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Black Arts, Tarts & Gypsy Carts ( Spells & Caramels book 2)
By Erin Johnson
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A carnival bakery booth. A deadly magic show. Is it the perfect recipe for murder or a clever sleight of hand?

Palace pastry chef Imogen is struggling to control her newfound magic and her potent feelings for the prince. So when the carnival rolls into the kingdom, she jumps at the chance to run the royal bakery booth. But her plan to escape her problems backfires when murder rocks the magician's table, and her dear friend is found holding the bloody saw.

Determined to cook up a way to keep Rhonda out of witch's prison, she sifts through the clues and the long list of suspects. Between devious dark magicians, cagey stage assistants, and a strongman with more to offer than just muscles, everyone at the fairgrounds seems to be hiding secrets - even Rhonda.

With the final night of the carnival approaching, will Imogen's shaky powers be enough to flush out the murderer before her good friend ends up on the chopping block?

This series is so different and quirky. The characters just make you smile. Iggy has to be my favourite I mean a flame with personality and a sense of humour what’s not to love! It’s just such a pleasure to read.
  
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Morgan Sheppard (1036 KP) created a post

Jun 5, 2026  
Happy Folklore Friday! 🌸

Today's figure is one of the most complex and compelling in all of Welsh mythology. Blodeuwedd, whose name means flower face, was created from the blossoms of oak, broom, and meadowsweet by the magicians Math and Gwydion to serve as a wife for Lleu Llaw Gyffes, a man whose mother had cursed him never to take a human woman.

She was never asked. She was made, and given, and expected to be content.

What happened next depends on how you read her. She took a lover, Gronw Pebr, and together they plotted Lleu's death. The plan nearly succeeded. When it failed, Gwydion transformed her into an owl as punishment, condemned to fly only at night, shunned by all other birds. 🦉

Welsh mythology doesn't really give us villains. It gives us people, and Blodeuwedd is perhaps the clearest example of that. She was created without consent to fulfil a function, and she refused it. Whether that reads as betrayal or defiance says rather a lot about the reader.

She's stayed with me for years, and I suspect she always will.

#FolkloreFriday #TalesFromWales #WelshFolklore #FolkloreFantasy #MythAndMoonlight
     
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Sakho & Mangane in TV

Feb 17, 2021  
Sakho & Mangane
Sakho & Mangane
2019 | Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Completely bonkers Senegalese cop show. Stern, serious veteran Sakho is forced to team up with young Mangane, who is a bit of a rogue. 'I work alone!' they cry in outraged unison: but the captain decrees otherwise. So for a few episodes they tackle cases in traditional police-procedural style, albeit with an African twist (sample dialogue: 'must have been a ritual killing, his balls have been cut off').

Then, halfway through the season and with virtually no warning, a villain with magic powers turns up, one of the characters likewise reveals he has occult abilities, and from this point on the show is stuffed with demons, zombies, evil magicians, strange cults, and so on: the police captain is told that rather than an elite crime task force, she's now running a secret paranormal investigation squad (not that she bothers to tell anyone on the team).

To say it's wrong-footing is a serious understatement, and I would love to know what was going on behind the scenes on this show (it's like Starsky and Hutch turns into The X Files mid-run), but it's colourful and pacy with interesting characters (I particularly enjoyed the perpetually-wasted police pathologist). The quality control, script-wise, is a bit iffy in places, but it obviously scores very highly on the 'what the hell am I watching...?' front.
  
The Night Circus
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
4
8.1 (106 Ratings)
Book Rating
165 of 230
Book
The Night Circus
By Erin Morgenstern
⭐️⭐️

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

This took way too long to read I got seriously bored. I know this is a super popular book but for me I just didn’t like it. I fell into the hype I don’t know why I keep doing it to myself!