How My September 2024 Went

Let’s pretend I published this on October 1st and not in the middle of March of 2025.

Okay, so this post may have a tad bit more, but I should’ve given it more effort. I’ve decided to offer pet services, so I’ve been working on getting the small details ironed out and my poor blog is suffering again.

I’m quite excited about my pet service package that took me days to work up. I think it looks pretty good for an amateur. Maybe it’ll see the light of day if I actually share it with people.

• books
• tv shows/movies
• music
• orders

Daily Life

I skip nearly half the month, but let’s roll with it.

September 13: I ordered cinnamon rolls and a loaf of sourdough bread from a vendor at the local farmers’ market, and she delivered them!

The market was canceled that week due to chance of thunderstorms, but she was still taking orders! The cinnamon rolls are huge! They weren’t as sweet, which Stephen preferred, and I thought they were pretty good. The first bite reminded me of pretzels.

Stephen and I ate at Asahi in Belle Meade. We had eaten here before last year whenever it was ran by a different owner. The new owner took over sometime this year and they’re having trouble with gaining more exposure.

So, if you’re ever in Belle Meade and craving sushi and Thai food, please, please check out this restaurant!

September 23: Corgi meetup at the Sandbar!

The turnout was better than the one held in May with the awful cicadas, but it wasn’t as big as those from the past.

The smaller group was still pretty fun, and we all had a great time!

September 26: Our dinner was from a food truck at the farmers’ market! Originally, I went for the bao buns, but they weren’t there. Instead, a Thai food truck was there!

Stephen ordered chicken pad Thai and I had the chicken lo mein. The chicken was delicious! I hope they’re there again the next time we go. The food was pretty cheap for the both of us—under $30!

September 27: I finally planned a dinner with Kylie to celebrate her birthday that was a few weeks ago! She chose Voodoo Gumbo as her birthday meal.

They do not play when it comes to celebrating! Whenever we were waiting to be seated, one of the ment behind the counter asked if we were celebrating something since he saw Kylie’s gift bag. I mentioned that it was her birthday a few weeks ago, and Kylie got a free sundae and I received a beignet! I planned on ordering one, but that was incredibly nice of them to give us those!

September 29: There was an event to raise money for dogs with cancer called Roo Fest that took place at New Heights Brewery. It was so fun!

Went a little crazy and purchased different treats for Darb. He received the free cup cake as a late birthday treat!

Not pictured, but after the event, we took Darby to the dog park to run around. It was pretty empty, so he didn’t get to do much playing with any furriends.

I got some coffee from Humphreys Street Coffee! I ordered an iced cuban.

Check out this cute caricature of Darby! That’s our hamburger head. 🥹

The woman who did this had it finished between 10 and 15 minutes. She was incredible!

Books

Due to my focus on pet sitting, I’ve again fallen behind on my reading and don’t think I’ll reach my goal of reading 100 books this year, but that’s okay!

• Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica
  • synopsis: New York Times bestselling author of THE GOOD GIRL, Mary Kubica is back with another exhilarating thriller as a widow’s pursuit of the truth leads her to the darkest corners of the psyche. 
    
    “The bad man, Daddy. The bad man is after us.” 
    
    Clara Solberg’s world shatters when her husband and their four-year-old daughter are in a car crash, killing Nick while Maisie is remarkably unharmed. The crash is ruled an accident…until the coming days, when Maisie starts having night terrors that make Clara question what really happened on that fateful afternoon. 
    
    Tormented by grief and her obsession that Nick’s death was far more than just an accident, Clara is plunged into a desperate hunt for the truth. Who would have wanted Nick dead? And, more important, why? Clara will stop at nothing to find out—and the truth is only the beginning of this twisted tale of secrets and deceit. 
    
    Told in the alternating perspectives of Clara’s investigation and Nick’s last months leading up to the crash, master of suspense Mary Kubica weaves her most chilling thriller to date—one that explores the dark recesses of a mind plagued by grief and shows that some secrets might be better left buried.
  • genres: mystery, thriller, suspense, psychological thriller
  • content warning: postpartum psychosis
  • rating: 2

Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I will preface this review by saying that I did not enjoy this book as much because I’m not a huge fan of stories about moms and children. I usually tend to avoid books where the main character is a mom/parent just because they don’t interest me and I don’t connect with them since I have zero desire to be a mother. My brother gave me this book because I mentioned that I liked this author, but it was not for me.

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• You’re the One That I Want by Giovanna Fletcher
  • synopsis: Maddy, dressed in white, stands at the back of the church. At the end of the aisle is Rob – the man she’s about to marry. Next to Rob is Ben – best man and the best friend any two people ever had.
    
    And that’s the problem.
    
    Because if it wasn’t Rob waiting for her at the altar, there’s a strong chance it would be Ben. Loyal and sensitive Ben has always kept his feelings to himself, but if he turned round and told Maddy she was making a mistake, would she listen? And would he be right?
    
    Best friends since childhood, Maddy, Ben and Rob thought their bond was unbreakable. But love changes everything. Maddy has a choice to make but will she choose wisely? Her heart, and the hearts of the two best men she knows, depend on it…
  • genres: romance, chick lit
  • rating: 4

You’re the One That I Want by Giovanna Fletcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was not what I expected. Despite reading the synopsis, I still thought there would be some twist to this book. Thank goodness it was not a Pearl Harbor type of ending.

It was sweet, light, and fluffy. This was about three friends that were super close and deeply cared for one another. This book had Maddie’s and Ben’s POVs as they were figuring out how to navigate their friendship and relationship with one another.

There is a cheating element involved, but I think the way it was done was handled well and added more complexity to the story.

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• Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
  • synopsis: In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend—and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.
    
    The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.
    
    Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?
    
    The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.
    
    The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.
  • rating: 3

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wasn’t a bad read, but it was such a slow read for me. I just could not get into the story, yet I still kept reading to find out what happened with Billy.

I liked the big reveal and how that night played out. There were multiple POVs that kind of pieced everything together, though I feel like some weren’t really necessary to the story. Each one did contain like a grain of relevancy to what happened, but it was brief and I didn’t care as much for them.

This is my first Riley Sager novel, and I’d read another book by this author.

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• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (Translator)
  • synopsis: What would you change if you could go back in time?
    
    In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.
    
    In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer’s, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.
    
    But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .
    
    Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?
  • genres: fantasy, magical realism, Japanese literature, time travel
  • rating: 4
  • Available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited!

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked the cafe’s concept and the short stories. They really made me stop and think to consider how delicate life is and how much we as humans value relationships with people.

I would most definitely go back to the past even though I couldn’t change the present.

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• Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (Translator)
  • synopsis: In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time…
    
    From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold comes a story of four new customers each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula’s time-travelling offer.Among some faces that will be familiar to readers of Kawaguchi’s previous novel, we will be introduced to:
    
    The man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago
    The son who was unable to attend his own mother’s funeral
    The man who travelled to see the girl who he could not marry
    The old detective who never gave his wife that gift…
    
    This beautiful, simple tale tells the story of people who must face up to their past, in order to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?
  • genres: fantasy, magical realism, Japanese literature, time travel
  • rating: 3.5

Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ll rate this book 3.5 stars, rounded up.

I liked seeing some storylines progress, and, if I’m remembering correctly, it reveals who the ghost woman is! The book really makes me stop and consider things. I think I’d want to go into the future rather than the past, even though that’s a slimmer chance of meeting the person.

These stories were more heartbreaking to me. It has unexpected loss and terminal illness.

I’m really enjoying these books, and I’m about to read the next one!

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• 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
  • genres: thriller, mystery, suspense, crime
  • content: bullying
  • rating: 4.5

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(Going to start including the synopsis since I’ll be linking this to my blog. I get it now.)

————————————
Synopsis
No one knew they’d moved in together. Now one of them is dead. Could this be the perfect murder?

56 DAYS AGO
Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin the same week Covid-19 reaches Irish shores.

35 DAYS AGO
When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests that Ciara move in with him. She sees a unique opportunity for a new relationship to flourish without the pressure of scrutiny of family and friends. He sees it as an opportunity to hide who – and what – he really is.

TODAY
Detectives arrive at Oliver’s apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.

Will they be able to determine what really happened, or has lockdown provided someone with the opportunity to commit the perfect crime?

————————————

Review starts here!

Okay, so I actually loved this book. If you know me, I’ve gotten super picky with rating things a 4.5 or 5 stars. This one is 4.5 just because I didn’t really care for the cop’s POV. Lee was witty, but her POV and interactions with Karl were a little jarring/unprofessional to me in the midst of the investigation.

I’ve been a bit busy and had a slow start, but I stayed up until almost 1 AM to finish this because I could not put it down!

What I love is that this book isn’t as straightforward as the synopsis made it seem to me—lockdown becoming the perfect time to commit a crime.

This a lockdown love story that goes wrong.

The story rotates between Ciara’s, Oliver’s, and Detective Sergeant Lee’s point of view. I know that some readers weren’t a fan of how repetitive some of the scenes were due to the overlap in point of views, but I actually loved it because now I’m having to look at this scene in a new light and it made more of an impact.

Both Ciara and Oliver are keeping a big secret from one another, and I’m not sure who Howard makes me more sorry for. Well, I probably should say Ciara, but she wrote Oliver so well that I’m sad for him, too, once his secret is revealed. I liked him and was rooting for him.

I absolutely loved the twists in this book, and I didn’t see them coming.

Now, spoiler thoughts I’m still thinking about. ⤵

(view spoiler)[Whether Oliver truly was the ringleader or it was Shane, it was a terrible crime and event that two 12-year-olds hadn’t considered the consequences in the moment. I mean, I was 12 once, but I’ve never bullied someone to the point of killing them.

I’ve thought about this situation a lot (maybe not particularly murder, but at least when it comes to felonies), and I think people can change, which Oliver was sincerely trying to do every day since then. I’m supposing it’s better than he wasn’t an adult and killed someone, but I’m not sure if being a child and committing that crime is worse.

I’m also wondering if perhaps his story was true, if he was actually the ringleader, to let Ciara have a more positive view of her brother since that’s a more important bond than their romance.

I can see how it can go either way because if he got those scars from Shane, it shows a moment of violence within Shane as well after getting a lengthier sentence than Oliver if Shane was the ringleader. Flipping it, Shane could’ve done that to Oliver out of anger if he was the leader and Oliver’s story conflicted with his. (hide spoiler)]

Going to a dog event, so I’ll finish this later! I’m probably still going to be thinking about it. I need someone I know that has read this so we can discuss.

View all my reviews

TV Shows/Movies

I promise next year’s posts will actually have some shows/movies and I will do my best to not fall behind.

Music

Ditto with music!

Orders

September 5: My succulent order arrived!

• Echeveria Lapine
• Echeveria Sunsoo
• Echeveria Black Raccoon
• Echeveria Black Pearl

September 18: Due to my desire to turn pet sitting into a real business, I went a little crazy on the orders.

To step up my pet services, I purchased a photo printer that prints cute polaroid photos! I plan on leaving a couple of photos for my clients after several drop-in visits as a thank you.

I will be sharing a more in-depth review, so stayed tuned! I am obsessed, and I believe this is my favorite thing ever.

Of course, the first-ever photo had to be of Darb.

It’s been a learning curve and lots of trial and error, but I’ll share that soon!

That’s all for September! Time for October.

How has life been treating you?