I pulled my fall mugs down from the top shelf and I'm finally starting this beauty today. 🧪⚗️ Though I'll probably listen more than read because I really want to cross stitch. Ahhhh Sunday 😊

I liked this. The mystery isn't terribly compelling (and the cops are ridiculous) but the interpersonal relationships between these three generations of women- and their very different ways of looking at the world- made me happy. I'll be interested in reading the next in the series to see which direction the author takes these characters.

Saturday morning reading ☀️

No truer words

4 couples are at a hotel for a 1920s themed mystery weekend full of atmosphere, hidden clues, & murder. But one murder is real! My enjoyment was lessened by how hard it was to keep track of the characters (everyone had their real name plus the name of the character they were assigned for the mystery weekend) & by the MCs internal angst over her marriage. IRL I've no doubt it would color her whole life but it dragged the story down. Soft pick.

😆👏🏻📿

Mornings (and weekends!) are the best 😊💙☕️

First day of Fall/ Saturday morning porch vibes 😊
(This riff on Notting Hill is adorable so far)

Um yes please!
(Though I'm bummed that it doesn't sound like Kell will be in it; he's my favorite character from the trilogy.)

I started this last night and cannot wait till work is done so I can get back to it. 📖

This was great. Kearsley does an amazing amount of research and I always feel like I'm right there with her charactors. I connected easily with both Lily and Adam. I was happy with the resolution, especially as I didn't see it coming, and I couldn't figure out how the central problem was going to be resolved.

I cannot get into this and the only character I even remotely care about is Pippa, who isn't in it enough to help me. I think I'm going to release this back to the library and move on.

I've spent most of my day #audiobaking blackberry peach cobbler, pumpkin spice muffins, banana cake, and malted milkball brownies (I've lived at altitude my whole life, why is getting things to rise still hit or miss? 😫)
I've read/ listened to this book several times but Susanna Kearsley always works for me.

I'm halfway through and I'm getting annoyed that the characters rarely refer to the others by their names. Instead they are the shoe poet (which is at least a nickname), the wandering boy, the nurse, the polish girl, the giantess. At least the knight/ the German didn't reveal his name to anyone in the group for some time so there's a reason to constantly call him by a label. But everyone knows everyone else's name for Pete's sake. 😖

I have a new goal

A cool, occasionally rainy, day and some fall colored new books. 🥰

Saturday morning vibes 💚
#CurrentRead

This was entertaining if repetitive. My big takeaway: I'm so glad I don't know any of these people. Soft pick.

Yes! I do this ALL THE TIME! I'm so glad it's not just me. 🫣

This was a good, quick, popcorn read. If you think you know where this is going, you'll be right, but there were several things I didn't see coming. The little reveal/ twist in the last couple pages was unnecessary and left me kind of annoyed.

I plan to read one or both of these for September #BookedInTime
@Cuilin

September's book look great!
@TheAromaofBooks

Truth. I am an emotional reader. 💜

Billed as mystery, thriller, suspense, & humor, there is not one humorous, mysterious, thrilling, or suspenseful thing about this book. It's all tell & very little show which is incredibly tedious. The MC is utterly self absorbed & spends all 278 pages on endless monologue.The mystery of what is happening at the Centre isn't surprising & is revealed at about the 2/3 point, leaving a lot more time for the MC to ramble endlessly. 👎👎

#CurrentRead
I 💜 weekends 😊

I'm a little torn about this. I enjoyed following Abbas from village to palace to ship to France to England and back to France. I liked the first part best, as Abbas helped create the tiger automaton, but the time jumps & the different POVs that followed took something from the story for me. I do love a book that has me researching but in this case I found that not only is nothing really known about the makers of the automaton but it was never ⬇️

This was charming. Bea's sleuthing was humorously unsubtle and her interactions with the pompous Duke had me chuckling more than once. I'll read more in the series.

I'm only on chapter 5 and I've already looked up approximately 27 things. I love books that inspire research.

This sounds wonderful!

Recently my kindle app on my iPad stopped going into sleep mode even though I have the iPad set to sleep after 2 minutes of inactivity. Since I frequently fall asleep reading the iPad stays active for hours and the battery drains quickly. It didn't used to do this and I'm baffled.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you fix it?

This is a fun ride. The 1 percenters of New York spill their juicy secrets in an anonymous online forum which gets hacked- goodbye anonymity! Meanwhile one of their children is targeted in an online attack and someone else goes missing after a blackmail attempt. Most of these people are pretty unlikable but this is a page turner. I liked the decisions made at the end.

I loved the descriptions of scenery and food in this. I loved Poppy* and wish I had a bunch of people just like her in my life. I loved that Emilia and Lucy found ways to break free from the lives they had been boxed into, thereby breaking their "curses." I love the way it ended. (*I did think Poppy was TOO forgiving towards her sister but it fit with her character.)

Finished this HF while #audiostitching today.
I liked the 1919 storyline and characters a bit more than the 1847 story. Still, it was good and I'll look for more by this author. #LitsyCrafters

A massive asteroid strikes the moon moving it closer to Earth. The result is tidal waves, unprecedented volcanic activity, & massive loss of life. That's only in the first few weeks. Cargo & tanker ships are lost so gas for vehicles, oil to run furnaces, & food are all in short supply as humanity descends into lawlessness. Families stockpile what they can & protect it from all others. We follow Miranda, and her family as they try to survive.

Here are my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin for August 😊
Thanks @TheAromaofBooks

This cover is GORGEOUS! Unfortunately this sounds too far out there for me.

This is a quick, easy read & it hit the spot for me. Josh & Amelia have a fight on their last day in Rome, she walks away, & does not meet him at the airport so he flies home alone. Then no one hears from Amelia again. As she's a popular social media influencer this is odd & soon her followers become concerned. The question on everyone's mind: #WhereIsAmeliaAshley Then a hacker starts researching & her question soon becomes: #WhoIsAmeliaAshley

I've been unimpressed with most of the books I've read this year, and most of them have good reviews, so I'm starting to wonder if it's me. Maybe I should stop doing ratings.
This book has an interesting set up and deals with the ethics of sperm donation, specifically how many times should one donor's sperm be used.
Park and Olivia are struggling with infertility (TWs galore) so it's a shock when the police tell them DNA from a murder can be ⬇️

This is the story of 6 young adults, and their Cuban community, in late 1800s Key West. They are all passionate about freeing Cuba from Spain which leads to the desire for better pay and working conditions for the employees of the local cigar factories. This was well researched and descriptive with strong individual voices for each of the characters.

Sunday morning vibes

Ahhh Saturday, you're my favorite 😍
#CurrentRead

I loved the bookshop setting and how dedicated Zora was to her shop, employees, family, & community. I loved the body positivity & that Zora, Emma, & Granny expected men to value their goals, time, & pleasure as much as those men valued those things for themselves. I loved the descriptions of everything from food to home to skincare products to the DC setting. I didn't really love how obvious the issue between the two men was to the reader ⬇️

I read this for #BookedInTime and it succeeded in that it got me to do some research on the English Civil War. The mystery aspect was interesting as was the cryptography lesson but the MC was one of the most disdainful, supercilious characters I can recall reading. However, I seem to be the only one who feels that way based on reviews I've read here and at Amazon. 🤷‍♀️ @Cuilin

The sight of the Midway from our hotel room has me excited to tour it today ⚓️

Long weekend, here I come! 😊🛩

I'm a bit late to this party (as usual!) but here are my best books of the year so far. #2023readingbracket
May vs June was pretty must a toss up between TMTSOT&L and Swan Light.

This was a good cat and mouse story with horribly unlikable characters. Very entertaining but I prefer to have someone to root for. Mixed feelings. Soft pick.

This story of sisterhood was good despite some pacing issues. I liked all 4 of the MCs and all of their SOs (at least the SOs they ask have at the end of the book) and they, their circumstances, and their town all felt fully fleshed out. I'll watch for more by this author.

Fans of horror probably wouldn't like this fairly tame haunted house story but I'm good with things not getting too gruesome. Tess is turning her family home into a B&B but the closed up space that should be the owners suite has a few issues. Enter the handyman descended from the town's founders* and the ghost busting neighbor who, eventually, set everything right and solve a couple town mysteries. It's a soft pick for me.