I was so excited to read this because I loved Finn‘s first book so much. And this one is great too, just a little different than The Woman In The Window. It reads almost like Knives Out for about the first half-kooky, comedic mystery-then is a slow burn thru the middle, with a fast-paced thriller-y end. The twists were great, and I love Finn‘s nods to classic mysteries and noir. I never would have predicted the ending. A fun read. A pick from me!

Sometimes baking makes me nervous. I‘m not sure why. I‘m much better at regular cooking. But let me tell you, this sweet potato cornbread from The Savory Baker was easy and my husband LOVED it. My first time making it! The recipe called for baking in a cast iron pan, but I wanted to make muffins instead. I also made some honey-cayenne butter to spread on them and oh my goodness *chef‘s kiss*

I love America‘s Test Kitchen cookbooks #mtcookbook

Last night‘s dinner! #mtcookbook I love this cookbook. I use it sometimes when I need a fun finger food type dish to take to a gathering or when I want to make something quick and easy. This is by the makers of those “quick hands” videos on social media. (I call them quick hands because I have to keep pausing and rewinding to catch all the ingredients, oven temp, bake times, etc.) Anyway, this was a delicious and easy meal to make after work.

This was such a good book. Beautifully written, but dark. I read the entire thing in a few hours yesterday. An apocalyptic event has turned most of the world into chaos and violence, but the Amish community lives on as normal since they don‘t rely on electricity, computers, modern conveniences. When the world runs out of food, the Amish continue to thrive, life as normal. They try to help peacefully, while staying within the rules of their Order.

This story is less “psychological thriller-y” than I expected based on other Freida books I‘ve read. Less twisty. Charlotte is shot by someone and suffers brain damage with loss of function on her left side. As she goes thru rehab to recover function, she works to solve the mystery of who shot her. I enjoyed reading about her rehab and relationships there, and I loved the medical aspects of the story. Charlotte‘s story was heartbreaking at times.

Sauces are one of my favorite things to make, and I couldn‘t resist a copy of this for use in my kitchen. The book is smaller than my other cookbooks-I love the size! The recipes in here are easy and accessible, the pictures are bright and beautiful, and I love the suggestions on what foods to pair the sauces with: chicken, steak, tacos, dessert, etc. My favorites so far are the Romesco and Mojo Rojo sauces, which are red pepper-based. #mtcookbook

I took an early lunch break in my car so I could finish this one ASAP because I‘ve enjoyed it so much. I flew thru it. The short chapters made for great pacing and I loved the flashbacks. I loved Evie‘s POV: her lying and thievery was a blast to read. Huge shoutout to her sidekick Devon, who was my favorite character. Lots of fun twists. I see why it was hyped so much when it came out, although that hype is what made me wait so long to read it.

Two-thirds thru. I‘ve inhaled this one. Really enjoying it!

Oh man, I loved this! It reminded me A LOT of Alma Katsu‘s The Hunger which I LOVED. Rather than horror, I would call it a historical western supernatural thriller. Loved the MC Adelaide with her mysterious trunk, loved wondering what was in it. Loved the found family and camaraderie Adelaide built with other lone women out in MT. These women all seemed bogged down with identities-I don‘t think the story needed that. BUT the slow burn across-

I‘m not sure what I thought I was getting into, but this was…not for me. I did finish it though, so theres that. I feel like it is possible to write about taboo or “naughty” subjects if there is enough substance or angst to go along with it, but this didn‘t have that.

I think I got sucked in by the pretty dress on the cover. Has happened to me before. I can‘t think of anyone I would recommend this to 🤷🏻‍♀️

I grabbed the LP edition from the library to give it a try and MY GOSH it‘s just like reading used to be for me. I‘ve had a tough time reading regular print for a while, even with strong reading glasses. I‘ve always felt bad even considering LP because I feel like some readers need those books more than I do.

But, friends, I think I‘ve now arrived at the place where LP is what I will check for first at the library. My eyes feel so appreciative.

I finally finished IT! It‘s pretty standard King: lots of details and perfect characterization building up to a point where all the small details from the beginning come back around, and a less-than-stellar ending. Probably the scariest book I‘ve ever read. I think the part at the end with Beverly and all the boys could have been left out, because WHY? Y‘all know what part I mean.

Next up #readingStephenKing: The Eyes of the Dragon!

Fun to make! “Five-Ingredient Honey Butter Beer Bread” from pg 69 of the tagged book, which I LOVE. I love making quick breads and this was super quick: 5 mins to prep (maybe less) and 35-40 mins to bake.

• I used a glass bread dish, so added time for a total of 55 minutes bake time.
• Will add a pinch of salt next time since salt isn‘t one of the 5 ingredients.

My family inhaled half the loaf before I could even snap a picture 😂 #mtcookbook

I‘m so excited that I finally made it over 1000 pages in my #currentlyreading!! I‘m at the point now where I absolutely can‘t stand having to put the book down or turn the audiobook off to do things like work my job, take a shower, or go to sleep. I‘d love to be able to finish IT this week!

My progress: page 1037/1477

Also: anyone else love reading in your car? I just love it for some reason 🤷🏻‍♀️

#readingStephenKing

I really enjoyed the #MarvellousMarch readathon and am thrilled that I met my goals!

My goals:
1 - make it to the halfway point of Stephen King‘s IT — I made it to 2/3 thru! ✔️
2 - read and review at least one NetGalley book — Hedging Your Bets by Janye Denker ✔️

Can‘t wait until the next readathon! Thank you to our host, @Andrew65!

This was good, not necessarily ground-breaking but that‘s okay. I chose to read it because of the gardening theme and I enjoyed all of the gardening-talk in here. It‘s a slow burn, low on the spice. I enjoyed the small town sense of community surrounding Gillian and Noah and the rest their friends.

It was great for to me to read something like this while also reading Stephen King‘s IT: it was less intense, less stressful, not at all scary.

Every time I look at these chapter headings, it makes me smile. They‘re so cute!

Cook once, eat twice 🥣 Made some potato soup last night and enjoyed it with my family, but tonight I‘m on my own for dinner while my husband and son are out and the leftovers are ALL MINE🤌🏻

#currentlyreading #quiethouse

This pup is snoring 💤 while I‘m trying to make a dent in IT.

My progress: page 565/1488

I knew it would be scary, but I‘m really creeped out by IT. I can‘t stand to read it at night 🫣 Most of me is enjoying the journey with King‘s *perfect* characterization and attention to detail, but part of me is ready to be done with it so I‘m not suspicious near sink drains anymore🩸🤡

#readingStephenKing #currentlyreading #MarvellousMarch #dogsoflitsy

I‘m excited to join #MarvellousMarch Readathon. I look forward to these long readathons every month.

My goals:
1 - make it to the halfway point of Stephen King‘s IT
2 - read and review at least one NetGalley book

Thank you for hosting, @Andrew65!

Goodness gracious, this is terrifying!

#readingStephenKing

This is The Holiday Adventure Club #2-the first book is the tagged one. This one is set at the time of St Patrick‘s Day but doesn‘t really contain any of the holiday in the story.

Lucy takes a group to St Barts where some find love, some find scandal, some find heartache, and they all attend a yacht regatta. It‘s very tropical in theme and made me want to travel to a beautiful vacation destination. These are easy, breezy reads. No stress at all.

The first in The Coffee Loft series, which is a series of novellas featuring/set around a chain of coffee stores. I first heard of this series when @Graciouswarriorprincess posted about it a few days ago and downloaded the first immediately from KU.

It‘s a cute, very short story in which Deanna gets divorced, moves, and opens a franchised store in her hometown, reconnecting with a past love in the process. Only ~60 pgs. I wish it was longer!

My progress so far in the two Chunksters I‘m #currentlyreading

Page 176/839 in A Game of Thrones
Page 321/1477 in IT

I‘m savoring AGoT while knowing heartache lays ahead. This is my third time reading it. And IT is starting to pick up a bit for me as King continues to lay out the relationship among this group of young friends. IT is quite creepy. And dark. I‘m glad I‘m reading something else along with it.

#readingStephenKing

After not being able to settle into a book for a week now, I picked up one of my favorites for another reread. As soon as I started it, I felt like I was IN IT, and that‘s the feeling I love when I read. So even though I have review books and newly purchased books and library loans waiting for me, I‘m reading and listening to this one again because I‘m a mood reader and this is what I want to do 🤷🏻‍♀️

My favorite weekend activity is my book, my coffee, and my pup in a quiet house.

I‘m almost 100/1477 pages in. I love the beginnings of King‘s books, where he slowwwly sets the scene and helps us get to know his characters with details that seem unimportant at first but rear their heads as the action starts to take place. There are not many better places to be than the early pages of a Stephen King chunkster. *chef‘s kiss*

I took today off from work (🥳) and I‘m so excited to be starting IT! I feel like I saw the movie when I was younger (far too young to be watching it, probably) but I don‘t remember much of anything about it except for the scary clown and…spiders? I think? Anyway.

I think I‘ll read this one slowly, as a background book while I also read other things. I read The Stand slowly and loved taking my time with it.

#readingStephenKing

Great story. I love reading anything by Sandra Dallas because she features strong women who have to go thru hard times, usually out on the Western prairie. I loved the characters in this story but I will tell you this: it is sad, sad, sad. The 1916 Wyoming prairie in this story read a lot like the 1800‘s prairie stories always do, which was a surprise to me. I suppose most modern conveniences hadn‘t made their way out there yet.

But sad, so sad.

This collection is one I‘ve meandered thru for 5-6 months now for various reasons. There are strong short stories and novellas in here, of course, but overall I think this collection is not quite as strong as Night Shift, which just banged out winners over and over. My favorites from this one include The Raft, Survivor Type, The Mist, and Gramma, which I just don‘t hear talked about enough.

Next in my #readingStephenKing personal challenge: IT!!

I‘m a whole day late posting, but I‘m thrilled that I completed my goals for #FabulousFebruary. Yay!

My goals were to:
• finish The Disappeared by CJ Box ✔️
• read at least one book from my NetGalley backlog ✔️

I love participating in these choose your own goals readathons! As always, thank you for hosting, @Andrew65!

This one has very mixed reviews but you know what? I really liked it. Starts as a slow burn that spends the first half setting up the three main characters‘ toxic friendship, and the second half is a murder mystery featuring all three plus some secondary characters from the first half. I had a lot of fun trying to figure it all out and I was wrong! The end completely surprised me. So, this is a pick from me!

#FabulousFebruary @Andrew65

My husband has a late meeting, my son is at the gym. I‘m trying to stay awake for just a little while longer while the pup sits here at my side.

Just started this book. I‘m hoping to finish it by the end of #FabulousFebruary readathon. @Andrew65

Finished the 18th installment of the Joe Pickett series and these books just get better and better. This one has several different subplots that creep along toward connecting. I love Pickett‘s family and his friends, especially his now-adult daughter Sheridan. The bad guys are really really bad in here, and the snowy, wintery weather and terrain is fun to read about while it‘s 70 degrees and perfect outside. #FabulousFebruary

I‘m late to posting this but I‘m joining #FabulousFebruary #readathon!

My goals are:
• finish The Disappeared by CJ Box
• read at least one book from my NetGalley backlog

I‘m using these choose-your-own-goal readathons to be more intentional about focusing on NetGalley. Thank you for hosting, @Andrew65!

I got a new mug for my coffee and I love it! #dogperson

I haven‘t felt much like cooking over the last few weeks. I felt bad enough that I wound up urgently under the care of doctors this week as my blood pressure had spiked to 180‘s/100‘s and stayed there for a week or so. I just couldn‘t care to get my cookbooks out and make something. But I‘m feeling better every day now with BP treatment and my numbers are better. I‘m ready to get going again.

#mtcookbook friends: I‘m so sorry for my inactivity!

Finished this in my PJ‘s with my dog and my coffee #perfection

This is my favorite series because of Joe Pickett‘s bumbly honest nature, his penchant for finding himself in danger, and the love he has for his family. The case he works here has been ongoing for the past several books and it was nice to see it come to a close. Maybe. CJ Box has a knack for really setting up the scenes and painting Wyoming and the Tetons beautifully with words.

Whew, what an intense read! It‘s heartbreaking and painful, but also there is hope. I felt anger, shock, and grief multiple times while the MC came to terms with several betrayals.

I think ultimately this book is about trust and where to turn when people you love damage that trust. We‘ve all been hurt before, so this will resonate with everyone at least in part. It‘s exceptionally good. But my gosh, reading it has given my emotions a workout.

Whew, what an intense read! It‘s heartbreaking and painful, but also there is hope. I felt anger, shock, and grief multiple times while the MC came to terms with several betrayals.

I think ultimately this book is about trust and where to turn when people you love damage that trust. We‘ve all been hurt before, so this will resonate with everyone at least in part. It‘s exceptionally good. But my gosh, reading it has given my emotions a workout.

#currentlyreading both of these

I started Results May Vary because it‘s on my NetGalley backlog list from a long time ago. It‘s really good, but the subject matter isn‘t the lightest. So I decided to also read the next Joe Pickett novel, but that one isn‘t the lightest either. So right now I‘m reading two excellent books that make me feel a whole lot of intensity. I‘ll surely end up reading something lighter when I‘m done.

I reviewed this one before it was added to the database and I just wanted my review in the correct place for my own cataloging purposes.

This was SO CUTE. I loved everything about it!!

Low pick. Not quite as cute as the previous two stories in this collection, which I really loved. But still entertaining while I was driving. This one was comedic, but the way Rosie and Leo talked to one another was so corny.

I‘ve read one of Sally Thorne‘s other books in the past and loved it completely—>99 Percent Mine.

I finished last night and enjoyed this read. At two places in this story, I had to regroup a bit because what I thought was happening wasn‘t actually happening. Once you get maybe 1/2 into it, it begins to feel like a cross between Inception and The Matrix, which was when it started confusing me just a little. But it worked itself out by the end and there are great, discussable themes in here. I loved the different iterations of each character.

My very favorite thing: Saturday morning with my book, my napping dog, and my coffee. All week long, this is what I‘m looking forward to, this is what I‘m chasing.

Started it last weekend, hoping to finish it this weekend #bookmap

I‘m exactly halfway thru and things have just taken an interesting turn. This map makes a lot more sense now. Been a while since I‘ve read any sci-fi or dystopian so it‘s a nice change of pace for me. I‘ve also never read Cronin‘s The Passage. I‘m liking this one so far. I have some ideas about how things will go, but who knows if I‘m right or wrong 🤷🏻‍♀️

So cute! My first by this author! Holly and John begin exchanging notes on the hood of Holly‘s car and keep it up for a while without ever meeting. I loved that there is some real emotional depth to the story even though it is so short. I kind of wish it was a full-length novel. I own a few of Abby‘s books-I should read them soon. I enjoyed this!

The audio is wonderful. Narrated by Andi Arndt and Zachary Webber, who are both 💯 1 hr, 17 min.

A short story included in the Skeleton Crew collection featuring a young boy who is left alone with his very old, unhealthy grandmother while his mother runs an errand. His fear of her dying while he is with her comes across so large. It was terrifying to me. Being privy to this child‘s innocent thoughts in relation to getting older and being a bit unhealthy-and hearing adults gossip but not understanding what gossip is-so fantastic. Classic King.

This book was completely crazy!! There are a lot of “wtf” moments but I couldn‘t stop reading it. I was skeptical of this author because she got so big, so fast. But I‘m definitely going to read more of her stuff because this was FUN.

I‘ve been wanting to read something by Freida McFadden for a long time and—finally—this is my first of her books.

It‘s absolutely crazy. What on earth am I reading?

But I‘m enjoying the ride. I can‘t listen or read fast enough. I *have* to know what‘s going to happen. It reminds me of the way I felt when I read The Arrangement Trilogy by Kiersten Modglin. I inhaled that series.

A short book that contains the three prequel shorts to the Brother Cadfael series. They all take place in the 1100‘s pre-A Morbid Taste For Bones and tell of Cadfael as he came to and settled into life at Shrewsberry Abbey. Cadfael is a soldier-turned-herbalist who uses his knowledge and observational skills to solve mysteries.

The language takes some getting used to but I‘m excited to move from here into the long series of full-length novels.