Apr 3, 2025
Reading Recap: March 2025
Apr 1, 2025
Early Reader Review: The Barking Puppy by Lori Lobenstine
Publisher: Levine Querido
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
Rating:
Goodreads Synopsis:
When Sophie and her two Jack Russell terriers move to Boston, she's excited not to be the only brown kid in the neighborhood anymore. She instantly likes the quirky teenager named Juno next door and her pug, Bonney. But not everything's easy. Her classmates make fun of her Vermont overalls. The upstairs neighbor hates barking. And Bonney needs surgery that Juno's family can't afford.So Sophie and Juno invent the Barking Puppy, the first ever newspaper written “by dogs” and “for dogs.” Will anyone else get how funny it is? And more importantly, can they sell it to raise enough money in time to save Bonney? Will the landlord kick Sophie and her mom out before they even get started?
Mar 30, 2025
Building the Book Pile #481
Good morning! Happy Sunday!
Mar 28, 2025
Recent Reads: Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver
Publisher: Zando
Publication Date: June 4, 2024
Source: Bought/ Own
Rating:
Goodreads Synopsis:
Contract killer Lachlan Kane wants a quiet life working in his leather studio and forgetting all about his traumatic past. But when he botches a job for his boss’s biggest client, Lachlan knows he’ll never claw his way out of the underworld. At least, not until songbird Lark Montague offers him a deal: use his skills to hunt down a killer and she’ll find a way to secure his freedom. The catch? He has to marry her first.And they can’t stand each other.Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be.As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomes impossible to discern their fake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.And this one has come for blood.
Review:
Mar 23, 2025
Building the Book Pile #480
Good morning! Happy Sunday!




Mar 21, 2025
Recent Reads: Can't Spell Treason without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
Series: Tomes & Tea #1
Publisher: Bramble
Publication Date: May 7, 2024
Source: Bought/ Own
Rating:
Goodreads Synopsis:
All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters… all complemented by love and good company. Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility–all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town that boasts more dragons than people, and open the shop of their dreams.What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. In a story brimming with hurt/comfort and quiet fireside conversations, these two women will discover just what they mean to each other… and the world.
Review:
Mar 19, 2025
Recent Reads: Wild Love by Elsie Silver
Publisher: Audible Audio
Publication Date: April 9, 2024
Source: Bought from Audible
Rating:
Goodreads Synopsis:
Rosie Belmont has been driving me wild for years. The good kind of wild. The bad kind of wild. But mostly the kind of wild that comes with wanting your best friend’s little sister and knowing you can’t have her.After living in the city, she comes blasting back into Rose Hill like a storm. Beautiful, messy, and chaotic.And one wide-eyed desperate plea for a job is all it takes for me to hire her.Forbes may have labelled me the World’s Hottest Billionaire but all I care about is opening my new recording studio. Something that comes to a screeching halt when I end up face-to-face with a young girl who claims I’m her biological father.Now I spend my days balancing business with parenting a sullen twelve-year-old all while trying desperately to keep my hands the hell off my best friend’s little sister.I vow to keep Rosie at arm’s length. I try to stick to scowls and grumpy one-liners. But with her verbal sparring is merely foreplay—friction that turns to blistering heat.I know damn well I shouldn’t cross that line.But shouldn’t and can’t are two very different things.And the only thing I truly can’t do is resist her.
Review:
Mar 17, 2025
Cover Reveal: The Versailles Formula by Nancy Bilyeau
The Versailles Formula by Nancy Bilyeau
Series: Genevieve Planché #3
Publisher: Joffe Books
Publication Date: April 17, 2025 by Joffe Books
About the Book
She craved purpose. She found danger. Now, there may be no turning back.
Genevieve Sturbridge was never meant for a quiet life in the English countryside. Once an artist in the heart of London, now she spends her days in restless solitude, longing for the passion and purpose she once knew. But when a familiar figure from her past arrives with an urgent request, she is thrust into a perilous world of spies and a formula that could shift the balance of power between France and England.
The thrill of the chase is intoxicating—the cryptic clues hidden in plain sight, the challenge of ferreting secrets from dangerous opponents, the undeniable rush of being needed again. But with every step deeper into the mystery, the danger grows. Someone is watching. Someone is hunting. And the more she uncovers, the more she wonders: has she walked willingly into a trap?
Torn between exhilaration and fear, Genevieve must decide—was this the life she was always meant for, or has she risked everything for a mission that will consume her completely?
Years ago, protecting this secret nearly cost Genevieve her life.
Now someone could be willing to kill for
it once more.
Mar 16, 2025
Building the Book Pile #479
Good morning! Happy Sunday!

