TAKE YOUR PICK

If you enjoy history and mysteries and a little romance you will like Karen White's Tradd Street Series. The first book is the House on Tradd Street. Melanie inherits an old historical house in Charleston, and along with house she inherits a ghost. So you get to hear about his life in the past and he and Melanie solve a years old mystery. I was quite entertained by this book and learned a couple of things too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry centers on Odessa, a forgotten princess in a realm cursed with terrible monsters. She was never meant to rule or to fight. But all that changes when a legendary monster hunter sails to her kingdom's shores, and a foreign prince changes her life. In this first book of a new "romantasy" series with high stakes and a slow burn romance, Odessa will find the strength to tear off her crown and become the warrior she was never meant to be.

As a fan of the popular romantasy genre, I wasn't sure what to expect from this new book by an author I hadn't heard of previously. I found myself quickly sucked into Odessa's world and am now anxiously waiting for Book Two, due to be released in April 2026.

“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,00 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

This is the intriguing beginning of All Systems Red, the first book in The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. Now is the perfect time to read this highly enjoyable science fiction book series before watching the newly released Apple TV+ adaptation. These books are full of both heart and snark and are told from the perspective of a combination bot-human construct. Calling itself Murderbot, it prefers to spend its time watching soap operas and goes on a journey of self-discovery over the course of the series. Of course, there is also a lot of science fiction action and drama. Most of the books in the series are novellas, making them a quicker read than most science fiction.