Kiss, Marry or Kill: 57
This audio thriller is a banger (if you just ignore this). Plus, Book 2 is here! A home hack that works, a fun word game, the closet decluttering step you're missing, and a WTF divorce "trend."
This is my weekly series for subscribers only, where I’ll share things that caught my eye this week in a fun and flirty way (kiss), a sustainable way (marry), or a not-so-good way (kill). And yes, this trendy game is technically “f***, marry, or kill” but we run a family-friendly-ish show around here.
Kiss (things I like right now)
🎧 The Hunting Wives, May Cobb (←listened with my ears)
After all of my non-fiction survival/adventure reads (I’m currently on my third in a row) I needed a little ear candy, and The Hunting Wives did not disappoint, except for the places where it definitely was disappointing. Listen, sometimes you have to suspend all disbelief for a book to work. (See: The Family Game.) This one was no different, in that (a) the “sexy” stuff was actually tremendously problematic (not illegal but HELLO) and (b) the protagonist kept making dumb decision after dumber decision, to a degree that I actually kind of hated her. Her lustful urges overpowered any semblance of executive function at every potential opportunity (bitch, are you a 14-year-old boy?) but that didn’t stop me from waving my hands in the air like I just did not care! I believe this is now a Netflix show, which I will not be watching because I can’t be this annoyed all over again, but the book was nothing but candy, and I did enjoy it far more than I hated it. Say it with me: BEACH READ!
📖 The Half-Hearted Queen (Shattered King, Book 2) Charlie N. Holmberg (←read with my eyes)
The Shattered King made the Marry section of my Best of 2025 book list. I gave it 7 stars out of 5, and pre-ordered the sequel the moment I finished it. Then I had to wait six months for the release—and it was worth the wait, mostly. First, to be fair, I dove into this between my second and third non-fiction adventure/survival book. It’s hard to go from parasitic infections in the Amazon and clubbing baby seals while stranded in the Antarctic to “a fantasy romance where a country healer and a cursed king have to save the kingdom using magic and love.” It was a record scratch. And though I didn’t notice any of this in the first book, I found myself rolling my eyes in the second with the exhausting “will we, won’t we” star-crossed lovers storyline. (They both need therapy.) BUT I loved it, and the second story delivered in a completely satisfying way, right up through the end. (And yes, it was the end—this is a duology, and I was impressed with how well it completed the series without feeling rushed.)