Dayanara's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 27 Apr 2025 17:46:40 -0700 60 Dayanara's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Sweet Obsession (Dark Olympus, #8)]]> 209116165 He was mine to protect. Mine to adore. Mine to lose forever.

Icarus may not have flown particularly close to the sun, but he has fallen…right into the rough hands of Olympus's own Poseidon. Being held captive by the gentle giant wouldn't be so bad if Olympus wasn't on the eve of destruction…or if Poseidon stopped looking at him with those irresistibly stormy eyes.

Poseidon doesn't have time to babysit his increasingly bratty prisoner, but he has no Olympus is officially at war, and someone has to keep their best bargaining chip out of harm's way. The thing is, the longer Poseidon is with Icarus, the more he starts to care for his sworn enemy...and the more he realizes that Icarus isn't the villain he's been made out to be. There's a warmth to him, a vulnerability, that Poseidon finds difficult to ignore or deny.

Now with Circe and the Aeaens at the gate and Olympus a hair's breadth away from falling, Poseidon will have to make a difficult about himself, about his allegiances, and about the man who woke his heart from its long slumber only to threaten to break it for good...

A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Poseidon and Icarus.]]>
336 Katee Robert Dayanara 0 3.71 2025 Sweet Obsession (Dark Olympus, #8)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
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<![CDATA[It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over]]> 177148776 128 Anne de Marcken 0811237850 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.70 2024 It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over
author: Anne de Marcken
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/27
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Great Big Beautiful Life 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]>
432 Emily Henry Dayanara 0 currently-reading 4.20 2025 Great Big Beautiful Life
author: Emily Henry
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Midnight Ruin (Dark Olympus, #6)]]> 123416326
Charon Ariti has been Hades's right-hand man for years. He's given everything to the lower city, but now he's ready to take something for himself. He's only too happy to give Eurydice a special kind of education…but is her heart really free enough to be claimed?

Orpheus Makos will do whatever it takes to make things right. Once the golden boy of the upper city, he's now a shadow of his former self. He'll do anything to get Eurydice back…even if it means she's not coming into his arms alone. Three hearts. Three futures. Countless ways to get it wrong.

But with enemies slipping through Olympus's faltering barrier to lay siege on the lower city, a trio of broken hearts will be the least of these would-be lovers' worries…]]>
316 Katee Robert Dayanara 0 3.70 2024 Midnight Ruin (Dark Olympus, #6)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
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<![CDATA[Cruel Seduction (Dark Olympus, #5)]]> 63065383
And the one man I swore by all Olympus I would destroy.

Aphrodite has never flinched at getting her perfectly manicured hands dirty, and she's not about to start now—even if that means marrying Olympus's enemy number one, the new Hephaestus. She has a wicked plan to keep her deadly new husband off-balance, seducing the one person he seems to care about most in this world: Pandora, a woman as beautiful as she is sweet.

Two can play the seduction game, however, and Hephaestus is all too happy to put his new wife in her place. Her ex, Adonis, seems like he'll do the trick. It doesn't hurt that he's gorgeous in the way of fallen angels, either.

The only problem with using seduction as a weapon? Hearts are all too quick to get involved. With Hephaestus and Aphrodite trading venomous strikes that feel a whole lot like foreplay, lines become blurred and emotions entangled. But a broken heart may be the least of their worries. With unrest in Olympus reaching new heights, these bedroom games may have deadly consequences for themselves, their city, and everyone they've come to love.]]>
384 Katee Robert 1728262763 Dayanara 0 3.68 2023 Cruel Seduction (Dark Olympus, #5)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
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<![CDATA[Tender Cruelty (Dark Olympus, #9)]]> 209116174 Zeus &amp; Hera's book. Katee Robert Dayanara 0 to-read 4.60 2025 Tender Cruelty (Dark Olympus, #9)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/21
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<![CDATA[Radiant Sin (Dark Olympus, #4)]]> 60478017 There's nowhere more dangerous than Olympus...and no one more captivating than its golden god: Apollo. Keeper of secrets, master of his shining realm...and the only man I am powerless to deny.

As a disgraced member of a fallen house, Cassandra Gataki has seen firsthand what comes from trusting the venomous Thirteen. But when the maddeningly gorgeous and kind Apollo asks her to go undercover as his plus-one at a week-long party hosted by a dangerous new power player…Cassandra reluctantly agrees to have his back.

On one condition: when it's all over, and Apollo has the ammunition he needs to protect Olympus, she and her sister will be allowed to leave. For good.

Apollo may be the city's official spymaster, but it's his ability to inspire others that keeps him at the top. Despite what the rest of Olympus says, there's no one he trusts more than Cassandra. Yet even as their fake relationship takes a wicked turn for the scaldingly hot, a very real danger surfaces� threatening not only Cassandra and Apollo, but the very heart of Olympus itself.]]>
345 Katee Robert 172825700X Dayanara 3 3.76 2023 Radiant Sin (Dark Olympus, #4)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
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The Good Lie 56238004 Six teens murdered. A suspect behind bars. A desperate father. In a case this shadowy, the truth is easy to hide.

Psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Moore is an expert on killers. She’s spent a decade treating California’s most depraved predators and unlocking their motives—predators much like the notorious Bloody Heart serial killer, whose latest teenage victim escaped and then identified local high school teacher Randall Thompson as his captor. The case against Thompson as the Bloody Heart Killer is damning—and closed, as far as Gwen and the media are concerned. If not for one new development�

Defense attorney Robert Kavin is a still-traumatized father whose own son fell prey to the BH Killer. Convinced of Thompson’s innocence, he steps in to represent him. Now Robert wants Gwen to interview the accused, create a psych profile of the killer and his victims, and help clear his client’s name.

As Gwen and Robert grow closer and she dives deeper into the investigation, grave questions arise. So does Gwen’s suspicion that Robert is hiding something—and that he might not be the only one with a secret.

Six teenagers dead. Finally, the killer behind bars. But are the games just beginning?]]>
257 A.R. Torre 1542020174 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.12 2021 The Good Lie
author: A.R. Torre
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
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<![CDATA[Wicked Beauty (Dark Olympus, #3)]]> 58945351 She was the face that launched a thousand ships,
The fierce beauty at the heart of Olympus,
And she was never ours to claim.

*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Patroclus that's as sinful as it is sweet.*

In Olympus, you either have the power to rule...or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city's inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning.

Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize...or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way.

Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can't keep her hands off—Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield?]]>
402 Katee Robert 1728231809 Dayanara 4 3.93 2022 Wicked Beauty (Dark Olympus, #3)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
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<![CDATA[The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)]]> 26032825 Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.]]>
370 Holly Black 0316310271 Dayanara 0 4.01 2018 The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)
author: Holly Black
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
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Giovanni’s Room 406235 178 James Baldwin Dayanara 0 to-read 4.40 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
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<![CDATA[Electric Idol (Dark Olympus, #2)]]> 57661359 And if I wasn't careful, he was going to be my death.

*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Psyche and Eros that's as sinful as it is sweet.*

In the ultra-modern city of Olympus, there's always a price to pay. Psyche knew she'd have to face Aphrodite's ire eventually, but she never expected her literal heart to be at stake...or for Aphrodite's gorgeous son to be the one ordered to strike the killing blow.

Eros has no problem shedding blood. But when it comes time to take out his latest target, he can't do it. Confused by his reaction to Psyche, he does the only thing he can think of to keep her safe: he marries her. Psyche vows to make Eros's life a living hell until they find a way out of this mess. But as lines blur and loyalties shift, she realizes he might take her heart after all...and she's not sure she can survive the loss.]]>
375 Katee Robert 1728231760 Dayanara 3 3.94 2022 Electric Idol (Dark Olympus, #2)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
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<![CDATA[Gate to Kagoshima (Ancestor Memories, #1)]]> 213974048 In this exciting historical romantasy in the spirit of The Hurricane Wars and The Time Traveler’s Wife—Outlander set in Japan—a young Scottish woman is magically transported to the last Samurai era, where she encounters ghosts from the past, her own Japanese ancestry, and a love that transcends time.

While in Japan researching her family’s history, a vicious typhoon sends Isla Mackenzie 128 years back in time, to the dawn of the Satsuma Rebellion. There she meets her ancestors, and a charismatic samurai, Kei, with whom she unexpectedly finds romance.

But, unlike her Beloved, Isla knows about the looming Samurai rebellion—and Kai’s fate. Should she attempt to change history or somehow make her way back to the life she’d had before?

Compulsively readable, historically grounded, and irresistibly immersive, Gate to Kagoshima is an unforgettable tale of duty, and of timeless love.]]>
320 Poppy Kuroki 0063410877 Dayanara 2 3.27 2025 Gate to Kagoshima (Ancestor Memories, #1)
author: Poppy Kuroki
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
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A Harvest of Hearts 210693153 In the beloved tradition of Howl’s Moving Castle, a whimsical and unforgettable story of fantastic adventure, common sense, and the power of love to overcome the greatest of obstacles . . .

Before Foss Butcher was Snagged, she thought no more of the magic-users than did anyone else in her tiny village. Sometimes gorgeous women in impossible carriages rolled into town and took bits of people’s hearts. Everyone knew hearts fueled their magic. But Foss, plain, clumsy, and practical as a boot, never expected anyone would want hers.

True enough, when the only sorcerer in the kingdom stepped from his glossy carriage, he didn’t intend to hook Foss. Sylvester’s riot of black curls and perfectly etched cheekbones caught her eye a moment too long, that was all. Suddenly, Foss is cursed and finds herself stomping toward the grand City to keep his enchanted House, where her only friend is a talking cat and the walls themselves have moods.

But as Foss learns the ways of magic, she realizes she’s far from its only unwilling captive. Even Sylvester is hemmed in by spells and threats. It’s said this sorcery protects king, country, and order for thousands. If Foss wants to free herself—and, perhaps, Sylvester—she’ll have to confront it all . . . and uncover the blight nestled in the heart of the kingdom itself.]]>
448 Andrea Eames 1645661881 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.60 2025 A Harvest of Hearts
author: Andrea Eames
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/23
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Neon Gods (Dark Olympus, #1) 54659771 He was supposed to be a myth.
But from the moment I crossed the River Styx and fell under his dark spell... he was, quite simply, mine.

Society darling Persephone Dimitriou plans to flee the ultra-modern city of Olympus and start over far from the backstabbing politics of the Thirteen Houses. But all that’s ripped away when her mother ambushes her with an engagement to Zeus, the dangerous power behind their glittering city’s dark facade.

With no options left, Persephone flees to the forbidden undercity and makes a devil’s bargain with a man she once believed a myth... a man who awakens her to a world she never knew existed.

Hades has spent his life in the shadows, and he has no intention of stepping into the light. But when he finds that Persephone can offer a little slice of the revenge he’s spent years craving, it’s all the excuse he needs to help her—for a price. Yet every breathless night spent tangled together has given Hades a taste for Persephone, and he’ll go to war with Olympus itself to keep her close�

A modern retelling of Hades and Persephone that’s as sinful as it is sweet.]]>
380 Katee Robert 1728231736 Dayanara 3 3.68 2021 Neon Gods (Dark Olympus, #1)
author: Katee Robert
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
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Expiration Dates 176443178
From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes the romance that will define a generation.

Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.

But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.

Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.]]>
272 Rebecca Serle 1982166827 Dayanara 0 3.58 2024 Expiration Dates
author: Rebecca Serle
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
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<![CDATA[Diana Says Yes (Dirty Diana, #3)]]> 218460383 The third book in the sensational Dirty Diana series—based on the #1 fiction podcast.

Secrets threaten to disrupt Diana Wood’s carefully reconstructed life just as she’s begun to put the pieces back together. But how happy we can truly be if we let the past haunt our present?

Diana Wood’s escape to Paris has ended. She’s traded in her international sexual escapades for sharing a couch in therapy with her husband, Oliver. Dedicated to rekindling the spark they lost, Diana and Oliver are determined to follow whatever directives their therapist issues. But then she says, “Absolutely no sex.�

Diana and Oliver are forced to date each other the old-fashioned way: roller blading and movie nights and making out against parked cars. Much to their surprise, their therapist’s advice seems to be working: the emotional connection between them deepens, and the physical attraction begins to feel electric and all-consuming. But Diana is worried--she has to tell Oliver that the website she built for women to share their deepest sexual fantasies has attracted major media attention. Before the news can spread across Dallas, to their daughter’s school and to film producers in L.A., Diana must confess to her husband and own up to the ways their lives, and their marriage, will change forever.

As much as Diana wants her newly rekindled marriage to flourish and her quiet life in Dallas to stay that way, she wants her website to be successful--both as a business and in the ways that helping women to connect to their desires can change their lives. She finally has everything she's always wanted; should she risk it all by sharing her story?]]>
224 Jen Besser 0593447700 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.47 Diana Says Yes (Dirty Diana, #3)
author: Jen Besser
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
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<![CDATA[Diana in Love (Dirty Diana, #2)]]> 212808968 A woman travels to Paris where she reconnects with a man from her past and reclaims the wild, sensual woman she used to be--the second book in the Dirty Diana series, based on the #1 fiction podcast starring Demi Moore.

Diana Wood has thrown her life in the garbage disposal and flipped the switch. Everything is a mess. After years of watching her safe, steady marriage growĚýstrained, she and her husband, Oliver, decided to separate. Now, he’s embarked on a new career and what seems to be a satisfying dating life,ĚýwhileĚýshe’s eating cereal for dinner in an empty kitchen after her daughter has gone to bed.

When an important client asks Diana to come to Paris, she jumps at the opportunity--and not only for professional reasons. Paris will afford Diana the time and space she needs to reflect on her next steps, especially her plans for the website she recently launched that showcases women sharing their deepest, most secret fantasies--a site thatĚýis quicklyĚýgrowing in popularity.ĚýAnd just maybe,ĚýJasper, the seductive, elusive man from Diana’s past--the man who truly lit her up in every way--will be in Paris at the same time.

Diana and her two best friendsĚýtravel toĚýthe City of Lights, where Diana indulges every one of her desires--culinary, artistic, and sensual. But no vacation lasts forever. When Diana returns to Dallas, she must confront the still-raw feelings she has for her husband,Ěýand decide once and for Is it possible to be the spontaneous, creative, fully alive woman she rediscovered in Paris?]]>
256 Jen Besser 0593447689 Dayanara 4 3.91 Diana in Love (Dirty Diana, #2)
author: Jen Besser
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
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Madonna in a Fur Coat 27793819 The bestselling Turkish classic of love and longing in a changing world, available in English for the first time.



'It is, perhaps, easier to dismiss a man whose face gives no indication of an inner life. And what a pity that is: a dash of curiosity is all it takes to stumble upon treasures we never expected.'

A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade in 1920s Berlin. The city's crowded streets, thriving arts scene, passionate politics and seedy cabarets provide the backdrop for a chance meeting with a woman, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings and the unfathomable nature of the human soul.



'Passionate but clear . . . Ali's success [is in ] his ability to describe the emergence of a feeling, seemingly straightforward from the outside but swinging back and forth between opposite extremes at its core, revealing the tensions that accompanies such rise and fall.' Atilla Ă–zkirimli, writer and literary historian]]>
168 Sabahattin Ali 014198127X Dayanara 4 4.19 1943 Madonna in a Fur Coat
author: Sabahattin Ali
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1943
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
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Bright Young Women 101124639
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]>
384 Jessica Knoll 1501153226 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Bright Young Women
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/02
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Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]>
527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Dayanara 3 4.17 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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Dirty Diana (Dirty Diana, #1) 209455855 A deliciously provocative novel about a woman caught between the comfortable stability of her marriage and her memories of a more sensual past—the first book in a three-part series based on the #1 fiction podcast starring Demi Moore.

“Diana Wood’s quest to reignite her sensual past while navigating the confines of her current marriage is funny and sexy�. Dirty Diana is wildly seductive—​perfect for anyone who loved The Idea of You.� � Renée Carlino, author of Before We Were Strangers and This Used to Be Us

“Too many women are made to feel that their sexuality is something dangerous, something that should be kept under wraps. Dirty Diana busts that myth wide open. Diana’s struggles will be relatable, and her awakening inspiring, to women everywhere. Dirty Diana is a deliciously entertaining, funny, tantalizing treat of a story.� � Demi Moore

Diana Wood has a job she likes and a husband, Oliver, she loves. Together, they have a daughter they adore. She and Oliver spend so much time together, they even carpool to work in the same office. They’re in married love, which isn’t exactly the same as love love, but it’s fine.

Or is it? Is fine good enough?Ěý

Diana and Oliver haven’t had sex in months and their intimacy seems more like a memory than a reality. The cozy trappings of Diana’s life in Dallas, Texas have become ever-more confining. She is restless, growing more distant from Oliver by the day.Ěý

A trip to see an old friend in Santa Fe prompts Diana to remember the woman she used to an aspiring artist; someone devoted to creativity, spontaneity, sensuality. In her past—especially with Jasper, the dashing photographer with whom she once had an unforgettable love affair—Diana let herself fantasize, she let her body lead the way. She was wholly…alive.Ěý

Returning to Dallas, Diana decides to rediscover the deeply feeling woman she once was. She begins interviewing other women, painting their portraits as they speak. She encourages them to give voice to their secret desires as she captures their deepest, innermost fantasies. But is it possible for Diana to reclaim her more sensual self and maintain the marriage she committed to? What if connecting to her own desires means dissolving the safe life she’s so carefully cultivated?]]>
272 Jen Besser 0593447662 Dayanara 4 3.60 Dirty Diana (Dirty Diana, #1)
author: Jen Besser
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
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Deep End 212808709 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...]]>
464 Ali Hazelwood Dayanara 0 to-read 3.93 2025 Deep End
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
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The Spare Room 201564651 Two unexpected flatmates. One shared space. Will they cross the line into love?

Rosie had the perfect evening lined up: she'd come home early, slip into a sexy dress and surprise her boyfriend with date night. What she was not expecting was to find his bags packed and herself unceremoniously dumped.

But she can't even think about her heartbreak when she faces the more pressing matter of making rent this month. And in desperate times, she agrees to let her spare room out to her elusive upstairs neighbour.

Aled needs somewhere to stay while his place is being renovated, and she gets to keep her home. It's a win-win situation... At least in theory.

For Rosie has sworn off men indefinitely, and never saw herself living with one so soon after her breakup. But being in Aled's company day in, day out has this annoying habit of playing havoc with her heart...

On paper they're just flatmates, but could there be room for more between them?

The ultimate forced proximity, slow-burn romcom to get your hands on, perfect for fans of Beth O'Leary, Portia MacIntosh and Mhairi McFarlane. ]]>
336 Laura Starkey 1471414930 Dayanara 3 3.58 The Spare Room
author: Laura Starkey
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
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Gothikana 57426932 The eternal romance of Beauty and the Beast meets the gothic suspense of Dracula in this erotic dark academia story of epic love from bestselling author RuNyx.

An unusual girl. An enigmatic man. An ancient castle. What could go wrong?

An outcast her entire life, Corvina Clemm is left adrift after losing her mother. When she receives the admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore, she accepts it as a sign from the universe. The last thing she expects though is an old, secluded castle on top of a mountain riddled with secrets, deceit, and death.

An enigma his entire life, Vad Deverell likes being a closed book but knowing exactly everything that happens in the university. A part-time professor working on his thesis, Vad has been around long enough to know the dangers the castle possesses. And he knows the moment his path crosses with Corvina, she's dangerous to everything that he is.

They shouldn't have caught each other's eye. They cannot be. But a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide. People have disappeared every five years over the past century, Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it all, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her.

And so begins a tale of the mysterious, the morbid, the macabre, and a deep love that blossoms in the unlikeliest of places.]]>
456 RuNyx Dayanara 5 3.78 2021 Gothikana
author: RuNyx
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
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Out on a Limb 124950295 397 Hannah Bonam-Young 1778027784 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.25 2023 Out on a Limb
author: Hannah Bonam-Young
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/20
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Psyche and Eros 62292422
Who said true love is a myth?

A prophecy claims that Psyche, princess of Mycenae, will defeat a monster feared even by the gods. Rebelling against her society’s expectations for women, Psyche spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing to meet her destiny.

When Psyche angers the love goddess Aphrodite, she sends Eros, god of desire, to deliver a cruel curse. After eons watching humanity twist his gifts, the last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the mortal world. But when he pricks himself with the arrow intended for Psyche, Eros finds himself doomed to yearn for a woman who will be torn from him the moment their eyes meet.

Thrown together by fate, headstrong Psyche and world-weary Eros will face challenges greater than they could have ever imagined. And as the Trojan War begins and divine powers try to keep them apart, the pair must determine if the curse could become something more . . . before it’s too late.

A joyous and subversive tale of gods, monsters, and the human heart and soul, Psyche and Eros dazzles the senses while exploring notions of trust, sacrifice, and what it truly means to be a hero. With unforgettably vivid characters, spellbinding prose, and delicious tension, Luna McNamara has crafted a shimmering and propulsive debut novel about a love so strong it defies the will of Olympus.]]>
352 Luna McNamara 0063295075 Dayanara 2 3.75 2023 Psyche and Eros
author: Luna McNamara
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
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<![CDATA[Hollow Court (The Lochlann Deception #1)]]> 123869250 *This enthralling new series from the Lochlann Realm takes place after The Lochlann Treaty and The Lochlann Feuds, but the series don't need to be read in order, so you can feel free to start with this one!

**Please note: This is Book One in a duology, and does leave you at the edge of a cliff! But don't worry, the series will be complete in Fall of 2023.]]>
390 Robin D. Mahle Dayanara 0 4.15 Hollow Court (The Lochlann Deception #1)
author: Robin D. Mahle
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
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<![CDATA[Fragile Oath (The Lochlann Deception #2)]]> 123930394


Davin and Galina's story will wrap up in book two of The Lochlann Deception Duology, perfect for fans of Danielle Jensen, Elise Kova, and Sarah J Maas.]]>
406 Robin D. Mahle Dayanara 0 4.17 Fragile Oath (The Lochlann Deception #2)
author: Robin D. Mahle
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
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The Wishing Game 62926992
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind� Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

. . . You might just get it.]]>
304 Meg Shaffer 0593598830 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.02 2023 The Wishing Game
author: Meg Shaffer
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
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Lady Macbeth 202102084 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

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

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

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

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

She does not know this yet. But she will.]]>
295 Ava Reid 0593722566 Dayanara 0 3.46 2024 Lady Macbeth
author: Ava Reid
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
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The Break-Up Pact 195790535 Two best friends who haven’t spoken in ten years pretend to date after break-ups with their respective exes go viral, in this delightfully fun and deeply emotional novel.

June and Levi were best friends as teenagers—until the day they weren’t. Now June is struggling to make rent on her beachside tea shop, Levi is living a New York cliché as a disillusioned hedge fund manager and failed novelist, and they've barely spoken in years.

But after they both experience public, humiliating break-ups with their exes that spread like wildfire across TikTok rabbit holes and daytime talk shows alike, they accidentally make some juicy gossip of their own—a photo of them together has the internet convinced they're a couple. With so many people rooting for them, they decide to put aside their rocky past and make a pact to fuel the fire. Pretending to date will help June’s shop get back on its feet and make Levi’s ex realize that she made a mistake. All they have to do is convince the world they're in love, one swoon-worthy photo opp at a time.

Two viral break-ups. One fake relationship. Five sparkling, heart-pounding dates. June and Levi can definitely pull this off without their hearts getting involved. Because everyone knows fake dating doesn’t come with real feelings. Right?]]>
320 Emma Lord Dayanara 2 3.33 2024 The Break-Up Pact
author: Emma Lord
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
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Cleopatra and Frankenstein 57693262 For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.

Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]>
368 Coco Mellors 1635576814 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.70 2022 Cleopatra and Frankenstein
author: Coco Mellors
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: to-read
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A Dark and Drowning Tide 174146852 A sharp-tongued folklorist must pair up with her academic rival to solve their mentor's murder in this lush and enthralling sapphic fantasy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic.

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

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

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

As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.]]>
384 Allison Saft 0593722345 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.59 2024 A Dark and Drowning Tide
author: Allison Saft
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/25
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The Book of Elsewhere 202950650
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.�

And he wants to be able to die.

In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.

A mind-blowing epic of ancient powers, modern war, and an outcast who cannot die. Combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books.]]>
352 Keanu Reeves 0593446593 Dayanara 0 3.26 2024 The Book of Elsewhere
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
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House of Bone and Rain 203163914 In the latest from Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME, a group of five teenage boys, living in Puerto Rico, seek vengeance after one of their mothers is murdered; a doomed tale of devotion and the afterlife of violence. Ěý

For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo's mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.

Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.

Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide.]]>
345 Gabino Iglesias 0316427012 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.84 2024 House of Bone and Rain
author: Gabino Iglesias
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/06
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Weyward 127280850
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]>
392 Emilia Hart 1250842727 Dayanara 3 4.02 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/06
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<![CDATA[Oleander: A Great Expectations Reimagining]]> 203177517 Caspien Deveraux was poison.

It took me years to realise that he hadn’t been born like that. He’d been cultivated and nurtured by a careful hand and a bitter heart.

When I first met him, he was a bud. One primed to bloom beautifully and deadly. One I should have torn out at the root.

I loathed him. I loved him. And until him, I hadn’t known just how completely those two things could exist at once.]]>
599 Scarlett Drake Dayanara 0 to-read 4.49 2024 Oleander: A Great Expectations Reimagining
author: Scarlett Drake
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/05
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Like Mother, Like Daughter 199347234
When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened.

But what? The polar opposite of Cleo, whose “out of control� emotions and “unsafe� behavior have created a seemingly unbridgeable rift between mother and daughter, Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks.

Kat has been lying. She’s not just a lawyer; she’s her firm’s fixer. She’s damn good at it, too. Growing up in a dangerous group home taught her how to think fast, stay calm under pressure, and recognize a real threat when she sees one. And in the days leading up her disappearance, Kat has become aware of multiple threats: demands for money from her unfaithful soon-to-be ex-husband; evidence that Cleo has slipped back into a relationship that’s far riskier than she understands; and menacing anonymous messages from her past—all of which she’s kept hidden from Cleo . . .

Like Mother, Like Daughter is a thrilling novel of emotional suspense that questions the damaging fictions we cling to and the hard truths we avoid. Above all, it’s a love story between a mother and a daughter, each determined to save the other before it’s too late.]]>
320 Kimberly McCreight 0593536428 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.64 2024 Like Mother, Like Daughter
author: Kimberly McCreight
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/04
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<![CDATA[Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons, #4)]]> 110384
Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of everyone's preoccupation with the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him in the first paragraph. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl haunting his dreams. But when he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide...is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?]]>
370 Julia Quinn 0380820846 Dayanara 0 3.86 2002 Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons, #4)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
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The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]>
490 Liz Moore Dayanara 0 to-read 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/23
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Love at First Book 196848577
Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha’sĚýVineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in the Emerald Isle, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan’s novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence.

Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series—after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer’sĚýblock—is a dream come true for Emily. If only she didn’t have to deal with Siobhan’s son, Kieran Murphy. He manages Siobhan’s bookstore, and the grouchy bookworm clearly doesn’t want Em around.

When Siobhan’s health takes a bad turn, she’s more determined than ever to finish her novel, while Kieran tries every trick in the book to get his mother to rest. Thrown into the role of peacemaker, Emily begins to see that Kieran's heart is in the right place. Torn between helping Siobhan find closure with her series and her own growing feelings for the mercurial Irishman, Emily will have to decide if she’s truly ready to turn a new page and figure out what lies in the next chapter.]]>
330 Jenn McKinlay 0593545745 Dayanara 0 3.94 2024 Love at First Book
author: Jenn McKinlay
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/23
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Not in Love 198971010 A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science—from New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.]]>
379 Ali Hazelwood 0593550420 Dayanara 0 3.69 2024 Not in Love
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/18
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The Paradise Problem 199797582
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents � his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.]]>
352 Christina Lauren 1668017725 Dayanara 0 4.07 2024 The Paradise Problem
author: Christina Lauren
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/08
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Hate Mail 195427537 Naomi and Luca have been pen-pals since fifth-grade. Well, more like bitter rivals caught in an epic battle of insults and verbal jousting...

But what starts as a hilarious chain of hate filled letters, slowly develops into a friendship spanning coasts and years. That is until one day, years later, when the letters suddenly stop.

It’s been two years since Naomi last heard from Luca. Two years since the letter that changed everything.

But when a new envelope turns up out of the blue at her desk at the local news station, Naomi is determined not to let Luca have the final word.]]>
385 Donna Marchetti Dayanara 0 3.90 2024 Hate Mail
author: Donna Marchetti
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2024/07/06
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<![CDATA[Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)]]> 29227774 Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age.

�The measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.”—Virginia au Augustus

The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains.

But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend.

The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow. Because after the dark age will come a new age: of light, of victory, of hope.]]>
682 Pierce Brown 1473646804 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.74 2023 Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/28
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<![CDATA[Dark Age (Red Rising Saga, #5)]]> 29226553
For a decade Darrow led a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society. Now, outlawed by the very Republic he founded, he wages a rogue war on Mercury in hopes that he can still salvage the dream of Eo. But as he leaves death and destruction in his wake, is he still the hero who broke the chains? Or will another legend rise to take his place?

Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile, has returned to the Core. Determined to bring peace back to mankind at the edge of his sword, he must overcome or unite the treacherous Gold families of the Core and face down Darrow over the skies of war-torn Mercury.

But theirs are not the only fates hanging in the balance.

On Luna, Mustang, Sovereign of the Republic, campaigns to unite the Republic behind her husband. Beset by political and criminal enemies, can she outwit her opponents in time to save him?

Once a Red refugee, young Lyria now stands accused of treason, and her only hope is a desperate escape with unlikely new allies.

Abducted by a new threat to the Republic, Pax and Electra, the children of Darrow and Sevro, must trust in Ephraim, a thief, for their salvation—and Ephraim must look to them for his chance at redemption.

As alliances shift, break, and re-form—and power is seized, lost, and reclaimed—every player is at risk in a game of conquest that could turn the Rising into a new Dark Age.]]>
704 Pierce Brown 0425285952 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.49 2019 Dark Age (Red Rising Saga, #5)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/28
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)]]> 33257757 They call him father, liberator, warlord, Reaper. But he feels a boy as he falls toward the pale blue planet, his armor red, his army vast, his heart heavy. It is the tenth year of war and the thirty-second of his life.

A decade ago, Darrow was the hero of the revolution he believed would break the chains of the Society. But the Rising has shattered everything: Instead of peace and freedom, it has brought endless war. Now he must risk everything he has fought for on one last desperate mission. Darrow still believes he can save everyone, but can he save himself?

And throughout the worlds, other destinies entwine with Darrow’s to change his fate forever:

A young Red girl flees tragedy in her refugee camp and achieves for herself a new life she could never have imagined.

An ex-soldier broken by grief is forced to steal the most valuable thing in the galaxy—or pay with his life.

And Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile to the sovereign, wanders the stars with his mentor, Cassius, haunted by the loss of the world that Darrow transformed, and dreaming of what will rise from its ashes.

Red Rising was the story of the end of one universe, and Iron Gold is the story of the creation of a new one. Witness the beginning of a stunning new saga of tragedy and triumph from masterly New York Times bestselling author Pierce Brown.]]>
602 Pierce Brown 042528591X Dayanara 0 to-read 4.19 2018 Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/28
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)]]> 18966806
Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.]]>
525 Pierce Brown 0345539842 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.52 2016 Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/28
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)]]> 18966819
A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.]]>
466 Pierce Brown 0345539826 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.48 2015 Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/28
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<![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]>
382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/28
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Effie Olsen's Summer Special 195430704 Ěý
Effie OlsenĚýthoughtĚýshe’d never settle down on the tiny Maine island where she grew up, but she’s returning from a whirlwind sixteen years as a professional chef in far-flung countries for one summer and one summer only. Her hometown boasts one of the best restaurants in the US, and lucky for her, Brown Butter needs a sous chef. Effie is eager for a chance at redemption after her last job went up in flames, but reluctant to set down roots in a place that reminds her of the ghosts of her past.

Until, that is, she runs into Ernie Callahan, her onetime best friend who now works in the very same restaurant. Early morning swims and late-night games of truth or dare with Ernie remind her of what she’s been missing while traveling the world. He knows her better than anyone, and it doesn’t hurt that his smile lights her up brighter than the lighthouses dotting the craggy coastline.

But Brown Butter has a secret that’s bursting at the seams, and if Effie doesn’t keep it, her job will vanish into the foggy Maine air. As summer draws to a close, she realizes a second chance at her dream job and the perfect guy are both within reach. The salty seaside town of Alder Isle is the key to Effie’s sweet ending.... All she has to do now is learn to let her heart lead the way.]]>
384 Rochelle Bilow 059354790X Dayanara 1 3.62 2024 Effie Olsen's Summer Special
author: Rochelle Bilow
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
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Between Us 62397519 International bestseller Mhairi McFarlane delivers a witty, clever, emotional new novel about a woman whose life unravels spectacularly after her screenwriter boyfriend uses their relationship as inspiration for his new television show.

When Roisin and Joe join their friends for a weekend at a country house, it's a triple celebration--a birthday, an engagement, and the launch of Joe's shiny new TV show. But as the weekend unfolds, tensions come to light in the group and Roisin begins to question her own relationship. And as they watch the first episode of Joe's drama, she realizes that the private things she told him--which should have stayed between them--are right there on the screen.

With her friend group in chaos and her messy love life on display for the whole world to see, Roisin returns home to avoid the unwanted attention and help run her family's pub. But drama still follows, in the form of her dysfunctional family and the looming question: what other parts of her now-ex's show are inspired by real events? Lies? Infidelity? Every week, as a new episode airs, she wonders what other secrets will be revealed.

Yet the most unexpected twist of all is an old friend, who is suddenly there for Roisin in ways she never knew she needed...]]>
448 Mhairi McFarlane 0008412499 Dayanara 4 3.73 2023 Between Us
author: Mhairi McFarlane
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/19
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Almond 52219386 This story is, in short, about a monster meeting another monster.Ěý

One of the monsters is me.

Yunjae was born with a brain condition called Alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear or anger. He does not have friends—the two almond-shaped neurons located deep in his brain have seen to that—but his devoted mother and grandmother aren’t fazed by his condition. Their little home above his mother’s used bookstore is decorated with colorful post-it notes that remind him when to smile, when to say "thank you," and when to laugh. Yunjae grows up content, even happy, with his small family in this quiet, peaceful space.

Then on Christmas Eve—Yunjae’s sixteenth birthday—everything changes. A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him alone and on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school and begins to bully Yunjae.Ěý

Against all odds, tormentor and victim learn they have more in common than they realized. Gon is stumped by Yunjae’s impassive calm, while Yunjae thinks if he gets to know the hotheaded Gon, he might learn how to experience true feelings. Drawn by curiosity, the two strike up a surprising friendship. As Yunjae begins to open his life to new people—including a girl at school—something slowly changes inside him. And when Gon suddenly finds his life in danger, it is Yunjae who will step outside of every comfort zone he has created to perhaps become a most unlikely hero.Ěý

The Emissary meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime in this poignant and triumphant story about how love, friendship, and persistence can change a life forever.]]>
272 Sohn Won-Pyung 0062961373 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.16 2017 Almond
author: Sohn Won-Pyung
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/31
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Funny Story 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]>
400 Emily Henry Dayanara 4 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/23
date added: 2024/05/25
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Women Talking 40046077
While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, these women—all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in—have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they’ve ever known or should they dare to escape?

Based on real events and told through the “minutes� of the women’s all-female symposium, Toews’s masterful novel uses wry, politically engaged humor to relate this tale of women claiming their own power to decide.]]>
216 Miriam Toews 1635572584 Dayanara 0 3.61 2018 Women Talking
author: Miriam Toews
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/22
date added: 2024/05/22
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<![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 199405466
Every serial killer needs a friend.
Every game must have a winner.


When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in the Ruinous Love Dark Romance trilogy of interconnected stand-alone dark romantic comedies. This dual POV novel ends on a HEA.

***Butcher & Blackbird is a DARK ROMANCE intended for an adult audience - please see Brynne’s website for a comprehensive list of CWs***

Listening length: 8 hours, 43 minutes]]>
Brynne Weaver Dayanara 4 4.12 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/19
date added: 2024/05/19
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<![CDATA[Wings Once Cursed & Bound (Mythwoven, #1)]]> 63896294 The kinnaree
And no matter the cost,
I will be free.

Bennet Andrews represents a secret organization of supernatural beings dedicated to locating and acquiring mythical objects, tucking them safely away where they cannot harm the human race. When he meets Peeraphan Rahttana, it's too late—she has already stepped into The Red Shoes, trapped by their curse to dance to her death.

But Bennet isn't the only supernatural looking for deadly artifacts. And when the shoes don't seem to harm Peeraphan, he realizes that he'll have to save her from the likes of creatures she never knew existed. Bennett sweeps Peeraphan into a world of myth and power far beyond anything she ever imagined. There, she finds that magic exists in places she never dreamed—including deep within herself.]]>
304 Piper J. Drake Dayanara 0 to-read 3.17 2023 Wings Once Cursed & Bound (Mythwoven, #1)
author: Piper J. Drake
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/18
shelves: to-read
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The God of Endings 60784372 480 Jacqueline Holland 1250856760 Dayanara 0 3.77 2023 The God of Endings
author: Jacqueline Holland
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/08
date added: 2024/05/08
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Poor Things 72355 Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter - a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation.

The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be "the whole story" in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland's most accomplished authors.]]>
318 Alasdair Gray 0747562288 Dayanara 3 3.92 1992 Poor Things
author: Alasdair Gray
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/12
date added: 2024/04/14
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<![CDATA[Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)]]> 127611580 Ěý
And they can’t stand each other.Ěý
Ěý
Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be.Ěý

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomesĚýimpossible to discernĚýtheirĚýfake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.Ěý
There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.Ěý

And this one has come for blood.]]>
416 Brynne Weaver 0349441588 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.98 2024 Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/11
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<![CDATA[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil]]> 386187
The story is peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproarious black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.]]>
386 John Berendt 0679751521 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.91 1994 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
author: John Berendt
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/11
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The House of Hidden Meanings 181109983
A profound introspection of his life, relationships, and identity,Ěý The House of Hidden Meanings Ěýis a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag. Central to RuPaul’s success has been his chameleonic adaptability. From drag icon to powerhouse producer of one of the world’s largest television franchises, RuPaul’s ever-shifting nature has always been part of his brand as both supermodel and supermogul.

Yet that adaptability has made him enigmatic to the public. In this memoir, his most intimate and detailed book yet, RuPaul makes himself truly known. Stripping away all artifice, RuPaul recounts the story of his life with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, bringing his signature wisdom and wit to his own biography. From his early years growing up as a queer Black kid in San Diego navigating complex relationships with his absent father and temperamental mother, to forging an identity in the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York, to finding enduring love with his husband Georges LeBar and self-acceptance in sobriety, RuPaul excavates his own biography, uncovering new truths and insights in his personal history.

Here in RuPaul’s singular and extraordinary story is a manual for living—a personal philosophy that testifies to the value of chosen family, the importance of harnessing what makes you different, and the transformational power of facing yourself fearlessly. If we’re all born naked and the rest is drag, then this is RuPaul totally out of drag. This is RuPaul stripped bare.Ěý]]>
256 RuPaul 0063263904 Dayanara 4 3.78 2024 The House of Hidden Meanings
author: RuPaul
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
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When Grumpy Met Sunshine 127281421
When grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding gets badgered into selling his memoirs, he knows he’s never going to be able to write them. He hates revealing a single thing about himself, is allergic to most emotions, and can’t imagine doing a good job of putting pen to paper.

And so in walks curvy, cheery, cute as heck ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, who knows just how to sunshine and sass her way into getting every little detail out of Alfie. They banter and bicker their way to writing his life story, both of them sure they’ll never be anything other than at odds.

But after their business arrangement is mistaken for a budding romance, the pair have to pretend to be an item for a public who’s ravenous for more of this Cinderella story. Or at least, it feels like it’s pretend―until each slow burn step in their fake relationship sparks a heat neither can control. Now they just have to is this sizzling chemistry just for show? Or something so real it might just give them their fairytale ending?]]>
336 Charlotte Stein 1250867932 Dayanara 0 3.34 2024 When Grumpy Met Sunshine
author: Charlotte Stein
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/03/31
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Bride 181350327 A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was�.

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.]]>
396 Ali Hazelwood 0593641035 Dayanara 3 3.99 2024 Bride
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2024/03/24
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Kilt Trip 150444412
Globetrotter Addie Macrae always follows her wanderlust. As a travel consultant, she jet sets around the world—anywhere but Scotland. But when she’s sent on assignment to help a struggling family-run tour company in the Highlands—and save her own job—Addie packs away her emotional baggage and turns on the professional charm.

Rugged as the land he loves, Logan Sutherland’s greatest joy is sharing the beauty of Scotland’s hidden gems…even if it means a wee bit of red ink on the company’s bottom line. The last thing Logan wants is some American “expert� pushing tourist traps and perpetuating myths about the Loch Ness Monster—especially when Addie never leaves her desk to experience the country for herself.

As they wage an office war, Logan discovers Addie’s secret connection to Scotland: a handful of faded Polaroids of her late mother. Hoping for a truce, he creates a private tour to the places in the pictures to help Addie find closure and appreciate the enchantment in less-traveled destinations, never expecting the off-limits attraction sparking between them. But Addie’s contract is almost up, and magic won’t pay the bills. They can’t afford distractions, but how can Addie do her job if she hasn’t explored all Scotland—and Logan—have to offer?]]>
336 Alexandra Kiley 1335009299 Dayanara 2 3.43 2024 Kilt Trip
author: Alexandra Kiley
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/24
date added: 2024/03/24
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The Dry Heart 42268742 The Dry Heart begins and ends with the matter-of-fact pronouncement: “I shot him between the eyes.� As the tale—a plunge into the chilly waters of loneliness, desperation, and bitterness—proceeds, the narrator’s murder of her flighty husband takes on a certain logical inevitability. Stripped of any preciousness or sentimentality, Natalia Ginzburg’s writing here is white-hot, tempered by rage. She transforms the unhappy tale of an ordinary dull marriage into a rich psychological thriller that seems to beg the question: why don’t more wives kill their husbands?]]> 88 Natalia Ginzburg 0811228789 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.98 1947 The Dry Heart
author: Natalia Ginzburg
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King (Crowns of Nyaxia, #2)]]> 62335396 Love is a sacrifice at the altar of power.

In the wake of the Kejari, everything Oraya once thought to be true has been destroyed. A prisoner in her own kingdom, grieving the only family she ever had, and reeling from a gutting betrayal, she no longer even knows the truth of her own blood. She’s left only with one certainty: she cannot trust anyone, least of all Raihn.

The House of Night, too, is surrounded by enemies. Raihn’s own nobles are none too eager to accept a Turned king, especially one who was once a slave. And the House of Blood digs their claws into the kingdom, threatening to tear it apart from the inside.

When Raihn offers Oraya a secret alliance, taking the deal is her only chance at reclaiming her kingdom–and gaining her vengeance against the lover who betrayed her. But to do so, she’ll need to harness a devastating ancient power, intertwined with her father’s greatest secrets.

But with enemies closing in on all sides, nothing is as it seems. As she unravels her past and faces her future, Oraya finds herself forced to choose between the bloody reality of seizing power � and the devastating love that could be her downfall.]]>
626 Carissa Broadbent Dayanara 0 4.10 2023 The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King (Crowns of Nyaxia, #2)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
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<![CDATA[Leading with Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results]]> 44557434 The influential New York Times bestselling authors—the “apostles of appreciation� Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick—provide managers and executives with easy ways to add more gratitude to the everyday work environment to help bolster moral, efficiency, and profitablity.

Workers want and need to know their work is appreciated. Showing gratitude to employees is the easiest, fastest, most inexpensive way to boost performance. New research shows that gratitude boosts employee engagement, reduces turnover, and leads team members to express more gratitude to one another—strengthening team bonds. Studies have also shown that gratitude is beneficial for those expressing it and is one of the most powerful variables in predicting a person’s overall well-being—above money, health, and optimism. TheĚýWD-40 CompanyĚýknows this firsthand. When the leadership gave thousands of managers training in expressing gratitude to their employees, the company saw record increases in revenue.

Despite these benefits, few executives effectively utilize this simple tool. In fact, new research reveals “people are less likely to express gratitude at work than anyplace else.� What accounts for the staggering chasm between awareness of gratitude’s benefits and the failure of so many leaders to do it—or do it well? Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton call this the gratitude gap. In this invaluable guide, they identify the widespread and pernicious myths about managing others that cause leaders to withhold thanks.

Gostick and Elton also introduce eight simple ways managers can show employees they are valued. They supplement their insights and advice with stories of how many of today’s most successful leaders—such as Alan Mulally of Ford and Hubert Joly of Best Buy—successfully incorporated gratitude into their leadership styles.

Showing gratitude isn’t just about being nice, it’s about being smart—really smart—and it’s a skill that everyone can easily learn.

]]>
277 Adrian Gostick 006296576X Dayanara 0 3.86 2020 Leading with Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results
author: Adrian Gostick
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
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<![CDATA[The Witch Collector (Witch Walker, #1)]]> 57191885
Today is that day—Collecting Day.

But he will not come for me. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for all that time he has passed me by.

His mistake.

Raina Bloodgood has one desire: kill the Frost King and the Witch Collector who stole her sister. On Collecting Day, she means to exact murderous revenge, but a more sinister threat sets fire to her world. Rising from the ashes is the Collector, Alexus Thibault, the man she vowed to slay and the only person who can help save her sister.

Thrust into an age-old story of ice, fire, and ancient gods, Raina must abandon vengeance and aid the Witch Collector or let their empire—and her sister—fall into enemy hands. But the lines between good and evil blur, and Raina has more to lose than she imagined. What is she to do when the Witch Collector is no longer the villain who stole her sister, but the hero who’s stealing her heart?

The Witch Collector is book one in a thrilling romantic fantasy series, perfect for fans of Naomi Novik, Sarah J. Maas, and Jennifer L. Armentrout.]]>
343 Charissa Weaks 1648980449 Dayanara 0 3.66 2021 The Witch Collector (Witch Walker, #1)
author: Charissa Weaks
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/02
date added: 2024/03/02
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<![CDATA[Where Good Girls Go To Die (Good Girls, #1)]]> 32614298
He was my brother's best friend and the definition of unavailable.

But I didn't care.

I had loved him for as long as I could remember.

He was worth the risk. He was worth everything.

But then he broke my heart as easily as I fell for him. He watched me fall, spiraling out of control, and as I reached for him, he wasn't there to catch me.

So I ran.

Four years later, I never expected to see him again.

He was still my brother's best friend, and he was more unavailable than ever.

He looked every bit the bad boy I knew he was, covered in tattoos and a crooked smile.

Guarding my heart from him was top priority because Parker James was where good girls go to die.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't a good girl anymore.]]>
340 Holly Renee Dayanara 1 3.51 2017 Where Good Girls Go To Die (Good Girls, #1)
author: Holly Renee
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2017
rating: 1
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/22
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Curse my inability to leave a book unfinished.
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The Book of Doors 156009464
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.

But this is no ordinary book�

It is the Book of Doors.

Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.

Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them.

Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there.

But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.]]>
404 Gareth Brown 0063323982 Dayanara 0 4.01 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/21
date added: 2024/02/21
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Ready or Not 154462768
Eve Hatch is pretty content with her life. Her apartment in Brooklyn is cozy and close to her childhood best friend Willa, but far from her midwestern, traditional family who never really understood her. While her job is only dream- adjacent , she’s hoping her passion and hard work will soon help her land a more glamorous role. And sure, her most recent romantic history has consisted of not one but two disappointing men named Derek. At least she always knows what to expect…until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.

The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve's loyalĚýfriendship with Willa is feeling off , right when she needs her most. And it’s Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and isâ€� suddenly kinda hot? Then there’s the baby's father, who is supportive but conflicted. Before long, Eve is rethinking everything she thought she knew about herself and her world.

Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.]]>
400 Cara Bastone 0593595718 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.96 2024 Ready or Not
author: Cara Bastone
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/19
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<![CDATA[My Roommate Is a Vampire (My Vampires, #1)]]> 60041932 True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.

Cassie Greenberg loves being an artist, but it’s a tough way to make a living. On the brink of eviction, she’s desperate when she finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch—only someone with a secret to hide would rent out a room for that price.

Of course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal. He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked out of a regency romance novel. He also leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her art, and asks about her day. And he doesn’t look half bad shirtless, on the rare occasions they’re both home and awake. But when Cassie finds bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren’t there earlier, Frederick has to come clean...

Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.]]>
341 Jenna Levine 0593548914 Dayanara 0 3.46 2023 My Roommate Is a Vampire (My Vampires, #1)
author: Jenna Levine
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2024/02/17
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<![CDATA[Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life]]> 54860444 A groundbreaking exploration of why we want what we want, and a toolkit for freeing ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires.

Gravity affects every aspect of our physical being, but there's a psychological force just as powerful � yet almost nobody has heard of it. It's responsible for bringing groups of people together and pulling them apart, making certain goals attractive to some and not to others, and fueling cycles of anxiety and conflict. In Wanting, Luke Burgis draws on the work of French polymath René Girard to bring this hidden force to light and reveals how it shapes our lives and societies.

According to Girard, humans don't desire anything independently. Human desire is mimetic � we imitate what other people want. This affects the way we choose partners, friends, careers, clothes, and vacation destinations. Mimetic desire is responsible for the formation of our very identities. It explains the enduring relevancy of Shakespeare's plays, why Peter Thiel decided to be the first investor in Facebook, and why our world is growing more divided as it becomes more connected.

Wanting also shows that conflict does not arise because of our differences--it comes from our sameness. Because we learn to want what other people want, we often end up competing for the same things. Ignoring our large similarities, we cling to our perceived differences.

Drawing on his experience as an entrepreneur, teacher, and student of classical philosophy and theology, Burgis shares tactics that help turn blind wanting into intentional wanting � not by trying to rid ourselves of desire, but by desiring differently. It's possible to be more in control of the things we want, to achieve more independence from trends and bubbles, and to find more meaning in our work and lives.

The future will be shaped by our desires. Wanting shows us how to desire a better one.]]>
304 Luke Burgis 1250262488 Dayanara 0 3.77 2021 Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
author: Luke Burgis
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/14
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<![CDATA[The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas]]> 92625 Some inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.

The story 'Omelas" was first published in 'New Dimensions 3' (1973), a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story.

The work was subsequently printed in Le Guin's short story collection 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters' (1975).

Ursula K Le Guin (1929�2018) was an American writer who published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry & four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, and more. She was known for her treatment of gender ('The Left Hand of Darkness' (1969), 'The Matter of Seggri' (1994)), political systems ('The Telling' (2000), 'The Dispossessed' (1974)) and difference/otherness in any other form.]]>
32 Ursula K. Le Guin 0886825016 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.38 1973 The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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Belladonna (Belladonna, #1) 59227936
Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
Ěý
However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.]]>
409 Adalyn Grace 0316158232 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.97 2022 Belladonna (Belladonna, #1)
author: Adalyn Grace
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/12
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Saint (Priest, #3) 58131787 I can't have Elijah Iverson.

I can't have him because he's my older brother's best friend. I can't have him because I broke his heart five years ago; because he's now engaged to someone else—someone kind and dependable who deserves his whiskey eyes, his soft mouth, his fierce intellect.

I can't have Elijah because I've chosen God instead.

The Bell brothers, though . . . well, we don't exactly have the greatest track record with vows. But I'm determined to do this monk thing right—to pledge myself to a cloistered life and spend the rest of my years in chastity and prayer. But now Elijah's here. He's here and he's coming with me on my European monastery road trip, and between the whispered confessions and the stolen kisses and the moments bent over an ancient altar, my vows are feeling flimsier by the day.

And vows or not, I know in my heart that it would take more than a good and holy monk to resist Elijah Iverson right now. It would take a saint.

And we all know that I'm no saint.]]>
415 Sierra Simone Dayanara 0 to-read 3.93 2021 Saint (Priest, #3)
author: Sierra Simone
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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Sinner (Priest, #2) 38233153
So when the gorgeous, brilliant Zenny Iverson asks me to teach her about sex, I want to say yes, I really do. Unfortunately, there are several reasons to say no—reasons that even a very bad man like myself can't ignore.

1. She's my best friend's little sister.
2. She's too young for me. Like way too young.
3. She's a nun. Or about to be anyway.

But I want her. I want her even with my best friend and God in the way, I want to teach her and touch her and love her, and I know that makes me something much worse than a very bad man.

It makes me a sinner.

Sinner is a standalone companion to Priest about Father Bell's brother Sean. You do not have to read Priest or Midnight Mass to read Sinner.]]>
400 Sierra Simone Dayanara 0 to-read 3.93 2018 Sinner (Priest, #2)
author: Sierra Simone
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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Priest (Priest, #1) 25507389
I've always been good at following rules.ĚýUntil she came.ĚýMy name is Tyler Anselm Bell. I'm twenty-nine years old. Six months ago, I broke my vow of celibacy on the altar of my own church, and God help me, I would do it again.ĚýI am a priest and this is my confession.

Priest is a standalone, full-length novel with an HEA. ĚýFor mature audiences only]]>
354 Sierra Simone Dayanara 0 to-read 3.59 2015 Priest (Priest, #1)
author: Sierra Simone
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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The Fury 123206645 A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder � from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient.

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time � it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse � a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.]]>
298 Alex Michaelides 125075898X Dayanara 1 3.34 2024 The Fury
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/02/12
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<![CDATA[House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)]]> 52857700
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt's world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders.]]>
835 Sarah J. Maas 1681193094 Dayanara 0 4.15 2024 House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/08
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Bewitched (Bewitched, #1) 63549810
Worse, when Selene braves the jungle and discovers the source of the attack, she finds herself awakening an ancient evil, Memnon the Cursed, who mistakes Selene for his long-dead wife. The wife who betrayed him. Selene manages to escape and begin her studies at Henbane, but when Memnon turns up at the coven and witches are found dead across campus, Selene becomes entangled in a dangerous plot. Accused of the murders on the basis of her memory loss, Selene must rely on Memnon’s help for answers—and his plans for her will change everything.]]>
466 Laura Thalassa 1942662319 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.11 2023 Bewitched (Bewitched, #1)
author: Laura Thalassa
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
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<![CDATA[It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2)]]> 60393672 Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favorite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the “glorious and touching� (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends with Us.

Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date.

But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.

Switching between the perspectives of Lily and Atlas, It Starts with Us picks up right where the epilogue for the “gripping, pulse-pounding� (Sarah Pekkanen, author of Perfect Neighbors) bestselling phenomenon It Ends with Us left off. Revealing more about Atlas’s past and following Lily as she embraces a second chance at true love while navigating a jealous ex-husband, it proves that “no one delivers an emotional read like Colleen Hoover� (Anna Todd, New York Times bestselling author).]]>
323 Colleen Hoover 1668001225 Dayanara 0 3.80 2022 It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/25
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<![CDATA[It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up � she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating� rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan � her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]>
386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 Dayanara 0 4.11 2016 It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/23
date added: 2024/01/23
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Check & Mate 60683957 done with chess. Every move counts nowadays. After the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory's focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious "Kingkiller" Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning bad boy of chess.

Nolan's loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone—especially Mallory. What's even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory's victory opens the door to sorely needed cash prizes and, despite everything, she can't help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist....

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren't only on the board, the spotlight is hotter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce(-ly attractive. And intelligent...and infuriating...)]]>
347 Ali Hazelwood 0593619919 Dayanara 0 3.93 2023 Check & Mate
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/22
date added: 2024/01/22
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Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1) 43301737 The mesmerizing adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo

Galaxy “Alex� Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs� are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.]]>
476 Leigh Bardugo 1250313082 Dayanara 0 to-read 4.13 2019 Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/16
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<![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)]]> 53344030
Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They've finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick's house ... But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?

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

Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.]]>
336 Alice Oseman 1444957651 Dayanara 0 4.47 2023 Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/07
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El corazĂłn de Voltaire 19394 230 Luis LĂłpez Nieves 9580490651 Dayanara 0 4.13 2005 El corazĂłn de Voltaire
author: Luis LĂłpez Nieves
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/05
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<![CDATA[Goldfinch (The Plated Prisoner, #6)]]> 200246606 The seductive and thrilling dark fantasy romance series comes to an end in this powerful finale.

One king caged my body.

Another has caged my mind.

War has broken out between Annwyn and Orea, though that’s not the only battle being waged.

There’s a fight inside me, and it’s one I’m determined to win, no matter how much they try to strip me down and hollow me out.

Yet they’ve forgotten one thing. The ancient magic of the pair bond. One can never truly be lost when two souls are already bound.

Because Slade and I? We are connected by more than just fated magic, and we will always find each other.

In any life.

The fae king is trying to destroy me. My heritage. My memory. But what he hasn’t realized is this: gold bends, but stone breaks.

And a Goldfinch does not fall.

It flies.

Please note: This adult fantasy book includes dark elements that may be triggering. Full content list will be located inside the book, but it includes violence, death, adult language, and explicit romance. It is intended for ages 18 years and older. Read at your own discretion.
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688 Raven Kennedy Dayanara 0 to-read 4.17 2024 Goldfinch (The Plated Prisoner, #6)
author: Raven Kennedy
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/05
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<![CDATA[Gold (The Plated Prisoner, #5)]]> 61314205 "Find me in another life. Find me in them all."

Every end is also a beginning.

I thought I was going to die, and would have if it weren’t for Slade. The only way he could save me was to open a rip between worlds. The only way for me to save myself was to go through it.

Sometimes, fleeing one dangerous place just brings you to another.

Annwyn.

The realm of the fae.

There is magic and beauty here, though around every corner, threats lurk.

But I’m a threat too.

I’m not a girl in a gilded cage anymore, and no one is going to stop me from finding my way back to Slade.

But returning home means facing danger and secrets. So I have to burn bright enough to light my own way�

Or else I might be swallowed by the dark.

Please note: This adult fantasy book includes dark elements that may be triggering, including violence, cruelty, death, adult language, and explicit romance. It is intended for ages 18 years and older. Read at your own discretion.]]>
646 Raven Kennedy Dayanara 0 to-read 4.10 2023 Gold (The Plated Prisoner, #5)
author: Raven Kennedy
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/05
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<![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]>
374 Suzanne Collins Dayanara 0 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Six (Heartstopper, #6)]]> 125120424 Alice Oseman Dayanara 0 to-read 4.57 Heartstopper: Volume Six (Heartstopper, #6)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.57
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<![CDATA[Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder]]> 199344846
On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.]]>
209 Salman Rushdie 0593730240 Dayanara 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
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James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]>
303 Percival Everett Dayanara 0 to-read 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
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<![CDATA[The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)]]> 60714999 Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always � always � guard your heart.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown� and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone � but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the first book in a new series of heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue, perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]>
504 Carissa Broadbent Dayanara 3 4.30 2022 The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/24
date added: 2023/12/24
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Slaying the Vampire Conqueror 123368729 She was commanded to kill him with a single strike to the heart. She didn’t expect her own to betray her.

Sylina has sacrificed everything for her goddess–her soul, her freedom, her eyes. Life in service to the Arachessen, a cult of the Goddess of Fate, has turned Sylina from orphaned street-rat to disciplined killer, determined to overthrow Glaea’s tyrannical king. But when a brutal vampire conqueror arrives on their shores, Sylina faces an even deadlier adversary. She’s tasked with a crucial mission: infiltrate his army, earn his trust� and kill him.

Atrius is a terrifying warrior carving an unstoppable path through Glaea. Yet when Sylina becomes his seer, she glimpses a dark and shocking past–and a side of him that reminds her far too much of parts of herself she’d rather forget. Sylina’s orders are clear. The conqueror cannot live. But as the blood spilled by Glaea’s tyrant king runs thicker, her connection with Atrius only grows stronger. A connection forbidden by her vows. A connection that could cost her everything.

Slaying the Vampire Conqueror is a standalone fantasy romance set in the Crowns of Nyaxia world, full of heart-wrenching forbidden romance, dark curses, and epic battles � perfect for fans of The Bridge Kingdom and the From Blood and Ash series.]]>
369 Carissa Broadbent Dayanara 0 to-read 4.10 2023 Slaying the Vampire Conqueror
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/21
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<![CDATA[Six Scorched Roses (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1.5)]]> 123027751
Lilith has been dying since the day she was born. But while she long ago came to terms with her own imminent death, the deaths of everyone she loves is an entirely different matter. As her town slowly withers in the clutches of a mysterious god-cursed illness, she takes matters into her own hands.

Desperate to find a cure, Lilith strikes a bargain with the only thing the gods hate even more than her village: a vampire, Vale. She offers him six roses in exchange for six vials of vampire blood–the one hope for her town’s salvation.

But when what begins as a simple transaction gradually becomes something more, Lilith is faced with a terrifying realization: It’s dangerous to wander into the clutches of a vampire� and in a place already suffering a god’s wrath, more dangerous still to fall in love with one.

Six Scorched Roses is a standalone fantasy romance novella set in the world of the Crowns of Nyaxia series, perfect for those who love dark, romantic tales with bite and fans of Sarah J. Maas or Jennifer L. Armentrout.]]>
187 Carissa Broadbent Dayanara 0 to-read 4.25 2023 Six Scorched Roses (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1.5)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/21
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<![CDATA[The Fine Print (Dreamland Billionaires, #1)]]> 74045390 Rowan
I'm in the business of creating fairy tales.
Theme parks. Production companies. Five-star hotels.
Everything could be all mine if I renovated Dreamland.
My initial idea of hiring Zahra was good in theory, but then I kissed her.
Things spiraled out of control once I texted her using an alias.
By the time I realized where I went wrong, it was too late.
People like me don't get happy endings.
Not when we're destined to ruin them.

Zahra
After submitting a drunk proposal criticizing Dreamland's most expensive ride, I should have been fired.
Instead, Rowan Kane offered me a dream job.
The catch? I had to work for the most difficult boss I'd ever met.
Rowan was rude and completely off-limits, but my heart didn't care.
At least not until I discovered his secret.
It was time to teach the billionaire that money couldn't fix everything.
Especially not us.

The Fine Print is the first book in a series of interconnected standalones following three billionaire brothers.]]>
448 Lauren Asher 1737507714 Dayanara 0 3.75 2021 The Fine Print (Dreamland Billionaires, #1)
author: Lauren Asher
name: Dayanara
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2023/12/11
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Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

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

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

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

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]>
623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Dayanara 5 4.33 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Dayanara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/26
date added: 2023/11/26
shelves:
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