This week for "What's on My Shelf," we've got a banger of a mystery full of betrayal and misdeeds and my all-time favourite: mummies! It's Isabel Ibanez's What the River Knows! In What the River Knows, you meet Inez Oliviera, a young woman from a wealthy, upper class family in nineteenth century Argentina, who learns of her parents disappearance to the hot and unforgiving Egyptian desert. Determined to uncover the truth, she sets out from Buenos Aires for Cairo with nothing but her ...
Musings
WOMS: Saffron Everleigh Mysteries
I have discovered a new, delightful heroine, and it's time I introduced her: everyone, meet Saffron Everleigh! She's a spunky, witty botanist working as a research assistant at the University College in London in the 1920s where she suddenly finds herself mixed up in a murder scheme when the wife of a professor drops dead at a dinner party. Though at first she might seem like the awkward, bookish type, she quickly finds her footing in the throes of the chase as she first tries to acquit her ...
WOMS: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands
If all books about the fae were more like Emily Wilde's adventures, I might read more stories about them. Emily and Bambleby are back in this second installment, Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, of Heather Fawcett's series reminiscent of Marie Brennan's Lady Trent series, just with excursions to discover and research the fae in their natural habitats, not dragons. Perhaps that is what I love most about this series, though I'm sure I already shared the same sentiments in my previous ...
WOMS: The Last Heir of Blackwood Library
I wasn't looking for a ghost story, but I am so glad I stumbled upon The Last Heiress of Blackwood Library by Hester Fox. Introducing mysteries back into my rotations of genres has allowed me to branch out a little, especially since so many I read are historically inspired. Okay, all of them are, but what I'm trying to get to is that I have found myself "accidentally" reading historical novels I wouldn't have necessarily picked up at first had it not hinted at some sort of mystery within its ...
WOMS: A Governess’s Guide to Passion and Peril
How is it that Manda Collins never ceases to delight me? Her latest installment (and maybe final?) in her Ladies Most Scandalous series, A Governess's Guide to Passion and Peril, is no exception to the reputation she's established as a charming author of historical romances, even when there's a murder to be solved. With all the chaos my life has been over the last four years, I've never been able to review one of her books, which is a shame because they're so deserving of all the ...
WOMS: The Gentleman’s Gambit
There are few books, especially works of fiction, I read where I desire to annotate little notes or underline sentences because of how deeply they resonate with me. I can only think of five books where I have done so, and they are my five most favourite and beloved novels. I have now read another I would add to that list. Evie Dunmore's The Gentleman's Gambit possessed every bit of charm and passion as her other books in her League of Extraordinary Women series. However, this book felt ...
WOMS: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
I should have read this series as a tweener. I would have been in love with Percy and Annabeth and Grover. I would have wanted to escape to Camp Half-Blood every summer. I was only a few years older than Percy when Rick Riordan introduced us to this feisty whippersnapper of a kid with a quick-witted tongue and even sharper reflexes. I could have grown up with him, but alas. This series has always been on my TBR. I'm not sure why I didn't make more of an effort to read it once I learned more ...
WOMS: The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic
This book messed me up. In a good way. The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic is a debut novel by Breanne Randall, marketed as Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls, and I couldn't agree more. Though I've only seen one of those, and neither are necessarily favourites of mine, this is one of those rare examples when the comp titles are right on the money. This book takes you in, wraps you up in a cosy knitted blanket, hands you a warm cup of tea, and invites you to partake of the ...
I’m Back
I found my spark again. A lot has happened since I last wrote, even though it’s only been a couple of months. A lot of changes around me, in me. A lot of shackles have been removed. I don’t feel tied down anymore. I’m getting comfortable in my own skin again, too. It’s an exhilarating feeling, having the freedom to be oneself. I’ve chased my own authenticity for years now. I don’t know if I’ll ever stop, but I feel as though every day brings me closer and closer. Growing up, I was ...
A Hierarchy of Needs
I'm back momentarily to share one quick update, and something I recently learned which may help you as much as it has helped me by boosting my confidence about Life interrupting what is important to me over these last few years. In one of my recent sessions, my therapist and I were discussing ways to help communicate my needs during this time of learning about my autism since my diagnosis, and how to establish my boundaries more firmly with different areas which might demand more from me than ...
