Corpse in the Canal by Mary La..

Posted 07/04/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I like historical romance and I like mysteries, so Corpse in the Canal was a no-brainer for me to give a whirl. The 9th book in Mary Lancaster’s Silver and Grey series, I had not read any of the previous eight books – yet there was no need as I wasn’t confused at all about anything. If I needed to know it – it was mentioned. If I didn’t, well, it wasn’t. Characters There are a myriad of characters in this particular story, but the ones we deal with the most are Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Grey – aka Solomon Grey and his wife, Constance Silver (Grey). I loved both of these characters. They were fun, incorrigible, and interesting. I was particularly taken with Constance, as the hints about her not-so-proper past gave just the insight needed to understand her. I do wish we’d had a bit more background info […]

Tides of Passion by Lauren Eve..

Posted 07/01/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Now, if you’ve been here very long at all, you know, I’m not a big reader of romance novels. Yes, there are a few scattered here and there on the blog, but for the most part, I’m not particularly interested in them. Romance was more of my mom’s thing, but… we did both enjoy a good historical romance. I recently saw a video on YouTube that the historical romance sub-genre was dying, along with the various reasons why they felt it was happening – publishers not renewing contracts for authors who write historical romances, removing the old “clench covers” or “bodice ripper” covers and replacing them with illustrated/cartoonish covers, younger readers being “embarrassed” to be seen reading romance novels, and the “death of the mass market paperback”. The aforementioned reasons were both mentioned in the video and in the comments. Obviously, I set out to prove that historical romance wasn’t […]

June ’26 Wrap-Up

Posted 06/30/2026 by Charli in Wrap Up / 0 Comments

I finally got back into reading this month after almost a year of not reading. I didn’t review all the books on this list, but I did review several of them. Here’s what I read in June 2026: So there it is – all 13 books I read during the month of June 2026! Clown in a Cornfield, Together We Rot, We Did Nothing Wrong, 1 Peter, 52-Week Prayer Practice for Women, The Courage to Change, Sweet Nightmare, and The Joy of an Uncluttered Life were NetGalley reads. Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives and Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo were just to finish the released books in the series. ‘Salem’s Lot, Hell House, and The Exorcist were part of my Summerween/Scariest Books Ever Written list. What did you read this month?

Sweet Nightmare by Tracy Wolff

Posted 06/30/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

So I was approved for Sweet Nightmare back in 2024, but I didn’t get around to reading it until now. Part of this was because I’d tried out the Crave series and it just wasn’t for me. Unfortunately, I’d tried the Crave series after I’d been approved for Sweet Nightmare, so I decided not to bother reading it, figuring Tracy Wolff wasn’t the author for me. Well, I was wrong. As with many of the books I’ve had issues getting into on NetGalley that have already been released, I found that listening to the audiobook helped me immensely. I really liked the main narrator – Suzy Jackson, and I was impressed with Andrew B. Wehrlen as well, although we didn’t get to hear him nearly as much as we did Ms. Jackson. Both narrators did their jobs well and did not detract from the story at all. Characters The characters […]

The Courage to Change by Joyce..

Posted 06/29/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve said before that I am a fan of Joyce Meyer’s books and that I don’t feel that she preaches prosperity gospel – at least not as we generally know it. And The Courage to Change provides more proof of that fact. In The Courage to Change, Mrs. Meyer tackles the thing that the greater majority of the people I know hate, which is change. She gives sound biblical reasoning for how to handle the various types of change in your life from changes in jobs to changes in relationships. She quotes often from Scripture and gives both the references and the quotes. She doesn’t sugar-coat the fact that if we live outside of God’s will, our lives aren’t going to be great. We aren’t going to react well when changes come up. She talks about controlling our anger and worry, how to overcome our fear. And she talks about […]