Happy Sunday, mis internet amigxs,

I wanted to kickstart you summer reading with ALL the Latine books on my radar releasing in June, but before that, some book club announcements!

We will be chatting with Natalia Hernandez TOMORROW NIGHT on Zoom! Questions for Natalia are open until 8 PM EST on Discord.

Book club announcements coming up on social media this week, but here is a list of our book club books for the next few months:

• June fiction: And I'll Take Your Eyes Out by A.M. Sosa

• June nonfiction: continue reading Accordion Eulogies by Noe Alvarez

• July Summer School reads:

  • 1 month to read P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance by Vanessa Diaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau

  • July - August read: Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer

• August fiction: The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• August nonfiction: continue reading Cuba: An American History

• October: You Should Have Been Nicer To My Mom by Vincent Tirado

September book club pick poll will be up by the 2nd week of June.

CHISME

You'll be receiving an email this week telling you about an initiative I'm starting in July for Lectores and Libritos members. I'm so excited to finally spill the tea on this!

And finally, for ALL THE JUNE LATE BOOKS ON MY RADAR....be prepared to scroll!

June 2nd

Horror

Muneca by Cynthia Gomez (Audiobook) Adult Horror vivid, surreal gothic about a queer latine working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process

YA Fantasy

Their Will Undone by RJ Valideperas (Audiobook) coming of RAGE about an imprisoned girl rescued from certain death by a duty bound soldier, who's forced to choose between becoming a bride or a weapon (forced proximity, political intrigue, dark magic AND dommed love)

Middle Grade

Stream by Aida Salazaar (Audiobook) Dual POV novel in verse about 2 teens sent to Mexico to unplug

Young Adult Contemporary

Monarchs In The Wild by Israel Moya (Audiobook) Young Adult : A teen searches for a way out of his small California town after witnessing a classmate's death

Fantasy

Beneath The Sacred Well by Rocio Carranza: Historical fantasy novella--the Mummy meets Zorro in 1920's Yucatan

Mystery

The Adventure of Juan Planchard by Jonathan Jakubowicz (Audiobook) Wolf of Wall Street meets Scarface

Short Stories

Amarisa's Cooking Pot: Tales of Life in All Its Wonders by Désirée Zamorano: Short Stories from the author of The Amado Women

June 9th

Cathedrals by Claudia Pinero and translated by Frances Riddle

Historical fiction

Cages by Chantel Acevedo: Adult fiction debut from Cuban-Amerian author, Acevedo, follows 1960's zookeeper in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an exile in 1960's swinging London and a dying man in 1980's AIDS Era Miami.

It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo (Audiobook) Peter Pan x Stephen King's It -- twisted horror retelling of a childhood fairytale set during WWI

Cat Love by Tomas Q. Morin (Audiobook) Notes from an Underground meet Kafka's "The Burrow"

Paperback Release - Queer nonfiction

So Many Stars by Caro DeRobertis (Audiobook)

June 16th

YA Fantasy

The Hero Twins in the Realm of Fright By David Bowles, Charlene Bowles: Fantasy (Tales of the Feathered Serpent #3)

Middle Grade Fiction

Tangled Roots & Wild Dreams by Angela Velez (Audiobook) Love letter to overthinking crafting girlies

YA Novel In Verse

Together We See by Ari Tison (Audiobook) Indigenous murder-mystery set in Costa Rica told in prose and focused on missing and murdered Indigenous peoples

Translated Literary Fiction

Medea Sang Me A Corrido by Dahlia De La Cerda and translated by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches: A punk revival of Medea as a meddling anti-angel of birth and death

June 23rd

History

Cuba: A Brief History by Sergio Guerra-Vilaboy and Oscar Loyola-Vega (Audiobook)

Translated Fiction

Animal Spiral by Luis Othoniel Rosa and translated by Katie Marya: Puerto Rican translated fiction about the post-colonial birth, life, and death of the collective consciousness known as the Animal.

It's All River by Carla Madeira and translated by Alison Entrekin (Audiobook) Brazillian translated allegory about violence and forgiveness

June 30th

Translated Horror

The Summer of the Serpent by Cecilia Eudave and translated by Robin Myers (Audiobook) A kaleidescopic descent into the small violences and hidden horrors of a sweltering Guadalajaran summer

Romantasy

Cursed Ever After by Andy C. Naranjo (Audiobook) Subversive romantasy fairytale

Anthology (featuring Latine contributors)

These Kindred Hearts: A YA Romantasy Anthology edited by Shari B. Pennants (Audiobook) features Zoraida Cordova, Vanessa Montalban and Angela Montoya!

xo,

Carmen

Friends! Enemies! Everyone in between!

I hope you're all doing as best as you can be and taking care of yourselves. It's time to vote for the July book club!

Sunny’s Book Club is a monthly book club highlighting both new releases and backlist titles we love. A virtual discussion is hosted over Zoom on the last Sunday of the month.

A new physical book will be shipped to you (or available for in store pickup) the month prior to when this month’s book club will take place. The July pick will ship the last week of June to ensure you have the entire month to read the book.

The link for sign up is not a subscription service, you opt in on a monthly basis dependent on your interest in that months chosen title. We do however have a recurring book club subscription if you are interested here.

A gripping, propulsive novel about succession, sex, and revenge on a California marijuana farm

“Deliciously written and compulsively readable . . . As the ex-lovers of a missing weed farmer grapple for control of her land and harvest, they contend with the force of her presence and the complexities of their own pasts.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties

Sapphire and her farm, Sourland, are fixtures of Northern California’s rugged wilderness, offering refuge to rejects, rebels, and outcasts—anyone willing to work and learn. But the haven Sapphire has built is fractured when she suddenly goes missing, her scorched truck abandoned on a mountain road.

Frankie, a disgraced ballerina and Sapphire’s former girlfriend and right-hand woman, returns to Sourland, claiming ownership of the farm. When she arrives, Frankie finds that Fizz—Sapphire’s most recent lover, an ex–baseball player with a preternatural green thumb—has already begun prepping Sourland for its biggest harvest yet.

As the two grapple for power, the farm’s fate hangs in the balance, and with it, the future Fizz and Frankie each covet for themselves. Past demons and scorned admirers remain hauntingly close, while the specter of Sapphire looms over the farm: in cryptic notes, in bud-tender gossip, in every blade of grass and whorl of smoke.

A brilliantly constructed novel of desire and betrayal, Sourland sparkles with the beauty and grime of the California woods. Dixon’s novel warns that our true nature catches up to us all—no matter how far we run.

“An extraordinary book. It’s a page-turner, full of mystery, but that’s the least of it. The language is dusted with magic. The Children reminded me of Ray Bradbury at his best.” —Stephen King

The haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.

In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of their mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where their magical adventures have made them household names. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and Ennis are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the wild woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.

Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled, simply, Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s fantasy world?

The Children is wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, and the way our most beloved stories grow up with us. It's for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found its pages cast in a darker light, the line separating magic from reality blurring as we discover the books that once comforted us carry shadows of their own.

The acclaimed, prize-winning #1 New York Times bestselling writer returns with a moving, luminous novel that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time.

When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.

Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.

A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.

It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic.

Armed with a plan to break the spell and earn a handsome reward, Nati works her way into the house as Violeta’s caretaker, and immediately discovers her suspicions are true. But who cursed Violeta? And why?

As feelings between the two women bloom into romance, Nati grows more and more reckless, and is forced to face her own ghosts— ones she hoped would stay gone forever. 

Riveting and richly layered, Muñeca explores how far one will go to save the person they love—even if that means damning themselves. Cynthia Gómez fills her debut novel with moments that chill your bones and warm your heart, a razor-sharp examination of deep-rooted issues that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.

Four very compelling choices! Happy voting and remember we are reading Canon by Paige Lewis in June, today is your last day to sign up.

Love what we do? Become a paid subscriber for less than a cup of coffee a month. Your ongoing support helps us plan ahead, fund causes we care about, and create meaningful programming for our community.

Every Sunday, I post a walking reading recap over on Instagram where I take my blue heeler Link out for a walk and completely yap about all the books I’ve read that week. 🐾📚

Those videos are usually very chaotic, very unfiltered, and very much me trying to summarize five books before Link decides a squirrel is an immediate emergency.

But because those recaps are more high-level first impressions, I wanted this space to be where I share the slightly longer thoughts. The books that surprised me, frustrated me, taught me something new, made me cry, or completely consumed my brain for a few days.

And this week's reading lineup somehow included:

📱 former child influencers and internet obsession

💀 a saint's skull, folk horror, and the Thirty Years' War

🤖 a lonely AI war machine and the best cyborg dog ever written

🩺 a real-life eighteenth-century midwife solving mysteries

🏖️ complicated sisters, grief, and a beach house full of memories

Let's dive right in.

Tell Your Friends

This was one of those books where I loved the premise more than the execution.

The idea of growing up as content is fascinating to me.

Crystal has spent her entire life being filmed for her family's wildly successful vlog channel. Every milestone, every struggle, every tragedy has become entertainment for an audience. Meanwhile Alyssa has spent years watching from the outside, seeing the Shaws as something almost aspirational.

What interested me most wasn't the thriller aspect.

It was the question underneath it all: Who are you when your identity has been built for an audience?

As someone who works in content, I found that aspect genuinely compelling. The relationship between authenticity and performance online is something we're all navigating to some degree, and this book had the opportunity to explore some really interesting territory there.

Unfortunately, the mystery itself never quite reached the same level. I kept waiting for a twist that would genuinely surprise me or a revelation that would completely reframe the story, but it never arrived.

I also listened to this on audio, and despite having a single narrator, it was often really difficult to tell when the POV had switched between characters. That ended up being surprisingly confusing and pulled me out of the story more than once.

If you're looking for a fast audiobook with influencer culture, parasocial relationships, and internet fame at its center, you'll probably have a good time. Just go in expecting a character-driven psychological thriller rather than a jaw-dropping twist machine.

Bone of My Bone

This one is frustrating because parts of it worked incredibly well for me.

Specifically: the setting.

How have I gone my entire life without learning more about the Thirty Years' War?

An estimated eight million people died. Entire regions were devastated. Communities collapsed. And yet it feels like one of those historical events that rarely gets discussed outside academic circles.

That backdrop ended up being the most compelling part of the novel for me.

The landscape feels haunted long before the horror elements arrive. Everywhere the characters travel, they encounter evidence of what war does to ordinary people. Starvation. Loss. Fear. Desperation.

The horror isn't simply supernatural; it's historical. That's what stayed with me.

Ironically, the thing I was least interested in was the romance. I found myself far more invested in the folk horror atmosphere, the religious imagery, the relic at the center of the story, and honestly... the villain.

Johanna van Veen creates some genuinely unsettling imagery, and there were moments where I felt completely pulled into the dark fairy tale quality of the narrative.

I just wish the story had leaned even harder into the horror and historical elements because that's where it felt strongest.

Ode to the Half-Broken

This is the book that completely turned my reading week around.

I knew within the first few chapters that it was going to be special.

Not because of the plot, but because of the way it thinks.

Some books tell a story; some books feel like they're having a conversation with you. This felt like the latter.

At its core, this is a novel about loneliness. About grief. About the ways we isolate ourselves after we've been hurt. The science fiction framework is fantastic, but the emotional questions underneath are what made this work for me.

Be is an AI war machine carrying an enormous amount of emotional baggage, and watching him slowly reconnect with the world around him became one of my favorite character journeys of the year.

The found family elements are wonderful, but what I keep thinking about is the recurring theme of hope. The kind that sneaks up on you. The kind that reminds you healing isn't usually one dramatic moment. It's often a collection of small choices to keep showing up.

If your ideal reading experience is sitting on a porch with coffee while highlighting half the book and occasionally staring into space to process your feelings, this is the one.

The Frozen River

I love books that make me curious, and The Frozen River made me curious constantly.

Inspired by the real diary entries of Martha Ballard, an eighteenth-century midwife, this novel offers a fascinating window into a world that often gets overlooked in traditional historical narratives.

What stood out to me most was how much authority Martha possesses despite living within a system that consistently limits women.

She understands medicine, childbirth, and most importantly, her community, and because she moves through so many different households, she becomes a witness to both private and public lives in a way few people can.

The result is a story that feels incredibly immersive. I learned so much about women's rights, reproductive health, legal systems, and everyday survival without ever feeling like I was reading a history lesson.

This is exactly the kind of historical fiction I love: deeply researched, emotionally engaging, and rooted in the lives of people who actually existed.

Down with the Shipmans

There are certain books that feel like summer. Not because they're light, but because they understand nostalgia.

Down with the Shipmans is one of those books.

Three sisters. One beach house. A lifetime of memories packed into every room.

The plot itself is relatively straightforward. After their mother's death, the sisters return home only to learn that their father plans to sell the family beach house.

But the real story isn't about the house. It's about everything the house represents: family history, identity, childhood, and the versions of ourselves that only seem to exist when we're back home.

What I appreciated most was how complicated the relationships felt. Nobody is entirely right. Nobody is entirely wrong. They're simply carrying years of shared history and trying to figure out how to move forward.

The New Hampshire coastal setting adds so much warmth to the story, but beneath that warmth is a very honest exploration of grief and change. Because eventually every family has to answer the same question: How do you hold onto what matters while still letting life move forward?

The Common Thread

The more I thought about these books during my walks this week, the more I realized they were all wrestling with the same idea. Who are we when the things that define us begin to change? A family vlog. A religious calling. A war machine's purpose. A midwife's role in her community. A family home.

Every one of these stories asks its characters to reconsider who they are when the foundations they've relied on start shifting beneath them.

Morning all,

I won't be sharing a weekly reading update this week due to a family emergency. I'll share more in my monthly newsletter tomorrow. Sign up for that here if you are interested: https://shesbecomingbookish.com/subscribe/

Pro Tip: It's a double opt-in process, so be sure to look for the confirmation email to complete the sign-up process.

Thanks for being here and happy reading!

xoxo

c

HI BABES it's that time again, but on the new schedule! Dropping a poll for the video meeting for May's Queer Sports Romance Book Club pick, Smash or Pass. Don't forget there's also a discord channel, so I'll be dropping some thoughts, questions, and word vom there if anyone prefers that form of discussion- feel free to engage! This book kind of blew me away, so...

Also, always feel free to comment with alt times for the days listed!

Sickos! The June votes have finished and we are ready to rock on our June picks for the Fiction & History Sickos Book Clubs.

After two rounds of voting and twelve books to choose from, the Fiction Sickos will be reading:

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

This is an ambitious and unique standalone, adult fantasy story that ranks among my all-time favorites regardless of genre. This is very much an all-or-nothing type book, but I've found that the people who are able to find their footing early on typically consider it top tier stuff. The reason it can be difficult to get into at first comes down to the 2nd person POV and the storytelling device it uses to make it a story within a story. It's f'n brilliant but it does take getting used to. My advice: don't do this as audio only, at least at first. The best way is to immersion read it (physical + audio) or go straight eyeball reading.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

This will be a re-read for me but I haven't read it in a few years so I'm pretty jazzed up to give it another go and discuss it with y'all!

The History Sickos will be reading:

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts

This barely edged out Carthage Must Be Destroyed (which I'll probably be re-reading later in the month anyway), and was a suggestion from our comrade Whimsical Judge Theo. I know nothing about it other than the subtitle so here's what's labeled on the tin:

An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years.

As always, the discussion forums for these are in our Discord and to unlock those channels you'll need to be at the Sicko plus tiers.

OTHER STUFF...

• I recently reviewed Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents on YouTube

• A Complement of Scoundrels' Kindle version is on sale for $3.99

• We believe we've found the perfect audiobook narrator for A Complement of Scoundrels, will update when I can there

• Hoping this is the week I can announce the second acquisition for our Kist Reads publishing imprint

• Monday Updates will be back tomorrow

• Expect some history content regarding my read of Empire of the Steppes soon

Hi Wanda! You've asked for a book recommendation — I am here to give you three!

Thank you for requesting. Please come back and let me know how you feel once you get the chance to read them. If anyone else would like a book recommendation, keep reading and I'll show you how!

The first two recommendations are in the thriller genre. This was instantly what my mind went to when wanting something easy to read but keeps your attention. Ironically, I've read all of these via audiobook and HIGHLY recommend you do the same as well. But no worries, these stories are so good that if you want to read physical or on ebook, it will still get the job done.

The last one, I'm sorry, but it's apart of a 7-book series which... isn't finished yet, but if you end up really liking the first one at least you can continue the journey. The 5th book will be releasing in November of this year!

Now if you are wanting a book rec from me, here's how:

With a day left in AANHPI Heritage Month, I wanted to share some more of my favorite AANHPI reads to continue the celebration all year long! 🫶🏼

• The Missing Magic of Sparrow Xia by Leia Ham - A captivating, witty, and magical middle-grade fantasy with stunning illustrations that explores family, friendship, and the weight of expectations. (Leia will join me for an Instagram live on June 12th to discuss and celebrate TMMoSX! We hope you join us. 🥳)

• The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro (translated by Yuka Maeno) - A hopeful, entertaining, and cozy novel of food, love, and the power of friendship inspired by the author’s own breakup story.

• Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei - An emotional, sea-swept SFF novel of sisterhood and salvation set in Earth’s future after an ecological disaster.

• Prodigal Tiger by Samantha Chong - A cinematic, sweeping YA contemporary fantasy with ghosts, Malaysian folklore, and friends-to-lovers romance.

• Shim Jung Takes the Dive by Julia Riew - A whimsical, heartfelt middle-grade fantasy with Korean folklore and captivating adventure set in an underwater kingdom.

• Midnight, at the War by Devi S. Laskar - An emotional, thought-provoking novel following a journalist set soon after 9/11.

• Dinner with an Astronaut by Leroy Chiao with Victoria Bruce - An entertaining and informative memoir of Leroy Chiao, one of the first Asian American astronauts, filled with witty anecdotes and thoughtful insight into space exploration.

• Morbid Curiosities by S. Hati - An addictive, creative, and emotional YA thriller set in San Francisco with a haunting STEM dark academia atmosphere.

Happy AANHPI Heritage Month!

The Ultimate This or That Bookish Showdown ☀️📚

Summer anticipation is at an all-time high, the days are beautifully long, and my reading habits are officially shifting into vacation mode.

To celebrate the changing of the seasons and clear the air before June arrives, I thought it would be a blast to do a massive This or That bookish showdown!

Below, I’ve broken down 19 ultimate bookish dilemmas into four categories: Summer Vibes, Bookish Habits, Tropes, and Mid-Year Reflections. I’ve shared my own takes, but I want to hear yours! Copy and paste the blank list from the comments section below and let me know where you stand.

Let the debates begin!

☀️ Section 1: Summer Reading Vibes

There is nothing quite like summer reading, but we all have a very specific vision of our perfect sunny reading day.

• Reading by the Pool OR Reading at the Beach?

  • My Take: The pool! I love the beach, but getting sand stuck between the pages of a paperback is my villain origin story.

• Audiobook on a road trip OR Paperback in a hammock?

  • My Take: Paperback in a hammock. Throw in a light breeze and I am in absolute heaven.

• Light Rom-Com OR Gritty Thriller?

  • My Take: The ultimate summer genre showdown! I have to go with a gritty thriller. There is something so fun about reading a spine-chilling mystery while sitting in the bright sunshine.

• Ice Cold Coffee OR Fruit Smoothie while reading?

  • My Take: Ice cold coffee, always and forever.

• Reading in the Bright Sunshine OR Reading during a Summer Thunderstorm?

  • My Take: A summer thunderstorm. Cozying up on the porch while it pours outside is unmatched.

• Bookmark OR Dog-eared pages?

  • My Take: Bookmark! Please don't hurt your books, guys! I know this one is guaranteed to start a debate in the comments!

📚 Section 2: Bookish Habits & Formats

Let’s talk about how we actually consume our stories and manage our never-ending shelves.

• Thick, 500+ Page Epic OR Short, 250 Page Novella?

  • My Take: Give me the short novella for summer. I want quick wins and fast-paced stories right now.

• Buy the Beautiful Hardback OR Wait for the Cheaper Paperback?

  • My Take: I usually wait for the cheaper paperback because they are lighter to carry around in a summer tote bag!

• Read One Book at a Time OR Be a Multi-Book Juggler?

  • My Take: Multi-book juggler. I usually have one audiobook, one e-book, and one physical book going at all times.

• Finishing a Series All at Once OR Spacing the Books Out over months?

  • My Take: Spacing them out. I like to let the world marinate a bit before jumping back in.

• Sticking Strictly to a Monthly TBR OR Mood Reading whatever you want?

  • My Take: Pure mood reading. Life is too short to force yourself to read a book you aren't in the mood for.

🏖️ Section 3: Plot & Character Tropes

Summer is prime time for predictable, comforting, and utterly addictive story tropes.

• Fake Dating OR Enemies to Lovers?

  • My Take: Enemies to Lovers is superior. The tension! The angst!

• Small Town Setting OR Big City Adventure?

  • My Take: Small town setting. Give me a quirky beach town with a local bakery and nosey neighbors.

• Only One Bed OR Forced Proximity?

  • My Take: Only One Bed. It’s a classic for a reason.

• Dual POV (Point of View) OR First-Person Narrator?

  • My Take: Dual POV. I love knowing what both characters are thinking, especially in a romance.

• The Grumpy One/Sunshine One Dynamic OR Childhood Best Friends to Lovers?

  • My Take: Grumpy/Sunshine all day long.

🗓️ Section 4: Mid-Year Reflection

We are almost halfway through the year, which means it's time to take an honest look at our shelves.

• Buying New Books OR Tackling the Backlog on your shelf?

  • My Take: I should say tackling the backlog, but let's be real I'm buying new summer releases.

• Rereading an Old Favorite OR Taking a Chance on a New Author?

  • My Take: Taking a chance on a new author.

• DNFing (Did Not Finish) a boring book immediately OR Forcing yourself to finish it?

  • My Take: I will set it aside and try again later and a lot of the time this works for me but if not I'll DNF! My summer reading time is precious!

Now It's Your Turn!

I’ve left a blank version of these prompts below. Copy it, paste all of the sections, or the ones you would like to answer into your reply, and show me your answers! Where do we agree, and where do we totally clash? Let's chat!

☀️ Section 1: Summer Reading Vibes

• Reading by the Pool OR Reading at the Beach?

• Audiobook on a road trip OR Paperback in a hammock?

• Light Rom-Com OR Gritty Thriller?

• Ice Cold Coffee OR Fruit Smoothie while reading?

• Reading in the Bright Sunshine OR Reading during a Summer Thunderstorm?

• Bookmark OR Dog-eared pages?

📚 Section 2: Bookish Habits & Formats

• Thick, 500+ Page Epic OR Short, <250 Page Novella?

• Buy the Beautiful Hardback OR Wait for the Cheaper Paperback?

• Read One Book at a Time OR Be a Multi-Book Juggler?

• Finishing a Series All at Once OR Spacing the Books Out over months?

• Sticking Strictly to a Monthly TBR OR Mood Reading whatever you want?

🏖️ Section 3: Plot & Character Tropes

• Fake Dating OR Enemies to Lovers?

• Small Town Setting OR Big City Adventure?

• Only One Bed OR Forced Proximity?

• Dual POV (Point of View) OR First-Person Narrator?

• The Grumpy One/Sunshine One Dynamic OR Childhood Best Friends to Lovers?

🗓️ Section 4: Mid-Year Reflection

• Buying New Books OR Tackling the Backlog on your shelf?

• Rereading an Old Favorite OR Taking a Chance on a New Author?

• DNFing (Did Not Finish) a boring book immediately OR Forcing yourself to finish it?

Hey y'all,

This is a friendly reminder that we'll be discussing One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad today at 1 PM EST on Discord. Can't wait to chat with y'all about it!

XoXo,

Rae

The press release for Twisted Tales to Tell in the Night: Another Halloween Horror Anthology has been sent out! I am finishing up editing the submissions for Twisted Tales to Tell in the Night: A Yuletide Horror Anthology, and at the end of June, I'll have the stories from the invited authors to read and edit. It's releasing THIS November AND I am starting to contact potential authors for the next anthology.

In addition to working on these anthologies and beginning book 2 of the Woods Bay series my super secret project is a children's chapter book! I'll share more soon!

BOOKS

I'll Watch Your Baby by Neena Viel
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker (relisten)
The Last Time We Drowned by Saratoga Schaefer
Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry

Currently reading: The Secret Lives of Zombie Wives by Barbara Truelove (I wasn't able to read print this week but I'm so grateful for audiobooks, Moss'd in Space by Rebecca Thorne.

SHOWS
NEW
24 in 24
Next Level Chef
Widows Bay
Euphoria

FILMS - I'm on LetterBoxd - horrormaven13
Over Your Dead Body
Contact
The Mummy

Rewatches that I'm enjoying as I pretend to live in the late 90s/early 00s.

TV
Daria
Twin Peaks
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The X-Files
Law and Order: SVU
The Hills

FILMS
Promising Young Woman
The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride

That's all for this week! I hope you get some time to read and watch and relax. Oh and I started a new Instagram for my personal nerdom. If you're interested my handle is: stephanieisspooky

xoxo

Spooky Girl

We made it to Friday! (Barely, over here. I've been hit with major exhaustion, so I'm resting up for Bay Area Book Festival on Sunday, where I'm moderating an Indigenous romance panel!)

I just got our preorder numbers in@ Do you want a drumroll? I'm not musically inclined.

We have climbed to 361.

I'm not going to lie you, this climb to 1,000 feels like climbing a mountain unprepared, wheezing, out of breath, cursing at the mountain!

I've heard a lot of people say (and especially early reviewers!) that they can't wait to grab a copy of What Feeds Below when it comes out. PLEASE DON'T WAIT. We want our first author to be a best seller, and pre orders are going to be what makes that happen.

If you don't want to miss a $3.99 sale, grab the ebook today! (available wherever ebooks are sold!) This is the cheapest this book is going to be. There are over 2,000 of you supporting this imprint, getting this newsletter. Only 18% of you have grabbed a copy of the book!

I told Tatiana last night that I wanted this imprint to be known for making a big bang! I want to shock and disrupt trad publishing with what we can do together as a community. We have 459 Netgalley reviews with a 5 STAR average rating. People are buzzing about this book. I want to make sure that Tatiana gets the first week she deserves: BEST SELLER. Can you help us make this happen?

If you have already preordered your copy, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

If you've already read and reviewed the book, please keep talking about it! Check out this COOL POST from one of our members <3 and dont forget to tag me

at fromthemixedupdesk

and Tatiana at thebuffwriter

Let us know down below if you've already place a preorder!!!!