Thursday, February 13, 2025

Where Is Your Bookmark: My Bookish Mewsings on Hearts Unbroken & Other Friday Fun

I just got home from a book club meeting. It is pouring rain outside, and driving in the dark when you can't see the lines on the road clearly makes for a tense drive home. But I made it safely, and I am ready to settle in for an evening with my family--but first, a visit with my favorite bookish people (you, of course!). 

Along with this mini review, I am linking to both Book Beginnings, a meme in which readers share the first sentence of a book they are reading, hosted by Gillion of Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Carrie of Reading is My Super Power, as well as Friday 56 hosted by Anne of My Head is Full of Books, in which readers share a random sentence or two from page 56 or 56% of the book they are reading.  
Half past nine a.m. in the residual haze of my junior prom, I ducked into a powder room off the kitchen at the swanky lake house where the after-party took place. [opening of Hearts Unbroken]
               ★                    
I pulled the letter out. It was short and to the point.

"There is no place like home"
Go back to where you came from.

I dropped it to the countertop and backed away, reach for the phone to text Mama. [excerpt from page 101 Hearts Unbroken]

Hearts Unbroken
by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Berkley, 2018
Fiction/Romance/Young Adult; 304 pgs
Source: Own TBR
New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith turns to realistic fiction with the thoughtful story of a Native teen navigating the complicated, confusing waters of high school -- and first love.

When Louise Wolfe's first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It's her senior year, anyway, and she'd rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper's staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director's inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town. From the newly formed Parents Against Revisionist Theater to anonymous threats, long-held prejudices are being laid bare and hostilities are spreading against teachers, parents, and students -- especially the cast members at the center of the controversy, including Lou's little brother, who's playing the Tin Man. As tensions mount at school, so does a romance between Lou and Joey -- but as she's learned, "dating while Native" can be difficult. In trying to protect her own heart, will Lou break Joey's? 
[From the Publisher]
My thoughts: Hearts Unbroken was the February selection for the Diverse Romance Book Club I am in. I haven't read much in the way of contemporary YA fiction, so this was a tad outside my norm. I enjoyed this romantic coming of age tale about Louise Wolfe during her senior year of high school. She is smart and not afraid to stand up those she cares about, even if only sometimes herself. Along with the everyday challenges teens face, Cynthia Leitich Smith tackles the serious issues of racism and discrimination, including zeroing in on microaggressions and more overt acts of bigotry.  

I enjoyed the high school newspaper setting and the way the student reporters show up for one another and their dedication to reporting the truth despite internal and external pressures. Joey, Louise's love interest, was a sweetheart and although I wish his character could have been fleshed out a little more, I thought he and Louise were well matched--much more so than Louise and Cam, her ex. Shelby, Louise's best friend, is another great character.

I adored Louise's family and how supportive they are of each other. Louise and her family are Native Muscogee (Creek), relatively new to Kansas, having moved there from Texas during the middle of Louise's junior year. Kansas appears to be a conscious choice for the setting given the musical at the heart of the controversary (set in Kansas); adding to that Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum's racist editorials about Native Americans. The uproar by groups like the Parents Against Revisionist Theater regarding casting non-white students in roles is very much a real world problem, sadly. In Hearts Unbroken, we see the escalation of the pressure and discrimination against the students and their families as well as the faculty. 

The author packs a lot into the novel, and I came away wishing there had been more development of the side characters as well as more attention given to certain aspects of the story for a deeper look into some of the themes presented. Even so, I think the author captures the essence of her teenage protagonist very well. For the seriousness of the topics covered in this romantic YA novel, the strength in community, family, and friends is at its heart. I enjoyed Hearts Unbroken overall.
 
Does this sound like something you would enjoy? If you have read it, what did you think? 


Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. It is hosted by Linda Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About. Join in by answering this week's question in the comments or on your own blog.
Share your romance (HEA/HFN) recommendations.

Just in time for Valentine's Day! These types of questions always get me into trouble because I don't know where to stop once I start making a list of books to recommend. At least this time there's a specified genre. That makes it slightly easier to narrow down. Kind of. Okay, not really. I noticed I have no historical romance listed here. I must remedy that (please share your recommendations with me!). But here are some of the romances I have enjoyed and would highly recommend. 

Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy #1) by Ilona Andrews 
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton
Wolf Gone Wild (Stay a Spell #1) by Juliette Cross 
The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava
Pride and Prejudice, and Other Flavors (Rajes #1) by Sonali Dev

Bitten (Women of the Otherworld Series #1) by Kelley Armstrong 
Exes and O's by Amy Lea
Well Met by Jen DeLuca

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca
Persuasion by Jane Austen 
Kiss and Spell by Celestine Martin (all the books in the Elemental Love series are amazing)

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (this is such a sweet graphic novel series)
Once in a Lifetime by Jill Shalvis
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

Share your romance novel recommendations with me! 

Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

Have you ever read a Nicholas Sparks romance novel? If so, what is your opinion on his endings? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)


I read one novel by Nicholas Sparks many years ago, and it was The Notebook. I vaguely remember liking the ending at the time, finding it bittersweet, which I have heard is a trademark of his novels. He is not an author I gravitate towards nor necessarily want to read more of for a variety of reasons, but none of which are related to his endings. (And don't let Sparks hear you call his books romance novels; he's very adamant he writes love stories, not romance.)

Have you read a Nicholas Sparks novel? What are your thoughts on his endings?



 I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Be sure and tell me what you are reading and are up to!

© 2025 Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Bookish Mewsings: The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende


The Wind Knows My Name
by Isabel Allende, translated by Francis Riddle
Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and Maria Liatis
Fiction/Historical, 2023; 304 pgs/8hrs
Source: Own TBR
This powerful and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea weaves together past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration on one child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night their family lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home.

Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

Spanning time and place, The Wind Knows My Name is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming. [From the Publisher]

When I finished The Wind Knows My Name, I felt so many things. I had so many thoughts. And I am having a hard time putting any of them in writing. I was glad it was a book club pick because I needed to debrief afterward, and we had a really good discussion about the many themes in the novel, including forced displacement and separation of parents from their children, sacrifice, trauma, loss, and healing. We discussed the parallels throughout history up to today, including the role U.S. politics and policies have played in much of it.

Isabel Allende is a beautiful writer and has a way of creating characters that get under your skin and bringing settings and events to life. Is that not what fiction is supposed to do though? She does it so effectively. That first chapter, the lead up to and the events of the infamous Kristallnacht in Vienna 1938 was harrowing with the amount of violence and destruction, the hate and fear. Allende's descriptions of the political events leading up to that night played a part in that, I am sure. Hitler's rise, rhetoric, propaganda, and the ease with which he had walked into Austria and took it over helped pave the way and set the tone for what was to come. How easily those who committed the violence turned on their neighbors. We would like to believe that would not happen today, but the truth is it very will could. 

Allende writes about the El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador in 1981, in which farmers and villagers, among them women and children, were rounded up to be tortured and murdered all under the guise of a military act of rooting out leftist guerillas. Over 800 people killed, over half of them children. Allende's fictional character Leticia was fortunate. She was not there at the time her family was slaughtered. Her father was able to get her out of the country and they fled to the United States. Decades later, seven year old Anita and her mother would make their way to the United States from El Salvador, fleeing their own horrors. 

Isabel Allende weaves these three stories together seamlessly, their lives intersecting at just the right moments. Although each of their experiences are different, there are also many parallels among their narratives, especially that of Samuel and Anita. Samuel was forced onto the Kindertransport, leaving his mother behind, just as Anita was separated from her mother at the border, not knowing what happened to her. Samuel and Anita were young children, alone in foreign countries, not knowing the language, and forced to live in questionable, sometimes horrible conditions. Allende paints a very realistic view of what life was like for children in Samuel and Anita's shoes. The abuses they suffered are all too real. Anita has the added struggle of being blind, making her even more vulnerable. The interactions between Anita and Samuel were among my favorite scenes in the book. Anita was such a great character. She reminded me a bit of Anne Frank in her outlook on the world--both young girls, still hopeful despite everything going on in their lives. 

Of all the characters, I think Leticia was among my favorites. She went through so much in her own right, but at times she seems the most grounded later on in the novel. She was an anchor for the aging Samuel, there for him during the pandemic, and he was there for her when Anita came into their lives. I also really liked the social worker, Selena, whose determination and heart knew no limits. I was less enamored by the attorney, Frank, although he did grow on me after awhile. Then there was Nadene, Samuel's wife, who at times seemed larger than life. Nadene was such an interesting character. She and Samuel are almost polar opposites. She was so full of life while he spent much of his life quiet and unassuming. I loved how Allende ties all the characters together, sometimes in unexpected ways.

The Wind Knows My Name brings the refugee experience front and center, making it more personal through the eyes of her characters. This is a subject close to the author's heart, as she knows all too well what life is like being forced to flee your home country and try to acclimate and be accepted in a new one. As much as this is a novel of tragedy and loss, it is also one of endurance, hope, healing and found family.

I read and listened to this novel at different intervals. Edourdo Ballerini narrates the majority of the novel with occasional narration by Maria Liatis as the character of Anita woven through. The narrators did a good job of making me feel like I was right there in the novel.


© 2025, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Can't Wait to Read Wednesday: Cold as Hell / Wooing the Witch Queen / Stone Angels

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings
 to spotlight upcoming release we are excited about that we have yet to read.

Here are three upcoming releases that caught my attention and immediately ended up on my wish list I am looking forward to reading all of them. 

Cold as Hell
(Haven's Rock #3) by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: February 18, 2025 by Minotaur Books
New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Haven’s Rock in Cold as Hell as Casey Butler hunts down a dangerous killer during a deadly blizzard.

Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing, including her worried husband, stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock.

When one of the town's residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman's last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust—and who they can't—in their seemingly safe haven.  [From the Publisher]
I need to start this series before I fall too far behind. I have enjoyed everything I have read by Kelley Armstrong, and this series is a favorite of many bloggers I know. 


Wooing the Witch Queen
(Queens of Villainy #1) by Stephanie Burgis

Release Date: February 25, 2025 by Tor Bramble
In a Gaslamp-lit world where hags and ogres lurk in thick pine forests, three magical queens form an uneasy alliance to protect their lands from invasion . . . and love turns their world upside down.

Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well . . .

Little does Saskia know that the "wizard" she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other? 
 
[From the Publisher]
This one had me with the title, but doesn't it sound good? Romance, magic and intrigue!


Stone Angels
by Helena Rho
Release Date: March 4, 2025 by Grand Central Publishing
In this "riveting [and] unforgettable" novel, a forty-year-old woman journeys to her cultural homeland—and uncovers a harrowing secret that makes her rethink everything she thought she knew about her mother (Jimin Han, author of The Apology).

Angelina Lee feels like she doesn’t belong. Newly divorced, and completely unmoored by the sudden and tragic death of her mother, she hopes studying Korean will reconnect her to her roots, but nothing about Seoul feels familiar. Further complicating matters is the resurgence of an alluring man from Angelina’s past, and fellow classmate Keisuke Ono, an irritatingly good looking Japanese American journalist who refuses to leave her alone. What she’ll barely admit, however, is the true reason behind her trip. She’s convinced the key to understanding her mother’s suicide lies in Korea.

A shocking conversation with an estranged relative proves her right. Her mother had an older sister, Sunyuh, who disappeared under the Japanese occupation of Korea during WWII—a secret the family buried for over sixty years. Horrified, Angelina can’t fathom why her mother never mentioned her, but knows, deep down, her mother’s fateful decision must be linked to Sunyuh. To find answers, Angelina embarks on a journey that takes her across oceans and continents, and challenges everything she believed about her heritage and herself. 

Told through the bold, determined voices of three women, this poignant family drama explores love and loss, grief and healing, and the sometimes-difficult love that exists between mothers and daughters. It’s about the questions we wish we had asked lost relatives, the lives we could have lived had we made different choices, and, above all, second chances—to reinvent ourselves, to confront the sins of the past, and to find lasting love.
 
[From the Publisher]
This sounds like it will be an emotional and poignant novel. Family drama and secrets and second chances. Not to mention the cover is gorgeous. 

Do any of these books interest you? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to reading?


© 2025, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Monday, February 10, 2025

Top Tuesday: My Favorite Novels Featuring Love Stories that Stole my Heart

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana at The Artsy Reader Girl.


This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is the Love Freebie and after much consideration, I thought I would go through my five paw reviews and share some of My Favorite Novels Featuring Love Stories that Stole my Heart, whether the main story line or just one on the side, but still prominent, some tragic and others with happy endings.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Elizabeth and Darcy

The Charm Offensive
 by Alison Cochrun
 
Dev and Charlie

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors
 (The Rajes #1) by Sonali Dev
Trisha and DJ

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (#1) by Heather Fawcett
Emily and Wendell

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Lily and Kathleen

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Mika and Jamie


Witchful Thinking (Elemental #1) by Celestine Martin
Lucy and Alex

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 
Patroclus and Achilles

A Wedding in December by Sarah Morgan 
Maggie and Nick, Katie and Jordan, Rose and Dan

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Sue and Maud 

Do you have a favorite novel featuring a love story? Have you read any of my favorites? 

© 2025, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Saturday, February 08, 2025

Weekly Mewsings: February Has Just Started and I Am Already Done With It / But It Isn't All Bad

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz  where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.


Hello from my little part of California! It has been a pleasant week, weather wise. Fog and a little rain, but mostly sunshine. I still find myself wanting to wrap up in a blanket in the morning and evenings. I am not sure if it's to stay warm or just for comfort. Maybe some of both.

It was an especially difficult week at work, a reminder of how short life is and how precious our families are. Luckily Mouse never complains about getting extra hugs when I have weeks like this. We started a new schedule and in office rotation this past week. It seemed to go well, without too many complications so far. We are down a supervisor right now because someone retired the end of the year. I am not sure when we will get a replacement.

It is hard not to feel helpless amidst the torrent of news coming out about the current U.S. administration. Making calls to my government representatives is a minor thing, but at least I feel like I am doing something. How are you all coping? 

A question for those of you who track your reading and keep stats: what sort of stats do you track or what tags do you use for your books on Goodreads, StoryGraph or other reading apps? I keep a spreadsheet with various statistics just for the fun of it, and while I tag books in LibraryThing, I do not really tag them on Goodreads or StoryGraph, but I am considering starting. 

What have you been up to this weekend and past week?  

I currently have my bookmark in three books. I am still reading The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett and am enjoying it quite a bit. I just started The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, and I can already tell it is going to be good. My current audio read is Bayou Moon (The Edge #2) by Ilona Andrews. February may be a short month, but it seems to be a month for reading big books!


This week I finished reading Murder in a Dressing Room, the first in the Misty Divine cozy mystery series, by Holly Stars and The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle. Although I started off reading Allende's novel in print, I ended up listening to most of it in the audio version. It was heartbreaking and at times difficult to read, the parallels between the events in the book and what is happening in the U.S. today all too real. I hope to post my review later this week. Tomorrow I will be meeting with the book club where we will be discussing Allende's book. 


In the meantime, be sure and check out this past week's Bookish Mewsings:

And other posts you may have missed:


What are you reading right now?


My TBR List was the idea of Michelle at Because Reading, and while Michelle has not been hosting this monthly event for some time now, it's one of my favorite traditions that I cannot bring myself to give up. It's just too much fun! The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books from my TBR pile I am considering reading and let you vote for my next read during that month. My review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise).

Thank you to everyone who voted in this month's TBR List Poll! All three of the options this month are calling my name, but I will only have time to read the winner--at least right now. I definitely do want to read the other two as well.


Twenty-nine  (29) people voted, and while it wasn't all that close, each of the books got quite a few votes.  The Case of the Missing Maid (Harriet Morrow Investigates #1) by Rob Osler received seven (7) books, Haunting and Homicide (A Ghost Tour Mystery #1) by Ava Burke got eight (8) votes, and A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay won with fourteen (14) votes! The winning book does sound like it will be a lot of fun to read, and I cannot wait to start it! 


Thank you  again to everyone for voting in this month's TBR List poll! 

What are you reading next? 

Mouse is excited to be sharing one of her favorite anime series with us, and so we have been watching an episode or two of Haikyu!! in the evenings. We are on season two now. It's a cute anime about a high school boy's volleyball team, based on a manga series. I have started watching the crime show, High Potential when the mood strikes, although am not too far in yet. 


What have you been watching lately?


Following in the footsteps of Deb of Readerbuzz, who shares three good things in her Sunday Salon posts, I thought I would try to do the same. With all the worries and stressors in life, I want to highlight some of the good, even the seemingly small stuff. 

1. A surprise gift from my daughter. We all enjoy the Spy x Family manga series, and Mouse gave me a sleeping Yor, and set her Loid next to keep me company while I work.  


2.My husband's Tortilla Chip Enchiladas. Yum!

3. My Gracie. She's my little shadow. I haven't had the heart to throw my old desk chair out because she's made it her own, sitting right beside me in her own chair when I am working from home. Another of her favorite spots (besides on my lap or chest) right now is lying on blankets and bear pillow on the floor next to me. She's never far away. 


I hope you have a great week! Let me know what you have been reading!

© 2025, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.