February 2025 Reading List

Here's my reading list for this month. I've got 7 planned reads, maybe 8 if we do the Pick it for Me this month. Plus, I'm also planning to read 3 or 4 Hercule Poirot short stories this month for the monthly reading challenge. I'm looking forward to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and A Rip Through Time the most. I had both of these on my reading list before they got made into buddy reads.

 

 

Reading with the Mystery Book Club-

 

 

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham #1) by Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.

I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.

Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

Who was it?

Let's get started.

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE

My brother

My stepsister

My wife

My father

My mother

My sister-in-law

My uncle

My stepfather

My aunt

Me

 

 

 

The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak

 

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.

He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate—very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.

 

 

 

Reading at Fantasy Buddy Reads-

 

 

Pretender (Foreigner #8) by C.J. Cherryh

 

The eighth novel in Cherryh’s Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences…Exhausted from a two-year rescue mission in space, the crew of the starship Phoenix return home to find civil war has broken out, the powerful Western Association has been overthrown, and Tabini-aiji, its forceful leader, is missing. In a desperate move, paidhi Bren Cameron and Tabini's grandmother Ilisidi, the aiji-dowager, along with with Cajeiri, Tabini's eight-year-old heir, make planetfall and succeed in reaching the mainland. The brilliant and forceful Ilisidi seeks refuge at the estate of an old ally, and Tabini-aiji arrives at the door.As word of Tabini's whereabouts circulates, clans allied with Tabini descend upon the estate, providing a huge civilian presence that everyone involved hopes will deter impending attacks by the usurpers. But as more and more supporting clans arrive, Bren finds himself increasingly isolated, and it becomes clear that both his extremely important report of alien contact in space, and even his life, rest on the shoulders of only two Ilisidi and Cajeiri.Can one elderly ateva and and eight-year-old boy—himself a prime target for assassination—protect Bren, a lone human involved in a civil war that most atevi believe he caused?The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Pretender is the 8th Foreigner novel, and the 2nd book in the third subtrilogy.

 

 

 

Age of the King (The Echoes Saga #6) by Philip C. Quaintrell

 

The scales have tipped. The battle for Namdhor, the north, and the entire realm of man was a sure victory for the orcs. But they lost.

Now, under the rule of a would-be-king, the armies of man fuel the war when they should be bolstering their defences. Only a few understand that time is against them, yet these few must fight alone if the dawn is to rise over Illian once more.

The heroes of the realm have banded together, but they cannot fight side by side. There is only one way they can win, seen by the oldest dragon and preserved inside the broken mind of a ranger.

From the shadows, The Crow muddies the waters, making it all the harder to see the path to victory. In the depths of The Bastion, where even time is his slave, the ancient necromancer has finished his work. The king is almost ready…

 

A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time #1) by Kelley Armstrong

 

A modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland—in an unfamiliar body—with a killer on the loose.

May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness.

May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot.

When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it's too late.

 

 

 

Dragons of Summer Flame (Dragonlance: The New Generation #2) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Summer has come to Krynn, a summer unlike any before. The sun sears the world with relentless light and heat, and even the darkness of night brings little relief from the strange and oppressive day. Those who commune regularly with their gods are uneasy, for every day their deities become more distant, more difficult to reach. As the tension on Ansalon builds, estranged cousins Palin Majere and Steel Brightblade are thrown together by a bizarre twist of fate. Each one fights a battle within himself, but when they meet a mysterious young woman who claims to be the daughter of infamous mage Raistlin Majere, everything changes. It soon becomes evident that more than their own lives are at stake. The fate of all Krynn hangs in the balance.

 

 

 

Reading with my book club-

 

 

Summer with the Leprechauns by Tanis Helliwell

 

An astonishing true story about one woman’s journey to Ireland where she lived in a cottage with leprechauns.

These seldom-seen beings taught her about the evolution of elementals—the race to which leprechauns, faeries, elves, trolls belong. They explained the importance of humans and elementals working together for the betterment of both of their races and the Earth. Far more than a faery tale, this book is a classic that has been published in eight languages.

Now the author has re-edited her book so that the reader can hear the leprechaun’s voice in all his mischievous wisdom. You also learn about body elementals that keep you alive from lifetime to lifetime and about the beings in the center of the Earth who are helping our planet. And all this with a great sense of humor as Helliwell captures life in a remote Irish village with an insight into the people that is infectious.

An Irish Jewel, this is a good humored, true account of Tanis’ summer in a cottage in Ireland where the resident leprechaun taught her about the evolution of elementals (fairies, elves, leprechauns).

 

 

 

 Hercule Poirot Short Stories-

 

The Affair at the Victory Ball by Agatha Christie

 

In Agatha Christie’s “The Affair at the Victory Ball,” Poirot is enlisted by Chief Inspector Japp to assist in the investigation of a murder at a costumed Ball. Six attendees form a circle of suspicion when a young aristocrat and his fiancée are found dead. Poirot then makes an interesting discovery about the costumes worn by the six friends. This short story originally appeared in the March 7, 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.

 

 

 

The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan by Agatha Christie

 

In Agatha Christie’s “The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan,” Poirot and Hastings are called on to solve the case of Mrs. Opalsen’s missing set of pearls, apparently stolen during a stay at the Grand Metropolitan Hotel. The two suspects are Mrs. Opalsen’s maid and the hotel chambermaid, but both blame the other. Who is the real thief? This short story originally appeared in the March 14, 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.

 

 

 

The King of Clubs by Agatha Christie

 

In Agatha Christie’s “The King of Clubs,” Poirot investigates the possible double murder of a famous dancer and theater impresario. Could the words of a fortune teller and a playing card provide a solution to the mystery? This short story originally appeared in the March 21, 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.