And the fall season continues despite what the stores are saying with the Christmas things out and about already. I went out to dinner tonight and there was even Christmas music playing in the restaurant! I love that wintery season and holidays too, but come on you guys, we know we are all slacking on the gift buying at this point of the year. You don’t need to remind us already. lol! There is still plenty of time to enjoy those beautiful oranges, reds, and yellows that are on the trees. Enjoy some time outside for a bit longer before the icy weather sets in! Set up some bonfires throughout the month and make yourself a s’more while you’re out there too!
I know that I see a very busy November for myself with Thanksgiving coming up. I always bake and cook a bunch of food for the holiday. I have a blast doing it too. Sometimes my husband even helps out – or at least he enjoys being able to be the taster while we cook. I can’t quite blame him though! I always wanted to be the one to lick the spoons after we we done when I was younger and helping my dad out in the kitchen. The perfect reward! On top of family time scattered throughout the month, cooking, and gift shopping too, I’ve got a trip planned too. Trip of my dreams! I get to head up to New York City and see Phantom of The Opera on Broadway!! You guys I am so freaking excited about this trip! I hate that the reason we are tossing the trip together last minute is because they are taking it off Broadway in February. But I can’t say that I’m not totally looking forward to it! I’ve always wanted to see the Big Apple and Phantom is my all time favorite opera/play/acting/entertainment/musical you name it and it is probably at the top. If you’ve ever wanted to see it live too, gotta act quick! It is going to be gone from stage sooner than you think.
There is also a little surprise in this month for you guys too! Along with the reading list I’ve got here, I have an Author Spotlight showing up this month. The featured author is P.D. Alleva who is the author of Golem which is a book that I reviewed last month. AND P.D. Alleva has generously allowed me to host a giveaway! We will be giving away 2 hardback copies of Golem. The giveaway is going to kick off on November 3rd, 2022 (this Thursday) and will run till midnight on November 17th, 2022 on my on my instagram @libraryoftortuga. Keep an eye out for more information about that and how to enter!
I hope everyone has a wonderful last month before winter (if it is that season for you! or last month before summer!)! I plan on sneaking in my reading times in between cooking timers and sitting by the bonfires. Tis’ the kick off to busy season for us all. Don’t forget to make time for yourself and your books!
My Reading List for November 2022:
Death in The Park By London Lovett
With her social life and writing career in tatters at the ripe old age of thirty-five, Sunni Taylor decides to pack up her things and join her sisters, Lana and Emily, in the small town of Firefly Junction. Hoping to open a bed and breakfast, Sunni sets herself the task of refurbishing the rundown Cider Ridge Inn, a two-hundred-year-old house with a sordid past. In the meantime, she’s stuck writing dull human interest stories for the Junction Times. But when Sunni decides to bend the rules on her first newspaper assignment, she soon finds herself in her favorite place—right in the center of a murder investigation. Now if she can just steer clear of the cocky, irritating and far too appealing local detective , Brady “Jax” Jackson.
It isn’t long before Sunni discovers that avoiding Jax is a piece of cake compared to staying clear of the equally cocky, irritating and far too appealing two-hundred-year-old ghost haunting the halls of the Cider Ridge Inn.
The Search for Synergy By Brett Salter
“The Search For Synergy” is the first book in The Talisman Series by author Brett Salter. It follows the exploits of two middle-school boys, Rome Lockheed and Julian Rider, as they transition from normal kids into epic warriors fighting for the existence of the Earth realm. Rome is secretly a fire dragon from the Den of Volcana placed under a spell which hides his true form. Julian is an oddball, up-and-coming knight with a case of the “try-hards”. Together, they perform an ancient pact which bonds their lives and souls forever. Under the tutelage and guidance of an eccentric, local librarian, Mr. Jones, the two learn of an impending invasion from an archaic evil desperate to invade from the other side of The Void.
The Nephilim’s Fate By Eliza Hampstead
She’s a witch, he’s a Nephilim – and a simple kiss could kill them both.
Alissia spent years longing for a mysterious man who only appeared in her dreams… but when Nate rescues her from a group of supernatural attackers, she makes a shocking discovery. She’s a witch, and he’s a Nephilim – the son of an angel and a human – and love between them is impossible.
Determined to prove the old texts wrong and find a future where they can be together, Alissia wades deeper into a mysterious world where vampires, fae, and demons lurk among humanity. After she discovers a surprising revelation, Alissia believes she’s found the answer. But their passionate love kicks off a wild chain of events that threatens to plunge the secret magical world of London into war.
With sinister magical groups vying for power and old rivalries bubbling to the surface, Nate and his love are quickly dragged into a conflict that will shape the destiny of their world forever. Nate knows that he’s fated to be with her – but is he prepared to risk everything to stay with his witch?
The Lost Metal By Brandon Sanderson
Book 7 in the Mistborn series
For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set—with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders—since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate—whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose—and Bilming is even more entangled.
After Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial’s god reveals that Harmony’s power is blocked in Bilming. That means the city has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set. And Trell isn’t the only factor at play from the larger Cosmere—Marasi is recruited by offworlders with strange abilities who claim their goal is to protect Scadrial…at any cost.
Harmony’s vision of future possibilities comes to an abrupt halt tomorrow night, with only blackness after that. It’s a race against time, and Wax must choose whether to set aside his rocky relationship with God and once again become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. If no one steps forward to be the hero Scadrial needs, the planet and its millions of people will come to a sudden and calamitous ruin.
The Deeds of The Disturber By Elizabeth Peters

Can fear kill?
There are those who believe so but Amelia Peabody is skeptical. A respected Egyptologist and amateur sleuth, Amelia has foiled felonious schemes from Victoria’s England to the Middle East. And she doubts that it was a Nineteenth-Dynasty mummy’s curse that caused the death of a night watchman in the British Museum. The corpse was found sprawled in the mummy’s shadow, a look of terror frozen on the guard’s face.
What or who killed the unfortunate man is a mystery that seems too intriguingly delicious for Amelia to pass up, especially now that she, her dashing archaeologist husband, Emerson, and their precocious son, Ramses, are back on Britain’s shores. But a contemporary curse can be as lethal as one centuries old and the foggy London thoroughfares can be as treacherous as the narrow, twisting alleyways of Cairo after dark when a perpetrator of evil deeds sets his murderous sights on his relentless pursuer… Amelia Peabody!
Keep an eye out for that Giveaway everyone! Check it out on Instagram starting November 3rd!