Escape with Me Bookclub

It's time for the third book in our spooky-month celebration, and we're heading into gothic horror! 🕯️ For Episode 192, Sam and Hannah are reading The Artist of Blackberry Grange , a gothic horror novel by Paulette Kennedy. Sam loves gothic horror, while Hannah is stepping into the genre with fresh eyes, which means we're coming to this story with very different expectations. So how do...

It's spooky month, and we're digging up a vampire series from Sam's middle-school years! But just because a book was a favorite back then doesn't mean it survives an adult reread. 🧛 For Episode 191, Sam and Danielle are reading Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz. Sam picked up this series in middle school, while Danielle is experiencing it for the very first time. That gives us two...

A YA vampire story that started in 2000 somehow became a 12-book series, a manga adaptation, a movie, and much more. But does Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare still hold up 26 years later? For Episode 190, Sam and Tim revisit the beginning of The Saga of Darren Shan and take a look at the first book, Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare , by Darren Shan. We’re looking at this story through a mod...

What happens when Agatha Christie brings together four detectives from her previous books to solve one murder? Apparently, mystery magic. For Episode 189, Sam and Hannah are tackling Cards on the Table , the 15th book in the Hercule Poirot series. But Poirot isn't solving this case alone! Christie assembles four detectives from her earlier works, giving us a crossover event worthy of the Aveng...

The UK/Australia-exclusive Twisted Tales have done it again. But this time, we have to settle a much bigger question: Are the UK books actually better than the US ones? For Episode 188, Sam and Kaitlyn read Be Prepared by Farrah Rochon, the fourth Twisted Tales release that has been published in the UK/Australia but isn't getting a US release. And at this point, we have evidence. Mari Mancusi...

We’re back in the Kingdom Keepers series with Disney at Dawn and this time, we’re leaving the Magic Kingdom behind and heading to Animal Kingdom! Keira is especially excited for this one since Animal Kingdom is one of her favorite Disney parks, but we have some questions. Namely: how does a book released in 2008 manage to feel like it’s set in a 2005 version of the park? And why does this story so...

Episode 186 - Love Hina Vol. 4-6 by Ken Akamatsu We're back with Love Hina! For James, this series is a core memory. He first read Love Hina in high school, and it was one of his first manga series. For Sam, it's a completely different experience: she's been watching anime and reading manga for more than two decades, but this is her first time actually reading Love Hina. So what happen...

Episode 185 - Princess of Thieves by Mari Mancusi Once again, we have read a Disney Twisted Tales book that was published in the UK and Australia. And once again: WE WERE ROBBED! Seriously, it will never stop baffling us that some of the best books in the Disney Twisted Tales series aren't published in the United States. Sam and Kaitlyn dive into Princess of Thieves by Mari Mancusi and this is...

Episode 184 - Divergent by Veronica Roth Two readers. Two different experiences. And one very important question: Was Divergent actually done dirty by being compared to The Hunger Games? Danielle read Divergent when it originally came out. Sam is reading it for the first time, and together they're digging into one of the biggest YA dystopian series of the 2010s. We talk about why comparing Div...

Episode 183 -The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau What happens when the book you remember loving as a kid has to live up to the original? Sam and Keira are heading back to the world of City of Ember with The People of Sparks, the second book in Jeanne DuPrau's series. Both of them read City of Ember as kids, but their journeys stopped in very different places. Sam went on to read the first th...

Episode 182 - Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie The Anti-Hastings Club gets a much-needed break this week. Sam and Hannah are back with Agatha Christie, but Murder in Mesopotamia gives us something we don't always get in these episodes: a different narrator. And Sam is particularly excited because this mystery takes us into the world of ancient Mesopotamia, one of her favorite historica...

Episode 181 - The Cat Who Sniffed Glue by Lilian Jackson Braun We're back in Pickax with Qwilleran, Koko, Yum Yum... and somehow the biggest mystery isn't the murder. It's Qwill's love life. Sam and Tim continue their journey through The Cat Who... series with The Cat Who Sniffed Glue, but this time the romance takes center stage and not necessarily in a good way. We discuss: Why t...

Episode 180 - Death on the Lanai by Rachel Ekstrom Courage We're heading back to Miami! Sam and James return to the Golden Girls Cozy Mystery series with Death on the Lanai. After enjoying the first book while feeling it still had room to grow, we couldn't wait to see if this second installment finally delivers on the series' potential. So... does it? We discuss: Whether the series has...

Episode 179 - Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros It finally happened. After months (okay... years) of recommendations, Kaitlyn has finally convinced Sam (the podcast's biggest skeptic) to read one of the biggest fantasy books of the decade. The pressure was on. When seemingly everyone around you loves a book, can you still judge it on its own merits? Sam certainly tries. In this episode, Sam and Ka...

Episode 178 - Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita Can a book be nostalgic if you barely remember reading it? Sam first read Secrets of My Hollywood Life back in middle school and remembers loving the series. Here's the strange part: she can still recall events from later books, but she'd completely forgotten the plot of the very first one, including the fact that the main characte...

Episode 177 - Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson This might be the most unhinged premise we've ever covered. Thanks to Keira's special interest in the Disney Parks, we discovered the Kingdom Keepers series and after reading the first book, we have just one question: Who approved this? Every night, five middle schoolers are teleported into Walt Disney World Resort while they sleep. Their m...

Episode 176 - The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson Is being a "middle book" an excuse... or a flaw? Sam and James continue their journey through the Mistborn trilogy with The Well of Ascension, and while they agree on one thing (that this is very much a second book in a trilogy) they couldn't disagree more on whether that's a compliment. For Sam, "middle book syndrome&...

Episode 175 - Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune We thought we knew what we were getting into. After loving The House in the Cerulean Sea for its cozy, heartwarming vibe and hopeful message, Sam and Hannah went into Somewhere Beyond the Sea expecting something similar. We were not prepared. This sequel keeps the compassion and humanity of the first book, but the conversations become much heavier...

Episode 174 - The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis For years, The Silver Chair was Tim's favorite Narnia book. But was it actually the book or was it his dad's absolutely legendary voice for Puddleglum doing all the work? Sam and Tim revisit one of the most beloved entries in the Narnia series and ask a dangerous question: does childhood nostalgia hold up under adult scrutiny? We discuss: • Why...

Episode 173 - Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins After more than a decade of encouragement, recommendations, and relentless badgering from Danielle, Sam is finally caught up on the entire Hunger Games book series. Mission accomplished. Now comes the next challenge: convincing her to watch the movies. But first, we have to answer a much bigger question: Is Sunrise on the Reaping the best Hun...

Episode 172 - Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas “You just need to get past the first book.” That was the recommendation. Repeatedly. So Sam and Kaitlyn finally picked up Throne of Glass and… oh boy. We get into what worked, what absolutely did not, and the question we kept circling back to the entire episode: Why did people keep reading this series? From characterization to pacing to the overall re...

Episode 171 - Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Disney’s Meant to Be Series, Book 5) This episode is personal. Worth Fighting For is the reason we started covering the Meant to Be series in the first place and somehow, it’s also the reason Keira became a co-star on the podcast. Expectations? Extremely high. Stakes? Weirdly emotional. So… was it worth the hype? Oh boy. Sam and Keira dive into...

Episode 170 - Brigands & Breadknives by Travis BaldreeThis series just took its biggest swing yet. Sam and James dive into Brigands & Breadknives, the third published book in the series and easily the biggest departure from the original formula so far. The cozy fantasy vibes are still here, but this story shifts gears in a way we definitely didn’t expect. And somewhere along the way we rea...

Episode 169 -The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie We’re finally reading one of Christie’s most famous mysteries and we’re going in completely blind. Sam and Hannah try to solve The ABC Murders in real time, following the clues, tracking the pattern, and throwing out theories as we go. Sam, in particular, develops a WILD and genuinely juicy theory that sends us down a very entertaining path while...

Episode 168 - The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lilian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who Series Book 7) Are these books getting darker or are we just noticing it now? Sam and Tim continue their journey through The Cat Who series with The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare, and Tim is convinced this is the darkest installment yet. Sam isn’t so sure. We talk about: • Whether this book actually pushes the series furthe...