Ares's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 05 Apr 2025 13:26:45 -0700 60 Ares's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Great Big Beautiful Life 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]>
384 Emily Henry 059344129X Ares 3 4.24 2025 Great Big Beautiful Life
author: Emily Henry
name: Ares
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
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Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 15 58438411
Sukuna is on a murderous rampage. Meanwhile, invaluabe Jujutsu Sorcerers have been taken down, and even Kugisaki falls into Mahito’s trap! Feeling the burden of his sins, Itadori finds it hard to keep going, but he rushes off to help Kugisaki anyway. Can he reach her in time?!]]>
192 Gege Akutami 1974727106 Ares 0 4.51 2021 Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 15
author: Gege Akutami
name: Ares
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 14 57652485
Sukuna, unleashed, is wrecking Shibuya, and Fushiguro has suffered a serious injury from a curse user’s surprise attack. Fushiguro comes up with a desperate plan to deal with both the rampaging Sukuna and the curse user, but the cost will be grave…]]>
192 Gege Akutami 1974725324 Ares 0 4.63 2021 Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 14
author: Gege Akutami
name: Ares
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 18 60321376
In order to thwart the culling game, Itadori needs the help of Kinji Hakari, a third-year who is currently suspended from Jujutsu High, so he decides to participate in an underground fight club where Hakari works as a bookie. Meanwhile, Fushiguro infiltrates the fight club and heads for Hakari’s base of operations, but another Jujutsu High third-year is using their cursed technique to block his way!]]>
192 Gege Akutami 1974734390 Ares 0 4.22 2021 Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 18
author: Gege Akutami
name: Ares
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/26
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<![CDATA[Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5)]]> 53317443 The New York Times and USA Today bestselling Murderbot series exploded onto the scene in 2017, and the world has not been the same, since.

Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.

�


I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.

When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.]]>
352 Martha Wells 1250229855 Ares 3 4.46 2020 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ares
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
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<![CDATA[Blood of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles, #4)]]> 24427052
Dragons will fly over Kelsingra once more

Attacked by hunters, Tintaglia is dying of her wounds. If she perishes, her ancestral memories will die with her and the dragons in the ancient city of Kelsingra will lose the secret knowledge they need to survive.

The dragon keepers immerse themselves in the dangerously addictive memory-stone records of the city in the hope of recovering the lost Elderling magic that once allowed humans and dragons to co-exist.

But war is coming: war between dragons and those who would destroy them.]]>
535 Robin Hobb 0008154465 Ares 4 4.07 2013 Blood of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles, #4)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2025/02/27
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<![CDATA[City of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #3)]]> 26841446
The dragon keepers and fledgling dragons have discovered a route to the lost city of Kelsingra but there is one problem: they need to be able to fly to cross the treacherous waters and enter the fabled city. At first, only a few dragons are willing to try � the others are either too ashamed of their deformed wings and feeble muscles or too proud to risk failure and humiliation.

But the rewards waiting at Kelsingra for those brave enough to take to the air are worth more than they could possibly imagine. This was a city built for dragons and their keepers. Alise Finbok is overwhelmed by the treasures she finds there, and spends hours carefully uncovering wonder after wonder, recording her findings for posterity. She knows the knowledge will change everything the world thought about dragons and the Elderlings.

Yet rumours of the city’s discovery have floated down the Rain Wild River and reached envious ears in Bingtown and beyond. Adventurers, pirates and fortune hunters are coming in droves to pillage what they can from the city. Will the dragons, only just finding their strength, and their keepers, who are changing in their own mysterious ways, be able to fend them off?

And what has happened to Tintaglia, the dragon-mother who started it all? Has she really abandoned her offspring forever? Or will she too return to seek the riches of Kelsingra…]]>
425 Robin Hobb 0008154414 Ares 4 3.97 2011 City of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #3)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/12
date added: 2025/02/27
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Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1 44451887
In a world where demons feed on unsuspecting humans, fragments of the legendary and feared demon Ryoma Sukuna were lost and scattered about. Should any demon consume Sukuna’s body parts, the power they gain could destroy the world as we know it. Fortunately, there exists a mysterious school of Jujutsu Sorcerers who exist to protect the precarious existence of the living from the undead!

Yuji Itadori is high schooler who spends his days visiting his bedridden grandfather. Although he looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object, but little do they know the terror they’ll unleash when they break the seal...Ěý]]>
192 Gege Akutami 1974710025 Ares 0 4.31 2018 Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1
author: Gege Akutami
name: Ares
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/27
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<![CDATA[Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles #1)]]> 26841427
One of the most gifted fantasy authors writing today, New York Times bestselling author Robin Hobb has dazzled readers with brilliantly imaginative, emotionally resonant, and compulsively readable tales set in far-flung realms not unlike our own. In this enthralling new novel, she returns to the territory of her beloved Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies with a story of dragons and humans, return and rebirth, and the search for meaning, belonging, and home.

For years, the Trader cities valiantly battled their enemies, the Chalcedeans. But they could not have staved off invasion without the powerful dragon Tintaglia. In return, the Traders promised to help her serpents migrate up the Rain Wild River after a long exile at sea--to find a safe haven and, Tintaglia hopes, to restore her species. But too much time has passed, and the newly hatched dragons are damaged and weak, and many die. The few who survive cannot use their wings; earthbound, they are powerless to hunt and vulnerable to human predators willing to kill them for the fabled healing powers of dragon flesh.

But Tintaglia has vanished and the Traders are weary of the labor and expense of tending useless dragons. The Trader leadership fears that if it stops providing for the young dragons, the hungry and neglected creatures will rampage--or die along the river's acidic muddy banks. To avert catastrophe, the dragons decree a move even farther up the treacherous river to Kelsingra, their ancient, mythical homeland whose mysterious location is locked deep within the dragons' uncertain ancestral memories.

To ensure their safe passage, the Traders recruit a disparate group of young people to care for the damaged creatures and escort them to their new home. Among them is Thymara, an unschooled forest girl of sixteen, and Alise, a wealthy Trader's wife trapped in a loveless marriage, who attaches herself to the expedition as a dragon expert. The two women share a deep kinship with the Thymara can instinctively communicate with them, and Alise, captivated by their beauty and majesty, has devoted her life to studying them.

Embarking on an arduous journey that holds no promise of return, the band of humans and dragons must make their way along the toxic and inhospitable Rain Wild River--an extraordinary odyssey that will teach them lessons about themselves and one another, as they experience hardships, betrayals, and joys beyond their wildest dreams.]]>
560 Robin Hobb 0008154392 Ares 3 3.89 2009 Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles #1)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2025/02/27
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<![CDATA[Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)]]> 39325105 Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor's haunted space station.

She answered the Emperor's call.

She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.

In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath � but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?]]>
512 Tamsyn Muir 1250313228 Ares 5 4.30 2020 Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Ares
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
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Deep End 212806981 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

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

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

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...]]>
447 Ali Hazelwood 0593550447 Ares 4 4.11 2025 Deep End
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Ares
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/09
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Chain Gang All Stars 202468406
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

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

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.]]>
411 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 0593469313 Ares 5 4.20 2023 Chain Gang All Stars
author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
name: Ares
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
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Vicious (Villains, #1) 40874032 A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.]]>
402 Victoria E. Schwab Ares 4 4.17 2013 Vicious (Villains, #1)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Ares
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
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Blood Over Bright Haven 192316191 MAGIC HAS MADE THE CITY OF TIRAN AN INDUSTRIAL UTOPIA, BUT MAGIC HAS A COST AND THE COLLECTORS HAVE COME CALLING.

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

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

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

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past.


(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]>
517 M.L. Wang Ares 3 4.55 2023 Blood Over Bright Haven
author: M.L. Wang
name: Ares
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2025/01/10
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Nightcrawling 84182088
Kiara Johnson and her brother Marcus are barely scraping by in a squalid East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Royal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the 9-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed.

One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. And her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland police department.

Full of edge, raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.]]>
288 Leila Mottley 0593312600 Ares 4 3.94 2022 Nightcrawling
author: Leila Mottley
name: Ares
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
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<![CDATA[Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)]]> 67302335
Once, she was the Justice of Toren—a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.]]>
448 Ann Leckie 0316565172 Ares 4 4.07 2013 Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)
author: Ann Leckie
name: Ares
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2025/01/01
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<![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]>
304 John Green 0525555218 Ares 0 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Ares
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
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<![CDATA[Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)]]> 37534905
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah � its former owner (protector? friend?) � submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who's going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it's caught?

]]>
172 Martha Wells 1250191858 Ares 4 4.36 2018 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ares
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
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<![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

]]>
158 Martha Wells 1250191785 Ares 3 4.21 2018 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ares
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
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<![CDATA[Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)]]> 42036538
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.]]>
448 Tamsyn Muir 1250313198 Ares 4 4.19 2019 Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Ares
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/09
date added: 2024/10/09
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<![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past � one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]>
158 Martha Wells Ares 3 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ares
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/19
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<![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety ľ±˛ő˛Ô’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied â€droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.â€� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]>
144 Martha Wells Ares 5 4.11 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ares
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
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<![CDATA[Assassin's Fate (The Fitz and the Fool, #3)]]> 29356969
Prince FitzChivalry Farseer’s daughter Bee was violently abducted from Withywoods by Servants of the Four in their search for the Unexpected Son, foretold to wield great power. With Fitz in pursuit, the Servants fled through a Skill-pillar, leaving no trace. It seems certain that they and their young hostage have perished in the Skill-river.

Clerres, where White Prophets were trained by the Servants to set the world on a better path, has been corrupted by greed. Fitz is determined to reach the city and take vengeance on the Four, not only for the loss of Bee but also for their torture of the Fool. Accompanied by FitzVigilant, son of the assassin Chade, Chade’s protégé Spark and the stableboy Perseverance, Bee's only friend, their journey will take them from the Elderling city of Kelsingra, down the perilous Rain Wild River, and on to the Pirate Isles.

Their mission for revenge will become a voyage of discovery, as well as of reunions, transformations and heartrending shocks. Startling answers to old mysteries are revealed. What became of the liveships Paragon and Vivacia and their crews? What is the origin of the Others and their eerie beach? How are liveships and dragons connected?

But Fitz and his followers are not the only ones with a deadly grudge against the Four. An ancient wrong will bring them unlikely and dangerous allies in their quest. And if the corrupt society of Clerres is to be brought down, Fitz and the Fool will have to make a series of profound and fateful sacrifices.

ASSASSIN’S FATE is a magnificent tour de force and with it Robin Hobb demonstrates yet again that she is the reigning queen of epic fantasy.]]>
853 Robin Hobb 0007444273 Ares 5 4.74 2017 Assassin's Fate (The Fitz and the Fool, #3)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/09
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Nettle & Bone 60784455 From Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes an original and subversive fantasy adventure.

This isn't the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince.
It's the one where she kills him.


Marra never wanted to be a hero.

As the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses, to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. But her sister wasn’t so fortunate—and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince.

Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks:
—build a dog of bones
—sew a cloak of nettles
—capture moonlight in a jar

But, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning.

Hero or not—now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar—Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne.

�Nettle & Bone is the kind of book that immediately feels like an old friend. Fairytale mythic resonance meets homey pragmatism in this utterly delightful story. It's creepy, funny, heartfelt, and full of fantastic characters I absolutely loved!� —Melissa Caruso, author of The Tethered Mage]]>
272 T. Kingfisher 1250244005 Ares 3 4.11 2022 Nettle & Bone
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Ares
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
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<![CDATA[Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)]]> 195820807
Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?]]>
432 Abby Jimenez 1538704439 Ares 3 4.35 2024 Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Ares
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
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<![CDATA[Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)]]> 61918816 A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match.

Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin�-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass� scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.

And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob ľ±˛ő˛Ô’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,â€� and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t refuse.]]>
416 Abby Jimenez 1538704390 Ares 5 4.29 2023 Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Ares
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
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Not in Love (Not in Love, #1) 198716261 A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science.

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

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

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.]]>
384 Ali Hazelwood 1408728915 Ares 1
DNF at 35%]]>
3.59 2024 Not in Love (Not in Love, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Ares
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/16
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If you’re thinking about considering picking this book up, don’t.

DNF at 35%
]]>
<![CDATA[Fool's Quest (Fitz and the Fool, #2)]]> 28506285 Acclaimed and bestselling author Robin Hobb continues her Fitz and the Fool trilogy with this second entry, following Fool’s Assassin, ramping up the tension and the intrigue as disaster continues to strike at Fitz’s life and heart.

After nearly killing his oldest friend, the Fool, and finding his daughter stolen away by those who were once targeting the Fool, FitzChivarly Farseer is out for blood. And who better to wreak havoc than a highly trained and deadly former royal assassin? Fitz might have let his skills go fallow over his years of peace, but such things, once learned, are not so easily forgotten. And nothing is more dangerous than a man who has nothing left to lose…]]>
757 Robin Hobb 0007444249 Ares 5 4.64 2015 Fool's Quest (Fitz and the Fool, #2)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/09
date added: 2024/07/09
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Mort (Discworld, #4) 13536273 Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job.

Henceforth, Death is no longer going to be the end, merely the means to an end. It’s an offer Mort can't refuse. As Death's apprentice he'll have free board, use of the company horse - and being dead isn't compulsory. It's a dream job - until he discovers that it can be a killer on his love life...]]>
317 Terry Pratchett 0552166626 Ares 4 4.13 1987 Mort (Discworld, #4)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Ares
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/05/20
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<![CDATA[The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, #5)]]> 58008003
As Chih and the bride-to-be explore empty rooms and desolate courtyards, they are drawn into the mystery of what became of Lord Guo's previous wives and the dark history of Do Cao itself. But as the wedding night draws to its close, Chih will learn at their peril that not all monsters are to be found in the shadows; some monsters hide in plain sight.

The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, and the Ignyte Award, and has won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award.

The novellas are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.]]>
116 Nghi Vo 1250838037 Ares 4 4.16 2024 The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, #5)
author: Nghi Vo
name: Ares
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/17
date added: 2024/05/17
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<![CDATA[Court of Wanderers (Reaper, #2)]]> 144906001
Remy Pendergast, the vampire hunter, and his unexpected companions, Lord Zidan Malekh and Lady Xiaodan Song, are on the road through the kingdom of Aluria again after a hard-won first battle against the formidable Night Empress, who threatens to undo a fragile peace between humans and vampires. Xiaodan, severely injured, has lost her powers to vanquish the enemy’s new super breed of vampire, but if the trio can make it to Fata Morgana, the seat of Malehk’s court—dubbed “the Court of Wanderers”—there is hope of nursing her and bringing them back.

En-route to the Third Court, Remy crosses paths with his father, the arrogant, oftentimes cruel Lord of Valenbonne. He also begins to suffer strange dreams of the Night Empress, whom he has long suspected to be Ligaya Pendergast, his own mother. As his family history unfolds during these episodes, which are too realistic to be coincidence, he realizes that she is no ordinary vampire—and that he may end up having to choose between the respective legacies of his parents.

Posing as Malek and Xiaodan’s human familiar, Remy contends with Aluria’s intimidating vampire courts and a series of gruesome murders with their help—and more, as the three navigate their relationship. But those feelings and even their extraordinary collective strength will be put to the test as each of them unleashes new powers in combat at what may be proven to be the ultimate cost.]]>
448 Rin Chupeco 1982195746 Ares 0 3.69 2024 Court of Wanderers (Reaper, #2)
author: Rin Chupeco
name: Ares
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/09
date added: 2024/05/09
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<![CDATA[Fool's Assassin (The Fitz and the Fool, #1)]]> 30139395
But behind the facade of respectable middle-age lies a turbulent and violent past. For Tom Badgerlock is actually FitzChivalry Farseer, bastard scion of the Farseer line, convicted user of Beast-magic, and assassin. A man who has risked much for his king and lost more�

On a shelf in his den sits a triptych carved in memory stone of a man, a wolf and a fool. Once, these three were inseparable friends: Fitz, Nighteyes and the Fool. But one is long dead, and one long-missing.

Then one Winterfest night a messenger arrives to seek out Fitz, but mysteriously disappears, leaving nothing but a blood-trail. What was the message? Who was the sender? And what has happened to the messenger?

Suddenly Fitz's violent old life erupts into the peace of his new world, and nothing and no one is safe.]]>
630 Robin Hobb 0008140278 Ares 5 4.49 2014 Fool's Assassin (The Fitz and the Fool, #1)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/04/30
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I Want to Eat Your Pancreas 39940127 Also known as Let Me Eat Your Pancreas, the coming-of-age tearjerker that inspired two films!

A high school boy finds the diary of his classmate—only to discover that she’s dying. Yamauchi Sakura has been silently suffering from a pancreatic disease, and now exactly one person outside her family knows. He swears to her that he won’t tell anyone what he learned, and the shared secret brings them closer together in this deeply moving, first-person story that traces their developing relationship in Sakura’s final months of life.]]>
286 Yoru Sumino 1642750336 Ares 0 4.35 2015 I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
author: Yoru Sumino
name: Ares
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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Funny Story 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

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

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

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

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]>
400 Emily Henry Ares 5 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Ares
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/17
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<![CDATA[A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe, #1)]]> 52504334 Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city -or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…]]>
438 P. Djèlí Clark 1250267676 Ares 2 4.01 2021 A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe, #1)
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Ares
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/03/15
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<![CDATA[Dragon Haven (Rain Wild Chronicles #2)]]> 26841439
The dragon keepers and the fledgling dragons are forging a passage up the treacherous Rain Wild River. They are in search of the mythical Elderling city of Kelsingra, and are accompanied by the liveship Tarman, its captain, Leftrin, and a group of hunters who must search the forests for game with which to keep the dragons fed. With them are Alise, who has escaped her cold marriage to the cruel libertine Hest Finbok in order to continue her study of dragons, and Hest's amanuensis, Bingtown dandy, Sedric.

Rivalries and romances are already threatening to disrupt the band of explorers: but external forces may prove to be even more dangerous. Chalcedean merchants are keen to lay hands on dragon blood and organs to turn them to medicines and profit. Their traitor has infiltrated the expeditionand will stop at nothing to obtain the coveted body parts. And then there are the Rain Wilds themselves: mysterious, unstable and ever perilous, its mighty river running with acid, its jungle impenetrable and its waterways uncharted.

Will the expedition reach their destination unscathed? Does the city of Kelsingra even exist? Only one thing is certain: the journey will leave none of the dragons nor their human companions unchanged by the experience.]]>
570 Robin Hobb 0008154406 Ares 3 4.02 2010 Dragon Haven (Rain Wild Chronicles #2)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/03
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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde 173404023
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde ľ±˛ő˛Ô’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.]]>
352 Tia Williams 153872670X Ares 5 3.98 2024 A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
author: Tia Williams
name: Ares
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/22
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<![CDATA[At First Spite (Harlot's Bay, #1)]]> 65962558 Bestselling author Olivia Dade welcomes you to Harlot's Bay in this delightfully sexy rom-com about a woman who buys the town's famous Spite House, only to realize the infuriating man she can't stand lives right next door--and their unwilling proximity might spark something neither can ignore.

When Athena Greydon's fiancé ends their engagement, she has no choice but to move into the Spite House she recklessly bought him as a wedding gift. This is a problem, for several reasons: The house, originally built as a brick middle finger to the neighbors, is only ten feet wide. Her ex's home is attached to hers. And Dr. Matthew Vine the Freaking Third (aka the uptight, judgmental jerk who convinced his younger brother to leave her) is living on the other side, only a four-foot alley away.

If she has to see Matthew every time she looks out her windows, she might as well have some fun with the situation--by, say, playing erotic audiobooks at top volume with the windows open. A woman living in a Spite House is basically obligated to get petty payback however she can, right?

Unfortunately, loathing Matthew proves more difficult than anticipated. He helps her move. He listens. And he's kind of...hot? Dammit.]]>
386 Olivia Dade 0063215918 Ares 5 3.72 2024 At First Spite (Harlot's Bay, #1)
author: Olivia Dade
name: Ares
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/18
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On Rotation: A Novel 62668984 352 Shirlene Obuobi 0063209152 Ares 5 3.62 2022 On Rotation: A Novel
author: Shirlene Obuobi
name: Ares
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/02/12
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<![CDATA[Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement]]> 25330108
Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.

Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and buildĚýthe movement for human liberation.ĚýAnd in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle."]]>
158 Angela Y. Davis 1608465640 Ares 4 4.45 2015 Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement
author: Angela Y. Davis
name: Ares
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/26
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<![CDATA[The Housekeeper and the Professor]]> 43459807 The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family where one before did not exist.]]> 180 YĹŤko Ogawa 1784875449 Ares 4 4.16 2003 The Housekeeper and the Professor
author: YĹŤko Ogawa
name: Ares
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/24
date added: 2024/01/24
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Earthlings 55332594
Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?]]>
247 Sayaka Murata 178378668X Ares 0 3.59 2018 Earthlings
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Ares
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/24
date added: 2024/01/24
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<![CDATA[The Bone Shard War (The Drowning Empire, #3)]]> 59251290 The Bone Shard War is the epic finale to the unmissable, action-packed and magic-laced Drowning Empire series.

Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance - and Lin is dangerously short of allies.

As her own governors plot treason, the Shardless Few renew hostilities. Worse still, Lin discovers her old nemesis Nisong has joined forces with the rogue Alanga, Ragan. Both seek her death.

Yet hopes lies in history. Legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies, she may yet be able to turn the tide.

If she fails, the Sukai dynasty - and the entire empire - will fall.]]>
611 Andrea Stewart 0356515036 Ares 2 3.89 2023 The Bone Shard War (The Drowning Empire, #3)
author: Andrea Stewart
name: Ares
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/05
date added: 2024/01/13
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The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport 65211707
Lina, a daughter of failed revolutionaries, has no desire to escape Shantiport. She loves her city and would do anything to save its people. This is, in fact, the plan for her life, made before she was even born.

Her brother, Bador, is a small monkey bot with a big attitude and bigger ambitions. He wants a chance to leave this dead-end planet and explore the universe on his own terms. But that would mean abandoning the family he loves―even if they do take him for granted.

When Shantiport's resident tech billionaire coerces Lina into retrieving a powerful artifact rumored to be able to reshape reality, forces from before their time begin coalescing around the siblings. And when you throw in a piece of sentient, off-world tech with the ability to grant three wishes into the mix� None of the city's powers will know what hit them.]]>
404 Samit Basu 1250827515 Ares 4 3.53 2023 The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport
author: Samit Basu
name: Ares
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/25
date added: 2023/12/25
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<![CDATA[Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King, #2)]]> 63910262 In the luscious, dark sequel to One Dark Window, Elspeth must face the consequences of what she's wrought - perfect for readers of Hannah Whitten's For the Wolf and Alexis Henderson's The Year of the Witching.

Elspeth and Ravyn have gathered most of the twelve Providence Cards, but the last, and most important one remains to be found: The Twin Alders.

If they are going to find it before the Solstice and cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it, they will need to journey beyond the dangerous mist-cloaked forest that surrounds their kingdom.

And the only one who can lead them there is the monster that shares Elspeth's head. The Nightmare. And he's not eager to share any longer.]]>
437 Rachel Gillig 0356519503 Ares 5 4.39 2023 Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King, #2)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Ares
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/24
date added: 2023/12/24
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<![CDATA[One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)]]> 58340706
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.

Together they must gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.]]>
399 Rachel Gillig 0316312487 Ares 4 4.26 2022 One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Ares
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/30
date added: 2023/12/24
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Only Human (The Themis Files) 43538750 Ěý
Brilliant scientist Rose Franklin has devoted her adult life to solving the mystery she accidentally stumbled upon as a a huge metal hand buried beneath the ground outside Deadwood, South Dakota. The discovery set in motion a cataclysmic chain of events with geopolitical ramifications. Rose and the Earth Defense Corps raced to master the enigmatic technology, as giant robots suddenly descended on Earth’s most populous cities, killing one hundred million people in the process. Though Rose and her team were able to fend off the attack, their victory was short-lived. The mysterious invaders retreated, disappearing from the shattered planet . . . but they took the scientist and her crew with them.
Ěý
Now, after nearly ten years on another world, Rose returns to find a devastating new war—this time between humans. America and Russia are locked in combat, fighting to fill the power vacuum left behind after the invasion. Families are torn apart, friends become bitter enemies, and countries collapse in the wake of the battling superpowers. It appears the aliens left behind their titanic death machines so humankind will obliterate itself. Rose is determined to find a solution, whatever it takes. But will she become a pawn in a doomsday game no one can win?

Praise for Only Human
Ěý
“Packing a surprisingly powerful thematic punch, this novel is an addictive blend of science fiction, apocalyptic thriller, and chillingly timely cautionary tale. Two (giant, robotic) thumbs up!� � Kirkus Reviews

“Boasting a winning combination of briskly paced action and futuristic dystopia tempered by cautious optimism,Ěý Only HumanĚý brings a fitting, satisfying end to the Themis Files series.â€� â€� RT Book Reviews

“This action-packed tale with apocalyptic stakes is a fitting finale to this wonderfully cinematic series.� � Publishers Weekly

“Series fans will be eager for Neuvel’s ever-so-satisfying conclusion to his rip-roaring science-fiction adventure tale.� � Booklist

Don’t miss any of The Themis Files by Sylvain
SLEEPING GIANTS | WAKING GODS | ONLY HUMAN]]>
352 Sylvain Neuvel 0399180133 Ares 4 3.81 2018 Only Human (The Themis Files)
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: Ares
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/15
date added: 2023/12/15
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Waking Gods (Themis Files #2) 37004371 In the gripping sequel to Sleeping Giants, which was hailed by Pierce Brown as "a luminous conspiracy yarn . . . reminiscent of The Martian and World War Z," Sylvain Neuvel's innovative series about human-alien contact takes another giant step forward.

As a child, Rose Franklin made an astonishing discovery: a giant metallic hand, buried deep within the earth. As an adult, she's dedicated her brilliant scientific career to solving the mystery that began that fateful day: Why was a titanic robot of unknown origin buried in pieces around the world? Years of investigation have produced intriguing answers--and even more perplexing questions. But the truth is closer than ever before when a second robot, more massive than the first, materializes and lashes out with deadly force.

Now humankind faces a nightmare invasion scenario made real, as more colossal machines touch down across the globe. But Rose and her team at the Earth Defense Corps refuse to surrender. They can turn the tide if they can unlock the last secrets of an advanced alien technology. The greatest weapon humanity wields is knowledge in a do-or-die battle to inherit the Earth . . . and maybe even the stars.]]>
336 Sylvain Neuvel 1101886749 Ares 5 4.07 2017 Waking Gods (Themis Files #2)
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: Ares
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/07
date added: 2023/12/10
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Fool's Fate (Tawny Man, #3) 23019001
The thrilling conclusion to Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man trilogy.

Kingdoms will stand or fall on the beat of a dragon’s wings, or a Fool’s heart.

Prince Dutiful has been charged with a quest to the Outisland to take the head of the black dragon Icefyre. Only then will his betrothed marry him and cement the alliance between their warring kingdoms.

But is Icefyre just a legend? Or does he truly slumber beneath the glaciers? Fitz has prevented his friend the Fool from accompanying them the Fool has foreseen his own death if he ever sets foot on the isle of the black dragon. But as their ship draws in towards Aslevjal a lone figure awaits them…]]>
805 Robin Hobb 0007588976 Ares 4 4.72 2003 Fool's Fate (Tawny Man, #3)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/07
date added: 2023/12/10
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Fool's Errand (Tawny Man, #1) 22758617
Fifteen years have passed and events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life and into the main political current again. Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken's effort to damp it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 year old Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse, is he perhaps another 'Piebald Prince', a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens, Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep, for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit, together with his bonded companion, the wolf Nighteyes?]]>
584 Robin Hobb 0007585896 Ares 5 4.65 2001 Fool's Errand (Tawny Man, #1)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/13
date added: 2023/12/10
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<![CDATA[The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1)]]> 111673828 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and set in the world of A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E. Schwab opens a new door into perilous adventure and tangled schemes with The Fragile Threads of Power.

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory―Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.

But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years―and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own―but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.

And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.

Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.

Her name is Tes, and she's the only one who can bring them together―or unravel it all.]]>
648 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387492 Ares 4 4.26 2023 The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Ares
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/29
date added: 2023/11/29
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<![CDATA[The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy, #1)]]> 22878967 It has been twenty years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs—once thought of almost as gods—were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs' fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion's Four Tenets. A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience.

As a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought—and lost—before he was born. Despised by most beyond the school walls, he and those around him are all but prisoners as they attempt to learn control of the Gift. Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows that there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests.

But when Davian discovers he has the ability to wield the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything. To the north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir. And to the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian’s wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is…]]>
602 James Islington 099258020X Ares 4 4.13 2014 The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Ares
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/10
date added: 2023/11/10
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Starling House 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]>
320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Ares 4 3.77 2023 Starling House
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Ares
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/31
date added: 2023/10/31
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The Spear Cuts Through Water 55868456 Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.
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525 Simon Jimenez 0593156595 Ares 4 4.17 2022 The Spear Cuts Through Water
author: Simon Jimenez
name: Ares
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/24
date added: 2023/10/24
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If You'll Have Me 83817463 Heartstopper and Loveless

Momo Gardner is the kind of friend who’s always ready to lend a helping hand. She’s introverted, sensitive, and maybe a little too trusting, but she likes to believe the best in people. PG, on the other hand, is a bit of a lone wolf, despite her reputation for being a flirt and a player. Underneath all that cool mystery, she’s actually quick to smile, and when she falls for someone, she falls hard. An unexpected meet-cute brings the two together, kicking off the beginning of an awkward yet endearing courtship—but with their drastically different personalities, Momo’s overprotective friend, and PG’s past coming back to haunt her, Momo and PG’s romance is put to the test.]]>
336 Eunnie 0593403223 Ares 5 4.41 2023 If You'll Have Me
author: Eunnie
name: Ares
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/17
date added: 2023/10/17
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<![CDATA[The Golden Fool (Tawny Man, #2)]]> 23018984
The second book in Robin Hobb’s thrilling fantasy series returns readers to the Six Duchies and the magical world of the Fitz and the Fool.

Fitz has been persuaded back to court, posing as a servant to the decadent Lord Golden (who is the Fool in disguise). In secret, he will train Prince Dutiful in the magic known as the Skill.

The peace remains fragile, so the diplomatic wedding between Dutiful and the Outislander princess is a crucial alliance. But when Elliania arrives she challenges the prince to undertake an impossible quest before she will accept him.

He must kill Icefyre, one of the last true dragons. And Fitz and the Fool must go with him…]]>
632 Robin Hobb 000758590X Ares 4 4.53 2002 The Golden Fool (Tawny Man, #2)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/12
date added: 2023/10/12
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<![CDATA[The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince]]> 18753897
The child she bore, a Witted boy known as the Piebald Prince, rose to favour despite his questionable bloodlines. But the dukes of the Six Duchies backed Canny Farseer for the throne. And so both young men competed for power� But this was not their only struggle: for they both fell in love with the same lady. Such rivalry could end only in bloodshed�

A tale of love and secrets, magic and manipulation, heartbreak and murder most foul: only a true-tongued minstrel can reveal the real story of the Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince.]]>
159 Robin Hobb 0008245002 Ares 5 4.12 2013 The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/04
date added: 2023/10/04
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<![CDATA[Dark Water Daughter (The Winter Sea, #1)]]> 62326344
Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Faced with servitude to pirate lord Silvanus Lirr, Mary offers her skills to his arch-rival in exchange for protection - and, more importantly, his help sending Lirr to a watery grave. But her new ally has a vendetta of his own, and Mary's dreams are dark and full of ghistings, spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of her homeland and the figureheads of ships.

Samuel Rosser is a disgraced naval officer serving aboard The Hart, an infamous privateer commissioned to bring Lirr to justice. He will stop at nothing to capture Lirr, restore his good name and reclaim the only thing that stands between himself and madness: a talisman stolen by Mary.

Finally, driven into the eternal ice at the limits of their world, Mary and Samuel must choose their loyalties and battle forces older and more powerful than the pirates who would make them slaves.

Come sail the Winter Sea, for action-packed, high-stakes adventures, rich characterisation and epic plots full of intrigue and betrayal.]]>
457 H.M. Long 180336260X Ares 4 3.83 2023 Dark Water Daughter (The Winter Sea, #1)
author: H.M. Long
name: Ares
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/29
date added: 2023/09/29
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Thornhedge 61884932 There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This ľ±˛ő˛Ô’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…]]>
116 T. Kingfisher 1250244099 Ares 3 3.95 2023 Thornhedge
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Ares
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2023/09/21
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City of Bones 75675152
The city of Charisat, a tiered monolith of the Ancients� design, sits on the edge of the vast desert known as the Waste. Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working in the bottom tiers of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors.

When Khat is hired by the all-powerful Warders to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines, he, and his party, begin unravelling the mysteries of an age-old technology.

This they expected.

They soon find themselves as the last line of defense between the suffering masses of Charisat and a fanatical cult, bent on unleashing an evil upon the city with an undying thirst for bone.

That, they did not expect.

This updated and revised edition is the author’s preferred text.]]>
416 Martha Wells 1250861675 Ares 3 3.93 1995 City of Bones
author: Martha Wells
name: Ares
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/18
date added: 2023/09/18
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<![CDATA[The Six Deaths of the Saint (Into Shadow, #3)]]> 62991463
Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor. The bards sing her name and her enemies fear it. But the war never ends and the cost keeps rising—how many times will she repeat her own story?]]>
31 Alix E. Harrow 166250957X Ares 5 4.32 2022 The Six Deaths of the Saint (Into Shadow, #3)
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Ares
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/06
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<![CDATA[Silver Under Nightfall (Silver Under Nightfall, #1)]]> 62919893
Remy Pendergast is many the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost.

When a terrifying new breed of vampire is sighted outside of the city, Remy prepares to investigate alone. But then he encounters the shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress Xiaodan Song and her infuriatingly arrogant fiancé, vampire lord Zidan Malekh, who may hold the key to defeating the creatures—though he knows associating with them won’t do his reputation any favors. When he’s offered a spot alongside them to find the truth about the mutating virus Rot that’s plaguing the kingdom, Remy faces a choice.

It’s one he’s certain he’ll regret.

But as the three face dangerous hardships during their journey, Remy develops fond and complicated feelings for the couple. He begins to question what he holds true about vampires, as well as the story behind his own family legacy. As the Rot continues to spread across the kingdom, Remy must decide where his loyalties with his father and the kingdom he’s been trained all his life to defend or the vampires who might just be the death of him.]]>
506 Rin Chupeco 198219572X Ares 5 4.00 2022 Silver Under Nightfall (Silver Under Nightfall, #1)
author: Rin Chupeco
name: Ares
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/05
date added: 2023/09/05
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<![CDATA[Labyrinth's Heart (Rook & Rose #3)]]> 59954183
May you see the face and not the mask.

Ren came to NadeĹľra with a plan. She would pose as the long-lost daughter of the noble house Traementis. She would secure a fortune for herself and her sister. And she would vanish without a backward glance. She ought to have known that in the city of dreams, nothing is ever so simple.

Now, she is Ren, con-artist and thief. But she is also Renata, the celebrated Traementis heir. She is Arenza, the mysterious pattern-reader and political rebel. And she is the Black Rose, a vigilante who fights alongside the legendary Rook.Ěý

Even with the help of Grey Serrado and Derossi Vargo, it is too many masks for one person to wear. And as the dark magic the three of them helped unleash builds to storm that could tear the very fabric of the city apart, it's only a matter of time before one of the masks slips—and everything comes crashing down around them.


The Rook & Rose trilogy
The Mask of Mirrors
The Liar's Knot
Labyrinth's Heart]]>
688 M.A. Carrick 0316539759 Ares 4 4.26 2023 Labyrinth's Heart (Rook & Rose #3)
author: M.A. Carrick
name: Ares
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/31
date added: 2023/08/31
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<![CDATA[Witch King (The Rising World, #1)]]> 61885085 "You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' Witch King...

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.]]>
415 Martha Wells 1250826799 Ares 0 3.60 2023 Witch King (The Rising World, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ares
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/28
date added: 2023/08/28
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i ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t bring myself to suffer through reading this book any longer. i’m sorry
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<![CDATA[Ship of Destiny (Liveship Traders, #3)]]> 25985881
The dragon, Tintaglia, released from her wizardwood coffin, flies high over the Rain Wild River. Below her, Reyn and Selden have been left to drown, while Malta and the Satrap attempt to navigate the acid flow of the river in a decomposing boat.

Althea and Brashen are sailing the liveship Paragon into pirate waters in a last-ditch attempt to rescue the Vestrit family liveship, Vivacia, who was stolen by the pirate king, Kennit; but there is mutiny brewing amongst their ragtag crew, and in the mind of the mad ship itself.

And all the while the waters around the Vivacia are seething with giant serpents, following the liveship as she sails to her destiny . . .]]>
903 Robin Hobb 0008117470 Ares 5 4.56 2000 Ship of Destiny (Liveship Traders, #3)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/27
date added: 2023/08/27
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<![CDATA[The Mad Ship (Liveship Traders, #2)]]> 25985861
The Vestrit family’s liveship, Vivacia, has been taken by the pirate king, Kennit. Held captive on board, Wintrow Vestrit finds himself competing with Kennit for Vivacia’s love as the ship slowly acquires her own bloodlust.

Leagues away, Althea Vestrit has found a new home aboard the liveship Ophelia, but she lives only to reclaim the Vivacia and with her friend, Brashen, she plans a dangerous rescue.

Meanwhile in Bingtown, the fading fortunes of the Vestrit family lead Malta deeper into the magical secrets of the Rain Wild Traders. And just outside Bingtown, Amber dreams of relaunching Paragon, the mad liveship . . .]]>
906 Robin Hobb 0008117462 Ares 4 4.53 1999 The Mad Ship (Liveship Traders, #2)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2023/08/24
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<![CDATA[The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance, #3)]]> 53847178
For two thousand years the Arameri family has ruled the world by enslaving the very gods that created mortalkind. Now the gods are free, and the Arameri's ruthless grip is slipping. Yet they are all that stands between peace and world-spanning, unending war.

Shahar, last scion of the family, must choose her loyalties. She yearns to trust Sieh, the godling she loves. Yet her duty as Arameri heir is to uphold the family's interests, even if that means using and destroying everyone she cares for.

As long-suppressed rage and terrible new magics consume the world, the Maelstrom -- which even gods fear -- is summoned forth. Shahar and Sieh: mortal and god, lovers and enemies. Can they stand together against the chaos that threatens?

Includes a never before seen story set in the world of the Inheritance Trilogy.]]>
582 N.K. Jemisin Ares 4 3.90 2011 The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance, #3)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Ares
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/16
date added: 2023/08/16
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The Sword of Kaigen 44033470
Born into Kusanagi's legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always know his purpose: to master his family's fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen's alleged age of peace, Mamoru ralizes that he might not have much time before he has to become the fighter he was bred to be. Even worse, the empire he was born to defend might stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of invasion looming on the horizon, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies ever reach their shores?]]>
631 M.L. Wang 172019386X Ares 5 4.52 2019 The Sword of Kaigen
author: M.L. Wang
name: Ares
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/20
date added: 2023/08/12
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A Taste of Gold and Iron 61884816 The Goblin Emperor meets "Magnificent Century" in Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.]]>
512 Alexandra Rowland 1250800390 Ares 4 4.23 2022 A Taste of Gold and Iron
author: Alexandra Rowland
name: Ares
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/11
date added: 2023/08/11
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Love, Theoretically 63106710 Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain.

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?]]>
400 Ali Hazelwood Ares 5 4.17 2023 Love, Theoretically
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Ares
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/02
date added: 2023/08/02
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<![CDATA[Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)]]> 18966806
Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.]]>
525 Pierce Brown 0345539842 Ares 4 4.52 2016 Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Ares
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/08/01
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<![CDATA[Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (The Song of the Shattered Sands, #1)]]> 24611565
Or so it seems, until Çeda, a brave young woman from the west end slums, defies the Kings' laws by going outside on the holy night of Beht Zha'ir. What she learns that night sets her on a path that winds through both the terrible truths of the Kings' mysterious history and the hidden riddles of her own heritage. Together, these secrets could finally break the iron grip of the Kings' power...if the nigh-omnipotent Kings don't find her first.Ěý]]>
592 Bradley P. Beaulieu 0756409721 Ares 4 3.90 2015 Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (The Song of the Shattered Sands, #1)
author: Bradley P. Beaulieu
name: Ares
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/28
date added: 2023/07/28
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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms 53847114
Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably together.]]>
412 N.K. Jemisin Ares 4 3.90 2010 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Ares
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/13
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[The Broken Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #2)]]> 57061698 Alternate cover edition for ASIN B003YFIV5E

A man with no memory of his past and a struggling, blind street artist will face off against the will of the gods as the secrets of this stranger's past are revealed in the sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the debut novel of NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree's guest is at the heart of it. . .]]>
404 N.K. Jemisin Ares 5 4.00 2010 The Broken Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #2)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Ares
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/23
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders, #1)]]> 25985840
Wizardwood, the most precious commodity in the world, comes only from the Rain Wilds. But only a liveship can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River, and liveships are hard to come by. They quicken only when three family members from successive generations have died upon their deck.

The liveship Vivacia is about to undergo her quickening: Althea Vestrit waits for the ship that she loves more than anything in the world to awaken. But her dream of taking her father’s place at Vivacia’s helm is not to be, for her family have other plans. . .

And the dark, charming pirate Kennit also lusts after such a ship: he well knows the power of wizardwood and has plans of his own . . .]]>
880 Robin Hobb 0008117454 Ares 5 4.41 1998 Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders, #1)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/30
date added: 2023/07/23
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Yellowface 108518662
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]>
319 R.F. Kuang 0063323176 Ares 4 3.85 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Ares
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)]]> 20697410 The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation. Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within. A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.]]> 447 Pierce Brown 0345539818 Ares 5 4.40 2015 Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Ares
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[The Blood Gift (The Blood Gift Duology, #2)]]> 60055187 In this stunning conclusion to N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed sci-fantasy duology, elite warrior Ikenna and her rogue cohort must outrun bounty hunters, their former comrades, and a megalomaniacal demi-god, all in the hopes of saving their friends and enemies from the racist and misogynistic oppression that threatens the continents from all sides.

After discovering the depth of betrayal, treachery, and violence perpetrated against her by Mareen’s Tribunal Council and exposing her illegal blood-gift to save her Praetorian squad, Ikenna becomes a fugitive with a colossal bounty on her head.

Yet, somehow, that’s the least of her worries.

Her grandfather’s longtime allies refuse to offer help, and the Blood Emperor’s Warlord is tracking her. She’s also struggling to control the enormous power she was granted by the Goddess of Blood Rites…and come to terms with the promises she made to get such power.

Amidst all of this, the Blood Emperor wages a full-scale invasion against Mareen and leaves a trail of decimated cities, war crimes, and untold death in his wake. As the horrors increase, Ikenna and her team realize they must assassinate the Blood Emperor and quickly end the war. But the price to do so is steep and has planet-shattering consequences.

The price to do nothing, though, is annihilation.

War has erupted. Alliances are fracturing. And Ikenna is torn between her loyalties, her desires for revenge, and the power threatening to consume her. With the world aflame, only one thing is certain: blood will be spilled.]]>
464 N.E. Davenport 0063058537 Ares 3 3.62 2023 The Blood Gift (The Blood Gift Duology, #2)
author: N.E. Davenport
name: Ares
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/19
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[The Ascent to Godhood (Tensorate, #4)]]> 36430601
For fifty years, the Protector ruled, reshaping her country in her image and driving her enemies to the corners of the map. For half a century the world turned around her as she built her armies, trained her Tensors, and grasped at the reins of fate itself. Now she is dead. Her followers will quiver, her enemies rejoice.

But in one tavern, deep in rebel territory, her greatest enemy drowns her sorrows. Lady Han raised a movement that sought the Protector's head, yet now she can only mourn her loss. She remembers how it all began, when the Protector was young, not yet crowned, and a desperate dancing girl dared to fall in love with her.]]>
122 Neon Yang 1250165881 Ares 4 3.99 2019 The Ascent to Godhood (Tensorate, #4)
author: Neon Yang
name: Ares
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/18
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[Assassin's Quest (Farseer Trilogy, #3)]]> 22016392
But Fitz will not wait. Driven by loss and bitter memories, he undertakes a quest: to kill Regal. The journey casts him into deep waters, as he discovers wild currents of magic within him--currents that will either drown him or make him something more than he was.]]>
838 Robin Hobb 0007562276 Ares 5 4.19 1997 Assassin's Quest (Farseer Trilogy, #3)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2023/07/23
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±Ęľ±Ă±˛ąłŮ˛ą 57693182 A Head Full of Ghosts meets Hereditary in ±Ęľ±Ă±˛ąłŮ˛ą, a terrifying possession tale by author and artist Leopoldo Gout.

Carmen Sanchez is back in her home country of Mexico, overseeing the renovation of an ancient cathedral into a boutique hotel. Her teen daughters, Izel and Luna, are with her for the summer, and left to fill their afternoons unsupervised in a foreign city.

The locals treat the Sanchez women like outsiders, while Carmen's contractors openly defy and sabotage her work. After a disastrous accident at the construction site nearly injures Luna, Carmen's had enough. They're leaving.

Back in New York, Luna begins acting strange, and only Izel notices the chilling changes happening to her younger sister. But it might be too late for the Sanchez family to escape what's been awakened...

±Ęľ±Ă±˛ąłŮ˛ą is a bone-chilling story about how the sinister repercussions of our past can return to haunt us.]]>
293 Leopoldo Gout 1250781175 Ares 3 3.67 2023 ±Ęľ±Ă±˛ąłŮ˛ą
author: Leopoldo Gout
name: Ares
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/10
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology #1)]]> 60833936
It's all about blood.

The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen's deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive.

The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered.

For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her.

Who trained her to keep that a secret.

But now there are too many secrets, and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order.

Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials--a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that--if found out--would subject her to execution...or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather...and then she needs to kill them.

Mareen has been at peace for a long time...

Ikenna joining the Praetorians is about to change all that.

Magic and technology converge in the first part of this stunning debut duology, where loyalty to oneself--and one's blood--is more important than anything.]]>
480 N.E. Davenport 0063058499 Ares 4 4.11 2022 The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology #1)
author: N.E. Davenport
name: Ares
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/08
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[The Descent of Monsters (Tensorate, #3)]]> 36430596 JY Yang continues to redefine the limits of silkpunk fantasy with their Tensorate novellas, which the New York Times lauded as "joyously wild." In this third volume, an investigation into atrocities committed at a classified research facility threaten to expose secrets that the Protectorate will do anything to keep hidden.

You are reading this because I am dead.

Something terrible happened at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. When the Tensorate’s investigators arrived, they found a sea of blood and bones as far as the eye could see. One of the institute’s experiments got loose, and its rage left no survivors. The investigators returned to the capital with few clues and two prisoners: the terrorist leader Sanao Akeha and a companion known only as Rider.

Investigator Chuwan faces a puzzle. What really happened at the institute? What drew the Machinists there? What are her superiors trying to cover up? And why does she feel as if her strange dreams are forcing her down a narrowing path she cannot escape?]]>
166 Neon Yang 1250165857 Ares 3 3.83 2018 The Descent of Monsters (Tensorate, #3)
author: Neon Yang
name: Ares
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[The Red Threads of Fortune (Tensorate, #2)]]> 33099586 The Red Threads of Fortune is one of a pair of unique, standalone introductions to JY Yang's Tensorate Series, which Kate Elliott calls "effortlessly fascinating." For more of the story you can read its twin novella The Black Tides of Heaven, available now.

Fallen prophet, master of the elements, and daughter of the supreme Protector, Sanao Mokoya has abandoned the life that once bound her. Once her visions shaped the lives of citizens across the land, but no matter what tragedy Mokoya foresaw, she could never reshape the future. Broken by the loss of her young daughter, she now hunts deadly, sky-obscuring naga in the harsh outer reaches of the kingdom with packs of dinosaurs at her side, far from everything she used to love.

On the trail of a massive naga that threatens the rebellious mining city of Bataanar, Mokoya meets the mysterious and alluring Rider. But all is not as it seems: the beast they both hunt harbors a secret that could ignite war throughout the Protectorate. As she is drawn into a conspiracy of magic and betrayal, Mokoya must come to terms with her extraordinary and dangerous gifts, or risk losing the little she has left to hold dear.]]>
213 Neon Yang 0765395398 Ares 5 3.84 2017 The Red Threads of Fortune (Tensorate, #2)
author: Neon Yang
name: Ares
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/03
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)]]> 16131107
When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.]]>
661 Brent Weeks 0316246271 Ares 3 4.11 2010 The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)
author: Brent Weeks
name: Ares
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/01
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[Mammoths at the Gates (The Singing Hills Cycle, #4)]]> 58007996 The Hugo and Crawford Award-Winning Series!

The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest.

Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass--and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honoring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve.

But as Chih and their neixin Almost Brilliant navigate the looming crisis, Myriad Virtues, Cleric Thien’s own beloved hoopoe companion, grieves her loss as only a being with perfect memory can, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate. . .

The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entrypoint.]]>
123 Nghi Vo 1250838002 Ares 4 4.22 2023 Mammoths at the Gates (The Singing Hills Cycle, #4)
author: Nghi Vo
name: Ares
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/31
date added: 2023/07/23
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<![CDATA[When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing Hills Cycle, #2)]]> 53265639
Nghi Vo returns to the empire of Ahn and The Singing Hills Cycle in this mesmerizing, lush standalone follow-up to The Empress of Salt and Fortune]]>
125 Nghi Vo 1250786134 Ares 5 4.18 2020 When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing Hills Cycle, #2)
author: Nghi Vo
name: Ares
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/25
date added: 2023/05/25
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<![CDATA[The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)]]> 49882356
Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.]]>
121 Nghi Vo 125075030X Ares 4 4.00 2020 The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)
author: Nghi Vo
name: Ares
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/21
date added: 2023/05/21
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<![CDATA[Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)]]> 58662507
The zombies are coming back.

And all Nona wants is a birthday party.

In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona's not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back.

The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever.

And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face...]]>
480 Tamsyn Muir 1250854113 Ares 4 4.36 2022 Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Ares
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/21
date added: 2023/05/21
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<![CDATA[The Last Hero (The First Sister Trilogy, #3)]]> 59366104 The flame of rebellion burns across the solar system in this dazzling conclusion to Linden A. Lewis’s stunning First Sister trilogy perfect for fans of Red Rising, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Expanse.

Astrid is finally free of the Sisterhood, yet her name carries on. She’s called the Unchained by those she’s inspired and the Heretic by those who want her voiceless once more. Now Astrid uses knowledge of the Sisterhood’s inner workings against them, aiding the moonborn in raids against abbeys and Cathedrals, all the while exploring the mysteries of her forgotten past.

However, the Sisterhood thrives under the newly appointed Mother Lilian I, who’s engaged in high-stakes politics among the Warlords and the Aunts to rebuild the Sisterhood in her own image. But the evil of the Sisterhood ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t be purged with anything less than fire....

Meanwhile, Hiro val Akira is a rebel without an army, a Dagger without a Rapier. As protests rock the streets of Cytherea, Hiro moves in the shadows, driven by grief and vengeance, as they hunt the man responsible for all their pain: their father....

Transformed by the Genekey virus, Luce navigates the growing schism within the Asters on Ceres. Hurting in her new body, she works to bridge two worlds seemingly intent on mutual destruction. All while mourning her fallen brother, though Lito sol Lucius’s memory may yet live on.

Yet Souji val Akira stands in judgment on them all, plotting the future for all of humanity, and running out of time before war erupts between the Icarii and Geans. But can even the greatest human intellect outwit the Synthetics?

The emotional First Sister trilogy comes to a sensational climax in this final installment, and is a must-read for science fiction fans everywhere.]]>
624 Linden A. Lewis 1982127058 Ares 3 4.09 2022 The Last Hero (The First Sister Trilogy, #3)
author: Linden A. Lewis
name: Ares
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/08
date added: 2023/05/08
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Lock Every Door 48822625 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"The Bartholomew is an apartment building of terrifying secrets. You'll find startling twists and alarming surprises down every dark hallway. It's too late to lock the doors--the horror is already inside. My favorite thriller of the year!"
--R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps

No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen's new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.

As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story...until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid's disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew's sordid past and into the secrets kept within its walls. What she discovers pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building's hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.]]>
368 Riley Sager 1524745162 Ares 0 3.96 2019 Lock Every Door
author: Riley Sager
name: Ares
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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Happy Place 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They ł¦˛ą˛Ô’t stand to break their friendsâ€� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one weekâ€� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]>
400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Ares 2 3.95 2023 Happy Place
author: Emily Henry
name: Ares
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/29
date added: 2023/04/29
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<![CDATA[The Second Rebel (The First Sister Trilogy, #2)]]> 58673912
Astrid has reclaimed her name and her voice, and now seeks to bring down the Sisterhood from within. Throwing herself into the lioness� den, Astrid must confront and challenge the Aunts who run the Gean religious institution, but she quickly discovers that the business of politics is far deadlier than she ever expected.

Meanwhile, on an outlaw colony station deep in space, Hiro val Akira seeks to bring a dangerous ally into the rebellion. Whispers of a digital woman fuel Hiro’s search, but they are not the only person looking for this link to the mysterious race of Synthetics.

Lito sol Lucious continues to grow into his role as a lead revolutionary and is tasked with rescuing an Aster operative from deep within an Icarii prison. With danger around every corner, Lito, his partner Ofiera, and the newly freed operative must flee in order to keep dangerous secrets out of enemy hands.

Back on Venus, Lito’s sister Lucinia must carry on after her brother’s disappearance and accusation of treason by Icarii authorities. Despite being under the thumb of Souji val Akira, Lucinia manages to keep her nose clean…that is until an Aster revolutionary shows up with news about her brother’s fate, and an opportunity to join the fight.

This captivating, spellbinding second installment to The First Sister series picks up right where The First Sister left off and is a must-read for science fiction fans everywhere.]]>
528 Linden A. Lewis 1982127031 Ares 3 4.22 2021 The Second Rebel (The First Sister Trilogy, #2)
author: Linden A. Lewis
name: Ares
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/17
date added: 2023/04/17
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<![CDATA[Chainsaw Man, Vol. 1: Dog and Chainsaw]]> 55575967 192 Tatsuki Fujimoto Ares 0 4.38 2019 Chainsaw Man, Vol. 1: Dog and Chainsaw
author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
name: Ares
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2022/07/01
date added: 2023/04/08
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<![CDATA[Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, #2)]]> 22016387
Renewing their vicious attacks on the coast, the Red-Ship Raiders leave burned-out villages and demented victims in their wake. The kingdom is also under assault from within, as treachery threatens the throne of the ailing king. In this time of great danger, the fate of the kingdom may rest in Fitz’s hands—and his role in its salvation may require the ultimate sacrifice.]]>
648 Robin Hobb 0007562268 Ares 5 4.39 1996 Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, #2)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Ares
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/01
date added: 2023/04/01
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<![CDATA[Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands]]> 59069071 Celebrated cartoonist Kate Beaton vividly presents the untold story of Canada.

Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.

Arriving in Fort McMurray, Beaton finds work in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world’s largest oil companies. Being one of the few women among thousands of men, the culture shock is palpable. It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan, isolated worksite for higher pay. She encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discussed. Her wounds may never heal.

Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, Northern Lights, and Rocky Mountains. Her first full-length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.]]>
430 Kate Beaton 1770462899 Ares 3 4.41 2022 Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
author: Kate Beaton
name: Ares
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/26
date added: 2023/03/26
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The Deep 42201962 Yetu holds the memories for her people.

Her people, the wajinru � water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slavers � live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one. Save the historian.

Yetu remembers for all the wajinru, and the memories � painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so she flees to the surface, escaping the memories and the expectations and the responsibilities � and discovers a world the wajinru left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past � and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identities � and own who they really are.

Inspired by the hit song by clipping. (comprised of Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes), The Deep will resonate long after the last page is turned.]]>
166 Rivers Solomon 1534439862 Ares 4 3.78 2019 The Deep
author: Rivers Solomon
name: Ares
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/25
date added: 2023/03/25
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<![CDATA[The First Sister (The First Sister Trilogy, #1)]]> 54861119 Combining the social commentary of The Handmaid’s Tale with the white-knuckled thrills of Red Rising, this epic space opera follows a comfort woman as she claims her agency, a soldier questioning his allegiances, and a non-binary hero out to save the solar system.

First Sister has no name and no voice. As a priestess of the Sisterhood, she travels the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars—the same ones who own the rights to her body and soul. When her former captain abandons her, First Sister’s hopes for freedom are dashed when she is forced to stay on her ship with no friends, no power, and a new captain—Saito Ren—whom she knows nothing about. She is commanded to spy on Captain Ren by the Sisterhood, but soon discovers that working for the war effort is much harder when you’re falling in love.

Lito val Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But when he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.]]>
368 Linden A. Lewis 1982127007 Ares 4 4.06 2020 The First Sister (The First Sister Trilogy, #1)
author: Linden A. Lewis
name: Ares
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/24
date added: 2023/03/25
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Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]>
333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Ares 4 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Ares
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/18
date added: 2023/03/18
shelves:
review:

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Mexican Gothic 53152636
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And NoemĂ­, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]>
320 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0525620788 Ares 4 3.66 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Ares
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/15
date added: 2023/03/15
shelves:
review:

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