Welcome to Litsy!

For Lara‘s gap year, she decides to get a job aboard a luxury train. The trip across Europe is supposed to give her a clean slate. Instead, there‘s a confrontation w/ an old friend & train cars full of mysterious plants.

Gotta love some plant horror! The creepy factor was really well done, the characters were interesting, & the ending made me gasp out loud. But the flashbacks really killed the momentum, & the romance felt unnecessary. 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

At a petrol station in a quiet Manchester suburb, a man watches horrified as someone walks up to the pump, pours petrol over themselves & sets it alight. Meanwhile, a 14-year-old girl is arrested for killing her mother but she seems confused over the details.

At the Coroner's Officer, Mrs Challinor is back even if it is only part time at present, but the Major Incident Team want Detective Inspector Ridpath back working on their cases.

In Jan 1993, Palatine, Illinois, two men entered the 'Brown's Chicken' restaurant around closing time. At 3am police investigated reports that the workers had not returned home & found seven bodies in the walk-in freezer & fridge. Seven members of staff, including the two owners, had been killed & it would take a decade to bring their killers to justice.

No idea what I was expecting from this but it's quite fun. From the dude that wrote Holes.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Pub date is 8/5/25
#ARC #Netgalley

4/5

Bastian is King and Lore is tied more closely to him than ever before, but the more they channel, the more strangely Bastian behaves.

The beginning was a little slow, since the characters were taking a long time to understand something I felt was clear from the first book, but I thought the second half did a good job of raising the stakes and finding the right amount of conflict and resolution for the 2nd book in a trilogy.

#netgalley

This book was good but okay good. It was up and down for me so I gave 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️s. I thought it was more of a history of Mount Rushmore, but it seemed more of a history of Native American people that lived there and lives there now. And I sympathize with them for sure but just thought it was a different type of story & it was up & down on that. So it was good but just so so for me this time.
#LitsyReads #Reads2025 #NetGalley #BiographyofaMountain

5/5

Four robots wake up in the restaurant where they work, to learn they've been shut down for six months and are at serious risk of being repoed after their scammer boss fled the country. Now, these robots have an opportunity to make something of their own, in a world that isn't always accepting of robots. I really loved this cozy sci-fi about community that touches on serious topics global warming, war, trauma, and prejudice.

#netgalley

“Can you uncover the dark secret of these strange houses? When you do, an unforgettable truth will be revealed.“

This is one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's fairly short, I read it in a couple of hours, & it's based around the floorplans of three houses. It's difficult to give a synopsis without giving anything away - I will say that it is dark in tone. (continued)

The ethereal look of this cover is what initially drew me in to want to try this book. A lot of the details are left intentionally ambiguous and the art does a lot of the storytelling, allowing for reader interpretation.
This is a book that will make you want to start again as soon as you finish to see what you might have missed the first time around. This would be a great book to prompt discussions and the artwork is chillingly beautiful. #ARC

In the history of the legendary Wild West, Belle Starr's name is up there with Calamity Jane & Annie Oakley. Like those other two women, Belle's life history has been romanticised & sensationalised until many would not know where the truth & the lies begin & end.

Through the American Civil War & its aftermath, the author painstakingly recreates the events of Starr's short life, & finds that in most cases, (continued)