I like to browse Goodreads every now and then to find new books to read. Goodreads had a list of new books coming out in 2024 and one of those books was How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin. This is Kristen’s debut adult novel having previously written middle-grade books. The premise for this book was too good to pass up, so I had it saved for later. While in New Mexico, I found this book at a local bookstore and my mom was kind enough to buy it for me as an early birthday present. How to Solve Your Own Murder lived up to the hype and it might be my favorite book I have read in 2024.
In 1965, Frances Adams received a fortune. This fortune-teller gives her a riddle alluding to the fact that Frances will be murdered. Frances does what she can to investigate every person who enters her life, determined to beat the fortune. In the present day, Annie Adams visits her Great Aunt Frances, a woman she barely knows. Before being able to talk with her, Frances is found dead. Annie quickly finds out about the riddle and is determined to solve her murder, no matter the cost.
How to Solve Your Own Murder is recommended for those who liked Knives Out and I couldn’t agree more. Unlike Knives Out, How to Solve Your Own Murder focuses more on the people who live in the same town as Frances. There are certain unlikeable family members, but the town gossip is central to this book. Between Annie’s investigations are snippets of France’s journal entries detailing a summer in the 1960s. Both stories converge when Annie figures out who killed Frances and who killed one of France’s best friends decades earlier. It’s been a while since a book has kept me up late reading, but this book accomplished that. It’s funny that I was late to my Dungeons & Dragons game because I was reading this book in the parking lot before our session. My group laughed at me, but it shows how invested I was in this book.
Annie as a main character is equal parts naive and sweet. Annie doesn’t always make the best decisions, yet it fits her character. There’s a flirtation between Annie and one of the detectives, but I liked how this book didn’t force a romance between the two. Returning to the Knives Out reference, Annie has a list of suspects who could have killed Frances, so this aura of mystery always remains throughout the book.
I didn’t realize that How to Solve Your Own Murder would be the first book in a series as I was anticipating this to be a stand-alone story. I am here for the sequel and I’m curious if this will center around Annie as the main character or if this will be an entirely new mystery altogether. This book was so cozy and was exactly what I wanted.
I finished watching Star Wars Rebels and this show was an emotional rollercoaster. How can Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck do this to me? I am glad I took the time to watch Rebels and honestly, I think this was my favorite Star Wars animated series I have watched to date. I wanted to share my favorite moments and thoughts about the last two seasons.
Major Spoilers for the last two seasons of Rebels
To start off, I wanted to talk about Kanan. Kanan’s fate wasn’t exactly spoiled for me, but since I didn’t see him in Ahsoka, I knew something must have happened to him. The way it played out was so tragic. Hera finally confesses her love for him, they share a sweet moment together and then he holds off the explosive blast so everyone can escape. UGH MY HEART. I am not over it. In the next episode, Chopper holds Hera’s hand and comforts her while she works through his death. Chopper is honestly the best and I thought these moments between the two were so sweet. There was an episode or two after this where Ezra goes into a Jedi temple and with Ahsoka’s help, Ezra realizes he has to let Kanan go and how he can’t save him. While I wish Kanan would have lived, his loss shaped the other characters and solidified why fighting for the rebellion is so important.
Moving away from Kanan, I wanted to talk about Agent Kallus. Agent Kallus is an agent of The Empire and I think it would have been easy for the show to make him a throwaway character. Someone who antagonizes the group and eventually is killed in some explosion. Instead, Agent Kallus has several touching moments with the Rebels which helps him defect in the end. Seeing Kallus fighting off the troopers on Lothal, I think it was a full-circle moment for him. I did not expect to care so much for his character, but here we are.
Besides Kallus, Thrawn’s appearance is cool to see. I didn’t read much of Legends, the Star Wars novels that existed before Disney bought Star Wars. Thrawn appeared in those books and the fact that Dave Filoni brought the character back in canon was awesome! I think it was rewarding for fans to see that. It also encourages me to go back and read some of the Legends books because there’s a chance the lore could be brought into future shows or movies. Finally, I liked Maul’s dynamic with Ezra. Maul trying to push Ezra into the dark side and play on his emotions, I think that was valid to Ezra’s character. He has been through a lot and Maul preying on that was interesting to watch.
I think I preferred season three over season four. Season four had a lot of build-up, so I felt the episodes were slower to watch. Although, I liked how Lothal became the backdrop for the season as I think it was a fitting end to the crew who started their journey on this planet. Once Hera was saved, it was clear that Rebels wasn’t holding back. I did like the epilogue in the final episode. I thought it offered a conclusion to fans and it leads directly into Ahsoka.
I could go on and on talking about how much I loved Rebels. It’s interesting because I figured I’d like Clone Wars more since it takes place in my favorite era of Star Wars. I think Rebels was more charming to me because, with each episode, you start to care for the heroes and see their individual moments shine. I’m sad Rebels is over, but now that I’m finished with the show, I plan on diving into Ahsoka next. I’m slowly getting caught up with all things Star Wars and it’s clear that I slept on some of the best shows in the Star Wars universe.
Being from Minnesota, our state is politically liberal. However, the politics become more conservative if you drive an hour outside of the Twin Cities, Duluth, or Rochester. I feel fortunate to live in Minnesota because while our taxes are high, our quality of life is good. I had Real Queer America LGBT Stories From Red States by Samantha Allen on my Goodreads to-be-read shelf for far too long. Samantha Allen takes readers on a road trip to the red states in the US and how there is hope for those states.
Samantha Allen is a journalist who is out and married to her wife. Samantha has spent a portion of her life living in what is known as “red states” meaning US states that lean conservative. There are a lot of stereotypes about living in red states. To break these stereotypes, Samantha and her friend, Billy, travel to Utah, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, and Indiana to help highlight the LGBTQIA+ activists fighting for a better life in their home states.
I loved everything about this book. I have preconceived notions about some US states I haven’t been to. I think the way this book is written is delicate in the sense that these states are worth fighting for, but also recognizing that these states have a lot to do to make a safer community for LGBTQIA+ people. I liked the portion of the book where Samantha visits Mississippi. One of my favorite stories to read about was the woman who helped put on Jackson’s first Pride parade. This happened in 2016. This feels so late, yet, this shows that steps are being taken to make Mississippi more accepting and safe.
I feel biased towards this book because I love road trips. It’s one of my favorite ways to see the US. While this book deals with heavy subject matter, I like how Samantha documents her travels. She tends to find the hidden gems in some of these states that many would overlook.
Another thing I liked about this book is how concise this was. Reading non-fiction can be draining depending on the topic the book is covering. If a non-fiction book is longer, I sometimes struggle to stay engaged. At only 307 pages, I felt this book was easy to read and I found myself losing an hour or two at a time reading everyone’s stories.
Real Queer America LGBT Stories From Red States gives me hope. Hearing about how other people have stayed in these states because they want things to change, I have a lot of respect for them. I couldn’t imagine how difficult it must be to continue the fight. This book reminds me how important it is for Pride to exist.
After completing Jedi: Survivor, I felt like I needed a cozy game to play next. I searched through my library on Steam and saw I had purchased Zodiacats a few months ago. I didn’t know much about the game except that it has cats, its a puzzle game, and that’s about it. Zodiacats is the perfect cozy, puzzle, cat game that I needed.
Zodiacats is a puzzle game in which the goal is to solve puzzles to reveal pictures about the astrological signs. Each sign has their own image and each image features a cat on it. The puzzles are a sliding square type puzzle with the goal of revealing the picture once the blocks are in the right spot. Once each zodiac is revealed, there are two other puzzles that become available for players to complete.
I loved Zodiacats, but let’s be real, I’m a bit biased. I love any game that features cats, so this game would have had to been really bad in order for me not to like it. It was the perfect game for me to play after a long day at work. I would usually have Critical Role or What We Do in the Shadows on as background noise while I played through this game. The hard mode is actually difficult. There are a few of the puzzles I have yet to complete because I can’t figure out why the puzzle isn’t unlocking. I did read some of the comments from other gamers and they mentioned the possibility of a bug. I don’t know if that’s the case for me. Some of the flowers on the puzzles are difficult to differentiate at times, so it could be that I have a few of the blocks in the wrong spot.
The release of Star Wars The Acolyte seems to have caused a stir on social media. I’m seeing a flood of comments online about how fans miss when Star Wars wasn’t own by Disney along with the vitriol of fans commenting that The Acolyte isn’t good. As a Star Wars fan, I’m always looking forward to new additions to the galaxy and creating new stories across the timeline. I watched the first two episode of The Acolyte and I liked them. I don’t know if The Acolyte will be my all-time favorite Star Wars series, but I am curious to see how the series unfolds.
Spoilers For The Acolyte Below
The Acolyte takes place in The High Republic era, approximately 100 years before The Phantom Menace. The show opens with Master Indara (played by Carrie-Ann Moss) who is approached by a mysterious figure later to be revealed as Mae (played by Amandla Stenberg). After an intense combat, Indara is killed by Mae after trying to save a patron in the bar. The episode cuts to Osha (played again by Amandla Stenberg), who is approached by Jedi as she was seen at the scene of the crime. Osha protests her innocence, but is arrested. She escapes captivity and realizes her twin, Mae, is still alive and is responsible for these crimes. Meanwhile, Master Sol (played by Lee Jung-jae) is sent to investigate and capture Osha and bring her in for questioning. Sol has a personal connection to the case as he was Osha’s former master. Throughout the first two episodes, Sol is joined by Yord Fandar (played by Charlie Barnett) and Jecki Lon (played by Dafne Keen) to find Osha and understand why she is going after the Jedi.
I will say the obvious, I am bummed to see that Master Indara was killed in the first episode. I mentioned in my The Acolyte – First Thoughts post how excited I was to see that Carrie-Ann Moss was a part of the cast. It makes sense now since the trailer didn’t feature her at any other time, but still, I was hoping she would have a bigger part. It’s too early to say because I’m assuming there will be flashbacks in the later episodes. From a story perspective, I was not expecting the twin aspect with Osha and Mae. I figured Amandla would be a villain serving an evil master, I didn’t think she would be good. I think Yord is going to be an interesting charcter. He seems to have this arrogance to him which I think makes sense as the Jedi were powerful at that time. With the first two episodes, I think there’s enough intrigue to keep me invested. I’m curious to see how Mae’s revenge plays out and who she is serving. It seems like she doesn’t even know who her master is.
I wanted to focus on Master Sol. Sol reminds me of Qui-Gon Jinn. I think Sol believes in the good that the Jedi can bring, but he also seems to have this objective view as well. He will disagree with the orders he’s given and he also clearly has emotional ties to both Indara and Osha. It sounds like Sol saved Osha, but not Mae, so is he feeling guilty for that? What happened the night he met Osha? I think Sol is going to be a strong character in this series.
While I liked the first two episodes, fans have been divided when it comes to recent Star Wars projects. I wanted to first address something that’s been circulating online. There’s an interview with Charlie Barnett where he says that, “If you can’t look and see that Anakin blowing up the Death Star possibly killed millions and millions of people”. From A New Hope, we know Luke blew up the Death Star. I have seen fans mock Charlie online for being incorrect with his knowledge of Star Wars. If an actor decides to play a role in a geeky franchise, are they responsible for knowing everything about said franchise? or can actors simply be actors? I already know what you may be thinking, saying Anakin blew up the Death Star is a pretty egregious and incorrect fact. Sure, but does that warrant fans going after him? It’s not an excuse to justify online harassment.
Besides Charlie’s comment, he isn’t the first actor to either say something incorrect or comment on their experience with Star Wars. It’s no secret that Alec Guinness didn’t like Obi-Wan’s dialogue and wanted to be killed off in the movie. Harrison Ford has shown a saltier attitude to Star Wars as well. While it’s cool to see someone like Henry Cavill express their fandoms, I don’t think all actors need to do this unless it’s their hobby.
While I liked The Acolyte, there’s nothing wrong with not liking a show or a movie. I think it boils down to, are you sharing your opinion to open a conversation? or are you spreading negativity when one person decides to say that they like something. There’s nothing more annoying than someone saying how much they like something only to receive negative comments. I do plan on writing recap posts every few episodes to discuss the series, share theories, and provide context as to what this means for The High Republic.
In June, I’m taking a break from my usual TBR schedule, instead, I’m picking books I’m in the mood to read. I will go back to my TBR format for July as I already know what books I will read next month. From my trip to Tropes and Trifles, I purchased FangirlDown by Tessa Bailey. Fangirl Down is a golf romance and it’s the first book in Tessa Bailey’s sports romance series. This is the first Tessa Bailey book I finished because I tried to read Wreck the Halls last year and DNFed it. Fangirl Down was the smutty sports romance book I was looking for.
Josephine Doyle is Wells Whitaker’s number-one fan. After a chance encounter after a golf tournament, Wells rips Josephine’s sign in half. Feeling guilty, Wells appears at Josephine’s golf store ready to apologize. After a hurricane tore the store apart, Wells realizes how he can help. He hires Josephine as his caddy, so she can use the money to fix her pro shop. Josephine becomes the bright spot that Wells needs and he realizes there’s more to Josephine than just being a fangirl.
I loved Josephine. I’d read a whole series about her playing golf. She can dish out sassy comments back to Wells and her positivity is a perfect contrast to Wells’s grumpy attitude. She has to deal with a lot of sexism as she’s a female caddy to a male pro-golfer, but she holds her own and it’s clear that she has a lot of respect for golf as a sport (arguably more than Wells throughout this entire book). Josephine was the best.
As a golfer, I liked how golf was the backdrop to this book. The final moments were at The Masters which was the perfect way to end the book. The PGA Tour is featured several times and I like how there was some dirty talk that focused specifically on golf. I enjoyed reading about Josephine and Wells jetting off to the next tournament throughout the US.
While I loved this book, I felt there were moments where the writing was cringe. If I were to read the dialogue out loud, there’s no way that anyone talks that way in a normal conversation. While this book was smutty, some of the scenes were hot and others gave me the ick. There’s also a particular scene in this book that wasn’t for me, but I have to admire Josephine for taking what she wants.
The last thing I wanted to add, while Wells does grow up a lot, I think he’s a walking red flag. The way he treats Josephine at times is not the best. To be fair, he does apologize, although it feels like common sense not to treat someone that way. I think Tessa Bailey wrote Wells to be this over-the-top aggressive person which I didn’t think was needed. The epilogue in Fangirl Down helps because it shows how Wells has matured. While Josephine and Wells are cute together, Wells needs therapy.
Fangirl Down was a hole-in-one. I didn’t think I would enjoy this book as much as I did and now I’m invested in Tessa Bailey’s series. The second book, The Au Pair Affair will be published sometime this Summer.
The last time I played Vampire: The Masquerade was back in 2021 for a one-shot. I hoped this one-shot would develop into a longer campaign, but our group dissolved due to conflicting schedules. A few weeks ago, I was alerted in our Dungeons & Dragons Discord that Bad Wolf Adventure Studios was running a Vampire one-shot on Friday night. I immediately signed up because Vampire has to be one of my favorite TTRPG systems I have played. I’m happy I signed up because it was an entertaining one-shot from start to finish.
The DM running our Vampire session was the same DM who ran the Curse of Strahd campaign I was in, so it felt like a mini-reunion. To prepare for the session, our DM had pre-generated characters to pick from. I liked this a lot because it had been a while since I created a character from scratch, so having readily available options worked quite well for me. Whenever I play Vampire, I usually pick the Toreador or Ventrue clans. I wanted to choose something different and picked Tremere. Tremere is the Blood Witch clan who experiments with Blood Magic. While there wasn’t much time to experiment with all of my character’s abilities, I liked playing Tremere as a clan.
Our session had five players in total with three of us having prior experience in Vampire with the other two players being new to the system. Our group worked well even though we had never played a game together. One of the newer players straight-up tried to use her vampiric abilities to intimidate one of the guards. I was here for it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, but it was cool to see them dive into the game so quickly. One of the vampires we encountered tried to use a power called Dominate on my character which compels someone to obey. This worked, however, I retaliated and used Cloud Memory, so the Vampire didn’t remember anything I told her under Dominate. Our players were rolling well throughout the session which doesn’t always happen in Vampire. After the session ended, it seemed like everyone had a good time.
This was so much fun and I’m happy I signed up for the session. I hope Bad Wolf will offer a longer-term Vampire campaign or more one-shots of other systems in the future.
Another successful Star Wars-themed month. I accomplished most of what I wanted to and I think I finally learned what is realistic to achieve in a month. Going forward, I will set out to watch one Star Wars TV show (versus trying to watch multiple) and focus on one video game at a time. I think I overestimated how much time I would have and it quickly became apparent that I was too ambitious. I wanted to share my recap for last month.
Books and Comics
I read Star Wars Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson and my review was posted a few weeks ago. I loved this book and it brought more background to Phasma as a character. I tried to read Star Wars Leia Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, but I couldn’t get into the book, so I ended up putting it down and reading something else. For comics, I read Mace Windu issues #1-#3. Next year will be exciting because I finally got through my Star Wars backlog, so I will have more freedom in picking what I want to read next. Most of my Star Wars-themed months have focused on canon Star Wars books, but I’d love to go back and read some of the Legends Library books. If anyone has any recommendations on where to start, I’d appreciate the suggestions in advance!
Movies and TV
I am so close to finishing Star Wars Rebels. I finished season #3 yesterday, so I only have one season left. I plan on writing a post about my final thoughts on the series once I complete it. On top of that, Star Wars Acolyte’s first episode is set to air this month, so I want to devote the time to watching that series.
For next year, I may want to do a rewatch of The Mandalorian since it’s been a while or I will finally watch Bad Batch. I’m slowly getting caught up on all the series.
Gaming
I finished Star Wars: Jedi Survivor and I’m glad I did. It may have taken me a while, but it was worth it. I won’t offer any spoilers as I already discussed those at length in my review. I did play some of Lego Star Wars, but I mostly played Jedi Survivor. I’m not sure what my plan will be for next year. If I haven’t played Star Wars Outlaws by next May, I will probably play through that game or I could do another play-through of Star Wars Battlefront II.
It was a productive month and I think I have ideas on what I want to devote my time to next year.
For my husband’s 30th birthday, he wanted to get a group of friends together to go Axe-Throwing. There’s an Axe-Throwing place near our house, so we all got together to throw axes. I have been Axe Throwing once before and I was terrible. I will not survive a Zombie Apocalypse. I surprised myself because I actually didn’t do too bad. I felt our instructor did a great job of explaining how to throw an axe. I’d argue this instructor was better than the one I had previously.
My husband completely kicked all of our asses. With every throw, his axe stuck on the board. I went head to head with one of our friends and I won! I still can’t believe it. My husband was considering joining an Axe-Throwing league. I’m not sure if he will, but he would be great at it.
This was such a fun night out with friends. As we all get older, it’s difficult for us to find the time to get together. I cherish these moments so that we can all spend quality time together.
It has taken me five months, but I finally sat down and finished Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. I would go through spurts where I would play for a few hours at a time and then I wouldn’t play the game for months. When May came around, I knew I wanted to sit down and devote the time to complete the story. I’m glad I made the time to finish Jedi: Survivor, but I can’t deny that there were many moments where this game frustrated me.
Jedi: Survivor takes place five years after Jedi: Fallen Order. Cal Kestis has distanced himself from Cere Junda, Greez Dritus, and Merrin. While stealing military data on Coruscant, Cal’s ship, The Mantis, is heavily damaged. Cal flies The Mantis to Koboh, so Greez can repair it. While locating ship parts, Cal has a vision of two High Republic Jedi, Dagan Gera, and Santari Khri, talking about a hidden planet called Tanalorr. Cal wakes Dagan from a Bacta tank and is horrified to find out that Dagan turned to the Dark Side. After Dagan escapes, Cal realizes Tanalorr would be the perfect place to hide from The Empire. Cal has to team up with his friends to stop Dagan once and for all.
Spoilers Ahead for Jedi: Survivor
One of my favorite parts about playing these games is the characters. Cal and his partnership with BD1 is so heartwarming. BD1 is the best buddy and keeps Cal company on his adventures. Merrin has a much bigger role in Jedi: Survivor which I enjoyed. Cere and Greez still have Cal’s back and reunite as the story continues. I liked the addition of Bode to Cal’s crew. Bode’s voice sounded familiar to me and it turns out that Bode was voiced by Noshir Dalal who recently appeared on Critical Role’s Candela Obscura. I loved Noshir on Candela Obscura, so it was a nice surprise to see him pop up in this game. I mentioned this in my Jedi: Fallen Order review, but I genuinely believe that these games provide essential lore for Star Wars.
In Jedi: Survivor, Cal unlocks new abilities. I like how this game prompts Cal into diving into the Dark Side of The Force. When Cal goes after Bode, Cal unlocks his Dark Side ability which replaced his previous ability. I’m curious to see how this will impact Cal in future games. Will Cal turn to the Dark Side permanently? or will Cal see The Light. Personally, I hope Cal remains a Jedi. Besides Cal’s new ability, there are several new Lightsaber stances to learn. One includes a more heavy melee attack while another stance allows Cal to carry a blaster. I leaned towards the blaster stance as I felt it was useful against the Stormtroopers and Battle Droids.
With the story, I liked the inclusion of The High Republic era of Star Wars. I think there’s so much potential to tell powerful stories before the prequels. Can we talk about Cere’s journey throughout this game? When their base is attacked, Cere confronts Darth Vader. Unfortunately, Darth Vader gets the upper hand and stabs Cere. Cal arrives too late when he senses Cere’s echo and holds her as she dies. This scene was heartbreaking, but so fitting to her character. I liked how Cal didn’t see what happened, but could sense it which plays into Cal’s powers as a Jedi.
Another interesting element of Jedi: Survivor is Bode’s story. Towards the latter half of the game, Bode betrays the group and takes the compass believing Tanalorr can protect his daughter. Once Cal chases Bode, Bode pulls out his red lightsaber indicating his previous history as a Jedi. What a moment! Bode’s character is so interesting to me because it reveals how morally gray the galaxy is when The Empire took over. Bode’s intentions are good because he wants to protect his daughter from the Inquisitors. However, he partners with The Empire because he doesn’t see a way out. I feel for Bode and while I’d say he’s a villain, I think he was shaped by his experiences and he couldn’t sacrifice everything to keep a rebellion alive.
While I enjoyed Jedi: Survivor, I wanted to share a few grievances I had with the game. The first would be the navigation. It feels like Jedi: Survivor made no improvements to the map. For each mission, Cal has a waypoint several meters away. Unfortunately, the area between Cal’s current location and the waypoint is black, so there really isn’t a great way to figure out where you’re going. I still had to use walkthroughs to ensure I was heading in the right direction. I wish these games had a navigational feature where there would be a yellow line or arrow on the ground guiding Cal to the next spot. This feature could be turned on or off in the main menu for those gamers who want to figure it out for themselves. This would have saved me so much time. While there was a fast travel option, I don’t think it addresses the issues I have with the maps.
Jedi: Survivor is as difficult or more difficult than Jedi: Fallen Order. While some of the boss fights seem more balanced, I found the save points were way more spread out. There were several times when I would face a group of enemies, be low on health, and end up dying because I didn’t make the wall run to the next area. This was so aggravating. While this didn’t ruin the game for me, it became a major reason why it took me so long to finish the game.
Jedi: Survivor is a solid sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. I feel these games appeal to a certain type of gamer and that’s not me. I don’t have the time to grind through a difficult game. Going forward, I will probably play these games on the Story Mode difficulty because honestly, that’s why I’m playing these games to begin with. I want to dive into the story without feeling like I’m getting a ruthless game experience. I’m looking forward to the third game in the series and to the release of Star Wars Outlaws which is set to come out later this year.
Bizarre Brunette 