Halloween Bingo 2023

BINGO!!!!!!

I did it! 

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

I had so much fun this year playing with and getting together again with the old BookLikes crew. I ended up reading the most books I ever have for Bingo this year thanks to my end of the month push for bingo. 

As always, thanks so much to Moonlight Reader for putting this together, you're truly amazing. 

Hope to see everyone back next year and maybe even some more new faces :)

Happy Halloween, everyone!

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

The Carpathians - Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward

A Grimm Tale - The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

Gothic - The Witches of Bone Hill by Ava Morgyn

Creepy Crawlies - Squelch by John Halkin

Splatter - Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

Halloween - Three Kisses, One Midnight by Roshani Chokshi, Sandhya Menon, and Evelyn Skye 

Genre:  Horror - The Night House by Jo Nesbo

Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses - A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford 

Relics and Curiosities - Breath of Magic by Teresa Mederios

Magical Realism - Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher

When Mother Nature Strikes - Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

Raven middle square - The Princess of Thornwood Drive by Khalia Moreau

Plague and Disease - What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Home for the Horrordays - From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper

Revealed full coverall picture:

Happy I got the pumpkins and scary tree revealed but bummed the raven remained hidden.

Review: From Bad to Cursed

From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This worked for Home for the Horrordays because the town is looking forward to the Flower Moon Festival to celebrate Beltane, May Day. 

I read the first in the series, Payback's a Witch, and liked the fictional town of Thistle Grove where centuries ago, four witches came to America and founded the town. I wouldn't say it was absolutely necessary to read the first but you would get background on the family dynamics and how everything got flipped when a new witch takes over. We did meet Isidora and Rowan in the first and it was obvious that there was bad blood between them for some reason. 

All told from Isidaora's pov we come into the story when she is trying to summon a demon to blow off steam. Her family has the magic of dead things, so ghosts, demons, and the like. Her summoning doesn't exactly go to plan but she gets things back under control and goes to attend a ceremony where the Thorn's, Rowan's family, are beginning the celebration for Beltane. Rowan's family has the magic of living things but when his cousin is trying to bring life to plants she gets cursed/attacked by some dark magic and it looks like it could come from someone in Isidora's family. 

Head witch Emmy (female main character from book 1) picks Rowan to lead an investigation to find out who attacked the Thorns. Isidora's mom feels like it could be a witch hunt towards her family, so she appoints Isidora to head her own investigation. Giving us forced proximity as Isidora and Rowan have to work together. 

Isidora and Rowan are pretty much together this whole book, which was nice to see our leads together but I ended up missing some of the magic of the setting (town, friends, family) that I got in the first. Towards the middle it's revealed why these two are starchy towards one another and it was kind of meh and felt a little childish but Isidora was eighteen at the time and Rowan would have been early twenties, but seven years of animosity felt a bit much. I can't say I ever felt too much chemistry between the two, they do get an open door scene but even though they spent so much time together, there just wasn't the depth of emotion I was looking for. 

The ending delivers a reveal of who's behind the cursing and a we get some magical, ghost, demon, and witches little battle scene. Proper Halloweenie vibes for seasonal fun but I felt like the pace dragged for a lot of the book as I couldn't quite feel it between these two.

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Review: What Moves the Dead

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It did not try to escape. That was somehow the most horrible part of all. It crawled back to its position in the circle of hares and it sat up, despite half its skull being missing. It turned its head so that its remaining eye pointed at me and tucked its paws against its chest like all the others. Whatever looked out at me through that eye was not a hare. My nerve broke and I ran. 

First off, this isn't the sort of story you should read when your neighborhood is bunny central, no more morning tea saying softly good morning to them anymore. Inspired by Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, Alex is back from the war and going to their friend's house in the country to check on childhood friends. They received a letter from Roderick claiming that his sister Madeline has fallen ill. When they get there, they meet Miss Potter in the country side studying mushrooms, as the area has a multitude of varieties, and a severally ill Madeline, not looking to great himself Roderick, and an American doctor. Alex likes to take the piss out of the doctor in their thoughts: I offered Denton my hand, because Americans will shake hands with the table if you don’t stop them. and Sometimes it’s hard to know if someone is insulting or just an American. So there's some touches of humor in the first half until things start to deteriorate. 

“I hear things now,” he said. “Everything. My own heartbeat. Other people’s breathing sounds like thunder. Sometimes I fancy I can hear the worms in the rafters.”

I have to say that I know the author is setting the scene and working to build the suspense but I still thought the first half read fairly slow and it was hard to put myself in the late 1800s mindset of not really knowing what was going on when the mushroom, fungi, and the like is dripping down the walls. I also thought it was a little too convenient that Miss Potter was in the neighborhood, an expert in the field to explain everything; unluckiest luckiest people in this house. This is a little shorter page count, 150ish pages, so while you're introduced to the characters and get some of their personality, Alex, who is telling the story all from their pov, is the only one you really get to know. At the halfway point, when things go south for Madeline, is where I thought the story really picked up. 

“What if I told you those were growing out of human skin?” 

The second half had some great horror visuals, bunnies with heads half blown off getting up, crawling around, and eyeballing people, and other scenes did give me the creeps and will linger in my mind. I was thinking a two or three star rating and the second half bumped it up to four stars to almost 5. We do get an explanation as to what was going on, a horror taking care of business scene, and then an ending that does and doesn't quite sit well with you that everything will be all right now. If you've been missing episodes of The Last of Us, this would be a great quick story to tied you over.

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Review: Check & Mate

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
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 

“I don't think you understand.” He holds my eyes. I think his throat moves. “I want to play chess with you, Mallory.” 

Told all from Mallory's point-of-view, Check & Mate is the story of a girl who's father took advantage of her amazing chess skills, left her and her family wrecked, then a chance comes back up for Mallory to fulfill her dreams, and little bit of falling in love along the way. After getting a glimpse of Mallory following along to who Nolan “Kingkiller” Sawyer is, a young “bad boy” dominating the chess world, the story jumps two years to Mallory being eighteen and Nolan twenty. When her bestfriend Easton begs her to join her team in a charity chess tournament, Mallory ends up winning it all when she beats the number one player in the world, Nolan. Nolan seems fascinated with her but she runs out before anyone can talk to her. Mallory doesn't want to give chess another chance to ruin her life again but when a woman who runs a chess training club offers to give her a paid fellowship for a year, Mallory can't turn down the money. 

There is a beautiful, indecipherable half smile on his lips. “You think I don't want you to know me?” 

This story was a lot of Mallory trying to reconcile, deal with, and heal from her family drama. She's always loved chess and with a father who was a grand master, he always encouraged and pushed but her mother didn't want her in ranked tournaments until she was sixteen. Readers get that Mallory blames herself for something that broke her family up, before her dad died he had left the family, but the reason doesn't get revealed until the later second half. It's a lot of Mallory putting the world on her shoulders, her mother suffers from chronic rheumatoid arthritis so she skips going to college to work and pay for the mortgage and help take care of her younger teen sisters. There are times in the middle where it's a bit martyr syndrome but that does get addressed towards the end. 

“Touch-take rule,” he murmurs. He stands, too. Every step back I take is one forward for him. 

“I---What?” 

“You touched me. Can't stop now. Touch-take rule.” 

While Mallory is stressing about her family, money, and trying to not fall back into loving chess as much as she did before, the chess champ of the world Nolan is hanging around on the sides. It takes a while for these two to really share page time and even though we don't get any of his pov, it's pretty obvious to readers that Nolan likes, has feelings for Mallory. I personally find it somewhat off-putting when the female main character actually, literally fears the main male character, a little a' la The Hating Game. Nolan grew-up in the chess world and when he younger, adolescent to teens, he threw tantrums and sometimes got a bit physical when he lost or got angry, it's stressed he hasn't acted out like that in years but he still has the “bad boy” of chess moniker because of it. Since we don't get his pov, we don't truly know what he is thinking and all we have are Mallory's thoughts and she worries that he is or could get really angry with her (she does fear physically) and while you could say it's in a romantic comedy tone of “I could kill them!” thought, it didn't read it that way, to me. I “know” as the reader this isn't the type of genre to have Nolan be truly “bad” but Mallory doesn't and I therefore can't feel the tingly anticipation of romance feelings I'm supposed to, with her literally fearing him. As always though, The Hating Game was extremely popular, your mileage may vary with this kind of beginning tone. 

“I hope,” I say, serious, “that you're going to like this as much as chess.” 

“I think,” he tells me with a small smile, “that I already do.” 

There was a good amount of chess talk in this, which definitely added to the setting and as even someone who watched Netflix's The Queen's Gambit, there was some new and cool things to read about. There's some drama with Mallory and the players she goes against, delivering some suspense and the thriller aspect of delivering on an ultimate goal ending of her and Nolan meeting up to play in the World Championships (Mallory won't play him for fun). The author devotes a good amount of time to addressing sexism in the chess world, Mallory's experience, some side characters that give their own high and low stories, and then the importance of seeing yourself in spaces that do their best to keep you out. 

My eyes begin to tear up, but I'm not sad. For the first time in a long, long while, I'm a million things, and sad is not any of them. 

The ending has a third act breakup with Mallory feeling some betrayal and then working through her issues with herself, friends and family, and Nolan but then ends abruptly when it gets the game we all were waiting for. The epilogue then comes in with a news article that answers any and all questions. This was more about Mallory's journey to me but did have romance (with a fade to black door slam scene). If you're a chess player who also likes New Adult fiction with some romance and want to read a story about a girl who realizes that she doesn't have to carry the world on her shoulders, this is one definitely in your lane.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Chess rivals! 

♟️❤️ 

Mallory has been Done with chess since it tore her family apart but when she ends up beating the current champion at a charity event, her love for the sport gets rekindled. 

Called the bad boy of chess and "Kingkiller", Nolan wants a rematch with the unknown rookie. 

Mallory struggles to keep her family and chess life separate this time as her victory opens back a door to cash prizes and her love of the game, along with a possible romance. 

This sounds cute! 

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood preorder (Nov 7th) link

Orange Chipotle Chicken recipe

This was easy and the flavoring was tasty!

Review: The Princess of Thornwood Drive

The Princess of Thornwood Drive by Khalia Moreau
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 

Since Alyssa roused from a two-month coma a year ago, the only discernible thing she’s said is “King. Queen. In the forest.” 

The Princess of Thornwood Drive was a debut fantasy novel about two sisters, one who survived a car accident that killed their parents and the other who now takes care of her. Laine is the older sister and feels immense guilt, blaming herself for the accident, and now along with all the medical bills and stress of trying to take care of Alyssa, who was left paralyzed and nonverbal, she's battling panic attacks. Dropping out of college, she works as a barista and part-time gives horse riding lessons, trying to keep afloat with enough money to keep her house. A house that her uncle wants and is just waiting for her to sell to him before foreclosure. Getting a small break, Alyssa qualifies to be sent to an adult care center for free during the day, called Lake Forest. There they seem to take care of Alyssa and Laine is delighted when it seems to be helping her and Alyssa has a break-through, saying “Go” when Laine is trying to decide if she should go on a date with a doctor there. 

“Evil runs rampant here. Most of us who come never leave,” Veranda says matter-of-factly. 

Told in alternating point-of-views, Laine's is set in the real world and when it's Alyssa's chapters, we get the fantasy. In Alyssa's mind, she's a princess in a land called Mirendal and their parents were kidnapped while Alyssa was cursed on their way to visit Laine. Alyssa is now a changel and can't physically or verbally communicate with others, unless they are also changels. When Alyssa is at the healing tower for changels (Lake Forest) she can telepathically talk with the other patients. Here is where the ominous tone creeps in and the other patients warn her of the “Dark Prince” and a chamber where you go to be punished. The chamber comes into play pretty quickly and it sends Alyssa to another plane of reality where she can be physical and verbal. She meets another patient there named Wren and he helps her navigate the world as they meet goblins, fairies, mermaids, and other beings on their journey to find a way to help Alyssa communicate with Laine. 

“There are two mortals of interest who have walked into your life. One set your heart bitter, unhinged you. The other is a scholar with much power.” Judging by the way Laine’s eyes widen, Marcella is onto something. “What else?” she asks. “What else did you learn? “You will love both in time, but you must be very careful. One of them is a wolf. He will try to destroy you.” 

I thought the switching of realities was done well, it's pretty much a straight timeline, the driver just changes from Laine's reality pov to Alyssa's fantasy pov but the car never stops, there were some cool additives I liked, Laine talking about Alyssa before the accident and how she liked Harry Potter and studied some Latin (gives depth to the creation of fantasy world), and the “Oz-ness” of the characters, same characters in both the sister's realities but dressed up different. There was also some added Trinidadian folklore with Laine “communicating” with a jumbie always sitting on her shoulder and I liked how it brought a little bit of fantasy to her pov to meld the story together even more. There were hints that I started to catch and as I read this as an arc, I don't want to give too much away but readers should also be warned that I thought this read thematically pretty closely to The Lovely Bones. Alyssa is eighteen in this story but sexual assault (readers don't “see” it) is definitely a content warning. 

If I hadn't already read the aforementioned Lovely Bones, I'd probably be a little more fascinated with how the author incorporated details and melded the plot, with how Alyssa lost in her mind could look like and the journey to communicate with Laine. I thought at times some of the dialogue didn't feel quite natural, the middle slowed in pace some, and the light romance with Alyssa and the character of Wren ended up feeling not needed to me. The ending did pack a few punches with some thriller and emotion that will bring a lot of tears. If you're looking for speculative fiction that incorporates some interesting new elements and takes you on an emotional ride, this debut would be one to pick up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Fantasy for this Thursday! 

A year ago, Laine lost her parents in a car accident and her younger sister Alyssa was left paralyzed and nonverbal. Struggling to take care of bills, she can't help but be relieved when a care center offers to take care of her sister for free. 

But Alyssa's reality is very different, her parents didn't die in a car accident, they were attacked and kidnapped in a forest and Princess Alyssa was cursed and sent to a home for changels. 

While Laine is trying to make ends meet in one reality, Alyssa is leading a battle to save her family and kingdom, all while a dark prince hovers in the shadows. 

How good does this sound!?! 

The Princess of Thornwood Drive by Khalia Moreau preorder (Nov. 7th) link

Lemon Spaghetti with Shrimp recipe

Don't be afraid to have shrimp with your spaghetti!

Review: Flowers for the Sea

Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I speak of this as if it were instantaneous. Gods-like in its swift retribution for our foul existence. But it wasn’t. It was achingly slow, deliberate. Hubris could not shield us from the sun’s heat, from the boldness of below-surface creatures caressing the innocent flesh of our curious young ones. We were the finest coastal traders of the continent. Sea-battling vessels, fish, fruit, and labour were our currency. We were hardbacked and hardworking. We were proud. And now we are dying. 

Flowers for the Sea was a story of grief, anger, and how those two emotions not only change us but carry on to our children. Set in a fantasy, horror, scifi world in which climate change has forced them to take to the sea, Iraxi has been surviving on this ship for 1,743 days. Told all from Iraxi's point-of-view, readers are brought in as she's pregnant, surviving through the pregnancy longer than anyone else has. She doesn't seem happy about it and as we view this world through her lens, it's cloaked in her disdain for the people she's surviving with, the filthiness of not being able to properly wash, and the ever present fear. 

My sister and I shared quarters the size of my room on the ship. Back then, I’d complained of suffocation. Now, I choke on the emptiness. 

While in the present we're seeing Iraxi's life on the ship, she does think back, with some flashbacks, to how life has lead her to this moment. We learn that they are from a coastal village and that Iraxi was propositioned by a prince but she refused him because she was in love with someone else. This lead to her family being murdered in a house fire and the people of the ship having resentment for her not joining with the prince and therefore their villages combining, thinking that could have saved them somehow from having to abandon to the ship to escape the encroaching water. The anger and grief Iraxi feels from her family's murder is palpable, I mean the line “Now, I choke on the emptiness.” is a gut punch. 

The child giggles. And I scream. 

At a little over a hundred pages, the story moves fairly quickly and while we get some background, Iraxi starts giving birth pretty quickly in. The author doesn't shy away from bringing us in and describing the pain of birth and with an added scifi element, it's gritty. Iraxi passes on her anger to her child and through that child, Iraxi gets some of her revenge. Look, on a good day, I'm mildly disturbed by children, so this baby was capital H-orror to me. 

Fire refused me. And so, I surrender to the sea.

I was impressed with how in such a short page count, we got all the dynamics of the important relationships, the background to understand the world and Iraxi, and all the fantasy, scifi, and horror elements. There was so much to explore here, Iraxi's phoenix emerging, climate change ramifications, fear, survival, and generational trauma, all told through a grief and anger coloring that was sharp toothed and guttural. I haven't even mentioned the appearance of mermaid like creatures, so yeah, there's that, too. 

Recommended if you can handle gut churning poetry.

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Review: Not Your Crush's Cauldron

Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April 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 

Everything had changed. Everyone evolved. Except her. 

If you've been reading the Supernatural Singles series, you've probably been waiting for Maxwell sister Olive and Guardian Angel Bax to finally cut the tension between them and kiss already. If you're new to the series, I'm not sure I'd recommend jumping into this third installment, you'd miss a lot of worldbuilding and character relationships. In this New York City world, a Supernatural reveal has happened and the witches, vampires, demons, shifters, angels, and any other supernatural creature you can think of exists out in the open with humans. The series has, so far, focused on triplet witches, the Maxwell sisters. With her two other sisters already finding love, Olive is feeling stagnate in her job as a professor and in her social life, and when her roommate goes on a campaign of sleeping with every strange man she meets, Bax, her “just a” friend offers up his apartment for her to move into. This brings her into close quarters with the angel and puts strain on keeping her less than friendly thoughts about him to herself, especially when he decides to join in and help her with a Dare I Docket list. 

To date, he’d now broken two of the three central—and most important—GAA Rules of Conduct. The first: Don’t tell your Assignment that you’re their designated Guardian. The second: Don’t get your Assignment killed. The third, which he’d yet to break and had no intention of doing so: Don’t fall in love with your Assignment. 

Bax has his own feelings about Olive he's trying to fight and when he gets her as a Guardian Angel assignment, she becomes even more off limits. A huge disappointment to his Warrior father, Bax doesn't want to fail at being a Guardian angel but he also hates keeping it a secret that he's been assigned to be Olive's protector as she decides to check off her Dare I list of activities. These two did have some cute chemistry between them but this was a story that seemed to have a lot of little additives that ultimately ended up stealing some of their spotlight for me. Olive's sister is dealing with becoming the next Prima (head witch) and the issues and drama surrounding that, especially when their grandmother and former Prima goes off on her own, kind of butted into the story. Characters showing up that normally I would feel connected our two mains to the existing world ended up annoying me; Harper's (demon friend of theirs) constant focus on turning anything and everything into a sexual innuendo or making it about sex just really got old for me. 

“You’re gorgeous,” she heard herself blurt out. “I mean . . . your wings are gorgeous. They’re beautiful.” 

His lips twitched in enjoyment of the moment. “Just my wings?” 

“Please. You know you could grace the cover of any angel romance book and light imaginations across the globe.” 

“Do I light up your imagination?” 

 Along with Olive trying to learn to be less rigid, Bax had to work out how he was going to live his life on his own terms, instead of thinking about what his father might want. It gets revealed that he's a talented artist and him learning to embrace that side of himself and chose what he wants out of life was his journey to make. Coming to this decision for Bax, and Olive thinking she needs to take more chances in life, felt more like the character emotional journeys we went on, more than the romance. There was a good amount of open door bedroom scenes in this in the second half and dirty talk but while the words were on the page, I again, missed the charm and intimacy of the emotion and relationship development. 

It wasn’t what you did that moved you forward the most, but the people who stood by your side when you did it. It was your family—your found family. The ones you chose to surround yourself with because them not being part of your life wasn’t a possibility you wanted to think about. 

The last twenty percent has our leads dealing with the eventual fallout you know is about to happen when Olive learns and thinks that Bax has only been spending time with her because he was assigned to be her Guardian Angel. The resolution felt natural to the characters with nothing being dragged out or ignored smoothed over and you get a happily ever after. Some of the little additives started to feel disorganized and about nothing while at the same time taking up too much of the spotlight, taking away from the romance. It's great that romance wants to give us two fully formed characters but I miss the focus on having our leads actually together and focusing on developing the romance because in a romance genre book, that's what I'm here for. This did have cute and steamy moments, and if you're looking for a lighter read for Halloween, this is a pretty fun world to immerse yourself in for a while.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

One week til Halloween! 🎃🎃🎃 

Time to read about a witch taking a ride on the wild side! 

Olive likes to teach about the supernatural world but stay out of magic shenanigans. Until she decides it's time to get out of her comfort zone, with her long time crush and friend, Baxter. 

Bax is a Guardian Angel who's about to lose his wings and his new assignment he can't mess up? Olive, who's decided to check off some Dare I Docket list. 

Bax's fighting to keep Olive safe and not break the Angel code of conduct when those friend feeling start to heat up. 

This sounds like a sweet magically good time! 

Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher preorder (Feb. 13th 2024) link

Sausage and Rice one pot

I used turkey kielbasa

Non-coherent Review: Breath of Magic

Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

'Tristan Lennox – founder, CEO, and primary stockholder of Lennox Enterprises – offers one million dollars to anyone who can prove that magic exists outside the boundaries of science. 

So, this book was goofy as hell, but probably obviously when it's about a twenty year old woman who is being tried as a witch and then gets transported to the futuristic 1996. 

Arian has been shuffled around all her life, she never knew her father and her mother was a courtesan in King Louis IV court. When her mother marries a Puritan, the natural next step for a courtesan from Versailles, Arian is forced to be sent away from her grandmother and travels to America to be with her mother. Except her mother has died but the stepdad didn't get the romance genre memo about being wicked and isn't a bad chap, except he's a Puritan. So whoopsie, Arian now has the devil in her and is thought to be a witch. But hold on, Arian did make candlesticks dance around the dude's head, so saints preserve me, I had to kind of side with stepdad at this moment. 

Before Arian's mother left one of her johns, she stole an emerald amulet and gave it to Arian. Whenever Arian clutches the amulet, whatever she wishes to happen, happens! Arian thinks she is a witch! But, Arian, my gal, it's 1680ish Witch Hysteria, let's be a little more careful. However, Arian did get the romance genre '90s memo about hot blooded heroines and she clutching that amulet for all she's worth. 

Puritans always get the memo and the new Reverend in town is ready to drown a witch. Shocking, it's made out that he seems to have the hots for Arian and if she agrees to stay with him in his attic Red Room, he'll save her soul (I want you all to keep this hovering in your mind). Arian not about him and while they throw Arian into the lake to drown, this random Scottish woman (seriously, the most random character) steals back Arian's amulet from the Reverend and throws it into Arian's hands as she's drowning. Arian thinks a goofy rhyme/spell. 

Arian's now in 1996 flying on a broom in the sky. 

Bring in our billionaire who has put out a challenge to prove that magic is real with a prize of 1 million dollars. Arian shows up on her broom and crashes his party. The rest is probably obvious with 1600s Arian saying and doing goofy things when she doesn't understand 20th century things and slowly warming the heart of the cold cynical billionaire. There was some funny cute moments from this aspect. 

He groaned. Christ, it was worse than he thought. He wasn't dying of a heart attack. He was falling in love with a witch. He didn't need a cardiologist. He needed an exorcist. 

What wasn't predictable was the tie-in billionaire Tristan had with the amulet and a certain Reverend. I'm going to put the tie-in stuff in spoilers, so skip if wanting to be clueless going into reading 

SPOILER

Tristan made his bills as a tech genius inventing some super computer but has a cloud over him after his partner disappeared years ago and Tristan was found with blood on his hands. The partner's dad has tried forever to get him convicted but no body, no crime. The partner's dad is a ̶m̶a̶g̶i̶c̶i̶a̶n̶ illusionist (Michael!) randomly and lurks around being creepy. Somehow he knew the amulet around Arian's neck is...The WARLOCK!!!! Warlock was an invention by Tristan that would give you whatever you asked for while holding it. It disappeared with his partner the night his partner tried to kill him for it. Why Tristan started the magic competition, to lure his partner with Warlock out. Tristan has fallen in love with Arian but now he thinks she's in cahoots with his partner to take over his business and Arian goes through it as she realizes she's not a witch. It gets revealed that Arian's father is Tristan's former partner....AND THE REVEREND. Did you keep what I told you to in your mind??? I thought Reverend/partner didn't know he was her dad but when Arian gets sent back to 1600s, he reveals he knew??? And when Tristan time travels back to save Arian, Reverend/partner taunts he was going to go to the future with Arian and live as man and wife spending Tristan's money????? I don't know, y'all. 

END SPOILER

I can not write a coherent review of this book, I feel like only over mimosa brunch could I get out everything there was to ̶q̶u̶e̶s̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶d̶l̶y̶ talk about this story. 

After the middle falling in love, rinse repeat of Tristan feeling betrayed then loving Arian, time traveling, and REVEREND WEIRDNESS, there was the eventual HEA. 

And a little thrown out maaaaaybe about Arian's witchy possibilities.

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Review: A River of Golden Bones

A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford
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 

Rumors had swirled for years that the last of the Gold Wolf line yet lived, that the Marriel princess named Briar had survived the fateful night of her birth . . . but no one whispered about another named Calla 

A River of Golden Bones begins the trilogy about Aotreas, a land ruled by four Wolf Kingdoms. With a little bit of Sleeping Beauty inspiration, the story is told all from Calla, the secret twin sister of the Crimson Princess. Hidden in a small-town with a faery, backed by the power of their mother's dying wish, Calla has grown up learning to fight and protect her sister, who is betrothed to the Prince of the Silver Wolves, Grae. Calla and Grae were childhood friends until he had to leave for school and stopped writing her letters but he's back now that the sisters will be turning twenty and his marriage with the Crimson Princess is to take place. With the marriage, Grae's father says they'll help fight to take back the sister's Golden Wolf Kingdom from the evil sorceress Sawyn, who killed their parents and have been hiding from, and announce Calla's existence. 

I was meant to pledge my loyalty to King Nero that night, but I ran. If Grae came with me, he’d be picking sides. I’d take away his family, his pack, and ultimately his life. 

When the sisters get to Grae's kingdom, it becomes apparent that the king hasn't been fully honest and doesn't plan on helping them take back their kingdom but instead mine the gold on the boarder to enrich his own kingdom. The night of the wedding ceremony also throws all kinds of wrenches into everyone's plans when it's revealed that the Crimson Princess has a fated mate that is not the prince, along with Calla and Grae learning that they are fated mates. Wolves are a traditional society and messing with fated mates is frowned upon but while everything is in chaos, Sawyn makes an appearance and puts a sleeping curse on Calla's sister and takes the Crimson Princess' fated mate hostage. Calla wants to immediately go and fight Sawyn to free her sister but the king now wants to use Calla in her sister's place, leaving Grae in the middle and worried for Calla's safety. Concerned only for her sister, Calla runs away to travel to her home kingdom and fight Sawyn. 

Before, my destiny had just been daydreams, and now, it was real and raw and vicious. 

The vast amount of the story then becomes a road adventure where Calla joins up with a musical troop and learns that humans aren't everything wolves have made them out to be. Grae, along with two friends of his royal guard, meet up with them and Calla struggles with accepting to be his mate and how that fits into who and what she wants to be and get out of life. Some soldiers of Sawyn, Rooks, and Silver Wolf guards sent by Grae's father to bring them back, make appearances for some danger and battle scenes, while the push and pull Calla feels toward Grae has them working to develop their relationship, along with kissing for some romance. However, while the distant looming of Sawyn is always there, I would say this story is mainly about Calla and her struggling to learn how she wants to define herself. 

Wolves clung to tradition and, for some reason, I’d thought those traditions would keep us safe. Yet as soon as I stepped outside of that world, I realized how hollow it all was. It wasn’t for safety. It was for power. And not my power. 

With the help of the troop's leader, Ora, Calla gains some vocabulary and thought from humans, that the wolves' society didn't come equipped for her and Calla begins to gain knowledge, confidence, and strength in how she defines and views herself. This personal journey really felt like the main focus of the story and while the road adventure part helped flush out the worldbuilding for the continuing series, I did feel the middle of the story's pace dragged. The personal journey aspect did give this a little bit of YA vibes and I can see why some have tagged it as such but the romance that heats up hot in the latter second half (instead of open door bedroom you get open door wood scenes) would have me labeling this New Adult. There wasn't quite the adult intimacy in those scenes but straight to the raw; if you're looking for this would be awkward to read in public steam, they'd probably work but I like some deeper emotion in my romance. The aspect of the fated mates kind of took some of the journey of depth of emotion from these two and forced them to be together. Calla's constant misjudging of Grae's actions/emotions also started to strain and feel a bit forced to keep them apart. 

“Who knows who we could have been,” Grae whispered, the candlelight dancing in his eyes. “But I’m grateful for who you’ve become.” 

The last twenty percent has the group making it to Olmdere and the battle standoff with Sawyn. The ending does give a happily ever after for our main couple and their romance and since this author's previous series (The Five Crowns of Okrith) had each book showcasing a different romance couple but with a continued overarching world plot, I'm going to guess this is how this trilogy is going to go. There were two couples that seem like potential possibilities, two of Grae's wolf guards with humans from the troop. The fight to recapture Calla's kingdom may be over but to keep it seems to be the next battle as Grae's father and other wolf kingdoms might not like how Calla plans to rule with humans. If you're looking for more of a story about self-discovery than romance or fantasy but set in that world, this would be one to pick up. 

“I think we’ve just started a war.”

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Reading Update: 50%

 

Soup and fantasy for this Fall Saturday 

🍲⚔️🐺❤️ 

The first in a new trilogy, romance and adventure from an author I've really been enjoying lately! 

One of the last Golden Wolves, Calla is fighting to save her twin sister from a sleeping curse cast by an evil sorceress. 

She's also battling her feelings for her childhood friend, Prince Grae, who is her sister's betrothed, but quite possibly more to Calla. 

Werewolves, magic, battles, a little bit of sleeping beauty, and love! 

A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford preorder (Dec. 5th) link

Vegetarian Ravioli Soup recipe

Highly recommend this one, loved it!

Review: The Night House

The Night House by Jo Nesbø
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 

“H-h-h-he said that you and I . . .” He cupped his hand over the speaking end of the receiver to stop the person at the other end from hearing. “W-w-w-we’re going to—” 

“Tom!” I cried. “Your hand! Drop the phone!” Tom looked down and only now realized that his fingers were halfway through the holes in the receiver. 

The Night House was a standalone story with horror and psychological thriller elements divided up into three parts. Told all from Richard's point-of-view, the first part brings readers in when he's fourteen and has recently moved in with his aunt and uncle, now his foster parents, from a big city to small town Ballantyne. He's not part of the popular crowd and as such, has a bit of edge to him, where he does a little bullying himself, except with classmate Karen, who he has a bit of a crush on. When him and Tom, a boy who is on the outskirts himself because of his stuttering, come upon a phone booth on the edge of the woods, the story takes a horrific turn as Tom is gruesomely sucked into the phone receiver after dialing the number for a Imu Jonasson. 

“I know. But sometimes if you tell a lie enough times, it becomes a bit true anyway.” 

This first part takes up more than half the book and follows Tom as he's accused and looked upon as Tom's murderer and when another classmate goes missing, an FBI agent becomes involved. The only one who believes Tom is Karen and she starts her own investigation into what is happening. Tom goes from finding Imu Jonasson's “Night House” in the woods to ending up at a correctional facility for young people, where he learns that Imu Jonasson was also a patient, learning about black word and white word magic, and then eventually escaping with a set of psychotic twins. The first part wraps up with a battle scene to save Karen's life and sort of happy ending that leaves you wondering where the next forty percent of the book is going to go. 

Something moved up by the window. I looked up. A face. Pale. The expressionless face of a man, as motionless as a painting. A face I had never seen before, yet which still gave me a strange feeling of looking in a mirror. 

The second part spins the whole story on it's head and jumps fifteen years in the future to Richard coming back to Ballantyne for his highschool reunion. He's a famous young adult author after the great success of one of his books “The Night House”, which has also been optioned as a movie. Readers start to get a sense of unreliable narrator with a little bit of Wizard of Oz-ness, as characters appear with slightly different roles than had been presented in, what we now know, was Richard's book we were reading. There's a break through scene where Richard has an emotional breakdown with Karen and he tells her about why he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, his parents died in a fire. After this story and the reunion party moves to a new Night House, the story starts to spin back to where readers thought it originally was and I got a sense of King's It and the horror comes back into play, only to be spun once again in part three. 

“As far as I know, Imu Jonasson hasn’t lived in Ballantyne since he was committed to an institution. And that was decades ago.” 

“Did he do something wrong?” 

“Oh yes, but not before something wrong was done to him.” 

There were a couple clues in part two about where part three was headed and the story ultimately turns into more of an emotional psychological thriller. The last fifteen percent was more emotional than I expected and I want to say that if you find yourself getting very dizzy from the first two parts, hang on because the third part will complement the first two and make the ride worth while (I can see some horror readers being disappointed). I did feel myself gripping the sides of the book, ready to be spun again, but the ending left with a looking good moment, for now. The first part's horror was engrossing even when it felt the wheels were coming off and the second part's wheels did come off but spun just in time to the emotional third and last part ending. I enjoyed the meaning behind the name Imu and the context of how it ultimately tied into Richard's character and once again, the story reminding us that true horror comes from human nature. 

He laughed. “You should never trust your memory. It only ever gives you what it thinks you need. So . . . well, in that sense maybe it’s just as well to trust it after all.” He laughed again.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Drawing ever closer to Halloween! 

🎃🎃🎃 

Reading horror and eating pumpkin! chicken enchiladas 

The troubled kid swears he saw his friend get sucked into a phone receiver in an abandoned telephone booth at the edge of the woods. 

Only a fellow classmate believes him and together they trace the number that was called and end up at an abandoned house, where voices are heard and faces seen in windows. 

Suddenly another classmate disappears and the question of if the voices are real or if we have an unreliable narrator becomes even more unclear. 

The Night House by Jo Nesbø purchase link

Pumpkin Chicken Enchiladas recipe

I liked the pumpkin but not sure it added to dish

Review: Christmas at Corgi Cove: A Novel

Christmas at Corgi Cove: A Novel by Annie England Noblin
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 if I could save it?” Rosie asked, her voice just above a whisper. “What if I could save the Cove?” 

When Rosie was a troubled teen, her mother brought her to her half-sister's place in a small town outside of Austin, TX to live. Rosie hated it at first but then grew to love her aunt, uncle, and the town. Now, twelve years later, Corgi Cove Inn is barely keeping it's head above water. When a representative for Lake Queen company, a resort built a town over that has taken their business, shows up, Rosie can't help but see him as the enemy. 

Everett knows it's a punishment from an argument with his boss when he gets sent down from New York to small town Texas to close a deal with a property they are trying to buy. He wants to be in and out but when he meets the niece of the people he's trying to buy from, spending more time down south is starting to change his views on a lot of things.

Even if making friends, or anything more than that with her, was out of his reach, the least he could do was enjoy what was right in front of him in the moment. It was just one night. There was no harm in that. 

Christmas at Corgi Cove started with a highly emotional scene where Everett comes to talk to the family about selling and then Rosie's uncle has a heart attack. This sets-up Everett having to stay longer in TX and gives Rosie time to try and come up with a way to save the Inn. This was a blend of women's fiction, contemporary, and romance, with the first half focusing more on Rosie as she relays to the reader issues she's had/has with her mother, sad and anxious about not wanting to sell the Inn, her place in the small town community, and a little bit of beginning attraction to Everett. It wasn't until the second half that she finds an answer to trying to save the Inn with entering a contest and then it plays a fairly quick but important part. 

She'd nearly kissed Everett. Rather, he'd nearly kissed her, but it was hard to see it that way when she just stood there, wanting him to kiss her. 

This was told in alternating povs from Rosie and Everett and we do get some background on Everett. He moved around a lot as his dad was in the military and therefore is not used to making long lasting connections with anyone, making him a workaholic. So, while being in TX gives him time to slow down and he's attracted to Rosie, the conflicting interest and his fear of actual connection with someone, keeps them a little apart. Rosie has the conflicting interest too and her not being able to fully trust Everett's motives keeps her from wanting to dive into their attraction with both feet, even when he does a couple things that works against his own company's interest and helps her and the Inn out. 

He was caught somewhere between wanting what he knew he shouldn't and wanting to do his job. 

Since this was TX, you're not going to get a snowy wonderland but there was still some holiday atmosphere goodies, a Christmas carnival, play, and decorations. The adorable Corgis on the front cover (Bonnie and Clyde) get a good amount of page time and definitely brought the cute factor and livened up a story that at times dragged in pace. There was also Rosie being a sort of amateur beekeeper who gets a windfall when an influencer highlights her products, but then oddly felt like she was brushing off the great money she was going to make from the ordeal, so not sure why that whole segment was added. The ending gave a Christmas miracle for the Inn and our third act break-up didn't last long as Everett shows back up towards the very end. The romance in this wasn't as strong as I usually like, the focus seemed more on women's fiction for a lot of the page count but there was a, shorter, open door scene. Rosie and Everett didn't spend a huge amount of time together and when they did, the relationship development depth wasn't there. The ending resolving went a bit more to Rosie and her mother's relationship but an epilogue showed a HEA for Rosie and Everett. I do highly recommend this if you have corgi dogs because this would be a treat read!

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Reading Update: Page 1

Cracking open the door to holiday reading towards the end of my spooky season! 

🎄🐶🎄 

Look at those adorable puppies! 

Y'all, the corgis' names are Bonnie and Clyde 😂 

Raised by her aunt and uncle, Corgi Cove became the home Rosie needed. Now with their family Inn struggling and a big city chain snapping at their heels, Rosie wants her turn to save them. 

Rosie enters a contest to get their Inn named the best Christmas themed in the USA. But Everett, aka big city guy enemy, shows up and suddenly both are questioning what they really want. 

Christmas at Corgi Cove by Annie England Noblin (Releases tomorrow, Oct. 17th!) purchase link

Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs recipe

I thought the broth was tasty in this one

Review: Three Kisses, One Midnight

Three Kisses, One Midnight by Roshani Chokshi
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 

This Halloween celebrated the four-hundred-year anniversary of the town’s founding. Local legends said that on every hundred-year anniversary, magic woke up in Moon Ridge and all things became possible, which made the midnight gala the perfect opportunity to use her lola’s spell. 

Three Kisses, One Midnight is three short connected stories told by three different authors about high school students who find love on Halloween night. The town legend tells of a young couple that fell in love but their parents forbade them from getting married, so they decide to run away together. But the girl fell sick before they could go and died at midnight on Halloween, becoming the “Lady of Moon Ridge”. While her beloved was alive, her ghost and him meet in the woods every Halloween, spending the day together and when he died, he joined her in the stars and the two stars in the sky became known as the Lovers of Moon Ridge. Now, every four hundred years, the Lady of Moon Ridge helps lovers find their way. 

Onny wasn’t so much a witch as she was “witchy adjacent.” She didn’t want to wield magic so much as know that it was there. 

The story starts with Apollonia “ Onny” Diamante and her finally looking at the “grimoire” her grandmother, who died six months ago, left her. Inside she finds a love potion and thinks what better time than to try it on the Lady of Moon Ridge four hundred anniversary. Onny has had a crush on Alexander for awhile and plans on having him drink the potion with her (there's relaying that everyone using the love potion will tell the other and the potion only brings out love that is already there to stop any lack of consent) but on the night of her parents' Halloween gala, her enemy, Byron, accidentally drinks the potion. He agrees to help her source out the ingredients to make another but as they work to remake the potion, Onny starts to see things about Byron she was too busy crushing on Alexander to see. 

This first installment was young adult cute and did a good job laying out the setting and characters. We're introduced to The Coven, Onny with her two other bestfriends Ash and True, and the mission of true love Onny has set-up for them on this legendary night. It was obvious that there were feelings from Byron and I enjoyed as they had to spend the night together to recreate the potion and Onny got to see a different side to him. This had a lot of fun facts incorporated in it, I had thoughts at times that they were speaking in a way that didn't quite feel right for teenagers (some of the references felt like they fit more for an older generation), but overall the romance was pretty cute. 

Maybe it was time to put himself in the game. Maybe that’s why the Lady of Moon Ridge had shown herself to him. 

The next story was about Ash and his unrequited love for his neighbor Cassidy. For years he's wanted to work up the courage to talk to her but she's a popular star athlete and he's a nerdy artist guy. When Cassidy tries dunking on her basketball hoop and crashes through their fence, Ash finally is forced to get over his shyness and talk with her. 

This also had the cuteness factor with Ash being shy and Cassidy obviously having some feelings of her own. There was a little bit of heaviness with previous health issues that Cassidy had experienced but it's not dwelt on and her sunshine personality is the main focus. They end up having to go to a scary, could be haunted house to retrieve Cassidy's Halloween mask her little brother hid and have an almost kiss. Some quick third act breakup with Ash overhearing something but then a secret Cassidy had is revealed and a happily ever after for the two. This had the young adult vibes, some purple prose, felt a smidgen slow in the latter second half, but continued the sweet tone. 

If you asked True Tandon, love was a giant scam. 

The last story is with True and she's been broken up with her first and only boyfriend of five months for a year. It turned into a miserable experience and she now doesn't believe in love. She's a major science lover and introvert, so when she shows up to Onny's Halloween gala, she has no plans to stay long. When Orion, a boy from another school starts talking with her, she can start to feel the attraction building and that scares her. She's wanting to go but her teacher gives her the responsibility to watch over Wicked Wyonna, a mannequin that supposedly grants your wishes when you whisper them in her ear. Her ex-boyfriend steals the doll and Orion helps her search for them the rest of the night. 

Even though all three see the ghostly Lady of Moon Ridge, she makes most of her appearance in this story and along with a Ouija board scene, this one probably is the most spooky but still in a YA fiction realm. This was another cute couple, True felt a little forced at the end with her “I can't lose myself in a relationship again”, but what is highschool without some angsty angst. Orion was probably the character I felt like we got to know the least but he was sufficient as just about too good to be true highschool love interest. This finally had a reference that I felt fit more with the characters' ages (saying someone looked like a Disney show actor) and wrapped up the Lady of Moon Ridge night nicely. 

The ending gives us an epilogue where the three friends unite and share their coupled up happiness to each other before going off into the night with their new loves. This had great Halloween vibes atmosphere, definite YA toned (but with some character speak that didn't always feel teenager), young love, and ghostly fun. If you're looking for a book to join in the Halloween fun but want less scary and more light spookiness, this filled with YA cute romance with a few kisses, story could be a fun one to pick up.

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Happy Friday the 13th!

 

🎃 Friday the 13th in October! 🎃 

Halloweenie treat and read! 

This has a group of high school friends known as The Coven, a 400 year old legend of a young woman who perished at the stroke of midnight but now comes back as the Lady of Moon Ridge conjuring an aura upon those willing to follow their hearts' desire, and three connected but separate stories of falling in love. 

Spookiness and love! 

Three Kisses, One Midnight by Roshani Chokshi, Evelyn Skye, and Sandhya Menon purchase link

Zombie Guts Cinnamon Rolls recipe

This were too sweet for me but loved how they turned out looking