Can't Wait Wednesday #246

 

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.

An intoxicating, haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.

In one, she lives in the wooded shadow of her family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of her mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where her magical adventures have made her a household name. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and her older brother are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the lichen-clotted woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.

Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s creative genius?

Wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, The Children whispers to you from the hallway outside your bedroom, lights flickering as you turn the pages of a book that didn't seem so scary a moment ago. It's a story for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found it cast in a darker light, the line separating magic and memory blurring as the gap widens between the authors we imagined and the people they turn out to be.

I love me a good spooky book! Also excited for Melissa's adult debut!

TITLE: The Children
AUTHOR: Melissa Albert
PUBLISHER: William Morrow
GENRE: Horror
RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2026

"Bears all the hallmarks of addictive YA fantasy. . . This is going to be huge.” —Laura Steven, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Our Infinite Fates, on Heir of Storms

Return to the spellbinding world of Heir of Storms in the explosive second installment to the Storm Weaver trilogy, perfect for fans of Red Queen, Throne of Glass, and The Rose Bargain.

Having survived three treacherous trials to win her crown, Blaze is now Queen of the Aquatori. But before she can take the throne, she must set out to find the Eye of the Soul, one of the realm’s most powerful weapons, before another claims its power for themself.

Her journey will take her deep into the forests of Ostacre and into a temporary alliance with the infuriating but undeniably compelling Fox. She can’t help but feel drawn to him. . . but can she trust him? Fortune favors the brave, but will it protect the Storm Weaver on her most dangerous mission yet?

Narrated by not just Blaze, but her brother, Flint, and the newly-discovered Shadow Magi, Elva, the epic journey that began in Heir of Storms continues in the sweeping adventure of Tides of Fortune. 

This is tentatively on my Watchlist. I STILL need to read the first book and refrained from ordering this in the last B&N sale. But also partially because I have the FL edition and want to see if they do a matching set. Lol.

TITLE: Tides of Fortune
AUTHOR: Lauryn Hamilton Murray
PUBLISHER: Roaring Brook Press
GENRE: YA Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2026

Review--The Other Side of the Mirror by Dana Evyn

 

What if the fairytale was always a lie?

Seven years after her family’s murders, Eva is attacked by a magical creature and abducted to the faerie realm. When a handsome fae saves her, Bash reveals that he must bring Eva to her faerie soulmate to stop a world-ending Curse. She relents, but only for the opportunity to find answers about her parents’ deaths.

As their journey progresses, Eva delves into her previously hidden magic—and grows steadily closer to Bash. But when she meets her prince, she soon learns that all is not what it seems. While mystery and intrigue surround her, Eva takes it into her own hands to uncover the truth. But what she discovers is beyond her imagination, as she unravels the fae’s web of lies.

The Other Side of the Mirror is Dana Evyn's first book in The Mirrored Trilogy and is the start of a pretty awesome fantasy story! There's fae, there's magic, mystery, secrets, and mayhem and of course some romance! The story was engaging and kept me guessing things, even though I was making my own predictions throughout and now I am left pining for the second book! It's been ordered, believe me, but ugh, that shipping time is going to take forever! Lol.

Eva thought she'd just celebrate her birthday with her best friend when her life took a turn for the worse, again. When she was just seventeen, her parents were murdered and her twin brother has been missing ever since. She thought she would just celebrate with her new potential boyfriend only to find a surprise attack lying in wait at her home and rescue came in the form of a sword-wielding guy. But Eva isn't a damsel meant to be rescued and she takes care of her attacker herself.

Bash, her would-be-rescuer, reveals that he's here to bring her to her prince charming, her betrothed. That she and her betrothed are meant to help fight back against the darkness infecting the fae realms and bring peace and and all that good stuff to the lands. But naturally, Eva finds herself falling for Bash instead on their journey to her betrothed.

This book was far more intriguing than I anticipated! Granted, I started to suspect a few things when Eva finally meets, Aviel, her betrothed. There are a lot of questions going around as to who Eva's parents really were and their connection to the fae lands, which we do get answers to eventually and it's about what you might expect given the circumstances.

While the blurb spouts ideas that this might be a fairy tale retelling what with a mirror and royalty being involved, it really wasn't. The "fairy tale" is just a generalization I feel like. It's still an amazing story involving fae with intriguing twists and an enticing plot! The secrets and twists were drawn out to perfection! Then you add in the "forbidden" romance between Eva and Bash. Of course, not much really gets to happen when Bash thinks she's meant for another, but things eventually sort themselves out and you continue to root for these two!

The ending, oh that ending was devious! Granted, I always expect a cliffhanger these days, but man that one hurt! Which is why I need book 2 asap! Let's just hope B&N can get that processed and shipped right fast now! Lol. Then the wait for the third book in July will ultimately be another travesty of waiting! 

If you love a good romance story involving fae coupled with secrets galore and devious royalty then this will be the book for you! The Other Side of the Mirror is not your ordinary fae story but will have the typical tropes we all tend to love and enjoy! Definitely looking forward to the second installment!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars

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.

"The library was its own kind of magic, books and manuscripts surrounding me on every shelf, stacked high to the ceiling on glossy white bookshelves. It would have been a travesty not to climb the attached rolling ladders.

Books had always been there for me--an escape where I need it the most." p 132-133

TITLE: The Other Side of the Mirror
AUTHOR: Dana Evyn
PUBLISHER: City Owl Press
GENRE: Fantasy Romance
RELEASE DATE: April 9, 2024

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: FREEBIE: Titles Beginning with the Letter "A"

*in no particular order
**was running out of ideas so I turned to this one! This will officially be my backup plan where I just move to the next letter when I can't think of a better topic! Lol.
***bonus irony is that 4 of these were written by authors whose names begin with the letter "A" too!

10. ALL THE STARS AND TEETH by Adalyn Grace
9. A PROMISE OF FIRE by Amanda Bouchet
8. A CURSE SO DARK AND LONELY by Brigid Kemmerer

7. AURORA RISING by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
6. AWAKE AT DAWN by C.C. Hunter
5. ALWAYS CARRY A SILVER CROSS by Andrea Robertson

4. AS SHADOWS FADE by Colleen Gleason
3. AN ICE COLD GRAVE by Charlaine Harris
2. A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE by Stephanie Garber--wait for it...

1. ALCHEMY OF SECRETS by Stephanie Garber--did I have you confused for half a second there? Lol.

Spring Flavors Book Tag

 

So I saw this post the other day on Instagram at StacisBookishProbs and thought it looked like fun, so here we are! I borrowed the image she created here as I have zero tech skills, as I have mentioned several times before! Lol.

MINT
a refreshing take on a classic story

Ahh, sooo many good ones, yet since I write this post a little too early as I've a busy day ahead, I'm going with one of the very first ones that I read that pretty much cemented me as a fan of fairy tale retellings...Snow by Tracy Lynn! A total old school choice, but I just loved this take on Snow White! You might also know this author as Liz Braswell!

LEMON
a character that left a bad taste in your mouth

So apparently, when my brain can't quite wake up, my answers are old school choices! Lol. Malone was definitely one of those characters. Ugh. I just wanted that b*st*rd to die! I feel like by Shift I was more than done with that dude! Lol.

STRAWBERRY
a popular book that is worth the hype

I mean, I might be in my own world thinking this book is still being hyped, which to me, all of Stephanie's books are totally worth the hype! I feel like we're giving this one a wee bit more attention this year since she has a chunky novella coming out to add to the conclusion which I am STOKED for!

LAVENDAR

a book with flowers on the cover

Ironically, I was just drafting a post for this for May! The first book that came to mind was Lady Tremaine as I just read it around the time of said drafting! Lol. It was an intriguing read for sure and there are plenty of unrelated flowers on the cover!

HONEY
a sticky sweet romance

Tired brain malfunctioning led me to searching my own posts and this one popped up where I talked about the sweet romance! So that is my choice! Lol. I do vaguely remember it being a sweet, slow kind of buildup.

VANILLA
a book that was just okay

I remember I read Cinder expecting many great things. I feel like I built up too much hype in my head because of all its hype. I liked the book, don't get me wrong. But I think I ended up just liking it enough. I almost turned away from the series but then I was told Scarlet was way better and I really enjoyed that one a lot. So while I had a rough start to this series, it ended up being a favorite in the end. I guess the introduction to this one was perhaps a little space/sci-fi heavy in some areas and those usually never work out for me.

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:

What We Did to Survive by Megan Lally (4.5 stars)

Currently Reading:

The Other Side of the Mirror by Dana Evyn

What I Plan to Read Next:

Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver

Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays
Random Discussion: Novellas
Can't Wait Wednesday #245
Books from the Backlog #183
Book Blogger Hop #408
Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

 

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.

This was a pretty tame and quiet week for the most part. Work was normal, preorders were sparse. I endured agony over all the coastal events that I couldn't attend and seeing all the authors being on one end or the other. But yesterday, oh yesterday was pretty great with Independent Bookstore Day! I went to Main Street Books like I usually do and FINALLY got to check out their new space! And I wasn't totally without seeing authors this week as Megan Bannen returned to St. Louis! I was able to get my last Fairy Loot copy of her book signed and then of course I shopped the store! I also popped into B&N this weekend for their double stamp day as I had a gift card to them as well! So while lots of fun was being had on the coasts to events I can never get tickets to (well, the east coast one at least), I still had a pretty good day yesterday at least!

Here's what I got:

The Rebel and The Final Blood War by K.A. Linde

Reborn by Jaymin Eve
Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver
Scythe & Sparrow by Brynne Weaver
A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann

Then I made a Mercari purchase to get the stunning Fairy Loot edition of The Wicked Sea! Haven't gotten onto the Romantasy sub box yet and I really wanted this edition and luckily found it at not too high of a markup as I expected to pay more for it anyway, so luckily this seller wasn't super over-charging! And she included freebies which was so sweet!

The Wicked Sea by Jordan Stephanie Gray--Fairy Loot edition!

And speaking of Fairy Loot, I FINALLY got my copy of The Rebel Witch, the second book of The Crimson Moth duology! I honestly forgot I ordered this as it was before I started keeping track of all my FL special edition orders! But happy to finally have a complete set!

The Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli--Fairy Loot edition!

Then I received some preorder incentives this week as well:

First up is the gorgeous art print from Nikki St. Crowe's West of Wicked! Ah! I loved this book so much! AND I got a SIGNED book plate, which I plan to save for the second book since I was lucky enough to see Nikki on tour for WoW!

THANK YOU Bramble!

Then this was a gift from Penguin Teen for preordering multiple copies of their latest releases...already forgot which ones I used for the gift as it was a while ago! Lol. It's a nifty little bookmark holder! It's so pretty and really sturdy!
It also came with three sturdy bookmarks from some of their titles. I can picture 2 of them but their titles escape me at the moment and the third one I am drawing a blank on entirely! Lol. But I like em!

THANK YOU Penguin Teen!

Then I got a few goodies for being one of the first 25 in line to the bookstore today! I got a tote bag, hat, patch, and a Christmas ornament, plus the Midwest Map of Indie Bookstores!

Then I bought a shirt that features Main Street Books new location!

And that was it for me this week! What did you get?

Book Blogger Hop #408

 

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

This week's question is: Imagine creating a book-themed board game—what kind of gameplay would it have? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

MY ANSWER: Oooh interesting! Well, you can probably guess my theme...

Oh yes! We'd be playing CARAVAL!! I imagine it would likely be something along the lines of Clue...but not so much trying to guess anything major, like a whodunit. You're trying to find solve the riddles and find the puzzle pieces to earn your one true wish at the end!