REPOST for @LitsyBirthdays :

June is approaching fast, and soon we'll be celebrating these lovely Littens on their birthdays.

If you'd like to get some #BirthdayLove and fairy dust from the #BirthdayFairies sprinkled over your special day, send your birthday and Litsy handle to litsybirthdays@gmail.com. Please remember, you can only sign up for yourself.

@LitsyEvents Could you please include? Thank you. 😊

This author‘s debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over (set in the same small Maine town), was a winner for me. Unfortunately this second effort, not so much. Laurie, a single Seattle journalist on the cusp of 40, is tasked with returning to her hometown to clean out her beloved late aunt‘s house. She reconnects with her bf June and first love Nick who is now a librarian. She discovers a hidden wooden duck decoy, and they set out to solve the mystery 🔻

Full disclosure, I haven‘t read the previous 2 books in this YA Christian romance series, but I didn‘t feel lost. Set in 14th-century (near France), Princess Elyce has been raised to be proper, obedient and basically emotionless by her father and aunt. However she rebels when her father arranges a political marriage and forms an alliance with a neighboring king to use her people for dangerous forced labor. Two English knights vow to help her 🔻

In this contemporary mystery-within-a-mystery, four strangers who happen to be sitting at the same table in the Boston Public Library, bond and become unlikely friends following a murder in a nearby room. The only catch? One of them is the killer. The “within” plot is that this murder mystery is being written in real-time by Hannah (in Australia) who is receiving unsolicited advice/counsel on this story (and all things Boston/American) from an 🔻

Three sisters are charged with meeting at their family‘s summer cottage in Maine one last time following their mother‘s death and then selling it. There are secrets galore, lies galore and deceitful behavior galore (disguised as well-meaning). I‘m far from a saint, but these characters were some of the most self-centered, unsympathetic that I‘ve read. Did not care for any of the bunch, and the story (told in various voices) was all over the 🔻

First in a new historical mystery series set in 1923 London. Saffron is a new research assistant in the male-dominated botany department at University College. While attending a party to celebrate an upcoming Amazon research trip for some of her colleagues, the wife of a professor is poisoned. Her mentor is accused and arrested. With the help of a fellow researcher, she must uncover the real culprit. This was rather simplistic, but I‘d be 🔻

I actually wanted to like this one more than I did (which kinda happened with the other book I‘ve read from her). This is a story about a wealthy man living in the shadows of his famous American-royalty father who never feels like he measures up and a woman from the other side of the tracks who was raised in an abusive home but manages to rise above in the fashion industry. The plot is fine (and very loosely based on real-life 🔻

Number 4 in the Lane Winslow series (a favorite), this is yet another wonderful addition. There‘s a lot going on in this one (actually four different story arcs!), but don‘t let that scare you. It‘s not confusing as really two are related and one of the other two is a past story to help explain a current one. I won‘t go into all the details (it would take awhile LOL), but what I love about Winslow‘s writing is her character building and her 🔻

I LOVED this story. A YA story set during the pandemic following two teenaged strangers (Max and Jonah) who meet at a grocery store (Max works as a personal shopper) and begin a lockdown friendship. They navigate all of the trials of being a 17-year-old during an unprecedented time (online classes, missed once-in-lifetime opportunities, social interactions, etc.). Jonah is from a fairly affluent family who along with his older sister lost 🔻

First in a new time-travel mystery series, homicide detective Mallory is attacked and nearly killed in an Edinburgh alley while jogging. At the exact same time, Catriona, a Victorian-era housemaid is attacked in the same alley in the same method. Mallory wakes up to find herself in Catriona‘s body in the 1869 home of a funeral director/medical examiner who is helping to investigate a similar case. 🔻

Hey all! I‘ve got the chance to read an arc from the Kate Burkholder series, but I‘ve only read the initial one. And yes, I know there are currently 13. 😳🤣 Is this a series that really should be read in order, or does it matter? Thanks!! 🤗🤗

This is 3rd (possibly last?) in the Cornish Escapes series. Each story has dealt with a different supernatural object at the center of a love story. Sennen is a Cornish potter/painter who runs an art store and has become a bit jaded on love. Tremaine is a wealthy lawyer with parent issues who has moved back to refurbish an old family home. Sennen learns of an old parting glass that her Gran found on a secluded beach on Tremaine‘s property. 🔻

I‘m a fairly recent Bateman fan, and this is the 2nd in her Ruthless Rivals series centered around two long-feuding families, the Davies and Montgomerys. Carys is the only female in the Davies family and thus is adventurous and free spirited. She made a mistake and is now being blackmailed for her naïveté. She turns to Tristan Montgomery, her frenemy, for instruction. And though neither is aware, they‘ve secretly always been drawn to the other. ?

When I started reading this one, I had no idea that it was related to Jenner‘s previous Jane Austen Society (which I loved) as the reviews I read did not mention it. Set in post-war London (1950s), this story follows Evie Stone (from the previous book), a young women who is among the first class of Cambridge female students to earn a degree. Though more qualified, she is denied an academic position at the college in favor of a rival male 🔻

This is a dual timeline mystery set in 1666 London (centered around the Great Fire) and present-day London. The stories are loosely connected by the great architect Christopher Wren (St. Paul‘s Cathedral, etc.) and feature fearless, tenacious heroines. While modern-day Nigella Parker, a DI for the City Police, is investigating a series of arson murders, Margaret Dove, a lady-in-waiting for the Queen, is searching to uncover the truth about a ⬇️

I‘ve always been a sucker for books that imagine a sequel to the lives of classic characters. I‘ve always felt it must be very hard for an author to stay true to a previous author‘s work while also having their own say. And what a fun and ambitious undertaking with multiple characters from the world of Jane Austen. This historical mystery centers around the forced proximity of the “house party” and is set at the Donwell Abbey home of ⬇️

Here‘s my #BookSpin/#DoubleSpin list for May.

One day I will start fresh with a completely new list. But for now, I‘m just plugging in the gaps. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks, o fearless leader. 🤗🤗

Loved this and had to share…

“Be the woman who fixes another woman‘s crown without telling the world it was crooked.”

We all need to help one another…(and this should read “human being”, not just for women 😉).

#ThinkPositiveBePositive

Rae Sutton is a 36 yo woman with a 15 yo daughter whose husband left her for a younger woman and who has just lost her mom to cancer. She uproots her life back to her hometown and her parents‘ old house and begins to remake herself with a new career and possible new love. With God, her Aunt Maxine, and two other elderly friends to lean on, she must make some difficult decisions about the future. On paper it sounds good, but I had some issues 🔻

“There is always light.
If only we‘re brave enough to see it.
If only we‘re brave enough to be it.”
~Amanda Gorman

#ThinkPositiveBePositive

Thanks for the tag @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 🤗

Want to contribute anyone? 😊

I don‘t run into a lot of books that I feel let down because there‘s no sequel/series…meet Sunshine. Sunshine is a 25 yo popular baker in her stepfather‘s small hometown diner who, after a traumatic kidnapping experience with a group of vampires, discovers how powerful her magic handling abilities have become since she was a child. She forms a bond with Constantine, a vampire who was also being held, and they manage to escape together and 🔻

REPOST for @LitsyBirthdays :

Soon we‘ll be celebrating all of these lovely Littens born in May!

If you‘d like to get some #birthdaylove and fairy dust from the #BirthdayFairies sprinkled over your special day, send your birthday and Litsy handle to litsybirthdays@gmail.com. Please remember you can only sign up for yourself.

Looking forward to May celebrations!!

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

This is my #DoubleSpin for April. I haven‘t read much steampunk at all, and while this wasn‘t anything extra special, I did find it entertaining (enough so to be open to reading the second). Octavia, a young medician with extraordinary powers, was a fun, endearing and surprisingly deep character who carried the show. She and her ragtag group of allies are heroic as they fight to stay alive during wartime intrigue between two factions. 3.5/5⭐️ 🔻

💚💚💚 Just got my Shel Silverstein stamps…now to convince myself that I shouldn‘t be selfish…🤣🤣🤣

Caroline Linden has long been one of my go-to authors in Historical Romance. This is final in her latest series, and my very favorite. In fact, I‘ll go as far as to say that this is the best book that I‘ve read in Historical Romance in quite a while. It checks all my boxes. Pippa has grown up with lots of loss in her life. As the daughter of an English colonel and an Indian mother she lost as a small child, she is raised at her beloved Carlyle🔻

Unfortunately I failed to notice that this YA fantasy is a sequel, so I began a little lost (but mostly figured things out 😆). This spoke to several ills of the modern world…civil wars, racism, megalomania, plague, traditional vs. technology, etc. And while that‘s great in most instances, I felt a bit bombarded with too much of too many. I also found it dragging in places. All in all, it just didn‘t hold my interest/attention. 2.5/3⭐️

Well, this was a wild ride. 😳 This is a new-to-me author and her 4th book (a psychological thriller). This is told from the viewpoints of 4 best friends since childhood, Felicity, Hannah, Alice and Grace. They have a falling out (we hear the why later in the story) and haven‘t been in touch in 2 years, when the others receive a 30th birthday party invitation from Felicity…an all-expense-paid trip to a luxury safari lodge in Botswana. 🔻

I have been with this series from the beginning (this is the 8th) and have really enjoyed them all. Lady Fan, an amateur sleuth who seems to find murder wherever she goes, is happily settling into motherhood when a stranger‘s body is literally dropped on her doorstep with a note asking her to solve the mystery of his death. As she discovers his identity and the possible suspects in his strange demise, she enlists the help of family (husband, 🔻

I LOVE everything about this! One of my favorite authors/books. 💚

This 10th in the Lady Darby series was anxiously anticipated (at least by me 🙋🏻‍♀️). We are introduced to the newest member of the series (and baby makes 3) as well as becoming more acquainted with Kiera‘s maternal Scottish family. She and Gage have journeyed to Argyll for a wedding (her cousin Rye and her friend Charlotte). Before the nuptials can take place, forgeries are discovered, an old feud is revisited and family loyalties are 🔻

Hunter is one of my go-to authors for well-written, character-driven Christian-based fiction. This is a second in series, and again, she doesn‘t disappoint. Avery is a young doctor with her own clinic in a small North Carolina town. Having witnessed her own mother‘s death by genetic disease at a young age, she‘s grown up feeling guilty for her death as well as frightened by possibly succumbing to the same disease. Wes, a hiker on the Appalachian⬇️

Annie McIntyre is a recent college graduate who has moved back home to the small town of Garnett, TX and is waitressing until she figures out her next move. Her “retired” grandfather, a PI, urges her into the business when a waitress friend ends up strangled to death on her family‘s land. Between the dangers of investigating a murder, coming to grips with a hazy and disturbing memory from college and figuring out her future, ⬇️

Taking place during the Depression, Evie Grace, a young woman who has had a hard life under a selfish, domineering mother, sets out to earn her nurse‘s pin and her independence. Zave, a young man with troubles of his own, is a handsome, charismatic star of a traveling marathon dance show. As they meet by chance, they discover something in common and become dance partners and friends. ⬇️

This was such a lovely historical dual-timeline story centering around WWI and the subsequent Prohibition period in Canada. Bluebirds were Canadian nurses who volunteered during the war (they wore vivid blue dresses). Nurse Adele Savard meets Corporal Jeremiah Bailey when he is injured, and by the time he is returned to the fighting, they have fallen in love and promise to find each other (their hometowns are near each other) following the war. ⬇️

Thanks for the tag, Misty! ❤️

1. I enjoy Wordle and occasionally Onet 3D

2. Allergies?? 😂😂 Blooms of all kinds! ❤️💙💜💚

3. The Do-Over by Bethany Turner

Anyone else want to play? 😊

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

@Eggs

#wondrouswednesday

Does anyone have recommendations for good “child-like” books for adults? 📚 Anything along the lines of “The Giving Tree” or “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”.

I‘m wanting to gift some heartwarming, sweet books to some friends but want to branch out from the two above. 🔺

Thanks a bunch! 😊

This is third in the Shana Merchant series about a NY detective who, after being abducted and tortured by a serial killer, has moved to a small community in upstate NY as the senior investigator. She and her partner investigate the death of a prominent controversial local figure and uncover lies, deceit and revenge. Has the serial killer returned to torment Shana, or is this another killer? Good plot but not as action-packed or suspenseful as ⬇️

It‘s that time again! 😊

Here‘s my #BookSpin list for April. All Kindle books for me.

Thanks Sarah! @TheAromaofBooks

A hard one to rate but definitely an original. And one thing it‘s NOT is a rom-com so don‘t let the cover fool you.

While this is one of the funniest books I‘ve read in awhile, it tackles lots of social issues of the time (early 1960s), and there is a trigger warning here (I can provide that but will do it in private if asked). While personally I didn‘t agree with her characters‘ religious views (at all), and felt some of the social issues ⬇️

Such a sweet story. I‘ll admit it was predictable, but it also included some beautiful and poignant passages. I loved both Maggie and Tom and their unlikely yet desperately needed friendship. They randomly meet at the library, a 72 yo widow and a 16 yo boy, both with heartaches and regrets in their lives. But as they work to save their small library they find peace and purpose from each other. Feel-good story. 4/5⭐️

“It was great disappearing into a story but the shame of anyone discovering I was reading romance books was nagging away at me like toothache. Just the thought of it made me nauseous but the truth was I loved them. I was probably a bit addicted. Mainly because they were basically self-help guides for useless men.” *

—The Library by Bella Osborne

*Subject to change upon publication.

Speaker: Tom, a teenaged boy

😂😂😂😂💙

“An embrace can be on many different levels but the basic sensation of emotional and physical warmth given freely by another is most noticeable when it is no longer there.” *

* Subject to change upon publication.

—The Library by Bella Osborne

“If she‘d realized the last time she was hugged was significant she would have paid more attention, committed it to memory so that she could recall the sensations at will for the many times since, when all she had needed had been for someone to hold her.” *

—The Library, by Bella Osborne

* Subject to change upon publication.

#thinkpositivebepositive @Eggs

Thanks for the tag @eanderson

“Warriors are not the ones who always win, but the ones that always fight.”

This is a new author to me, and I always have high hopes of discovering a new favorite when I take that leap. Unfortunately, this one didn‘t overly impress me. Rose, as a talented mapmaker, is married to a man who takes credit for her work and basically controls her in every way. The Duke of Brandon has been duped by her husband and goes undercover as a footman in their household to gather proof. My biggest complaint here was the disconnection ⬇️

I enjoyed this YA fantasy and look forward to reading its sequel. Talin is a refugee forced to flee her home as the Federation destroyed it. She becomes a member of the elite Striker military force in her new homeland of Mara and fights to keep it safe. Red is a prisoner from the Federation who was engineered to be a weapon of war along with “ghosts” (humans turned into monsters similar to zombies). Red and Talin forge a mind bond and become ⬇️

REPOST for @LitsyBirthdays :

APRIL BABIES…show yourselves! 🎉 We‘re rounding the corner toward the 4th month of the year (😳) and the #BirthdayFairies are excited to see who‘ll be celebrating a special day! If you‘d like to be included on the Litsy birthday calendar and receive some extra #BirthdayLove from your friends, just drop an email with your Litsy handle and birthdate to litsybirthdays@gmail.com. Oh…and put your party shoes on!! 💃🕺🏻👠

Thanks to #BookSpin I finally got around to starting this series, and I‘m now a definite fan. Kate Burkholder as a young Chief of Police in a small Amish town in Ohio is a smart, sympathetic character with a dark secret in her past. This story, involving a possible cold case linked to her secret, is not for everyone as it involves torture, rape and murder. But it was Kate and her loyal squad who drew me in and will keep me coming back. 4.5/5⭐️

I almost DNF here. And at 360+ pages it felt endless. It‘s a multiple genre story (spy/mystery/romance/historical fiction) set in Vienna/Prague in post WWII. There is A LOT of detail, not much action and lackluster characters. The writing felt choppy with abrupt, unexplained jumps in the narrative. The characters did not react to situations in logical, expected ways. Maybe in minority here, but unfortunately I feel like my time was wasted. 2/5⭐️

Thanks so much for the sweet Valentines card @jenniferw88 ! It made me smile. 😊

#ValentineCardSwap

@LibrarianRyan