In Bookstores Next Week - Witchlings by Caribel A. Ortega

 

I did not expect this package, an advance reader's copy of Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega. I approached it warily. Would I like it? Would I not? Was it about an elderly or quirky sleuth? NO! Is it about bookstores, booksellers, authors or librarians? Not really.

Welll????? 

The pandemic has made me ultra fussy about trying new things. It takes me so much longer to dive into a book these days. I read a few pages and then, sigh, I put the book down. During the next read I go further, and then further into the plot. On my third attempt, I have to force myself to put the book down - IF the book is good enough.

Witchlings IS good enough!  YAY!

Seven Salazar enters the Black Moon Ceremony to find what coven will be hers. The one thing she does not want - or expect - is to become a Spare, one of three 12-year-old witches who are NOT chosen for a coven.

Right there, you know what is going to happen, right? That Seven's fate is shared by her worst enemy, Valley Pepperhorn and the new girl, Thorn LaRoux, does not make this terrible fate any better. Spares never become witches. If they are lucky, they get jobs that don't require magic. If they are NOT lucky, they are little better than slaves. Oof!

UNLESS!!! There is always an "unless". If I tell you what the "unless" is, I may be telling you too much. The book checks off a lot of boxes; transforming friendships; suspending judgment; accepting differences; learning to trust. Then, there are the adventures, the forays into extreme danger, the endangered family members and the unfair treatment of Spares. Plus a seriously creepy mystery derails the Spare coven's attempts at earning their witchdom. Just when you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel, everything changes.  Make NO assumptions, readers. This is a kaleidoscope ride.

But the story is NOT finished. Seven, Valley, and Thorn may have prevailed but evil is still out there...waiting. 

                                                                (Mwahahahahaha!)

(On sale on February 1, 2022.)

Packages

There might be holiday wreaths and garlands on some houses in your neighborhood but the HOLIDAYS are truly over.  We have turned the corner. 

There are lingering side effects. My desire to buy the "perfect" holiday gifts and my reluctance to go into crowded stores this Fall resulted in a new addiction - online buying and PACKAGES! "Brown paper packages tied up with string"...  except these packages come in padded envelopes with reinforced packing tape.  That doesn't have the same lyricism though. "Packages in envelopes with reinforced packing tape" does not scan.

The ease and allure of online shopping ate a hole in my credit card spending. I have a small self-imposed "cap" on my spending and every month, for the past four months, my credit card company warned me that I exceeded my cap. Don't worry. My credit line is much larger than my cap. Still, what happened to the Old Frugal Me? The Use Cash Whenever Possible Me? The I Don't Need That Me? Where did I go?

Well, the news gives me an answer to that. I turned into an homebody because it's Sickness Season and I hate being sick. I never much liked shopping in stores anyway. Too many choices and never the right one - shopping takes too much time.

Online shopping takes time, too. Why is looking at things on a screen so much better than fingering the same things in a store? Choosing online takes time and effort. But it also offers the joy of anticipation! 

Looking for packages has become the bright part of my day. A day without a package is a day without sunshine to steal a saying from an old ad. I don't even care if the package is for my husband. We open them with an eagerness unrivaled by any of our other activities. Do Not Judge!

Last night - our mail comes very late - I got a BOOK in the mail. The Paris Bookseller is completely outside my usual reading. I lean toward fiction for young readers and cozy mysteries with elderly or quirky sleuths.  It is time for me to BREAK OUT and try a new book about ... books. (You did not expect me to stray too far, did you?)

Back to packages...I like sending them, too.  And here's the best thing. I can send a package from HOME!! I have a postal scale and I can "Click'n'Ship". The postal worker picks the package up from my porch. It is truly awesome. 

OH HO! With packages and and shipping from home, I can complete my transformation into a cave dwelling hermit! Mwahahahaha! 

Next, I will give up showers. 

(not really!) 

I wonder what's in the package I hope to get today.