… you can join me here
It’s a lot of coffee, woodlands, skies, and cosy blankets :) I’m feeling like I need to surround myself with inspirational images.
xo
ps – I’m trying to finish reading The Language of Bees and then I plan to start The Witch’s Daughter. I’m so behind on my reading challenge!
Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars – This re-read reminded me why I so loved this series when I was a teenager. I started reading Mary Russell’s story in highschool, and devoured the new books when they came out. Somewhere around the 6th or 7th book I lost interest, and I’ve ended up several books behind.
I found that in this series, the romantic tension between Russell and Holmes was most enjoyable in the first and second books, before they get married. (And in Oh Jerusalem, which is set between the first and second books).
This is the eighth book in the series, and I really enjoyed it. We get a lot of Mary’s history, and most of the book involves her coming to terms with the accident that resulted in the deaths of her parents and little brother. She’s been shelving those memories, and certain others, to the back of her subconscious for the past ten years, but events in this book conspire to make her face them, and come to some startling realizations surrounding her past.
The camaraderie between Holmes and Russell is great, and I did enjoy that part of the book was told from the third-person so we could get Holmes’s perspective, and watch both of them make their discoveries independently. Adding Dashiell Hammett to the mix of characters was a neat touch as well.
Overall the mystery wasn’t all that hard to solve, but I had read this before (I’m almost certain) so much of the story kind of echoed in my mind as I read. I found the pacing to be just right; it didn’t slow down too much that I wanted to put the book down too often.
I’m looking forward to catching up with the rest of this series soon!
Seriously, listen to it. I’m loving this right now! xo
One of the groups I belong to on Goodreads has a reading challenge called the A-Z Challenge. You have to read a book that has a word starting with every letter in the alphabet within one year.
I started in January, and so far I’ve got 22/26 complete!! The bad news is that for a few of the letters I have left, like X and Z, I don’t have anything pending on my to-read list to use.
Below are the letters I’ve completed so far, along with the ones I still have left. If you have any recommendations for the letters I don’t have filled in, feel free to share them!
A\ The Alchemist and The Angel
B\ The Body Finder
C\ The Cydonian Pyramid
D\ Delirium
E\ Eve & Adam
F\ The Fault in our Stars
G\ Gone Girl
H\ Hourglass
I\ The Iron Butterfly
J\
K\ Knife
L\ Living the Good Life
M\ Mind Games
N\ Nieve
O\ One Day
P\ Pandemonium
Q\ Quicksilver
R\ Requiem
S\ Surrender
T\ Tell The Wolves I’m Home
U\ Unnatural Creatures
V\ The Vanishing Act
W\ Wake
X\
Y\ The Truth About You & Me
Z\
The best feeling in the world is leaving for holidays. We’re cottage-bound for a mini-holiday (Sunday->Wednesday) and I’m super-excited. A break from work; sun; the lake; and lots of reading time!
Here’s what I’m bringing along to read (I can’t just take one book. There’s something terrible about arriving to your destination and only having one thing to read. What if you finish early? What if you get there and you’re not in the mood for that book??)
Goodreads synopsis:
Fledgling witch Morgana must defend her love, her home, and her life in this enthralling tale perfect for fans ofDiscovery of Witches
In her small Welsh town, there is no one quite like Morgana. She has never spoken, and her silence as well as the magic she can’t quite control make her a mystery. Concerned for her safety, her mother quickly arranges a marriage with Cai Bevan, the widower from the far hills who knows nothing of the rumours that swirl around her. After their wedding, Morgana is heartbroken at leaving, but she soon falls in love with Cai’s farm and the rugged mountains that surround it, while slowly Cai himself begins to win her heart. It’s not long, however, before her strangeness begins to be remarked upon in her new village. A dark force is at work there—a person who will stop at nothing to turn the townspeople against Morgana, even at the expense of those closest to her. Forced to defend her home, her love, and herself from all comers, Morgana must learn to harness her power, or she will lose everything
Goodreads synopsis:
We all know the stories of Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel. But have you ever heard of Alice Bingley-Beckerman, Reena Paruchuri, or Molly Miller? Of course you haven’t. Not yet. What these girls have in common with their fairy tale sisters is this: they are the stepdaughters of three very evil stepmothers. And they’re not happy about it. They think they are alone in their unhappiness until they arrive at Putnam Mount McKinsey, a posh boarding school located in lovely rural Massachusetts. Here is where they will plot their revenge. But first they have to meet.
In her first novel, Lily Archer tells a knowing, wickedly funny story about how friendship just may turn out to be more happily-ever-after than family.
Goodreads synopsis:
Every ghost has a story to tell.
The last place Tansy Piper wants to be is stuck in Cedar Canyon, Texas, in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of small-town kids. But when her mother decides to move to the desolate West Texas town, Tansy has no choice but to go along. Once there, Tansy is immediately drawn to the turret of their rickety old house, a place she soon learns has a disturbing history. But it’s the strange artifacts she finds in the cellar—a pocket watch, a journal of poetry, and a tiny crystal—that have the most chilling impact on her.
Tansy soon finds that through the lens of her camera, she can become part of a surreal black-and-white world where her life is intertwined with that of mysterious, troubled Henry, who lived in the same house and died decades earlier. It seems their lives are linked by fate and the artifacts she found, but as Tansy begins spending more and more time in the past, her present world starts to fade away. Tansy must untangle herself from Henry’s dangerous reality—before she loses touch with her own life forever.
I also have an arc e-copy of:
I haven’t read The Thirteenth Tale, and am not really interested in it, but this one deals with “a decidedly macabre business” and seems to hint at a partnership of magicians, or at least something sinister and tricksy. If there’s a tale I can’t resist, it’s the sinister and tricksy. So I figured I’d give it a try. It’s going to be published this November, and NetGalley was kind enough to approve me for the advance copy, and Himself is bringing his e-reader, so I may dip into this while we’re away. If not, I’ll definitely give it a try when we get back.
And that’s all!
I’m also bringing along the other cottage necessities: swimsuit, sun-hat, flip-flops, and warm handknit socks for when it gets cool at night.
Wish us lovely weather!!
bird on a pencil 