Welcome to Litsy!

This is my #bookspin, which I‘m already partially through before the spin (yay)! Hoping to read both this month. Thanks as always @TheAromaofBooks

I wanted 2 like this more than I did but something was missing. There were so many mentions of Inspector Yuan (a character Claudia was obsessed w/) that at 1 point I wondered if this was going to turn into a weird hallucination/it‘s all in her head where the whole thing was actually a book or movie Claudia was reading &thought she was in.

I enjoyed the parts w/Claudia‘s family &wonder if this would be more successful if the mystery was taken out.

This was a fun take on the murder mystery! Claudia Lin is a private investigator who helps clients determine if their online matches are telling the truth about themselves. When one of her clients dies, she has to decide how involved to get in trying to figure out what happened… and given her love of detective fiction, we can assume she wants to be the one who cracks the case! An indie bookstore owner recommended this to me and I‘m glad she did!

For Ye Olde Booke Club - the group I joined when SHELFARI was a thing.
Actually, I‘m still reading books with two groups from Shelfari - one‘s moved to GR and this one went to Zoom.
Crazy how long we‘ve been reading together.

WELL! This book makes me want to never use a dating app ever again.
I‘ve never read a book about a sleuth who is so terrible at solving mysteries. In fact she doesn‘t, someone else tells her what happened & I truly couldn‘t have cared less about the poor murdered girl. Loved the idea for this book but the execution was not there for me. Too many pop culture references & it‘s def not a romance, she‘s just a lesbian. wish I knew that before.

Claudia is a life time mystery reader so when a client of her company, which researchers the veracity of people‘s information on online dating sites, ends up dead she cannot help but start her own investigation. This was a low pick for me. I really liked Claudia with her messy family relationships , inability to stay out of things, and love of seasonal pancakes . I cared less about the mystery.

Just finished this ebook on the Libby App and I can‘t wait for the next installment. This is a fresh new take on the cozy mystery- the sleuth is Claudia a bike riding millennial working in New York City‘s tech industry- matchmaking algorithms and verification ancillaries etc. New terms and scary concepts abound and lots of side plots involving Claudia‘s family and friends. Two thumbs up 👍 👍 for a great inclusive story

Finished one that was a September hangover…most of the way through the tagged book #9….Nadiya‘s memoir #10 after I finish The Verifiers. #bookspin

3.5⭐ I enjoyed this mystery/family drama combination. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#the-verifiers

There were too many disparate parts for me to hang on and really enjoy this story. I felt like the author had a pile of ideas and put them all in one story. There‘s the family drama of 3 Chinese American siblings and their mother, a drama among work colleagues, the conflict of dating apps on society, the random dropping of book titles, and oh yea a murder to solve and those connections.

Mahalo @Eggs for the #WondrousWednesday tag 🤗

1️⃣ So many! The tagged is a recent one-the premise was intriguing & I really wanted more time with the MC. Also, The House in the Cerulean Sea (I just got a coworker to read it & after talking about it, now I want to read it again!) 💙 Also any Simone St. James book.

2️⃣ Best: Friday is payday & I‘m taking PTO.🌺 Worst: Work in general is making me stressed.😖

Anyone not played yet who wants to❓

Good

This one was okay. I didn‘t love it like I wanted to. A lot of detective novel references. The family dynamic was a bit weird and I‘m not sure if I actually liked Claudia. The mystery was okay. I didn‘t know who the murderer is.

#BOTM #AwesomeAugust - Book 3 finished

So this sounds good too! I‘ve come across it a few times but hadn‘t added it firmly to my list until now 🤞🏽 Need to get a copy!

Finally some time to read, this school year has been a long one and the transition from teacher to Admin is no joke! I‘ve been missing free time & Litsy! 💕

#JoysOfJuneReadathon #BigJuneReadathon #BigJuneReadathonPhotoChallenge

Pulled from my ginormous #BOTM TBR because I kept hearing great things & I 🧡‘d it! Smart, funny mystery with quirky characters & a fascinating premise of online dating & data security. Loved the MC Claudia & her diversity. Her love of mysteries & Jane Austen & her dry wit make her endearing. A favorite for the year & full of #secrets too-making it perfect for today‘s prompt.

#JoysOfJuneReadathon

My goals for the #JoysOfJune #Readathone are pretty simple, finish the tagged book, hopefully tomorrow (It‘s so good!) & start & finish the other books on the top row. Also to catch up/keep up with my various #buddyreads (the 4 books at the bottom).

Thanks for hosting @Andrew65 🤗📚

Overall a fun read. Some of the characters were annoyingly distracting but I would still recommend this book.

Throwback to yesterday, when I finished THE VERIFIERS while I made a rum cake shaped like a sandcastle for my cousin‘s pre-wedding barbecue. I loved the book straight through. Claudia‘s a great protagonist who covers tons of interesting territory in her quest for the truth. I‘ll look forward to whatever Jane Pek does next, whether she makes this a series or tries something totally new. #audiobaking

It needs its buttons and another good press, but the jacket has more or less achieved its final form!

THE VERIFIERS continues to be excellent. I‘m hoping to finish it tomorrow while I put the final touches on my suit. #audiosewing

The jacket‘s collared and lined! The under collar proved unsalvageable and I don‘t have a large enough piece of wool for a replacement, so I used a chunk of my former favourite trousers. They were way too worn to wear in their first form, but now I get to keep ‘em around.

Tomorrow I‘ve gotta press it all out and do a bunch of hand sewing to tack everything in place and sort out the gorge. I might make a start on the buttonholes, too. #audiosewing

I think I‘m gonna love THE VERIFIERS, y‘all. The first third was great! I‘m a sucker for a protagonist whose crime fiction addiction makes them want to solve mysteries.

Also of note: my jacket now has two sleeves and all its final seams! (A lot of it was basted before.) Tomorrow it gets shoulder pads, front facings, a collar, and a lining, which is a lot less work than it sounds but probably still a biggish time investment. #gaymay #audiosewing

I thought it was safe to call this month‘s pick but tagged book might make me rethink it.
#2022readingbracket

My best book buddy once again decided that books make great pillows! 😻📚💕 #catsoflitsy #chaplin

This was a fun mystery with a protagonist who is a book lover as well. It has mystery, family drama, diverse characters, and the beginning of potential romance in the sequel/series to come.

Totally enjoyed this bookish whodunit/family story with an endearing main character. Loved the data privacy/surveillance angle (and also loved how my timing of this read coincided with this excellent Zeynep Tufekci piece covering the same: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/opinion/privacy-technology-data.html - so disturbing but also weirdly comforting that the burden of data privacy shouldn‘t be/can‘t feasibly be on each of us individually).

What a fun book! Claudia starts working for a company that verifies the information provided by people in online dating profiles. A client who wants to verify more than one person disappears and a new mystery is afoot. I really liked this! I almost skipped out on it and I‘m so glad I gave it a try. It manages to be lighthearted and whimsical in places while also being meaty.

Just finished the day it's due! Loved this book, such a fun read.

Just got more bookmarks from Paperback Paradise and they're fantastic

Very much enjoying this matchmaker detective story and its NYC setting and quirky, smart, funny heroine (and her family) I‘m about halfway through, but so far two 👍👍, even if Amelia isn‘t so sure about it.

Love this.

The kitties woke me up at 6:30 for food, but at least it gave me some extra time to start on a new book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was a fun, modern mystery with great characters and complicated family dynamics. Although the mystery was a little slow, the examination of dating app dishonesty, internet data collection, and choice manipulation through technology was thought-provoking (and unnerving)! 🎧

Original fun witty mystery with fabulous characters!

I think this book broke my slump!
It's an amateur detective story and a "how to write a detective story." There's a complex heroine with a complex family- and a very unique job- trying to investigate a suicide she believes is a murder. Also, Claudia is an avid reader and references her favorite books (real and fictitious) constantly. ? I hope this is the start of a new series. It seems like it is. ??

Beautiful day to start a series…one I think I‘ll continue with! I love the characters Pek invented and where she‘s taking them. 👍🏻

Claudia is not the model Chinese daughter. She likes girls and leaves her job in finance to work at a boutique firm that verifies identities for lovelorn users of matchmaking platforms. A fan of cozy mysteries, Claudia begins to suspect something is amiss when a client suddenly dies. She goes rogue to investigate.

I don't know what's been wrong with me but I have had zero interest in reading this entire past week. 😭 I'm about to start this and I'm hopeful that it will pull me back into reading. 🤞🏻

A pretty good reading week! I think I'll finish The Dead Romantics tonight, which will make 5 books finished this week. And excited for some of the ones I'm hoping to pick up next.

Such a fun and quirky mystery with a futuristic, techy plot. Great on #audiobook

A fun, techy mystery about a secret detective agency that looks into people matched on dating sites that are suspected of lying about who they are. When one of their most recent clients winds up dead of an apparent suicide, Claudia is suspicious and continues digging. What she finds is a conspiracy going to the very top of the dating app industry.

2 from #2022mounttbr are going out the door to be donated and 2 New #botm come in. #progress 🤓

#BOTM now having 7 options is going to be dangerous 😬😬

I of course had to get the new Lucy Foley and Simone St. James books! The tagged debut sounds really good too!

Thanks to Netgalley and Vintage for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication. Claudia Lin is a sharp, witty Chinese American mystery lover working for an online dating detective agency. When one of her clients fails to show up for their meeting, Claudia begins to uncover layers that look a bit more like murder than suicide. I adored Claudia in all of her talents and her flaws,

Very unique premise and fairly interesting characters. There were portions that could have been cut down a bit and I wished the characters were a lot more fleshed out, but a fun read. Definitely enjoyable and loved the representation.