Children’s Book Review: Katrina Hyena Stand-Up Comedian

Title: Katrina Hyena, Stand-up Comedian

Author: Sophie Kohn

Illustrator: Aparna Varina

Publisher: Owlkids

Publication Date: October 15, 2024

Description:

When the spotted hyenas in Katrina’s clan laugh, it’s meant as a warning to alert the clan that danger is near. But that’s not why Katrina laughs. Katrina laughs because she thinks world is just sooooo funny!

This causes great frustration with the other hyenas. Every single time Katrina starts laughing, they think she’s in danger and rush to help her. What if Gary the Lion is on the prowl?!

Katrina, whose dream is to be a stand-up comedian, thinks her stressed-out clan worries too much about Gary, so she decides to help them relax by putting on a comedy show.

This laugh-out-loud story will have readers developing their own jokes, and the hilarious illustrations will act as a helpful guide for emerging readers, who will devour chapter after chapter. The recurring theme of self-acceptance assures readers that it’s okay to be different, and that sometimes it’s our differences that make us special.

My Thoughts

Kids will love this funny book filled with corny puns. It’s great for the beginning reader who is ready to transition to longer books. Hyenas usually only laugh when they are in danger, but Katrina likes to laugh when things are funny. This frustrates the other hyenas until she starts her own comedy show they can’t resist laughing. This books is a fun celebration of being yourself from start to finish.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Picture Book Review: Rosie’s Wild Ride

Title: Rosie’s Wild Ride

Author: Paige Murray

Illustrator: Kristen Humphrey

Publication Date: October 8, 2024

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description:

Meet Rosie, the big horse with even bigger dreams! In Rosie’s Wild Ride, Clydesdale horse Rosie and her cowgirl friend Oakley want to be rodeo stars, but what happens when the competition doesn’t quite go as planned? In this beautiful, inspiring picture book, readers will learn the importance of teamwork, chasing their dreams, and daring to ask, “What if I can?

Rosie the Clydesdale is a BIG horse. She likes her life on the ranch and helping the farmer with his chores, but she also has a secret dream: she wants to be a rodeo star. She finally gets her chance when she teams up with a plucky cowgirl named Oakley, but the rodeo events aren’t designed for a big horse like Rosie. When a rogue bull disrupts the competition, though, Rosie and Oakley might be the only ones big and brave enough to stop him.

From debut children’s author Paige Murray comes a rodeo adventure complete with roping, riding, and racing—based on real animals from her own Texas ranch.

My Thoughts:

Clydesdales are big horses that are used for pulling. Rosie works on the farm, but dreams of being a rodeo star. She finally gets her chance when Oakley’s parents want her to have a gentle horse. They practice and join the rodeo, but Rosie’s size make competitions like barrel racing difficult. But the bull gets loose they need a big horse to bring him back. Oakley rides Rosie to the rescue. Without winning a single event Rosie and Oakley are the stars of the rodeo.

This book, written by the wife of rodeo star Ty Murray, features cowgirl Oakley and Rosie the Clydesdale. The Murrays really have a daughter named Oakley and a Clydesdale named Rosie. When I read that at the end of the book it made the story that much more special. I love when authors write stories that have special meaning to their family, but are also universally appealing. I think kids will love Rosie’s story and the message of reaching for your dreams.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

My Most Anticipated Book Releases October 2024

Another great month of new releases- so excited to see some great middle grade novels on the list.

October 1

A small Southern town. An ordinary Saturday night. A little boy disappears without a trace.

Everyone in Wynotte, North Carolina, knows the name Davy Malcor. Knows the video clip of him juggling four balls, “All at the very same time!” Knows the Marty McFly jacket his mother made for his birthday that he wore proudly, and often. But no one knows what happened to him the night he went missing more than twenty years ago.

When the jacket is unexpectedly uncovered, the cold case reopens, and Davy’s family is thrust into yet another media storm. But at the heart of the story are four people forever changed by one single Thaddeus Malcor, Davy’s older brother, created the life of his dreams by writing a bestselling memoir about his family’s experience and is enjoying success and notoriety as a result, even if the memoir doesn’t quite reveal the whole story. Tabitha Malcor, his mother, is divorced and living alone, advocating for victims’ rights and faithfully cataloging her regrets each week, never including her biggest regret of all. Anissa Weaver was just a kid herself when Davy went missing, and her connection to him is one she cannot reveal as she serves as the Malcor family’s Public Information Officer. And, long suspected in Davy’s disappearance, Gordon Swift has kept his head down and scraped together a decent life. But the new attention to the case makes it impossible to hide from the public, and the past.

When Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at the holiday pageant tryouts for their local senior’s center, they think they must be seeing double. While they both knew they were adopted, they had no idea they had a biological sibling, let alone an identical twin! The similarities are only skin deep, though, because while Aviva has a big personality and even bigger Broadway plans, Holly is more the quiet dreamer type who longs to become a famous author like her grandfather.

One thing the girls do have in common is their curiosity about how the other celebrates the holidays. What better way to discover the magic of the holidays than to experience them firsthand? The girls secretly trade lives, planning to stage a dramatic reveal to their families at the pageant. Two virtual strangers swapping homes, holidays, and age-old traditions–what could possibly go wrong?

October 8

Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother’s disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?

On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.

As a teenager growing up in 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta’s role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta’s mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can’t help but be drawn to Esther’s curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solomon’s customers her own advice—unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions.

As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther’s most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther’s enchantments forever.

Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late?

Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain.

As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again—and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children—she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it.

Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor—it will both break your heart and put it back together again.

October 15

So begins Chapter Twelve of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and the heartwarming story of Harry Potter’s first Christmas at Hogwarts. From the Great Hall decked with magnificent fir trees to cozy evenings in the Gryffindor Common Room to the joy of presents on Christmas morning, it’s a holiday filled with warmth, friendship, good food, and magical surprises that Harry will never forget.

With text drawn directly from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and luminous illustrations by artist Ziyi Gao, this favorite moment from one of the most beloved books of all time is now fully illustrated for the whole family to enjoy. Sure to be treasured by Harry Potter fans of all ages, Christmas at Hogwarts is the perfect gift, destined to become an enchanting new holiday tradition.

Greek myths have fascinated people for millennia, seeing in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existence. Mark Haddon digs into the heart of these ancient fables and sees them anew.In “The Quiet Limit of the World” Haddon imagines Tithonus’ life as he slowly ages over thousands of years, turning the cautionary tale of tempting the gods into a spellbinding meditation on witnessing death from the outside, and ultimately, how carnal love evolves into something richer and more poignant with time. In “The Mother’s Story,” Haddon takes the myth of the minotaur in his labyrinth, in which the beast is the spawn of the monstrous lust of the king’s wife Pasiphae, and turns it into a wrenching parable of maternal love for a damaged child, and the more real monstrosities of patriarchy. In “D.O.G.Z.” the story of Actaeon, who was turned into a stag after glimpsing the naked goddess Diana and torn to pieces by his hunting dogs, becomes a visceral metaphor about the continuum of human and animal behavior.Other stories play with contemporary mythic tropes—genetic engineering, trying to escape the future, the viciousness of adolescent ostracism—to showcase how modern humans are subject to the same capriciousness that obsessed the Greeks. Haddon’s tales cover a vast range, from the mythic to the domestic, from ancient Greece to the present day, from stories about love to stories about cruelty, from battlefields to bed and breakfasts, from dogs in space to doors between worlds—all of them bound together by a profound sympathy and an understanding of how human beings act and think and feel when pushed to the very edge. Throughout Haddon’s supple prose, he showcases his astonishing powers of observation, of both the physical world and the workings of the psyche. His vision is clear-eyed, but always resolutely empathetic.

October 29

An isolated Scottish island, accessible to the mainland only twelve hours a day. A famous (some might say infamous) artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared after visiting her twenty years ago. A present-day discovery that intimately connects three people and unveils a web of secrets and lies.

Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day.

Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge….

Santo is a stranger in a strange land. He doesn’t know any English, and he gets separated from his mother and siblings at Ellis Island.

Santo’s father left for America a few years before, and he has finally sent word for the rest of his family to come join him in New York. Though Santo has always imagined America as a land of limitless opportunity, when he arrives at Ellis Island, he soon discovers that it’s not what he envisioned. Inspectors separate him from his mother and siblings, and he’s left to fend for himself in Manhattan.

While searching desperately for a clue as to where his family–and his father–have gone, Santo gets caught up with a group of boys who steal. After escaping the police by the skin of his teeth, Santo is taken in by a wealthy man and his wife—but somehow Santo again finds himself on the wrong side of the law. When an unexpected betrayal leaves Santo scrambling, it might just take all the street smarts he’s gained to find a way back to his family.

My Favorite Book of September 2024: The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel

“I’ve always believed that books are simply dreams on paper, taking us where we most need to go.”
― Kristin Harmel, The Paris Daughter

Title: The Paris Daughter

Author: Kristin Harmel

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publication Date: June 6, 2023

Goodreads Synopsis:

Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change.

When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it.

More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.

My Thoughts:

Sometimes, it seems like the market is being saturated with WWII novels. But, I never seem to tire of them. There are so many different angles and untold stories. This one stood out to me because it focused on the aftermath. At a time when no one talked about mental health, and counseling wasn’t readily available, Juliette and Elise both faced unimaginable tragedy. They are each profoundly affected but deal with their losses in different ways. The story is heartbreaking, but the end also leaves the reader with a sense of hope.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Book Review: A Face is a Poem by Julie Morstad

Title; A Face is a Poem

Author: Julie Morstad

Publisher: Penguin Random House, Canada: Turndra Books

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

Thank you to netgalley for giving me an advanced free ereader copy inexchange for an honest review.

Description:

Have you ever stopped and looked, really looked, at a face? Do faces stay the same forever, or do they change? What if we could change faces to see through someone else’s eyes? What if eyelashes were butterflylashes?

Julie Morstad guides readers through a playful and fantastical exploration of the unique eyes, noses, mouths, freckles, wrinkles, scars and all those one-of-a-kind marks that make up a face. Embracing commonalities and differences alike, A Face Is a Poem is an ode to the unique beauty of each and every person’s appearance, with an empowering message of love.

My Thoughts

I love the message of this book. We’re all unique and beautiful. I also like that it could appreciated at any day. It’s written simplistically enough that a young child can understand, but it could also lead to deeper discussions with older children.

Rating: 5 out of 5.


Picture Book Review: Grampy’s Chair by Rebecca Thomas

Title: Grampy’s Chair

Author: Rebecca Thomas

Publisher: Annick Press

Publication Date: September 17, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description:

Grampy’s chair sits in the middle of his living room and always keeps an eye on My Love. The Chair is the perfect spot for My Love to learn to read, to play games with her friends, and The Chair is always extra soft when My Love is sick. As My Love grows up, The Chair sees Grampy grow older and My Love must care for him. One day Grampy is gone, and The Chair is moved to a space with only a few things it recognizes (and a few spiders too). Will it see My Love again?

In this poignant story inspired by her own grandfather and his chair, Rebecca Thomas invites readers of all ages to explore love, grief, and the important moments in life that take place in our favorite spots. With lively illustrations from Coco A. Lynge and featuring a heartfelt author’s note, Grampy’s Chair takes the readers through loss, and how we can be found again by the ones we love.

My Thoughts

Grampy’s Chair is a touching story that adults will appreciate even more than children. The personal recollections of the author shine through. Anyone who had a close relationship with a grandparent can relate.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

My Favorite Book of August 2024: Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

“My Google search history alone was probably enough to put me on a government watch list. I wrote suspense novels about murders like this. I’d searched every possible way to kill someone. With every conceivable kind of weapon.”
― Elle Cosimano, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

Title: Finlay Donovan is Killing It

Author: Elle Cosimano

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Publication Date: February 2, 2021

Goodreads Synopsis:

Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.

My Thoughts:

I was going through a bit of a reading slump early in the summer, and this book was exactly what I needed to get out of it. It’s not deeply meaningful or realistic, but it was so much fun, I didn’t want to put it down. The twists and turns are so crazy, you never know what will happen next. Finlay Donovan is a great character and I can’t wait to read more books in the series.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Children’s book review: Mummy & Me: A Monster’s Tale by Danesh Mohiuddin

Title: Mummy & Me A Monster’s Tale

Author: Danesh Mohiuddin

Publisher: Owlkids Books

Publication Date: August 27, 2024

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description:

When the sun goes down, Mummy and Wee Wolf emerge from their coffin to start the day. Wee Wolf loves his mummy. She brushes his unruly fur, brews midnight stew for their lunch, and reads him his favorite Hairy Tales. And whenever Mummy and Wee Wolf have a disagreement, a little boogie helps them forget all their troubles!

But taking care of Wee Wolf isn’t easy. Wee Wolf’s efforts to be a perfectly well-behaved monster often hilariously sabotage Mummy. He interrupts her morning stretches, “helps” her cook by cannonballing into hot stew, and wiggles out of her grasp while she tries to clip his little wolfy toenails. By the end of the night, Wee Wolf notices Mummy becoming a little … unravelled. But just as Mummy is always there for him, Wee Wolf is there for her—ready to help re-wrap her bandages, toilet paper in hand.

This hilarious, highly original picture book plays with the phrase “little monsters” as it explores parent-child relationships. While the bold, detailed illustrations will draw readers in, Wee Wolf’s tender, thoughtful moments encourage both empathy and self-awareness. It’s a howling good time!

My Thoughts:

Kids will love the illustrations in this fun story. Despite Wee Wolf’s claim of having great manners, the pictures tell a different story. Parents will also appreciate the exhaustion Mummy feels after a long day caring for Wee Wolf. Even though the book is filled with silliness, it shows a realistic and touching relationship between a mother and child.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

My Most Anticipated Book Releases: September 2024

These are the new releases I’m most looking forward to in September. A lot of mysteries, but some other genres mixed in as well.

September 3

The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin

Goodreads synopsis:

A heartwarming story about a mother and daughter in wartime England and the power of the books that bring them together.

In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job to provide for herself and her beloved daughter, Olivia. But with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her.

When the threat of war becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In her daughter’s absence, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, as well as the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and her work forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.

The Cottage Around the Corner by D. L. Soria

Goodreads Synopsis:

Chanterelle Cottage is Charlie Sparrow’s whole world. The cozy spellshop where she and her moms practice their witchcraft, selling goods and services to the people of small-town Owl’s Hollow, has been in her family for generations.

Okay, business has been a little slow and a recent burglary hit their inventory pretty hard. And the bank may not agree to restructure their loan. But Charlie is talented and savvy, and she’ll keep things afloat once her parents finally let her buy into the business as a co-owner. Still, when a competing magecraft firm opens in town, things start to look bleak. After all, everyone knows there’s room for only one magic shop in Owl’s Hollow.

So what if Fitz, the mage who owns the new Maven Enterprises, happens to be ridiculously handsome in his ridiculously expensive suits? Who cares that, when Charlie can forget for a moment or two that Fitz is her competitor, things between them are as easy as breathing? None of that matters—because Charlie is not going to get involved with the competition. In this battle of the businesses, she’ll do whatever it takes to make sure Chanterelle Cottage is the last spellshop standing.

But when strange supernatural events begin to plague the citizens of Owl’s Hollow, Charlie and Fitz must put their rivalry aside and their magic together to save the town. As they grow closer, it becomes harder for Charlie to keep her carefully drawn line in place—maybe Owl’s Hollow is big enough for a witch and a mage, after all.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

Goodreads Synopsis:

“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, thisis a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

September 17

The Banned Books Club by Brenda Novak

Goodreads Synopsis:

She left her hometown following a scandal—but family loyalty is dragging her back…

Despite their strained relationship, when Gia Rossi’s sister, Margot, begs her to come home to Wakefield, Iowa, to help with their ailing mother, Gia knows she has no choice. After her rebellious and at-times-tumultuous teen years, Gia left town with little reason to look back. But she knows Margot’s borne the brunt of their mother’s care and now it’s Gia’s turn to help, even if it means opening old wounds.

As expected, Gia’s homecoming is far from welcome. There’s the Banned Books Club she started after the PTA overzealously slashed the high school reading list, which is right where she left it. But there is also Mr. Hart, her former favorite teacher. The one who was fired after Gia publicly and painfully accused him of sexual misconduct. The one who prompted Gia to leave behind a very conflicted town the minute she turned eighteen. The one person she hoped never to see again.

When Margot leaves town without explanation, Gia sees the cracks in her sister’s “perfect” life for the first time and plans to offer support. But as the town, including members of the book club, takes sides between Gia and Mr. Hart, everything gets harder. Fortunately, she learns that there are people she can depend on. And by standing up for the truth, she finds love and a future in the town she thought had rejected her.

Gracie Under the Waves by Linda Sue Park

Goodreads Synopsis:

Gracie Under the Waves by Linda Sue Park An empowering story from #1 New York Times bestseller and Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park starring a young snorkeling enthusiast who draws inspiration for fighting climate change from interacting with her pesty little brother

Snorkeling is the best! Gracie loves floating above underwater reefs, watching colorful fish dart in and out of the coral. She convinces her parents to let her plan a family vacation to Roatán, Honduras, where they can snorkel together. She even makes a new friend there. Now, if only her irritating little brother would leave her alone, everything would be perfect.

Things come to a screeching halt when Gracie hurts her leg, and all her carefully made plans start to come apart. Worse still, she learns the reef itself is in serious danger. Gracie wants to help the reef . . . but she’s just a kid. How can she possibly make a difference?

Inspired by her own experience, Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park tells the engaging tale of a young girl learning how to impact a cause she cares about while navigating the ups and downs of sibling relationships and turning disappointment into opportunity.

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

Goodreads Synopsis:

Estranged siblings discover their father has been keeping a secret for over fifty years, one that may have been fatal…

Liam Noone was many things to many people. To the public, he was an exacting, self-
made hotel magnate fleeing his past. To his three ex-wives, he was a loving albeit distant family man who kept his finances flush and his families carefully separated. To Nora, he was a father who often loved her from afar – notably a cliffside cottage perched on the California coast from which he fell to his death.   

The authorities rule the death accidental, but Nora and her estranged brother Sam have other ideas. As Nora and Sam form an uneasy alliance to unravel the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past—and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Goodreads Synopsis:

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job…

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

September 24


A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan

Goodreads Synopsis;

Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.

But human lust for power is immortal.


Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it’s her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard…though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.

When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.

The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride…but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.

Magic is not dead…it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

Goodreads Synopsis:

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:

She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.

He’s Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.

Picture Book Review: The Strangest Fish by Katherine Arden

Title: The Strangest Fish

Auther: Katherine Arden

Illustrator: Zahra Marwan

Publisher: Astra Young Readers

Publication Date: September 3, 2024

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description:

When Daisy wins a funny-looking goldfish at a fair, she ignores the mean comments about its appearance. She doesn’t mind the dull scales and lumpy head—in fact, she thinks her goldfish is the prettiest thing in the world. However, as Daisy continues caring for the goldfish, something strange starts happening to it . . .

With lyrical writing and stunning illustrations, this enchanting story about a girl and her goldfish reveals—with a touch of magic— the transformative power of unconditional love and care.

My Thoughts:

This was a cute “Ugly Duckling” type story. Daisy’s fish doesn’t look like other fish and keeps outgrowing containters. Turns out it’s because he’s not a fish, but a water dragon. This is a beautiful story about unconditional love and not judging someone/thing based on appearences.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

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