Somehow September just ran away from me. Books that should have taken a few days to read, went on for a week or two. There was also plenty of life to live, with sunny walks with the dogs, baking for my family and having them (kids & their spouses & my dad) over, spending time with my loved ones instead of books. I also spent one weekend reading my son’s almost complete enthralling trilogy, not published as a book (series), but available (in Finnish) in archiveofourown, Everything Underneath, by NotSoExtinctRex, which obviously isn’t displayed in the stats.

As for the books that are in the stats, there were 11 of them, 4298 pages.

• The Art of Charming a Changeling (Pigments and Paramours 1), by Sylvie Cathrall – A cutesie sweet slow pace, slow burn story as expected from Cathrall, with another quite autistic (and quite a bit traumatized) protagonist finding her way and herself and her love. A warm and heartfelt story, this 💜
• Rider of Dragons (Dragon Riders 1), by Aamna Qureshi – Set in the world of The Baby Dragon Café, this book starts a new just a touch darker series, delving into the illegal yet thriving dragon racing and the mafia style organization running them (along with a fare share of dragon poaching and other such activities). There’s romance, family drama, betrayal and the crash bang twist at the end that you kinda saw coming but couldn’t really believe in, so it just crushed you. How can things ever be right again?!
• The Last Graduate (Scholomance 2) & The Golden Enclaves (Scholomance 3), by Naomi Novik – Novik’s style is sort of slow pace reading while the story unfolds with twists and turns, with secrets and hidden darkness unveiled. A story of friendship and loyalty conquering the machinations of the powerlusty and setting wrongs right, one little bit by bit. A story of how good intentions may well be the road to hell (or at least evil), where evil may well have a noble origin.
• The Dark Lord’s Guide to Honeymooning (and Other Acts of Tyranny) (Guides to Villainy and Love 2), by Tiffany Hunt – Embrace your inner villain (for it’s powered by the right things after all) and jump to save the world with Lord and Lady Blackrose. A story full of fun and adventure, but also of facing the past and hurt and letting go, making choices. There will be a book 3, we were left off on a cliffhanger – can’t wait! (though obviously have no other choice😄)
• Disenchanted (Selcouth 3), by Lucy Jane Wood – Third book in Wood’s series of independent withchy cozy mystery romatacies, so far my favorite of them (maybe? I did love the first one thoroughly too, second one not as much) with it’s fairytale world gone wrong, but obviously love conquers all. Sweet and lovely autumn read 💜
• Dragons of Safe Haven books 1-3, by Julia Huni – Books full of hope and heart and second chances. Cozy fantasy/romantacy stories that make you cry in the good way and leave you feeling warm and fuzzy because while there’s evil in the world, there’s a Safe Haven protected by the magic of love and care, where the evils feel (mostly) like just a distant echo. Wonderful heartwarming reads, loved every book 💜
  • A Dragon Rider’s Guide to Retirement
  • A Blacksmith’s Guide to Dragon Rearing
  • A Rider’s Guide to Dragon Healing
• The Stonewater Kingdom duology: The Knight and the Moth and The Knave and the Moon, by Rachel Gillig – A tale of finding love, friendship and the truth in a kingdom ruled with decept and falsehoods and a need to find something to believe in. A beautiful and compelling story where nothing and no one is exactly what the seem – both ways, good and bad, and so much more than their appearance. And I love the gargoyle 😄

Sept 9, I’m so devastated! Totally wrecked! I was gearing for the supposedly guaranteed happy ending of the newest A.T. Qureshi book, Rider of Dragons, but what I got was a total betrayal twist with a cliffhanger!

I cannot contend! I mean, I don’t think there was a HEA guarantee anywhere, but the Baby Dragon Cafe books all had one, all were stand-alones set in the same Starshine Valley as this one, so excuse my mistake, but I was destroyed by this book! Funnily enough, though, it also sealed the 5 stars for the book 😄 And now I need to wait for a year for the next book 😭

Sept 20, I spent the weekend reading the breathtakingly beautiful and utterly devastating almost complete trilogy-long (I mean, 220 000 words so far, the equivalent of about 700 massmarket paperback pages) queer “coming of age” kind of story written by my son. My god, he is brilliant, and in my (admittedly a bit biased but as an avid reader still valid) opinion, it’s totally on par with the best books I’ve read in my vast reading life. A total emotional ride, an excellent read!

It’s a story about an autistic kind of a prince, forced into a marriage for political reasons, falling for the wrong guy (who, I hope, will turn out to be the right guy when the last chapters are finally done). A turbulent political atmosphere, a turbulent relationship, a turbulent unsure young prince who only has difficult choices. I laughed, I cried, I was torn into shreds, I felt an overwhlem of love.

It’s in Finnish, but if that’s ok, here you go: Everything Underneath, by NotSoExtinctRex.

• The Ballad of Falling Dragons (Moonfall 2), by Sarah A. Parker – I guess this series could be called high fantasy, and while it’s intriguing, the storytelling is a bit of a drag for me. Anyway, the battle over the continent is only getting started, but I think it will go forward without me. Maybe.
• The Lake House, by Kate Morton – Historical fiction, with the trademark Morton dual-timeline. A compelling story with a mystery unravelling, old wounds being opened and healed, secrets unveiled and truths found. Loved it 💜
• The Library of Lost and Found, by Phaedra Patrick – Another dual timeline (cozy) mystery, though more on the contemporary side of things. Family secrets and healing, love lost and found, a story of letting people in and finding yourself in the process. A warm and sweet story.
• Varjeltu (Milo 3), by Max Seeck – The final book in the Milo trilogy. Guaranteed Max Seeck quality with suspence and plot twists and seemingly unrelated threads weaving toghether into a tapestry of crime and secrets revealed.
• Managing the Vampire’s Mansion, by K.M. Shea – A delightful stand-alone romantacy introducing me to K.M. Shea’s Magiford world of urban fantasy – there will be more Magiford in my reads in weeks to come! There’s all manners of supernaturals coexisting with humans, some still hiding, most not, the vampire in this book adamant about staying hidden, but the new manager of the mansion puts it all in danger, including the vampire’s heart.
• The Charming Cove series 1-3, by Linsey Hall – Three stand-alone stories situated in the hidden magical community of charming Charming Cove, but still best to read them in order as the familiar characters do appear in the books in order. Romantacy stories, where each pair of protagonists has their own set of hurt and trauma to overcome before they can have their happy ending. And gotta love those quirky familiars!
  • The Modern Girl’s Guide to Magic – The witch with erratic power returns home to Charming Cove (not entirely by choice) and is pushed into a competition against a few other witches and the mage who broke her heart. To win is to ensure the future of her family’s livelihood, to lose is to lose everything, so no pressure there.
  • How to Fake-Date a Vampire – Have to say, vampires aren’t exactly very vampiry in this story, but whatever, the story is kinda cute, though a bit far fetched (in the sort of reality based lines). I enjoyed it quite well anyway. Another witch here struggling to find her true powers, and love in the process.
  • Romance Rules for Werewolves – A witch who ignored her power for so long that it became a knot inside needs to find a way to reconciliate with it if she’s to accomplish the feat of restoring the cranky house she inherited, in just one month. The cursed werewolf in the boathouse both think they own does not help the situation – or does he?
• Hovimäki series 1-6, by Anna-Lisa Mesterton, Carl Mesterton, Kirsti Manninen, and Jussi-Pekka Aukia – Ranging from the mid-seventeen hundreds to the second World War (with an epilogue at the turn of the millenium), the series follows two families – that of the manor, and the manor’s blacksmith – through two centuries of Finnish history. The lives intertwine, the story introduces characters of every kind – kind and not so kind – beautifully depicting the ever-changing society, leading the reader through life, love and wars in a truly engaging manner.
• The Someday Garden, by Ashley Poston – A story about grief and new starts, of guilt and forgiving, of finding the courage to let people in, to let go of hurt and pain. A beautiful romance set in a magical garden that is set out to heal hearts and lives of those who care for it.
• The Reimagining of Thornwood House (Magic of Iskendra 1), by Jaleigh Johnson – A heartwarming tale about a mother’s love, big hearts, community and love. And a bit of deception and greed to make it a mystery. Loved the book, looking forward more Iskendra stories, whenever they might be available.
• Light Wielder (Fire & Metal 2), by Rachel Schneider – After the heart stopping cliffhanger of a plot twist of the Metal Slinger, I was anticipating another thrilling read, but I was kinda quite disappointed with this book. Too much war, too much deception and too little direct communication totally exhausted me. So, blah.
• Nemesis Mine, by Amy Archer – Assistant to the Villain meets TJ Klune. I totally loved this gay romantacy novel and my only regret is that I got it in Kindle instead of print 🤣 Though who knows, it might end up in my library too, next to the Klunes. Anyway, champions and wrongdoers, staged enmity between enemies who not unexpectedly turn into lovers and discover that the world is not black and white after all, and people are not either good or bad but a little bit of both, mostly. Sweet finale to my June reads 💜

Jun 7, I remember when reading Moonfall book 1 (When the Moon Hatched), I wasn’t exactly thrilled with some aspects of the story, while I did find it compelling at the same time. I then wrote about the book: ” I have high hopes that I might enjoy the next book(s) even better, since this was one of those cases where I love the book while really not liking the protagonist much; she starts to unravel a bit in the end so maybe she’s less annoying in the next book.”

Well, today I finished book 2 (The Ballad of Falling Dragons) of what isn’t just a trilogy, but planned to have 6 books altogether. The protagonist was only mildly less annoying, the storyline somehow sluggish, and the evil a bit too many steps ahead all the time. This book had an ending that satisfied me sufficiently that unless I forget that reading these books is a bit tedious to me, I think I’ll leave this series here. Sure, the evil is not beaten, but it can be beaten without me reading about it.

Jun 11, Max Seeck’s nod to Dan Brown, in this last Milo book Varjeltu:

Jun 28, Yesterday, I finished the Hovimäki series (by Anna-Lisa Mesterton, Carl Mesterton, Kirsti Manninen, and Jussi-Pekka Aukia) of six books covering Finnish history from the sunset of the Swedish rule in the late 1700s through the Russian rule, past our independence to the summer of 1940 after the Winter War, with an epilogue set in 1999 and ending at the turn of the millenium.

I really enjoyed the series, the stories wound around the two main families of the Hovimäki manor and their blacksmith. The last two books covered much of the same as Under the Northern Star, except mostly from the white side of things. I would’ve sort of hoped the series had ended before Winter War, but at least it didn’t go all the way through WWII – I try to avoid those Great Wars anymore, because they’re kind of exhausted already.

Also, I was brought up with the stories, and the bitterness of my evacuee grandma who lost her home in Viipuri as a teen, in WWII, and I recognize the burden of planted feelings every time I read about the time and events. It’s all extra weight I don’t need to carry, so I try to avoid it, since I’m not exactly able to completely rid myself of them. I mean, it doesn’t help anything, dwelling on the wrongs of the past beyond understanding them.

Unfortunately the expectance of war in the last book also strikes true for this time and age – another thing I try my best not to focus on and worry about since there’s really nothing I can do about it and I don’t want to ruin my days being scared. Still, as Väinö Seppä responded to his wife’s queries about war: “it’s no more a matter of if, it’s a matter of when”, I let out a little sigh. We haven’t had even a hundred years of peace here.

More than that, though, this series, or rather that last part of it when families got scattered all over and the modern world started taking its somewhat chaotic shape (compared to the set ways of the feudalistic countryside), had me wondering again whether people were actually happier before or not. In the end, life is still an endless pit of struggle and worry and wars, and now we don’t even have the village around us.

Maybe it’s best I just trod on to the magical wolrd of the Life Wielder (Rachel Schneider) and leave the real world behind again. I admit reading to me is escapism in it’s purest form, even though I occasionally delve into stuff that forces me to ponder real life for a while. As it is, I prefer to deal with it as little as possible in general, spending my time in magical (or at least fully fictional) realms instead 🤣

Jun 30, I think I’m too autistic for Light Wielder (by Rachel Schneider). I have a hard time with all the conniving and plotting and deception and betrayal and no one meaning what they say, the secrets and twists and dishonesty and distrust. I so want to love the book, but it exasparates me. I can’t just go expecting everything is a lie, not understanding what is real and true in the story, what is not. These layers of manipulation and politics (and war, I get so tired of war) make me want to toss the book aside, but I’m too stubborn to do that.

So, May. Still only once or twice was the weather supportive of reading outside, but that’s just circumstances. While I made several book orders from Adlibris at the end of April and beginning of May, there was a week or two where I was waiting for new books to arrive, giving me the incentive to read something that’s been patiently waiting in my shelves instead (oh, I have a LOT of those, waiting for the mood to hit!). I ended up finally reading one of the great Finnish classics, Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Under the Northern Star), a trilogy that I happen to have as one slighlty intimidating brick tome volume (beautiful edition with prints of classic paintings for illustrations, and a fake leather binding 😄), and I really enjoyed it!

All in all I read 17 books, a total of 7362 pages. There were some real long books (like the aforementioned tome), but a few shorties in the mix too – I was kinda disappointed that the long-awaited new TJ Klune book “We Burned So Bright” was actually only 160 pages or so, making it a snack book rather than a full meal. Loved it though.

• That Time I Accidentally Took Over the Mafia, by Rebekah Sinclair – So funny, a total wild ride from start to end! Action, speed, wild chased, a surprise (or not) in the end, and of course the hot sex. Polyamourous relationship plot, with multipartner sex too – granting that there were some a bit hmm, surreal moments that kinda bypassed biology and physiology 😄
• Nocticadia, by Keri Lake – This was a bit of a slow start for me and for a while I thought it’d be a drag, but then it pulled me straight into its web and I couldn’t put it down! The entire book has a sinister and charged atmosphere, charged with secrets and evil, heightened by the romance. And an ending that leaves room for a book 2, while not exactly suggesting there will be one. So leaving one in some more suspence, sort of 😂
• Emma Watson, by Joan Aiken – A shortish novel based on the unfinished beginnings of Jane Austen’s “The Watsons”. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I expected the book to take the original and continue from there; instead the book was built on top of it, yes, but somehow missed the Austen style and ambiance by a mile.
• That Time I Accidentally Became a Serial Killer, by Rebekah Sinclair – My least favorite of this series (three books, at least so far), mainly because I couldn’t handle the total breach of privacy (and consensuality) by the stalker, good intended as it may have been, nor the protagonist just somehow being ok by it all (with minor struggle) because the stalker was sexy – her background making it all the more unrealistic.
• That Time I Accidentally Killed the Wrong Guy, by Rebekah Sinclair – Back to a wild ride full of (a bit gortesque) humor in this book, which I again loved. An unlikely partnership, betrayal (or was it?), and plot twists that you kinda could see coming from afar, but then they hit you in the face anyway.
• Harrison Ford: Imperfect Hero, by Garry Jenkins – A bit of an old bio, but a good one, in general. Just kinda funny moments reading some opinions and conclusions of a life that has been moving on for more than two decades since the book was written. Biographers of people who’re not dead yet, should really remember not to write conclusive statements about anything; it just makes the book age bad.
• The Ether Witch: The Divining of a Devil (The Ether Witch 3), by Delemhach – I had so been waiting for this! I preordered the Kindle version as soon as it was available for preorder – and was puzzled but happy when I downloaded to my Kindle immediately and not in late June. Apparently a glitch in the process, making it available immediately, but I was not sorry. Great read, great ending for Tam and Eli’s story, though a bit sad to bid goodbye to the House Witch world and characters for good (I think).
• Hidden Springs (Moonlight Springs 6), by Lula Ward – The finale for the Moonlight Springs saga, bringing toghther all the stones and resolving the threat of unraveling for good. These books seem to me like written by (or at least heavily assisted by) AI, but be that true or not, the writing is a bit clumsy and redundand, especially in the first books – it got a bit better towards the end – which bothered me to an end, but I still liked them enough to read them all.
• Books 1-3 of the Seven Suitors for Seven Witches, by Amy Boyles – Funny, witty romantacies with a bit of a mystery in each. Seven sisters who each need to marry in order to restore/save the family magic. As it happens, they all seem to (accidentally) stumble into deals with someone they deem enemy but find “true love” with in the end. Yes, enemies to lovers, kinda, but then a bit more nuanced than that. And spiced up just so, the way I like best. Currently we have three books, but I would assume there’s four more to come 😏
  • How to Fake It with a Fae – The eldest witch who believes that she’s really not a witch at all since she appears to have no magic, gets accidentally bound into a magical engagement with the fae king living in the spooky castle at the edges of the village. One who’s out to get the Thornrose family for reasons of his own.
  • How to Outwit a Wizard – He cheated on her in high school, breaking her heart. Or did he? He became a playboy, or so it would seem, but it’s more complicated than that. Good intentions and roads to hell and all that unravel in this one where the second daughter is reunited with her high school boyfriend as a means to an end. Just that the end may be different than planned.
  • How to Negotiate With a Nightmare – The third sister is hellbent on getting out of any marriages, yet finds herself married to the Nightmare King in a snap of fingers, finding her own happy ever after in an unlikely place, with an unlikely husband. Is it a nightmare or a dream come true?
• Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Under the Northern Star, full trilogy), by Väinö Linna – A epos of love and war and social and political struggles of a country being born. The story follows the family of Jussi, the servant who becomes a crofter, dreaming of owning the land some day, and the village he lives in. It spans over several decades, staring in the late 1800’s where Finland is an (autonomous) part of Russia, flowing through the declaration of independence, the civil war that followed, and the first decades of a country trying to resolve the political division of people to reds and whites, all the way to the end of the WWII. The story colors the outlines of history, approaching it all from the very heart of issues: the class divide, the wish to have a better life, the oppression inside the country, explaining why we are now who we are and why certain attitudes and structures exist. Excellent read. Hands down. Something for every Finn to read.
• We Burned So Bright, by TJ Klune – A short novel, or a long novella. A beautiful story about life with all its colors. Sorrow, regret, pain, unspoken and carried alone while together. Joy, love, happiness, a past and a future that won’t be. Absolution at the end of the world.
• Strange Familiars (The Seamere College 1), by Keshe Chow – It’s a world where magic powers everything, but no one can use it for free, as it’s harvested, controlled, and distributed by corporations, and corporations mean greed, even at the expense of human lives. Gwendolynne and Harrisford come from the very opposite ends of society, are sworn enemies fighting for the first place in a graduating class, but that naturally is a fertile breeding ground for romance, and when they are sort of accidentally thrown together to investigate the magical anomalies, they find a magic of their own. And then things go kinda haywire and there’s not even a peep about the second book anywhere yet 😭
• Impractical Magic (Oak Haven Witches 1), by Emily Grimoire – Cozy mystery where the home and an entire existance of the witches of Oak Haven is under threat. Three sisters who lost their Papa in the previous attack a good ten years before, leaving the family broken, the middle child having left and sworn off magic altogether, with a guilt that is or isn’t entirely warranted. She returns, there’s the old “will they or will they not” best friend, and there’s the “oh for fuck’s sake, pull your head out of your ass already” frustration for the reader. All in all, lovely sweet read.
• Thistlemarsh, by Moorea Corrigan – One of the best reads of this year, this is a fairy tale much the likes of Emily Wilde’s adventures. Mouse finds herself in an impossible situation, the inadvertedly freed fae sees an opportunity, it is supposed to be a win-win, and in the end it is, but first it’s all turned upside down because the unsuspected Fae King is full of surprises. Simply superb!
• Jingle Spells (Oak Haven Witches 2), by Emily Grimoire – Christmas time in Oak Haven, old rituals leave the witches vulnerable and old enemies take advantage. Delilah, the oldest of the sisters, is the protagonist of this book, returing from her globe trotting of the past year to help save her home and perhaps find love, while at it.

May 3, I was so excited to read Emma Watson (by Joan Aiken), the finished story of Jane Austen’s The Watsons, but I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. The book started where The Watsons left off, which in itself is sort of ok, but seeing as the original is just some 50 pages of a rather unknown beginnngs of a story, I would’ve expected it to be included in this book. Aiken did do a relatively good job of recounting the events of the original, but I can’t help but feel the original set of characters fell short and lacking of their depth in this book.

The narrative of Emma Watson was not exactly what I’d call Austen-y, especially not the latter half. It was a bit all over the place, characters were too many and flitting through, events that Austen would have made the center of the story, were delivered with a sentence or two, after the fact. This book was a hoolabaloo of events and everything rolled too fast for anything to have real weight. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t what I expected and not really faithful to Austen at all. Pity.

May 9, So, this Accidentally series by Rebekah Sinclair. I loved the first one (That Time I Accidentally Took Over the Mafia), well for the most part anyway. It was a wild ride! As is the third book, That Time I Accidentally Killed the Wrong Guy). Both have longer sex scenes than I generally have patience for, but still, fun and quirky in a delightful way, and the polyamory of the first book totally was the cherry on top of the cake (disregarding the last bit where science and biology were totally ignored).

The middle book, though. The “legally blonde” that everyone gushes about. That Time I Accidentally Became a Serial Killer. I loved to hate it and hated to love it, and was not able to rate it, because while kinda sorta awesome, the invasion of privacy and integrity and the Stockholm Syndrome of sorts totally icked me out. Creeped me and disgusted me. Everyone for their own, I figure, but still, the non-consent from the start was too much. Other than that, I enjoyed it.

May 20, I used to read a lot of historical fiction when I was young. Then I kinda burned out on it. It’s still not a favorite (and political history even less so), but I have a generally relatively well-hidden socio-political bone, that finds certain works of historical fiction extremely nourishing.

Like Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Under the Northern Star) by Väinö Linna. A Finnish classic for sure, but simply an epic saga of how Finland as it is today, was born. The story brings reasons, causations, and people to life and to light in an excellent manner, in a way no school history book or class ever could. It’s not just a story, it holds the seeds of our current society and how and why it all unfolded as it did, in its pages.

I loved Linna’s classic Tuntematon sotilas (Unknown Soldiers) as a teen, but apparently had to live to be 50 before having the courage to tackle this opus of 1200 pages (it’s a trilogy, but I just so happen to have it in a single bind, making it an intimidating tome 😄), and now this experience is prompting me to start reading the Hovimäki series, which I kinda inherited from my grandma (minus book 5 – for some reason that is missing 🤨 need to hunt it down). It takes the reader even further down in Finnish history.