Welcome back to My Sister’s TBR! We’re here with our mid-month catch-up, chatting about the March releases that have caught our eye, sharing the bookish news we’ve sleuthed out, and diving into what books we’re currently reading.
Think of this as our virtual coffee date where we talk about all our favorite things…books, duh! And things not related to books, because we’re spicy.
So pour yourself a cup of coffee, get comfy, and let’s catch up!
Release Radar: What We're Eyeing This Month
The Strawberry Patch Pancake House by Laurie Gilmore is number four in the Dream Harbor series. It is a contemporary romance and cozy mystery.
As a renowned chef, single dad Archer never planned on moving to a small town, let alone running a pancake restaurant. But Dream Harbor needs a new chef and Archer needs a community to help raise his daughter, Olive. Iris has never managed to hold down a job for more than a few months. So when Mayor Kelly suggests Archer is looking for a nanny and Iris might be available, she shudders at the thought. But in need of money, she reluctantly agrees. As Archer and Iris get used to their new roles, is it possible that they might have more in common than they first thought, or is Olive just determined to play matchmaker?
The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi is a science fiction horror time—travel novel.
Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She’s built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time to any point in the traveler’s lifetime and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it’s not perfect. The traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe. After Beth’s husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella, their only daughter, and continue the work they started. Marred in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology. Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp. As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future.
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone is a contemporary romance novel.
Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend Lou recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs. And luckily, she just landed a great one helping overworked single mom Reese and her precocious daughter Ainsley. It’s not perfect. Ainsley’s uncle Miles always seems to be around and is kind of a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no one will notice she’s falling apart. Miles sees right through her, though. Turns out he knows a lot about grief, and surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her live again list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Rhys. Lenny doubts anything can fill the hole Lou has left behind. But as she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that sometimes losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself and love again.
A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames is a romantic fantasy novel, very much like Howl’s Moving Castle.
Before Foss Butcher was snagged, she thought no more of the magic users than did anyone else in her tiny village. Sometimes gorgeous women in impossible carriages rolled into town and took bits of people’s hearts. Everyone knew hearts fueled their magic, but Foss, plain clumsy and practical as a boot, never expected anyone would want hers. True enough, when the only sorcerer in the kingdom stepped from his glossy carriage, he didn’t intend to hook Foss. Sylvester’s riot of black curls and perfectly etched cheekbones caught her eye a moment too long. That was all. Suddenly, Foss is cursed and finds herself stomping toward the grand city to keep his enchanted house, where her only friend is a talking cat and the walls themselves have moods. But as Foss learns the ways of magic, she realizes she’s far from its only unwilling captive. Even Sylvester is hemmed in by spells and threats. It’s said this sorcery protects king country in order for thousands. If Foss wants to free herself and perhaps Sylvester, she’ll have to confront it all and uncover the blight nestled in the heart of the kingdom itself.
Story of My Life by Lucy Score is number one in the Story Lake series. This is a contemporary small-town romance.
Hazel is given a one-two punch when she’s forced to move out of her Upper East Side apartment and is given a final warning from her publisher. If she doesn’t turn in a book by her next deadline, they’re cutting her loose. Hazel rashly decides to leave what’s left of her city life behind and impulse buys a house in rural Pennsylvania, sight unseen. How better to entertain the loyal readers she has and rediscover her writing mojo than immersing herself in small-town life? Too bad this town looks to be on its last legs. At least she’s finding swoon-worthy inspiration from her hot, grumpy contractor, Cam, and his animal-rescuing, community-involved family. It’s all just research. What could go wrong?
The author notes that this series is her love letter to every reader who said they wanted to move to a fictional town.
Summer in the City by Alex Astor is a contemporary romance novel and Alex Astor’s debut romance novel.
27-year-old screenwriter Elle has the chance of a lifetime to write a big-budget movie set in New York City. The only problem? She’s had writer’s block for months, and her screenplay is due at the end of summer. In a desperate attempt at inspiration, Elle ends up back in the city she swore she would never return to in an apartment she could never afford. Floor-to-ceiling windows, skyline views, and a new coffee shop to haunt included. It’s the perfect place to write her screenplay until she realizes her new neighbor is tech billionaire bachelor Parker Warren, her stairwell hookup from two years ago. It’s been a lovers-to-enemies situation ever since. The reverse enemies to lovers! When seeing him again turns into a full night of hate-fueled writing, Elle realizes her enemy-twisted muse might just be the key to finishing her screenplay, if she can stand being around her polar opposite. She writes anonymously, and he’s on the cover of every business magazine. He frequents fancy red-carpeted events, and she doesn’t like leaving her emotional support of a five-block radius. One summer, one wall apart. He needs to fake a buzzy relationship during his company’s precarious acquisition. She needs to write a movie around a list of New York City locations. Both need a break from their unrelenting schedules and a chance to rediscover the skyscraper glimmering, pizza-crusted, sunlit charms of the city. Summers always end, and so will this agreement. It’s all pretend. Promise. Until it isn’t.
This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead is a mystery thriller.
After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory. So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho, takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don’t add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Some things not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than they’ve faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap. Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans.
Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things by Breanne Randall is a paranormal romance.
In the small town of Gold Springs, Calliope Petridi and her two sisters carefully guard the secret of their magic and the price they must pay to practice memories. They must pay to practice memories. The more powerful the magic, the greater the memory required. Luckily, all Calliope wants to do is forget. Forget the mother who left them without a trace. Forget the cracks in her relationship with her judgmental older sister, Thalia, and her distant middle sister, Eurydice. Forget about the very cost of her magic. And most of all, forget the way the love of her life shattered her heart two years ago. But when an ancient evil awakens in their town, the fragile thread that holds the sisters together breaks. As their magic slowly begins to fade, Calliope accidentally binds herself to an annoyingly handsome leader of a rival coven infamous for their ruthless pursuit of power. Battling a sizzling chemistry to a man she can’t trust, Calliope needs to confront her sisters and the painful memories of her past, dark family secrets, and ancient magic in order to keep the town and all she loves safe. But will she have anything left for herself?
The Bookish Grapevine
Here’s the bookish news we discussed in this episode:
The Quinn app is releasing a new spicy audiobook series called The Trials, narrated by Jamie Campbell Bower.
Casting news for the Harry Potter series has been announced. People are not happy with the casting of Snape. In better casting news, Janet McTeer is in talks to play McGonagall.
Rebecca Yarros announced that there will be a graphic novel adaptation of Fourth Wing.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 has been announced to air in July of this summer. It will also be the final season.
The movie adaptation of People We Meet on Vacation wrapped filming back in October, so we will likely see that release date sometime in 2025.
Another adaptation that’s coming is the House of Night series.
Quicksilver by Callie Hart is getting adapted into a movie for Netflix.
Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver has found its screenwriter, Laura Kassan.
Hulu scrapped ACOTAR, so now the rights to the screen adaptation of ACOTAR is getting reverted back to Sarah J. Maas this summer.
Netflix has picked up making Twisted Love by Ana Huang into a series.
What’s On Our Nightstands
Here’s what we’re currently reading:
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Sometimes the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it. So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch, mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone. She isn’t sure her heart can take it. And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would have fallen head over heels for, and she might again, except he exists in the past, seven years ago, to be exact. And she quite literally lives seven years in his future. Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed. After all, love is never a matter of time, but a matter of timing.
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
At 17, Lenora Hope hung her sister with a rope. Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume 17-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside of Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacres occurred. It’s now 1983, and home health aide Kit McDeer arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her 70s and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can now only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer. “I want to tell you everything.” “It wasn’t me,” Lenora said, “but she’s the only one not dead.” As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be more dangerous than she first thought.
Brain Damage by Freida McFadden
After years of hard work, Dr. Charlie McKenna finally has it all. Preposterous career as a dermatologist? Check. Spacious apartment overlooking Central Park? Check. Handsome lawyer husband? Double check. Then, one night, a bullet rips through the right side of her skull, and she loses everything. As Charlie struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her before he finishes the job he started.
Heir of Fire, A book in the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas
Two Weddings and a Manhunt by Deydralinne, a Dramione fan fiction
Blaine and Astoria are getting married. There’s the whole bachelor party where Theo, Blaise, Goyle, and Draco are supposed to go to a chalet in France and have this nice bachelor party. Theo hijacks it, and the port key brings them to Las Vegas. These are wizards now in Las Vegas. He also happens to bring Hermione, which is something that leads to her accidentally being kidnapped, essentially. So it ends up a drunken, crazy night that nobody can remember. They have to backtrack through the whole night trying to find everybody from the bachelor party while realizing that Hermione and Draco got married. And it is legally binding, and marriage is very binding in the magical community. So, there are a lot of steps that they now need to take to get an annulment, basically. But I have a feeling that it’s just not going to get that far. It’s a more comical Dramione.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry’s 11th birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin.
Our featured read for this month is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Our end-of-month episode is now going to be split into two. The first episode will be just our recap of books read, and we’ll release the second episode the same day, which will be our deep dive on Philosopher’s Stone. We’ll be talking about the characters, the differences between the book and the movies, what we loved, and what we didn’t love.
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