TMST

 

 

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog. Feel free to leave your links in the comments if you are participating,

4/21/2026 How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

By pretending it is not and that I am not getting older? But I do appreciate presents :D I just want to take it easy, not too many people and something good to eat.

4/28/2026 What is your favorite sports team?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog. Feel free to leave your links in the comments if you are participating.

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Carole´s Monday: Thornhedge by T.Kingfisher

 

Author: T.Kingfisher

Narrator: Kate Handford
Title: Thornhedge

Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Horror, Novella
Format: Audiobook
Published:  August 15, 2023
Where I Got It: My shelf (Audible) 

Summary: 

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

Review:

This author is fun. I love the variety!!!

Here we have a retelling that may have you questioning all the princesses...especially Sleeping Beauty. Toadling was a human, but she was stolen from birth by the fairies and raised as one of their own. However, when she became an adult, the fae asked a big favor from her. It should've been easy.....go to the human world and offer a simple blessing of protection to a new baby. Nothing is ever that easy. Centuries later, a knight shows up to break the curse, but it's a curse Toadling can't have it break. 

I really enjoyed this one. I really had no idea what was going to happen to our lil Toadling. I adored her so much. 

This is a retelling, but you don't need to know the story of Sleeping Beauty in order to know this one. It is sooooo different that you would really need to call this a retelling? It was so different. 

This felt a little...lackluster compared to other stories by this author. It wasn't bad by any means...but.....it was too soft. It lists "horror" on the list of genres, but there is zero horror of any kind. It was sweet with some sadness and a mystery. Toadling is hiding something. Honestly, I think if the author played up the baddie a bit more and made the baddie scarier, it would've made this story really come to life. It was just missing a big spark. 

The ending was nice. I would've liked to have seen a smidge more. Maybe an interaction or two between Toadling and someone else (no spoilers here). 

The narrator did a nice job. Her voice was fitting. 

All-in-all, I did have fun with this one. It just felt...flat compared to other books I've read by this author. We needed more spice. Maybe with the baddie? It was very soft....too soft at times. 3 stars from me. In the end, it was still a lovely story and I loooooooved Toadling so much. 

Reading Challenges

- Audiobook #14

- Library Love #9

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl (#1)

Format: 466 pages, Paperback

Published: December 30, 2025 by Ace

Scifi /own

Well this was insane. Aliens come and wipe out every building and everything inside. If you were lucky enough to be outside you lived. And either stay there were there is nothing or enter the dungeon.

Carl was outside in his boxers with his ex´s cat Princess Donut. Now they are in a dungeon made to kill them and it is all televised.

And it is crazy! Goblins, monsters, Donut getting a life of her own. Other crawlers that wants to kill the rest. That place is scary and will kill you.

It was non stop craziness and fun. I do want to read more

The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe. Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over.

In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style. You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big. You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game - with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy. They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.

Audio. The Shades of Pemberley

By: Jann Rowland

Narrated by: Harry Frost

Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins

Release date: 04-07-26

Publisher: Tantor Media

Categories: Literature & Fiction /to review

Do I love Pride and Prejudice variations? Obviously!

This one is different in that Mr Darcy is not the master of Pemberley. A distant relation is and he has nothing to do with those relatives then. Instead he is engaged to Lizzy but then BOOM. His relative dies and he is now the heir.

Now the problems start. Lady Catherine de Burgh is even more evil and annoying than usual and she shows up with demands. Collins is a horrible person. Wickham is a monster. Miss Bingley, well she has redeeming qualities.

Lizzy and Darcy has some drama to get through. But they have good friends and love will prevail.

I enjoyed it! I always do

I have listened to this narrator before and I do like the voices and mood that is set. A joy listening to

 Following a tragic accident, a Darcy who was never meant to inherit Pemberley finds himself thrust into a world of new responsibilities, scheming relatives, and dark, long-buried secrets. While trying to protect his love for Elizabeth Bennet, he must navigate the complex legacy of his new estate.