I love books! I read every day, all the time, as much as I can, and sometimes even more than I should. My favorite genres of books are fantasy, mystery, thriller, and slow burn romance...
WWW Wednesdays (26 July 2026)! What are you reading this week?
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It’s open for anyone to join in and is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
What I’m reading now:
This week I’m reading Midnight Streets by Phil Lecomber, an noir fiction novel about a working-class private detective in 1920s London's Soho, who has grown up alongside the morally dubious characters who are key to cracking the cases he investigates, and Love Overboard by Kandi Steiner an romance novel about romance between two exes surprised to find out they’re working on the same yacht for the season - and that their every interaction, innocent or not, is being filmed for a television show.
What I recently finished reading:
I’ve had another good week of reading in terms of how much I’ve read. From the eight books I have read, these are the four books I enjoy the most. Â
  Tamon's B-Side, Vol. 1 by Yuki Shiwasu
Rating: 2 out 5 Â Â
Assassination Classroom, Vol. 01 by Yusei Matsui
Rating: 4 out 5 Â Â
2 Sisters Detective Agency by James Patterson, and Candice Fox
Rating: 1 out 5 Â Â Â
 It Happened One Murder by Liz Lawson
Rating: 1 out 5 Â Â
Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren
Rating: 1 out 5 Â Â
The Secret Thread by Eve Chase
Rating: 2 out 5 Â Â
 Chances by Jackie Collins
Rating: 1 out 5 Â
 You and I Are Polar Opposites, Vol. 1 by Kōcha Agasawa
What I Might Read Next:
Powerless by Lauren Roberts and Lisbon by Valerie Sherwood.
I still haven't decided whether I'm going to read these books.
Bookwyrm is a reading tracker for the avid reader. Log your reading sessions and this template will track your reading progress: both time spent reading and pages turned. The dashboard shows you at-a-glance stats for your current book, and you can check out how consistently you’ve been reading via the reading sessions calendar. You can also rate and review your books and enjoy reading summaries such as books read or time spent reading per month.
Bookshelf is a simplified version that focuses just on books tracking without logging reading sessions.
For anyone interested in reading the original novel, we have it available to download in PDF form. This version has been translated from Bengali to English by Sreejata Guha.
Book Review – Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer
Title: Eighth Grade Bites
By: Heather Brewer
Series: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod (#1)
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Paranormal, Vampires, Young Adult
Ratings: 2 out 5
Publisher: March 13, 2008 by Speak
Summary: Vlad has to keep his vampire urges under control while dealing with the pressures of middle school. Thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod really hates junior high. Bullies harass him, the principal is dogging him, and the girl he likes prefers his best friend. Oh, and Vlad has a His mother was human, but his father was a vampire. With no idea of the extent of his powers, Vlad struggles daily with his blood cravings and his enlarged fangs. When a substitute teacher begins to question him a little too closely, Vlad worries that his cover is about to be blown. But then he faces a much bigger He’s being hunted by a vampire killer.
My thoughts: Honestly, I have a hard time writing this review. This book was both interesting and poorly written. In the beginning, it sounded like an interesting read with vampires, humor, and real-life drama. An eighth-grade middle school student who is half human and half vampire is going through changes in his life.
Instead, I found it to be dull and predictable, which was disappointing. It started well for me. But as the book went on, I liked the characters less and less. The characters didn’t develop enough, if at all. Vlad may have been young, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t figure anything out. Some parts of the book caused significant frustration during the reading.
A lack of depth was clear in all the characters. None at all. It made me hate reading about them, so when something happened to them, I didn’t care. As a result, the book was anticlimactic.
There are too many plot inconsistencies and holes to even bring up. This book feels like something an eighth grader would write and then decide to publish without checking with a professional editor.
I have no other words to say. Honestly, I just shrugged my shoulders and said it was okay, then forgot about it the next day. Yet even with its flaws, the premise had potential. If the author had trusted Vlad’s inner conflict and developed the world, the story could have become memorable. With tighter plotting and honest character arcs, it might redeem the setup.
You can tell the difference in Lestat’s intent based on who was telling the story.
In Claudia’s version of events, Lestat was being cruel by making her watch Charlie burn. Grabbing her with his hands and forcing her to gaze as his face melted. His face is serious as he tortures her with this lesson.
In Lestat’s memories, he was holding Claudia’s hand the entire time as she watched Charlie burn in front of her. His face is melancholic and tearful as he likely recalls Nicki being burned by Armand. He was enduring the pain with her in real time.
Claudia never knew any of this because she never looked back to see his face.
Hosted by: The Captive Reader and Silly Little Mischief
Description: Library Loot is a weekly event that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries
Here is my first Library Loot book meme entry. Due to my lack of reading enthusiasm, I decide to try reading manga as a way to stay motivated.
The list is divided into two parts.
ReRead
I decided to reread some manga that I haven't read for several years. I'm curious to know what my opinion of this manga is now that I'm an adult.
One Piece Omnibus, Vol. 1 Eiichiro Oda
Shaman King, Vol. 1: A Shaman in Tokyo Hiroyuki Takei
Rave Master, Vol. 01 by Hiro Mashima
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1 Hiromu Arakawa
Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 1 by Bisco Hatori
Fairy Tail, Vol. 01 by Hiro Mashima
Case Closed, Vol. 1 by Gosho Aoyama
For a long time, these manga has been on my TBR list. This choice finally felt like a gateway to reading again. I’m curious whether the visuals will spark the same curiosity as the prose, and if the pacing will keep me turning pages.
One Piece: Ace's Story, Vol. 1 by ShĹŤ Hinata , Eiichiro Oda (Idea) , Eichiiro Oda (Creator)
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Book Review – Stakeouts and Strollers by Rob Phillips
Title: Stakeouts and Strollers
By: Rob Phillips
Genre: Mystery, Cozy Mystery
Ratings: 3 out 5
Publisher: March 17, 2026 by Minotaur Books
Summary: Charlie Shaw is low on sleep. And cash. Otherwise, life is going pretty well for the ex-crime reporter: He’s happily married to his college sweetheart, he’s a first-time dad to the most adorable baby girl in existence, and he’s making ends meet as a rookie PI. But when Charlie meets Friday Finley, a frightened sixteen-year-old runaway on a stakeout-gone-wrong, his world gets a little more complicated.
Friday is looking for her estranged father Shawn, an unreliable alcoholic who left when she was young—and who also happens to be her only shot at avoiding the foster care system since her mother’s death a few weeks earlier. At first, Charlie believes the man is simply hiding out somewhere, avoiding his responsibilities as usual, but the more he investigates, the more unsettling—and dangerous—Shawn’s disappearance becomes. When his own family is threatened, Charlie realizes he’s in over his head, but can he back out now that he’s begun to care for Friday as his own?
A perfect blend of humor and high stakes, Stakeouts and Strollers is a heartwarming story of fatherhood, family, and what it really means to be a “Girl Dad.”
My thoughts: An easy read, I enjoyed this mystery. Snarky dialogue was used by the characters in the story. Grace, for example, was one of my favorite characters. Despite not being the main character, she was my favorite character. From the moment I started reading the book, I felt compelled to finish it and see where it went. It was a good book that kept moving forward.
As for what was not so great, some of the plot seemed stretched to me. A newborn father being away on dangerous stakeouts and missions for hours on end, leaving his wife with a fussy, non-sleeping baby did not seem realistic to me. Especially if it’s unpaid. While I understand he was doing this mission out of the goodness of his heart and to right some childhood wounds, it did not seem realistic to me.
Throughout the story, Charlie (the main character) was also inserted into implausibly dangerous situations and did things I think were dumb and risky. His likeability to me dropped as I could not relate to the decisions he made or the circumstances he found himself in. Both factors lowered my rating.
Overall, I thought it was a pleasant and easy read, provided you let go of your expectations of how the characters would (or should) behave. I enjoyed the ending, particularly how the author tied it back to his daughter, as well as how she is central to the book and to the author’s own world. In a sense, this brought the novel to a close. For those who want something light and fast-paced with a little humor, this is an ideal read.
Book Review – An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten
Title: An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed
By: Helene Tursten, Marlaine Delargy (Translator)
Series: Ă„ldre dam (#2)
Genre: Mystery, Dark Comedy
Ratings: 2 out 5
Publisher: October 5, 2021 by Soho Crime
Summary: Eighty-eight-year-old Maud is never looking for trouble, but it always seems to find her. First, a woman in her building met an untimely end: tragic. Then, just recently, a dead body mysteriously appeared in her very own apartment, prompting an investigation by the local Gothenburg authorities. Such a strange coincidence. When it seems suspicion has fallen on her, little old lady that she is, Maud decides to skip town and splurges on a trip to South Africa for herself.
In these six interlocking stories, memories of unfortunate incidents from Maud’s past keep bubbling to the surface, each triggered by something in the present: an image, a word, even a taste. When she lands in Johannesburg at last, eager to move on from the bloody ordeal last summer, she finds certain problems seem to be following her. Luckily, Maud is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands . . . even if it means she has to get a little blood on them in the process.
Don’t let her age fool you. Maud may be nearly ninety, but this elderly lady still has a few tricks before she’s ready to call it quits.
My thoughts: Just letting you know, I didn’t know An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed was a sequel book. It didn’t seem like it was a sequel based on the summary. At first, I thought the book was about an old lady who kept witnessing murders.
This book threw me for a loop.
The book starts with Maud, an 88-year-old. She’s heading to South Africa for vacation after some tough times at her apartment. Most people don’t know about her murderous past. She gives us a flashback to how she became a murderer.
I had issues with this book. It didn’t meet my expectations, but that wasn’t all I disliked. While the author wrote the story well, I was appalled by the cruel and entitled main character. Reading it became unappealing because of that.
CW: Murder, physical assault, ableism, bullying, sexual assault of minors.
There were some awkward transitions between Maud’s flashbacks and the present. Trying to implement irrelevant memory triggers would have smoothed out the process.
I detest Maud; she is entitled, cruel, and believes she is superior to everyone else. I guess she’s supposed to be a sociopath? My main issue is that she kills people for petty, unjust reasons. The story praises her cleverness in doing this. Gross. It is intriguing to see characters with amoral traits. However, Maud’s callousness isn’t explored. She seems shallow and annoyingly smug instead of a complex character.
During the story, Maud attempted to murder a coworker to get a promotion she hadn’t earned. How does that work? It’s justifiable because the victim is not fashionable (oh, god! “Poor” Maud “needs” a higher salary. She sells family heirlooms to pay for her lavish lifestyle, even though she has a fortune. Maud takes pride in her crimes and has a disgusting sense of entitlement.
She’s a hypocrite to boot! She values self-worth but dislikes entitled and selfish people. Their entitlement and selfishness really bother her.
The only positive thing I can say about this book is that it has a pretty good idea. Maud’s safari in South Africa caught my attention. I also enjoyed her interactions with others on the tour.
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