I‘m not sure how the ghost part works; he can move things and seems to read her mind

Ch 3 (of 34): sitting in Singapore reading about characters planning a trip to Singapore

Just started (ch 5). Each chapter is told from alternating POVs. I could do with less language. It‘s not OTT but it makes up a lot of the conversation which, in my life, doesn‘t happen

2nd in this 3 book bundle. I‘m not sure I like Flavia; she‘s precocious and always concocting poisons to try out on her older sisters. She‘s perspicacious and empathetic. She seems to live in an endless summer in an ideal English countryside near Brontë country in the 50s; no mention of school, teachers etc yet. Lots of colourful chemical reactions lovingly described - I don‘t know how accurate they are - and where does she get her reactants from?

Wow - the prologue hits you hard, even though you've known from the beginning of the first book.

Ch 1; 'How We Learn'. Good intro for a parent to help. Overview of study methods, how brains work, organisation, healthy lifestyle, studying effectively, learning styles. Points out that things have changed a lot since my day (I've discovered that's true 🤗)
Colour coded chapters/ pg corners. Nice layout, easy to read without getting bored. Lots of diagrams (=pretty pictures)

So you‘ve heard of Hy-Brasil? That mystical isle off the west coast of Ireland? 16 (or maybe 17) year old Bridget has grown up there with only 2 mages for company.

9781925626797
Ch 10 - Gamekeeper. Thorn is annoying me. I‘d sympathise with him having to get married when he doesn‘t want to but he‘s taciturn to the point of non-communication and he has no sympathy for Ophelia (in the same position) or her aunt Rosaline, transplanted to a strange, frozen world. He seems to be playing a political game but he hasn‘t even told them that yet but expects them to play along

Borrowed this to watch the TV s2.
4 - Romancing Mr B
Penelope's POV, who's had a crush on Colin since he fell in the mud in front of her. About 13 yrs from 1st book; she's now 28 and 'on the shelf'.
The usual fluff, historical inaccuracies, the wrong mannerisms, behaviours, expressions etc. No worse than usual 🤗

Premise: Michael Stirling, experienced man about town & notorious rake, falls in love at first sight with the one attractive woman he can‘t have (I suspect the author is confusing lust with love), returns after years abroad & still lusts after her. Francesca, whose husband has now died, desperately wants a baby. Outside Hollywood I‘ve never known of anyone who‘d do anything *just* to have a baby. Ch 6 … struggling on …

978044033869. Told in 1st person, past tense (thank goodness) in 1950 by 11 yo Flavia de Luce, 3rd daughter of a country gentleman. TBH, she‘s a bit bratty/ Wednesday Adams-ish (she concocts poisons to get back at her sisters). There‘s a murder at their stately home so Flavia decides to investigate

9781471197987: despite the blackouts, rationing and ARP I‘m not really getting a sense of time. Set in early WWII on the Kent coast. Didn‘t initially grab me but now, about 50% in, it‘s picking up. And yes, got that she rides a Pashley Model A (whatever that is). And the Dads Army references; Stay tends to mention those a lot

This is an LTER book for me. So far (1/4 way in) it's light and engaging enough but quite gentle; not grabbing me & pulling me in - but this is a casual read for me so I'm not the main audience for it. Gives a believable view of London, not the usual tourist-hotspots-from-a-guidebook feel.

I like the cover; my kind of colours.

Ch 4 - in spite of the fact it's told from his POV (3rd person) I don't see anything positive about Philip. The only things we really know about him is that he's a bad father & wants a wife so he can absolve responsibility & escape to his greenhouse.
Ch 5 - starts with Eloise thinking he might be a good catch because of his looks. In spite of the fact she's turned down 6 perfectly good proposals because - we're not told.
Not looking promising.

e-book ISBN: 9780008588175

I learned a new word: petrichor - the scent after newly-fallen rain.

Upto chapter 16 and really enjoying this one. A sort of 'You Got Mail', but with a wardrobe that delivers letters instead of e-mail.

I‘m just starting this. It follows 2 timelines; present day when detective May finds out his partner, Bryant, has been killed and 1940 when they met during the war when May joined Bryant in the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London during the Blitz. The details of wartime London feel genuine, with commonplace observations and not like Fowler did exhaustive research on it. Liking it so far

💬Here, she's laid-back and cheerful and like...a woman instead of a mother, which is utterly weird.
Oh god, it just strikes me that maybe she's got a crush on someone. Maybe it's George's dad. Eww. Can people in their late thirties even have crushes? That's, like, way ancient to have a crush. 💬

A bit like ‘Crazy Rich Asians‘ in that an American Born Chinese (ABC) is brought back to Asia and has to cope with a culture (in this case Indonesian-Chinese) and family that she knows nothing about.

Ch 8 - hilarious because it‘s obvious (from the quality of English) that the parents are setting up their kids on a dating app, but they don‘t realise and are thrilled that they‘ve found perfect (by their lights) partners.

Jemis Greenwing returned to Ragnor Bella from university in disgrace and has to adapt to reduced circumstances and former high society acquaintances avoiding him. It‘s an engaging story but I‘m reading it on my Kindle and finding the smaller page size distracting.

This story takes place after the Fall but (4.5 chapters in) I‘m still frustrated in trying to discover the fall of *what*?

E-book ISBN: 9780062275141

So glad there‘s a map at the beginning. She must be a fan of the Belgariad - place names include Torak and Kel 😊

Agatha and Sophie have solved the School Master‘s riddle - so now they should be able to go home. But I‘m only halfway through the book.

It got off to a slow start initially but picked up. It‘s not obvious where it‘s going yet, which is good. There were some odd vocabulary choices which didn‘t make sense to me.

ebook ISBN 9781741769562

Where Sabriel came from Ancelstierre to the Old Kingdom and travelled all over on her adventure, so far Lirael has only been in the Clayr's Glacier. Mind you, she's only 14.and I'm only up to part 2, ch 14.
I notice that in Sabriel, we never learned the (old) Abhorsen's real name, nor Touchstone's.

audiobook ISBN 9780593742013

Wyatt broke Sam's heart 12 years ago since when she hasn't seen him but this summer she takes her fiancé to her family's beach house - and Wyatt is there too.

Ch 24; still haven't got to the reason for their break-up. Looks suspiciously like Sam's family is throwing them together in spite of the fact that she & Jack are looking for a wedding venue.

Told from 1st person POV. Aurora has a memory from someone else‘s pov of when she was captured as a toddler. 1/3 of the way in. Starts off well but now is losing its polish; things are left unexplained, it‘s started jumping between events leaving gaps and the tone is a bit young.
In 2119 she lives in a domed institute where they train to be Young Enforcers of sunset curfew in the city of Vencen. Magic is abhored & has been stamped out

Ramesh Ryan is a high-flying Sydney detective until he loses a sure-fire front page news case against a drug king-pin and is asked to move to the Central Coast town of Barton for his health. Coincidentally a drug shipment is mishandled and bodies start turning up in droves just after Ryan arrives. Plus there's a 15 year old mystery tangled in. (set in 2021, published 2024)

ER from LT. Picked it because I have family in Oz and for the lead character‘s name, detective Ramesh Ryan. About 1/6 in. Decent writing, could use some editing (eg reverie not revelry, letter 4, blood wrenching cry) and polish - and fewer random exclamation marks! POV is 3rd person but can suddenly switch between people which disrupts the narrative flow.

Oh dear, the beards.

Back in the publishing world but a different company. Clementine has inherited her aunt's NYC flat - which can send you 7 years to the past. There are LOTS of references to 'Dead Romantics', Poston's previous book (including Benji himself)

Just starting (1/10th in). All the names are confusing at the beginning especially when they're given their proper name the 1st time we see them but a nickname (without explanation) at their 2nd mention. Plus, a lot of names are similar: Ma/ Max, Nika/Zika all on the same crew but not related. Though Nika has an adopted sister with a completely different name.

OMG the tension! I know from experience that Duncan can kill off his Blades and now they‘re going into a parallel Russia where a despot Czar rules and his son, who‘s even worse, is just waiting to take over. The Czarina and her sister, betrothed to the King of Chivial, live on a knife‘s edge

Florence (the ghostwriter) and Ben (the ghost) see Ann Nichols's books in the bookshop of Florence's hometown.

ISBN 9780008566579

A book about a ghost-writer - who also sees ghosts. 2 chapters in, getting lots of other book titles and authors. 📕 📙

So many puns in this one.

And so many mentions of golden retrievers. I think I like this one ...
ETA: heaven's sakes, the town mayor is a retriever. I *love* this one.

#DogsOfLitsy

And above all don‘t impersonate the client. Please. It never goes down well.‘
‘That‘s an awful lot of don‘ts, Lucy,‘ Lockwood said.
‘Too right it is.‘
‘You know I‘ve got an excellent ear for accents. I copy people without thinking.‘
‘Fine, copy them quietly after the event. Not loudly, not in front of them, and particularly not when they‘re a six-foot-six Irish dockworker with a speech impediment, and we‘re a good half-mile from the public road.‘

ISBN 978-1-448-12178-6
Set in London, presumably contemporary since they have Velcro. Not sure why she ‘fixed‘ tea though.
On ch 2. They are ghost hunters since only children can sense paranormal phenomena properly and on a case in a haunted house

Kerith has many humanoid and non-humanoid race living uneasily together including the Vaelinar from another world. There are politics and war brewing. Against this epic fantasy is interwoven the everyday life of the Farbranch family which gives it structure. Nicely done 👍🏼

The timeline is a bit confusing; years/ decades can pass between chapters, maybe because some of the characters are long lived Vaelinars (elves). I‘m ~ 1/4 way through and following a few characters. I‘m not sure yet how they relate to each other, though they do interact unawares.
There are many different races/ species on this planet (Kerith) who live uneasily together.
I do like the warmth of the Farbranch family, who are Dwellers (dwarves).

I love the chapter heading illustration; it evokes that summer adventure‘ vibe.

I do like Tavin‘s irrepressible, flippant humour. He knows how to break the tension; they‘re running for their lives with Queen R and the equivalent of the KKK after them and they‘ve just realised everything is even worse than they thought.
(Fie has had to make up Crow alibis for them and give them fake names; Mongrel & Pissabed.)

Listening to the 4th Wing audiobook. Bit confused as to when the narrator says 'rider' or 'writer' (Violet has trained all her life to be a scribe but her mum decrees she will be a dragonrider). Also never sure when characters are speaking/ protagonist is thinking
Seems weird when dragon riders are desperately needed to defend the borders that the training is so dangerous that cadets die/ are allowed to kill each other.

Poor little rich girl

Hmm. Well, if it's an ancient Chinese proverb, maybe there's something in it?

Appropriately, it starts at Chinese New Year, which happens to be coming up in a couple of weeks.

Just starting. Love the description of the garden. And house.

Just finished listening to 'Quiche of Death' full cast audio (including brass band sound effects). Love hearing Penelope Keith's voice. Though I enjoyed watching Ashley Jensen in the TV adaptation, those 'To the Manor Born' tones are great to hear and suit the character well. 😃
On to 'Vicious Vet'!

Subtitled ‘A summer tale of 4 sisters, 2 rabbits and a very interesting boy‘. The motherless Penderwick girls (aged 4, 10, 11 & 12) + dad and their dog, Hound, are on their summer holidays in a rented cottage in Massachusetts attached to a mansion and, of course, have adventures. Same vibes as the books I grew up with - though they were set in early C20th UK. This was written in 2005.
Halfway through. Lots of fun.

It‘s been over a decade since I read this and I wanted to get back to the series so I‘m re-reading. But it‘s been even longer since I re-read the 1st 2 books so I‘m a little lost at the beginning (why Karigan is sad and angry for example). I‘m sure it‘ll come back to me as I go along.

Told in the first person, collection of short series about Mia (who has hitherto unknown metallurgical pows) who lives, with her dad, next door to the unfairly attractive necromancer Leander Fabian. A light and fun fantasy romance. Obviously a collection rather than a novel even though the chapters follow a timeline because information is reintroduced at the beginning f chapters.

I like Smith‘s Sartorias-deles series and was recommended this series. I recently read ‘Prisoner of Zenda‘ 💔and I really enjoyed Smith‘s ‘Crown & Court‘. I‘m I the mood for a fantasy with a (clean) romance so this is my first pick for the year. Nearly halfway through and enjoying it.
Kim is in Europe trying to solve the family mystery of where her mum and gran came from. She‘s mistaken for missing royalty and finds answers - and more questions

I'm enjoying Polgara's story. Somehow, though they're (the Eddings) rehashing the events for the third time, they've managed to keep a fresh perspective. I did, in the early chapters, get a bit fed-up with the 'twin-speak' between Beldaran and her though, conversely, Beltira and Belkira are now quite loquacious. I still find the Poledra angle a bit puzzling; I think they sort of resurrected her in hindsight at the end of the Mallorean.

Legend says the Shepherd King tricked the Spirit of the Woods to give him magic, with which he created 12 types of Providence cards. In revenge the Spirit surrounded the country of Blunder with mist. Children caught in the mist run the risk of infection which gives them magic; they're rounded up by Destriers & Physicians. 11 years ago Elspeth, eldest child of the Destriers' Captain was infected and survived - but only her family know her secret.