A Well-Read Tart

A Food and Book Lover’s Blog

MY DARLING DREADFUL THING (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the Gothic horror novel My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen. Forced to pull strings under the floor for her mama’s séances, Roos discovers that she’s not alone. Another poor girl is there with her. A girl that only Roos can see. A ghost. When Roos’ mama discovers her new talent of connecting with...

THE WOODS ALL BLACK (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo. Leslie is on a new nursing assignment in Spar Creek, a town nestled in the Appalachian mountains. It seems like a quiet place with simple people, but something sinister lurks in its shadows – something that’s beginning to terrorize its god-fearing citizens. Spar Creek...

MURDER ROAD (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the supernatural/true crime novel Murder Road by Simone St James. Honeymooners April and Eddie take a wrong turn onto the infamous Atticus Line in Coldlake Falls. When they drive past a girl on the side of the road, they stop to offer help, not realizing that the girl’s seriously injured. They speed to the...

SCHRADER’S CHORD (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the horror novel Schrader’s Chord by Scott Leeds. Charlie’s dad isn't the type of man to commit suicide. But there’s a text from Charlie’s sisters that has him boarding a plane to deal with the aftermath back home in Seattle. Charlie had a falling out with his father years earlier. Since then, they...

THE HOUSE OF LAST RESORT (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the horror novel The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden. Happily married couple Tommy and Kate take the adventure of a lifetime: they buy a fixer-upper villa for one Euro in the rural Italian countryside. What they don’t know about their new dream home is that it used to be the “the house of last...

LONE WOMEN (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the supernatural/historical fiction novel Lone Women by Victor LaValle. After burning down her childhood home with her parents’ dead bodies inside, Adelaide flees California. Her sights are set on Montana, a place where she can homestead and become just like the women she read about in the railroad booklets....

Happy Holidays 2023

Hello, Tartlets! I can’t think of a better day to start writing my holiday message. I’m sitting in my festively decorated kitchen, watching the first snow of the season fall softly outside the window. Christmas music floats over from my Mormon Tabernacle Choir Holiday Pandora station, and there’s butter softening on the counter for the orange vanilla sugar cookies I’ll bake later. If this scene doesn’t give you all the holiday feels,...

ROUGE (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the novel Rouge by Mona Awad. Belle isn't coping well after returning home for her mother’s funeral. First, there’s the fact that her mother died falling off an ocean cliff. Then, there are all the mysterious debts she left behind. The fact that her mother sold her beloved dress shop. The shirtless window cleaner....

HIDE (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the horror/thriller novel Hide by Kiersten White. Fourteen people arrive at an abandoned amusement park for a life-changing opportunity. All they have to do is play an elaborate game of hide-and-seek, and the last person standing will win $50K. But, if they're all hiding, who's the seeker? Why is there blood on the...

JUST LIKE HOME (Dark Side of the Word Podcast)

Hello, Tartlets and Darksiders! A new book club podcast episode is up on Dark Side of the Word. Join me and Kait as we discuss the supernatural suspense novel Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey. Vera didn’t have any intentions of coming back home. But, her mom is dying and she has to get the house ready to sell -- not that anyone's going to buy the house of an infamous serial killer. As Vera begins to pack up the house, disturbing childhood...