Hello all! Welcome back to another edition of mini book reviews! It seems to be the best way for me to write reviews, in these little bite size reviews.
First up! The Sad Ghost Club
The Sad Ghost Club by Lize Meddings: “The universe is most pleased we met.” You guys this book was just so good. I could relate to this so well; I was so shy and awkward in high school and had such anxiety over social things, much like these characters. This graphic novel is a very sweet look at anxiety, loneliness, feeling like you don’t belong anywhere.. it is just wonderful honestly. I am adding the rest of the series to my library holds ASAP!
Two “ghosts” meet at a party, both out of sync with the rest of the party goers, and it is a wonderful conversation between two people who have possibly found a kindred spirit. If you visit The Sad Ghost Club website, and you are in the UK, there are also helplines posted for those who are feeling like thye need a helping hand.
Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura: I’m an adventurer at heart. While in reality I am an introverted stay at home homeschool mom, there was a time I dreamed of discovering lost cities and digging up relics, having all sorts of wild adventures along the way. I am glad I actually pursued that outside of daydreams, because the reality is I much prefer reading about them in climate controlled, bug free spaces. Temple of Swoon is the perfect read for armchair adventuring archaeologists like me – this book has danger, a steamy jungle, a lost city, some crazy shenanigans, and romance. I ate this book up, like Miri eats her snacks. Miri is the main character, who is smart, resilient, a bit of a goofball, and prides herself on always having the best snacks. I thought she was awesome! Rafa wasn’t too bad either…
This book is for you if you like
🥾 Enemies to lovers
🥾 Indiana Jones
🥾 Cinnamon roll MMC
🥾 Smart women
Also if you like this book I highly recommend the old classic movie, African Queen. It was also an adventure story that made me laugh out loud.
The spice level: It is explicit open door, but it is almost all the way at the very end of the book. If I compare it to Under Loch and Key, which I reviewed last round, it seems tame. I haven’t read many romances honestly so I am still working out a system. Let’s say if Under Loch and Key is 5 jalapenos, this one is 3.5?
“These are the wild women who run barefoot through the meadow, who teach new songs to birds, who howl at the moon together. Wild women are their own kind of magic.” After all of this snow and being indoors – as cozy and wonderful it has been – I am more than ready to wake up to the songs of the birds in the morning and to run around barefoot again, to see colors again! That is why I decided this long gray February of the snow moon was the perfect time to read The Honey Witch – and it did not disappoint. The imagery was beautiful and conjured up long summer lazy summer days, bees buzzing around the garden, fireflies at night. It had a very cool magic system I thought, of a honey witch and an ash witch, a yin and a yang, balance. But the balance was out of order in this book, and Marigold had to find her place as the new honey witch and overturn the curse .. and that is all I will say!
This book:
🐝 Cozy Fantasy
🐝 Enemies to Lovers
🐝 Sapphic
🐝 Slow Burn Romance
🐝 Cool Magical System
For the spice level, which is sapphic, I would give it the same as Temple of Swoon – 3.5 jalapenos. Explicit open door but it is fairly short as well as near the end.
Thanks for reading! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 
Those ghost characters sound like they get it. Feeling out of place is something I think a lot of us know. I’m going to look up that website, too.
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It was such a good book. There a few more, I am planning on reading them all. And it is so true; there are probably so many of us that feel unseen and out of place. The website has a list of good resources – and stickers!
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Those sound like some wonderful books to escape into – hooray! I much prefer reading about sailing around the world or climbing mountains to ever wanting to do any of that (I can sail but choose not to!).
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Lol yes me too! I am not cut out for tropical temps and bugs. No thank you to that.
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These all sound pretty wonderful.
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They were all really good! Temple of Swoon made me laugh out loud in a few places!
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I love the covers, and your rating system made me chuckle! Spiciness doesn’t bother me as I just skip over it! Thanks for the reviews, Erin!
https://marshainthemiddle.com
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Lolol! I didn’t know how to describe it at all. I know there are some people who have different levels that are acceptable; I am like you, I will skip over things if I need to. I hope I awarded these books the right number of jalapenos! LOL.
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“Armchair adventurer archaeologist”, I love it.
That’s what so perfect about books – we can go anywhere and to any time without actually having to do it if you don’t want to or can’t.
I once heard a YouTuber say that she found she enjoys some things a lot in theory, but doesn’t actually want to do them herself, and I found that so perfect. I can live vicariously through others by watching people sew or paint or climbing mountains when none of those things are on my personal list.
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Lol thank you!
Isn’t that just the best thing? We can go anywhere in a book. And yes me too! I love books set on houseboats – in reality though, I hate being on a boat. It freaks me out. Lol. So fictional boating is good, real boating bad.
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The last two look good – maybe not total winners but a good way to spend a few hours. I have another book by The Temple of Swoon author on my TBR. Sad Ghost Club looks interesting as well though a bit more serious.
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I did really like all three of them! Temple of Swoon made me laugh out loud a few times. Lol.
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It looks like you read a lovely mixture of books recently. They all sound so different. I’m not sure if the middle ones for me or not 🤔 the whole female adventurer idea sounds fantastic. I want to say I’d watch it if it was a movie and realised that’s what I’m getting stuck on. Something about the cover is reminding me of a film that looked kind of cringey to me and it’s making me nervous 😂
Anyway you’ve left me intrigued about The Honey Witch. I feel like I saw some mixed reviews back when it came out but you’ve made it sound fantastic. I can never resist enemies to lovers, I love interesting magic systems and the yin & yang comment has left me longing to discover more. Plus slow burn is so good in general 😍 so you reignited my intrigue there.
I hope you’re well and having a fantastic March 🥰
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