Wolfsong By T.J. Klune

 T. J. Klune's writing is spellbinding. I borrowed Wolfsong from the library because the book he has that just came out on 4/25 was not yet available for me to put on hold.  Not only re TJ Klune's books great reads, they have great covers. Look at this vibrant cover, I can't wait to read it! Oh, It looks like it could very well be a retelling of Pinnochio! 

Not only does T. J. Klune have the incredible ability to create universes filled with beautiful characters, and so many variations on love.  The world-building is just fantastic. I've read werewolf stories before, and this one is unique and stands apart.  I could post sentences from the book that struck me and we'd be here all day, so instead of that I highly suggest adding this book to your TBR if you enjoy fantasy books. 

Wolfsong is a long sweeping story about Ox, a human who grows up not fitting in, who has a crummy father and is scraping by as he goes through High School. And then the Bennetts move into the house down the road, then things change, and Ox changes. This is a story of growing up, finding your people and your place in the world, and what a person will do to keep the people they love together. It's told in first-person which I really enjoyed. 

This book has such a different cover than The Lives of Puppets.  So interesting. The basic black and white with the title in Orange (the color that the werewolves eyes change). 

Have you read any T.J. Klune? What did you think?

Moist, Actually A Short Sexy Comedy

This delightfully funny,  romantic novella started from a photo of Chris Pine that author Ash Dylan tweeted about.  Above is a snippet from the book. If you read romance, do yourself a favor and 1-click order this ebook, you'll laugh so hard and also appreciate how Ash Dylan also gives you all the feels over the course of a night with Elena and Rhys. 

The idea for this book all started on Twitter where author Ash Dylan commented on a photo of Chris Pine:

this looks like the cover for a romance about a literary fiction author who agrees to read his neighbor's novel, and he returns it with a note that says she uses the word moist too much and if she doesn't fix it he'll have to spank her, and her next edit has twice as many moists

You can click here to see the photo and the original tweet: Chris Pine Inspiration for Moist, Actually 

There are so many funny moments and swoony scenes, if you like romance and you could use a good chuckle or twelve, read this book! 

 

 

Cozy Mystery Book Club April Live Stream- Tomorrow at 7PM EST!

 

Join me in the comments tomorrow at 7PM EST with lots of other readers of Cozy Mysteries! 

This month's selection is A Brush With Murder by Bailee Abbott.  I had an ARC of this book from Net Galley back in 2021 and reviewed it here on my blog.  Here is a link to that review: 

A Brush With Murder

Each month people who comment in the live stream are entered to win books, so it's not only fun to comment, you can win a new book in the process!

Now on to a little food talk. I enjoy cooking, and a really enjoy eating good food, so about once a month I treat myself to a box from Blue Apron. This month one of the meals I picked was Oven-Baked Korean-Style Eggs & Rice. It was a meal that all you do is put together the ingredients and bake.  It was delicious and easy enough for me to make it myself in the future.  It's a good anytime of day meal. What do you think? Does it look good to you?

The Sunday Post Last Full Week of April is Upon Us!

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

HI! How are you?  I hope you had a nice week. I had an MRI of my foot which I hurt last month and found out that I need to wear a boot for another two weeks. The toe that has a stress fracture is not the toe the X-ray thought had a stress fracture. As you know I like to run, so being unable to run for over a month now, stinks!  I do tell myself, better to get this resolved so I can run again soon-ish than to wind up needing some kind of surgery. Sigh, still stinks though. 

The weather here this week is pretty blah, with highs in the 50s (10s in Celcius) and lows from 32 to about 38 (0 to 4 in Celcius) Below are books I'm working on for this week, and my poor foot.

I was thinking I'd have finished Wolfsong by now, but other stories got in the way, so I am working on finishing Wolfsong, which is very good, today. 

I have also downloaded the audio version of Flux by Jinwoo Chong, I am still determining where it will fall in my reading.  I attended a Zoom craft talk that Jinwoo Chong did and that was my inspiration to get Flux ASAP. 

Here is the back of the book blurb: 

A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his employers have inadvertently discovered time travel and are covering up a string of violent crimes.

Caged by Bella Matthews - Romance Sub Genres

 

I read this book for a book club.  This is the first book in the Defiant Kings series, but it's also the fourth book in Kingston Family books. Basically, I believe the way it works is Bella Matthews has three trilogies that are involving the siblings that make up the center family of the series. So this is and isn't the first book. If you read romance with any frequency you'll quickly understand that some of the brothers and sisters of Hudson (the male lead of this book) are living their best HEA lives so they must be the subjects of previous books. 

The family in this series are sporty billionaires.  Caged features Hudson who is an MMA fighter and Madison who is a very successful social media manager and yoga instructor.  There are also brothers who play pro football and hockey. If you are a fan of sports romance, this may be a big hit for you. If you prefer romance books where everyone is very well off, successful in their careers, and has great abs, this story checks those boxes. 

This story takes place in the 2020s and has all the trappings of the here and now but the story harkens back to the days of old.  (like 70s romance) Maddie is a virgin who doesn't like people to touch her and Hudson is a guy with a reputation.  But when Maddie is attacked Hudson stops the attack and then Maddie plays his nursemaid for a few days. Old school, friends to lovers. 

Here are a couple of lines from the book this is Maddie's brother talking to Hudson.  He-man- macho stuff, 

I think one of these characters had their book already 

A Fun Romance with a Clever Premise that Also Deals With Grief

 

I am here to recommend this audiobook, it's included with an audible membership and I loved the book's premise. In this story, Alice, a school teacher, has co-written and self-published a thriller that sold 73 copies.  One day a man comes to see her and he demands to know where she got the information disclosed in the story.  He looks and behaves just like her fictional secret agent main character!  

We quickly learn that Alice's book needs to be moved from the fiction section to the non-fiction section--and Alice has to figure out who to trust as she is taken on a wild adventure.  I wonder if Brynn Kelly wrote this in response to a "What if you met your book boyfriend?" prompt.  

The story is engaging, packed with action and romance, and a nice amount of humor--amusing references to writing. Important content warning: It has some heavy scenes that deal with the death of loved ones from cancer, and it is a fairly larger part of the book so take that into consideration.

4 stars.  Definitely worth a listen! 

An update on my lettuce container. At this time I don't know what are lettuce seeds beginning to sprout and what are weeds!  TBD! 

The Sunday Post for Mid April

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

Well, we had a wonderful preview of summer, and then today, back to mid-April reality.  Possible Flurries tonight. I am glad I put my lettuce seeds in a container that is easy to move into the house. Hopefully, we are almost done with freezing temperatures at night or the day.  Have you watched anything good on TV? We watched Transatlantic on Netflix. I liked that it didn't sugar-coat the American position of neutrality during WW2 prior to Pearl Harbor, especially the lack of American support for refugees. I also finished watching Unlock My Boss which was very enjoyable. 

This week I am working on reading and reviewing these books:

The Least Amount of Awful, Definitely Not an Awful Book!

 

If you asked me to describe this book in ten words or less I would say: "It's a Hallmark Movie with benefits."  We have a small town, we have a girl coming from the city in a fancy car, everyone is attractive and has a good job, Jake is a single dad with abs for days, Colbie owns a series of barre studios. Jake is quite rude to Colbie in the beginning, but it is overcome.  The angst level and pining is low in this book.

The main characters are great communicators and Jennifer Millikin is a very good writer, the sex scenes were picture perfect, the right amount of description and heat level. She also ties in the title of the book in a pivotal way throughout the story. 

Overall I enjoyed the book, I did feel that Jake and Emmett (Colbie's dad) were 'too perfect' for me, and Colbie's mom was unsympathetically awful.  But hey this is a romance, and the main story is quite well done. 

4 stars! 

Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases

I chose to read this book because it was included in my Audible subscription.  It's not a book that I would have spend my monthly credit on--those credits are like gold! So I save them for books I *really* want badly. Cook County ICU is a fairly short book and it reads like a collection of columns. As if Cory Franklin had a weekly column in the Chicago Tribune where he shared notable events and people at Cook County hospital-- a Mike Royko or Studs Terkel slice of hospital life column. 

I enjoyed his stories and seeing the perspective of a doctor as someone who has only hand medical experiences as a patient. My favorite stories in the book were when Dr. Franklin talked about the 1995 heat wave we had, I was very surprised to learn that Cook County Hospital didn't have central air in 1995--BONKERS! Can you even believe it?  My goodness. It was so hot that summer.  I need to go see if there is a good book or podcast covering the story of the heatwave. 

Secondly, there was a story about a nurse and I knew early on in the story that this was a case of Munchhausen. Munchhausen is something that fascinates me.  I get why a person might go to those lengths for attention. Now that being said, I don't understand Munchhausen by proxy, hurting someone else to get attention, ick. 

Overall 3.5 stars an interesting read! 

 

Crying in H Mart

 

I don't read many memoirs and have been of the opinion that people under 40 haven't lived enough life to truly write a memoir. Based on this book and I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, I've decided that was a ridiculous opinion. 

Crying in H Mart is a book about food, families, the immigrant experience, and how much cancer sucks.  It's a beautiful book and I'm so glad that Michelle Zauner wrote it. She has a beautiful writing style and it makes sense that she is a songwriter and musician.  I steered clear of this book for quite a while because I didn't want to read about someone dying of cancer. 

However, recently I felt ready to give it a go, and I wasn't super triggered over it. This is because the book is about a daughter who is with her mom as her mom undergoes cancer treatment which isn't successful. If I had lost my mom to cancer, I don't know if I could read this book.  

As I was reading the book Michelle's writing simultaneously made my mouth water with her descriptions of food and cooking, and moments later I was ready to cry with her because of how unfair so much of life can be from one day to the next. 

The story doesn't end with Michelle's mom's death, we see how Michelle works through the grieving process and then how she flourishes as a musician. In the last chapter of the book Michelle talks about a song her mother loved when she was young, and I had to look it up on YouTube.  It's a bop! Listen to it below: