Crystal Guta > Recent Status Updates

It takes a minute to adjust as the story is told all through correspondence. But your brain catches up, it's an interesting way to tell a murder. So far, I'm still here for it. About a small art masters class & the comings and goings yet something looms under it all.

Finally getting to this book, as it's been on my TBR for years now. Going in with a slight bias but trying to dampen my expectations as so many people rave about it.

Needed a book with my name as the author; even if it's a K.
It's so far all over the place, magic but in London - kind of hard to follow? But still early in the book.

Trying to have an open mind throughout as my initial thoughts, its The HouseMaid but with a prettier cover & she's a dog walker, not a maid. I feel I've already put a lot of the pieces together & I suspect the shoe that'll drop in this last 20%. Not bad so far yet doesn't feel overly original.

I really need to get this on audio so I can make more progress. The book's just hangin on my shelf. It's not that I'm not interested but I'm also like the first one gave much better energy than this one.

Blind Date with a book. Primarily intrigued my the FMC's story although expect the other MCs to overlap & weave together. It's giving charmed in the 1920s but also the alienest book in some aspects? Not loving it but will finish for my librarian 🙂

Picked for Valentine's Day - I'm here for the plot more than the spice. I'd say the spice is generous yet not anything out of the ordinary, minus the dad thing & the fact she's sloooooutin it up with both MMCs. Oh and there's snake magic that's kinda hard to comprehend but you just kinda read through it. Expecting it to end how I'll predict.

Small but uppity town with lots of overlap. Swingers party instigates a hot mess & it gets even more wild.

The progression of high school, suicide, young misfits & love, sex and parental judgment. It's an easy yet heavy listen so far; as said, fairly relatable in some capacity to the basic public high school experience.

The set up so far is giving The Housemaid vibes but babysitter instead of maid. I'm not super hooked yet but obviously still early on.

Really such a story that's capturing the darker side of high school that maybe not everyone experienced yet in some way, we all can kind of relate to whether it was you or you knew someone in a similar boat.

My oldest TBR on Libby, told myself if it still sounded okay to give it a go. It's a blast back to high school but heavy topics of suicide and fitting in.

What a fever dream of a queer book set around a house in the...North Woods. Its such a strange book but it's refreshing - some chapters are more interesting than others, some are wild, and some are boring but I feel that's also life. Funky ebb & flow.

Keeps a fast pace, much more to the plot this far in & curious how it'll shake out.

Still chipping away at this one; it's heavy & exhausting to read if I'm honest. We have a leadership brief on this next week so I hope to wrap it up by then. I do love the photos in the book that are low key vintage, 70s-90s Army.

I wouldn't call it a cozy read but it's a relatively gentle listen about a house in the woods, the ebb & flow of the space. Again, not my norm, but saw it in one of the DC bookshops & thought it was interesting.

It's giving Blue Collar meets the other side of any law enforcement investigation, from the perspective of the spouse. You get sprinkles from the dude. It's fast paced with a kind of domestic mystery in that it's between a husband & wife but it's also kinda spy thriller.

Made it 100 pages in & not sure what it is but I'm not enjoying this one nearly as much as I did the first. We'll see if I keep after it but I'm just kinda bored with it and she's a fat book too so if I'm this bored 100 pages in, not sure how I'll feel at 500...

Recommended to me as a must read by a friend; already not my type of read but sticking it out for at least 100 pages. Also think it'd be a better listen rather than read but the eBook was available atm.

Fuckin weird. Too close not to finish it but it's wild and out there and I really am kinda lost but kinda the vibe of the book.

Snow White. Enemies to fake betrothal to save her life, home girl has shadow witch magic she can't tell anyone about because she'll be killed, self isolates, weird pet, evil queen. Says it's YA so interested how spicy it'll get tbh. It's not terrible but it's not overly original for the set up in the first 100 pages.

It's fucking weird. and a lot of douche bags that are against women's rights. I'm no aggressive feminist either and yet I'm like bruh wtf. I picked it as I saw it at a bookstore in DC; the premise of a horror retreat hotel was alluring but this is annoying. Need a translated book for bingo too so probs will finish it out? But idk.

It's picking up. It is a bit like Ghost but it's murder instead of romance. I'm not digging the self loathing and negativity the MC keeps self-inflicting but otherwise it's a cute entertaining enough story.

It's almost exhausting having to keep reading this & yet I can't imagine being in a leadership position having to deal with this level of fire extinguishing.

I'm glad I'm reading & not listening to this as I've already found myself flippping back & forth trying to remember certain people & certain things. It's a funky premise even with the sleeve cover as a mild intro, I'm curious how it'll start coming together.

Id say it's another cozy book I picked for the cover. It's much lighter than other Scythe type books but has a murder so it's got a splash of dark. Kinda griefy but not heavy at all.

The plot keeps unfolding with how characters are tied together which is mildly frustrating as someone who likes to piece together the mystery but it still also works. Still bummed the book takes place in England instead of Dahlonega but nbd.

Clearly a cover pick as it's stunning but also loving the Italy setting. I read her other book, the lost/last apothocary which I didn't love but this one you get Italy, scuba diving, some Clive Cussler vibes, but also some siren water witch magic too; murder & mystery from the 1800s & present day.

Wish I could say things are coming back to me but I feel the first to second books are so different - someone help me understand this. I might just push it off to another time to read it with the level of wtf is happening & what did I miss in the last 100 pages of the first book to set this up in the 2nd. As I really enjoyed the first book but this one, she's about to be a DNF for the time being.

Picked because Kevin told me the show on Netty takes place in Dahlonega - too bad the book doesn't. Lame. But still love the England setting. Also had to slow down the book because the 'his' narrator's voice is too deep for my bass to understand at a 2x speed. Rude of him. But interest piqued.