Gina’s Friday Finds | October 14, 2022 | Indie Author News, Spooky Books, Crafts, and Recipes
Hello, my friend & welcome to the October 14, 2022 Fun!
I’m feeling Fall in the air, and it’s affecting what I read, cook, and create. Do your habits change with the season?
One of my reader groups is having a spooky read-along during October. It’s been a lot of fun to read and compare notes. No two people indeed read the same book, which sure makes book clubs interesting. Do you belong to an organized book club or an online reading group? I love to chat about books. Lots of these discussions happen on Twitter or in blog comments. Goodreads also has a great collection of groups.
I hope you enjoy this week’s post and be sure you leave a comment below voting for your favorite find of the week.
This week’s bonus is a giveaway. One subscriber will win a gift card for leaving comments on the blog. The more interaction I get this week (on all posts), the more valuable the prize. I hope to have my best engagement week ever!
(Winner must be a subscriber at the time of the drawing on October 20th, 2022, at 5 pm CST.)
Peace & Love
I’ve been including a purchase banner with every book/item I recommend. They don’t always show up, so I include the purchase images at the bottom of the post. Every purchase made through my links helps to support this blog at no additional cost to you.
Friday Finds | October 14, 2022 | Author News
Do you have a new book releasing soon, a special promotion coming up, or any other news of your author life I can share with my readers?
In the reported book and author news this week…
Mim Eichmann has a book signing coming up. If you are in the area, please stop and visit her at Barbara’s Bookstore at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL, from 2-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29: https://
Thanks to readers like you, Jeff Stanger reports his book Tales from the Roundabout Vol 1 broke into Amazon’s Top 100 in the satire category.
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Hayley Reese Chow is my newest featured author. I love her books. The last I reviewed was Odriel’s Heirs as a 2021 BBNYA finalist. I have several more climbing up Mount TBR! Please welcome Hayley to the website (on the sidebar & in this post) by reading my reviews and visiting her website to learn about this fascinating woman. Hayley is also the featured author in my Bookshop this week.
Here’s an update from Hayley Reese Chow:
Would you like to be featured as my Author/Blogger of the Week? Please drop me a comment below to let me know. That’s all it takes!
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Friday Finds | October 14, 2022 | Books
These are a few of the books that caught my eye this week. Have you read them? Would you like to?
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House Book 1) by Charlie N. Holmberg
A house of haunted history and ill temper. Make yourself at home in this beguiling novel of love, magic, and danger by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.
Rhode Island, 1846. Estranged from his family, writer Merritt Fernsby is surprised when he inherits a remote estate in the Narragansett Bay. Though the property has been uninhabited for more than a century, Merritt is ready to call it home―until he realizes he has no choice. With its doors slamming shut and locking behind him, Whimbrel House is not about to let Merritt leave. Ever.
Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.
Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern―something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.
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Perfect wives, imperfect lives, and upending the rules of behavior in 1960s America.
Law school graduate and newlywed Ruth Appelbaum is acclimating to life and marriage in a posh Philadelphia neighborhood. She’ll do almost anything to endear herself to her mother-in-law, who’s already signed up Ruth for etiquette lessons conducted by the impeccably accessorized tutor Lillian Diamond. But Ruth brings something fresh to the small circle of housewives―sharp wit, honesty, and an independent streak that won’t be compromised.
Right away Ruth develops a friendship with the shy Carrie Blum. When Carrie divulges a dark and disturbing secret lurking beneath her seemingly perfect life, Ruth invites Lillian and the Diamond Girls of the etiquette school to finally question the status quo.
Together they form an unbreakable bond and stretch well beyond their comfort zones. For once, they’ll challenge what others expect from them, discover what they expect from themselves, and do whatever it takes to protect one of their own―fine manners be damned.
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From the worldwide bestselling author of Departure and Winter World comes a standalone novel about a father and daughter trying to unravel an intricate murder mystery spread across time – with a jaw-dropping twist.
Control the past.
Save the future.
One morning, Dr. Sam Anderson wakes up to find that the woman he loves has been murdered.
For Sam, the horror is only beginning.
He and his daughter are accused of the crime. The evidence is ironclad. They will be convicted.
And so, to ensure his daughter goes free, Sam does what he must: he confesses.
But in the future, murderers aren’t sent to prison.
Thanks to a machine Sam helped invent, the world’s worst criminals are now sent to the past – approximately 200 million years into the past, to the dawn of the time of the dinosaurs – where they must live out their lives alone, in exile from the human race.
Sam accepts his fate.
But his daughter doesn’t.
Adeline Anderson has already lost her mother to a deadly, unfair disease. She can’t bear to lose her father as well.
So she sets out on a quest to prove him innocent. And to get him back. People around her insist that both are impossible tasks.
But Adeline doesn’t give up. She only works harder.
She soon learns that impossible tasks are her specialty. And that she is made of tougher stuff than she ever imagined.
As she peels back the layers of the mystery that tore her father from this world, Adeline finds more questions than answers. Everyone around her is hiding a secret. But which ones are connected to the murder that exiled her father?
That mystery stretches across the past, present, and future – and leads to a revelation that will change everything.
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Now a #1 New York Times bestseller! A touching and lyrical tale about a remarkable sea otter, from Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate, author of Wishtree.
Meet Odder, the Queen of Play:
Nobody has her moves.
She doesn’t just swim to the bottom,
she dive-bombs.
She doesn’t just somersault,
she triple-doughnuts.
She doesn’t just ride the waves,
she makes them.
Odder spends her days off the coast of central California, practicing her underwater acrobatics and spinning the quirky stories for which she’s known. She’s a fearless daredevil, curious to a fault. But when Odder comes face-to-face with a hungry great white shark, her life takes a dramatic turn, one that will challenge everything she believes about herself―and about the humans who hope to save her.
Inspired by the true story of a Monterey Bay Aquarium program that pairs orphaned otter pups with surrogate mothers, this poignant and humorous tale told in free verse examines bravery and healing through the eyes of one of nature’s most beloved and charming animals.
Friday Finds | October 14, 2022 | Recipes
Healthy Potato, Carrot, and Tomato Soup
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Friday Finds | October 14, 2022 | Creative Projects
What project do you currently have in progress? If you are looking for a fun, fast project, this might be for you.
Halloween Luminary Kits from WitchNextDoorStore
Friday Finds | October 14, 2022 | Gina’s Blog Roundup
What are some of your favorite blogs to visit each week? I love surfing through an eclectic mix of blogs. It’s a rabbit hole I fall into frequently!
Blue Mood Café Amber Lewis Cozy Celebrations
If you missed one of my reviews in the past week, here’s an easy link to find them all, or click on the image & links below. Be sure you check out the giveaways. There are some great prizes this week!
Sidney the Lonely Cloud by Tim Hopgood | Children’s Book Review
Arne: Through the Darksilver #1 by Hazel Hunter | Book Review | Dark Fantasy Paranormal
The Legend of Black Jack by A. R. Witham | An @WriteReadsTours Promotion | Epic Fantasy
Lucifer’s Triangle by N.S. Wikarski (The Trove Chronicles #1) | Book Review, Excerpt, Giveaway
Cause for Elimination by Marla A. White | Book Blitz, Excerpt, $25 Giveaway | Mystery, Romance
What would you like to see in next week’s Friday Finds?
Thanks for reading this week. Peace & Love!
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Gina’s Friday Finds | October 14, 2022
Odriel's HeirsShop on Amazon 
The Gatekeeper of PericaelShop on Amazon 
Odder: The NovelShop on Amazon 
Whatever Happened to Cathy ...Shop on Amazon 
Tales From a Roundabout: Vo...Shop on Amazon 
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (...Shop on Amazon 
Lost in TimeShop on Amazon 
Well Behaved Wives: A NovelShop on Amazon
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Hi Gina,
Love this edition of FF. Would love to read the e-book, ‘Well behaved wives.’ Seems interesting. The savory, potato, tomato, carrot soup is really one of my soup favorites. I particularly like it spicy. Perfect for the cold months.
Best,
Chika
“Odder” looks like a great book!
The luminary kits look pretty cool!
The potato, carrot, tomato soup recipe looks divine — will definitely try that one. Also wondered when on earth you ever sleep as posted by another reader!
Thanks, Mim. We have turnips, carrots, & tomatoes from the fall garden. I sub turnips for potatoes in many dishes, but I may make this as written the first time.
I sleep about 6-7 hours most nights, but I go pretty hard the awake hours. That’s all out the window when I get one of those “just 1 more chapter” “read all night” books! Lol
Another amazing selection of books! Thank you Gina for sharing your interesting reviews!
Aww. Thanks so much, Eve!
Gina, I have one question: WHEN DO YOU SLEEP?! 😁
Rarely, Lance! 🌜🦉