I finished my first audiobook on Libby! The last time I listened to an audiobook was when I was a kid. This was back when audiobooks were on CDs. Audiobooks have obviously changed a lot and become more accessible than ever. I went through my Goodreads TBR and settled on The Babysitter’s Coven by Kate Williams as a good audiobook choice. The Babysitter’s Coven had an interesting premise, but I thought this book wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

Esme Pearl is a seventeen-year-old high school student who babysits for extra spending money. Esme and one of her best friends start a babysitting club to help get more babysitting jobs. While babysitting and attending classes, Esme has some weird things happen to her that she can’t explain. After learning that there might be a connection between the new girl at school and Esme’s mom, Esme knows more about why these events happened to her and what that means for her as a babysitter.

The Babysitter’s Coven is described as Adventure in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. From what I read, I think this description is wrong. Instead, I’d say that if you plucked Raven from Teen Titans and had her start a babysitter’s club, that’s what this book was. The original comparison made me want to read this in the first place, so the fact that this book was not what I had hoped contributed to why I didn’t enjoy this.

Since I read this as an audiobook, I found myself picking apart the writing more than if I had read the physical book. Esme is supposed to be seventeen, but the way she’s written, she talks like a middle schooler. She and her friends would say IDK and ASAP in sentences when talking to each other. Yikes. I am trying to remember if I was that cringy in high school. While I know I’m not the target audience for this book, there are YA books on my bookshelf I love to read, even though I’m thirty. That said, if I were to read this when I was in high school, I probably would have loved it.

The Babysitter’s Coven was a cool concept on paper, but this did not work for me. This wouldn’t be a book I would re-read, nor would it be a series I would continue with. I rated The Babysitter’s Coven two stars on Goodreads.

I have watched booktubers rave about If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. I haven’t seen anyone critique or offer anything negative about this book. As such, this book has appeared on several dark academia-recommended reading lists. While I’m not a big Shakespeare or theater person, I couldn’t pass up on the premise. I am in the minority here because while I liked If We Were Villains, I rated this book lower than most reviewers.

Oliver Marks is released from prison after ten years for a murder he may or may not have committed. Detective Colborne picks Oliver up from prison and comes up with a compromise. Before he retires, he wants Oliver to tell him the truth about what happened ten years ago. Since he’s retiring, it’s not like he will take any action, no matter what Oliver tells him. Oliver agrees and directs Colborne to his former college campus, an elite liberal arts college where he and his friends studied Shakespeare. In between auditions, Oliver reminisces about his friends and the moment everything changed for them.

If We Were Villains is, without a doubt, a dark academia thriller. I loved how the college campus is described and how Oliver and his friends live in a tower. It’s completely unrealistic, but I don’t care. With thrillers, I expect to finish these books within a day or two. If a thriller is slower-paced, I will probably rate it lower because it took me longer to finish. If We Were Villains does not fall into this, I ended up reading 200 pages in one sitting and could not be bothered to do anything else until I finished this book.

If We Were Villains has an average Goodreads rating of 4.15 stars, which is pretty high. While reading this book, certain things stuck out to me that bothered me. Starting with the characters, I didn’t like how Meredith, one of Oliver’s friends, was portrayed. Meredith is described as being eye candy for almost every single male character. If I had to read another section about how Meredith was curvy and how her clothes looked on her body, I was going to lose it. To give this book the benefit of the doubt, some of these descriptions were during the college’s plays, but still, we get it, she’s curvy. What bothers me is that’s all I know about her. I don’t know much about her personality or hobbies; she’s attractive, and that’s it. On top of that, the other two female characters, Wren and Pip, were overshadowed by Meredith, so I didn’t know much about them either.

Besides Meredith, Oliver ends up beginning a relationship with her. However, Oliver has feelings for James. This book does a bait and switch of hinting at Oliver and James’s relationship, but never allowing it to happen. It’s interesting because the theater brings so many people with different identities, so I find it strange how Oliver is paired up with Meredith when their chemistry feels forced.

The last thing I will mention is the ending. If We Were Villains has one of those endings that completely shifts the entire book. It’s hard to discuss without spoiling the book, but I found the ending unfair to Meredith. The ending is left open to interpretation, which is fine. I prefer books to have everything wrapped up at the end, but that’s just me.

It makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy this book. I liked If We Were Villains. I disagree with other book reviewers who would put this on their favorites list. I’m glad I read this. I don’t think I need to own a physical copy of the book. I would consider reading from this author again. I rated If We Were Villains three stars on Goodreads.

Pumpkin coffee is back, and Home Depot has its Halloween decorations, which can mean one thing: it’s officially the start of spooky season. For the next two months, I will pick books to read that feel spooky to me. This could be a paranormal romance, a gothic thriller, straight-up horror, and more. Since my last TBR, I downloaded Libby, my library’s audiobook app, so now I have been reading more than ever. I will share all the physical books I plan to read, along with the audiobooks I hope to listen to.

The first book I will be reading is The Serpent & The Wings of the Night by Carissa Broadbent. When I first heard about this book, it was described as The Hunger Games mixed with vampires. Sign me up. I started this book back in August, and then I got distracted. I’m about fifty pages in and determined to finish the book by the end of the month. The second book I plan on reading is Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. I had this book on my July TBR, but I wasn’t able to read it before Gen Con. The third book not pictured in this photo is We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. We Sold Our Souls is about a band where one of the lead singers may have made a deal with the devil. I think there’s a nice variety in the books I have chosen, and each book fits the theme of the next two months.

Besides the physical books on my TBR, I also have a graphic novel on hold at the library. I’m planning on reading Crumbs by Danie Stirling. Crumbs is based on a WEBTOON comic about a young seer who struggles with her powers. As far as audiobooks, I have two audiobooks I’m planning on listening to this month. The first is The Babysitter’s Coven by Kate M. Williams. I’m not exactly sure what this book is about. Esme is the main character, and weird things have happened to her, but I’m not far enough in the book to figure out what’s happening. The second audiobook I plan on listening to is This Spells Love by Kate Robb. This is a romance where a woman casts a spell to erase her ex from her past, but the spell backfires. Both audiobooks are due in two weeks, so we shall see if I can find the time to listen to them.

This is my favorite time of the year, so I love to match what I’m reading with the season.

It’s been fun to be in a regular book club with friends. My friends started it towards the beginning of the year, but I joined a few months ago due to prior commitments. Being in a book club has helped expose me to new authors or genres I don’t normally read. This month’s book choice was Never Lie by Freida McFadden. I haven’t read anything by Freida McFadden before reading this book. It seems like the book she’s known for was The Housemaid. Never Lie kept my interest, which is exactly what I wanted from this book.

Tricia and Ethan are newlyweds who are looking to buy a house. They trek to a showing for a home that used to belong to the infamous psychiatrist, Dr. Adrienne Hale. Adrienne disappeared several years ago and hasn’t been seen since. Tricia and Ethan are trapped in the house due to the snow outside. As they go through Adrienne’s belongings, Tricia finds a hidden room with interview tapes from Adrienne’s patients. Tricia becomes obsessed with listening to the tapes and uncovering what happened to Adrienne.

Never Lie was a page-turner. I had a friend over at my house and with only thirty pages left in the book, I told her I needed to finish this book. She understood as she’s a reader as well. If I’m reading a thriller and I don’t feel compelled to keep reading, there’s no way I would give it above a two-star rating. There’s enough intrigue with Never Lie and I like how the story is told. There are chapters jumping back and forth in perspective from Adrienne before her disappearance and Tricia as she’s exploring Adrienne’s house. There are sections with the transcript of Adrienne’s interviews as Tricia plays the tapes. I liked the concept of this and while this isn’t new, I found it interesting to read.

Another thing I liked about Never Lie was the setting. Never Lie primarily takes place in a historic mansion with the backdrop of the snowstorm trapping Tricia and Ethan in the house. It gives more of a horror vibe since there isn’t anywhere for Tricia and Ethan to go but stay in the house. It adds to the creepiness of the book.

With that said, there were portions of the book I wasn’t a fan of. Tricia as a character was the worst. She came off as obtuse and naive. She would talk about Ethan in a way where she would recognize his red flags and then immediately play it off as not being a big deal. Now that I finished the book and I know the twist, this all makes sense. The twist is predictable and something that has been done in other thrillers I have read. Am I becoming a book hipster now? Most of the characters aren’t good people except for Luke. I have read thrillers where all the characters suck and loved those books, but I can’t say the same for Never Lie.

I hate to harp on this, but the events that unfolded in Never Lie were not logical. Without spoilers, the way some of the characters acted, I find it so hard to believe. The characters were not smart at times which is weird to me. Adrienne Hale has multiple PhDs and yet, she made some of the silliest decisions in the book. I don’t think this ruined the book for me, but also, I wouldn’t find myself re-reading this book in the future.

In writing this review, it makes it seem like I did not like this book. I did like Never Lie. I finished the book in two days and would have stopped reading it if I didn’t like it. I don’t think there was anything groundbreaking or unique about this book which is fine. I’m waffling on whether I would read another Freida McFadden book because this book didn’t wow me, but maybe I haven’t given her enough credit. I rated Never Lie three stars on Goodreads.

I purchased Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce earlier this year while on my road trip to New Mexico. I did not know this book existed beforehand, and I’m not usually one to purchase books I have never heard of. With that said, the premise of this was too cute. A fake dating romance with one of the characters being a theater kid and the other working at a game store, it’s like this book was written for me. I’m happy to say that Dungeons and Drama lived up to all my expectations and was such a cute book to read.

Riley Morris dreams of becoming a stage director on Broadway. After the spring show is canceled and Riley is caught driving without a license, she is in a funk. As for her punishment, she works at her dad’s game store. After seeing her ex-boyfriend stopping by, Riley catches Nathan Wheeler and pretends to be his girlfriend. Nathan goes along with it as he’s interested in someone else in his DnD group. Riley is looped into their campaign and slowly develops feelings for Nathan. Pretending to be his girlfriend isn’t as hard as she thought.

I loved this book. Riley and Nathan were adorable together. Reading Dungeons and Drama was a trip down memory lane. I frequented game stores, and when I was in college, there was a local game store we would always go to, as one of my friends worked there part-time. I felt that this book captured what a game store environment is like, and the regulars became side characters that mattered to the story. I liked reading about Riley and how she found the similarities between theater and tabletop. She ends up playing a Bard, which was so fitting to her personality.

There was no way that I wasn’t going to love this book. As an added bonus, I saw that this book is apparently the first book in this series, with book #2 potentially being released next year. I would continue in this series as this book was everything I wanted it to be. I rated Dungeons and Drama five stars on Goodreads.

CW: Suicide, Depression, Death of an Animal. None of these will be expanded upon in detail in this post.

While at a friend’s cabin this past weekend, I finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This book had been on my Goodreads to-be-read shelf for years. It’s highly rated with an average 4.0-star rating from other readers. I am in the minority because while I’m glad I read this, I didn’t love it. I had expectations of what I wanted this book to be, and those expectations let me down. Instead of writing a traditional book review, I wanted to expand upon some of the themes that were brought up in The Midnight Library.

The Midnight Library centers on Nora Seed. Nora is depressed, and after a series of events, she’s committed to ending her life. Nora is suddenly transported to a library where each book within the library represents a different life path for her. For every book she picks up, she sees how her life is different. In one book, she’s an Olympic swimmer. In another, she’s a glaciologist in the Arctic. If Nora is unhappy, she is pulled out of the book and back to the library. With Nora’s reality coming to fruition, Nora must figure out what she wants before it’s too late.

I thought long and hard about this. If I ended up at The Midnight Library, I would not want to view other versions of my life. I am happy with my life. I have an amazing husband, several hobbies I balance, and I find joy in simple things like exercising regularly or playing video games. I have a good group of friends from different social circles. I have had several opportunities to travel to bucket list places, which I feel fortunate to have been able to do. I don’t think there is such a thing as the perfect life, and I wouldn’t trade my life or experiences for anything else.

Throughout the book, Nora has a “Book of Regrets,” and that helps Nora figure out which books to choose. Her regrets are: quitting swimming, not going to school to become a glaciologist, quitting a band, and choosing to not marry a man she was in a long-term relationship with. I was thinking about what my version of regrets would be. If I had to pick, I think mine would be: not studying abroad in college, not finding the time to play the alto-saxophone, and choosing a different major in college.

I would have loved to study abroad in college. However, I was already behind in my degree since I switched majors. Additionally, I didn’t have the money to study abroad. All my international traveling has been post-college, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Funding my own trips has made me appreciate traveling so much more. I played the alto sax in both high school and college. I quit playing because the anatomy classes I needed overlapped with band. I am proud of myself for trying band in college, though. It made me a better musician in many ways I wouldn’t have predicted. My alto sax is at my mom’s house. Part of me wants to pick it up and play it. I don’t think I can part with it permanently. The final regret is wishing that I had chosen a different major in college. In my professional life, I’m not using my degree. I wish I had done a more generic degree versus something so specific. Going to college was life-changing for me in many ways, and I learned so much about myself. I wouldn’t be the person I am without my time at Winona State University.

I am glad I read The Midnight Library, even though I didn’t love the book. This book made me think and reflect on my own life based on what Nora learned about hers. I wouldn’t change anything in my life, and it makes me appreciate every memory, hardship, and moment I won’t take for granted.

I am excited to read all the books I picked out this month. Last month, I let myself be a mood reader. Mood reading is exactly what it sounds like. I didn’t pre-plan what I was going to read; instead, I chose whatever I wanted to read without any rhyme or reason. It was a nice break from the TBR format of previous months. The theme for this month is shorter books. Every book I plan on reading is 330 pages or fewer. Here are the books I plan to read in July.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Nora Seed wanders to The Midnight Library, a library between life and death. Each book in The Midnight Library allows Nora to view a portion of her life if she had made a different decision. She wants to build the perfect life for herself, but is that even possible?

I think the concept of The Midnight Library is fascinating. I don’t think I would go to The Midnight Library if I had the option. Things worked out in my life how they were supposed to. Viewing alternative choices would only make me feel worse. I’m curious to see how this book plays out.

Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

Riley has big dreams of working on Broadway. She has been busy working on this year’s high school musical, which she enjoys. Riley is grounded, and as punishment, she has to work at her dad’s game shop. Riley meets Nathan, one of the employees at the game store who also runs a DnD game. Riley realizes that her initial flirtations with Nathan might be something more.

This book was written for me. Romance involving table-top roleplaying games, I mean, c’mon.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde is a professor at Cambridge who studies faeries and folklore. She travels to a small town to continue her studies and meets her academic rival there. Emily is determined to stay busy and not make friends with anyone. In her path for knowledge, she discovers potentially dark fae magic that could threaten to destroy all she holds dear.

The first three sentences in the Goodreads preview of this book are “A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love at the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series”. This sounds right up my alley. I didn’t know that curmudgeonly was a word, but now I have to figure out how to use this word more often.

This will be a great reading month for me. In a few weeks, I will be going to a friend’s cabin, and there’s nothing I love more than sitting in the sun and reading a book.

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 saved it 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 Frances’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.

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 shows 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, while 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 it 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 it 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, 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.

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 Fangirl Down 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 at 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 respects 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 cringy. 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 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.