Bookish Travels—October 2023 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 are lovely and 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

States I visited the most: New York. North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California

Cities I visited the most: New York City, London, Boston


United States

North Carolina (Bitter Bark), New York (New York City)
New York (Edgewater, New York City), New Jersey (Newark), Georgia (Atlanta), Delaware (Dover, Howl Bay, Leipsic), Utah (Salt Lake City)
Massachusetts (Cambridge, Boston, Gloucester, Danvers, Dorchester, Wellesley), Rhode Island, New York (Brooklyn), Washington D.C., New Hampshire
Colorado (Last Word)
North Carolina (Tarburton), New York (New York City)
Mississippi (Flora, Jackson), Illinois (Chicago), New York (Harlem)
New York (New York City)
New York (Ray Brook, Clermont), Ohio (Cleveland), Massachusetts (Boston)
Pennsylvania (Harrow), New Jersey (Manalapan Township), New York (New York City)
California (Oceanside)
Tennessee (Nashville), Michigan (Le Croix), California (Los Angeles)
Texas (Hamchet)
Wisconsin (Seven Sisters)

England

Hackney, London
1940’s London
London

Xiingjia System**

Bagoha, Calimon, Halleveh, Feraygo

Rabraman System**

Echuazi, Gorgjian, Kadefen, Omega 8, Yurdite

Castor & Pollux and Leda System**

Alpha One

**All listed for The Captain: 17 Planets are planets in the solar systems


France

France (Paris)

Czech Republic

Prague

Human Lands

Aloriah

Fae Lands

Essence Court (Azalea), Earth Court, Water Court, Air Court, Fire Court, Witches Territory, Mermaids Territory

Blake

Holding, Sermouth, Highstone Hill, Poulsen, Katton, Doscadia, Rothmount

October 2023 Wrap-Up

Here is what I read/posted/won/received/bought in October.

As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and (if you did) what you thought of them.


Books I Read:


Books Reviewed:

The Parachutists by R.L. Minnich—review here (4 stars)

Tantalus Depths by Evan Graham—review here (4 stars)

The Intern by Michele Campbell—review here (4 stars)

A Cold Highland Wind by Tasha Alexander—review here (4 stars)

Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello—review here (4 stars)

A Traitor in Whitehall by Julia Kelly—review here (4 stars)

Overdue or Die by Allison Brook—review here (3 stars)

Last Word to the Wise by Ann Claire—review here (4 stars)

Stalking Around the Christmas Tree by Jacqueline Frost—review here (4 stars)

In the Wick of Time by Valona Jones—review here (3 stars)

The Captain by A.R. Alexander—review here (3 stars)

Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews—review here (4 stars)

Mary Not Broken by Deborah L. King—review here (4 stars)

Love Interest by Clare Gilmore—review here (4 stars)

Sanctuary Motel by Alan Orloff—review here (4 stars)

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni—review here (4 stars)

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig—review here (4 stars)

Murder by the Seashore by Samara Yew—review here (3 stars)

Friends Don’t Fall in Love by Erin Hahn—review here (4 stars)


Books I got from NetGalley:


Books I got from Authors/Indie Publishers:


Giveaway Winners


Reading Challenges:

Sit…Stay…Beg by Roxanne St. Claire (2023 TBR Prompts)

Mind: The Beginning by Jenn Nixon (Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge)


Books I bought:

Perilous Trust by Barbara Freethy

Shadows Over Innocence by Lindsay Buroker

The Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker

Ice Cracker II by Lindsay Buroker

Solstice Day Gifts by Lindsay Buroker

Mortal Weather by K.P. McCarthy

Forbidden Proposal by T.K. Leigh

Royal Creed by T.K. Leigh

Bride of Fire by Glynnis Campbell

Triskelion by Avril Borthiry

Jurassic Resort by Brent Reilly

Jurassic Resort 2 by Brent Reilly

Jurassic Resort 3 by Brent Reilly

Finding Cinderella by Colleen Hoover

Kiro’s Emily by Abbi Glines

March: FCBD Special by John Lewis

Fall by Tiffany Noelle Chacon

Waking Kate by Sarah Addison Allen

Her Best Match by Tamie Dearen

Ghost Clan by Heather Walker

The Beauty by Claire Delacroix

Link’d Up by Harley Stone

Crimson Dagger by Morgan Rhodes

Whispers of You by Catherine Cowles

Keep Me by Stacey Kennedy

If She Lives by Erik Therme

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper by J.L. Bryan

Javier by Fiona Murphy

Blister by K.J. Kalis

Introductions by C.L. Stone

Meeting Sang: Kota by C.L. Stone

Touch of Mischief by C.L. Stone

Sound of Snowfall by C.L. Stone

The Crown & The Arrow by Renee Ahdieh

The Mirror & The Maze by Renee Ahdieh

Curse of Stone by Veronica Shade

Terrifying Tales by Edgar Allan Poe

Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror by Mark Matthews

Royally Raised by Emma Chase

Her Master by Quinn Marlowe

Sullivan’s Secret by Robin Murphy

Pilot Error by Dan Moren

Showdown by Dan Moren

The Lord Next Door by Gayle Callen

Freedom of a Highlander by Katy Baker

Fated Immortals: The Complete Shifter Romance Series Collection by Vera Rivers

Don’t Give a Damn About My Plaid Reputation by Caroline Lee

How it All Began by Fiona West

Shade by Shayne Ford

A Vengeful Realm by Tim Facciola

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Flawed Justice by Tibby Armstrong

Grave Mistake by Nikki Landis

Haunting Chaos by Nikki Landis

The Cartel by E.G. Manetti

Mayaette’s Catharsis by Jack E Mohr

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Random House, Random House

Date of publication: June 13th, 2023

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Horror, Science Fiction, Adult, Suspense, Fantasy

Purchase Links: Kindle | Audible | B&N | AbeBooks | WorldCat

Goodreads Synopsis:

Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this suspenseful thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology

“This novel has it all and more. In the nimble, talented hands of Trussoni the pages fly.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci

All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.

Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She soon reveals that there is something more urgent, and more dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.

The quest takes Brink through a series of interlocking enigmas, but the heart of the mystery is the God Puzzle, a cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful forces at work that he cannot escape.

Ranging from an upstate New York women’s prison to nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Puzzle Master is a tantalizing, addictive thriller in which humankind, technology, and the future of the universe itself are at stake.


First Line:

By the time you read this, I will have caused much sorrow, and for that I beg your forgiveness.

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: The Puzzle Master is a fast-paced book. The main storyline occurs within a week of Mike going to the prison to meet Jess. I liked that it wasn’t so fast that I had to reread the previous chapter. The author did slow down during certain parts of the book so I could digest what happened in the last chapter. There is some lag during the book sections that centers on the doll maker and his trip to Prague. But it wasn’t enough to distract me from the book or my enjoyment.

Trigger/Content Warning: There are trigger warnings in The Puzzle Master. Some of these are graphic, and most are on page. If any of these trigger you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:

  • Suicide (on and off page)—The suicide is not described (very vague), but the suicide note is the first thing you read in the book. There is also an on-page suicide towards the end of the book.
  • Mental Illness (on page)—Jess, who is in prison, is being treated for several mental illnesses.
  • Violence (on page)—There is graphic violence throughout the book.
  • Gun Violence (on page)—Mike is shot at and threatened with a gun throughout the book.
  • Animal Cruelty (on page)—Mike’s service dog, Conundrum (Connie), is put in the trunk of a car and left there. When she is let out, she is almost dead. The person then sets her free and drives away.
  • Body Horror (on page)—During the chapters set in Prague, the Jewish rabbi, and his son were severely injured after the ritual went wrong. That’s all I can say without spoilers.
  • Murder (on and off page)—There are several murders committed throughout the book.
  • Attempted murder (on page)—There is an attempted murder towards the middle of the book.
  • Grief (on and off page)—A man grieves over the death of his beloved daughter. His grief and what he did set the course for this book.
  • Child death (on page)—A semi-graphic child death is discussed in the book.

Sexual Content: I was pretty surprised at this, but there is sexual content in The Puzzle Master.

Language: There is foul language used in The Puzzle Master.

Setting: The Puzzle Master is set in a couple of different places. In the present day, it is set in upstate New York and New York City. In the past, it is set in Prague.

Representation: There is Indian representation (Mike’s mentor is from India, but the author doesn’t say what part). There is Jewish representation (Gaston befriends a Jewish scholar and his family). There is a god who is both male and female.

Tropes: Cursed Items, Humans Can Be Evil, Traumatic Past

Age Range to read The Puzzle Master: 21 and over


Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

When Mike was in high school, he was a promising football player. But a traumatic brain injury resulting from a brutal hit ended that but opened an unwelcome and unwanted door. The brain injury somehow made Mike a savant–acquired savant syndrome. He could see patterns and puzzles in everything. Not only that, but he developed an eidetic memory. Mike made the most of what he was gifted, using it to solve and create puzzles. So, he is intrigued when a psychiatrist contacts him at a prison. He is even more intrigued after meeting Jess Price, who is in jail for killing her boyfriend. His interest is even more when Jess uses a puzzle to communicate with him. Determined to solve the crime and prove her innocence, Mike soon becomes obsessed with Jess and her case. But there is more to this case than Mike expected, and his poking around puts a target on his back. Will Mike be able to prove Jess’s innocence and set her free? Or will what he learned kill him?


Main Characters

Mike Brink: I liked Mike. I couldn’t imagine living with what happened to him after the brain injury. I felt terrible that he felt that he couldn’t connect with people. In a way, I think that is why he became so focused and obsessed with Jess. He felt an immediate connection with her, and that might have been the first connection he had in years. I hated how he was treated later in the book and what Jameson Sedge tried to force him to do.

Jess Price: She was an enigma. I was on the fence with her until Mike got a hold of her diary entries and met Jameson. I will only get a little into her character because a huge twist happens towards the end (and it involves what Gaston described in his journal).

Jameson Sedge: I felt dirty after reading his character. He had a finger in everything, including monitoring Jess at the prison. He also had a loyal hitman who would do whatever Jameson told him. Again, I am not going much into his character because of spoilers. But he got what he deserved at the end of the book.

Secondary characters: The secondary characters were fantastic in The Puzzle Master. I liked that they added extra depth to the storyline and, in some cases, helped explain what was happening. There were some characters that I liked and others that I wanted to boot from a plane.


My review:

The Puzzle Master was a well-written, well-researched book that kept me glued to the pages. I am not interested in puzzles (of any kind), but I was fascinated by what the author wrote in the book. She used actual anagrams and puzzles throughout the book (including The God Puzzle). When asked to describe this book, I told my husband it was like The DaVinci Code but with puzzles and anagrams.

The Puzzle Master has two storylines. One centers around Mike, Jess, and The God Puzzle. The other storyline centers around Gaston LaMoriette and what happened to him before, during, and after Prague.

The storyline centered on Mike, Jess, and The God Puzzle was well-written and well-researched (as I said in the first paragraph). This storyline has a huge twist that is directly tied to Gaston’s storyline.

The storyline centered on Gaston had some surprises in it. I can’t explain what surprises are because of spoilers. After the author revealed that tidbit of information, a lightbulb went on in my head. And when she tied it to Mike and Jess’s storyline, it became apparent.

The mystery angle of The Puzzle Master was excellent. I was truly kept in the dark about everything until the end of the book. The author had a couple of huge twists that took me by surprise.

The end of The Puzzle Master was almost anti-climactic. The author did wrap up most storylines in a way that I liked. But, there was a huge twist that was surprising and scary at the end of the book. The author set up book two perfectly with that. I also liked the afterward. It explained a lot about what was happening in the book.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Random House, Random House, NetGalley, and Danielle Trussoni for allowing me to read and review this ARC of The Puzzle Master. All opinions stated in this review are mine.


If you enjoy reading books similar to The Puzzle Master, then you will enjoy these books:

WWW Wednesday: October 18th, 2023

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:

A small town is transformed by dark magic when a strange tree begins bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.

It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something else is changing in the town besides the season.

Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: Strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.

Take a bite of one of these apples and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.

This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples… and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?

And even if buried in the orchard is something else besides the seeds of this extraordinary tree: a bloody history whose roots reach back the very origins of the town.

But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow’s secrets. Because it’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.


What I recently finished reading:

Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this suspenseful thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology

“This novel has it all and more. In the nimble, talented hands of Trussoni the pages fly.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci

All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.

Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She soon reveals that there is something more urgent, and more dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.

The quest takes Brink through a series of interlocking enigmas, but the heart of the mystery is the God Puzzle, a cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful forces at work that he cannot escape.

Ranging from an upstate New York women’s prison to nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Puzzle Master is a tantalizing, addictive thriller in which humankind, technology, and the future of the universe itself are at stake.


What I think I will read next:

Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Ellery Adams, Scarlett Gardner’s dream was to open a bookshop in Southern California, but it soon becomes a nightmare when she finds the dead body of a customer—and becomes the prime suspect.

Southern California is where dreams come true—or so Scarlett Gardner thought. When she moved there and opened the Palm Trees and Page Turners bookshop, she thought her boyfriend and business partner would be part of the story. When he leaves her for a better job, Scarlett finds herself struggling to keep her new business afloat. That’s not the only thing she has to worry about—she discovers something underneath the pier by her bookshop that she didn’t outline for her life’s story: the dead body of a book-buying customer.

After Scarlett gives a statement to the police, she thinks her life can go back to business as usual. But when a lawyer, representing someone named Lorelai Knight, tells Scarlett that she now stands to inherit a small fortune, she’s left with more questions than answers. Before she can make sense of any of it, the police bring her in for questioning; the body she found was Lorelai Knight. And the evidence they have against Scarlett doesn’t look good. Business is booming as Scarlett returns to Palm Trees and Page Turners, but for all the wrong reasons – curious tourists don’t want books, they want a glimpse of the Bookshop Killer.

Who could really be behind all of this? And why frame Scarlett? To clear her name, she’s going to have to get creative—and hope she can remain one page ahead of the killer.

Erin Hahn’s Friends Don’t Fall in Love is about long-time friends, taking chances, and finding out that, sometimes, your perfect person was right there in your corner all along.

Lorelai Jones had it a thriving country music career and a superstar fiancé. Then she played one teenie tiny protest song at a concert and ruined her entire future, including her impending celebrity marriage. But five years later, she refuses to be done with her dreams and calls up the one person who stuck by her, her dear friend and her former fiancé’s co-writer and bandmate, Craig.

Craig Boseman’s held a torch for Lorelai for years, but even he knows the backup bass player never gets the girl. Things are different now, though. Craig owns his own indie record label and his songwriting career is taking off. If he can confront his past and embrace his gifts, he might just be able to help Lorelai earn the comeback she deserves―and maybe win her heart in the process.

But when the two reunite to rebuild her career and finally scratch that itch that’s been building between them for years, Lorelai realizes a lot about what friends don’t do. For one, friends don’t have scratch-that-itch sex. They also don’t almost-kiss on street corners, publish secret erotic poetry about each other, have counter-top sex, write songs for each other, have no-strings motorcycle sex, or go on dates. And they sure as heck don’t fall in love… right?

One hundred and fifty years ago the Fae race vanished. Along with their magic and creatures. With the fallen Fae lands the humans were soon to follow as corruption spread throughout the realm. Heir to the throne, Delilah Covington is forced to watch her people suffer under the sinful hands of her father, the king—while she herself suffers his cruel hand. Delilah has longed for change, her prayers going unanswered until she discovers salvation.
Fae are alive.
In desperation, Delilah flees her home and crosses the border, in hopes that the Fae will save her people.
Yet she isn’t the only one who needs help.
Caught in a web of lies and riddles Delilah’s only chance at hope is Knox, one of the irritating, yet frustratingly charming Fae kings. Together they’ll need to unravel the many mysteries to bring freedom to both their oppressed people, or damn them all.

August Silvershield is a dead man walking.

He and his group (Ashes) have dedicated their lives to opposing the Magicom tyranny and how they control, sell and distribute magic.

And Magicom are hell-bent on his capture.

Pink, August’s sister, is a recently qualified mage and practitioner of the four elements of magic. Strong-willed, talented and independent, she’s determined to make a name for herself at Wing (the institution that trains and assigns its mages to contracts throughout the Island of Blake) without her brother’s help.

But the siblings’ worlds inextricably collide when Pink’s first contract leads her and her Wing friends directly to Magicom and unimaginable danger.

Can Pink and August defend their friends and themselves while trying to eradicate everything Magicom stand for?

Or will the dangerous quest prove too much, given the blurred boundaries between their friends and enemies?

Find out in this fast-paced epic YA fantasy adventure novel where elemental magic changes everything.

A straight-laced FBI agent.
A psychic PI solving a murder.
The spirit who haunts them.

Ancestry rooted in the occult sets Hailey Arquette apart in the small town of Hamchet. It also hampers her investigation of a teen’s death. She must navigate the shadowy world where betrayal walks hand in hand with a smile.

A threat against family forces Agent Trenton Briner back to Texas where his childhood friend leads him into a mystery steeped in whispers of Vodou and magic. At each turn, he finds the raven-haired woman who haunts his dreams.

When an unknown entity saves Hailey’s life, she discovers she’s not the only one holding secrets and is willing to risk everything to learn the truth about the spirit haunting her.

Perfect in Death is the first book of a bone-chilling Supernatural mystery series with lovable characters, dogs, and a touch of romance.

WWW Wednesday: October 11th, 2023

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:

From Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author of The Homewreckers and The Santa Suit, comes a novella celebrating love and the warm, glittering charm of the holiday season.

When fall rolls around, it’s time for Kerry Tolliver to leave her family’s Christmas tree farm in the mountains of North Carolina for the wilds of New York City to help her gruff older brother & his dog, Queenie, sell the trees at the family stand on a corner in Greenwich Village. Sharing a tiny vintage camper and experiencing Manhattan for the first time, Kerry’s ready to try to carve out a new corner for herself.

In the weeks leading into Christmas, Kerry quickly becomes close with the charming neighbors who live near their stand. When an elderly neighbor goes missing, Kerry will need to combine her country know-how with her newly acquired New York knowledge to protect the new friends she’s come to think of as family,

And complicating everything is Patrick, a single dad raising his adorable, dragon-loving son Austin on this quirky block. Kerry and Patrick’s chemistry is undeniable, but what chance does this holiday romance really have?

Filled with family ties, both rekindled and new, and sparkling with Christmas magic, Bright Lights, Big Christmas delivers everything Mary Kay Andrews fans adore, all tied up in a hilarious, romantic gem of a novel.


What I recently finished reading:

This is a science-fiction novel, originally published in Italian.

“17 Planets is an entertaining and intelligent sci-fi odyssey with a wide appeal. A.R. Alexander has written a book with a gripping plot, a strong heroine, and a fascinating dynamic between heroine and hero.”
Editorial review from THE BOOK REVIEW DIRECTORY
Search for 17 planets on bookreviewdirectory dot com

A woman with an extraordinary mind and a dark past demanding revenge. 17 planets divided into four factions whose leaders forgot their inhabitants all arrived from the same place: Planet Earth. A threat that could turn a tool that saves everyone’s life into the worst imaginable nightmare. Elizabeth, a chameleonic and seductive woman, is the only one who can make a difference, but her uniqueness weighs on her shoulders like the world weighs on Atlas’ shoulders.

These are just some of the ingredients of this novel where action scenes alternate with political ones and the relationship between the many characters, as much as the suffering and the claustrophobic anguish, alternate with the human need for love and loyalty. All seasoned with a drops of eroticism and a hint of humour.


What I think I will read next:

A sparkling adversaries-to-lovers romcom set at a magazine publisher in Manhattan. When Casey and Alex are forced into proximity, they soon realize falling for each other is just as much of a risk and as it is a reward.

Casey Maitland has always preferred the reliability of numbers, despite growing up the daughter of two artistic souls. Now a twenty-four-year-old finance expert working in Manhattan, Casey wonders if the project manager opening at her company – magazine powerhouse LC Publications – is a sign from the universe to pursue a career with a little more sparkle. That is, until she’s passed over for the job in favor of the board chairman’s son.

Alex Harrison is handsome, Harvard-educated, and enigmatic. Everybody loves him – except for Casey. But when the two are thrown on the same project, they both have something to prove. For Casey, it’s getting tapped for a transfer to the London office and fulfilling her dreams of travelling. For Alex, it’s successfully launching a brand that will impress his distant father.

As work meetings turn into after hours, Casey and Alex are drawn to each other again and again, but neither can avoid the messy secrets and corporate intrigue threatening to tear them apart. What they discover about their workplace might change everything – including the dreams each of them is chasing.

Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this suspenseful thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology

“This novel has it all and more. In the nimble, talented hands of Trussoni the pages fly.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci

All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.

Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She soon reveals that there is something more urgent, and more dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.

The quest takes Brink through a series of interlocking enigmas, but the heart of the mystery is the God Puzzle, a cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful forces at work that he cannot escape.

Ranging from an upstate New York women’s prison to nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Puzzle Master is a tantalizing, addictive thriller in which humankind, technology, and the future of the universe itself are at stake.

A small town is transformed by dark magic when a strange tree begins bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.

It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something else is changing in the town besides the season.

Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: Strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.

Take a bite of one of these apples and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.

This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples… and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?

And even if buried in the orchard is something else besides the seeds of this extraordinary tree: a bloody history whose roots reach back the very origins of the town.

But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow’s secrets. Because it’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.

Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Ellery Adams, Scarlett Gardner’s dream was to open a bookshop in Southern California, but it soon becomes a nightmare when she finds the dead body of a customer—and becomes the prime suspect.

Southern California is where dreams come true—or so Scarlett Gardner thought. When she moved there and opened the Palm Trees and Page Turners bookshop, she thought her boyfriend and business partner would be part of the story. When he leaves her for a better job, Scarlett finds herself struggling to keep her new business afloat. That’s not the only thing she has to worry about—she discovers something underneath the pier by her bookshop that she didn’t outline for her life’s story: the dead body of a book-buying customer.

After Scarlett gives a statement to the police, she thinks her life can go back to business as usual. But when a lawyer, representing someone named Lorelai Knight, tells Scarlett that she now stands to inherit a small fortune, she’s left with more questions than answers. Before she can make sense of any of it, the police bring her in for questioning; the body she found was Lorelai Knight. And the evidence they have against Scarlett doesn’t look good. Business is booming as Scarlett returns to Palm Trees and Page Turners, but for all the wrong reasons – curious tourists don’t want books, they want a glimpse of the Bookshop Killer.

Who could really be behind all of this? And why frame Scarlett? To clear her name, she’s going to have to get creative—and hope she can remain one page ahead of the killer.

Erin Hahn’s Friends Don’t Fall in Love is about long-time friends, taking chances, and finding out that, sometimes, your perfect person was right there in your corner all along.

Lorelai Jones had it a thriving country music career and a superstar fiancé. Then she played one teenie tiny protest song at a concert and ruined her entire future, including her impending celebrity marriage. But five years later, she refuses to be done with her dreams and calls up the one person who stuck by her, her dear friend and her former fiancé’s co-writer and bandmate, Craig.

Craig Boseman’s held a torch for Lorelai for years, but even he knows the backup bass player never gets the girl. Things are different now, though. Craig owns his own indie record label and his songwriting career is taking off. If he can confront his past and embrace his gifts, he might just be able to help Lorelai earn the comeback she deserves―and maybe win her heart in the process.

But when the two reunite to rebuild her career and finally scratch that itch that’s been building between them for years, Lorelai realizes a lot about what friends don’t do. For one, friends don’t have scratch-that-itch sex. They also don’t almost-kiss on street corners, publish secret erotic poetry about each other, have counter-top sex, write songs for each other, have no-strings motorcycle sex, or go on dates. And they sure as heck don’t fall in love… right?

October 2023 TBR

NetGalley:


Indie Authors:


Reading Challenges:

Buzzword Reading Challenge 2023 (magic-related words: magic in the title or related words. Example: Witch, Charm, Conjure, Spell…etc.)

2023 Sami Parker Reads Title Challenge (a book with a double or triple number in the title: Any number between 10 and 999 count)

Cover Scavenger Hunt 2023 (a star)

The StoryGraph Reads the World (Trinidad and Tobago)
The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge (a travel memoir)
Beat the Backlist 2023 (set or inspired by the 1700s or 1800s)
Scavenger Hunt (a book you had to read in school that you want to reread)
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (a romance with a fat lead)
2023 TBR Toppler (A 5-star prediction)
2023 Monthly Themes (October—Thrilltober)
2023 Reading Challenge (A Green Book: either a green cover or green in the title)
2023 ABC Challenge (J)
Romanceopoly 2023! (romantic suspense set in a country that you don’t live in)
2023 TBR Prompts (a book about mental health)

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my fall TBR—September 19th, 2023

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Every Tuesday, a new topic is assigned from the schedule below. Then, you take that topic and fly free with it. You can do as little or as much as you want to (I have done as low as two before). If you want, you can link back To That Artsy Reader Girl and show her what you posted.


The Schedule

September 19: Books on My Fall 2023 To-Read List


September 26: Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book


October 3: Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year (We’ve just begun the last quarter of the year! What bookish goals would you still like to accomplish? If you participated in TTT’s Bookish Goals for 2023 topic this past January, update us on which goals you’ve achieved, which you’ve given up on, and which ones you’re still working on!)


October 10: Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free (Real or Imaginary) (Submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ bout Books)


October 17: Books with Weather Events in the Title/on the Cover (I’m picturing a list of titles with weather-related words in them like storm, rain, blizzard, flood, lightning, hail, snow, wind, etc. OR covers with lightning/storms in the picture.)


October 24: Atmospheric Books (The Novelry explains this concept as: “A novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.” Study.com explains that, “The atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to convey feelings, emotions, and mood to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.”)


October 31: Halloween Freebie


November 7: Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines (Submitted by Cathy @ What Cathy Read Next)


November 14: Mainstream Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read (Submitted by Rissa)


November 21: Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books (In honor of Thanksgiving in the USA.)


November 28: Books Set In X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.)


December 5: Freebie


December 12: Books On My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List


December 19: Books.I Hop Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes


December 26: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf (Maybe share your holiday book haul?)

2024

January 2: Favorite Books of 2023


January 9: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024
January 16: Bookish Goals for 2024


January 23: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To


January 30: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023


So here are mine.

All my books are taken from my NetGalley Goodreads shelf.


Books on my fall TBR: