I can't win!

[nwhiker]

LOL. I cannot win.

Yesterday, I finished _The Dictionary of Lost Words_. It was a rough start for me... I mean, for some reason, I'd thought it was fantasy, so rude awakening there. And the MC just fucking annoyed me. I didn't find some of the plot points believable. And then... somewhere in the middle, I was listening on audio, it caught and I could not stop listening. I wept for the last hour of the book, and for a long time afterwards. I can't quite pin down why just that despite everything in the start, the author had made me care.

So last night, still feeling a bit shaky and emotional, I knew I needed a new audiobook and went to search for one of those mysteries where someone gets skewered with a knitting needle in a yarn shop. Or bonked with a kettle in a tea shop. Or drowned in the piranha tank in an aquarium shop. Or some such. I swear they were all over when I last looked and but last night, all I found was the same type of thing, but all the shops/shop owners were actually.... witches. Most come back to little quaint town to take up dead aunt's little quaint stop only....

So. No luck.

Then I started looking for actual romance. Which didn't go as I expected either. A lot of paranormal romance popped up -exactly the stuff that annoys me when I go looking for non-romance fantasy- but nothing was striking the 'light and fluffy' note I was looking for. I grumped away.

Then, this morning, still in desperate need of 'light and fluffy', mystery or romance, I don't care, I decided to hit my local library. The Wall of Crack, aka the bookshelves at the entrance of the library, would surely have something. It would be OMG, paper, but if I could find something I could look up the audiobook. The Wall of Crack seems to have more thrillers and less murder-mysteries-in-craft-shops than it used to, and also few fluffy romances. Or maybe they all just got borrowed after the stressful Chinese Balloon coverage? 🤣

I found a book that seemed kinda what I was looking for -yay!- but it was not available on audio (caterer murders with recipes). So I found another, also not available on audio. Tried a romance. Availble but not for weeks. But the app gave me some recommendations.

So I downloaded one of them. I'm about to start it. Bonus: novella so if it's dreadful, I've less than four hours of it!

It feels like a long journey to get to one fluffy audiobook. But I have it. One fluffy romance audiobook... at least the cover makes it sound fluffy. If it's full of drama, I'm gonna cry.

I do recommend _The Dictionary of Lost Words_, btw. I'm still not sure what changed my feelings, from annoyance to totally invested (though I have some ideas). There were some things left unsaid that I'd have liked to know about, but even now, thinking about the ending, I want to cry. Also, the audiobook reader is excellent.