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ARC Review: Everything is Poison by Joy McCullough

A Blood Water Paint-style historical YA in prose and verse from New York Times bestselling author Joy McCullough. For as long as she can remember, Carmela Tofana has desperately wanted one  to be an important part of La Tofana Apothecary, her mother’s apothecary in the Campo Marzio neighborhood of Rome. When she finally turns sixteen, she’s allowed into the workroom of the shop, where her mother and two other women make some of the most effective remedies in all of Rome. They also dispense a healthy amount of good, non-medical advice to their clients. But the workroom of La Tofana is no simple place, and for every sweet-smelling flower extract to be prepared, there’s another potion where the main ingredient is blood or something even less pleasant. And then there’s Aqua Tofana, the apothecary’s remedy of last resort and one of several secrets Carmela never bargained for in all her years of wishing to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Everything Is Poison is a story of a deadly secret hiding in plain sight and of the women who risk everything to provide care for those most in need.

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NetGalley TBR: ARCs I’d Like to Read by the End of the Year

With the exception of the ARC I’m currently reading, all of the ARCs I have are 2025 releases. Most of the time I like to read an ARC either the month before it’s released, or the month it is released, but I have a few that I’m just so excited about that I’d love to read them before the year is out. Most of these actually come out in January, so I’ll be reading them either this month or in December, but I’ve got a few others that are coming out a little later that I can’t wait to read!

Get comfy and cozy and let’s chat 2025 ARCs I’m most excited to read!

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Review: Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

Author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.

Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.

One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.

Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.

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Let’s Talk: My Favorite Things (Fall Edition)

Hi friends! Recently I was thinking about things I like to do during this time of year — what books I like to reread, movies/shows to rewatch, my favorite albums to listen to at this time, favorite seasonal activities, things like that and thought it would be a fun blog post! It works as a way to share my favorite things (hence the title, also I hope you all started singing The Sound of Music) for the current season and it’s kind of like a recs post. 

So, if you’d like to hear about some of my favorite things for the Fall and want some recs, cozy up with your favorite beverage, snack or something else and let’s chat!

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Themed TBR: Halloween Season TBR

It’s almost Halloween season and I’m so excited! This really is the time of year where all I want to do is sit and read — I mean, that is always, but honestly, from like October to February it being so dark outside so early is really hard for me so all I want to do is read and escape. Anyway, this time of year especially, all I want to do is read dark and scary books; lots of intense mystery/thrillers and a lot of horror novels.

While I have my Fall TBR, I also wanted to do a Halloween themed TBR for the month of October. Now, my mystery/thriller and horror TBRs are never ending, so there were a lot of options for books to be on this list. I then thought “Hey, you’re trying to get your physical TBR down, how about this list is just the mystery/thriller/horror books that you’ve got physical copies of” and then suddenly it became a little bit easier to figure out this TBR!

So, if you’d like to see what scary and spine-chilling reads I want to get to in October, let’s go!

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Review: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men. 

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.  

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive. 

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world. 

She does not know this yet. But she will.

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