Lore Olympus Volume Four

Not my favorite installment of the series - but still good enough to keep me going. We start to learn more about Persephone's childhood and Hades motives. I like this series and the illustrations in this graphic novel are unmatched. I can't wait for the 5th one. 

A Business Proposal

I love a good fake dating trope and this breezy adult manga was cute. When Hari Shin's best friend, an heiress, gets set up on a blind date with some millionaire CEO she doesn't want to go. She instead pays Hari to go on the date pretending to be her and bomb the date so he never calls her again. Hari dons a wig and a sultry persona and comes face to face with her boss. She is desperate to not get recognized and he is desperate to just marry the next person he says (ie the blind date) to get his family off his back. It's a comedy of errors and is done well in manga form. I look forward to reading more in the series. 

The Invisible Hour

I go into every Alice Hoffman book thinking it is going to be as magical and perfect as Practical Magic, and I am always "slightly" let down. But really, I loved this - it was just different from what I was expecting. Alice Hoffman always writes BEAUTIFULLY and her words are like a warm bath on a cold night. They just roll over you. The Invisible Hour is about a mother and daughter both trapped in a commune. Told in alternating storylines, the reader discovers how Ivy could be tricked into joining such a cult like community and the repercussions it has on her daughter. When her daughter starts sneaking out to walk to the library in the next town, she discovers a whole new world in books. And when she reads The Scarlett Letter which has striking similarities to her childhood she feels connected to the long dead, Nathaniel Hawthorn. I don't want to say anything else and risk spoiling the plot. Just know that it is beautiful magical realism. I love me some Alice Hoffman!

The Ink Black Heart

I put off reading this book for so long because 1) JK Rowling is problematic as hell and 2) it's ridiculously long. However once I started it I was COMPLETELY absorbed - it was an absolute treat to read 1,000+ pages with Robin and Strike (the slow burn continues!) investigating their trickiest case yet. The creator of a popular online cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, is found brutally stabbed and murdered in the park along with her partner (although he lives). The week prior Edie Ledwell (the creator) had reached to Robin to ask for help for because the online harassment that she had been receiving for years had really ramped up and she thought she was in danger. After she is found murdered, Robin is wracked with guilt about not taking the case when she was still alive, so when Edie's relatives reach out to see if they can discover who Anomie, the online troll is, (who also happens to be the number one suspect) they jump on the case. Anomie is a moderator of a game based off The Ink Black Heart and does nothing but spew vitriol about Edie, even after her death. Strike and Robin will have to go online and learn quickly all about this toxic fandom and pull the mask off Anomie before anyone else connected with the cartoon dies. Dense, but fantastic. I could not put it down - hell I would have read more. I didn't come close to correctly guessing Anomie. Give me more Strike and Robin!!!

The Wishing Game

Debut author, Meg Shaffer, charms readers in this inventive literary escapade. Kindergarten aide, Lucy Hart is grasping at straws. She desperately needs more money so she can move out on her own and get a car, but working in a school and having a side hustle on Etsy isn't cutting it.  She wants to adopt seven year old Christopher, but no caseworker will even consider letting her foster him when she has roommates. Just when she thinks all hope is lost, her and Christopher's favorite children's author, Jack Masterson, has announced a competition that has the potential to change their lives. When Lucy is selected as one of the four contestants to compete on Clock Island, the famous setting of the children's book series, things seemed to be looking up. But what if she's not up for the challenge? In Jack Masterson's series, kids almost always get their wishes granted; but Lucy is no longer a kid. Does she even have a chance? Fantastically narrated by Rachel L. Jacobs and Paul Boehmer, whose childlike glee helps set this narration apart. Whimsical, hopeful, and fun; Shaffer is is sure to gain a following after this stellar debut. 

Megabat Mega Star

Before you lambast me for the low rating, I want to preface a few things - I am not the target audience for this book, I do not read elementary novels like this AND I have never read any other books in this series. Those factors contributed to this lower than normal rating! The illustrations were a highlight for me and I think the little cast of characters is fun. I don't love that Megabat talks like a backwards heathen and nothing is ever spelled right. I get the intent behind that, but it grated on my nerves after a while. I think the premise kids will love. There is some naughtiness, some accidents, and lots of fun. And again the illustrations are fantastic. It kind of reminded me of Howliday Inn and Bunnicula. I wish I would have enjoyed this more, I'm just an old bitter millennial, lmao. 

some blue, a little spur

A poetry collection that soothes as much as it shocks; Kris Falcon's second book is a feast for the mind. Beautiful phrases unearth themselves in the rubble, and readers will find themselves re-reading lines and savoring the way it sounds in their heads and hearts. Some blue, a little spur contains over fifty poems - many dealing with the lockdown, friendship, emotions, and life's great questions. While not "uplifting" per se, this collection is pensive and lugubrious while still maintaining its beauty - like a butterfly in amber. "I am being trusted here for my capacity to be certain the robin has the boldest heart. A map on my palm stings right. Every branch toward the waves." Kris Falcon's poetry also appears in The Hong Kong Review, Atlanta Review, Gulf Stream Magazine, and other publications. 

Georgie, All Along

I didn't really click with this book and I'm not sure why. It's a slightly spicier Hallmark - but I just didn't love any of the characters. When Georgie Mulachy finds herself out of a job she decides to try and "find herself" by moving back to her hometown and in with her parents. The biggest perk is that her best friend has recently moved back and is expecting a baby so she can pretend she's just in town helping her BFF get the house ready for her kid, but really there is a hole in Georgie's life. While unpacking boxes in her friend's house she discovers the friend fic that they worked on in 8th grade and Georgie is convinced that if she does all the things she aspired to do and never did - she will find some sort of purpose in life. Things don't work out as planned, but she does meet her high school crushes older brother and things get interesting. Again - totally fine storyline - I just didn't like Georgie... and I don't know why. 

The Only One Left

Riley Sager could write a phone book and I would read it! This book is not one of my favorites, but dam - he can't write be perfect all the time! The Only One Left has lots of twists and turns that will keep readers guessing. Kit McDeere is a disgraced home health aide. Her name has been splashed in all the papers and it's been damn near impossible to land another job. She is so desperate to get out of her father's house that she takes the first position that comes her way; caring for the elderly, Lenora Hope. Lenora is a local boogeyman - there are rhymes sung about her on school yards, the legend is she killed her whole family but there wasn't evidence to convict her. Kit will have to overcome her own misgivings if she wants to keep this job. She drives up the Maine coastline to a beautiful mansion on a cliff - where she soon discovers there is a lot more to Lenora's story than anyone knows. A little high on the cheesy scale - but I still ate it up!

Beyond That, The Sea

I am kicking myself for waiting so long to read this book! It was captivating from start to finish. Told from a myriad of perspectives, this novel is about a young woman coming of age across the sea from her family and the consequences it will have on everyone around her (I didn't mean that to sound menacing - it's not!). When Bea is 11 she is sent away from her home in London to  quaint idyllic New England to live with a new family. It's the thick of World War II and bombs are raining down on London. Bea's parents feel that her best chance at a having a childhood (and living) are better spent abroad. So Bea is taken in by a wonderful upper middle class family with 2 boys. She immediately fits in with Gerald and William and is the sister they never knew they needed. As the war drags on, she finds herself forgetting her real family in London and wishing she could stay in America forever. Full of heart; I can't stop thinking about this book and all the wonderful characters in it. Marvelous writing and storytelling.