Welcome to Litsy!

A lovely cozy romantic mystery.

Doing my best to have some tranquil, restful reading time with Witchmark, an iced latte, and my trusty instrumental Spotify playlist on the chaise. This year has brought wildly rude upstairs and next-door neighbors whose disruptive noisiness make this next to impossible, but I'm determined. 😼

Making the most of the last few hours of my random 3-day staycation. I can never pick just one or two books to bring... 😂 But golly, it is lovely to sit in a comfy armchair beneath a ceiling fan sipping a latte and alternating between several books as an ADHDer like me is wont to do. 📚

A very well crafted story about class differences in a world where magic ostensibly keeps an island nation safe. A war has been waged, a fragile peace crafted. Dr. Miles Singer is a psychiatrist who is treating shell-shocked veterans who are trying to escape internal horrors that may be real. He has fled his magical role in a ruling family. And why are all the witches in asylums? A thoroughly enjoyable read with believable romance subplot.

I got another spot on #NSR23 @Nessavamusic .

I like this book!Not too many characters to deal with. Lots of mystery magic stuff that is going on. And it's a Canadian author. I have 3 spots on #ISpyBingoMay @Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks. It's also the beginning of a series #SeriesLove23 @Andrew65

This had an interesting premise, covers multi tier caste of mages, in a magical steam punk period. And I couldn't really get into it. I think the last 25% was the best part of it, but it didn't engage me enough to want book two.

Magic, mystery, queer romance, and criticism of class privilege suffuse this atmospheric Edwardian-inspired fantasy! In a world at war, a doctor with a hidden past and secret magical abilities allies with an alluring gentleman to investigate the murder of a patient and a pattern of inexplicable killings by the very veterans he heals, only to discover true evil may not reside across enemy lines but in all of that which powers the empire at home.

This kept popping up on lists of books I should like, so I borrowed it on a whim from the library. I did like it!

Soldiers keep returning from WWI to this London-like city with strange psychic illnesses- they feel something inside their minds will force them to kill the people around them.

Miles has left his wealthy family to use his magical abilities to heal, becoming a surgeon and then a psychiatrist.

Queer fantasy, yep, my jam.

Probably a soft Pick because I‘ve requested the next book in the series. I was more meh about it than I would have liked, but that is probably at least partly my fault, because I put it down partway through and lost all my momentum.

Download Tor.com‘s Bundle of Love for the next few days! Witchmark by CL Polk, All Systems Red by Martha Wells, and Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh are all available for download in mobi and ePub formats before 11:59 PM ET, February 18th, 2022.

https://ebookclub.tor.com #TorBookClub

Available in the US and Canada.

The Tor.com Ebook Club‘s got a fabulous freebie bundle on offer this month. WITCHMARK is one of my faves, SILVER IN THE WOOD still haunts me months after I read it, and ALL SYSTEMS RED is a great intro to everybody‘s favourite media-loving killer robot.

(Though, full disclosure, I loved ASR but I‘m an outlier who liked each subsequent Murderbot story less than the one before and has now abandoned the series.)

https://ebookclub.tor.com/

An absolutely fun read, especially if you enjoy fantasy reads. I loved watching Miles try to figure out what's wrong with his patients and solve the mystery of the murdered magic user all while quickly falling head over heals in love. The characters are really fun, and the pace of the story felt really well done. Definitely will be one of my favorites for 2022. #Magic #LGBTQ

I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new - don‘t judge me I have a lot of books.
Join the fun if you want. This is day 320.
#bookstoread
#tbrpile
#bookstagram

@StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego Oh my GOODNESS!!❤️
I absolutely adore everything!! You totally nailed my pastel witch aesthetic!!💕
I can‘t wait to crack these books open! The Babysitters Coven has been on my list for so long! & Witchmark sounds like an amazing story!
The Baphomet card!😩❤️
THIS TAROT DECK!!!💕👌🏼 My first!! I am beyond excited to start using them!!!💕
Thank you SO SO much! You made my first-ever swap an amazing one!!🖤💕

Excellent!

Next up in my month of rereads: C.L. Polk‘s Kingston Cycle! I started WITCHMARK last night and now all I wanna do is read, and I CAN‘T. Blah.

At least I got a couple more chapters in over lunch, which was curried tuna salad with kale slaw. Also, my dreams last night were a pretty cool mashup of Kingston and Oz.

#doublespin for March. Powerful mages bind secondary mages and use them as batteries to enable stormsinging, which controls the country‘s dangerous weather. One of the mages from a powerful family runs away from his fate as a secondary and becomes a doctor, who realizes that something is terribly wrong with soldiers returning from a war. He needs to solve a murder to piece everything together. Beautiful gay love story as well. @TheAromaofBooks

This month I've returned to a more average reading pace after the great start that was January. I managed to finish nine books this month and none were below three star reads.
1 eBook
8 Physical
I'm now at 2045 points in my #BuriedAliveChallenge with 97 points per qualifying book.
#FebruaryWrapUp

I enjoyed this. It had an interesting world where magic and technology are both present but the magic is kind of hidden like a secret society. It also touches on the corruption of wealth and power. I felt like there was a resolution to the main story but there are still other threads hanging so I definitely want to read the next two and see where things are headed now that the resolution has changed things.

Welp our internet was out which is why I was reading so much Servant of the Underworld and when it came back I just decided to finish. Sat down to put it on goodreads and oop internet is gone again so it looks like I‘m immediately starting Witchmark.
#CatsOfLitsy

I actually was able to go inside the library today. I picked up my monthly craft preorder from the maker space program as well as a mini #bookhaul. Even with limited service it was just so nice to be able to go to the library.

Miles is dealing with PTSD, working as a psychiatrist in a veterans hospital, and hiding his magic from a society that wants to enslave him. And then gets the added complications of a handsome man dropping a murder victim into his lap.

I waffled on pick and so-so. I loved the gaslamp fantasy, the queer rep, the intriguing magic system. But the romance was a bit too instalove, and the 2 big mysteries get solved at once in the last hour! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

I dug it. I was engaged pretty quickly, felt for the protagonist, and was fascinated by the world. It's technically a romance, but it's all fade-to-black, and the central issues and challenges are those of world-level plot and personal character arcs. I thought it worked (although it Nearly lost me, just before the end. XD) a nice, light, #queerfantasy #queerromance, with an interesting and unique world. (Oh, and more than a bit #steampunk)

Thank you so much @jenniferw88 🧡🍁🧡🍁🧡

The book looks right up my street and I can‘t believe you found Hufflepuff themed tea!! It smells DIVINE and I can‘t wait to try it!

#LitsyLoveFallSwap

I'm not quite sure what didn't spark for me in this book. It's an Edwardian-esque historical fantasy with magic and queer (m/m) romance! Plus the author is Canadian and a woman of colour! But although the world was cool, I just never really fell into it or connected with the characters. Likely a case of it's not you, it's me. #QueerBooks #LGBTQBooks #LGBTQ

Okay so I broke my own rule today (I'm supposed to be reading the books I already own) and checked out a library book. But ... I have the ARC for the second book in this series, so I need to read the first one, right? #QueerBooks #Fantasy

#BookReport - Finished 4 books this week. All were really good and I‘m glad I read them.

In progress - The Death of Mrs Westaway, I‘m 240 pages into this and it‘s pretty intriguing

#WeeklyForecast - my hold for Magic Bleeds came in, so I have to get started on that audio. And I‘ll probably start my next gothic read, but we‘ll see.

This was fun! The world is what really messed with me since it's got elements of Victorian England but some of the world is impacted by magic while other parts were not. The world felt just "kinda wrong." Loved the main character and the romance

Time for a Canadian author!

Finished the first book in this series today! I didn‘t really know what to expect, except the people at BookRiot liked it and recommended it a lot. It has mystery, romance, magic and betrayal. I really enjoyed this book and I can‘t wait to read the next one! I immediately put it on my TBR. This was the perfect book to get me started with fall reads.

#BookSpinBingo - 2nd box checked off for September

Here are #3Books I plan to read in September. I‘m slowly getting into the spooky fall mood.

I already started the tagged book!

Super happy to be back to this book loving community! My TBR stack is literally toppling over, so I‘m excited to tryout this #BookSpin.

@Mitch it's arrived 😂! Thank you so much for everything - really looking forward to reading them all.

#whiterabbitswap @LibrarianRyan

I enjoyed it by the end, but I had a hard time getting into this book. The world building is unique - I think early on I stumbled by trying to map this universe onto an actual historic period. I‘m going to start the second book while I‘ve got momentum!

A scrumptious Edwardian magic-punk fantasy that manages to combine a delightful setting and a lovely m/m romance, while at the same time examining issues such as class status, slavery, imperialism, exploitation and the (un)acceptable human cost of progress. It‘s also a quick read. I‘m excited to read the sequel.

Hey #GroupC for #LMPBC - here some of the books I‘m proposing for Round 8!

I‘ll tag the books in the comments. Page counts are in the picture above. All are women authors.

Let me know what you are all thinking of my choices.

As I reread WITCHMARK, it struck me that Polk is beyond good at layering stressors to enhance characterization, deepen worldbuilding, and shove the plot forward. Miles deals with everything from medical conundrums to family members who want to magically enslave him, and Polk introduces each problem just when it‘s bound to have the biggest personal and professional impact on him—and on the reader, by proxy. It‘s so damned good.

5 stars

#bookreport time!

I finished PUT ME BACK TOGETHER (really good), RADICALIZED (worth reading, but disappointing), and GREEN ARROW (sometimes great; sometimes not).

I‘ll finish WITCHMARK tonight. It‘s blowing my mind all over again.

I made decent progress with Colette (who‘s wearing a bit thin), the Sagas (ditto), BLACK WRITERS MATTER (great), and DESPAIR (really good).

I never managed to pick up THE BLUE CLERK.

I started my WITCHMARK reread over breakfast, which was a bit of a mistake. I‘m annoyed I can‘t just read allllllllll day.

Such a great package! Thanks so much @Avanders !!
I can‘t wait to read both of these books! I also love the mug and can‘t wait to drink some tea out of it! Everything is great!

#AllHallowsReadSwap

I am so glad to be one of those people who can DNF a book. In the middle of two I am struggling with and this one is not worth the struggle.
I love the cover though 😍

A charming and delightful story of mystery, familial struggles & tension, LGBT romance, and magic. It went along at a good clip, and is clearly part of a longer series. I‘m not sure if I‘ll read the next book because I‘m not so driven by the intrigue, but I had a lot of fun with the characters and their world.

So... I've set aside Witchmark. For whatever reason it just wasn't clicking for me.

Day 7: #7Days7Covers #CoverCrush

I read this between Sept 9 & 12th and gave it 3.5 ⭐️on Good Reads. I liked it well enough to want to read the next book but I didn‘t like the pacing at times. It felt like it took forever to learn more about Miles‘ world and 50 pages for everything to happen. I did like the characters, which is what made it very enjoyable to read.

01. Currently my Good Reads is set for 125 books and I am at 108 books. If I get to about 115 before the end of this month, I may go back to my original goal of 150. (I ended up changing it to the lower # due to a bad reading slump.)

02. I work from home & have done so for a year now. I'd like to get my home office arranged so it's more user friendly. Right now it's not very friendly.

#two4Tuesday from @TheSpineView

1.) Yellow, Teal, Indigo, and dark purple
2.) The Moon and Ace of Cups
3.) Tigers Eye and Moonstone
4.) Little Women and Sky in the Deep
5.) Flower: Sunflower Herb: Lavender
6.) Gummy Bears/worms and Peanut M&Ms
7.) Lavender and Mint

#basicwitchswap @sprainedbrain @Meaw_catlady

Omg i loved this book. Miles and Tristan are adorable, the magic system is interesting and the bad guys are deplorable. Loved it.

Getting some rooftop reading done!!
#artdamnit_reads #CurrentlyReading #Witchmark