In which we spend gift cards at Barnes & Noble Newington!

Happy Friday, people!! The weekend cannot come soon enough.

This past Sunday during the holiday weekend I had the pleasure of visiting my most local (if you can believe it, 45 minutes away) Barnes & Noble to spend a gift card from my awesome parents, for helping them purchase their home (real estate is my day job, reading is my career).

I had a long list to purchase, as per the usual, but realized almost as soon as I got there that a lot of them actually aren’t out yet? So it really seems like a great time to run another “Most Anticipated” list for the rest of 2022! I won’t spoil those surprises, but tune in on the 17th for my full thoughts!

What was on my list, though, definitely got purchased. 1) Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano. I *adored* Finlay Donovan is Killing It; it was totally unexpected and enjoyable. I initially read it because it was supposed to be like Only Murders in the Building, and while it has the casual humor of the show regarding seriously violent subjects, it doesn’t have the same ambience. I loved it all the same and cannot wait to read this sequel.

2) One Night on the Island by Josie Silver. I follow another book blogger on Goodreads with the username “chan ☆”, and I have a love/hate relationship with her reviews. It’s my understanding that she primarily vlogs, but I don’t really like social video content, so I’ve never watched any of her stuff. Mostly, I just awe at how many books she can consume in a 24 hour period and scoff at her few sentence reviews that almost always disagree with my own thoughts. When she shelved this as read and “dnf”, I figured I’d probably like it, lol. I really enjoyed The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, even though it broke my heart a thousand ways to Sunday. I’m excited for this one and love the concept of the shared vacation spot as a trope. I’m betting it’ll be cute!

3) My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol. 1 by Emil Ferris. I don’t even remember how this one fell across my Goodreads dashboard, but I’m definitely in a noir mood as of late, and this fits the bill. I love a good graphic novel every once in a while, but the price tag on this bad boy had me like 0_0. I get it, though. Art AND writing? You earned it. I’m excited to read this interesting-sounding novel, with fantasy grounded in reality, and the past informing the present.

The other two things I *accidentally* picked up were Breathless by Ann McCulloch and The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon. I’ve been interested in Jennifer McMahon’s books before but I wasn’t sure how I would like the writing style, or if the plot itself would really carry the book. This one definitely sounds like it can, and it sounds from the synopsis that the writing style will also be pretty darn good. Breathless also sounds like a great mystery, but I primarily decided to pick up that one because it was one of the Book of the Month choices for this month. I don’t like the cover art so much (feels very generic), but once I read what it was about, I decided it’d be a good one. I picked both up off a table that suggested they were nail-biters with great twist endings. Wish I could remember what the table said exactly, but I trust their judgment!

Here’s my fresh stack in all it’s glory:

I also checked out the strategy games. Strategy games, while extremely expensive, are kind of my weakness. I checked out the game Furnace; I was drawn in by the art style but it seemed more up Nate’s alley than mine (so I handed it off to him!). I was also interested in Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a Disney game based off the ride of the same name, and I liked that it seemed easy enough for the whole family to learn and play. Mostly I think I’m just overly-excited for my upcoming trip to the parks. I ended up passing on both in the end, which my wallet appreciated when the gift card didn’t cover it all, lol.

All in all a successful B&N trip on my first day off in a WHILE! Glad to restock while I had the chance.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, friends!