Reading Update: Part One (!!!)

 

I have missed last 2 #TBRChallenges, but this month is Drama! themed. 

I'm NOT MISSING 

I leave for a trip on Monday, so my review will be late but NOT MISSING 

(please let someone on the plane ask me what I'm reading) 

Anyway, there's a parrot AND a panther on this cover, Drama! about to be exquisite 

Also, this starts Part One... (iykyk)

Halloween Bingo 2024

I am just now filling in my first bingo square 😥 Such a slow start to the game for me. 

But.....LOOK AT THAT FIRST SQUARE

Glorious 😈

Currently Reading

 for the bingo square  

 for the bingo square

Bingo squares and books (links to my review) read for them

Raven Middle Square - A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

Review: A Sorceress Comes to Call

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.4 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

No one noticed that Cordelia moved in unison with her mother. No one ever did. 

When a Sorceress Comes to Call was a historical magical realism story about a coming of age girl gaining the strength to fight back against her mother. Cordelia is fourteen years old and having stopped attending school years ago, only gains a sense of normalcy when a local girl Ellen can randomly meet up with her on one of her rides. Cordelia begins to realize that having a mother that is so controlling, not only of her thoughts but through what Cordelia calls “obedience”, where her mother actually controls her body, is not normal. It's when Cordelia gets a painful realization of betrayal that the only other friend she thought she had, her mother's horse Falada, tells her mother everything as her familiar and her mother does something that shines the light on what a true monster she is, that Cordelia begins to fight back, with some help. 

Fear took her suddenly by the throat, a formless dread with no name, no shape, only a sense that something was wrong, something terrible was coming this way. 

I thought this was a little less eerie than What Moves the Dead but you'll still find gruesome animal body horror, magic, supernatural elements, and thriller aspects. This was mainly told through Cordelia's eyes and the creepy tension and fear she feels from her mother was woven in strongly throughout the book. Once of the most powerful scenes for me was when Cordelia learned of Falada's betrayal. At this point, he's been her rock and the only one that seems to give Cordelia strength and when she lost that I hurt so bad for her and felt the numbness this gave her. (I must have some residual horse girl leftover from childhood because I refused to stop thinking that Falada wasn't on the side I wanted them to be for an embarrassing long time) We get a different pov when Cordelia's mom decides it's time to get a new benefactor, after she deals with her old one in a gruesome manner, and sets her sights on a squire a few towns over to marry. The squire's spinster sister Hester comes into the picture and with a little bit of magic herself, she senses right away that this new woman is “Doom”. 

My mother is a sorcerer. 

Around the midway point, Cordelia confides into Hester her fears of what her mother is and that she needs to be stopped; after what Hester has felt and seen, she doesn't need much convincing. The second half brings in more characters with friends of Hester that she writes to, under the guise of a house party, but really she's calling for reinforcements. Along with friends, she invites Richard, her old lover and the man that once asked her to marry him. Through them we get a little tiny romance thread that I enjoyed with their second chance romance and Hester finally mature enough to decide love is more important than letting the glare of societal expectations rule the day. Hester's more mature pov paired with Cordelia's youth, delivered a well rounded hitting all those emotions story. 

And part of her— a tiny part that she had never quite lost— wanted to be there and wanted it all to be true so that her mother would love her and maybe things would change. 

The ending delivered a, kind of quick, magical explanation (hitting the right “notes”??), along with the story's continued message of “water, wine, salt, and holy ground” dramatic end. There were winners, losers, and probably a lifetime of trauma from what was witnessed. The story was an enjoyable ride with it's really likable characters, a great seasonal read to pick up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Finally getting to my first Halloween Bingo book of the season! 

👻🎃 

A retelling of the Brother's Grimm Goose Girl 

Cordelia knows her mother isn't usual, she's eccentric, forces Cordelia to be silent and motionless for hours, and oh yeah, is a sorcerer. 

With only her mother's horse as her friend, Cordelia is forced to flee with her mother after a suspicious death. While Cordelia's mother tries to woo a country squire, his sister Hester tries to save him from the bewitchment and rescue Cordelia. 

We've got a wicked witch 🧙‍♀️ 

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher purchase link

Chicken Cheesesteak recipe

Review: This Will Be Fun

This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

What was a hero's purpose after the villains were vanquished? 

This Will Be Fun was a fantasy story about the emotional cost to saving a realm. The story starts from Galwell the Great's point-of-view as he's in his own head watching his three friends the night before they take on the dark powers Fraternal Order in a final battle. There's his sister Elowen who has Heart magic (ability to read people's emotions), and his friends Beatrice, who has Head magic (can “visit” memories), and Clare, a mercenary who keeps silent on what his magic is. They've been battling to save the realm of Mythria and it's the night before they reach the capital Queendom, where they'll hopefully rescue the land and the princess Galwell is betrothed to. After we get this quick introduction to the world and characters, the story then jumps ten years. 

Fame, and guilt. 

With alternating chapters from Beatrice, Clare, and Elowen's pov, readers learn what happened that final battle and the emotional fallout. They're heroes for saving the realm, celebrated each year with The Festival of the Four, but they haven't spoken to each other since that night ten years ago. Elowen keeps herself isolated in a tree house, Beatrice married a noble but is currently getting divorced, and Clare travels around the realm taking all the lauding the citizens want to heap on them. It's when the princess they saved is finally getting married that they must come together again. By thirty percent they're all together again, with added reformed assassin Vandra who now works for the princess. Beatrice's guilt, the horrible fight that broke up the friendship between Beatrice and Elowen, and the love that has been buried under hurt and anger between Clare and Beatrice bubble around them and keep the relations tense. When they get to Queendom and realize the princess', now queen, fiancé has been kidnapped, they realize they'll have to do one more quest. 

It was amazing how she'd helped save the entire realm and she'd come out of it as nothing but a loser. 

The searching for the fiancé sends them all out to travel around the mid-way point of the story, which I was kind of glad because while I was interested reading about the deep turmoil of what these characters had been through, it honestly got a bit slow and repetitive as the characters sat in their emotions. I think the lack of more solid character development, we get such a brief first introduction to them, and the immediate plunge into “I want to shun everything and everyone”, kept me from really getting into the characters; I didn't know them enough yet to feel for them.

Being together was only a reminder of who they'd lost. 

As they travel, it's Clare and Beatrice, Elowen and Vandra reaching and pulling away from each other for two second chance romances. I felt like the issues between the two did some repetitive saying their issue until suddenly, abrupt 180 into physical scenes. I missed more of seeing and feeling a working through to get to that awesome fireworks moment, there wasn't enough of building up for payoff, for me. The romances didn't quite deliver what I wanted and while the worldbuilding started off intriguing, it never developed enough for me either. The magic people are endowed with is relayed but not really woven into the world, plus Clare's magic reveal just felt quickly thrown out. I didn't mind the modern meshing, coffee shops, soap operas, face-timing, Uber, added in with a bare Medieval cloaking but I can see this as a your mileage may vary additive; kind of gave me movie A Knight's Tale vibes. 

“Each of us needs to face the Order.” He stared right into Beatrice's eyes, reminding her of their conversation. “For peace.” He looked next to Elowen. “For revenge.” He rounded, facing the queen. “For Galwell and for Hugh.” 

The first half felt dragged out to me and then the later second half ending felt rushed from jumping to resolution to resolution with half-explained, developed, magical moments (Sword of Souls, Beatrice's “new” magic) and romances that felt abruptly come together, I wanted more developmental work to feel those emotional payoffs. The characters were thirties and while I didn't get YA fantasy vibe, I'm not sure I felt their maturity either, the lack of character development. Even though there wasn't enough delving into the characters and world building for me, if you're looking for a first half that addresses hero emotional fallout and a second half that has them quest traveling, with magic and some cloaked modern additives, this would be a lighter fantasy to think about.

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Reading Update: 10%

 

How about a little lighter fantasy for midweek? 

10 years ago, a group of friends saved the realm, but at a high personal cost. 

After scattering, they must now come together for a wedding and face their demons and each other. 

With povs from all of the four heroes, we'll get two second chance romances and a shot at them finally getting their happily ever after. 

This sounds so intriguing, usually we get the initial adventure and saving the day, really curious about exploring the emotional fallout and learning to forgive and heal from the toll such things take. 

This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher preorder (Oct. 29) link

Shrimp Pasta with Garlic Sauce recipe

Review: No Ordinary Duchess

No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.7 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The girl from the library was a de Moray. The sister of Ranulf de Moray. His enemy. 

There was something absolutely comforting to me when I read that first excerpt of fairy tale, a tricorn was settled, and a greatcoat draped a set of wide shoulders. The first half and middle had me imagining a patchwork quilt where the design wasn't quite right. The recapping of the continued storyline of the first two books is done well enough but I still think you might want to brush up on the cold war between the de Moray's and Greycourt's. There is a lot of family member names thrown throughout and it could get confusing if you're not sure who is who. What started everything was Ranulf de Moray was accused of killing Aurelia Greycourt, causing him to be beaten, lose a hand, and now live as a recluse. The stars of this book are Ranulf's sister Lady Elspeth de Moray and Aurelia's brother Julian Greycourt. Elspeth and Julian meet in the Duke of Windemere's library and from there attraction and circumstances have them invading each other's orbit. 

His every expression, every little move was studied, picked apart, and held against him until Julian had learned to hold himself still, to express neither joy nor sorrow nor anger. He’d buried all his thoughts and feelings so deeply inside himself that sometimes he thought he’d lost them altogether. 

After the drama of Ranulf and Aurelia, the siblings are left with the fallout. Julian ends up being sent to live with his uncle, who he's the heir, with his brother Quinn and mother, while his sisters were sent to a different uncle. Elspeth, with her two other sisters, get sent to live with an aunt, who then dies and they get taken in by the Wise Women. If you read the first two books, you'll remember some of the story around the Wise Women, a group whispered to be witches but really just a commune of women living on their own terms. At this point, there is a sort of civil war going on between the Wise Women and Elspeth is determined to find a diary, rumored to be hidden in a Greycourt library, of one of the first Wise Women to help her advocate for them to get back to their original intent. Julian has forever been looking for ways to put a stop to having to bend to his uncle's evil machinations and finally gets word that his mother wrote her own diary hidden in the margins of a book and what she wrote will destroy his uncle. To the library, everyone! 

He drew her to her feet with no effort but then pulled her closer so that they were nearly embracing. She could feel his breath on her lips when he spoke. “I hope, for your sake, that I can trust you.” 

With Elspeth's background of growing up in a matriarchal commune, she doesn't understand or want to adhere to societal norms, and Julian's cold childhood and being taught to hide his feelings for fear his uncle will go after whatever he loves, you can see the grumpy/sunshine forming. There's also the added “unnatural” desires Julian has, he's a submissive in the bedroom. Fortunately, “I've read about it in a book” Elspeth takes to dominating him like a duck to water and the second half gets to deliver on one of Hoyt's strengths, hot bedroom scenes. There was also the added danger of if there are one or two assassins trying to kill Elspeth or Julian or both. 

Dear God, Elspeth de Moray was dangerous, but not for the reasons he’d first assumed. 

Now, with all the patches I've laid out, you can see how this would be a complicated quilt design, and the flow kind of took a hit at times. There came a point where there were a lot of familial and Wise Women characters to keep track of, the Wise Women storyline I was finding hard to care about, and the evil uncle stayed a little too much to the background for me to really feel the danger. The romance felt like it got boxed in a bit and came down to Elspeth instantly just knowing how to dominate Julian, which did provide some hot but I wanted more of the emotional outside of the bedroom to feel the love building and growing. But, if you're a library scene person, you'll get plenty of that here. 

“I’ve tried resisting you,” he murmured, his voice deep. 

The ending gave us a betrayal by Elspeth, which felt a little forced because I think the groundwork was there character wise and how she thought/felt about Julian to trust him more, to deliver the black moment. Things move kind of quickly from there and the wrap-up felt a little everything working out with a bow and then a very last second danger moment (seriously, my Kindle said 93%) that delivered an ending that felt somewhat abrupt in action but character wise, emotionally was alright, plus there was a “one month later” little epilogue to give us more of a solid closure. There are plenty of siblings left for their own story, added clues to further some story plots, and dangling threads with the Wise Women and Aurelia and Ranulf storyline to keep this series going. It's a series you'll have to want to stay on your toes with but Hoyt is usually worth it, in interesting plot (albeit disjointed this time), a setting, Georgian, that doesn't get published as much, and hot chemistry. 

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50%

I'm halfway through, so I feel secure enough to say that the GRs synopsis needs to be changed. 

I'd forgotten how much it strikes a cord in me to read the words "tricorn" and "greatcoat" 😍 

Also, you're going to want to brush up on the de Moray and Greycourt family beef. It's recapped fine but the beginning could hurt you getting into this as this starts pretty much were the second left off

Reading Update: Page 1

 I held off as long as I could, a long weekend calls for it

I am about to have myself a time! 

I've been waiting for the icy Duke Julian and the shy Elspeth's story for YEARS 

He's cold and calculated, she's thoughtful and compassionate and she's hoping a marriage between them will strengthen the truce between their families. 

Feed this kind of setup into my veins! 

No Ordinary Duke by Elizabeth Hoyt preorder (Dec. 10th) link

Review: Ain't She Sweet

Ain't She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.7 stars 

Quick wrap-up: Woman limps back to her hometown where she was a capital B, trying to find a painting left to her by her aunt. The teacher who she lied about and got fired owns her childhood home now and is out for revenge, along with everyone else in town. It was all “young tough girl in a push-up bra” because her dad ignored her but showered love on his illegitimate family, but she still refuses as an adult to let down her wall but everyone eventually figures out she's got some caring in her. 

Fighting, flirting, grit, tears, dated-ness, and laughter. 

And Gordon, he should have gotten a pov! 

It was cold outside. She rested her cheek against his shirtfront. He wasn’t even breathing hard as he carried her across the yard with Gordon leading the way. 

“Furthermore,” he went on, “you will be rested. And”—he gripped her tighter—“sweet-tempered.” 

“You had more to drink than I thought.” She yawned and closed her eyes. “Go ahead and admit it. You’re afraid of me.” 

“Terrified is more like it.” 

She burrowed deeper into his chest. “I’m a handful, all right.” 

“My worst nightmare.” 

Oof, this story. It is, obviously, aged in some areas. He was her high school teacher and some of the lines he has when he thinks about how she looked back then, Cringe. But, also, there was a raw fearlessness to the writing, the characters make mistakes, they're so far from perfect, but gah, that delivered hit you in the gut emotion. This was also that blend of funny wild, almost off the rails that the late '90s-early-to-mid 00s had. 

He wore the raunchiest pair of Levi’s she’d ever seen—threadbare in the right knee, a hole in the butt—an equally ratty gray T-shirt, worn work gloves, and scuffed, dirt-encrusted brown work boots, one of which had a knot holding the shoelace together. An honest-to-God smudge ran up alongside that gorgeous honker of a nose. And he’d never looked more irresistible. She scowled. “Even your hair’s a mess.” 

I don't even know how to articulate how this descriptive scene makes me feel, but it does, and it's such a blip on the radar scene but I see his hotness and I feel how it makes her feel. It's one of those, we're losing the recipes examples for me. 

He didn’t say it sarcastically, but she stiffened, and he cursed the part of him that was so terrified of the sentimental that he tainted everything with cynicism, even when he didn’t intend it. 

I hate when books personally call me out. 

Anyway, this felt Adult, whether it was the emotions, actions, or words, relentlessly adult. 

Since you are a lunatic, however, this is the only way.” 

“You planned this from the beginning, didn’t you?” 

“Let’s simply say that you’re not the sort of woman who can be permitted to run amok.” 

One of the best love you warts and all story 

*I didn't know you used to have to get a blood test before you got your marriage license??? I was enjoying the HEA ending and this little line “Leeann dragged Sugar Beth to the lab for her blood test.” had me losing my mind and Googling for an hour. I hate I'm this way but now I can say, “I learned it from a Romance book!”

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Review: The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

She’d recruited the sexy, town fisherman to help her have an adventurous end of summer/end of her twenties and she was suddenly feeling as though she was in way over her head. 

Hazel has worked at the same bookstore since the end of her sophomore year of highschool, about to turn thirty she's suddenly realizing that she's never done anything wild and crazy. When books start popping up in her bookstore, dog-eared (the horror!) and highlighted lines such as ‘Come with me, lass, if you want an adventure.’, she decides it's time to be a little reckless and follow the clues for a sort of scavenger hunt of adventure. Add in Noah, the new cute fisherman in town, who agrees to help her on the hunt and Hazel's about to have the summer of her life. 

He was looking at her like he knew that she had taken that book home and read it cover to cover and that the pirate she was picturing looked nothing like the one on the cover... 

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store was a cute small-town read about two people who thought they weren't good enough, only to discover they're perfect for each other. Hazel has lived in Dream Harbor all her life and feels boring, as she's the stay at home snuggle with a book over going to a party kind of gal and Noah never finished highschool and feels like his boat tours isn't successful enough compared to his family's seafood company empire. They're both attracted to each other, but Noah doesn't feel good enough for Hazel and Hazel thinks the younger by five years Noah is too hot and cool for her. As they spend time together with the clues leading them to getting tipsy in a blueberry patch, kissing on a Ferris wheel, and getting caught up on a boat in a storm, they realize they actually have things in common and genuinely like each other. 

The cutest guy in town had given her his sweatshirt and she could barely stand it. 

Everything is kept pretty light vibes in this, Hazel and Noah's self-confidence are their main hurdle, coming to terms her path in life is perfect for her and someone as good-looking as Noah would be attracted to her and Noah realizing he is smart and responsible enough to hold his head up around his family and friends. This had a little bit of a Jill Shalivs feel to it, with the big friend group and series baiting characters, cute moments, and plenty of bedroom scenes. I thought the second half started to feel slower as their self-esteem issues seemed to get dragged out for more page count. The ending had three scenes where I was like “Ok, this is the end. Oh, wait there's more”, and it kind of killed some of those finalized HEA moments, but maybe others will enjoy the more than one HEA. 

Maybe she hadn’t needed to change her life, maybe she’d just needed to change how she saw her life. How she saw herself. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, I just think it needed to be wrapped up a bit quicker. If you're looking for sweet, sexy, and a small-town ripe with singles that have potential future book hook-ups written all over them, this would be a great pick-up.

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