The Year of the Projects - Prose and Cons + The Invisible Library

I do love a good list.  It gives a nice sense of order and focus and I love making lists about the books I want to read.  Last year I focused just on series I was behind on.  The project went great and I caught up on a ton of series but I felt like I was neglecting other books on my shelf and books at my library.  This year I have a few lists going - Series, Library, Clear Off My Shelves, and a random TBR Bingo where I pull books off my Goodreads TBR.  Here are a few of my most recent reads.

Goodreads:  Prose and Cons (Magical Bookshop Mystery #2) by Amanda Flower

Project: Series:  

Blurb:  October in Cascade Springs means tourists are pouring in for the annual Food and Wine Festival, and Daisy hopes to draw those crowds to the store. She asks Violet and the local writing group, the Red Inkers, to give a reading of the works of Edgar Allan Poe on the shop’s front porch to entertain the revelers. Everyone eagerly agrees.
Yet their enthusiasm is soon extinguished when Violet discovers one of the writers dead in the shop moments before the event. After the shop magically tells Violet she’ll need to rely on Poe’s works to solve the murder, she enlists the help of her trusty tuxedo cat, Emerson, and the shop’s crow, Faulkner. But they must act fast before someone else’s heart beats nevermore...

My Thoughts:  I really enjoyed the second book in this series.  The first book had a lot of the Will she stay/Won't she stay dilemma going on as well as getting to know the bookstore and the characters in Cascade Springs.  In this book we are able to just focus on the mystery and right from the start I was caught up.  I loved the Poe connection and loved getting to know Daisy a bit better and seeing more of Emmerson and Faulkner.  The mystery was entertaining and kept me guessing and I'm already looking forward to the next book.  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars) 

Goodreads:  The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Project:  Clear Off My Shelves

Blurb: Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.

Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.

Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.

My Thoughts:  This isn't a genre that I usually read so it took me a little bit to get through all the world building and the supernatural creatures.  However, once I did I was truly hooked and really enjoyed this read.  Irene is a good character who reminded me a bit of Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell with her confidence and capableness.  I really enjoyed seeing her and Kai learn to work together as the story unfolded.  While I did find the first 30% or so a bit slow due to all the setup once I got past all that I was thoroughly hooked and really enjoyed this read.  I'm curious to see how the series progresses.  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)