jaidyn's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 24 Mar 2025 08:47:41 -0700 60 jaidyn's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Mr Salary 34234631 My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all.

Years ago, Sukie moved in with Nathan because her mother was dead and her father was difficult, and she had nowhere else to go. Now they are on the brink of the inevitable.

Sally Rooney is one of the most acclaimed young talents of recent years. With her minute attention to the power dynamics in everyday speech, she builds up sexual tension and throws a deceptively low-key glance at love and death.]]> 33 Sally Rooney 0571351956 jaidyn 5 3.76 2016 Mr Salary
author: Sally Rooney
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
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]]> The Favorites 211399784 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER � An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

“P Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story� through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 448 Layne Fargo 0593732049 jaidyn 5 4.17 2025 The Favorites
author: Layne Fargo
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> The Giver (The Giver, #1) 3636 208 Lois Lowry 0385732554 jaidyn 0 currently-reading 4.12 1993 The Giver (The Giver, #1)
author: Lois Lowry
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Palo Alto 7840834 Palo Alto is the debut of a surprising and powerful new literary voice. Written with an immediate sense of place--claustrophobic and ominous--James Franco's collection traces the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. In "Lockheed" a young woman's summer--spent working a dull internship--is suddenly upended by a spectacular incident of violence at a house party. In "American History" a high school freshman attempts to impress a girl during a classroom skit with a realistic portrayal of a slave owner—only to have his feigned bigotry avenged. In "I Could Kill Someone," a lonely teenager buys a gun with the aim of killing his high school tormentor, but begins to wonder about his bully's own inner life.

These linked stories, stark, vivid, and disturbing, are a compelling portrait of lives on the rough fringes of youth.

]]> 208 James Franco 1439163146 jaidyn 3 3.00 2009 Palo Alto
author: James Franco
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> The Prince 168661 The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince... a king...a president. When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. The prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast, fox and lion. Today, this small sixteenth-century masterpiece has become essential reading for every student of government, and is the ultimate book on power politics.

This Bantam Classic edition of The Prince includes selections from Machiavelli's Discourses as well as an introduction and notes by the translator, Daniel Donno.]]> 166 Niccolò Machiavelli 0553212788 jaidyn 5 3.67 1513 The Prince
author: Niccolò Machiavelli
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1513
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> Martyr! 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 jaidyn 4 4.22 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]> 3049 144 Unknown 0451528182 jaidyn 4 3.71 1375 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
author: Unknown
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1375
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X jaidyn 4 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> Meet Me at the Lake 61797464
At thirty-two, Fern's life doesn't look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern's back home, running her mother's Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend's the manager, and Fern doesn't know where to begin.

She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern's going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern's not sure she wants to know what it is.

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?]]> 336 Carley Fortune 0735243786 jaidyn 3 3.66 2023 Meet Me at the Lake
author: Carley Fortune
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]> 527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.17 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> Gorgias 1354
Taking the form of a dialogue between Socrates, Gorgias, Polus and Callicles, Gorgias debates perennial questions about the nature of government and those who aspire to public office. Are high moral standards essential or should we give our preference to the pragmatist who gets things done or negotiates successfully? Should individuals be motivated by a desire for personal power and prestige, or genuine concern for the moral betterment of the citizens? These questions go to the heart of Athenian democratic principles and are more relevant than ever in today's political climate.]]> 208 Plato 0140449043 jaidyn 4 3.94 -380 Gorgias
author: Plato
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.94
book published: -380
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
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]]> Beowulf 52357 259 Unknown 0393320979 jaidyn 3 3.46 1000 Beowulf
author: Unknown
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1000
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/28
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]]> If We Were Villains 222128958
A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras.

But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students� world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.]]> 370 M.L. Rio jaidyn 0 to-read 3.83 2017 If We Were Villains
author: M.L. Rio
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[As Good As Dead (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #3)]]> 56905097 The finale to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. By the end of this mystery series, you'll never think of good girls the same way again...

Pip is about to head to college, but she is still haunted by the way her last investigation ended. She’s used to online death threats in the wake of her viral true-crime podcast, but she can’t help noticing an anonymous person who keeps asking her: Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?

Soon the threats escalate and Pip realizes that someone is following her in real life. When she starts to find connections between her stalker and a local serial killer caught six years ago, she wonders if maybe the wrong man is behind bars.

Police refuse to act, so Pip has only one choice: find the suspect herself—or be the next victim. As the deadly game plays out, Pip discovers that everything in her small town is coming full circle... and if she doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears...]]> 500 Holly Jackson 0593379853 jaidyn 4 4.20 2021 As Good As Dead (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #3)
author: Holly Jackson
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)]]> 60784546 After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again�

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands � that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper � an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]> 357 Rebecca Ross 1250857430 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.14 2023 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)]]> 123257687
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.]]> 342 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649375808 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.88 2023 Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)]]> 44778083
Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he's offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City's underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they'd only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom-and the power of love.]]> 803 Sarah J. Maas 1635574048 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.43 2020 House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.16 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Daisy Jones & The Six 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.20 2019 Daisy Jones & The Six
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 jaidyn 4 3.87 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
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]]> Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 150260809
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 895 Rebecca Yarros jaidyn 5 4.56 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars. Really enjoyed this book. Super strong second novel in the series! With that being said, the writing could have been edited down, I feel, and the writing was a bit cringy at times, but that’s a personal preference for an adult reading young adult fantasy. Overall, I had fun reading and I am excited to read Onyx Storm
]]> Book Lovers 58708383 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens� life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters� trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 398 Emily Henry jaidyn 0 to-read 4.27 2022 Book Lovers
author: Emily Henry
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> My Body 57145833
Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age twenty-one, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture’s commodification of women is the subject of this book.

My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men's treatment of women and women's rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski’s life while investigating the culture’s fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women’s sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the gray area between consent and abuse. Nuanced, fierce, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a writer brimming with courage and intelligence.]]> 239 Emily Ratajkowski 1250817862 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.99 2021 My Body
author: Emily Ratajkowski
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Fairy Tale 60177373 Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.� And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.]]> 607 Stephen King 1668002175 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.05 2022 Fairy Tale
author: Stephen King
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> I'm Glad My Mom Died 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy jaidyn 0 to-read 4.45 2022 I'm Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)]]> 76705490 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

"A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.]]> 420 Sarah J. Maas 1639730966 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.34 2013 Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)]]> 61215351 One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.]]> 432 J.R.R. Tolkien jaidyn 0 to-read 4.52 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1954
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Man Called Ove 218358507 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.� But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents� association to their very foundations.]]> 346 Fredrik Backman jaidyn 0 to-read 4.48 2012 A Man Called Ove
author: Fredrik Backman
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
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review:

]]> Conversations with Friends 32187419 A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple.

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa's orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil--and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.

Written with gem-like precision and probing intelligence, Conversations With Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth."]]> 304 Sally Rooney 0451499077 jaidyn 4 my-favorites 3.74 2017 Conversations with Friends
author: Sally Rooney
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/15
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: my-favorites
review:

]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 jaidyn 4 my-favorites 4.22 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/10
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: my-favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)]]> 36336078 Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman's frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.]]> 248 André Aciman 1786495252 jaidyn 4 my-favorites 4.08 2007 Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)
author: André Aciman
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/07
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: my-favorites
review:
i could really relate to this book. just, sometime i thought elio was a bit weird
]]> Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 jaidyn 4 my-favorites 3.81 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/24
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: my-favorites
review:

]]> Love and Other Words 36206545 The story of the heart can never be unwritten.

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).]]> 432 Christina Lauren 1501128019 jaidyn 5 my-favorites 4.28 2018 Love and Other Words
author: Christina Lauren
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/05
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: my-favorites
review:
reread for me. i love these characters and this story
]]> Lapvona 59693959 In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet

Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life’s few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him as a baby, as she did so many of the village’s children. Ina’s gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina’s home in the woods outside of the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place.

Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. The people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world, civility and savagery, will prove to be very thin indeed.]]> 313 Ottessa Moshfegh jaidyn 3 3.53 2022 Lapvona
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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]]> The Wife 394255 Just like our marriage." So opens Meg Wolitzer's compelling and provocative novel The Wife, as Joan Castleman sits beside her husband on their flight to Helsinki. Joan's husband, Joseph Castleman, is "one of those men who own the world...who has no idea how to take care of himself or anyone else, and who derives much of his style from the Dylan Thomas Handbook of Personal Hygiene and Etiquette." He is also one of America's preeminent novelists, about to receive a prestigious international award to honor his accomplishments, and Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, has finally decided to stop.

From this gripping opening, Wolitzer flashes back fifty years to 1950s Smith College and Greenwich Village -- the beginning of the Castleman relationship -- and follows the course of the famous marriage that has brought them to this breaking point, culminating in a shocking ending that outs a carefully kept secret.

Wolitzer's most important and ambitious book to date, The Wife is a wise, sharp-eyed, compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she's made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. But it's also an unusually candid look at the choices all men and women make for themselves, in marriage, work, and life. With her skillful storytelling and pitch-perfect observations, Wolitzer invites intriguing questions about the nature of partnership and the precarious position of an ambitious woman in a man's world.

]]> 219 Meg Wolitzer 0743456661 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.66 2003 The Wife
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sleepwalking 195590 The debut novel from New York Times–bestselling author Meg Wolitzer, a story of three college students� shared fascination with poetry and death, and how one of them must face difficult truths in order to leave her obsession behind.

Published when she was only twenty-three and written while she was a student at Brown, Sleepwalking marks the beginning of Meg Wolitzer’s acclaimed career. Filled with her usual wisdom, compassion and insight, Sleepwalking tells the story of the three notorious “death girls,� so called on the Swarthmore campus because they dress in black and are each absorbed in the work and suicide of a different poet: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Wolitzer’s creation Lucy Asher, a gifted writer who drowned herself at twenty-four. At night the death girls gather in a candlelit room to read their heroines� work aloud.

But an affair with Julian, an upperclassman, pushes sensitive , struggling Claire Danziger—she of the Lucy Asher obsession-–to consider to what degree her “death girl� identity is really who she is. As she grapples with her feelings for Julian, her own understanding of herself and her past begins to shift uncomfortably and even disturbingly. Finally, Claire takes drastic measures to confront the facts about herself that she has been avoiding for years.]]> 224 Meg Wolitzer 0380682214 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.45 1982 Sleepwalking
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> The Interestings 15815333
The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.

The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules's now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.

Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.]]> 468 Meg Wolitzer 1594488398 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.58 2013 The Interestings
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> Little Women 7241986 The Great American Read

Part of Penguin’s beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth � four “little women� enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England. The charming story of the March sisters, Little Women has been adored by generations. Readers have rooted for Laurie in his pursuit of Jo’s hand, cried over little Beth’s death, and dreamed of traveling through Europe with old Aunt March and Amy. Future writers have found inspiration in Jo’s devotion to her writing. In this simple, enthralling tale, both parts of which are included here, Louisa May Alcott has created four of American literature’s most beloved women.]]> 504 Louisa May Alcott 0141192410 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.25 1868 Little Women
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1868
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> Appropriate 19089333 Winner of the 2014�2015 Obie Award for Best New American Play.]]> 80 Branden Jacobs-Jenkins 0822231913 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.31 2013 Appropriate
author: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/24
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review:

]]> Anxious People 49127718 A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage. There's a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

Includes short story - The Last Round of Golf]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 198216963X jaidyn 0 to-read 4.17 2019 Anxious People
author: Fredrik Backman
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beartown (Beartown, #1) 33413128
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.]]> 432 Fredrik Backman jaidyn 0 to-read 4.27 2016 Beartown (Beartown, #1)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Holiday Romance (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #1)]]> 61401417 She’s meant to be catching flights, not catching feelings�

Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight.

Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up.

Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.

The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it can’t possibly go wrong.

What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own�

A totally gorgeous and escapist friends-to-lovers festive romance with a swoon-worthy hero. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi Macfarlane, and Christina Lauren.]]> 354 Catherine Walsh 1803145455 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.01 2022 Holiday Romance (Fitzpatrick Christmas, #1)
author: Catherine Walsh
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When the Moon Hatched (Moonfall, #1)]]> 202507554 moons.

They certainly did not expect them to fall.

As a valued Elding Blade of the rebellion group Fíur du Ath, Raeve’s job is to kill. To complete orders and never get caught. When a renowned bounty hunter is employed by The Crown to capture a member of the Ath, Raeve’s world is turned upside down. Blood spills, hearts break, and Raeve finds herself at the mercy of the Guild of Nobles—a group of dual-beaded elementals who intend to turn her into a political statement. Only death will set her free.

Crushed beneath a mourning weight, Kaan Vaegor took the head of a king and donned his melted crown. Now on a tireless quest to assuage the never-ebbing ache in his chest, his hunt for a moonshard lures him into the belly of Gore’s notorious prison where he stumbles upon something that rips apart his perception of reality. A shackled miracle with eyes full of rage and blood on her hands.

The echo of the past sings louder than the Creators themselves, and even Raeve can’t ignore the truths blaring at her from a warmer, happier time.
However.
There’s more to this song than meets the eye, and some truths �
They’re too poisonous to swallow.

When the Moon Hatched is a fast-paced fantasy romance for fans of witty banter and strong, sassy protagonists. Beneath the cover is an immersive, vibrant world with mysterious creatures, a unique magic system, and a love that blazes through the ages. ]]> 718 Sarah A. Parker jaidyn 0 to-read 3.99 2024 When the Moon Hatched (Moonfall, #1)
author: Sarah A. Parker
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #2)]]> 220389465 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

Evie Crowe is starting over in a strange town with her newborn, and men are the furthest thing from her mind. If only the quiet, hulking farmer, Luke Ward, would stop coming into the thrift shop and piquing her reluctant interest. Evie wants to stay single all the way—she can’t trust anything more than friends-with-holiday-benefits. But Luke is in it for the long haul. He’s fixed on making this a Christmas Evie will remember forever. If she gives him a chance.

Tessa Bailey’s Merry Ever After is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 59 Tessa Bailey 1662528736 jaidyn 2 2.79 2024 Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #2)
author: Tessa Bailey
name: jaidyn
average rating: 2.79
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
1.5 stars. I think I just need to realize that these tropes don’t work for me and it actually just makes me super uncomfortable
]]> <![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 528 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 jaidyn 5 4.56 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year]]> 199531989 Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.]]> 293 Ally Carter 0063276682 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.92 2024 The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
author: Ally Carter
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Certain Hunger 44294655
But there is something within Dorothy that's different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority.

A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world's most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.]]> 250 Chelsea G. Summers jaidyn 0 to-read 3.73 2019 A Certain Hunger
author: Chelsea G. Summers
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Bloodguard (Old Erth, #1) 61431953
Everything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie.

Leith of Grey thought coming to this new land and volunteering to fight in the gladiator arena—vicious, bloodthirsty tournaments where only the strongest survive—would earn him enough gold to save his dying sister. He thought there was nothing left to lose.

He was wrong—and they took everything. His hope. His freedom. His very humanity.

All Leith has left is his battle-scarred body, fueled by rage and hardened from years of fighting for the right to live another day.

Then Leith meets Maeve, an elven royal who is everything he despises. Everything he should hate. Until the alluring princess offers him the one thing he needs most: a chance to win the coveted title of Bloodguard—and his freedom.

But in a kingdom built on secrets and lies, hope doesn’t come cheap.

Nor will his ultimate revenge…]]> 448 Cecy Robson 1649374054 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.56 2024 Bloodguard (Old Erth, #1)
author: Cecy Robson
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #1)]]> 220389458 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

All newly minted pediatrician Jamie Malek wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc—her best friend’s troublemaking brother, who’s now a tech billionaire. He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night.

Ali Hazelwood’s Cruel Winter with You is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 73 Ali Hazelwood 1662528396 jaidyn 3 3.68 2024 Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
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Pretty good for a short story!
]]> <![CDATA[Reckless (The Powerless Trilogy, #2)]]> 183086339
After surviving the Purging Trials, Ordinary-born Paedyn Gray has killed the King, and kickstarted a Resistance throughout the land. Now she’s running from the one person she had wanted to run to.

Kai Azer is now Ilya’s Enforcer, loyal to his brother Kitt, the new King. He has vowed to find Paedyn and bring her to justice.

Across the deadly Scorches, and deep into the hostile city of Dor, Kai pursues the one person he wishes he didn’t have to. But in a city without Elites, the balance between the hunter and hunted shifts � and the battle between duty and desire is deadly.

Be swept away by this kiss-or-kill romantasy trilogy taking the world by storm.]]> 396 Lauren Roberts jaidyn 4 4.07 2024 Reckless (The Powerless Trilogy, #2)
author: Lauren Roberts
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
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review:

]]> The Silent Patient 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 jaidyn 4 4.17 2019 The Silent Patient
author: Alex Michaelides
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)]]> 75513900 She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting.
He is the very thing she’s spent her whole life pretending to be.

Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites.

The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity.

Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most. Having been trained by her father to be overly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can in order to stay alive and out of trouble. Easier said than done.

When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilyas princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials. The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites� powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is—completely Ordinary.]]> 523 Lauren Roberts jaidyn 4 4.75 4.17 2023 Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)
author: Lauren Roberts
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
4.75
]]> Hamlet 1420 289 William Shakespeare 0521618746 jaidyn 5 4.02 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1601
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
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]]> We Used to Live Here 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.67 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman jaidyn 3 3.5 3.87 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves:
review:
3.5
]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 489732 'The horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty'

Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succès de scandale. Early readers were shocked by its hints at unspeakable sins, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895.

This definitive edition includes a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novel's immorality, and the introduction to the first Penguin Classics edition by Peter Ackroyd.]]> 253 Oscar Wilde 0141439572 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.21 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1890
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
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]]> The Taming of the Shrew 47021
Padua holds many suitors for the hand of fair Bianca, but Bianca may not be married until her spinster sister, Kate, is wed. Could any man be rash enough to take on Kate?

The witty adventurer Petruchio undertakes the task. While he sets about transforming Kate from foul-tempered termagant to loving wife, young Lucentio and his clever servant, Tranio, plot to win Bianca.

Frances Barber and Roger Allam are Kate and Petruchio. Lucentio is played by Alan Cox.]]> 291 William Shakespeare 074347757X jaidyn 4 3.76 1593 The Taming of the Shrew
author: William Shakespeare
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1593
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/05
date added: 2024/09/05
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shakespeare is kinda goofy for this one; not in a good way. 1600s rage bait or just purely misogynistic men? 4 stars for 10 things I hate about you, though.
]]> Dead Poets Society 67238 166 N.H. Kleinbaum 0553282980 jaidyn 4 3.75 4.19 1988 Dead Poets Society
author: N.H. Kleinbaum
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:
3.75
]]> 1984 5470 328 George Orwell jaidyn 4 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/13
date added: 2024/08/13
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]]> <![CDATA[A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man]]> 7588 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a novel of sexual awakening, religious rebellion and the essential search for voice and meaning that every nascent artist must face in order to blossom fully into themselves.]]> 329 James Joyce 0142437344 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.64 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
author: James Joyce
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1916
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> Dune (Dune, #1) 53180949 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

In 1965, after being rejected by more than a dozen publishing houses, a book called "Dune" was brought out by the Chilton Book Company. Its respected author, journalist Frank Herbert, had written "Dune" with nothing more in mind than to entertain his readers with the telling of a particularly complex story, one which had occupied his thoughts for more than six years. No one - not Herbert, not Chilton, not the science fiction community at the time - had any idea that "Dune" would be adopted and read by successive generations with a fervor bordering on cult worship. Or that it would prove to be merely the first of what have now become five international bestsellers about a desert world of the future - the planet Arrakis, called Dune.]]> 884 Frank Herbert 0441172717 jaidyn 3 3.5 ⭐️ 4.36 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1965
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves:
review:
3.5 ⭐️
]]> Bones & All 21570066
Since she was a baby, Maren has had what you might call "an issue" with affection. Anytime someone cares for her too much, she can’t seem to stop herself from eating them. Abandoned by her mother at the age of 16, Maren goes looking for the father she has never known, but finds more than she bargained for along the way.

Faced with love, fellow eaters, and enemies for the first time in her life, Maren realizes she isn’t just looking for her father, she is looking for herself. The real question is, will she like the girl she finds?]]> 304 Camille DeAngelis 1250046505 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.58 2015 Bones & All
author: Camille DeAngelis
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction]]> 35721089
Now a Major Motion Picture

What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery. Before Nic became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets. David Sheff traces the first warning signs: the denial, the three a.m. phone calls—is it Nic? the police? the hospital? His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself. But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every treatment that might save his son. And he refused to give up on Nic.]]> 352 David Sheff 1328974715 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.27 2007 Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
author: David Sheff
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
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]]> Writers & Lovers 52715989 Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.

Blindsided by her mother's sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey's fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers & Lovers follows Casey--a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist--in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.]]> 324 Lily King 0802148530 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.99 2020 Writers & Lovers
author: Lily King
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
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]]> Novelist as a Vocation 61323833
Here are the personal details of a life devoted to craft: the initial moment at a Yakult Swallows baseball game, when he suddenly knew he could write a novel; the importance of memory, what he calls a writer’s “mental chest of drawers�; the necessity of loneliness, patience, and his daily running routine; the seminal role a carrier pigeon played in his career and more.

"What I want to say is that in a certain sense, while the novelist is creating a novel, he is simultaneously being created by the novel as well." � Haruki Murakami]]> 224 Haruki Murakami 1101974532 jaidyn 3
I don’t know, they weren’t huge comments, just slightly off putting ones that stopped the flow of reading. Otherwise, I did get some valuable information from this.]]> 3.79 2015 Novelist as a Vocation
author: Haruki Murakami
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. I enjoyed reading this novel, as well as most of the content. At times, there were brief instances where Murakami made some weird comments; one about how most of the women that read his books are beautiful�

I don’t know, they weren’t huge comments, just slightly off putting ones that stopped the flow of reading. Otherwise, I did get some valuable information from this.
]]> Frankenstein 543102 324 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0192833669 jaidyn 4 4.04 1818 Frankenstein
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1818
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/14
date added: 2024/05/14
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review:

]]> The Handmaid's Tale 49982302 311 Margaret Atwood jaidyn 4 4.13 1985 The Handmaid's Tale
author: Margaret Atwood
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/14
date added: 2024/05/14
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor]]> 584599
Posing as a physics professor, David solicited information on reactor design from the U.S. government and from industry experts. Following blueprints he found in an outdated physics textbook, David cobbled together a crude device that threw off toxic levels of radiation. His wholly unsupervised project finally sparked an environmental emergency that put his town’s forty thousand suburbanites at risk. The EPA ended up burying his lab at a radioactive dumpsite in Utah. This offbeat account of ambition and, ultimately, hubris has the narrative energy of a first-rate thriller.]]> 209 Ken Silverstein 0812966600 jaidyn 0 3.72 2004 The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor
author: Ken Silverstein
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at: 2016/09/19
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Leave the World Behind 50358031
Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and - with nowhere else to turn - they have come to the country in search of shelter.

But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple - and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?]]> 241 Rumaan Alam 0062667637 jaidyn 3 3.13 2020 Leave the World Behind
author: Rumaan Alam
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2024/03/08
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review:
a bit pretentious, but i loved the ending and the theme of the book.
]]> <![CDATA[Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)]]> 76703559 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas 163973094X jaidyn 5 4.18 2012 Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:
thoroughly enjoyed this! was never bored and it was easily digestible
]]> One Day 11047698 ***Pre-order David Nicholls' new novel YOU ARE HERE now - Coming April 2024***THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER, SOON TO BE A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES'A wonderful, wonderful book' THE TIMES 'Perfect' NEW YORK TIMES 'A modern classic' DAILY MIRROR 'You'd be hard pressed to find a sharper, sweeter romantic comedy' INDEPENDENT 'Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable' NICK HORNBYTWENTY YEARS, TWO PEOPLE, ONE DAY15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?ONE OF BRITAIN'S MOST ACCLAIMED WRITERS 'One of the most astute chroniclers of England as it is now' FINANCIAL TIMES 'An uncanny ability to make us laugh out loud, but also care passionately about his characters' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Nicholls writes with such tender precision about love' THE TIMES 'No one else writes novels that are both relatable and revelatory in the way he does' EVENING STANDARD 'Genuinely brilliant' NEW STATESMAN]]> 442 David Nicholls jaidyn 0 to-read 4.20 2009 One Day
author: David Nicholls
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Prison Healer (The Prison Healer, #1)]]> 53968496
When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal: a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water, and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.

Then a coded message from Kiva’s family arrives, containing a single order: “Don’t let her die. We are coming.� Aware that the Trials will kill the sickly queen, Kiva risks her own life to volunteer in her place. If she succeeds, both she and the queen will be granted their freedom.

But no one has ever survived.

With an incurable plague sweeping Zalindov, a mysterious new inmate fighting for Kiva’s heart, and a prison rebellion brewing, Kiva can’t escape the terrible feeling that her trials have only just begun.

From bestselling author Lynette Noni comes a dark, thrilling YA fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, and Sabaa Tahir.]]> 416 Lynette Noni 0358434556 jaidyn 3 this was by no means “bad,� but i thought there was a noticeable margin for improvement in some areas of the book for me. i think i would have been more invested if the trials were a bit more puzzle like, or just more complex in general. there was so much buildup just for her being asked to jump off a building.

in all, it was too slow and not too much going on. i did like the characters for the most part, mainly the guard, the love interest, and the kid.

with all that being said, i wouldn’t be against reading the second one and seeing if i enjoy it more, but it might be awhile until i pick it up.]]> 4.15 2021 The Prison Healer (The Prison Healer, #1)
author: Lynette Noni
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves:
review:
very slow pace for me.
this was by no means “bad,� but i thought there was a noticeable margin for improvement in some areas of the book for me. i think i would have been more invested if the trials were a bit more puzzle like, or just more complex in general. there was so much buildup just for her being asked to jump off a building.

in all, it was too slow and not too much going on. i did like the characters for the most part, mainly the guard, the love interest, and the kid.

with all that being said, i wouldn’t be against reading the second one and seeing if i enjoy it more, but it might be awhile until i pick it up.
]]> <![CDATA[Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]> 171547 Songs of Innocence and of Experienceis an collection of poems byWilliam Blake.

Note: For a complete Table of Contents of the included poems, see the 'Questions' section below.

This book appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titledSongs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

The work compiles two contrasting but directly related books of poetry by William Blake. Songs of Innocence honors and praises the natural world, the natural innocence of children and their close relationship to God. Songs of Experience contains much darker, disillusioned poems, which deal with serious, often political themes. It is believed that the disastrous end to the French Revolution produced this disillusionment in Blake. He does, however, maintain that true innocence is achieved only through experience.]]> 56 William Blake 1420925806 jaidyn 4 4.10 1794 Songs of Innocence and of Experience
author: William Blake
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1794
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/21
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review:
4.5 ⭐️ I enjoyed more poems from Songs of Experience, but I was even more invested than the average reader because my professor showed us prints of Blake’s drawings in person and even recreations of the templates he used to print them!
]]> If He Had Been with Me 58960219 A New York Times Bestseller

If he had been with me everything would have been different...

I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts. What they do not know-the cause of the argument-is crucial.

So let me tell you...]]> 397 Laura Nowlin jaidyn 4 3.87 2013 If He Had Been with Me
author: Laura Nowlin
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/21
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review:
nah cause why is laura gonna causally drop the most heart-wrenching, devastating, heart-stopping, tear-jerking novel ever??? i will genuinely never get over this, so i will trauma block the ending and make up my own
]]> Dance Dance Dance 17800 Alternate cover edition here.

High-class call girls billed to Mastercard. A psychic 13-year-old dropout with a passion for Talking Heads. A hunky matinee idol doomed to play dentists and teachers. A one-armed beach-combing poet, an uptight hotel clerk and one very bemused narrator caught in the web of advanced capitalist mayhem. Combine this offbeat cast of characters with Murakami's idiosyncratic prose and out comes Dance Dance Dance.]]> 393 Haruki Murakami 0099448769 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.06 1988 Dance Dance Dance
author: Haruki Murakami
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/20
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Even If This Love Disappears Tonight]]> 61399263 240 Misaki Ichijo 1975348338 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.12 2020 Even If This Love Disappears Tonight
author: Misaki Ichijo
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Memoirs of a Geisha 929
In "Memoirs of a Geisha," we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.]]> 503 Arthur Golden 1400096898 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.31 1997 Memoirs of a Geisha
author: Arthur Golden
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Woman in White 5890 Librarian note: Alternate covers can be found here and here.

'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.

Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialisation history.]]> 672 Wilkie Collins jaidyn 0 to-read 4.00 1859 The Woman in White
author: Wilkie Collins
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1859
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
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]]> Betting on You 60197314
Now, Bailey and Charlie are still polar opposites, but instead of everything about him rubbing Bailey the wrong way, she starts to look forward to hanging out and gossiping about the waterpark guests and their coworkers—particularly two who keep flirting with each other. Bailey and Charlie make a bet on whether or not the cozy pair will actually get together. Charlie insists that members of the opposite sex can’t just be friends, and Bailey is determined to prove him wrong.

Bailey and Charlie keep close track of the romantic progress of others while Charlie works to deflect the growing feelings he’s developed for Bailey. Terrified to lose her if his crush becomes known, what doesn’t help his agenda is Bailey and Charlie “fake dating� in order to disrupt the annoying pleasantries between Bailey’s mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. Soon, what Charlie was hoping to avoid becomes a reality as Bailey starts to see him as not only a friend she can rely on in the midst of family drama—but someone who makes her hands shake and heart race. But Charlie has a secret—a secret that involves Bailey and another bet Charlie may have made. Can the two make a real go of things…or has Charlie’s secret doomed them before they could start?]]> 432 Lynn Painter 1665921234 jaidyn 4
loved these characters sm. definitely a new comfort read for me. can i please find my own charlie sampson??]]> 4.12 2023 Betting on You
author: Lynn Painter
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves:
review:
4.25⭐️

loved these characters sm. definitely a new comfort read for me. can i please find my own charlie sampson??
]]> Vanity of Human Wishes 21798711 31 Samuel Johnson jaidyn 4 4.5 stars 3.75 1749 Vanity of Human Wishes
author: Samuel Johnson
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1749
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/02/17
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
]]> Cleopatra and Frankenstein 60784819
Cleo and Frank run head-first into a romance that neither of them can quite keep up with. It reshapes their lives and the lives of those around them, whether that’s Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender identity in the wake of her marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates after being cut off. Ultimately, this chance meeting between two strangers outside of a New Year’s Eve party changes everything, for better or worse.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein is an astounding and painfully relatable debut novel about the spontaneous decisions that shape our entire lives and those imperfect relationships born of unexpectedly perfect evenings.]]> 384 Coco Mellors 1639730702 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.67 2022 Cleopatra and Frankenstein
author: Coco Mellors
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Good Material 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story�

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> 345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.85 2023 Good Material
author: Dolly Alderton
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Everything I Know About Love 46041465
When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else� realizing that you are enough.

Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age—making you want to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it. Like Bridget Jones� Diary but all true, Everything I Know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its terrifying and hopeful uncertainty.]]> 368 Dolly Alderton 0062968785 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.98 2018 Everything I Know About Love
author: Dolly Alderton
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Eloisa to Abelard 27127856 24 Alexander Pope 1517520460 jaidyn 5 4.33 1717 Eloisa to Abelard
author: Alexander Pope
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1717
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves:
review:
This is my favorite poem I’ve ever read. The way Pope can write heroic couplets is extraordinary.
]]> Oroonoko 51190 Oroonoko reflects the author's romantic views of native peoples as being in "the first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin." The novel also reveals Behn's ambiguous attitude toward slavery: while she favored it as a means to strengthen England's power, her powerful and moving work conveys its injustice and brutality.]]> 144 Aphra Behn 0140439889 jaidyn 4 3.01 1688 Oroonoko
author: Aphra Behn
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.01
book published: 1688
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/24
date added: 2024/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Their Broken Knees 198971281
1789. The French Revolution sends its first shockwaves throughout Europe, rattling both soil and stars. Both stars fall from the heavens, landing on opposite sides of France in bodies that don’t belong to them. Both broken and starving to find the other, they begin to crawl through battlefields and the complexity of humanity. They confine themselves to mortal names and jobs–a pirate and a revolutionary–in the hopes of surviving long enough to earn information about their lost half.

But their centuries of watching history have not prepared them to become a part of the ongoing narrative. As time bleeds away, their ability to abide by humanity’s code of morals thins. Their patience begins to crack. And fate watches the stars begin their path to inevitable collision.]]> Aleena Rose jaidyn 0 to-read 4.81 Their Broken Knees
author: Aleena Rose
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.81
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Modern 123420885
Set in the pristine, precarious world of MoMA, The Modern is a brilliantly wry and insightful debut about art, sexuality, commitment and whether being on the right path can lead to the wrong place.

Things seem to be working out for Sophia in New having come from Australia to be at the centre of modernity, she’s working at the Museum of Modern Art, living in a great apartment with a boyfriend interviewing for Ivy League teaching positions. They’re smart, serious, dine in the right restaurants and have (a little unexpectedly) become engaged just before he leaves to hike the Appalachian Trail.

Alone in the city, Sophia begins to wonder what it means to be married � to be defined, publicly � in the 21stcentury. Can you be true to yourself and someone else? In a bridal shop she meets Cara, a young artist struggling to get over her ex-girlfriend, and the two begin a connection that leads Sophia to question the nature of her relationships, her career and the consequences of being modern.

Both playful and profound, inhabiting the gap between what we feel about ourselves and how we behave, Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel is a sparklingly insightful queer exploration of desire, art and her generation’s place in the world. It announces an exceptional new literary voice.
]]> 325 Anna Kate Blair 1761421255 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.05 2023 The Modern
author: Anna Kate Blair
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)]]> 53344030
Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They've finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick's house ... But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?

By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper encompasses all the small moments of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.]]> 336 Alice Oseman 1444957651 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.47 2023 Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)
author: Alice Oseman
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 199204376
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined - every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 528 Suzanne Collins 176026587X jaidyn 3 4.03 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/27
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Shiver 53330239 In this propulsive locked-room thriller debut, a reunion weekend in the French Alps turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snowstorm.

When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition.

Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones--missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead.

Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear...]]> 400 Allie Reynolds 0593187830 jaidyn 0 to-read 3.76 2020 Shiver
author: Allie Reynolds
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sadie 34810320 A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial-like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.]]> 308 Courtney Summers 1250105714 jaidyn 0 to-read 4.04 2018 Sadie
author: Courtney Summers
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen #1)]]> 61124389
An epic and unforgettable love story begins in Binding 13, the first in the international bestselling and TikTok-phenomenon The Boys of Tommen series, from Chloe Walsh.

He wants to save her. She wants to hide.

She's damaged. He's determined.

Fate brought them together. Love binds them.

Johnny Kavanagh is the definition of popular. He is an all-star rugby player with loads of friends, which means he should be enjoying the many perks of his life. But what people don't know is that he has been dealing with a painful injury that could halt the magnificent trajectory of his career. This means he has no time for distractions or mistakes. Especially not a girlfriend.

Shannon Lynch has been bullied all her life. She is shy and would rather hide herself away to make it through school. But when she arrives at Tommen College for a fresh start, she meets the notorious Johnny Kavanagh on her first day in a not-so-romantic way. What follows is a complicated friendship that turns into undeniable chemistry. It seems that Shannon won't be able to hold onto the anonymous status she once hoped for. But maybe that's alright?

Johnny won't give up on Shannon. No matter what it might cost them both.

Filled with angst and an attraction like no other, Binding 13 will suck you into the bingeworthy Boys of Tommen universe. This book is perfect for readers looking for:

New adult/YA crossover Irish romance
Dual POVs
Friends-to-lovers
TikTok books
Sports romance

Readers are gushing:

"You need this book in your life."

"I'm beyond obsessed. no review could do this book justice but wow. I'm SPRINTING to Keeping 13!!!!!"

"I NEED A JOHNNY KAVANAGH �"

"Instantly became one of my top 5 books of all time."

"This was so, so good. Excellent character building. Excellent relationship building. Just excellent all around."]]> 608 Chloe Walsh jaidyn 0 to-read 4.45 2018 Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen #1)
author: Chloe Walsh
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Every Summer After 58014893
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.]]> 320 Carley Fortune 0593438531 jaidyn 4 4.17 2022 Every Summer After
author: Carley Fortune
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves:
review:
the big reveal was what bumped this down to 4 stars. i was and am in love with this book, but how could percy do that to sam? how could someone do that to another person? anyways i’ll forever be upset and thinking about this book. sam deserves EVERYTHING
]]> The Only One Left 62703226 At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer�I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,� Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.]]> 383 Riley Sager 0593183223 jaidyn 4 4.12 2023 The Only One Left
author: Riley Sager
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves:
review:
4.25 ⭐️ really enjoyed this, was just a bit dense and hard to get into at first. so many plot twists lmao
]]> <![CDATA[A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #3)]]> 62816044 Two villains, one girl, and a deadly battle for happily ever after.

Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.

Blood will be shed, hearts will be stolen, and true love will be put to the test in A Curse for True Love, the breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy.]]> 386 Stephanie Garber 1250851203 jaidyn 4 so good!! definitely not as underwhelming as people have been saying, atleast for me. i do wish there was another book or novella to wrap a few more things up. love these characters though and this was a fast read. ]]> 4.14 2023 A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #3)
author: Stephanie Garber
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/10
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves:
review:
4.5 ⭐️
so good!! definitely not as underwhelming as people have been saying, atleast for me. i do wish there was another book or novella to wrap a few more things up. love these characters though and this was a fast read.
]]> The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1) 56554626 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins, writing as Erin Sterling, casts a spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride� scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.]]> 308 Erin Sterling 006302747X jaidyn 0 to-read 3.46 2021 The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1)
author: Erin Sterling
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Let It Snow 61087087 Curl up with the perfect cosy read and the latest novel by the bestselling author of Just the Way You Are.

After the end of a long-term relationship, local weather girl Bea Armstrong has been avoiding her family, and their inevitable ‘I-told-you-sos.� But with Christmas fast approaching, she is finally on her way home to Charis House, the school in Sherwood Forest that her mum and dad run in their old family home. And to top it all off, the insufferable Henry Fairfax � who her parents have always wanted her to marry � has also been invited.

Relief comes in the shape of a last-minute interview for her dream job. There are just a few minor problems� The interview is in Scotland, Bea has no car, and the snow is falling already. The only solution is for Henry to drive her � could this Christmas get any worse�

But during an unforgettable two-day interview, a stay in a log cabin and a nightmare journey through the snow, Henry turns out to be nothing like she thought. And when Bea’s first love and recent ex shows up, Bea has a difficult choice to make…]]> 367 Beth Moran 180280644X jaidyn 0 to-read 4.13 2022 Let It Snow
author: Beth Moran
name: jaidyn
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Bloater 60534041 A rediscovered literary classic, The Bloater is a rollicking hothouse novel where love and repulsion are two paths to the same abyss

Why do the only men I know carry wet umbrellas and say “Umm?� I’m being starved alive. Quick: the first bookshop for a copy of the Kama-Sutra.

Min works at the BBC as a sound engineer, and in theory she’s married, but her husband George is so invisible that she accidentally turns the lights off even when he’s still in the room. Luckily, she has her friends and lovers to distract her: in Min’s self-lacerating, bracingly opinionated voice, life boils down to sex appeal―and of late she’s being courted by an internationally renowned opera singer whom she refers to as The Bloater (a swelled, salted herring). Disgusted by and attracted to him in equal measure, her dilemma―which reaches a hysterical, hilarious pitch―is whether to sleep with him or not.

Rosemary Tonks―the salt and pepper of the earth―is a writer who gets her claws into the reader with all the joy of a cat and a mouse. Vain and materialistic, tender and savage, narrated in brilliant, sparkling prose, The Bloater is the perfect snapshot of London in the 1960s.]]> 135 Rosemary Tonks 0811234568 jaidyn 4 3.50 1968 The Bloater
author: Rosemary Tonks
name: jaidyn
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/09
date added: 2023/10/09
shelves:
review:

]]>