Here’s some of the music I’ve been listening to this week (and will continue to listen to throughout the long weekend)!
(Note: the links will take you to YouTube, if you can’t see the videos embedded below)
Vixx LR – “Whisper”
Yes a kpop song that is not a BTS song! I have been low-key obsessed with this song since my sister introduced me to it earlier this year, and have been listening to it so much this week.
Billie Eilish – “bury a friend”
I talked last week about how I’ve been listening to her “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO” album a bunch, and this is my new favourite song from it.
BTS – “Heartbeat”
Did you think I wouldn’t talk about them this week? Then you must not know that they released another song from their BTS World game OST (which is out now and I’m obviously obsessed with it), called Heartbeat.
Unlike the other songs they’ve released, which were sub-unit songs, this features the whole group, and it’s so good! I can’t stop listening to it.
Tim Heidecker – “What the Brokenhearted Do” (album)
I’m a TimHead, and I wrote at the end of last year how much I enjoyed his album In Glendale. This new album is really good, and my current favourite song from it is Finally Getting Over.
From Danielle Vega, YA’s answer to Stephen King, comes a new paranormal novel about dark family secrets, deep-seated vengeance, and the horrifying truth that evil often lurks in the unlikeliest of places.
Hendricks Becker-O’Malley is new in town, and she’s bringing baggage with her. With a dark and wild past, Hendricks doesn’t think the small town her parents moved her to has much to offer her in terms of excitement. She plans on laying low, but when she’s suddenly welcomed into the popular crowd at school, things don’t go as expected.
Hendricks learns from her new friends that the fixer-upper her parents are so excited about is notorious in town. Local legend says it’s haunted. Hendricks doesn’t believe it. Until she’s forced to. Blood-curdling screams erupt from the basement, her little brother wakes up covered in scratches, and something, or someone pushes her dad down the stairs. With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts . . . if they don’t take her first.
I’ve been a fan of Danielle Vega’s books since I first read The Merciless, so every time she has something new coming out, I look forward to reading it!
I love a good haunted house story, so I was very eager to get into this…and it just so happened that I was home alone for the weekend when my library hold came in! Maybe reading a book about ghosts and a haunted house isn’t the smartest idea when you’re home alone for a couple of days, but I thought it really added to the feeling of suspense!
I really liked the setting and slowly learning about Hendricks’ new town and spooky house. This book had so many things that I like in a ghost story: urban legend; secrets; a haunted house that just happens to be under construction, making everything creepier; and a mysterious past.
However, I didn’t really care for the romance aspect, and elements of the finale felt rushed to me.
This wasn’t my favourite Danielle Vega book (if you haven’t read The Merciless yet, go do it!), but I think if you like her other books, you’ll enjoy this one too. For me, this was a really fun, quick read because once I started, I didn’t want to put it down.
The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family’s restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that a return to the Cleveland area to help wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband.
Lana’s love life soon becomes yesterday’s news once the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead―after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy―to say nothing of the gorgeous police detective who keeps turning up for take-out―it’s up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng’s killer order. . . before her own number is up.
I don’t typically read cozy mysteries, but I’d been seeing this pop up a lot lately on my bookish social media, and I was intrigued. This turned out to be a nice change of pace from my usual reading material.
While I enjoyed the mystery and Lana’s investigation, I found myself super annoyed at a suspect’s reason for not telling police information that could have made them less of a suspect. Overall though, this was a fun story and I liked reading about Lana and her parents’ restaurant.
Being the first in the series, I think this book set up a few things to be explored in future books, like a possible love triangle, and I’m definitely interested in checking them out.
Hello! I’m so tired, so this will be brief. I got up at 5:30 yesterday to watch the BTS Magic Shop livestream, only to realize I was a day early! And then I couldn’t get back to sleep, no matter how tired I was, and then I got up again at 5:30 this morning to watch the livestream (which was fantastic). So hopefully I can manage a little nap later!
I’m reading Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue for book club, and I picked up Danielle Vega’s The Haunted from the library and have just started that.
Of course I am listening to and loving the new Taylor Swift song. I like this song so much more than “ME!” I’m getting really excited for the new album, Lover, coming out in August!! I love the visuals for this era of Taylor.
Would I even be me if I didn’t mention BTS every week? They released three collaborations recently for the official soundtrack to an upcoming mobile game, and I love that each song is a different sub unit:
Dream Glow with Charli XCX (Jin, Jungook, and Jimin sub unit)
The Haunted 
Death By Dumpling 
