Reading Update: Page 1

 

For Halloween Bingo, I always try to read a variety of spooky picks. Ending the week with this middle-grade ghost story. 

👻👻👻 

With her parents getting a divorce, Alice is going with her mom to a small town where her mom will be a live-in nurse to a rich elderly lady. 

Alice finds a dollhouse that is an exact replica of the home they're currently staying in. Then Alice wakes up to a girl, that looks just like one of the dolls in the dollhouse in her room! 

Spooky! 

The Dollhouse by Charis Cotter purchase link

Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad recipe

Review: Body of Evidence

Body of Evidence by Irene Hannon
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. 

After all, what were the odds that the deaths of two older residents of rural Missouri who didn't appear linked in any way and who had no fortune worth stealing could be anything but natural? 

Body of Evidence is book three in the Triple Threat series about the Reilly sisters. Youngest sister Grace is a forensic pathologist who travels six rural Missouri counties doing autopsies. When what looks like an attempted robbery may or may not have led to the death of an older woman, Grace conducts the autopsy and sees odd similarities to another older man's death. Coincidences that could easily be written off but when she finds what looks like sunflower seeds in both their stomachs, it bothers her enough to talk to the new Sheriff. Sheriff Nate has only been four months on the job but as former Special Forces, it doesn't take him much to get up to speed. He's willing to look a little further into these deaths, especially when it will give him more time around Grace. 

He could let her walk away---or lay it on the line and possibly set himself up for a fall. 

I hadn't read the previous books in the series but had no problem jumping in as this was fully Grace's story. Her sisters make appearances and bring in some of that sibling love and dynamics that I enjoy. With parents and a brother that had passed away, Nate only had a sister-in-law to show readers other sides of his personality and I missed him having a friend dynamic. He was in a dead end relationship of eight months when he meets Grace but after feeling the spark with Grace, he breaks up with her. This is Christian fiction, so the talk of morals and values comes on quick and their relationship is more about sensing each other is “The One”, they don't even get to go on a first date and readers won't see lingering touches until the epilogue. 

Maybe the murderer had, indeed, devised the perfect homicide. 

But she wasn't about to cede victory to BK until every stone had been overturned. 

The murder mystery was the main story here and we get povs from numerous people; players, the villain, and red-herrings. I liked how readers were let in on the why, insurance fraud scheme, and a who, an insurance salesman Dave is being blackmailed for cheating on his wife and forced to sell bogus claims to older citizens at the instance of a mysterious “BK”. The main villain pov of BK gives us their thoughts, feelings, and why they're doing this, bitter about how they're life turned out and enjoying how they're getting the best of people by being so smart but it's up to the reader to try and find out the identity of BK along with Grace and Nate. It was fun to have a little more information that Grace and Nate and travel along with them as they worked to figure things out but still keep some of the mystery for the reader to guess at as they don't know the identity of BK either. 

Because almost from the day they'd met, he'd known Grace Reilly was special---and that this moment would come. 

This was closer to a police procedural, mystery, than a romance for me but Grace and Nate do keep in touch throughout with conversations, they just happen to be mostly conversations about autopsies. I missed some of that relationship development as they immediately just felt like there was The One possibilities with the other. As I mentioned, this is Christian fiction so along with the more common no getting physical and no cursing, there was minimal mentions of going to church. I read very few Christian fiction, so the part where the reverend was automatically considered a trustworthy witness solely because he was a man of god made my eye twitch a bit, the underlining linking of stronger morals and values to religious people, and the tone that rural areas are automatically better than urban was a little off-putting to me. Obviously, elements that probably wouldn't bother regular Christian readers and I was a little shocked at the more to the side the talk of church and prayer was. If you're looking for a police procedural murder mystery (the instrument used for death was very interesting) with some feelings between the sheriff and forensic pathologist, this could be one to pick up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Lunch time reading! 

Forensic pathologist Grace thinks she is starting to see a pattern while doing autopsies of elderly residents and she brings her concerns to Sheriff Nate. 

Natural causes or something more sinister? Better fall in love while you figure it out! 

Have a great weekend, friends 

Body of Evidence by Irene Hannon purchase link

Cheesy Kielbasa, Rice and Broccoli Skillet recipe

Halloween Bingo 2022

A pointy fence! The horrors!! And a pretty accurate depiction of the candy crazed look in my eye after buying the Halloween candy too early 

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

Dark, Darker, Grimdark - Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide

Dystopian Hellscape - The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis

A Grimm Tale - Honeycomb by Joanne M. Harris and Illustrated by Charles Vess

Monsters - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Halloween - The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

The Barrens - The Undertaking of Hart of Mercy by Megan Bannen

Modern Masters of Horror - My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Raven middle square - Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater

Plague and Diseases - Immortality:  A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

Day of the Dead - The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Sword and Sorcery - The Rogue Crown by A.K. Mulford

Review: The Rogue Crown

The Rogue Crown by A.K. Mulford
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. 

The Western Court Queen is dead. 

Third in the Five Crowns of Okrith series, The Rogue Crown, follows Briata Catullus as she travels to the Western Court after being called for help by her friend and casual lover Delta. Delta is the Captain of the Queen's Guard and has been injured after a fatal attack on the Queen. Delta wants Bri to help find out who orchestrated the attack and protect the heir, Princess Abalina. I know third in a fantasy series can seem like an intimating place to start and I was nervous but the author smoothly incorporated details of the world and character relationships that didn't use info dumping but worked to catch me up and place me in the world. New readers could start here but as I enjoyed this one so much, I'm definitely going back to the beginning and reading how this all started. 

The Eagle will seize the crown from its sovereign. 

After reading and gaining a foothold in this story, one of the aspects I found myself getting excited about is how this series seems to be laid out overall. The five crowns series title calls out the five courts that make up Okrith. The High Mountain Court (book 1 – Remy and Hale), Northern Court (2 – Rua and Renwick), Western Court (3 – Bri and Lina), Southern Court (possible 4 with possible Talhan and Neelo), and Eastern Court (possible 5 with possible Carys and ?). I've been dying for an adult fantasy romance series that is laid out like this, each individual book focuses on a main couple but the books link together through a continuous story thread. From what I can gather from starting in book 3, a Northern King fell leaving all five courts in disarray and each court is trying to stabilize while one of our main villains, Augustus Norwood is trying to get any and all crowns he can. It's a fantasy world of witches (their different colored magic signifies what kind of witch they are, healer, gardener, seer, etc.), fae, and humans set in a Medieval-ish time. And since this is fantasy, we've got to have our prophecies. When Bri was born with her twin brother Talhan, it was prophesied that the “Eagle will seize the crown”. This freaked out the Western Queen, Bri's birthplace, and the Queen banished Bri's family, making Bri's mother extremely bitter and for the rest of Bri's life trying to shape her into someone who would eventually destroy the Western Queen and return her family to glory in the West. 

They were hunting masked assassins and a deranged prince with violet witch magic. 

The first half of this definitely leaned more into the fantasy and setting up the micro singular book issue of Bri trying to fret out who the witch hunters in the lion masks were that attacked and killed the Western Queen with some kind of violet poison and guarding Lina. The macro issue being the overall series thread of Norwood's villainy hovering around and if he's connected to the Queen's death. There's credible red-herrings with secondary characters, possible jilted wife, the head brown witch healer, council members, fiancé, guards, and Norwood for Bri to investigate. Of course, we also get the romance sparking up as Bri has to guard Lina and it starts off as a slow burn. I thought the investigation sputtered around some as there was a good amount of other minor story threads going around, Lina being a sort of Robin Hood (did we really need this?), and I wish the investigation plot could have been focused on with more concrete action. When the search for answers takes them to a library in the Southern Court, I really felt the sputtering as the pace slowed some but in this second half the romance heats up and we get open door (in the stables! in the library!) payoff to that slow burn. 

“I wish you didn't make it so hard to hate you.” 

“I wish you'd stop hating me,” Bri countered, her eyes dropping to Lina's parted, breathless lips. 

The later second half brings in Bri's brother and friends that were in the previous books and we get a gang is all together again that I'm sure series readers will enjoy; it made this newbie want to immediately read Remy and Hale's book. Bri and Lina have their late act angst breakup and then we get some battle scenes that I was waiting for in an otherwise more quiet story. Not having read the previous books, I'm not sure if they were more battle/action heavy and this book's tone would be a welcome calm reprieve in the series overall, or if they're all more toned quietly. For a fantasy story, I was expecting more battle action and while there were some action skirmishes, I can see some finding this too quiet for a book that has a battleaxe on the cover. I'll be curious when I go back to read the previous books how this fits into the series. 

“Isn't it obvious? You've seen that purple smoke.” His eyebrows lifted as he flashed an unsettling grin. “The violet witches are back.” 

I thought the ending reveal of this story's villain was a bit too fast, I like to savor moments that have been the story's main lead-up, but fit into the overall series thread. It connected the hovering Norwood while also bringing in some answers about the violet witches that have been thought long dead. There was also a great lead-in to, what I think is going to be book 4, concerning Bri's brother Talhan and the heir to the Southern Court. 

“Why are the best things the ones we're too afraid to get right?” 

There was repeated usage of “smirked” and “snickered” in the beginning that was almost starting to drive me crazy but, thankfully, died off deeper in the book, so hang on if that bothers you. The first half leaned more fantasy and the second half delivered on the promise of the slow burn between Bri and Lina. I wish there could have been more balance between the two elements of fantasy and romance throughout, instead of the halved feeling but I greatly enjoyed their story and the overall series world-building. It's not urban fantasy but I can see the cross-over love from Ilona Andrews' fans to this sword and sorcery fantasy series. Each book delivering a romance while the series follows a continuing world-building and story thread, sign me up. 

“I don't care what the Fates whisper; all I hear is your name.”

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40%

 

Bri waited to speak until Lina opened her eyes again. She held Lina's midnight gaze as she whispered, "I won't let anything happen to you. I promise you that."

"Of all the people I shouldn't believe, it's you." Lina yawned, her eyes fluttering closed again. "But I do believe you, for what it's worth, enemy or no."

"I'm not your enemy," Bri whispered, her eyes drifting closed.

"No." Lina's voice grew distant, the undertow of sleep pulling on her every word. "But neither are you my ally. You are something entirely your own, Briata Catullus. I just wish I knew what."

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Am I crazy for starting with book 3 in a fantasy series? Maybe! Possibly! But excited to jump in. 

Bri is a young fae warrior investigating the murder of her queen and trying to protect the princess. Bri just might also be falling for the princess. Oooooh! 

Fae, danger, romance, and a grilled cheese sandwich for me this afternoon! 

The Rogue Crown by A.K. Mulford preorder (Oct. 25) link

Garlic Naan Grilled Cheese recipe 

Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars

At such times, Carlota, despite loving her father beyond all words, felt her heart twist with bitterness because the way he gazed at the portrait and that other way his eyes seemed to skim over her told her clearly in his heart his dead wife and child reigned supreme. She was a poor substitute. 

I was excited to pick this up because as a youngin' in 1996 I saw the movie The Island of Dr. Moreau (I saw another review mention this movie and called it a “cringe fest”, lol) and the impression it made on me! I haven't seen that movie in decades and I can still remember scenes from it. So, good or bad, I had a foot in this world already and was ready to see the story told from the Dr.'s daughter. I did feel a twinge of disappointment when I saw the daughter Carlota was going to be sharing top billing with Montgomery, this is told in dueling pov chapters. 

Not going to lie, the first 20% of this was rough for me, very tough to get into as we're just dropped into the world that is already in motion and with all the characters thrown at you, it's tough to gain a foothold. The good part, I was already familiar with the world, so I had an idea of what was happening. Montgomery is an alcoholic Englishman who drinks because he feels like he failed his sister when she married an abuser and is separated from his wife (he composes letters to her in his mind). He double dips in the vices and is also in debt from gambling to a Lizadle. Lizadle sets him up to work with Dr. Moreau. This is set in Yaxaktun (Yucatan) and when Montgomery arrives he's introduced to what Dr. Moreau is doing, experimenting with human and animal DNA to create, what he calls, hybrids. 

Montgomery is drunk and desperate enough to stay and he's also a little drawn to Dr. Moreau's daughter, Carlota. There was a slight underlining ick factor as Carlota is only 14 at this time and Montgomery is 29. But then Part 2 jumps us six years. Set in this location and time period, late 1800s, the author adds in the secondary storyline of the Maya trying to fight for independence from the Mexican people. Lizadle is funding Dr. Moreau so that the hybrids he creates can be used for forced labor. Readers know that Dr. Moreau is trying to create the “perfect” human because of his grief over losing his wife and baby daughter to illness. 

When Lizadle's son makes a surprise visit to the their little “sanctuary” and falls for Carlota, things start to unravel. Montgomery seems to have some jealousy he is trying to cloak as protecting Carlota, Carlota seems to genuinely like the son but also is trying to be a dutiful daughter and listen to her father over how important it is to marry the son so that she can secure the sanctuary's funding for the foreseeable future. 

While I had a firm footing in the world because of previous knowledge and I think that helped with this story's more chaotic beginning, it also hurt how I'm not sure anything new was done here. The change of location and adding in Juan Cumux and the Maya's fight for freedom inspiring and nudging two of Dr. Moreau's most prominent hybrids, Lupe and Cachito, was too much to the side. The theme of colonization was strong here but I think the wildness of what Dr. Moreau was doing took the spotlight and so I felt left with secondary characters that felt like they didn't reach their full potential. 

At 70% and Part 3 is when a secret about Carlota is revealed and again, since I knew the story, I already knew the secret. I think already knowing the story tampered some horror feelings, shock, and awe that this story can deliver. The end moves at a clip that after the slower middle felt a little uneven but delivers a satisfactory ending. 

I would call this science fiction with romance notes but don't read this for those romance notes because it has a, very slight, Lolita twinge. I came for the daughter's story and I'm not sure I got as much Carlota as I wanted, she was still, mostly, Dr. Moreau's creation, and half the story was told from Montgomery's perspective. I didn't get anything new in this inspiration but newcomers to the story would have a different reaction.

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Review: Immortality

Immortality by Dana Schwartz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

Hazel was almost entirely alone at Hawthornden Castle. 

Immortality is the sequel to Anatomy and I highly suggest that you read the first in this duology before picking up this one. In the first, we were introduced to late teenagers Hazel and Jack. Hazel comes from a titled family, however, her older brother died from Roman Fever sending her mother into perpetual grief and her father is off guarding Napoleon. Hazel wanted to be a surgeon, so she dressed as a boy to get into the Anatomists school and from there she meets Jack, a resurrection man and Dr. Beecham. The first ends with Jack getting hung for being judged guilty of being the Kirkland Killer and Dr. Beecham disappearing after he gives Hazel a tincture that he claims if drunk, makes you immortal. Hazel gave the tincture to Jack but readers were left with only an unsigned letter saying: “Come find me in America.” 

The envelope was thick and blood red, and sealed with red wax stamped in the shape of a human brain. It was addressed, in red ink almost invisible on the envelope but for the way it glistened in the candlelight. Her name was on the front of the envelope, written in perfect script: Miss Hazel Sinnett. 

This one starts readers off with a jump back in the past to 1794 Paris and the famous chemists Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier. Antoine is being lead to the guillotine and Marie-Anne is surging forward to give him a tincture. This was a good little insight to the origins of the tincture before we jump back to the present of 1818 in Edinburgh and see how Hazel is doing after Jack's hanging and breaking off her engagement with her cousin. Although Hazel never took the doctor's exam, she's thought of as a surgeon and people, rich and poor, go to her for ailments. She's a curiosity barely clinging to propriety. When a woman comes to her after trying to abort her baby, Hazel's maid warns her she's putting herself in danger but Hazel brushes her off. This first half has us seeing Hazel mourning Jack, not certain if that one sentence letter was from him and getting imprisoned under the charge of helping a woman with abortion. 

She felt guilty, as if she had betrayed Jack by kissing Simon, and betrayed him again by enjoying her kiss with Simon so much. 

In Calton Gaol, Hazel spends a few weeks realizing the consequences of chasing her dream of being a surgeon, losing friends and family. After a sham of a trial and found guilty, Hazel is thinking she is being lead out to her hanging but instead a carriage is waiting for her. It turns out that Princess Charlotte has some mysterious disease and the Prince Regent has sent for Hazel thinking Charlotte will let a female surgeon near her. The story then moves to London and we get Hazel trying to treat the princess, starting a friendship, that maybe could be more, with the King's personal doctor Simon von Ferris, and the introduction of the secret society, Companions to the Death. The princess' illness was obviously to get Hazel to London and the secret society. At first, it was pretty wishy-washy with Hazel and the princess, it takes a while for the princess to even allow Hazel in the room with her and until the later second half, this thread was more to the side. The Companions to the Death was a intriguing addition and I wish we could have spent more time there. In a sort of Death Becomes Her thread, Hazel is introduced to the society that includes the likes of the Lavoisiers, Lord Bryon, and Voltaire. They're all missing their pinky and claim to be immortal. After someone gets shot and Hazel sees how their body responds, she believes them and after seeing her skill as a surgeon, they want her to drink the tincture and join their ranks. However, like Bruce Willis, Hazel doesn't want eternal life and she becomes an honorary member. 

Jack Currer, the boy Hazel had loved and lost, made eye contact from across the room. 

With the fleshing out of the immortality thread starting in the first, there was a little political talk/atmosphere of the day with the mad King George and the people pinning their hopes on Princess Charlotte. This political atmosphere gets tied in with the Companions to the Death but I can't say if was fully, clearly done and felt somewhat rushed cobbled together at the end. What I know a lot of readers are waiting for, at around 60%, yes, Jack makes an appearance. We get a flashback from Jack's point-of-view and learn what happened to him. There's some hurt from Hazel about him not contacting her, Jack thinking they had no future, and some questioning of what Hazel wants out of life as Simon and Jack both seem like roads she could travel. 

“My heart is yours,” he said. “Beating or still.” 

This had more of those Gothic feeling tones of the first and leaning towards gruesome with some of the ailments Hazel treats, some political messaging, deciding what matters to you most in life, and some late danger and heroics. There were some meandering moments that I thought could have been edited for expediency and the storytelling didn't feel as tight as it could of but Hazel and Jack got an ending I think readers will be happy with.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

It snowed today! 

❄️😭❄️ 

I think I deserve these Halloween vibing cinny rolls and sequel to Hazel and Jack's story. 

Historical YA fantasy with mystery and Gothic vibes. Looks like this time Hazel gets entangled with the British court and members of the Companions to the Death club looming on the sidelines. Where does Jack play in all this? 

Have a fantastic weekend, friends! 

Immortality: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz preorder (Feb. 28, 2023) link

Review: Christmas in Blue Dog Valley

Christmas in Blue Dog Valley by Annie England Noblin
My rating: 2 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. 

Blue Dog Valley, Wisconsin, had not been in Goldie's five-, ten-, or even fifteen-year plan. 

As a vet to animal tv and movie stars, Goldie doesn't always love her high-maintenance clientele owners but loves the business she has worked to build up with her fiance, even if he considers it his business. At forty, Goldie is scared to start over but when her fiance of ten years, who's at least tried to keep his cheating discreet, gives his newest paramour a job as a vet tech in their business, Goldie decides that she's done. After a night of too much wine and chatting with one of her computer pen pals, Goldie is on the way to Wisconsin to do a trial run at taking over a small-town vet clinic. 

It was an odd feeling, Goldie thought, to have a life full of people and still feel alone. 

Christmas in Blue Dog Valley was a cute fish out of water, but game, holiday story that never lacked animals stealing the show. When Goldie arrives in Wisconsin, she's picked up by Cohen Gable, an early thirties grump and town farrier, who doesn't exactly trust outsiders and isn't ready to see his vet for years give his business over to some L.A. big city transplant. Cohen's not exactly unfriendly but he's not friendly either, but right away readers will sense the attraction between the two. Goldie was a fun character to follow along with and her friendship with her older, cantankerous vet tech Tiffany, who, begrudgingly, shows her the ropes around the small town, was a solid friendship to cheer for. The romance between Goldie and Cohen flickers in and out but Goldie starting to fit into the town was really the star of the show. This was heavier on the small-town fiction aspects than romance but even with it's Hallmark movie vibe, there was a quick, not too detailed open door scene.

If someone had told her two months ago that by the beginning of November, she'd be sitting in a shabby cabin in Wisconsin, drinking whiskey alone out of a John Deere mug, she would have laughed hysterically. 

At each chapter heading, there were adorable illustrations of some of the animals, Cohen's dog Peanut Butter and his therapy alpaca Alice, and some of the tutu wearing goats. While cute little additions to the story, I thought the middle started to slow some with each addition of Goldie taking care of various animals. It works to take Goldie around the town to introduce the townspeople but even my animal loving self started to grow tired of the animal ailments interrupting what I wanted more of, the romance and holiday festivities. At around 30% Goldie saves a dog from bloat and that has the townspeople trusting her and they start to welcome her in more. Then in the second half, the story becomes more about Goldie getting roped into reviving the Christmas Carnival that holiday obsessed Blue Dog Valley used to put on, until the bypass diverted traffic away, almost killing their little town. 

Goldie ran in front of him, jumping up onto the bottom porch step so that she was at eye level. “Well, I think it's probably time somebody is a thorn in your side,” she said. 

“And you think you're the person to do it?” Cohen asked. “I hate to break it to you, Dr. McKenzie, but better women have tried.” 

Goldie crossed her arms over her chest. “There is no woman better than me, Mr. Gable.” 

“Is that right?” 

“That's right.” Cohen took a step closer to her, so close that they were nearly touching. 

As Goldie is trying to organize the carnival, we get some backstory on Cohen, his mother dying when he was ten, gaining a step-mother and step-brother, only to lose his step-mother while in highschool. The alcohol and drug abuse talk, along with a pet death definitely dragged down the lighter, sweeter tone I was personally looking for, especially since it was in the latter second half and felt rushed together. I wanted to be dazzled by the Christmas carnival but the story rushed that too, I would have loved for Goldie and Cohen to spend more time walking through the winter wonderland of lights and perhaps a hay ride but we get a lost little girl and Cohen thinking Goldie lied to him about not respecting his privacy in something and overhearing her friend who came to town to visit her, calling their town “podunk holler.” 

From underneath the blanket, Cohen's hand found hers, and she unfurled her fingers and let him trace constellations in her palm of her hand as he pointed each one out to her. 

This delivered, what I see more as, a happy for now ending. I was looking for a little more sweet and cute but if you're looking for a woman with gumption with some fish out of water success, a few lightly touched on heavier topics, some small-town fiction dynamics, and a good amount of animals of all varieties getting some spotlight, this could be your pick and you get the bonus of Kevin the valley's worst sheepdog.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Look at this cover! 

😍😍😍 

Sneaking in a holiday story and having some lunch outside, on what will probably be my last nice day before it cools down for winter. 

Goldie is a L.A. vet who transplants to small town Wisconsin, there's a therapy alpaca and sweater wearing goats!, and most importantly, Cohen, the attractive town grump. 

❄️🎄🐶 

I'm so excited for this holiday romance that looks like it's going to hit all those sweet spots (there's even a Christmas carnival!) 

Christmas in Blue Dog Valley by Annie England Noblin purchase link

Sweet Potato Chicken Poppers recipe

Review: Half a Soul

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
My rating: 3 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. 

Half a Soul was a fantasy, magical realism story set in Regency England. When Theodora Ettings (Dora) was ten years old, Lord Hollowvale, a fae, attempts to steal her soul, claiming her mother sold it to him years ago. In the midst of stealing it, Dora's cousin Vanessa comes up behind him and stabs him in the leg with a pair of iron embroidery scissors. Iron to fae is deadly and while it gets Lord Hollowvale to run away, he does get half of Dora's soul. When Dora's aunt sees one of Dora's eyes has changed to grey, she knows Dora is fae-cursed and swears Dora and Vanessa to secrecy, so the family isn't shunned. The story then jumps nine years in the future and we see how only having half a soul has affected Dora. 

Elias blinked at her. “I will admit,” he said, “you are proving to be far more interesting than I first assumed, Miss Ettings.” 

This was a very soft and light magical realism story and even though there are evil fae, they are portrayed as exaggerated dandys, thinking they are better than the humans of the day but also trying to top their cultural norms; Lord Hollowvale wears five coats to show his wealth. While Dora is fae-cursed with only half a soul, it's still business as usual and since her cousin Vanessa is eighteen, going to London for the season is still a must. Readers begin to realize that Dora's aunt isn't the kindest to her and often calls her a puppet. Lord Hollowvale seems to have taken the emotional side of Dora and left her with never feeling anything. With the help of her cousin Vanessa, Dora learns how she should react in situations and after saying something, Dora often reads people's reactions and begins to tell that what she said wasn't right or “normal”.

And maybe Dora was imagining it, but she thought that perhaps Elias was thinking something similar – that he gained some small comfort from holding onto her, and that it would be difficult for him to set that comfort aside. 

We learn that Vanessa agreeing to go to London was dual purpose, she hopes to get the Lord Sorcier, Elias Wilder, to cure Dora. While there isn't much world building, there actually doesn't need to be too much because this is magical realism and if you know about London in the 1810s, you know the world, with just added fae and magic interjected. Elias has a dangerous reputation, he seems to have come from nowhere, earning the title of Lord Sorcier after fighting Napoleon's army in France and with fear and suspected humble beginnings, society doesn't exactly welcome him. He has a friend Albert who he met in the war. Albert is a physician with titled parents, he saved Elias' life and Elias in turn saved Albert by creating a silver arm for him when shrapnel took his. When Dora wanders into a magical bookshop during a downpour and Elias comes up behind her, I felt that spark between them. 

“Are faeries and magicians both afraid of scissors, then?” 

Elias agrees to try and help Dora but he's also working on curing a plague, a sleeping plague that seems to mostly be affecting children. I love when magical realism takes a real world mystery (encephalitis lethargica, most notably early 1900s) and works to give it reason by creating a fantasy explanation. It's a great part of story-telling, working out those emotions that sometimes have nowhere to go. In fact, this story seemed to be an adult version of children's books where things not deemed “normal” in the real world were laid out to show that just because things or people are “different” doesn't mean that they don't deserve respect or love. Dora read coded as Autistic spectrum disorder to me, her not feeling emotions as other people or reading social interactions correctly. Thinking this throughout had me actually not anticipating the ending because I worried how her only having half her soul was going to play out. I don't want to spoil the ending but I'm going to tell you right now, it's handled perfectly in way that respects Dora and the messaging threaded throughout the story. Dora, rightly, was the star of the show but there was other messaging of war and economic inequality that added to that children's book style but with adults I mentioned. 

Elias leaned closer towards her under cover of the dim starlight. Dora stared at him, entranced, as his forehead pressed lightly to hers. 

“I don't want to wake up either,” he whispered. 

She felt his breath along her cheek as he said the words. The whisper shivered its way into her heart, and Dora thought, Oh dear. Because she was now quite sure that she was in love. 

The romance between Dora and Elias had sweet moments, you're only going to get a true love's kiss, kind of off-screen at that, but I could still feel the something between them. This was a quick read, a little over 200pgs, and I thought paced out just right. Around 60% we learn a secret about Elias and then Lord Hollowvale comes back into the picture as Dora gets trapped with the fae, learns what happened to the other half of her soul (this part was a little wonky) and the sleeping plague comes into play in a big way. The ending doesn't wrap everything up in a perfect bow but with the resolution with Dora, like I said, perfect. When Elias tells Dora that he fell in love with her exactly as she was, I can see some readers getting a tear in their eye. 

Very light on the fantasy aspects and angst, this was a magical realism story that cloaked its messaging in a sweet way. There were human machinations, mama's trying to marriage mart scheme, and fae evil doings. A great early October read to dip your toe into an otherworldly setting that was sweet and charming.

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50%

 

"There is such a thing as evil in this world," Elias told her quietly. "It does not help to look away from it. It does not even help necessarily to look at it." His fingers brushed through her hair, and she shivered. "But sometimes, when you cannot force the world to come to its senses, you must settle only for wiping away some of the small evils in front of you."

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Having a quiet Sunday morning with these goodies before football starts. 

A cozy Regency fantasy that has Theodora cursed by faerie, she only has half a soul and no sense of fear or embarrassment. When utterly uncouth(!) Lord Sorcier discovers her condition, he, of course, must involve himself in the situation. 

Fantasy, Regency, fae, cursed wallflower, and a strange handsome (don't forget uncouth!) Lord. 

A perfect combination for early October reading to snuggle in with. 

🧚‍♂️🎩💃🏻 

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater purchase link

Lemon Brownies recipe

Review: Return to Cherry Blossom Way

Return to Cherry Blossom Way by Jeannie Chin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.7 stars 

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

She hadn't been back to Blue Cedar Falls outside of Christmas and family emergencies in thirteen years. 

Second in the Blue Cedar Falls series, this focuses on the Wu's middle sister May. I haven't read the first in the series but I didn't have a problem starting here. The series is set in Blue Cedar Falls, a small town in North Carolina that May grew up in. Originally from New York, May, her mother, and two sisters moved after her parents marriage dissolved. May's mother gets remarried to a great guy named Ned and their family runs the Sweetbriar Inn. May has a loving family and close friends, especially Han Leung who's family runs the Chinese restaurant the Jade Garden but she's mercilessly bullied at school by the popular girl Jenny for being Chinese. All May can think about is getting free of the town and bullying, when her friendship with Han turns into a dating relationship, May, kind of blindly, pushes him to leave with her. 

Wasn't it bad enough that he was the one who got away? Did he also still have to be the best-looking guy she'd ever met? The funniest and the easiest to talk to? 

Han faces his own racism but it's never as bad for him as May and he wasn't fully aware of the extent of how much it affects May, he loves his hometown and is starting to not want to leave. When tragedy strikes and his father dies suddenly, he decides to stay after graduation and help his mother with the restaurant and his two younger sisters. He breaks it off with May not wanting to hold her back and they end up not seeing each other for thirteen years, until May is given an assignment by her travel magazine to write about Blue Cedar Falls and the small-town festival and internet sensation cat that just so happens to be her mom's. May doesn't want to go back because of how it brings back the pain of her highschool years, the guilt tripping she feels from her mom and older sister June, and the possibility of running into Han. However, once May starts to settle in, she begins to realize that her escaping might have just given her the strength and confidence to deal with bullies and now she's ready to appreciate the town's small charms, along with rekindling a certain romance. 

But that was the thing. With people you really loved... 

You did what you had to do. Even when they couldn't find a way to ask it of you. 

When I started reading this, right away I was pulled in by the emotions, for what looks like a fairly new author, I was impressed with how this aspect of the writing popped. When May is going back home her anxiousness about how distant she feels from family, past memories of bullying, and knowing the only man she ever loved is there, were felt by me as the reader. Those jumbled emotions of hurt, pain, and love were threaded deep throughout the story. I thought the author did a great job of not putting full blame on anyone person, the racist bully Jenny even got a little understanding thread that I'm not sure the character deserved. With May feeling alienated from her family, she has distanced herself from them to pursue her career and the guilt tripping June does, because from her perspective, May has ditched her family ties. It's a theme throughout the book of chasing your personal dreams or maybe not getting or doing all you personally want in favor of supporting family members. This creates solid angst and swirls of emotions. 

Friends with the girl he used to be in love with and who still made his whole body hum whenever they got close. What could go wrong? 

May was the side of chasing her dreams hell or high water while Han was more trying to stay true to his wants but leaning more towards family values. Readers get the story first from May that after Han's father died he ditched his plans to leave to New York with May to stay and help his family. I liked how May had understanding for this, even if it wasn't what she wanted him to do. A little later we get Han's perspective and readers learn that he never felt the same way about their hometown that May did, he actually liked it there and felt steamrolled by May to leave and when he was trying to tell her, his father died and, at the moment, didn't resent the fact he felt he had to stay to help his mother. The hurt and love with the scene from Han's point-of-view of him breaking it off with May because he wanted her to achieve her dreams and not tie her down was so good! 

But deep down, it felt like the earth beneath his feet was shifting. 

For the first time in ages, things were changing. 

And it was going to turn out to be either the best thing to ever happen to him. 

Or the worst. 

By 50% the air is, mostly, cleared between the two, even if there is still some lingering hurt of needs and wants for life paths not matching up, and May and Han just can't stop each other from falling back together. This had some open door heat and I loved it because this couple had that hurt and tension that you just want to see explode on page. Even while they're semi-together there is still the lingering end date, May's assignment is only supposed to keep her in town for the week but she decides to extend it another week to cover the Taste Festival, and Han seems to be holding in a secret about something to do with May's tormentor Jenny (it's pretty obvious what the secret is). The second half has the high of the couple together heating up the sheets and growing to know one another again but the tension of that looming end date, unless they can figure it out. 

This was an invitation to do something unbelievably stupid. 

Something that was going to hurt. 

Coming into the series in book two, it was still easy to follow the family and friend circles and I actually would have liked more scenes of the Wu sisters together, there's June and May hashing out their issue and May and her younger sister Elizabeth hanging out but I would have loved to have “seen” the times they hung out all together and with their mom, because of how strong the emotional pull with May and this storyline was. Around 60% I thought the story staggered a little bit as May and Han are said to be just traveling around neighboring towns for May to highlight in her article and I would have liked that to be cut to streamline the story more or May and her sisters to be added for more of emotional punch. I can see how that might try to pull this more into book club fiction but I thought the romance plot and Han as a character, with his own issues with his mother and romance with May, was strong enough to keep this firmly in romance genre. 

The only answer left was that he had to put his heart---and maybe his entire conception of his life---on the line. If he wanted to be with May, he had to make the decision and commit. 

Quite simply, he had to fight. 

At 80% we get the black moment where May learns about Han's secret with Jenny and she lets her hurt blind her for a while. Honestly, even at this point and close to 90% I wasn't sure about the happily ever after, I know it's romance genre and was going to have one but May and Han took a very sweet time to get there. The mixture of happy or content, growing up and how life experience gives you different dreams, seeing things in a more emotionally stable way, and staying true to yourself but also to your dreams were all added into this ending. The ending felt true to the characters, nothing forced, and I liked how I could see how May and Han got there as the building blocks were given throughout the story. This had feeling true emotion, open door heat, family dynamics, and a romance that you couldn't help rooting for, definitely a contemporary romance to pick up.

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Reading Update: 50%

 

"I feel really lucky."

"You worked hard for it." Han's gaze caught hers and held, and an unspoken meaning passed between them.

She had worked hard. She'd earned her success.

And after everything he'd said to her, that last time, his acknowledging it now meant the world.

"Sounds like you've got everything you've ever wanted," Han said. It was still loud enough to be heard but it was also quieter.

So why did her throat catch? Why did it feel like less than the entire truth to nod and say, "Yeah"?

Reading Update: 10%

 

A heaping plate of enchilada bake and a side of contemporary romance! 

I'm 50pgs in and this is nailing those family dynamics and the second chance romance emotions. 

A jumble of hurt, anger, love, and heat. 

May is back home to write an article for her magazine but not quite getting the welcome she wanted from her family. Then she bumps into her first love, Han, that she hasn't seen for 13yrs. 

Y'all, May and Han are about to play a game of Never Have I Ever to help break the tension while they have some drinks up at the local bar. 

Break the tension, naw, heat up that tension! 

Return to Cherry Blossom Way by Jeannie Chin purchase link

Chicken Tortilla Enchilada Rice Bake recipe

Review: My Heart Is a Chainsaw

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
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. 

Some things you just don't touch. 

If you ever wanted Randy from Scream to be the star of the show, My Heart is a Chainsaw would be the story for you. Told from first person pov and literary past tense, Jennifer Daniels is a seventeen year old high school senior who uses her love of slasher films to write Slasher 101 extra credit papers to help her pass history class. Her history teacher, Mr. Holmes, sighing accepts them as she ties in the town's, Proofrock, ID, gory history. The town has a Camp Blood, a sleepaway camp where children were murdered, a past fire that burned people, and Indian Lake, where little girl Stacey Graves was murdered, a preacher drowned, and more recently, the sheriff's daughter was killed. The lake is seeing more action as rich developers are building luxury homes across the lake from Proofrock, bringing in new people (redherrings) and stirring up old and present issues. 

No, Jade will never be any kind of final girl, she knows, and has known for years. 

I loved how the story started out, two Dutch teens touring America decide to take a canoe out in the lake and skinny dip. It brought in that sense of glee, as all horror fans know where this is going and while we get the dread and murder, the question of why and how is left unanswered as the story does that shift from dark to light, a town that has no idea what is coming. Except we have our Randy, or Jennifer who has tried to reinvent herself as Jade, so she can be the girl that knows all about slashers and not known as something else. When she learns about the death of someone in the lake (the Dutch boy's body is found), she's gung-ho that a slasher has come to her town, especially since one of the rich girls from across the lake has Final Girl written all over her. 

Everybody has a function, everybody in a slasher cycle has a role— isn’t that a line from the Bible, even? 

A problem I have with newer slashers is that they take too long to get to the gory fun, and this story falls into that. The ramblings of Jade about how everything she is seeing and in her life that she ties, compares, and sees alluding to slasher movies takes up way too much time. I love slashers, so I enjoyed the name dropping of so many (unless I missed it, sad Chopping Mall didn't make the cut but grinned at Thankskilling) but after the numerous Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street references, even I was ready for the story move on; I can see many fighting some boredom in the beginning middle. Getting to know Jade and her life, is intricate to the end and following her allows readers to get to know the fodder, excuse me, townspeople but it all takes too much time. 

Maybe, since the slasher’s been going for nearly four decades, the only way to still surprise is by breaking its rules. 

The last 65% is where the show really gets going and while there were some nicely gory scenes, readers still don't get to “see” the slashing as redherrings are still playing a part and Jade doesn't come in until the killings are done. Instead of enjoying the danger, thrills, and fighting to stay alive, the tone was still cloaked in a bewildering and confused mist as Jane and the reader still don't know what is happening. The last 20% gave the reveals and frankly, it was a mess of too many threads coming from every direction. Jade's own trauma comes to the forefront in the middle of the slayings and while it's supposed to be this big emotional moment, it didn't feel like it had created space in the story for me as the reader to really get there. 

Some girls just don’t know how to die. 

If I didn't know that this was being turned into a trilogy, I would be annoyed with the ending and probably lower the rating. We get the killing reveals but then Jade has another tie-in to her emotional trauma that, again, felt out of place and not hitting right. As it is, knowing Jade's story continues, I'm curious about the sequel and how Jade will prevail against a video taken of her that shows the facts but not the truth, who some surprise survivors could be, and if she'll have another battle with the Lake Witch. If some of the repeated Nightmare on Elm Street and the like, Final Girl talk had been condensed, and some plot threads cut to strengthen others, I think the shorter page count would have served this story better. As it was, I did enjoyed the slasher talk, some unexpected elements, and Jade's fight for survival, physically and emotionally.

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September Reading Round-Up

 I feel like September really flew by! I've been having fun reading for Halloween Bingo and it continues until the 31st of  October. It's always nice to spend time in another genre, I really feel like it helps to keep all my romance genre reading from blurring together. 

September was my Random Number Generator month and I got the usual winners and losers from my GoodReads tbr, RNG even picked some Halloween Bingo books for me! I was able to use an RNG pick for both HB and the monthly TBRChallenge. Talk about feeling like I was winning at reading. Lol. 

October will be more ARCs and horror/spooky books as I work to get a bingo. I'm going to try and get my TBRChallenge book in but I'm a little nervous about squeezing it in, I'm hoping a book I read for HB might work or if one of my monthly themed books, October is Start a New Series, will end up working. I guess we'll see!

Happy spooky season, all :)

*click on book cover to read my review

If I didn't write a review, link will take you to GoodReads page

Random Number Generator

3 stars

  2.5 stars

2 stars

TBRChallenge

3.5 stars

Halloween Bingo

4.5 stars

3.5 stars

 

 

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