In The Solarium

     Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This is a meme hosted by Sam of  Taking on a World of Words . A fun midweek check-in where you answer three questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading?  What do you think you'll read next? I am just starting Shady Hollow by Juneau Black. It is a cozy mystery where all the characters are woodland creatures. I am very excited to start it! This past week I finished Over my Dead Body by Sweeney Boo. This is an amazing YA graphic novel featuring found family, witchcraft, and long kept secrets coming to light. I loved the artwork so much! Secretly Yours (ARC)  by Tessa Bailey. This ARC was very kindly sent to me by the publisher. This is a grumpy/sunshine romance that is for the masses.  Cackle  by Rachel Harrison. A speculative fiction that I read in one day I was so enthralled.  I am coming back after an over a month long reading slump so I am letting myself just read whatever I...

  Goodbye July!  For those of you who didn't know, I decided to skip posting a June wrap up because my reading was abysmal and I just wasn't feeling up to writing one. So I didn't. But for July I did and sort of kept it as a tracker as I went.  In July I finished 9 books. A Prayer for the Crown Shy  by Becky Chambers. I read this as an eARC, but it was released on July 12th. So go grab it now if you haven't, it is one of my favorite series and I just can't recommend it enough.  Lavender House(ARC)  by Lev AC Rosen, this classic esque murder mystery will be great for fans of Knives Out with a full cast of queer characters.  The Stranded(ARC)  by Sarah Daniels, a YA sci-fi dystopian novel focusing on teens living on an adapted cruise ship isolating from a deadly outbreak. Not my favorite but not bad.  The House in the Pines(ARC)  by Ana Reyes, a thriller/horror-esque that was interesting and had a sort of satisfying ending.  Barb...

    Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This is a meme hosted by Sam of  Taking on a World of Words . A fun midweek check-in where you answer three questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading?  What do you think you'll read next? I am currently reading  The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie  by Carla Valentine. And I am about halfway through Another  by  Yukito Ayatsuji, a horror manga.  I have recently finished: For the Wolf  by Hannah Whitten. A fairly tale retelling that held promise but was disappointing.  Hungry Ghost  by Victoria Ying. A heart wrenching exploration of generational guilt and eating disorders.  I have a few ARCs that I am working through that I am hoping to finish before the month is up. As well as Winter's Orbit   by Everina Maxwell.  What have you been reading? Let me know in the comments below!

   Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This is a meme hosted by Sam of  Taking on a World of Words . A fun midweek check-in where you answer three questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading?  What do you think you'll read next? I am currently reading The Night Circus  by Erin Morgenstern and The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie  by Carla Valentine.  I have recently finished: Lavender House (ARC) a LGBTQIA+ Knives Out-esque old school murder mystery that is a solid read. The Stranded (ARC) a YA dystopian/sci-fi that sounded promising but I didn't quite like it.  The House in the Pines (ARC) a thriller/horror-esque story that was creepy to read but had a sort of satisfying ending. Barbarian Lover (ARC)  (I just had to know what all the hype was about.) Not the biggest fan of romances but I read it and it wasn't so bad.  I am hoping to finish a couple of books that I have started but not finish...

  Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This is a meme hosted by Sam of  Taking on a World of Words . A fun midweek check-in where you answer three questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading?  What do you think you'll read next? Currently I am reading,  Ace  by Angela Chen. A book that I have had for about a year and am rereading it and finishing it. I am annotating it and having a lot of fun so far.  Also I picked up To Sleep in a Sea of Stars  by Christopher Paolini at the library earlier, but haven't started it just yet.  I missed last weeks WWW Wednesday post so I am combining last weeks and this weeks. It been a bit of a slow time for me. I have been reading more fic and such online than traditionally printed material. Also I have been struggling to find something that actually interests me. I have been getting bored rather quickly.  Recently, I finished Gamer + Cat  Vol. 1. It's a super cute slice of life a...

Welcome to the Solarium~ I actually had to re write this post because I unintentionally deleted it. That was very upsetting but I sucked it up and rewrote it.  Overall, May was a really good month. I made a major dent in my TBR list (even though it grew constantly) and I made some progress on my WIPs. So without further ado, let's get in to it~ Over the month of May I read and finished 11 titles: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala  (ARC)  5/5 - a YA horror novel featuring a diverse set of characters and an interesting horror twist.  Gallows Hill  by Darcy Coates  (ARC)  5/5 - another solid horror from Darcy Coates featuring a cursed family on blood soaked land. A Psalm for the Wild-Built  by Becky Chambers💜- a monk and robot meet in the wilderness and talk about anything and everything.  The Last to Vanish  by Megan Miranda (ARC)  4/5 - a thriller set in a small town full to bursting with secrets.  The Accidental Pinup by Danielle Ja...

  Hello! It is a little late but I thought I would still write up a quick monthly wrap-up for April. Its been a year already but I hope all is going well for you! As for reading, it was a relatively slow month. I traveled for a bit and was in a bit of a slump. So I technically only read three books. But I did post a review every week!  In April I read Legends & Lattes  by Travis Baldree which is a low-stakes, slice of life fantasy story. It is one of my favorite reads of the year so far and I will definitely be rereading it later on.  I also read Violets  by Kyung-sook Shin. A translation from the original Korean, follows San and explores the role and life of women in Korean Society.  And finally, I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. The first in her well known Wayfarer series, this Space Opera is not one to miss. I fell in love with Chambers work after thi...

4.5/5 ⭐ Haunted motels, serial killers, and missing people. A good selection for a horror novel. And a great selection for this novel by Simone St. James. This horror plot follows both Viv and Carly in two very different journeys involving the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. Viv, a young women working the night shift at the hotel with dreams of New York City in 1982. And Carly, Viv’s niece, desperate to learn what happened to her Aunt all those years ago on the night she disappeared. I’ll admit, from the description and setting St. James created from page one, it was clear that this was going to be a spooky horror story. But I think that was part of the build up. And the description alone gave me chills. I am not usually a fan of the back and forth POV shifts, nor am I a fan of first person but I found that neither bothered me her as they have in the past. I liked seeing what was happening in the past that Carly was trying to uncover in the present. It built the suspense as we got cl...

5/5 ⭐ Haunted houses, tea, and murder. The perfect pairing for a cozy mystery. I had heard plenty about Laura Childs mysteries before. But before now, never had the notion to try one myself. It just never seemed to work out. But I finally did and am I glad I did. This is the 22nd book in the series and while my first, I didn’t find that I was missing any important information that I could have learned from the first ones. I enjoyed getting lost in their day-to-day business of making and serving tea and other tasty treats. Sometimes it felt like more of the story went to these tasks rather than the actual mystery but I still enjoyed them. As a tea lover, it sparked an urge to not only brew a cup but also try some of the blends they talked about as well. As for the characters, they were so colorful and vibrant I couldn’t help but fall in love with them and their antics. Yes, sometimes it feels overdramatic. But this is the south we are talking about so it doesn’t feel out of place in the...

  5/5 ⭐ I am not the biggest fan of historical fiction, but there was something about this one that just captivated me into reading it all in one day. Maybe it was the fact that the present-day scenes were more frequent than the flashbacks to the past. Maybe it was the museum and artifact talk that made my little nerd heart happy. I really can't put my finger on what it was. But I was left at the end of this with the biggest satisfied grin on my face. It opens with the scene that changes the life of one of our main characters, Margot, on the night of a party that went horribly wrong. And the friendship that bloomed between her and Josephine, a resistance fighter, in a prison cell during World War II. Back in the present time, Evie is tasked with preparing Josephine's possessions for showcase in an exhibit to honor her life and work as a popular mystery author. Exploring her past raises more questions than answers as Evie, her son, Hugo, and the museum curator Clement search for...