2026

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

Back to the daily grind! After traveling quite a bit in early July, this week was a return to work and normal routines. All in all, busy but not bad, and we had some lovely weather over the weekend. Highlights of the week included dinner with friends we hadn’t seen in a while, another dinner out for just me and my husband, and my daughter’s arrival yesterday for a week here, which I’m very happy about!

Bookish bits & bobs.

The biggest recent book news (in my opinion!) is the cover and synopsis reveal for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s next book, The Last Days of Vic & Coco, to be released March 2027:

A snippet from the synopsis:

Sharp, seductive, and electric, The Last Days of Vic & Coco is set in the sun-and-shadows world of long desert highways, seedy motels, and dive bars. It’s the story of two women living by their wits, making their own rules, and traveling light. Even though they want different things from life, they swear they will stick together. But can you ever really trust the promises of a hustler?

Who else is excited?

What did I read during the last week?

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman: What a fun kick-off to a new series! My review is here.

Heartstopper, volume 6 by Alice Oseman: A wonderful end to a terrific graphic novel series — even though I’m sad that it’s over. See my link (under pop culture) for thoughts on the end of the Heartstopper era.

Pronoun Trouble by John McWhorter: An entertaining little linguistics book — perfect for word nerds. My quick take is here.

Not With a Bang by Temi Oh: An end-of-the-world novel that’s more about the family at its center than it is about the catastrophic events. Interesting yet uneven; my review is here.

Romantic Hero by Kirsty Greenwood: I finished the audiobook yesterday! Such fun. Watch for my review later in the week.

Pop culture & TV:

The wonderful Netflix adaptation of the Heartstopper series ended this month with both a wrap-up movie and a behind-the-scenes short documentary. Check out my Heartstopper thoughts, here.

I didn’t have a whole lot of time to get involved in any other viewing, but I managed to squeeze in the first episode of AppleTV’s Star City, a spin-off of For All Mankind (series review) focusing on the early days of the space race from the Soviet perspective. As you might imagine, it’s fairly bleak, but I’m interested enough to want to keep going.

Fresh Catch:

No new books this week.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

Destination Funeral by Paige Harbison: I really enjoyed this author’s previous book (The Other Side of Now), and I’m excited to be starting her new release.

Now playing via audiobook:

The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren: This feels like a great mid-summer audiobook choice! I’m always happy to have a new Christina Lauren book to listen to.

Ongoing reads:

Just one at the moment:

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe: My book group’s classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 58%. Coming up this week: Volume 3, chapters 6 and 7.

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

26Jul2026

Book Review: Not With a Bang by Temi Oh

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Not With a Bang
Author: Temi Oh
Publisher: Saga Press
Publication date: July 14, 2026
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Station Eleven meets Leave the World Behind in this family drama at the end of the world about a crumbling household’s attempts to find their way back to each other amidst a cataclysmic event.

“Our father had imagined the end of the world so often that, for a while, he believed that he summoned it.”

The Minton family is in crisis. After losing his job, Marcus begins stockpiling cans, running evacuation drills and digging a doomsday bunker in the back garden. At the same time, his daughters are unravelling in their own ways – Chantale is being haunted by dreams of disaster, and Briar’s obsession with a missing classmate draws her deeper into the seductive world of a UFO cult. Meanwhile, no one is aware of the diagnosis their mother has been trying to keep hidden.

When, on the morning of the eldest daughter’s wedding, an extinction-level event tears the world apart, the Mintons must fight their way through a devastated city—back to safety, survival, and each other.

What is expected to be a once-in-a-lifetime, awe-inducing astronomical event — a planet, or possibly moon or asteroid, expected to pass by Earth so closely as to be visible — turns cataclysmic in Not With a Bang. And yet, despite the catastrophe that turns life on Earth into “before” and “after”, the story here is very much about a family — what brings them together and what tears them apart.

Marcus and Kim Minton have four daughters. Their oldest, Aaliyah, is about to be married at age 22. Briar, 17, and Tanice, 15, are both in high school, and their little sister Chantal is only 7. After losing his job as a police officer years earlier, Marcus has become an obsessed prepper, building a bunker in the backyard, stocking it with food and supplies to sustain his family for at least a year, and drilling the girls on emergency evacuations through middle-of-the-night alarms.

And yet, when the real thing comes along, none of the planning seems to matter. On the day of Aaliyah’s wedding, the family is scattered across London in various stages of getting ready. In the aftermath of destruction and chaos, alone and in groups, they must find their way back home, avoiding threats from their changed surroundings as well as from other people.

The book has an interesting storytelling approach. Chapters focus on relaying events through different family members’ experiences, and yet, Briar’s voice narrates throughout. As she explains in the opening chapter:

Almost everything I didn’t live through, I would learn later from witness reports and testimonies. I have examined everything in its entirety, more than once. Some things I can only imagine. Like my father’s expression the morning it happened.

We never forget that it’s Briar telling us the story, even as we move through third-person accounts focused on other people — so chapters may open with lines such as:

Tanice could tell it was about to happen before I did. She’d seen it more times than she cared to count.

And while Briar will share her insights during this chapter and others, the focus is on the person whose chapter it is; in this case, what Tanice did and felt and observed during these moments. We’re led to understand that all of this represents the family members’ memories, as shared with Briar at some future point.

The actual event (or the Event, as many refer to it) is terrifying and leaves utter ruin in its wake. Some pieces of society collapse immediately, while a few emergency services and official organizations seem to have been prepared in advance. The explanations related to what exactly has happened and what it represents come slowly over the course of the book; I didn’t feel that it all made sense, but I was willing to accept it for the sake of the overall story.

Not With a Bang is oddly compelling. From chapter to chapter and from character to character, I was always eager to see what might be next. A sense of danger looms over every scene. From Briar’s narration, we can rest assured that the family will survive somehow, even in the moments when this seems most questionable. After all, how could she be telling us what they all went through if she hadn’t had the opportunity in the “after” to find out?

This guarantee of the family’s safety does diminish the stakes to an extent, although that’s not to say that they come through the Event unscathed. Clearly, life will never be the same. Seeing how they all reach one another, and what they have to do to survive and overcome deadly obstacles, is what propels the reading experience forward and keeps the reader hooked until the end.

With a potential extinction-level event as the catalyst, you might expect more of a science fiction focus — but at its heart, Not With a Bang is the story of a family. Their struggles before, during, and after the Event form the narrative arc, but their interwoven dynamics — the hurts, resentments, and anger built up over all the preceding years — provide the central elements of the story. The parents’ fracturing marriage, the girls’ sense of abandonment as related to their mother’s earlier career choices, the selfish, misguided, or desperate actions of the older daughters — these are the pivot points as the narrative unfolds. The Event is the catalyst for the family members to confront their complicated relationships, come to certain realizations, and redefine themselves as they move forward.

Briar’s storyline is often frustrating, as she becomes entangled with an alien-worshipping cult who believe that the Event is a harbinger of the aliens’ arrival and turn to near-death experiences to try to make contact. While her involvement with the group starts as a way to discover the truth about a classmate’s disappearance, it becomes more complicated as she finds a sense of acceptance and belonging, and begins to question whether their beliefs could be real. She makes some truly terrible decisions, allowing the cult to pull her away from the relative safety of her family and their bunker, and puts herself in mortal danger in a way that doesn’t feel necessary.

Overall, I found Not With a Bang interesting and absorbing, but perhaps not entirely successful. Using a cataclysmic event to tell the story of a family is an inventive approach, and yet, I wished for just a bit more focus on the events themselves — digressions into the oldest daughter’s teen tennis career, for example, take up more space that seemed needed and pull focus from the family’s struggles to survive.

I’m glad to have read Not With a Bang, despite the elements that dragged the story down for me. The narrative style and voice is fresh and certainly different from other apocalyptic books that I’ve read. The story may not satisfy fans of hard science fiction, but readers looking for a character-focused story with a world-changing disaster as a catalyst will find plenty to appreciate and savor.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

25Jul2026

Reading & viewing: Wrapping up the Heartstopper series

Posted in Book Reviews, Pop Culture by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

It’s the end of an era!

Specifically, the Heartstopper era… during which Alice Oseman’s webtoon-turned-graphic-novels entranced readers with a swoony love story about two sweet boys who find one another, overcome bullying and deal with mental health crises, find a glorious friend group, and find a way to stay together, even while hearing (constantly) that teen relationships don’t last.

Nick and Charlie first meet early in their high school years. Nick, age 14, is one of the few out gay boys at school, and has been bullied for it. Nick, 16, is (presumably) straight and a star rugby player. The two connect instantly as friends, but there’s something else simmering beneath the surface right from the start. As the story progresses, Nick has an awakening about his own sexuality, Charlie deals with a severe eating disorder, and both learn to embrace their identities, stand proud, and allow their love to flourish.

In the 6th and final volume, as we readers deal with reaching the end, so too do Charlie and Nick have to deal with an ending of sorts — not of their relationship, but of their school years together. Nick is in his final year of high school, with plans to attend university out of town. He feels lost and conflicted — who is he without Charlie? Charlie has grown from a scared boy into a determined young man. He’s still himself, but has developed over the years into someone who sees that he can help others in a way that he himself wasn’t helped, launching a campaign to stop bullying and to establish a school club for gay kids to gather and feel safe.

As they navigate the ups and downs of their final school year together, Nick and Charlie confront serious issues, individually and together, but never lose their amazing connection. They also remain deeply committed to their friend group, who as individuals all add fresh elements to the story and as a group show the beauty of having a supportive, loving community.

Heartstopper volume 6 provides a lovely, cheery, moving conclusion to a wonderful graphic novel series. I’ll miss these characters!

From 2022 to 2024, Netflix aired three seasons of a wonderful adaptation of Heartstopper, with spot-on casting and a production vibe that perfectly captures the feeling (and feelings) of the books. This month, a final wrap-up movie was release, Heartstopper Forever:

I loved the three seasons of the seasons, and approached the movie this week with eagerness and nervousness.

Overall, I was happy with it! The movie takes a more depressing turn than the book does, which may be why I felt it started dragging a bit in the middle. Also, while the series episodes give breathing room to the friend group, so that we we really have time to get to know all the characters and their story arcs, the movie has so much ground to cover with Nick and Charlie that the friends mainly serve as background or support, without substantial storylines of their own.

That said, I did love seeing Nick and Charlie again, especially seeing how far they’ve come and how they’ve grown and matured together as their relationship has deepened. I will admit that seeing these characters being very sexually active can be a bit startling, considering that we’ve been watching them grow up since age 14 or thereabouts! Still, they are absolutely lovely together, and it’s beautiful to see them sorting out how to support one another, how to deal with their separate challenges and crises, and how to manage to be whole people as individuals, beyond their identity as “Nick and Charlie”.

Heartstopper Forever is essential viewing for anyone who’s watched the previous three seasons. For anyone who hasn’t, start at season 1 — I’ll bet you won’t want to stop!

This week, Netflix also dropped a short (35-minutes) behind the scenes special, Heartstopper: Ending on a Hi.

What a heartwarming way to end the Heartstopper experience! It’s lovely to hear the cast, crew, and fans talk about what the show has meant to them. If you’ve watched the show and the movie, definitely check this out too!

Now that I’ve reached the end, I’m tempted to start all over again from the beginning — with both the books and the Netflix series. I think it would be amazing to go back and see the characters once again at the very start of their journeys, knowing how much they grow and change as their stories move forward.

Heartstopper has been a wonderful experience. I encourage everyone to check it out!

24Jul2026

First Lines Friday 7/24/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers created by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here’s how to join in:

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
Finally… reveal the book!

I’ve been away from home for various reasons for the past several Fridays… but now I’m back, and ready for a FLF post!

This week’s lines are from the July new release that I’ve just started:

Is it possible to want something so much that the force of your longing pulls taut the fabric of reality until it bursts? Our father had imagined the end of the world so often that, for a while, he believed that he summoned it.

So what’s the book?

Not With A Bang by Temi Oh
Release date: July 14, 2026
352 pages

Synopsis:

Station Eleven meets Leave the World Behind in this family drama at the end of the world about a crumbling household’s attempts to find their way back to each other amidst a cataclysmic event.

“Our father had imagined the end of the world so often that, for a while, he believed that he summoned it.”

The Minton family is in crisis. After losing his job, Marcus begins stockpiling cans, running evacuation drills and digging a doomsday bunker in the back garden. At the same time, his daughters are unravelling in their own ways – Chantale is being haunted by dreams of disaster, and Briar’s obsession with a missing classmate draws her deeper into the seductive world of a UFO cult. Meanwhile, no one is aware of the diagnosis their mother has been trying to keep hidden.

When, on the morning of the eldest daughter’s wedding, an extinction-level event tears the world apart, the Mintons must fight their way through a devastated city—back to safety, survival, and each other.

I enjoyed this author’s 2019 novel, Do You Dream of Terra-Two?, and I’m excited to be starting this new release.

Does this sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

23Jul2026

Quick Take: Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words by John McWhorter

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words
Author: John McWhorter
Publisher: Avery
Publication date: April 1, 2025
Length: 240 pages
Genre: Non-fiction / linguistics
Source: Purchased
Rating:

With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns

The nature of language is to shift and evolve—but every so often, a new usage creates a whole lot of consternation. These days, pronouns are throwing curveballs, and it matters, because pronoun habits die hard. If you need a refresher from eighth-grade English: Pronouns are short, used endlessly, and serve to point and direct, to orient us as to what is meant about who. Him, not her. Me, not you. Pronouns get a heavy workout, and as such, they become part of our hardwiring. To mess with our pronouns is to mess with us.

But many of today’s hot-button controversies are nonsense. The singular they has been with us since the 1400s and appears in Shakespeare’s works. In fact, many of the supposedly iron-clad rules of grammar are up for debate (Billy and me went to the store is perfectly logical!), and with tasty trivia, unexpected twists, and the weird quirks of early and contemporary English, John McWhorter guides readers on a journey of how our whole collection of these little words emerged and has changed over time.

Pronoun Trouble is sure to delight word nerds everywhere! In this savory little linguistics book, author John McWhorter takes us through the history of I, you, we, he, she, they — and more! — investigating word origins and the twisty paths these pronouns have followed to get us to modern day usage.

Along the way, he proves wrong certain assumptions about usage, explains what is and isn’t logical, and how the use of singular “they” has evolved from non-specific to particular.

Does this sound like dry reading? It’s anything but.

The author makes linguistics entertaining, and even funny. For example, in a section devoted to the evolution and usage of “you guys” as a plural for you:

In cases like this, it is useful to consider that there is an alternate explanation.

I respectfully submit one: in you guys, guys no longer means guys.

Or another example of changing meanings:

For Chaucer and Shakespeare, going to referred to getting somewhere physically; both would have been thrown by someone sitting at a table and saying “I’m going to try to eat all of this in ten minutes”:” and then fressing down the food but not getting up to go anywhere.

On explaining why created pronouns don’t seem to catch on, he explores how nouns can shift and vary over time without a huge amount of resistance, because they are less foundational to daily speech, whereas:

Pronouns, in contrast, are at the very foundation of human expression at all times. Full words are the windshield wipers and the headlights — things you turn on now and then. He and she are the accelerator and the brake pedal — what you are working down below, all the time, without thinking.

Certain bits started to drag somewhat when the examples became a little too technical for my level of interest, but overall, I found this book clever, informative, and highly engaging. A terrific gift for the word lovers in your life!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

22Jul2026

Book Review: We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1) by Richard Osman

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: We Solve Murders
Series: We Solve Murders, #1
Author: Richard Osman
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication date: September 17, 2024
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Mystery
Source: Library
Rating:

A brand new mystery. An iconic new detective duo. And a thrilling new murder to solve . . .

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .

As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer?

Solving murders. It’s a family business.

After devouring every book in the Thursday Murder Club series, how could I possibly resist checking out Richard Osman’s newest series starter?

We Solve Murders retains the sense of hijinks and emphasis on quirky characters that make the Thursday Murder Club books such incredible fun. Here, the main characters are Amy Wheeler, a tough-as-nails bodyguard who excels at protecting the people under her charge and hitting the people who threaten them, and Steve Wheeler, her widowed father-in-law who seems to want nothing more than a quiet life in his little British village — with the weekly pub quiz thrown in for excitement.

Amy’s current job is protecting Rosie D’Antonio, the world’s #2 bestselling mystery writer, a woman of indeterminate age with audacious style and more money than she knows what to do with. Rosie got on the bad side of a Russian oligarch by putting him in one of her books, and now her life is at risk, so she and Amy are tucked away on Rosie’s private island, where they should be safe.

Unfortunately, bizarre deaths seem to be occurring amongst the clients of Amy’s employer, and the pattern of these murders is uncomfortably close to Amy’s recent locations. As more threats loom, Amy and Rosie go on the run, and Amy convinces Steve to join them as they race around the globe, outwitting the bad guys and staying one step ahead of the seemingly endless parade of people trying to kill them.

As with Richard Osman’s other books, the characters themselves are even more entertaining than the heist/chase/murder/mystery plot elements. Amy and Steve’s dynamic is especially wonderful, and Rosie is a delicious mix of sassy and bawdy, always up for an adventure and not at all shy about her own success. A delightful cast of supporting characters rounds out the story — including an arrogant action hero actor, a charming airport security agent, Steve’s local mechanic friend, and many more.

The mystery in We Solve Murders is convoluted and a bit mad, and goes in all sorts of strange and unexpected directions. International flights on private jets, as seen through Steve’s experiences, are a hoot, and it’s quite fun to follow the trio from destination to destination in search of clues and safety.

We Solve Murders feels like a great start to a series, and I’m looking forward to seeing what hot water Amy, Steve, and Rosie find themselves in next.

Book #2, We Chase Shadows, will be released in September 2026 — and you can bet that I’ll be reading it just as soon as I can!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

21Jul2026

Book Review: Habits of the Sea by Shea Ernshaw

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Habits of the Sea
Author: Shea Ernshaw
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: July 7, 2026
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Magical realism
Source: Review copy courtesy of Atria
Rating:

The second adult novel from New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, in which a woman rediscovers the mythical island she stumbled upon as a child—and the man she once met who apparently hasn’t aged—and must choose between the life she’s built and a love that defies the laws of time and nature.

The night Clay Lockhart’s wife dies, a violent storm tears their home—and the eight hectares of land beneath it—away from the Scottish coast, sending it adrift into the Atlantic. Thirty years later, twelve-year-old Ellie Mills discovers the fabled floating island off the coast of Nova Scotia and finds Clay still living in the weatherworn farmhouse perched on its highest hill.

When the island vanishes overnight, Ellie is left questioning whether it ever existed at all. But decades later, the island resurfaces—and Ellie, now in her thirties, returns, determined to uncover the truth. What she finds is even stranger: Clay hasn’t aged a single day.

Faced with the impossible, Ellie learns that some mysteries aren’t meant to be solved—and that a life shaped by wonder may hold more promise than one bound by certainty.

With her signature atmospheric, lyrical prose, Shea Ernshaw offers us an original work of folklore with a masterful modern touch. A haunting tale, Habits of the Sea spans centuries and coastlines, journeys through time and memory, and redefines the very meaning of love itself.

Habits of the Sea is a lushly written, beautifully emotional story about a love powerful enough to cross the boundaries of time, and even more so, about what it means to choose love over and over again.

This lovely book opens with a devastating scene. On a stormy night in 1952, on an island in the
Outer Hebrides of Scotland, a grief-stricken man buries his wife and stillborn babies. By the next morning, the storm is gone — and so is the piece of land where his house and farm once stood. There’s no wreckage to be found; it’s as if the land itself has broken off and disappeared.

Over the years, the legend of Saltwell Island spreads — how Clay Lockhart’s grief was so intense that it split the ground apart. Fishermen and sailors would share the story of spotting:

… the newly formed island with its white house perched atop a stony outcropping, drifting out into the farthest reaches of the deep gray Atlantic.

Many years later, in 2007, 12-year-old Ellie Mills is living with her grandmother in a small coastal village in Nova Scotia when she hears a strange noise during a storm. Running outside, she sees what she assumes to be a shipwreck stuck against the rocks along their harbor, and without much thought, takes their small boat out to investigate. But it’s not a shipwreck — it’s an island, drifted up on the rocks. And there, Ellie encounters Clay Lockhart, a man who appears to be in his 30s. She spends just a few hours on the island, warming up after sailing through the rainstorm, but when she returns home, a full week has passed.

Ellie’s life is forever changed. No one believes her tale of a floating island, and she’s mocked by her friends and sent for psychiatric care by the adults who believe she’s created a fantasy as an explanation for a traumatic event. And over the years that follow, Ellie manages to convince herself that her journey to Saltwell Island wasn’t real.

But almost twenty years later, having left Nova Scotia and her troubled past behind, Ellie hears that the fabled island has been spotted by a passing cruise ship way off in the Atlantic. Needing to settle her own mind once and for all, she flies off to the last known location… and once again, finds Saltwell Island — and Clay Lockhart, who hasn’t aged a day.

The heart and soul of Habits of the Sea revolves around Ellie’s connection to Clay, and to the life and love they gradually discover together. The longer Ellie finds herself on Saltwell, the more she’s able to see how so much of her adult life was an attempt to shelter herself from risk, to protect herself from the possibility that perhaps she did once experience something extraordinary. To Clay, it’s only been a year since an odd little girl first washed up on his island; clearly, Saltwell Island has become separated not only from the land it was once attached to, but from time itself.

A thread of passion and purpose runs through every moment of Ellie’s time with Clay. Even before love develops, there’s a connection between them, and Ellie feels grounded in this strange place more than she’s every been anywhere else.

I sleep now each night as if I’ve never really slept a day before this. A restfulness that feels childlike, something from a storybook: She slept so deeply that even the wolves could not wake her. And when she finally rose with the sun she was restored to who she was always meant to be. It’s the kind of sleep that I won’t be able to describe once I’m back in the real world. There are no words for it. Unless you’ve felt it, unless you’ve been pulled into your dreams like sinking below a waterline.

Life on the island is simple and wonderful. Ellie and Clay tend the gardens, chickens, and sheep. They live peacefully, relying on the bounty of the sea and the island for sustenance. The island drifts where the sea takes it; there’s no navigation or power to control its voyaging. Some seas are calm, some full of danger. There are warmer days as they drift south and pull mangos from trees along the shores, and bitterly cold days where they rely on the cellar full of preserved foods to get by, until they drift again to someplace more nurturing of growing things once again.

As time passes, Ellie is faced with unbearable choices. She knows that time passes differently on the island — how long has she been gone from the “real” world? What does this mean for her grandmother and the almost-fiancé she left behind? If she can find a way to get back to a mainland somehow, should she? But how can she leave Clay and everything he’s come to mean to her? In a deeply visceral way, Ellie is forced to reckon with understanding who she is and where she truly belongs, and must grapple with a choice about sacrifice and destiny before committing to a future — because she knows that if she leaves the island, she’ll likely never have the chance to find it — and Clay — again.

Maybe we’re not meant to know what’s right or wrong. To know which path to choose. Which life. Maybe the no-knowing is the point. Because maybe we’re meant to be a little reckless.

Habits of the Sea has a Brigadoon-ish feel at times — Saltwell Island is a mystical, fairy tale-like place that magically appears for a brief time before disappearing off into the unknown. How can someone leave the place they feel truly alive, knowing they may be leaving it forever? I was reminded in certain ways of Outlander as well, where a character displaced from her own time must decide in which world she truly belongs.

The sense of building emotional entanglement is gorgeously written. We readers can feel how complicated Ellie’s inner life has become — the conflicted sense of loyalty, the desire, the questions about belonging, obligation, and fulfillment. The pull between Ellie and Clay feels real and true; their connection leaps off the page.

He breathes and the air seems to change — subtly, like a sudden drop in barometric pressure, atoms dividing, seconds splitting. The line between before and after unspools. Right from wrong. Him from me. It all feels perilous. And unnamable.

In the latter part of the book, the storyline seems to veer from magical realism — the unworldliness, a place out of time, almost like a visit to a faerie kingdom — toward speculative fiction, as the plot moves in a direction that surprised me, yet makes complete sense in the grand scheme of the overall narrative. Without going into detail, while I didn’t expect this, I ended up feeling that the book as a whole operates on a grand scale that absolutely brings every bit of the characters’ arcs to a point of perfect resolution.

Habits of the Sea is a book that will be haunting my thoughts and dreams for a long time to come. With gorgeous writing, a plot that wraps a reader in layers of a reality that’s magical yet intensely tangible, and characters who we come to care about deeply, this is a book filled with wonder and beauty. Once I started, I never wanted to look away.

Don’t miss this incredible reading experience.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

20Jul2026

The Monday Check-In ~ 7/20/2026

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Life.

It’s been another whirlwind week! After just a few days back home from my Oregon roadtrip, I headed out of town again to join a friend at a folkdance retreat in New Mexico. It was fantastic to have the time with my friend, plus the dancing was amazing (but exhausting, between the heat and the elevation of the location). I’m so glad I went. Now, back to “regular” life for a while.

What did I read during the last week?

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett: A long, compelling, terrific historical novel. My review is here.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman: The first in a new series by the author of the Thursday Murder Club books. Such fun! I’ll share a review later this week.

Before leaving for my dance event, I squeezed in two short audio listens:

Julia at the Drive-In by Rainbow Rowell: A sweet YA short story.

The Safe Room by Lisa Unger: Really good crime thriller — I would have like it as a full-length novel! Check out Yvonne’s review for more info.

Pop culture & TV:

None! Between traveling and other hecticness, my screen time has been non-existent. I’m sure I’ll get back to my various streaming obsessions this coming week.

Fresh Catch:

No new books this week.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

Habits of the Sea by Shea Ernshaw: This book is so good! It has a bit of a Brigadoon vibe — it’s lovely and mysterious and very atmospheric. I thought I might manage to finish it on the plane yesterday, before my Kindle decided to give me trouble…

Now playing via audiobook:

Romantic Hero by Kirsty Greenwood: I’ll be starting this audiobook today. Really looking forward to it!

Ongoing reads:

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe: My book group’s classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 55%. Coming up this week: Volume 3, chapters 4 and 5.

Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words by John McWhorter: I haven’t touched this book in over a week, but hope to get back to it (and perhaps even finish) this week. Progress: 56%.

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

18Jul2026

Birthstone Book Covers: July = Ruby!

Posted in Bookish Thoughts, Fun and Whimsy by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I participated in Birthstone Books Covers for the first time last August, and now I’m hooked! Leslie at Books Are the New Black hosts this fun monthly meme — and since I love anything related to spotlighting amazing book covers, I just had to jump in.

The rules are simple:

Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Blac k ) and link back so she can see your post! Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone. Have fun!

July’s birthstone is ruby… what a gorgeous shade!

According to gia.edu:

Ruby is the July birthstone – and it’s one of the most coveted of gems. The name is derived from the Latin word ruber, meaning “red” – the color of love and passion. Few things catch the eye like the ruby birthstone. The finest color of the birthstone for July is a deep red with a hint of purple, called “pigeon’s blood” in the trade. A variety of the mineral corundum, ruby gets its color from trace amounts of the element chromium. The more chromium, the stronger the red.

For more, see their info page here.

Onward to the books!

Here are the ruby(ish) books I’ve found on my shelves this month:

Do you have any ruby books on your shelves?

15Jul2026

Mountains, lakes, and Shakespeare: My Oregon vacation

Posted in Family & Life by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

There’s nothing like a summer road trip to bring me joy! I’m back after a ten-day getaway through Northern California to the Oregon-Washington border and back again — a total of approximately 1450 miles — and thought I’d share some highlights.

Days 1 – 2: Mount Shasta:

Driving about 5 hours north from San Francisco, our first destination was Mount Shasta, a cute outdoorsy town at the foot of (you guessed it) Mount Shasta! The mountain is easily visible (i.e., unavoidable) from highway 5, but this was the first time we’d ever stopped to explore.

A small but fun main street (with a party atmosphere for the 4th of July) features shops, craft beer, and restaurants. Our favorite food experience was a nursery (gardens, not babies) next to our hotel with a pizza kitchen/beer garden in the evenings.

We drove up Mount Shasta to a turnaround point at about 6000 feet, with stops at viewpoints and a couple of short hikes. Beautiful views everywhere we looked!

Days 3 – 4: Ashland, Oregon:

One of my very favorite places! This was our third time visiting Ashland — a fantastic destination for so many reasons, especially the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The town of Ashland offers a funky mix of boutiques, bookshops, everything from takeout windows to fine dining, and a beautiful park right in the midst of it all.

My highlights (of course) were the two plays we saw. First, in a smaller indoor theater, a gorgeous production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

Beautiful lighting, sets, and production design, an incredibly talented cast, and terrific costumes brought this play to glorious life. Loved it! (Read more about the production, here)

The following evening, we saw The Taming of the Shrew in the large, open-air Elizabethan Theater. What a blast! Funny and creative, bawdy, and absolutely engaging. I wasn’t sure that I liked the play when I read it — but experiencing a modern director’s take on the story made me see it in a whole new light.

Check out the very fun trailer:

… or read more about the production, here.

Days 5 – 6: Bend, Oregon via Crater Lake National Park:

Departing Ashland, we drove to Crater Lake National Park, about 2 hours away via twisty back roads. After a very pretty drive, we took in the breathtaking views. We’d been there once before, over ten years ago, and had very overcast weather the whole time. This time around, the skies were clear and the lake’s stunning shades of blue were on full display. We enjoyed a short-ish hike along the rim, had a picnic lunch, drove the perimeter a bit more, then headed on for another 2 hours drive to Bend.

Bend is a town (well, probably more of a city) of about 100,000 people, located along the Deschutes River. The river flows through the center of everything and is surrounded by beautifully maintained parks and walking trails. We did a couple of great walks through town and along the river, and enjoyed our stay in a cute cabin-style motel.

With one full day in the area, we drove to Mt. Bachelor — a winter ski resort open for hiking and mountain biking in the summer. We took the chairlift up to the top, then walked a 4.5 mile trail back down. My husband and I agree — this was our favorite hike of the trip!

We wrapped up our stay in Bend with more picnicking, neighborhood walks, and another stroll along a river path.

Days 7 – 8: Hood River, Oregon:

Our northernmost destination in Oregon! A nice drive led us to the Columbia River Gorge, starting at The Dalles eastward along the river, then working our way west to the town of Hood River, with a few stops to take in the views along the way.

Our hotel in Hood River was situated right along the river. Not only did we have a great view from our balcony, but the property’s gardens offered lovely places to sit and take it all in as well. Our full day in the area was spent chasing waterfalls — simply amazing! One very tough hike was especially memorable: we didn’t quite realize until we were fully committed that it was a much steeper, intense climb than we’re used to! All the falls were gorgeous. What a day!

Day 9: Hood River to Vancouver, Washington:

Leaving Hood River, we drove through the area known as the “Fruit Loop” – a section of northern Oregon with tons of farms stands, shops, and wineries. We stopped at an amazing lavender farm, did a bit of sampling (yum, cherries) at an adorable farm store, and made a few other spontaneous stops before getting back on the road. Leaving that area, our next stop was the Timberline Lodge, an historic ski location on Mount Hood. And yes, there were people skiing on a small-ish patch of snow up on the ridge! In July!

From there, we continued onward to Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland. We stayed in a waterfront hotel and enjoyed the town’s waterfront park (despite very intense heat!). It was a nice, relaxing way to spend a night before two longer driving days

Day 10: Back to Ashland:

Another five-and-a-half hours of driving took us back to Ashland, where we had the chance to enjoy one more show! This time, we saw Emma, written by playwright Kate Hamill — an incredibly fun re-imagining of the Jane Austen novel. Such a great production, and as always, such a delight to be in the open-air Elizabethan Theater.