September 2024 Newsletter

I don’t know how September was for you all, but it flew by for me! It’s been a very hectic time as I settle into my new job as barn and business manager at a local horseback riding school. And now that we are back to school with my nine-year-old and she in involved in riding lessons, guitar lessons, and an afterschool running club, man does the time get away from me! It can be hard to find time to read, but I always make sure to get up a half hour earlier than needed during the week just to make sure I have time to sip my coffee and read my book.

Book Reviews

I did finally finish the 7th book in the Outlander series, “An Echo in the Bone.” It feels like forever ago that I finished it, and I haven’t been able to keep up with my reviews, so I will do my best now with this one. This was the first book that the series really added Jamie’s illegitimate son, William, as a main character. A lot of the book was spent following him through the wilderness as he met new Amish characters who eventually became important parts in Jamie and Claire’s life as well. Of course, by the end the two separate stories of William and Jamie collide, and it was a great and exciting story the whole time. It kept my interest and had great intricate details that I still scratch my head and wonder how the author could possibly have discovered it in research. It’s like she’s from the 18th century herself! This series is huge and its a daunting commitment that will most likely take you years to get through. There is one more book that has to come out to complete the series at ten, but if you love Scottish and American history with a little romance thrown in here and there, then you will love this!

I am just a few pages away from being done with my first falltime read, The Spellshop. This was one of those rare Instagram or Facebook finds where I saw a post and was intrigued. This usually doesn’t happen to me because I don’t spend a lot of time scrolling through social media. The cover captured me, I knew it had to do with something related to spells, and it was described as cottagecore cozy, which is right up my alley. I bought it in hardback, because I love display beautiful books on my shelves. The edges of this book is dyed a lovely lavender, giving it a nice touch. I’ve never heard of the author, but that never stops me from picking up a book and reading it.

The story is way more high fantasy than I’m used to, but it wasn’t so overwhelming that it took me out of what was going on. When characters are aliens or animals or not human I tend to get distracted by that rather than it adding to the story. If they’re human enough like elves and dwarves in Lord of the Rings then it’s all good, but animal people not so much. This world is imagined. It’s an island world, which was really fitting in with my mood lately. I lived in Hawai’i for a few years in my early twenties and I still get homesick for the island throughout the year. I just happened to enter into my island homesickness phase, so that worked out perfectly.

The main character returns to her home island as she flees the big capitol city when rebels try to burn it down. She’s a librarian and she stole a bunch of spellbooks in an attempt to save them from being destroyed. Now, she’s hiding out until the heat is over, hoping the empire is overthrown in the process so magic can be returned to the people instead of hidden from them. She’s described as having blue skin and blue hair, but its only referenced a handful of times so I found myself forgetting about it altogether and seeing her in my mind as human. She does having a magic talking spider plant as her friend sidekick, which I actually love! I have a spider plant in my office while I’m reading, so I kept finding myself looking over at it to drawn inspiration for the one in the story.

This book is full of friendships and a little romance and a lot of mystery and action towards the end. But if you are not into jam making and gardening, I’m not sure if this book is for you because the main character spends a lot of time doing this to make a living in her run down old cottage in the woods. (So, she’s basically living the life of my dream! lol)

The only turn off from this book is that there were some political viewpoints shoved in there that didn’t need to be. I feel it detracted from the story and felt like a forced agenda, which I’m getting super sick of in my entertainment. I read and watch movies to escape from this world and its problems, not to have my characters deal with it too. At least that’s how I feel about my fantasy books.

I teetered between giving it three and four stars because there were parts that were boring and it didn’t keep me as interested as I would have liked. I didn’t feel that burning desire to pick up that book and see what happened next. And also the forced agendas kind of ruined things for me and soured me on it. Other than that, it was what it said it was, a cozy cottagecore fantasy. If that’s your jam, no pun intended, then you’ll love it!

Next up I’m going to be starting “The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel”. This was another social media find (from the same post as the last book I believe). I love historicals and when its an extension of another classic, what’s not to love?

What I’m Working On

I know for the past few months you’ve heard of nothing but me talking about how I’m working on my first Historical Fiction centered on horses called “When Dealing with Horses”. I was in the middle, quite literally, of running through an edit before the final edit, when I was struck by the falltime bug. I’m a mood reader, but apparently I’m also a mood writer. I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to write another Zooey Zombie book and the story just came flowing out of me. Since these are super short reads, about 100-200 pages total, I figured I could take a break from the Historical Fiction to crank out another zombie dystopian. I’m very close to finishing writing, and then I will go through a few rounds of editing before I publish. You can expect to see it on Amazon and Kindle and Audible at the end of this October!

Zooey is dragged into the underground world of the Undead as her friend, Ren tries to create a drug to turn all the former zombies back into their zombie state…but with brains! He envisions a world full of conscious zombies to overthrow the human race, but this is not the world Zooey wants to live in. When two college boys turn up dead with their brain matter missing, the humans can’t help pointing their fingers at the Undead, hindering the ongoing trials for Undead rights. Zooey and her friends work together to solve this mystery and stop Ren before he destroys the world as we know it.

Links to Free and On Sale eBooks!

Now for the real reason you’re here! Below are links to tons of free and on sale eBooks by dozens, maybe even hundreds, of talented indie authors. Most of the links describe the genre inside. And most of these links expire at the end of the month, so get to downloading! You’ll even find a few of mine in there if you’re interested. I hope you have a wonderful end of September. It’s almost time to break out those Halloween decorations! I’m too excited!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/nospicesupernaturals/gf78g8ye6q

https://books.bookfunnel.com/gomery-kimber-action-adventure-thrills/hfq70codi6

https://books.bookfunnel.com/intotheshadows/k40zx23l6h

https://books.bookfunnel.com/freecreepyreads/n6vs59tg4q

https://books.bookfunnel.com/pnr-fiction-gw5/ma9duakx67

https://books.bookfunnel.com/Aug-2024-Urban-Fantasy-Book-Giveaway/yu61ll0pxq

https://books.bookfunnel.com/gettingwicked/eej53ov3oa

https://books.bookfunnel.com/kv-ku-audio-allfiction/82o2pb2nue

https://books.bookfunnel.com/DYSTOPIAN1/asc5o6w8cr

https://books.bookfunnel.com/impossiblechoices/obj6ad94z0

https://books.bookfunnel.com/sci-fi-fantasy-free-sep/z9hru8f4fq

https://books.bookfunnel.com/CHRISTIANREADS1/1bquf2ci7g