I hate James Lacey.

Hmmm... I'm having trouble keeping track some of the new characters and I want to spend more time with Mrs Bloxby and Bill Wong again.

Three cheers for Agatha Raisin setting up her own agency! I found some of the little cases a fun little addition to the main case and I always like seeing Sir Charles & Roy!

Did The Woman in Cabin 10 need a sequel? No. Did I enjoy it anyway? Yes. Will I pick up a third? No.

Am I the only person who hasn't read this? Almost definitely. Am I disappointed in myself for not picking it up earlier? Almost definitely.
This was fun and took me in some unexpected directions, which is just want I want in a Ruth Ware book!

Fantasy isn't really my jam but I've heard amazing things about Kuang AND this one was about books AND my partner is a fan AND I nabbed a skip-the-line audio AND we were spending 10 days hiking in the Alps so it was a perfect choice for a joint listen. I did like the bookish parts and the back stories of both Alice & Peter. The rest... Meh.

In Sept, we hiked the Tour de Mont Blanc - we missed one day due to illness but hiked about 165km of the trail. And audios kept us company. And because I‘m terrible at keeping up with reviews…. Here they come with our gorgeous views!

So many of the characters came accross as whiny and it was just grating. Putting that aside... This could have been so much shorter and I was creeped out by literally everything that the mother did.

#ElinHProject

Just what I've come to love from Shari Lapena - tension right on page 1, plausible twists that still catch you off guard, and a whole bunch of people you just want to smack in the face. Really loved the sister subplot in this one and am hoping we meet this detective again!

This was a sweet little book but I didn't really like how it ended

There was a side plot towards the end that made the book feel really lopsided - it was too heavy in the last quarter of the book and the mystery got pushed to the side. Because of that, this has been my least favourite instalment of the series but I'm still interested to see where this goes!

This is a solid thriller. I liked hanging out with Sarah Keller again and I love a “rich people problems” plot

Hello again, Marlow friends! I snorted out loud during Silent Book Club while reading this, but happily, I didn't get any death stares. This was a clever locked room mystery that kept asking if it was truly a locked room mystery, which made the ending very satisfying.

Wow. This one a one-day read for me and it was just so compelling. There is so much tough stuff in this but Damoff handles it all beautifully.

Hahah - I forgot how ridiculous Hastings is in this! A re-read (during our September hiking in the Alps - pretty good view!) while I try to get back into #ChristiesCapers

Listened to this MONTHS ago just as I was about to head off for some hiking in the Alps! I hated the narrator but I do wish there were more Tommy and Tuppence books, they are my favourite Christie detectives!

This was a reread while I attempt to jump back in to #ChristieCapers

Oh, I really enjoyed this. I didn‘t read American Dirt because of the criticism of appropriation but heard the writing was great so I was happy to see that Cummins was drawing on her own heritage for this book. And it was great! I love a book that flips between times in history and I really love a family with a secret.

This book is just one punch to the gut after another. I've never read Lamb before and I wasn't sure if he was for me but I think I may have to dive into his back list at some point. This was so raw and heavy - and while it did drag in a few places, ultimately, I just couldn't stay away.

This was a very tough go. Compelling, for sure, but I don't think the mix of what happened to Lindsay alongside her parents at her bedside worked for me.

Kevin Wilson is hit-or-miss for me but this was a hit. I really liked the premise, found the characters to be quirky and loveable and just enjoyed the funny stuff that happened along the way.

This isn't anything I'd have ever dreamed of picking up if it were for it being a Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club pick. And I surprised myself by enjoying it! It was quite funny in places - and it seemed almost farcical to me, though I don't know if that was intentional. I don't think I enjoyed it enough to go running for Huneven's backlist but it was a fun read.

I love Abbi Waxman and her style of humour. I think this is the first step she‘s taken into more of a mystery and it was great! It was zany but also touching with a fun cast of characters. Maybe we‘ll see them again soon!?!

Finished this early in the morning right before it was set to expire!

This was such a journey. I went into this fairly blind and I think that was a good thing. It was real and raw and doesn‘t hide the ups and downs of a seventy-year marriage.

This was fantastic! I could really feel the Broadchurch vibes coming through. There are a lot of characters to keep straight and that did catch me early on but once I figured out who was who, I was off to the races. And the way it all came together was very satisfying.

Catching up on reviews… Listened to this back in June/July as I prepped for our September hiking trip.

This dragged for me. While I usually love books that follow a few different characters and then bring them together towards the end, we were so long with each storyline that by the time we got back to one we had seen before, I had forgotten SO MUCH of it.

Not for me. I found it uneven and repetitive and walked the wrong side of the line in balancing those unfamiliar with Rebecca and those who love it. Also, the chapters from The Wife were so bad. Like so, so bad.

Roll 58 for Roll 100

I figured out the who fairly early on (maybe half way through?) but the why was a complete surprise for me. I loved the premise of solving your own murder and I liked how things wrapped before the epilogue - I thought that was very smart of Jackson. But this isn't for someone who needs to like the people they are reading about - this is just unlikeable character after unlikeable character after unlikeable character.

Eh, this was fine but I expected more.

My #bookspin for October

Terry Fallis is not only an auto-buy author but also a move-it-up-to-the-top-of-the-pile-when-I-get-it author. This was a fun new direction for his storytelling, I really enjoyed his take on a thriller that maintained his trademark humour. I hope we see more of Norval, I think this would make a great series!

Had a delightful time listening to Terry Fallis talking about his new novel, The Marionette. He‘s just as delightfully dry in real life as he is in his books

I‘m not surprised this took me over a year to get through - it is dense! But I really enjoyed how it put Mary and Elizabeth side-by-side to give more context for how and why their relationship was the way it was.

My fourth book finished in my #finishwhatyoustarted readathon

Great news, @PuddleJumper you‘re #SnowedIn! But you‘ve got books!!
The Kamogawa Food Detectives - Hisashi Kashiwai
The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton
Like Real People Do - E.L. Massey
The Eye of the North - Sinéad O‘Hart
The Snows of Weston Moor - Benedict Brown
The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett
The First Yule - T.J. Green
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi - S.A. Chakraborty
The Murder Next Door - Sarah Bell
Vicious - V.E. Schwab

This was really lovely. I wasn't sure about listening to the audio but the narrator for Sybil was excellent. There was such a good balance of long-standing relationships that had their ups and downs with one-off letters - the letters to the authors had me in stitches sometimes! It was just so well done and I will be watching for more from Evans.

I love reading other people‘s mail.

It was so lovely to spend time with Jane again but as I got towards the end, I got quite sad.

I started this in 2022 and finally finished it as part of my #finishwhatyoustarted readathon

This took me a minute to get into but by the end, I was just enchanted by the cast of sweet, quirky characters, the magic of the inn, and the story of Sera trying to get her magic back. I'm generally not a fan of fantasy but this was exactly what I needed right now and I'll need to add more cozy fantasy to my stacks!

First book finished in my #finishwhatyoustarted readathon and one of my picks from #trappedinaspookyhouse

My favourite Sager to date. I love the train, I love the 1950s timeframe, I love the locked room mystery, I loved where the twists & turns of the plot took us!

Page. Turner.

Gillian McAllister has a gift for coming up with the most interesting plots and then telling them in unique ways. The first chunk of this is just so gripping and then you jump to another point in time and this "where can this be going?!" and then you find out and you are just here for it.

One of my #CastTheDie books (that I did actually read in October!)

The first 10 pages or so were really hard to get through for some unknown-to-me reason. I wasn't sure if I could stick with it! But then it took off and I really sunk in. I like the meta, fictionalized non-fiction style that Mott uses and I really like how he beautifully ties things together.

Quirky and charming and sweet and unpredictable and funny and just an all around delight

I would love to see this performed live! (because I'm not really a fan of reading plays...)

So I quite liked this - but I did expect a little more to happen. Once I settled into the style of the book, it was hard to put down. Zippy is such a sweet, naive young woman and my favourite parts were when she was working with her customers. I would love to revisit her and see where she is in five years!

This is such a sweet little mystery, it's perfect with a cup of tea and a blanket and an open afternoon. I haven't read Sampson before but I may need to take a peak at her backlist.

WTF. How is it November?? My November #BookSpin list looks suspiciously like October‘s but whatcha gonna do?

It‘s time for the #finishwhatyoustarted readathon to clear out whatever you need to get finished before the end of the year! I was hoping to start strong and finish something this weekend but I just got a notification from the library that 3 holds are in and I still have six in the house so I should prolly work on those!

My #AlwaysFullyBooked planner arrived!! This is the first year I‘ve gotten the light cover and I‘m so delighted with it! It‘s taking all my self-control not to dive in now and start setting it up.

Well, I meant to post this stack last week but I had to start a couple more books so I had lots of choice for my #finishwhatyoustarted readathon. Some of these were started in 2022!!! 🙈

Do you also have a few in-progress books or challenges you want to focus on finishing for the rest of the year? Join me!

This was fun but nothing amazing. I did enjoy Kausar‘s reveal of how things went down at the end but overall, the book felt long and I had a hard time getting into it.

If I hadn‘t started this last night as I was falling asleep, it would have been a one-day read for me. I love Janice Hallett, I‘ll read anything she puts out. I had a couple of good snorts of laughter throughout this and while I understand why people thought the first half kinda dragged, I enjoyed the repetitiveness. The one-star reviews killed me.

Yikes. I‘ve just realized I have an unreasonable number of half-read books that I‘d really like to get read before the end of the year. Feeling the same? Join me for a #finishwhatyoustarted readathon starting Nov 1.

It doesn‘t need to be half-read books. Maybe you are behind on a challenge or some buddy reads? Make whatever you like of it!

I‘ll post my stack later this week when I‘m brave enough to put all the books in one spot.

A total page turner. There is such a good twist that just throws everything you think you know into complete disarray. In retrospect, it‘s so obvious but I didn‘t see it coming!

My #DoubleSpin and Roll 47 for #Roll100

Wow. This book is devastating.

My August #BookSpin