Nan's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 20 Sep 2026 10:17:47 -0700 60 Nan's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Man With No Shadow (How to Survive Camping, #1)]]> 220160818 Welcome to Night Vale meets The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook in a campy, cozy horror novel that will appeal to creepy folklore afficionados and spooky story lovers alike.

I am a campground manager. I don’t have a list of rules because I’m trying to ruin your fun…I’m trying to keep you from doing small, simple things that could result in your horrific and most agonizing demise.

Goat Valley Campground has killed generations of Kate’s family. The land is old, passed down through generations, but the campground’s reputation doesn’t just draw campers year after year. Creatures from folklore and horror have made Goat Valley not just their home, but their hunting ground.

As campground manager, Kate has rules to protect her campers—if the man with the skull cup offers you a drink, accept it or you will die a gruesome death; don’t buy ice from the children with no wagon; and of course, never ever follow the lights. Still, not every camper follows the rules…which means not every camper survives their stay.

Soon decapitated and exsanguinated campers are the least of Kate’s worries; one of the most dangerous inhabitants of the campground is determined to claim the land for himself. Meanwhile, something in the land is shifting, the tides are turning, and the curse that hunts members of her bloodline begins to close in…]]> 320 Bonnie Quinn 1668096498 Nan 3 3.85 2019 The Man With No Shadow (How to Survive Camping, #1)
author: Bonnie Quinn
name: Nan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2026/09/20
date added: 2026/09/20
shelves:
review:
I liked this book. Horror isn't normally my genre, which is why I gave it a very subjective 3 stars, but it was intriguing and fun.
]]> <![CDATA[Jade City (The Green Bone Saga, #1)]]> 36681361 Librarian note: an older cover for this edition can be found here.

Jade City is a gripping Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kungfu.

The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It's the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities.

The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion--but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection.

When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.]]> 529 Fonda Lee Nan 4 4.11 2017 Jade City (The Green Bone Saga, #1)
author: Fonda Lee
name: Nan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/18
date added: 2026/09/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous (Everyday Magic, #1)]]> 240627515 STARDEW VALLEY meets STUDIO GHIBLI in a charming cozy fantasy about healing, redemption, and the subtle magic of simple living. Perfect for fans of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea and The Spellshop. Welcome home, weary traveler.

When Oaklin Nettlewood accidentally joined an evil world-ending cult, mind control magic forced them to do unspeakable things. Years later, the realm's heroes have finally saved the day, defeated the villain, and shattered the last remnants of the spell...leaving destruction in their wake. And so, with a spell-damaged memory and whole bushel of trauma, Oaklin escapes to a small farm on the edge of Mossley's Rest and swears an After all the things they were forced to do with their magic, they will never use it again. Ever.

The no-nonsense ghost granny who lives in Oaklin's house has other ideas. As she coaxes Oaklin out of their shell and back into the world, they find companionship (a grumpy horse and a very good dog), friendship (a local bard and magical baker who should just kiss already), and tentative romance (a paladin-librarian who makes Oaklin's heart come alive for the first time in ages.) Magic even seems possible again—though strictly for foraging magical mushrooms and protecting the farm from bugs.

Healing comes in gentle waves, and Oaklin doesn't have to do it alone. So what does it mean when an inquisitor comes to town to hunt former cultists just as Oaklin begins to think that maybe, just maybe, they deserve a happy ending after all?]]> 368 Autumn K. England 146424331X Nan 5 3.88 2026 Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous (Everyday Magic, #1)
author: Autumn K. England
name: Nan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/09/13
date added: 2026/09/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Direct Descendant 215806257
Now, Cassidy Prewitt, town baker and part-time servant of the dark force (it’s a family business) has to contend with a rising army of darkness, a very frustrated town, and a very cute PI who she might just be falling for…and who might just be falling for her. And if they can survive their own home-grown apocalypse, they might even just find happiness together.

Queer, cozy, and with a touch of eldritch horror mixed in just for fun, this is a charming love story about a small-town baker, a quick-witted PI, and, yes, an ancient evil.]]> 336 Tanya Huff 0756419670 Nan 4 4.27 2025 Direct Descendant
author: Tanya Huff
name: Nan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/02
date added: 2026/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Sugar Queen 11648261
Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night. . . . Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters.

Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

Praise for The Sugar Queen

“Like the most decadently addictive bonbons, once started, Allen’s magically entrancing novel is impossible to put down.” —Booklist  (starred review)

“Bewitching . . . Such a pleasurable book.” — Publishers Weekly]]> 290 Sarah Addison Allen Nan 5 4.01 2008 The Sugar Queen
author: Sarah Addison Allen
name: Nan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/29
date added: 2026/08/29
shelves: audio, family-fiction, magical-realism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes, #2)]]> 222376572 Return to the cozy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller, Fern.

Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!

If only things were so simple…

It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.

A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior surviving on inertia, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.

As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when there isn’t a job to get in the way.]]> 336 Travis Baldree 1250334888 Nan 5 4.00 2025 Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes, #2)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Nan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/25
date added: 2026/08/25
shelves: cozy-fantasy, owlcrate, signed
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes, #0)]]> 65213543 When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek.

In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.

Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.

Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it.

What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.

Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.]]> 336 Travis Baldree 1250886104 Nan 4 fantasy 4.08 2023 Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes, #0)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Nan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/22
date added: 2026/08/22
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> The Everlasting 245649931 From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story--they’ll have to rewrite history itself.]]> 319 Alix E. Harrow Nan 5
There are references here to some of my favorite books and stories, including The Hero and the Crown. But I also see a connection to a book that most people have forgotten: Lords of the Sky, by Angus Wells. I think I'm going to have to reread that one to see if the connection holds.]]> 4.42 2025 The Everlasting
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Nan
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/21
date added: 2026/08/21
shelves:
review:
This is one of the best books I've read.

There are references here to some of my favorite books and stories, including The Hero and the Crown. But I also see a connection to a book that most people have forgotten: Lords of the Sky, by Angus Wells. I think I'm going to have to reread that one to see if the connection holds.
]]> <![CDATA[The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Complaint]]> 361013 326 William Shakespeare 0521671620 Nan 0 drama 3.96 1968 The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Complaint
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: drama
review:

]]> Henry IV, Part Two 34431 Christmas performances at Court which led to the change of name in both plays. This edition moreover takes the view that the Folio-only passages in the play reflect the text of the original prompt-book.]]> 320 William Shakespeare 055321294X Nan 0 3.79 1598 Henry IV, Part Two
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1598
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
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]]> Titus Andronicus 72978 269 William Shakespeare 0671722921 Nan 0 3.67 1594 Titus Andronicus
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1594
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> King Henry IV, Part 1 13020 398 William Shakespeare 1904271359 Nan 0 3.79 1597 King Henry IV, Part 1
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1597
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Antony and Cleopatra 104837 336 William Shakespeare 0743482859 Nan 0 3.70 1606 Antony and Cleopatra
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1606
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Henry V 37526
The authoritative edition of Henry V from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:

-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

-Scene-by-scene plot summaries

-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases

-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language

-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books

-An annotated guide to further reading]]> 294 William Shakespeare 0743484878 Nan 0 3.84 1599 Henry V
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1599
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
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]]> As You Like It 42607 As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon after Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love, the princesses and Touchstone go into exile in the Forest of Arden, where they find new conversational partners. Duke Frederick, younger brother to Duke Senior, has overthrown his brother and forced him to live homeless in the forest with his courtiers, including the cynical Jaques. Orlando, whose older brother Oliver plotted his death, has fled there, too.

Recent scholars have also grounded the play in the issues of its time. These include primogeniture, passing property from a father to his oldest son. As You Like It depicts intense conflict between brothers, exposing the human suffering that primogeniture entails. Another perspective concerns cross-dressing. Most of Orlando’s courtship of Rosalind takes place while Rosalind is disguised as a man, “Ganymede.” At her urging, Orlando pretends that Ganymede is his beloved Rosalind. But as the epilogue reveals, the sixteenth-century actor playing Rosalind was male, following the practice of the time. In other words, a boy played a girl playing a boy pretending to be a girl.]]> 263 William Shakespeare 074348486X Nan 0 3.81 1599 As You Like It
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1599
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Taming of the Shrew 47021
Padua holds many suitors for the hand of fair Bianca, but Bianca may not be married until her spinster sister, Kate, is wed. Could any man be rash enough to take on Kate?

The witty adventurer Petruchio undertakes the task. While he sets about transforming Kate from foul-tempered termagant to loving wife, young Lucentio and his clever servant, Tranio, plot to win Bianca.

Frances Barber and Roger Allam are Kate and Petruchio. Lucentio is played by Alan Cox.]]> 291 William Shakespeare 074347757X Nan 0 3.75 1593 The Taming of the Shrew
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1593
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Merchant of Venice 24128 249 William Shakespeare 0743477561 Nan 0 3.77 1596 The Merchant of Venice
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1596
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Tempest 12985 • Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• Scene-by-scene plot summaries

• A key to famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

• An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books


Alternate Cover/publisher Edition ISBN 0743482832 (ISBN13: 9780743482837)]]> 218 William Shakespeare Nan 0 3.78 1611 The Tempest
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1611
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Much Ado About Nothing 12957 Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare includes two quite different stories of romantic love. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight, but an outsider, Don John, strikes out at their happiness. Beatrice and Benedick are kept apart by pride and mutual antagonism until others decide to play Cupid.]]> 249 William Shakespeare Nan 0 4.06 1598 Much Ado About Nothing
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1598
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Othello 12996 319 William Shakespeare Nan 0 3.89 1603 Othello
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1603
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1622
Also in the woods, the king and queen of fairyland, Oberon and Titania, battle over custody of an orphan boy; Oberon uses magic to make Titania fall in love with a weaver named Bottom, whose head is temporarily transformed into that of a donkey by a hobgoblin or “puck,” Robin Goodfellow. Finally, Bottom and his companions ineptly stage the tragedy of “Pyramus and Thisbe.”

This edition includes:
Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
Scene-by-scene plot summaries
A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
An annotated guide to further reading]]> 298 William Shakespeare 0743477545 Nan 0 3.95 1595 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
author: William Shakespeare
name: Nan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1595
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Our Town 205476 “Wilder’s unfashionable insistence on embracing wonders as well as woe is both gallant and exhilarating. . . . [Our Town] leaves us with a sense of blessing, and the unspoken but palpable command to achieve gratitude in what remains of our days on earth.”—New Yorker

 A beautiful new edition of Thornton Wilder's most renowned play, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic, Our Town.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the mythical village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire—an allegorical representation of all life—has become an American classic. It is the simple story of a love affair that asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life and death.

Our Town explores the relationship between two young Grover’s Corners neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily loses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts—childhood, adulthood, and death—is fully realized.

Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play, Our Town, was first performed on Broadway in 1938 to wide acclaim and continues to appear on stages all around the world.]]> 181 Thornton Wilder 0060512636 Nan 3 drama
We read this in my high school American literature class. We were forced to read parts of it out loud in class until we had finished the entire play. I will never forget when one student refused to read the part she'd been assigned. She was asked to read the role of Emily Webb, and she refused. The teacher was shocked--how dare a student turn down one of the leads?--and she said "I've read ahead, and I won't read this part." Friends, she was heavily pregnant at the time--about 7 months or so. This may be a spoiler, and for that I apologize, but Emily Webb (the character) dies in childbirth. It was no wonder my classmate said no.]]> 3.74 1938 Our Town
author: Thornton Wilder
name: Nan
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1938
rating: 3
read at: 1992/01/01
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: drama
review:
There's a spoiler here, but I'm not hiding this review, because this play is nearly 90 years old.

We read this in my high school American literature class. We were forced to read parts of it out loud in class until we had finished the entire play. I will never forget when one student refused to read the part she'd been assigned. She was asked to read the role of Emily Webb, and she refused. The teacher was shocked--how dare a student turn down one of the leads?--and she said "I've read ahead, and I won't read this part." Friends, she was heavily pregnant at the time--about 7 months or so. This may be a spoiler, and for that I apologize, but Emily Webb (the character) dies in childbirth. It was no wonder my classmate said no.
]]> Death of a Salesman 12898 'For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.'

Willy Loman has been a salesman for 34 years. At 60, he is cast aside, his usefulness now exhausted. With no future to dream about he must face the crushing disappointments of his past. He takes one final brave action, but is he heroic at last?, or a self-deluding fool?]]> 144 Arthur Miller 0435233076 Nan 0 drama 3.58 1949 Death of a Salesman
author: Arthur Miller
name: Nan
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at: 1993/01/01
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: drama
review:

]]> Desire Under The Elms 53638999 Eugene O’Neill Nan 0 drama 3.46 Desire Under The Elms
author: Eugene O’Neill
name: Nan
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 1993/01/01
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: drama
review:

]]> Rhinoceros and Other Plays 323823 Rhinoceros, as in his early plays, Ionesco startles audiences with a world that invariably erupts in explosive laughter and nightmare anxiety. A rhinoceros suddely apears in a small town, tramping through its peaceful streets. Soon there are two, then three, until the "movement" is universal: a transformation of average citizens into beasts, as they learn to "move with the times." Finally, only one man remains. "I'm the last man left, and I'm staying that way until the end. I'm not capitulating!"



Rhinoceros is a commentary on the absurdity of the human condition made tolerable only by self-delusion. It shows us the struggle of the individual to maintain integrity and identity alone in a world where all others have succumbed to the "beauty" of brute force, natural energy and mindlessness.

]]> 141 Eugène Ionesco 0802130984 Nan 4 4.01 1959 Rhinoceros and Other Plays
author: Eugène Ionesco
name: Nan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at: 1993/01/01
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves:
review:
I read this in my high school "Masterpieces of World Literature" class.
]]> <![CDATA[Of Jade and Dragons (Fall of the Dragon, #1)]]> 214970665
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.

The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?]]> 466 Amber Chen Nan 0 3.56 2024 Of Jade and Dragons (Fall of the Dragon, #1)
author: Amber Chen
name: Nan
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: owlcrate, borrowed, audio, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to Night Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, #1)]]> 23129410 Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves...no matter where we live.

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "King City" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.

Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "King City". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it.]]> 401 Joseph Fink 0062351427 Nan 0 borrowed, did-not-finish 3.83 2015 Welcome to Night Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, #1)
author: Joseph Fink
name: Nan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: borrowed, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)]]> 23211076
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.]]> 418 V.E. Schwab Nan 0 did-not-finish 4.05 2015 A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)
author: V.E. Schwab
name: Nan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: did-not-finish
review:

]]> Not in Love (Not in Love, #1) 198716261 A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.]]> 394 Ali Hazelwood 1408728915 Nan 2 romance
This book may work for other people. It did not work for me.

Edit: I do feel compelled to add another comment. One of the themes of this book is the complementary paths in life that Eli and Rue have taken--parental absence, care for a difficult younger sibling, and . . . pursuing a winter sport on ice in Texas. Eli plays hockey and went to college in Minnesota on a scholarship. Rue pursued figure skating and attended my alma mater, Adrian College, on a synchronized skating scholarship. You can see what Adrian's most recent team looks like in competition here: https://youtu.be/NY1IR97fMOI?is=sPjlE...

Living in Michigan, and knowing people that pursued hockey and / or figure skating as a child, there's a part of the story here that has not been adequately explained. Without being too spoilery, and referring to stuff we learn early on, Eli's family had money trouble. Rue's family was poor to the point of food insecurity. How did either of them afford ice time? You have to pay to use an ice rink, as well as pay for equipment (skates are not cheap!!) and coaching. Since Rue had a scholarship, she would have probably been at a competition level, if not elite. (Elite can lead to the Olympics.) If her friend's parents were paying for her, they invested a lot of money in a child--potentially thousands of dollars when competition coaching is considered. Eli's family supported Eli in ice hockey and his sister in figure skating. That is not cheap.

I know, I'm focusing a bit too much on this. It stood out to me, though, because I'm aware of the costs involved. The food insecurity storyline was one of the most interesting parts of the book, and it got mixed up with a winter sport--in Texas. (Side note: their sports would have made more sense if they'd grown up in Chicago or Detroit and had access to frozen lakes for practice. Texas is a stretch.)]]> 3.60 2024 Not in Love (Not in Love, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Nan
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2026/08/16
shelves: romance
review:
I usually love Hazelwood, but this was not my cuppa. I applaud Hazelwood for attempting to write in a different romance genre and for attempting to create characters that are less "likable" than her norm. That said, I didn't feel like this book was a good example of an exotic romance. The characters were not "less likable"; they moved into unlikable for me.

This book may work for other people. It did not work for me.

Edit: I do feel compelled to add another comment. One of the themes of this book is the complementary paths in life that Eli and Rue have taken--parental absence, care for a difficult younger sibling, and . . . pursuing a winter sport on ice in Texas. Eli plays hockey and went to college in Minnesota on a scholarship. Rue pursued figure skating and attended my alma mater, Adrian College, on a synchronized skating scholarship. You can see what Adrian's most recent team looks like in competition here: https://youtu.be/NY1IR97fMOI?is=sPjlE...

Living in Michigan, and knowing people that pursued hockey and / or figure skating as a child, there's a part of the story here that has not been adequately explained. Without being too spoilery, and referring to stuff we learn early on, Eli's family had money trouble. Rue's family was poor to the point of food insecurity. How did either of them afford ice time? You have to pay to use an ice rink, as well as pay for equipment (skates are not cheap!!) and coaching. Since Rue had a scholarship, she would have probably been at a competition level, if not elite. (Elite can lead to the Olympics.) If her friend's parents were paying for her, they invested a lot of money in a child--potentially thousands of dollars when competition coaching is considered. Eli's family supported Eli in ice hockey and his sister in figure skating. That is not cheap.

I know, I'm focusing a bit too much on this. It stood out to me, though, because I'm aware of the costs involved. The food insecurity storyline was one of the most interesting parts of the book, and it got mixed up with a winter sport--in Texas. (Side note: their sports would have made more sense if they'd grown up in Chicago or Detroit and had access to frozen lakes for practice. Texas is a stretch.)
]]> <![CDATA[Letters from the Last Apothecary (Tressport Magic, #1)]]> 241434390 EMILY WILDE meets DIVINE RIVALS in this light romantic fantasy epistolary novel about a grumpy apothecarist, the whirlwind woman who comes to save his shop, and the letters that secretly unite them. You've Got Mail with a magical twist!

Josie Pinova doesn’t believe in fate—until fate seems to believe in her.

The day after she’s fired, she wanders into the last magical apothecary in Tressport and lands an unexpected job. It’s not ideal, but it buys her time—and a paycheck—while she waits to hear if she's been accepted into the city’s prestigious Institute of Magic.

Aufidius Reid doesn’t believe in luck—and Josie feels like the worst kind.

Opinionated, charming, and infuriatingly outsmarting him at every turn, she makes him feel like he’s constantly a step behind. To her, he’s uptight and impossible. Neither suspects they’re already falling for each other—through a months-long exchange of anonymous letters as fellow Institute hopefuls.

In the shop, they clash. On the page, they fall in love.

But with the apothecary slated to close in six months—another casualty of Tressport’s rapid industrialization and rising anti-magic sentiment—they’ll have to fight for more than just their livelihoods. Josie is determined to prove that women like her belong in the world of structured spellwork. Reid is just as set on mastering his unruly magic and outrunning the past that’s held him back. Saving the shop might be their only shot—at meaningful magic, at true purpose, and at each other.

Set against the smog-choked skyline of Tressport inside a lush, green sanctuary of plants and old magics, this is a story of mistaken identity, reluctant partnership, and the quiet magic of being truly seen—on and off the page.]]> 368 Bita Behzadi Nan 1 3.67 2026 Letters from the Last Apothecary (Tressport Magic, #1)
author: Bita Behzadi
name: Nan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2026
rating: 1
read at: 2026/08/14
date added: 2026/08/15
shelves:
review:
I will not be continuing this series.
]]> <![CDATA[The Antiquarian's Object of Desire (Love's Academic, #3)]]> 239152343 When two history professors and best friends are forced to fake hate to protect their reputations, chaos ensues, in the next rollicking historical-fantasy rom-com from beloved author India Holton.

Magical-antique experts Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Sterling have been best friends forever, although lately each has begun secretly wishing for more than friendship. But when rumors about their relationship spread, they're forced to fake being enemies to protect their reputations and keep their jobs.

The resulting arguments spark havoc across Oxford University, and when they cause an explosion while fighting over a magical antique, it’s the final straw for their exasperated faculty head. He dispatches them to a job in Cumbria where even they can’t get into trouble.…

Which proves just how wrong one man can be. In a stormbound old manor house, Amelia and Caleb face magical mayhem and rampaging ghosts that make the previous havoc look mild in comparison. Most troublesome of all, though, is the secret of how they feel about each other. When it comes to tackling deadly antiques, hiding the truth in their hearts could destroy them for real.]]> 368 India Holton 0593641493 Nan 5 3.98 2026 The Antiquarian's Object of Desire (Love's Academic, #3)
author: India Holton
name: Nan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/15
date added: 2026/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Under the Oak Tree: Volume 3 (The Comic) (Under the Oak Tree - Comic)]]> 243187526 Their passion is undeniable, but can their love survive the winter? The third volume of the official webcomic based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Suji Kim.

As the first snow falls over Anatol, Maxi begins to settle into her new life as the wife of Riftan Calypse. But even as she makes progress in her magical studies with Ruth, her fear that Riftan will discover she’s not a proper noblewoman continues to darken her thoughts. Worse, she seems to unwittingly spark his temper at every turn.

With reports of monsters migrating into Anatolium and the prospect of noble guests arriving come spring, Maxi must prove her arcane skill to herself—and to the Remdragon Knights—in order to prepare for the new season ahead.

This volume collects episodes 46–64 of Under the Oak Tree, the #1 webcomic on MANTA.]]> 359 P . 0593871359 Nan 4 4.40 2026 Under the Oak Tree: Volume 3 (The Comic) (Under the Oak Tree - Comic)
author: P .
name: Nan
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/06
date added: 2026/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wednesday Witches Book Club (Magic & Mystery, #2)]]> 254706851 New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop.

After a challenging divorce, Ashley joins a witchy book club in search of a new social life. But when members start being transformed one by one, Ashley and the remaining book club members must uncover the culprit behind these sinister spells. With time running out until she’s the next target, she turns to her grimoire for answers. Because what better way to catch a magical culprit than through stories?

Sarah Beth Durst’s The Wednesday Witches Book Club is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.]]> 49 Sarah Beth Durst 1662543891 Nan 5 3.78 2026 The Wednesday Witches Book Club (Magic & Mystery, #2)
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Nan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/06
date added: 2026/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Glamour in Glass (Glamourist Histories, #2)]]> 12160890 Shades of Milk and Honey , a loving tribute to the works of Jane Austen in a world where magic is an everyday occurrence. This magic comes in the form of glamour, which allows talented users to form practically any illusion they can imagine. Shades debuted to great acclaim and left readers eagerly awaiting its sequel. Glamour in Glass continues following the lives of beloved main characters Jane and Vincent, with a much deeper vein of drama and intrigue.In the tumultuous months after Napoleon abdicates his throne, Jane and Vincent go to Belgium for their honeymoon. While there, the deposed emperor escapes his exile in Elba, throwing the continent into turmoil. With no easy way back to England, Jane and Vincent’s concerns turn from enjoying their honeymoon...to escaping it. Left with no outward salvation, Jane must persevere over her trying personal circumstances and use her glamour to rescue her husband from prison...and hopefully prevent her newly built marriage from getting stranded on the shoals of another country's war.]]> 331 Mary Robinette Kowal 0765325578 Nan 4 3.75 2012 Glamour in Glass (Glamourist Histories, #2)
author: Mary Robinette Kowal
name: Nan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/01
date added: 2026/08/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unseen Academicals (Discworld, #37; Rincewind, #8)]]> 6250169
The Big Match draws in an urchin with a gift for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might turn out to be the greatest fashion model ever, and the mysterious Mr Nutt. (No one knows much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt).

As the match approaches, four lives are changed forever. Because the thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!]]> 417 Terry Pratchett 0061161705 Nan 4 4.00 2009 Unseen Academicals (Discworld, #37; Rincewind, #8)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Nan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2009/11/06
date added: 2026/07/19
shelves:
review:
While this is certainly not the best Pratchett novel I've ever read, it was undeniably entertaining.
]]> Only Lovers in the Building 218267167 "This is the beach and pool read of the summer! Fun and sexy with a delicious slow-burn that revolves around a lovable cast of characters.” —Karen Booth, author of Not So Fast

Wanted—no, NEEDED: a summer escape with beach reads, cocktails…and a little romance on the side.

After her legal career comes to a sudden and humiliating end, Liliane Lyon books a restorative summer rental at The Icon, a quintessential Art Deco building in Miami Beach, where her only plan is to bask in the sun, read, and sip cocktails. But soon she’s enchanted by the colorful community, including university professor Benedicto Romero—resident tortured poet, whose sole intention for sabbatical is to indulge in brooding introspection.

When they discover a shared passion for romance novels, Lily and Ben are soon spending hours reading together by the pool, the spark between them unwittingly giving the other residents the impression that they’re experts in matters of the heart…no matter that IRL their disastrous love lives bear little resemblance to the stories they’re reading.

But while Ben and Lily can pinpoint a trope a mile away and give excellent advice to others, they can’t make sense of the sizzling chemistry between them, and the suggestion of a professional podcast suddenly forces them to consider the long-term. So what if it means working even closer together! So what if their banter makes Lily's head spin! It’s the summer of taking chances, but a word to the Miami isn’t the place for growth and rebirth. It’s the place to get messy. 

For fans of:
• Slow Burn
• Friends to Lovers
• Close Proximity
• Beachy Reads
• Books About Books
• Black Love
• Eccentric and charming characters ala Only Murders in the Building]]> 352 Nadine Gonzalez 1335903348 Nan 5 3.49 2025 Only Lovers in the Building
author: Nadine Gonzalez
name: Nan
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/07/15
date added: 2026/07/15
shelves:
review:
This book was exactly what I wanted.
]]> <![CDATA[A Night Like This (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #2)]]> 12925200 Anne Wynter might not be who she says she is...

But she's managing quite well as a governess to three highborn young ladies. Her job can be a challenge—in a single week she finds herself hiding in a closet full of tubas, playing an evil queen in a play that might be a tragedy (or might be a comedy—no one is sure), and tending to the wounds of the oh-so-dashing Earl of Winstead. After years of dodging unwanted advances, he's the first man who has truly tempted her, and it's getting harder and harder to remind herself that a governess has no business flirting with a nobleman.

Daniel Smythe-Smith Might be in mortal danger...

But that's not going to stop the young earl from falling in love. And when he spies a mysterious woman at his family's annual musicale, he vows to pursue her, even if that means spending his days with a ten-year-old who thinks she's a unicorn. But Daniel has an enemy, one who has vowed to see him dead. And when Anne is thrown into peril, he will stop at nothing to ensure their happy ending...]]> 373 Julia Quinn 0062072900 Nan 3 romance 3.83 2012 A Night Like This (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #2)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Nan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2016/01/03
date added: 2026/07/07
shelves: romance
review:
I wanted to like this book far more than I actually did. I love the concept of the Symthe-Smith family, but I haven't enjoyed them as much as I'd like.
]]> <![CDATA[Just Like Heaven (Smythe-Smith Quartet #1)]]> 11009732 338 Julia Quinn 0062079530 Nan 4 3.70 2011 Just Like Heaven (Smythe-Smith Quartet #1)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Nan
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2013/11/27
date added: 2026/07/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Blueprints 23245586 New York Times Bestseller

Returning to her beloved New England, the New York Times bestselling author of Sweet Salt Air explores the limits of love and asks what happens when the right man comes along at the wrong time?

Caroline and Jamie McAfee are close. Not only do they enjoy their relationship as mother and daughter, they're in business together as the team that fronts the popular home renovation show Gut It! All is well with these two strong women, but when the network tells Caroline that Jamie is to replace her as host, Caroline feels betrayed by her daughter and old in the eyes of the world.
Jamie is unsettled by the cast change and devastated by her mother's anger, but she has little time to brood when a tragic accident leaves her two-year-old half-brother in her care. Accustomed to a life of order and precision, Jamie suddenly finds herself out of her depth, grappling with a toddler who misses his parents and a fiancé who doesn't want the child.

Amid such devastation, Caroline and Jamie find themselves revising the blueprints they've built their lives around. With loyalties shifting and decisions looming, mother and daughter need each other; but the rift between them is proving difficult to mend. As the women try to remake themselves and rebuild their relationship with each other, they discover that strength and even passion can come from the unlikeliest places. For Caroline, it's an old friend, whose efforts to seduce her awaken desires that have been dormant for so long that she feels foreign to herself. For Jamie, it's a staggering new attraction that allows her to breathe again-and breathe deeply-for the first time in forever.

A riveting novel from a master storyteller, Barbara Delinsky's Blueprints reminds us that sometimes love appears when we least expect it, and when we need it most.]]> 416 Barbara Delinsky 1250007046 Nan 2
That said, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to.

The book is the story of a mother/daughter renovation team that fin their relationship tested when the producers want to replace the mother, Caroline, with her daughter, Jamie, as the host. To make things more complicated, Jamie's father and his current wife die suddenly in a car accident, leaving Jamie's custody of her toddler-aged half-brother, Tad.

I've always loved HGTV renovation shows, so this book should have been a good fit for me. And it probably would have been, back in 2015. However, in the years since then, HGTV had a show called Good Bones about a mother/daughter renovation team. Like their fictional counterparts, the mother & daughter have red hair and the mother dresses in bold colors. To make it even worse, the daughter, Mina, even has a half brother named Tad. (The real-life Tad is an adult.) Good Bones ended a few years ago, after tension developed among the family and the mother stepped away from running the show.

This book was written before Good Bones, thankfully, but it felt a little too much like I was reading the TV show, and that was not a good thing.]]> 3.65 2015 Blueprints
author: Barbara Delinsky
name: Nan
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2026/07/01
date added: 2026/07/01
shelves:
review:
I've loved Delinsky's books for years, especially her more recent ones. Her earlier books are good, but they lacked the emotional depth of her later titles.

That said, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to.

The book is the story of a mother/daughter renovation team that fin their relationship tested when the producers want to replace the mother, Caroline, with her daughter, Jamie, as the host. To make things more complicated, Jamie's father and his current wife die suddenly in a car accident, leaving Jamie's custody of her toddler-aged half-brother, Tad.

I've always loved HGTV renovation shows, so this book should have been a good fit for me. And it probably would have been, back in 2015. However, in the years since then, HGTV had a show called Good Bones about a mother/daughter renovation team. Like their fictional counterparts, the mother & daughter have red hair and the mother dresses in bold colors. To make it even worse, the daughter, Mina, even has a half brother named Tad. (The real-life Tad is an adult.) Good Bones ended a few years ago, after tension developed among the family and the mother stepped away from running the show.

This book was written before Good Bones, thankfully, but it felt a little too much like I was reading the TV show, and that was not a good thing.
]]> <![CDATA[Moss'd in Space (Moss'd in Space, #1)]]> 240019758 USA Today Bestselling author Rebecca Thorne delights in a brand new cozy science-fiction series...for fans of Martha Wells and Olivia Waite! Features original inside art!

Torian Razner finally bought a starship, and contrary to Amelia’s assessment, it was not “a meteoric sign of stupidity.” Sure, the alien starship may have been abandoned for a century, and it may be covered in moss now… but it’s Torian’s ticket to freedom, regardless of what her ex… ah, captain… said.

Except Torian’s first flight reveals a surprise passenger: the moss is actually an organic computer with a snarky attitude and serious abandonment issues. The target of its loathing? The immortal alien who built it (and then parked the starship, with Moss inside, and forgot about it). The same alien who just found Torian and accused her of “stealing” the ship.

It’s entirely possible that Amelia was right about this meteoric stupidity.]]> 368 Rebecca Thorne 1250414148 Nan 5 4.16 2026 Moss'd in Space (Moss'd in Space, #1)
author: Rebecca Thorne
name: Nan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/07/01
date added: 2026/07/01
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fox Hunt 235629755 Behind closed doors at England’s most ancient university, a circle of privileged students enter into a dark pagan ritual—one that holds tantalizing power and comes at a terrible price.

When practical, unassuming second-year student Emma Curran wins an exciting research fellowship, she is ushered into the glittering debauchery of the University elite. There, she falls for the devastating, aristocratic Jasper Balfour, leader of the all-male Turnbull Club: a shadowy secret society that has created centuries of Britain’s leaders, power brokers and history-makers.

One night, the Turnbulls propose a sinister little game: a fox hunt. The women run. The men chase. And Emma finds herself fleeing for her life through the streets, hunted by the boy she loves.

Torn from her ordinary life and trapped in a dangerous, otherworldly realm, Emma awakens transformed. No longer mortal, she's become something beastly. And now she must summon every ounce of cunning and ferocity to save herself.]]> 448 Caitlin Breeze 0316597384 Nan 5 3.43 2026 The Fox Hunt
author: Caitlin Breeze
name: Nan
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/06/20
date added: 2026/06/20
shelves:
review:
This is a placeholder review; I have more to say and will it together after the sun is up. Right now, it's 11:18 p.m., and I'm riding high after finishing a truly wonderful novel.
]]> <![CDATA[Beautiful Things (Second Sons #1)]]> 230287122 Crashing a country house party in Regency England, an intrepid young woman is drawn into the orbit of three delicious gentlemen in this "Why Choose," slow burn, very sexy, definitely-not-your-mother’s historical romance from internationally bestselling author Emily Rath.

At twenty-two, Rosalie Harrow is unmarried and near destitute. She has two snag a wealthy gentleman, or take work as a governess. Neither option appeals to headstrong Rosalie, who sees both futures as a kind of cage.

When Rosalie receives an invitation to Alcott Hall, she believes she’s there to meet the Dowager Duchess of Norland, the mysterious childhood friend of her late mother. Instead, Rosalie is thrust in the middle of a house party of eligible high society ladies all desperate to win the hand of the new, conveniently single duke. Hilarity ensues as Rosalie dodges the attentions of the officious duke, and weathers the censure of the other guests, all while trying to unravel the mystery of her invitation.

And then there’s the gentlemen…

The more Rosalie tries to avoid the high society husband hunt, the more she finds herself charmed by three very different men. There’s Lord James, the duke’s younger brother, who is the secret duke in all but name. Lieutenant Renley, recently returned from the West Indies, and begrudgingly looking for a wife of his own. And the tempestuous Mr. Burke, who irks Rosalie to no end.

The clock ticks down the days to the Michaelmas ball, when the duke is set to announce his bride. Marriage is a trap and Rosalie will not be easily snared…but that doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy the chase while it lasts.]]> 481 Emily Rath 1496756150 Nan 2 Manfield Park. It has all the hallmarks of MP--the impoverished heroine being offered an opportunity to move higher socially, the eldest son of a nobleman that's a wastrel, the responsible second son love interest. There are even some lines of dialogue taken wholesale from Austen. However, this book goes off and does its own thing very early. In MP, there is no choice between two men for Fanny. She's in love with one man and courted by another man that she does not love. Her choice--if you want to call it that--is between patiently hoping that her true love will see her and misery. Rath is clear from the Author's Note at the start of this book that it is a "Why Choose?" story, which is something far different from MP. I don't have any problems with "Why Choose" as trope, but I didn't really enjoy this book. When it came down to it, I had some trouble with some of Rath's narrative choices, and I really didn't like the characters.

[spoilers removed]
So, yeah, I didn't really like this book. Others may love it, but it wasn't for me.]]> 3.91 2022 Beautiful Things (Second Sons #1)
author: Emily Rath
name: Nan
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2026/06/14
date added: 2026/06/16
shelves:
review:
I wanted to like this book, but I didn't. The novel is not merely Austen-esque--it's a revision of Manfield Park. It has all the hallmarks of MP--the impoverished heroine being offered an opportunity to move higher socially, the eldest son of a nobleman that's a wastrel, the responsible second son love interest. There are even some lines of dialogue taken wholesale from Austen. However, this book goes off and does its own thing very early. In MP, there is no choice between two men for Fanny. She's in love with one man and courted by another man that she does not love. Her choice--if you want to call it that--is between patiently hoping that her true love will see her and misery. Rath is clear from the Author's Note at the start of this book that it is a "Why Choose?" story, which is something far different from MP. I don't have any problems with "Why Choose" as trope, but I didn't really enjoy this book. When it came down to it, I had some trouble with some of Rath's narrative choices, and I really didn't like the characters.

[spoilers removed]
So, yeah, I didn't really like this book. Others may love it, but it wasn't for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Winter Lost (Mercy Thompson, #14; Mercy Thompson World, #20)]]> 201182779 Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, must stop a disaster of world-shattering proportions in this exhilarating entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In the supernatural realms, there are creatures who belong to winter. I am not one of them. But like the coyote I can become at will, I am adaptable.

My name is Mercy Thompson Hauptman, and my mate, Adam, is the werewolf who leads the Columbia Basin Pack, the pack charged with keeping the people who live and work in the Tri-Cities of Washington State safe. It’s a hard job, and it doesn’t leave much room for side quests. Which is why when I needed to travel to Montana to help my brother, I intended to go by myself.

But I’m not alone anymore.

Together, Adam and I find ourselves trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power, only to discover my brother’s issues are a tiny part of a problem much bigger than we could have imagined. Arcane and ancient magics are at work that could, unless we are very careful, bring about the end of the world. . . .]]> 416 Patricia Briggs 0593439007 Nan 3 4.35 2024 Winter Lost (Mercy Thompson, #14; Mercy Thompson World, #20)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2026/06/13
date added: 2026/06/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Soul Taken (Mercy Thompson, #13)]]> 58306392
But Wulfe isn’t the only one who has disappeared. And now there are bodies, too. Has the Harvester returned to the Tri-Cities, reaping souls with his cursed sickle? Or is he just a character from a B horror movie and our enemy is someone else?

The farther I follow Wulfe’s trail, the more twisted—and darker—the path becomes. I need to figure out what’s going on before the next body on the ground is mine.]]> 398 Patricia Briggs 0593100123 Nan 3 4.64 2022 Soul Taken (Mercy Thompson, #13)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2026/06/09
date added: 2026/06/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Wild Sign (Alpha & Omega, #6) 54233580 Mated werewolves Charles Cornick and Anna Latham must discover what could make an entire community disappear—before it's too late—in this thrilling entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Alpha and Omega series.

In the wilds of the Northern California mountains, all the inhabitants of a small town have gone missing. It's as if the people picked up and left everything they owned behind. Fearing something supernatural might be going on, the FBI taps a source they've consulted in the the werewolves Charles Cornick and Anna Latham. But Charles and Anna soon find a deserted town is the least of the mysteries they face.

Death sings in the forest, and when it calls, Charles and Anna must answer. Something has awakened in the heart of the California mountains, something old and dangerous—and it has met werewolves before.]]> 368 Patricia Briggs 0440001595 Nan 4 4.68 2021 Wild Sign (Alpha & Omega, #6)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/07
date added: 2026/06/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Burn Bright (Alpha & Omega, #5)]]> 36194120
They are the wild and the broken. The werewolves too damaged to live safely among their own kind. For their own good, they have been exiled to the outskirts of Aspen Creek, Montana. Close enough to the Marrok's pack to have its support; far enough away to not cause any harm.

With their Alpha out of the country, Charles and Anna are on call when an SOS comes in from the fae mate of one such wildling. Heading into the mountainous wilderness, they interrupt the abduction of the wolf--but can't stop blood from being shed. Now Charles and Anna must use their skills--his as enforcer, hers as peacemaker--to track down the attackers, reopening a painful chapter in the past that springs from the darkest magic of the witchborn...]]> 336 Patricia Briggs 0698195833 Nan 4 4.53 2018 Burn Bright (Alpha & Omega, #5)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/06
date added: 2026/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega, #4) 22586294
For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles’s role as his father’s enforcer. This time, their trip to Arizona is purely personal, as Charles plans to buy Anna a horse for her birthday. Or at least it starts out that way...

Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae’s cold war with humanity is about to heat up—and Charles and Anna are in the cross fire.]]> 336 Patricia Briggs 0698184637 Nan 4 4.52 2015 Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega, #4)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/06
date added: 2026/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Fair Game (Alpha & Omega, #3) 11480917 Patricia Briggs, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Mercy Thompson novels, "always enchants her readers." (Lynn Viehl, New York Times bestselling author) Now her Alpha and Omega series-set in a world of shifting shapes, loyalty, and passion- brings werewolves out of the darkness and into a society where fear and prejudice could make the hunters prey... They say opposites attract. And in the case of werewolves Anna Latham and Charles Cornick, they mate. The son-and enforcer-of the leader of the North American werewolves, Charles is a dominant alpha. While Anna, an omega, has the rare ability to calm others of her kind.

Now that the werewolves have revealed themselves to humans, they can't afford any bad publicity. Infractions that could have been overlooked in the past must now be punished, and the strain of doing his father's dirty work is taking a toll on Charles.

Nevertheless, Charles and Anna are sent to Boston, when the FBI requests the pack's help on a local serial killer case. They quickly realize that not only the last two victims were werewolves-all of them were. Someone is targeting their kind. And now Anna and Charles have put themselves right in the killer's sights...]]> 293 Patricia Briggs 0441020038 Nan 4
[spoilers removed]]]> 4.29 2012 Fair Game (Alpha & Omega, #3)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/13
date added: 2026/06/04
shelves: borrowed, urban-fantasy, werewolves
review:
After the "hero takes on monster and wins, despite intense physical and/or emotional pain" format of the last few Mercy or Anna books, it was nice to read this one. Not only was it formatted as more of a mystery than the other books have been lately, but it also advanced the plot within the shared Mercy & Anna world. Finally. Things are changing, and no one can continue to ignore that fact.

[spoilers removed]
]]> <![CDATA[Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega, #2)]]> 5292853
Anna and Charles have just been enlisted to attend a summit to present Bran’s controversial proposition: that the wolves should finally reveal themselves to humans. But the most feared Alpha in Europe is dead set against the plan — and it seems like someone else might be too. When Anna is attacked by vampires using pack magic, the kind of power only werewolves should be able to draw on, Charles and Anna must combine their talents to hunt down whoever is behind it all — or risk losing everything...]]> 286 Patricia Briggs 044101738X Nan 3 4.26 2009 Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega, #2)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2009/08/29
date added: 2026/06/02
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this book much more than the first in the series. The plot was more cohesive, and it gave the characters much more room to develop.
]]> <![CDATA[Alpha & Omega (Alpha & Omega, #0.5)]]> 5393637 Cry Wolf, New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs started a new urban fantasy series set in the world of Mercy Thompson — but with rules of its own. Now, read "Alpha and Omega," the novella that inspired the new series, and see how it all began...

Anna Latham never knew werewolves existed, until the night she survived a violent attack... and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the Chicago pack, she's learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But when she discovers wrongdoing in her pack, she has to go above her Alpha's head to ask for help.

Charles Cornick is the son — and enforcer — of the leader of the North American werewolves. Now his father has sent him to Chicago to clean up a problem there. Charles never expected to find Anna, a rare Omega wolf — and he certainly never expected to recognize her as his mate...

This novella was originally published in the anthology, On the Prowl. ]]> 81 Patricia Briggs Nan 4 4.28 2007 Alpha & Omega (Alpha & Omega, #0.5)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/28
date added: 2026/05/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega, #1) 2355575
Charles insists that not only is Anna his mate, but she is also a rare and valued Omega wolf. And it is Anna's inner strength and calming presence that will prove invaluable as she and Charles go on the hunt in search of a rogue werewolf—a creature bound in magic so dark that it could threaten all of the pack.

It is recommended you read the prequel "Alpha & Omega" before reading Cry Wolf.]]> 294 Patricia Briggs 0441016154 Nan 4 4.11 2008 Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega, #1)
author: Patricia Briggs
name: Nan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/29
date added: 2026/05/29
shelves: werewolves, urban-fantasy, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery (Bunnicula, #1)]]> 1056771 Is he or isn't he a vampire?

Before it's too late, Harold the dog and Chester the cat must find out the truth about the newest pet in the Monroe household: a suspicious-looking bunny with unusual habits...and fangs! (back cover)]]> 98 Deborah Howe Nan 5 3.93 1979 Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery (Bunnicula, #1)
author: Deborah Howe
name: Nan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2026/05/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Place Between Our Pains: A Memoir of What Joy Can Survive]]> 238226948 A poetic, darkly funny memoir of one woman’s trip across the national parks straight into life-threatening illness and the joy that still holds us, no matter how much life hurts.

After over a decade of fighting chronic illness, trauma therapist and beloved author K.J. Ramsey was the healthiest she’d been in her life. She packed up her Jeep and set out on a summer of road trips, returning to the places where she first glimpsed joy as a kid. More than adventure, her aim was a personal dare to discover that joy is more trustworthy than trauma.

The plan was simple but Drive. Write. Heal. What could go wrong?

It turns out, everything.

The woman who just wandered through Redwood forests and ran naked into the Pacific suddenly found herself in the hospital fighting to stay alive. A mysterious illness struck like lightning, splintering the best days of her life into the absolute scariest. Ramsey went from being afraid of dying to afraid of living the life she was left with—losing both her mobility and the language of her faith, medically gaslit, with no map out of her misery. Was joy actually a trick? Or was joy still possible—even in inescapable pain?

Told with unhinged humor, lyrical honesty, and zero patience for toxic positivity, The Place Between Our Pains is a true story that reaches past our expectations of what joy can survive. From banana slugs to bedpans, mushrooms to the Mayo Clinic, hospitals to holy rage, Ramsey invites us into the unlikely places where joy lives. Through a full year of recovery, she encounters love that doesn’t leave—even when life doesn’t get easier. This is a love letter to every life seared by pain or autoimmune disease and a fierce permission slip to show up in the stories we never would have written for ourselves.]]> 320 K.J. Ramsey 0593727398 Nan 5 4.55 The Place Between Our Pains: A Memoir of What Joy Can Survive
author: K.J. Ramsey
name: Nan
average rating: 4.55
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2026/05/19
date added: 2026/05/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping]]> 182777376 An enchanting novel about a witch who has a second chance to get her magical powers—and her life—back on track, from the national bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her magical Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Aunt Jasmine run an inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep the talking fox in check, and longs for the magical future she lost.

When she learns about an old spellbook that holds the secret to restoring her power, she turns to Luke Larsen, a gorgeous historian who might just be able to help her unlock the book’s mysteries. Luke, who has his own reasons for staying at the inn, never planned on getting involved in the madcap goings-on around him and definitely had no intention of letting certain grumpy innkeepers past his icy walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he not only agrees to help, but also finds himself thawing.

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone... and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.]]> 336 Sangu Mandanna 0593439384 Nan 3 4.04 2025 A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Nan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/18
date added: 2026/05/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter]]> 234761355 A woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montréal turns to a grouchy but charming magician to help save her shelter in this heartwarming cozy fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.

“Absolutely magnificent! Full of cats and magic, this is the kind of book you want to instantly reread. I loved every character, every cat, and every moment with all my heart!”—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats.

Now it’s the shelter that needs a new home. And the only landlord who will rent a space to a cat rescue is a mysterious man called Havelock—who also happens to be the world’s most infamous magician, running an illegal magic shop out of his basement. Havelock is cantankerous and eccentric, but not not handsome, and no, Agnes absolutely does not feel anything but disdain for him. After all, rumors swirl about his shadowy past—including whispers that his dark magic once almost brought about the apocalypse.

Then one day a glamorous magician comes looking for Havelock, putting the magic shop—and the cat shelter—in jeopardy. To save the shelter, Agnes will have to team up with the magician who nearly ended the world . . . and may now be trying to steal her heart.

Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn’t need in her chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers that he’s more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue—and romance—in her life. After all, second chances aren’t just for rescue cats. . . .]]> 368 Heather Fawcett 0593973267 Nan 4 4.04 2026 Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Nan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/17
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Swordheart (Swordheart, #1) 218613120 The delicious bodyguard romance of From Blood and Ash meets the delightful charm of The Princess Bride in this cozy fantasy romance from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher

Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of the wealthy distant uncle she's been caring for for the past decade. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.

While hiding in her bedroom to escape her family, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. On a whim, she pulls it down and unsheaths it—and suddenly a man appears in her bedroom. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.

Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla—a most unusual wielder—he finds himself not fending off grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis become closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all—the sword itself.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 458 T. Kingfisher 1250400236 Nan 5 audio 4.09 2018 Swordheart (Swordheart, #1)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Nan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2026/05/11
date added: 2026/05/11
shelves: audio
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches]]> 251175400 A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family—and a new love—changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos "pretending" to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for....]]> 337 Sangu Mandanna 0593673662 Nan 4 4.69 2022 The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Nan
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/10
date added: 2026/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy]]> 196600406
Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles—a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, “keepers of the home.”

Tia knew that to their neighbors her family was strange, but she also couldn't risk exposing their secret lifestyle to police, doctors, teachers, or anyone outside of their church. Christians were called in scripture to be “in the world, not of it.” So, she hid in plain sight as years of abuse and pain followed. When Tia realized she was the only one who could protect her children from becoming the next generation of patriarchal men and submissive women, she began to resist and question how they lived. But in the patriarchy, a woman with opinions is in danger, and eventually, Tia faced an urgent and extreme stay and face dire consequences, or flee with her children.

Told in a beautiful, honest, and sometimes harrowing voice, A Well-Trained Wife is an unforgettable and timely memoir about a woman's race to save herself and her family and details the ways that extreme views can manifest in a marriage.]]> 304 Tia Levings Nan 5 4.32 2024 A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy
author: Tia Levings
name: Nan
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2026/05/10
date added: 2026/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wooing the Witch Queen (Queens of Villainy, #1)]]> 211680742 In a Gaslamp-lit world where hags and ogres lurk in thick pine forests, three magical queens form an uneasy alliance to protect their lands from invasion…and love turns their world upside down.

Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…

Little does Saskia know that the "wizard" she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?]]> 297 Stephanie Burgis 1250359600 Nan 3 3.88 2025 Wooing the Witch Queen (Queens of Villainy, #1)
author: Stephanie Burgis
name: Nan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/09
date added: 2026/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Shadow of Water (The London Charismatics, #2)]]> 55950531
Lily Albright can see the future, and it looks like hell.

As Europe lurches toward the brink of war, a corpse emerges from London’s sewers—and the long-forgotten oracle of an obscure medieval saint comes to fruition, threatening to obliterate the city in an apocalypse of smoke and ash.

Lily is determined to stop the catastrophe, and she’ll call on all her new friends to do it, from a boy who talks with birds to a woman who speaks with the dead—and the enigmatic Lord Strangford, whose ability to see into the darkest corners of Lily’s soul threatens to tear their relationship apart. Together, they’re pulled into a web of lies that winds from the gutters of Limehouse to the champagne-soaked ballrooms of Saint John’s Wood, where rumors of a mysterious white snake lead Lily to a choice that could cost her everything.

A sky of painted stars burns. A red hand is rising. And Lily’s powers are about to be put to the ultimate test.

Return to the arcane world of The London Charismatics as this riveting historical fantasy series continues with The Shadow of Water.]]> 348 Jacquelyn Benson 1734559926 Nan 3 4.31 2021 The Shadow of Water (The London Charismatics, #2)
author: Jacquelyn Benson
name: Nan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2026/04/23
date added: 2026/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fire in the Glass (The Charismatics, #1)]]> 53514860 London, 1914. Lily's visions could stop a killer... if she'll trust a reclusive aristocrat with her darkest secret.

A monster stalks the gaslit streets of Edwardian London, draining the blood of the city's mediums. Lily Albright knows who's next.

Lily is plagued by visions of the future she can never change. When a mysterious fiend threatens someone she loves, she's determined this time will be different.

But she can't do it alone. To save a life, Lily must reveal her darkest secrets to someone she has little reason to trust—the reclusive Lord Strangford, a man haunted by his own occult powers.

From the glittering galleries of Bond Street to the rookeries of Southwark, Lily and Strangford plunge into a dark conspiracy that lies at the heart of England's rising eugenics movement.

To thwart it, Lily must face a past rife with betrayal—and embrace the power she has spent her entire life trying to escape.]]> 498 Jacquelyn Benson Nan 3 4.39 2020 The Fire in the Glass (The Charismatics, #1)
author: Jacquelyn Benson
name: Nan
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2026/04/18
date added: 2026/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #1)]]> 209753199 The first in a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy duology featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world, perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally – such is the grim comedy of fate – the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order.

Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick - so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for.

A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne's disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them.

Romance tropes
Enemies to lovers
High interaction slow burn
Hypercompetent idiots
He falls first and harder
Evisceration as a love language]]> 416 Brigitte Knightley 0356524736 Nan 0 did-not-finish 3.79 2025 The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #1)
author: Brigitte Knightley
name: Nan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/04/17
shelves: did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Arrow of Fortune (Raiders of the Arcana, #3)]]> 236162339 A well-behaved lady historian ought to avoid haunted forests… not plunge into them seeking an invincible weapon of the gods.Ellie Mallory didn’t exactly volunteer to prevent the most dangerous artifact of the Ramayana from falling into the wrong hands—but if one has been coerced into an adventure, the least one can do is bring along a few friends.

Constance Tyrrell has new daggers stuffed in her garters, a thirst to discover everything India has to offer… and absolutely no interest in Dr. Neil Fairfax, Ellie’s scholarly stepbrother. Meanwhile, Neil finds himself wrangling a magical sword along with his increasingly tangled feelings about a certain doe-eyed danger gnome.

Then there’s Adam Bates—handy with a machete, perpetually shirtless, and about to face some unsettling ghosts of his past.

Together, they must follow the footsteps of an ancient hero from the festivals of Puri to the shadowy depths of a legendary forest, racing a brutal colonial administrator with allies of his own—including the complicated and mysterious Mr. Jacobs.

It will take all Ellie’s resources—from a working knowledge of practical chemistry to a highly excitable dog—to beat a new sort of demon to the place where a holy power has lain hidden for two thousand years… alongside the secret history of the woman at the heart of India’s greatest story.

Pick up Arrow of Fortune and plunge into the next epic historical fantasy adventure in the Raiders of the Arcana series.]]> 538 Jacquelyn Benson 1959050230 Nan 5 4.31 2025 Arrow of Fortune (Raiders of the Arcana, #3)
author: Jacquelyn Benson
name: Nan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/04/14
date added: 2026/04/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[GETTING RID OF BRADLEY: A Funny Contemporary Romance and Mystery of Murder and Embezzlement]]> 18882433 Lucy Savage is not having a good week. Her cheating husband, Bradley, lobbed the final insult when he stood her up in divorce court. A dye job gone wrong has left her hair green. And someone is trying to kill her. To top it off, sexy cop Zack Warren is certain that the very same man Lucy is trying to wash right out of her hair is the same Bradley he wants to arrest for embezzlement.

When someone shoots at her and then her car blows up, Zack decides she needs twenty-four-hour police protection. Next thing Lucy knows, Zack has moved in to her big Victorian house, making them both sleepless…and not just from things that go bump in the night!

]]> 229 Jennifer Crusie 1460305108 Nan 3 4.14 1994 GETTING RID OF BRADLEY: A Funny Contemporary Romance and Mystery of Murder and Embezzlement
author: Jennifer Crusie
name: Nan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2026/04/10
date added: 2026/04/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tomb of the Sun King (Raiders of the Arcana #2)]]> 228103959 Respectable lady scholars shouldn’t be dodging evildoers, escaping lost tombs, and chasing down magical artifacts.Archivist and suffragette Ellie Mallory always dreamed of putting her scholarly skills to work in the ancient sands of Egypt. She never imagined she would be doing so in order to save an object of legendary power from a batch of ruthless villains. Racing baddies to an arcanum of Biblical proportions is only one of Ellie’s problems. Her hopelessly academic and perpetually mortified step-brother, Dr. Neil Fairfax, is about to learn that she’s been gallivanting around the globe with his danger-magnet best friend, Adam Bates—the roguish surveyor for whom Ellie harbors increasingly complicated feelings. Add the petite and terrifyingly fearless Constance Tyrrell to the mix, and Ellie either has a crack team of artifact-saving experts to hand… or a recipe for disaster. Together, they’ll need to follow a trail of three-thousand-year-old clues from the necropolis of Saqqara to the temples of Luxor and beyond, where the ruined capital of a heretic pharaoh hides a secret with the potential to upend history. To keep an earth-shattering magic from falling into the wrong hands, Ellie will need to pull out all the stops—even if that means resorting to fisticuffs, ignoring proper archaeological processes… and facing a terrible choice between doing what she knows is right or breaking her own heart. Dive into Tomb of the Sun King now to experience the next action-packed historical fantasy adventure in the Raiders of the Arcana series! Praise for the Raiders of the “Sassy banter and sizzling romantic tension sparkle throughout the fast paced action! … Fans of Indiana-Jones style historical fantasies will be eager for the next adventure.” - ALA Booklist“Fun, female-led mystical adventure with unexpected themes and oodles of heart!” - Five star Goodreads reviewer]]> Jacquelyn Benson 1959050176 Nan 5 4.20 2024 Tomb of the Sun King (Raiders of the Arcana #2)
author: Jacquelyn Benson
name: Nan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2026/04/07
date added: 2026/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Scarlet and Black 679826 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Handsome and ambitious, Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins and make something of his life-by adopting the code of hypocrisy by which his society operates. Julien ultimately commits a crime-out of passion, principle, or insanity-that will bring about his downfall. The Red and the Black is a lively, satirical picture of French Restoration society after Waterloo, riddled with corruption, greed, and ennui. The complex, sympathetic portrayal of Julien, the cold exploiter whose Machiavellian campaign is undercut by his own emotions, makes him Stendhal's most brilliant and human creation-and one of the greatest characters in European literature.

Translated with an introduction by Margaret R. B. Shaw.]]> 512 Stendhal 0140440305 Nan 2 3.77 1830 Scarlet and Black
author: Stendhal
name: Nan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1830
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2026/03/26
shelves: ninetheenth-century-fiction, realism, translated, graduate
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empire of Shadows (Raiders of the Arcana, #1)]]> 201845532 Nice Victorian ladies don’t run off to find legendary lost cities.

One trifling little arrest shouldn’t have cost Ellie Mallory her job, but it’s only the latest in a line of injustices facing any educated woman with archaeological ambitions.

When Ellie stumbles across the map to a mysterious ancient city, she knows she’s holding her chance to revolutionize Pre-Colombian history. There’s just one teensy complication. A ruthless villain wants it, and Ellie is all that stands in his way.

To race him to the ruins—and avoid being violently disposed of—she needs the help of maverick surveyor Adam Bates, a snake-wrangling rogue who can’t seem to keep his dratted shirt on.

But there’s more than Ellie’s scholarly reputation (and life) on the line. Her enemies aren’t just looters. They’re after an arcane secret rumored to lie in the heart of the ruins, a mythical artifact with a power that could shake the world.

Between stealing trousers, plummeting over waterfalls, and trying not to fall in love with her machete-wielding partner, will Ellie be able to stop the oracle of a lost empire from falling into the wrong hands?

Empire of Shadows is the first book in Jacquelyn Benson’s smart, swashbuckling Raiders of the Arcana series. Read it now and dive into a rip-roaring historical fantasy adventure perfect for fans of Romancing the Stone and The Mummy.]]> 478 Jacquelyn Benson 1959050125 Nan 5 4.14 2024 Empire of Shadows (Raiders of the Arcana, #1)
author: Jacquelyn Benson
name: Nan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2026/03/26
date added: 2026/03/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Rules for the Summer 243359903 From New York Times bestselling author Meghan Quinn comes a new laugh-out-loud summer rom-com.

He clicked "yes" on a dare. She bought a failing candy shop. Now they're neighbors for the summer―and neither is ready for what comes next.

Renley Gossage has one shot to prove she's more than Cape Meril's favorite cautionary tale: restore her favorite candy shop before the town writes her off like they did her father. No help, no shortcuts, and definitely no rich men wielding engagement rings and making things messy.

Theo Williams never planned on ending up in Cape Meril. A drunken game of truth or dare turned into a botched online engagement, and now he's across the ocean, escaping his father's control with nothing but designer shoes, misplaced confidence, and a rental next door to Renley.

She's practical, stubborn, and covered in paint. He's posh, persistent, and willing to use a sander if it means earning her trust.

Between collapsing drywall, gossiping neighbors, and the chaotic schemes of Renley's aunt, their forced proximity turns into something dangerously close to real.

But Renley's future depends on standing on her own two feet, and Theo's past isn't done with him yet. By the time the candy shop doors open, they'll have to decide if this is just a summer fling―or the happily ever after neither of them saw coming.]]> 552 Meghan Quinn 1464243670 Nan 0 to-read 3.75 2026 Rules for the Summer
author: Meghan Quinn
name: Nan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Paper Ghosts 244947598 Part ghost story, part love story and steeped in magical realism, Paper Ghosts will transport you to a place where old secrets echo through the years and love finds a way of bringing us home.

Every family has its secrets... The Wester women live inside theirs.

For decades, the women of Wester House have unsettled and fascinated their small, timeless North Carolina town. Their home is full of whispers, old griefs, and uncanny knowing. But when Willamena Wester reaches out to the granddaughter she once pushed away, long-buried truths begin to stir.

1976:
Restless young Willamena falls for a stranded musician who brings freedom and the promise of another life to her carefully controlled world. Their brief, incandescent love story promises to escape the pull of the Wester legacy until Willamena makes a fateful choice that changes her life forever.

Present Day:
Returning home is the last thing Bailey Wester wants. Yet as she reconnects with Willamena, the grandmother she feared, Bailey begins to understand the love, heartbreak, and impossible choices that shaped the women in her family and realizes the past may not have been trying to haunt them after all.

A luminous novel filled with Sarah Addison Allen’s stunning prose and signature blend of romance, Southern charm, and wonder, Paper Ghosts reminds us that in order to have the future we really want, sometimes we need to live with the past, and not let go of it.]]> 288 Sarah Addison Allen 1250283426 Nan 0 to-read 3.78 2026 Paper Ghosts
author: Sarah Addison Allen
name: Nan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and The Glory of Growing Up (A Memoir)]]> 57062720 A searing memoir from Harry Potter star and activist Evanna Lynch about the bravery it takes to embrace ourselves and our dreams while navigating the battle between perfection and creativity.

Gradually, I began to feel this dawning awareness that womanhood was coming for me, that it was looming inevitably, and it didn't feel safe . . . While those around me tried to expedite it, simulate it, exacerbate it, I tried to strangle it.

Evanna Lynch has long been viewed as a role model for people recovering from anorexia, as the story of her casting as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films grew to almost mythic proportions—a tale of how she faced disordered eating as a young girl, found solace in a beloved book series, and several years later landed the part of her favorite character. But that is not the whole story.

Even after recovery, there remains a conflict at the very core of her being: a bitter struggle between the familiar, anesthetizing pursuit of perfection and the desire to fully and fearlessly embrace her creativity. In her book, Evanna confronts all the complexities and contradictions within herself and reveals how she began to conquer her self-hate while facing her fear of leaving the neatness and safety of girlhood for the unpredictable journey of being a woman. Revealing a startlingly accomplished voice, Evanna delves into the very heart of a woman's relationship with her own body. Unwilling to let the darkness of her eating disorder eclipse her dreams, Evanna explores the pivotal moments and choices in her life that led her down the path of creativity. Taking the reader through her personal journey, she reveals how by channeling her fears of the messy, uncharted future into joyful, ambitious endeavors, she reaches toward acceptance of the wild, sensual, and unpredictable reality of womanhood.

Honest, electrifying, and inspiring, this is a story of the tragedy and the glory of growing up, of mourning girlhood and stepping into the unknown, and how that act of courage is the most liberating thing a woman can do.]]> 463 Evanna Lynch Nan 0 to-read 4.51 2021 The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and The Glory of Growing Up (A Memoir)
author: Evanna Lynch
name: Nan
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Geographer's Map to Romance (Love's Academic #2)]]> 216247705 Geography professors in a failed marriage of convenience inconveniently reconnect for an emergency mission in this swoony historical-fantasy rom-com.

Professor Elodie Tarrant is an expert in magic disasters. Nothing fazes her—except her own personal disaster, that is: Professor Gabriel Tarrant, the grumpy, unfriendly man she married for convenience a year ago, whom she secretly loves.

Gabriel is also an expert in magic disasters. And nothing fazes him either—except the walking, talking tornado that is his wife. They’ve been estranged since shortly after their wedding day, but that hasn’t stopped him from stoically pining for her.

When magic erupts in a small Welsh village, threatening catastrophe for the rest of Britain, Elodie and Gabriel are accidentally both assigned to the case. With the fate of the country in their hands, they must come together as a team in the face of perilous conditions like explosions, domesticated goats, and only one bed. But this is easier said than done. After all, there's no navigational guide for the geography of the heart.]]> 364 India Holton 0593641485 Nan 5 4.05 2025 The Geographer's Map to Romance (Love's Academic #2)
author: India Holton
name: Nan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/03/21
date added: 2026/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Daindreth's Sorceress (Daindreth's Assassin, #4)]]> 122821925 They overcame his mother’s plots and broke both their curses, but can they survive his inheritance?

Amira Brindonu has won. The man she loves has been freed from his curse and her mother’s people have chosen to ally with their cause.

Even as Amira and Daindreth celebrate victory and Thadred grows in his power as a sorcerer, trouble stirs on the horizon. Not everyone is ready to recognize the rightful heir. Vesha’s reign brought the empire peace and prosperity. Many lords and barons must be convinced if they are to swear allegiance to Daindreth.

Meanwhile, Vesha seeks out greater power. In a desperate effort to protect the empire, she will make yet another deal with a fallen goddess. And this time, Vesha is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone—even herself.

Daindreth’s Sorceress is the fourth book in the five-book Daindreth’s Assassin Fantasy Romance series.Reading order0. The Archduke***
1. Daindreth’s Assassin
2. Daindreth’s Outlaw
3. Daindreth’s Traitor
4. Daindreth’s Sorceress (releases July 2023)
5. Daindreth’s Empress (releases January 2024)

***The Archduke is a companion novella showing events from Daindreth's perspective in the first half of Book #1. It can be read before or after the main books.]]> 313 Elisabeth Wheatley Nan 4 4.12 2023 Daindreth's Sorceress (Daindreth's Assassin, #4)
author: Elisabeth Wheatley
name: Nan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2026/03/19
date added: 2026/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Our Infinite Fates 229301907 The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.

They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers.

The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to:

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.]]> 354 Laura Steven Nan 1 3.73 2025 Our Infinite Fates
author: Laura Steven
name: Nan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2026/03/13
date added: 2026/03/13
shelves:
review:
ok, so this rating is harsh, I admit that. Please know that this book didn't work for me, but that doesn't mean others will not love it. I expect I'm in a small minority that didn't enjoy the book. All things considered, I may try this book again later because I suspect that this was the wrong year for me and this book.
]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Splintered Harmony (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #6)]]> 31050358
Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he's been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories, attracting powerful allies hell-bent on reclaiming what was once theirs: the human lands.

The Night Court will not stand idly by while innocents are attacked. But with Prythian still piecing itself together in the wake of the devastating Hybern War, the task of uniting is proving more difficult by the day.

To make matters worse, those who rule and protect the Night Court are reeling from recent betrayals and revealed truths. The rifts dividing them seem insurmountable.

But to defeat Koschei's creeping shadow, they must find a way back to each other and resurrect their former alliances. To survive, they must find a way to repair the splintered harmony all around them.]]> 352 Sarah J. Maas 1639739130 Nan 0 to-read 4.45 2026 A Court of Splintered Harmony (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #6)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Nan
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Modern Divination (Spells for Life and Death, #1)]]> 242205293 A Discovery of Witches meets The Atlas Six in Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian, a dark contemporary fantasy from a brilliant new talent. Modern Divination is the first book in the Spells for Life and Death duology.

The color of magic was gold . . .

Twenty-three-year-old witch Aurelia Schwartz has always had to carefully balance her human life with her secret magical one. With a place at an elite Cambridge university college, she almost has everything she could possibly want within her grasp. Just so long as she follows the rules: Make no promises. Tell no one what you are. And never stay the night.

Except Aurelia’s gift of green magic has begun to fade. Worse still, someone is hunting witches – and stealing their powers. Reluctantly, Aurelia needs the help of fellow witch – and dreadfully arrogant classmate – Theodore Ingram. Together, they seek refuge among his family in the remote corners of an already-desolate town. But as she grows closer to Theodore, the power-hungry witch-killer, too, draws nearer. And they threaten to destroy everything Aurelia holds dear . . .

Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian is a magical cozy fantasy with witches, featuring an academic rivals-to-lovers romance, found family and yearning.]]> 517 Isabel Agajanian 1035073218 Nan 0 did-not-finish 3.57 2025 Modern Divination (Spells for Life and Death, #1)
author: Isabel Agajanian
name: Nan
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/10
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I'm setting this one down. I may pick it up again, but it's been six months since I started reading it, and I haven't wanted to finish it yet.
]]> <![CDATA[Curious Tides (Drowned Gods, #1)]]> 199284070 Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeously dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates’ deaths.

Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore—alive—only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere...to face the fate she was never meant to escape.]]> 540 Pascale Lacelle 1665957328 Nan 0 3.87 2023 Curious Tides (Drowned Gods, #1)
author: Pascale Lacelle
name: Nan
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/10
shelves: dark-academia, university-fiction, young-adult, did-not-finish
review:
I read about 60% of this book before I finally dropped it. I checked the ending to be sure, and yep, I don't feel like reading this book. I'm sure that someone else will love it, but it's not my cuppa, as an old friend would say.
]]> The Listeners 56988057 #1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.]]> 382 Maggie Stiefvater 0593655508 Nan 4 3.66 2025 The Listeners
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Nan
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/03/09
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audio, historical-fiction, world-war-ii
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)]]> 217536270 This #1 New York Times bestseller is a highly addicting enemies-to-lovers Romantasy with razor-sharp banter, heart-stopping action, and blistering hot romance.

Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen’s reservoirs for as long as she can remember. In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn’t much a girl wouldn’t do for a glass of water. But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.

When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares…but it turns out they’re real, and Saeris has landed right in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.

The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist’s magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him… or her. Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he’s the only way Saeris is going to make it home.

Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the details... Now with an embossed cover, silver foiling, and an updated interior design.

N.B. Quicksilver contains depictions of graphic violence/adult situations and is therefore recommended for readers 17+. For a full list of tropes and TWs, please visit the author's website.]]> 624 Callie Hart 1538774194 Nan 1 did-not-finish 4.21 2024 Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)
author: Callie Hart
name: Nan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I tried to read this book and was bored silly. I stopped at 25%, because this book was too long and I couldn't hack the idea of going any further.
]]> <![CDATA[Arcanum: In the Temple Shadows]]> 212130081 In the Temple Shadows is Book One in a series of novels channeled through the tarot cards by noted intuitive Kelly O’Hearn—the first of its kind!
In this sexy past life romance, sometimes happily ever after takes more than one lifetime. Meet Sarah Fuller. It’s her 40th birthday and things are starting to get weird. Is it deja vu? A midlife crisis? Nervous breakdown? Who is this dark, handsome stranger she feels like she’s met before? Not on Fifth Avenue or through her luxury fragrance company but, like, many lifetimes ago?
Her husband, her best friend, her everyone seems to think they know what’s best for her these days. Sarah’s always been a skeptic, but when she meets this intriguing psychic who tells her she might have been a Pharaoh’s lover and powerful mystic in ancient Egypt, thousands of years ago, it feels so right that she’s determined to find out more.

“I was given early access to the manuscript of Arcanum, and I was immediately immersed in this unique and sassy book! It's like Carrie Bradshaw meets Cleopatra. The tension and drama between the characters was enthralling, both in their current lives and their past lives. I can’t wait for the second book in the series!” K. Lewis]]> 284 Kelly O'Hearn Nan 0 netgalley, did-not-finish 3.90 Arcanum: In the Temple Shadows
author: Kelly O'Hearn
name: Nan
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: netgalley, did-not-finish
review:
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. I'm DNF'ing it at 15%. Other readers may love this book, but it is not for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Mina: The Dracula Story Continues]]> 699857 Dracula, an extraordinary woman named Mina Harker became the living object of a vampire's obsession. He came to her in the night, like a demon lover, opening a vein in his chest—and pressing her tender lips to the wound. Consumed by passion, Mina drank of his blood. And from that moment on, his seductive power filled her senses with strange, forbidden longings. Only one thing saved her soul from eternal damnation: a stake driven through the heart of Count Dracula...

But was the spell really broken? Could a mortal woman return to an ordinary life of marriage—after tasting the exquisite pleasures of Dracula's desire? In this sensual and haunting sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, the dark prince's most famous mistress reveals the untold story of a timeless love that refused to die.

]]> 325 Marie Kiraly 0425143597 Nan 1 did-not-finish Dracula. That was a mistake. My only experience of Mina was the Francis Ford Coppolla movie Bram Stoker's Dracula. I tried to read this book back in 1995, so my memory of it is not fresh. But I remember strongly disliking the way that Kiraly approached the characters and the story. It just didn't fit.

Now, having read Dracula and nearly completed a Ph.D. in Gothic literature, I can say that my problems were with the book's lack of authenticity. Yes, there were women that resisted their social roles in fin de siecle London. Stoker's Mina even mentions them in the original book. They were referred to as "New Women." In other words, there was a path for women of the time to use as a means of resisting their confining social role. Kiraly didn't seem to have a strong grasp of the time period, and that really frustrated me--even when I was a relatively ill-informed reader. At the time, I dropped this book in frustration, and I don't think I will ever return to it.]]> 3.59 1994 Mina: The Dracula Story Continues
author: Marie Kiraly
name: Nan
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1994
rating: 1
read at: 1995/01/01
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I tried to read this book before I'd ever read Dracula. That was a mistake. My only experience of Mina was the Francis Ford Coppolla movie Bram Stoker's Dracula. I tried to read this book back in 1995, so my memory of it is not fresh. But I remember strongly disliking the way that Kiraly approached the characters and the story. It just didn't fit.

Now, having read Dracula and nearly completed a Ph.D. in Gothic literature, I can say that my problems were with the book's lack of authenticity. Yes, there were women that resisted their social roles in fin de siecle London. Stoker's Mina even mentions them in the original book. They were referred to as "New Women." In other words, there was a path for women of the time to use as a means of resisting their confining social role. Kiraly didn't seem to have a strong grasp of the time period, and that really frustrated me--even when I was a relatively ill-informed reader. At the time, I dropped this book in frustration, and I don't think I will ever return to it.
]]> <![CDATA[Threadneedle (The Language of Magic, #1)]]> 51867529
Anna’s Aunt has always warned her of the dangers of magic. Its twists. Its knots. Its deadly consequences.

Now Anna counts down the days to the ceremony that will bind her magic forever.

Until she meets Effie and Attis.

They open her eyes to a London she never knew existed. A shop that sells memories. A secret library where the librarian feeds off words. A club where revellers lose themselves in a haze of spells.

But as she is swept deeper into this world, Anna begins to wonder if her Aunt was right all along.

Is her magic a gift … or a curse?]]> 576 Cari Thomas 0008407002 Nan 2
I might pick this book up again in the future and see if it appeals to me more then. Right now, I haven't had the desire to finish it, and it's been over a month since I put it aside.]]> 3.90 2021 Threadneedle (The Language of Magic, #1)
author: Cari Thomas
name: Nan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, did-not-finish-will-try-again, urban-fantasy
review:
I didn't finish this book, but I did read ahead to the end. I found the first half fairly compelling, but at a certain point, I lost interest. I wanted to care about the characters, but no one was especially sympathetic. Perhaps I'm getting old, but I could also see some of the bad choices they were making a mile away.

I might pick this book up again in the future and see if it appeals to me more then. Right now, I haven't had the desire to finish it, and it's been over a month since I put it aside.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wren in the Holly Library (Oak & Holly Cycle, #1)]]> 61431964 Ladra capace e scaltra, Kierse non si fa scrupoli per sopravvivere in una New York in cui esseri umani e mostri convivono da tempo. Una notte, si intrufola in una grande dimora vittoriana per rubare un prezioso anello di diamanti. All’improvviso, qualcosa va storto e lei si trova intrappolata in una biblioteca con un mostro. Non può scappare. Non può nascondersi. E Graves, questo il nome del proprietario della dimora, ha tutto il diritto di ucciderla. Violando la proprietà, Kierse ha infatti infranto il fragile trattato di pace tra mostri e umani, che impedisce la reciproca distruzione. Ma invece di toglierle la vita, Graves fa l’inaspettato: le offre un lavoro. Una possibilità per scoprire chi è veramente. Kierse ha sempre saputo di essere diversa e, sebbene con qualche riserva, accetta la proposta. Inizia così un addestramento con Graves, che ben presto si accende di passione. Ma se le leggende sono vere, nel mondo ci sono cose più oscure dei mostri. E Kierse e Graves stanno per incontrarle…
Una biblioteca maledetta. Segreti letali. Un amore impossibile.]]> 400 K.A. Linde 1649374070 Nan 1 did-not-finish
I bought this book because it was pretty and sounded good. I like heist stories, and I like the idea of a modern world that has to accommodate magic.

I did not like this book. I couldn't even finish it, and that's rare for me. I just couldn't make myself care about the characters or their mission. The spice bothered me as well. I felt like the characters were trying to substitute lust for trust. ("I lust after this person, so they must be trustworthy!") It's been nearly a year since I set it down, and I have no desire to start reading again.

I'm going to donate this one to the library. May it find its way to a reader that enjoys it.]]> 3.73 2024 The Wren in the Holly Library (Oak & Holly Cycle, #1)
author: K.A. Linde
name: Nan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I give up.

I bought this book because it was pretty and sounded good. I like heist stories, and I like the idea of a modern world that has to accommodate magic.

I did not like this book. I couldn't even finish it, and that's rare for me. I just couldn't make myself care about the characters or their mission. The spice bothered me as well. I felt like the characters were trying to substitute lust for trust. ("I lust after this person, so they must be trustworthy!") It's been nearly a year since I set it down, and I have no desire to start reading again.

I'm going to donate this one to the library. May it find its way to a reader that enjoys it.
]]> The Luminaries 40196251 Longlisted – Baileys Women’s Prize 2014

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2013

Canadian Governor General's Literary Award, 2013.

It is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.

The Luminaries is an extraordinary piece of fiction. Written in pitch-perfect historical register, richly evoking a mid-19th-century world of shipping and banking and goldrush boom and bust, it is also a ghost story, and a gripping mystery. It is a thrilling achievement for someone still in her mid-20s, and will confirm for critics and listeners that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.

Eleanor Catton was born in 1985 in Canada and raised in New Zealand. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University in 2007 and won the Adam Prize in Creative Writing for The Rehearsal. She was the recipient of the 2008 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship to study for a year at the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop in the US and went on to hold a position as Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing there, teaching Creative Writing and Popular Culture. Eleanor won a 2010 New Generation Award. She now lives in Wellington, New Zealand.]]> Eleanor Catton Nan 0 3.59 2013 The Luminaries
author: Eleanor Catton
name: Nan
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish-will-try-again, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)]]> 42800305 Rin’s story continues in this acclaimed sequel to The Poppy War—an epic fantasy combining the history of twentieth-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters.

The war is over.

The war has just begun.

Three times throughout its history, Nikan has fought for its survival in the bloody Poppy Wars. Though the third battle has just ended, shaman and warrior Rin cannot forget the atrocity she committed to save her people. Now she is on the run from her guilt, the opium addiction that holds her like a vice, and the murderous commands of the fiery Phoenix—the vengeful god who has blessed Rin with her fearsome power.

Though she does not want to live, she refuses to die until she avenges the traitorous Empress who betrayed Rin’s homeland to its enemies. Her only hope is to join forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who plots to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new republic.

But neither the Empress nor the Dragon Warlord are what they seem. The more Rin witnesses, the more she fears her love for Nikan will force her to use the Phoenix’s deadly power once more.

Because there is nothing Rin won’t sacrifice to save her country . . . and exact her vengeance.

]]> 675 R.F. Kuang Nan 0 4.32 2019 The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Nan
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, did-not-finish-will-try-again
review:
I'm walking away from this book for now. I may pick it up again in the future, but I'm not certain I will. I like the fact that Kuang is willing write characters that are not admirable, but it's not easy to read, and I'm not in the mental state where I can easily enjoy this world.
]]> A Golden Fury 41187447
While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.]]> 341 Samantha Cohoe 1250220408 Nan 0 3.59 2020 A Golden Fury
author: Samantha Cohoe
name: Nan
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish-will-try-again, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei, #1)]]> 23559994
Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.

Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?]]> 432 Abigail Hing Wen 1471192857 Nan 0 3.66 2020 Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei, #1)
author: Abigail Hing Wen
name: Nan
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, did-not-finish-will-try-again
review:
This was not the book I was looking for at the moment I picked it up. While I did find it fun, it didn't engage my attention enough--at this time--to continue. I will try again later.
]]> <![CDATA[Daring and the Duke (The Bareknuckle Bastards, #3)]]> 35855655
Single-minded and ruthless, Ewan, Duke of Marwick, has spent a decade searching for the woman he never stopped loving. A long-ago gamble may have lost her forever, but Ewan will go to any lengths to win Grace back… and make her his duchess.

Reconciliation is the last thing Grace desires. Unable to forgive the past, she vows to take her revenge. But revenge requires keeping Ewan close, and soon her enemy seems to be something else altogether—something she can’t resist, even as he threatens the world she's built, the life she's claimed…and the heart she swore he'd never steal again.]]> 384 Sarah MacLean 0062691996 Nan 0 3.68 2020 Daring and the Duke (The Bareknuckle Bastards, #3)
author: Sarah MacLean
name: Nan
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, did-not-finish-will-try-again
review:
I don't think that an audiobook was the proper format for me to enjoy this book. I'll try again with print.
]]> <![CDATA[The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle]]> 36337550
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.

We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let's begin . . .

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . .

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.]]> 432 Stuart Turton Nan 0 never-again, did-not-finish 3.75 2018 The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
author: Stuart Turton
name: Nan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: never-again, did-not-finish
review:
I have not read this book, and I do not intend to. My review has no stars because I cannot judge a work I have not read. This review is to remind me that my friends in RL had extremely negative reactions to the book.
]]> <![CDATA[Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels, #1)]]> 6422039 388 Anne Bishop 1101212403 Nan 0 never-again, did-not-finish 4.04 1998 Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels, #1)
author: Anne Bishop
name: Nan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at: 2020/01/08
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: never-again, did-not-finish
review:
I read 20% of this book and didn't like what I was seeing. I then read the ending (last two chapters) and didn't like where it was going. When that happens, the book winds up on my "did not finish" shelf. I found this book deeply unsettling, so it also found its way to "never again."
]]> <![CDATA[The Glittering Court (The Glittering Court, #1)]]> 27272506 The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.

Both a school and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies who appear destined for powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World. Adelaide naturally excels in her training, and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She manages to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn, son of the wealthy proprietor of the Glittering Court.

When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaide’s deception. Complications soon arise—first as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and then when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.

But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands…]]> 416 Richelle Mead 1595148418 Nan 0 did-not-finish, borrowed 3.48 2016 The Glittering Court (The Glittering Court, #1)
author: Richelle Mead
name: Nan
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2019/11/19
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, borrowed
review:
Thank goodness I borrowed this book from the library. After listening to about 10% of it, and realizing that I didn't think I had the desire to listen to more, I pulled down a copy of the book to check out the last chapters. I don't do this often, but occasionally I will read the end of a book to confirm if the ending is compelling enough to actually read the book in order to get there. I was not convinced this time, and I've given up on this series.
]]> <![CDATA[The Beautiful (The Beautiful, #1)]]> 43561481 New York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with a sumptuous, sultry and romantic new series set in 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight.

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and–especially–to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as Le Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sèbastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of Le Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sèbastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose–one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series The Beautiful.]]> 440 Renée Ahdieh 1524738182 Nan 0 did-not-finish
Maybe I'll give this one a shot again later. I doubt it.]]> 3.74 2019 The Beautiful (The Beautiful, #1)
author: Renée Ahdieh
name: Nan
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I've read other books by Ahdieh and really liked them, but I could not get into this one at all. I suspect it's because I tried to listen to it as an audiobook. There are chapters from the POV of what seems to be a villain, and the narrator tried to make them very creepy. Rather than give me chills, these chapters left me cold. I've been clear, in a prior book review, that I strongly dislike when a villain's POV is used as an alternating chapter in YA novels.

Maybe I'll give this one a shot again later. I doubt it.
]]> <![CDATA[Assassin’s Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy #1)]]> 31422589
Raised in the castle stables, only the company of the king's fool, the ragged children of the lower city, and his unusual affinity with animals provide Fitz with any comfort.

To be useful to the crown, Fitz is trained as an assassin; and to use the traditional magic of the Farseer family. But his tutor, allied to another political faction, is determined to discredit, even kill him. Fitz must survive: for he may be destined to save the kingdom.]]> Robin Hobb Nan 0 did-not-finish 4.02 1995 Assassin’s Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy #1)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Nan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/14
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I read and enjoyed the print version of this book very much when I was young. However, the audiobook failed to grab my attention. After three years of not completing the book, I've decided that it's a "Did Not Finish."
]]> <![CDATA[The Wind Could Blow a Bug (The Riley Sisters, #1)]]> 24484111 194 Jennifer Friess 0692339566 Nan 0 3.80 2014 The Wind Could Blow a Bug (The Riley Sisters, #1)
author: Jennifer Friess
name: Nan
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish-will-try-again, did-not-finish
review:

]]> Inda (Inda, #1) 222837 576 Sherwood Smith 0756402646 Nan 1 did-not-finish
Basically, I got sick and tired of reading about children being manipulated by adults into hurting each other. I applaud Smith for the world she created--a plains warrior culture that conquered another civilization and adopted their living style. The academy she creates and the world the characters inhabit is logical and well-developed. But I found that I couldn't sympathize with the characters to any meaningful extent. And with at least 8 viewpoint characters (some of them seemingly villains), there were a lot of characters to embrace (or despise).

I think I'll give Smith one more chance with a different series. But this one is clearly not for me.]]> 4.02 2006 Inda (Inda, #1)
author: Sherwood Smith
name: Nan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at: 2017/09/08
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I made it nearly 40% of the way into the book before I read the last few pages. I was so sick and tired of the book that I wanted to see if it got better. Sadly, it doesn't look like it.

Basically, I got sick and tired of reading about children being manipulated by adults into hurting each other. I applaud Smith for the world she created--a plains warrior culture that conquered another civilization and adopted their living style. The academy she creates and the world the characters inhabit is logical and well-developed. But I found that I couldn't sympathize with the characters to any meaningful extent. And with at least 8 viewpoint characters (some of them seemingly villains), there were a lot of characters to embrace (or despise).

I think I'll give Smith one more chance with a different series. But this one is clearly not for me.
]]> <![CDATA[And I Darken (The Conqueror's Saga, #1)]]> 27190613
Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.

Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.

The first of an epic new trilogy starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart. Lada knows how to wield a sword, and she'll stop at nothing to keep herself and her brother alive.]]> 475 Kiersten White 0553522310 Nan 0 did-not-finish 3.80 2016 And I Darken (The Conqueror's Saga, #1)
author: Kiersten White
name: Nan
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:

]]> The Silent Girls 28441057 What if everything you knew was a lie…

This house has a past that won’t stay hidden, and it is time for the dead to speak.

Returning to Number 17, Coronation Square, Edie is shocked to find the place she remembers from childhood reeks of mould and decay. After her aunt Dolly’s death Edie must clear out the home on a street known for five vicious murders many years ago, but under the dirt and grime of years of neglect lurk dangerous truths.

For in this dark house there is misery, sin and dark secrets that can no longer stay hidden. The truth must come out.

Finding herself dragged back into the horrific murders of the past, Edie must find out what really happened all those years ago. But as Edie uncovers the history of the family she had all but forgotten, she begins to wonder if sometimes it is best to leave them buried.]]> 276 Ann Troup 1474046797 Nan 1 did-not-finish, never-again Not my cuppa. 3.92 2016 The Silent Girls
author: Ann Troup
name: Nan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2017/03/11
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, never-again
review:
Not my cuppa.
]]> <![CDATA[The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game, #1)]]> 26156203
And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.

Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?

For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip-smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.

And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love…or be killed himself.

As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear—the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.]]> 407 Evelyn Skye 0062422588 Nan 1 did-not-finish The Night Circus. Since I'm an adult, I think I prefer the other book.

Admittedly, I did stop about 25% of the way through it. I just couldn't get into the book, and the comparisons hurt it every time.]]> 3.81 2016 The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game, #1)
author: Evelyn Skye
name: Nan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2016/09/20
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
Not my cuppa. It felt like a Y/A version of The Night Circus. Since I'm an adult, I think I prefer the other book.

Admittedly, I did stop about 25% of the way through it. I just couldn't get into the book, and the comparisons hurt it every time.
]]> <![CDATA[First Star I See Tonight (Chicago Stars, #8)]]> 24948069
A star quarterback and a feisty detective play for keeps in this sporty, sexy, sassy novel—a long-awaited new entry in the beloved, award-winning, New York Times bestselling author’s fan-favorite Chicago Stars football series.

Piper Dove is a woman with a dream—to become the best detective in the city of Chicago. First job? Trail former Chicago Stars quarterback, Cooper Graham. Problem? Graham’s spotted her, and he’s not happy.

From the bustling streets of Chicago to a windswept lighthouse on Lake Superior to the glistening waters of Biscayne Bay, two people who can’t stand to lose will test themselves and each other to discover what matters most.]]> 384 Susan Elizabeth Phillips Nan 1 did-not-finish, never-again
I stopped reading it half way through.

Piper, our detective, works multiple jobs. One of the jobs is working security for the ex-quarterback, Cooper. One of the other jobs is working as a chauffeur for a visiting princess from an Islamic nation referred to only as the "Realm" and her entourage.

The book was irritating enough--Cooper having developed an inexplicable attraction to Piper, takes her out clothes shopping so that she'll fit in better as his employee. He invites his manager along for the trip, expressly so that he can see his agent become bored with this woman so that she'll lose value in his eyes so that he won't lust after her anymore. Yuck. Talk about treating someone as a trophy--he wanted his agent to devalue the woman so that he could lose respect (and lust) for her. No matter what he thought of her, the opinion of other men was that important to him.

The part that really turned me off was the Islamophobia of the "Realm" sequence. Piper drives an abused servant girl, whose passport has been taken from her by her employers, all around the city in order to find each color of a certain shoe. The girl's irrational fear of disappointing the princess, as well as a bruise Piper sees later, clearly tells readers that she's abused. Cooper is roped into helping "free" the girl by offering one of the princes his Super Bowl ring in exchange for the girl and her passport. He explicitly explains that he wants the girl for sex so that the prince will not be suspicious. To top it all off--he uses a replica ring for the exchange, showing this prince is too stupid to know fake diamonds from real.

That scene trades in so many Islamophobic stereotypes that I don't even know where to begin. It presents these royals as abusive, as sexual perverts, as gullible and wrong. These are stereotypes that have been used repeatedly in the past--whenever it was politically expedient to view Muslims as the "Other." If you don't believe me, read Edward Said's Orientalism.

I feel violently sick after reading that passage and writing about it here. I wasn't happy with the first Susan Elizabeth Phillips book I'd read years ago. But I gave her chance. Now that I see her trafficking in these disgusting Islamophobic stereotypes, I will never give her a chance again.]]> 3.91 2016 First Star I See Tonight (Chicago Stars, #8)
author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
name: Nan
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2016/12/29
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, never-again
review:
This book had character types that I typically enjoy--a female detective and a professional athlete. But I did not enjoy this book.

I stopped reading it half way through.

Piper, our detective, works multiple jobs. One of the jobs is working security for the ex-quarterback, Cooper. One of the other jobs is working as a chauffeur for a visiting princess from an Islamic nation referred to only as the "Realm" and her entourage.

The book was irritating enough--Cooper having developed an inexplicable attraction to Piper, takes her out clothes shopping so that she'll fit in better as his employee. He invites his manager along for the trip, expressly so that he can see his agent become bored with this woman so that she'll lose value in his eyes so that he won't lust after her anymore. Yuck. Talk about treating someone as a trophy--he wanted his agent to devalue the woman so that he could lose respect (and lust) for her. No matter what he thought of her, the opinion of other men was that important to him.

The part that really turned me off was the Islamophobia of the "Realm" sequence. Piper drives an abused servant girl, whose passport has been taken from her by her employers, all around the city in order to find each color of a certain shoe. The girl's irrational fear of disappointing the princess, as well as a bruise Piper sees later, clearly tells readers that she's abused. Cooper is roped into helping "free" the girl by offering one of the princes his Super Bowl ring in exchange for the girl and her passport. He explicitly explains that he wants the girl for sex so that the prince will not be suspicious. To top it all off--he uses a replica ring for the exchange, showing this prince is too stupid to know fake diamonds from real.

That scene trades in so many Islamophobic stereotypes that I don't even know where to begin. It presents these royals as abusive, as sexual perverts, as gullible and wrong. These are stereotypes that have been used repeatedly in the past--whenever it was politically expedient to view Muslims as the "Other." If you don't believe me, read Edward Said's Orientalism.

I feel violently sick after reading that passage and writing about it here. I wasn't happy with the first Susan Elizabeth Phillips book I'd read years ago. But I gave her chance. Now that I see her trafficking in these disgusting Islamophobic stereotypes, I will never give her a chance again.
]]> <![CDATA[The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium, #4)]]> 25074850
Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it . . .

The duo who captivated millions of readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest join forces again in this adrenaline-charged, uniquely of-the-moment thriller.]]> 400 David Lagercrantz 0385354282 Nan 1
I'll give this one another try, maybe even in a few weeks. But it did nothing for me right now, and I started reading it with no expectations and a relatively open mind.]]> 3.74 2015 The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium, #4)
author: David Lagercrantz
name: Nan
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 1
read at: 2016/06/03
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish, did-not-finish-will-try-again
review:
After racing through the last two books in the original series, I ran into a serious roadblock with this one. While Larsson's writing occasionally irritated me, I was enthralled with his characters. (Even if I do read Blomkvist as a Gary Stu--I mean, seriously, every woman wants to sleep with him, and he's a very well respected journalist . . . the occupation mirrors the original author, and the sexual attractiveness reads as wish fulfillment. Anyway . . .) Even with those irritations, I loved the books. This one I could not embrace with the same fervor. I know that time has passed since book 3, and the characters are in a different emotional space (and temporal one--time has passed and the world has continued to change, after all). That said, the changes did not seem grounded in the original characters that I loved so much.

I'll give this one another try, maybe even in a few weeks. But it did nothing for me right now, and I started reading it with no expectations and a relatively open mind.
]]> The Other Daughter 24356385 From Lauren Willig, author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Ashford Affair, comes The Other Daughter, a page-turner full of deceit, passion, and revenge. Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died suddenly. Grief-stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage...and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three months before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter -- his legitimate daughter. Which makes Rachel...not legitimate. Everything she thought she knew about herself and her past -- even her very name -- is a lie. Still reeling from the death of her mother, and furious at this betrayal, Rachel sets herself up in London under a new identity. There she insinuates herself into the party-going crowd of Bright Young Things, with a steely determination to unveil her father's perfidy and bring his -- and her half-sister's -- charmed world crashing down. Very soon, however, Rachel faces two unexpected she finds that she genuinely likes her half-sister, Olivia, whose situation isn't as simple it appears; and that she might just be falling for her sister's fiancé...]]> 320 Lauren Willig Nan 2 3.82 2015 The Other Daughter
author: Lauren Willig
name: Nan
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2016/04/02
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: did-not-finish-will-try-again, did-not-finish
review:
There are plenty of things I liked about this book, but more that I did not. I waited six months for my number to come up in the library waiting list, but once I had the book, I had to force myself to read it. Now, my two week lending period has ended, and I was only about 25% of the way through the book. I will have to try again later to see if it can eventually capture my interest, but I fear Lauren Willig may not be for me.
]]>