Rutabaga's Reads 2026: Part 5

It’s time for the first Christian/inspirational compilation post of 2026. Hooray (if you read that genre)! For those who read from this genre, who are your favorite authors? What or who inspires you to read these books?

All Booked Up (Mar. 17, 2026) by Melody Carlson.

<This is a standalone novel.>

Widowed for almost 18 months, 61-year-old Riva Owen lives in a historic Victorian house that’s been in her family for three generations, but she can hardly afford to keep living there. Riva doesn’t want to give up her impressive personal library. Her daughter, Kenzie, clearly a minimalist, tells her to have a book-burning bonfire (horrifying) and sell the place. Riva can’t just leave the decades of memories nor her books. On a prayerful whim, she opens up her home to renters. Women only. There’s Windy Brewer, who excels in the kitchen and the garden. There’s Laurel Wright, Riva’s friend who’s got her eye on Marcus Millican, Windy’s retired-teacher-slash-handyman big brother. Then comes Fiona Harris, an Irish fiddler who works at her relatives’ bistro. And finally, upon Laurel’s recommendation comes Kitty Brinson, salon owner and woman of a certain age who acts and dresses like she’s a 20-something. Going from one personality in a lonely home to a handful of personalities creates chaos. It’s mostly manageable, but Kitty is the firecracker, especially when she’s been drinking. She’s ultra self-absorbed even as her life is a mess, and she’s especially cruel to Laurel, including honing in on Marcus for herself. Marcus doesn’t seem romantically interested in Laurel or Kitty. Is he interested in ... Riva?

            The latest from Carlson is a Christian fiction, contemporary romance that is expectedly wholesome. There are themes of grief, found family and navigating different personalities under one roof. It’s a story where a bibliophile widow continues to work through grief while suddenly taking on the responsibility of landlord, and it’s also a story of taking second chances on oneself. Fictional Greenwood, Oregon, hosts unexpected changes under this roof, and there’s frustration as well as compassion, uplifting compliments and not-so-little digs. There’s struggle amid enduring faith. Drawn to the book’s title, I didn’t care for the book as much as I hoped I would. Much of it was Kitty, but it was also in part because the main characters are closer to my parents’ generation, so of an age range that I haven’t yet experienced but will, hopefully, one day (just not too soon, please).

Final Approach (Aug. 5, 2025) by Lynette Eason.

<This is the final novel in a series.>

It’s vacation time for Air Marshal Kristine Duncan and her friends. Kristine is on duty when a hijacker tries to get into the cockpit of their plane. Also jumping into action is FBI Special Agent Andrew Ross, and together, they thwart the attack and the plane returns safely to Lake City, North Carolina. Kristine and Andrew both acknowledge to themselves that they’d like to get to know the other, despite personal baggage, but first there’s an investigation to sort through. The two – with their colleagues and friends – are confused from the start. The hijacker only took the “job” out of desperation, but someone else was on the plane watching him. The connection between them is unknown. Andrew’s undercover friend resurfaces and is in danger, but it turns out that the target might not be the undercover agent. With shots coming from different directions and being run off the road, at least one someone is out to interfere with Kristine’s and Andrew’s lives in a big, big way. Then there’s the interference in their personal lives. For years, Kristine has been the moderator between her siblings and their dad, who’s become increasingly controlling since their mother died (and she blames herself for). Andrew is concerned about his parents taking in his wayward cousin with his drug (and therefore money) issues. Their skills will be necessary and vigilance is key to finding truth and justice.

            The final Christian romantic suspense novel in the Lake City Heroes series does not disappoint. It’s an adventure ride right from the launch and doesn’t slow down until the story concludes. Families are complicated, and this story demonstrates that, partly in an unexpected way. The leads must traverse guilt while also sifting truth from trickery. For those who enjoy edge-of-your-seat storylines and clean romance, this series with its satisfying conclusion is sure to sate your literary palate, at least until you pick up your next book!

            Book One: Double Take

            Book Two: Target Acquired

            Book Three: Serial Burn

A Lesson in Propriety (May 20, 2025) by Jen Turano.

<This is the first novel in a series.>

The family’s fortune has been stolen, her fiancé is now an ex, and Miss Drusilla Merriweather’s New York Four Hundred life has been upended. All she can think to do to provide for her mother and younger sister is to open a finishing school on an allegedly haunted castle estate in Chicago that the Merriweather sisters have inherited from an eccentric aunt whom they haven’t seen in two years and is rumored to be dead. There’s a seedy underworld containing unscrupulous developers coveting the valuable land the estate sits on, alarm goats in the spooky home and a neighbor by the name of Mr. Rhenick Wittenbecker. He’s a charming architect who considers Aunt Ottilie his friend but missteps when he proposes that he can solve Drusilla’s problems by declaring they should marry when they’ve only just met. Drusilla forgives him his blunder and declares that he should never broach the subject of marriage again. Trouble is, he’d really like to court this woman whom he finds most extraordinary (yes, all four of his younger sisters were surprised when he used that word, too), and Drusilla is surprised to feel disappointment when he doesn’t. Can this improper proposal be turned proper and the seedy characters of Chicago dealt with so that the Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies can open?

            I can already tell this new series from Turano is going to be a fun one. The Christian fiction, historical romance with its strong female characters, laugh-out-loud banter and mischievous antics set in the Gilded Age is witty and fast-paced. The characters are easily distinguishable and human in their imperfectness. Rhenick stumbles with his spur-of-the-moment proposal, and Drusilla maybe shouldn’t be allowed a firearm. The story is gallant, heartfelt and thoroughly charming. The threatening situations never feel particularly dire, but that’s acceptable in this mostly lighthearted novel. I look forward to the second installment!

Rutabaga's Reads 2026: Part 4

Here I am with the first young-adult (YA) compilation post for 2026. If you read YA fiction, what do you like about it that has you reading it? What can get on your nerves when it comes to YA?

And the River Drags Her Down (Oct. 7, 2025) by Jihyun Yun.

<This is a standalone novel.>

Ancestral magic follows the female line, but there is a strict rule that one will never resurrect departed humans. Soojin Han and her older sister, Mirae, followed that to the letter, even after their mom died when her car went down an embankment. It’s six years since that accident and now one year since Mirae drowned in the local river that runs through Jade Acre, a [fictional] California town along its coast. Soojin and her dad have only grown apart since they became a two-person household. She doesn’t know how to lift others up like Mirae did and so, in desperation and with Mirae’s milk tooth, she resurrects her sister. She is overjoyed to have her big sister back, but their good friend, Mark Moon, doesn’t share her joy. As Mirae claws her way out from the earth, he sees rot where Soojin only sees vitality. And for a brief while, Mirae seems content. When their dad’s away for work during the week, Mirae cooks with Soojin and prepares her lunches to take to school. The sisters and Mark get up to tame shenanigans in the middle of the night. But Mirae grows tired of hiding. She’s restless and hungry. She needs retribution. In a town that becomes afflicted with a deluge of heavy rain, watch out. “It listens through the water. It comes through the water!” The sister Soojin brought back isn’t, perhaps, the sister she knew, but one she still loves.

            In this YA paranormal fantasy and horror novel, ancient, ancestral magic and desperate loneliness weave together to create an unraveling that is devastating and poignant. The story is grief-filled and sometimes horrible, creepy and disquieting. The plot is propulsive, the horror is mature, and the value of being well-loved is sown throughout. It’s a story of sisterhood but also of selfishness and the desperate, dangerous choices one might make to retrieve what one lost. The narrative is water-stained with darkness and decay, which makes it all the more compelling to read. This haunting isn’t for the faint-hearted, but the strong-willed, even if they come with broken hearts.

Eliza, from Scratch (May 13, 2025) by Sophia Lee.

<This is a standalone novel.>

The one thing standing between Eliza Park (Korean American) and clinching salutatorian is a scheduling conflict that lands her in Culinary Arts – a regular course – instead of AP Physics. Not only is the class unweighted, non-Honors and non-AP, Eliza can’t cook. At all. She can’t fry an egg and only knows the mandolin to be a musical instrument, clearly not knowing that a mandoline is a culinary utensil. She planned for a perfect, flawless senior year with her best friends Kareena and Meredith, but secrets kept and an academic rival disrupting the friend group has Eliza feeling unbalanced. Culinary Arts classmate Wesley Ruengsomboon (Thai American) has her feeling unbalanced, too. She’s also incredibly annoyed with his ease, skill and know-all in the kitchen. In the final period of the day, Eliza goes from star student to mortifying mess. Eliza’s high expectations push her to believe she can win the midterm cooking contest. She’ll learn from Wesley, whom their teacher infuriatingly paired her with, and from her mom. Her mom doesn’t know that Eliza’s learning how to cook Korean food for school and instead thinks she’s learning in order to become closer to the late grandmother she never put in effort to truly understand and know. This overachiever is about to learn some lessons – about life and cooking – from scratch.

            To Wesley, Eliza looks like a cookie cutter cutout of overachieving perfectionism, and she is. Anyone who’s vied for the top spot in their class understands Eliza. It’s eye-opening and frustrating in equal measure and might have some racing to convince themselves that they were never as bad as Eliza. This YA contemporary romance features an enemies-to-lovers, AAPI couple with a sweet/salty plot and a zesty cast of characters. Lee’s debut is here to appease clean romance appetites and make readers hungry for all manner of cultural cuisine. There’s a main character who doesn’t take it in stride or handle it with grace. There’s toughness and vulnerability, hidden feelings and emotions spilling over. The story is well-balanced with freshness and high school drama. For this reader who’s very nitpicky about the YA she can stomach, this one hits the spot.

The Encanto’s Curse (Mar. 4, 2025) by Melissa de la Cruz.

<This is the second novel in a duology.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

A creature stalks the night. It is a manananggal – a mythical creature of the Philippines that separates its upper torso from its legs when hunting – and MJ Robertson-Rodriguez must protect her kingdom as she’s also learning how to be the newly crowned queen of Biringan. She has a vivid dream in which she attacks a young couple in love. The very next day, the couple is there. Injured, but alive. They’re reporting a manananggal attack on one of their goats. MJ comes to the mortifying conclusion that she is the monster. She has no idea how this curse came upon her, and she flees to Mount Makiling with select members of her court, including Sir Lucas Invierno; Grand Duchess Amador Oscura, Sir Lucas’ promised bride; and Nix Xing, a princess of Jade Mountain. Also with their group is the delegation from Jade Mountain, led by Prince Qian, a half-brother to Nix, after he initially tries to get Nix to return to Jade Mountain by force. Prince Qian is a handsome, famed monster hunter. MJ is charmed by him and thinks she could love him someday, but her heart still beats for Lucas just as it also fills with bloodthirst. The young queen must gain control of herself lest she lose her kingdom, her crown and herself, to the viciously hungry ways of the manananggal.

            The concluding novel in The Encanto’s Daughter duology is a YA fantasy that is steeped in Filipino mythology and paranormal romance. I don’t consider it romantasy, for while it does contain kissing, there’s nothing particularly steamy about any of the scenes. I did prefer this story to its predecessor. Where MJ came across as often petulant in that story, I did not get that here, as she races to lift her curse and hide the changes happening to her. The pace is fast, the plot is tense and the tone is dark with notes of hopefulness. Aswang queen though she may be, she’s still a queen and an encanto. And unlike Yara Liliana, practically erased from the history books, MJ has friends who care for and support her. Time isn’t on her side, but her friends are.

            Book One: The Encanto’s Daughter

Poems: Presenting Haiku Poetry 4

Photo by Marta Branco via Pexels

<Each stanza highlights different novels I’ve already read this year.>

There is a return

To the Archipelago.

Grand dragons dying.

(“The Poisoned King” by Katherine Rundell)

 

Rocket to the moon.

Onasander is missing.

Infiltrate the camp.

(“The Super-Secret Mission to the Center of the Moon (Pie)” by Melissa de la Cruz)

Ancestral magic.

Mirae’s milk tooth brings her back.

Seeks retribution.

(“And the River Drags Her Down” by Jihyun Yun.)

Filipino food

At Tita Rosie’s Kitchen.

There is food murder.

(“Arsenic and Adobo” by Mia P. Manansala)

 

The Rue de Paris.

Mysterious bakery.

Need pastries and bread.

(“The Mysterious Bakery on the Rue de Paris” by Evie Woods)

Full Moon Coffee Shop.

Astral Milk. Sunrise Syrup.

The shop’s run by cats.

(“The Full Moon Coffee Shop” by Mai Mochizuki)

One can time travel

Before the coffee gets cold.

It’s in Tokyo.

(“Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi)

A library with

Book characters brought to life.

Magic and romance.

(“The Charmed Library” by Jennifer Moorman)

Isle of Ever.

Two hundred years have gone by.

Hides Evelyn’s friends.

(“The Curse Breaker” by Jen Calonita)

Lisa K.

March 24, 2026

A Poem: "Not Really Grown Up"

Photo by Disney PhotoPass 2025 with Memory Maker purchase.

Not Really Grown Up

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Is the ultimate question for our youth.

It is a question for every age,

To seek those answers like a sleuth.

But this is not a poem of convention.

It’s one of imagination and dreams.

Yesterday I was a pirate queen,

Today a designer with color schemes.

This weekend, I shall be concertmaster

At Boston’s Symphony Hall.

Next month I’ll join Cirque du Soleil,

Then to Broadway for my curtain call.

 

After that, I’ll be a mermaid

For a little, watery bit

Before a turn as a vampire,

But to drinking blood I won’t commit.

 

I’ll take a turn running Walt Disney World

And fly by Firebolt to avoid delays.

I’ll best the record for tallest croquembouche

While writing Oscar-winning screenplays.

It’ll be off to the moon for a landing

Until gravity tempts me toward home,

Where my feet will land on my homestead

And reading encourages me to roam.

Lisa K.

March 23, 2026

A Poem: "Build a Crescendo"

Photo by Benjamin Farren via Pexels

Build a Crescendo

I am but one voice in the multitude

In a sea of people with varying moods.

Some you encounter are a bright delight

While others tempt you to put up a fight.

Don’t knock quietude as a negative response,

For maybe one’s prepping a renaissance.

That quiet is what we need to begin

To dig to the deep well of strength within.

There is subtle strength in quietude,

Lifting us up in a manner subdued.

And there is resilience borne in the dark,

Where things might seem lost, broken or stark.

Rising through darkness is no easy task.

It is much simpler to put on a mask,

But forward and upward we do proceed

Until light shows and the fog recedes.

Spin a tornado. Build a crescendo.

Find that flow that releases your glow.

Through the storm, be the sturdy tree,

And carry on, for we are all mighty!

Lisa K.

February 19, 2026

Author’s Note: The inspiration for this poem stemmed from the response I gave a friend on the poem she had written. Instead of viewing quiet and dark as negatives, I wanted to leave a comment that brightened that view and came at things from a different angle. My quote is below.

“I’d like to picture this quietude, not as a result of the negative people in your life that have changed you, but as the quiet we need to reflect, to dig deep, to encourage that deep well of strength that we all have even if we don’t always feel it’s there. There is strength in quietude and resilience in the darkness. It’s when we remember the bright lights we are that darkness lifts and fog recedes. We are all mighty!” --LK on a friend’s Instagram Reel 1/07/2026

Easter 2026

National Poetry Month 2026

Photo of Starfield Library, Seoul, by Philipp Brügger via Pexels

I Have Nothing to Read*

There are books here and there are books there.

There are books practically everywhere,

So why don’t I have anything to read?

I must be lacking books; that sounds logical indeed.

I have books about mythology.

That thriller gives someone the third degree.

A whimsical witch in that novel features.

Those books contain magical creatures.

Reading any of those doesn’t feel right.

I’m not in the mood or they feel like pants too tight.

Plenty of options and yet not enough.

Why is choosing a book sometimes so tough?

The library is close; it’s also where I work.

It has titles for every interest and quirk,

But though their options are bound to be vast

Doesn’t mean I’ll find what I want, at last.

I seek a YA title, but look! Ooh...

A food murder book at a barbecue.

Or there, an adult fic set in a bookshop

And that one with a cat on a countertop.

Oh, what do I read? How do I choose?

Will I simply constantly peruse?

Ha, this is never a problem for me,

For I always read multiple novels, you see!

Lisa K.

March 24, 2026

*This poem is inspired by the age-old question: Why don't I have anything to wear?