About

Hello Bookworms!

Welcome to In The Solarium. This is a space to share my thoughts and feelings on the many different books I read.
On this blog, you’ll find book reviews, monthly wrap-ups, and other book-related blog posts.
So grab a cup of hot tea or coffee, a favored blanket to tuck into, and enjoy.
-Chelsea

Add me as a friend on GoodReads or StoryGraph to keep up with what I'm reading!

A little about me:

My name is Chelsea(she/they) and I am a 27 year old librarian at two different public libraries. At one I am in charge of the entire adult fiction collection so as you can imagine I try to keep my nose in as many review and publishing sites/services as I can. And try to read just as many if I can.

In The Solarium comes from my dream of one day having my own solarium where I can read books surrounded by plants while drinking tea or coffee all day.

I have been reviewing books on and off for about 5 years. I started seriously reviewing when I graduated from my undergraduate degree in 2017 when I wanted to relearn to enjoy something I had loved from my youth again. And this blog was born out of a need for direction in the middle of the pandemic. And after one of my coworkers turned me on to NetGalley to read ARCs… the rest was history.

Comments

The Family Plot - Megan Collins

4/5 ⭐ A family brought up learning about everything through the lens of true crime. Murder, mayhem, and death are the Lighthouse family's close companions. I was looking forward to this book since reading the summary. I have a mild interest in true crime and was interested in seeing how this story would incorporate such a widely talked about topic. For some, true crime is overdone and saturates media. And if anything, I think Collins does a fantastic job of acknowledging that fact and takes on true crime in a new and unique fashion. We are immediately introduced to the main setting, Blackburn Island, home to a serial killer who was never caught and the home of the 4 Lighthouse children and their... peculiar parents. I thought that Collins did a good job with the characters introducing them one right after another without it feeling rushed or like we were missing something. If anything it felt as though we learned a lot about the family within just the first few chapters. Without ...

Cleopatra's Dagger - Carole Lawrence

3/5 ⭐ While this story started great and had some really great qualities, it, unfortunately, fell flat for me. I tend to avoid historical fiction and I had hoped that the murder mystery aspect would help. And I think it would have if it had actually been about the murders. But instead, they became almost an afterthought. I was drawn in by the attention to detail and well-developed prose but after a while, it was overwhelming and tedious. It felt like it took forever to get to the point and while some build-up is good, this was too much. This is definitely for someone, but not me. 6/7/22 *This review was previously posted on my Google Site.

Certain Dark Things - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

5/5 ⭐ A fresh take on the old classic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia manages to reimagine vampire lore into something completely unique. Take whatever previous notions you have of vampire stories and toss them out the window. She managed to introduce such an interesting take on vampires, ones that take on aspects from their cultures like Alt with ties to Aztec mythology and so on. All of these subspecies of vampire builds on the richness of the world Moreno-Garcia created. Alt flees to Mexico City, a closed nation free from any vampire after her family is killed by a rival gang of Necro vampires(a deadly European subspecies of vampires). With only Cualli, her loyal and deadly dog, and a garbage boy named Domingo helping her, she has to flee both the Necros and human gangs who wish her dead. Vampire gangs are definitely a new one for me. The characters come to life on the page within the excellent worldbuilding. You just get lost in the story, captivated until the very end. The ...

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