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?

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!

This week’s lines are from an upcoming new horror novella:

I have thought long and hard about how I would dispose of a dead body. I have carefully weighed options such as digging, sinking, burning, hiding. It’s something I do when I can’t sleep. I used to think that everyone did this, that each person I met had a plan of their own. But the day I casually mentioned mine during lunch at work, a weird and uncomfortable silence settled over the table. So it turns out that most people listen to audio books when they can’t sleep. It’s only me who hides bodies. I find it relaxing.

So what’s the book?

Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir
Release date: May 26, 2026
160 pages

Synopsis:

An Icelandic night may hide secrets and affairs – or even bodies – in this gruesomely cathartic horror thriller from the author of The Night Guest.

Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door.

When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life.

It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn.

The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.

Too creepy? Or does it sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

6May2026

Spell the Month in Books: May

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Spell the Month in Books is a monthly meme hosted by Jana at Reviews from the Stacks. To participate, find a book title that starts with each letter in the month’s name, make a list, share your link, and that’s it! You can share anytime by the end of the month. Some months have additional themes, but feel free to participate however you’d like!

I didn’t see a theme posted for May, so I decided to go with one of my own. My book list for May is focused on May Flowers… books covers with at least a flower or two! With only three letters to work with, it’s a quick list to put together… although as usual, “Y” books are the hardest to find.

Here are my MAY books:

M:

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

A:

The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay

Y:

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

Happy May! Wishing everyone a month filled with flowers!

If you spelled the month in books, please leave me a link to your post — I’d love to see it!

1May2026

First Lines Friday 5/1/2026

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?

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!

This week’s lines are from a middle grade fantasy series:

They would have said it wasn’t possible: the chaos and the mayhem she caused. They would have said she didn’t have it in her.

It was in her, but deep. What’s under your house, if you were to dig? Mud and worms. Buried treasure. Skeletons. You don’t know. The girl dug into the depths of her heart, and there she found a hunger for justice and a thirst for revenge.

Mrs. Richmond’s wedding gown was itchy, for one thing.

So what’s the book?

The Poisoned King (Impossible Creatures, #2) by Katherine Rundell
Release date: September 11, 2025
304 pages

Synopsis:

Return to the magic of the Archipelago in the dazzling sequel to the runaway, #1 New York Times bestseller Impossible Creatures, hailed as “an instant classic” (Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal Winner for The One and Only Ivan)!

Christopher Forrester woke to find a dragon chewing on his face—and his heart leapt for joy! He’d been dreaming of going back to the Archipelago, the secret cluster of islands where all the creatures of myth still live, and here was his summons.

But there is a poison spreading in the Archipelago. Rooting it out will involve a daring rescue mission on the back of a sphinx, a stealthy entrance to a dragon’s lair, and a death-defying plan to save a prisoner held in the heart of a castle. At the center of this storm is Anya: a small girl with a flock of birds at her side, a new-hatched chick in her pocket, and a ravenous hunger for justice.

Katherine Rundell’s second thrilling installment in the Impossible Creatures series involves castles, dragons, and revenge—the things of which great stories are made. The splendors within are brought to life with more than fifty illustrations, including a map and a bestiary of magical creatures.

Sound like something you’d enjoy? (If so, be sure to start with the first book, Impossible Creatures!)

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

24Apr2026

First Lines Friday 4/24/2026

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?

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!

This week, I’m featuring lines from an upcoming new release:

Mrs. Richmond’s wedding gown was itchy, for one thing.

The kind of itchy that eclipses everything else.

And there was no way to get out of it.

And that was nobody’s fault but my own.

Mrs. Richmond’s wedding gown was itchy, for one thing.

So what’s the book?

The Shippers by Katherine Center
Release date: May 19, 2026
336 pages

Synopsis:

One of the hottest, fastest-rising rom-com stars delivers her latest swoon-worthy novel about a destination wedding on a cruise ship.

After a whole lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton decides to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. With the help of a little pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest ), and she decides to woo him during the cruise for some long-delayed closure. Only problem is, her sister’s a little busy being a bride at the moment—so JoJo ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, to be her wing man. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but then showed up, anyway. Cooper: who left town without a word four years earlier and moved to London. Cooper: who was, if she’s honest, the worst heartbreak of JoJo’s life. It’s bliss for her to see him again, and it’s agony, too—and the more they team up for Project Conquest, the more she obsesses over questions she can’t bring herself to ask.

Shipboard antics ensue in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance—as JoJo and Cooper fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, treat sunburns, get jealous, rescue each other over and over, and finally, at last, figure it all out in the most blissful, swoony, romantic way.

No one does summer romance quite like Katherine Center. THE SHIPPERS will take readers on the cruise of a lifetime in a story awash with romantic longing, top-notch banter, long-held secrets . . . and true love rediscovered.

Sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

21Apr2026

Top Ten Tuesday: April Showers

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is April Showers, with the prompt: Interpret this however you’d like: rainy day reads, books that make you cry, books that give you happy tears, books to wash away a bad reading experience, books set in rainy places, books with rain/raindrops/umbrellas on the cover, blue book covers, etc.

I’ve decided to go with the rain theme: “Rain” in the title, or rain on the cover, or a cover/title that’s rain-adjacent (hence the umbrella covers!). Here are my ten:

In Mercy, Rain by Seanan McGuire: Story set in the world of the Wayward Children series
Nothing But the Rain by Naomi Salman: On my TBR
Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie: I have a copy of the paperback on my shelf, but haven’t read it yet
Sheltering Rain by Jojo Moyes: And yet another owned but not read!
Rainwater by Sandra Brown: A book group book from over five years ago
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer: An umbrella not just on the cover, but important to the plot! (amazing book)
The Umbrella Academy graphic novel series: I’ve read the first volume in this series — this is the image from the Netflix series, but I like the look of it much better than the book cover
Gathering Storm by Maggie Craig: Terrific historical fiction… and storms are rain-adjacent!
Soulless by Gail Carriger: OK, granted, it’s the Parasol Protectorate series… but the cover image looks much more like an umbrella than a parasol to me
Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra: Read with a book group something like 20 years ago! I don’t think I understood more than half of it… but I do like the title and cover

What April Showers books did you feature this week?

Share your link, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

17Apr2026

First Lines Friday 4/17/2026

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?

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!

This week, I’m featuring lines from a book I just spotted at the library and added to my holds list:

When the letter arrives, Harriet Lockhart assumes it’s another death threat, and leaves it on the mantelpiece with the others, unopened, for six days.

Hmmmm… why is she getting death threats? Why is she leaving them unopened? Why have there been so many?

So many questions…

So what’s the book?

Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee
Release date: September 9, 2025
371 pages

Synopsis:

Harriet Lockhart never planned to marry. She has spent her life defying expectations, playing male roles on London’s seediest stages, and doing whatever she pleases. When Harry is contacted by her hitherto anonymous father, she finds herself at risk of losing the trust fund that’s subsidized her lifestyle—unless she begins to lead a more respectable life, starting with finding a husband.

Emily Sergeant, the picture of modesty, has only ever wanted to marry. And were it not for one mistake in her youth that rendered her a social pariah, she would be appropriately betrothed. Instead, she’s due to wed the only willing—and most abominable—man in her small town. Desperate for an alternative, Emily flees to London to snag a less lecherous fiancé.

Worlds collide, dramatically and hilariously, when both women decide on the very same duke as their best possible chance at a tolerable husband and a secure future. A tongue-in-cheek romp through London’s summer season, from balls to brothels, horseraces to duels, Harry and Emily compete for the duke’s favor, only to find their true hearts’ desires may be more compatible than they could have ever predicted.

Sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

14Apr2026

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life, with the prompt: Example titles: Well Traveled could describe you if you like to travel, Hotshot Doc could describe you if you’re an awesome doctor, Falling into Place could describe a life where things are starting to work out, An Infinite Love Story could describe your relationship, It Could Have Been Her could describe a thing you’re happy you avoided or a path you could have taken but didn’t. You can explain your choices or not, and they can be as specific or as abstract as you’d like.

Fun challenge! I searched my bookshelves, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: Coffee and books sum up my life pretty accurately!
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan: My husband is the family cook… and yes, I know how lucky I am!
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune: I love planning vacations, and try to find something new to explore each summer.
Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire: Fields, trails, paths by the beach… get me outside with space to walk and appreciate the views, and I’m happy.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain: I haven’t made it to Camelot, but I’m originally from Connecticut, and even though it still feels like home, I’ve lived far away from there most of my adult life.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: My fandoms bring me joy! It’s the little pop culture moments that add a bit of zing.
Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan: Sweets are my weakness, and I will never say no to meeting a friend at a bakery
Finding Fraser by KC Dyer: Reading Outlander for the first time, over 15 years ago, not only introduced me to a favorite series and characters but also led me to my book group, which brings me so much joy.
Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire: Dancing has been a big part of my life since childhood! Not in a polished performance — but in the chaotic way that recreational dancing brings people together and provides endless enjoyment and fresh challenges
A House for Happy Mothers by Amulya Malladi: Being a mom — even now that my kids are grown — means the world to me.

Do you have book titles that describe your life?

Share your link, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

10Apr2026

First Lines Friday 4/10/2026

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?

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!

This week, I’m featuring lines from a book I’ll be reading with my book group later this spring:

Lucrezia is taking her seat at the long dining table, which is polished to a watery gleam and spread with dishes, inverted cups, a woven circlet of fir. Her husband is sitting down, not in his customary place at the opposite end but next to her, close enough that she could rest her head on his shoulder, should she wish; he is unfolding his napkin and straightening a knife and moving the candle toward them both when it comes to her with a peculiar clarity, as if some coloured glass has been put in front of her eyes, or perhaps removed from them, that he intends to kill her.

So what’s the book?

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Knopf Publishing Group
Release date: September 6, 2022
355 pages

Synopsis:

The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.

Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.

Sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

8Apr2026

Spell the Month in Books: April

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This month’s theme is a choice: Easter OR Pastel Covers. I’m going pastels… because I can’t figure out how to do an Easter theme (I don’t think I know of enough books with bunnies on the cover!)

Here are my APRIL books:

A:

Angel’s Peak by Robyn Carr

P:

Pardon My Frenchie by Farrah Rochon

R:

Reputation by Lex Croucher

I:

In the Quick by Kate Hope Day

L:

The Ladies Rewrite the Rules by Suzanne Allain

I hope everyone is having a great start to April! If you spelled the month in books, please leave me a link to your post — I’d love to see it!

7Apr2026

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set In Places on My Bucket List

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books About/Set In Places on My Bucket List. I think this list will be very similar to a recent TTT about armchair travel… but I’ll try to avoid too much duplication (although books #1 and #2 just can’t be helped!)

Here are my top 10 books with bucket list destinations:

1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Bucket list destination: Scotland

Not exactly shocking to see Outlander on a TTT list of mine… but this is the book that first made me dream of a trip to Scotland, and I’m still determined to make it happen!