Browsed by
Author: Jess

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

I really enjoyed the audiobook for A Spindle Splintered. I love a fairy tale re-telling and even though Beauty and the Beast is my absolute favorite, it was refreshing to read one about Sleeping Beauty. Zinnia pricks her finger on her twenty-first birthday and is transported to another world: Sleeping Beauty’s. Zinnia battles trying to save Sleeping Beauty while trying to manage her own health issues and get help from her best friend back home before her phone dies. Yes,…

Read More Read More

Listening Still by Anne Griffin

Listening Still by Anne Griffin

Magical realism is my absolute favorite genre to read and it was a perfect background to Jeanie’s story. Jeanie inherited the family trait of being able to speak to the dead for a limited time after they die. I love that the book isn’t centered around this though; it’s really about Jeanie figuring out what she wants her life to look like, despite seeming to have it all. She has a husband who loves her and is set to have…

Read More Read More

September Book Reviews

September Book Reviews

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan 2/5 StarsThis book has a great setting and sense of place. It really makes me want to visit Scotland for my next international trip. That’s about all that I enjoyed about the book though. I didn’t like Nina or the fact that no one in her love triangle could express anything clearly. Everyone in this book is wimpy and can’t make a decision for themselves. Nina was even forced into her big…

Read More Read More

Goodbye, Seattle.

Goodbye, Seattle.

This is a very belated post, but at the end of March 2021 we packed up our little house just north of Seattle and moved back east. It’s the most bittersweet thing I’ve ever experienced; I miss so, so, so much about the PNW and will always have a part of me that Seattle shaped (just as defined as those beautiful mountain ranges surrounding the city) but it was definitely time for- and good for- us to move. We drove…

Read More Read More

August Book Reviews

August Book Reviews

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy 5/5 StarsCharlotte McConaghy has delivered another wonderful book about so much more than it seems. I absolutely loved Migrations and was eager to read Once There Were Wolves as soon as it came out. The obvious subject of this book is Inti leading a team that is rereleasing wolves into the wilds of Scotland, but it is also about family, love, civilization, trauma, and survival. What lovely pages to get lost in. I…

Read More Read More

The First Actress by C.W. Gortner

The First Actress by C.W. Gortner

The First Actress is an absolutely wonderful (fictional) story about Sarah Bernhardt. I had first heard of her in my high school drama class, but aside from her sleeping in a coffin I didn’t remember anything about her. While many liberties have been taken, I think the reader still has a good idea of who Sarah Bernhardt was by the end of the book. From the beginning, I was hooked. The writing flows easily and while I may not agree…

Read More Read More

July Book Reviews

July Book Reviews

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 4/5I almost didn’t make it though Piranesi. I wanted to stop about halfway though, but when I reread the synopsis it made me want to keep going. The middle bits drag. I’m glad I did finish, and I really enjoyed the ending, though I wasn’t blown away by it. I had a general sense of Piranesi’s situation and was correct, though the details about characters at the end made it special. The Puma Years by Laura…

Read More Read More

Meet Me in Bombay by Jenny Ashcroft

Meet Me in Bombay by Jenny Ashcroft

This book was a little slow to start for me but once it did… hold my baby and clear the calendar. I was suddenly and violently sucked into this book and it was so nice because I’ve had a difficult time getting really into books since the new year (March now). Most of the book takes place in Bombay in 1914 and 1915. I haven’t read a book set in India in a long, long time and I don’t think…

Read More Read More

October Book Reviews

October Book Reviews

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 4/5 StarsThis book follows Diana Bishop, a witch with a long family history but one that she tries to shun due to the circumstances surrounding her parent’s death. She is an academic taking a sabbatical at Oxford when she encounters a spellbound book and can no longer avoid her use of magic. She also meets Matthew, a vampire, and fate keeps bringing them together no matter how much she tries to avoid him.Overall…

Read More Read More

September Book Reviews

September Book Reviews

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 5/5 StarsThis book is about so many different things (climate change, love, relationships, birds, working on a ship, the ocean) and the story is told in such a beautiful way. A woman finds a boat to help her track the last migration of the Arctic tern and along the way we get the back story of how she met her husband and how she grew up. We see her growing as a pre-teen and teen and…

Read More Read More