Wakela Runen's World

Cirque Du Slay by Rob Osler narrated by Pete Cross This is the 2nd book in a cozy mystery series.  I hadn't read the first book, and it definitely didn't hinder my enjoyment of this book.  The book follows Hayden McCall and his friends as they walk the tight rope of life, love and solving a murder.  Hayden and his best friend Hollister are helping out with a fundraiser that is being hosted by Hollister's friend Sarah Lee.  However, the main act (Kennedy Osaka) for the fundraiser fails to show.  Since Sarah Lee is a longtime friend of Kennedy, she decides to look for her in Kennedy's hotel room.  Not only does Sarah Lee find Kennedy murdered, but she is found there by the police while holding the murder weapon.  Even though Hayden doesn't really like Sarah Lee, he decides to help his friend Hollister in clearing Sarah Lee's name.   This book is phenomenal!    I listened to the entire book in one day.  I did have to pause a few times to walk away from the book, bu

The Body's Keepers by Paul L. Kimmel, M.D. narrated by Lane Hakel From a medical standpoint, this book is quite interesting.  Does it give you information on how to help yourself if you have kidney issues?  No, it does not.  However, it does a great job of detailing the function of the kidneys, the past and current available treatments, as well as the ramifications of a capitalistic medical machine has on the treatment of patients. Dr. Kimmel uses medical cases and personal accounts to help you understand the ramifications of kidney disease on your health and finances.  Living with kidney disease is not an easy undertaking.  I am currently at stage 3a of chronic kidney disease.  This means that my kidneys are not functioning to the capacity that they are supposed to be.  This book helped open my eyes to what it truly means to have CKD and its effects on my body.  You don't really realize how much is affected by your kidneys not functioning at a normal level.   I was able to lea

Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear by Robin Wasley narrated by Eunice Wong Can I start by saying "WOW"?  The audiobook is a little over 12 hours long, but I finished it in one day.  I did not want to stop listening at all.  Robin Wasley sped out of the gate with her first book, a great combo fantasy/horror book.   First up, the narration.  Eunice Wong was incredible.  Her voicing of the story kept me on the edge of my seat.  There was depth to her characters as well as range in her intonation of the actual story.  When characters were whispering, she did too.  If the characters were anxious, you could feel it in her voice.  I will definitely be looking for more books narrated by Eunice! The story starts off describing the sleepy little town where tourists visit to see where the magic used to happen.  However, the fault lines were sealed off ages ago and the magic is no longer accessible.  There is one caveat to that though.  There are guardians who hold keys to unlock th

The Marie Laveau Voodoo Grimoire by Denise Alvarado narrated by Adenrele Ojo Being a pagan, I have always been interested in the magickal workings of people around the world.  And the Louisiana Voodoo community has really had me intrigued.  There are too many times in the media, that you see Voodoo and other magickal practices being demonized.  I was ecstatic to see find this book that allowed me to take a look at the life of Marie Laveau and learn about her practices. Adenrele Ojo did a superb job at the narration.  There were a few times though that were a little tedious to get through though.  I think that was mainly due to it being a list of herbs and their magickal properties.  So, it was read more like a bulleted type of list.  But I really can't see any way around that scenario happening.   There was so much to unpack in this book.  The was a lot of great research done on Marie Laveau.  This was done through Marie's diaries, newspaper articles and even interviews with so

Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker & Max Meyers There are 2 narrators for this audiobook.  Jeremy Carlisle Parker is a woman who is a trained opera singer.  I have heard and enjoyed her narration before in The Witches of Thistle Grove series by Lana Harper.  Max Meyers who has acted in Off-Broadway productions.  I have not listened to any of their previous work.  I think that both narrators did the best job that they could in order to portray so many different POVs in one audiobook.  However, this book would have benefited better from a much larger cast of narrators in order to help differentiate.  Anyone who has read my previous reviews will know that I rarely DNF a book.  Even if there are points about the book that I don't like, I will generally try to stay until the end in order to give the author a chance of redemption.  However, I just could not continue listening to this book.  I really did try, but I couldn't. Now the blurb that I read

The Wonderful World of Amigurumi by Khuc Cay This book has got to have some of the cutest creations that I have ever seen.  Each one is so darling and special in its own way.  Thankfully, Khuc Cay has provided great instructions that make it easy to create these special animals.   She starts with basic instructions on how to crochet and even embroidery work.  Of course, she provides a list of which types of supplies you will need to finish these projects, as well as which brands of yarns that she likes to work with.  There are also great tips such as putting blush on the cheeks of your creations to increase their cuteness factor.  She also gives tips on how to make them bigger if you would like.   Before the instructions for each amigurumi, she tells you a little bit about its personality.  For instance, the picture on the cover of the book is of Onni the Platypus and he likes to hang out near the water eating ice cream.   The instructions include information on who it is rated for (be

Once Upon a Murder by Samantha Larsen narrated by Marni Penning This may be the 2nd book in the Lady Librarian book series, but it is the first one that I have read.  Not knowing what occurred in the 1st book did not hamper my enjoyment of this book.  It would have been nice to know more about some of the situations that were referenced though.  I do plan on going back to read the 1st book since I want to know what happened in it. Take a step back to 1784 and ride along as Tiffany attempts to clear both her and Samir's name of murder.  It seems in the prior book; Tiffany had dressed up as her brother and started working for the Duchess of Beaufort as the librarian.  In this book, she is now known as herself and is working as the librarian and also as nanny for the young Duke.  There are some really cute parts with Tiffany and the young pirate interacting.   This book had way too many juxtapositions of contradicting ideas.  Some of them actually concerned me and took me out of the t

Not Your Crush's Cauldron Book 3 of Supernatural Singles by April Asher narrated by Zura Johnson This is the 3rd book in the series and I hadn't read any of the prior books.  This did not affect my ability to follow along with the story.  In fact, I absolutely loved this story.  As soon as I was done listening, I bought the first 2 books.  I can't wait to listen to those!! Zura Johnson creates voices for the characters that fit their personality and has great intonation.  I do tend to listen to my books at 1.5X speed and the pacing at that rate was great.  This is the first book that I have listened to that she has narrated.  I plan to keep an ear out for more of her books.   The series follows triplet witches as they try to discover their true selves as well as their one true love.  In Not Your Crush's Cauldron, we get to know Olive (the 3rd born of the triplets) much more.  She is a reserved, down-to-Earth professor that teaches supernatural studies.  She has a normal

The Witches Workshop by Melissa Jayne Madara First, I would like to note that I reviewed the eBook edition.  I wanted to mention this since I have already said that I focus on audiobooks.  However, with a book of crafts or recipes, I feel that it is necessary to be able to see the process instead of listening and trying to figure it out in my head.  It is less noisy this way. Now on to the book itself.  This book is a witch's guide to creating your own tools.  The first thing that came to mind when I saw this title was that by crafting your own incense, dyes, or oils you can already start to put your intentions into them while crafting.  This way you will have the added benefit during your spell or ritual work.  Whereas, if you are buying mass produced items, you don't have the energy already starting.   I know that many people skip introductions in this type of book.  There is a lot of great information in this section.  The author attempts to show how the very definition of a

Crocheting Reversible Amigurumi Projects by Jesse Van In These animals are so cute!  I know that this is going to show my age with this comment, but they sort of remind me of Popples!  The big difference is that Popples only turned into a ball.  Whereas these darlings turn into other things depending on the project you choose.  For instance, the pattern for the fox has an inside that is a cat.  The otter becomes a seashell.   The other cool thing is that you don't have to make them reversible if you don't want.  You can actually make them one sided and seal them closed.  So, if you only want that adorable panda bear, then you make the panda part of the pattern and then fill it with stuffing and seal it off.  Then you have a cute stuffed panda. There are so many handy tips and guidance in this book that even beginners like me have a chance at creating these cuties.  I know that it will take me awhile to finish one of these patterns, but I am working my way through one at the mom

A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian narrated by Soneela Nankani I have been impatiently waiting for this audiobook to be released.  I was excited when I learned that I could review the eALC for NetGalley. First, let me tell you how I learned of this great series.  I am a HUGE fan of the narrator.  I absolutely love the work of Soneela Nankani and I was wanting something to read, but really didn't feel like tackling my TBL pile.  Well, I did a search to see what books Soneela Nankani narrated and came across this series about a stage magician, locked room mysteries and hidden rooms.  I was intrigued.   Let me tell you that Soneela doesn't disappoint with her voicing of the characters.  From creating the accents for the Indian grandparents to the Scottish grandmother to her American friends, Soneela seems to manage it all without skipping a beat. As for the story, most cozy mysteries you can skip around in the series without an issue.  However, in this particular book, I advise tha

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan narrated by Stephanie Németh Parker This book is listed as a horror-mystery.  I do feel that it is more of just a horror book.  That is perfectly fine with me.  I spent my teen years reading Clive Barker and Leigh Nichols (Dean Koontz pseudonym).  Plus, being a teen in the 80s, I spent time watching horror films such as Nightmare on Elm Street.  So, going into this book, I was ready for horror and blood.   This book is based on the Romanian mythology of the Strigoi.  I know that many people are not aware of the stories surrounding them.  So, the picture on the cover doesn't really make sense to many.  The Strigoi are a mix between a vampire and a zombie.  They start out as a zombie/ghoul type of being that will feed on humans and gain strength.  As they gain strength, they will start to appear more and more human.  In the original tales of the Strigoi, they can turn invisible and shapeshift.  That didn't occur in this book though.  However, the be

A Killer Romance by Maggie Blackburn narrated by Christa Lewis This is the 3rd book in the Beach Reads series.  It is the first book that I have listened to in the series.   Summer Merriweather inherited not only a house, but a book shop from her deceased mom.  Once a professor of Shakespearean literature, she has now uprooted her life to run Beach Reads on a small island in North Carolina.  Against her better judgement, Summer hosts Lana Livingstone for the Valentine's Day event "Romance by The Sea".  Summer feels that Lana's latest book does not fully understand Romeo and Juliet.  And talking to Lana, she quickly realizes that Lana has the misunderstanding that "Romeo and Juliet" is a romance and not a tragedy.   It soon becomes apparent that Lana is a suspect in her husband's murder.  And when she is found dead at the local B&B, the Beach Read employees are under suspicion.   There were a few things in the story that did bother me a little bit.  I