Only half way

Wednesday

I found one! I found one! I've been looking for my scavenger hunt prompt "Favorite Season" for four weeks. I've skimmed over 50 book summaries. 

Currently reading UNDER AN ENGLISH HEAVEN by Alice K. Boatwright. 1st of 3 in Ellie Kent mystery series.

Ellie has left behind her college teaching job and life in San Francisco to marry a handsome widowed vicar and live in a Cotswold village. At first, she thinks her biggest challenge will be to gain acceptance from the villagers as a foreigner and "incomer." But, when she discovers a dead man in the churchyard, her outsider status leads to her becoming the prime suspect in his murder. To prove her innocence, Ellie finds she must draw on her research skills to unravel a web of decades-old secrets before more people die—and her new life unravels too.

Published 2014; 259 pages.

New plan for the March wedding crochet blanket. Still doing the spiral granny squares. I think I'll do them in the orange and cream.

I don't know yet if I'll do just the two color or do some in the single colors to break it up. But then I'll connect the squares with the blue yarns with the zigzag stitch.

And I could even do one direction in the dark blue and the other connection direction in the teal-ish blue.

No sprints tonight. Steve has the gun range. I'm reading and playing with yarn.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

I wanna go home!

Tuesday.

I'm still on the hunt for a scavenger hunt read that is "my favorite season" which is Fall. I'm not having very good luck. 

I should be getting some yarn today. What I think I'd like to do this evening is play with the spiral forms for Randee's blanket. I tried one option last night but it wasn't going to work out. 

Sprints tonight.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

I'm not here

Monday

I finished reading RAVENWOOD by Nathan Lowell. 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it quite a lot but there was some violence against a person that went on a little too long that was not enjoyable to read. I'll definitely continue to read the trilogy. 

Currently reading THE PERSEPHONE CODE by Emma Orchard. 1st in new histmyst series.

1812

Deep below the hills of the Buckinghamshire countryside, the infamous Hellfire Caves house a pleasure palace for the idle rich – a secret society steeped in satanism, opium and debauchery of the highest order. When the club’s warden, Antony Pennington, is brutally murdered, his bastard sister, Dora, must follow the clues to decode who the killer is, aided by an unexpected ally – ex-Army officer, former opium addict and son of a Viscount, Dr Jacob Sandys. As a shadow dogs their every footstep, Dora and Jacob find themselves in the midst of a shocking conspiracy, caught between the legendary Illuminati and the Hell Fire Club. With time running out, they must fight against both the most influential gentleman of the ton – and the undeniable attraction they feel towards each other…

Published 2024; 384 pages.

Also reading THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET. 1st of 4 in Wayfarers scifi series.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain. Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Published 2014; 423 pages. I'm pretending the aliens aren't aliens. I have a problem reading about them. 

I would like to add a third book, a scavenger hunt book probably for the prompt "favorite season" which is Fall for me. But even with the two I'm reading now, I don't know what I'm really in the mood for. 

Waiting on some yarn so I started to crochet the blanket for me. It can be set aside at any time. The yarn is the same as the wedding bedspread but different color. The color is called Butter Cookie. (doesn't that sound nummy?)

No sprints tonight.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster 

Not coming out for two days

 TGIF

I got approved (!!!!) for an ARC via Netgalley of THE AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO MURDER by Lauren Willig, Beatriz Williams, & Karen White.

There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead—under bizarre circumstances—in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for this literary American show-off (or Americans in general), finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists. The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky, sexy erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book a historical novel about the castle’s lurid past and its debauched laird, who himself ended up creatively murdered. But the authors’ stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don’t quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious. Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? Is the murder of the long-ago laird somehow connected with the playboy author’s unfortunate demise? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death? 

Publishing November 2024; 416 pages.

No sprints tonight. Sprints tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise, just the usual

Have a good weekend

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster 

Let's just move on to the weekend

Thursday

Having a cranky day. See y'all tomorrow.

Sprints tonight.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Oh blech

Wednesday

I'm currently reading and LOVING this book, THE SLATE by Matthew Fitzsimmons. 

In another life, Agatha Cardiff was Congressman Paul Paxton’s chief of staff, a coolheaded fixer who made all his problems disappear. At Paxton’s behest, she covered up a shocking scandal that would have ruined a powerful senator’s career. It was one moral compromise too far and Agatha vowed, Never again. After twenty years in exile, Agatha’s life in the margins of Washington, DC, is about to become much more difficult. The rules have changed in her absence—that senator is now president, and Paxton, number three in the House, expects a nomination to the Supreme Court. After all, he knows where the president’s skeletons are buried. At the same time, Agatha’s quiet life on Capitol Hill shatters when her tenant—a woman with complex connections to DC—vanishes. Suddenly, Agatha is drawn back into a mire of corruption, blackmail, and deception precisely when she can least afford it. Any hope of redemption won’t come easy, because the true cost of Agatha’s sins is finally coming to light, and it is far from certain who will pay.

Published 2024; 299 pages. This is a masterclass in political maneuvering. 

I really need a day's vacation soon. 

No sprints tonight. Steve's got the gun range.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

If they can't see me....

Tuesday

Started reading RAVENWOOD by Nathan Lowell. 1st of Tanyth Fairport trilogy

You're never too old to make a bad decision. After twenty winters on the road, Tanyth Fairport makes one last pilgrimage in her quest to learn all she can about the herbs and medicinal plants of Korlay before settling down to write her magnum opus. Her journey is interrupted when she decides to help a small village and learns that much of what she knows of the world may not be quite as it seems. Nathan Lowell blends wiccan tradition and shamanistic lore into a fantasy quest for a new - if unlikely - heroine. She learns that the familiar sometimes hides the fantastic and that, even when you think you’ve made your decisions, life doesn’t always agree.

Published 2010; 382 pages. I've been meaning to read this for a couple years now. 

I may add a thriller to the reading mix but we'll see. 

Sprints tonight. Reading and crocheting on Christmas gift.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster