Jennifer Ikeda narrated this book with so much variance in her voice, playing each character with enthusiasm and strength.
The story is as interesting this second time around. I am sucked right into the story as if it is the first time. I can remember certain plot points, but getting to those points is half the adventure.
After reading the Vampire Knitting Club and the Vampire Book Club series, I needed to have another lighter story. This one isn’t as much humor as it is a full immersion into Deborah Harkness’s world.
I have enjoyed this so much that I decided to get back into the whole series. I’ve already started reading book two.
Below is my first review of this book
******
This book was so much fun. Now, I have a new author, Deborah Harkness, and a new narrator, Jennifer Ikeda, on my favorites list. The only problem I had with the book was that feeling when the book ended and the next book wasn’t available yet! So, I spent my day in that withdrawal phase that happens when you have learned to love the characters and enjoy the plot.
What some reviewers were irritated with was the clothing issues. I found them to be signs of a modern professional woman who is trying to be ‘normal.’ I loved the range of senses Ms. Harkness called upon to present the world. Ms. Ikeda’s accents made the characters come alive.
I have to thank my cousin for suggesting this book. Only for her would I have read anything to do with vampires. I was led to believe, by the title, I suppose, that this would be about witches. 🙂
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “sum.” Use the letters “sum” in a word in your post or use the word “sum.” Enjoy!
Summer used to be my favorite season. To sum it up: swimming. I would be in the water 24/7 if I could. From the time of my first lesson, I think I was 11 or 12, I knew my inner spirit was a mermaid.
I challenged myself to swim from one end of the pool to the other in one breath.
Though I took the diving challenges, low board or high, I hated the time it took me out of the water. Although overcoming my fear of heights was tough, once mastered, I gave it up to be in the pool.
In seventh grade I was able to take lifesaving and be a part of a swim team. I didn’t get to finish the course. Nor did I get to continue the competitions. I suffered a severe case of swimmer’s ear that put me to bed the rest of the summer. It wasn’t the earache that caused the most pain. I cried daily for what I was missing. I’ve since learned how to keep my ears dry between swims.
Summer also meant camp and camping. Every year my folks took the family on 3-week vacations. To save money it was always camping. Our favorite system was to go to Sequoia, Yosemite, and Bass Lake. Swimming in the lakes made me happy.
As a teen, Sunshine Superman played as we had many trips to the beach.
I found I loved the beach as much as the pool. Salt water. Sand. Bodysurfing. It became my favorite spot. But laps are too long in the ocean! And swimming under water wasn’t as much fun.
Living in the small community with no pools has been hard. Beaches are too far away. It is Lake County but we’ve yet to see the lakes. And they seem more for fishing than swimming. The one I plan to investigate this summer is actually a reservoir. But we’re told there are leeches. Ugh!
Another sad issue with summer now is the fires. Breathing becomes an issue.
But this summer is starting with the possibility of a really fun road trip. And maybe a swim? Our fears are fires and or snow. I know! But tonight we have to drip. A freeze. June!!!
But I plan on challenging summer this year. Please bring water and fresh air!
Yay! The dock is finished. It still needs to be straightened and sealed. Soon, it will see its new owner.
The socks have 3 inches until heel time. I’m pretty sure they will be finished before I leave. Yay!
My finer yarn socks are waiting patiently for me to finish the slipper socks. They will come with me to keep my hands busy while peopling. Yikes! I love travel, but I have to be brave and meet new people!
Having a timeline for my hobbies is hard for my ADD brain and arthritic fingers. I find having a lot of variety helps me get things done. Too much focus when it hurts, or I’m distracted makes me give up.
An example was sometime this week when I sat to play piano, people distracted me. Even my thoughts distracted me. I couldn’t find my hyper-fun focus. So I quit for the day. Also, my shoulder was hurting, and my neck seemed stiff. Hmmm. Was that there before or after the attempt? So, with the tension of the next few days, I don’t see a lot of playtime at the piano. But while on my trip, I am sure I will have alone time to think about music. As they often tell us about Olypian contestants, sometimes picturing the job can pay off nearly as much as jumping in full-bodied.
Because the next few days are house-cleaning and packing for the trip. I may have very few piano sessions.
I might take my roll-up to run scales daily. I don’t have to have sound on to do that. I’m also taking my practice fingerboards for the ukulele and guitar. I downloaded music to play around with. I won’t be able to hear the instrument, but I will practice moving chords.
I have an old recorder that will be good for pretending to play. The sound isn’t great, but it’ll be okay to keep up fingering work. If I lose it or give it away, no problem. Again, I’ve downloaded music to my phone to play around with. I just don’t want to lose the habit of music.
My other habit I’ve been happy about is the stationary bike and door exercises. I’m assuming that the trip itself will offer walking and moving around. I don’t know how I am going to feel like I’m keeping that up while on a completely different schedule.
Oh, and blogging. I’m going to try. I know I can share a bit on my phone. I’ll try to get the book reviews done before I leave, as they need the laptop. But saying “hi!” daily may be easy. Same with Duo. Five minutes can be done. I probably won’t be able to hit all the languages. I may just stick with Italian, as it is the easiest for me right now.
Okay, back to finished. I did finish a pile of stuff that needed to be tackled. I have so much more to do, but I have to give me a pat on my back.
I haven’t been here in depth lately. Mostly checking in. Sorry. Between caring for, then losing Rosey, and thinking about and finally planning to join on a friends road trip, I’ve been distracted. Add to that the new sock project and all my many hobbies and now cleaning and pack… Craziness!
As much as I’m looking forward to seeing more than my four walls and small town, I ordered a much favored ukulele that was on sale. That makes me equally excited to get back home.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “Start with a question.” Begin your post with the first question that comes to mind when you sit down to write your post. Bonus points if you end your post with a question, too. Have fun!
Which question shall I start with? Shall it be last night’s answer to the prompt when I read it?
Who was the most resilient?
We lost Kali over a year ago. Why does it seem like less than a month ago? Kali’s Death
Shortly after that, Teddy left us. Could I miss anyone as much as I missed them? (Teddy’s story is easily researched here.)
So, the third question is the one I’m answering first, and the answer is plain: Rosey outlasted the rest of the furry trio. Yikes. I already am speaking in the past tense. I hadn’t planned to do that last night.
A recent picture of love. Rosey and Chris.
What is Rosey’s story? Well, when we moved to Reno, we had only had Panda, a tuxedo sweetie. Then, our friend Kieu brought us a little Teddy. It wasn’t long until Panda was playing and, we think, had a heart attack as he was gone. Sadly, we were at our writers’ meeting, so we didn’t get to say goodbye. My brother and Son-in-Love were home to take care of the felines.
Teddy and Chris were heartbroken, so we didn’t wait long to grieve. As much as we needed a new friend, we also realized that there had to be furry friends looking for us, so we went to the shelter. Chris, my brother, and I wandered the shelter for a couple hours. As many animals were adorable, nothing seemed to call out for us. Then, just as we were leaving, I felt something off to the other side of the call to me. I walked over, and there was this black cat wanting all my attention. Without waiting, I reached into her cage and picked her up. The attendant was surprised at how easily I held her. She asked us to a visiting room to see how we all got along. David and I sat on the floor, expecting the kitty to come right to us. Nope. She walked right by us straight up to Chris on the bench at the back of the room. She jumped in his lap and started licking his face. He giggled like a little kid. His face was red with happiness. And so it was when Rosey was 12 years old she adopted my husband. I sometimes felt a slight jealousy of the way they clicked together. But I was happy they were both happy.
Teddy seemed to like Rosey, so we had a good thing. Teddy would choose me, so we each had a cat on our laps. They loved riding in the car.
Teddy during the long move from Reno to Christmas Valley.
But when Kali came into the picture, Teddy divorced me. I tried to let him know I still loved him, but it took him a while to get over feeling replaced. Towards his end, he chose me again and Kali.
When Kali joined us, Rosey was already 14 years old or older. She already felt like a bit of a grump around the more energetic Teddy and Kali, but we could tell she missed them when they were gone.
As of last night, we had been on a bit of a vigil for about a week. She refused food and soon refused drink. Again, the horrid choice, take the hour-and-a-half drive or just try to make her as comfortable as we could. She was 22. We dosed her with bone broth and water as that was all she’d tolerate. Although alert and loving, we knew it wasn’t long for her. Every night, we wondered if she’d be with us in the morning. Even on her last days, she walked/crawled the hallway to our room, looking for Chris to hold her.
This morning, we woke early. David found her in the livingroom end of the hallway. She was still breathing. He lifted her up, and within a few moments, she stopped breathing. After our goodbyes, David buried her with her special bed. She loved it so much we couldn’t think of her without it, or it without her.
How quiet can a house get? She wasn’t noisy but… How lonely are we going to be without her?
I just learned that I might get to travel to Washington for a friend’s birthday. Oops! No money what to do for a present? Heck, I have yarn! Slipper socks! But, hopefully, these will be big enough. The sizer/blocker doesn’t go far enough for the recipient’s great understanding. Winging it!
My watermelon socks are coming along.Another pair of no-show sneaker socks are nearing the heel.
Here are all the pieces I’m playing with. Embarrassingly, that Music of Today book, I think I learned in 5th or 6th grade. So many good! But my husband says he heard a lot of improvement. Just when I thought no one was listening. 😥. By the way, at the far left is Succession. I didn’t like the show so much. I watched it for the music. But I’ll have to work up to it.
I’m having a lot of fun with this book.
This is one of the easiest songs. Can’t wait to learn guitar! But first I’m conquering the uke. I’m planning on giving my $11 Memorex to my son when I upgrade to an Enya. By the way, the Memorex regardless of price, holds tune very well and despite my ineptitude still sounds nice.
In this book with my recorders, I’m teaching myself to do harmonies so I can record me playing with myself. Keep it clean! You know what I mean!
For example, see how at the bottom of the page is the alto playing melody. Above is both soprano playing melody and alto playing harmony. I’ve worked through most of the book and can finally do both recorders’ melodies. Now learning the harmony.
Just because I think they’re pretty.
The dock is coming along. Though I’m working on it upside down to make it easier on my arms and back, it’s fun to see the picture right side up.
Ah, but here’s the problem. These “hard” ones in this EASY Sudoku book aren’t fun. I need lots of penciled hints. Even then I have to cheat and look up a few. Do I keep it up and finish regardless of difficulty or move on to another book where it starts very easy. Oh, the dilemma!
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Books, games, music, and life — filtered through the mind of a writer, drummer, and philosopher who thinks too deeply about all of it. If it moves something in your chest, I'm interested.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Darswords 
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