Books from the Backlog #123

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. This is a fun meme hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books!

They say there are no secrets in a small town...

Criminal psychologist Audrey Harte is returning home after seven years. She'll have to face the whispers and the rumors that have haunted her family since she left. Because when Audrey was thirteen, she and her best friend Maggie killed Maggie's abusive father.

Her first night back in town ends in a fight with a drunken Maggie, with her old crush Jake to witness it all. Audrey can't believe it can get worse. Then Maggie turns up dead.

Now, Audrey has to find out who the murderer is - before everyone decides that she is to blame. And before the murderer can set their sights on her.

I added Kate Kessler's It Takes One to my TBR in April of 2016! I've read a lot of Kate's books as she's written under many names. This series sounded edgy and exciting and since it was the Kate whose books I loved I figured I'd give it a try, but somehow I let the series get completed without every picking up book 1! Hopefully I can get to this sometime soon!

 

Can't Wait Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

In the thrilling conclusion of the duology set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Serpent & Dove series by Shelby Mahurin, a vampire and the woman who tried to kill him prove that true love can conquer anything, even Death. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Mass.

Célie’s life is over. She took her final breath trying to save the people she loves—including the powerful and enigmatic vampire king, Michal, who refused to let her go. When Célie wakes, she cannot walk in the sun; she can hear her friends’ heartbeats and she craves their blood. Michal has cursed her to the eternal existence of a vampire.

But Célie isn’t the only dead roaming the earth. Her sister, Filippa, has returned as a shadow of her former self, and other revenants are rising from their graves intent on revenge. The fragile balance between life and death has broken, awakening an even darker force—and he is coming for Célie, ready to claim her as his Bride. With the fate of their world at stake, Célie and Michal must set aside their searing attraction to mend the veil and right the balance, once and for all.

I've been dying for this one to release so I can finally read the duology! I loved Shelby's Serpent & Dove series so I am excited for this spinoff! Plus vampires! What's not to love?!

TITLE: The Shadow Bride
AUTHOR: Shelby Mahurin
PUBLISHER: HarperCollins
GENRE: YA Paranormal
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2025

Let's Discuss: Bizarre Categorizing Choices

 

Okay, so this idea just randomly popped up in my head today after I was strolling through the bookstore and then scrolling through Netgalley. And I was like...what were they thinking?

Bizarre Categorizing Choices

Yeah, a weird title there too! Lol. But okay, first I was the bookstore having a nice long browse through the shelves and tables, just looking at books and being happy! Lol. Then I was at a "romantasy" table and I saw a book that made me pause. Because I was like...this is not a fantasy. It's not romantic. I mean, yeah there were crushes going around, but it wasn't a fantasy. 

It was a YA horror/supernatural thriller read with a few threads of romance in the forms of crushes and kisses...on a table of adult heavy "romantasy" reads. It's like that old song, "one of these things is not like the other one..." because yeah, it soooo did not fit with the rest of the books there. And there were SEVERAL copies of this YA supernatural thriller read, so it wasn't just "left" there by someone. So yeah. Bizarre.

Now I was just on Netgalley scrolling through my favorite genres looking to see if there's anything I ought to request and I was in the YA section and paused. I paused a good long time staring at these titles and covers. They were in Spanish...I think. Obviously not English. And they were for an ADULT "romantasy" book that was HEAVY on the romance/sexual content. And I mean pretty heavy. Now there's a chance, a small, maybe slim, chance that the books lose some of their adult content in translation...but I kind of doubt it. I was like why are these books here? It'd be like letting a 13 year old into a NC-17 movie. Do they even still have that movie rating anymore? But it'd be like letting a 14/15 year old read 50 Shades of Grey. Let's put it at that distinction. I never read that book but my sister did and filled me in on some of those details! Lol. So yeah, it was a mind spin for sure!

I was also finding other YA "romantasy" titles in the adult "romantasy" tables. Now this probably isn't a huge deal. But I guess it could be misleading towards the adult looking for something that's spicy or whatnot. I mean the book could be spicy, possibly, in the YA sense. It wasn't one I read, so I really can't judge on it being there, other than the age level thing. Which yes, we adults go back and forth between the YA and adult titles, but I don't know. I just found it weird. Because then my sister's teenage daughter was picking up TikTok titles that she wanted to read and my sister would look at them and some she immediately shot down as NO. That she just wasn't "old enough/mature enough" for that kind of book just yet. I think she ended up on some YA contemporary one, when she looked at me, I just said, "no idea. Not my genre, not my circus." Lol!

But yeah. Talk about bizarre shelving choices! Have you ever encountered a bookstore or bookish site that just seemed to put the wrong age level books somewhere? I mean the YA supernatural thriller in the adult "romantasy" isn't scandalous, just misleading. But the adult "romantasy" in the YA shelves...even virtual shelves just seems like a possible recipe for trouble*! 

*again, this was a book that was translated into Spanish or something, so mayyyybe it lost some of its spiciness...but I can't say that with confidence either! Lol.

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays

 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker. 

Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a page
3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE
4. Name the title, author, etc.

"My smile faltered as my paced slowed. What kind of life do I have when being right means I'm up s*it creek?" p 74

TITLE: Demons of Good and Evil
AUTHOR: Kim Harrison
PUBLISHER: Ace
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: June 13, 2023

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and The Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

This week's topic is: Top Ten Books I Never Reviewed (But Have Likely Mentioned in Passing)

*in no particular order
**these are largely from my pre-blogging days but are likely books I mentioned in passing on posts like these!

10. DEAD UNTIL DARK by Charlaine Harris--this was read before the blog began, so it was never reviewed in official compacity! As will be the trend for these picks!
9. DEAD WITCH WALKING by Kim Harrison--since I'm reading book #17 in the series now, you'll be surprised to know that books #1-8 weren't reviewed here either! I did some digging through my posts and the oldest one I could find was #9 in the series which was out in 2011, so that checks with my blog as I still wasn't super active the first few years here!
8. BITTEN by Kelley Armstrong--another beloved series and yet I am not sure when I started posting my reviews for this one! Kelley writes so much so fast that I have wayyy too many posts with her name attached! It took me ages to find the Kim Harrison title, so I'm spent of researching! Lol.

7. ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY by Jennifer Rardin--a series I probably haven't talked about since my blog began! This was a fun Urban Fantasy vampire series! Back in my early days I looked for books with little to no romance in them because when I read one with vampires from the romance section, nothing ever happened in them because the characters were too busy in the bedroom and I was just bored. 
6. ILL WIND by Rachel Caine--wow, this book is now over 20 years old! I think I didn't start reading it until there were 3 or 4 books? That was always fun! Finding a series that just started and having 4 books to binge before you have to start "waiting." I did eventually review these books on my blog, but the early ones might not be here.
5. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: THE AWAKENING by L.J. Smith--the OG Teen Vampire Romance series! Omg I LOVED this series! Clearly I read these way before the blog began but you can find the revival trilogy that was written by the original L.J. before they hired a ghostwriter to take her name and write them "their" way. Which was such BS if you ask me. But I know I mentioned this one a lot in the past! The long ago Top 5 Sundays post was much like this post!

4. THE FORBIDDEN GAME TRILOGY by L.J. Smith--another series that I just loved! I think I read this series before I found The Vampire Diaries! I even have this trippy cover as that's what I found at Borders and it was an older book back then too! I just loved how dark and twisted this series was!
3. OLD MAGIC by Marianne Curley--another book I know I mentioned quite a lot over the years through posts like these and yet, a review never made it to my blog! This was definitely a read from the pre-blogging days but I read it several times!
2. SHADOWLAND by Jenny Carroll aka Meg Cabot--I uncovered this series as a youth as well as it was JUST what I was looking for! Something paranormally and for teens! It was everything! And yet, I think the only book I ended up reviewing from this series was the adult take from a few years ago!

1. DEMON IN MY VIEW by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes--the one that started it all! Yes, this is the book I read as a youth that got me HOOKED on vampires! I read this one soooooooo many times my little paperback got pretty worn out! I did find the cute little hardcover some years ago, in time to be signed by the author too! Yes I got to meet my teen idol probably over a decade ago now and it was EVERYTHING! I think I might have reviewed a few of her later ones on my blog when I was reading some of her backlist titles I never got to as a teen.

Let's Discuss: Books to Film Reading

 

So it was last week's BBH prompt that got me rethinking on things that led to this topic! Quick summary was have you ever read a Nicholas Sparks novel? And you'd be surprised to hear that yes, I did! Wayyyy before my blog started in those dark dreadful years when I had to read contemporary books because there just was not enough paranormal books on the YA shelves. I still needed SOMETHING to read and the previews to A Walk to Remember looked cute, I liked Mandy Moore, and I saw those words: BASED ON THE NOVEL...so the rest was history.

But anyway, it got me wondering about...

BOOKS TO FILM READING

Has a movie that was based off a book, ever got you to read the book? I'll admit, I was always one of those people who wanted to read the book before I saw the movie! There are only 2 instances where I did the reverse because my mom didn't deem me "old enough" to read the book when I first started seeing the movie, which was probably like 7 or 8 maybe at that time??? Yeah, it's been awhile basically! Lol.

But anyway, as I mentioned in my Friday post, when I saw these previews for A Walk to Remember I thought it looked like a cute movie. I wasn't so jaded by the world just yet back then, lol. I liked Mandy Moore's music and I thought, sure, let's read the book so I don't have to wait however many months it was to see the movie! Then I'll know what's about to happen! Plus, I feel like the movie did update it a bit too, as I have a fuzzy memory of it being in a different time period then the present day of whenever that was...early 2000s I think?

Then another instance of me seeing a preview for a movie that I thought looked cool was for Timeline! Yes, an early Paul Walker film, like right after The Fast and The Furious and I am not sure where in the scheme of things for its sequel as Timeline came out the same year from the looks of things! Now when I first saw this preview, I thought it was for Old Magic by Marianne Curley! Lol! But then I saw the "sciencey" parts and was like wait...that didn't happen in the book? What are they doing? Then the actual movie title came up and I was like ohhhh! Lol.

But it looked to have the same vibes as Old Magic but you know just exchanging magic with science, okay whatever. But I saw that it was BASED ON THE NOVEL...so I thought, I'll give that a read! I loved Old Magic and wow! BIG differences there! It was a little too "sciencey" for me in the grand scheme of things and I kind of felt like the movie really chopped and butchered it a bit.

And try as I might, I couldn't think of other examples that followed this pattern. After that it was more like books I read were being made into movies! So then it became the fear of "oh no what will they change now?!" Like after every Harry Potter movie, my friend and I would complain about what was cut and why they should've kept that scene and why heck did they replace cute little Dobby with Neville...no offense to Neville of course, but come on, DOBBY! It later became a wonder if Neville would die in movie 7 part 1!

For the most part, I largely always wanted to read the book first before I saw any movie! Lol. I wanted to read the original source first so I knew what would happen and what the media version got wrong. I even did this with TV shows that were made into series! Of course, with those, I had read the book ages ago first...except for Midnight, Texas. I managed to read the first book before season 1, but then didn't get around to reading the other books before the next season came about. But when the shows started derailing from the book entirely I was like what is going on?! Bitten, anyone? LOVED that book! Was loving the show until maybe halfway through? It did well for those first handful of episodes but after that we were off the map but I was still hooked, so there you go! Lol.

Did a movie preview or the movie itself ever make you want to read the book? Were you ever determined to read the book before the movie came out so you could tell others, you read the book first? I kind of enjoyed that part myself! Lol.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

Last Week I Read:

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano (5 stars)
Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano (ARC)--Review to come later this month!

Currently Reading:

Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

What I Plan to Read Next:

Demon's Bluff by Kim Harrison

Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays
Can't Wait Wednesday
Books from the Backlog #122
Book Blogger Hop #345
Stacking the Shelves--The Extremely Long Saturday

Stacking the Shelves--The Extremely Long Saturday

 

Stacking the Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! The meme is now hosted by Reading Reality.

Another week in February has come and gone! It was mostly uneventful. There was a predicted "snowstorm" for this week, but that day just ended up being filled with a little sleet. It wasn't nearly as bad as they were predicting. They are once again predicting snow for today and possibly Tuesday and Wednesday. I haven't really paid attention to amounts of possibility! Then yesterday, omg, it was the WORST! I had a 7am oil change. I'm a morning person, so that time didn't bother me, I scheduled it for then too. It's like a 45 minute drive though, so it's a pain. I went to my car dealer because I had 2 free remaining oil changes left. Anyway, once I'm getting checked in, I was notified about a safety recall on a passenger airbag sensor. They said they didn't have any in stock now, but they'd call me when they came in and I can get it fixed and all that jazz. No big deal. I was also supposed to have an eye exam around 10, so you know, busy day. Two hours pass as I am sitting in the waiting room. I thought this is taking way longer than an oil change warrants. I check in with my service desk person and she went to check in with the mechanic...they had the safety part that was needed and he was already tearing my car apart to install it. I was like uhhh...this is not good! The one day I make two appointments to get stuff done and I was going to miss my eye exam. She told me he'd be another hour which meant I would miss my exam, so I get that canceled and rescheduled and then I proceed to wait. And wait. And wait. I waited another two and half hours! I was there from 7-11:30!! And I sadly could only read for 3 of those hours as my head started killing me and they didn't have any caffeine. I was tempted to ask the shuttle to drive me down and across the street to a QT to get a soda but then finally I got the text that my car was done. I sign my paperwork and then they could NOT find my car! I was like WTF. I am usually pretty patient and understanding when it comes to these kind of things, but firstly, the guy just started working on the repair without even checking to see if I could wait the extra 3 and half hours! The ONE time, ONE TIME, I had a second appointment and it all went to crap! If that wasn't enough, about 15 minutes from arriving home, some jerk almost crashes into me as he tried to cut me off...for no reason at all as he had NO ONE in front of him and not two minutes later he's cutting back across all the lanes to get to his exit! I was fuming! I was without caffeine and FUMING! So now next Saturday I will have my eye exam and hopefully get new glasses as I want to get the transition lenses that turn into sunglasses in sunlight as I am tiring of switching back and forth when I go to festival style places where you're outside looking at booths and then pop into stores that line the street. It's always been a pain, but now I'm just like give me the transition ones!! Lol.

Just remind me never again to put more than one appointment in one day. I will no longer GET IT ALL DONE in one go. I will just have to continue to parse it out in weekend after weekend!

Anyway here's what I got this week:

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett--still need to start this series but thanks to the preorder sale, I picked this one up then too! Lol. Almost thought this would arrive next week as it shipped so late in the week! But somehow it arrived yesterday! Kind of looked like maybe a KC store just shipped it to me as it was in a bubble mailer. Very weird, but it was still in pristine condition, so that's a plus!
The Forest King's Daughter by Elly Blake--super excited for Elly's books again! This one ALMOST arrived on Thursday which would've been SHOCKING! But alas tracking lied to me. It did arrive Friday though, so that was a plus!
The Last Raven by Helen Glynn Jones--an impulse decision at B&N yesterday! My sister and mom all went (with my sister's kids too) to the store as my sister was looking for some new romantasy reads and was asking my opinions about some, mainly if I read it or what I knew about it. I feel like I saw this one a little bit on Instagram, possibly, or somewhere! It's got vampires and it sounded intriguing, so yeah there you go! My mom actually bought it for me as she bought everyone a book yesterday!

Then I won a contest on Instagram from Liesl West! I had just read her debut last year and bought the hardcover as it was literally right before she got her store up and running, otherwise I would've bought directly from her. Sigh. But I won a SIGNED paperback so that was a plus!!

Of Song and Scepter by Liesl West--SIGNED! Plus a two-sided bookmark!

THANK YOU Liesl!

And that was it for me this week! Not too shabby at all!

Book Blogger Hop #345

 

This meme is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addict!

This week's question is: Have you ever read a Nicholas Sparks romance novel? If so, what is your opinion on his endings? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

MY ANSWER: Okay, prepared to be shocked and amazed! Yes, I have read 1 and only 1 Nicholas Sparks' novel! It was in my early days of reading when finding paranormal books was like finding a needle in a haystack.

The book I read? A Walk to Remember. Why? How? How did I come upon this novel? Well, I was at the movies--another ancient pastime, what movie it was I can't remember, clearly not anything at all related to what previews were playing! Lol. I saw a preview for Mandy Moore's A Walk to Remember! I can't remember if this was her acting debut or just one of her early movies, but I liked her music and the previews looked...cute? I guess this was back in my youthful phase of being ever so hopeful and not nearly as cynical or suspicious of the world. Lol. 

But anyway, the previews were basically showing how the bad boy falls for the preacher's daughter and I thought it just looked cute! Then I saw those words: BASED ON THE NOVEL...and I remember needing to go to Borders asap!

I want to say, that I ended up going to a Borders in Chicago when we were doing a celebratory birthday trip for my older sister and I found a copy of the book with THE ORIGINAL COVER! As even at that age, I wasn't real big on "movie" book covers. Unless it was a media tie in book, i.e. the movie/TV show came first, then it's expected! But anyway, I bought the book, read it and was like oh. That was...insert word choice.

Now does he do this all the time? I don't know. I read one book and had no desire to go back as contemporary books were/are not my thing, but in the early days, I had to make some exceptions as there weren't any alternatives. I might have even put this one in my donate pile during the occasional purge.

If his endings always tend to be evicting those kinds of emotions, I can't say I'd be a fan to read that every time he wrote a book. So yeah. I mean based on this story, the ending was expected and in of itself, it was sweet and sad, but yeah.

 

 

Would've been cooler if Landon was a vampire and turns Jamie into one, effectively healing her and then they go on to be happy together forever...but that's just me!

Books from the Backlog #122

 

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. This meme is hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books!

Make a wish…

Lennie always thought her uncles’ “important family legacy” was good old-fashioned bootlegging. Then she takes some of her uncles’ moonshine to Michaela Gordon’s annual house party, and finds out just how wrong she was.

At the party, Lennie has everyone make a wish before drinking the shine—it’s tradition. She toasts to wishes for bat wings, for balls of steel, for the party to go on forever. Lennie even makes a wish of her own: to bring back her best friend, Dylan, who was murdered six months ago.

The next morning gives Lennie a whole new understanding of the phrase be careful what you wish for—or in her case, be careful what wishes you grant. Because all those wishes Lennie raised a jar of shine to last night? They came true. Most of them came out bad. And once granted, a wish can’t be unmade…

I added Kate Karyus Quinn's Down With the Shine to my TBR pile in April of 2016 and I am trying to remember if this was a book I bought because I was going to meet the author or if I didn't meet her until later and had this one already. I'd have to check my photo albums, which are sadly in storage! Lol. But I remember seeing great reviews on this and I thought it sounded like fun! There's always that bad luck that come with wishes and the story sounded rather good. I'd still like to read it at some point. If only I didn't need to sleep! That would solve all of my TBR problems within a year or two! Lol.

Review--Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano

 

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero are in sore need of a girls’ weekend away. They plan a trip to Atlantic City, but odds are―seeing as it’s actually a cover story to negotiate a deal with a dangerous loan shark, save Vero’s childhood crush Javi, and hunt down a stolen car―it won’t be all fun and games. When Finlay’s ex-husband Steven and her mother insist on tagging along too, Finlay and Vero suddenly have a few too many meddlesome passengers along for the ride.

Within hours of arriving in their seedy casino hotel, it becomes clear their rescue mission is going to be a bust. Javi’s kidnapper, Marco, refuses to negotiate, demanding payment in full in exchange for Javi’s life. But that’s not all―he insists on knowing the whereabouts of his missing nephew, Ike, who mysteriously disappeared. Unable to confess what really happened to Ike, Finlay and Vero are forced to come up with a new plan: sleuth out the location of Javi and the Aston Martin, then steal them both back.

But when they sneak into the loan shark’s suite to search for clues, they find more than they bargained for―Marco's already dead. They don’t have a clue who murdered him, only that they themselves have a very convincing motive. Then four members of the police department unexpectedly show up in town, also looking for Ike―and after Finlay's night with hot cop Nick at the police academy, he’s a little too eager to keep her close to his side.

If Finlay can juggle a jealous ex-husband, two precocious kids, her mother’s marital issues, a decomposing loan shark, and find Vero’s missing boyfriend, she might get out of Atlantic City in one piece. But will she fold under the pressure and come clean about the things she’s done, or be forced to double down?

Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice was one of the most comical books I've read and had a twisted mystery to boot! This is a read that kept me hooked and engaged from the very beginning! Filled with laughs, secrets, and a tantalizing romance there was nothing to not love about this book!

This book was a riot from the get-go! We start off seeing Finlay, Vero, her children, her mother, and her ex-husband, Steven all going on a road trip to Atlantic City on a secret mission to rescue Vero's childhood friend, Javi from the loan shark Vero owes a lot of money to. Under the guise of a girl's trip, Finlay and Vero are hoping to get enough money along the way to pay off Marco and get their friend and the very expensive car he was try to sell off to help pay Vero's debts before everything went wrong.

Marco is one tough dude though as he tells Vero to give him his money or else and then in a weird roundabout way when she and Finlay go to talk to him again, they find him and his associate dead. Murdered. And now they are trying to cover up a murder scene that they walked into and still find out where Javi is being kept.

Meanwhile, Finlay is trying to get Steven off her back who keeps trying to rekindle a romance that she sees as long dead. Her mother is dealing with her own martial issues. And then surprise, surprise, Nick and his team show up based on a clue that lead them to believe Feliks might be coming back into the country and he worried Finlay would be his next target.

This book was honestly just so much fun! I could not get enough of Vero razzing on Steven. I deplore infidelity and the idea that Steven thinks he can rekindle anything with Finlay ticked me off. Luckily, Finlay is done with him in the romantic sense, so Vero poking fun at him at every turn had me laughing so hard! Vero's energy is just a blessing! She is exactly the kind of friend Finlay needed when she was down and I love how close these two have become over the course of four books!

I will say this mystery really had me puzzled! I did not figure out the whodunit before the reveal and yet, I was okay with that. I mean, in some sense I did suspect something with the whodunit person, but only because of past clues and such. And that's as vague as I can get while still making some kind of sense!

The pacing to this one was pretty much perfect! It's a nice gradual buildup to one problem to another! Cosimano has mastered the hook and knows how to slowly reel her readers in, giving them just enough to get invested and needing more and giving them that little by little in the most satisfying way.

The ending was positively the most shocking bit! We had a nice wrap-up of the mystery and its loose ends that was making me wonder what the next mystery would entail...as I never look at the next book until I'm caught up and then we get hit with whooper of an ordeal! While it's a cliffhanger in a sense, it really just sets you up for the next book, the next mystery, and the next plot. It also doesn't hurt that I have the next book waiting for me! So that's probably it! But looking at it as an outsider, so to speak, it's not as dreadful as other cliffhangers I've encountered in my reading career! 

If you love a fun and jovial mystery that's got comedy and heart then this is the series for you!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars

 

Can't Wait Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The spellbinding sequel to Kathryn Purdie's bestselling dark fairytale, where our main characters must return to the forest—and its monsters.

The story hasn't ended yet.

After surviving the Forest Grimm and defeating the Wolf, Clara and Axel have made it back to their village, the one place they can be safe behind the forest's borders. But when the forest itself begins luring in more villagers, it's clear that Clara and Axel have only treated the symptoms of the forest's curse, not the cause—and it's getting worse.

Burdened with visions of the past and learning to navigate her fragile new relationship with Axel, Clara finds herself entering the forest with Axel yet again to discover the truth once and for all: the identity of the murderer who caused the curse. As they fight murderous woodsmen with incomprehensible riddles, ladies who will drag you into an eternal dance, and ghosts with the power to wield the forest against them, Clara and Axel realize the stakes are higher than ever. If they don't survive the dark, deadly twists of the forest once more, not only will they never escape, they may also no longer have a home to escape to.

Romantic, eerie, and beautiful, The Deathly Grimm is the triumphant conclusion to Kathryn Purdie's bestselling Forest Grimm duology.

I haven't read The Forest Grimm yet and I am glad I held off, I didn't realize it was a duology until this popped up on Goodreads and I was thanking my lucky stars I hadn't read it yet! Lol. Although it always miffs me when the publisher wants to change the covers at the very last book of the series and to do this with a duology is just mean! Lol.

TITLE: The Deathly Grimm
AUTHOR: Kathryn Purdie
PUBLISHER: Wednesday Books
GENRE: YA Fairytales
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2025

Review--Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano

 

Author and single mom Finlay Donovan has been in messes before―after all, she's a pro at removing bloodstains for various unexpected reasons―but none quite like this. When Finlay and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they had "borrowed" in the process of saving the life of Finlay's ex-husband, the Russian mob did her a favor and bought the car for her. And now Finlay owes them.

Mob boss Feliks is still running the show from behind bars, and he has a task for Finlay: find and identify a contract killer before the cops do. The problem is, the killer might be an officer themself.

Luckily, hot cop Nick has just been tasked with starting up a citizen's police academy, and combined pressure from Finlay's looming book deadline and Feliks is enough to convince Finlay and Vero to get involved. Through firearm training and forensic classes (and some hands-on research with a tempting detective), Finlay and Vero use their time in police academy to sleuth out the real contract killer to free themselves from the mob's clutches―all the while dodging spies, confronting Vero's past, and juggling the daily trials of parenthood.

From USA Today bestseller and Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun—the highly anticipated, hilarious, and heart-pounding next installment in the beloved Finlay Donovan series…

It was high time I get myself caught up on Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan series with Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun! This is by far the most "contemporary" series I read. It's essentially cozy mystery, but there's no paranormal element, no sinister thriller vibes. It's cute and fluffy and has a single mom author heroine trying to stay alive, stay above her deadline, and unwittingly solve crimes!

I got addicted to Cosimano's YA books which started out with a nice thriller vibe with a flare of paranormal and decided to take a stab at her adult novels (no pun intended) when the first book sounded so humorous wherein an author is pitching her "killer for hire" book at a Bread Co.--I don't know what this Panera is you people talk about. Lol. And thus, Finlay's life has changed ever since and here I am three books in (with two more to go!) and not one paranormal thing has happened. Who am I? 

Anyway, in this one Finlay is once again thrust into a mystery against her will as her past actions continue to haunt her and refuse to let go. The Russian mobster, Feliks Zhirov is calling in on Finlay's debt to him, from behind bars. Yes, he is currently in prison awaiting trial, but wants Finlay to find the one called EasyClean from the murder forum Finlay uncovered last time around when someone had put in a hit on her ex-husband, Steven. Not only does Finlay have no clue who this EasyClean is, but she has no way of being able to find him. The only tidbit that she received is that he may be a diry cop, which still doesn't narrow it down by that much.

But Feliks has given her a deadline, as if the one her agent has given her wasn't enough, and now she has only a matter of days of finding out the identity of EasyClean and killing him, but she's hoping to skip that last part and just deliver the identity information instead. It's not long before Finlay and Vero find themselves signing up for a citizen's police academy experience. Using the guise of needing police procedurals for her novel, Finlay and Vero hope that they can find out who among the police officers there might be EasyClean or if they can lead them to said subject.

This was such a fun and engaging novel! I positively love Finlay! She is such a down to earth character and is so relatable! I love that she's an author and has her writing struggles and how her agent wants her to write a hot, sexy scene between Finlay's characters. Then we have the very present romantic tension rippling between her and Nick! I nearly forgotten Nick since it's been awhile since I read the first two books! And oh my, how could I forget him after this?! The tension between these two was so thick I was dying for something to just happen between the two! Much like Finlay's agent was wanting for Finlay's book! Lol.

The mystery element was still pretty good! I don't know if I just had a lucky guess or all my mystery reading and Scooby Doo watching paid off as I nailed this bad guy as soon as he stepped onto the page! Lol. I love being right so early on like that! Although it would be awhile before we get that final whodunit reveal! In this one we also get a bit more about Vero's problems. I know they came up before and possibly this just rehashed some things we already knew, but it was a nice refresher for myself either way! I vaguely recall knowing that we'll get more of Vero's problems in the next book which I have ready to go!

If you like mysteries, but don't like the overly complicated plot twists and characters, then this might be the mystery series for you! It's a light and quirky kind of mystery series with a reluctant detective but who somehow manages to get the crime solved, but it doesn't seem to resolve her own problems! This is definitely a series to read in order too, though I had quite a gap between books 2 and 3, there are plot lines that continue to follow one another despite a new present mystery. Best to start at the beginning with this one and we're gearing up to book 5, so you have plenty of time to catch up! This is the perfect cozy mystery series for those wanting to play book detective and not have to overthink things too much!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars