There are so many books coming out this spring that I’m excited for – particularly this April. I don’t know what it is about this quarter, but there’s several novels that I’m interested in.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.
Heroes die, cowards live. Daughter of a conquered world, Ruying hates the invaders who descended from the heavens long before she was born and defeated the magic of her people with technologies unlike anything her world had ever seen.
Blessed by Death, born with the ability to pull the life right out of mortal bodies, Ruying shouldn’t have to fear these foreign invaders, but she does. Especially because she wants to keep herself and her family safe.
When Ruying’s Gift is discovered by an enemy prince, he offers her an impossible deal: If she becomes his private assassin and eliminates his political rivals—whose deaths he swears would be for the good of both their worlds and would protect her people from further brutalization—her family will never starve or suffer harm again. But to accept this bargain, she must use the powers she has always feared, powers that will shave years off her own existence.
Can Ruying trust this prince, whose promises of a better world make her heart ache and whose smiles make her pulse beat faster? Are the evils of this agreement really in the service of a much greater good? Or will she betray her entire nation by protecting those she loves the most?
Are you looking forward to this book? What books are coming out that you’re looking forward to?
Thank you so much for reading and have an excellent day/night!
Happy Tuesday everyone! It’s been a bit since I’ve last done this post, but I’m happy to finally be doing it again.
For anyone unfamiliar, Tasteful Tuesdays 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 week I’m gonna be looking at a cover of a new release. It’s Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew.
A seductively twisted romance about loyalty, fate, the lengths we go to hide the darkest parts of ourselves… and the people who love those parts most of all.
Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she’s just inherited — to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement — Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.
Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family’s property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can’t really live, either. Not while he’s bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There’s only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.
He needs to kill Wyatt.
With Wyatt’s parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter — the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who’s sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.
Book Covers Rating: 🌱🌱🌱 • 3 1/2 vines
So, the thing that most attracted me to this book was its cover. It’s just so good. Now let’s get into what I think makes it so gorgeous.
First off, I love the green background. Green is one of my favorite colors, and I just adore the shade used as the backdrop. I also love the entwined hands wrapped in vines. I normally like nature on book covers, and this one is no exception. The vines seem to imply that the two characters are bound together in some way, though not necessarily in a good way. Because vines by their nature can be very intrusive.
I also like the font used for the title. It’s pretty and a bit whimsical, but it’s also in all caps, which makes it seem harsher. It’s also great how the font for both the title of the book and the author’s name are in white. It really makes them stand out all the more on the cover.
All in all, I think that this is some pretty solid cover art. It’s quite eye-catching, and I think it’s gonna get a bunch of people to pick it up and check it out. It certainly caught my eye.
So yeah, here’s another Tasteful Tuesday. Have you read Your Blood, My Bones or any of the author’s other work? What did you think of it? What do you think about the cover art?
Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone who reads my posts. I hope that you have an awesome day/night!
Countless tombstones stand in rows, forming a bizarre town. What fate awaits a brother and sister after a traffic accident in this town of the dead? In another tale, a girl falls silent, her tongue transformed into a slug. Can a friend save her? Then, when a young man moves to a new town, he finds the house next door has only a single window. What does his grotesque neighbor want, calling out to him every evening from that lone window?
Fresh nightmares brought to you by horror master, Junji Ito.
My Review
“What’s this thing in the middle of the road?”
“It looked like… a tombstone.”
“A tombstone? Why would a tombstone be standing in the middle of the road?”
I’ve decided I wanted to get into more horror lately, and that I’ve wanted to read more translated stories (the only one I’ve really read was Another), so what better place to start than the works of Junji Ito? Nowhere, I thought, so I checked out Tombs on Libby and got reading.
And it didn’t disappoint. It was as strange, horrific and unsettling as promised.
The short story collection that I read had eight different stories of varying length, and were all disturbing on different levels. The ones included in this volume were: Tombs, Clubhouse, Slug Girl, The Window Next Door, Washed Ashore, The Strange Tale of the Tunnel, Bronze Statue, Floaters and The Bloody Story of Shirosuna.
I enjoyed them all to some degree, but my favorites were definitely Tombs, Floaters and The Bloody Story of Shirosuna. I’ll be thinking about all of the stories here, though, for a long time.
The thing that surprised me the most about the works in this volume, however, was how much they all gave me Twilight Zone vibes. Like, the way that Ito tells his stories and frames some of his panels really reminded me of The Twilight Zone. The stories are all distinctly unsettling throughout, and the feeling that something isn’t quite right floats around the back of your mind while your eyes take in the material. There’s also just some straight up weirdness I’m some of these that also gave me TZ vibes.
So yeah, I really liked Tombs. I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys horror or is a fan of The Twilight Zone. You need to experience this. Or fans of manga and graphic novels that can deal with some gore and disturbing stuff.
Anyway, as always, thanks so much for reading and I hope that you have a lovely day/night!
See ya ~Mar
Creepy Stuff I Enjoyed from This
The area was completely overgrown, but I knew the tunnel was there. It was lying there with its mouth open, waiting for me.
Yes.
That tunnel was waiting for me.
“There’s no indoor plumbing in the village. Please use the well out back. The water turns red sometimes, but it’s nothing to worry about.”
It’s been a bit since I’ve participated in this kind of post. But that’s just ’cause I haven’t been super excited about any books coming out recently. (Or I didn’t think to do a CWW post before a book I was looking forward to came out before it was released.)
Anyways, let’s get into the post! It’s been a while since I’ve participated in Can’t-Wait Wednesday, but there’s a book coming out in a couple weeks that I’m looking forward to, so of course I’m doing it this week.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.
This week’s book is:
Otherwordly by F.T. Lukens!! 🩵🪄❄️🧡
I’ve enjoyed every book that I’ve read by F.T. Lukens, so I’m super excited about this one. Ever since I found out about it last year, I’ve been really interested in it.
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.
Are you a fan of F.T. Lukens’ works? What have you read by them? What books are coming out that you’re looking forward to?
Thank you so much for reading and have an excellent day/night!
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve participated in this weekly post, but here I am with another First Line Friday! Also, I just wanted to let everyone who wasn’t aware that yesterday was Pi Day (3/14 = 3.14) and that I hope that you enjoyed whatever you were reading yesterday with a slice of pie. 🥧📖
Anyway.
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:
There was a wolf at the gallery door.
I know, I know. That’s less than I usually give. But I feel like if I gave you guys more to work with, it would give the book away instantly. So here’s a couple more hints.
Still have no idea? I’ll give you a little more time to think about it, whilst admiring some photos of books…
Annnd the book is 🥁🥁… 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.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
I’m a little bit late with the Monthly Wrap-Up again, but thankfully still not as late as last month, lol. I’m not literally posting this on St. Patrick’s Day (unlike February’s prominent holiday). I still didn’t read as many books as I’d have liked last month, but we can’t all get what we want sometimes.
So yeah, even though my reading goal was a measly two books in February, I still didn’t make it, unfortunately. But I still read one book, so I’m still doing this!
So here’s my stats from The StoryGraph from February 2024.
February 2024 Reading
1 read 1 book and 152 pages
So, once again, there’s not a lot here, unfortunately. I only read one book, and my StoryGraph statistics reflect that.
I still have three different Moods though – Tense, Mysterious and Dark. It’s not my usual Mood graph, so that’s pretty cool. My pace was pretty medium, the book I read was sub 300 pages, and it was fiction (as seems to be the usual with me).
Still not a lot here – courtesy of my reading habits last month. But there is stuff here. The novel I read – What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher – had two genres applied to it: Horror and LGBTQIA+.
The format of this novel was digital – as in, an ebook – so the Format chart is once again wrong, as it tends to be. I rated the three and a half stars, and my reading was split between both ends of February.
So yeah. I didn’t really do a lot of reading last month. Again, ugh. (Well, technically I read a lot of fanfiction, again, but I don’t count that here.) The only thing that I really want to do for March is read at least two books. Hopefully one book a week even, but that would be kind of a miracle. Anything’s better than the last few months.
Regarding my poor, neglected reading blog, I’m hoping to post a little better. I’m planning on posting some Tasteful Tuesdays again, hopefully starting today, I’m planning on participating in my monthly posts, and I have a St. Patrick’s Day post I’m thinking about. I’m also hoping to post a few book reviews, if I can manage to read more than one book in a month. Fingers crossed. 🤞🍀
Anyway, thank you to anyone who still checks out my blog. I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
Alex Easton, retired soldier, returns in this novella-length sequel to the bestselling What Moves The Dead.
When Easton travels to Gallacia as a favor to Miss Potter, they find their home empty, the caretaker dead, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence.
The locals whisper of a strange breath-stealing being from Gallacian folklore that has taken up residence in Easton’s home . . . and in their dreams.
My Review
Soldier’s heart doesn’t know the difference between terrible things. Fungus or cannon fire, it’s all just the war.
Though not as good as its predecessor, What Feasts at Night is still a great follow-up to What Moves the Dead. Unlike the latter, it isn’t a retelling of a classic story, but an original story.
I still enjoyed reading about Easton and Angus and Ms. Potter, as well as the new major characters. Angus and Ms. Potter especially – their little romance is still absolutely adorable. But I felt that this book was missing… something that was prevalent in the first book.
I believe it had to do with the novel’s atmosphere. When reading What Moves the Dead, I could feel the story slipping downhill. Weird things kept happening and kept getting worse and worse, and you knew it was building up to something terrible. But here, in the sequel, there isn’t really any of that same pervasive horrific tone. Sure bad things happen – but never to the degree of book one.
And I didn’t really like the monster twist in What Feasts at Night. The fungi thing that the first novel had going for it was interesting and sinister. But the creature in the second book was more… supernatural in nature. And I didn’t really like that. I wanted it to be another mushroom monster – heck our marvelous mycologist Ms. Potter was even here and she found a strange fungus she hadn’t seen before. I thought it was all building up to another fungus thing, and then it didn’t.
So yeah, the lack of more creepy mushroom stuff disappointed me, and colored my perception of the book, unfortunately. Which is why I didn’t rate it as highly as I did the first one. I just didn’t enjoy it as much; it also felt slower than book one. And those of you who have been reading my posts for a while know how I love a good, fast-paced romp.
But I still recommend What Feasts at Night to fans of What Moves the Dead, as well as other works of T. Kingfisher. It’s a fine, well written book, and even though I criticized the decision not to have another horrifying mushroom adventure, I did still enjoy the monster we got. Just… not as much. (Also, we got to visit Gallacia for the duration of the story and got to learn more about it in a natural way, which I really loved.)
My Favorite Quotes
May he shit pinecones in hell.
“You know,” I said to Angus, “we could still be in Paris right now.”
“I didn’t force you to come,” he said.
“You blackmailed me.”
“I most certainly did not.”
“There was guilt. I distinctly remember guilt being involved.”
If this was a fairy tale, it was the kind where everyone gets eaten as a cautionary tale about straying into the woods, not the sentimental kind that ends with a wedding and the words, “And if they have not since died, they are living there still.”
You really don’t want to drink our wine. We export it because we don’t want to drink it either.
Tomorrow, in my experience, is only worth worrying about when there’s something you can do about it.
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late, in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her infuriatingly charming fellow scholar Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than brilliant and unbearably handsome. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers.
She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.
My Review
Assassins are a monstrous breed. Either they attack when you are at your worst, or they are having a go at you on your birthday. I have never known a more dishonourable profession.
Sooo… This review has been a long time coming. I’ve still been in a terrible reading slump, though, and it’s been really sucky. Sorry. But you’re not here to read my excuses – you’re here to read my review for Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands.
This book was good, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first Emily Wilde book. I’m not really sure why. I think it’s because I wasn’t really into the secondary plot. This particular part of the story isn’t mentioned in the summary, but it’s a huge part of the novel: what happened to the dryadologist Danielle de Grey.
I just didn’t find de Grey interesting. Like, at all. I never really cared about her past exploits or what might have happened to her, but Emily talked about it nonstop for long sections of her narration. And I wasn’t really into it.
The thing I found myself more invested in was what the synopsis advertises: saving Brambleby and finding the door to his realm. And I also (wrongly) assumed from this that we’d spend most of the book in faerie, but that didn’t end up happening, so I was a bit disappointed about that. I’m hoping that’s book three, then.
I really liked the characters, however. Emily and Wendell’s continuing romance and banter was still absolutely stellar, and I really enjoyed the new main characters introduced. It was nice to see more of Emily’s family in her niece Ariadne, and more about how things are with the faerie department in Cambridge, which we didn’t see at all in the previous installment. Professor Rose was also an interesting addition, and I really enjoyed reading about the slowly developing friendship between him and Emily.
So yeah, all in all, I really liked this book though it wasn’t quite on par with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. I still highly recommend it to fans of the first book, though! And to fans of faerie stories similar to the works of Holly Black.
Favorite Quotes
“Can’t you sense what enchantments are stored in the stones?” I demanded.
“No!”
I threw my hands up in frustration. “Then why do you keep on breaking them?”
“Because you told me to, you lunatic!
Rose asked me why I was not more surprised by your feat. He does not understand you as I do, Em, but as you seem to consider him a friend now, I told him the truth: in order to be surprised, I could not have known already that you are capable of anything.
I leaned close, breathing in the smell of his hair— the salt of sweat; smoke from the fire; and the distant smell of green leaves that never left him.
“My answer is yes,” I whispered in his ear.
He winced. “Yes, this is an inconvenience—but I feel much better than I did. It’s clearly the sort of poison meant to confuse my magic, but these”—he glanced about the compartment—“effects should fade soon enough.”
“That’s remarkably unspecific.”
“I’m sorry. I have never been poisoned before, so I find the symptoms difficult to predict.
I had planned to have this out by this Wednesday… but I was busy celebrating Valentine’s Day with my spouse (and other stuff), so I’m posting it today! It’s still Love Month, so it’s still okay!
This is kind of inspired by other Valentine’s Day posts that I’ve seen, but with my own spin on it. Specifically, I’m going to be showing off covers that have hearts and/or flowers on them, or that have a hearts and/or flowers theme going on. Bonus points if there’s a reference in the book’s title.
Without further ado, let’s get started! And, it’s a little late, but Happy Valentine’s Day!! 💝💐🍫💌
1 • Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
2 • Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell
3 • Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
4 • A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
5 • Heartless by Marissa Meyer
6 • New Moon by Srephenie Meyer
7 • Instructions for a Secondhand Heart by Tamsyn Murray
8 • Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
9 • Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad
10 • Beastly by Alex Flinn
And that’s a wrap! As always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope that you have a lovely day/night!
Sooo… It’s been awhile. I know I kind of did this post for the first time right before Christmas and then left you guys hanging. Sorry.
But I’m finally back with another Reading & Recipes. 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: Stir Fry w/ Udon
Unlike the recipe in my last post, this one is entirely a Mar original. Stir fry isn’t something that I really grew up with, until high school when my dad started making it with rice. I love rice, but I love noodles even more, so use them instead.
Stuff I Put In It:
2 pkgs Kame udon noodles
1 pkg beef stew meat
2 chicken breasts, cubed
2 broccoli florets
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
I put this stuff in my stir fry this time, though it always varies. One time I did beef and shrimp, another I did beef, chicken and pork, and one time I did beef on its own. You can really put anything you want in it, even tofu if you want a vegetarian option.
You don’t even have to use udon if you don’t want to. Like I said, my dad uses rice. Either white or brown works great. But if you want to use noodles but not udon, a variety are available. You can use hokkien noodles, soba noodles or Thai ribbon noodles.
What I Put In the Sauce I Stir Fry it In:
Soy sauce
Teriyaki sauce
Sesame oil
Ginger (ground)
Garlic powder
A pinch of salt
A dash of sugar
I don’t bother to measure my amounts for my stir fry sauce. I just keep adding stuff I like, until I have a flavor I like. I typically use a lot of sesame oil and ginger though. You can pretty much put whatever you want in the sauce though.
How I Cook It:
Turn the surface heating on high
Put on the wok (I don’t have an electric wok – if you do, DO NOT put in on the burner!)
Pour in the sauce after it heats up
Put in your meat / seafood / tofu first
After they’re mostly cooked, put in your vegetables (if you’re using any)
Add the noodles last, mix them in and cook them for two minutes
Take stir fry off heating and ladle into portions
Like everything else, this can be super varied. You can really put in whatever you want to stir fry, and you can prepare it how you want. You could even cook it over a skillet or pan fry it, and it works pretty well (this is what I did before I got a wok).
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures… and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.
And she also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.
This has been my most anticipated read of 2024 so far, and it hasn’t disappointed. I love Emily and Brambleby, and I love their banter. I love the world that Heather Fawcett has created.
I know that the year has just started, but I think this is going to be one of my highest rated books over 2024. Of course, I’m also still excited about what other novels might be coming out soon, as well.
So what books have you been reading lately? What have you thought of them? What’s your favorite meal or dessert?
Thank you as always for reading, and I hope you all have an awesome day/night!
