Reading with a Griffin: Summerween 2026 👻🏖️

Between July 3rd-9th, I participated in Summerween, hosted by Gabby from @gabbyreads. I was happy to get to these four books during those days and enjoyed most of them very much. Also, during the week I completed all of Gabby's prompts. My favorite from the books was The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs.

Books Read:

1. Under Lock & Skeleton Key (Secret Staircase Mystery Book 1) by Gigi Pandian: 👻👻👻👻

- I highly enjoyed this cozy mystery and will be continuing on with the rest of the series. One of my favorite parts of this story was the whole idea of Secret Staircase Construction. It was so interesting to hear about the locked rooms they created. Also, the family elements of this story were wonderful. I love how Gigi Pandian used classic mystery stories throughout this and especially here use of Edgar Allen Poe.

2. The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs: 👻👻👻👻👻

- Such a strange little book, that I loved. It has a mix of humor, creepy scenes, and a lot of fantasy fun. It is my favorite of John Bellairs books I have read so far.

3. The Last Delivery by Evan Dahm: 👻

- I was really looking forward to this book because I have heard it described as a world similar to Wonderland with quirky characters like that. Sadly this was not at all what I thought it was going to be. It was unsettling and quite disturbing with no real plot to it. The only reason I even finished it was because of how short it was. I did not enjoy this in the slightest.

4. In These Gilded, Ghostly Hearts by Gwendolyn Kiste: 👻👻👻👻

- In These Gilded, Ghostly Hearts is a queer continuation of The Great Gatsby, following Daisy Buchanan's daughter Pamelia (Mel) over 30 years after the events of the original novel. Daisy is found dead in Gatsby's mansion, though Mel knows Daisy has been spiraling out of control for years. At Gatsby's estate, she find's her mother's ghost and tries to figure out how to free her from the house.

The novella has stunning writing which drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked in like the house and it's "visitors." Gatsby is one of my favorite novels and I loved seeing where Gwendolyn took this "sequel" of the story. There are many different eerie and creepy scenes which were so good.

Along with Mel, we get some new characters and then many of the characters from the classic including Jordan Baker and Nick Carraway. Nick is my favorite character from the original novel and the author does an incredible job with his characterization in this. The haunted house became a character itself and I loved reading about it's hunger. I think it's interesting how grief and guilt are looked at in this novella.

Overall this was a very entertaining read, I highly enjoyed reading as a big fan of The Great Gatsby.

*Thank you to Edelweiss, Creature Publishing, and Gwendolyn Kiste for my ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.*

Gabby's Prompts:

1. Read a book in the dark or at night ✔️

- Under Lock & Skeleton Key (Secret Staircase Mystery Book 1) by Gigi Pandian