Month: May 2024

April in Review

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

I read 8 books last month, which definitely reflects me backing off on reading a bit after pushing so hard to finish the reading challenge at my local library in February and March. I’ve also been working a lot on VBS prep as director at my church, which takes up a decent amount of my free time as well, and will continue to do so until mid-June.

Here are the books I read in April:

juliet
bee
embers
Illusion
dragonback-5
marvels
Anne 1
39 black book
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The Juliet Code by Pepper Basham (3 / 5)
Bee’s Gift by Dana Romanin (4 / 5)
Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin (4 / 5)
Illusion by Frank E. Peretti (5 / 5)
Dragon and Judge by Timothy Zahn (4.5 / 5)
A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure by Angela Bell (5 / 5)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (5 / 5)
The Black Book of Buried Secrets by Mallory Kass (4 / 5)

This list includes 3 ARCs and 2 re-reads. My favorite book from April was A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventures. I started 1 series, continued 2 series, and finished 1 series*. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

*This includes 1 series I didn’t reach the end of, but decided not to continue reading, after being at least 2 books into the series.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

Book Review: The Black Book of Buried Secrets

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Storm Warning
The 39 Clues
by Mallory Kass

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

After the 39 Clues finale, a new threat has arisen, leading the separate branches of the Cahill family to come together and share their secrets. Broken down into a section for each of the 5 branches, this book covers founders and agents (though I’m not 100% sure what the difference is, since some of the founders are current…how can they be founders 500 years after the branch was founded?), strongholds, and tools and tricks used by each branch. It’s a good follow-up to the series, with some reminders of locations, names, or events that were brought up during the series, as well as new information. The brief vignettes that show some of the major characters from the series after the end of the clue hunt were great to have, and there are even a couple of short stories about historical characters looking for clues or being recruited by Cahills. There are a few things explained in this book that I at first thought must be spoilers of what is technically the final book in the series, though also a launching point for the first spin-off series. That book was published after this one, so I hope that’s not the case, but I won’t know until I read it (Vespers Rising).

The introduction by Rick Riordan, which depicts the different authors from the series as members of the Cahill branch, meeting to discuss sharing their secrets for this book, is clever and enjoyable. Fans of the 39 Clues series will probably find the brief stories and extra information in this book worth reading.

Find out more about The Black Book of Buried Secrets

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!