April #bookspin list

#doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

I took a break from social media this month (except litsy because I don't count litsy), and it turns out that was the only thing standing between me and reading 25 books 😅. My first time ever blacking out a bookspin bingo board.

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

5/5

This was such an incredible book. While the original story is about revolution and the end of the Hunger Games, and Songbird and Snakes was about how the games became what they were, this book was really about the games as propaganda and gave a much better understand of how the games and the manipulations of the capital worked. Even knowing how the story ends, it's a great read.

3/5

Ronan Reed is new to New Orleans, and his bad reputation has followed him, but that can't stop the attraction growing between himself and Celine Cruz, even if her over-protective family isn't a fan.

The external stakes in this book felt a lot lower than those in the books in the Stay a Spell series, but it was a still a fun paranormal romance, and it is fun to return to some favorite characters.

#netgalley

4/5

I really enjoyed this collection of non-fiction vignettes about people and moments in history mostly between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. I found the stories to be beautifully written and very moving. I can't pick a standout because they were were all so unique and emotional. I wasn't familiar with The Memory Palace podcast before reading this book, but I didn't feel that I needed to be in order to enjoy it.

#netgalley

ebook: The Memory Palace by Nate DiMeo
audiobook: My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

This was an incredibly well written, incredibly disturbing historical horror novel. Told through journal Arthur Beaucarne wrote in 1912 that was found and transcribed by his great great granddaughter in 2012. Arthur records a series of interviews with Good Stab who describes his transformation into a vampire.

The old fashioned language made it a little difficult to get into the early chapters, but the story pulled me in.

#netgalley

audiobook: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older
print: Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

Poseidon has an enemy fleet in his waters and Icarus as his captive. Icarus knows his best chance of survival is to make Poseidon feel something for him, but neither expect the true relationship that begins to form as the uncover each other's vulnerabilities.

I thought this dig a great job of balancing the main relationship with setting up for Zeus and Hera's book next.
#netgalley

4/5

Dorothy gets abducted onto an alien planet after a nearly fatal lion attack along with the now talking lion. Now she's dealing with dinosaurs, ice age creatures, and the two Aliens who have fallen for her.

I loved the concept of an Alien world created by underfunded researchers who did less than the bare minimum to learn about humans. It's so funny, and I hope to read more in this series.

5/5

This is my favorite Ali Hazelwood read yet. I loved Scarlet and her struggle with her collegiate diving career after a devastating injury, her growing friendship with diving captain Pen, and her new relationship with Pen's ex, Lukas. I also loved the cameos from Olive Smith and Adam Carlson from The Love Hypothesis

4/5

In a post-apocalyptic world after climate change destroys civilization, a woman keeps a secret journal in the mysterious and brutal Sacred Sisterhood.

The writing is brutally evocative of the end of the world. The horror and narrators rushed secrecy permeate every line. It was an unsettling read that will stick with me.

So many content warnings on this one.

#netgalley

#ebook: Sweet Obsession by Katee Robert
#audiobook: I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4.5/5

This is more of a sequel with other characters than a spin-off. I felt like there was a lot of setup in this book, but I felt like the payoff at the end of the book was good, and I'm excited to read more about all the unanswered questions. I wasn't sure how a spin-off series could raise the stakes from Consort of Fire and Queen of Dreams, but I thought the reveals at the end of the book did a good job of achieving that.

#netgalley

4/5

I read A Wizard of Earthsea when I was a child and didn't remember much of the story, so this was a wonderful way to be reintroduced to the book. The art is really beautiful, and I thought both the art and the dialogue that was brought in did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life while maintaining the same mood of the original book.

#netgalley

5/5

The Federation is ruled by The President, who thanks to technology will never die. The West is under the rule of AI MPs who haven't changed anything. On the brink of the world either being destroyed or changed, many lives are intertwined.

This is an incredible dystopian novel imaging a techno-authoritarian future that considers what is good and what is evil and what does it mean to act. It is a complicated story, and I could not put it down.

4/5

Beatriz Perez has two goals with the same solution: she wants to work with the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro. The novel follows Beatriz in the 1960s as she becomes deeper enmeshed in American politics and espionage.

5/5

The River Liss runs out of Faerie, full of magic, and two sisters grow up singing to the willows that soak up it's magic. This is such a beautiful and lyrical story about sisterhood, love, grief, and magic.

In the audiobook, the narrator sings all the songs, and I think that adds so much to an already incredible story. I really recommend listening to the audiobook.

#netgalley

print: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
audiobook: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

#bookspin: Daughter of Tides by Kit Roch
#doublebookspin: A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel by Ursula K. Le Guin

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Queen of Dreams by Kit Rocha is my pick for February #readingbracket2025. It's one of those rare series where the first book is good, but somehow the second book is even better.

@cseydel

February #bookspin. Managed 2 bingos.

#doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Posting my March #bookspin list before I check out the picks.

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Book mail!

ebook: The Plan by Kendra Adachi
print: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
audiobook: On Her Terms by Amy Spalding

Is this the same list as last week? Yes, but hopefully I'll finish all three this week.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

e-book: The Plan by Kendra Adachi
print: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
audiobook: On Her Terms by Amy Spalding

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

This was an incredibly interesting look into the lives of four women who worked for the OSS creating propaganda to demoralize Axis soldiers during World War II. I thought the book did a wonderful job weaving together the paths that brought all four to the OSS, their experiences in the OSS, and the work they did on both fronts. It was a very quick and interesting look into an aspect of World War II that I know very little about.

#netgalley

4/5

Jenny Greenteeth is the monster in the village lake, but when a witch, Temperance, is thrown in and doesn't even bother to try to save herself, Jenny gets curious about what's going on outside her lake. Temperance and Jenny must work together, along with the goblin Backus, to root out the evil that's infected the village and could be coming for Jenny's lake and all of Britain next.

#netgalley

The witch looked surprised to see me, her eyes blinking furiously at me through murky waters. I don‘t know why she was so astonished. It was my lake she‘d been thrown into; she should have expected I‘d come and see if there was anyone worth eating.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Managed one bingo in January

#ISpyBingo @thearomaofbooks

3/5

The War is over and Jon is home from the French prison he's been in to find that he is now a duke, and his sister's governess, Tory, is the daughter of his dead mentor. Jon is committed to finding Tory a husband, even if he finds himself drawn to her.

I've never read a book about detenus. There was a lot going on with the history, as well as Tory's backstory, so sometimes the characters and their romance felt a little flat.
#netgalley

#bookspin: Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill
#doublebookspin: Will's Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

4.5/5

On the interstellar ship, the Fairweather, death is temporary when a new body can be created and your memories restored from a copy in the library, But when detective Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn't hers and to news that there's just been a murder, it's clear that someone's figured out how to make a murder stick, and this new body might have something to do with it.

#netgalley

Managed 2 bingos in January.

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

audiobook: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
ebook: Hazardous to a Duke's Heart by Sabrina Jeffries

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

February #bookspin

#doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

5/5

Lydia has decided that best way to save her long time pen pal, the Earl of Strathrannoch, from his financial woes is to offer him a marriage of convenience. However, when she shows up at his castle, she quickly realizes that her pen pal is Davis, the brother of Arthur, the actual Earl, and Davis is missing. Lydia and Arthur embark on a quest to find Davis and prevent him from committing a crime before it's too late.

#netgalley

4.5/5

This was a fantastic book about different techniques parents (and anyone who works with kids) can pull into play time to create more connection with your kids as well as help them work on understanding their emotions and co-regulation. It's full of examples and illustrations on how to put the techniques into use. I was able to immediately use a couple of the ideas in playtime with my kids.

#netgalley

4.5/5

When Clem is kidnapped by Captain Mariel and her crew of Merry Men, she assumes it's because reputation as a healer who is experimenting with more effective treatments, instead it's to make sure her guardian understands that consequences of healing anyone associated with the Sheriff of Nottingham.

I thought this was a fun re-imagining of Robin Hood focused on his granddaughter.

4/5

Martin explores the way orphans are portrayed in popular media and the many ways that portrayal differs from what children actually experienced in orphanages all the way to foster care. I found it very interesting to learn how some of the issues that existed in the past continued to survive into the present and how pop culture can blind us to these facts.

#netgalley

4.5/5

Sachielle is the latest of the dragon god's consorts as part of a pact with the mortal king to protect the land. But the mortal king has a plan to rid himself of the pact and the dragon, even if it means sacrificing Sachi and her handmaid Zanya. But the dragon is nothing like Sachi or Zanya expected, and they are nothing like what he expected.

ebook: The Sun Won't Come Out Tomorrow by Kristen Martin
audiobook: Not For the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher
non-fiction: The Way of Play by Tina Payne Bryson and Georgie Wisen-Vincent

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

ebook: The Sun Won't Come Out Tomorrow by Kristen Martin
audiobook: Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha
non-fiction: The Way of Play by Tina Payne Bryson and Georgie Wisen-Vincent

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

5/5

Lucas is pulled from his comforting isolation when his apartment board drags him into an investigation into who left a frying pan on the ground outside. It's a quick read with Backman's humor, emotion, and strong voice. I enjoyed it as much as the longer works of his I've read.

#netgalley

“It's a frying pan that ruins Lucas's life. We'll get to that“

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

5/5

Tao is a traveling fortune teller who only tells small fortunes to avoid the mage guild's notice. She meets a thief, an ex-mercenary looking for his daughter, Leah, and a baker as they travel across Eshtera reading fortunes and looking for Leah.

This was a really wonderful book that did a great job including low stakes adventures, found family, and loneliness while feeling like a fresh cozy fantasy story.

#auldlangspine

3.5

Scout is chasing down the archives left by a long dead alien civilization that may have found the answer to what kills every civilization that makes it to space in a race against time with Verity Co who turn every piece of information into an opportunity for profit.

It's a book about grief and the connection between the living. I thought the corporate greed message was a little heavy handed, but a good read overall.

5/5

An incredible second book in this series with so many twists that I did not see coming. I really enjoyed both the sci-fi and political elements of the book as Wu Zetian has to manage the politics of reviving Qin Zheng and overthrowing the old regime.

I was once again fooled by what I thought was a duology actually being a trilogy, but I'm very excited to see where the story goes next.

e-book: Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
audiobook: The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

Vitrine is a demon with a city. Until that city is burned to ground by angels. Vitrine must grieve and eventually rebuild her city, while dealing with the presence of the angel she cursed.

It's a book about grieving and rebuilding. It's beautiful and strange, but I really enjoyed it.

I thought the narrator did a wonderful job bringing Vitrine's voice to life.

#netgalley