inconsistencies. I'm reading it as a light fantasy and it works fine that way :)

[Gord]

What a week of reading this has been on top of a crazy week in general.

-3 Stars
I have some pretty conflicted feelings about this book and a lot of it stems from expectations versus delivery. This is a book where four strangers connect over a scream that was heard in the Boston public library. Now when I first read the synopsis I thought this was going to be something like a locked room mystery. There was a scream in the library, security locks the place down, four strangers talking about what is happening, oh and one of those four is the murderer. It sounds like a perfect setup for a book. That is not what I got at all. The set up is kind of the same. Four strangers meet at the library, there is a scream, they start chatting, become friends, and then get dragged into this mystery over the space of a week or two. Oh and it's a story within a story as well. Basically the author has a fictional author writing this story and sharing each chapter with a beta reader/fan.

Alright, I had some issues with this book. Part of it was the expectations versus what I got but there was more than just that. The author did this thing were each chapter would end with a letter from the beta reader/fan and this was probably my biggest issue with the book. These letters were basically a story unto themself that was separate from the actual story of the book and they were at the end of every chapter. For me it really ruined the flow of the book. It felt like I was reading two different books at the same time, one chapter at a time. There were also moments where I felt that the author went a little to hard on trying to misdirect the reader on who the killer was. I know that is the job of the author but there were moments where it just felt a little to much. I read a smattering of mysteries and I know that the harder an author tries to make someone look guilty before the conclusion it just means that person is not the guilty party. Overall it was an alright read with some issues that just took me out of it.

-5 Stars
I had no intention of finishing this series this week but... uhhhh... here we are. I think I actually loved this series more my second time around then I did the first time. I love the characters, the growth of the MC, the adventures, etc. It just works for me and I'm kind of sad that I never read this as a kid. I'm going to continue to listen to more books in the Tortall universe but I had to hold myself back so I can work on some of the other stuff I should be working on.

-3 Stars
I read this for a challenge and oh boy did I struggle with this one. I'll be honest, the only reason I was able to finish this book was because I switched over to the audiobook. If it wasn't for that I don't think I could have finished this book. I got myself to the 30-35% mark and I was struggling hard. This book was simply not what I was expecting. I was expecting something more fantastical. Something like a 30's-40's action adventure pulp novel with dinosaurs and what not. What we got was something much more based in science and less in the fantastical. It also made for a very dry and slow moving read. It's also why I'm not a massive fan of hard sci-fi. I'm not interested in reading pages and pages of science jargon and I'm more interested in fantastical adventure kind of stuff. I also wasn't a big fan of the characters. Hans wasn't even really a character. He was the mute character that was simply there to do the physical non science related stuff. The doctor was reckless as all hell and kind of an early absentminded professor trope but much more dangerous in my opinion. Then there is the narrator. He was my biggest issue with this book. He was just so annoying and whiny. He reminded me of little kid in the backseat of a car on a road trip. The entire book was like "Are we there yet?" "But uncle I don't want to go to the center of the earth". Then there is the dinosaurs aspect of the book. Lets be honest, it was barely there. It was a couple of scenes and then back to the science stuff.

As for the rating, I know it seems a bit high for a book that I did not enjoy. If this was a modern book I would have easily given this a two stars. So yes, there was some rounding up. Part of it is the age of the book. It's well over 100 hundred years old, the writing styles and audiences back then were much different than what we have now a days. The other aspect is the influence this book had. There is the obvious influence on the sci-fi genre of course. I also see some elements of the pulp action adventure novels that I love. The map/note giving directions to something ancient and lost, the adventure getting there, the dinosaurs, the dramatic escape. I think that is why so many movies leaned more into the fantastical elements and hammed those up.


This week I was planning to read but after Journey to the Center of the Earth I need some recovery time. I'm just not in the mood for a new release book of unknown quality. That and I have a certain book I really want to read.

On audiobook I'm listening to

For books I'm reading which is something I've been wanting to read for sometime now. After that I'm reading and some manga. Some more Rurouni Kenshin and some Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles.

[Brittany]

As always an interesting round up Gord! I havent read Journey to the Center of the Earth but as I struggle with hard sci-fi its not one I am likely to ever get to. I agree though about appreciating it for what it brought into the genres.

[Brittany]

I finished listening to and have to thank everyone that pushed me to read it. While it was a slower start I did love it

[Elena]

@Gord I like reading your weekly updates and I always end up adding something to my TBR. This time it was The Song series. Thanks for that :)

@Brittany is it strange that I feel so happy when people love books I loved? Anyway I'm so glad and happy you enjoyed and loved the book. It is really something great!

[Gord]

Elena wrote: "@Gord I like reading your weekly updates and I always end up adding something to my TBR. This time it was The Song series. Thanks for that :)"

Thank you! You can't go wrong with The Song series or the rest of the Tortall universe.

[Elena]

Recently I've been feeling like I don't enjoy reading much and don't know what exactly I want to read or watch. Probably overwhelmed with all the content. Nothing feels like 'wow, I want to read it!'.

- finished vol2, it took me so long but the manga is really nice.

- finished yet another cozy mystery series and started a new one :D not as good as this but still readable. I feel like cozy mysteries are the only books I can handle now.

- that's the one cozy mystery series I've started. It's ok, thanks for keeping me from falling into a reading slump.

- I enjoy the series and probably it's just my strange mood, it starts feeling boring. I really need to read something exciting, maybe re-read something of Brandon Sanderson might help.

[Gord]

This has been a pretty good week of reading for I'd say and I'm excited to talk about it.

-5 Stars
This is a book that has been on my radar now for some time. I was interested in it from just reading the synopsis but it was stuck in what I call Amazon jail. I'm not a fan of their business ideas in general but for this it's about their book services. It's why I don't buy books on Kindle. Any way back to the book. I kept an eye on this to see if it ever escaped jail and I was seeing more and more good things here on Goodreads about the the book. Then I started to see good things on Booktube and of course more good things here on this site. I then saw that other libraries in the province were working on getting a copy so I rushed off to request a copy at my library. For the first time ever my request got shot down so I went back to waiting. I don't remember how but I discovered that my library did get it but on the Libby app and I requested a copy. Since I didn't notice it right away I was in queue for this book and was back to waiting for it.

For all that waiting and watching I can say that this book was totally worth it. This book was an absolute blast to read. To sum this book up it's about an orc adventurer who got a taste for coffee and decides to open her own coffee shop. This book is basically about that process and what she has to do to get her business going. It's a low stakes kind of fantasy and it's great. This book felt like a bridge between two different reading worlds for me. On one hand there is the usual Western fantasy reading that I have. On the other is the cozy slice of life Japanese fantasy that I read. This had the same feel as many of those Japanese light novels I enjoy but with the structure and tropes of a western fantasy. Our MC is of course strong and could easily handle most threats tossed her way but she is not on a level of OP like a Japanese character would be. There are also story reasons why she doesn't rely on that strength to solve her problems which I enjoyed. There is a colorful cast of characters including an orc, a hobgoblin, a succubus, a ratkin, and others. There is a smattering or romance without it taking over the story or being cliche. This book was just a fun read and something I highly recommend to those who enjoy books of this nature. I also hope that the popularity of this book nudges the door open and we start to see some more books like this come out in the future.

-5 Stars
Before I get to the book I just want to say that I hate these covers. They take the normal cover, shrink it down, and then slap giant bars on the side. It just bugs me for some reason and I don't like it.

As for the book itself it's the conclusion to the Macindaw story arc and is still good. There are great character moments in this book especially between Will and Horace. We also get character progression between Will and Alice which makes what happens in later books much more aggravating. There is some great stakes in this book as well. If I had one criticism for this book it would be that there were times were it felt like the descriptions went on a bit longer than needed. Now this could be on me and just being in a mood this week but there were times were it just felt like the book was retreading stuff we already knew or drawing out explanations for stuff. For instance there is a scene towards the end of the book talking about crossbows versus longbows and it just felt like it was something we had already touched on and it felt like it went on for longer than needed. It doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the book but it was a bit distracting.

-3 Stars
This is that cozy slice of life style of Japanese fantasy I was talking about earlier. It was an entertaining read and I feel like we are going to start getting into stuff not covered in the anime here pretty soon. I suspect parts of next book won't be covered and things in book four should be completely new. This covered Cayna finding out about her grand kids, finding other players from the game for the first time, dealing with an event level threat, meeting more royal members, and hinting at future story lines. Like I said earlier this is just a good mindless entertaining read.

-3 Stars
This is an odd little manga series that I know about from the anime series it got. There is no plot, there is no characterizations outside of basic tropes, there is nothing but ramen facts. Lots and lots and lots of information about ramen. It's history, it's different styles, it's regional variants, etc. This is one of those manga that will make you hungry just by reading it. It's a quirky little thing that I wouldn't really recommend to anyone unless they are interested in ramen.

-3 Stars
My library finally got the second volume of this yaoi manga that I requested months ago and it was alright. Much like the first volume it's sweet but not a lot of anything really happens.

-4 Stars
This was one of those odd non-fiction comics that exists out there and it was about the serial killer Ed Gein. Not many people now a days know that name anymore from what I have seen but they know the things he has influenced. Ed Gein was an odd man from Wisconsin who had an overbearing religious mother growing up. This affected him a lot and either led to mental health issues or added to them. He is officially only linked to two murders meaning he is technically not a serial killer but he is suspected of others. He was also a grave robber who took human remains from the freshly buried. He made masks, a skin suit, a belt made of nipples, and other horrible things. What he more commonly known for is the things that were influenced by him. The first was Psycho and Norman Bates. He was also the influence for Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs, House of 1000 corpses, Devil Rejects, and other movies and TV shows. This comic covered his life to the point of his arrest and then kind of flashed through all the various legal battles up to his eventual death in prison in 1984. It was an odd read about an odd man who influence a lot of pop culture.

-3 Stars
-4 Stars
More of this series. The second volume felt like more of the same with a villain of the week used to establish how tough or MC was. For me things really started to pick up in the third volume (which technically is volumes 7-9). Kenshin gets pushed harder than he ever so far in the series and we start to get more of his backstory. This entire omnibus felt like a giant setup for what is coming up in Kyoto. We get backstory about what happened to Kenshin in Kyoto, we get reason for him to go there, the other characters then have to follow, there is a lot of set up that our main powerhouses are not strong enough and need to level up. It's all very manga like but I am also greatly intrigued as to where this will all be going.

I am off for the next week so my reading plans are all rather loose at this point in time. I have an anime convention next weekend so it's that odd mix of a lot of reading time yet being super busy at the same time.

For audiobooks I am listening to and already have downloaded.

The short list for books are and as I need to get those done for the library. After that I have a stack of manga and novels ready to go and my mood will dictate things.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

A little update on what I've read in the last month or so...

This book was SO good! We have Jazz, the son of an infamous serial killer helping the police catch another serial killer... it was great! The way the story unraveled and the pieces came together was great! I'm looking forward to seeing how the series wraps up.

This one was also great, but this is a Jennifer Estep book, so no one is surprised by that. Lol. It was this really cool blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and romance, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

This is a mystery/thriller and I really enjoyed it as well. Th mystery was very intriguing and I was engaged throughout the entire book.

was a little disappointing. It sounded super interesting: a cheerleader who discovers that her mom is an alien hunter and then her mom suddenly goes missing... yes please! But the execution was not so great 😬 And then main character seemed very childish. Idk, it was just not what I was expecting. But I did like the romance, so there's that. Lol.

And this one is a prequel to a series. It sounded interesting, and this novella was okay, but idk if it hooked me enough to want to continue reading the series 😅

[Brittany]

Elena wrote: "@Gord I like reading your weekly updates and I always end up adding something to my TBR. This time it was The Song series. Thanks for that :)

@Brittany is it strange that I feel so happy when peop..."

Not strange at all Elena! Its so great when people love the books we love and recommend!

[Brittany]

Also I get that Elena, Ive been having a similar problem with books right now too. Things aren't capturing my attention like I'd expect them to. Sanderson rereads are always a good choice!

Gord, Legends & Lattes sounds fabulous I've placed a hold on the audio and ebook formats see which one comes first.
The ramen manga sounds amusing, and definitely different.
The non fiction comic sounds cool actually. Not someone I know like anything about.


Lili, good update! Love how much you've enjoyed the I hunt killers books. I really need to look into those and see if I can get them. The new Estep book also looks good, sci fi fantasy romance is a good combo of genres. Too bad about Flying, it does have an interesting sounding premise.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Yes! I am really enjoying I Hunt Killers! Such a cool premise!

[Brittany]

Liliana wrote: "Yes! I am really enjoying I Hunt Killers! Such a cool premise!"

I just downloaded the audio for the first one from the library so I will probably try it soon!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Ooh nice! I hope you enjoy it!!

[Elena]

@Lili Game and the whole series sounds like something very unique and interesting! I want to read it too :)

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Do it! I love the premise of the series and I'm really enjoying it so far! I've only got one more book left in the trilogy.

[A Little Mystery Book ᰔ]

I finished reading The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I really enjoyed this book with so many secrets.

[Brittany]

I just finished listening to and enjoyed it. A different Romeo and Juliet retelling.

[Elena]

@Brittany nice you've enjoyed the retelling. Hope it's not so sad as the original.

[Elena]

I finished the series! A nice one :)

- of the whole series the first book and We Three Heroes were my favourites. I loved secondary characters more than the main and We Three Heroes tells 3 stories of 3 secondary characters which I enjoyed reading.

[Brittany]

Thats great Elena! I think Ill read that series at some point as I enjoy the Prison Healer books by the same author

[Elena]

Brittany wrote: "Thats great Elena! I think Ill read that series at some point as I enjoy the Prison Healer books by the same author"

Sounds great! I am also planning on reading The Prison Healer at some point :)

[Elena]

Finished more books this week. Feels good and productive.

- this book helped me to get out of the reading slump. So simple and charming. At this point it's my favourite by Jane Austen.
- descent cozy mystery series, not my favourite but I enjoyed that one too.
- one more amazing book. It was totally different to what I expected and surprisingly great! The writing style and narration is good but the best part of the book is the story. Though nothing was unpredictable, I enjoyed every page of it. Magical realism fits perfectly into authors dark, gloomy, gothic England.

[Gord]

Time for that good old weekly wrap up and I have a few extra things to talk about as I was off this week.

-3 Stars
This was a nonfiction book about about some examples of female serial killers throughout history. Ranging from the late 1200's to the mid 1950's it covered women from all around the world. I loved the idea of this book and I learned about some interesting people but this book was a bit dry. Each chapter was for a different killer and followed a formula. You were introduced to the killer, given a run down of what they did, what happened to them, and then the authors opinion of the situation. For the first 2-3 chapters this wasn't so bad but after 14 chapters like this it got kind of boring. Especially when a couple of the killers there was little to no information on. Those couple of chapters felt a little padded to fit this formula. I would have also appreciated if there was a bit more variety in the methods of killing as well. A lot of these killers loved the use of arsenic. I'm not talking a couple of sprinkles either. If a pinch is enough to kill a man these ladies were using half the bottle. One of things I found interesting is the motivations behind some of these killings. Sure you had some of them (looking at the noble ladies) who were sadistic to a deadly level. Then some of these women felt like they were merely trying to do the best they could to just get ahead in life a bit during an incredibly restrictive time for women. Their methods were not the nicest but they were trying to find a way to carve themselves out some success and stability in life.

-3 Stars
This was a random snag from the library that finally came in. It's set in Port Royal during the 1600's and is about a young slave girl. I'll be honest here I feel like I'm missing something. The author is a highly praised award winning author and this book seems to have a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews but I found the book alright at best. The book felt pretty basic overall and I had some issues with various story elements. The first issue had, and I know this is a personal thing, was the use of accents/foreign languages in the book. I fully believe that the careful use of an accent or foreign phrases can help boost a book to next level. Overuse or misuse though can also derail the book. This book falls heavily into that latter one. I'm no historian or anything but I'm assuming that the author was going for a period correct accent of sorts. It had a very broken flow to it and it would take me out of the book. I'd read a sentence and my brain wouldn't process it so I'd have to go back and reread it a couple times to get what was being said. When this happens for most of what the MC says it gets frustrating and takes me out of the book. There was also several Spanish speaking characters in the book and we would get sentences in Spanish followed immediately by the English translation of it. This just feels like padding and hand holding. If you establish that a character can only speak a certain language I can make a mental note in my head and appreciate that anytime I'm reading what the character is saying that it's in that other language. Outside of that there was a lesbian romance that just poofed into existence. This was more than just instant love as well. The MC met the woman once, left port, returned and suddenly they are lovers. There was no build up of chemistry, there was no hint of either woman being lesbians, there was nothing. This just felt shoehorned in to appease some demographic. There was another character that I felt was getting built up to be something bigger only for them to be killed off while the MC was gone and then swept under the rug never to be seen or heard of again. Overall it was a pretty basic book with several flaws in it in my opinion.

-5 Stars
As I mentioned the last few books I love these books and this one was more of that. We got more character growth, we got more world building, and just a fun read overall.

-3 Stars
This was the first book with a bit more direction. We still had ample description of all the male hotness in the book and how horny the main female lead is. We get the MC bumbling her way to success again and hints at bigger mysteries. It's a popcorn read so I don't want to sit here just ragging on the book. It was entertaining and I'll be back next month to finish the trilogy.

-3 Stars
I read this for a few challenges and I realized it's been a while since I've read a cozy mystery. I was kind of burnt out on the cozy mystery formula honestly. I can't say I'm chomping at the bit to go out and start reading more cozies but this was an entertaining little read. Our MC and crew get invited to a rodeo to sell their cupcakes. While there someone ends up dead and our characters find themselves involved. It took me a second or two to get back into the series as it's been a hot minute or two since I read the last one. Once I got back into the swing of things I was happy to see the character story lines were still progressing outside of the mystery of the week. I've tossed the next one on my TBR for some future reading.

-4 Stars
This whole Kyoto arc is still building and I find myself oddly invested in things. I'm liking this progressing story line more than the villain of the week thing we were getting for the first few volumes. I'm thinking we will be getting the big epic conclusion next volume (maybe) so I'm thinking there will be a lot of fighting in the next volume.

-4 Stars
This was a series left over from last year when I was going through my yuri phase. It's taken the library that long to finally get the books in (plus some poking from me). I wasn't sure about this series as I've kind of moved on from that yuri phase last year. I was burned out on a lot of the tropes basically. This had some of those tropes but there was something about the story that was just touching. It's set in Victorian England and a woman named Alice hires a new maid named Hanako. Both characters get a fair bit of buildup and it's definitely a touch melodramatic. There is an element of "oh does she like me" going on in this story but with the setting, the station of the characters (one a noble and one a maid), and what not that element makes sense and it's not just pointless teenage drama. I discovered that this is a trilogy and I really wanted to read the final book just to get the resolution to the story but the book is currently "on order" at the library. Hopefully this one doesn't take a year to get here.

-4 Stars
This was a random snag and a perfect example of the absolute wackiness that I love about manga. Our MC is a young girl who suffers from a strange disease. When ever she starts to feel overwhelmed with emotions she starts to turn into a kaiju (giant monster, think Godzilla). It might be her hands, her feet, spines down her back, or a tail. Pushed far enough she will do a full conversion and change into a full blown, skyscraper tall, Kaiju stomping though the city. As a result she has turned into a reclusive individual wearing bagging clothes to hide her changes. She is shunned by her classmates and is more or less looked down upon. Here is where the other massive element of this book comes in. The shoujo element. You see she has gained a secret admirer who has fallen for her mysterious ways. That person is of course the hottest and most popular boy in the school. You can pretty much see all the wacky shenanigans that will come from this. There are so many elements of this manga that just work for me. I love the budding romance between these two. I love the kaiju elements of course. I love the MC as well. She is just a normal girl trying to deal with this strange disease that she has. She also gets massive bonus points for being a metal head. I also really love her mother as well. Her mother always has her back no matter what and is super supportive of her daughter and her strange ailment. I'm genuinely curious to see where this series will go and have already requested more from the library.


I'm nearly done volume two and I just wanted to talk about this now. I picked up this series solely for the character design of Yayoi, one of the MC's. This series recently got an anime adaptation so there was promotional art for it floating about. I saw her character design and just had to know more. The purple motif, the skull pupils, the crazy boots, I couldn't help but be intrigued. It's an occult mystery series from what I understand and so far we are doing character set up and world building while hinting at bigger things. I'm enjoying things so far and will be reading more.

Currently I'm listening to on audiobook. After that I have on deck.

For novels I'm probably tackling and go from there.

[Jo]

I finally finished which I'm very happy about because I ended up reading it for way longer than I thought I would. Partly that was just not having much listening time in July, but also it was much longer than it really needed to be, I felt. I really enjoyed the TV show, but having listened to the book, I realised that they definitely streamlined a lot and I think for the better to be honest! It was a really cool concept, but a little dragged out and repetitive and the ending? Complete damp squib, should definitely have ended it the chapter before with (view spoiler)[ Ursula and Teddy reuniting (view spoiler)[. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Anyway, after that rather long audiobook, I felt like something short and lighter for my next read so I've decided to go for as I'm currently rewatching Gilmore Girls and I've been wanting to read Lauren Graham's memoir for ages and after a string of fairly heavy books, I really want something fun!

[Brittany]

Elena, magical realism in dark gothic england does sound quite fitting! Also I really need to read more Austen.


Gord too bad Lady Killers got to be a bit dry as the concept is so intriguing. Looks like a good manga week and awesome that you ended up enjoying the one you picked up for the art.

Jo let me know how Lauren Graham's book is on audio. Its one I've thought about reading for awhile too. Love Gilmore Girls. That show is how my mum's husband got to understand mum and I!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I agree! The concept of Lady Killers is very interesting! I have a similar one on my tbr: but idk how it is comparatively.

I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts on Ten, Gord! I read that one years ago and I think I liked it? 😂 it's been so long lol

[Elena]

@Gord that Kaiju Girl sounds interesting!

@Lili @Brittany though the Lady Killers concept is interesting, it's also pretty scary :D Usually those turn out to be much scarier and psycho.

[Jo]

Brittany wrote: "Elena, magical realism in dark gothic england does sound quite fitting! Also I really need to read more Austen.


Gord too bad Lady Killers got to be a bit dry as the concept is so intriguing. Look..."

Will do!

[Brittany]

After almost a month I finally finished . Its not that it was a bad book or anything it just wasn't keeping my attention for some reason so I was never picking it up. Well written though.

[Elena]

@Brittany totally understandable, I think we all have those books which are good but not the ones you swallow in one sitting.

[Jo]

Finished and it was exactly what I needed, something short and fun and engaging, I love hearing authors narrate their own work and Lauren Graham is just as brilliant and witty as she seems from Gilmore Girls!

Moving on to next, The Last Bookshop In London was a surprise favourite for me last year, so I'm really excited to see what Madeline Martin has done next.