Chloe's bookshelf: 2-first-books en-US Sun, 27 Apr 2025 23:04:08 -0700 60 Chloe's bookshelf: 2-first-books 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg War for the Oaks 70582 War for the Oaks is one of the novels that has defined modern urban fantasy.

Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But she's breaking up with her boyfriend, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk—and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.

By turns tough and lyrical, fabulous and down-to-earth, War for the Oaks is a fantasy novel that's as much about this world as about the other one. It's about real love and loyalty, about real music and musicians, about false glamour and true art. It will change the way you hear and see your own daily life.]]> 336 Emma Bull 0765349159 Chloe 5

I think this might be the best book I've ever read. It's contemplative and romantic and punky. The thematic equivalent of mixing 80's rocknroll and Celtic folk music, just like the playlist.]]> 4.01 1987 War for the Oaks
author: Emma Bull
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: my-recommendations-to-you, jade-green-e-ac, 2-first-books, z-twentytwo, 8-urban-fantasy, 0-reread, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, 0-twenty-five, 1-bought
review:
A spotify playlist of the songs mentioned in this book:


I think this might be the best book I've ever read. It's contemplative and romantic and punky. The thematic equivalent of mixing 80's rocknroll and Celtic folk music, just like the playlist.
]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Chloe 5
Read # count: 7.
This is my comfort series]]> 4.11 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: my-recommendations-to-you, 2-first-books, uranium-blue-i-c, z-twentytwo, z-twentyone, 0-reread, z-twentythree, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, 0-twenty-five, 1-bought, 8-sci-fi
review:
Phenomenal. Emotional. Funny. Fast.

Read # count: 7.
This is my comfort series
]]> <![CDATA[Defy the Stars (Constellation, #1)]]> 31423196 She's a soldier - Noemi Vidal is willing to risk anything to protect her planet, Genesis, including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she's a rebel.

He's a machine - Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel's advanced programming has begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he's an abomination.

Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they're not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they're forced to question everything they'd been taught was true.

Fast-paced, romantic, and captivating, Defy The Stars is a story about what it means to be human, about deciding what you truly believe in, and about finding your place in a dangerous world.]]> 528 Claudia Gray 0316394033 Chloe 3 4.02 2017 Defy the Stars (Constellation, #1)
author: Claudia Gray
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: 0-browsing, 8-sci-fromance, 0-twenty-five, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
The ending felt so contrived. Average all the way through.
]]> <![CDATA[Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong, #1)]]> 61827543 Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective?

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective� work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could � because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands � Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.

Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.]]> 339 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593549228 Chloe 4 Fun characters 4.01 2023 Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong, #1)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: 0-hyped, 0-twenty-five, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-mystery-thriller, resolution-blue-e-c
review:
Fun characters
]]> <![CDATA[Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales, #1)]]> 60717747 It's difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you're a young lady with only half a soul.

Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment - a condition which makes her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season - but when the strange, handsome and utterly uncouth Lord Sorcier discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into dangerous and peculiar faerie affairs.

If Dora's reputation can survive both her curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world. . . but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul.

Bridgerton meets Howl's Moving Castle in this enchanting historical fantasy, where the only thing more meddlesome than faeries is a marriage-minded mother.

Pick up HALF A SOUL, and be stolen away into Olivia Atwater's charming, magical version of Regency England!]]> 304 Olivia Atwater Chloe 4 Enchanting. Cute. 4.04 2020 Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales, #1)
author: Olivia Atwater
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: z-twentythree, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-romantasy, resolution-blue-e-c, 0-twenty-five, 0-reread
review:
Enchanting. Cute.
]]> The River Has Roots 211004176 Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.�

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters� bond but also their lives will be at risk…]]> 133 Amal El-Mohtar 1250341086 Chloe 4
THE AUDIOBOOK: I didn't like this audiobook. This is a very personal opinion, but I really dislike sounds effects and background music in an audiobook. It distracts me, and makes it difficult to follow the words of the story. Though I did appreciate when the narrators sang the lyrics in the book, the audiobook generally took it too far by having background noise at the same time as the prose.

Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ]]> 4.19 2025 The River Has Roots
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: 0-twenty-five, 0-browsing, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-high-fantasy, unmellow-yellow-e-a
review:
This book is fascinating, haunting, and beautiful. It's also too short, just touching on a magic system, romance, and sister relationship without truly developing any of it. I was entertained and had fun with this book, but I left it with a feeling that it needed more for its ambitious scope.

THE AUDIOBOOK: I didn't like this audiobook. This is a very personal opinion, but I really dislike sounds effects and background music in an audiobook. It distracts me, and makes it difficult to follow the words of the story. Though I did appreciate when the narrators sang the lyrics in the book, the audiobook generally took it too far by having background noise at the same time as the prose.

Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[Heartless Hunter (The Crimson Moth, #1)]]> 127305713
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 The Crimson Moth is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch� is falling in love.]]> 406 Kristen Ciccarelli 1250866901 Chloe 3
PS: Can book publishers please stop marketing books as YA/teen if they have explicit sexual content? We already have a marketing label for "it follows Young Adult tropes, but has adult content." That's New Adult, and that's how this book should be marketed.]]> 4.16 2024 Heartless Hunter (The Crimson Moth, #1)
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: 0-hyped, 0-twenty-five, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-romantasy, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
Really strong premise! But, I didn't love the romance. Too much deception and manipulation all the way to the end for me to want the couple together.

PS: Can book publishers please stop marketing books as YA/teen if they have explicit sexual content? We already have a marketing label for "it follows Young Adult tropes, but has adult content." That's New Adult, and that's how this book should be marketed.
]]> Water Moon 211479192 A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel.

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.]]> 384 Samantha Sotto Yambao 0593724992 Chloe 1 3.79 2025 Water Moon
author: Samantha Sotto Yambao
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: 0-twenty-five, 0-browsing, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, 8-romantasy, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, unmellow-yellow-e-a
review:
How can I express how much I hated this book? Unsatisfying plot. Atrocious dialogue. Romance that was alternately boring or icky. All style and no substance, and yet I can't even really praise its style.
]]> The Host (The Host, #1) 1656001
As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.

Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE]
ACE #1 - ACE #2 ]]> 619 Stephenie Meyer 0316068047 Chloe 5
It's even better than I remember. An incredibly thoughtful and well constructed book.]]> 3.85 2008 The Host (The Host, #1)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: my-recommendations-to-you, 2-first-books, byzantium-purple-e-cp, 0-reread, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, 0-twenty-five, 1-borrowed, 8-sci-fromance, recent-favorites
review:
I was terrified that this wouldn't hold up. It was my favorite book as a teenager, but would it be good on a reread, so many years later?

It's even better than I remember. An incredibly thoughtful and well constructed book.
]]> <![CDATA[Legacy of the Brightwash (Tainted Dominion, #1)]]> 55962500 Follow the law and you’ll stay safe. But what if the law is wrong?

Tashué’s faith in the law is beginning to crack.

Three years ago, he stood by when the Authority condemned Jason to the brutality of the Rift for non-compliance. When Tashué’s son refused to register as tainted, the laws had to be upheld. He’d never doubted his job as a Regulation Officer before, but three years of watching your son wither away can break down even the strongest convictions.

Then a dead girl washed up on the bank of the Brightwash, tattooed and mutilated. Where had she come from? Who would tattoo a child? Was it the same person who killed her?

Why was he the only one who cared?

Will Tashué be able to stand against everything he thought he believed in to get the answers he’s looking for?]]> 662 Krystle Matar 1777479207 Chloe 0 But I can see its potential with strong characterization and intriguing plot, so I hope to make another attempt at reading it someday.

DNF at 20%]]> 4.19 2021 Legacy of the Brightwash (Tainted Dominion, #1)
author: Krystle Matar
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: 0-twenty-five, 0-hyped, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-high-fantasy, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
I hope one day to have the attention bandwidth to handle this book, but that's not me right now. It's a dense book in that its sentences and paragraphs are long and complex. It's somewhat bloated with unnecessary exchanges and scenes, and I think too many perspectives.
But I can see its potential with strong characterization and intriguing plot, so I hope to make another attempt at reading it someday.

DNF at 20%
]]> <![CDATA[Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print]]> 180467
Hundreds of books have been written on the art of writing. Here at last is a book by two professional editors to teach writers the techniques of the editing trade that turn promising manuscripts into published novels and short stories.

In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work. Chapters on dialogue, exposition, point of view, interior monologue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an expert editor would go through to perfect your manuscript. Each point is illustrated with examples, many drawn from the hundreds of books Browne and King have edited.]]> 288 Renni Browne 0060545690 Chloe 4 4.24 1993 Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
author: Renni Browne
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: 0-twenty-five, 0-browsing, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-nonfiction, 8-writing-advice
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Study in Drowning (A Study in Drowning, #1)]]> 75302266 Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.

But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.]]> 378 Ava Reid 0063211505 Chloe 5 (I think the first exiting-a-car scene is my favorite moment of the book.)

This is the story of Effy, an architecture student in 1930's fantasy Wales. She is under intense pressure from her all-male classmates, and so it's a dream come true when she gets to escape to a remote project. She goes into the countryside to design a renovation of the manor of her FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL TIME. Effy is obsessed with the novel Angharad, a tale of a woman fighting the Fairy King. It's Effy's favorite because she hallucinates the Fairy King stalking her, and the novel is the only thing that makes her feel sane. However, the manor house is not the escape she wanted, as a rival student also has a project there, and the Fairy King lurks close in the wild cliffs.

It's a coming of age story. It's hauntingly gothic. It's a romance. It's a book that is playing with what fantasy stories mean, in a very metatextual way. Sometimes it feels like realistic dark academia, sometimes urban fantasy with a side of horror. It's YA, in a way that is accessible without ever being annoyingly teenagerish.

I love it. I'm obsessed with this beautiful novel. It's so emotional and raw and poetic and mysterious.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperTeen for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.]]> 3.73 2023 A Study in Drowning (A Study in Drowning, #1)
author: Ava Reid
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: z-twentythree, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 3-authors-to-try-again, jade-green-e-ac, 8-romantasy, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, 0-twenty-five, 0-reread, recent-favorites
review:
This is one of the most engrossing and intense books I've ever read. It's not a thriller, and it only has a smidge of horror. But it also had me on the edge of my seat for a scene of our protagonist getting out of a car -- twice!
(I think the first exiting-a-car scene is my favorite moment of the book.)

This is the story of Effy, an architecture student in 1930's fantasy Wales. She is under intense pressure from her all-male classmates, and so it's a dream come true when she gets to escape to a remote project. She goes into the countryside to design a renovation of the manor of her FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL TIME. Effy is obsessed with the novel Angharad, a tale of a woman fighting the Fairy King. It's Effy's favorite because she hallucinates the Fairy King stalking her, and the novel is the only thing that makes her feel sane. However, the manor house is not the escape she wanted, as a rival student also has a project there, and the Fairy King lurks close in the wild cliffs.

It's a coming of age story. It's hauntingly gothic. It's a romance. It's a book that is playing with what fantasy stories mean, in a very metatextual way. Sometimes it feels like realistic dark academia, sometimes urban fantasy with a side of horror. It's YA, in a way that is accessible without ever being annoyingly teenagerish.

I love it. I'm obsessed with this beautiful novel. It's so emotional and raw and poetic and mysterious.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperTeen for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[Hell for Hire (Tear Down Heaven #1)]]> 209360206 The Crew
A hulked-out wrath demon who eats gamer rage and loves cats, a shapeshifting lust demon who enjoys their food a bit too much, and a void demon who doesn’t see the point of any of this. They’re not the sort of mercenaries you'd hire on purpose, but Bex wouldn’t trust her life to anyone else.

Ever since the ancient Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh decided death wasn’t for him, killed the gods, and conquered the afterlife, times have been rough for a free demon. But the denizens of the Nine Hells aren’t the quitting sort, and Bex and her team have been choking a living out of the Eternal King’s lackeys for years. It’s not honest work, but when Heaven itself declares you a non-person, you smash-and-grab what you can get.

This next gig looks like more of the same…until Bex meets the client.

The Job
Adrian Blackwood is a witch with a problem. His family has skirted the edges of King Gilgamesh’s ire for centuries, but thanks to a decision he made as a child, Adrian is personally responsible for putting his entire coven in Heaven’s crosshairs.

Determined to set things right, Adrian drags his broom, caldron, and talking cat thousands of miles across the country to Seattle where he can fight the Eternal King’s warlocks without bringing the rest of his family into the fray. But witchcraft--like all crafts--takes time, and if the warlocks catch him before his spells are ready, he’s dead. So Adrian does what any professional witch would do and hires a team of mercenaries to keep the warlocks off his back. He didn’t expect to get demons, but when you’re already on the killing-edge of Heaven’s bad side, what’s a bit more fuel on the fire?

Sometimes you get more than you paid for.
Neither Adrian nor Bex knew what to expect when they signed their contract, but witch-plus-demon turns out to be a match made in the Hells. With this much chaos at their fingertips, even impossible dreams can come back into reach, because Bex wasn’t always a mercenary. She used to be the Eternal King's biggest nightmare, and now that she’s got a witch in her corner, it’s time to put the old magics back on the field and show Adrian Blackwood just how much Hell he’s hired.]]> 348 Rachel Aaron 195236731X Chloe 4 Delightfully campy 4.33 2024 Hell for Hire (Tear Down Heaven #1)
author: Rachel Aaron
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: 0-twenty-five, 0-repeat-author, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, 8-urban-fantasy, international-orange-e-ap
review:
Delightfully campy
]]> <![CDATA[We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya, #1)]]> 36492488 People lived because she killed. People died because he lived.

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya--but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds--and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.]]> 472 Hafsah Faizal 0374311544 Chloe 3 3.87 2019 We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya, #1)
author: Hafsah Faizal
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: 0-browsing, 0-twenty-five, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-romantasy, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
Really solid opening act, but then it got messy and boring
]]> <![CDATA[Fable for the End of the World]]> 209594872 The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.]]> 384 Ava Reid 0063211556 Chloe 2
Plot holes. So many plot holes. It was incredibly difficult to enjoy this book when every few pages I was asking myself, "Why don't they just do..." or "But that doesn't fit in with the established worldbuilding..."

The romance was fairly mediocre. I like an enemies-to-lovers (and in fact, I have really loved it in Ava Reid's other book, The Wolf and the Woodsman). But neither of the "enemies" at any point actually hate/want to hurt the other, then they quickly fall into lust. It's disappointing, and I really struggled to root for them.

The ending. I'm not sure if it was trying to be "We're leaving this open for a sequel," or, "We're leaving this open to be tragically mysterious," but either way I didn't like it.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ]]> 3.84 2025 Fable for the End of the World
author: Ava Reid
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: 0-twenty-five, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-sci-fromance, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, jade-green-e-ac
review:
Let's get this out of the way: the premise of this book is exquisite. I'm not arguing about that. The bad part for me was the execution of the premise.

Plot holes. So many plot holes. It was incredibly difficult to enjoy this book when every few pages I was asking myself, "Why don't they just do..." or "But that doesn't fit in with the established worldbuilding..."

The romance was fairly mediocre. I like an enemies-to-lovers (and in fact, I have really loved it in Ava Reid's other book, The Wolf and the Woodsman). But neither of the "enemies" at any point actually hate/want to hurt the other, then they quickly fall into lust. It's disappointing, and I really struggled to root for them.

The ending. I'm not sure if it was trying to be "We're leaving this open for a sequel," or, "We're leaving this open to be tragically mysterious," but either way I didn't like it.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)]]> 24233708 343 Hank Green 1524743453 Chloe 4 And yet, somehow, I was totally hooked.]]> 4.05 2018 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)
author: Hank Green
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: 0-hyped, 0-twenty-five, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-sci-fi, celadon-green-i-ac
review:
So I kind of hated the 2017 meme-speak writing style. And the way it ended. And the protagonist.
And yet, somehow, I was totally hooked.
]]> <![CDATA[Reader-Friendly Writing for Authors (Atwater's Tools for Authors #2)]]> 93753661 Write better prose. Get better readers. A comprehensive guide to reader-friendly writing by author Olivia Atwater.

Readers enjoy a book more when they understand what’s going on—but a lot of common writing advice can make your prose more confusing for readers! Genre authors: Stop listening to writing advice from your peers in literary fiction, and start asking questions about how to make your writing more accessible to the general market.

In this short, accessible book, you will learn how readers process writing on a narrative level, on a paragraph level, and on a sentence level. You’ll also learn how to:

� use the classic parlour scene to clarify more than just murder
� help your busiest and most distracted readers keep up with your dialogue
� cheat your way through gameshows using syntactic ambiguity
� use the semi-colon as it was actually meant to be used
� un-decapitate your headless clauses
� “show, then tell�

This guide comes with several well-explained rules which you can immediately apply to your work, complete with before-and-after examples.

Learn Reader-Friendly Writing for Authors, and help your readers follow the story.]]> 63 Olivia Atwater 1778271340 Chloe 4 4.45 Reader-Friendly Writing for Authors (Atwater's Tools for Authors #2)
author: Olivia Atwater
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: 8-writing-advice, 0-twenty-five, 0-browsing, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 8-nonfiction
review:
It's a guide to the sentence-level details of writing. It has some good advice, especially if you're prioritizing clarity and reader comprehension in your writing.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love (Love's Academic, #1)]]> 200555182
Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that's beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.Ìý

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She's so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they're professional rivals.Ìý

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning.ÌýNow keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can't trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.]]> 384 India Holton Chloe 2
DNF at 17%]]> 3.90 2024 The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love (Love's Academic, #1)
author: India Holton
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: 0-twenty-five, 0-hyped, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-romantasy, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
In order to enjoy this book, you must LOVE the comedy of Romcoms. Alas, that isn't me.

DNF at 17%
]]> The Scorpio Races 10626594
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition � the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.]]> 409 Maggie Stiefvater 054522490X Chloe 5 4.09 2011 The Scorpio Races
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: z-twentyfour, my-recommendations-to-you, recent-favorites, 0-reread, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
Man I love this book so much. It's so well constructed, so beautiful.
]]> Blood Over Bright Haven 208430658 Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]> 430 M.L. Wang 0593873351 Chloe 4 4.40 2023 Blood Over Bright Haven
author: M.L. Wang
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: 0-hyped, 0-twenty-five, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
A fantasy book that doesn't pull its punches. Smart worldbuilding.
]]> <![CDATA[Three Parts Dead (Craft Sequence, #1)]]> 13539191
Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.]]> 336 Max Gladstone 0765333104 Chloe 2
DNF at 19%]]> 3.94 2012 Three Parts Dead (Craft Sequence, #1)
author: Max Gladstone
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-project, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-urban-fantasy, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, international-orange-e-ap
review:
And... ahem... why should I care about any of these characters?

DNF at 19%
]]> Thinking, Fast and Slow 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 Chloe 2
Here's a (HIGHLY ABRIDGED) example, where the author spends pages trying to explain that he is using personification, something which he has already spent many sentences emphasizing.

"You have been invited to think of the two systems as agents within the mind, with their individual personalities, abilities, and limitations. ... The use of such language is considered a sin in the professional circles in which I travel, because it seems to explain the thoughts and actions of a person by the thoughts and actions of little people inside the person’s head. ... My answer is that the brief active sentence that attributes calculation to System 2 is intended as a description, not an explanation. It is meaningful only because of what you already know about System 2. ... System 1 and System 2 are so central to the story I tell in this book that I must make it absolutely clear that they are fictitious characters. Systems 1 and 2 are not systems in the standard sense of entities with interacting aspects or parts."]]> 4.17 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: 8-nonfiction, 0-personal-recs, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 9-dnf-did-not-finish
review:
This is terribly written in the way of a bad academic paper: needlessly wordy, repetitive, and taking in circles.

Here's a (HIGHLY ABRIDGED) example, where the author spends pages trying to explain that he is using personification, something which he has already spent many sentences emphasizing.

"You have been invited to think of the two systems as agents within the mind, with their individual personalities, abilities, and limitations. ... The use of such language is considered a sin in the professional circles in which I travel, because it seems to explain the thoughts and actions of a person by the thoughts and actions of little people inside the person’s head. ... My answer is that the brief active sentence that attributes calculation to System 2 is intended as a description, not an explanation. It is meaningful only because of what you already know about System 2. ... System 1 and System 2 are so central to the story I tell in this book that I must make it absolutely clear that they are fictitious characters. Systems 1 and 2 are not systems in the standard sense of entities with interacting aspects or parts."
]]> The Hacienda 57840571 Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will help her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.]]> 352 Isabel Cañas Chloe 5 3.83 2022 The Hacienda
author: Isabel Cañas
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: 0-repeat-author, z-twentyfour, recent-favorites, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-mystery-thriller, jade-green-e-ac
review:
The longer I sit with this ending the more I love it.
]]> <![CDATA[Blunt Force Magic (The Monsters and Men Trilogy, #1)]]> 36988422 An out of practice wizard-turned-courier must save a young witch—and the world—in this urban fantasy mystery for fans of Jim Butcher and Benedict Jacka. Five years removed from a life as an apprentice to a group of heroes who battled supernatural evils, the once-promising student Janzen Robinson has become a package courier. He now works the daily grind, passing time at a hole-in-the-wall bar and living in a tiny, run-down apartment on the south side of Cleveland, Ohio. Then from the ancient recesses of unyielding darkness known as the Abyss, a creature has been a Stalker, a predator whose real name must never be spoken. It’s a bastardization of the natural order, a formidable blend of dark magic and primal tenacity. Its mission? To end the life of a fiery, emerging young witch. Thrust into the role of protector,Ìýa position once reserved for those he’d lost years ago, the out-of-practice “Artificerâ€� is forced to confront his painful past while facing an unstoppable monster hell-bent on destruction. Janzen must keep one step ahead of the beast as he journeys through Cleveland’s magical underbelly to uncover why it’s been brought to our world. He will need to rely on old friends, a quiet stranger, and his own questionable wits to reach the other side of this nightmare—that just might cost him his life and, quite possibly, the world itself. Ìý“A modern fantasy with a touch of noir, a dash of detective thriller, and a sprinkling of humor throughout.â€â€”Steve Jackson, New York Times–bestselling author of Monster]]> 274 Lawrence Davis 1947290118 Chloe 1
"She was leggy, lost between a well-lived forty or a hard-partying twenty. She had a kind of realistic ageless quality, really, because no matter where the truth lay, she was still impossibly lovely. Her auburn hair flowed freely down to a wasp waist; the curved line of her body continued down into toned legs crossing one another. I’d speak on what a great a** she’s got, but I like to think myself better than that. ... She had a feline grace amplified by a Cheshire grin as she bowed down to meet me eye-to-eye. Hers were a powerful potion of green and sea blue swimming together in concert. They moved like a living constellation, and I was again reminded that I was walking in a world of giants while very much a man."

DNF at 8%]]> 3.81 2018 Blunt Force Magic (The Monsters and Men Trilogy, #1)
author: Lawrence Davis
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/04
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: 0-browsing, z-twentyfour, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-urban-fantasy, new-york-pink-i-p, 9-dnf-did-not-finish
review:
This book has combined noir and overly flowery writing styles and produced an abomination.

"She was leggy, lost between a well-lived forty or a hard-partying twenty. She had a kind of realistic ageless quality, really, because no matter where the truth lay, she was still impossibly lovely. Her auburn hair flowed freely down to a wasp waist; the curved line of her body continued down into toned legs crossing one another. I’d speak on what a great a** she’s got, but I like to think myself better than that. ... She had a feline grace amplified by a Cheshire grin as she bowed down to meet me eye-to-eye. Hers were a powerful potion of green and sea blue swimming together in concert. They moved like a living constellation, and I was again reminded that I was walking in a world of giants while very much a man."

DNF at 8%
]]> <![CDATA[ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD]]> 180352087 Hi, friend! Welcome to the ADHD club.

You're here because, like me, you've been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder—which, by the way, just might be the worst name for a condition ever—and you're trying to figure out how to make your life a little more manageable. Or because, like my wife, Kim, you love, teach, or work with someone who has ADHD, and you're trying to figure out how to best support them.

The world isn't built for ADHDers, and navigating it can wear us down. But we'll let you in on a little secret: having ADHD doesn't have to be a burden. It can actually be a superpower that propels you to creative heights and allows you to achieve more than you ever thought possible.

We want to give you a new perspective on ADHD, whether it's your own brain or a friend or family member's that you're trying to understand. We hope you come away with strategies you can employ to make things a little easier. (We also hope you laugh out loud, at least once or twice.)

Most of all, we want you to silence that voice that whispers that you're broken or a mess or a failure. None of that is true. You have ADHD—and that makes you awesome.

—Penn Holderness]]> 292 Penn Holderness 1400338611 Chloe 4 4.21 2024 ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD
author: Penn Holderness
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-hyped, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-nonfiction
review:
A memoir style book about ADHD. It's entertaining and well written, but the scope is quite narrow. It talks a lot about the author's type of ADHD, but not much about other presentations of it. The authors have built their life to be ADHD friendly, and many of their tips are from that privileged position that many people will not be able to match. Useful if you're just starting to learn about ADHD, but less useful if you're looking for new or specific information.
]]> <![CDATA[The Night Realm (Spell Weaver #1)]]> 219633834
But with a war threatening her homeland, and her half-brother—the nymph prince—pleading for her help, she agrees to attempt the stealing deadly magic from the best spell weavers in the three realms.

Their stronghold is located deep in the Underworld, which is exactly the sort of place an Overworld nymph like her should never go. Getting in won't be that hard. Getting out alive is the impossible part.

Lyre is a master of two spell weaving and seduction. As an incubus, he can enthrall any woman he desires. As a master weaver, he can create any spell imaginable—but not the spells of death and destruction that his ruthless family specializes in.

A master weaver who can't—or won't—contribute to the family legacy is a liability that won't be tolerated for much longer. And when a nosy Overworld nymph starts probing into his secrets and draws the attention of his sadistic brothers, his odds of survival take a nosedive.

Because some magic was never meant to be woven. And while Lyre's most dangerous creation could be powerful enough to save Clio's homeland, it’s terrible enough to destroy far more.

And neither Clio’s mimic ability nor Lyre’s spell weaving will save them from its power.

--
Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the best-selling Steel & Stone series, the second edition of The Night Realm features a revised story and new cover.

The Spell Weaver and Steel & Stone series are set in the same world but can be read independently.

--
Spell Weaver
The Night Realm (#1)
The Shadow Weave (#2)
The Blood Curse (#3)]]> 378 Annette Marie 1988153794 Chloe 3 4.17 2017 The Night Realm (Spell Weaver #1)
author: Annette Marie
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
Ugh some of this is very good but I hate it when the protagonist is made to be SO STUPID in order for the plot
]]> <![CDATA[Priest of Bones (War for the Rose Throne, #1)]]> 37884491
As the Pious Men fight shadowy foreign infiltrators in the back-street taverns, brothels, and gambling dens of Tomas's old life, it becomes clear:
The war is only just beginning.]]> 331 Peter McLean 0451490215 Chloe 3 3.91 2018 Priest of Bones (War for the Rose Throne, #1)
author: Peter McLean
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-project, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-high-fantasy, vermillion-red-e-p
review:
This waited until the very last chapter to change the stakes or the status quo. Boring.
]]> Wheel of the Infinite 203579253 A traitor and a swordsman join forces to save the world from being rewritten into devastation.

Every year the image of the Wheel of the Infinite must be painstakingly remade to ensure another year of peace and harmony for the Celestial Empire. Every hundred years the very fabric of the world must be rewoven. Linked by the mystic energies of the Infinite, the Wheel and world are one. But a black storm is spreading across the Wheel, reappearing each morning, bigger and darker than before, unraveling the beautiful and orderly patterns.

Maskelle, a murderer and traitor, has been summoned back to help put the world right with the assistance of the mysterious Rian, a swordsman of some renown. If they can’t find the source of the problems that plague the Wheel, the world may find its latest rotation is its last.]]> 368 Martha Wells 1250861373 Chloe 4
The Wheel of The Infinite is one of those delectable fantasy books with complex worldbuilding that gives you the information little by little. You slowly learn about our protagonist, her magic, her history, and finally at the end you understand what a Wheel of the Infinite even is. It's a rewarding journey along the way.

This novel has a little romance as a side plot. It's sweet, but never swoonworthy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Books for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ]]> 3.83 2000 Wheel of the Infinite
author: Martha Wells
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, thistle-purple-i-cp
review:
I read the 2024 Revised Edition of this book.

The Wheel of The Infinite is one of those delectable fantasy books with complex worldbuilding that gives you the information little by little. You slowly learn about our protagonist, her magic, her history, and finally at the end you understand what a Wheel of the Infinite even is. It's a rewarding journey along the way.

This novel has a little romance as a side plot. It's sweet, but never swoonworthy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Books for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1) 43263680
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs� are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.]]> 461 Leigh Bardugo 1250313074 Chloe 5 Love the mystery here. 4.00 2019 Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: 8-urban-fantasy, z-twentyfour, recent-favorites, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
Love the mystery here.
]]> Remnant Population 96284
With everything she needs to sustain her, and her independent spirit to buoy her, Ofelia actually does start life over–for the first time on her own terms: free of the demands, the judgments, and the petty tyrannies of others. But when a reconnaissance ship returns to her idyllic domain, and its crew is mysteriously slaughtered, Ofelia realizes she is not the sole inhabitant of her paradise after all. And, when the inevitable time of first contact finally arrives, she will find her life changed yet again–in ways she could never have imagined...]]> 326 Elizabeth Moon 034546219X Chloe 4 4.06 1996 Remnant Population
author: Elizabeth Moon
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: 0-browsing, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, 8-sci-fi, celadon-green-i-ac
review:
A nearly perfect character study and exploration of slow first contact. but, drags on a little too long.
]]> <![CDATA[A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking]]> 54369251
But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…]]> 306 T. Kingfisher 1614505241 Chloe 3 4.02 2020 A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-project, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, vermillion-red-e-p
review:
The protagonist is annoyingly self aware
]]> Save the Cat! Writes a Novel 32805475
Whether you’re writing your first novel or your seventeenth, Save the Cat! breaks down plot in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step method so you can write stories that resonate! This book can help you with any of the following:

Outlining a new novel
Revising an existing novel
Breaking out of the dreaded “writer’s block�
Fixing a “broken� novel
Reviewing a completed novel
Fleshing out/test driving a new idea to see if it “has legs�
Implementing feedback from agents and/or editors
Helping give constructive feedback to other writers

But above all else, SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL will help you better understand the fundamentals and mechanics of plot, character transformation, and what makes a story work!]]> 320 Jessica Brody Chloe 4 4.49 2018 Save the Cat! Writes a Novel
author: Jessica Brody
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves: 8-writing-advice, z-twentyfour, 0-hyped, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-nonfiction
review:

]]> The Fantasy Fiction Formula 26265753
From the writing of strong, action-packed scenes to the handling of emotions, let award-winning fantasy author Deborah Chester guide you through the process of putting a book together. Convinced there's no need to shroud the writing process under a veil of mystery, Chester supplies tips that are both practical and proven. They are exactly what she uses in writing her own novels and what she teaches in her writing courses at the University of Oklahoma.

Along with explaining story construction step-by-step, Chester illustrates each technique with examples drawn from both traditional and urban fantasy. The technique chapters include exercises to assist novices in mastering the craft of writing fantasy as well as suggestions for avoiding or solving plot problems. More experienced writers will find tips for taking their work to the next level.

With an introduction by author Jim Butcher, The fantasy fiction formula provides the information you need to gain skill and proficiency in writing fantasy like a pro.
]]> 320 Deborah Chester 0719097061 Chloe 3 4.42 2016 The Fantasy Fiction Formula
author: Deborah Chester
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/04
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: 8-nonfiction, 8-writing-advice, z-twentyfour, 0-hyped, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author
review:

]]> City of Bones 123007553 Before Martha Wells captured the hearts of MILLIONS with her Murderbot series, there was Khat, Sagai, and Elen, and a city risen out of death and decay�

The city of Charisat, a tiered monolith of the Ancients� design, sits on the edge of the vast desert known as the Waste. Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working in the bottom tiers of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors.

When Khat is hired by the all-powerful Warders to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines, he, and his party, begin unravelling the mysteries of an age-old technology.

This they expected.

They soon find themselves as the last line of defense between the suffering masses of Charisat and a fanatical cult, bent on unleashing an evil upon the city with an undying thirst for bone.

That, they did not expect.

This updated and revised edition is the author’s preferred text.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 411 Martha Wells 1250872774 Chloe 3
This story follows Khat, a black market relics dealer and historian. He is recruited to help find some relics that have the potential to change the magical landscape, if the legends have any truth to them.

This is a fine fantasy book. That's my main takeaway.
The worldbuilding is fine, interesting but not blowing me away. The plot is fine, entertaining without ever surprising me. The characters are fine, well crafted but never really reaching into compelling.

The setting and pacing of this book will appeal to fans of The Fifth Season. There is a similar feeling of historical and looming apocalypse in the setting. The pacing is thoughtful without being too slow, with fight scenes interspersed.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tordotcom for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.]]> 4.26 1995 City of Bones
author: Martha Wells
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: z-twentythree, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, xanthous-orange-i-ap
review:
I read the 2023 revised edition.

This story follows Khat, a black market relics dealer and historian. He is recruited to help find some relics that have the potential to change the magical landscape, if the legends have any truth to them.

This is a fine fantasy book. That's my main takeaway.
The worldbuilding is fine, interesting but not blowing me away. The plot is fine, entertaining without ever surprising me. The characters are fine, well crafted but never really reaching into compelling.

The setting and pacing of this book will appeal to fans of The Fifth Season. There is a similar feeling of historical and looming apocalypse in the setting. The pacing is thoughtful without being too slow, with fight scenes interspersed.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tordotcom for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
]]> Perfect State 25188109
God-Emperor Kairominas is lord of all he surveys. He has defeated all foes, has united the entire world beneath his rule, and has mastered the arcane arts. He spends his time sparring with his nemesis, who keeps trying to invade Kai's world.

Except for today. Today, Kai has to go on a date.

Forces have conspired to require him to meet with his equal—a woman from another world who has achieved just as much as he has. What happens when the most important man in the world is forced to have dinner with the most important woman in the world?]]> 87 Brandon Sanderson 193857009X Chloe 3 4.05 2015 Perfect State
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-sci-fi, gainsboro-gray-i-acp
review:
I like that Sanderson experiments and takes chances in his novellas. I don't think this one completely worked.
]]> <![CDATA[Red Rope of Fate (The Elves of Lessa, #1)]]> 40944017
Thrown into a storm of politics, Tari and Arion are put in danger by those who want humans and elves to remain separate.

To make matters worse, Tari realizes she has fallen in love with Arion, who has the emotional capabilities of a rock. As both societies dictate that an elf and a human can never be together, Tari must conceal her feelings. Unfortunately the taciturn Arion is watchful and attentive to Tari’s well being, constantly pushing her to her limits with his loyalty, friendship, and dreadfully informal habit of touching her.

If Tari and Arion survive, their tumultuous relationship will either strengthen their countries� alliance, or cripple the human courts of nobility. The deciding factor will be Arion, and his indecipherable feelings for Tari.

Note: Free extra chapter can be found . This chapter is included in the Red Rope of Fate ebook, if you bought your copy after January 2014.]]> 224 K.M. Shea Chloe 3 3.93 2013 Red Rope of Fate (The Elves of Lessa, #1)
author: K.M. Shea
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 0-hyped, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-romantasy, resolution-blue-e-c
review:
I'm both disappointed by how easily everyone communicated after the premise; AND I'm disappointed by how much of the drama was only based on miscommunication.
]]> The Dividing Sky 205181188 A cunning memory merchant falls for the handsome rookie officer on her tail in this swoony dystopian romance, hailed as “dynamic, vivid, and electrifying� (Ayana Gray, New York Times bestselling author of Beasts of Prey)

“[A] high-stakes story packed with slow-burn pining and plentiful tension.â€â€�Publishers Weekly (One of the Best Books of the Year!)

In 2364, eighteen-year-old Liv Newman dreams of a future beyond her lower-class life in the Metro. As a Proxy, she uses the neurochip in her brain to sell memories to wealthy clients. Maybe a few illegally, but money equals freedom. So when a customer offers her a ludicrous sum to go on an assignment in no-man’s-land, Liv accepts. Now she just has to survive.

Rookie Forceman Adrian Rao believes in order over all. After discovering that a renegade Proxy’s shady dealings are messing with citizens� brain chemistry, he vows to extinguish the threat. But when he tracks Liv down, there’s one problem: her memories are gone. Can Adrian bring himself to condemn her for crimes she doesn’t remember?

As Liv and Adrian navigate the world beyond the Metro and their growing feelings for one another, they grapple with who they are, who they could be, and whether another way of living is possible.]]> 352 Jill Tew 0593710355 Chloe 3 Our protagonists are a teen girl who collects happy memories to transfer to other people (so they don't have to take time off themselves), and a teen boy who is a police enforcer. She steps outside the law, he's tasked with hunting her down, and they collide in a romance.
This book also has a delightfully diverse cast, and many cute moments that keep the tone on the fun and light side.

What I didn't love about this book was the romance itself. Our heroine spends much of the book in a state of amnesia. Her love interest spends much of the book lying to her and manipulating her, fully taking advantage of this situation. I really can't root for a romance when the basis for it is a mixture of insta-love and lying.

Thanks to Netgalley and Joy Revolution for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ]]> 4.05 2024 The Dividing Sky
author: Jill Tew
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-new-author, 2-first-books, 8-sci-fromance, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
I love the dystopian world crafted here. It's scarily plausible: a corporate-based society where everyone's worth is judged based on their productivity.
Our protagonists are a teen girl who collects happy memories to transfer to other people (so they don't have to take time off themselves), and a teen boy who is a police enforcer. She steps outside the law, he's tasked with hunting her down, and they collide in a romance.
This book also has a delightfully diverse cast, and many cute moments that keep the tone on the fun and light side.

What I didn't love about this book was the romance itself. Our heroine spends much of the book in a state of amnesia. Her love interest spends much of the book lying to her and manipulating her, fully taking advantage of this situation. I really can't root for a romance when the basis for it is a mixture of insta-love and lying.

Thanks to Netgalley and Joy Revolution for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)]]> 17675462 “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,� Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.�

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.]]> 409 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424925 Chloe 5 4.05 2012 The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/19
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: z-twentyfour, my-recommendations-to-you, recent-favorites, 0-reread, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, jade-green-e-ac
review:
I am floored with every reread how well written and well constructed this novel is.
]]> <![CDATA[Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors]]> 39074550 An international bestseller

The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, "When am I ever going to use this in the real world?"

"Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations--that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes." --Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything

Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations enabling the design of skyscrapers and bridges. Most of the time this math works quietly behind the scenes . . . until it doesn't. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences.

Math is easy to ignore until a misplaced decimal point upends the stock market, a unit conversion error causes a plane to crash, or someone divides by zero and stalls a battleship in the middle of the ocean.

Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.]]> 314 Matt Parker 0241360196 Chloe 4 4.11 2019 Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
author: Matt Parker
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: 8-nonfiction, z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author
review:

]]> Firstborn 8562526 43 Brandon Sanderson Chloe 3 3.98 2008 Firstborn
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-sci-fi, xanthous-orange-i-ap
review:
Well. It's sure got a premise. That's about all it has going for it.
]]> Heart of Darkness 152192 Joyce Carol Oates on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: "Heart of Darkness has had an influence that goes beyond the specifically literary. This parable of a man's 'heart of darkness' dramatized in the alleged 'Dark Continent' of Africa transcended its late Victorian era to acquire the stature of one of the great, if troubling, visionary works of western civilization."

]]> 166 Joseph Conrad 0140186522 Chloe 2 2-first-books 3.39 1899 Heart of Darkness
author: Joseph Conrad
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1899
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: 2-first-books
review:

]]> Legion (Legion, #1) 13452375 88 Brandon Sanderson 1596064854 Chloe 4 4.12 2012 Legion (Legion, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: 2-first-books, gainsboro-gray-i-acp, z-twentyfour, 0-reread, 1-borrowed, 8-sci-fi
review:
Interesting concept, well pulled off
]]> The Original 54615879 Hugo Award-winning authors Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal team up in this exclusive audio-first production of The Original, a sci-fi thriller set in a world where one woman fights to know her true identity and survive the forces that threaten her very existence.

In the near future, humans choose life - for a price. Injectable nanite technology is the lifeblood that flows through every individual wishing to experience the world through the lens of their own theme. While death from mortal wounds is still possible, life is made easier in a socially liberated society where automation and income equality allow passion pursuits to flourish over traditional work. Renewal stations are provided to every law-abiding citizen for weekly check-ins, which issue life-sustaining repairs in exchange for personal privacy. But what becomes of those who check out, of those who dare to resist immortality and risk being edited under the gaze of an identity-extracting government surveillance system?

When Holly Winseed wakes up in a hospital room, her memory compromised and a new identity imposed on her, a team of government agents wastes no time stating their objective. With intent to infiltrate and defeat the terrorist group ICON, the agents tell Holly that she is now a Provisional Replica and has one week to hunt down and kill her Original for the murder of her husband, Jonathan. If she succeeds, she’ll assume her Original’s place in society. If she fails, her life will end. Holly’s progress is monitored by an assigned contact that feeds her information as she confronts the blank, robotic world around her, discovering that others view life through the theme of their own choosing.

With her newly implanted combat and deduction skills, Holly fends off both attacks by terrorists and doubts about her own trustworthiness as clues lead her to her Original - and to the truth about Jonathan. In the end, one body remains and one walks away. Although questions persist, one thing is certain: Life will never be the same.]]> 3 Brandon Sanderson Chloe 2 3.80 2020 The Original
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: 0-repeat-author, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-sci-fi, gainsboro-gray-i-acp
review:

]]> Lady Macbeth 202102084 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.Ìý

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.ÌýÌý

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.Ìý

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.Ìý

She does not know this yet. But she will.]]> 295 Ava Reid 0593722566 Chloe 2 1) The reader doesn't get to be let in on the plans
2) The schemes aren't that cool anyway]]> 3.46 2024 Lady Macbeth
author: Ava Reid
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, uranium-blue-i-c
review:
Having a scheming protagonist is not fun if:
1) The reader doesn't get to be let in on the plans
2) The schemes aren't that cool anyway
]]> <![CDATA[The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1)]]> 42201431
Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.

Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of... lucky.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781501128035.]]> 432 Christina Lauren 1501128035 Chloe 2 Yeah, I realize I'm the problem here.]]> 3.88 2019 The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1)
author: Christina Lauren
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-romance, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, resolution-blue-e-c
review:
Am I allowed to critique a romcom by saying that it relies far too much on "whoops I touched your shirtless chest" and "lying even bigger for fake dating" moments?
Yeah, I realize I'm the problem here.
]]> Buried Deep and Other Stories 203956677 A thrilling collection of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance Trilogy, including a sneak peek at the land where her next novel will be set.

From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the gothic, magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy to the fairy tale worlds of Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories.

In Buried Deep, we move from ancient Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages and the Black Death, and into the modern era. We meet Mark Antony, Sherlock Holmes, and Elizabeth Bennet, in ways we have never seen them before. We visit exotic fantasy cities and alien civilizations among the stars.

Though the stories are vastly different, there is a unifying theme: the act of finding and seizing one’s destiny, and the lengths one will go to achieve that—be it turning pirate, captaining a fighting dragon, or shifting from marriage to seek your destiny with a sword.

And in the two tales original to this collection, we first reenter the remade Scholomance in the wake of El’s revolution and see what life is like for the new crop of students. Then, we get a glimpse at the world of Novik’s upcoming series, a deserted land, populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural behemoths whose secrets are yet to be unlocked.]]> 430 Naomi Novik 0593600355 Chloe 4
Amarita, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake 4â­�
After Hours 3â­�
Vici 3â­�
Buried Deep 4â­�
Spinning Silver 3â­�
Commonplaces 3â­�
Seven 3â­�
Blessings 4â­�
Lord Dunsany's Teapot 3â­�
Seven Years From Home 4â­�
Dragons & Decorum 3â­�
Castle Coeulieu (my least favorite) 2â­�
The Long Way Round (my favorite) 4â­�

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.]]> 3.99 2024 Buried Deep and Other Stories
author: Naomi Novik
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
This collection is full of enchanting fantasy. It will satisfy long-time Novik fans with stories set in the same worlds as her novels, and new fans as each of those stories are accessible and there are plenty of stories unconnected to her novels.

Amarita, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake 4â­�
After Hours 3â­�
Vici 3â­�
Buried Deep 4â­�
Spinning Silver 3â­�
Commonplaces 3â­�
Seven 3â­�
Blessings 4â­�
Lord Dunsany's Teapot 3â­�
Seven Years From Home 4â­�
Dragons & Decorum 3â­�
Castle Coeulieu (my least favorite) 2â­�
The Long Way Round (my favorite) 4â­�

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[Even the Darkest Stars (Even the Darkest Stars, #1)]]> 26958226
But everything changes when the mysterious and eccentric River Shara, the greatest explorer ever known, arrives in her village and demands to hire Kamzin—not her older sister, Lusha, as everyone had expected—for his next expedition. This is Kamzin’s chance to prove herself—even though River’s mission to retrieve a rare talisman for the emperor means climbing Raksha, the tallest and deadliest mountain in the Aryas. Then, Lusha sets off on her own mission to Raksha with a rival explorer, and Kamzin must decide what’s most important to her: protecting her sister from the countless perils of the climb or beating her to the summit.

The challenges of climbing Raksha are unlike anything Kamzin expected—or prepared for—with avalanches, ice chasms, ghosts, and other dangers at every turn. And as dark secrets are revealed, Kamzin must unravel the truth about their mission and her companions—while surviving the deadliest climb she has ever faced.]]> 437 Heather Fawcett 0062463403 Chloe 2 3.85 2017 Even the Darkest Stars (Even the Darkest Stars, #1)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
So disappointingly boring. DNF at 30%
]]> Piranesi 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Chloe 5
Update: I have now read this book twice in the last 48 hours.]]> 4.22 2020 Piranesi
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/13
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: 0-hyped, z-twentyfour, my-recommendations-to-you, recent-favorites, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, 8-high-fantasy, chiffon-yellow-i-a, 0-reread
review:
This novel used my own curiosity as fuel and I'm completely obsessed with it. It's a masterpiece. It's weird in the best way and all the little confusions add up to a stunningly good ending.

Update: I have now read this book twice in the last 48 hours.
]]> Heartstone (Heartstone, #1) 31290944 Pride & Prejudice in an imaginative world of wyverns, dragons, and the warriors who fight alongside them against the monsters that threaten the kingdom: gryphons, direwolves, lamias, banshees, and lindworms.

They say a Rider in possession of a good blade must be in want of a monster to slay—and Merybourne Manor has plenty of monsters.

Passionate, headstrong Aliza Bentaine knows this all too well; she’s already lost one sister to the invading gryphons. So when Lord Merybourne hires a band of Riders to hunt down the horde, Aliza is relieved her home will soon be safe again.

Her relief is short-lived. With the arrival of the haughty and handsome dragonrider, Alastair Daired, Aliza expects a battle; what she doesn’t expect is a romantic clash of wills, pitting words and wit against the pride of an ancient house. Nor does she anticipate the mystery that follows them from Merybourne Manor, its roots running deep as the foundations of the kingdom itself, where something old and dreadful slumbers . . . something far more sinister than gryphons.

It’s a war Aliza is ill-prepared to wage, on a battlefield she’s never known before: one spanning kingdoms, class lines, and the curious nature of her own heart.

Elle Katharine White infuses elements of Austen’s beloved novel with her own brand of magic, crafting a modern epic fantasy that conjures a familiar yet wondrously unique new world.]]> 352 Elle Katharine White Chloe 3 3.78 2017 Heartstone (Heartstone, #1)
author: Elle Katharine White
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/12
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-romantasy, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
It's fine. A little boring. Really leans into the Fantasy Worldbuilding without having a lot of those worldbuilding elements actually matter
]]> Ayesha at Last 43124133
Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.]]> 368 Uzma Jalaluddin Chloe 4 3.84 2018 Ayesha at Last
author: Uzma Jalaluddin
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-romance, resolution-blue-e-c
review:
Love this one! Pride and Prejudice retelling done so well. It doesn't follow the Original Pride and Prejudice plot exactly, but has just enough beats to make it so fun.
]]> Suzume 1 (Suzume manga, #1) 210635926 Your Name and Weathering With You!

High school junior Suzume has no idea why the beautiful stranger she meets is looking for ruins, for a certain door. Soon after pointing the stranger, Souta, in the direction of an abandoned resort, she thinks better of it and goes to try and stop him. But before she can find Souta, Suzume unknowingly opens a decrepit door to a world beyond time and place—and stumbles into an adventure of seismic proportions.]]> 196 Denki Amashima 1647294045 Chloe 3
Thanks to Netgalley and Vertical Comics for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.]]> 4.12 2023 Suzume 1 (Suzume manga, #1)
author: Denki Amashima
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-urban-fantasy
review:
I love this movie! This manga is a very faithful adaptation of it. I feel like in a way it's too faithful, because part of what makes the movie great is its motion, physicality, and sound effects. The manga tries to copy these faithfully, and it ends up just feeling confusing and cluttered in the attempt. I wish that the manga had leaned in instead to some of the strengths of its own medium.

Thanks to Netgalley and Vertical Comics for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> Pride and Prejudice in Space 209318826 Pride and Prejudice is arguably the forerunner of all romantic comedies and certainly one of her most popular and irreverent works. And now, graphic designer and Nerdy Ink co-owner—and obsessive fan of Pride and Prejudice—Alexis Lampley gives this timeless, classic, Regency-era romance a new twist, setting it among the stars in a futuristic universe where spaceships and interplanetary travel is the daily norm. Featuring 50+ color illustrations of the Londinium Lunar System, drawings of gowns by Lydia Bennet, and spaceship designs by Elizabeth Bennet, this is a futuristic take on a classic by a dedicated Jane Austen fan, for Austen newbies and super-fans alike.]]> 504 Alexis Lampley 1454954116 Chloe 2 Dear reader, there is nothing more to this book than putting Pride and Prejudice in space.

I reread Pride and Prejudice immediately before reading this book, thinking that it would make it more fun to be able to catch the little references and parallels that this book would have. This novel doesn't have parallels, it has whole conversations and scenes lifted from the original barely changed. Sure, some of the slang has been made "spacey," but nothing of substance has been altered. This is Pride and Prejudice wearing a filter, and not a good one.

Some of the letters and conversations have been updated to make them space-emails (or journals) with new dialogue. Those were my favorite parts of the book, because they were in the author's own voice and provided new takes on the characters and situations. Unfortunately, the fact that they were in the author's voice instead of the stilted Pride and Prejudice voice of the rest of the novel only made it more apparent that the rest of the book was so soulless and lacking in any actual reimagining.

Thanks to Netgalley and Union Square & Co for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.]]> 3.73 Pride and Prejudice in Space
author: Alexis Lampley
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: 0-browsing, 8-sci-fromance, z-twentyfour, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, celadon-green-i-ac, 9-dnf-did-not-finish
review:
When I first saw the title of this book, I laughed at it. Why didn't they come up with a better title? Surely this is just a weird marketing gimmick, and there's more to this book than just putting Pride and Prejudice in Space.
Dear reader, there is nothing more to this book than putting Pride and Prejudice in space.

I reread Pride and Prejudice immediately before reading this book, thinking that it would make it more fun to be able to catch the little references and parallels that this book would have. This novel doesn't have parallels, it has whole conversations and scenes lifted from the original barely changed. Sure, some of the slang has been made "spacey," but nothing of substance has been altered. This is Pride and Prejudice wearing a filter, and not a good one.

Some of the letters and conversations have been updated to make them space-emails (or journals) with new dialogue. Those were my favorite parts of the book, because they were in the author's own voice and provided new takes on the characters and situations. Unfortunately, the fact that they were in the author's voice instead of the stilted Pride and Prejudice voice of the rest of the novel only made it more apparent that the rest of the book was so soulless and lacking in any actual reimagining.

Thanks to Netgalley and Union Square & Co for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> Pride and Prejudice 10515068 368 Jane Austen 1435127447 Chloe 3 Now, rereading it, I can't help but be disappointed by how long and dry it is. There's a fantastic story in here, but it gets buried by so many boring passages. I think my nostalgic love for it is more fueled by the movies than the actual book.]]> 4.45 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1813
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: 2-first-books, uranium-blue-i-c, z-twentyfour, 0-reread, 1-borrowed, 2-new-author, 8-historical-fiction
review:
Tho I gave this 4stars when I was assigned to read it in school, I think that was because is was better compared to all the other classics that I was assigned.
Now, rereading it, I can't help but be disappointed by how long and dry it is. There's a fantastic story in here, but it gets buried by so many boring passages. I think my nostalgic love for it is more fueled by the movies than the actual book.
]]> <![CDATA[Valor's Choice (Confederation, #1)]]> 772606
At first it seemed that all she'd have to contend with was bored troops getting into mischief, and breaking in the new Second Lieutenant who had been given command of her men.

Sure, there'd been rumors of the Others - the sworn enemies of the Confederation - being spotted in this sector of space. But there were always rumors. The key thing was to recruit the Silsviss into the Confederation before the Others either attacked or claimed this lizardlike race of warriors for their own side. And everything seemed to be going perfectly. Maybe too perfectly...]]> 409 Tanya Huff 0886778964 Chloe 4 3.98 2000 Valor's Choice (Confederation, #1)
author: Tanya Huff
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: 0-personal-recs, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 3-authors-to-try-again, 8-sci-fi, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
I love the way this blends military action and building friendships and camaraderie
]]> <![CDATA[Full Speed to a Crash Landing (Chaotic Orbits, #1)]]> 203914630 A high octane sexy space heist from New York Times-bestselling author Beth Revis, the first in a novella trilogy.

Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they reluctantly rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission.

But Ada doesn’t care—all that matters to her is enjoying their fine food and sweet, sweet oxygen—until Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off. But as quick as Ada is, Rian might be quicker—and she may not be entirely sure who’s manipulating who until it’s too late�

A phenomenally fun novella that kicks off a trilogy of sexy space heists and romantic tension, Full Speed to a Crash Landing is packed with great characters and full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end.]]> 181 Beth Revis 0756419468 Chloe 2
The next thing that bothered me was the technobabble. I do not expect perfect science in my scifi, and I think scifi can be more fun when it doesn't get hung up on what is currently proven. However, if a science fact is presented it should at least not be blatantly wrong. Even in just the first few chapters, this book was already riddled with characters confidently saying "facts" about physics that are in direct contradiction to how physics actually works (yes, mass still matters, even in outer space).

Also, a romance needs to be more than characters ogling each other, which is what this one felt like. Of course, with our heroine annoyingly yammering the whole time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Lore for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.]]> 3.84 2024 Full Speed to a Crash Landing (Chaotic Orbits, #1)
author: Beth Revis
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-sci-fromance, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
To be honest, where this book first went wrong for me was with the audiobook narrators. There are two narrators (one for the heroine, one for the love interest's chapters). The heroine's narrator was way over the top, giving the voice a cartoonish quality. The main character is already kind of obnoxious, and this only intensified it. Our protagonist is of the Chaotic&Quirky variety, with the banter that never stops and is never really clever either. The chapters narrated by the love interest were also terrible, as they were given in a report-format. This led to a very dry recitation, constantly interrupted by footnotes that were called out by the narrator saying "Footnote: ..." If you are going to read this book, don't listen to the audiobook.

The next thing that bothered me was the technobabble. I do not expect perfect science in my scifi, and I think scifi can be more fun when it doesn't get hung up on what is currently proven. However, if a science fact is presented it should at least not be blatantly wrong. Even in just the first few chapters, this book was already riddled with characters confidently saying "facts" about physics that are in direct contradiction to how physics actually works (yes, mass still matters, even in outer space).

Also, a romance needs to be more than characters ogling each other, which is what this one felt like. Of course, with our heroine annoyingly yammering the whole time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Lore for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> See You Yesterday 59365594
The next morning, Barrett’s perplexed to find herself back in her dorm room bed, no longer smelling of ashes and crushed dreams. It’s September 21st. Again. And after a confrontation with Miles, the guy from Physics 101, she learns she’s not alone—he’s been trapped for months.

When her attempts to fix her timeline fail, she agrees to work with Miles to find a way out. Soon they’re exploring the mysterious underbelly of the university and going on wild, romantic adventures. As they start falling for each other, they face the universe’s biggest unanswered question yet: what happens to their relationship if they finally make it to tomorrow?]]> 419 Rachel Lynn Solomon 1665901926 Chloe 4 3.86 2022 See You Yesterday
author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-sci-fromance, resolution-blue-e-c
review:
Cute time loop romance! The heroine is somewhat abrasive, it took me a while to warm up to her.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hobbit, or There and Back Again]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien Chloe 3 2-first-books 4.29 1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: 2-first-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1)]]> 25895524 The international bestselling author of the Broken Empire and the Red Queen's War trilogies begins a stunning epic fantasy series about a secretive order of holy warriors...

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls.

A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass's care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family—and new enemies.

Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona's secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself.

Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way.]]> 467 Mark Lawrence 1101988851 Chloe 2 Some really cool moments. But so much of the book was the same holding pattern.

For a book that has so many female characters (yay!) it was really missing any female-friendships energy.]]> 4.14 2017 Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1)
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/16
shelves: 0-repeat-author, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, 8-high-fantasy, xanthous-orange-i-ap
review:
It's... well, um... boring.
Some really cool moments. But so much of the book was the same holding pattern.

For a book that has so many female characters (yay!) it was really missing any female-friendships energy.
]]> Calico Thunder Rides Again 51147805
Three years ago, the Ban changed everything, outlawing certain forms of magic and bringing about the rise of powerful crime syndicates. Now, speakeasies in every city sell illegal charms and jinxes, and bootleggers traffic restricted potion ingredients across the country. But even in this changing world, the magic of the circus still acts as a wondrous escape and provides entertainment for all.�

Jake Strickland owns one such circus, inherited after an accident ended his career as a rodeo dragon rider. He also inherited the circus� financial troubles, but since the show became his, he’s slowly managed to turn it into a profitable business once more. Or at least, that’s what he thought.

When a dangerous mobster comes to collect an old debt, Jake resorts to desperate measures to get the money before a strict deadline. With lives and livelihoods at stake, he battles the clock, his responsibilities to the circus, and a longstanding personal grudge that has festered for years. Can he pay back the mob before it’s too late?]]> 200 T.A. Hernandez 1734033002 Chloe 3 4.04 Calico Thunder Rides Again
author: T.A. Hernandez
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, vermillion-red-e-p
review:
1920's circus, magical speakeasies, mobsters, and dragons. It delivers.
]]> Brown Girl in the Ring 57504 In this “impressive debut� from award-winning speculative fiction author Nalo Hopkinson, a young woman must solve the tragic mystery surrounding her family and bargain with the gods to save her city and herself. (The Washington Post)

The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.]]> 256 Nalo Hopkinson 0446674338 Chloe 3 Full of life and color 3.83 1998 Brown Girl in the Ring
author: Nalo Hopkinson
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: 0-browsing, 8-urban-fantasy, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, international-orange-e-ap
review:
Full of life and color
]]> The Imaginary Corpse 42873309 A dinosaur detective in the land of unwanted ideas battles trauma, anxiety, and the first serial killer of imaginary friends.

Most ideas fade away when we're done with them. Some we love enough to become Real. But what about the ones we love, and walk away from?
Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl's imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. But when her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they're too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas - until Tippy runs into The Man in the Coat, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an idea permanently. Now Tippy must overcome his own trauma and solve the case, before there's nothing left but imaginary corpses.

File Unders: Fantasy [ Fuzzy Fiends - Death to Imagination - Hardboiled but Sweet - Not Barney ]]]> 297 Tyler Hayes 0857668315 Chloe 3 4.01 2019 The Imaginary Corpse
author: Tyler Hayes
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-project, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-high-fantasy, international-orange-e-ap
review:
It's certainly unique in worldbuilding. Very much running on the power of friendship.
]]> The Do-Over 51035594 In this riotous young adult romp for fans of Recommended for You and A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, a teen girl has the worst Valentine’s Day ever—only to relive it over and over again.

After living through a dumpster fire of a Valentine’s Day, Emilie Hornby escapes to her grandmother’s house for some comfort and a consolation pint of Ben & Jerry’s. She passes out on the couch, but when she wakes up, she’s back home in her own bed—and it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. And the next day? Another nightmare V-Day.

Emilie is stuck in some sort of time loop nightmare that she can’t wake up from as she re-watches her boyfriend, Josh, cheat on her day after day. In addition to Josh’s recurring infidelity, Emilie can’t get away from the enigmatic Nick, who she keeps running into—sometimes literally—in unfortunate ways.

How many days can one girl passively watch her life go up in flames? And when something good starts to come out of these terrible days, what happens when the universe stops doling out do-overs?]]> 304 Lynn Painter Chloe 3 Yeah it's fine. 3.93 2022 The Do-Over
author: Lynn Painter
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/26
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-romance, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
Yeah it's fine.
]]> <![CDATA[Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)]]> 61654285 A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.]]> 315 Heather Fawcett 0356519120 Chloe 5 3.98 2023 Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/31
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: z-twentythree, 0-hyped, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-romantasy, 3-watch-for-a-sequel, uranium-blue-i-c, my-recommendations-to-you
review:
Adorable. Our protagonist is very Autism Spectrum coded, and she's so fun to follow. I love her voice. Her research is fascinating, and the romance is also very cute.
]]> The Goblin Emperor 44028560 449 Katherine Addison 1786182092 Chloe 5 4.26 2014 The Goblin Emperor
author: Katherine Addison
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/18
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-project, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-high-fantasy, uranium-blue-i-c, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:
I recommend the ebook. Character list and searching for when a character was introduced is a must; there's a whole lot in here.
]]> <![CDATA[I Hunt Killers (I Hunt Killers, #1)]]> 30236872 What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?

Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?]]> 381 Barry Lyga Chloe 5
The audiobook is seriously 5stars as well.]]> 3.95 2012 I Hunt Killers (I Hunt Killers, #1)
author: Barry Lyga
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/21
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: 2-first-books, my-recommendations-to-you, thistle-purple-i-cp, z-twentytwo, 2-new-author, 0-browsing, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:
If I had a nickel for every time I loved a "teenage boy with serial killer tendencies becomes a sleuth when a serial killer comes to his small town" book, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

The audiobook is seriously 5stars as well.
]]> <![CDATA[Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1)]]> 58464942
As the king’s niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his brutal enforcer. Until the day she meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, and Katsa’s life begins to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.]]> 481 Kristin Cashore Chloe 5 4.08 2008 Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1)
author: Kristin Cashore
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/01
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: 2-first-books, byzantium-purple-e-cp, z-twenty, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, 8-romantasy
review:

]]> The Flying Troutmans 44100903 288 Miriam Toews 1640091718 Chloe 5 4.27 2008 The Flying Troutmans
author: Miriam Toews
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: 2-first-books, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)]]> 11348132 Turns out the 'everyday' world is full of strange and magical things - and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in.

Harry's business as a private investigator has been quiet lately - so when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, he's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name.
Magic - it can get a guy killed.]]> 322 Jim Butcher Chloe 5 For an extensive breakdown of how I would adapt this book into a movie: ]]> 3.94 2000 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/06
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: 8-urban-fantasy, 2-first-books, thistle-purple-i-cp, z-twentytwo, my-recommendations-to-you, 0-reread, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:
This book is campy and dramatic and mysterious and formulaic and I love it.
For an extensive breakdown of how I would adapt this book into a movie:
]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)]]> 61294937 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 483 Shannon Chakraborty Chloe 4
Bad points (I'm so close to giving this 3 stars): the way this book felt like it needed to have a preface to explain that this book is feminist (it doesn't trust the reader), the way we build for so long to certain reveals and resolutions and then it leaves them for the sequel to handle]]> 4.25 2023 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)
author: Shannon Chakraborty
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves: 0-hyped, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, anchor-gray-e-acp
review:
Good points: every scene that the demon is in, grand adventure, rootable protagonist

Bad points (I'm so close to giving this 3 stars): the way this book felt like it needed to have a preface to explain that this book is feminist (it doesn't trust the reader), the way we build for so long to certain reveals and resolutions and then it leaves them for the sequel to handle
]]> Thrice (Needle and Leaf, #1) 123282294
Forced out on the road with the boy left in his care, Jovan determines to journey into the cave of the bear—to seek out those that would do him and his boy harm.

It is the boy and his bottomless well of soul-searing magic that they seek.

They would do anything to exploit it.

And Jovan would do anything to stop them.

Thrice is the first book in the Needle and Leaf series.]]> 279 Andrew D. Meredith Chloe 2 4.00 2021 Thrice (Needle and Leaf, #1)
author: Andrew D. Meredith
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/20
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves: 0-browsing, z-twentyfour, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-high-fantasy, xanthous-orange-i-ap
review:
I really loved the Berserker Guy and Cute Little Adopted Son dynamic we had. But then nothing was really done with it, and it was superceded by many scenes of dialogue info dumps.
]]> <![CDATA[The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches]]> 60018635 A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family--and a new love--changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....
]]> 318 Sangu Mandanna 059343935X Chloe 4 Warm, cute, and witchy. 4.04 2022 The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/06/21
shelves: 0-hyped, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-urban-fantasy, jade-green-e-ac
review:
Warm, cute, and witchy.
]]> <![CDATA[Akata Witch (The Nsibidi Scripts, #1)]]> 7507944 Akata Witch transports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged in to the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Sasha form the youngest ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?]]> 349 Nnedi Okorafor 0670011967 Chloe 2 4.02 2011 Akata Witch (The Nsibidi Scripts, #1)
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-high-fantasy, unmellow-yellow-e-a, 9-dnf-did-not-finish
review:
The worldbuilding is super cool. But the protagonist is frustratingly passive and the plot takes forever to actually establish stakes.
]]> <![CDATA[Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development]]> 32606730 Powerful Character Arcs Create Powerful Stories

Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters—but it just isn’t grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It’s time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. Internationally published, award-winning novelist K.M. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.

By applying the foundation of the Three-Act Story Structure and then delving even deeper into the psychology of realistic and dynamic human change, Weiland offers a beat-by-beat checklist of character arc guidelines that flexes to fit any type of story.

This comprehensive book will teach you:

How to determine which arc—positive, negative, or flat—is right for your character.
Why you should NEVER pit plot against character. Instead, learn how to blend story structure and character development.
How to recognize and avoid the worst pitfalls of writing novels without character arcs.
How to hack the secret to using overarching character arcs to create amazing trilogies and series.
And much more!

Gaining an understanding of how to write character arcs is a game-changing moment in any author’s pursuit of the craft.

Bring your characters to unforgettable and realistic life—and take your stories from good to great!

]]> 215 K.M. Weiland 1944936033 Chloe 3 - easy to follow
- comprehensive questions to ask yourself at every step
- is the perfect length with no fluff
- applicable across genres

Bad points:
- uses exclusively default male language for the hypothetical characters]]> 4.31 2016 Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development
author: K.M. Weiland
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves: 8-writing-advice, z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-nonfiction, 9-dnf-did-not-finish
review:
Good points:
- easy to follow
- comprehensive questions to ask yourself at every step
- is the perfect length with no fluff
- applicable across genres

Bad points:
- uses exclusively default male language for the hypothetical characters
]]> <![CDATA[Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)]]> 6294 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.]]> 329 Diana Wynne Jones 006441034X Chloe 4 A fun romp 4.30 1986 Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: 2-first-books, 0-reread, z-twentyfour, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, vermillion-red-e-p
review:
A fun romp
]]> <![CDATA[Only Bad Options (Galactic Bonds, #1)]]> 61115978
A WOMAN WHO SEES EVERYTHING . . .

Few people know the name Vesper Quill. To most folks, I’m just a lowly lab rat who designs brewmakers and other household appliances in the research and development lab at the powerful Kent Corp. But when I point out a design flaw and a safety hazard in the new line of Kent Corp starcruisers, everyone knows who I am—and wants to eliminate me.

I might be a seer with a photographic memory, but I don’t see the trouble headed my way until it’s too late. Suddenly, I’m surrounded by enemies and fighting for my life.

I don’t think things can get any worse until I meet Kyrion Coldren, an arrogant Regal lord who insists that we have a connection, one that could be the death of us both.

A MAN WHO CAN’T FORGET HIS PAST . . .

The name Kyrion Caldaren strikes fear in the hearts of people across the Archipelago Galaxy. As the leader of the Arrows, the Imperium’s elite fighting force, I’m used to being a villain, as well as the personal assassin of Lord Callus Holloway. Even the wealthy Regals who live on the planet of Corion are afraid of me.

But everything changes when I meet Vesper Quill. I might be a powerful psion with telepathic, telekinetic, and other abilities, but Vesper sees far too many of my secrets.

Thanks to an arcane, unwanted quirk of psionic magic, the two of us are forced to work together to unravel a dangerous conspiracy and outwit the dangerous enemies who want to bend us to their will.]]> 427 Jennifer Estep 1950076113 Chloe 4 4.15 2022 Only Bad Options (Galactic Bonds, #1)
author: Jennifer Estep
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: 0-browsing, 8-sci-fromance, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
Very fun! I'm excited to continue the series
]]> <![CDATA[The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller]]> 1383168 Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek.ÌýThe Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all of his secrets for writing a compelling script.ÌýBased on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of StoryÌýdraws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby's own uniqueÌýapproach for how to build an effective, multifaceted narrative.ÌýTruby's method for constructing a story is at onceÌýinsightful and practical, focusing on the hero's moral and emotional growth. As a result, writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldviews in order to create an effectiveÌýstory. Writers willÌýcome away with an extremely precise set of tools to work with--specific, useful techniques to make the audience care about their characters, and that make their characters grow in meaningful ways. TheyÌýwill construct a surprising plot that is unique to their particular concept, and they will learn how to express a moral vision that can genuinely move an audience.


The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental they are applicable--and essential--to all writers, from novelists and short-story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative non-fiction.]]> 445 John Truby 0865479518 Chloe 1
This book spends pages lecturing about the importance of metaphor and underlying ideas. How the real power of stories comes from the lessons inside of them. Then, this book pivots to telling you to pick a compelling protagonist, one that uses he/him pronouns, of course. Yikes.

The absolute GALL of this author to pretend to care about the underlying message, then have the underlying message of his book be blatant sexism?!?! I am utterly enraged. Why is this book so popular? Because I do not trust a word this author writes after the putrid mess that is not bothering to consider the existence of women and non-binary people.]]> 4.23 2007 The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
author: John Truby
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/05
date added: 2024/06/06
shelves: 0-hyped, 8-nonfiction, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-writing-advice, 9-dnf-did-not-finish
review:
The way this author uses exclusively default-male pronouns is gross. Oh, you're a writer? Must be a man.

This book spends pages lecturing about the importance of metaphor and underlying ideas. How the real power of stories comes from the lessons inside of them. Then, this book pivots to telling you to pick a compelling protagonist, one that uses he/him pronouns, of course. Yikes.

The absolute GALL of this author to pretend to care about the underlying message, then have the underlying message of his book be blatant sexism?!?! I am utterly enraged. Why is this book so popular? Because I do not trust a word this author writes after the putrid mess that is not bothering to consider the existence of women and non-binary people.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy]]> 31363
Here, science fiction great Orson Scott Card shares his expertise in these genres. You'll learn:

- What is and isn't science fiction and fantasy, and by whose standards -- and where your work fits in.
- How to build, populate, and dramatize a credible, inviting world your readers will want to explore.
- How to use the MICE quotient -- milieu, idea, character, event -- to structure a successful story.
- Where the markets are and how to reach them to get published.

The knowledge and skills you gain through this book will help you effectively lead your readers into the strangeness you create -- one tantalizing step at a time.]]> 144 Orson Scott Card 158297103X Chloe 2
If you're looking for SFF writing advice, check out Brandon Sanderson's Youtube channel.]]> 3.92 1990 How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at: 2022/05/27
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves: 2-first-books, z-twentytwo, 0-hyped, 8-writing-advice
review:
I asked myself, "Why is this book going on for pages about the different types of FTL travel?" Oh, right, this was written before Wikipedia. The information here is interesting, but the audience this book was written for was 30 years ago.

If you're looking for SFF writing advice, check out Brandon Sanderson's Youtube channel.
]]> Elatsoe (Elatsoe, #1) 49089632
There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.]]> 362 Darcie Little Badger 1646140052 Chloe 3 3.98 2020 Elatsoe (Elatsoe, #1)
author: Darcie Little Badger
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves: 0-hyped, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-urban-fantasy, international-orange-e-ap
review:
Absolutely nothing wrong with this book. Just, for my taste, it was too emotionally distant from our protagonist's perspective and made it hard to connect with her.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hexologists (The Hexologists, #1)]]> 59612836

The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.
Ìý
But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake—going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven—the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent anti-royalist gang, avaricious ghouls, alchemists who draw their power from a hell-like dimension, and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.
Ìý
Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, hope from the hopeless, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for a case that will test every spell, skill, and odd magical artifact in their considerable bag of tricks.]]> 318 Josiah Bancroft Chloe 5 (That's what reading this book is like.)

This is the story of Isolde and Warren, a married couple who solve crimes. Isolde is a powerful Hexologist, a sharp investigator, and completely lacking in tact. Warren carries her bag (magical), and befriends everyone they meet. I loved their odd-couple dynamic, which is entertaining as it is wholesome.

The drama of this story comes almost entirely from the mystery they are solving: whether a man could be the hidden son of the king. Along the way they get caught up in magical battles and business tycoons, make trips to the mother-in-law and dangerous dimensions. The mystery is done quite well, with a well balanced sprinkling of clues and false-leads along the way.

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.]]> 3.79 2023 The Hexologists (The Hexologists, #1)
author: Josiah Bancroft
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/07
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: z-twentythree, 0-browsing, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 3-authors-to-try-again, 2-new-author, gainsboro-gray-i-acp, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:
Every singular sentence of The Hexologists is overly long and stuffed with superfluous, puckish, recondite adjectives. When I started my study of this book, it was daunting and snagged my focus on its myriad of dictional flourishes. However, the more I read the more I was endeared to the writing style; I was savoring the paragraphs like cradling a welcome, sapid lemon drop on my tongue.
(That's what reading this book is like.)

This is the story of Isolde and Warren, a married couple who solve crimes. Isolde is a powerful Hexologist, a sharp investigator, and completely lacking in tact. Warren carries her bag (magical), and befriends everyone they meet. I loved their odd-couple dynamic, which is entertaining as it is wholesome.

The drama of this story comes almost entirely from the mystery they are solving: whether a man could be the hidden son of the king. Along the way they get caught up in magical battles and business tycoons, make trips to the mother-in-law and dangerous dimensions. The mystery is done quite well, with a well balanced sprinkling of clues and false-leads along the way.

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1)]]> 24876258
Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion—to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.

And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake…]]> 630 Jim Butcher 0451466802 Chloe 5 4.15 2015 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/16
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: 2-first-books, gainsboro-gray-i-acp, z-twentytwo, 0-repeat-author, z-twentythree, 0-reread, 1-borrowed, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, 8-high-fantasy
review:
This book has so many POVs, and they are all balanced so well. The best of them is the talking cat
]]> The Soulmate Equation 58438593
But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands.

At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess—who is barely making ends meet—is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond� pairing that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought.

The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.]]> 360 Christina Lauren 1982171111 Chloe 5 Sciencey and full of heart 3.96 2021 The Soulmate Equation
author: Christina Lauren
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/19
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: 0-hyped, z-twentythree, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-sci-fromance, jade-green-e-ac
review:
Sciencey and full of heart
]]> <![CDATA[An Inheritance of Magic (Inheritance of Magic #1)]]> 78292528 The super-rich control everything—including magic—in this thrilling and brilliant, contemporary fantasy from the author of the Alex Verus novels.

The wealthy seem to exist in a different, glittering world from the rest of us. Almost as if by... magic.

Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into magical power takes money, opportunity, and training. All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat.Ìý

But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong people, Stephen is thrown in the deep end. For centuries, the vast corporations and aristocratic Houses of the magical world have grown impossibly rich and influential by hoarding their knowledge. To survive, Stephen will have to take his talent and build it up into something greater—for only then can he beat them at their own game.]]> 384 Benedict Jacka 0593549848 Chloe 5 4.00 2023 An Inheritance of Magic (Inheritance of Magic #1)
author: Benedict Jacka
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/29
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: z-twentythree, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, celadon-green-i-ac, my-recommendations-to-you, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:
This one just really nails an inventive hard magic system in an urban fantasy setting.
]]> <![CDATA[By a Silver Thread (DFZ Changeling #1)]]> 123245185 A new DFZ series

In the world’s most magical metropolis where spirits run noodle shops and cash-strapped dragons stage photo-ops for tourists, people still think fairies are nothing but stories, and that’s exactly how the fairies like it. It’s a lot easier to feast on humanity’s dreams when no one believes you exist. But while this arrangement works splendidly for most fair folk, Lola isn’t one of the lucky ones.

She’s a changeling, a fairy monster made just human enough to dupe unsuspecting parents while fairies steal their real child. The magic that sustains her was never meant to last past the initial theft, leaving Lola without a future. But thanks to Victor Conrath, a very powerful--and very illegal--blood mage, she was given the means to cheat death.

For a price.

Now the only changeling ever to make it to adulthood, Lola has served the blood mage faithfully, if reluctantly, for twenty years. Her unique ability to slip through wards and change her shape to look like anyone has helped make Victor a legend in the DFZ’s illegal-magic underground. It’s not a great life, but at least the work is stable� until her master vanishes without a trace.

With only a handful left of the pills that keep her human, Lola must find Victor before she turns back into the fairy monster she was always meant to be. But with a whole SWAT team of federal paladins hunting her as a blood-mage accomplice, an Urban Legend on a silent black motorcycle who won’t leave her alone, and a mysterious fairy king with the power to make the entire city dream, Lola’s chances of getting out of this alive are as slender as a silver thread.

BY A SILVER THREAD is a fast-paced Urban Fantasy featuring cunning fae, a kind heroine, and a magic so destructive that using it even once will stain your soul forever. Buckle up for a wild ride through a near-future, magical Detroit where urban legends ride the streets, fairy queens have mansions uptown, and the City is an actual deity you don't want to cross. Welcome to the DFZ! ]]> 392 Rachel Aaron Chloe 5 4.09 2023 By a Silver Thread (DFZ Changeling #1)
author: Rachel Aaron
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/18
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: z-twentythree, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, thistle-purple-i-cp, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:
I love that our protagonist is unique and doesn't fit into typical archetypes. She's soft, and dedicated, trapped in a terrible situation. She's a shapeshifter who struggles to keep herself together, and her powers are more of a hindrance than a help to her. And she's incredibly compelling and has interesting internal conflicts.
]]> Falcon 25884604 364 Emma Bull Chloe 5
2nd read: Every time I read this book, I love it a little more.]]> 4.00 1989 Falcon
author: Emma Bull
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: 2-first-books, celadon-green-i-ac, z-twentyfour, 0-reread, 1-bought, 8-sci-fi
review:
3rd read: I love how this novel holds its cards close. It only explains things when it wants to. And when things finally get explained, it's triumphant.

2nd read: Every time I read this book, I love it a little more.
]]> <![CDATA[The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)]]> 61612864
A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.]]> 559 Mark Lawrence 0593437918 Chloe 5 3.94 2023 The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-project, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 3-authors-to-try-again, 8-high-fantasy, celadon-green-i-ac, 0-0-goodreads-gaming
review:
Wow, that twist was so well crafted. I love how thoughtful this book is.
]]> <![CDATA[Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized, #1)]]> 44932446
When I arrived at my uncle's house, I expected my relatives to be like me—outcast sorcerers who don't practice magic. I was right about the sorcery, but wrong about everything else.

Rule two: Don't listen to the demon.

My uncle chose a far deadlier power. He calls creatures of darkness into our world, binds them into service contracts, and sells them to the highest bidder. And I'm supposed to act like I don't know how illegal and dangerous it is.

Rule three: Don't talk to the demon.

All I had to do was keep my nose out of it. Pretend I didn't find the summoning circle in the basement. Pretend I didn't notice the shadowy being trapped inside it. Pretend I didn't break the rules.

But I did, and now it's too late.

--
From the author of The Guild Codex: Spellbound comes a new series that will plunge an unprepared young woman into the darkest magic of the mythic world.

--
THE GUILD CODEX: DEMONIZED
Taming Demons for Beginners (#1)
Slaying Monsters for the Feeble (#2)]]> 315 Annette Marie 1988153360 Chloe 5 Now this is the good stuff 4.24 2019 Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized, #1)
author: Annette Marie
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/28
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: my-recommendations-to-you, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, z-twentyfour, 0-series, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
Now this is the good stuff
]]> <![CDATA[When Among Crows (Curse Bearer, #1)]]> 195790597 When Among Crows is swift and striking, drawing from the deep well of Slavic folklore and asking if redemption and atonement can be found in embracing what we most fear.

We bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword.

On Kupala Night, Dymitr arrives in Chicago’s monstrous, magical underworld with a perilous mission: pick the mythical fern flower and offer it to a cursed creature in exchange for help finding the legendary witch Baba Jaga.

Ala is a fear-eating zmora afflicted with a bloodline curse that’s slowly killing her. She's just desperate enough to say yes to Dymitr, even if she doesn’t know his motives.

Over the course of one night, Ala and Dymitr risk life and limb in search of Baba Jaga, and begin to build a tentative friendship. . . but when Ala finds out what Dymitr is hiding, it could destroy them both.]]> 166 Veronica Roth 1250855489 Chloe 5
1st read: I love this book and want it to find its people. It's so strongly written.
It's an urban fantasy based on Slavic folklore, about a human on a quest and the cursed people he gets help from. It's reflective, and takes time to breathe and explore emotional baggage between action sequences.

The magic system is very soft, and goes where the plot needs it to. It's used as a way to set up the conflicts, but isn't really explored. What is explored is themes of family cultures being passed down, guilt and redemption, and judgment.

I loved the audiobook. It's got multiple narrators, and they're all wonderful.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.]]> 3.71 2024 When Among Crows (Curse Bearer, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, jade-green-e-ac, 0-reread, my-recommendations-to-you, recent-favorites
review:
2nd read: This novella is so good with exposition. I'm so impressed by how carefully it establishes every element a little bit before you need to know about it.

1st read: I love this book and want it to find its people. It's so strongly written.
It's an urban fantasy based on Slavic folklore, about a human on a quest and the cursed people he gets help from. It's reflective, and takes time to breathe and explore emotional baggage between action sequences.

The magic system is very soft, and goes where the plot needs it to. It's used as a way to set up the conflicts, but isn't really explored. What is explored is themes of family cultures being passed down, guilt and redemption, and judgment.

I loved the audiobook. It's got multiple narrators, and they're all wonderful.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)]]> 50548197
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) � until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate� or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.]]> 320 Naomi Novik 0593128486 Chloe 5 3.93 2020 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: 0-personal-recs, my-recommendations-to-you, 0-0-goodreads-gaming, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-high-fantasy, gainsboro-gray-i-acp, recent-favorites
review:
What a prickly protagonist. I love how this book is playing with a teenager destined to become the dark lord.
]]> A Dark and Drowning Tide 174146852 A sharp-tongued folklorist must pair up with her academic rival to solve their mentor's murder in this lush and enthralling sapphic fantasy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic.

Lorelei Kaskel, a folklorist with a quick temper and an even quicker wit, is on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The magical spring promises untold power, which the king wants to harness to secure his reign of the embattled country of Brunnestaad. Lorelei is determined to use this opportunity to prove herself and make her wildest, most impossible dream come to become a naturalist, able to travel freely to lands she’s only ever read about.

The expedition gets off to a harrowing start when its leader—Lorelei’s beloved mentor—is murdered in her quarters aboard their ship. The suspects are her five remaining expedition mates, each with their own motive. The only person Lorelei knows must be innocent is her longtime academic rival, the insufferably gallant and maddeningly beautiful Sylvia von Wolff. Now in charge of the expedition, Lorelei must find the spring before the murderer strikes again—and a coup begins in earnest.

But there are other dangers lurking in the forests that rearrange themselves at night, rivers with slumbering dragons waiting beneath the water, and shapeshifting beasts out for blood.

As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.]]> 384 Allison Saft 0593722345 Chloe 3
But, by the end I was enjoying the plot and romance enough to finish the book.

I think the readers that will love this book are the ones who can really appreciate a self-sabotaging protagonist.

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.]]> 3.59 2024 A Dark and Drowning Tide
author: Allison Saft
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-romantasy, byzantium-purple-e-cp
review:
My first impression of this book was that its setup was messy. Messy in worldbuilding. Messy in demonstrating character dynamics and personalities. Messy in setting up a scene. It made it difficult for me to love the reading experience.

But, by the end I was enjoying the plot and romance enough to finish the book.

I think the readers that will love this book are the ones who can really appreciate a self-sabotaging protagonist.

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA["Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character]]> 35167685 A New York Times bestseller—the outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original.


Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, thrived on outrageous adventures. Here he recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek; cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador. In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric—a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.]]> 400 Richard P. Feynman 0393355624 Chloe 2 There's no connective tissue here. Just unrelated, short, boring anecdotes.

DNF at 9%]]> 4.26 1985 "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character
author: Richard P. Feynman
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: 8-nonfiction, z-twentyfour, 0-browsing, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author
review:
I now see why, when I said I was going to read this, multiple people told me, "I DNFed that one."
There's no connective tissue here. Just unrelated, short, boring anecdotes.

DNF at 9%
]]> <![CDATA[A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell, #1)]]> 28186322
But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron who has ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.]]> 357 Deanna Raybourn 0451476026 Chloe 4 Fun, twisty, flirty 3.94 2015 A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell, #1)
author: Deanna Raybourn
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves: 0-hyped, z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-historical-fiction, jade-green-e-ac
review:
Fun, twisty, flirty
]]> <![CDATA[Tangled Up in You (Meant to Be, #4)]]> 199214907 She has a dream. He has a plan. Together they’ll take a leap of faith.

Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.

Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few months short from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.

But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire on a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they've both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.

A witty and deeply romantic modern reimagining of Disney’s Tangled.]]> 314 Christina Lauren 1368100643 Chloe 4
I loved the characters in this book! Our POV characters, Ren and Fitz, are given solid motivations and conflicts, loveable personalities. Their relationship is very cute.

One of the downsides of this book for me was how focused it was on the physical relationship between Fitz and Ren. Though it is a closed door romance, much of the plot in the second half of the book is revolving around the question of "Will these two go all the way? Look at that, they have to share a bed again. Maybe they will finally kiss this time, maybe they'll do more than that?" It was like the book didn't know what it wanted to be, because while the content didn't go farther than kissing, the tone and internal monologues of the characters tried to go much farther. It ends up in a middle ground that doesn't feel like it will satisfy any readers, either the people who are looking for closed door romances or the people who are looking for spice in their romances.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hyperion Avenue for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ]]> 3.95 2024 Tangled Up in You (Meant to Be, #4)
author: Christina Lauren
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-romance, resolution-blue-e-c
review:
I love the movie Tangled, and this book worked well as a reimagining of it. I admired how the book took some of the movie's iconic scenes, while still holding its own identity. I think this book can be loved by both Tangled fans and people who have never seen the movie.

I loved the characters in this book! Our POV characters, Ren and Fitz, are given solid motivations and conflicts, loveable personalities. Their relationship is very cute.

One of the downsides of this book for me was how focused it was on the physical relationship between Fitz and Ren. Though it is a closed door romance, much of the plot in the second half of the book is revolving around the question of "Will these two go all the way? Look at that, they have to share a bed again. Maybe they will finally kiss this time, maybe they'll do more than that?" It was like the book didn't know what it wanted to be, because while the content didn't go farther than kissing, the tone and internal monologues of the characters tried to go much farther. It ends up in a middle ground that doesn't feel like it will satisfy any readers, either the people who are looking for closed door romances or the people who are looking for spice in their romances.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hyperion Avenue for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[Stories of Your Life and Others]]> 223380 ]]> 281 Ted Chiang 0330426648 Chloe 3
Tower of Babylon 2â­�
Understand 2â­�
Division by Zero 3â­�
Story of Your Life 4â­�
Seventy-two letters 2â­� (least favorite)
The Evolution of Human Science 3â­�
Hell is the Absence of God 3â­�
Liking What You See 4â­� (my favorite)]]> 4.28 2002 Stories of Your Life and Others
author: Ted Chiang
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-hyped, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 4-frizzle-fish-bookclub, 8-sci-fi, chiffon-yellow-i-a
review:
Some really cool premises. But, wow, most of them have terribly unsatisfying endings.

Tower of Babylon 2â­�
Understand 2â­�
Division by Zero 3â­�
Story of Your Life 4â­�
Seventy-two letters 2â­� (least favorite)
The Evolution of Human Science 3â­�
Hell is the Absence of God 3â­�
Liking What You See 4â­� (my favorite)
]]> The Winter Sea 59825696 From the much-loved author of The Vanished Days, a novel of love, loyalty and ultimate betrayal...1707An ill-fated expedition for the New World left Sophia Paterson an orphan, cared for by her uncle. On his passing, a distant relative offers what Sophia longs for a home. Slains Castle, on the rugged Scottish coast, is much more comfortable than she is accustomed to. But danger is right around the corner, as rebels conspire to bring the exiled James Stewart to Scotland to reclaim his crown.Present dayEnchanted by the ruins of the castle, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn this all-but-forgotten story into her next novel. Settling in the nearby village, she creates a heroine named after one of her ancestors and starts to write.Discovering her novel contains more than she researched, Carrie wonders if this is ancestral memory â€� making her the only living person to know what truly happened all those years ago. With each new chapter she uncovers the secrets of the past in a sweeping tale of love, loyalty and ultimate betrayal.Praise for Susanna ‘A deeply engaging romance and a compelling historical novel’Ì�Bernard Cornwell, author ofÌýThe Last Kingdom‘An epic romance for an epic season, by one of Canada’s best historical fiction writersâ€�The Globe and Mail‘A terrific read, evocative and romantic’Ì�Nicola Cornick, author ofÌýThe Scandals of an Innocent‘Fascinating, immersiveÌýand twisty â€� twists not only of plot, but of character and timeâ€�Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series***Susanna Kearsley's sweepingly brilliant new novel, The Vanished Days, is out now.***]]> 526 Susanna Kearsley Chloe 3 4.47 2008 The Winter Sea
author: Susanna Kearsley
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/18
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: z-twentyfour, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-historical-fiction, celadon-green-i-ac, 0-project
review:
Historical fiction with a touch of romance. I didn't love how the split timeline made it difficult be be invested.
]]> <![CDATA[Magical Hazmat (Supernatural CSI #1)]]> 194952064
Armed with a degree in Biomagical Engineering, Nadege “Dodge" Michaels dreams of revolutionizing the magical hazmat business. She’s going to take it from simple tagging-and-bagging to forensic investigations of paranormal crime scenes.

When Dodge and her hapless new intern are dragged into a bloody vendetta between the local team of supernatural Slayers and the mysterious Organ Grinder, her unsanctioned field work almost gets her roasted alive.

Caught in the crosshairs of a ruthless crime boss pushing deadly, magic-infused drugs, it’s going to take all of Dodge’s engineering and ingenuity to bring the killer to justice before she becomes the next victim.

Fans of Ilona Andrews and Jim Butcher will love this new urban fantasy series with its crime-solving, science-loving heroine, her unstable shifter sidekick, and her kickass, hammer-wielding Valkyrie backup.]]> 308 Cath Lauria Chloe 3
The protagonist's involvement in the plot of the book was clunky tho. It felt like the book was always reaching for flimsy excuses to continue. I wish that she had been given more personal stakes connected to the plot, instead of feeling like "well I guess I have to do this now, because of [flimsy reason with plot hole]" every other scene.]]> 4.35 2023 Magical Hazmat (Supernatural CSI #1)
author: Cath Lauria
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-project, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 2-new-author, 8-urban-fantasy, vermillion-red-e-p
review:
I really love the concepts in this book. We've got a woman who cleans magical crime scenes, and she's passionate about studying magical animals. The book doesn't shy away from talking about the chemistry of her magical experiments either.

The protagonist's involvement in the plot of the book was clunky tho. It felt like the book was always reaching for flimsy excuses to continue. I wish that she had been given more personal stakes connected to the plot, instead of feeling like "well I guess I have to do this now, because of [flimsy reason with plot hole]" every other scene.
]]> <![CDATA[The Last Murder at the End of the World]]> 136276877
Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island—and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer—and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking.

From the bestselling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water comes an inventive, high-concept murder mystery: an ingenious puzzle, an extraordinary backdrop, and an audacious solution.]]> 368 Stuart Turton Chloe 2 In practice, we are often in an effective limited-3rd person point of view of other characters. I did enjoy following our detective, Emory. However, her perspective was also poorly utilized. She's always finding clues, but those clues are never connected to anything else. It feels more like a book that it made out of a list of suspicious blood stains instead of a real investigation. There's a lot of clues and moving parts to the story, and I wasn't able to feel grounded in the tale or follow where the clues were leading.

I was going to give this book 3 stars, but as I think about it more, it has dropped to 2 stars. Mostly this is because of the large amount of plot holes, and people's motives not matching their actions. Once I finished the book and got through all of the reveals, I was only disappointed. I had my theories of who the murderer was, and I was wrong. Honestly, my theories feel like they fit better to the clues and characters, and the actual answer is full of plot holes and ridiculous contortions of logic.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own. ]]> 3.63 2024 The Last Murder at the End of the World
author: Stuart Turton
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, new-york-pink-i-p, 8-mystery-thriller
review:
This is a sci-fi mystery novel. The sci-fi dystopian elements are great, but the mystery elements fall flat. I think a big reason for that is the perspective. Our narrator is an omniscient AI security system. This, practically, means that our narrator knows everything but annoyingly will not reveal anything the whole book.
In practice, we are often in an effective limited-3rd person point of view of other characters. I did enjoy following our detective, Emory. However, her perspective was also poorly utilized. She's always finding clues, but those clues are never connected to anything else. It feels more like a book that it made out of a list of suspicious blood stains instead of a real investigation. There's a lot of clues and moving parts to the story, and I wasn't able to feel grounded in the tale or follow where the clues were leading.

I was going to give this book 3 stars, but as I think about it more, it has dropped to 2 stars. Mostly this is because of the large amount of plot holes, and people's motives not matching their actions. Once I finished the book and got through all of the reveals, I was only disappointed. I had my theories of who the murderer was, and I was wrong. Honestly, my theories feel like they fit better to the clues and characters, and the actual answer is full of plot holes and ridiculous contortions of logic.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
]]> The Rom-Commers 195790586 She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.� Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?]]> 336 Katherine Center 1250283809 Chloe 4
This book is so bingeable! I read this so fast in a day. I was so invested in how everything would turn out (mostly the movie script that they were writing, and the character of of Charlie). It's primarily about the joy of writing, caretaking of your family, and letting people in despite past relationship trauma.

The audiobook performance is average. Not annoying or bad in any way, not it didn't blow me away.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy to review. All opinions are my own.]]> 4.06 2024 The Rom-Commers
author: Katherine Center
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/29
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-romance, resolution-blue-e-c
review:
This is one of those Katherine Center's that is very feely, made me cry, and had a good romance. On the Rom-com spectrum, it's much closer to a drama than a comedy. It was heart wrenching, but never made me laugh.

This book is so bingeable! I read this so fast in a day. I was so invested in how everything would turn out (mostly the movie script that they were writing, and the character of of Charlie). It's primarily about the joy of writing, caretaking of your family, and letting people in despite past relationship trauma.

The audiobook performance is average. Not annoying or bad in any way, not it didn't blow me away.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy to review. All opinions are my own.
]]> <![CDATA[There Is a Door in This Darkness]]> 198563756 A magic-tinged contemporary YA about grief and hope from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of the Graceling Realm novels.

Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with the election of Donald Trump and they ended with COVID. Now Wilhelmina, like so many of her peers, is in limbo, having deferred college because of the pandemic. Compounding the national trauma of 2016 to 2020, Wilhelmina has wrestled with the devastating loss of one of her three beloved aunts shortly after the 2016 election. This is a loss she felt so keenly that she’s spent the last years deep in her personal depression, only obscured by the seemingly endless waves of national trauma. Now on the cusp on the most consequential election in living memory, Wilhelmina may have found a door in her darkness and perhaps the courage to pass through it, if she can decipher the bizarre messages that keep appearing in her life.]]> 384 Kristin Cashore 0803739990 Chloe 2
The one Very-2020 part of this book that I feel DID WORK is the ruminations on isolation. This ties in with one of the major conflicts of the book; the protagonist is cut off from her friends and adrift from regular life. I just wish the other points of this book also tied in with the plot and internal conflict.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dutton Books for Young Readers for a copy to review. All opinions are my own. ]]> 3.61 2024 There Is a Door in This Darkness
author: Kristin Cashore
name: Chloe
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-arc-advanced-reader-copies, 2-first-books, 8-literary-fiction, resolution-blue-e-c, 9-dnf-did-not-finish
review:
I don't object to the politics in this book. I do object to the fact that the many pages of Trying to Make a Political Point in this book are boring, lacking stakes, and don't tie in well with the rest of the plot. Every few pages there's a surprise paragraph about the 2020 USA election, or covid lockdown protocols. It rarely works well with the rest of the book, and feels out of place. This feels less like a story, and more like the author had many rants and emotions during 2020 that she wanted to share with a weak framing device.

The one Very-2020 part of this book that I feel DID WORK is the ruminations on isolation. This ties in with one of the major conflicts of the book; the protagonist is cut off from her friends and adrift from regular life. I just wish the other points of this book also tied in with the plot and internal conflict.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dutton Books for Young Readers for a copy to review. All opinions are my own.
]]> Freedom & Necessity 39722411
On the south coast of England, London man-about-town James Cobham comes to himself in a country inn, with no idea how he got there. Corresponding with his brother, he discovers he has been presumed drowned in a boating accident. Together they decide that he should stay put for the moment, while they investigate what may have transpired. For James Cobham is a wanted man—wanted by conspiring factions of the government and the Chartists alike, and also targeted by a magical conspiracy inside his own family.

And so the adventure ofÌýFreedom and NecessityÌýbeginsâ€� leading the reader through every corner of mid-nineteenth-century Britain, from the parlors of the elite to the dens of the underclass. Steven Brust and Emma Bull have crafted a masterful mix of fantasy and historical fiction. Not since Wilkie Collins or Conan Doyle has there been such a profusion of guns, swordfights, family intrigues, women disguised as men, occult societies, philosophical discussions, and, of course, passionate romance.

REVIEWS

"Resembling the works of Tolstoy and Dickens in the plethora of characters, Stoker and Mary Shelley in the exposition, the novel brings together intrigue, adventure, politics, and magic in a complex epic that astonishes the reader.� —Library Journal

“Complex and masterly . . . A skilful act of ventriloquism, faithfully reproducing the argot of the early Victorian upper classes with only a few lapses, and plausibily weaving the plot into the politics at the time. Imaginative and finely written.� —Interzone

“Expertly styled after a 19th-century English epistolary novel . . . Engaging characters and surprises that, for all their thrills, stem quite naturally from the groundwork that the authors have so cleverly laid.� —Publishers Weekly

“One of the most impressive novels I've read in a long time.� —Locus

“Brilliantly written as an epistolary novel, rich with historical detail, enlivened by fully drawn characters, this is one of the most unusual and certainly one of the best fantasy novels of the year.� —Science Fiction Chronicle

“Brust and Bull's historical fantasy-mystery recalls George Macdonald Fraser's Flashman adventures in the creative use of a rich historical background and also echoes the pioneering Victorian mysteries of Wilkie Collins in offering the reader a convoluted puzzle. It begins with the apparent demise of a fashionable young Englishman in a boating accident, then gathers speed as the deceased's cousin receives a letter from him. Thereafter, it rapidly becomes an exceptional page-turner, full of plots, counterplots, and chases; a mass of Victorian virtues, vices, and settings; and an array of material and magical weapons worthy of a technothriller. Even its erotic scenes are excellent and appropriate, and while it does demand some historical literacy about nineteenth-century Europe, those demands probably will not daunt most of the current fantasy audience. Brust and Bull's superior work is a credit to both of them and deserves a place in every self-respecting fantasy collection.� —Booklist]]> 691 Steven Brust Chloe 2 4.12 1997 Freedom & Necessity
author: Steven Brust
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves: 0-repeat-author, z-twentyfour, 1-bought, 2-first-books, 8-historical-fiction, 9-dnf-did-not-finish, celadon-green-i-ac
review:
Very dense and bloated historical fiction. I can't get through it. There were some really good flashes of character relationship building, but it wasn't enough to get me through the hundreds of pages of irrelevant filler. DNF @ 72%. I so wish I could have loved this book.
]]> The Grace of Wild Things 61150756 An inventive and fantastical reimagining of Anne of Green Gables—with magic and witches!—that explores found family, loss, and the power of a girl's imagination, from the acclaimed author of The Language of Ghosts and The School Between Winter and Fairyland.

Grace has never been good at anything except magic—not that anyone believes her. While other children are adopted from the orphanage, nobody wants Grace. So she decides to make a home for herself by running away and offering herself as an apprentice to the witch in the nearby woods. After all, who better to teach Grace to use her magic? Surely the witch can’t be that bad.

But the witch is that bad—she steals souls for spells and gobbles up hearts. So Grace offers a deal: If she can learn all 100½ spells in the witch’s grimoire, the witch will make Grace her apprentice. But if Grace fails, the witch can take her magic. The witch agrees, and soon an unexpected bond develops between them. But the spells are much harder than Grace expected, and when a monster from the witch’s past threatens the home Grace has built, she may have to sacrifice more than her magic to save it.

Inspired by Anne of Green Gables, this is a magical story of found family, loss, and the power of a girl’s imagination.]]> 360 Heather Fawcett 0063142627 Chloe 4 4.10 2023 The Grace of Wild Things
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Chloe
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/25
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves: z-twentyfour, 0-repeat-author, 1-borrowed, 2-first-books, 8-urban-fantasy, jade-green-e-ac
review:
Very cute and touching. Lovely even for someone with no nostalgia for Anne of Green Gables (me).
]]>