Book Review: “The Widow of Falbrooke Court” by Kasey Stockton

Hello again!

Every time I start on the next book of this series. I realize I need to work on the previous books’ review too. I can’t get too mad at it as I feel like I’m coming out of my blogging rut, and branching out to check out a genre of books I thought I would hate forever. I owe a lot of credit to certain classics like Charles Dickins and Daphne du Maurier in the last year or two.

If you’d like to check out my reviews of the other books in the “Ladies of Devon” series, click on the titles mentioned here. The Jewels of Halstead Manor and The Lady of Larkspur Vale.

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Can true love break the curse?

Amelia Fawn is cursed—or so she believes. How else can she explain each of her husbands’ deaths within the first year of marriage? So after the ton names her the Black Widow and warns eligible men to stay clear, Amelia vows never to marry again. Not even if she falls in love.

Charles Fremont has loved Amelia Fawn his entire life. But after enduring countless rejections and watching her get married three other times, he’s finally had enough. He swears a vow to never ask anything from her again. Even if it kills him.

Book three in the Ladies of Devon series, The Widow of Falbrooke Court, is a clean Regency romance continuing the story of the four women who make up a literary society in Devon and form a lasting friendship.

taken from Goodreads.

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I was fairly excited to learn more about Amelia Fawn since I started reading this series in late April. She was brought to Halstead Manor in a hope to become a friend to the newcomer Giulia. My first impression of Amelia was that she’s very proper and understands her role in life is to be a good wife, mother and mistress of an estate, but within the first meeting with Giulia, you are told she’s a newly widow, but isn’t told much else until the ladies attend a literary society meeting with two other women of Devon, Mabel and Hattie.

While you meet Amelia in Giulia’s story, you also learn about Charles Freemont in the second book, as Mabel, Pippa and Charles are cousins. Charles is mentioned to have always been in love with Amelia, but she does not feel the same way about him. As much as I was into Amelia’s character, I’ve also lived like Charles, loving a person from afar. Charles does in fact try to give her all of the space they desperately need, but they are being pulled together by unseen forces–well, Miss Hattie Green helps just a little with her own quest to find romance. You can look forward to that review coming soon!

Amelia Fawn had married three times. It was a truth generally accepted between those who knew her intimately, as well as the majority of the local parishioners, that Amelia would never, ever marry again.

These two characters are very caring. I found myself drawn towards Charles, especially after he promised a man by the name of George Halpert, he would look on his wife and unborn child if anything was to happen to him. Amelia and her brother Andrew, who is an early doctor of the Regency period, allow the widow to stay at Falbrooke Court to heal and recover, and this makes an awkward but lovely awakening for Amelia and Charles.

The one thing that messed with me was hearing about Amelia’s feelings about not being able to fulfill a life that many ladies were doing at that time. She completed a Season with other ladies her age to find a husband, and it was an actual love match which is wild in the Regency-era (hell, it was practically nonexistent throughout the Victorian and Edwardian times as well!) but getting married was the easy part, making the marriage last long enough to produce children was another part of life.

“Trust me, Amelia. A man does not purposefully spend so much time in any woman’s company unless he has feelings for her,” Charles said, his voice dropping.

The poor woman has been made a widow three times. This is a lot of heartache for someone to take, doesn’t matter the age or sex, that kind of experience of loss is largely traumatic. She has been the blunt of gossip in society, but her friends are there for her to show her how much love she has on her side. She’s a wonderful lady who does deserve a rich marriage and children. I understand her hesitation of wanting to quit hoping for those things, but you sense she can be a jealous woman, despite not having any feelings for Charles early on.

I mean, Charles is in the same boat. He’s never been married or had any mistresses in the past. He’s a perfect catch for any woman, but as much as he’d like to forget about Amelia, he can’t and they start to pull into each other that reminds readers, everything happens for a reason.

Have you read the third book, “The Widow of Falbrooke Court” by Kasey Stockton yet? If so, please leave me your comments below!

May Playlist

Hi 🙂

Well, we’ve made it through May and into the summer months.

I don’t know about you and your country’s climate, but summer is definitely my least favorite seasons. The blazing heat and humidity can feel as though you’re suffocating. I feel for any person and/or animal that has to be outside all day long. Honestly, it’s not just the heat, but the number of mosquitos in my neighborhood is absolutely crazy! My sister and nephew are deeply affected by them, to the point they’ll develops bruises and welts on any exposed skin.

When I do go outside, I wear a mesh covering, not like beekeepers because it’s not a hat, although we’ve thought about getting one of them for my dad. He loves his straw hats. It makes him feel as though he is an actual farmer. Technically, he is, I mean, we have a fairly large garden, and he has a tractor… Anyways, I can only “stand” to stay out on the back deck with our cats for only so long. The cats are usually pretty good about staying out of the sun. They tend to go underneath the decks and dad’s abandon boat in the yard, but don’t worry they are feed and watered every day.

Now that school is out for everyone, spending time with my nephew for longer periods of time has become challenging, but I’ve been stock piling on various arts and crafts for us to do. We tend to do a lot of coloring like coloring books, chunky wooden decorations like our Christmas ornaments. The only thing I’m really recommending are these Acrylic Paint markers by FUMILE–they have changed my mind set about having paint markers, because the pigment is impressive! We have the 28 box, and it includes an Ivory white and a white marker. These two colors may not look all that different but depending on the surface they have a brighter intensively. We still use regular Crayola super tips and some other brand I can’t remember, but Nolan and I are enjoying this brand a lot.

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Let’s get into the music side of this post.

I have listened to a LOT of music in the last couple of weeks. I change up my styles so much that I’m surprised I don’t have headaches because of the loud tempos and changing genres. One artist that I found at the beginning of May was Dimash Qudaibergen. This was truly a random find on YouTube of all places. I’ve been listening to a lot of my Kpop girl groups again and Dimash isn’t part of that, but he is an Asian artist with an unbelievable range. He reminds me of Adam Lambert (if my nana reads this, she’ll be so excited!) and Josh Groban. Anyways, I really like his single “Smoke” with those high notes in the chorus. They totally threw me for a loop the first time I heard it.

Speaking of Kpop, I did decide to listen to more of CHUNG HA. Her most recent single is “I’m Ready” which I’d consider it a strong contender to anything by Dua Lipa. CHUNG HA doesn’t have an EP or album out right now, so I went for her last release, and it was “Querencia” that came out three years ago. It was really good, considering I’m not familiar with the Korean language, I loved the music that was brought out by this artist. I was into “Bicycle,” “Flying on Faith,” and “Bother Me”. The other is an actual group, XG. I found them last summer and I just listen casually, and I’ve been obsessed with “Undefeated” and their newest song “Woke Up”.

Well, I think it’s time for the Top 20 songs. As always, you can come check out the Spotify playlist anytime, just click here.

Hoist the Colours by Malinda featuring Bobby Waters, Colm McGuinness, Lauren Paley
One For The Money by Escape The Fate
Lay Low by Amy Guess
The Hell We Create by Fit For A King
Bring Me Down by Point North
Year of the Cat by Al Stewart
To The Moon by Meghan Trainor
Numb by Tommee Profitt x Skyler Grey
Death Wish by Royale Lynn featuring Danny Worsnop
Aeterna by Simone Simons featuring Ayreon
Vultures by Kittie
Champion by Neoni featuring burnboy
God by Jake Daniels
Evil Twin by Lindsey Stirling
The Exorcism by Charlotte Wessels
SLAY by EVERGLOW
Wild Horses by Grace Power
Holding Back by BANKS
Undo It by Carrie Underwood
Drinks by Cyn

Now that summer, well, maybe not “officially” is here, what are you looking to the most? I think I’ll give books written about summer activities and life a go, so if you have any recommendations, especially if they’re available on Kindle Unlimited, send them to me. Right now, I’m still on my clean romances but I think I see a bad boy coming into my near future. If I can, I’d really like to go back to Every Summer After by Carley Fortune this year. I also might see about Where the Crawdads Sing on audiobook, so wish me luck about that.

What are you listening to? Plus, are you going to any music festivals this summer? Leave everything in the comments.

March & April Playlists

Hello everyone.

It has truly been a while since I have written a blog post.

I’ve been dealing with mental health issues lately and unfortunately; my blog has published less and less content. It’s a sad concept as I love my blog; for a long time, it was my sanctuary, but like with many things, nothing is permeant.

However, I have never accepted defeat lightly. I want to blog, that’s why I’m here, writing this post right now. I enjoy sharing my likes and thoughts with my readers. Whether you’re new or old, I hope you find this post entertaining and maybe a new favorite or two in the end.

Music can bring out the best in us, and that’s why I am here to share with you today. It’s a combination of what I was into for both March and April. As in my previous posts, I will give you the Spotify playlist for each month so you can listen to everything.

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March marked a new phase of unique music for me. I was reading two very different books, and their characters and settlings sparked their own aesthetic playlists and with that, I was able to do some research on Spotify and found a plethora of various artists that worked fairly well while I created their own playlists. I was never able to finish The Poppy War by R. F. Kaung, but I did with Heart of the Valkyrie by Melanie Karsak. I was literally traveling around the world via the music I found on Spotify and YouTube.

I had a lot of fun diving deep into the depths to capture the full picture of who these characters are in my mind. and music is my medium to use generate the people and obstacles with music than anything else. Well, besides using a Pinterest board. This is a good way to see everything going on without ever having to listen to the music. I’ve attached “The Poppy War” aesthetic playlist’s to the “March” banner.

Here were my Top 20 songs for March. Click here to be redirected to the Spotify playlist.

Into The Mist by Elvor
Voices by Shaman’s Harvest
Heart and Soul by Heuy Lewis & the News
Teir Abhaile Riu by Celtic Woman
Chokehold by Will Ramos x Nik Nocturnal
Wonder by Lights & Motion
EENIE MEENIE by Chung Ha featuring Hongjoong of ATEEZ
A Girl’s World by Mia Mormino
Altay by Otyken featuring Ummet Ozcan
Bats by Hafdis Huld
Ylva by Ayla Nereo
Weeping Willow by The Hellfreaks
YESSIR by 3YE
Peasant’s Throne by Lillith Max
Some Type of Skin by Aurora
Best For Me by Joyner Lucas featuring Jelly Roll
Formaldehyde Footsteps by BertieBanz
Rage by Samantha Margot
LABOUR – the cacophony by Paris Paloma
Marjorie by Taylor Swift

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April has intertwined with the previous month at first. This isn’t a weird thing to do, I try to keep this collection of music close by, in case I have found a similar book to explore further and would need inspiration to create the next aesthetic playlist. I continued to read The Poppy War, but not for long as I tend to stop longer books for another time. I may be an odd duck, but if I can’t finish a book before the months end, I usually push them back to start another book and its own aesthetic.

Since I was able to go outside and enjoy sitting out on the back deck with our cats, they love the little breakfast-in-bed table just as much as I do but are somewhat lenient to share the table with my book and Post-It colored tabs to keep any quote, I found to be a key for later or share my favorite quotes in a book review on here. Anyways, the book I have taken outside is King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard, the third book in the Red Queen series. I started this book early spring, and I had made myself well aware to the possibility of not finishing it, but I’m really, really close to moving on to War Storm before we end up in summer!

I also have started on the full Red Queen aesthetic playlist on Spotify. I wish I had created it when I had started the series, but that was over 11 years ago, and that wasn’t the best year to create these kinds of playlists anyway.

I’ve tried to give each book/chapter/character they’re own theme, and the only song I could work for the beginning of the King’s Cage section starts at Will Ramos from Lorna Shore’s and Nik Nocturnal’s cover of Sleep Token’s “Chokehold”. It’s an odd, but perfectly song and word that matches up on the outlook for both King Maven Calore and Mare Barrow. This section will continue to grow until I finish and began reading the fourth and final book of the series: War Storm. To listen to this playlist, click the “April” banner.

Other than that, let’s see what I enjoyed in the month of April. Again. come check out the entire playlist here.

Sheesh by BABYMONSTER
And She Translated Into the Sky by Levi Patel
A Fool’s Parade by Within Temptation featuring Alex Yarmak
Eyes Closed by Imagine Dragons
This Is The Way by Five Finger Death Punch featuring DMX
So Fresh, So Clean by OutKast
Queens and Kings by Alessandra
Feel Me Now by If Not For Me
Escalate by Tsar B
In My Soul by Flannel Graph
Come What May by The Last Bloom
Ocean Lullaby by Colossal Trailer Music
Undefeated by XG x Valorant
I Am Defiant by The Seige
Made For This by WE ARE FURY x Takaayla
Bad by Royal Deluxe
Black Velvet Sun by My Indigo
Frozen by Victoria K.
Dead Man Walkin’ by Rebecca Brunner
Just Won’t Die by Halocene

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Well, I think that is it for now. If you’re still here at the end, sorry for the rambling! I didn’t mean to make a whole story about the music I’ve listened to these past months, but I’m glad to share this part with you freely again.

What have you been listening to lately? Do you create aesthetic playlists? Are they for yourself, friends or other stuff like mine? Let me know in the comments below.

February Playlist

Hello!

This month has been interesting.

Let’s talk about books first, because I have done a LOT of reading lately.

In January, I began reading the Plantagenet and Tudor novels by Philippa Gregory. I was obsessed with the first book, it’s called “The Lady of the Rivers” and it discusses the young life of Jacquetta of Luxembourg. I was hesitant about getting into these books because I loved Starz first adaption with The White Queen. which covers Jacquetta’s oldest daughter Elizabeth, who becomes the new king’s wife, Unfortunately, I did not have as much success with the second book but I’m not giving up on the rest of the series though. I want to learn more about Lady Margaret Beaufort “The Red Queen” and “The Kingmaker’s Daughters” which is focused on Lady Anne Neville.

The next thing I do specifically for Black History Month is attempt reading more black and brown authors, characters and world(s). I was able to find three — one year I’m going to read Toni Morrison! Since I could anything to her, I switched it up and focused on kid books and found I Am You: A Book about Ubuntu by Refiloe Moahloli and Zinelda McDonald” and this was SO adorable! I liked how they had visible characters dressed up to represent their cultures, plus a few others with some kind of disability. It was a gentle read, and I liked the fact it was written in South Africa and its cultures.

My second attempt was Lila by Naima Coster. I knew this book would be short and I was fine with it, I enjoyed reading about these characters and how they were trying to navigate life in New York City. I liked Naima’s writing to be flowy and modern, but I did not like how it ended, it just stops. and I felt very frustrated with it. And the other boy I chose was Over Him: Not a Love Story… A F*cking Story by Shantel Davis. I didn’t finish it because I thought the story itself wasn’t written that well, but I understood the gist of it as well.

After three years, I finished Kendare Blake’s “Three Dark Crowns” series. This is my seventh book series overall and I’m still reeling from the events in the final book. I hope to get my toes on the novellas Kendare wrote within these characters and this world in the near future. And finally, I read “Puck Shy” by Kelsey Grosse. I had found it in early January and saw it would be available on KU Valentine’s Day, so I waited as long as possible, and that was a good solid novella. I think I might do a review on it as well.

Now, as far as music goes. I had a fun time. I rediscovered my love of K-Pop girl group Dreamcatcher. They don’t have a lot of pop-y songs like the majority of the Korean groups, both male and female. I enjoy for their rock and roll style. I also listened to quite a few of new albums were eerily similar, there was “The Glory and The Fallen” by Leah and “Femmes Fatales” by Exit Eden as they both do symphonic metal, but Leah leans more into Celtic mythology.

I should probably tell you; I included a few episodes of LuAnna: The Podcast. This is my way of spamming you (my own readers) like I do my family and friends on Instagram with cute and hilarious reels! I tried Sophiena’s Secret Mum Club two weeks ago, I just couldn’t get into it – they sound too much like Luisa and Anna, and that rubbed me the wrong way. I am currently giving Toni and Ryan a try and I have seen some clips on Insta and enjoyed them so, I’ll try to give you an update on them in March’s post.

Here are my Top 20 songs for this month. If you’d like to check out the full playlist, click here.

Bye Bye by Gryffin featuring Adara
V.A.N. by Bad Omens x Poppy
Vicious by Bohnes
Looking At Me by Sabrina Carpenter
The Village by Wrabel
American Horrow Show by Rain Paris
Code of Life by Epica
High Horse by Kacey Musgraves
Let Me Out by Hidden Citizens x Ranya
FTCU (Metal Remix) by Lauren Babic
Wings Of Time by Leah
Where Do Broken Hearts Go? by One Direction
Friendly Fire by Linkin Park
Scream by Dreamcatcher
Bad Blood by SETOURSAILS featuring Adrian Estrella
Somebody Loves Plumb
Gloves Up by Little Mix
Trophy Hunter by Within Temptation
Circus by Halocene
The Catalyst by Amaranthe

I am sharing two other playlists I’ve made lately. Since I told you about finishing the “Three Dark Crowns” series, I actually made an aesthetic playlist to go along with the four books. These are the songs I thought fit in certain events and the characters. It is a massive list, but I couldn’t help myself. And the other is nothing but, in your face, upbeat songs. There are no rhyme or reason for it, but I wanted to give it to you anyways.

So, that’s it. I am hoping I’ll be in a mood to blog more, but I don’t want to force anything either. I hope you are doing well and have great last days of February and going into March.

January Playlist ’24

Hello!

Well, we have nearly finished our first month of 2024. I don’t know about you, but January is always a really slow month.

We finally had our first big snow or blizzard. We didn’t get any snow in November or December. Our temperatures had never gone down into a single digit until two weeks ago, and it was so weird. Every device oddly had a different number but when they all say 1 degree, that shit’s cold! My dad had to break out his thermal clothes and wear them with his overalls and hoodies and put on his chunky boots just to go out into his man cave and work on his new projects.

Let’s get into the playlist now. Here are my Top 15 songs, and if you’d like to listen to the rest, just click here.

Try by Colbie Caillat
Moorlough Shore by Celtic Woman
What I Am by Crown The Empire
Might Love Myself by Beartooth
I Found You by Rebecca Brunner
More by The Warning
One Eyed Bastard by Green Day
Leave A Light On by Papa Roach
Everything In My Mind by Nevertel
A Symptom of Being Human by Shinedown
Dirty Thoughts by Chloe Adams
Machine by Neoni
Sugar by Sofia Carson
Unholy by Sam Smith featuring Kim Petras
New Noise by Refused
Boy Problems by ASTON

Before I go, I wanted to share a new “aesthetic” or mix playlist I put together as I was reading Philippa Gregory’s “The Lady Of the Rivers”. I love creating these types of playlists for books I’ve recently read. I’m in the middle of “Two Dark Reigns” by Kendare Blake. and I’m trying to update that on a daily basis. I’ll share it with you along the February post.

What were you listening to this month?