Always Me

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope everyone's been doing well this month.  I've now completed 13 total tasks for  Book Riot's 2025 Read Harder Challenge .  I completed two tasks in June which required me to read a   queer mystery and  a queernorm book .    I selected  Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything  by Justine Pucella Winans  and  In Deeper Waters  by F.T. Lukens  respectively.   Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month: ❋   ❋  ❋  ❋ Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything  by Justine Pucella Winans  turned out to be a pleasant surprise of a YA mystery.  I didn't quite know what expect from it, but I really ended up enjoying it. I'll have to read more from this author soon because I really liked their style.  My favorite aspect of this book are the characters and Bianca's own nerdiness and internal narration.  The darker sense of humor also really ...

  Happy Thursday everyone! Welcome back to  Books from the Backlog , the weekly linkup I'm taking part of which is hosted by  Carole's Random Life in Books .  This is a great way to put a spotlight on books that I've had sitting on my shelf for awhile.  I don't know when I'll get to my weekly featured book, but I hope to some time hopefully soon. This Week's Neglected Book: The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories by A.S. Byatt Published: 1994 Genre: Fantasy Fairytales Anthology My Copy: Format: Paperback Pages: 274 Where I Acquired It: Flea Market Summary (From Goodreads): The magnificent title story of this collection of fairy tales for adults describes the strange and uncanny relationship between its extravagantly intelligent heroine--a world renowned scholar of the art of story-telling--and the marvelous being that lives in a mysterious bottle, found in a dusty shop in an Istanbul bazaar. As A.S. Byatt renders this relationship with a...

Happy Wednesday!  Today, I'm sharing my June update for my  12 Challenge 2025 .  This month I completed 2 books for a total of 12 completed of the 12 books recommended to me.  I'm patting myself on the back for checking off one of this year's reading challenges.  Keep reading to see my thoughts on I the final two books I read for this challenge:  ❋   ❋  ❋  ❋   ❋   I'm so glad I decided to read  The Phoenix Keeper  by S.A. MacLean  because I absolutely loved it. I know it's a adult fantasy book, but I will say that Aila (age 28) does come across as quite younger and a bit annoying that I would almost have expected this to be a YA novel. However, all that said that didn't put off my love of this standalone. I can't wait to read more from this author in the future. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . ❋   ❋  ❋  ❋   ❋   The Tainted Cup  ( Shadow of the Leviathan  #1) by R...

      Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Books On My Summer 2025 TBR.  Without further ado, here we go in alphabetical order by title: Annie on My Mind  by Nancy Garden  - This has been on my radar for quite awhile.  I'll be reading it for  Book Riot's 2025 Read Harder Challenge . Baptism of Fire  ( The Witcher  #3) by Andrzej Sapkowski  - I'm getting caught up!  I'll be reading this for my  Read Around the World Challenge: Europe . Crownchasers  ( Crownchasers  #1) by Rebecca Coffindaffer  - I've been meaning to read this YA sci-fi fantasy series opener for far too long.  It's sounds really cool and it's been compared to things I've loved too.  I'll be reading it for  Book Riot's 2025 Read Harder Challenge . D (A Tale of Two Worlds)  by Michel Faber  - This has been on my tbr for ...

    Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url.  Welcome back again!  Today, I'm featuring some of my favorite tracks from the soundtrack of  The Count of Monte Cristo (2024).  The classic story is one of my favorites and I was pleasantly surprised to realize that this French movie is currently my favorite adaptation of it.  Pierre Niney's performance as Edmond is brilliant....

Happy Sunday and welcome to the Mid-Year Book Freak Out of 2024 everyone!  I've been taking part in this since 2015 - if you like you can check out my previous posts from  2015 ,  2016 ,  2017 ,  2018 ,  2019 ,  2020 ,  2021 ,  2022 , 2023 , and 2024 .  It's always good to see what everyone else has been reading via this tag and I know I'll be adding a more and more books to my already overflowing TBR.  By the way, this tag was originally created by ReadLikeWildFire and Earl Grey Books (way back when, that is). Without further ado, let's get to it: 1. Best book you've read so far in 2025. James by Percival Everett - This was amazing and I 100% see why it's won and/ or been nominated for all the awards it has.  If you're looking for a retelling of a work of classic literature, I can't recommend this enough. 2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2025. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear ( Wayward Children #10) ...