Spells Trouble by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast - ​Firstly, the narrator (Cassandra Campbell) is incredible and has a great voice for audiobooks! This story is wonderful, sad, complex, and full of familial love. Twin witches that need to save their world from monsters from different realms of power?! Sign me up! Norse, Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, Japanese gates that needed to be fixed and closed again to keep the "Oogly-Boogly's" away from the world. Hunter and Mercy must work together starting on their shared 16th birthday, and the night of their mother's murder by a monster that was loosed, to seal the gates or risk being separated. I loved this so much! It was full of magic and just had the greatest weaved story! ​⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

A Chorus Rises by Bethany C. Morrow - ​Following the events of A Song Below Water we find Naema wanting to tell her half of the story. After all she is an eloko and deserves to be heard in her beloved Portland after Effie and Tavia so cruelly stoned her - in her own words.

I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as I was hoping after the awesome prequel. I was 80% in and Naema was still a spoiled, whiny thing and it was driving me crazy. Once she meets up with her family in the Southwest things got better but it was still a slow book for me.

The narrators were amazing! The way they captured the emotions of the different characters was great and made it easier to follow along. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

The Keening by Anne Emery - Two timelines interweave in this historical fiction tale of a hotel owned by the Tierney's in lush Ireland. In present day the Tierney's are trying to keep an American investor from developing the land behind them into a casino and horrid tourist attractions by having an archaeological dig to find something to stop them. But old Cait is worried that they will find something that will turn the public against them because of the tumultuous past of the family and their land. In the late 1500s there is a string of murders in the town and the Tierney's are in the middle of helping find the murderer while also being careful not to bring the notice of the English to them. How will the past and present handle what's unearthed beneath? ⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

Big Boned by Jo Watson - Lori has just been uprooted from all of her friends in Johannesburg to live in Cape Town so her autistic brother can be at the best school in the country for him, and so her mother can escape her father's impending wedding to his mistress after a messy divorce. She adores her brother and is happy to have found a potential place to help him, but once she sets foot in the local high school she knows this will not be good. No one else looks like her, she is the only fat person on campus and even though her anxiety meds should be helping, and therapy does sometimes, she feels instantly out of place. When the hottest guy in school starts paying attention to her she freaks out even more thinking it's all a joke. Can she get over her inner bully and discover that she also deserves happiness in her life regardless of other people's choices for her life? Beautifully raw and moving, Lori's story is one of finding your voice when you feel powerless and believing you deserve all the happiness in the world regardless of what anyone else has to say. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

​The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin - I loved this book! Rachel weaves a story of love, loss, trauma, magic, and healing in a brand new way! Clara is broken and fears so much about who she is as the only Everwitch in a century, and that with her use of her powers, the ones she loves are dead. This book is about not running from who you are regardless of your past, your mistakes, or whom you presume yourself to be. It's about finding a safe person that helps you see what's always been inside of you and helps you amplify others because of it rather than in spite of. One of my favorite reads of 2021 and of all time!​⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

The English Girl by Sarah Mitchell - I love a good war time forbidden love story! We follow Frances, Fran, as she works for the prisoner of war camp hosting German soldiers in her British village in the wake of WW2's end. There she meets the handsome Thomas, a prisoner that speaks English and steals her heart. She also meets Martin, a man who was medically excused from the war and has immense guilt about it, and he and Fran build a friendship which could develop into more. With the war right behind the world can Fran be with the man she loves or will a safer choice rule out? Great storytelling and weaving of real events with the fiction of the love triangle. I can't wait to get a physical copy!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

The Text God by Whitney Dineen & Melissa Summers - Super adorable story of love and faith. Jen is an artist trying to make her way in the New York art scene but is having a hard time. When she gets a mysterious text message from God, her life is changed forever. Gabriel Oliver Daly has a plan: make partner, marry Alexis, have a family, and everything will be the way he's alway imagined it. Wen he meet a pretty front desk clerk at the hotel he's supposed to meeting a friend's sister at, his life is also changed forever. Very cute and well written and part of a series that's fun ad innocent and very fun to read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

Shadows of Saigon by Mark R. Anderson - From just the cover art and title you know this will be a sad story, The U.S. involvement in Vietnam is messy and complicated and always has a sad ending. This was no exception. Written beautifully and weaves a tale of love and sorrow and the aftermath for our soldiers that served so faithfully. It's a good book overall and reading Grady's story will help put things in perspective for us to not take anything for granted. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas - This was a heartbreakingly beautiful retelling of Peter Pan and Wendy. Wendy went missing with her brothers 5 years ago and only she came back after being lost for 6 months. What happened to her in that time frame? She has no idea. She's tried to remember but can never get past the blackness that invades her mind when she tries. When Peter crash lands back in her town looking for her everything she's pushed down so deeply comes back to the surface but can she and Peter save the other missing children and Peter's life before the shadow takes hold forever? I absolutely loved this book! It was heartrendering, tender, traumatic, faithful to the fairytale, and brought fresh storytelling back to Neverland. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

Foretold by Violet Lumani - ​This book had many good qualities: a heroine with mental illness and dealing with grief, a magical world right under her nose that she's inexplicably drawn into, supporting characters that deal with their own trauma while helping their friend, and an overly supportive parent. Sometimes I didn't quite understand how the scrying worked. Even with explanations it was difficult to keep straight but I enjoyed how Cassie learns and develops as a person and scryer. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

The Queen's Spy by Clare Marchant - ​A timeless tale of intrigue and the balance of spying with family life. Tom is both deaf and mute, making him the perfect spy for Queen Elizabeth while she waits for an assassination to come for her from her cousin Queen Mary of Scots. With Tom's ability to read lips and melt int the background he becomes entangle in the web of the Queen's spymaster but will it be too much for the family he leaves behind? Mathilde has never known home to be a place of refuge. Always on the run with her mother and then alone at the age of 16, her beloved van as seen her home and has always provided a way to escape. When she is summoned to England she learn her father left her his estate despite being told he died in an explosion when she was very small. Now with new found family, and dare she say even love, will she finally put down roots? Seeing how Tom and Mathilde's stories intertwine and mirror was fascinating and I enjoyed going back and forth in time between resent day and the Tudors!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

Where There's a Whisk by Sarah J Schmitt - ​This book was absolutely adorable and I loved it. The characters are complex, even for teenagers, and seeing how they take on the cooking challenges and the show drama. Reading about the New York landscape and the fun they have together even with show drama was enjoyable and made me reminisce about my own trips to New York. Staying true to yourself no matter what people try to force you into is the perfect theme for this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

Another Beast's Skin by Jesseka Grewe Glover - ​This was a great story! I enjoyed escaping to the UK and learning all the dynamics within a family/combat cadre and how much they impact our world and the world we can't see because of the Veil that separates Fae from human. Nesya begins on this journey after losing her father and after her divorce. She's always had a sword strapped to her back and has always wondered why he father would be insistent that she learn to defend herself. When she meets Cade, Corra and Silas on her vacation she starts to learn what part she may play in a bigger universe than she ever knew was there.

I look forward to a sequel!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

A Girl Made of Air by Nydia Hetherington - This was a great tapestry of a tale! The pieces wove together in colorful ways and had many layers to it. Circus life is thrust upon our narrator as the daughter of a very famous water act and the animal keeper. Sadly, her parents don't really want anything to do with her so she's on her own until another soul, Serendipity Wilson takes her under her wing and teaches her the art of the high wire. After many years and much hardship, our narrator, known by her friend as Mouse, sets off to the US in search of a baby girl gone missing. In pursuit of her psudeo sister, she becomes the Greatest Funambulist of All Time! It's a tale of love, loss, war times, happiness, and dealing with generational trauma. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - A fun magical short story! I liked the magic stem and the nahuale as her "familiar" that both helps and feeds off of her was a great twist. It was a quick tale and even though it was short there was plenty of character development and magic to be had!

My only drawback was that I went in thinking it was a full novel and it's a novella, the story and writing is incredible.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

The Secrets of Thistle Cottage by Kerry Barrett - I loved this book! Historical fiction and a thriller to boot! I enjoyed reading about the witch hunting in Scotland back in the 1600s as well as the correlation to social media being similar to that mentality. The characters are developed and the mother daughter relationships are prominent and functional. I thoroughly loved meeting Honor and Alice and Tess and Jem and see how their stories line up thanks to the connection to Thistle Cottage by the sea in Scotland's lush backdrop. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

Constellations of Scars by Melissa Eskue Ousley - ​This story reminded me of Rapunzel so to me it was a retelling of that classic fairytale. Mia escapes her controlling mother that hordes the pearls she sheds from her body claiming "if people knew about you, they'd lock you away and use you!". She starts a new life as a worker in a museum of oddities and selling her pearls to help with the mermaid display. But is all as it seems in her new found world?? Really well written and compelling! I was hooked within a few pages and I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚