The Secret, Book & Scone Society Series

This series has been on my radar for years. Thanks to Libby's history, I can see that I checked out the first ebook in 2023 but never read it. The cover didn't look that appealing to me, and I guess the blurb didn't grab me either, compared to other books on my TBR. But I checked out the ebook again earlier in October and as soon as I started reading, I was hooked. I had to get the whole series and can't wait for the eighth (and beyond?!) installments.

The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams. I’d heard of this series but the cover seemed pretty bland to me so I never picked it up. However, I needed a new ebook to read and this was available, so I gave it a try. I’m so glad I did! I love the depth and diversity of the characters and how their friendship began to form. I liked the mystery as well, and though I don’t typically like books that end on a blatant cliffhanger, I’ll allow it this time because I’m definitely going to keep reading it.

The Whispered Word by Ellery Adams. I’m loving this series! Each mystery is so interesting and has great twists that I don’t think of but don’t seem hokey or manufactured.

The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams. Absolutely love the new characters introduced here, but the mystery felt a bit disjointed. Still felt cozy, though, and made me eager to read the next to ensure some of the new additions stuck around.

Ink and Shadows by Ellery Adams. This has been my least favorite installment in the series. The mystery wasn’t compelling to me and I felt like the women speaking out against “witchcraft” and banned books went silent way too easily compared to how things would have escalated in real life.

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams. I liked this a bit more than the last installment in the series but it still wasn’t my favorite. I do love McCabe and Bobbie being more active characters though.

Paper Cuts by Ellery Adams. I was glad to see some of Nora’s past coming after her in this book. After sharing the secret, then Bobbie coming into play, I thought something more would have to happen. This was a really good one, it felt a bit more dramatic and realistic than cozy, in a good way though. A series staying on the same level would get boring, so I appreciate how this mixed things up.

The Little Lost Library by Ellery Adams. This mystery was fun and made me wish I could see the little books Nora found! I also really liked the “A Rose for Emily” vibes with a twist.

The Tattered Cover by Ellery Adams. Review to come as soon as I get my hands on it!

Shifting Shelves

I know all about switching books out on shelves according to season, themes, colors, etc etc. You can't be on Instagram/#bookstagram and not see that stuff, honestly. While I understand the concept and appreciate the idea, I just never had time for it. Plus, whenever I switched out my kid's toys, he would immediately ask for the toys I just put away, even though he hadn't touched them for two months prior! So playing the same game with his books just seemed exhausting and pointless.

After doing the 12 Days of Christmas Storytime with my son, I realized how fun it was to have a different book to read every night. I'll admit I have some favorites that I love to re-read, just like he does. But... we often don't agree on which ones we'd like to read over and over again. Reading new books together made bedtime fresh and exciting for us, so I realized it was definitely time to go through his shelves and change things up.

I pulled his books into stacks, such as: 

• spring and summer books, including birthday books because he's a summer babe

• fall and back to school books

• Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and winter books

• series and favorites

I left the series and favorites on the shelves, because we read obviously read our favorites a lot, and with series, there are multiple titles, so while we're reading the same characters for several nights, each book is different. I also left out some of his board books. While some board books can be intended only for babies, the ones I left out have more of a story to them, or are favorites, or are ones he can "read" independently.

We have tons of children's books, so I added some "random" anytime titles to the seasonal stacks, just to have fresh books on the shelf that aren't specific to the time of year. I also culled some to donate, because we already have more than we need, and we go to the library to max out our cards fairly often! We'll donate some to a local women's and children's charity, and keep some to put in Little Free Libraries around town.

As an added bonus, there's now room on his shelves for some of his smaller toy bins. They also fit under his bed, but often get pushed back too far to reach, so this is a great solution. I love how his shelves look right now, but the real test will come in March when I get out the spring and summer books, because... what will I get rid of? I guess I can use his Goodreads account to keep track of what we read this year and put those away to bring out next year after Christmas? Who knows! It's an interesting experiment I hope I can keep up with, especially given the volume of books we own!

Do you change out your child's bookshelves? Or your own? What themes or system do you use to change them out? Share in the comments!