Hello Readers! I hope your 2021 is off to a fantastic start! I’ve already managed to finish a few books in 2021, but none that I actually started this year. Fingers crossed that I’ll mark that milestone off the list this week.
Goal for the week: Finish The Bone Season and In The Garden of Spite.
Mon 1/4: I got very little physical reading done today, but I did start listening to Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke (Hannah Swensen #8) on my morning commute. I love starting off the new workweek with a new cozy mystery in the car. I listen almost exclusively to cozy mysteries on my commute because I find it helps me deal with stress and frustration. There’s nothing better than sipping my coffee and listening to some corny murder-ish humor.
My Always Fully Booked Planner came in the mail today so I spent some time filling that out and generally admiring its loveliness. I also received my BOTM box today which contained The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and The Survivors by Jane Harper.
Tue 1/5: Today I listened to about 3 hours of Cherry Cheesecake Murder on my commute (on 2x speed). That means I’m now about 55% of the way through this one. Interestingly enough, no one is dead yet in this cozy mystery. We really are spending a lot of time getting to know these characters before we lose one or more of them, but I find that with Fluke’s writing, I don’t really mind the delay.
I also finished The Bone Season today, sort of. Technically I finished it at 3:30am Wednesday morning, but we’ll count it since I didn’t stop reading from about 10:30p Tuesday night. I feel like one continuous reading session should count for the day that you started. Either way, I finished it. It really didn’t grip me until about 70% of the way through, and I spent a good portion of the first half very confused with the world building. After reading Priory of the Orange Tree from this author, I was a little underwhelmed with this first book in the Bone Season series. I’ll give the second book a try at some point, but I’m not overly motivated to start it soon.
Wed 1/6: I started reading A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey today. I made it to ch. 7, which is pg. 54 in the copy that I am reading. So far it is really sweet, but it is introducing some darker themes related to mental health. I wasn’t expecting it to touch on that subject, but I also went into this one without a lot of knowledge of the storyline.
I also listened to about an hour and 20 minutes more of The Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanna Fluke. Someone finally died in the story, and I am still really enjoying it.
Thu 1/7: I finished listening to The Cherry Cheesecake Murder at lunch today. I wish that Goodreads would let us give half stars! My rating for this book is 3.5 stars, which is actually a half star higher than I normally rate the books in this series. The storyline just felt a little more solid this time. Fluke really took advantage of the fact that the reader should know a lot of these characters by now and the whole thing read really smooth because it felt like we skipped some of the repetitive introductory material.
I already started listening to the next book in the Hannah Swensen series, Key Lime Pie Murder on my way home and I made it almost to the 2 hour mark.
Fri 1/8: I got from 12% to 31% in In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce. This is a NetGalley eARC and it is a good read, but it is pretty dark. Partially as a response to how dark and violent In the Garden of Spite is, I started a middle grade book today called The Bookwanderers by Anna James. It is the first in a series and I made it to page 20. It’s off to a cozy start with a cute setting.
Sat 1/9: I only made progress on The Bookwanderers today, but I have almost finished it. I stopped at page 210, so I’ve got about 60 pages to go, but I am really enjoying this book. I can already tell that I’ll be picking up the next book in the series soon.
Sun 1/10: I finished The Bookwanderers early this morning and the ending did not disappoint. I really wish that I had the rest of the books in this series and could dive right in. I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads, but my personal rating is 4.25 stars.
I made some progress with In the Garden of Spite, going from 31%-40%. Since it is a 480 page book, that means I read roughly 43 pages (I think….math is not my strong suit).
On My Radar:
I freaked out to discover that Brittney Morris, the author of Slay, has a new book coming out in a couple of months called The Cost of Knowing (Goodreads page). Slay was one of my favorite books from 2019 and I have recommended it to so many people since then. I will definitely be reading this one as soon as I can get my hands on it.
I achieved part of my goal this week, since I completed The Bone Season, but I’ll need to roll finishing In the Garden of Spite over into next week’s goal.
Books Dani Likes 