The 52 Book Club: 2025 Challenge discussion

29. Shares universe with prompt 28

This prompt is connected to the previous one (prompt 28.) To complete this prompt, choose a book that is set in the same shared universe as the book you read for prompt 28. These should be standalone novels or books that are not part of the same series.

For example, you may read Katherine Center’s book, The Bodyguard for prompt 28, and then The Rom-Commers for prompt 29, as the characters from one book are mentioned/make a brief appearance in the second.

See prompt 28 for further description as to what a shared universe is.


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Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies and No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding by Catherine Mack

The Happily Ever Playlist by Abby Jimenez

My A book was The Poet by Michael Connelly. One cannot make much sense of most of his work after 1995 without reading that one.

This is especially true for the Narrows, the 10th in his flagship Harry Bosch series--and the ultimate 'crossover' novel in the entire Connelly bibliography. Connelly manages to pull in several of the major players of The Poet who will show up over the years ever after. He even squeezes in Terry McCaleb, main character from Blood Work, and Cassidy Black, the heroine of his standalone, Void Moon!

Sense & Sensibility

I will be reading another book involving President Lincoln:


Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

HAPPY READING!!

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five shared universe)

I read "That Time I Got Drunk And Saved a Human" by Kimberly Lemming

Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

Can’t Help Falling - Courtney Walsh

Read Star Wars : The Rise Of Kylo Ren for this prompt. It's the origin story of Kylo, starting when Ben Solo burns the Jedi temple to the ground. Beautiful graphics, the emotions are shown in a very realistic way. Both in text as in image, you feel Ben's tormented. The last page gave me goosebumps.

Finished prompts # 28 & 29.. Read Owned by The Mountain Man by Gemma Weir. (Montana Mountain Men #2)... 4 more brothers to read about :) gonna be interesting.....

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

A Table for Two by Amor Towles

Both feature Eve’s story.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

Deep End features “cameos” of Dr. Adam Carlsen and Dr. Olive Smith, who were MCs in The Love Hypothesis.

Trying to think of some nonfiction that will work, but in terms of YA fiction I think these could work:

Fangirl

Carry On

Book 2

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us

*****

This one follows after Steve's first book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World . Once the dinosaurs died off, mammals took over. While Rise & Fall is a re-read for me, I have not yet read Rise & Reign so I'm looking forward to it.

“A Perfect Evil” by Alex Kava has a crossover universe with the author’s Ryder Creed series. The main character, Maggie O’Dell, is an FBI profiler, sent to hunt down a serial killer. Warning! It is very gruesome and graphic but will definitely keep you reading.

The Shining(Read March 6th; 4*) is the second book in the crossover universe topics. Stephen King's character Dick Halloran features
as the cook at the Overlook hotel who departs to Florida over the
winter, returning to the Overlook at the end of the book.
He appeared in It as a young soldier

Troy by Stephen Fry ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (28: The Iliad by Homer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

I read The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.

I'm reading The Killing Game book 2 Eve Duncan series

I read Holly Black's Valiant for this one. While it's listed as a "sequel" of Tithe, on GR, they mostly just share a universe, in my opinion. The characters in this one are secondary or only have cameos in the final book, Ironside.

I read Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid after reading Malibu Rising for prompt 28

Read Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan.

For prompt 28, I chose The Inheritance Games Collection; I think book 4.

For this prompt, it was only natural to go with Jennifer Lynn Barnes's newest series in the same world, The Grandest Game.

My rating: 2.3

Money grab or just a lot of character/plot development? Only time will tell. This was not typical of my experience with Barnes

I'm reading Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire, whose main character talks on the phone with his sister, who was the main character in an earlier book.

I read The Bodyguard by Katherine Center. It shares a universe with her other book The Rom-Commers.

Loved this one, Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery. Like visiting with an old friend. A top classic, 5 stars!

“Britt-Marie was here” by Fredrik Backman

I Understand now ...
34/52
Shall start after I finished the book I'm reading

I finally finished It. Richie and Beverly also show up in 11/22/63 (which I used for #28.

I read A Brave Start by Andrea Severson.
The book in the same universe from Prompt 28 is The Candle Shop of Wicks and Whimsy.
The Candle Shop of Wicks and Whimsy is part of the author's Independent Hearts series, based out of a small town in Wisconsin.
A Brave Start is the beginning of the author's Across the Pond series, where an American decides to change up her life and move to London for an MFA Creative Writing program.
I've read more of the Independent Hearts series, and the FMC from A Brave Start makes a couple of appearances by making purchases from the small indie businesses, or promoting their businesses on social media.

I read the crossover in Kingdom of Ash and A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
5/5

I had a hard time with Prompts 28 and 29 so I decided to read the biographies of George Washington ( Washington: A Life) and James Adams (Janes Adams). In addition to being the first and second presidents of the United States they both played major roles in early American history. Adams served as vice president under George Washington. George Washington was appointed Lieutenant General and Commander-in-Chief of the US Army when Adams was president I would say they shared the same universe.