A really short stack this time around, and ALL coincidentally at the end of the alphabet. My stacks tend to get short at the end of the year because they’re usually all eARCs that I get from NetGalley and Edelweiss. I’ve always assumed that the publishing folks take a bit of time off at the end of the year just like the rest of us, because not much gets added from now until after New Year’s.

Of course, is you happen to be someone who RECEIVES books for the holidays, your stack could get blissfully huge.

In spite of ONLY having FOUR books this time around, I’ve actually got something to say about each of them. The ‘pretty cover’ award is split evenly between The Sirens and Tideborn. Shadow of the Solstice is the book I’m most looking forward to because I’ve been looking forward to the next book in the Leaphorn, Chee and now Manuelito series, and the next and the next and the next, for decades at this point.

And the book that has me intensely curious is Six Wild Crowns because its based, I suspect loosely based but we’ll see, on the court of Henry VIII and I can’t wait to learn how THAT’s going to work!

For Review:
Shadow of the Solstice (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito #28) by Anne Hillerman
The Sirens by Emilia Hart (eARC and audio)
Six Wild Crowns (Queens of Elben #1) by Holly Race
Tideborn (Drowned World #2) by Eliza Chan

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As the year winds – or perhaps that should be dribbles – to a close, the stacks are definitely getting smaller. Which is probably a good thing. This week’s stack is fun in that I think they’re all pretty – although, as usual, they are pretty in pretty different ways.

The title I’m really, really curious about is Christopher Moore’s Anima Rising. One of my friends loves his work, so I’ve tried to get into it multiple times and bounced off. But this one looks like it might work for me. We’ll see. The cover is certainly gorgeous.

The book I’m particularly looking forward to, or at least to one story in it, is Love in Other Worlds. One of my favorite authors, M.L. Buchman, has a story in the collection titled, “The Hanukkah Pretzel Prophecy” and I’m both curious and looking forward to reading it. Because, well, what could pretzels have to do with Hanukkah? Inquiring minds REALLY want to know!

For Review:
Anima Rising by Christopher Moore
The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida, translated by Bruno Navasky
Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow #2) by Xiran Jay Zhao (ebook and audio)
A Line You Have Traced by Roisin Dunnett
One Way Witch (She Who Knows #2) by Nnedi Okorafor
A Ruthless Angel Weeps (House of Croft #3) by Sophie Barnes

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Love in Other Worlds (Christmas Romance Digest #2) edited by Tracy Cooper Posey

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I hope that everyone had a terrific Turkey Day and has awakened from their tryptophan coma without too much difficulty!

I’ve got a bit of an eclectic stack this time around. The two books in the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series are the result of reading Bayou Book Thief, which was a fun cozy mystery and will be reviewed later in December. Wedgetail and The Hero She Deserves are the latest entries from two authors I follow religiously. Or relentlessly, take your pick.

Orbital just won The Booker Prize, and seems to be up for just about every other year-end prize. It’s SF, which made me curious. It’s actually literary SF, which explains a lot, at least so far. (I’m in the middle of the audio right now. We’ll see this coming week when I finish.)

The prettiest covers this time around are The Gentleman and His Vowsmith, and Orbital. The two that REALLY have my curiosity bump itching are American Hippo and If Wishes Were Retail.

Did you find much to add to your stack this week?

For Review:
The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide
The Hero She Deserves (Unbroken Heroes #4) by Anna Hackett
If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
The Last Wizards’ Ball (Gunnie Rose #6) by Charlaine Harris
The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay
Wedgetail (Miranda Chase NTSB #15) by M.L. Buchman

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
American Hippo (River of Teeth #1-2) by Sarah Gailey
French Quarter Fright Night (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #3) by Ellen Byron
Wined and Died in New Orleans (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #2) by Ellen Byron

Borrowed from the Library:
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (ebook and audio)

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A fairly sizable stack for the Saturday before Thanksgiving, isn’t it? Maybe I’ll even have a chance to read a couple of extra over the holidays?

Also an interesting batch of books in more than one way. The cover/book combo that feels like the biggest conundrum to this reader is An Excellent Thing in a Woman, the next book in the Sparks & Bainbridge series. I absolutely ADORE the series, I’m really looking forward to reading this latest entry, but damn if that isn’t the meh-est cover that ever meh-ed. Please don’t judge this series by the cover of this entry in it. Because meh. Seriously just meh. But the series is not meh at ALL.

Very much OTOH, the covers of the Under the Mistletoe collection, Cruel Winter with You etc., totally fit their books. They’re light, fluffy covers for light, fluffy holiday romances. A perfect match. Also each really short if you’re looking for a reading pick-me-up.

I think the prettiest covers are A Drop of Corruption, Idolfire and The Witch Roads, although as per usual they are not pretty in remotely the same way. A Drop of Corruption, along with The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, are the two books I’m most looking forward to in this batch, while Their Monstrous Hearts is the one I’m most curious about as a friend asked me to read it to see if our opinions align. They probably will but we’ll see.

What did you put in your stack – and or throw on the top of your towering TBR pile – this week?

For Review:
A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
An Excellent Thing in a Woman (Sparks & Bainbridge #7) by Allison Montclair
Idolfire by Grace Curtis
It Takes a Psychic (Harmony #18) by Jayne Castle
A Palace Near the Wind (Natural Engines #1) by Ai Jiang
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses (Mossa and Pleiti #3) by Malka Older
Their Monstrous Hearts by Yiğit Turhan
The Witch Roads (Witch Roads #1) by Kate Elliott

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe #1) by Ali Hazelwood (ebook and audio)
Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe #3) by Alexandria Bellefleur (ebook and audio)
Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe #2) by Tessa Bailey (ebook and audio)
Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe #5) by Alexis Daria (ebook and audio)

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Lots of pretty amid not so many covers this week. It’s November, and publishing looks like its already headed into the holiday doldrums. Not that the holidays themselves are doldrum-y, but rather that not much comes out or gets promoted over the holidays because no one is paying attention to anything EXCEPT the holidays!

I almost said that there isn’t an ugly cover in the bunch, but I  have to admit that the beady eye of whatever that insect is pictured on the cover of Esperance is definitely giving me the creeps. I’m curious as hell because I loved the author’s Braking Day. But still, that cover is really kind of creepy – and potentially crawly as well.

The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, however, gets my nod for both prettiest cover and most eye-catching title, but your reading mileage may vary. We’ll have to see in the months ahead.

For Review:
The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin (Ill-Mannered Ladies #2) by Alison Goodman
Murder at Gulls Nest (Nora Breen Investigates #1) by Jess Kidd
A Shipwreck in Fiji (Sergeant Akal Singh #2) by Nilima Rao

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
All by My Elf (Under the Mistletoe #3) by Olivia Dade (ebook + audio)
Bayou Book Thief (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #1) by Ellen Byron

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This has been a difficult week for many, and I’m certainly among them. This is going to be a bit of a self-care weekend, and I know I’m far from alone in that feeling.

My search for comfort reads led me to Bonnie MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes Adventure series. After finishing the first book in the series, Art in the Blood, I grabbed the whole set so the later books in the series will be reviewed in the months ahead. I’ll probably include What Child is This? in my Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon posts.

Out of this week’s stack, IMHO Behooved has the prettiest cover – and the story sounds pretty as well. Admittedly, this stack is chock full of pretty covers, but Behooved just stands out from the rest. The books I’m most looking forward to are Anji Kills a King as it’s being billed as a readalike for The Blacktongue Thief and The Orb of Cairado as its a short story set in the universe of The Goblin Emperor.

The one I’m most curious about is Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff. I loved her Blood series as well as her Smoke series (back in the day), AND her Valor series is one of my fave SF series. But it’s been awhile, and this one is billed as horror, so my curiosity bump itches all the way around.

For Review:
Anji Kills a King (Rising Tide #1) by Evan Leikam
Behooved by M. Stevenson
The Book That Held Her Heart (Library Trilogy #3) by Mark Lawrence
Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang
Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff
A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison
The Serpent Under (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #6) by Bonnie MacBird

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Devil’s Due (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #3) by Bonnie MacBird
The Three Locks (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #4) by Bonnie MacBird
Unquiet Spirits (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #2) by Bonnie MacBird
What Child is This? (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #5) by Bonnie MacBird

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The U.S. presidential election is this Tuesday, November 5. It will be a day to remember, no matter what the outcome, and no matter how anyone in particular feels about the outcome. I wanted to post something this week that’s a little more serious than most of the books reviewed here. And lit upon The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon, a book that collects a fraction of the stories of the unsung heroes of American history. I hope it hits the right note for the occasion – it’s certainly been an educational AND enjoyable read and listen this week.

For Review:
The Desert Talon (Crowns of Ishia #2) by Karin Lowachee
Grave Empire (Great Silence #1) by Richard Swan
A Lesson in Dying (Inspector Ramsay #1) by Ann Cleeves
The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve
Miss Amelia’s List (Elemental Masters #17) by Mercedes Lackey
Only in America by Richard Bernstein
Third Ear by Elizabeth Rosner

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Other People’s Playgrounds by Harry Turtledove
The President’s Brain is Missing by John Scalzi (ebook + audio)
The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon (ebook + audio)

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This is, pretty much in its entirety, a shelf of curiosity. Both Ann Cleeves’ mysteries and Joe Abercrombie’s dark fantasies have been recommended to me – and frequently at that – but I’ve never managed to shoehorn either into the towering TBR pile until now. While The Adventures of Mary Darling just sounds fascinating with its combination of Peter Pan and Sherlock Holmes. Because REALLY? We’ll certainly find out what THAT’S all about in the months ahead!

For Review:
The Adventures of Mary Darling by Pat Murphy
Awakened by A.E. Osworth
A Bird in the Hand (George & Molly Palmer-Jones #1) by Ann Cleeves
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
On Being Jewish Now edited by Zibby Owens
Replay by Jordan Mechner

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Saying that I didn’t get much this week is like saying water is wet. And it’s really weirding me out. To be honest, originally there was only one book on this list. Well, there was only one book after I moved the four books that don’t have covers yet to next week’s stack. Again. I know I shouldn’t just add stuff because the pile looks empty, but I did it anyway. Also again.

The book I’m most looking forward to is the one I started with, A Fashionably French Murder by Colleen Cambridge. It’s the third book in her An American in Paris series, meaning it’s the third book in the historical mystery series that features Julia Child as the protagonist’s sidekick. The first two, Mastering the Art of French Murder and A Murder Most French, were both awesome and I can’t wait for this next one.

The book I’m most curious about – and I’m terribly curious – is The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig. It’s based on the true story of America’s first famous murder trial, with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr attempting to work together to defend the accused murderer. The book is based on the actual trial transcript – and it sounds fascinating.

Both the Memory Bank series and The Naturalist Society are books that I’ve looked out multiple times over the past couple of weeks but just didn’t pick up. With this week’s utter dearth of titles, I decided to pick them up after all.

For Review:
Aurora Fragment (Memory Bank #3) by Brian Shea and Raquel Byrnes
A Fashionably French Murder (An American in Paris #3) by Colleen Cambridge
The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Memory Bank (Memory Bank #1) by Brian Shea and Raquel Byrnes
The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn (Amazon First Reads)
Retrograde Flaw (Memory Bank #2) by Brian Shea and Raquel Byrnes

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This stack has pretty covers and pretty cool covers as well!

I think the prettiest covers are The Geographer’s Map to Romance and Pets in Space 9, although they are clearly not pretty in the same way at all. Ill-Fated Fortune is also pretty, but mostly it makes me pretty hungry when I look at at. One Level Down is just a cool cover. I could see that background being used in some fascinating designs and Insta posts.

And then there’s Aunt Tigress, which I honestly got FOR the cover. It’s not exactly “pretty”, and if pretty is as pretty does, based on the blurb ‘pretty’ is going to end up being a really wrong word all the way around. Fascinating, yes. Compelling, I hope so. Possibly even a bit bloody – or at least bloody-minded. But pretty, well, not so much. And that’s a good thing for the kind of urban fantasy I really, really hope it is!

One more thing…the book in this stack I’m most looking forward to is, hands down, Who Will Remember by C.S. Harris, the OMG 20th book in the marvelous Sebastian St. Cyr series.

For Review:
Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin
Claim (Fury Brothers #5) by Anna Hackett
The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen (Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen #1) by Yuta Takahashi, translated by Cat Anderson
The Geographer’s Map to Romance (Love’s Academic #2) by India Holton
One Level Down by Mary G. Thompson
Our Nazi by Michael Soffer
Rebellious Grace (King’s Fool #3) by Jeri Westerson
Star-Crossed Egg Tarts (Magical Fortune Cookie #2) by Jennifer J. Chow
Stone Certainty (Holy Terrors #2) by Simon R. Green
Who Will Remember (Sebastian St. Cyr #20) by C.S. Harris

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Ill-Fated Fortune (Magical Fortune Cookie #1) by Jennifer J. Chow
Pets in Space 9 edited by Carol Van Natta

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