It’s been a bit over a month since I last participated in this post, but I’m finally coming out of my reading slump. I’m also feeling rather motivated in general, and I’ve felt better about posting. So here’s another First Line Friday!
First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’s the first lines:
“I want you to kill my stepdad.”
I kick my feet off my desk and lean forward, rucking my brow. “Say that again, kid?”
Know what it is? Here’s another hint or two if you’re having trouble.
Still no idea? I’ll give you a little more time to think about it, whilst admiring some awesome pics of books…
Annnd the book is 🥁🥁… Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw!!
John Persons is a private investigator with a distasteful job from an unlikely client. He’s been hired by a ten-year-old to kill the kid’s stepdad, McKinsey. The man in question is abusive, abrasive, and abominable.
He’s also a monster, which makes Persons the perfect thing to hunt him. Over the course of his ancient, arcane existence, he’s hunted gods and demons, and broken them in his teeth.
As Persons investigates the horrible McKinsey, he realizes that he carries something far darker. He’s infected with an alien presence, and he’s spreading that monstrosity far and wide. Luckily Persons is no stranger to the occult, being an ancient and magical intelligence himself. The question is whether the private dick can take down the abusive stepdad without releasing the holds on his own horrifying potential.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
So. It’s been a… not insignificant amount of time since I last participated in Shelf Control. But let’s not discuss that.
Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books languishing on our bookshelves created and hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a whole lotta fun, so if you’re interested in participating yourself, click the backlink above.
This time the book is another one from the MCU – the Maas Cinematic Universe, that is. It’s the first book in the Crescent City series, House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas.
The CRESCENT CITY series begins with House of Earth and Blood: the story of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a contemporary fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance.
Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.
Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.
As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.
Why It Languishes on My Bookshelf
WHEN I GOT IT: January 2024
WHY I WANTED TO READ IT: I’ve been interested in this series for a while. Especially since a couple of my cousins are planning on reading it.
WHY I HAVEN’T READ IT YET: I’ve had one the worst reading slumps I’ve ever experienced happening for the past few months. It began in December of last year and basically went until about two weeks ago. So the slump, combined with the ridiculous length of the novel, has put me off of it for a while.
WILL I EVER READ IT?: Yes, almost definitely! In fact, there’s a good chance it’s gonna be the book that I read next!
What book has been sitting unread on your bookshelf? Are you planning on reading it eventually?
As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have a wonderful day/night!
In the middle of a collection of cornfields, in the middle of the country, in the middle of nowhere, a weathered wooden post marked the intersection of two roads:
A skeptic and a supernatural being make a crossroads deal to achieve their own ends only to get more than they bargained for in this lively young adult romantic adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of Spell Bound and So This Is Ever After.
Seventeen-year-old Ellery is a non-believer in a region where people swear the supernatural is real. Sure, they’ve been stuck in a five-year winter, but there’s got to be a scientific explanation. If goddesses were real, they wouldn’t abandon their charges like this, leaving farmers like Ellery’s family to scrape by.
Knox is a familiar from the Other World, a magical assistant sent to help humans who have made crossroads bargains. But it’s been years since he heard from his queen, and Knox is getting nervous about what he might find once he returns home. When the crossroads demons come to collect Knox, he panics and runs. A chance encounter down an alley finds Ellery coming to Knox’s rescue, successfully fending off his would-be abductors.
Ellery can’t quite believe what they’ve seen. And they definitely don’t believe the nonsense this unnervingly attractive guy spews about his paranormal origins. But Knox needs to make a deal with a human who can tether him to this realm, and Ellery needs to figure out how to stop this winter to help their family. Once their bargain is struck, there’s no backing out, and the growing connection between the two might just change everything.
My Review
“Have you fallen asleep?” Knox whispered.
Ellery smothered an unhinged laugh. “No. I’m thinking.” “About?”
“You need a tether.”
“I do.”
“A bargain.”
“Yes.”
“To keep the shades from dragging you back.”
“That would be ideal, yes.”
“And I need information. I need this winter to end.” Knox sat up straight. “What are you suggesting?”
Ellery licked their dry lips. “I suggest we make a deal.”
So far, this is the best F.T. Lukens novel I’ve read yet. It brings all the best parts of their previous three novels together – the snappy dialogue, the found family, the creative fantasy elements – yeah pretty much all the best parts!
Otherworldly is another duel POV book, similar to last year’s Spell Bound, but this time it’s in third person. It follows Ellery Evans, a snarky human teenager, and Knox, a supernatural being from the Other World. And I think their Lukens’ best written POVs yet – I was more invested in the resolution of these two’s story than any of the other three books.
I also really liked the side characters here, just like in So This is Ever After. Ellery’s cousin Charley was my favorite character in the novel – she was just so ridiculous and completely unhinged! And her girlfriend Zada was simultaneously an excellent foil for her, but also Charley’s biggest enabler and I loved it. And them as a couple. (Which is something I’m starting to notice with these F.T. Lukens novels – I’m waaayy more interested in the side romances the whatever reason.)
The magic and mythology and worldbuilding was also one of my favorite things about this novel. I love how incredibly intertwined the magic system and the world were with one another. And I called it all being Greek mythology inspired super early on (as the goddess that Knox serves is basically a combination of Hades and Demeter, and the other two “major gods” are of the sea and sky, so I think that speaks for itself). It was really satisfying to see that I was definitely right by the end of the book with a certain character’s “special journey.” (*cough*Orpheus&Eurydice*cough*)
I will say that there were a few things that I thought were a bit lacking. Ellery jumps into danger far too often here, and I never felt like we got a satisfying explanation as to why. Sure, characters are constantly harping on about how Ellery works too hard in trying to make their family and friends happy, but there is a difference between that and putting themself in deadly danger to save a complete stranger. And this is something the novel doesn’t seem to understand.
I also thought that Knox and Arabelle didn’t get enough moments together before Arabelle (who it was clear was going to get fridged from the get-go) kicked the bucket. Knox is extremely emotional about her passing, but I had trouble believing it because they have two scenes together. The first is when they meet at the very beginning of the book, and the second is when they finish making the McGuffin together and she gets offed. It would have been nice to have at least one scene where we are shown Knox and Arabelle’s relationship in between this, instead of reading Knox’s internal monologue after the fact.
But those are pretty much my only major gripes with Otherworldly. Like I said, it’s F.T. Lukens’ best novel yet.
I definitely recommend this to fans of Lukens’ previous works, as well as fans of YA fantasy in general. It’s a fun story, and a quick read, so I encourage anyone interested to at least give it a try.
As always, thank you to everyone so much for reading, and I hope that you all have a fantastic day/night!
See ya ~Mar
Some of My Favorite Quotes Out of Context
“Have you asked them yet?” Zada said, tapping her fingernails on the laminate.
Charley shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Whatever it is,” Ellery said, removing Charley’s grip from their wrist, “the answer is no.”
“The dishwasher.”
“Hot weird guy?”
“What?”
“What–“
“I love the way you think, my darling dearest. Your brain is as sexy as your body.”
“Babe,” Zada said, drawing out the vowel, “not in front of the kid.” Ellery frowned. “I’m seventeen.”
“You’re right. Their poor innocent ears cannot handle the depth of our love and longing for each other.”
“I’m literally only four years younger than Zada.”
“Four significant years, El.”
“I’m not human,” he said. “Well, I may be more human now than normal because of the missing magic.” He waved his hand lazily. “But in my limited experience, I think you can feel unhappy about your situation and still acknowledge the challenges others have. It’s not one or the other.”
“I hope this isn’t too frightening,” Knox said with a grin. “I don’t know if I can handle it.”
“We’ve seen worse. I think we’ll be fine.”
“Maybe,” he said, catching Ellery’s hand in his. “As long as you’re brain. here, I’m sure I’ll be okay.”
“Didn’t you have enough rowdy adventures at the ice hockey game? There was blood.”
Knox blinked. “Is there blood at frat parties?”
“Only the good ones,” Charley said, wistfully.
“You need help.” Ellery said, deadpan.
He wanted to remember.
But he was not created to do so.
“Not that I’m complaining,” Charley said, twirling A pencil through the red strands of the ponytail she’d gathered to keep it out of her flushed and freckled face. “Because it’s great that the spring or summer or whatever we’re in has returned. But it’s so hot in this kitchen, I could die.”
She fanned herself with her hand.
“You’re literally complaining.”
“This must be it,” Charley said, leaning over both Lorelei and Hale to look out of the window.
“Did the warning sign give it away?” Hale snapped. “Or was it the literal magic radiating from that spot?”
Sooo… I was originally aiming to post a book review today, but I’m not finished with the book yet. 😅😂 But today, Taylor Swift released her latest (double) album The Tortured Poets Department, so I thought there couldn’t have been a better time to do this tag. Thanks again Leslie for introducing me to the TS tags!
I haven’t had the chance to listen to the new album(s) yet, but I have had multiple chances to listen to ✨ Midnights ✨, Taylor’s tenth studio album. And I’m super excited to participate in the Midnights Taylor’s Version Book Tag created by Star is All Booked Up. This is the second TS book tag I’m doing – the only other one I’ve done so far is 📷 1989 📷.
My favorite songs from the Midnights album are: “Anti-Hero”, “You’re on Your Own Kid”, “Vigilante Shit” and “Mastermind”.
❃ a book you will always love and defend ❃
I love this series, and a crappy movie that I’ve never seen nor am planning on ever seeing isn’t gonna ruin that for me. Ever.
❃ a spicy book ❃
I’ve never seen as many sex scenes or sexually charged interactions in a book than I have while reading this book. I mean, Nesta and Cassian are constantly making passes at each other. (Not that I go looking for spice books or anything – I really don’t. Which is why this is the one on my list.)
❃ unreliable narrator ❃
Considering the book is first person and the character POV spends nearly the entirety of the book lying to the reader, I’d say this counts as an unreliable narrator! (I’d also say the MC is a bit of a literal antihero.)
❃ an unexpected surprise ❃
This was my first proper delve into one of Gaiman’a works (I read part of Coraline in like 2009, I think?). I don’t know why I chose for Neverwhere to be the first of his works that I experienced, but I fell hard for this novel. I liked it so much I sought out the crappy TV series it was published simultaneously to. Now, if only Gaiman would actually work on a sequel to this (allegedly titled The Seven Sisters) like he claims he does.
❃ a character that really needs a hug ❃
I don’t think I’ve read a book with a character that needed a hug as much as Holland in the last few years. And. That. Ending. 🥹😭
❃ star-crossed lovers ❃
It’s been a very long time since I read this book, but I remember really enjoying it. The plot twists. The weird and awesome magic stuff. And of course the star-crossed lovers B-plot/backstory.
❃ grumpy x sunshine (or neurodivergent rep) ❃
Whenever I think of Grumpy X Sunshine lately, the first couple that comes to mind is Rook and Sun from Spell Bound. I dunno why.
❃ favorite character out for revenge ❃
I had so much trouble with this one. I guess I don’t read books with characters after revenge really at all, huh? So I had to really go back into my brain, and slog through all the books I’ve ever read – and look back at the stuff to read in college for my English degree even. And whaddya know, I remembered that I read Hamlet in my Shakespeare class!
❃ strong character development ❃
Artemis’ character arc still sticks in my brain to this day. It’s because of this book that I can look at unlikeable protagonists/MCs that are assholes and want to see how they become compelling characters that I want to follow.
❃ second chance romance ❃
… … …I got nothing. Sorry, I don’t really read romance. (Though I have had The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling on my radar for a while. I haven’t read it yet however, so it doesn’t count!)
❃ favorite full circle moments or parallels ❃
I’m struggling to think of books that work with this one. Like, for whatever reason, I can’t think of any books with moments that parallel earlier moments in the book or have a plot that comes full circle. But I remember that The Outsiders starts and ends the same way, even though it’s been over a decade since I read it. So this is what I’m going with for this one.
❃ favorite fluffy/cozy read ❃
This was such a cozy and fluffy set of graphic novels, and absolutely perfect for reading in the fall. I got some Mooncakes vibes with these.
❃ perfect world building and storytelling ❃
This is a perfect book. Like, there’s nothing else I can say about it. Go read it.
This was another fun post to do, even though I definitely struggled with a few of these. Midnights might not be one of my favorite Taylor Swift albums, but I still enjoy some of the songs, and I love this tag. (And just wasn’t able to come up with anything for one of them – curse my lack of interest in romance!) I can’t wait to do the rest of the TS albums!
As always, thank you so much to everyone for reading, and I hope you have a fabulous day/night!
Happy Tuesday everybody! I’m back – sooner than you’d been expecting with my record, I’m sure! – with another Tasteful Tuesday!
For anyone unfamiliar, Tasteful Tuesdays (formerly Majestic Mondays – so it’s not new, I just switched days, haha) are when I highlight an awesome looking book cover and talk about what I like about it. That’s it, that’s pretty much the point of this post.
This time I’m admiring the cover art of a book that was pretty recently released. It’s Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli!
Enemies-to-lovers doesn’t get more high stakes than a witch and a witch hunter falling in love in bestselling author Kristen Ciccarelli’s latest romantic fantasy.
On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.
Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Kristen Ciccarelli’s Heartless Hunter is the thrilling start to The Crimson Moth duology, a romantic fantasy series where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch… is falling in love.
Book Cover Rating: 🦋🦋🦋🦋 • 4 butterflies
I’m just going to go right out and say it: this book cover is absolutely gorgeous. Like, I love it. The background, the way the title is displayed on the cover and even the moth in the center.
Despite the fact that I don’t think Heartless Hunter is my cup of tea, I can always admit when a novel has a beautiful cover. (Heck, even for books I’ve read and not enjoyed – I’m looking at you Lightlark Saga – I can give credit to gorgeous cover art.) Who knows if I’ll ever give this one a shot; regardless, the cover’s great.
First off, I’m a total sucker for blue on book cover art. I find it to be lovely. This one is especially pretty, because of all of the different colors incorporated with the shade of blue used as a backdrop for this cover. I love how, even though this aspect of the book cover is primarily this color, you can see beautiful red sparkled emerging up from the bottom of the cover, and some yellow-gold sparkles falling down from the top.
Secondly, I really like the way that the moth looks. It looks a bit like a creature of nature, but it mostly appears as something like a charm or jewelry, which I much prefer – I’m not a fan of bugs! I also love how it incorporates the colors in the background in such a way that they still stand out as the moth, despite essentially being the same colors. It all really pops.
Lastly, I love the font used for the title. It’s bold and because of this, stands out starkly against the colorful backdrop; but there’s also an elegance to the shape of the letters that pretties up the text. I also like how the color and text used for the author’s name near the bottom and the little enticing blurb near the top is the same, the blurb is just a smaller font. It really helps tie the whole cover together – not to mention the color chosen for the words is a pretty light blue. Which, of course, I love.
So yeah, that’s another Tasteful Tuesday. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read Heartless Hunter or any of the author’s other works? What did you think of it?
Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone who reads my posts. I hope that you enjoyed this one as well, and that you have a wonderful day/night!
Hey all! How’s everyone been doing? Reading a lot of good books, I hope!
Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.
April has one birthstone – Diamond.
Diamond is a weird birthstone to do this post for. A lot of people have trouble with it, I’ve noticed. The norm seems to be picking books with white covers, though even that can be difficult sometimes. I know I had trouble with it last year. But for whatever reason, I didn’t struggle at all with April this time around.
Rules:
📚 Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black ) and link back to her so she can check out your post. 📚 Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone. 📚 HAVE FUN! 📚 Nominate people if you want!
For the first time ever (I’m pretty sure at least), I’ve been tagged to do a post! So well, I guess I gotta do it, huh? 😁 Thanks Leslie @ Books are the New Black for tagging me!
I’m a bit of a Swiftie myself, so I don’t mind at all! I’ve been a fan of Taylor Swift’s music since 2008 – maybe even 2007, I can’t really remember. Which is… Over 15 years. Uh, wow.
Anyway, 1989 isn’t my favorite Taylor Swift album, but I still love several of the songs on both of them. My favorite songs from 1989 in album placement order are: “Welcome to New York”, “Blank Space”, “Out of the Woods”, “All You Had to Do Was Stay”, “Wildest Dreams”, and “Wonderland” (this was on the special edition version also released in 2014 with the original 1989 album, so it counts!). Concerning the previously unreleased tracks from the vault, the ones I like best are: “Sweeter than Fiction” and “Now that We Don’t Talk”.
The song prompts on this book tag I got from Leslie’s blog, who got them from Elli @ AceReader. So, let’s get to it!
❃ a book with LGBT themes ❃
Mooncakes was such an adorable graphic novel, and the LGBT romance were cute. Yeah, Nova and Tam were okay, but I was personally super invested in Niva’s lesbian grandmas, lol.
❃ a book that hit you right in the feels… but was totally worth it ❃
This book made me cry – more than once – and if you know anything about the book or the hell that Jeanette McCurdy went through, then you know why.
❃ a book that you hated but you loved the cover ❃
Ugh, this book. Nightbane was easily the worst thing I read last year. I HATED it. But the Lightlark Saga book covers are, unfortunately, very pretty.
❃ your latest book boyfriend/girlfriend ❃
Wendell. Brambleby. He’s mischievous and pretty and has a silver tongue, and I couldn’t help falling head over feet for this man.
❃ a timeless classic that you love ❃
People will be remaking this book into a movie or TV series until the earth explodes. And I can’t help loving this book either. Sure, the writing is a bit archaic, but it was written in the 19th century, so you can’t expect too much modernity. Plus, it’s pretty short. And it truly is a bonafide classic.
❃ a book with vivid world building ❃
I stopped reading A Song of Ice and Fire about a third of the way through book two, but I still remember how absolutely vivid the world building was for this series. Too vivid, actually. (For me personally.) I got bored with how slow it was and opted out.
❃ a book where things weren’t exactly how they seemed ❃
I’m not going to say anything about the story, as I don’t want to give even the smallest iota away, even if no one that reads this post is ever going to read The Other. But I will say this: when you get to The Part, it completely recontextualizes everything you read before it.
❃ a book you were eagerly anticipating but ended up being disappointed by ❃
I was so, so, so looking forward to Witch King. Like, you don’t even know how much. It was my most anticipated book for ALMOST A YEAR, and it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. Ugh. I was so disappointed.
❃ a book/series that everyone seems to love but you can’t help but hate ❃
Ah, The Name of the Wind. I didn’t like it, and I DNF-ed. And I absolutely haven’t regretted it. I didn’t like Kvothe and I didn’t like the way he narrated the book. And seeing as Patrick Rothfuss might never even finish book three at this rate, I’m doubly glad I stopped when I did.
❃ a book series you love but everyone else seems to hate ❃
The Inheritance Cycle seems to get a lot of hate now, for being as derivative (and shameless – mostly/particularly in Eragon) of other works as it is. But it was huge when I was growing up, and I enjoyed the series well enough when I read it (though I’m not sure if it would hold up for me today upon a reread).
❃ a book/series you know you will always love ❃
I love The Book Thief so much. And I know that I always will. I have nothing else to say on the matter.
❃ an upcoming release you wish you could have right now ❃
First of all: the cover? 👨🍳💋 It immediately caught my eye. Second of all: the summary? It sounds amazing and fantastic and romantic and I really wanna read it.
I’ve been reading more Asian inspired fantasy throughout the past year or so, and I’ve been loving a lot of it. This one looks really good, too.
❃ a character you once loved but grew to hate ❃
Serilda. I really liked her as a protagonist in Gilded, but she got so annoying in Cursed. I hated every decision she made here, and her personality just started to irritate me in general.
❃ an author you haven’t forgiven for what they did to your favorite characters/books ❃
How dare you kill off Han Alister, Chima!! How dare you make him one of your two co-protagonists in your Seven Realms series and make him my favorite character, and then murder him in the first chapter of the first book in your Shattered Realms sequel series!!!! How dare you!!!!!!
This is the reason I DNF-ed Flamecaster! And after I was super anticipating this for weeks and bought this release day! This is the reason I can’t bring myself to try this series, even though every once in a while I kind of want to!
❃ a book that was far too predictable ❃
This was a retelling of The Nutcracker, so I wasn’t surprised to predict a lot of stuff. The story had certain plot points to hit, after all. And honestly? I actually really enjoyed this book.
❃ a book/series that you wish could have gone on forever ❃
I adored this story, and I loved Cerys and Fox. I could bask in this world that Ashley Poston created forever, and I still wish that a sequel would pop up sometimes.
❃ one of your favorite books where they ‘got the girl’ ❃
Yeah, I know, I’m kind of stealing my answer for this one from AceReader, but I honestly would’ve picked this if I hadn’t seen their post.
I’ve never read a book/series where I’ve been more satisfied with the relationship at the end of it than with PJO and Percabeth. They were just so perfectly written as friends and then as a couple. This series established the way that I like my romance in books, and the standard I kind of hold romances to.
❃ a book that completely shocked you ❃
I didn’t expect this book to go at all the way it did after A Court of Thorns and Roses. I thought this series was gonna go in an entirely different direction than it did. And the ending of A Court of Mist and Fury also surprised me – I didn’t expect it either!
❃ a book you thought you loved but quickly came to hate ❃
Speaking of derivative and shameless – I think Divergent is even moreso than Eragon ever was. Not only did it come out in the midst of the Hunger Games trilogy craze (so it was immediately shameless as opposed being shameless decades after the fact). But it also continued the ‘YA dystopian novels that are adapted to movies’ craze, and prompted a bunch of these to be shameless as well.
I didn’t love this book when I read it. But I liked it well enough and thought it was okay. However, my feelings for this book and series have since turned into a burning hatred. It hate the plot, I hate the characters, and I especially hate how the world building DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
❃ a book you didn’t want to be seen reading ❃
Now, I wouldn’t mind if someone caught me reading this nowadays, but when I was a young teenager when I thought I was too old for middle grade? Yep, that was me. And that was the reason I never read it when I was fourteen.
❃ when the wait between books made you forget everything that happened ❃
So I read The Stardust Thief last year, and when I looked it up originally, the Internet said that The Ashfire King was coming out in 2024. Because of this, I was like: ‘Oh cool, that’s kind nine months away from how, shouldn’t be too hard for me to remember all the stuff from the first book.’
That date has since shifted.
Now, this book’s slated release date is next year – 2025. And I’m a little worried that I might forget stuff from book one in that time.
❃ a book/series you wiped from your memory ❃
Um, I think this was about witches that were Wiccan and folklore inspired? And the main girl’s parents die immediately, and she’s sent to live at a house with two other girls? And I’m pretty sure theirs three guys from a rival coven or something?
I barely remember anything from this series, even though I’m pretty sure I read the entire thing. In a day, or something. But yeah, it’s basically all gone.
So yeah, thanks again to Leslie for tagging me. This was a really, really fun post! I love Taylor Swift’s music, and am definitely gonna continue this with her other albums at some point. (And release Reputation already Taylor! ‘Cause then I know you’re gonna cap this all off with the rerelease of your debut album and I need “I Heart Question Mark” to be on it!!)
As always, thank you so much to everyone for reading, and I hope you have a fabulous day/night!
It’s been a bit. But I love this post, so it’s definitely not going away! I love to read and I love to cook/bake, so Reading & Recipes is the culmination of two of my favorite things!
If you don’t know what Reading & Recipes is… Well, for this post, I’m going to be posting a recipe I used recently along with a picture of the finished product, as well as discussing a book I was reading the same day a little bit. Annnd that’s it, that’s pretty much the post.
Recent Recipe: Baked Salmon Fillet w/ Garlic Herb Butter & Bay Seasoning
This is another Mar original. It’s a bit of a pricier meal than we usually have, but we saw a giant salmon fillet at Sam’s this past weekend and I was like 👀 to my spouse. I prepared it last night and it turned out wonderful. Which is especially cool, because I’ve never made salmon before.
(Sidenote: I’m sorry the picture sucks – I didn’t think to take a picture of it before we cut it up and divided it, lol. ☺️)
INGREDIENTS:
one large salmon fillet (because this is what we got, but you can get smaller ones – you’ll just need to adjust the cook time probably)
some garlic butter (I just kind of winged it)
a little salt and pepper
Bay’s Seasoning
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray the foil with nonstick spray, and unwrap salmon and lay it on top.
Lightly season the fillet with salt and pepper. Heat up garlic butter in microwave until completely melted and drizzle atop salmon. Then season salmon fillet with as much Bay’s seasoning as you’d like.
After oven is heated up, place baking sheet with salmon inside and bake for 20 minutes. (Make sure it’s cooked – all ovens are different! If you have a food thermometer and you like to make sure your food is cooked perfectly, use it to make sure salmon is internally 175°F (~87°C).)
Take salmon out of oven and enjoy! If it still has skin on it, be careful while eating not to eat the skin.
Join Monkey D. Luffy and his swashbuckling crew in their search for the ultimate treasure, the One Piece.
Luffy and team must figure out a way to get their ship, the Merry Go, to sail up—the Straw Hat crew’s next destination is an island in the sky. It may seem like an island paradise, but the interesting characters they meet there are hardly heavenly. Soon Luffy and the Straw Hats are on the run… and it turns out they’re on the path to a city of gold!
I haven’t read it in a few months, but I’m still enjoying One Piece. My spouse and I have been buddy reading it, and we’re planning on finishing it. But, I dunno, I took a bit of a break after November, but maybe I shouldn’t have. ‘Cause I’ve had quite the reading slump these past few months, and this might’ve gotten me out of it – as it’s a fun, easy read, with great world building, adventure and characters.
I will say that I haven’t enjoyed this super volume as much as the ones I’ve read so far. But that’s not that surprising, as I’ve noticed the beginnings of arcs have some slow parts, in order to establish and build up the rest of the current arc, as well as future plot stuff beyond it (sometimes waaayy beyond it).
But I’ve still been enjoying the rich world and hijinks, and I’m looking forward to the rest of this massive undertaking – One Piece currently has over 103 regular volumes of story published, and over 1100 chapters out. So it’s huge, is what I’m getting at. But I’ve been enjoying reading it between regular novels – between manga, books and fanfiction it all keeps reading very fresh.
So what books have you been reading lately? What have you thought of them? What’s your favorite food, meal or dessert?
Thank you as always for reading, and I hope you all have an awesome day/night!
This is a bit later than I had wanted to post this, but it’s better than last month, so I’m taking that as a win! As usual, this wrap-up for March Reading 2024 features my reading statistics from The StoryGraph.
I met my goal from February’s wrap-up – to read more than one book. But I know that I can still do better, and had hoped to read about a book a week, so it isn’t quite what I was hoping for. But I still read more than February, January and especially December, so I don’t feel that irritated with myself.
So yeah, let’s get on with the wrap-up!
March Reading 2024
I read 2 books and 797 pages
😐 MOODS: All the slices of pie were equal this time! The Moods that I had in March were: Adventurous, Funny, Mysterious, Dark, Lighthearted and Tense.
👢 PACE: My books from last month were two different kinds of paces: medium and fast.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: Everything I read was between 300 and 499 pages. A nice blue pie!
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction this month.
🎭 GENRES: Of the two novels that I read, neither of them shared any Genres. So I didn’t have any predominant Genres at all, but I did have seven of them. The Genres I did have, though, were: Fantasy, Horror, Manga, Romance, Short Stories, YA and LGBTQIA+.
📄 FORMAT: This little StoryGraph pie chart is, in fact, correct for March. I read one ebook and one physical print novel.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 4.25. The ratings I gave were either 4 or 4.5 stars so it makes sense.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I didn’t read as much as I’d have liked in March, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. I read a little bit at the beginning of the month, but most of my reading happened during different points of the last week.
So yeah, March reading for 2024 wasn’t as strong as I’d have liked, but it was better than the three preceding months, so I’m still happy with myself. I wish I was able to read a couple more books, though.
April has a bunch of books that I’m interested in, several that have already come out, so we’ll see what I read. I’m also still interested in continuing with One Piece, so I’m planning on reading the next arc this month. I’m hoping that I get out of this reading slump soon. It’s miserable.
Also, it’s a bit late, but Happy Eclipse Day!! 🌑☀️🌕🌙 I hope that anyone in or near totality was able to see it that was interested. We were pretty close where I live, and it was still really cool, even though we weren’t in the path of totality.
So yeah, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you have an awesome day/night!
Carry On meets Arthurian legend in this funny, subversive young adult fantasy about what happens after the chosen one wins the kingdom and has to get married to keep it… and to stay alive.
Arek hadn’t thought much about what would happen after he completed the prophecy that said he was destined to save the Kingdom of Ere from its evil ruler. So now that he’s finally managed to (somewhat clumsily) behead the evil king (turns out magical swords yanked from bogs don’t come pre-sharpened), he and his rag-tag group of quest companions are at a bit of a loss for what to do next.
As a temporary safeguard, Arek’s best friend and mage, Matt, convinces him to assume the throne until the true heir can be rescued from her tower. Except that she’s dead. Now Arek is stuck as king, a role that comes with a magical catch: choose a spouse by your eighteenth birthday, or wither away into nothing.
With his eighteenth birthday only three months away, and only Matt in on the secret, Arek embarks on a desperate bid to find a spouse to save his life—starting with his quest companions. But his attempts at wooing his friends go painfully and hilariously wrong…until he discovers that love might have been in front of him all along.
My Review
“The prophecy doesn’t mention true love’s kiss or long hair or guessing names.”
“You pulled it out just to tell us that?” Lila crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow.
Matt’s lips twisted into a frown. “I’m making a point.”
“Is the point that you’re pedantic?” Bethany asked, fake smile plastered on her face despite looking a little green around the gills. “Because we’re aware.”
“You have vomit in your hair,” Matt shot back, stuffing the scroll into his pack.
Out of the three F.T. Lukens novels I’ve read so far, I think So This is Ever After is my favorite. (When I read Otherwordly hopefully soon, I’m thinking of doing a tier list.) It’s got my favorite tropes of theirs – sassy humor and protagonists, found family, and a reasonably well-developed romance.
I liked Arek. I also think he’s the best of all of the Lukens’ leads I’ve read (so far). He’s kind and a teeny bit sassy, and he has no idea what the heck he’s doing. I also liked that he could hold his own, as opposed to Tal from In Deeper Waters, who frequently annoyed me with some of his whining and incompetence (even though he did get better by the end of the book). But he was also more engaging of a main character to follow than Rook from Spell Bound, who was kind of boring to follow the perspective of.
Matt, following the trend of deuteragonists in these books, was the more interesting character. Yep. Just like Sun and Athlen. I’ve always liked wizard characters though, and I wasn’t more interested in what was going on with him than Arek. Which was a first for me regarding Lukens’ MCs.
The rest of the party was also great. I loved their dynamic with one another, they all had a good rapport, and it was easy to tell from the dialogue how much they all cared about each other. I also really liked how they riffed on D&D party dynamics: there was a paladin (Arek), a mage (Matt), a bard (Bethany), a fighter (Sionna), a tank (Rion), and a rogue (Lila).
My only real problems with So This is Ever After are a couple of smaller things. The first: the stupid communication problems. Just, like, talk to each other? Please?! But this is a YA novel, and seventeen year olds are notoriously bad at communicating IRL, so it made sense and honestly didn’t bother me that much.
My other issue was the pacing. I like a good ol’ fast-paced novel, but parts of this book were almost too fast-paced. Like, it was pretty much action, action, action, with little time relegated to giving the characters moments to breathe and develop. Again, this wasn’t too big a problem for me, but it still irritated me somewhat. Other than these things, I didn’t really have any problems with this book.
So yeah, I totally recommend this book, especially to fans of F.T. Lukens’ other works. If you haven’t read this one yet, definitely pick it up. I also recommend So This is Ever After to people who like medium to fast paced YA fantasy novels with a sense of humor. Also, the LGBTQIA+ rep is pretty good, so if you’re into books with that, what are you waiting for?
But yeah, as always, thanks so much to everyone who continues to read my blog posts. I always appreciate it, and I hope you all have a fantastic day/night!
See ya ~Mar
My Favorite Quotes
I’d been envisioning what it would be like to behead the Vile One since the old wizard had shown up at my door the day after I turned seventeen and told me my destiny- that I would be the person who ended the dark shadow of evil that ruled our realm. Well, okay, not that specific second because who believes a drunken stranger with a crooked hat carrying around a humming staff? No one. That’s who. At least, you shouldn’t. That’s unsafe.
“Yes, um, well, give me a moment.” I pitched my voice low. “What do we do?”
“Opening the door seems like an appropriate action,” Rion said, completely seriously. “It is time for breakfast.”
It took every ounce of my limited restraint not to roll my eyes. Rion’s earnestness didn’t deserve my ire. “Yes. But what if he’s here to kill us?”
“You,” Bethany said brightly. She had her harp clutched in one hand, the other on her hip cocked jauntily to the side. “If he’s here to kill anyone, it’s you. Not us.”
I did roll my eyes at that. “Thanks, oh so helpful.”
“There are thousands of prophecies in the world,” he said. “Not all of them are true. This one happened to be. I’m marking it down in my records.”
“Wait, what?” Matt asked again, his voice a screech. “You keep data?”
Though I echoed Matt’s outrage, I felt like he missed the bigger issue. “Do you mean to tell us there was a chance we could’ve failed?”
I’d never felt more betrayed in my life. The one bedrock of this whole journey was the prophecy, and it could’ve been wrong? My entire world tilted. “We could have died? What the fuck?”
“You didn’t,” the wizard offered helpfully. “This prophetess has a ninety- five percent accuracy rating. It’s quite astonishing.”
“Barthly?” Matt asked, his tone mirroring my own incredulity. “The evil wizard who used dark magic, usurped the throne, and kept our realm in shadow for forty years was named Barthly?” He flailed his hands. “Barthly!”
Harlow squinted. “He did not prefer to use his name.”
“Well, would you? If your name was Barthly?”
“But you continued to work here. Why didn’t you find another job? Somewhere else? Like in the village we stormed through?”
Harlow wrinkled his nose. “Find another job? That pays well? In this economy?”
“You were literally hanging out of a window this morning, trying to escape,” I said.
