Author: Angel Beldam

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been asked by many friends how I am and my response has been miserably happy.

Tennessee and I have had our wedded bliss tainted by a brutal virus. Very little on our post-wedding to-do list has been checked off…like the thank-you cards.

We are both so grateful to all who came to support us, those who helped make the day perfect, and those who generously gave us such wonderful gifts. We’ve barely had the energy to eat or bathe, let alone do dishes and laundry.

There were even days I didn’t have the energy to read… that’s when Tennessee knew I was really sick.

We are finally on the mend though so hopefully next week I’ll have something to actually write about.

Below are the books I’ve read since the last time I posted:

Book 32

“Symptoms of Being Human” by Jeff Garvin Narrated by Tom Phelan

This is a YA book I read for one of my online book clubs. It’s about a gender-fluid teenager who writes an anonymous blog about their feelings and experiences at the suggestion of their therapist. Their identity is discovered, and the rest of the book deals with the repercussions. It was an interesting book and I’m glad the queer kid doesn’t die.

Book 33

“That Inevitable Victorian Thing” by EK Johnston

This YA queer fantasy was fun to read. It’s an alternate universe story where the British Empire spread out through the world by changing the way the aristocracy and royalty married. Instead of the intermarrying of European royalty, they married into the royal families of the countries they wanted to ‘acquire’.

The mates were chosen through a computer program that determined compatible DNA matches. This program was deemed a tool of God by the English Church and the man in charge was the Bishop of Canterbury, who also happens to be the godfather of Queen Victoria’s daughter, the protagonist in the story. It’s a love story where the Princess finds her Prince and Prince(ss) Charming.

Books 34, 35, and 37

More Mrs. Pollifax mysteries by Dorothy Gilman and narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

  “Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle”

  “Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish”

  “Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief”

Book 36

“The Nurse’s Secret” by Amanda Skenandore

This is the book my local book club selected for May. It’s historical fiction based on a true story about the first nursing school in the US at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. It is told by the accomplished thief who scammed her way into the school which she used to hide from the police because she was accused of the murder of a man who turned out to be one of many victims of a serial killer.

I am married to the most amazing woman!

I couldn’t be happier. It was as near to a perfect day that you can get in this imperfect world. Any of the hitches just made it memorable.

Here are a few pics:

I don’t really have permission to use anyone’s images here on my blog so I’m only posting a few. However, my wife posted a bunch on her FB page so if you’re friends with her you can go see them.

My wife…I just love typing that and saying it. I’m so happy y’all!

I’ll be back next week with my books and other stuff. Be well, my friends!

Six more wakeups and I’ll be walking down the aisle. I am so excited!

There is still so much left to do but mostly it’s just a bunch of little stuff. The only ‘big’ thing left is picking up the marriage license which we will do on Thursday.

I’ve been spending most of my time preparing for the wedding and I almost forgot that we’ll have guests with us for the week after. One of the purposes of this visit (besides the wedding) is to show my mom how beautiful this place is so she will be more inclined to move out here with us when she’s ready to retire.

I’ve looked up a few of the things that I’ve wanted to see but haven’t yet had a chance. I can’t take the whole week off if I want to also take a week in June to go back to Colorado, so I’ve selected a couple of nearby drives and locations that I think will highlight the essence of this place.

I hope she loves it here as much as I do.

I may have found another way to integrate further into this community. I read in this week’s paper about an ESL teacher and the programs she’s been involved in here. I looked her up on FB and found we have some mutual friends, so I reached out to volunteer to do conversation practice if she needed help, letting her know I was a certified TEFL teacher.

It would be fun to tutor again. I enjoyed my time working at the immigrant center in Denver before the pandemic shut it down. Apparently, there has been an influx of migrants to the area; no doubt to the consternation of some of the locals. I wonder if they are from the fallout in Florida or maybe Texas.

Either way, I know that the area has gotten some new sources of authentic food and goodies. I need to reach out and see if my local ‘contact’ has any alfajores I can buy for Mom’s visit.

My second local book club meeting is this week and I’m a little nervous. The book we selected was “The Golden Doves” by Martha Hall Kelly. It was one I had recommended though I hadn’t read it yet.

My criteria for picking it were the author was from Tennessee, it had multiple free copies available on Libby and Kindle Unlimited, and it did not have LGBTQ content listed in any of the descriptive indicators or the book reviews. The fact that it is a spy thriller with Nazi hunters and was based on true events was cool too.

Like many events in history, there were queers in this story, which would normally delight me.  However, I deliberately tried to make sure that my first recommendation would not include anything that could be controversial.  I am determined to be my true self, but I don’t want to be accused of “shoving my lifestyle down their throats”.  

I can’t decide if I need to apologize or just let it ride and deal with it if someone complains. Okay, that’s not true…I have decided that I have to just let it go, though I may pull the librarian aside and let her know I didn’t know about the queer content when I recommended it.

To judge this book based on that small bit of queerness would be to do it a great disservice. It was well written, the characters were believable, and the intensity of the intrigue continued to build throughout the novel.

The author does not shy away from the atrocities of the war but the search for, and the unmasking of the criminal, Dr. Snow, was the main focus. I only guessed who it was just a few scenes before the author’s revelation.

This was book 30 of my quest to 100.

Books 29 and 31 were the next two Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gillman: “Mrs. Pollifax in the China Station” and “Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha”. Once again they were in audiobook form narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt and just as delightful as their predecessors.

There will not be a blog next week. I’ll be way too busy living in each moment…or at least trying to. It is my goal to savor every moment of this incredible time in our lives.

I’ll be back after Mom heads home. Take care, my friends.

First, congratulations to the South Carolina women’s team, and a shout-out to Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, and all the fiercely competitive and highly talented women who played their hearts out during March Madness. The games were so much fun to watch!

Second, it’s less than two weeks now and I’ll be a married woman…again.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the first go round and how grateful I am that I found Tennessee. We were discussing how we never got into fights with our first significant others and how we thought that was a good thing, but experience has taught us that it was not good.

I know it may sound weird to say but I am so grateful Tennessee fights with me…not in the middle of the fight–that’s no fun…but later when we’ve made up.

My ex-husband never fought with me, always let me have my way and I lost all respect for him and had loads of resentment because I ended up making all the decisions on my own.

With my first long-term girlfriend, I was the one who didn’t want to fight because I was so afraid of losing her and not being good enough. I wasn’t truly me and I didn’t advocate for myself and I got relegated to the bottom of her priorities list. Thank goodness she recognized that it wasn’t healthy and let me go or I’d probably still be there and unhappy and would not have met the love of my life.

This go round I am still fearful of losing Tennessee and of not being good enough, but she knows me so well that she knows when I’m doing it and pokes at me until we clear the air. With all the insanity happening in our lives right now I am actually surprised we don’t fight more but we are getting pretty good at communicating before we reach full fight mode.

And I happier than I’ve ever been.

Finally, I did not have much time for sitting and reading books this week, so I listened to the Mrs. Polifax audiobooks written by Dorothy Gilman listed below while I was doing other things.

Books 25 – 28

The Amazing Mrs. Polifax

The Elusive Mrs. Polifax

A Palm for Mrs. Polifax

Mrs. Polifax on Safari

Barbara Rosenblatt is one of my favorite narrators and these have been a complete delight to listen to…like listening to an old friend.

Be well my friends.

So much has happened since I last wrote, but the most important thing is the passing of this amazing creature, Bella.

This photo was taken during the big snow we had just before she left us. She loved her sticks and the neighborhood girl gang often stopped by to throw them for her. The mail lady and regular delivery dudes always had a treat for her.

I was a part of her life for such a short time but she stole my heart. She was so sweet and well-behaved, and she is sorely missed.

Two days before she crossed the rainbow bridge, I found out that my position was being eliminated at my agency and that I was being reassigned to a job doing what I had been doing previously…which I hated so much and took this job to get away from. It was not good news, and we still have no news about the approval of making my move to Tennessee permanent. I am not best pleased.

Some good news: more wedding planning milestones were completed including the selection of flowers and decorations for the ‘venue’, Tennessee found her suit, and music was selected for the ceremony.

We are also almost completely finished with the update of the living room. Paint, new furniture. etc., and it looks so good! However, the rest of the house is in complete chaos. We’ll get there. Hopefully, before we will have a house full of guests.

We’re trying to decide if we’re going to tackle the assembly of the three flat boxes we have this weekend or hire someone to do it. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue for us to take on such projects, but a few weeks ago (the Sunday after my job news and Bella’s passing), I fell climbing the stairs and tore the meniscus in my right knee.

The recovery from this injury is the main reason I have not been writing. Every task takes so much longer, and I have been battling pain and fatigue. Just keeping up with the absolutely required tasks has been a struggle and there just hasn’t been anything left for writing.

Fortunately, it has given me time to read, but I’m not going to be able to do full reviews for all of them. Sorry my friends.

I need to start with the mention of “Black Cake” by Charmain Wilkerson. This was the February selection for my LOACA Book Club. I did not finish it. I just was not in the headspace to read anything that week (see above for details of one of my worst weeks in a long time) let alone a complex read that required lots of attention. My friends liked the book and I hope I’ll get a chance to finish it someday.

Book 15

“The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts” by Loren Grush

This was the March Selection for my SLC Book Club and is by far my favorite non-fiction book to date. As someone who wanted to be an astronaut when she was six because of some of these women, I absolutely loved learning all about their stories.

I appreciated that they treated Sally Ride’s bisexuality as just another thing about her and how the Challenger explosion was just another event. These were important things, but they were just one of many things that defined the woman and this program.

Highly recommend!

Book 16

“Under the Whispering Door” by TJ Klune

Queer ‘romantasy’ with ghosts and reapers in a tea shop. The love story is sweet. Recommend.

Book 17

“A Traitor in Whitehall’ by Julia Kelly

Historical fiction about a woman with a top-secret job solving a murder in a top-secret bunker during the WWII Blitz in London. Recommend.

Books 18 and 19

“Red Hot Summer Sorcery” #21 and “Fireworks Finale” #22 by Sara Bourgeois

Book 20

“Acorna’s Quest” by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball

Book 2 of the Acorna series and I still love Anne McCaffrey books!

Books 21 and 22

“Murder Through the English Post” and “Murder at a London Finishing School” by Jessica Ellicott and narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt

The two most recently released Beryl and Edwina Mystery books in the series. I hope she keeps writing these and that Barbara keeps voicing these interesting characters!

Book 23

“The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax” by Dorothy Gilman

This is the first book in a series written in the 60s and 70s and I picked it because I was looking for audiobooks narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt. It is completely silly and lots of fun. I’m looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.

Book 24

“Mad Honey” by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylen

This is the April selection for my LOACA Book Club, and it was so good! I’m not sure how much to share because I don’t want to give anything away to spoil it for those who plan to read it, but I have to say that this book contains some triggers for domestic and trans violence. I also need to say how pleased and surprised I was that this book was available as a physical book to check out at my local library.

I experienced some frustration with the way the authors set up the chapters to tell the story but as I reached the end I was able to see the reasoning for why they did it the way they did.

With 24 books read through the end of March, I am still on track to meet my goal of 100 books for 2024.

Take care of yourselves and I hope to be back again soon.

Minor trauma this week–I was afraid it was going to be a major drama–I got the blue screen of death on my laptop, and I freaked. Tennessee said let me try something and off she went. She comes back a while later with my fully functioning laptop. My amazing fiancé saved the day!

Who knew I was marrying my own personal ‘geek squad’?

Wedding milestones accomplished this week: both beautiful and unique wedding bands are in the house; officiant booked with deposit; and Gantt chart created for tasks and timelines.

Yes, I know I’m a nerd.

On the topic of being nerdy, did anybody else watch the moon landing of Odysseus? It was thrilling!

I wish I could wholeheartedly be ecstatic, but there will always be a part of me that knows that humanity pays a high price for space exploration. The amount of hungry and homeless that could have been helped by the money spent on reaching the moon is no small thing.

I’m torn by my love of the idea of humanity ensuring its survival by spreading out amongst the stars versus the knowledge that we haven’t exactly been good caretakers of our current home and don’t exactly have a good track record when it comes to colonizing.

Something about space travel just touches something deep inside me. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little though I didn’t tell anybody for fear of being laughed at. The number-one item on my bucket list is almost impossible, but it stays there because there’s always hope. I want to see the Earth from space with my own eyes. Shatner got to do it, maybe someday before I die I could too. Until then I guess I’ll just have to continue watching and reading Sci-Fi.

Speaking of which, below are the three books I managed to finish this week.

Book 12 & 14

“Witchful Thinking” and “They Hexed the Moon” by Sara Bourgeois

These are books 19 and 20 in the Familiar Kitten Mysteries I’ve been inhaling. They make a great palate cleanser when I’ve just been immersed in a book that was difficult or intense.

These two dealt with the warlock issue, though the resolution will apparently have consequences in the next book and two previously “dead” characters are no longer dead, which brings its own set of consequences.

Book 13

“Into the Drowning Deep” by Mira Grant

I found this book when I searched for queer Sci-Fi. I could not put this book down. I finished the 1400 + pages in less than two days.

This was another story about mermaids but was not a YA fantasy like the last one I read. This one was an intense, suspenseful science fiction novel where humanity finds out it is not the only apex predator on Earth.

The characters are developed well enough to feel real, but this is definitely a plot-driven read. There is plenty of science, most of which was not too difficult to follow even though I have little to no experience with any of it.

It did not give me nightmares, but several scenes triggered my fight-or-flight response.  I’ll admit it made me laugh with a little embarrassment each time it happened.

If you like suspenseful Sci-Fi, I highly recommend this book.

Trying to come up with titles is sometimes easy, but not often. I’m not sure what has happened to my creativity lately, but it feels a bit squeezed out. Going to have to try and work on that this week.

Anyway, it was a busy week–lots of peopling: Superbowl watch party with great friends, colonoscopy with lots of white coats, and a spaghetti/bingo fundraiser at the county fair building. I believe we left the house more this week than we had in the previous month.

The colonoscopy was obviously a necessity, but so too was the time with friends. Tennessee and I are both homebodies and would almost always prefer to stay home, but it’s not good for us.

The watch party was fun and it had nothing to do with the game or the commercials or the T-Swift connection. It was about being with our friends. And also we had a chance to scope out their house as our wedding venue to get some idea of logistics…but mostly it was about being with our friends. 😉

Last night’s fundraiser was my first real community event and Tennessee told me it was a very good sampling of life in this small town, both good and bad. Though apparently, it was the first one with all three local lesbian couples in attendance at the same time. I would love to know how many in the crowd knew that besides us.

I still have not met the third couple, but I’ve heard a lot about them. My massage therapist is one of their neighbors and they used to be neighbors of Tennessee’s BFF before they moved here.

Speaking of T’s BFF, she’s the only one who won anything at bingo, at least from our group. There were a lot of great donated prizes and I really wish I could’ve won the giant candy bar the lady at the other end of our table won, but we all had a fun time anyway.

I also managed to finish two books this week one of which was for my book club which meets later today.

Book 10

“Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett and performed by Meryl Streep.

Usually, I would say ‘narrated by’ instead of ‘performed by’ but this was Meryl Streep and it was a performance. I had originally borrowed the eBook from the library, but I couldn’t get into it and my time expired. This is not one of those books I normally would have picked for myself but as it was for book club I splurged and used an Audible credit.

So glad I did-Meryl brought the main character and all those around her to life in a way that the reading of the eBook just couldn’t for me. I have absolutely nothing in common with any of the characters and I couldn’t connect with the written words.

That’s not to say it wasn’t well written, it is, but I just didn’t connect. The audiobook version allowed me to do that thanks to Meryl’s beautiful voice and performance. I could listen to her all day.

The story is about a mother telling her life story to her three adult daughters as they work like crazy to do the job of many people to pick cherries on their cherry farm in Michigan. It’s just the family without the farm hands because of the pandemic and that is an essential element to this book.

If you’re going to read this book, I highly recommend you do the audiobook.

Book 11

“The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels” by India Holton.

I honestly cannot say that I loved this book, but every time I think about it, it makes me smile and shake my head. It is an over-the-top, preposterous, tongue-in-cheek, Victorian farce with pirates and flying houses. At its core, it is a love story where the proper lady is actually a scoundrel and her love interest, the scoundrel, is actually a proper gentleman, well mostly anyway.

I hate not being able to recommend books, but neither of these will hit the top 10 of many favorite books for this year. You, however, might enjoy them.

Be well, my friends.

I’m not sure which hunting season it is currently, but I’ve heard more gunshots in the last couple of weeks than I ever did back home. I know we’re out in the country a bit, but it freaks me out. Not as much as it does Duke, the golden retriever staying with us, but still. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it.

We were also been pestered by drones this week. I couldn’t figure out the sound I was hearing and it was driving the dogs nuts, so I went out to see two drones and they were flying over and around the neighborhood. It wasn’t just our dogs that were bothered either, all the dogs in the neighborhood were barking up a storm. It was just the one day though, thank goodness, because it was a really annoying.

I know I had planned on posting my book reviews for every blog, but I didn’t finish a single book this week, despite having four of them started. I have a really good reason though.

Drumroll please.

Tennessee and I have picked our wedding date and it’s on my birthday!

We only have a short time to get everything done and there is a lot of planning and things to do even though it’s going to be a small wedding. Tennessee has a bunch of friends over in Chattanooga, too many to invite to the ceremony, so we are planning a reception afterward at a favorite queer hangout in the city for all those we can’t invite to the wedding itself.

We’ll also plan a reception back in Colorado for all my chosen family and friends back there, hopefully in late May or early June. I wish we could invite more people, but the venue won’t hold that many…literally as it’s the back deck of our friends’ house.

We were hoping to wait until my move was officially permanent, but it has been six months and nothing. We can’t wait anymore. We decided to plan around the worst-case scenario and then hope for the best.

In this case, the worst would be they deny my request and I have to go back into the office in Colorado. If that happens, I’ll return to my mother’s house and begin the process to retire. I’ll search for a remote job or one within commuting distance to Dunlap and put in my paperwork to go on leave without pay for the final few months until my retirement date of December 28, 2024.

Financially it would be better if I didn’t retire yet but some things are more important than money and being here with Tennessee as her wife is my priority. My agency needs me more than I need them to be honest, so it’ll be their loss if they don’t get this figured out. I’ll be sad to go, and money will be tighter than I’m used to, but life is too short.

It’s funny, after my divorce I swore I’d never get married again. The universe, the Divine, or whatever, knew better though and I can’t wait to be Mrs. again!

Be well my friends.

I had a blog ready to go yesterday morning, but when I went over it again it sounded so disjointed and whiny and too personal, as in I don’t want to share that, personal. So I didn’t post it. What follows is just some thoughts I decided I could write about after the end of my work day today.

I have less than a year until I’m eligible for retirement and all these months later my agency still has not figured out what they are doing regarding if I get to stay here or not. The longer this drags out the more likely I will retire anyway, but I will definitely retire if they make go back.

Because it is looking more and more like retirement is in my very near future, I have been going down so many rabbit holes doing research on how quickly can Tennessee and I get married and is it cheaper here or there and whether it’s better to elope or have a small ceremony.

We definitely need to put a ring on it sooner than later because we have to have enough time to do all the paperwork to get her on my insurance and make sure she’s on the books as my spouse going into retirement. Not the most romantic reasons to get married but that’s not the reason for getting married just the reason for the timing.

Anyway, this also means I’m going to need to find a job. I wish I could not work and just live off my retirement and if it were just me and Tennessee we probably could, but I’m supporting three households to some degree or another so taking a hit to my direct deposit will require additional income. So this required additional rabbit holes about what jobs might be available in this area that my skills could get me and also won’t require crazy hours or a long commute. I also need to update my resume. Right now it’s set for USA Jobs and government positions, but that will not work in the real world. How do I decide what to cut out?

Needless to say, I did not have a lot of time to read, but I did manage to finish book number 9 before midnight on January 31st. However, it’s already the 5th and I’ve only finished one other book so I guess I better get cracking and stop dropping down rabbit holes.

Book 9

“Murder on Castaway Island” by Alicia Gael

Another book by an author I’ve recently met. This murder mystery was very well written with all the classical components of a good “Whodunit?” and a nice little bit of lesbian romance thrown in. The plot centers around ten strangers lured to an island where they are picked off one at time by a method detailed in a poem left by the bedside of all the victims. Every time I thought I might know who the killer was, that person was then killed. I didn’t know who it was until the author revealed it. I do so enjoy a well-written murder mystery!

Book 10

“Hide and Shriek” by Sara Bourgeois

This is the 18^th book in the series. A new nemesis arrives in town right before the MC’s ex-husband is killed and left on her lawn. Several of the family want to blame this new warlock, but the newly resurrected auntie appears to be in cahoots with her. These stories are starting to get a bit thin, but I can’t stop reading them. I have to keep reading to see what happens next.

I made it to my writing group the Sunday before last, and it was so good to see all their faces. Just like the last time though I felt stuck about what to write. I should’ve had a plan, but I only vaguely thought maybe I’d write some fan fiction. However, one of the dogs decided that was the best time to chew on a bone so I really struggled to focus. I did my blog earlier that morning, so I didn’t feel completely worthless.

As I was saying, I was thinking of doing some fan fiction. I had this idea to connect Inara and Zoe after Wash died, just because you know that would be so hot, but I kept thinking about what that would do to Mal. (IFYKYK and if you don’t feel free to ask.) There aren’t many male characters that I like enough to worry about, but I really like his character.

I got me thinking though about what other female or queer characters I’d like to see hook up.

Since the sex/love scenes are the hardest for me to write I thought maybe I would do a few for the practice. There was Tasha Yar and Beverly Crusher, but I could not see them with each other or either with Deanna Troi. I was thinking of cop duos like Cagney and Lacy or Rizzoli and Isles, but the idea of them hooking up and ruining their partnerships was not appealing. I know it was just supposed to be an exercise, but the characters are too well-established in my head.

I need to pick some characters that I know well enough but not so well that they wouldn’t fit together, even for a fling. I am not sure why I’m working so hard on this when I could be just making up new characters but that just feels too hard right now.

I never made any progress on the fan fiction as our little world became frozen and blanketed with snow. We got 6 inches of snow, which by itself is a big deal here but it was the sub-freezing weather that truly shut this whole valley, and much of Tennessee, down completely.

Back home this amount of snow is nothing because it’s a common occurrence. Here this is a once-in-a-decade or more phenomenon. They just do not have the infrastructure to deal with it. And unlike in Denver where it’s mostly flat, here there are hills and curves everywhere. With so much snow that partially melts in the sun and then refreezes and without the plows or salt to completely clear the snow, every roadway turns into an ice rink.

We managed a trip into town midweek on the only day it was above freezing. We live in a flat area with no hills between us and town, so the roads were drivable. We picked up a few things we needed to get as though a few more days. We picked the right day because then we got more snow and the temps dropped again. It was good to get out and we needed it too as I think all the creatures in this house, 2 or 4 footed, were getting cabin fever.

Silas got a makeshift litterbox since his brief trips outside proved to be worthless…we lost a rug and some towels that were on the laundry room floor waiting to be washed. I used an Amazon box and cut up newspaper, which wasn’t ideal but worked until we got some cat litter and Tennessee found an old beat-up litter box outside.

Fortunately, warmer weather came along and the rain dissolved the snow and now we’re back to normal…needing a raft to go out the back door.

I only managed to complete one book during that week. I’d been watching French crime dramas instead of reading. I needed a bit of a break. But then I absorbed another book and finished a third this weekend. I also watched lots of sports ball with Tennessee, so I never made it to my writing group which is when I had planned to finish writing this blog. Obviously, that didn’t happen since you’re only reading it now.

I’m finally finishing this blog and posting it now. I may or may not write another this weekend as I’ve got two books on my Libby shelf that are due back soon and another paperback arriving tomorrow. Also, it’s NFL Championship weekend so I’ll be busy watching Taylor Swift. Take care, my friends.

Book 6

“The Circus Rose” by Betsy Cornwell

This is a retelling of the fairy tale Snow White and Rose-Red. The story is told through alternating chapters from the point of view of each sister, Ivory and Rose. Ivory’s chapters are prose and Rose’s chapters read like poems. I loved the way the author used the alternate pronouns of Ivory’s non-binary Fey love interest. The story was full of magic and queer characters, which I love, but it took me a while to get into the story. I almost gave up, to be honest, but the story finally hooked me, and the end was very satisfying.

Book 7

“Acorna” by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Bell

This paperback has been on my TBR shelf for years. I have loved every Anne McCaffrey book I have ever read, but it took a long time for me to pick this one up. I found it in a thrift store years ago on a road trip with my ex and I just couldn’t read it. Then I needed something to take on the plane one time and didn’t have anything else, so I took it and it became my in-flight book for the next couple years. It stayed in with my carry-on stuff for so many trips and I just picked up where I left off each time. I never had any trouble remembering where I was in the story so every time I picked it up it was as if I had just set it down the day before. It was still in my luggage when I moved here and I put it on my shelf with the very small collection I brought with me. I finally finished it and I then immediately ordered books 2 and 3 (of 10) which should be here this week.

Book 8

“It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover

This was a Christmas present. It’s not one I would have picked out for myself. It starts out like your traditional romance with a meet-cute that seems innocent enough, but as you get further into the story you realize there was some significant foreshadowing happening in that first scene. The author says this story was based on her parents’ relationship and was the hardest thing she’d ever written and I fully believe that. Trigger warning for domestic violence. I will be donating this book. Please don’t tell J-Dawg’s mom.