Stacking the Shelves (627)

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


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:


The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-10-24

I’m not sure whether this picture of a sleepy Luna represents a cat not wanting to have their nap disturbed, or a cat looking to dig a hole and pull it in after her. This is one of her common sleeping positions, folded up into a surprisingly small kittybundle and getting as many limbs as possible to cover her pretty face. She clearly likes to make the world GO AWAY when she sleeps.

I fully admit I’ve been tempted to join her this week. If dear old Acme – the folks who supplied Wile E. Coyote – were still in business I think there would be a lot of folks looking to buy their patented ‘portable holes’ this week. Alas, Acme isn’t available, so I’ve had to content myself with comfort reads. Possibly for a while.

If you’re looking for a comfort read, I highly recommend the cozy fantasy of The Teller of Small Fortunes, as well as the slightly rueful, thoroughly witchy, laugh out loud snark and sarcasm of Crazy as a Loon – as you’ll see in this coming week’s reviews.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$5 Amazon Gift Card + eBook Copy of A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A+ #AudioBookReview: The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
Spotlight + Excerpt: A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes + Giveaway
#GuestPost: Election Day 2024: Readings
A- #BookReview: Old Scores by Will Thomas
B #BookReview: The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
B+ #BookReview: Art in the Blood by Bonnie MacBird
Stacking the Shelves (626)

Coming This Week:

Veterans Day (#GuestPost by Galen)
The Bloodless Princes by Charlotte Bond (#BookReview)
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (#BookReview)
Crazy as a Loon by Hailey Edwards (#AudioBookReview)
Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (626)

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


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:


The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-3-24

Did you remember to reset your clocks last night? Or, does everything reset itself in your house?

If you are a U.S. citizen, have you voted yet? If not, do you have plans to vote on Tuesday? The right to vote is precious, and like so many other precious things, either you use it or you lose it – one way or another.

Tomorrow’s review will be The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon. I wanted something just a bit more relevant for just before Election Day than I generally worry about and that book turned out to be a gem as well as fitting for the week, as the thing that many of those unsung heroes fought and in some cases even died for was the right to vote.

The rest of the week is mostly comfort reads, because whatever happens on Tuesday – and after – the world will be different. The question is how much and in what ways.

Which leads me to today’s cat picture and a bit of a story to go with it. This is a portrait of something we refer to in this household as the ‘Butts of Bast’. Our current clowder of cats does not snuggle with each other. We’re still shaking our heads about that, as the previous clowder did, very much and all the time. But that group consisted of a family that had been raised together. LaZorra and Erasmus – the momcat and dadcat – were also siblings from the same litter. They had two daughtercats, Sophie and Mellie, who were also their niececats. (Sort of like an Egyptian pharaoh family, just with cats.) The little girls each had their own respective parentcat. Sophie was daddy’s girl and Mellie was mommy’s girl. I’m referring to their actual feline parents – not the humans. The little girls had very little to do with us by their own choice.

It was only when Mellie was the last survivor, 17 years later, that she started to turn to us AT ALL. At first, she’d sleep on the bed but not touch us. Then she’d let us touch her and pet her – A LITTLE – but only if we approached from her rear so that she could pretend it was the ‘hand of Bast’ – the Egyptian cat goddess – petting her and not those dreadful humans.

This picture is of George and Tuna. They play together now, they chase each other, they shake the house a bit as they’re both rather large. But they don’t cuddle with each other and they don’t cuddle with Luna or Hecate. Tuna doesn’t even cuddle with Luna now, and they are also littermates. They all do cuddle with us, just not each other. In this picture, Tuna and George are clearly touching each other – they were napping butt to butt. BUT, when Galen woke them they both focused on him and refused to acknowledge the other cat touching their butt. Hence, the ‘Butts of Bast’.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$5 Amazon Gift Card + eBook Copy of A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop is Stacey

Blog Recap:

A- #AudioBookReview: Constituent Service by John Scalzi
A- #BookReview: A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes + Giveaway
Grade A #BookReview: The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
B #BookReview: Buried Memories by Simon R. Green
Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (625)

Coming This Week:

The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon (#AudioBookReview)
Election Day 2024 (Guest Post by Galen)
Old Scores by Will Thomas (#BookReview)
The City in Glass by Nghi Vo (#BookReview)
Art in the Blood by Bonnie MacBird (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (625)

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)


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:


The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-27-24

This week’s schedule went just a bit awry at the end, because I finished Kevin Hearne’s Candle & Crow AGAIN, (that story is in the review – HINT), this time in audio, and just had to write it up because awesomesauce. Not that the new Gamache book, The Grey Wolf, the book I intended to review on Friday isn’t also terrific, just that I wasn’t quite done with it yet and I had entirely too much to say about Candle & Crow and the whole Ink & Sigil series.

My review of The Grey Wolf will be coming this week, the day before Halloween. Because in it’s own way, it’s MORE than scary enough. You’ll see.

As far as this week’s cat pictures, I sometimes have to remind myself that Luna is NOT a small cat. She is only small in comparison to her brother Tuna, who is HUGE. Last week’s picture was of Tuna, sprawling in the same bed that Luna has primly posed in in this picture. Notice that Tuna filled the whole thing and lopped over the sides. Luna, as I said, is primly POSED. She has space all around herself – the better to look adorable with.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A- #BookReview: Murder of a Suffragette by Marty Wingate
A- #BookReview: Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly
B #BookReview: The Mountain Crown by Karin Lowachee
B #BookReview: Fury Brothers: Claim by Anna Hackett
Grade A #AudioBookReview: Candle and Crow by Kevin Hearne
Stacking the Shelves (624)

Coming This Week:

Constituent Service by John Scalzi (#AudioBookReview)
A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie (#BookReview #BlogTour)
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (#BookReview)
Buried Memories by Simon R. Green (#BookReview)
Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop

Stacking the Shelves (624)

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


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:


The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-20-24

This was an excellent week here at Chez Reading Reality. Not only were there TWO giveaways, but also TWO Grade A or BETTER books! (The final book of the week was also good, it just wasn’t quite so much my exact cuppa as the earlier titles.) Next week also looks surprisingly good for a week that starts and ends with MURDER!

Speaking of having a good week, I also have a great picture of Tuna from earlier this week. He’s in a classic kitty pose, the “If I fits, I sits” position. He doesn’t fit, exactly, but that’s because the biggest cat in the house has decided to nest in the smallest cat bed. You can just see how well that’s working out for him!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of Reading Reality’s Early Fall Giveaway Hop is Rochelle
The winner of the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop is Elizabeth

Blog Recap:

A+ #BookReview: The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski
Grade A #BookReview: Fangs So Bright and Deadly by Piper J. Drake
Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
Late Fall Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event!
B #BookReview: The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin
Stacking the Shelves (623)

Coming This Week:

Murder of a Suffragette by Marty Wingate (#BookReview)
Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly (#BookReview #BlogTour)
The Mountain Crown by Karin Lowachee (#BookReview)
Fury Brothers: Claim by Anna Hackett (#BookReview)
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (623)

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


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:


The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-13-24

There are plenty of bookish/bloggy things to make a note of this Sunday, starting with Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen, which was utterly awesome, as has been the whole Evander Mills series, and I can’t say enough wonderful things about the narrator, Vikas Adam. I’m going to be SO disappointed if the series doesn’t continue and if Adam doesn’t continue narrating it.

I don’t have a lot of A+ reviews. I do have a lot of B and higher, because if a book isn’t at least that good I’ll probably DNF and just move on. Life is too short to read books that aren’t working. But A+ are rare – as they should be – because a book has to be just about perfect – or at least perfect for me. This was a VERY good reading week!

One note about bloggy stuff, because I got an email about just this kind of thing earlier this month – and it’ll probably happen again. Most giveaway hops start on a specific day and if that’s not a good day for the site the site can’t participate. Which is completely understandable from all sorts of perspectives. Howsomever, because the Versatileer-sponsored giveaway hops, like the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop and the Late Fall Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event! are open for six weeks or more, the organizer has a five-day window for sites to post. That specifically means that I’m grateful to be able to participate in the Late Fall Event because I can post on October 17 instead of the official start date October 16, which is the day I’m participating in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop. And that’s not silly at all. But George – see picture below – certainly is!

Here’s George, looking like he’s having a literal meltdown. Or that he’s melting down into the couch. Or both. Last weekend Galen was out of town as part of a several day trip to see his sister and attend a work conference. The cats ALL made me very aware that I am the inferior cat servant and that they missed him every bit as much as I did! George and Tuna often act like bookends on this couch, one cat on each end, and this end is George’s usual spot. But he’s usually up at the top there, checking out his domain. In this shot it looks like he’s melting down into the thing – possibly as prep for pulling it all over his head!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Early Fall Giveaway Event (ENDS TUESDAY!!!!!)
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop (ENDS TUESDAY!!!!!)
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A- #BookReview: The Village Library Demon Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner
A+ #AudioBookReview: Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen
B #BookReview: Shoestring Theory by Mariana Costa
A- #BookReview: In the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette de Bodard
B #BookReview: What We Sacrifice for Magic by Andrea Jo DeWerd
Stacking the Shelves (622)

Coming This Week:

The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski (#BookReview)
Fangs So Bright and Deadly by Piper J. Drake (#BookReview)
Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
Late Fall Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event!
The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin (#BookReview #BlogTour)