Quiet Keystrokes and Midnight Ramblings

  Remember my post a few days ago when I celebrated that Skulduggery Pleasant got my kid into mysteries ? Well, Halie Fewkes has bridged the gap between his like of "realistic future stuff" and fantasy. Secrets of the Tally is the start of an upper Middle Grade / Young Adult series that follows a teenage girl through the harrows of discovering her magic talent, avoiding dark and mysterious foes, and surviving adventures that kept even my little skeptic turning pages. I am lucky to have met this author at several events, and not only is she a great writer, but she's a wonderful woman, too. This makes me so happy, because when my son met her to get his copy of Secrets of the Tally signed, she gave him a great experience that I hope he remembers forever. This series is immensely popular and Halie is known for her pre-covid book signings that were standing room only (the last one I attended had a line out the door... even in winter weather). If you have a younger reader who...

 Hey-O! It's been a long time since my last completed read. I'll be honest, life has not made reading easy and I've let it slip over the last year. But I got back into the pages of fiction with Half-Breed by Hickory Mack. My TBR has been so flooded, I honestly can't remember if this was a promotional copy I got from the author directly, or if I bought it, or if I downloaded it from a giveaway... all I can say is it was on my Kindle and looked like the most interesting thing to read at the moment. The novel follows a young girl who discovers she possesses magic. She leaves her abusive and oppressive life as a human to live with magical creatures in the woods, away from the humans who hunt them. If you love magic, Japanese culture, and a landscape that is as much of a character as any of the moving parts of the story, this may be the book for you. Grab it at Amazon here (paid link*) and get lost in a world of fantasy that isn't too far removed from our own. ---- * As...