Feb 13, 2025

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.







Feb 12, 2025

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








Feb 11, 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





 

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.



"I headed for the kitchen to prepare a cooler of snacks for the road. At the last minute, I threw in a bottle of antacids and a fifth of Steven's gin from the pantry, certain this was going to be the longest road trip any of us had even been on." p 23









TITLE: Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice
AUTHOR: Elle Cosimano
PUBLISHER: Minotaur Books
GENRE: Mystery
RELEASE DATE: March 5, 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: Love Freebie: Top Ten Books from My Collection with Love in the Title



*in no particular order




10. ROCKED BY LOVE by Christine Warren--from the TBR shelves a sexy gargoyle series I STILL need to read!
9. DEATH, AND THE GIRL HE LOVES by Darynda Jones--from the archives! I read this trilogy ages ago and loved it! It was like a young Charley Davidson experience!
8. A NOVEL LOVE STORY by Ashley Poston--another TBR book! I know, it doesn't seem like my type, but I am loving the idea of finding a "book world" even if it's just the town that inspired a book within a book!






7. THE FAIREST KIND OF LOVE by Crystal Cestari--another cutesy (YA) romance from the archives but it was steeped with magic and magical creatures and people!
6. YOU LOVE ME by Caroline Kepnes--a completely different kind of love...lol. Still need to read the latest book of this series!
5. SO THIS IS LOVE by Elizabeth Lim--anyone else singing the song as you read this title? Another one that is read!






4. A DARKNESS STRANGE AND LOVELY by Susan Dennard--started running out of "love" in the title, but "lovely" still counts! Lol. LOVED this trilogy too!
3. A GHOUL'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER by Victoria Laurie--loved this series too! I still have one last addition Victoria wrote which sadly is the final book of the series as sales were not very good. :(
2. LOVE by Alyssa Rose Ivy--I mean how can I NOT choose this title?! Lol. Also sad that Alyssa seems to have stopped writing too.




Anyone care to guess my #1 pick?? :)














1. A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE by Stephanie Garber--naturally I was all over including this one in my topic today!













Feb 10, 2025

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:


Fateless by Julie Kagawa (ARC)--Review to come at a later date
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano--Review to come later today! I finished it too late in the day on Friday to justify posting it then! Lol.


Currently Reading:





What I Plan to Read Next:


Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano (ARC)




Other Posts of Interest:














Feb 9, 2025

Stacking the Shelves--Super Special Editions Edition

 

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.


It was another week! And honestly, it wasn't all that bad of a week either! I had not one, but TWO signings this week! Granted that meant little sleep for the next morning and I did somehow turn my alarm off in my sleep one morning...luckily, I still woke up in time to get ready and exercise, but yeah, that was a first! Lol. This week I met Kate Alice Marshall (again!)! Not sure how we got her on her release day but I was excited to see it her again because why not! Then later in the week Libba Bray returned to St. Louis! I didn't realize her last visit was in March of 2020 right before the pandemic. It might have been around the same time I was at the Marissa Meyer signing before the shutdown, as I last saw Libba when she came here for Lair of Dreams! Those pandemic signings could've been the same night, she did mention she was with Cassandra Clare, so that also may have been why I had to pass as I couldn't get into Cassie's books sadly, but better for my wallet since I see so many amazing editions of her books! Lol! I can only afford so many obsessions! I'm not out of signings until the 24th when Kristen Ciccarelli returns to St. Louis! So many returns this year, it's insane!! But I'll take it! Even have some March signings coming up! I booked one, but the other doesn't "require" bookings, it's a first come, first served kind of deal. Otherwise work was normal. Slow, as we are in the exceedingly down time, which is fine really. It's better than the frantic busy we can get during the peak times!

Anyway, here's what I got this week...and once again, I am writing this on Friday night as I might be busy again on Saturday! So who knows if I'll get anything in the mail Saturday, but I'll just include it in next week's haul if I do!



These are my second set of Maria V. Snyder's Study books from Fairy Loot! They ended up doing the second trilogy as well, so I had to buy them! I LOOOVE Maria's books and couldn't pass up on adding these to my collection! I didn't take all the detailed pics as my email apps have been acting funny with picture deliveries lately, so the rest can be surprises unless you saw the reveals when they were announced last year!

Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder
Night Study
 by Maria V. Snyder
Dawn Study
 by Maria V. Snyder

Then I also got my Fairy Loot edition of The House at Watch Hill! I really liked the cover of this one...still need to read it as well, but I thought I'd let myself have 1 pretty KMM book! If they do the Fever books I could be in trouble, but I might try to refrain from buying more! If anything I need to just get the 1st books of these series!



The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning--I remember now, THIS one was waiting for me when I came home late last Saturday night! So that was a fun surprise!




And although I missed the Rebecca Yarros signing last week because of an evil, evil, EVIL website, I did manage to snag one of the extra signed copies! THANKFULLY I saw the post 20 minutes after it went up and managed to get one before they disappeared within an hour!


Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros--SIGNED! Tell me, will I scream at the end?? I'm worried the cliffhanger will be disastrous and then we have to wait until 2027 for the next one!




Then I bought a keeper copy of Kate Alice Marshall's latest book at the signing to replace my ARC:




A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall--SIGNED Keeper Copy! Plus stickers! The two deer are for A Killing Cold, the Who Survives skull is for her upcoming YA book, and I can't be sure of the skull with roses in the eyes, but it might just be a general one for her style. Unless I'm wrong! Please let me know if you're better at identifying quotes! I suck at that game! Lol.



I also picked up Libba's latest book at her signing as per my ticket entry fee:


Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray--SIGNED! I also got a cute little notebook for being brave enough to ask a question! Lol!




Then for review from the publisher I got:


Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano (ARC)--I figured since I'm getting caught up in the series, I might as well read this one before the event!


THANK YOU Minotaur Books!




And THEN I got my Pages of the Night DOTM for December! Plus a custom order I placed recently too! Sadly, travel was not kind or gentle to my package as two horses fell off, plus a rose, but I can easily glue them back on...once I buy a tube of glue as my old bottle apparently dried out. Oops. 

They are still lovely though and I held up the horse as I could see how Britnee had intended for them to be placed on the rails. The details are all amazing and I am in love with it! Britnee had packed it with care, but since the items were so delicately glued on and travel is rough going across the states to the middle of nowhere (lol) I guess the truck hit too many potholes and they bounced off. Luckily, nothing was truly damaged and some proper glue will make it all well again!



This was Scarlett from Caraval and the Carousel of Roses! It was an EXTREMELY limited DOTM and I managed to get this one before it sold out! It's truly lovely and once I get that glue, I will take a better picture as I realize I cut off the top of the carousel in my pic as I was trying to hold onto the horse and get in close enough to see it all! Better picture to come! I promise! Lol.



And these were my custom order! I LOVED the Halloween designs Britnee did for the SJM dolls but I wanted Stephanie Garber ones instead! Lol. So I asked Britnee to make a Legend and Tella Halloween style and decided on a skelly face Legend (and he's really giving me My Chemical Romance vibes with this! All the heart eyes!!) and then Tella as a witch and there was basically a perfect Hocus Pocus Sarah that Britnee just Tella-ified for me with the blues and butterflies! Again, I'll have to do a zoom in picture later on--for all these picture retakes, make sure you follow my Instagram account as that's where I will post them! 



And then I also won a gift card from Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know for the grand finale of the Series Enders Reading Challenge! I got a B&N gift card that I pretty much spent over the last few days with the preorder sale! It was perfect timing on that! It also came late last Saturday in my email, so yes, timing was PERFECT for that preorder sale! 


THANK YOU Sandy!


And that was it for me this week! Not bad at all! What did you get this week?









Feb 7, 2025

Book Blogger Hop #344

 

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


This week's question is: Do you prefer to read series one book after another, or can you read other books in between? (submitted by Idea-ist @ Get Lost in Literature)



MY ANSWER: If at all possible, I would prefer to binge the series! That way everything is fresh in my head and the back-to-back continuity helps the story flow together sometimes. When I put gaps between them it's hard to remember things even with my note taking. So for sanity's sake I would much rather read a series straight through!







Feb 6, 2025

Books from the Backlog #121

 

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 @ Carole's Random Life in Books.



From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels comes the third novel of Midnight, Texas, the town where some secrets will never see the light of day...

At Midnight’s local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves—only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town. Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There’s a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place...






I added Night Shift by Charlaine Harris to my TBR pile in April of 2016 and since I already featured the second book, clearly I have not read that one and still need to read this one as well! lol. I enjoyed her Southern Vampire Mystery series as I refuse to call it by the new name out of stubbornness, lol. I had wanted to read the books before I watched the TV show however many years ago that was, but only ended up reading book 1 before season 1 premiered! I hope to one day finish this series since it was only 3 books. I haven't decided if I should read her latest one since I am so far behind on so many books!