Work is hellish. I worked both Saturday and Sunday on three hours of sleep, I have very little recollection of what I've done since last Thursday, and I literally startle up from sleep thinking about databases. It's bad enough that today my coworker and I sat our team lead and his boss and his boss's boss down and said that our team lead needs to start prioritising things better, because his demands are ridiculous and this can't go on. No, not even when we're trying to deploy the project from hell. Especially not when we're trying to deploy the project from hell.

So, what I've needed have been books by an author I know I can trust and whose writing pulls me in so that I can make it to bedtime with my sanity intact. And you can see below just which author that has been.

Recently read

• Annick Trent, Oak and Ash (The Old Bridge Inn #3)
  
  A new-to-me author. Historical M/M romance between a surgeon and a valet. I haven't read the previous parts of the series, but they are standalone enough that it didn't matter. I don't have anything to say, because my brain is kaputt, except that I really liked this.



• K.J. Charles, the Charm of Magpies series: The Magpie Lord, A Case of Possession, and Flight of Magpies
  
  The first two parts were re-reads, the last I'd never read. No idea why. Anyway, it had been so long since I'd read this that I'd managed to forget basically everything, so it was all delightfully new to me.



• K.J. Charles, Spectred Isle
  
  Another re-read. Another one I'd read so long ago I didn't remember anything.



• K.J. Charles, All of Us Murderers
  
  KJC's newest, which was released everywhere yesterday. (I guess UK readers of physical books got theirs last week. Lucky them.) Gothic romance. Finished it yesterday evening, slept a full 8 hours afterwards for the first time in far too long. 5 stars, no notes. Loved it.

Currently reading

K.J. Charles, Any Old Diamonds (Lilywhite Boys #1). A reread, because my brain is still not online.

Up next

Christ, I don't know up from down. How would I know this? Probably more KJC, tbh.