Venetia by Georgette Heyer: The Audiobook

 I am relistening to Venetia lately. I got a headache and other than classical music, a Georgette Heyer audio book is soothing. I felt the yearning for one of my favorites of hers. Synopsis below, courtesy of Goodreads:

Twenty-five-year-old Venetia Lanyon's beauty is rivaled only by her sensibility. Intelligent and independent, her future seems safe and predictable. Lovely Venetia despairs of ever meeting the handsome hero of her romantic dreams but is nearly resigned to spinsterhood, thanks to the enormous amount of responsibility she inherited with a Yorkshire estate and an invalid but precocious brother, Aubrey. She lives in comfortable seclusion in rural Yorkshire, she has never been further than Harrogate, nor enjoyed the lackluster attentions of any but her two wearisomely persistent suitors. She can not accept to marry the respectable but dull Edward Yardley - she will only marry for love.

Then her long-absent neighbor, thirty-eight-year-old Lord Jasper Damerel, returns home to Yorkshire. In one extraordinary encounter, she meets the infamous neighbor, who she knows only by reputation - a gamester, a shocking rake, and a man of sadly unsteady character - and before she knows better, she finds friendship with a libertine whose way of life has scandalised the North Riding for years. Lord Damerel finds Venetia to be the most truly engaging and wittily perverse female he has encountered in all his life and determined to woo and win her, he pursues her with a passionate abandon that is soon the talk of the ton. And after her encounter with the dashing, dangerous rake, Venetia's well-ordered life is turned upside down, and she embarks upon a courtship with him that scandalises and horrifies the whole community.

But Venetia has no intention of losing her heart to the rakish lord until she is sure that beneath his swashbuckling ways and shocking manners lies a tender heart belonging to her. And Lord Damerel would marry her in a heartbeat if he did not think it would ruin her. Then she discovers a shocking family secret that changes everything ... It was therefore particularly provoking to find that occasion, Lord Damerel could make up his mind to be idiotically noble....

I am just going to chill and let this book play. As always, feel free to leave me a message below.

Sleep deprived........

 I pulled a 24 hour all-night-and-dayer. I managed to fall asleep last night but I feel like it was not enough. Especially when I have to do math with younglings.

I also got to help LB2 bake a bunch of cakes for a relative who is getting married. I think I might need to take a nap before that. I am having trouble keeping my eyes open.

As always, feel free to leave me a message below.

Voíla and Against the Current did a song together!

 Yes, just like my title said. Two groups I love collaborated and made the most angsty rock jam, words fail me. I loved it. The video is a work of art that is going on my next mini movie playlist. Chrissy and Luke had incredible chemistry. And the vocals, #vocalgoals. I got this song on repeat. 

Video below:

The lyrics get to me though. It somehow made me yearn for a non-existent ex to pine over and reminisce about. It made me want to think about good times I never had and a love that doesn't exist. It made me ache from a breakup I never had. As someone who has been single since birth, that's kind of hard to do. But, a girl can dream right?

This song is definitely a summer song, a song of remembering past lovers who were only for season. Of remembering those honeysuckle-scented kisses and firefly lit nights. You may have only been there for a moment, but it was your moment, forever frozen into a summery amber-hued memory. A beautiful golden memory, treasured.

As always, feel free to leave me a message below.

When a love story is not a love story.......

 I found a channel on YouTube called Love Story. It has a bunch of hour-long videos that are full stories. Not all of them have a happy ending. It honestly feels more like a romantic tragedy.

I am not saying that the videos are bad, just more sad than happy. I feel a bit jaded after listening to a whole bunch of them. Of the thirteen videos I watched, only three ended in an actual love story way.

Also, sorry for the late post. I got so busy I forgot about my post. Thankfully, I remembered it later. As always, feel free to leave me a message below. Especially if you know of a channel like Love Story.

A Murder to Remember: A Partial Review

 I recently got an Audible original audiobook, A Murder to Remember by Brynn Kelly. It is a funny Cozy Romantic Mystery that I am finding delightful. Blurb below.

It was the perfect vacation fling. And then a body showed up.

Jane Austen fan Amelia Bennett sneaks away from a dull tour of an English country manor, only to run into a man more dashing than Mr. Darcy himself. About to lose his ancestral home to family debts, charming aristocrat Tom Calder invites his American guest to join him in drinking his way through the estate’s priceless wine collection. But when they wake in his bed the next morning, they’re convinced that in their drunken haze they witnessed a murder.

Problem is, the body has vanished and no one believes them—except the shadowy figures stalking them through the estate's empty halls and lonely woodlands. On the run for their lives, Amelia and Tom must piece together their shifting memories and a string of baffling clues to expose the crime—while navigating their morning-after awkwardness and the undeniable sparks between them. As their unexpected bond deepens, they begin to wonder if their own love story could be one for the ages—if they manage to survive at all.

I am 5-hours into this 10-hour adventure. I do admit this audio book is a change of pace for me. I have been sucked into the world of Chinese and Korean Web novels lately. It is a bit of a reset to listen to a book where English is definitely the first language. I am enjoying it.

As always, feel free to leave me a message below.

Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1!!!!!!!!!

 I would like to Netflix for breaking the season into two parts. I was able to get to sleep at a somewhat decent hour thanks to that. I liked that they kept familiar elements from the novel. 

My Mom and Dad were excited for this season as well. LB2 had already watched it before the three of us. My Mom watched this season before my Dad. She will probably watch it again with him. It still weird me out that he likes it.

Well, now we will wait for June. Can't wait to see what will happen next. As always, feel free to leave me a message below.

P.S. Congrats to Nemo for winning Eurovision 2024. I should have mentioned it in my last post but I was a bit preoccupied with my book recovery efforts. They are still ongoing, by the way.

When books get wet.......

 A few weeks ago, my mom and I were cleaning the basement and I discovered that some of my books that I had stored down there had gotten wet. How and why that happened I will spare you the details. Just know that they were wet and starting to mold.

I immediately went into recovery mode with LB2 as my assistant. We covered the damp books in baking side to draw out the moisture and we wiped the mold away with a paper towel soaked in warm water we put castile soap into. When the books covered in baking soda showed signs of drying some, we used an old toothbrush to brush off the damp excess soda before we used the blow dryer on them. 

We have gotten the majority all taken cared off. We intended to place the mostly dried books in the sun so it could finish them off. Sadly, our weather has been either rainy or cloudy. It'll get done eventually.

As always, feel free to leave me a message below.