A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim

A Forgery of Fate, Elizabeth Lim

I picked up this book from a rummage sale for two dollars. It has to be the most beautiful modern made book I have ever had in my possession. The full color illustrated dust cover has illustrations on the inside and outside, with gold accents. The illustrations inside the cover are front and back, full cover, and different from each other. And sprayed edges! This was an autographed Owl Crate exclusive, and if you can ever get your hands on one, it's glorious.

sprayed edges and gorgeous cover

front inside illustration

back inside illustration

This is inspired by Beauty and the Beast, The Magic Paintbrush, and Asian folklore about the Dragon King and his undersea kingdom.

This is the story of Truyan Saigas, the daughter of a merchant. She is a gifted artist, and when her father goes missing, she must take care of her family, and she does this by forging art and selling it for high prices. This leads her to the Dragon Prince, who is under a curse put on him by the Dragon King. He convinces her to marry him (an arranged marriage for one month), and create a magic portrait of the Dragon King who is destroying his own Kingdom and its people, and this portrait will be his undoing, but we don't learn how until later in the book. 

Tru must travel to the undersea kingdom and learn to paint the Dragon King perfectly in order for the plan to work, but he has spies everywhere, and he seeks to destroy the Prince and his plans. Will Tru be able to pull off this painting? Will she and the prince fall in love, or will their marriage end with the contract? Will the prince be saved from his curse?

I really enjoyed this book, visually, and the writing was easy to read and follow, the story, inspired by other folklore, easy to recognize, but the author made it her own story. I loved it, and if you love fantasy, or books where love conquers all, this is a good one to read.

 

The Young Elites, by Marie Lu

The Young Elites, Marie Lu

I pulled this one out of a Little Free Library. It's the story of a young girl in an Italian renaissance-era type fantasy land, Adelina, who survived a deadly fever ten years earlier as a child, but this fever, as it swept through the realms, marked its victims, and some of them developed supernatural powers. Kind of like the Powerless series I read. But in this one, the Inquisition is out to destroy all of these marked ones. 

Adelina and her younger sister live with their widowed father, who is controlling and cruel. He has plans to marry off his beautiful youngest daughter, and he is going to sell off Adelina to be a concubine, since she is plague marked. She doesn't seem to have a power, but he tries over and over to induce situations that will awaken a power, because it might make her more valuable to sell. But it never happens, until one night, she hears he is going to sell her into sex slavery, and she runs away from home. He catches her, and in her panic to flee, a power emerges. 

This begins her journey into escaping the Inquisition, joining a group known as the Young Elites, and trying to learn to control her power, while also trying to figure out who she can really trust, and seeking unconditional love and acceptance.

I did enjoy this book, It was darker than I expected, but it left me wanting to read the next book in the series, which I will need to search for!

 

The Field Third Reader, by Walter Taylor Field

 The Field Third Reader

Walter Taylor Field

This is a lovely little third level reader, published in 1924, with gorgeous illustrations by Blanche Fisher Laite. It was written by Walter Taylor Field and published by Ginn and Company. It's pretty beat up as it was used in a school, although I am not sure where it came from, it's one I picked up undoubtedly from an estate sale. It is an interesting mix of Native American folklore, historical stories, Bible stories, fantasy, and other everyday life stories, mixed in with poems, and there are vocabulary words listed at the end of each story. I enjoyed reading this, I always feel inspired after reading old readers, to come up with a new reader in the style of the old ones. Maybe someday, who knows. This will be going into my collection of vintage and antique readers.

Fearful, Lauren Roberts

Fearful

Lauren Roberts

This is another novella from the Powerless series, and this one focuses on what happens in the last full novel, with Kitt and Mara, and also Lenny and Blair. We get a look into why Kitt made the choices he made and also a deeper look into Blair, painted as a villain and killer in the other books, but forced into a life she never wanted, information withheld from her causing her to make a choice she thought was correct, but haunts her now that she knows the truth. All this as witnessed by Mara, mysterious reaper of the underworld.

I thought it was written well, and we even get hints as to how Mara came about, although not fully disclosed in this little book. I look forward to finding out more about this little universe that Lauren Roberts is building. This series has been hard to put down, easy to consume and enjoy, and I always hope for another book in the series.

 

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

Free Food for Millionaires

Min Jin Lee

This is a glimpse into the life of Casey Han, a young Korean American woman living in New York. A twenty-something woman, she still lives at home with her parents and younger sister, even though she has just graduated from college. Her father is angry with her, I don't remember the exact reason but it has to do with her not living up to his career expectations, so instead of actually communicating with her, he punches her in the head and demands she leave their house, he wants nothing more to do with her. Beaten and bruised, she seeks solace with her boyfriend, showing up unexpectedly at his home to find him in a menage a trois with two women. Now, Casey does not know where to go or what to do. This is her story not just of how she got back up on her feet, how she learned through trial and error,  but it's a story exploring relationships, hers, and those of the people around her. All are broken in some way, and even the ones who would be villainized have a human side we don't often see in stories. 

I found the Christian background to the characters interesting. The author obviously must have grown up in a church culture with the way she wrote about the Bible, church, and other similar themes.

I also noticed that Casey is very gifted in business, she is going to business school and works for a banking firm, she's very promising in the industry and yet she hates it. Her real passion is in the art of hatmaking and fashion, but it's not something that one can make a living on. Ultimately, she must decide between what she does really well and hates, and what she is passionate about.

 

More Than a Hobby, David Green

More Than a Hobby by David Green

Just last year, I actually walked into Hobby Lobby for the first time. There's a store in Nampa, Idaho, about 2 hours from where I live. I am an artist, but I also like putting together funky earrings so I am always looking for fun beads and charms to use. I usually go to Michaels, but they jacked up their prices incredibly high I couldn't afford to shop there anymore. So I decided to try Hobby Lobby and their prices were amazing and I was hooked! 

Not long ago I found this book at a thrift store and because it combines two of my passions, arts and crafts, and entrepreneurial leadership, I thought, well, this should be good. 

This book is written by David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby. It is part autobiography, but moreso tells about how he runs his business and why, and how that has worked for him, and he also talks about some of the things he has tried that haven't worked, because after all, failure is a way to learn and eventually succeed if you learn from it.

 

What I Read in 2026

Always Time for Fishing, Altered Art by ME!

The photo is just so I have something to look at. I am an artist and this is one of my altered art pieces, and prints are available in my Etsy store, AmyVanGaasbeckArtist.

I didn't read as much as I had hoped to in 2025. The year kind of threw me for a loop. My mom went from stage 5-ish Alzheimers to late stage 6. She fell and broke her hip. Then my mother in law had a stroke and my sister took over caring for my Mom so I could move my inlaws into my house to take care of them full time. Oh yeah, and my father in law has dementia/Alzheimers at an earlier stage than my mother,  so I have to be alert all the time. So as we tried to renovate our house to accommodate them, and are still working on it, and working on dealing with combining two households while also trying to get over to visit my mom on occasion, and bring in an income...it's been a lot. It doesn't help that they insist on having the TV on all day and refuse to read, color, or get up and do anything at all. I have tried, but they won't do anything. So I have to wait for relief so I can hide away and read a chapter of a book. But that's life and I am glad I can serve them no matter how crazy it can get!

What I read this year:

JANUARY

More Than a Hobby by David Green

FEBRUARY

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

Fearful by Lauren Roberts

MARCH

The Field Third Reader by Walter Taylor Field

A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim

The Young Elites by Marie Lu