Always Me

Happy Thursday everyone! Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the book I read in June for Choose Your Own Adventure: Year In Adelia 2026, The Boardgame , an additional challenge to G. @ Book Roast 's Magical Readathon .  You can see my full tbr here .  Without further ado, check out my mini review below: June - 6B - Solve traps (turn right, good news - this definitely has to lead somewhere, bad news - someone really tried to make sure not everyone passed because the cave is riddled with traps!) - read a mystery book ❋ ❋ I wanted to like  The Undetectables ( The Undetectables #1) by Courtney Smythe  a lot more than I did. It's trying to do too much and it can't decide what it's trying to do.  Some books can juggle multiple tones/ styles well, but this one doesn't do it well enough to merit rating this higher.  It had potential, but didn't live up to my expectations.  It strikes me as something that could grow into itself as a series, but I don't think I'...

  Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing In The Second Half Of 2026, and in honor of Summer of Horror 2026 , a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy , I'm specifically featuring horror books.  Here we go, in order by release date: The Brides by Charlotte Cross  - Release date: July 7th The Unknown by Riley Sager - Release date: August 4th The Burn Line by Jonathan Sims - Release date: August 25th Dead Beat ( Alex Stern #3) by Leigh Bardugo - Release date: September 15th Mazywood by Tananarive Due - Release date: September 22nd Look What the Cat Dragged In by Jason Rekulak - Release date: October 13th Off the Reservation ( The Only Good Indians #2) by Stephen Graham Jones - Release date: October 13th Scorpion Deep by C.G. Drews - Release date: October 27th What Rough Beast...

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope everyone's had a good June.  It's just started to really heat up here for the season after being pretty mild and I'm not ready.  I've now completed 10 tasks for Book Riot's 2026 Read Harder Challenge .  The tasks I completed in June required me to read a  book with a   main character who uses they/them pronouns and a  sports book by a woman, trans, or nonbinary author.   I selected  Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens  and  Ana on the Edge by A.J. Sass  respectively.   Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month: ❋ ❋ ❋  ❋ Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens  is a book I'd been looking forward to for awhile.  As it turns out, this was just delightful.  Lukens' writing style really works for me and it just plain enjoyable.  I liked getting to know the full cast of characters and explore their world and unique magic system.  I can't wait to read even...

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing my my sixth update for my June progress for the year long reading challenge called The 52 Book Club's 2026 Reading Challenge .  You can see my original tbr here .  In June, I completed 8 books for a total of 39 read so far out of 52 total books on my tbr.  I can't believe I've only got 13 books left for this challenge!  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in June: 18. Provokes strong emotion ❋ ❋ ❋  ❋ ❋  I didn't know to expect going into  The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah  but I really appreciated this World War II story. I could have done without the 1990s bookends though, but they didn't deter me from absolutely loving this. I will definitely be back to read even more from this author in the future. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . 10. Spans a decade or more ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See  is a book I've been eyeing for years, so I'm glad this readi...

  Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday!  Let's share some songs we've been enjoying!  If you would like to link up with me, please see the rules below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying.  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.  Hello everyone! In honor of Summer of Horror 2026 , a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy , I'm featuring some of my favorite pieces of music from  IT: Welcome to Derry (2025).  I just recently finished watching this series and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  Going in I had no exp...

Happy Sunday Funday and welcome to my fourth weekly update for Summer of Horror 2026 , a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy .  I made some more progress on my tbr and watchlist!  I can't believe it's almost July!  Keep reading to see what I've gotten up to since last week. My Summer of Horror This Week: Sunday Funday: June Week 3 Update Music Monday: Werewolf by Night (2022) The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Smoke and Shadows ( Smoke Trilogy #1) Tanya Huff What I've Watched This Week : ❋ ❋.5 Sometime Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things - I don't have much to say except that I'm honestly not quite sure what to make of this. My review is also on Letterboxd . ❋  ❋   ❋.5 Innocent Blood - This crime thriller vampire horror comedy romance does a lot and it's pretty fun. Some stuff I could have just skipped altogether like the romance stuff, but the rest of it was right up my...

      On Friday's I take part in two weekly link ups - The Friday 56, currently hosted by Anne @ My Head Is Full of Books , and Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader .  For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Anne's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my  Summer of Horror 2026  (hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy ),  Smoke and Shadows ( Smoke Trilogy #1) Tanya Huff .  I've really enjoyed the what I've read of the Vicki Nelson series and this spinoff featuring He...

        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 Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton Published: July 2, 1994 (originally May 12, 1975) Genre: Historical thriller My Copy: Format: Mass Market Paperback Pages: 304 Where I Acquired It: A yard sale Summary (From Goodreads): In teeming Victorian London, where lavish wealth and appalling poverty live side by side, Edward Pierce charms the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of the century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the daring theft of a fortune in gold? Who could predict the consequences of making the extr...

  Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Books On My Sumer 2026 TBR.  Nine of the ten books on my list are challenge books.  Without further ado, here we go: July True Biz by Sara Nović - This YA contemporary sounds really good.  I'm reading this for my  Book Riot's 2026 Read Harder Challenge . A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan - So I was reading a book about Buckeye Lake, Ohio awhile ago and found out that it had ties to the KKK and this story in a way, so I'll have to check it out.  I'm reading this for my Book Riot's 2026 Read Harder Challenge . Jack of Kinrowan ( Jack of Kinrowan #1-2) by Charles de Lint - This duology bind up features both Jack, the Giant Killer and Drink Down the Moon .  It's brand of urban fantasy sounds like it could be fun.  I'm reading th...