Weekly Check-in #42

 What I've been Writing:

Defectors and Queens - This week, I gutted half of Chapter 3, reworked the end, then completely removed all of Chapter 9 and gave it a new one. I'm liking the changes I've made. So now we have 16 completed chapters and 63,000 words written. YAY! Progress.

What I've Been Reading:

Wow! I love snow days. It gives a girl like me loads of reading time. I was in my element, let me tell you. There was hot chocolate. There was a cozy blanket. There were books. Here's what I read since last Friday.

Stolen Songbird: So remember how I went off last week about how those stories where the captive falls for their captor mess up my head? Well, I opened this book about trolls that I was all curious about, and the girl gets freaking kidnapped immediately and forced under this mountain thing so she can marry the troll prince!  UGH. I swear, these books are after me now that I called them out. But this one ended up being fine. It was great, actually. I loved it. The guy didn't want to marry her either and was being forced into it as well, so it turned out to be more of a captive/captive kind of situation...kind of. Anyway, good book. I had to order the next two in the series so I can find out what happens next. 

To Cage a Wild Bird: The troll book was going to be my new favorite book of the year, but then I read this one, and yep. Now, this one's my favorite of 2026. If you read Silver Elite and enjoyed it, I think this one is your cup of tea, too. Similar vibes, similar greatness! I loved it as well.

Rings of Fate: Lots of cute, fun times. Not a cozy romantasy but I probably wouldn't classify it as dark either. It was like: if cozy and dark had a baby together, this is the cute, fun story that would emerge! And score one for skillet weapons! That part made my Tangled-movie-loving heart happy.

Enigma: Now we're talking darker fantasy. Enigma was very gothic. Very academic. Very unique. Lots of mention of doing frisky things in blood, though I don't think they ever actually do. It gave me dangerous, haunting vibes, though, and ended my week with good reads all around.  

What I've Been Buying:

I had a bunch of credit on my Amazon account, so I got four new paperbacks: Hidden Huntress and Warrior Witch (so I can finish up my Stolen Songbird series collection), and then The Ballad of Never After and A Curse for True Love (because I got book one for this series when I went on my Book Crawl in November and needed to get the rest of the series), and finally the new special edition release for Her Soul for Revenge came in! 

And that's been my shelfish week. I bid you a happy National Croissant Day!

Weekly Check-in #41

What I've Been Writing:

This week, I did a lot of reading over what I already wrote in Defectors and Queens, adding and deleting, smoothing out passages, so I haven't added a whole lot of new scenes. The manuscript is at 58,000 words now.

What I've Been Reading:

I finished reading Vengeance of the Pirate Queen and had to immediately hop into another Tricia Levenseller book.  

I was eager for What Fury Brings because I'm one of those people who can enjoy both YA and adult, or hop around from one steamy, spicy level to the next without batting an eyelash. As long as I'm loving the romance, I'm invested. (And I'm starting to learn this is not a common trait for all readers) So when I find an author who'll hop around like that too, I get excited. I really did love What Fury Brings. I couldn't put it down, and I got invested. Plus, the society with gender-reversed roles was shocking and eye-opening. But there's just something about those Stockholm syndrome stories that messes me up, man. I don't want to root for the couple when one of them has basically no freedom at all, and yet I start rooting for them, and it just...it makes me want to rant and get all judgey about things, which is not my normal default mode. It makes me feel wrong in my own body, and my brain isn't okay afterward. But still...engrossing, captivating story! Very thought-provoking.

It messed me up enough, however, that I kept being all ranty and judgey when I started reading a new book, and I could not for the life of me like the heroine. I mean, this self-serving, control-seeking, social-jumping murderer had no redeeming qualities at all, so I put that one aside and started a new story. We'll see if the next book shakes me out of my funky state.

What I've Been Stacking on My Shelves:

Got my two new Off-Campus books this week!! Hooray for The Score and The Mistake. Then, the final monthly subscription book I purchased from Bookish Box came in. Go, The Enchanted Greenhouse. And my obsession with Danielle Jensen continues, so I ordered the first book in her Malediction series called Stolen Songbird. It's about TROLLS, ya'all. That's a first for me. Kinda intrigued by it.

And that's been my week. Happy National Handwriting Day to you. See you next Friday. 

Weekly Check-in #40

Happy International Hot and Spicy Food Day!

What I've Been Writing:

In Defectors and Queens, I reached the scene I've been all anxious and excited to write and, yay, words flowed. My muse started to kick in, and when that happens, I usually jot down scenes on anything I have available around me, so I spent last evening filling up the notes app on my phone, which means, double yay, I've hit that happy writing high. Hopefully, it keeps up and, double hopefully, I have time to actually write down what's pouring out of my head. The story's at 55K right now. I'd say that's got to be a 1/3 of the way finished, if not more. 

(I Easter-Egg hid part of my favorite line I wrote this week in the picture below. Fingers crossed that the image appears for you!)

What I've Been Reading:

It was a good reading week for me, too. I finished up Lauren Roberts's Powerless series with Fearless. And I do believe I am, in fact, dead inside, because I did not bawl the way my kid did. But at least I was able to guess which scene got to her so deeply. Go me...ish! Then my magic TBR jar picked Daughter of the Pirate King for me to read next. And, wowsers, that's my favorite book of the year so far. So what if I've only read four... That's my favorite right now, okay? Then I breezed through Book Two in the series: Daughter of the Siren Queen, which I also loved. Now, I'm reading Book Three.

What I've Been Buying: 

I preordered way too many books this week. I'm going to get myself in trouble if I don't cut that out. But only one arrived, and that was Book of the Month Club's version of Rings of Fate. I was supposed to get some new Elle Kennedy books too, but they're running late, so I will no longer praise Amazon for their always speedy delivery. They're just okay now. But that's okay. I'll still use them. 

And that's been my exciting reading, writing, book-buying week.

Weekly Check-in #39

Oh goodness, I've been out of touch for a while. Let's see what I've done in the past three weeks.

What I've Been Writing: 

I've been writing on Defectors and Queens, and you know...I'm wondering if the titles Day Robber and Night Giver wouldn't be a better fit for this duology after all. But alas, I'll keep calling it Defectors and Queens for the time being. I'm almost to a good part that I've been planning in my head for a while, so I'm excited about that. A real shocker. Hopefully, I can capture it as well as it's been playing out in my brain. I've completed the first nine chapters (actually, it's ten chapters, but I only wrote a page or so on chapter nine because I'll come back to that later when I decide how PG13 or rated R I want this story to be, ergo we'll just say nine chapters right now) and I have 45,000 words written.

What I've Been Reading:

I finished out the year with starting the Powerless series because my fifteen-year-old said I just have to read it. I'm currently working my way through Book 3. Lyds says a scene in Fearless made her bawl more than she's ever cried before, but I don't think I've reached the part yet! I hope not, anyway, otherwise I'm just dead inside because I haven't even gotten very sad yet.

What I've been Buying: 

This week's book haul consists of five stories:

• The Walmart special edition of Powerless.
• The Fairyloot edition of To Cage a Wild Bird (Because Lydia's friend told me it was AMAZING!)
• Newest special edition of Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
• New release: Dragon Cursed by Elise Kova. And...
• A Vow in Vengeance, which came from my Allurial Subscription. (I had to get the story with tarot card references this month so it could be shelved with my other tarot card stories and the cool bookend of a guy in a top hat who's holding out a card.)

Other books I've gotten in the past three weeks are: A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (It has 3D-decorated, sprayed edges!), Apprentice to the Villain, Accomplice to the Villain (both Barnes and Noble exclusives), Broken Throne, The Everlasting, King's Cage, War Storm, Leather and Lark, and Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.