Daphne, a children’s librarian, gets abruptly dumped by her fiance Peter after he decides he is actually in love with his best friend Petra. Having moved to the area to live with Peter, she has nowhere to go and ends up rooming with Petra’s ex-boyfriend Miles (also newly dumped). After receiving invitations to Peter and Petra’s wedding, Daphne and Miles pretend to be dating.
📃My Thoughts
I really loved this book! Henry’s writing is so authentic, and I loved how she showed us more than just the romance. We got to learn about both the main character’s backstories and how that affected their relationships in the present, and we got to see how they learned to open themselves up to friends and family as well as to love.
World Landmarks Map is a 300-piece puzzle from Ravensburger. I had bought it a couple of years ago for a puzzle challenge and recently did it again for another puzzle challenge!
The prompt for this challenge was something that reminds you of high school. I wasn’t sure if I had any puzzles with school related items but when I saw this one on my shelf, I had to do it. During my senior year of high school, I took a geography class as one of my electives. Even though the class was mostly full of freshmen and sophomores, I loved it. It was so satisfying to fill in the maps with all the different countries and other geographical items.
Part of the challenge includes an item to add to the photograph of the finished puzzle, and I chose to use my senior high school yearbook. I flipped through and couldn’t believe that my picture had been cut out of it; I have absolutely no memory of doing that and can’t imagine the reason why!
This was a nice, easy puzzle and would be good for kids or families. The quality of the brand is excellent, although they are known for having a lot of blue puzzle dust in their bags.
Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand – this is #3 in her Paradise trilogy. It’s not my favorite series but I do want to finish it.
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare – I was reading this at the beginning of last month too, and I haven’t made much progress. I am not super invested in it and it is a physical book, both of which make me less likely to pick it up and read.
What I Recently Finished
Fiction
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett – Emily Wilde #1
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Framed in Death by J.D. Robb – In Death #61
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett – Emily Wilde #2
Funny Story by Emily Henry
The Paris Cooking School by Sophie Beaumont
Nonfiction
Autism Out Loud: Life with a Child on the Spectrum, from Diagnosis to Young Adulthood by Kate Swenson, Adrian Wood, and Carrie Cariello
What I Added to my TBR
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Christmas Island by Natalie Normann – Verry Hygge Holiday #2
The Life She Could Have Lived by Laura Pearson
Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett – Emily Wilde #3
TBR Stats/Updates
I currently have 160 books on my TBR. Of those, 9 are nonfiction and 151 are fiction.
At the end of June, I created a focused reading list of 25 books I would like to read by the end of the year. So far, I have read 15 of those books.
I have read 96 books this year (my goal was 75).
My nonfiction goal is 1 per month, which I have met so far with a total of 10.
When I made my recent trip to Illinois, I knew I would miss being able to puzzle whenever I wanted, but I didn’t have room to take many puzzles with me. So, in addition to the one new puzzle I took with me – the PieceRelax one I posted earlier – I took these three mini puzzles.
Cozy Kitchen from Trevell, 99 pieces, artist Marion Reau
Llama Bama Ding Dong from MicroPuzzles, 150 pieces
Mushroom Patch from WerkShoppe, 100 pieces, artist Emma Jayne
Here are the puzzle details from left to right:
I have done all of these before, but they were the perfect size to pack and I knew they would at least let me scratch the puzzling itch while I was away from home.
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett – Emily Wilde #2
📚Summary
Following the publication of her encyclopaedia of faeries, Emily Wilde is embarking on a new project, a map of the faerie realms. She is also considering the proposal of marriage made by Wendell Bambleby, a fellow scholar who is actually an exiled faerie king. After assassins show up in Cambridge to attack Bambleby, he and Emily, along with her niece and a fellow academic, travel to the Austrian Alps to look for the door to his homeland. While in the Alps, they are drawn into another mystery regarding another dryadologist who disappeared years ago.
📃My Thoughts
I really enjoyed this book. While it was a continuation of a series, it had a lot of new adventures and new information about the faerie world. They didn’t seem to get as involved with the locals as in the first book, but there was a lot more interaction with the fairy folk. Emily continued to develop, especially in her relationships – both platonic and romantic – but she still presented as a realistic autistic-coded character, which I appreciated.
Whimsy Garden House is a 300-piece puzzle from PieceRelax, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. I love her artwork and was excited to come across this one when I was first checking out the PieceRelax website. PieceRelax puzzles are different because the pieces are plastic and the white borders are interchangeable pieces.
I took this puzzle with me on my recent trip to Illinois and did it in the hotel room one morning. Since it came with a poster, I just took that along with the bag of pieces so it wouldn’t take up much room in my suitcase. And since the pieces are hard plastic, I could just pack the puzzle flat without taking it apart for the trip home.
This was a nice, easy puzzle, although as you get more and more pieces in, it can take more pressure to make the pieces snap fully into place. As a bonus, it came with a free puzzle magnet. I have done one other puzzle from this brand, so this is my second puzzle magnet. I love that they include those with their puzzles.
Here is the magnet:
I would definitely do more by this brand or by the related brand Pintoo.
Manhattan is filled with galleries and deep-pocketed collectors who can make an artist’s career with a wave of a hand. But one man toils in obscurity, his brilliance unrecognized while lesser talents bask in the glory he believes should be his. Come tomorrow, he vows, the city will be buzzing about his work.
Indeed, before dawn, Lt. Eve Dallas is speeding toward the home of the two gallery owners whose doorway has been turned into a horrifying crime scene overnight. A lifeless young woman has been elaborately costumed and precisely posed to resemble the model of a long-ago Dutch master, and Dallas plunges into her investigation.
📃My Thoughts
I am a huge fan of this series and read them the second I can get my hands on them. While they do follow a somewhat predictable pattern, it’s a pattern that works. This one did have a little extra excitement thrown in during the last part of the book that was a nice surprise. Very fun read!
Vintage Travel Tickets is a 500-piece puzzle from Galison, and the artist is Troy Litten. I picked this up at a puzzle swap recently. I thought it might be kind of tricky, but it was surprisingly easy and very fun.
Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him.
But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history–performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.
📃My Thoughts
Simply put, I loved this book! I love the idea of someone living for so long and all the challenges it would bring. Having to move around so people don’t get suspicious, falling in love knowing your loved one will age much more quickly than you, not being able to share your life story with people.
Add to that a society of people like you with their own rules and motivations and you get a gripping story with exciting twists and turns. Highly recommend!
Michael and I after checking in for our first flight
I am not much of a traveler because I get so anxious about the logistics of the trip as well as having to find my way around an unfamiliar place and interact with so many strangers. I also have difficulty with a lot of physical activity because I am out of shape as well as dealing with arthritis in my right hip. But I hadn’t been to visit my parents since 2022, and my son Michael hadn’t seen them since 2019, so it was definitely time to make the trip.
After researching flight options and costs, I decided we would fly out on a Saturday and return on the following Wednesday. Since we would just be in the Quad-Cities where my parents live, we didn’t plan any sightseeing and decided to just focus on spending time with family.
Our first flight left at 6:45 am, which meant we had to get up at 3:45 am. Next time I will definitely book a later flight and also try to have a longer layover. Walking across O’Hare is exhausting!
The flights were uneventful, other than a half-hour delay leaving Chicago due to having to wait for our turn on the runway. I have a problem with my ears not popping and being quite painful when they do. I tried a product called Earplanes, which are earplugs that control how fast the pressure changes affect you. They helped a lot on takeoff. I still had some pain with the descent, but I did notice that afterwards I felt fine. Normally I have problems for a couple of days afterwards.Â
Since we arrived in Moline before noon, we took my mom to lunch at Red Lobster. That is a favorite for her and she also gets to take lots of leftovers home to enjoy later. We hung out at her place for a couple of hours and then headed over to check in to our hotel.
The hotel was basic but decent. They had a full breakfast which was just okay, but the room was very clean. Sunday morning I did a quick 300-piece puzzle while waiting to go meet my Dad & Carolyn for lunch. It was good to see them. We had a nice chat over lunch and then we took some pictures outside of the restaurant. After that, Michael and I just chilled the rest of the day.Â
On Monday we hung out with my mom and my youngest brother Jeff; then we all went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Tuesday morning I took my mom to her neurologist appointment, where we learned that she does not have Alzheimer’s. Her previous blood test had suggested she was borderline, but her MRI was negative and her new blood test was negative. Her current diagnosis is mild cognitive impairment due to chronic small vessel disease in her brain. So not great news, but better than it could have been.
We also visited most of her doctors to fill out paperwork so that Jeff and I can both speak to the doctors about her health. Mom wanted to get her hair cut and then chose Applebee’s for lunch. After that, we spent some time at her place and took some pictures.
Wednesday morning we checked out of the hotel and met my dad for breakfast. Unfortunately Carolyn wasn’t feeling well due to side effects of a new medication, so she didn’t join us. After breakfast, Michael and I had some time to kill before going to the airport, so we headed to the library and hung out for a while.
We arrived home Wednesday night around 10:30 pm and were greeted very loudly by our cat, who was quite put out that we had been away. The friend who had checked on him every day had said he was very talkative with her as well. It was so nice to be home and still have two more days of vacation, since we had both scheduled our time off through Friday.
I am so thankful that the trip went well and we didn’t have any trouble making our flights or getting around in the Quad-Cities. It was so good to see my parents and brother and have Michael get to spend some time with them as well. Given how well things went, I am open to planning another trip with Michael if we can agree on a place where we could find interesting things to do and see.
