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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