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How to Listen to Audiobooks | Reviewing All the Audiobook Apps
Want to start listening to audiobooks but not sure where to start? Here’s a quick guide to the seven best apps for audiobook listening.
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May Wrap Up | 10 Books
An exciting month of reading despite the mediocre ratings. And so many dragons!
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June TBR
I’m finally reading The Bridge Kingdom, and hopefully Under the Whispering Door is the book I’ve been looking for that will get me crying…
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April Wrap Up | 5 Books
A couple big-brain books and a couple no-brain books. On balance, I’d say I used all the brain cells I had to spare this month.
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May TBR
I’m so very excited to re-read His Majesty’s Dragon (called simply Temeraire in the UK, apparently) and the sequel to The Serpent and the Wings of Night. Currently working on SPQR in audiobook format.
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April TBR
Do you plan on reading any of these? Drop a comment—I want to know what YOU’RE reading next!
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March Wrap Up | 5 Books (in Progress)
Many books were enjoyed, even more were started. March was dreary, but a great month for reading.
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Book Review | Serpet on the Wings of Night
There’s a reason TikTok is drooling. Serpent (I’m going to call it serpent, it has an incredibly annoying name but I promise it’s a great book) has all the tropes you love in romantasy; it gives spice, vampires, enemies to lovers to enemies, one bed, resentful training montage, who did this to you, and more.
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Dark Romance TikTok Recommendations.
No, I have not read any all of these because my time in this world is finite. Psycho Academy : Aran’s Story Book 1 (Cruel Shifterverse 4) by Jasmine Mas Fight like a man…or a girl disguised as one.I’m a princess disguised as a boy at a supernatural academy. But this isn’t any normal school,…
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March TBR
A reread of Gideon the Ninth for a book club that will hopefully lead to me finally reading the rest of the series, plus a few literary fiction pieces I’m really excited about!
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February Wrap Up | 5 Books
Many books were enjoyed, even more were started. February was dreary, but a great month for reading.
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February TBR
Not many changes since I got SO off-track in January. I’m already enjoying Empire of Pain and really looking forward to The Cloisters.
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January Wrap Up | 9 Books
Somehow, I read the majority of Zodiac Academy this month, plus a couple books I actually enjoyed. I’m trying out linking to Bookshop.org this month!
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Book Review | Godkiller
A perfect fantasy book, in the archetypal sense: perfectly plotted, familiar yet creative. It reminded me why I fell in love with reading in the first place. Here’s why.
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Zodiac Academy | Series Review
I was finally bullied (haha, irony intended) into reading beyond the first Zodiac Academy book. Time to dismantle the disclaimer and gleefully tell you why I dislike the series so much.
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New Webtoons to Start for the New Year!
First, Happy New Year! The Runaway Lead lives Next Door Genre: Fantasy, Otome, Reincarnation Episodes out (1/19): 11 Seina Rohill is a D-class hunter making a living off of killing monstrous fiends—or so she thought. In actuality, she’s become an insignificant character in the novel, “A Secret in the Flower Shop.” What’s more, she happens…
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January TBR
So excited to read this Claire North I got as a present. And the Cloisters was a Barnes & Noble discount purchase that looks like so much fun.
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Reading in 2022: Were we right?
In January of 2022, I made a set of predictions and goals. Boy was I wrong (mostly).
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December TBR
Look at all these awesome YA adventures I have to read! I have the physical editions of Bloodmarked, Iron Widow, and The Jasmine Throne, so I have no excuse.
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November Wrap Up | 4 Books
This month was all about super fast reads—for most of the month I actually wasn’t reading. Three of these four I read in a day or two, and I finally finished The Gunslinger!
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Free December TBR Templates
I made a few December tbr templates on canva so I thought I would share. Feel free to edit them and use my website to help craft yours. They are sized for Pinterest and Instagram stories. If you use them, I just ask that you considering following me on this blog and on Pinterest! Cheers…
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Book Review | The Atlas Paradox
Somehow, the sequel lived up to the unimaginable standard of its dark academia predecessor.
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November TBR
I am so excited for Kingdom of the Feared and will probably be finished tomorrow. And I really need to get to Transcendant Kingdom because I know I would love it!! Let me know what books you KNOW you’ll like but have been sitting on your shelf for… forever.
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October Wrap Up | Only 3 books?
Two standout books met a slowdown in motivation for me to read…
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Book Review | Babel
Babel is the boldest indictment of the evils of English academia I’ve read to date. That’s what I was waiting for, though, through The Secret History, If We Were Villains, The Atlas Six, and even Legendborn: violence.
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Book Review | Children of Blood and Bone
In my case, this book fell victim to too much hype. Few books have I felt so guaranteed to like; fewer still have lived up to that kind of expectation. While I like each of the elements of this novel in principle, the execution stumbles enough that the concept itself doesn’t quite save it. I…
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October TBR
I’m reading a lot for school this month but hopefully I have time for some fun ones. I’m almost done with Children of Blood and Bone, so get ready for that review…
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September Wrap Up | 4 Good Books & Many DNFs
Two standout books met a slowdown in motivation for me to read…
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September TBR
The Last Magician is a DNF. Maybe I’m just not in a place where I’m not looking to read fantasy, but I think the real reason is it just wasn’t offering anything new or interesting. More TBR for this month!
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August Wrap Up | 8 Books
Should I be making tiktok wrap-ups instead? In August, I started and I just didn’t stop…
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June Wrap Up | 5 Books
EXCELLENT books in July, and some that I’ll remember for a long, long time…
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August TBR
This TBR is still really exciting for me. I really plugged through a lot of the ones on my list last month, so here’s hoping this month’s are just as gratifying! I’m still reading The Last Magician, because although it hasn’t been my cup of tea so far, I feel like if I just make…
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2 New Officially Licensed Webtoons to Read
Excellently and awful and excellently female leads in these two newly licensed webtoons!
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Book Review | The Shadow of the Gods
I am so excited about this new fantasy world from John Gwynne. It is everything comforting and familiar and yet somehow so hard to achieve that we look for in fantasy. And the audiobook performance is stunning.
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Book Review | Inferno
A quick review for a quick read. With a fantastic, high stakes, fun plot, this book manages to wrap us in the cozy ambiance of Italian art and architecture while also being an adventure worthy of the 2016 film of the same name.
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Books Tiktok Made me Read: Part 2…
So, I’ve finally gotten around to reading more books from tiktok and as we know it’s always hit or miss. However, these were all a hit!
Keep readingMay TBR
All-new! In addition to getting back to reading in June, I also got back to…adding to my TBR. As a result, here are some novels I’m super, super excited to crack open.
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June Wrap Up | 5 Books
I had a lot of fun reading in June! This month I read in spurts–Inferno in a day, It Ends With Us in three–and generally, I was plugging through the new Yanagihara in the meantime. Check out the full slate…
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To Paradise (vs. A Little Life)
In To Paradise, Yanagihara has invented a newer, subtler way to torture her readers and her characters: loneliness, helplessness, and self-delusion. All afflictions that more easily land close to home than the operatic suffering of A Little Life.
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The Farseer Trilogy | Series Review
What a tragedy to be finished with this trilogy, and to have finished my first journey through this world.
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June TBR
Let’s see if I can finish any of the THREE novels I’m currently in the middle of reading.
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May Wrap Up | 4 Books and Many Updates
So many updates. I’m reading 3 books at once. I read an amazing book of POETRY, believe it or not. I cried. A great month!
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May TBR
Colleen Hoover this month? Let’s see! I’ve been meaning to read “Less” for FOREVER.
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April TBR
Colleen Hoover this month? Let’s see! I’ve been meaning to read “Less” for FOREVER.
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March Wrap Up | 5 Books
Big drops from Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer Armentrout this month!
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Book Review | War of Two Queens
No one is talking about the way this novel is carried by its villain. Armentrout’s tendency towards repetition is the Achilles heel of the fourth installment of the From Blood and Ash series, taking away from the magic of a fully built-up fantasy world nearing its climax. A contentious scene didn’t seem all that important.
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Leia Shorney | GUEST Review | House of Sky and Breath
Anything for you, Rhysand. A guest reviewer was unimpressed with the newest installment of Sarah J. Maas’ Crescent City series.
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February Wrap Up | 6 Books
finally read SJM’s new Crescent City series, plus a wildly entertaining Dark Academia and more.
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Crescent City and the Sarah J. Maas Experience
In this post, I’ll review the delightful first installation of Crescent City and then suggest a (hopefully) helpful structure for talking about Sarah J. Maas amid a very prickly public discourse.
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February TBR
People We Meet on Vacation, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ugly Love, and my first ever Colleen Hoover!
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January Wrap Up | 8 Books
A couple of Saras and so much glorious Nnedi Okafor, who, after reading Remote Control AND Binti, is now one of my FAVORITE AUTHORS OF ALL TIME.
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Book Review | If I Had Your Face
Frances Cha’s unhappy, stunning debut is a real, engrossing look into the lives of Korea’s young women you won’t want to put down. Instantly invested, my heart broke for each of these characters as I turned the pages. If I Had Your Face will stick in the back of my mind for a long time…
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Reading in 2022
Expectations, trends, and wistful thinking… in publishing, reader sites, booktok, bookstagram, booktwt, and more.
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January TBR
People We Meet on Vacation, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ugly Love, and my first ever Colleen Hoover!
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The Best and Worst of 2021: For Readers Only
Among other things, 2021 was a great year to read. Reading is an activity ready-made for COVID: it’s done alone, often at home, but it also creates communities—both on the page and around the world. Featuring dark academia, science fiction, and reading slumps.
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Book Review | To Kill a Kingdom
The Little Mermaid source material is taken to stunning, fresh heights in this expertly-crafted YA fantasy. This novel’s high quality writing and immensely intriguing concept carry it to four stars—brought down only by a satisfactory plot structured almost entirely around a big ol’ mcguffin to search for and a very predictable ending.
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Book Review | A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine has, with one stunning novel, cemented herself among the Science Fiction greats. Plus, A Memory Called Empire is *fast*. Fast like a heart-pounding, adrenaline-rich action thriller, not to mention genuinely funny, emotional, and meticulously constructed.
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November Wrap Up | 5 Books
This month was a mixed bag of genres and feelings, but not quality – from romance to to economic nonfiction to afrofuture to high fantasy, I loved everything I read this month!
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Good Trash Bad Trash | Killer Beauty
In my new series, I let you know if the trashy romance novel is GOOD trash or BAD trash. And look. I liked KILLER BEAUTY a lot.
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Book Review | Homo Deus
Homo Deus is a well-written, wide ranging masterpiece that will make you realize that you live in the future which the science fiction books of old predicted from the safety of the past. If nothing else, it will certainly make you think, and perhaps re-evaluate your own perspectives about the future and the present.
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October Wrap Up | 6 Books
This was a month of nonfiction and heaviness, broken up only by Kerri Maniscalco’s lovely sequel to Kingdom of the Wicked, Kingdom of the Cursed.
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Book Review | Kingdom of the Cursed
Kingdom of the Cursed feels like a bridge. A flat bridge, beautiful but slightly unimpressive, that soars above all the interesting stuff really going on below. The reader can see the general outline of what it’s going to look like, way down there below the bridge, but is not allowed to see it in full.
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Book Review | Death Fugue
Banned in China for its political implications relating to Tiannamen Square, Death Fugue manages to encompass art, philosophy, and love in an eerie story that sucked me in like quicksand.
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September Wrap Up | 4 Books
Despite reading far fewer books than usual, the books I picked up were HUGE! Plus I loved them. This was a very successful reading month!
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Book Review | Shatter Me
The beginning of Shatter Me was an exquisite mix of beautiful, unique prose, complex character, and expert soft worldbuilding. But after that big bang beginning, it gets…soggier. I think if anything, I’m more disappointed by the lost potential than by the actual product. Because I really did enjoy myself in the reading…
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September TBR
It would be a bald-faced lie to say I every completely follow my TBR. Here’s hoping, because I have high hopes for all of these books. Do you plan on reading any of these? Drop a comment—I want to know what YOU’RE reading next!
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August Wrap Up | 6 Books
It didn’t help that some of my choices were slow moving and didn’t motivate me to pick them back up.
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Book Review | Zodiac Academy
Brooding inner turmoil and big muscles do not excuse stripping someone naked in public, biting them when they beg you not to, or general assault.
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Book Review | Neuromancer
Connecting to these characters is hard, and not necessarily rewarding, even at the end. But that empty kind of discomfort…it reminded me of how modern netizen-dom can feel.
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Den of Vipers Book Review: WTF??
I think booktok is just doing me dirty at this point, because how is this book popular? This one was talked about a lot, so I had semi-high expectations. But when I started it…I shit you not, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get through the first chapter. Here are some…
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Attack on Titan Full Anime + Manga Review | How is AoT like Dune?
How do Paul Atreides and Eren Yeager redefine the classic corruption arc?
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August: CHAOS (a TBR)
It would be a bald-faced lie to say I every completely follow my TBR. Here’s hoping, because I have high hopes for all of these books. 1. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up…
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Books Tiktok Made me Read: Part 1…
This post is brought to you by the fact that I finally got Kindle unlimited. All covers are linked to the amazon page. I will be using affiliate links so please use them if you can because I spend way too much time on this blog rather than my actual job. Gilded Cage by Nicole…
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Back to School | Webtoon Review
So, after re-reading this I forgot how much I actually love this webtoon. Also, I know I said in my last webtoon review that I’m stingy with my 5 star reviews. Well….I guess I’ve only been reviewing webtoons I really liked..oops. This one is definitely not for the faint of heart but it is nowhere…
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Book Review | The House in the Cerulean Sea
I have long been skeptical of cozy reads. If they’re so cozy, so feel good, what are the stakes? What’s going to make me care? Especially when it comes to a book like Cerulean, which is written with an almost childlike whimsicality and which absolutely bashes you over the head with character development. But Cerulean…
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July: A Month of Strange Genres (a TBR)
July—a month of strange genres. As always, I’m reading a wide variety—both modern trends and time-honored classics. 1. Whipping Star / The Dosadi Expierament by Frank Herbert Suddenly – the end of all life throughout the entire Galaxy! It was only weeks away, or days – or even hours. It all depended on the survival…
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June Wrap Up | 8 Books
I’m surprised by how much I read this month! Eight books is pretty average for me, but there were a few real tombs in there, including Samantha Shannon’s Priory of The Orange Tree and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. All the novels I read dealt with queerness in different ways, and overall I definitely had…
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Book Review | The Atlas Six
CONFIRMED: The Atlas Six has a firm place in the cannon of dark academia. This book’s strengths lie in its characters, meticulously and thoroughly written and spinning themselves into complex webs of relationships. I knew little going in, so one thing surprised me most: it’s an adult-feeling book about adults. It’s most interested in people…
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Book Review | The Priory of the Orange Tree
I stopped and started and almost put down this novel many, many times. By the second half, I was hate-reading it—or so I told myself. Maybe I was just reading it for the dragons. I like dragons. The audible narration saved me, because reading this novel in its physical form was an exercise in dispassion.…
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Sign | BL Webtoon Review
Creator: Ker Genre: BL, R🔥 There are a few unusual things about Cafe Goyo. Number one, their coffee sucks. Number two, their customers never order off the menu. And number three, Yohan, the cafe manager, is deaf. So when Soohwa joins as a part-timer, though he is not expected to learn how to make good coffee,…
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May Wrap Up | 8 Books
Hi everyone, this month I read 8 books! I’ve been very busy at work lately… From Blood and Ash Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout You can read my full review of this series here! Despite sub-par writing and shaky plotting, I loved the romance in this series and it was the perfect palette cleanser between…
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EJ’s June TBR List
June—a month to celebrate pride—will be a month of (mostly) fun, acclaimed LGBT reads. If it’s not at least a little queer I’m not looking at it this month. As always, I’m reading a wide variety—both modern trends and time-honored classics. 1. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi From New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi comes…
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From Blood and Ash | Series Review
So much of fun writing is just getting rid of shame. That’s what Armentrout does with this series—making liberal use of vampires, werewolves, sex, allies to enemies to lovers, gods, mates, and more create a potent, fun, guilty-pleasure mix. The writing itself is not good. The pacing can get bogged down in over-indulgent, tedious internal…
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Webtoons you should be reading…
Lately, there have been an overwhelming number of amazing webtoons. However, because they come out on a weekly basis, I realized I often find myself forgetting about them and never finishing them. Well, these are my top 5 webtoons that I am still looking forward to updating every week. 1. I Shall Master This Family…
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Book Review | An Ember in the Ashes
Butterflies and big, dumb boys. Enemies to lovers and moral greyness for days. I bought into every character and conceit. I cringed and I cried. I’ve been on a serious YA binge this year, but An Ember in The Ashes still felt like a palate cleanser. The cheesiness is the delicious kind, trickling through the…
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Book Review | A Little Life
A Little Life is painful, beautiful, and long. It’s the satisfying, engrossing kind of long, the kind where your mind tricks you into believing these people are real, that their lives are really happening, that you can really see their thoughts and their apartments and their laughter and their failure. This phenomenon is my favorite…
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Throne of Glass: Series Review
Coming to Throne of Glass from A Court of Thorns and Roses? Familiar with Sarah J. Maas and looking for takes comparing the two, or just takes thinking critically about SJM in general? Looking to commiserate after reading the most recent 700 page SJM book? Even if you’re coming to SJM for the first time,…
Keep readingBook Review | Ruin and Rising (Book #3, Shadow and Bone Trilogy)
Author: Leigh Bardugo Genre: YA, Romance, Fiction Link to Goodreads: link The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne. Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army. Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to…
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Book Review | The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Men who hate women—but from a male perspective. At once boring and sensationalist, Larsson has crafted a complicated mystery-thriller that ambitiously takes on the entire spectrum of problematic male gaze. Also: fun, idealistic financial robin-hood-ery.
Keep readingThe Best and the Worst: Books of March 2021 | Wrap Up
Out of seventeen books read in March, Marie Rutkowski’s The Midnight Lie and Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes marked rare five-star YA Fantasy reads, while Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone series and Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series proved to be extremely mixed bags. This month saw a flurry of YA Fantasy,…
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Playlist | cruising through a neon sci-fi city in your hovercraft
You turn off the autopilot and lift the hovercraft out of the glowing streams of drifting vehicles. Sounds filter through the thick metal: honks and ads, and that subtle electric hum that seems to underlie everything. You accelerate, matching the breakneck speed of your thoughts. And slowly, they quiet. The city is beautiful. Absolutely no…
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Webtoon Review | Cherry Blossoms After Winter
Author: Bamwoo Genre: BL, Shoujo Ever since his parents passed away, Haebom has been living in Taesung’s house. And now, being a 12th grader, he enters the same class as Taesung, which makes the whole situation way more awkward. Living together 24/7, Taesung and Haebom’s relationship is bound to change. So, I overall think this…
Keep readingBook Review | Siege and Storm (Book #2, Shadow and Bone Trilogy)
The sequel to Shadow and Bone (which I reviewed here). The second in the Grishaverse trilogy. Soon to hit your Netflix screens, Siege and Storm introduces Bardugo’s best character ever. I still wouldn’t call it great YA. Is its awkward tone the result of a fundamental writing mistake? Author: Leigh Bardugo Genre: YA, Romance, Fiction Link…
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