Top 5 Must-Reads: Magical Cats, Vampire-Slaying Southern Women, and Creepy Ghosts Galore

On May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 By Bubble Bubble Books and TroubleIn Cozies1 Comment

Wowza—it’s been a minute since my last post. I’ve had a rough go of it lately with the whole job-loss thing and equally depressing job-search thing. Life sure can throw some curveballs, eh? Either way, we’re here to have fun, so let’s talk five-star reads! Here are some highlights from my spring 2024 reading list:

Nimbus by Jan Eldredge

Cat lovers, you’re in for a treat! This is such a cute book with magical felines, a kind-hearted witch, and the cutest little sweater-wearing, Shakespeare-quoting rat sidekick! I thoroughly enjoyed this story and was completely invested in little Nimbus’s homeward-bound journey. Fantasies aren’t really my cup of tea, but I made an exception for this one. The cover alone sold me. I mean, how could I turn away from those adorable little faces? The evil dream demons were terrible, but the worst characters were the cruel humans dumping their pets. Nimbus’s newfound friends have tragic backstories involving human cruelty, which can be hard to read, but the kind-hearted witch, Agatha, renewed my faith in humanity, reminding me that there’s a lot of good in this world. I loved getting to know each of the resident cats–even the grumpy ones–through Nimbus’ magical dream-walking escapades. They’re all quite fascinating, and I’m rather fond of the tubby calico, Fern, and her stuffed squirrel toy. This story is just too cute and the ending was the cat’s meow!

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan

This book was a fun—and much-needed—surprise that arrived at my doorstep, thanks to my sister! She even sent me a Disney cats throw blanket so I could cozy up with a good book during my dark days of sudden unemployment. Isn’t that the nicest thing? Anyhoo, this book proved to be the perfect distraction with its cast of vampire-slaying Southern women. Judging by the cover, I was expecting more of a light paranormal romance, but this book was SCARY!!! Yo! I was not expecting grisly scenes of vampires/zombies (a hybrid, I guess?) tearing people apart. This is NOT a cozy little Southern romantasy, people! Lucky for me, I absolutely love gross horror stories with feral, non-sparkling vampires terrorizing the town. I also loved that this story centered around four generations of vampire-slaying women. One of whom has a dark secret that comes out later in the book…when things get real. Whilst protecting the town from the newly-turned vampire/zombies, they sort out their family drama issues, and boy does it get messy. Think Steel Magnolias meets 30 Days of Night meets Six Feet Under. Loved it!!!

Peril in Paris by Rhys Bowman

Once again, I’ve realized I can never go wrong with a Royal Spyness mystery. I only “read” these books via Audible because the narrator cracks me up with the characters’ voices. Since watching “Emily in Paris” (please don’t judge me!), I’ve been drawn to books that transport me to this fascinating city with streetside cafes, dazzling cityscapes, and croissants galore. Naturally, this story surrounds a fashion show by none other than Cocoa Chanel! Hijinks ensue when Lady Georgianna stumbles upon a dead body at a VIP runway show and soon becomes suspect number one! Seriously, the detectives in these books are always so clueless. I mean really…why would a pregnant British woman come to Paris to kill a complete stranger? Is it terrible that I was happy the murder victim turned out to be a pushy, entitled, “new money” woman who thought she could buy her way into everything? Ugh…Americans! Anyways…I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy historical whodunnits that are heavy on comedy and light on mystery.

Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano

I love, love, love a slow-burn horror story, but only if it’s done well. It could be ruined with an underwhelming ending or turn into a convoluted, confusing mess. Lucky for me, this book delivered a dark, creepy ending that left me wanting more. The premise alone gives me the willies! Imagine going to a sparsely populated island with secretive townsfolk who are all living in a time warp. There are just SO MANY QUESTIONS! Why don’t the townsfolk ever leave the island? Why did an outsider’s dead son scribble “Clifford Island” on the floorboards of his bedroom right before he died? Why do the islanders participate in strange daily rituals? And why is it so scary for them to deviate from their routines? What’s out there in the woods peeking inside of windows??? All these questions had me glued to the pages—and boy was I creeped out. We’re dealing with different narrators throughout the book: Willow, the interloping woman trying to solve the puzzle of her dead son’s cryptic note; and Harper, Willow’s brother searching for his missing sister—a quest that gets darker and stranger by the day. Slow-burns aren’t for everyone, but I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers with creepy, ghostly stalkers lurking in the woods.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Kakaweeeeeee! Oh my goodness, y’all, this book was a hoot! With his mix of comedy and horror, Grady Hendrix is an acquired taste. For the most part, I avoid horror satire, but Grady Hendrix is an exception because his characters and storylines are just so entertaining. This one revolves around a divorced single mom who’s summoned back to her dreaded family home to take care of her dead parents’ affairs. To make matters worse, she must deal with her deadbeat brother who is a real piece of work. He carries some deep-seated disdain for his sister, and we soon learn why as the memories of their bizarre childhood start to unfold. Something is VERY WRONG with that house, and it all boils back to their eccentric mother’s love of puppets. One puppet in particular is Pupkin, a demonic toy that tends to take control of its handlers! Think Slappy from Goodbumps meets the Exorcist. Things escalate very quickly—power tools are involved. Seriously, this book would make one heck of a movie. Despite the comedy aspect, this book has some very creepy parts, especially the childhood flashback of Pupkin whispering in ears and forcing people to do some bad things. Trust me, it’s intense!

The Friday Five: Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater

On February 9, 2013February 9, 2013 By Bubble Bubble Books and TroubleIn CoziesLeave a comment

In honor of the coolest day of the week, I bring you The Friday Five. Every Friday I will ask the same five questions to myself, or any other willing participant! All my fellow book lovers are welcome to join in on the fun.

From the publisher: Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry… … in a new, horrific, unimaginable way… Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature. All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what’s worse is that he’s a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding. Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind. But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation… or her death?

Why did you choose this book? The Bookish Brunette gave it a crowned rating, so I knew it was worth a read. Plus the cover is really gruesome!

Where did the author go right? Or if it’s a turkey, what went wrong? What really set this book apart from the rest is that the author went old-school, meaning these aren’t your happy, friendly vampires that sustain themselves on animal blood. Ooooh no – they prey on humans, and sometimes it gets downright messy. Just when I thought I was burned out on vampires, she brought me back into the fray with this spellbinding tale of bloodlust, romance and adventure. I love that the vampires abhor mirrors, and that they can’t cross over a threshold uninvited. This gothic throwback is a welcome departure from a lot of the urban fantasy crap I’ve been reading lately. Oh and did I mention zombies are involved? Think Buffy meets The Walking Dead meets Anne Rice. In case you’re wondering, that’s the trifecta of blood-sucking awesomness!

On a side note, I would also like to mention that I REALLY appreciated the Austin infusion. Clearly this Texas woman loves her home state – and it shows in her descriptions of the rugged Hill Country landscape and Austin’s eclectic nightlife. She even mentions the gingerbread pancakes at Kirby Lane, which is pretty much the yummiest breakfast ever.

Did anything bug you about the book? The fact that it had to end kind of bugged me. Other than that, everything about the book – the plot threads, the characters, the romance – is spot on!

Would you read another book by this author? Absolutely, positively 100 percent YES! I’m already moving on to Pretty When She Kills.

How would you sum up the book in three words? Bloody, intense, fun.

A Q&A with Cynthia Leitich Smith

On February 4, 2011April 10, 2011 By Bubble Bubble Books and TroubleIn CoziesLeave a comment

If you’re a fan of gothic fantasy and paranormal romance, you should sink your teeth into Cynthia Leitich Smith’s newest book Blessed, a young adult thriller filled with brooding shapeshifters and night crawlers set in Austin. The third installment in a gothic triology, the story revolves around Quincy Morris, an orphaned teenager who’s struggling to keep her parent’s vampire-themed restaurant afloat while saving Central Texas from a legion of rogue vampires. While fighting off blood-sucking fiends, Quincy must keep her new thirst for blood at bay, salvage her soul and clear her best bud and soul mate –a hot-blooded werewolf cross-breed – of murder charges. Wow – and I thought my high school days were hellish!

Adding a unique spin on the ever-evolving vampire genre, she gives readers exactly what they want: fast-paced thrill rides filled with vampire lore, preternatural bad boys and steamy romance. If you haven’t read the first two books in the series, Tantalize or Eternal, you’re in for a treat!

I had the pleasure of meeting Cynthia at (be still my heart!) a vampire book launch party, and she graciously agreed to chat with me about blood-suckers, her love for dark fantasy and what’s up next!

Welcome Cynthia! Tell us about yourself. When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

Thank you! I first began reading and writing from a very young age. I recall that my first “performed” writing was a short story I wrote in second grade about catching crawdads. It was read over an intercom system at my Kansas City, Missouri area elementary school.

By sixth grade, I had a column, “Dear Gabby” in Mr. Rideout’s class newsletter.

In junior high and high school, I served as editor of my school newspapers.

I went on to major in news/editorial and public relations at the White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas, taking several fiction-writing classes as electives.

I continued onto The University of Michigan Law School (with the idea that I’d eventually become a media law professor in a journalism school or first amendment professor in a law school) and continued pursuing journalism through internships at small town and suburban papers as well as The Detroit Legal News and The Dallas Morning News.

The fiction bug bit me hard after graduation while I was clerking for the Department of Health and Human Services in Chicago. I became a full-time writer at age 27.

I couldn’t think of a better city for a vampire-themed restaurant than Austin! How did you come up with this concept?

Thanks! I’d always been a fan of spooky stories and gravitated heavily toward the horror shelves in the bookstores. Though I began writing realistic fiction, I longed to explore Gothic fantasy from early on.

It struck me that Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) was perhaps the quintessential horror novel (or one of them anyway) and, being a big classics geek, drew on that for inspiration.

More personally, I’d worked as a waitress in my teens—first at a Mexican chain restaurant and then at an athletic club (both in Overland Park, Kansas). It struck me that restaurants were such terrific stages for drama. They have thematic music, décor, menus, costuming. Sometimes people even burst into song.

And sure, folks tend to think of vampires as more drinkers than diners, but I thought that might give my story some of the fresh blood I was looking for.

Could you give me an example of how you incorporated Austin’s unique culture in your books?

Tantalize and Blessed are heavily set in Austin. Eternal, only in the beginning of the story.

That said, the series exudes Austin-ness. Sanguini’s, the vampire-themed restaurant in the book, is set on South Congress, which is an eclectic restaurant-dining-entertainment district. Heroes Quincie and Kieren live in the Bouldin Creek and Fairview neighborhoods respectively. Danger lurks along the hike-and-bike trail to either side of Lady Bird Lake.

Beyond that, there’s a strong sense of the community here. University profs and tie-dyed hippies, indie musicians and filmmakers, professional bikers and politicos and ex-dot.com millionaires.

It’s welcoming, sunny, optimistic, diverse in every sense of the word, and proudly itself.

Austin isn’t trying to be another city. Austin is Austin and loves it. You feel that in the characters.

Unlike other protagonists in popular vampire fiction, Quincie is strong-willed and unwilling to sacrifice her soul for love. How does she embody the characteristics of a tough Texan?

Quincie is smart enough to realize that her soul is who she is. If she gives herself up, there’s nothing left. Not her evolving patchwork family or the business she inherited from her mama or her amazing connection to Kieren. He loves her, the real her, not some monster walking around in body. She fights for herself because she has value intrinsically and to those who truly care about her.

As to how Quincie embodies Texas characteristics, I think she’s a particularly Austin flavor of Texan. She’s very open-minded and accepting and loyal to the folks in her life. She’s independent and ambitious and has one heck of a work ethic. I associate all that with Texas, though she’s also the granddaughter of Italian immigrants, who’ve built their business from scratch, and she values that too.

If your vampire books hit the big screen, which actors would play Quincie Morris and her lifelong best friend and love interest, Kieren?

Honestly, I couldn’t begin to say. At the moment, I’m completely enchanted with how Ming Doyle has brought them to life in her early sketches for the graphic novel, coming this fall.

What is your all-time favorite vampire movie/book?

That’s a toughie. Other than Dracula, I’m going to go with “Lost Boys.” It’s very 1980s in all of the best possible ways—spooky, funny, and romantic. I’m all about that.

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to an aspiring YA author?

Write! Don’t play writer. Don’t just talk about writing and go to conferences and haul around that same manuscript for a decade. Show up to the page day after day after day and mean it.

Can you give me a sneak peak into what you’re working on now?

Next up is Tantalize: Kieren’s Story, which is told from the point of view of one of my favorite characters, the hybrid werewolf Kieren Morales. It’ll be released in August by Candlewick Press.

I also have an essay called “Isolation” coming out next fall in Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories, an anthology edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones from HarperCollins.

Beyond that, I’m working on a fourth novel in the Tantalize series, which will be more of a sequel to events in Eternal. At the moment, it’s told in multiple point of view by three of the most popular characters in the series and set in both Austin and rural Vermont.

Take a look at Cynthia’s website to learn more about her books.