Rie's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 01 May 2025 17:31:44 -0700 60 Rie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg When the Wolf Comes Home 211004893
As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they're up against, but she's about to learn there's more to these surreal and grisly events than she could've ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.]]>
304 Nat Cassidy 125035434X Rie 0 to-read 4.44 2025 When the Wolf Comes Home
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Rie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/01
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<![CDATA[North Is the Night (Tuonela Duet Book 1)]]> 210531888 Two bold young women defy the gods and mortals, living and dead, in this darkly mythical, Finnish folklore-inspired fantasy duology for readers of T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone, Danielle L. Jensen, Thea Guanzon, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec.

In the Finnish wilderness, more than wolves roam the dark forests. For Siiri and Aina, summer’s fading light is a harbinger of unwelcome change. Land-hungry Swedes venture north, threatening the peace; a zealous Christian priest denounces the old ways; and young women have begun to disappear.

Siiri vows to protect Aina from danger. But even Siiri cannot stop a death goddess from dragging her friend to Tuonela, the mythical underworld. Determined to save Aina, Siiri braves a dangerous journey north to seek the greatest shaman of legend, the only person to venture to the realm of death and return alive.

In Tuonela, the cruel Witch Queen turns Aina’s every waking moment into a living nightmare. But armed with compassion and cleverness, Aina learns the truth of her capture: the king of the underworld himself has plans for her. To return home, Aina must bargain her heart—as Siiri plots a daring rescue of the woman she loves the most.]]>
593 Emily Rath 1645661679 Rie 5 3.96 2024 North Is the Night (Tuonela Duet Book 1)
author: Emily Rath
name: Rie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
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<![CDATA[Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship]]> 217387999 A smart and thought-provoking memoir, history, and cultural critique about the turmoil and complexity of female friendship

Our culture today is inundated with narratives about the strength of female friendship, whether through images of girl power, BFFs, or work wives. Yet cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith has always found her own life much messier. She has had dramatic friend breakups, friendships that felt like too much or not enough, friendships that drifted into silence, and friendships built on convenience rather than a meeting of minds. And there are older cultural scripts to contend the competitive rival, the jealous backstabber, the underminer, the fair-weather friend.

We have all been bad friends. It’s impossible to be a perfect one; as Watt Smith points out, women’s friendships have long been magnified, scrutinized, praised, and admonished, creating a legacy of impossible ideals. In Bad Friend, Watt Smith reflects on her own experience and thoroughly mines the rich cultural history of female friendship to look for a new paradigm that might encompass the struggles along with the joy.]]>
304 Tiffany Watt Smith 1250870216 Rie 0 to-read 4.00 Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship
author: Tiffany Watt Smith
name: Rie
average rating: 4.00
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A Fate Forged in Fire 218153674 To become the first queen in centuries, a powerfully blessed blacksmith must use her wits and fire magic to overthrow the corrupt powers ruling her kingdom—while also fighting her growing desire for one of her dragon-riding adversaries—in the first book of a sizzling Celtic-inspired fantasy romance duology.

Once a territory built on matriarchal rule and values, Tìr Teine has since grown frail from a long line of fruitless kings. The most recent of which have ruled under the influence of the True Religion, an oppressive group who have steadily poisoned the region with their anti-magic teachings.

Born to rule and blessed by fire, Aemyra has begrudgingly lived in hiding rather than risk her life in court, waiting in anticipation for the current king’s death so she can bond to his dragon, claim her throne, and protect her people. But when the king dies and Aemyra is ready to take what is rightfully hers, her ambitious plan is foiled and she is thrust into a game of vicious politics and plots.

Her biggest adversary is Prince Fiorean, a dragon-rider and one of the most powerful fire wielders in the territory. Cold, arrogant, and blindly supportive of his corrupt family, he is everything Aemyra despises. But as chaos engulfs the court, they find themselves reluctantly entwined, forced to forge an uneasy alliance—one that quickly ignites into something more dangerous than either of them expected.

Behind enemy lines and slowly falling for her so-called adversary, Aemyra uncovers just how far the rot of corruption has spread, and what she may have to sacrifice to claim her throne.]]>
416 Hazel McBride 0593972945 Rie 0 to-read 3.87 2025 A Fate Forged in Fire
author: Hazel McBride
name: Rie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[A Curse Carved in Bone (Saga of the Unfated, #2)]]> 216602917 A shield maiden fights to break the shackles of prophecy—and to overcome the betrayal of the man who broke her heart—in this searing conclusion to the Norse-inspired fantasy romance duology that began with the bestselling A Fate Inked in Blood.

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

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

As war approaches, gods and mortals must choose their weapons. Yet the fiercest battle will be the one Freya wages within herself. With the magic of two goddesses burning in her veins, she must weave the threads of destiny to decide her own fate: Will she be the shield that protects her people or the curse that destroys them?]]>
416 Danielle L. Jensen 0593599861 Rie 0 to-read 4.23 2025 A Curse Carved in Bone (Saga of the Unfated, #2)
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Rie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/05
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When the Tides Held the Moon 213075628 In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale.

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

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

Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.]]>
464 Venessa Vida Kelley 1645661539 Rie 0 to-read 4.40 2025 When the Tides Held the Moon
author: Venessa Vida Kelley
name: Rie
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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Awake in the Floating City 217453585 An utterly transporting debut novel about the unexpected relationship between an artist and the 130-year-old woman she cares for—two of the last people living in a flooded San Francisco of the future, the home neither is ready to leave.

“An astonishing work of art…This is the kind of book that changes you, that leaves you seeing more vividly, and living more fully, in its wake.� —Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans

Bo knows she should go. Years of rain have drowned the city and almost everyone else has fled. Her mother was carried away in a storm surge and ever since, Bo has been alone. She is stalled: an artist unable to make art, a daughter unable to give up the hope that her mother may still be alive. Half-heartedly, she allows her cousin to plan for her escape—but as the departure day approaches, she finds a note slipped under her door from Mia, an elderly woman who lives in her building and wants to hire Bo to be her caregiver. Suddenly, Bo has a reason to stay.

Mia can be prickly, and yet still she and Bo forge a connection deeper than any Bo has had with a client. Mia shares stories of her life that pull Bo back toward art, toward the practice she thought she’d abandoned. Listening to Mia, allowing her memories to become entangled with Bo’s own, she’s struck by how much history will be lost as the city gives way to water. Then Mia’s health turns, and Bo determines to honor their disappearing world and this woman who’s brought her back to it, a project that teaches her the lessons that matter most: how to care, how to be present, how to commemorate a life and a place, soon to be lost forever.]]>
320 Susanna Kwan 0593701402 Rie 0 to-read 3.91 2025 Awake in the Floating City
author: Susanna Kwan
name: Rie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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The Incandescent 217387935 Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

"Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us."

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.]]>
432 Emily Tesh 1250835011 Rie 0 to-read 4.19 2025 The Incandescent
author: Emily Tesh
name: Rie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)]]> 213618143 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

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

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

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

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

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]>
465 Robert Jackson Bennett 0593723821 Rie 0 to-read 4.55 2025 A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Rie
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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The River Has Roots 211004176 Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

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

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

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

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters� bond but also their lives will be at risk…]]>
133 Amal El-Mohtar 1250341086 Rie 0 to-read 4.19 2025 The River Has Roots
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Rie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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A Harvest of Hearts 210693153 In the beloved tradition of Howl’s Moving Castle, a whimsical and unforgettable story of fantastic adventure, common sense, and the power of love to overcome the greatest of obstacles . . .

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

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

But as Foss learns the ways of magic, she realizes she’s far from its only unwilling captive. Even Sylvester is hemmed in by spells and threats. It’s said this sorcery protects king, country, and order for thousands. If Foss wants to free herself—and, perhaps, Sylvester—she’ll have to confront it all . . . and uncover the blight nestled in the heart of the kingdom itself.]]>
448 Andrea Eames 1645661881 Rie 0 to-read 3.60 2025 A Harvest of Hearts
author: Andrea Eames
name: Rie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/05
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Wild Dark Shore 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]>
303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Rie 0 to-read 4.27 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Rie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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Pedagogy of the Oppressed 72657 Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire's work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. With a substantive new introduction on Freire's life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.]]> 183 Paulo Freire 0826412769 Rie 0 trump, to-read 4.30 1968 Pedagogy of the Oppressed
author: Paulo Freire
name: Rie
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1968
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/31
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<![CDATA[Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #3)]]> 188563996
Once Upon a Time meets The Office in Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s laugh-out-loud viral TikTok series turned novel, about the sunshine assistant to an Evil Villain…and their unexpected romance.

REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie� or “Stop that.�

Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,� and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.

Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire—or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.

Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.

A magical office comedy with grumpy bosses, snarky frogs, and definitely-not-feelings.]]>
336 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1529917778 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 4.48 2025 Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #3)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Rie
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/19
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Bunny (Bunny, #1) 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]>
305 Mona Awad 0525559752 Rie 0 to-read 3.43 2019 Bunny (Bunny, #1)
author: Mona Awad
name: Rie
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/19
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<![CDATA[Reign & Ruin (Mages of the Wheel, #1)]]> 50607309 “All magic is beautiful,� she said, “and terrible. Do you not see the beauty in yours, or the terror in mine? You can stop a heart, and I can stop your breath.�

She is heir to a Sultanate that once ruled the world. He is an unwanted prince with the power to destroy.

She is order and intellect, a woman fit to rule in a man's place. He is chaos and violence and will stop at nothing to protect his people.

His magic answers hers with shadow for light. They need each other, but the cost of balance may be too high a price. Magic is dying and the only way to save it is to enlist mages who wield the forbidden power of death, mages cast out centuries ago in a brutal and bloody war.

Now, a new war is coming. Science and machines to replace magic and old religion.

They must find a way to save their people from annihilation and balance the sacred Wheel—but first, they will have to balance their own forbidden passion. His peace for her tempest, his restlessness for her calm�

Night and day, dusk and dawn, the end, and the beginning. ]]>
420 J.D. Evans 1951607015 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 4.17 2020 Reign & Ruin (Mages of the Wheel, #1)
author: J.D. Evans
name: Rie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
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<![CDATA[The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (Hart and Mercy, #1)]]> 58510253
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.

After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend�. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.

If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most � Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares � each other?]]>
449 Megan Bannen 0356518655 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 4.04 2022 The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (Hart and Mercy, #1)
author: Megan Bannen
name: Rie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
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<![CDATA[Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1)]]> 50702014 Stephen's god died on the longest day of the year�

Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind�

From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Swordheart and The Twisted Ones comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far side of despair.]]>
366 T. Kingfisher Rie 0 to-read, tbr 4.08 2020 Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Rie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
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<![CDATA[Captured by the Fae Beast (Monsters of Faery, #1)]]> 187542945 I never intended to become a princess. Or make a deal with a monster.

Lost in the wilderness, I thought the handsome stranger was my salvation—until I looked into the eyes of a beast.

They say not to bargain with the fae, but there was no other choice.

The deadly prince of Stag Court claims I belong to him. I only have a year and a day to convince him to let me go before I'm his forever.

He's without mercy, known as a ruthless killer. Yet he protects me. Defends me. Tells me his secrets. In front of the Court, he's the Beast, but behind closed doors he gives me the chance to choose him, or not.

The fae Court is a dangerous place, and the prince isn't the only terror lurking in the shadows. But I'm stronger than his enemies give me credit for. Together, he and I might be each other's salvation... or ruin.

"Captured by the Fae Beast" is a complete story loosely inspired by the story of Hades and Persephone, with a guaranteed happily-ever-after. This enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance features a possessive male lead and the sunshine mortal who can tame him.]]>
374 Mallory Dunlin Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.89 2022 Captured by the Fae Beast (Monsters of Faery, #1)
author: Mallory Dunlin
name: Rie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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Hunted 24485589 New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner spins a thoroughly thrilling BeautyÌýand the Beast story for the modern age, expertly woven with spellbinding romance, intrigue, and suspense that readers won’t soon be able to forget.

Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones—and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering its secrets.

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman.

But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. The Beast.

Deaf to her sisters� protests, Yeva hunts this strange creature back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of magical creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin, or salvation.

Who will the Beauty, or the Beast?]]>
384 Meagan Spooner 0062422308 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.88 2017 Hunted
author: Meagan Spooner
name: Rie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/16
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<![CDATA[Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, #1)]]> 33958230 An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl's quest to become Empress—and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?

Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins—sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.]]>
363 Julie C. Dao 1524738298 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.70 2017 Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, #1)
author: Julie C. Dao
name: Rie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Tears of the Wolf (Wrath and Weeping, #1)]]> 223846779
Cenric needs a wife—but not just any wife—a sorceress. Having recently reclaimed his inheritance after a youth spent across the sea, a sorceress will bring security and legitimacy in his estranged homeland.

A marriage gives both Brynn and Cenric what they want—for now.

In the far northern reaches lies a land ruled by pride and strict codes of honor. As Brynn and Cenric struggle to navigate the aftermath of their hasty union, they soon realize that rival factions within the kingdom are on the verge of war once again.

Alone, they will be destroyed by the coming storm. Together, they might stand a chance.]]>
316 Elisabeth Wheatley Rie 0 to-read 4.41 2025 Tears of the Wolf (Wrath and Weeping, #1)
author: Elisabeth Wheatley
name: Rie
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
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The Bewitching 220458657 Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witchesâ€�: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps ³Ù³ó²¹³Ù’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.]]>
368 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0593874323 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 4.35 2025 The Bewitching
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Rie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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<![CDATA[Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil]]> 215020997 ALL first edition copies will be signed by the author! Signed copies available while supplies last.

From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.

This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life�
how it ends, and how it starts.


USA Today, 15 Most Anticipated of 2025
BookBub, Most Anticipated of 2025 (and Reader’s Pick)
Readers Digest, 20 Most Anticipated Books This Year
Paste Magazine, Most Anticipated Fantasy Books of 2025
BookRiot, Most Anticipated Books of 2025
Men's Health, 25 Best & Most Anticipated Books of 2025
The Nerd Daily, SFF to Devour in 2025
Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2025]]>
560 Victoria E. Schwab 1035064642 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 4.39 2025 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Rie
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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The Staircase in the Woods 216971219 A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .]]>
400 Chuck Wendig 0593156560 Rie 0 to-read 3.88 2025 The Staircase in the Woods
author: Chuck Wendig
name: Rie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
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Vanishing Daughters 209492361 A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.

It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.

The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.

A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.]]>
336 Cynthia Pelayo 1662513925 Rie 0 to-read 3.38 2025 Vanishing Daughters
author: Cynthia Pelayo
name: Rie
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)]]> 208944365 ASIN moved from less recent edition

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.

One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.

But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.

They're going to need to ask it a lot.]]>
151 Becky Chambers Rie 0 4.33 2021 A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Rie
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: hysterectomy-reads, tbr, currently-reading
review:

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The Lost Apothecary 49083252 A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary�

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time.]]>
320 Sarah Penner Rie 0 currently-reading 4.00 2021 The Lost Apothecary
author: Sarah Penner
name: Rie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: currently-reading
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Weyward 57823095 I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

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.]]>
408 Emilia Hart Rie 5 4.21 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Rie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
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<![CDATA[The Rook (The Checquy Files, #1)]]> 10836728
So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, The Rook is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.]]>
504 Daniel O'Malley 0316098795 Rie 5
Exposition through letters for the most part which as a person who isn't in love with exposition was a great change.

And he is obsessed with appearance and the word hypodermic. Most needles are. It doesn't need to be said constantly.]]>
4.10 2012 The Rook (The Checquy Files, #1)
author: Daniel O'Malley
name: Rie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
review:
Loved this book. I very rarely read books with no romance, but this was an incredible book with no romance just a newborn woman living her life the best she can and reclaiming her voice from years of bureaucracy coldness.

Exposition through letters for the most part which as a person who isn't in love with exposition was a great change.

And he is obsessed with appearance and the word hypodermic. Most needles are. It doesn't need to be said constantly.
]]>
An Orc on the Wild Side 41815538 An Orc on the Wild Side is the latest comic masterpiece from one of the funniest writers in fantasy.
Winter is coming, so why not get away from it all?
Being the Dark Lord and Prince of Evil is not as much fun as it sounds, particularly if you are a basically decent person. King Mordak is just such a person. Technically he's more goblin than person, but the point is that he is really keen to be a lot less despicable than his predecessors.
Not that the other goblins appreciate Mordak's attempts to redefine the role. Why should they when his new healthcare program seems designed to actually extend life expectancy, and his efforts to end a perfectly reasonable war with the dwarves appear to have become an obsession? With confidence in his leadership crumbling, what Mordak desperately needs is a distraction. Perhaps some of these humans moving to the Realm in search of great homes at an affordable price will be able to help?

For more from Tom Holt, check
The Management Style of the Supreme BeingsThe Good, The Bad, and the SmugThe Outsorcerer's ApprenticeWhen It's a JarDoughnutLife, Liberty, and the Pursuit of SausagesBlonde Bombshell]]>
403 Tom Holt 0316270849 Rie 0 to-read 3.60 2019 An Orc on the Wild Side
author: Tom Holt
name: Rie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1)]]> 13316328 287 Jasper Fforde 0547738471 Rie 0 to-read 3.87 2010 The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Rie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's, #1)]]> 29661618
Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document - to try and find the answers to many of History's unanswered questions...and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And, as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake....]]>
480 Jodi Taylor Rie 0 to-read 3.82 2013 Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's, #1)
author: Jodi Taylor
name: Rie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Six-Gun Tarot (Golgotha, #1)]]> 15793094
Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.

A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn…and so will all of Creation.]]>
364 R.S. Belcher 0765329328 Rie 0 to-read 3.77 2013 The Six-Gun Tarot (Golgotha, #1)
author: R.S. Belcher
name: Rie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
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The Devil and Mrs. Davenport 162502000 The bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure—from the living and the dead.

The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices.

Missouri, 1955. Loretta Davenport has led an isolated life as a young mother and a wife to Pete, an ambitious assistant professor at a Bible college. They’re the picture of domestic tranquillity—until a local girl is murdered and Loretta begins receiving messages from beyond. Pete dismisses them as delusions of a fevered female imagination. Loretta knows they’re real—and frightening. Defying Pete’s demands, Loretta finds an encouraging supporter in parapsychologist Dr. Curtis Hansen. He sees a woman with a rare gift, more blessing than curse.

With Dr. Hansen’s help, Loretta’s life opens up to an empowering new purpose. But for Pete, the God-fearing image he’s worked so hard to cultivate is under threat. No longer in control of his dutiful wife, he sees the Devil at work. As Loretta’s powers grow stronger and the pleading spirits beckon, Pete is determined to deliver his wife from evil. To solve the mysteries of the dead, Loretta must first save herself.]]>
351 Paulette Kennedy 1662514883 Rie 0 to-read 4.17 2024 The Devil and Mrs. Davenport
author: Paulette Kennedy
name: Rie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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The Lamb 216867498
But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make her own bid for freedom.

With this gothic coming-of-age tale, novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire, and animal instincts—and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.]]>
336 Lucy Rose 1399619713 Rie 0 to-read 3.91 2025 The Lamb
author: Lucy Rose
name: Rie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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The Red Scholar's Wake 60811024
Rice Fish: sentient ship, leader of the infamous Red Banner pirate fleet, wife of the Red Scholar. Or at least, she was the latter before her wife died under suspicious circumstances. Now isolated and alone, Rice Fish wants Xích Si's help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xích Si means Rice Fish can offer Xích Si protection, in exchange for Xích Si's technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.

But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xích Si find themselves falling for each other. As the interstellar war against piracy intensifies and the five fleets start fighting each other, they will have to make a stand-and to decide what kind of future they have together...

An exciting space opera and a beautiful romance, from an exceptional SF author.]]>
336 Aliette de Bodard 1399601393 Rie 0 to-read 3.14 2022 The Red Scholar's Wake
author: Aliette de Bodard
name: Rie
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
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Some Desperate Glory 58388343 While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.

Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, she escapes from everything she’s ever known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.

A thrillingly told queer space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and who you must become when every choice is stripped from you, Some Desperate Glory is award-winning author Emily Tesh’s highly anticipated debut novel.]]>
438 Emily Tesh 1250834988 Rie 0 to-read 4.01 2023 Some Desperate Glory
author: Emily Tesh
name: Rie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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Kaikeyi 57127277 “I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions—much good it did me.�

So begins Kaikeyi’s story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on tales about the might and benevolence of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the worthy. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to the marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear.

Desperate for independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With it, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen.

But as the evil from her childhood stories threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. And Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak—and what legacy she intends to leave behind.

The unforgettable tale of a woman determined to leave her mark in a world gods and men dictate the shape of things to come. "Patel's mesmerizing debut shines a brilliant light on the vilified queen from the Ramayana"
(Publishers Weekly, starred review).
]]>
478 Vaishnavi Patel 0759557330 Rie 0 to-read 4.18 2022 Kaikeyi
author: Vaishnavi Patel
name: Rie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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When Women Were Dragons 58783802 A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.]]>
367 Kelly Barnhill 0385548222 Rie 0 to-read 3.79 2022 When Women Were Dragons
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Rie
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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Don't Let the Forest In 200982373 Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him.

Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality―Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won't say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork―whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew's wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what's wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster―Thomas's drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator...]]>
336 C.G. Drews 1250895669 Rie 0 to-read 4.11 2024 Don't Let the Forest In
author: C.G. Drews
name: Rie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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<![CDATA[By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land]]> 199393033 A powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later

Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.

In the 1830s, Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation.

Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country.]]>
352 Rebecca Nagle 0063112043 Rie 0 to-read 4.43 2024 By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
author: Rebecca Nagle
name: Rie
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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<![CDATA[The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century]]> 56347680 The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century upends the way we discuss—or avoid discussing—the problems and politics of sex.

How should we think about sex? It is a thing we have and also a thing we do; a supposedly private act laden with public meaning; a personal preference shaped by outside forces; a place where pleasure and ethics can pull wildly apart.

How should we talk about sex? Since #MeToo many have fixed on consent as the key framework for achieving sexual justice. Yet consent is a blunt tool. To grasp sex in all its complexity�its deep ambivalences, its relationship to gender, class, race and power�we need to move beyond yes and no, wanted and unwanted.

We do not know the future of sex—but perhaps we could imagine it. Amia Srinivasan’s stunning debut helps us do just that. She traces the meaning of sex in our world, animated by the hope of a different world. She reaches back into an older feminist tradition that was unafraid to think of sex as a political phenomenon. She discusses a range of fraught relationships—between discrimination and preference, pornography and freedom, rape and racial injustice, punishment and accountability, students and teachers, pleasure and power, capitalism and liberation.

The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century is a provocation and a promise, transforming many of our most urgent political debates and asking what it might mean to be free.]]>
241 Amia Srinivasan 0374721033 Rie 0 to-read 4.27 2021 The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century
author: Amia Srinivasan
name: Rie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/04
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<![CDATA[Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language]]> 41716694
Amanda Montell, feminist linguist and staff features editor at online beauty and health magazine Byrdie.com, deconstructs language—from insults and cursing to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women form gaining equality. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women use the word “like� as a filler? Or why certain gender neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or even how linguists have historically discussed women’s speech patterns? Wordslut is no stuffy academic study; Montell’s irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but both downright hilarious and profound.]]>
304 Amanda Montell 006286887X Rie 0 to-read 4.26 2019 Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
author: Amanda Montell
name: Rie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic � the Hierarchy � may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus � what they call Will � to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]>
639 James Islington 1982141190 Rie 0 to-read 4.60 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Rie
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)]]> 6294 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.]]>
329 Diana Wynne Jones 006441034X Rie 5 tbr, to-read
This is a whimsical book that really reminds me of other series like Tiffany Aching series. Howl was completely and utterly unsympathetic for much of the book through Sophie's eyes and honestly I'm not sure we ever got a great explanation for why he was acting the way he was with women.

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4.30 1986 Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Rie
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: tbr, to-read
review:
I watched the Studio Ghibli movie a few months ago and loved it so I wanted to try out the book. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator was fantastic. I loved this version of the story a lot. Something I find with Studio Ghibli movies is that the abstruse nature of them leaves me wanting to understand things more. The book was much clearer about the subtext and the emphasis on her internal logic and her family really interested me. The call to Wales was great and really tied it in to our world.

This is a whimsical book that really reminds me of other series like Tiffany Aching series. Howl was completely and utterly unsympathetic for much of the book through Sophie's eyes and honestly I'm not sure we ever got a great explanation for why he was acting the way he was with women.


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<![CDATA[Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)]]> 35074096
This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.]]>
416 Stephen Fry 0718188721 Rie 4
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4.27 2017 Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Rie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
I listened to this as an audiobook as I was driving an hour back and forth across the metroplex going to different specialists. Dealing with medical stuff is never fun, but this made the drive much more enjoyable as it is whimsical and informative describing myths that we have all heard living in Western society, but also lesser known Greek myths. This got my imagination going, entertained me, informed me, and also felt like a cozy hug in the midst of some very stressful times.


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<![CDATA[The Dead Take the A Train (Carrion City, #1)]]> 65214080 Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.

Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top.

Julie is desperate for a quick career boost to break the dead-end grind, but her pleas draw the attention of an eldritch god who is hungry for revenge. Her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts her closest friends � and the entire world � directly in the path of annihilation.

The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Khaw’s cosmic horror and Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly.]]>
391 Cassandra Khaw 1250867029 Rie 0 3.58 2023 The Dead Take the A Train (Carrion City, #1)
author: Cassandra Khaw
name: Rie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: hysterectomy-reads, to-read, tbr
review:

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<![CDATA[A Songbird's Tale (Tales of Tigraen)]]> 199578737
But fate is not finished with Jaren.

Jaren’s solitude is shattered when a wild fey demands he recommence his life as a hero. An ancient demon once believed buried has been growing in strength; if no one stops a fanatic cult from unleashing it, the country will burn.

This quest would be nearly impossible for an entire group of warriors, let alone a single blind man. With Jaren reluctant to heed the warnings, the fey turns his attention elsewhere and transforms the little songbird into a beautiful maiden to send in Jaren’s stead.

“This will be my champion.�

Armed with more curiosity than common sense, a naïve but determined Songbird is unwavering in her quest to vanquish the demon. Jaren is thrown into an impossible predicament- let Songbird charge forth alone to certain death or join her and take up his sword once more.]]>
455 Tiffani Sahara Rie 0 to-read 4.29 A Songbird's Tale (Tales of Tigraen)
author: Tiffani Sahara
name: Rie
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Mourning of Leone Manor 62624598
Haunted by his sister’s death years prior, Ben is far from thrilled to return to his childhood home. With a wound far deeper than a mere chip on his shoulder, Ben approaches his father’s death like a building storm. He senses something is amiss at the manor and has a growing suspicion his father was murdered.

As an inevitable passion grows between them, Ben and Remi fight to uncover the manor’s secrets as the darkness creeping through the cracks in the walls threatens to bring them down.

Phantoms roam the halls of Leone Manor, and where there are ghosts, there is also foul play.]]>
A.M. Davis Rie 0 to-read 4.31 The Mourning of Leone Manor
author: A.M. Davis
name: Rie
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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Brave New World 5129 Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine� (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune]]>
268 Aldous Huxley 0060929871 Rie 0 tbr, to-read 3.99 1932 Brave New World
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Rie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1932
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: tbr, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Gods of the Wyrdwood (Forsaken, #1)]]> 62874007 In a world locked in eternal winter and haunted by prophecy, a young boy trains for years to become the Chosen One, only for another to rise and claim his place in the start of an unmissable epic from a rising star in fantasy.Ìý

The northlands of Crua are locked in eternal winter, but prophecy tells of the chosen child � who will rule in the name of their God, and take warmth back from the South. Cahal du Nahere was raised to be this person: the Cowl-Rai, the saviour. Taken from his parents and prepared for his destiny.

But his time never came

When he was fifteen he ceased to matter. Another Cowl-Rai had risen, another chosen one, raised in the name of a different God. The years of vicious physical and mental training he had endured, the sacrifice, all for nothing. He became nothing.

Twenty years later, and Cahal lives a life of secrecy on the edges of Crua’s giant forests � hiding what he is, running from what he can do. But when he is forced to reveal his true nature, he sets off a sequence of events that will reveal secrets that will shake the bedrock of his entire world, and expose lies that have persisted for generations.]]>
640 R.J. Barker 0316401587 Rie 0 tbr, to-read 3.99 2023 Gods of the Wyrdwood (Forsaken, #1)
author: R.J. Barker
name: Rie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: tbr, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Advent (The Exlian Syndrome Series, #1)]]> 212090220
All his life, Mark Fields has dreamed of joining the Defense Force to fight the vicious, alien Exlian, just like the rest of his renowned family. But so far, he’s � a dishwasher, trapped in a dead-end job with no powers, no money, and even fewer friends.

But an encounter with a dying woman changes everything—granting him the abilities he needs to join the training camps—and his life finally feels like it’s turning around, faster than a movie martial-arts montage (just ignore the weird cat).

But the Exlian are voracious and myriad, and there’s more to Mark’s new powers than just leveling up. With the pressure mounting, it doesn’t take him long to realize the Exlian aren’t the only sinister threat lurking within the city �

In this first installment of the Exlian Syndrome series, you must fight the monsters � or become one yourself.]]>
384 Seth Ring Rie 4 arc
Rank: B

Worldbuilding: A

Characterization: C-

Grammar: C

Fun: S

This was a fun read. It was an advance reader copy so the polish seemed a bit rough at times. I really liked the world building and the power leveling system and how the main character subverted that system. I’m interested to see what other twists there will be in future installments. I loved the level of crunch to the mechanics of how powers and I am interested to see that develop as well.

The interactions between the main character and other characters seemed a bit two-dimensional at times (especially with the other characters that were women). The characters seemed to be based on archetypes and didn’t really defy those archetypes much. Though the character Noah did surprise me by turning out to be an OK dude instead of the privileged bully that he might have been if he played into the trope.

Overall this book was a really fun experience and I look forward to the next one. I would totally recommend it to other fans of the genre. By the end of it I was totally hooked.]]>
4.10 2025 Advent (The Exlian Syndrome Series, #1)
author: Seth Ring
name: Rie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: arc
review:
Genre Status: Scifi; LitRPG; Progression Fantasy

Rank: B

Worldbuilding: A

Characterization: C-

Grammar: C

Fun: S

This was a fun read. It was an advance reader copy so the polish seemed a bit rough at times. I really liked the world building and the power leveling system and how the main character subverted that system. I’m interested to see what other twists there will be in future installments. I loved the level of crunch to the mechanics of how powers and I am interested to see that develop as well.

The interactions between the main character and other characters seemed a bit two-dimensional at times (especially with the other characters that were women). The characters seemed to be based on archetypes and didn’t really defy those archetypes much. Though the character Noah did surprise me by turning out to be an OK dude instead of the privileged bully that he might have been if he played into the trope.

Overall this book was a really fun experience and I look forward to the next one. I would totally recommend it to other fans of the genre. By the end of it I was totally hooked.
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<![CDATA[Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick]]> 30653955
Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with experts within and outside the medical establishment, and personal stories from regular women to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today. In addition to offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its effects, she suggests concrete steps we can take to cure it.]]>
400 Maya Dusenbery 0062470809 Rie 0 to-read 4.17 2018 Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick
author: Maya Dusenbery
name: Rie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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Lilith 81069444 In the Garden of Eden, at the beginning of time, an outrageous lie is born: that women are inferior.

Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. Until Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him. She refuses - and is banished forever from Paradise.

Demonized and sidelined, Lilith watches in fury as God creates Eve, the woman who accepts her submission. But Lilith has a secret: she has already tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Endowed with Wisdom, she knows why Asherah - God's wife and equal, the Queen of Heaven - is missing. Lilith has a plan: she will rescue Eve, find Asherah, restore balance to the world and regain her rightful place in Paradise.

Lilith's quest for justice drives her throughout history, from the ziggurats of Ancient Sumer to the court of Israel's Queen Jezebel, and to the side of a radical preacher in Roman Judea. In the modern age, as she observes the catastrophic consequences of a world built on inequality, Lilith finally understands what must be done to correct the wrong done to women - and all humankind - at the beginning of time.

Inspired by ancient myths and suppressed scriptures, Lilith is a thought-provoking and ambitious novel with an evocative literary voice and a triumphantly engaging heroine.]]>
336 Nikki Marmery 1639105719 Rie 0 to-read 3.63 2023 Lilith
author: Nikki Marmery
name: Rie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Feathers So Vicious (Court of Ravens, #1)]]> 192705098 Previous cover edition for the Kindle edition with ASIN: B0CC44Z73T (here)

More treacherous than war... are the battles within a heart.

Perched between branches and shadows,
We watch, we scheme,
Fighting for a kingdom forgotten and forlorn.

Until we rip her away with our claws,
Our prisoner, our pawn, our plaything.

She’s innocent and pure,
Fragile and helpless�
…but oh so guilty by blood.

She calls us beasts,
Wicked and evil,
Vicious and cruel.

We are all that and worse.

One of us offers her shelter beneath his wings,
Whispering promises of pleasure,
Seeking redemption.

The other longs to shatter her into a million pieces,
Whispering promises of pain,
Seeking revenge.

Caught between our feathers,
She endures our deranged desires,
Our secrets, our lies,
Our twisted plans.

Will she surrender to our darkness,
or fight for a destiny growing ever elusive?

Welcome to the Court of Ravens, little white dove.

Feathers so Vicious is a full-length dark fantasy romance novel, and book one in the Court of Ravens duet. The two-part story features two morally gray raven shifters, a young woman at the mercy of their shadows, and a HEA. This world contains dark elements, violence, and themes some may find disturbing. Readers can find more detailed information on the author's website. What this book doesn't contain is a hero - because villains do it better. And two do it better than one…]]>
414 Liv Zander Rie 0 to-read 3.95 2023 Feathers So Vicious (Court of Ravens, #1)
author: Liv Zander
name: Rie
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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Stone Blind 61102615 A fresh take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.

They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.

The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.

When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge--on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.

Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon...

In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman--injured by a powerful man--is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa's story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.]]>
373 Natalie Haynes 0063258390 Rie 0 to-read 3.78 2022 Stone Blind
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Rie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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A Thousand Ships 53487148 This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn . . .

This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .

In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.

From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.

A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s great tale ever told.]]>
368 Natalie Haynes 0063065398 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 4.05 2019 A Thousand Ships
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Rie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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Cackle 61058915 The Return.
Ìý
All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She’s stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is dreamy too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.ÌýÌý
Ìý
Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem…a little afraid of her. And like, okay. There are some things. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power…but she couldn’t be…could she?]]>
319 Rachel Harrison 0593202031 Rie 0 to-read 3.71 2021 Cackle
author: Rachel Harrison
name: Rie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[We Have Always Lived in the Castle]]> 89724 Shirley Jackson’s beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.]]>
152 Shirley Jackson 0143039970 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.93 1962 We Have Always Lived in the Castle
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Rie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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The Little Stranger 7234875 512 Sarah Waters Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.59 2009 The Little Stranger
author: Sarah Waters
name: Rie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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Weaveworld 52640
Barker turns from his usual horror to epic-length fantasy for this account of the Fugue, a magical land inhabited by descendants of supernatural beings who once shared the earth with humans. The Fugue has been woven into a carpet for protection against those who would destroy it; the death of its guardian occasions a battle between good and particularly repulsive evil forces for control of the Fugue. Weaveworld is rich with memorable characters, exciting situations, and pockets of Barker's trademark horror.]]>
721 Clive Barker 0007117140 Rie 0 to-read 4.14 1987 Weaveworld
author: Clive Barker
name: Rie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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All Fours 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]>
336 Miranda July 0593190262 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.52 2024 All Fours
author: Miranda July
name: Rie
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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The Familiar 133286777 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]>
387 Leigh Bardugo 125088425X Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.74 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Rie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons 199798488
What happens next is not the fairy tale you may be expecting.]]>
278 Peter S. Beagle 1668025272 Rie 0 to-read, tbr 3.62 2024 I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons
author: Peter S. Beagle
name: Rie
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read, tbr
review:

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<![CDATA[Heretical Fishing (Heretical Fishing, #1)]]> 208099994 A world abandoned by the gods, mystifying cosmic forces, unimaginable power for those willing to ascend, and a hero who would rather . . . go fishing???

When summoned to a fantastical world and granted powers by a broken System, most freshly minted protagonists would strap on their big-boy boots and get ready for their stats to start climbing. But Fischer isn’t like most MCs. In fact, he doesn’t want to be a hero at all.

Fame? Fortune? Power? He had enough of all that in his old life. Discovering forbidden fishing techniques and petting every cute animal that comes within scritching distance? Now ³Ù³ó²¹³Ù’s a good time.

Unfortunately for Fischer, cosmic forces rarely care for mortal feelings. He’s hounded on all sides by inept cults, conspiring nobles, and more magical misunderstandings than those of a preteen relationship. Even his dutiful pet crab is firing energy blades like an anime antagonist.

So grab your fishing rod and a good snack, and pet your dog for me. The catch of a lifetime awaits!

The first volume of the laugh-out-loud LitRPG adventure series—a #1 Rising Star on Royal Road with over three million views—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!]]>
533 Haylock Jobson 1039453112 Rie 0 to-read 4.32 2024 Heretical Fishing (Heretical Fishing, #1)
author: Haylock Jobson
name: Rie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1) 28954189 Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art� of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

An alternate cover edition of ISBN: 9781442472426]]>
435 Neal Shusterman Rie 1 dnf 4.32 2016 Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)
author: Neal Shusterman
name: Rie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2016
rating: 1
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date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: dnf
review:
I made it in 3 chapters before giving up. The rapid change of POV. The weird formatting of all the Scythes words. The deep immaturity and moralizing of poverty vows while in a world that has plenty for everyone. It reads like a puritan wet dream.
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The Eyes Are the Best Part 195703882 Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

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

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

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

A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.]]>
278 Monika Kim 1645661237 Rie 0 to-read 3.81 2024 The Eyes Are the Best Part
author: Monika Kim
name: Rie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
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<![CDATA[Forging Hephaestus (Villains' Code, #1)]]> 33369873 Drew Hayes 1515962962 Rie 0 to-read 4.47 2017 Forging Hephaestus (Villains' Code, #1)
author: Drew Hayes
name: Rie
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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<![CDATA[A River of Golden Bones (Golden Court, #1)]]> 123239368 A sleeping curse. A fallen court. A secret twin.

Twins Calla and Briar have spent their entire lives hiding from the powerful sorceress who destroyed their kingdom…and from the humans who don’t know they are Wolves. Each twin has their own purpose in life: Briar’s is to marry the prince of an ally pack and save the Golden Court. Calla’s purpose is to remain a secret, her twin’s shadow . . . the backup plan.

No one knows who Calla truly is except for her childhood friend—and sister’s betrothed—the distractingly handsome Prince Grae. But when Calla and Briar journey out of hiding for Briar’s wedding, all of their well-made plans go awry. The evil sorceress is back with another sleeping curse for the last heir to the Golden Court.

Calla must step out of the shadows to save their sister, their kingdom, and their own legacy. Continuing to hide as a human and denying who she truly is, Calla embarks on a quest across the realm, discovering a whole world she never knew existed. Outside the confines of rigid Wolf society, Calla begins to wonder: who could she be if she dared to try?

Full of adventure, love, gender exploration, and self-discovery, A River of Golden Bones follows Calla’s journey through treacherous Wolf kingdoms, monster-filled realms, and the depths of their own heart in this thrilling romantic fantasy.]]>
392 A.K. Mulford Rie 0 to-read 3.58 2023 A River of Golden Bones (Golden Court, #1)
author: A.K. Mulford
name: Rie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Sins on Their Bones (The Cursed Crown #1)]]> 123284957
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.

Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.]]>
448 Laura R. Samotin 1039007562 Rie 0 to-read 3.80 2024 The Sins on Their Bones (The Cursed Crown #1)
author: Laura R. Samotin
name: Rie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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The Night Mother Vol. 1 (1) 209439541 Endless night befalls a sleepy seaside town, leaving it to young Madeline Tock to save her community from a threat known only as the Night Mother . . .

The moon is stuck like a broken clock in the midnight sky, the sun a distant memory. No one in this quiet seaside town can remember how long this unnatural darkness has lasted. No one, that is, except for the curious girl who lives in the graveyard, caring for the dead: twelve-year-old Madeline Tock. In gratitude, the departed whisper their worries to her, sounding just like her overprotective but loving father: beware this endless night and she who causes it.

Because there’s someone else who can hear the whispers, too . . . someone whose gown is a map of the cosmos, hair a tangled constellation, eyes like the lights of faraway stars. The Night Mother. Her elemental duty is to gather the souls of the dead in her lantern, then send them to their eternal rest as beautiful moonlight. But when her hunger for power drives her to take souls from the living, Madeline bravely stands up to defend her town and those she loves. Can Madeline help bring back the sun, or will she be lured by the starry promises of this mysterious woman?

Written by Jeremy Lambert (Doom Patrol, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Goosebumps) and richly illustrated by Alexa Sharpe (Lumberjanes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Uncanny Magazine), The Night Mother is a lush gothic tale perfect for readers of all ages who relish in the wonder of the night sky.]]>
88 Jeremy Lambert 1637154941 Rie 0 to-read 3.73 The Night Mother Vol. 1 (1)
author: Jeremy Lambert
name: Rie
average rating: 3.73
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Devour: A Graphic Novel 195660526
In the Deep South, something evil waits in the darkness . . .

Devour tells the story of the Turner family, who move to Alabama to care for their ailing matriarch, Vassie, when she begins suffering from dementia. But Vassie isn’t just any old lady; she’s the last of a line of powerful root women who have been caring for the community since her ancestors were first captured and enslaved by white plantation owners. Patsy, the eldest daughter in the family, is immediately suspicious; the locals� fear and superstition of her grandmother leads Patsy to take a closer look at the Turner family home, and what she finds is beyond her wildest nightmares.

In a magical room beneath the house, Patsy discovers the source of her family’s legendary the Ghanaian spider god Anansi. Driven mad by the suffering of the enslaved Africans who worshipped him, Anansi was eventually captured and contained by Patsy’s ancestors. As Patsy learns about her family’s culture and dark past, she also realizes what’s really happening to Vassie; Anansi is eating Vassie’s memories. With their legacy and the god’s imprisonment in the balance, Patsy and her brother, Demetrius, will have to take up their grandmother’s mantle—while she can still remember who they are.

Devour is a terrifying new fable that delivers thrills and chills in equal measure.]]>
208 Jazmine Joyner 1419763067 Rie 0 to-read 3.52 Devour: A Graphic Novel
author: Jazmine Joyner
name: Rie
average rating: 3.52
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Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story 182506488
Nia Nal’s spent her whole life taking a back seat to her older sister, Maeve, who’s expected to inherit their mother’s Naltorian powers––the ability to see the future through dreams. They’ll soon learn the dreaming powers had other plans�

When Nia’s hit in the face with a kickball, the powers that weren’t meant for her are suddenly triggered.ÌýSaddled with guilt, Nia resolves to suppress her powers in an attempt to protect her relationship with her sister. But Nia can’t keep the dreams out foreverâ€�

From Nicole Maines, the actress, activist, and writer who originated the role of Dreamer on the groundbreaking Supergirl TV show, and with stunning art by Rye Hickman that captures Nia’s fan-favorite personality, comes the origin story of a girl who must accept her own power to fulfill her destiny in a long lineage of female superheroes.ÌýLuckily, Nia won’t have to go through it alone.]]>
205 Nicole Maines 1779510454 Rie 0 to-read 4.19 Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story
author: Nicole Maines
name: Rie
average rating: 4.19
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Woman, Life, Freedom 199469832
Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis , returns to graphic art with this collaboration of over 20 activists, artists, journalists, and academics working together to depict the historic uprising, in solidarity with the Iranian people and in defense of feminism.

On September 13th 2022, a young Iranian student, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the religious police in Tehran. Her only crime was that she wasn’t properly wearing the headscarf required for women by the Islamic Republic. At the police station, she was beaten so badly she had to be taken to the hospital, where she fell into a deep coma. She died three days later.

A wave of protests soon spread through the whole country, and crowds adopted the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedomâ€â€”words that have been chanted around the world during solidarity rallies.

In order to tell the story of this major revolution happening in her homeland, Marjane Satrapi has gathered together an array of journalists, activists, academics, artists, and writers from around the world to create this powerful collection of full-color, graphic-novel-style essays and perspectives that bear



Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrates that this is not an unexpected movement, but a major uprising in a long history of women who have wanted to affirm their rights. It will continue.]]>
272 Marjane Satrapi 1644214059 Rie 0 to-read 4.43 2023 Woman, Life, Freedom
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Rie
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2023
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<![CDATA[How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite]]> 126918411 The co-founders of the global science organization Nerd Nite bring readers a collection of wacky, yet fascinating STEM topics.

For twenty years Nerd Nite has delivered to live audiences around the world the most interesting, fun, and informative presentations about science, history, the arts, pop culture, you name it. There hasn’t been a rabbit hole that their army of presenters hasn’t been afraid to explore. Finally, after countless requests to bring Nerd Nite to more fans across the globe, co-founders and college pals Matt Wasowski and Chris Balakrishnan offer readers the quirky and accessible science content they crave in book form. Focused on STEM and paired with detailed illustrations that make the content pop, the topics are quirky and vast, from kinky, spring-loaded spiders to the Webb telescope’s influence on movie special effects.

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi features narratives, bursts, and infographics on all things STEM from scientists around the world. Chapters are sure to make you laugh-out-loud, with titles such as "The Science of the Hangover," "What Birds Can Teach Us About the Impending Zombie Apocalypse," and "Lessons from the Oregon Trail."]]>
320 Chris Balakrishnan 1250288347 Rie 0 to-read 3.61 2024 How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite
author: Chris Balakrishnan
name: Rie
average rating: 3.61
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<![CDATA[The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science]]> 208580608 The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo’s Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own

“Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name,� writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science—Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre’s untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life.

As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy—from France’s Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway’s Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie’s elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève’s later recollection, “discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world.�

With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time.]]>
318 Dava Sobel 0802163823 Rie 0 to-read 3.93 2024 The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science
author: Dava Sobel
name: Rie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
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Moonbound 195790867 Robin Sloan expands the Penumbraverse to new reaches of time and space in a rollicking far-future adventure.

In Moonbound, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling, and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.

It is thirteen thousand years from now . . . A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history―and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.

Moonbound is an adventure into the richest depths of Story itself. It is a deeply satisfying epic of ancient scale, blasted through the imaginative prism one of our most forward-thinking writers. And this is only the beginning.]]>
432 Robin Sloan 0374610606 Rie 0 to-read 3.97 2024 Moonbound
author: Robin Sloan
name: Rie
average rating: 3.97
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<![CDATA[Native Nations: A Millennium in North America]]> 186872416
In this magisterial history, Kathleen DuVal tells the story of Native nations, from the rise of ancient cities more than a thousand years ago to the present, reframing North American history with Indigenous power and sovereignty at its center. Before and during European colonization, Indigenous North Americans built diverse civilizations and lived in history, adapting to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. As DuVal explains, no civilization came to a halt when a few wandering explorers arrived, even when the strangers came well-armed.

A millennium ago, North American cities rivaled urban centers around the world in size, but following a period of climate change and instability DuVal shows how numerous smaller nations emerged from previously centralized civilizations, moving away from rather than toward urbanization. From this urban past, patterns of egalitarian government structures, diplomacy, and complex economies spread across North America. So, when Europeans arrived in the sixteenth century, they encountered societies they did not understand, having developed differently from their own, and whose power they often underestimated. For centuries after these first encounters, Indigenous people maintained an upper hand and used Europeans in pursuit of their own interests. In Native Nations , we see how Mohawks closely controlled trade with the Dutch--and influenced global markets--and how Quapaws manipulated French colonists. Power dynamics shifted after the American Revolution, but Indigenous people continued to control the majority of the continent. Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa forged new alliances and encouraged a controversial new definition of Native identity to attempt to wall off U.S. ambitions. The Cherokees created new institutions to assert their sovereignty on the global stage, and the Kiowas used their preponderance of power in the west to regulate the passage of white settlers across their territory.

In this important addition to the growing tradition of North American history centered on Indigenous nations, Kathleen DuVal uses these stories to show how the definitions of power and means of exerting it shifted over time, but the sovereignty and influence of Native peoples remained a constant and will continue far into the future.]]>
752 Kathleen DuVal 0525511032 Rie 0 to-read 4.43 2024 Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
author: Kathleen DuVal
name: Rie
average rating: 4.43
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<![CDATA[Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle]]> 20821275 304 Andreas Wagner 1591846463 Rie 0 to-read 3.78 2014 Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle
author: Andreas Wagner
name: Rie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
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<![CDATA[Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things (Sisters of Light and Shadow, #1)]]> 214269343 A young witch cursed with sacrificing memories to cast spells must decide how much she’s willing to lose to save her town in this thrilling tale of magic, love, and self-discovery—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic.

In the small town of Gold Springs, Calliope Petridi and her two sisters carefully guard the secret of their magic and the price they must pay to practice it: memories. The more powerful the magic, the greater the memory required.

Luckily, all Calliope wants to do is forget. Forget the mother who left them without a trace. Forget the cracks in her relationships with her judgmental oldest sister, Thalia, and her distant middle sister, Eurydice. Forget about the very cost of her magic. And most of all, forget the way the love of her life shattered her heart two years ago.

But when an ancient evil awakens in their town, the fragile thread that holds the sisters together breaks. As their magic slowly begins to fade, Calliope accidentally binds herself to an annoyingly handsome leader of a rival coven infamous for their ruthless pursuit of power.

Battling a sizzling chemistry to a man she can't trust, Calliope needs to confront her sisters and the painful memories of her past, dark family secrets, and ancient magic in order to keep the town and all she loves safe. But will she have anything left of herself?]]>
400 Breanne Randall 0593875001 Rie 0 to-read 3.53 2025 Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things (Sisters of Light and Shadow, #1)
author: Breanne Randall
name: Rie
average rating: 3.53
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Our Infinite Fates 210395729 They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

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

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

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.]]>
352 Laura Steven 1250333881 Rie 0 to-read 3.76 2025 Our Infinite Fates
author: Laura Steven
name: Rie
average rating: 3.76
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Something in the Walls 211004350
Then she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day, and he has a proposition for her: Thirteen-year-old Alice Webber claims a witch is haunting her. Living with her family in the remote village of Banathel, Alice finds her symptoms are getting increasingly disturbing. Taking this job will give Mina some experience and much-needed money; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better—Mina is sure of it.

But instead of improving, Alice’s behavior becomes inexplicable and intense. The town of Banathel has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of…dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand.]]>
304 Daisy Pearce 1250334381 Rie 0 to-read 3.36 2025 Something in the Walls
author: Daisy Pearce
name: Rie
average rating: 3.36
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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book�

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

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

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

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]>
482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Rie 0 to-read 4.00 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Rie
average rating: 4.00
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The Summer I Ate the Rich 208840704 Just add lemon, garlic, and a dash of the one percent.

This smart, biting novel explores what happens when a Haitian American girl uses her previously hidden zombie abilities to exact revenge on the wealthy elites who’ve caused her family pain.

Brielle Petitfour loves to cook. But with a chronically sick mother and bills to pay, becoming a chef isn’t exactly a realistic career path.

When Brielle’s mom suddenly loses her job, Brielle steps in and uses her culinary skills to earn some extra money. The rich families who love her cooking praise her use of unique flavors and textures, which keep everyone guessing what’s in Brielle’s dishes. The secret ingredient? Human flesh.

Written by the storytelling duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, The Summer I Ate the Rich is a modern-day fable inspired by Haitian zombie lore that scrutinizes the socioeconomic and racial inequity that is the foundation of our society. Just like Brielle’s clients, it will have you asking: What’s for dinner?]]>
400 Maika Moulite 0374390533 Rie 0 to-read 3.51 2025 The Summer I Ate the Rich
author: Maika Moulite
name: Rie
average rating: 3.51
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<![CDATA[SuperLoop: How Understanding Beliefs, Biology, and Behavior Creates a Business that Works for Every One]]> 219540743 “An inspiring and practical system for operating conscious businesses while being a conscious leader.� � Dr. Deepak Chopra, MD

How Understanding Beliefs, Biology, and Behavior Creates a Business that Works for Every ONE is a transformative road map that revolutionizes how we approach work, leadership, and personal growth. Drawing from over four decades of experience and founding and operating five multimillion-dollar businesses, Susan Leger Ferraro presents a groundbreaking methodology that bridges the gap between self-awareness and organizational success.

At the heart of this book is the SuperLoop concept—a self-reinforcing cycle of beliefs, biology, and behavior that shapes our reality as well as our brain. Susan demonstrates how understanding and mastering this cycle can lead to profound changes in both individual performance and organizational success.

Readers will discover powerful tools and practices,

A revolutionary approach to feedback that promotes growth and collaborationClearing Techniques for addressing conflicts and misalignments with clarity and empathyThe Pathmaker A new paradigm for employee development and supportThrough compelling case studies led by Susan and her team and operational practices, Susan illustrates how these methods have transformed companies across various industries, from tech giants to healthcare providers.

SuperLoop challenges traditional notions of workplace dynamics, advocating for a human-centric approach that values the whole person. It offers strategies for creating psychologically safe environments, fostering authentic communication, and building cultures of accountability, both self accountability and peer to peer accountability as well as creative innovations.

This book is not just for CEOs and HR professionals; it's for all of us looking to maximize potential and create meaningful change in and out of the workplace. Susan’s insights on perception, responsibility, and cultural transformation provide a roadmap for navigating the complexities of modern work environments.

Whether you're leading a team, starting a business, or seeking personal growth, SuperLoop offers the tools to turn consciousness into action, unlocking unprecedented levels of human potential and organizational performance.]]>
274 Susan Leger Ferraro 1642258202 Rie 0 to-read 4.44 SuperLoop: How Understanding Beliefs, Biology, and Behavior Creates a Business that Works for Every One
author: Susan Leger Ferraro
name: Rie
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What Wakes the Bells 208840779 Inspired by an ominous Prague legend, What Wakes the Bells is a lavish gothic fantasy by debut author Elle Tesch.

Built by long-gone Saints, the city of Vaiwyn lives and breathes and bleeds. As a Keeper, Mina knows better than most what her care of Vaiwyn’s bells means for the sentient city. It’s the Strauss family’s thousand-year legacy―prevent the Vespers from ringing, or they will awake a slumbering evil.

One afternoon, to Mina's horror, her bell peals thirteen times, shattering the city’s tenuous peace. With so much of the city's history and lore lost in a long-ago disaster, no one knows the danger that has been unleashed―until the city begins to fight back. As the sun sets, stone gargoyles and bronze statues tear away from their buildings and plinths to hunt people through the streets. Trapped in Mina’s bell, the soul of a twisted and power-hungry Saint festered. Now free of his prison, he hides behind the face of one of Vaiwyn’s citizens, corrupting the city and turning it on itself.

Time is running out, and the only chance Mina has to stop the destruction and horrific killings is finding and destroying the Saint’s host. Everyone is a suspect, including Mina's closest loved ones. She will have to decide how far she’ll go to save her city―and who she’s willing to kill to do it.]]>
336 Elle Tesch 1250322804 Rie 0 to-read 3.51 2025 What Wakes the Bells
author: Elle Tesch
name: Rie
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2025
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<![CDATA[The Others (The Council Trilogy, #1)]]> 211350383 True Blood meets Supernatural in the kickoff of this urban paranormal fantasy series from an acclaimed author. Readers enter a dystopian San Francisco filled with empaths and vampires embroiled in political unrest—and Book 1 is just the beginning.

Much as she wishes otherwise, superstar political consultant Olivia Shepherd was born a powerful empath. It’s a legacy she walked away from long ago—but when she wakes up one morning to find Elsa, a tenacious time-walker, standing in her kitchen, she realizes she can no longer ignore her gifts. She is quickly plunged into the hidden world of powerful “Others� and drafted to work for the Council, a shadowy organization that summons the fog to San Francisco to obscure their involvement in human affairs.

Complicating matters further is Olivia’s new love interest, William. A centuries-old vampire, William is far too jaded to take an interest in human affairs—but Olivia no longer has the luxury of remaining impartial. As shocking details from Olivia’s own past emerge and her role in the Council begins to take shape, will she rise to the challenge of her destiny?

"Davis brings all the quirkiness of San Francisco to life like never before, seamlessly weaving together the modern and mystical. ... The Others is a delicious adventure, unconventional romance, and compelling parable for our politically wrought time." � Mike Trigg, author of Bat Flip and Burner

"The Others is a captivating read that left me eagerly anticipating the next installment, and I’d certainly recommend it to fantasy fans seeking a new accomplished author to discover." � Readers� Favorite, ★★★★�
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352 Evette Davis 1684632706 Rie 0 to-read 3.60 The Others (The Council Trilogy, #1)
author: Evette Davis
name: Rie
average rating: 3.60
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Babylonia 210204151
When kings fall, queens rise.

Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy or the power she would come to wield. A female ruler, once an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire - certainly no one in Ancient Assyria would bend to her command willingly. Semiramis was a woman who knew if she wanted power, she would have to claim it.

There are whispers of her fame in Mesopotamian myth- Semiramis was a queen, an ambitious warrior, a commander whose reputation reaches the majestic proportions of Alexander the Great. Historical record, on the other hand, falls eerily quiet.

In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her. The world Casati expertly builds is rich with dazzling detail and will transport her readers to the heat of the Assyrian Empire and a world long gone.]]>
448 Costanza Casati 1464228213 Rie 0 to-read 4.07 2024 Babylonia
author: Costanza Casati
name: Rie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Arcana Academy (Arcana Academy, #1)]]> 219551319 A woman who wields magical tarot cards lands herself in a false engagement with the headmaster of a mysterious academy in this first installment of an enthralling romantasy series from the bestselling author of A Deal with the Elf King.

Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job gone awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards-a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy.

Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy's enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape-for a price. Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time.

In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be.

Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems. But can she risk giving him power over the world-and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?]]>
576 Elise Kova 0593726340 Rie 0 to-read 4.35 2025 Arcana Academy (Arcana Academy, #1)
author: Elise Kova
name: Rie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Lost in the Future: The Storm (Lost in the Future, #1)]]> 207297067 A group of classmates must learn to work together to survive being LOST IN THE FUTURE!

A school field trip to an ancient castle goes terribly wrong for a group of friends, when a dangerous storm erupts. As they are about to leave the castle, four friends are cornered by their arch nemesis� the class bully, who tries to pull one of his usual pranks. Instead, they all get the scare of their lives, when they fall down a tunnel that transports them into the future: a future where mankind has nearly disappeared from the face of the earth, and where nature has taken control. The friends will have to face up to this hostile new world� as well as their nemesis, who must come to terms with his own trauma� if they are to work together and have any chance of making it back home...]]>
128 Damian 1545812209 Rie 0 to-read 3.23 Lost in the Future: The Storm (Lost in the Future, #1)
author: Damian
name: Rie
average rating: 3.23
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<![CDATA[Sex Lives of Superheroes: Wolverine's Immortal Sperm, Superman's Porn Career, the Thing's Thing, and Other Super-Sexual Matters Explained]]> 208896764 Is sex with The Hulk technically a threesome? Does The Flash do everything faster? Has Wonder Woman really never faked an orgasm?

Explore these questions and more with this collection of speculative, comedic essays on how superpowers might affect the sex lives of famous superheroes. Based on genuine scientific research and both Marvel and DC comic book and movie canon (and more!), Sex Lives of Superheroes is a refreshingly frank and fun deep dive into the pros, cons, and plot twists of superpowered sex.

Drawing from biology, physics, psychology, and more to play out (wild, fictional) scenarios about superheroes' sex lives, this in-depth analysis will definitively answer your burning questions:

How does sex ed from the 1930s and 1940s stack up to today’s (and what does that mean for Captain America’s love life)?

Can Spider-Man do whatever a spider can . . . in bed?

Do factors like radiation, psychological stress, and tight spandex affect Batman’s sperm count?

Does Green Lantern prove that sex is better in space?

Would Wolverine’s healing factor make his sperm immortal?

What would sex be like with Daredevil’s enhanced senses?

Why did Dr. Strange's girlfriend cheat on him with Benjamin Franklin?

Wait, Superman made a porno?!

With interludes detailing some of the strangest sexcapades in superhero history, and the closest sexual equivalents we have in the real world, Sex Lives of Superheroes is a testament that sometimes life is even stranger than fiction (though not by much—comics are weird!). Stimulating in more ways than one, this provocative supplement to your favorite heroes� lore is a hilarious and thought-provoking glimpse under the covers revealing everything you ever wanted to know about the Sex Lives of Superheroes.

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256 Diana McCallum 1637745494 Rie 0 to-read 3.96 Sex Lives of Superheroes: Wolverine's Immortal Sperm, Superman's Porn Career, the Thing's Thing, and Other Super-Sexual Matters Explained
author: Diana McCallum
name: Rie
average rating: 3.96
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<![CDATA[Visions of Darkness (Darkness, #1)]]> 213004869 Destined to be together, forbidden to love, two lost souls fight evil in an everyday world that belongs to the night. A dark romantasy by a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.

Aria Rialta is a girl of two realities. One she was born to. The other she was chosen for. Both are a threat.

Every night when Aria falls asleep, she enters the nightmare world of Faydor to fight a war. It’s her calling to help destroy the Kruen, who feed sin and chaos to our everyday world of vulnerable humans. It would be a lonely realm in which to do battle if not for Pax, Aria’s dangerously irresistible soulmate whose mere touch can kill. It’s also a realm ³Ù³ó²¹³Ù’s getting harder to escape.

Aria’s hallucinations are seeping into her waking world. And the Kruen are coming for her. To help Aria, Pax must do what no one in Faydor has dared to do before—join his soulmate in the light of day. Giving in to their forbidden attraction could be the death of them, but they might not be able to stop themselves as they embark on a cross-country journey to fight the evils hunting them.

As their desire grows, so do Aria’s untapped powers, and a menacing new force far darker than the Kruen.
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378 A.L. Jackson 1662524935 Rie 0 to-read 3.77 Visions of Darkness (Darkness, #1)
author: A.L. Jackson
name: Rie
average rating: 3.77
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<![CDATA[Healing in Advance: Your Prehabilitation Handbook]]> 221853632 Take charge of your health and change your outlook.

Life is stressful. With busy schedules and daily burdens, it’s easy to find relief in unhealthy comforts. If you live with a major medical condition, achieving optimal health is an even greater challenge.

But it’s your health. Be proactive and take back control with prehabilitation.

In Healing in Advance, Dr. Alexander Watson discusses how prehabilitation helps improve baseline health, detailing its tangible benefits in surgical outcomes, preoperative health, and quality of life. This straightforward explanation breaks down prehab’s core components using friendly, conversational language. From spine surgery to cancer treatments, each chapter details terms you should know, the likely course of your treatment, and low-risk interventions to discuss with your medical team. We each have unique medical journeys.]]>
276 Alexander Watson 154454667X Rie 0 to-read 4.33 Healing in Advance: Your Prehabilitation Handbook
author: Alexander Watson
name: Rie
average rating: 4.33
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<![CDATA[Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School, #1)]]> 211708751 An exciting new twisted fairy tale from the award-winning author of the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series.

Gilly wouldn't call herself wicked, exactly...but when you have five little brothers and sisters and live in a run-down boot, you have to get creative to make ends meet. Gilly's a pretty good thief (if she does say so herself).

Until she gets caught.

Gilly's sentenced to three months at Fairy Tale Reform School where all of the teachers are former (super-scary) villains like the Big Bad Wolf, the Evil Queen, and Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother. Harsh. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its heroic mission. There's a battle brewing and Gilly has to wonder just how good these bad guys really are?]]>
256 Jen Calonita 1464235236 Rie 0 to-read 4.00 2015 Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School, #1)
author: Jen Calonita
name: Rie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/17
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<![CDATA[A Rebel Without Claws (Southern Charm #1)]]> 209174942 Ronan Reed leaves Texas to live with his Uncle Shane, alpha of the Blood Moon pack. Since werewolf cage fighting isn’t illegal in Louisiana, Ronan makes big plans to lead his own team in the ring. But when he sets eyes on sweet Celine Cruz, his whole world stops and she becomes a tantalizing distraction he doesn’t need.

As an Aura witch, Celine always wants to help heal the broken. She knows all too well what it’s like to battle anxiety, and so she’s dedicated her life to helping those in need. But the second she meets Ronan, she knows she’s in trouble. He’s everything her close knit family would a werewolf with a hot temper and a sinful grin to match, who runs with a dangerous crowd. So why can’t she stay away?

Ronan thinks she’s a good girl. Little does he know, all Celine wants is to do wicked things with the bad boy werewolf, who revels in breaking all her rules. But as their forbidden romance becomes too tempting to resist, Ronan notices that the wolves are circling…and they’re coming after his mate.
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Juliette Cross Rie 0 arc, to-read 4.10 A Rebel Without Claws (Southern Charm #1)
author: Juliette Cross
name: Rie
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Upon a Starlit Tide 211004131 A dark and enchanting fairy tale-inspired historical fantasy combining elements of "The Little Mermaid" and "Cinderella" into a wholly original tale of love, power, and betrayal.

Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758.
For Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of one of Saint-Malo's wealthiest ship-owners, the high walls of the city are more hindrance than haven. While her sisters are interested in securing advantageous marriages, Luce dreams of escaping her elegant but stifling home and joining a ship's crew. Only Samuel—Luce's best friend and an English smuggler—understands her longing for the sea, secretly teaching her to sail whenever she can sneak away. For Luce, the stolen time on the water with Samuel is precious.

One stormy morning, Luce's plans are blown off course when she rescues Morgan de Chatelaine, the youngest son of the most powerful ship-owner in Saint-Malo, from the sea. Immediately drawn to his charm and sense of adventure, she longs to attend the glittering ball held in honor of his safe return and begins to contemplate a different kind of future for herself.

But it is not only Luce's hopes at stake—the local fae are leaving Brittany and taking their magic with them, while the long-standing war with the English means Saint-Malo is always at risk of attack. As Luce is plunged into a world of magic, brutality, and seduction, secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface. The truth of her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.

Or the scales of a sea-maid's tail.]]>
432 Kell Woods 125085251X Rie 0 to-read 4.29 2025 Upon a Starlit Tide
author: Kell Woods
name: Rie
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2025
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<![CDATA[Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)]]> 127616032 Discover the serial killer romance series everyone is talking about!From the no.1 New York Times bestselling author of the genre-breaking international TikTok sensation Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark comes the final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy - a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It's a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she's not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

. . . And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

***


Friends with benefits
Small town romance
Fish out of water
Forced proximity
Hurt/care
Touch her and die]]>
416 Brynne Weaver Rie 0 to-read 4.09 2025 Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Rie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
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<![CDATA[Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)]]> 60217777 The stakes are even higher in this epic, romantic conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Crimson Moth duology.

A WITCH...
Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish.

A WITCH HUNTER...
Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by allying herself with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmares of the past. In order to protect this new world he fought for, every last witch must die—especially Rune Winters.

AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE...
When Rune makes Gideon an offer he can’t refuse, the two must pair up to accomplish dangerous goals. The more they’re forced into each other’s company, the more Gideon realizes the feelings he had for Rune aren’t as dead and buried as he thought. Now he’s faced with a terrible choice: sacrifice the girl he loves to stop a monster taking back power, or let Rune live and watch the world he fought so hard for burn.

In Kristen Ciccarelli's Rebel Witch, the exciting conclusion to The Crimson Moth duology, love has never been so deadly.]]>
464 Kristen Ciccarelli Rie 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Rie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
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<![CDATA[Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, #3)]]> 208841368 Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm-as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival-now fiancé-the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell's long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world-how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in-Wendell's murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell's magic-and Emily's knowledge of stories-to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.
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368 Heather Fawcett 0356519198 Rie 0 to-read 4.14 2025 Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, #3)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Rie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/17
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