Wednesday, September 3, 2025

September 2025 Reading List

I have 6 books planned to read this month. We'll see how that goes since I have family coming to visit and will have less reading time. 

 

Reading with The Mystery Book Club- 

 

A Tarnished Canvas (Lady Darby #13) by Anna Lee Huber

 

Lady Kiera Darby had planned to spend the winter practicing her painting, but instead, she must find the flaw in a killer’s masterpiece when an art auction results in one participant’s final bid.…

March 1833. Kiera and her husband, Sebastian Gage, have decided to settle in Edinburgh for the winter with their infant daughter. This also allows Kiera to enjoy long hours painting in her studio, making progress on the portraits she soon hopes to unveil in her own exhibit. She’s thrilled when she receives an invitation to the auction of the late Lord Eldin’s coveted art collection, and she and Gage eagerly accept. When the floor collapses beneath the gathering, killing one of their fellow bidders, Kiera and Gage are lucky to escape with their lives.

Within days it becomes apparent that what at first seemed to be a terrible accident is actually something far more nefarious. Someone deliberately compromised the integrity of the structure, though the police are unsure of the culprit’s aim. Sergeant Maclean requests Kiera and Gage’s assistance in figuring out who would wish to harm the bidders. As they dig deeper, it becomes increasingly apparent that the victim was not the killer’s intended target . . . and that Kiera was lured to the auction deliberately. Kiera and Gage must utilize all their resources to unveil a monster willing to risk the lives of dozens of bystanders to achieve their ends. But they’re on the verge of making a dire miscalculation. For one of the cleverest tricks in a painter’s repertoire is the art of misdirection, and their eyes have been drawn far from the gravest danger.

 

 

  

Missing Angel (Agent Tori Hunter #4) by Roger Stelljes

 

Isabella pedals her bright red bike on the familiar route home, admiring her charm bracelet catching the light. But half an hour later, she is nowhere to be seen. All her frantic parents find is an angel-shaped charm discarded on the sidewalk…

When twelve-year-old Isabella Farner disappears, Agent Tori Hunter races to the scene. Witnesses—including her partner’s son who was biking home with Isabella—saw a man throw her into the back of his blue van and speed away. Terrified that a child she loves like her own might be next, Tori knows every second counts in the hunt for the missing girl.

Isabella’s distraught parents insist no-one would want to harm their perfect family. But soon a photo of Isabella looking terrified is discovered, holding a copy of today’s newspaper. Why would the Farners conceal information about their own missing daughter? And what else do they have to hide?

Then, while searching a stretch of road where the van was last seen, Tori finds a tiny clue: an angel-shaped charm. Isabella was here. But what chance is there that she is being kept alive?

Unable to trust Isabella’s parents, as Tori closes in on the truth she realises someone already known to police must be involved: and she herself is in terrible danger. But even if Tori makes the ultimate sacrifice, will it be enough to find this innocent girl before she disappears forever?




Reading for NetGalley-

 

We Met Like This by Kasie West 

 

Beloved author Kasie West's sparkling, seductive adult rom-com debut about a hopeless romantic falling for the one man she never expected. This deluxe paperback features beautiful designed edges; order now to receive it while supplies last!

Can a swipe right turn into swept away?

Margot Hart is a hopeless romantic. That’s why she wants to be a literary agent—to help bring romance books to the world. It’s also why she hates dating apps with all her romance loving soul. She wants her own love story to be just as much fun as the books she reads—a mixed up coffee order, a mistaken identity. She’s not going to tell the story that she swiped right on future husband’s shirtless pic for the rest of her life.

The problem is that her most consistent relationship over the last several years is with Oliver, a guy she keeps rematching with on the apps. They’ve only been on one date and it was a disaster…well, until the make out session in the car before parting ways. But, she keeps reminding herself, a make out session does not a relationship make. And so there will not be a date two regardless of how witty their app banter is.

When Margot gets fired from her job on the same day she meets Oliver again, her life becomes a veritable shit show. Her dream career is dying right before her eyes, and Oliver thinks she’s interested in only one thing: a repeat of the hot make out session they had three years ago so she can get him out of her system. And maybe that is all she wants from him, because she and Oliver are definitely not compatible—he doesn’t hit the snooze button, he runs five miles every morning, he reads nonfiction, and worst of all, she didn’t meet him in cute way! But in her scramble to keep her dream career alive, by opening her own agency, Oliver is there with his golden retriever energy, more steady and helpful than any man she’s ever dated. Just when she thinks she’s overcome her app bias, she realizes that maybe it’s not her who’s holding back, but him. And his reasons are more than she bargained for.

Kasie West's romantic and sexy adult debut is full of witty banter, meet cutes gone awry and, ultimately, true love.

 

 

 

  

Tentative—may end up getting pushed to October.

Falling in a Sea of Stars (Green Rider #8) by Kristen Britain  

 

On her days-long journey home, Karigan Gladheon trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. She is leaving school, or, more accurately, she has been asked to leave. "Suspended indefinitely," the dean said. And for what? Challenging and thrashing Timas Mirwell in the practice ring. Karigan felt no remorse when she stood over the heir of the lord-governor of Mirwell province, her wooden practice sword at his throat. He had humiliated her, the daughter of a "mere" merchant, since the first day of school. But now, as she faces the long road home, hoping to arrive in Corsa before the dean's letter does, she wonders if she should just hire herself out on a merchant barge as her father did and stay away for good. She has too much pride, too hot a temper, and a penchant for danger - a life of travel, adventure and commerce will undoubtedly suit her just as it has her father.
But before Karigan's ponderings can become a definite plan, her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves, as a galloping horse bursts from the woods in an explosion of branches, the rider slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young rider lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king, and that he bears a "life and death" message for King Zachary in his horse's satchel. He begs Karigan to carry his message, warning her not to read it, and when she reluctantly agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to deliver the message "for love of her country." As he bestows upon her the golden winged-horse brooch which is the symbol of his office, she seems to hear the ghostly sound of great wings beating the air, of silver-shod hooves galloping...and of invisible lips murmuring, "Welcome rider..." But beside her on the road, the messenger only whispers, "Beware the shadow man!" with his dying breath.
This promise given to a dying man changes Karigan's life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, and accompanied by the silent specter of the original messenger, she herself becomes a legendary Green Rider - the magic of this office transferred to her with the original rider's brooch. But what is happening in her land that requires a life or death message for the king? What does the message contain that is so vital someone is willing to kill for it? And who is "the shadow man?"
 

 

 

 

Pick it for me book-

 

The Stranger in the Mirror by Liv Constantine

 

Addison's about to get married, but she's not looking forward to the big day. It's not her fiancé; he's a wonderful man. It's because Addison doesn't know who she really is. A few years ago, a kind driver found her bleeding next to a New Jersey highway and rescued her. While her physical wounds healed, Addison's memory never returned. She doesn't know her real name. Or how she ended up injured on the side of a road. Or why she can't shake the notion that she may have done something very, very bad...

In a posh home in the Boston suburbs, Julian tries to figure out what happened to his loving, caring wife, Cassandra, who disappeared without a trace two years ago. She would never have left him and their seven-year-old daughter Valentina of her own free will -- or would she?

 

 

 

Reading with my book club-

 

The Legendary Inge by Kate Stradling

 

Plagued by misfortune, Ingrid Norling treks into the woods to clear her head. She emerges a monster-slayer, the shaken executioner of a creature so ferocious that even the king’s strongest warriors could not destroy it. In a land that reveres swords and worships strength, this accidental heroism earns Inge an audience at court and a most ill-fated prize: King Halvard impulsively adopts her and names her as his heir.

Under constant guard to prevent her escape, Inge confronts the ignoble underbelly of the royal court: a despotic king, a clueless princess, a proud warrior, and a dangerous intrigue. As secrets unravel around her and the castle threatens to become an elaborate deathtrap, Inge must keep her wits close and her weapons closer. The monster in the woods was only the beginning.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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