Welcome to Litsy!

As the general manager of a luxury hotel in rural West Virginia in 1942, June "Hoss" Hudson has a local accent, a talent for management, and most importantly, a gift for balancing the sweetwater, the (super)natural spring that affects the energy of everyone at the hotel. When the State Department and FBI replace the hotel's guests with detained diplomats from Germany, Italy and Japan, June comes to question everything she thought she wanted.

I dnfed two of my most anticipated reads this month and it sort of sent me into a slump.

Full wrap up: https://wildwoodreads.com/2025/08/04/july-2025-wrap-up/

#TopReads2025 for July (WTH?! How??? When????) goes to “The Listeners” by Maggie Stiefvater. This was such an atmospheric read that once I started it, I couldn‘t put it down. It was one of those reads that I didn‘t want to finish because I didn‘t want it to end, but I just HAD to finish it so I knew how it ended 🥰😍😌

Another day. Another dnf. I think I hyped myself up too much for this one and it just didn‘t meet my expectations. It also wasn‘t exactly what I was looking for at the moment. I might give it another try later but I‘m not completely sure.

https://wildwoodreads.com/2025/07/21/dnf-diaries-the-listeners/

Themes: Atmospheric, WWII Literary Fiction, Beautiful Writing

I would 1000% recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. There are many commonalities, but also the magical realism in this book was such a beautiful addition. This was a book I didn‘t want to finish because I didn‘t want it to end, but I just HAD to finish it so I knew how it ended 😂 Loved it!!

I‘m afraid I have to echo a number of others here—this book didn‘t quite go the distance. I like the idea of a hotel being taken over by citizens of the enemy until they can safely leave during wartime, but it‘s not as compelling as it could be. And there‘s a magical realism bit so poorly explored as to make it pointless, and I know MS is very capable on that front. But at least I crocheted this cute reindeer while listening!

Maybe I just wasn't in the right mindset for this right now but this took me way to long to read and I don't think I can tell you one thing that happened.

My backseat road trip buddy & I...vacation here I come!!

A very unique novel!

#HaikuaDay #HaikuHive

I've loved Maggie Steifvater's YA books and the premise of a hotel commandeered by the U.S. government during WWII for the use of Axis diplomats waiting to be exchanged sounded fascinating, especially with a supernatural element. But it turned out to be set at a really slow pace, and most of the characters didn't become interesting until the end.

Happy Summer Solstice! ☀️☀️☀️

It‘s been a minute since I‘ve done an anticipated releases post. Last year, I was in a horrible reading slump, so I wasn‘t interested in new releases. And at the first of this year, I tried to focus on some backlist reads. But now I‘m ready to sink my teeth into some new reads.

What books are you looking forward to this summer?

I was fascinated by the setting of this book—a magnificently luxurious hotel in West Virginia haunted by magical springs, run by a brilliant and determined woman who is furious to learn the hotel will be used to house detained foreign nationals as World War II begins. The characters were harder to get into, since their POVs are not very deep, but the beautiful writing carried me along.

I met a sweet dachshund and had to include his picture!

Rainy evening in Virginia, I am spending it with an #ARC set in this general area by the marvelous @MaggieStiefvater Apparently replete with dachshunds, my spirit animal! So looking forward to this adventure.

Although I liked seeing this time period from a non-European perspective and in a non-EU setting, I never really got into the story. Maybe it was the slower pace, maybe it was the magical realism element that I wish had either been left out entirely, or had been more "fleshed out". Or maybe, having read Stiefvater's YA work, I had too high expectations.

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

The day the hotel changed forever began as any other.
#FirstlineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

Adding to my TBR…