en-US Mon, 12 May 2025 03:17:58 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 217163697 #1��New York Times��bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Bex 0 to-read 4.60 2025
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Bex
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2025
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]]> 25499718
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?]]> 608 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1447273281 Bex 0 to-read 4.29 2015
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Bex
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/12
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]]> 58724626
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.]]> 165 T. Kingfisher 1250830753 Bex 0 to-read 3.86 2022
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Bex
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 205015141 When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND.

As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone�� is up.

And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent �� and death stalks their every move.]]> 360 Dan Hanks 1915202949 Bex 0 to-read 3.60 2025
author: Dan Hanks
name: Bex
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 13453029
The first Wool story was released as a standalone short in July of 2011. Due to reviewer demand, the rest of the story was released over the next six months.

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Alternate cover for B0071XO8RA]]> 509 Hugh Howey Bex 0 to-read 4.22 2012
author: Hugh Howey
name: Bex
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> 217387849 An unlikely assassin struggles to escape a legendary bounty hunter in this breakneck fantasy debut that will grab you by the throat—perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie, R.F. Kuang, and Christopher Buehlman.

She killed for a cause. Will she die for it too?

Anji works as a castle servant, cleaning laundry for a king she hates. So when a rare opportunity presents itself, she seizes the chance to cut his throat. Then she runs for her life. In her wake, the kingdom is thrown into disarray, while a bounty bigger than anyone could imagine lands on her head.

On her heels are the fabled mercenaries of the Menagerie, whose animal-shaped masks are magical relics rumored to give them superhuman powers. It’s the Hawk who finds Anji a surly, aging swordswoman who has her own reasons for keeping Anji alive and out of the hands of her fellow bounty hunters, if only long enough to collect the reward herself.

With the rest of the Menagerie on their trail, so begins an alliance as tenuous as it is temporary—and a race against death that will decide Anji’s fate, and may change the course of a kingdom.]]> 368 Evan Leikam 125036924X Bex 0 to-read 4.04 2025
author: Evan Leikam
name: Bex
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/08
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]]> 187016352 259 Natalie Haynes 0063377098 Bex 0 to-read 3.92 2023
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Bex
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> 199269577 The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.]]> 384 Sarah Beth Durst Bex 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Bex
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 54756850
Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood where she was little more than a burden to her cold and distant stepfamily. Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, it’s a different woman every night, but that’s just fine with her.
��
When Delilah’s estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding with a guilt trip and a five-figure check, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town that she used to call home. She plans to breeze in and out, but then she sees Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid’s stuck-up besties, and decides that maybe there’s some fun (and a little retribution) to be had in Bright Falls, after all.
��
Having raised her eleven-year-old daughter mostly on her own while dealing with her unreliable ex and running a bookstore, Claire Sutherland depends upon a life without surprises. And Delilah Green is an unwelcome surprise…at first. Though they’ve known each other for years, they don’t really know each other—so Claire is unsettled when Delilah figures out exactly what buttons to push. When they’re forced together during a gauntlet of wedding preparations—including a plot to save Astrid from her horrible fiancé—Claire isn’t sure she has the strength to resist Delilah’s charms. Even worse, she’s starting to think she doesn’t want to...]]> 375 Ashley Herring Blake 0593336402 Bex 0 to-read 4.06 2022
author: Ashley Herring Blake
name: Bex
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> 62919847 A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.

Gracetown, Florida
June 1950

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

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

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.]]> 576 Tananarive Due 1982188340 Bex 0 to-read 4.44 2023
author: Tananarive Due
name: Bex
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 61884832 A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction�� (The Washington Post).]]> 338 S.A. Cosby 1250831911 Bex 0 to-read 4.18 2023
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Bex
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 177186086
Scales is the best at what she does. She is an enforcer who keeps the peace in Ashtown; a rough, climate-ravaged desert town. But that fragile peace is fractured when a woman is mangled and killed within Ash's borders, right in front of Scales's eyes. Even more incomprehensible is that there was seemingly no murderer.

When more mutilated bodies start to turn up, both in Ashtown and in the wealthier, walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with finding the cause—and putting an end to it. She teams up with a frustratingly by-the-books partner and a brusque-but-brilliant scientist in order to uncover the truth, delving into both worlds to track down the invisible killer. But what they find points to something bigger��and more corrupt than they could've ever foreseen—and it could spell doom for the entire world.]]> 373 Micaiah Johnson 0593497503 Bex 0 to-read 4.02 2024
author: Micaiah Johnson
name: Bex
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> 127305606 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.

Nor do they have tails.

But they are most assuredly dead.

Nebula and Alex Award winner P. Djèlí Clark introduces a brand-new world and a fantastical city full of gods and assassins.

Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins―resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories―have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.

Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.

The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.]]> 213 P. Djèlí Clark 1250767040 Bex 0 to-read 3.84 2024
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Bex
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 62292424 From the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author of When No One Is Watching comes a riveting thriller about the new caretaker of a historic estate who finds herself trapped on an island with a murderer--and the ghosts of her past.

Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can't refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she's determined not to ruin their opportunity.

Then a surprise visit from the home's conservation trust just as a Nor'easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers--including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect.

Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island--and their own past--or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.]]> 352 Alyssa Cole 0063297132 Bex 0 to-read 3.18 2024
author: Alyssa Cole
name: Bex
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 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 Bex 0 to-read 4.02 2023
author: Emilia Hart
name: Bex
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Bex 0 to-read 4.11 2020
author: Brit Bennett
name: Bex
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
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]]> 63068384 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us deeper into the Cosmere universe with a rollicking, riveting tale that will appeal to fans of The Princess Bride.

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?]]> 369 Brandon Sanderson 1250899656 Bex 0 to-read 4.27 2023
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Bex
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
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]]> 61244268
Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour.

Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning �� something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.]]> 304 Hannah Kaner 0008521468 Bex 0 to-read 3.85 2023
author: Hannah Kaner
name: Bex
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 56179377
Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.]]> 243 T. Kingfisher 1250244048 Bex 0 to-read 4.07 2022
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Bex
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> 53205888 Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.]]> 376 T.J. Klune 1250217342 Bex 0 to-read 4.11 2021
author: T.J. Klune
name: Bex
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> 58725025
What follows is a story of wonder and betrayal, from the gaslit streets of London, and the wooden theaters of Meiji-era Tokyo, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh where other children with gifts--like Komako, a witch-child and twister of dust, and Ribs, a girl who cloaks herself in invisibility--are forced to combat the forces that threaten their safety. There, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. With this new found family, Komako, Marlowe, Charlie, Ribs, and the rest of the Talents discover the truth about their abilities. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, a new question arises: What truly defines a monster?

Riveting in its scope, exquisitely written, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world--and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.]]> 672 J.M. Miro 1250833663 Bex 0 to-read 3.75 2022
author: J.M. Miro
name: Bex
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 29579 The first novel in Isaac Asimov's classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.]]> 244 Isaac Asimov 0553803719 Bex 0 to-read 4.18 1951
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Bex
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/20
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]]> 17999884 597 Mark Lawrence 0007439024 Bex 5 4.13 2012
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Bex
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/15
date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> 24737140
On a remote jungle island, genetic engineers have created a dinosaur game park.

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now one of mankind's most thrilling fantasies has come true and the first dinosaurs that the Earth has seen in the time of man emerge.

But, as always, there is a dark side to the fantasy and after a catastrophe destroys the park's defence systems, the scientists and tourists are left fighting for survival...

With this masterful cross of science fiction and action-adventure, Michael Crichton created one of the biggest bestsellers of all time, turned by Steven Spielberg into the highest grossing blockbuster ever in 1993.]]> 480 Michael Crichton Bex 5 favourites 4.32 1990
author: Michael Crichton
name: Bex
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/20
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: favourites
review:

]]> 9533361
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, "The Scopuli," they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to "The Scopuli" and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]> 572 James S.A. Corey 0316129089 Bex 5 physical-tbr 4.28 2011
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Bex
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 74397797 232 Julia Armfield 1529017254 Bex 3 3.80 2022
author: Julia Armfield
name: Bex
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> 19155 Inferno preserves Dante's simple, natural style, and captures the swift movement of the original Italian verse. Mark Musa's blank verse rendition of the poet's journey through the circles of Hell re-creates for the modern reader the rich meanings that Dante's poem had for his contemporaries. Musa's introduction and commentaries on each of the cantos brilliantly illuminate the text.]]> 432 Dante Alighieri 0142437220 Bex 0 to-read 4.10 1320
author: Dante Alighieri
name: Bex
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1320
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> 127280445 A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.

Space exploration can be lonely and isolating.

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something.

While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure than opening up to her.

That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. Is this Ophelia’s worst nightmare starting—a wave of violence and mental deterioration from ERS? Or is it something more sinister?

Terrified that history will repeat itself, Ophelia and the crew must work together to figure out what’s happening. But trust is hard to come by�� and the crew isn’t the only one keeping secrets.]]> 377 S.A. Barnes 1250884926 Bex 0 to-read 3.51 2024
author: S.A. Barnes
name: Bex
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/13
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]]> 58617701
Ben Mears, a moderately successful writer, returns to the Lot to write a novel based on his early years, and to exorcise the terrors that have haunted him since childhood. The event he witnessed in the house now rented by a new resident. A newcomer with a strange allure. A man who causes Ben some unease as things start to happen: a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed - nothing unusual, except the list starts to grow.

Soon surprise will turn to bewilderment, bewilderment to confusion and finally to terror ...]]> 751 Stephen King 9124145599 Bex 0 physical-tbr, to-read 4.02 1975
author: Stephen King
name: Bex
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: physical-tbr, to-read
review:

]]> 61753288
But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility–all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town that boasts more dragons than people, and open the shop of their dreams.

What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. In a story brimming with hurt/comfort and quiet fireside conversations, these two women will discover just what they mean to each other�� and the world.]]> 388 Rebecca Thorne Bex 4 3.71 2022
author: Rebecca Thorne
name: Bex
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 64657667
Margot Murray is a newly single, high-flying businesswoman with no interest in a cutesy seasonal romance.

Ben Gibson is an unlucky-in-love sweetheart in need of a woman to bring home for the holidays.

Together, they make a pact: Margot gets two blissful weeks away from London in a picture-perfect manor, in exchange for posing as Ben's girlfriend.

The story can only go one way. Margot is sure to fall in love for real.

And she does.

With Ben's sister, Ellie.]]> 352 Talia Samuels 140595213X Bex 4 3.30 2023
author: Talia Samuels
name: Bex
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
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]]> 156796058
Esme Gray runs the guest house and tends to the ethereal wards that protect the island. She’s sheltering from a terrible past and will do anything to stay safely hidden.

Luke Taylor has been searching for his missing twin for months, but has begun to believe that his brother might be dead. With his hope in tatters, a tip off leads him to a remote tidal island in the North Sea. It’s further out than the famous Holy Island, and far stranger.

Visitors shouldn’t be able to stay for more than two nights, so when Luke breaks this rule, the close-knit community is sent into turmoil. The residents of Unholy Island have secrets and they intend to keep them.

When Luke stumbles across one of the islanders dead on the shore, he finds himself under suspicion, made worse by his own troubles washing up on the tide.

Esme is drawn to Luke, but she doesn’t trust her own instincts. That’s not ideal for a witch �� especially when there is a killer on the loose and a storm is rolling in��

The Ward Witch is the first book in a brand new contemporary fantasy series from the bestselling author of magical fiction, Sarah Painter.

*The Ward Witch is set in the same world as the urban fantasy mystery books, Crow Investigations, but it is the start of a separate series and can be enjoyed independently.


Praise for the Crow Investigations

'I'm a huge fan!' Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels

'My favourite new urban fantasy series, clever and twisty and deliciously magical, with a shivery sense of wonder that feels utterly grounded in its London setting. Perfect for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Genevieve Cogman or Robert Galbraith!'
Stephanie Burgis, author of Snowspelled

'The Lydia Crow books are a firm favourite of mine, combining intriguing crime fiction with a hint of other-worldly mysticism. The characters are brilliantly drawn, and Sarah Painter cleverly makes them believable despite them having magical powers - or even being dead. With just enough comedy to make the dark bits even darker, and the perfect amount of mystery, these books are a wonderful read.' Kerry Barrett]]> 292 Sarah Painter 1913676323 Bex 0 to-read 4.02 2023
author: Sarah Painter
name: Bex
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 48037
But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day�� Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.]]> 108 J. Sheridan Le Fanu 0809510839 Bex 0 to-read 3.88 1872
author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu
name: Bex
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 65214594
A one-way ticket to love or a bumpy ride ahead?

Flying-phobic ER nurse Olive Murphy is still gripping the armrest from her first-ever take-off when the pilot announces an in-flight medical emergency. Olive leaps into action and saves a life, but ends up getting stuck in the airport hours away from the marathon she's running in honor of her brother. Luckily for her, Stella Soriano, the stunning type A copilot, offers to give her a ride.

After the two spend a magical day together, Stella makes a surprising Will Olive be her fake girlfriend?

A video of Olive saving a life has gone viral and started generating big sales for Stella's airline. Stella sees their union as the perfect opportunity to get to the boys' club executives at her company who keep overlooking her for a long-deserved promotion. Realizing this arrangement could help her too, Olive dives into memorizing Stella’s comically comprehensive three-ring-binder guide to fake dating. As the two grow closer, what’s supposed to be a ruse feels more and more real. Could this be the romantic ride of their lives, or an epic crash and burn?]]> 384 Andie Burke 1250886376 Bex 4 3.94 2023
author: Andie Burke
name: Bex
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
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]]> 219876684 In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?

Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.]]> 68 Fredrik Backman 1662526520 Bex 3 3.94 2024
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Bex
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/06
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]]> 61833058 Meet Kitty Collins.

FRIEND. LOVER. KILLER.

He was following me. That guy from the nightclub who wouldn’t leave me alone.

I hadn’t intended to kill him of course. But I wasn’t displeased when I did and, despite the mess I made, I appeared to get away with it.

That’s where my addiction started��

I’ve got a taste for revenge and quite frankly, I’m killing it.

A deliciously dark, hilariously twisted story about friendship, love, and murder. Fans of My Sister the Serial Killer, How to Kill Your Family and Killing Eve will love this wickedly clever novel!]]> 384 Katy Brent 0008600481 Bex 3 3.65 2023
author: Katy Brent
name: Bex
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
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]]> 38812881
From Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, the bestselling creative team behind Old Man Logan and Green Arrow, comes a character-driven meditation on obsession, mental illness, and faith.

Collects Gideon Falls #1-6.]]> 160 Jeff Lemire 1534308520 Bex 4 4.15 2018
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Bex
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
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]]> 63110683
Now a new investigation brings four strangers to the forbidding mansion who are determined to probe Belasco House for the ultimate secrets of life and death. Each has his or her own reason for daring the unknown torments and temptations of the mansion, but can any soul survive what lurks within the most haunted house on Earth?

"Hell House is the scariest haunted house novel ever written. It looms over the rest the way the mountains loom over the foothills." -- Stephen King]]> 309 Richard Matheson 1399605569 Bex 3 physical-tbr 3.32 1971
author: Richard Matheson
name: Bex
average rating: 3.32
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 75715117 Selected as an Evening Standard 'one to watch in 2023'

It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she's always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn't appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend.

Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love.

Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most honest parts of herself in stolen moments with Susannah.

But with the end of school and the opportunity to leave Crossmore looming, Lucy must choose between two places, two people and two futures, each as terrifying as the other. But only one can offer her real happiness.

Sunburn is an astute and tender portrayal of first love, adolescent anxiety and the realities of growing up in a small town where tradition holds people tightly in its grasp.]]> 288 Chloe Michelle Howarth 0857308416 Bex 4 4.33 2023
author: Chloe Michelle Howarth
name: Bex
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
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]]> 59692581 A truck pulls into a sleepy roadside diner. In it a pair of young men argue over something before stepping into the restaurant for some grub and some assistance. Apparently their car is having engine trouble and they need a new car battery. The cook offers his used battery and hands one of them the keys to his car before he starts preparing a pair of chili dogs. While he is over the grill, he is told a tale of chaos, violence and disorder perpetuated by undying people(?)...��]]> 192 Douji Tomita 163442333X Bex 2 3.20
author: Douji Tomita
name: Bex
average rating: 3.20
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
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]]> 397868 228 James Herbert 033045157X Bex 4 3.79 1988
author: James Herbert
name: Bex
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
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]]> 61896624 New York Times bestseller Becky Albertalli explores the nuances of sexuality, identity, and friendship.

Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.

She's never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There's Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen's biases in check. And then there's Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.

Imogen's thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she's finally visiting Lili on campus, she's bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen's all in.

Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.

Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she's told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.

Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . .]]> 432 Becky Albertalli 0063045877 Bex 4 4.20 2023
author: Becky Albertalli
name: Bex
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/18
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves:
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]]> 29981261
In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...]]> 288 Dot Hutchison 1503989712 Bex 4 4.10 2016
author: Dot Hutchison
name: Bex
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
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]]> 15730101 The Call of Cthulhu is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world.]]> 43 H.P. Lovecraft Bex 3 2022-bookclub 3.97 1928
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Bex
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1928
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: 2022-bookclub
review:

]]> 58321103
Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans—and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn't reach the bunker in time.

Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers? Why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned? And, most importantly, how can she escape?]]> 310 A.M. Shine 1801102120 Bex 4 3.82 2021
author: A.M. Shine
name: Bex
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/27
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves:
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]]> 60659833
In retreat from a devastating loss and crushing injustice, Katie lives alone in a fortresslike stone house on Jacob’s Ladder island. Once a rising star in the art world, she finds refuge in her painting.

The neighboring island of Ringrock houses a secret: a government research facility. And now two agents have arrived on Jacob’s Ladder in search of someone—or something—they refuse to identify. Although an air of menace hangs over these men, an infinitely greater threat has arrived, one so strange even the island animals are in a state of high alarm.

Katie soon finds herself in an epic and terrifying battle with a mysterious enemy. But Katie’s not alone after all: a brave young girl appears out of the violent squall. As Katie and her companion struggle across a dark and eerie landscape, against them is an omnipresent terror that could bring about the end of the world.]]> 407 Dean Koontz 1662500459 Bex 0 to-read 4.05 2023
author: Dean Koontz
name: Bex
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 196253792 "How about making a bargain with me?" said the demon. "I'll break your spell if you agree to break this contract I'm under."

In the land of Ingary, where seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, Sophie Hatter attracts the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste, who puts a curse on her. Determined to make the best of things, Sophie travels to the one place where she might get help �� the moving castle which hovers on the nearby hills.

But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the hearts of young girls . . .]]> 302 Diana Wynne Jones 0007299265 Bex 0 to-read 4.12 1986
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Bex
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17934530 Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.]]> 195 Jeff VanderMeer 0374104093 Bex 0 to-read 3.80 2014
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Bex
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123398182
Police detective Cami Lyons is finally doing okay following the devastating breakup of her relationship with crime reporter Alicia Flynn. Her work is mainly petty theft investigations and chasing down vandals, until a body is found in a nearby forest and everything changes. She has no choice but to pivot to homicide detective, and she’s in way over her head.

Alicia made a terrible mistake. When her existential crisis spiraled out of control, she left everything behind—her home, her family, her job, her longtime girlfriend—and ended up on the other side of the world. Time hasn’t healed her wounds and now she’s back. But the truth of all she’s lost may be too much to face.

With the captain, the mayor, the public, and the media breathing down Cami’s neck, her priority is figuring out who’s terrorizing their town, and fast. Sorting out her lingering feelings for Alicia? Definitely not a priority.]]> 312 Nicole Stiling 1636795722 Bex 4 4.15
author: Nicole Stiling
name: Bex
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
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]]> 71872919 Fake dating gets a magical twist in this enchanting queer romantic comedy where a witch worries that the real feelings brewing between her and her crush were sparked by an accidental love potion, and the only way out of the disastrous spell is a healthy dose of the truth--drink up, witches.

Potion maker and self-proclaimed "messy witch" Morgan Greenwood is sure she was hexed at birth. Not only did she drunkenly offer to fake date the woman of her dreams during the biennial New England Witches' festival, but Rory Sandler, spellcasting champion and brilliant elemental witch--for reasons known only to the Goddess--accepted. It's like every good luck spell Morgan ever cast came through at once, and it doesn't take a crystal ball to predict this charade will end with a broken heart.

Or is the magic between them real? As Morgan and Rory prepare to fool everyone at the festival, their relationship starts to feel a whole lot less fake--right until Morgan realizes she might have screwed up the common relaxation potion she made for Rory and given her a love potion instead, breaking one of the most sacred Witch Council Laws.

To fulfill her promise to Rory, Morgan must somehow keep playing pretend while under the watchful eyes of Rory's family and legion of fans. But to break the love potion, she'll also have to prove how incompatible she and Rory really are. For a screwup like her, ruining their relationship should be easy--except every day, Morgan is becoming more bewitched by Rory herself.]]> 368 Tori Anne Martin 0593548485 Bex 4 3.38 2023
author: Tori Anne Martin
name: Bex
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/20
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]]> 62888191 A literary horror debut about a boy who transforms into a monster, a monster who tries to be a man, and the people who love him in every form he takes

Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.

A thought-provoking meditation on grief, acceptance, and the monstrous sides of love and loyalty, Gerardo Sámano Córdova blends bold imagination and evocative prose with deep emotional rigor. Told in four acts that span the globe from Brooklyn to Berlin, Monstrilio offers, with uncanny clarity, a cathartic and precise portrait of being human.]]> 336 Gerardo Sámano Córdova 1638930368 Bex 0 to-read 4.11 2023
author: Gerardo Sámano Córdova
name: Bex
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61190770
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.]]> 367 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 0593317335 Bex 0 to-read 4.13 2023
author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
name: Bex
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 45046567
Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light.

The House in the Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 398 T.J. Klune 1250217288 Bex 0 to-read 4.42 2020
author: T.J. Klune
name: Bex
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 48727813 Two-time British Fantasy Award Winner
Astounding Award Winner
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Hugo Award Finalist
Locus Award Finalist
Otherwise Award Finalist

"Magnificent in every way."—Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

"A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal."—Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor.

To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything

“I refuse to be nothing…��

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness��

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother's abandoned greatness.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 Shelley Parker-Chan 1250621798 Bex 0 to-read 3.87 2021
author: Shelley Parker-Chan
name: Bex
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58537371
One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.]]> 277 Leila Mottley 0593318935 Bex 0 to-read 3.95 2022
author: Leila Mottley
name: Bex
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 57693648 The debut adult novel by the bestselling and award-winning YA author Nina LaCour, following two women on a star-crossed journey toward each other

When Sara Foster runs away from home at sixteen, she leaves behind not only the losses that have shattered her world but the girl she once was, capable of trust and intimacy. Years later, in Los Angeles, she is a sought-after bartender, renowned as much for her brilliant cocktails as for the mystery that clings to her. Across the city, Emilie Dubois is in a holding pattern. In her seventh year and fifth major as an undergraduate, she yearns for the beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated but is unable to commit. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena and embarks on an affair with the married owner.

When Sara catches sight of Emilie one morning at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. But the damage both women carry, and the choices they have made, pulls them apart again and again. When Sara's old life catches up to her, upending everything she thought she wanted just as Emilie has finally gained her own sense of purpose, they must decide if their love is more powerful than their pasts.

At once exquisite and expansive, astonishing in its humanity and heart, Yerba Buena is a love story for our time and a propulsive journey through the lives of two women finding their way in the world.]]> 304 Nina LaCour 1250810469 Bex 0 to-read 3.85 2022
author: Nina LaCour
name: Bex
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58735038 A novel about a young woman's life-altering affair with a much older, married woman.

Mallory is a freshman in college, reeling from her mother's recent death, when she encounters the woman. She sees her for the first time at the university's gym, immediately entranced. Soon, they meet, drawn by an electric tension and shared past wounds; before long, they begin sleeping together in secret. Self-possessed, successful, brilliant, and aloof--the woman is everything Mallory wants...and wants to be. Desiring not only the woman but also the idea of who she is when they're together, Mallory retreats from the rest of the world, solidifying a sense of aloneness that has both haunted and soothed her since childhood and will continue to do so for years even after the affair ends. As an adult, Mallory must decide whether to stay safely in isolation or step fully into the world, to confront what the woman meant to her and how their relationship shaped her, for better or worse.

Mallory's life is transformed by loss and by love and by discovering who she is while enduring both. In this enthralling debut novel, the complexities of influence, obsession, and admiration reveal how desire and its consequences can alter the trajectory of someone's life.
]]> 224 Michelle Hart 0593329678 Bex 0 to-read 3.53 2022
author: Michelle Hart
name: Bex
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 176443380
As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all.]]> 320 Emily R. Austin 1668014238 Bex 0 to-read 3.84 2024
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Bex
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 61387980 The heart wants what it wants. Saddle up, ride out, and claim it.

A vibrant and cinematic debut set in the American West about a scrappy orphan who finds friendship, romance, and her true calling as a revenge-seeking gunslinger.

It's the spring of 1877 and sixteen-year-old Bridget is already disillusioned. She's exhausted from caring for her ne'er-do-well alcoholic father, but when he's killed by a snakebite as they cross the Kansas prairie, she knows she has only her wits to keep her alive. She arrives penniless in Dodge City, and, thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, is soon recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow "sporting women."

Then Spartan Lee, the legendary female gunfighter in the region, rides into town, and Bridget falls in love. Hard. Before long, though, a series of shocking double-crosses shatter the Buffalo Queen's tenuous peace and safety. Desperate for vengeance and autonomy, Bridget resolves to claim her own destiny.

A thoroughly modern reimagining of the Western genre, Lucky Red is a masterfully crafted, propulsive tale of adventure, loyalty, desire, and love.]]> 304 Claudia Cravens 0593498240 Bex 0 to-read 3.89 2023
author: Claudia Cravens
name: Bex
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62039227 At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game . . . but can you survive the night?

This heart-pounding slasher by New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron is perfect for fans of Fear Street.

Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl�� at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they'll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?]]> 230 Kalynn Bayron 1547611545 Bex 3 3.56 2023
author: Kalynn Bayron
name: Bex
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 43587154 JADE CITY is a gripping Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kungfu.

The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It's the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities.

The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion--but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection.

When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.]]> 540 Fonda Lee 0316440884 Bex 0 to-read 4.06 2017
author: Fonda Lee
name: Bex
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 39092483
An education in the enigmatic magic is a necessary one, should Sera plan to rise in her station and invoke her powers during war. But the emperor’s death now leaves both Sera and her ambitious father eligible for the throne—a contest the prince regent intends to win. Even if it means an alliance with a rival empire.

Sera’s hope lies in Cettie, a waif raised in the world below, whose life has intertwined with Sera’s in the most unexpected ways. The Mysteries come easily to Cettie, and her studies have begun to yield new insight into her growing powers. But those same powers put Cettie in the path of those who would destroy her.

Now as the threat of war ignites and an insidious sickness spreads throughout the kingdom, Sera and Cettie will need to gather their courage and fight for each other’s lives�� and for the future of their endangered world.]]> 334 Jeff Wheeler 1503959724 Bex 0 to-read 4.42 2018
author: Jeff Wheeler
name: Bex
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55575967 192 Tatsuki Fujimoto Bex 4 4.38 2019
author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
name: Bex
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 60232029

"Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good fright..."

The Quarrel of Sword and Bone was a death sentence for anyone who stepped into the arena with the deranged Queen, whose soul had crisped to frost in an age long since past.

Sixteen-year-old Helen Bell understood tragedy better than most kids growing up. She knew what it was like to wear clothes from donation bins and be mocked by the beautiful girls in high school. She thought those brutal experiences made her ready for anything, but she wasn't ready for this.

After an eccentric girl opens Helen's eyes to let her see the realm of Winter—a world with intersects tucked carefully into the cracks of our own, where monarchs have risen and fallen, it's forbidden to mention the name of The Dead King, and the currency is gold rings—Helen discovers things are far from ordinary in Winter. After trying to deny the existence of a disrupting train horn ringing in her ears for days, Helen receives a mysterious summons from a group who call themselves “The Crimson Court�� to enter into The Quarrel of Sword and Bone—a traditional duel performed before one thousand witnesses that leaves only one survivor—and she’s forced to finally pay attention to the handsome boy who's been following her around with a warning on his tongue.

When the arrival of wicked villains propels Helen into the heart of Winter where there’s no going back, she finds herself being pursued by something else too—a whispered prayer battling on her behalf, and an ancient Truth that breathes living words of wisdom—the very wisdom forgotten by the Rime Folk when their disunity drove them to draw lines in the snow in an age of the past.

Helen must find a way out, or she’ll be dragged into the arena to face the crooked Queen head on before a crowd ready to watch her die.

The Winter Souls Series blends action and warm Christmas traditions, bringing the old forgotten tales of the season to life with new and grittier versions of famous characters out of old holiday legends, folklore, and myths; such as St. Nicholas, the Snow Queen, the Scrooge, and the Nutcracker.]]> 405 Jennifer Kropf Bex 0 to-read 3.58 2022
author: Jennifer Kropf
name: Bex
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 127305892
Emma has never told anyone what she saw the night her parents died, even when she became the prime suspect. But her presence in the house threatens to uncover secrets that have stayed hidden for years, and the sisters are drawn together once again. As they face their memories of the past, rivalries restart, connections are forged, and, for the first time, Emma starts to ask questions about what really happened that night.

The more Emma learns, the more riddles emerge. And Emma begins to wonder just what her siblings will do to keep the past buried, and whether she did the right thing staying quiet about what was whispered that night: “No one can know.”]]> 325 Kate Alice Marshall 1250859913 Bex 0 to-read 3.65 2024
author: Kate Alice Marshall
name: Bex
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 196849314 Equal parts tender and edgy, this inventive queer romance imagines what it might feel like to come of age in the afterlife.

Tegan Masters is dead.

She’s sixteen and she’s dead and she’s standing in the parking lot of the Marybelle Motor Lodge, the single most depressing motel in all of New Jersey and the place where Tegan spent what she remembers as the worst weekend of her life.

In the front office, she meets Zelda, a cute and sarcastic girl Tegan’s age who is, in fact, an angel (wings and all). According to Zelda, Tegan is officially in heaven, where every person inhabits an exact replica of their happiest memory. For Tegan, Zelda insists, that place is the Marybelle—creepy minigolf course, revolting breakfast buffet, broken TV, and all.

Tegan has a few complaints about this.

As Zelda takes Tegan on a whirlwind tour through Tegan’s past to help her understand what mattered most to her in life, the stakes couldn’t be higher. If Zelda fails to convince Tegan that the Marybelle was the site of Tegan's perfect moment, both girls face eternal consequences too dire to consider. But if she succeeds…they just might get their happily-ever-afterlife.

Full of humor and heartbreak, The Worst Perfect Moment asks what it means to be truly happy.]]> 320 Shivaun Plozza 082345634X Bex 0 to-read 4.00 2024
author: Shivaun Plozza
name: Bex
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 59093587 The contestants of a reality television dating show compete for love—and their lives—in this pulse-pounding and viciously funny fiction debut from the GLAAD Award-winning author of Real Queer America.

When the final four women in competition for an aloof, if somewhat sleazy, bachelor's heart arrive on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest, they mentally prepare themselves for another week of extreme sleep deprivation, invasive interviews, and of course, the salacious drama that viewers nationwide tune in to eagerly devour. Each woman came on 'The Catch' for her own reasons—brand sponsorships, followers, and yes, even love—and they've all got their eyes steadfastly trained on their respective prizes.

Enter Patricia, a temperamental, but woefully misunderstood local, living alone in the dark, verdant woods and desperate to forge a connection of her own. As the contestants perform for the cameras that surround them, Patricia watches from her place in the shadows, a queer specter haunting the bombastic display of heterosexuality before her. But when the cast and crew at last make her acquaintance atop the island's tallest and most desolate peak, they soon realize that if they're to have any hope of making it to the next Elimination Event, they'll first have to survive the night.

A whirlwind romp careening toward a last-girl-standing conclusion and a scathing indictment of contemporary American media culture, Patricia Wants to Cuddle is also a love story: between star-crossed lesbians who rise above their intolerant town, a deeply ambivalent woman and her budding self-actualization, and a chosen family of misfit islanders forging community against all odds.]]> 256 Samantha Allen 163893004X Bex 0 to-read 3.52 2022
author: Samantha Allen
name: Bex
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 44088751 In the tradition of audacious and wryly funny novels like The Idiot and Convenience Store Woman comes the wildly original coming-of-age story of a pregnant pizza delivery girl who becomes obsessed with one of her customers.

Eighteen years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all. She's grieving the death of her father (who she has more in common with than she'd like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future.

Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled covered pizzas for her son's happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other towards middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated, and ultimately heartbreaking ways.

Bold, tender, propulsive, and unexpected in countless ways, Jean Kyoung Frazier's Pizza Girl is a moving and funny portrait of a flawed, unforgettable young woman as she tries to find her place in the world.]]> 208 Jean Kyoung Frazier 038554572X Bex 0 to-read 3.35 2020
author: Jean Kyoung Frazier
name: Bex
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62039307
Avery Byrne has secrets. She's queer; she's in love with her best friend, Cass; and she's suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.

Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.

If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.]]> 416 Jen St. Jude 1547611367 Bex 0 to-read 4.18 2023
author: Jen St. Jude
name: Bex
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127280315 A sapphic opposites-attract romance with Mazey Edding's signature sparkling voice!

Winning the lottery has ruined Opal Devlin's’s life. After quitting her dead-end job where she’d earned minimum wage and even less respect, she’s bombarded by people knocking at her door for a handout the second they found out her bank account was overflowing with cash. And Opal can’t seem to stop saying yes.

With her tender heart thoroughly abused, Opal decides to protect herself by any means necessary, which to her translates to putting almost all her new money to buying a failing flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina to let the flowers live out their plant destiny while she uses the cabin on the property to start her painting business.

But her plans for isolation and self-preservation go hopelessly awry when an angry (albeit gorgeous) Pepper Smith is waiting for her at her new farm. Pepper states she’s the rightful owner of Thistle and Bloom Farms, and isn’t moving out. The unlikely pair strike up an agreement of co-habitation, and butt-heads at every turn. Can these opposites both live out their dreams and plant roots? Or will their combustible arguing (and growing attraction) burn the whole place down?]]> 400 Mazey Eddings 1250847087 Bex 0 to-read 3.69 2024
author: Mazey Eddings
name: Bex
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49471138 A slick, twisty YA page-turner about the daughter of a con artist who is taken hostage in a bank heist.

Nora O’Malley’s been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother’s protégé. But when mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape.

For five years Nora’s been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:

#1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they’re all friends, Wes didn’t know about her and Iris.

#2: The morning after Wes finds them kissing, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised at the bank. It’s a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly, because:

#3: Right after they enter bank, two guys start robbing it.

The bank robbers may be trouble, but Nora’s something else entirely. They have no idea who they’re really holding hostage…]]> 356 Tess Sharpe 0593111095 Bex 0 to-read 4.04 2021
author: Tess Sharpe
name: Bex
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45718831
Lifestyle journalist Katrine escaped past traumas by moving to a coast renowned for seaside holidays and natural beauty. But when a vast hoard of human remains and prehistoric artefacts is discovered in nearby Brickburgh, a hideous shadow engulfs her life.

Helene, a disillusioned lone parent, lost her brother, Lincoln, six years ago. Disturbing subterranean noises he recorded prior to vanishing, draw her to Brickburgh's caves. A site where early humans butchered each other across sixty thousand years. Upon the walls, images of their nameless gods remain.

Amidst rumours of drug plantations and new sightings of the mythical red folk, it also appears that the inquisitive have been disappearing from this remote part of the world for years. A rural idyll where outsiders are unwelcome and where an infernal power is believed to linger beneath the earth. A timeless supernormal influence that only the desperate would dream of confronting. But to save themselves and those they love, and to thwart a crimson tide of pitiless barbarity, Kat and Helene are given no choice. They were involved and condemned before they knew it.

'The Reddening' is an epic story of folk and prehistoric horrors written by Adam Nevill, the author of 'The Ritual', 'Last Days', 'No One Gets Out Alive' and the three times winner of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel.]]> 415 Adam L.G. Nevill 1916094104 Bex 0 to-read 3.51 2019
author: Adam L.G. Nevill
name: Bex
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60209475 A new work of philosophical suspense.

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.��

Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?

At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s genre-defying third novel explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.]]> 289 Iain Reid 1982169354 Bex 0 to-read 3.76 2022
author: Iain Reid
name: Bex
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 25365
The ringleader of this cover-up, Masako Katori, emerges as the emotional heart of Out and as one of the shrewdest, most clear-eyed creations in recent fiction. Masako's own search for a way out of the straitjacket of a dead-end life leads her, too, to take drastic action.

The complex yet riveting narrative seamlessly combines a convincing glimpse into the grimy world of Japan's yakuza with a brilliant portrayal of the psychology of a violent crime and the ensuing game of cat-and-mouse between seasoned detectives and a group of determined but inexperienced criminals. Kirino has mastered a Thelma and Louise kind of graveyard humor that illuminates her stunning evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds and the friendship that bolsters them in the aftermath.]]> 400 Natsuo Kirino 1400078377 Bex 0 to-read 3.95 1997
author: Natsuo Kirino
name: Bex
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 61612864
A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

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

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.]]> 559 Mark Lawrence 0593437918 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 3.93 2023
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Bex
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/16
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 21412045
Meet the would-be assassins of class 3-E: Sugino, who let his grades slip and got kicked off the baseball team. Karma, who's doing well in his classes but keeps getting suspended for fighting. And Okuda, who lacks both academic and social skills, yet excels at one subject: chemistry. Who has the best chance of winning that reward? Will the deed be accomplished through pity, brute force or poison...? And what chance does their teacher have of repairing his students' tattered self-esteem?]]> 192 Yusei Matsui 1421576074 Bex 3 4.12 2012
author: Yusei Matsui
name: Bex
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/29
date added: 2024/02/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 58437812 She’s All That meets What If It’s Us in this swoon-worthy hate-to-love YA romantic comedy from #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Five Feet Apart Rachael Lippincott and debut writer Alyson Derrick.

Alex Blackwood is a little bit headstrong, with a dash of chaos and a whole lot of flirt. She knows how to get the girl. Keeping her on the other hand…not so much. Molly Parker has everything in her life totally in control, except for her complete awkwardness with just about anyone besides her mom. She knows she’s in love with the impossibly cool Cora Myers. She just…hasn’t actually talked to her yet.

Alex and Molly don’t belong on the same planet, let alone the same college campus. But when Alex, fresh off a bad (but hopefully not permanent) breakup, discovers Molly’s hidden crush as their paths cross the night before classes start, they realize they might have a common interest after all. Because maybe if Alex volunteers to help Molly learn how to get her dream girl to fall for her, she can prove to her ex that she’s not a selfish flirt. That she’s ready for an actual commitment. And while Alex is the last person Molly would ever think she could trust, she can’t deny Alex knows what she’s doing with girls, unlike her.

As the two embark on their five-step plans to get their girls to fall for them, though, they both begin to wonder if maybe they’re the ones falling…for each other.]]> 384 Rachael Lippincott 1534493794 Bex 4 4.09 2022
author: Rachael Lippincott
name: Bex
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/21
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 60679392
Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world.

With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.]]> 352 Marisa Crane 164622129X Bex 0 to-read 3.89 2023
author: Marisa Crane
name: Bex
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62192515
A warmhearted, hilarious queer rom-com about what happens when a group of friends are actually brave enough to live the dream and give up their dreary city apartments to buy a house in the country together.

El is in a rut. She’s been hiding in the photocopier room at the same dead-end job for longer than she cares to remember, she’s sharing a flat with a girl who leaves passive-aggressive smiley face notes on the fridge about milk consumption and, worst of all, she’s been in unrequited love with her best friend, effortlessly cool lesbian Ray, for years.��So when a plan is hatched for El, Ray, and their two other closest friends—newly heartbroken Will and karaoke-and- Twilight -superfan Jamie—to ditch the big city and move out to a ramshackle house on the edge of an English country village, it feels like just the escape she needs.

Despite being the DIY challenge of a lifetime, the newly named Lavender House has all the makings of becoming the queer commune of the friends' dreams. (Will has been given a pass as the gang's Token Straight.)��But as they start plotting their bright new future and making preparations for a grand housewarming party to thank the surprisingly but wonderfully welcoming community, El is forced to confront her feelings for Ray—the feelings that she’s been desperately trying to keep buried. Is it worth ruining a perfectly good friendship for a chance at love?]]> 320 Laura Kay 0593470052 Bex 0 to-read 3.62 2023
author: Laura Kay
name: Bex
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54860241
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined--it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.

From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.]]> 384 Kalynn Bayron 1547603909 Bex 0 to-read 4.10 2021
author: Kalynn Bayron
name: Bex
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50892338
A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn�� students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin�� and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.]]> 502 Tracy Deonn 1534441603 Bex 0 to-read 4.31 2020
author: Tracy Deonn
name: Bex
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 4366357
Working with Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas, Assistant District Attorney Jill Bernhardt, and medical examiner Claire Washburn, Lindsay discovers that there is indeed a link. The victims were of different ages, lived in different locations, and were killed with different weapons. But each had a close relative in a particular profession, a profession that sends a chill through Lindsay's heart.

The partners in the Women's Murder Club realize that this killer is after something unspeakable, something deeper than revenge, and that the next target could be one of them. They deduce where the killer is likely to strike next and bait a trap that can't be resisted. But if their calculation is wrong, the consequences will be lethal. And there will be no second chance.]]> 401 James Patterson 075534927X Bex 3 4.04 2002
author: James Patterson
name: Bex
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 61273082
What would you do if you forgot the love of your life ever even existed?

Stevie and Nora had a love. A secret, epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. They also had a plan: to leave their small, ultra-conservative town and families behind after graduation and move to California, where they could finally stop hiding that love.

But then Stevie has a terrible fall. And when she comes to, she can remember nothing of the last two years—not California, not coming to terms with her sexuality, not even Nora. Suddenly, Stevie finds herself in a life she doesn’t quite understand, one where she’s estranged from her parents, drifting away from her friends, lying about the hours she works, dating a boy she can’t remember crushing on, and headed towards a future that isn’t at all what her fifteen-year-old self would have envisioned.

And Nora finds herself…forgotten. Can the two beat the odds a second time and find their way back together when “together�� itself is just a lost memory?]]> 320 Alyson Derrick 166590237X Bex 5 4.24 2023
author: Alyson Derrick
name: Bex
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves:
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Experience the fantasy world of Arresia where the forces of Light and darkness collide. Rush of Ravens, the first book in the Til Kingdom Come series by Abigail Brier, envelops readers with a gripping tale of heartache and revenge.

In a world where the king kills those gifted by the Light to steal their power, Ravenna wants nothing more than to fight with the warriors of Vestele against the evil Despiri king. But Ravenna's mother holds her fate in her hands, wishing for Ravenna to marry and avoid the dangers of war. Ravenna runs the Gauntlet to prove herself to her mother, but when she returns home with the bloodstone prize in hand, she sets off a chain of events that are sure to alter her future. She finds herself as shield-maiden, and she soon becomes a curse to her own people. But she will do anything to protect them—including the one thing she swore she would never do.

With adventure and page-turning suspense, this enchanting, multi-pov debut dives into the darkness and explores themes of pride and downfall, and heartache and revenge as the characters hold onto a single, fraying thread of hope.]]> 448 Abigail Brier Bex 0 to-read 4.21
author: Abigail Brier
name: Bex
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 38496714 The seventh novel in James S. A. Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series--now a major television series.
An old enemy returns.

In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace.

In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity and the power to enforce it.

New technologies clash with old as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient patterns of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity -- and of the Rocinante -- unexpectedly and forever...]]> 557 James S.A. Corey 0316332852 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.37 2017
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Bex
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
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]]> 29398235
A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.

Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.

And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.]]> 532 James S.A. Corey 0356504255 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.37 2015
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Bex
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/06
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]]> 24950371 The fourth novel in James S.A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series

The gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity's home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world. Among them, the Rocinante, haunted by the vast, posthuman network of the protomolecule as they investigate what destroyed the great intergalactic society that built the gates and the protomolecule.

But Holden and his crew must also contend with the growing tensions between the settlers and the company which owns the official claim to the planet. Both sides will stop at nothing to defend what's theirs, but soon a terrible disease strikes and only Holden - with help from the ghostly Detective Miller - can find the cure.]]> 581 James S.A. Corey 0356504190 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.19 2014
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Bex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
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]]> 20452000
Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.]]> 540 James S.A. Corey 1841499935 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.18 2013
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Bex
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 18129662
In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .]]> 597 James S.A. Corey 1841499919 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.34 2012
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Bex
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 22599113 "During these years I found myself accused of fornication, high treason, and status as the worst mother in all of Scirland...

Attentive readers are already familiar with how a bookish young woman named Isabella first set out on the historic course that would lead her to becoming the world s premier dragon naturalist. Three years after her journey through Vystrana, the illustrious (and occasionally scandalous) Lady Trent defies convention to embark on an expedition to the war-torn continent of Eriga, home of the legendary swamp-wyrm. Accompanied by an old associate and a runaway heiress, Isabella must brave oppressive heat, palace intrigues, gossip, and other hazards in order to satisfy her fascination with all things draconian, even if it means venturing deep into the forbidden jungle known as the Green Hell... where her courage, resourcefulness, and scientific curiosity will be tested as never before.

[U]ncompromisingly honest and forthright... with a heroine at once admirable, formidable and captivating. Reader, lose no time in making Isabella s acquaintance. - Kirkus (starred review).

Marie Brennan brings dragons into the Victorian world, and flawlessly so... [It] gives fantasy readers another good reason to enter Brennan s fantastical world. -Washington Post.

Every bit as exciting and engrossing as the first part of Lady Trent s memoir. Isabella s strength and bravery in the name of scientific advancement... is beyond admirable she s a model protagonist. -RT book reviews.

Lady Trent makes for an intrepid and pleasingly independent protagonist, mastering challenges both emotional and physical -Publishers Weekly.]]> 345 Marie Brennan 1783292415 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 3.97 2014
author: Marie Brennan
name: Bex
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 22016392
But Fitz will not wait. Driven by loss and bitter memories, he undertakes a quest: to kill Regal. The journey casts him into deep waters, as he discovers wild currents of magic within him--currents that will either drown him or make him something more than he was.]]> 838 Robin Hobb 0007562276 Bex 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.19 1997
author: Robin Hobb
name: Bex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 33160362 431 Nicholas Sansbury Smith 1455115983 Bex 4 3.78 2016
author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith
name: Bex
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 22016387
Renewing their vicious attacks on the coast, the Red-Ship Raiders leave burned-out villages and demented victims in their wake. The kingdom is also under assault from within, as treachery threatens the throne of the ailing king. In this time of great danger, the fate of the kingdom may rest in Fitz’s hands—and his role in its salvation may require the ultimate sacrifice.]]> 648 Robin Hobb 0007562268 Bex 0 currently-reading 4.39 1996
author: Robin Hobb
name: Bex
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 21956219
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.]]> 392 Robin Hobb 000756225X Bex 5 4.19 1995
author: Robin Hobb
name: Bex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves:
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]]> 28695606
Presented as a fact-finding investigation and a series of first-person interviews, FantasticLand pieces together the grisly series of events. Park policy was that the mostly college-aged employees surrender their electronic devices to preserve the authenticity of the FantasticLand experience. Cut off from the world and left on their own, the teenagers soon form rival tribes who viciously compete for food, medicine, social dominance, and even human flesh. This new social network divides the ravaged dreamland into territories ruled by the Pirates, the ShopGirls, the Freaks, and the Mole People. If meticulously curated online personas can replace private identities, what takes over when those constructs are lost?

FantasticLand is a modern take on Lord of the Flies meets Battle Royale that probes the consequences of a social civilization built online.]]> 272 Mike Bockoven 1510709444 Bex 3 3.84 2016
author: Mike Bockoven
name: Bex
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves:
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]]> 59122160
The Shadow lies across the Pattern of the Age, and the Dark One has turned all his power against the prison that binds him. If it fails he will escape and nothing will stand in the storm that blows then . . . save the man that was born to battle the darkness: Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn.

But to wage his war Rand must find Callandor, ancient Sword of the Dragon . . . and the Forsaken will shatter the world to thwart him.]]> 672 Robert Jordan 0356517020 Bex 3 physical-tbr 4.19 1991
author: Robert Jordan
name: Bex
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/13
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves: physical-tbr
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]]> 1772910 82 Fyodor Dostoevsky Bex 4 4.16 1848
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Bex
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1848
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves:
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]]> 55014882
This edition includes exclusive bonus material from the Douglas Adams archives, and an introduction by Monty Python star, Terry Jones.

If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the end of the Universe?

Which is exactly what Arthur Dent and the crew of the Heart of Gold plan to do. There's just the small matter of escaping the Vogons, avoiding being taken to the most totally evil world in the Galaxy and teaching a space ship how to make a proper cup of tea.

And did anyone actually make a reservation?

Follow Arthur Dent's galactic (mis)adventures in the rest of the trilogy with five parts: Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless.]]> 205 Douglas Adams 1529034531 Bex 4 3.99 1980
author: Douglas Adams
name: Bex
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
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]]> 37647549 444 David Sosnowski 1503901300 Bex 3 3.37 2018
author: David Sosnowski
name: Bex
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/23
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves:
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]]> 1267077 192 Akira Toriyama 1569319227 Bex 3 4.44 1986
author: Akira Toriyama
name: Bex
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]>