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Book Talk | Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery

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 The Golden Girls has to be one of my all-time favorite shows/sitcoms. I've been a viewer, probably since the womb and my little family and I are current;y watching it all the way through once a week-ish. It's a show that has, for the most-part, aged well with punchlines still hitting and the more serious subjects still ringing true today. My daughter has a few Golden Girls books on her bookshelf and now I can say the same for me. Here's my review of Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery. About the Author  Rachel Ekstrom Courage is the New York Times, USA Today, and American Booksellers Association bestselling author of Murder By Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery (Hyperion Avenue/Disney) and the Young Adult thriller Nothing Bad Happens Here (PRH/Delacorte). She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband (the children’s book author Nick Courage) and their family. By day she’s the founder of Courage Literary, advocating for books and authors that make the worl...
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Rainy Thoughts | Long-Haul Flights

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I'm writing this for two reasons. One, I love to travel and I think people who are looking to travel on longer flights or who have and may want to see other people's perspective on long-haul flights. Two, my family is going on their very first overseas flight this summer and I wanted them to be prepared, so I thought, why not just make my list to them a whole blog. Anyway, let's get into it.   Before Your Flight There are a few things I recommend you do before your long-haul flight.  Get a facial or go all out on your face routine the night before. The plane makes your skin dry, and you don't want your face to feel bleh when you land. Some people also bring a mask to use on the plane. I haven't tried that yet, but just get your face clean. As a bonus, getting a facial done can get those pesty pimples out beforehand.  Make sure you check off everything you need to bring with you before your flight, especially your carry-on items, as that is what you'll have acces...
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Rainy Books | Mona's Eyes

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Every year for Christmas, my husband finds me a unique or interesting book as part of my gift. This year, he chose Mona's Eyes. It's a book I've seen displayed at Barnes & Nobles as their book of the year for 2025. I always make the books he gets me on the top of the list of my TBR and what I found was a love letter. Here are my thoughts on Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser.   About the Author Thomas Schlesser is the director of the Hartung-Bergman Foundation in Antibes, France. He teaches Art History at the École Polytechnique in Paris and is the author of several works of nonfiction about art, artists, and the relationship between art and politics in the 20th century. He is the grandson of André Schlesser, known as Dadé, a singer and cabaret performer who founded the Cabaret L ’Écluse. Mona’s Eyes is Schlesser’s second novel and his American debut. It has been translated into thirty-eight languages, including Braille. Schlesser was awarded 2025’s Author of ...
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Book Blast | The Last Fairy Witch

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                                   THE LAST FAIRY WITCH By Jean M. Roberts Historical Fantasy Publication Date: March 31, 2026 ∞༺✦✮✦༻✧ SYNOPSIS ∞༺✦✮✦༻✧ Hannah Heronstone appears to have everything—a devoted husband, a beloved child, and a thriving business built on ancient herbal knowledge. Yet beneath the calm surface of her life, something old and malevolent stirs. A disturbing encounter with a friend from her husband’s past awakens Hannah’s suspicion that a coven of dark witches is gathering near Wentworth Manor. When Hannah, Peter, and Johannah journey to Ireland, her fears take terrifying form as she comes face to face with an unspeakable monster. A fairy offers her aid—but in a land where truth is slippery and magic demands a price, can such a creature be trusted? And where, across legend and time, can she find the Last Fairy Witch? Centuries earlier, Eithne is a young Irish slave whose gift...
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Book Talk | Three Wishes by Liane Morairty

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 This book has been sitting on my shelf on my TBR pile, and I finally made some time for it. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may know that I am a big Liane Moriarty fan. This is the fifth book I've read from her and I was excited to find out it was her very first one! Here's my full book review on Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty . About the Author After leaving school, Liane worked in advertising and marketing and did a business degree.   She became quite corporate for a while and wore big-shouldered suits and fretted about the size of her office. She eventually left her position as marketing manager to run her own (not especially successful) business called The Little Ad Agency. After that she worked as a (more successful, thankfully) freelance advertising copywriter, writing everything from websites and TV commercial to the back of the Sultana Bran box. Liane Moriarty acquired her Masters degree at Macquarie University in Sydney. As part of that degree...
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Manga Monday | Firefly Wedding

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It’s been a hot minute since I wrote a Manga Monday, not because I haven’t been reading manga, but I just haven’t been reading anything that’s finished or that I haven’t already reviewed. However, the last chapter of  Firefly Wedding  came out in January, and I needed to talk about it, so here we are.  SPOILER ALERT! About the Mangaka In 2016, while raising children, Tachibana Oreco began painting landscapes with acrylic paints and shared them on Twitter. Progressing from illustrations to creating doujinshi (self-published works). In October 2016, an original piece she posted on the illustration sharing site Pixiv caught the attention of the Shogakukan MangaONE editorial department. From January 2018 onwards, she commenced the serialization of “Promise Cinderella.” Starting from January 1st, 2023, she began serializing  Firefly Wedding  on MangaONE and Ura Sunday. About the Manga Set during the Meiji era, Satoko Kirigaya is the daughter of an earl and renowned f...
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Rainy Travel | Thoughts on Solo Travel

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I recently went on my very first trip where I traveled out of state by myself and knew no one else that I was meeting up with (for work) on my trip. Now, I know people do this all the time, but in all my time traveling, I haven't really traveled by myself, much-less spent the night in a whole different state by myself. Many moons ago, I would take the bus, and once the Amtrack, from my hometown to my now husband, then boyfriend's city. That was really the only time I traveled alone. So I kind of wanted to talk about my thoughts on solo traveling here.    Driving vs. Flying  Last year, I went on my first solo-drives to cities about an hour and a half away. Going to concerts in another city used to be easy for my husband and I, but now that we have a little one, it can be a little hard for both of us to go. Last year, Big Thief was coming to a city near me and I absolutely wanted to go. With encouragement, and a little bit of extra cash, my husband told me I should go and h...
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