A team of psychic investigators are assigned to examine the grisly death of a night watchman in an abandoned fish processing plant.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
As soon as I heard the synopsis of this short story I knew I wanted to read it. Pretty much anything to do with ghosts or paranormal will at least get me to look at it, throw in paranormal investigators and I definitely have to pick it up. That being said, I really enjoyed this story as a very unlikely trio worked together to figure out the secrets in an empty warehouse they were visiting. The characters that were featured in this story were definitely characters I would read about again as I enjoyed their interactions and banter. All it all it was a really fun story.
THE BOOK OF HIDDEN WONDERS (Park Row Books; September 1, 2020; $27.99 USD), a beautifully imaginative story of a father and daughter growing older together, their magical world of stories, and a fantastical treasure hunt that leads to a priceless and shocking family secret.
Romilly Kemp grows up with her eccentric father and her adorable cat Monty within the walls of a dilapidated mansion in the scenic English countryside. As Romilly has trouble fitting in with her classmates, she turns to her reliable furry friend, and as her father struggles to make ends meet, he turns to his art and writes children’s books based on Romilly and Monty. Soon, the tiny Kemp family’s world changes with the unexpected success of The Kemp Treasure Girl books and Romilly is thrust into the spotlight as their home is overrun by tourists looking for a treasure whose clues lie within the illustrations of her father’s stories.
As they both grow older, Romilly and her father begin to grow apart, and Romilly turns to his books to find the connection they have lost. And much to her surprise, the rumors were true – between the pages of The Kemp Treasure Girl stories are the clues that start Romilly on an unforgettable journey that leads her to the heart of a mysterious family secret worth far more than the gold and jewels the tourists on her estate have been searching for.
I was not expecting this book to be as sad or handle as many different dark/difficult topics as it did. That being said it didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the book, but it did surprise me. We follow Romilly when she’s nine and as she grows, living with her father in a large but rundown house. I did think that the harder subjects were handled really well by the author and enjoyed the characters that were crafted. While it is a story on the sadder side, it was still an impactful tale about family, growing up and many difficulties that come with life itself.
I’m always a fan of stories about fathers and daughters, but this one at times was hard to read because of the strain between Romilly and her father, as well as her father’s deteriorating health. I would definitely say if this kinds of things are a trigger for you, be aware going in. There are also some instances of animal abuse to be mindful of.
POLLY CROSBY grew up on the Suffolk coast and now lives deep in the Norfolk countryside. Last year, THE BOOK OF HIDDEN WONDERS was awarded runner up in the Bridport Prize’s Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel, and Polly also won Curtis Brown Creative’s Yesterday Scholarship, which enabled her to finish the novel. She currently holds the Annabel Abbs Scholarship at the University of East Anglia, where she is studying part time for an MA in Creative Writing whilst working on her second novel.
It’s that time again, I was browsing the kindle shop because I am dearly needing a trip to the bookstore. Anyone else not really been to a bookstore in months? Anyways, I found some pretty great deals, so wanted to share!
Reflection: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth Lim ($0.99) – What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld? When Captain Shang is mortally wounded by Shan Yu in battle, Mulan must travel to the Underworld, Diyu, in order to save him from certain death. But King Yama, the ruler of Diyu, is not willing to give Shang up easily. With the help of Shang’s great lion guardian ShiShi, Mulan must traverse Diyu to find Shang’s spirit, face harrowing obstacles, and leave by sunrise–or become King Yama’s prisoner forever. Moreover, Mulan is still disguised as the soldier called Ping, wrestling with the decision to reveal her true identity to her closest friend. Will Mulan be able to save Shang before it’s too late? Will he ever be able to trust her again? Or will she lose him–and be lost in the Underworld–forever?
It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.
Break the curse, save the kingdom.
A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.
When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother, Fox, from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.
In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha—one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice.
East by Edith Pattou ($2.99) – Rose has always longed for adventure, so when an enormous white bear appears one evening and makes her a mysterious offer, she accepts. In exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family, she must live with the white bear in a distant castle. But Rose soon realizes that all isn’t as it seems. As she tries to settle into her new life, she makes a devastating mistake. Now she must choose: return to her safe and loving family or go on a dangerous quest to fix what she has broken—and perhaps lose her heart along the way. A sweeping romantic epic as timeless as any fairy tale and thrilling as only the best fantasy novels can be.
Can’t Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on the meme Waiting on Wednesday by Breaking the Spine. In this weekly post people share a book that they’re excited about being released.
It’s been a while since I did one of these, but today I wanted to highlight The Language of Ghosts by Heather Fawcett. I’m excited to get to this one!
Forced into exile on an enchanted, moving island, ex-princess Noa Marchena has two missions: reclaim her family’s stolen throne and ensure that the dark powers her older brother, Julian, possesses don’t go to his head in the process. But between babysitting her annoying little sister, Mite, and keeping an eye on the cake-loving sea monster that guards the moving island, Noa has her hands full.
When the siblings learn that their enemies are searching for a weapon capable of defeating Julian—whose legendary spell weaving is feared throughout the kingdom—once and for all, they vow to get to it first. To everyone’s surprise, the key to victory turns out to be a long-lost magical language—and only Noa can speak it.
But what if by helping her brother, Noa ends up losing him?
I don’t know how it happened, but it’s already September! August was a better reading month for me, so I’m hoping that trend continues.
I definitely am still clearing my half read books, though I got really excited with how much I cleaned up my ‘currently reading’ shelf on Goodreads, but I have a stack that wasn’t listed on Goodreads – so those are next. Beyond that getting caught up on review books is always a priority and I have some great blog tours coming this month.
As for writing, it’s actually been going pretty well. It seems that maybe, just maybe, my muse has returned. Hopefully it will stay through November so I can crush NaNoWriMo this year.
THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE (on sale: September 1, 2020; Park Row Books; Hardcover; $27.99 US/ $34.99 CAN). opens whenMargot Lee’s mother, Mina, doesn’t return her calls. It’s a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, Los Angeles, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous and invisible strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.
Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she’s barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.
In this book we start out with Margot going back to California to help her friend move as well as see her mother, but she’s been very worried as her mother has not picked up the phone and we very quickly find out that it’s because her mother has died.
From there on the book is dual perspective, with us learning Mina’s history in one perspective and Margot digging up information about her mother that she never knew. It’s a very heart wrenching story about family, what it’s like to be a Korean immigrant and what it’s like to be a child of one. There was so much to unpack with this story and I felt that for the most part the author really succeeded.
The writing style was absolutely beautiful and I really enjoyed the flow and cadence of Kim’s writing. For a debut this was really solid and I look forward to seeing what else she writes.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nancy Jooyoun Kim is a graduate of UCLA and the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, The Offing, the blogs of Prairie Schooner and Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Her essay, “Love (or Live Cargo),” was performed for NPR/PRI’s Selected Shorts in 2017 with stories by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Phil Klay, and Etgar Keret. THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE is her first novel.
Aspiring fashion designer Adelaide Song wants to prove she’s more than just a pampered heiress. All she needs is a little courage–and the help of deliciously sexy Michael Reynolds, her childhood crush and her brother’s best friend. But when her secret crush turns into an illicit liaison, Adelaide realizes mixing business with pleasure spells trouble for all her plans…
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
After reading the first book in the series I was eager to continue on in Jayci Lee’s Heirs of Hansol series and see what else happens to the Song family. I was definitely not disappointed with this story about Adelaide and Michael. I will admit that sometimes Michael’s actions were a little annoying, but I loved Adelaide as a character and really felt with her when she struggled.
After enjoying two of her books I definitely need to pick up more from Jayci Lee, her writing smile is easy and flows really well – making the reading experience really fun and quick! Plus I love how parts of these books have read like kdramas, which makes it even more enjoyable for me.
Jayci Lee writes poignant, funny, and sexy romance. She lives in sunny California with her tall-dark-and-handsome husband, two amazing boys with boundless energy, and a fluffy rescue whose cuteness is a major distraction. She is semi-retired from her 15-year career as a defense litigator, and writes full-time now. She loves food, wine, and travelling, just like her characters. Books have always helped her grow, dream, and heal. She hopes her books will do the same for you.
Angsty teenager Mary Shelley is not interested in carrying on her family’s celebrated legacy of being a great writer, but she soon discovers that she has the not-so-celebrated (and super-secret) Shelley power to heal monsters, just like her famous ancestor, and those monsters are not going to let her ignore her true calling anytime soon.
The Shelley family history is filled with great writers: the original Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, the acclaimed mystery writer Tawny Shelley, cookbook maven Phyllis Shelley…the list goes on and on. But this Mary Shelley, named after her great-great-great-great-great grandmother, doesn’t want anything to do with that legacy. Th2020en a strangely pale (and really cute) boy named Adam shows up and asks her to heal a wound he got under mysterious circumstances, and Mary learns something new about her family: the first Mary Shelley had the power to heal monsters, and Mary has it, too. Now the monsters won’t stop showing up, Mary can’t get her mother Tawny to leave her alone about writing something (anything!), she can’t tell her best friend Rhonda any of this, and all Mary wants is to pass biology.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I was excited when I read the synopsis of this, as I love stories that have a twist including famous authors or their descendants. I really enjoyed following Mary, a descendant of Mary Shelley, who is expected to follow the long line of writers in her family. She finds out pretty quickly that her normal teenage life of struggling in school and having family issues is not what it seems. Her adventures from there are comical and portray a struggle for her between doing what she’s expected to do and what she wants to do – as well as actually figuring out what she wants to do.
I also really enjoyed the art style, it seemed to perfectly capture the different characters and the different members and ancestors of Mary’s family. All in all it was a fun story and take on a famous figure’s descendant.
I’m going to try something new occasionally, hopefully on Friday’s where I’ve decided I want to feature shops and such that make bookish merch. These may be shops I’ve shopped with myself and enjoyed, things other people have suggested to me or even just shops I found where I fell in love with their items and am waiting to order from them when I have a little extra money. So let’s get into the ones I wanted to talk about today!
NekoJinny – This shop doesn’t have a ton of items right now, but what they have I immediately fell in love with. I kind of want all of their stickers, bookmarks and prints. They are definitely going on my watch list.
CPickeringCo – My mom makes me book sleeves, so I haven’t really had a need to buy any but when I found this shop I was definitely in love with some of the colorful prints they carry and their bookmarks are really cute too!
dreamyandco – Not only does this shop have bookish pins, magnetic bookmarks, art prints and more – they have their own box that they send out!
PeanutButterTaco – This shop was recommended to me in one of the bookish groups I’m in and I’ve got to say – I want to buy so many of their bookish stickers and planner stickers in general!
Last but not least I want to give a shout out to Mir over at FangirlPixieJar, who so wonderfully created my banner for the blog. The shop is currently taking a break, but make sure to show some love when the shop opens back up!
Do you have any favorite shops that you purchase bookish merch from? Share some of your favorites with me in the comments!
Award-winning, highly-acclaimed author Adriana Herrera delivers the sexy, modern enemies-to-lovers romance you’ve been waiting for.
Starting over is more about who you’re with than where you live…
Julia del Mar Ortiz is not having the best year.
She moved to Dallas with her boyfriend, who ended up ditching her and running back to New York after only a few weeks. Left with a massive—by NYC standards, anyway—apartment and a car lease in the scorching Texas heat, Julia is struggling…except that’s not completely true. Running the charitable foundation of one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world is serious #lifegoals.
It’s more than enough to make her want to stick it out down South.
The only monkey wrench in Julia’s plans is the blue-eyed, smart-mouthed consultant the store hired to take them public. Fellow New Yorker Rocco Quinn’s first order of business? Putting Julia’s job on the chopping block.
When Julia is tasked with making sure Rocco sees how valuable the programs she runs are, she’s caught between a rock and a very hard set of abs. Because Rocco Quinn is almost impossible to hate—and even harder to resist.
I’ve never picked up any of Adriana Herrera’s other books, but I have heard tons of good things about her writing so I was excited to get a chance to pick up this one!
I immediately fell in love with Julia, her relationships with both friends and family and her internal dialogue. I loved the way Herrera wrote her characters and really gave them dimension. Throughout the book I was really invested in the relationships, as well as the company that Julia worked for, which says a lot about the story Herrera was telling.
I was rooting for Julia and Rocco from the beginning, especially the more we got to find out about him. I also really appreciated the representation of diversity and all the different personalities we got to meet throughout the story. I will definitely be picking up more from Adriana Herrera in the future!
Adriana was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last fifteen years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting unapologetic happy endings.
When she’s not dreaming up love stories, planning logistically complex vacations with her family or hunting for discount Broadway tickets, she’s a trauma therapist in New York City, working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Her Dreamers series has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and has been featured in The TODAY Show on NBC, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Library Journal and The WashingtonPost. Her debut, American Dreamer, was selected as one of Booklist’s ‘Best Romance Debuts of 2019’, and one of the ‘Top 10 Romances of 2019’ by Entertainment Weekly. Her third novel, American LoveStory, was one of the winners in the first annual Ripped Bodice Award for Excellence in Romantic Fiction. Adriana is an outspoken advocate for diversity in romance and has written for Remezcla and Bustle about Own Voices in the genre. She’s one of the co-creators of the Queer Romance PoC Collective. Represented by Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary.
The Wandering Wordsmith 