Why? Because I’m reading like I read in high school. Lots of books; read until one is finished, no matter how long it is. Six a.m. is no time to go to bed!

Since my last post, I’ve finished several series. A lot of romantasy, one YA series that could be classified as sci-fi, and a cozy mystery series, set in North Carolina. I’ve also read YA supernatural story; it’s the start of a series but I don’t think I want to continue it.

Here’s a list of the books and my impressions of them.

Small Town, Big Magic
Big Little Spells
Truly, Madly, Magically
Dragon Fires Everywhere

Hazel Beck’s tetrology follows a group of four female witches (with their friends, families, and significant others), as they come into their power and displace an evil ruling coven. Each book focuses on one of the group, but remains part of the story arc. I really like Beck’s use of Chekov’s Gun; things that seem trivial or unimportant become so later on. A fun read all the way through. Modern-day romantasy.

Assistant to the Villain
Apprentice to the Villain
Accomplice to the Villain

A single woman breadwinner is fired and, in a forbidden wood, finds a wounded, notorious villain, saves his life–and he hires her on the spot. Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s YA romantasy turns several fantasy tropes on their heads throughout the series and there’s a hard twist I did not see coming at the end!

Cinder
Scarlet
Cress
Winter

In her Lunar Chronicles series, Melissa Meyer has stripped away all but the most basic plots of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White, and dropped them into a fascinating, futuristic, sci-fi setting. The clever ways she turns each fairy tale around intrigued me and the overarching plot of war between the Earth and Moon kept me invested–to the point I didn’t want to wait for my Libby hold on Winter and borrowed the physical book instead. I haven’t read the prequel, Fairest, yet. Still trying to decide if I want to see how the Wicked Queen became wicked.

The Secret, Book, and Scone Society
The Whispered Word
The Book of Candlelight
Ink and Shadows
The Vanishing Type
Paper Cuts
The Little Lost Library
The Tattered Cover

Here’s my cozy mystery series. Ellery Adams has built a small town setting full of interesting characters–and of course, murder. The books focus on Nora Pennington, proprietor of a unique bookstore, and her three friends in the Secret, Book, and Scone Society, all women with terrible secrets in their pasts. Throughout the series, those pasts catch up with them, tying them in some way to murder. I loved the main characters: repentant Nora, bubbly baker Hester, wise cat-magnet Joan, and tough-as-nails stylist Estella. Each has such a vivid personality. Some of the secondary characters are just as memorable, in particular Sheldon, part-time worker at the bookstore and silver fox, Sheriff Grant McCabe, and flea market vendor, Bea. As with The Lunar Chronicles, my impatience with my Libby hold sent me looking for two of the physical books.

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Avalon

This freshly-issued book is the ninth in Lydia Scherrer’s on-going series about an introverted librarian wizard, Lily Singer, her witch boyfriend, Sebastian Blackwell, and her talking cat, Sir Edgar Allen Kipling. In this adventure, they enter fabled Avalon, home to Merlin, King Arthur, and the remnants of the first wizards. I recommend this series in the whole, starting with Love, Lies, and Hocus-Pocus: Beginnings. Ms. Scherrer is an independent publisher–she and her husband own Chenowith Press. I believe in supporting independent authors. Her website is: www.lydiasherrer.com.

Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase

This is the first of Jonathan Stroud’s YA supernatural mystery series. England has been overrun by ghosts, and only children can see them. I’m listing this book simply because I read it.

There’s currently nothing in my TBR pile, though I may give another one of Ellery Adams’s series a try. In the meantime, I’d love some book recs based on what I have here. And I’ll work on my sleep hygiene as well!

Á bientôt!