A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family—and a new love—changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos “pretending” to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when peril comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….

This book was recommended to me by one of my Twitter friends and I think 4 or 5 of us ended up reading it. It wasn’t one specific genre with elements of fantasy, romance, mystery, and women’s literature. That’s probably why it was so engaging. It was unique and hard to categorize. It’s why I found it so engaging. On Goodreads I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

I think I experienced it last year and while I did do those things, I certainly didn’t do them in my usual volume. Since 2019 I averaged reading 50 books a year and last year it was 35.

One of my book clubs disbanded and became a hang out with friends  that meets once a quarter instead of 10 months of the year which I’m sure contributed to my low reading numbers. I’m hopeful 2023 will be a better year.

What are you reading?

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Summer comes another deliciously twisty novel of intrigue, secrets, and the transformative power of female friendship.

Daisy Shoemaker canâ€t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful, her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows sheâ€s got it good. So why is she up all night?

While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, sheâ€s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisyâ€s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisyâ€s making dinner, Dianaâ€s making plans to reorganize corporations. Dianaâ€s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisyâ€s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy?

From the manicured Main Line of Philadelphia to the wild landscape of the Outer Cape, written with Jennifer Weinerâ€s signature wit and sharp observations, That Summer is a story about surviving our pasts, confronting our futures, and the sustaining bonds of friendship.

I finished this over the final summer weekend. I was surprised when it ended up being tangentially related to Weiner’s previous book, Big Summer. Even though portions of the book take place in a beachfront location, it’s not entirely set during the summer. In fact, don’t let the title full you – this could be read while snuggled up near a cozy fire.

This novel was an interesting read. I thought it was going to be women’s fiction but it was more than that. There was intrigue and mystery around the circumstances that brings Daisy and Diana together.

I enjoyed the alternating timelines between the past and the present day. I never felt they dragged on too long. Perhaps a lot about Daisy’s life was identifiable to me that I felt Diana was the stronger, unexpected character.

Edmonton authors Premee Mohammed and Rhonda Parrish do a double launch for their new Fall titles. The event is this Thursday from 7pm – 8pm and can even be done virtually!

The Annual Migration of Clouds has been called

A dark, strange tale of the future that elegantly balances existential horror against necessary hope. Premee Mohamed is astonishingly good, and if weâ€re lucky, will be writing books for us for a good long time.” — Chuck Wendig, New York Times–bestselling author

About Rhonda’s One in the Hand:

When a sword manifests in an old folkâ€s home it opens Autumnâ€s eyes to a whole world of magic, gods and giants. But before she has a chance to come to grips with her new reality, Autumnâ€s grandmother is attacked and put in the hospital. Autumn needs to discover what the deal is with the sword and how to protect herself and the people she loves.

And, of course, thereâ€s also the matter of the wings that have sprouted from her back.

Can she learn about this new reality and the shadowy forces working within it in time to diffuse the situation before someone gets killed?

Please register here to attend this FREE event:

When Dr. Cyrus Mills returned home after inheriting his estranged fatherâ€s veterinary practice, The Bedside Manor for Sick Animals, the last thing he wanted was to stay in Eden Falls, Vermont, a moment longer than absolutely necessary.  However, the previously reclusive veterinary pathologist, quickly found that he actually enjoyed treating animals and getting to know the eccentric residents of the tiny provincial town—especially an alluring waitress named Amy.

So Cyrus is now determined to make Bedside Manor thrive.  Not an easy goal, given that Healthy Paws, the national veterinary chain across town, will stop at nothing to crush its mom-and-pop competitor.  And the rival vet practice isnâ€t Cyrus†only competition.  A handsome stranger shows up out of nowhere who clearly has a mysterious past with Amy.  To top it off, Cyrus finds himself the guardian of a very unique orphaned dog and smack in the middle of serious small town drama.

This charming sequel to The Patron Saint of Lost Dog, is a wild and delightful ride through one jam-packed week – where Cyrus must figure out how to outsmart the evil veterinary conglomerate, win back Amyâ€s heart, solve several tricky veterinary cases, find a home for an orphaned dog, and detangle himself from an absurd case of mistaken identity.  DOG GONE, BACK SOON brims with Nick Troutâ€s trademark humor, charm, and captivating animal stories, and is proof that all dogs, lost or not, on four feet or two, deserve a second chance.

I read this book without reading the first one in the series and felt I didn’t miss anything. Trout brings the reader up to speed on Dr. Mills’ situation in bits and pieces without slowing the pace of the story.

Charming is the perfect word to sum up the novel. The small town setting is charming and so is the romance. I mean, how can you not smile when you hear the name “The Bedside Manor for Sick Animals”?

The author is a veterinarian so you know he’ll get the medical details of the patients right. This would be a great summer vacation read for someone who likes animals.

A princess isnâ€t supposed to fall for an evil sorceress. But in this “bewitching and fascinating” (Tamora Pierce) retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” true love is more than a simple fairy tale.

“Walterâ€s spellbinding debut is for all the queer girls and women whoâ€ve been told to keep their gifts hidden and for those yearning to defy gravity.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

Once upon a time, there was a wicked fairy who, in an act of vengeance, cursed a line of princesses to die. A curse that could only be broken by true loveâ€s kiss.

Youâ€ve heard this before, havenâ€t you? The handsome prince. The happily ever after.

Utter nonsense.

Let me tell you, no one in Briar actually cares about what happens to its princesses. Not the way they care about their jewels and elaborate parties and charm-granting elixirs. I thought I didnâ€t care, either.

Until I met her.

Princess Aurora. The last heir to Briarâ€s throne. Kind. Gracious. The future queen her realm needs. One who isnâ€t bothered that I am Alyce, the Dark Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my veins. Humiliated and shamed by the same nobles who pay me to bottle hexes and then brand me a monster. Aurora says I should be proud of my gifts. That she . . . cares for me. Even though a power like mine was responsible for her curse.

But with less than a year until that curse will kill her, any future I might see with Aurora is swiftly disintegrating—and she canâ€t stand to kiss yet another insipid prince. I want to help her. If my power began her curse, perhaps itâ€s what can lift it. Perhaps together we could forge a new world.

Nonsense again. Because we all know how this story ends, donâ€t we? Aurora is the beautiful princess. And I—

I am the villain.

Book One of the Malice Duology

Some book reviews are really easy to complete. Perhaps it’s the euphoria from finishing a book that’s not like anything else you’ve read in a while. I found myself transported to a different time, a different place, and a different culture with this book. In the back of my mind, was a voice asking if this was a retelling of Cinderella, or Wicked, and then I re-read the synopsis which was what enticed me into reading the book in the first place. It has elements of those tales plus Sleeping Beauty which is why I found it so successful. Walter did a great job at making this a truly unique story.

The story has some bullying elements, but it also shows what can happen when women give up their power too easily. I was thoroughly captivated from beginning to end. Alyce is an “other” because she doesn’t fit the mold of the other Graces in the land. The Graces use blood magic to create their temporary enchantments. Her blood is a different color and offers the opposite magic of theirs – instead of graceful dance moves, wonderous voices, and beautiful faces, her potions offer boils, itchy skin, clumsiness, and so on to be used against romantic competition. The magic that flows in the Graces blood only lasts for a limited amount of time. When the magic fades, they are placed into retirement and become matrons overseeing the care of Graces. Alyce’s newfound friendship outside of the city walls reveals to her more uses for her magic.

Another twist is the expected heterosexual romance. There are rumors at least one princess found her true love with a woman but married a man because that was the expectation. The romance between Alyce and Aurora is a slow one, with some of the usual misunderstandings that come from miscommunications or withheld information to be found in romance novels.

This is a planned duology and I can’t wait to read the sequel to find out if true love conquers all.

New Yorkâ€s last bohemia—the glittering, decadent downtown club scene of the 1980s—is the setting for this brilliantly winning novel about a smart, vulnerable young woman taking a deep dive into her dark side, essential for fans of Sweetbitter, Fleabag, and books by Patti Smith.

New York, 1984: Twenty-two-year-old Phoebe Hayes is a young woman in search of excitement and adventure. But the recent death of her father has so devastated her that her mother wants her to remain home in Baltimore to recover. Phoebe wants to return to New York, not only to chase the glamorous life she so desperately craves but also to confront Ivan, the older man who painfully wronged her.

With her best friend Carmen, she escapes to the East Village, disappearing into an underworld haunted by artists, It Girls, and lost souls trying to party their pain away. Carmen juggles her junkie-poet boyfriend and a sexy painter while, as Astrid the Star Girl, Phoebe tells fortunes in a nightclub and plots her revenge on Ivan.

When the intoxicating brew of sex, drugs, and self-destruction leads Phoebe to betray her friend, Carmen disappears, and Phoebe begins an unstoppable descent into darkness. She may have a chance to save herself—and Carmen, if she can find her—but to do it she must face whatâ€s hiding in the shadows sheâ€s been running from—within her heart and in the dangerous midnight streets.

A love letter to gritty 1980s New York City, Astrid Sees All is an irresistible, original novel about female friendship, sex and romance, and what itâ€s like to be a young woman searching for an identity.

It took me a while (a few chapters) to get into this one but once I did, I couldn’t put it down and finished it in a day. I was still in middle school during the time this book was set. MTV was a few years old but pictures of celebrities in New York were all over the gossip and teen magazines. Some of those same celebrities make brief appearances in this novel.

I was reminded of how bad trash smells in NYC during hot summers and was thankful there wasn’t an olfactory component to the book. I’ve no doubt the place Phoebe and Carmen end up living in smelled just as bad. It felt very true to the times for gay men to be dying of an unnamed illness and for young women to disappear in the city and to seemingly have no one looking out for the dying and the missing.

Standiford plays with time a little bit in that she uses flashbacks to show where Phoebe and Carmen met in school, the time Phoebe spends at home during the funeral, and so on. She perfectly shows how it can be easy to feel like you’re not “cool” enough or interesting enough for people to want to be around and the lengths a person will go to be liked. I loved the fortune telling job.

Overall, I found the novel very compelling but didn’t like how neatly Carmen’s disappearance was wrapped up at the end.

A big thank you to Marcia for originating Mailbox Monday. In this weekly meme you share books which came into your home during the week. I bought the first book for myself, the next two were birthday gifts, and the last was from the library.

Here are the books I picked up this week:

One in the Hand by Rhonda Parrish –

When a sword manifests in an old folkâ€s home it opens Autumnâ€s eyes to a whole world of magic, gods and giants. But before she has a chance to come to grips with her new reality, Autumnâ€s grandmother is attacked and put in the hospital. Autumn needs to discover what the deal is with the sword and how to protect herself and the people she loves.

And, of course, thereâ€s also the matter of the wings that have sprouted from her back.

Can she learn about this new reality and the shadowy forces working within it in time to diffuse the situation before someone gets killed?

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke –

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

For readers of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.

The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel –

With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common manâ€s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.

The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmithâ€s son from Putney emerges from the springâ€s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.

Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henryâ€s regime to the breaking point, Cromwellâ€s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortuneâ€s wheel turns, Cromwellâ€s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henryâ€s cruel and capricious gaze?

Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwellâ€s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto –

When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It’s the biggest job yet for the family wedding business—”Don’t leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!”—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie’s perfect buttercream flowers.

But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy’s great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?

What arrived in your mailbox this week?

Why did I read this book?

I read it as one of the 2021 Read Harder Challenge Tasks.

What did I think of this book?

I picked up the “Adapted for Young Adults” version which was mildly shorter and used language appropriate for young adults. It may have glossed over or not gone into great detail about some of Kwame’s life events. I was sad when I realized he’d suffered from physical and mental abuse.

Who should read this book?

Anyone who wants to know more about systemic racism, and the difficulties a person who looks “different” from others experiences in the culinary world.

Why did I read this book?

A librarian picked it for me as a “Grab and Go” item. I asked for literary fiction.

What did I think of this book?

I really liked it! It took a few chapters to get into the rhythm as there are flashbacks to previous events mixed in with present day.

Who should read this book?

Some content within the book may be triggering for people who have experienced physical, mental, and sexual abuse or trauma. The novel follows Queenie as her life begins to spiral out of control and I think overall the message is one of hope.