Bookish Travels—March 2024 Destinations

I saw this meme on It’s All About Books and thought, I like this!! So, I decided to do it once a month also. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!!

This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books take you to places you would never get to. That includes places of fantasy, too!!

Bon Voyage!!

Please let me know if you have read these books or traveled to these areas.

Countries I visited the most:  United States, England, France, Scotland

States I visited the most: New York, Washington, Connecticut, Oregon

Cities I visited the most: New York City, Paris, London, Portland


United States

New York (New York City, Red Hook), Connecticut (Greenwich)
California (San Francisco), New York (New York City, South Hampton), Wyoming
Washington (Oreville)
Alaska (Anchorage)
Washington (Seattle)
Connecticut (Brandywine), Maine, New York (Brooklyn), Massachusetts (Boston)
Oregon (Portland), Washington (Spokane)
Connecticut (Hartford), Virginia (Fredericksburg), Georgia (Hawkinsville), Florida (Destin)
California (Coyote Run)
California (Los Angeles, Sunland)
Washington (Eugene, Crater Lake, Bend, Mount Hood), Ohio (Dayton), New York (Rochester), Oregon (Portland)
Arizona (Phoenix)

Portugal

Lisbon

France

Paris
Paris

St. Barts


Post Apocalyptic America

Greasetown

Atlantic Ocean


Africa

Mozambique (Guija, Tomanini), South Africa (Johannesburg)

Ancient Italy

Ancient Rome

Germany

Berlin

England

London, Isle of Man
Clapham North
Sussex
Whitechapel
London

Scotland

Edinburgh, Aberdeen
Lachlan

Oceania

Man-o-War Island

Australia

Beacon, Tasmania

March 2024 Wrap-Up

Here is what I read, posted, won, received, and bought in March.

Let me know if you have read any of these books and what you thought of them.


Books I Read:


Books Reviewed:

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen—review here

The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin—review here

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk—review here

A Smoking Bun by Ellie Alexander—review here

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering—review here

Never Too Late by Danielle Steele—review here

I Am Rome by Santiago Posteguillo—review here

The Other Lola by Ripley Jones—review here

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle—-review here

The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan—review here

It Must Be True Then by Luci Adams—review here

Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood—review here

The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel—review here

The Taste of Storm and Brine by Brett Salter—review here

Catchpenny by Charlie Huston—review coming April 9th


Books I got from NetGalley:


Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers:


Giveaway Winners


Books I bought:

The Killer Outdoors by Jodi Linton

The Will of the Gods: Book One by Ian Lancaster

Message in the Bones by Dawn Merriman

Inner Demons by Sarra Cannon

Bitter Demons by Sarra Cannon

No Good Deed: A Sourdough Tale by Angela Slatter

Naked Truth by Lisa Renee Jones

Deathless & Divided by Bethany-Kris

The Duke Who Hates Christmas by Bianca Blythe

Seed Money by B.E. Baker

Wicked Spell by Michelle Escamilla

WWW Wednesday: March 13, 2024

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme Sam hosts at Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Here is what I am currently reading, recently finished, and plan to read from Thursday to Wednesday.

Let me know if you have read or are planning on reading any of these books!!

Happy Reading!!


What I am currently reading:

After 40 years of marriage, Olivia’s husband unexpectedly passes away. But when Ben’s will reveals a life-altering secret, she suffers a blow no widow should ever experience. As Olivia visits each of her sons to share a final connection before facing a truth that will change their family, she discovers that each has been harboring a painful secret, just like his father. Will the revelations destroy their family or bring them closer together?

Watching Glass Shatter is the 1st book in the Perceptions of Glass contemporary fiction, family drama series. Currently, there are two available, with a third planned in the future. Chapters switch POV between Olivia and each son, revealing different personalities, voices, and struggles not unlike many of us in life. You’ll undoubtedly love some members of this family and experience a fiery angst for others. But in the end, it will tug at all of your emotions.


What I recently finished reading:

Two souls meet at a dark railroad crossing… there’s no hint this night will be the beginning – and end – of everything.

Lily doesn’t exist any more – old Lily, anyway. That night made her different, rewrote her life, tore up everything she thought she knew and understood.

How do you go back to normal after you’ve met someone who has turned your life upside down? When you fear the passionate connexion but don’t want to live for anything else? When those few moments were the most intense and intimate of your life and it was the barest taste of what you could have together?

How do you find the strength to not run away from something that has the power to shatter your heart?

Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language and situations that some readers may find objectionable (including spanking and bondage). Content intended for adults only. Length: 75,000 + words


What I think I will read next:

Two parents, desperate to find their missing daughter, stand accused of murder. How far will they go to find the truth?

Someone is guilty.

For the last seventeen years, Harry and Zara King’s lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block—number 210, across the street—whose occupant refuses to break his silence.

Someone knows what happened.

As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed, and why she disappeared.

Someone will pay.

Told in the alternating perspectives of Harry and Zara, and in a dual timeline between the weeks after Sophie’s disappearance and a year later in the middle of a murder trial, Imran Mahmood’s taut yet profoundly moving novel explores how differently grief can be experienced even when shared by parents—and how hope triumphs when it springs from the kind of love that knows no bounds.

A passionate tale of plague, fire, and forbidden love in seventeenth-century London from the acclaimed author of Solomon’s Crown

1666. It is a year after plague has devastated England. Young widow Cecilia Thorowgood is a prisoner, trapped and isolated within the cavernous London townhouse of her older sister. At the mercy of a legion of doctors who fail to cure her grief with their impatient scalpels, Cecilia shows no signs of improvement. Soon, her sister makes a decision borne of she hires a new physician, someone known for more unusual methods. But he is a foreigner. A Jew. And despite his attempts to save Cecilia, he knows he cannot quell the storm of grief that rages within her. There is no easy cure for melancholy.

David Mendes fled Portugal to seek a new life in London, where he could practice his faith openly and leave the past behind. Still reeling from the loss of his beloved friend, struggling with his religion and his past, David finds himself in this foreign land, free and safe, but incapable of happiness—caring not even for himself, but only for his ailing father. The security he has found in London threatens to disappear when he meets Cecilia, and he finds himself torn between his duty to medicine and the beating of his own heart. He is the only one who can see her pain; the glimmers of light she emits, even in her gloom, are enough to make him believe once more in love.

Facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, David and Cecilia must endure prejudice, heartbreak, and calamity before they can be together. A Great Fire is coming—and with the city in flames around them, love has never felt so impossible.

The inevitable, all-out war for Earth is inching ever closer, and luckily, we have The Alliance to defend us from the Darkbrand army. But what about other parts of the world? The Alliance, as talented as they are, can’t be everywhere all at once. And the Darkbrands don’t just pop up in the most convenient places. They are indiscriminate and random, as well as dangerous and smelly. So, expanding The Alliance’s circle of allies seems like a good idea, right? Well, one certain water dragon seems to think so, anyway. Starboard, The Sentry of the South, is a loyal and stout defender of The Den of Oceania. He’s even met most of The Alliance members face to face. But after a brush with death, can he convince his fellow water dragons to join The Alliance’s claws… Um, I mean cause? Will The Den of Oceania ever be able to trust the humans completely? Or arrrrrr their hopes for survival destined to be swept out to sea by the coming storm?

New York Times bestselling author Tracey Garvis Graves takes readers on a life affirming journey, where two lost souls find the unexpected courage to love again.

Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn’t see coming, and all she wants to do is put the whole heartbreaking mess behind her. No one is more surprised than Wren when she discovers that geocaching―the outdoor activity of using GPS to look for hidden objects―is the only thing getting her out of bed and out of her head. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life.

Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. Though Wren initially rebuffs Marshall’s attempt at hiker small talk, she’s beyond grateful when he rescues her from a horrifying encounter farther down the trail. In the interest of safety, Marshall suggests partnering up to look for additional caches. Wren’s no longer quite so trusting of the universe―or men in general―but her inner circle might argue that a smart, charismatic psychologist isn’t the worst thing the universe could place in her path.

What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know. Now all she can do is hope that the universe gets it right this time.


Reading Challenge books I hope to get to this week:

Beat the Backlist 2024—On your TBR 5+ years (been on since 2015)

There are bad things in your past…
… very bad things. You have no intention of remembering them – ever. But sometimes, just sometimes, your past explodes into your life in all its horror.
This is Abby Hawthorne’s story. She restores classic cars, and she’s finally making a success of it. But it isn’t what she is.
She won’t admit it, but she’s a witch and in her previous lifetime it was the death of her. Now, she’s haunted. She’s stalked. Because the evil that murdered her then has reincarnated too, it’s found her, it wants to finish what it started and it isn’t about to give up.
Abby’s only hope is to fight back and do something that will change her life forever. But can she make that monumental sacrifice?
Shadows of Forever is a supernatural thriller novel about witchcraft, reincarnation and passions that don’t die.

Beat the Backlist 2024—It’s the end of the world as we know it/end of the main character world (zombie apocalypse)

A loving family man is hundreds of miles from home when a pandemic of unimaginable horrors is unleashed on the world. It happens in an instant. Governments are wiped out and cities fall into chaos, every second a struggle to survive. If he ever hopes to see his family alive, he will have to overcome hordes of demented, bands of evil gangs, and things beyond his worst nightmares.

Goodreads Monday: Shadows of Forever by Robin Ive

This is a weekly meme where anyone can choose and highlight a random book from their Goodreads TBR. This meme was formerly featured on LaurensPageTurners and was taken over by Budget Tales Book Blog.


Abby Hawthorne restores classic cars. An unusual job for a woman, but she’s doing well – professionally, anyway. Things take a sinister turn for the worse, though, when Morton Stoner forces his way into her life. Just another client? No way. Stoner is bad news, and Abby knows it. But she can’t stay away. She’s ensnared, and she doesn’t know why – except it feels like destiny. Abby’s life unravels as Stoner’s increasingly dangerous and violent obsession with her grows. Desperate, she turns for help to Skye Willowmoon, white witch, healer and herbalist. But she isn’t prepared to accept the guidance Skye wants to give her – and that’s a big mistake. From rural Sussex to the snow-clad Scottish Highlands, Abby fights to break free from the eternal and deadly dance she’s part of. She comes to realise there’s only one thing she can do. It means making a monumental sacrifice. But to make it she’s going to have to empower herself with the courage, and unlock the resources, from another lifetime.