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Karen Benson

@karens_library

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📚 2026 - 112/130
📖 The Strangers
💻 Monsters of Ohio
🎧 Into the Storms
🐕‍🦺🦮🐈‍⬛ 2 doodles/1 cat
On Goodreads

POSTS STORIES REELS

🎀📖 NOV FIRST READS BOOK REVIEW!
The Lost Ones by Mia Sheridan @miasheridanauthor
Pub date Dec 1st, OR
I’m so flipping excited that The Lost Ones is an Amazon November First Reads selection as of November 1st!! I loved this book so much so if you’re an Prime member, be sure to drop everything and grab this one now!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5 stars

*Thank you so much to @montlake_publishers & @AmazonPublishing, and to @OTRPR for the beautiful gifted copy!*

Review:
Mia Sheridan did it again and I once more gave her newest release 5 stars! She’s officially become an autobuy author for me as 2 out of 2 books I’ve read of hers gave me all the feels.

The Lost Ones starts with Duke as a child watching his father carry a little girl through the woods. When his father leaves, Duke scrambles to look for the girl and instead finds two little girls locked in a mine along with two infant skulls. Duke rescues the girls, his father is put in prison, and Duke and the younger girl, Junie, are put into foster care. The older girl, Winsome, is adopted by the Mayor.

The story then shifts to over a decade and a half later to find Junie no longer among the living and Duke in prison for the past 7 years for her homicide.

This story which is also about the Appalachian hill people was so fascinating. Winsome works to seek answers and help Duke clear his name, but finds far more than she ever thought was possible.

The twists in this book left me stunned and broke my brain. Talk about a Gone Girl moment!! I’m still reeling!

❓ Predictive text…. The lost ones___

#TheLostOnes #MiaSheridan #OTRPR #thriller #firstreads

Thriller, Amazon Prime First Reads, twisty, mind blowing, shelfie Sunday, Sunday shelfie, Sunday, bookworm, booklover, bookstagram, bookstagrammer, bookshelf, bookshelves, read, reader, readers, bibliophile, fiction, books of Instagram, Montlake Publishers, Amazon Publishing by @karens_library

💀🧟‍♀️🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 💀🧟‍♀️🎃
What better book to be reading right now then Rot & Ruin (Benny Imura series) by Jonathan Maberry @jonathanmaberry!

Thanks to my bookstagram friend @patricknight_
for recently featuring Rot & Ruin in one of his posts, I got the urge to reread it, so I’m currently listening to it now and still loving it as much as I did back in 2012!

And yes, all of my zombie books from Jonathan are signed. I’ve met him at least 6 or 7 times over the years.

My stack of zombie books actually includes 3 different series including prequels and sequels of the Benny Imura books.

These are the books that got me out of the mindset that zombie books are horrific and I’ll never read one. I read Rot & Ruin at the urging of my friends back in 2012 and loved it so much.

That’s when I realized that zombie books are really about the human connections with the monsters as background. The Benny Imura books are actually a YA series, and even though it can definitely be gruesome, it’s easy to fly through. And those covers! 🧟‍♀️ Dead of Night and Fall of Night are adult prequels.

I’m a huge fan of this genre now and have so many favorites that I rave about!

❓It’s Halloween! Are you dressing up? OR What’s your favorite candy to hand out? 👻

It’s Halloween, horror books, scary, scared, books, book, bookworm, booklover, signed books, bibliophile, audiobooks, read, reader, readers, books of Instagram, bookstagrammer, coffee, coffeemug, Day of the Dead, Día de Meurtos, skull, bookstack, stack of books, thriller, thrillers, horror

#zombie #zombies #happyhalloween #JonathanMaberry #horror by @karens_library

🪂🎧 CURRENTLY LISTENING 🎧🪂
Into the Storms, a Hell Divers Prequel by Nicholas Sansbury Smith @author_sansbury
Available now!

Thanks so much to the author for the gifted book!

If you’re a fan of apocalyptic, post apocalyptic, thrillers, Sci-Fi, or freaky monsters, you need to read the Hell Divers series!

I discovered Hell Divers back in 2018 when I was looking for more audiobooks narrated by one of my favorite narrators, R C Bray. And I never looked back. I have consistently added each new book to my audiobook collection as they’re released.

When the prequels released recently, you’d better bet I snagged the audiobooks up. But I love having trophy copies of these books (signed!) for my library!

Over the years, I’ve read quite a few of Nick’s other books as well, including his Extinction Cycle books (currently being republished by @AethonBooks) and my recent favorites, the Old Gun series. And I’ve collected other audiobooks from his other series so I hope to never run out of Nicholas Sansbury Smith books!

A gorgeous new special collector’s edition of Hell Divers with ALL the bells and whistles was just kickstarted by Blackstone Publishers and I couldn’t hit the button fast enough. It was funded in minutes!! So excited to hold and pet my copy when it arrives. 😝

In about 3 weeks I’m heading to Las Vegas to attend the Reader Nation book event and was flipping through the website this morning checking out the authors that will be there. Imagine my surprise and delight to find that Nicholas Smith is there this year! Woot woot!!

Swipe —>> to see the blurb of Into the Storms!

❓Let’s do some predictive text… When I went into the storms I ___

#IntoTheStorms #NicholasSansburySmith #BlackstonePublishing #HellDivers #apocalypse

Book and coffee, bookworm, booklover, AI gone wild, read, readers, reader, books of Instagram, bibliophile, fiction, books, book, booksbooksbooks, military, thriller by @karens_library

🏰📚👑 BOOK REVIEW 👑📚🏰
Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory
Pubdate Oct 20th, 2026 - Available now!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 5 stars

*Thanks so much to @williammorrowbooks and to @NetGalley for the gifted eARC!*

I can’t get enough of Philippa Gregory’s Tudor books and once again devoured her newest release! And Royal Witch did it to me again! Off I went down a rabbit hole after I finished as now I need to know as much as possible about the beginning of the Tudor era!

I really had no knowledge of the Henrys that came before King Henry VII, so was delighted to find that Royal Witch started with King Henry V and his brothers.

I was thrilled to learn more about how the Tudors came to be, starting with Owen Tudor, the father of Edmund and Jasper Tudor.

Eleanor Cobham was pretty much a nobody who came to court wanting to marry well rather than being sent off to a nunnery. She eventually manages to marry King Henry V’s brother Humphrey, the Duke of Gloucester. But her deviousness and ambition stops at nothing including treachery and betrayal to try to become Queen. She goes as far as involving herself with sorcery to get what she wants.

I loved this story so much and I’m thrillled that Gregory continues telling the stories of the women of old England.

—

I took this picture at Windsor Castle when I vacationed in London last year. I really need to get back there because I barely had enough time to see all of the historical sites I wanted to see.

❓ No question today. I just hope your week starts off well!

#RoyalWitch #PhilippaGregory #WilliamMorrowBooks #historicalfiction #tudors

King Henry VI, historical fiction, fiction, bookworm, booklover, bookstagram, bookstagrammer, book, books, booksbooksbooks, Tudor obsessed, read, reader, readers, books of Instagram, Windsor Castle, London, England, bibliophile by @karens_library

📗💌📚 BOOKMAIL! 📚💌📗
The Strangers by Naomi Alderman @naomi_alderman
Pubdate Sep 22nd, 2026 - AVAILABLE NOW!

*Thanks so much to @LittleBrown for the gifted finished copy!*

I’m a big fan of bestselling author Naomi Alderman, having loved her book The Power! This book sounds perfect for me as it’s described as having a raw weirdness in a not-so-far-afield dystopian. That’s my jam!!

DESCRIPTION: Book overview
From the bestselling author of The Power comes a part memoir, part speculative novel, following a writer wrestling with grief even as a new species is discovered, forcing humans to reconsider what it means to share our planet.

They came from nowhere, and now they are everywhere.

A few months after her mother dies, the novelist Naomi Alderman sets up a wildlife camera in the back garden of her parents’ home. It captures the first image of a strange new animal. Low to the ground, about the size of a badger, flat face, long, trunk-like nose. Suddenly these “mimmoths” are as common as foxes or dogs. And no one knows where they’ve come from.

As Alderman negotiates the territory of grief—a place with its own logic and rhythms—the mimmoths spread. From the UK east and west, to the United States, to Russia, to India. They seem harmless, but oddly intelligent. They cannot be captured, they will not take food from humans, they have their own purposes.

Alderman cannot shake the feeling that she has a particular connection to the creatures. Or is she just succumbing to ‘mimmoth psychosis’? As the impact of the mimmoths increases, she is pulled into the cross currents of conspiracy theories and global power struggles. Have her deeply personal forms of mourning lent recent events a surreal air, or is our reality changing drastically and irrevocably?

From the award-winning author of the international bestseller, The Power, The Strangers is a thrillingly original and devastatingly moving novel that blurs the lines between fiction and reality, inviting us to reconsider what it means to be human. It’s like nothing you have read before.

❓What’s your most recent bookmail❓

#TheStrangers #NaomiAlderman #LittleBrown #reelsinst by @karens_library

🧬🦖📚 SCI-FI FRIDAY! 📚🦖🧬
Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson @jrobinsonauthor
Pubdate Oct 20th - Available now!

*Thanks so much to @AethonBooks for this gifted finished copy!* 😍

I’m currently reading this one now and it’s just starting to get a little bonkers and I’m loving every minute.

Also this book is beautiful with the black stained edges!! 🖤🖤

DESCRIPTION:
Soon to be a TV series from Sony Pictures Television • Kaiju thriller meets sci-fi adventure in PROJECT NEMESIS by New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Robinson.

Jon Hudson, lead investigator for the Department of Homeland Security’s Fusion Center-P, thinks his job is a joke. While other Fusion Centers focus on thwarting terrorist activity, Hudson’s division is tasked with handling paranormal threats to national security, of which there have been zero during his years at the DHS.

When yet another Sasquatch sighting leads to a research facility disguised as an abandoned Nike missile site in the back woods of Maine, Hudson’s job becomes deadly serious.

Hudson and the local Sheriff, Ashley Collins, suddenly find themselves on the run from a ruthless ex-Special Forces security team, but the human threat is short-lived as something very much not-human destroys the facility and heads for civilization, leaving only a single clue behind—a name scrawled in blood: Nemesis.

Working with his team at Fusion Center-P, Sheriff Collins and a surly helicopter pilot named Woodstock, Hudson pursues the creature known as Nemesis, attempts to uncover the corporate secrets behind its creation and accidental release, and tries to comprehend why several clues lead to a murdered little girl named Maigo.

From New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Robinson, experience PROJECT NEMESIS, the first volume in an action-packed and explosive kaiju thriller series.

For fans of: The Kaiju Preservation Society (John Scalzi), Monarch, Godzilla.

❓Are you currently reading anything that you would consider Halloween worthy? ❓

#ProjectNemesis #JeremyRobinson #AethonBooks #kaiju #scifi

Science fiction, scifi, bookstagram, bookworm, Friday, bookstagrammer, monster, bookshelves by @karens_library

🏝️ 🌊☕️ COVER REVEAL! ☕️🌊🏝️
Return to Nalu by G. T. London @gt.london.author
Pubdate 1/14/27

Eep! So excited to show off this beautiful cover for the third book in the Nalu Town Collection! These three covers look so stunning together! 😍

Swipe —>> to see the covers of Found in Nalu & Dreams of Nalu, books 1 and 2.

I adore this series so much and I can honestly say that so far, Dreams of Nalu is still my favorite book of 2026!

Description: A pitcher with two fingers missing on his throwing hand shouldn’t have made the majors.

Fletcher Buchan did.

He built that career an ocean away from Nalu, Hawai’i, the town that raised him and the one he walked out of at eighteen, leaving behind the girl he’d loved since they were kids.

Now, with a ruined shoulder and his baseball career behind him, Fletcher comes home to coach Nalu’s baseball academy and give his five-year-old daughter, Coral, a life on the sand.

Nalu is everything he remembers. Sun that stays late. Sand that gets into everything. Evenings the color of honey. A town that still knows his name. Paradise.

Until someone warns him he shouldn’t have come back.

So much for a quiet return. Idaliz Reyes walks into his training room.

Idaliz stayed. She’s built a thriving career as a physical therapist, a life of her own, and no room in it for the man who didn’t stay thirteen years ago.

In a town this small, every road leads past her door—and every day gives him another reason to fall for her all over again.

Slowly, Nalu starts to feel like home again. And so does she.

But home comes with a past Fletcher has never escaped. Twenty-five years ago, a boat went down off the coast of Nalu, and Fletcher was the only one pulled out alive. Everyone called it an accident.

Was it?

Fletcher knows he must face the past to have a future with Idaliz. Can he fight for a second chance with her, knowing the truth could tear them apart all over again?

❓Predictive text… I Want to Return to Nalu because ___

#ReturntoNalu #gtlondonauthor #NaluTownCollection #contemporaryromance
#hawaii

Romance, second chance, Hawaii, Maui, aloha, beach, a paradise romance, contemporary, bookworm, book, bookstagram, fiction by @karens_library

📚📖 CURRENTLY READING! 📖📚
The Sixth Faction by Veronica Roth @veronicaroth

Just look at his gorgeous edition from @harperbooks! 💙💖

I was so enamored with the Divergent books and movies so am happy to be back in this world again. This story is a redo for Tris, with her not choosing the Dauntless faction this time, and I’m definitely enjoying it!

The Sixth Faction has POVs from Tris, Four, and Caleb. I’m listening to the audiobook and Emma Love, Charlie Thurston, and Max Meyers are narrating. I’m especially loving Four’s narration. His voice is SO soothing!

I actually met Veronica Roth about 3 years, finally, and got my old Divergent copy signed. I’d been trying for a few years. 😉

For some reason, I’ve barely seen this book on my IG feed which is so surprising to me. What in the world, algorithm?!? I swear it hates me right now! 😂

❓It’s Sunday!! How’s your weekend going? Anything special happen?

#TheSixthFaction #VeronicaRoth #dystopian #dystopia, #scifi Sunday shelfie, shelfie Sunday, bookshelves, book, books, bookworm, booklover, fiction, bibliophile, read, bookstagram, bookstagrammer, sprayed edges, cover love, booksbooksbooks, library, reader, readers, books of Instagram by @karens_library

👹🧞‍♀️🧚‍♀️ COVER REVEAL! 🧚‍♀️🧞‍♀️👹
Defy the Dark: 12 Fantasy Stories of Resiliance by 12 fantasy authors!
Pubdate Nov 17th

💙*All profits from this anthology are donated to saving young LGBTQ+ lives!*

BOOK OVERVIEW:
Tyrants. Demons. Eldritch beings. The cruel indifference of the mighty.

You can’t always triumph, you can’t always escape unscathed. Whether you meet your fate with a smile or gritted teeth, sometimes it’s just a matter of enduring, of surviving.

In these tales of resilience, twelve fantasy authors will guide you from the shadowed back alleys of magical cities to distorted mirrors of Earth. But wherever you are, in hard times it’s just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other and reaching out to those walking beside you.

Authors: Zamil Akhtar, John Bierce, David Estes,
T. L. Greylock, Intisar Khanani, Sarah Lin, Virginia McClain, J. Zachary Pike, M. D. Presley, K. S. Villoso, M. L. Wang, Tao Wong

Thank you to this amazing group of authors for the honor of being part of this beautiful cover reveal to help such a worthy cause! 🏳️‍🌈

❓Have you read any of these wonderful authors?

#DefyTheDark #Anthology #fantasy #authors #lgbtq fantasy, short stories, booktour, coverlove, bookworm, booklover, books of Instagram, bibliophile, book, books, booksbooksbooks, read, reader, readers, bookstagram, bookstgrammer, fiction by @karens_library

🚀👾📚 BOOK REVIEW! 📚👾🚀
Backyard Starship by J. N. Chaney and Terry Maggert @author_terry_maggert
Pubdate Sep 22nd - Available now!

*Thanks so much to @AethonBooks for the beautiful gifted finished copy (with those amazing sprayed edges).*

Can you imagine finding a starship in the barn you had inherited from your grandfather along with the family farm? And not only that, but you then find out your grandfather was a galactic Peacemaker in a universe of aliens, empires, and galactic knights.

Van takes the intelligent spaceship along with his new sentient AI bird for a spin and finds himself taking over for his grandfather as the newest interstellar Peacemaker.

And where Van goes, a frolicking good time ensues with tons of action and fun.

If you enjoy Backyard Starship and want more, this is book 1 of 35!!

Swipe —>> for book description.

❓ What’s your weather like where you are?

#BackyardStarship #JNChaney #TerryMaggert #AethonBooks #scifi science fiction, sci-fi, bookworm, booklover, book, books, booksbooksbooks, bibliophile, sprayed edges, fiction, bookstagram, bookstagrammer, books of Instagram, spacemen, monsters, inheritance, aliens by @karens_library

🍸📚🕵️‍♀️ BOOK REVIEW 🕵️‍♀️📚🍸
The Shadow Friends by Tess Gerritsen @tess.gerritsen
Pubdate Aug 25th - Available now!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/ 5 stars

*Thanks so much to @MBC_Books and Thomas & Mercer @AmazonPublishing for the gifted copy!*

The Shadow Friends was my second book by Tess Gerritsen, and I couldn’t get enough! This book is the 3rd book in her The Martini Club series (last I heard the TV series is currently in production at Amazon MGM Studios - Eep!)

Maggie Bird, a retired spy, and her other ex-CIA friends, aka the cocktail sipping Martini Club find themselves deeply involved in an international intrigue when two homicides occur during a conference in their peaceful little town of Purity, Maine.

Several of the gang find themselves rushing off to Amsterdam where, this time, they find themselves in mortal danger. There were a couple of times I was really scared for certain members of the group and wanted a drink right alongside them. And I don’t even drink.

This book was another thrilling addition in this wonderful series. I appreciate that the entire gang are seniors and still going strong.

❓What’s your favorite cocktail (if you drink) OR what are you currently reading?

#TessGerritsen #TheShadowFriends #MBCBooks #thriller #AmazonPublishing

Bookworm, booklover, bookstagram, bookstagrammer, book, books, booktour, fiction, thriller, spy novel, mystery, read, reader, readers, books of Instagram, martinis, whiskey, scotch by @karens_library

📚💌📦 BOOKSTACK OF BOOKMAIL! 📦💌📚
Thought I’d end the week with a fabulous stack of bookmail I’ve received this week. Look for future posts highlighting each of these amazing books!

Price of Silence by @elisehartkipness - Pubdate Jan 1st! *Thanks Thomas & Mercer and @SuzyApprovedBookTours and the author for the AMAZING PR box!* 😍
In this high-octane ride into the depths of high society, a TV news reporter prepares to make her mark in the cutthroat media scene—and unwittingly drags her own family’s secrets into the spotlight.

The Strangers by @naomi_alderman - Pubdate Sep 22nd, Available now! *Thanks Little, Brown & Co for the gifted finished copy!*
A transcendent novel from the bestselling author of The Power: A writer wrestles with grief even as a new species is discovered, forcing humans to reconsider what it means to share our planet.

Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson @jrobinsonauthor - Pubdate Oct 22nd *Thanks @AethonBooks for the beautiful gifted finished copy!*
The first volume in an action-packed and explosive kaiju thriller series. Soon to be a TV series from Sony Pictures Television!

The Sixth Faction by @veronicaroth veronicaroth - Available now!
Step into a bold new Divergent series from bestselling author Veronica Roth.
Beatrice Prior stands on the brink of a decision every person in her world must make: five factions, five futures, five lives.

Line of Descent by Adam Oyebanji - Pubdate Nov 17 *Thanks @DawBooks for the gifted ARC!*
An inventive, twisty thriller set aboard a hurtling spacecraft—perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, Rob Hart, and Andy Weir.

Wool and Shift (special deluxe collector editions) by @HughHowey - Available now! Dust to come. The world outside has grown toxic, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. The remnants of humanity live underground in a single silo.

❓What are you currently reading today?

#bookmail #bookstack #shelfie #sunday #bookworm

Bookstagram, bookstagrammer, books, booklover, bibliophile, dystopian, scifi, thriller, kaiju, book, read, fiction, reader, booktour, bookmail is the best mail, bookshelf, bookshelves, sunday shelfie, books of instagram, divergent by @karens_library