At Home After a busy weekend where my daughter got to spend a few hours with a whole bunch of her friends, the week was a lot quieter. My son is currently doing state testing, and the only plus is probably having less homework to do. The hard part will be waiting until the fall to see how he did, at which point if we ask him questions about it he probably won’t even remember anything. On the bright side, I’ve figured out how to get my kids to sit and do their homework: I get to do it with them. Though they also sometimes try to finish before the other. Otherwise it’s been quiet. I had a couple ..read more

Title: Shadows of the Dark Realm Author: Tyler Edwards Publisher: Self-published Publication Date: January 31, 2024 Genre: Fantasy The Curated Bookshelf’s Monthly Theme: Dangerous Waters By five may your journey thrive. By five may you return alive. The idyllic kingdom of Parisia sat nestled securely in the Great Emerald Mountains. For generations Parisia had known nothing but peace and prosperity. When the elder dragon Darka Mors, steals the Darkstone, the entire realm is threatened. Without the Darkstone, the magic sealing away the Shadow King would fail. His return would bring death and d ..read more

Title: Symutal Author: Dean Alexandrou Publisher: Neuroid Books Publication date: March 6, 2023 Genre: Science Fiction Technology and understanding how it works are things that will always elude me, but I still enjoy reading these books. Perhaps it’s just to experience that fascinatingly addictive confusion, or perhaps it’s in the hopes that I glean something I can actually understand. Either way, this is the kind of book I found Symutal to be. I will not pretend to even come close to understanding what it was about, so I’m glad a couple of characters were fascinating enough that I fe ..read more

Title: Headlines & Hydras (Terra Haven Chronicles #2) Author: Rebecca Chastain Publisher: Mind Your Muse Publication Date: May 18, 2021 Genre: Fantasy The Curated Bookshelf’s Monthly Theme: Dangerous Water With her gargoyle companion at her side, Kylie chases the most dangerous story of her life. Dive back into the extraordinary new series filled with elemental magic, mythic creatures, and heroic gargoyles today! Pursuing the story of a lifetime is supposed to be Kylie’s greatest achievement, not her biggest regret. It certainly isn’t supposed to be personal. When her latest lead points ..read more

At Home This past week was a little better. Our cat is still with us. We managed to get a bit of an appetite back into her thanks to a couple of doses of Elura, which now seems to kill her appetite so we’re saving it for when she doesn’t eat for a day or two, and fluids through an IV she really hates. Her behavior now is a bit more normal. She isn’t hiding quite as much, enjoying plenty of quiet mornings in the sun, though I can see the kidney failure is impacting her back legs and she doesn’t jump as well as she used to. But at least I still have her. My birthday was this past week and my kid ..read more

Title: Chaotic Aperitifs (Hidden Dishes #2) Author: Tao Wong Publisher: Starlit Publishing Publication date: May 1, 2024 Genre: Fantasy Chaotic Aperitifs is the second in the Hidden Dishes series. It can be read as a standalone, but I personally think it would be a good idea to read the first book, The Nameless Restaurant. After all, they’re short and easy to read, though each book does overly focus on the cooking part of this cozy cooking fantasy series. Where I found the first book a little lacking and a little too focused on following Mo Meng as he cooked each dish, I rather liked ..read more

Welcome to this month’s Curated Bookshelf! It’s that time of the year where we start to see warnings about dry drowning and the dangers of swimming in pools and the ocean (at least, I usually start to by the end of the month). I frequently lose track of the date, and can even be a month or two behind (I suppose that would explain a lot…), so I kind of started counting on those ads to help me figure out what part of the year it was. So I decided to highlight books with dangerous waters this month. Because I’m pretty sure they start somewhere around Memorial Day weekend. My parents put me in a w ..read more

At Home This past week sucked. Actually, this whole year has kind of sucked. But this past week takes the cake. We found out over the weekend that our cat’s kidney disease has progressed to kidney failure. We were told she has maybe 6-9 months, but, considering she’s only eating when we give her something to stimulate her appetite, I think I’ll be lucky to get another 6 months with her. Most of what I read online says the median life expectancy at this point is 35 days. But I could use some luck, and, after everything we’ve already gone through, I really, really want some. In the meantime, I’l ..read more

Title: Lunar Love Author: Lauren Kung Jessen Publisher: Forever Publication Date: January 10, 2023 Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance The Curated Bookshelf’s Monthly Theme: Books with Blooms This sweet, enemies-to-lovers debut rom-com filled with Chinese astrology will undoubtedly prove to be a perfect match with readers of Helen Hoang, Jasmine Guillory, and Sarah Adams. Always a matchmaker, never a match… Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her P ..read more

Title: The Great Graceland Caper Author: Scott K. VanDenBerg Publisher: Self-published Publication date: March 5, 2024 Genre: Humor In Brief In this fast-paced, action-packed novel, readers are taken along on a harebrained heist to steal Elvis’s coffin, only to find an undead Jimmy Hoffa and undead Bruce Lee after them on orders from an undead Elvis Presley. Gavin only wants to be able to pay for his mother’s pricey operation, so he drags his sister Sally and best friend Wesley, who also happens to be an Elvis impersonator and Sally’s ex, along with him to Graceland. He doesn’t have a ..read more