Y‘all listen UP!! Do not sleep on this one, I only just finished the prologue but I am thinking about playing hooky from work to listen to it all day long.

What a strange and beautiful novel! I found this to be a challenging read, I read it in audio format with an A++++ narration by Arian Moayed. Intensely readable, with characters that are easy to love. This was outside my usual reading comfort zone, I‘m so glad to have not passed this one up, I just loved it. 💜

The second book in the trilogy, much less bodice ripping, more just violent! But I enjoyed it, moving on to the third!

I enjoyed this novel!! I see echoes of Scarlett O‘Hara in the main character (although Scarlett was never such a psychopath as Beatrice of Wideacre), but I have a real soft spot for unlikeable female characters, so it‘s definitely not for everyone. Still, to me it was a classic and enjoyable bodice ripper, best paired with 🍷and your favorite 📳. 😉🤣

I am out of Audible credits, this entire trilogy is free right now with my membership and it is Springtime in the Rocky Mountains, which means I have a lot of walking to do!! I must say I have rarely giggled so much, this is obviously a novel not to be taken as seriously as some seem to have done. Yes, the main character is a wicked slut…. I love her and I can‘t wait to hear all she gets up to 🤭😂

I loved this book, but I can also understand some of the criticisms of it. It sometimes felt a bit crowded and meandering and in thinking about it this morning there are things that I‘m still not sure why they were included, so I‘m looking forward to talking about it at book club, but overall it is a lovely book about the fragility of life and friendship.

I have around 100 more pages and it‘s my bedtime but I know I‘ll be staying up late to finish it and this is making me cry…

Scottish love, intrigue, Russia and some bonus E.S.P. because WHY NOT!? 💜

“From the first time I met them, they‘ve been on the knives,” he said, using the Russian expression for people who shared a dislike for each other.

I just LOVE this expression and plan to incorporate it into my life. I‘m on the knives with all kinds of people, it shouldn‘t be hard. 🤣

This is really a very sweet story. It also made me think about how much more common “open adoption” is these days (lots on this topic in my last book “Relinquished”) and how maybe it‘s not so much because it‘s the right thing to do, but also because it‘s just not optional anymore. With DNA testing the truth will out, anyone keeping an adoption a secret is sitting on a ticking time bomb.
Also, I would like to learn to make Cecily‘s 15 layer cake!

While I don‘t have a personal connection to the topic, having read “The Girls Who Went Away” many years ago, I was interested to read this book about adoption post Roe. I was surprised to learn just how rare it is for mothers to make this choice. While being meticulously researched, this is a deeply compassionate, diverse and objective portrait of adoption told from the perspective of birth mothers, often in their own words.

Who hasn‘t been invited to a “party” and “invited” to buy a lot of crap from a “friend”??

Jane Marie is doing the Lord‘s own work in shining a light on the deceptive practices of these companies that rely on the vulnerability of (mostly) women while they are robbing them blind.

Read the book, and may we all collectively cast out these vipers from our midst and put our energy into giving women and families real opportunities. 💜

Very excited for this one! I‘m a huge fan of the pod cast and the author in general, I pre-ordered and it showed up on my Audible account today!!

It takes until chapter 8 or so to figure out how this is a sequel to The Winter Sea (and an irritably long time to get to the sexy Scottishness of it all) but now I‘m there and enjoying the next journey in this trilogy.

“Sir, I‘m not fixing cutlets. I‘m neutralizing an invasive.” -Angie Armstrong

I don‘t know why I can‘t stop laughing at this 😂

Much junk food was devoured along with this deliciously readable novel! I‘ve ordered the next two in the trilogy and look forward to them!

An enjoyable little fairy tale… and when Bryan Dick reads a story y‘all know I‘m 🎧🌽

✅ Young and handsome Scottish man
✅ Smart and sassy lady
✅ Old castle ruins
✅ A mysterious mystery

Oh yeah Litsers… we are getting COZY! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☕️

For my birthday this year I bought myself a trip to Scotland!!!!!!!!!! I‘m going with my sister and I asked her to put some local bookshops on the itinerary! I am over the moon at the prospect of observing and listening to Scottish men in their native habitat. Now, what do you all think the odds are of meeting Bryan Dick while I‘m there? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍆🥰😅

Let‘s hear it for big thick Scottish…… books. 😂😈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I didn‘t enjoy it as much as the author‘s first novel, but it was nevertheless an enjoyable book.

This author‘s last novel is one of my all time favorites, I am SO excited to start this one!! 💜

How to even put into words how much I loved this book, it is going on the Very Important Books Shelf (I know you all know what I‘m talking about.) If you haven‘t read this trilogy for god‘s sake, give yourself the gift of a long, cold Winter weekend, you will not regret it. 💜💜💜⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The vodianoy only hissed, mouth opening wide. Vasya did not recoil, but reached out a scraped hand and touched his warty face. She said, “Listen to me and be at peace, river king.”

Vasya coming into her full powers. I am weeping, this book is so beautiful and it‘s the last one and what will I do when it ends???? 😭😭😭

I loved this novel, I‘m so glad to have read it, and I‘m glad to have read it now, as a seasoned adult. I‘m sure had I read it in high school I would have been impatient with Lily and her seemingly ridiculous choices. I was always too full of assurance and hard edges when I was young to be able to find the softer sweetness of this novel. Cheers to skipping the classics until we are classics ourselves!! 🥂

“This was a relief to Mrs. Peniston, who could give herself up to her own symptoms, and Lily was advised to go and lie down,her aunt‘s panacea for all physical and moral disorders.”

This is my feeling as well, and I‘ll tell you it is a SHAME how much this treatment has fallen out of fashion.

This is probably my favorite book of 2023, finished just under the wire!! It has an unconventional structure which I loved but may be challenging at times. At first I thought it was about a house, but having finished I now realize it‘s really about the land, the creatures (including humans) who call it home, and the cold harshness that defines nature in the dark heart of the New England forests.

While I did enjoy the story, I found the writing not for me, with stilted dialogue between characters and the author constantly telling the reader things we already know.

I am going to finish this book and haven‘t decided if it‘s a pick but I just have to say it‘s annoying how the Anna character is so naive as if a yankee in the 1940s would have never heard of a racism. The shock she‘s always expressing is grating. It also has stupid errors like Anna describing her mother as having “manic depressive psychosis”, this is not a term that was being used at the time, as just one example.

I am devouring this book, it is so beautifully written! A theme so far is characters who are willing to let others live in loneliness and rejection for their own comfort, but it‘s written so soulfully that nobody is a villain, just humans, breaking each other‘s hearts as we all do so well. Merry Christmas.

I already have two paper format books I‘m trying to get to, but I‘m cleaning and baking bread today and I like to do that in the company of an audiobook, so I started this one. It‘s good so far! That there is an orange spice bread 🍞

Cupid spin me a fairy tale…make it a cold, dark and scary one. Make the love story a complicated and beautiful disaster fit for long and cold nights. 💘😇❄️

This book has been on my TBR shelf for a shamefully long time, so when it was recommended by a guest on Ezra Klein‘s podcast recently I decided it was time!

You think this book is going to be fluffy and silly and humorous until you find yourself recognizing parts of your own life in it and crying.

I doubt many men have read this book, my own husband would never deign to read anything like it (never mind, I‘ve left him) but more should. I‘m glad I gave in to the hype, it‘s worth it. 💜

He thought about the people who designed these dresses; how, like bomb manufacturers or pornography stars, they had to remain vague about the way they made their livings.

Calvin

This book is giving me eye rolls but also lots of chortles and so far the chortles are outweighing the eye rolls 😏

She looked down on him like a battlefield medic assessing whether or not he was worth saving.

Elizabeth Zott 🤘🤘🤘

I am giving in to the hype surrounding this novel and TV series….. if I hate it I will absolutely be blaming all you Litsers. I don‘t know why I don‘t get one of the cute covers on my kindle, some whim of the Amazon robot gods I suppose.

I enjoyed learning what this book has to teach, I had no previously knowledge of this subject at all! I‘m looking forward to reading more of this author.

Another solid addition to this series. I continue to be in favor of a hot steamy affair between Raven and Sarah…. Read by Bryan Dick and his sexy Scottish accent, I just feel like it could really work that‘s all I‘m saying. 😝🍆🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🌺

I have a shameless appetite for gossip and scandal. I find few things quite as exhilarating as other peoples bad behavior - Mrs. Krull

I am not sure I have this character‘s name right (the Scottish accent on the audio makes it impossible for me to know how it is spelled), but I simply must endorse the sentiment as someone who reads at least five advice columns a day and listens to at least a few gossipy podcasts 😂

I feel like I will be thinking about this one for quite some time. There is a lull about halfway through, if this happens to you I encourage you to push through it, I ended up very much enjoying the book!

I wasn‘t aware this fourth book in the series was out! So excited to make it my weekend audio book! Even more excited to see Bryan Dick on narration again, highly recommend these books in audio format, excellent performance.

I enjoyed this book, it‘s a very sweet little story about overcoming youth, stupidity and poor choices and really, who among us doesn‘t need that?

I‘ve never been one for fictional grumpy men (I never read about Ove), but the one in this book was so sympathetically written, I really did love him. I wish IRL people loved books as much as all the people in this book do. 💜

“‘Fucking love‘, he thinks. What a bother. It‘s completely gotten in the way of his plan to drink himself to death, to drive his business to ruin. The most annoying thing about it is that once a person gives a shit about one thing, he finds he has to start giving a shit about everything.” I feel this.

I haven‘t read any SK novels for quite some time, but my apartment building has a rec room with a book exchange shelf. So I put a book I was bailing on in there and saw this one and took it, this beginning quote seems apropos given that I just finished The Afterlives…

I really enjoyed this book!! Highly recommend the audio format, the performance and certain aspects of the audio were absolutely wonderful and effective! I‘m not sure about the ending, I kind of felt like the story kind of ran out of steam? But overall a wonderful story about grief, loss, death, and being human. 💜

This book wasn‘t billed as a scary book, I don‘t think?? But I have to tell you guys I‘m reading in audio format and…. I just got so freaked out I have chills and I got a bit tearful!? Now, I will grant you that I‘m a real wimp when it comes to scary things but still!!! Ok, I‘m taking a deep breath and unpausing….

This is such a sweet book! It truly is. But why is it that every novel about a woman who cheats and/or leaves her husband, part of the story is always the guilt and shame she feels? Why can‘t there be a book about a woman who cheats joyfully? Who cheats and has the best sex of her life which she refuses to regret? A woman who leaves her husband, never cooks again, lives on cheese, crackers, and novels and revels in being alone? Recommendations??