69 The Rules of Falling for You by Mollie Rushmeyer 10/2 (audio/hoopla)★★★
A cute Austen adjacent rom-com. Friends to lovers/best friends brother trope. It was funny and heart warming. Set in modern times but the characters are taking part in a regency era dating retreat in efforts of finding their happily ever after.
70 Lost Girl by Kate Angelo 10/7 (ebook/hoopla) ★★★★★
Luna comes to town hoping to learn information on the baby girl she gave up for adoption 18 years ago, only to see the contact she was meeting kidnapped before her very eyes. She ends up teaming up with Special Agent Corbin King... her high school boyfriend (and baby's father) to try and find the kidnapped Stryker and also a couple of girls that have gone missing in the area.
You can also hear the author chat with Meagan on the Faith & Fables Podcast HERE
Well, that wasn't how she'd have gone about it. She cringed. So much for easing him in. Corbin's approach was about as subtle as SWAT team busting down the door.
She wanted to tell him it was okay. Wanted to brush it aside, pretend it didn't matter anymore. But the truth was, it did matter. It always had.
"It wasn't your fault. We both made choices. Choices we can't take back."
The silent understanding in his eyes was almost enough to make her forget the years of hurt, of distance, the walls she built around her heart.
Almost.
71 The Simplicity of Cider by Amy E. Reichert 10/15 (print/library)★★★★
An apple orchard in Wisconsin, struggling to survive, Sanna is desperate to save it. Isaac shows up with his young son Bass in tow. Running from heartbreak, he's hired on for the season much to Sanna's chagrin.
Happiness is always worth remembering, even when it was temporary.
As she sipped her cider, he studied the page, then the next page, then the next. On each was a swatch of layered color, all wildly different from one another- reds, greens, teals, colors he didn't really have names for. Next to the colors were measurements, apple varieties, percentages, and flavor notes. Scribbles filled the margins and equations contained both numbers and words. Things like sugars and acidity were measured and tested. It was part recipe book, part coloring book, and part wine label, with a hint of spell book. Looking at it was like opening a tiny door into the back of her head. She saw things that no one else did, an imaginary world of cider only she could see.
This batch is called Fudge, and you'll find it goes surprisingly well with ice cream."
Sanna took a sip and ate another bite, so Eva did the same, skeptical that a hard cider would go well with dessert. She sipped the dark amber liquid, which had a lazy effervescence. It was sweet, and the subtle fruit notes enhanced those in the hot fudge and vanilla. There wasn't any bitterness or dryness to confuse the taste buds. Closer to a port, really, but easier to drink.
72 On Moonberry Lake by Holly Varni 10/21 (print/own)★★★★
52 Bookclub 39. Has An Epigraph
This was my church book club pick and I found it such a delight! A colorful cast of characters you can't help but love. A story about forgiveness and found family. Upon the death of her mother Cora discovers she has inherited her grandparents lodge, with the caveat she has to live there for a year before she can sell it. She is need of a place to live and moves in, beginning to restore the dilapidated property.
"I always write down my blessings and put them into the jar," Kitty told her. "Whenever I feel blue, I look through them to feel happy again. There's nothing like a dose of gratitude to put things back into perspective."
"We need to take ourselves less seriously. Instead of replaying all the embarrassing scenes over in your head, laugh them off. Stop torturing yourself over something that has already happened and move on....
Today, you didn't want to make a fool of yourself painting, so you almost didn't try something you ended up liking.... Life is about learning, exploring, and taking risks." (This is actually a little bit of a mash up of three quotes from one conversation).
73 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans 10/21 (audio/own)★★★★★
Honestly, I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. It was the MMD book club selection. I bought the kindle version because it was on sale for a couple of bucks, and then there was a deal to add on the audio so I did. I ended up listening to it on audio and it was so good! An epistolary novel- completely told in letters. A "seasoned" protagonist. Sybil writes letters and emails and notes to friends and family. I think one of my favorite parts was the connection she struck up with the customer service representative after inquiring something via email. It's also a story about grief. It's a slow story yet a delightful unfolding. I did give it 5stars but I also can't help but wonder what this story would have been like told through the lens of Faith. It definitely had a progressive world view.
I also loved that in nearly every letter she mentioned what she was reading and asked what the recipient was reading.
I write slowly. A letter might take me an hour or more. I do not rush. I think through each sentence. My hand does not get tired. You mustn’t rush. When you rush you pen things you didn’t mean and you tire. It takes patience to say exactly what one means, to think of the right word. Sometimes I write a draft and mark it up, then write a clean copy to send. I believe one ought to be precious with communication. Remember: words, especially those written, are immortal. Sometimes, Caroline, the easiest inroad is to begin with a thank you, for a gift or a kindness or a letter, you know, and then take it from there. Answer every question they’ve asked, and ask your own, and you will have created a never-ending circuit of curiosity and learning.
74 The Bell Tolls at Traeger Hall by Jaime Jo Wright 10/26 (print/own)
I preordered this book months ago and eagerly awaited its arrival. I excitedly began to read as soon as it arrived. It was a delicious mystery set in two timelines with two murders. One in 1890 and one in present day. I was definitely more heavily invested in the historical timeline. Traeger Hall is sealed up for over 100 years after the murder of Leopold Traeger and his wife. In the present timeline the newest owner Jennie has to decide what to do with the property and if it should be re-opened. I'm still grappling a bit with the ending, I can't decide if I'm disappointed, or was just sad it was over! I turned the last page and had a "That's it?" kinda feeling.
Messy. Like the guy in class had said of Van Gogh. Like she often said of God.
"But can't messy be beautiful too?" she asked, not because she thought Zane would give her a satisfactory answer but because Jennie ached to voice it. To a stranger. To someone who'd experienced the gross abuse that life had to offer. She longed to believe that somewhere in the muck of it all, there was hope."But, you know, life goes on. It has to. And we must learn to move on with it or we become like... like Traeger Hall. Closed up, our memories collecting dust, and leaving everyone around us with million unanswered questions. I believe God helps those of who experience trauma so we can discover the path to keep going in spite of the pain. To have faith and find strength outside of ourselves and hopefully" -- Zane's gaze dropped to Jennie's-- "find beauty again."
75 Can't Help Falling by Courtney Walsh 10/28 (print/own)
I've yet to be disappointed by a Courtney Walsh book. We read this one for Cousin Book club this month. We loved it. A feel good, romcom. Sometimes that's just the kind of book you need. Emmy is a bookshop owner/secret romance podcast host holding out for the perfect guy. Owen is her best friend's older brother/high school crush/guy who broke her heart/mr practicality. He's also the firefighter who saved her life...
Fictional men are always better than the real ones. Always. Probably because they’re written by women.
Something inside me aches at the familiar scene, the way they can sit here in silence and be perfectly in sync.
My parents have the kind of relationship nobody wants to write about. Because it's comfortable and kind--- and boring. They hardly ever fight, over the years, they've settled into this quiet, wonderful rhythm. Even though I'm addicted to romance novels, and a part of me yearns to be swept off my feet, the truth is another parr of me wants what they have.
To feel this at ease with another person. Yes, please.
76 84, Charing Cross Road Helene Hanff 10/31 (print/library)
I wish you hadn't been so over-courteous about putting the inscription on a card instead of on the flyleaf. It's the bookseller coming out in you all, you were afraid you'd decrease its value. You would have increased it for the present owner. (And possibly for the future owner. I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to.)
It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but it has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me to things I've never read before.
Total: 8 2025: 76
Kindle/Ebook: 1 Print: 5 Audio: 2
Library: 4 Owned: 4 Kindle Unlimited: Audible:
Favorite: a great reading month, so much bookish delight! I'm not sure I can choose.
52 Book Club- I have fallen a bit behind. Not sure if I am going to be able to complete it by the end of the year or not!
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- I am nearly done with Mansfield Park! I hoped to finish it by the end of October but lost momentum towards the end of the month.
- Up from Dust - Alive Book Club (church)
- Through Each Tomorrow - the next in the Timeless Series- preordered pretty much at first opportunity- I get to double dip as it's also the Faith & Fables pick for this month. I'm 90 or so pages in and it might be my favorite of the series- #4 currently holds my favorite spot.
- First Thanksgiving - read along on Instagram (still finishing Dracula from the October read along).
- The Second Story Bookshop- Cousin Book Club- can't wait to read this one!
- Birnam Wood - MMD November pick - not high on my priority list but we'll see.
- I am sure some others will grab my attention as the month goes on.
Girl Lost has been on my list... do you think it'll be too much for me?
ReplyDeleteIt might be in all honesty, a few parts were pretty intense. I believe I saw another reader on insta who said she felt like it was too much for her.
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