Password-protected posts contain heavy spoilers and are there to prevent accidental spoiling. They can each individually be accessed with the password "SPOILME(#of the post)". That means if the post is numbered #0000, the password is SPOILME0000 - SPOILME all in caps, no space in between.
Enter at your own risk. And have fun!
“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.”
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.
I’ve been hearing so many great things about this book, and I’ve also been wanting to read David Copperfield but haven’t gotten around to it. Now that I’ve finished this one, I’d like to read David Copperfield soon!
The Quotes
“The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.”
“At the time, I thought my life couldn’t get any worse. Here’s some advice: Don’t ever think that.”
“Actual fact: you could make an entire second world out of what people throw away. The landfill is where I figured out one of my main philosophies, that everybody alive is basically in the process of trading out their old stuff for different stuff, day in day out.”
“I think most of humankind would agree, the hard part of high school is the people.”
“When your parent clocks out before you clock in, you can spend way too much of your life staring into that black hole.”
The Narrator
Charlie Thurston. He was pretty great! I enjoyed his narration, was able to follow the story well, and I have no complaints.
My Thoughts
I had no idea what to expect going in. The only thing I knew about the book was that it’s a retelling of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and the only thing I knew about David Copperfield was that it’s supposed to be Dicken’s favorite book that he wrote. I feel like the subject matter isn’t something I’d normally be interested in, but people kept praising the book and David Copperfield is also one of those classics I knew I wanted to read someday, so I decided to dive in. I’m so glad I did because I got completely immersed in Demon’s life. The story was so well-written, so compelling, and it made me feel so many things.
My Feels
Empathy, anger, compassion, helplessness, hope, fear, heartbreak… it’s all here. It’s a roller coaster of emotions and what a ride it was! There were parts where I got so overwhelmed with the anger and heartache, I had to take a break and come back. There’s so much about this book that I can’t articulate as well as I wish I could, but I feel like it’s one that I’ll come back to and get more out of each time I do. I’m also really looking forward to reading David Copperfield soon.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
A novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal–an experience that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.’
This is my in-person book club’s May BOTM pick. However, I did borrow it from the library on audio before it was confirmed as the BOTM, just because it was available and I’d been wanting to read it.
The Quotes
“If definitive proof emerges that we’re living in a simulation, the correct response to that news will be So what. A life lived in a simulation is still a life.”
“This is the strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death.”
“What you have to understand is that bureaucracy is an organism, and the prime goal of every organism is self-protection. Bureaucracy exists to protect itself.”
“Perhaps we believe on some level that if the world were to end and be remade, if some unthinkable catastrophe were to occur, then perhaps we might be remade too, perhaps into better, more heroic, more honorable people.”
The Narrator(s)
John Lee, Dylan Moore, Arthur Morey, Kirsten Potter. I had a really hard time listening to John Lee’s narration of his part of the book. I don’t know if it was the recording or the accent, or some other factor. I didn’t have the same problem with the other narrators. I could hear them all clearly.
My Thoughts
I didn’t know what to expect going in, especially since when looking at the different parts of the book, they were separated by such huge time gaps. I should’ve realized that it would turn out to be a time travel story. All of the different parts of the book and the different characters’ stories felt like very interesting slice of life stories. I love how they all connected, and I loved how the story was told. It’s not thrilling or exciting in the way most time travel stories usually are, but it was thrilling and exciting in its own way.
My Feels
There was some discussion about how Olive’s story in the book was a self-insert by the author; the questions asked of her as she went on her book tour, the sexism on being a woman writer away from her child while her husband stayed home to “babysit”. In the book it was 2203 when it happened, but it resonates because things are happening in our current times that make me feel like we might be going backwards. It’s scary and maddening.
Other than that, I always enjoy time travel stories and how different ones have different ways to explain the time travel paradox. I like how it was handled here, and I’ll always believe in the possibility of it.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
The New York Times bestselling author of Better and Complications reveals the surprising power of the ordinary checklist
We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.
In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.
An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.
A physician friend recommended this book to me more than 10 years ago. It was available on audiobook when I browsed my library’s catalog so I thought I should finally read it since it’s been on my TBR long enough!
The Quotes
“We don’t like checklists. They can be painstaking. They’re not much fun. But I don’t think the issue here is mere laziness. There’s something deeper, more visceral going on when people walk away not only from saving lives but from making money. It somehow feels beneath us to use a checklist, an embarrassment. It runs counter to deeply held beliefs about how the truly great among us—those we aspire to be—handle situations of high stakes and complexity. The truly great are daring. They improvise. They do not have protocols and checklists. Maybe our idea of heroism needs updating.”
“One essential characteristic of modern life is that we all depend on systems—on assemblages of people or technologies or both—and among our most profound difficulties is making them work.”
“There are good checklists and bad, Boorman explained. Bad checklists are vague and imprecise. They are too long; they are hard to use; they are impractical. They are made by desk jockeys with no awareness of the situations in which they are to be deployed. They treat the people using the tools as dumb and try to spell out every single step. They turn people’s brains off rather than turn them on. Good checklists, on the other hand, are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything—a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps—the ones that even the highly skilled professionals using them could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical.
The Narrator(s)
John Bedford Lloyd. It was great! He was clear and precise, and easy to follow.
My Thoughts
I thought it was cool that a whole book was dedicated to the importance of having checklists. For the regular layperson like me, checklists are usually just part of the tools I use for convenience and keeping myself organized, and it has also saved me some stress many times, but in aviation, construction, and medicine, it can be the difference between life and death. I think checklists are worth implementing in any situation you can think of though, and I think the book is definitely worth reading.
My Feels
You’d think that reading about checklists as a subject matter could get boring, but it’s surprisingly fascinating. I loved listening to the studies, the examples, and anecdotes of all the times checklists made a difference. In some of these cases, it feels infuriating to me that people refuse to use checklists just because of ego or hubris. If I could, I’d have a checklist for everything in my life to make things so much easier, but absent of that, I think I’ll just do my best to implement it where I can.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.
“You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark.”
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.
This has been on my TBR for years but I kept putting it off because my mental health hadn’t been the best for the last few years and the subject matter of this book certainly wouldn’t help. I’ve been feeling much better recently and I thought I should finally get this read.
The Quotes
“I love reading true crime, but I’ve always been aware of the fact that, as a reader, I am actively choosing to be a consumer of someone else’s tragedy. So like any responsible consumer, I try to be careful in the choices I make. I read only the best: writers who are dogged, insightful, and humane.”
“He loses his power when we know his face.”
“What is the lasting damage when you believe the warm spot you were just sleeping in will be your grave?”
“I don’t care if I’m the one who captures him. I just want bracelets on his wrists and a cell door slamming behind him.”
The Narrator(s)
Gabra Zackman, with an introduction by Gillian Flynn, and an afterword by Patton Oswalt. It was very well-done.
My Thoughts
There was so much to process here. I loved how it was written and organized, and I love the biographical nature of the author writing down her thoughts about the case and including personal information and why it’s important to her. I care about the case because she cares about the case, and I think it’s important to have just as much highlight on the people who put the work into solving the case, as it is on the victims and perpetrators. There are so many crimes that go unsolved because sometimes people just don’t care enough, and perhaps it’s not always healthy for any one person to care too much, but I still respect that they do care.
I have seen some discussions online about how the author didn’t contribute to solving the case and didn’t even have the killer in her sights, and while the latter may be true, I don’t agree with the former. The fact that she kept the case active and in the spotlight (with her true crime blog), kept talking to detectives, witnesses, and victims, kept doing research and cross-checking data, kept bouncing ideas off of other people who were also still working on the case, is a huge contribution to making sure someone was taking action to find the killer, and to disregard that is ignorant and disrespectful.
My Feels
It was horrifying to read about all the terrible things the killer did, and to so many victims. It was heartbreaking to read about the victims, the fear, the powerlessness, the devastation of so many families and those left behind. It was infuriating to think of all the close calls where they could’ve caught the killer but didn’t. And it’s so sad to realize that the author didn’t live to see the killer caught and her life’s work achieved. But I am glad that I finally read this book.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
1970s Afghanistan: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what would happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to an Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.
It’s the chosen Book of the Month for my in-person book club’s April read.
The Quotes
“For you, a thousand times over”
“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime…”
“And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”
“There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life… you steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a ather. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness… there is no act more wretched than stealing.”
The Characters
Amir is a very flawed character, but such a complex person as well, and it was very interesting to read the story from his POV. Baba, Hassan, and several other characters including the unlikable ones, are very interesting as well. I feel like the author has an incredible skill for writing complex characters and I really appreciate that.
My Thoughts
This story gave me so much food for thought and so many feelings too. The complexity of relationships, especially the familial ones, societal expectations and the need of the ego to live up to them, the hypocrisy of appearing perfect in public and behaving badly in private. I get the fear of judgment and the shame, I’ve felt it myself many times throughout my life, and I think that’s the beauty of this story. It makes you wonder what you would do if you were in the same position. Amir is flawed, and he has done horrible things, but he was also a literal child neglected by his only parent who he desperately wants to please. And even as you see him grow and become a man, there are so many other instances within this story where you wonder what you would do if you were in that position.
My Feels
There is so much heartache and bittersweetness here. I can feel the nostalgia, and the sense of “missing it but knowing that you can never go back”. I believe there’s a word for it in another language but I don’t remember it. I love how the story came a full circle and I love that my book club chose this book for April!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.
I’ve read this book a dozen times and loved it every time. This time it’s for a readalong with my online book club and I must say, I love the book even more now from this wonderful experience!
The Quotes
“All human wisdom is contained in these two words – Wait and Hope”
“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you”
“I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol.”
“Passion can blind even those who are ordinarily the most clear-headed.”
The Narrator(s)
John Lee. I was listening to the Blackstone Publishing audiobook. I enjoyed the narration, and it was easy to follow the flow of the story.
My Thoughts
I’ve loved this book a long time, but reading it with my online book club is a whole other experience. I loved reading along and seeing new details I didn’t notice before, and having things pointed out to me by others as well. I loved sharing my thoughts and listening to others’ thoughts and opinions. Even the opposing ones. Especially the opposing ones. We had some heated discussions and I enjoyed them all. I also have a new appreciation for certain scenes I never paid much attention to before.
My thoughts about the book itself – I’ll write an essay one day, but for now, I’ll keep it simple. I love the story and the storytelling. I love that this story doesn’t get old for me no matter how many times I’ve read it (although the first time was the most intense!). I love the characters, the journey, the way you see each and every single one of them change over time. I love the karma, the intricacies, the way things came a full circle. And the fact that it was originally serialized, and that it’s so massive, how incredible this story is and how much skill Dumas had in writing it. I love it and I love it and I love it a thousand times!
My Feels
Have I said I loved it yet?
Seriously though, all the feels! The heartache, the anguish, the pain, the cunning, the fear, the satisfaction, the everything! There was also plenty of humor to go around, if you read between the lines. I love it!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale
January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?
November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.
I loved the Winternight series by the author so I was excited when I saw there was a new book coming out. And my online book club was doing a buddy read for it too.
The Quotes
“But she had no armor at all, she realized suddenly, against his precise, undemanding fingers, and the concern in his eyes.”
“The people in the mirror could not disappoint in any way, and he would never fail them, or lose them, or mourn them. It was easier so. He had only to watch and yearn.”
“Winter said there’s ghosts all around you. Faland snorted. When you swim in the ocean there’s water all around you, but no one mentions it.”
The Characters
I loved Laura and her brother Freddie. I loved Pim and Jones too, and I was intrigued by Winter and Faland but I feel like we don’t get to know them well enough. The Parkeys are also interesting characters but I feel like we don’t see enough of them. In general, I loved how distinctive all the characters were, but I also wish we saw more of some of them. Maybe it’s just a testament to how good the story is because I want more of them.
My Thoughts
It’s interesting because this was a buddy read and there were a few differing opinions that made me think about it a little more. A couple of us thought that Winter was not a fleshed out character, but rather a wish-fulfillment character that existed to make things convenient for the other characters. There were also other things that happened in the book that felt very convenient and not realistic at all, although to be fair, there’s a magical, mystical element to the story that allows for a bit of unrealisticism. Others weren’t bothered by these issues and argued for them.
I personally believe that Winter is not developed enough as a character and a lot of the things he did, didn’t make sense to me without more background, and yes, I felt a lot of things that happened were too convenient. However, I can also see the other side of the argument. I’m not attached to the details, I can accept the book as it is, and I did enjoy the story as a whole anyway but I also think it could’ve been better if some of those issues were worked on.
My Feels
It is the story it is, and I enjoyed reading it and experiencing it as a buddy read. There were parts I loved, characters I loved, and I think mostly, I just love the otherworldly, mystical vibes of this book. They are what I appreciate most about Katherine Arden’s writing.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
A former slave fighting for justice. A reclusive warrior who no longer believes it exists. And a dark magic that will entangle their fates.
Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life.
Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. But to join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders.
The Orders’ intentions are cryptic, and Tisaanah must prove herself under the threat of looming war. But even more dangerous are her growing feelings for Maxantarius. The bloody past he wants to forget may be the key to her future… or the downfall of them both.
But Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means gambling in the Orders’ deadly games. Even if it means sacrificing her heart.
Even if it means wielding death itself.
Fans of epic romantic fantasy like Sarah J. Maas and Raven Kennedy will devour this tale of dark magic, passionate romance, vengeance, and redemption.
Everyone has been talking about The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent, so of course I was intrigued, but there’s a long waitlist for that book and this one by the same author happened to be available on audio, so I thought I’d try it.
The Quotes
“Men want power because it makes them feel good. Women want power because it lets us do things.”
“Did you know that when caterpillars make a cocoon, their bodies totally dissolve? They become nothing, before they become something else.”
“We had carved out these small, intimate spaces for each other in our lives, and by some miracle of human denial, neither of us had thought about what that would inevitably mean. Now, for the first time, I realized the breadth of the gaping absence we would leave in each other.”
“It’s easy to die for someone,” I said, “but it is so much more valuable to live. I do not give you permission to fail if I fail.”
The Narrator(s)
Dan Calley and Esther Wane. They were fine. I like Esther’s narration but there were parts where I couldn’t hear her properly and missed certain details. Dan’s narration had a bit of an annoying inflection, for me. I feel like I maybe would’ve liked the book more if I’d read it rather than listen to it.
My Thoughts
I liked the story, and I loved Max and Tisaanah, the whole power up montage for Tisaanah, the way they got to know each other. I’m a sucker for slow burns, vulnerable conversations, and I love how they try to protect each other. However, I feel like my enjoyment was marred a little by the narration. Maybe. I feel a little disconnected to the story and the characters, and I feel like it’s probably because of the narration. I feel like I might have missed some important details in some parts, and also the narrators’ inflections and interpretations of the voices and events influenced my thoughts about them. Objectively, I thought it was a great story, but there was just something missing somehow, and that makes me kind of ambivalent about continuing with the series.
My Feels
I think I could’ve loved the story and the characters. I think I could’ve really loved Max and Tisaanah’s love story, but I just feel disconnected. I could try again in print, but there are so many other books out there so I feel it’s really okay to let go and move on. I am still going to read The Serpent and the Wings of Night, but I’m going to make sure I read it in print!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek.
In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.
Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned.
Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it.
What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine.
Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
Legends & Lattes was amazing! I fell in love with Viv and I want more of her! I would read all the books in this series if the author wrote more.
The Quotes
“I don’t know if I can explain it, but watching you read what I give you, putting a book in your hands and seeing what happens to you once you put it back down… I can’t make you understand how that gives me something I didn’t know I had to have.”
“Never trust a writer who doesn’t have too many books to read. Or a reader, for that matter,” said Zelia.”
“Every book is a little mirror, and sometimes you look into it and see someone else looking back.”
“Well,” breathed Fern, surveying the interior with both brows raised. “Fuck me.” Satchel drew back from her in alarm, and his eyes seemed to widen as the flames within them burned brighter. Viv leaned down near his skull and whispered, “It’s just a figure of speech, not a request.”
The Characters
We’ve already met Viv, and in this book we meet Fern, Maylee, Gallina, and Satchel. Also Potroast. I love all of them, Fern especially. She really came to life for me. I love Satchel too, and Maylee. You know what, I love them all!
My Thoughts
The difference between this book and Legends & Lattes is that you know Viv is only here temporarily, and she’s going to leave all the friends she met here behind. The interesting thing is that it doesn’t even matter because sometimes it’s not about how much time you spend with a person, but the quality of the time you spend with them. I thought it was beautiful how all of them felt that it was worth getting to know each other even when they knew it would only be for a while.
I also love the slice of life we see with Fern’s bookshop and the running of it. I thought I loved it when we saw Viv setting up her cafe in Legends & Lattes, but I really love seeing how Viv helped Fern revamp the bookshop. All that talk about books, and the reading experience, and getting excited about book events… I wish I could’ve been there!
My Feels
There are many books I love but I would never want to live in their world. This series is one that I really love and wouldn’t mind living in. I would love to be friends with Viv, Fern, Tandri from the first book, and pretty much everyone Viv calls friend. It’s just amazing how Baldree has written these characters, how Viv seems so real and tangible, the way she brings people together and make everyone she meets, everywhere she goes, better than before. I love her!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage. Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.
And she also has a new project to focus a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.
“Assassins are a monstrous breed. Either they attack when you are at your worst, or they are having a go at you on your birthday. I have never known a more dishonourable profession.”
“I’m afraid I have not gotten over my resentment of him for saving me from the snow king’s court in Ljosland earlier this year, and have made a solemn vow to myself that I shall be the one to rescue him from whatever faerie trouble we next find ourselves in. Yes, I realize this is illogical, given that it requires Wendell to end up in some dire circumstance, which would ideally best be avoided, but there it is. I’m quite determined.”
“The problem is not the packing, I admit; I simply dislike travelling. Why people wish to wander to and fro when they could simply remain at home is something I will never understand. Everything is the way I like it here.”
“One of the guiding principles of dryadology,” I said, “is this: do not cross the sort of Folk who make collections of human body parts.”
The Characters
I still love Emily and Wendell, and of course Shadow too. I was very happy to see more of Poe as well. Other than that, I didn’t connect with the characters in this book as much as the ones in the first book. Professor Rose grew on me, but I didn’t love him. Ariadne seemed like an afterthought, and the rest of the cast were mostly forgettable.
My Thoughts
Despite the characters not being as memorable as the ones in the first book, I still very much enjoyed this book. I love the way the relationship between Emily and Wendell is progressing. I feel like they know each other and are very comfortable with each other, and that’s everything. The story itself is interesting and I think my favorite part was discovering the doors. I also love the journey into Wendell’s kingdom and getting a glimpse of it. I’m excited to see more of it in the next book.
My Feels
I love this book because it’s a continuation from the first book and features characters I fell in love with, but I didn’t love it as much as the first book and I’m a little dissatisfied with how the rest of the characters were written. The characters in the first book were so vivid and alive, but the ones in this book felt like cardboard cutouts.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars. Still good, but I need better written characters!
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
