Category: Kindred Spirits

Cozy Corners 🦋✨🌻♥️🌿

amyofhearthridge6 Comments

Hello 👋 ~

It’s taken me until today (Friday) to feel a little more relaxed! 😌 I realized I was trying to “force” myself and the kiddos to relax. Ha. 🙃😂 We were able to pop into our lovely small local library and browse. A couple of my kids have been enjoying the summer reading program, so we picked up some more picture books. I’m sure missing my wonderful, curated living books which are packed away, as you know, for continued remodeling. I may treat myself later by pulling out a few bins of our history period we are studying this coming school year. It will satisfy my itch to be among my ‘friends’ for a little while. My 14 yo daughter chose after the library to get an iced matcha and my two boys chose ice cream from our little drive in diner. We love the local hippy coffee shop with cheerful vibes and the fun diner. Our area has SO much natural beauty, too, and we have a couple of places we plan to haunt soon.

Our lovely friends let us chrysalis babysit and we got to watch three Monarchs hatch this week. 😍♥️🌿🦋 Such a rewarding experience!

We spent the afternoon at a nearby lake and I truly felt myself relaxing. The cool wind and toasty sun, flickering through the trees was perfect. I’ve been wanting to reread my Summer Book by Susan Branch and I was able to slowly savor her lovely illustrations, quotes she collects, and recipes. I love her work so much! It made me excited to be a home keeper again. 😍☕️✨🌻 One of my favorite things was sitting on the fishing dock with the sun beating on me. The weather was perfect. We also saw a pair of Belted Kingfishers flying low over the water. 🥰🥰🥰🥰

I did a little journaling set up! I like doing little goals sheets, not religiously or anything, but to give myself a pretty way to track my habits etc that I’m continuing to work on. I’ve done these little symbol keys before! They are fun! ♥️

I made a massive Brain Dump List and some other to-do things because it helps me to focus and calm down without all that rattling around in my brain. I’m also figuring out a way of curating the quotes from my reading that I want to jot into my commonplace. I read a lot and mark my books up, but I want to figure out how to better choose quotes! I loved this video about recently on this topic. I’m letting Jane Austen’s Bookshelf simmer before choosing favorite quotes to add out of the ones I marked.

I’ve been on a Booktube watching break and it’s interesting how many other things I get done and how much actual reading I get in! 🤣 I finished The Opt-Out Family and I must say it may be so far one of my favorite things I’ve read this year. I’m going to slowly go back through it, as I want to note ideas and passages better. Highly recommend! ♥️✨

Finished my reread! Love Miss Austen so much! This isn’t a favorite of hers for me, but the 2nd half was such a wonderful character study. ♥️✨

How was your week? ♥️😍🌿✨☕️🌻

Wednesday Wonders {Day 95} 📚🦋

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~listening to~ ♥️🌿 I just barely started a new audiobook called Dream of Kings by Sharon Hinck. It’s a perfect listen on my riding lawnmower. I have wedding programs to work on later so I will probably listen to more! I heard about this free choice in the Audible Plus catalog if you have an Audible account from the lovely Booktuber, Emily

Colorful stack amongst my deck flowers! 💐 😍♥️🌿 Trying a few and continuing others!

~watching~♥️🌿 I really want to try the 1995 ‘Little Princess’ movie! 🎥 I’ve only seen the Shirley Temple version. It just came in from the library so hopefully my kids and I can watch it soon. I’m loosely participating in The Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do 3.0😆😂, so I enjoyed watching the announcement for that, too. Albeit she’s very opinionated, just FYI. 🤣😬😅

•reading•♥️🌿~ my mood is still somewhat 😆nonfiction, and I finished up the YRE of Radium Girls (fantastic) and Do Something Beautiful for God (gorgeous!), but I feel a shift to cozy? stories. I did read one of the Great Mouse Detective stories on my deck the other night. Our weather went from boiling and smokey to gorgeous and cool! 😍 I’m most interested in finishing up my reread of Sense & Sensibility and continuing Jane Austen’s Bookshelf. I’m currently very intrigued by Artifact by Gigi Pandian (so far some language) and starting The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink! The truth is I have SO many good sounding books on my physical and kindle stacks. 🙃😍♥️📚 I’ve been ordering picture books from library because most of ours are packed away. It’s been fun to curl on my bed and read these with my youngest three. I find this gals recommendations are overall GREAT!

~noticing~♥️🌿 the details for my daughter’s wedding are slowly coming together! It’s getting close! 😱😭😍 I’m struggling staying with some of my rhythms and habits that are helpful, so trying to ease back into them for my sanity. However, trying not to guilt trip myself either. I’m finally feeling the school planning shift. Making some lists and poking around on websites. Love looking at book recommendations! Where do you look most for homeschool inspiration? ♥️

Well, that’s all, folks! 😅♥️Bless you! ♥️🌿📚☕️✨🥰

Top Ten Books That Live in My Head Rent Free {Classic Edition} 📚✨~ {Day 94}

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Joining here for TTT!
  1. The Holy Bible ~ this is not always an easy book to read and I don’t understand a lot of it, but my spirit connects with it. It’s foundational to my life and faith. My favorite books are Psalms and John.♥️🙏🏻🌿
  2. The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry ~ this collection of Berry’s poetry speaks to me deeply. It makes me consider time and future generations in a huge way. It makes me think of now. It makes me consider life outside of self. Our lives have meaning for a greater purpose!
  3. Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery ~ my handle online is Amy of Hearth Ridge directly inspired by this book. There’s something to be said for hoping to be useful and a blessing to someone else in your life. How living a selfless life actually is fulfilling. Beautiful story of a daughter and father’s restored relationship bringing healing to those around them.That home keeping can be art.
  4. Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell ~ I can’t begin to tell you how much I love the characters and journeys they go through! The father-daughter, mother-daughter, father-son, and marriage relationship studies in this Victorian novel are fantastic. This is a beautiful story!
  5. Persuasion by Jane Austen ~ a lovely story of redemption and finally being able to have a voice. How one can live kindly and generously in the wake of S.S. Selfish People. 🚢
  6. Home Education by Charlotte Mason ~ late 1800’s to early 1900’s British revolutionary educational philosophy. This is so very Christ-centric and focused on the personhood of children and mothers. A beautiful life-giving read.
  7. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher ~ a lovely story of how a child can blossom under loving and listening caregivers.
  8. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury ~ a father and son meeting evil together face on! Underlying themes of temptation, fear, and growing older! I’m due for a reread!
  9. Christy by Catherine Marshall ~ beautiful story of a young teacher’s growth and learning in a rural Appalachian school. Gorgeous lessons for her as the very people she came to ‘help’ grow her so much in return. Wonderful female friendships embodied!
  10. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder ~ the sheer bravery and strength of the early pioneers is astounding, convicting, and so inspiring! I often reevaluate my complaints after rereading this one. 😨♥️

I could have put Elizabeth Goudge on this list, Gladys Taber, Susan Branch, and many more poets! How about you? Which books do you think of over and over? ♥️✨🌿📚

Wednesday Wonders {Day 82} 💦🌊💧

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My daughter sent me this! 😻😻😻

~listening to~ ♥️🌿

I happen to notice that I was listening to ‘Swim’ by BTS while reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Serendipity! 😅💦💧🌊 I picked up this narrative poem for Jane Austen July because I believe Coleridge was a contemporary of Austen’s. I think 🤔 it sounds familiar, I may have read it before! The albatross! 😳😂

~watching~ ♥️🌿I did end up watching the 2020 ‘Emma’ film with my daughter and meh. 🫤 It was ok. I liked parts of it. It struck me as sort of goofy. 😂 A n*ked backside right in the beginning was weirdo, too. Oh, well. I liked the actors that played Mr. Knightly and Miss Bates. I’m allowing myself one Booktube video a day in July and it makes me be very choosy. I really enjoyed Chantel’s yesterday.

~reading~♥️🌿 I have massive piles physically and on my kindle, 😂📚 but I’m mostly finishing up The Opt-Out Family and working on Moby Dick. I also just barely dipped into Jane Austen’s Bookshelf of which I enjoyed the first few pages immensely. I haven’t borrowed anything new from public library (July challenge), just reading from my stacks and Kindle!

~noticing~ ♥️🌿

My hollyhocks are wonderful! 😁 I may have mentioned before that they are biannual and these self-seeded, so I forgot about them! 🥰😻😍What happiness!

What are you listening to, watching, reading, and noticing? ♥️🌿📚 Chat below, friends! ~

Top Ten Books I’d Like to Read (or Reread) with a “Nature” Word in Title {Day 81} 🌿🌿🌿

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Joining That Artsy Reader Girl
  1. Is A River Alive by Robert MacFarlane ~ MacFarlane is a beautiful nature writer and poet. He tells the story of three? major rivers interspersed with stories of a small river that he has a personal connection with!
  2. Beneath the Haunting Sea by Joanna Ruth Meyer ~ I remember loving this fantasy years ago and want to revisit this water-based world!
  3. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery ~ I’m hopeful about a long-time-overdue reread of this series!
  4. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery ~ slowly making my way through again! Montgomery is my favorite author, so I’m loving it!
  5. Sisters of the Earth edited by Lorraine Anderson ~ I’ve been interested in this nonfiction collection from my shelves for awhile! It’s a collection of prose and poetry about nature by various women writers.
  6. The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge ~ another reread that I’m craving. A older career woman gets a fresh start when an aunt bequeaths her a country cottage.
  7. Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer ~ another beautifully written Meyer reread! I really love her atmospheric fantasy! I remember enjoying the tree spirits etc.
  8. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman ~ gorgeous poetry I want to keep plugging away at!
  9. The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas ~ I so enjoyed The Robe earlier this year and want to try this Biblical Historical Fiction about the Apostle Peter by Douglas as well.
  10. As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Eugene Peterson ~ nonfiction collection of thoughtful and inspiring sermons by Peterson. He was a wonderful writer/speaker.

Have you read any of these? Do you have a favorite nature-themed read? I’d love to hear!

Favorite Second Quarter Reads: 📚2026📚 {Day 71}

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Favorite First Quarter Reads

Happy Saturday, folks!

June is coming to a close and with that I realized that I have another quarters reading favorites to pick! I’m grouping them by loose genre for your convenience!

♥️🌿✨CLASSICS✨🌿♥️

  1. Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery ~ continues the story of Anne Shirley! Marilla and Anne have a new challenge of raising two young children of Marilla’s cousin. Davy seriously scares me! 😱 Lavender Lewis and Echo Lodge, The Mrs. Morgan Visit, Paul Irving, the freckle juice, the blue willow ware platter, Mr. Harrison and Ginger, his parrot, not to mention the Avonlea Improvement Society aka A.V.I.S! This book is one of my absolute favorites of the series!
  2. Mistress Pat by L.M. Montgomery ~ sequel to Pat of Silverbush. Just a delightful story of a young woman dreading change and growing up. The characters, nature, and sweet simplicity are wonderful. A wee repetitive and I don’t love love-triangles, but Judy Blum and the cats make it all worth it!
  3. Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame ~ A timeless story of friendship, bravery, and how anything out of order in our lives can rule us if we aren’t careful. Looking 👀 at you, Toad. I loved listening to this (again) with my children.

♥️🌿✨CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHICAL✨🌿♥️

  1. What You Are Looking for is in the Library by Mishima Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts ~ this is an unique novel of individual stories tied together through random connections and a rather mysterious, cookie-eating, felting librarian. I love how each book helps that individual person find something they needed and how each person randomly shows up in the lives of the others in a way that really helps. Some might find this simple, but it really touched me and made me think. The light splash of magic realism was lovely, too.
  2. Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech ~ Gorgeous, heart wrenching story of a marriage, parenting, love, and contentment. Twins in a group home have had a horrible childhood and get taken in by Tiller and Sari who are disillusioned by the mundane. Dallas and Florida need a home and help the couple realize the beautiful life they truly have. The twins are shown unconditional love for the first time. They all work together to stop villainy they uncover at the children’s home!

♥️🌿✨COZY MYSTERY✨🌿♥️

1. Secrets of Shakespeare’s Grave and Tower of the Five Orders by Deron R. Hicks ~ delightful adventures involving a brother and sister trying to help their father save the family publishing company! This is set between Georgia, USA and London, England! Clues, puzzles, mysterious graves, Shakespeare, bookish etc! Just so fun!

2. Gladwynne Grant Gets Her Footing and Takes the Stage by Lisa R. Howeler ~ I absolutely love Gladwynne and her grandmother! Gladwynne comes to live with her grandmother and gets a job as a reporter for the small town newspaper. The mysteries and scrapes Gladwynne finds herself in are intriguing! I love the wonderful town’s people who made these two cozies so sweet! Light faith elements. I have the third on my kindle, I can’t wait to continue!

✨🌿♥️MYSTERY/THRILLER♥️🌿✨~

1. Quietly in Their Sleep by Donna Leon ~ A great installment of this long police mystery series following Venice police detective Guido Brunetti! He follows his nose in this one and uncovers corruption in a religious order! Very creepy and I absolutely loved Guido’s family, coworkers, and the Venice setting. These are gritty with explicit crime violence, fyi.

2. The Crown Conspiracy by Connie Mann ~ I found this one free in my Audible Plus catalog! A morally gray Robin Hood art forger type 🤣, Sophie returns stolen art work to rightful owners by stealing it herself and leaving behind convincing forgeries! The money funds her and her best friend’s rescue group getting women and children out of trafficking. Sound weird? It gets even stranger! 😂 A missing royal painting shows up that has far reaching implications. Lisa and Sophie find themselves running for their lives! A secretive group of women show up to help! Charlie’s Angels anyone? 🤣🙃 This was a bit far-fetched and convoluted, but I ate the audiobook up! 😅♥️ Heavy violence, just fyi.

♥️🌿✨FANTASY/SCI-FI✨🌿♥️~

  1. Deathmark by Kate Stradling ~ Fantasy retelling of The Blue Castle! I found this so intriguing with the cleric/religious villains being extremely disturbing. This one looks kind of dark from its cover, but actually had a sweet, gentleness to story even though the characters found themselves in a difficult situation.
  2. Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine ~ Space-punk pirates running between London and colonized Mars. Great found family, autonomous, strange creatures, and more! This really worked for me! Highly recommend!
  3. Huntress by Carrie Cotten ~ This took me a minute to get into due to flashbacks and story set up, but then I loved it! Told through the eyes of Duncan and Cyrene, two opposing local leaders, one hidden from the other after treachery and betrayal, a generation removed! This was so well-written, and the Christian Faith themes, while heavier, pretty seamlessly woven in. Loved the characters, slow moving, Celtic, medieval world. No overt magic. I’m continuing the series soon with The Viking!
  4. Flame Theory by C.F.E. Black ~ Slow start to this rags to riches, high-stakes, hidden identity dragon rider school story! 😂 I really ended up loving the characters and the sacrifices one character makes for another! Friend group was so great! This has some lovely Harry Potter vibes and it was well-written and the dialogue good!

🌿♥️✨HISTORICAL✨♥️🌿~

  1. Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer ~This was an absolutely ridiculous Regency-era story that I really enjoyed! It just worked for me. Another story where the main male character is secretly a good guy, but comes across cold or indifferent. The jibes at the weathy English. “ton” and the familial relationships were great.
  2. Arabella by Georgette Heyer~ Regency-This was a delightfully silly story about an impoverished beauty who lies to two wealthy gentlemen after overhearing them disparaging her! Hilarious happenings ensue!
  3. Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley ~ Slow start, but lovely story set in the Scottish Highlands based on the life of Martha, one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s ancestors. Loved the family, cozy, home-y-ness of this!

✨🌿♥️NONFICTION ♥️🌿✨~

1. Homeschooling: You’re Doing Right by Just Doing It by Ginny Yurich ~ Slow start (again) for me but I grew to love this former public school teacher’s thoughts and evidence on the benefits of homeschooling. Reassuring and encouraging!

Whew! 😅 ♥️ That’s a lot! Hopefully, you will find something for yourself or your family that you’d like to check out! Happy Reading!

Top Ten Books I Hope to Read ~ Summer 2026📚~ {Day 68}

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I found a new-to-me-blogger Lisa at Boondocks Ramblings that I’m enjoying and am joining her and the host, That Artsy Reader Girl for Top Ten Tuesday!

I’m an extreme mood reader, but will make heaps of hopeful piles! Many of these are rereads or books on my 50 books by 50 list! I’m in a cozy, domestic fiction mood with a side of nonfiction and a vague feeling of something else reading mood. 😅🤪😎

  1. I’m slowly rereading the Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery series because my Ann with an E is getting married this year! 😭♥️I’m on the 3rd book now!
  2. Moby Dick by Herman Melville ~ I love the gorgeous word-smithing and hilarious situations Ishmael finds himself in! I got 3/4ths through this a few years ago, but never finished so determined to now.
  3. Unmaking the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth ~ VERY out of my wheelhouse, but an interesting look at the dismantling of Western cultural foundations and the dehumanization of man. This is so fascinating and honestly, a bit sobering. I’m not sure what Mr. Kingsnorth is totally trying to say, 😂 but there’s enough in here to make me really think.

4. The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge ~ I’m due for a reread of this beautiful story of an older woman moving to an inherited house in the countryside and asking herself if she has ever truly been living.

5. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery ~ been craving a reread of this one . If you felt you had a short time to live, how would you live your life? Valency Sterling has lived a stifling existence up to this point and jumps at the chance to buck against it!

6. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery ~ yes, another Maud book! I’m really leaning into the domestic, cozy fiction. Young Emily Starr is taken in by aunts when her beloved father passes away. Her writer’s soul aches with growing pains and trying to find a kindred spirit in her new situation. I’m finally feeling ready to really dig into my reread of this sadder trilogy.

7. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh ~ this is for my in-person book club! We are all busy moms so reading it slowly, but so much to discuss on fading English aristocracy, religion, family and societal pressures.

8. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot ~ this is a book from my 50×50 list and my friend who I trust implicitly with book recommendations said it’s a good summer read! I don’t really know what this is about but looking forward to trying another Eliot!

9. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney ~ I’ve been hoping to read this for a long time and the Booktube reading event Jane Austen July would be perfect. I’m much slower at nonfiction, so we’ll see if I can get to it!

10. Habits for a Sacred Home by Jennifer Pepito ~ I’ve been interested in checking out this home educating title for awhile and am looking for a title to read with our homeschool mom’s group this autumn!

~These are just a few of the ones capturing my attention currently! What about you? What books are on your stack this summer? 🌞✨☕️📚♥️😍

Happy Summer! 🌞✨ {Day 66)

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Click in to read a little boy’s thoughts on jam! 😂♥️🥰😍

Happiest First Day of Summer and Father’s Day! I’m over here at Hearth Ridge enjoying family, sunshine, flowers, and an Anne of Avonlea reread. Church and feasting, too! God is good! ✨

~

Wandering ♥️🌿 {Day 64}

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Birthday post is the best! 🌿♥️

Lovely bits from web…

Lisa’s Summer Book Stack…

Kourtney’s lovely writing retreat plan…

Molly’s inspirational post about a mother’s retreat…

Jen’s lovely quilt block of the month…

Make Room 🏡 {Day 63}

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I could stare at our skies forever around here.
Getting out some different coffee mugs for summer!
See you next spring!
Eclectic birthday gifts! 🥰♥️
Kids were so happy!
Smells heavenly!

Better is a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting-and conflict.

Proverbs 17:1~

Simplicity makes room for relationship. ♥️🌿 Relationships with God, others, and everything real around us. It’s ok to love home, slow routines, and regular boring rhythms. I’ve been thinking about how on an extended social media break I start to slow down, revel in my mundane tasks, realize I don’t have to keep up with anything other than getting meals on the table and washing laundry occasionally. I can have long times with my coffee steaming into the early morn, Bible flipped open, hummingbirds approaching. I can listen and chat and make Rice Krispies treats with my little boys. I can read or not read, wear my favorite comfy flannel from a thrift store with no need for more. I can walk with my music and the wind. It’s so refreshing. It doesn’t need to become more than it is, some-holier-than-thou move, but lets me step out of the stream of a vague unease of missing out, the guilt and fear of not keeping up. ‘They’ want you to feel that way. So that you need them or whatever it is they’re selling. It’s unbelievably freeing to step back and let it swirl by. It makes me want to pray more about how I use social media and maybe stepping away from forms of it that aren’t bringing me joy and enhancing this quieter, contemplative pace.

~ 🌿♥️

Chantel’s Read Your Bookshelf Challenge Wrap Up 📚📚📚{Day 62}

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Happy Tuesday! I’m here to wrap up this Booktuber reading challenge. You can still participate by picking and choosing what books you are reading fulfill the prompts! I don’t follow the monthly delineation because I’m a mood reader, mostly. Small confession: {whispers} Only 3 of these titles were actually on my physical/Kindle shelf! The rest were library check-outs. So I ‘failed’ on the reading my shelf. Oh well! All in good fun!😂🤓

Here’s the prompts!

Check it out here!

Title includes an article ~

A Dark Night’s Work by Elizabeth Gaskell ~

The first half of this story was so dark and depressing. Our main female character gets caught up in covering up a crime. The guilt, fear, and shame are palpable as she barely moves through life. The last 1/4th of the book was better, a bit more hope, but wow, not my favorite from my favorite Victorian author.

Three or More Objects (on cover) ~

The Labors of Hercules Beale by Gary D. Schmidt ~

This was a lovely story of two brothers working through their grief due to the loss of their parents. They are navigating their new relationship and trying to keep the family greenhouse afloat. Hercules transfers to a new school and a strict new teacher challenges him in ways that truly help him grow! Schmidt’s books are fantastic in a rip-your-heart-out-and -put-it-back together way! I also love Wednesday Wars by this author.

Weapon on Cover ~

Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw ~ A beautiful classic quest fantasy with an underdog main character! Aedan and his new found family he gathers truly grow in character and love! This was so amazing! Satisfying ending even though sequel never was released due to the authors health.

Title Includes a Conjunction ~

For Whom the Book Tolls by Laura Gail Black ~ Gal inherits her uncles antique bookshop in this cozy mystery. Unfortunately, a terrible secret awaits her as she wakes up the first morning! Suspicion is aimed at her surrounding a past false accusation. This had an old mansion, treasure, and an old diary as part of the story!

Includes a Place~

Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine ~ Space-punk pirate ships between England and colonized Mars. I loved the main characters and this zany adventure. The crab-like Martians cracked me up! Pure fun! 🤩

Title with Five or More Words~

Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry ~ a beautiful memoir about life & death, philosophy, small town Wisconsin. This was written so well and so true to relationships and culture in the Midwest. Highly recommend with the caveat of some sad explicit emergency situations and descriptions.

Has a Map ~

The Will of the Many by James Islington ~ Roman-like world, epic fantasy with deep themes of love and sacrifice for a son who is driven by revenge for a beloved father. Highly recommend!

Water ~

Dead in the Water by Denise Swanson ~

I thought this was a cozy, but it turned out a bit grittier and with adult themes. I really loved the husband/wife duo in the Chief of Police, Wally and his wife Skye, psychologist. They are expecting their first child and a tornado disaster causes havoc to their small town. A murder, family issues, and the town rebuilding/clean up bring them together.

Animal ~

Cloaked in Beauty by Karen Witemeyer ~

This was a deeper Red Riding Hood retelling. I loved the kindness and love the main female character lived and the Grandmother was awesome! A bit heavier on romance, but wonderful characters and an unique take on this story! I loved the wolf dog sidekick, too!

Bookish~

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine ~ This is such a unique premise! The Library of Alexandria is the center of all knowledge and special librarians are trained to care for it and guard the knowledge. The new batch of trainees are a mixed bag and full of secrets including Jess our main character. The students uncover corruption at the highest levels. I loved this story and the characters. Unfortunately, a bit of a sneering attitude towards traditional morality, so be aware. Nothing explicit except fantasy violence, so far. I hope to continue with the 3rd in the series soon!

Transportation ~

Hearse and Buggy by Laura Bradford ~

Cozy mystery set in Amish community. I love the bed & breakfast and main characters aunt! This was a little slow and repetitive, but I may return if I want a gentle, quiet mystery. I loved the ex-Amish police detective!

True or False ~

The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Newton Fusco ~ if anything, read this story for the exquisite writing. Hurricane is our main character and she finds her life in upheaval when she is sent to live with her aunt and employee. This books deals with grief, chronic illness, loneliness, found family, traditions, carving a life for oneself out of a whole new experience. The Great Depression, class, and PTSD touch Hurricane and her new friends lives in a big way. I loved the ‘butler’ character in this story! This is very slow but so sweet and poignant.

How ‘bout you? Do you have any recent reads in these categories? Do you participate in bingo boards or reading challenges? We love them here! 😍✨🤩Happy Reading! 📚♥️🌿