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Once upon a time, this blog had a regular Friday post. I though I might start that up again, sharing the book or books I am currently reading or listening to. Also, I would love for you to do the same by posting in the comments at the end.

This print is available from amirrorofinkandmadness on the Society 6 website.

I’ll kick this off with the three books I am currently reading. Clicking on the book covers will take you to Amazon. Use of these links supports this blog and is very much appreciated. I also recommended checking with your library (if you want to save some $$$).

I borrowed the print book of The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson from my library. I’m likely to take the full checkout period to finish this one since I rarely read print books. As a librarian, you can imagine that book censorship is a hot topic with me. The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks is not about the censorship we typically hear about in the news these days, but the perpetrator of the censorship (rich and/or powerful male) is just like we hear in the news. I’m about half way through and so far, so good. Looks like there is a bit of a romance in there too!

About The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend’s struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn’t easy. Bell River’s literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

And in Maggie’s world, book rules are made to be broken.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything. 

Maggie will have to decide what’s more important: the books that formed a small town’s history, or the stories poised to change it all.

On my Kindle, I have an advance copy of A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley. This contemporary paranormal romance releases on March 7. So far, it’s got humor, sticky situations and romance possibilities. I’d classify it as New Adult, so a bit youthful for my taste, but I just started it, so I have to give it a fair chance.

About A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon

Mariel Spark is prophesied to be the most powerful witch seen in centuries of the famed Spark family, but to the displeasure of her mother, she prefers baking to brewing potions and gardening to casting hexes. When a spell to summon flour goes very wrong, Mariel finds herself staring down a demon—one she inadvertently summoned for a soul bargain.

Ozroth the Ruthless is a legend among demons. Powerful and merciless, he drives hard bargains to collect mortal souls. But his reputation has suffered ever since a bargain went awry—if he can strike a bargain with Mariel, he will earn back his deadly reputation. Ozroth can’t leave Mariel’s side until they complete a bargain, which she refuses to do (turns out some humans are attached to their souls).

But the witch is funny. And curvy. And disgustingly yet endearingly cheerful. Becoming awkward roommates quickly escalates when Mariel, terrified to confess the inadvertent summoning to her mother, blurts out that she’s dating Ozroth. As Ozroth and Mariel struggle with their opposing goals and maintaining a fake relationship, real attraction blooms between them. But Ozroth has a limited amount of time to strike the deal, and if Mariel gives up her soul, she’ll lose all her emotions—including love—which will only spell disaster for them both.

My current audiobook is When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain. I downloaded this from my library after being on the wait list a bit. It is a bit slow at the beginning – a few chapters in and I’m not really hooked. Still good reviews and the fact that actual cases were used to craft the story have me continuing.

About When the Stars Go Dark

Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing.

The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna’s childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with saving the missing girl, she must accept that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.

Weaving together actual cases of missing persons, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate, necessary redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives—and our faith in one another.

Tell me! What are you reading?

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