This prequel to Practical Magic was released two Halloween Bingos ago, and I had planned to read it then, but didn't want to spend the $12.99 to buy it for my kindle, and the library list was dozens of holds long so I back-burnered it.

While I was casting about for something to read for the Spellbound square, I remembered that I had wanted to read this, so I looked on library2go and lo and behold, it was available without a wait. Downloaded at 5:00, finished at 8:30.

I really enjoyed it, and returning to the world of the Owens clan was delightful. It's been years since I read Practical Magic, or anything by Alice Hoffman, and I was reminded by The Rules for Magic how much I enjoy her story-telling and her use of magical elements.

This book will fill many squares as well, and I decided to use it for Relics and Curiosities instead of Spellbound, since it is generally easier to fill broader squares versus narrower ones. There is a grimoire that plays a prominent part of the book, which fits with the category. In addition, there is a Black Cat named Wren, for anyone looking to fill that square. There are also some events that occur on Halloween, so it would satisfy that one, and, off the top of my head, it would also fit Full Moon, Sleepy Hollow, Fear the Drowning Deep, and Magical Realism.

AUTHOR:  J.C. McKeown

TITLE:  A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities

TITLE:  A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities

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NO RATING - DID NOT FINISH

Both these books are a collection of snipets of ancient Greek or Roman text or some amusing Greek or Roman factoid or a random rumour that some ancient scholar wrote down - generally without any (or minimal) context.  The snipets are grouped according to topic.  The first few chapters of each book were ok, sometimes interesting (the science and technology sections), sometimes daft, but after a while the whole thing just got boring and monotonous.  If anyone does read this I recommend reading one chapter or a few snipets at a time, instead of the whole thing in one sitting.

WARNING:  Cruelty to animals.  Apparently the Ancient Greeks and Roman were just as barbaric as everyone else.

I loved "Vintage" and gave it fours stars when I read it back in 2014 and kept my eye out to see when Susan Gloss would publish another book. Unfortunately, I found this follow-up to "Vintage" to be disappointing. This book doesn't do a good job of linking all of the stories to each other. Artists living together in a "colony" didn't help link things since they were all going through so many things and felt like roommates that passed in the night. It didn't help that one of the POVs we get is from a character who has passed away. I just felt jumbled the entire time I read this and ended up disliking most of the characters too. 

"The Curiosities" follows Nell Parker who after dealing with losing her baby in the second trimester, throws herself into fertility treatments leaving her and her husband (without his knowledge) deeply in debt. Nell finds a job hoping that she can start chipping away at their debt. She ends up getting a job as a director of a new artist's retreat. For readers who read "Vintage" we know that the character that did this was Betsy. Nell ends up focusing on her new artists that are staying at the mansion turned colony. The other characters are Paige (young and self absorbed), Annie (older and self absorbed) and Odin (harboring romantic feelings towards Nell). 

Nell suffered a devastating loss and I thought the one scene we get to show her and her husband holding their daughter as she dies was heartbreaking. If we had gotten more of that maybe I would have liked Nell more. She lies to her husband and seems to be entertaining thoughts about Odin (that name you guys). Her husband Josh felt more present to me as a character and I wish we had gotten some POVs with him as well.

Annie was a jerk. I hated her whole story-line. Her studying addiction series sounded pretentious as hell. The fallout from it seemed like an after thought to other characters though. How no one went off on her is baffling.

Paige was boring. She meets a guy she likes him and then runs away from it. Ho-hum.

Odin was just there. I found myself skimming his chapters. 

The writing wasn't as engaging as it was in Vintage. Gloss does the same thing here she did with calling out who is "speaking" by chapter and including some information on art while doing that. In "Vintage" she included description of clothes, hats, etc. and when they were first bought and sold. The flow was awful in this one. Probably because I found myself only really caring about Betsy's POV chapters. I wish that Gloss had included more from the characters she introduced us to in Vintage. We only see a brief scene that includes Violet. 

The setting of Madison doesn't get a lot of play in this one unfortunately. We have Paige going to college and there's a little bit here and there. However, most of the book takes place in Betsy's old mansion now turned colony. We hear a lot about how beautiful it is and the art work, but I couldn't picture it very well which was a shame. 

The ending leaves things on a slightly hopeful note for Nell. I just didn't much care by the time the end came about what becomes of the other characters. 

I tend to only talk about price when I am disappointed in a book and this costing $14.99 was too much. Especially for a follow-up. The last book was $11.99 and I recall thinking that was too high. Considering how lackluster this was I am going to just pass on any more books from Gloss unless I can borrow from the library. 

If you enjoy creepy short story collections then I think I might have found the perfect book for you. (Maybe this could be your Halloween read!) What makes this collection even more interesting is that it was compiled by 4 different children's authors. Claire Legrand, Emma Trevayne, Katherine Catmull, and Stefan Bachmann banded together to write The Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief & Sinister (the Internet has 36 and 40 which is thoroughly confusing even though I've read the book). This book has a little bit of everything and with the added benefit of different author's voices it is certainly never boring. There's magic, mystery, and straight up horror (just to name a few). The black and white illustrations that accompany each story are absolutely perfect (Great job, Alexander Jansson!) and were honestly one of the reasons why I picked up this book in the first place. They've laid out the narrative in a very unique way as they've styled the chapters like the different drawers and cubbies of a traditional cabinet of curiosities. The authors are the 'curators' of this unique cabinet and the stories are the background for each of the 'items' they've collected for the separate compartments. This helps to connect all of the disparate stories into one cohesive collection and keeps the pace moving. All in all, a solid collection that I might find myself drifting back to for the spooky season. 10/10