Hello, hello! Welcome to another installment of Books in Progress where the TBR lists are long, and the reading time is never long enough. On today’s list you’ll find lots of different genres of romance, one book that’s just a tad spooky, some biblical fiction, and one book that I thought was nonfiction when I borrowed it but turned out to be a novel.
Let’s get started!
This post contains affiliate links, which means I might make some extra coffee money at no extra expense to you if you buy something through one of my links. Read more about that here.
Just Finished:
A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons
In what could be the smallest book club ever, my friend and I take turns choosing a book to read. We just got started on this again after a break of at least a year and she chose first, which is how I ended up listening to A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons. The story begins when Saffron Everleigh, a young lady botanist at a university during a time when women in science were rare, witnesses the mysterious illness of a coworker’s wife at a party. The woman’s plight is soon ruled to be an attempted murder by poison, and when Saffron’s mentor is accused of the crime she will stop at nothing in her investigation to find the real culprit. There were some good twists I didn’t see coming, and I liked all the scientific jargon about the plants and experiments. Very fun read! I believe this is part of a planned series so I may be reading more about Saffron in the future.
Spooky, but not too scary, this one is about a girl who can speak with the dead (it sounds scarier than it actually is). When orphaned Tabby runs away from the aunt who exploits her gift, she finds a new home with a kindly cemetery caretaker, meeting a memorable young man in the process. When she crosses paths with the young man again years later, she never expects to become embroiled in a dangerous plot involving the murder of his fiancée.
This is my new favorite series to binge. Burnin’ for You is the third in the Montana Fire series about a team of smokejumpers fighting wildfires in Montana. In this one, pilot Gilly and jumper Reuben try to fight their feelings for each other while fighting dangerous blazes and trying not die when a plane crash leaves them stranded in the wilderness. All the books in this set are so exciting and filled danger, romance, and high stakes situations. Highly recommend!
In Progress:
Speaking of binge-able book series… this is the second book in the Dread Penny Society series. I read the first one, The Lady and the Highwayman, super quick and couldn’t wait for my library hold to come in on this one. This series is about a secret society of penny dreadful authors who work together to improve society. Some of the members must keep their identity as authors of this type of low-value literature a secret, which makes for some interesting situations. At the heart of each book is a historical romance and witty, likable characters that you will root for. It’s actually also kind of a three-for-one deal, because you get to read installments of some of the penny dreadfuls they are writing as part of the story. So fun!
When Sam arrives home after three years away fighting, he thinks things will go back to normal, but it’s not that easy. The symptoms of what we would now call PTSD stretch his relationship with his wife and daughter, and make them doubt when he says he’s sees strangers messing around on their property. Will he be able to heal and determine definitively what’s real and what isn’t before something terrible befalls the family he loves so dearly?
Up Next:
This is the one that I was pretty sure was nonfiction, until I read the words ‘a novel’ next to the title. I borrowed the audiobook right away regardless, because I want to be ready to listen and nod along with the Overdue podcast episode where they discuss this book in a few weeks. I just found this podcast a few days ago and it’s a delight, so when I saw their upcoming schedule I decided to jump in since I’d heard of this book before.
Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful
I mentioned that I have been loving the Montana Fire series, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the next books on my list is the next book in the series. It’s going to be Christmas in July when I read this holiday themed story of two more smokejumpers on the team falling for each other. With any luck, this one will be a good addition to the holiday book list I put out every year and you’ll see it again in December.
After hearing an interview by the author, I am so excited to read this novel telling the story of a woman who is always portrayed as a villain if she’s even discussed at all. Most of us are probably at least somewhat familiar with the story of Jospeh and his journey to Egypt, including the part where his master’s wife attempts to seduce him, then accuses him of assault when he doesn’t acquiesce. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing this story through a different lens with some added historical context as the story unfolds from this woman’s perspective with her background in mind.
And as always, if you want even more book talk you can also check out Modern Mrs. Darcy’s quick lit post — don’t forget to scroll to the comment section for other bloggers links as well!