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Fall is in the air, my favorite black cup is ready, and October will soon be here, but darlings, we try to read books the week before we post about them, so below… are witches!  We invite you to join in the magic and read along with us (more on that Monday with our full plans, or you can check out past witchy reads here), but especially Alice Hoffman’s The Rules of Magic so we can discuss it for Virtual Book Club on Friday, October 21, 2022 at 7:30pm Central.  If this sounds like a fun time, which it will be, be sure to sign up here, so you can get the link.  Seasonal attire and spooky beverages are encouraged.  

Ashley IN MEDIAS RES

• Ninja Selling: Subtle Skills. Big Results. By Larry Kendall
• A Year of Positive Thinking: Daily Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage by Cyndie Spiegel
• How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy  by Jenny Odell

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES

• The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende
• The How-To Cookbook for Teens: 100 Easy Recipes to Learn the Basics by Julee Morrison
• Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes by Shauna Niequist
• The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

Ashley FIN

• The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
• Violeta by Isabel Allende
• The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington
• Open Book by Jessica Simpson
• Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone #3) by Abby Jimenez
• A Caribbean Heiress in Paris (Las Léonas #1) by Adriana Herrera
• Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton
• Asher: A Billionaire Opposites Attract Novel (Billionaire’s Game #1) by Samantha Whiskey
• The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Breaking the Rules (Sinner and Saint #2) by Lucy Score
• Crossing the Line (Sinner and Saint #1) by Lucy Score
• The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country’s Foremost Relationship Expert by John M. Gottman and Nan Silver*
• We Set the Dark on Fire (#1) by Tehlor Kay Mejia*

Nikki FIN

• The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
• Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by Sue Johnson
• You Had Me at Hola (Primas of Power #1) by Alexis Daria
• The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• The Happy Ever After Playlist (The Friend Zone #2) by Abby Jimenez
• Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone #3) by Abby Jimenez
• Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton
• All Things Wise and Wonderful (All Creatures Great and Small #3) by James Herriot
• Fire & Rescue Shifters: Complete Series Collection by Zoe Chant
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (audio)
• Breaking the Rules (Sinner and Saint #2) by Lucy Score
• Crossing the Line (Sinner and Saint #1) by Lucy Score
• Wait, What? A Comic Book Guide to Relationships, Bodies, and Growing Up by Heather Corinna, Isabella Rotman, and Luke Howard
• When Less Becomes More: Making Space for Slow, Simple, and Good by Emily Ley (audio)
• We Set the Dark on Fire (#1) by Tehlor Kay Mejia

*Fini in August

Darling readers, I don’t know about you, but all the things in retrograde feels like a real thing that has sent me into a hot mess tailspin.  I say that, thinking about the distracted squirrel I’ve been for the last several weeks, and yet, AND YET, I look at my Goodreads, and it’s mostly four star reads across the board, including several titles that have stayed with me, so I’m officially proclaiming September’s reading life a win!  Surprising no one, we read some extra romance novels, and they were a fantastic joy!  We’ve read a few Lucy Score titles before, but after reading her Sinner and Saint Duet, I am SO ready to bump her titles up the TBR!  Readers beware, Score writes romance, so that HEA is guaranteed, however for this one, the HEA is at the end of the duet, so yes, that means the ending of book one is … well, not HEA, but dang does she bring it for book two and the story is SO much better for it.  

On this month’s list of fun hangs are All Things Wise and Wonderful, although I’m hoping season three of All Creatures Great and Small diverts from the text a bit (sacrilege, and yet, I said what I said), and Fire & Rescue Shifters, because a romance series focused on a firefighting team of shifters who happen to be mythical creatures is definitely my idea of a palate cleanser and a fun hang.  Decidedly not on the list of fun hangs is Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by Sue Johnson, as this title guides couples through conversations to get to the bottom of their struggles and find their way out.  Super informative, but definitely heavy to read.  

Now, on to what I really want to discuss.  We did a thing, yes, both of us, we started reading a series with the third book!  Yes, even Ashley!  It’s a romance series, and I have yet to make it back to book one yet, but so far I’m not sad.  Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone #3) by Abby Jimenez was a fun hang and also made me feel so many things (trigger warnings abound for family issues including death of a sibling, addiction, terminal illness, and abandonment).  I actually enjoyed The Happy Ever After Playlist even more, likely because even though much of the development of one character is around moving forward after the death of a partner, that death happens off the page (or perhaps in book one, who knows), so the serious parts didn’t feel quite so serious.  Both exceeded expectations, and I can’t wait to dig into Kristen’s story in book one (she’s the BF in book two, so I already feel like I know her…backwards).  

But y’all, I buried the lead, because my stand out this month is You Had Me at Hola (Primas of Power #1) by Alexis Daria.  I didn’t know this was a trilogy (at least) and I am SO PUMPED!  The Primas of Power are three female cousins in a big, boisterous Latinx family in the Bronx.  The title I read is the first, and it’s about the cousin who’s an actress and falls into like and love very easily due to cultural / family of origin issues and I adore that this is called out and discussed on the page!  Most of the action takes place on the set of a Latinx TV show produced by a mainstream studio, with all Latinx cast and crew.  The discussion of cultures and diversity within the Latinx community was amazing, the way the author demonstrated representation and its importance was magical, and the way Spanish was incorporated in the English text was fantastic!  The Spanish isn’t translated, but readers could always use context clues to get there, and I loved learning so many words that I’ve been recognizing IRL (especially the ones I *cough* wouldn’t have learned in class)!

All this to say, we lived our best Kindle Unlimited reading life for the first third or so, and then I finished some titles and went hard reading romance novels (from my holds) by Latinx authors and it was amazing!  Now what I need is some witchy novels by Latinx authors.  I’d love it if you’d leave me some titles in the comments.

What’s the favorite book you read this month?

~Nikki

While taking the time today to look at September’s reading life, I am both surprised and frustrated. I am frustrated by the fact I am at 94 total books for the year and with two days to go would love to get to that lovely 95 number before Quarter 4. I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting there, but I do want it badly. I am surprised, because, like Nikki said, I started a romance series in book number 3 and I’m NOT SAD ABOUT IT! My Enneagram One didn’t have major problems with it because in most romance series the books are connected by characters but not by plot. I thoroughly enjoyed Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez, and I’m ready to read the first two in the series as soon as I can get them from the library. (My hold’s list is pretty full, but not as full as Nikki’s.) Because I couldn’t go back in the series at my digital library, I went ahead and took an historical romance off my holds list. A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera was an absolute delight! It is the first in a series and I foresee three total books, one for each of Las Léonas, the three Latinx friends who met at finishing school in Switzerland…in 1885. We meet them as they are on a ship to Paris for the Exposition Universelle in 1889. These three lionesses are amazing feminist characters, which might be a little anachronistic but inherently relatable for modern readers. I’m definitely going to continue the series as soon as they are published. I’m so glad that Nikki and I were both able to find romance books written by and with Hispanic/Latinx lead characters. What a great way to see diversity represented in our reading lives!

Additionally, I read my first Isabel Allende novel, Violeta. It was a delight even though there were some very heavy topics addressed. I highly recommend to anyone this quick read about the major life milestones of a centenarian who was born into one global pandemic and lived to see another. From 1920 to 2020, we get to see the highs and lows of Violeta Del Valle’s life, but not the daily ins and outs. The people who fill her family, both blood relations and those of her community at different parts of her life might be even more interesting at times than the title character herself. I’m giving it a solid 4 star review because I don’t think I’ll re-read it. I had some frustrations with the translation at first, so that’s also being taken into consideration, but not going to stop me picking up Allende’s backlist.

Personally, I have been having a month of curveballs. Specifically, I will no longer be able to enjoy living that #JeepLife and am shopping around for another #RealtorLife vehicle. Getting to that 95 books for the year by the end of tomorrow will really give me the big personal win that would give me that “tiny bit of serotonin” I need to make it into Witchy Month with a good attitude. I am very thrilled about our upcoming Witchy adventures and thankful that we had to start it early so that we’re ready to write up our first book on time for you next week. Overall, I am highly pleased by my reading life this month and am ready to give myself as many opportunities for witchy reads as I can, with or without my reading buddy.

~Ashley

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