Forgot Some

 

When I got home yesterday I had two packages waiting for me. Yes, more books to add to the 2026 list.

The ever-growing 2026 list is being added to the ever-expanding currently reading (and I use the term loosely) and TBR pile:

Some have been on the pile for a few months and are just on pause. Some have been on it since it was a simple list and not three piles, a basket and a drawer. And looking at Booker D. Penguin reminds me that I have one more piece of book mail coming. 

I haven't gotten mail from Penguin in at least six years (in a previous job). I got so much from them that when I won the aforementioned penguin at a carnival I had to name him Booker. I mean, was there another choice? One of the authors I got to interview in the old days was Shari LaPena and it was for "The Couple Next Door," mentioned on the cover of this book. I remember liking her and the book.

As for giveaways ... I can't even tell you how many Goodreads giveaways I've entered recently but it's been a lot. A lot. I don't know if winners are chosen by the luck of the draw or if there's an algorithm or whatever, but I haven't won in a long time. I have to wonder if it's because of my reviews. One of the conditions of the giveaways is that you write an honest review. I do that but I don't write a synopsis of the book when I write a review. I figure anyone who is reading a review has already read the synopsis and some blurbs and, more than likely, other reviews. They don't need my synopsis, too, so I just get straight to what they came for: My opinion. I do that for all my reviews. If I start getting paid by the word or by the inch, I'll start writing more.  

 

Book Review: The Faraway Inn by Sara Beth Durst

From Penguin Random House:

After a devastating heartbreak, a teen girl decides to spend her summer helping her eccentric great aunt manage her quaint Vermont inn—but the fixer-upper is hiding a magical secret—in this cozy and irresistable new YA fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop.

When sixteen-year-old Calisa arrives at her great-aunt’s B&B in rural Vermont for the summer, she’s shocked to find a rundown inn rather than the cozy bed-and-breakfast she was expecting. Grumpy and eccentric, Auntie Zee is determined to keep anyone from messing with her beloved inn . . . even though she clearly needs the help.

To convince her great-aunt to keep her around, Calisa sets to work fixing up the inn, enlisting extra help from the groundskeeper’s (handsome) son. But the longer she stays, the surer she is that there’s something strange about the B&B—and its guests. Something almost . . . otherworldly.

The inn is hiding a magical secret—but secrets are like doors. Once Calisa opens this one, she won’t be able to go back 

My Review:

(Note: You just read the book description. You don't need me to go over it again, right?)

I love the characters, and the story is addictive. I want to stay at the Faraway Inn, or at least work there. This book totally immersed me in the story and made me forget about what’s happening in the world, at least for a little while, and I sure do need that. 

Thanks to Booktrovert and Penguin Random House for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Faraway Inn is scheduled for publication on March 31, 2026.