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Book 1,066: The Lost Story – Meg Shaffer

Book cover of "The Lost Story"What happens when you take the Christian allegory out of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, modernize it and add a little queer joy and some millennial/gen-z humor—I’m not lying I legit rolled my eyes at booping death on the nose? Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story is what happens and it was a delightful fantastical journey that I very much enjoyed.

The publisher reached out with a review copy in early 2024 and I finally got around to it just over a year later and it was worth the wait.* When I got to the passage that the publisher included in the outreach email I gasped and was like “THIS is why I requested it!” (I 100% did not re-read that email before starting this on vacation, I just knew exactly what it was and verified it afterward.)

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Book 1,063: The Spellshop – Sarah Beth Durst

Book cover of "The Spellshop"When the publisher reached out about this one they referred to it as “cottage core fantasy” and I was like OMFG I am here for this.* One of my favorite game streamers does cottage core Minecraft and I may have been watching it at the time. This was back in January of 2024 (SHAME ON ME I KNOW) and after a wild year last year I finally picked this one up and it was lovely.

The Spellshop is the tale of Kiela, a librarian from the capital city, who flees to her home island with a sentient spider plant and then causes all sorts of good unintended consequences as she adapts to small town life again. It’s a slow-burn romance set in a light fantasy in which I genuinely forgot on some occasions until someone’s blue skin tone or antlers were mentioned or magic.

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Book 1,062: Go Luck Yourself (Royals & Romance #2) – Sara Raasch

When the publisher reached out to me with a copy of this, I went back and forth on whether to accept.* I was still making my way through the first in the series and it was a bit of a slog, but as I neared the end I found myself really enjoying that one and wanted to know what happened so I grabbed a digital copy of it—but for real go look at the physical copy . . . I mean those green edges are GORGEOUS!

Picking up immediately after The Nightmare Before Kissmass, we find ourselves with Kris, the Christmas spare, as he’s woefully moping around having confessed his feelings to the Princess of Easter. He’s back at university and looking for an outlet. Unfortunately, that outlet ends up being a massive prank involving a ton of tinsel in a room occupied by Loch, who unbeknownst to Kris is the Prince of St. Patrick’s Day. And it goes from there.

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Book 1,061: Yours, Eventually – Nura Maznavi

Book cover of "Yours, Eventually"I knew I would read some Jane Austen this year, it’s her 250th, but I didn’t realize how much or that I’d decide I’m going to re-read all six of her novels plus an adaptation of each. That’s new because when the publisher reached out about this debut novel, it put me at 1/3 of the way done so I was like “heck yeah!”*

Yours, Eventually, is a modern day retelling of Austen’s Persuasion set in a Pakistani-American community in California. I loved that it wasn’t your expected setting or even culture! I immediately was reminded of Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin which has languished on my shelf for far too long, but it’s a Pride and Prejudice adaptation, and there are a million of those, so I’m glad I went with a less-often adaptation first!

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Book 1,060: The Nightmare Before Kissmas (Royals & Romance #1) – Sara Raasch

Book cover of "The Nightmare Before Kissmass"This was one of those that almost didn’t happen. Not because of anything particular in the book, even though it does start off pretty slow.

And OOF—it took me so long to get this, Raasch is actually getting ready to publish the sequel next month, which the publisher has also reached out to me about!* And after finishing this one I did accept, so fingers crossed I get to it a lot sooner than it took me to get to this one.

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