en-US Thu, 03 Apr 2025 17:58:20 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 215748787 Rule One: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime.
Rule Two: You can only travel for ninety seconds.
Rule Three: You can only observe.
The rules cannot be broken.

In this riveting science fiction novel from acclaimed author Philip Fracassi, a scientist has unlocked the mysteries of time travel. This is not the story you think you know. And the rules are only the beginning.

Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She's built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler's lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.

After Beth's husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella—their only daughter—and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.

Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp.

As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future.]]> 336 Philip Fracassi 0316572519 Benni 0 to-read 3.67 2025
author: Philip Fracassi
name: Benni
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213570812 "I'm in your blood, and you are in mine��"

The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy's twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband's grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister's condition, but it's clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too.

Then, the worst happens. Sarah's behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry�� and hungry.��

Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever.]]> 368 Johanna van Veen 1728281571 Benni 0 to-read 4.04 2025
author: Johanna van Veen
name: Benni
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214565614 A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.]]> 448 Stephen Graham Jones 1668075083 Benni 0 4.30 2025
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Benni
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: currently-reading, historical-fiction, sff-paranormal-speculative, horror
review:

]]> 51901147
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 favor 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.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Benni 5 Sunrise on the Reaping. This was an interesting villain origin story. But the ideas Snow has for the Hunger Games seem a little divorced from his experiences? Seems like he would have come up with the same ideas regardless, so that's the only part that I think could have been improved upon. Still, an incredible read.]]> 3.99 2020
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Benni
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative, young-adult
review:
I hated Coriolanus Snow in the original trilogy (I know we're supposed to but still), so I wasn't really moved to read this book until after I finished Sunrise on the Reaping. This was an interesting villain origin story. But the ideas Snow has for the Hunger Games seem a little divorced from his experiences? Seems like he would have come up with the same ideas regardless, so that's the only part that I think could have been improved upon. Still, an incredible read.
]]> 214229691 From an outstanding new voice in cozy fantasy comes��Greenteeth,��a ��tale of fae, folklore, and found family, narrated by a charismatic lake-dwelling monster with a voice unlike any other, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher.

Beneath the still surface of a lake lurks a monster with needle sharp teeth. Hungry and ready to pounce.

Jenny Greenteeth has never spoken to a human before, but when a witch is thrown into her lake, something makes Jenny decide she's worth saving. Temperance doesn't know why her village has suddenly turned against her, only that it has something to do with the malevolent new pastor.

Though they have nothing in common, these two must band together on a magical quest to defeat the evil that threatens Jenny's lake and Temperance's family, as well as the very soul of Britain.]]> 304 Molly O'Neill Benni 0 to-read 4.01 2025
author: Molly O'Neill
name: Benni
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218624103 448 T. Kingfisher 1250400228 Benni 0 to-read 4.11 2018
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Benni
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Benni 5 ]]> 4.68 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Benni
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative, young-adult
review:
I can't stop thinking about the message...

]]> 219848373 A slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world.

Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, finds himself in dire need of an expert healer. As fate would have it, that very healer is Aurienne Fairhrim, a member of his enemy Order, the Haelen.

Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick, so desperate that when Osric breaks into her office to offer her a bribe for her healing services, she must accept. Even if she loathes him.

A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders - much to Aurienne's disgust. Despite being enemies thrown together, as Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness, but the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly Pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction which seems to only fuel the heat between them.

Romance tropes include:
Enemies to lovers
High interaction slow burn
Hypercompetent idiots
He falls first and harder
Evisceration as a love language]]> 384 Brigitte Knightley 0593819454 Benni 0 to-read 4.51 2025
author: Brigitte Knightley
name: Benni
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Benni 0 to-read 4.44 2025
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Benni
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207294741 A group of students encounter a supernatural terror while on a road trip through Appalachia in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the “unforgettable and scary�� (Harlan Coben) Chasing the Boogeyman. 1983: Three students from a small college embark on a week-long road trip to film a documentary on roadside memorials for their American Studies class. The project starts out as a fun adventure with long stretches of empty road and nightly campfires where they begin to open up with one another. But as they venture deeper into the Appalachian backwoods, the atmosphere begins to darken. They notice more and more of the memorials feature a strange, unsettling symbol hinting at a sinister secret. Paranoia sets in when it appears they are being followed. Their vehicle is tampered with overnight and some of the locals appear to be anything but welcoming. Before long, the students can’t help but wonder if these roadside deaths were really random accidents…or is something terrifying at work here?]]> 480 Richard Chizmar 1668009196 Benni 3
I can't say too much more without spoiling the book, but I did not enjoy where the plot went...despite some interesting "folklore," what actually happens in the end just felt way too hokey and unbelievable.]]> 3.75 2024
author: Richard Chizmar
name: Benni
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: horror, thrillers, historical-fiction
review:
I immediately fell in love with the three main characters.

I can't say too much more without spoiling the book, but I did not enjoy where the plot went...despite some interesting "folklore," what actually happens in the end just felt way too hokey and unbelievable.
]]> 127280776
There are only three real powers in the universe: the corporate power of the Trust versus the Union's labor's leverage. And between them, the Guild tries to keep everyone's hands above the table. It ain't easy.

Branded a Guild deserter, Jal "accidentally" lands a ride on a Guild ship. Helmed by an AI, with a ship's engineer/medic who doesn't see much of a difference between the two jobs, and a "don't make me shoot you" XO, the Guild crew of the Ambit is a little . . . different.

They're also in over their heads. Responding to a distress call from an abandoned planet, they find a mass grave, and a live programmer who knows how it happened. The Trust has plans. This isn't the first dead planet, and it's not going to be the last.

Unless the crew of the Ambit can stop it.]]> 407 L.M. Sagas 1250871255 Benni 0 to-read 3.83 2024
author: L.M. Sagas
name: Benni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61884842 Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.

They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.

---

Content warnings are available at the author's website (see author bio).]]> 399 Yume Kitasei 1250875331 Benni 4
(Not sure if I fully understand the mission. Even with multi-national astronauts, 80+ women and tons of sperm may still not be enough for long-term adaptive potential on a faraway planet. And they didn't seem to even test for fertility before they sent off these women.)]]> 3.66 2023
author: Yume Kitasei
name: Benni
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
I didn't love the slower-paced flashbacks interspersed between the space chapters because I really wanted to find out what happened. But ultimately this book was an interesting enough spaceship mystery.

(Not sure if I fully understand the mission. Even with multi-national astronauts, 80+ women and tons of sperm may still not be enough for long-term adaptive potential on a faraway planet. And they didn't seem to even test for fertility before they sent off these women.)
]]> 217036212 After a perfectly normal bird is captured
by a perfectly deranged alchemist,
and her soul is remade in torment,
she rots in a cage, dreading her doom,
awaiting the perfect moment ��

Escape lies in the dark secrets of her new mind, as does a disturbing new thirst for blood.

Together with Vladimir, her feline companion in captivity, Torment sets out on a flight through realms of dreams and spirits in search of a way to break the curse that binds them to their master.

But in the vast and strange worlds yonder dwell the discontented spirits of the dead, and Torment and Vladimir are as likely to uncover the truth they seek as they are to be lost forever, or consumed by the ancient darkness stirring in the depths of their alchemically altered souls.

A novel filled with horrors lurking in the shadows, with whimsical creatures from surreal dimensions �� a fable about journeys inward and onward into the unknown �� featuring mad scholars, vampires from the dawn of time, animal familiars and giant slugs (among many other oddities).

Perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett and Edgar Allan Poe, lovers of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Otfried Preußler’s Krabat, for those who would like to see Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland meet Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in a modern dark fantasy.]]> 403 Silas A. Bischoff 3982650925 Benni 0 4.62
author: Silas A. Bischoff
name: Benni
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative, horror, to-read
review:

]]> 211826907 A woman on the run. A crew of Viking mercenaries. A forbidden romance. And the secret which threatens them all.

Silla Nordvig is running for her life.

The Queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous travel the treacherous Road of Bones–a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer–and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her.

After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. But the queen’s ruthless assassin has other plans and hunts Silla obsessively.

Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?

Featuring an immersive world blending fairy tale with Vikings, The Road of Bones leads you on an adrenaline-fueled chase with fun banter and a slow-building enemies to lovers romance. The first book in the Ashen Series, you are one click away from reading it!]]> 560 Demi Winters 0593975618 Benni 0 4.26 2023
author: Demi Winters
name: Benni
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative, to-read
review:

]]> 210384823 An utterly gripping story of alien encounter and survival from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.

They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back . . .

New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists �� and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud’s inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that. Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, they are unable to contact their ship and are running out of time. What follows is a gruelling journey across land, sea and air. During this time, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s dominant species. It also begins to understand them . . .

If they escape Shroud, they’ll face a crew only interested in profiteering from this extraordinary world. They’ll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all.]]> 436 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1035013797 Benni 5
The book is bleak in that space travel here isn't just about discovery or necessity but primarily capitalism, so most corporate-driven decisions here seem counter to the type of decisions you normally see in scifi media.

The ending really lands.

]]> 4.18 2025
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Benni
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative, horror
review:
It's so refreshing to read scifi that's bursting with new ideas. Really imaginative planet and its inhabitants that's unlike anything else I've read. I loved that we started getting POV chapters from the Shroud inhabitants so we can see how communications get misinterpreted because of each side's vastly different backgrounds.

The book is bleak in that space travel here isn't just about discovery or necessity but primarily capitalism, so most corporate-driven decisions here seem counter to the type of decisions you normally see in scifi media.

The ending really lands.


]]> 211003694 A new standalone sci-fi novel from Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (the inspiration for the major motion picture Mickey 17).

Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.

That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.

Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.

When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.

Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?]]> 288 Edward Ashton 1250286336 Benni 0 to-read 3.96 2025
author: Edward Ashton
name: Benni
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212987930 From the bestselling author M. R. Carey comes an utterly unique and enchantingly dark epic fantasy fable like no other.

This is the tale of Once Was Willem, who - eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England - rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham.

Pennick for all its beauty was ever a place with a dark reputation. The forests of the Chase were said to be home to nixies and boggarts, and there was a common belief, passed down through many generations, that the castle housed an unquiet ghost of terrible and malign power. These rumours I can attest were all true; indeed they fell short of the truth by a long way . . .]]> 310 M.R. Carey 0316505129 Benni 5 4.12 2025
author: M.R. Carey
name: Benni
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: historical-fiction, sff-paranormal-speculative, horror
review:
Took two chapters to get acclimated to the writing and was easy to read after that. Some heartbreaking stories in the first half but ultimately uplifting. Utterly engrossing throughout. I wish the book were longer, as I did not want to part with these characters.
]]> 209457756 The Witcher meets Squid Game in this Malaysian Chinese-inspired epic fantasy novel where a debt-ridden slumdog joins an illegal monster-fighting arena for some fast coin, but quickly learns the most dangerous beasts are outside the ring, by debut author Roanne Lau

Lythlet and her only friend Desil are shackled to a life of debt and poverty that she fears they will never escape. Desperate for money, they sign up as arena combatants who fight sun-cursed beasts in the seedy underworld of the city.

Match-master Dothilos is initially enamored of Desil’s brawling reputation, but after seeing Lythlet lead the pair to triumph with her quick cunning, he takes her under his wing, scorning Desil. Ambition takes root in Lythlet’s heart as a life of fame and wealth unfolds in her imagination.

But Lythlet isn’t the only one out for coin and glory, and she soon finds herself playing an entirely different game—a game of politics and deception. As the cost of her ambition grows, she will have to decide if sacrificing her honor, and only friendship, is worth the chance to shape her own fortune.

A whirlwind of blood-pounding battles as characters grapple with their choices in the face of wealth and financial security, The Serpent Called Mercy's heart is the underlying, steadfast friendship between its protagonists.]]> 432 Roanne Lau 0756419441 Benni 0 to-read 3.72
author: Roanne Lau
name: Benni
average rating: 3.72
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214988509 From debut author Emily Yu-Xuan Qin comes a snarky urban fantasy novel inspired by Chinese and First Nation mythology and bursting with wit, compelling characters, and LGBTQIA+ representation

Readers of Seanan McGuire, Ilona Andrews, and Ben Aaronovitch will devour this gory story—and the sweet-as-Canadian-maple-syrup sapphic romance at its monstrous heart

Tam hasn’t eaten anyone in years.��

She is now Mama’s soft-spoken, vegan daughter �� everything dangerous about her is cut out, repressed. Medicated.

But when Tam’s estranged Aunt Tigress is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits an undead fox in a shoebox and an ensemble of old enemies.��

The demons, the ghosts, the gods running coffee shops by the river? Fine. The tentacled thing stalking Tam across the city? Absolutely not. And when Tam realizes the girl she’s falling in love with might be yet another loose end from her past? That’s just the brassy, beautiful cherry on top.

Because no matter how quietly she lives, Tam can’t hide from her voracious upbringing, nor the suffering she caused. As she navigates romance, redemption, and the end of the world, she can’t help but wonder��

Do monsters even deserve happy endings?

With worldbuilding inspired by Chinese folklore and the Siksiká Nation in Canada, LGBTQIA+ representation, and a sapphic romance, Aunt Tigress is at once familiar and breathtakingly innovative.]]> 432 Emily Yu-Xuan Qin 0756419387 Benni 0 to-read 3.73 2025
author: Emily Yu-Xuan Qin
name: Benni
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 210384894
Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time.

As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she's here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly - Gil to her friends - needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight.

Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with?

As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger.

Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade.

THE TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS SERIES
'Endlessly creative . . . so much invention peeking around every corner - Patrick Ness
'Dense, dark, ingenious, ironic, complex, often funny, and always smart' Locus
'A master at the height of his powers. This is epic symphonic fantasy, weaving a breakneck plot through a sumptuously dangerous world' Ian Green]]> 512 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1035901528 Benni 0 to-read 4.35 2024
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Benni
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 228837191
In a deep medieval future, a band of players travels across France to perform the same old tales in the same old towns. When passing soldiers entrust them with a mysterious box that they say must be delivered to the Imperator, old playwright Master Guillaume and young escaped thief Rufus puzzle at what the box might contain.

When Rufus overhears strange conversations between his Master Guillaume and the thing in the box, he must choose between his loyalty to the man who saved him from the noose and fear of the ancient intelligence working in their midst.

Secrets spill out over the road to Avignon, and none in the troupe are safe. Not Blind Benedict, who once saw the faceless Empty Knight patrolling the deathless Wald that creeps ever closer to the cities, and not Master Bernard whose sensible plans are not equal to the eldritch thing the company now carries with them. All the world’s a stage, and so was every world that came before.]]> 120 Alastair Reynolds 1645242803 Benni 0 to-read 4.10
author: Alastair Reynolds
name: Benni
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214283593 The future of storytelling is here.

Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she's suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister's wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she's not sure what comes next.

In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life - she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.

What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu's life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.]]> 448 Nnedi Okorafor 0063391147 Benni 5 sff-paranormal-speculative Rusted Robots. A beautifully woven story about hope in the face of pain and destruction.

I devoured this book. Now where's my sequel?!! (JK but I see additional reasons why GRRM loved this book.)]]> 4.12 2025
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Benni
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Zelu's story pulled me in; I loved the "interviews"; and I wanted even more Rusted Robots. A beautifully woven story about hope in the face of pain and destruction.

I devoured this book. Now where's my sequel?!! (JK but I see additional reasons why GRRM loved this book.)
]]> 228541888 In a world at war with demons, one girl will face the ultimate test when she is forced to enter into an ancient, deadly competition for the chance to save her mother's soul�� before she loses her forever. From the New York Times bestselling author of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night comes the beginning of a dark and opulent fantasy duology, perfect for fans of Throne of Glass.

Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore Àn’yīng’s family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mó—beautiful, ravenous demons—roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls.

Àn’yīng is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the immortal realm. Those who complete the Trials are granted a pill of eternal life—the one thing Àn’yīng knows can heal her dying mother. But to attain the prize, she must survive the competition.

Death is common in the Trials. Yet oddly, Àn’yīng finds that someone is helping her stay alive. A rival contestant. Powerful and handsome, Yù’chén is as secretive about his past as he is about his motives for protecting Àn’yīng.

The longer she survives the Trials, the clearer it becomes that all is not right in the immortal realm. To save her mother and herself, Àn’yīng will need to figure out whether she can truly trust the stranger she’s falling for or if he’s the most dangerous player of all . . . for herself and for all the realms.]]> 408 Amélie Wen Zhao 0008672768 Benni 2
The author described things vividly and it was easy to picture things, which was great because visuals are the main draw of C-dramas for me.

But man oh man is the main character insufferable! (Which can be true of C-drama leading ladies as well but this translates poorly in book form, when I can't appreciate how beautiful the costumes are.) Despite her heroic and promising initial introduction, for the remainder of the book, she is useless and dependent on others. Every "win" is handed to her and unearned.

She loves her family but has no other redeeming qualities. She has an almost comically hard time with nuance and shades of gray; she can ping-pong from love to hate to love to hate in a matter of minutes. If someone isn't completely evil or completely good her head explodes.

So, not enjoyable for me.]]> 3.59 2025
author: Amélie Wen Zhao
name: Benni
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
I love cultivation C-dramas...except maybe I don't love the overlong and meandering storylines, so I thought this book could be the perfect, focused tale for me.

The author described things vividly and it was easy to picture things, which was great because visuals are the main draw of C-dramas for me.

But man oh man is the main character insufferable! (Which can be true of C-drama leading ladies as well but this translates poorly in book form, when I can't appreciate how beautiful the costumes are.) Despite her heroic and promising initial introduction, for the remainder of the book, she is useless and dependent on others. Every "win" is handed to her and unearned.

She loves her family but has no other redeeming qualities. She has an almost comically hard time with nuance and shades of gray; she can ping-pong from love to hate to love to hate in a matter of minutes. If someone isn't completely evil or completely good her head explodes.

So, not enjoyable for me.
]]> 210395729 The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.

They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers.

The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to:

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.]]> 352 Laura Steven 1250333881 Benni 2
I know these are supposed to be the same two people living through infinite lives but other than the descriptions of setting, there's nothing but surface-level differences. There's no texture to anything. No lived-in feeling to any of it. And of course the modern, main storyline is as stale, white bread as possible. There's only so many times they can tell each other (and us, the reader) they love each before I just stopped caring.]]> 3.81 2025
author: Laura Steven
name: Benni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative, young-adult
review:
An ambitious conceit without the necessary research and details to back it up. This could have been a luxurious, long book that showed how each location, culture, and time period affected the main characters, but it's all just set dressing here. White girl gonna white girl even if she grows up as a Chinese boy...and the meaning of "yuanfen" is very Google-able...it does not have "tragic" connotations as one of the main characters claims.

I know these are supposed to be the same two people living through infinite lives but other than the descriptions of setting, there's nothing but surface-level differences. There's no texture to anything. No lived-in feeling to any of it. And of course the modern, main storyline is as stale, white bread as possible. There's only so many times they can tell each other (and us, the reader) they love each before I just stopped caring.
]]> 14201
Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange.

Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.]]> 1006 Susanna Clarke Benni 5 sff-paranormal-speculative
My completely unfounded hypothesis is that Susanna Clarke revealed too much of the faerie world and she has since been enchanted, leading to a real-world diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome and inability to further this particular story.]]> 3.84 2004
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Benni
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Did it only take me two months to finish this? Felt a lot longer. For the most part, this was a cozy read and I took my time as I did not want it to end. When it did end, it ended rather abruptly. Had I read this when it released (had a copy but never started), I would have expected a sequel.

My completely unfounded hypothesis is that Susanna Clarke revealed too much of the faerie world and she has since been enchanted, leading to a real-world diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome and inability to further this particular story.
]]> 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 Benni 5 the bitch, and I love her. The ending is so good. So was the journey. So with this and The Favorites, I guess I have a thing for competitive sports stories?

I've clawed back Malibu Rising from my to-sell pile for now as I will be testing out the rest of the Reidverse and maybe I'll keep a set.]]> 4.19 2022
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Benni
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: alternate-history, historical-fiction, novels
review:
Carrie Soto is the bitch, and I love her. The ending is so good. So was the journey. So with this and The Favorites, I guess I have a thing for competitive sports stories?

I've clawed back Malibu Rising from my to-sell pile for now as I will be testing out the rest of the Reidverse and maybe I'll keep a set.
]]> 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Benni 3 historical-fiction, novels The Favorites and so Taylor Jenkins Reid's Carrie Soto Is Back was recommended to me. While that book makes its way to me, I thought I'd read another book by TJR. I was surprised that Carrie Soto makes a cameo in this one. And she was by far the most interesting character.

This book wasn't boring per se but the main characters are a bit of a drag. Then part two randomly jumps perspectives of random partygoers, many that don't seem to add much to the heart of the story.

I don't regret reading this but it wasn't memorable for me.

]]> 4.02 2021
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Benni
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: historical-fiction, novels
review:
I loved Layne Fargo's The Favorites and so Taylor Jenkins Reid's Carrie Soto Is Back was recommended to me. While that book makes its way to me, I thought I'd read another book by TJR. I was surprised that Carrie Soto makes a cameo in this one. And she was by far the most interesting character.

This book wasn't boring per se but the main characters are a bit of a drag. Then part two randomly jumps perspectives of random partygoers, many that don't seem to add much to the heart of the story.

I don't regret reading this but it wasn't memorable for me.


]]> 214151565 A read-in-one-night suspense thriller narrated by a compulsive liar whose little white lies allow her to enter into the life and comfort of a wealthy married couple who are harboring much darker secrets themselves. For the millions of us still chasing those gone girls, this is perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, and Laura Dave.

Sloane Caraway is a liar.

Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting.

So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself—she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl's foot.

With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.

But maybe Sloane isn't the only one lying, and all that's picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years.

The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and a twisted prison of a world. And in Count My Lies, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the images we spend so much time trying to maintain.

Careful what you lie for.]]> 336 Sophie Stava 1668079348 Benni 0 to-read 3.75 2025
author: Sophie Stava
name: Benni
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213075628 In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale.

Benigno “Benny�� Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River.

More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.]]> 464 Venessa Vida Kelley 1645661539 Benni 0 to-read 4.39 2025
author: Venessa Vida Kelley
name: Benni
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215362543 A delightful queer romantic fantasy full of friends-to-lovers chemistry, found family, rival family drama, and cozy garden magic from two acclaimed YA authors making their debut in the adult space.

Yael Clauneck is the only scion of an obscenely wealthy banking family with its fingers in every pie in the realm. They’re on the precipice of a predetermined life when they flee their own graduation party, galloping away in search of…well, they’re not sure, but maybe the chance to feel like life can still be a grand adventure.

Margot Greenwillow—talented plant witch, tea lover, and greenhouse owner—has never felt further from adventure in her life. She’s been desperately trying to keep what remains of her family's magic remedies business afloat. So when her childhood friend and former crush, Yael, rides back into her life, she’s shocked. But perhaps this could be a good thing. After all, Margot could use an assistant in the greenhouses.

Yael has no experience or, honestly, practical skills, but they’re delighted to accept. They can lay low for a while, flirting with Margot while they figure out what to do next. Meanwhile, Margot has plans of her own—but plans are notoriously unreliable things, unlikely to survive a swiftly blooming mutual attraction, not to mention the machinations of parents determined to get their heir back . . . no matter the cost.]]> 368 Jamie Pacton 0593873653 Benni 0 to-read 3.56 2025
author: Jamie Pacton
name: Benni
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 198494033 Ashley Poston meets Becky Albertalli in this Sapphic, second-chance romance about a teen returning to her grandfather's farm and how joining her childhood best friend's Dungeons & Dragons game gives her the confidence to follow her dreams and get a second-chance at love with her first crush.

Dungeons & Dragons loving Harper Reid's summer is off to a rough start. First, she and her mom moved across the country to Clintville, Virginia (population: tiny) to live on her Poppy's farm, which means saying goodbye to her friends and finding a new D&D group to play with. The only thing keeping her going is getting to polish her carpentry skills in the farm's woodshop so she can get an apprenticeship after graduation. That is if she can tell her mom that she doesn't want to go to college, which is kind of hard when mom keeps asking about applications and if she has picked out the perfect school yet. What Harper really needs is to channel the confidence and bravery of her awesome D&D character, and then maybe she could find a new D&D group and tell her mom that her passion is woodworking, not a four-year university. And, hey, maybe she could find a cool girlfriend, too.

The one encounter Harper wasn't expecting was running into Ollie Shifflet: neighbor, childhood best friend, and, oh yeah, first crush. Unlike Harper, Ollie seems to have everything figured out. She plans on spending the summer digging around in her garden and hanging out with her best friends and trying D&D with them for the first time. Then after graduation it is community college, then opening a small nature-based daycare center and living her best bisexual life . . . well, as long as that last bit stays private. But when beautiful, bold, Harper Reid comes waltzing back into her life and joins her D&D group, suddenly Ollie's plan seems to have a Harper-shaped hole in it.

So when feelings start to develop in their Dungeons & Dragons game between Harper's brash Barbarian character and Ollie's proud Paladin, Harper and Ollie begin wondering if they are falling for each in real life or if it is all just apart of the game. As the school year draws to a close and the final boss looms on the horizon, Harper and Ollie must decide if the relationship that they have been roleplaying in the game could be as real for them.]]> 272 M.K. England 0762488174 Benni 0 to-read 4.29 2025
author: M.K. England
name: Benni
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208840739 We Were Liars meets The Raven Boys in this mind-bending YA debut about dark revenge, twisted desire, and the sinister secrets lurking behind the walls of an elite boarding school.

Seventeen-year-old Marin James has spent her entire life living in the shadow of the exclusive Huntsworth Academy. And when her cousin’s dead body is found in a creek on school property, Marin knows exactly who’s to blame: Adrian Hargraves and Henry Wu, the enigmatic yet dangerously alluring leaders of the school's social elite.

Swapping her ripped jeans for a crisp prep school skirt, Marin infiltrates Huntsworth to seek justice. But her quest is quickly muddied by a confusing attraction to her new life, and to the two dysfunctional and depraved boys who somehow understand her better than anyone ever has.

When Marin uncovers an otherworldly secret the boys are hiding within Huntsworth's ivied gates, the lines between right and wrong, love and hate, and nightmare and reality begin to crumble -- and nothing is as it seems.

Welcome to Huntsworth Academy.]]> 400 Jenni Howell 1250334594 Benni 0 to-read 3.57 2025
author: Jenni Howell
name: Benni
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61374793
Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever.]]> 320 Ann Liang 133552312X Benni 5
Putting this kind of pressure on kids is so terrible, and this book explores it well enough. I just wanted more...this book felt a little short.]]> 4.09 2025
author: Ann Liang
name: Benni
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
For the most part, I am so glad my Asian parents, weren't as hard on me (except when I said I wanted to go to art school). For the most part, everything I did was wonderful and perfect even when it wasn't. But my sister was the one who had to measure up to this mythological version of me that didn't exist, and for that I am sorry.

Putting this kind of pressure on kids is so terrible, and this book explores it well enough. I just wanted more...this book felt a little short.
]]> 56535970 The Last House on Needless Street is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House.

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.

A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.

An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.]]> 342 Catriona Ward Benni 4 horror
Objectively I think this was well-written, but rug-pull type endings tend to irk me. I needed a resolution for the story I thought I was reading, and having been deprived of it felt unsatisfying.]]> 3.83 2021
author: Catriona Ward
name: Benni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: horror
review:
A POV from a religious, lesbian cat was not on my Bingo list but I liked it.

Objectively I think this was well-written, but rug-pull type endings tend to irk me. I needed a resolution for the story I thought I was reading, and having been deprived of it felt unsatisfying.
]]> 214537674 “Much like fine wine, battle-hardened assassins grow better with age.”��#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner

Four women assassins, senior in status—and in age—sharpen their knives for another bloody good adventure in this riotous follow-up to the New York Times bestselling sensation Killers of a Certain Age.

After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are called back into action. They have enjoyed their time off, but the lack of excitement is starting to a professional killer can only take so many watercolor classes and yoga sessions without itching to strangle someone...literally. When they receive a summons from the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready tackle the greatest challenge of their careers.

Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, connected to a single, shadowy figure, an Eastern European gangster with an iron fist, some serious criminal ambition, and a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. This new nemesis is murdering agents who got in the way of their power hungry plans and the aging quartet of killers is next.

Together the foursome embark on a wild ride across the globe on the double mission of rooting out the Museum’s mole and hunting down the gangster who seems to know their next move before they make it. Their enemy is unlike any they’ve faced before, and it will take all their killer experience to get out of this mission alive.]]> 359 Deanna Raybourn 0593638522 Benni 0 to-read 4.22 2025
author: Deanna Raybourn
name: Benni
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221754292 A young woman who wields the unimaginable power of the dragon spirit must decide who to support—and who to love—in this enthralling fantasy that reimagines the legend of Mulan.

The explosive sequel to The Night Ends with Fire!

The war may be over, but Hai Meilin is still paying a heavy toll. In spite of securing victory for the kingdom of Anlai, she is imprisoned upon her return. Her crime? Wielding a sword as a woman.

In the palace, Meilin is an outcast and a social pariah. But beyond the imperial walls, the legend of the woman warrior has taken on a life of its own. To the east, a new rebel leader needs Meilin to helm his people’s revolution. In the south, a former enemy prince, now a prisoner of war, seeks Meilin’s aid in restoring balance to the Three Kingdoms. And back home in Anlai, Liu Sky, Meilin’s commander and first love, requires Meilin by his side in his bid for the throne.

Pulled in all directions by those who seek to use her for their own ends, Meilin vows that this time, she will not be so quick to trust. Yet there is one she cannot help but listen to—for he dwells within her.

Beyond any human machinations, the sea dragon Qinglong has his own plans for the spirit realm. During the last war, Meilin wielded his power to cheat death and attain victory for Anlai; now the dragon has come to collect his dues. Meilin’s mother warned her long The spirits demand blood. And Qinglong is ravenous.]]> 448 K.X. Song 0593641558 Benni 0 to-read 4.36
author: K.X. Song
name: Benni
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212994452 'A modern-day Mrs. Caliban, BLOB is a book that looks at identity and desire in profoundly interesting ways'
Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here

A hilarious and moving debut novel about a young woman who decides to turn a sentient blob into her perfect boyfriend...

The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town. Now at twenty-three, after getting dumped and dropping out of college, Vi works as a front desk attendant at a hotel where she refills cucumber water samovars and fends off overtures of friendship from her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel. But when Vi decides to accompany Rachel to a local drag show, her life changes forever. In the alley outside the bar, next to a trash can, is a blob with beady black eyes. Unable to leave it behind, Vi picks up the creature and, in a moment of drunken desperation, takes it home with her.

As her pet blob becomes sentient, Vi realizes it obeys her commands and she decides to mold the blob into her ideal partner. She feeds it sugary cereal and a stream of pop culture, and soon the creature transforms into a movie-star handsome white man. But as Vi's desire to be loved unconditionally threatens to spiral out of control, she is forced to confront her lonely childhood, the ex-boyfriend who has unfriended her, and the racial marginalization that has defined her relationships. Ultimately, Vi embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learns that it's impossible to control those you love.

Blending the familiar with the fantastical, BLOB tells a witty, heartfelt story of what it means to be human.

'An inventive, utterly unique debut'
Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light]]> 256 Maggie Su 0063358646 Benni 4 3.44 2025
author: Maggie Su
name: Benni
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
I didn't care much for the flashbacks and memories that felt mostly filler...I'm here for the BLOB! Ultimately did enjoy the book, which is more literary than not.
]]> 212342605 Hungerstone��is a thrillingly seductive sapphic romance for fans of S.T. Gibson’s��A Dowry of Blood��and Emilia Hart’s��Weyward.

For what do you hunger, Lenore?

Lenore is the wife of steel magnate Henry, but ten years into their marriage, the relationship has soured and no child has arrived to fill the distance growing between them. Henry's ambitions take them out of London and to the imposing Nethershaw manor in the countryside, where Henry aims to host a hunt with society’s finest. Lenore keeps a terrible secret from the last time her husband hunted, and though they never speak of it, it haunts their marriage to this day.

The preparations for the event take a turn when a carriage accident near their remote home brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore's life. Carmilla who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night; Carmilla who stirs up a hunger deep within Lenore. Soon girls from local villages begin to fall sick before being consumed by a bloody hunger.

Torn between regaining her husband's affection and Carmilla's ever-growing presence, Lenore begins to unravel her past and in doing so, uncovers a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk . . .

Set against the violent wilderness of the moors and the uncontrolled appetite of the industrial revolution,��Hungerstone��is a compulsive feminist reworking of��Carmilla, the book that inspired��Dracula: a captivating story of appetite and desire.]]> 336 Kat Dunn 1638932166 Benni 5 horror, historical-fiction 4.03 2025
author: Kat Dunn
name: Benni
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: horror, historical-fiction
review:
Well-developed arc of becoming, unbecoming, and becoming again. Loved it!
]]> 212808273 160 J. Sheridan Le Fanu 1805332120 Benni 0 to-read 3.99 1872
author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu
name: Benni
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213395480 From the acclaimed author of Mrs. March comes the riveting tale of a bloodthirsty governess who learns the true meaning of vengeance.

Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . .

Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath.]]> 208 Virginia Feito 1631498630 Benni 3 horror 3.63 2025
author: Virginia Feito
name: Benni
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: horror
review:
Droll but not good enough for me to be ok with all the infanticide.
]]> 218185743
These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can't be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.]]> 304 Kylie Lee Baker 0778368459 Benni 3 asian-stuff, horror
Curious what other Asian people's experiences during Covid were. I did get my first "Go back to China" during Covid but this book dialed up the horror and hate to the extent that the MC had to deal with it constantly. And hundreds of Asian women were being killed.

If every interaction with white men = hate, then it's actually less scary because you know what to expect. I felt like the hard part was never knowing when the hate was going to come from.... Again, I appreciated what this book was trying to do but the over-the-top hate made it less scary for me.]]> 4.31 2025
author: Kylie Lee Baker
name: Benni
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: asian-stuff, horror
review:
I really appreciate this book for exploring the horror that was Covid + Asian hate. But I'm disappointed that this took an "easy" way out and just blamed white supremacy. Not saying white supremacy isn't a problem, nor that the book has to follow real-life events slavishly, but the Asian hate wasn't only coming from white men. (In one instance they even found a Taiwanese person who graffitied anti-Chinese sentiments.)

Curious what other Asian people's experiences during Covid were. I did get my first "Go back to China" during Covid but this book dialed up the horror and hate to the extent that the MC had to deal with it constantly. And hundreds of Asian women were being killed.

If every interaction with white men = hate, then it's actually less scary because you know what to expect. I felt like the hard part was never knowing when the hate was going to come from.... Again, I appreciated what this book was trying to do but the over-the-top hate made it less scary for me.
]]> 62874004 A sweeping tale of empire and betrayal set among the stars, perfect for readers of Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine,��The Stars Undying is a queer, spectacular space opera debut inspired by the rise and fall of ancient Rome and Egypt—and the lives and loves of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.

Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed both the crown of their planet, Szayet, and the Pearl of its prophecy: a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet’s god.

So when the interstellar Empire of Ceiao turns its conquering eye toward Szayet, Gracia sees an opportunity. To regain her planet, Gracia places herself in the hands of the empire and its dangerous commander, Matheus Ceirran.

But winning over Matheus, to say nothing of his mercurial and compelling captain Anita, is no easy feat. And in trying to secure her planet’s sovereignty and future, Gracia will find herself torn between Matheus’s ambitions, Anita’s unpredictable desires, and the demands of the Pearl that whispers in her ear.

For Szayet’s sake and her own, she will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen as history has never seen before.]]> 560 Emery Robin 0316391492 Benni 0 to-read 3.75 2022
author: Emery Robin
name: Benni
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61987507 A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
“A Time-Twisting Delight�� —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club June ��23 Pick)

If you had the power to change the past…where would you start?
Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now.
�� She's just been dumped.
�� She's just been fired.
�� Her local café has run out of banana muffins.

Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.

“A great read-alike for The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, and The Boys by Katie Hafner.�� ��Booklist (STARRED)]]> 362 Holly Smale Benni 5 sff-paranormal-speculative 3.51 2023
author: Holly Smale
name: Benni
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Time travel + Greek mythology references = heaven. I loved that the MC was neurodivergent, and it was heartbreaking that she felt like she had to erase herself to fit in. I was pretty much ugly crying at the end.
]]> 220999057 Inspired by true stories from the authors�� grandparents�� lives during one of the darkest periods in Korean history,The Last Tiger is a debut young adult fantasy novel about the power of love to give voice to a broken people.

In a colonized land where tigers are being hunted to extinction and ancient magic stirs, two star-crossed teens from opposite worlds—Lee Seung, a servant yearning for freedom, and Choi Eunji, a noble girl defying tradition—join forces to try and reshape their respective fates.

But their relationship evolves from begrudging accomplices to bitter adversaries as they soon find themselves on opposite sides of a battle over the last tiger, a symbol of their people’s lost freedom and key to the liberation of their country. As the ties between Seung and Eunji are complicated by their conflicting loyalties, tensions rise—especially when a charming princeling of the empire begins to rival for Eunji's affection.

In this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story of forbidden romance, antagonists turned allies, oppression and liberation, neither Seung nor Eunji can abandon their mission—or each other. And as they embark on separate quests to find the elusive creature, each must also find the power within themselves to make their own destiny.]]> 416 Julia Riew Benni 0 to-read 3.73 2025
author: Julia Riew
name: Benni
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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]]> 498 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Benni 4 sff-paranormal-speculative
I guess they must have an overpopulation problem that's not addressed since they are really cool with students dying, whether by murder or failure to tell the initiates what kind of boots to wear.]]> 4.56 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Benni
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Immersive and fun; I can see why people love this series. I enjoyed reading this but I didn't fall in love...I felt like I saw the puppet strings toying with the readers' emotions and it took me a bit out of it. Also disappointed that we discover the love interest experienced insta-love upon seeing the FMC. Would have preferred her winning him over. I just feel like a lot of these books don't really take into account what the male characters need in a romance.

I guess they must have an overpopulation problem that's not addressed since they are really cool with students dying, whether by murder or failure to tell the initiates what kind of boots to wear.
]]> 211004841 A timely and timeless reimagining of the story of Dionysus, Greek God of ecstasy and madness, revelry and ruin, for readers of The Song of Achilles and Elektra.

Raised in a Greek legion, Phaidros has been taught to fight for the homeland he’s never seen and to follow his commander’s orders at all costs. But when he rescues a baby from a fire at Thebes’s palace, his commander’s orders cease to make sense: Phaidros is forced to abandon the blue-eyed boy at a temple, and to keep the baby’s existence a secret.

Years later, after a strange encounter that led to the death of his battalion, Phaidros has become a training master for young soldiers. He struggles with panic attacks and flashbacks, and he is not the only one: all around him, his fellow veterans are losing their minds.

Phaidros’s risk of madness is not his only problem: his life has become entangled with Thebes’s young crown prince, who wishes to escape the marriage his mother, the Queen, has chosen for him. When the prince vanishes, Phaidros is drawn into the search for him—a search that leads him to a blue-eyed witch named Dionysus, whose guidance is as wise as the events that surround him are strange. In Dionysus’s company, Phaidros witnesses sudden outbursts of riots and unrest, and everywhere Dionysus goes, rumors follow about a new god, one sired by Zeus but lost in a fire.

In The Hymn to Dionysus, bestselling author Natasha Pulley transports us to an ancient empire on the edge of ruin to tell an utterly captivating story about a man needing a god to remind him how to be a human.]]> 416 Natasha Pulley 1639732365 Benni 0 to-read 4.24 2025
author: Natasha Pulley
name: Benni
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218674082 Powerful witchcraft. A hunt for sunken treasure. Forbidden love on the high seas. Beware the Amalfi Curse��

Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artifacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven’s arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work?

As Haven searches for her father’s sunken treasure, she begins to unearth a centuries-old tale of ancient sorcery and one woman’s quest to save her lover and her village by using the legendary art of stregheria, a magical ability to harness the ocean. Could this magic be behind Positano’s latest calamities? Haven must unravel the Amalfi Curse before the region is destroyed forever��

Against the dazzling backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, this bewitching novel shimmers with mystery, romance and the untamed magic of the sea.]]> 336 Sarah Penner 0778308006 Benni 0 to-read 4.34 2025
author: Sarah Penner
name: Benni
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 65214176 Knock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.

Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse. So begins a night of unspeakable horror that will take her to the very brink of sanity.

She will never speak of it again.

Two decades later, Betty Fitzpatrick, newly arrived at college in Dublin, has already fallen in love with the drama society, and the beautiful but troubled Ashling Mallen. As their relationship blossoms, Ashling goes to great lengths to keep Betty away from her family, especially her alcoholic mother, Etain.

As their relationship blossoms, Betty learns her lover's terrifying family history, and Ashling's secret obsession. Ashling has become convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show. Everyone in Ireland watched this show in their youth, but Ash soon discovers that no one remembers it quite the same way. And only Ashling seems to remember its a small black goat puppet who lives in a box and only comes out if you don’t behave. They say he’s never come out.

Almost never.

When the door between the known and unknown opens, it can never close again.]]> 326 Neil Sharpson 1250785421 Benni 0 to-read 3.93 2023
author: Neil Sharpson
name: Benni
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44074800 Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.

Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia's life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they're more likely to discuss the FBI's recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.

But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club's meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he's a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she--and her book club--are the only people standing between the monster they've invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.]]> 410 Grady Hendrix Benni 3 horror My Best Friend's Exorcism (still my favorite Grady Hendrix book), he wanted to write something from a parent's perspective.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough active parenting described here, just a passive acceptance of Patricia's children hating her. There wasn't enough about the vampire either. The past/present "parallel" wasn't fully formed as we do not learn more about the past than the bare minimum. As with Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (which I enjoyed a lot more otherwise), the story relies on a magic black woman to fix things for the white people.

I love how, for the most part, Grady Hendrix is able to write great women characters. He failed here, but not for lack of trying. Oof for the male characters, though--not a single redeeming one. I understand why a lot of horror stories star women but I would love for him to try writing a great male main character for his next book.]]> 3.78 2020
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Benni
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: horror
review:
In the foreword, Grady Hendrix wrote that after writing from a teenage perspective in My Best Friend's Exorcism (still my favorite Grady Hendrix book), he wanted to write something from a parent's perspective.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough active parenting described here, just a passive acceptance of Patricia's children hating her. There wasn't enough about the vampire either. The past/present "parallel" wasn't fully formed as we do not learn more about the past than the bare minimum. As with Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (which I enjoyed a lot more otherwise), the story relies on a magic black woman to fix things for the white people.

I love how, for the most part, Grady Hendrix is able to write great women characters. He failed here, but not for lack of trying. Oof for the male characters, though--not a single redeeming one. I understand why a lot of horror stories star women but I would love for him to try writing a great male main character for his next book.
]]> 214466890 The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.]]> 448 Ava Reid 0063430010 Benni 0 to-read 3.98 2025
author: Ava Reid
name: Benni
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213263148 London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.]]> 544 Victoria E. Schwab 1250320526 Benni 0 to-read 4.57 2025
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Benni
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212806648 A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests�� coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?]]> 368 Erin Crosby Eckstine 0593725115 Benni 0 to-read 4.22 2025
author: Erin Crosby Eckstine
name: Benni
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212294441 “A stone-cold banger of a novel—a twisty journey through Silicon Valley’s dark side, wrapped in a stunning mystery package with some wild surprises along the way.”—Blake Crouch, New York Timesbestselling author of Dark Matter

Don’t call me a fixer. This isn’t HBO.

In her job as unofficial “problem solver�� for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets.

But this time, she’s in way over her head—or so it seems.

The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money�� frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast.

Mackenzie’s a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who’s-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league.

Except that Mackenzie’s used to being underestimated. In fact, she’s counting on it.

Because the way she sees it, this isn’t an investigation. It’s an opportunity. And she’ll do anything it takes to seize it.

Anything at all.

Featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily, outsider heroine you can’t help rooting for, Dead Money is a brilliant sleight-of-hand mystery. Written by a longtime insider, it is also a dead-on snapshot of the Valley’s rich and famous—and a glimpse at the darkness lurking behind the tech world’s cheery facade.]]> 416 Jakob Kerr 0593726707 Benni 0 to-read 4.02 2025
author: Jakob Kerr
name: Benni
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 70020893
The other Knights may fear their lethal commander, with his hard, merciless demeanor. Outcast Kiara Frey sees only a leader, a man who knows how to survive. Someone like her. But wanting him is as treacherous as the shadows themselves�� and just as seductive.

With a kingdom on the verge of collapse, the Knights must now venture into the darkest heart of the land and uncover the secrets of the misted shadows, where evil will prey upon their minds and feast on their flesh.

It will betray their senses.
It will surpass their nightmares.
Most of them will die.

But they have no other choice. Because the only way to fight the darkness…is to become it.]]> 448 Katherine Quinn 1649374313 Benni 0 to-read 3.79 2023
author: Katherine Quinn
name: Benni
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.�� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 Benni 1 horror
Why would a super transmissible virus that affects all animals not affect humans? What constitutes "animals"--only mammals? Land animals? Sea animals? Insects? Reptiles? If all animals died and survivors killed-on-sight, this would have serious ecological ramifications, with what meat to eat being probably one of the lesser concerns. How in the world is raising humans for meat efficient in any way, shape, or form (even with growth hormones)? (Also, I don't know about Argentina but in the U.S. many people I know would sooner kill enforcement agents than kill their own pets.) None of it made any sense to me.

I didn't fully buy into the worlds in The Hunger Games or Arc of a Scythe series but those books had great stories and character development.

What is the point of this book? Torture porn? A "twist" ending that's high-school level edgy? To show that humans are effed up? I'm going to need a lot more than whatever the heck this was.]]> 3.76 2017
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Benni
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: horror
review:
In the B&N edition afterword, the author said she spent 6 months researching meat plants. And the human meat butchering scenes were appropriately disturbing, but nothing else about the premise seemed well thought-out.

Why would a super transmissible virus that affects all animals not affect humans? What constitutes "animals"--only mammals? Land animals? Sea animals? Insects? Reptiles? If all animals died and survivors killed-on-sight, this would have serious ecological ramifications, with what meat to eat being probably one of the lesser concerns. How in the world is raising humans for meat efficient in any way, shape, or form (even with growth hormones)? (Also, I don't know about Argentina but in the U.S. many people I know would sooner kill enforcement agents than kill their own pets.) None of it made any sense to me.

I didn't fully buy into the worlds in The Hunger Games or Arc of a Scythe series but those books had great stories and character development.

What is the point of this book? Torture porn? A "twist" ending that's high-school level edgy? To show that humans are effed up? I'm going to need a lot more than whatever the heck this was.
]]> 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Benni 5 botm-selections 4.12 2024
author: Alison Espach
name: Benni
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: botm-selections
review:
Not my usual jam but was highly recommended by other BOTMers. Kinda depressing at first (understandably since the MC is there to kill herself) but ultimately an uplifting story about discovering who you are.
]]> 211399784 A love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating about a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known 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 rollercoaster relationship. Then a shocking incident at the Olympic Games suddenly ends their partnership.

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 either. 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 Benni 5 botm-selections
This is apparently a retelling of Wuthering Heights. I don't know why I have such an aversion to English classics, but if the original is half as exciting as this book, I'd give it a shot.]]> 4.20 2025
author: Layne Fargo
name: Benni
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: botm-selections
review:
This was a wild, wild roller coaster ride in the best way. I couldn't put this down.

This is apparently a retelling of Wuthering Heights. I don't know why I have such an aversion to English classics, but if the original is half as exciting as this book, I'd give it a shot.
]]> 213618143 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]> 480 Robert Jackson Bennett 0593723821 Benni 0 to-read 4.59 2025
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Benni
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207611566 There’s power in a book��

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master�� (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Benni 5 not scary, but it is, above all else, depressing and frustrating, especially with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and our current US administration.]]> 4.02 2025
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Benni
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: horror, historical-fiction, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Ugh, I'm ugly crying over this one (and hugging my son afterwards). It's amazing how a middle-aged, childless man could write this book. This is definitely more real-life-is-horror than supernatural horror. It's not not scary, but it is, above all else, depressing and frustrating, especially with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and our current US administration.
]]> 211479192 A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel.

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

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

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

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.]]> 384 Samantha Sotto Yambao 0593724992 Benni 5
Loved it.]]> 3.82 2025
author: Samantha Sotto Yambao
name: Benni
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Perfectly captures the feel of cozy Japanese magic-realism books, but also blends it with Western story structure and expectations, and adds a lot of the author's own special touch! Every leg of the journey had at least one amazing magical component, and the story was brave enough not to turn away from its dark elements.

Loved it.
]]> 217896248 From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters�� or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.]]> 352 Caitlin Starling 0063418819 Benni 0 to-read 4.02 2025
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Benni
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211004124 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You're welcome! If only her father's fortune wasn't her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he's losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world's most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she'd been his favorite all along.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?]]> 512 Olivie Blake 1250883407 Benni 0 to-read 4.00 2025
author: Olivie Blake
name: Benni
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209594872 The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this standalone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.]]> 384 Ava Reid 0063211556 Benni 0 to-read 3.89 2025
author: Ava Reid
name: Benni
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214868013 A terrible heatwave. A very tense baby shower. It will all end in tears...

Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi have been friends since university. Now in their thirties, life is pulling them in different directions - but when Charlotte organises the baby shower of hell for pregnant Nicki, the girls are reunited.

Under a sweltering hot summer day, tensions rise - and by the end of the evening, nothing will ever be the same. Someone started a fire at the house - and everyone's a suspect... Is it Steffi, happily child-free but feeling judged by her friends? Is it Charlotte, desperate to conceive and jealous of those who have? Is it Lauren, who is finding motherhood far, far worse than she imagined? Or is it Nicki herself, who never wanted a baby shower anyway?

In the aftermath, the police put together the facts - but the truth will shock everyone. Even you.

BIG LITTLE LIES meets REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY in the incredible new novel from Holly Bourne - it's the book you'll want to read three times, then give to every woman in your life.]]> 423 Holly Bourne 1529301645 Benni 0 to-read 4.01 2025
author: Holly Bourne
name: Benni
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214540663 An epic sapphic fantasy roadtrip inspired by the fall of Rome, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Frontier and Floating Hotel

On one side of the world, Aleya Ana-Ulai is desperate for a chance. Her family have written her off as a mistake, but she's determined to prove every last one of them wrong.

On the other, Kirby of Wall's End is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she'll have to leave everything behind.

Fate sets them both on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Now the gates are closed and the old magic slumbers. Dead �� or waiting for a spark to light it anew��

A character-driven science-fantasy road trip book with sword fights and a slowburn romance, Idolfire delves into the vastness of history and the terrifying power of organized faith.]]> 480 Grace Curtis 0756419808 Benni 0 to-read 3.89 2025
author: Grace Curtis
name: Benni
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211081102 Return to the world of The Bridge Kingdom in this sensuous fantasy full of romance and intrigue that is perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Silver Flames.

A soldier raised as heir to an empire, Zarrah is motivated by two truths. The first is that the Veliant family murdered her mother. And the second is that her pursuit of vengeance will put every last one of them in their graves.

The Endless War between Maridrina and Valcotta has raged for generations, leaving thousands of Zarrah’s people dead and countless more orphaned. So when she’s given command of the contested city of Nerastis, Zarrah is prepared to do whatever it takes to destroy the Maridrinian forces who oppose her. And to kill the Veliant prince who leads them.

Yet a chance encounter with an anonymous, and handsome, Maridrinian causes Zarrah to question whether the violence she’s perpetrated is justice or a crime. And as she continues to meet the nameless man each night, she finds common ground - and fiery passion - in his arms.

But when identities are revealed, Zarrah must decide whether to embrace a chance at peace…or march to the drums of war.]]> 673 Danielle L. Jensen 0593975243 Benni 0 to-read 4.07 2022
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Benni
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217420797
When the world is out of balance, the Guardians of Dawn are reborn.

As the Guardian of Wind, it is Yuli’s responsibility to bring order to chaos, along with the Guardian of Fire and the Guardian of Wood. But can she restore balance to the Morning Realms when she can’t even win the political games being played at home? The fate of the Morning Realms depends on the Guardians of Dawn, and whether Yuli can manage both the demonic and political chaos at once.]]> 320 S. Jae-Jones 1250191483 Benni 0 to-read 3.80 2025
author: S. Jae-Jones
name: Benni
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 150254281
Which is where Yasnic, one-time priest, healer and rebel, finds himself. Reprieved from the gallows and sent to war clutching a box of orphan Gods, he has been sequestered to a particularity unorthodox medical unit.

Led by 'the Butcher', an ogre of a man who's a dab hand with a bone-saw and an alchemical tincture, the unit's motley crew of conscripts, healers and orderlies are no strangers to the horrors of war. Their's is an unspeakable trade: elbow-deep in gore they have a first-hand view of the suffering caused by flesh-rending monsters, arcane magical weaponry and embittered enemy soldiers.

Entrusted - for now - with saving lives deemed otherwise un-saveable, the field hospital's crew face a precarious existence. Their work with unapproved magic, necromancy, demonology and Yansic's thoroughly illicit Gods could lead to the unit being disbanded, arrested or worse.

Beset by enemies within and without, the last thing anyone needs is a miracle.]]> 608 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1035901382 Benni 5
Some epic moments towards the end; as always, interesting ideas. This book ties up Yasnic's/Jack's arc, though, so I'm a bit sad he doesn't seem to be in the third book.

A tiny nit is that for some reason, Adrian Tchaikovsky's writing style in this series is a lot harder for me to read than his scifi titles, leading to longer read times. I can't figure out what's different (not that I've tried that hard); it's just a lot harder for me to get through The Tyrant Philosophers series than his other books.]]> 4.41 2023
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Benni
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:
Still a lot of POVs, but this time it was easier to follow because most POVs, at least to start, followed the events surrounding Yasnic, now called Maric Jack. He and God were my favorite characters from the first book, so I was excited that they were the main recurring characters in this one.

Some epic moments towards the end; as always, interesting ideas. This book ties up Yasnic's/Jack's arc, though, so I'm a bit sad he doesn't seem to be in the third book.

A tiny nit is that for some reason, Adrian Tchaikovsky's writing style in this series is a lot harder for me to read than his scifi titles, leading to longer read times. I can't figure out what's different (not that I've tried that hard); it's just a lot harder for me to get through The Tyrant Philosophers series than his other books.
]]> 123288408 The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good��

The first book in a spellbinding and vibrant new series from The Sunday Times bestselling author of A Dowry of Blood. ]]> 301 S.T. Gibson 191520268X Benni 1 sff-paranormal-speculative
The only thing the characters actually care about is being "poly" and their relationships with one another. Look, I'm not poly, I don't have close friends who are poly, so everything I've learned about poly is from the Internet. None of what is in the book seems ethical, with emotional cheating beforehand. The wife is eventually sufficiently charmed by her husband's ex that she offers consent retroactively. These characters are thoroughly exhausting, and their priorities are whack AF. I can't imagine this is what poly people want to be represented as.

I wanted to read the book because of the blurb + beautiful cover + references to tarot. But the occult and tarot are just set dressing here. There's a better tarot scene in Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse, the first book I finished this year. In fact, halfway through this book I had to find another book I could finish before this one because I couldn't bear this book showing up as my first review of the year in my 2025 recap.]]> 3.61 2024
author: S.T. Gibson
name: Benni
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
The blurb is misleading; you'd think there was a plot that involved a Devil's deal. As to that "plot," the characters don't even know the deal is an issue until 50% into the book, and they only try to deal with it the last 1% of the book.

The only thing the characters actually care about is being "poly" and their relationships with one another. Look, I'm not poly, I don't have close friends who are poly, so everything I've learned about poly is from the Internet. None of what is in the book seems ethical, with emotional cheating beforehand. The wife is eventually sufficiently charmed by her husband's ex that she offers consent retroactively. These characters are thoroughly exhausting, and their priorities are whack AF. I can't imagine this is what poly people want to be represented as.

I wanted to read the book because of the blurb + beautiful cover + references to tarot. But the occult and tarot are just set dressing here. There's a better tarot scene in Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse, the first book I finished this year. In fact, halfway through this book I had to find another book I could finish before this one because I couldn't bear this book showing up as my first review of the year in my 2025 recap.
]]> 88455 128 Patrick Skene Catling 0688161332 Benni 4
My third-grader read this at school and said it was cool. He came home and told me that I needed to read this. I said OK. He said you need to read it tonight. I said OK. He said, I'm going to sit here and stare at you until you read it. So I started reading it. He looked over my shoulder to see what part I was at but soon lost interest and went to do other things.

My husband saw me reading this book and said he had to read it in grade school. He remembered hating it.

I never read this; maybe because I spent most of my grade school years in Taiwan. Anyhow, this book was written in the 1950's and it shows a bit. I wasn't wild about it but it did give me an opportunity to tell my son about the story of King Midas.

I asked my son to rate the book, and he said 4.3. So this is his rating, not mine, but I'm going to say this book is cool because it's so cool to me that he liked a book. It's hard to get him to read voluntarily, so I'm sure as heck going to encourage it whenever I can.

One of my favorite poems when I was a kid was Shel Silverstein's "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony," because it taught parents to take what a kid says seriously. This book was kind of the reverse...Don't you know your failure to eat healthy foods is hurting your mom! If you keep eating chocolate your mother is going to die.... Anyway, this kind of guilt is the kind my husband got a lot when he was a child so I can see why he hated it.

Thanks for reading my diary entry for the day.]]> 3.83 1952
author: Patrick Skene Catling
name: Benni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:
Dear Diary,

My third-grader read this at school and said it was cool. He came home and told me that I needed to read this. I said OK. He said you need to read it tonight. I said OK. He said, I'm going to sit here and stare at you until you read it. So I started reading it. He looked over my shoulder to see what part I was at but soon lost interest and went to do other things.

My husband saw me reading this book and said he had to read it in grade school. He remembered hating it.

I never read this; maybe because I spent most of my grade school years in Taiwan. Anyhow, this book was written in the 1950's and it shows a bit. I wasn't wild about it but it did give me an opportunity to tell my son about the story of King Midas.

I asked my son to rate the book, and he said 4.3. So this is his rating, not mine, but I'm going to say this book is cool because it's so cool to me that he liked a book. It's hard to get him to read voluntarily, so I'm sure as heck going to encourage it whenever I can.

One of my favorite poems when I was a kid was Shel Silverstein's "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony," because it taught parents to take what a kid says seriously. This book was kind of the reverse...Don't you know your failure to eat healthy foods is hurting your mom! If you keep eating chocolate your mother is going to die.... Anyway, this kind of guilt is the kind my husband got a lot when he was a child so I can see why he hated it.

Thanks for reading my diary entry for the day.
]]> 220772908 New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.

You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent.

A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps.

It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked.

Here's the thing. It's never easy. Carl and his team can't go it alone. Not this time. They must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted?

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.]]> 608 Matt Dinniman 0593955978 Benni 0 to-read 4.54 2021
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Benni
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208840724 Deceit and betrayal abound in this dark YA romantasy about an heir to the throne who can summon an army of animals and a thief who plans to manipulate her to pull off a once-in-a-lifetime heist.

Will he steal her heart... or her chance at the throne?

Daughter and heir to the throne, Mancella Cliff yearns for a life without bloodshed. But as a child, she emerged from the Broken Citadel with the power to summon animals—only after killing them with her bare hands. Her magic is a constant reminder of the horrors her father, the ruler of the realm, has forced upon her to strengthen their power.

Silver is a charming thief struggling to survive in a world torn apart by Mancella’s father’s reign. When a mysterious benefactor recruits him for the heist of a lifetime, a chance to rob the castle, Silver relishes the opportunity for a real future—and revenge. But he'll have to manipulate Mance and earn her trust to pull it off.

As the deception and carnage mount, Mance must find a way to save her realm without becoming the ruthless monster she's been bred to be. And when Silver discovers that his actions are fueling the violence that Mance wants to prevent, he'll have to choose between his ambition and the girl he’s falling for.]]> 368 D.L. Taylor 1250331684 Benni 0 to-read 3.82 2025
author: D.L. Taylor
name: Benni
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199114861
Inspired by a rich blend of Arabic, Christian, and pre-Islamic traditions, Pilgrim delivers a pulse-pounding story of action, adventure, and bone-chilling horror.]]> 708 Mitchell Lüthi Benni 0 to-read 4.05 2023
author: Mitchell Lüthi
name: Benni
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199396641 What if there was a store that sold dreams? Which would you buy? And who might you become when you wake up?

In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious there's a department store that sells dreams. Day and night, visitors both human and animal shuffle in to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor specializes in a specific type of dream: childhood memories, food dreams, ice skating, dreams of stardom. Flying dreams are almost always sold out. Some seek dreams of loved ones who have died.

For Penny, an enthusiastic new hire, working at Dallergut is the opportunity of a lifetime. As she uncovers the workings of this whimsical world, she bonds with a cast of unforgettable characters, including Dallergut, the flamboyant and wise owner, Babynap Rockabye, a famous dream designer, Maxim, a nightmare producer, and the many customers who dream to heal, dream to grow, and dream to flourish.

A captivating story that will leave a lingering magical feeling in readers' minds, this is the first book in a bestselling duology for anyone exhausted from the reality of their daily life.]]> 288 Miye Lee 1335081178 Benni 2
It's not explained how Penny is compensated or what she gets out of working every night in her sleep. She doesn't get to partake in any of the dreams. Nor is her "awake" life ever part of the story.

I have so many questions. Supposedly the customers can't remember that they bought the dreams after they experience the dream. But later customers complain about certain dreams to the store, a customer tells the employees how a dream changed his life, and the store has marketing efforts...how are customers supposed to remember any of that? There are a lot of unexplained inconsistencies.

At one point it is mentioned that Dallergut is one of the stores that receives payment later (payment being the enlightenment provided to the dreamers) and implies that there are other stores that require up-front payment. What would be the up-front payment currency then?

I just didn't understand any of this. Maybe it's supposed to be just vibes. The vibes are there, so I guess two stars instead of one.]]> 3.67 2020
author: Miye Lee
name: Benni
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
I didn't understand the book at all. As soon as I started this book, I had a problem with the premise: the FMC, Penny, seeks a job in the dreamworld to work for a department store that sells dreams. In what kind of dystopian hell are we making people work when they dream?! This is not a cozy premise for me.

It's not explained how Penny is compensated or what she gets out of working every night in her sleep. She doesn't get to partake in any of the dreams. Nor is her "awake" life ever part of the story.

I have so many questions. Supposedly the customers can't remember that they bought the dreams after they experience the dream. But later customers complain about certain dreams to the store, a customer tells the employees how a dream changed his life, and the store has marketing efforts...how are customers supposed to remember any of that? There are a lot of unexplained inconsistencies.

At one point it is mentioned that Dallergut is one of the stores that receives payment later (payment being the enlightenment provided to the dreamers) and implies that there are other stores that require up-front payment. What would be the up-front payment currency then?

I just didn't understand any of this. Maybe it's supposed to be just vibes. The vibes are there, so I guess two stars instead of one.
]]> 56755560 The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others �� and the tremendous power of books.

Grandpa used to say it all the time: 'books have tremendous power'. But what is that power really?

Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.

After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . .

Sosuke Natsukawa's international bestseller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.]]> 198 Sōsuke Natsukawa 0063095726 Benni 4 3.74 2017
author: Sōsuke Natsukawa
name: Benni
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative, asian-stuff
review:
A nice, cozy read but not really eye-opening (unless you're a young reader maybe?). Also felt a little strange because this book is so very Japanese but not a single Asian author was discussed...it was mostly Western classics. Three point five rounded up, thanks to the talking cat.
]]> 62919847 A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.

Gracetown, Florida
June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.]]> 576 Tananarive Due 1982188340 Benni 5 horror 4.44 2023
author: Tananarive Due
name: Benni
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: horror
review:
Wow, this really is as good as people say it is. But now I need a massage to relieve all the tension.
]]> 210365385 Historical fiction, true crime, and dark academia intertwine in a harrowing tale of murder, greed, and the grisly origins of modern medicine.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, sheltered life at Oxford to pursue a lifelong dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. A shining beacon of medical discovery in the age of New Enlightenment, the city’s university offers everything James desires—except the chance to work on a human cadaver.

For that he needs to join one of the private schools in Surgeon’s Square, at a cost he cannot afford. In desperation he strikes a deal with Aneurin “Nye�� MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help James gain the surgical experience he craves—but it doesn’t take long for James to realize he’s made a devil’s bargain... Nye is a body snatcher—and James has unwittingly become his accomplice.]]> 336 A. Rae Dunlap 1496750349 Benni 5 horror, thrillers
The story isn't about romance, and it's certainly not marketed as such, but as a side note...damn if this book doesn't happen to contain the best romance I have read in a long time. I don't think either character is ugly but definitely a satisfying sapiosexual/demisexual love story where I truly felt the electrifying connection between the characters.]]> 3.88 2024
author: A. Rae Dunlap
name: Benni
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: horror, thrillers
review:
Wow, so much style and substance! I loved this and was a little distraught to find out this is the only book thus far by this author.

The story isn't about romance, and it's certainly not marketed as such, but as a side note...damn if this book doesn't happen to contain the best romance I have read in a long time. I don't think either character is ugly but definitely a satisfying sapiosexual/demisexual love story where I truly felt the electrifying connection between the characters.
]]> 60784419 A Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Editors' Pick for Amazon

For fans who have always wanted their Twin Peaks to have some wizards, The Warden is a non-stop action adventure story from author Daniel M. Ford.

There was a plan.

She had the money, the connections, even the brains. It was become one of the only female necromancers, earn as many degrees as possible, get a post in one of the grand cities, then prove she’s capable of greatness. The funny thing about plans is that they are seldom under your control.

Now Aelis de Lenti, a daughter of a noble house and recent graduate of the esteemed Magisters�� Lyceum, finds herself in the far-removed village of Lone Pine. Mending fences, matching wits with goats, and serving people who want nothing to do with her. But, not all is well in Lone Pine, and as the villagers Aelis is reluctantly getting to know start to behave strangely, Aelis begins to suspect that there is far greater need for a Warden of her talents than she previously thought.

Old magics are restless, and an insignificant village on the farthest border of the kingdom might hold secrets far beyond what anyone expected. Aelis might be the only person standing between one of the greatest evils ever known and the rest of the world.]]> 307 Daniel M. Ford 1250815657 Benni 0 to-read 3.73 2023
author: Daniel M. Ford
name: Benni
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215207321
The Locke Institute has only three rules:

1) Obey your betters.
2) Gather at sunrise.
3) Be inside by sundown.

But some men can't be told what to do.

Rooker Flynn is a rebellious, hot-tempered pirate who never met a rule he didn’t break. He wants his freedom, and he will stop at nothing to get it.

But the Headmistress is determined to crush Rooker's spirit; she will use bounty hunters, giant poisonous spiders, and an arsenal of dark secrets to keep her pupils in line.

Good thing Rooker knows one student who is smarter than all the rest put together; a kid genius who knows strange mysteries that are not of this world.

Working together, Rooker's bravado and the kid's brains might be enough to outwit their captor and stage a daring escape...or die trying.

__________

Perfect for those who loved Red Rising, A Deadly Education, and The Great Escape, you will lose yourself inside a suspenseful page-turner that you will not be able to put down until the very last word.]]> 373 A.R. Witham Benni 0 to-read 4.44
author: A.R. Witham
name: Benni
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213618148 Cursed by love.
Bound by hope.

Yeeran and Lettle are no longer prisoners to the fae court, but now they’re bound by the shackles of their hearts ��

Yeeran was born for war but is unprepared for love. She has left her new lover, the Queen of the fae, to return to her homeland, only to find that her former lover now threatens war against the fae.

Left behind, her sister Lettle is determined to break the curse that binds the fae to their realm. When a stranger appears in the city, Lettle is convinced he’s the key. But the Fates that once spoke to her have fallen silent.

Can Lettle and Yeeran discover the secret behind the curse �� and unite these two worlds before they destroy each other?]]> 352 Saara El-Arifi 0593723031 Benni 0 to-read 3.90 2025
author: Saara El-Arifi
name: Benni
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211399774 Two former serial killers trying to keep their past buried realize that old habits die hard in this “wildly original, razor-sharp thriller�� (Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestsellingauthor of All the Colors of the Dark).

I wasn't smashing the patriarchy; I was killing it. Literally.

Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they're murderers. Well, they used to be. They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to rid from the world. Then Hazel got pregnant.

Now, they’re just another mom-and-dad-and-baby. They gave up vigilante justice for life in the suburbs: arranged play dates instead of body disposals, diapers over daggers, mommy conversations instead of the sweet seduction right before a kill. Hazel finds her new life terribly dull. And the more she forces herself to play her monotonous, predictable role, the more she begins to feel that murderous itch again.

Meanwhile, Fox has really taken to being a father. Always the planner, he loves being five steps ahead of everyone and knowing exactly what’s coming around the bend. Plus, if anyone can understand Hazel needing one more kill, it’s Fox. But then Hazel kills someone without telling Fox. And when police show up at their door, Hazel realizes it will take everything she has to keep her family together.]]> 352 Asia Mackay 0593875583 Benni 0 to-read 3.60 2025
author: Asia Mackay
name: Benni
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.��

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Benni 0 to-read 4.45 2025
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Benni
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211003749 In a Gaslamp-lit world where hags and ogres lurk in thick pine forests, three magical queens form an uneasy alliance to protect their lands from invasion…and love turns their world upside down.

Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian�� is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange �� what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? �� but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well��

Little does Saskia know that the "wizard" she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?]]> 304 Stephanie Burgis 1250359597 Benni 0 to-read 3.83 2025
author: Stephanie Burgis
name: Benni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208584952 From the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations

Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,�� says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign�� wife.

Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?

With her “wry, wise, and simply spectacular�� style (People) and “hilarious deadpan that recalls Gish Jen and Nora Ephron�� (O, The Oprah Magazine), Weike Wang offers a portrait of family that is equally witty, incisive, and tender.]]> 224 Weike Wang 0593545540 Benni 3 asian-stuff 3.31 2024
author: Weike Wang
name: Benni
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: asian-stuff
review:
Very observant slice-of-life, but I didn't really understand the point of this very short book? It just ends. Very little happens; mostly it's just thoughts.
]]> 33229410 'The last person who called me ‘Sweetpea�� ended up dead��

'I haven’t killed anyone for three years and I thought that when it happened again I’d feel bad. Like an alcoholic taking a sip of whisky. But no. Nothing. I had a blissful night’s sleep. Didn’t wake up at all. And for once, no bad dream either. This morning I feel balanced. Almost sane, for once.

Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog�� but she’s got a killer secret.

Although her childhood was haunted by a famous crime, Rhiannon's life is normal now that her celebrity has dwindled. By day her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening she dutifully listens to her friend’s plans for marriage and babies whilst secretly making a list.

A kill list.

From the man on the Lidl checkout who always mishandles her apples, to the driver who cuts her off on her way to work, to the people who have got it coming, Rhiannon’s ready to get her revenge.

Because the girl everyone overlooks might be able to get away with murder…]]> 480 C.J. Skuse 0008216673 Benni 3 thrillers
Somewhat interesting and on the whole I enjoyed it more than not, but a lot of it was tedious and mundane. Not sure if I will continue the series.]]> 3.81 2017
author: C.J. Skuse
name: Benni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: thrillers
review:
Watched the show (just OK) and wanted to read the book; the book is extremely different. Probably because the book is essentially a female Dexter and they didn't just want to make a female Dexter show?

Somewhat interesting and on the whole I enjoyed it more than not, but a lot of it was tedious and mundane. Not sure if I will continue the series.
]]> 214353463 A gripping and heartfelt horror-tinged space adventure from the BSFA award-winning author of Stars and Bones and Embers of War. Readers of James S.A. Corey and Becky Chambers will love this fast-paced story of space piracy, deadly alien artifacts and a race to save what is left of humanity.

When archaeologist Ursula Morrow accidentally infects herself with an alien parasite, she fears she may have jeopardised her career. However, her concerns become irrelevant when Earth is destroyed, billions die, and suddenly no one needs archaeologists anymore��

Two years later, she’s plucked from a refugee camp on a backwater world and tasked with retrieving the artefact that infected her, as it just might hold the key to humanity’s survival. With time running short, and the planet housing the weapon now situated in hostile territory, she realises she’s going to have to commit an act of desperate piracy if she’s going to achieve her objective before the enemy’s final onslaught.

A thrilling, page-turning journey into deep space, where the fights are brutal and the relationships are complicated, from the BSFA award-winning author of Stars and Bones and Embers of War.]]> 319 Gareth L. Powell 1803368640 Benni 0 to-read 4.17
author: Gareth L. Powell
name: Benni
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208430658 Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

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

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

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

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

(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]> 430 M.L. Wang 0593873351 Benni 5 sff-paranormal-speculative 4.41 2023
author: M.L. Wang
name: Benni
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Brutal and affecting; stayed up late to finish it. Parts of this were predictable but that did not detract from the overall experience.
]]> 195703882 Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying�� yet enticing.

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.

A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.]]> 278 Monika Kim 1645661237 Benni 5 3.82 2024
author: Monika Kim
name: Benni
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative, horror
review:
Ugh, totally understand how the FMC feels! Not the eyeball eating part though...
]]> 62919375
At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds.]]> 416 Emily Habeck 1668006499 Benni 4 sff-paranormal-speculative 3.96 2023
author: Emily Habeck
name: Benni
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Very poetic (sometimes you only get one short paragraph per page), but the turning into animals part felt too metaphoric for my tastes. Would have enjoyed a little harder "science" on that.
]]> 198663065
Synthetic woman Julia Walden was designed for one reason: to compete on The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairy-tale ending when Josh gets down on one knee.

Fast forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia's life is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking point—and isn’t that where a person’s true nature is revealed? That is…if Julia truly is a person.

Told via dual timelines, Jenna Satterthwaite’s twist-filled debut deftly explores the exhilarating point where artificial intelligence, reality TV and bone-chilling murder mystery meet.]]> 400 Jenna Satterthwaite 0778310426 Benni 4 sff-paranormal-speculative
I enjoyed this for the most part, but the "Bachelor" parts were a bit boring, especially if you've ever watched UnREAL.]]> 3.64 2024
author: Jenna Satterthwaite
name: Benni
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
You don't have to be a robot for men not to view you as a person but this does drive home the point.

I enjoyed this for the most part, but the "Bachelor" parts were a bit boring, especially if you've ever watched UnREAL.
]]> 199531653 A glittering, bold, darkly funny novel about two sisters—one in New York, one in Singapore—who are bound by an ancient secret.

Sisterhood is difficult for Su and Emerald. Su leads a sheltered, moneyed life as the picture-perfect wife of a conservative politician in Singapore. Emerald is a nihilistic sugar baby in New York, living from whim to whim as she freely uses her beauty and charms to make ends meet. But they share a secret; once they were snakes, basking under a full moon in Tang Dynasty China.

A thousand years later, their mysterious history is the only thing still binding them together. When Emerald experiences a violent encounter in Central Park and Su boards the next flight to New York, the two reach a tenuous reconciliation for the first time in decades. Su convinces Emerald to move to Singapore so she can keep an eye on her—but she soon begins to worry that Emerald’s irrepressible behavior will out them both, in a sparkling, affluent city where everything runs like clockwork and any deviation from the norm is automatically suspect.

Razor-sharp, hilarious, and raw in emotion, Sister Snake explores chosen family, queerness, passing, and the struggle against conformity. Reimagining the Chinese folktale “The Legend of the White Snake,�� this is a novel about being seen for who you are—and, ultimately, how to live free.��]]> 272 Amanda Lee Koe 006335506X Benni 5 3.79 2024
author: Amanda Lee Koe
name: Benni
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: asian-stuff, sff-paranormal-speculative
review:
Vivid and beautiful; I did wish it was a little longer and had more flashbacks. I am somewhat disappointed that the events in the Legend of the White Snake did not happen in this version; there is an alternate version told here that is mentioned only in passing. That said, I still really enjoyed this tale.
]]> 194477936 Fans of Chloe Gong and Judy I. Lin will devour this Korean-inspired Alice in Wonderland retelling about two very wicked girls, forever bonded by blood and betrayal . . .

In a world where Saints are monsters and Wonderland is the dark forest where they lurk, it’s been five years since young witches and lovers Caro Rabbit and Iccadora Alice Sickle were both sentenced to that forest for a crime they didn’t commit—and four years since they shattered one another’s hearts, each willing to sacrifice the other for a chance at freedom.

Now, Caro is a successful royal Saint-harvester, living the high life in the glittering capital and pretending not to know of the twisted monster experiments that her beloved Red Queen hides deep in the bowels of the palace. But for Icca, the memory of Caro’s betrayal has hardened her from timid girl to ruthless hunter. A hunter who will stop at nothing to exact her vengeance: On Caro. On the queen. On the throne itself.

But there’s a secret about the Saints the Queen’s been guarding, and a volatile magic at play even more dangerous to Icca and Caro than they are to each other��

Lush, terrifying, and uncanny, Zoe Hana Mikuta—author of Gearbreakers and Godslayers —takes a delicate knife straight through the heart of this beloved surrealist fairytale.]]> 408 Zoe Hana Mikuta 1368099068 Benni 0 to-read 3.49 2024
author: Zoe Hana Mikuta
name: Benni
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 196726166 The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.
��
Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
��
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.]]> 368 Sydney J. Shields 0316568864 Benni 0 to-read 3.57 2024
author: Sydney J. Shields
name: Benni
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59414094 Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past—and your family—can haunt you like nothing else.

When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.

Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.

But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…]]> 419 Grady Hendrix 0593201264 Benni 5 horror
Grady Hendrix is great at writing people and emotional truths, as well as really in-depth research such that everything he writes about (here, the world of puppetry) comes alive.]]> 3.65 2023
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Benni
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: horror
review:
Those last two paragraphs broke me a little as that is exactly what kept happening to me after my mom died.

Grady Hendrix is great at writing people and emotional truths, as well as really in-depth research such that everything he writes about (here, the world of puppetry) comes alive.
]]> 214229274 From critically acclaimed author Richard Swan, Grave Empire begins the epic tale of an empire on the verge of industrial revolution, where sorcery and arcane practices are outlawed �� and where an ancient prophecy threatens the coming end of days.

Blood once turned the wheels of��empire. Now it is money.

A new age of exploration and innovation has dawned, and the��Empire��of the Wolf stands to take its place as the foremost power in the known world. Glory and riches await.

But dark days are coming. A mysterious plague has broken out in the pagan kingdoms to the north, while in the south, the��Empire’s proxy war in the lands of the wolfmen is weeks away from total collapse.��

Worse still is the message brought to the Empress by two heretic monks, who claim to have lost contact with the spirits of the afterlife. The monks believe this is the start of an ancient prophecy heralding the end of days—the Great Silence.��

It falls to Renata Rainer, a low-ranking ambassador to an enigmatic and vicious race of mermen, to seek answers from those who still practice the arcane arts. But with the road south beset by war and the��Empire��on the brink of supernatural catastrophe, soon there may not be a world left to save...��]]> 529 Richard Swan Benni 0 to-read 4.18 2025
author: Richard Swan
name: Benni
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 142501887 An eerie, hypnotic, darkly beautiful novel about two elderly sisters living alone at the edge of the world and how their lives unravel when their sanctum is breached, for fans of Piranesi and The Testaments.

In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother.

So when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once-solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted. Who is he? Where did he come from? And most importantly, what does he want?

As suspicions gather and allegiances falter, Evelyn and Lily are forced to confront the dark truths about themselves, the garden, and the world as they’ve known it.]]> 12 Nick Newman Benni 0 to-read 3.86 2025
author: Nick Newman
name: Benni
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211003894
Now, Noon is stuck navigating the submerged town with her mom, who believes their dead family has reincarnated as sea creatures. Alone with the pain of what happened that night at the cove, Noon buries the truth: she is not the right shape.

When Mercy’s predatory leader demands Noon and her mom capture the creature drowning residents, she reluctantly finds an ally in his deadly hunter of a daughter and friends old and new. As the next storm approaches, Noon must confront the past and decide if it’s time to answer the monster itching at her skin.]]> 272 Trang Thanh Tran 1547611111 Benni 0 to-read 3.67 2025
author: Trang Thanh Tran
name: Benni
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216602917 A shield maiden fights to break the shackles of prophecy—and to overcome the betrayal of the man who broke her heart—in this searing conclusion to the Norse-inspired fantasy romance duology that began with the bestselling A Fate Inked in Blood.

The secret of her divine heritage revealed, Freya finds herself on a path that will see thousands of lives lost to the magic in her blood. Desperate to avoid this dark fate, she risks an alliance with Skaland’s greatest enemy to seek answers from the seer who foretold her future—the same seer who sent Bjorn to kill her.

While Freya still seethes with rage over Bjorn’s betrayal, the blood oaths that bind her demand that she keep him close as she hunts for a way to avert the looming war. Her magic draws her to the front lines of an old enmity, embroiling her with Nordeland’s Unfated—children of the gods who serve the king she was raised to fear. The same king who, unlike Bjorn, is now willing to fight at her back. For despite the desire that burns hot between Bjorn and Freya, his growing distrust of her chosen path threatens to drag them further apart.

As war approaches, gods and mortals must choose their weapons. Yet the fiercest battle will be the one Freya wages within herself. With the magic of two goddesses burning in her veins, she must weave the threads of destiny to decide her own fate: Will she be the shield that protects her people or the curse that destroys them?]]> 416 Danielle L. Jensen 0593599861 Benni 0 to-read 4.30 2025
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Benni
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205335957
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.]]> 400 Rachel Gillig 0356522962 Benni 0 to-read 4.61 2025
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Benni
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212364043
“Be ready for a deadly contest for a bride, mistaken identities, hidden magic, and secrets that will keep you guessing until the end.�� –NISHA J. TULI, internationally bestselling author of Trial of the Sun Queen

A bladesmith blessed by the stars. A prince with a dangerous secret. A god bound in shadows. From USA Today bestselling author Amalie Howard comes a scorching new romantasy that will leave you spellbound.

“His Imperial Majesty King Zarek requests your presence as his esteemed guest.��

When the gold-dusted court invitation arrives at Suraya Saab’s forge, she believes it’s a joke. Nobles might seek her skills as a bladesmith—one of few who can imbue her work with precious jadu, the last source of magic in the realm—but she has no qualifications as a potential bride for the crown prince. Still, the invitation is the chance at adventure, and the means to finally visit the capital city her late mother loved.

But what awaits her in Kaldari is nothing she could have imagined—and fraught with danger. It’s not the crown prince, but his impossibly handsome, illegitimate half-brother, Roshan, who captures her interest…and her ire. The invitation isn’t a quest to find a suitable bride, but a veiled hunt for the Starkeeper—a girl rumored to hold the magic of the stars in her blood. And across the city, unrest is brewing between the noble houses and the rebel militia.

When the rebels attack, Suraya and Roshan find themselves on the run, trying to deny their simmering attraction and the knowledge that Suraya herself might be the Starkeeper. But Roshan is guarding secrets of his own. And with no control over the power stirring within her, Suraya has drawn the attention of a dark god, an immortal whose interest might be the biggest threat of all.

“Consumes all your attention and leaves you longing for more!�� —Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Stunning .�� —Brigid Kemmerer, New York Times bestselling author

“Pure addictive delight." —Thea Guanzon, New York Times bestselling author

“Amalie Howard at her finest!�� —Danielle L. Jensen, New York Times bestselling author]]> 368 Amalie Howard 0063355841 Benni 0 to-read 3.32 2025
author: Amalie Howard
name: Benni
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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