Early Summer Reading & “Lasagna” 3 Ways

I am on book #53 for 2025! I am 46% done my reading challenge and not slowing down. Well, I did slow down for a bit during the Crap Gap and the week after my infusion. Some days my eyesight is wonky and some days I just can’t focus and these books deserve my attention! LOL June is Pride Month so I read a few books with LGBTQIA2S+ characters and relationships, M Day Hampton sent me their latest historical fiction novel and I read that, and I also FINALLY read the book I preordered and basically counted down the days until I could hold it. But now it’s over!!! I have to wait until next year to read more of this story!!! Ugh. Like always, I have put the challenge theme in italics. I am doing 3 Reading Challenges, The Book Nerd Challenge from my local library, The Booklist Queen’s Reading Challenge, and The Taylor Swift Reading Challenge that I and doing with SBean. Let’s be friends on Goodreads, I’m under KMaeMaier!

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarrows Ready for it? – You’re most anticipated 2025 release. I loved 4th Wing and Iron Flame. However, it took me a long time to get into this book. At first, it almost seemed like someone else wrote it. I couldn’t remember any of the characters and there are so many of them! Fliers? There wasn’t even a recap to remind you what went down in the last book over a year ago. Oh and they are still second years? Come on now. But, by page 150 I am back into the Empyrian world and chuckling at the banter and friendship between the members of this deadly squad. Mira really stood out to me in this book. I also liked the quest and that Yarros kept all the central characters together in this book. Every Isle was a new test and I’m a big fan of test/challenge books. I liked Andarna’s storyline and that this book wasn’t ALL about relationships. I also liked being able to hear how other riders talk with their dragons and their bonds explored a bit more. I hope there’s more of that in the next book. But that cliffhanger??? Not nice lol.

When Sounds Collide by M. Day Hampton Last great American Dynasty – historical fiction. I can’t imagine living in the late 19th century in the deep south. You get a glimpse of life as a 10 year old coloured boy within the first 50 pages. He gets cheated, mocked, beaten, left for dead, and made an orphan. This book isn’t for the faint of heart. If that isn’t heartbreaking enough, two children find solace in each other’s companionship as they discuss their mutual grief of losing their mothers. Ugh! In this story, Custis is a gifted black boy that, despite his skin colour, goes to college up North and becomes a professor, through lies and coverups becomes a Nobel peace prize nominee and then a disgraced inventor. This is his and his best friend Sarah’s story, a story of friendship, loyalty and love. It is also a story of being unfairly disadvantaged in life because of your colour. Custis meets many people in his life that are good people that want to help him, he also meets people that are racist and entitled. He leaves an impression on the people he meets throughout his life and they never give up fighting for him. This is a story of true friendship and love that will stay with me for a long time.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva About any type of art & a spy thriller. You know how you have a comfort show? I have a comfort author. His books are like Hallmark spy books lol. They follow a certain formula but each story is wholly enjoyable. You could pick this book up, #22 in the Gabriel Allon spy series, and enjoy it. If you’ve read the first 21 books, you will enjoy this because there’s so many past characters brought up or part of this fast paced story about art forgeries. Like always, all the loose ends are tied up, and the mystery is solved, which is what I like about these books. I like the writing style, the characters, and knowing I will be satisfied at the end of every book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak banned book. Death is the narrator of this young adult book that takes place in Germany during World War II. It is the story of Liesel, an illiterate book thief. It took me a while to get into the style that this book is written in. The foreshadowing of things to come. There is a lot of time jumping and the narrator alludes to things that are flushed out more coherently later on. Perhaps this is to lead a younger reader through some very heavy topics? If you know it’s going to happen, you can follow along to see why and how it came to that. When I think of what families went through, children, Jewish people, my heart breaks. I’ve read many books from different points of view, but Liesel’s story, a young German girl’s story makes me realize that it didn’t matter what nationality, where you lived or what God you believed in, nobody won. Everyone lost something. Because of one man’s ego and perverse desires. So much death. So many families, dead. Full lines of family, gone. This book made me think, cry, and hope that nothing like this ever happens again.

The Guncle by Steven Rowley A pride (LGBTQIA2S+) I read page 3 and there is a discussion about Grease and Grease 2, so I knew I was all in! Despite beginning on such a sad note, this book is hilarious. Kids questions and how they see things is so funny, when they aren’t yours lol. I loved Patrick and while this book was funny, it was way deeper than I had expected. Patrick’s answers for the many many many questions that the children have, are funny, but also honest. Through grief, family legal drama, and natural disasters, GUP and the Kids fumble their way through it all to show what family means. I laughed and cried in this book as it is a lesson on how humour helps people through their grief.

All You Have to Do Is Call by Kerri Maher It’s nice to have a friend – a book recommended by a friend. What an eye-opening book about the nuances of feminism in the 1970’s. Told from multiple viewpoints this is a story about friendship and women that fight for women. The story of women’s right to choose is a long and complicated one and this book shows the different perspectives during a time where abortion was illegal but on the precipice of changing. The women that made up the secret Jane Network were brave, smart, and unwavering in their pursuit of equality and safety for all women.

Bluebird by Genevieve Graham Finish a challenge from a previous year that you skipped I finished all the challenges from last year so I picked a Canadian book by a Canadian author instead. I have never read a book about Canada during the prohibition, and it was fascinating! This book has dual storylines and recounts one family’s history throughout World War I, and the time thereafter. I loved learning about tunneling, Bluebirds, rum runners, and Vimy Oaks. Canada has such a fascinating history, which is seen even with her observations of the black porters and the creation of War Amps of Canada. It seemed to wrap up too quickly though and I wish they would have reunited earlier. I would have liked the modern story to have been fleshed out a little more too. Overall it was a super interesting story about an interesting time in Canadian history.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett Has a cover without people on it. This is an odd book. It walks the line between nonfiction and fiction. It is a journal of fae? I’m not sure I liked Emily or the location they were in or Wendell. I did like the villagers though. Wendell’s changes seemed too fast and Emily was too accepting of them to be believed. The whole book was unbelievable but yet seemed scientifically factual. By November 20 I was finally starting to chuckle and enjoy the book for what it is, a fairytale. Also, this is another Canadian author.

The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen Mythology Retelling I felt like the reader was dropped into a story that had already started. There’s no character background or development, it gets right into it. And yet, I was hooked. I am a sucker for games and challenges like The Crucible and I love Greek gods and mythology. This was a fast paced and exciting book with good characters and good dialogue but it was the Labors of The Crucible with all of the Greek myth elements that really made this a book I wanted to keep reading, to find out who wins, who dies and what happens in the end. Like any good first book in a duology, the cliffhanger was a good one and I am excited to read the second one when it comes out this fall.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Kline Goodreads Winner in 2024 As soon as you open the book you are swept away into TJ Clune’s magical world of kindness and morals. Everything about this book teaches people how to treat one another in the most beautiful way possible. It is basically an allegory of what is happening in our world right now. As Larmina says, “a time will come when all of us will have to make a choice between what is right and what is wrong. I worry that time is closer than we think. And I don’t know that we’re prepared.“ This really is a philosophical fairytale about acceptance, morality, family and love. A beautiful story with memorable characters and a lot of good questions about parenting and how to accept our children for who they are. This is a wonderful book with a meaningful message that hits all the right heart spots.

God of the Woods by Liz Moore About or set in a forest. I read this in a day. This was a slow burn mystery. Lots of storylines, lots of timelines and lots of characters. Each chapter gave us another clue as Judy investigated the disappearance of a young girl whose brother also went missing over a decade prior. I don’t know, I hoped for more. I didn’t like the characters and thought that would basically be the conclusion all around. I think it was the 1970’s, or the underage affairs, or the rich partying but although the mystery made sense, nothing seemed to connect. I’m glad I read it but it needed something. Like, I like Judy’s name but why was she named that? I liked Louise and her family story was written to learn more about her but I just had more questions. It seemed like a basic story that is trying to be a lot more.

Wild Love by Elsie Silver With the word “wild” in the title. Canadian author and it takes place in Western Canada and of course I love the Canadianisms, like a box of Old Dutch chips and how they are getting harder to find lol, it’s true. I loved all the women in this book! Rosie, Cora, and Willa are funny, foul mouthed smart women and they made this book. The made up issues to keep them apart were boring though. The Fever series is one of my favourite book series and I love that Elsie Silver wrote that in! The family dynamic and the father/daughter relationship was done very well. It was interesting to have a big rockstar story in small town BC. Sometimes it felt forced. This book is spicy, easy and fun. I’m looking forward to the 2nd in this trilogy.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach Includes a wedding or divorce. I wasn’t sure about this book at first. It was hard for me to relate to the main character Phoebe, although I did relate to the references in this book. How it felt going back to work and being in public again after the pandemic, making vacation spreadsheets of fun and referencing Lila from Sweet Valley High lol. But once I got into it, it was very good. Phoebe drops truth bombs all over the place in this book. The questions asked about life, happiness, coincidence and death are so honest. When Phoebe starts living, she begins, saying what she wants. I like her relationship with the Bride and I also liked her relationship with the Groom. I also like her relationship with Mrs Dalloway, which is actually similar to my relationship with that book lol. This book was refreshing.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi Translated. What an odd book. Set in Tokyo, there is an old coffee shop that has a magical seat that can transport you to the past. But there are rules. Broken into 4 chapters, each chapter tells the story of 4 relationships and their experiences sitting in the chair. Although each story is separate, the other characters show up in each other’s chapters. The 1st chapter irked me but the 2nd and 3rd made me emotional. By the 4th I had figured out the internal changes that were happening and saw the growth of certain characters and the acceptance. It was an oddly beautiful book that came around a magically full circle.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Set in space & Book That Took a While to Read. This book is out of my comfort zone. With that being said, I had no clue what was happening at first, but neither did the main character so that was comforting. Also, within the first 20 pages I had LOLed a lot, which I wasn’t expecting from a sci-fi. A man wakes up in a room attached to hoses. He doesn’t know who he is or where he is. I loved how he figured out his name, Ryland Grace, where he was, in a ship in space, and what was going on. His inner dialogue, although scientific, was very enjoyable and easy to follow. I liked Dr Grace. I liked his relationships with Stratt, Dr Lokken and all the people he meets while working on Project Hail Mary, and especially with Rocky. This was a fantastic book about science, friendship, problem solving and courage.

The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer Armentrout Featuring a revenge story. This is the 3rd book in the series and it like the last 2, is long. Yet, the story takes place in a short period of time. It takes over 300 pages to go over 2 days before meeting with his Mother, the Queen. I like the characters, the call backs to things we know from other books in the series and the world building. It has a lot of history, types of beings and lore. Kieran is still my favourite although I love the 3 of them together, they are pretty funny and very loyal. There is a lot of dialogue, good dialogue, smart, but a lot of it. It took a while to get there, but when it did, it got good. I’m excited to see where the story goes.

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis Book everyone is talking about. This book has come up in all of my reading groups and I had never heard of the author so I gave it a try. This is an easy read. An interesting mystery involving stolen Egyptian antiquities, a lost daughter, and the Met Gala. Set in two different timelines the 1970’s and the 1930’s, Charlotte Cross navigates her career as finding ancient treasures on the banks of the Nile river to an assistant curator at the Met back to the ancient tombs of Egypt. This story is told from 2 perspectives, Charlotte and Annie. I very much enjoyed Annie and I enjoyed the whole story as it was easy and entertaining, and not very deep.

Quicksilver by Callie Hart Romantasy. This is a book that has come up in all my reading groups as a must read. 200 pages in and I had no attachment to the storyline or the characters. At all. It was a very long read and while I like the alchemy aspect of the storyline, I didn’t get a connection between the main characters. The side characters were good though, and their connections with the main characters were better, Carrion was my favourite. I will probably read the next one now that i know all the characters and the landscape but I won’t be waiting for its release.