Can't Wait Wednesday/Waiting on Wednesday #577: A Bride's Guide to Happiness and Homicide by Kristen Bird

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that had been hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlighted upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. I'm now linking up with Can't Wait Wednesday hosted over at Wishful Endings.

This week I'm waiting on:

From the publisher: When Dakota Green’s best friend asks her to be the maid of honor, she expects champagne toasts and bouquet tosses—not a dead priest in the holly bushes of The Rose Palace estate. But in Aubergine, Virginia, something borrowed and something blue might just include a corpse or two.

A winter getaway in the Blue Ridge Mountains should be wonderland bliss for pre-wedding festivities. Instead, it’s a blizzard of suspicion as the groom’s Texas relatives arrive with secrets as deep as the falling snow.

Just when Dakota thinks she can’t handle one more wedding disaster, the officiating priest takes a fatal plunge from the fourth floor, with a bullet through his heart and Dakota’s boyfriend Sheriff Charlie Strong becomes the prime suspect.

With Charlie behind bars and the wedding hours away, Dakota must clear his name while ensuring her best friend gets her perfect day. Between a gun-wielding father of the groom, a scandalous romance and a bride who refuses to postpone, Dakota faces her greatest challenge yet. Can she unmask a killer before the wedding march? Or will this matrimony end in mayhem?

If you love the humor of Janet Evanovich and Elle Cosimano, the charm of small-town secrets, and amateur sleuths with a flair for finding trouble, this maid-of-honor mystery is your perfect match.

A Bride's Guide to Happiness and Homicide by Kristen Bird is expected out January 23, 2026 from Storm Publishing. This is the third book in the Dakota Green Mystery series. Book one, A Beauty Queen's Guide to Murder and Mayhem, is currently available on Kindle Unlimited. I receive nothing for sharing this information with you.

Why am I waiting on this book? The cover is striking as is the title.The wedding she is to attend is plagued with murder and mayhem.  And I'm intrigued by the comparison to both Elle Cosimano and Janet Evanovich. Elle Cosimano in particular is a favorite of mine for the humorous mysteries she writes.

What book are you waiting on? Share it and a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our ever growing To Be Read lists. Thanks for coming by. Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesday: 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi

 

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR! You can also just share what you are currently reading. We make it very easy to play along. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3! Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Ambrosia at the Purple Booker.

1: Grab your current read. 2: Open to a random page. 3: Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title and author so that other people can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teaser!

We are told of the great fears of the dangers of time travel and whether traveling to the past would warp and change the present, and how, not unlike the pre-Trinity concern that a nuclear blast could ignite the earth's entire atmosphere, a human-scale test of time travel might wipe out the history of the planet. We did it anyway, because humans can't not stick their fingers into wall sockets (this is a personal observation, not an organizational conclusion). --page 6

3 days, 9 months, 27 years by John Scalzi was released November 1st, 2025 from Amazon Original Stories. It is part of The Time Traveler's Passport series.

Happy Halloween! Folklore and Origins of Halloween

Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat! Hopefully this will provide some treats for you.

 Halloween has its roots in the Celtic celebration known as Samhain (pronounced sah-win). It was basically a celebration of the harvest and the Celtic New Year. Also on Halloween, they believed that the veil between this world and the afterlife was thin enough that some spirits could pass through into this world. Because not all of them might have had good intentions, people took to dressing up in costumes to confuse the spirits.

I've included 3 links below for people who are interested in learning more about Halloween and it's traditions. 

The first one is from the History Channel. https://www.history.com/articles/history-of-halloween 

The second one is from the Library of Congress https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/10/the-origins-of-halloween-traditions/

The third link is from the University of Kentucky https://uknow.uky.edu/campus-news/fun-facts-you-probably-didn-t-know-about-halloween-uk-folklorist

I hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Can't Wait Wednesday/Waiting on Wednesday #576: You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom by Vincent Tirado

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that had been hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlighted upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. I'm now linking up with Can't Wait Wednesday hosted over at Wishful Endings.

From the publisher: Demons clash with inheritance claims as secrets unfold and violence is unleashed over twelve harrowing hours trapped in a house with the worst thing imaginable: family.

When Papi Ramon, the patriarch of the wealthy Abreu family dies, he gives the family one last message in the will: “One of you is el bacà, the demon that I made a deal with. Get rid of them or you will be damned.” Xiomara, the uncontested favorite of Papi Ramon (and therefore the least liked in the family), watches as everyone dismisses this as the joke of a senile old man and demands the lawyer obtain the previous will Papi wrote.

While the lawyer drives back to his office, a storm breaks out, forcing the entire family—Xiomara’s aunts and uncles and cousins—to remain in the house. And the words of Papi’s will hangs over their heads even heavier than the rain clouds. Over the course of the night, scandal after scandal is revealed to the public about the family. Suddenly a tense few hours of surviving her family turns into a vicious night of recrimination, violence, accusations…and murder.

Xiomara is faced with an impossible task: uproot a demon and somehow kill it or excise the ghosts that linger within her own family.

And the clock is ticking...

You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom by Vincent Tirado is expected out March 10, 2026 from William Morrow.

Why am I waiting on this book? I find it an interesting concept that a demon would masquerade as one of the family. And I am wondering what scandals of the family will be revealed. I figure Xiomara will probably survive, but will all of the rest of them? And honestly, I really like the cover. The book also is billed as a modern gothic. And since I've enjoyed gothic literature, I am curious about what makes it so.

What book are you waiting on? Share it and a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our ever growing To Be Read lists. Thanks for coming by. Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesday: Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

 

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR! You can also just share what you are currently reading. We make it very easy to play along. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3! Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Ambrosia at the Purple Booker.

1: Grab your current read. 2: Open to a random page. 3: Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title and author so that other people can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teaser!

All at once, Ruth Anne strode past him, approached the bed and raised one end, revealing a man splayed out facedown like a starfish. He burst into motion, scuttling away like a bug after its rock has been lifted.

--page 92

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix was released September 23, 2014 from Quirk Books. I am on page 92 and it is a quirky read so far. It is scary, but it is also tinged with humor. Puts me in mind of my first trip to an Ikea where I got lost trying to find the bathroom on the market level. Too much fun. The horror was real. 

Are you reading anything spooky? Share something about it in the comments. Happy Reading!

Spooky Season Recommendations: Horror with Some Humor

 October is the perfect time to read books that give you a bit of a chill or a thrill. As far as I'm concerned, horror books are made better when they have some humor to them. One example released this past Tuesday would be, Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines. 

From the publisher: 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Golden Girls in this humorous contemporary standalone fantasy about a group of former Chosen Ones coming out of retirement to save the world one last time

Three former Chosen Ones have joined together to spend their retirement in peace and quiet, running Second Life Books and Gifts in Salem, MA. A calm, peaceful, tourist-filled oasis, where they never have to worry about saving the world. Until some of the locals start summoning ancient creatures best left where they were . . . and they discover that their bookstore basement just may be the portal to the underworld. These ex-heroes may have thought they were done . . . but if they want to finish their retirement in peace, they’ll have to join together to save the world one last time.

Why leave saving the world to the young? Cozy mystery readers looking for an extra dash of magic will eat this story up: fun, funny, and heartwarming, it's a novel about community, second chances, and the healing power of scones.

While that is the most recent example, and one I am looking forward to reading, there are plenty others in the genre.

Suburban Hell and Hex Education by Maureen Kilmer are two such books. One asks the question of what would happen if evil is accidentally summoned in a suburban neighborhood by a group of friends looking to build a she-shed. And the other sees a group of friends from college that have been practicing witchcraft for decades losing control of their magic and needing to work hard to get it back under control. 

Bless Your Heart and  Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan also present a pair of horror stories that have humor as an element. While humor is definitely not the whole thing, it is present. The Evans women who run a funeral parlor in a small town have been keeping it safe for a long time from the undead. In these two books, they and the sheriff continue to do so.

For something heavier on the humor and lighter in tone while still asking some tough questions there are books by Christopher Moore. A Dirty Job and Secondhand Souls investigate what it might be like to be saddled with the job of Death unwittingly and unwillingly. Sophie, the daughter, is precious in the first book along with her hellhound companions. Her father is struggling with what it is like to be raising a precocious daughter while quite possibly being Death with a capital D. If this particular pair of novels is not quite for you, Moore has several others that are humorous while investigating other paranormal topics such as vampires, demons, and zombies.

These are just seven novels in the genre. There are many more where they come from: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix and Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero are just two more. Hopefully, you will find something you will enjoy this spooky season. Do you have a favorite Halloween time of year book? Or perhaps a favorite genre? Share it in the comments. Wishing you Happy Reading and a Happy Spooky Season!

Book Review: The Salvage by Anbara Salam

 

From the Publisher:

It is 1962, and Marta Khoury, a trailblazing marine archaeologist, has been called to Cairnroch, a small island off the east coast of Scotland. A Victorian shipwreck, dragged from arctic waters, holds the remains of a celebrated explorer and the treasures of his final expedition. But on her first dive down to the ship, Marta becomes convinced she has seen a dark figure lurking amid the wreckage.

When the Cuban Missile Crisis and the deep chill of a record-breaking winter keeps Marta stranded on Cairnroch, she forms a relationship with Elsie, a local woman working in the island’s only hotel. When the ship's artifacts inexplicably disappear, Marta and Elsie have to brave the freezing conditions to search for the missing objects before anyone else catches on. As something eerie seems to follow her at every step, Marta must confront if the haunting is a figment of her imagination, the repercussions from a terrible mistake from her past, or if something more sinister is at play that will trap her and everyone on the island—and their secrets—in an icy wilderness.

The Salvage by Anbara Salam was published October 7, 2025 by Tin House Books.

My Thoughts: This is a gothic tale set in the 1960s. It starts in the water, but spreads to land. Marta's dive is creepy in and of itself. But, then she sees a figure amidst the wreckage of the ship. Later she thinks she might have also seen it on land. Convinced it is a ghost, Marta has to figure out who or what it is haunting. She keeps the sightings of the ghostly figure to herself for many reasons including fear that she wouldn't be believed. As she works to recover the stolen artifacts, there are more clues as to the mystery of the figure.

I liked Marta and her love interest the best, but there are other good characters. There are bad as well as morally questionable characters also.

The plot was interesting, but moved slowly for the most part. The slowness seemed to echo how life had slowed down on the island with the uncharacteristic amount of snow and freezing temperatures. Still, I felt like it could have moved a tad faster.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. The haunting is mysterious. And it is infectious. More people are aware of it than are willing to admit to it. And it affects people in different ways. There is a question of whether or not it is a real haunting. It is definitely gothic in tone. And it is generally well-written. If you like gothic books with some effects from the real world, then this would be a good book for you. I would buy it for a fan of gothic literature and I enjoyed it as a fan of gothic literature. This does make a good spooky season read.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not affect my opinions.